MEET THE MUSICIANS | 2024 CONCERT SERIES

Anne-Marie Brown​, violin

Anne-Marie Brown, a member of the Kansas City Symphony since 2001, performs extensively as soloist and chamber musician throughout the Kansas City area. The Kansas City Star has described her performances as displaying "splendid virtuosity, with a rich impressive tone" and KCMetropolis has said her "playing was stellar, with lyricism and technique to spare." The Miami Herald has noted her work's "silky, suave tone and unaffected beauty." In recent seasons, she has been a frequent soloist with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, a guest musician with Summerfest, and a member of  the newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, recording a work for piano trio on the Navona label in 2012. In addition, she serves on the faculty of the Heartland Chamber Music Festival.
Previously, she was a member of the New World Symphony, where she appeared as both concertmaster and soloist. She holds degrees from Northwestern University and Manhattan School of Music.
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Dr. Jane Carl, ​clarinet

Jane Carl, Professor of Clarinet at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, received her degrees from the University of Michigan.  She has been a member of the South Bend Symphony, the Flint Symphony, and the Michigan Opera Theater Orchestra in Detroit, and performed with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.  She performs regularly with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, as acting assistant principal clarinet from 1999-2003.  She can often be heard performing with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and the Kansas City Symphony.  She was the artistic chair of ClarinetFest 2008, the annual conference of the International Clarinet Association, held in Kansas City.  Dr. Carl performed at the 2007 China International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in Beijing, and the 2009 ClarinetFest in Porto Portugal.  In the fall of 2009, she became the Chair of UMKC’s Instrumental Studies Division.  She has performed with Summerfest for over two decades and is a member of the Artistic Committee which selects music heard at Summerfest concerts.  ​

Gwendolyn Coleman, soprano

Gwendolyn Coleman has been praised by music critics for possessing a voice of “divine beauty” with “sparkling coloratura” and “impressive high-flying top notes” (Opera News). Her solo concert work includes appearances with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and New York Chamber Orchestra among others. Dr. Coleman made her European debut as the soprano soloist for the Klassiche Musikfest’s performances of Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten and Beethoven’s Mass in C in Austria. Her opera role repertoire includes Gilda in Rigoletto, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Blonde in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, the Governess in Turn of the Screw, Monica in The Medium, and the title role in Cendrillon among others.  Dr. Coleman can be heard on the Newport Classic’s CD recording of Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe and as the leading soprano, Suleika, on Centaur Record’s world-premier recording of Schubert’s Der Graf von Gleichen. 
In recital and vocal chamber music, Dr. Coleman’s repertoire includes literature spanning from the Baroque to the 21st Century. This season, she performed in Italy and the United Kingdom as well as here at home. A champion of new music, she has performed the world premiere of Christina’s World, based upon the Andrew Wyeth painting of the same name and written for her by Juliana Hall, with the Cincinnati Song Initiative. Dr. Coleman received her vocal and opera training at Northwestern University, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Opera Center Merola Young Artist Program. 
Dr. Coleman is a Professor of Voice and Coordinator for Vocal Chamber Music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).  She has served as faculty for many festivals: Accademia Vocale Lorenzo Malfatti in Lucca, Italy; SongFest in Los Angeles, CA; the Spoleto Festival in Italy; the Vianden International Music Festival in Luxembourg; and as vocal judge for Classical Singer in Beijing, China.
 

Maria Crosby, cello

Maria Crosby received her undergraduate degree in cello performance from Depaul University in Chicago where she studied with Stephen Balderston and Tanya Carey. She went on to earn a master's degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, under the tutelage of Peter Stumpf.
Maria joined the Kansas City Symphony in 2012. In addition to full-time orchestral playing, she is also an active chamber musician. She has performed on stages across the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Lithuania, Armenia, Greece, Russia, Japan, and Brazil, and has participated in a variety of orchestral and chamber music festivals, including the Aegean Verdi Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, the Pacific Music Festival, the Banff Chamber Music Residency, the Recontres francoaméricaines de Musique de Chambre and the Pine Mountain Music Festival. Maria first performed with Summerfest in 2014.
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Tony DeMarco, violin

Tony DeMarco has been a member of the Kansas City Symphony for 14 seasons.  His previous professional experience includes Assistant Concertmaster of both the Virginia and North Carolina Symphonies, substitute for the Pittsburgh Symphony, and a member of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestra.  He was raised in the South Hills of Pittsburgh then enrolled at Carnegie- Mellon University at age 16, then transferred to Oberlin Conservatory where he earned an artist’s diploma.  Having chosen his career path at age 9, Tony credits the violin, his mother Bonnie, and his teacher Albert Hirtz of the Pittsburgh Symphony for the opportunity to travel to Asia, Europe, and all around the United States, making lasting friends and playing great music.  Best among those friends is his wonderful wife, Jeannine Elashewich.  Together with sons Albert and Roman, they now reside in a “Little House in Prairie Village.”

Alexander (Alex) East, ​cello

Alexander East serves as the Assistant Principal Cello of the Kansas City Symphony. In addition to duties with the Symphony, which often include leading the section as principal for opera, ballet and chamber orchestra performances, East is also heard frequently in recitals and chamber music concerts throughout the Kansas City region and beyond. He has also performed with the Sun Valley (Idaho) Summer Symphony every summer since 1992. 
In the Kansas City area, he has performed regularly in groups including Summerfest Chamber Music Concerts (also serving as an Artistic Advisor), the Boulevard String Quartet and newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. Before settling in Kansas City, East spent two seasons as a member of the New World Symphony under the direction of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and he was also re-invited to coach the NWS cello section as a guest alumnus. East has been featured as soloist with the Kansas City Symphony, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Sedalia Symphony, the Erie (PA) Chamber Orchestra and the Fredonia Chamber Players. 
East received his training at Indiana University where he received a bachelor’s degree and performer diploma, and he earned his master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers have included Tsuyushi Tsutsumi, Janos Starker, Laurence Lesser and Colin Carr. He performs on either an English cello made in London ca. 1800-10 by John Betts or a contemporary cello made in 2016 by Kenneth Beckmann.
 

Evan Halloin, bass
Evan Halloin is thrilled to be joining Summerfest as an artistic advisor in 2023. He was appointed associate principal bass of the Kansas City Symphony in 2016 after having served as a member of the bass section since 2012. Prior to coming to Kansas City he was a member of the New World Symphony. He earned a master’s degree from Rice University and a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory. His primary teachers include Timothy Pitts and Donald Palma. Halloin has performed as a substitute musician with the Chicago, Milwaukee, and Houston Symphony Orchestras, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Originally from De Pere, Wisconsin, Halloin currently resides in Prairie Village, Kansas, where he loves to let his dog Penny take him, his wife Margaret, and two-year-old son Graham for walks around the neighborhood. 

Joshua Hood, bassoon
​Joshua Hood, bassoonist, received his bachelor of music degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Lewis Hugh Cooper.  He completed his master's degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University with Benjamin Kamins, former Principal Bassoonist of the Houston Symphony.  Hood has performed with a number of orchestras including the Kansas City Symphony, Houston Symphony, and the North Carolina Symphony.  He joined the Charlotte Repertory Symphony to outstanding reviews.  He has also performed with several festivals including the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, May Music Festival in Charlotte, NC, Gateways Music Festival in Rochester, NY,  the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA, and with the Ritz Chamber Players on  the Amelia Island Music Festival in Florida.  He has performed with Summerfest since 1998.
 

Celeste Johnson Freher, oboe
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Celeste Johnson is currently Associate Professor of Oboe at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory and remains active as a performer, pedagogue, clinician and presenter.  She performs as a substitute with the Kansas City Symphony and has also performed as a featured soloist with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, of which she was a member for eleven seasons.  As a performer, Celeste has presented concerts in Japan, Colombia, Switzerland, the Isle of Man (British Isles), Canada and across the United States.
 
