About the Stern/Andrist Duo

AUDREY ANDRIST, “a stunning pianist with incredible dexterity” (San Francisco Classical Voice), and James Stern, a violinist of “virtuosity and penetrating intelligence” (Washington Post) have been performing together as the Stern/Andrist Duo for almost thirty years. This superb husband-and-wife team has played recitals across the U.S. and Canada, in Paris, in Munich, and throughout China. With clarinetist Nathan Williams, they formed the trio, Strata, also completing its third decade. Both well known to Washington DC audiences, Andrist and Stern have appeared together and separately as part of the Smithsonian Chamber Players, VERGE ensemble, and 21stCentury Consort, at such venues as the Library of Congress, National Gallery, Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian museums. Stern, a professor at University of Maryland, College Park, can be heard on an Albany Records release playing the complete Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach. Andrist, an affiliate artist at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has recorded major solo works by Robert Schumann for Centaur Records.

A Canadian citizen, Audrey Andrist trained at the University of Regina with William Moore, himself a student of Rosina Lhevine and Cécile Genhart. She pursued graduate studies at Juilliard studying with Herbert Stessin.  A highly respected solo musician and chamber player, she has performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. With the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, she and Maestro Mario Bernardi presented the world premiere of a piano concerto written especially for her by Canadian composer Andrew MacDonald. She is the first prize winner of the San Antonio International Competition, the Mozart International Competition, and the Juilliard Concerto Competition. She toured Canada performing extensively as the winner of the Eckhardt Gramatté Competition, and has recorded for Summit Records, Albany Records, Capstone, CRI, New Dynamic Records, Innova, AUR, CBC Radio, and NPR’s Performance Today. Her recent disc, The Great Square of Pegasus (music by Andrew MacDonald with violinist Jasper Wood on the Centrediscs label) won the 2004 East Coast Music Award for Best Classical Album of the Year. Her 2011 disc Gumbo with clarinetist Rob Patterson won the Washington Area Music Award for Best Classical CD of the Year.

 A truly versatile and adventurous musician, AudreyAndrist has performed and recorded music for synthesizer, harmonium, and harpsichord, and has served as orchestral pianist in both Canada and New York. An ardent exponent of new music, she has over 30 world premieres to her credit, and has had several works composed for her and the ensembles with which she plays. She is the recipient of grants from the Canada Council and the Saskatchewan Arts Board, and has spent several summers as a Resident Artist at the Banff Center in Alberta. Her recent engagements include performances in Japan, concerto appearances in California, and an extensive tour of Quebec for Jeunesses Musicales. She serves on the faculties of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the Washington Conservatory.

 JAMES STERN has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Banff and Bowdoin festivals as well as at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. He received all of his formal training at the Juilliard School, where his teachers were Louise Behrend, Joseph Fuchs, and Lewis Kaplan. Strata, the trio that he and Audrey Andrist formed with clarinetist Nathan Williams, has received enthusiastic repeat engagements at San Francisco Composers Inc (for which they were listed as one of San Francisco Classical Voice’s “highlights of 2005”), the Piccolo Spoleto Festival and New York’s historic Maverick Concerts. Strata has commissioned new works from Kenneth Frazelle and the late Stephen Paulus, giving the world premieres at, respectively, the Secrest Artist Series in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and New York’s Merkin Concert Hall.

 In frequent appearances at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, Stern has brought innovative programming that includes performing in multiple capacities (as violist, pianist, conductor, reciter, and arranger), and providing program annotations that are integral to the performance. His numerous chamber music and new music recordings can be heard on Albany, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Dorian/Sono Luminus, Enharmonic, New Focus, and New World. 

 A passionately devoted teacher, Stern has served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music. In summers he has performed and taught at the National Orchestral Institute, the Orfeo International Festival, the Schlern International Festival, ASTA International Workshops, California Summer Music, the Brian Lewis Young Artists Program, the Master Players Festival, and the Starling/Delay Violin Symposium at the Juilliard School.