Annie Chen is a Taiwanese-born violinist and dedicated educator whose career is distinguished by a passion for chamber music, orchestral performance, and teaching. She began studying piano at the age of six and violin at the age of eight in Taiwan before moving to the United States at fourteen to pursue her musical education at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston.

Annie has participated in numerous prestigious summer music festivals, including the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Music Academy of the West, where she won the 2011 Concerto Competition, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in 2018, where she studied with renowned violinist Pierre Amoyal. She performs each summer with the Grand Teton Music Festival and is an active chamber musician in Houston. She is also a performer and curator with Third Space Music, collaborating with fellow artists to create innovative chamber music experiences that engage, inspire, and connect with diverse audiences.

Earlier in her career, Annie toured with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, was a longtime member of Discovery Ensemble, an organization dedicated to bringing classical music to underserved communities, and appeared as a featured soloist with the Dorchester Symphony Orchestra.

Annie earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory and her Master of Music degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she was awarded the prestigious Shepherd School Distinguished Fellowship in Violin. Her principal teachers have included Lynn Chang, James Buswell, Kathleen Winkler, and Pierre Amoyal.

A passionate educator, Annie maintains an active private violin studio, where she enjoys working with students of all ages and levels. She is committed to helping each student build a strong technical foundation while nurturing creativity, confidence, and a lifelong appreciation for music.

Outside of music, Annie enjoys caring for her growing collection of houseplants and embracing the outdoors during the cooler months from fall through spring. Whether camping, exploring nature, or simply spending quality time with her son, Sebastian, she treasures opportunities to slow down, recharge, and create lasting memories with her family.

James (Jimmy) Cunningham IV was born in Pittsburgh, PA, and recently moved to Houston to study with James Dunham at Rice University. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan where he studied with Yizhak Schotten, and an Artist Diploma from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings where he worked with Victoria Chiang and Rebecca Albers. During his Artist Diploma, he also worked closely with mentors Lawrence Dutton and Annie Fullard, and performed in numerous chamber ensembles alongside Amy Schwartz Moretti, Cho-Liang Lin, Andy Armstrong, Ettore Causa, and others.

During summer of 2024, Cunningham was a member of the New Fromm Quartet at the Tanglewood Music Center. In addition to working with student composers to premier brand-new compositions, the quartet presented a wide variety of contemporary chamber works under the direction of curators Tania León and Steven Mackey. During summer 2023, Cunningham was an orchestral fellow at Tanglewood; and from 2018 to 2022, he spent four summers at the Aspen Music Festival as an orchestral fellow. While at Aspen, he performed as Principal Viola of the Aspen Opera Orchestra and Assistant Principal Viola of the Aspen Chamber Symphony.

In 2016, Cunningham performed with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA at Carnegie Hall conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and Valery Gergiev. That fall, Cunningham debuted with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performing the Telemann Double Concerto with his teacher at the time, Marylène Gingras-Roy. He hopes to have a viola studio of his own in the future, and at home he enjoys making pasta from scratch and exploring manual espresso.

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.

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.

Anne Leek was educated at Juilliard where she received her bachelor of music, master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees. During her time in New York, she performed on a recital in Carnegie Hall sponsored by the Artists International Contest, which she won. During the 1980s, Leek was Solo Principal Oboe of the Mannheim Orchestra in Germany.

Before joining the Houston Symphony, she played a two year position as principal oboe in the Pittsburgh Symphony, under the baton of Lorin Maazel. Along with her career as an orchestral musician, Leek has taught at Indiana University, Arizona State University and has taught at the University of Houston. As a recital soloist and chamber musician, she has appeared in numerous major cities across the world.

Critics have praised clarinetist Mark Nuccio for both his solo and chamber appearances, describing him as “the evening’s highlight,” full of “mystery and insight,” and “shaping his phrases beautifully with a rich, expressive tone” (The New York Times).

Nuccio is currently the Principal Clarinet of the Houston Symphony since 2016.  Prior to that, he was a member of the New York Philharmonic, having joined in 1999 as Associate Principal and Solo E-flat Clarinetist. During Nuccio’s 17 years in the NYP, he served as Acting Principal Clarinet for four years from 2009–13. Prior to his service with the Philharmonic, he held positions with orchestras in Pittsburgh, Denver, Savannah, and Florida, working with distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Alan Gilbert, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, André Previn, Christoph von Dohnányi, Valero Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and Juraj Valčuha. Additionally, Nuccio has toured extensively with the Houston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and in numerous countries; recorded with all three orchestras; and performed regularly with the Philharmonic, on the award-winning series, Live from Lincoln Center, broadcast on PBS. Recent highlights include the Philharmonic’s historic and newsworthy visits to North Korea and Vietnam.

An active solo and chamber musician, Nuccio has been featured with various orchestras in the United States and made multiple appearances as a featured performer at the International Clarinet Association conventions. He made his subscription solo debut with the Houston Symphony in 2018 with several other appearances since then, with the subscription solo debut with the New York Philharmonic on Feb. 10, 2010 and returned to perform the Copland Concerto with the NYP under the baton of Alan Gilbert on May 31 and June 1 of 2013. Other highlights include a New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2001, and his Japanese recital debut in 2002. He continues to regularly perform recitals in Asia and Europe as well as across the United States and in New York, he can often be heard at Merkin Concert Hall, 92^nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nuccio also participates in the chamber music series at the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, performs/teaches at Festival Napa Valley, and teaches at ARIA Music Festival, among others.

As a studio musician, Nuccio is featured on numerous movie soundtracks, including Failure to Launch, The Last Holiday, The Rookie, The Score, Intolerable Cruelty, Alamo, Pooh’s Heffalump, Hitch, and The Manchurian Candidate, as well as various television commercials, Super Bowl music, and the Master’s Golf Tournament. Additionally he has performed on the Late Show with David Letterman and on the 2003 Grammy Awards. His own debut album featuring the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms, Opening Night, was released in November 2006.

A Colorado native, Nuccio was recently awarded the “Distinguished Alumni Award” from his alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado. He also holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University where he studied with renowned pedagogue Robert Marcellus. Beyond his active performing schedule, Nuccio is committed to training the next generation of musicians and currently serves as music faculty for Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music in Evanston, IL. He also teaches masterclasses in the U.S. and abroad. Mark Nuccio is a D’Addario Advising Artist & Clinician and a performing artist/clinician for Buffet Music Group.

Christian Schubert joined the Houston Symphony as Second Clarinetist in 1996, appointed by then music director Christoph Eschenbach. A native of Burbank, California, Mr. Schubert studied with Kalman Bloch (Principal Clarinet, Los Angeles Philharmonic) for seven years before moving to Chicago to study with Robert Marcellus at Northwestern University, where he received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in music performance. As a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Mr. Schubert also studied with Larry Combs of the Chicago Symphony.

Prior to arriving in Houston, Mr. Schubert played extensively with numerous Chicago area ensembles including the Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, The Chicago Ensemble, as well as performing commercial jingle session work in the Chicago studios. He also served as the second clarinetist and E-flat clarinetist with the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago for 17 seasons between 1991 and 2016. Active as a chamber musician as well as a recitalist, he has been a featured performer at the Schlesswig Holstein Musik Festival, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Festival.

Well known for his success in teaching young people, he has served on the music faculties of North Park College in Chicago and the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. He is also the co-founder of Houston Clarinet Camp and has presented masterclasses across the country. A dedicated pedagogue, he has maintained a private instruction studio at home every year of his professional career as well as serving as a lead teacher in several music education initiatives sponsored by the Houston Symphony.

In his time away from performing and teaching, Mr. Schubert owns and operates a recording engineering company, Schubert Recording Services, specializing in the quality digital recording of classical music.

Mr. Schubert exclusively performs and records on Buffet clarinets, and on D’Addario Reserve Classic reeds, and has been a Performing Artist & Clinician for both companies since 2016.

Associate principal bassoonist Isaac Schultz, a native of Exeter, New Hampshire, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Kamins. While at Rice, Isaac was a fellow at the Music Academy of the West and the Aspen Music School. In 2015, he was a prize winner at the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition and a finalist at the Coleman Competition. Away from music, he enjoys rock climbing and other outdoor activities.

Brian Mangrum joined the Houston Symphony as Third Horn in June of 2023. From Montreal, he started horn lessons with Denys Derôme in the sixth grade, later studying with John Milner at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and with John Zirbel at Collège Marianopolis and over the summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Brian attended Rice University in Bill VerMeulen’s studio, and began his tenure as Principal Horn of the Columbus Symphony upon graduation, in 2018.

In addition to his positions in Houston and Columbus, Brian has performed with orchestras across North America, notably as guest principal horn with the San Francisco Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada and the Cleveland Orchestra.