Thomas Yee
This season, in addition to the orchestra season performances, Thomas will tour with Tango Del Cielo, an innovative ensemble featuring violin, harp, cello, and percussion with dancers performing an original multimedia show of latin music, dance, and staging in Oregon, Florida, and California. Highlights last season will included a Monterey Symphony’s Valentine’s Day Musical Salon featuring Thomas and his wife, Jieun on piano, and… Read More
Gabrielle Wunsch
Gabrielle Wunsch began her musical studies at the age of five in Pennsylvania. She received her BM (high honors) from the Eastman School of Music and her MM from SUNY Stony Brook. Performing in various international festivals, she served as concertmaster under Charles Dutoit at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. During this time she became interested in the baroque violin and period performance… Read More
Natasha Makhijani
Natasha Makhijani holds a Bachelor of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music. Her principal teachers include Bettina Mussumeli, Zvi Zeitlin, and Charles Castleman. Natasha has appeared as concertmaster and assistant concertmaster of numerous orchestras, including those of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and the Eastern… Read More
Nicola Gruen
Nicola Gruen has a Bachelors from UC Berkeley, studying with Virginia Baker; and a Masters and teaching certificate from the Royal Academy of Music, studying violin on scholarship with Erich Gruenberg and chamber music with the Amadeus Quartet. Berkeley also awarded her a Hertz Memorial Traveling Fellowship, used to study violin with Emanuel Hurwitz CBE in London. Later she studied with the NY Philharmonic’s… Read More
Antoine van Dongen
Antoine van Dongen, Dutch violinist, pianist and conductor, has been on the faculty of Wellesley College, New England Conservatory, MIT, and the Walnut Hill School of Arts between 2005-2011 Mr. van Dongen had a distinguished career serving as a first violinist with the world famous Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam from 1989 to 2004 and worked closely with Leonard Bernstein, Antal Dorati, Carlo Maria… Read More
Peggy Brady – Assistant Concertmaster
Peggy Brady, first violinist and leader of the Eloquence Quartet, received her musical training at the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna and Arizona State University. In the twenty years that she has lived in Napa she has been performing as a soloist, in chamber music concerts and in symphony orchestras. She is currently the Principal Second Violin of the Marin Symphony where she has… Read More
Dan Flanagan – Associate Concertmaster
Dan Flanagan currently serves as Concertmaster of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, the Modesto Symphony, Lecturer of Violin at University of California, Davis, and Instructor of Violin at University of California, Berkeley. Described as a “stellar musician” (Nevada Reviews), he has been praised for his “exquisite tone” and “forthright brio” (Sacramento Bee). A dedicated orchestral player, Flanagan has performed as concertmaster with the Oakland… Read More
Yasushi Ogura – Concert Master
Yasushi Ogura is concertmaster of Symphony Napa Valley and Pocket Opera. He often performs for Broadway shows in San Francisco, acts as guest concertmaster with various regional orchestras such as California Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Sacramento Symphony and more. He was also concertmaster/soloist with Diablo Ballet and for all productions of Zarzuela at the Jarvis Conservatory in Napa. He is frequently called to record film… Read More
