Our ever-popular Annual Gala Orchestra Concert will feature violinist Elmar Oliveira, violist Sandra Robbins and the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Robert Manno.

Elmar Oliveira is one of the most distinguished violinists in the world today and has become a familiar and much-admired figure at the world's foremost concert venues. He remains the only American violinist to win the Gold Medal at Moscow's prestigious Tchaikovsky International Competition, and was the first violinist to receive the coveted Avery Fisher Prize and the First Prize winner at the Naumburg International Competition.

Oliveira's rigorous international itinerary includes appearances with many of the world's great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and the Zurich Tonhalle, to name a few. He has also made extensive recital tours of North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Far East.

A prodigious recording artist, Elmar Oliveira's discography on Artek, Angel, SONY Masterworks, Vox, Delos, IMP, Naxos, Ondine, and Melodiya covers a wide range of works from the Baroque period to the present. His best-selling recording of the Rautavaara Violin Concerto with the Helsinki Philharmonic (Ondine) won a Cannes Classical Award and has appeared on Gramophone's "Editor's Choice" and other "Best Recordings" lists around the world. He was also a Grammy nominee for his CD of the Barber Concerto with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony.

Sandra Robbins has been a member of the Ysaye Quartet, Paganini Trio, the Bronx Arts Ensemble and is currently a member of the American Composers Orchestra and Westchester Philharmonic. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Sandra studied viola with Lillian Fuchs and coached with such renowned musicians as Arthur Balsam, Sascha Jacobsen, Raphael Bronstein and members of the Budapest String Quartet. She has performed at many well-known festivals in the U.S., France and Australia, and has recorded for Newport Classics, New World Records, Premier Recordings and Artek Recordings.