Irina Mueller has been praised by critics for being a young artist who gives "powerful and expressive" performances (Trossinger Zeitung), and who plays with "spellbinding musicality" (Schwäbische Zeitung). Irina has recently been awarded the prestigious Soloist's Diploma by the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany, and holds additional degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. She received the Master of Music in Violin Performance and Literature, as well as an Arts Leadership Certificate (part of Eastman's Institute for Music Leadership) in May 2004, and the Bachelor of Music in Applied Music (Violin, with High Distinction) in May 2003. Her principal teachers have included Professor Winfried Rademacher in Trossingen, and Professor Lynn Blakeslee at Eastman. Orchestral performances have taken her throughout England, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Japan. In addition, Irina has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Germany and Romania, and she has given solo recitals in Ohio, New York, South Carolina, Connecticut and Germany. Irina plays on an English violin by John Betts (London), from the year 1794.
Mary Papoulis holds a DMA from SUNY Stony Brook, MM from Eastman, and BM from Indiana University. Papoulis moved to Montana in 1990 to join the Cascade Quartet, as co-concertmaster of the Great Falls Symphony. In 1991 she joined the String Orchestra of the Rockies. A dedicated teacher in her community, Mary has also taught at the Olympic Music Festival in Washington, the Summer Youth Orchestra Workshop in Bozeman, Adult Chamber Music Workshop with the Ying Quartet and directed a Suzuki program in New York. Papoulis has participated in the Spoleto Festival, Music Academy of the West, Yale Norfolk Chamber Festival, several baroque music workshops, and the Stanford Jazz workshop. Her music has taken her as far as Korea with the National Repertory Orchestra as well as China as soloist with the Long Island Youth Orchestra. Papoulis was also soloist with the Butte and Great Falls Symphonies and competition winner with the Long Island Pops. In 2010 and 2011 she performed as chamber and orchestral musician with the Amadeus Festival in Whitefish. In July of 2011 she toured Montana with Richard Pearson Thomas and the Mirror Visions Ensemble performing "Clean Plates Don't Lie," by Thomas. In her spare time Mary enjoys playing gypsy music with guitarist, Rich Matoon, but most of all she is the proud mother of Brian and Kevin Gemberling.
Adam Matthes joined the Cascade Quartet in 2009, quartet in residence with the Great Falls Symphony. He has frequented the Aspen Music Festival as an orchestral fellow, and also has performed in the Chintimini Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, and the AIMS Festival. Notable collaborations include performances with Kenji Bunch, Sarah Chang, Alexander Kerr, as well members of the Colorado, New Jersey, and Oregon Symphonies, and in May of 2007, he toured the People's Republic of China with the Zhang Piano Quintet. Taking an earnest interest in new music, he has worked with notable composers Jacob Avshalomov, John Harbison, and Krzysztof Penderecki, and has recorded music of Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon on Bridge Records. In June 2010 he premiered Kenji Bunch's double concerto, "Verso," for violin and viola at the Chintimini Chamber Music Festival. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Shepherd School of Music, he studied with John Graham, James Dunham and Joan Derhovsepian, and has also played in master classes for Victoria Chiang, Roberto Diaz, Hsin-yun Huang, Jefferey Irvine, and Tabea Zimmerman.
Thaddeus Suits started his career as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Puerto Rico Symphony. He left the island to take a job in Minnesota as cellist in the Rochester String Quartet and has been playing chamber music ever since, including over twenty years with the Cascade Quartet. Thad graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in his home town of St. Louis, where he studied under Yuan Tung. He then continued his studies with the great Pierre Fournier in Geneva and with William Pleeth in London. Thad is a recipient of the Montana Arts Council's Individual Artist Fellowship. He can also be heard in recital with his wife, pianist Su Suits, with whom he has released two CDs: Mistral, and Songs My Mother Taught Me.
