Zanaida Robles is the artistic director of the San Gabriel Valley Choral company. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Robles served for five years as director of classical choirs at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA).  Under her direction, the LACHSA classical choirs performed for numerous festivals, concerts, and special events at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and in venues throughout Southern California.  She remains on faculty at LACHSA as instructor of vocal fundamentals while pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral music at the University of Southern California (USC).  As a DMA Teaching Assistant at USC, she directs the USC Thornton University Chorus.

In addition to her work at USC and LACHSA, Ms. Robles directs Discovery Camerata, a choral organization founded in 2005 to facilitate a semi-professional setting for emerging vocalists and composers. The group has become an elite sextet of vocal music professionals performing choral standards, folk songs, arrangements, and new music.  She served for three years as director of the MusicUNTOLD Chorale where a focus of her work was to help illuminate significant works and composers that had been underutilized, unfairly criticized, and/or disregarded.  She has prepared choirs for performances with such artists as Josh Groban, Kristin Chenoweth, Audra McDonald and Wayne Brady.

Ms. Robles holds a Master of Music degree in choral conducting from California State University, Northridge (CSUN) where she was the graduate assistant conductor of the Northridge Singers and the Matador Master Chorale.  She also served as chorus master for the CSUN opera department and interim director of the CSUN Women’s Chorus.  She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from California State University, Long Beach, where she was the first recipient of the four-year Dean’s Scholarship for Distinction in the Arts.

Ms. Robles has performed as a concert soprano soloist and ensemble member throughout the United States, and in parts of Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.  She sings professionally with Pacific Chorale and the John Alexander Singers, and has sung under the batons of such conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pierre Boulez, John Mauceri, Leonard Slatkin, and Gustavo Dudamel.  Ms. Robles has been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions including the Young Musicians Foundation Gladys Turk Scholarship, a USC Choral Department scholarship, a USC Black Alumni Association scholarship, two L.A. Artist of the Future awards, the NFAA Young Arts Level One Award in classical voice, two Charles Dolo Coker Jazz Awards, the KCET Emerging Young Artist Grand Prize, and the NAACP ACT-SO National Gold Medal for Music Composition.

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For more information about Zanaida, please visit her website at:  http://www.zanaidarobles.com/

Grammy Award winner, Mark S. Doss, has sung 55 roles in more than 60 major opera houses around the world, the most notable being Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna State Opera, London’s Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco Opera.

Mr. Doss first sang on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City at the age of 28, and a few months later won First Prize in the International Verdi Competition in Busetto, Italy. Adding another great achievement to his list, he began the current 2012/2013 season singing the title role in The Flying Dutchman with the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, followed by his most performed role of Escamillo in Carmen with the same company. This past summer found him singing the title role of Paul Rayment in Nicholas Lens’ world premiere of the opera Slow Man in Poznan, Poland, which was done between concert performances as the cantor in Earnest Bloch’s Sacred Service in Houston, Texas, and the bass-baritone soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (“Ode to Joy” movement) at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan.

Mr. Doss sang the role of Thoas in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride to open the Canadian Opera Company’s 2011-2012 season. The previous summer he took the stage as Méphistophélès in Gounod’s Faust with the Santa Fe Opera, and prior to that made his debut with the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy, as Priest Grigoris in The Greek Passion. In March of 2011 he successfully made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Amonasro in Aida.

Having sung under the batons of notable conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Daniel Barenboim, and Robert Shaw, Mr. Doss has been featured with the major orchestras of Cleveland, Chicago and Philadelphia. During the 2012 holiday season, Mr. Doss was once again welcomed back to Chicago as the bass soloist in Handel’s Do-It-Yourself Messiah, one of the city’s most beloved holiday traditions.

Upcoming engagements include double bill performances at Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza in Sarka and Cavalleria Rusticana, playing the roles of Premysl and Alfio (Feb. 2013), the title role in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Mar. 2013), Amonasro in Aida at the San Diego Opera (April 2013), and The Four Villains in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann with Opera Tokyo (Nov. /Dec. 2013).

Mr. Doss was awarded Planet Africa’s prestigious Entertainment Award in October of 2011, and accentuating his sports related background has become a highly sought after anthem performer, singing for a Tampa Bay Storm / Cleveland Gladiators football game in Tampa in April 2012, and the National Anthems at a Toronto Blue Jays / Boston Red Sox baseball game in Toronto in September 2011.

Connect with Mark S. Doss on his Facebook fan page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Mark-S-Doss/78423203990), Google+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/114847006736802038176), or follow him @marksdoss on Twitter (http://twitter.com/marksdoss).

Competition in Italy in 2008. In 2011, she received Honorable Mention in the Liszt-Garrison International Competition Collaborate Artist in Baltimore, Maryland. As a clinician, she toured many countries including China, Spain, Italy, Taiwan and South Korea giving series of successful concerts and master classes.

She received a Doctoral degree in 2012 from Indiana University, where she studied with the world famous cellist Janos Starker. She has a Performer Diploma from the same school and a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music from Seoul National University.

Previously, she taught at Indiana Wesleyan University and at DePauw University as an adjunct professor and at Indiana University String Academy, at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and at Seoul National University as an instructor. She played in Lafayette Symphony Orchestra and Korean Symphony Orchestra.

She performs on a French Cello, Guersan of 1766.

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Ms. Johnson has more than twenty years experience as a professional performing artist and music educator. She’s had the distinct pleasure of performing at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama in the ceremony honoring Stevie Wonder with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize; the joy of performing with Stevie Wonder at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles; and the excitement of performing with Luciano Pavarotti, Renee Fleming, Roberto Alagna, Barbara Bonney, and other operatic stars in productions at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and several opera companies and symphonies across the United States, Germany, and Italy. She’s educated audiences about American music history through her one-woman shows entitled the Black Roots of Song, and ABC’S: American Black Composers’ Contributions to Our Musical Heritage ^©; created, directed, produced, and performed in a concert event of spirituals called He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand; and enjoyed visiting universities and colleges as a visiting guest artist giving recitals and master classes in Performance Excellence. Ms. Johnson has a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Southern California, a Master of Music in Voice Performance as well as K-12 Music Certification from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; and is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.  Currently she sings the title role on New World Records 2011 historic recording of Treemonisha with the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra.

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CEDRIC BERRY, Bass Baritone, received his music diploma from Interlochen Arts Academy and both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California.  He has performed a variety of operatic roles including the title role in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Falstaff in Nicoli’s Merry Wives, Lepporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflote, Collatinus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Shaunard in Puccini’s La Boheme.  Cedric made his first European stage appearances in Spain, as Jake, in a concert version of Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess.  He appeared with LA Opera at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Savonlinna, Finland and sang a concert in tribute to Paul Robeson for the Banlieurs Bleues festival in Paris, France.  Cedric gained his first professional experiences with Los Angeles Opera covering roles in a number of operas including L’Italiana, Pagliacci, Tosca, Tristan und Isolde, Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen, Falstaff,  Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, and Don Giovanni.  As a Resident Artist with the company Cedric also sang the roles in The Barber of Seville, La Boheme, Samson et Dalila, Faust, La Rondine and Billy Budd.  He has appeared with Pacific Symphony, The Arizona Symphony, The Bakersfield Symphony, The Fresno Philharmonic, The Santa Fe Symphony, The Luckman Jazz orchestra, The New West Symphony, The Southwest Chamber Orchestra, The Pasadena Pops Orchestra, The California Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  He has been the recipient of several awards including first place in the Metropolitan Opera Western Region Competition.

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Gramophone Magazine describes Ms. Zucker’s flute playing as “as polished and gratifying as Rampal and Galway. Zucker’s interpretations are splendid all round. Her tone is airy and sweet, her virtuosity graceful.”

2012 Guitar Magazine reviewed CD, Soundscapes of The Americas, states ‘Zucker performs with tremendous authority and musicianship and plays with enviable ease. She also illustrates here that she is a composer of note; there is nothing here which drops below superb.

In 2004 Gramophone “strongly recommended” The Complete Telemann Fantasies for Flute and The Complete J.S. Bach Flute Sonatas on Cantilena Records describing her performances as “intelligent, naturally phrased and highly musical with a rich sound beyond reproach.”

In the August 2003 book, Inspirational Stories from the World’s Best Flute Players, Laurel Zucker is featured along with James Galway, Paula Robison, Herbie Mann, Ian Andersen, and Julius Baker.

Fanfare Magazine refers to Ms. Zucker “as a forceful advocate for 20th century music,” and when she was awarded the Aaron Copland Fund for Music from the American Music Center to record the 1998 Take a Walk on the Wilder Side-CD, Fanfare Magazine stated “this disc fills an important niche in American Music as well as flute literature.“

With 49 CD releases available on Cantilena Records, Ms. Zucker can be heard regularly on worldwide classical radio stations. She has performed many times in Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Mondavi Center, etc. As a concerto soloist she has been featured with the American Symphony Orchestra, InterHarmony Orchestra of Italy, Erkel Chamber Orchestra of Budapest, The Orchestra of New York, Gold Country Orchestra, Merced Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Arlington Symphony, and toured with Sumara Orchestra of Russia. As an active chamber artist she has performed with the Marlboro Festival and Tour, Harvard Chamber Players, Music Fest of Arizona, Music in the Mountains, UC Davis Chamber Players, Wet Ink Festival, Chamber Music Alive!, InterHarmony Festival in Italy.

As a jazz flutist Jazz Now 2005 describes her performance as ”Laurel’s flute cutting the still air with a deep-felt emotion to the very last note.”

Claude Bolling in March 2004 on Zucker’s Bolling Jazz Suites CD writes “Dear Laurel Zucker, your recording is beautiful, musician partners are excellent and your flute playing superb!!!”

Of the Flute Music by French Composers CD, Sir James Galway recommends on his website “This is a really good record and should be in the library of all serious students. The repertoire is very good and it is beautifully played by Miss Zucker. I have a copy and think it is outstanding…”

As an active performer and supporter of the flute community, Ms. Zucker has been a guest performer/teacher at the New York Flute Club, The Portland Flute Society, The Houston Flute Society, Los Angeles Flute Club, Dallas Flute Festival, North Carolina School of the Arts and the National Flute Association Convention.

In 2000 The Year of the Rome Aureole Jubilee (hosted by the City of Rome and the Pope) three of Ms. Zucker’s Cantilena Records CDs ( Serenades for flute and harp; Music of Guiliani for flute and guitar; Mozart Flute Quartets ) were played non-stop for six months throughout the largest Convention Center of Rome, Italy and were also featured in a documentary created at UCLA on the Santa Maria Maggiora Chapel of Rome.

In 2006 Ms. Zucker received THE BEST CLASSICAL SOLO INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2006from The Just Plain Folks Awards.

As Professor of Flute at California State University in Sacramento since 1988, Ms. Zucker received the 1998 President’s Award for Creative and Scholarly Research, two 1998 and 2000 Creative Research Awards, and 1989 Professional Promise Award and a 2012 UEI travel grant. Most recently Ms. Zucker is the recipient of the 2013 Creative and Scholarly Research Award for California State University!

In 1978 she won Artists International Competition and gave her Carnegie Recital Hall Debut. Her first performances in Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center were at the age of 16 performing 1st flute in the Alexander Schneider’s Orchestra.

Ms. Zucker graduated from Juilliard where she studied with Samuel Baron for 3 years; with Paula Robison for two years at New England Conservatory of Music; and privately with Marcel Moyse and Julius Baker. Ms. Zucker holds a Masters in Music Composition from New York University.

Her compositions are published by Cantilena Records Publications, Clear Note Publications, Lyra International, Subito Music and Bourne Music Company and are recorded on Cantilena Records.

