Zuill Bailey is widely considered one of the premiere cellists in the world. His rare combination of celebrated artistry, technical wizardry as well as his engaging personality has secured his place as one of the most sought after and active cellists today.
     
A consummate concerto soloist, Mr. Bailey has been featured with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, San Francisco, Israel, Minnesota, Indianapolis, Dallas, Louisville, Honolulu, Milwaukee, Nashville, Toronto and Utah among  other leading orchestras around the world . He has collaborated with such conductors as Itzhak Perlman, Alan Gilbert, Andrew Litton, James DePriest and Stanislav Skrowacezewski and has been featured with musical  luminaries Leon Fleisher, Jaime Laredo, The Juilliard String Quartet, Lynn Harrell and  Janos Starker. Mr. Bailey has appeared at the Kennedy Center, the United Nations, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St. Y and  Carnegie Hall, where he made his debut performing the U.S. premiere of Miklos Theodorakis’ “Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra.” In addition, he made his NY recital debut in a sold out performance of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

His international appearances include celebrated performances with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in its 50th anniversary tour of Russia, as well as concerts in Australia, the Dominican Republic, France, Israel, Spain, Hong Kong, Jordan, Mexico, South America and the United Kingdom. Festival appearances include  Ravinia, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Manchester Cello Festival (UK), Consonances- St. Nazaire( France), Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Santa Fe, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Bravo!, Vail Valley, the Maverick Concert Series, and the Music Academy of the West.  In addition, he was the featured soloist performing the Elgar Cello Concerto at the Bard Festival in the World Premiere of the Doug Varrone Dance Company’s performance of “Victorious.” An accomplished chamber musician and recitalist, Zuill Bailey performs regularly with pianists Navah Perlman and Awadagin Pratt.

Zuill Bailey is an exclusive recording artist on Telarc. His “Bach Cello Suites” recording immediately soared to the Number 1 spot on the Classical Billboard Charts. Mr. Bailey’s “Russian Masterpieces” release featuring the works of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich performed with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra has received widespread critical acclaim. Bailey was awarded the Classical Recording Foundation Award for 2006 and 2007 for the recording of Beethoven’s complete works for Cello and Piano. The highly touted two disc set with pianist Simone Dinnerstein was released on Telarc worldwide. In celebration of his recordings and appearances, Kalmus Music Masters will release “Zuill Bailey Performance Editions,” which will encompass the core repertoire of cello literature.  

Network Television appearances include a recurring role on the HBO series “Oz,” on the  NBC series, Homicide,  A&E, NHK TV in Japan, a  live broadcast of the Beethoven Triple Concerto  performed in Tel Aviv with Itzhak Perlman conducting the Israel Philharmonic, and with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico City.  Mr. Bailey is also featured in the televised production of the Cuban premiere of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the National Orchestra of Cuba. He has been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” “Tiny Desk Concert,”  “Performance Today”, “Saint Paul Sunday,” BBC’s “In Tune,”  XM Radio’s “Live from Studio II,” Sirius Satellite Radio’s “Virtuoso Voices,” the KDFC Concert Series, Minnesota Public Radio, WFMT and RTHK Radio Hong Kong.

Mr. Bailey received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Juilliard School.  His primary teachers include Loran Stephenson, Stephen Kates and Joel Krosnick. Zuill Bailey performs on a 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello, formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet.  In addition to his extensive touring engagements, Bailey is the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro Musica (Texas), Artistic Director of the Sitka Summer Music Festival and Series, (Alaska) and Professor of Cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Paul Rosenthal is the founder of the Sitka Summer Music Festival.  Paul Rosenthal's  early years as an aspiring violinist were extremely fortunate. He began playing very early and soon was following a course of study with America's most renowned teachers, Dorothy DeLay and Ivan Galamian, both at the Juilliard School and later receiving lessons for three years with the great Jascha Heifetz at the University of Southern California.

His first visit to Alaska in 1966 convinced him that he and his violin could happily thrive in such a place with such an audience and, after coming North for a few more visits and performances he and his wife Linda, whom he met as a fellow-student in Heifetz' class, moved to Fairbanks in 1969.

His greatest musical pride and pleasure has come from forty years of putting together and performing in an outstanding festival of chamber music in Sitka, which, over the years has expanded to include performances all over Alaska with a large variety of friends and colleagues. 

He has also been much in demand as a performer and teacher outside of Alaska, and every year finds him traveling with his violin a great deal too many distant places, both in and out of the United States.

Russian born Eduard Zilberkant is recognized as one of today's most gifted artists and has an active career as pianist and conductor. Maestro Zilberkant has been received enthusiastically by audiences and press alike throughout Europe, Canada and the United States, performing in such halls as The Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Curtis Hall at the Curtis Institute of Music, Artur Rubinstein Hall and Warsaw Philharmonic Hall in Poland, Teatro Sangiorgi in Cantania, Sicily, Volgograd Opera House in Russia and Alaska Center for the Performing Arts in Anchorage. He is a returning guest artist at the International Keyboard Institue and Festival in New York City, and has been a guest artist and conductor at some of the world's most prestigious music festivals which include the Ravello Festival in Italy, the Corfu Festival Ionian Concert Series in Greece, the Manolis Kalomiris International Music Festival in Samos, Greece, the Assisi International Festival and Orazio Frugoni Music Institute in Italy, the Baracasa Festival of Radio France in Montpellier, France, and Bellingham Music Festival in Washington.

For the past ten years, Maestro Zilberkant has been the music director and conductor of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and Arctic Chamber Orchestra. Under his leadership, these orchestras have toured in Alaska, Canada, the continental United States, and Europe. In addition, in 2004 the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra recorded the Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2 on the AMICME Classical label of Greece for the Universal Company with pianist, Lambis Vassiliadis and Maestro Zilberkant conducting. During the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Zilberkant and the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra were invited by the Greek government to tour with concerts in Corfu and Samos.

Maestro Zilberkant is a sought after guest conductor. He has conducted the Czech National Symphony Orchestra in Prague and on tour to Germany, the orchestra of Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano in Italy, the Martinu Chamber Orchestra in the Czech Republic and Germany, and the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, Sicily, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra in New York City, and the Prague Philharmonic on their tour to the Ravello Festival in Italy.

The German newspaper, Schwabisches Tagblatt wrote of his performance of the Dvorak's "New World Symphony", "[Maestro Zilberkant] made an impression for feeling the nuances of the tempo, pauses, and accents...he brought out new colors and romantic feeling with full balance of the sound from the orchestra." After his performance of the Mozart Symphony No. 41 with the Arctic Chamber Orchestra in Anchorage, Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News wrote: "[Maestro Zilberkant] brought admirable intelligence to his reading of the piece...and sculpting the individual lines into a monumental and heroic structure; his weaving of the finale's awesome counterpoint show him to be a musician of significance whom we hope to hear again."

A Fulbright Scholar in Germany, Eduard Zilberkant received a Solisten Diploma from the Freiburg Musik Hochschule. He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. Maestro Zilberkant is President's Professor, Artist in Residence, and Chair of the Music Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Maestro Zilberkant is also a Yamaha performing artist.