Nancy Bean, violin, has been a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1983 and its Assistant Concertmaster since 1986, retiring in 2009 to devote herself to chamber music. She is Artistic Director of 1807 & Friends and violinist with the Barnard Trio, the Florian Trio, Duo Paganini, Duo Parisienne, Duo Malibran, Quartet Montage and the Amerita Chamber Players.

Davyd Booth, Violin, has been a violinist and keyboard player in The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1973 and was named its harpsichordist in 1999. He was a member of the Philarte Quartet for 14 years and is Co-Director and harpsichordist for the Amerita Chamber Players. He is a member of 1807 & Friends, the Barnard Trio and Duo Malibran.

Pamela Fay, viola, is a graduate of the University of Toronto where she studied with Lorand Fenyves. She has studied with William Primrose and has been coached by members of the Hungarian String Quartet. She is a regular substitute with The Philadelphia Orchestra and violist of 1807 & Friends and the Amerita Chamber Players and is artistic director of the South Jersey Summer Strings Festival.

Lloyd Smith, cello, has been a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1967 and was named its Assistant Principal cellist in 1988. In 2002 he was its Acting Associate Principal cellist and retired in 2003 to devote himself to chamber music and composing. He is cellist with 1807 & Friends, the Barnard Trio, the Florian Trio and the Amerita Chamber Players. He conducts the composing workshops with string students int he Philadelphia School District under the “Young Composers Project.

Marcantonio Barone, piano, was a prizewinner at both the 1985 Busoni and 1987 Leeds International Piano Competitions, and made his debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973 at the age of ten. Since his 1986 Wigmore Hall debut in London, Mr. Barone has returned for several highly successful concert tours. Prior to his graduate studies with Leon Fleischer at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Mr. Barone studied with Eleanor Sokoloff at The Curtis Institute of Music, and also with Susan Starr. He is currently head of the piano department at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music.

Allen Krantz, Guitar, has received acclaim as a composer, solo guitarist, and chamber musician. He has performed throughout the United States, with his programs often featuring original compositions. His recordings include The Romantic Guitar, which features his transcriptions of music by Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. Mr. Krantz heads the guitar program of The New School Institute at Temple University. Theodore Presser is publishing his original chamber compositions with guitar including the Nocturne. International Music publishes his arrangements for the guitar.

David Cramer, flute, is Associate Principal Flutist of The Philadelphia Orchestra, joining the orchestra in 1981. He is a member of the Temple University faculty. Mr. Cramer has participated in the Tanglewood Festival and the Central City Colorado Opera Festival and is a frequent chamber music performer in the Philadelphia area. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music. His teachers have included Murray Panitz, William Hebert, Barbara Peterson and James Pappoutsakis and he has played in master classes with Marcel Moyse.

Anne Sullivan, harp, began her career as a concert harpist at age twelve when she appeared twice as soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra. A native of the Philadelphia area, she studied with Marilyn Costello, former Principal Harpist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and was awarded a Bachelor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music. She was principal harp of the Orchestra of the Pennsylvania Ballet and has been a member of the music theory faculty at The Curtis Institute of Music since 1982. She is a member of Duo Parisienne, The Liberty Strings, and Quartet Montage, which performs 1807 & Friends’ “Sounds of the Strings” interactive educational presentations and its “Young Composers Project” presentations in the Philadelphia School District.

Cynthia Raim, piano, who was unanimously chosen as the First Prize winner of the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, has been acclaimed for her concerto and recital appearances throughout the United States and abroad. In summing up the performance that won Ms. Raim the coveted Clara Haskil prize, La Suisse (Geneva) noted that “Miss Raim showed a musical nature that has gone far beyond technical mastery: Without affectation, without useless bravado, Cynthia Raim has imprinted herself on us and cannot escape our admiration. Le Monde (Paris) called her “a new Clara Haskil.”

Ms. Raim was the first recipient of the “Distinguished Artist Award” of The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, given for “outstanding achievement and artistic merit.” She has participated in many leading international music festivals including Marlboro, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Meadow Brook, Grand Teton, Bard, Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Luzern and Montreux. Active in chamber music as well, Ms. Raim has appeared with the Guarneri String quartet, Vermeer String Quartet, and Johannes String Quartet among others. She has recorded for Gallo, Pantheon, and Connoisseur Society.

A native of Detroit, Ms. Raim was the youngest soloist ever to perform a complete concerto with the Detroit Symphony. Before graduating in 1977 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Ms. Raim had won the Festorazzi Award for Most Promising Pianist at Curtis.

Pianist Natalie Zhu is the recipient of a 2006 Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award, the 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2003 Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and winner of Astral Artistic Services’ 1998 National Auditions. The Philadelphia Inquirer heralded Astral’s presentation of Ms. Zhu in recital as a display of “emotional and pianistic pyrotechnics”; selections from the recital were later broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”

Natalie Zhu began her piano studies with Xiao-Cheng Liu at the age of six in her native China and public appearance at age nine in Beijing. At eleven she emigrated with her family to Los Angeles, and by fifteen was enrolled at The Curtis Institute of Music where she received the Rachmaninoff Award and studied with Gary Graffman. She received a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with Claude Frank.

Michael Chaffin at Key Sch 1505Michael Chaffin, bass, is a graduate of the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Performance. He has performed with the Haverford College Orchestra, the Philadelphia Sinfonia, and toured China with the Philadelphia National Symphony. He is the bassist of 1807 & Friends ensemble which performs Sounds of the Strings interactive educational presentations, and its Young Composers Project presentations in the Philadelphia School District.