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Music comes to life because someone decides to be a champion of it. The administration and boards of the Dallas Chamber Music Society are lovers of great chamber music and deeply committed to the Society’s mission to cultivate a diverse, sustainable audience for chamber music in North Texas.
Executive Director
Honorary Directors
Frances Blatt
Don and June Ort
Founding Artistic
Director
Dorothea Kelley
1906 – 2009
Officers
James Scott
President
Regan Smith
Vice President
Gregory Hustis
President Emeritus
Marilyn Roark
Treasurer
Oneida Cramer
Secretary
Nancy Lubar
Director of Data
Board of Directors
Arthur Bollon
Aaron Boyd
Oneida Cramer
Sylvia Karmanoff
Robin Korevaar
Nancy Lubar
Mark Perkins
Marilyn Roark
James Scott
Linda Smith
Regan Smith
Tyson Wanjura
Diana Wong
Advisory Board
Dolores Barzune
Benjamin Brand
Meredith Camp
Robin Green
Gregory Hustis
Dennis Kratz
Melissa Murray
William Schilling
Enika Schulze
Don Stone
Raymond Termini
Praised for his colorful sense of artistry, violist John Batchelder has captivated audiences as a passionate chamber musician, educator and administrator, deeply committed to the values of chamber music. He has performed as soloist with numerous ensembles such as the Hemenway Strings, Los Colinas Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Arlington, Garland Symphony Orchestra and Worcester Bach Consort and, as well as participated in various summer festivals and masterclasses, such as The McGill International String Quartet Academy, the Banff Centre Masterclasses, St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, the Meadowmount School of Music, The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and the Music from Salem Festival in Salem NY. As a member of the award winning Julius Quartet, John has performed in venerated venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Bargemusic, Moss Arts Center, Shalin Liu Performance Center, and Bing Concert Hall. Furthermore, the group founded EMERGE Coalition Inc: a performing-arts nonprofit organization providing meaningful contemporary arts programming that couples visual and performing arts with social, historical and cultural contexts. As a fervent chamber musician, John has collaborated with numerous artists such as Aaron Boyd, Joseph Silverstein, Andres Cardenes, Andres Diaz and members of the St. Lawrence, Shanghai, Baumer, Lydian and Escher Quartets. In 2011, John was a winner of the Davis Projects for Peace Grant for his program designed to help, encourage and teach music to the young children of the favelas of Natal, Brazil. Beginning his musical education in Boston, John is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory where he studied with Lila Brown, and of the John J. Cali School of Music Graduate String Quartet in Residence program where he studied with Honggang Li of the celebrated Shanghai Quartet. Recently completing the quartet’s tenure as the Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence at the Meadows School of Music at Southern Methodist University, John served as an Assistant Chamber Music Coach at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. In addition to his work as a performer and educator, John now serves as Executive Director of the Dallas Chamber Music Society, celebrating 78 years of presenting the world’s most esteemed chamber music ensembles.
Regan Smith is the founder and President of MLink Technologies, Inc., a leading corporate learning design and on-line media firm for the Fortune 1000. Striving to his mid-20’s to become a concert pianist, he performed solo and chamber music while earning his Master of Music from Yale University, later transitioning his career to business with an MBA from the SMU Cox School of Business. A lifelong learner, he received his Master of Liberal Studies degree in Humanities at SMU in 2020. He has served on the DCMS Board since 2006 and was its President in 2010-12. Passionate about developing and mentoring young people, he serves on the SMU Cox School of Business Associate Board and the Richland Community College Engineering and Technology Advisory Board. Smith is married to Dr. Carol Leone, Professor of Piano at SMU Meadows School of the Arts.
James Scott, Dean Emeritus of the College of Music at the University of North Texas, has enjoyed a musical career embracing over four decades of accomplishments as a performing musician, a teacher, and an administrator. He began his distinguished professional career while still a first-year student at Emory University, winning a position as flutist in the Atlanta Symphony at a time that made him one of the youngest musicians in the history of the orchestra.
