HELEN CHANG, violin

Helen Chang joined the Minnesota Orchestra's first violin section in the fall of 2003. Formerly associate and principal second violin of the Bamberg Symphony in Germany, Chang has toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and played with the Orchestra of St. Luke's. As a soloist, Chang has performed with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops Esplanade and Junge Philharmonie Erlangen, and at the Braunschweig Staatstheater. In 2006, she appeared as soloist in Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra.

Growing up in the Boston area, Chang studied under Roman Totenberg. She attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the Salzburg Mozarteum and the San Francisco Conservatory. Other principal teachers include Szymon Goldberg, Felix Galimir, Ruggiero Ricci and Camilla Wicks. Chang was a prizewinner of the Karl Lipinski-Wieniawski Competition in Poland.


Chang is an avid chamber musician and has performed as a guest artist with the Walden Chamber Players and the Bamberg String Quartet. She has also played several times in the Minnesota Orchestra's Sommerfest chamber music series. She has taken part in innovative collaborations with dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and collaborated with the Boston Ballet Company, performing Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending. In Boston, Chang has appeared at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Goethe Institute. She played the Jascha Heifetz Guarnerius violin in recital at San Francisco's Legion of Honor and has appeared as a recitalist throughout Europe.

In 2005 Cavalli Records released Chang's recording of the Bach Partitas for Solo Violin.


THOMAS ROSENBERG, Cello

Thomas Rosenberg is nationally known as a dynamic teacher, chamber music coach, and performer. A resident of St. Paul, he is on the faculties of Macalester and Carleton Colleges and the University of Minnesota, where he is coordinator of the string chamber music program. He also is a substitute musician with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra and maintains an active chamber music career.


For his work as Artistic Director of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition since 1981, he received the 2007 Indiana Governor's Arts Award, the highest cultural award given by the State of Indiana. Mr. Rosenberg was named the 2003-04 "Master Studio Teacher of the Year" by the Minnesota chapter of the American String Teachers Association and received a 2004-05 McKnight Performing Artist Fellowship Award. He founded the highly acclaimed Chester String Quartet with whom he concertized and recorded nationally and abroad for twenty years and has been solo cello of the New York Chamber Ensemble. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, he holds a Master's degree from the Eastman School of Music where he was teaching assistant to world renowned artist teachers Paul Katz and Laurence Lesser. Other major teachers include Richard Kapuscinski, Alan Harris, and Alta Mayer. He studied the string quartet literature with many noted chamber musicians including members of the Budapest, Juilliard, Cleveland, Guarneri, and Tokyo Quartets.


Rudolph Kremer, Violin

Rudolph Kremer began playing with the San Francisco Symphony in 1995 and performs frequently with the Chicago Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra.  He holds a master’s degree from Western Illinois University, where he studied with Almita and Roland Vamos.  He was first violinist of the Fidelio String Quartet in Lisbon, Portugal while teaching at that city’s National Superior Academy of Music, and he served as assistant concertmaster and principal second violin of the Metropoolitan Chamber Orchestra of Lisbon.  He has also played with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, The International Orchestra of Italy, and the Malaysian Philharmonic.  Mr. Kremer often gets the chance to perform with his brother and sister-in-law in Tokyo, Japan as a guest in their duo.  He is also an expert in cooking spicy chicken wings.

LAURA SEWELL, cello

Cellist Laura Sewell founded the award-winning Lark Quartet in 1984 and was its cellist for five years, performing over 80 concerts a year in most of America’s major cities, as well as in Europe and the Far East. During her tenure in the group, the quartet was a top prizewinner in the Banff International String Quartet Competition, served as the graduate quartet in residence at the Juilliard School and was quartet in residence at San Diego State University.

Now a resident of her native Minnesota, Ms. Sewell has played as a substitute cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota on numerous occasions, and performs in a duo with renowned jazz pianist Butch Thompson. She and Mr. Thompson perform occasionally on “A Prairie Home Companion” and have recorded a highly acclaimed cello and piano CD. In August 2007 she became the cellist of the Artaria String Quartet. Ms. Sewell was trained at the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her teachers have included Leonard Rose and Jacqueline duPre. She has been on the board of Chamber Music America, the national service organization for chamber musicians, and served as its Chair for four years.


LESLIE SHANK, violin

Described by the New York Times as “an impressive violinist [who plays] intimately and sweetly at one moment and with fearless enthusiasm at the next,” Leslie Shank leads an active musical life as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been a member of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra for 26 years, 24 as assistant concertmaster. Ms. Shank gave her New York recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Hall as a winner of the Artists International Competition, and was twice re-engaged to perform on its Special Presentation Series.

