Jeremy Francisco, Conductor holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Southern Adventist University, Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Belmont University (Nashville, TN), and is currently completing his Doctorate in Choral Conducting from the University of Northern Colorado. For the past several years Mr. Francisco has served as a frequent clinician at music festivals in Nashville, Boston, New York City and throughout Oklahoma and Colorado. Mr. Francisco has been Music Director of Chamber Music Weekend since its beginning thirteen years ago, and served as the founding Music Director of the Cumberland Youth Ensemble and Madison Vocal Ensemble, in Nashville, TN. Mr. Francisco’s performing ensembles have toured Jamaica, Canada, Mexico, Germany and throughout the United States.

Tamara Powers (Tami) King, violinist and violist from Spartanburg, South Carolina, holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Southern Adventist University and a Master of Music degree from Converse College. Mrs. King has played professionally with the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra, Greenville Symphony Orchestra and the Greater Spartanburg Philharmonic. She is an active performer in area churches, chamber music ensembles and colleges. She is a member of the American String Teachers Association; Music Educators National Conference; Rho Chapter, Pi Kappa Lambda; South Carolina Music Educators Association and the Spartanburg Philharmonic Music Club. Mrs. King is currently director of the strings programs at Chapman High School, T. E. Mabry Middle School, and Holly Springs-Motlow Elementary School as well as director of the District 1 Symphony Orchestra in Spartanburg County Schools.

Laurie Redmer Minner, Violinist, Violist, and Conductor, holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Atlantic Union College and M.Mus. degrees in viola performance and conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music. She has extensive experience as a conductor of instrumental and vocal ensembles. She is currently head of the string deparment at Southern Adventist University, and conductor of the SAU Symphony Orchestra.Prior to joining the music faculty at Southern in 2000, Professor Minner taught at Columbia Union College, Takoma Academy, Greater Boston Academy, the New England Conservatory Extension Division, South Lancaster Academy, the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and the Thayer Conservatory of Music, and Columbia Union College. Her performance experience includes concert tours of Europe, Australia, Asia, Russia, and the United States as violinist, violist, vocalist, and conductor.

Amy Tyson, Violinist. Oregon born Amy Lozano Tyson received a full scholarship to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she earned her Bachelors of Music. Her mentors included Alexander Schneider and Paul Hersh. In 1979, she won first prize in the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Paseden, CA. While in San Francisco, she was a member of the Aurora String Quartet for ten years. With them she played much of the major string quartet literature, performing in a variety of venues including London, Tokyo, and Carnegie Hall, New York City. She had numerous recordings during her twelve years in the San Francisco Symphony before moving to Colorado for a life style change. She joined the CSO in 1989. Mozart gets the nod as her favorite classical composer and she also enjoys jazz. Her non-musical interests include golf, scuba-diving, underwater photography and gardening. She lives in the mountains with her husband and daughter.

Dr. Karin Thompson, Cellist. A native of the Northwest, Karin Thompson obtained her Bachelor of Music degree from Walla Walla College. She went on to finish her Master of Music degree in cello performance at the Peabody conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. While a student, she attended the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, the Encore School for Strings in Hudson, Ohio, and the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin, Ohio. Her principal teachers include Christopher von Baeyer, Stephen Kates, Evelyn Elsing, and Kenneth Slowik. After finishing her master's degree, she taught English in St. Petersburg, Russia , for one year. In 2001 she completed a PhD in historical musicology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She was on the faculty of Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts from 2000 through 2008, where she taught primarily music history and interdisciplinary humanities courses. She has recently become Music Department Chair at Walla Walla University in Walla Walla, Washington.

Marla Majett, Cellist, has been teaching music since 1994. Her students have appeared in such venues as Spivey Hall and Carnegie Hall.  As a child, Ms. Majett began her Suzuki cello lessons with Dr. Elizabeth Cantrell. She pursued her studies in cello earning a bachelor degree in music from Furman University. Afterwards Ms. Majett attended Western Illinois University studying cello performance and Suzuki teacher training under Dr. Tanya Carey. Among her most influential teachers is also cello pedagogue Martha Gercshefski. As an advocate of the Suzuki Method, Ms. Majett was one of the founding members of the Suzuki Association of Georgia (SAGa) and served as vice president for several terms. She has also taught orchestra and cello at various schools including Trinity School of Atlanta, Atlanta International School and the Lovett School. She currently holds a large cello studio in the Midtown Atlanta area and teaches orchestra at the Waldorf School of Atlanta.  Next to teaching, her passion is performing chamber music. She previously was the principal cellist for the Da Salo Solisti Chamber Orchestra and has appeared in numerous professional orchestras around Georgia including Albany Symphony Orchestra, Carroll Symphony and Macon Symphony. 

Dr. J. Bruce Ashton, Pianist, Composer, and professor emeritus, recently retired from teaching at Southern Adventist University. He holds degrees in piano performance from Capital University (Columbus, Ohio), American Conservatory of Music (Chicago), and the College- Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.  His teachers include Rudolph Reuter, Leon Fleisher, and Raymond Dudley. For 42 years Dr. Ashton taught piano, music theory, and music history at the collegiate level. With Southern's fine symphony, he has played many of the standard piano concerti, including Beethoven's Fourth and Rachmaninoff's Third. Dr. Ashton gets involved with chamber music at every opportunity, either as pianist, violist, or coach. Most of his musical compositions and/or arrangements are done for a particular situation, often involving a slightly unusual mix of instruments.  One of his more recent works, “Variations on a Theme of Mendelssohn” was written for cello and woodwind quintet.