Principal Cellist Stefan Kartman will perform David Diamond’s Kaddish for Cello and Orchestra in Festival City Symphony’s season-opening Saturday Classics concert, “Hope, Resilience, and Copland’s American Symphony,” on Saturday, October 18, 2025.
The concert begins at 2:00pm at the Bradley Symphony Center and will be preceded by an on-stage discussion with the Holocaust Education Resource Center beginning at 1:30pm. Tickets are free with suggested donation.
Stefan Kartman currently serves as Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee where he teaches cello and chairs the string area. Dr. Kartman also teaches string pedagogy, teaches privately, and is the Principal Cellist of Festival City Symphony.
In addition to solo performances, he has performed to critical acclaim as cellist of Trio Antigo, the Kneisel Trio, and the Florestan Duo, giving performances and masterclasses in conservatories of music and institutions of higher education worldwide including the Cleveland Institute of Music, the China Conservatory of Music and the Xiamen Conservatory of Music, and the D’Albaco Conservatory of Music, among many others.
An avid chamber music enthusiast, Dr. Kartman has served on the faculties of the Vianden Chamber Music Festival in Luxembourgh, the Madeline Island Chamber Music Camp, the Garth Newel Chamber Music Festival, the Alfred University Summer Chamber Music Institute, the MidAmerica Chamber Music Festival, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and was artistic director of the Milwaukee Chamber Music Festival. His early training in chamber music was with his father, Myron Kartman of the Antioch String Quartet and during his formal training as a chamber musician, he studied with members of the Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets and the Beaux Arts Trio.
Stefan Kartman received degrees from Northwestern University, The Juilliard School of Music, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University. He has been teaching assistant to Harvey Shapiro and Zara Nelsova of the Juilliard School and proudly acknowledges the pedagogical heritage of his teachers Shapiro, Nelsova, Bernard Greenhouse, Alan Harris, and Anthony Cooke.