Praised as “dazzling” (The New York Times), “expert and versatile” (The New Yorker), and “a fearless and inquisitive violinist” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Owen Dalby leads a rich musical life as a soloist, chamber musician, new and early music expert, orchestral concertmaster, and educator. As a member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Owen is Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University. With the St. Lawrence String Quartet, recent projects have included tours of all the major chamber series in North America and Europe, as well as solo debuts with the LA Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Philharmonic (Tokyo). After a recent performance, the Boston Musical Intelligencer remarked that "the player who left a deep impression was extroverted violinist Dalby, who played brilliantly and chops-wise, seemed to have all but left the other players in the dust."

Much in-demand as a soloist and collaborator for the first decade of his career in NYC, Owen was a 2010 graduate of Ensemble Connect, a joint fellowship program of Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School. He is now regularly invited to perform at festivals all over the world including both Spoleto Festivals (USA and Italy), Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Valley of the Moon Festival, Vid Djupid Festival, Yellow Barn, Music in the Vineyards, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and many others. In addition to maintaining a violin studio and co-directing the chamber music program at Stanford, he has been guest faculty at the Yale Summer School of Music, the Britten-Pears Young Artists Program (UK), Eastman School of Music, Princeton University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Owen received early violin and chamber music training with Anne Crowden at the Crowden School, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University. With his wife, violist Meena Bhasin, Owen is co-Artistic and Executive Director of Noe Music, a concert series in San Francisco, where they make their home with their children Leila and Knight.

Owen performs on the “Fetzer” Stradivarius made in Cremona in 1694, and a Sam Zygmuntowicz violin from 2015 that belonged to his friend and colleague Geoff Nuttall.

For nearly four decades, cellist Christopher Costanza has enjoyed a varied and exciting career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. A winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and a recipient of a prestigious Solo Recitalists Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Costanza has performed to wide critical acclaim throughout the U.S., Canada, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Europe. “Mr. Costanza demonstrated an unaffected, graceful approach to phrasing, a rugged, fearless technique, and, when necessary, and energetic headlong approach,” proclaimed the New York Times. And, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, praise for a recent performance of Bach’s Unaccompanied Suites: “Costanza revealed himself to be a thoughtful interpreter as well as a technician of no small skill. Tempos were brisk but never rushed, and dynamics were carefully measured. In the Courante, Costanza demonstrated a nice continuity of bowing, while the Sarabande became in his hands an introspective but eloquent song. He used the lightest of touches in the subsequent Minuets and brought an infectious rhythmic impulse to the concluding Gigue.”

Mr. Costanza, a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, actively toured as the cellist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) from 2003-2023. His current musical activities include solo performances and varied chamber music collaborations, including cycles of the complete Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, at Stanford University, and other locations; the complete Britten Cello Suites presented as a cycle; a collaboration with the Stanford Chamber Chorale on tour in Hawaii; solo and chamber music performances at multiple California Bay Area venues; and a concerto tour of France with the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, Mr. Costanza enjoys giving pre-concert lectures, presenting informal concert/lectures, and writing about music.

Mr. Costanza is a full-time Artist in Residence at Stanford University, where he teaches cello and chamber music, serves as the Associate Director of Music for the Stanford Medical Humanities and Arts program, and performs concerts and gives lectures across campus. His recordings are readily available on Apple Music and Spotify, including several with the SLSQ. Mr. Costanza’s recording of the Six Suites for Solo Cello by J.S. Bach can be streamed on his website, costanzacello.com.

In addition to his varied musical interests, Mr. Costanza is an avid runner and hiker. A train enthusiast, he enjoys riding and exploring passenger railways while on tour. At home in California, he is passionate about cooking, creating dishes that take advantage of the abundance of organic local produce.

Winner of De Linkprijs for contemporary interpretation, cellist Hannah Collins is a dynamic performer devoted to building community through musical expression. Resonance Lines, her solo debut album on Sono Luminus, is an “adventurous, impressive collection of contemporary solo cello music,” negotiated “with panache” (The Strad), pairing music by Britten and Saariaho with commissioned works by Caroline Shaw and Thomas Kotcheff.

Over the past decade, New Morse Code, her “remarkably inventive and resourceful duo” (Gramophone) with percussionist Michael Compitello, has developed projects responding to our society’s most pressing issues, including The Emigrants, a documentary chamber work by George Lam, dwb (driving while black), a chamber opera by Roberta Gumbel and Susan Kander, and The Language of Landscapes, a multimedia work by Rome Prize winner Christopher Stark. They were named the winners of the 2020 Ariel Avant Impact Performance Prize which supports the development of new works addressing sustainability and scientific innovation. 

Solo and chamber music performances have taken Hannah to festivals such as the Aldeburgh Festival, Musique de Chambre à Giverny, Orford Centre d'arts, and Kneisel Hall. She is a member of A Far Cry and Bach Aria Soloists, and has recently performed with The Knights, Decoda, and Grossman Ensemble. Praised for her “incisive, vibrant continuo” playing (S. Florida Classical Review), Hannah also appears regularly as a Baroque cellist with the Sebastians, TENET, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra.

Hannah earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Yale and holds degrees in music from the Yale School of Music, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and City University of New York. She is an alumna of Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and Weill Music Institute, and is currently Associate Professor of Cello at the University of Kansas School of Music. 

Lesley Robertson is proud to be celebrating 25 years as Artist in Residence at Stanford University. A founding member of the celebrated St. Lawrence String Quartet (1989-2024), she has performed on stages across the globe, from Amsterdam to Sydney, Beijing to Helsinki, New York, and Toronto. She has recorded widely, collaborated with a broad array of extraordinary artists, and served on distinguished juries including the Banff, Melbourne, Geneva and Wigmore Hall string quartet competitions. Along with her St. Lawrence colleagues, she directs Stanford’s chamber music program. She also teaches viola, coaches chamber music, and spearheads the St. Lawrence’s Emerging String Quartet Program and the annual Chamber Music Seminar. An early Suzuki child, Lesley discovered the viola, her instrumental soul mate, as a young teenager and never looked back.