ANTHONY ROSS, Principal Cello, Minnesota Orchestra
Principal Cello Anthony Ross joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1988 and assumed the principal cello post in 1991. He has been a soloist many times with the Orchestra, performing concertos by Schumann, Dvořák, Victor Herbert, James MacMillan, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Elgar, Bloch, and Shostakovich, as well as many chamber works. He was most recently featured as soloist performing Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme.
In recent seasons Ross has performed Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante for Cello and Orchestra, the Walton Cello Concerto, and the Brahms Double Concerto, the latter alongside former First Associate Concertmaster Sarah Kwak. In April 2014 he was soloist in performances of Eric Whitacre’s The River Cam, with the composer conducting. At Sommerfest 2014 he performed Prokofiev’s Sonata for Cello and Piano with Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton.
Before joining the Minnesota Orchestra, Ross was principal cello of the Rochester Philharmonic. Away from Orchestra Hall, he is active as a chamber musician, festival performer and educator. He is a member of Accordo, a chamber group made up of principal string players from the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He also performs with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota. He has appeared in the Mostly Mozart, Music in the Vineyards, Cactus Pear (San Antonio), Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society (Madison) and Orcas Island festivals, and has performed on stages from Pensacola, Florida, to Rhodes, Greece. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music, the Aspen Festival and the Grand Teton orchestra seminar.
Ross’ recordings include Bernstein’s Three Meditations with the Minnesota Orchestra under Eiji Oue, the George Lloyd Cello Concerto with the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller, and works of Rachmaninoff and Elliott Carter for Boston Records.
A graduate of Indiana University, Ross earned a master’s degree at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. In 1982 he was awarded the bronze medal at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition, and he received McKnight Fellowships in 2001 and 2005. Together with his wife Beth Rapier, Ross produces the annual Harmony for Habitats benefit concert at St. John’s Episcopal Church in south Minneapolis.
BETH RAPIER, Cello, Minnesota Orchestra
Beth Rapier joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1986 and served as assistant principal cello from 1991 until 2022, when she chose to move into the core of the cello section. She has been a featured soloist with the Orchestra in works by Haydn, David Ott and Kevin Puts, the latter being the world premiere of his Sinfonia Concertante in 2006. Throughout her tenure with the Orchestra she has performed regularly at its Sommerfest, MacPhail, and Target Atrium Chamber Music concerts.
An accomplished chamber musician, Rapier won top awards at several competitions in the U.S. and Canada and has performed quartets throughout Europe, Asia, and the U.S. She is a regular guest at chamber music festivals, including Cactus Pear, Music in the Vineyards, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, and Orcas Island. Other appearances include the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Mainly Mozart (San Diego), Pensacola Chamber Music Festival, Barge Music (New York City), Bing Series (Los Angeles), Festival Mozart (Lille, France), and the Santa Barbara and MET Museum Chamber Music Series.
Rapier was a founding member of the Rosalyra String Quartet, which received a McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship and performed for nearly 20 years at venues from the Twin Cities to Boston, New York City, and France. With the Rosalyra she recorded works by Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Fauré, and Shostakovich for Boston Records and Artegra labels. Most recently, with singer Timothy Jones, she recorded settings of Five Spirituals by James Scott Ballentine for Baritone and Cello.
Born into a family of distinguished musicians, Rapier began her professional career at age 16 as an apprentice with the Louisville Orchestra. After studies at Indiana University and in New York with Janos Starker, Fritz Magg, and Timothy Eddy, she joined the Apple Hill Chamber Players of New Hampshire for two seasons of performances and extensive touring throughout New England and California.
In 2005 Rapier was again named winner of a McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowship for her performance of cello duos with her husband Anthony Ross, principal cello of the Minnesota Orchestra. Together, the duo has organized numerous benefit concerts for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, the American Refugee Committee, and Twin Cities R!SE.
NATSUKI KUMAGAI, First Violin, Minnesota Orchestra
Natsuki Kumagai joined the Minnesota Orchestra second violin section in the 2017-18 season and won a position in the first violin section in 2019. Born and raised in Chicago, she has served in numerous concertmaster positions at orchestras including the New World Symphony, New York String Orchestra Seminar and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, where she was awarded the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize. She was also a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. She is an active chamber musician, winning prizes at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Saint Paul Chamber Music Competition and Society of American Musicians Competition. She was a member of the New Fromm Players, the quartet-in-residence for contemporary music at the Tanglewood Institute, performing world and U.S. premieres of works by world-renowned composers Marc Neikrug and Joseph Phibbs.
