Alexander Mickelthwate, guest conductor
Recognized as one of the most exciting young conductors of his generation, Alexander Mickelthwate begins his fourth season as music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, where he has significantly raised that ensemble's profile through innovative programming initiatives and active community engagement. Praised for his "splendid, richly idiomatic readings" (LA Weekly), "fearless" approach and "first-rate technique" (Los Angeles Times), the German-born conductor has attracted attention for his charismatic presence on the podium and command of a wide range of musical styles.
As a guest conductor, Mickelthwate is active both in North America and in Europe. Recent highlights include a reengagement with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa and debut appearances with the NDR Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Nurnberg Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and Vancouver Symphony. During the 2008/2009 season, besides his work with the Winnipeg Symphony, he made his subscription series debut with the Houston Symphony and led the Heidelberg Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony and Eugene Symphony, among others.
In August 2007, Mickelthwate culminated his three-year tenure as associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with which he appeared regularly at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Hollywood Bowl. In his first year, he made his subscription debut on thirty minutes notice when he stepped in for Mikko Franck leading Shostakovich's Symphony No. 12 and John Adams' Violin Concerto. His Los Angeles Philharmonic performances last season included a subscription program with soloist Emanuel Ax and a program on the Green Umbrella series including works by Sofia Gubaidulina and Alfred Schnittke.
In North America, Mickelthwate has appeared as guest conductor with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Nashville, New Jersey, Oregon, Toronto and San Antonio, the New York Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Eos Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), and at the Music Academy of the West and La Jolla's SummerFest.
Abroad, Mickelthwate made his European debut with the Hamburg Symphony in April 2006. Since then, he has appeared with the Orchestre Phillharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie.
During his tenure as assistant conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which he completed at the end of the 2003/2004 season, he co-founded the new music ensemble Bent Frequency, which was hailed by Gramophone Magazine as "one of the brightest ensembles on the scene." Always striving to engage young people in music, he conducted more than 60 Young People's Concerts with the Atlanta Symphony and organized an exchange between the Atlanta Youth Symphony and Berlin Youth Orchestra during the summer of 2003, hosting concerts in both cities.
Having inherited a passion for opera from his grandmother, a professional opera singer, Mickelthwate has been a coach, pianist and conductor at New York's Amato Opera and an assistant conductor for the Baltimore Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and El Paso Opera.
Mickelthwate was born in Germany into a musical family. He developed his musical talent at an early age as a cellist in youth orchestras and chamber groups, as a singer in a professional choir, and as a pianist and organist. He studied conducting and piano performance at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe as well as at the Eötvöes Institute in Hungary.
After winning a Peabody merit scholarship, Mickelthwate came to America to study at Baltimore's Peabody Institute of Music with Frederik Prausnitz and Gustav Meier. Further studies took place with Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, and André Previn as a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center and with Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C.
Mickelthwate is married with two young sons.
Augustin Hadelich, violin
With his poetic style and dazzling technique, Augustin Hadelich has established himself as a rising star among the new generation of violinists. Winner of the 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant and gold medalist of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, his versatility across the entire spectrum of the violin repertory is astounding. About his recent recital at the Frick Collection, The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Hadelich stands out amid gifted young violinists for his prodigious technique, gorgeous tone and the ability to deliver well-known works with a distinctive interpretive flair.”
In August 2009, Hadelich made a sensational debut with The Cleveland Orchestra playing Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole. Cleveland has re-invited him to play the Mendelssohn Concerto in March 2011. Other upcoming highlights include his Paris recital debut at the Louvre, a BBC young artist’s debut recital at The Sage Gateshead in Newcastle, his debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic, a return engagement with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and debuts with the symphonies of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Seattle, Utah and Vancouver.
Hadelich made three Carnegie Hall appearances in 2008: his orchestral debut in January, performing the Brahms Double Concerto under Miguel Harth-Bedoya with cellist Alban Gerhardt and the Fort Worth Symphony; his highly successful recital debut in March; and a performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with the New York String Orchestra under Jaime Laredo on Christmas Eve. Other orchestral engagements include the symphonies of Alabama, Colorado, Columbus, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Louisville, New Orleans, Santa Barbara and Syracuse, as well as the Pacific Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra in Memphis.
Outside the United States, Hadelich has performed with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken-Kaiserslautern, Dresden Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Museumsorchester Frankfurt, Nürnberg Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Tokyo Symphony, and chamber orchestras in Budapest, Cologne, Hamburg, Lucerne and Toulouse. He has collaborated with such renowned conductors as Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Justin Brown, Giancarlo Guerrero, Günther Herbig, Yakov Kreizberg, Hannu Lintu, Christof Perick, Christoph Poppen, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Larry Rachleff, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern and Mario Venzago.
Hadelich has recorded two highly acclaimed CDs for Naxos: Haydn’s complete violin concerti with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra and Telemann’s complete Fantasies for Solo Violin. A new CD of masterworks for solo violin (including the Bartók solo sonata) was released by AVIE in October 2009. In the words of the London Times, “Now in his mid-twenties, Augustin Hadelich is fast emerging as a significant talent. This recital of music for unaccompanied solo violin, however, is a step beyond…he is both a virtuoso violinist and a deeply thoughtful one.” A second disc for AVIE will be released in 2011.
Also an enthusiastic recitalist, Hadelich has appeared at the Frick Collection (New York), the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, Clark Memorial Library (Los Angeles), La Jolla Music Society, the University of Texas at Austin and Kioi Hall in Tokyo, to name a few. As chamber musician, he has been a participant at the Marlboro, Ravinia, and Seattle festivals, in addition to a collaboration with Midori at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater.
Born in Italy in 1984, the son of German parents, Hadelich holds a graduate diploma and artist diploma from The Juilliard School, where he was a student of Joel Smirnoff. As first-prize winner of the Indianapolis Competition, Hadelich plays on the 1683 ex-Gingold Stradivari violin.
Byron Stripling, trumpet
A spectacular trumpeter with a very wide range, a beautiful tone, and the ability to blend together many influences into his own style, Byron Stripling is the artistic director of the Columbus Jazz Orchestra, leader of his own quartet, and constantly in demand to play with symphony orchestras around the world. Stripling is a charismatic performer who brings the audience into his music. The happiness that exudes through his trumpet, his vocals and his words is reminiscent of Louis Armstrong, yet very much his own.
Since his Carnegie Hall debut with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops, Stripling has become a pops orchestra favorite throughout North America, soloing with the Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, the National Symphony and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Detroit, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Seattle, St. Louis, Toronto, and Utah, the Minnesota Orchestra and the American Jazz Philharmonic, among many others. As soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Stripling has performed frequently under the baton of Keith Lockhart as well as been featured soloist on the PBS television special, Evening at Pops. He has also been a featured soloist at the Hollywood Bowl and performs at jazz festivals throughout the world. During the 2009/2010 season, Stripling performed with the symphony orchestras of Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Syracuse and Portland, Maine, among others, in addition to his work with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra and tours with his quartet.
An accomplished actor and singer, Stripling was chosen, following a worldwide search, to star in the lead role of the Broadway bound musical, Satchmo. Many will remember his featured cameo performance in the television movie The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and his critically acclaimed virtuoso trumpet and riotous comedic performance in the 42nd Street production of From Second Avenue to Broadway.
Television viewers have enjoyed his work as soloist on the worldwide telecast of the Grammy Awards. Millions have heard his trumpet and voice on television commercials, TV theme songs, including 20/20, CNN, and soundtracks of favorite movies.
Stripling earned his stripes as lead trumpeter and soloist with the Count Basie Orchestra under the direction of Thad Jones and Frank Foster. He has also played and recorded extensively with the bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Herman, Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Louis Bellson, and Buck Clayton in addition to the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, and the GRP All Star Big Band.
Stripling enjoys conducting seminars and master classes at colleges, universities, conservatories, and high schools. His informative talks, combined with his incomparable wit and charm, make him a favorite guest speaker to groups of all ages. Stripling was educated at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan.
A resident of Ohio, Stripling lives in the country with his wife, former dancer, writer and poet, Alexis, and their beautiful daughters.
Edward Abrams, guest conductor
The 2009/10 season marks Teddy Abrams’ second season as conducting fellow and assistant conductor of the New World Symphony Orchestra, among the finest international orchestra academies, founded by Michael Tilson Thomas, one of his early mentors. At the NWSO, Abrams’ conducting duties range from subscription, chamber and full orchestra concerts to educational activities and performances for young people. He has conducted the NWSO in Miami Beach, Washington, DC and Carnegie Hall; the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra made up of musicians from conservatories across the country, at the Kennedy Center; and Symphony Parnassus of San Francisco. This season he makes his debut with the Marin Symphony.
