The Philadelphia International Music Festival is an intensive classical music training program created in 1997 to provide a setting for young musicians to study with principal players and other members of The Philadelphia Orchestra.
The program, co-founded by Sandy Marcucci and Kimberly Fisher, Principal Second Violin of The Philadelphia Orchestra, began as a six-day program for local musicians. It soon blossomed into a four-week summer festival hosting students from throughout the United States and around the globe and now includes winter programming as well.
In 2021, PIMF added to its myriad programming "Music in the Mansion" - a winter solo performance intensive for advanced string players held annually at the luxurious Casa Tranquila Estate in Miami, Florida, where students study with members of The Philadelphia Orchestra to prepare for upcoming solo performances and competitions.
That popular program underpins the new PIMF Vanoli-Cremona Music Festival in Italy, starting in Summer 2025, for piano and string musicians. Students work with faculty from The PhiladelphiaOrchestraand theCurtisInstituteofMusic and deepen their musical connection with explorations of this fascinating and historic part of the world.
PIMF Vanoli-Cremona Faculty
Kimberly Fisher joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1992 and became principal second violin in 2002. She has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including repeatedly with The Philadelphia Orchestra (her debut was in February 2002), and the Vancouver and Victoria symphonies in Canada. As a recitalist and chamber musician she has performed across the United States and Canada, and in many countries in Europe, Asia, and South America in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Mogador Theater in Paris, the Kimmel Center, and the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and in collaborations with internationally renowned artists such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christoph Eschenbach, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and many others.
Ms. Fisher has been awarded multiple Canada Council grants and was invited to perform as soloist at the Governor General’s concert in Canada. She has been featured on National Canadian Radio and on Canada’s CBC television. Her teachers have included her father, Lawrence Fisher; Yumi Ninomiya Scott; Aaron Rosand; David Cerone; and Jascha Brodsky. In 2017 she received The Philadelphia Orchestra’s C. Hartman Kuhn Award, given annually to “the member of The Philadelphia Orchestra who has shown ability and enterprise of such characteras to enhance the standardsand the reputation of The Philadelphia Orchestra.”
In 1997 Ms. Fisher co-founded the Philadelphia International Music Festival (PIMF), a highly successful summer music program in residence at Bryn Mawr College, to encourage and inspire musicians of all levels. Originally just for string players, the Festival now includes all symphonic instruments plus piano, and features innovative specialty programs to help students prepare for auditions, improve practice, and address performance issues. PIMF includes students of all ages and all levels who attend from around the world to study privately with musicians of The Philadelphia Orchestra. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, PIMF was one of the first music programs to successfully adapt to virtual access to master classes, lessons, and full summer camp for students.
Ms. Fisher is an active pedagogue whose students have performed as soloist with major orchestras, have attended distinguished music conservatories, are members of professional orchestras, and have won many awardsand competitions. Herenergetic, communicative teachingstyle hasledtoinvitations to present master classes, lessons, and seminars around the world.
John Koen has been a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1990. He appears regularly on the Orchestra’s Chamber Music series, and performed during Wolfgang Sawallisch’s 1993 Opening Week Festival and the subsequent National Public Radio broadcast of Schumann’s Piano Quintet with Maestro Sawallisch as pianist. Mr. Koen has been a frequent guest on the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble series since 1993 and is also a member of the Mondrian Ensemble and the Network for New Music. He performed withthe ensemble 1807 & Friends Chamber Music Society from 1990 to 1993.
Mr. Koen has appeared as a soloist with the New Symphony Orchestra of Sofia, Bulgaria, under the direction of Rossen Milanov. Mr. Koen also appears regularly as a soloist with the Lansdowne (PA) Symphony, of which he has been principal cello since 1992. He was a nominee for the 1998 Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMA) for his performance of Winter Toccata for solo cello
PIMF Vanoli-Cremona Faculty
by Robert Maggio, which Mr. Koen commissioned, and is featured on a recording of works by Mr. Maggio entitled Seven Mad Gods (Composers’ Recordings, Inc.).
Mr. Koen studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with David Soyer and Peter Wiley, the original and last cellist (respectively) of the Guarneri Quartet, from 1985 to 1990, graduating with a Bachelor of Music Performance degree; he also studied at the New School of Music with Orlando Cole (1984-85). In 1988 Mr. Koen performed in the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra as solo cellist on European tours with Christoph Eschenbach, Leonard Bernstein, and Sergiu Celibidache, including a televisionbroadcast throughout EasternEurope from Gorky Park in Moscow withMaestro Bernstein, and as a member of the Salzau Quartet in a performance for President Richard von Weizsäcker of Germany. Mr. Koen taught at the College of New Jersey (Trenton) from 1996 to 2001.
