Originally from Listowel, ON, and currently based in New York, NY, acclaimed violinist SARAH PRATT-PARSAMIAN enjoys a diverse and exciting musical career. She has been a prizewinner at the Jeunesses Musicales International Violin Competition, and Silver Medal winner in the Canadian National Music Competition. At the age of 14 she made her solo debut with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra at the Guelph Spring Festival in Ontario, and since has performed as soloist with orchestras in Canada and the U.S., including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Stratford Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa. An avid chamber musician and recital artist, Sarah has performed across Canada and the United States, including Stratford Summer Music Festival, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, the Arts and Letters Club, Heliconian Club (Toronto), the British Art Museum (New Haven, CT), Bargemusic (New York, NY), the Detroit Institute of Art (Detroit, MI), Clefworks (Montgomery, AB), and others. She performs regularly on the Musica Reginae series in Queens, NY, and is the founder and Artistic Director of Music on the Bruce.
Sarah is a temporary member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra. She also performs regularly as a substitute with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, with whom she has traveled on tours across the United States, Europe and Asia. She is a member of the New York City Opera Orchestra, a position she has held since 2006. Sarah has served as guest concertmaster of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Florida Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and others.
Sarah holds a Bachelor in Performance Degree from the University of Toronto, Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University, and Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. When her violin is resting, Sarah can be found jogging on park trails, climbing trees with her children, or curled up on the couch with a good book and a glass of wine.
Violist MARGRÉT HJALTESTED enjoys a diverse career as a freelance violist, teacher and project manager. Icelandic born, she splits her time between New York City, Reykjavík and Lubec, Maine.
Margrét has been a recitalist and chamber musician in concerts at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, and the Tenri Gallery. She is a founding member and co-director of the baroque ensemble, Queens Consort. Margrét has played with many orchestras, including the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, and as a baroque violist she has performed with The American Classical Orchestra, Abendmusik and La Fiocco. She has toured internationally with the New York Symphonic Ensemble on its annual tour of the Far East, the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Luciano Pavarotti´s International Farewell Tour, Andrea Boccelli´s Tour 2022 and the Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk. Margrét has performed and recorded with many popular artists, including Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, and Paul McCartney. Her many television appearances include the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Late Night Show with David Letterman, and the historic broadcast at Madison Square Garden in October 2001 ‘The Concert for New York City’.
Margrét maintains a hybrid private studio for adults/amateur string players at all levels in New York City. She is a popular chamber music workshop coordinator and string coach in the Tri-State Region, New England, Canada, and Iceland. Margrét is former faculty member at Queens College and SummerKeys in Lubec, Maine.
She received her B.Mus. from The Juilliard School, M.Mus. from Mannes College of Music and M.C.M (Master of Creative Management) from Bifröst University in Iceland.
Cellist ROBERT BURKHART combines a deep commitment to the existing cello repertoire with what the New Yorker magazine calls an “adventurous” spirit in new music. With performance credits at Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and The Rose Studio at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Robert has also appeared as a soloist throughout Japan as a member of the New York Symphonic Ensemble, and been featured in recital on WQXR’s “Young Artist Showcase.”
At the center of new music in New York, Robert has performed with the American Modern Ensemble, Argento New Music Project, Fireworks Ensemble, Newspeak, and SONYC. Recent collaborations include Uri Caine, Georg Friedrich Haas, Aaron Jay Kernis, Steve Mackey, Joan Tower, Charles Wourinen, and Chen Yi. He has performed the New York premiere of John Harbison’s Abu Ghraib for cello and piano, and was the soloist in Augusta Read Thomas’s Passion Prayers for cello and chamber ensemble at the New York Times Center.
Robert’s major teachers include Paul Tobias at The Mannes College of Music and Uri Vardi at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he has worked with Timothy Eddy, Aldo Parisot, and Janos Starker at festivals and masterclasses. Robert has taught at Juilliard Pre-college, Mannes Prep, Syracuse University, and Music Conservatory of Westchester, and been artist-in-residence at Yale University and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. His recent CD “20/21: Music for Cello and Piano from the 20th and 21st Centuries,” features pianist Blair McMillen and the premiere of a work for cello and piano by composer Andrew Waggoner. Robert’s recording of solo Bach on the American Express commercial “Don’t Take Chances. Take Charge.” has garnered national attention. Visit www.robertpburkhart.com.
A native of New York, pianist and teaching artist BARBARA PODGURSKI holds a DMA in piano performance from The Graduate Center (CUNY), a BM in piano performance and an MM in both piano performance and music theory from Mannes College of Music. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Europe, and has been featured in on WQXR, WNYC’s “Soundcheck”, NPR, WQED and numerous others. Dr. Podgurski was featured on a television documentary for NHK Japan with violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn and the famed “Red” Mendelssohn Stradivarius. She was invited with her colleagues to perform at a private ceremony for Pope Francis and members of the UN in an interfaith prayer service during the last Papal visit to NYC.
A former faculty member at The Mannes College of Music, Hunter College and Mercy College, she is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at BMCC (CUNY), Staff Pianist for the Strings Department at NYU, and is on the faculty of the RiverArts Music Program in Hudson Valley. Barbara is a consultant for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs as well as for the Board of Education. Dr. Podgurski is a Steinway Teaching Artist. She has performed with rock band Evanescence on their Synthesis Tour and with legendary vocal group Il Divo on their “Timeless” Tour and Greatest Hits Tour. Barbara recently completed a project with Alison Cook Beatty modern ballet company in NYC, performing Bartok 2nd Sonata for Piano and Violin and Shostakovich Preludes live on stage during performance. Barbara is currently a contributing writer to Cambridge’s Nineteenth Century Music and has been an Arts Commissioner Advisor for the Queens Council on the Arts and is Chief Advisor on the advisory board of NY Sound Circuit. Barbara is the organist and music director at Trinity St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maspeth, Queens. She is also the Assistant to the Conductor and pianist for the Oratorio Society of Queens. Barbara is featured in a documentary titled “A Taste of Chamber Music” which will be released in Spring 2025 on PBS.org and allarts.org. Barbara is the Associate Director of KIISS – The Krakauer Institute for Intensive Summer Study in Vaison-la-Romaine, France which takes place every summer (information is available by visiting krakauerinstitute.org). Barbara is the Executive and Artistic Director of Musica Reginae Productions.
