Maria Jette’s eclectic career has included appearances with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston, Kansas City, San Luis Obispo, Santa Rosa, Charlotte, Buffalo, Grand Rapids, Austin, San Antonio and New York Chamber Symphonies, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, and many others; and she was a regular guest over many seasons at the San Luis Obispo Mozart and Oregon Bach Festivals and the Oregon Festival of American Music. At home in MSP, she’s regularly found with VocalEssence (under the baton of longtime friend and colleague, Philip Brunelle), Chamber Music Society of Minnesota and Lyra Baroque Orchestra. She played a parade of Baroque heroines with the late, lamented Ex Machina Antique Music Theatre, and was heard regularly for 20 years on Garrison Keillorʼs A Prairie Home Companion. Her lengthy list of commissions and premieres includes song cycles by British composers Geoffrey Bush, John Gardner, Ian Kellam and Alan Bullard; and chamber works, songs and cycles by Minnesotans Dominick Argento, Carol Barnett, Randall Davidson, David Evan Thomas, Steve Heitzeg, and Janika Vandervelde. For her service to new music, she was awarded a life membership by the American Composers Forum.

Leslie Shank leads an active musical life as a soloist and chamber musician. She was a member of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra for 30 years, 24 years as assistant concertmaster, and is a founding member of the Minneapolis based chamber music group, The Isles Ensemble. Shank gave her New York recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Hall as a winner of the Artists International Competition, and was twice re-engaged to perform on its Special Presentation Series. She was appointed Visiting Assistant Violin Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison, for the year 2014-15. Shank served as concertmaster of the Music in the Mountains Festival in Colorado for 11 years, and has performed at numerous other festivals including the Aspen, Grand Teton, Mainly Mozart, Marlboro, and the Britt Festival, where she served as concertmaster of the festival orchestra. As a member of the prestigious Musicians from Marlboro, she toured the East Coast. In addition to her musical activities on violin, she frequently plays viola in chamber music and is an avid photographer.

Violist Sifei Cheng joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1995. He has served as principal viola of the Charleston Symphony, New World Symphony and Juilliard Orchestra, and led sections under Michael Tilson Thomas, Eiji Oue and Christoph Eschenbach. As a chamber musician, he has played in the Ravinia Festival, Caramoor Music Festival, Taos Chamber Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival and the New York String Seminar. Sifei has collaborated in chamber music with artists such as Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Andrew Litton and pianist Jon Kimura Parker. He was recently appointed Principal Viola of the Minnesota Bach Ensemble and holds a degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia after studying at the Juilliard School in New York. His past teachers include Karen Tuttle and Michael Tree of the Guarneri String Quartet.

Laura Sewell has performed as a cellist in Europe, Asia, Canada, and throughout the United States. Locally she has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Minnesota Opera, as well as numerous chamber ensembles. Laura was the founder of the award-winning Lark Quartet, which was the bronze medal winner in the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Later in her career, she was a member of the Artaria String Quartet. She has performance degrees from the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her major teachers were Leonard Rose, Alan Harris, and Jacqueline du Pré. Currently Laura is the Associate Director of the International Cello Institute and has just released a CD, called "Threescore," of works by Minnesota composers for cello and piano on the Innova label.

Brenda Manuel Mickens was a long-time member of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, who continues teaching privately and freelancing as a church and chamber musician. She also plays in memory care and assisted living settings, using music for calming and healing. Ms. Mickens grew up in San Diego, California, playing in the San Diego Symphony, San Diego Opera and La Jolla Chamber Orchestra. She received Bachelor of Arts degree in music from University of Nebraska Lincoln while playing in Nebraska Chamber Orchestra and Lincoln Symphony, and Master of Music Performance from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was a German composer of the Romantic era. Most scholars agree that if Schumann were alive in the days of the DSM (the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals) he would have been diagnosed with some form of mental illness, most likely bipolar disorder. Alternating between states where he would “compose feverishly” with states of “virtual paralysis” he was known for being eccentric. Having attempted suicide in February 1854 at age 44, he voluntarily committed himself to an asylum where he stayed until his death in 1856.

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer who had a complex relationship with the Soviet government having his music fall in and out of good standing with the Soviet rulers. Having friends, relatives, and colleagues imprisoned or even killed, Shostakovich’s life depended on the government approving of his music. Shostakovich spent years living in fear. Described as a “neurotic” and “obsessive” man, he was obsessed with cleanliness, frequently synchronized the clocks in his apartment, and would send himself cards to test how well the postal service was working. Beginning in 1958, Shostakovich’s physical health began to decline until he died of heart failure in August 1975.

A Minnesota based, violist, composer, and music history enthusiast, AJ Isaacson-Zvidzwa (1990- ) holds a Bachelor of Music degree in viola performance from Augsburg University. As a composer, her major commissions include “Angels Sang to Me” for soprano and string quartet, commissioned by the Cedar Cultural Center; "The Sun Will Rise" for vibraphone and string quartet, commissioned by the Artaria String Quartet; "Songs of Enchantment" for voice, viola, and piano, commissioned by soprano Maria Jette; “Four Dances” commissioned by the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet (in progress); and most recently AJ has received a Minnesota Music Creator Award through the American Composers Forum to write a new piece for SATB choir. In addition to composing, AJ performs on viola and violin, is writing a book, is editing an 18th century viola concerto, has published articles in two journals, has lectured at an International Viola Congress, and is presently writing the viola column for Minnesota’s “String Notes” magazine. When she isn’t composing, practicing, researching, or writing, AJ enjoys traveling, hiking, kayaking, and (yet-to-catch-a-fish) angling with her husband. AJ identifies as a female, BIPOC, composer who lives with and spreads awareness of living with mental illness.