Discussion Panel

Jeff Garza is Principal Horn of the San Antonio Symphony and the Britt Festival Orchestra in southern Oregon. He has served as guest Principal Horn of the Fort Worth Symphony and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has previously held positions with the Houston Grand Opera, Utah Festival Opera, New World Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, and National Repertory Orchestra.

Jeff received his musical training at Rice University and Interlochen Arts Academy. He is Professor of Horn at St. Mary's University in San Antonio.

Aaron A. Flagg was named dean of The Hartt School of the University of Hartford in March of 2009 by President Walter Harrison and Provost Lynn Pasquerella. As dean, he oversees a performing arts college for music, dance, and theatre with approximately 750 undergraduate and graduate students and 250 faculty and staff.

Originally from Baldwin Park, CA, Dr. Flagg is a professional trumpet player and received his undergraduate and master's degrees from The Juilliard School and his doctorate from the University of Michigan. His diverse experience includes concerto, recital, orchestral, and chamber music performances in classical, jazz, and new music.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Hartford, he was Executive Director of Music Conservatory of Westchester (2005-2009), a graduate faculty member and Director of Educational Outreach at The Juilliard School (2000-2005), and Director of the Jazz Studies program at the University of Connecticut (1999-2000).

As a trumpet player, Dr. Flagg has given concerto and other solo performances with orchestras, toured with chamber music groups, and performed numerous recitals. He has given master classes and recitals at Jackson State University and Fayetteville State University, and presented lectures at the Curtis Institute, Oberlin College, and Carnegie Hall.

His jazz performances include the Illinois Jacquet Big Band, the Music Outreach Jazz Ensemble, and the Aaron Flagg Quartet. He has toured with the Tania Leon's Son Sonora Ensemble; recorded with Roberta Flack and operatic soprano Barbara Conrad; and performed with the New York Philharmonic, Manhattan Virtuosi, Lansing Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Wynton Marsalis, Gladys Knight, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, among others.

Dr. Flagg is currently a board member of the League of American Orchestras in New York. He has served on numerous grant panels and was New York Metro Area chapter chair for the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. He has been a consultant with arts presenting organizations and universities around the country, while also being a teaching artist for 15 years with organizations including the Lincoln Center Institute, Carnegie Hall Education, New York Philharmonic Education, Memphis Arts Council, Guggenheim Museum, and the New York City Opera. He was named a national spokesman for the Music Educators National Conference in Virginia in 1999 and received the Rising Star Award for Westchester's "Forty under Forty" in 2008.

Ann Drinan, Senior Editor, has been a member of the Hartford Symphony viola section for over 30 years. She is a former Chair of the Orchestra Committee, former member of the HSO Board, and has served on many HSO committees. She is also the Executive Director of CONCORA (CT Choral Artists), a professional chorus based in Hartford and New Britain, founded by Artistic Director Richard Coffey. Ann was a member of the Advisory Board of the Symphony Orchestra Institute (SOI), and was the HSO ROPA delegate for 14 years, serving as both Vice President and President of ROPA. In addition to playing the viola and running CONCORA, Ann is a professional writer and editor, and has worked as a consultant and technical writer for software companies in a wide variety of industries for over 3 decades. (She worked for the Yale Computer Science Department in the late 70s, and thus has been on the Internet, then called the DARPAnet, since 1977!) She is married to Algis Kaupas, a sound recordist, and lives a block from Long Island Sound in Branford CT. Together they create websites for musicians: shortbeachwebdesign.com.

Ann holds a BA in Music from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MA in International Relations from Yale University.

Read Ann Drinan's blog here. web.esm.rochester.edu/poly/author/ann-drinan

Rip Prétat currently serves as bassist and Assistant Personnel Manager with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He holds a Bachelors degree in music performance from Indiana University. As Assistant Personnel Manager, he coordinates all national and local auditions for the Milwaukee Symphony.

Prétat studied with Murray Grodner, Frederick Zimmermann, Bill Rhein and Stuart Sankey. Solo appearances include Bottesini’s Grand Duo with William Preucil and the Northwood Orchestra, and Bottesini’s Concerto #2 with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Prétat also holds a Masters Degree in Taxation from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has operated a tax planning and preparation business for over 25 years. He, his wife Mary and their children live on a small farm north of Milwaukee where they raise sheep and peacocks.

Fergus McWilliam was born on the shores of Scotland's Loch Ness and studied initially in Canada (John Simonelli, Frederick Rizner, Eugene Rittich), making his début as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony under Seiji Ozawa at the age of 15. Further studies were undertaken in Amsterdam (Adriaan van Woudenberg) and Stockholm (Wilhelm Lanzky-Otto).

From 1972 through 1979 McWilliam was a member of several Canadian orchestras and chamber music ensembles before joining the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Antal Dorati. From 1982 to 1985 he was a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony under Raphael Kubelik and Leonard Bernstein and in 1985 he was appointed to the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan.

He is not only active internationally as a soloist and chamber musician but teaches at a number of internationally renowned music schools including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy. In addition, McWilliam is currently a Trustee of the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation.

Nathan Kahn is a Negotiator for the Symphonic Services Division of the American Federation of Musicians. He has been with the AFM since 1988. In that position, he negotiates, advises and assists in the administration and negotiation of symphony orchestra contracts in the United States, and occasionally in foreign countries. He has negotiated hundreds of collective bargaining agreements on behalf of Locals of the AFM, including 6 comprehensive first-time collective bargaining agreements, and provided varying levels of assistance in the administrations of collective bargaining agreements to over 250 different bargaining units, nationwide and abroad. Nathan gives lectures to students at colleges and conservatories across the US on the subjects of symphony orchestra career preparation, and the role of the American Federations in those future careers. He also administrates the American Federation of Musicians Symphony Audition Complaint Hotline, assisting musicians internationally with difficulties they encounter in symphony orchestra auditions.

Nathan has been a member of the string bass section of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic (formerly the Colorado Springs Symphony) since 1991. Previously he was the Principal Bassist of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and an active recording musician in Nashville, recording for such artists as Charlie Daniels, Roger Whittaker, Roy Clark, Sandi Patti, Dan Fogelberg, and many other recording, television and film productions. He was a faculty member of Tennessee Technological University and for 15 years at the Sewanee Summer Music Center. Prior to coming to Nashville, he was Principal Bassist with the Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra, and also served on the faculties of the University of Arkansas, the University of Tulsa, and Oral Roberts University. He has, among others also performed with the Memphis Symphony, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera Orchestra, Colorado Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

Prior to coming to the American Federation of Musicians, he was Founder and is President Emeritus of Regional Orchestra Players’ Association (ROPA).

He has written numerous articles for the International Musician and other national publications on musician and symphony orchestra related issues, and participated in national panels addressing a variety of problems related to these areas.

Nathan is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, with a degree in Music Education.

In his limited spare time Nathan enjoys hiking, cross-country skiing, bicycling, cooking and collecting pop music from foreign countries.

The 2011-2012 season is Neal Gittleman's 17th year as Music Director of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Gittleman has led the orchestra to new levels of artistic achievement and increasing acclaim throughout the country. American Record Guide magazine has praised the orchestra's performance as has the Cincinnati Enquirer, which called the DPO "a precise, glowing machine." When the Orchestra christened the Mead Theatre in the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in March of 2003, the Enquirer reported that "Gittleman has brought the DPO to a new level." During his tenure, the orchestra has received nine ASCAP awards from the American Symphony Orchestra League for adventurous programming.

Prior to his arrival in Dayton, Gittleman served as Music Director of the Marion (IN) Philharmonic, Associate Conductor of the Syracuse Symphony, and Assistant Conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, a post he held under the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program. He also served ten seasons as Associate Conductor and Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Neal Gittleman has appeared as guest conductor with many of the country's leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago, San Francisco, Minnesota, Phoenix, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Omaha, San Jose and Jacksonville symphony orchestras and the Buffalo Philharmonic. He has also conducted orchestras in Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Japan, Canada and Mexico.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Neal graduated from Yale University in 1975. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Annette Dieudonné in Paris, with Hugh Ross at the Manhattan School of Music and with Charles Bruck at both the Pierre Monteux School and the Hartt School of Music, where he was a Karl Böhm Fellow. It was at the Hartt School that he earned his Arts Diploma in Orchestral Conducting. He won the Second Prize at the 1984 Ernest Ansermet International Conducting Competition in Geneva and Third Prize in the 1986 Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition in New York.

At home in the pit as well as on stage, Neal has led productions for Dayton Opera, the Human Race Theatre Company, Syracuse Opera Company, Hartt Opera Theater, and for Milwaukee's renowned Skylight Opera Theatre. He has also conducted for the Milwaukee Ballet, Hartford Ballet, Chicago City Ballet, Ballet Arizona, and Theater Ballet of Canada.

Neal is nationally known for his Classical Connections programs, which provide a "behind the scenes” look at the great works of the orchestral repertoire. These innovative programs, which began in Milwaukee 22 years ago, have become a vital part of the Dayton Philharmonic's concert season.

His discography includes a recording of the Dayton Philharmonic in performances of Tomas Svoboda's two piano concertos with Norman Krieger and the composer as featured soloists. Gittleman has also recorded a CD of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F with Krieger and the Czech National Symphony. Both recordings are available on the Artisie 4 label. The DPO's second CD, A Celebration of Flight was released in 2003 as part of the celebration of the centennial of the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight. The orchestra’s most recent CD, of live archival performances from four eras, released in 2008 in conjunction with the DPO’s 75th anniversary.

