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.
Charles Block
Bass
Charles Block is an active freelance musician around the Twin Cities and can be seen performing with the Minnesota Sinfonia, Broadway shows on Hennepin avenue, and playing extra with ensembles such at the Minnesota Orchestra and Minnesota Opera. He is currently serving as Principal Bass of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra in Madison WI and teaching at UW-River Falls. In past years he has served as Principal Bass of the Duluth Symphony, Assistant Principal Bass of the Memphis Symphony, and has been fortunate to have performed as an extra player with the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras. Internationally Charles has performed with ensembles such as the RTE National Symphony in Dublin, Ireland, the Macau Orchestra and the the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Charles learned to play the bass with Shinji Eshima at SFSU and Bruce Bransby at IU.
He lives in Minneapolis with his family, and his wife Kathryn Nettleman is Associate Principal Bass of the Minnesota Orchestra.
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.
Emily Cole
Violin
Violinist Emily Cole has been a member of the Oregon Symphony since 2011. An avid chamber musician, Emily has performed with several Portland-area ensembles including 45th Parallel Universe, Third Angle, fEARnoMUSIC, and Northwest New Music, as well as with Chatter ABQ in New Mexico. She has been fortunate to premiere chamber works of Caroline Shaw, Kenji Bunch, Pierre Jalbert and James Shields.
During the summer months, Emily has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival, Music in the Mountains, Seattle Opera, the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, and the Apollo Music Festival. Emily previously served on the faculty of Lewis & Clark College and has coached young chamber musicians with Portland Summer Ensembles and Seattle’s Music Northwest. She received her B.M. from the University of Texas at Austin as a student of Brian Lewis and her M.M. from the University of North Texas as a student of Emanuel Borok.
Lindsay Flowers
Oboe
Lindsay Flowers is the Principal Oboist of the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra and English Hornist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra. She previously was a member of the New Mexico Philharmonic and Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
Lindsay serves on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music where she is a member of the Wingra Wind Quintet. At Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, she received a Doctor of Music degree and designed a curriculum, "School of Music Student-Generated Community Engagement Projects." Lindsay’s teaching integrates her collegiate volleyball training: disciplined commitment, performance visualization, supportive teamwork, persistent resilience, and the balance of effort and finesse.
A passionate chamber musician, Lindsay was a founding member of the Arundo Donax Reed Quintet, Bronze Medal Winners of The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Together with Dr. Andrew Parker, she recorded an album of oboe and English horn duo music to be released Fall 2022.
During recent summers, she has performed with the Santa Fe Opera, Grant Park, Midsummer’s (Door County), Lakes Area, Lake George, Castleton, Aspen, and Banff Music Festivals. She has also performed with the Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Utah, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras.
Evan Kuhlmann
Bassoon
Evan Kuhlmann was appointed Contrabassoon of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by Gustavo Dudamel in 2018, shortly after completing his twelfth season as Assistant Principal Bassoon and Contrabassoon of the Oregon Symphony. A native Seattleite, he is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School; where he earned a B.M. in Bassoon Performance with Scholastic Distinction as a student of Frank Morelli, a Graduate Diploma in Music Composition as a student of Robert Beaser, and the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. Evan also studied bassoon with Francine Peterson, Barrick Stees, and Eric Stomberg; and composition with Samuel Jones, Stanley Wolfe, and Philip Lasser.
Evan has performed with numerous orchestras internationally including the St. Louis, San Diego, and Seattle Symphonies, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, All-Star Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. He has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall, the Marrowstone Festival Orchestra, and alongside Jethro Tull with the Oregon Symphony. As Principal Bassoon of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Evan has performed countless premieres, including works of John Adams, Magnus Lindberg, and James MacMillan.
A dedicated teacher, Evan has served on the faculty of Portland State University and the Marrowstone Music Festival. He has also coached the bassoonists of the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia, Portland Youth Philharmonic, and Metropolitan Youth Symphony.
Valerie Little
Viola
Pennsylvania native Valerie Little is an active violist and orchestra librarian in the Twin Cities region.
As an orchestral musician, Valerie has regularly performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, Minnesota Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, and with local MN artists such as Davina and the Vagabonds, jeremy messersmith, The New Standards, Rogue Valley, and Dessa. Since 2013, Valerie has been the violist of the Mill City String Quartet. MCSQ has taught and performed throughout the U.S. and is a five-time artist-in-residence ensemble through Minnesota Public Radio. Notable solo performances include appearances with the York Symphony (PA) and the Mankato Symphony, as well as performing Quincy Porter's Suite for Viola Alone at the 38th International Viola Congress.
Valerie has been a tenured member of Minnesota Orchestra since 2015, where she serves as assistant principal librarian, a position that she’s held since 2009. She also co-chairs the Artistic Advisory Committee, serves on the Community Engagement & Education Committee, and hosts pre-concert lectures.
She holds degrees in Viola Performance and English & Creative Writing from Pennsylvania State University, an MM from the University of Texas, and a DMA from the University of Minnesota. Her principal teachers include Kathleen W. Yeater, Timothy Deighton, Roger Myers, and Korey Konkol.
