Musicians

Violin
· Brian Lewis, Concertmaster
· Brinna Brinkerhoff
· Aloysia Friedmann
· Jonathan Godfrey
· Andrés González
· Rachel Jordan
· Rasa Kalesnykaite
· Kana Kimura
· Maxine Kuo
· Tammy Linn
· Deborah Tien Price
· Oleg Sulyga
· Amy Thiaville

Viola
· Matt Dane
· Suzanne LeFevre
· Tawnya Popoff
· Lorento Golofeev

Cello
· Richard Belcher
· Julia Cleworth
· Erika Johnson
· Shino Hayashi

Bass
· Sandor Ostlund
· Erik Gronfor

Harp
· Mollie Marcuson

Flute/Piccolo
· Christina Jennings
· Jennifer Keeney

Oboe
· Alecia Lawyer

Clarinet
· Nathan Williams
· Maiko Sasaki

Bassoon
· Kristin Wolfe Jensen
· Daniel Chrisman

Horn
· Danielle Kuhlmann
· Gavin Reed

Trumpet
· Jens Lindemann
· Dan Shipman
· George Chase

Trombone
· Brian Logan

Percussion
· Matthew McClung

Piano
· Kimi Kawashima
· Rodney Waters

Nathan Williams Instrument: Clarinet Reside in: Austin, TX What do you do when you’re not playing with ROCO? Assistant Professor of Clarinet at The University of Texas in Austin. Favorite quote: “I don’t practice until I get it right. I practice until I can’t get it wrong.” – Pablo Casals

What do you like about being a musician? Being a musician is the best job I can imagine because I am spending my life doing what I love, performing for people, teaching others, traveling all over the world. . . .I feel so lucky and kind of feel like pinching myself every day to make sure it’s real. Being a part of ROCO is a prime example of the best aspects of being a musician: Playing great music with great musicians you care about and respect both personally and professionally. It’s a party!

What would you do if you time and money were not a factor? I would tour the world with my closest friends and family without regard for the passage of time and experience every place and every day as if that were the last one. I love to travel and explore the people, food and traditions of other cultures.

Why ROCO? I love everything about it----the concept, the vision, the people I play with, the music we play, the people we get to meet at concerts. . . .well, I could go on and on.

What do you enjoy besides music? I love cycling, running and hiking. I’ve never played golf. Love the outdoors. Love cooking, reading, traveling, people.

Favorite popular musicians? Alison Krauss and Union Station.

Bio: Nathan Williams--hailed by critics as "outstanding for his musicality, breath control, robust, and brilliant tone, and flawless technique" (El Nuevo Dia Domingo, San Juan), "a highly effective soloist" (The New York Times), and "a stellar musician, capable of the most exquisite and expressive playing" (The Winston-Salem Journal)–-has appeared as concerto soloist and given recitals and chamber music performances at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and Kaufmann Hall at the 92nd St. Y, as well as throughout the United States, and in Austria, Canada, China, Italy, Israel, Hungary, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.

He was a prize winner in Rotterdam’s International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition for performers of contemporary music, the William C. Byrd Young Artists Competition, the Eastman Concerto Competition, and the Naumburg International Competition. He has been a resident artist at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, and a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he won the C. D. Jackson Award for outstanding achievement.

Mr. Williams has been heard in concert broadcasts on National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Austrian Radio Network, NCRV (Dutch Radio), and WNCN-New York. He has commissioned several solo and chamber works, from such composers as Robert Maggio, Scott McAllister, Adam Silverman and Edward Jacobs, and he has taken part in world-premiere recordings and performances of both solo and chamber music for the New York Guild of Composers, the Austrian Composers Foundation, the Focus! Festival at New York’s Lincoln Center, and San Francisco’s Composers, Inc. He was the principal clarinetist of the Winston-Salem Symphony from 1996 to 2003, and from 1990 to 2001 he was on the faculty of the East Carolina University School of Music in Greenville, N. C.

Mr. Williams has received critical acclaim for his compact disc recordings for Albany Records, Composers Recordings, Inc., Naxos, New Dynamic Records, and Arizona University Recordings. He is also a featured soloist on "Music from the I.C.A.," distributed by the International Clarinet Association. In 1999, Strata–-a trio he founded with violinist James Stern and pianist Audrey Andrist--recorded works by Aram Khachaturian, Max Bruch, Martin Rokeach, Igor Stravinsky, and Don Freund for AUR. A duo CD with Andrist, Spontaneous Lines (Albany Records, TROY 311), features works by American composers Leslie Bassett, Sebastian Currier, Robert Maggio, Robert Muczynski, and Martin Rokeach, Igor Stravinsky, and Don Freund for AUR. A duo CD with Andrist, Spontaneous Lines (AlbanyRecords, TROY 311), features works by American composers Lesle Bassett, Sebastian Currier, Robert Maggio, Robert Muczynski, and Martin Rokeach.

Mr. Williams earned the Artist Diploma with highest honors from the Academy of Music and Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria, as well as graduate degrees from the Eastman and Juilliard schools, where he studied with Stanley Hasty. A former clarinetist with the Continuum ensemble in New York, he was the principal clarinetist of the Winston-Salem Symphony from 1996 to 2003, and from 1990 to 2001 he was on the faculty of the East Carolina University School of Music in Greenville, N.C. From 2001 to 2008, he was the Instructor of Clarinet at the Interlochen Arts Academy, and during 2003-2004 was also named Visiting Associate Professor at Michigan State University’s School of Music. He joined the faculty of the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2008. In October 2008, he was appointed principal clarinetist of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston, Texas. He is also an Artistic Director for the 2010 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest, which will be held at the Butler School of Music July 21-25.

Mr. Williams is on the Artist Roster of Lois Scott Management, Inc. in New York, and is an Artist/Clinician for the prestigious French clarinet manufacturer Buffet Crampon. Mr. Williams also recently joined the artist faculty of the Amalfi Coast Clarinet Workshop and Chamber Music Institute in Vietri-sul-Mare/Naples, Italy.