Laura Ardan is Principal Clarinet of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, a position she has held since 1982, and has performed with the Atlanta Chamber Players since 1987.

“Chamber music is very important to me,” she says. “It is necessary to one’s own development as a musician, particularly for the clarinet, which cannot really do much by itself. You’re really able to delve into all aspects of the playing in chamber music.”

A student of Roger Hiller and Stanley Drucker, she attended the Juilliard School of Music on scholarships from the Juilliard School and the Naumburg Foundation. Prior to coming to Atlanta, she spent four years as resident clarinetist and teaching artist for the Lincoln Center Institute and two years with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Ms. Ardan has performed in the Tanglewood, Marlboro and Mostly Mozart Festivals and has appeared as guest artist with “Emanuel Ax Invites...” on the Great Performers Series in New York’s Lincoln Center. The past several summers she has been a featured performer at the Grand Teton Music Festival, as well as chamber music festivals in Highlands-Cashiers, North Carolina, Amelia Island, Florida and Bellingham, Washington.

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Elena Cholakova was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where she made her debut with the Plovdiv Symphony Orchestra, playing Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Concerto. An active performer, Dr. Cholakova has given recitals at the Liszt Academy, U.S. Embassy in Budapest, Bulgaria Hall and Sofia Conservatory in Sofia, Bulgaria, Museum of Unification in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Aosta Concert Hall in Italy, Fellbach Musicschulle in Germany, as well as numerous concert halls around the USA. Most recently she presented a lecture recital at the 3rd World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Elena has toured the United States as a member of the American Chamber Music Society. Her performances have been broadcast live on WFMT in Chicago, Bulgarian TV and radio stations. Dr. Cholakova is the recipient of the Rislov Foundation Scholarship of University of Michigan, given to musicians nationwide for their high achievements in the field of music. An active chamber musician, Dr. Cholakova gave the Bulgarian debut of Malcolm Arlnold’s Sonata for Viola/Piano and has also collaborated with members of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Soloists Chamber Orchestra and the Chicago Saxophone Quartet.

Dr. Cholakova holds a MMus and DMus from Northwestern University and is currently on the faculty of Emory University. Her primary teachers include James Giles, Ursula Oppens, Roland and Almita Vamos.

Helen Hwaya Kim made her orchestral debut with the Calgary Philharmonic at the age of six, and has gone on to become a respected and sought-after artist. She has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops at Boston's Symphony Hall, as well as with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Ms. Kim earned her Master's Degree from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Cho-Liang Lin and Dorothy DeLay. She is the recipient of more than one hundred national and international awards. In 1992, she won the prestigious Artists International Competition in New York and, as a result, gave debut recitals at Carnegie Weill Hall and the Aspen Summer Music Festival.

A native of Canada, Ms. Kim has been engaged by many of Canada's leading orchestras, including the National Arts Center Orchestra, Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, McGill Chamber Orchestra, and the Windsor, Regina, Victoria and Prince George Symphonies. She has also appeared with the DeKalb, New Orleans, Aspen and Banff Festival Orchestras, and with orchestras in the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland. Ms. Kim has toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall and the Sante Fe and La Jolla International Music Festivals, where she performed with Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Andre Previn, and the Orion String Quartet. She performed Bach’s Double violin concerto with Hilary Hahn at the 2002 Amelia Island Chamber music festival.

Ms. Kim currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, where she served as assistant and associate concertmaster for the Atlanta Symphony for three seasons. She is currently the assistant concertmaster of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and associate professor of violin at Kennesaw State University.

Catherine Lynn is Assistant Principal Violist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; she joined the ASO and the Atlanta Chamber Players in 2002. Ms. Lynnis on the faculty of Kennesaw State University and also coaches the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. She has performed as soloist with the KSU and the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestras.Prior to coming to Atlanta, Ms. Lynn performed with the Rosseels String Quartet and was a frequent guest with the Michigan Chamber Players. Shewas Principal Viola of the Flint Symphony Orchestra in MI and taught at the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts. Originally from Alabama, Ms. Lynn received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Alabama and her Master of Music and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

