Christylez Bacon (pronounced: chris-styles) is a GRAMMY® Nominated Progressive Hip-Hop artist and multi-instrumentalist from Southeast, Washington, DC. As a performer, he multi-tasks between various instruments such as the West African djembe drum, acoustic guitar, and the human beat-box (oral percussion), all the while continuing the oral tradition of storytelling through his lyrics. In 2011, Mr. Bacon began a cross-cultural collaborative concert series in Washington, DC, “Washington Sound Museum” (WSM), a monthly intimate celebration of music featuring guest artists from diverse musical genres with Christylez Bacon and his progressive hip-hop orchestra. Since WSM’s inception, Mr. Bacon has collaborated with artists from various cultural backgrounds, ranging from the Hindustani & Carnatic music of India, the contemporary Arabic music of Egypt, and the music of Brazil.  With a mission of fostering cultural acceptance and unification through music, he is constantly pushing the envelope – from performances at the National Cathedral, to becoming the first Hip-Hop artist to be featured at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, composing and orchestrating an entire concert for a 12-piece orchestra commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institute, or recording a Folk/Hip-Hop children’s album. He is the recipient of several honors awarded by the Washington Area Music Association including the 2013 Artist of the Year, and the Montgomery County Executive Award for Excellence in the Arts.  He has even been honored as a 2012 “Library Superhero” by Friends of the Library, Montgomery County.

James Cammack

In a feature article on James Cammack, Bass Player Magazine reviewer Richard Johnston nicknamed James, who was at the time a Chicago resident, “Chicago fire,” for his hard-driving, creative approach to playing both acoustic and electric bass. At rehearsals of even the most complicated jazz pieces, Cammack just puts a finger on his instrument to find the key, asks for the general feel, and takes off. As both sideman and solo player, Cammack demonstrates both virtuosity and musicality. Between 1984 and 2010, he performed continuously with legendary pianist Ahmad Jamal, visiting more than 30 countries. He also toured with singer Nancy Wilson, tubist Howard Johnson, and singer Vanessa Rubin. He has performed in some of the world’s most famous jazz clubs: the Village Vanguard in New York City and Yoshi’s in San Francisco; major jazz festivals, including the Montreal Jazz Festival, Italy’s Umbria Jazz Festival, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland. He has several recordings with Ahmad Jamal, including Rossiter Road (Atlantic), which reached the number-five position on the jazz chart billboard. A DVD called Ahmad Jamal Live in Baalbeck features the great drummer Idris Muhammad. He has also recorded with pianist Chris Neville, Russian actress Natalia Nazorova, tubist Howard Johnson, jazz pianist Joe Alterman and Senegal super star Youssou N’dour. Recently, he played Deon in the Off-Broadway hit, Lady Day with Dee Dee Bridgewater. A piano and trumpet student in his early years, Cammack is largely self-taught. He became interested in playing the bass through an uncle who was a professional musician and later was accepted into the West Point jazz band. A great mentor, pianist Frank Richmond, mentioned Cammack’s name to Ahmad Jamal, who snapped him up right after West Point.

Michael Chertock

Pianist, Michael Chertock has fashioned a successful career as an orchestral soloist, collaborating with conductors such as James Conlon, Jaime Laredo, Keith Lockhart, Erich Kunzel and Andrew Litton. His many orchestral appearances include solo performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Dallas Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Montreal, Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony. He has won accolades abroad with his performances in Great Britain, Germany, Japan and Korea and toured Asia with the Boston and Cincinnati Pops Orchestras. Chertock made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1999 with the Cincinnati Pops, performing Duke Ellington’s New World A’Comin’. In 2005 with the Boston Pops, he performed the world premiere of a work by Todd Machover, commissioned by the Boston Pops expressly for Mr. Chertock. He reprised that performance with the Toronto Symphony in 2013. Chertock serves as chair of the piano department at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he received his Master’s Degree as a student of Frank Weinstock. He has garnered numerous awards at major competitions, among them the top prizes in the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition and St. Charles International Piano Competition. He shared the silver medal in the 1991 World Piano Competition of the American Music Scholarship Association. He received the Rildia B. O’Bryon Cliburn Scholarship in 1986.

Arti Dixson

Percussionist Arti Dixson studied drum set concepts with the legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette. With folk-pop singer Janis Ian, he has performed in most major concert halls in the United States and toured Israel, Japan, Australia, Holland, Belgium, Spain and South Africa. He has also appeared with pianist Ahmad Jamal, throughout Europe as well as at Tanglewood, Saratoga, and Carnegie Hall and has worked at the the Foxwood Casino with Harry Connick and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Born in Catskill, NY, he graduated from SUNY Albany where studied and performed with jazz and bepop pianist John Esposito. After graduation he played The Four Seasons Hotel circuit from Montreal to Vancouver, Canada and throughout the United States with the show band “Living Color” and toured with the British band “Sweet Box.” While in England he studied voice at the London School for Singing under the direction of Arnold Rose. Notable musicians with whom he has collaborated include Eartha Kitt, Bill Evans, pioneering fusion guitarist Larry Coryell, trumpeter Randy Brecker, composer/pianist Randy Klein, saxophonists Marion Meadows, Alex Foster and Sal Giorgiani, keyboardists Joey Melotti and Pete Levin, guitarist Kevin Jenkins, disco artist Vicki Sue Robinson, jazz flute pioneer Ali Ryerson, guitarist Ron Murray, jazz pianist and composer Rex Cadwallader, bassists Mike Asetta and Jim Cammack, “Cookie” Thomas, and many more. He has played for shows such as Phantom of the Opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Ella off the Record, as well as an HBO Joe Louis sports special and The Pool Hall starring James Earl Jones. Mr. Dixson is the inventor of the Bass Drum Lift and The Spur Extender, both of which he has patented.

William Ferguson

American tenor William Ferguson is a versatile artist whose repertoire ranges from early baroque to contemporary music and musical theatre. A graduate of The Juilliard School, he started his career with such roles as the title role of Albert Herring, Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Fenton in Falstaff, Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor and Andres in Wozzeck. Recent performances have included Janacek’s Diary of One Who Vanished at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Haydn’s Armida with Victory Hall Opera, the title role of Candide with South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Snout in Midsummer Night’s Dream in Palermo and Valencia, Guillot de Morfontaine in Manon, Spoletta in Tosca and Remendado in Carmen at the Dallas Opera, as well as key roles in Philip Glass’ The Trial with Salzburger Landestheater. He returns to Salzburg in 2021 as Harry King in Stuart MacRae’s Anthropocene and Enoch Snow in Carousel at Central City Opera. Other highlights have been Caliban in the North American premiere of Thomas Adès’ The Tempest at the Santa Fe Opera, Truffaldino in The Love for Three Oranges with Opera Australia in Sydney, recorded on the Chandos label, as well as Don Basilio/Nozze di Figaro with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. In New York he has performed Beppe in Pagliacci, Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte and Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro at The Metropolitan Opera as well as key roles with City Opera. He has sung with Opera Memphis, Opera Philadelphia, the Opera Orchestra of New York, and at the Aspen Music Festival. He was tenor soloist in a staged production of Händel’s Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Manfred Honeck and took part in world premieres of operas by composers Farberman, Adamo, Hoiby, Davis, Aldridge and Yarmolinsky. William Ferguson is also a sought-after recitalist and has performed a wide variety of works with the American Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He appears as Brian on the DVD of Not The Messiah, an oratorio based on Monty Python’s Life of Brian recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall.

Eliot Fisk

Guitarist Eliot Fisk is known worldwide as a charismatic performer famed for his adventurous and virtuosic repertoire. After nearly 50 years before the public he remains as his mentor Andres Segovia once wrote, “at the top line of our artistic world.” In the 2017-18 season Fisk continues to break new ground for the guitar with marathon performances of his transcriptions of all 6 Bach solo cello Suites, duo performances with guitar legend Angel Romero and with a new trio formed with virtuoso guitarists Joaquin Clerch and Aniello Desiderio. The release of Robert Beaser’s monumental guitar Concerto (dedicated to Eliot Fisk) on LINN records in 2017 elicited rave reviews online and in print. Also in 2017, he premiered Son Dementes Cuerdas with the Arditti String Quartet with performances on two continents culminating in a performance at Wigmore Hall in London also featuring the Sequenza XI for solo guitar composed for and dedicated to him by Luciano Berio. Eliot Fisk has performed as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Rochester Symphony, Orchestra of St. Lukes, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Pro Arte Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) and many others. He has performed with a dizzying array of chamber music colleagues including flutist,Paula Robison; clarinetist, Richard Stoltzman; cellist Yehuda Hanani; violinists Ruggiero Ricci, Gidon Kremer and Joshua Bell, the Shanghai, Juilliard, Miro and Borromeo Quartets. He has invented numerous crossover projects with among others Paco Peña (flamenco guitar); Joe Pass and Bill Frisell (jazz guitar) chanteuse, Ute Lemper and Turkish music specialist, Burhan Öçal. The repertoire of the classical guitar has been transformed through his innumerable transcriptions, and he remains a prolific recording artist. Recent releases include Ralf Gawlick’s Kollwitz Konnex for soprano and guitar (Musica Omnia) Anthony Paul de Ritis’s Pop Concerto with Gil Rose leading the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, a pair of CDs of new music dedicated to and transcribed by Fisk of works by Beaser, Corigliano, Schwertsik, and Rochberg (Wildner Records) and duo discs with flamenco legend, Paco Peña (on Nimbus Records) and cellist, Yehuda Hanani (Albany Records). Eliot Fisk was the last direct pupil of Andres Segovia and studied interpretation with the legendary harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick at Yale University, from which he graduated “summa cum laude” in 1976, and where, directly following his own graduation in 1977, he founded the guitar department at the Yale School of Music. He is Professor at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria and in Boston at the New England Conservatory where in 2010 he received the Krasner Award as “Teacher of the Year.”

Renana Gutman

Praised by the New York Times for her “passionate and insightful” playing, Renana Gutman has performed across four continents as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and collaborative artist. She has appeared The Louvre and Grenoble Museum (France); Carnegie Recital Hall, People’s Symphony Concerts, Merkin Hall (New York); St. Petersburg’s Philharmonia (Russia), Stresa Music Festival (Italy), Ravinia Rising Stars (Chicago), Jordan Hall and Gardner Museum (Boston); Herbst Theatre (San Francisco), Menuhin Hall (UK), UNISA (South Africa), and National Gallery, Phillips Collection, and Freer Gallery (Washington DC). Her performances are heard frequently on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase, WFMT Dame Myra Hess, Chicago, and American Public Media’s Performances Today. Her recording of Chopin Etudes op.25 is soon to be released by “The Chopin Project.” A top prize winner at the Los Angeles Liszt competition, International Keyboard Festival in New York, and Tel-Hai International Master Classes in Israel, she has been the soloist with the Jerusalem Symphony, Haifa Symphony, Belgian “I Fiamminghi,” and Mannes College Orchestra. Her festival appearances include Marlboro and Ravinia.

Yehuda Hanani

Named “one of the most polished performers of the post-Starker generation and a consistently expressive artist.” by The New York Times, Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements across the globe. He has won wide international acclaim as soloist, chamber musician and inspiring pedagogue, and joined the faculty at the Mannes School in New York City this year. His concerto appearances have been with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Irish National Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Taipei and Seoul symphonies among many other orchestras, and he has toured with I Solisti de Zagreb, conducting from the cello. A frequent guest at Aspen, Bowdoin, Chautauqua, Yale at Norfolk, Great Lakes, Casals Prades, Finland Festival, Ottawa, Oslo, Round Top Institute, Manchester, and the Australia Chamber Music festivals, he has collaborated in performances with preeminent fellow musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Dawn Upshaw, Yefim Bronfman, Eliot Fisk, the Tokyo, Vermeer, Muir, Escher, Ariel, Colorado, and Manhattan quartets. His recording of the monumental Alkan Cello Sonata received a Grand Prix du Disque nomination, and on CD and in live performances, he has given premières of works of Nikolai Miaskovsky, Lukas Foss, Leo Ornstein, Paul Schoenfield, Thea Musgrave, Joan Tower, Eduard Franck, Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach, Tamar Muskal, Virgil Thomson, William Perry and Pulitzer Prize winners Bernard Rands and Zhou Long. In New York City, he has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan Museum. Among the early designers and proponents of thematic programming, his engaging chamber music with commentary series, Close Encounters With Music, has captivated audiences from Miami to Kansas City, Omaha, Detroit, Calgary, Scottsdale, the Berkshires, and at the Frick Collection in New York City. A three-time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant, Mr. Hanani’s studies were with Leonard Rose at Juilliard and with Pablo Casals. He has inspired scores of cellists as Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and previously served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. Artistic director of Berkshire High Peaks Festival, he presents master classes internationally at conservatories and for orchestras, including the Juilliard School, University of Indiana at Bloomington, New England Conservatory, McGill University, Paris Conservatoire, Berlin Hochschule für Music, Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School in London, Tokyo National University, Jerusalem Academy of Music, the Central Conservatories in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, and the New World Symphony in Miami. In recognition of his distinguished teaching, he was given the title of honorary professor of the Tianjin Conservatory, China. His objective is to instill a sense of wonder and adventure in young musicians, to lead them to technical mastery and bridge tradition with innovation. He now is a member of the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York City.

Heather Johnson

Mezzo-soprano Heather Johnson, hailed by Opera News as “a dramatic singer in the truest sense,” has received critical acclaim for her work both on the opera and concert stage. Recent engagements include Jan Arnold in Everest with Austin Opera, Despina in Cosi fan Tutte with Mill City Summer Opera, Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti with Boston Lyric Opera, Laura in Luisa Miller at the Metropolitan Opera, La Musica, La Messaggera and La Speranza in the U.S. stage premiere of Respighi’s realization of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Chautauqua Opera, the title role in Rossini’s Tancredi with Baltimore Concert Opera and Opera Southwest, Jo in Adamo’s Little Women with Madison Opera, Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress and the title role of Lizzie Borden both with Boston Lyric Opera. In 2012, Ms. Johnson made her house debut at the Metropolitan Opera as a Flower Maiden in Parsifal. She performed in the world premieres of The Long Walk by Jeremy Howard Beck with Opera Saratoga, Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus with The Dallas Opera, and Fierce Grace: Jeannette Rankin, a song cycle commissioned by OPERA America and performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Ieva Jokubaviciute

Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute’s powerfully and intricately crafted performances have earned her critical accolades throughout North America and Europe. Labor Records released Ieva’s debut recording in 2010 to critical international acclaim, which resulted in recitals in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, Vilnius, and Toulouse. She made her orchestral debuts with the Chicago Symphony; in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and in February 2017 was the soloist with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Montevideo in Uruguay. Her piano trio—Trio Cavatina—won the 2009 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition. Her latest recording: “Returning Paths: Solo Piano Works by Janacek and Suk” was also released to critical acclaim in 2014. In the fall of 2016, Ieva began a collaboration with the violinist Midori, with recitals in Canada, at the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia, and in Germany and Austria. Since, they have given recitals in Japan, Germany, Austria, Poland, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, India, and Sri Lanka. Jokubaviciute’s latest piano solo recording Northscapes will be released in 2021. This recording project weaves works, written within the last decade by composers from the Nordic and Baltic countries of Europe, into a tapestry of soundscapes that echo the reverberations between landscape, sound, and the imagination. It features works by Kaja Saariaho and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, among others. Appearances at international festivals include Marlboro, Ravinia, Bard, Caramoor Prussia Cove in England, Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany, festivals in Finland, and Music in the Vineyards in the Napa Valley.

Max Levinson

Pianist Max Levinson’s career was launched when he won first prize at the Guardian Dublin International Piano Competition, the first American to achieve this distinction. He was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2005, the Andrew Wolf Award for his chamber music playing. The Boston Globe proclaimed: “The questioning, conviction, and feeling in his playing invariably remind us of the deep reasons why music is important to us, why we listen to it, why we care so much about it.” Levinson has performed as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, New World Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Boston Pops, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland among others. He has worked with such conductors as Robert Spano, Neemi Järvi, Uriel Segal, Joseph Swensen, Jeffrey Kahane and Alasdair Neale. Artistic Director of the San Juan Chamber Music Festival (Ouray, Colorado), he has appeared at major music festivals including Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Marlboro, Tanglewood, La Jolla, Bravo/Vail, Seattle, Killington, Vancouver, Cartagena, and Switzerland’s Davos Festival. Max Levinson garnered international accolades for his two recordings. Max Levinson, his debut recording, traces the musical lineage between Brahms, Schumann, Schönberg and Kirchner. American Record Guide declared Levinson’s second disc, Out of Doors: Piano Music of Béla Bartók “an important recording and a great one. The disc blew me out of my chair….Hearing performances as riveting as these produces a rare frisson; indeed, this is the most brilliant and exciting Bartók piano disc I have heard. On the basis of only two recordings, Mr. Levinson has created the myth of a pianist with everything.” He has experimented with internet broadcast, served as Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University’s Lowell House for four years, and has been featured on NPR’s “Performance Today” and “A Note to You.” He has also taught master classes at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Harvard, MIT, Brigham Young University, Rutgers, the University of Washington, UCLA, the Colburn School, and Boston University. Mr. Levinson is chair of the Piano department at the Boston Conservatory, and is also a faculty member at the New England Conservatory.

Emily Marvosh

American contralto Emily Marvosh has been gaining recognition for her “sterling voice” and “graceful allure,” on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Disney Hall, Lincoln Center, Prague’s Smetana Hall, and Vienna’s Stefansdom. Following her solo debut at Boston’s Symphony Hall in 2011, she has been a frequent soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society. Other recent solo appearances include the American Bach Soloists (Messiah), Charlotte Symphony (Messiah), Tucson Symphony Orchestra (Mahler’s 3rd Symphony), Chorus Pro Musica (Stravinsky’s Les Noces), Music Worcester (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), L’academie (Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus), Back Bay Chorale (Bach Magnificat), and the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe. Awards include the prestigious Adams Fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival (2013) and the American Prize in the Oratorio and Art Song divisions (2013). She is a founding member of the Lorelei Ensemble, which promotes innovative new music for women. With Lorelei, she has enjoyed collaborations with composer David Lang, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.Recent ensemble appearances include the Oregon Bach Festival under the direction of Helmut Rilling, the Bachakademie Stuttgart, Portland Baroque Orchestra, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Boston Camerata, the Skylark Chamber Ensemble, the Yale Choral Artists, and Cambridge Concentus. Miss Marvosh can be heard on two recent GRAMMY-nominated recordings: Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem with Seraphic Fire, and Prayers and Remembrances with True Concord Voices and Orchestra. She holds degrees from Central Michigan University and Boston University.

Tamar Muskal

Educated both in Israel and the United States, Tamar Muskal’s music harmonizes the unique cultural aspects of both, writing in a carefully structured counterpoint style. Ms. Muskal studied viola, music theory and composition at the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance in Jerusalem and earned her BA in 1991, studying with Mark Kopytman. She subsequently earned her Master’s degree from Yale University, where she studied with Jacob Druckman and Martin Bresnick. At the City University of New York, she worked with David Del Tredici and Tania Leon. Recent and future commissions include a double concerto for saxophone and viola for the Williamsport Symphony, an orchestral piece for the Idyllwild Arts Academy, music for a documentary film about finding the cure for blindness narrated by Robert Redford, a song cycle commissioned by ASCAP, a piece for percussionist Steve Schick and to accompany a visual work by Daniel Rozin. Also noteworthy are music for the historic film La Venganza de Pancho Villa for string quartet and a Mexican musicians band (a collaboration with the Library of Congress), a piano solo piece for Benjamin Hochman for the New York 92nd Street Y, and a work for Lucy Shelton and the Colorado String Quartet on text by poet Hanoch Levin. Ms. Muskal served as the Westchester Philharmonic’s education composer-in-residence, and in that capacity composed three orchestral pieces based on students’ artwork and poetry. She also focuses on music for theater. Recent works include Angels in America performed in Cincinnati, The Labor of Life and The Seven Beggars performed at La Mama Theater in New York, and Cristabel and Trojan Women performed in New Haven. Her 2017 homage to Sojourner Truth was part of a Quilt in the Close Encounters With Music celebration of the centenary of Womens’ Suffrage.

