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About
Founded in 1983, the Alaria Chamber Ensemble has established itself as a premier ensemble in New York City, dedicated to providing the highest quality chamber music program for adult musicians of all ages, from amateurs to professionals. We are committed to building a community of chamber music players, listeners, composers, and teachers. We offer master classes and coachings at all levels. Our other activities include regular performances at Carnegie Hall, commissions of new works and sponsorship of composition prizes, and community programs.
Violinist Yuri Vodovoz is also an accomplished conductor, violist, chamber musician and teacher. He is Artistic Coordinator of Alaria and since joining the group in 1993 has had considerable influence in shaping Alaria's concert repertoire. Mr. Vodovoz has concertized extensively throughout the US, Europe, Israel, and South America. His Washington debut at Kennedy Center in 1988, and his New York recital debut at Merkin Hall were met with critical acclaim. His playing has been described as "breathtaking" (Washington Post), "finespun lyricism" and "high-powered technique" (New York Times) and "warm and romantic" (Chicago Sun-Times). He is currently on the faculties of Mannes College of Music and Fordham University, and has also served as artist/faculty of the Ameropa Festival (Czech Republic) and Auxere Festival (France).
David Oei, pianist, was a soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic at the age of nine and has since performed with major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore Symphonies. Mr. Oei is the winner of five Interlochen Concerto Competitions and the Concert Artists Guild, WQXR Young Artists, Young Musicians Foundation and Paul Ulanowsky Chamber Pianists Awards. A perennial fixture on the New York City chamber music scene he has made guest appearances with the Audubon Quartet, Claring Chamber Players, Da Capo Chamber Players, New York Philharmonic Ensembles, St. Luke's and Orpheus Chamber Ensembles and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In recent years he performed the Mozart Concerto No. 20, Brahms Concertos No.1 & No. 2, and Beethoven Concerto No.3 with the Strathmere Festival Orchestra and the Schnittke Concerto with the Washington Square Festival Orchestra.
Founding director of the Salon Chamber Soloists and a founding member of Aspen Soloists and The Intimate P.D.Q. Bach he is currently a member of the Alaria Chamber Ensemble and the HD Duo with pianist Helene Jeanney besides enjoying a longtime duo with violinist Chin Kim. A former regular artist at Bargemusic and Chamber Music Northwest he has performed at various festivals including Caramoor, Sitka, Bard, Gretna, Seattle, Chestnut Hill, OK Mozart, Washington Square and Kuhmo. His television credits include Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts, CBS News Sunday Morning and the Today Show. He was the Music Director and Production Advisor for Music-Theatre Group's productions of Stanley Silverman and Richard Foreman's Africanis Instructus and Love and Science. He was also the Music Director for the Sundance Theater Workshop production of the Wallace/Foreman opera Yiddisher Teddy Bears. In the summer of '07 he conducted the Washington Square Festival Chamber Orchestra in a Gershwin/Weill concert titled Music as Political Statement. He has recorded a wide range of chamber works for Delos, ADDA, Vanguard, CRI, Pro Arte, Arabesque, Albany, Grenadilla and New World Records. A very special project was his recording with Lutz Rath of The Lay of Love and Death of the Cornet Christoph Rilke by Viktor Ullmann for piano and speaker. In 2010 he released a duo CD with Eriko Sato titled Five Not-So-Easy Pieces on his new label Prestissimo. Just finished recording a CD with his duo partner violinist Kinga Augustyn he also recently released a solo CD of Steven Christopher Sacco’s Book of Whimsy for the American Composers Alliance’s USA label. This album is now available on Amazon and MP3 downloads are available on CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes and Spotify. A former longtime faculty of Summertrios, Hoff-Barthelson Music School and the Mannes College of Music, he is currently a faculty member of the Bennington Chamber Music Conference and the Alaria Chamber Music Program. In the summer of '14 he served as the director of the Smalls Chamber Music Salon at the Smalls Jazz Club and he is currently the director of the Mezzrow Classical Salon with David Oei, a monthly chamber music series at Mezzrow, voted “Best Jazz Club 2015” by the Village Voice. An Artist of the New York Classical Music Society and the recipient of its 2017 Citation of Honor for his work with the Mezzrow series David lives in New York City with his wife, violinist Eriko Sato, and their pit bull Marian.
