PERFORMERS
Ian Swensen, violin
Simon James, violin
Bonnie Hampton, cello
ARTIST PROFILES
Ian Swensen
A native of New York, violinist Ian Swensen comes from a musically gifted family of Norwegian and Japanese-Hawaiian descent. He has lived in the Bay Area for over 20 years, teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Sacramento State University. He is a passionate pedagogue and his students have gone on to major positions in orchestras, teaching institutions and chamber groups around the world.
Swensen also maintains an active schedule as soloist and chamber musician, appearing at Music @ Menlo, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and others. Recent projects include a series of recitals with pianist Jeffrey LaDeur, Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat with members of the San Francisco Symphony and a series of Haydn trios with Kenneth Slowik on fortepiano. Over the years other engagements have included Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds, Music from Marlboro, residencies at Tanglewood, Banff, Morningside Music Bridge in Calgary and travels to Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand to teach and perform. He has performed with members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Emerson, Takács, Concord and Tokyo quartets, as well as Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Mark O'Connor and Yo-Yo Ma.
Swensen studied at The Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay and the Eastman School of Music with Donald Weilerstein and members of the Cleveland Quartet. In addition, Mark Sokol of the Concord Quartet has had a profound impact on his musical growth. He is one of the few musicians to have been awarded the Walter W. Naumburg International Competition’s top prize for both solo violin and chamber music (as first violinist of the Meliora String Quartet). His recordings can be found on the Telarc and Deutsche Grammophon labels.
Simon James
Second Assistant Concertmaster Simon James has been a member of the Seattle Symphony since 1988; he is also a member of the Australian World Orchestra, and was recently guest concertmaster with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra. In addition to performing concerti with, and acting as concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony on several occasions, James has led the Orchestra in Seattle Opera productions of The Ring, Der Rosenkavalier, La bohème, and The Flying Dutchman, among others. James is an active teacher with students who have won international competitions and gained entrance to the nation’s most prestigious music schools, including The Juilliard School, the Curtis and Colburn schools of music, and New England Conservatory. He is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where his teachers included Erick Friedman and Syzmon Goldberg.
Bonnie Hampton
Cellist Bonnie Hampton was a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Francesco Trio and performed as part of the Hampton-Schwartz Duo with her late husband, pianist Nathan Schwartz. Hampton has performed new music since the beginning of her career. A solo debut with the San Francisco Symphony led her to appear with orchestras around the country, and eventually, to perform the complete standard repertoire for cello as well as many concertos written for it in the twentieth century. Chamber music guest appearances have included performances with the Juilliard, Guarneri, Cleveland, Mendelssohn, Alexander, Budapest and Griller string quartets. She has performed at chamber music festivals including Chamber Music West, Seattle, Ravinia, Santa Fe, Kneisel Hall and Yellow Barn. Hampton has taught at Mills College and the University of California, Berkeley. She was a member of the cello and chamber music faculties at The Juilliard School from 2003-2012. Residencies of her Francesco Trio have included Grinnell College, Stanford University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she served on faculty for 30 years. Hampton is a past president of Chamber Music America.