Carnegie Hall

This December, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, one of the nation’s first and most influential pre-professional training programs, celebrates its 53rd year and the major impact its alumni have had on the music world in the United States and abroad. Renowned for its unique musical philosophy emphasizing personal expression over a focus on technical mastery and integrating a chamber music approach into orchestral playing, the program was created in 1969 by arts manager Frank Salomon for violinist and conductor Alexander “Sasha” Schneider, who chose Jaime Laredo to succeed him as director in 1993.

This year’s 62 New York String Orchestra members were selected through a highly competitive audition process. They are from conservatories, universities, and high schools across the country. The students, who met for the first time on December 19, gave up their winter holidays to come to New York City for 10 12-hour days of intensive orchestral rehearsals with Mr. Laredo and chamber music sessions with master artists, including current and former members of the Emerson, Juilliard, Orion, and Guarneri string quartets. They join an illustrious group of more than 2,400 program alumni that include some of the world’s most acclaimed artists.

Alumnus Yo-Yo Ma (1977) called the seminar “one of the defining moments for me as a teenager,” as it was for soloists such as violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Gil Shaham, Shlomo Mintz, and Pamela Frank; conductors who include Peter Oundjian, Douglas Boyd, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Christian Măcelaru, Karina Canellakis, and Marin Alsop; past and current concertmasters of more than 40 orchestras (including the Chicago Symphony and Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Berlin, and Czech philharmonics); members of such ensembles as the Emerson, Guarneri, Kronos, Dover, Calidore, and Takács string quartets and Brooklyn Rider; and faculty at leading music schools and conservatories. They credit the seminar as a “life-changing musical experience” that opened new musical worlds. Each new generation of New York String Orchestra Seminar alumni continues to make a vital contribution to music and illuminates lives around the country. To ensure students are selected on the basis of musical ability and not financial means, all those accepted to the program participate free of charge. For more information on the seminar and its commitment to a tuition-free program, visit newschool.edu/mannes/nysos.

The New York String Orchestra Seminar is a program of The New School’s Mannes School of Music (Richard Kessler, Dean), New School Concerts Department. New School Concerts thanks the conductor, coaches, soloist, audition panelists, advisors, and the College of Performing Arts’ production and operations team for their invaluable contributions to the project, Glen Kwok, Richard King, Diane Lesser, Teng Li, Mary Malin, Kurt Muroki, Todd Phillips, Peter Sykes, Steven Tenenbom, Dr. Jess Ting, Carlos Tome of Tarisio Fine Instruments and Bows, and the many others whose time, effort, and resources make the seminar possible. The program is additionally grateful to the late Isaac Stern for launching the seminar at Carnegie Hall, and to the Hall’s current administration and staff for being such caring presenters of the annual concerts.

For more than six decades, Jaime Laredo has excelled as a solo violinist, conductor, recitalist, pedagogue, and chamber musician. Since his orchestral debut with the San Francisco Symphony at the age of 11, he has won the admiration and respect of audiences, critics, and fellow musicians with passionate and polished performances. At age 17, he won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, which launched his rise to international prominence.

In the 2022–2023 season, Mr. Laredo tours the US as conductor, soloist, and chamber musician with new works by composers Nokuthula Ngwenyama and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. For 45 years, he toured as a member of the beloved Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

Conducting and performing highlights include engagements with the Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco symphonies; Los Angeles and New York philharmonics; and Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras. Acclaimed premieres of double concertos by André Previn and Chris Brubeck, written for Mr. Laredo and his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson, are particularly memorable. He has appeared with the London and BBC symphony orchestras, Scottish Chamber Orchestra (with which he made numerous best-selling recordings), and orchestras around the globe.

Mr. Laredo has recorded nearly 100 albums, including a Grammy Award–winning disc of Brahms piano quartets with Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern, and Yo-Yo Ma. His recordings range from collaborations with Glenn Gould to double concertos with violinist Jennifer Koh and Ms. Robinson plus award-winning recordings with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. A 23-CD box set on Sony Classical celebrates Mr. Laredo’s extraordinary recorded legacy. His next release is slated for March 2023 on Signum.

Mr. Laredo’s stewardships of the New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall and the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis have become beloved educational pillars of the musical community. This year is his 11th at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He is co-artistic director of Cincinnati’s Linton Chamber Music. He recently completed 20 years as music director of the Vermont Symphony and held the post of artistic director of the Chamber Music at The 92nd Street Y series in New York for 40 years.

Born in Bolivia, Mr. Laredo resides in Guilford, Vermont, and Cleveland, Ohio.

Venezuelan violinist Rubén Rengel is quickly gaining recognition as a remarkably gifted artist. He won the Robert F. Smith Prize at the Sphinx Competition (2018), the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition (2014), the Sallie Shepherd Perkins Prize (2019), the Anna Y. Tringas Award (2013), and the Juan Bautista Plaza National Violin Competition of Venezuela (2011).

Mr. Rengel has appeared as a soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra and the Detroit, Houston, New Jersey, Vermont, and Venezuela symphonies. An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, Peter Wiley, David Shifrin, Joel Krosnick, Timothy Eddy, and Gilbert Kalish. He is a former member of the Autana Trio, which was a prizewinner at the 2015 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. He has attended music festivals that include Music@Menlo, the Perlman Music Program, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Meadowmount School of Music.

In addition to classical music, Mr. Rengel has extensive experience performing Venezuelan folk music and jazz, and he has recorded and toured with distinguished Venezuelan ensembles. He also enjoys conducting and performing as a violist.

Community engagement and education are important to Mr. Rengel. He has participated in programs with Street Symphony, the Sphinx Organization, Cleveland School of the Arts, Cleveland Institute of Music, Shepherd School of Music, Music@Menlo, and Perlman Music Program. He has taught master classes at the North Carolina School of the Arts and Longy School of Music of Bard College, and served as a teaching assistant to Jan Mark Sloman, Patricia McCarty, and Kathryn Lucktenberg at the Meadowmount School of Music.

Mr. Rengel is currently a fellow of Ensemble Connect, a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute. He earned a professional studies certificate at the Manhattan School of Music as a student of Mark Steinberg, a master’s degree at Rice University as a student of Paul Kantor, and a bachelor’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Jaime Laredo. His previous education was primarily at the Emil Friedman Conservatory and School in Caracas, where he studied with Iván Pérez Núñez. He is a Kun Shoulder Rest Featured Artist and an alumnus of the New York String Orchestra Seminar.