Faculty

Faculty & Guest Artists

Cecylia Barczyk (Artistic Director, Cello, Chamber Music)

Prof. 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 and the Americas, including appearances with prominent orchestras in Baltimore, Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Bucharest, Budapest, Cracow, Ho Chi Minh City, London, Moscow, New York, Prague, Salvador, Seoul, Shanghai, Sofia, St. Petersburg, Taiwan, Tel Aviv, Tianjin, Tokyo, and Warsaw. Ms. Barczyk has frequently performed on radio and television in the USA and abroad. Her recordings have been highly valued by experts and greatly appreciated by music lovers in many lands. She won top prizes in prestigious music competitions including the Danczowski Cello Competition (Poznan), the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition (Budapest), the Tchaikovsky International Cello Competition (Moscow), the Aldo Parisot International Competition (Brazil), the J.S. Bach International Competition (Leipzig), the Cassado International Cello Competition (Florence), and the W.C. Byrd Young Artists Competition (Michigan). For her musical and pedagogical achievements, she has received awards and honors from professional, cultural, and government institutions in China, Germany, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Poland, and the USA. The Maryland Chapter of the American String Teachers Association named her “Teacher of the Year” (1995, 2005). The Tianjin Conservatory of Music (China) granted her the title Distinguished Honorary Professor. The International Friends of the Cello Association granted her the Award for Great Achievements in Cello Music, and the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Poland gave her the Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Society and Culture. She has studied at the Chopin Conservatory in Warsaw, Tchaikowsky Conservatory in Moscow, and Yale School of Music with Kazimierz Wilkomirski, Natalya Gutman and Aldo Parisot. Since 1983, she has taught at Towson University, continuing her solo career while educating young cellists from virtually every part of the globe. Website

Blanka Bednarz (Violin, Chamber Music)

Blanka Bednarz enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, concertmaster and teacher. She has concertized in the USA, United Kingdom, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, and Lithuania; at venues such as the Jordan Hall in Boston, Miller Hall, Philadelphia Ethical Society, Kosciuszko Foundation House, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Aula UAM and White Hall in Poznan, Lake Placid Center for the Arts, Cardiff City Hall; and at various prestigious festivals. As a soloist Bednarz has appeared with the Connecticut Virtuosi, the Georgia Southern Symphony, the Great Poland Symphony, Sinfonietta Polonia, the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory Honors Symphony and Chamber Orchestra (Bednarz was particularly influential in the establishment of the latter). Bednarz is an avid chamber musician, performing in a variety of settings and with renowned artists such as Rita Sloan, Barry Snyder, Richard Stolzman, Adrian Levine, William Ransom, Joanna Kurkowicz, Daniel Veis, Roeland Hendrix, Eddie Gomez, Timothy Deighton, Heng-Jin Park, Ning An, Sergei Schepkin, Martin Storey, the Corigliano Quartet, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, and Alarm Will Sound. In 2007 she was invited to join the Vega Quartet for a residency with the Piedmont Symphony (NC) and subsequently as first violinist with Vega Quartet-in-residence at Emory University in Atlanta GA. Bednarz is a member of the Atma Trio and is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Dickinson College, PA.

Elizabeth Borowsky (Executive Director, Piano, Chamber Music)

Heralded by the press as “a brilliant young musician with a great personality,” Elizabeth Borowsky enjoys a diverse musical career as a solo and collaborative pianist, composer, educator, and arts advocate.  “Elizabeth's performance and personality dismiss any preconceptions of classical music as elite, or being a music of the past. She is a vibrant and engaging performer and can draw even the most reluctant audience member into her spell.” Borowsky’s scintillating performances have led to invitations to perform as soloist with orchestras including the Israeli Soloists Orchestra, Lublin Philarmonic Orchestra, Polish Camerata, Young German Symphony Orchestra, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, and Towson University Symphony Orchestra. Her live performance of the Haydn D-Major Concerto with the Polish Camerata was internationally broadcast by Pol-Sat TV. She has been a featured performed at such distinguished venues as Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center, and has performed recitals in over thirty countries in prestigious music festivals including Klavierwoche International, the Maryland Arts Festival, Concerti di Primavera, Heidelberg Klavierwoche, Music at the Paderewski Manor, and the International Festival of Music and Architecture in Torun. Borowsky has recorded CDs and DVDs of standard literature, new and/or unknown music, and her own original compositions for ICRecords. In 2005, she was among the pianists invited to participate in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and was awarded the Acte Preable Prize for Outstanding Interpretation of Chopin's Music, resulting in her solo album, “Chopin Recital.” As composer, Borowsky has written and published music for piano, violin, cello, piano trio, and string orchestra. She has earned a reputation as an outstanding teacher for young pianists; her students have garnered awards and honors at festivals and competitions. Borowsky has taught at Indiana University, ARTI-ST Music Education, and the Maryland Conservatory of Music. She has been a member of the piano faculty of the International Music Institute and Festival USA since 2003 and was appointed Executive Director in 2010. Website

