Program and Artist Biography

Cellist Douglas McNames has become a favorite of audiences with a varied repertoire spanning three centuries. Mr. McNames toured in the United States and abroad as a member of the award-winning Delos Quartet, and he is a regular substitute player with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. McNames is principal cellist of the Carmel Bach Festival and enjoys a busy schedule of performing with such ensembles as Brandywine Baroque, Melanomie, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. He appears with many chamber groups including the Mid-Atlantic Chamber Music Society, Pro Musica Rara, and the Rider String Quartet. Mr. McNames has been a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and the Cassela Quartet, winner of the 1983 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Awarded the 1995 Delaware State Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, Mr. McNames can be heard on the Spectrum, Etcetera, Centaur, and Epiphany labels, playing both modern and period instruments. 

Steven Silverman has performed extensively in solo, chamber, and concerto appearances throughout the United States on both piano and harpsichord; he has appeared at the Amherst Baroque Academy, Boston Early Music Festival, and in Washington, D.C., at the The Phillips Collection, the Corcoran Gallery of Art , and Grace Church Bach Festival. In addition to the standard repertory, he has given acclaimed performances of rarely heard works such as both of Charles Ives' piano sonatas, the complete Goyescas of Granados, Elliott Carter's piano sonata, and Manuel de Falla's harpsichord concerto. Mr. Silverman holds bachelor and master of music degrees from the University of Michigan. His teachers include Eugene Bossart, Charles Crowder, Arthur Haas, Ann Schein, and Andrejz Wasowski. Mr. Silverman, along with Mr. McNames, is a member of the ArcoVoce Chamber Ensemble, unique in performing on both period and modern instruments and including vocal music as an integral part of its chamber music performances.