
Alexander Barantschik
Born in
Saint Petersburg,
Russia
,
Alexander Barantschik
began violin studies at age six. He attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory
and went on to perform with the major Russian orchestras. After emigrating from
Russia
, he served as Concertmaster of Germany’s Bamberg
Symphony
Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and the London
Symphony
Orchestra. He has been an active violin soloist and chamber musician throughout
Europe, performing with such artists as Andre Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, Maxim
Vengerov and Yuri Bashmet. Mr. Barantschik began his first season as
Concertmaster of the San Francisco
Symphony
in September 2001, and has performed as a soloist in concertos by Bach, Brahms,
Mendelssohn, Mozart, Britten, and Shostakovich. By arrangement with the Fine
Arts Museums of San Francisco, Mr. Barantschik has the exclusive use of the 1742
“David” Guarnerius del Gesu violin, bequeathed to the Museums by Jascha
Heifetz.

Cellist Jill Rachuy Brindel received her musical education at Indiana
University and Chicago Musical College. She has been a member of the San
Francisco Symphony since 1980 and played with the Houston Symphony prior to
this. She formerly held the position of Assistant Principal Cellist of the
orchestra of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Principal Cellist of the Chicago
Ballet, cellist in the Navarro Quartet and member of the Chicago Contemporary
Chamber Players under Ralph Shapey. She actively promotes the music of her
father, Bernard Brindel, who was a composer. She is a private instructor
of cello as well as the coach for the cello section of the San Francisco
Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Go back

John Chisholm joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2002. He is a
graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his bachelor's and
master's degrees as well as a performer's certificate, studying with Zvi Zeitlin
and Sylvia Rosenberg. He has held positions with the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra and the Louisville Orchestra, where he was formerly Associate
Concertmaster, and was Assistant Concertmaster of the Sunriver Music Festival in
Sunriver, Oregon from 1993-2001.

Yun Chu is in his second season with the San Francisco Symphony.
Holder of the Symphony’s Isaac Stern Chair, he received his early training at
the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and served as concertmaster on two concert
tours with the Asian Youth Orchestra under Sergiu Comissiona, performing as
soloist with Yo-Yo Ma in Strauss’s Don Quixote . In 1999, while a student at
the
University
of
Southern California
, he was selected to participate in the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in
Germany
, where he played under such conductors as Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir
Spivakov, and Mstislav Rostropovich, and was subsequently appointed
concertmaster of the Festival Orchestra.

Go back
A native of
Toronto
,
Canada
, Jeremy Constant joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1984 as a section
member of the violins and won the position of Assistant Concertmaster in 1992.
Brought to
California
by the Carmel Bach Festival in 1979, Mr. Constant joined the orchestra of the
San Francisco Opera in 1980. Mr. Constant studied violin on scholarship at the
Juilliard School of Music with Ivan Galamian and at
Brooklyn
College
under the tutelage of Itzhak Perlman. While in
New York
, Mr. Constant served as Concertmaster of the National Orchestral Association,
the Village Light Opera Company, and the Manhattan Savoyard Orchestra.
An active musician, Mr. Constant also
currently holds the positions of Concertmaster in the Marin Symphony and
Concertmaster of the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. He is an active participant in
the Edgar Bronfman Chamber Music Series and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.
He was a founding member of Navarro String Quartet and Navarro Trio, and has
served as Concertmaster of the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival, the Mendocino
Music Festival and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.
In 1979, Mr. Constant was the Grand
Prizewinner of the Du Maurier Competition in
Canada
and has performed on radio and television networks in
Canada
, the
United States
, and
Mexico
. He has collaborated in chamber music with many of the world’s leading
soloists and chamber musicians. Residing
in
Oakland
with his wife Sharon, owner of Visible Ink Design, Mr. Constant is currently
building an RV7A experimental aircraft.

Go back
Since making noteworthy debuts in
London,
Vienna, and
Amsterdam
at the age of sixteen, pianist Avi
Downes has performed extensively throughout Europe, South America, and the
United States
. A native of
San Francisco
, Ms. Downes began her piano studies at the age of three as the youngest student
ever admitted to the San Francisco Conservatory. At 14, she moved to Europe to
further her musical education; completing her studies at the
University
of
Vienna
and the
University
of
Cologne
. Throughout her career, Ms. Downes has divided her time between her solo work
and various chamber ensembles. As the youngest of three musical sisters who
constantly made music together, her interest and talent for chamber music showed
itself at a very young age. She was awarded top prizes in some of the most
prestigious international music competitions in the world, including the ARD
Competition in
Munich, the Rostropovich Competition in
Paris, the
Maria
Canals
in
Barcelona, and the Vittorio Gui, and Trio di Trieste competitions in
Italy
.

