Nancy Bean, violin, joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1983 and was named its assistant concertmaster in 1986. She retired in 2009 to devote herself to chamber music. She is Artistic Director of 1807 & Friends and violinist with the Wister Quartet, the Casimir Trio, the Florian Trio, Trio Montage, Duo Paganini, Duo Parisienne, and the Amerita Chamber Players. A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, her teachers were Jascha Brodsky and Felix Galimir.

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 of the Amerita Chamber Players. He is a member of 1807 & Friends and the Wister Quartet. A graduate of the New School of Music, his violin teacher was Jascha Brodsky. He studied piano with Susan Starr and Martha Massena.

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 is violist of 1807 & Friends, the Wister Quartet, the Amerita Chamber Players, and performs with the Philly Pops and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

Lloyd Smith, cello, joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1967. He was named its assistant principal cello in 1988 and its acting associate principal cello in 2002. He retired in 2003 to devote himself to chamber music, composing, and lecturing. He is cellist with 1807 & Friends, the Wister Quartet, Casimir Trio, Trio Montage, the Florian Trio, and the Amerita Chamber Players. He is project leader of the Young Composers Project in the Philadelphia School District’s Office of Strategic Partnerships.” His lectures include “The Art of Fine Violinmaking,” “Niccolo Paganini — the First Superstar,” “So You Think You Can Dance the Chaconne,” and he is currently developing “Strange and Forgotten Musical Instruments.” A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, his teachers were Leonard Rose and Orlando Cole. He participated in the Marlboro Music Festivals, where he was coached by Pablo Casals and members of the Budapest String Quartet and the Beaux Arts Trio.

Marcantonio Barone, piano, has given solo recitals in major concert halls in the United States and Europe. He has given the world premieres of works for piano by Ingrid Arauco, Richard Brodhead, David Finko, Ulysses Kay, Gerald Levinson, Philip Maneval, George Rochberg, Andrew Rudin, and Melinda Wagner. As a member of Orchestra 2001, he was the pianist for the first performances and recordings of the seven volumes of George Crumb’s American Songbook. He performs annually at the Delaware Chamber Music Festival and with the Lenape Chamber Ensemble, 1807 and Friends, and the Craftsbury Chamber Players. He is head of the piano department and assistant director at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music and an Associate in Performance at Swarthmore College. He studied with Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. His other teachers included Susan Starr and Leonard Shure.

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. His Duo for Cello and Guitar was given its World Premiere performance in November 2018.

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.

Jeffrey Lang is the associate principal horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra and is currently on the faculties of Bard College, Temple University, and The Curtis Institute of Music. Formerly principal horn of the Israel Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra, he has also performed as guest principal horn of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the New York City Opera Orchestra, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Mr. Lang studied at the Juilliard School and Temple University, and he has given master classes in Israel, Finland, Korea, China, and the United States. He is a frequent soloist and has appeared with such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Myung-Whun Chung, Kurt Masur, Cristian Măcelaru, and Rossen Milanov. Chamber music performances at home and abroad have included concerts with Bella Davidovich, Diane Walsh, Simone Dinnerstein, Melvin Chan, Natalie Zhu, the Israel Piano Trio, the Wister Quartet, the Canadian Brass, the Philadelphia Chamber Ensemble, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and members of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has participated in the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, Bard Summerscape, OK Mozart, and the Spoleto Festival.

Mr. Lang records for several TV, film, and commercial artists in the metropolitan area and was principal horn of Disney’s long-running Broadway hit Beauty and the Beast. He is an active member of the Recording Academy, the International Horn Society, and the American Federation of Musicians. He has recently released a solo horn album, One World Horn, a charitable project presenting unaccompanied horn works from around the world. A live recording of Richard Wilson’s Triple Concerto for Horn, Marimba, and Bass Clarinet is also available on iTunes with the American Symphony Orchestra. 

Mr. Lang lives in New Jersey with his wife, Finnish cellist Elina Snellman-Lang, and their two sons, Johannes and Markus.

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.”

Ms. Zhu has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In the U.S. she has appeared as soloist with many major symphony orchestras. Ms. Zhu made her European debut in 1994 at the Festival de Sully et d’Orleans in France and has also given solo recitals at the Philadelphia Chamber Music  Society, New York’s Steinway Hall and Merkin Hall, Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Series in Fresno, Portland Piano Festival in Oregon, Munich’s Herkulessaal in Germany, and Beijing Concert Hall in China. She has performed with both the Vermeer and Miami quartets, and collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Orion, Mendelssohn, Ying Quartets, and the Beaux Arts Trio. Ms. Zhu toured with renowned violinist Hilary Hahn from 1997 to 2006.  An active chamber musician, she has appeared in Marlboro, Amelia Island, Kingston, Great Lake, Tanglewood, Skaneateles, and the Bay Chamber Music Festivals . 

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. 

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.

"... beautifully prepared program ... the Latin American program alternately glimmered and blazed."-The Philadelphia Inquirer