Avguste Antonov, piano 

Pianist Avguste Antonov leads an active career as soloist and teacher. He is currently Piano Instructor at The Master's Touch School of Music & Performing Arts, LLC in Grapevine, Texas.

Avguste Antonov has presented recitals in Bordeaux (France), Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and has performed extensively with the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble, University of Kansas Symphony, Symphonic Choir and the Texas Christian University Wind Symphony. Performance venues include the Music Education National Convention with the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble and the College Band Directors National Association with the Texas Christian University Wind Symphony. He has been featured soloist with the University of Kansas Symphony, the Kansas City Medical Arts Symphony, the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble and the Hardin-Simmons University Orchestra.

Mr. Antonov is a dedicated performer of 20th and 21st century music and has performed World and US premieres at venues such as the University of Miami, University of Kansas, Youngstown State University and other locations. Over the years, he has worked with composers Carter Pann, Raina Murnak, John Arrigo-Nelson, Matthew Lewis, Till Meyn, Michael Colgrass, Robert Rollin and many others.

The 2010-2011 season will see Mr. Antonov featured in events across Texas, Kansas, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Mr. Antonov is also preparing his debut CD of American Music to be released by Parma Recordings and distributed by Naxos. For more details about this exciting project, please visit his official website at www.avgusteantonov.com.

Born in Bulgaria, Mr. Antonov began music studies at the age of 5. In 1989, after joining his mother and stepfather in France, he studied at the prestigious private school Ecole Normale de Paris (1989-1990) and at the Conservatoire Nationale de Region de Bordeaux (1990-1999). His teachers in France were Alain Motard and Herve N'Kaoua.

Following his stay in Bordeaux, Mr. Antonov moved to the United States where he attended the University of Missouri-Kansas City (1999-2000) studying with Robert Weirich and Stanislav Ioudenitch (2001 co-winner of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition). The following year Avguste joined the University of Kansas (2000-2005) where he studied under Jack Winerock and in May 2005, Avguste obtained the Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Kansas. That same year, Avguste Antonov obtained the United States citizenship.

In 2006, Mr Antonov moved to Texas, and between 2006-2008, he studied at Texas Christian University under the direction of Tamas Ungar. 

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Pia Bose, piano

A two-time recipient of the Florida Department of State Artist Enhancement Grant, sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Division, Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts, American pianist Pia Bose has given solo, concerto, and chamber music performances in the United States, Spain, Austria, the United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland. She has performed at venues including the Palais de l’Athénée (Geneva), The American Church (Paris), Edinburgh Society of Musicians (Scotland), Mozarteum TheaterSaal (Salzburg), Teatro Jovellanos (Gijón), and the Dean Lesher Regional Arts Center (Walnut Creek), and in other cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Maryland, Florida, and Illinois. 

Recent performances include a recital (with live radio broadcast on WFMT radio) during the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts at Preston Bradley Hall in Chicago. Pia Bose has appeared with orchestras in the U.S. and in Europe, including performances with the Oberlin Chamber Players, Spain’s Millennium Orchestra, the Orchestre Tibor Varga, and the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra with conductors John Goodell, Oliver Díaz Suárez, Thüring Bräm and Harvey Benstein. 

Ms. Bose has performed during music festivals and series such as the Gijón International Piano Festival (Spain), “Los Lunes Musicales” series at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Málaga (Spain), Geneva’s Fête de la Musique, the Espace Interculturel series at the Town Hall of Sierre, Switzerland, and the festival Harmoniques “Rencontres Internationales de Lausanne”, where she studied with Paul Badura-Skoda, in masterclasses dedicated to the works of Haydn and Mozart on both original instruments and the modern piano.

She is the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, including a United Arts Professional Development Grant (2007), two Peabody Career Development Grants (2006, 2002), two Florida Artist Enhancement Grants (2006, 2005), a Banff Centre for the Arts Full Scholarship (2005), the Winter Park Musicale Scholarship (1993), and the First United Methodist Church Award (1993). In addition, she was co-winner of the Gijón International Piano Festival Competition (2001) and received an Honorable Mention in the 2005 Bradshaw and Buono International Competition. Early awards include being a finalist in the Young Keyboard Artists’ Association International Competition, and First Prizes in the Beethoven Society Young Pianists Competition, Central Florida Music Teachers Association Piano Competition, Florida State Music Teachers Association Concerto Competition, and Florida Federation of Music Clubs Competition.

Ms. Bose obtained the Diplôme de Soliste at the Conservatoire Supérieur et Académie de Musique Tibor Varga in Sion, Switzerland in 2007. She holds a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Her former teachers include Dominique Weber, Joseph Schwartz, J.Y. Song, Marian Hahn, Ernest Barretta, and Gary Wolf. In addition, she has studied with Boris Bloch at the Universität Mozarteum Sommerakademie (2002) in Austria, and with Julian Martin at the International Keyboard Festival of the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada (2005) and has participated in masterclasses and coachings with distinguished artists such as Robert McDonald, Boris Slutsky, Bruno Canino, Blanca Uribe, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Marc Durand, Jonathan Feldman, Paul Coker, Douglas Humphreys, and Ann Schein, among others. In conjunction with her musical studies, Ms. Bose completed undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, where she also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biopsychology.

Pia Bose has served as Assistant Coordinator and Chamber Music Faculty at the Escuela Internacional de Música ‘Presjovem’ de Lucena in Spain, as adjunct Piano Faculty at the Institut Jaques Dalcroze and the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland, and on the Applied Piano faculty at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and the University of Texas at El Paso. She is currently pursuing doctoral studies as a student of Dr. Andrew Cooperstock at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

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Jennifer Carpenter, recorder

Jennifer Carpenter holds a Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Master of Music degree in musicology with an emphasis in early music performance from the University of North Texas.  As a recorder player, she performs as a soloist and in ensembles, including Trio Giocoso, Denton Bach Players and the Wireless Consort and has been a guest artist with the Dallas Bach Society and Texas Camerata. Jennifer directed the UNT recorder ensembles from 2002-2008 and currently directs the Dallas Recorder Society. She also serves on faculty of the early music workshop, The Texas Toot. Jennifer received a Toulouse Graduate Fellowship to continue her Ph.D. studies in musicology and early music performance at UNT and is now an associate professor of music at Collin County Community College.

