Rachel Noyes earned her Masters in Violin Performance and Suzuki Pedagogy at University of Maryland, College Park, where she was a student of Ronda Cole and David Salness, and her Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music with academic honors, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and David Updegraff. She has participated at festivals such as Tanglewood's BUTI program, Musicorda (MA), and the Aspen (CO) Center for Quartet Studies. Rachel has had extensive experience as a chamber musician. As a founding violinist of the Chiara Quartet, she studied with members of the American, Audubon, Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, and Orion string quartets. Born into a musical family, she began playing the violin at the age of three in her mother's Suzuki program. She enjoys performing both chamber and orchestral music and is currently teaching and performing in the Bay area.
Gabriel Bolkosky, a native of Detroit, Michigan, began his violin studies at age three. His primary mentors were Michael Avsharian of Ann Arbor, Paul Kantor at University of Michigan, and Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Gabe earned a Bachelors of Music, a Masters in Jazz Improvisation, and a Masters in Chamber Music from U of M. At the Cleveland Institute he earned a Professional Studies degree, served a year as Wellerstein’s teaching assistant and won the Darius Milhaud prize. He attended the Aspen Music Festival/Institute from 1991–98 on fellowship, first playing with the Aspen Chamber Symphony and then the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble for four years. During those four years he premiered hundreds of new works, and with his group, Non Sequitur, conducted workshops and concerts for thousands of students in the Aspen valley. As a recitalist, Gabe has appeared across the United States and abroad. He performs a diverse repertoire of classical and contemporary works with different collaborative artists from many genres of music making. Recently he performed in the premiere of Rzewski’s “Natural Things” for Carnegie Hall’s Making Music Series. He has also collaborated with other composers, among them William Bolcom, John Harbison, George Tsontakis, Derek Bermel, and Bernard Rands. Gabe has released six CDs that show his breadth as a musician. His debut solo album, This and That, features classical and jazz music. Other albums include The Shape of Klez to Come with the klezmer group Into the Freylakh; The Orchestra Is Here to Play, a live recording teaming the Gemini children’s music group with a full orchestra; The Oblivion Project Live, showcasing the music of Astor Piazzolla; Non Sequitur, contemporary and experimental music, including one of his own compositions; Home from Work, an eclectic mix of jazz, folk and blues in collaboration with San Slomovits; and as sideman on John Lindberg’s recording Two by Five. Gabe teaches violin at the University of Michigan. He is the executive director of The Phoenix Ensemble, a nonprofit organization dedicated to being a musical resource for artists and educational institutions. Gabe also directs PhoenixPhest! and PhoenixPhest! Grande, two amateur chamber music festivals held each May and August, and maintains a private violin studio.
Antione Hackney began playing viola though the Ann Arbor Public Schools instrumental music program at the age of ten. After two years of study he received the Sarah Pollack scholarship for private instrumental instruction. Over the next six years Mr. Hackney spent his summers honing his skills at the Interlochen Arts Camp, The Blue Lake International Orchestra and the Indiana String Academy. After studying with John Graham at the Eastman School of music Mr. Hackney began playing in the many numerous orchestras throughout the state of Michigan. He is currently in the viola sections of the Grand Rapids, West Michigan, Flint and Ann Arbor Symphonies.
Rick Robinson plays and writes personally expressive music driven by 22 years of experience as a bassist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO). In 2012 he leaves that orchestra to fulfill his artistic potential while drawing new audiences to classical with a pragmatic attitude fully expressed in his CutTime® brand of established and future symphonic hits. Born into a musical family in Detroit, Robinson attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, Cleveland Institute of Music and New England Conservatory. He also held several principal positions with regional orchestras before joining DSO in 1989. Since then Robinson has worked hard in and out of the orchestra to prove classical music to new audiences. In 1995 he began CutTime Players, an eight-piece ensemble of DSO members to perform his transcriptions of famous symphonic repertoire for distant communities. He also began publishing these works as CutTime Players Publishing. Then he had a dream which launched a composition for large orchestra that DSO eventually premiered in 2006. This led him to pursue composing for another innovative ensemble, a string sextet with occasional woodwind solo called CutTime Simfonica.