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Atlanta-born Ann Marie McPhail is one of the region’s seasoned performers and is quickly establishing herself as a versatile lyric soprano in the United States. She completed her undergraduate degree at Clark Atlanta University and received a Master’s in Voice Performance from Georgia State University. Ms. McPhail made her career debut with the Houston Ebony Opera where she played the role of the Countess in Mozart’s, The Marriage of Figaro. Her accolades include winner of the Rose-Palmai Tenser Vocal Competition and “Diva Goddess” in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, Closing Ceremonies. Ms. McPhail’s credits include onstage singer in Tyler Perry’s movie, For Colored Girls,“Strawberry Woman” in the Atlanta Opera’s 2011 production of Gershwin’s famed Porgy and Bess and guest artist at the 25th Anniversary, Martin Luther King Jr., Celebration hosted by the Cobb County NAACP. She also sang excerpts from Scott Joplin’s Tremonisha with the Still Waters Youth Sinfonia, presented “I love Opera” workshops for the Atlanta Opera and has been a guest soloist with the Atlanta Chamber Players. Recently Ms. McPhail won the American Traditions Competitionin Savannah Georgia and was invited to sing with the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra, “A Celebration of American Song”. Currently she is recording a CD of spirituals. Ms. McPhail is on faculty at Talladega College in Alabama , has served as an artist affiliate at Agnes Scott College, Spelman College, and taught voice at the Boys and Girls Choir of Harlem. She has sung with Capitol City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Paris Comique Opera, Atlanta Opera, Houston Ebony Opera, Opera Ebony, Macon Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Chamber Players and the Atlanta Singers.

John Meisner has been a member of the first violin section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 2000 and began performing with the Atlanta Chamber Players in 2007. He holds Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University and a Masters of Music degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where his teachers included James Buswell, Josef Gingold and Joyce Robbins. Prior to joining the ASO, Mr. Meisner held positions in the orchestras of Denver, St. Louis, and Ft. Worth, Texas. Additionally, he has performed in chamber music concerts throughout the United States as a member of the Harrington String Quartet (in residence at West Texas A&M University) from 1991-1996. Among these concerts was a successful performance at New York's Merkin Concert Hall. Mr. Meisner's activities in the summer months have included participation at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC and the New Hampshire Music Festival in Plymouth, New Hampshire. Since coming to Atlanta he has collaborated in chamber concerts with faculty members at the University of Georgia and Emory University.

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Paula Peace is the founder of the Atlanta Chamber Players and has served as the group’s Artistic Director for all but a few months of its 34 seasons. For the group she has produced concerts and performed in more than 200 cities throughout 18 U.S. states, France, Italy and Switzerland; produced, edited and performed on all six ACP recordings and CDs; produced and performed more than 50 regional and world premieres in Atlanta; and designed and performed hundreds of concert programs, educational lectures and master classes throughout the South.

“To a musician, chamber music offers a challenge to be the best we can be,” Ms. Peace says. “We have to be on top of our individual parts, on top of our game. It gives each musician the chance to be a strong leader, while being part of a team — an inspiration for how to lead one’s life in general, I think. We’re all interdependent. Because we have no conductor, we have a great deal of freedom and spontaneity, but also the responsibility to work out all musical decisions ourselves.”

From 2003 to 2006 she served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano at Georgia State University and also served as Coordinator of Chamber Music, a position she formerly held from 1992 to 1994. During 2001-2003 she was Artist in Residence at Kennesaw State University. As concerto soloist, Ms. Peace has appeared with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, DeKalb Symphony and the Lanier Symphony. In demand as a collaborative pianist, she performed as pianist and harpsichordist with top prize winner Amy Porter at the 1993 Kobe International Flute Competition in Japan, and in the brass world has also appeared with Charles Vernon, Stephen Burns, Eric Ruske, Scott Hartmann, Michael Mulcahy and her husband Michael Moore. She has performed with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman with the Chamber Music Society of Emory. Ms. Peace received her Bachelor of Music from Florida State University in the studio of Leonidas Lipovetsky, and her Master of Music from State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she studied piano with Martin Canin and did extensive chamber music coaching with Gilbert Kalish, Samuel Baron, Bernard Greenhouse, Timothy Eddy, Alvin Brehm and David Glazer. Other significant teachers include Virginia Hutchings, Menahem Pressler, and Leonard Shure. Summer performances include the Aspen Music Festival and Institut de Hautes Etudes Musicales in Crans, Switzerland. Her discography includes five CDs with the ACP on the CRI and ACA Digital labels, in addition to two early ACP recordings on the Press Avant and Leonardo labels and the 2006 “Beyond The Horizon” CD with euphoniumist Adam Frey. Public Broadcasting Atlanta selected Paula Peace as Lexus Leader of the Arts for August 2004.

Photo by Nick Arroyo

Brad Ritchie is from Portland, Oregon and and began performing with the Atlanta Chamber Players and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1997. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University, where he studied with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Janos Starker. His graduate degree was earned at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, where he studied with Adriana Contino. As a member of the Felici String Quartet, Mr. Ritchie was a winner of the Kuttner String Quartet scholarship at Indiana University and subsequently played in Japan, France and Germany. Prior to coming to Atlanta, he was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. He has twice performed chamber music on Japanese TV and recorded a CD in Tokyo, Chocolate Fashion. Last spring Mr. Ritchie was featured in a world premiere of a composition by Nickitas Demos and the Georgia State University Orchestra. Over the past five seasons, Mr. Ritchie has also collaborated with performers in Mammoth Lakes, California, as part of the Chamber Music America Rural Residency Program. He enjoys walking to work, traveling to distant lands, and running to stay healthy.

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A native of Venezuela, Alcides Rodriguez was appointed bass clarinetist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in September of 2005. Before joining the ASO, Mr. Rodriguez was the second and bass clarinetist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. He received his Masters Degree in Music Performance from Northwestern University. He studied clarinet with Russell Dagon and, at the same time, studied bass clarinet with J. Lawrie Bloom and chamber music with Larry Combs. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Music Performance from Baylor University, where he studied with Richard Shanley. Mr. Rodriguez began his musical training in 1987 in the Youth Symphony Orchestra of his hometown of Guanare, Venezuela. He continued his clarinet studies at the National Conservatory of Music of Venezuela with Professors Valdemar Rodriguez and Luis Rossi respectively. While in Venezuela, he also studied with distinguished Venezuelan clarinetists such as Jorge Montilla, Daniel Granados, and Carlos Mujica, as well as participating in master classes with such distinguished artists as Walter Boeykens, Paul Meyer, and Eddy Vanoosthuyse. As a soloist, he has been featured on many occasions with the Portuguesa State Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela, the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, and the Baylor University Symphony Orchestra, performing the works of Mozart, Rossini, Weber, Nielsen, Francaix and Copland. His festival engagements have included the New Hampshire Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute, and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Mr. Rodriguez enjoys chamber music, he says, because “It is more personal, there is more individual responsibility and more attention to detail.” Mr. Rodriguez also has an avid interest in the folk music and instruments of Venezuela. In October 2005, he was featured with the Jacksonville Symphony performing the Concerto for Maracas and Orchestra by Ricardo Lorenz. Mr. Rodriguez is a Rico Artist and Clinician as well as an Artist and Clinician for Buffet Crampon and plays Buffet clarinets exclusively.

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Christina Smith, a native of Sonoma County, California, has performed with the Atlanta Chamber Players since 2000. She began her flute studies when she was seven. Ms. Smith has appeared as soloist with many orchestras in Northern California, including the San Francisco Symphony at the age of 15. She graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy, where she won the Academy’s highest honor, the Young Artist Medal. In the same year, she became an awardee in the NFA’s National Arts Recognition and Talent Search. In 1989, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music to study with Julius Baker and Jeffrey Khaner and has also studied with Timothy Day and Keith Underwood. Appointed Principal Flute of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at the age of 20, Ms. Smith has appeared as soloist with the ASO many times, performing works by Mozart, Vivaldi, Bizet, Rodrigo, Nielsen, John Corigliano, Christopher Rouse, and Kaija Saariaho. Her summer appearances include the Blossom, Tanglewood, Sunflower, Highlands, Bellingham, Bay Chamber Concerts, and Marlboro Music festivals. Her first CD, entitled “Encantamiento” for flute and harp, with ASO Principal Harpist Elisabeth Remy Johnson, was released in 2009. Currently on the faculty at Kennesaw State University, she regularly appears in recitals, chamber music, and master classes throughout the country.

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Douglas Sommer, double bassist, has been a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1989. Previously, he had been a member of the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. A California native, Mr. Sommer studied double bass at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and went on to receive his Masters degree at the New England Conservatory of Music, studying with Lawrence Wolfe. He has played at the Spoleto Festival, was a fellow at the Tanglewood Institute, and has participated in the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. An active chamber musician, he has performed with the Atlanta Virtuosi, Atlanta Winds, Lyra String Quartet, Emory Chamber Players, Kennesaw State University Chamber Players, the Riverside Chamber Players, Sonic Generator, and the Atlanta Chamber Players. Mr. Sommer has participated in the Pensacola Chamber Music Festival and performed with the Alexander Quartet at the Highlands Chamber Music Festival. He enjoys playing all styles of music and has had the opportunity to play bass and electric bass with many artists, including George Benson, Clay Aiken, Michael Feinstein, and Mercedes Ellington. An active recording musician, Mr. Sommer has performed on the recordings of R.E.M., Shawn Mullins, and Kelly Price and has recorded numerous commercials including Delta, Hallmark, and the Cartoon Network. Mr. Sommer is on the faculty at Kennesaw State University and is a sought after clinician at schools and universities throughout the southeast. He is a former board member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

