2023 SPRING BREAK STRINGS INTENSIVE

Iris Collective and the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music present the Dalí Quartet

Spend two days at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music working with the internationally renowned Dalí Quartet and University of Memphis String Faculty. Participate in chamber music coachings, masterclasses, and get expert strings technique tips.

Dates: March 13 & 14, 2023

Times: 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Where: Scheidt Family Performing Arts Center | 3800 Central Avenue

Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music | 3775 Central Avenue

Who: Open to all high school violin, viola, cello, and bass students

Fee: $30 (scholarships are available)

Parents, guardians and friends, join us Tuesday afternoon, March 14th at 1:45pm!

Watch the closing performance and see the students demonstrate what they’ve learned and perform together with the Dalí Quartet and Rudi E Scheidt School of Music Strings Faculty!

The Dalí Quartet is acclaimed for bringing Latin American quartet repertoire to an equal standing alongside the Classical and Romantic canon. The award-winning Dalí Quartet tours Classical Roots, Latin Soul programming to enthusiastic audiences across the U.S., Canada and South America. Its fresh approach has been sought out by distinguished series in New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, Seattle, San Juan and countless communities beyond. The quartet has been called upon for return engagements at the National Gallery of Art, Friends of Chamber Music in Portland, and Chamber Music at Beall, among others. This season the Dalí tours from Philadelphia and DC all the way to Oaxaca, Mexico, and partners with the National Repertory Orchestra to give the Guarneri String Quartet Residency, awarded by Chamber Music America.
In addition to works of the masters from Haydn to Brahms and Amaya to Piazzolla, the group's adventurous and entertaining programming includes new works for quartet with percussionist Orlando Cotto, and quintets both Latin and Classical with the renowned clarinetist Ricardo Morales, principal clarinetist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and with acclaimed pianist Vanessa Perez. The Dalí Quartet has an ongoing collaboration with the Van Cliburn Competition’s gold-medal winning pianist Olga Kern, with whom they have toured from coast to coast and recorded the piano quintets of Brahms and Shostakovich released on the Delos label.
The Dalí Quartet is the 2021 recipient of Chamber Music America's Guarneri String Quartet Residency, funded by the Sewell Family Foundation, and the 2021 Silver Medal at the inaugural Piazzolla Music Competition. The quartet is also the 2019 recipient of the Atlanta Symphony's esteemed Aspire Award for accomplished African American and Latino Musicians.
The Dalí is devoted to audience development and to reaching communities of all kinds. The group’s Latin Fiesta Workshops and Family Concerts in both traditional and innovative settings move listeners – literally! The Dalí Quartet is sought after for master classes and professional development workshops for students, (recently at the National Repertory Orchestra, Miami University, Michigan State, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Iowa) and has opened musical vistas for younger kids with its week-long Any Given Child programs (over three seasons for the Tulsa Public School System). In addition, the quartet’s International Music Festival is an admired chamber music and orchestral program founded in 2004 which develops the performance skills of young musicians up through semi-professional level. The Dalí has also served as a guest resident ensemble at Lehigh University.
Trained by world-renowned artists, members of the Dalí Quartet are from Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the US, and have degrees from esteemed institutions including the New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Juilliard, Indiana University Bloomington, and the Simón Bolivar Conservatory in Caracas, Venezuela. The quartet is based in Philadelphia, PA.
The quartet serves as faculty at West Chester University Wells School of Music as the Quartet in Residence, and is an Iris Collective Resident Ensemble .
The Dalí Quartet proudly uses Pirastro Strings and WMutes.
Worldwide representation by Jonathan Wentworth Associates.