Don Erlich
Don
Erlich received his Bachelor of Music degree from
Oberlin
College, his Master of Music degree is from the Manhattan School of Music, and his
Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the
University
of
Michigan
. After a year as Principal Viola in the Toledo Symphony, he joined the San
Francisco Symphony in 1972, where he is now Assistant Principal Viola. An
established chamber musician and soloist, his has been a member of the Aurora
String Quartet and the Stanford String Quartet. He appears frequently in such
series as Chamber Music West, Chamber Music Sundaes and the Mendocino Music
Festival, and has been on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory since
1972. He plays on an ergonomic viola
designed and built by David Rivinus of
Portland,
Oregon.
Go
back

Nancy Ellis
Violist Nancy Ellis attended
Oberlin
College
and graduated from
Mills
College
, where she studied with Nathan Rubin. She attended the Marlboro Music Festival,
was a founding member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Ensemble, and is
presently a member of the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, in Telluride,
Colorado. She has been a member of San Francisco Symphony since 1973.

Gina Feinauer is a native of Ardsley, New York. She attended Boston University and The Yale School of Music. Before joining the San Francisco Symphony in 1992 she was a member of the Buffalo Philharmonic for 5 seasons. An active chamber musician in the Bay Area, she is currently keeping herself busy raising twin 4-year old sons.

David Goldblatt
Cellist David Goldblatt is a
graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, and has been a member of the Santa Fe
Opera Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and is presently a member of
the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He was a member of the Philly Sound, which
won a 1972 Grammy for best instrumental rock ‘n’ roll recording. He appears
regularly on concert series in the Bay Area, including the San Francisco
Symphony chamber music series and Chamber Music Sundaes.
Go back

Lawrence Granger joined the San Francisco Symphony’s cello
section in 1979. Born in San Diego, his family moved in 1966 to the Bay Area,
where he studied with Bonnie Hampton. While still in college at Cal State
Hayward, he won the Oakland Symphony’s cello audition and joined that
orchestra as principal cellist a year later. He also continued his studies with
SFS Principal Cellist Michael Grebanier and played for three years with the San
Francisco Ballet orchestra. Mr. Granger is on the faculty at Cal State Hayward
and frequently records for radio, television, and movie soundtracks.

Michael Grebanier joined the San Francisco
Symphony as Philip S. Boone Principal Cellist in 1977. Prior to that, he was
principal cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony for fourteen years (the youngest
musician to hold that post in the ensemble's history) and a member of the
Cleveland Orchestra. Mr. Grebanier has been a soloist with the SFS in the major
works for cello and orchestra; most recently, in December 2005, he was soloist
with Alexander Barantschik in the Brahms Double Concerto, with Michael Tilson
Thomas leading the Orchestra. Mr. Grebanier has played the complete cycle of
Beethoven cello and piano sonatas with Malcolm Frager and has been affiliated
with the Marlboro Festival in Vermont and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.
With violinist Jorja Fleezanis and pianist Garrick Ohlsson, he is a member of
the acclaimed FOG Trio. Michael Grebanier began his musical studies in his
native New York City and later attended the Curtis Institute of Music. His
teachers included Carl Ziegler of the NBC Symphony, Orlando Cole of the Curtis
String Quartet, and Leonard Rose. While at Curtis, he won the Walter Naumburg
Award and made his recital debut in New York City at nineteen. He has recorded
the Prokofiev cello sonatas with pianist Janet Guggenheim for Naxos, and he is
featured in the first recording of the complete music for cello and piano by
Rachmaninoff, also on Naxos.