An accomplished pianist and clarinetist, Abrams has appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Oakland East Bay Symphony, San Francisco Symphony Chamber Orchestra and the Berkeley Symphony, and he has performed chamber music with the St. Petersburg String Quartet, Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Susan Naruki and John Adams. Abrams is the founding member of the 6th Floor Ensemble, a group of recent Curtis graduates dedicated to exploring engaging ways to communicate with a diverse range of audiences.
In addition to Michael Tilson Thomas, Abrams studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was the youngest conducting student ever accepted, graduating in 2008 at the age of twenty-one. He also studied with David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival’s American Academy of Conducting during the summers of 2006 through 2008. At Aspen, Abrams won the 2007 Aspen Composition Contest for his string quartet Erinnerungen. He received a bachelor’s of music in piano performance in 2005 from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Elizabeth de Trejo, soprano
Elizabeth de Trejo made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Lulu in the 2009/2010 season. Also that season, she debuted the role of Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Tampa, and she returned to Carnegie Hall to perform Carmina Burana. De Trejo will return to Opera
Tampa for the role of Violetta in La Traviata in 2011. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in the 2008/2009 season as a soloist with John Rutter conducting and returned from the Toledo Opera where she performed the role of Gilda in Rigoletto. Also in the 2008/2009 season, de Trejo sang Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Dayton Opera and Marguerite with Opera Tampa and returned to Carnegie Hall as the soprano soloist in the Rutter Requiem.
In 2007/2008, de Trejo performed the roles of Violetta in La Traviata in Miami, Adele in Die Fledermaus and Die Freundin in Franz Lehar’s Der Frühling in Milan and recorded live with the Orchestra Verdi in the title role of Mascagni’s Il Si. Recent seasons include performances with Opera Tampa as Juliette in Gounod’s famed opera Romeo et Juliette and the role of Rosina in Anton Coppola’s epic opera, Sacco and Vanzetti, for which an aria was written for her. Other recent performances have been as Gilda in Rigoletto, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Clarice in Haydn’s Il Mondo della Luna in Basel, Switzerland, Die Königen die Nacht in Die Zauberflöte für Kinder with the Opernhaus Zürich, and the soprano soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor and the Mozart Requiem.
In addition to her operatic repertoire, de Trejo is a consummate recitalist and concert performer, having given numerous concerts both in Europe and the United States. She has worked with notable conductors and has appeared as guest soloist with many orchestras in such works as Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Beethoven’s Mass in C, and the Brahms, Fauré and Mozart Requiems, to name a few. She has also received numerous awards from prominent vocal competitions. Some of the competitions that she has won include the Gerda Lissner
Opera Competition in New York, where she was a second place winner, the MacAllister Opera Competition (Matthias Award), the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Connecticut and Gulf Coast Regions, the Jenny Lind Soprano Competition, the Rosa Ponselle Competition, the Giulio Gari Foundation Opera Competition and the Liederkranz Competition. De Trejo is also a recent recipient of a career grant from Career Bridges Foundation and the Sergio Franchi Foundation and was a finalist in the Jensen Foundation Competition.
De Trejo can be seen on the recently released EMI Classics DVD of Der Rosenkavalier with Vasselina Kasarova, Nina Stemma, and Alfred Muff under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst and Sven Erich Bechtolf live from Opernhaus Zürich.
De Trejo attended Loyola University, New Orleans, where she received a bachelor’s of music in performance in 1999, and Yale University, receiving her master’s of music in May 2001. De Trejo then went on to sing in the International Opera Studio with the Opernhaus Zürich from 2003/2004.
Erin Mackey, vocalist
Erin Mackey is currently performing in Roundabout Theatre Company's Sondheim on Sondheim, starring Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams and Tom Wopat on Broadway. Her journey to Broadway began while on her summer break from Carnegie Mellon University when she auditioned for Wicked and was cast in the ensemble of the first national tour. After 6 months, she was moved to the Chicago production of Wicked to be in the cast and understudy the role of Glinda. Shortly thereafter, she was invited to perform as Glinda. After a year and a half of performing in Chicago, she moved to the Los Angeles production of the show and then went on to make her Broadway debut as Glinda in Wicked in the fall of 2009.
Erin Mackey performed in children's theater, starting at age 5, in her hometown of Fullerton, California. After being spotted by a manager in a musical at age 10, she began auditioning for professional roles in film, television and theater. Her very first audition was for Disney's The Parent Trap, directed by Nancy Meyers, and she was cast as Lindsay Lohan's acting double. Other film and TV credits include Mary-Kate and Ashley's Fashion Party, Happy Wife, Happy Life, Greetings from Tucson, Do Over, Family Affair and Mad Song.
Frances Pappas, mezzo-soprano
Frances Pappas is a Greek-Canadian mezzo-soprano who, after finishing her bachelor’s degree in performance at the University of Toronto, continued her studies at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst with the assistance of a professional studies grant from the Ontario Arts Council.
Alongside her successes in the traditional opera venue, Pappas has vast experience in the contemporary music field as well as in the area of Greek popular, folk and art song.
Her versatility has brought her together with such people as David Brubeck, Yehudi Menuhin and film director Percy Adlon. Her interest in multi-disciplined projects led to her work with German choreographer Daniela Kurz, and she performed the role of Elisabeth in the very successful dance-opera production of Les Enfants Terribles by Philip Glass.
She was named newcomer of the year by Opernwelt magazine for her performance of Mélisande in the production Pelléas et Mélisande directed by Olivier Tambosi and conducted by Philippe Auguin. The following year she was voted one of the year’s operatic highlights for her portrayal of Niklaus in Tales of Hoffmann.
A member of the ensemble Staatstheater Nürnberg, Pappas has over fifty operatic roles in her repertoire, which include Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Bizet’s Carmen, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and the title role in Cenerentola.
In concert, Pappas has appeared with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony, MDR chorus and Gewandhausorchester. In 2005 Pappas made her Wigmore Hall debut singing Brahms songs with viola and piano, and in 2006 she performed Hans Werner Henze’s Apollo et Hyazinthus at the Münchner Opern-Festspiele with members of the Bayerische Staatsorchester commemorating the composer’s 80th birthday.
Pappas is one of the founding members and artistic directors of the award-winning International Chamber Music Festival of Nürnberg.
In March 2008 she was awarded the official title of Kammersängerin from the government of the federation of Bavaria.
Gareth Johnson, violin
Youthful, gifted and passionate are just some of the words that best describe violinist, Gareth Johnson.
At the age of 10, after hearing famed Itzhak Perlman, the young Johnson declared, “I can play that instrument!" And how right he was. Johnson is an articulate, enthusiastic, and creative presenter and an inspiration to young musicians everywhere.
Now in his mid-20s, The New York Times once said of Johnson that he “…possesses prodigious musical gifts – like Joshua Bell or Maxim Vengerov…he dominates the stage.”
In addition to his talents as a classical violinist, Johnson is also a devoted composer and arranger of other music forms.
His passion and persistence to master the violin has allowed him to be regarded as an artist who brings a unique since of energy, emotions and personal interpretations to his audiences.
Heidi Grant Murphy, soprano
A shimmering soprano with enchanting stage presence, Heidi Grant Murphy is one of the outstanding vocal talents of her generation. A native of Bellingham, Washington, she began vocal studies while attending Western Washington University and Indiana University. Her graduate studies were interrupted when she was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and engaged by Maestro James Levine to participate in the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Today, Murphy has established a reputation not only for her radiant musicianship and impeccable vocal technique, but also for her warm personality and generosity of spirit. "Ms. Grant Murphy was beautifully, serenely and wonderfully consistent. And she, too, shone. She produced phrases that were finely sustained, and yet each note seemed to have a shape of its own, floating out from or into silence" (The New York Times).
Murphy has appeared with many of the world's finest opera companies and symphony orchestras, notably the Metropolitan Opera, Salzburg Festival, Frankfurt Opera, Netherlands Opera, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Opera National de Paris and Santa Fe Opera. She has been engaged as soloist with the Vienna, New York and Los Angeles philharmonics; Cleveland, Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras; and Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Atlanta, Saint Louis, Cincinnati, Houston, Montreal, National and Dallas symphonies. Murphy has worked with such esteemed conductors as Roberto Abbado, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph Eschenbach, James Levine, Reinbert de Leeuw, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Jeffery Tate, Michael Tilson Thomas, Edo de Waart, Christoph Von Dohnányi, David Zinman, Bernard Haitink, Pinchas Zukerman and the late Robert Shaw.
Murphy's Metropolitan Opera debut in the 1989 production of Die Frau Ohne Schatten has led to numerous roles in that prestigious opera house, notably Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Sister Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Servilia in Clemenza di Tito and Nanetta in Falstaff. European highlights have included the roles of Anne Truelove in the Netherlands' Opera production of The Rake's Progress and Celia in Lucio Silla at both the Salzburg Festival and Frankfurt Opera and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Adina in L'Elisir d'Amor and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at the Opera Nationale de Paris.
