Suzanne Feinstein is an active French‑hornist based in the Seattle area with a Bachelor of Music from the State University of West Georgia and a Master of Music from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since relocating to Seattle, Suzanne has performed with regional orchestras and chamber ensembles — including the Symphony Tacoma, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, North Corner Chamber Orchestra, Federal Way Symphony, Village Theatre, and in ballet, opera, and musical theater productions throughout the region. Suzanne serves on the faculty of Music Works Northwest alongside a diverse faculty of professional musicians. She contributes to community music education in the Puget Sound area, coaching and mentoring students of all ages and backgrounds.

Julia McConnachie (she/her) is a master's student on Horn at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Denise Tryon. Originally from Shoreline, Washington, Julia earned her Bachelor of Music in Horn Performance from Central Washington University, where she studied with Dr. Jeffrey Snedeker. During her time there, she was a part of both the Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra, including for the Wind Ensemble’s performance at the 2024 World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles conference. She was also a member of the CWU Horn Ensemble. Julia is working towards a career as an orchestral musician, and has enjoyed getting to work with many orchestras, including the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra and Yakima Symphony Orchestra. Julia is a two-time winner of the Northwest Horn Society’s University Solo Competition, and the 2025 Central Washington University Concerto Competition winner. She can be heard as a soloist on the recording of the world premiere of Catherine Likhuta’s Bad Neighbours for two horn soloists and symphony orchestra. Outside of the practice room, Julia can be found enjoying long walks, embroidering, and/or thinking about Gustav Mahler.

Born and raised on O’ahu, Hawai’i, Taylor DeCastro is a versatile violinist whose artistry spans period performance and experimental music. Now based in Seattle, she is currently finishing her Master of Music at the University of Washington, where she serves as a graduate teaching assistant.

Her orchestral experience includes recent appointments as Concertmaster of Philharmonia Northwest and Assistant PrincipalSecond Violin of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra. With Philharmonia Northwest, Ms. DeCastro has performed on Classical KING's Northwest Focus Live. She also performs with Philharmonie Austin (TX), a period-instrument ensemble, and appears on their recordings released by Navona Records. Past engagements include performances with Emerald City Music, the Auburn Symphony Orchestra, Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Bellevue Symphony Orchestra, and Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra (WI). In 2024, she was named a finalist in the Musicians Club of Women Competition in Chicago, IL, and has performed across the United States, Canada, and France.

Equally at home in early music and the avant‑garde, she has recently appeared as a soloist in J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 with the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra. Fascinated by intersections of the past and present, Ms. DeCastro also specializes in new music, previously collaborating with renowned composers inti figgis-vizueta and Michael Gordon. Reflecting her dual interests, Ms. DeCastro has served as the teaching assistant of both the Baroque and the Modern Music Ensembles at the University of Washington.

An advocate for equity and accessibility in music, Ms. DeCastro is continuously striving to create inclusive learning environments and diverse programming. She currently teaches violin and viola at the Epiphany Music Academy and coaches chamber groups and sectionals at UW. As a woman of color, Ms. DeCastro is passionate about bringing the works of underrepresented composers to life. Her performance for the Black Composers Project at the University of Washington has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio. Ms. DeCastro earned her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, summa cum laude, where she also minored in Studio Art. Her primary teachers include Rachel Lee Priday, Samantha George, and Colin Belisle.

As a conductor, violinist, composer, pedagogue, philosopher, and musicologist, Dr. Christopher T. F. Hanson enjoys working across a number of disciplines to promote the transformative power of the arts. Dr. Hanson holds three master's degrees from Texas State University, in music history, music theory, and music composition. They also earned a PhD in Education from Texas State University, with a focus on educational research in teacher professional agency. While completing their doctorate, they earned a certificate of professional ethics from the Texas State Philosophy program.

Dr. Hanson has served as music faculty for schools in central Texas and Seattle. They have developed and facilitated a number of courses that explore creativity, imagination, and interdisciplinary pedagogy in grade school as well as higher education. Their research focuses on the transformative power of the arts, student and teacher agency, and the significance of diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging (DEIAB) in education. As a queer scholar, Dr. Hanson uses research platforms to challenge and “queer” professional spaces of teaching and learning, particularly within and through the arts.

Dr. Hanson works with a growing number of diverse organizations to expand and amplify their work in education and the arts. They are frequently requested as a guest conductor and clinician. They are a principal explicator for the Seattle Symphony, offering a number of pre-concert lectures throughout the season, which highlight the significance of historical and cultural context to the experience of listeners and performers. They serve as the artistic director of the annual Wintergrass Festival Orchestra and the conductor for the advanced orchestra of the Japan Seattle Suzuki Institute. They are the artistic director for the Rainbow City Orchestra, a nonprofit community music organization that serves and supports the LGBTQIA+ community in greater Seattle through the study and performance of contemporary and historically marginalized composers.

