(Coach: Desiree Ruhstrat)

Herah Kim, violin
Rachel Goldberg, violin
Sean Yeh, piano
Gabriel Cabezas, cello

Bronze Medal Winner
2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition
(Notre Dame University, South Bend, IN)
BAM quartet was the youngest winner of a medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The quartet was invited to the “From the Top” radio program and the recording was broadcast on Jan. 1, 2006 on WFMT 98.7 in Chicago area. Other performances include “Classics for Kids” at the Chicago Cultural Center (Nov. 27), “Mostly Music Series” of the Northeastern Illinois University (Apr. 30, 2006), and “Music in The Loft” (Mar. 2007). Their performance was heard locally on WFMT.

Rachel Goldberg, age 15, began studying violin at the age of 3 and viola at age 12. Rachel’s many accomplishments include performing for Isaac Stern, Former First Lady Barbara Bush, Fox TV’s Christmas Glory, and cable TV’s Music 101. She has performed as a guest soloist in Rachel Barton’s Music Everywhere Summer Series, WFMT’s Introductions program, and with the New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami, Florida. Rachel has been a member of the Magical Strings of Youth, the Metropolis Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Music Institute’s Advanced Orchestra, and has served as concertmaster of the Midwest Young Artists Concert Orchestra. She is also a member of the BAM Quartet which was awarded the Bronze Medal at the 2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Rachel has also appeared on National Public Radio’s From The Top program and in The Young Steinway Concert Series. Rachel has been the recipient of numerous awards including 1st place in the junior division of the Harper College Young Artist Competition, 1st place in The Chicago Viola Society’s Solo Competition, and was the 2005 1st place junior division laureate of the Sphinx Competition. Rachel’s upcoming performances include New York City’s Carnegie Hall with the Sphinx Chamber Music Orchestra. Rachel studies violin and viola with Desiree Ruhstrat at the Music Institute of Chicago. Rachel is a homeschooled sophomore, and enjoys math and science.

Herah Kim, 14 years old, studies violin with Ms. Desiree Ruhstrat at the Music Institute of Chicago. She has received numerous awards and prizes from competitions such as the Society of American Musicians, Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, Sejong Music Competition and Strings International Camp Concerto Competition. She was a recipient of the Merit Scholarship from the Music Institute of Chicago in 2004. Herah has performed with Rachel Barton and had the honor of performing for Isaac Stern at the 70th Anniversary Celebration of the Music Institute of Chicago. In 2004 summer she performed at a master class with David Kim at the Strings International Camp and performed as a soloist at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia . She is a member of BAM string quartet. Her quartet won a bronze medal at the 2005 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition in the junior division and later on appeared on many concert series including the “From the Top” of the National Public Radio program, Mostly Music series at NEIU and appeared on WFMT. Recently she performed "Baetaraghi for clarinet and string quartet" with John Bruce Yeh, Yumi Hwang-Williams, Sel Kardan and David Cunliffe at the "East Meets West -music with Korean themes" concert, a part of Silk Road Chicago project . She has published a novel and works on her second book in her spare time.

Sean Yeh (14 years) studies piano with Mr. Emilio del Rosario at the Music Institute of Chicago. Sean won many awards in piano competitions such as the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius Competition, the Steinway Society Competition, and the Society of American Musicians.  In the summer of 2005, Sean played at the master classes with Professors Pawel Skrzypek and Lee Kum-Sing, and later that year, was invited to perform at the 10th World Piano Pedagogy Conference in Anaheim, California.  Sean won the state and division level of the 2006 MTNA Baldwin Piano Competition and competed as one of the National Finalists at the MTNA Convention in Austin, Texas.  Sean has performed with concert pianist Alpin Hong at the Music Institute of Chicago’s 75th Anniversary Gala honoring violinist Midori.  Sean has performed throughout the Chicago area including Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center, Skokie Public Library (Young Steinway Concert Series), Chicago Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and WNIB radio.  Sean is also an accomplished chamber musician and is a member of the BAM Quartet.  The BAM Quartet won the bronze medal at the 2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and has performed on the From the Top radio show and at Skokie Public Library (Young Steinway Concert Series), WFMT, Music in the Loft and NEIU’s Mostly Music Concert Series.  Sean is a sophomore at Libertyville High School and enjoys math and computer programming.

