Violinist Robert Anemone has been praised for his “complete command, beautiful sound, and firmness without anxiety” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). First prize winner of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Strings Competition, the New England Conservatory Violin Competition, and the Concord Young Artist Competition, he has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Concord Symphony, University of Evansville Symphony Orchestra, and others, as well as in recital in the United States and Europe. Robert is currently a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

From 2015 to 2017 Robert was a member of the Larchmere String Quartet, which gave recitals and masterclasses across the United States and Canada. Previous appointments include section first violinist with the North Carolina Symphony; concertmaster of the Evansville Philharmonic and part of the Eykamp String Quartet, whose members served as the faculty artists-in-residence at the University of Evansville; and principal second violin of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, where he also served numerous times as acting concertmaster. A graduate of James Buswell’s studio at the New England Conservatory (BM 2012, MM 2014), Robert was a recipient of the Dorothy J. Bales ’41 Violin Scholarship and was awarded the 2014 Gunther Schuller medal for outstanding graduate study.

Brooklyn-based flutist Roberta Michel is dedicated to the music of our time. She has commissioned and premiered hundreds of new works and has worked with many notable composers of our day. Roberta is the flutist and Co-Director of Wavefield Ensemble and is a member of Da Capo Chamber Players, PinkNoise, and Duo RoMi.

Roberta has also performed with: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cadillac Moon Ensemble (founding member), SEM Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ecce Ensemble, Portland String Quartet, Newspeak, Wet Ink Ensemble, Argento, Iktus, Wordless Music Orchestra, Ensemble LPR, and Cygnus Ensemble among others. Recent venues include: Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tulley Hall, Merkin Hall, The Kennedy Center, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She can be heard on New Focus, Chandos, Innova, Tzadik, Bridge, Wide Hive, New Dynamic, and Meta Records. She played on the 2021 GRAMMY-winning album of Dame Ethyl Smyth’s The Prison with Experiential Orchestra. 

Her recently released solo album Hush, on New Focus Recordings, “digs deep into the possibilities of flute on this gripping solo recital” and was included on Bandcamp’s “Best Contemporary Classical: November 2024.”

Originally from Maine, Roberta attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and SUNY-Purchase College and has studied with Robert Dick, Tara O’Connor, Alexa Still, and Jean Rosenblum. She holds a doctorate in music performance from the City University of New York Graduate Center and is a winner of the NFA Graduate Research Competition for her dissertation on the flute music of Salvatore Sciarrino.

Roberta is the Assistant Teaching Professor of Flute at Bowling Green State University and previously taught flute at Sarah Lawrence College, Brooklyn College, and music courses at St. Francis College. She plays a Brannen flute with a Mancke headjoint. robertamichel.com

Michelle Barzel Ross is a GRAMMY™ Award-winning violinist, composer, and improviser, whose music-making has been hailed as “affecting” (The New Yorker), “gorgeous” (The New York Times), and “nobly shaped and impeccably sustained” (The San Francisco Chronicle).  As a soloist, she has debuted in venues such as Carnegie Hall, with the San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, KKL Lucerne, Cité de la Musique, Metropolitan Museum’s Temple of Dendur. A renowned chamber musician, she often collaborates with Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, and most recently toured as guest first violinist with the Juilliard String Quartet. Michelle recently joined superstar mandolinist Avi Avital and Between  Worlds Ensemble for a European tour, as well as the Musicians from Marlboro National and  International tours for six seasons. Michelle is an in-demand guest concertmaster with the world’s greatest orchestras, including Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, MusicAeterna, Orchestre National d’Auvergne, and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, and more. 

Described by the Chicago Tribune as “a musician of quicksilver brilliance,” Aaron Wolff is a laureate of the 2024 Naumburg Cello Competition, and first prize winner of the Boston Symphony Concerto competition. As winner of the Leo B. Ruiz Memorial Prize, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall in 2023, and has performed at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein, and Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums.

Committed equally to music new and old, highlights of the ‘24-‘25 season include performances with Grammy award-winning sextet Eighth Blackbird, the premiere of Anna Heflin’s monodrama The Incomplete Cosmicomics at Experiments in Opera, and recitals presented by Valley of the Moon and The Dame Myra Hess series. He has been a return attendee to IMS Prussia Cove, Yellow Barn, Perlman Music Program and Lucerne Festival Academy.

Aaron has found creative outlets in acting – most notably a lead role in the Coen brothers’ film A Serious Man – and in arranging and writing about music: he has provided string arrangements for Comedy Central’s sitcom Broad City and concert reviews for the online journal I Care If You Listen.

Aaron holds a BA in comparative literature from Oberlin College and an MM and Artist Diploma from Juilliard. His primary mentors have been Natasha Brofsky, Darrett Adkins, Joel Krosnick, Tim Eddy and Fred Sherry. He is now pursuing a DMA at CUNY’s Graduate Center with violinist Mark Steinberg. He plays an 1813 Thomas Kennedy cello made in London.

Violinist Lilit Hartunian performs at the forefront of contemporary music innovation, both as soloist and highly in-demand collaborative artist. First prize winner in the 2021 Black House Collective New Music Soloist Competition, Ms. Hartunian’s “Paganiniesque virtuosity” and “captivating and luxurious tone” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) are frequently on display at the major concert halls of Boston  as well as at leading academic institutions, including the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, Brandeis University, and Tufts University, where she often appears as both soloist and new music specialist. As collaborative artist and ensemble musician, Ms. Hartunian regularly performs with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, A Far Cry, Sound Icon, Emmanuel Music, Callithumpian Consort, Guerilla Opera, and Ludovico Ensemble, and recently performed as guest artist with the Lydian Quartet and the Arneis Quartet.

Born in Orange, California in 1993, violist Tanner Menees is forging an enviable career as a chamber musician. Mr. Menees has collaborated with a range of notable artists, including Martin Beaver, Denis Bouriakov, Miriam Fried, Clive Greensmith, Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Marcy Rosen, and Peter Stumpf.

Tanner Menees has performed internationally at festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Chamberfest Cleveland, Menuhin Festival String Academy, Edinburgh Music Festival, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, and McGill International String Quartet Academy and with NEXUS Chamber Music Chicago. Menees has performed as soloist with the Symphony New Hampshire, and with the Colburn Orchestra under maestro Thierry Fischer. Mr. Menees is featured in Mike Grittani’s video, Dreaming of Boccherini, shot in Guarneri Hall as part of the NEXUS Chamber Music Festival in 2019.

Mr. Menees received his Bachelor of Music degree and Artist Diploma from the Colburn School, where he studied with Paul Coletti. Later he studied with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory where he earned a Master of Music degree. He is  currently a student of professor Nobuko Imai at the Reina Sofía School of Music’s Fundación BBVA, on a scholarship from Fundación Albéniz. Mr. Menees plays on a Tarasconi school viola made in Milan, Italy c. 1880, courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins.

SOPRANO, Poetic Muses

Soprano Nina Guo is interested in the sounds of recent and ongoing times, and her performance practice includes interpreting notated music, improvising, and collaborating on interdisciplinary projects. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in classical voice from the New England Conservatory of Music (2015), she completed a Master’s degree in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (2020). As a contemporary music specialist, her upcoming performances include solo appearances with Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt) and Decoder Ensemble (Hamburg), and recently, she has been featured at festivals like Acht Brücken (Köln), Passion:SPIEL at the Deutsches National Theater (Weimar), and Music in Time at Spoleto Festival (Charleston). Nina’s own projects include several duo collaborations. Departure Duo, a contemporary music soprano+double bass duo with Edward Kass, released its debut album 'Immensity Of' on New Focus Recordings (NYC). With artist Leonie Brandner, Nina made MOSSOPERA, a long duration installation opera for two voices, dictaphones, and ceramic resonators. In the last years, radio has become an important part of her practice, and her live comedy variety show, The Entertainment, is hosted by Cashmere Radio (Berlin) and supported by DMR Neustart Kultur. www.facesound.org

COMPOSER, PIANO, Community Center

Conrad Winslow is a composer and pianist whose musical forms are bold, legible and emotionally direct. His music combines precipitous edges with subtle shifts of syntax. He draws influence from architects and playwrights to structure pieces like places to inhabit. Raised in Homer, Alaska, he first learned to make a world from scratch by watching his parents build a log cabin home in the woods. His work has been called “compelling” (New York Times) and described as a “scenic, boisterous and bumpy ride” (Albany Times Union). Winslow's instrumental music has been commissioned by Alarm Will Sound, Carnegie Hall, and the American Composers Orchestra, among many others. He holds a Master’s Degree in Composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano, an M.M. degree in film scoring from NYU, where he studied with Justin Dello Joio, and an Honors A.B. degree in Music from Rollins College, where he studied with Daniel Crozier.

CLARINET, Community Center

John Diodati joined the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra as Principal Clarinet in the spring of 2021. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, The Florida Orchestra, and San Antonio Symphony. John was a Tanglewood Music Center fellow in 2012 and 2013 and has also held fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival and Music Academy of the West. He completed his Master of Music and bachelor’s degrees as a student of Thomas Martin at New England Conservatory and pursued further study with Richie Hawley at Rice University. A native of Andover, Massachusetts, John began playing the clarinet at age seven.

VIOLIN, Community Center

MuChen Hsieh, from Taiwan, joined the Houston Symphony as principal second violin in 2017. Hsieh regularly performs recitals, chamber music concerts, and in orchestras in the United States and Taiwan. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with James Dunham, Jon Kimura Parker, Kathleen Winkler, and Larry Wheeler. Her festival performances include New York String Orchestra, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, and Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra. She has also performed with the New York Philharmonic as a Zarin Mehta Global Academy Fellow. When Hsieh is home in Taiwan, she enjoys organizing chamber music concerts with friends. She also has a passion for coaching and leading local orchestra concerts during the summer in Taiwan with the concertmaster of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Ray-Chou Chang. She studied with Kathleen Winkler at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and Malcolm Lowe and Masuko Ushioda at the New England Conservatory.

PERCUSSION, Community Center

Nicholas Tolle is one of America's premiere cimbalom artists. He has performed as soloist in Pierre Boulez’ Repons with the composer conducting at the Lucerne Festival in 2009, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Péter Eötvös in 2012, and with Steven Schick at UC San Diego in 2017. Based in Boston, MA, he plays regularly with such groups as the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Emmanuel Music, and Sound Icon, and with his own group, the Ludovico Ensemble. He has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, New York Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Signal. He is featured performing Boulez’s Repons in the EuroArts documentary Inheriting the Future of Music: Pierre Boulez and the Lucerne Festival Academy, and in Kurtág's music for cimbalom and voice on soprano Susan Narucki's 2019 album “The Edge of Silence”, which was nominated for a 2020 Grammy award. His recording of Kurtág’s Seven Songs from “The Edge of Silence” was named one of the best classical tracks of 2019 by the New York Times.