The 2009/2010 season marked the 20th anniversary of Murphy's Metropolitan Opera debut. During this landmark season at the Met, she sang the role of Genoveva/Suor Angelica in Il Trittico conducted by Stefano Ranzani. Her other engagements during the 2009/2010 season displayed her orchestral, operatic and chamber music vocal talents throughout the United States and abroad. Murphy's 2009/2010 season opened with the September release of her latest recording, Lullabies & Nightsongs, based on the children's book illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Prior to the disc's release, she presented a special family performance at New York City's 92nd Street Y. With the Chorus and Orchestra Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Eliahu Inbal, she took part in the world premiere of composer Thierry Lancino's Requiem. Mahler symphonies figured prominently in the soprano's 2009/2010 season, including performances of Mahler IV with Norway's Bergen Philharmonic, first in the ensemble's home city, and then on a tour of the UK with Andrew Litton, which also featured Murphy performing Mozart arias. She performed Mahler IV again with Kansas City Symphony, along with Samuel Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and Mahler II with Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, the New York Philharmonic made available for digital download a live recording of Murphy performing Mahler IV with Maestro Lorin Maazel. The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia welcomed Murphy for a performance of Roberto Sierra's Missa Latina, a work she premiered throughout the United States and recorded with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Other recent recordings include Roberto Sierra's Missa Latina with baritone Nathaniel Webster and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on Naxos, Augusta Read Thomas's Gathering Paradise with Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic on New World, as well as an XM Satellite Radio compilation of Sondheim classics. For Koch records, Murphy has recorded Sueños de Amor, a disc of Latin love songs; a holiday disc entitled The Gifts of Christmas; Times Like This, for which the Seattle Times noted that the "gleaming purity and warmth of tone make Ms. Murphy's voice the aural equivalent of candlelight"; Dreamscape: Lullabies from around the world; and a recording of Sir John Tavener's To a Child Dancing in the Wind paired with Sir Harrison Birtwistle's Sappho Fragments.
The Delos label released her recording of Mahler's symphonies no. 2 and 4 with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony. Murphy's album on Arabesque Records, Clearings in the Sky, featuring Lili Boulanger and Rachmaninoff works, was praised by Gramophone Magazine: "Murphy's crystalline soprano and expressive generosity prove an ideal combination to bring this varied repertoire together." For the Deutsche Grammophon label, Murphy has recorded Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri with the Staatskapelle Dresden, as well as Idomeneo (Ilia) and Le Nozze di Figaro (Barbarina) both conducted by James Levine. Additional recording projects include Vincent Youmans's Through the Years for PS Classics; Twilight and Innocence, a recital disc for Arabesque; Bach cantatas for Arabesque; Hansel and Gretel (Gretel) with Andreas Delfs and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; and the Grammy-nominated Sweeney Todd (Johanna) for the New York Philharmonic's private label.
Heidi Grant Murphy lives in New York City with her husband Kevin Murphy and their four children. She has been a featured guest on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered, A&E's Breakfast with the Arts and BBC Radio 3. In October 2005, Murphy received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Western Washington University, where she pursued a bachelor's degree in music performance.
James Bass, music and artistic director
Dr. James Bass was named music and artistic director of The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay in May 2010. Bass also serves as the director of choral activities at the University of South Florida School of Music.
Bass comes from Western Michigan University, where he conducted the University Chorale, Collegiate Singers, and Grand Chorus in addition to teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting, philosophy, and literature. He received the doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Miami-Florida, where he was a doctoral fellow, and master’s of music and bachelor’s of science degrees from the University of South Florida.
Bass' conducting experience includes a variety of choral and orchestral ensembles including chamber choirs, women's choruses, mixed-voice choirs, symphony orchestras, string orchestras and string chamber ensembles. He has conducted choirs at the University of Central Florida and University of Miami-Florida, as well as been The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay’s assistant conductor for a time. He has served as director of choral and orchestral activities at Howard W. Blake High School for the Performing Arts in Tampa and conductor of the Tampa Bay Youth Orchestra. He has prepared choirs for Sir Colin Davis, Sir David Willcocks, Jahja Ling, Michael Tilson Thomas and Robert Shaw.
Bass is a bass soloist and chorus master for Seraphic Fire, a Miami-based professional choir, and he recently appeared with the New World Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas as bass soloist. He is currently on the Executive Board of the American Choral Directors Association Central Division serving as college repertoire and standards chairperson.
Jeff Tyzik, guest conductor
Jeff Tyzik has earned a reputation as one of America's most innovative pops conductors. Described by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle as “among the best pops conductors in America,” Tyzik is recognized for his brilliant arrangements, original programming, and engaging rapport with audiences of all ages. During the 2009/2010 season, Tyzik celebrated his 16th season as principal pops conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He also continues to serve as principal pops conductor of the Oregon Symphony and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
In his sixteen years with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), where his contract was recently extended to 2011, Tyzik has developed an incredible relationship with devoted Rochester audiences who appreciate his creative pops programming. Over the course of his tenure, he has written over 160 works for the orchestra. A consummate musician, Tyzik is so appreciated in Rochester that the RPO has taken the unusual step of inviting their principal pops conductor to appear as a guest conductor in the orchestra’s classical subscription series calendar on a regular basis. On his classical series concerts, Tyzik has performed works by some of the greatest American composers to critical acclaim. He also conducted the premiere of his own Trombone Concerto, which was funded by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts and subsequently performed at Carnegie Hall. In May 2007, the Harmonia Mundi label released his recording of works by Gershwin with pianist Jon Nakamatsu and the RPO, which by the summer had reached No. 3 on the Billboard classical chart. Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, called it “one of the snappiest Gershwin discs in years.”
“His concert is the kind of thing that’s likely to give classical music a good name, perhaps even make it seem, dare I say, relevant,” writes John Pitcher of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (February 3, 2006). “What’s great about Tyzik is his way of making any concert (classical or pops) seem contemporary and approachable without sugarcoating anything, without dumbing down the musical experience.”
Highly sought after as a guest conductor, Tyzik has recently appeared with orchestras such as the Boston Pops, Cincinnati Pops, New York Pops, The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. In addition to his commitments in Rochester, Oregon and Vancouver, he continues his annual appearance with the Toronto Symphony and performs with orchestras across North America including Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and New Jersey, as well as The Florida Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, among others. Last summer, he returned to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to conduct The Philadelphia Orchestra and to the Chautauqua Institute, among other concert appearances.
A native of Hyde Park, New York, Tyzik began his life in music at nine years of age, when he first picked up a cornet. He studied both classical and jazz throughout high school and went on to earn both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied composition/arranging with Radio City Music Hall’s Ray Wright and jazz studies with the great band leader Chuck Mangione, both of whom profoundly impacted him as a musician.
Tyzik spent the next few years working with Mangione, soaking in every part of the music business. He became a skilled record producer, while continuing to be active as a performer and arranger (which included composing and arranging music for the Maynard Ferguson and Woody Herman orchestras). These experiences led Tyzik to one of the great early opportunities of his career—the chance to co-compose a trumpet concerto with friend and virtuoso trumpeter Allen Vizzutti to be recorded by pops legend Doc Severinsen.
After that first recording project, Tyzik worked closely with Severinsen on many projects including orchestrating many of the great band leader’s symphony orchestra programs and producing a Grammy award-winning album, The Tonight Show Band with Doc Severinsen, Vol. 1. To this day, he credits Severinsen as his greatest musical and professional inspiration.
As an accomplished composer and arranger, Tyzik has had his compositions recorded by ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Summit Brass, and his arrangements have been recorded by groups including Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the RPO, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Doc Severinsen with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. He has also produced and composed theme music for many of the major television networks, including ABC, NBC, HBO, and Cinemax, and released six of his own albums on Capitol, Polygram and Amherst Records.
Committed to performing music of all genres, Tyzik has collaborated with such diverse artists as Tony Bennett, Art Garfunkel, Dawn Upshaw, Marilyn Horne, Arturo Sandoval, The Chieftains, Mark O'Connor, Doc Severinsen, John Pizzarelli, Billy Taylor and Lou Rawls, and he has created original programs that include the greatest music from jazz and classical to Motown and swing.
Actively sharing his passion for music with others, Tyzik has been recognized for his community service and educational work by Rotary International, the Monroe County Music Educators, and the Rochester Philharmonic League. He is also the recipient of the Arts & Cultural Council of Greater Rochester's 2002 Performing Artist award.
Tyzik currently serves on the Board of Managers of the Eastman School of Music and as a board member of the Hochstein School of Music and Dance. He lives in Rochester, New York, with his wife Jill. For more information about Tyzik, please visit www.jefftyzik.com.
