About Us

2011-12 ARTIST ROSTER

T. J ANDERSON, composer, (March 4 concert) is one of the leading composers of his generation. He was born August 17, 1928 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania and received degrees from West Virginia State College, Penn State University, and a Ph.D in Composition from the University of Iowa. He also holds several honorary degrees. After serving as Chairman of the Department of Music at Tufts University for eight years, Thomas Jefferson Anderson became Austin Fletcher Professor of Music and in 1990 became Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Emeritus. He now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he devotes full time to writing music.

He studied composition with George Ceiga, Philip Bezanson, Richard Hervig, and Darius Milhaud. Anderson is well known for his orchestration of Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha which premiered in Atlanta in 1972. His first opera, Soldier Boy, Soldier based on a libretto by Leon Forrest, was commissioned by Indiana University. The opera, Walker was commissioned by the Boston Athenaeum with a libretto by Derek Walcott and Slip Knot, commissioned by the School of Music, Northwestern University is based on a historical paper by T.H. Breen with libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa.

Mark DeVoto, in program notes for a concert of T.J. Anderson's music honoring the 100th year of Tufts University's Department of Music, says: "T.J. Anderson, as all the world knows him, has spent a long and distinguished career composing music reflecting a global awareness of human experience in the twentieth century, synthesizing Eastern and Western classical traditions with the Black experience in America. His works reveal inspiration from a variety of classical styles ranging from Purcell to Alban Berg, and techniques and forms ranging from the serially rigorous to the freely improvisatory, all arrayed in a stylistic panorama that is wholly "his own". Elliott Schwartz states, “Many African-American composers of “classical” music are confronted by a unique set of experiences – influences from two worlds, so to speak. Thomas Jefferson Anderson has successfully balanced both; his music speaks to, and draws from, the heritage of European Art Music and the culture of Black America.” (Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs, ed: Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, 1998) “T.J.Anderson has characterized his role as a composer as that of a musical anthropologist, that is a documentor, interpreter, and re-creator of culture” (Greg A. Steinke: International Dictionary of Black Composers, 1999)

JONATHAN BAGG, viola, (April 1 concert))is Professor of the Practice at Duke University, a member of the Ciompi String Quartet, and co-Artistic Director of the Monadnock Music festival. His career with the Ciompi includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. and around the word, with over a dozen recordings. As a solo violist and chamber musician he has brought many new and unfamiliar works to life, many of them written for him. Solo concerts have brought him to venues such as the Phillips Gallery in Washington DC and Boston’s Jordan Hall. He has performed at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Highlands Chamber Music Festival, the Mohawk Trail and Castle Hill festivals. Bagg’s solo CDs contain music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann and by Robert Fuchs (1847-1927), on Centaur records. Contemporary solo works by Arthur Levering, Malcolm Peyton, Robert Ward, and Donald Wheelock are on Bridge, Albany, Centaur and Gasparo. His collaborations include many notable musicians, including pianists Bella Davidovich, Menahem Pressler and James Tocco, cellist Ronald Leonard, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, and members of the Tokyo Quartet.

In reviews of his solo playing, The Washington Post has noted his “total confidence, rock-solid technique and a deep sensitivity,” while American Record Guide called him “an excellent violist who approaches the music with intelligence, passion, and clarity.” Bagg directs the chamber music program and teaches viola at Duke University, where he has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Music. Before moving to Duke he performed with many of New England’s most prominent musical organizations, appearing often with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, and serving as principal viola for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra. He graduated with honors from both Yale University (BA) and the New England Conservatory (MM), where he was a student of Walter Trampler.

JOHN BECK, percussion, (Nosferatu) has been a member of the faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts since 1998, and is a performer with the Winston-Salem and Greensboro Symphony orchestras, Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the Philidor Percussion Group. He is a former member of the United States Marine Band and for 10 years performed regularly with the National and Baltimore Symphonies, Washington and Baltimore Operas, and the Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center. Beck has toured the United States as a xylophone soloist with the Jack Daniel's Silver Cornet Band, Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the New Sousa Band. He has served on the PAS Education Committee, Board of Directors, NC Chapter President, and has presented clinics at state Days of Percussion, PASIC, Midwest, and MENC events. As an educator Beck has also served on the faculties of the Universities of Utah, Colorado, Nevada - Las Vegas, North Carolina - Greensboro, and Florida State. His CD “Shared Spaces” is on the Equilibrium label, and in 2000 his educational video “Ensemble Techniques and Musicianship for Percussionists” was distributed free to all high schools in North Carolina through a state Arts Council Grant.

PETRA BERÉNYI, cimbalom (September 25 concert) has pursued a dual career as a violist and cimbalom player, having taken degrees in both instruments from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Ms. Berenyi was a guest artist as a cimbalom player at the "Kurtág Festival" in London, 2002 where she played with Orchestra of the Royal Academy of Music and London Sinfonietta. She has performed in several contemporary music festivals in Hungary, as a chamber musician and as a participant at the International Bartók Seminar, in Szombathely, Hungary where she worked with the renowned Hungarian composer and teacher, György Kurtág. She was honored with the Award of Artisjus Foundation for her for outstanding cimbalom performances of Hungarian contemporary music in 2001. Ms. Berenyi also took second prize at “Paul Lukács Viola Competition” in 2002 which was organized by the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Since moving to the US in 2003 she was associate principal violist in the MusicaNova Orchestra in Scottsdale, AZ and a substitute player in the Phoenix Symphony. She received full scholarship at the Colorado College Summer Music Festival between 2004 and 2006, where she served principal viola in the Festival Orchestra. After moving to North Carolina she became a member of Raleigh Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. Since 2006 she plays regularly with the North Carolina Symphony. Ms. Berenyi has performed frequently on different recitals and chamber music concerts at Duke University, University of North Carolina as a cimbalom player as well as a violist with the members of the Ciompi Quartet, Mallarme Chamber Players and faculty members from Meredith College. Her recent appearances were as a cimbalom player in Dracula (music composed by Raleigh resident composer Mark Scearce) with the North Carolina Ballet, a solo cimbalom recital at Duke University of the honor of the 85 years old György Kurtág, a Gala event in the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC. and PIFA in Philadelphia, PA where she was a guest artist in the world premier of the new opera; Danse Russe by Paul Moravec, as well as in two other Stravinsky composition the Renard and Ragtime. She is going to play a US premier of Kamilló Lendvai's cimbalom concerto with North Carolina Symphony this season.

