Jupiter String Quartet

Born in Paris, Dr. Mélanie Clapiès is a multifaceted soloist and a dedicated chamber music player who enjoys an international career. She has been invited to festivals in the United States, France, the UK, Russia, Malta, Italy, Spain, and Algeria, including Yellow Barn, Colmar, Musique en roue libre, the Deauville’s Festival de Pâques and Août Musical, la Roque d’Anthéron, the Salon Romantique of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, ‘Suona Francese’, Portogruaro, and the Fondation Monteleon. Her collaborators include Anthony Marwood, Roger Tapping, John Myerscough, Pavel Vernikov, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Adam Laloum, Guillaume Vincent, and Patrick Hemmerlé.

Mélanie’s wide ranging musical focuses include new and experimental music, as well as electronic music, which she explores through performing, improvising, and composing. As a part of her ongoing interest in researching and uplifting unusual repertoire, she recorded an album of duos for violin and cello with cellist Yan Levionnois (Pierrots Lunaires, Fondamenta/Sony, 2014).

Mélanie studied at the Conservatoires Nationaux Supérieurs de Musique in both Lyon and Paris. After having moved to the United States, she received her M.M. and A.D. from the Yale School of Music and completed a Doctoral degree at the Manhattan School of Music in the studio of Mark Steinberg. Named a Zonta Club laureate in 2001, she has also received the Broadus Erle Prize (2013), the Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize (2014), the Philip Francis Nelson Prize from Yale University (2015), and the Saul Braverman Award (2021). At Yale, she was the winner of the Woolsey Concerto Competition in 2015 with Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto. She is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda.

A dedicated educator, Mélanie Clapiès joined Butler University as a Violin faculty in 2022. She previously taught at the Conservatories in Toulon and Bordeaux as well as at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris.

Meg Freivogel McDonough, second violinist and founding member of the Jupiter String Quartet, grew up playing chamber music with her siblings. Her childhood music teachers Ronda Cole and John Kendall, with whom she studied in her hometown of St. Louis, inspired her to pursue a career in music. She attended the Cleveland Institute of Music for a Bachelor of Music degree, studying with Donald Weilerstein and participating in the flourishing chamber music program run by Peter Salaff and the Cavani Quartet. From there, Meg moved to Boston and the New England Conservatory where she obtained her Master of Music and Master of Chamber Music degrees, acting as teaching assistant to Donald Weilerstein and studying closely with Lucy Chapman, Paul Katz and other members of the Cleveland Quartet.

Meg is also a founding member of East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) which recently released its debut CD on E1 Records.

Inspired by how music has shaped her life, Meg wishes to share her belief that creating art through music can provide tools useful in life in general. She feels studying an instrument and working in a chamber music group provides invaluable experience learning to collaborate with others. This communication and process provide kindling for creative ideas and inspire personal growth, ultimately creating fulfilment and enjoyment in the artistic process. 

Liz Freivogel is the founding and current violist of the Jupiter String Quartet, formed in 2001. Liz has a studio of viola students at the University of Illinois, and also helps to run the chamber music program. 

Liz has won prizes in the Primrose International Viola Competition, Oberlin Concerto Competition, American String Teachers Association Competition National Solo Competition, and the Wendell-Irish Viola Competition. Her teaching experience includes a long-term affiliation with the Bowdoin International Music Festival, where she is in residence each summer, as well as repeated teaching and performing residencies at the Madeline Island Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. She has engaged in visiting residencies at numerous schools, including Oberlin Conservatory, Adelphi University, the University of Iowa, Middlebury College, Peabody Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, San Francisco Conservatory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and many others. She has served as a judge of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the Illinois ASTA Concerto Competition and gives frequent masterclasses nationwide.

Liz feel sthat developing relationships with future audiences through engagement work in the community is an essential skill for all musicians. Liz grew up in a musical family, playing string quartets with her three siblings from a young age. Three of the four siblings are now professional string quartet musicians (the fourth became a physicist). She feels extremely grateful to have benefited from the wisdom of many great music teachers, and hopes to pass on as much of this wisdom as possible to her own students in the years to come.

Cellist Daniel McDonough has performed across the U.S. and abroad as a chamber musician and recitalist. He is best known as a founding member of the award-winning Jupiter String Quartet with which he concertises extensively.

In addition to his regular appearances with the Jupiter String Quartet, Daniel is a founding member of the innovative East Coast Chamber Orchestra, a democratically-run, self-conducted chamber orchestra comprised of some of the nation’s finest string players. For a few concentrated periods of time each year ECCO convenes for intensive rehearsal, musical exploration, and concert touring. The group has been enthusiastically received at the Kennedy Center, New York’s Town Hall, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, among others. Their debut recording was released in 2012 on EOne records.

Daniel has been heard repeatedly on NPR’s Performance Today and seen on Live from Lincoln Center. He has had the privilege of collaborating with Menahem Pressler, Donald Weilerstein, Wu Han, Roger Tapping, Paul Katz, Marcus Thompson, and Jeremy Denk, among many others. He has appeared as soloist with the Asheville (NC) Symphony, Austin Symphony, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and is heard regularly at many of the country’s premiere summer music festivals.

A passionate teacher, Daniel has given lessons and guest masterclasses at some of the country’s leading institutions including The Peabody Institute, The Eastman School of Music, The Cleveland Institute of Music, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Boston Conservatory. The Jupiter String Quartet is on faculty of the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and has appeared often at other prestigious summer academies, including Encore Chamber Music, Madeline Island Chamber Music, and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Daniel began his musical studies at the age of five in Austin, Texas. He went on to receive his Bachelor’s degree, with honors in chamber music and cello performance, from The Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master’s from The Juilliard School.