Appalachian Spring

Sarah Frisof

Flute

Equally at home in the solo, chamber, and orchestral stages, Sarah Frisof is a passionate flutist and educator. As a soloist, Ms. Frisof was the second-prize winner of both the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition and the Heida Hermanns International Woodwind Competition, and she was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Kobe International Flute Competition. Ms. Frisof and her collaborative partner, Daniel Pesca, piano, have released two solo albums. Her most recent album, Beauty Crying Forth, a survey of music by female composers across time, was released in August of 2020.

In addition to Ms. Frisof’s work as a solo artist, she is an active orchestral and chamber musician, having worked with major symphony orchestras across the country, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, and many others. Ms. Frisof is an active member of Sound Impact, a chamber collective of musicians dedicated to serving communities and igniting positive change in the US and abroad through live performance, educational programs, and creative collaborations with other artists and art forms.

She has taken her passion for education and community engagement to global audiences, including working with communities and students in both Zimbabwe and Brazil. A graduate of the Eastman School, The Juilliard School, and the University of Michigan, Ms. Frisof is currently the Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Maryland.

Lin Ma

Clarinet

Lin Ma was appointed principal clarinetist of the National Symphony Orchestra by Gianandrea Noseda in 2018. Prior to joining the NSO, he has served as assistant principal and Eb clarinetist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2015. He also played a one-year position as second clarinet in the Houston Symphony. Ma won the 2014 Ima Hogg International Competition and performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Later, he appeared as soloist at the Baytown Symphony Orchestra’s 2014-15 season opener. In addition, Ma has soloed with National Repertory Orchestra at the NRO music festival in 2013.

Ma earned his Master of Music degree at Rice University, under the tutelage of Richie Hawley, and he holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied with Richard Hawkins. Ma has also studied at the Idyllwild Arts Academy with Yehuda Gilad, and the Middle School attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with Yuanfu Huang.

Ma is a Buffet Crampon Performing Artist, and he plays on Vandoren reeds and mouthpieces.

Sue Heineman

Bassoon

Sue Heineman is principal bassoonist of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Prior to joining the NSO, she held positions with the New Haven, Memphis, New Mexico, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras and has performed as guest principal bassoonist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony. As a chamber musician she has played with the Kennedy Center Chamber Players, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Wind Quintet, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Summer Festivals include Aspen, Eastern Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Mainly Mozart, and Bowdoin.

Originally from Philadelphia, Ms. Heineman holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Eastman and a master's degree from Juilliard. She also completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Rochester, graduating summa cum laude with Phi Beta Kappa honors, and was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Salzburg. Her teachers include Shirley Curtiss, David Van Hoesen, Milan Turkovic, Judith LeClair, and Stephen Maxym.

Wanzhen Li

Violin

Violinist Wanzhen Li was appointed to the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. by Christoph Eschenbach in September of 2015. The Boston Globe describes her playing: "Li established a sense of nostalgia... that provided a framework for the musical journey. Her tone seemed to cry. It was great playing; fun to hear." As a soloist, Ms. Li appeared with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, Xi'an Symphony Orchestra, Binghamton Philharmonic, Guilford Symphony, Grosse Point Symphony, and Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra.

Ms. Li has performed frequently with violinist Itzhak Perlman, accompanying him to Israel, Florida, and Vermont for residencies with the Perlman Music Program. She has also performed solo recitals as part of the Perlman Music Program's Alumni recital series at the Clark Arts Center.

An active chamber musician, Ms. Li has been invited to prestigious festivals including Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, The Perlman Chamber Music Program, and "Spannungen: Musik im Krafwerk Heimbach" in Germany. She has shared the stage with artists including Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Vogt, Peter Frankl, Laurence Lesser, Alban Gerhardt, Paul Katz, members of the Juilliard String Quartet, and musicians from the New York Philharmonic. Her solo and chamber performances have been broadcast on German radio “Deutschlandfunk”, IPRInterlochen public radio, and released on the Avi-Music record label.

Prior to joining the NSO, Ms. Li performed frequently with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the New York Chamber Soloists, and the Grammy Award-nominated ensemble A Far Cry. She has also led the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, and New England Conservatory Philharmonia as concertmaster.