PREVIEW THE SCHEDULE

Ari Isaacman-Beck, first violinist of the Dali Quartet

Meet the Faculty

Praised for his “enormous soul and a big, vibrant sound,” (The Reading Eagle), violinist Ari Isaacman-Beck is a captivating and multi-faceted artist whose solo and chamber music performances have taken him all over the world, to venues such as Jordan Hall, the Kennedy Center, Zürich’s Tönhalle, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. An award-winning violinist, he was the 2016 winner of the Lili Boulanger International Competition, won second prize in 2006 at the Sion-Valais International Violin Competition, and received the prize for the best performance of the commissioned work, Thomas McKinley’s Dialogues, at the 2017 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition.
As of the fall of 2020, Isaacman-Beck is proud to be the first violinist of the Dalí Quartet, in residence at West Chester University. With the quartet, he is ecstatic to study and promote the traditional string quartet canon alongside lesser-known works by Hispanic composers. From 2009-2016, he performed in North America, Europe, and China as the violinist of Trio Cleonice, an award-winning piano trio described by the Boston Globe as “abundantly sincere and absorbing.” With the trio, he was a top prize winner at the 2014 Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld and Chamber Music Yellow Springs competitions and received the John Lad Prize from Stanford University at the discretion of the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
A committed educator, he was on the faculty of the Sunderman Conservatory of Gettysburg College from 2017-2020 alternately as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin and Interim Director of Orchestras; he also completed a teaching and performing residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in September, 2019. He has previously served on the faculties of the Kinhaven Music School, Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Division, Rivers Conservatory, and Junior Greenwood Music Camp. Additionally, he has presented masterclasses at the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Bucknell University, the University of Hawaii, and Husson College. He received degrees from the Cleveland Institute, Juilliard, Mannes, and New England Conservatory; his teachers have included Donald Weilerstein, Ronald Copes, Mark Steinberg, Laurie Smukler, David Updegraff, and Mary West.
www.ariisaacmanbeck.com

Violinist Carlos Rubio began his musical career as a member of Venezuela's famous Youth Orchestra System ("El Sistema"). As a member of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, he toured France, Japan, USA, Mexico, Spain and participated in seven CD recordings under the Dorian Records label.
Mr. Rubio has taught master classes and performed at Miami University, Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, University of Tennessee, Drake University, University of Iowa, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Festival de Música Latinoamericana in Colombia, Festival y Academia del Nuevo Mundo, the Simon Bolivar Conservatory of Music in Venezuela, Colorado State University, and is a founding member of the Dalí Quartet International Music Festival.
Mr. Rubio was awarded grand prize in the Spanish and Latin American Music Competition at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and was distinguished as the Ohio Latino Arts Association's Performing Artist of the Year. Mr. Rubio has soloed with the Middletown Symphony, the Illinois Philharmonic, and the Oxford Chamber Orchestra. His chamber music partners have included the Colorado, Oxford, Penderecki, DaPonte, and Amernet string quartets, clarinetist Ricardo Morales, pianists Alessio Bax, Olga Kern, Vanessa Perez, Pamela Mia Paul, and cellist Marc Johnson of the Vermeer Quartet. Additionally, he has collaborated with such composers as Joan Tower, Joel Puckett, Edward Thomas, Susan Botti, Ricardo Lorenz, Efrain Amaya, and Manena Contreras. He has also premièred works by composers Roland Vasquez, Paul Salerni, Terry Vosbein, Diana Arismendi, and Arcangel Castillo-Olivari.
Carlos is a founding member of the Dalí Quartet and is on faculty at West Chester University as part of the quartet's residency. He is also a member of the Iris Collective and the Philly Pops, and performs regularly with the Harrisburg and Lancaster Symphonies.
Carlos lives near Philadelphia with his wife Julia and sons Javier and Miguel.

Venezuelan violist Adriana Linares is one of today's most talented Latin American artists. Her playing has been called "meltingly beautiful" by Naxos label reviewers. Ms. Linares was the first prize winner in the Latin American Music Competition at Indiana University, the Kuttner Quartet Competition and the Solo Viola Competition at Indiana University, which earned her the honor of soloing with the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Linares is described by Grammy Award-winning violist Roger Tapping as "a violist of extraordinary merit and ability who is not only excellent but also distinctive, characterful and individual." Highlights of solo engagements include her debut at Carnegie Hall with the US première of Venezuelan composer Modesta Bor's Sonata, as well as solos with Arcos Juveniles de Caracas Orchestra, Virtuosi de Caracas, Middletown Symphony, the Illinois Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, with whom she performed the world première of Howard Hanson's Summer Sea Side #2, recorded under the Naxos label.
Ms. Linares is the President, Founder and Artistic Director of ArCoNet, The Arts & Community Network, a nonprofit organization based in North Wales, PA. Ms. Linares has launched many programs under the umbrella of ArCoNet, including a string academy with 120 students, a youth and chamber orchestra, intensive solo boot camps, the Dalí Quartet International Music Festival, community outreach partnerships, college preparation programs for local and international students, junior string camps, concert series, and preschool programs among others.
An active chamber musician and recitalist, she has collaborated with violinists Anthony Marwood and Alexis Cardenas, clarinetist Ricardo Morales, pianists Alessio Bax, Olga Kern, Vanessa Perez, and Gabriela Montero, cellists Natasha Brodsky and Bonnie Hampton, and violist Marka Gustavasson.
Ms. Linares is the founding violist of the Dalí Quartet, with whom she has embarked on recording and performing projects in the US and abroad. She serves on the faculty at West Chester University as part of the Dalí Quartet residency. She is a member of the Iris Collective, SATORI Chamber Players, and the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Linares holds a master's degree from Temple University, where she studied with violist and Curtis Institute of Music President Roberto Diaz. She also holds a bachelor's degree from Indiana University where she studied with distinguished violist Atar Arad.

Jesús A. Morales Matos was born into a prominent musical family and is an active soloist, recording artist, and chamber musician. He currently serves as cello professor with ArCoNet and Temple University, and has an active private studio. As a member of the Dalí Quartet, Jesus is on faculty at West Chester University as part of the quartet's residency. His students have been accepted into esteemed music schools such as the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University, and Temple University.
As a concert artist, Fanfare Magazine wrote, “not since DuPre’s or Starker’s performances of the Saint-Saëns Concerto have I heard such miraculous playing: clean as a whistle, impassioned, technically adept, and exhibiting extraordinary control.” The Salt Lake Tribune added, “his sound has an assertive, gorgeous quality, from the cello’s brusque low notes to its sweet upper range.” The New York Concert Review hailed him as a soloist “in a category above many cellists of today … inspired and captivating.” The Caribbean Business declared, “…he is already talked about as a soloist of potential international stature.”
Mr. Morales solo appearances include the Philharmonia Bulgarica, the San Bernardino Symphony, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico, the Camerata Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Starling Chamber Orchestra, and the Festival de Orquestas Sinfonica Juvenil de las Americas.
As a recording artist, Mr. Morales’ recordings of the Saint-Saëns and Lalo cello concertos on the Centaur label, were received with rave reviews.
Mr. Morales has participated in summer festivals including, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Banff Centre for the Arts, Grand Teton Music Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, and Música Rondeña in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Morales has also performed in recitals and chamber music concerts in Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and St. Thomas, VI.
Mr. Morales holds a bachelor’s degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music and has done postgraduate work at The Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. His teachers include Dr. Ronald Crutcher, Alan Harris, Helga Winold, and Yehuda Hanani. He studied chamber music with Peter Oundjian among others.
Mr. Morales resides in Philadelphia with his wife, violinist Dara Morales, and daughters Isabel and Karina.

A native of Poland, Dr. Marcin Arendt is an active chamber musician, soloist, & teacher. As a professor of violin at the University of Memphis' Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, Dr. Arendt enjoys teaching a thriving studio of undergraduate and graduate students as well as playing with his colleagues on the string faculty in the Ceruti String Quartet. Since its first season in 2001, Marcin has played with Iris Orchestra under the baton of Michael Stern where he regularly holds the Isaac Stern Concertmaster Chair and is heavily involved in the orchestra's community engagements. During the summers Marcin is frequently a part of the violin faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp and is the artistic director of the Memphis in Poland Festival which aims to share the significant musical, artistic, and cultural contributions of Memphis on an international stage.
Arendt has been a soloist with several orchestras including Iris Orchestra and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. He is the co-founder of Memphis Mix, a blues & crossover band that has performed internationally and was the featured ensemble of the first Memphis in Poland Festival. He was a member and regular concertmaster of Colorado's premiere conductor-less string orchestra, The Sphere Ensemble, and was the featured violinist with the nationally touring crossover-fusion band FEAST. Dr. Arendt's playing can be heard on recordings spanning several genres including a series of chamber works by Jacques Castérède on Naxos Records.
The prize winner of several national & international competitions, Arendt has performed alongside many renowned artists including Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, Martin Short, Edgar Meyer, Clay Aiken, Dawn Upshaw, Joshua Bell and Harry Connick, Jr.
Dr. Arendt holds bachelor's degrees in both music and philosophy from Stetson University, a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a post-graduate performance certificate from the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdansk, Poland. Marcin plays on a Jan van Rooyen original violin modeled after the Guarneri "Carrodus," & uses a bow made by the award-winning bow maker David Forbes.

