TESSA BRINCKMAN - BIO

Interdisciplinary flutist/composer Tessa Brinckman has been praised for her “chameleon-like gifts” and “virtuoso elegance” (Gramophone), and as "an adroit creator of sound worlds” (Fanfare). Originally from Aotearoa/New Zealand, she has premiered hundreds of new works (commissioning over forty), with prominent classical music creators across the globe. In New York since 2022, she builds work that honors synesthesia, dialect, innate meter and collaboration. Tessa is co-director of the bi-coastal duo, Caballito Negro, with percussionist Terry Longshore, commissioning ground-breaking flute and percussion works, including composers Juri Seo and Baljinder Sekhon. She directs WildLine, a new, interdisciplinary chamber group based in northern Manhattan. Her collaborative videos have won 22 film festival awards for music scoring, animation and experimental film.

Numerous recent projects include her critically acclaimed album Take Wing, Roll Back (New Focus Recordings), AEON (Rattle Records, New Zealand), commissions from flutists Lisa Bost and Lisa Cella, performances at Baltimore's Livewire Festival, Princeton Sound Kitchen, and headlining with Mexico's Duo Duplum at Festival Cervantino and New Music Forum (Mexico City). www.tessabrinckman.com

Kate Jackson’s first job was as a trumpet player in the Royal Canadian Navy. She now lives in Walla Walla, WA, where she performs regularly with the Walla Walla Symphony and other ensembles in the area. She is a founding member of the Blue Mountain Brass quintet.

Violinist Ruby Ro is an active orchestral performer in the San Francisco Bay Area, appearing with ensembles including the San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Silent Film Festival, I Cantori di Carmel, Berkeley Symphony, Marin Symphony, Modesto Symphony, Stockton Symphony, Livermore Opera, and Bach Millennium Opera production.

Her performance experience includes collaborations with DJ Kygo at the Chase Center, the Hip-Hop Orchestra Experience, the Video Game Orchestra at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), Stewart Copeland at SFJAZZ, a Led Zeppelin tribute production at the Curran Theater, and Green Day at Super Bowl LX.

A full-scholarship graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Ruby earned her Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance, where she studied with Simon James. This fall, she will begin her Master of Music studies at SFCM under Simon James and Chen Zhao also on a full scholarship. 

She has participated in multiple seasons of the University of Michigan’s Center Stage Strings and has performed in masterclasses for distinguished artists including Danielle Belen, Jinjoo Cho, Nathan Cole, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Paul Kantor, and Robert McDuffie.

JENNIFER NELSON received her undergraduate degree in Music Performance from USC as a student of Mitchell Lurie, and continued her clarinet studies at Temple University where she was a student of Anthony Gigliotti. Jennifer plays Principal Clarinet with Pacific Northwest Ballet and Auburn Symphony Orchestras. She also has a very active freelance career, including playing Broadway-style shows at the Fifth Avenue and Paramount Theaters, occasional extra with Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera orchestras, and records for various television and motion picture scores. Jennifer is an Affiliate Artist in Clarinet at the University of Puget Sound, and maintains a very busy private teaching studio in her home in north Seattle. Ms. Nelson has also traveled throughout the United States with the national touring companies of Phantom of the Opera and New York City Opera. In addition to her stateside concerts, orchestral and recital performances have taken her to Mexico, Japan, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Honduras, Sweden, and India.

Mary Monaghan is currently a doctoral candidate in horn performance with a minor in ethnomusicology, and a University Fellow at the University of Arizona. There, she studies horn with Johanna Lundy. She completed her bachelors of music in performance with Lanette Lopez Compton at Oklahoma State University and her masters of music in performance with Dr. Rachel Hockenberry at Illinois State University. She is currently the fourth horn of the Sierra Vista Symphony in Sierra Vista, AZ, the fourth horn of the Tucson Pops Orchestra, and freelances in southern Arizona. In addition to performing, Monaghan teaches horn, trumpet, trombone, and euphonium lessons. She teaches students of all ability levels, from ages 8 to 88.

As an ethnomusicologist, Monaghan’s background is in ecomusicology, Latin American music, and applied research. For her doctoral research, she focuses on musical accessibility through culturally responsive teaching and integrating culturally specific music. After serving as a graduate instructor of Film and Television History for a year at the University of Arizona, Monaghan served as sabbatical replacement for the spring of 2026 semester at Illinois State University, as the Instructional Assistant Professor of Horn. There, she taught horn lessons, technique classes, studio class, horn choir, and played with the faculty brass quintet.

Thea Weinbeck is a violinist currently based out of Seattle, Washington, and Amherst, Massachusetts. Thea has given solo performances across the United States and Southern France. Born in Burien, she has given many performances in the Seattle area, notably, a performance on Northwest Focus Live on Classical King 98.1. Thea was a finalist in the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition where she performed Korngold’s Violin Concerto. In Amherst, Thea served as Concertmaster and Principal Second Violin with the University of Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Thea has participated in the Zodiac Chamber Music Festival and Lawrence Chamber Music Festival. She is driven by collaboration and exploring as many musical areas as she can. This included involvement with Appleton’s Mile of Music Festival, collaborating with singer Julie Williams; additionally, she participates in jazz combos in addition to being heavily involved in chamber and orchestral studies.

Currently at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Thea is pursuing a Master of Music in Performance, where she is involved in the Graduate String Quartet Program. She received her Bachelor of Music from Lawrence University in 2025, where she studied Violin Performance and minored in Art History and String Pedagogy. Her education has  focused on performing and teaching, including studies in viola, cello, and double bass. Her teachers include Elizabeth Chang, Wen-Lei Gu, Judith Beatie, and April Swansiger.

Dr. Natasha Kubit is a passionate violinist, educator, and advocate for community engagement through music based in the Seattle area. She has performed with ensembles including the Cleveland Opera Theater, Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra, and Northbrook Symphony Orchestra. As a performer, Dr. Kubit has appeared at renowned venues including Carnegie Hall and the Severance Music Center, while remaining deeply committed to bringing music into local community spaces. Dr. Kubit began studying violin at the age of three through the Suzuki method and is now a registered Suzuki violin teacher. Dedicated to accessible music education, she has taught with the Cleveland Say Yes to Education program, Sphinx Organization’s Overture program in Flint, Michigan, and currently serves on the faculty of Key to Change in South King County. 

Dr. Kubit recently completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in Violin Performance at Michigan State University. She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Violin Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she also completed a Master’s degree in Suzuki Pedagogy. Outside of music, she enjoys hiking and exploring the Pacific Northwest.

Anna Elizabeth Gildon is a violinist, violist, music teacher, and music producer in the Pacific Northwest. She has performed with groups such as the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra, and the Masterworks Choral Ensemble. She also founded The Hansen Quartet, which performs for weddings and other events at The Hansen Place in Sumner, WA. In addition to Classical music, Anna enjoys a wide variety of folk and contemporary music. She plays frequently at local Irish, Old-Time, and Klezmer sessions. Her Celtic-influenced band Whiskey Fiasco is set to have their debut performance at the Olympia Porchfest, and she will perform with local singer-songwriter Faith Martin at the Tacoma Porchfest. 

She holds a Bachelor’s Degree of Violin Performance as well as Broad Area Music Education from Central Washington University, and a Master’s Degree of Music Education from Eastern Washington University, graduating Summa Cum Laude from both universities. She has taught a variety of orchestra, guitar, and music theory classes at Graham-Kapowsin High School for nearly five years. She is especially proud to have founded the school’s Mariachi program, which recently performed at the WMEA State Solo and Ensemble competition in Ellensburg. 

Anna loves writing and producing music and sharing her musical creations with others. She has released music on streaming services under the name Anna Elizabeth and posts her various music production projects on her Instagram page, which has 30,000 followers (anna.elizabeth.violin). 

In her free time, Anna enjoys rock climbing, rockhounding, and listening to rock music.

Begin Nora (she/her), violinist and instructor, was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. With a strong passion for making music for all, she has studied with Emily Bean, Victoria Brown, Walter Schwede, Gennady Filimonov, and Svend Ronning. A graduate of Pacific Lutheran University in 2001, she has performed with several orchestras, including Symphony Tacoma, Seattle Rock Orchestra, Federal Way Symphony, Bellevue Symphony, Seattle Chamber Orchestra, and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. Along with performing, Begin also loves teaching and has worked with many students as a para-professional for the Edmonds and Everett school districts and the Seattle Youth Symphony orchestras. She also manages a private teaching studio in Lynnwood, Washington. Finally, Begin started nannying during the pandemic shutdowns and currently cares for newborn twins!

Shanyse Strickland is a multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer and arranger. Drawing from early experiences across a wide spectrum of genres, Shanyse has developed a distinctive voice on the horn that now defines her focused career.

Originally from Akron, OH, Shanyse has led a multi-faceted career through mediums of performance, composing and educating. She received a BA in Music Performance at Youngstown State University, along with a MM from Duquesne University and an Artist Diploma from Montclair State University. Some highlights of her career include playing trombone and flute for the reuniting Ohio Players, winning the 2016 International Horn Symposium’s jazz competition, performing at the 2019 and 2021 Heisman Trophy Ceremony aired on ESPN. She was the featured artist for the International Horn Symposium 57 in 2024, and performed for two national tours playing principal horn in the production of Into the Spider-verse. She actively plays with the American Composer’s Orchestra in New York and does freelance work in the area as well.

Shanyse has written and published over thirty-five original works, one of which was premiered by the horn section of the New Haven Symphony titled Moods. In early March of 2023, Shanyse’s piece titled Afrofuturism was selected to be performed at the Music by Women Festival at the Mississippi University for Women. The piece won multiple film awards in the greater Ohio area, including acceptance into the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival (GCUFF). Shanyse’s work, When I’m Older was commissioned to be inserted in a book highlighting living Black composers that is accessible to beginning horn players in high school or middle school. Shanyse has written works for the Seattle Symphony horn section for their chamber music series, along with working alongside Danielle Kuhlmann, 4th horn of Seattle, and fellow member of the horn quartet Ghengis Barbie, who Shanyse also wrote and arranged music for.

As an educator and influencer, Shanyse has done numerous masterclasses, clinics and lectures across the country. She is currently taking over a sabbatical at Ithaca College as professor of horn for Spring 2026.