About Us
Havenwood String Quartet
6
Michael Ferri
Violin
Michael Ferri was born in Treviglio (BG), Italy in 1995. They attained a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin
Performance with distinction under Paul Kantor at the Shepherd School of Music – Rice University, and
both the Master of Music in Violin and Master of Musical Arts degrees under Ani Kavafian at the Yale School of Music, graduating with honors. Ferri is first prize winner of the Mika Hasler Young Artist Competition and the Shepherd School of Music Concerto Competition, and is fourth-prize laureate of the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition. Michael has also appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Yale Philharmonia, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, and numerous regional orchestras in Northeast Ohio.This year, Michael’s ensemble Trio Ondata (with Miriam Liske-Doorandish, cello, and Anthony Ratinov, piano) won the Yale School of Music Chamber Music Competition, and took home the Silver Medal at the 2022 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Michael plays on a violin by his friend Jan H. van Rooyen, 2007 – modeled after the “Vieuxtemps”
Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesú, 1741.
Alex McLaughlin
Viola
A native of Woodstock, NY, Alex McLaughlin started on his musical journey at the age of seven by taking viola lessons on a violin restrung to be a viola. This path has led him to become a recitalist, soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral violist who has performed all around the United States and Europe, performing genres of music that stretch from Western Classical, Pop, Jazz, and several traditional styles
of music. Alex has appeared in several notable festivals over the years, including the Endless Mountain Music Festival, the Norfolk Choral Conducting Workshop, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, theAmerican Viola Society Music Festival, and the Weekend of Chamber Music. In his travels, he has studied with many of the world’s leading musicians and ensembles, a list that is not limited to the likes of the Ying Quartet, the Brentano Quartet, the Escher Quartet, Kim Kashkashian, Mikhail Kopelman, Steven Doane, the Pacifica Quartet, Guy Ben-Ziony, Jeffrey Irvine, and Karen Ristcher.
In the orchestral world, Alex was recently appointed as the Assistant Principal violist of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and looks forward to his first season with the ensemble starting in October 2022. Alex also performs around Connecticut and the Hudson Valley and has played with ensembles like the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra 914, and the Woodstock Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared under the baton of several lauded conductors like Peter Oundjian, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Kenneth Kiesler, Miriam Burns, and Neil Varon. Alex is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Ettore Causa, earning
both his Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts from this institution. Before Yale, he spent four years at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY under Carol Rodland and Masumi Rostad, earning his Bachelor’s in Applied Music and received the Robert L. Oppelt Viola Prize. In his free time, he is an amateur baker, a burgeoning rock and mineral collector, and enjoys playing indie developed video games.
Herdis Gudmundsdottir
Violin
Born in Reykjavík, Iceland, Herdis Gudmundsdottir is a Master of Music student at the Yale School of Music in the United States where she studies with Augustin Hadelich. Previously she completed a Bachelor’s degree at the Oberlin Conservatory studying with Sibbi Bernhardsson. She graduated with a Diploma in 2017 from the Listaháskóli Íslands, where she studied with Guðný Guðmundsdóttir.
Herdís has performed as a soloist with the Reykjavik College of Music Orchestra, the Icelandic Youth Orchestra and the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. In her senior year at Oberlin, Herdís premiered a violin concerto written for her by Liam Kaplan with the Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Tim Weiss and was one of the winners of the Concerto competition. She has appeared as the concertmaster for the Yale Philharmonia and she frequently subs with orchestras around Connecticut as well as playing with the Icelandic Symphony orchestra. Herdís plays on a 2016 Paul Becker violin from Chicago. Her favorite thing in life is cooking good food for people she loves.
Miriam Liske-Doorandish
Cello
Miriam Liske-Doorandish politely demanded her first cello at age 2, and has since worked with Lisa Liske-Doorandish, Hans Jensen, Bartholomew LaFollette (BMus studies at the Royal College of Music), Amir Eldan (BA and AD at Oberlin Conservatory) and Paul Watkins (MM and MMA at the Yale School of Music). Raised in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Miriam is motivated by a love of collaboration which has led her into traditional chamber settings as well as traditional fiddling sessions. As cellist of the exploratory ensemble Trio Ondata, Miriam was a silver medalist at The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (‘22) and winner of the 2022 YSM chamber competition. Begun on Oberlin in 2015, her duo
partnership with trad fiddler Adam Work has facilitated travels in Europe and performances on the East and West Coasts under the name Turtle Crossing. Miriam is passionate about music up to and beyond the edges of standard classical repertoire, delving into historical performance and contemporary music during her studies at Oberlin and continuing this work with Yale’s Baroque Ensemble and student collective Versicolor New Music. In the more established realm of chamber music, Miriam has appeared at festivals such as Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, Kneisel Hall, Four Seasons Winter Workshop, Orford, Musique à Marsac and Bowdoin International Music Festival, and has had the great honor of working with members of the Juilliard, Emerson, Brentano, Kronos, Orion, Cavani, St. Lawrence, Aizuri, Doric, Pacifica, Thalea and Chiaroscuro quartets. Miriam is currently based in New Haven, CT where she maintains a private studio, teaches at the Stamford Music & Arts Academy, bakes ridiculous desserts and works with Trio Ondata, the Havenwood Quartet and Versicolor New Music. In counterpoint with her musical life, Miriam is committed to arts advocacy and community organizing. She plays an unusual willow-back Rocca model cello by Maryland-based luthier Howard Needham (2019).