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Elizabeth Tiscione (oboe), a native of Hamburg, NY, began her position as Principal Oboe of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2007 and made her chamber music debut a few weeks later with the Atlanta Chamber Players at Spivey Hall. Mrs. Tiscione has been playing the oboe since the age of nine. She studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy under Daniel Stolper and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia under Richard Woodhams. In addition to her position in the ASO, Mrs. Tiscione has performed as soloist with the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival Orchestra, the World Youth Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Atlanta Symphony. She has also performed with the orchestras of Buffalo, Rochester, St. Paul, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. An avid chamber musician, Mrs. Tiscione has performed with many groups, including the Atlanta, Ritz, and Georgian Chamber Players. She has participated in the Cape Cod, Amelia Island, Twickenham and Tannery Pond Chamber Music Festivals, and has been a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In the summers she is a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. Mrs. Tiscione is on the faculty of Kennesaw State University and has presented masterclasses all over the country. Her love for teaching has taken her as far as Colombia where she is a faculty member with Festicamara, in Medellin. Recently married, Elizabeth and Michael Tiscione live in the Smyrna/Vinings area with their dog, and two cats. They share a love of California wine and are happily exploring their new life together.

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Hailed as a “sensitive and sophisticated artist,” pianist Alexander Wasserman is rapidly establishing himself as one of the most engaging performers of his generation. A recent prize winner of the Bauru/Atlanta piano competition, Dr. Wasserman maintains an active concert schedule, with recent recital performances in the cities of Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, La Jolla, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Santa Barbara. His performances have frequently been broadcast on television and classical radio stations; most recently, his performance of works by Beethoven and Chopin on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series was aired on both television as well as WFMT 98.7 FM. As a soloist, Dr. Wasserman has appeared with the Thousand Oaks Philharmonic (CA), the New Valley Symphony (CA), the Suburban Symphony (OH), and the Parma Symphony (OH) in concertos by Liszt, Rachmaninov, and Grieg. Equally dedicated to the education of emerging talent, Dr. Wasserman has served as Professor of Piano at Youngstown State University (OH). Additionally, he has held faculty positions at the International School of Music (MD) and Vance Music Studios (OH). He has given masterclasses at University of St. Thomas (MN), Westmont College (CA), Cleveland Music School Settlement (OH), and Youngstown State University (OH). Currently, Dr. Wasserman maintains a private piano studio in Atlanta, GA. Alexander Wasserman, a native of Los Angeles, began formal piano studies with Suzanne Julian. He went on to receive degrees in Piano Performance from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music (BM), the Cleveland Institute of Music (MM), and the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (GPD). Most recently, he completed the prestigious Doctoral of Musical Arts program in Piano Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His primary teachers include Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Yong-Hi Moon, Daniel Shapiro, and Antoinette Perry. Additional study with Paul Schenly and Sergei Babayan has also been of primary influence. Dr. Wasserman currently resides in Atlanta, GA with his wife, Jessica Oudin, one of the newest members of the Atlanta Symphony viola section.

A young artist of many facets, Tim Whitehead is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and has been both a long- and short-term resident artist at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, and has been heard on National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s ZedTV, and Radio Suisse Romande. Mr. Whitehead is a laureate of the Academie de Musique de Lausanne, has been presented in recital at The Holland Music Sessions, and has held staff piano positions at Bennington College and The Quartet Program at Bucknell University. Two consecutive summers were spent as a faculty member at Point CounterPoint Chamber Music festival in Vermont. As a chamber musician, he has shared the stage with such eminent talents as violinistCharles Castleman, cellist Bonnie Hampton, flutists Gergeley Ittzes and Paula Robison, faculty members of the Juilliard and Eastman Schools, New England Conservatory, the Franz Liszt Academy, founding members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and principal members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, and Melbourne Opera. He is a frequent chamber partner to members of the ASO, and while still in school was awarded Chamber Music honors by the Eastman faculty. With an extensive repertoire of over 700 major works, he has performed complete cycles of the sonatas for Piano and Violin by both Beethoven and Brahms, as well as the Cello and Clarinet sonatas of Brahms. As a student of the solo repertoire, his primary teacher was Thomas Schumacher; his collaborative skills were honed byfurther studies with Jean Barr. As an accompanist, he has twice played for the ASTA Young Artist Competition National finals. Mr. Whitehead’s work as a recording artist can be heard on the Azica label. A dedicated teacher, he is currently a member of the piano faculty of The Georgia Academy of Music in Atlanta.