Salina raised musicians coming home to help continue the legacy of their father, Eric Stein and mother Valentine Stein
Violinist Edmund Stein is a member of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, California Chamber Orchestra, and adjunct faculty at the University of San Diego and served as Concertmaster of the San Diego Opera Orchestra. He performs duo recitals with cellist brother Rudolph, and is active in various chamber music projects in Southern California. He has performed string quartets for Mainly Mozart, Olympic and Bear Valley Music Festivals, the San Diego Chamber Music Workshop and has coached and performed chamber music throughout the United States and internationally. He was a member of the Thouvenel String Quartet, touring in the United States, Europe and China and has participated in sound recordings for the film industry, television, commercials, and various pop artists.
Mr. Stein was born and raised in Salina, Kansas, began studying with his father, Eric Stein, at the age of five. He continued his studies with area Kansas instructors in Salina, Manhattan, and Wichita. Participating in the string orchestra program in the public schools, he also played in the Salina Youth Symphony and the Salina Civic Orchestra (now the Salina Symphony) under his father. Later, with encouragement from his mother, Valentine Stein, he graduated high school from the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he was a Concerto Competition winner. He then earned a Bachelor of Music degree in performance and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and a Master of Music degree in performance from Northwestern University. During the summers, he studied at the Interlochen National Music Camp, Meadowmount and Chautauqua Music Festival.
Rudolph Stein is a member of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and works as a cellist in the Los Angeles recording industry. Before moving to California, he was principal cellist of the Charleston (WV) Symphony and prior to that, principal cellist of the Shreveport (LA) Symphony and was a member of their resident string quartets. He has occasionally served as principal cello of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Opera Pacific, the Mozart Classical Orchestra, the San Diego Chamber Orchestra and the California Chamber Orchestra. He has played with the San Diego Symphony and had obtained other orchestra positions including section cello in the Wichita Symphony. While a student in Cleveland, he was a member of the Akron Symphony, Canton Symphony and Youngstown Symphony.
As a Chamber Musician, Mr. Stein has performed over National Radio and Television. He has also toured many parts of the United States, Europe and Latin America. He currently performs with his brother Edmund as a violin-cello duo and other various ensembles. His chamber music mentors include Arnold Steinhart of the Guarneri String Quartet, Koichiro Harada of the Tokyo String Quartet, Members of the Cleveland Quartet, Lillian Fuchs and members and former members of the Cleveland Orchestra.
He has attended and served as principal cello at many events and festivals including the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Beethoven Society tour to New York’s Lincoln Center, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC and Spoleto Italy, the Classical Music Seminar at Vienna-Eisenstadt, Austria and the Aspen Music Festival where he was awarded a chamber music fellowship.
Rudolph Stein was born and raised in Salina, Kansas. His successful musical career is, in a very large part, a product of the Salina’s musically nurturing culture. His public school teachers, Curt Engwicht and Bob Edwards, were members of the Salina Civic Orchestra (Salina Symphony) and were major influences in many young musicians at the time. Both the Salina Youth Orchestra and Civic Orchestra (now the Salina Symphony) were founded by Rudolph Stein’s parents, Eric Stein and Valentine Stein. His father Eric Stein was also the conductor of the Youth Symphony and Civic Orchestra and was Rudolph Stein’s, and countless others’ greatest musical influence.
Mr. Stein is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy High School and has both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has served as Professor of Cello at the University of Charleston has taught privately throughout his career. Currently, Mr. Stein teaches privately in Mission Viejo – Orange county, California and teaches virtually to students online around the world. He also works as a cello coach in a number of his local schools and has served as an High School Orchestra Festival adjudicator.
Dr. Leonardo (Ottoni do) Rosario is KWU’s director of strings. Leonardo began his violin studies with Sibila Schelin, studying later with Cecilia Guida and Ayrton Pinto. He participated in masterclasses with Leon Spier and Lorenz Nasturica (Berliner Philharmoniker Orchester), Lavard Skou-Larsen (Universitat Mozarteum, Austria), Renata Kubala (Symfoniorkester Trondheim, Norway) and Gerardo Ribeiro (Northwestern University, Chicago).
He was a member of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA) from 2003 to 2005 and principal second violin during the first season, touring around nine countries in North, Central and Southern America. Leonardo has also been a member of the São Paulo University (USP) Chamber Orchestra (concertmaster), São Paulo University State University (UNESP) Chamber Orchestra and Experimental Repertoire Orchestra, also attending the “Festival Internacional de Campos do Jordão” (International Festival of Campos do Jordão) in 1999, 2000 and 2005. In those orchestras, he worked under the baton of Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Dudamel among others.
In 2008 he accomplished his Master degree with full scholarship at the Boston Conservatory in Irina Muresanu ́s studio and performed as soloist with the Conservatory Orchestra on two occasions, presenting the Violin Concerto by Brahms and the Triple Concerto by Beethoven. While in America, he was selected as a member of the Honors Quartet at The Boston Conservatory, a group that won second prize in the International Chamber Music Competition of the Chamber Music Foundation of the New England. Yet, during this period, he studied with Mela Tenenbaum in New York.
After graduating, back in Brazil, he was a member of Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra until 2015, founder and manager of Camerata Pampulha Chamber Group and member of the Othello Quartet . He returned to the United States to complete his doctorate degree from University of North Carolina – Greensboro with Fabian Lopez and served as the Assistant Concertmaster of the Fayette (NC) Symphony.