The ACP is proud to present the talented musicians who will perform during our 35th season.
Laura Ardan is Principal Clarinet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a position she has held since 1982, and has performed with the Atlanta Chamber Players since 1987.
“Chamber music is very important to me,” she says. “It is necessary to one’s own development as a musician, particularly for the clarinet, which cannot really do much by itself. You’re really able to delve into all aspects of the playing in chamber music.”
A student of Roger Hiller and Stanley Drucker, she attended the Juilliard School of Music on scholarships from the Juilliard School and the Naumburg Foundation. Prior to coming to Atlanta, she spent four years as resident clarinetist and teaching artist for the Lincoln Center Institute and two years with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Ms. Ardan has performed in the Tanglewood, Marlboro and Mostly Mozart Festivals and has appeared as guest artist with “Emanuel Ax Invites...” on the Great Performers Series in New York’s Lincoln Center. The past several summers she has been a featured performer at the Grand Teton Music Festival, as well as chamber music festivals in Highlands-Cashiers, North Carolina, and Amelia Island, Florida.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Assistant Concertmaster with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Justin Bruns holds the endowed Mary and Cherry Emerson Chair and began performing with the Atlanta Chamber Players in 2007. Before moving to Atlanta he was assistant concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and served as concertmaster at the Boulder Bach Festival. He has also played in the Houston Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, IRIS Chamber Orchestra, Symphony II of Chicago, and toured Germany with the American Sinfonietta.
Mr. Bruns has spent summers at the Aspen Music Festival, Beijing Music Festival, and BRAVO Colorado, and he maintains his affiliation as assistant concertmaster with the Cabrillo Contemporary Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California. Last summer he served for the second time as concertmaster of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
Mr. Bruns began his violin studies at age three and won his first competition two years later. He made his solo debut with an orchestra at age nine. Since then he has appeared with numerous orchestras around the country and in England, including the Colorado Symphony, Denver Young Artists Orchestra, Jefferson, Lakewood, and Littleton Symphonies, and Sinfonia of Colorado. He was a Young Musicians Foundation of Colorado roster member from 1996-2002 and won the International Music Scholar Competition in 1995.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Bruns has performed throughout the United States and England, appearing with ensembles such as Kocapelli String Quartet, Michigan Early Music Ensemble, Georgian Chamber Players, and Michigan Chamber Players. As a current member of the Atlanta Chamber Players, he performs twelve programs of wide-ranging repertoire each season. Additionally, he has twice performed the Brahms Piano and Violin Sonata cycle. In 2010-11, he will perform the sonatas of Mozart with ASO Music Director Robert Spano at Emory University.
“I’m particularly looking forward to this year’s Chamber Music At The Tavern — ‘The Soldier’s Tale’ concert [Jan. 26, 2010],” says Mr. Bruns. “Working with the narrator at the Shakespeare Tavern is going to be really awesome. Also, the ‘Twilight & Bright’ concert [Feb. 28, 2010] offers a very interesting pairing on both a performing and enjoying level.”
Actively interested in teaching and bringing music to young and diverse audiences, Mr. Bruns participates in outreach programs through the Atlanta Learning Community. Most recently he assisted in the creation of Kids With Strings, which provides free violin instruction for children three to five years of age. It is a feeder program for the Talent Development Program of the Atlanta Symphony, of which he is a faculty member. At Rice University in Houston he co-founded the Hammond Outreach Program and later participated in Up Close and Musical presentations in Denver. He regularly gives pre-concert lectures for the Atlanta Symphony and for HarpArts Festival. He has given master classes at a dozen music schools and maintains a private teaching studio. He weekly coaches the first violin section of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Mr. Bruns graduated summa cum laude from the University of Michigan, where he was enrolled in the Artists and Scholars Honors Program and was awarded the top prize upon graduation, the Stanley Medal. He received his master’s degree from Rice University. He has recorded with Pearl Jam, Faith Hill, and Bruce Springsteen.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Richard Deane has been third horn of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1987. He is a native of Richmond, Kentucky, where he began his horn studies with Stanley Lawson.
Mr. Deane received the Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Myron Bloom, and the Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Michael Hatfield. Other teachers have included Jerry Peel at the University of Miami and David Wakefield at the Aspen Music Festival.
