LISA BONTRAGER

Lisa Ormston Bontrager has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan. Bontrager is currently active performing, touring and recording with the Pennsylvania Quintet, the Millennium Brass, and MirrorImage, a horn duo with colleague Michelle Stebleton. As soloist/clinician for Holton horns, Bontrager has been featured at the Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic, New York Brass Conferences, the New England Brass Conference, and a number of international conferences of the International Horn Society. For six years she served as an elected member of the Advisory Council of the International Horn Society.
Distinctive because of her versatility, Bontrager has been recognized as one of the country's leading tenor horn players. She currently tours and records with both the Brass Band of Battle Creek and the New Columbian Brass Band. Performing on historic instruments, she has appeared in lectures and on video with Louis Stout's, "The Horn, from the Forest to the Concert Hall." She has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Chamber and Ballet Orchestras, the Chautauqua Symphony, the Aspen Festival and Chamber Orchestras, the Harrisburg Symphony, and is presently principal hornist of the Pennsylvania Centre Chamber Orchestra and Penn's Woods Festival Orchestra.
Bontrager holds performance degrees from the University of Michigan where she studied with Louis Stout. Appointed in 1985, she is currently Professor of Music at Penn State University where she teaches horn and directs the 18-member Horn Ensemble. Bontrager's first solo recording, "Hunter's Moon," was released by Summit Records in April 2002.

MARY BISSON

Mary Bisson is in her 20th year as Third Horn with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and is also and active teacher, soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. She has appeared on numerous recordings with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has recently finished work on a solo CD being produced by Barry Tuckwell. An acclaimed soloist, she has most recently performed with the Loudon Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and Baltimore Choral Arts; where she is a soloist in a recording with the legendary Dave Brubeck.
Mary is currently on the Horn faculty at the Peabody Institute and is one of the founding members of the Barry Tuckwell Institute. Previously she has been on the faculties of the Kendall Betts Horn Camp and Towson University.
After beginning her studies with Phil Farkas at the age of 15, Mary went on to begin her professional career at 18 years of age when she joined the Orquesta Sinfonica de Maracaibo (Venezuela), as Principal Horn. Before coming to Baltimore she played with the Louisville Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony. She is a featured contributor to the book, "Phil Farkas, Legacy of a Master."
Mary lives in Baltimore with her 10 year old daughter, Martha, 2 dogs and 2 cats.

SHELLEY SHOWERS

Shelly Showers, Assistant/Utility Horn, became a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra in September 1997. From 1995 to 1997 she was Acting Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra, and from 1989 to 1995 she was Principal Horn of the Utah Symphony. She began her career with the New Jersey symphony and also was Acting Associate Principal Horn of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Ms. Showers received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music. Her teachers included Mason Jones, Myron Bloom, Nolan Miller, Randy Gardner, and Stephanie Fauber.
She has participated in the Aspen Music Festival as Principal Horn/faculty member and the Kent/Blossom Music Festival as a faculty member/chamber musician, and she was on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. She is currently on the faculty of the Temple University School of Music and the Philadelphia Biblical University.

FROYDIS REE WEKRE

Frøydis Ree Wekre was born in Oslo, Norway. Her mother was a pianist and her father an amateur violin player. She started very early to learn piano and violin, and then turned to horn at the age of 17. Outside of Oslo, her studies have taken place in Sweden, Russia and USA.
After being a prize winner in a national competition for wind players she was offered the position of co-principal horn of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1965, a position she left in 1990.
Currently, Ms. Wekre is appointed Professor of Horn and Chamber Music at the Norwegian State Academy of Music. In addition, she is active worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician and baroque horn player, as well as being sought for to give master classes and to be a member of international juries.
Her book, “Thoughts on Playing the Horn well” has been translated into several languages. Numerous composers have written works for her, some of which have been recorded on the labels of SIMAX and CRYSTAL.
For two years, Frøydis Ree Wekre was the president of the International Horn Society, where she is also an honorary member since 1994.
Her most recent concerts have taken place in Germany, Finland and USA.