Known for his passionate artistry and engaging stage presence, pianist Jon Kimura Parker has performed regularly at the Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, London’s South Bank, the Sydney Opera House and the Beijing Concert Hall. In 2019 he was appointed the Minnesota Orchestra’s first-ever creative partner for Summer at Orchestra Hall, a new role in which he is serving as a creative force behind the Orchestra’s summer festival and appearing each summer as a host, performer and personality.

Susan Billmeyer has performed throughout the U.S. as a recitalist and collaborative pianist and is in constant demand as a chamber musician. She has performed regularly with the Minnesota Orchestra since 2005 and has joined them for several international tours, most recently to Cuba in 2015. Her recordings have appeared on the BIS and Innova labels, and since 2013 she has been co-artistic director of the Musical Offering, a chamber music ensemble based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, violinist Sophia Mockler earned her master’s degree from the Yale School of Music with Ani Kavafian. Her previous teachers include Catherine Cho at the Juilliard School, Carmit Zori and Itzhak Perlman. She has attended multiple summer music festivals including the Verbier Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Program, the Lakes Area Music Festival and the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop. Recently she made her debut on the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society. In 2020 she toured throughout Europe with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under the direction of Iván Fischer, performing at the Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie and Carnegie Hall. She has served as the concertmaster for the Verbier Festival Orchestra as well as the Yale Philharmonia Orchestra. In addition to playing violin, she enjoys singing opera and sang the titular role in Dido and Aeneas at Princeton University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature.

Ben Odhner joined the Minnesota Orchestra in 2017, and won an audition to move to the first violin section in 2022. He previously held the position of fixed 4th chair in the first violin section of the Colorado Symphony. He has appeared as a soloist with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Ashland Symphony, Warminster Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles. In 2008 and 2009, he was selected to participate in the New York String Orchestra Seminar at Carnegie Hall. A fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival and School, he has been concertmaster of the Aspen Sinfonia and the Aspen Concert Orchestra. He was also a member of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which performed at Carnegie Hall in April 2009 as a part of the first international classical music summit brought together through the internet.

Cellist Pitnarry Shin has toured throughout the United States, Europe and her native Korea. She has performed as soloist with the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) Symphony Orchestra, the Kunsan Philharmonic, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and the Queens Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared at many of the leading international festivals including the Ravinia Festival, the Edinburgh and Dartington Festivals (England), Colmar and Evian Festivals (France), Banff Festival (Canada) and the Piatigorsky Seminar. She was the recipient of a Fulbright Grant to Germany, which allowed her to participate and perform in several European festivals such as the Manchester Festival, the Kronberg Festival and the Ensemble InterContemporain Summer Festival, where she played solo cello under Pierre Boulez. 

Shin was a member of the Minnesota Orchestra from 2001 to 2006 and returned as a full time member again in 2012. In addition to her orchestral work, she serves as an artistic director of the Bakken Trio.

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.

Dallas native Marlea Simpson joined the Minnesota Orchestra’s viola section in September 2022, and was appointed associate principal viola in February 2024. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “Grant Park Orchestra’s new 21-year-old wunderkind” in 2016, she most recently held the principal viola position with the Chicago Sinfonietta in addition to a section position with the Grant Park Orchestra after completing their Project Inclusion Program in 2014. Simpson has also performed as a substitute musician with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Sarasota Orchestra.