Artists

The Harlem Chamber Players is an ethnically diverse collective of professional musicians dedicated to bringing high caliber, affordable, accessible live music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. Founded in 2008, The Harlem Chamber Players annually presents a rich season of formal live concerts, indoors, outdoors, and online. The Harlem Chamber Players also promote arts inclusion and equal access to the arts, bringing live music to underserved communities and promoting shared community arts and cultural engagement.

Dr. Lindsay Flowers is the Assistant Professor of Oboe at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music where she is a member of the Wingra Wind Quintet and guides student-generated community engagement projects. She received a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Linda Strommen and Roger Roe. Her background in athletics distinguishes her pedagogical approach in her emphasis on performance visualization, disciplined commitment, and supportive teamwork.

Dr. Andrew Parker is currently Associate Professor of Oboe at the University of Texas at Austin and faculty at the Round Top Festival Institute. In addition to his teaching, Parker maintains a rich performing career as a soloist and chamber musician. He has performed concerti with numerous ensembles including the Dallas Wind Symphony, the Quad City Symphony, the Great Falls Symphony, the Puerto Rico Philharmonic, and the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra.  His solo album, The Singing Oboe, was featured as CD of the week for two consecutive weeks on the Boston classical station 99.5 WCRB.

Dr. Cornelia Sommer is a bassoonist, arranger, and educator dedicated to sharing music with diverse audiences and expanding the bassoon’s repertoire. Originally from Seattle, she joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as Second Bassoon in Fall 2023. Sommer’s recent performance and research projects have focused on music inspired by fairy tales. NEW ENCHANTMENTS: FAIRY TALE MUSIC FOR BASSOON is her debut album and is supported by grants from the Presser Foundation and the International Double Reed Society.

For half a century, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) has been Malta’s leading musical ensemble. The orchestra was founded in April 1968, when musicians from the defunct Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) orchestra of the Malta-based British Mediterranean Fleet regrouped as the Manoel Theatre Orchestra. It continued to serve as the theatre’s resident orchestra until September 1997, when it became an independent orchestra, taking up the name National Orchestra of Malta. The orchestra became the MPO in 2008 when it expanded to a full-sized symphony orchestra, bringing together the best of Maltese talent and musicians from Europe and beyond.

Johan de Meij, world-renowned award-winning composer and conductor of Dutch descent has built an impressive oeuvre over the last four decades. His creations have been performed by the world’s top orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. His orchestral catalogue includes five symphonies, nine major solo concertos and a wide variety of smaller works. His Symphony No.1 The Lord of the Rings (1988), having marked its 35th year in 2023, has become a classic in the orchestra repertoire, and is one of the most performed works in the literature.

Margi Griebling-Haigh is an American composer based in Cleveland OH. Her compositions are driven by memorable melodies and strong rhythms, bound together by a cohesive formal structure. Her impressionistic use of musical color and harmonic language have inspired comparisons to Barber, Ravel, and Poulenc. Her music has been praised for its “rich and haunting personality” and “sinuous and impassioned conversations” (Gramophone Magazine) as well as for “zesty rhythmic shapes and exotic harmonic language” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). Her catalog includes numerous art songs and chamber music compositions, orchestral works, narrated dramatic works, and opera.

Composer Anthony Brandt (b. 1961) earned his degrees from California Institute of the Arts (M.A. 1987) and Harvard University (B.A. 1983, Ph.D. 1993). His honors include a Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, the Houston Arts Alliance, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program. He is a three-time MacDowell fellow, and has also been a fellow at Copland House, the Tanglewood Institute, Wellesley Composers Conference, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Colony, a Visiting Composer at the Bowdoin International Festival, the FICA Festival at the University of Veracruz, the Bremen Musikfest, Baltimore’s New Chamber Arts Festival, Southwestern University, SUNY- Buffalo and Cleveland State University, and Composer-in-Residence of Houston’s OrchestraX and the International Festival of Music in Morelia, Mexico.

Raised amidst the diverse musical traditions of southern Appalachia, cellist Juliana Soltis inspires audiences the world over with “exquisite, heart-rending” (Early Music America) performances that are redefining classical music. A “true virtuoso” (Classical Music), Soltis delights in connecting listeners with the forgotten stories of classical music. 

Michael K. Slayton is an American composer who has written works in a cross-section of musical genres, with specific emphasis on chamber music. His continuing dedication to the value of artistic exchange has afforded him opportunity to partner with distinguished performers all over the world. His music, published by ACA, Inc. (BMI), is regularly programmed in the U.S. and abroad, including Chemnitz, Seitz, Leipzig, Droyssig, and Weimar, Germany; Graz, Austria; Paris,Tours, and Marquette-lez-Lille, France; Kristiansund, Norway; Aviero, Portugal; Brussles, Belgium; Johannesburg and Potchefstroom, South Africa; London, UK; and New York, NY.

Milton Rubén Laufer has graced some of the world's most iconic venues including Lincoln Center, New World Center, and Tchaikovsky Hall and has shared the stage with legendary artists like Natalie Cole, Chucho Valdés, and Guerassim Voronkov. His appearances on Spanish-speaking television and radio have transcended borders, captivating audiences throughout Europe, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. A versatile artist, Laufer's portfolio includes performing, arranging, production, and sound reconstruction credits across renowned labels including Naxos, Bis Records, Beauport Classical, and Zenph Sound Innovations.

Flutist Lindsey Goodman is a soloist, recording artist, chamber collaborator, orchestral musician, educator, and clinician whose “palette of tone colors includes cool silver, warm chocolate, the bright colors of a sunrise, and the deep blue of midnight.” (The Flutist Quarterly) Renowned for her “energy and artistry, conveying her exuberance and creativity” (Pittsburgh in the Round), Lindsey has performed solo and chamber concerts, taught masterclasses, and given presentations at countless series, festivals, and universities. Performances “played with conviction” (New York Times) have been heard across three continents, including at Carnegie Hall, Eastman School of Music, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Google headquarters, University of Cincinnati College’s Conservatory of Music, several National and Canadian Flute Association conventions, across China, and on the Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone podcast.

Mark G. Simon is an accomplished American composer and clarinetist. He holds a D.M.A. in composition from Cornell University, where he studied with Karel Husa, Steven Stuckey, and Robert Palmer. His compositions include orchestral, chamber, and vocal works, many featuring the clarinet. His musical Jennie’s Will was commissioned for the bicentennial of the Village of Dryden NY. The Carnival of the Subatomic Particles, a 13-movement exploration of particle physics for chamber ensemble and narrator set to a poem by Cornell physicist N. David Mermin, was commissioned and premiered by Music’s Recreation in Ithaca NY.

Heidi Jacob’s music has been described by BBC Magazine as “compositions …of complex mesmerizing beauty,” and by Gramophone Magazine as music with “…forthright expressiveness [that] exposes a multitude of stylistic associations.” Praise for her recent recording on Navona Records of Lilacs with the Kühn Choir of Prague include: “the music is simply breathtaking,” (Nicholas Wright) “…Jacob writes music of imagination and adventure…voices interweave hauntingly… ascending to towering heights,” (Textura), and “Heidi Jacob’s Lilacs opens with Kristýna Fílová’s soaring soprano… Amina Robinson’s narration amid the sublime choral harmonizing.” (Take Effect)

A native of New York City, Allen Brings received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Queens College and a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University, where he was a Mosenthal Fellow and a student of Otto Luening, and a doctorate in theory and composition from Boston University, where he was a teaching fellow and a student of Gardner Read.

The deep humanitarian concerns that permeate much of Dr. Deon Nielsen Price’s music is represented in her duo War Ends-Song Endures, a tribute to the valiant spirit of Ukrainians, premiered in 2023 at the Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention in Texas by flutist Rik Noyce and commissioning pianist Mary Au. Named the "Tom Brady of Composers" (New York Times 12/24/2022), Price feels honored to represent octogenarian composers who are still professionally active. She was a Winner of The 2023 American Prize in orchestra for her Chamber Symphony as well as a finalist for The 2023 American Prize in vocal chamber music for her song cycle Ludwig’s Letter to Eternal Beloved, and, in opera/theater, for her chamber opera, Ammon and the King, Immigrant Speaks Truth to Power. Her Oratorio CHRISTUS was premiered and recorded in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in June 2023.

Described as an “eclectic whose works draw on popular and electronic music” (Wall Street Journal), and a “genuinely American composer” (Gramophone), Anthony Paul De Ritis has received performances around the world including at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Lincoln Center, Beijing’s Yugong Yishan, Seoul’s KT Art Hall, the Italian  Pavilion at the World Expo in Milan, and UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Melissa D’Albora’s music addresses mental health and political discourse, ranging from gun violence to women’s rights. Respire (2020) for flute and guitar is a reflection searching for inner peace. The piece received the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant and was premiered by Duo Sequenza in 2021. A Fantasy (2019), commissioned by GRAMMY®-Award winning Seraphic Fire, addresses the expectations women face in society. South Florida Classical described her work as “an exploration of spatial harmonics that evidenced a sure command of writing for the voice.” D’albora’s works have been performed throughout North America by community ensembles like the East Central Indiana Community Orchestra and professional artists like Claire Grellier and Seraphic Fire.

A pianist with “an artistic ferocity that captivated and astonished listeners” (Waverly Newspapers), Clare Longendyke is a soloist, chamber musician, and musical innovator who performs with American orchestras and on recital series around the world. Recent highlights include performances of concertos by Mozart, Falla, Rachmaninoff, Florence Price, and Joan Tower with orchestras in Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, and Virginia, and the release of her debut solo CD in 2024, …of dreams unveiled featuring works of Debussy, Amy Williams, and Anthony R. Green.

Eric Schultz is an American clarinetist equally in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and interpreter of new music. He maintains an active concerto schedule performing with orchestras across the world and can be seen and heard from Netflix to National Public Radio. Hailed a “mastermind” in the Myrtle Beach Herald and a “pathfinder” by iconic composer Valerie Coleman, Schultz was selected as a quarterfinalist for the 2025 GRAMMY® Music Educator of the Year Award.