Mr. Deane was a First Prize winner in the American Horn Competition in 1987. He has played principal horn with the Colorado Philharmonic and the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Soloisti New York, and the Lexington, Kentucky, Philharmonic. In Atlanta, Mr. Deane has performed with the Atlanta Chamber Players, Thamyris, and is a member of the Atlanta Symphony Brass Quintet, touring Norway with that group as part of the Olympic cultural exchange between Lillehammer and Atlanta.
In May of 1999, Mr. Deane was a featured artist at the International Horn Society Convention held at the University of Georgia in Athens. In addition to teaching master classes at such schools as the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Georgia State University, Cleveland State University (Ohio) and Eastern Kentucky University, Mr. Deane is also the visiting professor of horn at the University of Georgia.
During recent summers he has been faculty at the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina. His article “The Third Horn Brahms Experience” was published in the Spring 2007 edition of The Horn Call (the journal of the International Horn Society) and his first method book, The Efficient Approach: Accelerated Development for the French Horn, has recently been published by the Atlanta Brass Society Press.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Elizabeth Koch, a native of Buffalo, New York, began her position as Principal Oboe of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in fall 2007 and made her debut with the Atlanta Chamber Players a few weeks later at Spivey Hall.
Ms. Koch has been playing the oboe since age nine. She studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy under Daniel Stolper and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under Richard Woodhams.
Ms. Koch has performed as soloist with the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival Orchestra, and the World Youth Symphony with Sarah Chang. During the 2006-2007 season she appeared as guest Principal Oboe with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Koch has been featured on NPR’s “From the Top” and “Live from Studio A” programs. She has participated in the New York State Summer School for Orchestral Studies, the Eastern Music Festival and the New York String Orchestra Seminar, and has been a guest artist with the Army Band, at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, and at the Tannery Pond Chamber Music Festival. Last season she was a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She participated in the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, this summer, collaborated with the Ritz Chamber Players, and was a guest artist at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Catherine Lynn joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Chamber Players in 2002. Ms. Lynn begins her position as Assistant Principal Viola with the ASO this season. She served as Acting Assistant Principal Viola with the ASO during the 2007-08 season.
About chamber music, Ms. Lynn says, “There is a real void in the repertoire from the romantic and other eras for the viola, and chamber music fills that void. If you want viola all the time, chamber music is where you’re going to find it. It’s also great to work in smaller ensembles — you’re held very accountable and you have to work collaboratively.”
Ms. Lynn is looking forward to performing Schumann’s Piano Quartet with the Atlanta Chamber Players in the “Twilight & Bright” concert Feb. 28, 2010. “I just love that combination of instruments, the three strings and the piano,” she says. “It’s not too orchestral, and it’s a very rich combination of sounds.”
A part-time Assistant Professor of Viola at Kennesaw State University since 2004, Ms. Lynn has performed as soloist with the KSU Symphony Orchestra. Other recent solo engagements include performing on Mercer University’s 2004-2005 ASO Soloist Series.
Prior to coming to Atlanta, Ms. Lynn performed with the Rosseels String Quartet and was a frequent guest with the Michigan Chamber Players. She served as Principal Viola of the Flint Symphony Orchestra in Michigan and as a faculty member of the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts. She also performed with the innovative IRIS Orchestra, founded and conducted by Michael Stern and based in Germantown, TN.
Originally from Alabama, Ms. Lynn received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Alabama under the instruction of Patrick Rafferty and completed her Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she studied with Yizhak Schotten and Andrew Jennings. Ms. Lynn was a finalist in the 1999 William Primrose International Viola Competition. During the summer, she teaches and performs with the Icicle Creek Music Festival in Leavenworth, Washington, and the local Franklin Pond Chamber Music Festival.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Carl Nitchie, Principal Bassoonist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, joined the orchestra in 1971. His major teachers were Kenneth Moore at the Oberlin College Conservatory, and George Goslee, Principal Bassoonist of the Cleveland Orchestra.
Mr. Nitchie teaches at Emory University and, privately, is a coach with the Atlanta Youth Symphony, and gives master classes around the country. His performances include many solo appearances with the Atlanta Symphony, as well as chamber music performances with the Atlanta Chamber Players, Georgian Chamber Players, Amelia Island Music Festival, Kennesaw Faculty Chamber Players, Orchestra Atlanta and Atlanta Winds.
Mr. Nitchie is looking forward particularly to performing in the ACP’s Chamber Music At The Tavern — “A Soldier’s Tale” in January. “It’s wonderful writing for that combination of instruments … as close to quality chamber music as you can get,” he says. “People tend to have a good time with this piece.” Having a son who acts and works at the New American Shakespeare Tavern, where the concert will be held, gives this performance added interest for Mr. Nitchie.
About chamber music he says, “There aren’t too many chamber pieces that use bassoon, and for me it’s an opportunity to perform in a setting that is more intimate than the orchestral setting. You’re part boss, part co-worker, in a real cooperative musical effort.”
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Paula Peace is the founder of the Atlanta Chamber Players and has served as the group’s Artistic Director for all but a few months of its 34 seasons. For the group she has produced concerts and performed in more than 200 cities throughout 18 U.S. states, France, Italy and Switzerland; produced, edited and performed on all six ACP recordings and CDs; produced and performed more than 50 regional and world premieres in Atlanta; and designed and performed hundreds of concert programs, educational lectures and master classes throughout the South.
“To a musician, chamber music offers a challenge to be the best we can be,” Ms. Peace says. “We have to be on top of our individual parts, on top of our game. It gives each musician the chance to be a strong leader, while being part of a team — an inspiration for how to lead one’s life in general, I think. We’re all interdependent. Because we have no conductor, we have a great deal of freedom and spontaneity, but also the responsibility to work out all musical decisions ourselves.”
From 2003 to 2006 she served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano at Georgia State University and also served as Coordinator of Chamber Music, a position she formerly held from 1992 to 1994. During 2001-2003 she was Artist in Residence at Kennesaw State University.
Ms. Peace is looking forward particularly to playing the Shostakovich Piano Trio in E Minor at the Chamber Music in Sacred Spaces — “Spotlight on Winds” concert on November 15. “This is a very powerful, moving piece, because of its connection to World War II and the Holocaust,” she says. “It uses music to make an important statement on social history, but also heal our wounds.”
Another favorite is the Mozart Quintet for Piano & Winds Ms. Peace will perform in the final concert of the season in April. “This quintet is a real treasure in the chamber music repertoire,” she says. “It shines a bright spiritual light on the piano and winds — each instrument is spotlighted for its beauty and tone.”
As concerto soloist, Ms. Peace has appeared with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, DeKalb Symphony and the Lanier Symphony. In demand as a collaborative pianist, she performed as pianist and harpsichordist with top prize winner Amy Porter at the 1993 Kobe International Flute Competition in Japan, and in the brass world has also appeared with Charles Vernon, Stephen Burns, Eric Ruske, Scott Hartmann, Michael Mulcahy and her husband Michael Moore. Last season she performed with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman with the Chamber Music Society of Emory.
She received her Bachelor of Music from Florida State University in the studio of Leonidas Lipovetsky, and her Master of Music from State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she studied piano with Martin Canin and did extensive chamber music coaching with Gilbert Kalish, Samuel Baron, Bernard Greenhouse, Timothy Eddy, Alvin Brehm and David Glazer. Other significant teachers include Virginia Hutchings, Menahem Pressler, and Leonard Shure. Summer performances include the Aspen Music Festival and Institut de Hautes Etudes Musicales in Crans, Switzerland. Her discography includes five CDs with the ACP on the CRI and ACA Digital labels, in addition to two early ACP recordings on the Press Avant and Leonardo labels and the 2006 “Beyond The Horizon” CD with euphoniumist Adam Frey. Public Broadcasting Atlanta selected Paula Peace as Lexus Leader of the Arts for August 2004.
Brad Ritchie is from Portland, Oregon and is in his 13th season with the Atlanta Chamber Players and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University, where he studied with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Janos Starker. His graduate degree was earned at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, where he studied with Adriana Contino.
As a member of the Felici String Quartet, Mr. Ritchie was a winner of the Kuttner String Quartet scholarship at Indiana University and subsequently played in Japan, France and Germany. Prior to coming to Atlanta, he was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. He has twice performed chamber music on Japanese TV and recorded a CD in Tokyo, Chocolate Fashion.
Last spring Mr. Ritchie was featured in a world premiere of a composition by Nickitas Demos and the Georgia State University Orchestra. Over the past five seasons, Mr. Ritchie has also collaborated with performers in Mammoth Lakes, California, as part of the Chamber Music America Rural Residency Program. He enjoys walking to work, traveling to distant lands, and running to stay healthy.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
A native of Venezuela, Alcides Rodriguez was appointed bass clarinetist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in September of 2005. Before joining the ASO, Mr. Rodriguez was the second and bass clarinetist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. He received his Masters Degree in Music Performance from Northwestern University. He studied clarinet with Russell Dagon and, at the same time, studied bass clarinet with J. Lawrie Bloom and chamber music with Larry Combs. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Music Performance from Baylor University, where he studied with Richard Shanley.
