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.

Born and raised in Harrisonburg, Virginia, hornist Martin King graduated from James Madison University and pursued a career as a band director.

Cara Kizer is a nationally active freelancer and college professor in St. Louis and Illinois. Born in Texas, she began horn at the age of 14. Her studies began at Texas Tech University, where she studied under Anthony Brittin, a student of James Chambers. She continued on to The Juilliard School for a master’s degree, where she studied under the late Jerome Ashby, Associate Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic