Faculty
Music Director
Yohei Sato 
“From the very first rehearsal, Mr. Sato showed a high professionalism and talent. He creates very comfortable atmosphere in the group and it helps the musicians to focus on the musical goals.” - Sergey Antonov, 2007 Gold Medalist of the Tchaikovsky Competition
Mr. Sato debuted as a conductor in 2002 leading the Quincy Symphony Orchestra at their pops concert. He was appointed as an assistant conductor of the Sharon Chamber Orchestra in 2003, directed the Showa College Chorus in 2004 and 2005, Wellesley College Japan Club Chorus from 2005 to 2007, and Chorus Boston from 2003 to 2009. For the 2003 winter concert of Chorus Boston, Mr. Sato recruited a chamber orchestra to perform with the group for the first time in its history, with a special guest appearance by the consul general of Japan. Mr. Sato was selected as the musical director and conductor for the Cambridge Tsukuba Sister City 20th Anniversary Concert benefiting the Indonesian tsunami relief effort featuring the cellist Mickey Kats from Boston Symphony Orchestra, pianist Victor Rosenbaum and the former director of Longy School of Music. Mr. Sato also served as the assistant conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2009, performing at Jordan Hall in New England Conservatory. Additionally, he has appeared as the conductor of Melrose Symphony Orchestra, The Boston Conservatory Orchestra, Parkway Concert Orchestra, and Cambridge Symphony Orchestra.
Since its founding in 2007, Mr. Sato has been holding the conductor and music director position for the Boston Chamber Orchestra (BCO), and the group has been actively performing in the New England area with the guest artists including, Sergey Anotonov (Tchaikovsky Gold Medal in 2007). The following year, Mr. Sato founded Youth & Muse, an international summer music festival providing opportunities and lessons by world-class instructors for young and talented musicians at The Boston Conservatory. In the summer of 2011, the Youth & Muse will be held in Japan to continue its fame as a high quality music festival for young musicians in the world.
Aside from his career as a classical music conductor, Mr. Sato has been serving as the conductor and music director of Video Game Orchestra, which consists of chamber orchestra, choir, and a rock band, since the beginning of 2009. The group has enjoyed successful concerts around the Boston area including a concert at Berklee Performance Center in the prestigious Berklee College of Music for the sold out concert with over 1,200 roaring audience and earned him a remark “It’s rare you see a symphony orchestra rock the house.” The group and Mr. Sato been featured at many events, such as Anime Boston and PAX East as well as on the media, NECN, The Boston Globe, and many local presses.
In 2010, Mr. Sato was invited to conduct the Bartok Piano Concerto with the National Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Albania in Albania. In addition, he was selected as one of the semi-finalists of the American Prize Conducting Competition. Invited by Jorma Panula, Mr. Sato had an honor to attend the International Conducting Masterclass in Holland. In Addition, Mr. Sato joined the Music Committee of the USA International Music Competition.
Since 2011, Mr. Sato has been started the project for Tohoku Earthquake to provide the donation from the world. The first concert will be the Prague Chamber Orchestra for “The Charity Concert for the Orphans of Japan Disaster” in Czech Republic in November. Mr. Sato holds a bachelor's degree in oboe performance and a master's degree in orchestral conducting from The Boston Conservatory. He has studied conducting with maestro Bruce Hangen.
Guest Artist
Bruce Hangen (Chamber Music, Guest Artist) 
Bruce Hangen was appointed in May 2003 as Director of orchestral
activities at The Boston Conservatory. Mr. Hangen has also served as
Principal Pops Guest Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Mr. Hangen is also now in his 11th season as the Music Director of the Indian Hill Symphony, having been appointed in 1997. He also remains active as the Artistic and General Director of the Portland Opera Repertory Theatre (P.O.R.T.) of Portland, Maine. For twelve years (1984-96), Mr. Hangen was Music Director of the Omaha (Nebraska) Symphony. Under his direction, the Omaha Symphony achieved recognition for its significantly expanded program offerings. Previous positions have included posts at the Utah and Kansas City Symphony Orchestras; the Portland (Maine) Symphony; the Denver Symphony; the Arapahoe Chamber Orchestra in Denver; the Colorado Philharmonic (now the National Repertory Orchestra); the Syracuse Symphony; the Buffalo Philharmonic; and as Faculty Conductor at the Eastman School of Music.
Mr. Hangen maintains an active schedule of guest conducting. Recent appearances have included concerts with the Florida Philharmonic and Boston Symphony, as well as the orchestras of St. Louis, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Houston. His repeat engagements with the Boston Pops and Boston Pops Esplanade orchestras alone now total well over 200 performances since 1979. Mr. Hangen has also guest conducted orchestras in Japan, Canada, Taiwan, and New Zealand, as well as opera companies in Chicago, Fargo, and Tacoma. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music with a major in conducting, Mr. Hangen was also a conducting fellow at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood for two summers, where his conducting teachers included Gunther Schuller, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, Michael TilsonThomas, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Bruno Maderna, and Joseph Silverstein. Mr. Hangen is the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the University of New England, and in Omaha he received the ICAN Foundation's 1990 Browning Award for Career Excellence and Vision.
Peter Zazofsky (Violin, Guest Artist) 
Peter Zazofsky is first violinist of the Muir String Quartet and an internationally recognized soloist, chamber musician and educator. Winner of numerous prizes and awards, he has performed worldwide with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, and many others. His first teacher was Boston Symphony concertmaster Joseph Silverstein and he went on to study with Jaime Laredo, Arnold Steinhardt and Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Zazofsky grew up in Newton and attended Newton Public Schools. His father was assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony.
Starting in 1974, Mr. Zazofsky won a series of prizes and awards, culminating in the Grand Prize of the 1979 Montreal International Competition and second prize at the 1980 Queen Elizabeth Contest in Brussels. These honors led to appearances with orchestras all over the world.
In recent years Peter Zazofsky has explored new repertoire, premiering works written for him by composers in Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Spain.
Currently he is Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Boston University.
Michelle LaCourse (Viola, Guest Artist) 
Michelle LaCoursehas appeared as soloist and chamber musician on four continents, including recent performances in Italy, Spain, Brazil, and South Korea. Her playing has been described by critics in such terms as “a miraculous blend of intense passion and artistic elegance” and “has a mastery of the instrument like a sixth sense, and with it reveals to us the most profound secrets.” An enthusiastic advocate for new viola repertoire, she has also commissioned and premiered several new pieces for the instrument. Her recent recording, “Chocolates: Music for Viola and Piano by James Grant” was released by MSR Classics (msrcd.com/1335) in spring of 2009 to rave reviews.
Ms. LaCourse was formerly a member of the Lehigh Quartet, the Delphic String Trio and the Aeolian Trio. She has performed at numerous festivals such as Aspen, Eastern, Interlochen, Skaneateles, Musicorda, the Heifetz Institute, and the International Festivals of Campos do Jordão, Brazil, of Positano, Italy, and of Vianden, Luxembourg, as well as at some of the world’s leading concert venues, such as Vienna’s Musikverein, Berlin’s Kammermusiksaal and Washington’s Kennedy Center. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with the Baltimore Symphony and the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and was formerly principal violist of the Chamber Orchestra of Grenoble France.
She holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where she studied with, and was for many years teaching assistant to renowned pedagogue Karen Tuttle. Ms. LaCourse currently teaches viola at Boston University’s School of Music, where she is also Chair of the String Department. She was recently awarded BU’s 2009 Metcalf Cup and Prize, the university’s highest honor for excellence in teaching. She has given master classes at music schools across the United States, and during the summer months she also teaches and performs at the annual Karen Tuttle Viola Workshops and at BU’s Tanglewood Institute. Many of her former students currently enjoy playing and teaching positions around the globe.
Andrew Mark (Cello, Guest Artist) 
Cellist Andrew Mark is an active member of Boston's classical
music community. He performs and records with such groups as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra.
As a concerto soloist, Mr. Mark has performed with the Florida Philharmonic, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, the New Hampshire Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra of Japan, and with several orchestras in the Boston area. In 1988, Mr. Mark was the first place winner of the United States Artistic Ambassador Competition and has since performed recitals and given master classes throughout the United States, Europe, South and Central America, and the Far East. In 1993, Mr. Mark was winner of the silver medal at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan. He has been a guest artist at several summer music festivals including the Newport Music Festival, the Contemporary Music Festival at Tanglewood, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Chautauqua Festival, June in Buffalo, Florida International Festival, and the Castle Hill Festival. He has recorded for New World, Koch, Albany, Dorian, CRI, Ongaku, and Neuma Recordings.
