Discussion Panel

Douglas Fisher joined the Columbus Symphony Orchestra as Second Bassoon in September, 1984 after receiving his Bachelor of Music with Distinction and the Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. During his final two years at Eastman, he was a per service member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under David Zinman and spent summers performing with the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina and Italy, the Colorado Philharmonic, and the Heidelberg Castle Festival in Germany. He was also a finalist in the 1985 Gillet Competition of the International Double Reed Society. His principal teacher was K. David Van Hoesen and he also studied with Bernard Garfield and Christopher Weait. In 1992 Doug was one of the first musicians to serve on the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Board of Trustees and since 1996 has served as President of the Central Ohio Federation of Musicians, Local 103, AFM.

Winner of a Participation Prize at the 2011 Padova International Music Competition (Italy), Samuel Thompson is a Baltimore-based violinist whose career spans solo, chamber music, orchestral and interdisciplinary performance and arts journalism. During the 2011/2012 season Samuel appeared with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale in Toronto's Koerner Hall via an invitation from Tanya Charles of the Gould String Quartet (Canada), Washington DC's critically acclaimed Great Noise Ensemble, in recital with Michelle Schumann during the inaugural season of the Pro Arts Collective's Metropolitan Classical Series in Austin, Texas, and onstage with the Carpetbag Theatre Ensemble at the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture in Pittsburgh in addition to orchestral performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and with the Harrisburg, Knoxville, Roanoke and Delaware symphonies.

Samuel's performance during the 2011 Black Arts Movement (BAM) Festival in Austin resulted in immedate reengagement for the 2011/2012 season. During the 2010/2011 season he also performed Ryuichi Sakamoto's “Rain” in a performance for Musicians of Mercy, a collective of over seventy independent musicians and artists in the metropolitan Washington DC region. A seasoned performer, Samuel made his debut as soloist in 1998 with Robert Franz and the National Repertory Orchestra and has appeared with the Carolina Amadeus Players Chamber Orchestra, Cortlandt Chamber Orchestra, Orchard Park Symphony Orchestra and members of Orchestra X.

A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, Samuel made his east coast debut at the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas in a multimedia staged recital conceived and directed by Peter Webster, and has been presented in concert by Da Camera of Houston, Millennium Music Spotlight Series, Columbia Festival of the Arts in South Carolina, Chicago's Fazioli Salon Series under the auspices of Pianoforte Foundation Chicago and WFMT-FM, Kent State-Ashtabula Classical Concert Series, USC Cares: Renewal Through Music series at the University of South Carolina , the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival and the Museo Internato Ignoto in Padova, Italy. His chamber music partners include pianists Michelle Schumann and Stephen Carey, the Marian Anderson String Quartet and members of the West Shore Trio. Samuel has also appeared with performance artists and theatre companies at alternative performance spaces throughout the United States including DiverseWorks Artspace (Houston), the Old Ironworks Building (New Orleans), On The Boards (Seattle), Rockwood Music Hall (New York), Tucker's Blues (Dallas) and the Colony Theatre (Miami). In addition to appearing with the Carpetbag Theatre Ensemble during the 2008-2009 season, Samuel is also featured on the soundtrack of Rajni Shah Theatre's Dinner With America , a performance art piece that toured the United Kingdom and Spain in 2008.

Samuel has also been noted as a “thought-provoking and erudite writer” in response to his essays and program notes. In November 2011 Samuel was invited by Barbara Day Turner of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra to write a monthly column for the orchestra's newsletter. That column, titled “Other Notes”, debuted in January 2012 and featured interviews with artists including Talise Trevigne, Jennifer Kloetzel of the Cypress String Quartet and 2012 Menuhin Competition winner Kenneth Renshaw. In recent years Samuel has contributed to Strings Magazine , online industry magazine violinist.com and Nigel Kennedy Online .

Maintaining a sense of loyalty to the New Orleans musical community as he was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic during the 2002-2003 season, Samuel organized and performed in benefit concerts immediately after Hurricane Katrina, his efforts becoming the subject of an article in the September 2007 International Musician . Mr. Thompson has been profiled by Strings Magazine, the Austin Chronicle, Fractured Atlas, Strings Magazine, Jan Herman's “Straight-Up” at Artsjournal.com, the Boston Globe, the San Antonio Express-News, Relevant Magazine, OSU Magazine and the Crescent City Chronicles, with his live performances and interviews being broadcast on WFMT-FM's “Fazioli Salon Series”, WSCI-FM's “Conversations with Joan”, KAHL-FM's “Sonny Melendez Show” and KOSU-FM's “Concerts from OSU”.

A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Samuel studied violin at both the University of South Carolina and Oklahoma State University. He earned the Master of Music degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where his teachers included Kenneth Goldsmith and Raphael Fliegel. Samuel has also participated in the Helen and Immanuel Olshan Texas Music Festival, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the National Orchestral Institute and Spoleto Festival USA. A semifinalist in the 2000 New World Symphony Concerto Competition, Samuel was a recipient of an Artistic Assistance Award from Alternate ROOTS made possible with funds from the Kresge Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. He is a members of Alternate ROOTS and the American Federation of Musicians, and served as a member of the Maryland State Arts Council Grant Review Panel in 2012. Samuel plays a violin made in 1996 by Marilyn Wallin with a bow made by German bowmaker Sebastian Dirr.

