Season Opener: Harp & Flute Chamber Music Gems
Marcel Grandjany: Aria in Classic Style for Harp & String Quartet
Marcel Samuel-Rousseau: Variations Pastorales sur un Vieux Noël for Harp & String Quartet
Chen-Yu Huang: Taiwanese Folk Songs for Flute Viola, & Harp
Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances
W.A. Mozart: Concerto for Flute & Harp in C major ( chamber version including violin, viola, & cello)
Claude Debussy: Danses sacrée et profane for Harp and String Quartet
Maurice Ravel: Sonatine for Flute & String Quartet
Maurice Ravel: Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, & String Quartet
The Musicians
Jacqueline Pollauf, harp
Kim Valerio, flute
Kyle Coughlin, clarinet
Sheng-Tsung Wang, violin
Michael Vaughn, violin
Julius Wirth Fuentes, viola
Fiona Thompson, cello
Photo of Kim Valerio by Richard Brown.
Kimberly Valerio
Flutist Kimberly Valerio holds a Bachelor of Music in Flute Performance from the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Mark Sparks. Her principal teachers have included Mary Louise Poor, Bonnie Lake, Donald Peck, and Walfrid Kujala. In addition, she has performed in master classes with Carol Wincenc, Robert Willoughby, Donald Peck, and was a featured performer in the James Galway Masterclass at the National Flute Association 1997 Chicago convention.
She has been playing Principal Flute with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra since 1998 and held the Principal Flute position with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra from 2004-2021. In addition to her appointments with both orchestras, she has performed with the Saint Louis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Washington National Opera, Post Classical Ensemble, National Philharmonic, National Repertory Orchestra, National Orchestral Institute, Spoleto Festival Orchestra U.S.A., Mid Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, South Florida Symphony Orchestra, and Chesapeake Chamber Orchestra.
Kimberly Valerio’s playing has been described as having “sparkle and verve” by the Baltimore Sun, “gorgeous sound” and “sweet purity” by the Capital Gazette, and “graceful elegance” by the Severna Park Voice.
Kyle Coughlin
Kyle Coughlin earned both his doctorate and master’s degrees in clarinet performance from the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Loren Kitt, and he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland as a student of Ed Walters. An active recitalist, he has performed throughout the United States, France, and Italy. Honors include awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, first prize in the Professional Division of the Baltimore Music Club, and finalist in the Buffet North American Clarinet Competition.
A versatile musician who is proficient in many styles of music, Dr. Coughlin has worked with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Bach in Baltimore, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (on saxophone), and many other ensembles in the area. He has performed with Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Seth MacFarlane, Manhattan Transfer, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis, Ben Folds, and many others. He is also a member of the band Junkyard Saints.
An active and enthusiastic educator, Dr. Coughlin has written more than twenty educational books and has created numerous educational websites which can be accessed from www.KyleCoughlinMusic.com and www.MusicAllTheTime.com.
Dr. Coughlin has released two jazz CDs, When Afternoons Return and In the Shadow of Palms. He has won several honors for his compositions, and his music has been heard in broadcasts around the world.
Sheng-Tsung Wang
Violinist Sheng-Tsung Wang gave his solo debut at the age of thirteen, performing with the Bremen Symphony Orchestra of Germany. Of the concert, Die Norddeutsch marveled that Wang “performed the difficult passages with astonishing understanding, as well as interpreting the lyric qualities with sweetness, bravura, and inspired tone.” He presented three evenings of solo and chamber performances in Carnegie Hall in 1999, under the auspices of the La Gesse Foundation.
Sheng-Tsung Wang earned his Doctoral of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland School of Music at College Park. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Peabody Conservatory, where he won the Marbury Violin Competition as a student of Victor Danchenko. Previous teachers have included Elaine Mishkind, Eugene Drucker of the Emerson String Quartet, Ik-Hwan Bae, Gerald Fischbach, and Mark Ulrich. As a chamber musician, Dr. Wang spent summers at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Taos School of Music, and Castleman Quartet Program. Dr. Wang has previous and current teaching positions at the University of Maryland School of Music at College Park, the Peabody Conservatory, Preparatory Division, and Howard Community College in Columbia, MD.
He has performed solo and orchestral works under the baton of guest conductors including Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop, the late Bramwell Tovey, and JoAnn Falletta. He has performed with classical artists including Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, and Leontyne Price, and with contemporary artists including Andrea Bocelli, James Taylor, Jon Batiste, among others.
As Associate Concertmaster of “The President’s Own” Marine Chamber Orchestra, Master Sergeant Wang performs regularly at the White House and other distinguished venues in the Washington, D.C. area.
Michael Vaughn
Michael Vaughn is concertmaster of the Columbia Orchestra and concertmaster and soloist with Bach in Baltimore. He has been an active violinist and violist in the Mid-Atlantic region since 2009, when he and his wife, Nana (violist and director of education for the Baltimore Symphony), moved to Ellicott City from their home state of Indiana. He performs regularly with ensembles including the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Reading Symphony, Lancaster Symphony, and the Maryland Symphony.
Before relocating to Maryland, Michael was a regular with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and served as associate concertmaster and soloist for the Muncie and Richmond (IN) Symphonies. Over the years he has shared the stage with music icons including Dave Brubeck, Aretha Franklin, Plant and Page, and The Moody Blues. He and Nana co-founded the Fisher Chamber Players in Fishers, Indiana, where he served as conductor and artistic director and both were active in the local arts community—the Town of Fishers even declared a “Michael and Nana Vaughn Day” in 2009 before their move.
Michael holds a degree in violin performance (with a minor in computer science) and a master’s in music education from Indiana University, where he studied with Paul Biss and Mimi Zweig. He works remotely from Ellicott City as an IT Architect for Yale University.
Julius Wirth Fuentes
Violist Julius Wirth Fuentes enjoys an exciting and varied performance career. Presently Principal Violist of both the National Philharmonic and the Harrisburg Symphony, he also served as principal violist of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra for nearly 20 years and was the first Principal Violist of the renowned New World Symphony Under Michael Tilson Thomas in its premier season. In the early 2000s he worked on Broadway in several shows including the revival of Rogers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song. His chamber music experiences have taken him to Italy, Germany, Austria, China, and many places across the United States.
He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music where he studied viola with Francis Tursi, Marcus Thompson, and Jeffery Irvine, and chamber music with the Cleveland Quartet and Abram Loft of the New Arts Quartet. He continued his studies at the Peabody Conservatory where he earned a Master of Music degree under the tutelage of Karen Tuttle.
As solo performer and advocate of new music, his accomplishments include giving the premier performances of Capriccio for solo Viola by Denis Atadan and Sonata for Viola and Piano by Romeo Melloni, the Maryland premier of Concierto para Viola y orquesta de cuerdas by Eduardo Alonso-Crespo and the American premier of the the Viola Concerto by Zdenek Lukas as well as multiple chamber works. He was a member of the new music group “Third Millennium Ensemble” for years. In other genres he has has been a member of the Umoja String Quartet for over a decade, a group specialized in music of African origin from Yoruba folk tunes to Rag, swing and Bebop. He is currently working on a recording project that includes four previously unknown and unrecorded sonatas for viola and piano. During the summer he enjoys a faculty position with the American Institute of Music Studies in Graz Austria and keeps a private teaching studio in Maryland throughout the year.
Return to the 2026-2027 Concert list.