meet the 2024 ChamberFest Faculty

the northern neck's summer chamber music institute & festival

June 24-30, 2024

Catherine Matushek, viola

Catherine Matushek is originally from Pittsburgh, PA, where she started playing viola at age 8 through her public school. She moved to New Orleans in 2015, and became a full-time member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in 2019. Catherine was previously a member of the Erie Philharmonic, Firelands Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed with the Canton, Mobile, Gulf Coast, and Pensacola Symphony Orchestras. Catherine completed her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey. She has received chamber music coaching from members of the Cavani, Cleveland, Juilliard, and Takács Quartets. She is also a member of the New Orleans-based Radio Bird Quartet, a non-traditional string quartet that performs original arrangements of pop and rock tunes. A committed educator, Catherine studied Suzuki pedagogy at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She has taught at the Cleveland School of the Arts, the Sato Center for Suzuki Studies, as a teaching assistant at CIM, and for El Sistema-inspired programs in Cleveland and New Orleans. She currently teaches 20 private violin and viola students aged 5-17, and for the LPO Academy education program. Catherine lives in Gentilly with her husband, Michael, and their cats, Clover and Percy. She enjoys cooking, playing video games, practicing yoga, and fostering kittens for the Louisiana SPCA

Jake Fowler, cello

New Orleans-based cellist Jacob Fowler is the Founding Director of the Surf and Sounds Chamber Music Series (OBX, NC) which is celebrating its 9th season in August 2023. Mr. Fowler is a founding member of Delachaise Ensemble, the featured ensemble of Fever’s Candlelight Series throughout New Orleans. He has also performed with the Harlem String Quartet and Manhattan Chamber Players as well as members of Dover, Escher Quartets and the Lysander Trio. Mr. Fowler’s chamber music engagements have included Bargemusic in Brooklyn, the Festival de Febrero in Ajijic, Mexico, Northern Neck Chamber Music Series in Kilmarnock, Crescent City Chamber Music Festival in New Orleans, and Grand Canyon Music Festival in Arizona. While in Virginia, he performed with the Norfolk Chamber Consort and the Hampton Roads Chamber Players, and was a founding member of the New Commonwealth String Quartet. Mr. Fowler collaborated with Todd Rosenlieb Dance Company in a performance which was hailed by M.D. Ridge of Norfolk’s WHRO as “the pièce de résistance. [Mr. Fowler] sang sweetly…and the result was spectacular.” Mr. Fowler has expanded his performance repertoire beyond traditional chamber music including performances on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series with Juvenile, Mannie Fresh, Trombone Shorty, and Jon Batiste, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Music Festival with Big Freedia, and the SXSW Festival performing in the HBO/Games of Thrones and American Red Cross production Bleed for the Throne.
His orchestra engagements include serving as a former tenured member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, former Principal Cellist of the Shen Yun Performing Arts Orchestra, former Principal Cellist of the Manhattan Symphonie, and performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony and Houston Symphony. He has served as adjunct cello professor at Virginia Wesleyan College, the Fei Tian Academy and Fei Tian College, and as coach for Hampton Roads Chamber Players. Mr. Fowler currently resides in New Orleans with his wife and son along with their rescued min-pin, Bèla.

Dasha Bukhartseva, piano

Recognized for her musicality and unique repertoire, Ukrainian pianist Dasha Bukhartseva has won top prizes in over thirty international piano competitions and performs to great acclaim as a soloist and chamber musician across North America and Europe. Throughout her formative years, Dasha received numerous awards for her musical abilities and achievements. Such awards include The Culture Ministry of Ukraine Award “For Outstanding Achievements in Music,” and a rank of “Woman of the Year” for “Excellence in the Performing Arts.”
She is a recipient of the Jack Kent Cook Young Artist Award and a prize winner of the International French Competition in Paris and Brussels, International Piano Competitions in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter. Dasha had the privilege of performing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, National Opera and Philharmonic of Ukraine, Bowdoin and Aspen Music Festivals among others. Her performances have been featured on WQXR, Ukrainian and Belgian National Radios, as well as a three-time appearance on National Public Radio’s show “From The Top.”
Dasha received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University, Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Miami Frost School of Music and Bachelor of Music from Peabody Conservatory. She had the privilege to work privately and in masterclass settings with such eminent musicians as Yong Hi Moon, Tina Dahl, Gilbert Kalish, Richard Goode, Yoheved Kaplinsky and members of the New York Philharmonic, as well as the Emerson and Takacs String Quartets.
Dr. Bukhartseva is Vice President of The Performing Arts Consortium – an organization that supports the professional development of emerging, young classical music artists. Her main musical vision is to expose the audience to unfamiliar music from different nations, making an emphasis on Folk Music with the intention of alleviating divisions and prejudices between people through the beauty of universal unspoken language.

Elizabeth Cunha, violin

New Orleans-based violinist Elizabeth Almond Crute Cunha enjoys an active career as a chamber musician, orchestral player, and music educator. Elizabeth was a member of the ARCO Chamber Orchestra and was involved in multiple performances and recordings of classical and contemporary music with the ensemble. She toured with ARCO in Italy, which included performing at the 2011 UNESCO Conference in Venice at Teatro La Fenice. In 2018 she was featured as a soloist with the Tidewater Intergenerational Orchestra and she also performed with the Molto Chamber Ensemble for the First Lady of the Republic of Haiti in New Orleans. Passionate about chamber music, Elizabeth is a founding member of the New Orleans-based Delachaise Ensemble and has been an invited artist at the Northern Neck Chamber Fest and Crescent City Chamber Music Festival. She enjoys collaborating with New Orleans artists, organizations and composers, including Lyrica Baroque, Melange Dance Company, and ELLEvate Dance Company.
As an orchestral musician, Elizabeth has performed with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Gulf Coast Symphony, Northern Neck Orchestra, Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Philharmonic, Augusta Symphony, Asheville Jazz Orchestra, North Georgia Chamber Orchestra, and Hendersonville Symphony Chamber Orchestra. In 2021, Elizabeth performed with Bell’Anima Productions in Recanto Maestro, Brazil. She has performed with popular artists including the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Sarah Brightman, and appeared in Showtime’s On Becoming a God in Central Florida. Elizabeth currently performs regularly for the Fever Events Candlelight Concerts series throughout New Orleans and the gulf south.
A passionate music educator, Elizabeth is the Co-Director of the Crescent City String Academy, where she teaches private lessons, group classes, and chamber music, and is the founder and artistic director of the Crescent City String Camp & Festival. She also teaches elementary strings at the Homer Plessy School, an arts-integrated school located in the French Quarter. It is her aim to instill a life-long love of music and intellectual curiosity in her students through developing a strong technical foundation while focusing on music as artistic expression. In addition to graduating from the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia, Elizabeth also earned her BS in environmental engineering at UGA.