Scott earned degrees in both flute and piano from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Peabody Conservatory with a doctoral thesis in the area of music theory, dealing with structural aspects of pre-serial Schoenberg and their relationship to late Brahms works. He served for many years as a faculty member, head of the music program, and Interim Dean of the School of the Arts at Rutgers University. During his Rutgers years he gave recitals throughout the metropolitan New York area, in Canada, in the Far East, and throughout the United States. He also performed with the Woodwind Repertory Group of New York and a number of professional orchestras on the East Coast. Much of his performing career has been in the service of new music and reviving neglected works from the past. As an artist and administrator, he adjudicated many competitions and served as a charter member of the board of the Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation.
Scott later became associate dean for instruction and professor of flute at Indiana University, where he also performed as principal flutist of the Indiana University Festival Orchestra. He subsequently served as Director of the School of Music at the University of Illinois before accepting appointment in 2001 as Dean of the College of Music at UNT. Teaching has remained central to his interests, and a number of his former students hold tenured and tenure-track positions in various universities. He continues to give master classes in this country and abroad. Recent classes have been held in the Czech Republic, Taiwan, China, Thailand, and S. Korea.
Other professional activities include his recent chairmanship of the Commission on Accreditation of the National Assn. of Schools of Music; his presidency of Pi Kappa Lambda, the national music honor society; chairmanship of the College Music Society Committee on Leadership and Administration; and membership on the boards of the Dallas Symphony, where he is Chair of the Education Committee, and Dallas Chamber Music Society, where he is Immediate Past President. Editorial Board memberships include the UNT Press and the Journal for Performing Arts Leadership in Higher Education. He is frequently asked to serve on evaluation teams for music programs in this country and abroad.
Linda Smith holds her degree from the Eastman School of Music in Horn Performance. She was a member of the Dallas Symphony horn section from 1965-70, retiring when her children were born and taking a horn position with the Fort Worth Symphony from 1970-80.
In 1980, Smith went back to school earning a degree in clinical social work. Upon completion of this degree, she worked at a non-profit counseling agency, providing expert counseling services for 35 years. In her retirement years, Smith once again became active in arts organizations. She served as president for the DSO Guild for two years and continues to serve on the Dallas Symphony Board, the Dallas Opera Board, and the Dallas Chamber Music Society Board.
Oneida Morningstar Cramer was born in Virginia and grew up in Maryland where she attended college and graduate school at the University of Maryland, earning a doctorate in physiology. A longtime Dallas resident, Cramer has worked as a research scientist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, been a parent and homemaker, teacher, photographer, journalist with People Newspapers, and in the field of non-profit arts business was the Executive Coordinator with the New Conservatory of Dallas from 2005 until it dissolved in 2014. She published her first book of photography with poetry, Idealism is an attractive flower, in 2014. For the Dallas Chamber Music Society, she began attending concerts in the 1990s and wrote numerous journalistic articles promoting upcoming programs. Since 2005, she has been Secretary for the Dallas Chamber Music Society Board of Directors.
Meredith Camp serves as a Philanthropic Specialist for Wells Fargo Philanthropic Services within The Private Bank. Wells Fargo Philanthropic Services helps charitable individuals, families, and nonprofit organizations work toward their unique goals by providing specialized advisory services. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Ms. Camp worked at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, where she was the Director of Legacy & Leadership Gifts. In addition, she has extensive experience in financial services, having held various relationship management and business development roles over the course of her career. She is a Board member of the Dallas Council of Charitable Gift Planners. Ms. Camp also serves as a Board member and Advisory Board member of numerous other charitable organizations including New Friends New Life, Interfaith Family Services, and the Junior League of Dallas as an Endowment Trustee and past President. Ms. Camp earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and International Business from Baylor University. She has been awarded the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM and Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® designations.
Nancy Lubar holds her BA and MA in music from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA, and an MA from the University of Texas at Dallas in International Management. Her desire to serve others led her into community volunteer and project creation work on various boards, committees, and organizations within Dallas. Her community service has included collecting donations and organizing volunteers to prepare apartments for refugees and immigrants; helping resettle refugees and immigrants in new living quarters in Dallas; photography work for the Vickery Meadow Summer Reading Academy and the Dallas Chamber Music Society; counselling work for “Contact 214” and The Family Place. Her commitment to bettering the community earned her the 2018 League of Women Voters of Dallas Champion Volunteer Award, the Southwest Jewish Congress Woman of Spirit Award, the JC Penney Community Service Award (for multiple years), and election, in 2019, into Temple Emanu-El’s Hall of Fame. She has served on the board of Temple Emanu-El and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Dallas Chamber Music Society. Lubar is a native of Dallas and enjoys life with her partner of 27 years, Richard Marcus. Her daughter, Katherine Lubar, is an Artist in London.
