Monadnock Music


2021 Summer Festival Program

Performer Bios

Ashley Addington

Ashley Addington - flute

A versatile and engaging performer, flutist Ashley Addington performs regularly with ensembles throughout the New England area, most recently with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), Odyssey Opera, Sound Icon, Portland Symphony, Plymouth Philharmonic, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Originally from Texas, Ashley holds a MM in Flute Performance and BM in Music Education from The Butler School of Music at University of Texas at Austin. She studied with Marianne Gedigian and Robert Willoughby.

Amy Advocat

Amy Advocat, clarinet

Sought out for her “dazzling” (The Boston Globe) performances with “extreme control and beauty” (The Clarinet Journal), Dr. Amy Advocat, clarinetist, is an avid performer of new music having performed with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Guerilla Opera, Alarm Will Sound, Sound Icon, Firebird Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Collage New Music, Dinosaur Annex, and The New Fromm Players. Equally at home with more traditional classical music, Amy Advocat has performed with Odyssey Opera, Boston Pops, Harrisburg Symphony, Opera Boston, Boston Philharmonic, New Hampshire Music Festival, and Monadnock Music.

Dr. Advocat is a founding member of the bass clarinet and marimba duo, Transient Canvas, with whom she has commissioned and premiered hundreds of new works and released three albums to critical acclaim by The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, The Clarinet Journal, I Care If You Listen, Fanfare Magazine, and more. Transient Canvas regularly tours across the United States and Europe, including featured performances at Alba Music Festival (Italy), Tetractys New Music (Austin), New Music Gathering (San Francisco/Boston), Music on the Edge (Pittsburgh), Outpost Concert Series (Los Angeles), and engages the next generation of composers and performers at educational residencies across the country.

Amy Advocat is a proud endorsing artist with Conn-Selmer and Henri Selmer Paris Clarinets.

Ari & Mia

Ari & Mia - cello and vocal folk duo

“Strikingly beautiful, distinctive and exhilarating, with expressive vocals that will find a way into hearts and minds” (No Depression), Ari & Mia reference the styles of Southern and Northeastern fiddle music and the early American songbook to create a realm where their own compositions cross paths with older traditions. Their stylish and sophisticated music honors the sounds of Appalachian cottages, rural dance floors, and urban concert halls. Combine this with their innovative approach to songwriting and the result is a captivating sound.

Since 2008 the sisters have toured across the U.S., Canada, and Australia and are both graduates of New England Conservatory's Contemporary Improvisation department. They've performed alongside Sarah Jarosz, opened for the likes of Cheryl Wheeler and Catie Curtis, and played at venues such as Shalin Liu Performing Arts Center, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival's Mainstage Emerging Artist Showcase, Club Passim, the Parlor Room, New Bedford Folk Festival, and Jordan Hall. Both award winning songwriters, their newest album, “Sew the City,” released in 2019, was premiered on Billboard Magazine and has been met with critical acclaim. Their previous three albums—”Out of Stone,” "Land on Shore," and "Unruly Heart"—ranked high on the national folk radio charts.

Jessica Bodner (photo credit: Jamie Jung)

Jessica Bodner - viola

Jessica Bodner, described by the New York Times as a "soulful soloist", is the violist of the Grammy award-winning Parker Quartet. Ms. Bodner has recently appeared at venues such as Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, Library of Congress, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Wigmore Hall (London), Musikverein (Vienna), Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Seoul Arts Center, and has appeared at festivals including Yellow Barn, Perigord Noir in France, Spring Arts Festival (Monte Carlo), San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), Cemal Recit Rey (Istanbul), and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hitzacker, and Heidelberg String Quartet Festival (Germany). As a member of the Parker Quartet, she has recorded for ECM, Zig-Zag Territoires, Nimbus, and Naxos.

Recent collaborators include clarinetists Anthony McGill, Charles Neidich, and Jörg Widmann; pianists Menahem Pressler, Shai Wosner, Gloria Chien, and Orion Weiss; violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Donald Weilerstein; violists Kim Kashkashian and Roger Tapping; cellists Paul Katz and Natasha Brofsky; and percussionist Ian Rosenbaum.

Jessica is a faculty member of Harvard University's Department of Music in conjunction with the Parker Quartet's appointment as Blodgett Quartet-in-Residence. As a member of the quartet, she is a visiting artist at the University of South Carolina and a summer faculty member at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She has held visiting faculty positions at the New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music, and has been a guest teacher at the Juilliard School of Music.

Outside of music, Jessica enjoys cooking, running, practicing yoga, and hiking with her husband, violinist Daniel Chong, their son, Cole, and their vizsla, Bodie. Jessica is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where her principal teachers were Kim Kashkashian and Martha Strongin Katz.

Deborah Boldin

Deborah Boldin - flute

Praised by The Boston Globe for her “surpassingly beautiful contributions” and the Boston Musical Intelligencer for a “stunning virtuosic display,” flutist and Artistic Director Deborah Boldin enjoys an active and diverse career as a recitalist, chamber musician and entrepreneur. Recent engagements include the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, the Martha’s Vineyard and IBIS Chamber Music Societies, Pentangle Arts Annual Mozart Festival in Woodstock VT, Alea III, the Saco River Chamber Music Festival, First Monday at Jordan Hall Boston, Trinity College Chamber Music Series, and the Wellesley Composers Conference. She has been a featured soloist on radio programs on WJHU, Baltimore, and WQXR, New York, and has made numerous appearances on WGBH Boston’s Classical Performances Live. She has also appeared with the New World Symphony, Opera Boston, the Boston Philharmonic, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Vermont and Portland Symphonies, among others.

As founder and Artistic Director of the celebrated Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, Ms. Boldin’s innovative programming and sensibility have elicited unanimous acclaim from press and audiences alike. The Boston Globe praised her for “discerning ears and cosmopolitan tastes,” hailed “planning a good chamber music program is an art unto itself, and few in town have mastered it as persuasively.” Her programs received two Chamber Music America/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, as well as Koussevitsky Foundation Commission Awards for works by Barbara White and Laura Schwendinger. Chameleon was awarded one of only four 2015 National Endowment for the Arts music grants in Massachusetts for “Echoes of the Past,” a project she crafted to explore the influence of Bach on future generations, culminating in two performances of Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos.

