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.

Luis Casal, Guest Concertmaster

One of Panama's leading violinists and violists, Luis Casal has represented his country in events in England, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, and the United States. A recording artist for the world music label Earthcds, he is currently vice president of the Sinfonía Concertante Foundation of Panama and violin/viola instructor of both the Queensborough Community College's Office of Continuing Education and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. An experienced orchestra player, Mr. Casal has held the position of principal violist ad honorem of the National Symphony of Panama; principal violist of the Laredo Philharmonic; concertmaster of the Butler Symphony Orchestra in Butler, Pennsylvania; Concertmaster of the Viola Ensemble of the 2003 Tertis International Viola Workshop and Competition; and he is currently co-founder and member of the Camerata Alfredo De Saint Malo.

A sought out chamber player, Mr. Casal keeps an active agenda performing violin and viola recitals. Recent performances in New York have included chamber music appearances in Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall and Merkin Hall. Future commitments include performance of Fermín Castañedas's violin concerto, duo recitals along with his brother, cellist Isaac Casal, trio recitals in partnership with the Latinum Duet, and collaboration with Korean pianist Wonsun Bae, Panamanian pianist Abdiel Lombana, and soprano Anna Noggle. Mr. Casal has recently premiered pieces by Mikolja Gorecki, Carlos Bernales, and Bartosz Smoragiewicz. His major teachers include Jorge Vergara, Carmen Cedeño, Cathy Robinson, the Miami String Quartet, Carolyn Huebl, Matthew Dane, Daniel Heifetz, Atar Arad, and Ilya Kaler.

Stella Wong, Pianist

Stella Wong was born in China in December, 1994. She started her musical education at the age of four. She entered the Special Music School in kindergarten, under Golda Tatz, from 2003. Now she is in the 10th grade at Hunter College High School and is enrolled as a piano major in the Young Artist Program at Kaufman Center.

Stella's many awards include prizes in a number of piano competitions: Gold Medal in the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, 1st Prize in the Young Pianist Competition of New Jersey, Grand Prize in the Honors Recital Award at the Piano Teacher's Congress, 1st Prize in the Lucy Moses School Concerto Competition, and Tureck International Bach Competition. She performed on the National Public Radio program From the Top and won the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award in 2008. Stella is a recipient of Kaufman Center's Con Edison Scholarship for Advanced Studies and the Roberta Rettner Prize for Chamber Ensemble.

Stella has performed in many concert halls, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, CAMI Hall, Steinway Hall of New York and Connecticut, Rose Studio at Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston, and concerts in Aspen Music Festival. She has also performed numerous benefit concerts for the Kaufman Center.

Stella has attended the Puigcerda Classical Music Festival in Spain (2006), the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado (2007 and 2008), Tel Hai International Piano Festival in Israel (2008), and the International Academy of Music in Italy (2009). She has performed concerts in France, Spain, Israel and Italy with great success.

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.

Design by Andreas Viklun