Our Artists in 2024-25
Craig Combs
Pianist, Craig W. Combs, performs chamber music with like-minded artists who agree that great music is a reflection of the human condition. In his forty years as a performer, Dr. Combs has appeared in hundreds of performances in a wide array of venues and repertoire. His stage appearances include Merkin Hall, CAMI Hall, the Kennedy Center as well as Yale, Cornell, and Stanford Universities. From 2004-2017, Combs lived in London pursuing a chamber music career performing in Ireland, Scotland, England, Spain, Lithuania and France. Reviews of his playing comment on “. . . the exceptional pianism of Craig Combs” and that “No praise is too high for his contribution.”
Combs trained at the Eastman School of Music where he earned his masters and doctorate in piano performance and literature. Early in his career, he taught at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and George Mason University. In the mid 90’s, he was a visiting artist at several NYC community music schools - Turtle Bay, Third Street Settlement as well as the PS 7 Elementary School in the Bronx. Additionally, he worked in arts administration at the New York Foundation for the Arts and Chamber Music America.
In 2021, he co-founded and co-directs Red Door Chamber Music, a community ensemble dedicated to bringing chamber music to Provincetown and the communities of the Outer Cape. He is a member of the Provincetown Cultural Council and the Advisory Council of Great Music on Sundays at 5. In addition, Craig is the founder and Emeritus Director of The Paramount Chamber Players, an ensemble in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. In 2007, he released the CD, Forbidden Voices: Songs by Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis with soprano, Judith Sheridan.
Jeff Thurston
a graduate of Indiana University School of Music, has been an active free-lance violinist in the DC metro area since 1994. As an orchestral musician, he has performed most frequently with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the National Gallery Orchestra. As a theater musician, he is most often heard (if not necessarily seen) at Signature Theatre, where he has had the good fortune to work with several leading composers of musical theater (including John Kander, Michael John La Chiusa, and Joseph Thalken), as well as many distinguished orchestrators (including Jonathan Tunick, Bruce Coughlin, and Josh Clayton). He has also played for productions at several other theaters in the area, including Arena Stage, Ford’s Theater, and The Shakespeare Theater.
By day he pushes numbers around in the Finance Department at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Tyler Michael James
Lauded as performing “like a gladiator” and with a “phenomenal color palette” (Radda), cellist Tyler Michael James stands out as an ebullient artist of his generation. He is a top prize winner at the Radda International String Competition and regularly performs as an international soloist and chamber musician. A champion of new music, Tyler just released the official recording of Jessie Montgomery’s “Loisaida, My Love” on the Monday Music Label. He is currently assistant Faculty of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Cello Workshop. For more details: https://www.tylermichaeljames.net/
Loren Lee
maintains an active solo, chamber, and orchestral career. Loren appeared as a cast member with the Canadian violin group “Barrage” in the North American tour of “A Violin Sings, a Fiddle Dances.” He has been a featured soloist with the Burbank Chamber Orchestra, West Hollywood Orchestra and as a guest artist at Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood. Loren began his studies with former Boston Symphony member, Marylou Speaker Churchill. He completed his graduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music and coaches with Peter Zazofsky and Bonnie Bewick. He lives in Provincetown with his husband, Brian Raiche.
Matthew Vera
Mexican-American violinist Matthew Vera is known for his versatility as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader.
As an orchestral musician, Matthew can be heard all over the country. He has been a member of the Boston Philharmonic’s first violin section since 2010, and is occasionally a guest concertmaster. Matthew began his tenure as concertmaster of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2024 where he has been serving as guest concertmaster since spring of 2022. Matthew frequents the stages of The Boston Ballet, The Portland Symphony, The Rhode Island Philharmonic, The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, among others. Matthew has spent the last 2 summers as concertmaster of the American Repertory Theatre’s productions of Evita, and Gatsby.
Chamber music is an enormous part of Matthew’s life. He is a violinist with Castle of our Skins, a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. He can also be heard with Aurea Ensemble, Radius Ensemble, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and Monadnock Music.
Matthew made his solo debut on the viola with the Tucson Philharmonia at age 14. He has appeared as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic, The Tucson Philharmonia, The Tucson Symphony, The World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and The New England Conservatory Symphony. He has attended numerous festivals including Tanglewood, The Heifetz Institute, Brevard Music Center, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and more.
A native of Tucson, Arizona, Matthew’s early musical training was fostered through the Tucson Unified Public Schools and Tucson Junior Strings, a unique conductorless orchestra training program for young people. He is a graduate of The New England Conservatory where he studied with James Buswell, Lucy Chapman, and Donald Weilerstein. His mentors have included: The Borromeo String Quartet, Roger Tapping, Martha Katz, and John Heiss among others.
Hyunwoo Chun
was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, and earned his Bachelor of Music from Kyung Hee University in South Korea. Afterward, he moved to Boston and completed a Master of Music and Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where he studied under Thomas Martin, Associate Principal Clarinet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
As a chamber player, Hyunwoo was honored in 2023 with the Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, providing him the opportunity to perform Mozart's Clarinet Quintet alongside the Borromeo String Quartet at Jordan Hall. Additionally, he won the Honors Ensemble audition at NEC as part of the Zephyr woodwind quintet, which led to numerous community engagement performances at local schools and a recital at Jordan Hall.
