Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s she had shifted to a post-modernist, neo-romantic style. She has been called "one of America's most frequently played and genuinely popular living composers." She was a 1994 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Zwilich currently serves as the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.
Joseph Norman Alessi is an American classical trombonist who is currently Principal Trombone of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and a soloist, teacher/clinician and recording artist.
Lowell Liebermann is an American composer, pianist and conductor.
David Weber was an American classical clarinetist known for the beauty of his tone, his inspired playing, and his influential teaching of the clarinet.
The Portland Youth Philharmonic (PYP) is the oldest youth orchestra in the United States, established in 1924 as the Portland Junior Symphony (PJS). Now based in Portland, Oregon, the orchestra's origin dates back to 1910, when music teacher Mary V. Dodge began playing music for local children in Burns, Oregon. Dodge purchased instruments for the children and organized the orchestra, which would become known as the Sagebrush Symphony Orchestra. After touring the state, including a performance at the Oregon State Fair in Salem, the orchestra disbanded in 1918 when Dodge moved to Portland. There, Dodge opened a violin school and became music director of the Irvington School Orchestra.
Gulnara Mashurova was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She started piano studies at the age of 6 and by age 9 was chosen to study harp at the Pre Moscow Conservatory with Natalia Sibor. From 1991–93 she studied with Vera Dulova at the Moscow Conservatory. ashurova received a bachelor's and master's degree in harp performance from the Juilliard School as a Jerome Green full scholarship recipient studying under Nancy Allen, Principal Harpist of the New York Philharmonic. She received her second Masters in Orchestra Performance with a full scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music studying under Deborah Hoffman, Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Dennis Smylie is an American bass clarinetist, known particularly for his performances of contemporary classical music.
Zoe Zeniodi is a woman conductor from Greece. She is the first woman conductor to ever perform in Opera Southwest. She has been selected by the Dallas Opera for the residency of the Institute of Women Conductors, 2016. She is the Artistic & Music Director of the Broward Symphony Orchestra and the "Momentum" Athens Chamber Orchestra, the Associate Music Director & Conductor of the Festival of the Aegean and the Artistic Advisor of the Alhambra Orchestra.
JoAnn Falletta is an American conductor.
Diana Haskell is a multi-faceted clarinetist who works as an orchestral clarinetist, educator, clinician and chamber musician. Haskell is currently Associate Principal Clarinet with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. In her role as Associate Principal Clarinet, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has described her artistry as “perfectly played...with hymn-like beauty”. Since 2003 Ms. Haskell has also performed numerous times with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as soloist, including with Maestro David Robertson and Maestro Jahja Ling.
Thomas M. Sleeper is a modern American composer and conductor. His music has been described as 'hauntingly mysterious' and 'richly lyrical'. He was the Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor of the University of Miami Frost Symphony Orchestra until his retirement in 2018. He is also the director of the Florida Youth Orchestra.
Todd Levy is an American classical clarinetist.
Dr. Philip Jameson graduated from Wooster High School in 1959 and attended Baldwin Wallace College for one year. In the Fall of 1960 he was accepted by audition to The Juilliard School of Music on a full scholarship. He was subsequently appointed principal trombone with the Juilliard Orchestra, a position he held for the next five years. He graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Music Degree in 1964 and a Master of Science degree in 1965. He then enrolled in Columbia University (NYC) and received a Master of Music Education Degree in 1967 and completed his Doctorate of Music in 1980. His PhD dissertation was entitled "The effect of timbre conditions on the prompted and simultaneous pitch matching of three ability groups of trombone performers". It is available from Dissertation Abstracts.
Jon Manasse is an American clarinetist.
Atlanta Chamber Winds is the premiere ensemble of its type in the Southeast. Founded by Robert J. Ambrose in 2006, the group includes many of the finest professional wind players in Atlanta including members of the Atlanta Opera and Ballet Orchestras. The ensemble's core instrumentation consists of pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns, along with trumpet and trombone. Additional musicians supplement the group as the repertoire demands. As the only chamber wind ensemble in the metropolitan area, the Atlanta Chamber Winds provides a unique voice in the cultural landscape of the city.
Richard Fleischman is an American viola and viola d'amore player, conductor and pedagogue.
Richard Joiner was an American clarinetist and teacher of clarinet.
Rossen Milanov is a Bulgarian conductor. He is Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra & New Jersey's Symphony in C. He is also Principal Conductor of Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias, in Spain and the former Music Director of Bulgaria's New Symphony Orchestra. He is the Music Director of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.
Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.
Edward "Teddy" Paul Maxwell Abrams is an American conductor, pianist, clarinetist, and composer. He is currently Music Director of The Louisville Orchestra and Britt Festival Orchestra.