In 2004 Mr. Koen receivedThe Philadelphia Orchestra’sC. HartmanKuhn Award, given to “a musician who has shown both musical ability and enterprise of such character as to enhance the musical standards and reputation of The Philadelphia Orchestra.”
GRAMMY Award winning pianist Mark Livshits isone of the most highly sought after soloists and chamber musicians in Philadelphia. He appears frequently in concert with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as with the orchestra as a substitute in the keyboard section.
In additionto performances at the SalzburgFestival, solorecitalsat the Shanghai Oriental ArtsCenter, and Bilbao Philharmonic Society, Dr. Livshitshas also worked closely withmusicianssuch as Yannick Nezet Seguin, Stephane Denève, Michael Tilson Thomas, Nikolaj Znaider, Nathalie Stutzman, Leonidas Kovakos, Gil Shaham, Lynn Harrell, Midori, Christoph Eschenbach, Alisa Weilerstein, Measha Brueggergosman, Daniel Lozakovich, Dave Brubeck and Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, YeEun Choi under the auspices of IMG Artists and the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation.
In 2015, he was called to replace Yannick Nezet-Seguin in a chamber music performance of Brahms Third Quartet for Piano and Strings with members from the Philadelphia Orchestra and has been invited to perform in chamber programs with members of the orchestra since then. He is often called to play orchestral piano in the orchestra as well. Dr. Livshits has received invitations to perform for dignitaries such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and President Joe Biden.
Dr. Livshits currently serves on the faculty as the head of collaborative piano at the University of Delaware and as staff pianist at the Curtis Institute of Music. He also serves on the faculty at the Philadelphia International Music Festival.
Mark Livshits is a Steinway Artist.
JULY 29
PIMF Vanoli-Cremona July 28 – August 7, 2025
Travel Itinerary
Student Tour
JULY 30
FLIGHT #: AA 298
ARRIVAL: JULY 29, 2025
JULY 31 –AUGUST 4
AUGUST 5
Cremona, Italy
HOTEL: Cremona Palace Hotel
DEPARTURE: August 7, 2025
AUGUST 6
AFTERNOON: Explore the beautiful city of Milan Fashion capital of the world!
EVENING: Check-in to the Cremona Palace Hotel
MORNING: Breakfast
AFTERNOON: Explore the beautiful city of Verona The setting of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet
EVENING: Dinner
MORNING: Breakfast
AFTERNOON: Vanoli Cremona Music Festival with members of The Philadelphia Orchestra
EVENING: Dinner and Evening Performance
MORNING: Breakfast
AFTERNOON: Explore the beauty of Lake Garda home to the ancient Castello Scagliero di Sirmione fortress
EVENING: Dinner
MORNING: Breakfast
AFTERNOON: Explore the magical city of Venice—City of the Canals
EVENING: Farewell dinner
JULY 29
PIMF Vanoli-Cremona July 28 – August 7, 2025
Travel Itinerary
Friends & Family Tour
JULY 30
FLIGHT #: AA 298
ARRIVAL: JULY 29, 2025
JULY 31 –
AUGUST 1
AUGUST 2 –
AUGUST 4
AFTERNOON:
AUGUST 5
Cremona, Italy
HOTEL: Cremona Palace Hotel
DEPARTURE: August 7, 2025
Together with students enrolled in the PIMF-Vanoli Cremona Music Festival, explore the beautiful city of Milan Fashion capital of the world!
EVENING: Check-in to the Cremona Palace Hotel
MORNING: Breakfast
AFTERNOON:
Together with students enrolled in the PIMF-Vanoli Cremona Music Festival, discover the exquisite beauty of of Verona The setting of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet
EVENING: Dinner
Overnight stay at the Luxurious L’Albereta Spa and Winery in Erbusco, Italy
Visit the captivating cities of: Bologna, Parma, and Cremona
MORNING: Breakfast
AFTERNOON:
Together with students enrolled in the PIMF- Vanoli Cremona Music Festival, explore the splendor of Lake Garda home to the ancient Castello Scagliero di Sirmione fortress
EVENING: Dinner
MORNING: Breakfast
AUGUST 6
AFTERNOON:
Together with students enrolled in the PIMF- Vanoli Cremona Music Festival, experience the magic of Venice City of the Canals
EVENING: Farewell dinner
MILAN
Tour Milan, Italy – The intellectual stimuli and sensory delights will relieve all your jet lag at once! Get fashion tips just by eyeballing the locals and get inspired by your first views of Bella Italia from the stylish streets of this design capital. The luxurious Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is one of the world's oldest shopping malls. Your walking tour includes legendary palazzos and piazzas and a Virtual Reality Experience “narrated” by Giuseppe Verdi! You’ll crash in Cremona, your historic home base for the festival.
VERONA
Visiting Verona – which is your favorite era? Its nickname is “the little Rome.” Its arena is as spectacular as Rome’s Colosseum and possiblybetterpreserved, with most of its original seating and exterior arches from 30 AD.
But your inner archeologist can nerd out to medieval architecture, and the romance of the Renaissance as well. And SUCH romance – Shakespeare chose it for “Romeo and Juliet” for good reason. The Centro Storico –historic center – drips with atmosphere.
CREMONA
Festival participants will be working hard at polishing their skills and improving their technique and becoming true Cremonese for most of the week. In between lessons, practice, rehearsals and performances, they’ll explore this compact capital of violins with an insider tour of a lutherie, getting up close to unpriceable instruments, researching every gelato flavor on offer, and vibing with music history with every step.
L’ALBERETA SPA AND WINERY
Family & Friends go ham on the dolce vita (or is that go prosciutto?) at
L’Albereta Spa and Winery. Perched atop an idyllic mountain vineyard,its natural outdoor beauty lets you soak in the warm sun and vista views, the smorgasbord of Italian food and wine treats, with a giant indoor pool, sauna, steam room and spa. The pampering. The luxury. The glamour. Try to keep the details to yourselves afterwards because mere mortals may not be able to handle it.
BOLOGNA
Go hungry to Bologna, fondly nicknamed La Grassa, or “the fat one,” for its devotion to food. Its oldest osteria has been slinging pasta since 1379.
Bologna is home to gorgeous Gothic architecture (and some oddities, including two towers that teeter drunkenly over the city, built by crazed aristocrats during the Middle Ages) and Europe’s oldest institute of higher education, the University of Bologna, founded in 1088.
The ravishingly frescoed Parma Cathedral and pink marble Baptistery are luscious examples of Romanesque design and Renaissancedecor, but Parma sits in the middle of Italy’s agricultural heartland so the focus on food continues. The home of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese (you could build a Baptistery from the giant wheels of it!), the curing process for some types of its famous Parma ham hasn’t changed since the 13th century. This foodie heaven earned the prestigious title of UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.
PARMA
PIMF Vanoli-Cremona
July 28 – August 7, 2025
Cremona, Italy
LAKE GARDA
After the Festival Grand Finale Concerts in Cremona, the whole gang gets back together for a day trip to glorious Lake Garda. A tour of Il Vittoriale degli italiani will require all the photo storage space you can spare. The spectacular estate was built by and for one of Italy’s most famous literary personalitiesand “mamma mia” the man Knew How To Live. You’ll also have plenty of time to chill like the locals do at one of Europe’s most popular vacation spots.
VENICE
The last day is devoted to the miracle that is Venice, a magical road-freecity built on over 100 islands where every view is iconic. St. Mark’s Square! The Rialto! Gondoliers! Venetian is its own romance language, with multiple words to describe different ways light reflects off water. Any cliché about this astonishing cityscape is accurate, and the sights, sounds, and sensations will give you all the feels. We simply could not let you leave Italy without experiencing it.
PIMF "Music in the Mansion"
WinterSoloPerformanceIntensive
December29,2025 -January3,2026
MIAMI, FL (DECEMBER 29, 2025 - JANUARY 3, 2026) – One of PIMF’s most popular programs EVER is the winter break intensive for strings at Miami’s beautiful Casa Tranquilla estate. Designed for advanced string players 13-19 years of age preparing for upcoming solo performances and competitions, this unique mini-camp gathers twenty-five talented young musicians to rev up their skills and start the new year on a high note.
Days are packed with a laser focus on skill building and technique refinement, while the evenings are opportunities to perform and be challenged in Master Classes. This program includes: four private lessons, daily 30-minute workout sessions with assigned faculty accompanists, daily hourlong solo performance classes, five hours of required daily private practice, and a week-ending Grand Finale Recital.
The mansion offers indoor and outdoor spaces for private lessons and studio classes with faculty that include Kimberly Fisher (Principal Second Violin, The Philadelphia Orchestra), Richard Amoroso (violin, The Philadelphia Orchestra), and John Koen (cello, The Philadelphia Orchestra), as well as daily workouts and coaching sessions with piano accompanists.
And throughout, a spectacular gourmet menu, complete with daily High Tea prepared by a gourmetchef, in a world of eleganceand pampering to elevateyoung musicians’ entireeducational experience. In an entirely new way to study their craft, Music in Mansion surrounds them with beauty and excellence so the only thing they need to focus on is performance.
String players are invited to start 2026 with fresh insights and inspiration, new connections, and glowing memories. Music in the Mansion fills to capacity each season, so early auditions are advised.
