 Amanda Balestrieri, soprano, was trained as a pianist and violinist before commencing her career as a soprano soloist. She toured Europe with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner. She has sung under Christopher Hogwood, Leonard Slatkin, Peter Phillips, and the NSO at the Kennedy Center. She has appeared in recital at the 92nd Street Y and the Phillips Collection, and in baroque opera in New York, Boston, and Washington with Opera Lafayette, Concert Royal, and New York Collegium. Her performance of Handel's cantata Lucretia at the Saratoga Baroque Festival was critically acclaimed. Recent recordings include Handel's Alexander's Feast and a recently discovered Bach aria on the Dorian label.
 Chester Biscardi, composer-in-residence, is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Academy Award in Music, the Aaron Copland Award, fellowships from the Bogliasco Foundation, the Djerassi Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, and grants from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He received an M.M. in Musical Composition from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.M.A. and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale. He is Director of the Music Program at Sarah Lawrence College, where he currently holds the Margot C. Bogert Distinguished Service Chair.
 Flutist Beth Chandler enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher. She has been a recitalist at the Kennedy Center, and also performs with the Montpelier Wind Quintet. She has been the winner of the 1999 Flute Talk Competition, the 1999 Myrna Brown Artist Competition, and several National Flute Association Competitions. Dr. Chandler earned degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, New England Conservatory, and Baylor University, and was a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom. Her teachers include Bradley Garner, Paula Robison, Trevor Wye, and Helen Ann Shanley. She is currently the flute professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
 Tenor Derek Chester, a student of American tenor James Taylor, completed his Masters Degree in Vocal Performance of Oratorio, Early Music, Song, and Chamber Music from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. As a Fulbright Scholar, he continued his training as a student of acclaimed German tenor Christoph Prégardien and is a member of the Gächinger Kantorei. He has appeared as soloist at the 2007 Toronto Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling. He is on the roster of the American Bach Soloists under Jeffrey Thomas. Theater and opera credits include Abel/Japheth in Children of Eden, Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Grosvenor in Patience, and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas. For more information go to derekchester.com.
 Tenor Kim Childs is Assistant Professor of Choral Conducting and Voice at the University of Tulsa. His performance of the J. S. Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Dallas Bach Society was critically acclaimed. Recent concerts include Carissimi's Jepthe with the Oklahoma State University Concert Chorale and orchestra, the J. S. Bach B Minor Mass with the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, and J. S. Bach Cantata 151, Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt with the Bach at Bethany series. He debuted Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve with the Dallas Opera in 2004, and has performed Handel's Jeptha with the North Texas Collegium Musicum with Graeme Jenkins, conductor.
 Music director and baroque violinist Garry Clarke is one of the leading exponents of period instrument performance of his generation. Mr. Clarke is founder of Chicago's Baroque Band, and Artistic Director of the UK's 18th Century Concert Orchestra. He is on the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago. Mr. Clarke performed with all the major period groups, including The Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, working with such eminent musicians as Christopher Hogwood, John Elliot Gardiner, Sir Charles Mackerras and Ton Koopman. Mr. Clarke has performed with harpsichordist Michelle Roy, the Washington Bach Consort and Opera Lafayette.
 Baroque violinist Martin Davids founded and directs the Callipygian Players in Chicago, and is principal second violinist in the Baroque Band. He is concertmaster of Publick Musick and Bach Collegium of Ft. Wayne. He has performed with Music of the Baroque, Central City Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Aradia, Toronto Consort. Mr. Davids received his Performer Diploma from the Early Music Institute at Indiana University where he studied with Stanley Ritchie. He teaches violin at Loyola University Chicago and has taught master classes at the University of Michigan, Cornell, and Northwestern. He is known for his work on the electric violin with his electric Baroque ensemble Discontinuo, and in modern compositions.
 Grammy-winning soprano Ilana Davidson's highlights include Mozart's Mass in C Minor, Mendelssohn's Psalm 42, Knoxville, Summer of 1915, and Lauda per la Nativita del Signore. She played the role of Young Girl in the world-premiere of Libby Larsen's Everyman Jack, and Gloria in Ernst Krenek's What Price Confidence. Ms. Davidson has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher, and Alice Tully. Among her award-winning recordings are Songs of Innocence and of Experience (with Leonard Slatkin, winner of four Grammys in 2006), Krenek lieder, John Zorn's Chimeras; and Kurt Weill's Down in the Valley. She studied at Curtis Institute of Music, Tanglewood, and Aston Magna Early Music Academy.