Violinist Aaron Boyd holds many titles: soloist and chamber musician, orchestral leader, recording artist, lecturer and teacher. Since making his New York recital debut in 1998, Boyd has appeared at the most prestigious venues throughout the United States, Europe, Russia, and Asia. A participant in the Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Tippet Rise, La Jolla, and Aspen festivals, he is also a regular season artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a member of the Escher String Quartet for five seasons, Boyd was a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Martin E. Segal prize from Lincoln Center. A prizewinner in the Ecoles d’art Américaines de Fontainebleau, the Tuesday Musical Association, and the Pittsburgh Concert Society competitions, he was awarded a proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh for his musical accomplishments. As a passionate advocate for new music, Boyd has been involved in numerous commissions and premieres and has worked directly with legendary composers such as Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and Charles Wuorinen. As a recording artist, he can be heard on the BIS, Music@Menlo LIVE, Naxos, Tzadik, North/South, and Innova labels. Boyd has been broadcast in concert by PBS, NPR, WQXR, and WQED and was profiled by Arizona Public Television. Formerly on the violin faculties of Columbia University and the University of Arizona, he now serves as Head of Strings, Director of Chamber Music and Professor of Violin at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and makes his home in Plano, Texas, with his wife, Yuko; daughter, Ayu; and son, Yuki.
Boyd performs on violins by Matteo Goffriller, made in Venice in 1700 and Samuel Zygmuntowicz, Brooklyn 2018.
Benjamin Brand is Chair of the Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology at the University of North Texas, where he has taught music history since 2006. He is a specialist in medieval liturgy and plainsong and has published numerous articles and essays in addition to two books: Holy Treasure and Sacred Song: Relic Cults and their Liturgies in Medieval Tuscany (Oxford University Press, 2014) and Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond: Liturgy, Sources, and Symbolism (Cambridge University Press, 2017) (co-edited with David J. Rothenberg). Dr. Brand was the recipient of the Francesco De Dombrowski Fellowship from the Villa I Tatti (Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies) in 2008-09 and the Lily Auchincloss Post-Doctoral Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 2011-12. In addition to his service to the DCMS, he is a board member the vocal ensemble Verdigris and the Friends of WRR
Dennis M. Kratz was Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities for 22 years and is the Ignacy and Celina Rockover Professor of Humanities at The University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to his appointment in 1997 as Dean of A&H, he served as the University’s Dean of Undergraduate Education. As Dean, scholar and teacher, Kratz emphasizes “meaningful transformation.”
His research emphasizes the continuation and transformation of the western “heroic” tradition from classical antiquity through medieval and modern literature. He studies the ways in which artists seek both to maintain the essential qualities of that inheritance and to make it a vehicle for the expression of values more appropriate and meaningful for a contemporary audience. He has published four books: Mocking Epic: Waltharius, Alexandreis and the Problem of Christian Heroism (1980); Waltharius and Ruodlieb (1984); The Romances of Alexander (1991); and, with Dr. Abby Robinson Kratz, Effective Listening Skills (1994). He has also published numerous articles and reviews on subjects ranging from epic poetry and the changing nature of heroism to translation, translation theory, and Fantasy and Science Fiction. A translator of classical and medieval literature, Dr. Kratz was co-editor of the journal Translation Review from 1980-2017 and has served as President of the American Literary Translators Association.
The School of Arts and Humanities is committed to provide an educational environment that connects the humanities with the arts, the arts and humanities with the natural sciences, theory with practice and the university with the greater community. As Dean, Dr. Kratz has sought to maintain the abiding value of the Liberal Arts tradition while transforming it to meet the educational needs of the twenty-first century. He has led the development of new degree programs (among them a program in Arts and Technology that has since become a separate School within the university); new research centers such as the Center for Values in Medicine, Science and Technology; and the first Confucius Institute in Texas. As Dean of Undergraduate Education he led a team of faculty, students and administrators to create Collegium V, the first University Honors Program.