Valerie is also an accomplished writer with over a dozen works of poetry and non-fiction in print, including her National Indie Excellence Award winning chapbook, Little Blue Primer, which debuted in August 2021.
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.
Elizabeth York
Violin
Elizabeth York lives in St. Paul, MN, and is sought after as a performer and teacher across the region. In 2013 she completed a dual Doctor of Musical Arts in violin and viola performance at Stony Brook University (NY). She currently holds the positions of Associate Concertmaster and Personnel Manager of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, and violin faculty at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University. She is also violin, viola, and chamber music faculty at St. Cloud State University.
Elizabeth is an avid chamber musician and recitalist with interest in a wide range of musical styles, from baroque performance practice to contemporary music. Recent performance highlights include projects with La Grande Bande, 113 Composers Collective, Transept, and Sioux Falls Chamber Music Collective, as well as solo violin recitals at The Baroque Room in St. Paul and at the BARC in Windom, MN. Elizabeth plays baroque violin and viola as a member of Lyra Baroque Orchestra, where she also previously served a three year term as Players' Representative on the board of directors.
Elizabeth is a dedicated teacher, committed to fostering creativity and freedom of expression in her students. In addition to her private violin/viola studio, she has taught violin at Birch Creek Symphony Session (Door County, Wisconsin) since 2013, and was on faculty for the inaugural Birch Creek Adult Chamber Music Retreat in 2019. She has been the chamber music coordinator and violin faculty at Upper Midwest String Camp since 2017, and was a violin coach for MN All-State Orchestra camp in 2017. She has conducted sectionals with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, Fargo-Moorhead Area Youth Symphony, and Southwest MN Orchestra, as well as various high schools in Minnesota and North Dakota. She previously served as Lecturer of Upper Strings at North Dakota State University.
In addition to her doctorate, Elizabeth holds a BM from East Carolina University, and MM from Stony Brook University in violin performance. Her major teachers include violinists Ara Gregorian, Soovin Kim, and Phil Setzer, and violists Dan Panner, Nicholas Cords, and Lawrence Dutton.
Tobias Steymans
Violin
Tobias Steymans began playing the violin at the age of six, and by the time he was twelve, he was already a preparatory student at the Music Academy in Cologne. After winning prizes at the Federal German “Jugend musiziert” competition and the first prize at the Tonger Competition, he was accepted into Professor Igor Ozim’s master class.
After successfully passing the artistic maturity examination he prepared for his concert examination with Prof. Zakhar Bron in Lübeck. This was followed by a two-year full-tuition scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service to study with Joseph Silverstein in Boston. Parallel to this, he took part in a number of master classes, studying with such eminent artists as Christian Tetzlaff, Thomas Zehetmair, Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Ana Chumachenko, Donald Weilerstein and Max Rostal.
He then joined in the founding of the Suavis String Quartet with the chamber music imprint of the Alban Berg Quartet in Vienna. Since 2003, he has been a violinist in the Ensemble Chamäleon, which performs chamber music in piano trio settings.
He has been invited to several festivals, such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Aldeburgh, Prussia Cove and Ravinia. He has collaborated with musicians from a number of differed ensembles, such as the Juilliard String Quartet, the Vermeer String Quartet, the Cleveland String Quartet and the Emerson String Quartet.
He has taken part in a number of television presentations, including a WDR telecast in the series “Podium junger Künstler” (“Young Artists’ Podium”) and in the program “Träume ohne Schäume”.
In 2001, he performed live on WGBH in the United States, playing sonatas by Mozart and Debussy. In 2002 he acquired the position of concert master at the Zurich Opera, while he was also invited the become guest concert master of the Symphony Orchestra of Basel and the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden.
Tobias Steymans was a prize-winner at the 1994 International Violin Competition sponsored by the Georg Kulenkampff Foundation, first prize winner at the 1995 Yfrah Neaman Violin Competition and received a grant from the 1996 German Music Competition. In 1997 he was awarded the Mozart Prize from the Mozart Society in Wiesbaden, and in 1998 he received a grant from the Hans and Eugenia Jütting Foundation, was accepted into the Study Foundation of the German People and sponsored by the German Foundation for Musical life.
Solo appearances have taken him to the Cologne Philharmonie, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Hamburg Musikhalle, the Broadcasting Hall of the NDR in Hanover, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Wiesbaden Kurhaus, the Bremen Glocke, the Karlsruhe Congress Center and the Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg. Here he has been accompanied by such distinguished ensembles as the Classical Philharmonic of Bonn, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, the Hildesheim Symphony, the Mainz Chamber Orchestra, the North-West German Philharmonic, the Southern Westphalian Philharmonic, the Philharmonic State Orchestra of Halle as well as the State Orchestra of Brandenburg.
In 2009 he made solo appearances with Cecilia Bartoli in Rome, Turin, Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen with the second movement from the Violin Concerto No. 7 by Charles de Bériot and the duet aria “Infelice” by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
Tobias Steymans was appointed principal concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2009.