Biographies

Jon Greeney is the Principal Timpanist of the Oregon Symphony. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, and a Master of Music Degree in Performance from Cleveland State University. His teachers at Peabody included percussion virtuosos Robert van Sice and Jonathan Haas, and at Cleveland State he studied with Tom Freer of the Cleveland Orchestra. He has performed as an orchestral percussionist, timpanist, and as a chamber musician in numerous concerts including those at The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Since 2001, Jon has been an active percussion instructor. He has taught many private students, as well as having coached many high school percussion sections. In 2005, he founded the Percussion Chamber Music program at the Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia. In 2006 he won a position in the Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa in Veracruz Mexico, where he performed as a a full time section percussionist until the Summer of 2008. Since joining the Oregon Symphony in the Fall of 2010, he and his family have resided happily in Portland Oregon .

Yoko Greeney, a native of Japan, started playing piano at the age of three. She has received numerous prizes, awards, and scholarships (including 1st place at the Isabel Scionti Piano Competition and a Piano Accompanying Assistantship at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University). She has performed as a soloist, an accompanist, and as a chamber musician internationally, including concerts in the United States, Mexico and Japan. Yoko holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from San Francisco State University and a Master of Music Degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. After graduating she taught at the International School of Music in Washington DC, where she also had a large private studio of students. In the Fall of 2006 she moved with her husband to the city of Xalapa in Mexico where she taught, accompanied and performed chamber music at the Instituto Superior de Musica until the summer of 2008. After moving to Cleveland in 2008, Yoko formed a private studio of over 40 students. In the summer of 2010 she moved to Portland Oregon with her husband, who joined the Oregon Symphony as their new Principal Timpanist. Since then Yoko has made several appearances performing with the Oregon Symphony. Yoko is a member of OMTA, MTNA and the National Piano Guild. Over the years, many of her students have received high scores from annual Piano Guild auditions.