Participant
Brendon Elliott
Violin
Accepted to the preliminary round of the 2026 Naumburg International Violin Competition.
Biography supplied for the 2026 competition.
Brendon Elliott is a Sphinx Competition Laureate who received his BM studying with Pamela Frank and Joseph Silverstein at The Curtis Institute of Music, and attained his master’s at The Juilliard School under Sylvia Rosenberg and Ronald Copes. Following school he completed a fellowship with the New World Symphony. He began his violin studies under his mother’s tutelage at the age of three and made his solo debut when he was 10 years old. He was chosen to be featured on NPR’s From the Top at 13. At age 17, Brendon was invited as a guest soloist with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra after winning their concerto competition thrice. That same year he toured with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra performing Adolphus Hailstork’s Violin Concerto as an opener for Natalie Cole. Brendon has since soloed with The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Harlem Chamber Players, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and has performed in orchestras such as the Sphinx Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Chineke! Orchestra. Brendon is a member of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and is currently touring as Joseph Bologne’s musical half in Bill Barclay’s play The Chevalier. The New York Times review of The Chevalier wrote, “Elliott lends his silvery tone, superb phrasing and a commanding technique to the Chevalier’s solos.“
Pianists
2026 International Violin Competition
Peggy Kampmeier
, piano
Margaret “Peggy” Kampmeier is a pianist and educator whose work spans solo recitals, chamber music, orchestral performance, and contemporary repertoire. A founding member of the New Millennium Ensemble, she shared in the group’s 1995 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. Her performing career includes numerous premieres and recordings, with appearances alongside the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble, and New York Philharmonic Ensembles.
Kampmeier has also collaborated with the Kronos and Cassatt quartets and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Her repertoire includes Schnittke’s Third Piano Concerto, performed with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic; Messiaen’s Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall; and Steve Reich’s Eight Lines with the American Composers Orchestra at Zankel Hall. Solo recital appearances include the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.
She earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University. Kampmeier joined Manhattan School of Music in 2012, teaching in its Contemporary Performance Program, and also teaches piano at Princeton University.