Ms. Boldin designed and has overseen the growth of an innovative and highly successful music education outreach program for the Chameleon Arts Ensemble in partnership with Boston Public Schools, connecting children to the process of creating and enjoying music through direct interaction with the composer and performers. She was for many years the flute instructor and chamber music coach at the Reveille! Music Festival for the Vermont Youth Orchestra.

Deborah Boldin holds a BM from the Peabody Conservatory, where she received the Alice & Leary Taylor Prize in Performance, and a Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Paula Robison. She can be heard on Argo and Albany Records.

Robyn Bollinger

Robyn Bollinger - violin

Daring, versatile, charismatic and passionate, American violinist Robyn Bollinger is a young artist on the rise, carving out a career as a soloist and chamber musician. Recognized for her creativity, rich tones, emotional depth, and technical mastery, Ms. Bollinger has performed with orchestras and at festivals nationwide, among them the Boston Pops, the Grand Tetons Music Festival Orchestra, and the Aspen Music Festival. Her 2017-2018 season includes solo appearances with the Orchestra of Indian Hill (MA), Symphony in C (NJ), and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and as a guest in a special concert for the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.

Ms. Bollinger was awarded a prestigious 2016 Fellowship from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for her multimedia performance project entitled “CIACCONA: The Bass of Time,” a revolutionary concert model incorporating multi-media historical presentations and live personal narratives while telling the story of one of the oldest musical ideas – the repeating bass line – through solo violin music. She is currently touring the program, with New England performances scheduled at the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont in March and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in April. Her debut solo CD of the same title was released on Crier records in November 2017.

A sought after collaborator, Ms. Bollinger is a popular figure on the chamber music stage, both as a member of the renowned, Grammy-nominated Boston-based ensemble A Far Cry, and for her work at festivals and on chamber music series. A former member of the Newman String Quartet, which took the silver medal at the 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, she has served as a member of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival’s Young Trio in Residence (2015-2017), collaborated with the Jupiter Chamber Players at Lincoln Center, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, the Johannes Quartet, and members of the Borromeo and Cleveland quartets, among others. Her recent summer engagements have included Midori’s Music Sharing International Community Engagement Program “ICEP” in Japan, performances at the Maui Classical Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Marlboro Festival, and chamber music recitals in Japan’s Phoenix Hall, (Osaka), Oji Hall, (Tokyo), and Tokyo National Arts Center.

Ms. Bollinger’s talent has been recognized with numerous awards, among them an Entrepreneurial Musicianship Grant from New England Conservatory for her ground-breaking “Project Paganini,” a performance project featuring all twenty-four Paganini Caprices. Ms. Bollinger has received top prizes at many international competitions, among them the International Fritz Kreisler Competition in Vienna, the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in France, and the Louis Spohr International Competition in Germany. She has been specially recognized with prizes for her performances of Bach and Beethoven at several competitions. Also a familiar voice on radio, Ms. Bollinger came to national attention through her 2014 residency on PRI’s “Performance Today” and several appearances on NPR’s “From the Top.”

Born in Philadelphia and having made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at age twelve, Robyn Bollinger was a recipient of the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees with honors. Her teachers have included Miriam Fried, Soovin Kim, and Paul Kantor. From July 2013 to May 2017, Ms. Bollinger played a 1778 Joseph and Antonio Gagliano violin on generous loan from the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute Instrument Bank. As of May 2017, she now performs on a beautiful 2017 violin made by the world-renowned luthier Samuel Zygmuntowicz, on loan from a private collection.

Gabriela Diaz

Gabriela Diaz - violin

Georgia native Gabriela Diaz began her musical training at the age of five, studying piano with her mother, and the next year, violin with her father.

As a childhood cancer survivor, Gabriela is committed to supporting cancer research and treatment in her capacity as a musician. In 2004, Gabriela was a recipient of a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation, an award that enabled Gabriela to create and direct the Boston Hope Ensemble. This program is now part of Winsor Music. A firm believer in the healing properties of music, Gabriela and her colleagues have performed in cancer units in Boston hospitals and presented benefit concerts for cancer research organizations in numerous venues throughout the United States.

A fierce champion of contemporary music, Gabriela has been fortunate to work closely with many significant composers on their own compositions, namely Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Lucier, Unsuk Chin, John Zorn, Joan Tower, Roger Reynolds, Chaya Czernowin, Steve Reich, Tania León, Brian Ferneyhough, and Helmut Lachenmann. Gabriela is a member of several Boston-area contemporary music groups, including Sound Icon, Ludovico Ensemble, BMOP, Dinosaur Annex, Boston Musica Viva, and Callithumpian Consort. She plays regularly with Winsor Music, Castle of our Skins, Radius Ensemble, and Emmanuel Music and frequently collaborates with Alarm Will Sound, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICEensemble), and A Far Cry.

In 2012 Gabriela joined the violin faculty of Wellesley College. Gabriela is co-artistic director of  the much beloved Boston-based chamber music and outreach organization Winsor Music. Please visit winsormusic.org for more information!

Gabriela's recording of Lou Harrison's Suite for Violin and American Gamelan was highlighted in the New York Times Article "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Classical Music."

Critics have acclaimed Gabriela as “a young violin master,” and “one of Boston’s most valuable players.” Lloyd Schwartz of the Boston Phoenix noted, “…Gabriela Diaz in a bewitching performance of Pierre Boulez’s 1991 Anthèmes. The come-hither meow of Diaz’s upward slides and her sustained pianissimo fade-out were miracles of color, texture, and feeling.” Others have remarked on her "indefatigably expressive" playing, “polished technique,” and “vivid and elegant playing.”
Gabriela can be heard on New World, Centaur, BMOPSound, Mode, Naxos, and Tzadik records.