Go back
Born in
Vancouver
,
British Columbia
, and raised in
Seattle
, her mother would play the violin for Sharon and her friends (she was eager to
start the violin when the school music program began in fourth grade, at age
nine, and soon started lessons). She also loved hearing a neighbor's recording
of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. She joined the Seattle Youth Symphony in
seventh grade and thoroughly enjoyed the music, friends and music camp. Her
teachers included Vilem Sokol, Emanuel Zetlin, and Denes Zsigmondy.
Sharon
attended the
University
of
Washington
, where she earned two bachelor's degrees in music and art, and a master's
degree in music. During her time there, she was coached by the Philadelphia
Quartet and won first prize in the Coleman Chamber Music competition. She played
at Tanglewood while in college, winning both the Silverstein Prize for
outstanding violinist in 1970 and the Henry Cabot Award for outstanding
orchestral musician in 1972. During her final year of the master's program,
Sharon
won her audition with the SFS, and she began playing in
San Francisco
in 1973. She met her husband, SFS Principal Cellist Michael Grebanier, when he
joined the Orchestra in 1977.
Sharon
was soloist with the SFS in 1982, performing Vivaldi's Concerto for Four
Violins. She is an active chamber music performer ("Chamber music keeps me
in shape!") and a founding member of the Aurora String Quartet, which she
helped organize in 1978. The
Aurora
has performed in
New York
,
London
,
Tokyo
, and Tahiti and has recorded the complete quartets of Mendelssohn and Prokofiev
for
Naxos
. In 1983, they performed the Spohr Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra with the
SFS.
Sharon
also performs occasionally with the FOG Trio and the Fleezanis, Walther,
Grebanier x 2 string quartet. In their spare time, Sharon and Michael take
sailing trips and collect tribal art. "We love books and movies!" She
also enjoys listening to jazz and spending time with the Grebanier cat and two
parrots.

The Australian-born musician Peter Grunberg moved to
California in the early 1990's to take up the position of Head of Music
Staff at the San Francisco Opera. Since then, he has collaborated frequently with
the San Francisco Symphony, where he has been conductor, pianist, and
recently also pre-concert lecturer. He has directed orchestras in concert at the
Moscow Conservatory, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Sydney Opera House.
Mr Grunberg delights in making music in smaller venues, and was a founding
advisor and performer with Chamber Music San Francisco. He has accompanied many
renowned artists in recital, including Deborah Voigt, Thomas Hampson, Joshua
Bell and Laura Claycomb. This month he appears with Frederica von Stade in the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra's LaSalle Bank Chamber Music Series.

Go back
Patricia Heller joined the San Francisco Opera Orchestra’s viola section in
1986. She has served as Principal Viola in several productions over the years,
and she can be seen onstage in the Company video of Orlando Furioso with
Marilyn Horne. Ms. Heller studied viola with Lee Yeingst of the Denver
Symphony, then with Max Aronoff and Toby Appel at Philadelphia’s New School of
Music. She studied with Katò Havas in England and credits Havas’s New
Approach with providing the musical skills necessary to sustain the physical
challenges inherent in the Opera performance schedule while avoiding serious
injury. Patricia met her husband, composer and pianist Duane Heller, while
both were students at the University of Denver. Together they have performed a
wide range of music for viola and piano, often collaborating with other
musicians, and have commissioned new works. They have also produced chamber
music concerts wherever they have lived, including Philadelphia, Ithaca,
Corvallis, Oregon, Arcata, California, and Dublin, Ireland. The Hellers’
Highwater Ensemble appears from time to time on the concert series at St.
Patrick’s Church in San Francisco. Patricia and Duane live in Daly City,
where their attention is largely focused on the swimming, musical, and academic
achievements of their teenage daughter, Julia.
Go back

A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, John Imholz was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Imholz began playing guitar at the age of fourteen. Early musical influences included the classical guitar playing of John Williams and Andres Segovia, the jazz playing of Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Les Paul, Charley Christian, and the rock music of Eric
Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Steve Morse. These varied influences came together professionally for John in his early twenties when he began playing guitar, banjo, and mandolin in such diverse settings as rock bands, jazz ensembles, chamber groups, with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, Joffrey Ballet, Dance Theater of Harlem, and many local theater pit orchestras, where his knack of shifting styles, musical genres, and instruments was a definite asset. For fifteen years John played mandocello for the Modern Mandolin Quartet; he also did much of the arranging for the group, including works by
Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Prokofiev and Bernstein. Currently Mr. Imholz plays locally and on the road
in symphonic, theater, and chamber orchestras. He also plays recording sessions as well as composing, arranging and performing his own original music.
Go back

As early as age three,
Kum
Mo
displayed the musical talent one would expect from a daughter whose mother was
a concert pianist and whose father was the Music Director of the Seoul
Philharmonic. She began piano lessons at age five. She took up the violin at age
seven and started playing in public shortly thereafter. At ten, she won a youth
concerto competition that led to her debut with her father's orchestra, playing
the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5. The next year she won the prestigious National
Young People's Competition.
Kum
Mo
was invited, at age sixteen, to play at the Ventnor Music Festival in
New Jersey
. Her high school years were spent in
Madison
, where her brother was a professor of music at the
University
of
Wisconsin
. She attended the
University
of
Michigan
, finishing in three years. She then moved to
New York
to attend the
Juilliard
School
, where she studied with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay. She received her
master's degree in 1971. After Juilliard,
Kum
Mo
played at the Spoleto Music Festival (
Italy
), and at the Mozarteum in
Salzburg
, where she took master classes with Andre Gertler. Professor Gertler invited
her to study with him in
Germany
, to be come a soloist. Previously, she had been offered a job with the National
Symphony. She compared the demands of a soloist against being an orchestral
player with a family life. The National Symphony won out. In addition to her
orchestral duties,
Kum
Mo
gave recitals in
Boston
,
New York
and
Washington
, to critical acclaim. She was a founding member of the Capital Chamber Ensemble
and she taught at
American
University
. In 1975,
Kum
Mo
joined the SFS. She continued playing chamber music and recitals in the Bay
Area.
Kum
Mo
spent several summers at the
Grand Teton
and Sun River Festivals. She was a soloist with the San Francisco Chamber
Orchestra. She is heard frequently with Chamber Music Sundaes and the SFS
Chamber Music series. Since her twenty-two year old son has gone off to college,
she has more time to devote to her passions: chamber music and dancing.
"Chamber music is something I can get high on, like dancing," she
says.
Kum
Mo
believes her life is filled with blessings—her son, dancing, and making music
with the SFS.
Go back

Melissa Kleinbart
Violinist, Melissa Kleinbart, is
presently a member of the San Francisco Symphony. Her previous positions include
Associate Concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Assistant
Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Ms. Kleinbart
has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra,
Una Voce Chamber Orchestra and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Since her 1989
recital debut in
New York
's Merkin Hall, Ms. Kleinbart has made recital appearances in the
United States
and
Canada
, and has been broadcast on CBC radio. An avid chamber musician both as
violinist and violist, Ms. Kleinbart has performed with the Chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center, attended the Marlboro Music Festival, and appears
annually at the Olympic Music Festival. Ms. Kleinbart began her violin
studies with Estelle Kerner and went on to receive her Bachelor and Master of
Music degrees from the
Juilliard
School
where her teachers included Glenn Dicterow, Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang.

Suzanne Leon
Violinist Suzanne Leon graduated from Juilliard and
the Curtis Institute, where she studied under Jascha Brodsky, Arnold Steinhardt
and Szymon Goldberg. An active recitalist, soloist and chamber musician, she has
appeared at the
Fontainebleau, Evian,
Bordeaux
, Radio France-Montpellier, Saarbrücken, and Zurich Music Festivals. Based in
France
for five years, she was concertmaster of both the Orchestre de Chambre de
Paris and the Orchestre Internationale de Paris while teaching at the Sorbonne.
With her sister, pianist Stephanie Leon, she has toured extensively throughout
Asia
as "Artistic Ambassadors" under the auspices of the United States
Information Agency, also appearing on Worldnet Satellite. The Duo has
recorded under the Cassiopée label. Ms.
Leon
has been a member of the San Francisco Symphony since 1990. She enjoys
performing violin duos with both her husband Dan Smiley, and her sister Kelly
Leon-Pearce, also members of the SF Symphony. She devotes her spare time to
practicing yoga and playing with her sons, Nicholas and Max.
Go
back

Jie Liu has been associate principal violist of the San Francisco
Symphony since 1993. After graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory in 1986,
and studying with Donald McInnes at the
University
of
Southern California
, he served as principal violist in San Diego Symphony. He loves to play chamber
music with his colleagues, and enjoys teaching and coaching young musicians.

Larry London
Larry
London did his undergraduate work at Harvard and earned a Master's degree in
composition at
Mills
College
. He studied with Darius Milhaud, Terry Riley and Lou Harrison. Besides having
played clarinet in all of the Bay Area's professional orchestras, he teaches
music at Ohlone and
Merritt
Colleges
. His compositions have been performed at the
Aspen
and Cabrillo Music Festivals, by the Oakland Symphony and the San Francisco
Symphony chamber series. Larry London has contributed as a composer, arranger or
performer to over fifty films. He composed the music for Isamu Noguchi: Stones
and Paper, an American Masters documentary film, recognized as Best Portrait at
the Montreal International Festival of Films in 1998, and the music for Poumy, A
Bridge of Books, and Four Films About Love in 2002 for New Jewish Film
Projects.
Go
back

Lena
Lubotsky
Lena
Lubotsky was born in
Moscow,
USSR, where she studied piano with professor Konstantin Igumnov and Tamara Bobovich
at the Central
Music
School, and later graduated from Department of Musicology of the Tchaikovsky State
Conservatory. She has taught piano, music theory, music history, and solfeggio
at various music schools in
Russia
and USA, where she has lived since 1977. Ms. Lubotsky has also performed as a choral
accompanist and chamber music partner with many vocalists and instrumentalists.

Roy
Malan, violin, counts as his teachers Ivan Galamian, Oscar
Shumsky,Yehudi Mehuhin, his mother and, most notably, Efrem Zimbalist. After
arriving in California, Mr. Malan kept in constant contact with Efrem Zimbalist,
assisting him by hand-copying parts for his compositions and editing his
revision of the Bach Solo Cantatas. He recently published a biography of
Mr. Zimbalist: Efrem Zimbalist: A Life. For the
last thirty years he has been concert master and solo violinist for the
San Francisco Ballet and lecturer at UC Santa Cruz. Prior to this he was on the
faculty at Ithaca College. Mr. Malan is a founding member of the San
Francisco Contemporary Music Players and is founder and director of the
Telluride Chamber Music Festival in Colorado. He has recorded widely and
his solo tours have taken him throughout the United States and Europe, as well
as Latin America, Asia and Australia.
Go
back

Sarn Oliver was born in New Haven, Connecticut into a creative and musical
household where his father, Harold Oliver, is a composer and mother, Patricia, a
piano teacher. He began playing the violin at four years and as his father
taught music composition at many universities around the country, he had the
opportunity to study under various teachers, among them Elmar Oliviera and
Ronald Neal. He won many music competitions which resulted in soloist
performances with numerous orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony, Shreveport
Symphony and Richardson Symphony. He spent his summers attending Meadowmount
where he studied with Mr. Galamian and Sally Thomas.
Mr. Oliver attended the Juilliard School and received both his Bachelor and
Master degrees as a student of Sally Thomas. At this time, he often freelanced
for the Composers Guild of New Jersey and played for over a year with the New
Jersey Symphony. He continued to perform as a soloist, appearing with the South
Orange Symphony of New Jersey and premiered his father’s violin concerto
(composed for Mr. Oliver) with The Little Orchestra of Princeton. He also
participated in various music festivals. After graduating, he secured the
Principal Second Violin position at the Sacramento Symphony. There, on numerous
occasions, he performed as soloist, as well as for the Camellia Symphony and
other orchestras. Other accomplishments include the creation of the jazz group,
The Continuum, that performed in Northern California and the recording of the
Benda and Stamitz violin concertos with the Montpellier Chamber Orchestra in
Sete, France. (Available online on the rarete classiques label).
Mr. Oliver joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1993 where he met his wife
Mariko Smiley, also a violinist in the orchestra. They had a son, Sean, on
February 8th 2001. Other interests include painting, practicing martial arts,
surfing and music composition. Currently he is performing in various chamber
music series and one of his recent compositions, Trio One for two violins and
viola will be performed in the SF Symphony Chamber Music Series at Davies Hall
in the 04-05 season. His first commission, Tilden Trio for Piano, violin, and
trombone will be performed in the fall of 2004.
Go
back

Florin
Parvulescu, who joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1998, is a native of
Romania and received degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the
Julliard Preparatory Division. He has been a member of the Saint Louis Symphony
and Baltimore Symphony,won the 1993 Marbury Competition at Peabody and was a
prizewinner in the 1994 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. He has appeared in
festivals such as Aspen,Victoria International Festival, Ecole Americaines des
arts in Fontainebleau, France and as soloist and chamber musician in New York,
Baltimore, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Heidelberg, Germany. Recently, Mr.
Parvulescu attended the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music
Festival.

Catherine
Payne, who joined the San Francisco Symphony in 1996, performed and recorded
with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as acting second flutist for two seasons,
including the 1994 and 1995 Tanglewood seasons. As a member of the Boston Pops
Esplanade Orchestra, she appeared on many Evening at Pops telecasts, including
the annual July 4th broadcasts live from the Esplanade. Ms. Payne was formerly
principal flutist of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston and Associate
Principal Flute and piccolo player with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. She has
appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Portland Symphony, and
the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, where she was a featured soloist in concertos of
Mozart and J.S. Bach. In the 2003-04 season, Ms. Payne was invited to perform
for several weeks with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim,
playing concerts in
Chicago
and
Europe
.
A
native of
Hartford
,
Connecticut
, Ms. Payne studied with Thomas Nyfenger of the Yale School of Music. At the New
England Conservatory, she studied with Lois Schaefer and Leone Buyse of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra. While pursuing her musical education, Ms. Payne also
attended
Tufts
University
, where she majored in English, and she graduated summa cum laude from both the
New England Conservatory and Tufts.
Go back

