Ila Gupta is vegan and likes ice cream. She also plays alto saxophone with masso.

masso is a Chicago-based saxophone quartet first formed at Northwestern University in the fall of 2021. While embracing the study and presentation of the classical repertoire, masso is equally committed to the commissioning, performance, and democratization of contemporary classical music.

Benjamin von Gutzeit, one of only a handful of true jazz violists worldwide, was born in Bochum, Germany, into a musical family. His father is a well-known music pedagogue; his mother a pianist and two of his siblings are classical string players.

Yotam Haber is a composer based in New York City. He is a 2005 Guggenheim fellow and a 2007 Rome Prize winner in Music Composition.

Rowena Hammill is Associate Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. She divides her time between Los Angeles and Vashon Island, Washington.

A pianist that “defies human description” for some (Concerto Net) and recalls “a young Peter Serkin” for others (New York Times), Conor Hanick is one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music old and new.

Violinist Alex Hargreaves is an active performer, having played on stages around the world including Austin City Limits, A Prairie Home Companion, Panama Jazz Festival, Bonnaroo, Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, as well as venues in Europe and South Korea.

The Harlem Quartet is praised for its “panache” by The New York Times. They bring “a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent," says the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Zubin Hensler was born in Seattle, now he lives in Brooklyn. He plays the trumpet, writes/records music, and produces albums. Sometimes, he sings.

Composer Molly Herron “thinks deeply about motion, energy, and the physics of sound” (NPR). Whether writing for baroque strings, flowerpots, or newly designed instruments, her work achieves “a wonderful consideration of counterpoint and sound in time” (Seen and Heard International). 

Hailed as an artist of ‘magnificent pianism’ with an ‘engaging personality’, Guernsey-born pianist Tom Hicks has been praised for his ‘brilliantly evocative’ (International Piano) and ‘gorgeously creative playing’ (Fanfare).

Hicks has an expansive repertoire and has appeared as recitalist in venues such as The Wigmore Hall in London, The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, and in many other venues throughout Europe and the United States.

In all roles, from orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician to conductor, Benjamin Hochman regards music as vital and essential. Composers, fellow musicians, orchestras, and audiences recognize his deep commitment to insightful programming and performances of quality.

Highlights of 2023-2024 include Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Boston Philharmonic conducted by Benjamin Zander and solo recitals in Jerusalem, Brattleboro, and on Chicago’s Live from WFMT. His chamber music collaborations take him to Carnegie Hall, People’s Symphony Concerts, Kronberg Festival, and Krzyzowa Music. He conducts the premiere of Gilad Cohen’s Concerto for Harp, Strings, and Horn, tours the US with cellist Zlatomir Fung, and curates the Kurtág Festival at Bard College New York.

Born in Iowa City, Iowa, Ching-chu Hu studied at Yale University, Freiburg Musikhochschule in Freiburg, Germany, The University of Iowa, and the University of Michigan, where he earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition.

Sijia Huang, a native of Shenzhen, China, is a percussionist who has made significant strides in her musical career. She recently attained her Master of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music under the esteemed guidance of Robert van Sice.

Violinist Carolyn Huebl is sought after as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She is currently Associate Professor of Violin at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and violinist of the Blakemore Trio.

A native of Austin, Texas, Billy Ray Hunter is currently Principal Trumpet with the Metropolitan Opera in New York and Assistant Principal Trumpet with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra in Chicago.

Director, choreographer, producer, and instructor Idalee Hutson-Fish began her dance training at the age of 12 in Boise, Idaho after being inspired by a performance of The Green Table by the Joffrey Ballet. Two years later she received her first of two summer scholarships to study with the Joffrey Ballet in Tacoma, Washington.

An in-demand musician in North America who is based in New York City, Fung Chern Hwei is an acclaimed violinist, violist, composer and arranger. He is the current member of Sirius Quartet, a string quartet that focuses on performing self composed music and improvisation, and Seven)Suns, which performs extreme music rooted in the language of avant-metal and hardcore rock music.

Julia Ireland is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Whitman College and a Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival Board Member. Her areas of specialization are Ancient Greek and German Philosophy, Critical Race Theory, and Philosophy and Literature.

Composed of violinists Reuben Kebede and Tiani Butts, violist Aimée McAnulty and cellist Pedro Sánchez, the Ivalas Quartet has been changing the face of classical music since their inception at the University of Michigan in 2016.

John Jamison has been a student of classical guitar and renaissance lute for many years.