Kevin Willois attended Rutgers University during the mid 90s, and graduated from the Mason Gross School of the Arts with degrees in music performance and music education. He studied flute under Bart Feller. Since graduating, Mr. Willois has been an active performer in the New York/New Jersey area performing with the Chelsea Opera orchestra, Actor’s Net, as well as small chamber groups. Kevin Willois teaches at Westminster Conservatory, the Peddie Schoo, and the Cambridge School for children with learning disabilities. He also has been active recently with the Westchester Philharmonic outreach program, bringing his knowledge of woodwind instruments to school children in the New York area.
Ellen Fisher-Deerberg- Flute Ellen Fisher-Deerberg, from Columbus, New Jersey, is the principal flutist of the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra in Princeton. She has been on the faculty of the Westminster Conservatory of Music, the community music school of Westminster Choir College, since 2005, and was on the faculty of the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, from 1989-2013. Ellen is a member of two flute quartets; the central New Jersey based Lyra Ensemble, and Westminster Conservatory’s resident quartet, Volanti Flutes, and has also frequently performed as a quest artist with the San Diego based flute quartet, Flutes de Salon. Ellen has performed concerts as a chamber music artist with a wide variety of instrumentalists, including harp, viola, string quartet, classical guitar, native American flutes, and guzheng. As a soloist, Ms. Deerberg has performed across the Mid-Atlantic region, and made her European debut in 2014 in Berenbusch, Germany. A graduate of Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music, Ellen studied with Murray Panitz, former principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Marie Trudeau is a New Jersey based freelance oboist. She performs with the Garden State Opera Orchestra, Bay Atlantic Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, South Florida Symphony Orchestra, West Reading Chorale Society Orchestra, and others throughout the country. Marie also plays the two keyed period instrument, baroque oboe. She is the baroque oboist in residence with the Rutgers Baroque Players. Each summer, she returns to assist Robert Walters (solo English horn of The Cleveland Orchestra) at Hidden Valley English Horn seminar in Carmel, California. She has also toured with the Italian tenor trio, il Volo, and Amy Grant. Dr. Trudeau’s favorite musicals to perform are Nine and Fiddler on the Roof. She has also worked with many great musicians like Midori, Leonard Slatkin, and Itzhak Perlman. Dr. Trudeau earned her doctorate with a teaching assistantship in musical arts at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. There, she wrote her dissertation titled “Prokofiev’s Trapeze, Walking the Tightrope between Composing and Culture,” which focuses on Prokofiev’s Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, and double bass. The document was also added to the archives at Columbia University in New York City. Previously, she attended the Cleveland Institute of Music for a master’s degree and earned a bachelor’s in music performance at Michigan State University. Dr. Trudeau has an active teaching studio of over 25 students. Seeing her students reach their goals and discover new concepts brings inspiration to her own performances. Many new works have been written for Dr. Trudeau. These works include “Differential Moods” by Matt Schoendorff , an oboe and piano piece with influences of Nine Inch Nails, and “Happy Hour” by Phil Popham, a piece for a double reed quartet featuring a different drink for each movement. In Spring of 2018, Dr. Trudeau will perform the world premiere of an English Horn solo inspired by the “#MeToo” movement.
Kenneth Ellison- Clarinet 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.
Dena Orkin- Clarinet Dena Orkin is a clarinetist who is passionate about performance and education. She is currently in the last stage of finishing her Doctorate of Musical Arts at Rutgers University, holds a Master’s degree from The Eastman School of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance and Music Education from the University of California, Los Angeles where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Latin Honors. Dena teaches for the Harmony Program in New York City, and freelances on clarinet and bass clarinet throughout the Tri-state area.
Greg Riley enjoys a rich and varied career as a touring musician, Broadway performer, and teacher. He received his education from The University of Southern California, UMKC Conservatory of Music, and The University of Alabama. From 1995 – 2001 Greg performed with The Ray Charles Orchestra, The Quincy Jones Orchestra, The Los Angeles Opera, The Disneyland Band, and The Theater Company of Southern California. He toured and recorded with Keiko Matsui, Cook, Dixon, & Young (Three Mo’ Tenors), Sound Assembly, John Tesh, The Bayou Brass Band, Craig Horton, and Crystal Lewis. Recent performances have included the Broadway productions of Bandstand, The Color Purple, Aladdin, Wicked, Motown, Porgy and Bess, Annie, and Cinderella; The 2015 & 2016 Radio City Christmas Spectacular, The Philly Pops, The Midtown Men (original cast of Jersey Boys touring band), The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The New Jersey Saxophone Quartet, and performances as a saxophone soloist (jazz and classical). Greg Riley taught saxophone and jazz studies at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, Pepperdine University, and Azusa Pacific University.
Zachary Feingold- Bassoon Zachary Feingold maintains an active career of orchestral and chamber music endeavors. He has performed with many professional ensembles including the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Grand Rapids Symphony, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C, and others. Zachary holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance (Philadelphia, PA) and is now completing coursework towards his DMA at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. At Rutgers, he serves as the teaching assistant to the undergraduate bassoon ensemble where his responsibilities range from coaching chamber music to giving lectures on reed making. In addition to his educational work at Rutgers, Zachary teaches students of all levels and has presented master classes at multiple schools and workshops. His teachers include Roger Nye, Michelle Rosen, and Angela Anderson Smith. Zachary is currently on faculty at the Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, NJ and the Rutgers University Extension Division in New Brunswick, NJ.
Born in Largo, Florida, Jonathan Powell took up the trumpet at the age of twelve. In high school, he excelled as a featured member of the All-State Band and All-State Jazz Band and progressed under the guidance of Raymond Mase at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he met three like-minded students who were on the same path and formed the group Quantum, which earned the award for Best Student Jazz Group in the Downbeat Student Awards (1998, 1999). After high-school, Jonathan returned to his hometown to explore the Florida music scene and performed with many groups, including Bogus Pomp (one of the top Frank Zappa repertoire bands), SHIM (avant-garde jazz), Rocksteady @ 8 (Reggae, Ska, Rocksteady) as well as his own groups. In 2001, he moved to New York and landed a gig with the Colombian Band, La Creacion. In 2003 he earned praise for his participation in Sam Rivers Fluid Motion and was named, Best Latin Jazz Trumpeter by the The Latin Jazz Corner in 2007. The same year he formed the group, Nu Sangha, which means "community" in Tibetan and released the highly acclaimed Transcend, a fusion of Rock and Electronica Infused Jazz. Jonathan’s most recent recording titled, Beacons of Light draws inspiration from jazz icons past and present, including John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, the Brian Blades Fellowship and Pat Metheny among others. The music is a meditation and tribute to spiritual and revolutionary minds of our age, including the Dalai Lama, the Sufi poet and mystic, Rumi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to name a few. When he's not leading his group, Jonathan performs with a wide variety of artists, including Eddie Palmieri and his Latin Jazz Septet and Salsa Orchestra, Arturo O' Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Miguel Zenon, Gregorio Uribe, Pedro Giraudo, Ricky Martin and JT Taylor of Kool and the Gang.
Josh Lawrence- Trumpet Trumpeter Josh Lawrence is the founder of Color Theory, a jazz ensemble for which he composes works fusing swing, the blues, Afro-Cuban music, and hip-hop. Lawrence uses sound to paint expressionist portraits and landscapes inspired by art, architecture, philosophy, and social observation. Color Theory’s 2017 debut Posi-Tone Records release led to a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works award for his Lost Works Suite (premiering 2018) inspired by painter and art theorist Vasily Kandinsky's first three compositions which were destroyed during World War II. Now living in New York, Lawrence studied at the University of the Artsin his hometown Philadelphia. There he co-founded the Fresh Cut Orchestra, an experimental electro-jazz ensemble that won a Pew Center Philadelphia Music Project grant, an American Composers Forum Subito grant, a Kimmel Center Jazz Residency, and released two albums with Ropeadope Records. Lawrence is also the co-founder of oljo creative minds, a NY-based multimedia production company started in partnership with designer/photographer Ola Baldych. Other work includes collaborations with pianist Orrin Evans' Captain Black Big Band and Tarbaby as well as recordings with saxophonist Caleb Curtis, bassist Jonathan Michel, vocalist Laurin Talese, guitarist Matt Davis' Aerial Photograph, R&B legends Boyz II Men, and the great Erykah Badu.
Marshall Sealy- French Horn Marshall Sealy has performed extensively in a broad range of genres, styles and venues. These include classical, Broadway and pit orchestras such as Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis, Jr., Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Opera Company of Boston, Les Miserables Brass Band, Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Evita (national tour). He has been a soloist with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Plovdiv Symphony (Bulgaria) and United States Air Force Band and has performed with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, Philadelphia Orchestra and Orchestra Filarmonica de Jalisco (Mexico), and with Lester Bowie, Ray Charles, and Paquito D’Rivera. He has appeared with live television orchestras of the Essence Awards, Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and Whitney Houston HBO Special. He has recorded with Les Miserables Brass Band, Anthony Braxton, J.J. Johnson, Max Roach, Taj Mahal, Michael Jackson, Jay-Z and Isaac Hayes (1999 film “Shaft”). ”). Marshall has recently completed his new solo horn album, “Horn Song”.