Paul Bryan leads a distinguished career as both performer and educator. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Temple University where he studied trombone with Glenn Dodson and Eric Carlson and conducting with David Hayes, Arthur Chodoroff, and Lawrence Wagner, Paul currently serves as Director and Conductor of Bravo Brass – the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra brass ensemble, Music Director of the Philadelphia Wind Symphony, Head Conductor of the Young Artists Summer Program at Curtis Summerfest, Music Director of the Symphony in C Summer Camp, and a faculty member at Temple University and the Curtis Institute of Music. Described by composer Eric Ewazen as a “stunning” interpreter producing performances with “riveting momentum and heartfelt lyricism,” Paul has led concerts with a variety of groups including the wind and brass ensembles of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Rodney Mack Philadelphia Big Brass, and Boyz II Men.

Sought after for his ability to train gifted instrumentalists, Paul pushes his groups to take risks and to make music as opposed to just playing it. Past positions have included Conductor of the Drexel University Orchestra, Conductor of the Philadelphia All-City High School Concert Band, and appearances with the ensembles of the New York Summer Music Festival, Play On, Philly!, and numerous honor groups in the Delaware Valley. A respected member of the Philadelphia area’s musical community, Paul serves as Dean of Faculty and Students at the Curtis Institute of Music where he directs the educational programming and curricular life of one of the world’s foremost conservatories.

Ms. Kendall joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in September 2004 as Assistant Principal Cellist upon graduation from Curtis, where she studied with David Soyer and Peter Wiley. Ms. Kendall began studying cello at the age of five following the Suzuki method; at age 16, she made her solo debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. Ms. Kendall’s performances at chamber music festivals include Music from Angel Fire, Verbier, Marlboro, Kingston, and Carnegie Hall. Ms. Kendall is founding cellist of the Dryden String Quartet, which formed in 2001, and with that ensemble has performed at the Kennedy Center, Schneider Concert Series, Curtis Alumni Recital Series, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Ms. Kendall has served on the faculties of the National Orchestral Institute, Brevard Music Center, and Miami Summer Music Festival; serves as mentor for the Curtis Institute’s Community Artists Program, and maintains a private teaching studio. Ms. Kendall was the 2013 recipient of The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Kuhn Award. Currently, Ms. Kendall is pursuing a Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) at the University of Pennsylvania.

As a teacher, speaker, and strengths-based performance coach, Daniel Lerner is an expert in positive and performance psychologies. His key message is that developing a healthy (and happy!) psychological state has a profound impact on the pursuit of excellence—and he brings this message to students, established and high-potential performing artists and athletes, and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives. Lerner is a faculty member at New York University, where his class “The Science of Happiness” is currently the largest and most popular non-required course at the school. Following a decade at International Creative Management (where he specialized in the representation and development of young performers) and at 21C Media Group (where he was a co-founder and the director of artist development), Lerner studied closely with renowned sports psychologist Dr. Nathaniel Zinsser—a Director of The Center for Enhanced Performance at the United States Military Academy at West Point—focusing on coaching and performance enhancement techniques employed by professional and Olympic athletes. He holds a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and his first book will be released in Spring 2017 by Little, Brown, and Company.

Georgia is a composer and writer with degrees from Stanford, Brown, Columbia and PENN. She has studied music theory and composition with composer Howard Cass. Her music has been performed at a number of concert halls including Weill, Zankel, Merkin, Steinway, and Cami, as well as Symphony Space, American Opera Projects, and other venues. Her Piano Quartet won first prize in the CRS Competition and was issued on CD by the Contemporary Recording Society. Her musical works include her Piano Concerto, Fantasia on Celtic Themes, and Prufrock. Man with the Blue Guitar (with paintings by David Hockney) Portraits of the 20th Century (with iconic 20th-century photographs), and Dante’s Paradise (with paintings by Salvador Dali) have been performed in a multi-media format at Zankel Hall. She has also done settings of W.H. Auden, Yeats, Dylan Thomas, Gerard Manley Hopkins and other poets. She has had readings and showcases of her plays and musicals at various theaters including the Daryl Roth 2, the Acorn, the Kirk and the Lion in New York. Her fiction and poetry have been published in the New Yorker, New Republic, and New Criterion among other magazines and she won the Stanford Magazine Fiction Award. She has just completed her novel, White Lies. She lives in New York and has three sons.