JOHN BROWN, bass, (October 23 concert) is also a composer, educator and actor. He is a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and currently resides in Durham, NC. He is a graduate of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. John currently serves as Director of the Jazz Program and Associate Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University, and he has served on the faculties of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University and Guilford College (NC). He has been performing professionally since his teens and has performed in the United States & abroad with artists like Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Elvin Jones, Nnenna Freelon, Cyrus Chestnut, Diahann Carroll, Rosemary Clooney, Nell Carter, Lou Donaldson, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Frank Foster, Larry Coryell, Cedar Walton, Fred Wesley, Bernard Purdie and Mark Whitfield, as well as giving regular performances as a substitute with the North Carolina Symphony since 1992.

John also has a Grammy nomination for his performance and co-writing on Nnenna Freelon’s 1996 Concord release, Shaking Free, and recently earned his membership the Screen Actors’ Guild (SAG) for his role in the feature film, Bolden. His extensive experience includes performances at notable venues like Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Blue Note, Blues Alley, and the Hollywood bowl and at major jazz festivals like the Playboy Jazz Festival, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Free Jazz Festival (Brazil) and Jazz e Vienne (France). He actively performs and records internationally as a sideman & a leader, and gives education residencies across the nation including conducting District, Regional and All-State Jazz Ensembles. He founded the Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble and led that group for several years, and now leads a group of high school students who are serious about studying and performing jazz music called the JAZZFORCE. John is also part owner of the Hudson Brown Agency (a full-service international booking agency), and he has recently become a YAMAHA Certified String Educator.

SHEILA BROWNE, violist (April 1 concert) has performed in many of the world’s major halls as soloist, chamber musician, and as an orchestral principal. Hailed by Robert Mann as "one of America's most important violists", Sheila has soloed with the Juilliard Orchestra, Kiev Philharmonic, New World Symphony, South African International Viola Congress Festival Orchestra, and the Viva Vivaldi!, Reina Sofia and German-French chamber orchestras. She is a member of the critically acclaimed flute-viola-harp  Fire Pink Trio. She has recorded concerto, solo and chamber works for the Nonesuch, Sony, Albany, Centaur and ERM labels, and has premiered a concerto written for her at the most recent international viola congresses in Australia and South Africa. The only viola finalist in the 2004  International Pro Musicis Solo Awards at Carnegie Hall, Sheila is a graduate of the Juilliard School, MusikHochschule Freiburg and Rice University.
She was Karen Tuttle's teaching assistant for four years as an undergraduate at Juilliard, a German Academic Exchange (DAAD), full-scholarship student of Kim Kashkashian, and Paul Katz was her quartet mentor.  She has been a member of the Arianna, Gotham and Pellegrini string quartets, and has performed in many festivals including Banff, Donaueschingen, Evian, Great Lakes, Jeunesses Musicales, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, Port Townsend, Sun Valley, Viva Virginia!, and Tanglewood. She has given recitals and /or masterclasses at many schools, including Eastman, McGill, Oberlin, Duke, and Boston University.
She is an Artist- Professor at the  University of North Carolina School of the Arts, teaching boarding high school, undergraduate and graduate students and has also served on the faculty of New York University. She was elected to the Executive Board of the American Viola Society, and is the first viola professor ever to teach in Iraqi Kurdistan at the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. She also teaches at California Summer Music, and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival. She has played chamber music concerts with Shmuel Ashkenazy, Miriam Fried, Gilbert Kalish, Paul Katz, Anton Kuerti, Ruth Laredo, Audra Macdonald, Joe Robinson, Arnold Steinhardt, Richard Stolzman, and Carol Wincenc, among others. Upcoming concerts include her concerto debut with the newly formed New York Women's Ensemble in Carnegie- Stern Hall, return appearances at Bargemusic, concerts with Carol Wincenc celebrating her 60th birthday, performing in the International Viola Congress 2012 at the Eastman School as well as a solo and chamber tour of Alaska. Upcoming projects include recording a viola-bassoon Cd as well as a commission for the Fire Pink Trio by Chris Brubeck for their debut CD.

