Virtuoso Program Faculty & Guests
At the heart of the Virtuoso Program is our exceptional music faculty, whose distinguished members are accomplished professional musicians from around the Bay Area. Students enjoy the privilege of studying closely under and being mentored by our faculty, as well as benefit from masterclasses with frequently visiting guest artists.
Virtuoso Program Guests
The Alexander String Quartet
Leif Bjaland - Music Director, Florida West Coast Symphony
Stuart Canin - Concertmaster, LA Opera Orchestra
The Cavani String Quartet
Denis de Coteau - Music Director, San Francisco Ballet
JoAnn Falletta - Music Director, Buffalo Philharmonic and Virginia Symphony
Charlie Haden - Grammy-award winning jazz bassist
Bonnie Hampton - Cello pedagogue, The Julliard School
Colin Hampton - Classical cello virtuoso
Sharon Isbin - Grammy-winning classical guitarist
Peter Jaffe - Music Director, Stockton Symphony
Sir Yehudi Menuhin - Classical violin virtuoso
The Miro String Quartet
Michael Morgan - Music Director, Oakland East Bay Symphony
Alasdair Neale - Music Director, Marin Symphony
Andre Watts - Grammy-winning classical pianist
John Williams - Academy Award-winning composer
Virtuoso Program Faculty
Virtuoso Program faculty provide support and encouragement for preparation for regional, national and international auditions and competitions as well as college and conservatory applications. They also collaborate closely with with private instructors and leaders of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Marin Symphony Youth Programs on behalf of students who seek membership in these other organizations.
Ann Krinitsky - Virtuoso Program Director
Ann Krinitsky directs the Virtuoso Program at San Domenico School and the Marin Symphony Youth Performance programs. She also conducted Family Concerts with the Marin Symphony.
A frequent guest conductor with the Honolulu Symphony, Ms. Krinitsky led concerts on Oahu as well as on tour to the neighbor islands of Hawaii and Kauai. She performed for a crowd of 40,000 at Ala Moana Beach Park as part of the Memorial Day Lantern Floating Ceremony. She regularly conducts Ballet Hawaii's Nutcracker and has enjoyed numerous collaborations with Chamber Music Hawaii and the Onium Ballet Project. She has collaborated with renowned soloists including Midori Goto, Chee Yun Kim, and Zuill Bailey, and has also appeared appeared as guest conductor with the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival String Orchestra, the Maui Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Women's Philharmonic, the Camellia Symphony, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Marin Chamber Orchestra, and the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra.
In the Bay Area, her posts have included Director of Orchestras at Stanford University; Music Director of the Nova Vista Symphony, Palo Alto Philharmonic, Berkeley Youth and Community Women’s Orchestras; Conductor of the Acalanes Chamber Orchestra; and Assistant Conductor of the Pacific Mozart Ensemble. She has also served on the faculty at Laney College in Oakland and appeared as Conductor of the Chautauqua Summer Orchestra in western New York state.
Graduating with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied with Michael Senturia, Ms. Krinitsky completed three summers of study with Harold Farberman and various visiting artists at the Conductors' Institute at Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. In 1993 she was invited to participate in the American Composer-Conductor Program, designed to allow five conductors and five composers exchange knowledge and expertise.
She is a passionate champion for the music of women composers and has premiered and performed numerous historical and contemporary women composers' works with various ensembles. Ms. Krinitsky received the 2000-01 JoAnn Falletta Conducting Award. Given by The Women's Philharmonic and funded by the Stein Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, the award and accompanying prize money recognize women actively pursuing careers as conductors.
In addition to her conducting duties, she has performed nationally as a violinist and is a published music transcriber, arranger and copyist. She serves as guest conductor and adjudicator at various festivals and competitions. She is married to conductor and timpanist Stuart Chafetz.
Rob DeNunzio - Music Conservatory Director, Guitar
Rob DeNunzio has been managing San Domenico's music programs since 2005 and was chosen in 2010 to head up the curriculum, recruitment, and fundraising for San Domenico’s award-winning Virtuoso Program. A San Francisco native, Rob received his degree in Music from the University of Oregon where he studied jazz guitar performance with Don Latarski, and composition with Dr. Jack Boss and Dr. Robert Kyr. His work as a freelance composer and recording artist has been used in film and television broadcasts, and counts a number of firms such as MTV, Adidas International, and YouTube as licensing clients. After working as the Operations Manager for the Marin Symphony, Rob came to San Domenico to assist in the business management and fundraising database development in the Music Conservatory. Besides his role in the Virtuoso Program, he manages the day-to-day activities of the Conservatory and its twenty music faculty, oversees the instrumental music programs from Pre-K to Grade 12, and teaches guitar to a number of San Domenico students. He lives in Fairfax with his wife Desiree and his two children, Mia and Leo.
