Artist Bios

CHRISTOPHER KENDALL is artistic director and conductor of the 21st Century Consort, celebrating its 50th season in 2024-2025 as ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. He is professor emeritus at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where, as the School’s dean from 2005 to 2015, he was responsible for hiring a diverse and outstanding faculty, for a campaign that significantly increased the School’s endowment and renovated and expanded the school’s physical plant, for reviving international ensemble touring, and for launching the interdisciplinary enterprise ArtsEngine and its national initiative a2ru (Alliance for the Arts at Research Universities). In Washington, in addition to his leadership of 21st Century Consort for five decades, he is founder and co-director of the Folger Consort, ensemble-in-residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library since 1977. The ensemble has toured and recorded extensively, and has produced a series of collaborations with Sir Derek Jacobi in performances at the Globe Theatre in London, in California’s Napa Valley, and at Strathmore Hall and the Kennedy Center. Kendall was associate conductor of the Seattle Symphony from 1987 to 1992, where he led the orchestra in season concerts, special events and educational concerts, and from 1993 to 1996 was director of the Music Division and Tanglewood Institute of the Boston University School for the Arts. Director of the University of Maryland School of Music from 1996 to 2005 during which he led its move to the Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts, he has guest conducted many orchestras and ensembles in repertoire from the 18th to the 21st centuries. His recordings can be heard on the British ASV, Arabesque, Bard, Bridge, Centaur, Delos, Innova, Nonesuch, and Smithsonian Collection labels.

Bassist RICHARD BARBER was born into a musical family, beginning piano studies at age seven and double bass at age nine. His decision to pursue music (and not science) as a career was made at age 18. That decision took him to Baltimore, where he studied with former National Symphony Orchestra Principal Bassist Harold Robinson, earning a Bachelor of Music degree in three years from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Winning his first audition two weeks after graduation, Barber moved to Arizona to join the Phoenix Symphony. After three seasons in Phoenix and two summers touring Europe with the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, he joined the National Symphony Orchestra in 1995 as a section bassist and was promoted to assistant principal in 1996. Since then he has been particularly active in the orchestra's chamber music and education programs. He also appears regularly with The 21st Century Consort, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. He plays a double bass made ca. 1620 in Italy by the Brescian master Giovanni Paolo Maggini.

Appointed to the National Symphony Orchestra clarinet section by Maestro Leonard Slatkin in 1999, PAUL CIGAN enjoys a career as an orchestral clarinetist, chamber musician, teacher, and soloist. In addition to the NSO, Cigan can frequently be heard performing with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, 21st Century Consort, and the Smithsonian Chamber Players, as well as on recordings with those ensembles on the Dorian, Bridge, and Naxos labels. In 2012, Cigan premiered Donald Crockett's Dance Concerto with the 21st Century Consort and performed a special wind ensemble version of the piece with the University of Maryland Wind Orchestra in 2015. Prior to the NSO, Cigan held principal posts with the San Antonio Symphony, Colorado Symphony, and Virginia Symphony. An active teacher in the Washington, D.C., area, Cigan is currently on the faculty of The University of Maryland at College Park. He is also active in the NSO education department, instructing members of the Youth Fellowship Program and Summer Music Institute. Other activities include performing at the Halcyon Music Festival and Grand Teton Music Festival and teaching at the University of Maryland National Orchestral Institute and the Philadelphia International Music Festival. Cigan studied with Anthony Gigliotti, former principal clarinetist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and David Breeden, former principal clarinetist of the San Francisco Symphony. Cigan is a graduate of Temple University.

Steinway Artist LISA EMENHEISER has been heralded for her intense music-making and pianism. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she has performed as both keyboardist and soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra for the past 30 years. As described by the New York Times, Lisa "played the piano dazzlingly", and by the Washington Post, she "shimmered and beguiled, shifting easily between virtuosity and transparency." She has performed under the batons of some of the world's most distinguished conductors and was hailed by Christoph Eschenbach as having "a stunning technique and profound musicality... to match the greatest artists". Lisa is an established chamber musician and has performed with many world-renowned soloists. She is an avid performer of contemporary music. As pianist for the 21st Century Consort in Washington, D.C., she has premiered works by Stephen Albert, Nicholas Maw, Eugene O'Brien, David Froom, Donald Crockett, and many others. She recently performed the world premiere of Stephen Jaffe’s “Tableaux”, a major work for solo piano commissioned for Lisa by the 21st Century Consort. Additionally, Lisa was featured on national television as an expert artist commentator and performer in the PBS documentary entitled “Exploring Your Brain”, in which she performed Ginastera’s Piano Sonata No. 1 and discussed the topic of memory. Ms. Emenheiser has recorded Respighi’s “Three Preludes on Gregorian Melodies” for the Steinway Spirio collection and recently added Rzweski’s “Winnsboro Cottonmill Blues” and “Down by the Riverside”. She has also recorded for the Bridge, Albany, Decca, Pro Arte, Naxos, VAI Audio, Centaur, Arabesque, Delos, AUR, Jubal House, and Cascades labels. A committed teacher, Lisa has represented the NSO in numerous masterclasses and has been a regular coach for the NSO Summer Music Institute. She is excited to once again be piano mentor for the 2024-25 NSO Youth Fellowship program. Recently Lisa was inducted into the Steinway Teacher's Hall of Fame and was also awarded the Steinway & Sons Top Teacher Award, with many of her students achieving top recognition in both local and international competitions. She holds a private studio in her home.