 Laura DeLuca, clarinet, joined the Seattle Symphony in 1986, and is a co-founding member of Seattle Chamber Players. She has appeared as soloist in Seattle Symphony performances of Copland's Clarinet Concerto and Robert Starer's Rikudim (Dances) movement from Kli Zemer. Laura performed the solo clarinet on the Academy Award-winning feature-length documentaries The Long Way Home and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. Her performances include the Music of Remembrance series, Icicle Creek Music Festival and Methow Music Festival. Laura received her training at Northwestern University where she studied with the celebrated Robert Marcellus.
 Pianist Gabriel Dobner won the special accompanist prize in the International Hans Pfitzner Lieder Competition in 1994. He has performed regularly with notable singers Cornelia Kallisch, René Kollo and Alexandra Petersamer in many European concert venues including Vienna and Zürich. He has performed in the United States, Canada and Japan. He has recorded for the Ottavo, MDG and Kannevas labels. His recording of Schubert's Die Winterreise with baritone Kevin McMillan was released in 2007. Gabriel Dobner joined the faculty at James Madison University in the fall of 2001. He earned advanced degrees from Indiana University in Bloomington, studying with James Tocco and Leonard Hokanson.
 Cellist Carl Donakowski; B.M. Indiana University; D.M.A. SUNY Stony Brook; and Artist Diploma Musikhochschule Freiburg. His teachers included Timothy Eddy, Janos Starker, Gary Hoffman and Christoph Henkel. He was a prize-winner in the 1989 Mendelssohn Competition. He has been a member of the North Shore Pro Musica, the Fontana Chamber Music Society and the Orpheus Piano Trio. As a member of the West End Chamber Ensemble, he participated in the NEA/Chamber Music America Rural Residency Chamber Music Initiative. He teaches and performs at the Bay View Music Festival as a member of the Westbrook String Quartet.
 Chuck Dotas is Director of Jazz Studies at James Madison University. He was on the Faculty of Jazz Studies at McGill University from 1994-1998. Dotas is an active jazz educator, adjudicator and clinician. He has been Composer-in-Residence at jazz festivals and universities throughout the United States. His music has been performed and recorded by university ensembles in Germany, Australia, South Africa, Canada, and the United States, and is published by UNC Jazz Press, Dorn Publications, Walrus Music, and Schirmer Music. Dotas studied with Ray Wright, Manny Albam, Bill Dobbins, Fred Sturm, and Samuel Adler. He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Northern Colorado.
 Violist Daphne Gerling is a graduate of the Walnut Hill School and New England Conservatory. She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Rice University. She has performed in the U.S., Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Italy, Austria, and England, and to the Aspen, Bowdoin, Encore, NYU, Sarasota, Bad Leonfelden and Norfolk (UK) music festivals. From 2005-2007 Daphne was a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Music in England, and violist of the Anglian Ensemble. Dr. Gerling performs with the Richmond Symphony, and has been a guest teacher at James Madison University, Rice University, and the Federal Universities of Rio Grande do Sul and Uberlândia, Brazil.
 Daniel Golleher, Baroque and Modern Violinist, resides in the Metroplex of Dallas, Texas. Mr. Golleher's professional career has taken him on tours across the US and abroad, collaborating with such musicians and ensembles as Garry Clarke, David Douglass, John Holloway, Monica Huggett, Lisa Loeb, James Richman, Cynthia Roberts, David Schrader, Craig Trompeter, Atlanta Baroque, Baroque Band, Conspirare, Dallas Bach Society, Handel Choir of Baltimore, The Helios Ensemble, New Trinity Baroque, New York Baroque Dance Company, Orchestra of New Spain, Texas Camerata, Victoria Bach Festival and has also performed and lectured at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia with New Trinity Baroque.
