The Calyx Piano Trio features Nina Ferrigno, piano, Catherine French, violin, and Jennifer Lucht, cello. The members of the Calyx Trio have given chamber music concerts throughout the United States and abroad, exciting audiences with their expressive ensemble playing and brilliant virtuosity. As individuals, they have performed with leading national ensembles including the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, and the Metamorphosen Chamber Ensemble, and have been heard in chamber music performances at major festivals including Marlboro, the Banff Centre, Ravinia and Tanglewood. The Calyx Trio presents innovative programs juxtaposing master works of the piano trio repertoire with fresh pieces by living composers, and has worked with organizations including the Barlow Foundation to commission and premiere new works.

Melvin Chen, piano and violin, has received acclaim for performances on both violin and piano throughout the United States and abroad.  As a soloist and chamber musician Mr. Chen has performed at major venues in the United States, Canada and Asia, and at U.S. festivals including Bravo! Vail Valley, Chautauqua, Norfolk, Chamber Music Northwest, Bard, and Music from Angel Fire.  An enthusiastic chamber musician, Mr. Chen was selected to be a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Chamber Music Two.  He has collaborated with such artists as Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, Pamela Frank, and members of the St. Lawrence, Mendelssohn, Miami, Orion, Borromeo, and Arditti quartets. Mr. Chen is Associate Director of the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Neil Deland, horn, was recently appointed principal horn of the Toronto Sympony Orchestra. Prior to this position, he was an active freelancer in Boston. He has been a member of the Boston Philharmonic, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Portland Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and played numerous performances with Emmanuel Music, Cantata Singers, Musica Viva and nearly every ensemble in the Boston area. As a freelance musician Neil performed with such artists as Bono, Joni Mitchell, Mariah Carey and Barry Manilow. Neil was a frequent substitute with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, and has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra. His chamber music credits include Amici, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and the Moab Music Festival.

Suzanne Farrin, Composer In Residence, has had her works performed across the United States and in Europe and South America at venues such as Carnegie Weill Hall, Symphony Space, The Kennedy Center, The Atlantic Center for the Arts and festivals that include Festival Nuevo Mundo (Maracaibo), Festival Dancing in Your Head (Minneapolis), LookListen, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the Ernest Bloch Music Festival, Music in Würzburg, Germany, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Music99 (Cincinnati) and Avant-garde Schwaz (Austria).Commissions have come from a variety of sources and for combinations as diverse as the Irish bagpipes and string quartet to solo piano pieces and works for vibraphone.  She is the recipient of two Concert Artist Guild commissions. Suzanne earned a doctoral degree from Yale and currently teaches at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase, where she is chair of the composition and theory department. 

Catherine French, violin, is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position she has held since 1994. A native of Victoria, British Columbia, Ms. French has appeared with orchestras throughout Canada and the United States, and made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1992. She has been a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival, and holds degrees with distinction from Indiana University and the Julliard School. Ms. French is also a member of Collage New Music, the Boston Artists Ensemble, the Calyx Trio, and is the concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Boston.

Rachel Harmatuk, violin, was born and raised in Eastern North Carolina.  After graduating from New Bern High School, she attended The Boston Conservatory, studying with renowned teacher and chamber musician Lucy Stoltzman. Winner of The Boston Conservatory Chamber Music Competition for three consecutive years, she received her undergraduate degree in Violin Performance in 2005 before receiving her Master’s degrees in Suzuki Pedagogy and Violin Performance from East Carolina University in 2007.  A Suzuki Violin student from the age of 5, she studied with Andrea Thomas and Joanne Bath.  In 2000, Rachel was the winner of the NC Music Teacher’s National Association Competition. Rachel maintains a private violin studio in New Bern, is a frequent guest teacher at the Greenville Suzuki Association’s Suzuki Saturdays and was the director of the Dr. Ira Hardy Suzuki Violin Program at Bath (NC) Elementary.

