American violinist Eric Gratz made his concerto debuts at the age of 14 in the United States,  Spain, and Portugal. At the age of 17 he appeared as soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra and  made his recital debut at the Kennedy Center. At 22 he was appointed Concertmaster of the  San Antonio Symphony, and appeared numerous times as soloist with the orchestra for nearly  a decade, as well as with The Phoenix Symphony, CityMusic Cleveland, Lexington Bach  Festival Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, Euclid Symphony, Kings Symphony, and the Mid-Texas Symphony, with conductors Giancarlo Guerrero, David Danzmayr, Sebastian Lang Lessing, Akiko Fujimoto, Noam Aviel, and Tito Muñoz. In demand as a guest Concertmaster, he  has appeared in recent seasons with the Santa Fe Opera, The Phoenix Symphony, and  Louisiana Philharmonic. A dedicated chamber musician and recitalist, Gratz has appeared with  artists such as Vadim Gluzman, Anton Nel, and Orion Weiss; members of quartets including  Pacifica, Vertavo, Mendelssohn, and Fine Arts; and performs at Mainly Mozart Festival,  Castleton Chamber Players, among many others. 

As a recording artist, Gratz has appeared on several albums. His debut album of virtuoso  works for violin and piano (Eric Gratz, with pianist Euntaek Kim) was released in 2016 on his  own label. It charted at #11 on Billboard Classical, making it the top independent release in the  United States for its first week. He has subsequently recorded two other albums with the  Olmos Ensemble, Olmos Live (2016) and Made In France (2019), performing works by  Harbison, Prokofiev, and Ravel. 

A passionate educator, Gratz currently serves as an Apollo’s Fire Senior Teaching Artist-in Residence at Southland College Prep in South Chicago. He has sat on competition juries from  the local level to MTNA Nationals, and has taught at Rice University, University of Texas Austin,  and Texas Christian University. A proponent of utilizing new technology to help democratize  education, he has recorded several hours of video courses for TONEBASE Violin, focusing on  the music of Kreisler, Ysaÿe, and Beethoven. 

Eric Gratz plays a violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, c. 1840. For more information, please  visit ericgratz.com.

Since 2023, Joseph Skerik has served as violist of the Vega String Quartet, in residence as faculty at the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and Emory University. Quartet activities include recording for PBS and collaborating with the Juilliard Quartet, Zuill Bailey, Jon Kimura Parker, Mark and Maggie O’Connor, Ransom Wilson, Ettore Causa and Amy Moretti, with appearances at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, The National Gallery in Washington D.C. and venues in Charlotte, Raleigh, California, Mexico, Atlanta, New York, Memphis, Maine, Washington, Texas and Alaska.

Joseph’s solo and chamber music accolades include the Yale School of Music’s Broadus Erle Prize in Chamber Music, and prizes in the Nedbal Viola Competition in Prague, American Viola Society Competition in Los Angeles and National YoungArts. Joseph also appears as a guest violist on series and festivals such as the Highlands-Cashiers Festival, Newport Classical, Classical Music Chicago, Montecito Music Festival, Tallgrass Chamber Music Festival, Methow Valley Festival, Vivace Festival and the Lake George Festival. He has also appeared on numerous tours for the Heifetz Institute as a soloist and chamber musician. 

Committed to presenting chamber music in his home state, Joseph serves as co-artistic director of Viridian Strings, a chamber series in Northern Michigan now entering its ninth season and welcoming artists such as Nina Bernat, Nathan Meltzer, Brian Isaacs, Umi Garrett and Claire Wells, among others. 

Joseph teaches chamber music and viola performance at Emory University and as of 2025 also directs the chamber music program at Emory’s Oxford Campus.

Born in 1999, Chinese-American cellist Haddon Kay is one of the young rising stars of his generation, capturing audiences with his lyricism and musical eloquence. Haddon first gained recognition when he became a finalist for the Chicago Symphony Young Artist Competition and performed the Barber Cello Concerto with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. The following summer, he became the principal cellist of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas for an international tour in Asia.

Most recently, Haddon captured third prize in Bucharest, Romania at the 2024 George Enescu International Cello Competition. He was selected as the 2024 Luminarts Fellow in Classical Strings and was awarded the 2023 American Opera Society of Chicago Scholarship Award. Additionally, Haddon competed in the 2nd Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium and was a winner of Northwestern University’s Concerto/Aria competition, after which he performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Victor Yampolsky. In 2016, he was the first place winner in the strings division in the Walgreens Concerto Competition. In 2015, Haddon was the selected soloist for the New North Shore Chamber Orchestra, winner of the DePaul Concerto Competition, and performed with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago.

A dedicated chamber musician, Haddon is a founding member of the Galvin Cello Quartet, formed in 2021 at the Bienen School of Music, which recently won Concert Artists Guild’s 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and the silver medal at the 2021 Fischoff Competition. The Galvin Quartet continues to regularly tour in concerts around the United States. Haddon has appeared at Music@Menlo, Bravo!Vail, and the Meadowmount School of Music. He has worked with many notable musicians such as David Finckel, Wu Han, Gilbert Kalish, Arnaud Sussman, Shmuel Ashkenazi, and the Dover Quartet. Haddon also performs regularly with members of the Lyric Opera of Chicago through the Rembrandt Chamber Musicians. He has also won 1st prizes at the Rembrandt and Discover Chamber Music Competitions with various groups. As the cellist of those ensembles he has also appeared on National Public Radio’s From the Top and on Chicago radio’s WFMT Introductions.

Born and raised in the Chicago area, Haddon is a graduate of Northwestern University, receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in 2022 and his Master’s Degree in 2024. Haddon is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Northwestern, continuing his studies under the tutelage of Hans Jorgen Jensen. Haddon has also studied with Jens Peter Maintz, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, and Clive Greensmith through the Kronberg Masterclasses and the Vivace Music Foundation.

In addition to playing the cello, Haddon is an avid volleyball player and was on Northwestern University’s men’s club volleyball team.

Hailed by The Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin.

A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Cho-Liang Lin, Giora Schmidt, the Dover, Emerson, Serafin, Sao Paulo, and Vega String Quartets. He was on the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival. He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. Festival appearances include the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe.