American Chamber Players

Miles Hoffman

Violist Miles Hoffman is founder and artistic director of The American Chamber Players. Winner of prizes in the National Arts Club and Washington International Competitions, he made his New York recital debut in 1979 at the 92nd Street Y and has since appeared frequently around the country in recital, as chamber musician, and as soloist with many orchestras. In 1982 he founded the Library of Congress Summer Chamber Festival, which he directed for nine years, and which led to the formation of the American Chamber Players. His musical commentary, “Coming to Terms,” was heard weekly throughout the United States for thirteen years – from 1989 to 2002 – on NPR’s Performance Today, and now, as Music Commentator for National Public Radio’s flagship news program, Morning Edition, he is regularly heard by a national audience of nearly 14 million people. Mr. Hoffman is the author of The NPR Classical Music Companion: Terms and Concepts from A to Z, now in its tenth printing from the Houghton Mifflin Company. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Juilliard School, and in 2003 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Centenary College of Louisiana in recognition of his achievements as a performer and educator.

Joanna Maurer

Born and raised in Colorado, violinist Joanna Maurer has performed as orchestral soloist and recitalist throughout the United States, as well as in Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. After initial studies with her parents, she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Juilliard School, where she studied with Dorothy DeLay and Robert Mann. She has won first prizes in a number of competitions, including the E. Nakamichi Violin Competition, the Denver Young Artist Orchestra Competition, the Young Musicians Foundation Competition, and the National MTNA Selmer Competition. Now a resident of New York City, Ms. Maurer performs regularly with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and she is a member of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, with whom she has appeared as soloist and concertmaster. She also served as concertmaster of the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra for their final two seasons. A versatile artist with a broad repertoire, Ms. Maurer has collaborated with fiddler/violinist Mark O’Connor in, among other projects, performances of his Double Violin Concerto.

Stephen Balderston

Cellist Stephen Balderston appears internationally as a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician and coach. Professor of cello and string coordinator at De Paul University School of Music, in Chicago, Mr. Balderston was Assistant Principal Cello of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 10 years, and a member of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra for 10 years. He performed as a soloist with both orchestras and was an artist-in-residence at Washington University in St. Louis, Mirrouri. He has appeared as featured artist at many prestogopis festovals, including the Ravinia Festival, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the American String Project, Bargemusic, the Park City mUsic Festival, OK Mozrt International Festival in Japan, and the International Music Festival in Shanghai, China. He also serves as a chamber music coach for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Balderston began his studios on the cello with Gabor Rejto in his native southern California, and earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degress form the Julliard School, where he studied with Lynn Harrell.

Sara Stern

Flutist Sara Stern leads an active and varied career as a recitalist and chamber musician. As solo flutist of the 21st Century Consort, in residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., she has premiered countless important new works and made many recordings. She has presented solo recitals in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Recital Hall, and at many other concert halls around the country, and she has appeared as guest artist with the Emerson String Quartet and other distinguished chamber ensembles. Ms. Stern has also toured both here and abroad as one half of the duo "Stern and Levalier," with harpist Dotian Levalier, and she is a founding member of the Eastwind Consort, a critically acclaimed woodwind ensemble.

Anna Stoytcheva

Since winning the prestigious Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competition in Milan, Italy, at age seventeen, Anna Stoytcheva has performed throughout North America, Europe and Japan. She has appeared as soloist with the Orchestra del' Angelicum in Milano, the Juilliard Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra, among many others, and she has been the subject of several documentaries on Bulgarian National Radio and Television. In New York City, where she now makes her home, she has graced the stages of Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Merkin Hall, and her extensive chamber music experience includes performances at the Marlboro Music Festival, the Banff Center for the Arts, the Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall, and the Bowdoin Music Festival. She has also recorded two solo albums, distributed internationally on the GEGA NEW label, and she is a co-founder of the concert series “Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York,” which takes place at the Consulate of Bulgaria. Ms. Stoytcheva holds Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees in Piano Performance from the Juilliard School, where among her many honors were the Vladimir Horowitz and William Petschek scholarships and the Rockefeller Award, the Peter Jay Sharp Award, and the Helen Fay Prize.

Performers