Violist DANIEL FOSTER's varied career encompasses orchestral, chamber, and solo playing, as well as teaching. After capturing the First Prize in both the William Primrose and Washington International Competitions, Mr. Foster became a member of the National Symphony viola section in 1993 and was appointed Principal by Music Director Leonard Slatkin in 1995. Mr. Foster has appeared frequently as soloist with the National Symphony since his appointment. Mr. Foster was a member of the critically acclaimed Dryden Quartet, along with his cousins Nicolas and Yumi Kendall and National Symphony Concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef, and is also a founding member of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. Mr. Foster is on the faculty at the University of Maryland and has given master classes at Oberlin and Peabody Conservatories, the University of Michigan, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has been a faculty member for the National Orchestral Institute and is a member of the International Principals faculty at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan.

Equally at home in the solo, chamber, and orchestral stages, SARAH FRISOF is a passionate flutist and educator. As a soloist, Ms. Frisof was the second-prize winner of both the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition and the Heida Hermanns International Woodwind Competition, and she was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Kobe International Flute Competition. Ms. Frisof and her collaborative partner, Daniel Pesca, piano, have released two solo albums. Her most recent album, Beauty Crying Forth, a survey of music by female composers across time, was released in August of 2020. In addition to Ms. Frisof’s work as a solo artist, she is an active orchestral and chamber musician, having worked with major symphony orchestras across the country, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, and many others. Ms. Frisof is an active member of Sound Impact, a chamber collective of musicians dedicated to serving communities and igniting positive change in the US and abroad through live performance, educational programs, and creative collaborations with other artists and art forms. She has taken her passion for education and community engagement to global audiences, including working with communities and students in both Zimbabwe and Brazil. A graduate of the Eastman School, The Juilliard School, and the University of Michigan, Ms. Frisof is currently the Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Maryland.

Dr. LEE HINKLE’s percussion playing has been called “rock-steady” by the Washington Post and “superb” by Percussive Notes. He has served as the principal percussionist with the 21st Century Consort since 2012 and he made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2014 as a concerto soloist. Hinkle’s 2024 solo album, Modern American Percussion Concerti, was released internationally on Ravello Records. A seven-year long project, involving hundreds of collaborators, Gramophone Magazine proclaimed, “Hinkle’s mastery of each instrument is never in doubt” and textura remarked, “Modern American Percussion Concerti impresses as both a remarkable musical statement and logistical achievement . . . Hinkle excels in every context and to his credit achieves a fine balance between abandon and control . . .” Hinkle’s notable performances have included the National Symphony, Columbus Symphony, and American Institute for Musical Studies Orchestra (Graz, Austria) as well as national US tours with Bebe Neuwirth and Bernadette Peters. He has performed as a soloist at three Percussive Arts Society International Conventions and is an active commissioner and curator of contemporary music for percussion. From 2009 to 2021, Hinkle served on the percussion faculty at the University of Maryland. In August 2021, he was appointed as Assistant Professor of Percussion at Penn State University. His service work has included work for the Percussive Arts Society’s Education Committee (2022-present), New Music/Research Committee (2016-22), Percussion Ensemble Committee (2013-16) and as President of the MD/DE Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society (2014-21), among other activities. Hinkle is a Yamaha Performing Artist and endorses Remo, Innovative Percussion, Grover Pro Percussion, and Zildjian Cymbals. To learn more, visit leehinkle.com

JAMES NICKEL has been a member of the National Symphony Orchestra horn section since 2008. Before joining the NSO, he was the assistant principal horn with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the associate principal horn with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his schedule with the NSO, he also serves as the principal horn with the Arizona Musicfest and has been invited to perform as guest principal horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Nickel also performs around the D.C. area with the Smithsonian Chamber players, the Eclipse Chamber orchestra, the 21st Century Consort, the National Chamber Players, and the Washington Symphonic Brass. In the summertime, Nickel has participated in the Garth Newel Music festival, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in Stellenbosch, South Africa, the Music in the Mountains festival, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, the Spoleto festival, and the Sarasota Music Festival. In addition to his performance schedule, he teaches through the Kennedy Center Youth Fellowship program and is Adjunct Professor of Horn at George Mason University. Nickel is a native of Saint Petersburg, Florida. He attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where he met his wife Julianna.

