Our Artists in the 2026-27 Concert Season

Founding members and Guest Artists

Craig W. Combs, Artistic Director

Pianist, Craig W. Combs, performs chamber music with like-minded artists who agree that great music is a reflection of the human condition. In his forty years as a performer, Dr. Combs has appeared in hundreds of performances in a wide array of venues and repertoire. His stage appearances include Merkin Hall, CAMI Hall, the Kennedy Center as well as Yale, Cornell, and Stanford Universities. From 2004-2017, Combs lived in London pursuing a chamber music career performing in Ireland, Scotland, England, Spain, Lithuania and France. Reviews of his playing comment on “. . . the exceptional pianism of Craig Combs” and that “No praise is too high for his contribution.”

Combs trained at the Eastman School of Music where he earned his masters and doctorate in piano performance and literature. Early in his career, he taught at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and George Mason University. In the mid 90’s, he was a visiting artist at several NYC community music schools - Turtle Bay, Third Street Settlement as well as the PS 7 Elementary School in the Bronx. Additionally, he worked in arts administration at the New York Foundation for the Arts and Chamber Music America.

In 2021, he co-founded and is currently the Artistic Director of Red Door Chamber Music, a community ensemble dedicated to bringing chamber music to Provincetown and the communities of the Outer Cape. He is a just-past member of the and the Advisory Council of Great Music Provincetown. In addition, Craig is the founder and Emeritus Director of The Paramount Chamber Players, an ensemble in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. In 2007, he released the CD, Forbidden Voices: Songs by Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis with soprano, Judith Sheridan.

Tyler Michael James, Associate Director

Recognized as a “masterly” cellist with a “soulful, lyrical tone” (Boston Music Intelligencer), Tyler Michael James has established a multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, and advocate for contemporary music. He has performed on recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 92nd Street Y, and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, collaborating with acclaimed artists such as Peter Zazofsky, Ayano Ninomiya, and Doris Stevenson.

As a soloist and chamber musician, James has been featured with Castle of our Skins, the Cambridge Music Society, the New York University Symphony, and Red Door Chamber Music. His upcoming season is highlighted by a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Ridgefield Symphony. A dedicated chamber artist, he is a member of the Tristan Trio, the Finehouse James Duo, and the Garrison Quartet, and performs with premier ensembles including A Far Cry and the Fermata Chamber Soloists.

A champion of new music, James collaborated closely with Pulitzer Prize-winner Raven Chacon on solo works and was personally granted recording rights by Jessie Montgomery for her composition Loisaida, My Love following his performance of her work. He has premiered works by Anthony R. Green at Rockport Music and maintains a consistent presence as a guest artist with composers’ collectives at the New England Conservatory and the Peabody Institute.

Tyler is the Executive Director of the Cambridge Music Society, Head of Chamber Music at the Boston String Academy, and Cello Faculty at Project STEP. He studied with Leslie Frittellie, Marion Feldman and Dr. Terry King on full scholarship respectively and has performed in masterclasses for Alisa Weilerstein and Hans Jensen. Significant musical influences have been members of the Julliard Quartet and Mirecourt Trio. In his free time, he is an avid marathon runner, explorer of America’s National Parks, and an MBA.

Jeff Thurston, Founding Member

Jeff Thurston (Violin) is a graduate of Indiana University School of Music. A long-time resident of Washington, DC, he played with the Alexandria Symphony, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, the National Gallery Orchestra, and Baltimore Choral Arts Society. Also in the DC region, he played dozens of musical-theater productions for Signature Theatre, Ford’s Theater, Arena Stage, and Creative Cauldron. He is a founding member of and performs regularly with Red Door Chamber Music in Provincetown, MA. Since relocating to Florida, Jeff has joined the Chamber Orchestra of Sarasota. He recently retired, after a 26-year tenure, from his day job as Senior Accountant at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Carson Howell

Carson Howell is an avid performer on both violin and viola. Originally from Houston, Texas, he has studied under renowned musicians Ara Gregorian and Hye-Jin Kim at East Carolina University and Nicholas Kitchen at the New England Conservatory, where he is currently working towards his Masters Degree. Carson is actively involved in historical performance, studying baroque violin with members of the Handel and Haydn Society. In 2025, he also helped found the only NEC ensemble to exclusively perform on period instruments. An accomplished chamber musician, Carson is a founding member of the Garrison Quartet, and has studied and worked with renowned ensembles such as the Borromeo, Jupiter, and Cooperstown Quartets, among others.

Matthew Vera

Mexican-American violinist Matthew Vera is known for his versatility as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader. As an orchestral musician, Matthew can be heard all over the country. He is currently a member of the Boston Philharmonic’s first violin section where he has also served as guest concertmaster. Matthew began his tenure as concertmaster of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2024 where he has been serving as guest concertmaster since 2022. Matthew frequents the stages of The Boston Ballet Orchestra, The Portland Symphony Orchestra, The Rhode Island Philharmonic, The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, among others. Chamber music holds a special place in Matthew’s life. He is a violinist with Castle of our Skins, a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. He can also be heard with Aurea Ensemble, Radius Ensemble, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and Monadnock Music. Matthew made his solo debut on the viola with the Tucson Philharmonia at age 14. He has appeared as soloist with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, The Buffalo Philharmonic, The Tucson Symphony, The World Youth Symphony Orchestra, and The New England Conservatory Symphony. He has attended numerous festivals including Tanglewood, The Heifetz Institute, Brevard Music Center, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and more. A native of Tucson, Arizona, Matthew’s early musical training was fostered through the Tucson Unified Public Schools and Tucson Junior Strings, a unique conductorless orchestra training program for young people. He is a graduate of The New England Conservatory where he studied with James Buswell, Lucy Chapman, and Donald Weilerstein. His close mentors have included - The Borromeo String Quartet, Roger Tapping, Martha Katz, and John Heiss.

