ABOUT BLACK OAK ENSEMBLE
Praised for its “insightful, committed and masterful performances” (Classics Today 10/10) and “fierce eloquence” (London Times), The Black Oak Ensemble has established itself as one of the most innovative and exciting chamber ensembles on the international stage. The trio's CD release, “Avant l’orage,” a double album of French string trios, reached #1 in the Billboard Classical Charts and was featured as Album of the week on Symphony Hall Sirius XM and was nominated for a 2023 ICMA International Chamber Music Award.
Black Oak’s debut album, "Silenced Voices" (Cedille Records), is dedicated to Jewish composers, most of whom lost their lives during the Holocaust. It has been featured in Gramophone and Strings magazines and on BBC Radio 3, The Violin Channel and Sirius XM.
Since forming in 2015, the Chicago-based ensemble has collaborated with renowned artists such as guitarists Mak Grgic, Goran Ivanovic, Denis Azabagic and José Ferreira, harpsichordist Jory Vinikour, Avery Fisher Career Grant winner pianist Henry Kramer, Pallavi Mahidahra, members of Eighth Blackbird, NOIS and flutist Eugenia Molinar. As passionate advocates of new works, they have commissioned and premiered string trios from renowned composers such as Errolyn Wallen, Shirley Thompson, Michael Nyman, David Ludwig, Mischa Zupko, and Conrad Tao and discovered works by Dick Kattenburg, Geza Fríd, Gustave Samazeuilh, Henri Tomasi and Robert Casadesus.
Recent international tours have taken the Black Oak Ensemble to Amsterdam, Geneva (a special performance dedicated to human rights), the Everlasting Hope Festival in Terezin, (in honor of composers persecuted and murdered by the Nazis during the occupation of Prague), Paris, Grenoble, Lyon, Rennes, Corsica, Serbia, Belgrade and Poland . In the summer of 2023, the ensemble collaborated with violinist Rachel Kolly and cellist Nadege Rochat for sold out performances at the Schubertiade in Fribourg, Switzerland.
In the U.S. they have appeared at the Newport Music Festival, RAVINIA Festival ,Music at the Morgan, New York University, Chicago Cultural Center, Art Institute of Chicago, Latino Music Festival (Chicago), University of Oregon and many other venues. As dedicated educators, their students and ensembles have been prize winners of national and international competitions and the Black Oak Ensemble have held residencies at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire, St. John’s School for the Arts (USVI) and Arizona State University. They are proud to collaborate with 'In Crescendo' based in Colombia, South America, Evanston Young Artists, Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative and the RAVINIA Festival's El Sistema program.
The Black Oak Ensemble consists of violinist Desirée Ruhstrat and cellist David Cunliffe, members of the multi-GRAMMY-nominated Lincoln Trio, and violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli, a founding member of the ground-breaking, GRAMMY-nominated Spektral Quartet.​
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INDIVIDUAL BIOS
Desirée Ruhstrat
Praised for her "Intensive fire, sleepwalking assuredness and deeply grounded musical personality" violinist Desirée Ruhstrat made her professional debut at age 12 with Lukas Foss and the Milwaukee Symphony. Ruhstrat has appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including the Berlin Radio Symphony, Radio Suisse Romande, Gottingen Symphony, Philharmonia Da Camera, Symphonica Auguescalientes Mexico, Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Concerto Soloists Of Philadelphia, Utah Symphony, Debut Orchestra of Los Angeles and National Repertory Orchestra. In the summer of 2024 Desirée made her solo debut at the RAVINIA Festival performing Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
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She has worked with such renowned conductors as Eric Kunzel, Max Rudolph, William Smith, Rico Saccani, Brian Priestman, JoAnn Falletta, Victoria Bond, Carolyn Kuan, Carl Topilow, and Mats Liljefors among others. Ruhstrat has won numerous awards including first prize at the National Young Musicians Debut Competition in Los Angeles, where she was also lauded a special award for a young performer with extraordinary talent. She became the youngest prize winner at Switzerland's Tibor Varga International Competition and also won the award for best interpretation of the commissioned contemporary composition. She went on to earn top prizes at the Carl Flesch, Julius Stulberg, and the Mozart Festival Violin Competitions.​
​Ruhstrat's distinguished career as a chamber musician includes performances throughout the U.S. as a member of the GRAMMY-nominated Lincoln Trio. Highlights include Carnegie Weil Hall, Lincoln Center, Ravinia Festival, Indianapolis Symphony Beethoven Series, Poisson Rouge and a tour of Colombia South America performing the Beethoven triple Concerto with the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia. In addition to the Lincoln Trio, Ruhstrat founded Black Oak Ensemble with cellist David Cunliffe and violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli in 2015. Their debut album, Silenced Voices, on the Cedille label, garnered numerous accolades including Chicago Tribune's TOP 100 Recordings of 2019, FANFARE Magazine "want list" and New York's WQXR Top 100 Best Classical Recordings of 2019. Black Oak Ensemble's latest CD release, Avant l'orage, was nominated for a 2023 International Classical Music Award and reached #1 on the BILLBOARD Classical Music Charts.
