Musicians
The Harlem Chamber Players is a collective of musicians. These are just some of the musicians who have performed in our series, and we continue to build our roster of the finest players available in New York.
Alvin McCall, Cello
Cellist Alvin McCall has distinguished himself as a recitalist, chamber musician and symphony orchestra performer. As a member of the McCall-Deats Duo he has performed recitals throughout the US, France and Germany. The Duo has recorded the Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich Sonatas and continues to perform recitals regularly.
McCall, having studied with one of the premier chamber musicians, Bernard Greenhouse, is very fond of chamber music and has performed national tours with the Alexandria Quintet and the Omega Ensemble. He has also performed chamber concerts at the Caramoor Music Festival, Utah Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, with New York New Music, the Amici Ensemble, the Atlantic Sinfonietta and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. With members of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, he has performed on the Symphony's Pulitzer concerts, Chamber Music St Louis, Discovery, Summerfest and various Community Partnership venues throughout the city.
A former member of the New York Chamber Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Alvin joined the St Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and has been a member of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra since 1986.
Amadi Azikiwe, Viola
Amadi Azikiwe, violist and conductor, has been heard in recital in major cities throughout the United States, such as New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Houston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., including an appearance at the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Azikiwe has also been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at the Alice Tully Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. He has appeared in recital at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, on the “Discovery” recital series in La Jolla, at the International Viola Congress, and at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since then, he has performed throughout Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, India, Japan, Hong Kong, and throughout the Caribbean.
As a chamber musician, Azikiwe has appeared in concert with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Chester, Miro, St. Lawrence, Anderson, Arianna, Harrington and Corigliano quartets. He was also a member of the Concertante Chamber Players, and is a former member of the Ritz Chamber Players. Among Mr. Azikiwe’s prizes and awards are those from Concert Artists Guild, the North Carolina Symphony, the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the Epstein Young Artists Award from the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, with whom he still maintains a strong artistic and mentoring association.
Mr. Azikiwe was previously the conductor of the Old Dominion University Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta University Center Orchestra. He was also a visiting faculty member of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, IN. Currently, he is on the faculty of James Madison University, and Music Director of the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. He has guest conducted for the Intercollegiate Music Association, at the Gateways Music Festival, and the Trinity Opera Company. Mr. Azikiwe has appeared as artist faculty at the Brevard Music Center, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Killington Music Festival, Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Yachats Music Festival, and the Aria International Academy in London, Ontario.
As an orchestral musician, he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, principal violist of the SHIRA Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra, and as guest principal violist of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra. He has performed under the baton of conductors Lorin Maazel, James DePriest, Christoph Eschenbach, Gerard Schwarz, Marek Janowski, Leonard Slatkin, Seiji Ozawa, Michael Morgan, Pinchas Zukerman, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Sixten Ehrling, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Charles Dutoit, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, and Leonard Bernstein.
A native of New York City, Amadi Azikiwe was born in 1969. After early studies with his mother, he began his formal training at the North Carolina School of the Arts as a student of Sally Peck. He continued his studies at the New England Conservatory with Marcus Thompson and conductor Pascal Verrot, receiving his Bachelor’s degree. Mr. Azikiwe was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University, where he served as an Associate Instructor, and received his Master’s Degree in 1994 as a student of Atar Arad. You may find out more on his website www.amadiazikiwe.com.
Amy Fraser, Bassoon
Amy Fraser is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. Among her orchestral credits, she has performed with the New Philharmonic of New Jersey, Harrisburg Symphony, Soulful Symphony, New Jersey Ballet, Albany Symphony, and the New York Virtuosi, to name a few. Ms. Fraser toured the country extensively with the Music of Andrew Lloyd Weber. She toured Spain on two occasions with the American Festival Orchestra and the Connecticut Chamber Orchestra. Choral engagements include the Greenwich Village Singers, New Jersey Chorale, Ars Musica, and several other oratorio societies. For the past several years, Ms. Fraser has been enriching the lives of public school children through “Music Outreach Educative Workshops.” This program is comprised of the art of storytelling, musical demonstration and an age-appropriate lecture.
Andréa Bradford, Soprano
Soprano Andréa Bradford began her musical training with the study of the piano. Her vocal study began early, and she later earned degrees in vocal performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Boston University. She has studied and coached with Donald Palumbo, Allen Rogers, Larry Woodard, Wayne Sanders, Mary Davenport, Donna Roll, Sarah Caldwell and Leonard Bernstein.
She toured with Sarah Caldwell and The Opera Company of Boston for over a decade, performing throughout New England and Europe. She has also performed extensively as a recitalist and with such orchestras as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra. She has received particular acclaim for her work in 20th century operas and solo vocal compositions.
Ms. Bradford is a multi-faceted performer, having been a piano accompanist for other singers and instrumentalists, and she is comfortable in both the classical and jazz genres.
Anthony Morris, Double Bass
Anthony Morris has been Principal Auxiliary and has toured internationally with The New York Philharmonic from 1999 to 2006 under the batons of Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. From 2007 to the present, Morris plays extensively with The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO). When he is not playing with NJSO, he is working on Broadway shows such as Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera along with other numerous orchestras in the Tri-State area. Mr. Morris is also an instructor at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. He holds a B.M.A. from Manhattan School of Music and an M.M.A. from The Juilliard School of Music. He has studied with internationally renowned musicians such as Eugene Levinson, Paul Ellison, and Bruce Bransby. As of September 2010, Morris has accepted the Low String Coach position at the InterSchool Orchestras of New York (ISO).
