After two years of persuading her parents, Heather began playing the violin at age seven. Since then she has performed in music festivals across the United States, Europe and South America. As an orchestral player, Heather is a regular member of Portland Opera and Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestras. Heather will be performing as guest concertmaster this spring for Portland Chamber Orchestra and is former assistant concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (WA). Heather has performed with the Reno Philharmonic and holds a spot on the Oregon Symphony Orchestra's substitute list.

As a chamber musician Heather was a founding member of the Northwest Piano Trio and has performed numerous times with the ensemble on All Classical Portland Public Radio. Also interested in non-classical music, Heather has toured the country with Five For Fighting and frequently collaborates with cellist, Dave Eggar. She has toured multiple times as concertmaster for celebrated film composer, Helen Jane Long and can be heard on Phillip Phillips’ recent album.

Heather is an Artist Associate at Willamette University where she teaches violin, chamber music and orchestra sectionals. She regularly coaches orchestra sectionals for Portland’s Metropolitan Youth Symphony and has a thriving private teaching studio.

Heather holds a bachelor of music degree from the Eastman School of Music and a master of music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her primary teachers include Axel Strauss, Juliana Athayde and Frank Huang. She lives in Portland with her husband, guitarist Mario Díaz and their four children.

Gabriela Gimenes holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of North Texas, a Master of Music from the University of Central Arkansas, and a Bachelor of Music from São Paulo State University. Gabriela has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Mobile, Harding University, and Brookhaven College, in addition to her role as the chair of the Online Music Department at Universidade Metropolitana de Santos. She has performed with the São Paulo Youth Wind Symphony, the Conway Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Acadêmica do Estado de São Paulo, and during the São Paulo production of "Fiddler on the Roof” and subbed at Wicked.
Gabriela Gimenes was an artist associated with the Sopro Novo Project at Yamaha Musical do Brasil, where she published a flute notebook through Ricordi for Yamaha in 2013. Since moving to Portland in 2017, she has worked as a flute teacher for Bravo Youth Orchestras. Currently, she performs with Choro da Alegria, Bossa PDX, and the Gimenes Beaty flute-guitar duo in Portland, Oregon. Additionally, she serves as the chair of the Youth Engagement Committee and Portland Local Arrangements for the National Flute Association.

Cellist Heather Blackburn has been lauded for her “burnished tone” (The Oregonian) and for “her gorgeous tone and playing unerringly in tune” (Seattle Post Intelligencer). Heather was appointed to 4 one-year positions with the Oregon Symphony and has performed as guest principal cello for Portland Opera, Symphony Tacoma and Tulsa Symphony. She has given Oregon premieres of works by Joan Tower and Esa -Pekka Salonen, has been a featured soloist with Portland Symphonic Choir, and has performed and recorded with Pink Martini, Portland Cello Project, soul singer Ron Artis and indie band Other Lives. Heather currently teaches cello and chamber music at George Fox University and University of Portland. Heather was invited to perform a solo recital featuring music by Amy Beach as part of the “Women in Music” series at Chadron State College, NE in March. Upcoming concerts include a livestream with cellist Diane Chaplin of works by Giovanni Sollima, a recital in her home state of New York and a solo performance with the University of Portland Orchestra.

Dr. Stephen Lewis is a composer, pianist, and conductor living in Portland, Oregon, whose music inhabits the terrain between sound as physical sensation and sound as signifier of culture. Hailed as “delectable,” with a “constantly shifting sonic world [that] proved fascinating and effective,” Stephen’s chamber opera, Noon at Dusk, was premiered at UC San Diego in 2016. He has been commissioned by or written works for the Delgani String Quartet, Cascadia Composers, the Wellesley Composers Conference, red fish blue fish, UC San Diego's Palimpsest ensemble, the Diagenesis Duo, Gnarwhallaby, Trio Kobayashi, Aurora Borealis, and a number of individuals. Stephen has performed in solo and ensemble concerts at Miller Theater in New York, Severance Hall in Cleveland, the Walt Disney and Zipper Halls in Los Angeles, and at smaller venues throughout the United States. Stephen maintains a private studio of piano, composition, and music theory students. He completed the PhD in Composition at UC-San Diego in 2015, where he studied with Rand Steiger. Subsequently, he completed the DMA in Contemporary Piano Performance in 2017, where he studied with Aleck Karis. Stephen is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he majored in piano and composition.

For his work with young composers, pianist and conductor Jeff Payne was awarded the 2022 Musical Hero Award by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. He founded Fear No Music with percussionist Joel Bluestone in 1992, and has performed hundreds of concerts with the group across the United States. During his tenure as Artistic Director for the group he was responsible for presentation of twenty World Premiere or American Premiere performances of works by Pacific Northwest composers. In 1997 he founded the Young Composers Workshop, and continues as its Director, overseeing the development of aspiring young creative minds around the region. The 25tth anniversary of the Young Composers Project was featured in articles in the Oregonian and Oregon Arts Watch.

Payne’s complete performance of Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus” was named one of the Ten Best Concerts of the year by the Oregonian. Heralded by the Boston Globe as “a pianist of chameleon abilities,” Payne has performed on WGBH National Public Radio in Boston, KING radio in Seattle, All-Classical and KOPB radio in Portland, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Norton Gallery in Palm Beach, at the Seattle Spring Festival, at Eugene's Music Today Festival, the Ernest Bloch Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival. He has performed as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, and the Yaquina Chamber Symphony. Payne holds a law degree from Lewis & Clark Law School and is a Senior Assistant Attorney General with the Oregon Department of Justice.