Joyce Besch currently holds the position of third bassoon/contrabassoon in Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra.  Joyce is also a member of the Nebraska Chamber Players and Bassoons Across Nebraska, and performs with the Omaha Symphony, Nebraska Symphony Chamber Orchestra, and Lincoln Municipal Band. Before coming to Lincoln, Nebraska in 2006, Joyce was an active free-lance bassoonist in Toronto, Ontario. There she held the second bassoon position with Niagara Symphony and performed with several area orchestras, including Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Windsor Symphony, and Oshawa-Durham Symphony. One of her quirkier bassoon performances was playing “Happy Trails” on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Joyce teaches bassoon at Nebraska Wesleyan University. She has given contrabassoon masterclasses at Ithaca College in New York and taught bassoon and aural skills at Olivet College in Michigan. 

Joyce studied bassoon with Laine Bryce and Carole Mason-Smith in St. Paul, MN, Yoshi Tominaga in Salzburg, Austria, and Linda Harwell in Baltimore, MD. She received degrees from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota (B.A. Music Ed.) and from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University (M.M. Performance).

Lincoln native Donna Carnes enjoys teaching violinists and violists of all ages. She currently maintains a large studio and also teaches at Nebraska Wesleyan and Child's View Montessori. For many years Donna has been on the faculty of SAIL music camp. She has been a clinician at numerous workshops in Nebraska and Iowa.

Donna can frequently be heard in performances with the Nebraska Chamber Players, the Summit String Quartet and the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra (in the position of principal second violinist). She is a former member of the Classic Quartet and the Omaha Symphony.

Ms. Carnes earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she studied with Robert Emile. She also studied with Bernhard Goldschmidt at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Donna and her husband, Dave Hughes, are kept busy with four (!) boys—Dylan, Evan, Liam and Rhys. Dave spins records and the boys provide live trombone, guitar and piano music. If you can't find Donna, she's playing with her dogs.

Joe Holmquist is a performer, music educator, and composer living in Lincoln since 2000. As a generalist in percussion, he plays everything from timpani and drumset to cymbals and xylophone. He received his Master of Music degree at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where he studied with master teacher Vic Firth, timpanist of the Boston Symphony. Joe’s compositions have been played all over the U.S. and Europe, released on various CDs, and have received many public radio broadcasts. As an educator, Mr. Holmquist is known most broadly for his drumset and snare drum etude books published by Neil A. Kjos Music Co., a leading company in the field. Joe works in Lincoln as a freelance player for a number of music organizations. His career as a performer has included touring across the country and 13 countries in Europe. His favorite musical activity is playing in small groups.

Ed Love is a graduate of Omaha Central High School and of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, having earned a Bachelors degree in 1970 and a Master of Music degree in 1972. While at UN-L he studied clarinet with Wesley Reist. He also studied with George Silfies, Principal clarinet of the Saint Louis Orchestra. Although clarinet was his major instrument in college, Ed's first instrument was the alto saxophone. In 1972 he was selected to the All-Star Band at the American Jazz Festival in Washington, D.C. He has performed with many of the greats in jazz, including Clark Terry, Henry Mancini, Don Menza, Victor Lewis, John Fedchock, Bobby Watson and Jay McShann. Ed played clarinet in th Lincoln Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, with the Omaha Symphony for 12 years, and was Principal clarinet in the Opera/Omaha orchestra for 6 years.

A saxophonist with the Nebraska Jazz Orchestra since 1978 and its Music Director since 1979, Ed has been a part of the music scene in Lincoln and Omaha for over 40 years. He taught instrumental music for 38 years, 32 of which were in Lincoln. He enjoys retirement, which gives him more time to practice and take naps.

Ed currently plays clarinet with the Lincoln Municipal Band and the Nebraska Symphony Chamber Orchestra, flute with Coro di Flauti, saxophone with Group Sax, and all of his instruments with his own jazz quartet. He can frequently be found in the orchestra pit for touring Broadway musicals at the Lied Center in Lincoln and the Orpheum Theater in Omaha.

Clark Potter is Professor of Viola at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and principal viola of Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra. Clark is especially noted for his interest in new works, having premiered dozens of pieces over the years. He has appeared as soloist or chamber musician in nearly half the states in the union. Clark is also the conductor of the Lincoln Youth Symphony. His primary non-musical hobby is running and racing. Since turning 50 he has finished the only two marathons he ever started, and he will not be starting another one.

Ric began to seriously study of music at the Blair School of Music and Sewanee Summer Music Center throughout high school; then continued at the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Music, Southern Methodist University with a Master of Music and a couple of years on the streets of Chicago. The next 18 years before moving to Lincoln he spent professionally in music as a symphony performer, private and college instructor, recording musician and symphony manager. Since moving to Lincoln, he has served the local music community as a manager at Dietze Music; teaching music, privately and as instructor of horn and brass ensemble at Nebraska Wesleyan University; and performing music as a regular member of the Nebraska Brass, Lincoln Municipal Band, Nebraska Chamber players and the Lincoln/Omaha area freelancing community.

Pianist/composer Jack Rinke earned a Bachelor of Music degree at Nebraska Wesleyan University, with an emphasis in piano performance. While pursuing a Masters Degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he was honored by being accepted as a composition student of Dr. Robert Beadell and also studied with Dr. Randall Snyder. During his graduate courses, Jack studied composition and worked closely with Dr. George B. Wilson, Libby Larson, Dmitri Mousulcous, and the American String Quartet. Jack's main piano instruction was with Beth Miller Harrod at Nebraska Wesleyan and Shirley Irek at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

As a pianist, Jack regularly appears in concerts and recitals and has performed with Abendmusik: Lincoln, The Nebraska Chamber Players, The Lincoln Symphony, Arts for the Soul, the Lincoln Civic Orchestra, and Lincoln Youth Symphony. He has composed pieces for soloists, chamber groups and large choral/instrumental ensembles, and released two CD's of original piano music. Jack is currently a member of the First-Plymouth Choir and Abendmusik Chorus where he previously served an honorary position of Composer-In-Residence for those ensembles. He is a Senior IT Infrastructure Analyst for the State of Nebraska.

Tracy Sands is a frequent chamber player in the Lincoln area. She is a member of the Summit String Quartet, the Bachman Trio, and Nebraska Chamber Players. Sands has been a member of the Lincoln Symphony for many years and currently serves as Assistant Principal. An active teacher, she started the first Suzuki cello studio in Nebraska. She has worked as a clinician throughout Nebraska, Iowa and Texas. A Lincoln native, Sands has been on the faculty of Nebraska Wesleyan University and Doane College. She received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, where she studied with Dudley Powers, and her graduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Rebecca Van de Bogart, Artistic Director for Nebraska Chamber Players, was a founding member of Third Chair Chamber Players and has served as Artistic Director since 2001. Chamber music has been a passion all of her life, and Nebraska Chamber Players was the natural vehicle to feed this passion. In the late ’70s she was a founding member of the Bachman Trio, a flute, cello and piano ensemble. The trio stayed together for 20 years and then expanded to become TCCP. Becky is also piccolo chair with Lincoln's Symphony Orchestra, and flutist with the Nebraska Symphony Chamber Orchestra and Lincoln Municipal Band. Previously she played with Opera Omaha, the Omaha Symphony, and the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra.

Being involved in music education and advocacy is another of Becky's passions. A private studio teacher for 30 years, Becky also taught in the Arts Are Basic program. She created and presented educational children's concerts for the Lincoln Symphony's In-School Concert series, performing concerts up to 30 times each year. TCCP continued this passion with their two educational programs, Music in Your Space and Music Mentors. In 1991, Becky received a Woods Charitable Fund Grant to travel with an artistic delegation to Khujand, Tajikistan. She worked there in an NGO capacity until 1996. In 1989 she was awarded "Woman Artist of the Year" by the Lincoln-Lancaster Commission on the Status of Women for her work in the musical community. In 2008 she received the Artistic Achievement Award for Performing Arts as part of the 30th annual Mayor's Arts Awards. (Third Chair Chamber Players was a co-recipient of a second Mayors Arts Award for the collaborative project with The Angels Theatre Company “The Train.”)

Katie Wychulis, principal harp of the Lincoln Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic and Sioux City Symphony, is a native of Omaha, Nebraska.  She graduated cum laude from the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Alice Chalifoux and Yolanda Kondonassis, and received her Master of Music degree from Rice University as a student of Paula Page.  A Fulbright grant recipient in 2001, Katie traveled to Australia where she studied with Alice Giles at the Australian National University in Canberra.  She has performed nationwide as an orchestral soloist and harpist, chamber musician, and recitalist. Katie teaches at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Omaha Public Schools, gives masterclasses nationwide, and maintains a private studio in Omaha.

An active supporter of arts non-profits, Katie has served on the board of the Omaha Chamber Music Society and the Great Plains Harp Chapter.  She currently resides in Omaha with her husband and three daughters.