Dr. Kratz has received numerous honors including the University of Texas System Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award; the “Person of the Year” Award from the DFW Asian American Citizens Council; a medal from the Chinese Ministry of Education recognizing his contributions to the Confucius Institute; and fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Dumbarton Oaks and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (Germany).
Dr. Kratz received his BA, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Dartmouth College (1963). He received the MA in Classical Philology (1964) and PhD in Medieval Latin (1970), both from Harvard University. Prior to joining the UT Dallas faculty he taught at The Roxbury Latin School (Boston), Simmons College and The Ohio State University.
Dr. Kratz is married to Dr. Abby Kratz, an Associate Provost at UT Dallas; they have one son, Matthew Kratz, who received an MA in History from UT Dallas.
Brian and Viki Eberstein are both long time Dallas residents and lawyers. Both are graduates of SMU Law School. Brian, much before Viki. He recalls going to school there on a mule. Yes. A while ago.
Brian and Viki are DSO and Dallas Opera fans and regular attendees. A favorite summer escape is the Santa Fe Opera, most summers, for many years. The opportunity to enjoy the DCMS music each month is an event they look forward to and make a concerted effort to have relatives, friends and neighbors join them.
Dolores Barzune, a fifth generation Texan, was born in 1939 in Alice, Texas, and raised in Hebbronville, Texas. As a young girl, Barzune played basketball and piano, displaying from a young age her love for classical music. Barzune transferred to the university of Texas after her freshman year at Del Mar College, and during that first year at Texas she met her husband, Larry. Barzune was a beloved teacher who loved her students and her job. After having children and deciding to leave teaching in the classroom, Barzune has since become an influential leader and teacher as she has made it her role to teach others how to raise money in order to support different organizations and institutions. Barzune is a huge supporter of all the arts institutions in Dallas and also chaired the Cultural Affairs Commission for the City of Dallas for eight years.
Mary Anna holds her undergraduate degree in piano performance from the University-of-Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and her master’s degree in piano performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She has spent five seasons as the accompanist for the Concert I Choir of the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas and looks forward to entering her sixth season in the Fall of 2020.
In 2017, Salo expanded her musical work into the music business and non-profit field. From January 2017 through June 2018, she worked for the Choristers Guild, a non-profit church music publishing company, as a customer service representative and office manager. In July 2018, she stepped into the role of Executive Director for the Dallas Chamber Music Society.
In addition to music, Salo has long been fascinated by movement and fitness, a fascination that led her to earn her Personal Trainer Certificate in October 2016. She continues to delve deeper into the importance of physical activity for musicians as a means to maintain not just good health, but good playing health.
A very talented farmer who grew up in Ohio.
Melissa Murchison Murray, aka “m3,” is a Senior Lecturer in Music Theory, an Associate Director in the Music Division at SMU Meadows School of the Arts, and a pianist and singer.
The various forms of her teaching career have spanned the private studio for piano, voice, theory and composition; the junior and high school classroom; the college classroom; and the kitchen table. The ultimate challenge for Murray as an educator was home-schooling her three children through grades K-12. She considers her greatest achievements to be her extraordinary children, her relationship with them and her happy marriage to Tom, her husband of 28 years.
Motivated by an enthusiasm for exploring the world and developing her gifts, Murray has freelanced since leaving college in 1982. Having delight in languages, she has been fluent or near-fluent in four languages.
In addition to playing music and singing in the Dallas area, her performances as an improvising jazz/cabaret pianist/singer have spanned the globe from the U.S. to Europe to Asia. She has also performed considerable church music, including playing, singing and directing musicals and choirs. Recent recordings include m321.
Murray has numerous compositions and arrangements that have been performed by large and small ensembles at the churches and private schools where she has conducted, composed, directed and performed. American composer Warren Benson once described Murray as the “consummate doer.” She enjoys all aspects of music-making including performing, conducting, recording, adjudicating, directing musicals and teaching.
Tom Booth, Assistant Principal, Trumpet, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and a colleague at SMU Meadows, describes her as having “intonation many great singers would kill for.”
Murray, Coordinator of Keyboard Musicianship for the Theory Department, is highly motivated to develop the whole musician, using the keyboard as a strong visual and kinesthetic tool for teaching theory and musicianship skills. She is author of Keyboard Musicianship, a textbook for the musicianship classroom that specifically employs the piano to gain a thorough understanding of theory and musicianship concepts.
