Marcantonio Barone, piano.  Born in 1962, American pianist Marcantonio Barone made his debut at the age of ten at a Philadelphia Orchestra children's concert. He returned in 1990 as soloist on the Orchestra's subscription series under the direction of William Smith. He has also performed as soloist with the Saint Louis and Houston Symphony Orchestras, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has collaborated with such eminent conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Leon Fleisher, Arther Fiedler, and Barry Tuckwell, and has performed in solo recitals at the Metropolitan Museum and at Weill Recital Hall in New York, at the Wigmore Hall in London, and at the Large Hall of the Saint Petersburg Filarmoniya. He performs frequently as a member of the Lenape Chamber Ensemble, 1807 and Friends, Orchestra 2001, and many other groups. He has given the world premiere performances of works by several distinguished composers, including George Rochberg, David Finko, Gerald Levinson, and Thomas Whitman. In addition to his duties at Swarthmore, Mr. Barone is also on the faculty of the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music, where he is head of the piano department.

Barbara Govatos, violin. Barbara Govatos holds the Wilson H. and Barbara B. Taylor chair of the first violin section of the Philadelphia Orchestra and was given the C. Hartman Kuhn Award for enhancing the standards and the reputation of the Fabulous Philadelphians. She and Marcantonio Barone were presented with the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists award by the Classical Recording Foundation in recognition of their recording of the complete Beethoven Sonatas for violin and piano on Bridge Records.

Joe Mass, guitar. Joe Mass is a Philadelphia born guitarist/multi-instrumentalist who has performed with Jon Bon Jovi, Lance Quinn, Robert Hazard, and Essra Mowhawk. Throughout his career Joe as always been for hire as a studio musician and sideman. His 1999 work with David Fox won the John Lennon songwriting competition.

Udi Bar-David, cello. Udi Bar-David is widely considered one of the most versatile cellists in the world, performing on international stages with both classical and ethnic musicians. Udi studied in Tel-Aviv, with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School, and Orchestral Conducting at Curtis Institute of Music. Udi won the International Villa Lobos Competition in Brazil, and appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Jerusalem Symphony and Philly Pops. He was featured on the TODAY show, and was represented by Astral Artistic Services and the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity. He has served as principal cellist with many orchestras, and has been a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra since the late 1980s.

Laurie Ticehurst, piano. Laurie Ticehurst received the degrees of Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the University of Colorado and later studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers were Clarence Adler, Leon Fleisher, Rosina Lhevinne, and Susan Starr. She was pianist of Amati Trio and served on the faculties of the University of Colorado and Iowa State University before joining the faculty of the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music in 1974. She has given solo and chamber performances throughout the United States and was the Recipient of the Paderewski Award, the U.S. Steel Grant for Humanities, and the Denver Symphony Young Artists’ Prize.

Clara Rottsolk, voice. A native of Seattle, the soprano Clara Rottsolk has been lauded by The New York Times for her “clear, appealing voice and expressive conviction” and by The Philadelphia Inquirer for the “opulent tone [with which] every phrase has such a communicative emotional presence.” In a repertoire extending from the Renaissance to the contemporary, she has appeared as soloist with ensembles such as Tempesta di Mare, St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Philadelphia Bach Collegium, Trinity Wall Street Choir, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Bach Sinfonia, Handel Choir of Baltimore, and Ensemble Florilège under conductors including Joshua Rifkin, Bruno Weill, John Scott, David Effron, and Andrew Megill. Among her stage roles are Micaëla (Carmen), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Arminda (La finta giardiniera), and Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief).

Catherine Kei Fukuda, violin. Based in Philadelphia, Kei Fukuda is a violinist, music educator, and passionate advocate for music as a vehicle for social change. She is continuously exploring ways to use music education and performance as tools for inspiring, empowering, and uniting people of all backgrounds. Kei performs regularly with the Delaware Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Ballet, Philly POPS, and Britt Festival Orchestra and has played with Kansas City Symphony and Akron Symphony Orchestra.

Lara Nie, voice. One of New York's most prominent German lied specialists (NY Magazine), and an intensely expressive artist (Cleveland Plain Dealer), mezzo-soprano Lara Nie is one of today's most versatile and accomplished singers. As soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, her performances are recognized for interpretive passion and sophistication. Lara made her Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall in 2006, and has appeared at Ravinia, Clevelands Severance Hall, and Munichs Gasteig Hall, with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Sun Valley Summer Symphony, and Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.

Keiko Sato, piano. Keiko Sato received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1982, studying with Mieczyslaw Horszowski and Gary Graffman. She has both a Master of Music and a Master of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Seymour Lipkin and Claude Frank. She has received various prizes in international and national piano competitions. Ms. Sato has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras and played recitals in Japan, where she was born, and throughout the United States.