 Bass Michael Haag trained with the Trier Boys Choir, studied at the Luxemburg Conservatory, and attended masterclasses in Salzburg, Prague, and Sion. His teachers include Ionel Pantea, Peter Schreier, Andreas Schmidt, and Theo Adam. He is a winner of the Vienna Schubert and Bayreuth Wagner competitions. Mr. Haag has a flourishing European career, singing operatic, orchestral and song repertoire. He has sung more than 30 operatic roles and is presently a member of the Essen Aalto Opera. He has appeared in concert with soprano Barbara Hendricks and in a concert for Pope John Paul II in Rome. He has recorded for the Arte Nova, Hanssler Edition, and Musique Suisse labels.
 Composer John Hilliard is Professor of Music and Resident Composer at James Madison University. His works have had wide international performances in Austria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil, Japan,the United Kingdom and in the United States at the Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall (NYC). In January 1993, he was one of two composers requested to compose music for newly elected President Bill Clinton's first inauguration. Hilliard was given a six-month residency grant to be an Artistic Fellow for the Japan Foundation in Tokyo and Nara, and he has been a Senior Fulbright Fellow. He received his doctorate in composition and conducting from Cornell University.
 Wanchi Huang, began violin lessons with her mother at the age of six. At age 14 she made her solo debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Catherine Comet. Wanchi attended the Curtis Institute (BM), The Julliard School (MM) and the Indiana University School of Music (DMA). Her teachers included Jasha Brodsky, Jaime Laredo, Dorothy Delay, Naoko Tanaka, and Franco Gulli. She has given acclaimed performances in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Taipei, and Washington D.C., including the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Her performances have aired on Philadelphia's WFLN, as well as on WQXR in New York City. She is currently an associate professor of violin at the JMU School of Music.
 Violinist Claire Jolivet performs with orchestras and chamber ensembles in the New York area and has toured in South America with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist with the Bach Aria Festival Orchestra in New York and with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with Joseph Kalichstein, Paula Robison and Kathleen Battle. She has appeared with the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Four Nations Ensemble. She began her violin studies in England with Pamela Spofforth and is a graduate of the Juilliard School where she studied with Dorothy DeLay. She has recorded on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and EMEC labels.
 Stage director Jennifer Lane sang the role of Dejaneira in the SMF's Hercules in 2005, and directed Dido & Æneas in 2006, also singing the dual roles of the Dido/Sorceress. Her opera credits include l'Opéra de Monte Carlo, Aix-en-Provence, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera. She has over forty recordings, many of which have won Gramophone and other awards, as has her film of Purcell's Dido & Æneas with the Mark Morris Dance Group and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. As a music faculty member at Stanford University, she produced and directed Dido & Æneas and Mozart's The Magic Flute. She currently teaches at the University of North Texas.
 Soprano Dorothy Maddison is Professor of Voice and Opera at JMU. Off campus, she has performed in opera, concert and oratorio in the US, England, Germany and Brazil. In addition to twenty years of professional singing in Europe, Dr. Maddison is co-author of Kein' Angst Baby!, a book to help singers audition in Germany. Her discography includes Christmas Art Songs and Songs for Brenda and Bertha featuring the song cycles ME (Brenda Ueland) by Libby Larsen and Brautlieder by Peter Cornelius. She received a BM degree from St. Olaf College, her MM and DMA from Arizona State University, and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
 The Madison Singers are James Madison University's finest small choral ensemble and the SMF's chorus-in-residence. Dedicated to the art of small ensemble performance, The Madison Singers perform repertoire from medieval to contemporary; from Ockeghem to Bach to Copland. Participants in JMU's annual Contemporary Music Festival, they have performed works by Ofer Ben-Amots and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky. This is the featured ensemble at JMU's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. For information, visit: orgs.jmu.edu/choirs.
 Anthony Manzo performs in Washington with the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the National Symphony, in Chicago with the Baroque Band, and as solo bassist of San Francisco's acclaimed New Century Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Manzo played in the New World Symphony in Miami before moving to Norway to play with the Bergen Philharmonic. He spent seven years performing, recording, and touring the world with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Chamber music collaborators include members of the Auryn Quartet, the St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Garth Newel Piano Quartet. He plays a double bass made by Jean Thibouville Lamy circa 1890. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and son.
 Tenor Deepak Marwah, a New York City native, recently completed his M.M. in Voice Performance at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, where he studied with Metropolitan Opera soprano, Judith Haddon. Recent performances include the role of Mr. Owen in Argento's Postcard from Morocco, Britten's Turn of the Screw, Mozart's The Impresario, the New York City Premiere of Bruce Saylor's Orpheus Descending, and the Brooklyn Conservatory's production of Dido and Aeneas. Deepak appeared in the world premiere of Julie Mandel's Subway Suite, new productions at the Manhattan Theater Club and in Sweeney Todd. Mr. Marwah can be contacted via DeepakMarwah.com
 Washington McClain, baroque oboe, recorder, obtained his Bachelor Degree from the Northeast Louisiana University. He received his Master's Degree in oboe at Northwestern University. He was the first woodwind player performing on period instrument to be featured in the specialized publication Windplayer Magazine. He has performed with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, the Aradia Ensemble, Apollo's Fire Baroque Orchestra, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, with Ensemble Arion, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Harpsichord in Concert and Les Idées heureuses. Mr. McClain has recorded for Sony Classical Vivarte, ATMA Records, Analekta Records, and Centaur Records.
 Vladimir Mendelssohn, viola, composer-in-residence, has produced works for solo instruments, mixed choir, symphony and chamber orchestra. His chamber works include four string quartets, Nova for clarinet, string trio, piano and percussion, and Don Aldebarran for seven stringed instruments, piano and actor. He has also composed music for ballet, stage and screen. Mr. Mendelssohn is Professor of chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire. He also teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. He collaborated on a prize-winning recording of Brahms Lieder. He has performed at Gidon Kremer's Lockenhaussen and Dmitry Sitkovetsky's Wasa Festival.
 Pipa player / vocalist Min Xiao-Fen, worked as a pipa soloist for the famed Nanjing National Music Orchestra. She studied with Zhou Long, Carl Stone and Chen Yi. She was featured soloist with the New York City Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the vocal ensemble Chanticleer, and the San Diego Symphony. She has performed solo at the Vienna Music Festival, the Geneva Music Festival, and Lincoln Center. Collaborators include Peter Sellars, Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Randy Weston, and Björk. Ms. Min has taught master classes and was an artist-in-residence at the Juilliard School, the Boston Conservatory, the New School, and the Amsterdam Conservatory. She is founder of Blue Pipa Inc. (www.bluepipa.org).
 Clarinetist Janice L. Minor performs with the Montpelier Wind Quintet, Prestige Clarinet Quartet, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Pops, Cincinnati Opera, Richmond Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Opera Roanoke, and on soundtracks for the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. She has been a soloist with the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own," Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Eighteenth Century Ensemble, and was featured at the Lucca Music Festival in Lucca, Italy. Her teachers include Ronald de Kant, Larry Combs, John Yeh, Clark Brody and Robert Marcellus. Dr. Minor is the clarinet professor at James Madison University and a Buffet-Crampon performing artist/clinician.
 Violinist Diane Pascal attended The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Ivan Galamian and Jascha Brodsky. Her graduate studies were with Sandor Vegh at the "Mozarteum" in Salzburg. Ms. Pascal is currently a member of the Rosamunde Quartett Munich (ECM records) and the Da Ponte Piano Trio. She appears regularly as concertmaster with orchestras such as Camerata Salzburg, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and is currently the Artistic Director of the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra. As Primarius of the Lark Quartet (1996-2002), she made numerous recordings for the Arabesque label.
 Pianist Lori Piitz is Professor of Piano at James Madison University. She has participated in the Bach Festival at EMU, the Contemporary Music Festival at JMU and the Richmond Chamber Music Festival and has been heard in recital at the Kennedy Center. Ms. Piitz has been a guest at the Festival of the Sound in Canada, the Schleswig-Holstein and Villa Musica Festivals in Germany, and at the Mozart Bicentennial Series at Lincoln Center. Ms. Piitz holds performance degrees from Indiana University and the University of Ottawa where she was awarded the prestigious Isobel Firestone Performance Scholarship. She has studied with Menahem Pressler, Leonard Hokanson, Jean-Paul Sevilla and Helgi Fatovic.
 David Pope is a noted saxophonist and composer, holding degrees from UMASS, Amherst and Eastman, with additional studies at the University of Miami. He has toured North America and Europe with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, the Sax Maniacs and Saxology. He has publications with Hal Leonard, Dorn, and Ex Tempore. Known for his unique mastery of multiphonic saxophone performance, he has recorded two masterclass CD's and authors a regular column in Saxophone Journal. David has been on the faculty at James Madison University since 2000. His former students teach and perform throughout the country. His teachers include Lynn Klock, Yusef Lateef, Fred Sturm, Gary Keller, and Ron Miller.