Adam Pijanowski earned his Bachelors of Music in Euphonium Performance in the spring of 2001 from the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois. Adam has had the opportunity to play in diverse ensembles; punk rock bands, tuba-euphonium quartets, brass quintets, British brass bands to professional orchestras. He began playing the tuba only five years ago and moved to Rochester, New York last fall to study with Mr. Don Harry for a Masters Degree from the Eastman School of Music .

In addition to being a performer Adam has also had some as a private educator. It is his belief that a responsible musician does his/her best to pass on this art to the next generation. Since 1995 Adam has taught private trumpet, euphonium and tuba lessons for middle school and high school age children. He enjoys the enthusiasm and vigor that many of them show for music and learning an instrument.

James Nickel has been the Assistant Principal Horn of Dallas Symphony since 1999. Previously, he served as Associate Principal Horn with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Nickel has been featured as a soloist with the Florida Orchestra, the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. In the summers, Mr. Nickel is a member of Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado.

As a member of the Dallas Symphony, Mr. Nickel serves on the Orchestra Committee as the ICSOM delegate since 2003. He also serves on the Healthcare Committee, and is the Chairman of the Local Internet Oversight Committee. Outside of the symphony, he serves on the Governing Boad of ICSOM as a Member-at-Large.

Mr. Nickel received his B.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music. He is a native of St.Petersburg, Florida, but now lives in Dallas with his wife Julianna and their daughter Kathryn.

Beth Meyers is an active violist in the field of contemporary music. She is a founding member of the flute/viola/harp trio, "janus", and is committed to broadening the trio repertoire. In addition to her work with janus, Beth is an active soloist and chamber musician within and without of the field of contemporary music. Beth has worked with composers and artists including Meredith Monk, Bill Irwin, Theo Bleckman, Pierre Boulez, Harrison Birtwistle, Helmut Lachenmann, Martin Bresnik, and Steve Reich. A 2001 premiere of Steve Reich’s The Desert Music included Beth in both the premiere performance at Columbia’s Miller Theater as well as the Canteloupe recording. Beth was also a member of Alarm Will Sound for the U.S. premier of Harrison Birtwistle’s Theseus Game at Miller Theater (2003).

As an orchestral violist, Beth has played with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Heidelberg Opera Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, and the Lucerne Festival Academy. She has performed with ensembles including Anti-Social Music, the Theater of a Two-Headed Calf, Trollstilt, Ensemble Pampelmousse, the Audobon String Quaret, the Axis String Quartet, and the SEM Ensemble.

Beth's study of improvisation has found her at venues such as The Knitting Factory working with artists including Ralph Alessi, Kokayi, and Mark Helias. In 2000, she collaborated with jazz pianist and vocalist, Anna Johnson for her album One More Time In The Air (Oasis). Currently, she is violist and vocalist of "The Reasons", a hip New York band led by vocalist and guitarist, Clare Muldaur Manchon and featuring violinist Olivier Monchon and guitarist Lionel Loueke.

Beth is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where, under the direction of George Taylor and John Graham, she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She currently lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and enjoys teaching pilates and the History of Jazz as part of her well-rounded free-lance career.

Matthew Fritz is currently a first-year master’s student at the Eastman School of Music, pursuing a degree in Orchestral Conducting under the direction of Neil Varon. A native of Scottsdale, Arizona, Matthew completed his Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance at Arizona State University in May of 2005. He studied conducting privately with Robert Moody (currently music director, Winston-Salem Symphony) and has guest conducted with the Phoenix Symphony Guild Youth Orchestra. While just at the beginning of his conducting experiences, Matthew has had the opportunity to conduct concerts with the Mendoza Symphony in Argentina as well as work with the Rochester Philharmonic through their summer workshop.

Douglas Fisher joined the Columbus Symphony Orchestra as Second Bassoon in September, 1984 after receiving his Bachelor of Music with Distinction and the Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. During his final two years at Eastman, he was a per service member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under David Zinman and spent summers performing with the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina and Italy, the Colorado Philharmonic, and the Heidelberg Castle Festival in Germany. He was also a finalist in the 1985 Gillet Competition of the International Double Reed Society. His principal teacher was K. David Van Hoesen and he also studied with Bernard Garfield and Christopher Weait. In 1992 Doug was one of the first musicians to serve on the Columbus Symphony Orchestra Board of Trustees and since 1996 has served as President of the Central Ohio Federation of Musicians, Local 103, AFM.

Winner of a Participation Prize at the 2011 Padova International Music Competition (Italy), Samuel Thompson is a Baltimore-based violinist whose career spans solo, chamber music, orchestral and interdisciplinary performance and arts journalism. During the 2011/2012 season Samuel appeared with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale in Toronto's Koerner Hall via an invitation from Tanya Charles of the Gould String Quartet (Canada), Washington DC's critically acclaimed Great Noise Ensemble, in recital with Michelle Schumann during the inaugural season of the Pro Arts Collective's Metropolitan Classical Series in Austin, Texas, and onstage with the Carpetbag Theatre Ensemble at the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture in Pittsburgh in addition to orchestral performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and with the Harrisburg, Knoxville, Roanoke and Delaware symphonies.

