Michael Burch-Pesses is Director of Bands at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Jazz Choir, and teaches courses in conducting and music education. He holds Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in conducting from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Since coming to Pacific University in 1995 he received the Junior Faculty Award (1998) and was named a Wye Fellow of the Aspen Institute (1999). In 2006 he received the S.S. Johnson Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Education.

He enjoyed a distinguished career as a bandmaster in the United States Navy before arriving at Pacific University, enlisting as a hornist and working his way up through the ranks to become the Navy's senior bandmaster and Head of the Navy Music Program. During his Navy career he served as Leader of the Naval Academy Band in Annapolis, Maryland. He also served as Assistant Leader of the Navy Band in Washington, DC, and Director of the Commodores, the Navy's official jazz ensemble.

Dr. Burch-Pesses also is the Conductor and Musical Director of the Oregon Symphonic Band, Oregon's premier adult band. The Oregon Symphonic Band is composed primarily of musicians from the Portland/Vancouver area. Men and women of many professions are represented in the ensemble, which performs three concert series annually and has appeared in concert at numerous state, regional, and international music conferences, including the All-Northwest MENC conference, the Western International Band Clinic, and the prestigious Midwest Clinic in Chicago.

His professional affiliations include the Oregon Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, and Oregon Band Directors Association. He is the president-elect of the Northwest Division of the College Band Directors National Association, and a founding member of the Oregon chapter of Phi Beta Mu.

Loren Pontén is founder and artistic director of Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble. Loren has been an assistant conductor for the Cathedral Choir of St. James in Seattle, and currently is a member of the Cathedral Choir, the Cathedral Chant Choir and the professional ensemble, Cathedral Cantorei.

As a singer, he has also performed with the Tudor Choir and Choral Arts Northwest.

He holds undergraduate degrees in Music and Music Education and completed graduate studies in choral conducting at the University of Washington.

Roupen Shakarian has been the music director of Philharmonia Northwest since 1986. He has conducted the Seattle Symphony, Victoria Symphony, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Seattle Symphony Chorale, the Seattle Youth Symphony, the California Youth Symphony, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra among other orchestras in the Northwest.

A published composer and recipient of numerous commissions, his works include Whimsy and Chamber Symphony, both works written for Philharmonia Northwest, Flute Concerto, Pastime for chamber ensemble, The Turnip, Clock, and the Kid for The Rainier Chamber Winds, Five Bagatelles for woodwind quintet, Inner Places for brass quintet and organ and choral works for Opus 7, The Esoterics and St Stephen's Episcopal Chuirch, among others.

Currently, Mr. Shakarian is a full-time faculty member at North Seattle Community College.

Paul Taub has been a resident of Seattle since 1979. As Professor of Music at the Cornish College of the Arts, and as a founding member and Executive Director of the Seattle Chamber Players, Paul has been involved in the Seattle contemporary music scene since his arrival in the Northwest twenty-eight years ago. He has performed and recorded American and world premieres by internationally-known composers including Robert Aitken, John Cage, George Crumb, Janice Giteck, Sofia Gubaidulina, Wayne Horvitz, Ned Rorem, Toru Takemitsu, Reza Vali, Peteris Vasks and many others, and has played with, among numerous other groups, the Marzena Performance Ensemble and the Seattle Symphony New Music Series. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest, the Everett Symphony, the Tacoma Youth Symphony, the Young Composers Collective and the Esoterics, among many other groups. He was President of the Seattle Flute Society from 1989-1992, and was Instructor in Flute at Western Washington University in Bellingham from 1995-2000. In the spring of 1999, he was Artist-in-Residence at the Centrum Foundation in Port Townsend, Washington.

Paul was born in New York City in 1952. He holds a BA from Rutgers University and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and has studied with some of the world’s greatest flutists, including Michel Debost in Paris, Samuel Baron in New York, Marcel Moyse in Vermont and France, and Robert Aitken in Canada. For four years, he was assistant to Aitken at Music at Shawnigan, a chamber music festival/master class on Vancouver Island.

Paul has worked extensively in American, Soviet/Russian, and international contemporary music. He has given recitals of Soviet flute and piano music throughout Washington, Oregon, Montana and British Columbia, and he has played Soviet music for the New York Flute Club. His Soviet repertoire was featured three times on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, at the Goodwill Arts Festival in July, 1990 in Seattle and Tacoma in a program which included commissioned works by Sergei and Nicolas Slonimsky, and in a solo recital at the Leningrad Musical Spring International Festival (1991) in a program of Soviet and American music. With the Seattle Chamber Players, he has performed three times in Russia as well as in Costa Rica, Estonia, Italy, Poland and Ukraine.

