Astrid Schween
Cellist Astrid Schween has gained a rich following as a soloist, chamber artist and teacher. Since joining the Juilliard String Quartet and Juilliard Cello Faculty in 2016, she has appeared at many of the world’s great concert halls and collaborated with performers Itzhak Perlman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Emmanuel Ax. She has been featured on National Public Radio, in The Strad magazine, and as an invited speaker at the Library of Congress.
Astrid Schween made her concerto debut with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic at age 16. She received her degrees from the Juilliard School, and was mentored in London by the great cellist Jacqueline DuPré. Other teachers included Leonard Rose, Harvey Shapiro and Bernard Greenhouse. During summers at the Marlboro Festival, she performed with Rudolf Serkin and Joshua Bell.
As a member of the Lark Quartet, she received the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and Gold Medal at the Shostakovich International Competition.
Recent recitals and master classes have taken her to Houston, Denver, Cleveland, Memphis, Cincinnati and San Francisco, with festival appearances at Tanglewood, where she performed in recital with Shai Wosner, and the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, where she collaborated with James Ehnes and Orion Weiss. Astrid Schween served as longtime faculty at the Perlman Music Program and Interlochen Center for the Arts.
Noreen Cassidy-Polera
The pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera ranks among the most highly-regarded and diverse chamber artists performing today, and maintains a career that has taken her to every major American music center and abroad to Europe, Russia, and Asian centers of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul. Recent performances include those at Alice Tully Hall, Zankel Hall, Weill Recital Hall, 92nd Street Y, Jordan Hall, and appearances at Caramoor, Bowdoin and Grand Teton festivals, as well as engagements at the Chamber Music Societies of Philadelphia and La Jolla. Noreen Cassidy-Polera collaborates regularly with many of today’s leading soloists, including upcoming concert tours with gold and silver medal laureates of the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Competition. She received the accompanying prize at the Eight International Tchaikovsky Competition.
Ms. Cassidy-Polera’s mastery and specific affection for the complete standard cello-piano repertory is well-known, as is her dedication to the modern edge of this spectrum, particularly to works by American composers. During 2006-07, she performed Elliott Carter’s venerable Sonata for Cello and Piano on tour in Paris, New York and Philadelphia, along with new works by Lowell Liebermann, Benjamin C.S. Boyle and
Kenji Bunch to critical acclaim. Noreen Cassidy-Polera holds a Master of Music degree from the
Juilliard School, where she studied with Martin Canin.
