Chamber Music Series Concert February 21, 2026

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Meet the Artists

James Stern is a multi-faceted musician whose violin playing has been heard worldwide and cited by the Washington Post for “virtuosity and penetrating intelligence.” He has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Banff and Bowdoin festivals as well as at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. Well-known to Washington, DC audiences, he has performed as a member of VERGE ensemble, the 21st Century Consort, the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Axelrod Quartet, at such venues as the Corcoran Gallery, the German and French Embassies, the Smithsonian Institutions, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery, the Phillips Collection, Strathmore Mansion, and the White House. Stern’s recordings can be heard on Centaur, CRI, New Focus, New World, and Sono Luminus. 2015 saw the release of his complete Sonatas and Partitas by Bach on Albany Records.

 Stern has served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute and is in his 26th year as Professor at the University of Maryland School of Music, where he has been named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He has taught masterclasses throughout North America and in China, Norway and Italy, and has published numerous articles on violin pedagogy for such journals as American String Teacher. Summer festival activities have included the National Orchestral Institute (conducting and coaching unconducted chamber orchestras), California Summer Music, Master Players Festival, the Starling/Delay Symposium at Juilliard, the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, the Siletz Bay festival, and the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program.

Cellist David Agia enjoys a varied performing career as a chamber musician, recitalist, and orchestral player. He has performed in major concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Palacio de Festivales, Symphony Space NYC, Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, Konzerthaus Dortmund, and many others. He performs regularly with the New Carolina Sinfonia, Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Allentown Symphony, Fairfax Symphony, Annapolis Chamber Orchestra, Apollo Orchestra, Pan American Symphony Orchestra, Light Opera of New Jersey, and serves as principal cellist of the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra. Additionally, he has toured extensively internationally, performing throughout Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, and Mexico. He has participated in numerous festivals and masterclasses including the National Music Festival, Interlochen Summer Academy, Orvieto Festival of Strings in Orvieto, Italy, the Conservatoire Américain in Fontainbleau, France, the Savonlinna Summer Music Academy in Savonlinna, Finland, and the Virtuoso and Belcanto Festival in Lucca, Italy. He is a founding member of the Dumas Quartet, which performs nationally as well as abroad.

Dr. Agia is an active pedagogue, and currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Cello at Rowan University and Cello Faculty at St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, DE. His students have been members of regional and All-State orchestras, and have won multiple prizes in competitions, performing in Carnegie Hall. Dr. Agia is a prize winner in multiple international competitions, including the ANEMOS competition in Rome Italy and the Mason Gross Chamber Music Competition. Additionally, he is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the “Excellence in String Performance” award at Rutgers University, and “Teacher of the Year” at Mila’s Debut School of Music. For the past three summers, he has been a member of the Quartet-In-Residence at the Interlochen Academy Adult Chamber Music Workshop, and this summer will also be a member of the Fellowship Quartet at the Apple Hill Summer Chamber Music Workshop in Nelson, NH. Dr. Agia completed his Bachelor of Music at Rutgers University studying with Jonathan Spitz, his Master of Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Cologne, Germany studying with Hans-Christian Schweiker, and his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Maryland, studying with Dr. Eric Kutz.

Born in Kyrgyzstan in an artistic family, pianist Leili Asanbekova began studying music at the age of 6. During her childhood, she performed in many concerts, government events and festivals. She also won several local and international competitions and worked with well-known conductors such as Marek Moś, Vladimir Spivakov and Yuri Simonov. Leili has studied abroad in the various music schools, such as Central Music School of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Lyon in France. However, Leili's big dream at that moment was to study in the United States. 

In 2020 Leili's dream came true, and she was admitted to the University of Maryland, School of Music. Because of COVID-19, she made a deferral and, finally, in 2021 she started her Master's degree in Solo Piano performance in the studio of Larissa Dedova. During her studies, Leili was working on-campus as a collaborative pianist, and currently, she works as a F&A and community Engagement Assistant. She successfully graduated in Spring 2023 and continued her studies, now on her Doctor of Musical Arts’ degree at the University of Maryland. Leili's solo, as well as collaborative repertoire includes works from Bach to contemporary. As a soloist, she performed 14 concertos with the orchestra. While studying in UMD, Leili participated in the National Music Festival in Chestertown and has performed in Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Dekelboum Hall of the Clarice Performing Arts Center, National Gallery of Art and the NYC Steinway Hall.

Featured Composers

In his music, composer Dayton Hare strikes a balance between lyricism and color, narrative and atmosphere. Often drawing inspiration from the natural world, Dayton hopes to raise questions about our relationship to our environment and elevate underappreciated beauty found around us. His music has been performed nationally and internationally at venues like Carnegie Hall and the Salle Cortot by groups such as Bent Frequency, the New York Youth Symphony, Stare at the Sun, Ensemble Variances, Four Corners Ensemble, Mammoth Trio, the Yale Percussion Group, Utari Duo, the Norfolk Festival Chamber Choir, and others. He has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Program, the National Orchestral Institute + Festival, the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, the Conservatoire américain de Fontainebleau, and the Norfolk New Music Workshop, and been recognized with artist residencies at the Rabbit Island Foundation and the Vashon Artist Residency. He was the 2024-25 grand prize winner of the New York Youth Symphony’s Jon Deak First Music Competition, and has won numerous calls for scores.

Originally from Boulder, Colorado, Dayton received a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and Bachelor's degrees in music composition and English literature from the University of Michigan. During the 2024–25 year, he was in residence at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris as the recipient of the Fulbright-Harriet Hale Woolley Award in the Arts, where he composed music that engaged with the city's climate change mitigation efforts.

Brian Awad (b.2000) is a composer, musician, and educator based in his hometown of Miami, FL. Awad’s music focuses on collective human experiences & struggles and his cultural identity as a first-generation American, exploring ways to draw the audience with nuance and intimate soundscapes while balancing it out with raw, unfiltered emotions.

Awad has collaborated with ensembles such as the Unheard-Of//Ensemble, The ______ Experiment, National Arts Center Orchestra and counter)induction. His works have been performed across the United States, Italy and Canada in events such as the Chicago Electroacoustic Music Festival, Frost Emerging Composers Concert, ACO earSHOT, 15-Minutes Of Fame, and the Alba Music Festival.

Currently, Awad is a lecturer at the University of Miami and Florida International University teaching music theory and aural skills. He is also the CEO and co-founder of the South Florida New Music Collective, a new collective that is committed to providing local composers and performers the platform to share their unique voices and diverse backgrounds from all over South Florida. He holds degrees from the University of Miami (MM) and the New World School of the Arts/University of Florida (BM) in music composition. His mentors are Dr. Charles Mason, Dr. Shawn Crouch, Dr. Lansing McLoskey and Dr. Susan Epstein-Garcia.