Pascual Martinez Forteza joined the New York Philharmonic as Second Clarinet in May 2001 after a tenure with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where he had been Second Clarinet since 1998. From 1999-2000, he also served as that orchestra’s Acting Associate Principal Clarinet. Prior to his appointment in Cincinnati, Mr. Martinez Forteza was Assistant Principal Clarinet of the Symphony Orchestra of Baleares, Spain, from 1991-1998. He also performed with Madrid’s National Orchestra of Spain from 1993-1995.

After earning a professor’s degree from the Baleares and Barcelona Superior Music Conservatories, Mr. Martinez Forteza pursued advanced studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. There, he received first prize in the University’s 1998 Concerto Competition. His principal teachers have included Yehuda Gilad, Guy Deplus, and Pascual Vicente Martinez. In addition, Mr. Martinez Forteza has performed in master classes under Andrew Marriner, Anthony Pay, Enrique Perez, Michele Zukovsky, Mitchel Lurie, and Walter Seyfarth.

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Sumire Kudo joined the Philharmonic as a cellist in June 2006. Previously she taught at Indiana University–South Bend and was the cellist of the Avalon String Quartet. She is a member of the New York-based new-music group counter)induction, a composer/performer collective. Born in Tokyo, Japan, Ms. Kudo began cello studies at age four with her father, cellist Akiyoshi Kudo. She came to the United States in 2000, after establishing herself in her native country through solo performances and recordings. Her honors include the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award, which she received from the Sony Music Foundation after being chosen by Seiji Ozawa and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi as the most promising cellist in 2005, and prizes at the Sapporo Junior Cello Competition and 62nd Japan Music Competition. Ms. Kudo is a graduate of Tokyo’s Toho School and The Juilliard School. She has participated in the Nagano-Aspen Music, Aspen Music, Santa Fe, and Marlboro Music festivals. Record Geijutsu, Japan’s leading classical music magazine, named her second solo CD, Love of Beauty, Best Recording.

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Philip Smith joined the New York Philharmonic as Co-Principal Trumpet in 1978, becoming Principal Trumpet (The Paula Levin Chair) in 1988. His early training was provided at The Salvation Army and by his father, Derek Smith. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School; while still a student he was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Smith appears regularly as soloist, recitalist, chamber performer, clinician, and recording artist. He has been featured as a soloist with the Philharmonic almost 100 times, either in New York or on tour, under conductors such as Bernstein, Neeme Järvi, Leinsdorf, Kurt Masur, and Zubin Mehta; his most recent solo appearance was in April 2006 in the New York premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwillich’s American Concerto. In addition to solo releases on labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, Cala, Summit, New World, and Arabesque, Mr. Smith has recorded with the Canadian Brass, Empire Brass, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Bargemusic, and New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony.

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Erik Ralske joined the New York Philharmonic as third horn in September 1993 after eleven years of experience in principal positions in five different North American orchestras. These include six years as Associate Principal Horn with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, three years as Principal Horn with the Vancouver Symphony, and one season each as Principal Horn in the Florida Symphony and Tulsa Philharmonic orchestras. A native of Long Island, he received both his bachelor of music and master of music degrees from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Ranier De Intinis (former New York Philharmonic third horn).

Along with his Philharmonic horn colleagues, Mr. Ralske has been featured as a soloist with the orchestra in nearly a dozen performances of Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns — in New York as well as on tour in Europe and South America, with Kurt Masur conducting. Other recent solo engagements include appearances with the West Virginia Symphony, Jupiter Symphony, Texas Music Festival, and Nassau-Suffolk Wind Symphony. His 2004 solo appearance with the Tainan Symphony was televised throughout Taiwan.

Outside the orchestra, Mr. Ralske maintains a busy schedule as a chamber musician, teacher, and recording artist. He is a member of The Philharmonic Quintet of New York, which includes New York Philharmonic colleagues Robert Langevin (flute), Sherry Sylar (oboe), Mark Nuccio (clarinet), and Judith Leclair (bassoon). Together since 2001, they have toured in Asia and the United States, in addition to frequent performances in the New York metropolitan area. They anticipate the release of their first CD of a series later this year. In past seasons he has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music Academy of the West, as well as the Seattle, Vancouver, and Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festivals. Mr. Ralske is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College of Music.

Erik Ralske has long been active in the recording industry, having performed on many movie soundtracks — from Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), to many recent releases, such as The Manchurian Candidate and Failure to Launch. He appears on a recent CD entitled Take 9, which combines the talents of the New York Philharmonic horn section and the American Horn Quartet.

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David Finlayson joined the New York Philharmonic in December 1985 during Zubin Mehta’s tenure as music director. He serves as the orchestra’s Second Trombonist.

Born in Washington, D.C., into a military family, Mr. Finlayson spent his early years in many different parts of the world. His music studies began on the piano when he was six while his family was living in Heidelberg, Germany; the trombone did not take center stage in his life until he was 13. In 1972 Mr. Finlayson entered the University of Michigan School of Music for his undergraduate studies. His symphonic career began while he was a student in Michigan, with the Flint Symphony and Toledo Symphony orchestras.

In 1980 Mr. Finlayson was appointed assistant principal trombonist with the National Symphony Orchestra under music director Mstislav Rostropovich, and he performed in his home town of Washington for six seasons before joining the New York Philharmonic.

As a featured soloist and recitalist, Mr. Finlayson has performed in brass recitals throughout the world, with appearances on National Public Radio, The Today Show, and the National Arts Series. He has appeared in concert as soloist with the Vivo Orchestra of Finland, West Islip Chamber Orchestra, Music Academy of the West Chamber Series, Contemporary Music Forum of Washington, D.C., and Canadian Brass Quintet.

As a guest artist and clinician, Mr. Finlayson appears regularly for the Selmer Instrument Company, and has conducted master classes in universities and conservatories in Spain, Brazil, Korea, Finland, Chile, and Puerto Rico. In the United States his appearances have included the New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College of Music, DePaul University, University of Hawaii, Curtis Institute, and University of Michigan.

Mr. Finlayson’s active teaching career in New York City includes positions on the trombone faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes College of Music, and Queens College Aaron Copland School of Music. He served on the faculty of the Music Academy of the West, in Santa Barbara, California, from 1995 until 2002.

His teachers have included Glen P. Smith, Frank Crisafulli, John Marcellus, and Abe Torchinsky. For more information about Mr. Finlayson, go to his Web site at http://www.davidfinlayson.com.

New York Philharmonic pianist Jonathan Feldman, recognized by colleagues and critics alike as an extremely accomplished ensemble player and accompanist, has performed on four continents with some of the world’s greatest instrumentalists. Among these have been the legendary Nathan Milstein, Itzhak Perlman, James Galway, Joshua Bell, Kyung Wha Chung, Zara Nelsova, and Sarah Chang. Mr. Feldman also enjoys an active solo career performing throughout the United States and Europe. As a chamber musician, he appears in concert regularly as a member of the Zephyr Trio. Mr. Feldman has also participated in many summer festivals, notably Tanglewood, Bridgehampton Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire in New Mexico, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, where he is chairman of the Collaborative Piano Department.

A dedicated teacher, Mr. Feldman has given master classes throughout the United States and has lectured at the University of Maryland International Piano Festival and William Kapell Competition on “The Collaborative Pianist.” In the fall of 1989, Mr. Feldman joined the faculty of The Juilliard School where he now serves as chairman of the Collaborative Piano Department. A graduate of Juilliard, his teachers have included Dorothy Taubman, Rosetta Goodkind, and Irwin Freundlich. He has recorded for Angel/EMI, Cala, Columbia Masterworks, Naxos, Nonesuch, RCA Red Seal, and Summit records. His most recent recording is with Gil Shaham for DGG. Mr. Feldman lives in New Jersey with his wife, Judith LeClair, who is the Principal Bassoonist of the New York Philharmonic, and their young son, Gabriel.

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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 Soohyun Kwon became a member of the New York Philharmonic in September 2001. Prior to joining the Philharmonic, Ms. Kwon performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony Chamber Orchestra at the Bregenz Summer Music Festival, Prague Symphony Chamber Orchestra at Smetana Hall, Vienna Mozart Orchestra at the Goldensaal Musikverein, Tchaikovsky Society, Shanghai Symphony, Korea Chamber Ensemble, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ms. Kwon made her New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and gave other recitals at Juilliard’s Paul and Morse Halls, the Concertgebouw and Beurs van Berlage, in Amsterdam, and at the Seoul Arts Center.

A founding member of the Alma Piano Trio, she performed with the ensemble at Alice Tully Hall, Salisbury State University, Maryland, and at the Goethe Institute in New York. With her string quartet, Quartet 94, Ms. Kwon toured California, where she performed at the University of Southern California and at the inauguration of the Korean-American Museum in Los Angeles.

Ms. Kwon was born in Seoul, Korea, and began studying the violin at the age of six. She won several top prizes, studying with Nam Yun Kim and Min Kim. While an academic scholarship student at Seoul National University, Ms. Kwon transferred to The Juilliard School and received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees as a student of Glenn Dicterow. Ms. Kwon's interests include Korean and Chinese history and contemporary art.

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Violist Vivek Kamath joined the New York Philharmonic in January 1998. Mr. Kamath earned his bachelor's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Donald Weilerstein. He has appeared as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, he has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Sarasota, Blossom, and Bowdoin festivals. In 1997 Mr. Kamath was a prize-winner in the Washington International String Competition and in the Irving Klein International String Competition. In his spare time he enjoys playing tennis, studying wildlife, and dining out.

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Sharon Yamada, a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1988, has performed extensively on both the East and West Coasts. She performs regularly with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles at Merkin Hall, and has appeared with the New Jersey Chamber Music Society. Ms. Yamada has performed frequently in the summer at the Grand Teton Music Festival. Other summer activities have included the Aspen, Norfolk, and Chigiana (Siena, Italy) music festivals. Formerly assistant concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Ms. Yamada has also appeared in concert with Orchestra New England and the Wallingford Symphony. She is a former member of the Hofstra String Quartet, which was in residence at Hofstra University.

Ms. Yamada received her Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Szymon Goldberg and Syoko Aki. While earning her undergraduate degree in architecture from Yale College, she appeared as soloist and concertmaster with the Yale Symphony. A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Yamada attended the Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences and was a student of Alice Schoenfeld.

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Yulia Ziskel joined the New York Philharmonic in September 2001, and is active as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician in the United States and around the world. She made her solo recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in March 2002, and has been praised by The Strad magazine for “…the sweetness of her sound.”

Ms. Ziskel’s most recent appearances include critically-acclaimed chamber music performances at the Bellingham (Washington) Music Festival, where she also enjoyed a residency as principal second violin of the Festival Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony Orchestra, the Julius Grossman Orchestra, in faculty recitals at The Juilliard School, at Cremona Viva, an International Exhibit of Cremonese Instruments, and is a member of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles, making regular appearances at Merkin Concert Hall. Her performance at the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s “Meanings of Tchaikovsky” Festival was praised by The New York Times, New Jersey Star Ledger, and by the New Jersey Classical Society Journal. She has also appeared on the radio program The Listening Room, hosted by Robert Sherman on WQXR.

Before her appointment to the New York Philharmonic, Ms. Ziskel was a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, as well as a participant in numerous music festivals, including the Sarasota Music Festival. She was also concertmaster of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in Japan.

Ms. Ziskel was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and began her musical training on the violin and piano at age four. She made her solo debut at the age of seven at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, and at age eleven was a soloist with the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra. During her teenage years she toured extensively, appearing in solo recitals throughout Germany, Finland, Poland, and United States. In 1994 Ms. Ziskel's family emigrated to the United States, where she completed her bachelor of music degree at Indiana University, and upon graduation, received an Honorary Certificate for Outstanding Performance in Violin. In May 2000, Ms. Ziskel received her master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Her awards include First Prize in the Assembly of Arts International Violin Competition and the Anna Bernstein Memorial Award.

Robert Rinehart, who joined the New York Philharmonic’s viola section in 1992, is a familiar figure on the New York chamber-music scene. He has appeared at the Spoleto, Vancouver Chamber Music, and Santa Fe Chamber Music festivals, and with Chamber Music Northwest and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A founding member of the Ridge String Quartet, Mr. Rinehart has performed in every major music center in the United States, as well as in Canada, Australia, Japan, and in Europe. He has collaborated with Benny Goodman, Rudolf Firkusny, and the Guarneri String Quartet, among others, and his chamber music recordings have received a Grammy Award, two Grammy nominations, and the Diapason d’Or. A native of San Francisco, Mr. Rinehart studied violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Isadore Tinkleman, and at The Curtis Institute of Music with Jaime Laredo, David Cerone, and Ivan Galamian. He is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

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Cellist Maria Kitsopoulos joined the Philharmonic in 1996. Her solo engagements have included the CONTINUUM ensemble in Alice Tully Hall; the Phoenix Symphony; the Westfield Symphony, Graz, and Athens State orchestras; and recitals. She performs contemporary music with groups such as Music Mobile and the Guild of Composers, and she has toured Europe with the Ensemble Intercontemporain. She is a member of the cello quartet CELLO, which performs music it has commissioned throughout the United States, and she has appeared at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Merkin Concert Hall. She received bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School; upon graduation she was awarded the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Leadership, and later served on the school’s faculty. A finalist in the first Emanuel Feuermann Cello Competition and a prizewinner in the National Society of Arts and Letters Cello Cmpetition, Ms. Kitsopoulos received fellowships from the Aspen and Tanglewood music festivals. She can be heard on recordings on the Musical Heritage Society, Angel, DG, and Columbia labels, among others.

Satoshi Okamoto was an assistant principal double bassist in the San Antonio Symphony for eight years and a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra for a year before joining the New York Philharmonic in September 2003. He received his master’s degree from The Juilliard School, and a bachelor’s degree from Tokyo University of Fine Arts. An eight-time Aspen Music Festival participant, he won the festival’s bass competition twice, in 1993 and 1997. He also became a finalist of the International Society of Bassist Solo Competition in 1997, and the Izuminomori International Double Bass Competition in 2001. His teachers include Philharmonic Principal Bass Eugene Levinson, Paul Ellison, Al Laszlo, Bruce Bransby, Yoshio Nagashima, and Osamu Yamamoto.