Anna Maria Mendieta

Anna Maria Mendieta, harpist, enjoys a busy career as a soloist, orchestral musician, and recording artist. In recognition of her Spanish heritage, she has been invited to perform for the King and Queen of Spain, and for concerts for National Hispanic Week in Washington, D.C. She was also a featured soloist for many seasons with Theater Flamenco. In a career that has earned her prestigious awards and performances with many top name recording artists, Ms. Mendieta has also been invited to perform for dignitaries and heads of state. She is the principal harpist for the Sacramento Philharmonic and was just recently the featured soloist performing Joaquin Rodrigo’s Harp Concerto, “Concierto Serenata”. She has performed and appeared in motion pictures, on television, and has been featured on national radio.

Jeremy Cohen, violin -- Jeremy, along with his Quartet San Francisco are the recent recipients of 2 Grammy award nominations for their latest tango album. Along with his brother Joel Cohen on cello, they were also the winners of the 2004 International Tango Competition in New York, which honored them with concerts in New York and Buenos Aires. Trained by Anne Crowden and Itzhak Perlman, Cohen's style reflects his respect for a range of violinists from Fritz Kreisler to Joe Venuti and Eddie South. Mr. Cohen has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Virginia Symphony, the California Symphony and the Reno Philharmonic. He was also the solo violinist in the show 'Forever Tango'. Jeremy has just completed his fifth summer as a faculty member of the Henry Mancini Institute at UCLA.

Kayo Jane Miki, violin, studied at the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg, with a diploma from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Eastman School, where she earned a Bachelor and Master of Music in Performance. Her principal teachers include Charles Castleman, William Preucil, Denes Zsigmondy, and Camilla Wicks. In 2003, she was involved in the San Francisco Symphony's 'Adventure's in Music Program II' where her string quartet performed 150 concerts for the entire San Francisco public school district. Ms. Miki performs regularly with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, California Symphony and various other chamber music groups in the San Francisco area. She is a frequent performer for movie soundtracks with the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra.

Emily Onderdonk, viola, a native of San Francisco, received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the Manhattan School of Music, and continued with post-graduate studies at Boston University and the New England Conservatory of Music. She studied with Raphael Bronstein, James Buswell and Daniel Kobalka. Ms. Onderdonk has performed as principal violist with the Lyon National Opera in France, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera. She was principal violist with the New York City National Opera Company and the Berkeley Symphony. Emily is currently a member of the Santa Rosa Symphony, and is principal violist with the Sacramento Philharmonic.

Joseph Hébert, cellist, well known in San Francisco Bay Area ensembles, is a versatile artist in all areas of classical, improvisational, and world styles of music. As a composer and improvisational jazz musician he has performed in Japan, Europe, and Hawaii, with instruments from all over the world, as well with collaborations of theater, dance, and choral groups. Mr. Hébert is Assistant Principal cello with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, and has performed for movie soundtracks with the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra. He studied music at Stanford University, California State University Hayward, and UC Berkeley where for 15 years he was on the music faculty directing chamber ensembles, the orchestra, and vocal ensembles in the Young Musicians Program.

Jack Van Geem, principal percussionist with the San Francisco Symphony, began playing the marimba at age four. He studied with Tony Cirone and Jerome Neff until earning his Master of Arts degree from California State University at Hayward. In 1974 he was awarded an Alfred Hertz Traveling Scholarship from the University of California at Berkeley, which was used to study contemporary percussion performance with Cristoph Caskel in Germany. Upon returning to the States, he became the percussionist for the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, where he remained until winning the Principal Percussion position with the San Francisco Symphony in 1980. Jack is the Chairman of Percussion Studies at the San Francisco Conservatory.

Eldon Bryce, dancer -- Eldon has been a full-time choreographer, teacher, and performer since 1997, specializing in Argentine tango, Latin, salsa, ballroom, and club styles. He has been a professional competitor in the ballroom and Latin dances and is still currently competing with his students. He was a featured dancer in the 2004 movie "Swing" and recently choreographed and performed the Argentine Tango for a special MTV show. Mr. Bryce was featured in the first ever DVD released on how to become a nationally certified dance teacher, and to add to his credit, has just recently completed an extensive ballroom dance instructional DVD series soon to be released. Eldon is most passionate about the Tango and has studied in Buenos Aires. His greatest enjoyment is to choreograph and perform dance with his students and fellow professionals.