ABOUT THE ARTISTS

JAMESON COOPER, VIOLIN

Born in Sheffield, England, Jameson Cooper began studying the violin at age six. He went on to be Concertmaster of the National Youth Chamber Orchestra before earning a bachelor’s degree in violin and the Professional Performers Diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music. He continued his studies in the U.S. at the Aspen Music Festival with Dorothy Delay and Masao Kawasaki, then later with Roland and Almita Vamos. He holds master’s degrees in violin performance and in orchestral conducting from Kent State University. As a founding member of the Euclid Quartet (in residence at Indiana University South Bend and the Rocky Ridge Festival in Colorado), Cooper has won numerous prestigious competition prizes, an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, and performed to critical acclaim throughout the U.S. in such venues as Carnegie Hall, The Library of Congress and the National Gallery of Art. Cooper has also performed as soloist in major halls in Europe and the U.S. including most recently at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is the dedicatee of several new works for violin and has performed many premieres of solo and chamber works. Cooper has given master classes at universities and colleges throughout the U.S. He regularly serves as a judge for the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition senior strings division. His other commercial recordings include the Béla Bartók string quartets, and String Quartets Nos. 1-4 by Hugo Kauder, all as first violinist of the Euclid Quartet, and an album of contemporary solo violin repertoire. He plays a violin by Gregg Alf.

KETEVAN BADRIDZE, PIANO

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Ketevan Badridze is an award-winning classical pianist. Since her first performance with an orchestra at the age of ten, Badridze has appeared with Tbilisi National Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, and South Bend Symphony Orchestra. She is a seasoned performer of solo and chamber music in United States, Georgia, France, Austria, Holland, Italy and Germany. Her collaborations include performances with Lisa Batiashvili, Alexander Korsantia, Gregory Fulkerson as well as Euclid and Georgian National Quartets. Badridze is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, such as Newport International Piano Competition -UK, The World International Piano Competition – Cincinnati, New Orleans International Piano Competition, and the Bartok-Kabalevsky-Prokofiev International Piano Competition.  She received her Master of Music and Postgraduate degrees from Tbilisi State Conservatory and in 1993 she was appointed to the piano faculty there. In 2000, Ketevan moved to the United States to study with Professor Alexander Toradze. She has appeared with the Toradze Piano Studio at numerous music venues around Europe and the United States, including Columbia University in New-York, Wigmore Hall in London, Academia of Santa Cecilia in Rome, Settimane Musicali di Stresa e del Lago Maggiore and Ravenna Festival in Italy, Ruhr Keyboard Festival in Germany, and the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival as a part of “World Rising Stars” series broadcast on the National Public Radio (NPR). Since 2005, Badridze has been a Senior Lecturer of music at Indiana University at South Bend.