David Starobin is the dedicatee of more than 350 new works which he has performed throughout the world, collaborating with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic; the National, Houston, San Francisco, Saint Louis, and BBC symphony orchestras; the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; the Danish Radio Orchestra; the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; and the Emerson and Guarneri quartets.

Mr. Starobin began his guitar studies at age seven with the guitarist Manuel Gayol, later graduating from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Aaron Shearer. While a student at Peabody, Mr. Starobin worked closely with pianist Leon Fleisher and was a frequent participant in the Marlboro Music Festival.

Among David Starobin’s honors are a Harvard University Fromm Grant for his commitment to the music of our time; Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant; ASCAP’s Deems Taylor Award, and Peabody Conservatory’s Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2011 Starobin became the youngest guitarist to be inducted into the Guitar Foundation of America’s Hall of Fame. In 1981 David Starobin founded Bridge Records, Inc. His work for Bridge as performer, producer, and executive producer has earned three Grammy awards and thirty-six Grammy nominations, including “Classical Producer of the Year” (2015).

Between 1993 and 2004, David Starobin was the chairman of the guitar department at the Manhattan School of Music. In addition to teaching at MSM, Mr. Starobin holds the “Fondation Charidu Chair in Guitar Studies” at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he co-founded Curtis’s guitar program in 2011.

Armenian-born violinist Movses Pogossian made his American debut performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall in 1990, about which Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe wrote: “There is freedom in his playing, but also taste and discipline. It was a fiery, centered, and highly musical performance...” Movses Pogossian has since performed with orchestras such as the Brandenburger Symphoniker and the Halle Philharmonic in Germany, the Sudety Philharmonic in Poland, the Tuscon Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Scandinavian Chamber Orchestra of New York, and the Toronto Sinfonia. His recent and upcoming performances include recitals in New York, Boston, Ann Arbor, and concerts in Korea, Japan, Germany, Armenia, and Cyprus. He is a Prizewinner of the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition, and the youngest-ever First Prize winner of the 1985 USSR National Violin Competition, previous winners of which included David Oistrakh and Gidon Kremer. An active chamber musician, Mr. Pogossian has performed with members of the Tokyo, Kronos, and Brentano string quartets, and with such artists as Kim Kashkashian, Jeremy Denk, Lynn Harrell, Ani and Ida Kavafian, and Rohan de Saram. He frequently collaborates with the Apple Hill Chamber Players, teaching annually at their summer music festival in New Hampshire. Movses Pogossian is the Artistic Director of the critically acclaimed Dilijan Chamber Music Series, which performs at Zipper Hall in downtown Los Angeles, and is currently in its ninth season (http://dilijan. larkmusicalsociety.com). Since earning his advanced degrees from the Komitas Conservatory in Armenia and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music in Moscow, Mr. Pogossian has held teaching positions at Duquesne, Bowling Green, Wayne State, and SUNY Buffalo Universities. His principal teachers were L. Zorian, V. Mokatsian, V. Klimov, and legendary Louis Krasner. Movses Pogossian is currently Professor of Violin at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He resides in Glendale, California with his wife, Los Angeles Philharmonic violinist Varty Manouelian, and their three children.

The Danish cellist Toke Møldrup, 37, received Queen Ingrid’s Honorary Award for his achievements on the Danish music scene in 2014. In the 20 years of his career so far, he has performed both across Europe and in the United States, South America, Japan and the Middle East at venues such as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Berlin Konzerthaus. A frequent guest at Danish music societies, Møldrup has performed as a soloist with Danish and international symphony orchestras under conductors such as Aldo Ceccato, Sanntu Rouvali, Lan Shui and Joshua Weilerstein, and at festivals such as Bergen International Festival, Lincoln International Chamber Music Festival, Monte-Carlo Spring Arts Festival and Oberstdorf Music Summer. With a keen interest in developing the repertoire of the cello he has premiered many works by contemporary composers, among them the European premiere of John Williams' cello concerto, Geoffrey Gordon's cello concerto and Christian Winther Christensen's concerto for cello and accordion. In 2017, he released the 6 suites for cello by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Toke Møldrup is principal cellist of the Copenhagen Philharmonic and since 2005 a teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music where he previously studied with his mentors, professors Morten Zeuthen and Tim Frederiksen.
A graduate of the Hochschule für Musik, Karlsruhe, with professor Martin Ostertag, he has studied privately and at master classes with capacities such as Valter Despálj, Hans Jensen, Ralph Kirschbaum and Yo-Yo Ma. Another important influence on his musical development is The Alban Berg Quartet with whom he learned from as a part of the Paizo Quartet, winner of the Grand Prize at The Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in 2003. He plays a David Tecchler cello (Rome, 1697) courtesy of the Augustinus Foundation.