Gabriela plays on a Vuillaume violin generously on loan from Mark Ptashne and a viola made by her father, Manuel Diaz.
Gabriela is proud to be a core member of the team that created Boston Hope Music, bringing music to patients and frontline workers during the pandemic. More info can be found at bostonhopemusic.org

Charles Dimmick

Charles Dimmick - violin

Violinist Charles Dimmick enjoys a varied and distinguished career as concertmaster, soloist, and chamber musician.  Praised by the Boston Globe for his “cool clarity of expression,” Charles is one of New England’s most sought-after orchestral musicians. He is co-concertmaster of the Boston Pops Esplanade, and concertmaster of both the Portland Symphony and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. In the summers, Charles can be found serving as the concertmaster of the New Hampshire Music Festival. Charles has appeared as guest concertmaster for the Arizona Music Fest and the Winston-Salem Symphony. A frequent soloist, Charles has garnered praise, packed houses, and received standing ovations for what the Portland Press Herald has called his “luxurious and stellar performances” and his “technical and artistic virtuosity.” Recent concerto engagements have included performances with the Portland Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Arizona Musicfest, Chamber Orchestra of Boston, and the Boston Civic Symphony. As a chamber musician, Charles can be heard collaborating with the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Festival, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Radius Ensemble, and Monadnock Music. He is featured as concertmaster on many recordings with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera, including the Grammy-Award winning opera The Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Tobias Picker. His debut recording as concerto soloist in Elliot Schwartz’s Chamber Concerto and his debut solo violin recording of Lisa Bielawa’s Synopsis #7 can be found at bmop.org.

Charles is a dedicated and experienced teacher and he maintains a private violin studio in the Boston area. In the summers Charles can be found coaching and teaching ambitious violinists at the Greenwood Music Camp (junior division). Charles is the former interim Lecturer in Violin at the University of Southern Maine, Gorham campus. 

Charles lives with his wife, the flutist Rachel Braude, and their young daughter, Chloe, an aspiring violinist. He performs on a 1784 Joseph Gagliano violin.

Nancy Dimock

Nancy Dimock - oboe

Nancy Dimock, oboe, enjoys a varied career that spans genres, her playing described by critics as “mournfully gorgeous,” and “heavenly.” She is the principal oboist of the Boston Lyric Opera, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the Vermont, Springfield, and Indian Hill Symphonies, and is a member of the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. She frequently performs with area ensembles, including the Portland Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Albany Symphony, and Odyssey Opera. An active chamber musician, she is a member of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston and has been a guest artist for several years at the Carolina Chamber Music Festival, in New Bern, North Carolina. She has been a featured soloist with the Vermont, Albany, and Indian Hill Symphonies, and has performed the Bach Concerto for Violin and Oboe numerous times with renowned violinist Jaime Laredo. She has been the Principal Oboist of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and can be heard performing with the HSO on the recording Rosemary Clooney: The Final Concert. She has been on the Prairie Home Companion radio show, NPR's Performance Today, and PBS's Great Performances, and she regularly performs live on Boston's classical radio station, WGBH. She has recorded for Concord, Albany, and Chandos Records, and BMOP/Sound. She currently teaches oboe at Tufts University and the Rivers School Conservatory.

Daniel Doña

Daniel Doña - viola

Daniel Doña has distinguished himself as an active performer and pedagogue. He serves on the viola faculty of the Boston University School of Music alongside his duties as Chair of the Antiracism and DEIA Committee and Coordinator of String Chamber Music. Daniel is also Co-Director of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute String Quartet Workshop. In addition to his teaching at BU, Dr. Doña serves on the faculty of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra Intensive Community Program. An avid chamber musician, he is a member of TriChrome and the critically acclaimed Arneis Quartet.

Performance highlights include appearances at the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Music on Main (Vancouver) and Stanford University’s Lively Arts series as well as broadcasts on CBC Radio 2, WGBH and WCLV. He performed with Filipina-American composer and percussionist Susie Ibarra and her DreamTime Ensemble as part of the Asia Society Triennial.  Daniel is featured on composer Ketty Nez’s CD Double Images. He performs regularly with Emmanuel Music and other ensembles in the Boston area. Daniel has presented guest masterclasses at the University of Connecticut, Swarthmore College, Northwestern University Music Academy and Miami University.

Daniel pursues interdisciplinary projects with a passion. As a recipient of a Humanities Enhancement Project Award from the Boston University Center for the Humanities he curated concerts exploring relationships between poetry and music accompanied by lectures presented by members of the BU and Harvard English Departments. As a member of the Banff Festival Quartet he performed in collaboration with dancers, presenting Hans van Manenʼs Grosse Fuge and a world premiere of Heather Myersʼs Dedications. As part of his META fellowship with the Mass Cultural Council Dr. Doña explored connections between mindfulness practice and music pedagogy and performance.

Dr. Doña received his AB in Philosophy from the University of Chicago, where he was awarded the inaugural David Fulton Award for excellence in instrumental performance. He received his MM in Viola Performance from the University of Oklahoma where he studied with Matthew Dane (viola) and Felicia Moye (violin). At Boston University he studied with Michelle LaCourse, Steven Ansell and Ed Gazouleas. He received his PD and DMA from BU and was a two-time recipient of the String Department Award.

In his spare time Daniel enjoys traveling with his husband Scott and finding exotic places to run races and pursue culinary adventures. He ran the Berlin Marathon on his honeymoon and has also completed the NYC and Chicago Marathons.  Bookstores are his Achilles heel.

Alexei Doohovskoy

Alexei Doohovskoy - trombone

Alexei Doohovskoy is an active New England area freelance trombonist and music educator. He is a member of both the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Orchestra of Indian Hill. He has performed with the Boston Symphony and Pops Orchestras, the Boston Lyric Opera, the Boston Ballet, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Springfield Symphony, and the Portland Symphony. As a chamber musician, he has toured nationally and internationally with the Empire Brass Quintet. Mr. Doohovskoy has earned fellowships from the New World Symphony in Florida, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut. He has been a featured soloist with the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic, the U.S. Air Force Band, the Sounds of Stow Festival Orchestra, the Lynn University Symphony, and the Brown University Wind Symphony. Mr. Doohovskoy currently serves on the faculties of Brown University and Rhode Island College. Since 2009, he has directed a unique summer trombone choir program in Concord, Massachusetts, combining the talents of players from around New England. Mr. Doohovskoy holds a Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University.

Rachael Elliott

Rachael Elliott - bassoon

Rachael Elliott is a bassoonist and founding member of Clogs, with whom she has produced five albums and appeared in clubs, concert halls and festivals across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia. Other projects include her solo album, “Polka the Elk,” Michael Gordon’s “Rushes” with Rushes Ensemble, and “Darker Things” with Tuple. Originally from Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Rachael lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband and two children and is a bassoon teacher, chamber music coach, and career coach at Longy School of Music.  bassoonproject.org

Stephanie Fong

Stephanie Fong - viola

Violist Stephanie Fong enjoys a versatile career as a chamber musician, music educator, and orchestral musician.  Stephanie has served on the chamber music faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music, the Innsbrook Institute Summer Music Academy, Center Stage Strings, and the Peaks to Plains Suzuki Institute in addition to regular appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. She is a member of the Boston-based chamber music group Mistral, and has performed extensively with the Alianza String Quartet, the Phoenix String Quartet, and Kailas String Quartet. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where her principal teachers were Martha Strongin Katz and Ian Swensen.

Kate Foss

Kate Foss - double bass

A transplant from the Midwest, Kate Foss came to Boston in 2008 and earned a Master of Music in Double Bass from New England Conservatory of Music.  She performs regularly with groups such as the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Emmanuel Music, American Repertory Theatre, and the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra. Kate lives in Quincy, MA and enjoys exploring the Blue Hills Reservation in her free time.

 

Benjamin Fox

Benjamin Fox - oboe

Oboist Benjamin Fox is in high demand as an orchestral player, chamber musician, and teacher in the Boston area. His versatility and virtuosity are showcased in a variety of venues – from Carnegie Hall to retirement homes, rural churches in Panamá to nightclubs in Honolulu, Ben's joy comes from sharing music with everyone.

For years, Dr. Fox has been Principal Oboist of the Marsh Chapel Collegium, whose performances of cantatas and oratorios by J.S. Bach and Handel reach a worldwide audience via WBUR radio and internet broadcasts. He is an active freelancer, frequently appearing with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Ballet, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Emmanuel Music, Bangor Symphony, Portland Symphony, and has also performed with the Canton (OH) and Charleston (SC) Symphonies. In addition to his orchestral career, he has presented numerous chamber music recitals at libraries, churches, nursing homes, and schools, collaborating with groups such as the Weston Wind Quintet, New England Chamber Players, and the Boston Zelenka Project. A strong believer in the healing power of music, Ben has also performed in hospitals for bedridden patients and stroke survivors.

Dr. Fox is the oboe instructor at Boston College, St. Anselm College, New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Powers Music School, and teaches students in many communities around Boston. When not performing, teaching, practicing, or making reeds, Ben enjoys an active lifestyle, running, yoga, swing and blues dancing.

Noriko Futagami

Noriko Futagami - viola

Violist Noriko Futagami performs with some of the area’s most celebrated ensembles. She is a member of the Radius Ensemble, voted “Boston’s Best Classical Ensemble of 2016” by the Improper Bostonian, as well as working with the Boston Musica Viva, Emmanuel Music, Cantata Singers and Winsor Music on a regular basis. She is principal violist for Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and section violist with Rhode Island Philharmonic.

As principal violist for Albany Symphony, she has participated in several Grammy nominated recordings, winning in 2014 John Corigliano’s Conjurer/Vocalise.

Since moving to Boston in 2011, she has become a fixture of the freelance scene, performing regularly with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Odyssey Opera Orchestra and Monadnock Festival Orchestra, as well the Boston Pops, Boston Ballet and Boston Landmarks Orchestras.

She is a string faculty member at Brown University.

Omar Chen Guey

Omar Chen Guey - violin

Brazilian violinist Omar Chen Guey has performed internationally as a soloist with orchestras, in recitals and chamber concerts throughout Brazil as well as the United States, Europe, Qatar, Taiwan, Kenya and the Seychelles. He has been a featured soloist with the following orchestras, the Brazilian, Campinas, Goiania, Minas Gerais, Claudio Santoro National Theater, Sao Paulo University, Sao Paulo Municipal, and the State of Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Amazonas Philharmonic, Petrobras Pro-Musica, Experimental Repertoire, Qatar Philharmonic, Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University Symphony, Maidstone Symphony and the Seychelles International Music Festival Orchestras. Following a recital in Oslo, Norway, he had the honor of performing for the King of Norway, Harald V. He is a prizewinner at both Tibor Varga and Lipizer International Violin Competitions in Switzerland and Italy, respectively. In 2019, He performed the Britten Violin Concerto with the Fribourg Youth Orchestra in Switzerland. During the pandemic, he has streamed from home, recitals for solo violin and with his wife at the piano.

Mr. Guey premiered the Violin Concerto by Jean-Charles Gandrille with the Qatar Philharmonic. This performance has been released on the French label Paraty. He released the Bach Concerto for Two Violins on the Paulinas Label with the Brazilian soloist Elisa Fukuda and the Camerata Fukuda, of which he was also concertmaster. He premiered and released a work for solo violin of renowned French Lebanese musician Marcel Khalife on Nagan records. He participated in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop and has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Lynn Harrell, Ani Kavafian, David Finckel, Lawrence Dutton, Kikuei Ikeda and Colin Carr.

He is a member of A Far Cry, assistant concertmaster of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and member of the New England Camerata Trio, which performs several chamber concerts in Vermont and New Hampshire each season. He is a regular guest artist with the Walden Chamber Players, Radius Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex and the Monadnock Music Festival, among others.

Mr. Guey has a Doctorate degree from Stony Brook University, Masters from Juilliard and Bachelors from Manhattan School of Music. His principal teachers were Sylvia Rosenberg, Robert Mann, Philip Setzer, Ani Kavafian, Pamela Frank and Elisa Fukuda. He was assistant concertmaster of the Orquesta de la Comunidad Valenciana, in Valencia, Spain, under the direction of Lorin Maazel. Mr. Guey has been teaching violin at Dartmouth College since 2020.

Ashe Gordon (photo credit Robert Torres Photography)

Ashe Gordon - viola

Described as a “charismatic and captivating performer,” Ashleigh Gordon has recorded with Switzerland's Ensemble Proton and Germany's Ensemble Modern; performed with Grammy-award winning BMOP and Grammy-nominated A Far Cry string ensemble; and appeared at the prestigious BBC Proms Festival with the Chineke! Orchestra. Comfortable on an international stage, Ashleigh has performed in the Royal Albert and Royal Festival Halls (London), Konzerthaus Berlin and Oper Frankfurt (Germany), Gare du Nord and Dampfzentrale Bern (Switzerland), Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Lee Hysan Concert Hall (Hong Kong), and throughout Sofia, Bulgaria as part of the multi-disciplinary 180 Degrees Festival.

