2025 CREDO Oberlin String Quartet Institute FACULTY
About Credo Oberlin | Faculty | Audition Requirements
2025 Principal Instructors
Singaporean violinist Jonathan Ong is the first violinist and founding member of the internationally acclaimed Verona Quartet. An accomplished soloist and chamber musician, he actively concertizes throughout the world, having appeared in major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Hong Kong City Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Smithsonian Institution.
Mr. Ong serves on the faculty of the Oberlin College & Conservatory. Additionally, he was recently appointed Director of the CREDO String Quartet Summer Institute in Oberlin and Co-Artistic Director of the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia. He has taught and given masterclasses at institutions such as Indiana University, The Juilliard School, ENCORE Chamber Music, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, the Peabody Institute, and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.
Mr. Ong’s recordings with the Verona Quartet can be found on Azica Records, Bright Shiny Things Records and Dynamic Records. The quartet’s second album, “Shatter”, debuted in June 2023 at No. 1 on the U.S. Classical Billboard Charts, and was lauded for its “transportive quality” and “captivating playing” (BBC Music Magazine); their latest album, featuring the complete string quartets of György Ligeti, was released on Dynamic Records (Italy) in December 2023.
Mr. Ong has been a major prize winner at numerous competitions including the Concert Artists Guild, Wigmore Hall, Osaka, Chesapeake, Coleman and Fischoff competitions. In 2020, he was awarded Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award. He counts among his mentors Donald Weilerstein, Alexander Kerr, Paul Kantor and Lynn Blakeslee, and he studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, and Pacifica Quartets.
Mr. Ong performs on a Nicolas Lupot violin circa 1815, on generous loan from the Oberlin College & Conservatory.
Peter Salaff was director of string chamber music at the Cleveland Institute of Music for 23 years. As a founding member of the Cleveland Quartet he recorded more than 50 chamber works and received a Grammy Award, six Grammy nominations, and Best of the Year honors from Time and Stereo Review. The quartet toured the former Soviet Union, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Israel, the United States, Europe, and Canada.
Mr. Salaff has served on the faculties of the University of Concepción (Chile), State University of New York at Buffalo, and the Eastman School of Music. He has also taught at numerous festivals, including Interlochen, Chamber Music in the Mountains at Echo Glen, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany, the Perlman Music Program, PhoenixPhest in Ann Arbor, and the Chamber Music Connection in Columbus, Ohio, and has coached chamber music and given masterclasses at conservatories and universities in the United States, Germany, Japan, Israel, and New Zealand.
Mr. Salaff has been a judge at many chamber music competitions, including the Yellow Springs Competition, the London International String Quartet Competition, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and the Coleman Chamber Music Association Competition.
Peter Slowik, profiled by The Strad Magazine as “a man of limitless enthusiasm and purpose” is one of the world’s leading artist-teachers of viola. An active chamber musician, Mr. Slowik has performed with cellists Anner Bylsma and Leonard Rose, the Mirecourt Trio, the Saint Petersburg Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and members of the Cleveland, Chester, Orford and Smithson Quartets. He has been a featured performer at six International Viola Congresses, and recent Master Class trips have taken him to Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, and China. Orchestral experiences include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and service as Principal Viola of the American Sinfonietta and the Wichita Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Slowik has served on the faculty of Northwestern University, the Cleveland Institute of Music and Eastman School of Music. Mr. Slowik has been named to the highest teaching award honors of Northwestern University and Oberlin Conservatory. He has served as President of the American Viola Society and currently is Professor of Viola and String Division Director at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. His students may be found in virtually every significant professional orchestra in the US (many serving in titled positions) and in university appointments throughout the country.
Marilyn McDonald, recently retired after 45 years of teaching at Oberlin Conservatory, has had a varied and extensive career. As a performer, she is primarily known for her work in the Smithson and Axelrod Quartets, the Castle Trio, the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble, and Ensemble Pierrot, a group specializing in contemporary music.
She received the Excellence in Teaching award at Oberlin; her students winning many competitions, including the Naumberg, Locatelli, and Berkely Bach competitions as well as positions in the Philadelphia, Houston, and Baltimore Symphonies. She has held visiting professorships at Indiana University and Eastman School of Music.