Ashley Horne, Violin
A native of Los Angeles, violinist Ashley Horne has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician around the world. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he is known for his “bright tone and fine overall sense of style” (Dennis Rooney of Strad Magazine). He performs regularly with American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Bard Festival Orchestra, Westchester Symphony, West-Park Chamber Society, Gateways Music Festival, Dance Theater of Harlem Orchestra and New York City Opera, as well as on Broadway’s The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Wild Party, Carousel, and the current smash hit, The Producers. He has been the featured soloist and concertmaster of numerous ensembles, including The New Black Repertory Ensemble, The Antara Ensemble of NY, Cascade Festival Orchestra, and Aspen Young Artists Orchestra. His recording of Henry Cowell’s Fiddler’s Jig with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra can be heard on Koch International. Mr. Horne has been a recitalist at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Solo and chamber music performances have taken him to many interesting parts of the globe, such as Spain, Portugal, the Azores Islands, Odessa and Istanbul. Filmgoers can see Mr. Horne in Le Mozart Noir, the PBS documentary of violinist and composer Chevalier de Saint George, as well as in Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America.
Barbara Oldham, French Horn
Barbara Oldham is a founding member of the wind quintet Quintet of the Americas and has appeared with the Marlboro Music Festival, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Festival Brass Quintet, and Westchester Chamber Music Festival. She has toured in over 300 cities in the Western Hemisphere and Eastern Europe, performed at Carnegie Hall, the American Music Week Series at Weill Recital Hall; the Bermuda International Festival; the Chamber Music Northwest Festival; Festival Internacional de Música Contemporanea in Bogotá; Sala Teresa Careña in Caracas; the American Composers Orchestra Sonidos de Mexico and Sonidos de Cuba Festivals; the Chautauqua Festival; Bar Harbor Festival; the First International Congress on Women in Music; the Pan American Music Festivals at the Library of Congress and the O.A.S. in Washington, D.C.; the Inter-American Festival in Puerto Rico; two Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festivals; and a two-day Villa-Lobos centennial festival at Merkin Hall in NYC.
She has presented solo recitals at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and the American Landmark Festivals and is the recipient of a Brooklyn Arts Council Individual Artist Grant for solo recitals. She is a member of the Queens Symphony, former principal horn of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia, Opera Northeast, and guest principal horn with the National Symphony of the Dominican Republic. She has also performed with Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, Radio City Music Hall, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Joffrey Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and on Broadway. She has recorded on the CRI, MMC, Newport Classic, XLNT, Opus 1, and MSR labels. She serves on the faculties of Brooklyn College, New York University, and Summer Trios summer chamber music festival.
Brandee Younger, Harp
A versatile musician who continues to defy genres and labels, this young harpist has created a unique niche in both traditional and non-traditional harp arenas. Best-known for her limitless drive, Ms. Younger remains in high demand and attracts the attention of today’s most well-known artists, producers and groups.
A classically trained harpist, she has performed with an array of orchestras including the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, Waterbury Symphony, Soulful Symphony, Ensemble du Monde, Camerata New York and the Red Bull Artsehcro, a “non-conformist” orchestra.
She has worked & recorded with a number of jazz luminaries including Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Wycliffe Gordon, Charlie Haden, Reggie Workman, Kenny Garrett, Rashied Ali, and Bill Lee, as well as a host of New York City’s top, young jazz musicians. In hip-hop, she has worked with several artists and producers, including Common, Ryan Leslie, Cassie, Talib Kweli and Drake. She effortlessly performs in many diverse genres, due to her proficiency as an artist and all around musician.
A native of Long Island, Ms. Younger grew up in Hempstead and Uniondale, where she began her harp studies as a teen. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance and Music Business at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford where she was also mentored by the faculty of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz and African American Studies. She received her Master of Arts in Harp Performance from New York University. Her formal instructors on the University level include harpists Rebecca Flannery, Susan Jolles, Emily Mitchell, and bassist, Nat Reeves.
Currently, she resides in New York where she maintains a rigorous performing and teaching schedule. She performs with her trio, as a soloist, and performs regularly as part of The Workman String Summit, led by bassist, Reggie Workman; the Laura Kahle Quintet, led by composer and trumpeter, Laura Kahle and with Bill Lee and the Natural Spirit Orchestra. Ms. Younger has a private teaching studio in New York and is on the harp faculty of the Hartt School, at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, CT; Adelphi University in Garden City, NY and The Greenwich House Music School in New York, NY. She is Vice President of the Long Island Chapter of the American Harp Society. Learn more about Ms. Younger on her website: http://brandeeyounger.com/.
Carl Jackson, Clarinet
Clarinetist Carl Jackson has received praise from peers as well as musical legends the likes of Leonard Bernstein and Sergiu Celebidache. By age 17 while attending the High School for the Performing Arts in New York City and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Division, Carl had already appeared as a soloist on the stages of Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. He later attended the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Donald Montanaro and Anthony Gigliotti, both of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Carl has been a member of or has performed with numerous orchestras, including the New World Symphony with Michael Tilson-Thomas, The Utah Symphony with Keith Lockhart, The Glimmerglass Opera, The Sarasota Opera, The Philharmonic Orchestra of Florida, The American Symphony Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York City Housing Symphony, The Dance Theatre of Harlem, Solisti of New York with Ransom Wilson, The San Francisco Symphony, The Grand Teton Music Festival, European Tours of Westside Story and My Fair Lady, The Iris Chamber Orchestra with Michael Stern, Broadway’s Finians’ Rainbow, The American Ballet Theatre and The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Carl is also the designer of allpointligatures.