Ashleigh is co-founder, Artistic/Executive Director and violist of Castle of our Skins, a Boston-based concert and educational series devoted to celebrating Black Artistry through music. In recognition of her work, she has presented at IDEAS UMass Boston Conference and 180 Degrees Festival in Bulgaria; has been featured in the International Musician and Improper Bostonian magazines as well as the Boston Globe; and was awarded the 2016 Charles Walton Diversity Advocate Award from the American Federation of Musicians. She is a 2015 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award recipient, a 2019 Brother Thomas Fellow, a nominee for the 2020 "Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities,” and named one of WBUR’s “ARTery 25”, twenty-five millennials of color impacting Boston’s arts and culture scene. 

Ashleigh attended the International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA) at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt, a year-long program in Germany focused on the study and performance of contemporary music. As the sole IEMA violist, she studied and performed with members of Ensemble Modern with highlight appearances at IRCAM (Paris), Royaumont Abbeye (France), and the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe (Germany). Along with receiving a Master of Contemporary Music degree from IEMA, Ashleigh received degrees in viola performance from the New England Conservatory and Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music. Her primary teachers include Carol Rodland and Louise Zeitlin with supplemental solo and chamber music studies with Stephen Drury, Eric Rosenblith and Mai Motobuchi of the Borromeo String Quartet. She can be heard on chamber music and orchestral recordings under the Mode, Siemens, BMOP/Sound, Navona and Musiques-Suisse record labels. For more information please visit: www.violashe.com

Gary Gorczyka (photo credit Susan Wilson)

Gary Gorczyca - clarinet

A founding member of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, clarinetist Gary Gorczyca is a ubiquitous presence on Boston’s classical music concert scene. Mr. Gorczyca has appeared as a soloist with the Angelica International Festival and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and performs frequently with Boston Midsummer Opera and Odyssey Opera. He can be heard on many recordings on the BMOP Sound label, including Bernard Rands’ Canti Trilogy, Lee Hyla’s Lives of the Saints, and as a soloist on Elliot Schwartz’s Chamber Concerto. He also played on composer Marti Epstein’s recording, Hypnagogia, with the Ludovico Ensemble.

A frequent collaborator with composers and sought-after chamber musician, Mr. Gorczyca was a member of the Boston Musica Viva and the Fromm Players at Harvard, and has performed at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, with Callithumpian Consort, the Firebird Ensemble, Sound Icon, North Country Chamber Players and Monadnock Music. More recently, he has performed with VentiCordi Chamber Music, winner of the 2016 and 2017 Down East Magazine’s reader’s choice award and was honored to perform in New England Conservatory’s First Monday series.

For many years he was a first call substitute with the Boston Symphony, receiving solo bows in Symphony Hall for Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid and Carnegie Hall for Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Additionally, Gary has toured throughout the United States and Japan with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, and appeared on their nationally televised 4th of July special, performing with Steven Tyler and David Lee Roth, among others.

Mr. Gorczyca began his musical career on the heels of an education from New England Conservatory, Boston University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Shortly afterward he received fellowships to attend both the Norfolk Chamber and Contemporary Music Festivals as well as the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was awarded a Jackson Prize for outstanding musical achievement. When not performing, he volunteers for many causes, including the Pan Mass Kids Ride, the Hingham Interfaith Food Pantry, and Scouts BSA. 

He most recently hiked Mt. Monadnock in the rain on Memorial Day weekend and braved 50 mph wind gusts at the summit!

Olav Chris Henriksen

Olav Chris Henriksen - lute, theorbo, baroque guitar

Olav Chris Henriksen, acclaimed throughout Europe and North America as a soloist on lute, theorbo and early guitars, has performed and recorded with the Boston Camerata, Handel & Haydn Society, Waverly Consort, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, Ensemble Chaconne, and Musicians of the Old Post Road, among others. Recent performances include appearances at the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester MA), Library of Congress (Washington DC), and with Ensemble Chaconne at Misericordia University (Pennsylvania). His latest solo recording, Guitar of the North, is on the Centaur label; his first solo recording, La Guitarre Royalle: French Baroque and Classical Guitar Music, is on the Museum Music label. Mr. Henriksen performs and lectures frequently at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, playing musical instruments from the Museum’s collection. He has also lectured at Harvard University, Northeastern University, Bunker Hill Community College; Nelson Atkins Museum (Kansas City), Musikkhögskolen (Oslo), Aston Magna Academy, Rutgers University; and Lincoln Center Institute (New York). He has taught at the Boston Conservatory and the University of Southern Maine. Mr. Henriksen holds a soloist diploma from the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland.

Anne Howarth

Anne Howarth - horn

Fueled by a passion for small ensemble collaborations, Anne Howarth, horn, is known for bringing expressiveness, creativity and delight to her performances. She is deeply curious about the ways in which shared musical experiences forge connections, invite deeper dialogue, and inspire contemplation.

Anne is a founding member and Outreach Director of the mixed-instrumentation chamber group Radius Ensemble, is a senior member of the wind quintet Vento Chiaro, and performs as a core member of Juventas New Music Ensemble. A strong proponent of new music, she has commissioned several chamber works, including “Connect All. We All Connect.,” a reversable mediation on the ways in which live performance connect us.

Anne holds Principal Horn chairs with the Lexington Symphony and Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra and performs as a freelance orchestral player with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and other area ensembles. Curious about the intersection between live music and movement, she has collaborated with Monkeyhouse and dancer/choreographer Karen Krolak for performances at First Night Boston, Bent Wit Cabaret, and Tufts University. During the pandemic, Anne explored enhanced approaches to solo performing, combining horn playing with lighting and technology elements to produce multimedia digital content for livestreaming and archived viewing.

Anne teaches horn and coaches chamber music at Tufts University and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), maintains a private studio, and is on the on faculties of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, the Brookline Music School, and the Milton Afterschool Lesson Program.

Anne is a native of the Detroit area, holds undergraduate degrees in both Horn Performance and Environmental Studies from Oberlin College and Conservatory, and earned her Master of Music in Performance at New England Conservatory.

