First Associate Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, a Minnesota Orchestra member since 1988, has performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Brahms’ Double Concerto and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with the Orchestra. She has also been featured in many chamber works during Sommerfest, most recently Mendelssohn’s Fifth String Quartet in July 2008. In 2006 she was a soloist in world premieres of both Kevin Puts’ Sinfonia concertante and Steve Heitzeg’s Peace Cranes, and in November 2007 she performed Bach’s Double Violin Concerto with Vali Phillips of the Orchestra’s second violin section.

Kwak, a 2008 McKnight Artist Fellowship winner, has been soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Houston Symphony, and has toured internationally with the Casa Verde Trio, including a three-and-a-half-week tour of China. She was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, which gave its New York debut in 1996 and was awarded a McKnight Artist Fellowship in 2000. With Rosalyra, Kwak recorded a CD of Bartók and Beethoven quartets for Boston Records, as well as Shostakovich and Brahms CDs for the Artegra label; in 2008 the ensemble will release an album of Fauré piano quartets. She has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Pensacola Festival, Pittsburgh Summerfest, Bargemusic of New York and Festival Mozart in France.

Born in Boston and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Kwak entered Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute at 12, studied briefly at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, and graduated from Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music in 1983. Among her teachers were Joseph Sivo, Ivan Galamian and Szymon Goldberg. The first artist ever to capture all three memorial awards at the Washington International Competition, Kwak also won the 1989 WAMSO Young Artist Competition. Before coming to the Twin Cities, she served on the faculty of Princeton University.

Montreal native Céline Leathead joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1994 after being a member of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and associate concertmaster of the Alabama Symphony. At Orchestra chamber concerts, she has performed works of Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorák, Mendelssohn and Mozart, including the Brahms Piano Quintet with Emanuel Ax at Sommerfest 1996. In January 2009 she will play Schulhoff’s First String Quartet and Schumann’s Quartettsatz on the Orchestra’s Chamber Music at MacPhail series.

Leathead received a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Ivan Galamian, Jascha Brodsky and Jaime Laredo.

Kenneth Freed, who joined the Minnesota Orchestra’s viola section in 1998, is also a conductor: he has been music director of the Mankato Symphony since 2006, and held the same post with the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2006. During 2005-06 he served as an assistant conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Before arriving in Minnesota, Freed performed with the New York Philharmonic as a substitute in the viola section and played in the Manhattan String Quartet. From 1992 through 1994 he was principal viola of the Richmond Symphony. Freed also served as conductor of the Norwalk Youth Symphony in Connecticut for two years and was assistant conductor of the Greater Richmond Youth Symphony.

Freed’s passionate interest in children’s music education led him to found a non-profit company, Learning Through Music Consulting Group, which seeks to give music a central role in every child’s education.

Freed holds degrees in literature and music from Yale University. He and his wife, Gwen, have three children: Zachary, Nellie and Jonah.

Born into a family of distinguished musicians, Beth Rapier began her professional career at age 16 as an apprentice with the Louisville Orchestra. After studying at Indiana University and in New York with Janos Starker, Fritz Magg and Timothy Eddy, she performed and taught for two seasons with the Apple Hill Chamber Players of New Hampshire.

Rapier joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1986 and assumed her current position in 1991; she has been a featured soloist with the Orchestra in works by Haydn, David Ott and Kevin Puts. Also in demand as a guest soloist, she has appeared with the Colorado Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra and numerous regional ensembles.

Rapier enjoys playing chamber music, which she has performed throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. She has won several awards at chamber music competitions across the country. Rapier was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, winner of a 2000 McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship. During its 16 years, the quartet performed regularly at venues in Boston, France and New York City.

Rapier is a frequent guest at chamber music festivals, including Cactus Pear, Music in the Vineyards and Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. In April 2005 Rapier was again named winner of a McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship for her performance of cello duos with her husband, Anthony Ross, principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra. Together, the duo organizes an annual benefit concert for Habitat for Humanity. Rapier has recorded quartets for the Boston Records and Artegra labels.