Scott Cueller

PIANIST | Week 1

In reviewing pianist Scott Cuellar’s debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, David LaMarche of the New York Concert Review described Mr. Cuellar’s performance as “virtuosic in scope and expression, like a great man of the theater,” and praised his “ability to illuminate both the external structure and the emotional core of the work he plays.” He has been described by Cleveland Classical as possessing “nerves of steel, a formidable technique, and an architect’s understanding of structure.” The San Antonio Express-News praised his “luxuriant exploration” of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto, adding that his “technique was clean, his melodies and cadenzas were expressive, but most noticeable was his keyboard fluidity.” 

Mr. Cuellar has given solo recitals at major venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, the Newport Music Festival, the Polytheatre Chongqing and the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in the People’s Republic of China, and has been a guest recitalist at the Gijón International Piano Festival in Asturias, Spain; Sejong and SangMyung Universities in South Korea; the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Lima, Peru; Northwestern University; Boston Conservatory, and at the University of Washington. He has performed in chamber and collaborative capacities at the Kennedy Center, the Seoul Arts Center, the Eslite and Wan Sha Performing Arts Centers in Taiwan, Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall, the Minnesota Orchestra’s Sommerfest, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Winstead Chamber Series, and many others. 

He has presented masterclasses at Renmin University in Beijing; Sejong, Hansei and SangMyung Universities and the Goyang Arts High School in South Korea; the Piano Academy of Bangkok; the Music Institute of Chicago, and has guest lectured at the Juilliard School. In the summers, he has taught at the Montecito Music Festival and the Oberlin Piano Institute. He has appeared as a soloist with the San Antonio Symphony, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Rochester Symphony Orchestra, the Lima Symphony Orchestra, and several others. 

Cuellar is featured on composer Gity Razaz’s debut album, The Strange Highway (2022) with violinist Francesca DePasquale, released on BIS Records. In 2024, he commissioned composer Arthur Gottschalk to write Six Contrefacts: When George Met Dorothy, a song cycle for baritone and piano, which he premiered with bass-baritone Timothy Jones at the DiMenna Center under the auspices of Tribeca New Music. He has performed with many of the world’s great artists, including violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Jennifer Koh, Benjamin Beilman and Chee-Yun Kim; cellists Mark Kosower, Robert DeMaine and Desmond Hoebig; pianists Joseph Kalichstein, Haochen Zhang, and Jon Kimura Parker, mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung, and the Miró, Rolston, Verona and Ulysses Quartets. He has performed at the La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival and the Cactus Pear Chamber Music Festival. He has been heard on WQXR in New York, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Seattle’s King FM, Texas Public Media, and others. 

Mr. Cuellar won the gold medal at the 2016 San Antonio International Piano Competition (now Gurwitz), where he also received prizes for the best performance of both a Romantic work (Schumann’s Humoreske), as well as of a Russian work (Prokofiev’s 4^th Sonata). He was the gold medalist in the solo division of the 2013 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition (now Palm Springs International), where he was also awarded the silver medal in the concerto division and was the winner of the Krenek Prize for the best performance of a work by Ernst Krenek. Additionally, he was the bronze medalist at the 2016 New Orleans International Piano Competition.

Mr. Cuellar holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Jon Kimura Parker; he earned a Master of Music from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin, and he received his Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Alvin Chow. During his time at Oberlin, he won three of the largest prizes offered to pianists: the Oberlin Concerto Competition, the Arthur Dann Competition, and the John Elvin Prize for Juniors. As of Fall 2026, he is an Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Prior to his appointment at UGA, he was an Assistant Professor of Piano at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, and he was an Assistant Professor (adjunct) at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he taught chamber music, among other duties.

Aurelien Fort Pederzoli

VIolist | Week 1

French-born violist Aurelién Fort Pederzoli has quickly risen to be known as one of Chicago’s most creative and sought-after collaborators.

Aurélien is a graduate of the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with world-renowned teacher Jean Lenert. He then attended the Bern Hochschule, Switzerland, where he was in the master class of Professor Monika Urbaniak and received guidance from Professor Igor Ozim. His primary teacher was Veda Reynolds, professor at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

In 2008, Aurelién founded the Anaphora Ensemble which appeared frequently on national radio and performed in eclectic places, from the Green Mill to Symphony Hall. From 2008 to 2012, Mr. Pederzoli was first violinist of the Corky Siegel Chamber Blues band and toured nationally and internationally with them. Other collaborations include Rachel kolly, Christian Chamorel, Daniel Baremboim, Kent Nagano, the Ysaye quartet, H.J Lim, members of Eighth Blackbird, Shmuel Ashkenasi, the Lincoln Trio, and Mathieu Dufour, to name a few.

From 2009 until 2014, Aurelién was one of the violinists and founding member of the Grammy-nominated Spektral Quartet, ensemble-in-residence at the University of Chicago. In 2015, Mr. Pederzoli founded (alongside Desirée Ruhstrat and David Cunliffe) the Black Oak Ensemble, a string trio, and has been performing with them ever since. 2024 marks the release of their third album on the Cedile label “dance of the night sky”.

Aurelien has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Classical Tahoe, and is a regular substitute with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Aurelién is one of the founders of the music festival cordes en Gascogne , based in the southwest of France.

Lachezar Kostov

Cellist | Week 1

Formerly associate principal cellist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Lachezar Kostov has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Oji Hall in Tokyo. Kostov studied cello at the National Conservatory in Sofia, Bulgaria and furthered his education at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and at Yale and Rice universities. Lachezar has released two critically-acclaimed CDs by Naxos (The Complete Cello Works by Nikolai Roslavets), and Navona Records (PARAPHRASES AND TRANSCRIPTIONS). During the summer he is a frequent guest artist at festivals such as the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, the Texas Music Festival, the Lakes Area Music Festival, and the Cactus Pear Festival in San Antonio. A Larsen Strings Artist, Kostov exclusively uses the company’s new Il Cannone cello strings. Since 2024, Kostov is the Associate Principal cellist of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio

VIolinist | WeekS 1 & 2

Described by Gramophone Magazine as a “violinist who most often takes your breath away” and praised as an “expressive and passionate chamber musician” by the San Antonio Express-News, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio enjoys a varied performing and recording career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader. Professor Emerita at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) and former member of the Argenta Trio, she is also Founder and Artistic Director Emerita of Cactus Pear Music Festival, which she created in 1997 while serving as Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony. Previously First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnányi, she toured and recorded internationally with this ensemble for eight seasons. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru and Chile. In 2010, she was appointed Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra with whom she performs frequently as a soloist. That same year she was awarded UNR’s prestigious Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award. In addition to her active performing career, Stephanie is devoted to teaching serious young violinists, many of whom have won positions in America’s symphonies and universities. 

Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has a discography of over seventy-five orchestral and chamber music CDs. Fanfare Magazine wrote about her Soaring Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola, II release, “she play[s] with immaculate technique, impeccable intonation, lustrous tone, and emotional warmth.” And Audiophile Review described her Johannes Brahms: The Violin Sonatas as “fine readings of great finesse, rich coloring and complete understanding.”  Her other releases include Late Dates with Mozart; Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola on the MSR Classics label; Argenta Trio: The Piano Trios of Felix Mendelssohn on Bridge Records; and Love Comes in at the Eye: Songs & Instrumental Works on Albany Records. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio frequently performs and teaches at various summer music festivals and chamber music societies including: Bach, Dancing & Dynamite Society (WI); Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (WA); Music in the Vineyards (CA); Round Top Festival Institute (TX); Salon Concerts (TX) and, Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland, Canada). Continuing her deep commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion throughout her four-decade professional career, Ms. Sant’Ambrogio frequently programs marginalized and lesser known female composers to introduce her students and the general public to these neglected artists.

Her chamber music activities have included performances and recordings with such noted artists as Ida Kavafian, Richard Stoltzman, Joyce Yang, David Shifrin, Jon Nakamatsu, Richard Goode, Jon Kimura Parker, and Gunther Schuller. She is featured in chamber music recordings under the Arabesque, Albany, Bridge and MSR Classics labels, and her live concert performances have been aired on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as first violinist with the Miami String Quartet and has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at both the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. She toured Italy with Mikhail Baryshnikov and his White Oak Dance Project, toured extensively throughout Ohio with Cleveland’s Myriad, and for ten years performed with the Amici String Quartet, of which she was a founding member. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio studied with and was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein at The Eastman School of Music, where she received her Master of Music degree. Previously she received her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Laurence Shapiro and James Buswell.