 Their compositions have enjoyed a number of premieres across the country, and address a wide range of personal and political issues.

Sooyean Kim is a professional violinist and music teacher whose career reflects more than 15 years of dedicated performance, orchestral leadership, and artistic collaboration.  She earned her Bachelor's degree in Music performance in Seoul under a merit scholarship, and proceeded to get a Master's in Music Performance and Education from University of Minnesota.

She is an Assistant principal with Yakima Symphony orchestra, a concert master of Federal way chorale orchestra. She is also a member of Tacoma Opera, Tacoma City Ballet, Bellevue Symphony and maintains an active presence within the region's professional orchestra such as Symphony Tacoma, Auburn Symphony orchestra, Walla Walla symphony and Juneau symphony.

A committed chamber musician, she has performed with ensembles inducing NOCCO, ECCO, Seattle chamber orchestra and has collaborated with internationally acclaimed artist such as Josh Groban, Zuili Bailey, Chris Botti, and more. Her performance s are recognized for their refined musicianship, and expressive depth, reflecting a meaningful and thoughtful musical voice.

Kim Plewniak is currently a member of the Spokane Symphony and serves as Assistant Principal Bass.  An active orchestral musician, she’s performed with the Rochester Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony, Billings Symphony, Lancaster Festival Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival, and the National Orchestral Institute. At present, she performs at the McCall MusicFest each summer.  

As an educator, she is currently the double bass instructor at Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, jazz bass instructor at Whitworth University and maintains a private studio. Kim also teaches Suzuki bass through the Spokane Youth Orchestra Suzuki program and often coaches middle and high school bassists through the Spokane Symphony’s Youth Mentor Program.  

Originally from Buffalo, NY, she earned her Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music and both her Masters of Music and a Performer’s Certificate from the Manhattan School of Music.  Her main teachers have been Orin O’Brien, Timothy Cobb and James VanDemark. 

Often on stage, you’ll see Kim playing jazz and electric bass for symphony pops shows. She performs locally with the Diva Show, Northwest BachFest, the Inland Northwest Opera, and frequently collaborates with local bands and songwriters around Spokane.   

Lea Eve Fetterman lives and works as a freelance violinist, session musician (violin/vocals), conductor, public speaker, and teacher in the Pacific Northwest. Alongside her music making, she composes and arranges music for a variety of ensembles and genres, including rock, singer/songwriter, folk, alternative, ambient, and classical. She leads the Vireo String Quartet, a session quartet made up of her local string colleagues. Fetterman is the author of two books, Like Sun Holds Shade and Innocent Skin, both available online at Barnes & Noble and on shelves at Ophelia's Books in Fremont. Her debut double album, Through the Concrete and its spoken word counterpart, and her most recent singles Snow White and Silver Horizon are available on all streaming services and available for download on Subvert and Bandcamp.

Fetterman performs with many regional orchestras and operas, including the North Corner Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, Vashon Opera, and more. Beyond classical music, Fetterman has performed as concertmaster for Apashe's Philharmonic Orchestra to a sold-out WAMU Theater, regularly plays with Andrew Joslyn & The Passenger String Quartet, and has performed with artists and bands such as the RAISE Choir, Daniel Ho, Sera Cahoone, Typhoon, Moon Fever, Ollella, and The Sam Chase & The Untraditional. Beyond Washington's borders, she has also performed in Oregon, Idaho, California, Pennsylvania, and Alaska. She coaches sectionals and chamber music for Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras, Seattle Conservatory of Music, and West Seattle Community Orchestras. Fetterman is a proud member of the Seattle Composers Alliance and Momentum Musician.

Fetterman is one of the founding orchestra members of the New Ground Orchestra Festival, an all-women orchestra festival and wellness retreat. July, 2025 was its debut year, lead by Rebekah O'Brien.

In May 2021, Fetterman completed her Master's in Music in Violin Performance at the University of Victoria, BC. She studied with Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, first violinist of the Lafayette String Quartet. Fetterman graduated from Western Washington University with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education in December 2017, Magna Cum Laude.

Fetterman grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and began playing the violin when she was nine years old. Throughout her childhood, Fetterman played instruments from nearly every family: violin, cello, trombone, euphonium, clarinet, piano, and marimba. This affinity with learning a diverse range of instruments and her desire to become an orchestral conductor drove her to complete her undergrad in music education. Fetterman has dedicated her work and livelihood to the violin, composing, conducting and teaching, but still experiments with other instruments in her improvisations and compositions.