CARLA COPELAND BURNS, flute, (Nosferatu) currently enjoys an active freelancing career with several ensembles including the North Carolina Symphony, North Carolina Opera, and the Carolina Ballet among others.  She has performed over 300 concerts with the North Carolina Symphony, including numerous appearances as Principal flute.  Since 1995 Burns has served as Piccoloist for the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, Principal Flute in the Salisbury Symphony, and in the ongoing chamber ensembles Blue Mountain (flute/bassoon) and the Cascade Wind Quintet, a North Carolina Arts Council Touring Roster Ensemble. Burns currently teaches flute at Radford University in Virginia and coaches chamber music at the Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop held at the University of North Carolina. She previously served as Principal flute in the Midland-Odessa Symphony and on the faculties of Indiana State University, Mars Hill College, and the Cincinnati-College Conservatory Preparatory Division. Burns holds the Bachelor of Music with Honors from Florida State University, the Master of Music in Flute Performance from the New England Conservatory, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Flute Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Burns has recorded with ensembles on the Albany, Centaur, and Klavier labels and has been heard on several editions of NPR’s Performance Today. Her teachers include Nadine Asin, Jack Wellbaum, Carol Wincenc, Lois Schaefer, Charles Delaney and Stephen Preston. www.carlacopelandburns.com

MICHAEL BURNS , bassoon, (Nosferatu) is the bassoon professor at the University of NC at Greensboro and a Yamaha Performing Artist. His first solo CD Primavera: Music for Bassoon and Piano by Bassoonists was released on the Mark Masters label in 2009 to critical acclaim. He holds the BM degree from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, the MM from the New England Conservatory, and the DMA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He has performed in numerous professional orchestras including the Cincinnati and the New Zealand Symphonies and played Principal in the Midland/Odessa, Richmond and Abilene Symphonies and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. Currently Burns plays principal with the Asheville Symphony, North Carolina Ballet and North Carolina Opera as well as performing frequently with the North Carolina and Greensboro Symphony Orchestras. Prior to UNCG he taught at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, Indiana State University, and Midland College. He remains active as a solo and chamber performer with numerous recitals and master classes throughout North America, Germany, China and the South Pacific, he is bassoonist in the EastWind Ensemble, the Blue Mountain Ensemble, and the Cascade Quintet. Burns has recorded for the Centaur, CAP, Telarc, EMI, Klavier, and Mark labels. He is also an active composer with many of his pieces being published by TrevCo Music and frequently performed. He is archivist for the International Double Reed Society and was co-host for the IDRS 2003 Conference in Greensboro, NC. For more information please visit: www.michaelburnsbassoon.com

CHRISTOPHER CAUDILL, horn (September 25 and February 5 concerts) joined the North Carolina Symphony in June of 2003 as Second Horn. A graduate of Northwestern University, he earned a degree in European History before studying horn with the Chicago Symphony's Dale Clevenger.

During his time in Chicago, he performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and with the Chicago Symphony. Caudill toured the U.S. and Russia with the American-Russian Youth Orchestra in 1993 and was a Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in 1994 and 1995. He played Principal Horn with the Honolulu Symphony for the 1997-98 season and Acting Associate Principal with the Milwaukee Symphony during the 1998-99 season. He spent two summers playing chamber music at the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival in Colorado and two seasons with the Virginia Symphony before coming to Raleigh.

He is married to his horn section colleague, Rachel Niketopoulos, and they are the proud parents of five cats: Leo, Miss Moe, Sweetie, Truman and Gladys Pickles.

ALICIA CHAPMAN, oboe and d'amore (February 5 concert) is principal oboist with the Harrisburg and Asheville Symphonies and plays English horn with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. She has toured Europe, the former DDR, and Southeast Asia as a chamber musician, has performed with the Metropolitan and New York City Operas, and has recorded with New York Philomusica, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and New York Kammermusiker. A founding member of Harmonia Baroque, she has taught oboe at Appalachian State University since 2001, where she is also director of the Collegium Musicum, and woodwind chamber music. On Baroque oboe, she has studied at the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin with Marc Schachmann, at the Indiana University Baroque Woodwind workshop with Washington McClain, and at the Cambridge Early Music Summer School (UK) with Gail Hennessy. Chapman earned both Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from the Mannes College of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the City University of New York.

CAROL CHUNG, violin (October 23 concert) is a founding member of the chamber music group Quercus. Recent season highlights have included a series of performances of the Bach Goldberg Variations, arranged for string trio, with fellow Quercus members David Marschall, viola & Bonnie Thron, ‘cello, alongside the visual artistry of Abie Harris." Lauded for her “heartfelt delicacy” (Raleigh News & Observer) and for her “searing and incisive renditions” (CVNC.org), Ms. Chung is active as a recitalist, chamber musician, coach & teacher. She serves as concertmaster of North Carolina Opera (formerly the Opera Company of North Carolina) and performs regularly with the North Carolina Symphony and the Mallarmé Chamber Players. She is also a teacher trainee in the Alexander Technique at Chesapeake Bay Alexander Studies in Greensboro. In the summers, she performs with the Colorado Music Festival, a professional summer orchestra based in Boulder. Previous summer season highlights have included collaborations in world music with the Grammy-nominated salsa fusion group, Gonzalo Grau y La Clave Secreta.

Ms. Chung began studies on both the violin and piano at the age of five, and at eighteen, chose violin for her major instrument. She holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with David Updegraff and Bernhard Goldschmidt. She has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra at the Kent/Blossom Music Festival and in the master classes of William Preucil, Ani Kavafian and James Buswell at the Sarasota Music Festival. She has also performed and coached with members of the Tokyo,Vermeer, Cavani and Juilliard Quartets. Formerly a member of the Canton (Ohio) and Virginia Symphonies, she resides in Raleigh with her husband, Jason Wilson, and their cat Roxie.

