Kiana Weber - Violin

Kiana is a junior at Chelsea High School. She began playing violin nine years ago, and is studying with Katheryn Vodapeck. Kiana participates in a number of musical activities. She is co-concertmaster in the Chelsea High School Orchestra. She plays in Michigan Youth Orchestra, The Chelsea House Orchestra, and a variety of chamber groups. Kiana studies guitar with Ann Doyle, and piano with Dr. Veena Kulkarni. She enjoys singing, and participating in musical theatre. Most recently, she played the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods. Kiana is an avid student of science and loves cosmology and evolutionary biology.

Kristen Pellegrino - Violin

Kristen is enrolled in the PhD music education program at the University of Michigan.  Her previous degrees include a BM in Violin Performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music and MM in Violin Performance (Chamber Music) from the University of Michigan.  Kristen continued to study violin with the revered violinist, Camilla Wickes, as a fellowship student at LSU.  She went on to perform with the Satory String Quartet, in residence at Kent State University, and then to be a founding member of the Chagall String Quartet.

In 1996, the Chagall String Quartet received a 2 year Rural Residence grant from Chamber Music America, the NEA, and the local communities of Johnstown, Indiana, and Somerset PA.  The quartet rehearsed, performed, and went out into the community and schools to help make chamber music more accessible and relatable, believing that music and art are mediums that can bring all people together.  During this time, Kristen toured both with the quartet and as a harp/violin duo with harpist, Min Kim.

Kristen spent the next eight years as a full-time music educator; first teaching strings in the Fairfax County Public Schools and then returning to Warwick, RI in 1999 as String Teacher and Orchestra Conductor at Toll Gate HS, her alma mater.  Other professional responsibilities included chairing the All-Eastern Orchestra in Providence, RI, President of RISTA, member of RIMEA executive board, and board member of the Warwick Music Festival.  Kristen presented at the Biennial Colloquium for Teachers of Instrumental Music Methods, RIMEA In-Service session, and for undergraduate classes at the University of Michigan.  Her first article was published in the Michigan Music Educator in January 2007.  Upcoming events include presenting research and leading a session at the Michigan Music Conference in Grand Rapids and presenting research at the ASTA National Conference in Albuquerque, NM.

Since the summer of 1992, Kristen has been performing chamber music recitals in Rhode Island.  The Chrysalis Piano Trio was formed and played its first concert in 1999.  Biennially, the trio has performed concerts in various venues around Rhode Island and continues to enjoy playing together and in mixed extended ensembles.

Laura Wyman Pemberton - Flute & Piccolo

Laura graduated with a degree in music performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Keith Bryan. She has performed as a freelance musician with chamber ensembles and orchestras throughout Michigan, including the Traverse Symphony Orchestra and the Adrian Symphony Orchestra. Laura plays flute and piccolo in the River Raisin Ragtime Revue, a professional turn-of-the-century theater orchestra.

Marie Elliott - Violin

Marie, 17, is a senior at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor. She began playing violin at age 4 in Houston Texas. She has studied with Paula Elliott, Paul Kantor, and Charles Avsharian. She is now the concertmistress of the Pioneer Symphony Orchestra and is the violinist of the award winning Cipolla Trio. She has taught violin privately to beginning violinists since she was 11. She hopes to major in either music education or English when she attends college next year.

Martha Folts - Harpsichord

Martha Folts has presented recitals and workshops of 16th - 18th century keyboard repertoire throughout the midwest including Susquehana University, Selinsgrove, PA, John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, Ripon College, Ripon, WI, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.   An Iowa tour included concerts at Iowa State University, Ames, Central College, Pella, IA, Drake University, Des Moines, IA, and the University of Iowa, Iowa City.  Additional recitals include the Lincoln Organ Showcase Series, Nebraska, and the Region VI convention of the American Guild of Organists where she gave harpsichord recitals on historic instruments at the Shrine to Music Museum in Vermillion, SD.  Ms Folts joined two colleagues in performances of J.S. Bach's concertos for multiple harpsichords (BWV 1061,1063 and 1064) in a concert at Eastern Michigan University for the Region V Convention of the American Guild of Organists in June, 1999.  As a member of the Midwest Historical Keyboard Society she has given lecture-recitals on Italian keyboard music and participated in performances of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

Martha has taught on the faculties of Iowa state University in Ames and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  Moving to Michigan she completed the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in harpsichord performance at the University of Michigan in April, 2000, studying with Edward Parmentier.  She presently teaches at Adrian College, Adrian, Michigan.

During the spring of 2002 she performed recitals in Dayton, Ohio, and in Ann Arbor featuring music for the organ, harpsichord and clavichord, and concerts in Detroit, and Ann Arbor with the ensemble "La Gente d'Orfeo", specializing in the performance of 17th-century Italian repertoire.  In October she returned to Iowa City, IA to perform a harpsichord recital sponsored by the Iowa City Early Keyboard Society and the University of Iowa School of Music.

Dr Folts has recorded for the Delos and Musical Heritage Society labels, and her recorded performances on both organ and harpsichord have been broadcast on WGUC-FM in Cincinnati and over Minnesota Public Radio.   She serves as Minister of Music at St Paul United Church of Christ in Chelsea, MI where she resides with her husband, Stephen, and feline companions, Chessie, Winston, and Amalia.

Nathan Peters - Violin & Viola

Nathan received his Bachelor's degree in Violin Performance in 1992 and his Master's degree in Viola Performance in 1993 from the University of Michigan. His teachers were Paul Kantor and Yizhak Schotten. As a fellowship student, he performed at the Aspen Music Festival in 1993 and 1994. He has performed in Symphony Orchestras and in Chamber Ensembles throughout Southeast Michigan. Nathan currently teaches orchestra classes at Beach Middle School in Chelsea and teaches private violin and viola lessons to students in both Chelsea and Ann Arbor.

Paula Sokol-Elliott - Violin

Paula began violin studies at the age of five with her father, the renowned teacher and conductor Vilem Sokol.  She served as concertmaster of the Seattle Youth Symphony under the direction of her father for several years.  After attending the University of Washington on a Breecheman Scholarship, Paula graduated with honors from Indiana University where she studied with the legendary violinist and teacher, Josef Gingold.  She subsequently joined the Minnesota Orchestra at the invitation of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski where she recorded the complete works of Ravel and Bartok for orchestra.  She performed with the Vancouver Symphony, and as associate concertmaster of the Kalamazoo Symphony.

Paula won the Saunderson Award at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Los Angeles, CA, and later formed the Leclair String Quartet, which toured and recorded for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.  Her Chamber Music coaches and teachers included Jaime Laredo, Ruggiero Ricci, Michael Kuttner of the Hungarian Quartet, Robert Koff of the Juliard Quartet, and Bernie Goldschmit from the Cleveland Orchestra.

Paula has performed with the West Point Grey Chamber Players, the Vancouver Chamber Players, the Bach Festival at Mt Angel, OR, the Michigan Chamber Players, and the Chelsea Chamber Players.  She has been on the faculties of the Marrowstone Music Festival, McPhail College, the New Brunswick Music Festival, the Rocky Mountain Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, CO, and the Meadowmount School of Music.  Solo appearances include the Seattle Youth Symphony, The Seattle Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, and the Flint Symphony where she received a glowing review for performance of John Williams' masterful violin solo "Remembrances" from Stephen Speilberg’s Schindler’s List.

Currently Paula is director of the St Thomas String Ensemble in Ann Arbor, MI, and continues to perform with the Ann Arbor Symphony, and as acting concertmaster of the Flint Symphony.  She coaches chamber music ensembles, maintains a private studio, and in the summer teaches at the Interharmony International Music Festival in Hinterzarten, Schwarzwald, Germany.

Paula is the mother of four daughters, all of whom have pursued the arts, including film, art, dance and music.

Priscilla Johnson - Violin

Priscilla has been performing and teaching in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area for fifteen years, having acquired both a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree from the University of Michigan.   Among her teachers have been Marylou Speaker, Camilla Wicks and Paul Kantor.  She is a founding member and First Violinist of The Arbor String Ensemble and has played in back up orchestras for Smokey Robinson, Anne Murray, Mannheim Steamroller, and Harry Connick Jr.

