Chamber music Stl

Artists

Thomas Drake

A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Tom Drake joined the St. Louis Symphony in 1987 as Associate Principal Trumpet. He served as Acting Principal Trumpet from 2010-2013. Prior to accepting the position with St. Louis, Tom was Principal Trumpet of the North Carolina Symphony from 1985-1987. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, he began his professional career as fourth trumpet with the Rochester Philharmonic under David Zinman after winning that position as a sophomore. During the summer, Tom is a member of the artist/faculty at the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado. In previous summers, he instructed young musicians at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan, the oldest such camp in the nation. Tom’s interests lie in the recording field as well as he is producer for AAM Recordings and Arch Media. He has used his keen ears and special talents towards producing recordings for the St. Louis Symphony and several of its individual musicians including Concertmaster David Halen, clarinetist Diana Haskell and retired orchestra members, English horn/oboist Marc Gordon and violinist Haruka Watanabe. He has also helped produce the orchestra’s National Public Radio broadcasts from 1996-2000. Tom and his wife Marian, a frequent substitute cellist with the Symphony, have a daughter, Sarah, and a son, Michael.

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Thomas Jöstlein

Thomas Jöstlein was appointed Associate Principal Horn with the St. Louis Symphony in April 2010. Before coming to St. Louis, he served as Assistant Professor of Horn at the University of Illinois, performed with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra and with Sinfonia da Camera under the direction of English pianist and conductor, Ian Hobson. From 2007-09, Thomas was Assistant Principal Horn with the New York Philharmonic where, under the direction of Lorin Maazel, he performed on three major tours, including the historic live broadcast from North Korea. Previously Thomas held positions with the Honolulu, Omaha, Richmond, and Kansas City orchestras and has taught at the University of Hawaii and Virginia Commonwealth University. While attending Rice University, he studied horn with William VerMeulen and Thomas Bacon and did private study with tubists Arnold Jacobs and Roger Rocco. As a soloist, Thomas won first prize in the professional division of the American Horn Competition in 2003 and the Grand Prize at the Hugo Kauder Music Competition at Yale University in 2005, earning a recital in New York’s Merkin Hall. Thomas lives in University City with his wife Tricia, who is also an accomplished hornist, and their two young boys, Klaus and Max.

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Roger Kaza

Roger Kaza is principal horn of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and principal horn of the Chautauqua Symphony in upstate New York. He has previously held positions with the Houston Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, the Boston Symphony, and the Boston Pops, where he was solo horn under John Williams. A native of Portland, Oregon, he attended Portland State University, studying with Christopher Leuba, and later transferred to the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he received a Bachelor of Music with Honors in 1977 under the tutelage of Thomas E. Newell, Jr. Kaza’s musical activities are wide-ranging. The son of two musicians, growing up in a musical family, he received his early training on piano, giving two solo recitals on that instrument before concentrating on horn. He has studied composition with the Czech-American composer Tomas Svoboda, and conducting with Leonard Slatkin, Gunther Schuller, and Murry Sidlin. He has conducted over 40 concerts with the Houston Symphony under the auspices of its Community Connections outreach program, giving concerts in schools, churches, homeless shelters and retirement homes. As an educator, Kaza has served on the faculty of the University of Houston, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and has previously taught at the Saint Louis Conservatory, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Southern Illinois University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and given master classes at the University of Michigan, University of Iowa, University of British Columbia, Southern Methodist University, University of Southern Mississippi, the Eastman school of music, and others. Students from his many years of teaching fill orchestral positions worldwide, including principal players in major U.S. symphonies, and chamber groups such as the Canadian Brass. In addition, he has been engaged as guest artist and performer for the International Horn Society at international and regional conferences. He is the writer/ producer and performer on the instructional CD, Audition: Improbable, and contributor to the syndicated NPR radio show “Engines of Our Ingenuity.” Kaza has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, including the Saint Louis, Vancouver, and Houston Symphonies, and the Carlos Chavez Chamber Orchestra in Mexico City. A frequent chamber musician as well, he has appeared at numerous summer venues, including the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival, Music in the Mountains, Chamber Music Northwest, Mainly Mozart, Aspen and Marrowstone festivals. He presently serves as instructor of horn at the Chautauqua Institution’s Music School. An avid bicyclist, hiker, and whitewater rafter, Kaza is especially fond of the horn in its “original” setting: out-of-doors. A performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Interstellar Call, from “From the Canyons to the Stars,” recorded at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, was personally critiqued by the composer shortly before his death in 1992. Kaza testifies-from personal experience-that a Conn 8-D in its case will float, at least temporarily. Roger is married to the pianist Patti Wolf and they have two daughters, ages 7 and 13.

