Michael Palmer has long been considered one of this country’s finest conductors. In addition to appearances in the United States, he has also appeared in Europe as a guest conductor in Austria and Poland, where his performances have brought him critical acclaim. Mr. Palmer began his career at age 21, when he came to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as assistant conductor at the invitation of Robert Shaw. He was soon made associate conductor, and also founded and was music director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra. While in Atlanta, Michael Palmer was honored as one of five of the first conductors in the United States chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts to be Exxon Arts Endowment Conductor, and he was soon in demand with orchestras throughout the country. While continuing in his post in Atlanta, he was appointed guest conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra for a three-year period. He also worked extensively with the National Symphony Orchestra during this period, and he was, subsequently, named co-principal guest conductor of the Denver Symphony Orchestra.

After 10 years in Atlanta as associate conductor, Mr. Palmer accepted the appointment as music director of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. Throughout his 13-year tenure, he developed the Orchestra to a high artistic level. Following his tenure in Wichita, Michael Palmer became music director of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. In New Haven, he was recognized widely for his artistic accomplishments and for building the Orchestra to one of the finest of its kind in the nation.

In 1993, Michael Palmer became artistic director of the Bellingham Festival of Music. Under his artistic leadership, the Festival has become internationally recognized for its artistry. Festival concerts are heard across the nation on NPR and feature some of the finest orchestral musicians and major guest artists from the United States and abroad. He is also the artistic director of the Quartz Mountain Music Festival’s orchestral institute.

Michael Palmer has served as guest conductor for many orchestras throughout the United States, including the Rochester Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony and many others. In 1991, Mr. Palmer founded the American Sinfonietta, which toured Europe for 10 seasons under his leadership, playing to critical acclaim in the major concert halls of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

His recordings include an all-Mendelssohn disc for Summit Records and the Five Beethoven Piano Concerti with pianist Garrick Ohlsson on the Natural Soundfields label. Mr. Palmer may also be heard with the Rochester Philharmonic on the New World label.

Mr. Palmer joined the Georgia State University School of Music faculty as director of orchestras in August 2004, after serving in the same capacity at Wichita State University. In 2006, he was appointed as the Charles Thomas Wurm Distinguished Professor of Orchestral Studies.

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, he took his first violin lessons at the age of four with his father Kosmas Galileas, the distinguished Greek violinist and conductor, and continued studying with Professor Stelios Kafantaris.

Dr. Galileas was awarded first prize and the gold metal for his outstanding musical abilities upon graduating from the Conservatory of Athens in 1994. While still a student he began an active career with international solo appearances, and individual recitals. His first public appearance at age 16 was with the Symphony Orchestra of Thessaloniki with an impressive performance of the Paganini violin concerto No 1.

Since then, he has appeared as soloist with many orchestras including the State Orchestra of Athens, National Radio Orchestra of Greece, Prague Symphony, State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia, Canadian Chamber Orchestra of Toronto, Symphony of the Americas (Fort Lauderdale Florida), Ploesti and Baccau Symphony Orchestras (Romania), Prague Virtuosi, Orchestra Citta di Grosseto (Italy), Symphony Orchestra of Sofia (Bulgaria), Lisbon Chamber Orchestra (Portugal), Latvian National Orchestra, Camerata Stuttgart (Germany) and Gustav Mahler Orchestra (Prague).

He has also appeared as soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Music Academy of Vienna, as well as the Camerata Orchestra of Megaron of Athens for the opening of the international Festival of Patra. In 1997, Dr. Galileas won first prize at the Greek National Competition for violin, held by the Cultural Association TECHNI, in collaboration with the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki and the Cultural Capital of Europe Thessaloniki 1997.

In May 2001 he received the master’s degree at The Juilliard School where he studied with the distinguished professors of violin Dorothy Delay and Naoko Tanaka. In March 2001 he had the honor of receiving the first prize in the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship competition of the University of Illinois.

In December 2005, he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in violin performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Dr. Galileas has taught violin and chamber music in many masterclasses in various venues, including the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, City Conservatory of Thessaloniki and the Athens Conservatory, as well as masterclass series held at the Music Society of Macedonia, Brasov Symphony orchestra in Romania and Symphony of the Americas in Ft.Lauderdale. He has also taught as an assistant of Almita Vamos and Naoko Tanaka.

Since 2003, Dr. Galileas has served as the artistic director of the Chamber Music Series at the Dimitria International Festival of Thessaloniki. His most recent appearances included the performance of the Brahms Double Concerto with Misha Maisky, and the collaboration with the Borodin Quartet and the George Enescu Philharmonic of Bucharest. Christos plays on a 1705 Joseph Guarneri violin.

Tania Maxwell Clements attained a BA in Music Performance (Viola) and a Certificate of Post-Graduate Studies (Viola Performance) from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) where she studied viola with James Durrant. During her studies at the RSAMD she won the prestigious Watson Forbes Prize for Viola Playing and the Viola Challenge Prize. Her studies continued in Switzerland at the International Menuhin Music Academy (IMMA) for two consecutive years, working intensively with Alberto Lysy and Johannes Eskar. During this time she performed regularly in master classes given by Sir Yehudi Menuhin and artists such as Igor Oistrakh and Donald McInnes. She was principal viola and soloist with the Camerata Lysy and performed as soloist at the Menuhin Festival, Gstaad and at festivals in France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Wales.

