Artists

Executive and Artistic Director of Viridian Strings, cellist Kyle Stachnik is Professor of Cello at California State University, Sacramento, where he teaches applied cello and chamber music. He is also the Fourth Chair Cellist of the Santa Rosa Symphony and Assistant Principal Cellist of the Bay Philharmonic, maintaining an active orchestral and chamber performance career throughout Northern California. Stachnik holds a Master’s degree in Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Jennifer Culp, and a Bachelor of Music from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, studying under Ross Harbaugh. He is an alumnus of Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied with Crispin Campbell. As a performer, he has appeared with ensembles including the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, Opera San José, Vallejo Festival Orchestra, and SF Broadway, and has recorded at Skywalker Sound, and appears on a Deutsche Grammophon release with the New Century Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician and presenter, Stachnik co-founded Viridian Strings, a summer chamber music series in Northern Michigan that presents solo recitals and chamber concerts featuring artists from across the world. In addition to his appointment at Sacramento State, he is also Professor of Cello at Pacific Union College in Angwin, CA, and maintains a private teaching studio. He performs on a 2018 Raymond Schryer cello with a John Greenwood bow.

Since 2023, violist Joseph Skerik has been a member of the Vega String Quartet, holding a permanently-endowed residency at the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and serving on faculty at Emory University and Oxford campus. As a member of the Vega Quartet, Joseph has recently made recordings of commissions by Emily Koh and David Gardner for PBS and collaborated with artists such as the Juilliard Quartet, Zuill Bailey, Gloria Chien Jon Kimura Parker, Aloysia Friedman, Mark and Maggie O’Connor, David Coucheron, Ettore Causa and Amy-Schwartz Moretti and has appeared at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, The National Gallery in Washington D.C. in venues in Charlotte, Raleigh, Mexico, Atlanta, New York, Memphis, Maine, Washington, Texas and Alaska. Joseph is also invited as guest violist on series and festivals such as the Highlands-Cashiers Festival, Newport Classical, Dame Myra Hess Concerts, Rush Hour Concerts, Montecito International Music Festival, Tallgrass Chamber Music Festival, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, Vivace Foundation International Music Festival and the Lake George Music Festival and has also appeared on numerous tours for the Heifetz Institute, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician.Before his current appointment Joseph attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, Cleveland Institute of Music, Paris Conservatory and the Yale School of Music, studying with Renee Skerik, David Holland, Jeffrey Irvine, Jean Sulem, Marc Desmons and Ettore Cause. His solo and chamber music accolades include the Yale School of Music’s Broadus Erle Prize in Chamber Music, 3rd Prize in the Oskar Nedbal Viola Competition in Prague, 2nd Prize in the American Viola Society Competition in Los Angeles and a National YoungArts Merit Violist award. Joseph was also a long-time attendee of the Perlman Music Program and has completed additional studies at the festivals of Aspen, Ravinia, Kronberg Academy (Chamber Music Connects the World,) Schiermonikoog, Four Seasons Chamber Music Workshop and the Heifetz Institute Ashkenasi-Kirshbaum Seminar. Joseph was also recently invited to the Open Chamber Music series (OCM) in Prussia Cove for performances.  As a teacher, Joseph maintains an undergraduate viola studio at Emory University, where he also coaches chamber music on the college level and at the high-school level through the Vega Youth Chamber Program. Joseph is also currently serving as director of chamber music studies at Emory’s Oxford College. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reciepient of the 2026 Avery Fisher Career Grant, winner of the 2023 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and major prize winner at the 2022 Sibelius and Singapore International Violin Competitions, violinist Nathan Meltzer is establishing a holistic and multi-faceted career as both a soloist and chamber musician, with passions for both standard and contemporary  repertoire. 

Nathan has performed as a soloist with major orchestras around the world. He has performed with the  Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Finnish  RSO, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Aalborg, Alabama, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Montréal, North  Carolina, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, among others, performing across Europe, Asia, and North  and South America. 

As a recitalist and chamber musician, Nathan has performed at the Chamber Music Society of Palm  Beach, Dresden Musikfestspiele, Hawaii Concert Society, Heidelberger Frühling, Honolulu Chamber  Music Series, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Kallos Chamber Music Series, Merkin Hall, New  Canaan Chamber Music, Parlance Chamber Concerts, Princeton Sound Kitchen, and Midori’s Partners in  Performance, and at festivals including ChamberFest Cleveland, IMS Prussia Cove, Krzyzowa Music, La  Jolla SummerFest, the Montreal and Moritzburg Chamber Music Festivals, Music@Menlo’s International  Program, Newport Classical, the Ravinia Festival Institute, the Perlman Music Program, the Verbier  Festival Academy, and Yellow Barn.  