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Ruth Chang, violin

Born in 1994, violinist Ruth Chang commenced the violin at the age of four and is currently studying with Jan Sloman. After winning the grand prize in YOGFW Young Artists’ Competition, Ruth made her orchestral debut with the Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth in 2006. Afterwards, Ruth began to avidly compete in local areas winning top prizes in competitions such as the Vernell Gregg Young Artists’ Competition, Dallas Symphonic Festival, and the Juanita Miller Competition. In 2010, she was a finalist in the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition and in the Fort Worth Symphony Concerto Competition. In 2011, she was the grand prize winner of the Hubbard Young Artists’ Solo Competition. Additionally, she was the alternate winner in the semifinals of the MTNA competition and a semifinalist of the ASTA competition. In 2012, Ruth had the honor of receiving the Bayard H. Friedman Award for Outstanding Student in Performing Arts. Ruth performed for renowned violinists and pedagogues such as Miriam Fried, James Ehnes, Sergiu Luca, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Joseph Silverstein, and Tong Wei Dong. In the summer, Ruth regularly attends The Institute for Strings directed by Mr. Sloman and received a merit scholarship to study at the Meadowmount School of Music for three consecutive years. 

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Young-Hyun Cho, piano

Dr. Young-Hyun Cho currently serves as Assistant Professor of Piano at The University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Cho received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music of University of Rochester, a Master’s degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma from Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University, where her major teachers include Nelita True, Boris Slutsky, and Mi Kyung Kim. 

She is a uniquely versatile pianist, appearing frequently as orchestral soloist, solo recitalist, and chamber musician. She is a featured soloist, appearing with such orchestras as the Eastman Symphony Orchestra, the International Chamber Ensemble of Rome, the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) Symphony Orchestra, the Korean Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra, the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, the Euro-Asian Philharmonic Orchestra, Holland Symphony Orchestra, and The University of Texas at Arlington Orchestra. Her performances and interviews have been broadcast nationally in South Korea on KBS-TV and FM radio.

Dr. Cho’s performance credentials have been further enhanced through prize winnings in international and national piano competitions, including the Eastman Concerto Competition, the Harrison Winter Piano Competition, the KBS Music Competition, the Music Association of Korea Competition, the Seoul Arts Center’s Orchestral Festival Soloist Music Competition, and the Joong Ang Times Music Competition. Moreover, she was one of the prizewinners for the 2005 Louisiana International Piano Competition, where she was later invited to return as a featured performer and speaker for their opening ceremonies in 2009. 

As an active chamber musician, Dr. Cho has performed numerous collaborative recitals. Her collaborative repertoire is consistently marked by a demanding repertoire and a diversity of musical styles. Upon joining the Department of Music at UTA, she has performed numerous collaborative recitals and concert series with her colleagues. Previously, she was selected as a member of the Eastman Chamber Music Society. She was active as a graduate assistant in accompanying and was repeatedly nominated for the Excellence in Accompanying Award. Dr. Cho has collaborative coaching experience with various pianists, instrumentalists, and singers, such as Jean Barr (piano), Oleh Krysa, Mikhail Kopleman, and the Ying Quartet (strings).

Dr. Cho is a dedicated educator, having held teaching positions at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and Columbia Union College in Takoma Park, Maryland. She was invited to teach at the Berlin International Music Festival and Academy, Vienna International Piano Academy and the Texas Music Teachers Association. She has also given master classes and recitals at the California State University, Oakland University in Michigan, Levine School of Music in Washington D.C., Louisiana State University, McNeese State University in Louisiana, Henderson State University in Arkansas, Texas State University, West Texas A&M University, and Midwestern State University in Texas. 

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Hyunjung Rachel Chung, piano

Born in South Korea, pianist Hyunjung "Rachel" Chung has actively performed as a recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician in Italy, France, Thailand, Canada, Korea and throughout the U.S. She is a winner of several competitions, including the 27th Artist International New York Debut Audition, Rutgers Concerto Competition, Mannes Piano Concerto Competition and South Orange Orchestra Concerto Competition, as well as a finalist in many international piano competitions. 

After presenting her New York recital debut at the Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in 1996, Chung has appeared in various venues including the Bibloteque Polonaise in Paris, Church of Christ in Thailand, Symphony Space, New York University, Fisk University, University of Montevallo, University of North Texas, University of Central Arkansas, and Oklahoma State University, and invited to perform in the Grumo Festival in Italy, Blue Lake Summer Arts Festival, Hawaii International Conference for Arts and Humanities, National College Music Society Conference in Quebec City, Canada, TCU/ Van Cliburn Teacher's Institute, Arkansas Music Teachers' Association (ASMTA), and Arkansas Summer Music Series to name a few. She has collaborated with many established instrumentalists, and served as an accompanist and orchestra pianist for the Delaware Valley Opera Company and Hudson Opera Theater in New York. As an active music educator, she has adjudicated numerous competitions including 2008 World Pianovision Competition in Dallas, ACT-SO, UCA Annual Piano Competition, MTA/CA Sonata/Sonatine Festival, and National Federation of Music Club Audition. 

From 2002 to 2006 she taught piano, aural skills, and music theory at Philander Smith College and currently she is Assistant Professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA since 2006. Chung holds her Bachelor of Arts degree in Piano Performance from Seoul National University, her Master of Music degree and Professional Study Diploma from the Mannes College of Music in New York, and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from Rutgers - the State University of New Jersey. 

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Dallas Camerata Wind Quintet

The Dallas Camerata Woodwind Quintet is made up of professional and semi-professional musicians and includes current and retired teachers, band directors and private instrumental instructors who belong to and perform in various musical organizations throughout the DFW area.

Members of Dallas Camerata include:

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Beth Elsner, violin

Elizabeth Elsner is currently Concertmaster of the Abilene Philharmonic. Since her move to the Dallas area, she has performed with the Fort Worth Symphony, the East Texas Symphony, the Arkansas Symphony and other various area orchestras. Previously Elizabeth held the position of Concertmaster of the Midland/Odessa Symphony and was a member of the Permian Basin String Quartet. Elizabeth received her Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she studied with Linda Cerone, Stephen Majeske and Stephen Rose, as well as chamber music studies with Peter Salaff and the Cavani Quartet. She has been a member of the National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, and Cleveland Pops Orchestra, as well as Assistant Concertmaster of the Peoria Symphony. 

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Danielle Harmon, harp

Danielle began studying the harp at 5 years old, starting out on lever harp and later moving to pedal harp when she was 10. She attended the University of North Texas for her B.M. and M.M., majoring in performance. Danielle participated in several UNT music ensembles such as the Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, Symphonic Band, Women’s Chorus, early music, and the harp ensemble. Most of the performances were done on pedal harp, but the early music performances required the use of period instruments such as the double or triple strung harp. Danielle used her Welsh triple strung harp during the 2007 run of Cavalli’s L’Egisto under the direction of Lyle Nordstrom. During the 2009-2010 school year, Danielle was one of the winners of the UNT Concerto Competition, performing Maurice Ravel’s Introduction et allegro.

She joined the Lone Star Wind Orchestra during their inaugural year in 2006. The LSWO performs five concerts a season in the Dallas area, as well as recording new original wind band works. In 2008 LSWO released American Tapestry on the Naxos label. The group has also performed at the Texas Bandmasters Association convention, and will travel this summer to the Arkansas Bandmasters Association convention.