She has toured world wide as a soloist and chamber musician, including such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Wigmore Hall, Library of Congress, Mostly Mozart, and Utrecht Festivals.
She has recorded for Sony, Vox, Smithsonian, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Telarc, and Virgin Classics.
2025 Master Class Instructors
Grammy Award-winning Japanese-Norwegian violist Masumi Rostad is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. In 2017 he was appointed to the faculty of the Eastman School of Music.
Recent performance highlights include concerto appearances with the Virginia Symphony, The Knights, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and numerous festivals including La Jolla Summerfest, Bridgehampton Festival, Music In The Vineyards (Napa), SpoletoUSA, and Beare’s Premiere Music Festival (Hong Kong).
As a former member of the Pacifica Quartet 2001-2017 Masumi recorded prolifically and concertized extensively.
He studied with legendary violist and pedagogue Karen Tuttle at The Juilliard School and was her teaching assistant. While a student, he performed the world premiere of Michael White's Viola Concerto in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and also gave the New York premiere of Paul Schoenfield's Viola Concerto.
Masumi actively maintains a YouTube channel and produces videos about music and musicians. He is currently serving as co-chair of the University of Rochester Faculty Senate. His Amati viola was crafted in Cremona, Italy in 1619.
Hailed by the New York Times for her "focused intensity" and "remarkable" performances, cellist Yeesun Kim enjoys worldwide acclaim as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. A founding member of the Borromeo String Quartet, Ms. Kim has performed in over 20 countries, and in many of the world's most illustrious concert halls and festivals.
Highlights of her 2013-14 season include the World Premiere of Lera Auerbach’s String Quartet No. 7, "Désir", performances of the Bela Bartok quartet cycle at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival and in Boston at Jordan Hall, and appearances at the Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa Festival in Mexico, the Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts, and the Terra di Siena Chamber Music Festival in Tuscany. The season welcomes multiple performances with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and special collaborations with the Bill T. Jones Dance Company, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and also with cellist Antonio Lysy in a special multimedia production, Te Amo, Argentina.
Recent highlights include a two-week residency at Suntory Hall in Tokyo to perform the complete Beethoven String Quartets, a cycle of Dvorak quartets at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the complete Bartok quartet cycle at the Curtis Institute of Music, performances at the International MIMO Festival in Brazil, the Morgan Library in New York, the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C., and in Nara, Japan, Beijing and Shanghai, China.
Ms. Kim has performed throughout Europe and Asia with the Borromeo, in duo with violinist Nicholas Kitchen, and as a soloist, including engagements with the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Opera Bastille in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall and Casals Hall in Tokyo, the Saejong Cultural Center in Seoul, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, the Library of Congress and Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
A much sought after chamber musician, she has been invited to perform at many festivals including Spoleto in the United States and Italy, Ravinia, Marlboro, Santa Fe, La Jolla, Rockport, Music at Menlo, the Prague Spring Festival, the Vancouver Chamber Music, the Stavanger Festival in Norway, the Evian and Divonne Festivals in France, and the Sejong Spring Festival in Korea.
Her collaborations with other artists include appearances with Angelique Kidjo, violinist Joshua Bell and Pamela Frank; violists Roberto Dias, Kim Kashashian, Paul Neubauer, Roger Tapping; cellists Paul Katz, Gary Hoffman, Lawrence Lesser, and Alisa Weilerstein; pianists Christoph Eschenbach, Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, Wu Han, Menahem Pressler, Rudolph Serkin, and Russell Sherman; clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and members of the Guarneri and Julliard String Quartets.
As a member of the Borromeo Quartet since its inception in 1989, Ms. Kim has had extensive involvement with NPR's "Performance Today," the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Her radio and television credits also include "Live from Lincoln Center" and numerous appearances on WGBH in Boston, Radio France, and NHK Radio and Television in Japan. Recording credits include "Native Informant" featuring music of Mohammed Fairouz [2013], "As it was, Is, And will be" featuring music of Gunther Schuller [2011], "String Quartets" by Robert Maggio [2011], "Speak Like the People, Write Like the King" featuring music by Steve Mackey [2009], "Soul Garden: The Chamber Music of Derek Bermel" [2002] "Beethoven: Serioso" [2002], and "Ravel: String Quartet and Sonata for Violin & Cello" [1999].
