Meet the Band
Eric Charnofsky enjoys a multi-faceted career as a pianist, composer, and lecturer. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed throughout North America, has concertized with members of major American orchestras, and has performed as an orchestral keyboardist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Cleveland Orchestra, among others. A graduate of The Juilliard School where he majored in piano accompanying, Mr. Charnofsky also holds degrees in solo piano performance and composition from California State University, Northridge. Originally from Los Angeles, Mr. Charnofsky has taught music history, music theory, and collaborative piano at the collegiate level in Cleveland. He has worked as a classical radio announcer, pre-concert lecturer for the Cleveland Orchestra, Associate Faculty member at the Music Academy of the West, rehearsal pianist for Lyric Opera Cleveland, convention accompanist for the National Flute Association, and he appears on recordings on the Capstone, Albany, and Crystal labels. His compositions have been performed in several major U.S. cities, and he has received composition commissions from Pacific Serenades, the Chamber Music Society of Ohio, the Cleveland Chamber Collective, and others.
Violinist Emily Cornelius enjoys a versatile freelance career, in demand as an orchestral, solo, and chamber musician.
Emily has been a featured soloist with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Richmond Philharmonic, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, the Heights Chamber Orchestra, the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra, and the Euclid Symphony Orchestra. She appears frequently as guest concertmaster for the Erie Philharmonic, and as acting concertmaster of the Canton Symphony and the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra. Emily has also served as guest concertmaster for the Westmoreland Symphony, as acting concertmaster of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and as assistant concertmaster for CityMusic Cleveland.
She is currently a member of the Canton Symphony, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and the Lancaster Festival Orchestra. She is also concertmaster of the Heights Chamber Orchestra and violinist for the Cleveland Chamber Collective.
Emily holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory (’05), where she studied with Gregory Fulkerson, and a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory (’07), where she studied with James Buswell. She is also a dedicated violin teacher, maintaining a large private studio from her home in Cleveland.
Ty Alan Emerson has been presenting music in Cleveland since 2000. Following two terms as president of the Cleveland Composers’ Guild, he is currently the Director and Conductor of the Cleveland Chamber Collective. His most recent works, Shelter-in-Place, and Pan Songs, were premiered in 2023.
In 2022 Emerson’s work, Cast Thy Nighted Colour Off was featured at the New Music on the Bayou New Music Festival. In 2021 the Chamber Collective, in partnership with Inlet Dance Theatre, premiered Emerson’s dance work Caliban Ascendant. A short documentary film following the collaboration between Inlet and Emerson, “The Ohio Channel Presents-Creating, Community,” was aired that year. In 2020 his work Love and Other Missed-Spellings was premiered at The Bop Stop as part of the Collective’s “Music of America” program. Other notable performances have included ensembles such as The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, No Exit New Music Ensemble, Zeitgeist, ASSEM3LY, VERB Ballets, The Cleveland Duo with James Umble, and Quorum New Music Ensemble, as well as soloists Mary Kay Fink, John Sampen, Gary Louie, and Kirsten Taylor.
His work has been featured at The Huddersfield New Music and Arts Festival in Huddersfield, England, New Music on the Bayou in Monroe Louisiana, Music at the Forefront at Bowling Green State University, NEO Sonic New Music Festival in Cleveland, the New Music Festival at Marshall University, CMI/SCI National Conference in San Antonio, New Music Festival at Louisiana State University, and the Resolution 2000 New Music Festival at Indiana State University SE. You can find his works on Sound Cloud and also on WLCV Radio’s “Fresh Innovations” hosted by Mark Satola.
His awards include: the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, the Searle McCullum Award from the Academy of Arts and Letters, a fellowship to the MacDowell Colony, two Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council and the MTNA/OMTA Composer of the Year.
Emerson has written for the stage, including several programs with The Music Theater Project, including his Deconstructing Kurt Weill, and underscoring plays at the Texas Shakespeare Festival. He also enjoyed participating in the creation of the Cleveland International Film Festival’s welcome trailer for their 43rd season.
Look for his latest work, OATH BREAKER, to be premiered April 2024.
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Trevor Kazarian, cello, completed his Bachelor’s degree at DePaul University School of Music. He studied under Stephen Balderston and occasionally had lessons with Brant Taylor and Richard Hirschl, of the Chicago Symphony. During his undergraduate studies, Trevor was Runner-up for the school’s annual concerto competition, resulting in the opportunity to record the Elgar cello concerto with the DePaul Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro Cliff Colnot. He was also chosen among his studio to perform for Lynn Harell in the Guest Artist Master Class.
Trevor’s Graduate studies were completed at the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was a student of the former Principal Cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra, Stephen Geber. He also studied with Mark Kosower, the Principal Cellist of the Cleveland after he graduated from CIM. While a student at CIM, Trevor performed in the “Commodore Quartet” and they were selected to be a part of the INtensive String Quartet Seminar Program. The seminar was directed by the Cavani String Quartet and Cleveland Quartet member Peter Salaff. In 2012, Trevor was selected to be the Assistant Principal Cellist of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckinridge, Colorado, At NRO, he was a featured soloist for a performance of Dvorak’s Rondo in G minor, Op. 94.
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Growing up in a diverse city introduced Trevor to various styles and genres of music and this influenced him to start composing. Today, Trevor is the Co-Founder/Cellist of the group IN2ATIVE, with flutist, Kimberly Zaleski. IN2ATIVE was chosen to be on the Artist Roster for Center for Art-Inspired Learning Agency, (CAL). As artists for CAL, they perform weekly and give workshops to students across Ohio.
Outside of CAL, IN2ATIVE was invited to be a Guest Artist for Penn State University’s Annual Flute Day in the fall of 2016, giving a performance and Master Class. Shortly Thereafter, IN2ATIVE had their first interdisciplinary arts collaboration with Cleveland’s renowned dance company, Dancing Wheels (Jan. 2017). The program was entitled, “Bloom” and consisted of dance choreographies set to original and live music of IN2ATIVE. That same year, IN2ATIVE performed on air for Cleveland’s Classical Radio station, WCLV 104.9RM for their First Friday’s Radio feature. A fun fact- when IN2ATIVE first formed, they were audition finalists for the television show, “America’s Got Talent”.
Dylan Moffitt, is often recognized for his versatility as a percussionist in the classical and world music genres. In 2009, Moffitt appeared as a soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra alongside renowned artists Alisa Weilerstein and Jamey Haddad in performances of Golijov’s, Azul for cello and orchestra. He currently serves as principal percussionist and frequent soloist with the Firelands Symphony where in 2013, founded his “Drumming with Dylan” educational outreach program. The program has since been recognized by the Cleveland Orchestra and was featured in the orchestra’s “At Home” residency this past summer season. Dylan performs regularly with the Wheeling Symphony, Pittsburgh Opera, Ohio Valley Symphony, Blossom Festival Band, Apollos Fire, the Cleveland Chamber Collective and has in past years appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra. Dylan specializes in various styles of world music, Brazilian percussion in particular. Following multiple trips to Brazil, Dylan began directing the Cleveland-based samba school, Samba Joia. In 2013, Moffitt joined the percussion faculty of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and has since joined the percussion faculty at Cuyahoga Community College. Dylan attended the Cleveland Institute of music for both his undergraduate and Master degrees. His principal teachers include Richard Weiner, Paul Yancich and Jamey Haddad.
Violist Brian Slawta, hailing from Bethesda, Maryland, is a recent graduate of the
Cleveland Institute of Music. While at the conservatory, Brian studied with the renowned pedagogue Jeffrey Irvine, as well as with Lynne Ramsey, first assistant principal violist of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Brian is an avid chamber musician with a particular interest in string quartet. He was selected to participate in CIM’s Advanced String Quartet program for five years as part of his former groups: the Elara Quartet and the Corylus Quartet. The Corylus quartet was one of two quartets selected to participate in the 2019 Centrum Chamber Music Workshop, and in 2020 the Elara Quartet was accepted into the McGill International String Quartet Academy.
Before beginning his studies at CIM, Brian was a member of the Liedergeld Quartet,
which in 2016 was a semifinalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, a finalist in the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, and a winner of the Misbin Family Memorial Chamber Music Competition. In addition to being a dedicated chamber musician, Brian is also an accomplished soloist, having won first prize in the Advanced Viola Division of the 44th Annual Washington Performing Arts Feder Memorial String Competition in Washington, D.C. in the spring of 2015.
Since graduating, Brian has been a core member of Opus 216, and has made appearances in various chamber music series such as Stars in the Classics, City Music Cleveland, and Candlelight concerts.
A dynamic performer and versatile musician, flutist Linda White excels in an array of musical styles and plays the entire spectrum of flutes from the piccolo to the contrabass flute. Linda is an avid chamber musician and champion of contemporary music. She regularly collaborates with the composers of The Cleveland Composers Guild and performs on the annual Local 4 Musician’s Union She Scores series. Linda regularly performs with classical guitarist Robert Gruca as part of the Gruca White Ensemble. The duo stretches the boundaries of the standard classical concert with their improvisations and unique musical arrangements. In 2020, the Gruca White Ensemble released their debut recording A Different Take through PARMA Recordings Big Round label. Linda also enjoys performing with the flute quartet Idle Twittering along with fellow flutists Jane Berkner, Kyra Kester and George Pope. Linda is a founding member of the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra, and has also performed with the Cleveland Pops, Cleveland Ballet, Cleveland Opera Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic, Akron Symphony and Canton Symphony. Linda teaches at The Music Settlement where she teaches individual lessons, co-directs three flute ensembles and coordinates a program for adult amateurs to gather and play chamber music. She has been a guest clinician for the Interlochen Adult Flute Ensemble since 2020. Linda received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wyoming and a Master of Music degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music.