Charlene Bishop, Violin
Charlene Bishop began her violin studies at the age of 6. She was accepted into the Music Advancement Program (MAP) at the Juilliard School. She furthered her studies at the Mannes Pre-College and College of Music with Ann Setzer where she received her BA in Violin Performance. Through the years, Charlene has performed at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, Fiddlefest in Zurich, Switzerland, and has collaborated with artists such as Arnold Steinhardt, Wyclef Jean, Madonna, Beres Hammond in Jamaica, and many more. Currently, Charlene teaches at Opus 118-Harlem School of Music (where she is an alumni) and at the Thurnauer School of Music, and she continues to freelance throughout New York City.
Curtis Stewart, Violin
A New York City native and graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Curtis has performed as a soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, and at Lincoln Center with “Ljova.” He has made chamber music appearances in the Rochester International Jazz Festival and at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall with the New York Chamber Virtuousi, holding his audiences “spellbound” with his “prodigious technique.” (New York Amsterdam News) An avid teacher, he currently teaches at the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Curtis’ eclectic background has led him to concerts in many different realms of music from the avant-garde jazz Vision Festival and MTV specials with Wyclef Jean and Yo La Tengo, to stints at the Jazz Gallery with Jason Lindner and Edmar Casteneda. His ensembles PUBLIQuartet and The Mighty Third Rail perform frequently at many of New York’s illustrious venues including the Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, the Stone, Cornelia Street Café, Lincoln Center’s Atirum, and “The Howl Festival” of the Lower East Side. Curtis has played with many great musicians including Henry Threadgill, Dick Oatts, Jason Lindner, Adam Rudolf, Jason Hwang, Edmar Casteneda, Linda Oh, Chris Dingman, Graham Haynes, Akua Dixon, Dave Liebman, Matt Wilson, Jerome Harris, among many others. A supporter and practitioner of many styles of music, Curtis is excited to continue expanding and blending all the elements of his stylistic and expressive range, developing a unique and relevant voice in New York’s boundless music scene.
David Byrd-Marrow, French Horn
Atlanta native David Byrd-Marrow received his Bachelor's degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with the late Jerome Ashby. For his Master's degree, David went on to study with William Purvis at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He was then selected for fellowship in the Juilliard-Carnegie Hall Academy Ensemble ACJW. David has also played with groups such as Carnegie Hall's "Zankel Band," The Orchestra of St. Luke's, The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Tokyo Symphony, The New York and Atlanta Operas and The New York Philharmonic.
David Miller, Bassoon
In the mid sixties bassoonist David Miller was the first Afro-American to integrate The National Symphony Orchestra and the U.S. Navy Band, both in Washington, D.C. As a freelance musician Mr. Miller has performed with organizations such as The Long Island Philharmonic, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The New World Symphony Orchestra, The Jupiter Symphony Orchestra, The Quebec Symphony Orchestra, The Alvin Ailey Dance Company, The Dance Theatre of Harlem, The New York City Housing Authority Orchestra, and The Whirlwind Quintet.
On sojourns to South America he played with Sinfonica de Columbia and taught bassoon in Venezuela’s Orchestra Juevenil. On and off Broadway Mr. Miller played in “The Music of Andrew Lloyd Weber,” “Into the Woods” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” He now teaches at the 92nd Street Y and the Harlem School of the Arts.
Graduate studies were pursued at Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn College of Music, and C.W. Post at Long Island University. Mr. Miller is thankful to Sue Palma of Orpheus for enabling his music performance skills.
Deryck Clarke, French horn
A native of Brooklyn, NY, Deryck Clarke (French horn) is a graduate of the High School of Performing Arts in New York City (where he was an extra in the original movie “Fame”), the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Curtis Institute of Music. He has been a member of the One World Symphony, Imani Winds, the Jupiter Symphony, the Curtis Wind Quintet, and he has performed with the West Harlem Winds and The Harlem Chamber Players. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia and continues to perform with a wide variety of orchestras and ensembles in the New York City area.
Mr. Clarke has been an Artist-in-residence at the Hartwick College Music Festival, the Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival, and a faculty member of the Juilliard School and Mannes College pre-college divisions. He has also served as a brass faculty member and as Music Department Director of the Harlem School of the Arts.
Deryck is a veteran of the U.S. Army. While deployed in Mogadishu, Somalia as a member of the 101st Airborne, he had the opportunity to visit orphanages and play horn for the children victimized by the civil war. Those experiences inspired him to pursue a life of public service through music. A certified instrumental music teacher, Deryck volunteers at the Mount Vernon School in Newark, New Jersey where he has taught for three years. Mr. Clarke is currently a graduate student and teaching assistant at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. He appeared with the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra in a video with Jay-Z to open the Super Bowl LXIV on CBS.
Deryck is the founder and director of The Harmony Effect, a grass roots organization dedicated to providing chamber music performance and instruction to all people.
