Harvey Wolfe was for 37 years a member of the Cleveland Orchestra. At age 21, the legendary Leopold Stokowski engaged him for the Houston Orchestra. He played with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. and then became principal cellist of the Phoenix and Nashville Orchestras and taught and performed at universities in those cities. His career spans over 50 years of performing around the world. Upon retirement in 2004, Harvey organized chamber ensembles and gave solo performances in Southern Arizona.


Harvey and his DayStar String Quartet performed at the 2011 Celebrate the Arts!. The quartet consists of the following members:

Emma Noel Votapek (violin) holds a masters degree in violin from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree from Rice. She performed with numerous orchestras in Hawaii, Minnesota and Indiana. She participated in many music festivals and is an active chamber music performer. She is the assistant principal second violin of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, acting principal and a frequent performer as a violist as well as with the violin.

Rose Todaro (violin) holds a bachelor of music from Oberlin Conservatory and masters of music from Bowling Green State University. She performs with the Reno Philharmonic, the Tucson Pops and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Rose played in a number of touring Broadway productions. She is the music director of La La La Studios in Tucson and a member of the Fourth Avenue String Quartet.

Richard Blum (viola) comes from a well-known musical family from Chicago. He was violist of the Pro Arte String Quartet and professor of viola at the University of Wisconsin for 34 years. Richard was also principal viola of the Dallas Symphony, The San Antonio Symphony, Madison Symphony, St. Louis Sinfonietta and the Grant Park Symphony. He was a founding member of the Seventh Army Symphony in Germany.