Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Liza Stepanova is in demand as a soloist, collaborator, and educator. In the 2024-2025 season, she performs and teaches at the Bowdoin, Brevard, Music in May in Santa Cruz, CA, and Songfest at Pomona College summer festivals, directs the Chamber Music Athens Festival, and hosts the 2024 American Liszt Society national conference. She also continues to tour as a founding member of the Lysander Piano Trio, now in its second decade, at prominent concert series around the US and Canada.

Peter Van Zandt Lane is Associate Professor of Composition and Director of the Dancz Center for New Music at the University of Georgia Hodgson School of Music. He holds a BM in music theory and composition from the University of Miami Frost School of Music and MA and PhD degrees from Brandeis University. His composition studies include work with Melinda Wagner, Eric Chasalow, David Rakowski, and Lansing McLoskey. Prior to arriving in Athens, Dr. Lane taught at the University of Florida, Wellesley College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard.

Reid Messich is Professor of Oboe at the University of Georgia, where he is a member of the Georgia Woodwind Quintet. He also serves as Co-Principal Oboist of Memphis’s IRIS Orchestra/IRIS Collective, under Maestro Michael Stern, and as Principal Oboist of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro John Morris Russell. Each summer, he teaches oboe and woodwind literature at the MasterWorks Music Festival, hosted at Liberty University.

Dr. Emily Gertsch joined the faculty of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music in 2012 and currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies and Senior Lecturer of Music Theory. She holds a Ph.D.

Violist Maggie Snyder is Professor of Viola at the University of Georgia, Principal Violist of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, with whom she records for Naxos, and is on the Artist-Faculty of the Brevard Music Festival.

Ms. Toscano is formerly the Principal Timpanist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, a position she won by unanimous decision in May 2007 and held until 2016.  Her dynamic and virtuosic timpani facility brings an energy and rhythmic stability to the stage that has been recognized by colleagues, reviewers, and audience members alike.  Following her first appearance with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, James Reel noted, “…and new timpanist Kimberly Toscano played with both forcefulness and control.”