Charles Borowsky (Founding Director, Music Entrepreneurship)

Prof. Charles H. Borowsky, Ph.D. has been internationally acknowledged for his many academic, educational, and leadership achievements. He received several distinctions, awards and honorary degrees from professional, social, and cultural organizations both in the USA and abroad. Borowsky has authored numerous articles and books in the areas of social movements and change, politics and religion, development and quality of life, sociology of culture, and sociology of youth, published in America, Europe, and Asia. He has been on the faculty of prominent universities including Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Social Studies, and the University of Maryland and has lectured in 66 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In 2002, UNESCO/International Music Council published Dr. Borowsky’s works "Creativity and Innovation in Music" and “The Function of Music In Society.” Currently, Dr. Charles H. Borowsky is the President of Intermuse Performing Artists’ Bureau, and also the elected President of the International Friends of Music Association and Senior Advisor to the public and private organization in the USA and abroad.

Emmanuel Borowsky (Violin, Chamber Music)

Emmanuel Borowsky has been lauded as an outstanding musician of his generation, performing concerts internationally from a young age. At age ten, he performed Vivaldi’s A-minor concerto to an audience of over 9,000 people in Washington D.C.'s National Shrine. At thirteen, he represented North America at the UNESCO World Child Prodigies Concert in Amman (Jordan) and was honored with the distinguished Cultural Achievement Award. At fifteen, he was selected to perform on the nationally syndicated radio show From the Top, and at the age of seventeen he received the Erick Friedman Prize for Outstanding Young Musicians and performed his New York Debut at Carnegie Hall. Emmanuel has been featured as a soloist with respected orchestras including the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, Eisenach Festival Orchestra, Young German Symphony Orchestra, Poznan Symphony, National Conservatory Orchestra of Jordan, Israeli Soloists Orchestra, Szczecin Philharmonic, Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra, Loudon Symphony, Katowice Philharmonic, and Rzezow Chamber Orchestra. His performance with the Polish Camerata was broadcast internationally by Pol-Sat TV. Among the awards Emmanuel has received are the Erick Friedman Prize for Outstanding Young Musicians, Pro Musica Award, Merit Award from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Best Classical CD 1999 (for Pearls of Music), Maryland Young Talent Competition, and the Montpelier Performing Arts Center Classical Recital Competition. He has been mentored by Victor Danchenko, Dorothy DeLay, Erick Friedman, Herbert Greenberg, Konstanty Kulka, Zoltan Szabo, Gudny Gudmundsdotir, and Roman Totenberg. Since August 2006, Emmanuel has been studying at Indiana University Bloomington under the guidance of famed violinists Jaime Laredo and Mark Kaplan. Website

Frances Borowsky (cello, chamber music)

Cellist Frances Borowsky performed her New York Debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of twelve as a recipient of the Erick Friedman Prize for Outstanding Young Musicians. At the World Cello Congress III (May 28-June 4, 2000), her meeting with Zara Nelsova, a famous American cellist, was featured in a documentary film about the Congress. Frances has performed in over twenty countries, toured as soloist for the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Young German Symphony Orchestra, and performed as soloist with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra as part of Pre-Olympic celebrations in Beijing. Frances has repeatedly been a featured performer at the International Cello Festival at Towson University. Every summer, she participates as an assistant faculty member at the International Music Institute and Festival USA. Throughout her career, Frances has been very much involved with performing, composing, and improvising new music. She frequently performs together with her brother (violinist Emmanuel Borowsky) and sister (pianist Elizabeth Borowsky). Frances has also given several premieres of works by composers from Towson University and Peabody Conservatory. Most recently, she premiered "Sonata for Two Cellos and Piano" by Baltimore composer William Milner. Awards include the Levine Chamber Music Competition (First Prize as part of Trio INUENDI, 2012), Baltimore Music Club Competition (First Prize, 2010), Sylvia and Irving H. Cohen Competition (Second Prize, 2010), and Peggy Friedman – Yale Gordon Competition (First Prize, 2008). She also received Honorable Mention in the Mary Diekmann Competition (2011) and Mary Graham Lasley Concerto Competition (2012, 2011). At the age of eighteen, Frances graduated from the Honor's College of Towson University as a recipient of a full-scholarship. Her mother, cellist Cecylia Barczyk, was her primary instructor through her studies at Towson University. Frances is currently a graduate student at Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where she is studying under the instruction of Amit Peled. She has also been mentored by cellists Janos Starker, Irene Sharp, Zara Nelsova, Alexander Hülshoff, Rafal Kwiatkowski, Gunnar Kvaran, and Michael Flaksman. Website

