At the conclusion of the 1997-98 season, New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker celebrated 50 years as a member of the Orchestra. In honor of this milestone anniversary, and in recognition of his highly respected and widely acknowledged musical excellence and dedication, he was named Musical America’s 1998 Instrumentalist of the Year. He has made approximately 150 solo appearances with the Philharmonic since joining it at age 19.

Mr. Drucker maintains an active solo career in addition to his Philharmonic duties, appearing with ensembles throughout the world. He has been twice nominated for Grammy Awards in the category of Best Instrumental Soloist/Classical with Orchestra: In 1992 for his recording of the Copland Concerto with the Philharmonic and Leonard Bernstein, and in 1982 for John Corigliano’s Concerto with the Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta. Mr. Drucker is featured on a number of other Philharmonic recordings: under the direction of Leonard Bernstein in Debussy’s Premiere Rapsodie; in Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto; and in the world-premiere live performance (1977) of the Corigliano Clarinet Concerto, which is a part of the Orchestra’s acclaimed CD box set, The Historic Broadcasts: 1923-1987. Mr. Drucker’s other recordings include New York Legends: Recitals with Principals from the New York Philharmonic; Schumann’s Complete Works for Winds and Piano; the Mozart Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A, K.581, and a new two-CD set of the two clarinet sonatas, Trio in A minor, and Quintet in B minor of Johannes Brahms entitled Drucker Plays Brahms. He is also heard on the world-premiere broadcast of William Bolcom’s Clarinet Concerto, part of the New York Philharmonic Special Editions’ boxed set, An American Celebration.

Mr. Drucker began clarinet studies at age ten with Leon Russianoff, his principal teacher, and later attended the High School of Music and Art and the Curtis Institute of Music. He was appointed Principal Clarinetist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at age 16, the Adolf Busch Chamber Players at age 17, and the Buffalo Philharmonic at age 18. He has the distinction of being one of the few living orchestral musicians whose biography appears in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Lisa Kim joined the Philharmonic violin section in 1994 and was named Associate Principal, Second Violin Group (In Memory of Laura Mitchell), in 2003. She teaches in South Korea and the United States, and has performed with the Seoul National Philharmonic Orchestra and the SooWon, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, and Durham symphony orchestras. Ms. Kim’s chamber music activities have included the Philharmonic Ensembles series, Hofstra Chamber Ensemble series, Mostly Chamber Festival, Lyric Chamber Music Society, and Brooklyn’s Bargemusic; collaborations with the late Lukas Foss, Lynn Harrell, Ani Kavafian, Yo-Yo Ma, and Garrick Ohlsson; European performances under the International Music Program; and Jordan’s Jurash Festival at the invitation of King Hussein. Lisa Kim began violin studies at age seven, attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. She has won prizes in the Arts Recognition and Talent Search, Bryan Young Artists String Competition, Winston-Salem Young Talent Search, and Durham Symphony Young Artists Competition. She joined the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in 1999.

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Violinist Kuan-Cheng Lu joined the New York Philharmonic at the beginning of the 2004-05 season. He received his bachelor's in music degree from Oberlin College, and his master's in music from the Manhattan School of Music. A native of Taiwan, Mr. Lu has received numerous awards and scholarships that include the top prize in the Taiwan National Violin Competition, first prize in the ASTA string competition, the Raphael Bronstein Award, and the Taiwan Chi-Mei Corporation’s Outstanding Young Artist award. He has studied with New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and Philharmonic violinists Yoko Takebe and Lisa Kim. Other teachers have included Roland and Almita Vamos, Julia Bushkova, as well as his father, Chung Chih Lu.

Mr. Lu has served as concertmaster of the Verbier Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Oberlin Orchestra, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia, Manhattan Symphony, and Manhattan Philharmonia.

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A former Naumburg Scholarship winner and graduate of The Juilliard School, Irene Breslaw joined the viola section of the New York Philharmonic in August 1976. She was named Assistant Principal Viola in 1989. Prior to joining the Orchestra, Ms. Breslaw was a member of both the St. Louis Symphony Ochestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. In May 2001 Ms. Breslaw celebrated 25 years as a member of the New York Philharmonic.

An active chamber musician, Ms. Breslaw appears regularly with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles. In the summers of 1993 and 1995, she traveled to Finland to perform chamber music with several of her Philharmonic colleagues and to coach members of the VIVO Youth Orchestra, an experience she found extremely rewarding. She has also recorded the Mozart Clarinet Trio, "Kegelstatt," with Principal Clarinet Stanley Drucker and pianist Lukas Foss for Elysium Records. Since 1998 Ms. Breslaw has been on the orchestral performance faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, and is an adjunct at Queens College.

Ms. Breslaw is married to Dr. Daniel Grapel and is the mother of a son and daughter.

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Eileen Moon was named Associate Principal Cello (The Mr. and Mrs. Paul B. Guenther Chair) of the New York Philharmonic in September 2007. Prior to joining the Orchestra in 1998 she had performed with the San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. A native of California, she began her studies with Irene Sharp at the San Francisco Conservatory; she subsequently received a bachelor of music degree from The Juilliard School and a performance diploma from the Hochshule für Musik in Vienna, Austria. Ms. Moon won fourth prize at the Tchaikovsky International Cello Competition in Moscow in 1994 and second prize at the Geneva International Cello Competition in 1991, which resulted in performances with l’Ensemble Instrumental de Grenoble as well as a radio recording with l’Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. Ms. Moon has performed chamber music in numerous venues in New York City and appears frequently with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles.

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Jon Deak, Associate Principal Bassist and Creative Education Associate of the New York Philharmonic, is also a prominent composer. He was educated at Oberlin College, The Juilliard School, the University of Illinois, and as a Fulbright Scholar, at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome. His training includes work in the visual arts, and he was active in the “performance art” movement in New York’s SoHo. He now teaches a composition class in the New York City public schools that his own children attend. In September 2000, Mr. Deak was chosen to lead a youth concert at Carnegie Hall in honor of Isaac Stern’s 80th birthday, in which he served as host, conductor, and contrabass soloist.

Mr. Deak’s compositions have been performed at music festivals worldwide and by such institutions as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, National, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Seattle, New Jersey, Atlanta, Colorado, and many other symphony orchestras and chamber groups. His discography includes recent releases on Centaur, CRI, Innova, and Cabrillo records.

Mr. Deak recently completed a successful three-year appointment as Composer-In-Residence with the Colorado Symphony under the Meet The Composer Residencies Program, which included affiliations with the Colorado Children’s Chorale and Denver Public Schools. Among the programs he inaugurated in connection with his Denver residency are: the “Source Project,” a new music series in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, which brought together a stunning display of creativity by Colorado composers; and a restructuring of the pre-concert lecture format into a pre-concert “event” that includes drama and live music. Mr. Deak became a familiar figure around Denver as he moved from school to school teaching composition and creativity to young people of all ages and backgrounds.

Mr. Deak regularly participates in fundraising events to aid symphony orchestras, and has been an outspoken environmental advocate. An avid wilderness mountaineer, he has led climbing expeditions into the Canadian Rockies, Alaska, and the Himalayas. He was chairman of the New York Philharmonic Artistic Advisory Committee which helped select Kurt Masur as the Philharmonic’s Music Director. He also participated in Leonard Bernstein’s historic Freiheitskonzert (Freedom Concert) in what was then East Berlin, on Christmas Day 1989, an event he regards as one of the musical highlights of his life.