Michelle Baker was second horn at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra from 1990-2017. Prior, Ms. Baker was a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Her new life finds her focusing on teaching and giving masterclasses, freelancing, and spending time with family. Michelle Baker serves on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, Montclair State University, and Mannes College of Music, and appears each summer at Music on the Hill in Rhode Island and at the Round Top Music Festival in Texas.

Ms. Baker 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 The Good Shepherd, True Grit, Failure to Launch, Manchurian Candidate, Hail Caesar!, Moonrise Kingdom, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Zoolander 2.

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.

Marianne Gedigian, former Academy of Distinguished Teachers at 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.

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.

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.

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 has established herself as an accomplished orchestral musician and versatile solo artist.

Ms. Hoe is a regular guest musician with The Cleveland Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, where she was also Guest Principal Clarinet. She has also recently performed with the St. Petersburg Opera and Opera Tampa, as well as the San Antonio Symphony under Music Director Sebastian Lang-Lessing. Ms. Hoe spent the Summer of 2022 performing as Principal Clarinet with the Des Moines Metro Opera. In Summer of 2017, she toured Japan with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra under the direction of Valery Gergiev, Jun Märkl, Heiichiro Ohyama and Daniel Matsukawa. She made her solo debut with The Florida Orchestra in the 2019-20 season when she performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with Music Director Michael Francis. Past noteworthy performances include two appearances with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, a solo recital in Singapore at the 15th Anniversary Gala Dinner of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Singapore Office, and at the Hong Kong Music and Dance Association celebration of the 60th Anniversary of China National Day in Hong Kong.

A passionate educator dedicated to helping her students find their own unique voice, Ms. Hoe is on faculty at the Brevard Music Center and maintains her own private studio in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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, where she studied with Richie Hawley. Prior to that, Ms. Hoe completed her bachelor's degree at the Colburn Conservatory of Music studying with Yehuda Gilad. She is also an alumnus of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, and the Aurora Chamber Music and Masterclass Festival in Trollhättan, Sweden.

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 conductors such as Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Alan Gilbert, Christopher Hogwood, Rafael Kubelik, Erich Leinsdorf, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, André Previn, John Williams, and Andrey Boreyko. Prior positions include Principal Bassoonist with both the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera.

Jennifer Marotta is an adjunct assistant professor of trumpet performance at the USC Thornton School of Music. An active freelance musician based in Los Angeles, she regularly performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, L.A. Master Chorale, and the St. Louis Symphony.

Marotta is currently a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Music of the Baroque in Chicago. She was a member of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band from 2001–2005.

Originally from Naperville, Illinois, she earned her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and her master's degree from DePaul University.

Jennifer Marotta was a visiting trumpet professor at UCLA in 2016, and was assistant professor of trumpet at Kennesaw State University from 2006-2012. She was also a visiting professor at Illinois State University in 2006, and was an artist-in-residence at Emory University from 2006–2010.

Scott Pingel has been the principal bass of the San Francisco Symphony since 2004. He has appeared numerous times with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at the Music@Menlo and Music in the Vineyards festivals. Versatile in a variety of styles, Pingel has performed in jazz clubs from New York to Stockholm, and his solo work with the iconic heavy metal band, Metallica, was seen by millions worldwide and 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 has served as a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and is currently a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His former students have won prestigious international solo competitions and gained employment with major symphony orchestras and conservatories.

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.

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 Orchestra and The Florida Orchestra. He has also performed with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

Thompkins enjoys working with young musicians and has performed masterclasses and recitals at many universities including the Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and the 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 for 2018-2019. His latest recording, Compelling Portraits, features the compositions of contemporary Black composers including James Lee III, Brian Nabors, Kevin Day, Maurice Draughn, and Shawn Okpebholo. He has performed as a soloist with Chineke! and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He can also be heard on recordings with the New World Symphony and the Detroit Symphony.

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.