SUSAN ROBINSON has been the principal harpist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra since 1995. She was previously the principal harpist of the Boston ‘POPS’ Esplanade Orchestra, with whom she toured the Far East and the US, and she performs frequently with the Boston Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra. Susan was also acting principal harpist of Tampa’s Florida Orchestra and the Sarasota Opera Festival. Recent musical adventures have taken her on a goodwill tour of South Africa, where she performed chamber music concerts and workshops and masterclasses with young South African musicians, as well as a two-week European tour with the National Symphony. Avid performers of chamber music, Susan and her husband, violinist Joseph Scheer, founded IBIS Chamber Music, which for over a decade presented engaging, free concerts in the metro DC area. IBIS was praised as "splendid" and "compelling" by the Washington Post. Susan also enjoys concertizing with colleague Adria Sternstein Foster, principal flute of the KCOHO, with whom she recorded the CD “Iridescence.” Susan is featured on the IBIS CD’s "Souvenir: Music for Violin and Harp" and "IBIS x 2” performing harp concerti by Handel and Debussy. Among Susan’s solo engagements are performances of Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall with the Opera House Orchestra under Heinz Fricke, and with the Virginia Chamber Orchestra and Emil de Cou. She was re-engaged to perform the Debussy Danses with the Virginia Chamber Orchestra the following season. Susan has also soloed with the Newton (MA) Symphony, the Indian Hill Symphony, the New Hampshire Philharmonic, the Rhode Island Chamber Orchestra, and the Dedham (MA) Choral Society. Susan is a graduate of Harvard University with a cum laude degree in Art History and French Literature. She also holds an Artist Diploma in Harp Performance from the Boston University School for the Arts, where she was a student of Lucile Lawrence. She and Joseph are the parents of Lillie and Nathanael.

LUCY SHELTON is an internationally recognized exponent of 20th and 21st century repertory. She has premiered over 100 works many of which were composed for her by leading composers such as Stephen Albert, Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, David Del Tredici, Alexander Goehr, Gerard Grisey, Oliver Knussen, Ned Rorem, Joseph Schwantner and Augusta Reed Thomas. Her performances have taken her to major cities across the globe (from Australia to Japan, Brazil to the United Kingdom and throughout the United States) for performances of orchestral, chamber and solo repertoire. She has recorded extensively for such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, Bridge Records, NMC and Naxos. Lucy Shelton is a two-time winner of the Walter W. Naumburg award, as a chamber musician and as a solo singer. Her collaboration with the 21st Century Consort began in 1978.

JANE BOWYER STEWART is a first violinist with the National Symphony Orchestra. A devoted chamber musician, she is a regular guest artist with elite Washington area ensembles, including the Kennedy Center Chamber Players and the 21st Century Consort. The Washington Post has praised her “spectacular and virtuosic performance….Stewart’s technique was breathtaking but never overpowering. She has a seemingly effortless ability to create elegant phrases.” Stewart earned both her Bachelor of Arts (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and Master of Music degrees from Yale University. In the Washington area, Stewart has performed chamber music at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, the Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Library of Congress. A founding member of the Prism Piano Trio, she has also performed and recorded with the Chamber Soloists of Washington, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Chamber Ensemble, and the Manchester String Quartet. Her several chamber music CDs include one Grammy nominee. Outside of Washington, Stewart has participated in the Grand Teton Music Festival more than ten times and performed chamber music with Joseph Silverstein at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. She currently spends part of each summer on the faculty of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. As a concerto soloist, Stewart has appeared with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and the National Symphony. She plays a violin made in 1691 by the Venetian master Matteo Goffriller.

In addition to her position with the National Symphony Orchestra, cellist RACHEL YOUNG enjoys a diverse career as a founding member of the Last Stand Quartet, cellist for the 21st Century Consort, and cello lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Music. Before joining the National Symphony, she served as Principal Cellist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Ms. Young has appeared in solo and chamber performances at the Kennedy Center, Jackson Hole Chamber Music, Garth Newel Music Center, Strathmore Music Center, The White House, with the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, as well as on radio broadcasts across the country. Recording collaborations include releases on the Dorian, Centaur, Regent and Smithsonian labels. Ms. Young enjoys the challenge of stepping into new arenas such as projects with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, songwriter Randy Barrett, movie producer Bill McKenna and saxophonist Al Regni. A Washington DC native, Young started cello at age 4 in the studio of Shelia Johnson, and found her mentor, David Hardy, while in middle school. Young has degrees from both the New England Conservatory and Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with Stephen Kates and Laurence Lesser. Young lives in Maryland with her husband, the bassist Anthony Manzo, two teenagers and two cats.