Composers Conference
Chamber Music Center and Singers Workshop
at Wellesley College

Faculty and Staff

 Conference Faculty

Performing/Coaching Staff

Flute

  • Tara O'Connor
    Windscape Woodwind Quintet, New Millenium Ensemble, Bach Aria Group, Chamber Music Northwest, Faculty: Purchase College Conservatory of Music

  • Barry Crawford
     

Oboe

  • Peggy Pearson
    Winsor Music, Inc. Emmanuel Chamber Orchestra, Greenleaf Chamber Players, Bach Aria Group, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Faculty: Purchase College Conservatory of Music

  • Robert Ingliss
    Principal oboist with the American Symphony Orchestra, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, and the Riverside Symphony, as well as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the Mexico City Philharmonic.  Tours worldwide with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; member of An die Musik, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Cygnus Ensemble, and Ensemble Sospeso.  Teaches oboe at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia University, Brooklyn College Conservatory, and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Clarinet

  • Jean Kopperud
    NY New Music Ensemble, Chamber Players of the League of Composers/I.S.C.M., Omega, Washington Square Chamber Players, Ensemble 21: Faculty member at Juilliard and adjunct faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Columbia University.  Will join faculty of SUNY Buffalo fall 2006.

Bassoon

  • Donald McGeen
    Chamber, orchestral and Broadway musician.  Founding member of Pentaphonic Winds; performs with Orchestra of St. Luke's, New Jersey Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Lake George Opera Festival, New York City ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem;  Served on faculties of NYU, NJ City University and William Paterson State College.

Horn

  • Angela Cordell

Trumpet

  • Tom Hoyt

Trombone

  • Tom Hutchinson

Piano

  • Christopher Oldfather
    Concert Artist, Collage New Music of Boston, Parnassus of New York

  • Stephen Gosling
    Concert Artist, Speculum Musicae

Percussion

  • Stephen Paysen
    Freelance solo and ensemble performer, DoublePlay Percussion Duo, Has performed with Speculum Musicae, The Group for Contemporary Music, The Orchestra of the Twentieth Century, Abacus Percusion Ensemble, and Broadway pit orchestras; served as faculty at Suffolk Community College and Dowling College.

  • Dominic Donato
    Talujon Percussion Quartet, DoublePlay Percussion Duo,  Faculty: Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, SUNY.

Violin

  • Jennifer Elowitch
    Assistant Principal Second Violinist of Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and performs regularly with the Boston Symphony.  Appears with Boston Musica Viva, Collage New Music, and the Fromm Players at Harvard.  Artistic Co-Director and Executive Director of the Portland Chamber Music Festival, with whom she has appeared on WGBH radio in Boston and on NPR's "Performance Today."  Faculty of New England Conservatory Preparatory School. 

  • Laura Frautschi
    Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, New York City Opera Orchestra

  • Bayla Keyes
    Boston Musica Viva, Triple Helix, Faculty: Boston University; Artistic Director, Interlochen Chamber Music Conference and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute String Quartet Seminar.

  • David Fulmer

  • Anna Lim

  • Cyrus Stevens
    Parnassus of New York, Hartford Symphony Orchestra
     

Viola

  • Lois Martin
    Atlantic String Quartet, New York Chamber Symphony,  Concordia, String Fever, the Salon Chamber Soloists, and the American Chamber Ensemble

  • Louise Schulman
    Principal violist Orchestra of St. Luke's and St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble 

  • Liuh Wen Ting
    Meridianb Quartet, Orchestra of St. Luke's

Violoncello

  • Michael Finckel
    Eberli Ensemble, SEM Ensemble, Sextet Project, Finckle Cello Quartet. Music Director: Sage City Symphony, Faculty: Concordia Conservatory

  • Joshua Gordon
    Cello, Lydian String Quartet, Guest Artist with Ensemble Sospeso, Fromm Players at Harvard University, League/ISCM Chamber Players

  • Jan Muller-Szeraws

Contrabass

  • Pascale Delache-Feldman
    Co-founder of Cello e Basso; Artistic director,  Boston Bass Bash Festival, Guest artist with the St. Petersburg, Borromeo and Lark String Quartets; ALEA III, BMOP,  Boston Pops; Faculty: Longy School of Music, Brown and Tufts Universities,  Rivers School of Music

Soprano

  • Christine Schadeberg
    Concert Artist, Jubal Trio, concerts and recordings in New York, Massachusetts, Indiana, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.  Records on Albany, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Mode, Opus One, and New World labels.

Acting Conductor

  • Jim Baker

 

Chamber Music Center Faculty

Flute

  • John Ranck

Clarinet

  • Julie Vaverka

Bassoon

  • Isabelle Plaster

  • Sally Merriman

Horn

  • Iris Rosenstein

Piano

  • Cynthia Adler

  • James Chubet

  • Christopher Dwyer

  • Mark Goodman

  • Timothy McFarland

Violin

  • Wilson Pedrazas

  • Anne Marie Chubet

Viola

  • Frances Rios

  • Don Krishnaswami

Violoncello

  • Joan Esch

  • Jan Pfeiffer

Vocal

  • Allen Combs

 

Conference Administration

  • Mario Davidovsky, Conference Director
    Composer Mario Davidovsky, Professor of Music at Harvard University, is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim Award, Naumburg Award, and National Endowment for the Arts Award among many others, and is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.  Several of his compositions have been premiered this year in Massachusetts, New York, California, Maryland, and abroad.

  • Efrain Guigui, Music Director (deceased)
    Music Director and Conductor Efrain Guigui, whose experience included the Puerto Rico Symphony, the Casals Festival, the Vermont Symphony, the Dartmouth Symphony, and the Panama Symphony, premiered a great number of contemporary works and was honored with the Ditson Conductors Award for 1986.  Maestro Guigui passed away June 18, 2007 and was honored at a memorial concert on August 2, 2007 at 8:00pm at Jewett Auditorium during the Composers Conference.

  • Jan Pfeiffer, Chamber Music Center Director
    Cellist Jan Pfeiffer performs, teaches, and coaches in the Boston area, and throughout New England.  She is the Co-Director of the Chamber Music Society at Wellesley College and teaches at  Boston College, All Newton Music School, and her home.  She is founder and Artistic Director of Lavazza Chamber Ensemble, and she performs with many area groups including the Boston Lyric Opera and the Boston Ballet.  Jan also performs frequent solo and chamber music recitals in the greater Boston area.  While a resident of New York, she performed as soloist in Carnegie Hall and was featured on Charles Kuralt's television show.  

  • Isabelle Plaster, Assistant Director, Winds
    Isabelle Plaster has been associated with the Composers Conference since its arrival at Wellesley College.  She takes over the duties of Assistant Director for Winds this year in addition to her role as Assitant to the Director.  She has served as Principal
    Bassoonist of the Winnipeg Symphony and CBC orchestras and as a free-lance musician with the Boston and Pittsburgh symphonies, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Ballet, Boston Lyric Opera, and Boston Academy of Music.  This past spring she retired from the Music Faculty of Wellesley College, where she taught for 39 years. She remains active as a professional bassoonist, a member of the Lyricum Woodwind Quintet and faculty member at Concord Academy

  • Allen Combs, Assistant Director, Singers Workshop
    Allen Combs is active in the Boston area as a singer, instructor, and choral conductor.  A member of the voice faculty at Phillips Academy, Andover, he is also a soloist and chorister at the Church of the Advent in Boston and has been the music director of the Andover Choral Society for the past ten years.  He has given numerous master classes for choral groups in the greater Boston area and served as interim music director for Trinity Church, Copley Square in 1996.  He is currently a member of the Blue Heron Renaissance Choir.

  • Kathryn Welter, Executive Director
    Kathryn Welter, Executive Director, is a Ph.D. graduate of Harvard University in musicology.  She brings to the Conference a wide range of administrative experience—from positions as Assistant Dean of Harvard Summer School to Manager of the Heidelberg Castle Festival Orchestra.  Kathryn is also Music Director at Peace Lutheran Church in Wayland, Massachusetts and Executive Director of the Boston Camerata.

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