Celebrating 30+ Years of Wild and Scenic Music
2025 – 2026 Artists
Debra Ayers, pianist, is director of Montage Music Society. She presents the Altazano Salon and Montage@Quail Run concerts in Santa Fe, NM. A proponent of contemporary music, premieres include works by Ofer Ben-Amots, Matthew Aucoin, Juantio Becenti, William Bolcom, Nell Shaw Cohen, Paul Elwood, Jody Redhage Ferber, Jeff Harrington, Pierre Jalbert, Andrew List, Niles Luther, Elliot Roman, Daniel Schnyder, Ronald Strauss, Bruce Wolosoff and Yehudi Wyner. Ayers is featured in the Milken Archive, as well as on several critically acclaimed recordings and a documentary series, “Creating Music Inspired by Visual Art.”
Violinist, Elizabeth Baker, had a 40-year career with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (10 years) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (30 years) before permanently moving to Taos. She now plays with the finest of New Mexico’s chamber and orchestra ensembles.
Baker performed chamber music with her colleagues in the SFSO and the LA Philharmonic and was a member of XTet and Bach’s Circle, appearing throughout the Western U.S. for Chamber Music Northwest, Sedona, Bach Festivals in Los Angeles, Carmel and Oregon, South Bay Chamber Music, and Colly Soleri Music Center, among others. She was soloist three times during her tenure with the LA Philharmonic, all premieres and all receiving critical acclaim.
Baker served on the faculty at Cal Arts for 12 years and worked with the YOLA youth at HOLA since its inception in 2011. She can be heard on recordings from Hänssler classics, Delos, New World and Crystal labels.
Baker holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (’76) and Indiana University School of Music (’78, with Distinction, and awarded the Performer’s Certificate). She plays on a Sanctus Seraphin Violin, 1733 previously owned by her late mother Virginia Voigtländer Baker.
Violinist and violist, Laura Chang, a native of Wisconsin, was born into a musical family, and began her violin studies shortly after her fourth birthday. She earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Peabody Conservatory, under the tutelage of Martin Beaver and Pamela Frank, for whom she was a graduate assistant.
Chang is an avid chamber and orchestral musician whose performances have taken her to venues across the US, Canada, and Europe. While a resident of Washington, DC, she was a member of the National Philharmonic, and the Maryland Symphony, and frequently performed as an extra with the major orchestras in the Baltimore/Washington metro area. More recently, she performed with the Colorado Symphony and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. In 2020, Chang and her family relocated to Albuquerque, where she is the Principal Violist with the New Mexico Philharmonic, and a first violinist in the Santa Fe Symphony. She is also a member of the Central City Opera Orchestra, and performs as an extra with the Santa Fe Opera.
Judith Gordon, pianist, explores a diverse repertoire as both a soloist and in collaboration with a wide range of instrumentalists and singers. A featured guest of chamber music festivals and series such as Apple Hill, Charlottesville, Music Mountain, Santa Fe, Spoleto, Tanglewood, and Music from Salem, she has also appeared with the Boston Pops, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and was a member of the percussion-based ensemble Essential Music. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Gordon was a Boston Globe ‘Musician of the Year’ and an associate professor of music at Smith College from 2006-20. She is now based in New Mexico, playing often with Chatter, the Albuquerque Chamber Soloists, and at Placitas Artists Series.
Guan studies in the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange Program with Natasha Brofsky. He has performed Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the San Luis Obispo Symphony and has been featured at Jordan Hall and Shalin Liu Performance Center. As a chamber musician, Guan is the principal cellist of the Columbia University Bach Society and the Westside Chamber Players. He has attended leading summer festivals, including Taos, YellowBarn, Juilliard ChamberFest, and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. Guan is a sought-after collaborator for composers, premiering works by artists such as Max Lu and Sofia Ouyang at Alice Tully Hall.
Sally Guenther received her Bachelor’s degree at Indiana University where she studied with Janos Starker, and a Master’s degree at The Juilliard School of Music, studying with Harvey Shapiro.She also attended the Taos School of Music, Music Academy of the West and International Congress of Strings.
After engagements with several US orchestras, including with the Cincinnati, Fort Worth and Syracuse symphonies, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, she became solo cellist of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway, a position she held for twenty years. Guenther was also active in Norway as a pedagogue teaching at the Grieg Academy of Music, and was a founding member of the contemporary chamber ensemble, BIT 20, an internationally recognized group which records and travels extensively in Europe and Asia.
Since moving full-time to New Mexico in 2006, Guenther devotes herself to chamber music, travelling widely in the Southwest area and participating in chamber music festivals in Santa Fe, Taos, Abiquiu, Los Alamos, and Breckenridge, Colorado. In addition she has played with the New Mexico Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica and Santa Fe Symphony orchestras. Guenther maintains a private studio in Santa Fe.
Since 1980, violinist Liang-Ping How has been a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra touring extensively throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, and appearing frequently as soloist and concertmaster of the conductor-less group.
An active soloist and chamber music musician, How’s performances include the Caramoor, Spoleto, Lochenhaus and Moab Music Festivals, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York Philomusica at the International Music Festival of Sophia, and as guest soloist for the New Mexico Symphony. In addition he has served as the concertmaster for the Sarasota Opera since 2005 and is regularly engaged as concertmaster to the Monterey Symphony.
How made his solo debut with the National Youth Orchestra of Taiwan at age seven and went on to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Curtis Institute of Music with Jamie Laredo.
He can be heard on numerous recordings with Orpheus on the Deutsche Grammaphon label. A member of the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, How resides in Santa Fe and plays an 1863 J.B. Vuillaume.
Pianist, Gleb Ivanov, has wowed audiences around the world since winning prizes in the 1994 and 1996 International “Classical Legacy” Competition and first Vladimir Horowitz Competition. Before moving to the US, Ivanov appeared as soloist with the Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic, the Moscow State Orchestra, in the Great Hall at Moscow Conservatory, with the Kremlin Orchestra, and at the Pushkin, Glinka, and Scriabin Museums in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where his teachers included the renowned Lev Naumov and where he was a protégé of Mstislav Rostropovich. Ivanov earned his Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, working with Nina Svetlanova, and was a recipient of a Musical Studies Grant from the Bagby Foundation.
In 2005, Ivanov won First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and made his critically acclaimed debuts at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He was also honored with the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and presented at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. The New York Times called him “a young super-virtuoso with musical sensitivity and an appreciation of style to go with the thunder and lightning.”
Ivanov has given concerts at Princeton University, Bargemusic in New York, The Paramount Theater in Vermont, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, “Pianofest” in East Hampton, and the Louvre in Paris.
Numerous concerto performances have included the New Jersey, Knoxville, Dearborn, Las Cruces, Grand Rapids, Springfield, Southwest Florida, Peoria, and Napa Valley symphonies, and with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic.
Ivanov is on the faculty of the Bluthner School of Music in Hoboken, New Jersey, passing on his amazing talents to children of all ages. In June 2023, he assumed the role of Music Director of Saint Peter and Paul Orthodox Cathedral in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he will be starting his own concert series in December.
Tara Khozein is a soprano, songmaker, improviser, teacher, and theater artist. She has lived and worked throughout the United States and Europe. As a multidisciplinary performer, Khozein explores the intersections of classical and noisy singing and physical theatre. She is also a musical director for ensemble theater and a performance director for musicians. Khozein has performed as a soloist with major institutions in Europe, including Oper Köln, The Bregenz Festival, The Cologne Philharmonie, Budapest Music Center, and the Janáček Academy. She is based in Brooklyn, NY, and Budapest, HU.
Romanian-born violinist Ruxandra Marquardt studied at the ‘George Enescu’ School and Conservatory in Bucharest, earning top prizes in competitions such as Concertino Prague, Henri Wieniawski, Tibor Varga, and the All-Romania Prize. She also participated in the Yehudi Menuhin and Indianapolis Violin Competitions. In the U.S., Marquardt has served as Associate Concertmaster of the Syracuse Symphony, Principal Second Violin and Concertmaster of the Jacksonville Symphony, and guest Concertmaster with several orchestras, including the Rhode Island and New Mexico Philharmonics. Her solo credits include performances with the Bucharest Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, and Coastal Symphony of Georgia. Marquardt has performed chamber music at Bayreuth, Skaneateles, Grand Tetons, Santa Fe Opera, and more. Currently, she is Assistant Concertmaster of the Santa Fe Symphony and a member of Movable Sol. A sought-after teacher and clinician, Marquardt has guided students to success in major competitions, conservatories, and auditions for professional and youth orchestras.