JAMES DOUGLASS, keyboard, (Nosferatu) is assistant professor of collaborative piano and auditions coordinator for the Accompanying and Chamber Music degree program at UNC-Greensboro. He has been involved in diverse genres including chamber music, vocal arts, opera, choral arts, symphonic repertoire, jazz, cabaret, and musical theater. He received the BM and MM in piano performance from the University of Alabama and the DMA in collaborative piano from the University of Southern California where he was a student of Dr. Alan L. Smith; additional studies were with collaborative pianists Anne Epperson and Martin Katz. While at USC he received a Koldofsky Fellowship and the Outstanding Keyboard Collaborative Arts award. Douglass has served on the faculties of Mississippi College, Occidental College LA, USC, and Middle Tennessee State University where he was coordinator of the collaborative piano degree program. In 2003 he began teaching in the summer study program AIMS (American Institute of Musical Studies) in Graz, Austria as the instructor of collaborative piano and a coach in the lieder program with Harold Heiberg. Performances as a collaborative pianist have included recitals and television/radio broadcasts across the United States and in Europe (France, Germany, Austria, Hungary); in master classes given by artists Dawn Upshaw, Carol Vaness, Vladimir Chernov, Norman Luboff, Paul Salamunovich, Natalie Hinderas, Leon Bates. Douglass is an active clinician and a recording with soprano Hope Koehler of John Jacob Niles songs was released on the Albany label in 2008.

KAREN STRITTMATTER GALVIN, violin, (May 6 concert) is the Assistant Concertmaster of the North Carolina Symphony.  Before winning her job with the NCS Karen was a member of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and had an active freelance career in Washington DC, performing regularly with the Washington National Opera and the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra in addition to many other DC arts organizations. She is a former member and soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra and the Westmoreland Symphony.
Ms. Galvin is also an avid chamber musician. She is a founding member of the Inscape Chamber Music Project of Washington DC and performs with the Laurel String Quartet, which was formed under the guidance of the Guarneri String Quartet. Along with two of her sisters, she has been performing as a member of the Strittmatter Trio since 1988.
A native of Pittsburgh, Ms. Galvin began her musical training with Debbie Ellett, and later Hong-Guang Jia and Huei-Sheng Kao, both assistant concertmasters of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Galvin received her bachelor's degree in violin performance from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied with Carolyn Huebl and Cyrus Forough. After graduating, she moved to Washington DC to pursue her Master's degree with Elisabeth Adkins at the University of Maryland.

SHAWN M. GALVIN, (May 6 concert) percussion, is known for his versatility as a percussionist, his commitment to creative performances, and his dedication to new music and improvisation. In a very young career, Shawn has garnered a richly varied performance background due to the ease he demonstrates within many genres of percussion performance.

Shawn has served as Principal Timpanist of the United States Navy Band, Washington, DC. He has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1997 under leading conductors including Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Chales Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, Rafael Fruehbeck de Burgos, Gianandrea Noseda, Stéphane Denève, and Bernard Klee. Shawn has also performed with the Washington Bach Consort, the National Philharmonic, Washington Concert Opera, and the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Project. Currently, Shawn performs with the North Carolina Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and is the Curator of New Music Raleigh, a contemporary music ensemble dedicated to the works of living composers.

Shawn has been a member of Tempus Fugit Percussion Ensemble since 1996. TFPE has premiered over 30 new works for percussion and has collaborated with the Great Falls Symphony, the North Shore Concert Band, the Duquesne Symphony Orchestra, Leigh Howard Stevens, Shee E. Wu and Michael Burritt. The group has performed at three Percussive Arts Society International Conventions and has recorded two CD’s (Tempus Fugit Percussion Ensemble, and Push Button Turn Crank). Shawn’s work can also be heard on Michael Burritt’s release, Waking Dreams.

Originally from western Pennsylvania, Shawn began studying percussion with his father, a high school band director, at a young age. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in percussion performance from Duquesne University where he studied with Stanley Leonard, Andrew Reamer, and Gerald Unger.

TIM HUDSON, trumpet (October 23 concert) is a Summit Recording Artist and Yamaha Performing Artist, a member of Carolina Brass and is on the Trumpet Artist/Faculty at Gardner - Webb University. He is a graduate of Indiana University, New England Conservatory of Music and UNC Greensboro, and studied trumpet with Charles Schlueter, former Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra; Edmund Cord, former Principal Trumpet with the Israel
Philharmonic and Utah Symphony Orchestras; and Dr. Frederick Beck, former
Professor of Trumpet at UNC Greensboro.
As a performer, Mr. Hudson has been a member of professional orchestras
in the U.S. and abroad under renowned conductors including Lorin Maazel, Yoel Levi, Leonard Slatkin, Grant Llewellyn, Andrew Litton, James DePreist, Timothy Myers, Mariss Jansons, Gunther Schuller, Skitch Henderson and Enrique Batiz.
Mr. Hudson interest in new music has led to dozens of world premiere performances and
recordings including the Language of the Soul composed by Gwyneth Walker that will premiered by Mallarmé in October, 2011.
As an educator, Mr. Hudson has been teaching trumpet since 1983 and began
his college teaching career at the age of 25. He regularly publishes articles, arranges and
transcribes music, is a Record Reviewer for the International Trumpet Guild Journal, and an adjudicator for the National Trumpet Competition. He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha, as well as the national honor societies of Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Eta Sigma.
Mr. Hudson is the founding member and Director of the Carolina Brass, an ensemble committed to arts in education. Under his direction, Carolina Brass has become a national touring ensemble and Summit Recording Artist, with compact disc recordings distributed internationally on the Summit Record label. Carolina Brass regularly gives world premieres written for the group by composers such as Arthur Frackenpohl, Jack Gale, Gwyneth Walker, David P. Jones, Mark Scearce, Stanley Hoffman, Bill Holcombe, and Jeff Richmond, and
has regular broadcasts on National Public Radio.