Eric Malson, Piano
Eric Malson is an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician whose activities have taken throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. As soloist, he has appeared with the North Carolina Symphony, Columbus (Ohio) Symphony, Manhattan Mozart Orchestra, Orquestra da Fundação Gulbenkian, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Oak Ridge Symphony, and Prince William Symphony orchestras. As a collaborating pianist with the Steans Institute for Young Artists, he has appeared frequently at the Ravinia Festival, as well as the Tanglewood, Norfolk (Conn.), Wexford (Ireland), Caramoor (N.Y.), Scotia (Halifax), Chautauqua, Évora (Portugal), Semana Grande de Santander (Spain), and Verso il Millennio (Riva del Garda, Italy) festivals, and has appeared in concert with members of the Hagen, Vogler, Alexander, Lark, Cavani, and Chester quartets.
Mr. Malson works extensively with singers, and has appeared in concert with sopranos Deborah Voigt and Eva Urbanová, tenors Thomas Studebaker, Lawrence Brownlee and Charles Reid, basses Alfred Walker and David Pittsinger, and baritone Chistophoren Nomura, among many others, and his critically-acclaimed CD of the Brahms Magelone songs with tenor Paul Mow was recently released on the Lyrichord label. He has served on the musical staff of various opera companies, including the Bühnen der Stadt Köln, Teatro Nacional São Carlos (Lisbon), Seattle Opera (Ring cycle), Washington Opera at Kennedy Center, Opera Zuid (Netherlands), Theater der Stadt Heidelberg, The Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Cleveland Opera. He has served on the opera faculties of the Juilliard School of Music and the Mannes College of Music, as well as the accompanying staff of the Curtis Institute of Music, and the accompanying and chamber music faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. Mr. Malson has served as official accompanist for various competitions, including the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition, Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions.
Mr. Malson resided for several years in Portugal, where he concertized throughout the country, as well as serving on the faculties of the Academia Nacional de Orquestra and the Escola Superior de Musica de Lisboa. He participated in the Portuguese premieres of numerous works, including the Piano Concerto in A-flat Major, Op. 113 of Hummel, Roger Sessions' First Piano Sonata, Dohnanyi’s Sextet, Op. 37, and Wolfgang Rihm’s La Lugubre Gondola/Das Eismeer (Musik in memoriam Luigi Nono, for double orchestra and 2 pianos). He holds degrees from Indiana University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where his teachers included Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, and John Wustman.
Evelyn Golz, Piano
A native of Redlands, California, Evelyn Golz comes from a family of musicians going back several generations. She began her studies at age four with her mother Mary Evelyn Golz and went on to win top prizes in the Redlands Bowl Young Artists
Competition, the Redlands Symphony Concerto Competition, the MTAC Young Artists Guild and the Southern California Junior Bach Festival. Ms. Golz
continued her studies at the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna, Austria,
California State University at Northridge, the Manhattan School of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music, where she received the Francis Dillon
Hayward Memorial Prize in piano. Her teachers have included Han Graf, Jakob Gimpel, Seymour Lipkin and Bernard Rose.
An active chamber musician, Ms. Golz has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the St. Mark's Chamber and Opera Players, The Women of West Harlem Winds, the San Gabriel Symphony, The Canadian Ballet Orchestra, and the Redlands Symphony, and in such venues as Carnegie Hall, BAM, Saint Paul’s Chapel, Lincoln Center, St. Mark’s Church and the Schomberg Center in Harlem. As a member of the Golz Duo, with cellist sister Madeleine, she frequently presents recitals both in the New York area and on the West Coast. She has been the pianist with The Harlem Chamber Players since the group began its regular Music at St. Mary's series in 2008.
Ms. Golz is a busy and enthusiastic teacher whose students have earned awards in many prestigious competitions in the Metropolitan area. In addition to her private studio, she is on the piano faculty of Manhattan School of Music's Pre-College Division, and the Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly, NJ.
Gerard Reuter, Oboe
“Reuter clearly held the spotlight...richly earned...with a brilliant performance.” (Washington Post)
Gerard Reuter has enjoyed a varied and distinguished career as chamber musician and soloist, touring the United States, Europe, India and Africa. He is a founding member of An Die Musik, of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and of Chelsea Chamber Ensemble, as well as being a member of the Dorian Wind Quintet. His guest appearances at music festivals in the United States have included Caramoor, Marlboro, LaJolla, Round Top and the Chamber Music Festival of the Library of Congress; in Europe, the Flanders and Dartington festivals, as well as the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove. As a soloist, in New York he has appeared with the Jupiter Symphony, the Soviet Emigré Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia Virtuoso and in Washington, DC with the National Chamber Orchestra.
He has been heard on major radio stations throughout this country and in Europe. He has recorded in concert for Sony, New World, Summit, Telarc, Columbia, Musical Heritage Society and the Voice of America. As a recipient of the Pro Musicis Foundation’s 1992 International Award, Mr. Reuter has been presented in recitals in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Boston as well as in major cities in Europe and Asia. Mr. Reuter serves on the faculty of New York University.
Jessie Montgomery, Violin
Violinist Jessie Montgomery was a core member of the Providence String Quartet from 2004 – 2009, quartet in residence of Community MusicWorks (CMW). The Providence String Quartet is dedicated to using music as a means of exploring possibilities for social change in underserved communities in the Providence area. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Sally Thomas. As a teacher, Ms. Montgomery has served on faculty at (CMW), The Apple Hill Center in New Hampshire, Music at Port Milford in Canada, and at her Alma Mater the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City. Ms. Montgomery has been affiliated with Sphinx, an organization which supports the accomplishments of young African-American and Latino string players, since 1999. She has been a two-time laureate in their annual competition and serves on the faculty of the Sphinx Performance Academy in Massachusetts. During her summers, Jessie has participated in the Spoleto Festival, the National Orchestra Institute, Meadowmount School of Music, and the Banff Center for the Arts. She is also founder of her own string quartet PUBLIQuartet.
Also a composer, Ms. Montgomery was in Residence at the Deer Valley Music Festival under the direction of American composer Joan Tower. She was the two-time recipient of the Composer’s Apprentice Award given by the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, and she has served as the resident composer for the Providence String Quartet. Her works have been well received by audiences in the New England area, and she was featured on a concert series presented by CMW during their 2007 – 2008 season.
Joyce Hammann, Violin
Equally at home on the concert stage, in a jazz club, or in front of 17,000 screaming fans at a rock concert, Joyce Hammann's musical versatility and virtuosity remarkably distinguish her from the rest.
Her performances have been hailed as "splendid soloing" and as having a "sweet, rich tone" by the New York Times.
From early on, Joyce was recognized for her talent as after having begun her studies at age seven under Shinichi Suzuki, and by age ten she was selected by Conductor Leonard Slatkin to become the youngest member of St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. She went on to study at The Juilliard School of Music with the eminent pedagogues Ivan Galamian, Oscar Shumsky and Dorothy Delay, earning her BM and MM degrees. During this time she was artist-in-residence at Bargemusic and was winner of the Midland-Odessa Award, Peter Oundjian Award and The Berg Competition amongst others. After graduating she was concertmaster of many orchestras and continued her soloing and chamber music career. She was already choosing her eclectic path by being a member of Trio Con Brio and the jazz quintet Satin Dolls. Being drawn to new music she became a member of the Sirius String Quartet and formed a violin/cello duo (Hammann/Calhoun duo) where many new works were commissioned for them. She has recently appeared as soloist with The Scandia Symphony premiering three concerti.
Performing and recording with such artists as Paul McCartney, Sting, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen, Joyce's discography includes John Zorn's String Quartets, Sam Zyman's Bashe, Uri Caine's Wagner and Venezia, Mozart Re-imagined and The Othello Syndrome, Michael Breckers' Grammy award winning Wide Angles, Gil Goldstein's Under Rousseau's Moon, Ted Nash's Double Quartet and Mark Feldman's Book of Tells.
Currently she is the concertmaster for the longest running show on Broadway, The Phantom of the Opera. She continues to perform chamber music as a member of The Harlem Chamber Players, The Craftsbury Chamber Players (Vermont) and with The Meeting House Players (Cape Cod). Joyce will be touring Europe with Uri Caine as solo violinist with his jazz ensemble and as concertmaster for Fred Hersch's Coma Dreams, a jazz theater project.
Laurence Goldman, Double Bass
Laurence Goldman, double bassist and composer has performed as principal bassist with New York City Symphony, Jupiter Symphony and Mid-America Productions and abroad in Japan, Korea, China, Argentina and Brazil. He has performed as a soloist with American Composers Association and has had his music performed by the Lumières Ensemble in New York and in Normandy, France. He wrote music for the Boris Vian performance that took place in 2011.
Lawrence Zoernig, Cello
Lawrence Zoernig has been principal cellist of many New York symphony and chamber orchestras, including New York Chamber Orchestra, Bacchanalia and Opera Manhattan.
Mr. Zoernig premiered Lars-Erik Larsson’s Concertino for Cello and String Orchestra at Trinity Church with the New York Scandia Symphony, for which he is also principal cellist. As a chamber musician, he has performed frequently with the Goliard Ensemble and Bacchanalia. He has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in New York at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall and in Washington, D.C. at the Phillips Collection and the Kennedy Center. As an international artist, Mr. Zoernig has been presented at the Teatro Amazones in Manaus, Brazil and the World Expo in Seville, Spain.
Lawrence Zoernig received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with Alan Harris, and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Harvey Shapiro.
Lisa Arkis, Flute
Flutist Lisa Arkis has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Princeton Camerata, Greenwich Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Berkshire Bach Society at Tanglewood, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, numerous Broadway shows and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Participation in summer festivals include the Colorado Music Festival, Loon Lake Live! and Washington Square Park Festival and as a featured soloist with the New York Bach Ensemble. In addition, Lisa performs with the chamber ensemble Serio Divertimenti and in duo concerts with her husband, cellist Peter Prosser and has recorded on the Sonic Muse label. Formerly an adjunct faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music Precollege division from 2001-2004, she has also taught at Brooklyn College and maintains private teaching studios in New York and Connecticut. A graduate of the Aaron Copland School of music, Lisa was a student of Thomas Nyfenger. Other teachers include Harold Bennett, Trudy Kane, Keith Underwood and Bernard Goldberg.
Liz Player, Founder, Artistic Director, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
Clarinetist/bass clarinetist Liz Player has performed with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, the Greenwich Village Orchestra, New York City Housing Authority Orchestra, One World Symphony, Ensemble du Monde, Harlem Symphony Orchestra, The Harlem Festival Orchestra, The Manchester Music Festival Orchestra, The Bronx Opera, and on Broadway's Finian's Rainbow. As an avid lover of chamber music, Ms. Player has organized recitals and chamber music concerts in New Jersey and New York since 1990. She founded West Harlem Winds in 2004 and in 2008 started the acclaimed Music at St. Mary's chamber music series with The Harlem Chamber Players.