When not on the podium, Neal is an avid player of golf, squash and t'ai chi ch'uan and has added yoga to his regimen. He and his wife, Lisa Fry, have been Dayton residents since 1997.

28-year-old cellist Tanya Ell has proven her impressive musical range and abilities, as soloist and chamber musician, on stages around the globe. Currently the youngest cellist in the Cleveland Orchestra, Ms. Ell has already performed with such notable musicians as Edgar Meyer (in Schubert's "Trout" Quintet at the Banff Centre), the Juilliard and Miró String Quartets, and Anthony Marwood of the Florestan Trio. She has appeared as soloist in the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, conducted by Lynn Harrell; last season she performed the C.P.E. Bach Double Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony, where she was Assistant Acting Principal Cellist from 2003 to 2006. Ms. Ell's concerts have taken her to Germany, France, Italy, Mexico, Barbados, and many parts of the United States and Canada.

A child of two musicians, Ms. Ell began the cello at age four, studying with Louis Potter Jr. in her native Michigan. Among the eminent musicians she worked with as a student are Yo-Yo Ma, Janos Starker, Lynn Harrell, Richard Goode, and Robert Mann. (*see below) Ms. Ell subsequently went on to the Juilliard School in New York as a scholarship student of Aldo Parisot, receiving her Bachelor's Degree in 2000. While in New York, she performed in such prestigious venues as Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Merkin Recital Hall. In addition, she was a member of the Vaux Quartet, often representing the Juilliard School in concerts around the country. The Quartet was also chosen to perform at the school's commencement ceremony, an honor given to only one student group each year. Outside of her soloistic pursuits, Ms. Ell also gave dozens of concerts in hospitals, nursing homes and inner city schools in New York as part of her commitment to community outreach.

Ms. Ell completed her education with Shauna Rolston in Toronto, and with Richard Aaron at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received her Master's Degree in 2003. She currently resides in Cleveland with her two cats, and plays on a cello made for her in 1992 by David Burgess.

Robert Levine has been the Principal Violist of the Milwaukee Symphony since September 1987. Before coming to Milwaukee Mr. Levine had been a member of the Orford String Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, with whom he toured extensively throughout Canada, the United States, and South America. Prior to joining the Orford Quartet, Mr. Levine had served as Principal Violist of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for six years. He has also performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, and the Oklahoma City Symphony, as well as serving as guest principal with the orchestras of Indianapolis and Hong Kong.

He has performed as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Symphony, the London Symphony of Canada, the Midsummer Mozart Festival (San Francisco), and numerous community orchestras in Northern California and Minnesota. He has also been featured on American Public Radio's nationally broadcast show "St. Paul Sunday Morning" on several occasions.

Mr. Levine has been an active chamber musician, having performed at the Festival Rolandseck in Germany, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Palm Beach Festival, the "Strings in the Mountains" Festival in Colorado, and numerous concerts in the Twin Cities and Milwaukee. He has also been active in the field of new music, having commissioned and premiered works for viola and orchestra from Minnesota composers Janika Vandervelde and Libby Larsen.

Mr. Levine was chairman of the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians from 1996 to 2002 and currently serves as President of the Milwaukee Musicians Association, Local 8 of the American Federation of Musicians, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the League of American Orchestras. He has written extensively about issues concerning orchestra musicians for publications of ICSOM, the AFM, the Symphony Orchestra Institute, and the League of American Orchestras.

Mr. Levine attended Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland. His primary teachers were Aaron Sten and Pamela Goldsmith. He also studied with Paul Doctor, Walter Trampler, Bruno Giuranna, and David Abel.

He lives with his wife Emily and his son Sam in Glendale.

Charles Ullery has been principal bassoonist of the SPCO since 1975. Prior to that, he was a member of the San Francisco Symphony and the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco. He is a frequent soloist with the SPCO. Many composers have written works for him, including Michael Daugherty, Daniel Sturm, Russell Platt, Jay Reise, William Wallace, Erika Foin, Akmal Parwez and Daniel S. Godfrey. Ullery has appeared at the Sarasota Music Festival, the Utah Festival, the Rockport Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Carnegie Hall Festival. Since the summer of 1976, he has been principal bassoon of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra in Jackson, Wyoming. In the summer of 2004, Ullery taught at the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific in Powell River, British Columbia, and at ARIA at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. He spent the 1987-88 season as a faculty member at Oberlin College in Ohio, and currently is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota. He especially enjoys teaching high school students out of his home. Ullery graduated cum laude in mathematics from the University of Arizona at age 19, and started graduate work at UCLA before entering the Army.