Featuring
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Gonzalo X. Ruiz
Principal Oboe
Born in La Plata, Argentina, Gonzalo X. Ruiz is one of the world’s most critically acclaimed baroque oboists. He performs as principal oboist and soloist with groups such as Philharmonia Baroque, Ensemble Sonnerie, Boston Early Music Festival, The English Concert, Wiener Akademie, and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has collaborated with conductors McGegan, Savall, Pinnock, Rattle, Egarr, Manze, Leonhardt, Hogwood, Hassellböck, and many others.
His playing is featured on dozens of recordings including his 2010 Grammy™-nominated recording of reconstructions of the four orchestral suites and the concertos of J.S. Bach. In addition to frequent appearances in recital and with chamber ensembles, his groundbreaking work in new music with American Baroque earned the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming and the WQXR Record of the Year Award.
Ruiz was appointed to the faculty of The Juilliard School in 2009 and for many years prior taught at Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and the Longy School’s International Baroque Institute and has given master classes at many of the best American and European conservatories. His former students now fill most of the key oboe positions in baroque ensembles across this country. Ruiz is an acknowledged expert in reed design, and examples of his work are on permanent display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his free time he enjoys playing guitar and dancing tango.
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Jesse Barrett
Associate Principal Oboe
Jesse Barrett is a San Francisco Bay Area native who grew up in Pleasant Hill, CA. He currently plays oboe and English horn for the Santa Rosa Symphony, Reno Chamber Orchestra, One Found Sound, Symphony Napa Valley, California Symphony, and has played as principal oboist for West Edge Opera, Opera Modesto, and Merced Symphony where he has been a soloist on multiple occasions since 2010. Mr. Barrett has played with San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, New Century Chamber Orchestra, most of the orchestras in Northern California and Nevada.
In 2016, he played in the inaugural season of the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico. As a soloist, Mr. Barrett has appeared with a number of Bay Area ensembles, performing a wide range of repertoire from Handel’s G Minor concerto, to Copland’s Quiet City, to the Costa Rican composer Benjamin Gutiérrez’s Sketches for Oboe and Strings, to the recent commission by Sahba Aminikia, Shahmaran, where he also narrated.
Mr. Barrett is an avid chamber musician, new music enthusiast and teacher of students of all ages throughout Northern California. He has been on faculty at San José State University, California State University Stanislaus and Dominican University. He frequently gets involved in musical start-ups like San Francisco’s conductor-less chamber orchestra One Found Sound, and is the developmental director of the Bay Area’s premier wind octet Nomad Session. Mr. Barrett regularly enjoys teaching at music camps, recording new music, making school visits, and collaborating on solo and chamber concerts. He is also a passionate singer, often performing at his favorite piano bar, cabaret venues, and has hosted numerous events as an emcee, oboist, singer, and actor. He has shared the stage with a wide variety of performers, including but not limited to Dave Brubeck, Andrea Bocelli, Chicago and Third Eye Blind.
Mr. Barrett studied with Thomas Nugent at University of the Pacific where he was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia and thereafter obtained a Master of Music from Boston University where he studied with Laura Ahlbeck and was inducted as a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. He currently teaches at University of the Pacific.
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Ginger Kroft
Principal Clarinet
Ginger Kroft is a faculty member at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Santa Clara University. She is Principal Clarinet of Sacramento Philharmonic and the Carmel Bach Festival, and is a member of the Oakland Symphony. Ms. Kroft regularly performed with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for many seasons. In the chamber world, Ms. Kroft was in-residence with Left Coast Chamber Ensemble at the Wunsch New Music Festival.
She is a Vandoren International Artist and performs on M15 mouthpieces and Traditional reeds. An education advocate, Ms. Kroft maintains a private teaching studio, ClarinetStudio.org, and is a frequent adjudicator of solo competitions. Ms. Kroft holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Northwestern University.
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Meredith Brown
Principal Horn
Meredith Brown is well-known throughout Northern California, holding Principal Horn positions with the Napa Valley, Fremont, and Vallejo Symphonies as well as with Oakland Symphony, and serving as Acting Principal Horn of the Santa Rosa Symphony. She has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera, and the San Francisco Ballet, as well as with Oakland Symphony, Marin Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, and the California Symphony. In addition, she has extensive experience in musical theater, including the San Francisco appearances of White Christmas, La Bohème, Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof, Titanic, Sound of Music, Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables. Educated at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, with a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory, she lives in Oakland with her rescue kitties.