Ms. Li maintains a private teaching studio and is a chamber music coach and teacher for the NSO’s Summer Music Institute and Fellowship Programs throughout the year. In addition, she has served on faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in Wu Han, China.

Angelia Cho

Violin

Violinist Angelia Cho's concerto debut was with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 11. Since then, she has enjoyed an exciting and versatile career as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, teaching artist, and orchestral musician across the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa.

As an orchestral musician, Cho performed in the Minnesota Orchestra for the 2014–2015 season and subbed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is also a former member of IRIS Orchestra as well as Boston Grammy Award®-nominated ensemble A Far Cry.

She received her Bachelor of Music degree in 2002 from The Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Ida Kavafian, and continued her education in Boston at the New England Conservatory with Donald Weilerstein, earning a master's degree and graduate diploma in performance.

In 2000, Cho won the National Society of Arts and Letters Violin Competition and first prize at the Rutenberg Chamber Music Competition and was also the winner of the Concerto Competition and was in Honors ensemble at New England Conservatory. In 2007, Cho became a fellow of the Academy, a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Institute in New York City, currently known as ensemble Connect.

An avid educator and ambassador of music, Cho has been involved in several projects around the world, one of which included the building of the first national youth orchestra in Iraq. Though the orchestra is no longer in existence, the experience resulted in a book called Upbeat by author and conductor Paul MacAlindin, with whom Cho collaborated closely for four years during the project. Cho has since performed in numerous chamber music series and festivals, including Kneisel Hall, Yellow Barn, Verbier, Ravinia, Northwestern University Winter Festival, the Open Chamber Music Session in Prussia Cove in England, and the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in South Africa. She has collaborated with world renowned artists in chamber music and solos, such as Ida Haendel, Christian Tetzlaff, Shlomo Mintz, members of the Cleveland Quartet, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra.

Cho is on faculty at The Concord Conservatory, the visiting faculty at Brandeis College, a guest coach at the NEC Preparatory, and on faculty at the Decoda/Skidmore College Chamber Music Institute as of 2018. Cho will be joining the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center for the 2018-2019 season in Washington D.C.

Peiming Lin

Violin

Peiming Lin joined the National Symphony Orchestra in September 2019. He was previously the associate principal second violin of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra but he played as acting principal second violin during his time there. He has also been a member of the New World Symphony. In addition to serving as concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, New England Conservatory’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and its self-conducted Chamber Orchestra, he has been the assistant principal second violin of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra.

He has performed in festivals including New York String Seminar, Aspen Music Festival, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and Tanglewood Music Center. As a chamber musician, he has received mentorship from members of the Borromeo, Cleveland, Concord, Guarneri, and Juilliard quartets.

A native of Troy, Michigan, Lin received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan and spent his final semester abroad studying with Sylvie Gazeau at the Conservatoire de Paris. He holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, where he studied under former Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Malcolm Lowe. Other notable musical influences include Sylvia Rosenberg, Almita Vamos, and Sally Thomas.

Regino Madrid

Violin

Regino Madrid, from Los Angeles, CA, is currently the concertmaster of The American Pops Orchestra frequently featured on PBS and “54 Below” in NYC, the associate concertmaster of NatPhil at Strathmore, a member of Sound Impact, 21st Century Consort, and the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra. Regino was the associate concertmaster of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Chamber Orchestra and played at the White House for 20 years. He currently plays with The National Symphony Orchestra and has played with the Pittsburgh and Baltimore Symphonies. He is a member of the tango band “Quintango” that holds a residency at Blues Alley in Georgetown. In 2021, he recorded Kyle Werner’s violin sonata for its premiere with The Washington Ballet on Marquee TV with a live performance at Wolf Trap. In 2024, he was a soloist with the NATO Symphony Orchestra at the Library of Congress. Regino received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music after pursuing a Physiological Science degree from UCLA. He currently plays a violin from 1845 by J.B. Vuillaume.

Daniel Foster

Viola

National Symphony Orchestra Principal Violist Daniel Foster’s varied career encompasses orchestral, chamber and solo playing, as well as teaching. Since capturing the First Prize in both the William Primrose and Washington International Competitions, he has appeared in recital and as soloist with orchestra in Washington, DC and throughout the United States. After Studying with Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey at Oberlin Conservatory and with Karen Tuttle at The Curtis Institute, Mr. Foster joined the National Symphony’s viola section in 1993, and was appointed Principal by Music Director Leonard Slatkin in 1995. Mr. Foster has appeared frequently as soloist with the National Symphony since his appointment.

