Darius Frowner is a New York City–based pianist and musical director whose career spans national tours, regional theater, education, and cabaret. He had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with Caroline Klemperer and perform with the Chanticleer String Quartet in 2024, and is thrilled to be returning again for Chanticleer’s 50th anniversary season in 2026!
Darius was introduced to Caroline by Maestro Billy McDaniel, a frequent guest artist with the ensemble. Billy McDaniel mentored Darius Frowner in performing and music directing Ain’t Misbehavin’, a show that has been a mainstay of Darius’s career and has led to performance opportunities around the country and in Europe.
Other shows Darius has worked on include Jersey Boys, Hairspray and Oklahoma and A Christmas Carol (the last two at Denver Center For The Performing Arts). Darius collaborated with Broadway artists such as Norm Lewis, Billy Porter, and Kristin Chenoweth. His professional affiliations include Harlem School of the Arts, and he has taught at the Mayo Performing Arts Center for many years.
In 2025, he traveled to Florence to teach masterclasses with the MTA Academy, followed by shows and performances in Milan and London.
One of Darius’s career highlights was participating in Michelle Obama’s Broadway at the White House, where he brought several of his students to perform and took part in a full day alongside Broadway luminaries.
And finally, if you’re ever in New York City late at night, head out to the piano bars — you can often find Darius playing for visitors, tourists, and Broadway performers who stop in to belt out a few tunes!

Special Note from Darius
There truly aren’t enough accolades to express my admiration for Caroline — for her vision, leadership, and unwavering commitment to Chanticleer over the past 50 years. To collaborate with her and the extraordinary musicians of this ensemble during such a historic season is an absolute honor. This is one of those instances where music is more than just music. Beyond the collaboration itself, what stayed with me most was the warmth, attentiveness, and enthusiasm of the audience, and that experience is what has me so excited to return to Indiana this summer. Enjoy the show!

Stefan Xhori, an Albanian native, moved to US in 1993 and engaged in violin playing and teaching around Philadelphia. Since then he’s been part of many orchestras and other chamber music groups. He’s the assistant concertmaster of Allentown Symphony, a member of Delaware, Reading and Kennett symphonies, as well as a member of Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra. He appeared as a soloist two times with Dover Symphony. In chamber music he performs with Lyra Ensemble in trio and quartet, and is the first violinist of Iliria String Quartet. Over the years he has given many recitals in the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia area. Stefan has been with the Chanticleer String Quartet since 2014.

A Richmond Indiana native, Klemperer Green has been performing and teaching in New York City since 1997. She returns to Indiana each summer to teach and to tour with the Chanticleer String Quartet, which she founded in 1977. She received a Bachelor of Arts in German from Earlham College and a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Peabody Conservatory. She attended graduate schools at Ohio State and Indiana University. Klemperer Green has performed in festivals in Cummington, MA, in Mexico City, Aspen, CO, Cornwall, England, Claremont, CA, Eugene, OR and Austin, TX. She plays professionally in orchestras and chamber groups in the United States and Europe and has recorded for the West German radio. In 1993, Klemperer-Green was awarded a master Fellowship from the Indiana Arts Commission. She has been a panelist for the Indiana Arts Commission and Chamber Music America and a frequent speaker on “Creativity in Performance.” She has written and performed children’s musical programs since 1977 and has toured with these shows in many parts of the US and in Russia. She also guides young people in creating and performing their own musical productions.

A native of New York, Jennifer has been playing with the Chanticleer Quartet since 1991. She joined Montana’s Great Falls Symphony and Cascade Quartet as principal viola following doctoral studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Together with degrees from Yale and Peabody Conservatory her educations includes teachers Heidi Castleman, Karen Tuttle, Jesse Levine and William Lincer, the Tokyo and American String Quartets. Smith also is adjunct faculty at the University of Great Falls and teaches at the Red Lodge Music Festival in Montana. She has performed internationally, including the Aspen, Evian and Spoleto Music Festivals, received a Professional Development Grant through the MT Arts Council in 1999, premiered Dan Bukvich’s Viola Concerto with the Great Falls Symphony in 2003 and been published in the American String Teacher magazine. More recently she toured Peru and Guatemala in July of 2004 as part of the prestigious Fulbright-Hays group seminar, and has been the President of the Montana chapter of ASTA (American String Teachers Association). In 2008 she received the Artist*Wilderness*Connection program Artist in Residency grant, resulting in the performance piece Crossing Boundaries: Musings on Bach in the Backcountry.

Currently residing in Havertown, PA, Mendoza plays with the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, the PA Sinfonia as well as other orchestras in the Philadelphia area. She received her B.M. from Peabody Conservatory and her M.M. from the Cincinnati Conservatory. She was Principal Cellist of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra from 1994 to 1996, where she met Caroline Klemperer-Green. Mendoza has been the director of the chamber orchestra and instrumental chamber music at the Rudolph Steiner High School in Ann Arbor, MI where she also played with the Ann Arbor and Flint Symphony Orchestras and the Michigan Opera Theater. Mendoza joined the Chanticleer String Quartet in 1995.