*Stephanie Bruning (Piano)

Dr. Stephanie Bruning, an Iowa native, holds degrees in Piano Pedagogy and Performance from Drake University and University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Dr. Bruning has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the Unites States and Holland. In demand as an instructor and adjudicator, she conducts master classes throughout the country and has adjudicated numerous competitions including the 2008 Elizabeth R. Davis Piano Competition and the 2007 International Young Artists Piano Competition in Washington, DC. Dr. Bruning’s area of expertise is Native-American-influenced music from the early Twentieth Century. She frequently performs and lectures on the subject at venues such as The State Department and the 2007 College Music Society National Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. In November 2009 Ludwig Masters published the first in a series of piano books compiled and edited by Dr. Bruning entitled The Indian Character Piece: Native-American Influenced from the Early Twentieth Century. Additionally, she is a reviewer for the magazine Clavier Companion. Currently, Dr. Bruning is Associate Professor of Piano at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. She has also been on the faculty of Shepherd University, Anne Arundel Community College, and Trinity University. Dr. Bruning is an active member of the Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA), the Music Teachers’ Association of Greater Baltimore (MTAGB), and the College Music Society (CMS).

*Jonathan Carney (Violin)

Jonathan Carney has been hailed as one of the great Concertmasters of his generation. He comes from a unique musical background; all six members of his family graduated from The Juilliard School in New York. After completing his studies with Ivan Galamian and Christine Dethier, he was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship and moved to London to continue his studies at the Royal College of Music. After making successful tours of the Americas, Europe and the Far East as both leader and soloist with numerous international ensembles, he was invited by Vladimar Ashkenazy to become leader of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He made his debut with the orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in 1991 and has since appeared as a soloist in many of the concert halls in Britain and the continent working with conductors such as Gatti, Kreizberg and Yuri Temirkonov as well as an extensive tour of South America with Yehudi Menuhin. In 2002 Jonathan started his post as Concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his recordings for CBS Masterworks, Decca, ASV and Naxos, he is regularly featured on the BBC and has most recently recorded solo works by John Cage and Bruno Moderna. He was also Director of the Royal Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble and has recorded over twenty discs for Tring International including The Four Seasons, The Lark Ascending and Mozart’s Third and Fifth Concertos, as well as the Sinfonia Concertante. New releases include a disc of virtuoso works of Sarasate and Kreisler, an award winning recording of the Nielson concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for the Naxos label and Michael Nyman’s The Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Carney. An avid exponent of twentieth-century music, his solo repertoire also includes works by Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Janacek, Hindemith, Glass, Cage, Takemitsu, Maxwell Davis, Britten, William Bolcom and John Corigliano.

Sharon Eng (Viola, Chamber Music)

American violist, Sharon Eng, is a seasoned international strings educator, clinician, chamber recitalist and conductor. Her rich musical career has spanned five continents, including contracts with the American Ballet Theatre and New York City Opera, and such leadership positions as the Greenwich Philharmonic, Jakarta Chamber Orchestra and Polish Sinfonietta. Early in her career, she represented the United States at the von Karajan International Youth Orchestra in Berlin; and studied chamber music with some of the leading string quartets of our time: the Juilliard, Guarneri, Hungarian and Cleveland quartets. In 1998, Eng co-founded Classical Nuances, a unique trio of oboe, viola and piano that performed in 12 countries including at the United Nations in NYC, Seoul Performing Arts Center, Athens Opera House, and as guests of the Sultan’s family in Kuwait. Splitting her time in several Southeast Asian countries over a 20 year period, Dr. Eng was professor of violin and viola at the University of Pelita Harapan Conservatory of Music, and from 1996 to 2010 headed the High School and Middle School strings program at Jakarta International School, conducting JIS flagship orchestras in Shanghai, Budapest, Vienna and other principal cities in Europe and Asia. Her solo viola performances have involved collaborations with pianists on both coasts of the United States and internationally, including—among many-- world premieres of works at Lincoln Center, the Bennington Contemporary Music Forum, and the 20th Century Consort, solo performances at the Queensland Conservatory of Music in Brisbane, Australia, solo with orchestra at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and a recital tour of five major cities in Indonesia. Eng has served on the faculty of the summer International Music Institute and Festival at Coolfont and at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland since IMIF’s inception in 2003. Eng, earned her Bachelor and Master Degrees in viola performance at the Juilliard School where she was a five-year scholarship student of William Lincer and Paul Doktor. Dr. Eng plays on a viola made in 1978 by Margaret Shipman of Los Angeles. Website

