1969 KBMF Alumus Philip Setzer Teaches Masterclass in Ludwig Recital Hall

Kulas Visiting Artist Series

Thanks to the generosity of the Kulas Foundation and the Kulas Visiting Artist Series, Kent Blossom Music Festival is able to bring world-renowned guest artists to work intensively with our students. String, woodwind, horn and piano students develop their professional skills through concentrated study with visiting master artists, members of The Cleveland Orchestra, and Kent State University faculty.

2022 Kulas Visiting Artist

Clarinetist Anthony McGill, flutist Demarre McGill, and pianist Michael McHale formed the McGill/McHale Trio in 2014 and have won critical acclaim for their performance of standard repetoire and new works.

2021 Kulas Visiting Artist

Violinist Paul Huang, pianist Helen Huang, flutist Demarre McGill and pianist Rodolfo Leone are all internationally acclaimed artists, performing worldwide as soloists and chamber musicians.

2019 Kulas Visiting Artist

After four decades of success the world over, including many award-winning recordings and newly commissioned works, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio continues to dazzle audiences and critics alike with its performances.

2018 Kulas Visiting Artist

The Emerson String Quartet has maintained its stature as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles for more than four decades. The quartet has made more than 30 acclaimed recordings, and has been honored with nine Grammys® (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year”.

2017 Kulas Visiting Artist

Violinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for her intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. Ms. Koh is Musical America’s 2016 Instrumentalist of the Year, a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

2016 Kulas Visiting Artist

The groundbreaking, category-shattering trio Time for Three (Tf3) transcends traditional classification, with elements of classical, country western, gypsy and jazz idioms forming a blend all its own. The members — Nicolas (Nick) Kendall, violin; Nikki Chooi, violin; and Ranaan Meyer, double bass — carry a passion for improvisation, composing and arranging, all prime elements of the ensemble playing.

2015 Kulas Visiting Artist

Jeff Nelsen has thrilled audiences and mentored students for over twenty years. Probably best known for the eight years he spent touring and recording with Canadian Brass, Jeff has also performed concerti and chamber music on six continents, and in the horn sections of dozens of orchestras including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Montreal, and St. Louis Symphonies.

2014 Kulas Visiting Artist

Internationally acclaimed as a violist as well as violinist, the versatile Ida Kavafian is an artist-member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and former violinist of the Beaux Arts Trio. For 34 years she has been artistic director of Music from Angel Fire in New Mexico, where some 200 Curtis students have participated in the Young Artist Program to date.