2025 CREDO Oberlin String Quartet Institute FACULTY

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.