Scott Pingel began playing the double bass at age 17 because of a strong
interest in jazz, Latin, and classical music. In 2004, at age 29, he became
Principal Bass of the San Francisco Symphony. Previously, he served as principal
bass of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, performed with the Metropolitan
Opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, and the Metamorphosen
Chamber Orchestra, and served as guest principal with the National Arts Centre
Orchestra of Canada. He has performed at the festivals of
Bellingham
, Spoleto, Verbier, Tanglewood, and Attergau/Salzburgh, and in collaboration
with David Finckel and Joseph Silverstein at Music@Menlo.
In
addition to his experience in classical music, Mr. Pingel has worked with jazz
greats including Michael Brecker, Geoff Keezer, and James Williams, performed
with pop icon Madonna, and played in an opening act for Tito Puente.
Mr.
Pingel’s formal education began with James Clute at the University of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and after he received a bachelor’s degree in Music in
1996, continued under the private tutelage of Peter Lloyd. In 1997 he moved to
New York
to study with Timothy Cobb on a fellowship at the Manhattan School of Music,
where he received a master’s degree in Orchestral Performance in 1999 and a
professional studies certificate in 2000. He then spent two years on a
fellowship with the New World Symphony.
Outside
of music, Mr. Pingel spent many years studying the ancient Korean martial art of
Hwa Rang Do, in which he holds a black belt. He was an instructor at the Madison
Academy of Hwa Rang Do and founded the
University
of
Wisconsin-Eau Claire Hwa Rang Do/Tae Soo Do
program, which continues to this day.
Mr.
Pingel lives in
San Francisco
with his wife, Iris, and their daughter, Hannah.
Go
back

Victor Romasevich
Victor
Romasevich was born in
Minsk,
Belarus
, and as a youth studied with Rostislav Dubinsky of the famed Borodin Quartet.
He continued his training at the Moscow Conservatory and, following his
emigration to the
United States
in 1977, at Juilliard with Ivan Galamian. In 1979 he became a violin and viola
pupil of the composer and philosopher Iosif Andriasov. Winner of the Gina
Bachauer Prize at the 1985 J.S. Bach International Competition, Mr. Romasevich
joined the Orchestra as Associate Principal Violist in 1990 and in 1992 moved to
the First Violin section. He appears frequently in recitals and chamber concerts
as a violinist, violist, and keyboard player.
Go
back

Douglas
Rioth, San Francisco Symphony Principal Harpist, joined the Orchestra in
1981 and made his SFS solo debut in 1984 in Handel’s Harp Concerto in B-flat
major, with Raymond Leppard conducting. He has performed as soloist with the SFS
in works of Mozart, Ginastera, Debussy, and Frank Martin, and he has appeared
many times in the SFS Chamber Music Series and in Wondrous Sounds of Christmas
concerts. Born in Missouri in 1953, Mr. Rioth studied with Alice Chalifoux and
Elisa Smith Dickon, attended the Interlochen Arts Academy and Cleveland
Institute of Music, and studied at the Berkshire Music Center as a fellowship
student. Before coming to the SFS, he was principal harpist of the Indianapolis
Symphony for six years. He has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit
Symphony, Royal Winnipeg Ballet Orchestra, and in chamber music with the Caselli
Ensemble and Chamber Music Sundaes. He has been featured on NBC News Overnight,
has been a regular participant in the Salzedo Summer Harp Colony in Camden,
Maine, and serves on the coaching team for the SFS Youth Orchestra.

Philip
Santos is a frequent performer on numerous chamber series, including the San
Francisco Symphony¹s chamber music series, Chamber Music Sundaes, Sierra
Chamber Society, Music on the Hill, Old First Church Concerts and Composers Inc.
Currently, Mr. Santos is concertmaster of the Fremont Symphony, assistant
concertmaster of Marin Symphony and principal second violin of California
Symphony. He has also played with the Chicago Symphony and has been a member of
the San Francisco Symphony, Oakland Symphony and Berkeley Symphony. Mr.
Santos has taught violin at California State University at Hayward, and is
presently on the faculty of the University of California¹s Young Musicians
Program. His additional teaching activities include many private students
throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Go
back