Zenas Hsu

Zenas Hsu - violin

With a sound palette ranging from a ‘commanding tone’ to ‘delicate sentiment’ (Calgary Herald), Taiwanese-American violinist Zenas Hsu leads a vibrant career filled with chamber music, orchestral leadership, and education. He is a founding member of Chamber Music by the Bay, a California-based interactive music series that reaches over 2,000 people annually. He is also a member of A Far Cry, a Grammy nominated ensemble in Boston, and is the concertmaster of Phoenix, an orchestra based in Boston focused on approachable concert experiences.

Zenas is a frequent guest artist of Bard Music West and the Wellesley Chamber Players and has served as guest concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. World and national premiere performances include works by Robert Honstein, Philip Glass, Matthew Aucoin, Jesse Montgomery, Lembit Beecher, and others.

A native of California, Zenas received his early training in the preparatory division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He was accepted at age sixteen to the Curtis Institute of Music for his Bachelor of Music degree, and received his Master of Music and Graduate Diploma degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers include Wei He, Ida Kavafian, Nicholas Kitchen, and Donald Weilerstein.

Richard Kelley

Richard Kelley - trumpet

The career of Grammy nominated trumpeter Richard Kelley is not only a testament to the versatility of his instrument, but also the ability of one individual to excel across the broadest possible range of music. From Symphony Orchestras and chamber music to jazz, studio work, and Broadway shows, Mr. Kelley has built a formidable track record of working at the highest level of the profession.

Mr. Kelley is currently based in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, where he performs regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Boston Philharmonic, and other surrounding orchestras. Previously based in New York City, Mr. Kelley was the Principal Trumpeter of the Queens Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Virtuosi. He also performed regularly with the Metropolitan Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York Pops and many other orchestra ensembles. From 1987 to 1994, he was a member of the groundbreaking Meridian Arts Ensemble – the first brass quintet ever to win the prestigious Concert Artists Guild competition – and he continued to stretch the boundaries of brass solo and chamber music as a member of Boston Brass from 1997 to 2005 and premiering and recording Trumpet solos by Daniel Pinkham, Richard J. Clark and a Concerto for two Trumpets by Stephen Paulus.

Mr. Kelley was born and raised in Boston, graduating from Boston Latin High School. At age 16 he was featured as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and was engaged for repeat appearances with both the BSO and the Boston Pops. These performances served to establish Mr. Kelley’s relationship with Charles Schlueter, the Principal Trumpeter of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with whom he studied for the remainder of his high school years. He continued his education at the Juilliard School in New York City as a student of Mark Gould, Co-Principal Trumpeter of the Metropolitan Opera. A passionate believer in the power of musical education, Mr. Kelley taught for two years in Juilliard’s “Music Advancement Program” for inner city youth and continues to pass along his knowledge and love of music in Boston as an adjunct professor in the Prep Division of the New England Conservatory.

During a flourishing orchestral and chamber music career, Mr. Kelley has also capitalized on his ability to swiftly and fluently traverse different stylistic genres to become a force in the studio arena. His work can be heard on a wide variety of recordings, from national commercials for Dr. Pepper and IBM to the Oscar and Golden Globe-winning soundtrack to Disney’s Pocahontas. He has also collaborated with Andrea Bocelli, Yo-Yo Ma, Ray Charles, James Taylor, Seth MacFarlane, the Rock band Boston, Jimmy Page and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, award winning composers John Williams and Danny Elfman and more.

Mr. Kelley has performed with several jazz and funk bands and musicians, including trumpeter Lew Soloff of Blood Sweat and Tears and he has been heard in countless Broadway performances, including productions of Aladdin, An American in Paris, Cats, Les Miserables, Annie, Show Boat, Crazy for You, West Side Story and many others.

Jing Li (photo credit Hannah Shields)

Jing Li - cello

Hailed as “an outstanding instrumentalist and musician” with “exceptional musicality, integrity, and polish,” cellist Jing Li has performed around the world as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has made solo appearances with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony of Louisiana, Indiana University Orchestra, Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, and Cuenca Symphony Orchestra in Ecuador. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Li has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Miriam Fried, Donald Weilerstein, Lawrence Wolfe, and the Borromeo String Quartet, as well as participating in internationally renowned festivals including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Piatigorsky Seminar for Cellists.

Born in Beijing, China, Ms. Li immigrated to the United States when she was three years old and received her first cello lessons from her father, Tien Sheng Li. At the age of fourteen, she was accepted into the illustrious studio of Janos Starker at Indiana University School of Music as his youngest student, consequently graduating with an Artist Diploma. She continued her studies with Paul Katz at Rice University, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree cum laude, and with Laurence Lesser at New England Conservatory, where she was awarded a Master of Music degree with Academic Honors and Distinction in Performance. She is a top prizewinner in the Corpus Christi International String Competition and the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, where she received the Allen P. Weiss Memorial Prize for Best Performance of the Commissioned Work by David Liptak.

Ms. Li has served as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and as a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Currently residing in New York City, she performs frequently with the New York Philharmonic, on various Broadway shows, as well as A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and Odyssey Opera in Boston. As a dedicated teacher, she works with young musicians at Horace Mann School and Caedmon School, as well as maintaining an active private studio.

Caitlin Lynch

Caitlin Lynch - viola

Violist and Grammy Award recipient Caitlin Lynch has performed across the globe in collaboration with artists from Itzhak Perlman to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. She is violist of the Aeolus String Quartet, and a member and co-Artistic Director of the conductorless chamber orchestra A Far Cry. Ms. Lynch’s performances as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist with orchestra, and recitalist have spanned fourteen countries across five continents – from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House to the United Nations - and include appearances with members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, and Guarneri String Quartets. Passionate about collaborations with other art forms, she enjoys performing with dancers (Mark Morris Dance Group, Wendy Whelan), artists from other musical genres (Bjork, The National), and on film (Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!). Ms. Lynch is the founder and Artistic Director of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley, a nonprofit organization that supports public school music programs and provides funds for private instrumental lessons for students for whom the cost would be otherwise prohibitive. She was an Artist in Residence at Cleveland’s Judson Manor senior living community, an intergenerational relationship that continues today and has been celebrated by CBS and NBC News, The Plain Dealer, and the New York Times. Recent and upcoming highlights include performances at the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series with the Aeolus Quartet, the Kennedy Center with A Far Cry, and BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Ms. Lynch performs on an 18th century viola made by English luthier William Forster, and thanks to the generosity of the Five Partners Foundation, a viola by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.

Hazel Malcolmson

Hazel Malcolmson - bassoon

Bassoonist Hazel Malcolmson is the Principal Bassoon of the Orchestra of Indian Hill where she will be featured as a soloist in the 2021-2022 season.  She has performed as a guest with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, including their live recording of Richard Strauss’s Sinfonia Domestica in September 2019 and their European tour in May 2016.  She has also performed as a guest with the Boston Pops, The Florida Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México (where she was the acting principal bassoonist for a season), and the Boston area ensembles A Far Cry, Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, Emmanuel Music, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Springfield Symphony Orchestra and Radius Ensemble.  Hazel soloed in Richard Strauss’s Duet Concertino with Symphony Nova, in the U.S. premiere of Marc André’s da für Fagott und Ensemble with Ensemble Moto Perpetuo, and can be heard as the principal bassoonist in Mohammed Fairouz’s Sumeida’s Song with Mimesis Ensemble on the Bridge Records label.  Hazel received a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory and her bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and spent summers participating in Kent Blossom Music, Pacific Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra and Music Academy of the West.  Her major teachers include Richard Ranti, Judith LeClair, David Carroll, and Gregg Henegar.

Rane Moore

Rane Moore - clarinet

Clarinetist Rane Moore enjoys a busy international performing schedule as a sought-after interpreter of standard and contemporary repertoire. She is a member of the Talea Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Sound Icon, and the award winning wind quintet, The City of Tomorrow. Ms. Moore has given numerous premieres of new works and appeared with International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Guerilla Opera, New York New Music, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars among many others.  She is a frequent guest with Boston-based ensembles Emmanuel Music, A Far Cry, Boston Musica Viva, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Boston Ballet Orchestra. She is also the principal clarinetist of the Boston Philharmonic, Boston Landmarks Orchestra and Co-Artistic Director of Winsor Music. Ms. Moore has recordings on over a dozen labels including Tzadik, Pi, Wergo, and ECM records and is on the faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Longy School of Music of Bard College. Critics have praised her “enthralling,” “tour-de-force,” and “phenomenal” performances.

Kevin Owen

Kevin Owen - horn

Kevin Owen has been a soloist with many orchestras throughout New England, including the Boston Pops, Boston Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, North Shore Philharmonic, Portland (ME) Symphony, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Fall River Symphony, and many others.  Kevin has also toured with the Empire Brass, the Boston Chamber Music Society, A Far Cry, the Beacon, Atlantic and Epic Brass Quintets.

He won five international chamber music competitions in a single year as a member of the Boston Wind Quintet.

In 2019, Owen presented a new concerto written for him by Robert Edward Smith with the Chamber Orchestra of Boston. This was his fourth solo appearance with the COB.

Not to be outdone by his success on the concert stage, he has appeared on the David Letterman and Conan O’Brien television shows with the bands Guster and My Morning Jacket. He’s been in the backup band for Peter Frampton, the Moody Blues, Kansas, Frank Sinatra, Jr., and many other popular artists.

In addition to his solo and chamber music experience, Kevin serves as the Principal Horn of the Boston Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra.

He performs regularly with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops and has played “extra” horn with the Vienna Philharmonic and St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

Rafael Popper-Keizer (photo credit Matthew Wan)

Rafael Popper-Keizer - cello

Hailed by The New York Times as “imaginative and eloquent” and dubbed “a local hero” with “silken tone and subtle attention to each note” by the Boston Globe, cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer maintains a vibrant and diverse career as one of Boston’s most celebrated artists. He is principal cellist of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Emmanuel Music, and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and a core member of many notable chamber music organizations throughout New England, including the Chameleon Arts Ensemble and Winsor Music. His 2003 performance with the Boston Philharmonic of the Saint-Saëns Concerto in A minor was praised by the Globe for “melodic phrasing of melting tenderness” and “dazzling dispatch of every bravura challenge;” more recent solo appearances include Strauss' Don Quixote with the Boston Philharmonic, Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Emmanuel Music; and the North American premiere of Roger Reynolds' Thoughts, Places, Dreams with sound/icon.

Mr. Popper-Keizer is a member of nationally acclaimed conductorless string ensemble A Far Cry, which has won recognition for both artistic excellence and its democratic model of collective decision-making at every level. In 2017, A Far Cry commissioned, premiered, and recorded a new piano concerto by Philip Glass, with soloist Simone Dinnerstein. The release of this recording was followed up a few months later by the group’s album Visions and Variations, which received two Grammy nominations. A Far Cry’s recent and upcoming performance schedule includes tours of California and Colorado, regular appearances at the Rockport Music Festival and Central Park in NYC, and a concert at the Kennedy Center in DC featuring the Tchaikovsky Serenade played from memory.

In 2019, Mr. Popper-Keizer was appointed Artistic Director of Monadnock Music, where he has been in residence every summer since 2002. Based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the central mission of Monadnock Music is to bring free concerts featuring world-class artists to the villages and towns of the region. Over the course of the festival’s more than fifty-year history, Monadnock Music has worked closely with composers including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Roger Sessions, and (in more recent years) Richard Danielpour, Dalit Warshaw, and Jing Wang.

Mr. Popper-Keizer has been featured on over two dozen recordings, including the premieres of Robert Erickson's Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, Thomas Oboe Lee's cello concerto Eurydice, Yehudi Wyner's De Novo for cello and small chamber ensemble, and Malcolm Peyton's unaccompanied Cello Piece. His most recent solo recording, on Musica Omnia, is a disc pairing two monumental works for unaccompanied cello: Zoltan Kodaly’s notoriously virtuosic Sonata for Solo Cello and Ralf Gawlick’s At the still point of the turning world, a powerful exploration of sonority and silence written for and dedicated to Popper-Keizer.

As an alumnus of the New England Conservatory (A.D. 1999, M.M. with honors 1997), Mr. Popper-Keizer studied with master pedagogue and Piatigorsky protégé Laurence Lesser; at the Tanglewood Music Center he was privileged to work with Mstislav Rostropovich, and was Yo-Yo Ma’s understudy for Strauss’ Don Quixote under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. His prior teachers include Stephen Harrison of Stanford University, and Karen Andrie at the University of California in Santa Cruz. At the age of ten he began undergraduate coursework in mathematics at UCSC, where he was accepted as a full-time student two years later.