Samuel's performance during the 2011 Black Arts Movement (BAM) Festival in Austin resulted in immedate reengagement for the 2011/2012 season. During the 2010/2011 season he also performed Ryuichi Sakamoto's “Rain” in a performance for Musicians of Mercy, a collective of over seventy independent musicians and artists in the metropolitan Washington DC region. A seasoned performer, Samuel made his debut as soloist in 1998 with Robert Franz and the National Repertory Orchestra and has appeared with the Carolina Amadeus Players Chamber Orchestra, Cortlandt Chamber Orchestra, Orchard Park Symphony Orchestra and members of Orchestra X.

A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, Samuel made his east coast debut at the New Haven International Festival of Arts and Ideas in a multimedia staged recital conceived and directed by Peter Webster, and has been presented in concert by Da Camera of Houston, Millennium Music Spotlight Series, Columbia Festival of the Arts in South Carolina, Chicago's Fazioli Salon Series under the auspices of Pianoforte Foundation Chicago and WFMT-FM, Kent State-Ashtabula Classical Concert Series, USC Cares: Renewal Through Music series at the University of South Carolina , the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival and the Museo Internato Ignoto in Padova, Italy. His chamber music partners include pianists Michelle Schumann and Stephen Carey, the Marian Anderson String Quartet and members of the West Shore Trio. Samuel has also appeared with performance artists and theatre companies at alternative performance spaces throughout the United States including DiverseWorks Artspace (Houston), the Old Ironworks Building (New Orleans), On The Boards (Seattle), Rockwood Music Hall (New York), Tucker's Blues (Dallas) and the Colony Theatre (Miami). In addition to appearing with the Carpetbag Theatre Ensemble during the 2008-2009 season, Samuel is also featured on the soundtrack of Rajni Shah Theatre's Dinner With America , a performance art piece that toured the United Kingdom and Spain in 2008.

Samuel has also been noted as a “thought-provoking and erudite writer” in response to his essays and program notes. In November 2011 Samuel was invited by Barbara Day Turner of the San Jose Chamber Orchestra to write a monthly column for the orchestra's newsletter. That column, titled “Other Notes”, debuted in January 2012 and featured interviews with artists including Talise Trevigne, Jennifer Kloetzel of the Cypress String Quartet and 2012 Menuhin Competition winner Kenneth Renshaw. In recent years Samuel has contributed to Strings Magazine , online industry magazine violinist.com and Nigel Kennedy Online .

Maintaining a sense of loyalty to the New Orleans musical community as he was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic during the 2002-2003 season, Samuel organized and performed in benefit concerts immediately after Hurricane Katrina, his efforts becoming the subject of an article in the September 2007 International Musician . Mr. Thompson has been profiled by Strings Magazine, the Austin Chronicle, Fractured Atlas, Strings Magazine, Jan Herman's “Straight-Up” at Artsjournal.com, the Boston Globe, the San Antonio Express-News, Relevant Magazine, OSU Magazine and the Crescent City Chronicles, with his live performances and interviews being broadcast on WFMT-FM's “Fazioli Salon Series”, WSCI-FM's “Conversations with Joan”, KAHL-FM's “Sonny Melendez Show” and KOSU-FM's “Concerts from OSU”.

A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Samuel studied violin at both the University of South Carolina and Oklahoma State University. He earned the Master of Music degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where his teachers included Kenneth Goldsmith and Raphael Fliegel. Samuel has also participated in the Helen and Immanuel Olshan Texas Music Festival, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the National Orchestral Institute and Spoleto Festival USA. A semifinalist in the 2000 New World Symphony Concerto Competition, Samuel was a recipient of an Artistic Assistance Award from Alternate ROOTS made possible with funds from the Kresge Foundation, Open Society Foundations and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. He is a members of Alternate ROOTS and the American Federation of Musicians, and served as a member of the Maryland State Arts Council Grant Review Panel in 2012. Samuel plays a violin made in 1996 by Marilyn Wallin with a bow made by German bowmaker Sebastian Dirr.

James Nickel has been the Assistant Principal Horn of Dallas Symphony since 1999. Previously, he served as Associate Principal Horn with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Nickel has been featured as a soloist with the Florida Orchestra, the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. In the summers, Mr. Nickel is a member of Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado.

As a member of the Dallas Symphony, Mr. Nickel serves on the Orchestra Committee as the ICSOM delegate since 2003. He also serves on the Healthcare Committee, and is the Chairman of the Local Internet Oversight Committee. Outside of the symphony, he serves on the Governing Boad of ICSOM as a Member-at-Large.

Mr. Nickel received his B.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music. He is a native of St.Petersburg, Florida, but now lives in Dallas with his wife Julianna and their daughter Kathryn.