Paul’s program of international solo flute music has been presented for numerous flute clubs and universities, including the Florida Flute Fair, the Portland Flute Club, the Long Island Flute Club, Hofstra and Emory Universities, the Universities of Florida and Georgia, and the Victoria (B.C.) Conservatory. In Southern France, he has performed and taught at the Festival de l’Est and the Stage du Mt Ventoux. He is Chairman of the National Flute Association’s New Music Advisory Committee, and was a featured performer at NFA Conventions in 1992 in Los Angeles, 1999 in Atlanta and 2003 in Las Vegas. His recital of ten commissioned works has been performed in Seattle, where he gave the first flute recital in the new Benaroya Hall, and in New York, Bellingham and Port Townsend. A CD of these works entitled Oo-Ee is available on Periplum Records. He is a member of the Boards of Directors of Chamber Music America and the National Flute Assocation.

Wendy Wilhelmi is active as a teacher and performer throughout the Pacific Northwest. She has been a regular memeber of the Spokane Symphony since 1995 and frequently performs with many other groups in the region, including the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music San Juans and Rainier Chamber Winds.

Wendy can be heard playing flute, piccolo and alto flute on numerous commercial and movie soundtracks including "Eloise at the Plaza", "About Schmidt", "Die Hard 3" and "Air Bud." Past engagements have included performances with the Boise Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony and Northwest Sinfonietta.

In addition to her busy performing schedule, Wendy maintains a large private teaching studio and coaches chamber music for the Seattle Conservatory. Ms. Wilhelmi received her Bachelor of Music in music history magna cum laude from the University of Washington and her Masters of Music in flute performance from Northwestern University where she studied with Walfrid Kujala.

She was principal flute of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and co-principal flute of the Philarmonica de Queretaro (Mexico). In 1998 Ms. Wilhelmi won first place in the NFA Piccolo Artist Competition.

Dan Williams is one of Seattle's most sought-after performers, as soloist, orchestral musician, teacher and recording artist. He is currently principal oboist with the Northwest Sinfonietta, and has also played principal oboe with the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Opera, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Of his 1996 performance of Bach's Double Concerto with Joseph Silverstein and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the Seattle Times reported that "oboist Dan Williams poured out waves of beautiful tone with considerable musicality." In a 1999 review of the Vaughan-Williams Oboe concerto, the Bellingham Herald described Williams as "a consummate player, in easy command of those subtle shades of color and phrase that can let the oboe approach the expressive range of the human voice. It was a performance to melt your heart."

He served as principal oboist of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra in its 1992-93 season and previously held the same positions in the Harrisburg (PA) and Binghamton (NY) Symphonies. Mr. Williams currently teaches oboe at the University of Puget Sound, and has served on the faculties of Western Washington University and the University of Washington School of Music.

A native of Seattle, Dan Williams received his musical training at the Juilliard School and at Western Washington University, where he was voted most Outstanding Graduate by the music faculty.

Susan Hess performs actively in the Inland Northwest with groups such as the Northwest Wind Quintet, Walla Walla Symphony, Intermontane Bassoon Trio and Con Brio Winds.

She has been a member of many musical organizations, including the Colorado Music Festival, Boulder Bach Festival, Colorado Mahler Fest, Ernest Bloch Music Festival, and Colorado Wind Quintet (faculty ensemble at University of Colorado).

As a free-lancer, Susan has performed with the Spokane Symphony, Northwest Bach Festival, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, and with various other groups in the East Coast and Rocky Mountain regions.

She earned her doctorate and bachelor's degrees from the University of Colorado and her master's degree from Florida State University.

Her principal teachers have been William Winstead, Robert Olson, John Wetherill and Ryohei Nakagawa.

She currently is the Assistant Director and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Idaho's Lionel Hampton School of Music.

In addition to modern bassoon, Susan also performs on the Baroque bassoon (Mathew Dart's copy of a Denner ca. 1740).

Jennifer Nelson is currently principal clarinet with the Pacific Northwest Ballet and Auburn Symphony orchestras. She also has a very active free-lance career including playing Broadway-style shows at the Fifth Avenue and Paramount Theaters, occasional extra with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera and Northwest Chamber Orchestra, and recording for various television and motion picture scores.

Nelson has also traveled throughout the United States with the national touring companies of Phantom of the Opera and the New York City Opera. Her orchestral and recital performances have taken her to Mexico, Japan, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Honduras, and most recently India.

"I am honored to be a member of the Puget Sound community," says Nelson. "I feel very privileged to work with so many bright, talented, and kind students, staff, and faculty.

Anthony Taylor was recently appointed as Assistant Professor of Clarinet in the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music and Principal Clarinet of the Winston-Salem Symphony, and serves as clarinet mentor for the Hot Springs Music Festival in Arkansas.

