_Gabriel Arregui has appeared in recital with sopranos Julianne Baird and Rosa Lamoreaux, with David Shostac (flute), John Thiessen (baroque trumpet) and Elizabeth Blumenstock (baroque violin). He has performed for Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and former Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie. He has appeared for 18 seasons as soloist and in chamber ensembles with the Baroque Music Festival of Corona del Mar, and has taught 18th-century counterpoint at La Sierra University. Presently, he serves as Organist-Choirmaster at St Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Encinitas, California.
Mr Arregui holds degrees from the University of Southern California (Accompanying and Collaborative Piano) and Loma Linda University (Organ Performance). His professors have included Gwendolyn Koldofsky, Brooks Smith and Jean Barr (Collaborative and Solo Piano), Anita Norskov Olson (Solo Piano), Malcolm Hamilton (Harpsichord), and Donald J. Vaughn (Organ).

  Elizabeth Ashmead, flutist and piccoloist with the San Diego 
Symphony, was born in Los Angeles and grew up in South 
Pasadena and Saratoga, California.  In high school, she studied 
flute with Paul Renzi, then principal flutist with the San Francisco 
Symphony.  She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, 
where she studied with the distinguished flutist and teacher 
Joseph Mariano.  Liz joined the San Diego Symphony as piccoloist 
in 1975 and has made her home here since then. She has 
performed as soloist with the orchestra on both flute and piccolo. 

Mary Karo, violinist and leader, started playing the violin in the fourth grade. Her ability on the violin led to a music major at San Diego State University where she quickly became concert-mistress of the orchestra. At that time she studied with Gilbert Back, former member of the Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras. She also coached with Raphael Druian, concertmaster for George Szell and the Cleveland Symphony and with the great cellist, Edgar Lustgarten.

At age 19 Mary became a contracted member of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and played with the San Diego Opera and California Ballet Orchestras. She created The Festival String Trio with Doug Mounger, the late principal violist with the San Diego Symphony and cellist Mary Lindblom, a former Bernard Greenhouse (Beaux Arts Trio) student. Mary also began hiring and leading string sections for various recording companies in San Diego. From 1985 to 1989 she contracted and performed as Concertmaster for the San Diego Civic Light Opera and currently contracts and leads the orchestra for the Lyric Opera San Diego, a position she has held for the past 19 years. She has appeared as string leader and contractor for artists including Andy Williams, Bob Hope, Jimmy Paige and Robert Plant (formerly Led Zeppelin), Ann Jillian, Joel Grey, Dionne Warwick, Smokey Robinson, Johnny Mathis, Burt Bacharach and many others.