Jens Georg Bachmann, guest conductor
The artistry and musicianship of the young German-born conductor Jens Georg Bachmann has been praised by audiences and orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic. His young international career covers symphonic and opera productions in equal measure. The Boston Globe hailed Bachmann’s ability to step in for Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director James Levine saying, “Even the most experienced conductors would shy away from performing Beethoven's Ninth without rehearsal, but Bachmann emerged creditably from the ordeal.”
Bachmann recently completed his tenure as resident conductor of the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, serving as assistant conductor to Christoph von Dohnányi from 2007 until 2009 and conducting the orchestra in several concert series. Bachmann was assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 2004 until 2007. Bachmann repeatedly conducted the BSO in subscription concerts in Symphony Hall and at the Tanglewood Festival, and he also replaced Music Director James Levine after a stage accident for concerts in March 2006 in Boston.
Bachmann’s career began by spending four seasons performing as an assistant to Maestro Levine at the Munich Philharmonic. His association with Levine was unique to other assistant positions. Levine depended on Bachmann for extensive repertoire preparation. While working in Germany, Bachmann also held the position as associate conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra from 2001 until 2003, conducting over twenty concerts per season. He was appointed principal conductor with the Texas Chamber Orchestra in Dallas during the 2003/2004 season, appearing on the subscription series.
Bachmann, who is equally at home in symphonic and operatic repertoire, served as conductor and assistant conductor at The Metropolitan Opera, where he made his debut conducting The Magic Flute in a national live radio broadcast during the 2006/2007 season. In the 2007/2008 season, Bachmann conducted Lucia di Lammermoor in his second national live radio broadcast at The Metropolitan Opera. For 2009/2010, Bachmann was engaged to conduct Der Rosenkavalier at The Metropolitan Opera. In addition, he accepted invitations to conduct Die Zauberflöte in June 2007 and, subsequently, Der Freischütz in May 2008 at Stuttgart State Opera; he returned to Stuttgart in May and June 2009. Bachmann has also led productions of Werther and L’Elisir d’Amore at the Nürnberg State Opera. Furthermore, he led La Vie Parisienne at his Komische Oper Berlin debut in a live national broadcast and the late Richard Strauss’ Des Esels Schatten at Berlin State Opera.
Current and future engagements include concerts with the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Gävle Symfoniorkester in Sweden as well as Der Rosenkavalier at The Metropolitan Opera and Le Nozze di Figaro and Parsifal at the Royal Swedish Opera Stockholm, amongst others.
After three highly successful symphony concerts at the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado, Bachmann was appointed music director in July 2009. He will be conducting a minimum of three symphony concerts each summer as well as vocal master classes for the festival’s young artists program.
Highlights of recent seasons are his subscription concerts leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Hamburger Symphoniker, Berliner Symphoniker, the Konzerthausorchester in the Konzerthaus Berlin as well as the German State Orchestras of Stuttgart, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal and the Philharmonic State Orchestra of Halle (Staatskapelle Halle). Appearances in the United States, besides the Boston Symphony Orchestra and The Metropolitan Opera, include I Solisti New York Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in 2007.
Mentors have played an important role in Bachmann’s career. New York Philharmonic’s Music Director Alan Gilbert invited Bachmann to appear with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrey Boreyko extended an invitation to the Hamburger Symphoniker four times, Manfred Honeck invited him to Stuttgart Opera repeatedly, James Levine to Boston Symphony and The Metropolitan Opera, and Christoph von Dohnányi to NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg.
Levine was one of the first major conductors to recognize Bachmann’s passion for orchestra building and his keen ability to engage the musicians. This prompted Levine to invite Bachmann to appear at the UBS Verbier Festival from 2002 until 2004 to work with the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra extensively. Bachmann conducted several concerts in Verbier and toured with the orchestra to the EXPO 02. Other summer festivals include appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Festival, the Crested Butte Music Festvial, the OK Mozart International Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and leading the Fort Worth Symphony in Concerts in the Garden.
Bachmann has collaborated on stage with some of the world’s finest musicians, such as violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Daniel Hope, pianists Marc-André Hamelin and Andreas Haefliger, and singers Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Natalie Dessay, Christine Brewer, Jill Grove, Marcello Giordani, Clifton Forbis, Matthew Polenzani, Jonas Kaufmann, Nathan Gunn, Mariusz Kwiecien and Albert Dohmen.
Composers he has worked with and whose works he has performed or premiered include Charles Wourinen, Michael Gandolfi, Yehudi Wyner, Danial Schnyder, Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Peter Michael Hamel, Ulrich Leyendecker, Elmar Lampson, Wolfgang-Andreas Schultz and Eunyoung Esther Kim, among others.
Bachmann graduated from The Juilliard School in New York under the tutelage of Otto- Werner Mueller. He was awarded the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship, the German Rotary Club Award and the Intercities Performing Arts Foundation Grant of New York. While a conducting student, Bachmann participated actively in master classes with some of the world’s foremost conductors including Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Colin Davis, Simone Young, Krzyztof Penderecki and James Levine. Prior to his studies at Juilliard, he attended the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin as a violinist and conductor. He was awarded the Conducting Award at the Carl Maria von Weber Conducting Competition in Munich in 1996.
Bachmann was born in Berlin, Germany. Currently, he lives with his wife, a violinist, and their son in New Jersey and Germany.
Julia Murney, vocalist
Julia Murney last appeared on Broadway as Elphaba in Wicked after playing the role on the national tour for which she received an Acclaim Award. Other New York credits include Lennon, Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party (Drama Desk nomination), The Vagina Monologues, A Class Act, Saved, Crimes of the Heart, First Lady Suite, and Time and Again (Lucille Lortel nomination). She’s been seen regionally all over the U.S.—Signature, Williamstown, Reprise!LA, Sacramento Music Circus, NCT, Lyric, Rubicon and Goodspeed, to name a few—and in concert she has performed at Joe’s Pub, Feinstein’s, The Kennedy Center, Caramoor, Town Hall and Birdland as well as with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops and Steven Reineke and the Cincinnati Pops. Among her TV credits are 30 Rock, Sex and the City, Ed, NYPD Blue, all three Law and Orders and about a gazillion voiceovers. A Syracuse University graduate, her recordings include the original cast albums of The Wild Party and A Class Act, the Grammy nominated Actors Fund Benefit of Hair and her first solo album, I’m Not Waiting which is available on Sh-K-Boom records.
Larry Rachleff, guest conductor
Now celebrating his twelfth season as music director of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Larry Rachleff also serves as director of orchestras and the Walter Kris Hubert chair at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston. During his career, he has also been music director of the San Antonio Symphony.
“A take-charge maestro who invests everything he conducts with deep musical understanding” (Chicago Tribune), Rachleff is in constant demand as a guest conductor. Recent and upcoming engagements include the Utah Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic and Toledo Symphony, among many others. Summer festival engagements include Tanglewood, Aspen, Interlochen, Brevard Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Opera Theatre of Lucca, Italy and the Grand Teton Music Festival. In 1993, he was selected as one of four American conductors to lead The Cleveland Orchestra at Carnegie Hall under the mentorship of Pierre Boulez.
Rachleff is especially noted for his rich and productive rapport with orchestra musicians. The Salt Lake Deseret News had this to say about him recently: “His interpretation (Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony) was charged with power and passion that never waned. His reading was compelling, yet he also managed to bring out the lyricism that lies hidden beneath the boldness of the themes. What was especially remarkable, he conducted the work from memory. The orchestra played marvelously. The musicians were at the top of their game, and their rapport with Rachleff was obvious. It was a fabulous collaboration between orchestra and conductor.”
A former faculty member of Oberlin Conservatory, where he was music director of orchestras and conductor of the Contemporary Ensemble, he also served as conductor of the Opera Theatre at the University of Southern California. He has conducted and presented master classes all over the world, including the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, the Zurich Hochschule, the Sydney and Queensland, Australia conservatories, The Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory, and Royal Northern College in the United Kingdom.
Rachleff is an enthusiastic advocate of public school music education. He has conducted all-state orchestras and festivals in virtually every state in the United States as well as throughout Europe and Canada. He has also served as principal conducting teacher for the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Conductors’ Guild and the International Workshop for Conductors in the Czech Republic.
As a dedicated advocate of contemporary music, Rachleff has collaborated with leading composers including Samuel Adler, the late Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Michael Daugherty and John Harbison among others.
Rachleff lives in Houston with his wife, soprano Susan Lorette Dunn, and their young son, Sam.
Layla Claire, soprano
Layla Claire has been called a “focused, remarkably rich soprano” who performs with “emotive force and a poised sensitivity.” Her engaging and thoughtful musicianship, combined with a voice of shimmering beauty, has been publicly acclaimed, particularly in her portrayals of Mozart’s heroines.