Timothy Shiu, Associate Professor of Violin and a member of the Ceruti String Quartet, received his principal training from the Juilliard School, the Peabody Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English. Mr. Shiu brings together in his artistry a diverse lineage of influences from his various principal mentors. As a result of his early formative years of study with Louise Behrend, he traces a line through her teacher, Louis Persinger, to the Franco-Belgian school of Eugène Ysaÿe. In addition, his work under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein connects him to the highly influential school of Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay. Further study with Victor Danchenko has brought him into contact with the Russian school of David Oistrakh. Other major teachers include Sindey Harth and the late Joseph Fuchs, who himself was a pupil of the legendary Franz Kneisel.
An active recitalist and chamber musician, Mr. Shiu has concertized extensively throughout the United States in venues including Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, the Aspen Music Festival's Harris Hall, the Interlochen Arts Institute's Corson Auditorium, the New School's Schneider Concert Series, and Chamber Music Northwest. International engagements have included performances in Italy, Japan, Korea, Canada, and Brazil. Mr. Shiu is currently a member of the Ceruti String Quartet and was also previously a founding member of the Maia Quartet, with whom he played for thirteen years. In addition, he has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Muir, and Borromeo String Quartets, as well as with violist Roger Chase, cellist Patrick Demenga, pianist Ann Schein, and the late flutist Samuel Baron.
Mr. Shiu has previously taught on the faculties of the University of Iowa School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory; and his current summer teaching engagements include the Interlochen (MI) Arts Institute and the Five Seasons Music Festival (Cedar Rapids, IA), of which he is a founding member. He was formerly Coordinator of the Summer Chamber Music Fellowship Program the Garth Newel Music Center (Warm Springs, VA), and has taught as well at the Austin (TX) Chamber Music Festival, Conservatory Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO), the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts, and the Snowmass (CO) and University of Memphis Suzuki Institutes.

Violist Lenny Schranze is an award-winning chamber musician and educator. A native of Philadelphia, he is a member of the Ceruti String Quartet and professor of viola at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music of the University of Memphis. He is a Valade Fellow and coordinator of strings and the advanced quartet program at The Interlochen Center for the Arts. As a chamber musician, Lenny has performed in concert halls around the country, including Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in New York City, and has performed internationally in Switzerland, South Korea, and Brazil. His solo recordings include the works for viola and piano by Robert Schumann, and the sonatas of Johannes Brahms. Reviews describe Lenny's viola playing as "passionate and beautifully resonant." Mr. Schranze has garnered awards from Chamber Music America for "excellence in chamber music instruction," and is a recipient of the Dean's Creative Achievement Award from the University of Memphis. He earned his degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory, studying with Heidi Castleman, Heiichiro Ohyama, Dorothy Delay, Max Aronoff, and Evelyn Jacobs. Recent projects include the MSR Classics release of Quartets by Brahms and Debussy, reviewed in the awards issue of Gramophone Magazine.

