Techne Music

11/04/2024

Techne Music is excited to announce that violinist Todd Phillips will our special guest artist for the 2025 season. Apply today for the Techne Music Festival at www.TechneMusic.org

10/07/2024

Techne Music first annual Donald Spieth Memorial Award Concerts were performed by the Béla Trio yesterday in Bethlehem, PA and today in Denville, NJ. Violinist Stephanie Bonk, clarinetist Kelsi Doolittle and pianist Owen Dodds performed brilliantly, tossing off works by Stravinsky, Bartok, and Janacek with ease. In addition, Owen Dodds wrote a substantial trio which was both moving and energizing. Congratulations to the Béla Trio for being the first winner of this special award from Techne Music!

06/15/2024

We’re still on cloud nine after last night’s tremendous final concert of Techne 2024. Congratulations to the four outstanding student groups, and to the faculty and guest artists offering a magical performance of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht.

06/13/2024

Final concert tonight, but final masterclasses this afternoon, solo classes by Juliette Kang, Sheila Browne, and Tom Kraines.

06/13/2024

06/12/2024

Techne 2024 Day 4: Excited to have Juliette Kang and Thomas Kraines back with us at Techne. They will be part of the festival performance of Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht tomorrow, and are currently giving wonderful chamber music masterclasses.

06/11/2024

A few more shots of the outstanding Peter Winograd masterclass at Techne today!

06/10/2024

Techne 2024 Day 2: Techne Music Festival Artistic Director Timothy Schwarz starts the day with a great class on articulation challenges in mixed chamber music.

06/08/2024

2024 Techne Music Festival starts tomorrow!

06/04/2024

2024 Techne Music Festival
Faculty Spotlight
Sheila Browne: viola

Techne Music is honored to welcome violist Sheila Browne to the 2024 Festival. Since joining the Techne faculty in 2017, Sheila has brought her amazing teaching and performing skills to Techne Music year after year. As one student commented: "I did not really know what a viola should sound like until I heard Sheila Browne perform."

Sheila will perform "Verklärte Nacht" by Arnold Schoenberg with violinists Juliette Kang and Timothy Schwarz, cellists Thomas Kraines and Lawrence Stomberg, and violist Angela Rubin, who is the Techne 2024 "Browne Award" winner. Thursday, June 13th at 7:00 in Peter Hall/Moravian University. www.TechneMusic.org

Dynamic violist Sheila Browne is from Gladwyne, PA and is also an Irish citizen, performing and giving masterclasses on six continents. She has three new recordings coming out in the next year, including Leaps and Bounds with pianist Julie Nishimura, and was chosen for the first two American Viola Society albums. She has played chamber music with Guarneri, Juilliard, Shanghai, Vermeer, Borromeo, Brentano, Calidore and Miro quartets members, Diaz and Fire Pink trios, and with many other outstanding musicians. A devoted and enthusiastic professor, Sheila was Karen Tuttle's Teaching Assistant at Juilliard, studied at Freiburg Hochschule with Kim Kashkashian and at Rice with Karen Ritscher and Paul Katz, and is currently Distinguished Artist in Residence at Lynn University Conservatory, while also teaching at Temple University. Www.violasheilabrowne.com

06/02/2024

2024 Techne Music Festival
Student Spotlight and Browne Award Winner
Angela Rubin, viola

Techne Music is proud to announce that violist Angela Rubin has been named the Browne Award winner. As a result of this award, Angela will perform "Verklärte Nacht" with legendary violist Sheila Browne, and Techne Music faculty and guest artists Juliette Kang, Timothy Schwarz, Thomas Kraines, and Lawrence Stomberg. Angela has been a student at Techne numerous times, and performed on the faculty concert in the 2023 season. Techne Music is delighted to welcome her back for the 2024 season!

In 2023, Angela has performed in distinguished performance venues around the world including Carnegie Hall in New York City as principal violist of the New York String Orchestra Seminar and at Kitara Hall in Sapporo, Japan as associate principal violist of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra. As a soloist, Angela was awarded first place in the Nazareth College Community Music Program Music Competition, the Arts Alive Scholarship, and the National School Orchestra Award. She is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Masumi Per Rostad.

05/29/2024

Techne Music masterclasses are free and open to the public! Come see the amazing students in the Techne 2024 Festival learn from the top musicians in the world.

