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. She and Rodney Mack have recorded Vivaldi's Concerto for Trumpet and Violin for Albany Records, soon to be released, and the duo plans a joint recital at the Curtis Institute of Music as a benefit for the Paul Robeson Foundation.

JOANNE OPGENORTH, Violin

Canadian violinist Joanne Opgenorth joined the Minnesota Orchestra as a first violinist in 2002. Formerly a first violinist in the Washington National Opera Orchestra, she is the recipient of Canada Council grants and a first prize winner of the Eckhardt-Gramatte National Competition of Canada. She has toured Canada in recital and has appeared as soloist with the Edmonton Symphony and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras. Her performances have been broadcast on CBC Radio, Canada, and WQXR, New York.

Opgenorth received a bachelor's degree in music from the University of British Columbia, a master's degree from the Juilliard School and a J.D. from Columbia University. She also studied during summers at the Banff Centre and the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Her principal teachers included Lorand Fenyves, Joseph Fuchs and Arnold Steinhardt. When she is not playing the violin, Opgenorth is enjoying the company of her two young sons, Evan and Nicholas, and her husband, Mike.

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.

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 plays as a substitute cellist with the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota 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 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, since 2000 and served as its Chair for four of those 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, chamber musician and -- since 1985 -- as assistant concertmaster of The Saint. Paul Chamber Orchestra. 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. 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.

BEN ULLERY, viola

Twin Cities native Ben Ullery is in his first year as a member of the Minnesota Orchestra. He has often performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, of which both his parents are members, and has toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Ullery is a 2004 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied violin with Gregory Fulkerson and received both the Pi Kappa Lambda Musicianship Award and the Hurlbutt Award for outstanding string playing. He later attended the New England Conservatory and the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where he was principal viola of the Colburn Orchestra. As a member of the Colburn Chamber Music Society, Ullery performed with principal players of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also studied chamber music with members of the Guarneri, Takacs, Vermeer, Borromeo, Miro and St. Petersburg Quartets.

In the summer, Ullery regularly performs at the Grand Teton Music Festival. He has also attended the Aspen, Taos and Tanglewood festivals, and was concertmaster of the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra.