Kate Steinbeck • Creative Director
Flutist Kate Steinbeck is recognized across the US and abroad as a unique interpreter of wide-ranging repertoire, innovative producer and collaborator, enthusiastic teacher and coach.
Kate began playing flute in a public school music program in Western North Carolina, where she spent much of her childhood. Musical adventures led her far and wide – from studies with William Hebert of the Cleveland Orchestra (BM, Baldwin-Wallace University) to a Fulbright grant in Belgium (Premier Prix, Royal Conservatory of Music), then several years performing and teaching in Germany, and later to graduate studies with Tim Day of the San Francisco Symphony (MM, San Francisco Conservatory of Music). As a flutist, she has been featured on many of California’s most prestigious stages.
In 1997, Kate moved to Asheville and began raising a family. In 2000, she created Keowee Chamber Music with cellist Liz Austin and violist Andrew Levin. KCM became Pan Harmonia in 2011. Lauded for its excellence and creativity, Pan Harmonia revels in sharing music across the full spectrum of our community including with marginalized people in prisons, homeless shelters and other facilities through its Shining Light Project.
As a teacher, Kate loves guiding students of all ages to discover the joy of making music and to achieve new levels of accomplishment and self-awareness. katesteinbeck.com
Jessica Schaeffer
Jessica Schaeffer lives the adventurous life of a professional freelance harpist. She performs regularly with Pan Harmonia, The Broken Consort, a Portland-based experimental chamber ensemble, and Aiken Symphony Orchestra.
Previously, she served as principal harp with the National Symphony Orchestra of Bolivia and with various regional orchestras, ensembles, and choirs throughout northern California, as well as a concerto soloist with the Castro Valley Orchestra (Saint-Saens Morceau de Concert), Ukiah Symphony Orchestra, and Lake County Symphony (Mozart Concerto for Flute and Harp).
Jessica has recorded two albums as the harpist in the harp-bassoon duo, The Harpoons. As a solo performer, Jessica is known for her tasteful pop and jazz renderings and has a thriving business providing live harp music for high-end weddings, parties and corporate events throughout the south. When not performing, Jessica enjoys teaching harp to students of all ages and skill levels out of her Asheville, NC studio and online.
Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Jessica’s formal education includes Interlochen Center for the Arts, Aspen Music Festival, Northwestern University (B.M.), Longy School of Music (M.M. & Dalcroze Education Certification). www.JessicaSchaeffer.com instagram: @jessicaschaefferharp
Rosalind Buda
Bassoonist and multi-instrumentalist Rosalind Buda is involved in many facets of today’s diverse musical world, and thrives as a performer and teacher of classical bassoon as well as Celtic and early music. Rosalind is in demand as an orchestral, chamber, and solo musician. She regularly performs with the acclaimed chamber music collective Pan Harmonia, Atlanta-based Eclectic Collective, the SC Bach Ensemble, as well as the Greenville Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Spartanburg Philharmonic, and Johnson City Symphony, among others. Rosalind is involved in a number of ensemble projects including the Voices in the Wood bassoon ensemble and her Celtic duo, The Reel Sisters.
Rosalind is passionate about teaching musicians of all ages, and her years of experience in both classical and folk music give her a unique perspective and a multi-faceted, holistic approach to learning. Rosalind is sought after as a workshop instructor and has served on the faculty of the Mountain Collegium Early Music and Folk Music Workshop, The Pipers Gathering, Upper Potomac Piper’s Weekend, and Cairdeas.
A graduate of the New England Conservatory in Boston, Rosalind earned her Master’s Degree in Bassoon Performance while studying with Boston Symphony Orchestra Principal, Richard Svoboda. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Iowa, her home state, where she studied with Benjamin Coelho.
Byron Hedgepeth
Byron Hedgepeth enjoys performing on a wide array of percussion instruments, embracing jazz, classical, rock, gospel, new age and world music.
Byron pursues a full career as performer, recording artist, and composer. He currently performs regularly on kit with The B’s at the Grove Park Inn, serves as percussionist for First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, and holds the position of Principal Timpanist with Brevard Philharmonic Orchestra. Byron has performed on marimba, vibraphone and percussion with Kate Steinbeck of Pan Harmonia. This captivating flute and percussion duo generated the CD Light In The Corner and a concert tour of Belgium and France. As drum set artist and percussionist, he recently recorded several songs for the Dorothy Papadakos musical Uncork’d at Sound Temple Studio in Asheville, NC. Byron can also be seen performing on vibes with jazz pianist/composer Garius Hill and drum set artist Jeff Tippins.
Notable ensembles, performances, and recordings include Inside-Out, Con Clave, The Jack Coker Trio, a concert tour of Taiwan with drum set artist Chris Wabich, and Judy Collins: Christmas at the Biltmore House. Byron held the position of principal timpanist with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra for 15 years, and has performed often as timpanist and percussionist with the Charlotte and NC Symphonies.
Byron founded the percussion program at UNCA in 1981, and continued as Adjunct Associate Professor through 2005. He then taught percussion and various ensembles at Appalachian State University from 2009 to 2019.
He holds music degrees from Mars Hill University and the University of Illinois. A native of North Carolina, Byron resides in Fairview with his lovely wife Elise.
John Crawley
John R. Crawley is an accomplished collaborative pianist known for his intuitive abilities and his innate musical style. A classically trained concert pianist, he has degrees in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music and Temple University. Mr. Crawley has performed extensively
throughout the Eastern United States and Europe, both as a soloist and as a collaborative artist.
He has appeared in concert at such noted venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York; the Maurice Ravel Auditorium in Lyon, France; the Diana Wortham Theatre in the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts and the Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC; Mechanics Hall in Worchester, MA and has performed with college and regional orchestras, including the Asheville Symphony, as well as the New York based Vivaldi Chamber Orchestra and the Lyric Theater of Oklahoma. He is retired Director of Music at the Asheville School where taught for 28 years directing and overseeing the entire music program.
John has also done extensive work in musical theatre. He has performed as pit pianist and/or musical director for many shows in Illinois, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Amy Brucksch
Classical guitarist Amy Brucksch celebrates the guitar’s rich heritage, exploring musical connections with musicians as diverse as Celtic fiddlers, Baroque harpsichordists, African percussionists, and western NC’s first ever melodica band. She has a highly regarded CD, Luminescence, with flutist Kate Steinbeck and has performed with Pan Harmonia since 2005.
Her current collaborations include the Avanti Guitar Trio, Trio Tapestry (violin, cello and guitar) and The Treblemakers, a genre-bending trio that explores new sounds for guitar with effects processors, synthesizers and melodicas.
She is director of the Asheville Classical Guitar Orchestra, a group she started in 2023, open to guitarists of any level, fostering a shared appreciation for the instrument and community. Passionate about sharing her love for the instrument, she taught classical guitar to hundreds of middle and high school students for 10 years at Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy. She currently teaches privately through Wild Roots Fine Arts Center in Forest City, NC and plays a guitar custom made for her by luthier Gregory Byers.
A former faculty member of the University of Toledo and Ohio Arts Council Touring Artist, her music degrees are from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and Bowling Green State University. Amy lives in Tryon, NC with a horse, two donkeys, and a varying number of cats. She is currently exploring a new interest, the 5-string banjo.
Barbara Weiss
A versatile and engaging musician, Barbara Weiss’ diverse musical experiences range from recording and performing ancient classical Cambodian music to directing a baroque opera company to chairing a university’s early music program. She has been on the faculty of both the Oberlin Conservatory and the Peabody Institute, as well as Concordia College and the Universities of Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Barbara teaches at summer workshops such as the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, the Madison Early Music Festival, and Indiana University’s Recorder Academy, and most recently, the Mountain Collegium Early Music Workshop.
Barbara has performed at the Boston, San Antonio and Berkeley Early Music Festivals, and the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Her collaborations include The Hendersonville Symphony, Belladonna, the Newberry Consort, Quicksilver, Chatham Baroque, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the King’s Noyse, Apollo’s Fire, the Chicago Opera Theater, CPCC Opera Theater, and Piffaro. She has recorded with the Dorian, Flying Fish and Harmonia Mundi labels.
She lives in Asheville, where she is a member of Muses Delight, Pan Harmonia, and directs Next Road Over, the area’s first melodica orchestra.