Michelle Batty LaQuatra

Michelle Batty Stanley is Associate Professor of Music, flute at Colorado State University where she is also the Director of the LEAP Institute, an arts administration and leadership program at CSU. Praised for her “fine breath control and offers subtlety in playing and a strong sense of the long, lyrical lines,  Michelle is a performer of solo, chamber and orchestral music. She is a regular international artist and has enjoyed giving masterclasses from China to the U.S.. She has performed in throughout the U.S. and in Russia, Japan, China, France, England, Scotland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary and Russia. She is on the faculty of the Interharmony Music Festival in Italy.

Michelle is a regular performer in the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and is principal flute for the Pro Musica chamber orchestra and the Colorado Bach Ensemble and Festival. She was the second flutist/piccolo player with the Colorado Ballet Orchestra from 2008-2013.   Her first CD of newly commissioned chamber music was released by Centaur Records in 2006 and her second recording of French flute music was released by Navona records in 2018. Michelle is the flutist in Quatra Duo, a flute and guitar duo that will be recording an album contemporary flute and guitar to be released by Navona records in 2020.

Nan Shannon

Pianist Nan Shannon is an active soloist, chamber musician, and teacher in the Denver
area. As a former member of the Contemporary Music Forum in Washington, D.C., she
gave premieres of numerous pieces by an international group of composers. She has
continued working with living composers in Colorado with the Playground Ensemble and
on the Pendulum Series, and has performed on chamber music series by the Colorado
Chamber Players, Front Range Chamber Players, and Denver Eclectic Concerts. Ms.
Shannon teaches at Regis University and Metropolitan State University of Denver, and is
a frequent adjudicator for competitions in Colorado and Wyoming.  She earned her
Doctorate in Piano from the Peabody Conservatory where she studied with Ann Schein,
and her Master’s in Accompanying from the University of Southern California, studying
with Jean Barr and Brooks Smith.

Brian Ebert

Brian Ebert is currently the Director of Orchestras and Assistant Director of
Bands at Legacy High School in Broomfield, Colorado, and Affiliate Professor of
Clarinet at Regis University. He is a member of two award-winning chamber
groups, the new music collective Playground Ensemble and the woodwind
quintet Antero Winds. Dr. Ebert is from Kankakee, Illinois, and he studied music
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1987-1989. He has
performance degrees in clarinet from the University of Colorado at Boulder (BM),
the University of Denver (MM), and the University of Northern Colorado (DA).

David Schwartz

David Schwartz was born in Gary, Indiana – yes, of Michael Jackson and “Music Man” fame. As an orchestral musician, David performs regularly with the Colorado Bach Ensemble and Pro Music Chamber Orchestra and freelances with regional orchestras from Denver to Greeley. Before moving to Denver, he played with the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, the Columbus Bach Ensemble, Springfield Symphony, Richmond (IN) Symphony, Sorg Opera, the Kentucky Symphony, and other regional orchestras in central and southwest Ohio. David is also an avid chamber musician, having performed children’s and outreach concerts with the Dayton Philharmonic Woodwind Quintet for many years, as well as having been a founding member of numerous other trios and quintets. He also spent more than a decade writing published reviews of new international and domestic recordings of bassoon, oboe, and
chamber music for the American Record Guide, and has taught beginner to pre-college bassoon students. In addition to his bassoon performance training from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, David is an economist with a California-based consulting firm, Economic Planning Systems. In that capacity, he spends his time developing quantitative ways to measure the social and economic impacts of industries, like nonprofits, and working with cities around the US and develop policies to get more affordable housing built. Residing in Denver, David and his wife, Kylie, try desperately not to encourage their son, George, not to play the bassoon!