Musicians

Christopher Krueger - Flute

A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Christopher Krueger was a student of James Pappoutsakis. He has performed as principal flutist with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops and Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Opera Company of Boston, Boston Ballet, Boston Musica Viva, and Cantata Singers, among other organizations, and was a founding member of the Emmanuel Wind Quintet, winners of the 1981 Walter W. Naumburg Award for Chamber Music.  Currently he is a member of Collage New Music, Emmanuel Music, and performs frequently as principal flutist with Cantata Singers and other organizations in Boston

In the mid-1970’s, Mr. Krueger became interested in historical performance.  His career as a Baroque flutist has taken him throughout the United States, Europe, Eastern Europe, and Australia.  He has been a soloist on the Great Performers Series and Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Bach Festival, Tanglewood, Ravinia, the Berlin Bach Festival, the City of London Festival, and the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, as well as in France, Belgium, Italy, and Poland. He is a member of the Bach Ensemble and the Aulos Ensemble, and is principal flutist with the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque.

Christopher Krueger has conducted and been a soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music, and his recordings can be heard on Sony, DG, Decca, EMI, Nonesuch, Pro Arte, CRI, Telarc, Koch, and Centaur.  Mr. Krueger has served on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston University, Wellesley College, the Longy School of Music, Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute, and the Akademie für Alte Musik in Brixen/Bressanone, Italy and. He is a Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Robert Annis - Clarinet

Formerly a member of the San Antonio Symphony, Robert Annis has performed with orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and as a recitalist throughout theUnited States. In addition to his performing activities, Mr. Annis is currently Director and Dean and Associate Professor of Westminster Choir College and WestminsterCollege of the Arts of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. In 2002 he was the executive producer of the PRI national radio program, “In the Shadow of the Towers”. Mr. Annis has presented lectures inKorea on church music and has written an essay and discography on Harold Wright and articles for educational journals. He has also served as a consultant and advisor to educational institutions and arts organizations in the areas of enrollment management, strategic planning and marketing. In addition, he has been the chair for an accreditation team for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and a member of the Princeton University Concerts Committee. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors for the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce. Previously he served as Dean of Enrollment Services at New England Conservatory and on the faculties of the New England Conservatory and BrownUniversity. Mr. Annis joined Collage in 1976.

Craig McNutt - Percussion

Known for his distinctive style and thoughtful musicianship, percussionist Craig McNutt has become a vital performer in the realm of percussion performance. He has been featured as a soloist with the Rhode Island Philharmonic (Russell Peck’s Harmonic Rhythm) and Collage New Music (Steven Mackey’s Micro-Concerto). He has collaborated with some of the most celebrated composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Elliott Carter, Lukas Foss, John Cage, Bernard Rands, Gunther Schuller, George Rochberg, Charles Fussell, John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, and Lee Hyla, and performed under the direction of many noted conductors, including James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, Roger Norrington, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Robert Spano, Oliver Knussen, Reinbert de Leeuw, and John Williams.

As a performer, Mr. McNutt has worked with virtually all ofBoston’s major musical groups, including the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops, Boston Ballet, Boston Lyric Opera, Cantata Singers, A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Landmarks Orchestra. He is Principal Timpanist of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and performs regularly as Principal Timpanist with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Emmanuel Music, and Opera Boston. In the contemporary music genre, Craig is a featured percussionist for Collage New Music and ALEA III, and has performed with Boston Musica Viva and Dinosaur Annex. Equally at home in the field of historical performance, he regularly performs on baroque timpani with the period instrument groups Boston Baroque, Handel and Haydn Society, and Boston Cecilia.

A Massachusetts native, Mr. McNutt holds degrees from the Hartt School of Music and Yale University, and has completed additional studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is a two time alumnus of theTanglewood Music Center, and has also spent summers studying at the Aspen Music Festival, and as a fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. Currently Mr. McNutt teaches at The New England Conservatory Preparatory School, The Music School of The Rhode Island Philharmonic, andWellesleyCollege. He has also served on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music.

Christopher Oldfather - Piano

Christopher Oldfather has devoted himself to the performance of contemporary music for over twenty years. He has participated in innumerable world premiere performances, featuring every possible combination of instruments, in cities all over America. He has been a member of Collage New Music since 1979 and New York City’s Parnassus since 1997. He also performs with the Met Chamber Ensemble and is keyboard chair of the American Composers Orchestra. He appears regularly in Chicago and has joined singers and instrumentalists of all kinds in recitals throughout the United States. In 1986 he presented his recital debut in Carnegie Recital Hall, which then closed immediately for renovations. Since then he has pursued a career as a freelance musician, which has taken him as far afield as Moscow and Tokyo and has seen him play virtually every sort of keyboard ever made, including the Chromelodeon. He is widely known for his expertise on the harpsichord and is one of the leading interpreters of contemporary works for that instrument. As a soloist Mr. Oldfather has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, and Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany. He has collaborated with the conductor Robert Craft and can be heard on several of his recordings. His recording of Elliott Carter’s violin-piano Duo with Robert Mann was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1990.

Catherine French - Violin

Canadian violinist Catherine French, a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1994, has established herself as a versatile and accomplished soloist and chamber musician in addition to her distinguished orchestral career. Ms. French garnered the grand prize at the Canadian Music Competition, the C.B.C. Radio Competition and the National Competitive Festival of Music,Canada’s three major music competitions. She has performed as soloist with many leading Canadian orchestras and given recitals throughout North America andArgentina. Ms. French was featured with the Juilliard Orchestra and James de Preist, the Boston Pops and John Williams, and at Carnegie Hall in her debut with David Gilbert.

Lauded for her “superbly lyric” playing and her “amazing level of artistry” by Strad Magazine, Ms. French is a dedicated member of the Calyx Piano Trio and Collage New Music. Her avid interest in chamber music has led to performances at the Marlboro, Banff, Pórtland and Carolina chamber music festivals, quartet tours of Germany and China and annual concerts as part of the Prelude series at Tanglewood and the Curtisville Consortium. Ms. French has recorded for Albany Records and is featured in Donald Sur’s Berceuse for Violin and Piano with pianist Christopher Oldfather.

Catherine French began Suzuki violin at age four then continued her studies under the esteemed Canadian pedagogue Dr. Lise Elson. Ms. French graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor’s of Music degree and a Performer’s Certificate, then earned a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School. Her teachers were Miriam Fried, Felix Galimir and Joel Smirnoff. Ms. French has played with Collage New Music since the mid-nineties.

Joel Moerschel - Cello

Joel Moerschel received his early musical training from Chicago Symphony cellist Nicolai Zedeler and Karl Fruh, Professor of Music at theChicagoMusicalCollege. 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. He has been Collage New Music’s cellist since 1976.