The Linden String Quartet is the gold medalist and grand prize-winner of the 2009 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as well as recipient of the Coleman-Barstow prize at the 2009 Coleman National Chamber Ensemble Competition. The quartet has quickly risen to become one the country’s premier young string quartets. Formed in the spring of 2008, the Quartet has already been praised for its "remarkable depth of technique and brilliantly nuanced, sumptuous tonality…delivered with a palpable, infectious joy". The Linden Quartet is currently the apprentice quartet to the Cavani Quartet at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM). Dedicated to community outreach and education, the Quartet is also the Canton Symphony Orchestra’s newly appointed Quartet-in-Residence, a program established to promote the arts of Classical music and quartet playing through a series of educational concerts and presentations in various elementary schools in the Northeastern Ohio area.

Mentors include the Cavani String Quartet, Peter Salaff, and Paul Kantor and the Quartet has also worked with Donald Weilerstein and William Preucil of the Cleveland Quartet, Joel Smirnoff and Robert Mann of the Juilliard String Quartet, and members of the Guarneri, Tokyo, and St. Lawrence Quartets. The Quartet has collaborated with guitarist and CIM faculty member Jason Vieaux, mezzo-soprano Jana Baty, violinist Geoff Nuttall, as well as acclaimed accordion and bandonéon player Julian Labro. This past summer, the Linden Quartet were resident artists at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, as well as chamber music festivals in Banff, Alberta and Stanford, California. As winners of the Fischoff grand prize, the quartet toured the Midwest in fall 2009 and the 2009-10 season will include appearances at the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy, a one-week concert tour throughout the state of Kentucky, and a one-week residency at the Music at Port Milford summer chamber music festival in Milford, Ontario.

Sarah McElravy, violin
Catherine Cosbey, violin
Eric Wong, viola
Felix Umansky, cello

Sarah McElravy

Canadian violinist Sarah McElravy, is currently a Professional Studies student in violin performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) studying with Paul Kantor (Eleanor H. Biggs Memorial Distinguished Professor of Violin). A recipient of the Dorothy Richards Starling Foundation Scholarship from CIM, Sarah is a winner of numerous awards and scholarships. Sarah recently won CIM’s concerto competition and performed with the CIM orchestra in the fall of 2009. Sarah is also a laureate of the 2008 International Stepping Stone Competition and she has won the Silver Medal Award from the Royal Conservatory of Music, first prize at the Ontario Provincial Finals on numerous occasions, and second prize at the Canadian Music Competition National Finals. Sarah has also performed as soloist with the Pulawy Festival Orchestra (Poland), the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra (Canada), and the Lexington Bach Festival Orchestra (USA).

An avid chamber musician, Ms. McElravy was a recipient of the Annie Burns Fellowship to perform at the prestigious Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival in the summers of 2006 and 2007. She had the opportunity to collaborate with distinguished artists Gary Graffman and Roberto Diaz, and to be coached by internationally recognized artists Cho-Liang Lin, Lynn Harrell, as well as the Guarneri and Emerson String Quartets. Sarah has also participated in the Pacific Music Festival, the Banff Music and Sound Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

Sarah has held Concertmaster appointments with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan, the Suburban Symphony in Cleveland, the CIM Orchestra, the Young Artist’s Performance Academy in Toronto, and the Banff Music & Sound Festival. Ms. McElravy also performed in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s President’s Evening with Itzhak Perlman, the New York String Orchestra Seminar under conductor Jamie Laredo at Carnegie Hall, and recently went on a European tour with the Cleveland Orchestra as a substitute violinist.

Sarah received both her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees with Academic Honors at CIM where she studied with Stephen Rose and Paul Kantor. A native of Lindsay, Ontario, she began violin studies at the age of 5 and in 1999, she was accepted into the Young Artist’s Performance Academy at The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. Sarah has studied and worked with Witold Swoboda, Erika Raum, Sylvia Rosenberg, Scott St. John, and the late Lorand Fenyves.

Sarah McElravy performs on a Pietro Guarneri (of Mantua) violin of 1682, on loan from an anonymous patron.