She attended the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College as a Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellow and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor in Music. There she made her debut as soloist with the Queens College Orchestra in a performance of the Debussy Première Rhapsodie. She also appeared as a featured soloist with the Greenwich Village Orchestra in a performance of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and as a guest artist with Ensemble du Monde in a performance of Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and strings. She has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, CAMI Hall, Merkin Concert Hall and Brooklyn’s Forecast Music. Former instructors and master class coaches include David Krakauer, David Glazer, William Blount, Morrie Sherry, Ayako Neidich, Stanley Drucker and Ronald Roseman.
Maurice Belle, Double Bass
Maurice Belle is an accomplished and versatile double bassist who has performed at major venues throughout the United States and abroad. In October of 2010, he had the opportunity to tour with the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra as the principal bassist around the midwest. He has also attended the Spoleto USA in Charleston, South Carolina and National Repertory Orchestra as co-principal bass in Breckenridge, Colorado. In the summer of 2009, he attended the Pacific Music Festival in Japan where he performed in Sapporo, Osaka, and Tokyo. While in Japan, he worked with major conductors such as Christoph Eshenbach and Michael Tilson Thomas and performed with members of the Vienna Philharmonic. Other music festivals Maurice attended were the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland and the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.
A frequent participant in several New York-based orchestras, Maurice performed at Carnegie Hall numerous times and is principal bassist of One World Symphony, Harlem Symphony Orchestra, and New Amsterdam Symphony. He also performs with various chamber ensembles throughout the New York City area.
Maurice earned his undergraduate degree in double bass performance from The Manhattan School of Music and a graduate diploma from the Juilliard School, where he studied under Tim Cobb, principal bassist of the Metropolitan Opera. He also studied with the late Homer Mensch of the NBC Orchestra and Ralph Jones, principal bassist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Megan Weiss-Marolf, Oboe
Oboist Megan Marolf is an active orchestral, chamber, and solo musician throughout the New York City area and beyond. She performs and tours with the Philip Glass Ensemble as part of “Book of Longing,” a new piece based on the poetry of Leonard Cohen. Ms. Marolf has also performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Alarm Will Sound, DiCapo Opera Theater, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, and Garden State Philharmonic, among numerous other ensembles, and at such events as the Tribeca Film Festival and Bang on a Can Marathon. A lover of chamber music, she performs with the West Harlem Winds (of which she is a founding member) and the woodwind quartet TetraWind. Ms. Marolf is a recent graduate of the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Stephen Taylor.
Monica Davis, Violin
Violinist Monica Davis has recorded for film, television, and recording artists including Alicia Keys, Michael Jackson, Donnie McClurkin, and Oscar award winning composer Michel Legrand. In addition to these recording projects, Monica has appeared on Saturday Night Live with Michael Buble and Pearl Jam, toured with pop icon Diana Ross and performed in the orchestra of Shrek the Musical on Broadway. As regular principal second violin of the Baltimore based Soulful Symphony, a fusion orchestra that combined classical string orchestra with big band and gospel choir, Monica appeared in the 2009 PBS special, Songs in a Strange Land. Monica was recently selected to perform in the YouTube symphony led by Michael Tilson Thomas in Sydney, Australia from a worldwide audition involving thousands of applicants, judged by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony and the New York Philharmonic.
Also an avid chamber musician, Monica is a member of the Harlem Chamber Players and the New York Chamber Virtuosi, and has appeared on series including Music at St Mary’s, the Musical Evenings of the Goddard Riverside Community Center and Brooklyn’s BargeMusic. After a performance in August 2009, Monica’s playing was described as “refined and attractive” by The New York Times. She also serves as principal violinist and founding member of Tertulia, a critically acclaimed new chamber music series bringing classical repertoire to a new audience through its use of innovative venues.
Monica serves as concertmaster of the New Amsterdam and Chelsea Symphonies, and has performed with the Reading and Stamford symphonies. Most recently, she was asked by renowned French conductor, and pianist, Philip Entrement to perform as a member of the Nice festival orchestra. An alumnus and former Best Tone Award winner of the Sphinx Competition, Monica is a member of the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra and has appeared in all three of their national tours: each of which culminated in sold out performances at Carnegie Hall. As a soloist Monica has appeared with the Chelsea, Manchester, Hartford, and Columbia University Symphonies and played in master classes for Robert Mann, Sanford Allen, Midori, Pamela Frank, and Joel Krosnick. Monica received her Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was a student of Laurie Smukler. She received her Bachelors degree in history as a Kluge Scholar at Columbia University. There, Monica received the Dolan Prize, which made it possible for her to study with Phil Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet.
Orlando Wells, Violin and Viola
Orlando Wells attended the State University of New York at Purchase as a double major on violin and viola where his primary teachers were Yuval Waldman, and Emmanuel Vardi. He continued his studies at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers in New Jersey in the studio of Michael Tree.
Among the many ensembles he’s played with are the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, St. Lukes Chamber Orchestra, Radio City Christmas Spectacular Orchestra, Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, Bronx Opera (concertmaster), Orchestra of the Bronx (concertmaster), Antara Chamber Orchestra (principal viola), and the Ritz Chamber Players in Jacksonville, Florida. He has appeared as soloist with Manhattan Virtuosi, the Harlem Symphony, and Antara Chamber Orchestra.
