Margaret Batjer has served as concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 1998, where she also serves as Director of Chamber Music. She is also renowned as a violin soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, and teacher, and has established herself as a versatile and respected artist worldwide.

Batjer has appeared as soloist with America’s leading orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Batjer has also performed with leading European ensembles such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (of Ireland), Berlin Symphony Orchestra, and the Hallé Orchestra.

Ms. Batjer is a faculty member at the Colburn School where she is Director of Colburn’s Music Academy, a program dedicated to training exceptional pre-college classical musicians from around the world for careers in music as well as serving on the violin faculty at both the Conservatory and the Music Academy.

Canadian-born violinist Martin Beaver was First Violin of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet from June 2002 until its final concert in July 2013.  As such, he appeared to critical and public acclaim on the major stages of the world including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and the Sydney Opera House.

As a member of the Tokyo String Quartet, Mr. Beaver was privileged to perform on the 1727 Stradivarius violin from the “Paganini Quartet” set of instruments, on generous loan to the quartet from the Nippon Music Foundation.  Recordings of the Tokyo String Quartet during his tenure notably include the complete Beethoven string quartets on the Harmonia Mundi label.

Mr. Beaver’s concerto and recital appearances span four continents with orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra and under the batons of Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Raymond Leppard, Gilbert Varga and Yannick Nézet-Séguin among others.  Chamber music performances include collaborations with such eminent artists as Leon Fleisher, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, Sabine Meyer and Yefim Bronfman.

Mr. Beaver is a regular guest at prominent festivals in North America and abroad. Among these are: the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla SummerFest, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Edinburgh Festival (U.K.) and Pacific Music Festival (Japan).  Additionally, he was a founding member of several notable chamber ensembles including Triskelion and the Montrose Trio.

Mr. Beaver’s discography includes concerti, sonatas and chamber music on the Harmonia Mundi USA, Biddulph, Naim Audio, René Gailly, Musica Viva, SM 5000, Toccata Classics and Naxos labels.  His recorded repertoire ranges from Bach, Beethoven and Brahms to the music of 21^st century composers Alexina Louie, Gerard Schurmann and Joan Tower.

Following his early studies with Claude Letourneau and Carlisle Wilson, Mr. Beaver was a pupil of Victor Danchenko, Josef Gingold and Henryk Szeryng.  He is a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth, Montreal and Indianapolis competitions. Subsequently, he has served on the juries of major international competitions including the Queen Elisabeth and Montreal violin competitions, the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Beaver has been the grateful recipient of generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts.  This includes Arts Grants for his studies at Indiana University, Career Development Grants and the 1993 Virginia-Parker Prize.  In 1998, through the generosity of an anonymous donor, the Canada Council awarded Mr. Beaver the loan of the 1729 “ex-Heath” Guarnerius del Gesù violin for a four-year period.

A devoted educator, Mr. Beaver has conducted masterclasses throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.  He has held teaching positions at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of British Columbia and the Peabody Conservatory.  More recently, he served on the faculty of New York University and as Artist in Residence at the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded its highest honor – the Sanford Medal.

Mr. Beaver joined the faculty of the Colburn School in Los Angeles in August 2013 where he is currently Professor of Violin and Chamber Music.

Professor of Violin at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Danielle Belen is already making a name for herself as a seasoned pedagogue with a strong studio of young artists. Her students have won major prizes in national and international competitions including the Menuhin, Stulberg and Klein competitions, as well as being accepted into major conservatories and universities. Alumni from her studio play in symphonies across the country, including the Colorado, Cincinnati, Detroit and San Francisco Symphonies, the LA Opera and San Francisco Ballet Orchestras, and internationally in Norway and Finland.

Winner of the 2008 Sphinx Competition, Ms. Belen has appeared as a soloist with the Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Nashville and San Francisco Symphonies, the Boston Pops, and the Florida and Cleveland Orchestras. She released her debut Naxos recording of works by living composer Lawrence Dillon in 2009 to much acclaim. Soon after, she commissioned “Multiplicity”, a piece by Dillon for six virtuoso violins which she premiered along with her students.

A graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music and the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, Ms. Belen joined the faculty of the Colburn School in 2008. In addition to maintaining her own violin studio, she was the teaching assistant to renowned pedagogue Robert Lipsett.

As the winner of the 2014 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, Ms. Belen performed for Justice Sonia Sotomayor and her guests at the Supreme Court in Washington DC, where she was awarded a $50,000 career grant. In turn, she used that money towards a matching campaign for her summer program Center Stage Strings, doubling the amount into $100,000 for student scholarships.

Her passion for pedagogy can be seen in her vibrant and unique teaching style, made accessible through a host of videos available to the public through her YouTube Channel and Social Media.

Ms. Belen plays on a violin made in Mantua, Italy by Stefano Scarampella.

Violinist/violist Yura Lee is a multifaceted musician, as a soloist and as a chamber musician, and one of the very few in the world who is equally virtuosic on both violin and viola. She has performed with major orchestras including those of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; she has given recitals in Wigmore Hall London, Musikverein Vienna, Mozarteum Salzburg, Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. She has received numerous prestigious awards including the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Diapason d’Or, and top prize in ARD Musikwett. She won top prizes in major competitions including ARD Musikwettbewerb. She regularly takes part in the festivals of Seattle, Marlboro, Salzburg, Verbier, La Jolla, Caramoor, to name a few. She divides her time between Los Angeles and Copenhagen with her dog, Nugget.

Alan Stepansky is recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile cellists of his generation. After a distinguished orchestral career playing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, serving as Principal Cellist of the Boston Pops, and culminating in a ten-year tenure as Associate Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic, he is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, principal cellist, and recording artist. He is currently Chair of Strings and Professor of Cello at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and cello faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Stepansky has performed as a guest artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, and has appeared in concert with a diverse array of artists including the Takács and American String Quartets. He has recorded a series of chamber music and solo discs for EMI, which were honored by Gramophone Magazine, BBC Magazine, the New York Times, and the British Music Industry Association, and has been engaged as the solo cellist for numerous major motion picture soundtracks. He has also appeared on the albums of many noted recording artists across many genres, including Bruce Springsteen, Natalie Merchant, David Byrne, Audra McDonald, Joss Stone, and Sting, with whom he has also appeared in concert.

Recently, Mr. Stepansky served as the Principal Cellist for six major fund-raising events held in Carnegie Hall, Beethoven’s Ninth for South Asia, Requiem for Darfur, Mahler for the Children of AIDS, Beethoven for the Indus Valley, Shostakovich for the Children of Syria, and the Scheherazade Initiative, which featured an international orchestra drawn from leading symphonic, chamber music, and solo artists from around the world. He has appeared as soloist with many orchestras and frequently as Guest Principal Cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. After studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Stepansky graduated from Harvard University with the Horblit Prize, conferred for his outstanding musical accomplishments.

Mr. Stepansky has been a member of the Music Academy faculty since 2003.

Scott Pingel has served as the principal bass of the San Francisco Symphony since 2004, and appeared numerous times with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at the Music@Menlo, Mostly Mozart, and Music in the Vineyards festivals. Versatile in a variety of styles, Pingel has performed in venues from the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville to jazz clubs such as the Blue Note in New York City and Fasching in Stockholm, and his solo work with the iconic heavy metal band, Metallica, has been seen by millions worldwide and was hailed as “show stopping” by Rolling Stone. He has taught masterclasses throughout North America, Asia, and Europe and was among the first bassists selected to teach for Tonebase, the preeminent online music learning platform. He served as a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and is currently a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA. Former students have won prestigious international solo competitions and gained employment with distinguished symphony orchestras and conservatories around the world.

Marianne Gedigian, former Academy of Distinguished Teachers at University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), professor of flute, and holder of a Sarah and Ernest Butler Professorship, joined the faculty at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in 2023. She was Acting Principal Flute with the Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Boston Pops for a decade prior to her appointment at UT Austin.