Ruhstrat has also appeared as guest artist of the Chamber Music Series of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Apollo Chamber Ensemble, the Colorado Chambers Players, Sebago-Long Lake , the University of Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Northwestern University Midwinter Series with Jorge Federico Osorio and Ani Kavafian, as well as collaborations with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ilya Kaler, Rachel Kolly d'Alba, Roberto Diaz, Roger Chase and the Pacifica Quartet. Festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, Peninsula Music Festival, Laurel Festival of the Arts, the Breckenridge Music Festival, Green Lake, University Of Wisconsin, Utah Music Festival, ARIA International Summer Academy, Curtis Institute of Music Young Artist Program and Ascent International Music Festival and the Heifetz Institute which she is currently on Faculty.
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A champion of new music, Ruhstrat has worked with some of the worlds leading composers, Carl Orff, George Crumb, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, Shulamit Ran, Augusta Read Thomas, Joan Tower, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and Laura Elise Schwendinger who composed a movement dedicated to Desirée in "Violinists In My Life."
Ruhstrat was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and began her studies at Milwaukee Conservatory of Music. Her distinguished pedagogues include Betty Haag, Harold Wippler and Josef Gingold. Desirée is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with the reknowned violinist Aaron Rosand.
Ruhstrat's impressive discography includes the Stamitz Duo for Violin and Viola for Centaur Records, the Ravel Duo for Violin and Cello for Albany Records, a 2013 GRAMMY nominated NAXOS release Annelies, based on the Diary of Anne Frank and multiple recordings with the Black Oak Ensemble and Lincoln Trio including 2017 GRAMMY nominated "Trio's From our Homelands" and the 2024 LATIN GRAMMY nominated "Fantasies of Buenos Aires."
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A passionate teacher, Ruhstrat's students are prize winners of national and international competitions and members of professional orchestras worldwide. Ruhstrat has been on Faculty at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and currently is on the Violin Faculty of Northwestern's Bienen School of Music. In 2014, Ruhstrat was awarded the American String Teachers Association Illinois Outstanding Studio Teacher Award. ​
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Ruhstrat plays on a 1685 Goffredo Cappa violin on generous loan.
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Aurélien Fort Pederzoli
French-born violinist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli has quickly risen to be known as one of Chicago’s most creative and sought-after collaborators. Aurelien is a graduate of the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with world-renowned teacher Jean Lenert. He then attended the Bern Hochschule, Switzerland, where he was in the master class of Prof. Monika Urbaniak and received guidance from Prof. Igor Ozim.
In 2002, he was invited to study in Chicago with Shmuel Ashkenasi. He received a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance studying under Ilya Kaler as well as Marc Zinger. In 2008, Aurelien founded the Anaphora Ensemble, a chamber music ensemble, which appeared frequently on national radio and performed in eclectic places, from the green mill to symphony hall. From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Pederzoli was first violinist of the Corky Siegel Chamber Blues band and toured nationally and internationally with them.
From 2009 until 2014, Aurelien was one of the violinists, and founding member, of the Spektral Quartet, in residence at the University of Chicago. Aurélien Fort Pederzoli started teaching when he was eleven and has kept teaching privately throughout his career. His students are graduates of the Paris and Lyon Conservatoires, Yale university, University of Michigan as well as the Cleveland institute of music. He has coached chamber music privately and at the university of Chicago and teaches at New Music School since 2013.
