Winner of Third Prize at the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Boson was named as one of Canada’s “30 under 30 Top Classical Musicians of 2015” by CBC Radio-Canada. He is a recipient of the “Prix Joseph-Rouleau” at the 2010 Montreal International Violin Competition as well as a top 25 candidate at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, and is a winner of Canada’s prestigious Sylva Geber Foundation Award. Additionally, he is a two-time winner of Canada Council for the Arts’ Musical Instrument Bank loan. Mo served as Acting Assistant Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in the autumn of 2017 and is now a member of the Houston Symphony. He will forever be a student of mentors Keqiang Li and Paul Kantor, and he currently performs on a violin by MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Joseph Curtin.

A native of Taiwan, Annie Chen began her musical studies at age 6 on piano and at age 8 on violin. At age 14, she moved to the United States to continue her music education at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and the New England Conservatory Preparatory Program in Boston.

Chen has been a participant of numerous summer music festivals including the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Music Academy of the West, where she was a winner of the 2011 concerto competition, and the Tanglewood Music Center. She has toured with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas and was a regular member of Discovery Ensemble, a Boston-based chamber orchestra that provides outreach concerts to inner-city schools with no music programs. She has also been featured as a soloist with the Dorchester Symphony Orchestra.

Chen holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston and a master’s degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she held the Shepherd School Distinguished Fellowship in Violin. Her principal teachers have included Lynn Chang, James Buswell, and Kathleen Winkler.

Born in China, Wei Jiang began studying violin with his father at the age of 5 and began studying viola after being admitted to the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Having graduated with the highest honor, he was subsequently offered a teaching position at the conservatory as the youngest member of the music faculty. During his five-year tenure at the Central Conservatory, Jiang was actively involved in performing both solo and chamber music and toured extensively with his string quartet in Asia and Europe. He was also a founding member of the Eclipse Ensemble, a unique performing group that showcases music by contemporary Chinese composers throughout China.

Jiang came to the United States in 1996 to further his musical training at the Oberlin Conservatory and later at the University of Maryland. In 1999, he became a member of the Houston Symphony. Jiang is also a member of the Fidelis String Quartet which performed in recital at Carnegie Hall in 2005 and toured Puerto Rico in 2006.

Samuel Pedersen joined the Houston Symphony viola section in 2022 under Maestro Orozco-Estrada and was appointed Assistant Principal in 2024 by Maestro Valčuha.

Pedersen was raised in Batavia, IL. He holds a master’s degree from Rice University and a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University. Principal teachers include Ivo van der Werff and Rami Solomonow, with additional instruction from Lawrence Neuman and Joan DerHovsepian.

As a student, he was a fellow of the New World Symphony and a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He spent summers performing and studying at the Tanglewood Music Center and Madeline Island Chamber Music.

Pedersen is a regular collaborator with other Symphony colleagues for chamber music performances facilitated by Third Space Music.

Outside of Jones Hall, Pedersen enjoys cycling, frisbee, grilling, and spending time with his brother, Andrew, Houston Symphony’s Assistant Principal double bassist.

Described as “mesmerizing” by The Burlington Hawkeye Times and “transportive” by the Santa Barbara Voice, 25-year-old violist Keoni Bolding has established a career across the United States and Europe. He has toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic and Rome Chamber Music Festival as well as performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and London Symphony. Last year, he won the Transcription Prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition with his transcription of Tosca Act II. Earlier this year, he oversaw the premiere of his electronic chamber opera 52 Hz at Lincoln Center.

Maki Kubota was appointed a member of the Houston Symphony in 2017 by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada. He has made appearances with the Dallas Symphony, Charleston Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, performing with conductors such as Thomas Ades, Edward Gardner, Alan Gilbert, Osmo Vanska, Edo de Waart, and Christoph von Dohnanyi. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, and Embassy of Singapore, collaborating with artists such as Jeremy Denk, Richard O’Neill, and Lynn Harrell.

Prior to joining the Houston Symphony, Kubota toured Mediterranean Europe and Central America with Lincoln Center Stage, Holland America Line’s partnership with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Kubota first began cello lessons while in high school as a student of Stanley Sharp. After completing his undergraduate studies with Alan Stepansky at the Peabody Conservatory, he graduated from Rice University under the tutelage of Desmond Hoebig. His training includes fellowships at the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, and Takacs String Quartet Seminar, as well as studying abroad at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore with Li-Wei Qin and in residence with the New York Philharmonic as a Zarin Mehta Fellow.

Outside of music, Kubota enjoys weight lifting and has recently picked up a liking of fine whiskey.

Originally from Loveland, Colorado, Jeremy Kreutz was appointed a member of the Houston Symphony in 2020 by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Prior to joining the orchestra, he worked under conductors such as Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Robert Spano, Larry Rachleff, and Valery Gergiev. His primary studies were completed with Darrett Adkins at the Oberlin Conservatory, and Desmond Hoebig at Rice University’s Shepherd School.

Kreutz has performed both domestically and abroad as an orchestral and chamber musician, including engagements with the Aspen Music Festival, Round Top Institute, National Youth Orchestra of the USA, and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. An avid chamber musician, he has studied with members of the Juilliard, Borromeo, Miró, Verona, and Cleveland Quartets, and was a two time fellow at the Kneisel Hall Festival in Maine. In the summer of 2017, he was invited to perform alongside members of the International Contemporary Ensemble as part of the Ojai Festival, premiering works by Vijay Iyer and Courtney Bryan. While at Oberlin, he was featured in the premiere of Jesse Jones’ Snippet Variations, recorded for the Oberlin Music label.

Kreutz began learning the cello at age 11 in his local public school system, where his father taught the orchestral program for 30 years. He continued his studies in high school with cellist Katherine Azari. He considers community engagement an incredibly important aspect of his life, and has worked with public schools in Colorado, Ohio, Texas, and Illinois, as well as Colorado’s El Sistema program. Outside of music, he enjoys exploring Houston’s vibrant food culture and marathons of competition reality shows.

Andrew Pedersen joined the Houston Symphony double bass section in August 2017. A native of Batavia, Illinois, Pedersen received his bachelor’s degree from DePaul University and master’s degree from Rice University, where he studied with Robert Kassinger and Timothy Pitts, respectively. Other mentors include Paul Ellison, Alexander Hanna, and Gregory Sarchet.

While in Chicago, Pedersen was a member of the Civic Orchestra where he served as assistant principal bass from 2012 to 2014. During this time, he also worked closely with Yo-Yo Ma on stage and in community outreach programs. He has regularly subbed with the New World Symphony, including a recent tour to Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He has also attended the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and Verbier Festival.

Outside of the orchestra, Pedersen enjoys arranging music for bass ensembles and exploring the unique cuisine of Houston.

Flutist Judy Dines is a very active performer in Houston and beyond. Locally, she is a frequent performer in the Greenbriar Consortium, a diverse chamber group made up of Houston Symphony members and other musicians in the Houston area. She was also a member and frequent soloist with the former Houston Chamber Symphony. Other local groups Dines has played with include Mukuru, Aperio and the St. Cecilia Society.

Outside of Houston, Dines is a member of the Ritz Chamber Players, a dynamic chamber ensemble which performs all around the country. She is also a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, which convenes every summer in beautiful Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Several times, most recently in August 2008, she performed at the National Flute Association Convention, a four-day extravaganza which celebrates the flute. In the orchestral world, Dines has performed selected weeks with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Washington, D.C., Dines attended Temple University in Philadelphia and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore before coming to Houston. She joined the Houston Symphony in 1992.

Kathryn Ladner joined the Houston Symphony in the fall of 2016. She moved to Houston from Nashville, Tennessee, where she played third flute and piccolo with the Nashville Symphony from 2012–2016. While in Nashville, Ladner also enjoyed playing with the Nashville Opera Orchestra and the Alias Chamber Ensemble, among other groups, and teaching flute lessons at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt and the W.O. Smith Music School.

Born and raised in Seattle, Ladner began playing flute in public schools at age 10. She holds a Bachelors of Music and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and a Masters of Music from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. While at Eastman, she studied flute with Bonita Boyd and took piccolo lessons with Anne Harrow. In 2010, she was the Piccolo Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, and she has also performed with the National Repertory Orchestra and the Pacific Music Festival. At the Shepherd School of Music Ladner studied with Leone Buyse, graduating in 2012.

Alexander Potiomkin joined the Houston Symphony as Bass Clarinet/Utility in October 2012. A native of Ukraine, he moved with his family to Israel in 1991, where he attended the Rubin Jerusalem Academy of Music, while appearing as a regular substitute clarinetist with Israel Philharmonic. He came to Houston in 1995 to study at Rice University, where he earned his Master of Music Degree in 1997.

He has appeared as substitute Principal Clarinet of the Alabama Symphony on their Carnegie Hall tour in spring 2012. He has also performed as guest principal clarinet with the Kansas City Symphony and as a soloist with the Tel Aviv Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has participated in the Mozart, Bellingham, Blossom, and Tanglewood music festivals.

Equally committed to teaching, he maintains a large, private studio. His main teachers include David Peck and David Weber, with additional studies with Michael Wayne and Mark Nuccio on clarinet and Chester Rowell and Ben Freimuth on Bass Clarinet.

Nick Platoff harnesses the power of music to deliver compounding benefit to the world. He enjoys a multi-faceted career as a trombonist, composer/producer, singer, educator, conductor, and concert producer. After eight seasons as Associate Principal Trombone of the San Francisco Symphony, where he was appointed by Michael Tilson Thomas at age 23, Nick joined the Houston Symphony Orchestra as Principal Trombone in September 2024.