NATHAN LEYLAND, cello, (September 25 concert) attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Nathaniel Rosen. Before moving to the Triangle, he was principal cellist of the Des Moines Symphony and member of the Pioneer String Quartet.  Mr. Leyland has performed as soloist with symphony orchestras in Ohio, New York and Connecticut, and as recitalist and chamber musician in much of the United States.  He is currently an active freelancer in North Carolina, performing with the Mallarmé Chamber Players, the Fayetteville Symphony, Tar River Orchestra, Carolina Ballet Orchestra and others.  His hobbies include spending time with his family and playing golf.

ROBBIE LINK, violone (February 5 concert) is a performer and teacher on the double bass, cello, electric bass, viola da gamba, and violone. Link performs and records with many period instrument, chamber, jazz, and folk music ensembles and enjoys performing everything from Baroque to Bluegrass. He is instructor of double bass and cello at the Duke University Pre-Collegiate String School and Instructor of Double Bass for Duke University. He also maintains a private teaching studio near Chapel Hill, NC in addition to running Red Hawk Music Co. Link attended the School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He has performed with The Bach Sinfonia, North Carolina Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Louisville Symphony, Ensemble Vermillian, and Ensemble Courant as well as with many jazz notables including Maxine Sullivan, Tal Farlow, Mose Alison, Mark Murphy, Carol Sloane, Margaret Whiting, Bobby Enriquez, Joanne Brackeen, and Scott Hamilton

ANDREW LOWY, clarinet, (September 25 concert) began serving as principal clarinetist of the North Carolina Symphony in 2010 after a year of graduate studies at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. He previously completed his bachelor's degree at Harvard College, where he studied music and linguistics.
Before joining the North Carolina Symphony, Andrew performed with the New World Symphony and held summer fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center and Music Academy of the West. Originally from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, he attended the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division while in high school, and has appeared as a soloist with the Queens Symphony Orchestra and the Yonkers Philharmonic. His primary teachers have been Yehuda Gilad, Larry Guy and Tom Martin.

DAVID MARSCHALL, viola (April 1 concert) has been a member of the North Carolina Symphony since 1987 and was appointed Associate Principal Viola in 2007. Since 1990, he has spent his summers playing in the orchestra of the Santa Fe Opera. David is a member of the chamber ensemble Quercus, and he is a member of New Music Raleigh, an ensemble dedicated to the music of living composers. David has also served as Principal Viola for the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Columbus Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra. He was a member of the New Orleans Symphony, the Innsbruck (Austria) Symphony, the Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Colorado Philharmonic. A native of Columbus, Ohio, David studied first at Ohio State, and he received his Master's degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Karen Tuttle. His viola was made in 2009 by Grubaugh and Seifert of California. David's wife, Amy, teaches German and English at Raleigh Charter High School, and they have two sons, Philip and Owen.


BO NEWSOME, oboe (October 23 concert) graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Arts degree and an artist diploma. He was a resident artist at the Banff Center for the Arts in 1992 and 1993 and a visiting artist in North Carolina through the North Carolina Arts Council's Visiting Artists Program. He has received emerging artist grants from the Durham Arts Council. Mr. Newsome teaches at both Duke and East Carolina Universities, performs with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle and maintains a private studio in Durham. He has composed scores for several UNC Center for Public Television productions and several commissions for the Mallarmé Chamber Players.

RACHEL NIKETOPOULOS, horn, (February 5 concert) is a member of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra's French horn section. Prior to coming to Raleigh, she was the second hornist of the Virginia Symphony for 7 years.

A graduate of the Universities of Iowa and Missouri (Kansas City), she was a member of the Aspen Festival Orchestra in 1993 and 1994, and has performed with the Charleston Symphony and the New World Symphony in Miami (where she met her husband Chris Caudill, who has been the second hornist of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra since 2003). She has been on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival and of Cannon Music Camp in Boone, N.C. In addition to her horn-playing career, Rachel is a certified instructor of the Alexander Technique. She teaches horn and Alexander Technique lessons privately in Raleigh.

JEREMY PRESTON, violin, (September 25 concert) has performed in Canada and Brazil as well as major concert halls in the United States. He has performed at major music festivals including Tanglewood, Blossom, and Spoleto. Trained at New England Conservatory's Walnut Hill School, Rice University and at the Cleveland Institute of Music, his distinguished teachers include Marylou Speaker Churchill, Lynn Chang, Kathleen Winkler, Sally Thomas and William Preucil. His chamber music coaches include Norman Fisher, Pamela and Claude Frank and members of the Cleveland Quartet and Juillard Quartets. Jeremy has performed with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, and was a concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra as well as the Shepherd School Orchestra at Rice University. Mr. Preston is a member of the second violin section of the North Carolina Symphony.

JOHN PRUETT, baroque violin and viola (February 5 concert) is a musician who plays both modern and baroque violin. He is regularly heard in Carolina Baroque and El Ensamble Barroco de Arequipa in Peru. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music. John has played principal viola for 25 years with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. He is also first violin of the Triangle Quartet. For several years he has been organizing orchestras and ensembles of period instruments for Old Salem, the Moramus Choir and Piedmont Chamber Singers. He also is concertmaster for the newly formed Collegium Musicum Salem a group devoted to authentic instrument performances.
Other interests have led him to restore the Yadkin Valley Mill in Yadkin County. This mill is a 19th century water powered gristmill.

