Charles Castleman, perhaps the world’s most active performer/pedagogue on the violin, has been soloist with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Boston, Brisbane, Chicago, Hong Kong, Moscow, Mexico City, New York, San Francisco, Seoul and Shanghai. Medalist at Tchaikovsky and Brussels, his Jongen Concerto is included in a Cypres CD set of the 17 best prize-winning performances of the Brussels Concours’ history.
Mr. Castleman's solo CDs include Ysaye's six Solo Sonatas (made at the time of his unique performance at Tully Hall in NYC), eight Hubay Csardases for Violin and Orchestra, and ten Sarasate virtuoso cameos on Music and Arts, Gershwin and Antheil on MusicMasters, and contemporary violin and harpsichord music for Albany. As one of sixteen Ford Foundation Concert Artists he commissioned the David Amram Concerto, premiering it with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony, recording it for Newport Classic. He is dedicatee of "Lares Hercii" by Pulitzer winner Christopher Rouse.
He has performed at such international festivals as Marlboro, Grant Park, Newport, Sarasota, AFCM (Australia), Akaroa (New Zealand), Ascoli Piceno (Italy), Budapest, Fuefukigawa, Montreux, Shanghai, Sheffield, and the Vienna Festwoche. His recitals have been broadcast on NPR, BBC, and Australia Broadcasting Company, in Berlin and in Paris.
Mr Castleman has conducted master-classes in London, Vienna, Helsinki, Kiev, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, and all major cities in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. His students have been winners at Brussels, Munich, Naumburg and Szeryng, are in 30 professionally active chamber groups and are 1st desk players in 11 major orchestras. He is founder/director of THE CASTLEMAN QUARTET PROGRAM, in its 48th season, now at S.U.N.Y Fredonia and at Linfield College , McMinnville, OR -intensive workshops in solo and chamber performance.
Charles Castleman’s long-term chamber music associations have included THE NEW STRING TRIO OF N.Y. with BASF recordings of Reger and Frank Martin and THE RAPHAEL TRIO with CDs of Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Wolf-Ferrari for NONESUCH, SONY CLASSICAL, DISCOVER, UNICORN, and ASV, and with premieres by Rainer Bischof and Frederic Rzewski for the Vienna Festival and Kennedy Center.
Mr. Castleman earned degrees from Harvard, Curtis, and University of Pennsylvania. His teachers were Emanuel Ondricek (teaching assistant of Sevcik, Ysaye student) and Ivan Galamian, his most influential coaches David Oistrakh, Szeryng, and Gingold. He plays the “Marquis de Champeaux” Stradivarius violin from 1708, and chooses from more than 80 bows.
Thomas Wermuth studied the violin at the Juilliard School in New York, where he was a student of famous pedagogues, Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay. In 1974, he moved to Canada to join the Kitchener - Waterloo Symphony as Assistant Concertmaster. Later, he became Principal Violist and Assistant Principal Violist of the Symphony, where he was able to incorporate his love for the deep viola voice. Tom also was a member of the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, and taught at the Guelph Suzuki School, where he discovered his passion for teaching.
In addition to his extensive performance career, Mr. Wermuth has dedicated his life to teaching teenage students at the Western Springs School of Talent Education and Naperville Suzuki School. Tom's teaching follows the philosophy of the great teaching pedagogue Shin’ichi Suzuki— he believes in teaching to the heart of the child, and connecting to the energy of the student.
With Mr. Wermuth’s unique niche in being the Advanced Artist Teacher at WSSTE and teaching pre-college musicians and adolescent teenagers, Mr. Wermuth is invited globally as a guest clinician to share his wisdom and does Teacher Training for the Suzuki Association of the Americas. His students have won first place in the West Suburban, Walgreens, Music Chorale, and the Chinese Fine Arts Competitions, and sends students to major Conservatories such as Juilliard, Eastman, Cleveland Institute of Music, Curtis, and more. Mr. Wermuth’s students have consistently performed on the Young Steinway Recital Series in Skokie, IL, and are regularly chosen to perform in the Master Classes for the national conference of the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
As a result of his students placing in the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, Mr. Wermuth was awarded the Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award, and he was also named the 2010 ASTA Illinois Teacher of the Year. In his efforts to give back to the community, Mr. Wermuth has a special scholarship at WSSTE that he awards to a special student each year to help assist them to pursue a summer in serious musical training. Usually, his students would spend their summers studying with him and his daughter, Allegra, at their summer program named “Preludio”, run at the Ithaca Suzuki Institute, where they ran the program together there for 12 years.
