Phoebe Durand-McDonnell grew up on Mount Desert Island on the coast of Maine. She began studying harp at age 10 with Liza Rey Butler, and later attended the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, where she studied with Franziska Huhn and Ann Hobson-Pilot. At age 17, Phoebe received a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award Scholarship and was featured on the popular radio show From The Top.
Phoebe earned a Bachelor of Music at Oberlin Conservatory, majoring in harp with acclaimed soloist Yolanda Kondonassis. She was principal harpist at the Vancouver Orchestral Institute, National Music Festival, and Pierre Monteux School, and performed as principal in the Oberlin Choir, Oberlin Orchestra, and Oberlin Chamber Orchestra. While at Oberlin, Phoebe discovered a deep love for early music and historical harps. She attended Hudební Lahůdky in the Czech Republic to study baroque harp and improvisation with historical harpist Dr. Maria Cleary.
In 2019, Phoebe received a Fulbright Research grant to study with Dr. Cleary at the Haute École de Musique Genève (HEM) in Geneva, Switzerland. Phoebe received her first MA in interprétation spécialisée, pratique des instruments historiques in 2021 from HEM, with intensive study on medieval and renaissance single- and double-rowed harps, Spanish arpa de dos ordenes, Italian and Welsh baroque arpa doppia, and the harpe organisée, or single-action pedal harp.
Phoebe has spent three years collaborating with the Helicona International School of Improvisation in Italy, studying renaissance and baroque improvisation techniques and recreating the 16th century balletti a cavalli, or horse ballets. In the fall of 2022, Phoebe began an MA in musicology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where her thesis is titled "'She Drew Forth Its Strongest Sounds': Tracing the Historical Throughline of Women Harpists."
Cellist Jaime Feldman grew up between the coasts of Florida, Maine, and California. She attended the Oberlin Conservatory, and the New England Conservatory. Her primary teachers were Amir Eldan and Natasha Brofsky. Some of her early instructors were Irene Sharp of Stanford University, and Jean Michel Fonteneau at San Francisco Conservatory.
Jaime has been in master classes with cellists Colin Carr, Ronald Leonard, and Paul Katz. She has studied at festivals and institutions with members of the Emerson, Saint Lawrence, Miami, Cavanni, Juilliard, Borromeo, and Takács string quartets. At the Perlman Music Program, she enjoyed performing in a chamber orchestra led by violinist Itzhak Perlman.
Jaime has performed in France, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and India. She has taught at Brooklyn Conservatory, and Belle Arti School of the Arts in New York. She has also taught at Moses Brown School, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic music school. She currently manages a private cello studio in Rhode Island.
Originally from Ann Arbor, MI, violinist/violist Emma Powell is a performer and educator currently based in Boston, MA. She has an active performing schedule as a collaborative member of the Rasa String Quartet, the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, and Trio Oko.
Driven by a curiosity for musical storytelling, Emma is excited by any opportunity to curate and perform programs that bring together works across centuries, genres, and disciplines. This has led her to a varied career with highlights ranging from collaborating with notable composers including Liza Lim, Kinan Azmeh, and Clarice Assad, to more recent performances with renowned folk musicians Celtic harpist Maeve Gilchrist and American singer-songwriter Judy Collins.
As an orchestral player, she serves as assistant concertmaster for Symphony New Hampshire and regularly performs as a member of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. Previous summer festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center and Spoleto Festival USA.
Emma holds degrees from Princeton University (BA Music) and Rice University (MM Violin Performance), where she is grateful to have studied under the thoughtful mentorship of Dan Trueman, Sunghae Anna Lim, and Paul Kantor.
Long Okada is a violist, currently based in Boston, Massachusetts, and enjoys a varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.
A passionate advocate for the performance of British music, he frequently programs works for viola by British composers in his recitals. He has a particular interest in the folksong revival in the early 20th century and how it shaped the classical music landscape, particularly works for string instruments, in Great Britain. He has had the honor of performing at a wide range of venues including Queen's Hall, St Botolph without Aldgate, David Josefowitz Recital Hall, Salle de concert du Domaine Forget, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Brown Hall at New England Conservatory.
An active chamber musician, he plays with flutist Nicholas Southwick in Duo Gwynne, which currently holds an Artist Fellowship with Music for Food. The Duo made their concert debut at the historic St. Botolph without Aldgate in the City of London, England, and subsequently enjoyed many performance engagements in various parts of London, notably celebrating the coronation of King Charles III at the Church of Holy Cross, St Pancras. He has also performed with Clyde Viola Quartet and Nevis Ensemble. He has appeared in many music festivals around the world including Composers Now, Domaine Forget, Manchester Music Festival, Summer in Aldgate, and Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival. He has also had the privilege of performing with many esteemed musicians including Thomas Bowes, Bonnie Hampton, Mark Menzies, Inesa Sinkevych, and Xiao Wang.
As an enthusiastic instructor with a holistic educational approach, he holds the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM) and teaches viola and violin at Concord Conservatory of Music and Kingsley Montessori School in Massachusetts. He previously maintained a flourishing private studio of violin, viola, and piano students of all ages and ability levels in London, U.K..
He holds a Bachelor of Music from New York University and a Master of Music from the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. His principal teachers include Danielle Farina, Karen Ritscher, Sarah Darling, Jane Atkins and Martin Outram. He has also performed in masterclasses for many renowned violists including Désirée Elsevier, Nobuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian, and Hartmut Rohde.
Praised by the Royal Gazette for his “beautiful phrasing” and “bright and lively playing” and by the Boston Musical Intelligencer for his "admirable ensemble cohesion," Boston-based flutist Nicholas Southwick enjoys a diverse musical career.
Nicholas is a frequent guest artist of the Bay Chamber Concerts, where he recently performed J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 with Palaver Strings. He has also performed Bach’s concerti with the Bermuda Chamber Orchestra and was a soloist for the Bach the European series at the Royal Academy of Music. As a recitalist, he has performed at Harvard University, King’s Chapel, Salem Classical, the University of Cambridge, and the Bloomsbury Festival, London.
Based in Boston, Nicholas is core flutist with the American Prize winning Juventas New Music Ensemble, serves as Affiliated Faculty at Emerson College, and holds an Artist Fellowship with Music for Food for his work with violist Long Okada in Duo Gwynne. He also founded the Acadie Duo with cellist Jaime Feldman, with whom he curates an annual chamber music series in rural Maine. Nicholas has a particular interest in interdisciplinary dialogues between music and theology and is currently Fellow in Liturgy and Music at Harvard University’s Episcopal Chaplaincy. As an orchestral player, Nicholas has made appearances with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, New Hampshire Festival Orchestra, Boston Opera Collaborative, Harvard-Radcliffe and Manchester Choral Societies, and Trentino Music Festival Orchestra (Italy).
Nicholas completed his postgraduate training at the Royal Academy of Music, London under the tutelage of Karen Jones, Laura Jellicoe, and Katherine Baker. He also studied at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and Gordon College. His past teachers include Marco Granados, Robert Willoughby, and Susan Heath. Outside of his busy performance schedule, he loves to share the joy of music with his private flute students in Boston and the North Shore.
