Dominic Armstrong, tenor
Recently hailed as a “clarion-voiced tenor” by Anthony Tommasini (New York Times), Dominic Armstrong is a young tenor who has quickly established himself internationally as an artist of deep emotion and heartfelt musicality. Proof of this came in his recent, unexpected and well-received debut with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Alan Gilbert, in the rarely heard Spring Symphony of Benjamin Britten.
Mary Birnbaum, director
Mary Birnbaum is a New York City-based stage director of theater and opera. Most recent credits include a chamber version of Eugene Onegin at Juilliard, Stephen Wadsworth’s Ring Cycle at Seattle Opera (associate director), and a new opera, Biennale, at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. With an interest in dramaturgy, she specializes in new music/plays and has created productions for Juilliard, the Melbourne Opera Studio, American Opera Projects, LA’s Son of Semele Theater, the New Museum, and Bryant Park.
Brooklyn Rider, string quartet
Hailed as “the future of chamber music” (Strings), the game-changing string quartet Brooklyn Rider offers eclectic repertoire in gripping performances that continue to attract legions of fans and draw rave reviews from classical, world, and rock critics alike. NPR credits Brooklyn Rider with “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble”; the Los Angeles Times dubs the group “one of the wonders of contemporary music”; and Vice likens its members to “motocross daredevils who never screw up a stunt.”
Rachel Calloway, mezzo-soprano
Rachel Calloway’s recognition continues at a very high level as a leading proponent and interpreter of contemporary music and the avant-garde. She has focused her career on works by living composers who champion their celebrated mentors.
Kevin Fox, conductor
Kevin Fox, Founding Artistic Director of the Grammy-winning Pacific Boychoir Academy (PBA), is one of America’s few full-time boys choir directors. The Los Angeles Times called PBA’s musical sophistication and quality of sound “Astonishing”. Starting in 1998 with six choristers, Mr. Fox now runs the music program for over 170 students in PBA’s after-school program and day school, the only full-time choir school on the West Coast, where students’ daily music studies are integrated into a full academic curriculum.
Jennifer Frautschi
Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient Jennifer Frautschi has gained acclaim as an adventurous musician with a wide-ranging repertoire. As the Chicago Tribune wrote, “violinist Jennifer Frautschi is molding a career with smart interpretations of both warhorses and rarities.” Equally at home in the classic repertoire as well as twentieth and twenty-first century works, in recent seasons she has focused on such composers as Berg, Schoenberg, Prokofiev and Schumann, and premiered several new works composed for her.
Hudson Shad
Though the six-man ensemble Hudson Shad (five singers and a pianist) debuted officially in 1992, their nucleus formed in 1977 when three of them made their Carnegie Hall debuts as soloists in Penderecki’s Magnificat. Throughout the late ’70s and ’80s, their members were in demand as early music specialists, oratorio soloists and opera singers, and most of them sang at one time or another as Gentlemen of the Choir at St. Thomas Church in NYC.
Eric Jacobsen, conductor
Hailed by the New York Times as “an interpretive dynamo,” conductor and cellist Eric Jacobsen has built a reputation for engaging audiences with innovative and collaborative programming projects. As co-founder and Music Director of adventurous orchestra The Knights and a founding member of genre-defying string quartet Brooklyn Rider, he may take credit for helping to ensure “the future of classical music in America” (Los Angeles Times).
Keith Jameson, tenor
Keith Jameson, tenor, a native of South Carolina, recently appeared as Bardolfo in Robert Carsen’s new production of Falstaff at the Metropolitan Opera, conducted by James Levine, and seen “Live from The Met in HD” movie theaters around the world. He also sang the Novice in Britten’s Billy Budd at the Metropolitan Opera, and Osman in Handel’s Almira with NYC’s operamission in the North American premiere staging of the entire opera at the historic Gershwin Hotel.
Kim Josephson, baritone
Hailed as one of opera’s most versatile baritones, Kim Josephson is a regular guest of leading opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera where, since 1991, he has performed more than 230 performances of 24 roles including the title role in Rigoletto, Germont in La Traviata, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore to name a few.
The Knights, orchestral collective
The Knights are an orchestral collective, flexible in size and repertory, dedicated to transforming the concert experience. Driven by an open-minded spirit of camaraderie and exploration, they engage listeners and defy boundaries with programs that encompass their roots in the classical tradition and passion for musical discovery. For their outstanding virtuosity, innovative programs, and bold mission, The Knights are at the forefront of “the future of classical music in America” (Los Angeles Times).
Storm Large, singer
Storm Large: musician, actor, playwright, author, awesome. She shot to national prominence in 2006 as a finalist on the CBS show Rock Star: Supernova, where despite having been eliminated in the week before the finale, Storm built a fan base that follows her around the world to this day.