Her first recording, KaleidosCoping, features 21st century compositions for flute, oboe and piano and was released in 2019 on the Equilibrium label.  Her second album, Wider Than the Sky, features compositions by women composers and was released on the same label in 2023.  

Celeste maintains active memberships in professional organizations, and as such has presented at the International Double Reed Society, Midwest Double Reed Society as well as the Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma Music Educators Association conferences.  She has recently been named chair of the Norma Hooks Young Artist Competition for oboe, hosted by the International Double Reed Society bi-annually.  

Ms. Johnson holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  

Victoria Knudtson, horn
Minnesota-born horn player Victoria Knudtson joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as Assistant/Utility Horn during the 2019-2020 season. Born to a pianist mother and singer father, Knudtson found her artistic voice on the horn when she was 16 years old after a coincidental meeting with her first teacher, Wayne Lu.
Knudtson received her Bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 2017 and her Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020 under the tutelage of Jennifer Montone and Jeffery Lang of the Philadelphia Orchestra. 
During her studies at IU with Canadian Brass horn player Jeffery Nelsen, she also benefited from the orchestral pedagogy of Dale Clevenger, former principal horn of the Chicago Symphony, and studied early music performance on the natural horn with Richard Seraphinoff.  She spent the Fall 2016 semester in Vienna, Austria, studying with members of the Vienna Philharmonic.  She served as principal horn of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic from 2016-2018, and held a core horn position with the ensemble Symphony in C from 2018-2019.   Knudtson has performed as a soloist with the Indiana University Symphony Orchestra and the Yale New Music Ensemble and frequently performs chamber music in various cities. 
She ardently enjoys collaborating with composers and performing new music.
Knudtson was a horn fellow of the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood Music Center in 2019, and at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan with music director Valery Gergiev in 2018. Knudtson played a leader/teacher role as a staff member at Kendall Betts Horn Camp for several years, and will be teaching at Heartland Horncamp in the summer of 2022 for its inaugural event.  
When not on stage or in the practice room, Knudtson enjoys spending time outside, gardening, painting, and latin dancing.
 

Jessica Nance, viola
Jessica Nance has been a member of the Kansas City Symphony since 1995 and Assistant Principal Viola since 1997. She has performed locally with the Boulevard String Quartet, newEar, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, and on a variety of chamber music, solo, and educational projects. Before moving to Kansas City, Jessica was Principal Viola in the Michigan Opera Theater and with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She attended the University of Michigan where she studied with Yizhak Schotten. Jessica is married to trumpeter Brian Rood and together they have two children. When not playing the viola, she enjoys running and triathlon training. Jessica has performed with Summerfest since 2000.
 

Melissa Rose, piano ​

Pianist Melissa Rose has collaborated with instrumentalists and singers in concerts throughout the United States and at venues in Argentina, Malta, Santorini, and Russia. She has recorded and edited arrangements for viola/piano of the Tonadillas by Granados (ViolaSound), one of which was included in the 2017 Grammy-nominated music film, The Music of Strangers. In addition to chamber music recordings on the Naxos, Centaur, Blue Griffin, Delos, Good Child Music, and Navona Records labels, Melissa has participated in numerous premieres and residencies with leading American composers and is a member of ALIAS Chamber Ensemble in Nashville. Currently a Professor of Piano and Senior Associate Dean at Vanderbilt Blair School of Music, she enjoys preparing pianists for careers in collaboration. Melissa received the M.M. in piano performance from the Yale School of Music and the D.M.A. in collaborative piano from the University of Michigan. Melissa has enjoyed performing with Summerfest since 1994.

 
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Richard Ryan, bass
​Richard Ryan, an Arizona native, has been a Kansas City Symphony member for four seasons.  Before his tenure in Kansas City, he was Assistant Principal bass of the Louisville Orchestra.  A graduate of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Richard has participated in music festivals such as Aspen and Artosphere, and has conducted the Louisville Youth Orchestra and Kling Chamber Orchestra.
 

Karen Savage, piano

Praised as a "tour de force" (Santa Barbara News-Press), for "breathtaking beauty and pure lyricism" (Le Soleil, Vancouver), and for “fearless performance” (The Straits Times, Singapore), Karen Hsiao Savage is Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano and Coordinator of Chamber Music at UMKC Conservatory.

Karen received a doctoral and two masters degrees (in solo and collaborative piano) from Juilliard, and a BMus from University of Victoria. She has performed internationally in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Shanghai Grand Theatre, and Perlman Music Program, with broadcasts on internationally syndicated NPR programs and on Vietnamese and Chinese national television.  Recent performances include those with members of the Kansas City Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Chiara quartet’s Hyeyung Yoon and Gregory Beaver, and a recording of works by women composers with oboist Celeste Johnson.

In April, Karen premiered new works by Yotam Haber and Paul Rudy, written for 88SQUARED, her piano duo with husband Jeff Savage. The duo received critical praise for international performances and recording premieres of two-piano works by Lowell Liebermann (Albany Records) and by Daniel Ott (Navonna/PARMA Records), at the invitation of the composers who served as the albums’ producers.  They won the Ellis Duo Piano Competition, the Abild Prize in American Music, and second prize and special mention at Concours Grieg International Competition (Norway). Karen’s teachers include Jonathan Feldman, Margo Garrett, Sam Sanders, Yoheved Kaplinsky, and Robin Wood, with additional coachings with Robert McDonald and Anne Epperson. 

Daniel (Dan) Velicer, piano

An active performer and teacher, Dan Velicer appears regularly with the Kansas City Symphony, Trio Fedele, and the Lyric Arts Trio.  He is a frequent collaborator with members of the Kansas City Symphony and the UMKC Conservatory faculty. Velicer also helps university and high school students prepare for recitals and competitions. 
Prior to arriving in Kansas City, he was an Opera Coach Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and the head staff pianist at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music.  Along with his wife, Kristi, Velicer was on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory where he coached chamber music, led master classes, and performed with faculty. 
He received his bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University, majoring in both anthropology and music.  He received his master of music degree from Rice University. 
 

Kristin (Kristi) Velicer, violin
Kristin Velicer is the Assistant Principal Second Violinist with the Kansas City Symphony.  Velicer has performed and toured internationally with numerous major orchestras including the Houston Symphony, the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra.  She has appeared on National Public Radio as a featured soloist and chamber musician on Performance Today and Houston in Concerts. Velicer was an invited performer in the Carnegie Hall tribute to Alexander Schneider, founder of the New York String Orchestra Seminar. 
Velicer holds a bachelor's degree in violin performance at Overlin College Conservatory of Music where she studied with Kathleen Winkler.  While at Overlin, she received the prestigious Conservatory Dean’s Talent Award. Velicer later received a master’s degree from Rice University-Shepherd School of Music studying with Raphael Fliegel and Kathleen Winkler. Velicer served, along with her husband Dan, on the faculty of the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory in Steamboat Springs, CO.  
 

Jesse Yukimura,​ viola
​Violist Jesse Keone Yukimura, from Washington State, discovered at an early age the joys of ensemble music, from chamber music to orchestra. Jesse received a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Peter Slowik, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Oberlin College. He then studied with Ralph Fielding at the Lynn Conservatory of Music, where he earned a Master of Music degree and a Professional Performance Certificate. Before moving to Kansas City, Jesse was a viola fellow at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, an orchestral academy founded by artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas. Jesse joined the Kansas City Symphony in 2018, previously joined KC Summerfest in 2019, and is excited to play again this summer. Outside of music, Jesse maintains a variety of interests, from birdwatching to boardgames.