Passport to Vienna: Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven

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.

A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Yankı Karataş joined the Houston Symphony in April 2024. Prior to her appointment, she was a violin fellow at the New World Symphony and performed with many orchestras including the San Diego Symphony, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, and Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra.

She moved to the United States in 2014 and received her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at Stony Brook University studying with Hagai Shaham, Philip Setzer, and Arnaud Sussmann. She also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul Conservatory, studying with Pelin Halkaci Akin and graduating with the highest honors.

An avid chamber musician, Yankı studied under the Emerson String Quartet Intensive program and won the Lauren V. Ackerman Chamber Music Prize performing Ligeti’s Horn Trio. Additionally, she’s had the privilege of performing alongside artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Lawrence Dutton, Paul Watkins, Colin Carr, and Arnaud Sussmann during her studies. As a soloist, Yankı played various concertos with the Mersin University Academic Chamber Orchestra, Mimar Sinan Symphony, and Stony Brook Symphony.

Outside of performing, Yankı has maintained and enjoyed her private teaching studio for many years and plans to keep teaching an integral part of her life.

Samuel Pedersen was appointed to the Houston Symphony viola section in April 2022. Prior to joining, he was a member of the New World Symphony and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Other engagements have been with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Music Festival, Houston Grand Opera, and New York Philharmonic as a Global Academy fellow.

In addition to spending one summer as an orchestral fellow, Pedersen was a member of the New Fromm Players for two years at the Tanglewood Music Center. It was there that he dedicated time to the preparation and performance of contemporary repertoire, working alongside leading composers in the field. Highlights include the U.S. Premiere of Julian Anderson’s Third String Quartet as well as the World Premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’ Magic Box, for String Quartet and Percussion Quartet. His chamber music studies include mentors such as Norman Fischer, Andrew Jennings, Dawn Upshaw, and members of the Juilliard, Brentano and Pacifica quartets. Previous summers have been spent performing at the Madeline Island, National Repertory Orchestra, and Bowdoin music festivals.

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.

Outside of the orchestra, Pedersen enjoys cycling, frisbee, and spending time with his brother, Andrew, member of the Houston Symphony double bass section.

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.

Jonathan Fischer joined the Houston Symphony as principal oboe in September 2012 and was invited to join the faculty of the University of Houston in September 2014. Prior to his appointment with the Houston Symphony, Fischer served as associate principal oboe with the San Francisco Symphony for nine seasons. He has also held positions with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Savannah Symphony, and the New World Symphony. Fischer has performed as a guest principal with many of the nation’s leading orchestras including the Boston, Chicago, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the St. Louis and Atlanta Symphonies, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He has performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony, Grant Park Symphony, New World Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony.

Fischer currently teaches at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music and Texas Music Festival. He has taught and performed at the Aspen Music Festival and the Oberlin Conservatory. He has given masterclasses at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the San Francisco Conservatory, Rice University, and University of Michigan, and has been a coach at the New World Symphony. He holds a degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Richard Woodhams.

A native of South Carolina, Fischer now enjoys living in the Heights with his dog, a Louisiana Catahoula mix.

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.

Ian Mayton, a native of Durham, North Carolina, was appointed fourth horn of the Houston Symphony by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada in November 2014. Mayton has performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony. After completing his Bachelor of Music degree at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Mayton spent a year in the Master of Music program at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music studying with William VerMeulen.

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.

Nathan Cloeter, a native of Lake Jackson, Texas, was appointed as Assistant Principal/Utility Horn of the Houston Symphony in 2023 by Music Director Juraj Valčuha. He has previously performed with the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, and the Naples Philharmonic, and he has spent summers as a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center. While a fellow at Tanglewood, he earned many plaudits for a performance as the solo horn of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony conducted by Andris Nelsons. Cloeter holds a bachelor’s degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music where he studied with William VerMeulen.

Brian Mangrum joined the Houston Symphony as third horn in 2023. He previously served as principal horn with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra for five seasons. He has also performed with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and as guest principal horn with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Brian was awarded first prize of the brass category in the 2017 Montreal Symphony’s Manuvie Competition.

In the summers, Brian has played at the Rockport Music Festival, the Sun Valley Music Festival, and is an alum of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he was a New Horizons Fellow.

Brian grew up in Montreal, Quebec, where he studied with Denys Derôme, John Milner, and John Zirbel. He received his bachelor’s degree from Rice University in 2018, where he was a student of William VerMeulen. In his time off, Brian enjoys being outdoors and cooking for friends.