Mr. Wells has performed and recorded with great artists such as Mariah Carey, John Legend, Rihanna, Harry Connick Jr., Dionne Warwick, Elvis Costello, and many others. He also performs with many of the greatest shows on Broadway. Currently, he is the violist of the critically acclaimed Sweet Plantain String Quartet and assistant concertmaster of the Broadway revival of Porgy and Bess.
Philip Payton, Violin and Viola
Violinist Philip Payton enjoys an actively diverse career around the county and abroad. Mr Payton was a member of the New World Symphony where he was a concertmaster and principal violin under several prominent conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Marin Alsop and others. He was one of the first Americans to participate in the Nationaal Jeugd Orkest in the Netherlands where he was a concertmaster and has participated in the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Currently Mr Payton performs regularly with the Sarasota Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Gotham Chamber Opera and several others. As a chamber musician, Mr Payton has been intimately involved in the formation of the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival, a new summer festival in Washington state, performing on both violin and viola. He plays with Chamber Dance Project, Argento Chamber Ensemble and has performed recitals in St. Croix on the Candlelight Concert Series. An active Broadway musician, he has played on Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Spring Awakening (on violin, viola and electric guitar), West Side Story and is currently performing in Porgy and Bess. Mr Payton has also performed with a number of major performing artists including Smokey Robinson, Luciano Pavarotti, Quincy Jones, Billy Joel and several others. Mr Payton attended the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music where he earned his B.M. and M.M. respectively.
Richard Alston, Piano
"North American Richard Alston's performance has a beautiful sound, sensitivity and solid technique which has made this a stupendous musical evening." Victor Burrel, Cinco Días, Spain
Richard Alston, pianist has appeared in recitals and performed as a soloist with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. A native of East Orange, N.J., he received his Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from the Juilliard School of Music.
After receiving a standing ovation at the Brevard Festival for his performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1, Richard made his New York debut performing with the Symphony of the New World, under the direction of Everett Lee at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. Over the years he has performed at the Weill Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, as well as an outstanding portrayal of “Jasbo Brown” in the Metropolitan Opera revival of “Porgy and Bess.” Recently he repeated his portrayal of “Jasbo Brown” in the historic production by the New Jersey State Opera. A guest artist with the New Jersey Symphony in commemoration of the birth of William Grant Still, Richard has been the subject of a PBS television documentary “Classically Black,” in which he performs piano compositions by composers of African descent.
Recently, Alston performed “Rhapsody In Blue” with Ensemble du Monde at Merkin Concert Hall, New York City. The renowned Maestro Paul Freeman invited Richard to Europe to record the Arensky Piano Concerto with the Czech National Orchestra. The CD recording, which also included Etudes for Piano Op.74, by Arensky has been released by Centaur Records and is currently available in stores and online at amazon.com.
Presently Assistant Professor and the Coordinator of Essex County College’s Performing Arts Dept., Richard Alston, is also the founder and director of the Crossroads Music Academy . Maestro Alston is currently Minister of Music at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Montclair, NJ. Alston is currently pursuing a Doctoral of Musical Arts Degree at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. You may visit Mr. Alston’s website www.richardcalston.com.
Richard Brice, Viola
Violist Richard Brice has been busy in New York’s freelance music scene since his high school days when he attended the famous High School of Music and Art in Manhattan, studying viola with Theodore Israel and Eugene Becker. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied viola with William Lincer and chamber music with Felix Galimir, Paul Doktor, and the members of the Juilliard String Quartet. He has toured throughout Germany, France, Italy and Spain as soloist and principal violist of the Munich Chamber Orchestra after making his debut as soloist with the orchestra in 1984. Mr. Brice was principal violist of the Southwest German Philharmonic and the Konzertverein St. Gallen, and he was associate principal violist of the Orquestra Sinfonica de Venezuela. As a chamber musician he was a founding member of the Quartetto National de Venezuela, he was the violist of the chamber music ensemble An die Musik from 1985 to 2002, and he has been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is currently a member of The Orchestra of St. Luke’s and was the principal violist of the Philharmonic Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. He is equally at home in the realm of popular music, serving as principal violist for Barbara Streisand’s European Tours, Encores! at City Center, Patti Lupone’s Matters of the Heart for String Quartet and Piano, and many Broadway shows.
Steven Moran, Double Bass
A native of Long Island, New York, Mr. Moran began playing the bass at age fourteen. By age seventeen, he had gone on to perform orchestral and chamber music on five continents. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory and a Master of Music Degree from the Juilliard School, the latter where he was the teaching assistant to both New York Philharmonic Principal Bassist, Eugene Levinson and to the late renowned keyboardist/historian, Albert Fuller, all on full scholarship. As a chamber musician, Mr. Moran has been privileged enough to be a member of New York City’s esteemed Jupiter Chamber Players. He is also currently the solo bassist with the Manchester Chamber Orchestra and was solo bassist with the Philadelphia Virtuosi for four seasons. He served 22 years as a member of the Florida West Coast Symphony in Sarasota and is now a frequent guest of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, Florida’s Jacksonville Symphony and the Harrisburg Symphony in Pennsylvania. He also works extensively with New York City’s Sonos Chamber Orchestra, Ossia Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, the New Philharmonic of New Jersey and New Jersey’s Westfield Symphony.
