Mark Miller was a 1995 recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residencies grant, and has been performing and organizing musical events in Mount Vernon and the northeast Texas region for the past ten years. He is concertmaster of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, and performs with the Fort Worth Symphony. Since 1997 he has produced The Color of Sound, a series of chamber music concerts underwritten by the Music Department of Texas A&M University-Commerce.
A professional pianist and composer with a very diverse background, Steven Harlos is equally at home in the classical and popular music field. He has collaborated with numerous artists of international stature as accompanist and as a jazz pianist. Steve currently serves as staff keyboardist for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and is coordinator of piano and collaborative piano at the University of North Texas in Denton.
In great demand as a freelance cellist, Carol Harlos performs with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and numerous other ensembles in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and maintains a private teaching studio.
Ute Miller is principal violist of the East Texas Symphony and plays with the Fort Worth and Dallas Symphony Orchestras. She performs with her husband Mark Miller in the violin-viola ensemble Duo Renard, and has been bringing concerts of chamber music to Mount Vernon and the region since 1995, when she was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residencies grant. In addition to playing with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, she served for seven years as assistant principal violist of the Gürzenich Orchester/Cologne Philharmonic, and for eight years as principal violist of the Dallas Opera Orchestra.
Debbie Ragsdale is principal flutist in the East Texas Symphony Orchestra and associate professor of flute at Collin County Community College. She is also serving President of the Board of the McKinney Musical Arts Society of McKinney, TX.
Alder ‘Al’ Moore was born in the small Arkansas community of Pearson. At the age of 7 his family moved to California, where he received his education and married. He designed and made jewelry in California and Arizona for over 10 years, both full and part time. He also pursued a 20 year career in the computer software industry, holding ownership and/or executive positions in several firms, including three successful startups. He has held full time executive positions in excess of 12 years for non- profit organizations, including intimate involvement in the organization of five – two for the medical profession, 2 for the dental profession and 1 for fine arts. Al resides in Winnsboro, Texas with his wife Georgia Lange Moore, a well known local artist, where both are active sculptors and volunteers for Arts and Music organizations in the area.
John Bradberry is a native of Sulphur Springs, Texas. He is a graduate of Sulphur Springs High School and East Texas State University at Commerce, Texas (now Texas A&M University at Commerce) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Industrial Education. He has been employed with Grocery Supply Company in Sulphur Springs for 35 years where he currently serves as Administrative Services Coordinator. John has had a long interest in aviation, earning his commercial pilot license in 1966. He was a charter member of local aviation organizations in both Sulphur Springs and Mt. Vernon. A favorite pastime is flying his 1946 Aeronca Champion over the East Texas Countryside. He has an avid interest in local history and has been a loyal supporter of the arts in East Texas for many years. He is a charter member of the Hopkins County Genealogical Society, a member of Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association, the Franklin County Historical Association, the Franklin County Arts Alliance, and a member of Mt. Vernon Music since 2006.
Jim Johnson is a native of Greenville, TX, and attended East Texas State University on a Music Scholarship studying Trumpet. After 4 years in the military, he returned to college and got a degree in Environmental Science and worked with environmental consulting firms most of his life. Jim lives south of Mt. Vernon and is on the Board of Directors of the Franklin Co. Historical Association. He was involved with Mount Vernon Music during the formative stages of acquiring the old church and its initial renovations. Jim is an avid naturalist, and an enthusiastic supporter of the Mount Vernon Music mission.
Warren Butler has been a resident of Franklin County since May, 2001. Coindicentally, he was born in Franklin County, Nebraska with a small unicorporated town of Macon just seven miles away. He is a graduate of McLennan Community College in Waco with an A.A. in business administration. Warren has made his homes in Los Angeles, CA doing modeling work, then Kansas City and settling in Dallas in 1984. After working ten years for the U.S. Department of Labor and another ten years managing a doctor's office he is now the owner of The Veranda Bed & Breakfast Restaurant just outside Mt. Vernon. Warren is an avid music and video collector as well with a huge collection of records, CDs, cassettes and reel to reel tapes covering every genre of music.