Jason Long, jazz piano.  Jason Long is a Philadelphia native and a 25 year professional musician, arranger and music educator in the Philadelphia/New York/Washington DC area. Jason has performed and recorded with numerous local and national acts during the past 28 years as both a pianist and a bassist, including Bobby Caldwell, Arturo Sandoval, Brian Bromberg, Will Lee and Andrew Neu, among many others.

Award-winning Chinese tenor Liangjun Shi is a frequent recitalist and accomplished vocologist. He recorded Chinese art songs for the textbook Bel Canto of China to be published by the People’s Music Publishing House nationwide. He has appeared on stages such as The Great Hall of the People, Peking University Hall, and Fujian Grand Theater, to name a few. In addition, Shi was the winner of the First Prize (preliminary) and the Second Prize (final) in the 24th International Music Competition held by the Music Association of Korea, and the First Prize winner in the 6th Sino-Singapore International Music Competition. His stage roles include Don Quixote/Cervantes in Man of La Mancha directed by Joseph Graves, Priest and Man in Armour in Die Zauberflöte directed by Peer Boysen, Remendado in Carmen, Xuan Wang in The Songs for Xuan Wang, and among others. In addition to his recordings and performances, he is the translator of the Chinese edition of Your Voice: An Inside View 3 by Dr. Scott McCoy.

Shi holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Pedagogy under Professor Carmen Balthrop and Dr. Delores Ziegler at the University of Maryland School of Music. Shi’s dissertation is entitled A Pedagogical Guide to Chinese Art Song: Diction, Style, and a Selected Survey. It proves to be a comprehensive guide for non-native, English-speaking singers and pedagogues to access the treasure of Chinese art song. His research encompasses an innovative phonetic system of Standard Chinese diction to reflect the nuances in the language, a comprehensive survey of traditional Chinese voice pedagogy treatises, the evolution of Chinese poetry, and an insightful analysis of pioneering composers within the Chinese art song genre.

Prior to his doctoral training, Shi received a Master of Arts in Voice Pedagogy, a Master of Music in Voice Performance, and a certificate in Singing Health Specialization from the School of Music, Department of Speech and Hearing Science, and College of Medicine - Department of Otolaryngology at The Ohio State University, under the tutelage of Dr. Scott McCoy. In addition to his interdisciplinary study, he completed a Vocology Certificate from the National Center for Voice and Speech and The University of Utah, under distinguished Dr. Ingo Titze. His previous education has also included a Master of Fine Arts in Drama (Opera) from Peking University under Professor Man Kim, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from the Chengdu University of Technology.

As a Singing Health Specialist and an NCVS-certified Vocologist, Shi has observed Surgical Laryngology and Clinical Speech-Language Pathology at the OSU Wexner Medical Center. Always interested in current research, his recent presentations and appearances have included national and international conferences and forums with topics such as “Sing to your 90s: A Brief Introduction to Singing Health” at the University of Maryland, “Vocal Arts Department Forum” at the University of Southern California, “An Introduction to Chinese Singing Styles” and “Twenty-Seventh Annual Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Alumni Symposium” at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, as well as the “National Bel Canto of China Forum” in Beijing.

Shi currently teaches at Swarthmore College as Instructor of Voice. His students have appeared in leading roles in opera and musical theatre productions, and on professional stages nationwide, such as the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Many of them have been accepted into competitive programs at the University of Maryland, The Ohio State University, Sichuan Conservatory of Music (China), and Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini Firenze (Italy). Shi’s research focuses on timbre, vibrato, and health of the singing voice, in cooperation with the Department of Speech, Voice and Language Therapy of the China Rehabilitation Research Center for Hearing and Speech Impairment in Beijing.

Liangjun Shi is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, The Voice Foundation, and the Pan American Vocology Association.

Praised for her “inimitable, resonant contralto” (Phindie), “particularly moving singing” (Cleveland Classical), and “mysterious, dark hue and sauntering presence” (San Franciso Classical Voice), Robin Bier enjoys a varied career of solo and ensemble singing with an emphasis on early music and oratorio repertoire.

Robin is co-founder and co-director of solo-voice early music ensemble Les Canards Chantants, with whom she has collaborated with ACRONYM, Parthenia Viol Consort, Pellingman’s Saraband, and the Folger Consort, and performed in venues as diverse as Poole’s Cavern and Washington National Cathedral. The ensemble has gained a reputation for theatrically daring presentation of renaissance polyphony, and garnered praise for ‘elegant vocalism’ (Philadelphia Inquirer), ‘finely tuned vocals, robust singing, emotional flexibility, and sense of adventure’ (Broad Street Review), ‘brilliant and moving programming’ (Early Music America), and ‘liveliness and theatricality’ (Boston Musical Intelligencer).

Originally from Alaska, Robin attended the Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, where she entered as a pianist and departed as a singer with bachelor’s degrees in voice performance and environmental studies. She later earned her masters in solo-voice ensemble singing and PhD in Musicology from the University of York in England.  Robin is now based in Philadelphia, where she teaches studio voice at Swarthmore College, coaches the Choristers at Bryn Athyn Cathedral.