Category: Past Festival Artists

Mary McGowan is a freelance producer, director, actor, and arts administrator based in Brooklyn, NY. Mary is currently the Ticketing Manager for the Tony Awards, Company Manager for the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), and Line Producer for the Broadway Podcast Network (BPN). Between February-August 2021, Mary worked as Artistic Coordinator for NY PopsUp, an expansive festival consisting of 300+ pop-up performances intended to revitalize live performance across New York state. Previously, Mary served as Special Assistant to the Artistic Director (Diane Paulus) and Executive Team at the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) from 2018-2021, during which time she served as Assistant Director for ExtraOrdinary, as well as the developmental readings + workshops of 1776. Other Directing/Associate work: Chautauqua Theatre Company, Little Island, New York City Center, MasterVoices. B.F.A. from Syracuse University.

Cath Brittan is originally from Manchester, England. She lived in Vienna for many years and was a producer for the Vienna Festival. She has worked as production manager and producer in theaters and opera houses around the world including English National Opera, London; The Bolshoi, Moscow; Teatro Real, Madrid; The National Theater of Finland, Opera de Comique, Paris; The Staatsoper, Vienna; Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva, and many more. Recent and up-coming productions include Aci, Galatea e Polifemo (dir. Christopher Alden) and Glass Handel (2018 & 2019), Comet Poppea (dir. Yuval Sharon), Bandwagon (New York Philharmonic) all with Anthony Roth Costanzo; Das Paradies und die Peri, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Peter Sellars; 2018/19 and 19/20 Soundbox Season, San Francisco Symphony; Orphic Moments (dir. Zack Winokur) with The Master Voices; Abraham In Flames (composer Aleksandra Vrebalov); Perle Noir (Tyshawn Sorey & Julia Bullock at The Met Museum); Arkhipov (composer Peter Knell); Birds in the Moon (composer Mark Grey); Ihpigenia (Wayne Shorter & Esperanza Spalding); and In a Grove (Composer Christopher Cerrone). Cath is also Producer for AMOC (American Modern Opera Company).

English-American performer and composer Emi Ferguson stretches the boundaries of what is expected of modern-day musicians. Trained at Juilliard as a flutist, Emi can be heard live in concerts and festivals around the world as well as at home in New York City where she is a member of the New York New Music Ensemble, NYBI, Argento Ensemble, and New Vintage Baroque. She has spoken and performed at several TEDX events and has been featured on media outlets including the Discovery Channel and TouchPress apps talking about how music relates to our world today. Her debut album, Amour Cruel, an indie-pop song cycle inspired by the music of the 17th century French court was released by Arezzo Music in September 2017, spending 4 weeks on the Classical, Classical Crossover, and World Music Billboard Charts. Her 2019 album Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, a collaboration with continuo band Ruckus debuted at #1 on the iTunes classical charts and #2 on the Billboard classical charts, mining the depths of possibility in continuo and flute performance.

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Heralded as “a singer of immense power and fervor” by The Los Angeles Times, Davóne Tines came to international attention during the 2015-16 in breakout performances at the Dutch National Opera premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains directed by Peter Sellars and at the Ojai Music Festival presenting works by Caroline Shaw and Kaija Saariaho with the Calder Quartet and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Recent highlights include the European premiere of David Lang’s prisoner of the state with Ilan Volkov conducting the BBC Symphony, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Louis Langrée and the Cincinnati Symphony, John Adams’s El Niño with David Robertson and the Houston Symphony, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Stéphane Denève and the Saint Louis Symphony.

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Hailed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for his “flawless technique and keen musicality,” cellist Coleman Itzkoff enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. A prize winner at the 2019 Houston Symphony’s Ima Hogg Competition, Itzkoff made his professional debut at the age of 15 with Ohio’s Dayton Philharmonic and has since appeared as soloist with orchestras and in chamber music series countrywide.

Recent season highlights include performances with the Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, American Youth Symphony at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Mason Home Concerts, The Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Caramoor, Texas’s Sarafim Music, and Virginia’s Moss Art Center. (more…)

Bobbi Jene Smith is an alumnus of The Juilliard School, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. Her choreography has been presented by The Batsheva Dance Company, CORPUS of The Royal Danish Ballet, LADP, VAIL Dance Festival, LaMama Experimental Theater, and The Martha Graham Dance Company. In 2019 she was awarded The Harkness Promise Award and was The Martha Duffy Resident Artist at Baryshnikov Art Center.

Smith’s film and video work include “Annihilation,” directed by Alex Garland starring Natalie Portman; “MA,” directed by Celia Rowlson-Hall; and “Yossi,” directed by Eytan Fox. The documentary “Bobbi Jene,” which follows Smith’s trajectory of leaving a dance company to create her own work, swept the Tribeca Film Festival, winning Best Documentary, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing in 2017. In 2018, Bobbi starred in and choreographed the feature films “Mari,” directed by Georgia Parris and choreographed by Maxine Doyle, which premiered at BFI; and “Aviva,” directed by Boaz Yakin, which was a SXSW selection.

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Or Schraiber studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. In 2010, Schraiber joined the Batsheva Dance Company, in which he danced for seven years. In parallel to his time in the company, he served at the IDF for three years. In 2017, Schraiber moved to New York City to study acting at the Stella Adler Studio. In 2019, he starred in and co-choreographed Boaz Yakin’s feature film “Aviva.” Later that year, he starred as Thaddeus and choreographed scenes in Terrence Malick’s The Way of the Wind and appeared in the national Broadway tour of The Band’s Visit.

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A pianist that “defies human description” for some (Concerto Net) and recalls “a young Peter Serkin” for others (New York Times), Conor Hanick is one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music old and new.

He has performed internationally to wide acclaim in repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to the recently written, and collaborated with conductors Alan Gilbert, James Levine, David Robertson, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Anne Manson, Carlos Izcaray, Jeffrey Milarsky, and others. In addition to the Kennedy Center, Mondavi Performing Arts Center, the Kultur und Kongresszentrum Luzern, Kyoto Concert Hall, the Dewan Pilharmonik Peronas in Malaysia, Hanick has performed in virtually every prominent arts venue in New York City, ranging from (le) Poisson Rouge and The Kitchen to Alice Tully Hall and all three halls of Carnegie Hall.

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Keir GoGwilt is a violinist, writer, and musicologist, whose work spans a range of critical and creative disciplines. As a violinist he has been described as a “formidable performer” (New York Times) noted for his “evocative sound” (London Jazz News) and “finger-busting virtuosity” (San Diego Union Tribune). He is a core member of AMOC, and he co-composes, improvises, and performs music with bassist Kyle Motl as part of their duo, Treesearch.

He has soloed with groups including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Chinese National Symphony, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago, the Bowdoin International Music Festival Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia, and the La Jolla Symphony. He works closely with composers Matthew Aucoin, Celeste Oram, and Carolyn Chen, choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith, bassist Mark Dresser (as part of the Dresser Quintet/Septet), taonga puoro musician Rob Thorne, and percussionist/conductor Steven Schick.

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Julia Eichten grew up dancing in Minnesota. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she received the Hector Zaraspe Award in recognition of her choreography. Her work has appeared at venues ranging from Le Poisson Rouge to the Dumbo Dance Festival and Dance Theater of Harlem, and was choreographer-in-residence at The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard in 2011. In 2015, Eichten had the world premiere of her piece, O’de, in collaboration with Los Angeles Dance Project and Lil Buck at the Palace of Versailles. With ‘Kids Dance,’ at the Joyce Theater, she showed her work, Monsieur, which The New York Times dubbed “an elegantly clumsy solo.” She has danced with Camille A. Brown & Dancers and Aszure Barton & Artists and was a founding member of Los Angeles Dance Project, internationally performing works by Merce Cunningham, Justin Peck, Martha Graham, Danielle Agami, Emanuel Gat, Sidi Larbi, Ohad Naharin, and William Forsythe. Eichten continues to work with Gerard & Kelly as a performer and collaborator in works including Solange’s collaboration with Uniqlo, Metratronia, as well as a month of performances at Pioneer Works (NY) in Clockwork.

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Violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson is a favorite of audiences for her performances of a great range of repertoire and styles, from music of older eras to the most current creations. From a strong grounding in the classical repertoire, she has become one of the most active and acclaimed performers of contemporary music. Downbeat magazine recently stated that she “reaffirms her standing as one of the most sensitive and electric interpreters of new music.”

Called “a prodigiously talented player who [can] make even the thorniest contemporary scores sing” (New York Times), she appears as soloist and chamber musician in concert halls large and small, schools and universities, galleries and informal spaces. (more…)

Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo began performing professionally at the age of 11 and has since appeared in opera, concert, recital, film, and on Broadway. His debut album, ARC, on Decca Gold, was nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY Award, and he is Musical America’s 2019 Vocalist of the Year.

Costanzo has appeared with many of the world’s leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Los Angeles Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Dallas Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Spoleto Festival USA, Glimmerglass Festival and Finnish National Opera. In concert he has sung with the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has performed at a wide-ranging variety of venues including Carnegie Hall, Versailles, The Kennedy Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, Minamiza Kyoto, Joe’s Pub, The Guggenheim, The Park Avenue Armory, and Madison Square Garden.

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Jennifer Chen completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard University (History of Art and Architecture cum laude) and is a 2017 MBA graduate of the Yale University School of Management. Her career has brought her from producing operas in dining halls at Harvard to working with institutions including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York City Ballet, Peabody Essex Museum, Celebrity Series of Boston, and Villa I Tatti in Florence, Italy.

Admired for his interpretive depth, vocal strength, and range of expressivity, tenor Paul Appleby is one of the most sought-after voices of his generation. Appleby continues to grace the stages of the world’s most distinguished concert halls and opera houses while collaborating with leading orchestras, instrumentalists, and conductors. Opera News claims, “[Paul’s] tenor is limpid and focused, but with a range of color unusual in an instrument so essentially lyric… His singing is scrupulous and musical; the voice moves fluidly and accurately.” Recent appearances include performances of John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and productions of Candide at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Die Zauberflöte at the Glyndebourne Festival.

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Described by the Washington Post as “revitalizing the world of contemporary music” with “jaw-dropping virtuosity,” Jonny Allen is a Brooklyn-based percussionist whose passion for music is contagious. He has won prizes at both the International Chamber Music Competition and the International Marimba Competition in Salzburg, giving respective performances at Carnegie Hall and Schloss Hoch in Flachau, Austria. Allen has also performed as a drum set soloist with Ghana’s National Symphony Orchestra at the National Theatre in Accra. He performs across the United States and internationally with his percussion quartet, Sandbox, and his jazz trio, Triplepoint, and is the percussion director at Choate Rosemary Hall. (more…)