Sarah Holzman, Flute

Sarah Holzman is a regular performer with symphony orchestras, opera companies, choruses, and chamber ensembles around the San Francisco Bay Area.  Sarah is also a founding member of the Laurel Ensemble; she lived next door to Krisanthy during the summer of 2001, and they heard each other practicing through a shared wall and decided to introduce themselves.

Sarah's involvement with new music has brought her to the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and to Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.  This past July, Sarah made her radio debut on PRI's Echoes.

In recent summers, Sarah has participated in the Utah Festival Opera, the Festival at Palma de Mallorca, the Hot Springs Festival, Orford, Domaine Forget, the Sarasota Festival, and the Music Academy of the West.  Last season, Sarah performed in recital on San Francisco's Noontime Concerts series and at the San Francisco Community Music Center, where she is a member of the flute faculty.

Sarah received her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with Michel Debost, and her graduate degree is from the San Francisco Conservatory, where she studied with Tim Day.  Other influential teachers have been Mary Ellen Jacobs, Greig Shearer, Leone Buyse, Raymond Guiot and Robert Langevin.

When she's not playing her flute, Sarah enjoys exploring the trails of California.

Ann Lavin, Clarinet

Ann Lavin maintains an active career as a freelance orchestral and chamber clarinetist in the Bay Area.  She plays regularly with the orchestras of Monterey, Santa Cruz, Vallejo, Lyric Opera of San Francisco and is a member of the contemporary chamber group New Music Works Santa Cruz.  Ann has performed at the festivals of Tanglewood, Spoleto (Italy), Sebago-Long Lake (Maine), Shira (Jerusalem), American-Russian Youth Orchestra, Colorado Springs Music Festival, and in 2000 she premiered works by Perry Goldstein and Christian Wolfe at the Wien Moderne Festival in Vienna.  She is on recordings of Rite of Spring conducted by Yoel Levi; Mahler's 5th Symphony under Lorin Maazel and Prokofiev's War and Peace under with baton of Richard Hickox.  Ann collaborated with Bay Area guitarist/child entertainer Gayle Schmitt and appears on the children's CD, "Everything is a Song!"  During the summer, Ann plays Principal Clarinet in the Utah Festival Opera.  Previous orchestral posts held include Principal Clarinet with the Sarasota Opera, Principal Clarinet with the South Dakota Symphony, Assistant Principal/E-Flat Clarinet with the Omaha Symphony, Principal Clarinet with the Cedar Rapids Symphony and Principal Clarinet with the Lincoln Opera of Chicago.

Ann received her Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University where her teachers were Charles Neidich and Daniel Gilbert.  She received her Masters of Music from NorthwesternUniversity and Bachelors from DePaul University, where her teachers were Robert Marcellus and Larry Combs, respectively.  Ann teaches at UC Davis and the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View.

Recipient of the British Council Fellowship and a full scholarship, Christina Mok earned her BM degree and Solo Artist Diploma at the Guildhall School of Music in London, studying under Yfrah Neaman and later with Rodney Friend.   She is the winner of numerous competitions including the BBC Young Artists' Forum Audition and the Sutton Chamber Music Competition, the Korean Music Association Scholarship, and was named Young Promising Performer of the Year by the Seoul Arts Center in 1997.

Ms. Mok has given solo and chamber recitals in Japan, England, Norway, the U.S. and Korea, performed for the BBC and the Korean Broadcasting Service and was featured in prestigious festivals such as the Evian Festival in France and the Proms in London. She appeared as a soloist with the Russian Federal Symphony Orchestra at Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow during the city's 850th anniversary celebration. Ms. Mok has also performed as a soloist with the Janacek Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, the Stockton Symphony, the Pacific Chamber Symphony and the Symphony Silicon Valley in California, and the Suwon Philharmonic and the Seoul Symphony Orchestra in Korea, among others.

Ms. Mok is currently the Concertmaster of the Stockton Symphony and the Associate Concertmaster of the Symphony Silicon Valley. She is an active guest concertmaster and has led numerous orchestras in California. Until she made her home in California in 2001, she was a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Acting Concertmaster of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in London. 

She also enjoys composing and produced the score for the documentary "My Skin's on Fire".

Jenny Douglass is an active chamber musician and orchestral violist in the Bay Area. Since 1999, Jenny has been the Principal Violist of the Marin Symphony, where she has been featured with Richard Stoltzman in Bruch's Double Concerto for Clarinet and Viola and with Jeremy Constant in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante.

As a regular performer with the NYC-based Orpheus Chamber Orchestra since 1992, Jenny has toured North and South America, Europe, and Asia, and has performed on several of their CD's recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, one of which was a 2001 Grammy Award Winner. 

Since 1998, Jenny has been a member of the RiverRun Players, based in Warren, VT.  She also performs at chamber music festivals throughout the U.S, including the La Musica Festival in Sarasota, FL and the Cactus Pear Festival in San Antonio, TX.

From 1992-97, Ms. Douglass held the position of Assistant Principal Violist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in Denver, CO.  Jenny has earned degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School.  Her principal teachers have included Lynne Ramsey, Karen Tuttle, and Eugene Lehner.

