The composer, improviser, and double bassist Dave Morgan has collaborated with a wide range of jazz, pop and classical artists. His most recent recording is “Blue Is More Than A Color” Morgan was a recipient of a “New Works: Creation and Presentation” grant from Chamber Music America, which resulted in his recording, The Way of the Sly Man, featuring Jack Schantz, Howie Smith, Jamey Haddad, and Dan Wall. Morgan also composed the music for The Surprise of Being—Live at Birdland by the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra featuring Joe Lovano. A Tri-C Jazz Fest concert of Morgan’s transcriptions and arrangements of the music of Frank Zappa for the Jazz Unit featuring Ernie Watts and Mark Wood earned an Award of Achievement from Northern Ohio Live. He performed this music as guest artist with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra in December 2012. Morgan collaborates in crossover projects with Apollo’s Fire, the Internationally-acclaimed Baroque ensemble, and occasionally performs with The Cleveland Orchestra as a jazz bassist and bass guitarist. The American Wind Symphony Orchestra has commissioned several pieces, including “Colors of Your Dreams,” “Reflections and Mediations”, and “The Art of Seven.” Several of Morgan’s orchestral pieces are recorded on Centaur Records. The YSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble directed by Stephen Gage has released “Made In Youngstown” which includes three of his compositions for wind ensemble, featuring several YSU faculty members as guest soloists.
DIMITRI MURRATH has performed concertos with Orchestre National de Lille, Toho Gakuen Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, and London Mozart Players. He has appeared at the Kennedy Center, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Royal Festival Hall in London, among other venues. A member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and of Mistral Music, he has collaborated with Miriam Fried, Pamela Frank, Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Menahem Pressler, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Mendelssohn, Takacs, Guarneri, Cleveland, Jerusalem, and Juilliard String Quartets. Festival appearances in addition to ChamberFest Cleveland include IMS Prussia Cove, Ravinia’s Steans Institute for Young Artists, Caramoor Rising Stars, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Juventus, Verbier, and Marlboro, and has taken part in the Park Lane Group Young Artists New Year Series in London. A recipient of a 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Murrath was a first prize winner at the Primrose International Viola Competition. Other awards include second prize at the First Tokyo International Viola Competition, special prize for contemporary work at the ARD Munich Competition, and a fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation. In 2012, he was named laureate of the Juventus Festival, an award recognizing young European soloists. He is on the viola faculties of San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Bowdoin International Music Festival. His recordings include music of Hindemith, Vieuxtemps, Clarke, and Jeremy Dale Roberts.
AMANDA POWELL has been praised as “the star of the evening” (Seen and Heard International, UK) and “charismatic and theatrically arresting” (San Francisco Chronicle). A highly versatile musician, she is at home in repertoire from Monteverdi to Mozart to Ravel, and has toured internationally as soloist in baroque opera, oratorio, and crossover folk programs. Her tour performances with GRAMMY-winning baroque orchestra Apollo’s Fire (Jeannette Sorrell) include such venues as the National Concert Hall of Ireland in Dublin, the Irish National Opera House, the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, and Zellerbach Hall in San Francisco, among others. Her 2019 debut as Messiah soloist with the Calgary Symphony won kudos as “the soloist of the night… singing to perfection.” 
JUSTIN WISNER is a freelancing clarinetist in the Northeast Ohio area. He has performed with many orchestras in the area including The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland Pops, Youngstown Symphony, Akron Symphony, Firelands Symphony, and CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Wisner has recently played under Franz Welser-Möst, JoAnn Falletta, Ludovic Morlot, Robert Spano, Richard Kaufman, David Effron, Joel Smirnoff, and Tania Miller. He has appeared on other world-renowned stages including Severance Hall, Blossom Music Center, The New World Center, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Devos Performance Hall, and Koerner Hall. Mr. Wisner has been active with various summer festivals, such as the Aspen Music Festival, Hidden Valley Music Seminar, Mostly Modern Music Festival, The Henri Selmer International Clarinet Academy, and the Miami Music Festival. Justin was the third-prize winner of the Henri Selmer International Solo Competition. Justin Wisner recently completed his Master’s Degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He holds an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor in Music Education from Michigan State University. His other notable teachers include Afendi Yusuf, Franklin Cohen, Joaquin Valdepeñas, Mingzhe Wang, and Tasha Warren-Yehuda.
JAY SHANKAR is an emerging clarinetist in the classical music world, recently appointed as the Assistant Principal/Second/and Eb Clarinet with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He was named the winner of the prestigious International Vandoren Competition and a semi-finalist at the International Crusell Competition in Finland, the only American clarinetist to be invited. Shankar is also an avid chamber musician, recently being invited to La Jolla Music Society and the Colburn Chamber Music Society where he collaborated with musicians such as Anthony McGill, Paul Huang, Geoff Nuttall, Inon Barnatan, and Pedja Mužijević. In addition, he is a frequent guest of world-class orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and as guest Principal Clarinet with The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He has performed as the Principal Clarinetist in orchestras including the National Youth Orchestra of Carnegie Hall in 2016, The Colburn Orchestra, and Marin Alsop’s Conductors Orchestra in Baltimore. He has participated in orchestra festivals such as the Music Academy of the West, the Immanuel and Olshan Texas Music Festival where he won a prize in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition, and as the Principal Clarinet of the 2023 Britt Festival Orchestra. Shankar received his Masters at the Colburn Conservatory of Music with renowned pedagogue Yehuda Gilad and Bachelors from The Peabody Conservatory at The Johns Hopkins University with Eugene Mondie.
Clarinetist JAZMIN PASCUAL FLORES was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico and is currently an undergraduate student at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the guidance of Mr. Afendi Yusuf. Previously she completed the pre-college program at The Colburn School where she was under the instruction of Mr. Yehuda Gilad. 
The extraordinary clarinetist ISMAIL LUMANOVSKI is a musical force of passion and dynamic virtuosity. Already of international distinction, Lumanovki has launched a major career as a soloist, chamber musician in both classical and cross-over repertoire. His synergistic blend of natural talent and training combines the spirit of folk music with the discipline of classical music. 
FRANKLIN COHEN is founder and Co-Artistic Director of ChamberFest Cleveland. He was the longest serving principal clarinetist and most frequent soloist in the history of the Cleveland Orchestra, serving from 1976 to 2015, when he was named Principal Clarinet Emeritus, the first honor of its kind since the orchestra’s founding. A recitalist, chamber musician, recording artist, and pedagogue, Mr. Cohen has been featured soloist in more than 200 performances throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe, appearing with Lorin Maazel, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kirill Petrenko, and scores of other leading conductors. His Deutsche Grammophon recording of Debussy’s First Clarinet Rhapsody, conducted by Pierre Boulez, won two Grammy Awards in 1996, and his artistry has long been part of the Cleveland Orchestra’s recorded legacy. Mr. Cohen has collaborated with such leading artists as Mr. Ashkenazy, Emanuel Ax, Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, and Andras Schiff, and has performed with the Guarneri, Takacs, Tokyo, and Emerson string quartets. He gained international recognition as the first clarinetist awarded First Prize at the 1968 Munich International Music Competition. In 2012 he and daughter Diana cofounded ChamberFest Cleveland, the city’s first international summer chamber music festival, where many of his former students perform each year, in addition to occupying prominent positions with leading orchestras and ensembles throughout the world. Mr. Cohen has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music since 1976.
Praised by Cleveland Classical for a “wonderfully mind-blowing sound,” clarinetist BEN CHEN has performed across the globe on three continents and throughout the United States, from Maine to Alaska. As a young musician, Ben made his American solo debut at the Kennedy Center, the result of winning the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute concerto competition. He returned to the nation’s capital eight years later, where he served as assistant principal and E flat clarinetist with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra. Ben was previously principal clarinetist of the Youngstown Symphony and currently holds positions with the Sarasota Opera Orchestra, Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and the Erie Philharmonic. In addition to his contracted appointments, Ben has performed in subscription concerts with The Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, and as guest principal clarinetist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Equally dedicated to chamber music, Ben has been a member of the award-winning North Coast Winds quintet since 2015. His festival appearances include the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Breckenridge Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Sarasota Music Festival, and ChamberFest Cleveland. Ben earned degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Franklin Cohen, and an Artist Diploma from the Oberlin Conservatory with Richard Hawkins. He resides in Bratenahl, Ohio, with his husband, pianist Dean Zhang. Together, they present recitals nationwide as the Edgewater Duo.
Praised for his “fluid virtuosity” and “soulful melodies,” Los Angeles native BROOK SPELTZ has been inspired since childhood by the long tradition of deep musical mastery of artists such as Jascha Heifetz, Pierre Fournier, and the Guarneri String Quartet. Speltz is the cellist of the internationally renowned Escher String Quartet—Quartet-in-Residence at Southern Methodist University in Dallas–and an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.