Holly Barnes received a bachelor's degree in violin and voice from Indiana University, where she studied with Joseph Gingold and Franco Gulli. At the University of Southern California, she did graduate work and held a scholarship in voice while playing viola in the graduate string quartet. She completed a master's degree in violin at Boston University under Lucy Stoltzman, and in 1994, she joined the faculty at Phillips Academy where she teaches an introductory music course, coaches chamber music and teaches both violin and viola. In addition, she is on the faculty of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass.

Barnes has had extensive experience as a soloist, recitalist and chamber music performer in the United States and Europe. While a member of the New England String Quartet, she held residencies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and Amherst. She has performed with the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops and is currently a member of the Boston Ballet Orchestra. She lives in Dedham, Mass., with her husband and two children and enjoys spending summers at their family home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

A 1981 graduate of The New England Conservatory of Music, Peter Cirelli has devoted his professional life to teaching and performing music of many cultures. Before joining the Andover faculty in 1994, he participated in a varied career as an educator and    trombonist in both Boston and Sao Paulo, Brazil. His performance focus has been on jazz and symphonic music, but also has included explorations of Latin American and Caribbean styles, American popular music and musical theater. He has appeared on dozens of recordings in many styles of music, including two albums that were nominated for Grammy awards.

In his roles as director of jazz ensembles, instructor of Music 200 and Jazz History, and trombone instructor, he seeks to bring his students to a greater understanding of all that the musical world has to offer, then help them find their own expressive voice.

Christopher Walter has taught at Phillips Academy since 1977. After receiving a master's degree from Oxford University in 1973, he continued studies at the Royal College of Music, where he studied piano with John Barstow and Peter Wallfisch. He taught French and German at Andover for three years, but since 1982 has worked exclusively in the music department, serving as chair from 1995-2001. He teaches an accelerated introductory course to 9th graders, a music history course, and piano and chamber music; organizes and accompanies student recitals; and directs the Phillips Academy Chorus.

As a pianist, Walter has recorded CDs of works by Kenneth Leighton and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and has performed regularly both on and off campus, including as soloist in a Mozart Concerto with the Reading Symphony Orchestra. As conductor of the chorus, he has led performances of many of the major works from the choral literature, including Haydn's "Creation" and Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana." A house counselor in Blanchard House, he is also squash coach in the fall and tries unsuccessfully every summer to break 80 on the golf course.