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A passionate advocate for chamber music, Melissa Snoza currently performs with the Peninsula Music Festival and freelances throughout the Chicago area. Also an active educator, Melissa currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Flute at Carthage College, teaches a music entrepreneurship course at DePaul University, and maintains a private studio. As a member of 5HE, Melissa has presented workshops at Northwestern University, Yale, NEIU, UW-Milwaukee, and the Colburn Conservatory on arts entrepreneurship and creative programming, and contributes to the Entrepreneur the Arts blog.
Previous award credits include First Prize at the National Flute Association’s Orchestral Audition Competition, as well as being selected as a winner of Northwestern University’s Concerto Competition. She has been a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, has performed with the New World Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Aspen Music Festival, and was the only American flutist invited to the first Music Master’s Course in Kazusa, Japan. Melissa is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Northwestern University, with principal teachers including Bonita Boyd and Walfrid Kujala. Melissa is not only a well-known flutist and teacher in Chicago – she also makes a mean spread of Brazilian food and a mouth-watering chocolate pecan bourbon pie.

Christopher Thibdeau has been recently appointed as the conductor of the Georgia Youth Symphony Philharmonia Orchestra. Previously, Christopher has served as the associate conductor of the Brighton Symphony Orchestra, the assistant conductor of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, the cover conductor of the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra and the cover conductor of the Firelands Symphony Orchestra. As an educator, Christopher has presented workshops and educational concerts in New York, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, Florida, Texas, California and other areas across the US. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Alan Harris and a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with Carl Topilow.