1Clarinetist : NICHOLAS GALLAS 2 Flutist : KARLA MOE 3 Horn player : BARBARA OLDHAM 4 Oboist : MATT SULLIVAN 5 Bassoonist : MAUREEN STRENGE

Clarinetist NICHOLAS GALLAS has performed with a diverse range of artists and ensembles, including the Axiom Ensemble, Symphony in C, the Washington Ballet Orchestra, Opera Slavica, The National Repertory Orchestra, The New York Woodwind Quintet, Metropolis Ensemble, Ensemble Pi, Red {an Orchestra}, Duncan Sheik (U.S. Tour), Sympho, the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, the Asia-Pacific United Orchestra, the Garden State Philharmonic, Con Vivo, Syzygy New Music, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and as a substitute with the Cleveland Orchestra. He has also taught and performed in Mexico with Cultures in Harmony, an international cultural diplomacy project. Nicholas has performed in such venues as the MoMA, Avery Fisher Hall, Miller Theatre, Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, Symphony Space and Galapagos in New York, Severance Hall in Cleveland and the Echoplex in Los Angeles. He has performed in festivals including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Focus! Festival for Contemporary Music, Aurora Music Festival (Sweden), the National Repertory Orchestra, the Chelsea Music Festival and the Sarasota, Hot Springs and Kent Blossom festivals. Nicholas received his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where his principal teachers included Charles Neidich and Franklin Cohen.

KARLA MOE, has an active career as both an orchestral and chamber musician, frequently playing with the New York City Opera, the American Ballet Theatre, the American Symphony and its Bard Summer Festival, the Colonial and Westfield Symphonies, Long Island Philharmonic, and Principal Flutist of the New York Grand Opera, New Jersey State Opera and the St. Cecelia Orchestra. She has been Principal Flutist with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Musica Aeterna Chamber Orchestra which performed an acclaimed series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has played under such conductors as James Levine, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, and was asked to play with the St. Petersburg Orchestra on their American tour. For the past ten years, Karla has been the flutist with The Queen's Chamber Band, a Baroque ensemble.

An active educator, Karla has taught in the Music Advancement Program at Juilliard, and has played for the New York Philharmonic Education Programs. She is on the faculty of Nassau Community College and Long Island University - C.W. Post College, where she is also the Director of Woodwind Studies. Karla plays for many Broadway shows, including Lion King and Wicked, and can be heard on many recordings with the Queens Chamber Band, as well as television, numerous films and other classical albums. A graduate of St. Olaf College in Minnesota, Ms. Moe received a Master's degree in performance from the Manhattan School of Music in NYC, where she also won First Place in the school's Annual Concerto Competition.

Horn player BARBARA OLDHAM has presented recitals at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and the American Landmark Festivals. In 1999 she received a Brooklyn Arts Council Individual Artist Grant for a series of recitals in Brooklyn. Ms. Oldham has appeared as a chamber recitalist with the Marlboro Music Festival, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, Festival Brass, Composer's Brass Quintet, and as a soloist at the Westchester Chamber Music Festival and with the Contreras Chamber Ensemble. In 1976 she left New York to become the principal horn of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia. While in Bogota, she founded Quintet of the Americas with four other members of the National Symphony. She returned to New York the following year and shortly thereafter became a member of the Queens Symphony; West End Symphony, a group performing for children; and resumed her position as principal horn with Opera Northeast. Also active as a free-lance player, she has performed with Brooklyn Philharmonic, Long Island Philharmonic, Radio City Music Hall, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Joffrey Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and on Broadway for West Side Story, Woman of the Year, Cats, and Aspects of Love. In the fall of 1996, she was invited to serve as guest principal horn with the National Symphony of the Dominican Republic.

As a member of Quintet of the Americas for two decades, Ms. Oldham has performed in hundreds of concerts in tours across the United States, South America, and the Caribbean. Her interests include researching repertoire from Latin America and in developing educational programs and workshops. She serves on the Music Advisory Board of the Americas Society in New York City, the Latin American Music Committee of Queens Symphony, and has served as a chamber music competition adjudicator and grant panelist. She is on the faculty at Brooklyn College and has taught beginning band to elementary school students in a public school in Brooklyn as part of Project Arts. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Miami University (Ohio) and a Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music.

Oboist MATT SULLIVAN has performed extensively on four continents and is recognized internationally as both a virtuoso performer and teacher, as well as an important advocate for the modern oboe. The New York Times has praised his gorgeously lyrical playing and the New Yorker has called his inventive programming the cutting edge. As composer, his innovative works created for oboe, English horn and digital horn, along with his solo and chamber music performances and compact discs, have been featured on National Public Radio and on Voice of America. In addition to his active teaching and solo recital schedule, he is a member of Musicians Accord, the Richardson Chamber Players (Princeton University), the Westchester Chamber Orchestra, First Avenue, and Heliosphere. He serves on the faculties of Long Island University C. W. Post, the European Mozart Academy (Warsaw), the Manhattan School of Music Prep Division, Rutgers University and he teaches oboe at Princeton University where he has also served as a Visiting Associate Professor. Matt Sullivan is a Performing Artist for Boosey & Hawkes Musical Instruments and plays exclusively on Buffet Oboes. For more information, see Matt's web page at http://www.oboematt.com.

Bassoonist MAUREEN STRENGE is a freelance musician who performs with many different orchestras in the metropolitan area including the American Symphony Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera, The Bard Festival, New York Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony and the NewPaths in Music Festival. Maureen has performed in many of the Broadway pit orchestras including Beauty and the Beast, Miss Saigon, Nine, The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, La Boheme, and West Side Story. Ms. Strenge is also the principal bassoonist with the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic and has an active teaching studio. She has recorded with Dennis Russell Davies on the Musicmasters label, on TelArc with Sir Charles Mackerras and with David Zinman on Elektra/Nonesuch. Ms. Strenge earned a Bachelor of Music degree and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and a Master's Degree from the Juilliard School.