We Go Lower Performers

Paul Primus (Violin) Violinist Paul Primus grew up in the Chicago and Cleveland areas, before attending Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in music from UWM. Paul won an audition with the Denver Symphony in 1984, and was promoted to Principal Second Violinist in 1985, the position he still holds. He coordinated the chamber music program at Denver School of the Arts from 2013-2018. Paul is a founding member of the Colorado Chamber Players, which he and his wife Barbara Hamilton began in 1993. He performs approximately 30 concerts a year with the CCP, and can be heard frequently on Colorado Public Radio. Mr. Primus has performed numerous unaccompanied violin recitals over the years, most memorably one of the complete Paganini Caprices in 1986. Paul is an active teacher in the Denver area and has also taught and performed at Eastern Music Festival, Rocky Ridge, and the Lamont Pre-College Academy at DU. He is a frequent coach for the DYAO.

John Fadial has appeared on four continents as chamber musician, soloist and pedagogue. His performances have been praised by the critics. “Sparkling Technique,” L’Est Republicain “Wow! Great Stuff,” The Washington Post. He has toured internationally as a US State Department Artistic Ambassador, and has served as Concertmaster of the North Carolina Opera, the Colorado Festival, Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra, the Menuhin Festival Orchestra of Saumur (France), the Heidelberg Schloss-Spiele (Germany), and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra (eighteen seasons). He has been Professor of Violin at the University of Wyoming since 2008, and in 2016 served as Visiting Guest Artist at the Conservatoire National de Nancy (France). In 2007, he was a Grammy semifinalist for best Chamber Music Performance for the CD Where Does Love Go: Chamber Music of Mark Engebretson (Innova). American Record Guide deemed his disc Chamber Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, with English pianist Andrew Harley.

Barbara Hamilton is Artistic Director and Violist/Violist d’Amore with the Colorado Chamber Players, a position she has held for 27 years. She performed the complete Brandenberg Concerti with BCOC on baroque viola. She served as principal violist with Eastern Music Festival 1990-2005. Barbara played as principal violist/soloist with Colorado Symphony, Orquesta Ciudad de Barcelona & Orquesta de Valencia (Spain). She was in the New York Philharmonic for one season. Dr. Hamilton received a DMA from Yale School of Music in 1992, where she studied with Jesse Levine and taught in 1998. She was a prize winner in the Fischoff, Aspen Festival and Woolsey Hall Competitions, as well as the Young Artists of YM-YWHA (New Jersey). In the 1990’s, she toured Europe with the Orquesta Ciudad de Barcelona, the NY Virtuosi and the American Sinfonietta, concerts in the Grosse Saal/Vienna, the Concertgebauw, Leipzig Gewandhaus.

Cellist Beth Vanderborgh serves as Associate Professor of Cello at the University of Wyoming, as principal cellist of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, and on the Artist-Faculty of the Eastern Music Festival. She is a founding member of the acclaimed Stanislas Sextet, based in Nancy, France, and tours regularly with Musica Harmonia and the Helios Trio. She has recorded two CDs for Albany Records, both released in 2013: Chamber Music of Jennifer Higdon (“Highly recommended!” Fanfare Magazine) and Salon Music of August Nölck for Cello and Piano. Strad Magazine described her Nölck recording as “lyrical and technically accomplished, eloquent and persuasive.” She holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Maryland.

August Ramos is a double bass section member of the Colorado Symphony since 2020. He also plays with Pro Musica Colorado when he has the opportunity, as well as performing chamber music in the Front Range region. August has been a substitute musician at the New World Symphony, the Nashville Symphony, and the Houston Symphony, as well as a member of the Cape Symphony, and KINETIC, the Conductorless Ensemble. August grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts. He began studying the double bass at age 12 under the tutelage of Randy Wong and in high school studied with Irving Steinberg. August continued his studies at Rice University first with Timothy Pitts, and then with Paul Ellison to receive his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Double Bass Performance. August has received fellowships at multiple festivals, including the Music Academy of the West, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Contemporary Performance Institute. As of 2021, August is an Adjunct Instructor of Classical Bass at the University of Wyoming.