Murray holds a B.M. from the University of Oklahoma and a M.M. from Southern Methodist University. Her D.M.A. (University of North Texas) remains incomplete. Other studies include three years at the Aspen Music School as well as private instruction at the Juilliard, Mannes and Manhattan schools of music.
Lastly, she likes to throw Beanie Babies at her students and make them laugh both at and with her.
Mark Perkins is a 1974 summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College. A former president of the Dallas Society of Visual Communications, he is the recipient of that group’s highest industry honor, the Golden Egg Award. He is a past board member of the Mental Health Association of Dallas County, Friends of the Dallas Public Library, and Jacob’s Ladder, a life-skills mentoring program and currently serves as an advisory board member to the Dallas Chamber Music Society.
Raymond Termini retired from the practice of law in 2013 after more than 44 years of practice in the US and the Arabian Gulf region. For 15 years prior to his retirement, he was a partner with Patton Boggs LLP, a US law firm with offices in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He opened the firm’s project office in Dubai in 2007 and lived and practiced real estate law in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar until mid-2010. Termini has written four articles on the real estate laws of the UAE which were published in the US and in “The Dubai Real Times”. He also practiced law in Kuwait for 2 years following its liberation in 1991.
Termini lives in Dallas, Texas, where he is active in several international organizations, including the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, the DFW World Affairs Council, and the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies at Southern Methodist University.
In addition, Termini is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Dallas Chamber Music Society, having previously served as its General Counsel and as a Board member for seven years prior to his retirement in 2013.
Termini also currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Dallas chapter of the American Jewish Committee and as a Co-Vice President of its International Affairs Committee.
Frances Blatt was raised to be a musician almost from her birth in 1926, studying violin at SMU while still in elementary school. In high school, she played the Dallas Summer Musicals, radio programs and with a country music band at major Dallas hotels and on tour in New Mexico. She graduated from Juiliard, where she studied with Ivan Galamian. After graduation, she played with the Dallas Symphony for 25 years while continuing with the musicals in the summers. After her work with the symphony, Blatt taught violin privately and in schools. She also freelanced in NYC for many years during annual trips.
Besides her work as a violinist, Blatt obtained a real estate license and worked in commercial real estate, retiring in 2015. Blatt has enjoyed a great number of volunteer activities, highlighted by her association with Dallas Chamber Music Society, where she served as president and VP of Fundraising.
Blatt married J. D. Blatt in 1950 and was widowed in 1974. She met Gene Raboy in 1979 and was with him until his death in 2013. Blatt has two daughters, two granddaughters and one grandson.
William Schilling is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants, and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
His community activities include: Associate Director, Dallas Chamber Music Society; Member, Council to the Chairman (and Past President), Dallas Symphony Association; Director, Dallas Symphony Foundation; Member (and former Director), Rotary Club of Dallas; Member, Salesmanship Club of Dallas; Member (and Past President), Northwestern University Club of Dallas – Fort Worth.
He is a former Director of the Center for Nonprofit Management, the Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce, the Dallas Citizens Council, the World Affairs Council of Greater Dallas, Greater Dallas Youth Orchestras, Inc., the North Texas Commission, and North Texas Public Broadcasting, Inc.; and past Chairman of the Dallas Division of the American Heart Association, the Central Dallas Association, and the Dallas Friday Group.
Tyson Wanjura is a partner in the Dallas office of Holland & Knight LLP. He represents clients in finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures and general corporate matters. He counsels financial institutions, banks and business entities on matters involving senior debt financings, acquisition financings, asset-based and cash-flow financings and other forms of debt financings in a diverse range of industries. Wanjura grew up in Lytle, Texas, where he became interested in classical music at an early age. He graduated from Baylor University with a degree in Communication Studies and a minor in Business Administration and received his law degree from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. He lives in Southlake, Texas with his wife, Vicki, and their two children – Leo and Emily.
Robin Green grew up in Dallas, Texas. She has a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She practiced corporate and securities law for 15 years before going on sabbatical to take care of her then small children. Thirty years later, she is still on sabbatical from the practice of law, now called retirement. For many years, she was active serving on boards of directors of nonprofit organizations, mostly pertaining to classical music and dance, both in Dallas and New York City.
