Sibylle Johner, cellist, has performed
extensively throughout North America and Europe. Of a performance in
Switzerland, the Landbote wrote, "whenever her eloquent cello spoke,
one would suddenly pay attention, and immediately it became clear that
a true artist was at work on this instrument."
Deeply committed to chamber music, Ms. Johner has been a member of the
Damocles Trio since 1996. Recent trio performances have included an
appearance on the Salisbury State University of Maryland Concert Series,
a celebration of the music of Ernesto Halffter at the Third Street Music
School Settlement, a performance at the 2000 Chamber Music America Conference
in New York City, an all-Spanish concert at Merkin Concert Hall, a program
of new music by Spanish composers on the North River Music series at
the Greenwich House Music School, and participation in the inaugural
event of the Foundation for Iberian Music at the City University of
New York's Graduate Center in honor of Alicia de Larrocha. Many of the
trio's Spanish-themed projects have won the support of the Consulate
General of Spain, Instituto Cervantes, and the King Juan Carlos I Center
at NYU.
Ms. Johner also was principal cellist in productions of “Le Nozze
di Figaro” and “Don Giovanni” at the Caramoor Center
for Music and Arts and plays baroque cello regularly on the BachWorks
series directed by Anthony Newman. Recent Merkin Hall apperances on
baroque cello include concerts with harpsichordist Bradley Brookshire,
soprano Dana Hanchard and countertenor Bejun Mehta. Recent performances
include recitals for Ohio Wesleyan University, the Embassy Series in
Washington DC and a solo appearance with the New York Repertory Orchestra.
Ms. Johner is the string department chair person and a faculty member
at the Third Street Music School Settlement in NYC. In the summer she
taught at the Milwaukee Chamber Music Festival of the University of
Wisconsin and the MidAmerica Chamber Music Institute at the Ohio Wesleyan
University in Delaware, OH.
She is a winner of both the Drake and Zurich Conservatory soloist competitions
and recipient of the Dienemann, Ernst Göhner, and Eubie Blake Scholarship
Awards. She has studied music in Freiburg, Germany, the Zurich Conservatory,
Rutgers University, Drake University, and The Juilliard School, where
she was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts degree.
Among Ms. Johner’s teachers have been R.C. Baumberger, Marçal
Cervera, Walter Grimmer, Bernard Greenhouse, Stefan Kartman, and Harvey
Shapiro. She has studied chamber music with members of the Melos and
Juilliard Quartets, Jerome Lowenthal, Felix Galimir, Joseph Fuchs, Myron
Kartman, Samuel Sanders, Seymour Lipkin, Theodore Lettvin and Janos
Starker.
She participated in the Curso Internacional de Música in Tarragona,
Spain, worked with renowned pianist Felix Lavilla at the XVII Curso
Manuel de Falla in Granada, and has three years of training in Flamenco
dance, including master classes with Manuel Moreno.
In the past, Ms. Johner has been a founding member of the Medici Piano
Trio, the Botticelli Duo, and the Modigliani Quartet. In 2001 she founded
Catnap Treadmill with her husband, saxophonist Phil Greene. Of a Mozart
Quintet performance, the Delaware Gazette wrote, “the pivot, or
focus, was the cello, and the interplay between Johner and the others
was a delight to behold. It was music-making of the highest order.”
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