Described by Fanfare Magazine as “a specialist in everything, from Bach to new-music premieres…” violinist Ida Bieler is renowned as a musician of extraordinary scope. A winner of prestigious competitions on three continents, she has enjoyed an exceptional solo, collaborative and recording career worldwide, and is one of the most sought-after teachers of her generation.

Bieler has performed the canon of major violin concertos with over forty orchestras on four continents, including the premiere of Penderecki’s second violin concerto under the direction of the composer. Her groundbreaking achievement as the first American woman appointed concertmaster of a major European orchestra, the “Gürzenich Orchestra” of Cologne, led to a major ensemble career in Germany’s legendary Melos String Quartet and the acclaimed Xyrion Piano Trio.

Over the course of a celebrated performing career spanning more than thirty years she has also produced an impressive catalogue of solo and chamber recordings with such labels as Naxos, MDG, Harmonia Mundi Musique, Coviello and Genuin. Awards and prizes have included the Cannes “Classical” award, the Echo “Klassik,” Fono Forum’s “Stern des Monats” and Strad’s “Chamber Music Selection.”Ida Bieler has performed and been a frequent guest artist in major international festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Music Academy of the West and the Ravinia and Marlboro festivals.

One of today’s preeminent pedagogues, Bieler has held full professorships in Germany, England, Austria, and the U.S., and leads annual masterclasses worldwide. Bieler’s outstanding students are international prize laureates, thriving chamber musicians, and winners of positions in major orchestras. Since 2013 she has been Artist-Teacher of Violin at UNCSA and is a new faculty member of NYU’s Steinhardt School of Music and Performing Arts.

Violinist Janet Orenstein has enjoyed an active performing career both in the United States and abroad as a chamber musician, soloist and advocate of contemporary music. She is a founding member of the Guild Trio, and ensemble that won both the "USIA Artistic Ambassador" and "Chamber Music Yellow Springs" competitions, and has performed and held master classes throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Norway, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal, France and Australia. Her trio career has included residencies at the Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY, the Stony Brook Medical Center, and the University of Virginia, where she was a performing and teaching member of the faculty for five years.

Orenstein won the USIA Artistic Ambassador Competition as second time in the duo category, and toured extensively in Africa giving recitals and master classes with pianist Christina Dahl. As a chamber musician she has appeared in New York's Alice Tully and Merkin Concert Halls, as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and has recorded for the Centaur, Naxos, CRI, and Innova labels. Her recording of Jesse Montgomery’s Duo for Violin and Cello will be released next year on the newly formed UNCSA Media label.

She has performed at the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival in Nelson, New Hampshire, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont, and the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England. An advocate of contemporary music, she has premiered works by Sheila Silver, William Bolcom, and Harvey Sollberger, among many others, and performs from a vast repertoire of new music. Now on the violin faculty of the UNCSA School of Music, Orenstein and has taught violin and chamber music at various times at UNCG and Wake Forest University, and has appeared numerous times as a guest violinist in concerts with Dimitri Sitkovetsky as part of the Greensboro Symphony's Sitkovetsy & Friends chamber music series. Upon returning from a long solo tour at age 32, Janet contracted focal dystonia, which made it nearly impossible for her to coordinate left-hand finger patterns. After seventeen years, she gave her first solo recital in 2013, having worked continuously during those years to recover coordinated movement.

She now collaborates with colleagues Ida Bieler, Scott Rawls and husband Brooks Whitehouse as a founding member of the Reynolda Quartet, the ensemble in residence at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art.  They recently performed a Covid-Era "Concert of Gratitude", featuring Beethoven op. 132 and Smetana’s Quartet "From My Life", livestreamed from Watson Hall at UNCSA.  In addition, they performed Schubert’s C major String Quintet in collaboration with guest artist and North Carolina Symphony principal cellist Bonnie Thron. Recent residency programs at Reynolda Museum have also included works of Bartok, Brahms, Mozart and Mendelssohn, and the world premiere of Lawrence Dillon’s "Last Spring."

UNCSA faculty cellist Brooks Whitehouse has performed and taught throughout the US and abroad, holding Artists-in-Residence positions at SUNY Stony Brook, the Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY, the University of Virginia and The Tanglewood Music Center. As founding members of The Guild Trio Whitehouse and his wife, violinist Janet Orenstein won both the "USIA Artistic Ambassador" and "Chamber Music Yellow Springs" competitions, and with that ensemble they have performed and held master classes throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Norway, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal, France and Australia. The trio has been a frequent feature on National Public Radio's "Performance Today", and has also appeared on the University of Missouri's public television series "Premiere Performances", and "Front Row Center" on KETC-TV9 in St. Louis.

