CMSA 2026 Convention, Minnesota

Chris Acquavella is a classical mandolinist, composer & educator from San Diego, who currently lives in Welgesheim, Germany. He graduated First Class Honors from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in London, England, studying under the instruction of Alison Stephens and composition with Andrew Poppy.

In 2004, Chris won the Wolfsan Foundation Music Award and was awarded the TCM TrustSilver Medal for String Studies in 2006. He performs across Europe and America, both in a solo and chamber-music capacity. He has concertized as a soloist & orchestral musician with various orchestras & ensembles throughout the world such as Duo Acquavella, Dartington Festival Orchestra, Detmold Landestheater, Ensemble Lippe Barock, GER Mandolin Orchestra, Bach Collegium San Diego, San Diego Opera, and the San Diego Symphony.

His recordings include Letter from London, Duo LaRé: In Other Words, Praeludium, Duo Acquavella & Bach Collegium San Diego: Gimo-Samling,18th Century Sonatas and Triosonatas for Mandolin, and Recording of the Dawn, The Kensington Etudes Vol. 1.

Chris Acquavella is the Artistic Director of the San Diego Classical Mandolin Camp. He has also performed and taught workshops at the CMSA Conventions, River of the West Camp, the David Grisman & Mike Marshall Mandolin Symposium, the annual course of the Austrian Federation of Amateur Musicians (VAMÖ), and the Summer School of the British BMG Federation.

Dr. Jim Bates is Director of Orchestral Activities at Otterbein University and Director of the Capital University Symphony Orchestra. Since 2006 he has served as an assistant conductor for the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestras and the Westerville Symphony. As a conductor and teacher, Dr. Bates is able to draw on considerable experience as an educator, performer and historian.

For eighteen years Dr. Bates was a conductor for the Louisville (KY) Youth Orchestras and was music director of that organization from 1996 – 2001. From 1988-2001 he was music director of the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra. In 1999 he joined the conducting staff of Interlochen Center for the Arts and continues to direct the Junior Orchestra program and Junior String Institute there during the summer. He has served as a clinician or guest conductor in for numerous orchestras. He has served as president of Kentucky ASTA and as string coordinator for the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts.

In addition to string education, Dr. Bates is very involved with the Classical Mandolin Society of America (CMSA) and period instrument performance. He serves on the National Board of Directors of CMSA and is actively involved with the Education Committee. He is the immediate past president of the Ohio String Teachers Association and is on the board of the Friends of Early Music in Columbus. Currently, Dr. Bates is assistant conductor and principal bassist of the Westerville Symphony (OH), and is the Creative Director of The Early Interval, Columbus’ professional early music performance ensemble. He has degrees from the University of Louisville (B.M.E.), a Masters in double bass performance from Indiana University, where he studied bass with Lawrence Hurst and baroque performance with Stanley Ritchie, and a Ph.D. in Musicology from the University of Kentucky. He has two sons, Ethan and Gideon.

Fabio Giudice is one of the world’s leading players of the liuto cantabile, the Italian 5-course version of the mandocello. (He is also a superb mandolinist and mandolist). His life has been dedicated to the study of plucked instruments and he acquired a diploma in Mandolin at the Conservatory of L’Aquila with M° Fabio Menditto. He specialized as an executor of Mandoloncello (Liuto cantabile) and attended specialized courses with M° Ugo Orlandi in ancient instruments. Fabio is also a CMSA Honorary Board Director.

Ashley Hoyer is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who crafts music that dwells between worlds — where folk melodies meet orchestral expanses and intimate storytelling unfolds through a blend of traditional and contemporary techniques.

Ashley performs with the folk quartet The Syncopaths, the boundary-blurring trio Fire, Grace & Ash, and the accordion/mandolin duo Sam ’n Ash. Her all-original trio, Long Story Short, continues to explore the evolving genre of chamberfolk.

An avid composer, Hoyer’s works have echoed through Davies Symphony Hall, where the San Francisco Girls Chorus premiered a recent choral piece. Her mandolin concerto Bloom garnered international recognition, earning third place in a global composition competition. Her catalog also includes larger-scale works such as the eight-movement Channel Islands Orchestral Suite.

In addition to performing and composing, Ashley is a dedicated educator. She teaches privately and at music gatherings such as Chris Thile’s Acousticamp, where she serves on the founding faculty. When not on tour, she tends her own creative garden at home — composing, teaching, and nurturing the growth of new music.

René’s style has been praised by Classical Guitar Magazine as “unforgettable versatility, sensitivity and sublime musicianship.” He is a professor of classical guitar at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and has performed world-wide from Carnegie Hall in New York, Manaus Opera House in Brazil, and National Recital Hall in Taiwan.

He is the Artistic Director of the Bonne Amie Musical Circle, which performs as the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra, the oldest fretted-instrument music organization in the United States.