He is also an active solo, chamber, and jazz musician. Recent and upcoming performance highlights include orchestral concerts with Evelyn Glennie and Van Cliburn, a tour in Germany with the UNCG EastWind Quintet, and a performance at the 2008 Ohio University Clarinet Gala.

He has been a member of the Spokane Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, Spokane Opera and professional contemporary music ensemble Zephyr. He has been on the faculties of Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, Whitman College and Gonzaga University.

In summer 2007, he completed his doctorate at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and also holds degrees from The Florida State University and Washington State University.

Gregory W. Yasinitsky, DMA, is Professor of Music and Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Washington State University where he teaches saxophone, composition, arranging, improvisation, jazz history and wind synthesis.

Yasinitsky is nationally known as a composer and arranger of music for big band, combo and vocal jazz ensemble including music written especially for Clark Terry, David Liebman and the USAF "Airmen of Note." Yasinitsky's music has been performed in over 30 countries and he has received grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Commission Project of New York, Meet the Composer West, ASCAP, Artist Trust, Washington State Music Teachers Association (WSMTA) and the Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA). Several of his pieces have been recorded and over 120 compositions and arrangements have been published by Kendor Music, Warner Brothers, Hal Leonard, Advance Music (Germany), Walrus Music, University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press, Dorn Music, Daniel Barry Music and Hoyt Editions. Yasinitsky has also accepted numerous commissions for orchestral pieces, solo works and chamber music. Selected orchestral and chamber works can be heard on compact discs released by Vienna Modern Masters, Arizona University Recordings and Open Loop Records.

Yasinitsky earned degrees at the Eastman School of Music (DMA) and San Francisco State University (MA, BM) and his teachers in composition include Joseph Schwantner, Wayne Peterson, Lou Harrison, Samuel Adler and Robert Morris.

As a saxophonist, he has appeared with numerous distinguished artists including Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Louie Bellson, Stan Getz, Lionel Hampton, Manhattan Transfer, Mel Torme and Clark Terry. Additionally, Yasinitsky is currently Principal Saxophonist with the Spokane Symphony and has performed as a member of the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Oakland Symphony. Yasinitsky can be heard with Tom Harrell, Art Lande and others on recordings released by the Musical Heritage Society, Soul Note, Palo Alto and Revelation Records. His playing and compositions can also be heard on compact discs released by his own label, YAZZ Recordings. In addition to his saxophone playing, Yasinitsky performs on Yamaha's digital wind controllers for synthesizers.

Yasinitsky is also in demand as a conductor and clinician, and has presented concerts and workshops throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. Additionally, Yasinitsky has been the subject of articles and reviews in Jazz Player, Saxophone Journal, The Instrumentalist, Jazz Educators Journal and Yamaha's New Ways magazines and has contributed articles to numerous scholarly journals. Yasinitsky is a Yamaha performing artist and clinician.

William Berry received his Bachelor of Music Performance in Trumpet in 1982 from Indiana University, where he studied with Louis Davidson, Allan Dean and Charles Gorham. He has been a member of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra since 1988 and is principal trumpet for the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared as a soloist with the Spokane Symphony, the Walla Walla Symphony, the Mid-Columbia Symphony, Gonzaga University's Orchestra and Wind Ensemble, the Spokane Area Children's Chorus on their 1998 British Isles Tour, and at the 1995 Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the world's largest traditional jazz festival.

Berry performs regularly with Spokane's local groups ranging from Allegro, a baroque and classical period music group, to Zephyr, an ensemble specializing in 20th century chamber music.

Berry has regularly appeared as a soloist with the Air National Guard Band of the Northwest since becoming a member in 1993, including local performances as well as national and international tours. For six years he served as the leader of that unit's Dixieland Band, and is currently leader for the Band of the Northwest's Brass Quintet.

As a member of the Seattle-based Emerald City Brass Quintet from 1983 to 1991, he performed on numerous concert series, television and radio broadcasts, and other venues from Alaska to Montana, including regular guest appearances at the Olympic Music Festival, and as finalist in the Concert Artist Guild Competition in New York.

From 1975 to 1978, Berry was a member of the First U.S. Army Band, stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, which gave hundreds of performances per year up and down the East Coast.

Winner of the 2003 Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship for music, William is a musician whose career encompasses every aspect of the field. He has found success as a performer, composer, arranger, director, producer, writer, and educator.

Berry is founder and music director of Clarion, a 13-member brass choir, which has been performing since 1992. In 2000, Clarion recorded a popular compact disc entirely comprised of Berry's Christmas and holiday arrangements, entitled Nutcracker Suite Dreams. In 2003, they released a second recording, Angels, a large-scale work for 2 choruses, brass, percussion, and organ. In 2005, Berry produced a third Clarion disc, a sequel to NSD, entitled A Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Cycling Music, a concerto for trumpet with brass, commissioned by the Eastern Washington University Music Department and funded by an Enabling Creativity Grant, was premiered in March of 2004 by world-famous trumpeter Allen Vizzutti accompanied by Clarion Brass as the culmination of a two-day symposium called Brassology.