She can be heard on dozens of Evening at Pops broadcasts with the Boston Pops with John Williams and Keith Lockhart conducting, soundtracks from Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, and has a brief appearance in the film Blown Away. She recorded as principal flute with the Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Boston Pops Orchestra on several Grammy-nominated recordings and as soloist on the Grammy-nominated CD The Shadow of Sirius with the UT Wind Ensemble. She published an allegory book, Survival of the Flutist, with illustrator Patti Adams and Flutistry Boston.

Oboist Xiomara Mass was appointed to the position of Second Oboe of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2020 by Music Director Stéphane Denève. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ms. Mass began her musical training at the age of four and made her solo debut with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra when she was 13. Two years later Ms. Mass was accepted into the “Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico” where she studied with David Bourns, former Principal Oboe of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and Pedro Díaz, solo English Horn of the Metropolitan Opera. Ms. Mass has also worked with such renowned oboists as Elaine Douvas, Hansjörg Schellenberger, and Scott Hostetler.

Xiomara Mass has been invited to participate in many prestigious music festivals, including the John Mack Oboe Camp, “Tercer Festival de Dobles Cañas” in Panama, The Youth Orchestra of the Americas, Domaine Forget, St. Barth’s Music Festival, The Sunflower Music Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, and The New Hampshire Music Festival. Ms. Mass was selected to participate in the 2011 YouTube Symphony Orchestra during its residency at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, which included a live Internet simulcast to over 30 million viewers worldwide.

In 2014, Xiomara Mass won The Jerome and Elaine Nerenberg Foundation Scholarship award at the Musicians Club of Women Competition in Chicago. Ms. Mass is also the first prizewinner of the Tuesday Musical State Scholarship Competition in Akron, Ohio, and the first Chamber Music Competition at the “Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico” as a member of her woodwind quintet. Most recently, Ms. Mass was a finalist and winner of the audience choice award in the inaugural Virtual Oboe Competition 2020, an entirely digital contest for oboe players formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Mass was the only oboist representing the United States in the finals of this global competition.

Xiomara Mass is a former member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and was a featured soloist with the Civic Orchestra in J.S. Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin. During her years in Chicago Ms. Mass was an active freelancer in the area and often performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Winds as a substitute oboist as well as with many orchestras in the area, among them Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra and Illinois Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Mass also played as a substitute with the San Francisco Symphony and has performed with them as assistant principal.

In addition to working as a performer, Ms. Mass taught as an adjunct professor at the DePaul University School of Music. Currently, she maintains a small private studio.

Xiomara Mass holds a bachelor’s degree in Oboe Performance and an Artist Diploma from Oberlin Conservatory, where she graduated with highest honors under the tutelage of Alex Klein and Robert Walters. After relocating to Chicago, Ms. Mass studied privately with Music Academy faculty artist Eugene Izotov, principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony.

Richie Hawley ranks among the most distinguished clarinetists of his generation. As principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO), he impressed audiences around the world with his virtuosity and the velvety, sonorous tone that has become his trademark. The Cincinnati Enquirer has praised him for the “seamless flowing tone so many clarinetists long for and few can achieve.”

In 2011, Mr. Hawley left the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and moved to Houston, Texas to become the Professor of Clarinet at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Mr. Hawley appears on stages around the world regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. During the summer he is in residence as the clarinet teaching and performing artists at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Highlights of this year’s season include the premiere of Georgina Derbez’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra with the UNAM orchestra of Mexico and the debut duo album with Conor Hanick featuring the music of Higdon, Copland, Tower and Jalbert. Mr. Hawley made his debut at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1999 and toured with the legendary “Musicians from Marlboro” for the 50th anniversary performance at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Hawley has garnered awards as both performer and educator. He won the Coleman-Barstow prize at the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition in 1988 with Trio con Brio, and that same year was one of five musicians to receive the Gold Medal as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts from Ronald Reagan in a ceremony at the White House. He has received the Léni Fé Bland Foundation Career Grant twice, and was awarded the 2009 Glover Award for outstanding teaching at University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

Originally from Los Angeles, Mr. Hawley began his clarinet studies with Yehuda Gilad at the Colburn School of Performing Arts at age 9. He made his orchestral solo debut at age 13 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at age 14 performed as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. While a student of Donald Montanaro at the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Hawley appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

As a D’Addario performing artist, Mr. Hawley performs exclusively on a reeds and mouthpieces that he helped to develop. He is also an artist for Buffet Crampon and performs on the Tosca model of clarinet.

He has been a member of the Music Academy faculty since 2005.

Principal Clarinet of The Florida Orchestra since 2017, Natalie Hoe holds the Bertelstein Family Chair and has already established herself as an accomplished orchestral musician and versatile solo artist.

As an orchestral musician, Ms. Hoe has performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She has also been Guest Principal Clarinet with the Cincinnati and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras.

A passionate educator dedicated to helping her students find their own unique voice, Ms. Hoe maintains her own private studio in St. Petersburg, Florida, and has given masterclasses around the country as well as in Hong Kong. In the Summer of 2025, Ms. Hoe was an Artist Faculty at the Buffet Crampon USA Summer Clarinet Academy. In previous summers, Ms. Hoe was on faculty at the Eastern Music Festival and the Brevard Music Center.

As a soloist, Ms. Hoe has performed Lovreglio’s Fantasia da Concerto su motivi de “La Traviata” di G. Verdi, Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto, Gershwin’s Walking the Dog, Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs, and Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with The Florida Orchestra and Music Director Michael Francis. One of the highlights of her career to date is performing Englishman in New York with Sting at The Florida Orchestra’s 50th Anniversary Gala.

Ms. Hoe was born in the United Kingdom and raised in Hong Kong, where she began her clarinet studies at the age of six under the tutelage of Maria Wong, John Schertle, and Andrew Simon. In 2017, she graduated with a master’s degree from Rice University as a Haylett O’Neill Jr. and Kate Patton O’Neill Endowed Scholarship recipient, where she studied with Richie Hawley. Ms. Hoe completed her bachelor’s degree  at the prestigious Colburn Conservatory of Music with Yehuda Gilad.

A Buffet-Crampon artist, Ms. Hoe performs on the Festival Bb and Tradition A models of Clarinet.

Judith LeClair joined the New York Philharmonic as Principal Bassoon in 1981, at the age of 23. Since then, she has made more than 50 solo appearances with the orchestra, performing with some of the world’s greatest conductors. Before her appointment with the Philharmonic, she was Principal Bassoon of the San Diego Orchestra and Opera. Active as a chamber musician, she has performed with numerous leading artists in festivals throughout the country and has given solo recitals and masterclasses across the world. Judith will be performing the premiere of Kevin Puts’ Concerto for Bassoon, written for her and commissioned by the Philharmonic, in November of 2026. Judith is on the faculty of The Juilliard School, and her students populate major positions in many United States and foreign orchestras. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, pianist Jonathan Feldman.

Michelle Reed Baker was second horn of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1990-2017. Prior, she was a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and a regular substitute with the New York Philharmonic. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston and her master’s degree from The Juilliard School.These days, Michelle is focusing on teaching, doing masterclasses, spending time with family, playing piano at church, and free-lancing. Michelle serves on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music where she is also the Chair of the Brass Department.

She has performed several times with Michael Buble and Sting, recorded and performed with James Taylor and Harry Connick, Jr., and can be heard on the soundtracks for many movies. Her recordings include the Hindemith Sonata for Alto Horn with pianist David Korevaar. Michelle also commissioned and recorded a piece for low horn entitled Imaginings, written by Dorothy Gates.

Jennifer Marotta is a Los Angeles based musician who teaches trumpet at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. As an active freelance musician, she regularly performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Los Angeles Opera. She has also performed with the LA Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony.

