Garret Ross

Artistic Director, Pianist

Pianist Garret Ross is an experienced soloist and avid chamber musician with a wide ranging repertoire. He is the founder and Director of the Apollo Music Festival as well as the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Florestan Chamber Music. Garret has performed on stages and series across the USA including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, The Roerich Museum in NYC, the Bermuda Piano Festival, and Music Northwest in Seattle WA.

As a soloist, Garret gave the World Premiere of Gregory Vajda’s Csardas Obstine with the Texas Festival Orchestra and the Music in The Mountains Festival Orchestra. Other concerto appearances include the repertoire of Bach, Beethoven, Grieg, Rachmaninoff, and Hindemith. Garret has performed at numerous festivals including the Aldeburgh Festival, Banff Centre, and the International Festival-Institute at Round Top.

Garret holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota, as well as a Certificate in Music Education from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Music. Garret’s principal teachers are Alexander Braginsky and Eteri Andjaparidze. Both Braginsky and Andjaparidze studied at the Moscow Conservatory where their teachers, Teodor Gutman and Vera Gornostaeva, respectively, were students of Heinrich Neuhaus. Garret hopes to continue this tradition of piano playing through his performances and teaching. An active teacher himself, Garret teaches students throughout the Twin Cities, and conducts masterclasses at universities throughout the United States. He is on the faculty of The Saint Paul Conservatory of Music.

Garret lives in North Minneapolis with his partner Justin, cat Marzipan, and Doberman Reginald Barclay. He enjoys cooking, gardening, and traveling.

Rachel Charbel

Violin

Raised in Bellingham, Washington, Rachel Charbel began studying the violin at the age of seven. As a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Rachel holds the Ida Ringling North chair. Past appointments include the Austin Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. In addition, Rachel has performed with the Detroit, Louisville, and Alabama symphony orchestras. After serving as Adjunct Professor of Violin at the Northern Kentucky University, Rachel now maintains a private studio of promising young violinists. Rachel received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Texas and a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. During the summer, Rachel has performed with the Britt and Bellingham music festivals, and served as concertmaster of the Spoleto Festival USA. 

In her spare time, Rachel enjoys gardening, hiking, board games, and exploring what greater Cincinnati has to offer with her husband and two daughters.

Valerie Little

Viola

Pennsylvania native Valerie Little has regularly performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, Mill City Summer Opera, Orchestra Iowa, Florestan Chamber Music, the Schubert Club’s Courtroom Concerts series, and on many chamber music series throughout the US. 

Since 2009, Valerie has served as Assistant Principal Librarian of the Minnesota Orchestra and became a tenured member in September 2015. 

Valerie holds bachelor’s degrees in viola performance and English from Penn State University, a MM in viola performance from the University of Texas-Austin, and a DMA in viola performance from the University of Minnesota. This fall, Valerie will begin her Mortuary Science studies with the goal of further serving her community in a new way, while still engaging with her current artistic pursuits. 

Valerie studied creative writing at Penn State and the University of Pennsylvania. Two of her non-fiction pieces were nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize. In 2022, her debut chapbook, Little Blue Primer, was one of seven finalists for the 16th Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Poetry. 

Ruth Marshall

Cello

Cellist Ruth Marshall (she/her/hers) is active across Minnesota as a performer and educator. She is the cellist of the Mill City String Quartet, which presents five full programs each season in the Twin Cities, and which frequently performs for students across the metro area through the Class Notes program of Minnesota Public Radio. She is also the cellist of Artu Duo, a collaborative ensemble with pianist Garret Ross. After seven years of playing concerts and giving masterclasses across the United States, Artu Duo formed Florestan Chamber Music, in order to serve local students and perform for Twin Cities audiences. Ruth is also an active and committed cello instructor, teaching students of all ages and levels at her home studio, and working with college students at Winona State University and Hamline University. In the summers, she performs as part of the Britt Festival Orchestra in southern Oregon, and as an artist-in-residence at the Apollo Music Festival in southeast Minnesota. In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor activities, reading parenting books, and listening to podcasts about cooking and baking. She lives in St. Paul, MN, on Dakota land, with her husband and children. Please visit ruthmarshallcello.com for more information. 

Elizabeth York

Violin

Elizabeth York lives in St. Paul, MN, and is sought after as a performer and teacher across the region. In 2013 she completed a dual Doctor of Musical Arts in violin and viola performance at Stony Brook University (NY). She currently holds the positions of Associate Concertmaster and Personnel Manager of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, and violin faculty at the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University. She is also violin, viola, and chamber music faculty at St. Cloud State University.

