Faculty Biographies

Sheldon Person, viola

Praised by the Edmonton Journal for performing “with precision and grace,” Sheldon Person is a violist in the Houston Symphony and enjoys an active career as a chamber musician, recitalist, and teacher. As a member of the Houston Symphony, Mr. Person has toured in seven countries on three continents and performed on the 2017 Grammy-award-winning live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. He was previously a member of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and as soloist and guest principal with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Since 2016, Mr. Person has been a faculty artist at the Sewanee Summer Music

Festival. His collaborations on new trios by Per Mårtensson and Karim Al-Zand were released on the Centaur Records label in 2017 and 2018. He is the current President of Third Space Music, a nonprofit partnership between Houston Symphony musicians and the Houston community. While a member of the Artea String Quartet, Leverhulme Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music, Mr. Person performed chamber music throughout the U.K., including appearances at Wigmore Hall, Buckingham Palace, and live on BBC Radio 3. Mr. Person holds degrees and certificates from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), Indiana University, Rice University, and the University of Alberta.

Meghan Berindean, cello, string chamber music coordinator

Praised for her glorious tone, cellist Meghan Berindean has built a reputation as an engaging performer and a sought-after teacher. She has been featured in solo performances with ensembles including the Gateway Chamber Orchestra, Northerntier Symphony Orchestra, and Austin Peay State University Symphony Orchestra. She was previously a member of the Tallahassee-based Eppes Quartet and the Cleveland-based Judson Quartet. Previously, Berindean was a first-prize winner of the MENC Pennsylvania State Chamber Group Competition as a member of the Valens Piano Quartet. As an orchestral player, Berindean is Principal Cello of the Gateway Chamber Orchestra

Jason Calloway, cello

Jason Calloway has performed to acclaim throughout the world as soloist and chamber musician. Currently cellist of the Amernet String Quartet, Ensemblein-Residence at Florida International University, Mr. Calloway was previously a member of the Naumburg award-winning Biava Quartet, formerly in residence at the Juilliard School. Mr. Calloway gave his Carnegie Hall recital debut under the auspices of Artists International and has also been heard at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, Disney Hall, and the Kennedy Center. He has recorded for the Bridge, Naxos, and Albany labels. Mr. Calloway has appeared at festivals including Lucerne, Spoleto, Darmstadt, and Klangspuren (Austria). He has collaborated in chamber music with members of the Cleveland, and the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. She has previously served as principal cello for Sinfonia Gulf Coast, Northerntier Symphony, and Altoona Symphony. as well as assistant principal of Williamsport Symphony and the Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra. She has performed with Charleston Symphony, Mobile Symphony, Southwest Florida Symphony, and Tallahassee Symphony. Dr. Berindean has completed degrees at Florida State University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Penn State University. Her teachers have included Gregory Sauer, Sharon Robinson, Kim Cook, Andrew Mark, Andrew Rammon, and Ann Kindig. Berindean is an Associate Professor of Music at Austin Peay State University.

Curtis, Juilliard, and Miani quartets and with principal players of most of the world's leading orchestras. A devoted advocate for new music, Mr. Calloway has collaborated with Ensemble InterContemporain and alongside members of Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, and the Arditti and JACK quartets while giving hundreds of premieres by composers including Berio, Birtwistle, Hosokawa, Lachenmann, Pintscher, Tulve, and Tüür. He is as well artistic director of Shir Ami (www.shiramimusic.com), an ensemble dedicated to the preservation and performance of Jewish art music suppressed by the Nazis and Soviets. Mr. Calloway performs on a 1992 Michèle Ashley cello, a copy of the famous Sleeping Beauty of Montagnana, formerly owned by his teacher, Orlando Cole.

Natasha Farny, cello

Acclaimed as a “terrific cello soloist” and as having a “big, generous tone,” American cellist Natasha Farny performs frequently as a soloist and chamber musician. Her debut CD of French music for cello and piano was released on the Centaur label in 2020 and two years later, she released the album called “Women’s Voices” with pianist Eliran Avni, her partner in the Ekstasis Duo. Recent concerts have taken the duo to Arizona’s Del E. Webb Performing Arts Center, New York’s Merkin Hall, and Colorado’s Strings Music Festival. In 2022-2023, the duo premiered Avner Dorman’s new Double Concerto for Cello, Piano, and Orchestra, and gave recitals at Grand Valley State University (MI), Buffalo’s Friends of Vienna Series,

Tim Pearson, bass

Tim Pearson performs regularly with the Nashville Symphony, Kansas City Symphony and IRIS Orchestra. With the Gateway Chamber Orchestra he can be heard on the Summit record label playing music of Strauss, Mozart, Schrecker, Schoenberg and Enescu. As instructor of double bass at MTSU, he performs with the Stones River Chamber

Samuel Suggs, bass

"An omnivorous musician," Samuel Suggs was recently named New Artist of the Month by Musical America after receiving the Gary Karr Prize for 1st place at the 2015 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition in which he performed many of his own compositions. He is the only bassist to win the Beijing International Music Festival Competition, and has performed concertos at the Kennedy Center and Northwestern University. As a collaborative bassist, he has been a fellow at the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival and a Protégé Artist at Chamber Music Northwest. Suggs's and the Arts in the Village (MA) Series, Ms. Farny has published an article and presented her work on women composers at numerous conferences. She received degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, and the Juilliard School. Ms. Farny is Professor of Cello at the School of Music at the State University of New York in Fredonia, where she oversees the Fredonia cello choir and coordinates the string chamber music program. She has been honored there with several awards, including grants from the Faculty Student Association and the United University Professions, as well as the Hagan Young Scholar/Artist Award and the Kasling Memorial Lecture Award. ensembles have won the Grand Prize at the 2015 Oneppo Chamber Series Competition, and he has toured internationally to Africa and Europe with his contemporary jazz group, Triplepoint Trio. Suggs has received commissions for fresh arrangements and theatrical/film scores from Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center, Pheonic Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Northwest, the Yale School of Drama and Yale School of Art. Suggs is currently associate professor of double bass at James Madison University. He received degrees from Northwestern and a DA from Yale University.

Players and in 2013 premiered the “Iberian Concerto for Double Bass and Wind Ensemble” by Spanish composer Jesus Santandreu. He earned degrees from the University of Memphis and Indiana University and did additional studies with Bruce Bransby and Paul Ellison. Tim resides in Nashville with his wife, pianist Megan Gale.