Mr. Beaver was first violin of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet from June 2002 until its final concert in July 2013. As such, he appeared to critical and public acclaim on the major stages of the world, including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Sydney Opera House. As a member of the Tokyo String Quartet, Mr. Beaver was privileged to perform on the 1727 Stradivarius violin from the “Paganini Quartet” set of instruments, on generous loan to the quartet from the Nippon Music Foundation. In 1998, through the kindness of an anonymous donor, the Canada Council awarded Mr. Beaver the use of the 1729 “ex-Heath” Guarneri del Gesù violin for a four-year period. Learn more.

Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Liza Stepanova has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Weill and Zankel recital halls at Carnegie Hall; Alice Tully, Merkin, David Geffen, and Steinway halls in New York City and at the Kennedy Center. She has appeared as a soloist with conductors James DePreist and Nicholas McGegan and live on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, and WETA Washington. Stepanova’s debut solo album Tones & Colors: Music and Visual Art (CAG Records, 2018), recorded with Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, was featured on Performance Today, in the BBC Music Magazine, and in recital at New York City’s National Sawdust. Learn more.

Praised by the Seattle Times as “Simply marvelous” and Taiwan’s Liberty Times for “astonishingly capturing the spirit of the music,” violinist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Spotlighted by Marie Claire Taiwan’s 2004 September issue “Young Power”, Cindy has been featured as a soloist with orchestras such as the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra. Cindy is a recipient of many awards including the Milka Violin Artist Prize from the Curtis Institute of Music, and third prize at the International Violin Competition of David Oistrakh. Learn more.

Hailed by The Washington Post for his “sophisticated and precise playing,” Jaime Amador has distinguished himself among the latest generation of musicians. He was seven when he began studing the viola at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and later continued his training at The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. As a chamber musician, Mr. Amador tours widely and has appeared in prestigious venues across the United States, Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Kennedy Center, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Yomiuri Otemachi Hall, and the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden. Learn more.

“Rather than just hearing how a piece of music begins and ends, Chan wants to communicate to audience(s) every step it takes to climb the musical mountain.” [NPR Performance Today] Named a local Forbes 30 Under 30 for Seattle, Nathan has harnessed the power of technology and social media to draw new audiences to classical music. With over 35 million views across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, he has made a significant impact on the online classical community. He has performed as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, and Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra. Learn more.

Taiwanese-American violist Jessica Chang leads a versatile career as a chamber musician and educator. She is the founder and director of Chamber Music by the Bay, which brings concerts to pre K-12 schools, libraries, and communities in the San Francisco Bay Area each year. Her work as a teaching artist has led to concert residencies with Project 440, the Savannah Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire. Festival appearances include Festival Mozaic, Bard Music West, the Perlman Workshop, Aspen, Verbier, Tanglewood, Taos, Prussia Cove, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Music from Angel Fire, and the Savannah Music Festival. Learn more.

Violinist Rebecca Jackson-Picht is founder and artistic director of Music in May. She regularly performs with San Francisco Ballet, and during her five seasons as acting member of Santa Fe Opera Orchestra the company won 2019 Grammy for Best Opera Recording for (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. An advocate of new music, Rebecca has commissioned and premiered 12 chamber works, most recently performing premieres of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s, Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope. Learn more.

A native of the Abruzzo region of Italy, ANTONELLO DI MATTEO obtained both his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees with highest honors from the Gaetano Braga Conservatory of Music in Teramo, Italy. As an eclectic classical and world-music freelancer, Antonello has given numerous concerts across the globe--including the USA, Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Greece, Malta, Iraq and Libya. Recently Antonello has achieved the role of Substitute Clarinet with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Learn more.

Galen Lemmon has performed professionally in the San Jose area for over 30 years. He is the principal percussionist with Symphony San Jose and the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra under the direction of Marin Alsop. Galen keeps a busy schedule as performer, teacher and clinician. As an active clinician and Zildjian artist he has recently given clinic/performances at the California Music Educators Association State Conference in Sacramento, the College Band Directors Conference in Reno, NV and the Fresno State University Day of Percussion. Learn more.

Dubbed “The Rockstar of the Flute” by the Informador de Guadalajara (Mexico), Mexican-Japanese American flutist Ráyo Furuta has performed worldwide as a commanding and versatile performing artist within the classical, contemporary, world, jazz, and pop sectors.
Officiated as a cultural ambassador to the United States of America in 2014, Furuta has toured as a performer and teacher across Mexico, Japan, Austria, Czech-Republic, Poland, Hungary, and throughout the Middle East and North America. He has performed for internationally recognized names including Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and The United Nations. Learn more.

Chelsea Chen’s dynamic playing has taken her to the far corners of the world. Her solo concerts offer a unique mix of traditional organ repertoire along with piano/orchestral transcriptions and contemporary music. The Los Angeles Times has praised her “rare musicality” and “lovely lyrical grandeur,” and a compositional style that is “charming” and “irresistible.” Recent highlights include performing with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Singapore Chinese Orchestra (a traditional Chinese instruments ensemble) and the Lou Harrison Festival Rutgers Orchestra at Trinity Wall Street in Manhattan; the NYC concert was hailed by the New York Times as one of the top ten classical events of 2017. Learn more.