Ms. Kim currently serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, in the cello and chamber music departments, and teaches each summer at the Taos School of Music in New Mexico. She has also taught at the McGill International String Quartet Academy in Canada, the Suntory Hall Fellows Academy in Japan, at the Seoul National University and National University of Arts in Korea, and for the Foulger Institute in New Jersey .
A recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America's Cleveland Quartet Award, Lincoln Center's Martin Segal Award, and the Evian International String Quartet Competition as a member of the Borromeo Quartet, Ms. Kim has garnered numerous awards individually as well, including winner of the Ewha and Jungagng National Competitions in Korea, and the Seoul Young Artists Award for achievement in music and academics.
Kim is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, with advanced degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her teachers include Lawrence Lesser, David Soyer, Peter Wiley, Hyungwon Chang, and Minja Hyun.
She plays a Peregrino Zanetto cello, circa 1576, one of the oldest in the world.
Violinist Stephen Tavani joined The Cleveland Orchestra as Assistant Concertmaster in 2018. The New York Times commented about his playing that “...Tavani sometimes cooled his tone to the smoothness of frosted glass, adding a soft-focus filter to the chiseled melodies..." Mr. Tavani was featured playing Rismky Korsakov’s Scheherazade with the Cleveland Orchestra at the 2022 summer Blossom season. He has appeared as guest concertmaster with the Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Louisiana Philharmonic, and before joining the Cleveland Orchestra, he was concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He has performed as soloist with the Youngstown Symphony, the Orchestra of the Americas, and at the MasterWorks festival with conductors Carlos Miguel Prieto, Andrew Litton Delta David Gier, and Miriam Burns.
An avid chamber musician, Tavani has collaborated with many great musicians, such as Edgar Meyer, members of Quatuor Ébène, Roberto Díaz, Peter Wiley, Paul Katz, Shai Wosner, Meng-Chieh Liu, Jon Kimura Parker, Ronald Leonard, Clive Greensmith, Marcy Rosen, José Franch-Ballester, and Daniel Hope. He has appeared at the Dresden Music Festival, Music From Angel Fire, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Colburn Chamber Music Society, Curtis Recital Series, and at the Marlboro Music Festival as well as on tour with Musicians from Marlboro. He is also a founding member of the Blossom Quartet, which includes Cleveland Orchestra musicians Yun-Ting Lee, William Bender, and Dane Johansen. The Quartet performs regularly on local Cleveland chamber music series, and has performed internationally as well.
Tavani currently is on violin faculty at the Cleveland State University School of Music, and also has taught masterclasses at the Cleveland Institute of Music young artist program and at conservatories in Spain and Germany.
Tavani has appeared at the Sibelius International Violin Competition in Helsinki, the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and the Michael Hill Violin Competition in New Zealand. Tavani holds an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Ida Kavafian and Arnold Steinhardt. While at Curtis, he held the Dorothy J. del Bueno Fellowship. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, where he studied with Robert Lipsett. He also received an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he worked with William Preucil in the Concertmaster Academy program. Other previous teachers include Aaron Rosand, Shirley Givens, and Ronda Cole. He plays on a W.E. Hill & Sons bow generously loaned by Tom Frisina.
Tavani volunteers bringing string programs to Northeast Ohio inmates with the Cleveland based Renovare to help provide hope and healing through music. He is a member of Third Culture Ensemble, which serves diverse communities across Northeast Ohio through music. He also is involved with the MasterWorks Festival, which seeks to integrate Christian faith and life in the performing arts. Tavani resides on the East Side of Cleveland with his wife Amanda, a double bassist and music educator, and their two young sons. He grew up in Northern Virginia in a musical family of six brothers, his mother being a voice teacher and lyric soprano, and his father a family physician and pianist. Learn more about Mr. Tavani at his website: stephentavani.com, and visit his youtube page at youtube.com/stavani1 to see many of his performances.