Jeffrey Sykes, Artistic Director
Acclaimed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "a commanding solo player, the most supportive of accompanists, and a leader in chamber music," pianist Jeffrey Sykes has performed across four continents and collaborates regularly with leading instrumentalists and singers. Recent performances include a recital on Chicago’s prestigious Dame Myra Hess concert series; a tour of France that culminated in performances at the Musée des Impressionismes in Giverny, home of Claude Monet; and song recitals at the African American Art Song Alliance in Irvine, California.
A founding member of the San Francisco Piano Trio, Sykes is also co-founder and artistic co-director of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society of Wisconsin (www.bachdancing.org), a highly-acclaimed and innovative chamber music festival now in its 33rd season. The festival is noted for creating an approach to chamber music that makes it more easily accessible to audiences. He is a regular guest artist with the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society; the Olmos Ensemble in San Antonio, Texas; and Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley, California. In 2007, he served as the guest artistic director of Music in the Vineyards. In the fall of 2022, he was honored to be selected as the artistic director of San Antonio’s Cactus Pear Music Festival, now in its 28th season. He has recorded for the Albany, CRI, Mandala, Centaur, and Cactus Pear labels.
For eighteen years, Dr. Sykes served as the music director of Opera for the Young, a preeminent producer and presenter of opera for children that has introduced more than two million children to opera. A passionate educator, he teaches piano, voice, and chamber music at the University of California–Berkeley and California State University–East Bay. He coaches regularly for professional and adult amateur chamber music groups across California. A recipient of the Fulbright and Jacob Javits Fellowships, he completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Reneé Davis, Executive Director
Reneé has been Executive Director of CPMF since 2006. She is a true Texas girl right down to her cowgirl boots and Charlie Horse hats. When she isn’t working on the festival, she enjoys her beautiful grandchildren, her dog Sam Elliott, rodeo and dancing. Her husband Gene and she have been known to cut a rug or two in some of Texas's most famous dance halls. Community and family are important to Reneé and she surrounds herself with opportunities to serve others by donating countless hours of fundraising assistance to many local nonprofits. She believes that each of us has a part to play in making our world a better place.
Reneè is also known as
Senior Elf Reneé Davis, CEO and founder of San Antonio-based Santa Express Central, who manages more than 50 professional Santa Clauses across the state, a business Davis said keeps her community spirit alive year-round. Every year, part of their proceeds go to provide Christmas for children and those less fortunate at local nonprofit organizations such as Boysville. If you have had a picture taken with Santa Claus in San Antonio or any Texas Metro city this holiday season, there’s a good chance that Santa was booked through a local business run by Senior Elf Reneè. Her company has been featured in the Rivard Report, Texas Highway Magazine, New Braunfels Monthly, Live Oak Hometown News and countless other publications for their community outreach and spirit of giving.
Ms. Davis has been singing and performing since the age of five. She attended Texas A&I University on music scholarships and majored in Music. She spent 15 years serving as music director in various churches while pursuing a full-time professional management career. Her results-oriented business talents led her to be able to experience the best of both passions.
Ms. Davis management career started in real estate in Omaha, Nebraska, and then brought her to Texas. She soon transitioned to multi-level management and served as district manager for Twinstant Inc. of South Texas and eventually became CEO of Health Systems Plus. Her career path led her to serve as general manager for KC Adventures and then on to serve with the American Heart Association as a regional director, overseeing the association's outreach and fundraising efforts in 14 counties spanning South Texas and the Hill Country. In that role, she managed five separate boards of directors. She then accepted the position of Executive Director of American Heart Association, San Antonio Division, where she achieved the award of Excellence for Mission Related Initiatives and the Award of Achievement.
Community and people are important to Reneè and she surrounds herself with opportunities to serve. Ms. Davis has served on the City of Converse Parks & Recreational Commissions as the Communication and Marketing Chair, Marine Moms online as spokesperson, donated countless hours of non-profit fundraising consultations and assistance to local nonprofits such as The Dream factory, Wounded Warriors, Boysville, Morgan’s Wonderland, Children Shelter, Semper Fi Fund, Battered Women’s Shelter and community service with the elderly and disabled.
Non-profit management is exciting and something that Reneè enjoys and has excelled in. She is excited to be a part of the Cactus Pear Music Festival family. Reneè said that the first time she listened to a CPMF CD Stephanie had sent her, that she was moved to tears. She knew that her passion for fundraising management, music, people and a striving for excellence, could all be "one" by serving as the Executive Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival.
