David Felberg

Praised by The Santa Fe New Mexican for his “fluid phrases, rich focused tone, rhythmic precision, and spot-on intonation,” Violinist David Felberg, an Albuquerque native, is Concertmaster of The Santa Fe Symphony and also performs with Santa Fe Pro Musica.

​He is Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Chatter, a groundbreaking series, exploring both new and old music, that produces more than 90 performances a year. Chatter was recently mentioned in The New York Times in an article about curated silence, one of the main features of their performances. David plays in, and conducts, many of the shows—often premiering 20th- and 21st-century pieces of music that have never before been heard in New Mexico.

David has been featured soloist with The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra, New Mexico Philharmonic, New Mexico Symphony, Albuquerque Philharmonic, Los Alamos Symphony, Palo Alto Philharmonic and Balcones Orchestra. He has performed recitals and chamber music all over New Mexico and the Southwest, and most recently has performed at the Oregon Bach Festival. David also specializes in contemporary solo violin music, having performed solo works of Berio, Boulez, Sciarrino, John Zorn and Luigi Nono.

David regularly conducts the New Mexico Philharmonic and The Santa Fe Symphony, and has collaborated with such soloists as Anne-Marie McDermott, Rachel Barton Pine, Conor Hanick and Benjamin Hochman. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Arizona and a Master of Music degree in Conducting from the University of New Mexico, and has taken advanced string quartet studies at the University of Colorado with the Takacs Quartet. David also attended the prestigious American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival.

David plays an 1829 J. B. Vuillaume violin and uses a c. 1830 Claude Joseph Fonclause violin bow.

Guillermo Figueroa

One of the most versatile and respected musical artists of his generation—renowned as conductor, violinist, violist, and concertmaster--Guillermo Figueroa is the Principal Conductor of The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus. He also serves as the Music Director of the Music in the Mountains Festival in Colorado, Music Director of the Lynn Philharmonia in Florida, and is the founder of the highly acclaimed Figueroa Music and Arts Project in Albuquerque. Additionally, he was the Music Director of both the New Mexico Symphony and the Puerto Rico Symphony. With this last orchestra, he performed to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall in 2003, the Kennedy Center in 2004, and Spain in 2005.
International appearances include the Toronto Symphony, Iceland Symphony, the Baltic Philharmonic in Poland, Orquesta del Teatro Argentino in La Plata, Xalapa (Mexico), the Orquesta de Cordoba in Spain, and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Chile. In the US he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, New Jersey, Memphis, Phoenix, Colorado, Tucson, Fairfax, San Jose, Juilliard Orchestra, and the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center.
Maestro Figueroa has collaborated with many of the leading artists of our time, including Itzhak Perlman, YoYo Ma, Hilary Hahn, Placido Domingo, Joshua Bell, Olga Kern, Janos Starker, James Galway, Midori, Horacio Gutierrez, the Emerson and Fine Arts String Quartets, Ben Hepner, Rachel Barton Pine, Pepe and Angel Romero, Elmar Oliveira, Vadim Gluzman, and Philippe Quint.
A renowned violinist as well, Figueroa’s recording of Ernesto Cordero’s violin concertos for the Naxos label received a Latin GRAMMY® nomination in 2012. He was Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet, and a Founding Member and Concertmaster of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, making over fifty recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, a German classical record label, and the oldest surviving established record company. Also accomplished on the viola, Guillermo Figueroa performs frequently as guest of the Fine Arts, American, Amernet, and Orion string quartets.
Figueroa has given the world premieres of four violin concertos written for him: in 1995 the Concertino by Mario Davidovsky; at Carnegie Hall in 2007 the Double Concerto by Harold Farberman, with the American Symphony at Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center; in 2008 the Violin Concerto by Miguel del Aguila, commissioned by Figueroa and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra; and in 2009 ĺnsula, Suite Concertante, by Ernesto Cordero with the Solisti di Zagreb in Zagreb.
He has appeared at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards in California, Festival Groba in Spain, and Music from Angel Fire. Figueroa has recorded the Three Violin Sonatas by Bartók for the Eroica Classical label, with pianist Robert Koenig, and an album of virtuoso violin music by for the NMSO label, with pianist Ivonne Figueroa.

He has conducted the premieres of works by important composers, such as Roberto Sierra, Ernesto Cordero and Miguel del Águila. And as an advocate for new music, Figueroa and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra won an Award for Adventurous Programming from the League of American Orchestras in 2007.

Guillermo Figueroa studied with his father and uncle at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. At the Juilliard School his teachers were Oscar Shumsky and Felix Galimir. His conducting studies were with Harold Farberman in New York.

Jesús A. Morales Matos

Jesús A. Morales Matos was born into a prominent musical family and is an active soloist, recording artist, and chamber musician. As a member of the Dalí Quartet, Jesus is on faculty at West Chester University as part of the quartet's residency. His students have been accepted into esteemed music schools such as the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University, and Temple University.

As a concert artist, Fanfare Magazine wrote, “not since DuPre’s or Starker’s performances of the Saint-Saëns Concerto have I heard such miraculous playing: clean as a whistle, impassioned, technically adept, and exhibiting extraordinary control.” The Salt Lake Tribune added, “his sound has an assertive, gorgeous quality, from the cello’s brusque low notes to its sweet upper range.” The New York Concert Review hailed him as a soloist “in a category above many cellists of today … inspired and captivating.” The Caribbean Business declared, “…he is already talked about as a soloist of potential international stature.”
Mr. Morales solo appearances include the Philharmonia Bulgarica, the San Bernardino Symphony, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico, the Camerata Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Starling Chamber Orchestra, and the Festival de Orquestas Sinfonica Juvenil de las Americas.

As a recording artist, Mr. Morales’ recordings of the Saint-Saëns and Lalo cello concertos on the Centaur label, were received with rave reviews.
Mr. Morales has participated in summer festivals including, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Banff Centre for the Arts, Grand Teton Music Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, and Música Rondeña in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Morales has also performed in recitals and chamber music concerts in Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, and St. Thomas, VI.

Mr. Morales holds a bachelor’s degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music and has done postgraduate work at The Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. His teachers include Dr. Ronald Crutcher, Alan Harris, Helga Winold, and Yehuda Hanani. He studied chamber music with Peter Oundjian among others.
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Mr. Morales resides in Philadelphia with his wife, violinist Dara Morales, and daughters Isabel and Karina.

Pamela Pyle

Pamela Viktoria Pyle has been recognized for her interpretations of the chamber music literature since Dorothy DeLay first engaged her at The Juilliard School. For nearly two decades, she served as a principal pianist in the studios of Miss DeLay and then Itzhak Perlman. This immersion in the piano and string repertoires led to collaborations with members of the Juilliard, American, Ying, and Mendelssohn String Quartets, including Joel Smirnoff, Joel Krosnick, and Daniel Avshalomov, as well as other soloists such as Robert McDuffie, Sarah Chang, Alan Harris and the Norwegian soprano Anne-Lise Berntsen. Ms. Pyle’s connection to the studio of Dorothy DeLay continues in concert appearances with many of her former students including Brian Lewis, Ittai Shapira, and Frank Almond.

As an award-winning soloist and chamber recitalist, Ms. Pyle has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Mexico, and Brazil, at venues such as Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Jordan Hall, and Wolftrap, and at events such as the Lincoln Center Great Performers Series and the Casals Series in Puerto Rico. Ms. Pyle is regularly chosen as the pianist for nationally recognized summer music institutes, including the Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies at The Juilliard School, the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program in Ottawa, Kansas, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Robert McDuffie Fall Festival of Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.  Recent summer appearances include performances with Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, Peter Wiley, Keith Robinson, and Tara O’Conner at the Music from Angel Fire Festival in venues throughout northern New Mexico.

Ms. Pyle is currently Professor of Piano and Director of the Collaborative Piano Program at the University of New Mexico, where she performs regularly with her colleagues, in addition to bringing in distinguished artists to further enrich the listening opportunities of her community. She has had the great honor of collaborating with inspiring, chamber music luminaries, including Ronald Copes, Joseph Lin, Phillipe Quint, Laurie Carney, and Guillermo Figueroa.
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She is the founder and Artistic Director of the New Mexico Chamber Music Festival, which debuted in 2013, and brings young pianists and string players from around the world for an intensive week of chamber music study and performances throughout New Mexico. To increase new performance opportunities for her UNM students, Ms. Pyle created a series called, UNM Concerts in the Community, bringing classical music to non-traditional venues in the state. She continues to teach and perform in Brazil, and was privileged to engage with Chinese students, as a Visiting Professor at Shandong University in Weihai, China. 

Ms. Pyle began piano studies with her mother at the age of four and later studied with Patricia Zander at New England Conservatory, Ann Schein at the Aspen Music Festival, and Yoheved Kaplinsky, Samuel Sanders, and Jonathan Feldman at The Juilliard School. At these institutions, Ms. Pyle also devoted herself to chamber music under leading exponents Eugene Lehner, Louis Krasner, Joseph Fuchs, Robert Mann, Felix Galimir, and Benjamin Zander.

Ms. Pyle’s media recordings include CDs on the Albany and Prairie labels and numerous broadcasts, including programs on CBS Sunday Morning, the Charlie Rose Show, CNN, the Martha Stewart Show, National Public Radio, WGBH Boston, WNYC & WQXR New York, KHFM New Mexico, and a PBS special on Itzhak Perlman.  Coverage of the 2011 Starling-DeLay Symposium on Violin Studies by the online media site violinist.com, quoted N.Y. Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow as saying that Ms. Pyle made the piano “sound like the heart of an angel”.  In print media, she was featured in Strad magazine in an article about collaborative pianists, which focused on the importance of a balanced partnership in musical collaborations.

Recently she appeared in the independent film, RawTuba, centered on the life of her collaborative partner, tubist Richard White, as they perform in their duo, Diversity Matters. As a team, the two have participated in extensive life-coaching workshops, enabling them to take their traditional collaboration through music to new arenas, as leaders in the current discussions on race and gender equity.

Ms. Pyle served as President of the UNM Faculty Senate, where she had the honor of representing the concerns and interests of the UNM Faculty for an unprecedented four terms. In this capacity, she reached out to the entire University to collaborate with members of different communities throughout the state, to share the intellectual, social, and cultural breadth of the University in new ways.

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Rachell Ellen Wong

Rachell Ellen Wong is an internationally recognized violinist, equally at home on both modern and historical performance stages. In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, becoming the only baroque artist in the program's history to receive the honor. She was also the Grand Prize winner of the inaugural Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition.
Rachell's reputation as one of the top historical performers of her generation has resulted in appearances across the globe, including performances with renowned ensembles such as The Academy of Ancient Music, Bach Collegium Japan, Les Arts Florissants, and Ensemble Jupiter, among others. She has also performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá and the Seattle Symphony, where she made her conducting debut in 2020 when she directed Vivaldi's Four Seasons from the violin. Currently, she serves as concertmaster for the Seattle Baroque Orchestra.
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Alongside acclaimed keyboardist David Belkovski, Rachell is co-founder of Twelfth Night, a dynamic period-instrument ensemble based in New York City. The group is set to make its Carnegie Hall debut during the 2023-24 season.

Rachell holds a Masters in Music in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School, a M.M. from Indiana University, and a B.M. from the University of Texas at Austin. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she splits her time between New York City and Seattle. Rachell performs on a baroque violin from the school of Joachim Tielke ca. 1700, and on a violin by Carlo de March made in 1953. Her unique blend of technical virtuosity, expressive musicianship, and knowledge of period performance practices has garnered critical acclaim and a devoted following. For more information about Rachell, please visit her website at www.rachellwong.com.