SCOTT RAWLS, viola, (April 1 concert) has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe. Chamber music endeavors include performances with the Diaz Trio, Kandinsky Trio and Ciompi Quartet as well as with members of the Cleveland, Audubon and Cassatt String Quartets. His most recent CD recording, released on the Centaur label, features the chamber music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and was released summer 2004. His recording of chamber works for viola and clarinet was released spring 2003 on the same label. The ensemble, Middle Voices, will record another disc for Centaur featuring the chamber music of American composer, Eddie Bass. Additional chamber music recordings can be heard on the CRI, Nonesuch, Capstone, and Philips labels. Also a champion of new music, Rawls has toured extensively as a member of Steve Reich and Musicians since 1991. As the violist in this ensemble, he has performed the numerous premieres of The Cave and Three Tales, multimedia operas by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, videographer. And under the auspices of presenting organizations such as the Wiener Festwochen, Festival d'Automne a Paris, Holland Festival, Berlin Festival, Spoleto Festival USA and the Lincoln Center Festival, he has performed in major music centers around the world including London, Vienna, Rome, Milan, Tokyo, Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. He is a founding member of the Locrian Chamber Players, a New York City based group dedicated to performing new music. Dr. Rawls currently serves as Associate Professor of Viola and Chair of the Instrumental Division in the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Under the baton of maestro Dmitry Sitkovetsky, he plays principal viola in the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. He is very active as guest clinician, adjudicator, and master class teacher at universities and festivals in America and Europe. During the summers, Rawls plays principal viola in the festival orchestra at Brevard Music Center where he also coordinates the viola program. He holds a BM degree from Indiana University and a MM and DMA from State University of New York at Stony Brook. His major mentors include Abraham Skernick, Georges Janzer, and John Graham. 

SUZANNE ROUSSO, viola, (Artistic Director) was trained at the Curtis Institute of Music, The Eastman School and New England Conservatory earning a Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in viola performance. Some of her teachers included Eugene Becker, Max Aronoff, Heidi Castleman and Walter Trampler. From 1989-2001 Ms. Rousso was principal violist of the Greensboro Symphony and performed regularly with the North Carolina Symphony. Additionally she was a faculty member and performer at Eastern Music Festival where she also served as personnel manager. Ms. Rousso was appointed Director of Education for the North Carolina Symphony in May 1999. In late 2006, she was appointed Director of Operations and Education of the Portland (Maine) Symphony and also performed as a member of the Vermont Symphony, PortOpera, Opera Boston and the Portland Chamber Orchestra. She returned from Maine to North Carolina in the summer of 2008 to become the Artistic Director of the Mallarmé Chamber Players. She is also an active free-lance player in the Triangle area, performing with groups like the Carolina Ballet, NC Opera, Choral Society of Durham and the NC Symphony. She has recently become Vice President of the Board for the American Federation of Musicians, Local 500.


ERIC SCHWARTZ, composer (Nosferatu) has studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, New York University, and both the Interlochen and Aspen Summer Music Festivals. Past teachers have included Margaret Brouwer, Donald Erb, George Tsontakis, and Randy Woolf. Primarily interested in a synthesis of musical archetypes, Schwartz is always at work on a variety of genre bending projects. Formative influences include an amalgamation of the glam metal of the late 80's, and the baroque intellectualism of Arnold Schoenberg. His music has been performed at various venues throughout New York City, from The Knitting Factory to Merkin Concert Hall, as well as such far flung places as Bucharest, Romania and Thunder Bay, Ontario. He has received awards and grants from Meet the Composer, ASCAP, The Society for New Music, The Puffin Foundation, The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and The Ohio Federation of College Music Clubs. Schwartz has served on the faculties of New York University, Hunter College, and the Lucy Moses Music School, and is the artistic director of the Brooklyn, NY based experimental music group Forecast Music (forecastmusic.org). He was recently appointed Resident Composer for the Los Angeles based Tonoi contemporary music ensemble's 2007-2008 season. His debut CD "24 Ways of Looking at a Piano", named one of the top classical CDs of 2005 by All Music Guide, is available now from Centaur Records (http://www.centaurrecords.com). His music is also available on Capstone Records, and Trace Label (France), and is published by Staunch Music (UK) and Lovebird Music (US).

WILLIAM THAUER, oboe and d'amore (February 5 concert) is featured regularly with the Dallas Bach Society and the Orchestra of New Spain and has recently been a principal/soloist with Musica Angelica of Los Angeles, Ensemble Courant, Mallarme Chamber  Players, American Virtuosi and Music at Saint Alban’s in Davidson.  Prior to moving to North Carolina in 2006, he performed often with Boston Baroque, The Handel and Haydn Society, Concert Royal, and l’Orchestre Baroque de  Montréal.   He has recorded for the Atma and Virtuosi labels, and has written articles on baroque and classical oboes and their repertoire for recordings on the German label, Ars Produktion.

JEREMY THOMPSON, piano, (September 25 concert) was born in Dipper Harbour, a small fishing village in New Brunswick, Canada. From there, he has gone on to perform throughout North America and Europe, thrilling audiences with his virtuosity and the emotional and intellectual depth of his playing.
In 2005, he earned a Doctorate of Music in piano performance from McGill University, where he held two of Canada’s most prestigious doctoral fellowships. During his studies he performed with such orchestras as the Saint Petersburg State Academic Orchestra, the Saratov Philharmonic Orchestra, the Georgian National Orchestra, and the McGill Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Thompson has performed and given master-classes at various colleges and universities throughout North America, and is in demand as a collaborative pianist. He is comfortable in music from all eras, yet specializes in highly virtuosic repertoire. Although his range is expansive, both as a solo performer and as a collaborative pianist, Dr. Thompson has a personal interest in championing the works of Canada’s major composers such as Brian Cherney, Jose Evangelista, an Jean Papineau-Couture.
As a performer, Jeremy Thompson is an audience favorite. Beginning with brief program talks, he shares his deep joy of performing with listeners so that from the opening musical passage, audiences are at full attention and absolute appreciation.