Mr. Foster was a member of the critically acclaimed Dryden Quartet, which he founded along with his cousins Nicolas and Yumi Kendall and National Symphony Concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef. He is currently a member of the 21st Century Consort, and is a founding member of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. Mr. Foster has performed chamber music at the Marlboro, Bowdoin, Killington and Alpenglow Festivals, and at Strings in the Mountains. Mr. Foster appears regularly on a number of chamber music series in the Washington, DC area.

Mr. Foster is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, where his former students have gone on to major orchestral and university positions, and he has been a faculty member at the Bowdoin and Killington festivals. Mr. Foster has given master classes at Oberlin and Peabody Conservatories, the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and is a member of the “International Principals” faculty at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan.

Mr. Foster comes from a musical family. In addition to his violinist and cellist cousins, his father William was also a violist with the National Symphony from 1968-2018, and his grandfather John Kendall was a renowned violin pedagogue. His wife Adria Sternstein Foster is the Principal Flutist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.

Dana Kelley

Viola

Violist Dana Kelley is an active chamber musician and member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. She is also a member of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for the 2021-2022 season. Praised for her rich and beautiful tone, Dana has been a top prizewinner in the Sphinx Music Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. She also serves on the viola faculty of the Mannes School of Music at the New School.

Dana’s performance schedule has brought her to many prestigious venues and festivals, including multiple recitals at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Recital Hall at New York’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, the Ravinia Festival, and Bravo! Vail. Dana has collaborated with artists such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Nobuko Imai and Miriam Fried, pianists Leon Fleisher, Anne-Marie MacDermott and Misha Dichter, and cellist Astrid Schween of the Juilliard String Quartet.

Dana received an Artist Diploma in String Quartet Studies with the Argus String Quartet as the 2017-2019 Graduate Quartet in Residence at The Juilliard School. Dana was a 2014-2016 Fellow in Ensemble Connect - a performance and teaching program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute. She received her Bachelor’s of Music from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, studying violin with Cornelia Heard and viola with Kathryn Plummer, and completed her Master’s of Music degree at the New England Conservatory as a student of Kim Kashkashian.

Loewi Lin

Cello

Taiwanese-Canadian cellist Loewi Lin grew up in Taiwan and moved to Calgary when he was seven. Loewi started playing cello at age 11 but always wanted to be a doctor; as a high school senior, he converted to music and has been a devout follower ever since.

Loewi attended the Cleveland Institute, the University of Ottawa, and New England Conservatory. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall in the New York String Orchestra as well as the Taos School of Music, Tanglewood Music Festival, and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute

Loewi lived in Boston for 11 years where he helped found the unique conductor-less chamber orchestra A Far Cry. The group is now an established institution in the music fabric of Boston, with residencies at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the New England Conservatory. In the past, he has played with the Toronto Symphony, Canadian Opera Company, and the Boston Symphony, in addition to teaching at Phillips Exeter Academy. Currently, Loewi is the principal cellist of the Boston Lyric Opera and a member of the National Symphony Orchestra.

Carrie Bean Stute

Cello

Cellist Carrie Bean Stute is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Washington, DC-based Chiarina Chamber Players, a chamber music series and flexible ensemble that has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming. Carrie’s chamber music performances have been broadcast on Classical WETA’s Front Row Washington. In DC, she performs with the National Symphony Orchestra, has served as an adjunct professor of music at George Washington University, and is currently assistant principal cellist of “The President’s Own” Marine Chamber Orchestra, where she performs in such diverse settings as the White House, area public schools, and for events hosted by the United Nations and State Department.

A performer who seeks out the voices of today, she collaborates with a growing set of composers, including Reinaldo Moya, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Juhi Bansal, and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon. Carrie authored a doctoral dissertation on the cello works of Pēteris Vasks and in 2021 performed as soloist in the North American premiere of his Cello Concerto No. 2. She took part in the Carnegie Hall workshop “New Voices, New Music” and has performed chamber music at such venues as the Phillips Collection, Zankel Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and an in-house educational residency at the 92nd Street Y.

