Faculty
Alla Aranovskaya
Ms. Alla Aranovskaya is the founding first violinist of the Grammy-nominated St. Petersburg String Quartet, and has been intensively touring throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Her many honors include a Grammy nomination, “Best Record” in both Stereo Review and Gramophone magazines, and top prizes at several international chamber music competitions including Melbourne, Australia (1991); Tokyo, Japan (1989); and Florence, Italy (1989).
Highlights of her career include performances at Lincoln Center, Library of Congress, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London Wigmore Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Dublin National Concert Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Great Hall and appearance at such festivals as Luzern (Switzerland), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), MIMO (Brazil), Buxton (England), Fishguard (Wales), Music Mountain, Rockport, Mainly Mozart in San Diego, and many more. She has recently collaborated with such internationally renowned artists as Leon Fleisher, Michael Tree, Peter Donohoe, and Misha Dichter. Alla Aranovskaya is also a member of the St. Petersburg Piano Quartet that debuted in New York in May 2014.
In 2014, Ms. Aranovskaya initiated a revival of one of the first violin competitions in the world; the Leopold Auer International Violin Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia. She’s been serving as a jury member of the competition since then.
Ms. Aranovskaya’s more than 30 years of teaching experience include professorships in St. Petersburg State Conservatory, Russia; Oberlin Conservatory, and Wichita State University, USA. Her students have won numerous prizes at national and international competitions. In addition, she regularly gives master classes and workshops around the world. Before launching a chamber music career, Ms. Aranovskaya was a member of the Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre under the direction of Yuri Temirkanov and Valery Gergiev.
Ms. Aranovskaya received her education at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and at the Rimsky-Korsakov Music College in St. Petersburg, Russia, where her primary teachers were Mark Komissarov, Wieniawsky Competition winner, and Vladimir Ovcharek, the first violinist of the Taneyev String Quartet. She was a prize winner of the All-Russian Violin Competition (1985).
Faculty
Ned Kellenberger
Ned recently returned to the US after working in Singapore as school principal and senior teacher of a private music academy. Before moving to Singapore he taught at Illinois College, the University of Illinois Springfield, and the Conservatory of Central Illinois. His students have won numerous recognitions, awards, and scholarships. Ned has performed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Altes Rathaus in Vienna, Lincoln Center, and the Mann Center in Philadelphia. He recently presented research on the Beethoven Violin Concerto at international conferences in Boston and Lucca, Italy, and he enjoys his work as a music critic for the American Record Guide.
Boris Vayner
Originally from Novosibirsk, Russia, Boris Vayner has been enjoying a diverse career in music as a violist, educator and conductor. As a member of the Grammy nominated St. Petersburg String Quartet since 2005, he has been intensively touring throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. The highlights of his career include performances at Lincoln Center, Library of Congress, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Dublin National Concert Hall, London King’s Place, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Great Hall, and appearances at such festivals as Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), MIMO (Brazil), Buxton (England), Fishguard (Wales), Music Mountain, Newport, Rockport, and Mainly Mozart in San Diego, among others. Boris Vayner has collaborated with such internationally renowned artists as Leon Fleisher, Michael Tree, Peter Donohoe, David Shifrin, Misha Dichter, and Stephanie Chase. He has also been a member of the St. Petersburg Piano Quartet that debuted in New York in May 2014.
Boris Vayner has joined the faculty of the University of Kansas in August 2017. Prior to this, he served as an adjunct faculty and a member of the quartet-in-residence at the Wichita State University. He also served as a sabbatical replacement for the viola professor and the director of the Luther College Philharmonia at the Luther College, Decorah, for the spring semester 2013. Boris Vayner gave master classes at many educational institutions in the US and around the world, including San Francisco Conservatory, University of Toronto (Canada), UNAM (Mexico), Latvian National Academy, Astrakhan Conservatory (Russia), Stephen F. Austin State University, and Missouri State University. He has been on faculty at many international summer festivals, including St. Petersburg International Summer Academy, Newport Music Festival, Montecito Music Festival, Musica Mundi Festival, and Alion Baltic International Music Festival.
As a conductor, Boris Vayner has appeared with the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Hays Symphony Orchestra, University of Missouri Kansas City student orchestra, Luther College Philharmonia, and Uspensky School of Music student orchestra (Uzbekistan). He was a founder and a director of the Suprima Chamber Orchestra comprised of students of the Wichita State University. He successfully led the orchestra to performances in Russia, in 2012, and at the Barge Music in New York, in 2014. For the performance in New York the Suprima Chamber Orchestra collaborated with the conducting and violin prodigy, Jonathan Okseniuk.
Besides performing music, Boris Vayner is an avid arranger; his arrangement of Bach Chaconne for string quartet was performed live on BBC 3 radio station in London, in July 2012. In 2018, he was commissioned an arrangement of Florence Price Piano Concerto for piano and string quartet that was premiered the same year.
Boris Vayner holds Bachelor degrees from Novosibirsk Music College and Novosibirsk State University (majoring in mathematics), and Master degrees in viola performance from the St. Petersburg Conservatory and the New England Conservatory. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance.
Faculty
Sascha Groschang
Sascha is an active recitalist and chamber musician, having performed across the United States and Asia. She has appeared at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and gave her solo debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2009. She has shared the stage with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Michael Bublé, Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Sarah Mclachlan and has extensive recording experience, including sessions for NBC, Atlantic, and Rhino Records. As a freelance musician in and around Kansas City, Sascha is an avid performer and composer of new music, improv, non-classical styles and baroque cello. She frequently collaborates with groups such as the KC Chorale, Spire Chamber Ensemble, the New Theatre, Owen/Cox Dance Group, the Coterie Theatre, Quixotic Fusion, and Bach Aria Soloists. She is co-founder, co-composer and cellist of the string duo, “The Wires”, which explores unorthodox styles through original compositions (www.thewires.info). She also hosts the weekly new music show, “Sound Currents”, on 91.9 Classical KC.