BONNIE THRON, cellist (October 23 concert) joined the North Carolina Symphony as principal cellist in 2000. Previously she was a member of the Peabody Trio, in residence at the Peabody Institute, during which time the group won the Naumberg chamber music competition.

Early in her career Ms. Thron was assistant principal cellist of the Denver Symphony for a season and she played and recorded with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble. In the summers she plays in the Sebago Long Lake Music Festival in Harrison, Maine. She also has a long history with the Apple Hill Chamber Players as a guest artist and chamber music coach and was involved in the group’s first Playing for Peace tour to the Middle East in 1991.

Ms. Thron has performed concertos with the North Carolina Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, the Juilliard Orchestra, the Panama National Orchestra, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and various other orchestras in her home state of New Hampshire.

She received Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School. Her teachers include Lynn Harrell, Harvey Shapiro, Norman Fischer and Elsa Hilger. Ms. Thron also received a BSN from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and worked as a nurse for several years as a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital and as a case manager in home care nursing during which time she was a cello teacher at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

LOUISE TOPPIN, soprano, (March 4 concert) has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, and oratorio performances in the United States, Czech Republic, Sweden, Uruguay, Scotland, China, England, New Zealand, the Carribean, Bermuda, Japan and Spain. She has appeared in recital on many concert series including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Kennedy Center and Lincoln Center. Represented by Joanne Rile Artist Management, she tours in "Gershwin on Broadway" with pianist Leon Bates, singers Cedric Cannon, LaRose Saxon, Robert Mack and Robert Sims. Her recent operatic contracts include Baltimore Opera, Opera Carolina and Piedmont Opera.  She has recorded fifteen compact disks of American Music including Songs of Illumination, (Centaur Records), Ah love, but a day (Albany), Extensions of the Tradition (Innova) More Still (Cambria), Paul Freeman Introduces... Vol. II and Witness  (Albany) with the Czech National Symphony, William Grant Still Opera Highway One (Visionary Records), He’ll Bring it to Pass (Albany Records), CDs with three publications including A Hall Johnson collection published by Carl Fisher and soon for release, Heart on the Wall on Albany Records.   She holds a BM in piano from UNC, two masters (piano and voice) from Peabody Conservatory and a DMA in voice from the University of Michigan where she studied with George Shirley.  In addition to her work as a professional singer, she is currently Professor and Chair of the Voice Department at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  

STEPHANIE VIAL, baroque cello (February 5 concert) performs regularly on both period and modern instruments. As a chamber musician and soloist, she has performed with many of the country's leading period instrument ensembles. She has recorded for the Dorian Label, Naxos, Hungaroton, and Centaur Records. She is the co-director of the Washington DC based period instrument ensembleTheVivaldi Projectand theModern Early Music Institute, which teaches performance practices to professional string players using modern instruments. A sought after lecturer and teacher, Vial has taught at Duke University, and is currently giving a series of early music master classes at the Curtis Institute of Music. Vial holds a D.M.A. in 18th-century performance practice from Cornell Univeristy.Her book,The Art of Musical Phrasing in the Eighteenth Century: Punctuating the Classical “Period,”was published in 2008 by the University of Rochester Press' Eastman Studies in Music Series. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

DR. GWYNETH WALKER, composer, (b. 1947) (October 23 concert) is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She holds B.A., M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees in Music Composition. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, she resigned from academic employment in 1982 in order to pursue a career as a full-time composer. She now lives on a dairy farm in Braintree, Vermont.

Gwyneth Walker is a proud resident of Vermont. She is the recipient of the Year 2000 "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Vermont Arts Council as well as the 2008 "Athenaeum Award for Achievement in the Arts and Humanities" from the St. Johnsbury (VT) Athenaeum.

Walker's catalog includes over 200 commissioned works for orchestra, band, chorus and chamber ensembles. The music of Gwyneth Walker is published by E.C. Schirmer (choral/vocal music) and Lauren Keiser Music Publishing (orchestral/instrumental music).

In recent years, Gwyneth Walker traveled across the United States working with a variety of musicians as they recorded her works. As a result of these collaborations, several new CDs have been released:A Vision of Hills (piano trios and string works, performed by Trio Tulsa), An Hour to Dance (music for SATB chorus recorded by the choirs at Whitman College), Now Let Us Sing! (with Bella Voce Women’s Chorus, Burlington, Vermont), The Sun Is Love (solo voice and piano works performed by Chicago artists Michelle Areyzaga and Jamie Shaak), and Scattering Dark and Bright (song cycles recorded by the Walker-Eklof Duo).

In addition to the composing of new works, there has also been a special project of creating orchestral accompaniments for many of the choral and vocal works in the Walker catalog. Thus, the Songs for Women’s Voices, Three Days By the Sea, I Thank You God, and the song cycle, No Ordinary Woman!, have all been orchestrated. Another new work, A Testament to Peace, combines three peace-oriented choral works (Tell the Earth to Shake, The Tree of Peace, and There is a Way to Glory) into a set with chamber orchestra. Coming soon will be The Promised Land– songs for Soprano and Orchestra based on familiar American songs.

Another special project has been the creation of works for orchestra with narrator. Muse of Amherst (based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson) has been performed by several New England orchestras. And the newly-completed By Walden Pond (with readings of H. D. Thoreau) was recently premiered by the Carson City (NV) Orchestra.

Composing projects for the remainder of 2010 include Alpha and Omega (Christmas songs for chorus and orchestra), Blessings from the Children (for youth chorus and orchestra for the community of Walla Walla, WA), and The Circus of Creation- a staged presentation with music based on the poetry of Robert Lax. Circus will be premiered at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, FL, with the Sarasota Brass Quintet and narrator/ringmaster Cliff Roles.

