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| (Names in blue are email links) |
Jacob Adams
Jacob's chamber music career has included performances at Zankel and Weill Hall in New York, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Aspen's Harris Hall and on the Smithsonian Chamber Music Series in Washington DC, where he had the honor of playing on one of the collection's prized Amati instruments. As violist of the Vinca Quartet from 2007-2009, he performed frequently across the country and abroad. Jacob has appeared in concert with members of the Muir, St. Lawrence, and St. Petersburg Quartets and has worked with members of the Artemis, Cleveland, Colorado, Concord, Juilliard, Pacifica, Takcas, and Tokyo String Quartets. As violist with the Erato Quartet, he was awarded top prize at the 2001 Coleman Chamber Music Competition where one judge praised Jacob for "the finest viola playing in a quartet I've heard in years." A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Jacob has collaborated with many different composers and artists in styles ranging from avant-garde to pop. He has backed up jazz luminaries such as Herbie Hancock, Christian McBride, Terence Blanchard and Diana Krall, and has performed with bluegrass ensembles and rock bands. As a committed teacher, Jacob has held multiple teaching positions at Yale University and has coached chamber ensembles at schools and festivals throughout the country. He co-founded Music Haven, a non-profit musical mentorship program for underprivileged children in New Haven, CT. He has led pre-concert talks and regularly contributes program notes for the Yale Chamber Music Society Series, Concordia Chamber Players, Norfolk Summer Festival, Yale at Carnegie Hall, and Longy School of Music concerts. In the fall of 2009, he will begin DMA and musicology studies at UC–Santa Barbara. |
Claire Barbasch Claire Barbasch is a second-year MA/PHD student of Music Theory. She received a dual BA in Mathematics and in Music from Cornell University before starting the MA program at UCSB. During her stay at Cornell, Claire was a member of the Cornell Chamber Orchestra, the music library staff, the fencing team, and the Cornell Language House (as a student of Japanese). She is an enthusiastic supporter of new music, and has participated in contemporary pieces while in the Cornell Chamber Orchestra and in an opera by two Cornell students. Additionally, she will be part of the Ensemble for Contemporary Music at UCSB for the 2009 – 2010 academic year. Claire has tutored Algebra, Trigonometry, and Calculus while attending Cornell, and was a Teaching Assistant for Music 11 at UCSB from 2008 - 2009. She will move on to TA Music 5 in 2009 – 2010. Her research interests include the development of early 20th century music in France, and problems in analyzing Hector Berlioz's music. She complements her study of Music Theory by playing the viola, studying French, and composing. |
Erik Bell Erik Bell is a first-year M.A./Ph.D. student in Music Theory at UCSB. Before arriving in Santa Barbara in Fall 2007, Erik completed his B.A. in Music (Piano Emphasis) in 2006 at the University of Oregon, Eugene, where he studied with Victor Steinhardt. Aside from his studies in Music Theory, Erik enjoys singing, both as a soloist and in ensembles. He made his operatic solo debut with UCSB Opera Workshop in their 2009 production of "Viva La Mamma", as Prospero. He has also appeared in various opera scenes programs with the Shasta College Opera Workshop in his hometown of Redding, CA. Erik was also the Assistant Conductor for the UCSB University Singers during the 2007-2008 academic year. In his free time, Erik enjoys listening to early Italian opera, cooking, and home-brewing craft ales. |
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Joann Cho Joann Cho (b. Los Angeles) is a composer/pianist currently residing in Santa Barbara, CA. As a pianist she has performed in and around Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Chicago, and most recently Ghent, Belgium. During her studies at Northwestern University (2003-7), she studied piano closely with Alan Chow, and composition with Jay Alan Yim and Augusta Read Thomas. Her compositional interests include experimental and graphic notation, improvisation, and movement/choreography in relation to sound. Recent works have been premiered in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and most recently Santa Barbara by flutist Anne La Berge. Joann is currently in process of completing her PhD in composition at University of California at Santa Barbara under the tutelage of Clarence Barlow. |
Kelley Coker Kelley is pursuing her Master’s in horn performance studying with Dr. Gross. She graduated in three years from the University of California, San Diego where she studied with Warren Gref. While in San Diego, Kelley performed with the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, City Ballet San Diego, and Moonlight Stage Productions, among others. She has performed in venues throughout the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. She has also participated in master classes with Jean Rife (New England Conservatory), Mary Bisson (Baltimore Symphony), Bob Lauver (Pittsburgh Symphony), Dave Krehbiel (retired from San Francisco Symphony), as well as Barry Tuckwell (world renowned horn soloist). Kelley, a native of Alaska, enjoys the great outdoors and writing in addition to her two greatest passions: music and spending time with her loved ones. |
Christopher Davis
Chris attended the University of California, San Diego and completed a Bachelors of Arts degree in Music with Departmental Honors in 2004. He finished his Masters of Music degree in piano performance in 2007 and Graduate Certificate in Advanced Instrumental Performance in 2008 both at the University of Arkansas. Chris is currently pursuing his D.M.A. in piano performance at the University of California, Santa Barbara as a student of Paul Berkowitz. His other hobbies include music score collecting and composition. |
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Maureen DeMaio is a PhD candidate in musicology studying racial rhetoric in early twentieth century debates concerning an "American" sound in music. She arrived at UCSB through a circuitous route that included practicing law in Arizona, Illinois, and California (after graduating from Georgetown Law Center), and teaching at Loyola Law School in Chicago and at SBCC. She began UCSB's musicology program on a Dean's Fellowship in September 2005 and advanced to candidacy in June 2008. She received the Stanley Krebs Memorial Prize in musicology at UCSB and the Harold Dunn/Balderston Scholarship and the Outstanding Music Student of the Year award while at SBCC. Maureen also received an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the UCSB Office of Residential Life and Residence Hall Association for her work in Music 15. She is the Music 15 Associate for the 2008-2009 academic year, teaching the course in Summer 2008, and Winter and Spring 2009. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of UCSB's CISM (Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music), and she was one of the organizers of the 2008 CISM Music & Politics conference at UCSB. Originally from upstate New York, Maureen holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University at Albany and one in music from UCSB. |
Eric Ederer
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Laura has been teaching music (music theory, music history, music appreciation and piano) and mathematics (algebra, geometry and trigonometry) for the past 10 years. In May 2008, Laura presented her paper on “Mathematics and Music: Teaching in the 12th Century and Today” at the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Conference at Chestnut Hill College, PA. In her free time, Laura enjoys a variety of sports, such as snowboarding, ice skating, and martial arts, learning foreign languages, dancing, and traveling. |
Alissa Favero
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Kimberly Fitch
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Tracy Goodwin
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Bridget Hough-Meynenc
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Edmond Johnson
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Meghan Joyce
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Kacey Link
In the spring of 2009, she completed a second master’s degree in musicology at the University of Miami under the advisement of Deborah Schwartz-Kates. Her thesis is titled “Culturally Identifying the Performance Practices of Astor Piazzolla.” With a University of Miami Latin American Studies Research Grant and a Mu Phi Epsilon Multicultural Award, she was able to conduct fieldwork in Argentina during the summers of 2007 and 2008. She has presented her research at regional, national, and international conference. In October 2009, she will join Kristin Wendland and Schwartz-Kates in a panel discussion and demonstration on the evolution of the tango at the CMS National Conference. As both a performing musician and scholar, her current research seeks to analyze music from a cross-cultural perspective while integrating the disciplines of performance and musicology. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, watching movies, and walking her dog Jacques. |
Shannon McCue
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Emma McCullough Emma McCullough is a first year M.A./Ph.D. student in musicology at UC Santa Barbara. Her primary research interest is Czech vocal music. Originally from New Jersey, Emma grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In May 2009 she received a B.M. in vocal performance from Ithaca College where she studied with Jennifer Kay and Kelly Samarzea. Since 2007, Emma has worked at the North Carolina Governor’s School, a summer program for gifted and talented high school students. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, crossword puzzles, and cooking, and hopes to learn to surf. |
Kate Mendenhall
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Sasha Metcalf
In 2008, she completed a B.M. in vocal performance with a minor in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, graduating with both Departmental and College Honors. She was a recipient of the Skolnick Memorial Fund Scholarship and her senior recital featured music by Giulio Caccini, Aaron Copland and Francis Poulenc. She was also involved in UCSC Opera Theatre for the past four years, with opera roles including Cobweb in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, First Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and Anna Gomez in The Consul. In the summer of 2006 she played Eponine in the Camp Musical Accord Parfait's production of Les Miserables in Quebec, Canada. As a conductor, she has performed new music by Daniel Brown and John Seales. In 2008, she was thrilled to serve as director of the student staff program for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. |
Barak Perelman
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Upon returning to NJ, Vincent acted as the secretary for the American Musicological Society’s (AMS) Greater New-York Chapter, 2006-2008. A NJ state-certified music educator, Vincent also taught high-school chorus, music history, and theology from 2006-2008 in addition to a piano studio of thirty students. Additionally, he served as organist to a number of churches and was the Liturgical Music Director of St. Peter’s College. Vincent also took musicology classes at CUNY Brooklyn College and was able to have his first article published in the Music Library Association journal, Notes, featuring a review of Christopher Anderson’s Selected Writings of Max Reger. As an M.A./Ph.D. student of musicology at UCSB, Vincent’s main area of interest is early German Modernism and the experimental musical apparatus that effected music from composers situated between the epochs of Romanticism and Modernism, specifically Max Reger. Other areas of interest include: the revival of the Solesme School as exemplified in the music of Maurice Duruflé; the keyboard works of J.S. Bach; and epic-film music, The Lord of the Rings. |
Justin Scarimbolo Justin Scarimbolo is a PhD Candidate in Ethnomusicology at UCSB. His dissertation explores the individual and family histories of Hindu musicians in India during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries who first learned music from Muslim hereditary professionals. His interest in the stories of these musicians lies in their ability to complicate historical narratives of both a previous and impervious Muslim hegemony in music, and a past Hindu participation in music motivated by a later-day Hindu hegemony. His research was funded by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (2007-08). Over the course of his graduate school career Justin has frequently traveled to India to study Hindi and Marathi languages, as well as the performance of North Indian classical music on the sitar with his teacher, Mrs. Jyoti Thakar, who lives in the city of Pune. Justin's study of sitar earned him an invitation to instruct the UCSB sitar ensemble during the academic year 2003-04. Justin also taught a course in World Music (MUS17) at UCSB that focused on the role of music in maintaining and contesting national, racial, gendered, and other boundaries of identity. He has worked as a Teaching Assistant both in the department of Music and in the department of Asian American Studies. |
Linda Shaver-Gleason
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B.A. Psychology, UCLA Began in 2005 as an ethnomusicology graduate student Main research interest involves North Indian Classical Music |
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Over the years, Michael has studied theory with several renown scholars including Gary Karpinski, Brent Auerbach, and Reed Hoyt. While working towards his degree at UMass Amherst, Michael has served as a TA for courses in counterpoint and undergraduate theory under the mentorship of Richard Randall. He also studied violin performance with Ann-Marie Schwartz. Beginning his studies at UCSB in 2008, Michael will work towards a Ph.D. in Music Theory with an emphasis in tonal analysis. His research interests include Schenkerian Analysis, Music Cognition, Music-Theory Pedagogy, and the History of Music Theory. Recently, Michael has completed his masters thesis “Franz Liszt’s Settings of ‘Was Liebe sei?:’ A Schenkerian Perspective” and looks forward to continuing his research on Liszt’s music. |
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Nathaniel Werner graduated with a B.M. in vocal performance from Chapman University, with high honors. A participant of Opera Chapman, Nathaniel played Marco in Gianni Schicci. At home in the Bay Area, he performed as the Priest in Die Zauberflöte, Albert Peterson in Bye, Bye, Birdie, and as a ninja in a particularly memorable performance of Stravinsky’s The Nightingale. While at Chapman, Nathaniel was recognized for both academic achievement and student leadership, with departmental honors in Music and German and several leadership awards from the Office of Student Affairs. Nathaniel was privileged to tour the United States and Australia with the Chapman University Choir, as well as performing at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Sydney Opera House. Nathaniel discovered a passion for teaching while serving as a teaching assistant and tutor for Music History and Music Theory. Nathaniel’s research interests include political aspects of American Music Theater and the relationship between early film and opera. He currently is a TA for the Music History program, and is a founding member of the UCSB Music Graduate Student Association. |