Krisanthy Desby has played in chamber ensembles, orchestras and music festivals all over the United States and overseas. She has been a member of the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, Tucson Symphony, California Symphony, Sacramento Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony, as well as playing with the Houston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Golden Gate Opera, Russian Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra during their 2005 tour culminating in a concert at Carnegie Hall.

Ms. Desby is currently Assistant Principal Cello of the Napa Valley Symphony, where she has received glowing reviews for her work as Acting Principal. She has played Principal Cello for the Golden Gate Opera and was Guest Principal for the Modesto Symphony's performances of Scheherezade.

Her festival activities have included chamber music and orchestral work in Europe and North America, including the Scotia Festival in Canada, Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria in Mexico City and Neuberg Kultertage in Austria. In the U.S. she has been a member of the Mendocino and Midsummer Mozart Music Festivals, and is in her 13th year as a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival, playing both as a member of the festival orchestra and the chamber series.

She studied with Nathaniel Rosen and Jennifer Langham in Los Angeles and with Stephen Kates at Peabody Institute, graduating with a Bachelor of Music Degree. She received a Master of Music at The Shepherd School at Rice University, where she was awarded a fellowship and was Teaching Assistant to Shirley Trepel.

Krisanthy started Monday Night Music to bring chamber music into private homes, and founded the Laurel Ensemble in order to focus intensely on chamber music with a select group of musicians.

Lori Lack, Piano

Pianist Lori Lack has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and the United States.  As a collaborative artist, she has performed in recital with many artists including the Alexander String Quartet, the Stamic Quartet, Robin Sharp, Jassen Todorov, Gary Gray, Stephen Paulson and Matt Haimovitz.  She received her degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Hochschule fuer Musik in Vienna, and San Francisco State University.  In addition to serving on the faculty of CSU SummerArts and California Summer Music, she has worked as an instrumental accompanist at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and San Francisco State University.  Her teachers include Noel Flores, Carlo Bussotti, Mack McCray and Marilyn Thompson.  She now freelances in the San Francisco Bay Area while raising her two magical, musical children.

Catherine Seidel, Soprano

Soprano Catherine Seidel has performed in recent years in a broad range of musical styles, from modern classical music to jazz/art song and folk.  As a regular performer with the San Francisco ensemble Adesso she has sung modern chamber music and works by living composers including John Harbison's "Mirabai Songs" and music by Bob Becker.   Her most recent performances and recordings of the works of pianist/composer Denny Berthiaume include his song cycles from the poetry of ee cummings and Pablo Neruda.   This collection of songs entitled "If You and I Awakening", will be released on cd by Open Path Music in December 07.  She appears on several recordings of original music by the sextet Departure, as well as her own collection of songs on this label.   Catherine Seidel studied voice with Carol Plantamura at UCSD, and continued vocal studies in San Francisco with Janet Parlova, Russell Norman, and Marian Marsh.   She taught at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View and freelanced while completing a master's degree in psychology in 1994.   She is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice, as well as a professional horse trainer.

Rachel Condry, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet

Rachel Condry is an advocate of new music who is always looking for creative and exciting ways to demonstrate to audiences that new music is relevant to their lives.   Based in San Francisco, Rachel has premiered multiple works for solo clarinet, clarinet with tape and clarinet and orchestra.  In 2007 she was featured  in Lisa Scola Prosek's Opera Belfagor based on the story by Machiavelli, in which the bass clarinet portrays the devil.  In the spring of 2005 she made her Carnegie Hall debut in Zankel Hall as a member of The Matt Small Chamber Ensemble, a group that seamlessly blends jazz, improvised music and classical genres.  As a performing member of the San Francisco Composer’s Chamber Orchestra (SFCCO.org) Rachel premiered  Erling Wold's piece Brightness for clarinet and orchestra as well as Thomas Goss' Cello Concerto on Bass clarinet.  Rachel continues to independently produce concerts comprised of recent and newly commissioned work for clarinet and bass clarinet by Bay Area composers such as Earl Zindars, Erling Wold, Andrew Shapiro, Lisa Prosek, Janis Mercer, Jono Kornfeld, Melissa Hui, Alexis Alrich and others.  Rachel received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory where she was a finalist of the Oberlin Concerto Competition and was a soloist with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble.  

Jennifer Ho, Violin

As an active chamber musician and orchestral player, violinist Jennifer Ho has given numerous concerts in New York, California, and Taiwan. She is a member of the Stockton Symphony since 2006 and has played with the National Symphony, the Taipei Symphony, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Moment Musical Orchestra. As an educator, Ms. Ho has produced many outstanding students and twice she has been invited to adjudicate the Taiwan Music Competition in Taiwan. Ms. Ho earned her MA degree at the Aaron Copland School of Music, City University of New York studying under Daniel Phillips. She is the recipient of the Chamber Music Live Award and various scholarships. Ms. Ho has won many competitions, such as the Queens College Concerto Competition and the Taiwan Taipei violin competition in all three divisions of the different age groups. She attended the International Musical Arts Institute’s festival in 2005.