Jeffrey Zehngut joined the second violin section of The Cleveland Orchestra in August 2011. Mr. Zehngut previously served as associate principal second violin of the San Diego Symphony 2005-11 and as principal second of the Canton Symphony Orchestra 2002-05. He holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with William Preucil and Paul Kantor.

Violist Gareth Zehngut joins The Cleveland Orchestra after previously serving as a member of the Minnesota Orchestra and San Diego Symphony viola sections. In the Twin Cities, Mr. Zehngut was principal violist of the Minnesota Bach Ensemble, with whom he also appeared as soloist. He was a member of The Musical Offering, performed regularly on the Minnesota Orchestra chamber music series as well as with The Isles Ensemble and Music on the Hill. Mr. Zehngut has served as guest principal violist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and during summers, acts as principal viola for the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra. Other festival appearances include the Sun Valley Music Festival, Mainly Mozart, Festival Mozaic, La Jolla SummerFest and the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival. He has also performed and taught at the Campanile Music Festival and Luzerne Music Center. A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Zehngut earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School. His teachers include Heidi Castleman, Hsin-Yun Huang, Misha Amory, Steven Tenenbom, Jeffrey Irvine and Melinda Daetsch.

Eliesha Nelson joined the viola section of The Cleveland Orchestra at the beginning of the 2000-2001 season. She is the first former member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra to be appointed a member of The Cleveland Orchestra, having played violin in the Youth Orchestra for three seasons, from 1989 to 1992, and serving as concertmaster of the ensemble for the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons. Raised in North Pole, Alaska, Eliesha Nelson joined the Young Artists Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and began attending Hathaway Brown School at age 15. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from CIM and an artist diploma from the Royal Academy of Music in London. After switching to viola, Ms. Nelson studied with Robert Vernon (principal viola of The Cleveland Orchestra) while pursuing her master’s degree at CIM. Her violin teachers included David Russell, György Pauk, and Linda Cerone.

Prior to her appointment with The Cleveland Orchestra, Ms. Nelson served as acting principal viola of both the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist with the Florida Philharmonic and the San Antonio Symphony and in Northern Ohio with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, Lakeside Symphony Orchestra, and Ohio Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Nelson’s honors include the Dr. Jerome Gross Prize in Violin (CIM) and the Marjorie Haywood Violin Recital Prize from the Royal Academy of Music. In September 2009, Ms. Nelson released a recording of the complete viola music of Quincy Porter.

Cleveland native Lyle Steelman joined The Cleveland Orchestra as assistant principal trumpet during the 2009 Blossom Festival. He came to the Orchestra from the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, where he had been principal trumpet since 2006. He had also served as a substitute trumpet for The Cleveland Orchestra since 2005. Mr. Steelman served as second trumpet of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2006. A 2001 graduate of the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music, he earned a master of music degree from Southern Methodist University and was principal trumpet of the National Repertory Orchestra. He studied with James Darling, a former member of The Cleveland Orchestra, as well as with Tom Booth of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Lyle Steelman is a former member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

Jessica Sindell joined The Cleveland Orchestra in October 2018. Prior to winning this audition, she was the solo piccolo player of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. After graduating from the Eastman School of Music, she won her very first orchestral audition at the age of 22 to be principal flute of the Oregon Symphony. Ms. Sindell has been performing with the Lake Tahoe Music Festival orchestra since 2012, and also acted as principal with the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego as well as the Colorado Music Festival. She has also performed and recorded at the new Tippet Rise Arts Center. A Cleveland native, Jessica Sindell was a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra (2005-07) and is a high school graduate of Western Reserve Academy.

Meghan Guegold Hege joined The Cleveland Orchestra as Assistant/Utility Horn at the beginning of the Blossom summer season in July 2023. Previously, she has been Principal Horn in the Akron and Canton Symphony Orchestras. She frequently performed with The Cleveland Orchestra over the previous 13 years as an extra and substitute horn player. She has also performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra, and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus. She has regularly performed chamber music throughout northeast Ohio.

Mrs. Guegold Hege was a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) from 2011 to 2022, coaching Conservatory chamber music students and teaching horn lessons and coaching chamber music through both the Preparatory and Continuing Education division (Prep) at CIM and the Joint Music Program (JMP) with Case Western Reserve University. Her Prep and JMP horn students have gone on to pursue additional music degrees at CIM, the New England Conservatory, the University of Michigan, the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Royal College of Music in London, England. She was also Chair of the Winds, Brass, and Percussion department for CIM Prep.

A northeastern Ohio native, Mrs. Guegold Hege has a master’s degree in performance from CIM, where she studied with Richard King, and a bachelor’s degree in performance with honors from the University of Akron, where she studied with William Hoyt. She has also studied with Rick Solis, Eli Epstein, and David Jolley, and been mentored by hornists Julie Landsman, Ellen Dinwiddie Smith, and Gail Williams. She attended the summer festivals of the Music Academy of the West, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Artosphere Arts and Nature Festival. She was a recipient of a Presser Foundation Scholarship at Akron, a winner in two Tuesday Musical Association scholarship competitions, and has been a featured soloist with the Akron and Canton Symphony Orchestras. Her orchestral studies began her senior year of high school as a member of the horn section of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

Mrs. Guegold Hege is married to orchestra conductor Daniel Hege. They have lived in Syracuse, NY, with Daniel’s three beautiful daughters, Arianna, Anna Sofia, and Sabina, and their white boxer dog, Ellie. They are also welcoming a baby boy in early September 2023.

Joining The Cleveland Orchestra as a member of the horn section has been a life-long goal for Mrs. Guegold Hege, and she is deeply honored and grateful to make music alongside her teachers, mentors, and friends in this historic and prestigious orchestra led by Franz Welser-Möst.