Pianist Timothy Hester graduated from The Juilliard School as a student of the renowned pedagogue Adele Marcus. Mr. Hester is the Edythe Bates Old Professor of Piano at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, where he enjoys teaching students and serves as the Director of Keyboard Collaborative Arts.

Clarinetist Robert Walzel previously served as the founding dean of the University of Kansas School of Music from 2010-2022. Performing extensively in all mediums featuring clarinet and saxophone, he is hailed by critics as a “remarkable clarinet virtuoso” possessing “great finesse,” a “rich, warm, focused tone,” and “effortless technique.”