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Eugene Chuklov - Violin Sectional Leader, Violin Instructor
Eugene Chuklov was born into a family of musicians—his father was a concertmaster of an opera company in Russia. He has played violin and piano since age five, and attended music schools during childhood, winning his first competition at thirteen. In 1979, Chukhlov moved from Central Asia to Moscow to study, receiving degrees in psychology and pedagogy at Gnesin College, and a masters from the Moscow Conservatory; he was first violinist in the Arlekin Quartet, and part of the Grand Symphony Orchestra of Moscow (BSO). In 1990, Chukhlov moved to the United States and has played with many groups as a soloist, principal, and concertmaster, touring extensively with a quartet and the Western Opera. In the last few years, he has been busy with family (two children and a well-beloved dog), teaching at Crowden School and San Domenico. He currently has studios in the East Bay and Marin, and plays with the New Century Orchestra, Opera, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the Berkeley Symphony.
Randy Fromme
Randy has performed with his wife, pianist Shu Li and taught throughout the Bay Area, Midwest and in China since 1999. He is an avid chamber musician whose collaborations include performances with Frederica von Stade, Donald and Vivian Weilerstein and guitarist Paul Galbraith. Former string quartets include the Del Sol and Oberon. He has played and recorded with jazz musicians including Kenny Werner, Dmitri Matheny and Jeff Marrs and rock bands such as Overseas. He enjoys sharing his love of music with students of all ages, and currently teaches cello and chamber music in the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory Division. He has also taught cello at UC Santa Cruz, given master classes at the Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin and at the University in Guiyang, China. Studies include UW Eau Claire, UM Minneapolis and the San Francisco Conservatory, with respective instructors Paul Kosower, Tanya Remenikova, Clive Greensmith and Jean Michel Fonteneau. He has also studied with Martin Lovett, Janos Starker, Joel Krosnick and Gunther Schuller among others in both solo and chamber music settings. Randolph and his wife currently reside in San Francisco with their three children, who also study piano and cello with them.
Miles Graber
Pianist Miles Graber received his musical training at the Juilliard School and has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1971, where he has developed a wide reputation as an accompanist and collaborative pianist. He has performed with numerous solo artists, including Sarah Chang, Cho-Liang Lin, Camilla Wicks, Axel Strauss, Mimi Stillman, Judith LeClair, and Frederica von Stade, and has accompanied violinists Robin Hansen, Christina Mok, Natasha Makhijani, and Stuart Canin, cellists Michael Graham, Robert Howard, Thalia Moore, and Stephen Harrison, clarinetist Tom Rose, and flutists Gary Woodward, Amy Likar, and Sasha Launer. He is also member of the chamber groups MusicAEterna, Graham-Graber-Rose Trio, Alcyone Ensemble, the Sor Ensemble, Mira Trio, and the new music group Sounds New.
Mr. Graber has been associated with such ensembles as the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Midsummer Mozart, the Oakland Symphony, the Berkeley Symphony, the California Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony, Oakland Lyric Opera, Berkeley Opera, and Opera San Jose. He has accompanied master classes of Midori, Joseph Silverstein, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Pamela Frank, Alexander Barantchik, James Galway, Lynn Harrell, Yo-Yo Ma, and Kim Kashkashian. He has been a frequent performer with members of San Francisco Symphony, Oakland Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, California Symphony, and Santa Rosa Symphony. Mr. Graber is also a staff accompanist at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and holds accompanying posts at the Mondavi Center for the Arts Young Artist Competition and the Irving M. Klein International String Competition.
Elizabeth Prior - Violin Instructor
An active Bay Area violist, Elizabeth Prior is the principal violist with the Santa Rosa Symphony and is also a season substitute with the San Francisco Ballet. She is currently fulfilling a one year contract with the San Francisco Opera as section viola. She recently joined the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Elizabeth is the associate principal with the Marin Symphony and performs with the Pittsburg Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Skywalker Symphony and the Farallon Quintet.
Other orchestral positions include the Freiburg Philharmonic (Associate principal) and the Cape Town Symphony. She has toured and worked with Südwestfunk, Stuttgart Radio, Basel Symphony, and the Mannheim Opera Orchestras.
A native of South Africa, she was a prizewinner in the International String Competition in Pretoria and gave her debut at Carnegie Hall with the Russian Chamber Orchestra. Other engagements include: Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival; Sun Valley Summer Symphony, Grand Tetons Music Festival,Chamber Ensemble Cologne, Grass Valley and Mendocino summer festivals, Midsummer Mozart and "Chamber Music San Francisco". She performed regular Viola recitals for 13 years with Maestro Donald Runnicles/piano. She recently released her new CD, 'Viola Romance' with Miles Graber/Piano.
Sergei Riabtchenko - Chamber Music Coach, Cello Instructor
Sergei Riabtchenko received a Bachelor degree from Pushkin Music College in Russia, where he was the Grand Prix winner of the Moscow Young Musicians Festival. He received his Masters from the Moscow Conservatory of Music, and performed with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra until 1990. Upon moving to the United States, Mr. Riabtchenko taught for three years at San Francisco State University and currently performs with the California Symphony Orchestra and the Arlekin String Quartet. He began teaching at San Domenico in summer 2000.