Meet the New St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Musicians for the 2026/27 Season

By Eric Dundon

A new season brings new faces to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. As the SLSO begins its 147th season, five musicians are joining the orchestra full time, bringing with them experiences that stretch from major American orchestras to international festivals and competition stages.

Meet Principal Harp Grace Roepke, Principal Tuba Bridget Conley, Associate Principal Trumpet Omri Barak, second clarinetist Kamalia Freyling, and bassist Teddy Gabrielides—the newest members of the SLSO.

Grace Roepke joins the SLSO as Principal Harp and the Elizabeth Eliot Mallinckrodt Chair after most recently serving as Principal Harpist of the Louisville Orchestra.

An accomplished competitor as well as orchestral musician, Roepke became the first—and remains the only—harpist to receive both the Grand and First Prize at the FRIENDS of the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition. She has also earned top prizes at the American Harp Society National Competition, Dutch World Harp Competition, and Lyon & Healy Awards.

A Minnesota native, Roepke earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Grammy-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis. Her festival appearances have taken her from the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago to Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival Academy.

The SLSO’s new Principal Tuba and Lesley A. Waldheim Chair, Bridget Conley comes to St. Louis following a fellowship with the New World Symphony in Miami.

Conley has built an extensive orchestral résumé, performing with ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, Britt Festival Orchestra, and Seraph Brass. A graduate of the Yale School of Music, she studied with Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Tuba Carol Jantsch.

Her musical life extends well beyond the orchestra. Conley won the 2021 Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Solo Artist Competition and received the New World Symphony’s Judith Rodin Fellowship for an Outstanding Woman Musician. She also co-founded Sisters in Sound, an online platform offering free arrangements and recordings of music by early women composers for brass ensembles.

For Omri Barak, joining the SLSO marks a return to a familiar orchestra. The new Associate Principal Trumpeter previously spent the 23/24 season in St. Louis as Acting Second Trumpet.

Barak returns from the Kansas City Symphony, where he served as Associate Principal and Second Trumpet. Earlier in his career, he became Principal Trumpet of the Allentown Symphony at just 19 years old. He has also appeared as a guest musician with the Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St. Louis symphony orchestras.

An alumnus of the Curtis Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Barak studied with David Bilger, Barbara Butler, and Charles Geyer.

Clarinetist Kamalia Freyling arrives in St. Louis following a season as Acting Second Clarinet of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Before that appointment, she spent six seasons as Second and E-flat Clarinet with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.

Her career has taken her to orchestras and festivals across the United States and beyond. Freyling has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra, New York String Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and Verbier Festival Orchestra, among others.

Freyling earned her master’s degree from The Juilliard School and a bachelor’s degree with a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music.

Teddy Gabrielides may be a new full-time member of the SLSO, but audiences may already recognize him onstage. He performed with the orchestra’s double bass section on a one-year contract since the 24/25 season before earning a permanent position.

A Chicago native, Gabrielides began studying bass at age 10 through his public school system. He went on to study at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music with David Allen Moore and at DePaul University with Alex Hanna. His training also included multiple summers at Domaine Forget and the Aspen Music Festival.

Before coming to St. Louis, Gabrielides served as co-principal bass of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and spent a year with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He was also a regular substitute with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performing with the ensemble on domestic and international tours. Now, after a season getting to know the SLSO from the stage, he officially joins the orchestra’s roster.

Eric Dundon is the SLSO’s Public Relations Director.