Kathryn Woolf Kathryn Woolf is an incoming Masters of Music student in Clarinet Performance. She graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. At UPS she studied with Jennifer Nelson and was an active member in multiple performance ensembles. She attended summer sessions at Interlochen Summer Camp and the Sequoia Chamber Music Workshop. She has also participated in master classes with Eric Mandat and Armond Abrosini. Currently she studies with Paul Bambach in Santa Barbara. In March 2009 Kathryn was a featured soloist with the Santa Barbara City College Jazz Band performing Igor Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto. Kathryn is excited to pursue her study of classical music and history and looks forward to exploring other styles. This summer she performed with multiple Dixieland Jazz Bands, is featured on an experimental/hip hop album and plays in an accordion-clarinet-piano experimental band ‘Bearkat’. |
A native of Cincinnati, OH, violist Jacob Adams made his solo debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at age 17, performing Bartok's Viola Concerto in Cincinnati's historic Music Hall. As a chamber musician, recitalist, soloist and orchestral player, he has concertized extensively throughout the US - including Carnegie Hall, Boston's Symphony Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl - and abroad throughout Europe, Canada and South Korea. His principal teachers have included the late Jesse Levine at the Yale School of Music, Roland Vamos and Roger Chase at Oberlin, and Catharine Carroll and Masao Kawasaki at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Beverly Brossmann is currently a master's student at the University of Santa Barbara, California studying with Jill Felber. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Puget Sound, where she studied with Karla Flygare and was the recipient of the Endowed Music Scholarship as well as the 2005 winner of the Concerto/Aria Contest. In 2008, Beverly created several flute meditation albums for Adventures in Mastery, LLC (AIM), and the CD is soon to be released. She won the NFA Masterclass Competition with a performance at the National Flute Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2007. Beverly has participated in numerous masterclasses around the world with teachers including Bonita Boyd, Marianne Gedigian, Amy Porter, Christina Jennings and Carol Wincenc. Beverly's future goals include pursuing her doctorate degree, continuing teaching and performing, experimenting with music and healing, and starting a band with her sisters in Seattle.
Christopher Davis has been a prize winner of numerous competitions, including the San Diego Symphony Young Artist Competition, the California Young Artists Competition in Escondido, and Master Class winner of the 1997 Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition. He has performed as a soloist with the California Institute of Music Orchestra, the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts Orchestra, and the Northwest Arkansas Symphony Orchestra after winning first place in the 2007 University of Arkansas Concerto/Aria Competition. In recent years Chris has travelled to Germany, Austria, and Portugal where he has performed and received instruction from some of the world’s most renowned teachers and scholars.
Laura Emmery is a PhD student in Music Theory at UCSB. Prior to coming to UCSB in the Fall of 2008, Laura has completed her Master of Music Degree in Theoretical Studies at New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, MA, where she studied with Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot. Her thesis emphasis was on the 20th century American composers, primarily Elliott Carter and Ruth Crawford. Laura has received her Bachelor of Music Degree at CSU Northridge in Piano Performance and Music Theory, focusing on Pedagogy of Music Theory, History of Music Theory and Schenkerian Analysis, and has participated in many solo and orchestral performances, such as Andre Watts and Santiago Rodriguez piano master classes, and winner of the El Camino College concerto competition.
Alissa Favero is a second year graduate student studying voice with Benjamin Brecher. She earned her Bachelor’s of Music in vocal performance from the University of the Pacific under Dr. Lynelle Frankforter Wiens. Last year at UCSB she played the lead role of Corilla in Donizetti’s opera Viva la Mamma and the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s The Magic Flute in the UCSB opera scenes. During her undergraduate, she was Nora in Britten’s Rider’s to the Sea, the First Woman in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, lay sister in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and performed in scenes programs both as Susanna from Mozart’s Le Nozze de Figaro as well as Constance from Poulenc’s Dialogue of the Carmelites. She has studied both in Graz, Austria with the American Institute of Music and in Milan, Italy where she performed by invitation in Vienna. Additionally, Alissa won second place in the Stockton Opera Guild Competition. Alissa is a UCSB Teaching Assistant for the Music 20 series teaching voice.
