Bassoonist Lynn Hileman’s performances as a soloist and chamber
musician have taken her around the world, with appearances in the
United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia at venues
including the November Music and GLOW Festivals (the
Netherlands), the Surround Festival (Belgium), Centro Mexicano
para la Música y las Artes Sonoras (Mexico), Festival
Internacional de Sopros (Brazil), National Sawdust, Park Avenue
Armory and the Long Play Festival (NYC), and numerous
International Double Reed Society conferences.
Currently Artist Affiliate in cello and chamber music at the
University of California, Davis, Susan Lamb Cook is an
active performer and educator in the capital region.
Stacey Pelinka is a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and
the Eco Ensemble. She plays principal flute with San Francisco
Opera’s Merola Program productions and second flute with the
Berkeley Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the San Francisco
Chamber Orchestra, and the Midsummer Mozart Festival. A certified
Feldenkrais Method® practitioner, Stacey teaches Feldenkrais at
the San Francisco Symphony. She attended Cornell University and
the San Francisco Conservatory, where she studied with Timothy
Day.
Michael Goldberg, guitar, is currently playing solo and chamber
recitals throughout the United States. He has toured as part of
the Alma Duo, an ensemble of violin/viola and guitar, and is also
a longtime member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, a group
devoted to contemporary music performance. He has recorded on the
Arabesque and Kameleon labels.
Kerstin Allvin has won numerous awards and competitions
throughout her career as a concert harpist and has performed
across the United States from Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie to
the historic Carmel Mission in California. She has
frequented Japan, performing solo concerts at the prestigious
Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Nogi City Hall, and for Detroit/Toyota
City’s Sister City Association. She holds degrees, honors,
and performance certificates from Indiana University, University
of Michigan, and post-graduate studies with Jaqueline Borot,
Honorary Professor of the Paris Superior
Faythe Vollrath, harpsichordist, performs as a soloist and
chamber musician throughout the United States. Hailed by the Wall
Street Journal for her “subtly varied tempo and rhythm
that sounds like breathing,” her solo performances include venues
such as MusicSources in Berkeley, CA, Gothem Early Music in New
York City, and Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg.
Concert Band director Pete Nowlen has been a member of the UC
Davis faculty since 1988. Nowlen has been a dynamic part of the
northern California musical scene for nearly
thirty years. He is dedicated to renewing and
sustaining classical music’s relevance in our society, and
his career has led him to surprisingly diverse
opportunities.
Cindy Behmer, Lecturer in Music and Chamber Music, teaches oboe
at UC Davis and California State University, Sacramento. Dr.
Behmer performs regularly with numerous organizations in Northern
California and Nevada, including Sacramento Philharmonic and
Opera, Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra, Broadway at Music
Circus, Stockton Symphony, Modesto Opera, Reno
Philharmonic, and Oakland Symphony.
Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, University of Michigan
Percussionist Christopher Froh specializes in
promoting and influencing the creation of new music through
critically acclaimed performances and dynamic lectures. To date,
he has premiered over 150 chamber and solo works by composers
from 17 countries. His collaborations include some of the most
significant composers of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries, including Chaya Czernowin, David
Lang, Steve Mackey, John Adams, George Crumb, Liza Lim, Matthias
Pintcher, and Keiko Abe.
New England Conservatory of Music, Master of Music (2001)
UC Davis Lecturer in Music I-Hui Chen is a
compelling pianist who seamlessly radiates her music and thoughts
to the audience. Critics consider her musicality to be honest and
direct, reflecting the composer’s original intentions, yet
retaining her own creative individuality. In addition to her role
as a solo performer, she is a dedicated teacher to young
musicians and an experienced collaborative pianist.
Steinway Artist Natsuki Fukasawa’s music career has
taken her throughout U.S. cities as well as to Europe,
Scandinavia, Israel, Australia, Brazil, Japan, and China,
performing at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and
Copenhagen’s Tivoli Concert Hall. Fukasawa has won many accolades
and international prizes, including rave reviews
in Strad and Fanfare magazines and the Best
Chamber Music Recording of the Year from the Danish Music Awards.
Michael Seth Orland has appeared extensively in the Bay Area as a
chamber musician, playing with the San Francisco Contemporary
Music Players Earplay, the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players,
New Music Theater, the Empyrean Ensemble, Other Minds, and in the
San Francisco Symphony’s New and Unusual Music Series.
Kevin Stewart hails from the greater metropolitan area of
Detroit. Upon graduating from the University of Michigan, where
he received a Bachelor of Woodwind Performance degree, Kevin
headed west and settled in the Bay Area, hooking up with the San
Francisco Saxophone Quartet, the Nuclear Whales Saxophone
Orchestra, and most recently the South American jazz group
Quinteto.
Michael Schwagerus, double bass, joined the North State Symphony
in 2001 and continues serving there as principal bassist. During
this time, he has also performed with the Sacramento
Philharmonic, Modesto Symphony, Sacramento Choral Society,
Sacramento Chamber Music Society, and was also principal
bassist for the Townsend Opera.
As full-time music teacher of St. James School in Davis, Michael
enjoys conducting Concert Band and Choir while teaching K–8 music
to the school’s 300 students.
Michael Mannella, a native of Detroit, Michigan, joined the
faculty of UC Davis in the fall of 2023 and has been a member of
the United States Air Force Band since 2005. He currently acts as
the personnel manager for “The Commander’s” Jazz Ensemble and is
a member of the concert band.
B.A. UC Davis, music composition and theoryM.A., music composition and tuba performance, CSU, Sacramento
Portia Njoku, a composer, tubist, and music educator, holds a
bachelor of arts degree in music composition and theory from
the University of California, Davis and a double master’s degree
in music composition and tuba performance from California State
University Sacramento. As an active performer, she has
held principal positions with many ensembles and continues to
freelance with chamber groups like the highly popular German
Brass Band, Grand Isle Fire Brigade throughout the
Sacramento and Bay Area regions.
A champion of contemporary music in the United States and abroad,
violist Ellen Ruth Rose is currently a member of Empyrean
Ensemble, the flagship new music ensemble in residence at UC
Davis, and Earplay, the San Francisco-based contemporary
ensemble.
Melita Anastasia Denny is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at UC
Davis. She earned a bachelor’s of science degree in viola da
gamba performance from Indiana University Jacob’s School of
Music, graduating with distinction in 2009. During her studies at
IU, she also did additional work in music history with research
interests centering on the history of music theory and imitative
counterpoint in Renaissance sacred polyphony.
Icelandic violinist Hrabba Atladottir is a graduate of the
University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany where she studied under
Prof. Tomaszewski and Prof. Gerhardt. In Berlin she worked at the
Deutsche Oper and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under
conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Nikolaus Harnoncourt,
Bernard Haitink and Christian Thielemann to name a few.
Bachelor of Music degree, Indiana University and Master’s degree, University of Texas, Austin
Jolán Friedhoff relocated to Davis in 2008 after serving as
assistant concertmaster of the Saar State Opera Orchestra
(Germany) for twenty years. Since her return to California, she
has performed as assistant concertmaster and concertmaster for
several orchestras in the region, including the Sacramento
Philharmonic, Modesto Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, and the Bear
Valley Music Festival. She also has been part of the
Mendocino Music Festival orchestra, Sacramento Choral
Society, and Sierra Master Chorale.
A native of Northern California, Dagenais Smiley
earned her bachelor of music degree at Oberlin
Conservatory as a student of Milan Vitek and her master’s degree
from University of Southern California under the instruction of
Kathleen Winkler. She is proud to have worked under notable
conductors such as Leon Fleisher, David Zinman, Robert Spano,
Michael Tilson Thomas, and John Williams. She has participated in
master classes given by Yuval Yaron, Kathleen Winkler, Alexander
Barantschik, Fritz Gearhart, the Calder Quartet, and Glenn
Dicterow.
Hailed for the “arresting color” (Cincinnati Enquirer) of her
voice, Julie Miller has appeared as a soloist with many
orchestras and opera companies. Notable performances include
Emilia (Otello), Annina (La traviata), Ida
(Die Fledermaus), Krystina (The Passenger),
Baroness Nica in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird plus
understudies of Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) and
Waltraute (Die Walküre) with Lyric Opera of Chicago,
Hackney Empire and Madison Opera.
Peruvian-born mezzo-soprano Zoila Muñoz teaches voice at UC Davis
and is a performer and vocal coach at Apollo Arts in the
Sierra foothills, recently singing in their 2026 Dido
and Aneas.
