FREE Courtroom Concert: Florestan Chamber Music – Stephanie Arado, violin; Ruth Marshall, cello; Garret Ross, piano

Hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, our popular Courtroom Concerts take place at noon most Thursdays in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. This series features accomplished musicians and composers from the Twin Cities and surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These one-hour concerts are free and open to the public.

About the Artists:

Established in 2019, Florestan Chamber Music offers vibrant chamber music performances to Twin Cities audiences. After touring nationally for many years as Artu Duo, co-directors Garret Ross and Ruth Marshall established Florestan Chamber Music in order to share both canonical and unfamiliar chamber works with their own Minnesota community.

Violinist Stephanie Arado’s career encompasses a wide range of performance and teaching experience. Born in Chicago, Ms. Arado played her first solo recital at the age of eight and went on to debut with the Chicago Symphony at the age of twelve. She continued her solo career, performing as soloist with the Detroit, St. Louis and Minnesota Orchestras as well as many others across the nation. Active in competitions in her early years she was a prize winner in several prestigious competitions, winning first prize in the Julius Stulberg and Irving M. Klein Competitions and was a semi-finalist at the Tchaikovsky International Competition. Ms. Arado’s musical pedigree has been enriched by a diverse collection of the foremost pedagogues of our time, including Almita and Roland Vamos, Paul Kantor, Dorothy Delay, Paul Rolland and Camilla Wicks. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Western Illinois University and holds a Masters of Musical Performance from the Juilliard School. Ms. Arado has participated in chamber music festivals both nationally and internationally and has had the privilege to coach and perform with such masters as Paul Tortelier, Joseph Silverstein, Joel Smirnoff and Yuri Bashmet. Ms. Arado’s experience extends to the orchestral world where she spent twenty two years as Assistant Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra and also served one season as Concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony. In 2012, Ms. Arado resigned from her position with the Minnesota Orchestra to devote more time to teaching and chamber music. A recipient of a McKnight Foundation Grant for Performing Artists, Ms. Arado currently holds a position as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Minnesota.

Pianist Garret Ross is an experienced soloist and avid chamber musician with a wide ranging repertoire. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Apollo Music Festival as well as the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Florestan Chamber Music. Garret has performed on stages and series across the USA including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, The Roerich Museum in NYC, the Courtroom Concert Series in Saint Paul MN, and Music Northwest in Seattle WA. As a soloist, Garret gave the World Premiere of Gregory Vajda’s Csardas Obstine with the Texas Festival Orchestra and the Music in The Mountains Festival Orchestra. Other concerto appearances with orchestra include the repertoire of Bach, Beethoven, Grieg, and Rachmaninoff. Garret has attended numerous festivals including the Aldeburgh Festival, Banff Centre, and the International Festival-Institute at Round Top. Garret’s principal teachers are Alexander Braginsky and Eteri Andjaparidze. Both Braginsky and Andjaparidze studied at the Moscow Conservatory where their teachers, Teodor Gutman and Vera Gornostaeva, respectively, were students of Heinrich Neuhaus. Garret hopes to continue this tradition of piano playing through his performances and teaching. An active teacher himself, Garret teaches students throughout the Twin Cities, and conducts masterclasses at universities throughout the United States. He is on the faculty of The Saint Paul Conservatory of Music. Garret lives in North Minneapolis with his partner Justin, cat Marzipan, and Doberman Reginald Barclay. He enjoys cooking, gardening, and traveling.

Cellist Ruth Marshall (she/her/hers) enjoys an active career split evenly between teaching and performing. She is the cellist of Artu Duo, a collaborative ensemble with pianist Garret Ross, which has performed extensively across the United States, including a debut at Carnegie Hall in 2016. In 2019, Artu Duo formed Florestan Chamber Music, in order to serve local students and perform for Twin Cities audiences. Ruth is also active as a soloist, and has played concertos with the Wartburg Community Symphony, Winona Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble Society of New York City, and the Kokomo Symphony Orchestra. From 2012 to 2016, she was highly active as an orchestra player, simultaneously playing as principal cello of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, as an associate member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, and as a permanent sub in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. From 2015-2022, she was the cellist of the Mill City String Quartet, during which time she performed for thousands of students through multiple residencies with Minnesota Public Radio.

Ruth is equally committed to, and delighted by, her work as a cello instructor, working with students of all ages and levels at her home studio, and teaching cello students at Winona State University and Hamline University. She holds graduate degrees in cello performance from DePaul University in Chicago, and undergraduate degrees in Comparative History of Ideas and Music Theory & History from the University of Washington in Seattle. In the summers, she performs as part of the Britt Festival Orchestra in southern Oregon, and as an artist-in-residence at the Apollo Music Festival in southeast Minnesota. She lives in St. Paul, MN, on Dakota land, with her husband and two toddlers. Please visit ruthmarshallcello.com for more information.