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Cellist Troy Kenneth Stuart is a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Stuart has performed solo and chamber music concerts with such noted artists as Sir Isaac Stern, Jamie Laredo, Pamela Frank and Paul Badura-Skoda. He is a founding member of the Gateways Chamber Players and serves as principal cellist for the Gateways Music Festival. In addition, he is co-founder and artistic director for the Phoenix Chamber Orchestra. Stuart was invited to participate in the internationally televised (CBS) “Kennedy Center Honors” honoring the great Alexander Schneider. An award winning cellist, actor/musician Dudley Moore presented Stuart with the Martell Cordon Bleu Award.

Conductor Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III. By the time he was in high school, conductor Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III was conducting a boys choral group and composing music. In 1992, he was named Laureate in Music for the Commonwealth of Virginia. His work has been performed by the Baltimore Symphony, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Virginia Chamber Players to name a few, and conductors such as James de Priest, Daniel Barenboim and Kurt Masur have directed major orchestras featuring Hailstork’s compositions. On May 1, 2002 the Virginia Arts Festival presented an evening of Adolphus Hailstork’s chamber music.

Violinist Tai Murray. Winner of the 2004 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Upcoming 2004-05 engagements include solo appearances with the symphonies of St. Louis, Annapolis, and Jacksonville. She will tour with Musicians from Marlboro and in September will begin a two year residency with the Chamber Music Society II program of Lincoln Center. Since making her debut with the Chicago Symphony at age eight, violinist Tai Murray has performed extensively as a soloist with orchestras across the United States and Europe. Born in 1982, she has performed at the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl, Salt Lake City’s Abravanel Hall and Chicago’s Mandel Hall. Concerto performances include appearances with the Baltimore, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Utah and Washington D.C. Symphonies. Murray was the only solo artist invited by the Chicago Symphony to perform a recital in the Rotunda of Chicago’s Symphony Center during its Inaugural Festival.

Soprano Alison Buchanan. A native of Bedford, England, soprano Alison Buchanan is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. After completing her studies Buchanan spent two years as an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera, making her 1996 debut with the company as Mimi (La Boheme). She has worked with operatic greats Placido Domingo and Franco Zefferelli. Since returning to England, Buchanan has worked with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and has appeared with the Holland Park Opera (Orpheus and the Underworld), the Pegasus Opera (Magic Flute and Carmen) and is a regular artist for the BBC Radio 2 Program Friday Night is Music Night.

Amadi Hummings - Viola. When it comes to classical music, violist Amadi Hummings has just about done it all. A world-class musician, Hummings performed at the U.S. Supreme Court and has toured around the world, including in Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, India, Japan and throughout the Caribbean. He has been a guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York and of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. His performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio‚s „Performance Today,‰ „St. Paul Sunday‰ and on WNYC in New York, to name a few. Hummings is also Director of Program Development for the Gateways Music Festival.

Damarre McGill is currently in his fourth season as the principal flutist of the Florida Orchestra. He has performed on the Ravinia Festival’s “Rising Star” series, the A&E Network Series “The Gifted Ones” and was special guest on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. He was also featured on an Angel/EMI recording playing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #5. McGill has performed with such notable ensembles as the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony among others. He is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and received his Master of Music degree from Juilliard.