Violist Jessica Chang leads a versatile career as a chamber musician and educator. As the Founder and Executive Director of Chamber Music by the Bay, Ms. Chang directs and performs interactive concerts for diverse communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area which reach thousands of young audience members annually. Her work as a teaching artist has led to concert residencies with Project 440, the Savannah Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, and Music Beyond the Chamber. She has also served as violist of the Afiara Quartet, with whom she toured North America, including a visiting faculty residency at The Banff Centre in Alberta. Learn more.

Double bassist Mark Wallace began studying the double bass in his public school’s orchestra program. Before moving to the Bay Area, Mark worked as Assistant Principal Bass of the Filarmonica de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte Brazil, and previously performed with the New Jersey Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Sarasota Opera Orchestra. Now residing in Petaluma, California, Mark is currently performing as Assistant Principal Bass of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Learn more.

Cellist Katie Youn has been praised for her passionate, imaginative, and colorful sense of artistry. Katie has appeared in concerts throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, in venues such as Boston’s Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall, Japan’s Suntory and Minatomirai Hall, Vancouver’s Orpheum Hall, and Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica. She has performed in festivals including Aspen, Banff, Beethoven Institute, Bowdoin, Orford and the Kronberg Academy’s Cello Festival. Her commitment to outreach programs has lead to being a founding faculty at Boston String Project, an educational string program for inner city students at the Salvation Army Kroc Center. Learn more.

“Remember the name Rupert Boyd. While there may never be another classical guitarist like Segovia, this young Australian left his audience with the impression that someday there may not be the likes of him again, either.” [THE WASHINGTON POST] Rupert Boyd also has three solo albums, with his most recent, The Guitar, being described as “an utterly exceptional recording” by Classical Guitar Magazine, and “a must-have album of 2019” by This Is Classical Guitar. Rupert Boyd exclusively plays on D’Addario Strings, and lives in New York City, where he is co-artistic director of GatherNYC, a revolutionary Sunday morning concert series at the Museum of Arts and Design. Learn more.

Originally from Venezuela, violinist Juan Jaramillo, is the Principal Second for the Wheeling Symphony and a member of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestras. In addition, Juan also performs with the Des Moines Metro Opera, Britt Music Festival, Sarasota Orchestra and Opera, among many others. He is a well sought out freelancer in the Pittsburgh area and has shared the stage with international artists such as The Who, Smokey Robinson, Andrea Bocelli, The Moody Blues, Ray Charles, Bernadette Peters, The Beach Boys, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and many more. Mr. Jaramillo also works closely with Music in May and Sound Impact, both non-profit organizations dedicated to bringing free performances, donations, lessons and music exposure to particularly underprivileged communities in the US and abroad.

Violist Tiffany Richardson enjoys a multi-faceted career as a performer, administrator, teaching artist, and entrepreneur. She appears regularly in venues such as the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap, along with juvenile detention centers and schools across the United States and communities in Central America. Tiffany is a co-founder of Sound Impact — a nonprofit dedicated to empowering youth through innovative music programs. As Co-Director of Learning & Engagement with the National Philharmonic, she builds community initiatives that forge connections between the arts and equity, activism, technology, and wellness.

Founded in 2013, Sound Impact (SI) is a collective of musicians dedicated to connecting, engaging and empowering youth beyond the concert hall through performances and education programs. Its mission is underpinned by the belief that music has the ability to ignite positive social change when employed as a tool for community engagement. SI reaches over 10,000 young people annually through programs including in-school education concerts, classroom curriculum, interactive workshops, a virtual education series, innovative ukulele training, incarcerated youth residencies, international festivals, and cultural exchange opportunities. Learn more.

David Arben was a Holocaust survivor & former associate concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Coauthors of Arben’s biography, Dr. John Jackson and his daughter Rebecca Jackson-Picht created a program that shares the life of this incredible human through storytelling, historical images, and solo violin performance. It is a moving tribute to Arben who lived a life overflowing with themes of tolerance, self respect, persistence, overcoming trauma, love of life, and taking responsibility for a better future. Learn more.

Dr. Dawn Norfleet is a composer, vocalist, flutist and scholar based in Inglewood, CA. Her concert music often reflects diverse idioms that influence and inspire her, including jazz, global rhythms, and beyond. She received numerous commissions for her compositions, with her work premiering most recently in Oakland and Utah in 2023, and the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra in 2020. As a vocalist, she sang with Wynton Marsalis’ epic orchestral jazz masterpiece, ALL RISE! in 2022, and has frequently recorded and performed with saxophonist, Kamasi Washington since 2013. She was a fellow with the American Composers Orchestra’s initiative, the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, and had several distinctions as a Fellow with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. A strong arts education advocate for under-represented and/or under-resourced communities, she also serves as a mentor with Luna Composition Lab, providing mentorship to female and gender-expansive teen composers, and volunteers with a prestigious NAACP program for outstanding high school students. Dr. Norfleet is currently a member of the Jazz Faculty of University of California, Irvine. Additionally, she teaches at Chaffey College and conducts workshops on African American music for educators and students. “Dr. Dawn” earned a B.A. in Music at Wellesley College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Composition and Ethnomusicology, respectively, at Columbia University. @drdawnmusic

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Brahms (1833-1897) is one of the Romantic period's most revered and popular composers. ”The idea comes to me from outside of me - and is like a gift. I then take the idea and make it my own - that is where the skill lies.”

Dvorak (1841-1904) was a Czech composer. He frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedrich Smetana. Dvorak’s style has been described as “the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them.”