Raisa Asriyants received her Master’s degree in Violin Performance from the Western Washington University with honors. She has performed in Europe and the USA, taking part in and winning different solo and chamber competitions across the continents. She is active as a soloist and chamber groups’ performer, having had recitals across the Pacific Northwest, teaching private lessons and group classes, playing with different orchestras, recording music, and scoring music for full feature films. Her music interests range from archaic medieval and baroque, to classical, and to contemporary compositions. As her musical accomplishments are a product of synergy of several different music education systems, Raisa possesses a unique diverse skill set as a strings educator, which gives her students access to the full array of teaching techniques to realize their music potential.

Sara Mayo is a native of the Pacific Northwest who now splits her time between the West and the East Coast, and therefore now mostly lives in the sky.

On the left side of the country, she is the principal trombonist of the Yakima Symphony, and has also previously performed with groups such as the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Symphony Tacoma, Eugene Symphony, and the Spokane Symphony. On the right side of the country, she works as a freelancer in New York City where she is the tenor trombonist of Calliope Brass and regularly performs with other groups such as the Wa Sinfonietta, the Turkish American Orchestra, and anyone else who'll hire her.

She has appeared as a featured soloist with the Yakima Symphony and the Tacoma Community College Concert Band, and has also appeared as a musician extra in Mozart in the Jungle, though she has no idea in what capacity because she refuses to watch the show. If you do watch the show and you see her in the trombone section, please let her know which episodes so she can tell her long-suffering parents.

When not playing trombone, she doesn't really know what to do with herself, but can sometimes be spotted knitting, folding origami cranes, reading genre fiction, and having opinions about coffee.

Christine Bastian, viola, enjoys making classical music relevant to audiences through her work as a performer, educator, and administrator.  Christine has served as associate principal violist with the Flint Symphony, section violist with the Lansing Symphony, and substitute viola with the Grand Rapids, Toledo, and Detroit Symphony. As a member of the ConTempus Initiative, a Michigan-based contemporary music collective, she has released two CDs and been featured as a guest artist with organizations such as the Detroit Institute of Arts, Whitworth University, Eastern Washington University, SUNY Potsdam, Michigan State University, Spring Arbor University, Albion College, Flint Institute of Music, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. In addition to her work as a violist, Christine developed Running Start, the music entrepreneurship program at Michigan State University, teaching courses on career development and financial management, directing several chamber series, and creating outreach and engagement initiatives for MSU students in the Greater Lansing community. She currently freelances in the Seattle area with groups including the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Lake Washington Symphony, and the Arbor Trio. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Viola Performance and a Master of Music in Viola Performance from Indiana University.

Mary Riles, cello, received her BA in Classics and BM in Cello Performance from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, and her Masters of Music from the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University. Located in Seattle, Washington, she provides private cello instruction and chamber coaching. Mary has performed with a variety of Seattle-area large ensembles, including NOCCO, Seattle Modern Orchestra, SMCO, the Sound Ensemble, and Thalia Symphony Orchestra. She loves the joys and depths of chamber music, and is also co-founder of an improv/composition group, Das Seattle Improv Orchester. Collaboration is her favorite part of music, and it’s a real pleasure to be a part of this wonderful new organization, Unbound Symphony.

Emma Pease Byron is a flute specialist, playing, teaching and writing about flute. She can be heard playing flute, piccolo and flute-like instruments, including pennywhistle, pan pipes and fife, around the Las Vegas Valley with ensembles like the Nevada Pops Ensemble and Vegas City Opera and in Montana as the piccolo chair with the Helena Symphony. 

Emma has been teaching student flutists since 1999. Her students have won top spots in the Clark County School District Honor Band, the Nevada All-State Honor Band, the Las Vegas Flute Club Young Artist Competition, Silver State Competition and earned music scholarships at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, University of Nevada-Reno, University of New Mexico and Central Washington University. In addition to teaching ages 3 - adult at Studio Flute, she also teaches the Preschool Music Adventures classes at the Silver Springs Recreation Center and is a flute clinician and parapro with the Clark County School District. Emma is a certified teacher through the Music Teachers National Association and the Suzuki Association of the Americans.

Emma's most recent article, about systematically developing a historical context for music study, was published in the Suzuki Association's Journal in spring of 2022. Emma is also on the board of the Nevada Music Teachers Associations and is the Junior Festival Flute Chair for the Las Vegas Federation of Music Clubs.

Devin LaMarr is passionate about music education and music performance in her community. She received a full scholarship to study in the studio of Anne Martindale-Williams for her Master’s degree at Carnegie Mellon University, and received her bachelor’s degree in cello performance from Lynn University, where she also received a full scholarship to study in the studio of David Cole. Other important teachers in Devin’s life have been Jonah Kim and Walter Gray. She has also performed in masterclasses with renowned cellists such as Mark Kosower and Brannon Cho.

