Reid Messich is Professor of Oboe at the University of Georgia, where he is a member of the Georgia Woodwind Quintet. He also serves as Co-Principal Oboist of Memphis’s IRIS Orchestra/IRIS Collective, under Maestro Michael Stern, and as Principal Oboist of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, under Maestro John Morris Russell. Each summer, he teaches oboe and woodwind literature at the MasterWorks Music Festival, hosted at Liberty University.

Emily Gertsch joined the faculty of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music in 2012 and currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies and Senior Lecturer of Music Theory. She holds a Ph.D.

Violist Maggie Snyder is Professor of Viola at the University of Georgia, Principal Violist of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, with whom she records for Naxos, and is on the Artist-Faculty of the Brevard Music Festival.

Ms. Toscano is formerly the Principal Timpanist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, a position she won by unanimous decision in May 2007 and held until 2016.  Her dynamic and virtuosic timpani facility brings an energy and rhythmic stability to the stage that has been recognized by colleagues, reviewers, and audience members alike.  Following her first appearance with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, James Reel noted, “…and new timpanist Kimberly Toscano played with both forcefulness and control.”

Joanna Smolko earned a Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Pittsburgh (2009), where she studied with Deane Root and worked in the Center for American Music. She currently teaches various music courses at the University of Georgia and the University System of Georgia, as well as working as a private music teacher and academic editor/coach. Her areas of research include popular music, musical borrowing, American sacred music (especially shape-note hymn traditions), American folk music, and the intersections between American history and music.

Naomi Graber (associate professor) joined the faculty of UGA in 2013. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill She is the recipient of the Rhonda A. and Robert Hillel Silver Award from the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, the Virgil Thomson Fellowship from the Society for American Music, as well as fellowships to study at the Library of Congress, the Arnold Schönberg-Centre in Vienna, and the Kurt Weill Foundation. Her research centers on twentieth century American music, especially Broadway and film of the 1930s and 1940s.

Johanna Royo received her BM and MM in Vocal Performance from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM and PhD in Music Education with a minor in Musicology from the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Secondary teaching experiences included private and choral instruction at Allegro School of Music, the Arizona School for the Blind, and directing the University of Arizona High School Outreach Choir in Tucson, Arizona.

Damon Denton was born in Charleston, South Carolina and grew up in Severna Park, Maryland. He is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the Juilliard School where he received a Master of Music degree studying under Russian pianist, Oxana Yablonskaya. He has been a faculty accompanist at the University of Georgia since 2010.