Other projects involve setting Janell Cannon's award-winning children's book, Stellaluna, to music and a commission from Mozart on a Summer;s Eve for a new woodwind nonet to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Manito Park in Spokane.

Berry is also the instigator and music director of two new and experimental groups. One is String Jam, an electric string orchestra which erases musical boundaries by combining swing, rock, blues, jazz, fiddling, and other popular styles with dazzling virtuosity. The other is Of A Mind, a consortium of seven multi-instrumentalist creative artists, which performs free and minimal-parameter improvisation in a variety of styles.

In off hours, Berry is an avid long distance cyclist, and with his wife, Carol Dorsett, plays frisbee with a border collie named Figaro and is in the process of renovating a 1901 post-Victorian home.

Kathleen Vaught Farner is Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University, where she teaches horn and performs in the Camas Quintet and the Lyric Brass Quintet.

Kathleen's musical interests extend beyond the modern day valved horn to the natural horn and performance practices of the Baroque and Classical period. She enjoys concertizing on both instruments (but not at the same time) with her husband, pianist Richard Farner Her many years at the Midsummer Musical Retreat have fostered a special interest in working with adult amateur musicians.

She received her undergraduate training at the Oberlin Conservatory and Temple University and her Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory, Boston. She has also studied in Norway with famed hornist Fröydis Ree Wekre and performed with the Oslo Philharmonic.

Mrs. Farner made her solo debut at the age of 17 with he Honolulu Symphony, and has played in the horn sections of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Delaware Symphony, the Boston Opera Orchestra and the Philadelphia Chamber Symphony. She was a member of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra for eight years under Arthur Fiedler and John Williams, and served two seasons as principal horn in the Richmond Symphony.

Currently principal horn with the Northwest Sinfonietta, Mrs. Farner is in demand as recitalist, chamber musician and clinician.

When not performing or teaching you can find Kathleen walking Bailey (the world's most wonderful yellow Labrador) or trail riding on her retired show horse, Blue.

David Bryan is a trombonist and teacher very active in Portland's musical community for the past three decades.

He is devoted to classical trombone as a member of the orchestras for the Portland Opera and Oregon Ballet Theatre, and he has performed and recorded with the Oregon Symphony. He has also performed with major symphony orchestras in Honolulu and Seattle, and in the summer performs as principal trombonist with the Oregon Coast Music Festival.

David enjoys playing early music with the Oregon Renaissance Band, chamber music with the Columbia Brass and large brass ensemble music with the Big Horn Brass, which he also conducts. He is inspired by the music students at Westview High School, where he is the jazz band director and assistant director of bands.

David has a long-standing love of big band jazz, and has played with most of the top local bands in recent memory. While in college he became the lead trombonist with the Woody Hite Big Band, and continues to proudly enjoy that association. He has also performed as lead and solo trombonist on many Norman Leyden big band specials, most recently for Normans's 90th Birthday Concert! Playing lead trombone with the Carlton Jackson/Dave Mills Big Band has been another personal musical highlight.

Ryan Schultz is Principal Tubist of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and the Auburn and Yakima Symphony Orchestras. Ryan has performed and recorded as Guest Principal Tubist with Seattle Symphony on numerous occasions and has also performed in that capacity with many other orchestras, most notably: Seattle Opera, Eugene Symphony, Bolshoi Ballet, the orchestra for the touring musical "Chicago" at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, and with trombonists from the Oregon Symphony at the Ernest Bloch Festival. He has numerous motion picture and commercial recordings to his credit.

Mr. Schultz has a keen interest in low brass pedagogy. His students have gone on to attend some of the nation’s finest music schools and have also won awards in International, National, Regional and Washington State solo competitions; recent highlights include winner of the International Tuba and Euphonium Association’s International Solo competition, the ITEA's Northwest Regional Solo Competition ("Big Brass Bash"), WMEA solo tuba winner, and the "Second Place National Winner, Senior Brass" at the Music Teacher’s National Association’s national competition.  

Schultz earned his degrees from Lawrence Conservatory and Central Washington University. His chamber music studies were with the American and Empire Brass Quintets.

Violinist Cecilia Archuleta has performed internationally as an orchestral musician and soloist. Born in Los Angeles, she has appeared as a soloist with the Mexico City Philharmonic.

By special request of the First Lady of Mexico, Cecilia was twice invited to play before the President of Mexico.

Her freelance performing career in California brought numerous celebrity engagements, including a concert for Princess Grace of Monaco and a performance of the Bach Double with Jack Benny.