Among his other titled positions, Mr. Moran's past appointments have included principal bassist of Maryland’s Annapolis Symphony and Florida’s Key West Symphony, as well as assistant principal bassist of the Sarasota Opera in Florida. Along with maintaining a private teaching studio in New York year-round, he spends his summers as the Professor of Double Bass at the New York Summer Music Festival at Oneonta and performing with Vermont’s Manchester Music Festival and Green Mountain Opera. Mr. Moran’s playing can be heard on major media soundtracks and he has also recorded with the rock band, They Might Be Giants. He plays on a 1922 double bass by the early 20th century Cremonese master, Romedio Muncher.
Tali Makell, Conductor
Tali Makell, music director, Chamber Philharmonia of New York
A Fine New Conductor Emerges
"Tali Makell has a crystal-clear baton technique and a passionate, yet completely controlled commitment to music."
When Bill Zakariasen of the New York Daily News penned those remarks on the occasion of Tali Makell’s Lincoln Center debut at Alice Tully Hall, Mr. Makell had already attracted considerable attention for his large and unusual repertoire. Tali Makell served as principal conductor of the New York City Housing Authority Orchestra from 1981 to 1995. He has also served as music director of the Henry Street Settlement Opera Ensemble, co-founded the Brooklyn Heights Promenade Orchestra, and was a frequent guest conductor of the Washington Square Chamber Orchestra. With these ensembles he introduced the public to a number of lesser-known or seldom played works, including Beethoven’s "King Stefan Overture," and the Glazounov Saxophone Concerto. Mr. Makell was also an affiliate of the prestigious Exxon Artists Conducting Program . In recognition of his achievements, he was appointed an Associate Conductor of The Brooklyn Philharmonic for one season. In 1997 Mr. Makell was named Music Director of The Summer Opera Theatre held at the Brooklyn Music School. There he conducted fully staged and orchestrally accompanied performances of opera masterworks, including an acclaimed 2002 production of Rossini’s "La Cenerentola," performed complete, in its original version. In November of 2009, at the Arader Gallery in New York, Mr. Makell conducted the premiere concert of The Chamber Philharmonia of New York, an ensemble he founded which is dedicated to music composed by New Yorkers, both native and foreign-born.
In addition to his activities as a conductor, Mr. Makell serves as Executive Director for the Nietzsche Music Project, a non-profit arts organization founded in 1990. In this capacity he served as a producer of two critically acclaimed CDs, on the Newport Classic label, of the little-known musical compositions of the great German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche.
In recognition of Mr. Makell’s authority on Nietzsche’s musical works and aesthetics, The International Nietzsche Colloquium invited his participation, along with members of NMP, in two of their annual symposia at The Nietzsche-Haus Sils Maria in Switzerland (1997 and 2000). In 2003 Mr. Makell oversaw a second set of recordings of the music of Nietzsche. Produced independently, this recording remains a best seller eight years after its initial release.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Mr. Makell began his musical studies at the Preparatory Department of The Peabody Conservatory. He is a graduate of The Oberlin College Conservatory, where he majored in conducting, composition, and voice. He continued his conducting studies in New York under maestros Semyon Vechshtein and the late Laszlo Halasz.
Tia Roper, Flute
As a distinguished soloist and concert artist, Tia Roper has several credits to her name. They include holding the principal flute positions of the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra, and the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan. She is also a grand prize winner of the 2004 – 2005 Artists International Debut Recital Award and received critical acclaim for her Carnegie Hall recital debut. The New York Amsterdam News applauded “her remarkable technical command of her instrument as well as highly refined musicianship.” She has performed as a soloist with the Queens Symphony Orchestra and as a substitute player with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, and Westchester Philharmonic. In addition, she is a founding member of Alchemy Winds, a magnetic flute & oboe duo alongside Megan Marolf.
A winner of the New York Flute Club Competition, Tia was also awarded first-runner up in the Frank Bowen Young Artists Competition and was a finalist in the renowned Pappoutsakis Flute Competition. She has been a featured guest on Boston’s cable television show “It’s All About the Arts” as well as Houston’s KUHF 88.7 radio station where her collaboration as a member of Aperio Music of the Americas has been broadcast. Ms. Roper has given concert performances in Russia, Switzerland, the Barbados, Japan, Venezuela, and throughout the U.S.
Tia Roper was a student at the Juilliard Pre-College where she graduated with honors. She received her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, her Masters Degree in Music Performance from Boston University, and Doctorate of Musical Arts from Rutgers University. As an active music educator, Ms. Roper is on the faculty of the Bloomingdale School of Music and the Usdan Center for the Creative & Performing Arts.
Wilmer Wise, Trumpet
Wilmer Wise, born and raised in Philadelphia, has had a magnificent career. From the beginning he was involved in all kinds of music, some of his fellow Philadelphians being Lee Morgan, Vince Penzarella, Ted Curson, Bobby Timmons, Tony Marchione (teacher of Randy Brecker), and Reggie Workman, to name a few. He has played with the Dick Clark Youth Band, The Intruders, the Club Harlem Band of Atlantic City, performed the Haydn Concerto (at age 23) with the Philadelphia Orchestra, played principal trumpet in the first Music from Marlboro tour of Europe, recorded with Pablo Casals, played lead trumpet in the only recording of West Side Story conducted by Leonard Bernstein, played five seasons with the Baltimore Symphony as assistant principal, served on the faculties of Morgan State and the Peabody Conservatory, performed with the New York Philharmonic, the American Symphony, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, (35 years as principal) recorded most of the Philip Glass movie soundtracks, and played lead trumpet in more than 30 Broadway Shows, including five Stephen Sondheim hits.