Nanci Severance
Nanci Severance has been a member
of the San Francisco Symphony since 1982. Before joining the San Francisco
Symphony Nanci attended
Oberlin
College, the Banff Centre for the Arts and
Northern
Illinois
University
. Her primary teachers were Denes Koromzay and Bernard Zaslav. She has appeared
with and been a member of many Bay area ensembles including the Donatello
Quartet, San Francisco Contemporary Music Ensemble, Parlante Chamber Orchestra
and the Stanford String Quartet. She has also participated in many summer
festivals including the Grand Teton Music Festival, Sun Valley Summer Symphony,
the Telluride Chamber Music Festival and the Eastern Music Festival.
Nanci appears regularly at many Bay area chamber music series, including;
Chamber Music Sundaes, the San Francisco Symphony Chamber Music Series and Music
at Kohl
Mansion
.
Go back

A leading Bay Area guitarist and veteran member of the groundbreaking San
Francisco Guitar Quartet, Mark Simons’s diverse and engaging
programming is notable for its variety, depth and color. He has presented
numerous concerts, both as soloist and chamber musician throughout New England,
the Mid
Atlantic
,
California
and
Germany
. Recent touring with the San Francisco Guitar Quartet has included
Texas
,
Florida
,
Arizona
, Guam and the
Republic
of
Taiwan
. Mark has also toured with the Grammy Award winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet
and currently performs in duet with flutist Catherine Payne of the San Francisco
Symphony. Just back from a Summer 2006 concert tour of
Taiwan
with the SFGQ, Mr. Simons now presents the second installment of his
“Global Variations Project” featuring diverse works for solo guitar, flute
and guitar and guitar quartet. An upcoming solo recording as well as a recording
of music for flute and guitar are eagerly anticipated in 2007.
Mark Simons’s enduring devotion to new, World and improvisatory music is
evidenced by numerous performances as well as recordings of several world
premieres including: “Variacione Casi Latina” by Dusan Bogdanovic (written
for Mark Simons) and Paul Dresher’s “Guitar Quartet 1975” (world premiere
recording by the SFGQ). Mark Simons’s playing is featured on all three
recorded releases by the San Francisco Guitar Quartet, including the recently
released “Silhouette” (2006). The 2003 SFGQ release “Compadres” was
awarded “Top CD of 2003” by Acoustic Guitar magazine.
Mr. Simons was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in Guitar Performance to
Stuttgart
,
Germany
and received both the Outstanding Graduate and Chamber Music Departmental
Awards from the University of Southern California School of Music where he was
an Assistant Lecturer and Outreach Coordinator for the Guitar Department. Mark
Simons holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music,
Tufts
University
, The
University
of
Southern California
and the Peabody Institute of the
Johns
Hopkins
University
. Mr. Simons currently runs a private teaching studio in
San Francisco
(
North
Beach
) and also instructs at the City College of San Francisco and
Diablo
Valley
College.
Go back

Born in Los Angeles, Mariko Smiley began piano lessons at four, at the
encouragement of her parents, who were both musicians. Her father, David Smiley,
was a violist with the SFS from 1962 until 1973, and Mariko began taking violin
lessons from him when she was six. She studied with two other former SFS
violinists, Leonard Austria and Stuart Canin, before leaving home to attend
Juilliard, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees under the
tutelage of Dorothy DeLay. When she returned to San Francisco, she freelanced
before winning a position with the Orchestra in 1982. Mariko never entertained a
career outside professional violin playing. Her family connections within the
SFS violin section are impressive: her brother, Dan Smiley, and his wife,
Suzanne Leon, are both SFS violinists, as is Suzanne's sister, Kelly
Leon-Pearce. Mariko's violinist husband, Sarn Oliver, whom she met for the first
time at the Music in the Mountains Festival in the early 1990s and married in
1999, is also in the Orchestra. So it is not surprising that one of the things
Mariko likes most about being in the Orchestra is the feeling of community she
has with her colleagues. She is devoted to chamber music, performing on the SFS
Chamber Music series, in Chamber Music Sundaes concerts, and as a member of the
Aurora String Quartet. She appreciates the democracy of playing chamber music
and the rich repertory, "and the intensity of working with others is deep
and fulfilling." For her, sincerity and musical integrity are the most
important parts of being a musician, "and you must maintain a passion for
playing." She also encourages the audience to remember how important they
are to music-making. Her other interests: listening to world music and early
music, hiking, Tai Chi, spending time with her cats. In February, she and Sarn
became parents of their first child, Sean Harai Oliver.

