Frances Duffy is a freelance harpist and teacher in the NYC metro area. She is principal harp with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the NY Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, NYC Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. She has also been harpist for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and the Broadway show, WICKED. Frances has degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, Manhattan School of Music, and recently received her DMA from Rutgers University. She has studied pedal harp with Kathleen Bride, Anne-Marguerite Michaud, Sarah Bullen, and Deborah Hoffman and was introduced to the world of historical harps by Sam Milligan. She currently is working with Christa Patton on the Italian triple harp and hopes to add one (and a single action instrument) to her family of harps.

Elyse Anne Kakacek is described as having an “unexpectedly deep, honey toned soprano”. Her first album Untethered -said to have a “crystalline clarity”- is currently available on all downloadable platforms and features the song cycles of American composer Valerie Saalbach. Most recently, Elyse created the title role of dell’Arte Opera’s first commission, Princess Maleine at the prestigious La Mama Experimental Theatre in Manhattan. Other operatic career highlights include Micaela in Carmen, Norina in Don Pasquale, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. She has appeared as the soprano soloist in venues such as the David Koch Theatre at Lincoln Center (Promenade), Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Preston Bradley Hall, and National Sawdust. Elyse is a proud recipient of The Lynne Harvey Foundation Scholarship from the Musician's Club of Women and the Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship and won the First Prize in the North International Music Competition.

Cellist Kirsten Jermé leads a multifaceted career as a performer, educator, and advocate of community-building through the arts. As a chamber musician, Kirsten has performed internationally in venues including Weill Recital Hall and the Joyce Dance Theater in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., Harlaxton College in England, the Banff Arts Centre in Canada, the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago and Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. Kirsten was formerly cellist of the Larchmere String Quartet, which toured across the U.S., Canada and Italy presenting concerts and masterclasses, and recorded for the Naxos label. Kirsten also served as Principal Cellist of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and held the Eykamp String Quartet Faculty Artist-in-Residence position at the University of Evansville, where she created a chamber music course for undergraduates and co-founded a community-based chamber music series. She is also a member of the Britt Festival Orchestra in Oregon.

Kirsten serves as cello faculty at North Carolina State University and has given masterclasses at UNC-Chapel Hill, Western Kentucky University and Otterbein. A deeply committed educator, she has taught for institutions including Greenwich House Music School in Manhattan and Frank Sinatra High School of the Arts in Queens, Riverdale Country School in the Bronx, the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute and Kidznotes, and she served as Honors Director for the Lamar Stringfield Music Camp in Raleigh. Kirsten received her M.M. at Eastman School of Music as a student of Steven Doane and her B.A. from Stony Brook University, where she studied with Colin Carr and the Emerson String Quartet. She is currently pursuing a D.M.A. at the CUNY Graduate Center as a pupil of Marcy Rosen, and serves in an adjunct role at Brooklyn College and the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music.

Andrea Herr enjoys a varied performing career as bassoonist and contrabassoonist. Her orchestral engagements have included performances with the Little Orchestra Society, New York City Opera, the New Jersey Symphony and the American Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Herr held Principal Bassoon positions in Spain with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia and Opera Teatro Galicia. Noted performances include the American Premiere of the opera Prima Donna by Rufus Wainwright, the Lincoln Center Premiere of Disney Fantasia, Live in Concert and Premieres of new works by Lalo Schifrin, Joan Tower and Keith Jarrett. On Broadway Andrea has performed with the New York productions of Beauty and the Beast, Phantom of the Opera, Fiddler on the Roof, Nine, Into the Woods and West Side Story. Other appearances include performances with the Lincoln Center Festival, Paris Opera Ballet and the Bach Aria Festival.

For Music for Life International Andrea traveled to India with members of the Metropolitan Opera to perform with the Bombay Chamber Orchestra.She has recorded for PBS Television, Radio Nacional Espana and for numerous television and radio commercials including Pepsi-Cola, Disney and Visa.Andrea holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School and is an adjunct faculty member at William Paterson University, New Jersey City University and Kean University.With a passion for our historic resources, Andrea completed the Certificate in Historic Preservation from Drew University.

Kenneth Ellison has performed internationally with many ensembles, including the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Riverside Symphonia, the Greenville Symphony and the American Fine Arts Festival, and has played under such conductors as Andrea Quinn, John Rutter, Frederick Fennell and Rossen Milanov at such venues at Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, NJPAC and the Liszt School of Music. He performs regularly with the Chelsea Opera Company and is Professor of Clarinet at Kean University. Kenneth can be heard on the recordings “Bread of Life” with the Tim Keyes Consort, “On Course” by Laurie Altman, “Pictures at an African Exhibition” by Darrel Yokely and the trio@play CD’s “Wille Was Different” and “In the Sandbox.” Kenneth is on the Master Faculty at Westminster Conservatory. He holds degrees from Furman University and Arizona State University.

Russian-born and New York-based pianist Anna Keiserman is known for her creative programming, expressive freedom, and singular vision.

Performance credits in New York City include performing at Le Poisson Rouge, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the Fête de La Musique at the invitation of the French-American Piano Society. Other notable venues include the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts (Toms River, NJ), the Strand Theater (Hudson Falls, NY), Ataneu Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain). In the summer of 2019 Anna embarked on a concert tour through Spain, premiering the Sonata Cerdanyenca for Cello and Piano by Marc Migó Cortes. As a soloist Anna has performed concerti by Rachmaninoff, Haydn, Beethoven, and Arensky with the Volgograd Symphony Orchestra, and also toured through Italy, Spain and Russia. Among Dr. Keiserman’s awards are top prizes in international piano competitions in Russia, as well as second place in the 2019 American Prize Competition. In 2017 Anna received the “Culture and Art Award” from the New Russia Cultural Center in Rensselaer, NY for her dedication to promoting arts and culture in the community.

Anna Keiserman has served as faculty at the NYU Steinhardt School of the Arts, at the Rutgers University Extension Division, and at William Paterson University. Having earned degrees from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow and the University of Minnesota, Dr. Keiserman completed her Doctorate in Piano Performance at Rutgers University, where she earned the Elizabeth Wyckoff Durham Award for academic distinction and excellence in piano performance. In September 2020, Anna joined the faculty of Raritan Valley Community College as an Assistant Professor of Piano. She is currently Artistic Director of the Mozaika Concert Series at Raritan Valley Community College, a series that has been created to promote multicultural dialogue through the performance of music from the classical canon through to the 21st century.

For more information, please visit annakeisermanpiano.com.

Pianists Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia collaborate as DUO Stephanie and Saar in dazzling performances filled with visceral excitement, elegance and artistic vision. “Stephanie and Saar’s last night’s performance once again recalled all the epithets of elegant and innovative, that have been following them throughout their career.” ~ Radio Sarajevo

Recent performances include their Lincoln Center debut with Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring; appearance with Philadelphia’s Orchestra 2001 in a complete performance of Frank Zappa’s The Yellow Shark and Symphony Space’s Wall to Wall Bernstein, a marathon celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s 100th anniversary. Internationally, the duo has recently appeared at the Chapelle Historique du bon Pasteur in Montreal and the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv. As probing recording artists, the duo explores repertoire with concomitant classical and contemporary sensibilities. Their recording of György Kurtág’s four hand transcription of Bach’s Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (Got’s Time is the Very Best of Times) was featured on the soundtrack of the documentary film Red Trees. Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times praised their “beautifully understated performances” of Kurtág’s delicate and soulful Bach transcriptions at NYC’s (le) poisson rouge. Cavatine, released in 2021 features Beethoven’s Op. 130 String Quartet and Schubert’s F Minor Fantasie. Gramophone Magazine praises it as “majestic..a highly distinctive disc”. Beethoven Dialogues, their 2014 album featuring Beethoven Quartets Op. 18 Nos. 1, 4 and 6 in rarely heard four hand arrangements was chosen as Album of the Week on New York Public Radio WQXR. The duo’s 2017 recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of Fugue has garnered tremendous praise; Stephanie and Saar toured The Art of Fugue extensively with stops in Portland, Sacramento, Phoenix, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, among others. “Their vision is of an Art of Fugue that is a work of performance art, not an academic piece to be listened to reverently... This is creative music- making of an extraordinarily high level.” ~ The Art Music Lounge.

Other notable performances include collaborations with Michael Linville and the New World Symphony Percussion Consort featuring Linville’s own arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s Petrouchka and André Boucourechliev’s aleatoric fantasy piece Archipel I. The duo takes special pride in a performance at the residence of the United States Ambassador in Berlin, Germany, featuring works by Henry Martin (US), Avner Dorman (Israel) and Felix Mendelssohn (Germany). Multiple collaborations with the Dranoff Two Piano Foundation have featured Stephanie and Saar at the Adrienne Arsht Center jamming with DJ Cardi for Piano Slam 11, at the Coral Gables Art Cinema with a film-inspired program and at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts center, where the duo performed a jazz-inspired concert featuring the world premiere of Fantasia de Très Mundos by Cuban-American jazz pianist Martin Bejerano, Dranoff Two Piano Foundation’s 2014 Bacardi Choice Award winner. “Playing with fizzing technique and élan, the duo fused bravura and elegance in perfect measure.” ~ Lawrence Budmen, South Florida Classical Review

DUO Stephanie and Saar are the artistic directors of Makrokosmos Project, a music festival in Portland, Oregon dedicated to contemporary American music and performances by Oregon based performers and composers. The 2015 inaugural festival featured standing-room performances of George Crumb’s Makrokosmos I & II and music by Kenji Bunch and David Crumb. Oregon Arts Watch frankly states “It was one of 2015’s peak Oregon musical moments.” The 2019 festival featured the complete piano music of Toru Takemitsu and music by John Luther Adams, Julia Wolfe and Gabriela Lena Frank.

While pursuing graduate studies at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Stephanie and Saar were inspired by Leon Fleisher to explore the Beethoven string quartets in a duo piano setting. Saar, a native of Israel, studied at Israel's Tel Aviv Academy and Switzerland's Schaufhausen Conservatory before coming to the United States to pursue a Graduate Performance Diploma with Leon Fleisher at Peabody Institute. Stephanie, of Taiwanese descent, grew up in Portland, Oregon before obtaining degrees from Oberlin College and Northwestern University. She received a Graduate Performance Diploma from Peabody Institute, under the direction of Julian Martin.

Stephanie and Saar, who are married to each other, reside in New York City. Outdoor enthusiasts, they recently completed an expedition to Alaska’s Denali backcountry and the Timberline Trail, the 44-mile trail circumventing Oregon’s Mount Hood.

Violist, David Gold.

From studio recordings and Broadway musicals to orchestral and concerto appearances, Garry Ianco leads a varied international career. An experienced concertmaster in both commercial and classical music, Mr. Ianco has performed in that capacity with the Albany Symphony, The Kingdom Hearts Symphony, Chelsea Opera, Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, and for the Irish Tenors. Most recently,Mr. Ianco was the concertmaster for Cameron Mackintosh’s production of The Phantom of the Opera.

As an ensemble member, Mr. Ianco has performed with the Santo Domingo Festival Orchestra, The Bellingham Festival Orchestra, The Munich Symphony, and with various ensembles in New York City and abroad.

Mr. Ianco has performed in the Broadway productions of Miss Saigon, Cats, Carousel, Phantom of the Opera, Evita, and West Side Story.

Known for her musicality and expressive tone, cellist Carolyn Jeselsohn has performed throughout the world as a soloist, chamber artist and orchestral musician. A passionate teacher, Carolyn teaches out of her studio in Maplewood, NJ. Previously, Carolyn served on the cello faculty at the Third St Music School Settlement School Settlement where she was also the Director of the Chamber Music Program. She enjoys Bach and gardening, ideally at the same time.