Claire opens her 2010/11 season in Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine followed by her Met debut as Tebaldo in Don Carlo under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. As a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she will cover Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice. In the spring of 2011, she will join the Metropolitan Opera’s tour of Japan.
Recent performances include opera galas with San Francisco Symphony and L’Opera de Montreal, recitals with the Philadelphia Chamber Society and the Lindemann Program, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Russian National Orchestra under the baton of Itzhak Perlman, Messiah with the Atlanta Symphony, Clothilde in Bellini’s Norma with L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal conducted by Kent Nagano, and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
Claire sang the roles of Donna Anna and Fiordiligi at Tanglewood in past seasons and Donna Elvira and the Countess while at the Curtis Institute of Music. At Curtis she also sang Erisbe in Cavalli’s l’Ormindo and Margarita Xirgu in Ainadamar by Osvlado Golijov.
She has won numerous awards including the Mozart Prize at the Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition (2008) and First Prize in the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition (2005). She is a CBC Radio-Canada Jeunes Artistes recital winner, a recipient of J. Desmarais Foundation Scholarships, and a proud recipient of a Canada Council Grant. She has also taken prizes at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition, Palm Beach Opera Competition, George London Foundation and the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists.
Leon Williams, baritone
American baritone Leon Williams is that rare singer well-versed in classical literature and equally adept at Pops programs of spirituals, holiday and popular standards and show tunes.
He appeared on Broadway and on tour in the musical Ragtime, and performed Christmas concerts with the Grand Rapids Symphony and a New Year's Eve program with the Westfield Symphony.
As a classical artist, pieces for which he is especially sought-after include Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Honolulu Symphony and The Florida Orchestra) and Orff’s Carmina Burana (The Florida Orchestra, Baltimore, Reading, Alabama, Westchester, Grand Rapids, Jacksonville, Hartford and Colorado symphonies, National Philharmonic, and at the Berkshire Choral Festival). In addition, he has performed Britten’s War Requiem, the Mozart and Fauré requiems and Haydn’s Creation with the Colorado Symphony; Vaughan-Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Portland and Illinois symphonies and The Florida Orchestra; Fauré’s Requiem with Raymond Leppard and the Kansas City Symphony; Brahms’ Requiem with the Alabama and Santa Barbara symphonies; Haydn’s Il Ritorno di Tobia and Harold Farberman’s War Cry on a Prayer Feather with the American Symphony Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; Weill’s Lindberghflug with Dennis Russell Davies and the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; Mahler’s Rückertlieder with Christoph Eschenbach at Japan’s Sapporo Festival, and the composer’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Eighth Symphony with Leon Botstein at New York’s Bard Festival; Vaughan-Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall; Mozart’s Requiem with Joseph Flummerfelt at the Westminster Festival; Beethoven’s Mass in C at France’s Colmar Festival; and Copland’s Old American Songs with the Warren Philharmonic, and the Verdi Requiem with David Lockington and the Modesto Symphony.
He recently opened the brand-new concert hall in Amarillo, Texas, performing Lee Hoiby’s I Have a Dream with James Setapen and the Amarillo Symphony and returned there in 2008/2009 for Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.
Passionately devoted to the art of the song, Williams has performed Brahms’ Vier ernste Gesänge with Sarah Rothenberg and the Da Camera Society of Houston (to which he returned for a special program of the music of Charles Wuorinen, repeated at the Guggenheim under the baton of James Levine); an Art of the Spiritual program at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater; an all-American program at Japan’s Tochigi Music Festival and Maine’s Arcady Music Festival; and given recitals in Hartford, Pittsburgh, Princeton and throughout his native New York City, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall (the songs of Richard Hundley) and the 92nd Street Y (a much-acclaimed all-Poulenc program with Michel Sénéchal and Dalton Baldwin).
Opera credits include Anthony in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (Toledo Opera) and Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Hawaii Opera Theatre), both meeting with unanimous critical and public acclaim. A much-in-demand Porgy and Bess principal, he sang Porgy with Yuri Temirkanov conducting in St. Petersburg, Russia; Sportin’ Life with Markand Thakar and the Duluth-Superior Symphony and Jake in the Dallas Opera production. In summer 2009, he reprised Jake for his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut at the Hollywood Bowl under Bramwell Tovey. In 2010, he sang both Mozart's Figaro and Schaunard in Puccini's La Boheme with Hawaii Opera Theatre.
Williams has won top prizes in the Naumburg, Joy-in-Singing, and Lola Wilson Hayes Competitions.
Lilya Zilberstein, piano
Since winning first prize in the 1987 Busoni International Piano Competition, Lilya Zilberstein has established herself as one of the finest pianists in the world. In North America, she has appeared with the symphonies of Chicago (Ravinia), Colorado, Dallas, Flint, Harrisburg, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kalamazoo, Milwaukee, Montreal, Omaha, Quebec, Oregon, and Saint Louis, as well as The Florida Orchestra and the Pacific Symphony, to name a few. In Europe and Asia, engagements include the Berlin Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Helsinki Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Tokyo), RAI Symphony (Torino), Royal Philharmonic, La Scala Orchestra, Taipei Symphony and the Vienna Symphony. Festival engagements include Lugano, Peninsula, Chautauqua and Mostly Mozart, both in New York and Japan.
A captivating recitalist, Zilberstein appears regularly in music centers throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. Recent performances have taken her to Madrid, Berlin, Budapest, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Innsbruck, Luxembourg, Stuttgart and Liverpool. Also a sought-after collaborator, Zilberstein has been performing duos with Martha Argerich for many years. In addition to show-stopping performances in Norway, France, Italy and Germany, a CD of the Brahms Sonata for Two Pianos played by Zilberstein and Argerich was released in 2003. Recent collaborations include extensive tours in the United States, Canada and Europe with Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov. Featured on the EMI recording Martha Argerich and Friends: Live from the Lugano Festival, Vengerov and Zilberstein’s performance of the Brahms Sonata No. 3 for Violin and Piano won a Grammy nomination for best classical album as well as best chamber music performance.
Zilberstein has also made numerous recordings for Deutsche Grammophon; these include the Rachmaninoff concerti nos. 2 and 3 with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic, the Grieg Concerto with Neeme Järvi and the Göteborg Symphony, as well as solo works of Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, Liszt, Schubert, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel and Chopin.
A native of Moscow, Zilberstein is a graduate of the Gnessin Pedagogical Institute. In addition to the Busoni Competition Gold Medal, she was the 1998 Prizewinner of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy (other recipients include Gidon Kremer, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Esa-Pekka Salonen). She moved to Hamburg in 1990, where she lives with her husband and their two sons.
Mark Kosower, cello
One of the outstanding cellists of his generation, Mark Kosower is hailed by musicians and critics alike for his instrumental mastery and deep musical integrity.
Highlights of the 2009/2010 season include recording sessions for Naxos International including the world premiere recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Rhapsodie for Cello and Orchestra with the Budapest Concert Orchestra MAV as well as Ginastera’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, both of which were scheduled to be released in 2010. Performance highlights include solo appearances with the Mexico City Philharmonic, a Netherlands debut recital at the de Doelen in Rotterdam, and appearances in Munich and Nuremberg with The Juilliard String Quartet. In 2008/2009, Kosower toured and recorded (also for Naxos) Ginastera’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Bamberg Symphony and performed the Monn Concerto with the St. George Strings in Belgrade. He also made solo and recital appearances in Phnom Penn, Rio de Janeiro, Sáo Paulo, Seoul, and throughout the United States.
In the summer of 2008, Kosower saw two albums released to widespread critical acclaim, both for Naxos: Ginastera's complete works for cello and piano and an album of Hungarian music with works by Dohnányi, Bartók, Kodály, Popper, Liszt, and Rózsa. In recent seasons, he has appeared as soloist with the Florida, Seattle, Spokane, Syracuse, and Toledo symphony orchestras, performed the United States premiere of Yuri Falik’s Concerto della Passione at the Peninsula Music Festival, and played recitals at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
An eloquent orchestral soloist, Kosower has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Florida, Grand Rapids, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Phoenix, and Santa Barbara, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. International appearances include the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Kansai Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic, and the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra.
Kosower has collaborated with many prominent conductors such as James DePriest, Christoph Eschenbach, Joanne Falletta, Erich Kunzel, Nicholas McGegan, Anton Nanut, Stefan Sanderling, Gunther Schuller, Gerard Schwarz, Joseph Silverstein, Hugh Wolff, and Lothar Zagrosek.