*Brian Ganz (Piano)

Brian Ganz is widely regarded as one of the leading pianists of his generation. Washington Post critic Joan Reinthaler has written: “One comes away from a recital by pianist Brian Ganz not only exhilarated by the power of the performance but also moved by his search for artistic truth.” Brian Ganz was winner of one of two First Grand Prizes awarded in the 1989 Marguerite Long Jacques Thibaud International Piano Competition in Paris, where he was also awarded special prizes for the best recital round of the competition and the best performance of the required work. That same year he won a Beethoven Fellowship awarded by the American Pianists Association, and in 1991 he was a silver medalist with third prize in the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Piano Competition. After his performance in the finals of the Brussels competition, the critic for La Libre Belgique wrote: “We don’t have the words to speak of this fabulous musician who lives music with a generous urgency and brings his public into a state of intense joy.” Some of Mr. Ganz’ recent concert highlights include performances of Mozart Piano Concerti K. 466, with the Memphis Symphony, and K. 467, with the National Philharmonic Orchestra at the new Strathmore Hall in Rockville, Maryland. In the summer of 2006 he returned to the Kennedy Center concert hall in a critically acclaimed performance with the Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Yoel Levi. He has also performed with such conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Mstislav Rostropovich, Philippe Entremont, Pinchas Zukerman, Leon Fleisher, Jerzy Semkow, and Gustav Meier. Website

*Nathan Giem (Violin, Chamber Music)

2011 K Miura

Violinist Nathan Giem has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster in halls across Europe, Japan and the United States. As a child, he received musical instruction from Mehli Mehta, father of acclaimed conductor Zubin Mehta.
Graduating from high school at the age of fourteen, Nathan received a full scholarship to Indiana University where he studied violin with Franco Gulli. Through the years his teachers have included Nelli Shkolnikova, Henryk Kowalski, Federico Agostini, and Alexander Kerr. A 2005 Fulbright Scholar to the Netherlands, Mr. Giem also studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam as well as in Budapest, Hungary. He holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees and a Performer Diploma from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he also taught violin as an Associate Instructor. As first violinist of the Kuttner Quartet, Mr. Giem has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has also performed in Carnegie's Zankel Hall as a member of the Bloomington, Indiana-based Kolot Ensemble--and has participated in the Open Chamber Music Festival in Prussia Cove, Cornwall, UK. A frequent guest leader, Mr. Giem served as concertmaster for the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra from 2009-2011. Mr. Giem is currently an Artist Diploma candidate at the IU Jacobs School of Music. In addition to his performing career, he has an active interest in conducting. His hobbies include history, violin making, and the study of languages.

Mark Krawczyk (Ensemble and Collaborative Skills)

Mark Krawczyk has performed as an actor in various national and international theatres including Constellation Theatre, Theater J, Folger Theatre, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Imagination Stage; Everyman Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, and the Tony Award Winning Utah Shakespearean Festival. Internationally Mark has performed in Edinburgh, Scotland at The Traverse Theatre with the Edinburgh Fringe First Award winning company Highway Diner in their show 15 MINUTES, which he also co-directed and devised with the ensemble. Mark was also a co-founder of the theatre company Without Gas, which performed at various theatres and festivals in Poland, Slovakia, and England. He has performed in various commercials and industrial films for various companies and organizations. His work is not only limited to performing. He also directed and co-wrote the one man show, Mulatto Child, along with his colleague and performance artist Paul Diem. Under Mark’s direction the show was performed at The Chicago Fringe Festival, and in Baltimore. Mark's background in academia includes receiving his MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University, his BS in General Theatre from Towson University, studying abroad in both England and Poland, and he has taught classes and workshops at schools, universities, theatres, festivals, and other organizations and events around the United States and Europe. Website

*Yoshie Kubota (Collaborative Piano)

A native of Kyoto, Japan, Yoshie Kubota has appeared on Radio FM Osaka and performed in major cities in Japan, including Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Chiba, Kochi and Kyoto. In the United States she has performed in CA, OH, DC, CT, WV, PA, NJ, MD, NY including at the Lincoln Center. Ms. Kubota received a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the Mannes College of Music in 1990. Yoshie is a member of a chamber group Baltimore Canon since 2006. Yoshie started to compose her original music since the Spring of 2006. Website

*Frederick Minger (Piano and Chamber Music)

Frederick Minger has been well known to Maryland audiences as a pianist for more than thirty years. He is most widely known as a collaborative pianist, in particular as a vocal accompanist and chamber musician. In the years 1976-86 he performed and recorded with the Baltimore Symphony both as a member of the orchestra and as a soloist. He earned the B.M. from Oberlin College Conservatory and the M.M and D.M.A . from the Peabody Conservatory. He studied piano with Leon Fleisher, Miklos Schwalb, and Arthur Dann; chamber music with Berl Senofsky and Robert Koff; and vocal accompanying with Alice Gerstl Duschak and Ellen Mack. Dr. Minger taught piano, music theory, and music history at Towson University from 1971 to 1983. Active in the Baltimore Music Club since 1998, he was head of the Baltimore Music Club Competition from 1999 to 2003.

Patricio Molina (Piano)

A musician, Chilean-native pianist, composer and conductor Patricio Molina has appeared in a wide range of venues around the world including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Borden Auditorium, Greenfield Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), the Teatro Municipal of Chile, Odeon Amphitheater in Jordan, Channel PBS, Chilean National TV, among others. As a pianist, Mr. Molina has been invited by NJPAC to play prelude concerts for Lang Lang, Anne Sophie Mutter, Lorin Maazel, The New York Philharmonic, Jacques Lacombe, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and he has performed for President Bachelet of Chile and King Abdullah of Jordan among others. Patricio has also appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Chile, in the Middle East and in the United States. His album “From Los Andes to The Alps” features the music of Schumann and Brahms and is now available on iTunes. Mr. Molina’s compositions embrace a variety of works; from a set of easy piano pieces for piano beginners to a fully orchestrated 3 acts ballet. His new opera “La Sargento de la Concepción” has attracted the attention of Director Larry Fuller who directed “Carousel”, the “Music Man” and other Broadway shows; and Set Designer Ray Klausen who has worked on the set for the Academy Awards and several celebrities. They are now working together to produce the World Premier in NYC. Other works by Mr. Molina include choral and chamber music. Patricio’s talents have been recognized by a number of people, institutions and competitions, including The New York Times which described him as “a gifted young artist” when they heard his performance on the Symphony Space “Wall-to- Wall Stravinsky”. The Chilean University was quick to recognize his talents when at the age of four Mr. Molina was invited to attend college on a scholarship by ¨Amigos del Teatro Municipal¨. During a tour in the United States, a week prior to Patricio’s departure a woman heard his practicing on the piano of an elementary school in NJ. She convinced Patricio to stay in the United States after taking him to the Manhattan School of Music where he was awarded a full scholarship to study piano under the direction of Dr. Marc Silverman, the department’s chairman. Musician and published author Curt H. von Dornheim also recognized Patricio’s talents and regularly gives him pipe organ lessons. Mr. Molina is also a proud recipient of the Carollo Scholarship, which enabled him to study music at the Newark School of The Arts and perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Patricio has been a strong advocate to the music of Chile and Spain. He is now working on an album consisting of piano music by Spanish and Chilean composers. Mr. Molina is also composing a choral work based on the book “Selva Lírica”, an anthology of Chilean poetry that was written in 1917 by his great-grandfather Julio Molina Nuñez.

Ashley vonClausburg (Dance & Movement)

Ashley vonClausburg graduated magna cum laude from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a bachelor’s degree in Dance and International Studies. She was a NCAA, Division I athlete on UNCG’s dance team and choreographer for a number of musicals including Oklahoma, Lies & Legends, and A Chorus Line. She is also a three-time award recipient for choreography and dance performance from the Maryland State Theater Festival. She currently works in communications for The German Marshall Fund of the United States, an international relations organization based in Washington, DC. Other past work experience includes positions with CBS Radio, NBC affiliate WXII, and a fashion branding firm in Milan, Italy.

(*) denotes visiting guest artist