Meet our regular and guest performers
Joel Lambdin
Based in Manhattan, Joel’s primary focus as a musician has been chamber music. After graduating from UNC School of the Arts, he established a series in Harrisburg, PA that focused on bringing standard and new chamber repertoire to new audiences through alternative venues and interactive concerts. Harrisburg audiences were thus able to get to know great artists like Kurt Nikkanen, Daniel Gaisford, Tom Kraines and many others in new and personal ways. In Brooklyn, he continued that work with a project focused on underrepresented composers, his own music, and commissions. He collaborated with Missy Mazzoli, Sarah Kirkland Snyder, and Lainie Fefferman among others. He also joined the metal band Resolution15, where he played electric violin as well as contributing songs.
As a freelancer, Joel has performed on and Off- Broadway, with the American Symphony Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, on the Radio City New York Spectacular, as well as with a broad variety of chamber orchestras and theater projects. He served as a Teaching Artist for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for 15 years, and maintains a private teaching studio.
Kal Sugatski
Returning to Brooklyn after two years with New World Symphony, violist Kal Sugatski is a fierce advocate of contemporary music. Recent engagements include her solo debut with New World Symphony as part of their John Cage festival, the world premiere of Drake Andersen’s viola concerto Spring Flow, her Carnegie Hall debut with Hotel Elefant, and performances of over 100 new compositions. Kal’s 2014-2015 season engagements include her solo debut at (le) poisson rouge with Hotel Elefant, a tour of Japan with New York City Opera, performances at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and numerous orchestral and chamber music concerts. She is also commissioning Brooklyn composers to create a volume of new, short works for unaccompanied viola. Kal has held principal positions with numerous orchestras, including New World Symphony, and has played under the baton of conductors such as Michael Tilson-Thomas, Lorin Maazel, David Zinman, and Robert Spano, among others. An avid chamber musician, she has performed with members of the New York Philharmonic, Boston Pops, and Portland String Quartet, and has been guest violist with Osso Quartet (NYC) and Friction Quartet (San Francisco). She has worked with composers Steve Reich, John Adams, Missy Mazzoli, Jason Eckardt, David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolf. Kal also enjoys performing, singing, and recording non-classical music with artists such as the MSM Jazz Philharmonic, Ray Lamontagne, Ambrose Akinmursire, Randy Brecker, Snarky Puppy, Andrea Bocelli, Sting, and Stevie Wonder. She has been featured on NPR twice, both as a soloist and chamber musician. A native of Portland, Maine, Kal holds a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory and a Masters from Manhattan School of Music, studying with Karen Ritscher.
Laura Metcalf
Cellist Laura Metcalf, acclaimed for her "sensitive, melodic touch" (Blog Critics Magazine), is known for her compelling solo and chamber music performances both worldwide and in her home of New York City. She has given concerts in 40 states, as well as Argentina, Canada, Japan, Austria, Germany, France, Mexico, England and South Africa. She has appeared as a soloist with the One World Symphony, the Laredo Philharmonic, Ensemble 212 Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa. She is the cellist of the acclaimed string quintet Sybarite5, which was the first ensemble of its kind to win the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and which has since toured the globe performing to sold-out audiences in Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress and many others. Sybarite5's debut album reached the Billboard Charts Top 10, and the quintet will give the world premiere of a concerto written for them by Dan Visconti with several American orchestras in 2015. Laura has performed at the Aspen, Caramoor, Newport, Chautauqua, Taos, Sarasota, Fontainebleau Music Festivals and is routinely invited to the Open Chamber Music session at the IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall, UK. She performs with acclaimed guitarist Rupert Boyd, with whom she toured Australia in 2013. Among other accolades and awards, she has won the Rutenberg Chamber Music Competition and Mannes College's James E. Hughes Award. Comfortable performing a variety of genres, Laura is a member of the cello and percussion quartet Break of Reality with whom she has given hundreds of concerts and educational workshops across the country and whose recorded music has a reach of millions worldwide. She has appeared on the David Letterman and Conan O'Brien late-night shows, as well as the Today Show and the View, and at the US Open, New York Fashion Week, and in Johannesburg, South Africa with legendary rap artist Nas. As an educator, Laura routinely gives masterclasses from the elementary to the collegiate level, and has served on the faculty of Opus 118 Harlem School of Music (through which she founded the first-ever cello program at New York's PS 129) and the New York Summer Music Festival.
Jim Robertson
Jim's professional music career began with a tour to Montreux Jazz Festival at the age of 13. His versatility as a multi instrumentalist has given him opportunities to perform, and record on 5 different continents; with superstars such as Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Janelle Monae, Sting, Nas, The Roots, Bobby Cruz, Senri Oe, Erykah Badu, and many more. A long career of touring, composing, arranging, teaching, and film scoring have given Jim experiences that could span 10 lifetimes. As Jim looks forward to working with artists old and new, the joy of being able to experience one more day of music remains as exhilarating as the first day holding an instrument.
Miranda Sielaff
A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, violist Miranda Sielaff pursues a rich and varied musical career in New York City. From chamber music appearances on the renowned series at Brooklyn's Bargemusic to performances of adventurous new music in nightclubs to outreach concerts for public school children and seniors, Miranda enjoys diverse opportunities to engage living composers, fellow performers and audiences through music. Miranda regularly performs and tours with several ensembles, including The Knights, the Caravel Trio, String Orchestra of New York City, and the composers’ collective Wet Ink. With Pierre Boulez and the Lucerne Festival Academy, she performed on Carnegie Hall’s Making Music series, she has performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, and most recently she played with The Knights and Itzhak Perlman at the 2012 Ravinia Festival. She can be heard on The Knights’ albums on the SONY Classical label and their two recordings on Ancalagon Records. A graduate of Rice University and The Juilliard School, she teaches violin and viola at the Diller-Quaile School of Music.
Leigh Stuart
Leigh Stuart is a versatile cellist who thrives on performing music from a wide range of styles and genres. She has toured the U.S. extensively as a chamber musician, performing in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, the Library of Congress, the Lied Center of Kansas, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and countless others. She has recorded with Makoto Ozone and Paquito D’Rivera for the album Live and Let Live-Love for Japan, appeared with tap dancing virtuoso, Savion Glover, at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, songwriter, Sufjan Stevens, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Jay-Z, Beyonce, and The Roots at Radio City Music Hall.
Leigh is a founding member of the boundary-breaking new music group, Fireworks Ensemble, described as “adventurous and ahead of the curve” by the Washington Post and “musically fearless” by Time-Out New York. With Fireworks Ensemble, Leigh has premiered over one hundred new works by emerging and established composers, including a recent commission by Pulitzer-prize winning composer, David Del Tredici. This season the ensemble will release an album of selected instrumental chamber rock pieces by Frank Zappa for Universal Music Enterprises.
Originally from Southwestern Connecticut, Leigh began her cello studies at the age of nine. She received her bachelor’s degree from the Hartt School as a student of Steven Thomas and David Wells and her master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music as a student of David Geber. A dedicated teaching artist, Leigh is on the cello faculty of the Diller-Quaile School and the Berkeley Carroll School.