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Lauren Ambrose has been seen on Broadway in Awake and Sing! and Exit the King. She also appeared Buried Child at London's National Theatre and in The Public Theater's Romeo and Julietand Hamlet. Her film work includes Where the Wild Things Are, Wanderlust, Sleepwalk With Me, Starting out in the Evening, I’m Coming Over, The River, Psycho Beach Party, Can’t Hardly Waitand In & Out. On television, she's best known for starring as Claire Fisher on Six Feet Under" and has also appeared on Dig, Torchwood, Law & Order and The X-Files.
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Lauren Ambrose, host
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A member of the Boston Symphony since 1987, Bonnie Bewick attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and earned her bachelor's degree in music in 1986 from the Curtis Institute of Music. Prior to joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bonnie won a position with the Columbus Symphony and participated in summer music festivals at Interlochen, Spoleto, the Colorado Philharmonic, and the Grand Tetons. She has made solo appearances with a number of West Coast orchestras, and with the Boston Pops under John Williams and Keith Lockhart as well as the New England Philharmonic and the Cape Ann Symphony in New England. While trained as a classical violinist, bringing many forms of traditional and folk music to classical audiences has become her passion. With that purpose in mind she formed the group "Classical Tangent" in 2007, comprised of BSO members and other traditional musicians. This venture has been enthusiastically received by audiences at Symphony Hall, around Boston, and in the Berkshires, with a featured performance in June 2010 with the Boston Pops under Keith Lockhart. Since then, Bonnie has formed the duo "Frame" (frame-music.com) with her brother, guitar player and songsmith Ken Bewick; they released their first CD in March 2013. Bonnie also plays folk music with the group Childsplay (www.childsplay.org), leads Orchestra Audition seminars all over the country, and teaches privately. When she finds herself with extra time on her hands, cooking with her brother, Ken, is one of her favorite pastimes, as is playing golf. She is married to Michael Brown and has two fabulous sons, Andrew and Kevin.
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Bonnie Bewick, violin
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Mickey Katz joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in September
2004. A native of Israel, he has distinguished himself as a solo
performer, chamber musician, and contemporary music specialist. He
received the Presser Music Award in Boston, the Karl Zeise Prize as
a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow, and won first prizes at the
Hudson Valley Philharmonic Competition and the Rubin Academy
Competition in Tel Aviv. He has been a recipient of the America
Israel Cultural foundation scholarships since 1988. As soloist, he
has performed with several Israeli orchestras and locally with the
Civic Symphony of Boston, Symphony Pro Musica, and the Hudson
Valley Philharmonic.
Mr. Katz is a passionate performer of new music. He premiered and
recorded Menachem Wiesenberg's Cello Concerto with the Israel
Defense Force Orchestra and has performed several American and
Boston premieres of Elliott Carter's music, working with the
composer. He also worked with composers György Kurtág, John
Corigliano, Leon Kirchner, and John Harbison in performing their
music. Following his success in performing new music as a fellow at
the Tanglewood Music Center, he was invited back to Tanglewood in
the summer of 2002 as a member of the New Fromm Players, an alumni
ensemble in residence, performing challenging new works and
collaborating with young composers.
An active chamber musician, Mickey has performed in such venues as
Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York,
Jordan Hall in Boston, the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice,
Italy, and Salle Gaveau in Paris, as well as all the major venues
of Israel. He participated in the Marlboro Festival and was invited
to take part in the Musicians from Marlboro tour. He has
collaborated in performances with distinguished players such as
violinists Pinkhas Zukerman and Gil Shaham, violists Tabea
Zimmermann and Kim Kashkashian, members of the Juilliard and
Guarneri string quartets, and pianist Gilbert Kalish.
Mickey completed his mandatory military service in Israel as a
part of the "Distinguished Musician Program", playing in the Israel
Defense Force String Quartet, a group that performs throughout the
country both in classical concerts and in many outreach and
educational concerts for soldiers and other audiences. He graduated
from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he was a
Piatigorsky scholarship student of Laurence Lesser. His teachers
included Paul Katz, Uzi Wiezel, Hillel Zori, and Uri Vardi. He
teaches privately and is on the faculties of the Tanglewood Music
Center and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
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Mickey Katz, cello
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Lawrence Wolfe joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra bass section
in 1970, becoming the orchestra's youngest member at that time; he
was named assistant principal bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
and principal bass of the Boston Pops Orchestra during the 1981‑82
season. A graduate of New England Conservatory, Mr. Wolfe
studied double bass with William Curtis, Leslie Martin, and Gary
Karr. As a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, he was
awarded the Albert Spaulding Prize for the most promising and
outstanding instrumentalist. He is now a faculty member at
Boston University, New England Conservatory, and the Boston
Conservatory. Represented on Titanic Records by his album,
Lawrence Wolfe, Double Bass, Mr. Wolfe has appeared as soloist at
Carnegie Recital Hall, NEC's Jordan Hall, Kilbourne Hall in
Rochester, and Symphony Hall, where he has been a soloist with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Mr. Wolfe was a judge and performed with his wife, soprano
Pamela Wolfe, at the International Double Bass Competition on the
Isle of Man in England. At the invitation of the Australian
String Teachers Association, Mr. Wolfe toured the major cities of
Australia, performing in recitals and teaching master
classes. At the 1988 convention of the International
Institute of the String Bass in Los Angeles, he was a recitalist,
judge, and arranger. At Disneyland, he conducted an ensemble
of eighty bass players in his own arrangements of Disney
tunes. As a composer, Mr. Wolfe has numerous popular songs
and three musicals to his credit. Ronald Feldman conducted
the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra in the premiere of his
overture, Freefall, and John Williams conducted the Boston Pops
Orchestra in the premiere of his trumpet concerto with Timothy
Morrison as soloist. Prophecy and Joy, a celebratory piece
for chorus and orchestra to words by Walt Whitman, was commissioned
by the Masterworks Chorale for their fiftieth‑anniversary concert
at Symphony Hall.
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Lawrence Wolfe, bass
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Cynthia Meyers joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as its
piccolo player in the autumn of 2006, occupying the Evelyn and C.
Charles Marran Chair. Before coming to Boston she served as
principal piccolo of the Houston Symphony for nine years under the
direction of Christoph Eschenbach and Hans Graf. She is the former
principal flutist of the Omaha Symphony, a post she held for nine
seasons, during which time she was a featured soloist with the
orchestra on numerous occasions. A native of Somerset,
Pennsylvania, Ms. Meyers began playing the piano at age three.
Currently a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of
Music, she earned her bachelor of fine arts degree at Carnegie
Mellon University and completed her master of music degree at the
Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of Jeffrey Khaner,
principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She took an
interest in playing the piccolo while in Cleveland and continued
study specifically on that instrument with William Hebert of the
Cleveland Orchestra. Besides playing with the BSO, Ms. Meyers has
performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, and at the Grand Teton Music Festival.
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Cynthia Meyers, piccolo
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Robert Sheena has been the English horn player of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra since 1994, during
which time his uniquely vocal style of playing has garnered
accolades from audience members and the media alike. In his more
than twenty years as a member of the BSO, Mr. Sheena has performed
as soloist with the orchestra on several occasions, most notably in
the world premiere performances of George Tsontakis's
Sonnets-a BSO commission composed specifically for him-at
Symphony Hall in February 2016 with Andris Nelsons conducting,
followed by a Tanglewood performance that August. He has also been
featured in BSO performances at Tanglewood of André Previn's
Reflections and Aaron Copland's Quiet City. With
the Boston Pops Orchestra he has been featured at Symphony Hall in
Quiet City and Michael Daugherty's Spaghetti
Western.From 1987 to 1991 Mr. Sheena was the assistant
principal oboe and English horn of the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Since then he has made numerous trips to perform in Asia, not only
with the BSO, but also to perform in Japan as a guest English
hornist with the Super World Orchestra (2001), Affinis Music
Festival (2009), and Seiji Ozawa's Saito Kinen Orchestra (2014).
From 1991 until joining the BSO he was assistant principal oboe and
English horn with the San Antonio Symphony. From 1984 to 1987 he
was a freelance oboist in the Chicago area, playing in the Civic
Orchestra of Chicago and frequently as a substitute oboist with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Sheena is an instructor of both the
oboe and the English horn at Boston University's School of Music
and Tanglewood Institute, at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee,
and at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. An alumnus of the
Tanglewood Music Center, he works with the fellowship oboists there
every summer as a TMC faculty member, coaching them in chamber
music and giving English horn master classes. Mr. Sheena occupies
the Beranek Chair in the woodwind section of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra.
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Robert Sheena, oboe / English horn
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Clarinetist Michael Wayne joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra's
clarinet section in September 2008. Prior to joining the BSO, Mr.
Wayne was Principal Clarinet of the Kansas City Symphony and a
member of the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra. He is on the faculty
of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Tanglewood Music
Center and has been a visiting professor at the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music. He has given master classes across the
country, including the Manhattan School of Music, University of
Michigan, and New World Symphony. Mr. Wayne made his Carnegie Hall
solo debut with the world premiere of Michael Daugherty's clarinet
concerto, Brooklyn Bridge, and subsequently recorded it
for Equilibrium Records. Festival performances include Verbier,
Music Academy of the West, NOI, and Hot Springs. He has been the
recipient of the Paul Boylan Award (University of Michigan),
Whitaker Advanced Study Grant (Music Academy of the West), Earl V.
Moore Award (University of Michigan), and a Fine Arts Award
(Interlochen). He holds degrees from the Interlochen Arts Academy
and the University of Michigan, where his principal teachers were
Richard Hawkins and Fred Ormand.
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Michael Wayne, clarinet
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Richard Ranti joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as associate principal bassoon in 1989; he is also principal bassoon in the Boston Pops Orchestra. He teaches bassoon at New England Conservatory and teaches private lessons and master classes throughout the United States and Canada. Mr. Ranti is an active chamber musician and recitalist in the Boston area and beyond. Born in Montreal, Richard Ranti started bassoon at age ten, studying with Sidney Rosenberg and David Carroll. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, he studied with Sol Schoenbach at the Curtis Institute of Music. At age nineteen, he won the second bassoon position in the Philadelphia Orchestra; he spent six years with that orchestra, the last as Acting Associate Principal. A 1982 Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Ranti has also participated in the Spoleto and Marlboro festivals. He won second prize in the 1982 Toulon International Bassoon Competition and was the recipient of two Canada Council grants.
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Richard Ranti, bassoon
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Jason Snider joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston
Pops as fourth horn in 2007. Prior to that he held positions as
second horn with Lyric Opera of Chicago and associate principal
horn of the San Antonio Symphony. A native of Arkansas, Mr. Snider
attended Northwestern University and performed with the Civic
Orchestra of Chicago for two seasons. After graduating with honors,
he earned his graduate degree at Rice University. Mr. Snider has
performed with the Chicago and Houston symphony orchestras, Houston
Grand Opera, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Boston Chamber
Music Society, and Collage New Music. He has also played with such
varied music festivals as Sun Valley, Grant Park, the Grand Tetons,
the National Repertory Orchestra, the Pacific Music Festival in
Japan, the Jerusalem International Symphony, and the Orquesta
Sinfónica de Mineria in Mexico City. Currently on faculty at the
New England Conservatory and Boston University, Mr. Snider teaches
and performs regularly in recitals and master classes.
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Jason Snider, horn
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