Danielle has performed with the Flower Mound Symphony, Brazosport Symphony (in Lake Jackson, TX), Pine Bluff Symphony in Arkansas, San Angelo Symphony. She has even performed at the Scarborough Renaissance Festival in May 2007. In 2011 she was awarded the position of principal harp for the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra.

Danielle enjoys writing for the harp and has some works published through Afghan Press out of Houston. Her original harp trio piece, Premonition, was featured during the 2008 Midwest Harp Festival in Tulsa and the 2011 American Harp Society Summer Institute in Denton.

She has studied with Becky Baxter-Robbins, Ellen Ritscher-Sackett, Gaye LeBlanc, and Dr. Jaymee Haefner, and has participated in masterclasses led by Ellie Choate, Yumiko Endo Schlaffer, Elizabeth Richter, and Gail Barber.

Whenever Danielle isn’t traveling across Texas for performances, she attends Clear Lake Presbyterian Church in Houston and sings in the chancel choir and Saturday Night Worship praise band.

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Szu-Ying Huang, piano

Szu-Ying Huang is a native of Kaohsiung,Taiwan,where she began studying piano at the age of five. After graduation from a High School for young musicians, she entered the National Kaohsiung Normal University in Taiwan and received her Bachelor of Music degree in 2009

Before coming to the United States, Huang won several piano competitions in Taiwan, such as First Prize in the university’s music competition, Second Prize in the Kaohsiung City Music Competition of Piano and the Yamaha Music Competition of Piano, and Third Prize in the Kawai Music Competition of Piano.   In 2008 she attended the THU International Music Festival in Taiwan, and she also participated in the Mimir Chamber Music Festival in Texas in 2010.

She also has given many performances in Taiwan, China and the United States including recitals for clarinetists Anthony McGill and Steven Barta’s studios, flutists Marina Piccinini and  Elizabeth McNutt’s studios, Oboist Jane Marvin’s studio, bassoonist Phillip Kolker’s studio, violists Victoria Chiang and Susan Dubois’s studios, saxophonist Eric Nestler’s studio, vocalists Linda DiFiore, Stephen Austin, Jennifer Lane, David Sundquist, Stephen Morscheck, Marianna Busching, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, and Carol Cavey-Miles's studios, the Peabody Leadership Recognition Luncheon concert and Peabody Spotlight concert in Turner Auditorium on the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore campus.

She has performed in chamber and piano master classes with Professor Phillip Moll, Natalya Antonova, Max Levinson, Barry Snyder, Alessio Bax, Lucille Chung, John Novacek, José Feghali, Curt Thompson, Nathan Cole, Stephen Rose, Erin Keefe, Kirsten Docter, Che-Yen Brian Chen, Brant Taylor, and Karen Basrak, and Dr. Lei Weng.

She was a school accompanist at Peabody Conservatory where she studied in the master’s degree program in piano with Marian Hahn, and she was also the member of Bruch Trio where she studied with Peabody Conservatory’s chamber director, Michael Kannen.  At present she is a Doctoral student in piano performance at the University of North Texas studying with Gustavo Romero.

Huang focuses on playing chamber music and expanding both her vocal and instrumental repertoire. She wants to become a professional collaborative pianist who can play her loved instrument with her musician friends. 

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Tami Lee Hughes, violin

The passion and expressive qualities of violinist Tami Lee Hughes are marked by her success as a premier artist. As soloist, she has appeared with a number of symphony orchestras across the United States, including the National, Monroe, Mississippi, and Pontiac-Oakland Symphony Orchestras among others. She has extensively appeared as recitalist in universities and concert venues in the United States, Costa Rica, Bermuda, Austria and Russia and has performed as solo or chamber artist in the Ann Arbor Chamber Fest, Natchez Festival of Music, Silver Anniversary Celebration of the New Arts Cultural Society, and a tribute concert to composer Judith Zaimont, broadcast on National Public Radio. Other notable appointments include appearances with the Rocky Mountain Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival Opera Orchestra, Emerald Sinfonietta, Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, and Pro Consorde Chamber Consort.

In August of 2011, Albany Records released Hughes' debut solo album Legacy: Violin Music of African-American Composers. The recording features music for violin and piano by Francis Johnson, George Morrison, David Baker, Ozie Cargile and Chad "Sir Wick" Hughes. Her performance of Ballade for Violin and Piano appears on Vocalise, a compact disc of music by composer Brian Nelson released in 2010. As chamber musician, Hughes performs on Music for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, a Profil recording featuring performances by Ksenia Nosikova of works by Liszt, Mendelssohn, and Clementi.

An artist of versatility, Hughes has numerous performance credits in popular music and film. She performs as violinist for the film music of The Only Good Indian, a 2009 Sundance Film Festival motion picture. She also performed in orchestras for national productions of Annie and Les Misérables and has recorded as studio violinist for Chad "Sir Wick" Hughes and Grammy award-winning artists Aretha Franklin, Fred Hammond and Donnie McClurkin. She has appeared in live concert with Smokey Robinson.

A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Hughes received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Minnesota, and Master's and Doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan. Teachers include Nancy Langham, Jana Burton, Sally O'Reilly, Camilla Wicks, and Paul Kantor.  

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Claudia Jameson, soprano

Claudia Navarro Jameson, a member of Mu Phi Epsilon, is a native of San Antonio. She has sung as a soloist in many churches in the Dallas area and most recently was a soloist in the Mozart's Requiem performed at Canton Creek Presbyterian Church. Claudia received a Bachelor of Music degree from Trinity University where she studied voice with Rosalind Phillips. She toured with the Augusta Opera Co. and performed many roles in both musical theatre and opera including Despina in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutti with Arlington Opera and recently sung the Bachianas Brazilieras No. 5 with Celissima at the Irving Symphony Hall. She lives in DeSoto with her two children and is a 2nd grade bi-lingual teacher with the Grand Prairie ISD. 

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Miyoun Jang, piano

Miyoun Jang began studying the piano at the age of five in Korea. She was the Grand Prize Winner at the Korean Youth Piano Competition and won the prizes at the Chosun Daily Newspaper, Korean Daily Newspaper, and Teenager Piano Competitions in Korea. Also, she participated the series of Young Pianist Concerts. She attended Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School. Her parents moved their family from Korea to Dallas in the United States in 2001. She has overcome language and cultural differences to excel in music competitions. She won the First Place at the Dallas Music Teachers Association Competition (2002) and was a Grand Prize Winner at the Lewisville Lake Symphony Young Artist Competition (2002) and the Collin County Young Artist Competition (2003). She played as a soloist with Lewisville Lake Symphony and the Plano Symphony Orchestra. She participated in Master Class Series at the 2002 International Piano Festival at the University of Houston. 

