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Madeline Island Chamber Music :
The Madeline Island Music Camp was founded in 1985 as a one-week chamber music program for twenty students from Minnesota. Today the Music Camp conducts a three-week program for thirty-six talented young string players, a five-week program for sixteen advanced fellowship string players, and a one-week program for twenty-five woodwind musicians. Students come from across the country and around the world to study chamber music with a distinguished faculty and resident string quartets.
The Artist Residency is an extension of our summer program, engaging selected students in performance and teaching opportunities throughout the year. It is a bridge to professional life, providing real-world experience under our guidance.
Belka String Quartet:
Violinist Beatrice Hsieh is an active solo, chamber, and orchestral musician who has been praised for her “mosaic of sensitive phrase shaping and emotional exploration” (The Reporter). She has appeared as soloist with over ten United States orchestras and won a succession of competitions, including the YoungArts Award for Classical Music and honorable mention at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has been the recipient of numerous scholarships for chamber music study, and has been featured on National Public Radio’s From the Top and at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts as part of the Snitzer Quartet. Beatrice is pursuing her undergraduate degree in Violin Performance at Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studies with Joel Smirnoff and Joan Kwuon.
Charles Gleason pursued chamber performance from a young age, taking part in Deborah Price’s Chamber Music Connection. Beginning his musical training at age 4, he has studied extensively with Stephen Sims and Columbus-based jazz violinist Christian Howes and is skilled in both the classical and jazz genres. In 2014, Charles was featured on National Public Radio’s From the Top as a member of the Bellaserelle Quartet. Charles has also served as concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra under Peter Stafford Wilson, and was a member of the McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra. Charles began studying at Cleveland Institute of Music in fall 2014 pursuing his Bachelor’s in Violin Performance. Since 2015, he has been a student of acclaimed teacher and soloist Joan Kwuon.
Matthew Geise has worked closely with many celebrated artists throughout his studies, including Pinchas Zukerman, Robert Mann, Sally O’Reilly, James Dunham, Peter Salaff, and members of the American, Brentano, Tokyo, and Cavani quartets. He attended the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar and the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, and is a grand prizewinner of the Darius Milhaud Society’s Performance Prize Competition. Matthew has received awards and accolades at the Dallas Symphonic Festival, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra’s Philharmonic Concerto Competition, the Hubbard Solo and Chamber Music Competition, the Juanita Miller Concerto Competition, was a semifinalist in the 2013 Schmidbauer International Young Artists Competition, and has appeared on National Public Radio’s From the Top. Matthew is attending Cleveland Institute of Music, pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance with Robert Vernon.
Daniel Blumhard is an accomplished young cellist currently studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio as a student of Stephen Geber. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy (IAA) in Interlochen, Michigan. While in attendance at IAA, Daniel was one of six IAA musicians chosen to perform with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in a new cross-disciplinary production revolving around Arnold Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night. He was a top prizewinner at the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, winning the Silver Medal in 2013, awarded a Fellowship in 2015 for the Kent/Blossom Music Festival, and worked extensively in chamber ensembles at Kent/Blossom with members of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Miami Quartet, among others.