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DRUM TAO is an international phenomenon that has reached over 9 million spectators featuring the world’s top taiko drummers! While honoring the ancient Japanese art form, they embark on an astonishing rhythmic adventure performing incredible feats on a variety of drums (some weighing up to 3 tons) and other instruments including marimba, flute, and harp.

Eric Guinivan’s music has been performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia and has received notable honors from BMI, ASCAP, Chamber Music America, the Theodore Presser Foundation, and Meet the Composer. A Grammy-nominated percussionist, Guinivan was a founding member of the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet.  He holds degrees holds degrees from University of Southern California and Indiana University and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Composition at James Madison University. 

American hornist David Byrd-Marrow is the solo horn of the International Contemporary Ensemble, a new music collective that performs internationally and serves as ensemble-in-residence at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. Working with a uniquely wide range of performers, he has premiered works by Matthias Pintscher, Arthur Kampela, George Lewis, Tyshawn Sorey, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Du Yun, Marcos Balter, Wang Lu, Kate Soper, Miguel Zenón and Chick Corea. 

Steinway Artist Eric Ruple enjoys an active career as a solo and chamber musician, including several performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Steinway Hall in New York, and he is also pianist for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, including principal keyboard role in the ongoing “Harry Potter Live” concerts.

Clarinetist Sarunas Jankauskas joined JMU faculty in 2016. His performance engagements have taken him through Europe, Canada and across the US, while participating at the International Conservatory Week Festival, Musicalis Daunia, SoundSpace at Blanton, Chamber Music at the Barn, ICA ClarinetFests® and various new music events. His commissioning project Duos will culminate as a music album in 2020. Pianist Paulo Steinberg has performed as a soloist and as a collaborative pianist in Brazil, Canada, Iceland, and in the U.S. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University. Dr. Steinberg often serves as an adjudicator in competitions, and offers master classes, lectures, workshops and performances in the U.S. and abroad. 

Schubertiade – featuring Stephanie Weiss, mezzo-soprano, Kevin McMillan, baritone, and Gabriel Dobner, piano. Stephanie Weiss has performed at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin Philharmonic, Oper Frankfurt, Oper Köln, Oper Leipzig, Opera Orchestra of New York, and San Diego Opera. Baritone Kevin McMillan has been described as an "outstanding Schubertian" whose "voice of glowing freshness and beauty is at the service of an intelligent, lively and distinctive personality." Pianist Gabriel Dobner has appeared with some of Europe’s leading singers in major concert venues around the world winning high praise from BBC Music Magazine, Fono Forum and the West German Radio in Cologne, who referred to him as a “master among Lieder pianists.”

Since 2019, saxophone player Chet Doxas has led The Chet Doxas Trio, which features pianist Jacob Sacks and bassist Thomas Morgan. The group highlights his original compositions, and with the absence of drums, evokes a more chamber-like aesthetic. Their debut album, You Can’t Take it With You, was heralded as “a truly personal work of art” by Downbeat Magazine and received a 4-star rating. Doxas is also part of the Brooklyn-based, group, LandLine. He is a Juno nominee and has appeared on over one hundred recordings and released eight albums as a leader and co-leader. He will perform with the JMU Jazz Collective.  

Cellist Carl Donakowski was a prize winner in the 1989 Mendelssohn Competition in Berlin. His recital performances have aired on WQRS Detroit, WQXR New York and Sudwestfunk Radio Baden-Baden. As a member of the West End Chamber Ensemble, he participated in the National Endowment for the Arts/Chamber Music America Rural Residency Chamber Music Initiative. Pianist Gabriel Dobner has appeared with some of Europe’s leading singers in the major concert venues around the world. His recordings have won high praise from BBC Music Magazine, Fono Forum and the West German Radio in Cologne, who referred to him as a “master among Lieder pianists.”

Praised for his “smooth, copper-hued baritone” (Opera News), Erik Grendahl, a graduate of JMU, recently appeared as an apprentice singer with the Santa Fe Opera singing Steuermann in Tristan und Isolde and covering René Gallimard in the world premiere of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly. Mezzo-soprano, Jenny Anne Flory, also a graduate of JMU, recently sang Zerlina in AVA's Spring 2023 production of Don Giovanni and has performed in various other places including with the Greater Philadelphia Choral Society.

Sam Suggs was named New Artist of the Month by Musical America, soon after receiving 1st prize at the 2015 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition, at which he performed many of his own compositions. He was named Concert Artists Guild’s New Music/New Places Fellow at the 2016 CAG International Competition. At the 2017 Bradetich Foundation International Double Bass Solo Competition, the jury invented and awarded him a prize for "Extraordinary Creativity." 

Aiveen Gallagher is a string artist from Ireland, and has performed extensively in Europe, the UK, and the USA. She has been a featured soloist at the International Viola Congress and the American Viola Society Congress. She is a three-time international prize-winner in chamber music and has been the recipient of bursaries and awards from violinist Ivry Gitlis and violist Bruno Giuranna. She has collaborated with leading artists including Massimo Quarta, Helena Wood, Toby Hoffman, Illaria Loatelli, and Stefano Bollani, for the Livorno Music Festival, the National String Quartet Foundation of Ireland, and the European Foundation for Support of Culture. 

Pianist Michael Boyd active as a soloist, collaborative artist, lecturer, and teacher. He earned an undergraduate degree from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and his studies culminated in a Masters and Doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music. He won first prize as pianist in the the Kneisel Lieder Competition and played a radio broadcast recital from Carnegie Hall with Naumburg prize winning violinist Ian Swensen while still a student.  Dr. Boyd graduated from Eastman with that institution’s highest honor, the Performer’s Certificate.

Jason Haney's music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Scotia Festival, Music2000 in Cincinnati, the Composers Inc. concert series in San Francisco, Richmond’s ChamberFest, the Staunton Music Festival, and elsewhere throughout the US, as well as in Canada, Europe and Hong Kong, and by groups such as the New Millennium Ensemble, the Chester Quartet, the Sunrise Quartet, Colloquy, and the Indiana University New Music Ensemble.