She received her Bachelor's and Master's of Music degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She has performed in Jordan Hall for Piano festivals, at the New England Conservatory Chamber Gala Concert, and at the Commencement Concert. Also, she premiered East Orange by Anthony Coleman at one of their piano festivals. She has also performed in other venues in the USA, South Korea, France, Italy and Spain. 

Recently, she earned the Artist Certificate at Southern Methodist University, receiving the Paul Vellucci Piano Award. She has participated in Master classes of world renowned pianists such as Peter Serkin, Manheim Pressler, Joaquin Achucarro, Anne Queffelec, Anton Nel, and Wha Kyung Byun. 

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Kristie Janczyk, piano

Known for passionate performances with impeccable acuity for color, textural balance and keen attention to detail, Kristie Janczyk is one of today’s young prolific American pianists. Playing since the age of three, Ms. Janczyk is sought after around the world as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist. She is consistently praised for her inspiration and flair by communicating the energy and musical impulses in the pieces, as well as for presenting programs full of confidence and passion that underscore her love for the piano. 

A prizewinner of major competitions throughout the world, Ms. Janczyk made her debut at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in 2009 as being named a first prizewinner in the American Protégé International Competition. She was recently awarded 2nd prize in the American Protégé International Competition and will return to perform in Weill Recital Hall in November of 2011. Other notable prizes include two first prizes at the 2009 USOMC International Competition, first place at the Petroff Piano Competition, and first place in the Mid-Texas Symphony Young Artist Competition, where she performed Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Mid-Texas Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Mairs. Additional awards include placing in the top three finalists for the Contemporary Award at the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition in New York City, second prize at the Aloha International Piano Competition, third and fourth prizes at the Los Angeles Liszt Competition, and semi-finalist in the Vladimir Viardo International Piano Competition. Ms. Janczyk was also awarded honorable mention at the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation Competition, Bradshaw and Buono Competition and the Janice K. Hodges Contemporary Piano Competition. 

As a soloist, Ms. Janczyk has appeared with the Viva Vivaldi Festival Orchestra in Mexico City under the direction of Michael Meissner. Performances during this festival included a solo Bach recital at the Instituto Italiano de Cultura and eight concerts with the Meadows Trio. She performed for Prince Edward of England, as well as for the President of Latvia, the latter of which she performed the Bach d minor concerto in Wagner Hall with the Riga Chamber Orchestra in Riga, Latvia. She was also selected to perform in the Rising Stars concert held at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, ON as part of the Toronto Summer Music Festival. In addition, Ms. Janczyk has performed with Lone Star Wind Orchestra, Garland Symphony, Las Colinas Symphony, Arlington Symphony, New Conservatory of Dallas, the Dallas Wind Symphony and Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado under the direction of Arkady Fomin, and toured Germany, Poland and Czech Republic with the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra. 

In April of 2011, she made her debut with the Mesquite Symphony (TX) under the direction of Roger Gilliam performing Gershwin’s Concerto in F. In May 2013, Ms. Janczyk will return to perform Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 with Mesquite Symphony. Ms. Janczyk has participated in several renowned festivals including the Toronto Summer Music Festival & Academy, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City, Aloha International Piano Festival, Chetham International Summer Festival in Manchester, UK, Bosendorfer International Piano Academy in Vienna, Austria, and the Beverly Hills International Music Festival in Los Angeles, CA. She is currently pursuing the DMA degree at Arizona State University in Collaborative Piano. Kristie is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a Master’s and Bachelor of Music Degree in piano performance both under the direction of Alfred Mouledous. 

Check out www.kristiejanczyk.com for more information. 

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Christine Bethanne Johnson, piano

Born in Charleston, South Carolina and raised in Niceville, Florida, Christine Bethanne Johnson is a favorite of audiences for her passionate and exciting interpretations at the piano and her small-town charm in person. Ms. Johnson has performed internationally, in venues such as the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Château de Cheneau in Brussels, Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna, and the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris.

Known for her fluid interpretations and rich sound quality, Ms. Johnson is a bold performer and has been from the time she gave her orchestral début at age eleven as soloist for the Mozart C minor piano concerto. In the following years, she has given numerous solo and concerti performances, including a performance of Rachmaninoff's 1st Piano Concerto with the Berlin RIAS Jugend Orchester. Additionally, she had a performance featured on NPR affiliates in Texas, and she performed a private concert for the U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins.

Throughout her performing career, Ms. Johnson has received many prizes and awards, including Grand Prix at the Catania International Rachmaninoff Festival and Competition in Sicily. She also won the Best Solo Performance Award at the Corpus Christi Competition and the Judges Special Recognition Award at the Wideman Piano Competition. Other competition successes include first prize in the Baylor Concerto and the Northwest Florida Concerto Competitions, as well as receiving prizes at the Aaron Richmond and Kingsville International Scionti Solo Piano Competitions, among many others. 

Ms. Johnson has trained in the U.S. under top teachers such as Krassimira Jordan, Victor Rosenbaum, Robert Roux, and Boaz Sharon. In the course of her training, she received a Van Cliburn Scholarship for study at Baylor University and earned her Master of Music degree from Boston University. Ms. Johnson also spent a year of post-graduate study as one of few selected for the "International Certificate for Piano Artists Program" in Brussels and Paris. During that time, she studied with renowned conductor/pianist Phillipe Entremont as well as Nelson Delle-Vigne Fabbri and Juilliard's Jerome Lowenthal. In 2006, she was awarded the "International Certificate for Piano Artists" performance diploma.

A resident of Frisco with her husband and two dogs, Ms. Johnson manages her performance career and teaches privately. 

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Kithara Duo

Kithara Duo was formed in 2002 and consists of Fernand Vera and Olga Amelkina-Vera, guitars. They have been invited to perform as guest artists by numerous Texas organizations and festivals, most notably Foundation of Modern Music (Houston), Col Canto (Houston), Voces Intimae (Dallas), “Classical Minds" Guitar Festival at the University of Houston Moores School of Music, Fort Worth Guitar Guild Music Festival, Mesquite Guitar Festival, and live on "The Front Row," a program on Houston's classical radio station KUHF 88.7. Kithara Duo are the creators and directors of the annual Guitar Orchestra Workshop in the North Texas area. They currently live in Denton, Texas. 

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Cecile Lagarenne, oboe 

Cecile Lagarenne is the adjunct instructor of oboe at TAMU-Commerce and also maintains a private studio in Richardson. As an active free-lance oboist in the Metroplex, Ms. Lagarenne has performed with the Dallas Opera, Dallas Chamber Orchestra and Ft. Worth Symphony as well as in other groups and venues throughout the area. She is a regular member of the Wichita Falls and Lewisville Lake Symphonies. 