He is also the co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Green Room Ensemble, a non-profit chamber  music organization dedicated to new music and historically unexplored works by composers from a  variety of backgrounds and heritages. Nathan is a graduate from the Juilliard School, where he studied  with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin.

Umi Garrett is a highly accomplished solo and chamber pianist, having performed numerous solo and chamber recitals in the United States and internationally. Most recently, she performed at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall as part of the Elysian Trio with Stephen Williamson and John Sharp, performing a program of clarinet trios, and performed a solo recital at the Dame Myra Hess Series. She has performed regularly through presenters such as the Clark Art Institute, CSO Chamber Music, and the Chopin Foundation of the United States. Umi has performed and toured with orchestras such as the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony and Pops, Symphony Boca Raton, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Wuhan Symphony Orchestra, and the New Mexico Philharmonic. 

Umi was awarded first prize at The Juilliard School's Concerto Competition, fourth prize at the 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition, and awarded the John Newmark Prize for Best Collaborative Pianist for her performances with finalist Nathan Meltzer at the 2023 Montreal International Violin Competition. She has also collaborated with prize-winners at renowned competitions such as the Queen Elisabeth Competition for Violin, Primrose International Viola Competition, the Naumburg International Cello Competition, and the Sphinx Competition. Umi has worked as a collaborative pianist and coach at the Yale School of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music. During the summers, she is a Staff Collaborative Pianist for the Program for Piano and Strings at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, under the leadership of Artistic Director Midori. 

Umi has released three solo albums and released a debut chamber album in 2024 of the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas under PARMA Recordings. Umi is a recent graduate of the Artist Diploma program at the Juilliard School, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees under the tutelage of Hung-Kuan Chen, Shai Wosner, and Matti Raekallio. Umi is a Young Steinway Artist.

American double bassist Nina Bernat, acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth and technical clarity, has carved out a distinctive career as a soloist, redefining the role of her instrument on the world stage. She was hailed by the Star Tribune as a “standout” for her recent concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, praising her performance as “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical… technically precise and impressively emotive.”

In 2023, Nina was awarded both the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize at the Concert Artists Guild Elmaleh Competition. Her recent accolades also include top prizes at the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. She has given New York recital debuts at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Hall and has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra.

Engaged in all aspects of double bass performance, she has been invited to perform as guest principal bassist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic, serving under the batons of conductors such as András Schiff and Osmo Vänskä. She can also be heard performing with New York-based chamber orchestra Sejong Soloists.

Widely recognized for her compelling presence in chamber music settings, Nina is a member of the Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has appeared at renowned festivals such as Marlboro Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Northwest, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.

She is quickly becoming a sought-after pedagogue, having given masterclasses at the Colburn School, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, University of Texas at Austin among others. She currently serves on the faculty of Stony Brook University. 

Nina performs on an instrument passed down from her father, Mark Bernat, attributed to Guadagnini.

Born in 2001, American violinist Claire Wells captivates audiences with a sound that speaks straight from her heart. Solo concert engagements have brought her to halls like the Wigmore Hall, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Bass Performance Hall, Teatro Degollado, and Konzerthaus Berlin, and the American violinist has collaborated with major symphonies such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic, the Jalisco Philharmonic, among others. 

Claire has taken major prizes from international competitions such as the Indianapolis, Michael Hill, and Sibelius competitions, and was the First Prize and Commission Prize winner at the Felix Mendelssohn Competition 2021. Claire was the 2023 violin scholarship winner of the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund and just recently won the 2025 Young Concert Artist management auditions. 

Having always held a special place in her heart for chamber music, Claire has been invited to perform at several international festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Connects the World, the Gstaad Festival, Krzyzowa Festival and the Verbier Festival. Claire has the pleasure of frequently collaborating with some of the worlds’ top young musicians, as well as sharing the stage with world renowned musicians such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Anders Tomter, Steven Isserlis, Enrico Pace, amongst others. 

Since 2022, Claire Wells has studied with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy, made possible by the Opel/Dr. Schaefer patronage. Claire plays on a Nicolo Amati and a Grand Adam bow, on loan from a generous donor.