Kimberly Fitch, originally from Ashland, Oregon, holds a Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Fitch has studied with Philip Ying, Helen Callus, James Dunham, Jeffrey Irvine, Carol Rodland and Richard Wolfe, and has played in master classes for Karen Tuttle, Karen Ritscher, Susan Dubois and Erika Eckert. An enthusiast for contemporary music, Fitch has performed music by composers such as Beat Furrer, Matthias Pintscher, Steve Reich and Wolfgang Rihm, as well as works by faculty members and students of Eastman as a member of Musica Nova, OSSIA, and The Cape Cod Experiment. Fitch has worked with new music expert Brad Lubman as well as period music experts Christel Thielmann and Kristian Bezeidenhout. Fitch was a scholarship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival, Fontainebleau Schools in France, The Britt Institute with the Cavani and Pacifica Quartets, Soundfest Quartet Institute with the Colorado Quartet, and the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival with the Tokyo Quartet. Fitch was a semifinalist at the 2005 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, winner of the 2002 Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon Concerto Competition, and recipient of the John Celentano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music at the Eastman School. Fitch is eager to continue studies with Helen Callus and to play as a member of the Young Artist String Quartet at UC Santa Barbara, where she will pursue her Master of Music degree. 
George Gelles is a horn player working toward an MM degree with Professor Steven Gross. After studying at Juilliard Prep and at the Manhattan School of Music, where his teacher was James Chambers, solo horn of the NY Philharmonic, George attended Princeton University, studying musicology and analysis with, among others, Edward Cone, Earl Kim, and Lewis Lockwood. He did graduate work in musicology at the Free University-Berlin. After working at the National Endowment for the Arts and at the Ford Foundation, he was asked to be Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, a position he held for fifteen years. George contributed to the New Grove Dictionary and has written on a variety of musical subjects for the New York Times and other national publications.
Tracy Goodwin is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree at UCSB, where she studies with Jill Felber, and is receiving a stipend and full scholarship. Ms. Goodwin received her BM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Tim Day (Principal Flutist of the San Francisco Symphony), and received a Departmental Award in 2008. Ms Goodwin actively competes in competitions, such as the Southern California Rotary music competition (1st place winner), San Diego Flute Guild Solo Competition (1st place winner), Jefferson Symphony young artists competition (finalist), Marin Symphony principal flute audition (finalist in 2007); as well as performing in the Bay Area based new music ensembles Blue Print and Ensemble Parallel. She was also a successful wedding musical contractor for the last 3 years in the Bay Area and hopes to continue with this in Santa Barbara. This past summer she had the wonderful opportunity to perform in a concert with rock legend Sting, renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, and several other prominent musical individuals. In her spare time Ms. Goodwin enjoys being outside in the sun, watching videos, and hanging out with her pet A’jamais, a Brazilian Rainbow Boa.
A native of Santa Barbara, Brigitte is a classical pianist whose enthusiasm and dedication to her art have made her much in demand as a performer, teacher and collaborator. She received her Bachelor of Arts Music Degree from UCSB as a Regents Scholar, where she was honored as Outstanding Graduating Senior with Distinction in the Major. In 2007, along with violinist Sharon Cooper, and violist Mark Hatchard, she founded the Trio Musaique, an ensemble that has since garnered great reviews and popularity. In addition she has premiered works of well-known local composers including Larry Delinger, Marcus Engelmann and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. She is a member of the American College of Musicians, National Guild of Piano Teachers, the Music Teacher’s Association and the Santa Barbara Music Club. She is currently pursuing an MM in piano at the University of California, Santa Barbara where she studies with Paul Berkowitz and Robert Koenig. 
Christopher Jette graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh 1998 with a B.A. in music performance and from the New England Conservatory in 2005 with a M.M. in music composition. He began a Ph.D. in composition at UCSB in 2006 with a projected graduation in 2010. His compositions, both electronic and acoustic are concerned with the various roles of cognition in the perception of sound. An intuitive inquiry, composition serves as a venue for the exploration and consideration of issues and concerns important to the modern situation.
Edmond Johnson is a doctoral candidate in musicology. His research focuses on the revival of early music during the first half of the 20th century, with a particular emphasis on the movement's creative and interdisciplinary conjunctions. Additionally, he is interested in issues of musical representations, preservation, and aesthetics, and his work has included research in the areas of film music, early sound recording, and musical automata. He is currently writing his dissertation, entitled "Revival and
Antiquation: Modernism's Musical Pasts."