Renée Robbins - Piano

Renée Robbins maintains an active studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she teaches piano students of all ages, trains other Suzuki teachers, accompanies high school and college instrumentalists and plays and performs chamber music. She holds a BA from the Eastman School of Music - University of Rochester in music (piano), an MSW from the University of Michigan in social treatment, and an MA from Eastern Michigan University in piano accompaniment. She continues her study of chamber music at summer workshops and through coachings. Her teaching at Suzuki workshops around this country and in Israel has included private lessons, chamber music coaching and teacher training.

Rubia Santos - Piano

Rubia Santos has recently joined the School of Music at Central Michigan University as the director of the accompanying program-beginning fall 2003. Ms. Santos' highly praised collaborative work and artistic talent have been recognized through notable reviews and awards including the Patricia Keating Excellence in Piano Accompanying Award, the Outstanding Graduate Performer Award from Arizona State University, the Alice Prize for the best performance of Brazilian Chamber Music, and most recently the Kiechhefer Arts Research Award, granted by the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University. Santos performs frequently in Europe, South America, and the United States in collaboration with many leading artists, among them: sopranos Christiane Oelze and Laura de Souza, oboist Alex Klein, flutist Jeanne Baxtresser, hornist Roberto Miticzuk, violinists Betina Stegmann and Miha Pogacnik, the String Quartet of Sao Paulo, and members of both the Los Angeles and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestras. As one of Brazil's most sought-after pianists, Santos has premiered many Brazilian solo works dedicated to her, and recorded vocal and chamber music by contemporary Brazilian composers. In the United States, Ms. Santos can be heard on "A Brazilian Collection" in collaboration with Brazilian trumpeter Luis Engelke. In 2001, Santos joined the KRUSTA Ensemble in residency at Arizona State University, a collaborative ensemble for new music and dance. Invitations as a guest artist include venues such as the International Trumpet Guild, MTNA National Convention, and Brazilian Arts Festival. Brazilian-American Cultural Institute, International Music Festival of Campos do Jordao in Brazil, and the American Institute of Musical Studies, in Austria, where she is on the summer faculty. Ms. Santos has taught at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, Germany, as well as Arizona State University. Santos' doctoral research involves the untouched subject of piano trios written by twentieth-century Brazilian composers with whom she is associated. Her dedication to the research and performance of Brazilian music has strongly influenced many other scholarly works in the United States. Rubia Santos artistic growth began in Brazil with the traditional pianism of Magdalena Tagliaferro, who was a student of Alfred Cortot, and Lina Pires de Campos, followed by studies with Gunter Ludwig in Germany, and Eckart Sellheim in the US. Santos was mentored by the acclaimed Amadeus Quartet and violinist Chaim Taubof theTel Aviv Quartet. She holds an artist diploma from the Musikhochschule in Cologne and a master of music degree in piano accompanying from Arizona State University.

Sara Cumming - Cello

Sara received her Bachelor of Music degree in Cello performance from the University of Illinois, and her Master of Music degree from Rice University. Another three years of study was completed at the University of Houston. In addition to attending Banff and other music festivals, she has experience with orchestral performing and chamber music. She has freelanced with the Houston Symphony, the Melbourne Symphony and the movie recording industry in Melbourne. A founding member of the Chelsea Chamber Players, Sara participates in this concert series. She has taught private cello lessons in Scotland and Australia, and currently has a cello studio in Chelsea, Michigan.

William Pemberton - Tuba

Mr. Pemberton graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy as a Young Artist Winner (Interlochen’s highest honor). He studied music performance at the University of Michigan, where he was awarded a full tuition merit-based scholarship for three years. Mr. Pemberton’s major teachers include Abe Torchinsky (Philadelphia Orchestra) and Wesley Jacobs (Detroit Symphony). He has performed in master classes with Warren Deck (New York Philharmonic) and Paul Kryzwicki (Philadelphia Orchestra). Mr. Pemberton has performed as a freelance tubist in orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout Michigan. William Pemberton is Executive Director and tubist of the River Raisin Ragtime Revue, an ensemble he founded to combine his professional music performance ability and his love of American history. He has been a member of the Working Class Tuba Quartet since it was formed in 1986.