As a recitalist, Kosower has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at the Aspen Music Festival, and on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center. He has also given solo performances in some of the world’s most prestigious venues including the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Berlin’s Komische Oper, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, and in New York’s Avery Fisher Hall. He has recorded for Delos, Naxos, and VAI, including a recording of the Walton Concerto with James DePreist and the Oregon Symphony.
A former member of Chamber Music Two, a two-year residency at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Kosower makes frequent appearances at chamber music societies and festivals throughout the United States and abroad in performances with such esteemed musicians as Robert Mann, Leon Fleisher, and Janos Starker.
Kosower has been the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, a SONY Grant, and a top prize winner in both the Rostropovich and Pablo Casals International Cello competitions, including a special prize in both competitions for best interpretation of the newly commissioned works by Marco Stroppa and Cristóbal Halffter. He has also been the grand prize winner of both the Irving Klein International String Competition and the WAMSO Competition of the Minnesota Orchestra.
In addition to his performing activities, Kosower is currently solo cellist of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany and was professor of cello and chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2005 to 2007. He studied with Janos Starker at Indiana University and Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School.
Mark Kosower last performed with The Florida Orchestra during the 2005/2006 season.
Norm Lewis, vocalist
Growing up in the oldest black-chartered municipality in the United States, Eatonville, Florida, Norm Lewis always dreamed big. Known as a versatile performer, Lewis has been seen in films, on television, Broadway, opera and concert halls around the country and the world. He started off by singing in his church, high school, and college choirs along with honing his talents as an actor in the professional theaters around his hometown. He was spotted by a producer while singing at a bar in Orlando and was asked to perform in a show on Premier Cruise Lines, which eventually led him to New York.
Lewis has enjoyed both working and living in New York and Los Angeles for over two decades now and has many future endeavors. Recently, he played the king of the sea, King Triton, for Disney's The Little Mermaid at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater on Broadway. In addition, he is proud to announce the release of his debut solo CD, Norm Lewis, This is the Life!
Other Broadway Credits include, Les Miserables (Javert), for which he received a Drama League nomination, Chicago (Billy Flynn), Amour (Painter), Michael John LaChuisa's The Wild Party (Eddie), Side Show (Jake), Miss Saigon (John), and The Who's Tommy (The Specialist).
Other New York stage credits include, Shakespeare in the Park's Two Gentlemen Of Verona (Valentine), for which he received a Drama League nomination; Lincoln Center's Dessa Rose (Nathan), for which he received the Audelco Award for lead actor in a musical and Drama Desk and Drama League nominations; Manhattan Theater Club's Captain's Courageous (Doc); Lincoln Center's A New Brain (Roger); the Actors Fund concerts of Dreamgirls (Curtis), Chess (Molokov) and Hair (The Flesh Failures); and concerts of Children of Eden (Father), Bright Lights Big City (Tad), and City Center Encores! Golden Boy (Eddie Satin).
Regionally, Lewis has been seen in Dreamgirls with Jennifer Holliday, Ragtime, The Fantastics, Baby, Company, and Sweeney Todd, for which he received a Helen Hayes Award nomination.
His film and television credits include Mystery Woman as a guest star, All My Children as assistant DA Keith McClean, As the World Turns as Detective Hale, and guest starring roles on Cosby, Strong Medicine, Confidences, and Preaching to the Choir, along with numerous commercials.
Peter Rösel, piano
Born in Dresden as the son of a conductor and a singer, Peter Rösel had his first piano lessons at the age of six. He completed a five-year study at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Dmitri Bashkirov and Lev Oborin. At that time, he became not only the first German prize winner at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition and the Montreal Piano Competition, but he also started an international career, which has taken him to the music centers of the world.
His performances at international festivals, among them Dresden, Salzburg, La Roque d'Anthéron, Edinburgh, London Proms, Perth, Hollywood Bowl, and Hong Kong, were enthusiastically acclaimed by audiences and newspapers. For many years, Rösel has been a welcome guest at major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal, Toronto and Detroit symphonies, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Orchester of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, the Berner Symphonieorchester, the KBS Symphony Orchestra Seoul, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo and the Netherlands Philharmonic. He has performed with renowned conductors Herbert Blomstedt, Andrey Boreyko, Charles Dutoit, Vladimir Fedosseyev, Gabriel Feltz, Hartmut Haenchen, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Günter Herbig, Marek Janowski, Rudolf Kempe, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Kyrill Kondraschin, Kurt Masur, Kurt Sanderling, Stefan Sanderling, Horst Stein, Yuri Temirkanov, Klaus Tennstedt and Walter Weller.
Along with Kurt Masur and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, he performed more than two hundred times on international stages. Kurt Masur invited him to perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the 150th anniversary of the New York Philharmonic.
Rösel has produced a large number of CDs, including recordings for EMI, Capriccio, Ars Vivendi and Berlin Classics. He has recorded the piano concerti by Weber with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under Herbert Blomstedt, the piano concerti by Schumann with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Kurt Masur, and the piano concerti by Rachmaninoff and Beethoven with the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester (now called Konzerthausorchester Berlin) under Kurt Sanderling and Claus Peter Flor, respectively. Recordings of the solo piano work by Brahms as well as various chamber music complete the broad repertoire of this internationally renowned pianist.
During the 2009/2010 season, Rösel gave concerts with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz, the Jenaer Philharmonie, the Chamber Orchestra Carl Phillip Emanuel Bach, the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg as well as the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and he returned to the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. In September 2009, Rösel continued his recital series performing all 32 Ludwig van Beethoven sonatas within a period of four years. The artist presented this series in Japan, Germany and Switzerland. In Tokyo, all 32 sonatas, as well as the piano concerto, will be recorded in 2011.
For his long-lasting and outstanding performances as pianist, Rösel was awarded the Kunstpreis der Landeshauptstadt Dresden in March 2009. Rösel is professor at the Dresden University of Music and a full member of the Saxon Academy of Arts.
Peter Rösel last performed with The Florida Orchestra during the 2008/2009 season.
Philippe Castagner, tenor
Canadian-American tenor Philippe Castagner is recognized for his beautiful and natural sound, as well as a fresh and appealing presence on symphonic, operatic and recital stages. Born in Canada and raised in New Jersey, Castagner joined The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program in 2002 and made his Metropolitan Opera debut that season as the First Prisoner in Fidelio and, later, as Beppe in I Pagliacci. Since that time, Castagner has sung with the New York City, Arizona, Vancouver, Bilbao, Portland and Granite State Opera companies and has been engaged as soloist with the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics and the Boston, Simon Bolivar, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Santa Ceclia and American symphony orchestras, working with such esteemed conductors as Leon Botstein, Gustavo Dudamel, Claus Peter Flor, Louis Langree, James Levine, Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, Michael Tilson Thomas and Michael Stern. He has performed in recital at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Washington's Terrace Theater and Boston's Gardner Museum.
Though only in his fifth professional season, Castagner has already made a number of auspicious debuts with a wide variety of operatic and symphonic repertoire. He has bowed as both Iopas and Hylas in Les Troyens, Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, Ferrando in Così fan Tutte, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Joaquino in Fidelio, Golo in Schumann's Genoveva, Count of Nangis in Chabrier's Le roi Malgre Lui, Acis in Acis and Galatea, the Teapot, Tree Frog and Arithmetic in L'enfant et les sortileges and El Remendado in Carmen. He sang Freddy in the New York Philharmonic's production of My Fair Lady with Kelli O'Hara and Kelsey Grammar and the tenor roles in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortileges with the Philharmonic in both Avery Fisher and Carnegie Halls.
Symphonic highlights of past seasons include numerous performances of Handel's Messiah, Bach's B Minor Mass and St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Choral Fantasy, Berlioz's Romeo et Juliette and Requiem, and Ralph Vaughan William's On Wenlock Edge. During the 2009/2010 season, he covered Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Aleya in The House of the Dead with the Metropolitan Opera. Castagner returns to that prestigious opera house in 2010/2011 to sing The Fool in Wozzeck.
Richard Kaufman, guest conductor
Richard Kaufman has devoted much of his musical life to conducting and supervising music for film and television productions, as well as performing film and classical music in concert halls and on recordings. As principal pops conductor, Kaufman is in his nineteenth season with Orange County’s Pacific Symphony and his fourteenth season with the Dallas Symphony. He is currently in his fifth season with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert series, Friday Night at the Movies, conducting classic and contemporary film music as well as classical music used in motion pictures. Following his Cleveland Orchestra conducting debut in May of 2009, Kaufman returned to conduct the orchestra in Severance Hall this past November, and he conducts at the Blossom Festival this August. Kaufman often appears as a guest conductor with symphony orchestras throughout both the United States and around the world including Colorado, Utah, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, the National Symphony in Washington D.C., Calgary, Rotterdam and the Malaysian Philharmonic. In the fall of 2009, he conducted a special concert for Andy Williams at Royal Albert Hall in London.
