Thomas Rosenkranz was the recipient of the Classical Music Fellowship Award from the American Pianists Association and is active worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician, improviser, festival organizer, and artist teacher.

A native of southern California and dual citizen of France and the United States, Erik Rynearson has enjoyed performing across the Americas and Europe.

Cellist David Sabee is the Grammy award–winning music director and principal conductor of the Northwest Sinfonia.

Following his early musical education as a pianist, Sabee began cello studies at age seventeen with Johan Lingeman, former solo cellist of the Concertgebouw Orkest, and continued with Paul Olefsky and Harvey Shapiro. His primary conducting work was with the esteemed Swiss opera conductor and former Toscanini assistant, Walter Ducloux.

As one of America’s leading concert saxophonists, John Sampen is particularly recognized as a distinguished artist in contemporary literature. He has commissioned over one hundred new works, including compositions by Adler, Babbitt, Bolcom, Cage, Rzewski and Rands and has premiered saxophone versions of music by Lutosławski, Stockhausen and Tower.

Maria Sampen, Professor of Violin at University of Puget Sound, enjoys a vibrant career as concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and teacher. Equally at home with repertoire ranging from classical to avant-garde to popular styles, Dr. Sampen has delighted audiences with her eclectic programs, her passionate performance style, and her highly expressive playing.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Pedro Sanchez is an Ensemble Member or the Ivalas Quartet.

Pedro was the winner of the Emil Friedman Cello Competition of Venezuela in 2010. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Virtuosi de Caracas and Arcos Juveniles de Caracas and has performed under Maestros Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel and Tan Dun, among others.

Sponsored by Elizabeth Carr

Kevin Schempf is Associate Professor of Clarinet at Bowling Green State University and is active as a soloist, chamber and symphony musician. After graduating from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Eastman School of Music, he performed with the United States Coast Guard Band and toured with them throughout the United States and to St. Petersburg, Russia. A frequent soloist with the Band, he was featured on NPR broadcasts and on their 75th Anniversary CD recording.

Stephen Schermer, double bass, received his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Eastern Washington University, and his Master of Music with honors from the New England Conservatory. He also studied at the Tanglewood Music Center where he was the recipient of the Koussevitsky Fellowship. Mr. Schermer is currently assistant principal of the Pacific Northwest Ballet orchestra.

SEVEN)SUNS is a string quartet that plays dystopian music rooted in the language of avant metal and hardcore. Their repertoire is drawn from works by members of the group, re-imagined string quartet versions of metal and hardcore songs, as well as music from the Western art music tradition.

Double bassist Peter Seymour has performed with many of the world’s most highly acclaimed artists and ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, New World Symphony, Houston Symphony, New York City Ballet,  Iris Orchestra, and the Colorado Music Festival. He received the Downbeat Magazine Award for Best Jazz Soloist and shared the stage with luminaries like Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, and Bobby McFerrin.

Carrie Henneman Shaw is known across the US as a singer who weaves style and emotion into vivid Baroque and contemporary classical music performances. Praised in the New York Times “as graceful vocally as she was in her movements,” “consistently stylish” (Boston Globe), and as a “cool, precise soprano” (Chicago Tribune), Shaw is a member of Quince Ensemble...

Zach Shemon is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. Additionally, he serves on the music faculties at the Interlochen Arts Camp and Interlochen Saxophone Summer Institute.

Shemon was awarded first prize at the inaugural International Saxophone Symposium and Competition in Columbus, Georga.

The music of composer Marilyn Shrude is characterized by its warmth and lyricism, rich timbre, multi-layered constructions, and complex blend of tonality and atonality. The result is a bright, shimmering and delicately wrought sound world that is at once both powerful and fragile. Her concentration on color and the natural resonance of spaces, as well as her strong background in Pre-Vatican II liturgical music, give the music its linear, spiritual, and quasi-improvisational qualities.

David Skidmore is an ensemble member and Executive Director of Third Coast Percussion.

As a chamber musician, David has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center Festival, Kimmel Center, EMPAC, June in Buffalo, Klangspuren Schwaz, the Ojai Music Festival, the Bang On a Can Marathon and three Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. David was a member of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble from 2007-2011 and Ensemble ACJW from 2008-2010.

Josh Skinner is the Manager of the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho. He has served as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth and professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies at Utah State University and BYU-Idaho. Skinner has been involved with planning every aspect of jazz festivals for over ten years, including the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, the UNC-Greeley Jazz Festival, and the Head of the Lakes Jazz Festival.

Spektral Quartet actively pursues a vivid conversation between exhilarating works of the traditional canon and those written this decade, this year, or this week. With its most recent album described by Gramophone as “highly-interactive, creative and collaborative... unlike anything its intended audience — or anyone else — has ever heard,” Spektral is known for creating seamless connections across centuries, drawing in the listener with charismatic deliveries, interactive concert formats, an up-close atmosphere, and bold, inquisitive programming. 

Weston Sprott enjoys an exciting career that includes orchestral, chamber, and solo performances, as well as numerous educational and outreach efforts. He is currently Acting Principal Trombone of New York’s Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, of which he has been a member since 2005. He has been recognized as “an excellent trombonist” with a “sense of style and phrasing [that] takes a backseat to no one”.

An exceptionally versatile cellist, Eric Stephenson’s style ranges from classical to jazz to rock and folk. He has performed with numerous orchestras like the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis, Tennesee and the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder. Eric was also a regular substitute for the Cleveland Orchestra.

Chicago area composer James Stephenson’s works have been performed by leading American orchestras and around the world, and have been hailed by critics as having “straightforward, unabashedly beautiful sounds” and “Stephenson deserves to be heard again and again!” (Boston Herald). His music incorporates a fresh and energizing sound scape that engages the audience while maintaining integrity and worthwhile challenges for the performing musicians. This rare combination has rewarded Stephenson with a host of ongoing commissions and projects.

A New York City native and Eastman School of Music graduate, Curtis Stewart has performed as a soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. He has made chamber music appearances at Zankel Hall and the Rochester International Jazz Festival, holding his audiences “spellbound” with his “warm, clear sound…sparkling rhythmic energy” and “prodigious technique” (New Amsterdam Times, SoundWordSight).