Nick loves using music to delight, inspire, and empower audiences, and does so in a wide variety of mediums and genres as a soloist as well as in collaboration with artists like Jacob Collier, KNOWER, esperanza spalding, Common, Metallica, Steve Lacy, Sigur Ros, Nu Deco Ensemble, the New York Philharmonic, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Recent highlights include conducting the Stanford Brass Ensemble on a concert which included the world premiere of his “The Fanford Stanfare”, composing music for Ramazan Nanayev’s film “Ikigai” and producing a silly music video about spies, both to be premiered Fall 2024. In August 2024, he toured Spain with Zirzuví, a Santa Cruz based band specializing in Sephardic music. Other proud moments include the August 2023 world premiere of his Symphony No. 1 with the SF Civic Symphony, and the November 2022 release of his debut album “Limousine of Creative Potential” featuring songs written and recorded in his friend Joel’s limousine during the pandemic.

Nick’s compositions center on themes of family, hope, mental health, and nature, and he genre-hops between the symphonic world, silly-pop, bumpin’ funk bangers, heartfelt tributes, and jungle soundscape. He regularly performs as a singer-songwriter on the Sofar Sounds series.

Nick joined the faculty of the University of Houston Moores School of Music in September 2024, and has previously served as a faculty member at Stanford University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division, and the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra. As a guest educator, he has taught recently at Rice, Yale, Juilliard, the National Orchestral Institute, and Amateur Music Network. He has collaborated as video producer and co-host with his father, musicologist John Platoff, on various SF Symphony online educational events as well as the Professor Platoff YouTube channel. Nick is a proud alumnus of New Haven’s Neighborhood Music School, Northwestern University, and the New World Symphony.

Matthew Strauss has been applauded throughout the United States as an energetic percussionist and timpanist with a diverse musical background. In addition to his position as Associate Principal Timpanist / Section Percussionist with the Houston Symphony, Mr. Strauss is an Associate Professor of Percussion at Rice University and faculty member at the Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston. Prior to his post in Houston, Mr. Strauss performed as a member of the percussion section in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra throughout the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.

He also has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. Solo appearances include performances with the Houston Symphony, Texas Music Festival Orchestra, Akron Symphony, New Hampshire Music Festival, Reading Symphony Orchestra and Delaware Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, Mr. Strauss has performed with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Da Camera of Houston, Foundation For Modern Music, Bard Festival Chamber Players, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, Skaneateles Music Festival, and has participated in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary chamber series, Music Now, under the batons of Pierre Boulez and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Mr. Strauss received his bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance from the Juilliard School and his master’s degree in Performance from the Temple University. He is an alumnus of both the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals and has participated in the Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Prior to his post at Rice University, Mr. Strauss taught percussion performance as a Visiting Lecturer at the Frost School of Music at University of Miami for ten years. He has presented master classes and clinics at numerous schools, festivals, and conventions such as the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, New World Symphony, Juilliard School, Aspen Music Festival, Northwestern University, Texas Bandmasters Association Convention, Conservatoire de Region in Paris, Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel, Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Temple University, Bard Conservatory, New York University, Peabody Conservatory, Tanglewood Music Center, University of Maryland, George Mason University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Roosevelt University, and DePaul University. Mr. Strauss is a performing artist and clinician for Promark, Evans Heads, Zildjian Inc., and Pearl/Adams Corporation.

Brian Del Signore is the Principal Percussionist of the Houston Symphony. Brian joined the Houston Symphony in 1986. Prior to the Houston Symphony appointment, he held a one-year position as principal percussionist of the Grand Rapids Symphony in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and performed with numerous other orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra.

Born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Brian Del Signore earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1981, where he studied with the Pittsburgh Symphony percussionists. In 1984, Mr. Del Signore earned a Masters in Music from Temple University where he studied with Alan Abel of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He began piano lessons at age six and drums at age eleven. His first drum teacher in the late 1960’s was Lou Carto, pop star Bobby Vinton’s drummer and bandleader at that time.

Besides keeping a very busy schedule with Houston Symphony performances, Mr. Del Signore heads the percussion department at Houston Christian University. Additionally, he has presented clinics and master classes at music schools around the USA including Baylor University, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Yale University, The Julliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New York University, Curtis Institute of Music, Temple University, Peabody Conservatory, Carnegie Mellon University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Texas A&M Commerce, Sam Houston State University, The Colburn School in Los Angeles, and San Francisco Conservatory. He also maintains a local education and outreach schedule, presenting percussion programs in elementary schools, and percussion clinics in high schools across the Houston area.

As a composer and soloist, Brian Del Signore premiered his Percussion Concerto with Houston Civic Symphony in 2018 and performed the Marimba Movement from that concerto with Houston Symphony in 2021.

Brian Del Signore endorses and is sponsored by manufacturers of high-quality percussion instruments. These companies: Remo Corporation, Sabian Cymbals, Pearl/Adams Percussion, ProMark Sticks (D’Addario), and Black Swamp Percussion, support Mr. Del Signore’s educational and outreach programs. For more information on these programs please visit www.briandelsignore.com.

Brian and his wife Leah have three grown children, Damian, Dominique, and Dione.