The name Sant’Ambrogio is frequently found in concert programs throughout America. John Sant’Ambrogio, former principal cellist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, gave his daughter Stephanie her first violin lessons at the age of five. Her sister Sara is a cellist with the Naumberg Award-winning Eroica Trio. For thirty years the Sant’Ambrogio family directed Red Fox Music Camp in the Berkshires, founded by grandmother Isabelle Sant’Ambrogio, a celebrated concert pianist and pedagogue. The legacy of teaching music has been passed down in the Sant’Ambrogio family for four generations. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio plays a violin crafted in 1757 by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, Italy, the city from which the family name Sant’Ambrogio originates, and her contemporary viola was made by Jacek Zadlo in Chicago in 2008. She and her graphic designer husband Gary Albright have enjoyed exploring Lake Tahoe and the West Coast for the past eighteen years, but have recently relocated to Cleveland, Ohio to be closer to their grown children Bella and Brie, and to enjoy the rich cultural life that this city on the lake has to offer.

Ilya Shterenberg

Clarinetist | Week 1

Acting Principal clarinetist of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (MB, Canada), Principal clarinetist of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra (Columbus, OH), and Principal clarinetist of the San Antonio Philharmonic, Ilya Shterenberg balances a busy career as an orchestral musician, chamber music performer, and a soloist. Hailed by the press: “He possesses that miraculous gift of an innate musical sense…music seemed to flow toward the infinite, as if divinely ordained”, he has been featured as soloist with orchestras performing standard clarinet repertoire, as well as rarely heard clarinet concertos by Krommer and Kurpinsky, as well as the American premiere of Richard Strauss’s Serenade for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra.

He has been featured as Principal clarinetist with the Baltimore, Cincinnati and Seattle Symphonies, the Florida Orchestra, as well as the Houston Grand Opera, and has collaborated with some of the most notable conductors of our time, including Roger Norrington, Seiji Ozawa, Dennis Russell Davies, Herbert Blomstedt, Robert Spano, Daniel Barenboim, George Solti, Pierre Boulez and others. 

Away from the orchestras, Ilya is very active as chamber musician, festival performer, and educator. He is a member of the Olmos Ensemble, a premiere chamber music group in San Antonio. He is the Principal clarinetist of the Music In The Mountains Festival in Durango, CO., and as an educator, he has been a faculty member of the College of Charleston, the University of Texas San Antonio, and UT Austin.

A native of Ukraine, Ilya began his music education at the Kosenko Music College, in Zhitomir, city of his birth. After his immigration to the United States in 1989, he received an Artist Certificate diploma from the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, after which he did further study at DePaul University in Chicago. His principal teachers included Larry Combs, Stephen Girko, and Charles Neidich.

Mr. Shterenberg’s performances have been heard on National Public Radio stations throughout the country as well as Chicago’s WFMT nationwide classical music network. He performs frequently as a recitalist and chamber music artist with the Cactus Pear Music Festival and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival. Ilya is a Buffet Group USA performing artist. 

Jeffrey Sykes

Pianist & Artistic Director | WeekS 1 & 2

Acclaimed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as “a commanding solo player, the most supportive of accompanists, and a leader in chamber music,” pianist Jeffrey Sykes has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe. He has garnered praise for his interpretations of music both old and new: The San Francisco Examiner praised his appearance with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players as “a tour-de-force performance [that was] the evening’s major delight.” And The Well-Tempered Ear commented that “Mr. Sykes displayed the ideal Chopin touch and tone. His fleet fingers captured the lightness of the bel canto singing style in Chopin, with its filigree runs and quickly turned ornaments, all making the hard sound effortless and graceful.”

Together with violinist Axel Strauss and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Sykes is a founding member of the San Francisco Piano Trio. Praised for its virtuosic ensemble playing throughout a wide repertoire ranging from the trios of Haydn and Beethoven to those of Leon Kirchner and Astor Piazzolla, the trio recently appeared on San Francisco Performances’ Salon at the Rex series and has upcoming performances on series in the Bay Area and the Midwest. Mr. Sykes’ other recent activities include a Carnegie Hall recital under the auspices of the Pro Musicis Foundation; a live broadcast over WGBH, Boston Public Radio; and a tour of Chile sponsored by the US State Department.

Mr. Sykes is the founder and artistic director of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society of Wisconsin, a highly-acclaimed and innovative chamber music festival now in its twenty-first season. He is a regular guest artist in the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio, Texas and Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley, California; and in 2007, he served as the guest artistic director of Music in the Vineyards. He has recorded for the Albany, CRI, Mandala, Centaur, and Cactus Pear record labels.

For the last eighteen years, Mr. Sykes has served as the Music Director of Opera for the Young, a preeminent producer and presenter of opera for children that has introduced more than 2 million children to opera. He works extensively as a vocal coach throughout the US and teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. He also joined the faculty of California State University-East Bay in the fall of 2008 where he directs the piano accompanying and vocal coaching programs.

Mr. Sykes holds degrees with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria. He continued his education as a Fulbright scholar at the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. A recipient of the Jacob Javits Fellowship from the US Department of Education, he completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Carmit Zori

Violinist | Week 1

Violinist Carmit Zori came to the United States to study with Ivan Galamian, Jaime Laredo and Arnold Steinhardt at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. 

Ms. Zori is the recipient of a Leventritt Foundation Award, a Pro Musicis International Award, top prize in the Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. She has given solo recitals at Lincoln Center NY, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington D.C., Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Latin America and Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Australia.

Ms. Zori is an avid chamber music player. Ms. Zori appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, the Bard Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and many more. Carmit has an ongoing relationship with the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro. She is a member of Israeli chamber music project.

Ms. Zori is artistic director of the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, which she founded in 2002. BCMS presents concerts in Brooklyn Heights.



Ms. Zori is professor of violin at Bard College and Rutgers University. 

Mark Belair

DRUMMER | Week 2

Drummer and percussionist Mark Belair is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studied in both the jazz and classical departments. In the course of his career, based in New York City, he has pursued both those musical tracks.

He has recorded with jazz greats Bill Evans (Living Time) and Joe Lovano (the Grammy Award-nominated Rush Hour on 23^rd Street) as well as performed and recorded with Gunther Schuller’s New England Ragtime Ensemble (including the Grammy Award-winning Red Back Book of Rags) and Mr. Schuller’s Mingus Epitaph band.

As a classical musician, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The many conductors he has worked with include such legends as Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Eugene Ormandy. He also performed as a guest artist with the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, Austria.

His versatility has made him in demand for show work. He spent twelve years as the percussionist with the hit Broadway show Les Miserables and, before that, four years as the drummer with the original Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors.  

Earlier shows include Treemonisha; the Lincoln Center production of The Threepenny Opera with Raul Julia; Happy End with Meryl Streep; the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of All’s Well That Ends Well; and the National Company of Pippin, directed by Bob Fosse.  

He has also performed with the Broadway productions of Newsies, Evita (revival), Billy Elliot, South Pacific (Lincoln Center revival), Curtains, A Chorus Line (revival), The Drowsy Chaperone, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Lennon, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Women, La Cage Aux Folles (revival), Assassins, The Boy From Oz, Little Shop of Horrors (revival), Cabaret (revival), The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia and Chess.

His “crossover” abilities are reflected in the wide range of music he has performed: with Don Byron’s Klezmer band; The Paragon Ragtime Ensemble (including a month-long stay at the Expo in Seville, Spain); and the Radio City Christmas Show.

With the New England Ragtime Ensemble he has done extensive touring in the US, Europe and Russia. He has performed with them at the White House, on PBS’s “Live at Wolf Trap” and on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion.

As a student, he attended the School of Orchestral Studies at Saratoga Springs, where he studied with Charles Owen and Jerry Carlyss of the Philadelphia Orchestra. At the New England Conservatory of Music, and for two summers at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, he studied with Vic Firth of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At Tanglewood he received the C.D. Jackson Award.

Belair has also published eight collections of poems—most recently Settling In (Kelsay Books, 2024)—and two works of fiction. 

Drummer and percussionist Mark Belair is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studied in both the jazz and classical departments. In the course of his career, based in New York City, he has pursued both those musical tracks.



Drummer and percussionist Mark Belair has performed as a freelance jazz and classical musician in New York for over forty years.

George Chase

Stephanie Jutt

Flutist | Week 2

Flutist Stephanie Jutt’s elegant artistry and passionate intellect have inspired musicians and audiences around the world. Her groundbreaking performances of new music, transcriptions, Latin American and Spanish composers and the traditional repertoire have made her a model for adventurous flutists everywhere. Her recordings are available on Albany, Centaur, GM and University of Wisconsin Press. Her most recent recordings, “Latin American and Spanish Masterpieces” and “Seducción” for flute and piano are available on Albany Records, a result of extensive travels in South America. As described in the Boston Globe, “With an infallibly lovely tone and a strong, inquisitive musical personality, Jutt gave it all of her considerable all.” 

Jutt received first prize at the Concert Artist Guild and Pro Musicis International Soloist competitions, and was a finalist in the International Walter W. Naumburg Competition. She has performed in recital throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia. She received Bachelor and Master’s degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music, where her teachers were James Pappoutsakis and Paula Robison. She completed an additional year of studies with Marcel Moyse. 

Stephanie Jutt is an editor for International Music Publishing, where she has created new transcriptions of three Brahms sonatas, six Mozart violin sonatas, as well as new editions of Karg-Elert Caprices, Köhler etudes and the Reineke Sonata, among others.

Stephanie Jutt is co-founder and artistic director, with pianist Jeffrey Sykes, of the critically acclaimed summer chamber music festival, the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (www.bachdancing.org). She lives in New York City. Numerous performances can be enjoyed on their YouTube channel from their yearly June season. 

Ms. Jutt currently serves on the board of the New York Flute Club and served as a board member and Program Chair for the National Flute Association. A dedicated teacher, Ms. Jutt was Professor of Flute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music. She also held the position of Associate Professor of Flute at the Florida State University. A lifelong arts entrepreneur, she is the creator of the UW-Madison Arts Enterprise, providing career guidance, viable life strategies and support for emerging artists. 



Stephanie Jutt is principal flute of the Madison Symphony and Madison Opera in Madison, Wisconsin.

SoJin Kim

VIOLINIST | Week 2

Korean-American violinist So Jin Kim has been praised by critics and audiences alike for her “powerful interpretation…[and] flawless sound” (Cuxhavener Nachrichten) and “creating tones of poetry” (The Strad). Following her successful solo debut with the Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in 2006, she has appeared as a soloist throughout North America, Europe, and Asia with ensembles such as the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, I Musici de Montreal, Seoul Chamber Ensemble, and the Budapest Symphony Orchestra.

Her debut CD recorded in Leipzig Gewandhaus was released worldwide in 2018 under Genuin Classics with raving reviews from publications including Klassik Radio Austria, Klassik Heute, and Das Orchester. Her second album of Mozart Violin Concertos with Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim under Ars Produktion was nominated for the 2020 OPUS KLASSIK award.

An experienced orchestral musician, she was appointed as a concertmaster of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland at the age of 24, a post she held until 2013, and currently serves as the associate concertmaster of Munich Radio Orchestra. From 2014-2020 she served on the faculty of Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in Germany. In 2016 she founded Yeosu International Music Festival & Ensemble in South Korea, of which she served as the artistic director until 2022.

She received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Rice University. She studied with Cho-Liang Lin, Naoko Tanaka, Hyo Kang, and Donald Weilerstein. She also studied with Krzysztof Wegrzyn at Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover as part of the prestigious Solo Klasse program.

Alan Kay

Amy Levine-Tsang

Gary Poffenbarger

TUBist | Week 2

Associate Professor of Tuba and Euphonium at UT San Antonio, where he has been a cornerstone of the faculty since 2017. A specialist in low brass pedagogy and performance, he mentors music majors, leads intensive weekly masterclasses, and directs the UT San Antonio Tuba/Euphonium Ensemble, known as the Boom Squad.

Mr. Poffenbarger’s artistic foundation was built under the mentorship of legendary musicians, including Arnold Jacobs, Sam Pilafian, Warren Deck, and Roger Voisin. His professional career is marked by high-level performance with world-class ensembles such as Boston Brass, Epic Brass, and the Boston Tuba Quartet. He notably distinguished himself during a 23-year military career, serving as the principal tubist with the United States Air Force Academy Band. During his tenure, he also led Stellar Brass, performing at prestigious venues such as the Midwest Clinic and the International Trumpet Guild Conference.

Beyond the stage, Gary is a prolific arranger and technical expert. While at the Academy, he produced over 150 arrangements and served as a specialized instructor in Finale music notation software. His leadership extended to the Air Force Band Support Division, where he managed music composition, licensing, and digital media strategies for all Air Force Bands. To date, his portfolio includes over 32 recording projects and 40 television appearances, reaching a global audience of over 50 million.

Prior to his appointment at UT San Antonio, Gary held faculty positions at Colorado State University-Pueblo and the Rafael Mendez Brass Institute, and served as Director of Bands at Louise ISD. An Eastman Performing Artist, he remains a sought-after clinician and soloist dedicated to cultivating the next generation of brass musicians.

For more information, visit Eastman Music Company - Gary Poffenbarger.

Steve Peterson

Trombonist | Week 2

Steve Peterson is currently principal trombone of the San Antonio Philharmonic and has served in that position with the former SA Symphony since 2016.  Steve was acting principal trombone of the Fort Worth Symphony from 2022-2023 and has played as guest principal trombone with Houston Symphony, Nashville Symphony, and Minnesota Orchestra, where he is featured on their Mahler Symphony 9 recording.  Steve has also performed in many other orchestras such as Dallas, Cincinnati, St Louis, Colorado, Detroit, Phoenix, Austin, Alabama, and Sarasota. He has a Bachelor's in Music in trombone performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied with David Jackson, and a Master's in Music from Southern Methodist University, where he studied with John Kitzman.  Steve has taught at Texas State University San Marcos as interim faculty, Richland College and is currently adjunct professor of trombone at St. Mary’s University.   Steve has performed with many chamber groups, including DFW Brass, Olmos Ensemble, Music in the Mountains Brass Quintet, and Bishop Arts Brass. Before moving to Texas in 2011, Steve played in jazz and commercial ensembles on cruise lines, which allowed him to travel to Europe, Australia, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. Steve is also a filmmaker and creates many original satirical and documentary videos that can be found on his YouTube channel: petersonproject.

Zlatan Redzic

Bassist | Week 2

Zlatan Redzic is a member of the San Antonio Philharmonic. From 1999 until 2022 he was a member of San Antonio Symphony. Zlatan also performed with Atlanta Symphony, Atlanta Opera, Jacksonville Symphony, Austin Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Graz Symphony and San Antonio Opera. He holds a Bachelor’s of Music from Indiana University where he studied with Bruce Bransby.

Zlatan has served as a mentor at the Aspen School of Music which he attended for three years. He is an active chamber musician and performs regularly with major San Antonio chamber groups. Zlatan loves to play jazz and electric bass and has performed with Placido Doming, Andrea Bocelli, Valery Grokhovsky, Kinan Azmeh, Clarice Assad, Victor Prieto and Elio Villanfranca among others.

Zlatan maintains a private teaching studio for beginners to advance students of all ages in the San Antonio area. He also serves as a bass instructor at UTSA, San Antonio College and Northwest Vista College. Zlatan presents educational solo performances in various San Antonio Schools and public libraries. 

Colin Sorgi

Violist | Week 2

Volist Colin Sorgi joined the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra viola section in 2018. Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, Colin holds degrees from both the Peabody Conservatory and Indiana University studying violin and viola with renowned musicians Herbert Greenberg, Jaime Laredo and Pinchas Zukerman. Colin made his solo debut at the Aspen Music Festival and has since been heard as soloist and in recital on the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Chicago Cultural Center, and Canada’s National Arts Centre, among others. 

In 2015, he made his debut at the prestigious Lucerne Festival in Switzerland giving the European premiere of the concerto “Forever and Ever” by Tod Machover (Musical America’s 2015 Composer of the Year) – a performance The Guardian (UK) hailed as possessing "unwavering conviction – subtle, striking and moving.” In 2019 he was featured on a double-bill performance of Jennifer Higdon's Viola Concerto and Berlioz's Harold in Italy with the Capital City Symphony. Colin’s first recording alongside pianist Jooeun Pak, released by the Latin American Music Center, included works by all living Latin-American composers and was a finalist for the 2012 Latin Grammy Nomination. Fanfare Magazine described the recording as “a tour de force of stamina, virtuosity and rhythmic precision.” From 2006-2016, Colin was the founder and artistic director of SONAR new music ensemble, named 2014’s “Best Musical Group” by Baltimore City Paper.

