In 1987 he became the cellist of the Leningrad Conservatory String Quartet. In the spring of 1989 the group won the Grand Prize in the National Soviet Union Competition of String Quartets in their category. In September of 1989 the Quartet was invited to perform in the United States. At the end of the tour, Mr. Istomin defected and was granted political asylum in the United States.

Mr. Istomin’s American career began in Virginia with the Richmond Symphony. He was also invited to serve on the faculties of Virginia State University and the Governor’s School for the Performing Arts at the University of Richmond.

In 1991 Mr. Istomin became Principal Cellist of the Pittsburgh Opera and Pittsburgh Ballet Theater orchestras. In 1992 he joined the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Lorin Maazel. In 1993 Mr. Istomin was a winner of both the Passamaneck Award of the Y Music Society Recital Series and the Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Auditions. In July of 1998 Mr. Istomin returned to St. Petersburg to perform in the Second World Cello Congress under the direction of Mstislav Rostropovich.

He is a founding member of the Pittsburgh Piano Trio.

Native Canadian, Jennifer Orchard has repeatedly brought dynamic and highly acclaimed performances to audiences worldwide, both as a soloist and chamber musician. Formerly as violinist with the internationally renowned Lark Quartet, Ms Orchard worked to expand the string quartet repertoire (including co-commissioning the 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning composition ‘musica instrumentalis’ by Aaron Jay Kernis) and to bring classical music to some unusual audiences.

Over Ms. Orchard’s eight years with the Lark Quartet she toured Germany, Great Britain, Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada and the United States, including performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, St. Paul’s Ordway Theater, and New York’s Avery Fisher and Carnegie Halls. During that time Ms. Orchard recorded extensively on Arabesque Records.

After moving to Pittsburgh IN 2001 as assistant principal second violin of the Pittsburgh Symphony, Ms. Orchard was invited to join the Pittsburgh Piano Trio. In the recent years the Trio just released 3 critically acclaimed CDs.

Ms. Orchard completed her undergraduate education at the Curtis Institute of Music with Szymon Goldberg and her master’s degree from the Juilliard School with Robert Mann and has attended the Marlboro Music Festival.

In 1994 he founded the New York Metamorphoses Orchestra which collaborated with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at New York City Center and the Kennedy Center Orchestra at Kennedy Center in Washington.

In 1999, the New York Metropolitan Opera hired Mr. Sirotkine as an Assistant Conductor and a Chorus Master.

In 2005, he debuted with the South African Cape Philharmonic and the Cape Town Opera, conducting a magnificent production of Carmen.

In April 2007 Ms. Drakos was appointed Chief Operating Officer of www.InstantEncore.com, a digital music site for live classical music.

Ms. Drakos is also on the cello faculty of the Manhattan School of Music while maintaining an active performance career.Ms. Drakos served as the cellist of the American String Quartet from 2002-2006. During her time with the quartet, she recorded the Richard Danielpour’s String Quartets for Arabesque Records. Ms. Drakos has served as Associate/Assistant Principal Cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony and Principal Cellist of the San Diego and Oregon Symphonies.

She completed her education at the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with David Soyer, founding cellist of the Guarneri Quartet.

Mr. Lev is an adjunct professor of violin at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Smith is on the faculty at Duquesne University and actively represents his fellow musicians through the American Federation of Musicians, Local 60-471.

As the violinist of the American Piano trio Anna Vayman’s performances include appearances at numerous universities across Midwest, the Fleisher Art Memorial Hall and Villanova University Chamber Series in Philadelphia, Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan and multi-city tours of leading music institutions and concert venues in Russia, Belorussia, England and South Korea.

Anna Vayman’s degrees include a Master of Music Diploma with Honors, under Boris Gutnikov and Mikhail Gantvarg, at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, and an Artist Diploma from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Henry Meyer, Kurt Sassmannshaus and Dorothy Delay. She has enjoyed private studies with Isaac Stern and chamber music studies with members of LaSalle Quartet and Tokyo String Quartet.

First Prize winner of D’Angelo International Piano competition Natasha Snitkovsky has performed extensively in recitals, with orchestras, and in chamber appearances in the New England Area, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Louisiana, California, Indiana, and Ohio. In 1982 she performed in recital at Carnegie Hall, and has been a soloist with the American Wind Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she has been a featured soloist at the Bedford Springs Festival, and has appeared at the “Mostly Mozart Festival” at Heinz Hall. Media exposures have included performance appearances on the “Pittsburgh 2 Day” television program of CBS Group W, affiliate, KDKA, on WQED fine Arts radio station. She was also interviewed on Bloomberg Radio WBBR in New York City about importance of music education for children, and was included in “Who’s Who Among American Teachers” 2003.