Catherine Cosbey

Catherine Cosbey, a native of Regina, Saskatchewan, received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and subsequently earned a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music.  Teachers and mentors have included Paul Kantor, Eduard Minevich, and Erika Raum.  Catherine has been a participant in the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Banff Chamber and Summer Music Sessions, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, the Domaine Forget Chamber Music Program, and the Centre D’arts Orford. Catherine began her professional career at the age of fourteen when she joined the Regina Symphony Orchestra. Later that year, she also was accepted into the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.  Catherine continues her orchestral contribution as a member of CityMusic Cleveland and the Canton Symphony. Catherine is an avid chamber musician and has performed across Canada and Iceland, most notably with Quartetto Constanze and the Flaming Leafs. Catherine has collaborated with such artists as Edward Arron, Kai Gleusteen, Kyung-Sun Lee, Geoff Nuttall, Erika Raum, and Barry Shiffman.  She plays on a 1721 Guidantus violin and a Voirin bow generously on loan by the Banff Centre.

Eric Wong

Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, violist Eric Wong is currently in his second year of graduate studies at CIM studying violin with Paul Kantor and viola with Lynne Ramsey of the Cleveland Orchestra.  In addition to his primary instructors, he has studied privately with Heidi Castleman, Kirsten Docter, Kevork Mardirossian, David Updegraff, and Zvi Zeitlin.  He received his bachelor’s degree from CIM, also studying with Mr. Kantor.

As a chamber musician, Eric has played in numerous ensembles around the country.  He has participated in Itzhak Perlman’s Chamber Music Workshop and the 52nd Annual International Chamber Music Festival in Weikersheim, Germany.  He has performed in chamber music recitals sponsored by the Aspen Institute, SWR Radio (Germany), WVIZ (Cleveland’s public broadcasting station), the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, and the Cleveland Chamber Music Guild.  He has collaborated with members of the Cleveland Quartet, with Kirsten Docter and Merry Peckham of the Cavani Quartet, and also with Secretary of State and pianist Condoleezza Rice.  Coaches and mentors include Peter Salaff and the Cavani and Miró Quartets.

Eric won first prize in the 48th Annual Lima Symphony Young Artists’ Competition, the 2007 Ohio Viola Society competition, and the 2006 Louisiana String Teachers’ Association solo competition. He was also third-prize winner of CIM’s 2008 Milhaud Competition and won CIM’s concerto competition with Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto in 2007.  As guest solo artist, he has performed with the CIM Orchestra and the Acadiana and Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestras.

He has played under such conductors as Christoph von Dohnányi, Gerard Schwartz, Michael Stern, David Robertson, and Leonard Slatkin and appeared in venues throughout the country including Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Tanglewood Music Center.  A former member of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, he now holds the position of Assistant Concertmaster of the Akron Symphony.

Felix Umansky

Felix Umansky, hailing from Carmel, Indiana, has studied cello since the age of seven.  He received his Master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music this past spring, having studied with Cleveland Orchestra principal Desmond Hoebig.  He also received his undergraduate degree from CIM as a student of Richard Aaron.  Other teachers over the years have included Polina Umansky, Yehuda Hanani, Janos Starker, Michael Mermagen, and Eleanor Schoenfeld.  He is currently a member of CityMusic Cleveland, a small chamber orchestra which performs regularly throughout the greater Cleveland area and abroad.  Prior to forming the Linden String Quartet he was the cellist of the Vesuvius Quartet.  With Vesuvius, Felix performed concerts in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Germany while receiving coachings from members of the Cavani, Cleveland, Takacs, Artemis, Tokyo, Miro, and Borromeo String Quartets, as well as the Beaux Arts Trio.  The quartet was selected by the Cleveland Chamber Music Society (CCMS) to be the inaugural fellows for a new school outreach program.  They worked closely with the CCMS and Annie Fullard to bring music to hundreds of 3rd and 4th graders.  With the Linden Quartet, Felix has worked closely with members of the Cavani, Cleveland, Guarneri, Tokyo, and St. Lawrence String Quartets.