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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.