Garret Ross
Artistic Director, Pianist
Pianist Garret Ross is an experienced soloist and avid chamber musician with a wide ranging repertoire. He is the founder and Director of the Apollo Music Festival as well as the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Florestan Chamber Music. Garret has performed on stages and series across the USA including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, The Roerich Museum in NYC, the Bermuda Piano Festival, and Music Northwest in Seattle WA.
As a soloist, Garret gave the World Premiere of Gregory Vajda’s Csardas Obstine with the Texas Festival Orchestra and the Music in The Mountains Festival Orchestra. Other concerto appearances include the repertoire of Bach, Beethoven, Grieg, Rachmaninoff, and Hindemith. Garret has performed at numerous festivals including the Aldeburgh Festival, Banff Centre, and the International Festival-Institute at Round Top.
Garret holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota, as well as a Certificate in Music Education from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Music. Garret’s principal teachers are Alexander Braginsky and Eteri Andjaparidze. Both Braginsky and Andjaparidze studied at the Moscow Conservatory where their teachers, Teodor Gutman and Vera Gornostaeva, respectively, were students of Heinrich Neuhaus. Garret hopes to continue this tradition of piano playing through his performances and teaching. An active teacher himself, Garret teaches students throughout the Twin Cities, and conducts masterclasses at universities throughout the United States. He is on the faculty of The Saint Paul Conservatory of Music.
Garret lives in North Minneapolis with his partner Justin, cat Marzipan, and Doberman Reginald Barclay. He enjoys cooking, gardening, and traveling.
Rachel Charbel
Violin
Raised in Bellingham, Washington, Rachel Charbel began studying the violin at the age of seven. As a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Rachel holds the Ida Ringling North chair. Past appointments include the Austin Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. In addition, Rachel has performed with the Detroit, Louisville, and Alabama symphony orchestras. After serving as Adjunct Professor of Violin at the Northern Kentucky University, Rachel now maintains a private studio of promising young violinists. Rachel received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Texas and a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. During the summer, Rachel has performed with the Britt and Bellingham music festivals, and served as concertmaster of the Spoleto Festival USA.
In her spare time, Rachel enjoys gardening, hiking, board games, and exploring what greater Cincinnati has to offer with her husband and two daughters.
Valerie Little
Viola
Pennsylvania native Valerie Little has regularly performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, Orchestra Iowa, Florestan Chamber Music, the Schubert Club’s Courtroom Concerts series, and on many chamber music series throughout the US.
Since 2009, Valerie has served as Assistant Principal Librarian of the Minnesota Orchestra and became a tenured member in September 2015.
Valerie holds bachelor’s degrees in viola performance and English from Penn State University, a MM in viola performance from the University of Texas-Austin, and a DMA in viola performance from the University of Minnesota. This fall, Valerie will begin her Mortuary Science studies with the goal of further serving her community in a new way, while still engaging with her current artistic pursuits.
Valerie studied creative writing at Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania. Two of her non-fiction pieces were nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize. In 2022, her debut chapbook, Little Blue Primer, was one of seven finalists for the 16th Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Poetry.
Ruth Marshall
Cello
Cellist Ruth Marshall (she/her/hers) is active across Minnesota as a performer and educator. She is the cellist of the Mill City String Quartet, which presents five full programs each season in the Twin Cities, and which frequently performs for students across the metro area through the Class Notes program of Minnesota Public Radio. She is also the cellist of Artu Duo, a collaborative ensemble with pianist Garret Ross. After seven years of playing concerts and giving masterclasses across the United States, Artu Duo formed Florestan Chamber Music, in order to serve local students and perform for Twin Cities audiences. Ruth is also an active and committed cello instructor, teaching students of all ages and levels at her home studio, and working with college students at Winona State University and Hamline University. In the summers, she performs as part of the Britt Festival Orchestra in southern Oregon, and as an artist-in-residence at the Apollo Music Festival in southeast Minnesota. In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor activities, reading parenting books, and listening to podcasts about cooking and baking. She lives in St. Paul, MN, on Dakota land, with her husband and children. Please visit ruthmarshallcello.com for more information.
Lauren Roth
Violin
Lauren Roth is the newly appointed Assistant Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony. Prior to this, she was Concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and served on the faculty of the University of Arizona as an Assistant Professor of Violin for eleven years. Ms. Roth appears regularly as a soloist, Guest Concertmaster, and Associate Concertmaster with orchestras around the world. Highlights include performing the Mendelssohn and Sibelius violin concertos in the Czech Republic, solo engagements with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and appearances with the Jacksonville Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Baltimore Symphony. She enjoys performing with the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, a gathering of concertmasters and principal players from around the country.
A dedicated teacher, Ms. Roth maintained a violin studio at the University of Arizona giving instruction in performance, pedagogy, and orchestral repertoire. She often spends summers as a faculty member of the Prague Summer Nights Festival, the Marrowstone Music Festival, and she has served on the faculties of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Camp and Carnegie Hall’s New York Orchestra Seminar program. Ms. Roth is Associate Concertmaster of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music each August. In the summer of 2021, she was a member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra.
