Schubert Club Concerts

Artist Bios:

Stanley Woolner studied composition at Stanford University and locally with Paul Siskind and Edie Hill.  He is the 2007 winner of the Eric Stokes Song Contest, and his work was featured recently on MPR's All Things Considered.  A native of Rochester Minnesota, he lives in St. Paul, and composes mostly for solo piano.

Charles Scarborough graduated in piano performance from Macalaster College, St. Paul.  He has performed in numerous venues around the Twin Cities for years, including the Schubert Club, Thursday Musical, Westminster Presbyterian Church, and others.

Born into a family of distinguished musicians, Beth Rapier began her professional career at age 16 as an apprentice with the Louisville Orchestra. After studying at Indiana University and in New York with Janos Starker, Fritz Magg and Timothy Eddy, she performed and taught for two seasons with the Apple Hill Chamber Players of New Hampshire.
Rapier joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1986 and assumed her current position in 1991; she has been a featured soloist with the Orchestra in works by Haydn, David Ott and Kevin Puts. Also in demand as a guest soloist, she has appeared with the Colorado Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra and numerous regional ensembles.
Rapier enjoys playing chamber music, which she has performed throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. She has won several awards at chamber music competitions across the country. Rapier was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, winner of a 2000 McKnight Foundation Award. During its 16 years, the quartet performed regularly at venues in Boston, France and New York. Rapier is a frequent guest at chamber music festivals, including Cactus Pear, Music in the Vineyards and Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society.
In April 2005 Rapier was again named a McKnight Foundation Award winner for her performance of cello duos with her husband, Anthony Ross. Together, the duo organizes an annual benefit concert for Habitat for Humanity.
Rapier has recorded quartets for the Boston Records and Artegra labels.

First Associate Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, a Minnesota Orchestra member since 1988, has been soloist with the symphony orchestras of Philadelphia and Houston as well as the Minnesota Orchestra, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending and Brahms’ Double Concerto— and, in April 2006, the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ Sinfonia concertante.
Kwak’s national and international tours have included a three-and-a-half-week tour of China. She was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, which gave its New York debut in 1996 and was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2000. With this group, Kwak recorded a CD of Bartók and Beethoven quartets on the Boston Records label. On the Artegra label, she and the Rosalyra Quartet released a CD featuring the music of Shostakovich; a Brahms disc is scheduled for release in late 2006. She has also participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, the Pensacola Festival, Pittsburgh Summerfest, Bargemusic of New York and Festival Mozart in France.
A native of Boston, Kwak began violin studies at age four and attended the Vienna Hochschule für Musik before graduating from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 1983. Among her teachers were Joseph Sivo, Ivan Galamian and Szymon Goldberg. The first artist to ever capture all three memorial awards at the Washington International Competition, Kwak also won the 1989 Young Artist Competition sponsored by WAMSO. Before coming to the Twin Cities, Kwak served on the faculty of Princeton University.