Her pastimes include playing classical piano, oil painting and competitive bridge. She has competed in many international amateur piano competitions, including the Van Cliburn Amateur Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, and competitions in Paris, France; St. Petersburg, Russia; and has performed solo at Carnegie Hall.
Green resides in Dallas and part-time in New York City with her husband, Sandy Esserman.
Dr. Bollon is the Founder and Chairman of Vitruvian BioMedical, Inc. and currently services as the Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Bollon is an accomplished biotechnology executive, scientist and entrepreneur and has over than 30 years of experience in biotechnology, research and development and licensing. He has directed biomedical research in academia and the biotechnology / biopharmaceutical industries and has technical expertise in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology – Cytokines, Taxol, Monoclonal Antibodies (MAbs), Gene Regulation and Hemoglobin. Dr. Bollon has been the Founder and CEO of four biotechnology companies where he has raised over $80 Million in financing. Prior to VbM, Dr. Bollon was the CEO of HemoBioTech, Inc., which focused on HemoTech, a potential substitute for human red blood cells; Founder & CEO of Cytoclonal Pharmaceutics, Inc., which focused on cancer and infectious disease therapeutics and diagnostics and is now part of OPKO, Inc (NASDAQ: OPK); and Founder & CEO of Wadley Biosciences Inc./LPL, a joint venture between Wadley Cancer Center and Phillips Petroleum that focused on cancer and immune disease therapeutics and diagnostics. He is also a co-Founder and Director of SignPath Pharma Inc. which is developing Liposome and Nano-drivatives of Curcumin for cancer therapy using technologies from MD Anderson Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medical Center and UNT Health Science Center. He has also successfully closed business transactions with Bristol Myers Squibb, Phillips Petroleum, Merck Sharpe & Dohme and Nuron BioTech. He has completed licensing agreements with multiple universities including (UCLA, University of Texas at Dallas, Montana State University, University of California at San Diego, Texas Tech University, University of British Columbia and MD Anderson Cancer Center and University of Texas Southwestern Medical School). Subsequent to his executive positions, Dr. Bollon held academic appointments at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School as well as the University of Texas at Dallas. He is an inventor on four patents and is the author of multiple scientific communications including Editor of “Recombinant DNA Products: Insulin, Interferon, and Growth Hormone” by CRC Press. Dr. Bollon obtained his Ph.D. with a focus on Molecular Genetics from the Waxman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Yale University.
Mary Anna holds her undergraduate degree in piano performance from the University-of-Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and her master’s degree in piano performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She has spent five seasons as the accompanist for the Concert I Choir of the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas and looks forward to entering her sixth season in the Fall of 2020.
In 2017, Salo expanded her musical work into the music business and non-profit field. From January 2017 through June 2018, she worked for the Choristers Guild, a non-profit church music publishing company, as a customer service representative and office manager. In July 2018, she stepped into the role of Executive Director for the Dallas Chamber Music Society in which capacity she oversees development, marketing, event planning and board relations.
In addition to music, Salo has long been fascinated by movement and fitness, a fascination that led her to earn her Personal Trainer Certificate in October 2016. She continues to delve deeper into the importance of physical activity for musicians as a means to maintain not just good health, but good playing health.
Enika was born in the Netherlands and emigrated to the United States as a teenager. she received her college and MBA education in the United States. After serving several years in the Federal Courts, she started a career in the legal publishing field. Enika founded a national paralegal magazine company. She also developed a textbook publishing company, building it to 30 different titles before selling it to Prentice Hall, now called Pearson Education.
Lately, Enika has focused her attention on nonprofits. She and her husband, Richard, founded the Richard and Enika Schulze Foundation, through which they have contributed financially to several organizations. They underwrote a challenge grant that enable funds for the construction of staff offices in the Winspear Opera House. They funded the launching of the Institute for Women Conductors. Additionally, they have underwritten and funded many other projects, such cultural, academic research and educational institutions. They host monthly chamber music concerts in their home and love being surrounded by classical music.
Enika met Richard in Aspen on a ski trip in 1981. In their spare time, Enika and her husband enjoy traveling to Europe and spending time in their condo in Snowmass, Colorado.
