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PINOTAGE was formed in 1998 and specializes in works written after 1900. Since their first performance this chamber ensemble made up of flute, harp, viola and voice has been working closely with composers, inspiring them to write for this distinctive quartet. They have collaborated with and performed works by many composers including Bernard Rands, Robert Lombardo, Marta Ptaszynska, Elizabeth Start, Kathleen Ginther, Juan Orrego-Salas, Karim Al-Zand, Lawrence Axelrod and Jan Bach. In 1999 they were in residence at Columbia College offering master classes and performing works by young composers. PINOTAGE premiered works written for them by members of the American Women Composers organization, and have been featured on the Mostly Music and Music in Small Places series. In June of 2000 they recorded a song cycle by New York composer Arnold Rosner for Albany Records. They have performed in recital and at new music festivals at Northwestern University, DePaul University, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University, Columbia College and in 2002 appeared on the Jewel Box Series at Northeastern University, broadcast live on WFMT. In 2004 they were featured guest artists at the Mid-American Center for New MusicÕs 25th Anniversary Festival at Bowling Green State University, premiering works written for them by international composers for this occasion. Following that they premiered a number of works on the West Coast at the Festival for New American Music at Cal State University in Sacramento. ÒPinotage will charm you out of your socksÓ Classical Review.com.

Harpist Dr. Alison Attar specializes in both historical and contemporary music. Her interest in historical harps has led to performances in Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Edinburgh. Dr. Attar has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Festival Orchestra and the Naples Philharmonic. She toured Taiwan with the Symphonic Pops Orchestra and made her debut at Carnegie's Weil Hall playing an evening of contemporary chamber music. A champion of new music, Dr. Attar has performed as a guest artist with numerous new music groups, including the Chicago Symphony's MusicNOW, CUBE, Contemporary Chamber Players and Present Music. Dr. Attar has also enjoyed working with a number of living composers, including George Crumb, Pierre Boulez and Bernard Rands. She is a regular member of the new music quartet PINOTAGE. Her solo and chamber music performances have been praised in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Classical Voice, San Francisco Chronicle, The Wall-Street Journal and The New Yorker. Dr. Attar holds a B.M., M.M., and D.M. in harp performance and a B.A. in Italian culture, all from Northwestern University where she studied with Elizabeth Cifani. She can be heard on recordings under the Mayapple, Albany, Hungaroton and Cedille labels.

Since completing apprenticeships with the Santa Fe Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera, mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley has appeared in leading roles with opera companies throughout the country, and has been featured as a soloist with orchestras led by George Manahan, Raymond Leppard, Oliver Knussen, Robert Shaw and Pierre Boulez. She performs in Chicago with Mostly Music, CUBE, the Contemporary Chamber Players, the Orion Ensemble, PINOTAGE, Ensemble Noamnesia, Fulcrum Point, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Opera Theater, Concertante di Chicago, Music of the Baroque, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the MusicNOW series at Symphony Center with conductor Cliff Colnot. She has been a regular guest artist with the Chicago Chamber MusiciansÕ Music at the Millennium series, most recently in works by Berio, Carter, and Boulez under the direction of Mr. Boulez. In 2001 she appeared to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall, also with Mr. Boulez, as the soloist in Le Marteau Sans Ma”tre. She has recorded on the Albany, Cedille and Tintagel labels. Recent engagements have included performances of the Messiah with the Apollo Chorus at Orchestra Hall, and appearances with the Ars Viva Orchestra and the Bach and Handel Week Festivals, as well as chamber music series in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. This season she will sing La Cenerentola for Sacramento Opera, Meg in Little Women for Dayton Opera, and Time Cycle by Lukas Foss during the composerÕs Chicago residency.

Violist Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff was a featured performer at the 2005 New American Music Festival at Cal State Sacramento and the 2004 Bowling Green State University New Music and Art Festival. Performing with her modern chamber group PINOTAGE and the Fulcrum Point New Music Project, she has had the opportunity to premiere new chamber works in Chicago by many composers including David Stock, Bruce Adolphe, Bernard Rands, Elizabeth Start, Robert Lombardo, Jan Bach and Kathleen Ginther. Graduating from the University of Denver with a bachelor of music degree, she then earned a master of music and a performerÕs certificate from Northwestern University. She was the principal violist of the Cape Town Symphony in South Africa, performing frequently as a soloist. She has performed with the Rembrandt Chamber Players, the Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players, the Pacifica String Quartet, the Veronica String Quartet, the Amherst String Quartet, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Grant Park Symphony, and has been the principal violist of Chicago Opera Theater, the Joffrey Ballet, the Chicago Sinfonietta, and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra. In 1998 she performed on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series at the Chicago Cultural Center broadcast on WFMT. She has recorded chamber works for the SABC, WFMT and Albany Records. She joined the faculty of Northwestern University in 2000-04 as the Coordinator of String Chamber Music. In 2004-05 she was a visiting artist at Valparaiso University. Ms. Lasareff-Mironoff was the President of the MusicianÕs Club of Women and served on the board of the Chicago Viola Society. She coaches chamber groups for the Chicago Youth Symphony and teaches viola and chamber music at Wheaton College. She has given recitals and master classes at Northwestern University, DePaul University, University of Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois University, and Roosevelt University. In July of 2005 she performed a chamber music recital at the Ravinia Festival with the Fulcrum Point New Music Project.

Janice MacDonald is the principal flutist of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, and is solo piccolo of the Lake Forest Symphony. She also performs regularly with the Grant Park Symphony, Chicago Opera Theater, Concertante di Chicago, Ars Viva, the new music ensembles PINOTAGE, Fulcrum Point and CUBE, among others. Her credits also include several theatrical productions including Aida, Jekyll & Hyde and The Wizard of Oz. An active studio musician, she has recorded for the ÒAmerican GirlÓ doll CD series as well as numerous radio and television commercials. Ms. MacDonald performs throughout the country as well as internationally. Most recently, throughout Ethiopia and Mali on a three week tour with Trio Chicago, including the first performance of an American classical group in Timbuktu. She performed in Italy with the Parnassus Orchestra of London, which included appearances as a soloist and chamber musician, has toured Greece and Britain, appearing with the Regent Quintet in London, and has also toured Switzerland and Germany twice with the Chicago Sinfonietta. Janice MacDonald holds degrees from DePaul University and the California Institute of the Arts.

Discography: Chamber Music of Arnold Rosner Volume 3 (Albany Records), From the Start-Music by Elizabeth Start, Mandala-chamber works by Lawrence Axelrod.

Contact: PINOTAGEinfo@comcast.net