GRACE LUDTKE

Praised for her “brilliant” and “stunning” playing (Cultural Voice of North Carolina), Grace Wepner Ludtke loves giving audiences a new impression of the harp and sharing its stories so its secrets can be discovered. She has performed as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician throughout North America and Europe, including concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City, St. George’s Church in London, and Liben Castle in Prague and has performed with the North Carolina Opera Orchestra and regional orchestras across the state. In addition to her performance career, Grace serves on the artistic teams of the American Harp Academy and North Carolina Harp Ensemble at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, which believe in nurturing the artist within the harpist.  These programs provide transformational learning and performance opportunities to harpists of all ages and skill levels nationwide. She also teaches in the music department at Guilford College in Greensboro. Grace earned a Master of Music degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied harp performance with Jacquelyn Bartlett. She also received a Master of Social Work degree from Winthrop University and Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Converse College. She currently makes her home in Greensboro, NC with her husband and four children. 

SAMUEL MAGILL

Cellist Samuel Magill has been called “…a world-class artist…” by Fanfare Magazine in 2018. Of his Centaur release of Andrew Rudin’s Cello Sonata, Fanfare wrote “Throughout, Magill’s beautiful cello tone is in evidence, endlessly expressive, subtle in shading…..He is a first-rate artist and instrumentalist.” His first Naxos CD of Vernon Duke’s Cello Concerto was hailed as “flat-out magnificent” by the American Record Guide.In 2014 The Strad Magazine raved about Magill’s “sumptuous tone” in his 2014 recital at New York’s Bargemusic series, in which he and Beth Levin played the rarely heard Czerny arrangement of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Violin Sonata. This led to their 2016 Navona CD which includes the Kreutzer, the Solo Cello Sonata by Artur Schnabel, and the Ballade by Emanuel Moór. Writing in Classics Today, Jed Distler said “…Magill’s superb technique, range of color, and intelligent pacing make a compelling case (for the Schnabel)”. Mr Magill has appeared as soloist throughout Japan and the U.S., including performances of both the Schumann Concerto and the Brahms Double Concerto in Tokyo’s famed Suntory Hall, and the Brahms and the Haydn D Major Concerto in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. He has partnered with the pianists Oxana Yablonskaya, Pascal Rogé, and the late Grant Johannesen, and presented annual recitals from 1994 until 2019 at Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He is a co-founder, with flutist Lucian Rinando and harpist Mélanie Genin, of the flute, cello, and harp trio Sono Auros. They made their New York debut a Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall to critical acclaim. Strings Magazine declared them “masters of their instruments.” Magill is also a founding member of the New York Piano Quartet. A pupil of the late Zara Nelsova, Mr. Magill also studied with Laurence Lesser at the Peabody Institute and with Shirley Trepel at Rice University. He is the former Associate Principal Cello with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, former member of the Houston Symphony, and a former member of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Mr. Magill is originally from Chapel Hill, NC and attended the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for high school and was a student of the late Irving Klein, who was a pupil of Emanuel Feuermann. 

LUCIAN RINANDO

Known for his richly expressive tone and artistry, flutist Lucian Rinando is admired for his chamber music and orchestral performances.  He has performed for more than a decade with the Elysian trio, an ensemble of flute, cello and harp, with cellist Samuel Magill and harpist Elaine Christy.  As winners of the Artists’ International Award they performed their debut recital at Weill Recital Hall in 1997.  Writing in Strings Magazine, Edith Eisler praised the group as “...masters of their instruments”.  Elysian has performed in the US and in festivals abroad, such as the Costa Rica International Music Festival and the Albert Roussel Festival in Belgium. Mr. Rinando recorded on the Azur label featuring the world premier recording of René de Castéra’s Concerto for Flute, Clarinet, Cello and Piano. That disc was named “Record of the Year” by the U.K. based www.musicweb-international.com. He has performed in the New York Chamber Music Festival at Symphony Space for several seasons,  the New York Public Library Concert Series, the Red Bank Chamber Music Society, and Chamber Music Westchester to name a few. Lucian Rinando was principal flutist of the Garden State Philharmonic for 18 seasons and performed as principal flute with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra,  Cantori New York,  The New York City Opera National Touring Company, and Sunset Boulevard on Broadway.  Under the astute pedagogy of Mr. Bernard Z. Goldberg, he earned a Bachelor of Music Performance degree from Duquesne University. He also studied in New York with renowned flutists Jeanne Baxtresser and Trudy Kane.