She presented Master classes in Japan, Taiwan, Israel, Mexico, and Italy. Her students won many national and international competitions.Ms. Snitkovsky is on the faculty of Duquesne University.

She is the co-founder of City Music Center at Duquesne University, where she is a Chair of Piano Department.She is also Director of Duquesne Young Artist National Competition.

A native of Taiwan, Assistant Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Huei-Sheng Kao started violin studies at age six with private lessons and played in the BBC Children’s Orchestra in Taiwan for several years. He made his first public appearance at eight, and at the age of eleven won a national violin competition which brought him a solo appearance in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Chinese Youth Orchestra. He spent a summer at Interlochen, where he played the Wieniawski Violin Concerto. From 1971 to 1977 Mr. Kao attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Ivan Galamian and Jaime Laredo.

After earning his diploma in 1977 he joined the Pittsburgh Symphony and was appointed Assistant Concertmaster in the 1979-80 season. In the spring of 1980 he appeared with the Orchestra as a subscription-concert soloist in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins. In November 1989 he performed Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with the Capetown Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Smoliar is a pianist and founder of the White Tie Group, a jazz ensemble originally begun as the Symphony Jazz Trio.

Mr. Smoliar was co-principal oboe of the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro for one season, but left to join the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1979. He made his debut as a soloist with the symphony in 1980 in Copland’s Quiet City.

Mr. Smoliar teaches oboe and English horn privately, and is co-founder of the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Project.

He is currently on the faculty of Duquesne University and Carnegie Mellon University.

Mr. Vosburgh is a graduate of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. He began his career as an orchestral trumpeter at age 19 as third trumpet and assistant principal of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman. After three years with Rochester, he joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the late Sir Georg Solti as the youngest member of that orchestra’s world-famous brass section.

Bursill-Hall has served as acting principal flute with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Bournemouth (England) Symphony Orchestra. He also has performed on the soundtracks for such movies as The Usual Suspects, First Wives Club and The Mirror Has Two Faces. He has taught at colleges and universities throughout California, served as visiting professor of flute at the Indiana University School of Music during the 1993-94 year and has conducted master classes throughout North America.

Damian Bursill-Hall studied with Joseph Mariano at the Eastman School of Music.

A founding member of the Pittsburgh Reed Trio, Jim has performed to critical acclaim with PSO colleagues Scott Bell (oboe) and Ron Samuels (clarinet). Their many and varied concerts have been heard locally, nationally, and abroad. An avid early music enthusiast, Jim likes to perform on dulcian whenever possible. As a pioneer of electric/acoustic bassoon and contrabassoon development, Jim is ever creatively exploring the possibilities of his instruments’ capabilities, both in sound and genre.

WQED-FM’s Senior Executive Producer, Jim Cunningham hosts the WQED-FM Morning Show weekday mornings from 6-11am, and the nationally syndicated Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra broadcasts which air Sundays at 4pm.

Jim grew up in Warren, Pennsylvania. During the 9th grade he became involved with a radio club at school through which he began to work as an announcer for “The Hightime Show,” a Saturday Morning broadcast on WNAE.

He continued to work in radio while at Thiel college, serving as the general manager of the college radio station, WTGP-FM. During college and after graduation with degrees in English and Business Administration, Jim worked full-time for WGRP-FM & AM as an announcer, producer and account executive. Having worked as an intern for WQED-FM Pittsburgh while a student, Jim returned to the station to work part-time and a few months later was hired as a full time announcer.

Jim served as Station Manager of WQED-FM for fifteen years. As manager Jim lead the team that established WQEJ Johnstown, began 24 hour classical broadcasts, expanded live broadcasts in annual series from Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne University, Chautauqua New York, Heinz Hall and Heinz Chapel. Jim Cunningham is the Classical Music Critic for Pittsburgh Magazine where he contributes a monthly column. Jim is the host and producer of the nationally distributed Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra broadcasts heard on over 150 Public radio Stations.

A life long music lover, Jim took piano lessons from harpsichord builder and organist Jerry Elmgren. He studied guitar with Stephen Wendell.

Currently he is a board member of the Friends of the Carnegie Library, the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society Executive Committee and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Steinway Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society.