Jennifer began her career as a member of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band from 2001 to 2005. She is currently a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival and she performs annually with the Music of the Baroque in Chicago.

Originally from Naperville, Illinois, Jennifer earned her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and her master’s degree from DePaul University, where she studied with Barbara Butler and John Hagstrom.

Marotta was Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Kennesaw State University from 2006 to 2012 and was an artist-in-residence at Emory University from 2006 to 2010. Jennifer, along Thomas Hooten, is the most recent editor for Arban’s Complete Conservatory Method for Trumpet, published by Carl Fischer. Jennifer is a Yamaha Artist.

Kenneth Thompkins is currently the Associate Professor of Trombone at Michigan State University. He was Principal Trombone of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1997 to 2024. Prior to this appointment he held positions in the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Florida Orchestra.

Thompkins enjoys working with young musicians and has performed masterclasses and recitals at many universities including Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and Eastman School of Music. He has also been on faculty at the National Orchestral Institute, National Youth Orchestra, and Taipei Music Festival and Academy. In 2017 Thompkins recorded Sonatas, Songs and Spirituals featuring the music of Alec Wilder, William Grant Still, and Philip Wharton. Sonatas, Songs and Spirituals was the winner of The American Prize in Instrumental Performance. His latest recording, Compelling Portraits, features the compositions of contemporary Black composers. He has performed as a soloist with Chineke! and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Joseph Pereira (1974) enjoys a multi-faceted career as a timpanist/percussionist, composer, conductor, and teacher. His work in all areas has been widely hailed for his creativity and virtuosity, and has been profiled in feature articles in both The New York Times (2006) and The Los Angeles Times in 2012 and 2015. In 2015 Pereira was featured on the PBS series, “Craft in America”.

Pereira has been the Principal Timpanist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2008. As a versatile performer, Pereira is in demand as an orchestral timpanist, studio recording percussionist. He regularly appears as a solo percussionist in the orchestra’s “Green Umbrella” new music series and has also conducted his music and other world premieres on the orchestra’s chamber series. In Los Angeles, he also can be found in the recording studios and can be heard on many major motion pictures. Previously Pereira was a member of the New York Philharmonic from 1997 to 2008, as a timpanist and percussionist. His line of signature timpani mallets by JGPercussion are sold worldwide.

Pereira currently runs the percussion studio at USC Thornton School of Music, and is also on the faculty of the Music Academy, and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo Japan. Pereira was previously on the faculty of The Juilliard School, from 2004-2012.

As a composer, Pereira’s music has been described as “restless yet lucidly textured” (The New York Times), “striking atmospherics of colour” (The Guardian), and “one sonic surprise after another” (The Los Angeles Times). His works have been commissioned and performed worldwide, most notably by the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel, the Singapore Symphony, the New York Philharmonic Chamber Series, the Miro Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, percussionist Colin Currie, Duo Harpverk, French Ensemble TM+, and the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet. In 2013 the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet recorded his piece Repousse’ (2009), which was nominated for three 2013 Grammy Awards. The following year LAPQ recorded Pereira’s Mallet Quartet (2013), and it was rated “Best of 2014 Classical Music” on iTunes. Pereira’s works can be heard on Sono Luminus, Yarlung Records, and New Focus Recordings. His works are published in the US by Bachovich Music and Black Dot Press in London.

Before joining the Seattle Symphony as Principal Percussionist in the fall of 2009, Michael Werner was a percussionist with the Metropolitan Opera for 13 years, and Principal Percussionist for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for two years.

Mr. Werner is currently the Principal Percussionist at the Seattle Symphony, and was also acting Principal for the 2014-2015 season at the LA Philharmonic, including the 2015 Asia Tour. In the spring of 2016 he was invited to perform with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra as a Percussion Teacher and Guest Artist. In 2014, Michael was the featured soloist at The Seattle Symphony Orchestra where he performed F. Gruber’s “Rough Music Concerto”. Michael has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonic, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, The Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Canadian Brass and Empire Brass Ensembles, and at the Santa Barbara International Percussion Festival.

Mr. Werner has been a faculty member at The Mannes School of Music in New York since 2002. He has served as a Clinician and Instructor at the New World Symphony, the University of Toronto, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Percussive Arts Society, Oberlin Percussion Institute, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, The Cleveland Institute of Music, and The New England Conservatory. He also serves as an Artist and Clinician for Pearl Percussion, Zildjian Symbols, and Freer Percussion.

Michael started his secondary studies at the Eastman School of Music, under John Beck. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Richard Wiener. Michael also studied with Tom Freer at Cleveland State University.

An alum of the Music Academy of the West (1990), Mr. Werner has been a faculty member since 2005.

Recognized worldwide as a leading chamber musician and collaborative pianist, Jonathan Feldman has performed on four continents with some of the world’s greatest instrumentalists, including Nathan Milstein, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, James Galway, Sarah Chang, Joshua Bell, and Emmanuel Pahud. He also has performed with the New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensembles and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He was a featured performer in a recent installment of Live from Lincoln Center with Gil Shaham. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he joined the Juilliard faculty in 1989 and chaired the school’s collaborative piano department for 25 years. A member of the collaborative piano faculty at New England Conservatory since 2011, he has given masterclasses throughout the United States and the Far East and has lectured at international festivals and competitions. Mr. Feldman was a guest artist at the Music Academy from 2001-02 and has been a teaching artist since 2003.

Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old. A fierce advocate for the music of today, Hanick has premiered over 200 pieces and collaborated with composers ranging from Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich, to the leading artists of his generation. He has performed with many of America’s preeminent conductors and ensembles and in 2023 premiered Samuel Carl Adams’ No Such Spring with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony. This season, Hanick presents solo and chamber recitals in the US and Europe, including concerts at The Wallis, Hancher Auditorium, Cal Performances, Segerstrom Center, Stanford Live, Guild Hall, Musikverein, and elsewhere. He appears with the Phoenix and Alabama Symphonies in works by Stravinsky, Gershwin, and a new piano concerto by Carlos Izcaray, one of a handful of premieres this year that also includes pieces by Matthew Aucoin, Nico Muhly, Tania León, and Mathew Rosenblum. A committed collaborative player, Hanick joins Julia Bullock, Seth Parker Woods, Timo Andres, the JACK Quartet, and AMOC* (The American Modern Opera Company) in projects ranging from a US tour of HARAWI to performances of Sufjan Stevens’ two piano ballet Reflections. Hanick teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center, Mannes College, Music Academy of the West, and The Juilliard School.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Emmy award-winning and Grammy-nominated conductor, is a master of color, drawing idiomatic interpretations from a diverse and wide range of repertoire in concerts across the globe.

Celebrating 35 years of professional conducting, and with a deep commitment to passing his experience on to the next generation of musicians, he has been appointed Distinguished Resident Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, a position that will start in the 2025-2026 school year. Currently, he is on faculty at Baylor University, where he is the Mary Franks Thompson Director of Orchestral Studies and Music Director of the Baylor Symphony Orchestra through the 2024-2025 school year.

Harth-Bedoya has amassed considerable experience at the helm of orchestras, including tenures as Chief Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and as Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, where he now holds the title of Music Director Laureate. Previously he also has held Music Director positions with the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand and the Eugene Symphony in Oregon, the Lima Philharmonic Orchestra in Peru, and the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall. He also held the Director of Orchestral Studies position at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

Harth-Bedoya guest conducts with orchestras around the world. In the United States, he has conducted the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony, among others. Worldwide he is a frequent guest of the Helsinki Philharmonic, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, National Orchestra of Spain, New Zealand Symphony, and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, and has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Bilbao Symphony and Barcelona Orchestras, among others.

With a passionate devotion to unearthing new South American repertoire, Miguel Harth-Bedoya is the founder and Artistic Director of Caminos del Inka, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching, performing, and preserving the rich musical legacy of South America.