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Elizabeth Brown was born in San Diego, California, and began playing the cello at the age of four.
Ms. Brown has performed with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra and others. Ms. Brown received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Alan Harris.  Ms. Brown is currently in her fourth season as the principal cellist of La Orquesta Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes, in Sinaloa, Mexico.




Adam Carter is currently a lecturer in cello at the University of Virginia, member of the Rivanna String Quartet, and principal of the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra.  Before joining the faculty at UVA, he played with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison, WI. He has also won positions with the Akron Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, and Cedar Rapids Symphony, and performed with the Erie Philharmonic, Fairfax Symphony, and Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. An active teacher, Mr. Carter was adjunct professor of cello and bass at Ripon College in Ripon, WI, maintained a large private studio, and taught with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras and the Sun Prairie Music Academy. His principle teachers include Steven Doane, Rosemary Elliot, Robert Marsh, and Uri Vardi.  

Alex Greenbaum began playing the cello at age three.  In the past few years he has performed as soloist or collaborator at venues throughout New York City, including Bargemusic, Merkin Hall, Makor, Tonic, The Cutting Room, Rockwood Music Hall, the Brooklyn Lyceum and at Lincoln Center.  An avid chamber musician, Alex is a member of the Knights chamber ensemble and the new music group Signal and Noise.  Alex has appeared as a soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra, and this season will solo with the Chelsea Symphony.  He has attended the Eastman School of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Miami and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.  His teachers have included Steven Doane, Marcy Rosen, Ross Harbaugh and Andre Emelianoff.  Alex plays a cello crafted in 2006 by Michele Ashley. 
Susannah Kelly lives in Tampa, FL where she is currently the principal cellist of the Southwest Florida Symphony in Fort Myers, FL and a graduate assistant at the University of South Florida. She received degrees in cello performance from the Eastman School of Music. She has participated in numerous festivals including the Tanglewood Music Center, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Quartet Program at Bucknell and has performed in the cello sections of orchestras including the New World Symphony, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, and the National Repertory Orchestra.

Kevin McFarland received a Bachelor’s Degree in Composition from the Eastman School of Music. While a student there he was a highly active performer of contemporary music, including frequent concerts with the school’s Ossia New Music and Musica Nova ensembles, and over one hundred premieres of works by faculty and students. He is also a member of the JACK quartet, a group dedicated to the performance of modern and contemporary works for string quartet based in New York City.  He has collaborated with a diverse array of composers, including Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm, La Monte Young, and John Zorn.  He currently lives in Pennsylvania where he works as a math tutor and makes electronic music in his spare time.
Laura Metcalf is an active performer in New York City, where she has been heard recently in Weill Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the Consulate General of France, the J.P Morgan Library, the Tenri Cultural Institute, and many others. She has attended the International Musician’s Seminar at Prussia Cove, and the Taos, Aspen, Sarasota, and Round Top Music Festivals. She is currently a member of the Sybarite Chamber Players, and was a founding member of the Stella Trio from 2005-2007. She was a semi-finalist in the 2007 Hudson Valley Philharmonic Competition, and gave her New York doncerto debut in 2007 with the Ensemble 212 Orchestra. Laura has studied with Timothy Eddy and Mike Reynolds, and has played in masterclasses for Bernard Greenhouse, Ron Leonard, Pamela Frank, and others.
Michael Midlarsky, currently a student of Uri Vardi and Collins Distinguished Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, has performed extensively as a chamber musician and soloist during his formative years.  He has won numerous awards and distinctions including the National School Orchestra Soloist Award, Queen’s College Cultural Heritage Competition, NJ American String Teacher’s Association Competition, East Brunswick Orchestra Competition, and prizewinner in the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra Competition and Woodmere String Competition.  Recent festivals include the Taos School of Music and Roundtop International Institute.  As a chamber musician he has performed in over 15 states, 4 countries, and on the radio program From the Top, after which he won the ensuing competition.  Known for a “remarkable warmth of sound” and “lilting lyricism” (competition judges), Michael is looking forward to many premier performances as his career continues to blossom.  
Florent Renard-Payen was born in Paris to a family of professional musicians; his parents were both harpists. He studied in France with Annie Cochet and Michel Strauss. At the age of twenty, he moved to Boston to pursue five years of graduate study with Andrés Díaz, culminating in a Master’s degree and the Pi Kappa Lambda award for musical achievement from Boston University in 1996. He completed his musical studies in 2004, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts in Cello Performance from the Eastman School of Music. During his studies in the states, Florent had the honor of performing in master classes for Pieter Wispelwey, Yo-Yo Ma, Roberto Díaz and the late Joseph Gingold. Since 1999, Florent has been teaching cello at Colgate University and chamber music at Hamilton College, NY. A champion of music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Florent is the founder of the Tarab Cello Ensemble, and a guest performer of the Society for New Music in Syracuse. Florent has commissioned and premiered solo cello works by Randall Bauer, Garrett Byrnes, Todd Coleman, Gregory Mertl, Aaron Travers, and Dan Trueman.