Digital program

Sue Barber has served as Professor of Bassoon at James Madison University since 2000 and has been a member of the Artist-Faculty at the Brevard Music Center since 2004. An accomplished orchestral musician, she has performed with many of the leading artists of her generation in distinguished venues, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

Barber’s orchestral career has included positions with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Natchez Opera, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Connecticut Opera and Sarasota Opera. Internationally, she served as Assistant Principal Bassoon of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia in Spain. She has also appeared as a regular substitute musician with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Florida West Coast Symphony Orchestra and Santa Fe Chamber Orchestra. Additional festival appearances include the National Repertory Orchestra and the Banff and Sarasota Chamber Music Festivals.

Pianist, Lori Piitz, has lived, performed and taught in both North America and Europe. Prior to moving to Virginia, Piitz lived in Germany for nine years where she participated in recitals for the Wagner Society and the New Music Association of Germany, as well as at the International Flute Congress in Frankfurt. A frequent soloist with the Neusäss Chamber Orchestra, she also presented a cycle of Beethoven works for cello and piano, with Professor Helga Winold, in Munich and Augsburg. Piitz has been a guest at the Festival of the Sound in Canada, the Schleswig-Holstein and Villa Musica Festivals in Germany, and at the Mozart Bicentennial Series in Avery Fisher Hall, New York. She and her duet partner, Gabriel Dobner, have performed in Canada, Europe and the United States, including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. 

Flutist Beth Chandler Cahill enjoys a varied performance career as soloist and chamber musician. Praised for her musical versatility and colorful sound, she has been featured at major venues, universities, and festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad. In demand as a pedagogue, she is the Professor of Flute at James Madison University, where she has taught for 25 years. She is a recipient of both the JMU College of Visual and Performing Arts Distinguished Teacher and Distinguished Service Awards. Her former students perform, teach, and advocate all over the world. A native Texan, Dr. Cahill earned degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, New England Conservatory, and Baylor University, and she was a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom. 

Clarinetist Šarūnas Jankauskas enjoys a rewarding performance and teaching career. Most of his professional activities take place at James Madison University in Virginia, where he guides an enthusiastic group of aspiring young musicians, teachers and entrepreneurs. Jankauskas joined the faculty in 2016 and is dedicated to exploring new ways of addressing playing techniques, expanding teaching literature and maintaining a highly positive learning environment. He is a recipient of the 2023 Madison Vision Teaching Award, a campus-wide recognition that is solely decided by the students.

Ian Zook is an active orchestral and solo performer and has appeared in concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He joined the faculty of James Madison University in 2009 and performs frequently with the Madison Brass and Montpelier Winds, both faculty ensembles in-residence at James Madison University. As soloist he has performed with numerous ensembles including the JMU Brass Band at the Kennedy Center, the JMU Wind Symphony, Percussion Ensemble, Chorale and KOR, the Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra, the Virginia Baroque Consort, and the Chamber Orchestra of Charlottesville.

Emily Brebach joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as English horn and Oboe in the fall of 2012. Brebach, a Philadelphia native, has performed with several orchestras throughout the United States, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Houston Symphony. Prior to joining the ASO, Brebach held the position of English horn and oboe with the Sarasota Orchestra.