In the Pacific Northwest, Cecilia is one of the most sought-after violinists for chamber music. She participated in 12 seasons of acclaimed chamber music performances at the Olympic Music Festival.

Cecilia is the founding member of the Onyx Chamber Players and is a member of the Northwest Sinfonietta. She has appeared with Gallery Concerts, performing on period instruments and has performed with Seattle Symphony and the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Marcia Ott attended Oberlin Conservatory, New England Conservatory, and has her Masters of Music degree from Pacific Lutheran University. She has performed as recitalist and soloist throughout the United States and Europe. While living on the east coast she co-founded the Showcase String Quartet which was active in and around the greater New York City area.

She is a member of the Aronoff Trio which performs throughout the Northwest, and is founding member and first violinist of the Tacoma Musical Arts Ensemble. She is a member of The Northwest Pacific Ballet Orchestra, The Northwest Sinfonietta, The Auburn Symphony, and is on the string faculty of Pacific Lutheran University.

Mary Sokol Brown is well known in the Vancouver music community as both a performer and teacher. She has been a member of the Vancouver Symphony since 1979 where she holds the fourth chair position in the first violin section.

Mary has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician with many of Vancouver's musical ensembles including the Vancouver Symphony, Vetta Recital series, Vancouver New Music, Music in the Morning and on CBC Radio broadcasts.

In the summers she has taught and performed at the Courtenay, West Coast AMS, and Marrowstone Music Festivals.

One of Mary Brown's most enjoyable ventures is organizing evenings of chamber music in the intimate atmosphere of people's homes with the likes of the chamber ensemble, Trio Accord, in which she plays along with violist Andrew Brown and cellist Ariel Barnes.

Thane Lewis is Principal Violist of the Tacoma Symphony and Assistant Principal Violist of the Northwest Sinfonietta. He has performed as Assistant Principal Viola of the Boise Philharmonic, and as an extra with the Oregon Symphony, the Anchorage Symphony, the Auburn Symphony, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, and the 5th Avenue Theater Orchestra.

Mr. Lewis has appeared as soloist with the Tacoma Symphony, the Eastside Symphony, Octava Chamber Orchestra and the Lake Union Civic Orchestra in Seattle’s Town Hall. The Tacoma News Tribune noted the "passion and flourish" in his performance. 

As a chamber musician, Mr. Lewis has performed in the Second City, Cascadia Sounds of Summer, Jacobsen, Mostly Nordic, Seattle Symphony Young Composers and Governer’s Mansion Chamber Series. He has performed with the St. Helens String Quartet at the Cornish School of the Arts, with his own Trio Antonie, and as an Artist in Residence at Ascension Arts in Magnolia. Mr. Lewis served on the String Faculty of Northwest University from 1997 to 2008. 

In 2000, Mr. Lewis’s biography of violinist Steven Staryk, Fiddling With Life, was published by Mosaic Press of Toronto. 

Eileen Swanson serves as principal violist and artistic administrator of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra. She is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and on the faculty of Marrowstone Music Festival.

Eileen teaches privately in the Seattle area and directs and performs in the Providence Point Chamber Concert series.

Cellist Anne Brennand is a member of the Boulder Philharmonic and the Greeley Symphony. She has also played in the St. Mary's Baroque Orchestra, Colorado Ballet, Cleo Parker Robinson dance, Denver Chamber Orchestra, Fort Collins Symphony, Cheyenne Symphony, Springfield Orchestra, Northeastern Philharmonic, Pennsylvania Ballet, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Albany Symphony Orchestra, and the National Orchestral Association.

She has participated in the Domaine School for Conductors and Orchestral Musicians, the Blossom Festival Orchestra in Ohio, and the Peter Britt Festival Orchestra in Ashland, Oregon.

Ms. Brennand holds a Master of Music in cello performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she received the Denes Koromzay Chamber Music Award, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts. 

Principal teachers have been Ann Marie Morgan, Judith Glyde, Ronald Leonard, and her father, Charles Brennand. 

She is a member of the Serenata String Quartet in Boulder, and teaches students of all ages.   

Meg Brennand: "Stunning" (Seattle Weekly) "Exemplary musicianship and true flair" (The Journal American).

Meg is known for her work on both modern and baroque cello.

She is currently the cellist of the Onyx Chamber Players, an ensemble based in Seattle and Chicago that recently completed a Beethoven cycle at Town Hall and will begin a Mozart cycle in 2007.

Meg Brennand serves on the cello faculty at Seattle Pacific University and she is a member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. For ten years she performed with the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. She is also one of the founding members of Gallery Concerts,
performing chamber music of the 18th century on period instruments.

Meg is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music.