Suzanne has fulfilled numerous music commissions, including pieces for members of the PSO, Duquesne University, Red Masquers,  Medieval and Renaissance Players, Carlow College, and fellow D.U. alums. Her compositions have been featured in many solo recitals, theatre productions, and at the International Conference of the Double Reed Society. Recently, she collaborated on Homeless: the Musical, which received two local performance runs. Her score is heard during the DVD-recorded performance of The Tragedy of Jane Shore. In addition, The Beggar’s Opera was given mention for “Best Scores of 2001” in both the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the City Paper.

A multi-dimensional composer who listens voraciously to a colossal range of musical styles, his enormously eclectic output reflects this musical world, with a vocabulary ranging from beautiful lyricism to unusual sounds, dissonant clashes, and bizarre juxtapositions. Cutler’s compositions have been commissioned and performed by numerous orchestras and performers. Recent composition accolades include the Sammy Nestico Award, the Millennium Arts Society’s International Competition for Composers and awards from Friends and Enemies of New Music, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and ASCAP.

Cutler is known for organizing concert productions that marry outstanding performance with the unexpected (whether greeting patrons with costumed performers or ushering them out with a marching band). Many of his shows have interfaced diverse musical expressions with dance, film, actors, stage design, and visual artists.

Dr. Cutler studied at the University of Miami (BM), Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria, Eastman School of Music (MM), and Indiana University (DM). He currently teaches at Duquesne University, where he also serves as the Director of Music Entrepreneurship. For more information, please visit www.trunkmusic.org.

She has concertized in the metropolitan New York area at Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Brooklyn Museum, and has presented concertos at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. Ms.Van Hoesen was winner of the 1978 Passamaneck Competition and appeared in recital at the Y Music Series.  Ms.Van Hoesen has served as a judge for National Competitions of the American Harp Society and has been an officer for the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Harp Society.

Gretchen Van Hoesen graduated from the Juilliard School of Music earning both B.M. and M.M. degrees in harp as a scholarship student of Marcel Grandjany and Susann McDonald.

Ms. Van Hoesen is a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities and combines teaching there with private students at her home in Pittsburgh. She has given master classes at Duquesne University, the Eastman School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, the University of Illinois, the Aspen Music Festival, the National University of the Arts in Seoul, Korea, and has been an artist-lecturer on numerous series in Pittsburgh as well as throughout the country. She was a faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival and School from 2001-6. Her students have won numerous national awards and prizes

Native of St. Petersburg, Russia he received his BM and MM from St. Petersburg State Conservatory. For almost a decade, Sirotkin has been a principal English hornist with the Kirov Opera and Symphony Orchestra of Mariinsky Theater under Valery Gergiev. He has performed as a soloist with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Bogota Opera Orchestra of Theatro Colon, and Kuopio Symphony Orchestra. His chamber music festival appearances include Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival, Finland, Kostamuksha Music Festival, Russia, Lucca Music Festival, Lucca, Italy.

Sirotkin performed with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has toured with CSO to Japan and Europe. He has recorded more than 35 CDs with Kirov Orchestra and 5 Cds with Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra. He also performed with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

In 2000, he published the book, “Orchestral Excerpts for oboe and English horn from operas and ballets by Tchaikovsky.”

Mr.Sirotkin’s major teachers include Dr. Valery Sobolev and Dr. Mark Ostoich.

Ms. Persin has earned much recognition, receiving numerous awards including the Naumburg Chamber Music Award and top prizes at the Premio Borciani and London International Competitions.

With the Biava Quartet, Ms. Persin has recently completed a successful tenure as the Lisa Arnhold Quartet in Residence at the Juilliard School.  She previously held the same position at Yale University.   Ms. Persin holds the prestigious Artist Diploma degree from both Yale University and the Juilliard School.  She is also a graduate with highest honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music where she was a student of Robert Vernon and received a Master’s Degree from the New England Conservatory of Music as a student of Martha Katz.

Having recorded for the Naxos and Cedille record labels, Mary Persin has also been heard on London’s BBC Radio 3, NPR, American Public Media’s Performance Today, as well as in frequent national broadcasts.  With the Biava Quartet, she has been featured in Strings and Strad magazines and was the subject of a PBS documentary film.

Ms. Persin has earned much recognition as a soloist and recitalist, receiving numerous awards and was featured in a live radio broadcast on the Performance Pittsburgh Series as winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Auditions.  She made her solo debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1997 and in recent seasons, has appeared as soloist with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic and Asheville Symphony.