Dan Weiser, piano

Daniel Weiser, piano, has a Doctorate in Piano/Chamber Music from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Samuel Sanders and Robert MacDonald and won the Richard Franko Goldman prize for outstanding contribution to musical and education life. He has performed on many great stages, including the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, the National Gallery of Art in D.C., and on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago. He has also concertized around the world, including Israel, Thailand, Holland, and France and was the 1996 U.S. Artistic Ambassador Abroad, for which he performed on an eleven-country tour of the Middle East and Asia. He has been on the music faculty of Dartmouth College and the prestigious St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH.

Besides co-founding Classicopia, he founded and serves as Artistic Director for AmiciMusic, a similar type of chamber music organization based in Asheville, NC and Baltimore, MD. He was also a founding member of the Adirondack Ensemble, which won a Chamber Music America award for inventive programming and outreach. He has participated in the New Hampshire Music Festival, Musicorda, and the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival and has been the Music Director of the Da Corneta Opera Ensemble, the Opera North Young Artist program, and Opera New England. A phi beta kappa graduate of Columbia University with a degree in American History, he also spent a year at Harvard Law School and was a classmate of President Obama. A native of Buffalo, NY, he currently lives in Baltimore, MD with his wife, Dr. Kisha Weiser and their sixteen-year old twin daughters, Rose and Sophie.

Classicopia Performers

Alicia Ward, Celo

Cellist Alicia Ward made her orchestral debut as a featured soloist at the age of twelve, and has since performed throughout the United States and abroad as chamber musician, recitalist and soloist. She has most recently performed as recitalist at Strathmore, the Kennedy Center, the Music on the Lake Series of Lake Barcroft, as well […]

Anna Pelczer, Viola

Hungarian-American violist Anna Pelczer has become a sought-after guest orchestral leader both in Germany and abroad. Recent performances have been with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Staatsorchester Mainz, and the English National Ballet, among others. A frequent collaborator for contemporary works, she is a member of the Lucerne Festival Alumni and recently premiered several […]

Cecylia Barczyk, Cello

Cecylia Barczyk has achieved international recognition as a complete artist, successful teacher, and great humanitarian. She has given concerts, recitals, and master classes throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America and has appeared as a soloist with prominent orchestras including those of Amman, Baltimore, Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Berlin, Bucharest, Budapest, Jakarta, Leipzig, London, Moscow, New York, […]

Craig Sandberg, Double-Bass

Craig Sandberg, double-bass, has been playing music longer than he can remember. Classical piano lessons at the age of 4, violin at 6, and singing in choir and plays since he was old enough to understand the concept. It wasn’t until 19 that he started playing the upright bass, but the moment he picked it […]

Daniel Lau, Piano

Daniel Lau, piano, has performed around the world in recitals and with orchestras and has been praised for his “exemplary artistry” and “beautifully shaded playing.”    A versatile pianist, violinist and conductor, Daniel has served as Music Director for performances of Manon, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Merry Widow, and The Magic Flute, among others. […]

Diego Carneiro, Cello

A multifaceted artist, cellist Diego Carneiro is one of the most distinguished Brazilian young artists and conductors of his generation. Winner of several prizes and international recognitions, he received commendation as the Ambassador of tourism of Ecuador, a recognition from the Majority of Quito, Camera of Commerce Ecuador-Brazil, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of […]

Elizabeth Borowsky, Piano

Elizabeth Borowsky enjoys a vibrant career as solo and collaborative pianist, educator, and composer. “Elizabeth’s performance and personality dismiss any preconceptions of classical music as elite, or being a music of the past. She is an engaging performer and can draw even the most reluctant audience member into her spell.” (Fidelio).      As soloist, Ms. Borowsky […]

Emmanuel Borowsky, Violin

Emmanuel Borowsky, violin, has toured a staggering 37 countries throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Borowsky’s early achievements include performances in the Kumho Gallery Child Prodigy Series in Seoul,  on the NPR show “From the Top”, and a Carnegie Hall debut at age 17. Borowsky has been featured as soloist with orchestras including […]

Erma Mellinger, Mezzo-Soprano

Mezzo-soprano Erma Mellinger has been a principal artist with many opera companies across the United States including the Cleveland Opera, the Florida Grand Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Sarasota Opera, the Chautauqua Opera, the Pittsburgh Opera Theater, the Fresno International Grand Opera, Opera North, Opera Maine and the Shreveport Opera.  Her roles, in over thirty […]

Frances Borowsky, Cello

Frances Borowsky, cello, is the youngest in an exceptionally musical family with a cellist mother, pianist sister, and violinist brother. This environment honed her love for solo and chamber music performance. Together with her family, Frances has performed more than 400 concerts in over thirty countries throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, in major venues […]