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Isabella (Bella) Markham, viola

Isabella, age 16, began her musical studies with Nicolette Solomon at the age of five at The Suzuki Music Institute of Dallas where she has been an active participant in chamber music, group ensembles, and solo performance. She has contributed to many outreach performances and fundraisers throughout the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Isabella has served as principal violist of The New Conservatory of Dallas and has performed since the age of nine, in the annual Symphony of Toys at The Meyerson Symphony Center in conjunction with Channel 8.

In May of 2008 Isabella was selected to attend The Suzuki Association of Americas Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she performed in a master class with Helen Callus. She was also invited to participate in the 2008 Viola Celebration at The University of Tennessee at Knoxville where she performed in a master class with Jeffrey Irvine. Other viola master class teachers have included: Susan Dubois, David Holland, Catherine Forbes, Ann Montzka-Smelser, Valeri Avramenko, Kathy Almquist and Rossitza Goza. In March of 2009 Isabella was invited to attend Le Ecole de Musique Suzuki under the direction of Christophe Bossuat in Lyon, France. American students performed alongside French students marking a thirty year celebration of Suzuki at the Lyon City Hall in Lyon, France.

Isabella has been a recipient of many prizes in various national competitions. These include 2nd place in the 2006 Sunray North Texas Youth Music Competition, 3rd prizes in the Collin County Young Artist Competition 2009, 2010 and the Dallas Symphonic Music Festival in 2009.

In the summer of 2009 Isabella attended the prestigious Perlman Music Program in Shelter Island, New York where she studied with Heidi Castleman of the Juilliard School of Music. She attended The Winter Residency of the Perlman Music Program in Sarasota, Florida where she again studied with Heidi Castleman in 2009 and 2010. In the summer of 2010 Perlman Music Program she studied with Misha Amory and Jutta Puchhammer-Sedillot, and the summer of 2011 with Becca Albers and once again Jutta Puchhammer-Sedillot.

In 2009 Isabella was the recipient of the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and as a result performed on the acclaimed “From The Top” with host Christopher O’Riley at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Texas.

Isabella has performed at The Basically Beethoven Festival, pre-concert performances at The Meyerson Symphony Center, Caruth Auditorium SMU and guest performances for the Wagner Society of Dallas. Isabella’s most recent performance schedule includes concerts with Ensemble 75 at Steinway Hall. An active participant in chamber ensembles, Isabella and three fellow musicians formed the Emanon Quartet, performance opportunities have included Caruth Auditorium and The Asian American Performing Arts Association of Texas Spring Concert 2011. The Emanon Quartet was a Grand Prize winner of the 2011 INPASS Music Festival, and selected to perform in May 2011 at The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts.

Born in Dallas, Texas, Isabella Markham is currently an 11th grader at J.J. Pearce High School where her favorite subjects are French and Psychology. Future plans include studying viola performance. She is enthusiastic and dedicated to pursuing a career as a professional violist. 

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Eldred Marshall, piano

Eldred Marshall began his piano studies at six, and began playing in public at seven. 

His prodigious and inquisitive mind allowed him to master large swaths of the piano repertoire quickly as well as consistently win top prizes at the competitions he entered as a child. By 16, he debuted with orchestra, playing Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto. Before entering into Yale University, where he graduated with honors with a B.A. in Political Science, he had already played all over the United States.

The critically acclaimed artist has performed internationally: Spain, Italy, the Republic of San Marino, Belgium, Romania, and the Ukraine. He has performed the entire cycle of 32 Piano Sonatas of Beethoven in public, from memory, as a concentrated series, twice: once in Portland in 2007 and in San Francisco in 2008. He followed that project with a full West Coast (US) tour of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 2008 and 2009. He has appeared with the Victor Valley Symphony Orchestra and the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra. In his appearance with the San Bernardino Symphony, in which he played Mozart’s youthful Piano Concerto no. 9 in E-flat, K. 271, the San Bernardino Sun hailed his “dazzling technique” and his “clean, tidy approach.” 

In 2010, Marshall, who studied conducting as a child, added orchestral conducting to his active performing itinerary. He recently performed two Mozart piano concerti with members of the Southern Methodist University’s Meadows Symphony Orchestra and led them in several Bach Cantatas. Moreover, he made his debut as pianist and conductor with the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra (Kiev) in 2010, and returned to Kiev as pianist/conductor in March 2011. In July 2011, he made a well-received debut appearance as pianist and guest conductor with the Filharmonica Oltenia of Craiova (Romania) in an all-Mozart program, and is to return there in 2012. He is to conduct the Pleven Philarmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria) in January 2012, and lead several other orchestral concerts throughout 2012.

As organist, Marshall has performed in recital as well. He was selected to open SMU’s once-in-a-decade Accreditation Recital, where he played SMU’s famed Opus 101 Fisk organ. He was recently featured in joint recital by the American Guild of Organists – Dallas Chapter as a “2011 Rising Star.” In his short time of organ study, he has received two SMU/Meadows academic honors for his organ work: the Roy and Sue Johnson Award in Organ Performance (2010) and the Dora Poteet Award for Excellence in Organ Performance (2011). He was inducted into the National Music Honor Society Pi Kappa Lambda. (He is also a member of the National Political Science Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha).

Marshall obtained his Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in May 2011. In the program, he studied with Dr. Carol Leone. He is currently working towards his Master of Music degree in Organ Performance as a student of Dr. Larry Palmer. He also studies orchestral conducting with Dr. Paul Phillips.

Marshall is the organist/music director of Dallas New Life Seventh Day Adventist Church, and has served as organist at First United Methodist churches in Trophy Club, Plano and Cedar Hill (TX). Among the artists and teachers he has worked with are Elsie Ordoño, Brigitta Steidl, Elizabeth Parisot, Daniel Pollack, Alessio Bax, and fortepianist John Khouri. He has performed in the master-classes of Anton Nel, Joaquin Achucarro, Domenico Codispotti, and the Ysäye String Quartet. Among the conductors with whom Marshall has collaborated as pianist are Carlo Ponti, Jr. and K.C. Manji. He maintains a growing studio of piano students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. 

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Mark Miller, violin

Presently concertmaster of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, violinist Mark Miller performs with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Opera Orchestra and other area ensembles and has appeared as soloist with the East Texas Symphony. He is President and a founding performer of Mount Vernon Music Association, a non-profit organization devoted to bringing outstanding performances of live music to communities in the northeast Texas region. 

Mark also directs the chamber series “The Color of Sound” at Texas A&M University—Commerce, where for eleven years he taught and performed as an Artist-in-Residence together with his wife, violist Ute Miller, and the ensemble Duo Renard. Following studies at Purchase College, NY, Indiana University – Bloomington and Boston University, he studied in Germany with Jürgen Kussmaul. He was assistant concertmaster in the Robert Schumann Chamber Orchestra of Düsseldorf, Germany and a member of the Beethoven Orchester Bonn.