Carrie holds degrees from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York (Doctor of Musical Arts), Indiana University, and the Eastman School of Music. She was a fellow at the New World Symphony and Tanglewood Music Center. Forthcoming in 2024-25 are recordings of chamber music by Carlos Simon (with Domenic Salerni, Efi Hackmey, and Carl DuPont) and clarinet trios by Brahms and Beethoven (with Robert DiLutis and Rita Sloan).

Aaron Clay

Bass

Aaron Clay distinguishes himself regularly as a uniquely versatile double bassist. He commands great respect as a performer in both the classical and jazz worlds of bass playing, but it was The Washington Post that observed, "What sets [Clay] apart is elegant bowing ....His melodic lines have a cello-like glow and flexibility...."

A native of Fairmont, West Virginia, Mr. Clay began his musical training at the age of 10 when he taught himself to play jazz on the electric bass. He later pursued classical training on the upright double bass prior to attending West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he studied with Richard Manspeaker. After graduating in 1989, he was selected to join the United States Navy Band in Washington, DC. Upon completing one enlistment with the Navy, Mr. Clay auditioned for "The President's Own" United States Marine Band where he has been a member since 1993.

Mr. Clay is a founding member of the highly acclaimed string duo, Bridging the Gap, in which he performs with violinist Peter Wilson. Hailed by The Washington Post for "superior arrangements and uncommon musicianship," the unique duo performs works covering a wide range of musical styles. They released their first CD in 2003. Mr. Clay enjoys performing with Bridging the Gap for educational and community outreach programs throughout the United States.

Mr. Clay is also developing a reputation as a composer and arranger of works for the violin and bass duo as well as larger ensembles. Mr. Clay serves as Principal Bassist of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, and performs with other Washington area jazz and pop groups. Mr. Clay resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife, Cindy.

Efi Hackmey

Piano

Praised for his highly personal interpretations and “feather-light pianism” (Washington Classical Review), Efi Hackmey is recognized for his lyricism and beauty of tone. As Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chiarina Chamber Players he performs regularly on Chiarina’s concert series, which has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming, called “some of the most compelling chamber programs in town” by the Washington Post. Efi has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, the Kennedy Center and Bargemusic, and in the Friends of Mozart series in NYC. In his native Israel he performed as soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Jerusalem Music Center. Efi is often featured on WETA Classical’s Front Row Washington.

A passionate chamber musician, Efi has collaborated with the Attacca Quartet, Imani Winds, clarinetists Ricardo Morales and Charles Neidich, baritone Randall Scarlata, cellist Marcy Rosen and violinists Catherine Cho, Todd Phillips and Nurit Bar-Josef, among others.

Efi’s recordings include the 2025 release of The Best Cuisine: Music of Carlos Simon on the Azica label, and the 2013 album Polish Violin Music on the Naxos label, among others.

Efi has served on the piano faculty at DePauw University, and he also taught at the Indiana University system. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and degrees in piano and conducting from Tel Aviv University. He studied with Menahem Pressler, Pnina Salzman and Dina Turgeman, and has had additional coaching with Lazar Berman, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Janos Starker and Jaime Laredo.

Daniel Boomhower

Pre-Concert Lecturer Daniel Boomhower is a musicologist and librarian, serving since 2015 as Director of the Library at Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University’s Washington, DC research center for Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, and Garden and Landscape studies. Boomhower leads the work of the library in maintaining a comprehensive record of scholarship relating to its academic programs, as well as distinguished collections of early printed books, manuscripts, photographs, and archival records relating to all three fields of study. Boomhower holds an MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in musicology from Case Western Reserve University. He has published on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms as well as American musical institutions. He is the co-editor with Emily Abrams Ansari and Michael Sy Uy of a multi-author book on music in Washington, DC published by Dumbarton Oaks that will appear in Fall 2026. His editions of Brahms’ symphonies, published by Bärenreiter-Verlag, will begin to appear in 2026, in anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the premiere of the Symphony in C Minor, Op. 68. Prior to his appointment at Dumbarton Oaks, Daniel held positions at the Library of Congress and in the libraries at Kent State University and Princeton University.