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photo by Renee Newman

Following her London debut at Wigmore Hall, pianist Sally Pinkas has garnered universal praise as soloist and chamber musician. Among highlights are performances with the Boston Pops, the Aspen Philharmonia, New York's Jupiter Symphony and Indonesia's Bandung Symphony. Summer festival credits include Marlboro, Aspen, Rockport, Apple Hill, Pontlevoy (France), Havana (Cuba) and HCMC Conservatory (Vietnam). Pinkas tours widely as member of the Hirsch-Pinkas Duo and Ensemble Schumann, and collaborates frequently with the Adaskin String Trio, Cuarteto Latinoamericano and the Apple Hill String Quartet. 

Praised for her radiant tone and driving energy, Pinkas' extensive discography includes music by Mozart, Schumann, Fauré, Debussy, Gaubert, Martinů, Shapiro, Pinkham and Wolff for the MSR, Centaur, Naxos, Toccata Classics and Mode labels. Her most recent CD release of Sonatas by Shostakovich and Bridge was hailed as "A mandatory purchase for all pianophiles: two major works, in performances of utter power… ideal melding of strength and emotional pliancy…" by Fanfare Magazine. She holds performance degrees from Indiana University and the New England Conservatory of Music, and a PhD in Composition from Brandeis University. Pianist-in-residence at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College, she is Professor of Music at Dartmouth's Music Department.

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Called "dashing and extraordinary" by The Strad Magazine, the Apple Hill String Quartet are the Artistic Directors and resident musicians at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, winner of the CMAcclaim award from Chamber Music America. The Quartet serves as the Music Directors for Apple Hill's Summer Chamber Music Workshop in Nelson, New Hampshire, known for cultivating connection among people of diverse backgrounds, cultures, and ages through its guiding philosophy, Playing for Peace.

During the regular concert season, the Quartet performs concerts and conducts educational residencies locally in New Hampshire, nationally in major U.S. cities, and internationally around the globe—in venues as diverse as the Curtis Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, ChatterABQ, Burncoat High School in Worcester, Project STEP in Boston, Cedarcrest Center for Children with Disabilities in Keene, NH, the Ketermaya refugee camp outside Beirut, Lebanon, the Moscow Conservatory, the Conservatorio National de Musica in Lima, Peru, the Gitameit Music School in Yangon, Myanmar and the Harrisville General Store.

The Quartet's eclectic and dynamic concert programs reflect the diversity of Apple Hill: pieces amplifying new voices in classical music; compositions from places representing the Quartet's global travels and the summer workshop community; and music from the historic canon and new commissions, especially from renowned alumni.

The Quartet has collaborated with members of the Brentano and Attacca String Quartets, Silk Road Ensemble, Dorian Wind Quintet, Warp Trio, and Hirsch-Pinkas Duo. Members of the Quartet have received degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Brandeis University, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and a Fulbright Fellowship to London, England.