Gyan Riley, bass
Gyan Riley won his first guitar in a raffle when he was 12 years old. After learning all of the songs in his cassette collection by ear, he began his life-long adventure in music, becoming the first full-scholarship graduate guitar student at the San Francisco Conservatory.
Sarah Rothenberg, piano
Sarah Rothenberg is a pianist of “heart, intellect and fabulous technical resources” (Fanfare) and “a prolific and creative thinker” (Wall Street Journal) who is recognized internationally for her innovative interdisciplinary performances linking music to literature and visual art. Active as performer, writer, concert curator and institution builder, she has been artistic director of Da Camera in Houston since 1994, general director since 2011, and previously was co-founder of the Bard Music Festival.
Ashraf Sewailam, bass-baritone
The New York Times hailed Egypt native Ashraf Sewailam’s debut at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall as a “stand out performance” and Opera News described his voice as “purring and velvety with an easily produced Ramfis-like top range with a majestic tone,” and his stage presence as “strong, mysterious and with mesmerizing intensity”. In his debut with New Zealand Opera as the assassin Sparafucile in Rigoletto, he was described as “hard to better, both vocally and dramatically”.
Joshua Rubin, clarinet
Joshua Rubin is a founding clarinetist and the co-artistic director of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), where he oversees the creative direction of more than 60 concerts per season in the United States and abroad. As a clarinetist, the New York Times has praised him as “incapable of playing an inexpressive note.”
Peabody Southwell, mezzo-soprano
Lauded by Opera Magazine UK for her “stylistic mastery and ripe, sensual sound” American mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell “is going places” (Los Angeles Times). She most recently appeared as the title role in Handel’s Agrippina with Opera Omaha conducted by Stephen Stubbs in a new production by James Darrah. Other work of the 2013-2014 season has included performances as the Third Lady with Los Angeles Opera in Barrie Kosky’s production of The Magic Flute conducted by James Conlon and a concert of Stravinsky with New World Symphony and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami and on tour to Chicago.
Robert Spano, conductor
Robert Spano is one of the brightest and most imaginative conductors of his generation. As Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he has enriched and expanded its repertoire and elevated the ensemble to new levels of international prominence and acclaim. As Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and School, he oversees the programming of more than 300 events and educational programs for 630 students, including Aspen’s American Academy of Conducting.
Wilfried Wendeling, video & live electronic music designer
Born in a family of theater and fascinated by connections between scene, text and music, Wilfried Wendling has already realized about 15 multidisciplinary shows, presented in many theaters and operas, on texts of Beckett, Camus, Nietzsche, Perec, Queneau, Jouet, Müller, or Boltanski. His musical compositions are also played on numerous stages and festivals. As a musician and\or video director, he has collaborated with numerous artists of many disciplines. Wilfried Wendling is at present director of France’s La Muse en Circuit, National Centre of Musical Creation.
Jennifer Zetlan, soprano
Soprano Jennifer Zetlan is swiftly garnering recognition for her artistry and captivating stage presence. She has debuted on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera and Florida Grand Opera. On the concert stage she has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Juilliard Orchestra and has been heard at Carnegie Hall in recital and with Oratorio Society of New York, Musica Sacra, and the New York Youth Symphony.
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer, and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage’s romantic partner for most of their lives.
Henry Cowell
Henry Cowell (1897-1965), was born in Menlo Park, California. The “godfather of the American experimental tradition” (in the words of Alex Ross), got an early start. While still young Cowell’s mother encouraged him to purchase a piano and, something of a child prodigy, he would give private recitals featuring his early compositions, including Anger Dance (1914).
Lou Harrison
Lou Harrison (1917 – 2003) was an American musical pioneer, composing works that incorporated Javanese gamelan and non-Western influences and explored the use of alternate tunings and new instruments. Spending much of his youth on the West Coast, he studied with Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg, before moving to New York to work with Virgil Thomson. In addition to composing, Harrison also worked tirelessly promote the music of Charles Ives, bringing the composer to the notice of the musical world and conducting the first performances if his Symphony No. 3.
Michael Harrison
Michael Harrison, composer and pianist, has been called “an American Maverick” by Philip Glass. Through his expertise in “just intonation” tunings, Indian ragas and rhythmic cycles, he has created “a new harmonic world…of vibrant sound” (The New York Times). With a personal style that transcends the ages, his music is both forward looking and deeply rooted in different forms of traditional music.
Glenn Kotche
For a percussionist and composer as energetic, inquisitive and versatile as Glenn Kotche, it’s his sense of balance—his ability to thrive in different and seemingly disparate worlds—that really makes him stand out as a musician. Since 2001, Kotche has been the rhythmic anchor in Wilco, one of the most beloved rock bands on the planet.