A native of Seattle, Ms. Roth received a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Italian Studies from the University of Washington. She was a student of Professor Ron Patterson. She went on to earn a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of William Preucil, and Ms. Roth was accepted into his prestigious Concertmaster Academy.
Outside of music, Ms. Roth enjoys yoga, playing and watching sports, and spending time with her nieces and nephews.
Catherine Ramirez
Flute
Recognized for her “sensitive and artistic” (Flute Talk Magazine) performances as “a communicator through music” (American Record Guide), flutist Catherine Ramirez has captivated listeners from her roots along the U.S. Southern border to audiences around the world. Catherine has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at such venues as the Beijing Concert Hall, Teatro del Giglio, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center Terrace Theatre, Preston Bradley Hall, Zilkha Hall, Zipper Hall, and Temple Square, as well as “The Barn” of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the artist lofts of Lowertown in St. Paul.
Equally at home with symphony, ballet and opera orchestras, Catherine has performed with the Sunriver Music Festival, El Paso Symphony, El Paso Opera, Juarez Symphony (Mexico), Las Cruces Symphony, Houston Ballet, Vermont Mozart Festival, Mill City Summer Opera, Minnesota Sinfonia, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The strength of her adaptability, honed through diverse musical ventures, extends to musical theatre and popular music, including performances in the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand show with “Weird Al” Yankovic, “The Who” on their Moving On Tour, the Broadway musical “Phantom of the Opera” Tour (MN), and “Into The Woods” at the Guthrie Theatre.
A winner of three top prizes at the “Città di Padova” International Music Competitions in Italy, a First Prize at the New York Flute Club Young Artist Competition, a Global Music Award for Outstanding Achievement, a Minnesota State Arts Board Artists Initiative Grant, an Ernst Krenek Society Recording Prize, a New Music Grant from the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust, and a SphinxConnect Fellowship, Catherine recently won a McKnight Fellowship for Musicians - in recognition of artistic excellence and a distinctive musical voice - a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant to record “Claiming Space,” an album of solo flute music by Black and Latinx composers from South, Latin and North America, and was recently named a National Finalist for the 2025 American Prize.
Catherine is also a dedicated educator and member of the flute community. She has a Special Appointment as Artist-in-Residence at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where she has taught flute and chamber music since 2010. She has served as president of the Upper Midwest Flute Association, as a member of the Cultural Outreach Committee of the National Flute Association (NFA), and is currently Chair of the NFA Pedagogy Committee. Catherine has adjudicated and coached for the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and has taught youth to graduate flute students in masterclasses in the U.S., Italy, Colombia, and China.
Motivated to give back to communities in which she has lived, Catherine taught middle school band in El Paso, organized a concert series of accessible Latin and South American chamber music for Houston’s ‘at-risk’ youth, performed for nuns in Bogotá (Colombia), and played a tailored program for cancer patients and therapists at mental health clinics in Minnesota. She has offered her perspective on the Diversity and Inclusion Panel of the NFA, the ‘Greater Than’ Faculty Mental Health Panel (St. Olaf College), and the Houston Hispanic Forum (Hispanic Career and Education Day at the George Brown Convention Center). She has released three recordings: Transformation (independent), Shelter From The Storm (Albany Records), and Claiming Space (Sphinx/independent). Her performances have been broadcast on WFMT, KUHF and MPR radio, and her research on optimal musical communication has been featured on the cover of The Flutist Quarterly and in The Flute View online magazine.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, to Colombian and Mexican-American parents, Catherine grew up in the U.S.-Mexico border city of El Paso, Texas. She began playing the flute in the sixth grade public school band, and started private flute lessons at age 18. She earned performance degrees from Occidental College (BA), the Boccherini Music Institute in Italy (Honors Diploma), Queens College (MA), Yale University School of Music (MM), and Rice University (DMA). Her major teachers include Melissa Colgin-Abeln, Gary Woodward, Marzio Conti, Tara Helen O'Connor, Ransom Wilson and Leone Buyse. A lover of learning, travel and languages, she resides with her husband and their three dogs in Minnesota.
Since 2019, Catherine Ramirez plays on a Lillian Burkart Flute with a Tobias Mancke Headjoint. For more information, please visit www.catherineramirez.com.
ROBERT HANFORD
Violin
Robert Hanford is the concertmaster of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. During the summer he is also a concertmaster at the Aspen Music Festival. Previously, Mr. Hanford was the Associate Principal Second Violinist of the Minnesota Orchestra and a member of both the Milwaukee Symphony and Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony. He has appeared as soloist on many occasions with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony and other Midwestern orchestras, including the Chicago Philharmonic. Mr. Hanford attended Northwestern University and is currently on the faculty as a violin instructor. He graduated with first prize from the Orpheus Conservatory in Athens, Greece. For many summers he was concertmaster and violin instructor at the Birch Creek Music Festival in Wisconsin. He has also performed and taught at the Apollo, the MidAmerica, the Milwaukee, and the Roycroft Chamber Music Festivals.
In addition to his professional career as a violinist, Robert has studied and performed on the theremin, one of the first electronic instruments. Robert is also an amateur artist blacksmith, having attended courses of study in Wyoming and Illinois.
Mr. Hanford lives in Evanston, Illinois, with his wife Sheila, also a violinist. They have three sons.