Seattle Native Karen Janes began her double bass studies at age thirteen. In high school she was principal bassist for Thalia Youth Symphony, and also played with Seattle Youth Symphony under Vilem Sokol.

As a member of the America's Youth in Concert All-Nation Orchestra, she performed at Carnegie Hall and toured Europe. She received an orchestra scholarship to University of North Texas, where she studied double bass with Dr. Edward Rainbow.

She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the University of North Texas.

Ms. Janes joined the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra in 1980, becoming principal double bassist in 1981. She is also Faculty Double Bassist and Retreat Manager for A Midsummer Musical retreat. She has performed in the bass sections of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, and served as principal bassist of the Tacoma Opera Orchestra and Philharmonia Northwest. She has also performed as double bass soloist with the Rain City Symphony in Seattle.

Ms. Janes teaches double bass privately in Issaquah, and has had several students perform at the state level of the high school solo and ensemble contest.

In addition to her double bass work, Ms. Janes is sought-after as a piano accompanist for singers and instrumentalists throughout the Pacific Northwest, and will accompany the MMR chorus. She has played around the Pacific Northwest for the Seattle Opera Preview, and numerous contests and recitals.

A published composer in collaboration with singer/composer Janet Stinson, her works have been performed at A Midsummer Musical Retreat, the local Metropolitan Opera Council, Everett Community College and the National Association of Teachers of Singing national convention.

Bern Herbolsheimer received both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Washington. His awards include a NEA Composer's Fellowship and a Chamber Music America commission.

He was a winner of the National Opera Association's New Opera Competition, named Washington State Music Teacher's Association (WSMTA) Composer of the Year and has been a composer-in-residence for the Seattle Arts Commission.

Bern has had works commissioned by the Pacific Northwest, Eugene, Atlanta, and Frankfurt ballet companies, as well as the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the St. James Cathedral. He has had his compositions performed in Europe, Canada, the United States, Japan and Australia.

Bern's music has bee published by Galaxy Publishing Company and Puget Press.

Roger has been a fixture at Cornish College of the Arts since 1979 where he has done everything from teaching piano and music history to conducting opera. A popular chamber music pianist, Roger performed for years with the New Performance Group, a 7-member ensemble.

For thirteen seasons, Roger conducted the Bainbridge Orchestra. He conducted the Seattle Creative Orchestra, a 40-member group devoted to playing works of living composers. Roger also conducted Minnesota Opera's "New Music Theatre Ensemble" in two world premieres, and was a leader of the "Floating Opera" in Seattle, featuring performances on a barge floating through Puget Sound.

In the 1997-1998 academic year, Roger, with his wife Karen Iglitzin, violinist, were the first foreign music teachers to teach at Qufu University, Shandong Province, China. While in Qufu, Roger established an orchestra to perform Haydn's "Surprise Symphony," filling in as needed with Chinese traditional instruments and accordions — the first western orchestra there since the "Cultural Revolution."

In 1999, 2002 and 2005 he composed a fiddle tune every day of the year. A collection of his "Fiddle Tunes with a Difference" is available in book form, and on his CD "Fiddling on the Yangtze." The CD also includes Chinese music, and features Roger on piano and Karen Iglitzin on violin. The CD is available at www.chambermusicmadness.org under "Support." Roger is also active as a singer and leads a vocal ensemble Canzonetta.

Roger earned a BA in Zoology from Pomona College and an MM in Choral Conducting from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His early teachers were Adolph Baller and John Steele Ritter.

Rob Tucker performs frequently with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, and Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestras, as well as in most of Seattle’s major recording studios, having played for countless motion pictures and commercials.

As a chamber musician, he is a regular participant in the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, and is a founding member of the Pacific Rims Percussion Quartet. Rob attended the Peabody Conservatory and has a Masters degree from the University of Southern California.

He teaches percussion at Western Washington University.

Lisa Cardwell Pontén is an experienced soloist in the Northwest, performing with professional and community ensembles in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia. Lisa has appeared as soloist with Ensemble Alcatraz of San Francisco as well as many Seattle-based groups such as The Versailles Ensemble, Circa 1600, Seattle Choral Company, St. Mark's Compline Choir and City Cantabile Choir.

She has recorded on the Musical Heritage and Focus labels and also for radio and film; and has recently completed a CD with Opus 7.

She is Assistant Director of the Women of St. James Schola, a choir of 14 women who have earned critical praise for their performances of chant and medieval music.

She sings regularly with professional vocal ensembles Opus 7 and The Tudor Choir, is soprano soloist at St. James Cathedral and teaches privately in Seattle.

Ms. Pontén received her Master's degree in Early Music Performance from Indiana University, where she studied with internationally-know medieval specialist Tom Binkley and studied voice with Paul Elliot (formerly of the Hilliard Ensemble) and Dale Moore.

Susan Erickson is a member of the Pacific Lutheran University faculty and holds degrees from Central Washington University and Western Washington University. She has taught all levels of public school music and conducted university and community choral groups.

As a faculty member of Edmonds Community College, Montana State University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music she has performed often as a guest soloist and recitalist.

Miss Erickson appears as soloist on the Carus recording of Scarlatti Sacred Works and as a member of the Robert Shaw Festical Singers recordings. She is presently soloist for Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Mezzo-Soprano, Melody Boyce, has toured the US and Europe with the famed St. Olaf Choir and has toured extensively in Western Europe, Mexico, Cuba and Scotland with church choirs.

She was selected as a member of the Robert Shaw Festival Singers, touring, then making a CD with them in France and singing with them at Carnegie Hall and in the final concert of the American Choral Directors' Association convention in Texas. She sang alto throughout the Pacific Northwest in the successful Portland quartet "Cantabile."

She has sung and recorded with Choral Crossties, Oregon Catholic Press, Portland Baroque Orchestra Chorus, Portland Symphonic Choir and Oregon Repertory Singers. Melody is currently alto soloist for Oregon Repertory Singers and was pleased to join Seattle's Opus 7 for their trip to Barcelona, Spain.

She currently teaches Spanish, and formerly taught French, to elementary students.

Mezzo-soprano Kathryn Weld comes to the Northwest, having performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan. Her credits include two solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic, one with Charles Dutoit conducting and the other under the direction of Kurt Masur. She made her Carnegie Hall debut to critical acclaim in a performance of Bach's Mass in B Minor with Musica Sacra. While living in Germany, Ms. Weld was a featured soloist with such prominent ensembles as the Bavarian Radio Choir, the Consortium Musicum of Munich, and the Prague Philharmonic. Other international performances include those with the Sapporo Symphony and the Osaka Chamber Orchestras in Japan, the Mark Morris Dance Company, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Within the Northwest, Weld has appeared with dozens of ensembles, including the Seattle Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the Helena Symphony, the Wyoming Symphony, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. With the latter she was heard in a live broadcast of Messiah on Nation Public Radio. Her 2008 appearances with the Seattle Symphony in Alexander Nevsky elicited strong praise for her “beauty of tone, a long line and a handsome shaping of Prokofiev's phrases”. Seattle PI RM Campbell

On the stage, Ms. Weld has appeared with the Seattle Opera, the Regensburg Opera Theater in Germany, Opera Carolina, Tacoma Opera, and the State Repertory Opera of New Jersey, among others. A recent opera review had this to say; “Weld has a remarkable voice, an expressive mezzo with an unusual timbre: full and warm with depth and a light vibrato shaping it”

Acclaimed for her interpretations of lieder and contemporary art song, Ms. Weld is a favorite guest artist in chamber music concerts and in recital. 2006-07 recital tours included guest appearances in Paris, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. She has premiered the works of prominent composers such as John Adams, Hans Gefors, and Bern Herbolsheimer. Weld serves as an Affiliate Artist Voice Faculty at Western Washington University and. at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Dr. Scott Peterson has been Chorusmaster of the YAKIMA SYMPHONY CHORUS since the fall of 1977 when he took over conducting duties from founder and Yakima Symphony Orchestra Music Director, Brooke Creswell.  Under Peterson's leadership, the CHORUS has performed not only as the resident chorus of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, but also in its own right and has become one of the premier choral ensembles of the the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Peterson founded the YAKIMA CHAMBER SINGERS in 1985, as part of the  YSC program to support quality choral music in the Yakima Valley. The CHORUS is verstile and mobile and has performed in venues from New York's Carnegie Hall to a recent tour of China.

Dr. Peterson is currently Director of Choral Activities at Yakima Valley Community College where he conducts the YVCC Concert Choir and the YVCC Chamber Singers.  The Concert Choir and Chamber Singers have both become recognized as one of the finest choral programs in the state of Washington. The choral program sponsors an annual MADRIGAL FEASTE, which has become a popular event during the Holiday season in the Yakima Valley.

Scott received his Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Nebraska; a Master of Arts in Choral Conducting from Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington; and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of Washington, Seattle, where he studied conducting with Abraham Kaplan, William Hatcher, Robert Feist and Richard Clark.   In addition, he has studied conducting with Maurice Skones, Dale Warland and Robert DeCormier.  He was twice accepted to sing with Robert Shaw in the Carnegie Hall Choral Workshops performing Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in 1992 and Britten's War Requiem in 1994. He made his own Carnegie Hall conducting debut in 1993 performing Mozart's Requiem in D Minor with the Manhattan Philharmonic Orchestra and a choir of 175 voices including the YAKIMA SYMPHONY CHORUS. 

