Cellist Wesley Baldwin performs throughout the United States and Europe as cello soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist with orchestra he has appeared with conductors Kirk Trevor, Serge Fournier, Jorge Richter, Francis Graffeo, Cyrus Ginwala, Richard Rosenberg, David Wiley, and Daniel Meyer, with orchestras including the Laredo Philharmonic, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Symphony of the Mountains, the Oak Ridge Symphony, and the Wintergreen and Hot Springs Festival Orchestras. Upcoming concerto performances include the Saint Saens Concerto with the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra and conductor Adrian McDonnell, and the North American premier of the Jacob ter Veldhuis "Rainbow Concerto" in November with the Bryan Symphony and Dan Allcott.

The Washington Post called his playing "…almost orchestrally rich in sound; bold but well controlled in phrasing and dynamics." The Miami Herald wrote of his "passionate conviction" in performance. And the Knoxville News Sentinel observed that "Baldwin played with the consummate skill of a gifted musician who never upstages the communication of the music."

As a chamber musician he has collaborated with principal string players from the Utah, Philadelphia, Saint Paul Chamber, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras; he has also enjoyed collaborations with the Miami String Quartet, and with many prominent solo artists, recently including Norman Krieger, Michael Gurt, Julie Albers, Janet Sung, and Jasper Wood. He has performed chamber music at the Aspen, Cazenovia, Ojai, Sandpoint, Mainly Mozart, May in Miami, Skaneateles, and Subtropics Music Festivals. Internationally he has performed in chamber concerts in Italy, France, Monte Carlo, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Costa Rica.

He was the founder of the Plymouth String Quartet, with whom he was a top prizewinner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition. Other honors Dr. Baldwin has received include the Prix Mercure at the Mercure Wettbewerb in Vienna and the first prize in the Homer Ulrich Performance Award Competition.

As a member and principal cellist of the New World Symphony, Baldwin performed with many of the world’s great conductors, and toured Japan, Scotland, England, Argentina, and Brazil. His orchestral colleagues there selected him as the recipient of the New World Symphony's Community Board Award for artistic integrity and leadership. He now serves on the audition committee for New World Symphony auditions in regional auditions throughout the U.S. and Canada each spring.

Wesley has recorded for the Naxos and Zyode labels, as well as for Centaur records, which released his solo recording of Belgian cello music in 2004, and his recording of duos with violist Sheila Browne in the summer of 2006.

Dr. Baldwin currently serves as associate professor of cello at the University of Tennessee, where he received the Provost's Award for Professional Promise in Research and Creative Activity. In the summers he performs and teaches at the Hot Springs Music Festival, the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival, and at the Wintergreen Festival, where he serves as principal cellist and faculty member of the Wintergreen Academy.

Wesley also serves as cellist of the James Piano Quartet, the resident ensemble at Sweet Briar College, with whom he performs throughout the Northeastern United States. This year he has also been an artist-in-residence at the State University of New York at Oswego, as a member of the Upstate X-tet.

Dr. Baldwin has led workshops and master classes throughout the US, and is the founder and director of the Tennessee Cello Workshop, an annual three-day seminar for young cellists. His former cello students play and teach throughout the U.S.

Wesley performs on a 19th century cello made by J. B. Vuillaume. He resides in Knoxville with his wonderful family: soprano Melisa Barrick, eight year-old Jack, and three year-old Ella. They have three dogs.

New York City native, Joseph J. Nigro is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with both Karen Tuttle and Burton Kaplan. While in New York, Mr. Nigro appeared with The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The American Symphony and The New Jersey Symphony in halls ranging from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, to Gracie Mansion and The White House.

Joe has appeared as Principal Violist of The Roanoke Symphony and serves as both Principal Violist and Academy Director of The Wintergreen Summer Music Festival. He is entering his third season as Academy Director and will continue to administer to the artistic needs of forty young professionals who gather each summer for mentoring in the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Mr. Nigro’s chamber music performances include six summers at The Downeast Chamber Music Center in Maine, as well as a fellowship to The Blossom Festival School in Ohio, where he studied with Robert Vernon. Joe is the founder of The James Piano Quartet which was recently awarded membership with The Virginia Touring Commission and will travel throughout the state of Virginia this year and offer concerts programmed to include three world premieres by composers Jonathan Green, Joelle Wallach and Kent Holliday. Plans are also under way for a recording project that will see The JPQ collaborate with well-known vocalists from The Netherlands with the intention of recording rare but wonderful Chamber Music works of French "Les Six" composer Arthur Honegger.

Joseph will once again perform this summer in The Gustavo Romero Music Festival. Their performance of "Carnival of the Animals" and Schubert’s beloved "Trout" Quintet will continue to raise funds for the refurbishment project of Lynchburg’s Academy of Fine Arts.

In addition the JPQ will continue its ensemble residencies both at The Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and at Sweet Briar College where Joe will also begin his third season as Music Director and conductor of The Sweet Briar College Chamber Orchestra.

In Lynchburg, Joseph maintains a private studio and also has adjunct Violin and Viola faculty positions at both Liberty University and Sweet Briar College. He has served at The Central Virginia Suzuki Institute and as is a former member of the Board of Directors of The Virginia School of the Arts.

Joe and his wife Darlene live in Forest with Soccer/Karate star Joseph IV and Ballerinas Alexandra and Elizabeth.

Jana Vander Schaaf Ross holds the position of principal second violin with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. She will perform Bach’s Concerto in d-minor for two violins with Joo Young Oh and the RSO in December. This fall's production of La Traviata marks the fourth season Ross will serve as concertmaster of the Opera on the James in Lynchburg. She has also served as concertmaster and/or principal second violin with the Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Southwest Virginia, Opera Roanoke, and the Oratorio Societies of Charlottesville and Salem, and the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra. In previous summers, Ross could be heard at the Aspen Music Festival, the National Orchestral Institute in Maryland, and the Tanglewood Music Center, where she served as concertmaster. She was appointed principal second violin and concertmaster in consecutive years with the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado, with whom she also appeared as soloist--performing Chausson’s Poeme and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in e-minor.

Ross began her violin studies at the age of three at the St. Louis Conservatory and School for the Arts. She entered the Oberlin Conservatory at age 17 with her primary teacher, Taras Gabora. After completing her Bachelor of Music, Ross earned her Master of Music degree from Rice University under the tutelage of renowned pedagogue Sergiu Luca. During her tenure at both schools she frequently served as concertmaster and principal second of the Oberlin Orchestras and the Shepherd School Symphonies.

After completing her degree at Rice, Ross remained in Houston where she performed regularly with the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Ballet Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony under the baton of music director Christoph Eschenbach. She also was appointed associate concertmaster of Orchestra X, an innovative young orchestra whose mission was to bring classical music to new audiences by performing in unconventional venues. Ross also flew from Houston to perform as substitute violinist with the Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans and the New World Symphony in Miami.

During the 2000-2002 seasons Ross was a tenured member of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in Denver. While in Colorado she was invited to perform Bach’s E-Major Concerto with "Up Close and Musical", an outreach chamber orchestra comprised of CSO musicians. Other projects included coaching sectionals for the Denver Youth Symphony and leading area schools’ orchestras for the day. She also appeared in the Denver Friends of Chamber Music concert series performing the highly entertaining Lucy and the Count by innovative composer Jon Deak. In addition, Ross was a founding member of the Summit String Quartet.

Ross currently serves on the faculty of Sweet Briar College, Randolph College, Hollins University and the Wintergreen Performance Academy, as well as maintaining a large private studio at the Ross School of Music. She previously taught both violin and viola at Del Mar College and Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Ross resides in Lynchburg, Virginia with husband, Nick, and sons, Piers and Liam.

British/Irish pianist Nicholas Ross is Associate Professor of Music at Sweet Briar College where he teaches applied piano, music theory and music history. He performs extensively in Europe and the United States, both as soloist and chamber musician.

