Alexander Barantschik
415.503.6200 x6566.
Alexander Barantschik joined the San Francisco Symphony as concertmaster in September 2001, having served as concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Born in Saint Petersburg in 1953, he attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and performed with major Russian orchestras, including the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, before immigrating in 1979. His awards include first prizes in the International Violin Competition in Sion, Switzerland, and the Russian National Violin Competition. Mr. Barantschik has performed as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Bach’s Concerto No. 3 for Two Violins (with Gil Shaham), Schnittke’s Violin Concerto No. 4, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, Brahms’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, Britten’s Double Concerto, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19 and all the Bach Brandenburg Concertos. He has performed throughout Europe with such artists as André Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, Maxim Vengerov and Yuri Bashmet. Through an arrangement with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Mr. Barantschik has the exclusive use for three seasons of the 1742 Guarnerius del Gesù violin once owned by Jascha Heifetz.
Wei He
Chinese American violinist Wei He won numerous awards in his native China before coming to the U.S. He played with San Francisco Symphony for two seasons. He was a founding member of the award winning New China Trio, top prize winner of Yellow Spring Chamber Music Competition and Carmel Chamber Music Competition in 1996. He gives regular solo recitals and master classes at conservatories and festivals both in the U.S. and Asia. He is also an active chamber musician playing with artists and ensembles across the U.S. and abroad. Passionate about teaching, He was approached by his mentor Camilla Wicks to become her teaching assistant upon his graduation from San Francisco Conservatory in 1998. The following year, he joined the Conservatory's collegiate faculty. He is a faculty artist at Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival in Washington, and former Artistic Director of The Crowden School in Berkeley. His major teachers include Wen Yuan Chen, Eugene Gratovich and Camilla Wicks. Wei lives in the Bay Area with his wife, Ming, and their dog, Pingping.
Bettina Mussumeli
415.503.6316
bettinamussumeli@hotmail.com.
First violinist of the Ives Quartet since 2005, Bettina Mussumeli received her B.A. and M.M degrees from The Juilliard School. She has studied with Ivan Galamian, Dorothy DeLay and Paul Doktor, as well as chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri and Cleveland quartets. She has studied with Kato Havas at Oxford, England, focusing on the elimination of tension in violin playing. After completing her studies at Juilliard, Ms. Mussumeli became co-concertmaster and soloist with the Italian chamber group I Solisti Veneti. She has performed throughout Europe, Australia and the Far East, and made numerous recordings for the Erato, RCA, Tactus and Concerto labels. She has collaborated frequently as guest concertmaster with the Orchestra Toscanini of Parma, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Orchestra del Teatro di Cagliari and the Orchestra della Fenice.
Ian Swensen
415.503.6308
swensenian@gmail.com.
Ian Swensen is one of the few musicians to have been awarded the Walter W. Naumberg International Competition's top prize for both chamber music and violin. Swensen grew up in New York, studying at The Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay and at the Eastman School of Music with Donald Weilerstein. As a teenager, he formed the Meliora String Quartet and toured with them for many years. Passionate about chamber music, Ian has performed in many festivals, including Music@Menlo, Spoleto, Santa Fe, and Marlboro. He has performed with members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Emerson, Takács, Concord and Tokyo String Quartets; the Beaux Arts Trio and the Peabody Trio; Gilbert Kalish, Mark O'Connor, Yo-Yo Ma and Martha Strongin Katz. Recent performances include recitals with Menahem Pressler and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, soloist in the Barber Violin Concerto with the Rogue Valley Orchestra, and performances in New York, Canada, Switzerland, Los Angeles, Australia and Korea. He has recorded for TelArc and Deutsche Grammophon. Ian lives in the Bay Area with his wife, Judy, and their three children, Julia, Talya and Cole.
