Board of Directors & Staff

Former Principal Trumpet of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Karin “K” Bliznik (she/they) is a multi-Grammy Award-winning artist. In her recent New Year’s Celebration performance, reviewed by KDHX, she brought a “buoyant jazz age spirit” to “Rhapsody in Blue” and her “solid solo” made for an “elegant and romantic” rendition of “American in Paris.” Bliznik has held principal positions in the Atlanta, Charlotte, and Charleston Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Santa Fe Opera. She has appeared as Guest Principal and soloist with the New York Philharmonic and as Guest Principal with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with the London Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Boston Pops.

Bliznik is interested in cross-genre collaboration and has performed with a wide range of artists, including Stevie Wonder, Kayne West, and The Temptations. She has participated in numerous music festivals—most recently, with Trumpet Mafia at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Bliznik is also a singer/songwriter, guitarist, and lead singer of Queen Kiddo, a melodic-driven rock band started with her colleagues from the SLSO. In the past few years, she joined the board of the Recording Academy and started her own record label, Tower Grove Records, where she is the lead engineer and producer.

Bliznik holds a Master of Music from Northwestern University where she studied with Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer, as well as Christopher Martin of the New York Philharmonic. She also holds a Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance, summa cum laude, from Boston University where she studied with Terry Everson, and Tom Rolfs of the Boston Symphony.

Bliznik served on faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute this past summer and has held positions as a brass coach with the New World Symphony, National Youth Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and School, and National Orchestra Institute. She has given masterclasses and clinics worldwide.

Marcus S. Grant is a professional composer, trumpet teacher, performer, producer, and content creator based in central Virginia. He currently serves as Co-Founder and Director of the Trumpeter’s Multitrack Competition and Seminar, a Board Member of the National Trumpet Competition and Diversify The Stand, and a professor of Music Theory and Aural Skills at Virginia Commonwealth University.

A celebrated and renowned composer and arranger, Marcus’ award-winning music is performed regularly at dozens of conferences and hundreds of recitals by world-class musicians across the globe. Marcus is a published composer for Rising Tide Music Press and the world’s leading online sheet music distributor, Musicnotes.com.

As a performer, his lifelong music career began as a young member of the Richmond Boys Choir, taking him to performances for the General Assembly of Virginia, former President George H. Bush Sr., Coretta Scott King, James Brown, Desiree Roots, and others. As a trumpet player, he has performed at the American Bandmasters Association Conference, the National Trumpet Competition, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, Carnegie Hall, and others. As a content creator and video producer, his music-related videos across all social media platforms boast a total of nearly 6 million views.

Marcus received his Bachelor’s degree in Instrumental Music Education from Virginia Commonwealth University and his Master’s Degree in Trumpet Performance from Indiana University, with an outside area in Arts Administration. His primary trumpet teachers have included Rex Richardson, Kevin Maloney, and Joey Tartell.

Patrick Oliverio holds a position at the University of Missouri-Kansas City as photographer/videographer for the Strategic Marketing and Communications Department. He is engaged with the community as a freelance trumpet player, photographer, and clinician. Oliverio has performed with ensembles such as the Fountain City Brass Band, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Brass Band of Battle Creek, the Alabama Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Kansas City Ballet. In 2017, Patrick won first place in the graduate solo division of the National Trumpet Competition in Boulder, CO. Patrick earned his MM in Trumpet Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance and a BM in Trumpet Performance from the University of Arkansas.

Joey Tartell is Professor of Trumpet and Chair of the Brass Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He toured and recorded as lead trumpet with Maynard Ferguson, and has performed with the Woody Herman Orchestra, the U.S. Army’s Jazz Ambassadors, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. He has played with the St. Louis, Houston, Cincinnati, Detroit and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, and was Guest Principal Trumpet for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s 2014–15 Pops season. As a freelancer he has backed artists including Doc Severinsen, Aretha Franklin, Arturo Sandoval and Manhattan Transfer.

Tartell has been a featured soloist at the International Trumpet Guild Conference and the National Trumpet Competition, and gives clinics across the country. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Miami and a Bachelor of Music and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. His teachers include Barbara Butler, Gil Johnson, Mel Broiles and Vince DiMartino.

A native of Marshalltown, Iowa, Gail Novak now lives and performs in the Phoenix area. Gail is in demand as a collaborator across the United States and frequently performs with students, professors, and guest artists at Arizona State University. Gail’s extensive repertoire list for many different instruments has landed her invitations to perform at the National Trumpet Competition, the International Clarinet Festival, the International Double Reed Society, the National Flute Association, the International Trumpet Guild, the International Women’s Brass Conference, and the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference. She is featured on recordings with David Hickman, Robert Spring, and Brad Edwards.

Gail is on the faculty at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona, the collaborative piano staff at the Indiana Summer Music Festival, and is an avid teacher for young pianists.

Alexa Constantine is a Los Angeles-based collaborative pianist. After graduating from UCLA, Alexa was retained as a staff pianist, primarily working with trumpeter Jens Lindemann’s studio. Alexa also tours with Take3, a classical-crossover trio that performs all over the world.

In addition to performing, Alexa works full time in music royalties and residuals payments processing. She also serves on the board for the Channel Islands Chamber Orchestra of Ventura County, where she focuses on youth outreach and the young artist concerto competition.

Korean pianist Suyeon Kim is an instructor in collaborative piano at the University of Colorado Boulder, joining the faculty in 2013. Kim is an experienced and versatile collaborator, with significant instrumental and vocal accompanying experience. She holds degrees in piano performance and collaborative piano from universities in South Korea and the United States, including the Eastman School of Music and the University of Texas at Austin. Kim has served as collaborative pianist at the Meadowmount School of Music, for the MTNA regional and national competitions, the Colorado Flute Association competition, and the International Double Reed Society Conference. She has also performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York and the Seoul Arts Center, King Sejong Hall, Youngsan Hall and Kumho Hall in Seoul, South Korea.

Dr. Dean Peiskee is a chamber musician, soloist, orchestral pianist, accompanist and vocal coach who has performed throughout the United States and in Poland, Italy, Austria, Greece, Cuba and Bolivia. He performs with the Emerald Trio, Trio Vivo, the Young-Peiskee flute-piano duo, the Bold City Contemporary Ensemble and the Cerulean Trio, a finalist in the 2016 Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition. He has appeared several times as a soloist with the Brazos Chamber Orchestra, spent five years as pianist for the Singing Girls of Texas, and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2017 in Weill Recital Hall, performing the music of Timothy Hoekman.

He holds a Doctor of Music in collaborative piano and a Master of Music in accompanying from Florida State University, an Artist Diploma and a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Texas Christian University, and an Associate of Music from Kilgore College. His teachers include Timothy Hoekman, Read Gainsford, José Feghali, John Owings and Sandra Siler.

Rajung Yang is Lecturer in Piano at the Baylor University School of Music, where she teaches class and applied piano and works as a collaborative pianist. Before coming to Baylor in 2018, she was Associate Professor of Piano and Head of the Keyboard Area at the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton School of Music, and for many years was harpsichordist for the Idaho Bach Festival. Her prizes include first prize in Seattle’s Frances Walton Young Artist Competition, the IBLA Grand Prize in Italy and the University of Michigan Concerto Competition. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Hill Auditorium, and her performances have been broadcast on Seattle public radio.

Born in Seoul, Korea, she holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano from Seoul National University, and a second master’s and a DMA in piano performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Arthur Greene and Logan Skelton, collaborative piano with Martin Katz and harpsichord with Edward Parmentier.