Bios & Gallery

Dorothy Savitch, Music Director

In 2002, Dorothy Savitch was named as the first Music Director of the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra. Since 1997, Ms. Savitch has also been Music Director of Long Island’s Sound Symphony Orchestra. Since her tenure began, both orchestras have grown and expanded into two of the finest community ensembles in the New York metropolitan area. They have received high praise for their vibrant performances and expansive repertoire.

In 1990, Ms. Savitch founded the Gotham Chamber Orchestra. From 1990 through 1998, the GCO established itself as one of New York City’s outstanding professional orchestras. During these years, Ms. Savitch gained her reputation as a champion of American composers, performing numerous premiers and revivals of American works. The Brooklyn Free Press hailed the GCO performances as "a tour de force".

Before her transition to the podium, Ms. Savitch studied the classical guitar with Christopher Parkening and Vincente Gomez, and toured throughout the West Coast. After receiving music degrees from Columbia University and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, Ms. Savitch worked as a freelance conductor, directing the Bronx Opera chorus, the Musica Humana Chamber Choir and the Chautauqua Festival Orchestra. Her conducting teachers include Harold Farberman and Maurice Peress.

Ms. Savitch is also Director of the Music Partners Program, which provides hands-on musical training to 4000 New York City schoolchildren each year.

Mary Jo Stilp, Concertmaster

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Mary Jo Stilp currently resides in New York City, where she is active as a freelance violinist, performing with such groups as the Manhattan Pops Orchestra, Lincoln Center's Family MusiK series, and the new music collective Anti-Social Music. In addition to being concertmaster of the BCCO, Mary Jo has also held that post with the Wichita Grand Opera, and has held positions with the Knoxville, Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence Chamber, St. Joseph, Kansas City Chamber Chorale, and La Crosse Symphony Orchestras. Other performing credits include the Spoleto Fesitval USA Orchestra, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, Heidelberg SchlossSpiele Orchestra, and the Opera in the Ozarks Orchestra. She has performed as soloist with orchestras in Missouri and Wisconsin, gives regular solo and chamber music recitals, and has held titled positions with many of the ensembles listed above.

In addition to performing, Mary Jo is passionately committed to sharing her gifts with tomorrow's generation of musicians. Mary Jo is on the faculty of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, and has taught violin at Southwestern College in Winfield, KS. She also maintains an extensive private violin studio. In 2002, Mary Jo founded the Southwestern String Festival, an annual summer chamber music festival for middle and high school students, the curriculum of which was expanded in 2004 to include a chamber orchestra. In the spring of 2005, she organized Strings con Stravaganza, a seminar for students ages twelve to twenty-six, offering instruction in a wide variety of musical techniques, including improvisation and the exploration of electronic instruments. For Mary Jo, these experiences are exceptionally rewarding, and also illuminating for her own creative process.

Yuriy Bekker, Violinist

Yuriy Bekker is a native of Minsk, Belarus, and is now a U.S. citizen and Concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony. He has played with the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras, and the Louisville Orchestra. He has collaborated with Herbert Greenberg, Claudio Bohorquez, Alexander Kerr, Sara Chang, and Gil Shaham in both chamber concerts and symphonic settings. Engagements at the Kennedy Center include performances with the Indiana String Quartet and with the Degas String Quartet for the Chicago Chamber Music Society. Recent appearances include recitals in New York City, Chicago, Miami, Florida, Asheville, North Carolina, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Graz, Austria as well as numerous engagements as a soloist with the Charleston Symphony.

"His recent performance of the Korngold Violin Concerto led to critical acclaim:
Bekker's sweet and singing tone never stopped soaring dreamily over his colleagues' lush palette of supporting sound. Bravo Bekker!" Charleston City Paper
Mr. Bekker performs regularly for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival at which his solo appearances have created a sensation:
"This man [Bekker] was born to play the fiddle. Plump, smooth tone, uncanny control, stiletto sharp intonation, musicality and passion to burn. He's got it all, and then some."Charleston City Paper
"The 'dream team' of violinist Yuriy Bekker and pianist Andrew Armstrong wowed a full house at Sunday's Spotlight Concert Series." The Post and Courier

Most recently Mr. Bekker was the concertmaster and a faculty member at the AIMS Festival in Graz, Austria. He has played in music festivals worldwide including the European Music Festival Stuttgart (Germany), the Pacific Music Festival (Japan), Spoleto USA, and others in the Netherlands and Switzerland. In addition, he is on the faculties of the College of Charleston School of the Arts and Charleston Academy. He has been a frequent guest concertmaster and soloist with various orchestras in the New York City and Baltimore areas.

He earned a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory, where he was concertmaster of the Peabody Symphony under the tutelage of Herbert Greenberg. His Bachelors' and Masters' Degrees were acquired from Indiana University's School of Music. There he studied violin with Nelli Shkolnikova and Ilya Kaler, and chamber music with Atar Arad, Emile Naomoff, and Janos Starker. Along with his position as concertmaster, engagements for the 2008-2009 season included a solo appearances with the Charleston Symphony playing Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy, and chamber music collaborations with various ensembles in the U.S., Canada, Austria and Japan.

Masha Lankovsky, Violinist

Masha Lankovsky was born in Moscow and grew up in New Zealand and Australia, where she first began studying music. She received her Bachelors and Masters degrees from Indiana University, Bloomington under the guidance of Nelli Shkolnikova. Recently she was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Graduate Center, CUNY. Masha Lankovsky is currently on the faculty of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, where she is also the Director of the Classical Division.

Ms. Lankovsky has performed throughout the United States and Europe as a solo, chamber, and orchestral player. She has participated in international festivals including Britten Pears in England, Schleswig Holstein in Germany, and the American Conservatoire at Fontainebleau in France. Based in New York, Masha Lankovsky is an active freelance musician and has worked with the ARYO chamber players, the S.E.M. ensemble, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and the Omni Ensemble, among others.

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