Daniel Panner

Violist Daniel Panner is Principal violist of New York City Opera, a member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet, and the contemporary ensemble Sequitur. He has performed at festivals including Marlboro, Tanglewood, and Aspen and collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, and Juilliard String Quartets as well as with artists such as Isidore Cohen, Felix Galimir, and Mitsuko Uchida. Winner of 1998 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award as a member of Whitman String Quartet, he has appeared with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; toured with Musicians from Marlboro and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has been Guest artist with Bargemusic, Carnegie Chamber Players, Greenleaf Chamber Players, Da Capo Chamber Players, and Music from the Anthology. His recordings include Thea Musgrave’s Lamenting With Ariadne for viola and chamber orchestra for Albany records and he has been featured on National Public Radio’s Performance Today as soloist and chamber musician. He has served on the faculties of the Juilliard School and Queens College Conservatory of Music and is co-chair of the String Department at Mannes College of Music, the New School in New York City.

Daniel Phillips

Violin/Viola

Violinist Daniel Phillips enjoys a versatile career as a chamber musician, solo artist, and teacher. A graduate of Juilliard, his major teachers were his father, Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Vegh, and George Neikrug. He is a founding member of the Orion String Quartet, which performs regularly at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Boston, Houston, Phoenix, and San Antonio symphonies. He appears regularly at the Spoleto USA Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Chesapeake Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire; has participated in the International Musicians Seminar in Cornwall, England since its inception; and recently returned to the Marlboro Music Festival. He has served on the faculty of the Heifetz Institute and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar at Stanford. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma. A judge in the 2018 Seoul International Violin Competition and the 2019 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, he is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Bard College Conservatory, and The Juilliard School. He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Cristian Puig

Born in Buenos Aires into a family steeped in flamenco (his mother was a singer and his father a flamenco guitarist), Cristian Puig’s earliest musical lessons were at home, followed by studies in classical guitar at the conservatory of Manuel de Falla. He took classes in guitar with Quique de Cordoba and in jazz, bossa nova and contemporary music with various teachers and has been self-taught since, taking inspiration from his parents and from renowned players Paco de Lucia, Sabicas, Astor Piazzola, Dino Saluzzi, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and John Coltrans. After touring with several flamenco companies, he formed the flamenco fusion ensemble Rabat, presenting concerts in theaters in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Chile. Seeking to fuse jazz and bossa nova with flamenco, he integrated instruments such as piano, electric guitar and saxophone as he experimented with his own compositions. He collaborated with actor singer-songwriter Terrence Howard, giving a presentation for President Obama at the White House, and had an acting role in the 2012 film “The Last Quartet,” for which he also contributed to the soundtrack.

PRISM Quartet

Intriguing programs of great beauty and breadth have distinguished the PRISM Quartet as one of America’s foremost chamber ensembles. “A bold ensemble that set the standard for contemporary-classical saxophone quartets” (The New York Times), PRISM has been presented by Carnegie Hall, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and throughout Latin America, China, and Russia. PRISM has also appeared as soloists with the Detroit Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra, and conducted residencies at the nation’s leading conservatories, including the Curtis Institute and the Oberlin Conservatory. Two-time recipients of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, PRISM has commissioned nearly 300 works by eminent composers, including Pulitzer Prize-winners Julia Wolfe, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, Zhou Long, and Bernard Rands; MacArthur “Genius” Award recipients Tyshawn Sorey, Bright Sheng, and Miguel Zenón; and US Artists Fellow Susie Ibarra. PRISM’s discography is extensive, with releases on Albany, BMOP/Sound, ECM, innova, Koch, Naxos, New Dynamic, New Focus, and its own label, XAS Records. The Fifth Century, PRISM’s ECM recording with The Crossing, was awarded a 2018 Grammy for Best Choral Performance. In 2016, PRISM was named by its alma mater, the University of Michigan, as the first recipient of the Christopher Kendall Award in recognition of its work in “collaboration, entrepreneurship, and community engagement.”

Irene Rodríguez

Classical Spanish and Flamenco dance

Described as “an intense, exacting dancer” by the New York Times, Irene Rodríguez is the leading figure of Spanish dance in Cuba. With parallel careers as a professor of dance and choreographer, she has worked as a dance and choreography consultant for the Ballet Nacional de Cuba and National Ballet School of Cuba. She earned a Theater Arts Degree and a Master’s Degree in Theoretical Studies of Dance in Havana and has performed at the Museum of Latin American Art, The Moore Theatre, The Joyce Theatre, WTTW Studios, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Kennedy Center and Montalvo Art Center. She founded her own company, Compañía Irene Rodríguez, and the Irene Rodríguez Spanish Dance Academy. Awards include First Prize in the VIII Iberoamerican Choreography Competition; the Choreography Award (UNEAC); the Excellence Award (International Ballet Schools Competition); inclusion in The Book of Honor of the Gran Teatro de la Habana; the Medalla Iberoamericana; the Audience and UNEAC Award and the Order Isabel La Católica. She is the Artistic Director of the International Festival “La Huella de España.” In her own words, “I am focused on creating new trends in order to evolve the Flamenco dance by fusing it with everything that the stage vocabulary has to offer – from the dramatic arts, to contemporary dance currents, to native rhythms.”

Dov Scheindlin

Acclaimed by the New York Times as an “extraordinary violist” of “immense flair,” Dov Scheindlin is a member of Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and an associate member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has also been violist of the Arditti, Penderecki and Chester String Quartets. His chamber music career has brought him to 28 countries around the globe and won him the Siemens Prize in 1999. He has appeared as soloist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, the Paris Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. Mr. Scheindlin has recorded extensively for EMI, Teldec, Auvidis, and Mode, and won the Gramophone Award in 2002 for the Arditti Quartet’s recording of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Pulse Shadows. As a member of the Arditti Quartet, he gave nearly 100 world premières, among them new works by Benjamin Britten, Elliott Carter, György Kurtág, Thomas Adès and Wolfgang Rihm. He has also been broadcast on NPR, BBC, CBC, and on German, French, Swiss, Austrian, Dutch and Belgian national radio networks. Dov Scheindlin was raised in New York City, where he studied with Samuel Rhodes and William Lincer at the Juilliard School. He has taught viola and chamber music at Harvard, Wilfrid Laurier University and Tanglewood. He regularly participates in summer festivals such as Salzburg, Luzern, and Tanglewood, and has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Met Chamber Ensembles. His chamber music partners have included members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Tokyo, and Borodin String Quartets, as well as concertmasters of many major symphony orchestras. He plays a viola made by Francesco Bissolotti in 1975.

Giora Schmidt

Praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “impossible to resist, captivating with lyricism, tonal warmth, and boundless enthusiasm,” violinist Giora Schmidt has appeared as soloist with many prominent symphony orchestras around the globe including Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Toronto, Vancouver and the Israel Philharmonic. In recital and chamber music, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Tokyo’s Musashino Cultural Hall. Festival appearances include Ravinia, Santa Fe and Montreal Chamber Music Festivals, Bard Music Festival, Scotia Festival of Music and Music Academy of the West. He has collaborated with eminent musicians including Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Lynn Harrell. Born in Philadelphia to professional musicians from Israel, Giora began playing the violin at the age of four. A graduate of the Juilliard School, his teachers have included Geoffrey Michaels, Patinka Kopec, Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman, with additional guidance from Pinchas Zukerman. Committed to education and sharing his passion for music, he is currently on the artist faculty at New York University and Orford Musique Academy (Quebec) in the summer. He previously taught at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, the Juilliard School and Perlman Music Program. Through technology and social media, he continues to find new ways of reaching young violinists and music lovers around the world. He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, The Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders award, and was a Starling Fellow at Juilliard.

Avirodh Sharma

Avirodh Sharma is considered one of today’s leading exponents of the tabla, carrying on the tradition of percussion rhythm that originated on the Indian Subcontinent. Trinidadian born, Mr. Sharma was trained by his father, Dr. Ravideen Ramsamooj, managing director of the East Indian Music Academy who, together with his mother, Bharati Ramsamooj, have produced over 20,000 students in New York City. As a resident teacher at the Academy for over 24 years, Sharma has trained tabla players nationwide. A multifaceted artist, he is also a composer and producer, with work featured in films, documentaries, fashion shows, on radio and in television commercials. He has been featured in The New York Times, NY Daily News, TV Asia, STARZ NETWORK, Zee TV and NPR Radio. Sharma has worked with Grammy-winning artists including Shakti and Masters of Percussion, Vikku Vinayakram, Dhrubesh Regmi and Sukarma, Suresh Wadhkar, and many more. He has also collaborated with Asian Underground musician Karsh Kale, fiddler Patrick Mangan, and David Bowie drummer Sterling Campbell. In 2015, his debut recording as s a tabla soloist was nominated for the 14th Independent Music Awards “Best World Beat Album.” He was recently commissioned by Parsons Dance Company to compose and perform Microburst in NYC’s Joyce Theatre, receiving critical acclaim. In the realm of theater, he composed and performed for Dishwasher Dreams which was developed at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. His performances have captivated audiences in Italy, Switzerland, Nepal, India, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and the U. S. This past January, he performed at Kumbh Mela, in India, the biggest religious festival in the world, where millions were in attendance. He has appeared recently at the international festivals Artisti in Piazza (Italy), and Taj Mahotsav (Taj Mahal, India).

Skylark

Skylark, “the cream of the American crop” (BBC Radio 3), is a premier ensemble of leading American vocal soloists, chamber musicians, and music educators. Skylark’s dramatic performances have been described as “gripping” (The Times of London), “exquisite…thrilling” (Gramophone Magazine), and “awe-inspiring” (Boston Music Intelligencer). With “some of Boston’s best singers” (Boston Globe), the voices of Skylark “can sway you softly into calm and then all but throw you across the room with sheer harmonic force” (Thought Catalog). Skylark strives to set the standard for innovative and engaging programs that re-define the choral experience for audiences and singers alike. Artistic Director Matthew Guard’s well-researched and creative programs have been described as “engrossing” (WQXR New York) and “original, stimulating, and beautiful.” Their most recent three recordings all reached the top 10 of Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart, earning praise for “imaginative” programming (Limelight Australia) and “singing of the highest standard for any area or any repertoire” (Classics Today). Since its founding in 2011 in Atlanta and Boston, Skylark has branched out to perform its dynamic programs in museums, concert halls, and churches across the U. S. Skylark made its international debut in 2018 at St. John’s Smith Square, London, as part of the UK choir Tenebrae’s Holy Week Festival. The Times of London declared that Skylark was “the highlight” of a festival that included some of the UK’s leading choirs, including The Tallis Scholars, Polyphony, Tenebrae, and the Gabrieli Consort. In 2017, Skylark embarked on a historic tour with “Clear Voices in the Dark,” a program featuring Francis Poulenc’s notoriously difficult Figure Humaine paired with songs of the American Civil War. A performance at the French Institute Alliance-Française in New York was described as “fascinating…singing in a shimmering pianissimo that rises to a triumphant crescendo, the Skylark ensemble practically opens the heavens with the beauty of their sound…” (Stage Buddy NYC). The previous year, Skylark made its debut at Atlanta’s celebrated Spivey Hall with a chamber performance of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil. In addition to numerous outreach workshops in public schools across the country, Skylark has conducted residencies at premier colleges and elite secondary schools including Harvard, MIT, Wellesley College, Endicott College, Milton Academy and Philips Exeter Academy.

Michael Isaac Strauss

Known for his “rich tone and lyrical acumen” (Chicago Tribune), violist Michael Isaac Strauss has performed around the world as a soloist, recitalist, in chamber music, and in symphonic settings. His love for the intimate concert setting has led to performances on concert series, live radio broadcasts, and festival appearances across Europe, North America, and Asia. A former member of the distinguished Fine Arts Quartet, Strauss made several European and domestic tours with them, as well as a critically acclaimed recording of Mozart’s complete viola quintets on the Lyrinx label. He is a founding member of the new Indianapolis Quartet, in residence at the University of Indianapolis since 2016, where he also serves on the faculty. Strauss has also taught at Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music since 2016 and is the violist for the Dana Piano Quartet, in residence at Youngstown State University. Strauss’ solo work is featured on several CDs—the debut recording of Jennifer Higdon’s Viola Sonata, David Finko’s Viola Concerto, Stamitz’s works for solo viola with orchestra (Centaur), and the Suzuki Viola School CDs, Volumes 8 and 9. He has also recorded chamber works by living composers with the Philadelphia-based Orchestra 2001, the complete string quintets by Mozart with the Fine Arts Quartet, and he recently released Wordless Verses (Naxos)—trio works inspired by poetry for oboe, viola, and piano with the Jackson Trio. Strauss was principal violist of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for 20 years and has served on the faculty of several prominent schools including Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, and Swarthmore College. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and performs on a viola attributed to Matteo Albani of Bolzano, Italy in 1704.

Yekwon Sunwoo

Pianist

Gold medallist of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Yekwon Sunwoo has been hailed for his “unfailingly consistent excellence” (International Piano) and celebrated as “a pianist who commands a comprehensive technical arsenal that allows him to thunder without breaking a sweat” (Chicago Tribune). A powerful and virtuosic performer, he also, in his own words, “strives to reach for the truth and pure beauty in music.” The first Korean to win Cliburn Gold, Yekwon’s 19/20 season included appearances with Fort Worth and Tuscon Symphonies and the Bucheon Philharmonic and debuts with Washington Chamber Orchestra, Royal Danish Orchestra and Danish Radio Orchestra as well as a debut appearance at the Vail Festival with the Dallas Symphony. Recital highlights include Four Season Arts, San Antonio Arts and the Stadttheater Aschaffenburg. 2021 will see Mr. Sunwoo make his debut with Orchestra Chambre de Paris and Tugan Sokhiev and return to KBS Symphony with Jaap Van Zweden. In previous seasons, he has performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop, Houston Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, Sendai Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Recital appearances include Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot and Kumho Art Hall. An avid chamber musician, his collaborators have been Benjamin Beilman, Linus Roth, Andrei Ioniță, Sebastian Bohren, Isang Enders, Tobias Feldmann, Gary Hoffman, Anne-Marie McDermott and the Jerusalem and Brentano Quartets. He has also performed at Chamber Music of Lincoln Center’s Inside Chamber Music Lectures and been invited to the Summit Music, Bowdoin International and Toronto Summer Music Festivals. In addition to the Cliburn Gold Medal, Yekwon won first prizes at the 2015 International German Piano Award, the 2014 Vendome Prize held at the Verbier Festival, and the 2012 William Kapell International Piano Competiton. Born in Anyang, South Korea, he began studying piano at the age of 8 and made his recital and orchestral debuts in Seoul at 15. His teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Robert McDonald, Richard Goode and Bernd Goetzke. In 2017, Decca Gold released Cliburn Gold 2017 two weeks after Yekwon was awarded the Gold Meda, and included his award-winning performances of Ravel’s La Valse and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Sonata. A self-proclaimed foodie, Yekwon enjoys finding Pho in each city he visits and takes pride in his own homemade Korean soups.

