• Danielle Rathey

    FOUNDER

    Danielle is an amateur cellist with love for her instrument and art. She began studying cello in 2021 after losing her connection to her lifelong love of classical ballet due to the pandemic. Danielle has studied classical ballet for 40 years. She started her training in Massachusetts and continued in Florida, Hawaii, and New York.

    In addition, Danielle holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology, is a school Psychologist and adjunct professor of Applied Psychology at New York University where she teaches courses oriented toward mental health and wellness, research methods, and counseling methods. Danielle is interested in how learning music is a parallel to learning spoken language. She uses music to teach students about intonation, prosody, mood and much more as they relate to social settings. She also uses music in her work to connect and relate to students of all ages. What’s your number 1 song on repeat right now?

    Starting ISCC is a natural response to her love for music, community, and connecting people to joy.

  • Markus Rathey

    MUSIC HISTORIAN, CONDUCTOR

    Markus Rathey is the Robert S. Tangeman Professor in the Practice of Music History at Yale University where he teaches at the School of Music, the Institute of Sacred Music, and the Divinity School. Trained as an organist and choral conductor, he has played the organ, the piano, and he has led numerous choirs and bands. In his musicological research, Markus Rathey focuses on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the relationship between music, religion, and society in the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. He is the author of several books on Johann Sebastian Bach and the Bach family, including the introduction to Bach’s Oratorios: Bach’s Major Vocal Works: Music, Drama, Liturgy (Yale University Press 2016). He is the past president of the American Bach Society and currently serves on the editorial board of the Yale Journal of Music and Religion.

  • Samuel Walter

    MUSIC DIRECTOR, CONDUCTOR

    Samuel Walter is a graduate of the Yale School of Music where he studied with Paul Watkins, Aldo Parisot and Ralph Kirschbaum. He has soloed with numerous symphony orchestras and performed alongside international soloists including the late Lynn Harrell and Joseph Silverstein. In addition to performing, Samuel is passionate about teaching. He runs a private studio in New Haven and provides instruction to cellists online across the globe. Over the years he has taught at the Meadowmount School of Music, and worked as a conductor and cello instructor at Yale’s Morse Academy and Music in Schools Initiative.

    Samuel is also portrait and still-life painter. He has been featured in several issues of The American Art Collector Magazine, the International Artist Magazine, and the The Art of The Portrait Magazine.

  • Kevin Chapin, Luthier

    K.H. CHAPIN FINE VIOLINS

    Bio coming soon!

  • Ute Brinkmann, Luthier

    Ute Brinkmann, Geigenbaumeister

    Ute is a a German master of violin making, has 20 years of experience as a luthier. Her knowledge and trustworthiness make her the perfect custodian of your fine instrument, keeping it in excellent professional condition for future generations.

    She offers servicing and restoring of violins, violas and cellos, knowledgeable advice and consulting, and direct purchasing from artisan shops in Germany to provide you with good workmanship at the best price.

“The risk that music invites us to take becomes a joyous adventure only when we stretch beyond our known capacities, while gladly affirming that we may fail. And if we make a mistake, we can mentally raise our arms and say, ‘How fascinating!’ and reroute our attention to the higher purpose at hand.”

— Benjamin Zander “The Art of Possibility”