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Alicia Mastromonaco
Horn
Born in San Francisco, California, Alicia Mastromonaco began playing the piano at age seven, and the horn at age twelve. Alicia earned BM degrees in horn performance and musicology at Boston University where she studied with Eric Ruske, Daniel Katzen, Jean Rife, and Jason Snyder, then moved to Berlin to study at the Universität der Künste Berlin under the tutelage of Christian-Friedrich Dallmann. From Berlin, Alicia returned to California where she earned a MM at UCLA studying with Chris Cooper. She also earned an MA in musicology from UC Santa Barbara, where she is currently writing a dissertation for her musicology PhD.
Alicia is an avid orchestral hornist and has holds positions with the Marin Symphony and Monterey Symphony. She performs with several California orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, California Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Symphony Silicon Valley, Opera San José, Oakland Symphony, and Modesto Symphony, and performs in chamber groups.
In addition to her work as a performing musician, Alicia is also passionate about music history and education. Alicia is the education coordinator for the Monterey Symphony, where she writes program notes, gives pre-concert lectures, visits thousands of students around Monterey County each year, and emcees the Symphony’s Youth Concerts. Her dissertation research centers around regional orchestras in northern California during labor disputes and bankruptcies. In addition to her research, she also enjoys teaching privately at her home studio, and in college classroom settings, having taught undergraduates at UCLA and UCSB.
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Erin Finkelstein
Clarinet
Clarinetist Erin Finkelstein is in demand as an orchestral and chamber musician. She performs frequently with The Phoenix Symphony and Arizona Opera, and has been featured on the Phoenix Downtown Chamber Series. In the summer, Erin performs with the world-class Carmel Bach Festival. Prior to moving to Arizona, Erin performed regularly with most of the professional orchestras and opera companies in Northern California. She has participated in summer festivals at the National Orchestral Institute, Domaine Forget Festival, and the Bear Valley Festival.
As an advocate for chamber music, Erin has been involved in building local chamber ensembles wherever she has resided. As a member of Urban Nocturnes, she enjoys celebrating the repertoire combination provided with the unique instrumentation. Erin has performed with the Mill Ave Chamber Players where she performed on two CD’s, and the 50 year-old Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet.
As a passionate educator, Erin is currently an adjunct music lecturer and Feldenkrais Practitioner® at Phoenix College and runs a pre-college studio in clarinet and piano. She has held teaching positions at the University of the Pacific and California State University. Erin holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of the Pacific and Arizona State University and continued studies at Mannes College of Music in New York City.
In addition to her musical live, Erin Finkelstein is a guild certified Feldenkrais Practitioner with 15 years’ experience in helping people to move, sense, feel, and think with more ease and grace. Her in-person Feldenkrais practice at Sound Movement Services LLC encompasses helping and educating a wide range of people; from children with Cerebral Palsy, to professional Musicians, the aging population, and everyone in-between. With her online practice, you can find access to classes and a learning library with over 120 Awareness Through Movement lessons on her website, or find her collaborations with MIGSE, the Musicians’ International Group for Somatic Education.
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Dominic Teresi
Principal Bassoon
A native of California, Dominic Teresi is principal bassoon of Tafelmusik Orchestra, Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, and Carmel Bach Festival, as well as a member of Quicksilver and Juilliard Baroque. Dr. Teresi teaches historical bassoon and chamber music at The Juilliard School. He has also enjoyed performances with Le Concert d’Astrée, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Philharmonia Baroque, Ensemble Caprice, Smithsonian Chamber Players, and others.
In demand on dulcian, baroque, classical, and modern bassoon, Teresi has appeared as a concerto soloist throughout Europe, North America and Australia and was a featured artist on CBC Radio, performing a nationally broadcast concert of bassoon concertos and sonatas.
His recordings with Boston Early Music Festival Chamber Ensemble and Tafelmusik have been nominated for Grammy and Juno awards. Dr. Teresi was recently an invited lecturer at the Musikinstrumentenbau Symposium in Saxony-Anhalt.