Devin is also a dedicated chamber musician, having debuted with her quartet, the Kourdisma Quartet, at the Lyric Chamber Music Society in New York, in May, 2022 after winning first prize in Lynn University’s chamber music competition. Other competitions Devin has won include the Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Artist Auditions in 2023, which featured a performance on NPR radio as part of the prize, and the Navaroli Young Musicians competition, where she performed the Elgar Cello Concerto with the South Valley Symphony in her native California. She was also a finalist in the the Big Arts Classical Music Scholarship competition in Sanibel, Florida.

Alyssa Gaines (she/her) is an active teacher, solo, chamber, and ensemble performer based in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She has served as Artist Faculty at Morningside University (IA) and Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse (WI). Alyssa has performed with many ensembles including the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, the Tucson Arts Express Orchestra, the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra. She won 1st place in the 2021 San Francisco Flute Society's Artist Competition, was a quarterfinalist in the 2023 National Flute Association Young Artist competition, was named a National Finalist in the 2024 American Prize in Instrumental Performance - Professional Division, and has been a prizewinner in numerous other regional competitions. She has given recitals in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Arizona, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Alyssa earned a Master of Music degree in flute performance at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music where she studied with Professor Kate Lukas and dual Bachelor of Music degrees in flute performance and music industry from Middle Tennessee State University where she studied with Dr. Deanna Little. She was also selected as one of six flutists internationally to attend Trevor Wye's 'The Flute Studio' in Kent, England from 2014-2015. Alyssa is currently a Program Coordinator at the University of Arizona School of Music but is most proud to be known as “Mommy” to her two toddlers. 

Ellie Yamanaka (she/her) is a freelance harpist based in Seattle, Washington who regularly performs with ensembles across the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West as an acoustic and electric harpist. She earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the University of Texas at Austin. She is currently principal harp of Everett Philharmonic, Great Falls Symphony, and a member of The Sound Ensemble.

As a freelancer, she has performed with many ensembles, including Auburn Symphony, Bremerton WestSound Symphony, Density512, Everett Chorale, Federal Way Symphony, Lake Washington Symphony Orchestra, North Corner Chamber Orchestra (NOCCO), Northwest Mahler Festival, Olympia Symphony, Orcas Choral Society, Philharmonia Northwest, Port Angeles Symphony, Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra, Rainier Symphony, Saratoga Orchestra, Seattle Festival Orchestra, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Pro Musica, Solstice Symphony Orchestra, Songs of Black Folk Orchestra, Spokane Symphony, Symphony Tacoma, Tacoma City Ballet Orchestra, Tacoma Concert Band, Tacoma Opera, Theatre Battery, Washington Wind Symphony, Wenatchee Valley Symphony, and Yakima Symphony.

Ellie is passionate about environmental and climate justice, and whenever possible curates her creative output with a desire to create experiences that bring together music and environmentalism.

Esther Kwon is a Korean-American double bassist from Tacoma, Washington, and is currently a fellow at the New World Symphony. A passionate orchestral musician, she has performed at prestigious venues around the world, including the Elbphilharmonie, Benaroya Hall, and the National Concert Hall. Recent highlights include sharing the stage with renowned artists such as Lang Lang, Augustin Hadelich, and John Adams. She has also participated in interdisciplinary collaborations involving ballet, popular music, and illustration, exploring connections between classical music and other art forms.

Esther has performed chamber music through the Camphill Village Kimberton Hills chamber music residency program, where she received coaching from Paul Watkins and Steven Tenenbom. She has also attended festivals including the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Festival Napa Valley, Taipei Music Academy and Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

Coming from a musical family, Esther also assists her parents in teaching beginner group instrumental classes. She remains active in the Korean-American arts community in the Pacific Northwest, performing in recitals, choral concerts, and regional orchestras.

Esther earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati after transferring from the University of Washington. She holds dual degrees in music and psychology, reflecting her interest in intellectual disabilities and the human mind. She completed her Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Donald Palma.

Portia Njoku, a composer, tubist, and music educator, holds a BA degree in Music Composition and Theory from UC Davis and a double MMus degree in Music Composition and Tuba Performance from CSU Sacramento. Ms. Njoku is a Music Lecturer in Tuba at UC Davis and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at both American River and Folsom Lake Colleges. Currently, Ms. Njoku serves the Chromatic Brass Collective as the Director of Finance and Treasurer. She also works to increase interest and awareness of the tuba to music fans of all ages throughout the Sacramento region.