 Colin St. Martin, baroque flute and recorder, received his First Prize (Bachelor of Music) from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, Belgium, under the tutelage of Barthold Kuijken and a Master of Music with Performer's Certificate of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University. Mr. St. Martin performs with Opera Lafayette, the Washington Bach Consort, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Amercian Bach Soloists, Pegasus, The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Arcanum, and Bach Vespers, among others. He is a recording artist as well as professor of early flute at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Timber Flute Festival in Elkins, West Virginia.
 Violinist Theresa Salomon, a native of Germany, came to New York in 1993. Her festival credits include Festival Presence, Paris; Gulbenkian Festival, Lisbon; Prague Spring Festival; Ostfriesland Festival, Germany; Connecticut Early Music Festival; and Ostrava Days for New Music, with the Janacek Philharmonic in 1993. She performs with ensembles such as the Orchestra of St Luke's, Rebel Baroque Orchestra, New York Collegium, and SEM Ensemble. She directs a chamber music series at Music under Construction, and plays for the dance branch of the Organization, Dance under Construction. Her teachers include Ulf Hoelscher, Wolfram Koenig, Philipp Hirshhorn and Todd Philipps.
 SMF Artistic Director Carsten Schmidt performs a repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to new works, of which he has premiered more than 100. He has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, International Schubert Festival in Amsterdam, the German Mozart Festival, Merkin Hall in NYC, Kennedy Center, and Kaleidoscope Festival in Moscow, and he has been heard in radio broadcasts worldwide. Since 2004 he has conducted opera productions of Handel and Purcell, and a concerto program at the Kuhmo Festival in Finland. He holds Artist Diplomas from the Folkwang Institute, Indiana University, and a doctorate from Yale. Since 1998 he has been Professor of Music at Sarah Lawrence College in NY.
 At home in front of a harpsichord, organ, piano, or fortepiano, David Schrader has performed with the Chicago, San Francisco, and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, as well as with Chicago's Baroque Band, The Newberry Consort, The Chicago Chamber Musicians, and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble. He performed as the Artist of the Year at the Oulunsalo Soi Music Festival in Oulu, Finland. He was the harpsichord soloist with the Nagaokakyo Chamber Ensemble under Yuko Mori and the Canadian baroque orchestra Tafelmusik. He is Professor of Music at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of the Performing Arts Music Conservatory, where he has taught both graduate and undergraduate courses since 1986.
 Patrick Walders is a professional vocalist, music educator, church musician, clinician, and conductor. As the Director of Choral Activities at JMU, he directs the JMU Chorale and the Madison Singers, and oversees the Men's Chorus, Women's Chorus and Treble Concert Choir. He is Associate Conductor of the National Philharmonic Chorale, and Artistic Director of the National Philharmonic Singers at Strathmore. Patrick has sung with the Westminster Choir directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, as well as the Westminster Symphonic Choir, performing with the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra. He is a founding member of Viri Animarum, a six-voice male chamber choir.
 Cellist James Wilson has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the City of London Festival, the Deutches Mozartfest in Bavaria, the Mostly Mozart Festival and the Aspen Music Festival. He has performed with violinist Joshua Bell, flutist Eugenia Zukerman, pianist Christopher O'Riley, guitarist Eliot Fisk, actress Claire Bloom, the Tokyo String Quartet, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. A resident of both Staunton and New York City, he performs with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, teaches cello and chamber music at Columbia University, and is currently the Artistic Director of the Richmond Festival of Music in Virginia.
2008 SMF Emerging Composers
 Robert Barrett received degrees in Music and Psychology from Stetson University and a Master's from JMU in Theory and Composition (2007). Under the guidance of John Hilliard, Robert has composed songs, keyboard works, chamber music and choral pieces. In 2006, he won JMU's James Riley Composition Competition for his cycle, Five Songs. Robert also won the competition in 2007 for his large choral work, The Ferryman, based on Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha. His most recent work was a unique set of tangos for viola.
Darien Shulman received his B.Mus. from Northwestern University, where he studied with Augusta Read Thomas. Upon graduation, Darien returned to NYC to study privately with Daron Hagen, completing several orchestral, chamber, and vocal works. From 2004 to 2006, Darien studied with John Corigliano at the Juilliard School. His orchestral work Chroma's Morning was premiered in 2006 at Alice Tully Hall. Darien continues to compose for film, and recently scored the feature-length film Trigger, as well as several animated and live-action shorts.
Dennis Tobenski graduated in 2004 from Illinois State University with degrees in Vocal Performance and Music Theory & Composition. Dennis has also studied with Daron Hagen and David Del Tredici. In 2006, Dennis co-founded the Tobenski-Algera Concerts to present new works by young composers. In 2007, he sang the premiere of the piano transcription of David Del Tredici's Gay Life, accompanied by the composer. 2008 performances include the premiere of two recently commissioned songs cycles at UConn, Wesleyan University, and on the Essex Winter Series. Mr. Tobenski's website is www.dennistobenski.com
2008 SMF Young Artists
Joshua Brown is a music education student at James Madison University. This is Joshua's second year being part of the Staunton Music Festival's Young Artist Program. Last year Joshua was understudy for Cadmus and Somnus in Handel's Semele. As a JMU undergrad, Joshua was cast as Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow, as Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, and as understudy for Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte. Joshua plans to further his study of voice in a graduate program after receiving his BM from James Madison University.
Tenor Derek Chester, a student of American tenor James Taylor, completed his Masters Degree in Vocal Performance of Oratorio, Early Music, Song, and Chamber Music from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. As a Fulbright Scholar, he continued his training as a student of acclaimed German tenor Christoph Prégardien and is a member of the Gächinger Kantorei. He has appeared as soloist at the 2007 Toronto Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling. He is on the roster of the American Bach Soloists under Jeffrey Thomas. Theater and opera credits include Abel/Japheth in Children of Eden, Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Grosvenor in Patience, and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas. For more information go to derekchester.com.
Aleksandr Fester is currently a Masters student at the Early Music Institute of Indiana University, Bloomington, studying early oboes with Washington McClain. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 2003. Alek has performed professionally with the Bach Vespers orchestra at Holy Trinity Church in New York, the Dallas Bach Society, the Greenwich Music Festival, and with Bourbon Baroque in Louisville, KY. This summer he was a scholarship student at the Amherst Early Music Festival, performing Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 1. This is his third year at the Staunton Music Festival.
Tenor Deepak Marwah, a New York City native, recently completed his M.M. in Voice Performance at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, where he studied with Metropolitan Opera soprano, Judith Haddon. Recent performances include the role of Mr. Owen in Argento's Postcard from Morocco, Britten's Turn of the Screw, Mozart's The Impresario, the New York City Premiere of Bruce Saylor's Orpheus Descending, and the Brooklyn Conservatory's production of Dido and Aeneas. Deepak appeared in the world premiere of Julie Mandel's Subway Suite, new productions at the Manhattan Theater Club and in Sweeney Todd. Mr. Marwah can be contacted via DeepakMarwah.com
Mark Shuldiner recently completed his third year at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music under the instruction of Webb Wiggins. He has played for master classes under the guidance of keyboardists such as Emanuel Ax and Davitt Moroney. This past year, he had the pleasure of playing harpsichord, celeste, and organ for staged productions of both A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea under the direction of Stephen Stubbs. Mark is thrilled to be part of this year's Staunton Music Festival, and is looking forward to his senior year as a harpsichord major at Oberlin.
Pianist Matthew Stephens, a Staunton native, is a junior at James Madison University studying piano performance, emphasis in accompanying/coaching. His primary teachers include Gabriel Dobner and Eric Ruple. Master class experiences with Leonard Hokanson and Margo Garrett. He is active as a music director and vocal coach for community theatre productions. This spring, he was a finalist in the annual JMU School of Music Concerto Competition. At JMU, Matthew serves as the staff accompanist for the School of Theatre & Dance. This summer he studied at the Brevard Institute.
Julia Celeste Turnbull is a 2008 graduate of James Madison University. She obtained her degree in Vocal Music Education. She aspires to continue her education in Vocal Performance at graduate school next fall. This is Julia's second appearance with the Staunton Music Festival. Last year, she was the soprano Young Artist and understudied the role of Iris in Handel's Semele. She was also a member of the opera chorus with the Madison Singers of James Madison University.
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