Before graduating from high school, Margi had already won many awards in composition on the local, state, and national levels, including a grant from BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.) in 1975, and First Prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs Competition for New Orchestral Works in 1978. She has received commissions from the Huntingdon Trio of Philadelphia, Schenectady Symphony, the Cleveland Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, The Cleveland Institute of Music Cello Ensemble, the Greater Akron Musical Association, Hendrix College, Jeanné, Inc., Fortnightly Musical Club, retired Cleveland Orchestra Principal Oboist John Mack, Cleveland Orchestra Solo Piccoloist Mary Kay Fink, and Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Flautist Jeffrey Kahner. She has also collaborated with The Poets’ League of Greater Cleveland and has had music choreographed by Karen Gabay, principal dancer of the former Cleveland-San Jose Ballet. She was named "Ohio Composer of the Year” by the Ohio Music Teachers’ Association in 2003. Margi’s works have recently been performed at the International Society of Bassists’ Convention in Indianapolis, the World Saxophone Congress in Minneapolis, and the Stones River Chamber Music Series in Nashville. Her works were performed by the Fiati Trio in Minneapolis in April and by Cleveland Orchestra First Assistant Principal Violist Lynne Ramsey with Kathryn Brown, pianist, at the American Viola Society Conference in Minneapolis in June. In addition, Hebert Variations, for piccolo and piano, will be presented as a required composition during the National Flute Association’s Solo Piccolo Competition in Nashville in August. Her music is published by Ludwin Music, Inc., Los Angeles; Jeanné, Inc., Minneapolis; and Musicalligraphics, Cleveland.

Margi has performed as an oboist and English hornist with symphonies throughout New York State, as well as Erie, Pennsylvania, and northeast Ohio. She also works as a professional music copyist for publishing companies such as Theodore Presser, G. Schirmer, and Peer Southern, as well as for ensembles including the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, and for numerous well-known composers. She has served on the faculty at The Cleveland Institute of Music as teacher of music notation and the computer music-copying program, Finale. She served for four years as Chairman of the Cleveland Composers Guild and is now president of the Bascom Little Fund Advisory Board, an organization which supports the production of music written by composers residing in northeast Ohio.

David Morgan is active as a jazz bassist, composer, theorist, and teacher. As a bassist Morgan has performed with many leading artists including Joe Lovano, Bob Brookmeyer, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson, John Hicks, and Larry Coryell. His compositions for classical and jazz ensembles are recorded and performed throughout the world, and the Jazz Unit has released a critically-acclaimed CD of his compositions entitled “Choices.” Morgan earned a Doctorate in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at Youngstown State University.

Erwin Schulhoff (b. 1894 - Prague, d. 1942 Wurzburg prisoner of war concentration camp, Bavaria) was considered in the 1920’s to be a progressive pianist and composer, a contradictory intellect, a wild, ‘tempermental musician and wastrel” who discovered musical inspiration in the tavern, in the sounds of the saxophone and contrabassoon, rather than in the concert life dominated by bourgeois tastes, with its expressively sobbing violins. (Erich Steinhard) Open to all trends, Schulhoff combined Dada compositions, jazz, neoclassicism, expressionism, Slavic folklore and popular dances, metrically free notation, and church modes.

Under the Nazi concept of entartete Musik (degenerate music), all works by Jewish composers, and works by non-Jewish composers whose style was perceived as tainted by non-Aryan influences, were banned, as the Nazis tried to erase them from history. This gradually dissolved into the mass deportation of Jews from Germany and the occupied nations to ghettos and concentration camps. Although the Holocaust was an assault on Jewish culture, others suffered as well in what was history's most vile instance of totalitarian suppression of intellectual and creative work. Musicians’ resistance took many forms, and crossed many national and religious boundaries. This resistance cannot have been in vain; we must remember these musicians through the preservation and performance of their music.

Performing Musicians

Kathryn Brown performs regularly as solo pianist, chamber musician and singer. As pianist, Ms. Brown has appeared in recital at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and Columbia Artists Community Concerts Series. She was one of only five Americans invited to compete in the Eighth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. and was first prize winner of the San Antonio International Keyboard Competition. Ms. Brown was chosen as winner of the Pro Piano Competition and performed her New York Solo Debut Recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. She has also been a recipient of the Darius Milhaud Prize and the Louis Sudler Prize for the Arts. She received an Artist Diploma at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Paul Schenly. She is currently on the piano faculty and is also a vocal coach at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Bryan Dumm is a member of the cello section of the Cleveland Orchestra, frequent chamber music performer, and is active in the Cleveland Cello Society. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, he now serves on the faculties of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Cleveland State University.

Molly Fung-Dumm also graduated from the Eastman School of Music. She teaches at Cleveland State University, and is active as a chamber musician.

Mary Kay Ferguson is one of the area’s most active flutists, piccoloists, and alto flutists, performing as Acting Principal Flute with the Akron Symphony as well as with Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Red [an orchestra], the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra. She attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and the University of Akron, where she now serves on the faculty.

Randall Fusco is Professor of Music at Hiram College, where he teaches piano, music theory, music history, and introductory. In demand as a soloist and collaborative artist, he has appeared with numerous orchestras, soloists, and chamber ensembles around the country. His two recordings made with Cleveland Orchestra Bassoonist Barrick Stees, have been met with enthusiastic reviews. Mr. Fusco has become increasingly active as a conductor, and was a Conducting Fellow at the Conductors Institute of South Carolina He attended the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Cecile Genhart, Frank Glazer, and Barbara Lister-Sink.

Mark George is well known to area audiences as the pianist for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and Red [an orchestra]. He has served on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music and has performed innumerable new works.

Takako Masame has been for many years a member of the First Violin Section of the Cleveland Orchestra. She frequently collaborates with orchestra colleagues and other fine musicians from around the area in chamber music performances.

Lynne Ramsey is First Assistant Principal Violist with the Cleveland Orchestra. A much sought-after teacher, she has served on the faculties of the Oberlin College Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music, as well as being a frequent presenter of Master Classes around the country.

Thomas Sperl, double bassist, attended the Eastman School of Music. He is a member of the Bass Section of the Cleveland Orchestra, and serves on the faculty of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

Danna Sundet is Principal Oboe in the Erie Philharmonic, with which she has performed numerous concerti. She also plays oboe and English horn with Red [an orchestra], the Cleveland Opera Orchestra. Trinity Chamber Players, the Baldwin-Wallace College Bach Festival, and the Carmel (Ca.) Bach Festival. She attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with John Mack, and now teaches at Kent State University.

Producers

Jeffrey Irvine, violist and pedagogue extraordinaire, has served on the faculties of the Oberlin College Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and performs often as a chamber musician nationally and internationally. He is active in the American Viola Society and teaches at the Aspen Festival during the summer.

William Hebert is the retired Principal Piccolo Player of the Cleveland Orchestra, (hired by George Szell) with which he played for several decades. He is admired for his fine playing and also enjoys a veritable army of loyal former students and colleagues from around the country. The Hebert Variations were commissioned in his honor.