Born in Taiwan and raised in California, violist Sifei Cheng joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 1995. He has served as principal viola of the Charleston Symphony, New World Symphony and Juilliard Orchestra, and has led sections under Michael Tilson Thomas, Eiji Oue and Christoph Eschenbach. As a chamber musician, he has played in the Ravinia Festival, Caramoor Music Festival, Taos Chamber Music Festival, Pacific Music Festival and the New York String Seminar.

Abraham Feder began his tenure with Detroit Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal cello in the fall of 2018. Prior to his appointment, he was a member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. During the summer of 2018, he served as the assistant principal cellist of the Santa Fe Opera. Feder began his orchestral career as principal cellist of the Sarasota Orchestra and cellist of the Sarasota String Quartet from 2008-2016.

Cheryl Losey Feder was appointed principal harp of the Minnesota Orchestra in 2024. Winner of the Alice Rosner Prize at the Munich ARD International Competition, Feder is one of the leading harpists of her generation. She has performed as guest principal harpist with some the world’s premiere orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the St. Louis and Detroit symphony orchestras; and has held the position of principal harp with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Sarasota Orchestra.

Lukas Goodman joins the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2023 for select concerts and will begin his tenure full-time as assistant principal cello at the end of December. In 2016 he began his studies at the Rice University Shepherd School of Music with Desmond Hoebig, where he was awarded the Shepherd Society award. While at Rice, he won first prize in the Shepherd School Concerto Competition, as well as a gold medal at the 35th annual Young Texas Artists Music Competition.

In 2019, Goodman made his concerto debut with the Missouri Symphony, performing Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, which he performed again in 2020 with the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra. He was named a finalist in the 2022 Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and in 2023 was awarded first prize at the George Gershwin International Competition.

Violist Lydia Grimes joined the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2022. A native Minnesotan, Grimes grew up as a violinist and began studying the viola at 16 under the instruction of Sabina Thatcher. She recently received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Hsin-Yun Huang, Misha Amory and Cynthia Phelps.

Violinist Sarah Grimes joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 2016, where she is a member of the first violin section. Before her appointment in the Minnesota Orchestra, she performed as a full-time guest musician with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from 2015-16, and as a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in 2014.

Raised in the Twin Cities, Grimes began studying the violin at the age of four. She received a bachelor of music degree from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, where she was concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra, and worked as a freelance musician in the greater Chicago area.

Helen Chang Haertzen joined the Minnesota Orchestra’s first violin section in 2003. In 2006 she appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Orchestra under Andrew Litton’s direction. She has performed often at the Orchestra's Chamber Music concerts. 

Haertzen, who formerly was associate and principal second violin of the Bamberg Symphony in Germany, has toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and played with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She also served on the faculty of Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, teaching orchestral training and chamber music to international students. As soloist, Haertzen has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade and Junge Philharmonie Erlangen, and with the Staatsorchester Braunschweig. In 2024, she made her Ravinia debut as guest artist with the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass.  

Nathan Hughes is the new principal oboe of the Minnesota Orchestra and a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School. He is a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, and previously served as principal oboe of the Metropolitan Opera as well as the Seattle Symphony and has recorded, toured, and made guest appearances as principal oboe with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony.

As the recipient of the Fritz Kreisler Scholarship, Aaron Janse earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the Juilliard School, where he studied with the world-renowned pedagogue Dorothy DeLay and Joel Smirnoff of the Juilliard String Quartet. His most influential teachers include Daniel Heifetz and Robert Semon (a Carl Flesch disciple who fled Nazi Germany to settle in El Paso, Texas). His chamber music studies include extensive work with Felix Galimir and the Guarneri and Juilliard string quartets, as well as Joseph Fuchs and Zoltan Szekely. 

Natsuki Kumagai joined the Minnesota Orchestra second violin section in 2017 and won a position in the first violin section in 2019. Born and raised in Chicago, Kumagai has been praised by The New York Times as having “a poise and assurance that marks her as a violinist to watch closely.” Her extensive range of repertoire earned her a position with the New Fromm Players, the quartet in residence for contemporary music at the Tanglewood Institute. This included world and U.S. premieres of works by world-renowned composers Marc Neikrug and Joseph Phibbs. In 2024 she made her solo debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, playing the Saint-Georges Violin Concerto, for which she was hailed for her “fiery and passionate” performance. 

Praised for her awareness and mature musicianship, Hanna Landrum has been sought after as a section leader for many orchestras, including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Canton Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, Youngstown Symphony, Brevard Symphony, Firelands Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Civic Symphony, Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and Minnesota Bach Ensemble, as well as regularly stepping in to perform with the Cleveland Orchestra and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. With an adoration of orchestral playing showing from an early age, she has been honored to serve as a stand partner to such renowned concertmasters as William Preucil, Noah Bendix-Balgley and David Kim. 

Illinois native Sonia Mantell joined the Minnesota Orchestra cello section in September 2020, and in fall 2024 took on the role of acting co-associate principal cello as well as making her debut as soloist performing James MacMillan’s Kiss on Wood in March 2025.  She studied at New England Conservatory and DePaul School of Music under the tutelage of Natasha Brofksy and Brant Taylor, respectively.  While attending DePaul, she won the Concerto Competition with violinist Ari Urban and performed the Brahms Double Concerto with the DePaul Symphony.  She is a Civic Orchestra of Chicago Alumni (2014-16) and has attended summer festivals at Aspen, National Orchestral Institute, Music Academy of the West and Tanglewood Music Center.

Greg Milliren, the Minnesota Orchestra’s associate principal flutist since 2009, has also performed as guest principal flute with the Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Seattle Symphony. Additionally, he has appeared with the major orchestras of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, National, Colorado and Jacksonville. He performed with the Russian National Orchestra during their tour to Minnesota, with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston. He regularly plays flute and piccolo with the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, Minnesota, and has also played with the Arizona Music Festival.

Milana Elise Reiche is a member of the Minnesota Orchestra first violin section and has served in both first and second violin sections since joining the Orchestra in 1995. She was concertmaster of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra from 2005-2010. She regularly participates in Minnesota Orchestra’s chamber music series. Each summer she attends the Sun Valley Summer Music festival in Sun Valley, Idaho, and the Steamboat Springs festival in Colorado.

Kyle Sanborn began playing bass at the age of 12 in Portland, Oregon. He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Oregon and his graduate degree at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with Tyler Abbott and Kurt Muroki, respectively. Sanborn spent his summers with the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Verbier, Switzerland, the Aspen Music Festival and School and the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina.

Violist Sarah Switzer joined the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2022 and served as acting assistant principal viola for the Orchestra’s 2023-24 season. She earned her master’s degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music as a student of Ivo-Jan van der Werff. She holds a bachelor’s degree in the History of Art from Yale University, where she studied with Wendy Sharp. Recipient of the Yale Wrexham Prize for Music, the T. Whitney Blake Prize and the Sharp Prize for Music, Switzer served as principal viola of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and performed Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the symphony orchestra in 2018 as a winner of the William Waite Concerto Competition. Her undergraduate thesis on French medieval manuscript illumination earned her the A. Conger Goodyear Fine Arts Award in 2019.

Fei Xie joined the Minnesota Orchestra as principal bassoon at the beginning of the 2017-18 season after serving as principal bassoonist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra—an ensemble he first joined as second bassoonist in 2008. When he won the principal role in 2012, Xie became the first Chinese-born bassoonist to hold such a position in a major American symphony orchestra. He was previously a member of the Houston Grand Opera, principal bassoonist of the Mansfield Symphony in Ohio, and has appeared as guest principal bassoonist with orchestras such as Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Timothy Zavadil joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 2007 as clarinetist and bass clarinetist, and he has since played those instruments as well as E-flat clarinet, contrabass clarinet, basset horn and saxophones. Previously a member of the Louisville Orchestra, Toledo Symphony and Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he has also performed with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, National, Toronto and St. Louis symphony orchestras, under such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Sir George Solti, David Robertson, Alan Gilbert, Franz Welser-Möst, Zubin Mehta and Christoph Eschenbach.