Lantz and Kargul

Lantz and Kargul have been performing together since 2010, and they continue to delight audiences near and far with their impassioned performances of Romantic music, combined with thoughtful and lively remarks from the stage. Recent tours include concerts in Arizona, Florida, and Jamaica, as well as appearances throughout Maine and northern New England. Allan Kozinn of the Portland Press Herald has praised Lantz for his “beautiful tone with a rich, inviting vibrato,” and Kargul for her “fluidity and passion…contributing to the sense of equal, balanced interplay that makes this collaboration work so well.”

Ronald Lantz, violin

Ronald Lantz has taught and concertized in over 30 countries as a founding member of the Portland String Quartet. He has also performed with numerous symphony orchestras both as soloist and as principal player, and has served on the faculties of the University of New Hampshire, Bates College, the University of Southern Maine, Bowdoin College, and Colby College, where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree. At Indiana University and Juilliard Mr. Lantz studied and coached with Daniel Guilet, Joseph Gingold, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Janos Starker, William Primrose, and the Hungarian String Quartet. Mr. Lantz performs on a violin made in Paris in the 1850’s by the renowned instrument and box maker, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume.

Laura Kargul, piano

Laura Kargul is the director of Keyboard Studies at the University of Southern Maine School of Music. She has appeared as a soloist and collaborative artist throughout Europe and the USA, as well as in Canada and the West Indies, in venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Liszt-Haus in Weimar, the Aspen Music Festival, the Evian Festival of Chamber Music, and the Chamber Music Festival of Lucca in Italy. She has performed with ensembles such as the Portland String Quartet, the Lark Quartet, the Da Ponte String Quartet, and the Michigan Chamber Strings. She holds a doctorate in piano performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied with pianists Leon Fleisher and Theodore Lettvin, and with conductor Gustav Meier.