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Jane Carl

Jane Carl, Professor of Clarinet at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, is a native of Michigan and received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. She was a member of the South Bend Symphony, the Flint Symphony, and the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra in Detroit, and has performed with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Carl has been on the faculty of Notre Dame University, Hillsdale College, and Andrews University, and has taught at the University of Michigan. She is also an active recitalist and chamber musician. She has performed regularly with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra including a sabbatical replacement on bass clarinet in 1997-98, European tour and recordings as second clarinet in 1998-99, and acting assistant principal clarinet from 1999-2003. She can often be heard performing with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She is an artistic director of Summerfest, Kansas City’s acclaimed chamber music festival held each July. Dr. Carl performed at the 2007 China International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Beijing and as a concerto soloist at the 2009 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest in Oporto, Portugal. She is the chair of UMKC’s Instrumental Studies Division.

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Jennifer Nitchman

Jennifer Nitchman has been described by critics as giving performances that are “deeply felt” with “a tone like spun gold”(St Louis Post-Dispatch). She was appointed to the position of Second Flute with the St Louis Symphony in 2003 by then St. Louis Symphony Artistic Advisor, Itzhak Perlman. An active teacher, Jennifer is a member of the faculty of Saint Louis University and maintains a private teaching studio in her home. Previously, she has been on the faculty at the Brevard Music Center and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and is a frequent guest for master classes and recitals at flute festivals and universities. Ms. Nitchman has also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the Britt Festival and the Brevard Music Festival. She previously held the position of Assistant Principal Flute with the United States Army Field Band in Washington, DC. Jennifer holds a Master of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College and has also completed coursework towards a Doctor of Music at Indiana University-Bloomington. Interested in the revitalization of St Louis City, she and her husband have restored two homes in different neighborhoods. Jennifer also serves on the board of Tenth Life Cat Rescue, which prioritizes saving cats with special needs. She lives in St Louis with her husband and three cats.  

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Bjorn Ranheim

Cellist Bjorn Ranheim was appointed to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and also holds the principal chair of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado. Previously, he served as Associate Principal Cello of the Fort Worth Symphony and is in his sixth season with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. He has performed and toured with many major US orchestras and collaborated with various renowned conductors. Mr. Ranheim has held principal and assistant principal cello positions with the New World Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra and Quebec City’s Le Violons du Roy. Actively performing in chamber music, Ranheim has toured extensively in the United States, Europe and Central America, and has participated in numerous prestigious seminars and festivals. A committed advocate of contemporary music, Ranheim has performed world premieres of distinctive new compositions. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music.  

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Alvin McCall

Cellist Alvin McCall has distinguished himself as a recitalist, chamber musician and symphony orchestra performer. As a member of the McCall-Deats Duo he has performed recitals throughout the US, France and Germany. The Duo has recorded the Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich Sonatas and continues to perform recitals regularly. Alvin, having studied with one of the premier chamber musicians, Bernard Greenhouse, is very fond of chamber music and has performed national tours with the Alexandria Quintet and the Omega Ensemble. He has also performed chamber concerts at the Caramoor Music Festival, Utah Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, with New York New Music, the Amici Ensemble, the Atlantic Sinfonietta and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. With members of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, he has performed on the Symphony’s Pulitzer concerts, Chamber Music St Louis, Discovery, Summerfest and various Community Partnership venues throughout the city. A former member of the New York Chamber Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Orchestra of Luke’s and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Alvin joined the St Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and has been a member of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra since 1986.  