05/28/2024

Techne 2024 Faculty Spotlight
Thomas Kraines, cello

Techne Music is honored to welcome back cellist Thomas Kraines for this third appearance as a special guest at Techne Music. In addition to giving solo and chamber music masterclasses, Tom will be performing Schoenberg's masterpiece "Verklärte Nacht" with violinists Juliette Kang and Timothy Schwarz, violists Sheila Browne and Angela Rubin, and cellist Lawrence Stomberg. Come hear Tom and all of the Techne students and faculty on Thursday, June 13th at 7:00 in Peter Hall/Moravian University!

A member of the Daedalus Quartet, cellist Thomas Kraines has forged a multifaceted career, equally comfortable with avant-garde improvisation, new music, and traditional repertoire. He is also an accomplished composer, and his works have been performed and recorded around the world. Kraines has given musical improvisation workshops and performances at universities and schools across the country, and has taught cello and chamber music at the Peabody Conservatory, the Longy School of Music, Yellow Barn, and Princeton University. He currently teaches at the Settlement Music School, and is director of chamber music at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also teaches cello.

05/24/2024

2024 Techne Music Festival
Special Lecture: Dr. Daria Blyskal
Techne board member Dr. Daria Blyskal will be giving an engaging lecture on Sunday, June 9 for the students of Techne Music titled:

What’s Going on in There?
A Medical Look at What Transpires When We Perform

Dr. Blyskal brings a life-size skeleton to demonstrate basic anatomy of the muscles, bones, joints and nerves involved when musicians perform. Her talk encourages creative consideration of the organ systems that need to work in concert (pun intended!) to produce the intended sound and collaboration amongst colleagues. She reviews medical conditions that can inhibit playing, and yoga postures to prevent and treat common musculoskeletal symptoms.

Techne is very excited to welcome Dr. Blyskal and to learn the valuable lessons all musicians need in her lecture!

Dr. Blyskal studied violin with Dr. Timothy Schwarz and Paul Chou at Lehigh University, graduating with honors in 2003. She received her MD from Drexel University College of Medicine in 2007, completed her family medicine residency at Tower Health in 2010, and has maintained a board-certified doctor-owned family practice on Long Island since. She delights in playing with the Sound Symphony Community Orchestra and Lovely Ladies Quartet. When not doctoring or violining, she’s surfing, gardening, expanding her Italian vocabulary, and coddling her cats named after composers Hans & Nikolai.

05/21/2024

2024 Techne Music Festival
Student Spotlight: Michael Wu, violin

Michael is no stranger to Techne Music, having attended the very first Techne festival in 2013 and almost every year since. A native of Allentown, PA Michael was one of rising stars among musicians in the Lehigh Valley. The faculty at Techne Music have throughly enjoyed working with Michael for the past 11 years! Michael will perform "String Quartet No. 1" by Béla Bartók with violinist Julia Kuzmina, violist Angela Rubin, and cellist Julian Shively on Thursday, June 13th at 7:00 in Peter Hall/Moravian University.

Michael Wu is quickly establishing himself as one of the most sought-after violinists in the USA. The South Florida Classical Review recently praised his performance of Barber’s Violin Concerto, saying “The Presto finale (which some early performers thought unplayable) held no problems for Wu, who was fully equal to its challenges.” As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with notable musicians such as Naumburg and Queen Elizabeth winner Jennifer Frautschi and former Juilliard faculty member Sheila Browne. Other competition successes include the Voorhees Concerto Competition, Schadt Summer Strings Competition, and The Young Classical Virtuosos of Tomorrow. Michael has served as the concertmaster of Ensemble Ibis and is currently a Henri Mancini Institute fellow.

Michael is currently a DMA candidate at the Frost School of Music, having earned a Bachelor in Violin Performance from the Eastman School of Music and a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from the Peabody Conservatory. His unique sound and approach to standard repertoire comes from his training in both the Galamian/DeLay school and the “musical descendants” of Leopold Auer.

05/17/2024

2024 Techne Music Festvial
Student Spotlight!
Kyran Littlejohn, viola

Techne Music is proud to feature violist Kyran Littlejohn, a former student of Molly Carr, who was the founding Techne Music viola faculty and currently a member of the Juilliard String Quartet. Kyran will perform two string quartets at the 2024 Techne Music Festival: Op. 18, No. 6 by Beethoven and Op. 67 by Brahms; both in B-flat major. He will be joined by violinists Faith Borkowski and Hao Yuan, and cellist Carly Fulcher. Come hear Kyran and all of the Techne Music faculty and students on Thursday, June 13 at 7:00 in Peter Hall/Moravian University. www.TechneMusic.org