At the age of seven, Rodger Burnett got hooked on classical music when his father brought home a recording of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony from the local Reno, Nevada grocery store. His father, an amateur violinist, always had classical and big band music on the home stereo.

Shortly after his birth at St. Mary’s hospital, in Walla Walla, Kevin Casseday returned to live with the rest of the Casseday family in nearby Dayton. His early musical influences were his parents, in addition to Norma Evers and Mary Ellen Juris, organists at the First Congregational church in Dayton.

Violinist and violist Timothy Christie enjoys a multifaceted career as performer, teacher, public speaker and recording artist. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival (WWCMF), a nonprofit organization in southeastern Washington presenting more than 40 public chamber music events annually.

Russian-born pianist Oxana Ejokina appears frequently as guest recitalist and chamber musician in concert series across the United States and abroad. She has soloed with the Seattle Symphony, St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, and Tacoma Symphony, and performed in Washington DC, Seattle, Olympia, San Francisco, and Turkey.

Benjamin Gish is the director of the Walla Walla Valley Academy String Orchestra and has a large studio of cellists and bassists ranging in age from 4 through 20-something. He is also the director of the Walla Walla Symphony Youth Orchestra and is artist-in-residence at Walla Walla University.

Julia Gish-Salerno serves as Professor of Violin and Viola at Eastern Washington University. Her accomplishments include winning first prize and the festival medal in the 2000 Seattle Young Artists Music Festival, national finalist for the String division of the 2001 MTNA collegiate competition, and being the String division Young Artist Winner of Musicfest Northwest in 2004.

Violinist Christina McGann has been a featured performer as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician at the Kennedy Center, the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, New York City’s Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, and Bargemusic, and at various venues throughout the US, Korea, El Salvador, and Europe.

Praised for his “sweet, luxurious” sound (Fanfare), and the “thoughtfulness and seriousness” (Nashville Scene) of his interpretations, violinist Stephen Miahky serves as the Joseph Joachim Professor of Violin and First Violin of the Blair String Quartet at Vanderbilt University.

Sponsored by Albert Marshall

Violinist/violist Philip Payton is a member of the American Symphony, American Modern Ensemble, Furiant Trio, and Vital String Quartet. He also performs in Alarm Will Sound, American Ballet Theater, Colour of Music, Harlem Chamber Players, New Jersey Symphony, Nu Deco Ensemble, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Orchestra, and several others.

Jennifer Caine Provine, violinist, was a first prize winner of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Competition and recipient of several awards and grants including the Royal College of Music’s Isolde Menges Prize for solo Bach, Oxford University's Polonsky Foundation Grant and Joan Conway Scholarship in Performance, Harvard University's John Knowles Paine Traveling Fellowship, and the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for Musicians.

Over more than 20 seasons with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, bassoonist Paul Rafanelli has performed frequently on the Orchestra’s Chamber Music series; he has also performed with the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival, and the Seattle Chamber Players.

Maria Sampen, Professor of Violin at University of Puget Sound, enjoys a vibrant career as concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and teacher. Equally at home with repertoire ranging from classical to avant-garde to popular styles, Dr. Sampen has delighted audiences with her eclectic programs, her passionate performance style, and her highly expressive playing.

Sponsored by Elizabeth Carr

Kevin Schempf is Associate Professor of Clarinet at Bowling Green State University and is active as a soloist, chamber and symphony musician. After graduating from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Eastman School of Music, he performed with the United States Coast Guard Band and toured with them throughout the United States and to St. Petersburg, Russia. A frequent soloist with the Band, he was featured on NPR broadcasts and on their 75th Anniversary CD recording.

British-born cellist Sally Singer Tuttle, noted by The Strad Magazine for her “transforming sweep of gossamer beauty,” has performed as a soloist with the Pleven Philharmonic, Bulgaria, the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, New York, the Danbury Symphony, Connecticut, the Washington-Idaho Symphony Orchestra, Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra, Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Russia, amongst others.

Hailed by Gramophone magazine for its "warmly considered playing" and "shadings of exquisite sheen and vibrancy," the Volta Piano Trio, formerly known as the Icicle Creek Piano Trio, has established itself as one of the Pacific Northwest's premier chamber ensembles. The members of the Volta Piano Trio originate from the United States, United Kingdom, and Russia. Together or as individuals, Jennifer Caine Provine, Sally Singer, and Oxana Ejokina have performed in venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall, the Phillips Collection, and the Royal Albert Hall, and have toured in Austria, Germany, France, Italy, and the U.K.