Our Season
Music from String Quartet
Featuring Musicians from New Century Chamber Orchestra
Iris Stone and Stephanie Bibbo, violins
Jenny Douglas, viola
Evan Kahn, cello
Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn: String Quartet in E flat major, H. 277, I. Adagio ma non troppo IV. Allegro molto vivace
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1, II. Andante Cantabile
Benjamin Britten: Three Divertimenti for String Quartet, I. March II.Waltz
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Divertimento in D major, K. 136, III. Presto
Juhi Bansal: Cathedral of Light
Astor Piazzola: Libertango for String Quartet
Antonín Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96, I. Allegro ma non troppo
A native of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Stephanie Bibbo has been an active violinist in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2007. She received her B.M. in violin performance from New England Conservatory as a student of Marylou Speaker Churchill, and she earned her M.M. and P.S.D. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Ian Swensen.
Stephanie has performed with orchestras and chamber music ensembles in various venues throughout Europe and the United States, notably Boston’s Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. A recent member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Stephanie also performs with the Santa Rosa Symphony, Oakland and Berkeley Symphonies, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Bibbo has performed many different styles of music, from baroque to contemporary, genres of rock, soul, and traditional Persian classical music. She has toured North America and Europe with the Grammy-nominated rock group, Death Cab for Cutie, and the late, great, master Iranian singer, Mohammad Reza Shajarian. In addition to live performances, Stephanie has been credited on numerous studio recordings in these musical realms.
Besides her love for performing, Stephanie has a great passion for teaching. From private lessons to coaching orchestra and chamber music, she believes in the importance of sharing her knowledge and experience with younger generations.
Iris Stone was born and raised in the Western part of Berlin, Germany, where her early childhood included American soldiers in tanks waving victory signs. She began playing the violin at age six and received her undergraduate degree in violin performance as a student of Ulf Hoelscher at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe, Germany. This was where her love for conductorless chamber orchestra playing was born. As a Fulbright scholarship recipient, Iris first came to the US as a graduate student in 1993, working with Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Subsequently, she was granted a long-term residency at the Banff Center for the Arts, Canada.
Iris first performed with New Century under Stuart Canin during the orchestra’s 1995/96 season and returned to the group in 2001. In the interim years, Iris traveled the world as a member of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, performing in the great concert halls of Europe, Asia, and the United States.
In 1998, Iris married violinist Tom Stone and moved to San Francisco, facing the conundrum of artistic survival in the American cultural landscape where very few victory signs are waved. She has performed with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, has been Assistant Concertmaster of San Francisco’s Women’s Philharmonic, Principal of Monterey Symphony Orchestra, and works with the Berkeley, Oakland, Marin, and California Symphonies. Iris had the honor and privilege to return to her native roots performing and recording with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. For many years, she appeared as part of the Stone-Zimmermann violin-piano duo and has been carrying on her passion of teaching in her own private studio as well as coaching the next generation of musicians at Golden Gate Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, San Domenico Virtuoso Program, Santa Rosa Young People’s Chamber Orchestra, and San Jose State University, to name a few.
In pursuit of her passion for the theater, Iris trained as an actor at the American Conservatory and Berkeley Repertory Theater Schools as well as SITI Company, NewYork, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. She has performed with Theatre Rhinoceros, Playground, Third Cloud from the Left, was seen in California Shakespeare Theater’s War of the Roses, and played Malvolia in College of Marin’s production of Twelfth Night.
Iris also played a major part in raising her two, now college-aged children, Daniel and Hannah. When all becomes too overwhelming, Iris can be found gardening, doing yoga, or blissfully riding her electric bike all over the hills of San Francisco.
A Mill Valley resident since 1997, Jenny Douglass has created a rewarding portfolio career as a violist, educator, event producer, and writer. She has been the Principal Violist of the Marin Symphony since 1999, and a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra since 2008. Ms. Douglass is a frequent substitute with the San Francisco Symphony, performing with them in Davies Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and on several European tours. Jenny has also toured North and South America, Europe, and Asia with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and can be heard on several of their recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, including the 2001 Grammy Award-winning CD, “Shadow Dances.”
From 2015 to 2022, Jenny served as the Marin Symphony’s Director of Education and Community Engagement. She developed several initiatives that send Marin Symphony musicians into Marin County schools as well as community locations, including San Quentin Prison. In June 2019, Jenny created and produced a Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra tour, taking 90 teenagers to Europe for performances in Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. Her proudest achievement was bringing them all back.
Jenny’s love for chamber music has taken her to festivals all over the US. Her chamber music partners have included Yo Yo Ma, Joseph Silverstein, Bruno Giuranna, and members of the San Francisco and Boston Symphonies. Ms. Douglass earned degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School, studying with Lynne Ramsey, Karen Tuttle, and Eugene Lehner.
California-based Evan Kahn has been praised as “a cellist deserving of serious listening” for bringing his “electrifying … nuanced and colorful” style to all of his collaborations, from concertos to chamber music to contemporary performances.
Evan is principal cellist in San Francisco Opera and New Century Chamber Orchestra, as well as Opera San Jose and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra. Dedicated to the orchestral craft, he has also enjoyed time performing with the San Francisco Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Los Angeles Opera. In April/May 2018, he served as Artist-in-Residence with Performance Today at NPR, sharing some of his favorite works for cello and his philosophies on music and life. In February 2019, he was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month. He is a resident cellist for a number of Bay Area small ensembles, including Ninth Planet, After Everything, and the Wave Chamber Music Collective.
Evan received a Master’s in Chamber Music at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying with Jennifer Culp. He graduated with college and university honors from Carnegie Mellon University, studying with David Premo. Before college, he took lessons in Los Angeles with John Walz, Timothy Loo, and Karen Patch. Other important mentors include Paul Hersh, Thomas Loewenheim, Amos Yang, Mark Kosower, Robert DeMaine, and Bonnie Hampton.
In addition to performing and teaching, Evan enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons, watching British television, and playing with his cat.
