The Coaches

Cellist GEORGE SOPKIN, a pupil of Emmanuel Feuermann, began his career as one of the youngest members of the Chicago Symphony. After World War II he became a founding member of the Fine Arts Quartet. They appeared at many festivals including Ravinia, Tanglewood and Edinburgh, toured extensively in the U.S., Europe and the Far East, and recorded most of the major literature for string quartet. In 1979 Mr. Sopkin resigned from the quartet and retired from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as distinguished Professor Emeritus. He moved to Maine and is currently a member of the New England Piano Quartette. In 1997 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. In 1998 he received the Chevalier Du Violincelle from the University of Indiana.

Jeannette Koekkoek was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where she first performed for an audience at the age of four. Jeannette obtained her performer's diploma from the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory in 1988, where she studied with Holland's most distinguished professor of piano, Jan Wijn. She continued her preparation as a soloist with the legendary Aube Tzerko in Aspen and Los Angeles and as a chamber musician with Menahem Pressler in Bloomington. Prominent musicians such as Misha Dichter and Gabriel Chodos have invited her for their master classes. Besides her career as a soloist, Jeannette Koekkoek is a dedicated chamber musician and a much sought-after accompanist. She performed in the Far East, the USA, South America and Europe, and has concertized with ensembles as the Fine Arts Quartet, The Florida Philharmonic String Ensemble. She established the Koekkoek-Schatborn Duo, piano and viola, which won the annual prize of the Concertgebouw and Orchestra in 1988. She is also a founding member of the Netherlands Piano Quartet and of The Sagee Piano Trio in Miami, Florida. Jeannette has a successful piano and chamber music practice in and now teaches and coaches in Tuscany, Italy, where she partially resides. She is a visiting professor at the String Academy in Bloomington and has been on the faculty of the Summer String Academy of the same university since 1990. She has recorded for the eurArtist label as a soloist as well as with the Netherlands Piano Quartet and the Sagee Piano Trio.

ABRAM LOFT studied violin and viola in New York and earned his Ph.D. in musicology at Columbia University, where he also served on the faculty for eight years. He left in 1954 to join The Fine Arts Quartet as second violin. From 1963, the ensemble members were resident professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 1979, Loft moved to the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester to serve as head of the string department and professor of chamber music. He won the University¹s teaching award in 1984 and retired in 1986. He has written two books -Violin and Keyboard: the Duo Repertoire and Ensemble: A Rehearsal Guide to Thirty Great Works of Chamber Music, is a contributor to the American Grove¹s Dictionary, has been a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Musicological Society and the College Music Society¹s Symposium, and continues to serve as judge and chamber music coach. ASTA gave him its Distinguished Service award in 1993.

Violist, SCOTT WOOLWEAVER graduated with distinction from the University of Michigan School of Music before moving to Boston for graduate work with Walter Trampler. Woolweaver was a founding member of the Boston Composers String Quartet and is a violist of the New England Piano Quartette, Boston's Hyandel & Haydn Society, and Boston Baroque. He spends his summers at the Rocky Ridge Music Center, the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, and the Adult Chamber Music Seminar at Interlochen. He is a faculty member of the All Newton Music School, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts.