Lawrence Stomberg

Cello faculty Lawrence Stomberg was appointed cellist of the acclaimed Serafin String Quartet in March 2006. He joined the quartet in time to finish their 2005-06 season, including a concert in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, which was heralded in the New York Concert Review for "excellent music making... uncommonly fine interpretation..." and "ensemble and intonation ... above reproach.” The current season has taken and will take the quartet to concert venues in North Carolina, Tennessee and Michigan, as well as in the Wilmington and Philadelphia areas. The other members of the Serafin Quartet are Kate Ransom and Timothy Schwarz, violins, and Ruth Frazier, viola. The group has been the Resident Ensemble of the First and Central Church Concert Series in Wilmington, and was just recently named a Visiting Ensemble in Residence at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. On sabbatical for the Fall 2006 semester, Larry traveled to various cities in China in November for solo performances and master classes performing an all-unaccompanied recital with repertoire based on his CD recording, The American Cello, for audiences in the cities of Wuhan and Nanning. As a pedagogue, he worked with almost 40 students of high school and collegiate age in public master classes at the Wuhan Consevatory and GuangXi Arts College. At the GuangXi College, he also presented a lecture entitled The Art and Science of Practicing, a talk that will be translated and published in Chinese music journals in the coming year. Joining Larry for these visits was his wife, cellist and Community Music School faculty Jennifer Crowell Stomberg, who also coached chamber music and performed with her husband and GuangXi College in a quintet of Boccherini. They have been invited back to China for repeat engagements at these venues in the coming years.