Violinist Jenny Grégoire is Associate Professor of Violin and String Area Coordinator at the University of Alabama. Born in Québec, Canada, Ms. Grégoire attended the Québec Music Conservatoire where she studied with Jean Angers and Liliane Garnier-LeSage and earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in violin performance, with a minor in chamber music. Upon leaving Québec, Ms. Grégoire attended Northwestern University, where she received a master’s degree in Violin Performance and Pedagogy with Dr. Myron Kartman. She was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago for two seasons and worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Neeme Jarvi, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pierre Boulez and Cliff Colnot, among others. Jenny Grégoire left Chicago to play one season with the New World Symphony, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, in Miami, FL. Ms. Grégoire is currently concertmaster of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, a position that she has held since 2001. She is extremely sought-after in the southeast, as she is also concertmaster of the Meridian, North Mississippi, and Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestras. In addition to her orchestral career, Ms. Grégoire remains active as a soloist and recitalist. She has appeared several times as a soloist with the Mobile Symphony and the Meridian Symphony Orchestra. In May 2019, she performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Adam Flatt. She was also a featured soloist with the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra in February 2024, and performed Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending under the direction of Maestro Steven Byess. Ms. Grégoire has presented solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Brazil, Canada, and Portugal. Additionally, she is on faculty at the Eastern Music Festival, where she is the Assistant Principal Second Violin in the faculty orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Gerard Schwarz. Ms. Grégoire plans to release this fall her first solo recording, “Music of My Homeland”, featuring music for violin and piano by French Canadian composers. Cellist Moisés Molina, originally from Honduras, has built a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, teacher, and clinician. His artistry has taken him across the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, with performances and recordings on the Centaur, Parma, Profil, and New World labels. Molina has appeared at renowned international festivals including the Toradze International Music Festival (Tbilisi, Georgia), the Biennial Violoncello Festival (Lima, Peru), the Orfeo Music Festival (Italy), and the Northern Lights Music Festival (USA). A passionate educator, he has also taught at the Singing River Cello Workshop, the Tennessee Valley Music Festival, and Scor! String Experiences. He regularly performs with the ensemble of the Chicago Conducting Masterclass and Workshop. As a guest artist, Molina has been featured at the St. Augustine Music Festival (Florida), the International Chamber Music Festival (Lima, Peru), the Cuzco Music Festival, and the First International Cello Festival (Huánuco, Peru). He has presented master classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Dominican Republic), the Instituto Superior de Artes (Cuba), the Tennessee Cello Workshop, and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. An active orchestral musician, Molina serves as Principal Cellist of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra, the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (GA), while also performing frequently with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. He has previously held leadership positions with the Abilene Philharmonic, Abilene Opera, and the Quincy Symphony Orchestra (IL), among others. Currently Associate Professor of Cello and Director of the Cuba Center at the University of Alabama, Dr. Molina has also taught at Western Illinois University, Hardin-Simmons University, and Abilene Christian University. He has presented at state music education conferences, conducted youth and festival orchestras, and, early in his career, was awarded an orchestral fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival. Named Teacher of the Year by the Alabama Music Teachers Association and Music Educator of the Year by the Arts Council of Tuscaloosa, pianist Kevin T. Chance has been hailed as “a superlative musician” playing “with musical conviction and muscularity.”  He has performed throughout the United States and abroad as both soloist and collaborator. Recent engagements include performances at Carnegie Hall as well as concerto appearances with Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety and Rachamninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with the Huxford Symphony Orchestra, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the University of Alabama Wind Ensemble, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Athens Chorale in Georgia, and Gerald Finzi’s Eclogue.  In March 2016, he also appeared with the Tuscaloosa Symphony in a performance of Saint-Saens’s Carnival of the Animals. Recital engagements have taken him throughout the U.S. with recent appearances at the American Matthay Association Festivals, the University of Oklahoma, the Louisiana Piano Series International, and the Albion College International Piano Festival. He has also been presented in performances by the Mobile Opera, the Mississippi Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, the University of Texas at Brownsville, the University of South Carolina, Columbus State University, Auburn University, Millsaps College, the University of North Dakota, the Saratoga Arts Fest, and Bucknell University.  Dr. Chance was a prizewinner of several regional and national competitions including the National Society of Arts and Letters Career Awards Competition, Music Teachers National Association Competitions (MTNA), and the Brevard Music Center Concerto Competition.  Dr. Chance is a member of the Semplice Duo with flutist Cristina Ballatori. In August 2004, they were named the winners of the Notes at 9,000 Emerging Artist Series Competition in Colorado. Past seasons have taken them to Texas, Colorado, New York, and Louisiana, and they were selected as artist fellows for the 2005 Hampden-Sydney Music Festival in Virginia, where they returned for a series of performances in 2008.  They frequently perform in recital on the “Live from Hochstein” series, which are broadcast live on WXXI radio in Rochester, NY, and in 2014, they made their European debut in Paris. A sought-after teacher, Dr. Chance maintains a prize-winning studio, and he was recently named a Leadership Board Faculty Fellow by the Universtiy of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences. His students are frequently named winners and finalists in local, state, regional, and national competitions, including the 2009 Music Teachers National Association’s National Competition Finals in Atlanta.  He currently serves on the faculties of several summer festivals including the New Orleans Piano Institute.  In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he regularly presents workshops and lecture-performances on repertoire and pedagogy throughout the country, and he has served as a guest artist and clinician for the Michigan, Mississippi, and Alabama state music teacher conferences. Additionally, Dr. Chance has presented at the 2023, 2019, 2016, and 2008 Music Teachers National Association Conferences. He is a Past President of the Alabama Music Teachers Association and is a past board member of the Music Teachers National Association serving as Director of the Southern Division and later Vice President. Kevin currently serves as the President-Elect of Music Teachers National Association and is a past president of the American Matthay Association. Serving as Associate Professor of Piano and Chair of the Gloria Narramore Moody Piano Area at the University of Alabama, Dr. Chance is a former faculty member at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham.  He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music where he was awarded the Jerald C. Graue Fellowship for academic excellence.  An alumnus of the Aspen Music Festival, he holds the Master of Music degree from Louisiana State University and graduated magna cum laude from Birmingham-Southern College.  His teachers have included Barry Snyder, Constance Knox Carroll, Ann Schein, Anne Koscielny, Herbert Stessin, William DeVan and Betty Sue Shepherd.

Long recognized as one of the world’s leading instrumentalists, Ransom Wilson has turned increasingly to a career as a conductor of orchestral and operatic repertoire.

About the Artist Long recognized as one of the world’s leading instrumentalists, Ransom Wilson has turned increasingly to a career as a conductor of orchestral and operatic repertoire.  He is Artistic Director of New York’s LE TRAIN BLEU ensemble, Music Director of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company,  Music Director of Solisti New York Orchestra, former Artistic Director of Oklahoma’s famed OK MOZART International Festival, former Music Director of the Flint Symphony, Tuscaloosa Symphony, Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra, and the SUNY Purchase Orchestra. He is currently the Music Director of the Redlands Symphony in Southern California, which has experienced an unprecedented increase in ticket sales and attendance since his arrival.   He has appeared as guest conductor with many major orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Denver Symphony, the San Francisco Chamber Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New Jersey Symphony, the Budapest Strings, the Berkeley Symphony, and he led a successful tour with James Galway and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.  Mr. Wilson has accompanied many internationally renowned artists from the podium, including Itzhak Perlman, André Watts, Frederica von Stade, Joshua Bell, Garrick Ohlsson, Paul Watkins, Anne-Marie McDermott, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, François Dumont, Nicholas Canellakis, Michael Stephen Brown, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Jeffrey Kahane and Hilary Hahn. An esteemed operatic conductor, Mr. Wilson recently spent ten years as a member of the conducting staff at the Metropolitan Opera.  He has twice appeared as conductor for productions of Handel operas at the New York City Opera, and has led a highly acclaimed production of the American stage premiere of  Mozart’s Il Re Pastore, with the Glimmerglass Opera.  Additionally, he conducted the first professional production of composer Amy Beach’s only opera Cabildo, on the “Great Performers at Lincoln Center” series.  The production was recorded and released on CD by Delos International.  Recent seasons have included concerts and recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony, England’s Hallé Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the Tulsa Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, among others. He conducted Puccini’s La Bohème at the International Opera Center in Amsterdam, as well as Rossini’s La Cenerentola in San Sebastián, Spain.  Wilson has also conducted numerous times as an Artist Member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, both in New York and on tour. As flute soloist, he has appeared in concert with some of the greatest orchestras and artists of our time, including the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Frederica von Stade, Jessye Norman, Thomas Hampson, Susan Graham, Dolora Zajick, Erin Morley, Sasha Cooke, Edgar Meyer, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Hilary Hahn, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Sir James Galway, Barry Douglas, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Robin Sutherland, and many others. Ransom Wilson is the recipient of several illustrious honors.  In 1988 the New York Times Foundation awarded him the first Alabama Prize, which is awarded to natives or residents of that state who have distinguished themselves in the performing or visual arts.  The following year he, with pianist Christopher O’Riley, received a National Public Radio award for best performance by a small ensemble on a national broadcast.  In 1993 he was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. The Austrian government honored him with their prestigious Award of Merit in Gold, in recognition of his efforts on behalf of Mozart’s music in America. Mr. Wilson’s highly successful recording career, which has included three Grammy Award nominations, began in 1973 when he made a recording with Jean-Pierre Rampal and I Solisti Veneti.  More than 30 solo recordings have followed on the Angel/EMI, RCA, Orion, Musical Heritage Society, Warner Classics, and Nimbus labels, among several others. As conductor, he has made a best-selling recording of music by John Adams and Steve Reich with Solisti New York and a disc of Baroque music with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.  A recording on the CRI label features Mr. Wilson conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in the music of Aaron Jay Kernis and he recorded Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat in a citically acclaimed performance on the Chesky label. A strong advocate of contemporary music, Wilson has commissioned new works by Steve Reich, John Luther Adams, Joseph Schwantner, John Harbison, Peter Schickele, George Tsontakis, Sean Friar, Lilya Ugay, Jean-Michel Damase, Jean Françaix,  and Carlos Surinach.  Most recently, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in a recording of music by American composer Michael Colina.  A gifted arranger, he has transcribed much of the music for his Angel/EMI/ Warner Classics recordings and—at Carnegie Hall with Frederica von Stade as soloist—he has conducted his own orchestrations of three of Maurice Ravel’s Five Greek Songs, which were left unorchestrated by the composer.
 He recently conducted the premiere of his new orchestration of Ravel’s Sonatine with the Redlands Symphony. Educated at the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Juilliard School, Wilson pursued post-graduate studies as an Atlantique Scholar in France with Jean-Pierre Rampal.  He has studied conducting with Roger Nierenberg, James Dixon, Otto-Werner Mueller and received extensive coaching from the late Leonard Bernstein.