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Her solo and chamber music appearances have led her to play in Cuba, Russia, Spain, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, England, and USA, where she recently premiered a solo cello piece written specifically for her at the Miami International Composers Festival. She has recorded for television, theater, radio and film in Cuba, Spain, Venezuela, and USA. She has also played with the International Chamber Orchestra of Moscow and the Havana Chamber Orchestra, becoming their artistic director in 1991. A committed teacher, she taught at Havana’s National School of Music and Higher Institute of Art, as well as the “Simon Bolivar” Conservatory of Music and University Institute of Musical Studies in Caracas, Venezuela. Currently, she teaches at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music as well as in her private studio.
Ms. Pardo’s musical experience includes almost fifteen years with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in Caracas. She also taught at the Simon Bolivar Conservatory and coached young musicians in the Caracas Youth Symphony and elsewhere in Venezuela. In 1998 she founded the Tabor Strings Summer Course (Caracas, Venezuela), and in 2000 was commissioned to create the Youth Symphony of Peru. As a violist, her chamber music experience includes the Teresa Carreño String Quartet and Santa Cecilia String Trio. She has also performed as soloist in such major works as Bach’s Sixth Brandenburg Concert, Mozart’s Symphonia Concertante for violin and viola, and Telemann solo and double concertos. In November 2000 she joined the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music as violin/viola teacher, head of department, Suzuki Program founder and coordinator. She also coordinates the string chamber music program. She currently participates in the Milwaukee City Festival and Kenosha Orchestras, and plays Latin music especially arranged for classical strings with the “Iberoamerica Ensemble”.
Izquierdo has won several competition prizes, and most recently was a finalist in the JoAnne Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition. He has appeared as a guest soloist and in chamber music concerts throughout the United States, Canada, Cuba, Spain, France and Italy. He has shared the stage with many prestigious guitarists including Eliot Fisk, Jorge Morel and Benjamin Verdery as well as renowned flutist Ransom Wilson at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. At the Only in America Cameo Concerts Series, Izquierdo performed music by composer Bruce Adolphe, in collaboration with David Jolley and Lucy Shelton. Renowned composers such as Jorge Morel and Carlos R. Rivera have dedicated works to him. In 2004 he performed the Villa-Lobos concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and played the U.S. premiere of "The Divan of Moses Ibn-Ezra" by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, a 19-song cycle, with soprano Arianne Slack in a Merkin Archive concert. Before joining the faculty at UWM, Izquierdo taught at the State University of New York at Purchase and Yale University.
Karl Orvik (violin) KARL ORVIK, violin, is a member of the violin faculty at the Milwaukee Center for Strings and an Adjunct Instructor of violin at both Alverno College and Wisconsin Lutheran College. He has performed extensively in recital, as a concerto soloist and as a member of numerous chamber and orchestral ensembles. He also spends a part of his summers in Alaska, where he is a member of the violin faculty at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Lawrence University, his principal teachers were Stephen Majeske, Calvin Wiersma and Roman Totenberg. He joined the IberoAmerica Ensemble on 2002. Elina Chekan (Guitar)
Catherine Ramirez, Flute
Ingrid Tihtcheva, cello
During her time in Mississippi, Ingrid performed widely as a member of the Gulf Coast Symphony, The Meridian Symphony, The Pensacola Symphony and played under personalities like Itzhak Perlman, Leslie Parnas, Doc Severinsen, Ellis Marsalis, Natalie Cole, Rod Stewart and premiered a piece by Samuel Adler at The Lincoln Center in NY with the USM Symphony Orchestra. In 1998 Ingrid came to Milwaukee to pursue her Masters degree at The University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee studying with Wolfgang Laufer and The Fine Arts Quartet. Other artists she has accompanied include Maxim Vengerov, Josh Groban, Melissa Manchester, Charlotte Church and Three Dog Night. Ingrid has now made Milwaukee her home, and stays very active playing with The Green Bay, Festival City, Waukesha and Racine Symphony Orchestras. She loves teaching and keeps a successful private cello studio. |
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A sought-after soloist, recitalist and pedagogue, this Cuban cellist holds a B.M. in Cello Performance from the “Instituto Superior de Arte” in Havana; as well as studies in the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow. Since October 2000 she has resided in the United States of America.
