Olga Katkova-Trevino (violin) won a number of national competitions, toured all over Europe, and was featured on the Bulgarian National TV, before arriving in the US on a full musical scholarship to pursue a degree in Violin Performance. As the concertmaster of the Millennium Chamber Players, Olga has presented solo,chamber music performances, and newly written music. In addition, she led the Millennium Chamber Players orchestra in recent performances of the operas "The Rape of Lucretia" by Britten, "The Marriage of Figaro" by Mozart, and Puccini's "La Boheme". In the past year, Olga was engaged as a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. She has also performed as a member or guest of a number of prestigious orchestras such as Illinois Symphony, Sinfonia di Concertante, Da Cornetto Opera, Rockford Symphony, Green Bay Symphony, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, South Bend Symphony, and Ohio Light Opera. Olga is passionate about teaching. She is collaborating with Chicago Opera Theater as a Teaching Fellow in their opera outreach project directed to inner city schools; her work was featured on the news broadcast of ABC Chicago. She also teaches violin to adult professionals and children in her studios in the British School and in Downtown Chicago. Her most recent appointment is on the faculty of The Sherwood Conservatory in Chicago.
Song-hea Sackrider (violin), received her Bachelors degree in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan and a Masters degree in Violin Performance from Northwestern University. Her principal teachers include, Lyman and Alan Bodman, Andrew Jennings and Almita Vamos. She has been a member of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and guest principal and soloist with the Kalamzoo Symphony. In 1998, she was chosen as a recipient of the Kapnick Scholar Fellowship with the Civic Orchestra andNorthwestern University. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Martha Reid Steinbach award for her achievement in both academic and performing excellence. In 2001, she received the Sigurd Rislov Foundation Grant for her recording of Strauss, Ysaye and Tartini.
Carmel Raz (violin / viola) was concertmaster of Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2001 and 2002, and has performed in the Berliner Symphoniker, das Symphonie Orchester Berlin, and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, appearing across Europe and Asia under the batons of Pierre Boulez, Ingo Metzmacher and Claudio Abbado. She has collaborated with many composers, ranging from as Evan Ziporyn, Helmut Lachenmann and Osvaldo Golijov to John Zorn and Alvin Curran, on performances of their works, including world premieres of Lachenmann's Grido Double at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland (2005), Ziporyn's Sulvasutra with the Silk Road Project Workshop at Carnegie Hall (2006), and the Israeli premiere of Zorn's music for string quartet (2008). This season she was invited to perform at the Klangspuren Festival in Schwaz, Austria, at the March Music Days in Bulgaria with the Israel Contemporary String Quartet, and at the UltraNova Festival in Tel-Aviv.
Oana Tatu (viola) has been studying music since she was eleven at the Dinu Lipatti MusicSchool in Bucharest, Romania. During this time she won second and third prize at the National Contest of Arts and toured extensively in Europe with the Bucharest Youth Orchestra. After two years at the University of Music in Bucharest she received full tuition scholarship and came to study with Dr. Jerzy Kosmala at Louisiana State University. The faster beat of musical life brought Oana to Chicago, where she studied at DePaul University with Rami Solomonow and earned her Masters Diploma. For the past three years she has been a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago playing under world famous conductors like Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Kent Nagano and many others. In Chicago Oana has also performed with Calisto Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, Oistrach Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra.
Matthew Agnew (cello) studied Suzuki cello from age four with Marilyn Kesler in Okemos, Michigan. In high school he had the benefit of orchestra instruction and guidance from Shirley Mullins, a Janos Starker student, and cello instruction from Jane Katsuyama of the Dayton Philharmonic. He attended DePaul University on scholarship and studied with William Cernota from the Lyric Opera Orchestra. In 2001 he won second place at the Lansing Matinee Musicale Richardson Awards. Matthew has played with several Chicago area orchestras, including the Illinois Philharmonic, Concertante di Chicago, Metropolis Symphony Orchestra, Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He is currently the principal cellist of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2002. In 2005 he won the assistant principal position with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, a summer festival in Lancaster, Ohio.