Iris Jortner, Cello

Iris Jortner, cellist, is a native of Israel. She has performed in important venues in Israel, Europe, China, Australia, and the United States. Iris has collaborated in chamber music performances with Yefim Bronfman, Michael Tree, Itamar Golan, Levon Chilingrian, the Orion Quartet, the Avalon Quartet, and the Apple Hill Chamber Players. She was a member […]

Janet Polk, Bassoon

Janet Polk is principal bassoonist with Portland (ME) Symphony and Vermont Symphony.  As a soloist, she has performed with the orchestras of Portland, Vermont, Indian Hill, Dartmouth College and the University of New Hampshire and with the Furman University Concert Band. Chamber music is a vital part of her musical life and with the trio, […]

Jessica Deskin, Singer

Jessica Deskin is an American vocalist, pianist, and songwriter, with an eclectic background in music, as well as a voice technician and coach, with classical, jazz, commercial and Estill voice training, choir and music director (Chess, A New Brain, Mamma Mia). She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Towson University in 2006, where she […]

Laura Compton, Mezzo-Soprano

Mezzo-Soprano Laura Compton is a two time Metropolitan Opera National Council district winner and regional finalist.  She has performed many roles including Hansel in Hansel & Gretel, Mrs. P in Michael Nyman’s The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly.  Ms. Compton has worked extensively with Marilyn Horne, singing the role of Dorabella at The […]

Marcia Cassidy, Viola

Marcia Cassidy, viola, is an active chamber music recitalist, teacher, and freelance violist. As a member of the faculty of Dartmouth College, she teaches violin and viola, coaches chamber music, and leads sectionals for the Dartmouth Symphony. Marcia is a member of the Musicians of the Old Post Road, the Burlington Chamber Orchestra, and is […]

Margaret Herlehy, Oboe

Margaret Helfer Herlehy, oboe, received her formal musical training at the University of Michigan and Sarah Lawrence College where she remained as Artist in Residence for a 5 year tenure. On relocating to New England, she joined the faculties of Phillips Exeter Academy and later, the University of New Hampshire and enjoys working as a […]

Omar Chen Guey, violin

Omar Guey, Violinist

Brazilian violinist Omar Chen Guey has been a soloist with the Brazilian, Campinas, Goiania, Minas Gerais, Claudio Santoro National Theater, Sao Paulo University, Sao Paulo Municipal, State of Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestras, the Amazonas Philharmonic, Petrobras Pro-Musica, Experimental Repertoire, Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University Symphony, Maidstone Symphony, Qatar Philharmonic and the Seychelles International […]

Philip Liston-Kraft, Piano

Philip Liston-Kraft is a graduate of Harvard College, Tufts University School of Medicine, and the Harvard Law School. In 2021, after concluding his career in law and medicine as a Senior Director at Biogen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he obtained his M.A. in Germanic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University where he is presently a fourth-year […]

Ralph Allen, Violin

Ralph Allen, violinist and violist, played the Sibelius Concerto with the Yale Symphony while majoring in Philosophy as an undergraduate, studying with Syoko Aki; he went on to get a Masters from the Cleveland Institute of Music with Donald Weilerstein, and a Doctorate from SUNY Stony Brook with Robert Mann, where he performed the Berg […]

Roseminna Watson, Violin

Roseminna Watson is most known as a classical violinist, however in recent years she has begun to emerge as a singer, composer, and multimedia artist as well.  She holds a B.A in Visual Art from Yale University, an M.M. in Violin Performance from Stony Brook University, and an A.D. in Chamber Music from San Francisco Conservatory of […]

Sarah Hill, Viola

Sarah Hill is a freelance violist and chamber musician living in the Boston area. She attended Oberlin College and Conservatory, earning Bachelor’s degrees in English and Music, and completed her Master’s at New England Conservatory, where she studied with Mai Motobuchi of the Borromeo String Quartet. Her other important musical mentors include Peter Slowik, Lenny […]

Steve Loew, Clarinet

Steve Loew, clarinet, is a former member of the U.S. Marine Band and a member of the White House Orchestra who has performed for President’s Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush Senior.  A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Mr. Loew has also played with the New York Philarmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, and has […]

Taya Ricker, Violin

Taya Ricker, violin, is an avid chamber, orchestral, and jazz musician who has performed in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.  As an orchestral musician Ms. Ricker has been a member of the Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestra and also served as Associate Concertmaster in the Western Piedmont Symphony. She has also performed in the violin sections of […]

Tim Schwarz, Violin

Since his solo debut with the legendary Philadelphia Orchestra at age nine, violinist Timothy Schwarz has been praised for his “energetic performances” (Rome News) and “technique beyond reproach” (Buffalo Times). Schwarz has recorded solo and chamber music CD’s for Naxos, EMI, Marquis Classics, and Centaur Records. The American Record Guide praised his 2006 solo CD as “good […]