Born in Chicago in 1992, Gabriel commenced his violoncello studies at age four. Gabriel is the Overall Performance Winner of the Midwest Young Artists Junior Division of the 2004 Walgreens National Competition, the Bronze Medal Winner of the Junior Division of the 2005 Fischoff Chamber Music National Competition, the Overall Performance Winner of the Midwest Young Artists Open Division of the 2005 Walgreens National Competition, the First Prize Laureate of the Junior Division of the 2006 Sphinx National Competition, and the Winner of the María Isabel Prieto Award of the Fifth International Violoncello Competition Carlos Prieto - 2006. Gabriel has made appearances on the National Public Radio (NPR) programs From The Top and Performance Today, and WFMT 98.7’s Introductions, as well as performances in Chicago ’s Music in the Loft and Northeastern Illinois University ’s Music Series. Also, he has performed for musicians including Andres Diaz, Paulo Lima, Bion Tsang, Anton Nel, William Molina, Asier Polo, Carlos Prieto, Philippe Müller and Aldo Parisot, among others. Gabriel’s upcoming musical engagements include solo performances with the New World Symphony, the Portland Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the Florida Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Chamber Orchestra and the Rackham Symphony Choir, in addition to chamber music appearances with Béla Fleck and the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. This year, Gabriel will release a compact disc with Portuguese pianist Alexandra Mascolo-David featuring a collection of Latin American pieces under the White Pine recording label. Gabriel studies under the direction of Professor Hans Jørgen Jensen in Chicago and Meadowmount, and attends the ninth grade at the New Trier Township High School .

BAM Quartet Program:

1. String Quartet No. 2  - - - - - - Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
III. Notturno: Andante

2. String Quartet No. 8 (Op. 110) - - - - -  Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
II. Allegro molto  

(Rachel Goldberg & Herah Kim/ violin, Gabriel Cabezas/ cello, Sean Yeh/ viola )

3. Piano Quartet in E flat major (Op.47) - - - - -  Robert Schumann (1810 -1856)
 III. Andante cantabile

4. Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor (Op.25) - - - - - - Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)           
IV. Rondo alla Zingarese. Presto

(Herah Kim/ violin, Rachel Goldberg/ viola, Gabriel Cabezas/ cello, Sean Yeh/ piano )

REBECCA BROWN, guitar

Born in Chicago, Illinois, 14-year-old Rebecca Brown showed her interests in music at a very early age, when she was 18 months old she would hum the whole entire Nutcracker Suite. Rebecca started her musical studies at this age through the Suzuki-Orff Baby Steps Program and at 4 years old started formal guitar lessons with Julia Miller.

At age 9, Rebecca was featured on the national radio program “From the Top” as one of the youngest guitarist ever featured on the program. One year later, she received a call from the programs producers about an upcoming film in which Paramount Pictures was looking for classical guitarists. When the film's five-month casting process began, producers and directors all agreed to cast children who were already trained musicians. That's when they turned to From the Top and Rebecca. She was cast for the role of Katie the bassist of the band in the movie, School of Rock.

An "Artist of Tomorrow Gifted Scholars Award" recipient at the Music Institute of Chicago, was also featured in the Young Steinway Series in December 2003. She has had numerous master classes with Jason Vieaux, Joseph Pecoraro, Seth Himmelhoch and David Madsen. She has also received countless "Merit Scholarship Awards" at the Music Institute and was featured on WFMT's "Introductions" Program.

Rebecca is pursuing a musical career as she is currently studying guitar, voice and musical theatre. Her biggest aspirations include singing on Broadway and winning the ultimate award, a Grammy.