Mr. Mark continues an ongoing commitment to teaching and is a member of the music faculties of the New England Conservatory Prep Division, the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and The Boston Conservatory where he serves as Chair of the String Department. His students have won prizes in nearly every Boston area youth solo competition including the Boston Symphony Youth Solo Competition and have won top honors in the American String Teachers Association Competitions both at the state and national levels. His students have also won fellowships to study at prestigious festivals such as Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival.
Jonathan Bass (Piano, Guest Artist) 
Pianist Jonathan Bass appears frequently throughout the United States as soloist and chamber musician. He has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall on three occasions, and the North Carolina Symphony at the Appalachian Summer Festival. He gave his New York debut at Weill Hall as First Prize winner of the 1993 Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition, and has given recitals in Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Miami and many other U.S. cities, as well as in Mallorca, Moscow, Tel Aviv and Warsaw. Collaborative highlights include a guest appearances with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players at Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and two recitals with violinist Joseph Silverstein, in Salt Lake City and in Boston’s Jordan Hall. He has performed extensively as the pianist of the Walden Chamber Players, founded in 1997. Playing orchestral keyboard for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he has performed at Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and on two European tours. His other awards include First Prize in the American Pianists Association Competition, and First Prize in the American National Chopin Competition. Jonathan Bass is a graduate of the Juilliard School and he holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University. He was Piano Chair of the Boston University School of Music from 2006 to 2008. A faculty member at the Boston Conservatory since 1993, he was appointed Chair of the Piano Department in 2008.
Matthew Ruggiero (Bassoon, Guest Artist)
Born in Philadelphia, Matthew acquired his professional training in his native city at the Curtis Institute of Music. He spent five summers at the Marlboro Music Festival studyingand performing chamber music in collaboration with Rudolf Serkin and Marcel Moyse. After performing three years as second bassoonist of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., Matthew moved to Boston in 1961 to assume joint duties as assistant principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and second bassoonist of the Boston Pops. Several years later, Seiji Ozawa and Arthur Fiedler appointed him principal bassoonist of the Boston Pops Orchestra.
He toured the Soviet Union as a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, with whom he later recorded an album of Stravinsky’s chamber music. His recordings, in addition to those released by the Boston Symphony Orchestra during his tenure, include Mozart’s Grand Partita, under the direction of Marcel Moyse. In May of 1994, he was honored by an invitation to serve on the jury of the 19th International Competition for Wind Instruments in Toulon, France.
Matthew enjoys teaching young musicians, presides occasionally over Boston University’s Bassoon Workshop at its Tanglewood Institure, and travels to Asia every summer to help train members of the Asian Youth Orchestra. In 2003, he founded the Boston Woodwind Society, a non-profit organization whose mission includes creating training and performance opportunities for students of woodwind instruments, and raising funds for cash merit awards. He taught for thirty years at New England Conservatory of Music and continues to serve on the faculties of Boston University School of Music and Longy School of Music.
An inveterate student, Matthew holds degrees from Harvard University: a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, 1983; and a Master of Liberal Arts, 1987. Taking a sabbatical from his orchestral duties in 1988, he studied at Harvard’s Department of Romance Languages and earned a Master of Arts in Italian language and literature. After retiring from the Boston Symphony in 1989, he entered an interdisciplinary doctoral program through the University Professors Program at Boston University, where he had been designated University Scholar and Fellow. Upon completion of his doctoral studies at the age of sixty in May 1993, he received the University Professors Program Alumni Prize for his dissertation, which had been judged “best of the year.”
He has found time to teach interdisciplinary and Italian language courses at Clark University and to serve as teaching assistant to Harvard Professor Sue Weaver Schopf in the Extension School for her courses in poetry and literary criticism. Matthew is now a member of Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, where he teaches courses in literature and the arts.
Susan Jolles (Harp, Guest Artist) 
Founding member of the Naumburg Award winning Jubal Trio. Presently solo and principal harpist with the New York Chamber Symphony, the American Composer's Orchestra, the Little Orchestra Society, Musica Viva, and the Queens Symphony Orchestra. Associate member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Guest artist with New Jersey Chamber Music Society, New York Concert Singers. Former member of Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Group for Contemporary Music, Music Today, and the Juilliard Ensemble under Luciano Berio. Recordings with the Jubal Trio and others. Collaboration with Klezmer artist Glora Feidman, performances include appearances at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. Faculty at Manhattan School of Music. Faculty, Mannes College of Music since 1984.
