Paul Nagem has been principal flute for the Colorado Springs Symphony since 1994. A native of San Diego, he studied flute there with Damian Bursill-Hall, then principal flute of the San Diego Symphony and now with the Pittsburgh Symphony. He received his Bachelors Degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Lois Schaefer of the Boston Symphony. Mr. Nagem is the instructor of flute at Colorado College. He has performed with the San Diego Symphony, the Colorado Symphony and the Singapore Symphony. Mr. Nagem plays Straubinger flutes.

Carol Wilson is currently organist at First Christian Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She received her Bachelor of Music degree in organ and piano performance at Colorado State University in 1973. Her Master of Music degree, also in organ and piano perforamnce, was earned at the University of Kansas in 1989. She has served as church organist and given concerts in Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Missouri and Kansas. While in Kansas, she taught organ and piano and was university organist at Ottawa University. In addition to playing at First Christian Church, Carol teaches piano and organ, accompanies in the community, manages a concert series on the church's new pipe organ and is an active performer on organ and piano. She is a member of the American Guild of Organists and Pikes Peak and Front Range Music Teachers Associations.

Rebecca Lee has become a familiar face in the Colorado Springs classical music scene. She has been with the Colorado Springs Symphony as principal second violin for 13 years and is a founding member of the Hausmusik quartet which this season marks its 11th year. She is an almost native Coloradan having grown up in Longmont, Colorado.

She headed east for school where she received her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and studied further in Oberlin, Ohio. Her teachers included Myron Kartman, Stephen Clapp, and Harold Wippler. This season's performance of the Barber Violin Concerto marks Rebecca's third collaboration with the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs.

The Colorado Springs Conservatory is a preparatory school for the performing arts for students ages three through nineteen. The school was formally established in 1994 by founder/director Linda Leise and offers curriculum similar to that which she had personally experienced at such institutions as the Julliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, Chautauqua Institution, and the Aspen Music Festival. Students engage in instrumental, vocal, theatrical, dance, and humanities classes and workshops. The music programs offered at CSC include classical, jazz, composition, and pop studies. Movement and dance studies cover the gamut from Bartenhieff/Laban to modern, while theatre students are exposed to everything from Chekov to Mamet. Graduating high school students completing studies at CSC have gained entrance to some of the most esteemed higher learning institutions such as Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Oberlin, New England Conservatory, Berklee School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Cincinnati Conservatory to name but a few. CSC has become the primary teaching establishment for some of the city's preeminent performing artists and educators. The summer session plays host to nationally renowned visiting instructors as well.

The Colorado Springs Conservatory believes that by engaging young performing artists in a comprehensive arts agenda, a person may better understand and fulfill his or her own goals and abilities. Apart from one on one studies and classes, each and every studentparticipates in a wealth of performance opportunities to include outreach recitals and performance projects. This aspect of the curriculum serves to develop a sense of the power of the arts and the integral part that they play in society and their own community.

Some past productions and performances that the Conservatory has produced include Kurt Weill's "Down in the Valley", the original Broadway musical "Gypsy", and adaptation of E. Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel", Hans Krasa's "Brundibar", "noyes Fludde" by Benjamin Britten, and an adaptation of Mozart's "Magic Flute" and "Bastien un Bastienna". Community organizations such as the Young Concert Artists, the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony, the Colorado Springs Children's Chorale, Colorado College, The Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration, the Pikes Peak Jazz and Swing Society, Colorado Music Educators Association, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and now the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs have collaborated with the students of CSC to make some of these projects possible. The above mentioned projects are not only presented to the public, but have toured to schools city and statewide and have served as initial and accessible exposure to the arts for literally tens of thousands of school age children.

The mission and goal of the Conservatory is to challenge all students to aspire to their highest potential not only as artists but as human beings. CSC seeks to promote a respect for music, drama, and dance as a discipline of the mind and the spirit, a joyful affirmation of life, and a passionate commitment to an idea.

For more information about the Conservatory visit the CSC website at www.FatLady.org or call (719) 577-4556. The Colorado Springs Conservatory is located at 1430 N. Hancock Ave.

Susan Grace has performed solo and chamber recitals, and has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States, Europe, the former Soviet Union, China and Korea. She has, in addition, performed in numerous series and festivals, including the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Grand Teton Festival, Music at Oxford, and the Helmsley Festival in England. In addition, Ms. Grace and her husband, Michael, have toured with a concert titled Piano Music and Painting; these programs, which include slides of the paintings upon which the piano compositions are based, have been presented on numerous series, including those at the University of Lüneburg, Florida International University, Bucknell University, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, South Dakota State University and the Loveland Civic Music Association. These programs have also been chosen for presentation at national meetings of the College Music Society and the American Musicological Society. As a collaborative artist, Ms. Grace has performed with cellist Janos Starker, violinists Martin Chalifour, Glenn Dicterow and Jose-Luis Garcia, clarinetist David Shrifrin, soprano Martile Rowland and many other internationally known musicians.

Ms. Grace is Artist-in-Residence and Lecturer in Music at Colorado College, and Music Director of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. She is a member of Quattro Mani, a two-piano ensemble that recently completed critically acclaimed tours of Spain and Asia and has performed with orchestras in Fort Worth, Colorado Springs, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Chico, California. Their first recording was released in October, 2000, by Klavier Music Productions and a second CD of George Crumb's two-piano compositions was released in April, 2001, by Bridge Records. Both recordings have received national and international critical acclaim. Quattro Mani made their New York debut in Carnegie Recital Hall in January, 2001 on the MidAmerica Productions Series. They returned for the 2001-2002 season and have been invited back for a third time in 2002-2003.

Prior positions include principal accompanist and coach for the Central City Opera, the Colorado Opera Festival and the National Affiliate Artist Program. Ms. Grace has recorded for the Belgium National Radio, WFMT in Chicago, the Society of Composers, Wilson Audio, Klavier International, Klavier Music Productions and Bridge Records. She studied at the University of Iowa with John Simms and with Benjamin Kaplan in London.

Guest artists who performed with the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs in the past can be referenced by the season during which they performed: 2001-2.