Meet The Artists
Artists who have performed at the South Country Concerts
With internationally acclaimed resident artists and a wide range of guest musicians South Country Concerts has provided exquisite music for many to enjoy. Some of the performers at our concerts are listed below.
Resident and Guest Artists (Click entry for information)
Naho Tsutsui Parrini, Violin
Arthur Moeller, Violin
Aundrey Mitchell, Viola
Laurinel Owen, Cello
Richard Pearson Thomas, Piano
Deborah Birnbaum, Soprano
Laura Mole, Viola
Naomi Drucker, Clarinet
Irina Pustovoit, Violin
Renée Jolles, Violin
Susan Jolles, Harp
James Hoback, Tenor
Michael Jones, Bass
Todd Palmer, Clarinet
Christopher Shaughnessy, Viola
Andrew Perea, Violin
Past Performers
Naho Parrini
Violin
Naho Parrini, originally from Kochi, Japan, has given recitals in the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and Bulgaria. She is a member of Yumi Kurosawa Trio, a group for Japanese Koto, violin, and percussion. She toured nationally and internationally as a member of Hyperion String Quartet from 2007 to 2009. Chamber music appearances have taken her to renowned concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Izumi Hall in Osaka, Japan, Louvre Museum in Paris, and National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Naho is a member of American Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Lumos, and performs with New York City Ballet, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Oratorio Society of New York, and Albany Symphony Orchestra.
Since 2004 Naho has been on faculty of Bloomingdale School of Music, and has served as Director of Education, as well as Director of Music Access Program, a pre-college scholarship program with a mission to prepare talented and deserving students for acceptance into conservatory, college, and university. She was on the faculty at Kinhaven Music School, in Vermont from 2003 to 2024.
Naho earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University. Where she worked with the Emerson, Mendelssohn, and Orion String Quartets. Back to top
Arthur Moeller
Violin
Arthur Moeller has accompanied the band Vampire Weekend on Saturday Night Live, has toured with the The Knights and the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. Since 2021 he has held a chair in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Orchestra. Arthur has performed chamber music in Carnegie Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall, the Sculpture Garden at MoMA, and at various festivals across the U.S. He is the Principal 2nd Violin of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra and has played with the Princeton Symphony, the Albany Symphony and in various Broadway pits. Arthur studied at the Julliard School in NYC. In addition to his performing career, he photographs people and things (arthurmoeller.com), reads 18th and 19th century literature, and bakes croissants.
Aundrey Mitchell
Viola
Aundrey Mitchell received undergraduate and graduate degrees in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, completed postgraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music, and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University.
As soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player Aundrey has performed throughout the United States, South America, Europe, and Russia with performances at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bargemusic, Kimmel Center, Kennedy Center, National Gallery of Art, Mariinsky Theater, and Tchaikovsky Hall. Ms. Mitchell has appeared as soloist with the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, Harlem Symphony, and the Antara Ensemble and has given recitals in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Boston, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. She has toured extensively around the world with the Philadelphia Virtuosi, participated in numerous music festivals, as well as work on Broadway, Madison Square Garden, and Radio City Music Hall.
Aundrey is Founder/Executive Director of Perennial Muse, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit arts organization founded in 2021 that provides music programs for older adults and adult learners in the New York City metropolitan area. The organization offers free afternoon concerts at senior centers, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities as well as workshops and group music lessons in the community. Dr. Mitchell is a former adjunct Professor of Viola at The College of New Jersey and adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at City University of New York. She has also taught at Moravian College, Westminster Choir College, Pennsylvania Academy of Music, and Eastern Music Festival.
Aundrey performs regularly with The Harlem Chamber Players, Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestra Lumos and maintains a private teaching studio and mentors high school student musicians in the college application process. During the summer Aundrey teaches viola and chamber music at the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont.
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Laurinel Owen
Cellist
Laurinel Owen moved to Brookhaven/Bellport from South Africa over 30 years ago. During that previous lifetime she was principal cellist with the National Symphony of South Africa in Johannesburg having arrived there via Mexico City and Edinburgh where she played in major ensembles. Musical adventures have taken her throughout much of the US, Europe, South America, southern Africa and China. Laurinel has had over 130 articles and a cellist’s biography published and most recently Strings Attached: A Memoir of Betrayal, Bigamy, and Self-Discovery was published in 2024 by Koehler Books.
She is the artistic director of South Country Concerts and loves bringing great chamber music to our community.
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Richard Pearson Thomas
Composer and pianist
Richard Pearson Thomas has had works performed by the Boston Pops, Covent Garden Festival, Houston Grand Opera, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Chautauqua Opera, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Banff Centre, Portland Opera, Skylight Opera, and Encompass Opera. His songs have been sung in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Joe’s Pub, and before the U.S. Congress.
He has received commissions from the Mirror Visions Ensemble, American Composers’ Forum, Great Falls Symphony Orchestra, Empire State Youth Orchestra, Lebanon Valley College Orchestra, United States Air Force Band of the Golden West, Cal State Fullerton Opera, and Riverside Philharmonic Orchestra. His work Race for the Sky, commissioned as a commemoration of the events of 9/11, has been performed by the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra and in recitals nationwide and abroad including in the Sydney Opera House.
Chamber music by Mr. Thomas has been performed by Sybarite 5, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Duo Terlano, Trillium Ensemble, South Country Concerts, and recorded by Music of the Spheres Society for broadcast on NPR. Singing like the larks, for mezzo-soprano and piano quintet, was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2014 MTNA Distinguished Composers competition.
Mr. Thomas is currently on faculty at Columbia University Teachers College. He has taught at Yale and the University of Central Florida. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California and is a native of Montana.
For more info: richardpearsonthomas.com
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