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Barbara Spicher is an active performer throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Besides her work with the Appalachian Wind Quintet, her chamber music activities include being flutist member of the Hood Chamber Players and the Frederick Baroque Ensemble. She is principal flutist of the Mercersburg Chorus and Orchestra and the Shippensburg University Festival Orchestras, and performs with the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra in Shepherdstown, WV. For many seasons she has performed with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Millbrook Orchestra, and the Cumberland Valley Chamber Players. For four years she served as Artistic Fellow for the Washington, DC based LaGesse Foundation under whose auspices she has performed recitals at the French Embassies of US and Canada, and at the LaGesse Festival in Toulouse, France. She was awarded a medal from the French government in recognition of her participation in these cultural exchanges. She has a degree from West Virginia University and has studied flute with Toshiko Kohno, principal flutist with the National Symphony, and Timothy Day of the San Francisco Conservatory, and baroque flute with Colin St. Martin of Peabody Conservatory. She is professor of flute at Hood College, Mercersburg Academy and at the Preparatory Division of Shepherd University. |
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Ed Stanley is originally from Roanoke,VA and has lived in Greencastle, PA since 1981. He earned an undergraduate degree in music education at Western Carolina University and a Master of Music degree in oboe performance at the University of Oklahoma. Since moving to this area he has been active in the region’s musical life, having served as principal oboist with the Maryland Symphony, the Millbrook Orchestra, the Cumberland Valley Chamber Players, the Mercersburg Community Chorus and Orchestra, the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, the Shippensburg Festival Orchestra, the Gettysburg Festival, and the Hood College Chamber Players. As a freelance musician he has performed with many of the area’s choral groups and churches as well as performances with the Harrisburg Symphony and the Concert Artists of Baltimore. He maintains teaching studios at Hood College, at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College, and at his home in Greencastle. His principal teachers were James Gavigan at the University of Oklahoma and Richard White with the National Symphony. |
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Rick Mogensen holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and a Master’s Degree from the University of Maryland.
He formerly taught in public as well as private school systems in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Besides the Appalachian Wind Quintet, he currently is principal clarinetist with the Mercersburg Community Chorus and Orchestra and the Hagerstown Municipal Band with which he also appears regularly as clarinet and saxophone soloist. He has performed previously with various musical ensembles, including the Maryland Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Cumberland Valley Chamber Players, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra and Small Ensembles, as well as numerous dance bands and pit orchestras. Rick has composed and arranged for various large and small ensembles, and is active as a church musician, directing one of the area’s few remaining Sunday School Orchestra’s for over 30 years. |
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Scott Cassada hardly ever sleeps and is rarely at home. He is a modern-day itinerant musician. Scott performs on his modern bassoon (a pre-war Heckel), baroque bassoon (a copy of an English bassoon made in 1727 by Thomas Stanesby) and curtal (a precursor to the bassoon which was used extensively during the 17th century). As a modern bassoonist, he is a member of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, the Roanoke Symphony, Opera Roanoke, the Shippensburg Festival Orchestra, and the Lynchburg Symphony. As a player of historic bassoons, Scott performs regularly with the Washington Bach Consort, the Centenary Baroque Orchestra (Richmond, Virginia), the Piedmont Baroque Orchestra (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), Winchester Baroque, and the Cavalier Consort. He has appeared many times on the baroque bassoon as a featured performer at Shenandoah Conservatory’s annual Bach-Handel Festival. Over the years, Scott has performed with the Bach Sinfonia, the Richmond Symphony, the Fairfax Symphony, the Winchester Chamber Orchestra, the Millbrook Orchestra, the Cumberland Valley Chamber Players, the Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, the Altoona Symphony, the Mercersburg Chorus and Orchestra, the Orchestra of the 17th Century, and the St. John’s Chamber Orchestra. He has recorded on the Dorian label and can occasionally be heard playing in the background music for documentaries on the National Geographic Channel and The Discovery Channel. Scott has held adjunct faculty positions at Shepherd University and Hood College and has served as the bassoon instructor for Shenandoah Conservatory’s Community Arts Program and Performing Arts Camp. Scott earned Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees and a Performer’s Certificate at Shenandoah Conservatory and has participated in the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. He lives in Winchester, Virginia, with his wife Megan and children Kenneth and Eva. |
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Stephen Pastena earned his Bachelor of Music degree from George Mason University, and Master of Music in Music Education degree from Shepherd University. He is an active performer around the Cumberland Valley region, playing with the Hagerstown Municipal Band (featured as a soloist in 2010 and 2017), Frederick Symphony Orchestra, Shippensburg Festival Symphony, Mercersburg Community Chorus, and Shepherd University Masterwork’s Chorale, and Hagerstown Choral Arts, as well as performing in pit orchestras for various productions, including with Mercersburg Academy, Williamsport High School, Hub Opera Ensemble, and Maryland Opera Ensemble. In addition to his work as a horn player, Stephen is the organist and choir director at Haven Lutheran Church in Hagerstown, and is the current dean and webmaster of the Cumberland Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and performs in AGO events around the area. Stephen’s day job is as a music teacher in Frederick County Public Schools. Stephen has studied horn with Mr. Ed Albinski, Dr. David Whaley, and Mr. Ted Thayer; piano with Dr. Kelly Ker-Hackleman; and organ with Mr. Terry Sisk and Mr. Mark King.
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