A native of Voronezh, Russia, pianist Alyona A. Waldo has pursued an accomplished and versatile career as a chamber musician, collaborative pianist, and educator. Recent engagements include faculty artist at the Clazz International Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy, concert soloist with the Edgewood Chamber Orchestra, and collaborative pianist for faculty and student recitals at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music.

Alyona has performed across the U.S., Europe, and Asia as a member of the cello/piano team A.W.Duo. As a chamber musician, performance highlights include Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, performances with cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival, and New York City venues including Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Polish, Russian and French Consulates, and Lincoln Center.

Alyona was pianist of the Listen Closely chamber music initiative, presenting concerts of historical and newly-commissioned works for the people of uptown Manhattan. In Russia, Alyona was winner of the Gavrilin Governor's International Competition, the finalist of the International Gnessin Piano Competition in Moscow, and concert soloist with the Voronezh Academic Symphony Orchestra. Other notable positions include staff pianist for the La Lingua Della Lirica Festival in Novafeltria, Italy; faculty of the International Piano Festival in Portland, ME; and staff pianist for Mannes Preparatory Division.

She received her Master of Music degree from Mannes College, the New School for Music (NYC), under the tutelage of Vladimir Feltsman and Pavlina Dokovska. Now living in Madison, WI, Alyona is active as a collaborative pianist and music educator.

Ryan Loken, Instructor of Percussion at the University of Minnesota Duluth, is known across the region as both a solo performer and a collaborator. Recent solo performances by Loken have highlighted the works of Francisco Perez, John Luther Adams, and Emma O’Halloran, among others. Loken has played with the Fargo Moorhead Symphony Orchestra since 2018. In 2019, he was a guest artist at the Oregon Fringe Festival in Ashland, Oregon, where his quartet, MinusOne Percussion, performed John Luther Adams’s Strange and Sacred Noise and joined other guest artists in creating immersive musical experiences. He has also collaborated with the Boston Brass. Loken is also an active pursuer of new music and has commissioned numerous works, including duets, quartets, and mixed chamber ensembles.

A believer in the impacts of physical and mental health on musicianship, Loken stresses the importance of a total-body approach to percussion. He is certified in Noa Kageyama’s “Bulletproof Musician” course, which teaches mental resilience and deliberate practice strategies. In addition, Loken incorporates the scientific approach of sports medicine including mobility and calisthenics training into his playing and teaching for lifelong healthy musicianship. He has been a member of Rob Knopper’s Audition Hacker Academy, which provides a systematic approach toward audition preparation, since the program’s founding in 2015 and served as a beta tester for some of Knopper’s other courses.

In addition to his instruction at UMD, Loken is on faculty at the International Music Camp where he works with students from the United States, Canada, and around the globe. He also offers private studio instruction. His percussion teachers include David Eyler and Sigurd Johnson, and he has studied composition with Jocelyn Hagen and Kyle Vandeburg. Loken has a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from Concordia College and Masters degrees in Percussion and Music Theory Pedagogy from North Dakota State University. He is currently a doctoral candidate in Percussion at NDSU with an expected program completion date of December 2023.

Floocello is a dynamic duo of innovative musicians, reshaping classical conventions and pioneering modern music.

Floocello, based in Los Angeles, is a chamber group featuring Antonina Styczen on flutes and Pola Benke on cello. Founded by two Polish musicians, Floocello combines traditional classical music, with contemporary music, works by female composers, and folk traditions. They have won the Beverly Hills National Auditions in 2022 and performed at venues across the United States. Committed to expanding the classical music repertoire, they actively commission new music.

Pola Benke-cello

Pola Benke is a distinguished cellist and conductor known for her blend of passion and pursuit of musical excellence. Her musical journey began at the age of eight in Poland, leading to a soloist debut in 2007 with a captivating performance of Lutoslawski's Grave. Pola earned a Master’s Degree in orchestral training from The Boston Conservatory and pursued postgraduate studies under Marek Szpakiewicz in Los Angeles. She further honed her skills through scholarships, studying with renowned cellists including Lynn Harrell, Dominik Polonski and Astrid Schween.

Pola's prowess in classical music has taken her to prestigious festivals across Europe and the United States, including the Aspen Music Festival. As a versatile musician, she has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra member, premiering numerous contemporary pieces. Her association with the chamber orchestra Sinfonietta Cracovia, patronized by Krzysztof Penderecki, has bolstered her reputation in the classical music world. Additionally, she directed the International Cello Festival "Hello-Cello."

In her conducting career, Pola serves as an Assistant Conductor at the Riverside Philharmonic, and the Long Beach Symphony, and an Associate Conductor at the Westside Youth Orchestra. Early recognition of her talent included selection for Maestro Neeme Järvi's summer program and an invitation to the Dartington Music Festival and Järvi Academy in Estonia.

Pola's passion for contemporary music and advocacy for female artists defines her career. Her musical influences include Krzysztof Penderecki, Igor Stravinsky, and Yo-Yo Ma. Now residing in Los Angeles, she continues to inspire audiences with her remarkable musicianship and leadership, performing with local ensembles like the OC Trio, Floocello and Romantica Piano Quartet.

Antonina Styczen - flute

A dynamic flutist and entrepreneur, Antonina Styczeń has appeared in unlikely spaces as a concerto soloist and created large-scale, crowd-sourced projects, with an emphasis on performances that include improvisation, electronics, deejay, her own compositions, and works by female composers. Ms. Styczeń is a First Prize and special prize winner for the Best Performance of a New Work at the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition, a two time Second Prize and William H. Grass Memorial Prize winner at The James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition, and Third Prize winner in the Mid-South Flute Society Young Artist Competition and Texas Myrna Brown Young Artist Competition as well as winner of 2018 Astral Artists National Audition and 2022 Beverly Hills National Audition. Her debut album „Mieczyslaw Wajnberg: Works for Flute” was nominated for the International Classical Music Award and the Prize of German Critics. She holds degrees from Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, Poland, Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain and Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Recently, she’s toured worldwide with Iranian pop-star Googoosh, while pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Southern California. Antonina maintains her private teaching studio in Irvine, serves as a president of the San Diego Flute Guild and is a co-founder of two chamber groups, active in Southern California: Floocello with Pola Benke (cello) and Duo Kava with Doris Cosić (guitar).