Minnesota Orchestra Welcomes Five New Full-Time Members for 2024-25 Season

Cheryl Losey Feder is appointed principal harp, Jaclyn Rainey to serve as associate principal horn, William Ramos joins as contrabassoon, and Sabrina Bradford and Nora Scheller to join second violin section  

The Minnesota Orchestra will introduce five new full-time musicians to its ranks this fall. Cheryl Losey Feder will assume the principal harp position, with Jaclyn Rainey serving as associate principal horn and William Ramos as the Orchestra’s new contrabassoonist. The second violin section will welcome Sabrina Bradford and Nora Scheller. Each of the new players will perform in the Orchestra’s Season Opening concerts on September 20 and 21 led by Music Director Thomas Søndergärd, except Bradford, whose first concerts will be October 31-November 2.

Cheryl Losey Feder, winner of the Alice Rosner Prize at the Munich ARD International Competition, has performed as guest principal harpist with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit, and served as principal harp with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Sarasota Orchestra. Her teaching appointments include roles as assistant professor of harp at Michigan State University and faculty positions at a number of festivals, including the National Music Festival, Brevard Music Center and PRISMA Music Festival. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Feder, along with her husband Abraham Feder, assistant principal cello of the Detroit Symphony, recently performed their debut recital for WFMT Chicago and the International Music Society. Feder’s debut solo album is called A Story. She succeeds Katherine Siochi, who now plays with the San Francisco Symphony.

Jaclyn Rainey won the role as associate principal horn last April, after serving in the acting position for two seasons. Prior to joining the Minnesota Orchestra, Rainey was principal horn of the Atlanta Symphony and associate principal horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among other roles. She has also performed with the symphonies of Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit and Vancouver, and spent summers performing at the Tanglewood Music Center and Cabrillo Festival. Rainey has served on the faculty of Emory University and Georgia State, as well as at the Brevard Music Center, Interlochen Arts Camp and the New England Conservatory’s Summer Orchestra Institute. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Rainey is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and New England Conservatory. She will join the faculty of the University of Minnesota School of Music this fall. Rainey fills the role held by Herbert Winslow, who retired in 2021. 

William Ramos recently served as contrabassoonist of the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago and has performed with symphonies of Chicago, Houston, Nashville and San Francisco. He has enjoyed considerable success in music competitions, winning the first prize in the Florida Orchestra’s Justine LeBaron Young Artist Competition and second prize and audience favorite in the Texas Music Festival’s Cynthia Woods Mitchell Competition. A native of Tampa, Florida, Ramos was a student of Benjamin Kamins at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Ramos succeeds longtime Minnesota Orchestra contrabassoonist Norbert Nielubowski, who retired in 2023.

Originally from Washington, D.C.., Sabrina Bradford trained under esteemed teachers such as Carolyn Huebl, Stephen Rose and Paul Kantor, and received degrees from Vanderbilt University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her professional career began during her undergraduate studies when she performed frequently with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Since then, she has been a regular guest with the Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Sphinx Virtuosi. Bradford is a regular performer with the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd and has performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, Musikfest Berlin, and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Romania. She is an educator certified in Suzuki Book 1.

A native of Minnesota, violinist Nora Scheller returns to her home state from Dallas, Texas, where she held a position with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for 10 years, working under Jaap van Zweden and Fabio Luisi. Before joining the Dallas Symphony, Scheller studied with Alex Kerr at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where, at 19, she was one of the youngest ever to be accepted into the artist diploma program. Scheller has performed nationally and internationally at some of the world’s greatest concerts halls and has been invited to participate in the Aspen, Breckenridge, Verbier, and Bravo Vail music festivals. In addition to her orchestral work, she is also a devoted chamber musician, having performed alongside such musicians as Alex Kerr, Eric Kim, Peter McGuire, Nathan Olson and Jorja Fleezanis. Nora plays a 2005 David Folland violin.