Violinist Stephen Tavani is Assistant Concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra and has appeared as guest concertmaster with many other orchestras including the Indianapolis, Houston, and Kansas City Symphonies. The New York Times wrote of his playing that “…Tavani sometimes cooled his tone to the smoothness of frosted glass, adding a soft-focus filter to the chiseled melodies…” He has collaborated as soloist with conductors Carlos Miguel Prieto, Andrew Litton, and Miriam Burns. Before joining The Cleveland Orchestra in 2018, he was concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for one season.

Kathleen Collins joined the second violin section of The Cleveland Orchestra in 1995, the same year she earned a master of music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Ms. Collins holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University. Her teachers have included Paul Biss, James Buswell,  Bernhard Goldschmidt, and Rosemary Maloscay. Before joining The Cleveland Orchestra, Ms. Collins was a member of the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ms. Collins attended Interlochen Arts Academy, where she won the Young Artist Award. Ms. Collins enjoys participating in the "Learning Through Music" education programs of The Cleveland Orchestra. Raised in a musical family, with a mother who was a violin teacher, she is married to Jonathan Fields, a former professional trumpet player. The couple’s children — Maya, Daniel, and Matthew — play the piano, violin, cello, and flute.

Stanley Konopka joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 1991 and has been assistant principal viola since 1993. He previously served as principal violist and soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra and was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Konopka won several notable awards at the Interlochen Arts Academy before attending the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) as a student of Cleveland Orchestra Principal Viola, Robert Vernon. Currently a faculty member at CIM, Mr. Konopka has taught at the Encore School for Strings and has performed at the chamber music festivals of Banff, Taos, and Pensacola.

Mark Jackobs joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 1993, after serving as a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. A faculty member of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mr. Jackobs previously taught at the Encore School for Strings. He has been an adjunct faculty member of the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Mark Jackobs is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and an artist diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music. His teachers include Heidi Castleman, Rosemary Malocsay, William Preucil, Sr., and Robert Vernon.
 

Alan Harrell has been a member of The Cleveland Orchestra since 1995. He attended the University of Alabama and the Cleveland Institute of Music where he was awarded the 1994 Cello Prize. A winner of numerous competitions, Mr. Harrell was given the Alabama Society for the Fine Arts Emerging Artist Award in 1998. He is currently on the faculty at Cleveland
State University and several summer music festivals. Mr. Harrell has been a Cleveland Orchestra “Learning Through Music” artist for the past ten years in Cleveland and Miami schools and has given masterclasses throughout the country.

Mark Atherton has been with The Cleveland Orchestra since 1983.  A graduate of the Boston University School of Music, he has been a member of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Opera Company of Boston and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He has also played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Atherton studied with David Cobb and Henry Portnoi, former principal bassist of the Boston Symphony. He is currently on the faculty of Kent State University. In addition to teaching double bass privately, Mr. Atherton regularly visits Cleveland-area elementary schools as a teaching artist with the Cleveland Orchestra’s “Learning Through Music” school partnership program.

Mary Kay Fink joined The Cleveland Orchestra’s flute section in 1990 and made her Cleveland Orchestra debut as piccolo soloist in Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor (RV445) at the 1994 Blossom Festival. She has since performed as piccolo soloist with the Orchestra at Severance Hall and at the Blossom Festival. In May 1999, she was a flute soloist in Nicolas Underhill’s Aspirant Variations, alongside her colleagues in the Orchestra’s flute section. Her most recent solo appearance was in April 2005, performing Bruce Broughton’s Piccolo Concerto.

​

Ms. Fink teaches flute and piccolo at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and privately. She has given piccolo masterclasses at CIM, among other colleges and universities, and has been both a guest artist and full-time faculty member at the Allegheny Summer Music Festival in Pennsylvania. Ms. Fink has studied the baroque flute and Chinese bamboo flute. She plays a Powell piccolo and flute. Ms. Fink is a member of the Cleveland Chamber Collective and performs in solo and chamber music recitals throughout the Cleveland area, often with her husband, pianist and composer Nicolas Underhill. Ms. Fink and her husband have a daughter, Jane.

Frank Rosenwein joined The Cleveland Orchestra as principal oboe in 2005. From 2002 to 2005, Mr. Rosenwein served as principal oboe of the San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera. He also has served as guest principal oboe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Born in Evanston, Illinois, Mr. Rosenwein holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with former Cleveland Orchestra Principal Oboe, John Mack, and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Rosenwein has spent two summers at the Marlboro Festival and has performed with the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego and the Seattle Chamber Music Society.

Jeffrey Rathbun joined The Cleveland Orchestra as assistant principal oboe in 1990. From 2001 to 2003, he served as principal oboe. Prior to joining the orchestra, he served in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (1988-1990), San Francisco Symphony (1986-1988), Oakland Symphony (1984-1986), and Honolulu Symphony (1983-1984). Born in Lockwood, Missouri, and raised in Texas, Jeffrey Rathbun began studying oboe in the fifth grade. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Texas, where he studied with Charles Veazey. He received a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Mack. Mr. Rathbun is a faculty member of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, and the Kent/Blossom Music Festival. He won first prize in the 1988 Lucarelli International Competition for Solo Oboe Players, held at Carnegie Hall.

Robert Woolfrey joined the clarinet section of The Cleveland Orchestra in November 2008. Prior to his appointment, he was the principal clarinet of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra (2007-2008) as well as a member of the IRIS Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Woolfrey has collaborated with Michael Tilson Thomas, Dawn Upshaw, and musicians of The Cleveland Orchestra. In recent summers, he has participated in a variety of music festivals, including Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Mr. Woolfrey studied with Joaquin Valdepeñas and at Yale University with David Shifrin, where he received a master’s degree in music. Mr. Woolfrey is also an alumnus of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida.

Emeritus Coach for The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra

Mrs. Guegold Hege was a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) from 2011 to 2022, coaching Conservatory chamber music students and teaching horn lessons and coaching chamber music through both the Preparatory and Continuing Education division (Prep) at CIM and the Joint Music Program (JMP) with Case Western Reserve University. Her Prep and JMP horn students have gone on to pursue additional music degrees at CIM, the New England Conservatory, the University of Michigan, the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Royal College of Music in London, England. She was also Chair of the Winds, Brass, and Percussion department for CIM Prep.

A northeastern Ohio native, Mrs. Guegold Hege has a master’s degree in performance from CIM, where she studied with Richard King, and a bachelor’s degree in performance with honors from the University of Akron, where she studied with William Hoyt. She has also studied with Rick Solis, Eli Epstein, and David Jolley, and been mentored by hornists Julie Landsman, Ellen Dinwiddie Smith, and Gail Williams. She attended the summer festivals of the Music Academy of the West, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Artosphere Arts and Nature Festival. She was a recipient of a Presser Foundation Scholarship at Akron, a winner in two Tuesday Musical Association scholarship competitions, and has been a featured soloist with the Akron and Canton Symphony Orchestras. Her orchestral studies began her senior year of high school as a member of the horn section of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

Shachar Israel joined The Cleveland Orchestra as assistant principal trombone in 2008. Previously, he was the principal trombone of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the principal trombone of the Haddonfield (New Jersey) Symphony. In 2008, he won the Lewis Van Haney Philharmonic Prize Tenor Trombone Competition. He has been a guest of the Canadian Brass, with whom he has also recorded. Mr. Israel earned a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and his previous teachers include: Nitzan Haroz, Joseph Alessi, Mark Lawrence, Mitch Ross, and Micha Davis.

Trina Struble was appointed principal harp of The Cleveland Orchestra in October 2007. She joined the orchestra as assistant principal harp in 1992, after graduating from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree in both harp and violin. She subsequently earned Master of Music degrees in harp and violin from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM). At Oberlin and CIM, her harp teacher was Alice Chalifoux, former principal harp of The Cleveland Orchestra. Before joining the orchestra, Ms. Struble toured with the American-Soviet Youth Orchestra, serving as a violinist and as principal harp. She also performed as principal harp, violinist, and soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado, as well as with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, and Houston Symphony. Ms. Struble currently teaches at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Yasuhito Sugiyama began his tenure as principal tuba of The Cleveland Orchestra in January 2006. Prior to joining the orchestra, he was a member of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) from 2003 to 2005. A native of Hyogo, Japan, Mr. Sugiyama is a graduate of Soai University in Osaka, where he studied with Shuzo Karakawa of the Osaka Philharmonic. He also studied with Rex Martin at Northwestern University and with Robert Tucci of the Bavarian State Opera and the Munich Philharmonic.​

Tanner Tanyeri joined the percussion section of The Cleveland Orchestra in August 2023. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, he began his musical journey at a young age when he sat down at his older brother’s drum set. He holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan, a Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and an artist diploma from The Glenn Gould School in Toronto. His mentors have included Joseph Gramley, Thomas Sherwood, Daniel Druckman, and Charles Settle.

​

Tanyeri has performed frequently with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the New World Symphony. In 2022, he was selected as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed in a variety of orchestral and chamber music settings. He also performed as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy Contemporary Orchestra in 2022. Tanyeri also spent time in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, National YoungArts Week, and toured as a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America.

​

In addition to his performing career, he has worked as a fellow with The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program and as assistant percussion coordinator with the National Youth Orchestra.