Hailed by the New York Times for her “magnificently sweet tone,” oboist Keve Wilson would skip music theory and history as a kid to practice Irish jigs and reels instead. She recently wrapped up production on Broadway as oboist for the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company and other Broadway shows she’s held chairs in are Carousel with Renee Fleming as well as the 2014 Tony Winner A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Keve inspires visiting high school band and orchestra students from around the country with her original show Believe NYC---from the Band Room to Broadway. A past winner of Concert Artists Guild and solo oboist with the Grammy nominated Absolute Ensemble, she has performed in Amsterdam, Argentina, Austria, Dubai, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Panama, New Zealand, Sicily, and South Korea. A twotime recipient of the Clifford-Levy Creativity Grant, Keve traveled to Makuleke Village in South Africa where she participated in learning and teaching folk songs of the region. She plays oboe for Encores! at City Center and recently recorded with Bruce Springsteen on his upcoming album, Letter to You. During the pandemic, Keve performed numerous shows with her duo partner and childhood friend Rachel Handman along with their band. The group played at the Javits Center every Sunday for vaccinations as well as at Feinstein’s/54 Below, Chelsea Table & Stage, The Culinary Institute of America, Margate Music Festival, and at Mt. Sinai in NYC. From Hyde Park, NY and a graduate of Eastman School of Music, Keve studied oboe with Richard Killmer, piano with Judith Handman and dance with Elizabeth Clark. She lives in New York City with her husband Kerry and Portuguese water dog Bugsy.

Blair Hamrick is a freelance horn player in New York City, performing as a substitute on Broadway (“Into the Woods” and “Camelot”), with S.E.M. Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Chamber Orchestra of New York, New York Classical Players, Bronx Arts Ensemble, Sylvan Winds, and Frisson. She’s a member of Metropolitan Horn Authority (a winner of the “Ensemble Forward” grant through Chamber Music America 2020), NU Quintet, a wind quintet dedicated to performing new and accessible music, and debuting in February 2023, Heartbeat Trio, a new brass trio performing in the New York area. As a recording musician, she has been on several albums including “My Blue House” by Celeste Krishna, “I Know Your Name” by Emily Drennan, and “Far Travelers” by Jeffrey Leiser. As a soloist, she has recently performed two new horn and piano pieces in Belgium and New Mexico and has commissioned new pieces for trio, horn and piano, brass quintet, and horn quartet. Blair received a bachelor degree in music and psychology at the University of Miami, a Masters of Music from the University of New Mexico, and a Professional Studies Certificate in horn performance from the Manhattan School of Music. 

Grammy nominated marimba artist Greg Giannascoli was a winner of the 2001 Artist International New York Recital / Young Artist Competition and was also top prize winner of the 1997 Patrons of Wisdom International Young Artist Competition. Greg performs regularly on the many Community Concert Series programs throughout the US, as a soloist with orchestras and in recital throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Greg has performed recitals in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Theatro Juarez in Mexico and the Glenn Gould Studio in Canada. Greg performs on the Yamaha 6000 marimba. He performed with Orchestra 2001 on the Grammy nominated recording of George Crumb’s American Song Book VII; Songs of the Heartland. In Greg’s newly released book, “Opinions on Playing the Marimba”, he interviews many leading marimba players about what they learned from their teachers, what evolved along the way and what they now teach their students. Published by Heartland Marimba Festival Publications.

Reviews of Greg’s performances include: “Here is music played so well it would capture and hold anybody’s attention indefinitely.”-Classical New Jersey, “With great mastery and two mallets in each hand Giannascoli gave a true lesson with what can be done with this singular instrument.”-The National of Mexico City, “Giannascoli’s performance of Miyoshi’s works was nothing less than astonishing, both in terms of artistry and virtuosity...tremendous facility...startling display of clarity and precision.”-Splendid Music Magazine. Reviews of Greg’s first CD, ‘Concertino’, include: “...elegantly phrased and sensitively performed...sails confidently through the most challenging technical passages.”-Percussive Notes. His most recent CD, ‘Prism Rhapsody’ was also reviewed: “...extremely gifted and skilled performer...facility behind the instrument apparent...virtuosic...precise...sensitive...beautiful lines...high caliber performances...stellar on all accounts.” – Percussive Notes.