JACQUELINE SAED WOLBORSKY, violin (October 23 concert) is the Associate Principal Second Violin of the North Carolina Symphony. Before coming to North Carolina, Jacqueline was a member of the Charleston Symphony and an adjunct professor of violin at the College of Charleston. She has been a featured soloist with the North Carolina Symphony and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra. Jacqueline received first prize, the audience choice award and a solo performance at the South Carolina Philharmonic Competition and was honored with the Russel Award at the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, CA.

She has had the pleasure of performing for Nobel Peace Prize winner Eli Weisel in Chicago, Il., the late Itzhak Rabin's family in Jaffa, Israel, and in 2001, for the Vice President of the United States and other high government officials in Washington D.C. Jacqueline has spent past summers at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, in the Chautauqua Symphony in New York, at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut, at the Steans Institute for Young Artists in Highland Park, Il., at the Rome Festival in Italy, the Thessaloniki Festival in Greece, Keshet Eilon in Israel and the Weathersfield Music Festival in Ludlow, VT. She was invited by the Verbier Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra on separate occasions to tour several European Countries with Joshua Bell, James Levine and the late Mstislav Rostropovich. She has also had the honor of working with Kurt Masur, members of the Tokyo, Vermeer and Cleveland String Quartets, Yuri Bashmet, Bill Preucil, Claude Frank, Miriam Fried and Joseph Silverstein. Mrs. Wolborsky received her Bachelors of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory with renowned professors Roland and Almita Vamos and her Masters of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of distinguished professor, Donald Weilerstein.

She is a proud mama to adorable twin toddlers, Chloe and Cameron.

KATRINA WREEDE, viola and composer, (April 1 concert) has been a professional symphony musician, a jazz violist, a member of the ground-breaking Turtle Island String Quartet, a concert soloist, a belly dancer, a police finger-printer, a rhinestone-studded “continental” violinist for royalty, a non-denominational wedding officiant, a player of Tango Nuevo, Persian, and Roma music and a composer for soloists, chamber ensembles, orchestras, film, and dance. She created and performs the “Living Wind Chimes”, an audience-interactive set of brass pipes that she sets up in unusual venues: Botanical Gardens, Oakland Federal Building, Mendocino Headlands, even a columbarium. Her works are distributed by Vlazville Music and performed internationally, including “Mr. Twitty’s Chair”, performed regularly by the Ahn Trio. Her most recent recorded works appear on “Add Viola and Stir” (released Dec. 2010), three Vox Novus’ “60×60” CDs and the Pegasus Quartet’s “Healing Heart” CD. She is a founding faculty member of the John Adams Young Composer Program at the Crowden School and has taught advanced composition to exceptional youth through the American Composers Forum since 1998. She also conducts clinics and workshops on improvisation and composition around the country, including at Boston Conservatory, Cal Tech’s Prep High School, University of Colorado at Boulder, Berklee College of Music as well as many elementary, middle and high schools and professional conferences. Her most recent classroom residency program is called “Composing Together”.


RODNEY WYNKOOP (February 5 concert) is the conductor of the 150-voice Choral Society of Durham and its 32-voice Chamber Choir. He is the founder and director of the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Durham (VAE), a highly acclaimed select choir. VAE was chosen to sing at the 2005 national convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in Los Angeles, as well as two southern division ACDA conventions in 2000 and 2004. The Chapel Choir and the Choral Society of Durham have also performed at southern division ACDA conventions. Dr. Wynkoop has conducted all-state choruses and led choral conducting workshops in various parts of the United States, and during the summer of 1991 he was resident guest conductor of a professional civic chorus in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Dr. Wynkoop is also conductor of the Duke Chapel Choir and its chamber choir, the Schola Cantorum and has been the Director of Duke Chapel Music since 1989. He came to Duke University in 1984 and holds the title of Professor of the Practice of Music in the Music Department, where he teaches choral conducting and conducts the 50-voice Duke University Chorale and its Chamber Choir.

Dr. Wynkoop’s work with choruses has earned him high praise for artistic excellence and innovative programming. In 2000, he received the Durham Arts Council’s James L. Nicholson award for his contributions in promoting the careers of local singers and composers, and in 2002, he received the Lara Hoggard Award for Distinguished Service in Choral Music in North Carolina, presented by the North Carolina ACDA. In the spring of 2009 Duke University honored him with a Meritorious Service Award for Executive Leadership.

Dr. Wynkoop has directed a diverse repertoire of choral music, spanning a wide spectrum of historical periods and styles. Major works he has performed with orchestra include Britten’s War Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Glass’s Itaipú, and numerous Requiems including those by Brahms, Berlioz, and Verdi. He has led many performances of his choirs with the North Carolina Symphony, and has conducted the world premieres of works by Mendelssohn, Ives, Daniel Gawthrop, Sidney Boquiren and Chapel Organist David Arcus.

Dr. Wynkoop earned his doctoral degree in choral conducting at the Yale School of Music. A student of Robert Fountain, he received a Masters degree from the University of Wisconsin, and a Bachelors degree in music from Yale University. Before coming to Duke, he held conducting positions at the University of Chicago, the Yale School of Music/Institute of Sacred Music, and Mount Holyoke College.

Founded in 1949, the Choral Society of Durham (North Carolina) has a long-standing reputation for excellence in performing great choral literature with professional orchestra and regionally and nationally known soloists. We also engage in outreach to music students in area public schools. Our 32-voice Chamber Choir, often featured in portions of Choral Society concerts, also presents its own concerts and makes guest appearances in the community.