About Kurt Johnson
Kurt Johnson has been a member of The Houston Symphony first violin section since 2001. He received his master's degree in violin performance from Northwestern University and his bachelor's degree from Oberlin Conservatory. Mr. Johnson is the co-founder and conductor of The Houston Youth Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Johnson studied violin with Gerardo Ribeiro, Marilyn McDonald, David Taylor, Almita and Roland Vamos, as well as soloist Rachel Barton. While attending Northwestern, he was concertmaster of the Northwestern Symphony Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He was also a member of The Grant Park Symphony in Chicago. As a youth he was a winner of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra's concerto competition.
Mr. Johnson is also a baroque violinist. He performs regularly with The Ars Lyrica Ensemble and Bach Society in Houston. In addition to playing the violin, he is also an amateur trumpet player and proud father to his daughter, Allegra and son, Luke.
About Colleen Matheu Johnson
Colleen Matheu Johnson is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Houston Youth Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Johnson is also a flutist and principal piccoloist of The Houston Ballet Orchestra. Prior to Ms. Johnson's appointment with the Houston Ballet, she performed with The Kalamazoo Symphony in Michigan as principal piccolo for three consecutive years. She was a member of The Civic Orchestra of Chicago, The Arkansas Symphony, and has had the opportunity to perform with many fine ensembles including The Chicago Symphony, The Houston Symphony, The St. Louis Symphony, and The Houston Grand Opera.
Ms. Johnson completed her graduate flute and piccolo performance studies with Walfrid Kujala in June of 2003 at Northwestern University. She received her bachelor of music degree in flute performance from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Michel Debost and Kathleen Chastain.
Ms. Johnson has performed as principal piccoloist with The Peninsula Music Festival in Door County, Wisconsin for several seasons. She has concertized in the US and abroad, performing solo, chamber, and orchestral recitals at The Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto USA Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, The Texas Music Festival, The Henry Mancini Institute, Domaine Forget Summer Institute, among others. She has appeared on Chicago's WFMT 98.7FM as a soloist on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series as well as Houston's KUHF 88.7FM, "The Front Row" with chamber ensemble, The Oberon Ensemble. In July of 2014, she performed on the Musician's Club of Women Recital Series at Preston Bradley Hall at Chicago's Cultural Center. She also performed Bohuslav Martinu's, "Madrigal Sonata" at the National Flute Association's 2014 Convention in Chicago during the month of August.
Ms. Johnson has been a masterclass clinician at The Texas Music Festival and Stephen F. Austin State University. She was also the professor of flute and music appreciation at Lone Star College Montgomery. Ms. Johnson currently maintains a private flute studio in the Houston Heights neighborhood. She is the founder and has served as the artistic coordinator of the Houston Flute Club Young Artist Competition.
About Nicky Sohn
From ballet to opera to Korean traditional-orchestra, the wide-ranging talent of composer Nicky Sohn is sought after across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Ms. Sohn is the music theory director at The Houston Youth Chamber Orchestra Summer Institute. Characterized by her jazz-inspired, rhythmically driven themes, Sohn’s work has been described as “like John Adams’ ‘Short Ride in a Fast Machine’ on steroids” (YourObserver), “dynamic and full of vitality” (The Korea Defense Daily), and having “elegant wonder” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). As a result, Sohn has enjoyed commissions from the world’s preeminent performing arts institutions, including sold-out performances at the Stuttgart Ballet, The National Orchestra of Korea, Minnesota Orchestra, and Sarasota Orchestra.
Recent highlights include an orchestral premiere by the St. Louis Symphony overseen by John Adams, orchestral commissions and performances from National Orchestra Institute and Festival with Marin Alsop, Minnesota Orchestra, Annapolis Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Sarasota Orchestra, and the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, and chamber commissions and performances from the Kinetic Ensemble as their composer-in-residence, the violinist Lucia Lin (Boston Symphony), Carpe Diem String Quartet, and Atlanta Chamber Players. Nicky Sohn is pursuing a fully-funded doctoral degree at the Shepherd School of Music of Rice University and holds degrees from Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music.
About Michael Fahey
Michael Fahey has been performing, teaching and conducting in the Houston area since 1991. He has performed with the Theatre Under The Stars Orchestra, Houston Latin Philharmonic and many other orchestras and has conducted high school groups at Symphony Hall in Chicago as well Carnegie and Lincoln Center in New York. In 2012, Mr. Fahey was the recipient of the Houston Symphony educator of the year award. After 30 years of service, Fahey retired from public school teaching.
Mr Fahey is the conductor of The Houston Youth String Orchestra- Symphonia Orchestra program. He is also the founder and conductor of the ECHOrchestra, a community orchestra based in the Energy Corridor, which is now in its 9th season! Mr. Fahey holds the Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Violin Performance from the State University of New York and the Master of Music Degree in Violin and Music Education from the University of Akron, Ohio. He has also done post graduate work at The Cleveland Institute of Music. He is a member of the Artist Faculty at the Paganini School of Music in Katy, TX and is in demand as a guest conductor, workshop clinician and violinist.
About Karen Wilkson
Ms. Wilkson, HYCO guest conducting artist, has been performing as a violinist with the Houston Ballet Orchestra since 1983. She has also performed with the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Pops, Opera in the Heights, Society for the Performing Arts, Young Audiences of Houston, The Texas Chamber Orchestra, Houston String Quartet Inc. and many other groups. For many years, she was the violin soloist featured on the soundtrack for the Alley Theater’s “A Christmas Carol.”
As a Spring Branch District teacher in 1987, Ms. Karen organized and began an innovative violin program “The Fiddling Lions” for Bunker Hill Elementary (Spring Branch ISD). From 1994-1996, she was an Assistant Professor of Music at Washington State University, teaching violin, viola, and music theory. On returning to Houston, Ms. Wilkson taught music at Pilgrim Lutheran school and staged four musicals per year. She organized Houston’s American String Teacher competitions and worked as an interim conductor for the (now closed) Greater Houston Youth Orchestra program. Her private studio teaching has always had an emphasis on performing regularly in nursing homes. In 2013, the “Studio of Karen Wilkson” won the "Group Volunteer Award of the Year" from Life Care Centers of America (Texas-Florida Div.).
Ms. Wilkson is married to a retired HISD English teacher, has three grown children and three grandchildren.
About Rachel Shepard
Rachel Shepard has served as the Assistant Concertmaster of the Houston Ballet Orchestra since 2014 and also performs with Houston Grand Opera, Mercury Houston, and works as a substitute violinist for the Houston Symphony and River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Shepard leads the Houston Youth String Orchestra Concert Orchestra program. Ms. Shepard is also a devoted teacher, with over fifteen years teaching experience. She currently runs a private teaching studio with students ranging from four-year-old beginners to high school students preparing for college auditions. Prior to working with The Houston Youth String Orchestra, Ms. Shepard worked as a violin and viola instructor for the Houston Youth Symphony Melody and Coda programs from 2013-2020, teaching individual lessons and group classes. She also worked as a chamber music coach and sectional coach for AFA’s Chamber Music Academy and Summer Music Festival from 2014-2020, serving as acting String Department Head in the summer of 2019. Ms. Shepard completed her Masters of Music degree from Rice University, studying with Kenneth Goldsmith, and her Bachelor of Music degree from Florida State University, where she studied under Eliot Chapo. She received further pedagogical training at the Greater Austin Suzuki Association and has completed the Suzuki Violin School Teacher Training for Suzuki Books one through four.
About Yvonne Smith
HYCO’s chamber music director is Ms. Yvonne. Smith. At age nine when her family was living in upstate New York, Ms. Smith chose to learn to play the viola because of its rich, dark sound, its supporting role in ensembles ... and her acute distaste for high notes, which would have been inevitable, had she chosen to play the violin. Her love for the viola grew throughout her childhood years and several cross-country moves, and she eventually grew to tolerate and even embrace high notes. Ms. Smith was first introduced to early music as a teenager when she heard and fell in love with a recording of Corelli’s violin concerti by Philharmonia Baroque. She began seriously pursuing historical performance shortly after completing viola performance degrees from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
In 2016, Ms. Smith founded La Speranza, a Houston-based ensemble that presents historically informed performances of chamber music from the late Baroque through early Romantic eras. In addition to her performances with La Speranza, Ms. Smith appears regularly with American Bach (San Francisco), Lyra Baroque Orchestra (St. Paul, MN), La Follia Austin Baroque, and Ars Lyrica Houston. She is also a contracted substitute violist with the Houston Symphony for the 2023-2024 season and has a thriving private studio of viola students ranging from age 10 to adult. Ms. Smith’s baroque viola was made by Timothy Johnson in 2017 after Andrea Guarneri, 1676, and her modern viola was made by Vanna So in 2009.
About Elizabeth Priestly Siffert
Elizabeth Priestly Siffert is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and has served as Principal Oboist for Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet Orchestras since 2008. Ms. Siffert leads performance practice and meditation classes during the HYCO Summer Institute. Her former orchestral positions include Principal Oboe with Orquestra Clássica da Madeira and Second Oboe with Binghamton Philharmonic. She has performed as Principal Oboist with orchestras around the world including St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Mainly Mozart All Star Orchestra, San Antonio Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Mineria and Grand Teton Music Festival to name a few. Her international solo debut was at age 22, and since then she has been an active soloist internationally. She learned early on that the art form of classical music performance has had such a rich history because its roots are in human connection. She believes success in this connection is heightened through the strengthening of the mind, body and soul of the performer. Maintaining a daily meditation practice has served her in her career as a means achieve this. Ms. Siffert currently teaches meditation classes to all people interested in increasing their unique performance abilities and has had clients that work as business executives, musicians and professional athletes. She is currently a meditation guide and the Music and Sound Administrator at Current Meditation, our nations first meditation franchise.
