Allen Bishop is a former president of the Santa Barbara Music Club, His lifelong interest in the life and music of Beethoven has been supported by several wonderful teachers including Betty Oberacker, Peter Yazbeck, and Glory Fisher. He has performed on numerous occasions in the Music Club Faulkner Concert Series and inaugurated the Annual Beethovenfest in 2003. Allen continues to practice psychoanalysis and serve on the faculty of Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Barbara Coventry was a student of Jim Barber at Baylor University, then of Robert Gerle and Raphael Bronstein at Manhattan School of Music and The State University of New York at Purchase. She was a soloist with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra and performed with the Ashdown Trio in England. Barbara was a member of the Santa Barbara Symphony for eight years before taking time off to be at home with her three children who are now grown and all musicians. Barbara has a great love for teaching, having taught violin since she was 14 years old. For ten years she was the director of the Children's Orchestra of the SB Music and Arts Conservatory. She now lives in Santa Barbara, where she continues to teach and perform chamber music. She also enjoys experimentation with other musical styles and currently performs improvisations on her electric five-string violin with guitarist Andrew Jackson. She also writes songs and plays and sings in a band called "Paradise Road."
Robert Else's early piano training traces an unbroken pedagogical line back to Beethoven himself. Robert later studied with Charles Fulkerson at Humboldt University, and with Gwendolyn Koldofsky and Brooks Smith at USC. He is an active solo and chamber music performer both locally and at workshops across the country. He toured Spain with the new music ensemble New England Composers Collective. Robert also holds a degree in jazz piano from Berklee College of Music in Boston, and serves on the board of the Santa Barbara Music Club and the Chamber Music Society of Santa Barbara. Please visit Robert at www.robertelse.com.
Claude-Lise LaFranque studied in Bordeaux, France, graduating from Bordeaux's National Conservatory with a First Prize in Performance. She has had the privilege of working with violin masters Doukan, Nerini, Amoyal, and Irina Boshkova of the Moscow Conservatory. She relocated to Santa Barbara after an invitation to play at the Music Academy, and currently performs with the Santa Barbara Symphony.
Ervin Klinkon received his musical training at the Musik Hochschule in Freiburg, Germany, and at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He earned his Master of Music degree at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. He has performed as cello soloist and with chamber ensembles in Europe and in the United States. His orchestral playing career includes orchestras in Houston, Texas, and in Washington, D.C. (National Gallery, Kennedy Center Opera House, National Symphony). Mr. Klinkon served as chairman of the Music Department at Montgomery College and conducted the Montgomery College Symphony Orchestra for twenty years. Six years ago he moved to Santa Barbara, where he continues to lead an active musical life, performing chamber music with various ensembles, teaching the cello, and coaching chamber groups.