Paola Caballero

Paola Caballero has now chosen to return to Boston after spending more than a decade in Barcelona performing as member of the Chamber Orchestra de Cadaques and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Barcelona y Nacional de Catalunya, (OBC). She has performed with renowned artists including Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Janine Jansen, Isabelle Faust, Ray Chen, Augustine Hadelich, Lang Lang, Angela Gheorgiu, Placido Domingo, Jonas Kauffmann and has also worked under the baton of Giaandrea Noseda, Semyon Bychkov, Elihau Inbal, Vasily Petrenkov and John Adams to name a few. Aside from numerous tours around Europe finest concert halls with both Orquestra de Cadaques and Orquestra de Barcelona, Ms. Caballero has made numerous recordings with both ensembles and can be seen on Medici.TV, one of the world's leading classical music streaming platform.

Ms. Caballero is very happy to be back in Boston. As an educator, she has just been appointed as Executive Director of the Lexington Chamber Music Center and Artistic Director of Point CounterPoint Chamber Music Festival where she has served on the faculty for the past ten seasons. She also serves on the faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory Department as well as Project Step and Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has just recently joined the Chamber Orchestra of the United Nations with its debut performance at Carnegie Hall. IMs. Caballero holds a Postgraduate Diploma from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as well as both Masters and Bachelor degrees from the New England Conservatory in Boston. She has studied with David Takeno, Masuko Ushioda, Eric Rosenblith, Lucy Chapman, and has worked with Lorand Fenyves and Erika Raum at the Royal Conservatory, the institution that sponsored the use of the1686 Nicolo Amati instrument.

Peter Kendall Clark

Peter Kendall Clark, a born New Yorker, has been appearing in Opera, Theater and Concert for a half-century. A champion of contemporary opera, he sang in the world premieres of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis and Ted Rosenthal’s Dear Erich (New York City Opera). He has enjoyed long associations with Chelsea Opera, Union Avenue Opera, Virginia Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Opera Roanoke, St. Petersburg Opera, Syracuse Opera and Opera Company of Middlebury. Favorite Musical Theatre roles: Fredrik Eggerman, Sweeney Todd, Henry Higgins, King Arthur, and Harold Hill. He recently made his Carnegie Hall debut in the premiere of Eric Whitacre’s opera The Gift Of The Magi. This season he played El Gallo in the “boy meets boy” version of The Fantasticks at Tri-Cities Opera and he will perform his sixth Older Thompson in Glory Denied next season at Greensboro Opera. Beginning in May of 2020, his nightly stoop concerts in Brooklyn garnered global media attention (“the hottest ticket in town”- New York Post); As the ‘Brownstone Baritone’ he continues to give concerts regularly in Brooklyn Heights and in Cabaret venues around the country with his acclaimed one man show: Songs From The Ledge.

Sachin Shukla

Sachin Shukla is a violist and teacher based in Boston. Performances have brought him across the US and Italy, and to the stages of Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and NEC’s Jordan Hall. He is a member of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with A Far Cry, the Albany Symphony, Cape Symphony, Portland Symphony, and as guest principal with the Plymouth Philharmonic, among others.

Sachin is on the violin and viola faculty of the Powers Music School in Belmont, MA, where he is also Director of Chamber Music. He has also taught with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Music Project, and the Community Music Center of Boston. Sachin is proud to have sent his students to success in auditions for BYSO, NEC Prep’s orchestras, and MMEA District and All State festivals.

Sachin’s chamber music performances in the 2025–2026 season include concerts with the Romantic period performance Arpeggione Ensemble, Red Door Chamber Music, Great Music Provincetown, on Powers Music School’s “A New Lens” series and St. John’s Episcopal Church in Westwood. As a member of the Garrison Quartet, he also performed this season in Jordan Hall and at the Arlington Arts Center. Sachin is active in the early music world, having performed in ensembles led by Ingrid Matthews, Phoebe Carrai, and Aislinn Nosky. In addition to his performances with the Arpeggione Ensemble, he also was part of its debut studio recording, Songs of a Seafarer.

Sachin is a graduate of Northwestern University and the New England Conservatory, where his principal teachers were Helen Callus and Mai Motobuchi. While at Northwestern, Sachin served as research assistant to noted labor economist Diane Schanzenbach and tax law scholar Ajay K. Mehrotra, and was a member of the executive board of Northwestern University’s Political Union for three years, culminating in a term as co-president. He has been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Viola Society and has presented at the AVS and the Galant Schemata conferences.

If not playing a concert, driving to a concert, or teaching, Sachin is probably enjoying a Taiwanese oolong and listening to music with his cats, Onyx and Obsidian.

Bryce Martin

Originally from Memphis, TN, Bryce has studied violin with teachers such as Barrie Cooper, Piotr Szewczyk, and Shannon Thomas. Bryce completed his Bachelor’s dual degree in Violin Performance and Composition at the Florida State University. He is currently pursuing his Master’s in Performance with Bayla Keyes at Boston University. In 2019, he won the FSU Young Artist Competition with Vieuxtemp’s Concerto No. 5. Outside of music, Bryce enjoys cooking, hiking, video games, and spending time with his dog, Fred.

Peter Arfsten

Peter Arfsten is a flutist based in New York City. He has played with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and The Radio City Christmas Spectacular and American Symphony. In his most recent performances, he has been heard on Broadway, the Fort Greene Orchestra, Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, and as a soloist with The Windham Chamber Orchestra. He is a graduate of Queens College, The Cleveland Institute of Music, and The Peabody Institute.

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