CRESCENDO: MIKE GOLDBERG & FRIENDS

 Mike Goldberg, Artistic Director and Clarinet,  holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music.  He has performed on tour with Wynton Marsalis and the Eastman Wind  Ensemble, and with the original Broadway production of "Into The  Woods."  He has also recorded for CBS Masterworks.  Mike is an Adjunct Instructor of Clarinet and Instrumental Conducting at Randolph-Macon College and serves as clarinet instructor at Colonial Forge High School  in Stafford County.  He has performed with many ensembles throughout  central Virginia, including the Richmond Symphony, Williamsburg Choral  Guild, Richmond Chamber Players, Richmond Philharmonic and Commonwealth  Winds.  An accomplished conductor, he is the Music Director of the Central Virginia Wind Symphony, a group of the most talented high school  musicians in the region, and has served as Assistant Conductor of the  Richmond Philharmonic. 

 Charles Staples, Piano,  teaches on the faculties of Virginia Commonwealth University and the GreenSpring International Academy of Music, and is the director of music ministries at Trinity United Methodist Church.  His playing has been  described in the Richmond Times-Dispatch as "forceful...but unforced, as  natural as breathing."  A native of Alabama and honors graduate of the  Alabama School of Fine Arts, Staples won the Van Cliburn full tuition  scholarship to the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and went on to receive his master's and doctoral degrees at Stony Brook University,  training under David Bar-Illan, Martin Canin and Bernard Greenhouse.  He has been soloist in concertos with the Richmond Symphony, as well as  the CCM Concert Orchestra, the Congress of Strings, the North Carolina  Symphony and the Richmond Philharmonic.  He has also performed in recitals in New York's Town Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie  Hall. 

 Timothy Judd, Violin, has been a member of the Richmond Symphony since 2002.  He is a native of upstate New York and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he earned the degrees Bachelor of Music and Master of Music.  His  principal teachers include Oleh Krysa, Anastasia Jempelis and Charles  Haupt.  Timothy has performed with the Syracuse Symphony, Albany Symphony, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, and the Virginia Symphony.  In addition to performing, he has contributed to artsjournal and polyphonic.org--The Orchestra Musician Forum.  As a teacher, he  maintains a private violin studio in Richmond.  For more information, visit timothyjuddviolin.com 

 Rebecca Gilmore, Cello,  is the Assistant Principal Cellist with the Virginia Symphony  Orchestra, having joined the VSO in the fall of 1999.  She holds degrees  in Cello Performance from Indiana University and Rice University.  Her teachers include Janos Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Norman Fischer and  Desmond Hoebig.  Ms. Gilmore was broadcast live on NPR for a performance  of Schubert's Guitar Quartet with JoAnn Falletta.  In 2016, she was  thrilled to be given the spotlight in performances of Beethoven's "Triple Concerto" with her VSO colleagues.  Her passion for chamber music has been the impetus for a quartet journey, the Ambrosia Quartet,  which began in 2002.  The group has been featured multiple times on the  Feldman Chamber Music Society Series and the Williamsburg Regional  Library Series.  In collaboration with Dr. Adolphus Hailstork, the Ambrosia Quartet has recorded his trios and string quartets for Albany Records.  You can find them online at www.ambrosiaquartet.com. 

 Jeremy McEntire, Flute,  received his Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance from VCU in  1997.  He completed his Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory in 1999.  Jeremy then spent two years as Principal Flute in the Orquesta Sinfonica de la U.A.N.L. in Monterrey, Mexico.  He has  also served as piccolist in the Richmond Symphony, and he regularly performs with the Roanoke Symphony.  Jeremy is a trained Suzuki Flute  Teacher and also serves as Adjunct Flute Instructor at the University of  Richmond.  In addition to flute, Jeremy teaches piano and Music for  Young Children at the Talent Developing Studio in Hanover County, having himself studied piano from the age of 3.  

 Victoria Hamrick, Oboe, holds  a Bachelor of Music with honors from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Harry Sargous, and a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts, where she studied with Allan  Vogel. She also attended the Cincinnati College-Conservatory, where she studied with Sarah Bloom. She has performed with the San Diego Symphony,  the Richmond Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, and the Williamsburg  Symphonia.  Victoria has also been a guest musician at the Catalina Island Chamber Music Festival in California.  Since moving to Richmond in 1994, she has become a sought after freelance musician across the Commonwealth.