Kaufman received the 1993 Grammy Award in the category of Best Pop Instrumental Performance for a recording he conducted with the Nuremberg Symphony (Symphonic Hollywood, Varese Sarabande). His most recent recording, entitled The High and the Mighty (Varese Sarabande), is with the London Symphony Orchestra. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, this CD features music from classic and contemporary films about flying. Kaufman's other recordings include two CDs of film music performed by the Brandenburg Philharmonic in Berlin (Historic Romances and Captain Blood, Marco Polo), a second recording with the Nuremberg Symphony celebrating the 100th anniversary of motion pictures (Movie Memories, Varese Sarabande), and two critically acclaimed CDs with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (Wuthering Heights - A Tribute to Alfred Newman and Shane - A Tribute to Victor Young, KOCH).
He has conducted for performers including John Denver, Andy Williams, Mary Martin, Nanette Fabray, Juliet Prowse, Sir James Galway, Diana Krall, Chris Botti, The Pointer Sisters, Arturo Sandoval, The Beach Boys, Monica Mancini, Peter Paul and Mary, Patty Austin, Robert Goulet, David Copperfield, Davis Gaines, The Righteous Brothers, Martin Short and Art Garfunkel. As a violinist, Kaufman performed on numerous film and television scores including Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Saturday Night Fever, and (in a moment of desperation) Animal House. He has recorded with artists including John Denver, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, and Ray Charles.
Kaufman joined the music department of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1984 as music coordinator and for the next 18 years supervised music for all MGM television projects. He received two Emmy Award nominations, one for the animated series The Pink Panther in the category of Outstanding Music Direction and Composition and another for Outstanding Original Song co-authored for the series All Dogs Go to Heaven. For the MGM television series In the Heat of the Night, Kaufman composed songs with actor/producer Carroll O’Connor. He conducted scores for films including Guarding Tess and Jungle to Jungle.
As a unique part of his career in film, Kaufman has coached various actors in musical roles including Jack Nicholson, Dudley Moore, Tom Hanks, Armand Assante, David Ogden Stiers and Susan Sarandon.
Kaufman has served as music director and conductor for numerous musicals. His first assignment (at age 23) was as conductor for the National Tour of Sweet Charity starring Juliet Prowse. He conducted the First National Tours of Company (for Hal Prince) and Two Gentlemen of Verona (for Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival). For the Los Angeles and San Francisco Civic Light operas, he was music director and conductor for musicals including Wonderful Town (starring Nanette Fabray), Irma La Douce, The Sound of Music (for which he was nominated by the San Francisco Theater Critics for Outstanding Music Direction), and Guys and Dolls (starring Milton Berle). In October 2009, for the fourth time Kaufman serveed as music director for the President's Cup Golf Tournament opening and closing ceremonies, as well as for the Gala Show.
While a student at California State University at Northridge, Kaufman composed the Alma Mater and Fight Song. In May of 2008, Kaufman was the keynote speaker for the Honors Convocation Ceremony at his alma mater. He has appeared as a guest speaker at various universities including Southern California, Georgia, Furman, and the California State Universities at Northridge and Fullerton. He is a member of the Music and Business Advisory Boards of the Young Musicians Foundation.
Born in Los Angeles, Kaufman began violin studies at age 7, played in the Peter Meremblum California Junior Symphony, and was a member of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. He attended the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood in the Fellowship program and earned a bachelor’s of arts in music from California State University Northridge. Kaufman lives in Southern California with his wife, Gayle, a dancer who has appeared in film, television and on Broadway. His daughter, Whitney, is a graduate (with honors) from Chapman University in Orange, California, and recently completed over two years as a member of the cast of the National Tour of Mama Mia.
Richard Zeller, baritone
One of America's foremost baritones, Richard Zeller is internationally acclaimed for both his concert and opera roles. He is known for his sonorous dramatic voice, a compelling stage presence and outstanding musicianship.
Season 2010/11 features a Brahms Requiem with the Jacksonville Symphony and an evening of opera arias at the Dvorak Festival in Bohemia, among other engagements.
Highlights of the past season included the B minor Mass with Charlotte Symphony, Carmina Burana with Richmond Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Winter Park Festival, the Brahms Requiem with Portland Symphonic Choir and an Opera Gala in Lodz, Poland.
During the 2008/09 season, Zeller returned to Scottish Opera to sing Germont in David McVicar’s new production of La Traviata, a role he reprised with Portland Opera in the United States. He also performed the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff in Portland at PSU Opera directed by Tito Capobianco and appeared at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall with American Symphony Orchestra as the lead role of Signor Rivière in Dallapiccola’s opera Volo di notte and at Lincoln Center Jazz with Deborah Voigt and the Collegiate Chorale as Grand-Pretre/Hercule in Gluck’s Alceste. Zeller’s concert engagements during that season included Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Seattle Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, and Spokane Symphony, and Carmina Burana with the Buffalo Philharmonic at Artpark.
Zeller’s opera engagements have included 12 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera. In 2002/2003, he appeared at the Met in three new productions: as Ernesto in Bellini’s Il Pirata with Renée Fleming; in the lead role of Eddie in William Bolcom's opera, A View from the Bridge, based on Arthur Miller's play; and as Chorebe in Berlioz's Les Troyens, conducted by Maestro James Levine. His other performances and assignments at the Met have included the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth, the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin , Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème, Barak in R. Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Carlo in Verdi’s Ernani, Rangoni and Schelkalov in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov in two different productions, Thoas in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride, Kothner in Wagners’s Die Meistersinger, Sprecher in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, as well as performances of smaller roles in other operas including Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, Gounod’s Faust, and Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Zeller was featured in Scottish Opera's widely heralded, award-winning production of Macbeth directed by Luc Bondy at its Edinburgh Festival premiere during the 1999/2000 season and revival at the Vienna Festival. Other highlights of past seasons include performances in Chicago Lyric Opera’s Boris Godunov and Andrea Chénier, Gluck’s Alceste at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin and Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride in Madrid. He has also sung the title role of Rigoletto in many venues including New York City Opera. Zeller also appeared as Athanaël in Massenet's Thaïs with the English National Opera at the Barbican in London and in the title role in Verdi's Macbeth with Opera de Bordeaux, Opera de Vichy and Portland Opera.
Zeller has sung the role of Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata with Hamburgische Staatsoper, San Diego Opera, Scottish Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Portland Opera, and in many other opera and concert venues with orchestras in Europe and the United States. His frequently performed Verdi baritone roles include Falstaff, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Conte Di Luna, Amonasro, Rodrigo, Don Carlo, Renato, and Simon Boccanegra.
He has appeared with many regional opera companies in the United States including the Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Cincinnati, San Diego, Portland, New Orleans, and New Jersey Opera companies.
Zeller is highly regarded in the concert field and has sung with virtually all the major orchestras in the United States, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, National Symphony, and the symphonies of San Francisco, Dallas, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Baltimore, Seattle, Oregon, and San Diego, to name a few.
International orchestra credits include Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Vancouver Radio Orchestra, Winnipeg, Ottowa, the Nord Deutscher Rundfunk (Hanover), MDR Symphony Orchester (Leipzig), Dresden Staatskapelle, Czech Philharmonic (Prague Autumn Festival), Tokyo Philharmonic, Cesky Krumlov Festival (Czech Republic), Korea Philharmonic, Rotterdam, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Norway), Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (in a command performance for Prince Rainier and Prince Albert of Monaco), as well as a performance for the Spanish Royal Family in Madrid with conductor Helmut Rilling.
He is celebrated for his interpretation of the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, which he has sung with the Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, and many others throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and he has given over 100 performances each of Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah.
Highlights of past seasons include appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Levine in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with both the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia and in a nationwide radio broadcast with The Cleveland Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Zeller was also featured in 2001 in a nationwide television broadcast of Live from Lincoln Center singing the Mozart Requiem with the Mostly Mozart Festival, conducted by Gerard Schwarz. His performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Bloch’s Sacred Service, Catalani’s La Wally, and many others.
Zeller’s recordings include the critically acclaimed Merry Mount by Howard Hanson for Naxos, Deems Taylor’s Peter Ibbettson with Naxos, and the world premiere of Henri Lazarof's Fifth Symphony on Centaur Records – all recorded with Gerard Schwartz and the Seattle Symphony. He has recorded Dvorak's Te Deum with Zdenec Macal and the New Jersey Symphony for Delos, and David Schiff’s Gimpel the Fool for Naxos, as well as Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 for Centaur Records, and Virgil Thompson's Lord Byron and Aaron Copland's The Tender Land for Koch International.
