Musicians
STRINGS
VIOLINS
Megan Allison began her violin training
at age 4 in her native New Zealand. She received her Bachelor's
Degree in Violin Performance with First Class Honors from Victoria
University, Wellington, studying with Vera Rubin and then Donald
Armstrong. By age 22 she received her Master's Degree from the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Ian Swensen. She has
performed solo recitals in both New Zealand and San Francisco and
performed as a soloist with the Victoria University Orchestra,
Wellington Chamber Orchestra and the Manawatu Sinfonia Orchestra. As
a chamber musician, she has had the opportunity of working with and
being coached by many world class acclaimed musicians including
Robert Mann (Julliard String Quartet), Sadao Harada (Tokyo String
Quartet), Mark Sokol (Concord String Quartet), Jean - Michel
Fontenau (Ravel String Quartet). With a passion for orchestral
playing, Megan has played with numerous professional orchestras, and
is currently enjoying her second season as a tenured section
violinist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra
Frances
Hsieh, 26, began studying violin at
age five under Dorothy Kitchen of the Duke University String School.
Frances continued her studies with Eric Pritchard of the Ciompi
Quartet as an A.J. Fletcher scholar at Duke University. She earned
degrees in Music and Biology and was concertmaster of the Duke
Symphony Orchestra for three years. Under the tutelage of Charles
Castleman, Frances received her masters at the Eastman School of
Music and an Orchestral Studies internship with the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra. She has attended numerous summer music
festivals including Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Eastern
Music Festival, The Quartet Program, Musicorda, National Repertory
Orchestra, National Orchestral Institute, Aspen Music Festival, and
has toured with the Eastman Quartet through Austria and Italy.
Frances has played with the Richmond Symphony and North Carolina
Symphony and is currently a member of the Charleston Symphony
Orchestra.
Alan
Molina
Nonoko
Okada
started her violin training at
the age of six in her native Japan. She received her Bachelor's
degree in violin performance from the Mannes College of Music and
later received her Master's degree from the Juilliard School in New
York City. She has performed recitals throughout Japan as well as
New York. She has also participated in Spoleto Festival USA, the
Cape May Music Festival, the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, Banff
Centre for the Arts and Festival Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy.
As an orchestral player and chamber musician, Ms. Okada has
appeared at Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Juilliard
Theater at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall and
Symphony Space in New York City. Formerly a member of the Hartford
Syphony Orchestra, Ms. Okada is a core violinist with the Charleston
Symphony Orchestra.
VIOLA
Violist Katrina
Smith began her music studies in a public school music program
in Charlottesville, Virginia. She graduated from the Peabody
Conservatory of Music, as a student of Karen Tuttle, and from the
Yale School of Music, where she studied with Jesse Levine. A fellow
at Tanglewood for two summers, she also attended the Los Angeles
Philharmonic Institute and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. In
1989, Ms. Smith was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study baroque
violin with Sigiswald Kuijken at the Royal Conservatory at The
Hague, and subsequently went on several tours of Italy and Germany
with baroque ensembles. In the U.S. she performs with the period
instrument groups Musicians of the Old Post Road, The Dallas Bach
Society, and Arcadia Players. She has been a member of the Hartford
Symphony since 1993, the Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra since 1999,
and is the Co-Principal Violist of the Dallas Opera Orchestra.
CELLO
Cellist
Timothy O'Malley was first introduced to the cello at the age
of nine when he participated in a strings program in Tucson,
Arizona. Since then his studies brought him across the United States
and to Europe. Before entering college he studied in Albany, NY and
at the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna, Austria. Mr. O'Malley then
went on to receive his Bachelor's Degree from the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music, studying under Norman Fischer and Catherina
Meints, and his Master's Degree in Orchestral Performance from the
Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Alan Stepansky. Mr.
O'Malley is currently a core cellist with the Charleston Symphony
Orchestra and is co-principal with the Hilton Head Orchestra. He is
the proud father of his son, Peter.
BASS
Bassist-Composer
Edward Allman is entering his third season as Principal Bass of
the Charleston Symphony. Previously he was Principal Bass of the New
Haven Symphony, and a busy teacher and freelancer in the New
York-New England area. Ed holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in
Music Performance form the University of Miami, where he studied
with the renowned teacher Dr. Lucas Drew. After a great deal of
exposure to new music, he also pursued composition studies with Drs.
Charles Campbell, Paul Wilson, and John van der Slice.
His chamber works
have been performed by the UM Contemporary Music Ensemble, members
of the Hartford Symphony, and in recital in New York City; next fall
will see the world premiere of a commissioned work, "Jupiter Prism",
based on Mozart's 41st symphony, by the Musicians of Maalwyck in the
Albany, NY area. Lamentations, a work for solo double bass, won
first prize at the British and International Bass Forum's
composition contest in 2003. A number of his works have been
published by St. Francis Music in the US, and Recital Music in the
UK.
PIANO, WINDS
and VOICE
PIANO Pianist
Irina Pevzner was born in Ukraine and raised in Latvia. After
graduating with honors from the Riga National Music Conservatory,
she moved to the United States with her family. She earned a
bachelor's degree in piano performance and music education from
Mansfield University of PA, where she won both of the collegiate
concerto competitions, received an honorable mention in the MTNA PA
state competition and graduated magna cum laude. She then obtained a
master's degree in piano performance from Carnegie Mellon
University, where she was a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, the music
honor society. In 2005 she received the Artist Certificate from the
College of Charleston. Her principal teachers include Larisa Zakke,
Marina Smirnova, Nancy Boston and Enrique Graf. Irina has performed
throughout Latvia, Ukraine, Spain and throughout the east coast of
the United States. She is a frequent participant at the Piccolo
Spoleto festival in Charleston, SC.
Currently, Irina is on
the faculty of Charleston Academy of Music and the College of
Charleston. While continuing to perform recitals and chamber music
concerts, she is beginning her doctoral studies in piano performance
at the University of South Carolina in the Fall of 2006 where she
will study with Marina Lomazov.
FLUTE
Regina Helcher Yost, flute, is in her 10th
season as Second Flute of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and 11th
season as Assistant Principal/Piccolo of the Colorado Music
Festival. Ms. Helcher was previously Associate Principal/piccolo
with the Honolulu Symphony (1987-95), Second Flute/Piccolo with the
Knoxville Symphony (1995-97) and Acting Second Flute with the St.
Louis Symphony Orchestra (1999-2000). In 2000, Ms. Helcher was a
soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in Powell Symphony
Hall in Brandenburg's Concerto #4 which received rave reviews and a
standing ovation. Ms. Helcher also played flute/piccolo with the
Minnesota Orchestra on their NYC/European tour which allowed her to
perform in the finest concert halls in the world including Carnegie
Hall, the Philharmonie and the Musikverein.
OBOE
Mark Gainer is in his twenty-second
season as principal oboist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra
and its woodwind quintet, and has been a featured soloist with the
CSO on numerous occasions. He holds degrees from The Hartt School
and The Juilliard School of Music, and has performed with the
Mexican State Symphony and the Filarmonica de Caracas. He has
performed as principal oboist in various regional orchestras in the
southeast as well, including the North Carolina and Savannah
Symphony Orchestras. As an active chamber musician, he has organized
and performed in recitals all over the Americas.
Gainer is a founding member of the
Charleston Chamber Players, a chamber music trio that has performed
throughout the state. He has spent his summers participating in the
Vale Veneto Festival (Brazil), the Colorado Music Festival, and was
a soloist in the Spoleto Festival Chamber Music Series. He is also a
faculty member of the College of Charleston.
CLARINET
Charles Messersmith, clarinet, attended the
Cleveland Institute of Music and received a Bachelor of Music degree
while studying with Franklin Cohen (Cleveland Orchestra). He then
went on to receive his Masters of M usic degree from the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music while studying with David Breeden
(San Francisco Symphony). After graduation, he became the principal
clarinet of the Augusta symphony and performed there for four years.
In 1998 he was appointed to the Second Clarinet position with the
Charleston Symphony, and in 2005 to the Principal Clarinet position.
Along with regular performances with
the symphony, he performs in Charleston with local chamber musicians
as well as for Piccolo Spoleto programs in the spring, and in
Virginia at the Wintergreen Music Festival in the summers.
BASSOON
Born
and raised in central Massachusetts, Sandra Nikolajevs began
her formal musical education at the Oberlin College and Conservatory
of Music in Ohio and continued studies at the Juilliard School in
New York City.
Ms. Nikolajevs then attended the Paris Conservatory as the first
American in the newly formed German bassoon class.
Ms.
Nikolajevs has participated in the National Repertory Orchestra and
the Tanglewood Music Center summer music festivals. After moving to
Charleston in 1998 she began an active freelance musician career,
holding principal bassoon positions in the Augusta Symphony and
South Carolina Philharmonic. She was most recently principal bassoon of
the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and is Director and Founder of
Chamber Music Charleston and
the owner of ArtsMusic Productions, production company specializing
in classical and educational CDs and DVDs.
HORN
Debra Sherrill,
a native of Illinois, is currently third horn of the Charleston
Symphony Orchestra. She has also held the positions of Associate
Horn with the Barcelona Symphony (Spain) and Principal Horn with the
South Dakota Symphony. She has also performed with the Civic
Orchestra of Chicago, the Cape May (NJ) Music Festival, and was a
fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival. After receiving
her Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Western Illinois
University, Ms. Sherrill taught elementary school music in Chicago
for four years. In 1995 she was awarded the Helen H. Whitaker
Foundation tuition grant to study at the Manhattan School of Music
where she took a Master of Music degree in orchestral studies. With
a tuition scholarship she attended the Juilliard School for
post-graduate studies. She has studied under Jerome Ashby, Erik
Ralske, John Cerminaro, and Roger Collins.
Soprano,
Suzanne Fleming-Atwood, a native of