Meet the Players -- Seattle Hub String Quartet
The string quartet of the Crescendo Chamber Music Project of Seattle will perform the String Quartet in D Major, Op. 44, No. 1, by Felix Mendelssohn. They are Tom Dziekonski, violin, Ingrid Fredrickson, violin, Eileen Swanson, viola, and Virginia Dziekonski, cello.
Violinist Tom Dziekonski has been a performer ever since he sang Polish folk songs as a 7-year-old with his parents at the United Nations Pavilion at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962. He graduated with honors in Music and Arts and in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington. He also studied with Daniel Majeske, the late concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. Tom played electric violin for various casts at Teatro Zinzanni from 2004 to 2014. He is also First Violinist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and he wrote the orchestral gags for the “Nutty Nutcracker”. He concertmasters the orchestra for the 5th Ave Theatre. He played for the world premiere of “In the Penal Colony”, a chamber opera by Philip Glass, in Seattle, Chicago and New York in 2000-1. Tom records soundtracks for commercials, video games, theme park attractions, motion pictures, television and for foreground environmental music such as the Bird’s Nest Stadium at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
Violinist Ingrid Fredrickson received her degrees in music and education from the Universty of Washington where she studied violin with Emanuel Zetlin and Denes Zsigmondy. She has also studied with Camilla Wicks and Charmian Gadd. After graduation she travelled to Norway where she played as a member of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Returning to Seattle, she joined the Northwest Chamber Orchestra where she played principal second violin for many years. Currently, Ingrid plays principal second violin with the Auburn Symphony, and is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. She has also performed with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. Ingrid is an avid chamber musician, having performed on many series in the Pacific Northwest. A highlight of her career was performing as a member of a string quartet playing in China and Europe. She enjoys her work as a coach and violin teacher.
Violist Eileen Swanson was born in Longview, WA, and came to Seattle to study music at the University of Washington, where she was a student of Donald McInnes and Silvia Kind. She has been a Seattle resident ever since, enjoying a long career playing in the Northwest Chamber Orchestra (1973-2006) and the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra (1989-present). She played for 20 seasons with her friends in the Providence Point String Quartet and is delighted that Crescendo has provided a wonderful coda to those years. She also played regularly for St James Cathedral for over 30 years and managed its chamber orchestra. Additionally, she contracted and played many seasons for the choral groups Seattle Pro Musica and Opus 7. Highlights of her career have included performing with a string quartet (including Ingid Fredrickson) on the Great Wall of China, two tours to New York City with PNB, and playing at chamber music festivals at the Grand Canyon, in Great Barrington, MA, Fayetteville, AK, and Orcas Island, WA.
Virginia Dziekonski is assistant principal cello of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. Virginia also plays principal cellist for 5th Avenue Theater, the St. James Cathedral Chamber Orchestra, and at Paramount Theater. She works for all the major recording studios in the Seattle area, playing scores for radio, television, video games and movies. She also plays principal cello for the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Institute under the direction of Hummie Mann. Virginia is an active chamber musician and has appeared in many series such as Second City in Tacoma, Artswest, and the Mostly Nordic Chamber Music Series. She also toured to New York and Chicago playing for the premier of the Philip Glass Operetta “In the Penal Colony”.
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