Elizabeth is an avid chamber musician and recitalist with interest in a wide range of musical styles, from baroque performance practice to contemporary music. Recent performance highlights include projects with La Grande Bande, 113 Composers Collective, Transept, and Sioux Falls Chamber Music Collective, as well as solo violin recitals at The Baroque Room in St. Paul and at the BARC in Windom, MN. Elizabeth plays baroque violin and viola as a member of Lyra Baroque Orchestra, where she also previously served a three year term as Players' Representative on the board of directors.

Elizabeth is a dedicated teacher, committed to fostering creativity and freedom of expression in her students. In addition to her private violin/viola studio, she has taught violin at Birch Creek Symphony Session (Door County, Wisconsin) since 2013, and was on faculty for the inaugural Birch Creek Adult Chamber Music Retreat in 2019. She has been the chamber music coordinator and violin faculty at Upper Midwest String Camp since 2017, and was a violin coach for MN All-State Orchestra camp in 2017. She has conducted sectionals with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, Fargo-Moorhead Area Youth Symphony, and Southwest MN Orchestra, as well as various high schools in Minnesota and North Dakota. She previously served as Lecturer of Upper Strings at North Dakota State University.  

In addition to her doctorate, Elizabeth holds a BM from East Carolina University, and MM from Stony Brook University in violin performance. Her major teachers include violinists Ara Gregorian, Soovin Kim, and Phil Setzer, and violists Dan Panner, Nicholas Cords, and Lawrence Dutton.

Alan Snow

Violin

Alan Snow joined the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2022 and won the position of Associate Concertmaster in November 2022. Previously, he was the second associate concertmaster with the Omaha Symphony. Since his performance with the Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra at age 13, Alan has performed solo and chamber works internationally, including appearances at Chicago’s Symphony Center, London Symphony Orchestra St. Luke’s, la Sala Manuel M. Ponce in Mexico City, and others. Previous concertmaster appointments include the Evansville Philharmonic, Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, Terre Haute Symphony, Colorado MahlerFest, Festival Napa Valley Music Academy, Britten-Pears Young Artists Program, Indiana University’s top orchestras, Carmel Symphony and Music Academy of the West. Alan has  worked closely with esteemed concertmasters Glenn Dicterow, Alexander Kerr, and Jorja Fleezanis and has performed under the baton of conductors and leaders such as John Williams, Sir Simon Rattle, Joshua Bell, Leonidas Kavakos, Osma Vänskä, Thomas Søndergård, Nicholas McGegan, James Gaffigan, Edward Gardner, Stéphane Denève, and Gustavo Dudamel.

Previous awards and honors include being a semifinalist at Windsor Festival International Strings Competition, grand prizes at the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, the LAMC Recording Competition, the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, the Discover Chamber Music Competition, second prize at the Rembrandt Chamber Players and honorable mention at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. As a winner of the Keston MAX Fellowship, Alan played under Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra in 2019. Previous chamber collaborations include performances with Rachel Barton-Pine, James Buswell, Jorja Fleezanis, Martin Chalifour, Mindy Kaufman, Desmond Hoebig, Robert Vernon, Steve Wyrczynski, and Eric Kim.

An avid chamber player, Alan studied closely under the Pacifica Quartet and the Takács Quartet and has recorded two chamber music albums, one as a member of the Chicago Panamerican Ensemble called, “Voices of Mexico’s Past and Present” and one with pianist, Joanne Chang called, “Dialogos.” Both albums explore the rich landscape of classical music in Mexico. Snow also served as first violin of the Eykamp String Quartet and was on faculty of the University of Evansville from 2018-2021. In addition to his teaching there, he has served as artist-faculty at the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival and currently serves on the faculty of the Birch Creek Summer Music Festival in Door County, Wi where he is concertmaster of the orchestra.

Recent and upcoming engagements include performing alongside Erin Keefe and Tony Ross at the Michael Steinberg & Jorja Fleezanis fund, performing the Turina Piano Trio with Jon Kimura Parker at the Minnesota Orchestra, Piazzolla’s Four Seasons with the Birch Creek Symphony, and the Brahms Double Concerto as soloist with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra.

A Chicago native, Alan participated at Midwest Young Artists for nine years, where he received intensive orchestral and chamber music training. He studied with Gerardo Ribeiro at Northwestern University before receiving his Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University under Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and Alexander Kerr, concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.