MILESTONES Gala!

Artists

David Shifrin Clarinet & Artistic Director Emeritus 1981–2020

Clarinetist David Shifrin graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in 1967 and the Curtis Institute in 1971. He made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra having won the Orchestra’s Student Competition in 1969. He went on to receive numerous prizes and awards worldwide, including the Geneva and Munich International Competitions, the Concert Artists Guild auditions, and both the Avery Fisher Career Grant (1987) and the Avery Fisher Prize (2000).

Shifrin received Yale University’s Cultural Leadership Citation in 2014 and is currently the Samuel S. Sanford Professor in the Practice of Clarinet at the Yale School of Music where he teaches a studio of graduate-level clarinetists and coaches chamber music ensembles. He is also the artistic director of Yale’s Oneppo Chamber Music Society and the Yale in New York concert series. Shifrin previously served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Hawaii.

Shifrin served as artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center from 1992 to 2004 and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon from 1981 to 2020. He has appeared as soloist with major orchestras in the United States and abroad and has served as Principal Clarinet with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra (under Stokowski), the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of New Haven, Honolulu, and Dallas. Shifrin also continues to broaden the clarinet repertoire by commissioning and championing more than 100 works of 20th and 21st century American composers. Shifrin’s recordings have consistently garnered praise and awards including three Grammy nominations and “Record of the Year” from Stereo Review.

Shifrin is represented by CM Artists in New York and performs on Backun clarinets and Légère reeds.

Artist's Website

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Clarinet Masterclass with David Shifrin (2021)
• EXCLUSIVE DONOR CONCERT: The Emerson Quartet with David Shifrin

Nancy Allen Harp

Hailed by The New York Times as “a major artist” following her New York recital debut in 1975, Nancy Allen joined the New York Philharmonic in June of 1999 as Principal Harp. She maintains a busy international concert schedule as well as heading the harp departments of The Juilliard School and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and teaching at Stony Brook University. In addition, Ms. Allen appears regularly with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Allen’s busy performing schedule includes solo appearances at major international festivals.  She has appeared on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center with The Chamber Music Society, as well as with Ms. Battle, and has performed as a recitalist for Music at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. Ms. Allen’s recording of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro with the Tokyo Quartet, flutist Ransom Wilson, and clarinetist David Shifrin received a Grammy Award nomination; she can also be heard on Sony Classical, Deutsche Grammophon, and CRI.

Ms. Allen is a native of New York, where she studied with Pearl Chertok and undertook private lessons in piano and oboe. The summer of 1972 took her to Paris, where she studied with Lily Laskine. During that same year, she entered The Juilliard School to study with Marcel Grandjany. In 1973, Ms. Allen won the Fifth International Harp Competition, in Israel, and was later awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Award.

Jennifer Frautschi Violin

Two-time Grammy nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient, violinist Jennifer Frautschi, has appeared as soloist with innumerable orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has performed with the Boston Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and appeared at Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Summerfest, Music@Menlo, Tippet Rise Art Center, Toronto Summer Music, and the Bridgehampton, Charlottesville, Lake Champlain, Moab, Ojai, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Spoleto Music Festivals. 

Her extensive discography includes several discs for Naxos: the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, conducted by the legendary Robert Craft, and two Grammy-nominated recordings with the Fred Sherry Quartet of Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra and the Schoenberg Third String Quartet. Her most recent releases are with pianist John Blacklow on Albany Records: the first devoted to the three sonatas of Robert Schumann; the second, American Duos, an exploration of recent additions to the violin and piano repertoire by contemporary American composers Barbara White, Steven Mackey, Elena Ruehr, Dan Coleman, and Stephen Hartke. She also recorded three widely praised CDs for Artek: an orchestral recording of the Prokofiev concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony; the violin music of Ravel and Stravinsky; and 20th-century works for solo violin. Other recordings include a disc of Romantic Horn Trios, with hornist Eric Ruske and pianist Stephen Prutsman, and the Stravinsky Duo Concertant with pianist Jeremy Denk.

Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi attended the Colburn School, Harvard, the New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. She performs on a 1722 Antonio Stradivarius violin known as the “ex-Cadiz,” on generous loan from a private American foundation with support from Rare Violins In Consortium. She currently teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University.

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Violin Masterclass with Jennifer Frautschi (2024)

Carmit Zori Violin

Violinist Carmit Zori is the recipient of a Leventritt Foundation Award, a Pro Musicis International Award, and the top prize in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others, and has given solo recitals at Lincoln Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum in Boston, the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Tel Aviv Museum and the Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts.

Her performances have taken her throughout Latin America and Europe, as well as Israel, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia, where she premiered the Violin Concerto by Marc Neikrug. Ms. Zori appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has been a guest at chamber music festivals and concert series around the world, including the Chamber Music at the Y series, New York City, Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, Chesapeake Bay Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Chamber music festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival,  Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, BDDS chamber music festival Wisconsin, Orcas summer music festival, Peasmarsh music festival in the UK, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, as well as many other venues. Carmit Zori is a regular participant at the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival in Vermont.

Ms. Zori participated in concerts “Music for Food” an organization that leads initiatives with music for local hunger relief. She also participated in concerts for Project Music Heals Us a nonprofit organization that interacts through the communities with a focus on the elderly, and disabled.

Carmit is a member of the “Israeli Chamber Project”, an ensemble that performs chamber concerts in Israel and abroad as well as participates in educational outreach.
Ms. Zori, who for ten years was an artistic director at Bargemusic, founded the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society in 2002.

She has recorded on the Arabesque, Koch International, and Elektra-Nonesuch labels.
Ms. Zori is a professor of violin at Bard college conservatory of music, Rutgers University, and at SUNY Purchase.

After hearing the fifteen-year-old Ms. Zori, Isaac Stern arranged for her to come to the United States from her native Israel to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where her teachers included Ivan Galamian, Jaime Laredo, and Arnold Steinhardt.

Artist's Website

Adam LaMotte Violin

Adam LaMotte is well known to audiences throughout the country as a leader of both period and modern ensembles. He has appeared as soloist, concertmaster, and conductor of numerous orchestras throughout the country, including the Northwest Sinfonietta, String Orchestra of the Rockies, Astoria Festival Orchestra, Pacific MusicWorks, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Bach Collegium San Diego, Ars Lyrica, and the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra.

Adam was nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award, as part of the El Mundo baroque ensemble, and is now Program Director for the Berwick Academy, which guides young professionals in the art of period instrument playing. As Artistic Director of the Montana Baroque Festival, he brings world-class period instrument performances to the rural Montana community. In 2018, Adam founded the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra in Portland.

Oliver Neubauer Violin

Praised for his sensitive and uniquely beautiful playing, violinist Oliver Neubauer is establishing himself as an artist of great emotional depth and maturity beyond his years.

In the 2021-22 season, Oliver will make his debut with the Apex Concerts Series and return to perform with the Jupiter Chamber Players, Mostly Music Series, and Parlance Chamber Concerts. He will also give several recitals in NYC, including one at Hudson Yards and the Juilliard School. This past summer, Oliver attended the Perlman Music Program Chamber Workshop and the Verbier Festival Academy and also gave numerous performances at Bravo! Vail Music Festival and Music from Angel Fire.

Past seasons have included appearances at the Four Seasons Winter Workshop, Palm Beach Chamber Music Society, Bravo! Vail, YoungArts Miami, Parlance Chamber Concerts, If Music Be the Food NYC, Mostly Music Series, Summerfest La Jolla, Music@Menlo, Lake Champlain Music Festival, OKM Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Music in the Vineyards, Art in Avila in Curaçao, and Music from Angel Fire. Oliver has performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall on numerous occasions as well as Symphony Space, the American Museum of Natural History, Neue Gallery, Alice Tully Hall, and David Geffen Hall. Oliver also performed with his sister Clara at the Waldorf Astoria for a 9/11 Memorial and Museum Benefit Dinner, where they shared the stage with Robert De Niro and Bernadette Peters.

Artist's Website

Kerry McDermott Violin

Violinist Kerry McDermott has been recognized as one of the most versatile and exciting artists of her generation. A first violinist with the New York Philharmonic, Ms. McDermott joined as its youngest member at the age of twenty-one and has since appeared as soloist with them throughout North America. She has garnered prizes and awards in major competitions including the Montreal International Violin Competition and the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow - where she also received a special award for “Best Artistic Interpretation”. At age seventeen, Ms. McDermott became the youngest winner in the history of Artists International Auditions which resulted in her New York recital debut. She has performed on tour throughout Holland with Reizend Muziek, as well as on North American tours with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Muir String Quartet. Ms. McDermott has also appeared at Summerfest La Jolla, Angel Fire, Music in the Vineyards, Chamber Music Northwest, Bravo! Colorado, Caramour, Marlboro, Tanglewood, Wolftrap, Mostly Mozart, OK Mozart, Newport, Fredericksburg, Ravinia, and on three continents with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles. She has recorded for Cala, New World Records, and Melodia, and her media appearances include a PBS/ABC/BBC Documentary, the motion picture FAME, and an AT&T commercial for National Network Television. She is a member of The McDermott trio with her sisters, pianist, Anne-Marie and cellist, Maureen, and a Master Artist and National Reviewer for the National YoungArts Foundation. Ms. McDermott is an alumna of the Manhattan School of Music and Yale College.

 

 

 

Tomás Cotik Violin

Hailed by Michael Tilson Thomas as “an excellent violinist,” Tomás Cotik was a first-prize winner at the National Broadcast Music Competition in his native Argentina in 1997 and the winner of the Government of Canada Award for 2003-2005. An avid recording artist, Dr. Cotik has recorded fifteen CDs for Naxos and Centaur Records, which have received three million Spotify streams and over two hundred enthusiastic reviews from publications such as Gramophone, American Record Guide, Downbeat, and MusicWeb International. His latest Piazzolla CD on Naxos was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards.

Mr. Cotik was a rotating concertmaster with the New World Symphony and has performed hundreds of recitals and chamber music concerts across the globe as a member of the acclaimed Amernet, Delray, and Harrington string quartets. He has worked closely with artists such as Joseph Kalichstein, Franklin Cohen, and members of the Cleveland, Miami, Pro Arte, Vogler, Vermeer, Tokyo, and Endellion string quartets. Committed to passing on his passion for music, Dr. Tomás Cotik recently received the inaugural Dean’s Council Award for Research, Scholarship & Creativity for his significant contributions at the international level and was promoted to Associate Professor of Violin at Portland State University. He previously taught at West Texas A&M University, Florida International University, and the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.

Artist's Website

Paul Neubauer Viola

Violist Paul Neubauer’s exceptional musicality and effortless playing led The New York Times to call him “a master musician.” In 2025 he will release two albums for First Hand Records that feature the final works of two great composers: an all-Bartók album including the revised version of the viola concerto, and a Shostakovich recording including the monumental viola sonata.

At age 21, Mr. Neubauer was appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic, and he held that position for six years. He has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics; Chicago, National, St. Louis, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco, and Bournemouth symphonies; and Mariinsky, Santa Cecilia, English Chamber, and Beethovenhalle orchestras.

He has also premiered viola concertos by Béla Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Reinhold Glière, Gordon Jacob, Henri Lazarof, Robert Suter, Joel Phillip Friedman, Aaron Jay Kernis, Detlev Müller-Siemens, David Ott, Krzysztof Penderecki, Tobias Picker, and Joan Tower. He performs with SPA, a trio with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, with a wide range of repertoire including salon style songs.