Hailed by the Chicago Sun Times as a “superb cellist,” Dr. Kimberly Patterson has earned recognition for her artistry as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. Dr. Patterson was the founding cellist for the Tesla Quartet, winners of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition as well as prizewinners of the London International Quartet Competition and the Bordeaux International Quartet Competition. She has given chamber recitals in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and has held chamber music residencies with Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail Valley, Strings Music Festival and a quartet residency at the University of Colorado at Boulder with the Takács Quartet.
Dr. Patterson is the Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of Memphis and the cellist of the Ceruti Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Memphis. She is also the cellist of the Patterson / Sutton cello and guitar duo. Their debut album, “Cold Dark Matter: Music for Cello & Guitar,” was released by MSR records in 2013. The Patterson / Sutton duo have presented lectures at the International Guitar Research Center in Surrey, UK and the Guitar Foundation of America National Convention. Their performances have been broadcasted on American Public Media’s, Performance Today, Radio New Zealand and South Africa’s Fine Music Radio among others. The Patterson/Sutton duo concertizes throughout the US and abroad with recent engagements as Juilliard Global Artists, performing throughout Vietnam, Ireland, Hungary and Slovakia.
As a soloist, Dr. Patterson has appeared with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and the Manila Symphony of the Philippines, toured nationally with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Company performing a solo piece by David Lang, and presented solo recitals in the Netherlands, Afghanistan and throughout the United States. Festival appearances include the Verbier Festival, Strings Music Festival, Holland Music Sessions, Aspen Music Festival & School, Sarasota Music Festival & the Miyazaki Festival.
In addition to her extensive chamber music career, Dr. Patterson was a member of the Colorado Symphony. She has performed as principal cellist with Verbier Orchestra in Switzerland and the Juilliard Orchestra. She has also performed with the Utah Symphony, Iris Orchestra, Central City Opera, the New Haven Symphony and was personally invited by Charles Dutoit to perform with the Miyazaki Orchestra in Japan.
Dr. Patterson is a strong believer in the transformative power of music education. Kimberly was a graduate assistant to the renowned Takács Quartet at the University of Colorado at Boulder and has given masterclasses around the country at institutions such as Frost School of Music University of Miami, Louisiana State University, University of Utah, Virginia Tech University, University of Denver, Ball State University, Colorado State University and University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg among others.
In addition to collegiate teaching, she has instructed inner-city students as a Juilliard Morse Fellowship, as well as students of the Aspen Music Festival and School’s M.O.R.E Program. With support from the United States’ State Department, Dr. Patterson taught and performed as a guest artist at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul in early 2014. She has also instructed cellists of the Manila Symphony Orchestra in the Philippines. Dr. Patterson serves on the board of the Colorado Youth Symphony Orchestras and on the advisory board of the Memphis Youth Symphony Orchestras.
Dr. Patterson’s students have won positions with Orchestra Iowa and the Guangzhou Symphony. In addition, students have attended Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra, the Tanglewood Institute, All-National Youth Orchestra, and Colorado and Tennessee All State Orchestras.
A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music with academic honors, Dr. Patterson earned her Master's of Music Degree at the Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her teachers include Richard Aaron, Andras Fejer, Judith Glyde and Stephen Geber.

Born in Atlanta, Ga, Jonathan has had a successful international career in the United States and Europe. Jonathan has performed extensively in Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the United States. Jonathan is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, received a diploma from The Juilliard School, and attended Interlochen Arts Camp as the Emerson Scholar for the state of Georgia. He has performed/held positions with the Atlanta Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Chineke! Orchestra and with The Royal Danish Opera Orchestra. Jonathan has also served as the Principal Bass of the Sphinx Virtuosi.
Jonathan is an award winner in numerous competitions, including the International Society of Bassists orchestral competition and the BassEurope orchestral competition. Jonathan has been a member of the Verbier Festival in Switzerland since 2005. His teachers include the late Ralph Jones, Timothy Cobb, Leigh Mesh, and Al Lazslo.
Jonathan is also in high demand as a teacher. He has a thriving private studio, is the double bass professor at Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College, and is also the bass teacher at the Atlanta Music Project. In 2016, Jonathan was an inaugural coach for Carnegie Halls NYO2 orchestra.
In addition to significant accomplishments in his musical career, the 2009 American Council on Germany's young leaders program selected Jonathan to attend their yearly gathering in Berlin, with other distinguished professionals, including Angela Merkel. Most recently, Jonathan and his wife started HavenHyggeHouse (a Scandinavian-inspired community space for children and caregivers to come together to create community and find friendship).