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 began his violin studies at the age of three with Betty Haag-Kuhnke and later with Cyrus Forough. He received his Bachelor's degree in violin performance at Indiana University where he was a student and teaching assistant to Mauricio Fuks. Alan went on to earn his Masters degree in chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory where he had the opportunity to perform with acclaimed artists such as Menahem Pressler, Jorja Fleezanis, Gilbert Kalish, and Ian Swensen. Mr. Molina spent two seasons with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas and other conductors such as Robert Spano, Franz Welser-Möst, Roberto Abbado, and Sir Roger Norrington.   Alan is currently principal second violinist of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.

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 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, holds an Undergraduate degree in Music Education from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from The Catholic University of America.  She studied voice and opera in Milan, Italy as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and has performed in the ensembles of the Cincinnati and Wolf Trap Opera companies.  As a soloist, she appears regularly with The Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Charleston, and in Early Music Series of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.  Most recently, she was selected to participate as Young Artist at Carnegie Hall’s Baroque Choral Workshop with Maestro Ton Koopman.  Ms. Fleming-Atwood is an Adjunct Professor of Voice at the College of Charleston and an active performer and music educator in Charleston, South Carolina.