Harpsichordist Kathleen McIntosh has been a Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival artist since 1996. She has performed across the U.S. and internationally at festivals in Cuba, Japan, Peru, Spain, and Germany, and as guest soloist with chamber orchestras in Russia and Vietnam. McIntosh frequently gives workshops in Cuba, Peru, and Poland. A dedicated performer of contemporary music, she has premiered works by Melinda Wagner, Leo Brouwer, John Steinmetz, Lei Liang, Gregory Spear, and others. In October 2023, she premiered Dream Scherzo by Pierre Jalbert with Chatter, an Albuquerque-based contemporary music series.
A Santa Fe resident, McIntosh performs with Severall Friends, an early music group led by Elizabeth Blumenstock and Mary Springfels. She has also appeared with the Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and the Desert Chorale, and was a soloist with the New Mexico Philharmonic in 2019. McIntosh recordings can be heard on the Marican Studio and Gasparo labels.
Violinist Stephen Redfield was a Starling Scholar with Dorothy DeLay and earned a Master’s at the Eastman School under Donald Weilerstein. A prize-winner in the Colman and Monterey Chamber Music Competitions, he has performed widely as a chamber musician on both modern and Baroque violin. Dr. Redfield retired from university teaching to Santa Fe, where he served as concertmaster of Santa Fe Pro Musica for nearly three decades. He now organizes MarketMusic, a Baroque series in the city’s Railyard District.
In his 45 years with the Oregon Bach Festival, Dr. Redfield has participated in many recordings, including the Grammy® Award-winning Credo. He is concertmaster of the Conspirare Company of Voices—earning four Grammy® nominations—and of the Victoria and Arizona Bach Festivals and La Follia Austin Baroque. Dr. Redfield has led Houston’s Ars Lyrica and Nashville’s Music City Baroque and is a member of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra.
Katie Rietman has performed as a cellist on over 60 CD recordings and in numerous concerts with leading Baroque ensembles worldwide. Her career has taken her to 21 countries, and she is a prizewinner in the Bonporti and Van Wassenaer competitions.
Rietman studied cello at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, later spending ten years in Cologne, Germany, performing with many European early music groups. Based in New York City for several years, she served as principal cellist of the Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, the Clarion Society, and Concert Royal.
Now living in Santa Fe, Rietman has performed with all the local classical groups and on the MarketMusic series at the New Mexico School for the Arts, where she also teaches cello. A trained soprano, she has a passion for languages—she speaks seven—and enjoys making jewelry and cooking.
Known for her “powerful, crystal-clear voice,” Kathlene Ritch has sung with such noted ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, and the Vienna Philharmonic. After graduating with a degree in music education, she moved to New York City and made her living as a professional singer for live classical projects, as well as studio sessions. Two of Ritch’s NYC highlights were performing Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center and Carousel at Carnegie Hall. She now lives in Santa Fe, where she teaches at the New Mexico School for the Arts and cantors at the Church of the Holy Faith. Ritch is also the Music Director for Tri-M Productions, a non-profit organization with the mission to give local ‘Millennials’ opportunities to perform musicals at a professional level. She continues to sing with ensembles around the country, including the Oregon Bach Festival, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and the Grammy-winning ensemble, Conspirare. Ritch is also an on-air announcer for Classical 95.5 KHFM Santa Fe/Albuquerque, for which she has won a “Golden Mike” award from the New Mexico Broadcasters Association.
Jesse Tatum is a relentless musician, performing chamber music, orchestral music, operas, and solo works. They are Principal Flute of The Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Opera Southwest Orchestra, and a Core Member at Chatter, where Tatum has performed well over a decade of adventurous chamber music with the innovative Albuquerque-based chamber ensemble. Additionally, they have performed many seasons with The Santa Fe Opera and the New Mexico Philharmonic. Highlights of the 2025 season included premiere appearances with Taos Chamber Music Group, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
Tatum has collaborated with many composers and participated in numerous world, US, and New Mexico premieres of solo, chamber, orchestra and opera works. They have been a Featured Performer of Powell Flutes, profiled in Albuquerque The Magazine, appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, and served multiple times as a Newly Published Music judge for the National Flute Association.