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Chris Tantillo

Chris Tantillo, originally from Long Island, NY, began playing the violin at age 7. He switched to the viola in high school while attending the Interlochen Arts Academy. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Stanley Konopka, and continued his graduate work there as a student of Robert Vernon. After school, Chris was invited to join the New World Symphony, in Miami Beach, FL, under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. The following year he spent playing with the San Diego Symphony and, since 2006, has been playing with the Saint Louis Symphony. He has spent past summers as a member of the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, CO, at the Aspen Music Festival, and as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival, where he received the viola award for excellence in performance.  In his free time, Chris enjoys grilling and playing golf. He lives in St. Louis with his wife Becky and son Gabriel.

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Susan Gordon

Susan Kier Gordon is a native of Bay Village, Ohio and began viola studies at age 8. She has been a viola section member of the St. Louis Symphony since 1987, upon receiving her bachelors of music with Robert Vernon at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Previously, while studying with Dr. Jerzy Kosmala, Susan served as violist of the Baton Rouge String Quartet from 1981-83. She holds the 1983 National Federation of Music Clubs competition award and has appeared as soloist for the National Arts Chamber Orchestra. Susan is very musically active performing chamber music, including a ten-year tenure as violist of the Amici Quartet in residence at St. Louis University. Susan performs on a Max Frirsz viola, one of twin violas originally commissioned for and owned by Heidi Castlemann, made in 1985 in Cooperstown, New York. Coincidentally, the other viola twin found a home in the St. Louis Symphony. Ms. Gordon is part founder of Chamber Music Society of St. Louis, formed in 2008. Featured musician on AAM Recordings release Chamber Music for English Horn and Strings, 2004.  

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Joo Kim

Joo Kim joined the first violin section of the St. Louis Symphony in September of 2004 while completing the Master’s program at the Juilliard School.  Joo made her solo debut with the Saint Louis Symphony in 2008 performing Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate. Since then, she has returned as a soloist with the orchestra on multiple occasions, presenting works by Piazzola, Vivaldi, and Tchaikovksy. Joo has performed as a soloist with the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra, New World School of the Arts Orchestra in Miami, Florida and the Sebastian Chamber Ensemble in Korea. Her solo and chamber music appearances have been presented in numerous prestigious venues, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Aspen Music Festival and Lincoln Theater in Miami Beach. As a chamber musician, Joo has collaborated with renowned artists such as Andres Diaz, Ricardo Morales, and Lev Polyakin. Joo began her violin studies at the age of four in Seoul, Korea. At the age of six, she won the Korea Times Music Competition and had a subsequent performance live broadcast on Korean national television. After moving to the U.S. in 1992 she continued her violin studies at the New World School of the Arts in Miami. Joo earned her B.M. and M.M. Degrees from The Juilliard School where she studied with legendary pedagogue Dorothy Delay as well as with Naoko Tanaka. Her other principal teachers include Todd Phillips, Felicia Moye, and Ivan Chan. She has served as concertmaster of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan and the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra. Joo also toured with the Grammy award-­?winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as guest principal and held the same position with the Jerusalem International Symphony Orchestra in Israel. She has participated in numerous music festivals including Taos Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, Spoleto USA, Sun Valley Music Festival and Encore School for Strings. Joo is a dedicated teacher whose students have been accepted to the finest conservatories, universities, and summer festivals. She also enjoys her partnership with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra as a regular coach and mentor for the first violin section. Joo lives with her husband, St. Louis Symphony cellist James Czyzewski. She performs on a rare Italian violin made by Francesco Rugeri in 1694.  

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