Simón Gollo (He/Him)

Artistic Director - Snow Pond Music Festival

NEMC Symphony Orchestra & Violin

Simón Gollo is recognized as a multifaceted and charismatic musician who enjoys a successful international career as a chamber musician, pedagogue, soloist, and conductor. He is also a recording artist for the international recording label IBS Classical, and is represented, alongside the Reverón Piano Trio, by HALAC Artists and Meluk Kultur Management.

After building upon years of experience in New York, Venezuelan violinist, conductor, and educator, Alí Bello has distinguished himself for his versatility among different music styles, in addition to his well-found classical training and multidimensional improvisational skills.

Marion Baker is principal cellist with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra and free-lances in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.  He is a co-founder of the RusticWay Chamber Music Ensemble and plays with the Listen Local Ensemble and the National Gallery/Sunrise Quartet.  

Matt Dingledine is an active composer, teacher, and guitarist in Greenville, South Carolina. Since 2018, he is the owner of Watson Wood Music where he has been teaching lessons for guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, lap steel, and music theory since 2006. He is Director of Operations, board member, and co-founder of the Greenville Jazz Collective (GJC), voted Best Jazz Band of the Upstate by the readers of the Greenville News for 2017 and 2018.

Germán Marcano currently excels among the most important cellists in the Latin American music scene. His performances have received the best acclaims from musicians and the specialized critic, and his chamber music work with the Rios Reyna Quartet, has stand out as one of the most important in the continent. A student with Maestro Stefan Popov and of the renowned British pedagogue William Pleeth, Marcano obtained his Bachelor of Music Degree in year 1983, at the prestigious Surrey University, England, where he was prized for the year’s best graduation concert.

Gudrun Raschen has extensive solo, orchestral, and chamber music experience on double bass and cello. She has given concerts in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Poland, Finland, Italy, Germany, Vietnam, South Africa, and Namibia. She has taught and performed at the Pan American Music Festival in South Texas, International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa, International Bass Convention in Poland, Oficina de Música in Curitiba, Brazil, International Chamber Music Festival in Positano, Italy, the Arts Festival Autumn Melodies in Vietnam and Performing Arts Festival in Hawaii.

Dr. Nash Ryder is currently a violinist and rotating concertmaster in the New World Symphony in Miami, FL. Beginning his studies at the age of seven, he studied with world-renowned pedagogues Donald Weilerstein and Anait Arutunian at the New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School. Under the tutelage of Ronald Copes and Frank Huang, he later earned his B.M. and M.M. in violin performance from the Juilliard School.

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Dr. Diana Sánchez, a faculty member of the Peabody Preparatory of Johns Hopkins University, has developed an international career as a violinist. She has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the New Horizons Symphony in New Mexico (2017) and the Ibague Symphony Orchestra in Colombia (2019). She has toured internationally with the Colombian Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Mexico State University Philharmonic Orchestra, the National University of Colombia Symphony Orchestra, and the Bogotá Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Orchestras where she has been an active member include the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, the Panama City Symphony Orchestra, the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, the Florida State University Symphony Orchestra, El Paso
Symphony Orchestra, Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, Roswell Symphony Orchestra, New Mexico State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Colombian Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Bogota Symphony Orchestra, the Clara Schumann
Women’s Orchestra, among others.

Dr. Sánchez has been teaching professionally since 2008. In 2010, she was part of the violin faculty of Montalban in Caracas, Venezuela, for El Sistema program. Between 2012 and 2016 she was a violin and music teacher in different high school
programs such as Tocar y Luchar in CAFAM Bogotá and the Educational Program of the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to her faculty position at Peabody Preparatory, she is currently performing and teaching with the Iris Music Project at
Weinberg Villages in Maryland, an independent living facility.

Dr. Sánchez’s awards and recognitions include the Young Artist Competition of the New Horizons Symphony Orchestra in New Mexico (2017) and the Young Performers of the Luis Angel Arango in Bogotá with Alla Corda String Quartet (2008).
She has also participated in different music festivals including the Vienna Summer Music Festival and the Aruba Symphony Festival, where she was part of the staff from 2017 to 2019. Since 2021, she has been invited to New Mexico State University
to participate in different events and festivals as violin faculty and clinician.

As a chamber musician, Dr. Sánchez has vast experience playing in different ensembles including the Iris Music Project Piano Trio (2021-present), the Latin American ensemble Cincopando (2018-2020), Julian Guerrero y su Compas de Tango (2013-2016), Alla Corda String Quartet (2006-2008), among others.

Liuh-Wen Ting received her MM and BM degrees from the Juilliard School, studying with William Lincer and Karen Tuttle. She was a member of the award-winning Meridian String Quartet for seven years, and a co-founder of Ensemble Meme, which debuted at Zankel Hall to critical acclaim. She has appeared both as soloist and chamber musician at festivals such as the Prague Spring Music Festival, Ostrava Days in Czech Republic, the Warsaw Autumn Music Festival, Primavera en la Habana international electro-acoustic music festival in Cuba('02 &'20), and most recently New Mexico Music Festival ('21).