Erik Charlston, Percussion

Percussionist Erik Charlston, a native of Chicago, has a diverse career centered in New York where he performs regularly with the New York Philharmonic, with Encores at City Center, and on film soundtracks from Disney's "Aladdin" to the recent "Julie and Julia" and "The Informant." A frequent performer on Broadway in "Hair" and "The Lion King," he has also played extensively with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Moscow's Moiseyev Dance Company, the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra and as soloist on Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion."

As a jazz musician, he has performed and recorded with such artists as Wynton Marsalis, Fred Hersch, Steve Coleman, Sam Rivers, Dave Brubeck, and Orlando Puntilla Rios. He has performed with Sting, Billy Joel and Elton John at Carnegie Hall, and with St. Luke's, he played with Metallica at Madison Square Garden. Along with Bill Frisell, Gil Goldstein, Marty Ehrlich and Greg Cohen, he has interpreted the music of the great film composer Bernard Herrmann in London with the BBC Symphony, in France with the Orchestre National de Lyon and most recently with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His own Brazilian jazz sextet features the music of Hermeto Pascoal. Recording credits include radio, television, films, and record labels such as Sony, Gramavision, Telarc, EMI, Newport Classics, Nonesuch, and French Antilles. Outside New York, he has performed chamber music throughout Europe and Japan, and with the New York Philharmonic, has toured widely throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. Mr. Charlston received degrees from the University of Iowa, with a double major in voice and percussion, and from the Juilliard School, where he was the recipient of the Saul Goodman Award. He is currently co-chair of the percussion department at the Manhattan School of Music.

Kenneth Meyer, Guitar

The Washington Post refers to Kenneth Meyer as, "A thinking man's guitarist - he focuses on the inner structure of a piece…and plays with impressive gravity and power." The Buffalo News has called him, "Impeccably articulate with superb technique."

Since winning the national first prize at the MTNA Collegiate Artist Competition, Meyer continues to appear in recital, as a chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra in venues throughout North America, South America and Europe. His commitment to cultivate, perform and record the music of his generation's leading composers has garnered awards from the Barlow Endowment, Argosy Foundation and the Hanson Institute for American Music.

Currently, Meyer directs a thriving guitar studies program at Syracuse University's Setnor School of Music and continues to be a featured lecturer, performer, adjudicator and teacher at festivals, colleges and universities throughout this country and abroad. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music and records for Albany Records.

Kana Mimaki, Piano

Kana Mimaki began her piano studies in Japan at the age of three. By time she was five, she had won the first of many piano competitions. Her achievements include the Kapo-Barwick Memorial prize from the William Kapell International Piano Competition, the special prize from the Japan Arts Center, a nomination for the best pianist of the 2007-2008 recital series in Tokyo/Kobe Arts Center, First Prize awards from the Los Angeles Liszt Competition, the International Russian Music Competition, and Catania International Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto Competition. Most recently Ms. Mimaki won the first prize in the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition that made her Carnegie debut in May 2009.

After graduating from a renowned music High School, Ms. Mimaki found her way into the premiere Japanese school of music: the Tokyo National University of Music and Fine Arts. As an undergraduate, Herbert Stessin invited her to attend the Aspen Music Festival, where she went on win the E. Nakamichi Piano Concerto Competition. Following completion of her bachelor's degree, Kana returned to the United States to receive her Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is currently completing a Doctor Musical Arts degree at Rice University.

Anna Shelest, Piano

Ukrainian-born pianist Anna Shelest made her international debut at age of eleven at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris as the youngest prize winner of the Milosz Magin International Piano Competition.

At the age of twelve Anna appeared with the Kharkiv Symphony Orchestra, playing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1. Since then she has been a soloist with some of the world's most renown orchestras such as Montreal Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and Netherlands Symphony Orchestra among others. Anna has performed on some of the world's greatest stages such as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

Ms. Shelest has won top prizes at international piano competitions, such as the Bradshaw-Buono International Piano Competition, Louisiana International Piano Competition, the Third Netherlands International Piano Competition for Young Musicians, the Corpus Christi International Competition for Piano and Strings, Ludmila-Knezkova Hussey International Piano Competition and others.

Her discography includes an all-Rachmaninoff CD featuring Etudes-tableaux op. 39 and Moments-musicaux op. 16, as well as a collaborative recording with Cristian Ganicenco, principal trombonist of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on the CD "Beyond Oblivion" featuring music for trombone and piano.

Currently Anna resides in New York City, where she attends the prestigious Juilliard School pursuing a graduate degree in the class of Jerome Lowenthal.