Amadi Hummings, viola, has been heard in recital throughout the U.S. Israel, Canada, South America, Central America, India, Japan, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean.  He has been a guest of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and performed on the Kennedy Center and La Jolla “Discovery” series. Mr. Hummings has appeared as soloist with the Virginia, North Carolina, Roanoke, Winston-Salem, and Salisbury Symphonies. He has performed at the Marlboro, Tanglewood, Aspen, and Norfolk Festivals, and his performances have been broadcast on radio and television in the U.S., England, Israel and South America. Among his awards are those from the New York Philharmonic, Concert Artists Guild, North Carolina Symphony. Mr. Hummings is on the faculty of James Madison University, and has taught at Brevard Music Center. He is also the Director of Program Development for the Gateways Music Festival. He attended the NC School of the Arts, New England Conservatory and Indiana University.

Jennifer Lucht, cello and Associate Artistic Director, was raised in Greenville North Carolina.  She began her musical training at the age of three on violin as a student of Joanne Bath and switched to cello at age eleven under the tutelage of North Carolina Symphony cellist Leonid Zilper.  A performer with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra on tours throughout the US, Canada, and Japan, she has been heard in chamber music performances at the Kennedy Center, Weill Recital Hall, Tanglewood, the Ravinia and Bravo! Vail Festivals, and on the Greater Philadelphia Performing Artists Series and NPR’s live broadcast “Performance Today”.  She has performed as concerto soloist with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra and Vermont Symphony and is currently a member of the Calyx Piano Trio and guest faculty at the Longy School of Music.  Ms. Lucht received her Bachelor and Masters degrees from Indiana University, continuing with post-graduate studies at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Joel Moerschel, cello, received his early musical training from Chicago Symphony cellist Nicolai Zedeler and Karl Fruh, Professor of Music at the Chicago Musical College. Advanced studies with Ronald Leonard at the Eastman School of Music earned him a Bachelor of Music degree with distinction and a Performer’s Certificate. Recently retired after 33 years in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Moerschel has been a soloist on numerous occasions with community and professional orchestras in the Boston, Chicago, and Rochester areas. Mr. Moerschel has performed chamber music with the Wheaton Trio, The Francesco String Quartet, and with members of The Muir String Quartet, and contemporary music with Collage New Music and Boston Musica Viva. He has given recitals of standard cello and piano literature throughout the United States. With Charles Schlueter, he has recorded the Sonata for Trumpet and Cello by Ives Chardon. Mr. Moerschel has been instructor of cello at Wellesley College and at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute.

Chris Nappi, percussion, has performed and recorded with Steve Reich and Musicians, the SEM Ensemble, Newband, and Ben E. King. As a composer he has created music for dance, theatrical and multi-media installations and has recorded for the BIS, Dog w/a Bone, Ear-Rational, Mode, New Tone, New World Records, Renè Block Editions, Tzadìk, and Wergo, labels. In addition to East Carolina University, he serves on the faculties of Adelphi University, The Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, and the Ostrava Center for New Music, Czech Republic.

Anna Reinersman, harp and Artistic Director, praised by The New York Times as "an elegant harpist", was the harpist for the full run of the Broadway smash hit “The Producers”.   Anna has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Boston Pops, and is an active chamber musician and solo recitalist.  A graduate of Yale University and the Manhattan School of Music,  Anna has also performed with such popular artists as Joni Mitchell, Diana Krall and Alicia Keyes.

Finley Woolston, Beethoven After Work host, became the Music Director of the Crystal Coast Choral Society in 1992.  The Choral Society is a community chorus of over 70 singers acknowledged to be one of the best in Eastern North Carolina.  He has conducted numerous performances of Handel's Messiah, as well as Vivaldi's Gloria, J. S. Bach’s Magnificat and Faure's Requiem, to name just a few of the major choral works presented by the Choral Society.  He is also the Music Director of Richlands United Methodist Church, Richlands, NC.  In 2004 he formed The Sine Nomine Singers, a 20-voice chamber choir of professional and professional quality amateur singers.  He both conducts and sings in the group.  His voice is familiar to listeners to 89.3 FM, Public Radio East in New Bern, as a classical music announcer weekdays 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.   He is also the producer and host of The Choral Tradition heard each Sunday at 3:00 p.m. on Public Radio East.