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Ute Miller, viola

Ute Miller is principal violist of the East Texas Symphony, and performs with the Dallas Symphony and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras and has appeared as a soloist with the East Texas Symphony Orchestra. A founder and the Treasurer of Mount Vernon Music Association, Ute performs with her husband Mark in the violin-viola ensemble Duo Renard, which was brought to Texas with a National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residencies chamber music grant. She also produces the Color of Sound series at Texas A&M Commerce, where she was Artist-in-Residence. Ute’s musical studies include the prestigious Konzertexamen diploma from the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, and a year at Boston University as a student of Raphael Hillyer. In addition to playing with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, she served for seven years as assistant principal violist of the Gürzenich Orchester/Cologne Philharmonic, and for eight years as principal violist of the Dallas Opera Orchestra. She maintains a private studio in Dallas.

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Mount Vernon Music

Mount Vernon Music Association is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization whose mission is to provide outstanding performances of live music to communities primarily in northeast Texas. To fulfill this mission they offer concerts of traditional chamber music, jazz and other styles as well as educational and family concerts, programs for nursing homes, and interaction of performing and the visual arts. http://www.mountvernonmusic.org/home.html

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Antonio Pastor, piano

Born in Málaga, Spain, pianist Antonio Pastor began his musical studies with Alfredo Gil at the Conservatorio Superior de Música (Málaga), where he obtained the diploma ‘Professor of Piano’. He completed further studies with Fernando Puchol at the Real Conservatorio de Música de Madrid, where he received the highest prize awarded in 2000 (“Mencion Honorifica Final de Carrera”). In 2005, he obtained the Diplôme d’Enseignement with the ‘Mention Très Bien avec Distinction’ and the Prix François Dumont at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève (Switzerland), as a student of Sébastien Risler. He recently completed the ‘Diplôme de Soliste avec Distinction’ at the Conservatoire Supérieur et Académie de Musique Tibor Varga under the guidance of Dominique Weber. 

Mr. Pastor has participated in music festivals such as the Gijón International Piano Festival in Spain in masterclasses with Boris Slutsky and Marc Durand. In the summer of 2005, he attended the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada on a full scholarship, in the class of Julian Martin. In addition, he has performed in masterclasses of Ana Guijarro, Alexei Nasedkin, Bruno Canino, and John O’Connor. 

He has offered solo recitals in various locations in Spain, including: Auditiorio de las Rozas “Joaquín Rodrigo” (Madrid), Centro Cultural Provincial de Málaga, Teatro Municipal “Miguel de Cervantes” (Malaga), Universidad Politécnica de Gandía (Valencia). Other recital appearances include the series “II Semana de la Música de Ronda” (Málaga) and “Jóvenes Solistas Internacionales” (Gijón). In collaboration with the Orquesta Académica de Madrid, he performed at the Circulo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, in a concert organized by the Department of Cultural Affairs of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. In Switzerland, he has performed at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, the Chapelle of Sion and a recital hosted by the Société Frederic Chopin in Geneva. In 2008, he presented recitals in Pianists of the World Series at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London and in The American Church in Paris. He also appeared as soloist with the Orchestre Tibor Varga and with the Symphony University Orchestra under the direction of maestro Claudio Vandelli and Gary Lewis respectively. Recently he performed a solo recital broadcast live on WFMT radio from Preston Bradley Hall in Chicago, as part of the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts Series. 

As a recipient of the First Prize in the competition ‘Muestra de Jóvenes Interpretes Ciudad de Málaga’ (Spain 2000), he was given the opportunity to record a CD in cooperation with the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional awards include an Honorable Mention in the 2005 Bradshaw and Buono International Competition, and the 2009 Honors Concerto Competition at CU. He has received numerous scholarships from organizations such as the Minister of Culture of Spain, AIE, Consejeria de Educacion de la Comunidad de Madrid, the Banff Centre for the Arts and The N. and T. Anderson Scholarship from the University of Colorado at Boulder during his doctoral studies with Dr. Andrew Cooperstock. 

He has served as Assistant Coordinator and Chamber Music Faculty at the Escuela de Verano para Jóvenes músicos “Ciudad de Lucena” in Córdoba, Spain and is on the piano faculty of the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève in Switzerland. 

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Debbie Ragsdale, flute

Debbie Ragsdale is principal flutist of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra and past president of the Texas Flute Society. She recently completed the requirements for a Master's degree in flute performance at SMU, where she studied with Jean Larson. She did her undergraduate work at the University of North Texas with George Morey and Myrna Brown, her mother. She maintains a private flute studio and teaches at Collin County Community College.

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Rio Brazos Recorder Ensemble

The members of the Rio Brazos Ensemble first played together when Alice Derbyshire arranged for ONI, a mandolin orchestra from the Netherlands, to do a series of concerts in Texas in the spring of 2004. For one of the songs on their program ONI needed three recorder players. Peggy, Alice and Karen discovered then that they played well together. 

In 2005, they were invited to play a series of concerts with ONI in the Netherlands during June, 2006. It was while they were preparing for their trip to the Netherlands that they decided that they would like to continue playing together after the trip as the Rio Brazos Ensemble. 

Karen Ferrer was born in Portland, Oregon but now lives in Dallas, Texas. She began piano lessons when she was seven and continued them for several years, until she was seventeen. She also played the flute in High School band. After High School, she got married and music took a back seat to family life. She started on the recorder in 1997, when her son saw a recorder in a mail-order catalogue and wanted one. She ordered one for herself and one for him. He soon got bored with it but Karen kept playing. She took lessons from Peggy Turner and has also participated in recorder workshops. She also arranges music for beginning recorder consort and for recorder trio. She is a homemaker with two sons. 

Alice Derbyshire is a native of Fort Worth, Texas. With a music background in piano and viola, Alice began playing recorder at age 25. In 1979, she joined the Dallas-based medieval and renaissance music band, Earthly Pleasures, which performed at festivals and in concert for 15 years. She also studied voice at Texas Woman's University in Denton, and has sung with the Denton Bach Society for several years. 

Alice is currently Board President of the Texas Toot, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of medieval, renaissance, and baroque music, performed on period instruments. She is co-founder and owner of DFW Biodiesel, Inc., and resides in Fort Worth.

Peggy Turner grew up in Illinois and Wisconsin and received a BA-Music Degree from Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and an Education Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She and her husband moved to Texas in 1981 and raised their family there. Peggy has been performing in various early music ensembles since 1970. In 1978 she became interested in Celtic music and studied Celtic Flute with Noel Rice in Chicago. She performed with two separate Celtic bands before she and her husband helped form the quartet they perform with now, Threadneedle Street, in 1992. She and her husband created and performed educational music programs for children all over the United States until 2001, when she took a full time job as a music teacher. She has continued to perform through the years both as a member of her Celtic Band and as a free-lance musician. After having known Alice Derbyshire and Karen Ferrer for several years through shared interest in the recorder, Peggy was delighted to have the opportunity to form an ensemble with them and make the association into a performing group. Peggy enjoys teaching and performing music and above all, loves to share her music with others. 