M.M. UW-Milwaukee, String Pedagogy; M.M Central University of Venezuela, Business Management (Thesis with Honors); B.M. University Institute of Musical Studies, Music Education, (Caracas, Venezuela); Viola Performer/Teacher Degree at the Simon Bolivar Conservatory of Music, (Caracas Venezuela); Wisconsin Teaching License for Instrumental Music, and Suzuki Violin Training (Illinois and Ohio, USA). 
RENE IZQUIERDO graduated from the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory and Superior Institute of Art in Havana, where he studied with renowned guitarist Jesus Ortega. After his arrival in the United States, he graduated from Yale University School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Verdery and obtained a Master of Music and an Artist Diploma degree in 2001 being awarded the Eliot Fisk Prize for outstanding guitarists. He has studied with Leo Brouwer, David Russell, Shin-Ichi Fukuda, Eli Kastner, Pepe Romero, Angel Romero, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, David Starobin, Eduardo Fernandez, Jorge Morel, Robert Beaser and Anthony Newman. Mr. Izquierdo is currently recording his debut CD with Luthier Music Corporation. 
JOANN HAASLER is a private violin teacher and free-lance violinist in the Milwaukee area. She has studied violin with Pamela Gearhart and Donald Weilerstein at the University of Buffalo, New York; Louise Behrend, in New York City, Yuri Beliavsky and Efim Boico (undergraduate) and Ralph Evans (graduate) at UW-Milwaukee. She has received training in chamber music with Donald Weilerstein and Martha Katz, members of the original Cleveland quartet, Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet, Wolfgang Laufer and Jerry Horner of the Fine Arts Quartet and the acclaimed pianist, Judit Jaimes. Since receiving her Suzuki Teaching Certificate from the School for Strings in New York City (an intensive two year program) in 1982, she has maintained a private studio using that and other approaches to violin teaching while performing regularly with symphonic and chamber groups in the area. Along with her private teaching she has been a faculty member of, among others, Villa Maria Music Academy in Buffalo, New York, the Preparatory Music School of Brooklyn College, The School for Strings in New York City, Youth Makes Music Summer Camp (8 years) in Alabama, and has taught through the WCM music outreach program and the WCM Summer Music Camp in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She joined the IberoAmerica Ensemble on 2002.
Born in Minsk, Belarus, ELINA CHEKAN studied with Valeriy Gromov and Eugene Gridiushko in her native country and with Benjamin Verdery at Yale University where she attained her Master of Music degree. Ms. Chekan has performed extensively in Europe and the United States as a soloist and chamber musician. A prizewinner in several international guitar competitions, she also received the Louis and Anne Rosoff award from Yale University. Elina is a certified Suzuki Method instructor, registered with the Suzuki Association of Americas. Renowned Argentinean Composer Jorge Morel dedicated one of his recent compositions to Ms. Chekan. Elina was artist in residence and faculty at the Bloomingdale School of Music in New York City, and Chair of the Guitar Department at the Belarus Music Academy in Minsk. She is currently on the faculty at UWM where she directs the Pre-College Division’s Guitar Program.
Performances by Colombian-Mexican-American flutist CATHERINE RAMIREZ have been described as "revelatory" (The Hartford Courant), and "exciting, virtuosic, multi-hued and compelling" (Ransom Wilson , flutist). As a recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist, Catherine has performed throughout the United States and Europe with such groups as "L'Offerta Musicale" Chamber Orchestra of Venice ( Italy), the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra, CUBE, and the Vermeer String Quartet. She appeared on Salt Lake City 's Temple Square Performances, and will perform in 2007 on Chicago's esteemed Dame Myra Hess Concert Series.
Born to a Cuban singer and Bulgarian cellist, Ingrid began playing cello under the watchful eye of her dad. While living in Mexico, she was a student of Bozena Slawinska and Alan Durbeq at the Vida y Movimiento School of Music. Ingrid attended Master Classes with Stefan Popov, Yo-Yo Ma, Alan Smith and Wolfgang Boettcher. In 1990, she attended The Meadowmount School of Music in NY studying with Tanya Carey. Soon after, she was awarded a Full Scholarship to the University of Southern Mississippi where she graduated with honors, earning a degree in Music Performance under the guidance of Rebekah Stark and Paul York.