Mr. Popper-Keizer is currently on faculty at Gordon College in Wenham, MA, and has previously taught at Philips Exeter Academy, Brandeis University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With A Far Cry, he has participated in college and university residencies nationwide, including guest lectures and presentations at Baldwin Wallace University and Connecticut College, and masterclasses at Yale University.

Krista River

Krista River - mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano Krista River has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society, the Florida Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, Odyssey Opera, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and Boston Baroque. Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a Sullivan Foundation grant recipient, her opera roles include Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Anna in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring, and the title role in Handel’s Xerxes. Ms. River made her Tanglewood debut in the role of Jordan Baker in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. Other notable performances include the International Water and Life Festival in Qinghai, China, and recitals at Jordan Hall in Boston and the Asociación Nacional de Conciertos in Panama City, Panama. For Ms. River’s solo recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the New York Times praised her "shimmering voice…with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress.” Ms. River appears on numerous recordings, including Wasting the Night: Songs (music of Scott Wheeler) and Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s recording of Tobias Picker’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, for which she won a GRAMMY award.  Ms. River began her musical career as a cellist, earning her music degree at St. Olaf College. She resides in Boston and is a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music’s renowned Bach Cantata Series.

Mary Kay Robinson

Mary Kay Robinson - flute

Flutist Mary Kay Robinson has balanced a career in performance, leadership and academia.

She has risen to national prominence as a versatile musician who has performed, recorded and toured as guest artist with the symphony orchestras of Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Kansas City, Toledo, Portland, Vermont, Boston and Cleveland, among others. …“dazzling virtuosity...a hugely talented soloist” critics heralded of her New York solo debut playing concerti on two different instruments.  She has been a featured soloist with the Southern Tier Symphony (NY), Cleveland Pops at Severance Hall, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has performed with Music from Angel Fire, ChamberFest Cleveland, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center musicians, Monadnock Chamber Music and the NHMF. She is the founder and director of the award winning mixed flex ensemble, Panorámicos whose three recordings that have earned international acclaim, including “Best of North America”, “Editor’s Choice”-Gramophone, with repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary, theater to jazz and world music.

Other orchestral positions include the Grammy Award winning Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Red {an orchestra}, Akron Symphony, Lyric Opera Cleveland, and the Playhouse Square Orchestra. She is the former Chair of the National Flute Association’s Piccolo Committee and founder of the Greater Cleveland Flute Society. She has championed the commissioning of new solo and chamber works for Flute, Piccolo and Alto Flute, and can be heard on recordings by Polyhymnia, Hyperion, Azica, TelArc, Albany and PARMA Records, itunes and YouTube. She has served on the faculties of Case Western Reserve University, Ithaca College, Franklin Pierce University, the University of Akron and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Ms. Robinson is currently the Director of the Bascom Little Fund, previous leadership positions include Music from Angel Fire and ChamberFest Cleveland. Certified in Executive Leadership through National Arts Strategies, the University of Pennsylvania and Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management, Ms. Robinson’s Performance Coaching practice focuses on leadership, holistic performance and career coaching, Artist as Entrepreneur-utilizing the best research in performance and sports psychology, building towards excellence, creativity and success through health and wellness. www.mkrobinson.org

David William Ross

David William Ross - guitar

David William Ross is a New England based guitarist, tea drinker, and connoisseur of steel cut oats. His recordings and performances have been lauded for their sensitivity, virtuosity, and depth of musicality. Ross frequently works with contemporary composers and is active in cultivating new repertoire for the guitar. He has premiered works by Frank Wallace, Georges Raillard, Ferdinando DeSena, Peter Dayton, Pierre Schroeder, among many others. Trained in classical and jazz, Ross has developed a flexible approach, nuanced and uniquely personal, that is unconstrained and essentially musical.

Ross’ work as a session player has led to an extensive working knowledge of the recording studio. He has developed an approach to engineering and recording that goes beyond simply capturing a performance. Ross creates organic and original recordings that elucidate the creative motive of the artist and clarify the underlying aesthetic of the music. His engineering and mixing credits span many genres include classical, jazz, folk, indie rock, barbershop quartet, pop.

Ross holds degrees in music theory, composition, and guitar. As an educator, he has taught courses in jazz improvisation, music theory, ear training, composition, music history, and aesthetics, as well as individual instruction in guitar and recording.

Ina Zdorovetchi

Ina Zdorovetchi - harp

Internationally renowned harpist Ina Zdorovetchi has established a reputation as one of the leading musicians of her generation, noted for her compelling interpretations and unique tone. Hailed as “the harp whisperer” as well as “monster player", she has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestra, including the Boston Pops, West Deutsche Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony, Haifa Symphony, Portland Symphony (Maine), Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, National Philharmonic of Moldova, Seattle Chamber Orchestra and was featured in the American Harp Society National Conference Gala concert.

A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, she has performed in Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Rockport Music Festival, World Harp Congress, has recorded for Sony, Naxos, Albany Records, BMOP/Sound, and was presented in live broadcasts on WGBH Radio Boston, Israel Broadcasting Authority, WDR Koln (Germany) and Moldova National TV. Additional highlights include giving the European premiere of John Williams’ Harp Concerto “On Willows and Birches”, World premieres of Thomas Oboe Lee’s Harp Concerto “…bisbigliando…” (dedicated to her), Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ayre” and performing a solo recital for an event hosted by John Kerry, 68th Secretary of State of the United States, in front of a crowd of the world’s preeminent leaders.

As the recipient of numerous awards, Ina Zdorovetchi is the top prize winner of the 17th International Harp Contest in Israel, second prize winner at Cite des Arts Harp Competition in Paris and has been honored with the Henry Cabot Award for Special Commitment of Talent by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Alien with Extraordinary Abilities in the Arts title by the United States government and Outstanding Music Faculty of the Year by the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
She holds several harp performance degrees from the New England Conservatory, Boston University, Boston Conservatory and Bucharest University of Music (Romania) and received her early training in her native Republic of Moldova, double-majoring in harp and piano performance at the Ciprian Porumbescu Music School.

Ms. Zdorovetchi resides in Boston, MA, playing as principal harpist with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Portland Symphony and Boston Lyric Opera. From 2009-2019 she served as the Associate Professor of Harp at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

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