Jennifer Carpenter holds a Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Masters degree in musicology with an emphasis in early music performance from the University of North Texas. As a recorder player, she performs as a soloist and in ensembles, including the Wireless Consort, Bach Chamber Players, the UNT Baroque Orchestra and has been a guest artist with the Denton Bach Society and Texas Camerata. Jennifer directed the UNT recorder ensembles from 2002-2008. She also serves on faculty of several early music workshops in TX and CA. Jennifer received a Toulouse Graduate Fellowship to complete her Ph.D. studies in musicology and early music performance at UNT where she currently works as a Teaching Fellow.

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Evan Ritter, piano

Evan Ritter, fifteen years old, has studied the piano for seven years and is a student of Dr. Bret Serrin at the Suzuki Institute of Dallas. In 2007, he was one of the Grand Prize Winners at the Collin County Young Artists' Competition and performed with the Plano Symphony in March 2007 at the Eisemann Center. He has also won First Place at the SunRay North Texas Youth Music Competition, the DMTA piano competition, the WRR Young Artist Piano Competition, as well as the junior division of the Lewisville Lake Symphony’s Young Artists’ Competition.

Notable performances include Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with the Plano Symphony Orchestra in February and March 2008, as well as a solo recital at Temple Emanu-El. In June 2009, Evan participated in the Texas Conservatory of Young Artists where he performed Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto in G Minor with the Plano Symphony. Later that year, he received First Place and Best Polonaise at the Sixth International Chopin Youth Piano Competition. 

Evan actively contributes to fundraisers and community concerts with the ProMusica Organization and the Wagner Society of Dallas. Recently, Evan received the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists Award on the radio program, “From the Top”, which was broadcasted nationwide on PBS the week of March 7, 2011. Evan was also chosen as a Jack Kent Cooke Young Scholar, a four year academic scholarship program. Evan recently attended the International Institute for Young Musicians at Kansas University where he studied with Dr. Jack Winerock.   

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Gustavo Romero, piano

Laura Salfen, flute

Flutist Laura Salfen is an active performer and teacher in the San Antonio area. Originally from Gahanna, Ohio, Laura holds a Bachelor of Music degree in flute performance from the Ohio State University and a Master of Music degree in flute performance from the University of North Texas. Her principal teachers include Dr. Mary Karen Clardy, Katherine Borst Jones, and Dr. Ann Stimson, and she has also studied (in lessons and masterclasses) with Dr. Elizabeth McNutt, Federica Lotti, Chris Norman, Jonathan Snowden, Dejan Gavric, Jim Walker, and Patti Adams. 

In 2005, Laura won the Flute Society of Kentucky Collegiate Artist Competition, and the following year went on to win the Ohio State University Student Concerto Competition. She has served as an officer in the Central Ohio Flute Association and currently serves as Clinicians Coordinator for the Texas Flute Society Annual Flute Festival. 

Laura is an enthusiastic supporter of twentieth- and twenty-first-century music and enjoys discovering new works and new composers. During her time at the University of North Texas, she participated in the Nova contemporary music ensemble, performed various works by UNT student and guest artist composers (including Sarah Summar, Christopher Hoyt, Augusta Read Thomas, Dexter Morrill, and David Bithell), and collaborated with visiting Italian pianist Agnese Toniutti to perform Bruno Maderna’s Honeyrêves. Upcoming projects include a recital collaboration in March 2012 in San Antonio with pianist Zachary Ridgway, performing works for flute and piano by Dr. Kevin Salfen (University of the Incarnate Word) and Dr. Brian Bondari (Trinity University). 

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Laurie Shulman, piano

Laurie Shulman is well known to classical music audiences as program annotator for orchestras, chamber music organizations, recitals, and festivals throughout the United States. She currently writes locally for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, the new music ensemble Voices of Change, and the Richardson Symphony. Her national clients include the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Charlottesville Symphony. Laurie has also furnished CD liner notes for more than a dozen classical record companies. 

A native of New York, Laurie comes from a family of professional musicians. Her father, the cellist and composer Alan Shulman, was a charter member of the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini. Her mother, Sophie Bostelmann Shulman, was a pianist and music educator. Both her brothers are musicians in New York City. Laurie earned a B.A. in European history from Syracuse University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in historical musicology from Cornell University. She is an active amateur pianist who studied with Richard Contiguglia, Gerard Hengeveld, Edith Fischer and Malcolm Bilson. Since her move to Texas in 1985, she has been increasingly involved in our cultural community.
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Her articles have been published in D Magazine, The Dallas Observer, The Dallas Morning News, Chamber Music Magazine, Tempo, and Stagebill. She was a contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), and The New Grove II, published earlier this year. An authority on new music, she has worked extensively with living composers. Shulman’s first book, The Meyerson Symphony Center: Building a Dream, was published in 2000 by University of North Texas Press. 

Laurie’s interests outside music include European travel, foreign languages, cooking, and wine. She is a veteran long distance runner who has completed nine marathons, including three in Boston. She lives in Dallas with her husband, William Barstow.  

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Jan Sloman

Jan Mark Sloman has served as associate concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 1977. A former University Scholar and Naumburg Grant recipient at Princeton University, Mr. Sloman was accepted without audition at the Curtis Institute of Music. He performed as concertmaster of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, with conductors such as Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta and Carlo Maria Giullini, and has performed as guest concertmaster of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, orchestras in Lugano and Melbourne, and the Pittsburgh Symphony at the invitation of Lorin Maazel. A noted teacher, Sloman was named Texas Music Teacher Association's Music Teacher of the Year in 2004. The competitive success of his students has brought him not only national recognition but also recent invitations to teach in Europe and China. He will present some of his outstanding students.

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Karen Maddox Smith, cello 

Karen Maddox Smith began her musical studies at the age of six on the piano. She discovered her passion for the cello when she joined the school orchestra five years later, which led to studies at first with her mother, a cellist in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and later with Martha Gerschefski. Ms. Smith continued her studies at Rice University under the tutelage of renowned pedagogue and modern music advocate, Norman Fischer. Upon graduation she studied abroad with Rainer Ginzel in Munich, Germany for a year before she moved on to an orchestral apprenticeship in southwestern Germany. Since 2002 Ms. Smith has been active as a free-lance cellist in North Texas, and she frequently performs with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the Dallas Chamber Orchestra. She currently resides in Plano with her husband, their son Eric and their greyhound.

