Cellist and teacher, Mannfried Funk started the cello at the age of five at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and studied with Margaret Rowell, Barton Frank, Paul Olefsky, Ramy Shevelov and Zara Nelsova. He has won a number of solo competitions including the prestigious Pacific Musical Society award at age 11, the California cello club award, the Alameda music teachers award and, locally the Don Bushell Competition.

Mr. Funk came to Seattle as a member of the Seattle Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Seattle Opera. Currently he has been active as a soloist, teacher and recording cellist for the movie industry. He has performed in the United States, Europe, Japan, South America, Middle East and former Soviet Union. He has also held various Principal Cello positions and was on the U.S. tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Music of the Night". Prior to arriving to Seattle he was Principal and Coprincipal Cello of several orchestras in South America and Coprincipal Cellist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. 

Sally Singer, Icicle Creek Piano TrioThe Icicle Creek Piano Trio is Ensemble-in-Residence at the Icicle Creek Music Center, a non-profit organization in Leavenworth, Washington. As well as offering year-round concerts in the Center’s picturesque Canyon Wren Concert Hall and an intensive International Chamber Music Festival and Institute each July, the artists maintain busy private studios and offer regular coaching sessions to local and visiting young ensembles. 

    "..exquisite sheen and vibrancy..." - Gramophone Magazine

The members of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio originated from the US, UK, and Russia. Together and as individuals, Jennifer Caine, Sally Singer, and Oksana Ezhokina have performed in such venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall, the Philips Collection, and the Royal Albert Hall, and have toured in Austria, Germany, France, Italy, and the UK. Regionally and on the West Coast, they have performed at Pacific Lutheran University, the University of Puget Sound, Seattle’s Town Hall, the Seattle Sherman Clay Recital Hall, the Governor’s Mansion in Olympia, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, the University of Santa Barbara, Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, and Davies Hall in San Francisco. Collectively, they have earned academic and performance degrees from Harvard

University, Oxford University, the Royal College of Music, State University of New York at Stony Brook, University of Texas at Austin, the Royal Northern College of Music, Northern Illinois University, Walla Walla College, and the Ryazan School of Music in Russia.  

    "The performance of the Icicle Creek Piano Trio comes a close to being 'definitive' as any I expect to hear in my lifetime." - Fanfare Magazine 

    "They catch all the subtle, shimmering shades.....free of mannerisms." - The Strad

The Icicle Creek Piano Trio has collaborated with such noted artists as Ian Swensen, Nathaniel Rosen, Karen Dreyfus, Anthony Elliott, Steven Doane, and the Avalon String Quartet.

2009/2010 season highlights include an invitation to perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra in Russia in March 2010. The Icicle Creek Piano Trio is also planning to record a second CD to follow up the brilliant success of their debut CD of Schubert and Ravel Piano Trios, released in 2008 on the Con Brio label.

For further information, please contact Rachal Karnofski, ICPT Booking Agent.

Email: rkarnofski@icicle.org Phone: 509-548-6347 ext. 408

Website:www.iciclecreekpianotrio.com

Biography, taken from her website www.helencallus.com

Helen Callus, viola has been described by critics as “a player with impeccable sensibilities and a beautiful sound, infinitely malleable into all kinds of musical subtleties”. The Seattle Times.

Her debut recording for ASV, “Portrait of the Viola” with Robert McDonald – piano released in 2002, was met with the highest of critical acclaim. Strings magazine described Ms. Callus as a “violist of the highest caliber.”The American Record Guide wrote "The night I wrote this review, I found her performance so moving, so addicting, that I kept listening to it over and over before I could bring myself to finish the review. Very rarely have I felt a need to listen to a recording over and over. Only really great artistry can hold a listener in thrall like that, and that is the artistry of Helen Callus."

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As a recitalist, chamber music collaborator and concerto soloist, Ms. Callus has delighted audiences in major cities around the world including those of Russia, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and Canada and extensively throughout the US. In 2003, whilst a guest at Brigham Young University for the Primrose Memorial Recital, Ms. Callus performed with the world renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City to an audience of 4,000 and broadcast to over 2,000 television stations around the world. A busy chamber music artist, Ms. Callus has performed at many chamber music festivals such as the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, the Palaces of St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Music Festival and the Dilijan Chamber Music Series at Zipper Hall, Los Angeles to name a few. Ms. Callus has performed at several major international viola congresses since 2001, including those of New Zealand, Seattle (of which she was the host-chair), Kronberg in Germany and Minnesota.

Ms. Callus is a regular solo artist on radio and TV and can be heard regularly on such programs as Performance Today and in interviews on National Public Radio, Public Radio International and Radio New Zealand. She was heard for the second time on National Public Radio’s broadcast Saint Paul Sunday in 2005 as solo guest with pianist Phillip Bush in a program called ‘Hidden Treasures’, a compilation of beautiful previously unknown works for viola and piano. The show broadcasts to over 1 million listeners around the globe.

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We found this youtube video of Ms. Callus playing the viola. While there is no video stream in this youtube clip, there is the beautiful sound of her viola, enjoy.

Gennady Filimonov is a native of the former Soviet Union who emigrated to the United States at age 10. At age 7, he was accepted at the School of Stoliarsky (school for gifted children in Odessa, which produced such luminaries as David Oistrakh, Emil Gillels, Nathan Milstein and many more). Still in his teens, he made his solo debut playing Lalo’s Symphony Espagnole and was subsequently featured on Robert Sherman’s Young Artists Showcase on WQXR (NYC): Classische Musica (live broadcast) in Meinz Germany and Radio Nationale de France. He has appeared as soloist with, Kensington Philharmonic of London, Manhattan Symphony Orchestra, South Jersey Symphony, Downeast Chamber Orchestra, Jersey City Symphony, Carmel Bach Festival, New York Symphonic Ensemble and Seattle Symphony. Recent tours with the ODEONQUARTET include a trip to Odessa, Ukraine, and appearance with Artur Girsky as soloists with the Odessa Philharmonic at the Philharmonic Hall in Odessa, Ukraine.

With Simple Measures, Gennady Filimonov performed chamber music on a Seattle Street Car. From their youtube description of the project: "Simple Measures offers a new kind of concert-going experience. We produce themed, high quality chamber performances with audience interaction, in intimate, informal neighborhood locales. Our goal? To make you fall in love with chamber music--or remind you why you love it--by presenting it in fresh new ways."