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David A. Wells
Bassoon/Contrabassoon
David A. Wells plays period and modern bassoons in a wide variety of ensembles and styles. On baroque bassoon, he has performed recently with the American Bach Soloists, Capella Antiqua, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Sacramento Baroque Soloists, Sinfonia Spirituosa, and at the Oregon and Carmel Bach Festivals. On modern bassoon, he freelances with orchestras throughout Northern California, collaborates with colleagues in chamber groups, and plays with the swing sextet Hot Club Faux Gitane.
He is also active as a music scholar, having presented papers at the conferences of the American Musicological Society, the Society for American Music, and the International Double Reed Society. Wells is on faculty at California State University, Sacramento, where he teaches bassoon and music history.
He holds both a D.M.A. in bassoon performance and an M.A. in musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and previously studied at Florida State University and Arizona State University. His principal teachers include Jeffrey Lyman, Jeff Keesecker, and Marc Vallon. When not playing or teaching, he can be found swimming, taking photographs, collecting records, and trying to keep up with his super-librarian/yogi wife, Veronica.
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Jordan Frazier
Principal Double Bass
Bassist, Jordan Frazier, has performed worldwide with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra since 1993 and was appointed a member of the orchestra in 2006. He is a former member of L’Orchestra Ciutat de Barcelona, and currently is a member of the American Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, and is Principal Bass of the Westchester Philharmonic, Little Orchestra Society, and the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra in California. Jordan has also performed as Principal Bass of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, as well as the Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Symphonies, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York City Ballet, and the American Ballet Theater Orchestras. Jordan has also performed and recorded with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, both in Toronto and at the Klang und Raum Festival in Bavaria.
As a Chamber musician, Jordan has been a guest with Bargemusic, Helicon Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, Los Angeles Piano Quartet, and the Corigliano, Jupiter, Parker, and Daedalus Quartets. His recording credits include Sony Classical, Harmonium Mundi, Nonesuch, London, Decca/Argo, EMI, Koch, Musical Heritage Society, Blue Note, and Deutsche Grammophon, including the Grammy winning “Shadow Dances”, music of Stravinsky, with Orpheus and the Grammy winning Blue Note album, Emanon, with the Wayne Shorter Quartet and Orpheus. He is also a member of Gerard Schwartz’s All-Star Orchestra and has recorded 20 episodes(10DVD’s)for Naxos and PBS.
A native of Cleveland, Jordan received his musical training at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Manhattan School of Music. He has been on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music and has given masterclasses at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Yale and Rice Universities and at the National Orchestral Institute. Jordan lives in Fredonia, NY with his wife, bassoonist Laura Koepke, and their two boys.
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Jeannie Psomas
Clarinet
Jeannie is the second clarinetist with the Fresno Philharmonic, and performs with orchestras all over the Bay Area. For the past ten years Jeannie has been a regular substitute musician with the San Francisco Symphony, including accompanying the orchestra on Michael Tilson Thomas’ final tour as music director in 2019. When Jeannie isn’t frantically practicing she is running her plant store, The Plant Lady: SF, which opened in 2021. You can find her on Instagram at @theplantladysf
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Elisabeth Axtell
Horn
Elisabeth Axtell delights in sharing the period instrument ethos with audiences across the country. Her regular engagements include Handel & Haydn Society, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Opera Neo, Austin Philharmonie, La Speranza, North Carolina Baroque, Arpeggione, Opera Lafayette, Three Notch’d Road, Boston Baroque, Staunton Music Festival, Connecticut Early Music, Big Moose Bach Festival, Portland Bach Experience, and more.
Off stage, Elisabeth is an entrepreneur of unconventional ensembles; founding projects include Grand Harmonie, a wind-led period instrument orchestra, and Conica, a natural horn quartet. She has proudly supported community music organizations through service as a board member of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony and as a president of New England Brass Band. Elisabeth teaches natural horn at New England Conservatory and, as a recovering English major, operates a thriving editorial and content creation business. Born in Montana, raised in the Pacific Northwest, and educated in Minnesota, she now splits her time between Boston, Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, and the road.
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Susan Macy
Clarinet/Basset Horn
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