Meghan Joyce is a first-year M.A./Ph.D. student in musicology. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 2008, with a B.A. in Music and English and American Literature and Language. While at Harvard, she worked with professors Daniel Albright and Carolyn Abbate to complete her senior thesis, "Synthesizing the Arts: James Joyce's and Tennessee Williams's Applications of Richard Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk," which discusses the attempts of written and performed works to bridge the barrier between linguistic and musical expression, especially the use of the leitmotif technique to manipulate the memory in a way that simulates the effects of music.
Anthony Kim is a graduate student at University of California, Santa Barbara working towards a master's degree in piano performance under the guidance of Charles Asche. He is the Music Director of the South Coast Reading Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the UCSB Symphony Orchestra and the Substitute Guest Conductor for the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony. As a violinist, Anthony performed as a member of the San Diego Youth Symphony, La Primavera Orchestra and the All-Southern California Honor Orchestra. He studied conducting at The Conductors Institute at Bard and the Conductors Retreat at Medomak. His conducting teachers include Harold Farberman, Kenneth Kiesler and Richard Rintoul. Anthony is a recipient of the Leni Fe Bland Award, Erno Daniel Memorial Award, UCSB Quarterly Performance Award, 1st place awards in the MTNA & MTAC competitions, and 1st place award in the Saddleback Symphony Young Artist Competition, which subsequently led to performances with the orchestra as a concerto soloist. He also performed in piano master classes of Noel Engebretson and Leon Fleisher. Anthony is the founder and director of the Dead Composers Society at UCSB.
Adam began his undergraduate studies here at UCSB, where he participated in the chamber choir, jazz ensembles, several student-run a cappella groups, in addition to his own composition studies. After completing the BM in composition at UCSB, Adam's interests began to shift to choral conducting and sacred music. Over the summers he has attended two international schools in France, the conservatory at Fontainebleau for composition, and the European American Musical Alliance in Paris for conducting. He plans to finish the terminal MM in choral conducting in 2010, and go on to further studies in conducting and sacred music, alongside studies in divinity and theology.
Kacey Link is a D.M.A. student in keyboard at UCSB under the tutelage of Robert Koenig. She has performed as both a solo and collaborative pianist in the United States, France, and Switzerland as well as worked as an accompanist/coach for the Lyric Opera and New Theatre of Kansas City. She received both a Bachelor of Music in piano performance (2004) and a Master of Music in accompanying (2007) from the University of Kansas. Her former instructors include Sequeira Costa, Mark Ferrell, and Jack Winerock. She also has had master classes and lessons with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Benjamin Rawitz, and members of the Tokyo String Quartet as well as attended summer festivals including the Aspen Music Festival and the Cours international de musique.
Chicago native Shannon McCue was introduced to the viola at age ten through her public school music program, and began studying privately two years later. She is currently pursuing the Master of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in viola performance at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she studies with Helen Callus. Shannon holds the Bachelor of Music (viola performance) and the Bachelor of Arts (English) degrees from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin (2007 alumna). In 2002, her string sextet advanced to the quarterfinals of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. As an undergraduate, she served as principal violist of the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra for four years, thrice received (2004, 2005, 2006) the Miller Scholarship for excellence in string performance and won the Hollinger (2006) and Duncan (2007) Awards for her interests in musicology and interdisciplinary studies, respectively. In 2005, Shannon won a section violist position in the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra and performed regularly with the ensemble before moving to California in September 2007. She has performed in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Vietnam as a member of orchestral and chamber music ensembles. As the violist in the Wisconsin-based rock/pop band Denes, she traveled on two tours of the Midwest. Since relocating to the west coast, Shannon was named one of the winners of the 2007-2008 University of California, Santa Barbara Orchestral Soloists Competition and performed with the UCSB Symphony in June of 2008; and took first prize in the Santa Barbara area, the Greater Los Angeles area finals, and the California state finals of the American String Teachers’ Association Solo Competition. Shannon’s primary teachers include Christine Due, Matthew Michelic, and Helen Callus. 
