East of the River
founded by internationally-renowned recorder players Nina Stern and Daphna Mor, explores the virtuosic and haunting melodies of the Sephardic diaspora, the traditions of the Middle East, Armenia, North Africa and the Balkans as well as the timeless gems of the Medieval European classical repertory. East of the River’s music is arranged and interpreted by musicians steeped in jazz, folk and classical traditions.

The group has performed on concert series at the National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), Chautauqua Institution, San Francisco Society for Early Music, Seattle Early Music, Da Camera Society (Los Angeles), Early Music Now (Milwaukee), Madison Early Music Festival, Academy of Early Music (Ann Arbor), Indianapolis Early Music, Five Boroughs Music Festival (New York, NY), Peak Performances (Montclair State University), the Logan Series at Penn State Erie, and in New York City venues as varied as Bargemusic, Joe’s Pub, Le Poisson Rouge, and the Brooklyn Public Library. East of the River has been featured on several occasions at WQXR’s annual Chanukah celebration at The Greene Space.

Stern and Mor, called “recorder virtuosos” by The New York Times, each have impressive careers as soloists and chamber music players and have appeared as a duo with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Music Before 1800, The American Classical Orchestra, and at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine’s renowned New Year’s Eve concert for Peace. In East of the River, Stern and Mor are often joined by acclaimed performers such as Ara Dinkjian on oud, Shane Shanahan and John Hadfield on percussion, Zafer Tawil on violin, Tamer Pinarbasi on kanun, Kane Mathis on oud and kora, Tal Masiasch on bass. East of the River’s various musicians have recorded and performed with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, Jordi Savall, Sting, Natalie Merchant, Paul Simon, Joyce DiDonato.

East of the River has recorded three albums: its self-titled debut album, Levantera, and Ija Mia, recently released on AVIE.

Nina Stern
has carved a unique and astonishingly diverse career for herself as a world-class recorder player and classical clarinetist. A native New Yorker, Ms. Stern studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where she received a Soloist’s Degree. From Basel, she moved to Milan, Italy where she was offered a teaching position at the Civica Scuola di Musica. Ms. Stern performs widely on recorders, chalumeaux, and historical clarinets. She has appeared as a soloist or principal player with orchestras such as The New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, American Classical Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, La Scala Theatre Orchestra, Clarion Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, Hesperion XX, Apollo’s Fire, and Tafelmusik. Her numerous festival and concert series appearances have included performances under leading conductors such as Loren Maazel, Kurt Masur, Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Claudio Scimone, Kent Tritle, Jane Glover, Bruno Weil, Ton Koopman, Andrew Parrot and Jordi Savall. She has recorded for Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Sony Classics, Newport Classics, Wildboar, Telarc, MSR, and Smithsonian labels.

Nina Stern’s latest projects include performances and recordings of traditional music of Eastern Europe, Armenia, and The Middle East, as a soloist, and with her ensembles Rose of the Compass and East of the River (Daphna Mor, co-Director.) Recently, Rose of the Compass has collaborated annually with the conductor Kent Tritle and the Choir of St. John the Divine in creating programs for the "Great Music in a Great Space" concert series at the Cathedral.

Ms. Stern was appointed to the faculty of Juilliard’s Historical Performance program in 2012 and has served on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music – where she directed the Historical Performance Program from 1989 to 1996 – the Civica Scuola di Musica (Milan, Italy), Oberlin Conservatory, and the Five Colleges in Massachusetts.

Nina Stern is also hailed as an innovator in teaching school-age children to be fine young musicians. She is a founder of “S’Cool Sounds" a successful hands-on music education project in inner city public school classrooms. The Washington Post applauded this program as a model in its “innovation in the classroom” series (11/9/03). For this important work Ms. Stern was awarded an Endicott Fellowship in 2003 and was honored in 2005 with the “Early Music Brings History Alive” Award, bestowed by Early Music America. Nina Stern served as Director of Education for the New York Collegium from 2002-2007. She has consulted for Midori & Friends and for Carnegie Hall’s Weill Institute, helping them to develop and expand their recorder curriculum. She is the author of “Recorders Without Borders” - two books for beginning recorder players and percussion. Ms. Stern has shared her teaching methods with students and teachers throughout the U.S. and in the Netherlands, and has worked to establish recorder programs in several schools in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, at Village Health Works in Kigutu, Burundi and at a school for Syrian refugee children in Azraq, Jordan.