Ross is also active as a solo pianist and recording artist. His first solo CD American Impressions: Music from the Whalehead Club, recorded on an historic 1907 Steinway, was released on the Soundside label in 2003. His latest and first internationally released recording, John Powell: Early Piano Music, (Centaur Records, 2007), was described as "both surprising and highly enjoyable" by critic Dave Lewis (AllMusic.com) and Ross’s performance was praised as "dedicated, clean and forthright, no small feat as some of the music […] is written at a treacherously difficult level". William Keindler of Music Web International wrote of the recording: "Nicholas Ross’s playing and advocacy [of John Powell] are both to be applauded. He handles the entire range of emotional and technical expertise required by these works almost effortlessly." The American Record Guide selected the recording for its list ‘best of 2007’ and the disc has been played frequently on classical NPR stations around the country. Ross is currently preparing a recording of the piano music of Virginia Tech composer Kent Holliday with Randolph College’s Dr. Emily Chua, under Dr. Holliday’s guidance. This recording will include Milongalgusto, written and dedicated to Ross in 2006.

Ross earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and also holds degrees in piano performance from the Twente Conservatoire (UM) in Holland and Trinity College of Music in London (DipTCL), as well as a Masters degree in Applied Mathematics from Twente University. His primary piano professors were Benno Pierweijer, John Bingham, and John Perry.

Highlights from his years in England and Holland include performances of concerti by Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and the premiere of a piano concerto by the Belgian composer, Andre Waignein, which was recorded and broadcast by the Dutch radio station NCRV. Nicholas was the winner of numerous prizes and awards at Trinity, both as soloist and accompanist, which included the John Longmire Award and the John Ireland Accompanist’s Prize. While in London he gave recitals in, among other places, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Southwark Cathedral, and Steinway Hall. He also appeared in Graham Johnson’s The Young Songmaker’s Almanac at St. John Smith’s Square. In 1995 he was awarded the English Speaking Union/ John Meyer Scholarship, which enabled him to study with John Perry at the Aspen Music Festival. Following this he moved to the U.S. to continue his studies with Mr. Perry at Rice University. During his time at Rice, he gained a fine reputation as a performer of new music, giving Houston premieres of works by Arthur Gottshalk, Steve Mackey, and Philip Martin.

From 2000 to 2002, Nicholas lived in Denver with his wife, Jana, who was a violinist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. In the Denver Friends of Chamber Music series, he gave the American premiere of Philip Martin’s Soundings and performed The Wager at the Eldorado Saloon with composer Jon Deak. He also performed in the Modern Music Festival and Boulder Public Library Series. Nicholas was featured as onstage pianist in the Tony Award-winning Denver Center Theater Company’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, as well as performing as symphonic pianist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions. He also collaborated regularly with many Colorado Symphony members including Yumi Hwang Williams, concertmaster, Peter Cooper, principal oboe, and Bil Jackson, principal clarinet. For light relief, Nick was a member of Extasis, a Denver-based tango quartet. He was also featured on the Denver Theatre Company’s video The Arts Matter, which was intended to prevent proposed cuts to the Arts in Colorado.

Since moving to Virginia, Nick has performed solo recitals in Corrales, New Mexico; Mary Baldwin College, Virginia; Houston, Texas; Virginia Tech; Sweet Briar College in Virginia; and Dewsbury, England. In recent years, he has performed concertos with the Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra, the New River Valley Orchestra. His concerto repertoire includes concertos by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninov. He has also performed extensively in Ireland, in Limerick (UL concert Hall and the Jean Monet theatre), Dublin (the John Field Room) and Listowel (St. John’s Hall), and he has been featured on Lyric FM, the Republic of Ireland’s classical radio station. In 2006 Nick performed a series of recitals with Turkish baritone Sinan Vural in Virginia and Holland, and they will continue their collaboration in the summer and fall of 2009. He also will collaborate with pianist Gustavo Romero in Saint-Saën’s Carnival of the Animals in September 2008.

Apart from his performing interests, Dr. Ross is also involved in scholarly research focusing on a range of topics. In particular he is interested in the use of proportional structures in the music of Claude Debussy. He has uncovered the original use of Fibonacci series and golden section in the construction of Debussy’s Images (expanding upon and modifying the earlier work of famed Debussy scholar, Roy Howat), and is currently extending his research to examine Debussy’s songs. His CD notes for his John Powell recording were widely praised in reviews, and he continues to write and research program notes for his upcoming recordings.