Kinhaven Pathways Seminar

Hailed as “first-rate” by The Boston Globe, cellist Tomoko Fujita enjoys an active musical life as a performer, educator, and administrator. She was a founding member of the Bryant Park Quartet, and played with the group during its ten year history which included a self-titled album in 2014. She has also collaborated with esteemed artists such as Itzhak Perlman, members of the Cleveland, Emerson, and Juilliard String Quartets, dancer Wendy Whelan, and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Currently, Tomoko is a member of the New York Chamber Music Co-Op, a performance collaborative which seeks to explore issues of social justice in the context of classical music programming. She performs additionally with pianist Luba Poliak.

Tomoko has premiered and performed many contemporary works as a soloist – she was praised in Strad magazine for her “haunting” performance of Morton Subotnick’s Axolotl – and in ensembles such as Argento Chamber Ensemble, Mimesis Ensemble, New Fromm Players, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, and New Juilliard Ensemble. On baroque cello, she has performed with the Aulos Ensemble, and at the Boston Early Music Festival and the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts series.
Tomoko graduated summa cum laude from Rice University with a double degree: a Bachelor of Music in cello performance and a Bachelors of Arts in psychology. Having earned a Master of Music at The Juilliard School, she received a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University. Tomoko is Assistant Professor at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, and Coordinator of the Cali Pathways Project, an initiative to support talented high school musicians from under-resourced backgrounds reach their goals of higher education and careers in music. She also coaches at the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, and has previously taught at Princeton and Hofstra universities. For the past 15 summers, Tomoko has been in residence at the Kinhaven Music School in Weston, VT. For more information, visit www.tomokofujita.com.

An experienced arts administrator, educator & professional violist, Insell is currently the Executive
Director of the Bronx Arts Ensemble after previously serving as the organization’s Artistic Director.
She previously held the positions of Director of the School for Performing Arts at Bronx House,
Director of Music at the Harlem School of the Arts, and Assistant Director of Instrumental Studies at
The New School’s Mannes College of Music. She also served 6 years on Manhattan Community
Board 9(MCB9), chairing the Youth, Education, & Libraries Committee, and served on the Arts &
Culture Committee and the MCB9 Executive Board. She is currently a board member of 2 nonprofit
organizations: the Community League of The Heights(Executive Board: Secretary) and the NYC Arts
in Education Roundtable(Member: Taskforce on Equity & Inclusion Committee; Advocacy
Committee), while also serving on the Legacy Council for Reimagining the Enslaved African Burial
Ground at Van Cortlandt Park.
Over decades, Judith has been a member of various music school faculties: New England Music
Camp(Chamber Music Intensive), New York Youth Symphony(Chamber Music Program), the
Juilliard School(Music Advancement Program(MAP)), Harlem School of the Arts(Music Dept.).
Bloomingdale School of Music(Head of the String Dept.), the Collegiate School(Head of the String
Dept.), and a mentor to students through programs at Exploring the Arts Foundation and NY Youth
Symphony. Independently, she is currently mentoring a graduate student at the Juilliard School,
helping her to navigate the audition process for professional orchestral job positions.
As a professional violist, Insell has collaborated with marquee artists: Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé,
India.Arie, John Cale, Suzanne Vega, Lee Konitz, Greg Osby, Elio Villafranca, Larry Harlow, and
Miguel Zenon. She has appeared on Saturday Night Live (SNL), and Late Night with Stephen
Colbert. She has also performed in the Broadway show orchestras for Hell’s Kitchen, Once Upon A
One More Time, Les Miserablé (25th Anniversary Edition), An American In Paris, A Gentleman’s
Guide to Love and Murder, Gypsy, Ms. Saigon, Tommy, Carousel, and Kiss of the Spider Woman
and off-Broadway in the musical “SUFFS” at the Public Theater. As an orchestral musician, Insell
has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn
Philharmonic, Parlando Chamber Orchestra, National Chorale and Orchestra, Gateways Festival
Orchestra, the Colour of Music Orchestra, & is currently a member of the Greenwich Symphony
Orchestra. As an improvising violist, she is a former member of Soldier String Quartet, Sojourner,
and Twisted Standard Trio. She is a founding & current member of the avant-garde jazz collective
Jump Off This Bridge.
Judith is a recent recipient of a Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellowship for the 2025/26 season.
She is also the proud recipient of the 2023 Jazz Journalists Award: “Bronx Jazz Hero,” presented to
advocates who have had a significant impact in their local communities supporting the art form of
jazz. She has also been a featured panelist for Lincoln Center’s “Summer for the City: June 2023:
‘Lift Every Voice and Sing: African American Contributions to the American Orchestral Canon” and
July 2023: “Exploring Futures: Panel on Careers in the Arts,” curated for NYC Middle & High School
Students.
Insell was recently quoted in the Center for an Urban Future’s vital report: Creative New York
(December 2026) and has a featured arts education “idea” in the center’s “50 Ideas for a Stronger
and More Equitable Bronx”(February 2024). She was also highlighted in Chamber Music America
Magazine’s feature on the Bronx Arts Ensemble: Finetuning Bronxness(November 2022), with a
focus on her leadership of the organization during its 50th anniversary year. She also participated in
the 2021-2023 New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA) “Orchestral Pathways” Cohort,
contributing to the design of a blueprint document to guide funders in best practices for supporting
the work of nonprofit Arts & Arts Education organizations to provide pathways to underserved
students to enter the classical music workforce.

Alexander Davis (he/him) is a New York City-based bassoonist who has been known for his ability to play “with poise and élan”- Cleveland Classical. He is a musician whose artistic intentions center on space-making, connection, and community-building within classical music. An advocate for creating equity in the arts, Alexander is the founder and Artistic Director of the Sugar Hill Salon, a chamber music series showcasing black and brown wind artistry based in the culturally robust community of Harlem, NY, and on the traditional territory of the Lenapehoking Nation (www.sugarhillsalon.com). His drive to perform works by living composers and his passion for uplifting diverse voices in the music community have made him a sought-after artist and member of the International Contemporary Ensemble and the Quintet of the Americas.

Alexander performed in the first all-black orchestra to ever hold a concert in the history of Carnegie Hall’s existence with the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, in April of 2022,. He has played with the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, American Composer Orchestra, Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, The Unsung Collective, Fort Worth Symphony, Harlem Chamber Players, Tertulia Chamber Music, Alarm Will Sound, American Modern Opera Company, Wet Ink, Long Island Chamber, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and more. Alexander has been featured as a soloist with orchestras, performing works such as Valerie Coleman’s Phenomenal Women alongside Valerie Coleman with the National Symphony Orchestra, led by Jeri Lynne Johnson, Matthew Jasckot’s St Paul Chamber Orchestra,  and Carl Maria von Weber’s Andante e Rondo with the Fredonia Chamber Orchestra. Apart from playing in orchestras, he has been heard on Broadway playing in the pits for Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, and Lincoln Center’s production of Camelot.

Alexander has performed in summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Ensemble Evolution, Banff Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Maine Chamber Music Seminar, and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. In addition to performing, Alexander is the Administrative Director of the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, where he works alongside the Imani Winds to cultivate a new generation of innovative chamber musicians at The Juilliard School. He has also been part of the “Armory Artists Corps Teaching Artists” in conjunction with the Park Avenue Armory since 2018.

Alexander is adjunct bassoon faculty at Montclair State University, SUNY Purchase, Manhattan School of Music Pre-College, and Mannes School of Music Prep. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education and Performance from SUNY Fredonia, a Masters in Performance from Stony Brook University, a Performers Certificate in Orchestral Performance from Manhattan School of Music, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate of Music at Stony Brook University.  He has studied with bassoonists Frank Morelli, Bob Williams, and Laura Koepke.

Patrick Romano has performed around the world, as both choral conductor and tenor soloist. In recent seasons, he has led choral performances at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, the Bing Concert Hall at Stanford University, the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and Sarasota Opera House in Sarasota, FL, the Henry Crown Symphony Hall in Jerusalem, Israel, and the Grand Theater in Shanghai, China. Mr. Romano is choral director at The Perlman Music Program, Sarah Lawrence College and The Juilliard School, Pre-College Division. In addition to his regular teaching, Mr. Romano has led workshops for high school choruses from the US, Canada, Viet Nam, China, Israel and for the “Musica para la Equidad” program in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Prior to his conducting career, he was tenor soloist in the internationally renowned early music ensemble, The Waverly Consort. While with the group, he performed in concert series at Alice Tully Hall, The Cloisters and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, toured extensively throughout North and South America, and made several appearances on PBS’s Shakespeare’s presentations as musical entertainment. He won first place in the Geneva International Music Competition with the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble. He was also tenor soloist with the Rifkin Bach Ensemble, The American Bach Soloist’s, The Amor Artis Orchestra and Choir, The Dessoff Choirs, The Smithsonian Chamber Players, and the Paul Hill Chorale in Washington D.C., and was twice soloist with the Casals Festival Orchestra in Puerto Rico.

Mr. Romano can be heard on recordings of Mozart’s “Requiem” with the Amor Artis Orchestra, Bach’s “B Minor Mass” with The American Bach Soloists, Bach’s “St. John Passion” with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and in an arrangement of Schubert’s “Der Erlkönig” and “An Den Mond” with the Bryant Park Quartet.

Mr. Romano received his B.M. and M.M. in voice and conducting at West Chester University in West Chester, PA. In 2001, Mr. Romano was presented with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the School of Music at West Chester University. In his spare time, he loves bicycling, hiking, and crossword puzzles.