She is a graduate of Smith College and Santa Clara University School of Law, grew up in San Antonio. Her father was stationed at Randolph Air Force Base. Her mother was an English teacher and Speech and Debate Coach who taught in both the San Antonio and Judson Independent School Districts. A product of Judson Independent School District and a graduate of Incarnate Word High School, San Antonio is Lisa’s home.
Stephanie Sant'Ambrogio, Artistic Director Emerita (1997-2022)
Praised as an “expressive and passionate chamber musician” by the San Antonio Express-News, and described as a “violinist who most often takes your breath away” by Gramophone magazine, Stephanie enjoys a varied performing and recording career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader. Professor of Violin and Viola at the University of Nevada, Reno and member of the Argenta Trio, she is also the founding Artistic Director of Cactus Pear Music Festival, which she started in 1997 while serving as Concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony, and served as Artistic Director from 1997 through the 2022 festival season. She is currently Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of Chamber Music Reno. She began her orchestral career as First Assistant Principal Second Violin of The Cleveland Orchestra, under Christoph von Dohnanyi, she toured and recorded internationally with this ensemble for eight seasons.
Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has a discography of over seventy-five orchestral and chamber music CDs. Audiophile Review described her Johannes Brahms: The Violin Sonatas CD as “Fine readings of great finesse, rich coloring and complete understanding.” Her other releases include Late Dates with Mozart; and Going Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola on the MSR Classics label, and Argenta Trio: The Piano Trios of Felix Mendelssohn on Bridge Records. Her Soaring Solo: Unaccompanied Works for Violin & Viola CD was released in the spring of 2016. Stephanie appears on Albany Records recently-released 2018 CD Love Comes in at the Eye. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Canada, Estonia, Sweden, Ghana, Italy, Peru and Chile. In 2010, she won the Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award at UNR and was also appointed Concertmaster of the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra by Music Director Theodore Kuchar. In addition to her active performing career, Stephanie is devoted to teaching serious young violinists, many who have won positions in America’s symphonies and universities.
Now Artistic Director Emerita of Cactus Pear Music Festival, she and the organization still presents chamber music performances, Young People’s Concerts, Kinder Konzerts, a full scholarship Young Artist Program, American composer commissions and master classes in the South Texas region. In 2004, she was named a Ford Salute to Education Award winner for her outstanding contributions to music education through her creation of Cactus Pear Music Festival and her life’s dedication to teaching violin. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio performs and teaches at various festivals including: Music in the Vineyards (CA); Bach, Dancing and Dynamite Society (WI); Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival (WA); Nevada Chamber Music Festival (NV); Round Top Festival Institute (TX) and Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland, Canada).
Her chamber music activities have included performances and recordings with such noted artists as William Preucil, Ida Kavafian, James Buswell, Richard Goode, David Schifrin, Walter Trampler, Anne Epperson, Jon Kimura Parker and Gunther Schuller. She is featured in chamber music recordings under the Arabesque, Bridge Records and MSR Classics labels, and her live concert performances are frequently heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has performed as first violinist with the Miami String Quartet and has been a guest artist with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at both the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. She toured Italy with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, toured extensively throughout Ohio with Cleveland’s Myriad, and for ten years performed with the Amici String Quartet, of which she was a founding member. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio studied with and was the graduate assistant to Donald Weilerstein at The Eastman School of Music, where she received her Master of Music degree. Previously she received her Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from Indiana University as a scholarship student of Laurence Shapiro and James Buswell.
The name Sant’Ambrogio is frequently found in concert programs throughout America. John Sant’Ambrogio, former Principal Cellist of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, gave his daughter Stephanie her first violin lessons at the age of five. Her sister Sara is a cellist with the Naumberg Award-winning Eroica Trio. For thirty years the Sant’Ambrogio family directed Red Fox Music Camp, which was founded by grandmother Isabelle, a concert pianist. The legacy of teaching music has been passed down in the Sant’Ambrogio family for four generations. Ms. Sant’Ambrogio plays a violin crafted in 1757 by J.B. Guadagnini of Milan, Italy, and a viola by Jacek Zadlo of Chicago, 2008. She and her graphic designer husband Gary Albright enjoy traveling with their daughters twenty two-year-old Isabel and twenty-year-old Gabrielle.
MAILING ADDRESS
PO Box 880
Converse, TX 78109-0880
210 / 838.2218
Thanks to our festival presenting sponsor.