Mr. Wermuth attributes his ability to read and understand adolescent musicians to his training at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing. He uses his training in energy to connect to students on a deeper level, and allow them to become better human beings— similar to the pedagogy of Suzuki himself. Besides teaching violin, Mr. Wermuth has a thriving therapy and energy healing practice where he uses his education from the Barbara Brennan School to help clients of all ages.
Thomas and his partner, Nick, love to spend their free time with their dog, Pippin, as well as knitting and going out to eat. Recently, Mr. Wermuth moved to Golden, Colorado to be closer to his daughter Allegra, and his granddaughter, Satya.
Helen Hines is a Suzuki education specialist, and the Director of the 'Violin with Helen' studio. The 'Violin with Helen' studio is based in North Reading, Berkshire, U.K., and provides students with an exceptional music education through a vision of excellence. Teaching is based around the Suzuki philosophy, and students are encouraged to reach their potential in a warm and nurturing environment.
Mrs Hines has received world-wide Suzuki training from renowned pedagogues, including Nancy Lokken, Ed Kreitman, Kerstin Wartberg, Alice Joy Lewis, Helen Brunner and Cathy Lee. She also holds an MA in Instrumental Teaching (Distinction) from the University of Reading, and violin teaching diplomas from Trinity College London (ATCL Distinction) and the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (DipABRSM).
Students of Mrs Hines are members of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, and regional youth orchestras across the country. A high number also hold prestigious music scholarships, regularly place highly in regional and national competitions, and achieve some of the highest ABRSM, Trinity Guildhall, and LCM music exams results in the U.K.
Mrs Hines regularly teaches at workshops worldwide, and has a number of published articles on violin pedagogy. She is also the Director of the performance group Appassionato who are in high demand. Before the pandemic, the group regularly performed in public and have performed for a number of high profile events, including private performances for well-known celebrities and artists from the film, television and music industries, as well as festivals, competitions and charity performances.
More information on Mrs Hines, her teaching, and her students, can be found on her website: http://www.violinwithhelen.co.uk.
A native of the Washington D.C. region, violinist Chris Sanchez began his musical studies at age seven, completing all ten Suzuki volumes within five years and continuing his childhood studies with David Salness at the University of Maryland and at the Meadowmount School in New York. He has earned performance degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park (BM) and the University of Georgia (MM). His major teachers have included Ronda Cole, Sally Thomas, David Salness, Dr. Levon Ambartsumian, Charles Castleman, & Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley of the Guarneri String Quartet. He performs on a violin built by Giovanni Battista Ceruti in 1795 and bow made by Nicolas Maline circa 1850.
Driven by his fascination with how a teacher’s artful words alone can transform one’s technical and creative efficacy, Chris developed a passion for musical education at an early age. He believes that every child has a unique and important journey in life and his teaching philosophy centers on helping each child discover possibility beyond their peripheries. His students have won various competitions, attained youth orchestra concertmaster positions, and have been accepted to numerous acclaimed collegiate music schools. Chris co-founded and co-directs Capitol Sound Strings in Washington, DC with his teaching partner, Susan Fuller, and teaches with Ronda Cole at the Northern Virginia Suzuki Music School. He lives in Bethesda, MD with his wife and two children, ages 2 and 1.
Dalton Potter is the owner, president, and founder of Potter Violins based in Takoma Park, Maryland. Over the past 30 years, Mr. Potter has built a reputation for expertise in tonal and playing adjustments to some of the most historically important string instruments in the world. His long experience in fine restorations contributes significantly to the instruments he creates from scratch, as well as the high-quality workshop instruments produced in his shop.