Margaret Tait, cellist, joined the
San Francisco Symphony in 1974 and helped to create the Aurora String Quartet in
1979. The Quartet’s twenty-two years of performances and their recordings have
received great acclaim internationally as well as here in the Bay Area. Ms. Tait
studied with Irving Klein at the
North Carolina
School
of the Arts, and with Gabor Rejto at the
University
of
Southern California
, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree. Her Master of Music degree is
from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has appeared as a soloist with
the San Francisco Symphony and enjoys performing a wide range of solo and
chamber music repertoire.
Go back

Nadya Tichman, Associate Concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony,
joined the Orchestra in 1980 and served as Acting Concertmaster from 1998 to
2001. Born in
New York
, she studied with Dorothy DeLay at Juilliard and received a bachelor’s degree
from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Ivan Galamian, Jaime
Laredo, and Yumi Ninomiya-Scott. In
San Francisco
, she continued her studies with Isadore Tinkleman. Ms. Tichman has
performed as soloist with the SFS on many occasions, most recently in January
2006, in Bach’s Concerto for two violins with SFSO concertmaster Alexander
Barantshik. Ms. Tichman has participated in festivals such as the Grand Teton
Music Festival, Chamber Music West, the Olympic Music Festival, Music in the
Vineyards and the Gualala Summer Arts Festival. In addition, she was a founding
member of the Donatello Quartet and co-directed Chamber Music Sundaes from 1984
to 1986.A champion of contemporary music, she has had pieces dedicated to her by
composers Peter Schickele and Jim Lahti and this April will premiere a duet
written for her and her husband, guitarist John Imholz, by composer Allen
Shearer. Ms. Tichman plays a 1724 Stradivarius violin purchased by the San
Francisco Symphony for her exclusive use.
Go back

Marilyn Thompson, piano recieved her Bachelor Degree from
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her Masters Degree from Stanford
University. She was awarded a Fulbright grant to the Vienna Academy of
Music. She has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the
College of Holy Names and the University of California at Santa Cruz. In
the 1980s she was the pianist member of the Chamber Soloists of San Francisco.
She is currently on the faculty of Sonoma State University where she has
taught since 1976. Ms.Thompson has performed in chamber music concerts in
Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street "Y" in New York
City, the Philip's Gallery in Washington D.C., Boston's Symphony Hall, Davies
Hall, and the Teatro National, San Jose, Costa Rica.

After fourteen years in
Holland, the highly versatile and critically acclaimed cellist, Tanya Tomkins, returned to the
United States
and won the 2001 Bodky Competition for Early Music Soloists in
Boston
. As a result, she recorded the Beethoven Sonatas on the Centaur label with
fortepianist, Eric Zivian. She has also recorded chamber music on other labels
such as Koch, Vanguard, Ottavo and Bis, and most recently Avie, in a recording
of the Kummer Cello Duets. She performs regularly in recitals with pianist and
fortepianist, Eric Zivian and is a member of the San Francisco String Trio. She
serves as prinipal cellist of the Portland Baroque and Philharmonia Baroque
Orchestras, and is a member of the Left Coast Ensemble which specializes in
Contemporary music.
Go back

Alona
Tsoi was admitted to the
Moscow
Special
Music
School
at the age of eight. After graduation she continued her education at the Moscow
Conservatory, studying with Zinaida Gilels and Valery Klimov. During her student
years in the Conservatory Ms. Tsoi was an active and popular chamber music
player. She made numerous concert tours throughout Europe and
United States, and studied and performed at such Music Festivals as Aldeborough and
Tanglewood, where her mentors were Benjamin Britten, Alfred Schnittke and Seiji
Osawa. Alona Tsoi has been a member of the 1st Violins in the
Orquesta de Asturias in
Oviedo,
Spain
(1990-1993), the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra in
Amsterdam
(1993-1995) and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of The Netherlands
(1995-2001). Currently a free-lance musician, she takes part in the major
recording projects and tours with the San Francisco
Symphony.

Jan Volkert
Heidi comes from a musical family of five children, all of whom became
professional musicians. She started her studies with her father Edward Wilcox at
the age of four, and his teacher Paul Roland, the director of "The Congress of Strings"
program in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.
Heidi attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, high school division, and the University of
Miami. She had master classes with many artists, including Sydney Harth, David
Nadien, and David Taylor of the Chicago Symphony. She was the Associate
Concertmaster of the Omaha Symphony, the Charleston Symphony (South Carolina), and
Concertmaster of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra. These positions also included
string quartet, teaching, and solos with the orchestras, and frequent recitals. She
was also a member of the Knoxville and Seattle Symphonies.
Ms. Wilcox enjoys playing a variety of music from all periods and styles.
She has also played with the San Francisco Contemporary Players and numerous Bay
Area ensembles.
Heidi lives in San Francisco with her husband, Farley Pearce, also a musician,
and their three sons.