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Traci Theisen, violin

Traci Theisen, 16, started playing the violin when she was 6 years old. Currently a 10th grader at Jasper High School in Plano, Texas, she studies with Jan Sloman of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She has won 1st place at the Mississippi State Special Recognition Recital, a state-wide competition, three times and also 1st place at the Collin County Young Artists Competition in the Senior String Division two years in a row. She has also won 2nd place in the Hubbard Solo and Chamber Music Competition and placed at the Dallas Symphonic Festival. Traci has attended various summer camps including the Institute for Strings in Dallas, Texas; Conservatory Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado, and the Meadowmount School of Music in Westport, New York. She has also participated in many orchestras, including the 2011 Texas All-State Symphony Orchestra where she sat in the first violin section, and the 2012 Texas All-State String Orchestra where she served as concertmaster.

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Fernand Vera, guitar 

A native of Houston, Texas, Fernand Vera is a sought-after guitar soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. He holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Music from the University of St. Thomas and Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Guitar Performance and Music Theory from the University of North Texas, where he studied under Tom Johnson. Fernand has also studied privately with Houston-based Valerie Harztell, and explored the folk guitar tradition of South America during his three-month stay in Ecuador. 

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Olga Amelkina-Vera, guitar 

Composer and guitarist Olga Amelkina-Vera grew up in Belarus and moved to the United States in 1997. She holds a Bachelor’s of Arts in Music Summa Cum Laude from the University of St. Thomas and Masters of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Guitar Performance and Music History from the University of North Texas. Olga is an active soloist, chamber musician, and award-winning composer of works with guitar.  

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Agnes Wan, piano

A native of Hong Kong, pianist Agnes Wan has received awards at various competitions including the Los Angeles Liszt International Piano Competition, Artists International Debut Auditions, the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, Loyola Concerto/Aria Competition, University of Iowa All-University Concerto/Aria Competition, the University of Iowa Chamber Music Competition, and the Hong Kong Open Piano Competition. Praised as a “big pianist, big musician, big potential” with “compelling artistry that draws the listeners in and envelops them with musical joy” at the Los Angeles Liszt International Piano Competition, she has performed at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center in New York. Critic/pianist Rorianne Schrade wrote of her New York debut, “Ms. Wan put her all into a substantial program that she clearly knew down to each millisecond … an excellent perfor¬mance … Ms. Wan’s joy in music making is infectious … Her encores of Chopin were meltingly lovely … an enjoyable debut.” She has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Loyola Chamber Orchestra, University of Iowa Chamber Orchestra, Maryville Orchestra, and the Columbia County Civic Orchestra. 

Having served as a resident artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada where she frequently performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist, she is an active recitalist. In recent years, she has given solo recitals across the southeastern and Midwestern United States, in addition to her Paris debut recital at the American Cathedral and her Chicago debut on the PianoForte Salon Series broadcasted live on WFMT. She regularly performs on WPLN Nashville Public Radio’s “Studio C” program, and has also debuted on the “Lunchtime Classics” series on Louisville’s Fine Arts Station, broadcasted live on WUOL. She has also appeared as a soloist at the Feminist Theory and Music Conference in North Carolina. The reviewer wrote that, “Pui-Shan Cheung’s piano work, Three Chinese Paintings, beautifully performed by talented pianist Agnes Wan … exhibited an array of virtuosic musical flourishes which Wan executed energetically.” Her upcoming recital and concerto engagements will bring her to New York, Illinois, Texas, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Alabama in the upcoming seasons.

After gaining her undergraduate degree in piano performance from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Agnes furthered her studies in the United States, completing her master’s at Loyola University New Orleans and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa. She also holds an Artist Diploma from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Her teach¬ers have included Gabriel Kwok, Nancy Loo, H. Jac McCracken, Uriel Tsachor, Rene Lecuona, James Tocco, and Michael Chertock. Additionally, her passion for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach has led her to mentor with the renowned Chinese pianist Yuan Sheng, who studied intensively with the legendary Bach expert, Rosalyn Tureck. 

As a clinician, Agnes established the Professional Piano Academy of Nashville in May 2010, and has been an active presenter and adjudicator at many youth piano competitions including the United States Open Music Competition. Her Book, "Physical and Mental Issues in Piano Performance: The Interrelationships between Physical Tension, Performance Anxiety, and Memorization Strategies," has been published and released by VDM-Verlag in 2008. 

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Chie Watanabe, piano

A native of Japan, Chie Watanabe graduated from Tokyo College of Music with a Bachelor of Music Degree. After moving to the United States in 1998, she received an Artist Diploma from Texas Christian University, where she studied with Tamás Ungár and Harold Martina. While at TCU, she was a winner of the University Concerto Competition that resulted in a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. She continued graduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music, where she was a student of Solomon Mikowsky and received the 2005 Roy M. Rubinstein Award for “Best young female pianist who demonstrates exceptional promise.” She is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of North Texas where she studies with Gustavo Romero.

Ms. Watanabe has won numerous competition prizes, including the Nagoya Television Piano Competition, the Mie Music Competition (Japan), the Young Artist Competition in San Antonio, the MTNA Competition in Texas, the Fort Collins Symphony Competition, the Wideman Piano Competition and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship Competition in New York. In 2009, she won the second (solo) and third prize (concerto division) at the Virginia Warning International Piano Competition and performed Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the California State University Northridge Symphony Orchestra. 

Ms. Watanabe had her New York debut as an Artists International prizewinner, performing at Carnegie Hall in 2006. She has performed in Texas, California, Colorado and New York as well as her native Japan. She also has given solo recitals in Valladolid, Gran Canaria and Tenerife at the International Piano Festival in Spain. 

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Christine Wu, violin

Christine Wu is a 16 year old from Plano, Texas. She began studying with Paul Landefeld at the age of 3 and has been a student of Jan Mark Sloman for the past 8 years.

In 2010, Christine was the Texas state winner, South Central Division winner and a national finalist for the MTNA Junior String Performance Competition. She was also awarded first place at the Dallas Symphonic Festival in 2011, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2004, 2003. In addition, Christine performed as a semi-finalist at the Schmidbauer International Competition in 2011 as well as the Lennox International Competition in 2012.

She was selected to play in the Texas All-State Symphony Orchestra in 2010, 2011, and as the concertmaster in 2012. She has participated in master classes for artists such as Adele Anthony, Stephanie Chase, Stephen Clapp, Brian Lewis, Sergiu Luca, James Ehnes, Ani Kavafian, and Ida Kavafian.

Christine was a recipient of a Starling Foundation scholarship last year at Meadowmount. In 2009 she was selected as one of twelve young artists for the Brian Lewis young Artist program where she had the opportunity to perform with the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra. She has attended the Institute for Strings chamber music program, founded by Jan Mark Sloman, since 2005, as well as the Colorado Suzuki Institute summer program from 2001-2007, where she was chosen to perform in the Solo Honor Recital every year. 

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Electronic mail

President/ General Information - Jenny Smith: jenny.musicalscientist@gmail.com

Mary Williams: mwilliamstxtravel@yahoo.com