A Santa Barbara native, Kathryn Mendenhall began her musical studies at the Waldorf School and continued with local cellist Jacqueline Greenshields. In addition to solo recitals given across Southern California and New York, she has performed with festivals and chamber ensembles in Italy, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Korea, and Indonesia. An avid supporter of new music, Kathryn was a long-time member of the Illustrious Theatre Orchestra, a composer-performer ensemble dedicated solely to the performance of modern and new works. From 2006 through 2008 she served as Associate Principal Cellist for the Young Musicians’ Foundation Debut Orchestra. She has received music awards from the American String Teachers’ Association and the Santa Barbara Music Club and awards in physics from the Dan Black Foundation and the Eiker and Adams Foundation for creativity in physics. Over the years, Kathryn has studied with Ben Hong, Burton Kaplan, Bongshin Ko, John Saint’Ambrogio, Giana Abondolo, and Andrew Smith. She holds degrees in both Music Performance and Physics from Cal State University, Fullerton.
Sasha is a M.A./Ph.D. student in Musicology at UC Santa Barbara. Her principal interests lie in 20th century American music and past research projects have involved the songs of Aaron Copland and the operas of Philip Glass. Other research interests include Italian monody and Baroque opera and oratorio. In the summer of 2009, she participated in the Amherst Early Music festival, participating in master classes with Ellen Hargis and a lute-song theater project with Grant Herreid entitled “Desperate Housewives of Shakespeare’s London.” 
Influences include graduate composition meetings with Alvin Curran who continues to be a mentor and friend, and all of Glenn Gould's recordings and writings. Composes in a unique musical language consisting of only rest marks and very few notes. Completed studies in computer science before coming to Santa Barbara to work on a doctorate in music composition with Clarence Barlow.
Malia Roberson is a PhD Candidate in Music Theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, under the guidance of Professor Pieter van den Toorn. Her dissertation will focus on Igor Stravinsky's piano concerto, his neoclassic period, and the relationship between Stravinsky's neoclassic period and the cubist and neoclassic periods that parallel in the art world, as well as issues involving Schenkerian analysis. During the academic year 2007-2008 Malia was the Instructor of Music 11, Music Fundamentals, an undergraduate class of 130 students geared towards non-majors. She earned her B.A. (1997) and M.A. (2000) in Piano Performance from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she studied piano with Professor Anatole Leikin. Her masters thesis, under the guidance of Professor John Schechter, and graduate recital, focused on various piano works by Argentine composer, Alberto Ginastera. Malia won the UCSC Concerto Competition in 1998 and performed Stravinsky's "Concerto for Piano and Winds" conducted by Professor Nicole Paiement. Malia has worked as an accompanist and music director throughout Santa Cruz County which included melodrama/vaudeville productions at Roaring Camp in Felton, "Cinderella" (1999) with Shakespeare Santa Cruz, as well as performing with numerous local choirs, notably, Cantiamo!, Cabrillo College's premiere choral group under the direction of Cheryl Anderson. Malia was a faculty member at UC Santa Cruz and taught group piano. She taught classes in musicianship, sightsinging, and piano accompanying at Cabrillo College, and continues to teach piano privately.
Vincent Rone is a native of Bayonne, NJ, and received two bachelor degrees in Theology and Fine Arts, summa cum laude, from St. Peter’s College in 2002. He then went on to complete an M.M. in Sacred Music/Organ Performance from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, in 2005. As a student of Ann Labounsky and John Walker, he gave numerous recitals in the Western-Pennsylvania, New-Jersey and Baltimore areas. While at Duquesne, he acted as the graduate assistant to the Organ and Music-Theory Departments, and was the secretary for the American Guild of Organists (AGO) Duquesne University Chapter, 2003-2005.
Sean Taylor is a PhD candidate in Music Theory at UC, Santa Barbara, where he studies the ways in which indie rock’s discourses, especially authenticity, manifest in the music itself. Sean presented “Talkin’ Smack about a Pretty Band: (in)Authenticity in recent albums by Modest Mouse” on this topic at Gamma-UT’s “Music and its Publics” conference in Austin, TX, April 2008. Sean was a Mallory Fellow in 2005 and in 2006 and holds an M.A. in Music Theory (UCSB, 2008) and dual B.M. in Composition and Guitar Performance (Oklahoma City University, 2005)
Michael received a B.A (2006) in Psychology and Music with a concentration in Conducting from SUNY Albany and a M.M. (2008) in Music Theory from UMass Amherst. His prior conducting experience, under the guidance of David Janower, includes directing the SUNY Albany Concert Band and Chamber Choir. He has also held a post as Orchestra Director for the Albany Academy in addition to numerous other engagements as a guest conductor. 