Mr. Rodriguez began his musical training in 1987 in the Youth Symphony Orchestra of his hometown of Guanare, Venezuela. He continued his clarinet studies at the National Conservatory of Music of Venezuela with Professors Valdemar Rodriguez and Luis Rossi respectively. While in Venezuela, he also studied with distinguished Venezuelan clarinetists such as Jorge Montilla, Daniel Granados, and Carlos Mujica, as well as participating in master classes with such distinguished artists as Walter Boeykens, Paul Meyer, and Eddy Vanoosthuyse.
As a soloist, he has been featured on many occasions with the Portuguesa State Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela, the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, and the Baylor University Symphony Orchestra, performing the works of Mozart, Rossini, Weber, Nielsen, Francaix and Copland. His festival engagements have included the New Hampshire Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute, and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan.
Mr. Rodriguez enjoys chamber music, he says, because “It is more personal, there is more individual responsibility and more attention to detail.”
Mr. Rodriguez also has an avid interest in the folk music and instruments of Venezuela. In October 2005, he was featured with the Jacksonville Symphony performing the Concerto for Maracas and Orchestra by Ricardo Lorenz.
Mr. Rodriguez is a Rico Artist and Clinician as well as an Artist and Clinician for Buffet Crampon and plays Buffet clarinets exclusively.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Tom Sherwood is the Principal Percussionist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. A native of Fairfax, Virginia, his musical career began at a young age when he discovered his father’s old drum set packed away in the garage. He graduated with his Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. A student of Tom Siwe, he was the youngest recipient of the Edgar Varese Memorial Scholarship. He went on to earn his Master of Music from Temple University, where he studied with Alan Abel (former Associate Principal Percussionist of the Philadelphia Orchestra).
Mr. Sherwood made his solo debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the 2004-2005 season, performing Tan Dun’s Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Robert Spano. He can be heard with the ASO on Telarc and Deutsche Grammophon recordings.
“The percussion part in Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat is the kind of piece you study in school, but is so rewarding to actually perform,” says Mr. Sherwood of his anticipated performance in January with the Atlanta Chamber Players. “I’m looking forward to working with the actors.”
Chamber music, he says, promotes a different level of communication with other musicians. “It’s more intimate. You are more in charge of yourself than in the orchestral setting.” He also enjoys the interesting venues, such as the New American Shakespeare Tavern and the auditorium in the High Museum of Art where the ACP will be performing this year.
Prior to joining the ASO, Mr. Sherwood performed regularly with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra, and also was a member of the New World Symphony. Since the summer of 2005, he has performed regularly with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Mr. Sherwood is the music director and percussionist for Sonic Generator, the new music ensemble-in-residence at the Georgia Institute for Technology. An active teacher and clinician, he has presented master classes at the 2001 and 2003 Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. Mr. Sherwood is an endorser of Pearl Drums, Adams Musical Instruments and Pro-Mark. He resides in Atlanta with his wife Jessica, his son Leo, and Patsy the pug.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Christina Smith, a native of Sonoma County, California, has performed with the Atlanta Chamber Players since 2000. She began her flute studies when she was seven.
Ms. Smith has appeared as soloist with many orchestras in Northern California, including the San Francisco Symphony at the age of 15. She graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy, where she won the Academy’s highest honor, the Young Artist Medal. In the same year, she became an awardee in the NFA’s National Arts Recognition and Talent Search. In 1989, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music to study with Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner and has also studied with Timothy Day and Keith Underwood.
Appointed Principal Flute of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at the age of 20, Ms. Smith has appeared as soloist with the ASO many times, performing works by Mozart, Vivaldi, Bizet, Rodrigo, Nielsen, John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, and Kaija Saariaho. Her summer appearances include the Blossom, Tanglewood, Sunflower, Highlands, Bellingham, Bay Chamber Concerts, and Marlboro Music festivals. Her first CD, entitled “Encantamiento” for flute and harp, with ASO Principal Harpist Elisabeth Remy Johnson, was released in 2009. Currently on the faculty at Kennesaw State University, she regularly appears in recitals, chamber music, and master classes throughout the country.
Photo by J.D. Scott for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra