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, Amelia Island, Florida and Bellingham, Washington.

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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. This past summer he performed at the Bellingham Music Festival as Associate Concertmaster, and maintains his affiliation in the same position with the Cabrillo Contemporary Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California. He has also served as Guest Concertmaster of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

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, Stockport Symphony, Chester Philharmonic 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, Bent Frequency, Sonic Generator, Faculty Tuesdays at Colorado, Kennesaw State University Faculty Chamber Music, Georgian Chamber Players, and Michigan Chamber Players. He has thrice performed the Brahms Piano and Violin Sonata cycle. ASO Music Director Robert Spano invited him to perform a recital of Mozart sonatas last spring at Emory University. 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. ASO Music Director Robert Spano invited him to perform a recital of Mozart sonatas this past spring at Emory University.

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 provided free violin instruction for children three to five years of age. It served as a feeder program for the Talent Development Program of the Atlanta Symphony, of which he is a faculty member. He has given master classes at a dozen music schools, maintains a private teaching studio and 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. During breaks from practicing, rehearsing and teaching, he takes long walks with his dogs Samson and Hildy.

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Elena Cholakova was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where she made her debut with the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra, playing Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Concerto. An active performer, Dr. Cholakova has given recitals at the Liszt Academy, U.S. Embassy in Budapest, Bulgaria Hall and Sofia Conservatory in Sofia, Bulgaria, Museum of Unification in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Aosta Concert Hall in Italy, Fellbach Musicschulle in Germany, as well as numerous concert halls around the USA. Most recently she presented a lecture recital at the 3rd World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Elena has toured the United States as a member of the American Chamber Music Society. Her performances have been broadcast live on WFMT in Chicago, Bulgarian TV and radio stations. Dr. Cholakova is the recipient of the Rislov Foundation Scholarship of University of Michigan, given to musicians nationwide for their high achievements in the field of music. An active chamber musician, Dr. Cholakova gave the Bulgarian debut of Malcolm Arlnold’s Sonata for Viola/Piano and has also collaborated with members of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Soloists Chamber Orchestra and the Chicago Saxophone Quartet.

Dr. Cholakova holds a MMus and DMus from Northwestern University and is currently on the faculty of Emory University. Her primary teachers include James Giles, Ursula Oppens, Roland and Almita Vamos.

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.

Since 2006 Mr. Deane has been principal horn of 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. Dedicated to community outreach, Mr. Deane held the Atlanta Symphony's UPS Community Service chair during the 2008-09 and 2009-2010 seasons. Mr. Deane's instructional videos on basic horn techniques and facts are featured on the internet-based eHow series.

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Elisabeth Remy Johnson was appointed Principal Harpist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1995, immediately following her graduation Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University. With the ASO, Ms. Remy Johnson has performed concertos by Debussy, Handel, Mozart, and Ginastera. Her recordings include Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with Robert Shaw, a solo CD, “Whirlwind”, and a duet album, "Encantamiento" with Christina Smith, ASO principal flute.

Winner of first-place awards in competitions of the American Harp Society and the American String Teachers Association, she is also a NFAA/ARTS awardee. Her studies were with Alice Chalifoux and Ann Hobson Pilot. Ms. Remy Johnson teaches harp privately and at several Atlanta universities.

She was co-founder and artistic director (2000-2010) of the Urban Youth Harp Ensemble, a program serving 40 harp students from the Atlanta Public Schools, for which she received Atlanta’s Channel Eleven Community Service Award and the TBS Pathfinder’s Award. She was also awarded the ASO's honorary UPS Community Service Chair for 2006-07, and the Atlanta Business Chronicle's “40 Under 40” in 2009.

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, collaborated with the Ritz Chamber Players, and was a guest artist at the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.

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Catherine Lynn is Assistant Principal Violist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; she joined the ASO and the Atlanta Chamber Players in 2002. Ms. Lynnis on the faculty of Kennesaw State University and also coaches the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. She has performed as soloist with the KSU and the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestras.Prior to coming to Atlanta, Ms. Lynn performed with the Rosseels String Quartet and was a frequent guest with the Michigan Chamber Players. Shewas Principal Viola of the Flint Symphony Orchestra in MI and taught at the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts. Originally from Alabama, Ms. Lynn received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Alabama and her Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

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John Meisner has been a member of the first violin section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 2000 and began performing with the Atlanta Chamber Players in 2007. He holds Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University and a Masters of Music degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where his teachers included James Buswell, Josef Gingold and Joyce Robbins.

Prior to joining the ASO, Mr. Meisner held positions in the orchestras of Denver, St. Louis, and Ft. Worth, Texas. Additionally, he has performed in chamber music concerts throughout the United States as a member of the Harrington String Quartet (in residence at West Texas A&M University) from 1991-1996. Among these concerts was a successful performance at New York's Merkin Concert Hall.

Mr. Meisner's activities in the summer months have included participation at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC and the New Hampshire Music Festival in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Since coming to Atlanta he has collaborated in chamber concerts with faculty members at the University of Georgia and Emory University.

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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.

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.”

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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.

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. She has 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 and began performing with the Atlanta Chamber Players and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1997. 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.

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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.

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Brent Runnels has fashioned a musical career as a performer, arts administrator, educator and musical entrepreneur. As a pianist, Brent Runnels has been acclaimed for performances in the US, Europe, Australia and Russia as an orchestral and recital soloist, chamber musician, and jazz pianist. He won first prize in the New Orleans International Piano Competition and second prize in the Jacksonville Classical Piano Competition.

Mr. Runnels has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta Symphony, Prague Radio Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, among others. He has given recitals in London, Prague, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Sydney and Atlanta. As a chamber musician, he founded and performed with The Inman Piano Trio from 1998-2009. As jazz pianist he has appeared with such jazz artists as Jon Faddis, Clark Terry, Gene Bertoncini, Lou Soloff, Laurie Holloway, Francine Reed and Joe Gransden.

Dr. Runnels is currently on faculty at Oglethorpe University. He trained with Constance Keene and John Browning at the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree as well as the school’s highest graduate honor, the Harold Bauer Award. A native of Rockville, MD, he is on the international roster of Steinway Artists.

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.

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