He has been featured on CBS’s Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time Grammy nominee, he has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical.

Mr. Neubauer appears with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey. He is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College

Artist's Website

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Viola Masterclass with Paul Neubauer (2023)

Nicholas Cords Viola

For three decades, omnivorous violist Nicholas Cords has been on the front line of a unique constellation of projects as performer, educator, and cultural advocate, with a signature passion for the cross section between the long tradition of classical music and the wide range of music being created today.

Nicholas served for twenty years as violist of the Silkroad Ensemble, a musical collective founded by Yo-Yo Ma in 2000 with the belief that cross-cultural collaboration leads to a more hopeful world. This mission was poignantly explored by the recent Oscar-nominated documentary by Morgan Neville, The Music of Strangers, which makes a case for why culture matters. In addition, Nicholas served from 2017-2020 as a Co-Artistic Director for Silkroad, and previously as Silkroad’s Programming Chair. He appears on all of the Silkroad Ensemble’s albums including Sing Me Home (Sony Music), which received a 2017 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album.

Another key aspect of Nicholas’s musical life is as founding member of Brooklyn Rider, an intrepid group which NPR credits with “recreating the 300-year-old form of the string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” Highly committed to collaborative ventures, the group has worked with Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, ballerina Wendy Whelan, Persian kemancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, Mexican singer Magos Herrera, and banjoist Béla Fleck, to name a few. Their most recent recording, Healing Modes, was lauded by The New York Times and received a 2021 Grammy Nomination.

His acclaimed 2020 solo recording, Touch Harmonious (In a Circle Records), is a reflection on the arc of tradition spanning from the baroque to today, featuring multiple premieres. A dedicated teacher, Nicholas currently serves on the viola and chamber music faculty of New England Conservatory.

Artist's Website

Sophie Shao Cello

Cellist Sophie Shao, winner of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes at the Rostropovich and Tchaikovsky competitions, is a versatile and passionate artist whose performances the New York Times has described as “eloquent, powerful,” “beautifully phrased and interestingly textured,” the LA Times noted as “impressive” and the Washington Post called “deeply satisfying.”

Shao has appeared as soloist to critical acclaim throughout the United States and has premiered Howard Shore’s cello concerto Mythic Gardens with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra, the UK premiere with Keith Lockhart and the BBC Concert Orchestra, and European premiere with Ludwig Wicki and the 21st Century Orchestra at the KKL in Lucerne. She also premiered Richard Wilson’s The Cello Has Many Secrets with the American Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Shao has given recitals in Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Middlebury College, Phillips Collection, Walter Reade Theater, and Rose Studio in Lincoln Center, the complete Bach Suites at Union College, and in New York City. Her dedication to chamber music has conceived her popular “Sophie Shao and Friends” groups. She was a member of Chamber Music Society Two/Bowers Program, a young artist residency of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Ms. Shao’s recordings include the Complete Bach Suites, Andre Previn’s Reflections for Cello and English Horn and Orchestra on EMI Classics, Richard Wilson’s Diablerie and Brash Attacks and Barbara White’s My Barn Having Burned to the Ground, I Can Now See the Moon on Albany Records, Howard Shore’s original score for the movie The Betrayal on Howe Records, Marlboro Music Festival’s 50th Anniversary on Bridge Records, and Howard Shore’s Mythic Gardens on Sony Classical.

A native of Houston, Texas, Ms. Shao began playing the cello at age six and was a student of Shirley Trepel, the former principal cellist of the Houston Symphony. At age thirteen she enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying cello with David Soyer and chamber music with Felix Galimir. After graduating from the Curtis Institute, she continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, receiving a B.A. in Religious Studies from Yale College and an M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. She is on the faculty of the University of Connecticut and is playing a Hieronymus Amati cello c.1700 on a generous loan.

Fred Sherry Cello

Fred Sherry has introduced audiences on five continents and all fifty United States to the music of our time for over five decades. He was a founding member of TASHI and Speculum Musicae, artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has been a member of the Group for Contemporary Music, Berio’s Juilliard Ensemble and the Galimir String Quartet. He has also enjoyed a close collaboration with jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea.

Elliott Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Steve Mackey, David Rakowski, Somei Satoh, Charles Wuorinen, and John Zorn have written concertos for Sherry, and he has premiered solo and chamber works dedicated to him by Milton Babbitt, Derek Bermel, Jason Eckardt, Lukas Foss, Oliver Knussen, Peter Lieberson, Donald Martino, and Toru Takemitsu among others.

Fred Sherry’s vast discography encompasses a wide range of classic and modern repertoire; he has been soloist and “sideman” on hundreds of commercial and esoteric recordings. Mr. Sherry was the organizer for Robert Craft’s New York recording sessions from 1995-2012. Their longstanding collaboration produced celebrated performances of the Schoenberg Cello Concerto, all four String Quartets, and the String Quartet Concerto as well as major works by Stravinsky and Webern.

Mr. Sherry’s book 25 Bach Duets from the Cantatas was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 2011, the revised edition was released in 2019. C.F. Peters unveiled his treatise on contemporary string playing, A Grand Tour of Cello Technique, in 2018. He is a member of the cello faculty of The Juilliard School, The Mannes School of Music, and The Manhattan School of Music.

Artist's Website

Ransom Wilson Flute

Flutist/conductor Ransom Wilson has performed in concert with major orchestras the world over. As a flutist, he has recently launched an ongoing series of solo recordings on the Nimbus label in Europe. As a conductor, he is starting his third season as Music Director of the Redlands Symphony in Southern California, and he continues his positions with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and Le Train Bleu ensemble. He has led opera performances at the New York City Opera, and was for ten years an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. He has been a guest conductor of the London, Houston, KBS, Kraków, Denver, New Jersey, Hartford, and Berkeley symphonies; the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra; the Hallé Orchestra; and the chamber orchestras of St. Paul and Los Angeles. He has also appeared with the Glimmerglass Opera, Minnesota Opera, and the Opera of La Quinzena Musical in Spain. As an educator, he regularly leads masterclasses at the Paris Conservatory, Juilliard School, Moscow Conservatory, Cambridge University, and others. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he was an Atlantique Foundation scholar in Paris, where he studied privately with Jean-Pierre Rampal. His recording career, which includes three Grammy Award nominations, began in 1973 with Jean-Pierre Rampal and I Solisti Veneti. Since then he has recorded over 35 albums as flutist and/or conductor. Mr. Wilson is Professor of Flute at the Yale University School of Music, and has performed with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1991.

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Amelia Lukas Flute

“Known for her especially pure tone, flexible technique, and passionate performances,” (Artslandia) flutist Amelia Lukas performs with “a fine balance of virtuosity and poetry” (The New York Times). A Powell Flutes Artist and Portland resident, she “excels at bringing drama and fire to hyper-modernist works with challenging extended techniques” (Oregon ArtsWatch). In addition to her solo show “Natural Homeland” at the Alberta Rose Theatre and throughout Washington and Hawaii, her recent engagements include solo appearances for United for Ukraine, Siletz Bay Music Festival, Fear No Music, Makrokosmos Project, Kenny Endo, March Music Moderne, Portland Taiko, the Astoria Music Festival, and for All Classical Radio’s live radio broadcasts, with additional performances for the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Portland Piano International, TedX Portland, Friends of Chamber Music, 45th Parallel, and Oregon Music Festival. Lukas’ career includes founding and directing the “truly original… impeccably curated” (Time Out New York) multimedia chamber series, Ear Heart Music, membership in the American Modern Ensemble, and performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Stone, Bargemusic, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and New Music New York Festival. She holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Music (London), where she received three prizes for musical excellence, and from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was an inaugural class member for the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Performance. Amelia is a Chamber Music Northwest Board Member and offers creative strategy and public relations services as the Principal and Founder of Aligned Artistry. Learn more at amelialukas.com.

Artist's Website

Martin Hébert Oboe

Martin Hébert has served as the principal oboe of the Oregon Symphony since his appointment in 2006. Previously, he held that position with the Florida Orchestra, the Savannah Symphony Orchestra, and the Mexico City Philharmonic. Martin has also performed as guest principal oboe with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago.

Born in Cleveland, Martin attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Mack, principal oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Martin has been a featured soloist with the Oregon Symphony, as well as with other ensembles throughout the United States and Mexico. From 2002-2005, he was an Artist in Residence and soloist with the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado.

In addition to his orchestral experience, Martin has played with opera and ballet companies in Portland, Honolulu, Atlanta, Tampa, Savannah, and Cleveland. As a chamber musician, he has performed in Oregon with Chamber Music Northwest, fEARnoMUSIC, Third Angle, and the Oregon Bach Festival.
Music is the Hébert family business. Martin’s father William was principal piccolo of the Cleveland Orchestra for 41 years, while his uncle Richard is the former principal bassoon of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Martin’s brother Britton is a freelance bassoonist.

Martin has toured with orchestras in Japan, Hong Kong, Western Europe, and South America. He has recorded with the Mexico City Philharmonic on Decca, the Atlanta Symphony on Telarc, and the Oregon Symphony on Pentatone.

Active as a teacher, adjudicator, and clinician, Hébert maintains a private studio of pupils, and he coaches youth groups across Oregon.
When not performing, teaching, or making reeds, Martin enjoys bicycling, theater and hiking in the magnificent Columbia Gorge.

Michael Anderson Clarinet

Michael Anderson is Principal Clarinet of the Eugene Symphony and Santa Fe Pro Musica. He was Principal Clarinet of the Oregon Bach Festival and Oregon Ballet Theater for many years. Michael is Artistic Director of the chamber ensemble microphilharmonic, in residence at The Shedd Institute in Eugene, Oregon, and has performed with Chamber Music Northwest, the festival Le Domaine Forget, the Oregon Symphony, and the Smithsonian Chamber Players.

Michael Anderson premiered Tomas Svoboda’s Clarinet Concerto in April 2013 with the Eugene Symphony, broadcast internationally on American Public Media’s Performance Today. He performed on the Oregon Bach Festival’s Grammy Award-winning recording of Penderecki’s Credo and the Grammy-nominated Das Lied von der Erde recorded by Santa Fe Pro Musica and the Smithsonian Chamber Players.

Anderson has served in leadership roles for the Oregon Bach Festival, Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Eugene Opera and as Director of Artistic Administration for the Oregon Bach Festival. Over his career as an administrator, he has produced hundreds of performances of symphony, oratorio, opera, ballet, pops, chamber music, and period instrument ensembles.

In 2017, Michael Anderson was the recipient of the Eugene Arts and Letters Award, which honors an individual who has made an exceptional contribution to the arts and culture of Eugene, Oregon. He studied clarinet with David Shifrin (USC); John McManus, Robert Vagner, and Wayne Bennett (University of Oregon); and Catherine Palladino (Portland State University). Michael has taught at the University of Oregon, Willamette University, and Lane Community College; and currently at Woodwinds at Wallowa Lake.

Julie Feves Bassoon

Julie Feves is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music. She has performed extensively as a soloist, chamber performer, and orchestra principal in music ranging from the baroque to the avant-garde. The New York Times has praised her “virtuosic flair” and The San Francisco Examiner admired “the sureness of her pitch and the tenderness of her phrasing.” Ms. Feves has appeared with numerous orchestras throughout the United States, including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the American Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Aspen Festival Orchestras. Currently, Ms. Feves serves as principal bassoonist with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. She has performed contemporary music with the New Century Players, Speculum Musicae, and the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. Performing on early bassoons, she has worked with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, the Mozartean Players, and the Pernucio Ensemble. As a chamber music artist, Ms. Feves performs with her Baroque group, Bach’s Circle. She has appeared with Chamber Music Northwest and Music from Angel Fire in Angel Fire, New Mexico. She has also appeared with the Bravo Colorado Music Festival in Vail, Colorado and as a guest artist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. She has recorded for Delos, Columbia Records, Nonesuch, Harmonia Mundi, Leonarda, Nine Winds, and the AudioQuest labels.

Carin Miller Bassoon

Carin Miller is Principal Bassoon with the Oregon Symphony, and she previously held principal bassoon positions with the Jacksonville and Shreveport Symphonies. Ms. Miller has performed frequently as Guest Principal Bassoon with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Portland Opera and Oregon Ballet Theater. She recently toured as Guest Principal Bassoon with the Galilee Chamber Orchestra performing in Tel Aviv, Toronto, and New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Ms. Miller enjoys collaborating in Seattle with the Seattle Chamber Music Society and Orca Concert series, as well as locally with Chamber Music Northwest, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, Third Angle New Music Ensemble, Classical Up Close, and 45th Parallel Universe.

Under the umbrella of the Oregon Symphony Sounds of Home series, she curated and performed in a chamber music program with commissions from local composers and in conjunction with the Audubon Society of Portland to raise awareness of the impact of climate change. Ms. Miller has had the immense pleasure of performing duets with jazz sensation Wycliffe Gordon as part of her residency coaching with the National Youth Orchestra of Carnegie Hall.

A native of Queens, New York, Ms. Miller holds a BM from The Juilliard School, an MM from Rice University, and an Advanced Certificate from the University of Southern California. Her teachers include Whitney Crockett, Frank Morelli, Stephen Maxym, and Benjamin Kamins.

Ms. Miller is the Founder and Director of the online symposium, Bassoons Without Borders, and continues to connect communities across the globe and improve access to high-quality education for all through this work. As an educator, she has served on the faculty of the Sarasota Music Festival and has presented masterclasses for the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory, as well as being the featured guest for McGill University’s Bassoon Day. She coaches for the Portland Youth Philharmonic, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, and Wallowa Lake Woodwind Camp. Ms. Miller had the great privilege of serving for a year as visiting Adjunct Associate Professor of Bassoon at Indiana University in 2021-2022, and has served on the board of the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Ms. Miller is currently Adjunct Professor at Portland State University, Pacific University, Lewis and Clark College, and Reed College, as well as curating a private teaching studio from her home in Portland, Oregon.

William Purvis Horn

William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the U.S. and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, he has participated in numerous premieres including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott, Krzysztof Penderecki (New York premiere), and Paul Lansky; horn trios by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky; Sonate en Forme de Préludes by Steven Stucky; and recent premieres by Elliott Carter, Retracing II for Solo Horn and Nine by Five with the New York Woodwind Quintet. He is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Yale Brass Trio, and the Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Mr. Purvis has been a frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and has collaborated with many of the world’s most esteemed string quartets, including the Juilliard, Tokyo, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus, and Fine Arts string quartets. Recent Festival appearances have included the Sarasota, Norfolk, Sebago Long Lake, Chestnut Hill, and Phoenix Chamber Music Festivals in the U.S., the Great Mountain, Busan and Gimhae Chamber Music Festivals in South Korea, and the Kitaruizawa Festival in Japan. He has participated in performances on historical instruments with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and a recording of the Quintets for Piano and Winds will be released in Spring of 2020. He has recorded extensively on numerous labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, Naxos, Koch, and Bridge. Mr. Purvis is currently Professor in the Practice of Horn and Chamber Music at the Yale School of Music, where he is also coordinator of winds and brasses, and serves as Director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

Jeff Garza Horn

Jeff Garza was appointed Principal Horn of the Oregon Symphony in October 2019. He has previously held principal positions with the San Antonio Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Britt Festival Orchestra, and Festival Mozaic. Jeff has served as guest principal in dozens of orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, and Melbourne Symphony. During the summer festival season, he is principal horn of the Bellingham Festival of Music.

As a chamber musician and soloist, Jeff has performed at festivals, workshops and concert series throughout the United States including Concordia Chamber Players, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, and Cactus Pear Music Festival. He is a core member and former Artistic Director of Olmos Ensemble, a chamber music group based in San Antonio, Texas.

His recent recording credits include chamber music by composers Mark Abel (Spectrum, Delos Productions) and Andrew Lewinter (Music for Brass and Piano, Novona Records).

Jeff is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He received additional musical training as a fellow with the New World Symphony and the Tanglewood Music Center. Jeff is currently Adjunct Professor of Horn and a chamber music coach at Oregon State University and the University of Portland. He has previously held faculty positions at Brevard Music Center, Interlochen Center for the Arts, St. Mary’s University, San Antonio College, and Trinity University.

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Tyler Abbott Bass

Tyler Abbott teaches double bass, jazz bass, and music theory at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance in Eugene, Oregon, and has taught at Walla Walla College and Willamette University. He maintains a private teaching studio in Eugene, Oregon.  He maintains an active performance schedule as an orchestral bassist, chamber musician, jazz bassist, clinician, and soloist, and has performed nationally and internationally with some of the finest musicians in both the classical and jazz music worlds.  He has recently performed with or is a member of, the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Spokane Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Festival of American Music’s “American Symphonia,” Eugene Opera Orchestra, Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Mozart Players, Salem Chamber Orchestra, and several other professional orchestras throughout the region and country. As a chamber musician, he has performed with the Oregon String Quartet, Chamber Music Amici, Pacifica Trio, Beta Collide, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Orli Shaham, Sharon Robinson, Vladamir Feltsman, Jamie Laredo, acclaimed contemporary soprano Lucy Shelton, and Hundreth Monkey, a contemporary ensemble based in Eugene, of which he was co-director.

As a jazz bassist, Tyler has performed with Steve Wilson, Ben Monder, Randy Porter, Roswell Rudd, Danilo Perez, Billy Childs, Chris Botti, Dave Pietro, Scott Wenholdt, Billy Kilson, Nancy King, Marcus Whitfield, George Mitchell, Arnie Caruthers, Ryan Keberle, Randy Halberstadt, Dick Hyman, Howard Levy, Warren Rand, Tom Grant, John Stowell, and many others. He performs regularly in jazz festivals and on radio broadcasts and has performed with a touring Broadway show. His recording with Toby Koenigsberg, Sense, was released on Origin Records and was met with favorable reviews in several publications. Tyler has presented master classes at several universities and high schools and presented at the 2011 International Society of Bassists Convention in San Francisco, CA. His playing can be heard on the soundtrack to the documentary Fly Away Beetle, released in 2011.  He performed on Hashem Assadullahi’s project Pieces (featuring Ron Miles, and also including James Miley, Justin Morell, and Ryan Biesack), to be released in 2012.

Tyler studied double bass with Roma Vayspapir (former principal bass of the Leningrad Philharmonic), Bruce Bransby (former principal bass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Jeff Bradetich (international soloist and pedagogue), Don Hermanns (Oregon Symphony), Lynn Seaton (Professor of Jazz Bass, University of North Texas), Dave Captein (Portland-based freelance jazz musician), Ken Baldwin (former assistant principal of Oregon Symphony), Curtis Daily (Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra), Eugene Jablonsky, and has studied briefly and/or participated in masterclasses with Hal Robinson, Edgar Meyer, Al Laszlo, and Eugene Levinson.  He traveled to Gorizia, Italy to study with Christina Hoock, bass professor of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.  He attended the Aspen Music Festival and School for five years and attended the Atlantic Music Festival, where he was the only fellowship recipient on bass.

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