As an orchestra player, Hyunwoo has performed extensively throughout the Boston area and greater New England region, collaborating with various ensembles, including Opera Company of Middlebury, Atlantic Orchestra, and Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra. Hyunwoo was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2022 and was invited back in 2024 as a New Fromm Fellow, where he performed contemporary works, including the Silent Film Project at both Tanglewood and the Coolidge Corner Theater. He was also a fellow at the Napa Valley Music Festival.
Currently, Hyunwoo is a member of Symphony New Hampshire and is a substitute with renowned orchestras such as New World Symphony, Chicago Civic Orchestra, and Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He continues to build a dynamic career, actively participating in a broad range of orchestral, chamber, and solo performances.
Thomas Cooper
Hailed as a “intensely dramatic,” (Cleveland Classical) and praised for his “graceful approach [with] silvery power,” (The Arts Fuse), violinist Thomas Cooper has established himself as one of the most dynamic young musicians and leaders of his generation. A three-time winner of New England Conservatory’s Entrepreneurial Musicianship award, Cooper is the founder and Artistic Director of Fermata Chamber Soloists, an award-winning collective of young artists performing innovative concerts.
In the 2023-2024 season, Cooper appears regularly in concerts as a soloist and chamber musician, with engagements to include performances of Saint-Georges Violin Concerto in A Major with the New England Repertory Orchestra, and the Du Bois Orchestra, as well as Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with cellist Tyler James, and pianist Byron Zhou - in addition to a session at WGBH’s Fraser Performance Studio recording Chausson’s Poème.
As a chamber musician, Cooper has had the fortune of sharing the stage with such groups and individuals as the Oberlin Trio, the Jupiter String Quartet, David Bowlin, Amir Eldan, Evgeny Sinaiski, Vadim Gluzman, and Per Ennokson. An avid performer of new music, Cooper has appeared on the Boston Symphony Orchestra's "What I Hear" concert series, showcasing works of living composers commissioned by the BSO.
As an educator, Cooper is on faculty at Credo Music in Ohio, Project STEP in Boston, and was a guest faculty member at Music Adventure in Spannocchia, Italy. A native of the Boston area, Cooper received his formal training at New England Conservatory and Oberlin Conservatory.
Cooper performs on a 1751 Gennaro Gagliano, on generous loan from a private collection.
Colin Levin
continues to explore a diverse array of vocal literature, ranging from the very physical character roles of opera to the ambitious vocal writing of the concert repertoire. Recent seasons have witnessed him performing the lyric baritone roles of Mozart, Rossini, Puccini, and Britten while also participating in the creation of new American works. In November 2018 he made his Carnegie Hall debut in as the Baritone soloist in Mark Hayes’ Gloria presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY), conducted by the Composer. He appears as Merriman in the 2020 world premiere recording of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s The Importance of Being Earnest on the BMOP Label.
He performed as Manfred Lewin in the East Coast professional premiere of Jake Heggie's theatrical song cycle with chorus For a Look or a Touch at Jordan Hall with the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, which he prepared with Mr. Heggie, and was subsequently broadcast on Boston television. Additional concert activity includes appearing as the Baritone soloist in J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Vaughan-William Dona Nobis Pacem with the Chatham Chorale, and Chichester Psalms, Mozart Requiem, and Carmina Burana with the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Chorus.
Colin received a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, with a double major in Vocal Performance and Musicology, and a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance and Literature at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, which he attended on full scholarship and fellowship. His awards include the Albert Rees Award from the S. Livington Mather Competition and an award from the 2015 Piccola Opera Competition in New Hampshire. Colin resides in Jersey City, NJ, with Poet Jeffery Berg, where he can be found giving food tours, and staring at pugs.
Brian Calhoon
(b. 1984, he/him) is a multi-faceted percussionist, singer, and innkeeper based in Provincetown, MA. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Brian specializes in music for the marimba and his voice and can be heard performing show tunes and pop covers in a show he created called the Marimba Cabaret. As a freelance percussionist, Brian has premiered nearly 100 works by living composers as a member of the Boston Percussion Group, Equilibrium Ensemble, and Juventas New Music Ensemble. Brian was previously Director of Admissions for The Boston Conservatory and is now an independent admissions consultant. He holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and The Boston Conservatory, and is a Marimba One artist. Since 2020, Brian and his husband Tom have owned and operated the Brasswood Inn where they enjoy hosting guests and producing concerts on the inn’s prominent front porch. www.briancalhoon.com
Markus Kaitila
(b. Helsinki, 1992) has appeared as a piano soloist with Joutseno Art Summer, Wratislavia, Queens College, and Jackson Heights chamber orchestras, and One World and New Amsterdam Symphony orchestras, under conductors such as Tong Chen and Charles Neidich. He won Bronze Prize in the 2nd WPTA Finland International Piano Competition 2020 and First Prize at the Köhler-Osbahr piano competition (Duisburg) in 2013. Markus currently attends New York University pursuing his doctorate.
Thomas Gregg
Tenor and composer Thomas Gregg is delighted to perform in Provincetown with Red Door Chamber Music. An Ohio native who has been in New England since 1998, he has enjoyed a distinguished career as a performer and educator. He has sung nationally and in Europe in opera, recital, chamber music, Early Music, and as a chorister, most notably with the Handel & Haydn Society and King's Chapel in Boston. Recently retired as Professor of music at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, his many former students have careers as professional singers, actors, voice teachers, and music educators. He holds degrees in voice from The Ohio State University (DMA), the University of Michigan (MM), and Capital University in Columbus, Ohio (BM).
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