Upon leaving the IMMA, Tania was invited to become a founding member of the Seville Symphony Orchestra in Spain and from there was invited to join the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Manchester, England as Assistant Principal Viola. Whilst working with the BBC, Tania also held the principal viola position with the Northern Symphony Orchestra and was invited to perform as guest principal with the Halle Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. During this time she was also a founding member of the Wralle flute, viola and harp Trio and the Puligny String Quartet.

Tania joined the faculty of Georgia State University in 1998. Since arriving in Atlanta she has appeared as a concerto soloist both at GSU and elsewhere, gives frequent recitals and performs regularly with Georgia State faculty (Musica da Camera). She is also principal viola with the Chamber Orchestra of Tennessee and the North Georgia Symphony.

Over the years she has performed with many other orchestras including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Orchestra (formerly the SNO), the BP Scottish Ensemble, the Scottish Opera Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the East of England Orchestra and the Royal Festival Orchestra. She has played at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including Covent Garden and the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Philharmonie in Berlin, Boston’s Symphony Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, La Scala Milan in Itay, the Musikverein in Vienna and Prague’s Dvorak Hall. Since moving to Atlanta in 1998, she has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Columbus Symphony and Macon Symphony orchestras, the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Kopec String Quartet, Musica da Camera and the Lyra String Quartet.

Tania has a prolific recording career and appears on almost one hundred CD’s covering orchestral, solo and chamber repertoire. Upcoming projects include a CD of solo viola, piano and chamber works by Atlanta composer Nickitas J. Demos as well as two concertos specially commissioned for her. She is a strong supporter of new music for the viola and has personally commissioned many new works for her instrument.

Tania Maxwell Clements is also a master teacher. Before moving to Atlanta she taught orchestral techniques at Chethams School of Music (a Yehudi Menuhin School) and the Royal Northern College of Music and has also taught at the Junior Department of the RSAMD. In Atlanta, Tania is Adjunct Professor of Music (Viola and Violin) at Georgia State University.

Joel Dallow has been a member of the cello section of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1999, currently serves as Artistic Director and Founder of Riverside Chamber Players, Inc. and is faculty at Georgia State University as the Instructor of Cello.

Mr. Dallow studied with Stephen Kates, Orlando Cole, William Stokking, Myron Lutzke, and David Geber. He is a 1994 graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University and was awarded the Israel Dorman memorial award for achieving excellence in performance. He performs on a 1750 Edmund Aireton cello made in London.

Previously, Mr. Dallow was principal cello of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Delaware Symphony Orchestra, Reading Symphony Orchestra, and the Haddonfield Symphony. On a temporary basis, he has also performed with the cello sections of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. As a soloist, he has performed with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, Gettysburg Symphony Orchestra and with the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey.

Chamber music remains one of Mr. Dallow’s passions. In 2003, he established Riverside Chamber Players, Inc. and currently serves as Artistic Director and cellist. Riverside’s mission is to present chamber music performances of the highest professional quality providing artistic, educational, and cultural enrichment for the local communities. He also performs with the Chamber Music Festival of the Black Hills, in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Mr. Dallow has performed regularly with Music For All Seasons, Inc., an organization
devoted to providing the healing power of music to communities that may otherwise not have access to music for enjoyment: residents of hospitals, nursing homes, geriatric centers, prisons, and special facilities for children.

From the recording studio, Mr. Dallow’s performances can be heard on many of the Atlanta Symphony’s Grammy award-winning albums, in addition to “The Music of Michael Kurth” performed by the Riverside Chamber Players, available at www.riversidechamberplayers.org, or through Amazon, iTunes, and Cd Baby.

In 2016, Mr. Dallow became faculty at Georgia State University as the Instructor of Cello. He also maintains an extensive private studio that has launched many young cellists into university music programs nationwide over a period of two decades. He was previously a member of the faculty for the Atlanta Symphony’s Talent Development Program. As a passionate advocate for arts education in the Fulton County School System, he was recognized by the Georgia American String Teachers Association with the 2011 Advocacy Award.

Mr. Dallow was born as the second of triplets, and grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey in a musical family. His mother is a concert pianist, music critic, and published author, and his father is a pianist and composer. He has three college-aged children, and resides in Roswell, Georgia.

Emory Clements received education and performance degrees from the University of Georgia and studied with Hal Robinson, concentrating on orchestral studies. For the last 21 years he has been a major presence on the Southeastern orchestral scene, playing as a freelancer with many orchestras. He is a member of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and a substitute player with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Clements has taught in the Clarke County school system, at Clark Atlanta University and as a string methods and applied double bass teacher at Georgia College and State University. He has taught applied bass at Mercer University since 2002 and joins the faculty of Georgia State University this fall. Mr. Clements also is a passionate bow and instrument maker. He made the instrument on which he plays and is currently finishing his first commissioned double bass.