As a soloist Whitehouse has appeared with the Boston Pops, the New England Chamber Orchestra, and the Nashua, New Brunswick, Billings, and Owensboro Symphonies. He has appeared in recital throughout the northeastern United States, and his performances have been broadcast on WQXR's "McGraw-Hill Young Artist Showcase", WNYC's "Around New York," and the Australian and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation networks. He has held fellowships at the Blossom and Bach Aria festivals, and was winner of the Cabot prize as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. He currently teaches and performs during the summer at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival. As guest artist he has appeared with the American Chamber Players, the New Millennium Ensemble, the JU Piano Trio, The Apple Hill Chamber Players, the Atelier Ensemble and the New Zealand String Quartet. Mr. Whitehouse is also cellist of the European-based Atma Trio, and is 44% (by weight with instruments) of the cello/bass duo Low and Lower with bassist Paul Sharpe. He as recorded for the Centaur, CRI, and Innova labels.

Before joining the faculty of UNCSA, Whitehouse held professorships at the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). While at UNCG he was Artistic Director of three international cello celebrations honoring the legacy of cellists Luigi Silva, Bernard Greenhouse, and Laszlo Varga, and hosted some of the world's finest cellists, including Janos Starker, Steven Doane, Joel Krosnick, Timothy Eddy, and Paul Katz. Whitehouse currently serves on the board of the Greenhouse Foundation, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for aspiring young cellists around the world.

Double Bassist William (Bill) Morris has successfully merged the two worlds of classical and jazz music. His extensive experience in both genres has led him from the stages of Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to major venues around the world.

Based in Winston Salem, NC, Mr. Morris currently performs with the Charlotte Symphony, the Winston-Salem Symphony, and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestras. From 2006-2009, Mr. Morris was a member of the bass section of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally he has performed with the Washington National Opera Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and Roanoke Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Morris as performed under conductors such as Christopher Warren-Green, Gemma New, Timothy Redmond, Thomas Wilkins, Placido Domingo, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Kurt Masur, Sergiu Commissiona, Phillipe Entremont, Lawrence Layton-Smith, Joanne Falleta, Gunther Schuller, and David Effron.

Equally adept as a jazz musician, Mr. Morris has had the privilege of sharing the stage with New Orleans greats as Marlon Jordan, Terence Blanchard, Ellis Marsalis, and Delfeayo Marsalis. Additional performance dates with Benny Green, The Yellowjackets, Bob Mintzer, Terrell Stafford, Jon Faddis, Peter Erskine, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and Luís Conte.

A dedicated teacher, Mr. Morris maintains a private studio and previously taught double bass on the faculties of the University of Alabama, Tulane University, and the University of New Orleans. Additionally, he has given masterclasses and seminars at numerous other colleges and universities.

As a student, Mr. Morris received fellowships to summer music festivals such as the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles, CA; Brevard Music Center in Brevard NC; and Garth Newel Music Center in Warm Springs, VA where he was the first double bassist to attend as a scholarship fellow in 2001.

Mr. Morris received his BM and MM in Double Bass Performance at East Carolina University where his primary teachers were Jack Budrow, Leonid Finkelshteyn, and Carroll V. Dashiell, Jr. (jazz). He went on to receive the MM in Orchestral Performance  at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Orin O’Brien and Tim Cobb. Additional studies and coachings were with Paul Ellison, David Grossman, Craig Brown, Paul Johnson, and Kevin Mauldin.

In 2008, he was honored to perform Koussevitzky’s Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra, Op.3 with the Huxford Symphony at the University of Alabama in a performance he dedicated to his late father, who was his hero and champion.

He currently plays on a 19th Century instrument attributed to Paul Claudot and bow made by Canadian bow maker, Reid Hudson. 
 

Dr. Maria Serkin is Associate Professor of Horn at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she leads a dynamic studio of high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. Recipient of UNCSA’s 2023–2024 Excellence in Teaching Award, she is passionate about mentoring the next generation of artists, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in orchestras, academia, and arts administration worldwide. Each summer, she serves on faculty at the International Chamber Music Academy in Ochsenhausen, Germany.

As a performer, Dr. Serkin has held principal horn positions with the Florida Grand Opera, Palm Beach Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, and Charlottesville Symphony, and has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Spoleto Festival USA, and the Boston Early Music Festival, among others. Her recent collaborations include CORolina, the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Charlotte Symphony, Palm Beach Opera, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and multiple solo premieres at the International Horn Symposium.

Dr. Serkin earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music and New England Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music.