Bassoon
Benjamin Coelho
A dynamic and expressive bassoonist, Benjamin Coelho began his bassoon journey at the Tatuí Conservatory at age ten. Ben is a sought-after musician, teacher, and recording artist who has performed on five continents. Since 1998, he has been a professor of bassoon at the University of Iowa and is the principal bassoon with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Ben is a passionate champion of contemporary music. He finds great joy and fulfillment as a teacher and pedagogue. His students have successfully gained positions at public schools, universities, colleges, orchestras, and the music industry. He actively commissions, performs, and records compositions from composers worldwide. As a recording artist, he has released seven acclaimed CDs, earning national and international recognition. He has dedicated himself to service. At the University of Iowa, he served in four different associate director positions, and his greatest honor was becoming the interim director of the School of Music from 2018 to 2019. He also served as vice president of the International Double Reed Society. Ben resides in Iowa City with his wife, Karen, and is a proud father of Liliana and Julia.
Clarinet
Dan Friberg
Dan Friberg is a clarinetist based in Bloomington, MN. As a soloist and chamber musician he has performed with JOYA!, the Hill House Chamber Players, wcfsymphony, The Singers MCA, the Balkanicus Ensemble, and at the Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival in 2016, 2017 and 2022. Past orchestral engagements include the Minnesota Orchestra, New World Symphony, Duluth-Superior Symphony, Dubuque Symphony, wcfsymphony, and Sioux City Symphony. He has taught at Winona State University and the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.
Dr. Friberg earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music degrees at Yale University (studying with David Shifrin), and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Minnesota (studying with Burt Hara). From 2009 to 2010 he was a fellow of the Belgian American Education Foundation, studying at the Royal Ghent Conservatory of Music in Belgium. He is manager of the combined printed music departments of Groth and Eble Music Companies, runs woodwind music publisher Dorn Publications, and is the author of “Clarinet Excerpts in Context: Duets for Ensemble Mastery.”
Violin
Timothy Peters
Timothy Peters, violinist, enjoys a varied career as an orchestral violinist, chamber musician, and educator. He has most recently served as the Associate Concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra after spending ten seasons as Principal 2nd Violinist of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed as a titled guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including Guest Concertmaster of the Norrlandsoperan Symfoniorkester (Sweden), Guest Concertmaster of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Guest Principal 2nd Violin of the Dresden Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Aalborg Symfoniorkester (Denmark), and Guest Sub-Principal 2nd Violin of the BBC Philharmonic.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Peters has performed in Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, and the Library of Congress as a member of the Brutini and Degas String Quartets and the Young Eight Octet. Other concert appearances include the Schneider Concert Series in Tishman Hall (New York City), Chicago, Raleigh, Austin, and Amatius Chamber Music Societies, and live appearances on WCLV-FM (Cleveland), WFMT-FM (Chicago), and WXXI-FM (Rochester).
Violin
Hannah Howland Jacobs
Hannah Howland Jacobs is a violinist and teacher based in the Iowa City area. She received her BM in violin performance from the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Mark Bjork, and MM in violin performance from the University of Northern Iowa, where she studied with Dr. Ross Winter and Dr. Julia Bullard (viola). Having grown up studying violin at the UNI Suzuki School, she is a strong advocate for the Suzuki Method, and has studied Suzuki pedagogy with Mark Bjork, Joanne Melvin, and Martha Shackford. Currently, Hannah holds faculty positions at the UNI Suzuki School in Cedar Falls and the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City where she teaches violin and viola, leads group classes, and coaches chamber ensembles. She maintains an active schedule performing with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, the Southeast Iowa Symphony, and freelancing throughout eastern Iowa with various other ensembles and theatre productions. While perhaps most at home in the classical music genre, Hannah has a great love of the versatility of string instruments and enjoys exploring and collaborating on projects within other genres. She and her husband, Austin, violinist, guitarist, and orchestra teacher in the Iowa City Community School District, enjoy working on musical projects together, and recently recorded and released an album with their folk trio band, “From Afar.”
Viola
Julia Bullard
Violist Julia Bullard is an active solo, chamber and orchestral performer both in the US and abroad. As a chamber musician, she has performed as a guest with ensembles including the Aspen String Trio, the Maia Quartet, and the Arianna Quartet. She performs regularly as violist of Trio 826, whose first CD entitled Mosaic was released on the Blue Griffin label in 2016.
Dr. Bullard was the recipient of the Leopold LaFosse Studio Teacher of the Year award in 2011 from the Iowa String Teachers Association. She has also been a featured performer and teacher at several summer music festivals including the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and Academy, Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival, Madeline Island Music Festival, Luzerne Music Center, Ash Lawn-Highland Opera Festival, and the Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival.
From 2000-2022, Dr. Bullard served as viola professor at the University of Northern Iowa, and served for 10 years as the Associate Director for Graduate Studies at the UNI School of Music. Prior to joining the faculty at UNI, Dr. Bullard was a faculty member at Settlement Music School (Philadelphia), Temple University’s Preparatory Department (Philadelphia), and the University of Georgia Pre-College Program, among others. In addition to her work as a musician, Dr. Bullard is also a long-time student of the Alexander Technique, and in August will complete her 1600-hour teacher certification through the Minnesota Center for the Alexander Technique. Her Alexander teachers have included Brian McCullough, Lauren Hill, Tully Hall, Kathryn Zimmerman, and Harriet Harris. Dr. Bullard brings her knowledge of the Alexander Technique to her violin and viola teaching, to help students learn to move and play with ease and freedom, and to help prevent or recover from performance-related injuries.
In August 2022, Dr. Bullard joined the faculty of Kennesaw State University, just north of Atlanta, GA, as Professor and interim Director of the Bailey School of Music.
Piano
Peter Miyamoto
Peter Miyamoto has enjoyed a brilliant international career, performing to great acclaim in recital and as soloist in Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, China, and Japan, and in major US cities such as Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. In 1990, Miyamoto was named the first Gilmore Young Artist. He won numerous other competitions, including the American Pianist Association National Fellowship Competition, the D’Angelo Competition, the San Francisco Symphony Competition and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Competition.
Currently Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair of Piano at the University of Missouri, Peter Miyamoto formerly taught at Michigan State University, and the California Institute of the Arts and has presented masterclasses worldwide. From 2003-2015 he served as head of the piano faculty at the New York Summer Music Festival and more recently served on the piano faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music’s Young Artist Summer Program and the Curtis Mentor Network Program in Philadelphia.
Miyamoto’s six solo CDs, available on the Blue-Griffin label, have received excellent reviews in periodicals such as Gramophone, International Record Review, Fanfare, and American Record Guide and were recognized by the American Prize. A CD of six commissioned duos for violin and piano produced by GRAMMY winner Judith Sherman was released by Albany records.
Violin
Theo Ramsey
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Cello
Max Geissler
Praised for his “superb artistry and beautiful sound”, cellist Max Geissler is currently on the faculty at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. Max serves as the cellist of the mixed instrumentation new music ensemble Latitude 49 and is a highly sought-after chamber collaborator and educator. Before his studies at Rice, he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan working with Richard Aaron. As an enthusiastic educator, Max is an in-demand masterclass clinician, having given classes at schools such as SUNY Fredonia, Baylor University, and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Max spends his summers on faculty at ENCORE Chamber Music in Cleveland, working closely with aspiring cellists and performing alongside good friends and colleagues.
Max is a passionate advocate of the chamber music literature and takes any opportunity he can to excitedly share it with audiences. He has performed alongside and collaborated with artists such as Jon Kimura Parker, Lynn Harrell, Cho-Liang Lin, Martin Beaver, Margaret Batjer, Brian Connelly, Desmond Hoebig, James Dunham, Timothy Pitts, and Benjamin Kamins. He has also performed regularly as a part of the new music organization MUSIQA in Houston, as well as joined Brian Connelly on his chamber music series, Music in Context. Max is currently the Artistic Director for Kalmia Gardens Chamber Music, a summer chamber festival hosted in a farmhouse in Durham, Connecticut, as well as a regular performer at the Geneva Music Festival. In addition to these festivals, Max has appeared as a Young Artist at La Jolla SummerFest, and performed as a part of the Taipei Music Festival in Taiwan.
Cello
Kacy Clopton
Praised by critics as “poised, polished, and passionate” (The Washington Post), “a superb soloist” (The Boston Globe), and “a true virtuoso” (The San Francisco Chronicle), cellist Kacy Clopton has inspired audiences across Europe and North America as a creative and multi-faceted performer. Dr. Clopton has most recently held the position of Associate Principal Cello in the Jacksonville Symphony for the past three seasons, where she has worked extensively on educational outreach through community engagement with the symphony.
As a soloist, Dr. Clopton has performed recitals on some of the most venerated stages around the world. She had the privilege of collaborating with famed conductor and composer Esa-Pekka Salonen and has given several prominent performances of his newest works for cello across the United States. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Maryland School of Music, a Masters in Chamber Music from Hochschule Luzern, a Graduate Diploma and Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, as well as a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Maryland. Dr. Clopton currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music (Cello) at Luther College, where she also performs with the Luther College Piano Quartet.
Horn
Katie Ambrose
Praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a “spectacular” and “graceful” musician, Katy Ambrose has made a name for herself as an educator, chamber and orchestral performer. She is on faculty at the University of Iowa, where she is Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Music. She was previously on faculty at the University of Virginia, where she also served as Principal Horn of the Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra, holding the ensemble’s Johanna and Derwood Chase & Chase Investment Counsel Corporation Chair.
As a soloist and chamber musician she has commissioned and performed world premieres of pieces by Rene Orth, Sarah DuBois, Rachel Devorah Wood Trapp, Lucy Pankhurst, Katherine McMichael, Scott Boerma, and James Territo. She commissioned and performed the world premiere of Boerma’s “Isle of Skye” at the 2012 Edinburgh Easter Festival. Outside of the classical setting, Ambrose has played for Adele, Cee Lo Green, Andrea Bocelli, and as a recording artist for NFL Studios.
Katy was the founding Operations Coordinator for the Boulanger Initiative, a not-for-profit organization based in Washington, DC that promotes music by women through performance, education, and commissions. Katy was a co-founder of Seraph Brass, and is a founding member of Izula Horns, a quartet of horn players from the Washington, DC area who are dedicated to blending high quality performance with immersive community engagement. She is also a member of Conica, a transcontinental natural horn quartet.
Katy is especially interested in mentoring younger musicians and has taught for and developed programs and curricula for several education programs including the Philadelphia Orchestra School Partnership Program, Delaware Symphony school program and the “El-Sistema” inspired programs Tune-Up, Philly and Play On, Philly!
Viola
Joanna Mendoza
Joanna Mendoza is the violist of the Arianna String Quartet and serves as chair of the Department of Music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL). The ASQ can be heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and on “Live from Music Mountain,” broadcast to 125 stations in the U.S. and to 35 countries. Their recordings of the two Janacek Quartets, and the Early and Middle Beethoven Quartets, all released on Centaur Records, received critical acclaim.
She is a co-founder and director of Arianna Arts, Inc., a non-profit organization that engages and enriches communities with world-class music. Arianna Arts, Inc. host sthe Arianna Chamber Music Festival, an international summer festival in St. Louis that brings together a cross-section of aspiring musicians from St. Louis, the U.S., and around the world for a cultural and musical exchange.
Ms. Mendoza maintains a highly-regarded private viola studio. Her students continue their musical studies at esteemed programs such as The Juilliard School, The Shepard School at Rice University, The Jacobs School of Music, Music Academy of the West, the Heifetz Institute, and Colorado College Summer Music Festival.
Prior to joining the Arianna Quartet, Ms. Mendoza was a ten-year member of the Harrington String Quartet and the Amarillo Symphony, and served on the faculties of West Texas A&M University and the University of Oklahoma.
Violin
Erik Rhode
Dr. Erik Rohde maintains a diverse career as a conductor, violinist, and educator, and has performed in recitals and festivals across the United States and in Europe and Asia. He is the newly appointed Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Northern Iowa, the Music Director of the Winona Symphony Orchestra (MN), and the founding artistic director of the Salomon Chamber Orchestra, an orchestra dedicated to promoting the works of living composers and of Haydn and his contemporaries. Prior to his appointment at the University of Northern Iowa, Rohde served as the Director of String Activities and Orchestra at Indiana State University where he conducted the Indiana State University Symphony Orchestra and taught violin, chamber music, and Suzuki pedagogy.
A committed advocate for contemporary music, he has premiered and commissioned many new works by both established and young composers, and is constantly seeking to discover new compositional voices. He is the violinist of the new music duo sonic apricity, which is dedicated to uncovering and commissioning new works by living composers for violin and viola. At Indiana State University he helped to host the annual Contemporary Music Festival – now running for over 50 years. He has worked with Joan Tower, Augusta Read Thomas, Libby Larsen, Meira Warshauer, Elliott Miles McKinley, Christopher Walczak, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Pierre Jalbert, James Dillon, David Dzubay, Marc Mellits, Carter Pann, Narong Prangcharoen and countless others. In the last year he has released two recordings with composer Elliott Miles McKinley, with whom he is currently working on a project for a new set of companion pieces written to be played with the Bach Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas.
Violin
Katie Wolfe
Flute
Hannah Porter Occeña
Hailed by the New York Times as possessing “rich tone and deft technique,” Hannah Porter Occeña is Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Northern Iowa and Principal Flutist of the Topeka Symphony Orchestra (Topeka, KS).
As a chamber musician and collaborator, Dr. Occeña has worked to bring works by living composers to life. She is a commissioning member of the Flute New Music Consortium and has co-premiered works by Zhou Long (Confluence, 2015) and Carter Pann (Giantess, 2018). She has also privately commissioned and premiered several new works, most recently Shenandoah Variations for flute and orchestra by Joseph Kern in March 2019.
A dedicated scholar, Dr. Occeña has recently presented at the National Flute Association conventions in Orlando and Salt Lake City as well as the Rochester Flute Fair. She has collaborated on new editions of the Sonata in B minor by Amanda Maier and the Sonata op. 94 by Sergei Prokofiev and serves on the National Flute Association Special Publications Committee.
Dr. Occeña is a 2018 DMA graduate of Stony Brook University, where she studied with Carol Wincenc; she holds a Master of Music Dip.RAM from the Royal Academy of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. When not performing, Dr. Occeña enjoys spending time outdoors with her family. She can be heard on New Beginnings: American and Australian Duos for Flute and Piano with the Occeña-Chen Duo, andVoices from the Middle and Spohr, Forevermore! with the Midwest Chamber Ensemble. She is a Miyazawa Artist and plays on a Miyazawa Elite. For more information, please visit http://hannahporter.instantencore.com.
Violin
Theo Ramsey
Boston-based violinist Theo Ramsey enjoys a varied career as an orchestral violinist, chamber musician, and teacher. They perform frequently with such ensembles as Brooklyn-based orchestral collective The Knights, new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, and the Boston Lyric Opera. Theo is a member of the first violin section of the New Bedford Symphony and is violinist and violist of Ensemble Dal Niente.
Originally from Cedar Falls, IA, Theo began playing the violin at the UNI Suzuki School. They hold degrees from Northwestern University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where their primary teachers were Blair Milton and David Updegraff. Theo was co-concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and spent two years as a Fellow and frequent concertmaster of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, FL.