Dr. Joel Brennan enjoys a diverse career as a performer and teacher. He has performed with orchestras around the globe, including the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Australia), Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea), Rotterdam Philharmonic (Netherlands), Winnipeg Symphony (Canada), Malaysian Philharmonic, and Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Turkey), and has served as principal trumpet of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra (Japan) and Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra (Netherlands).

A proponent of contemporary music and chamber music, Joel has commissioned and premiered dozens of new works, with a particular emphasis on working with emerging composers and those from underrepresented demographics. He is a member of Ensemble Three, a unique trio of trumpet, trombone, and guitar which has been praised as “an inspiring example of forward-thinking classical music culture” and won the 2017 Melbourne Recital Centre Contemporary Masters Award. He is also a member of Lyrebird Brass, a collective of players dedicated to performing the finest brass chamber music.

Joel received his bachelor's degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music before pursuing graduate studies at the Yale School of Music from which he is a recipient of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. Awarded a Fulbright Grant 2007, Joel spent a year performing, teaching, and studying in the Netherlands.

Deeply devoted to education, Joel is Associate Professor of Music Performance at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (University of Melbourne, Australia). He has also served on the faculty of Brandon University (Canada) and the Juilliard School's campus in Tianjin (China) where he worked with students in the pre-college program and graduate school in addition to performing with the Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble. He has been a guest teaching artist at the Australasian Trumpet Academy, Danish/German Brass Academy, and Oberlin Trumpet Workshop. He is the creator of "Poper's Game," a unique practice app for trumpet players.

Joel is a Yamaha Performing Artist.

Trombonist Lee Allen has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Diego Symphony. As acting principal trombone of the Las Vegas Philharmonic, he has performed with the Santa Monica Symphony, Riverside Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, Long Beach Opera, Burbank Philharmonic, and Los Angeles Jewish Symphony . Allen toured as a member of award-winning smooth jazz artist Brian Culbertson’s band in 2008 and also performed with Adele at the Academy Awards in 2013. Allen has worked on numerous recording projects including a project at The Bridge Recording in L.A. with Jay Friedman. He is a founding member of the critically acclaimed MOMUS trombone quartet, and a member of the Pacific Trombone Project, which comprises some of the leading players in Thailand, South Korea, China, and Australia.

A dedicated and sought-after teacher, Allen currently serves as trombone faculty and chair of brass and percussion at The Tianjin Juilliard School. There he is also a member of the Tianjin Juilliard Ensemble, an all-faculty ensemble performing chamber concerts throughout Asia. Allen is a member of the summer faculty at RondoFest in Penang, Malaysia. He has taught at the Oberlin Conservatory, University of Southern California, and Colburn School for the Performing Arts. During his tenure as assistant professor of trombone at the Oberlin Conservatory from 2013 - 2019, Allen was soloist with many large ensembles. He performed the US premiere of Christopher Starks’ Nanokonzert for solo trombone and contemporary ensemble in 2015. He also led the Oberlin Brass Quintet on a month-long tour of China and took students to Uganda, Africa as part of a collaboration with Brass for Africa. Allen has presented master classes throughout the United States, South Korea, and China.

Allen earned a DMA and MM in trombone performance from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and a bachelor’s of music education from the

University of Kentucky. His primary mentors have included Terry Cravens, Dale Warren, Bill Watrous, and Per Brevig.

Lee Allen is a Shires Performing Artist.

PATRICIA SHIH, Violinist, became a pupil of the legendary Josef Gingold at Indiana University at age 14. He described her as "one of the greatest talents that I have ever taught. Her great technique, inborn musicality, sense of style and virtuosity are unequalled." Patricia has appeared worldwide as soloist and recitalist in major halls including Wigmore Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York performing the Wieniawski Concerto No. 1 at age 15. The same year, she won the Special prize at the Wieniawski International Competition in Poland. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Sylva Gelber Award for the most outstanding young Canadian musician and the Mozarteum prize in Salzburg. Patricia has performed as guest soloist with major orchestras such as Royal Philharmonic, Halle Orchestra, Toronto, Singapore and Seattle Symphonies, National Orchestra of Mexico, Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Polish National Radio Orchestra. Her DVD of Vitali's Chaconne was featured on the Classic FM Channel across Europe. Recently, a half-hour documentary on Patricia's career was televised on the Biography Channel across North America.

Violin: Lorenzo Storioni (Cremona, c 1780)

NIKITA POGREBNOY, Violist, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia where he graduated from the world-famous St. Petersburg Conservatory with highest honors. He then came to the United States by the invitation of Victor Rosenbaum, the Director of the Longy School of Music who after hearing his performance, awarded him a full scholarship to study in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nikita is the winner of the Valentino Bucchi International Competition in Rome, Italy. Since then he has appeared as both soloist and with various chamber ensembles across Russia, Spain, Central America and the United States. He has also performed at numerous festivals including the International Musical Arts Institute in Fryeburg, Maine, and the Colorado Music Festival among others. He has been broadcast on both television and radio in the United States, including the National Public Radio which aired nationwide.

Viola: Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza (Milano, 1791)

Gahlord Dewald is a creative musician devoted to experimentation in acoustic, electric, and synthetic bass frequencies. He works seamlessly through the spectrum of composed and improvised musical expression, often blending acoustic and synthetic sound worlds to create complex textures and soundfabric.

For The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, he assembled a quad sound, synthetic sound texture to stir the inner workings of the mind, the heart, and the body. Each fragment was performed once and only once, an ephemeral experience of music, time, and space. 

Gahlord lives in Vermont along the banks of the Winooski River. He drinks an awful lot of coffee.