Abby Black is the newly appointed Principal Horn of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Prior to joining Lyric, she was a Horn Fellow at the New World Symphony and previously held positions with Central City Opera, Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, Axiom Brass, and Millar Brass. Abby has performed with many of the nation’s leading ensembles, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Grant Park Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and Chicago Opera Theater. Abby earned her Bachelor of Music in Performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music, and her Master’s degree and Post-Master’s Certificate from DePaul University. She was also a Horn Fellow with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago under the baton of Ken-David Masur. Her primary teachers include Jim Smelser, Oto Carrillo, W. Peter Kurau, Daniel Gingrich, and Neil Kimel.

Bridget Conley is Principal Tuba of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra, Britt Festival Orchestra, and Seraph Brass. She was formerly a fellow with the New World Symphony, and was awarded the New World Symphony’s Judith Rodin Fellowship for an Outstanding Woman Musician. As a soloist, Bridget was the winner of the 2021 Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Solo Artist Competition. 

In addition to her experience as a performer, Bridget is also the co-founder of Sisters in Sound, an online platform that provides free access to professionally engraved arrangements and recordings of works by early women composers for brass ensembles. Bridget founded Sisters in Sound in 2023 with Abby Black, Principal Horn of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with the goal of expanding the repertoire of brass arrangements to include works by women composers who were actively influencing the musical landscape of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Bridget holds a Master of Music Degree in Performance from the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Carol Jantsch of the Philadelphia Orchestra and was the recipient of the Dean’s Prize. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Tuba Performance with a minor in Brass Pedagogy from Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where she studied with Gil Long and was a Lanier Leadership Scholar. In the fall of 2019, she spent a semester studying at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Perry Hoogendijk, principal tubist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Bridget is an Eastman artist. She plays an Eastman EBC836, Eastman EBF861, and Melton Meinl Weston 4250 “Tradition.”

From giving her debut recital of a mostly Chopin program at age twelve to performing some of George Crumb’s most monumental chamber and solo works at the Crumb Festival, a 90th birthday celebration of the famed composer, pianist Katherine Petersen embraces a wide array of piano repertoire. She has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune for having “captured the sense of wonder” and was lauded at her Carnegie Hall debut at age 17 for creating “real music-making– concentrated and deeply felt” by Edith Eisler of Strings Magazine. She is currently pianist for the Merida Trio, the Way Out Ensemble, and Duo FAE,  which is set to release its inaugural CD “Dissidents of the Gilded Age” with Albany Records in the Fall of 2025. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music, and her Master’s and Doctorate at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.