He is a member of Male Ensemble Northwest, a professional mens chorus which performs concerts and workshops specifically designed to encourage the young male singer.  MEN has performed at two national conventions at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington,  D. C., and in San Antonio, Texas, as well as northwest divisional conventions in Eugene, Oregon, and Seattle, WA.    MEN has recorded three albums: Promised Land, Reflections of Christmas and A Tribute to Norman Luboff.

Scott has conducted the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Chamber Chorale in Alaska since 2002.  He also teaches voice classes and lessons during the two week festival which runs the last two weeks in July.

Dr. Peterson has been an active member of the American Choral Directors Association.  He was selected by the member as President-Elect during the summer of 2004, and has served as Washington State President from 1993 - 1995, as the 2 year college representative on the Northwest ACDA Division board from 1996-2002.

As a first generation Mexican-American, Gabriel Gargari is making a niche for himself in the classical music world.

Gabriel just made his Carnegie Hall-Weill Recital Hall debut in October with "Elysium — between two continents." He will also perform the tenor solos in Haydn's Heilig-Messe with the Choral Society of the Hamptons in December. 

He was interviewed by Sandra Villerias’ Plática y Café on www.tvacapulco.com with renowned poet Manuel S. Leyva of Mexico which was viewed in countries such as Israel, Argentina, Mexico, and USA in February. Gabriel is blessed to have the patronage of Mr. Leyva.

Last December, he sang the tenor solos in Ariel Ramirez’ Misa Criolla with the Bellingham Chamber Chorale under Tim Fitzpatrick in December where he received a standing ovation. He also made his professional opera debut with Bellevue Opera in April singing the role of Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen under the baton of Alex Innicco. During the summer of 2007, Gabriel was honored to be chosen by legendary soprano Martina Arroyo to sing the four servants in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman in her Prelude to Performance summer program.  

He received a Bachelor’s degree from WWU in Bellingham where he studied with Davida Kagen. He performed leading roles in the one-act operas of Ernst Krenek’s Der Diktator and Paul Hindemith’s Hin und Züruck. Gabriel won the hearts of audiences in 2005 with his Latin interpretation of Alfred in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. Gabriel was very fortunate to be a part of the Opus 7 Vocal Ensemble for four years while attending WWU.  He went on to receive a Masters degree in voice from Manhattan School of Music where he studied with famed baritone Mark Oswald. At MSM, he performed in Cendrillon, Il Tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, Dialogues des Carmélites and scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro. He currently works with Anthony Laciura, principal character tenor at the MET for the past 25 years. No stranger to concert repertoire, Gabriel has sung the tenor solos in Mozart’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang, and Handel’s Messiah.

Gabriel has received honors including the 2004 Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council in Seattle and was awarded a Seattle Opera Guild Grant in 2005 and in April 2008. He also received the Michael Mitchell Memorial Scholarship from the Performing Arts Festival Eastside in 2005.  

Gabriel has already had the honor of working with such distinguished conductors such as Tom Muraco, Laurent Pillot, Michael Palmer, Dan Saunders and Steven Crawford, both from the Metropolitan Opera.  

When he’s not performing he enjoys acrobatics, food, and collecting coins/bills from foreign countries. Gabriel is thrilled to be back at MMR.  

Dr. Jason Allen Anderson, baritone, is equally at home on the stage as a performer, singer, and conductor and an excellent choir clinician.

He hails from Franklin, Indiana and is a graduate of Butler University (Indianapolis - B.M. in Music Education), Portland State University (Portland, Oregon - M.M. in Conducting), and the University of Washington (Seattle - D.M.A. in Choral Conducting).

He studied voice with Laurel Goetzinger and Dr. Bruce Browne and conducting with Henry Leck, Dr. Bruce Browne, and Dr. Geoffrey Boers.

A man of diverse musical interests and talents, Dr. Anderson is currently Associate for Liturgical Arts and Youth Formation and Organist/Choirmaster at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Issaquah, Washington. He also serves on the Liturgy & Arts Commission for the (Episcopal) Diocese of Olympia.

Prior to arriving in Seattle, he maintained an active career in Portland as a professional soloist and chorister for the Trinity Consort at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Interim Director of Music Ministries for First Presbyterian Church, recording artist with Oregon Catholic Press, and director of the Portland State University Madrigal Ensemble.

Charles Robert Stephens’s career spans a wide variety of roles and styles in opera and concert music and includes appearances throughout the country notably New York and San Francisco.

He has been praised by audiences and critics alike for his "impeccable diction," communicative abilities and musical sensitivity.

Mr. Stephens is a Lecturer in Music at Pacific Lutheran University and can be heard on the Ventadorn, Nonsuch, and Harmonia Mundi labels; his most recent recording is of the Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs on the Avie label, entitled Heaven to Earth.