CityLights Musicians

Violinist Emily Faxon holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Dorothy Delay and Joseph Fuchs. She is the Assistant Concertmaster of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic as well as a long-time member of the Poné Ensemble and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Quartet.  She is a founding performer with the annual Bach Festival in North Conway, New Hampshire and, along with Ruthanne Schempf, is a founding member of the Hudson Valley Society for Music, which produces Potluck Concerts and an annual Hudson Valley BachFest. Ms. Faxon was three times awarded Full Fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Center. She has played for the Long Island Philharmonic, the American Symphony, Clarion Concerts and Pro Arte. She has recorded for MCI, Albany, and Soundspell Records. Ms. Faxon lives with three unintentional cats in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, a mere phone call away from her two delicious granddaughters!

Ruthanne Schempf is an active chamber and solo musician and has performed throughout the United States.  She is on the faculties of SUNY-New Paltz and Interlochen Arts Camp, and is a member of the Poné Ensemble for New Music.  She has also taught at Marist College and was the pianist for the Cadet Glee Club at West Point. She earned undergraduate degrees from Michigan State University and a D.M.A. from the Manhattan School of Music.  Her teachers include Ralph Votapek, Robert Goldsand, Constance Keene, and Marc Silverman.  Along with Emily Faxon, she is also a co-founder of the non-profit Hudson Valley Society for Music which produces Potluck Concerts and an annual Hudson Valley BachFest.  Her solo piano recording, An American Mirage: Exotic Piano Images, was released in March of 2009 on the MSR Classics label.  This recording features works by American composers of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Selected as “CD of the week” on July 4, 2009 by radio station KBAQ of Phoenix, Arizona, this recording has also been heard on Wisconsin Public Radio and has been reviewed in Fanfare by Robert Markow who said “She displays impressive technical command and brings clarity to the densely written passages…her sound is especially impressive – full, rich, sonorous in the low range, never clanky in the high.”

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