Since 2006 Ms. Zucker’s travels throughout Central and South American and the Middle East have inspired her to compose an extensive variety of chamber music both jazz and classical. Three new CD releases representing a variety of her compositions: A Night in Quito for Flute and Jazz Piano Trioand Soundscapes of the Americas and Journeys are now available at fine stores on-line.

2010 Ms. Zucker gave a masterclass series at The French Woods Festival. In late August 2010 Laurel flew to Peru over the Andes and down into the Amazon jungles, where she composed Peruvian Triosand Peruvian Suite for flute and guitar. In summer 2011 she flew to Honduras where she composed The Honduras Suite for Flute and Guitar.

In July 2012 Ms. Zucker performed, gave masterclasses, and coached chamber music at InterHarmony Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy.

During August 2012 The Puget Sound Flute Workshop, will be presenting its first season concert at Rosedale Gardens in Gig Harbor Washington.

And now Available 2012, A Walk in the Rain for Flute and Harp CD release featuring Laurel and Susan Jolles. July 2012 Ms. Jolles and Zucker performed at The American Harp Convention in New York City.

Steve Marsh, reviewer of Guitar Magazine, enthusiastically describes her compositions in the 2012 CD, “Soundscapes of the Americas” in this way: The extensive and interesting programme notes provided by the renowned flautist, Laurel Zucker, tell of her extensive travelling through North, Central and South America and the works on this disc reflect these explorations through a programme of descriptive, expressive and very enjoyable compositions. Shades of Villa-lobos dwell in parts of the opening track “Brazilian Sounds” scored for flute, guitar and cello, and this influence spills over into “Tears of the Amazon.” The natural world was the stimulation behind the enchanting “Celtic Snowflakes,” where the harp is highly suggestive of gentle snowflakes, and the tallest flying bird native to South and Central America, “The Jabiru” has a complete 3 movement suite for flute and cello dedicated to it. Capybaras, caimen and spider monkeys are musically depicted here. The longest work is the 5 movement South American Suite for flute and guitar. The inspiration here comes from forestry, an anaconda and the excitement felt by the composer travelling through such hostile territory- a “makes you jump moment” comes at the conclusion of movement 3 which features the flute technique called “jet whistle” – yet another nod in the direction of Villa-lobos who wrote a work for flute and cello titled after this technique.”

Ms. Zucker will be giving masterclasses and performances in the InterHarmony Chamber Music Festival in Italy and Germany July 14-August 11, 2013. From August 20-23, 2013 Mark Delpriora and Laurel Zucker are giving The Puget Sound Flute and Guitar Workshop in Gig Harbor, Washington.

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The Korean pianist, Phoenix Park-Kim, began playing the piano at the age of 5 and gave her first public performance at 7 years old. Since then she has delighted audiences in recital, orchestral, and chamber music performances. In 1997 she graduated summa cum laude from Yonsei University in Seoul, where she received in 1999 Bachelors degrees in both Piano Performance and English Literature. In 1999, she came to the USA to study with Dr. Lian Tan at Miami University on a full tuition scholarship, where she received in 2001 a Masters of Music and served as a graduate teaching assistant.. In 2005 she completed the Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Weirich and served as his teaching assistant.

Phoenix Park-Kim has won numerous scholarship awards and piano competitions, including 1^st place in the Miami Concerto Competition, the Jefferson City Concerto Competition and Kansas City Philharmonia Concerto Competition. In addition, she has also appeared as a soloist with the Korean Philharmonic Orchestra, Marion Philharmonic Orchestra and the UMKC Conservatory Orchestra.

Phoenix Park-Kim enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She has performed in various music festivals including the Aspen Summer Music Festival, ARIA International Summer Academy, and the Summer Music School in Siena, Italy. She has collaborated with many ensembles including the Oxford String Quartet. In addition to traditional performances in concert halls, she is dedicated to bringing music to the underserved public as well as providing more exposure to musical compositions that are little known. She was awarded the Lilly research grant which enabled her to conduct research on classical piano music written by African Americans. Her next recording project-stemming from this research-will be classical piano works by African American composers.

Dr. Phoenix Park-Kim has received the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award from UMKC for superior teaching as recognized by both students and professors. She joined the faculty at Indiana Wesleyan University in 2005, where she holds the position of Assistant Professor of Music and teaches Applied Piano, Class Piano, Keyboard Literature and coordinates the Accompanying Program.

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Richard Thompson is a performer and composer whose work resists a single stylistic category. His compositions combine European and African-American styles, so that the formal structures of European classical music develop ideas, which are essentially jazz in nature. Originally from Aberdeen, Scotland, Mr. Thompson made his debut at the Purcell Room, in the Royal Festival Hall in London. He has appeared in live broadcasts for B.B.C. Jazz and Classical Radio, Italian National Television and Radio and also given concerts at La Piccola Scala in Milan, among many others. His orchestral appearances include The Harlem Festival Orchestra, The Boston Orchestra and Chorale, The Glasgow Chamber Orchestra and The Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra.

In 1999 Mr. Thompson was awarded the first Individual Artist Award for classical music composition from The Brooklyn Arts Council. The winning piece, Legend Of The Moors, is a musical depiction of the presence and influence of the Moors in Spain during the Middle Ages. The piece was premiered at The Brooklyn Conservatory in 1999. In 2000 he premiered an orchestral piece entitled Voices with the Long Island Sound Symphony Orchestra under Dorothy Savitch. A discussion of some of his compositions appears in the 1998 textbook entitled, “African-American Music, An Introduction” by Dr. Earl Stewart, published by Simon and Schuster Macmillan/Prentice Hall International.

In 1997 Mr. Thompson received a grant from Meet The Composer, to perform his works at a local Arts Festival in Brooklyn. He was the pianist of the Frank Lacy Quartet for a number of performances in Manhattan. He substituted for Geri Allen in an Off-Broadway production entitled “In Walks Bud”, performing on stage in the styles of Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. Mr. Thompson’s composition and recording credits include recording some of Graeme Revell’s music for Wayne Wang’s film entitled “Chinese Box”, composing and recording music for a Columbia Tristar film, entitled “Love Walked In” and co-writing the score for an independent feature entitled “Dogs The Rise and Fall Of An All Girl Bookie Joint” by Eve Annenberg. He has also recorded music for the independent film, “Girlfight”.

The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Richard Auldon Clark, with Christine Moore, soprano, gave the world premiere performance in 2000 of Mr. Thompson’s song cycle The Shadow of Dawn at Merkin Hall, New York City. The inspiration for this work was the work of African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar. This cycle is published by M.M.B.Music of St. Louis.

Richard Thompson’s CD, Poetry Prelude, of original compositions, was released in March 2006, on the Visionary Records label, distributed by Albany Records. The CD includes his two song cycles to the poetry of Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar, Six Preludes for Piano Solo and a jazz quartet arrangement of the Spiritual, Wade in the Water.

In summer 2006 he recorded, with his New York jazz group, Mirage, a CD of arrangements of Spirituals, entitled Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. He is currently working on a chamber opera, The Mask in the Mirror which deals with the courtship and marriage of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore.

Mr. Thompson is currently Assistant Professor of Music at San Diego State University, where he teaches jazz performance and history. He performs frequently in both jazz and classical concerts, as a soloist and many chamber groups, including his own jazz quartet, entitled Mirage.

He earned his undergraduate degree in music from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. His Masters Degree is from Rutgers University in New Jersey. At Rutgers University he studied jazz piano with Kenny Barron and classical piano with Theodore Lettvin. He also holds a jazz diploma from The Berklee College of Music in Boston.

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Pianist Polli Chambers-Salazar has performed across the United States and Canada. Ms. Chambers-Salazar specializes in presenting classical recitals that inform and involve the audience, and originated the Classics Become Eclectic series. She has appeared on KCBS Television and KUSC Radio, and recently completed “First Flight,” a compact disc recording of solo piano music by Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Boulanger and Coleridge-Taylor.

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