Elizabeth Pridgen
Praised for her “big piano presence” (American Record Guide), Elizabeth Pridgen has distinguished herself as a soloist and chamber musician. Recent concerts include appearances at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, the Tilles Center on Long Island, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, and the “Rising Stars Series” at the Ravinia Festival. Ms. Pridgen has also performed at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and the Kosciuszko Foundation, and in recitals in Washington D.C., Aruba, Curaçao, and throughout the Southeast. She has appeared as soloist with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Rome Symphony Orchestra, and Dekalb Symphony Orchestra. For seven consecutive seasons she has been a featured performer at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival.

This summer, in addition to Amelia Island, she will be performing at the Rome Chamber Festival in Rome, Italy, the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and the Madison Chamber Music Festival in Madison, Georgia. Ms. Pridgen collaborates regularly with Elmar Oliveira, Robert McDuffie, Andres Diaz, the Diaz String Trio, and the American String Quartet. She has also performed with Lynn Harrell, Hilary Hahn, Sarah Chang, Rachel Barton Pine, and Mark O’Connor. Ms. Pridgen is a member of Trio RPM with violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, Director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, and Christopher Rex, Principal Cellist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Pridgen is a Distinguished Artist and Piano Chair at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University.

Ms. Pridgen received her Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School where she studied with Joseph Kalichstein. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music as a student of Ann Schein. Other teachers include Claude Frank, Pamela Frank, Leon Fleisher, and Ursula Oppens. Ms. Pridgen spent two summers at the Tanglewood Music Center where she was awarded the piano prize and selected to perform with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble and the Mark Morris Dance Group at Jacob’s Pillow. She has also been a participant at the Aspen Music Festival, International Musicians’ Seminar in Prussia Cove, England, and the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Pridgen currently resides in New York City.

Andres Cardenes
Recognized worldwide as a musical phenomenon, Grammy-nominated Andrés Cárdenes parlays his myriad talents into one of classical music’s most versatile careers. A ferocious, passionate and personally charismatic artist, Cuban-born Cárdenes has garnered international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his compelling solo violin, conducting, viola, chamber music, concertmaster and recorded performances.

Since capturing the Second Prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, Mr. Cárdenes has appeared as soloist with over one hundred orchestras on four continents, including those of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Moscow, Bavarian Radio, Dallas, Helsinki, Shanghai, Caracas and Barcelona. He has collaborated with many of the world’s greatest conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Jaap van Zweden, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck. Mr. Cárdenes is in great demand as a conductor. His appearances with the Bavarian Radio, Colorado Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, New West Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Sinfonica de Venezuela, Orquesta Fundacíon Beethoven (Santiago, Chile), and the OFUNAM Orchestra of Mexico City have received rave reviews. Headlines proclaimed “Cárdenes conducts Pittsburgh Symphony with epic mastery” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) after stepping in for an ailing Robert Spano. Mr. Cárdenes served as Artistic Director and Leader of the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra from its inception in 1999 through 2009.

This year and next Mr. Cárdenes continues his project to record many standard and contemporary concerti. Released in 2009 are recordings of concerti by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Barber and David Stock on the Artek and Albany labels. A recording of the complete works for violin by Leonardo Balada was released on Naxos in January 2011, with the complete Sonatas by Hindemith, complete Sonatinas and Fantasie by Schubert on Artek, and the Beethoven Violin Concerto on Zephyr, were released in the fall of 2016. Soon to be released is the Chausson Concerto with the Vega Quartet and the Fauré Sonata on Artek. Cárdenes’ discography includes over three dozen recordings of concerti, sonatas, short works, orchestral and chamber music on the Ocean, Naxos, Sony, Arabesque, Albany, Delos, RCA, ProArte, Telarc, Artek, Melodya and Enharmonic labels.

Mr. Cárdenes has thriced served as President of the Jury of the Stradivarius International Violin Competition and was on the jury of the 2011 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The year 2017 marked the 40th anniversary of Mr. Cárdenes’ renowned teaching and pedagogical career, which began as an assistant to his teacher and mentor Josef Gingold at Indiana University. Today, Mr. Cárdenes continues Professor Gingold’s legacy and discipline while holding the title of Distinguished Professor of Violin Studies and the Dorothy Richard Starling/Alexander Speyer Jr. Endowed Chair at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Music. In addition, Cárdenes gives Master Classes regularly at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Manhattan School, Cleveland Institute, The Curtis Institute, and at virtually every major university and conservatory in the United States.