Liang Wang

Oboe

Born in Qing Dao, China, in 1980, Liang Wang began oboe studies at the age of seven. In 1993 he enrolled at the Beijing Central Conservatory, and in 2003 he completed his bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Philadelphia Orchestra principal oboist Richard Woodhams. Liang Wang joined the New York Philharmonic in 2006 as Principal Oboe, The Alice Tully Chair. Previously, he was principal oboe of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (2005–06), Santa Fe Opera (2004–05), and San Francisco Ballet Orchestra; associate principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony; and guest principal oboe of the Chicago and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. His frequent performances as concerto soloist with the New York Philharmonic include his debut performing Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto, led by Xian Zhang, in Hong Kong during the Orchestra’s 2008 tour of Asia. In addition, he has been heard as a featured player in works ranging from J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 to Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Varèse’s Octandre. Recipient of the 2014 Beijing International Music Festival Artist of the Year award, Mr. Wang served as artist-in-residence of the Qing Dao Symphony Orchestra, his hometown orchestra, in the 2014–15 season, at the invitation of the mayor. He was invited by the presidents of China and France to perform Chen Qigang’s Extase with the Orchestre Colonne de France at Versailles’s Royal Opera House in March 2014 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of France–China diplomacy. An active chamber musician, he has appeared with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Angel Fire Music Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest. He is currently on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and New York University and is an honorary professor at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Xiao-Dong Wang

Xiao-Dong Wang has been called the most talented violinist to emerge from China. He began his studies at age 3 with his father, concertmaster of the Shanghai Symphony; he then studied with the renowned teacher Zhao Ji-Yang at the Shanghai Conservatory. As first prize winner in the Menuhin International Violin Competition and the Wieniawski-Lipinski International Violin Competition at the ages of 13 and 15, he was brought to the attention of violin pedagogue Dorothy DeLay who arranged a four-year scholarship at Juilliard. Mr. Wang has performed as soloist with orchestras around the world, including the London Royal Philharmonic, the London Mozart Players, Adelaide, Perth, Queensland symphony orchestras and Sydney Opera Orchestra. His recording credits include the Bartok Concerto No. 2 and Szymanowski Concerto No. 1 for Polygram. He has also appeared performing on both violin and viola in chamber music concerts at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Aspen, Ravinia and festivals and music series worldwide. Wang was the resident soloist of the Shanghai Symphony for the 2012-13 season, during which he also performed as a soloist with other major Chinese orchestras, including the China Philharmonic in Beijing. He is artistic director of the chamber music group Concertante, collaborating with world renowned musicians and producing a vast number of recordings.

Itamar Zorman

Violin

The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award, Itamar Zorman was also joint winner of the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition. Other competition successes include first prize at the 2010 International Violin Competition of Freiburg and the Juilliard Berg Concerto Competition. As a soloist, Itamar Zorman has appeared with the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, Het Gelders Orkest in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Tokyo Symphony in Japan’s Suntory Hall, as well as the Jerusalem Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Haifa Symphony, Polish Radio Chamber Orchestra, Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, Philharmonie Baden Baden, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra “Novaya Rossiya. In 2014 he made his Italian debut at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo playing the Beethoven concerto with Daniel Oren, and in 2015, his Korean debut with the KBS symphony Orchestra and Yoel Levi. The 2015-16 season included his debut with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Joseph Swensen, a tour of Brazil with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and Frédéric Chaslin and concerto appearances in Italy at the Mito Settembre Musica Festival in Turin and Teatro Filarmonico di Verona with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra. Other concerto appearances include the Santa Fe Symphony, the Pan Asia Symphony in Hong Kong, the Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra in Serbia and the Israeli Kibbutz Orchestra. In January 2016, at the invitation of Mitsuko Uchida, he led the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on a European tour of Mozart concerti. A regular at the Marlboro Music Festival, Itamar Zorman has also appeared at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Verbier, the Louvre recital series in Paris, the Kronberg Academy Festival and the Copenhagen Summer Festival. In November 2014, he gave his Carnegie Hall recital debut, as part of the ‘Distinctive Debuts’ series in Weill Recital Hall. As a chamber musician, Zorman has appeared at Lincoln Center, Zankel and Weill Recital Halls in Carnegie Hall, and at the Kennedy Center. He is a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project, and a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, with which he won the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and prizes in the Coleman Arriaga and Fischoff National Chamber Music competitions. Itamar Zorman is a recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Born in Tel-Aviv in 1985 to a family of musicians, he began his violin studies at the age of six at the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel-Aviv. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance as a student of Hagai Shaham, a Master’s of Music from Juilliard, and Artist Diplomas from Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard. He plays on a 1734 Guarneri Del Jesù from the collection of Yehuda Zisapel.