Ms. Shank currently serves as concertmaster of the “Music in the Mountains” Festival in Colorado, and has performed at numerous other festivals including the Aspen, Grand Teton, Mainly Mozart, Marlboro, and the Britt Festival, where she served as concertmaster of the festival orchestra. As a member of the prestigious Musicians from Marlboro, she toured the East Coast.

On disc, Shank can be heard on a new Centaur release, Recital for Violin & Guitar, with her husband, classical guitarist Joseph Hagedorn. The Shank-Hagedorn Duo has performed on Minnesota Public Radio’s “St. Paul Sunday." Also on the Centaur label, Ms. Shank has recorded Bartok's Violin Sonatas with pianist Heather MacLaughlin. In 1997, the Shank-MacLaughlin Duo received the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Performing Musicians.

Leslie was awarded both a Bachelor and Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. Her teachers were Shirley Givens, Felix Galimir, and Dorothy Delay.


JOHANNA REICHE TORBENSON, viola

Torbenson has given many solo and chamber music performances throughout the United States and Europe, and has performed with National Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Key West Symphony. Torbenson was assistant principal violist of the Washington Chamber Symphony in Washington, D.C., where she also appeared as a soloist at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She toured Europe as principal violist with the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchester.

Johanna won first prize in the Louisville Orchestra Young Artist's Competition at the age of 13. Torbenson was a finalist in the XXXIII International Primrose Competition. She was also a prizewinner in the Mary Graham Lasley Competition and won the University of Maryland's School of Music Concerto Competition. Torbenson studied the viola with Roland Vamos, Donald McInnes and Roberto Diaz.

Washington Post reviewer Alan Greenblatt wrote, "Torbenson fully exploited her chance to shine. She was terrifically expressive" describing a performance at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Johanna has recorded and performed in a variety of music styles, including alternative rock. She also performs as a member of Trio Sorelle.


DAVID AUERBACH, viola

Violist David Auerbach earned a DMA from Stony Brook University in December 2007, where he was a scholarship student of Katherine Murdock. Previously, he received a Masters Degree from the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Samuel Rhodes, and a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with majors in both Music Performance and Molecular Biology.

Mr. Auerbach has given numerous solo and collaborative recitals throughout New England and the Midwest, and has been a prizewinner in several competitions, including the 2005 Chicago Viola Society Competition. A dedicated chamber musician, Mr. Auerbach has participated in the music festivals of Ravinia, Kneisel Hall, and Norfolk, and he has performed with chamber groups several times in Carnegie's Weill and Zankel Recital Halls. Since moving to the Twin Cities in the fall of 2007, Mr. Auerbach has been a top substitute with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra, and is the Principal Violist of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra.

SHANE KIM, violin

Toronto-born violinist Shane Kim is currently in his sixth season as a replacement violinist with the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and in his first season as concertmaster of the Kenwood Symphony.  From 2000-2006, Shane held the position of Principal Violinist of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee.  Shane’s concert engagements have taken him to the Taos Chamber Music Festival in New Mexico, Ravinia, the Encuentro de Musica y Academia en Santander (Spain) and the Aspen Music Festival, where he performed as concertmaster for two years as an Aspen Violin Fellowship winner.  Shane has also made concertmaster appearances with the Tucson Symphony, Spoleto-Charleston Festival Orchestra, Domaine Forget Festival Orchestra and Colorado Springs Festival Orchestra.  As a chamber musician, Shane has collaborated with eminent artists Joaquin Valdepenas, Radovan Vlatkovic, Peter Frankl and Mayumi Seiler; and has appeared with the Amici, Via Salzburg, Bakken Trio and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra chamber music series’.

In 2000, Shane completed his undergraduate degree at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, as a student of noted pedagogue David Zafer.  During his studies, Shane made frequent solo appearances with the Niagara Symphony, University of Toronto Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, with whom he was a featured performer at the opening of the Guelph Spring Festival.  Shane’s performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio and CJRT-FM.  In the spring of 2003, Shane completed his M.M. and Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music as a student of Peter Oundjian, Ani Kavafian and the Tokyo String Quartet.  Other chamber music teachers include the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Laurie Carney, Robert McDonald and the late Lorand Fenyves. 

Some of Shane’s noteworthy prizes include the Tom Thomas Scholarship, and the Nick Gelmych and John Dan Violin Awards.  Shane is currently on the violin faculty at St. Joseph's School of Music in Saint Paul.