Faculty

Medalist in the Tchaikovsky and Brussels Competitions, Charles Castleman has performed as soloist with the orchestras of Boston, Brisbane, Chicago, Kiev, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Philadelphia, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai, and made appearances at the Australian, Budapest, Fuefukigawa, Marlboro and Vienna Festivals. A boxed CD set of the 17 best prize-winning violin performances of the Brussels competition’s 50-year history includes his Jongen Concerto.

For over three decades, cellist Christopher Costanza has enjoyed a varied and exciting career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Costanza is currently the cellist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and with the quartet, he is an Artist in Residence at Stanford University, where he teaches cello and chamber music and performs a wide variety of concerts each season.

Violinist Katherine Fong has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2000. A native of Amarillo, Texas, she began playing at age four.  Katherine leads a multifaceted existence as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, soloist, entrepreneur, studio musician, and mother. 

Laura Hamilton was Principal Associate Concertmaster for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where she led hundreds of performances over 33 years. She was previously a member of the Chicago Symphony and served as concertmaster at the Sydney Opera House. She currently teaches violin and chamber music at New York University.

Ross Harbaugh is Professor of Cello at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.  His distinguished teachers include Janos Starker and Leonard Rose in the United States and Andre Navarra at the Paris Conservatory, and chamber music study with the Juilliard Quartet. As a founding member of the New World String Quartet he won the Naumburg Prize, a Prix du Disque, and recorded 20 records and CD’s for Vox, MCI Classic and IMP Masters, CRI, Centaur, Fleur de Son, and Musical Heritage labels.

Violinist David Kim was named Concertmaster of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1999. Born in Carbondale, Illinois in 1963, he started playing the violin at the age of three, began studies with the famed pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the age of eight, and later received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School.

Priscilla Lee joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as Associate Principal Cello at the start of the 2016-2017 season. A 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, she began studying at age five and made her solo debut in 1998 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Joseph Lescher has been the Principal Bass of the San Francisco Opera for 31 years, since 1992. He was a past member of the Seattle Symphony and the Oregon Symphony, and has worked with the Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, San Francisco Ballet and has spent summers with the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson, Wyoming for the past 17 years.

A recipient of the Sarlo Family Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching, Jodi Levitz serves as professor of viola at the Frost School of Music, Artistic Coordinator of Stamps Ensembles, and Co-Artistic Director of the Zephyr Chamber Music Festival. She was previously the principal viola soloist with the Italian chamber orchestra "I Solisti Veneti" and violist of the Ives Quartet and Chicago String Trio. 

Violin soloist, pedagogue, and clinician Bettina Mussumeli enjoys a storied and varied career as a concert artist on the great stages of the world. She was co-concertmaster and soloist of the Italian chamber orchestra "I Solisti Veneti" and the first violinist of the Ives Quartet. She currently serves on the faculty of the Frost School of Music and the Zephyr Chamber Music Festival.

Scott Pingel has been serving as the principal bass of the San Francisco Symphony since 2004, after having worked with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Pingel has served as a tenured Associate Professor of Music at the University of Michigan and is currently a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Brian Powell is Associate Professor of Double Bass and Music Education at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He has a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance and a Masters degree in Teaching from Indiana University, as well as a Doctoral degree in Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He is a former member of The New World Symphony, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, and has also performed with several professional orchestras such as the Louisville Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra.

Alexander Fiterstein is recognized as one of today’s most exceptional clarinetists. He has been praised by the New York Times for possessing a “beautiful liquid clarity,” and the Washington Post wrote, “Fiterstein treats his instrument as his own personal voice, dazzling in its spectrum of colors, agility, and range. Every sound he makes is finely measured without inhibiting expressiveness.”

Blair Francis Paponiu joined the San Francisco Symphony as Associate Principal Flute, holding the Catherine & Russell Clark Chair, at the beginning of the 2023–24 season. She previously held the Susan and Tom Brown Chair as Assistant Principal/Second Flute with the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, and performed with the New York Philharmonic as acting section flute for two consecutive seasons.

Hailed as "a deft, smooth flute soloist" by the New York Times, Jennifer Grim's remarkable depth and breadth as a performer of solo and chamber repertoire has gained broad national acclaim. Grim is currently an associate professor at The Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and she serves on the Board of Directors of Chamber Music America.

Kevin Pearl is the assistant principal oboe of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, a position he began in the fall of 2015. Prior to his appointment in Milwaukee, Kevin was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, and toured with the orchestra to the Harris Theater, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall. During the summer he performs regularly with the Mainly Mozart All Star Orchestra and the Lakes Area Music Festival, with whom he performed the Strauss Oboe Concerto in 2016.

Jessica Phillips won her position in the clarinet section of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2001. She graduated cum laude from Barnard College, Columbia University, where she was also enrolled in the joint lesson program with Manhattan School of Music. She has performed as Acting Principal Clarinet of the MET Orchestra during 2003-2004, 2011-2013, 2014-2016 and the 2021-2022 seasons. In 2013, she received the honor of having her chair endowed at the Metropolitan Opera by Ruth and Harvey Miller.

Timothy Conner, Associate Professor of Practice, Instrumental Performance, joined the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in 1995.  In addition to teaching individual studio lessons, he conducts the Frost Trombone Choir, coaches chamber music, teaches courses in trombone pedagogy and literature, and serves as a faculty mentor on multiple doctoral committees. Tim is an S.E. Shires Artist.

David Garcia has been Solo Trombonist of the Philharmonia Zürich, Orchester der Opera since 2007.  Previously he was Principal Trombonist of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence, Italy) and the Hartford Symphony.  As a guest he has performed worldwide with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Orchestra of St. Lukes, San Antonio Symphony, US Coast Guard Band, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Orquestra Sinfonia de Galicia (Spain) and Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (Germany).

Adam Luftman joined the San Francisco Opera Orchestra as Principal Trumpet in 2007. Originally from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, he also holds the position of Principal Trumpet in the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Prior to moving to San Francisco, Luftman held positions with the Baltimore Symphony, the New World Symphony in Miami and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Originally from Springfield, Missouri, Julia Pilant is the Assistant Principal Horn. Before joining the Met, Ms. Pilant was principal horn with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra for 10 years. She then returned to New York City where she performed frequently with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York City Opera, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Symphony Orchestra, The Stamford Symphony, and various Broadway shows.

Joseph Petrasek was appointed Principal Percussionist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2017, and Principal Percussionist of the Colorado Music Festival in 2019. Previously, he served as Associate Principal Percussionist of the Kansas City Symphony for 8 seasons, and as a percussion fellow in the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. Mr. Petrasek is also on the percussion faculty at the University of Miami Frost School of Music.