Kumagai attended the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster Malcolm Lowe. Her previous teachers include Almita and Roland Vamos and Marko Dreher at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy program. She received her master’s degree at the Juilliard School studying with Ida Kavafian and was the recipient of the H. & E. Kivekas Scholarship and the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship.
TIMOTHY LOVELACE, Piano
Pianist and conductor Timothy Lovelace has performed on four continents and has been featured at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, Philadelphia’s Trinity Center, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts and on chamber music series sponsored by the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Minnesota, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The roster of internationally-known artists with whom Lovelace has appeared includes Miriam Fried, Alban Gerhardt, Nobuko Imai, Robert Mann, Charles Neidich, Paul Neubauer, Ayano Ninomiya, Paquito D’Rivera, and Dawn Upshaw. He has also concertized with the Bergen Woodwind Quintet and the Pacifica String Quartet. As a soloist, he performed Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques on subscription series concerts of the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä.
For thirteen years, Lovelace was a staff pianist at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, where he played in the classes of Barbara Bonney, Christoph Eschenbach, Thomas Hampson, Christa Ludwig, and Yo-Yo Ma, among others. Other professional staff pianist engagements include two International Double Reed Society conferences, two International Viola Congresses, the ClarinetFest of The International Clarinet Association, and The Wideman International Piano Competition.
A proponent of new music, Lovelace has performed under the supervision of composers Elliott Carter, John Corigliano, Steve Heitzeg, Andrew Imbrie, Leon Kirchner, Libby Larsen, Lowell Liebermann, Thea Musgrave, Gunther Schuller, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, David Evan Thomas, Dan Welcher, and Judith Zaimont, and he presented the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Third World.
As a conductor, Lovelace has led numerous operatic and symphonic ensembles. At the University of Minnesota, he has conducted productions of The Seven Deadly Sins, Suor Angelica, and La Voix humaine.
Timothy Lovelace holds the Ethel Alice Hitchcock Chair in Collaborative Piano and Coaching at the University of Minnesota. He previously taught at The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, the Green Lake Chamber Music Camp, and The Madeline Island Music Camp. His principal teachers were Pat Curtis, Harold Evans, Clifford Herzer, Gilbert Kalish, Donna Loewy, and Frank Weinstock. He studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Stony Brook University, and the Aspen and Eastern Music Festivals.
DAVID PHARISS, Clarinet, Minnesota Orchestra
David Pharris has played second clarinet with the Minnesota Orchestra since 2005, serving as acting associate principal clarinet for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. In addition, since 2009, he has participated in the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Prior to his appointment with the Orchestra, Pharris was second/Eb clarinet of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra for 13 years and spent his summers in the clarinet section of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, first as second/Eb clarinet, and then as principal clarinet. He was acting second clarinet of the Houston Symphony for the 2013-14 season and has also performed with the New York Philharmonic.
Pharris has made numerous chamber music appearances during his tenure with the Orchestra, performing, among other pieces, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Quintet for Clarinet, Two Violins, Viola and Cello, Samuel Barber’s Summer Music Opus 31 and Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. He is also a member of the St. Paul-based Musical Offering chamber music group.
Pharris graduated from the Northwestern University School of Music with a Bachelor of Music and studied with Robert Marcellus and Clark Brody.
BRYON WILSON, Piano
Bryon Wilson is a freelance pianist based in Minneapolis. Bryon divides his time between teaching, coaching, and performing. He has appeared with numerous artistic organizations including Schubert Club, Source Song Festival, Thursday Musical, NATS, Mill City Opera, Out of the Box Opera, and River Sounds in Ft. Lauderdale. In 2015 Bryon performed in the world premiere of Minnesota Concert Opera’s La Divina, a one-woman play about Maria Callas. Bryon also studies and performs music composed by holocaust prisoners in Theresienstadt and recently presented a lecture-recital on the topic as part of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas series on Holocaust survivors in Minnesota.
Bryon maintains an active piano studio, and his students have entered music programs at Indiana University, New York University, Boston University, and Interlochen Arts Camp. During his Master’s and Doctoral studies in Collaborative Piano at the University of Minnesota, Bryon studied with Timothy Lovelace, Noriko Kawai, Debra Bakland, and Margo Garrett. Bryon is on the faculty of Macphail Center for Music and is organist at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Edina, MN.