After graduating from Baylor, I lived in Kenya for about a year doing volunteer work. It was exciting, scary and challenging on all fronts. Many days, my prayers would look like this: “Jesus, I trust you with my safety. Jesus, I trust you with my finances. Jesus, I trust you will take care of me. Jesus I trust you with my needs. Jesus, I trust you with my life.” Some days, it would devolve into a repeating mantra of “Jesus, I trust you.”
After living in Kenya for about 5 months, I had an unexpected gap of one night where I didn’t have a place to stay. I was also broke – so staying in a hotel room wasn’t an option either. A few weeks prior, I had connected with a friend of a friend named Hasaan on my way into Uganda (long story) and he was the only person I had to reach out to for help – he also happened to be in Nairobi at the same time. “Look, if you’ll just let me sleep in your car overnight, please – I don’t have a place to stay tonight.” Hasaan told me to not worry and soon picked me up with my suitcases the next morning. We went the predominantly Muslim parts of Nairobi running errands with all my suitcases in the back seat – it was certainly not convenient for him to do this – but he was delighted to be helpful.
That evening we wound up in a very nice part of Nairobi where all the embassies are located – think Highland Park – we pulled into a one of the nicest houses I’d seen in Kenya. Hasaan introduced me to the owners and before I knew it, I was the honored guest. I was given a place to clean up, rest and recover from the incredibly stressful prior weeks. I was then invited to eat at their table, as family – even though I was a complete stranger. This family was also in the process of packing up to move to South Africa later that week. Yet it was no problem to host Hasaan and myself for a night. I certainly wouldn’t have shown hospitality in the midst of moving – yet their kindness and generosity still humble me.
Was this a miracle? Depends on your definition of miracle. I like to put it in the “strong – maybe” category.
Gregory Hustis, former Principal Horn (1976- 2012) and Principal Horn Emeritus (2012-2014) of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra is an active conductor, educator, and advocate for the arts. Mr. Hustis has taught horn for nearly 40 years at Southern Methodist University, where in 1995 he was presented the Meadows Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award. In addition to his presence at SMU, he serves as the Director of both the Wind Ensemble and the University Orchestra at the University of Texas at Dallas. He has also served as Visiting Artist at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music. Other duties include his role as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Winds, a civic wind ensemble based in the DFW Metroplex. Mr. Hustis also serves as the Artistic Director of the Music in the Mountains festival in Durango, Colorado, a position he has held since 2007.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Mason Jones, Mr. Hustis has performed as a concerto soloist with numerous orchestras including the Abilene Philharmonic, the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Arkansas Symphony, the Latvian Chamber Orchestra, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra (Seattle), the National Repertory Orchestra (Breckenridge), the Hamilton Philharmonic (Ontario), the Wichita Falls Symphony, and, on numerous occasions, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
As a clinician, chamber music player, and recitalist, he has been a featured guest artist at the Sarasota Music Festival, Scotia Fest, Round Top, Orford, Bowdoin, National Repertory Orchestra, numerous International Horn Society Workshops, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Lapplands Festspel, the Brevard Music Festival, and Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado. Mr. Hustis has premiered and recorded many concertos for horn and orchestra, including Joseph Schwantner’s Beyond Autumn, a work commissioned by the International Horn Society. He also premiered and subsequently recorded concertos by Eric Ewazen, Simon Sargon, and Augusta Read Thomas.
Prior to joining the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, he appeared on many occasions with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and was, for four years, principal horn of the Hamilton Philharmonic in Ontario, Canada. He has performed and toured with Summit Brass, and in 1986 performed with Lorin Maazel and the World Philharmonic Orchestra in Rio de Janeiro.
Besides the scores of orchestral recordings he has made on RCA, Telarc, Hyperion, Dorian, Pro Arte, and other labels as principal horn of the Dallas Symphony, Mr. Hustis can also be heard as a soloist and chamber music player on various other labels, including Crystal, Gasparo, Klavier, Centaur, Hester Park and Hyperion. He was active in Dallas’s once busy commercial recording industry, where he played countless sessions for film, television, and radio.
In addition to his wide-ranging performance schedule, Mr. Hustis has served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including those of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, the International Horn Society, the American Horn Competition, Voices of Change, the Blue Candlelight Series, the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, and the Dallas Chamber Music Society, where he currently serves as president. Mr. Hustis was also co-founder of TrumCor, a company that manufactures and distributes mutes for brass instruments all over the world.