November 17, 2024

Meet the Artists

A cellist known for her “solidity and verve” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Molly Aronson enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and educator. She has performed across the U.S. and internationally with highlight engagements including performances at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Embassy Series (Washington, DC), Chamber Players International (New York), the Luzerne Festival Series, Chateau Festival in Paris and Berlin, among many others.

As a proponent of new music, Molly frequently premieres, performs, and records music by contemporary composers. She has worked directly with influential composers such as Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec, Guggenheim Fellow Felipe Salles, and Shelley Washington. Molly has performed on long standing series like Bargemusic: Here and Now, New York Composers Circle, Queens New Music Festival, Fordham University at Lincoln Center Concerts, Composer’s Concordance, and the Composer’s Voice. She works frequently with the American Composer’s Alliance to record chamber music, including the previously undiscovered Hall Overton String Trio to be released in 2023 on Arabesque Records. In the past two years Molly collaborated one-on-one with composers Nicholas Virzi as well as Spencer Snyder, respectively culminating in two new solo cello works written for and premiered by her: “Riverdaughter (2021)” and “Variations (2022).”

Molly has been guest principal cello with the New York Chamber Players, Long Island Concert Orchestra Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, Garden State Philharmonic, Glens Falls Symphony, and performed in the cello sections of the American Contemporary Orchestra, Monteux Festival Orchestra, The New Orchestra of Washington, Savannah Philharmonic, Washington Opera Society, and New York Metamorphosis Ensemble. Solo feature performances include the Valley Winds, Holyoke Civic Symphony, Interlochen Choir, Opus One Chamber Orchestra, and New York Virtuosi Orchestra.

Not limited to the realm of classical music, Molly has performed with popular artists including the Eagles, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, and Michael Bublé at distinguished venues such as Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden. She has worked with Grammy-award winning producers and engineers to record on albums with many classical, jazz, and pop musicians. In addition to her own solo and chamber recordings, she can be heard on the Naxos Label, and movie soundtracks for Warner Brothers and Sundance films. She enjoys exploring the cello in other styles of performance, not limited to jazz, traditional South American music, the American Songbook, and Klezmer, and she has recorded and frequently performs with the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra.

Using music as a vehicle for positive change, Molly devotes part of her career to giving back. She performs in nursing homes and dementia wards, engages in giving performance workshops at schools, has organized multiple fundraisers for causes related to Autism, and has toured across the country with Eric Genuis’ Concerts for Hope, performing piano trio music for prisoners in maximum security state prisons. As a music educator, she believes that opportunity begins with exposure and accessibility, and she aligns herself with organizations and patrons that support young musicians in need. To that end, she will ensure that anyone wishing to study and advance will have the means to do so.

Currently, Molly maintains a large private studio of cellists in New York City, and has previously held faculty positions at the Bloomingdale School of Music, Larchmont Music Academy, Luzerne Music Center, Interlochen Arts Camp (Teaching Fellowship), has taught as an adjunct cello instructor at SUNY Purchase, and was a teaching artist with the InterSchool Orchestras. Her students have been competition winners, have been members of some of the preeminent youth orchestras and pre-college programs in New York, and have been accepted to music programs at Boston Conservatory, NYU, Aaron Copland School of Music, Berklee School of Music, and Purchase College Conservatory of Music.

Molly received a Bachelor of Music from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a Master of Music from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music. Her primary teachers include Astrid Schween, Julia Lichten, and Eugene Moye.

Benjamin von Gutzeit, one of only a handful of true jazz violists worldwide, was born in Bochum, Germany, into a musical family. His father is a well-known music pedagogue; his mother a pianist and two of his siblings are classical string players. He began his viola studies at the age of four, starting on a very small violin that was fitted with viola strings.  He received instructions from his father until age twelve when he became the student of violist Emile Cantor of the Orpheus String Quartet.

Benni consecutively won the 1992 and 1994 German Youth Competition Jugend Musiziert, which led to a solo concert tour in Japan. At age fifteen, he developed a fascination for popular music and took up playing the electric bass in addition to viola. From 2001 to 2004 he studied at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria, under the tutelage of jazz violinist Andreas Schreiber. In 2004 Benni moved to Holland to further his jazz studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with saxophonists Ferdinand Povel and Jasper Blom and guitarist Jesse van Ruller.

He became an active participant of the Dutch jazz scene and performed with numerous groups including: Elastic Jargon by Maurice Horsthuis and Starvinsky Orkestar by Martin Fondse. He was sought after at prominent concert venues and festivals such as the Bimhuis and the famed North Sea Jazz Festival. In 2010 he moved to New York City (supported by scholarships of the Dutch Fonds Podiumkunsten, the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the Kogel&Schmidt Foundation) and became the first violist to earn a Master’s Degree from the Jazz department of the Manhattan School of Music. Benni has performed and recorded with many great musicians including jazz violinist Mark Feldman, electronic music virtuoso Matthew Herbert, cellist Ernst Reijseger, and Saxophonist Dave Liebman. vongutzeit.com

Rok Palčič is active as a soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue, masterclass clinician, and competition juror. He successfully combines a broad range of experiences with his passion for entrepreneurial pursuits and organizing cultural events.

He started his musical education at the age of five and only a few years into his studies, Russian professor and pianist Sijavush Gadjiev invited him to join his studio. Gadjiev later introduced him to renowned pianist, pedagogue, and International Chopin Competition laureate Pavel Gililov, with whom he continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Germany. After graduating in 2009, he decided to broaden his interests by choosing to pursue a graduate degree in chamber music performance. He moved to Graz, Austria, to study with Chia Chou, pianist and co-founder of the Trio Parnassus. After completing his second master’s degree, he briefly occupied a teaching position in his home country before emigrating to the United States. During his studies he also took part in several master classes with pedagogues and pianists Aldo Ciccolini, Deniz Galenbe, Ronald Pröll, Kolja Lessing, Jeremy Denk, and others.

In 2003 he was awarded the Škerjanc prize for exceptional musical achievements. In 2007 he performed at the Ruhr Klavier-Festival in Germany and was also awarded the YEHUDI MENUHIN Live Music Now foundation scholarship. His performances at prestigious festivals, as well as prizes from national and international competitions, have taken Palčič to venues across Slovenia, Italy, France, Croatia, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He performed with renowned artists, such as Koryun Asatryan, Ida Bieler, Ofer Canetti, Dudu Carmel, Nora Romanoff-Schwarzberg, Steven Thomas, Benjamin Ziervogel, Andrej Žust, and others.

His career in the United States started in 2015, following the completion of his master’s degree at the University of Florida, when he was offered a 2-year post as Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano and Chamber Music. His doctoral research at the University of Maryland was focused around rediscovering forgotten music by Late-Romantic composers—particularly the premiere recording of the collective piano solo works by French composer Melanie Bonis—as well as paying tribute to the great masterpieces of our canon, such as Brahms’s complete Sonatas for Piano and Violin, both of which he recorded with Žiga Brank for the Slovenian ZKP label.

While performance and pedagogy remain his main focus, he devotes a sizable amount of effort to managing two companies, Chevy Chase Music LLC and Music School 21 LLC, which cater to the musical and educational needs of various audiences.

In addition to his concert, pedagogic, and entrepreneurial activity, Rok Palčič is also a passionate philanthropist. He is founder and artistic director of the Cultural Arts Society Ars Haliaeti and President of the Art Music Society, both focused on providing support and opportunities to emerging musicians as well as making music accessible to underrepresented populations.

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