This summer, Colin appears as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony on their Music for Maryland Tour in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. He has appeared recently as Guest Principal of the Baltimore Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Colorado Music Festival, as well as a frequent chamber music collaborator across the country. He is also the co-creator and artistic/editing director of the Baltimore Symphony's beloved BSO Lunch Bachs web series and is a mentor and teaching artist for the Sphinx Organization's National Alliance for Audition Support. Colin and his wife Jaclyn (who is also a violist!) live in North Baltimore with their two daughters Clara and Chloe.

John West

Pianist | Week 2

An international performer, John has toured throughout the world. Performance credits include solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and featured artist of American Guild of Organists as well as Canadian Royal College of Organists. He performed as a featured vocalist in New York with ‘Patti LuPone on Broadway’. He also performed on the Distinguished Organist’s Recital Series at Cadet Chapel West Point, New York and in summer of 2025 performed on the International Concert Series, at The Mariannhill Monastery Church Würzburg Germany.

He has been featured artist for the longest running radio show for the organ, ‘Pipedreams’ on NPR and is featured on the DVD documentary of the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall Organ.

As a ragtime pianist John has performed with the New England Ragtime Ensemble since 1974. Throughout the United Staes and for a once in a lifetime trip to the USSR in the late 1970s.

He has also found great success as a musician in film, television and recordings in Hollywood. His first professional industry job was as a staff writer/producer with Motown Records working directly with founder Berry Gordy, Jr. His songs were recorded by Nancy Wilson, Jennifer Holiday. His uplifting spiritual song “Heaven’s Hands” was used to open the Vienna Music Festival, Austria in May of 2011.

He became an in-demand vocalist for TV and Film having performed in over 200 films and has worked as vocal contractor for such blockbusters as Hairspray and Godzilla. His vocal performances include the soundtracks of Spiderman- No Way Home, The Simpsons and Black Panther: Wokanda Forever. Television appearances include The Academy Awards and his cameo appearance in the HBO series Perry Mason.



Following his graduation at Willamette University in Oregon John moved to Boston where he received his Master of Music degree with Honors from the New England Conservatory of Music. From 1993 – 2000 he was Professor of Organ at California State University, Northridge, California.

Ken Woods

Conductor & Banjo | Week 2

American conductor Kenneth Woods has taken a rather scenic route to the podium. Originally bitten by the conducting bug when he seized the opportunity to “conduct” an excerpt of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony at an open rehearsal when he was four years old, he has been a rock ‘n’ roll guitarist, jazz musician, writer and theatrical light designer. Through all these phases, the cello has been his constant companion, as a soloist, orchestral player and chamber musician. As a rocker, Ken still relishes the memories of working with a drummer named Chicken, a guitarist who took to playing in a diaper and a lead singer who used to pull a “special secret surprise” out of the bass drum at every show.

He’s worked with a number of internationally known orchestras including the National Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, with whom he appears frequently on BBC Radio 3. He has held the Aspen Fellowship in both cello and conducting, and was a Debut Artist in the National Conducting Institute at the Kennedy Center but has also been artist-in-residence in the poorest county in America (on the floodplains of Northeast Arkansas) during his time with the Taliesin Trio, and has been the music director of the “most remotely situated full-symphony orchestra on the planet” (the Oregon East Symphony) since 2000.

He continues to play chamber music with members of leading orchestras and quartets, but has also enjoyed diverse projects such as being the banjo player and guitarist for the Grammy Award-winning New England Ragtime Ensemble, and spending a year as acting director of the Eastern Jazz Ensemble. As a teacher, he frequently works with youth orchestras and is the founder of an international summer institute for young conductors in Portland, Oregon.

Ken moved to Britain in 2003 and lives in Cardiff with his wife, Suzanne, their dog, Murphy, and their very well-traveled cat, Picasso. Together, they enjoy camping and hiking, food and film. Ken’s longstanding interest in writing has recently found a new outlet with his popular blog, A View from the Podium, which has gained favorable notice from the music and arts critics of the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker magazine.

In 2000, he fulfilled the ambition of his four-year-old self by conducting his first complete performances of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, a work he now performs often. He much prefers not returning the baton to another Conductor.