The MasterWorks Festival Trio performs a delightful mixture of engaging pieces for the unique combination of violin, trumpet, and piano celebrating “Life’s Journey.”

Alana Carithers received a double Master of Music degree in violin performance and pedagogy in 1999 from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. During her time at Northwestern, she served as Assistant Concertmaster and Principal Second Violin with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Principal Second Violin of the Northwestern Symphony Orchestra. During this time she played with esteemed conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Michael Tilson Thomas, Thomas Wilkins, Chris Wilkins, Victor Yampulsky, and Cliff Colnot.  She was one of the founding members of the MusiCorp program in Chicago, a grant funded chamber music education program to take music into the inner city schools and churches of the Chicago area.

Richard Stoelzel has been hailed as “one of the foremost performers and teachers in the USA and Canada” and ”one of the greatest trumpet players of our time.” Reviewers have called his trumpet playing “virtuosic and lyrical,” “fluid and liquid-like tone,” with “a bel canto style that gave this reviewer chills.” He maintains an active career as an international soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. He began his career as solo cornet with the United States Coast Guard Band, a presidential band. In this position he performed throughout the U.S. and gave numerous command performances for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Pianist Lori Rhoden maintains an active schedule as a soloist, collaborative artist, clinician, and adjudicator. She has performed in China, Korea, Canada, and throughout the United States. In 2011 she completed the Southwest China Piano Pedagogy Project as a USA Fulbright Specialist grant recipient. She has been a piano faculty member at the MasterWorks Festival since 2002, and the Piano Program Director for MasterWorks since 2006.  She has been a piano instructor twice for the Yamaha Passport to Music program onboard Crystal Cruises.