Laura Jackson recently completed an appointment as the Assistant Conductor and American Conducting Fellow of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra where she conducted the Young People's Concerts, Symphony 360º Series, Summer Classical Concerts, and performances around the state of Georgia. In May 2007 she appeared on the ASO Classical Subscription Series with music by Prokofiev, Harbison, and Brahms and in 2006 she conducted an all-Mozart concert celebrating the composer's 250th birthday.

This season Ms. Jackson has engagements with the symphonies of Detroit, Berkeley, Sacramento, Alabama, Wyoming, and Montana as well as with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and the New World Symphony. In addition, she will return to the Atlanta Symphony for a concert in May 2008. Last season she appeared with the symphonies of Winnipeg, Toronto, Toledo, San Antonio, and Baltimore and in 2005 she performed with the Colorado Symphony as winner of the Taki Concordia Fellowship.

Prior to her appointment in Atlanta, Ms. Jackson studied conducting at the University of Michigan and was the Seiji Ozawa Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2003 where she conducted performances including both traditional and contemporary repertoire.

Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio joined the Argenta Trio in the fall of 2007 as she began her new position as Assistant Professor of Violin & Viola and Director of the Orchestral Career Studies graduate program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Founder and Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, Stephanie was the Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony for thirteen years, appearing annually as a soloist. Formerly First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnanyi, she recorded and toured internationally with this acclaimed ensemble for eight seasons. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and in the countries of Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru and Mexico. In addition to her active performing career over two decades, she is devoted to teaching serious young violinists, many of whom have successfully chosen careers in music. She is currently working on two new CD projects. Going Solo: Unaccompanied works for violin & viola and My Most Favorite Mozarts: Four Late Sonatas for piano and violin by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are expected to be released in November of 2009.

With her passion for chamber music, in 1996 Ms. Sant’Ambrogio founded Cactus Pear Music Festival, (www.cpmf.us) which presents chamber music performances, Young People’s Concerts, Kinder Konzerts, a Young Artist Fellowship Program, American composer commissions and master classes in the South Texas region. In 2004, she was named a Ford Salute to Education Award winner for her outstanding contributions to music education through her creation of Cactus Pear Music Festival and her life’s dedication to private teaching. In addition to her performances as violinist and Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed and taught at various festivals including: Bach, Dancing and Dynamite Society (WI); Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (WA); Nevada Chamber Music Festival (NV); Music in the Vineyards (CA); Round Top Festival Institute (TX) and Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland, Canada).

Her chamber music activities have included performances and recordings with such noted artists as William Preucil, James Buswell, Ron Leonard, Richard Goode, David Schifrin, Walter Trampler, Anne Epperson and Gunther Schuller. She is featured in chamber music recordings under the Arabesque label, her live concert performances are frequently heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and in 2006 she produced her third Cactus Pear CD entitled A Passion for Baroque. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as first violinist with the Miami String Quartet and has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at both the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. She toured Italy with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, toured extensively throughout Ohio with Cleveland’s Myriad, and for ten years performed with the Amici String Quartet, of which she was a founding member. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio studied with and was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein at The Eastman School of Music, where she received her Master of Music degree. Previously she received her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from Indiana University as a scholarship student of James Buswell and Laurence Shapiro.

The name Sant’Ambrogio is frequently found in concert programs throughout America. John Sant’Ambrogio, former Principal Cellist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, gave his daughter Stephanie her first violin lessons at the age of five. Her sister Sara is a cellist with the Naumberg Award-winning Eroica Trio. For thirty years the Sant’Ambrogio family directed Red Fox Music Camp, which was founded by grandmother Isabelle, a concert pianist. The legacy of teaching music has been passed down in the Sant’Ambrogio family for four generations. Stephanie continues this love and dedication with her own students. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio plays a violin crafted in 1757 by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, Italy. In the moments when this violin is not nestled under her chin, she and her husband Gary Albright enjoy life with their daughters, nine year old Isabel and seven year old Gabrielle, who have started taking music lessons as well.

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