About the Artists

STEPHANIE SANT’AMBROGIO, Praised as an “expressive and passionate chamber musician” by the San Antonio Express-News, and described as the “violinist who most often takes your breath away” by Gramophone Magazine, Sant’Ambrogio enjoys a varied performing and recording career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as in Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru, Chile and Mexico. Currently Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of Nevada, Reno (www.unr.edu) she is also Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival (www.cpmf.us), which she founded in 1997 while serving as Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony. Former First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnany, she toured and recorded internationally with this ensemble for eight seasons.

Winner of the Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award at UNR in 2010, she was appointed Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra that same year. With a discography of over seventy-five orchestral and chamber music CDs, her recent releases include Late Dates with Mozart with pianist James Winn and Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola on the MSR Classics label. Her chamber music activities have included performances and recordings with such noted artists as William Preucil, Ida Kavafian, James Buswell, Richard Goode, David Schifrin, Walter Trampler, Anne Epperson and Gunther Schuller. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio studied with and was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein at The Eastman School of Music, where she received her Master of Music degree. Previously she received her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Laurence Shapiro and James Oliver Buswell. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio plays a violin crafted in 1757 by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan. In the moments when it is not nestled under her chin, she and her husband Gary Albright enjoy life with their daughters, thirteen-year-old Isabel and eleven-year-old Gabrielle, who also study music.