Sarah Hicks, guest conductor
Noted in The New York Times as part of “a new wave of female conductors in their late 20s through early 40s,” Sarah Hicks‘s versatile and vibrant musicianship has secured her place in “the next generation of up-and-coming American conductors.” She was recently named principal conductor of pops and presentations of the Minnesota Orchestra. In addition to conducting most pops and special presentations, she will be instrumental in creating new pops productions while also heading the innovative series Inside the Classics. Hicks concurrently holds the positions of both associate conductor of the North Carolina Symphony and staff conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music. Throughout her career, she has collaborated with diverse soloists, from Jamie Laredo and Hilary Hahn to Ben Folds and Chris Botti.
Hicks has guest conducted extensively both in the States and abroad, including the San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Columbus Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Detroit Symphony, National Symphony, Delaware Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Prime Philharmonic (Seoul, Korea) and the Charleston Symphony. Upcoming appearances include performances and recording sessions with the Vermont Symphony as well as a return engagement with the San Francisco Symphony. Hicks’ past positions include associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, resident conductor of the Florida Philharmonic, assistant conductor of the Reading Symphony Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Singers, the chorus of the Philadelphia Orchestra, whom she has led in radio broadcasts heard nationwide. She has also been music director of the Hawaii Summer Symphony, an ensemble she founded in 1991 in her hometown of Honolulu, which she led for five seasons.
Hicks was invited to Japan by the New National Theatre Tokyo, where she acted as assistant conductor to a production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflote and has performed Verdi’s Aida with the East Slovak State Opera Theater. Her extensive work with the Curtis Opera Studio includes performances of Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmelites and numerous vocal concerts; she led the Opera Studio’s production of Handel’s Alcina in April 2005.
A committed proponent of the performance of new music, Hicks regularly leads the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in readings, recordings and performances of contemporary works. In addition to premiering works by young composers from both the Curtis Institute and the University of Pennsylvania (as coordinator and conductor of the Penn Composers Project), she has collaborated with Ned Rorem and Jennifer Higdon. She has recently completed a recording project with the Vermont Symphony featuring music of Richard Danielpour and David Ludwig with soloists Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson. She has also conducted performances with Composers in the Shape of a Pear (Cleveland), premiering avant-garde works, and has conducted the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.
Hicks was a member of the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music from 2000 to 2005 and continues her affiliation with Curtis as staff conductor. She has prepared the symphony orchestra of the Curtis Institute for readings and concerts with leading conductors including Wolfgang Sawallisch and Sir Simon Rattle. Her work with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra led to a one-season appointment as assistant conductor to the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, an ensemble that she trained intensively for Music Director James Levine, to whom she acted as assistant conductor.
Sarah Hatsuko Hicks was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Trained on both the piano and viola, she was a prizewinning pianist by her early teens. She received her bachelor’s of arts magna cum laude from Harvard University in composition; her AIDS Oratorio was premiered at Harvard University in May of 1993 and received a second performance at the Fogg Art Museum. She holds an artists’ degree in conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with renowned pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller. Hicks’ talents have been recognized with numerous prizes and scholarships; she received the Thomas Hoopes Prize for composition and Doris Cohen Levy Prize for conducting from Harvard University, and she was the recipient of the Helen F. Whitaker Fund Scholarship and a Presser Award during her time at Curtis.
In her spare time, Hicks enjoys running, yoga, her two large dogs, cooking (and eating) with her husband, French hornist Paul LaFollette, blogging and songwriting.
Steven Reineke, guest conductor
Steven Reineke’s boundless enthusiasm and exceptional artistry have made him one of the nation’s most sought-after pops conductors, composers and arrangers. Reineke begins his second season as music director of The New York Pops. In addition to conducting the orchestra’s annual Carnegie Hall concert series, Reineke leads concert tours, recordings, and nationwide telecasts, including the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks on NBC Television. New York’s only permanent and professional symphonic pops orchestra, The New York Pops is the largest independent pops orchestra in the United States.
In addition, Reineke serves as principal pops conductor of the Long Beach and Modesto Symphony Orchestras, and he retains the title of associate conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, where for fifteen years he served as a composer, arranger, and conducting protégé of the late celebrated pops conductor Erich Kunzel.
Reineke’s recent guest conducting appearances include the orchestras of National (Washington, DC), Houston, Toronto, Detroit, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Vancouver and Edmonton. He made his Boston Pops and Philadelphia Orchestra debuts in 2009 and will work twice with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2010. He made his Hollywood Bowl debut in 2007 with the multi-faceted entertainer Wayne Brady and returned to the Hollywood Bowl in 2008 to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition, Reineke conducted, arranged and orchestrated the music for Brady’s orchestral show and played the same role in his collaboration with rock legend Peter Frampton.
As the creator of more than one hundred orchestral arrangements for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Reineke’s arrangements have been performed worldwide and can be heard on numerous Cincinnati Pops Orchestra recordings on the Telarc label. He is also an established symphonic composer. His works Celebration Fanfare, Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Casey at the Bat are performed frequently in North America, with the most recent performances by the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic in July 2008. In August 2008 his Sun Valley Festival Fanfare debuted with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony to commemorate the opening of the orchestra’s new pavilion. In 2005 his Festival Te Deum and Swan’s Island Sojourn were performed by the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops, respectively. The Cincinnati Enquirer had this to say about Festival Te Deum: “Melodious and joyous, it had antiphonal brass in the balconies, organ, full orchestra and wonderful choral passages.” His numerous wind ensemble compositions are published by the C.L. Barnhouse Company and are performed by concert bands around the world.
A native of Ohio, Reineke is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio, where he earned bachelor of music degrees with honors in both trumpet performance and music composition. He currently resides in New York City. Reineke is represented by Peter Throm Management, LLC.
Back to list
Steven Tharp, tenor
Whether performing Bach or Rorem, Wagner or Donizetti, Steven Tharp convinces critics and audiences alike that the work at hand is his specialty. The Badisches Neueste Nachrichten called him "a lyrical tenor of refined vocal style" whose "lieder had the effect of entering a cozy room...his phrasing radiated thoughtfulness." In The New Yorker, Andrew Porter described his performance in Frank Martin’s Le Vin Herbé as "ideal...strong, free, and forward in tone, verbally sure, lyrical in utterance," and the Newark Star-Ledger noted, "he thrilled all with his blazing high register." Opera News has praised the "bel canto flexibility and sweetness" of his voice. Will Crutchfield in The New York Times wrote: "He can handle the coloratura of Mozart and Rossini (including real trills) at a level that was simply not available from tenors 30 years ago and is still rare."
Tharp has appeared with most of the major U. S. orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony (under Solti and Barenboim), the New York Philharmonic (Masur), and The Cleveland Orchestra (von Dohnanyi), as well as the Royal Philharmonic and Hong Kong Philharmonic. His repertoire ranges from the great baroque and classical liturgical masterpieces to contemporary works.
2010/11 brings his return to the Nationale Reisopera in Holland, this time in Ravel’s one-act opera L’heure espagnole in the role of Torquemada, and collaborations with The Florida Orchestra, Springfield Symphony and Hartford Symphony. During the 2009/10 season, Tharp joined the Boston Symphony at Carnegie Hall in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, returned to Vermont Symphony for a Verdi Requiem, and was re-invited to the Louisiana Philharmonic in Handel’s Messiah.
During the 2008/2009 season, engagements included the Louisiana Philharmonic (Messiah), Orquesta Sinfonica National de Mexico (Creation) and Springfield Symphony (Verdi Requiem). The summer of 2007 brought his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra both at Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Later that season he was tenor soloist with the Detroit Symphony in Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion and sang with the Buffalo Philharmonic and Hartford Symphony. Tharp made his debut with the Nationale Reisopera as Sospiro in Florian Leopold Gassmann’s L'Opera Seria in the spring of 2005. Based on his success, he was subsequently re-invited the following two seasons to sing Simpleton in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, as Frantz, Pitichinacchio, Andres and Cochenille in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman and as Edward in Michael Hamel’s Snow White. Highlights during the 2005/06 season include Great Mass in c minor with the Music of Baroque and the Spoleto Festival USA, Messiah and Bach St. Matthew Passion with American Bach Soloists, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Hartford Symphony and Verdi Requiem (Verdi in Terezin) in the Prague Spring Music Festival. Tharp sang with the Metropolitan Opera in 2002 in Prokoffiev’s War and Peace and returned shortly for Giordano’s Andrea Chenier and Puccini’s Turandot.
Early in his operatic career, Tharp received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council and San Francisco Opera auditions. He has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera and other distinguished companies throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. His operatic repertoire of over forty roles includes the major tenor parts of Mozart and Handel. He performed in the American premiere of Partenope and the first modern revival of Scipione, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’amore, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, David in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, the Steersman in Der Fliegende Holländer and Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Tharp has a special interest in lesser-known operas of the classical and early romantic era and has taken roles in Haydn’s L’Isola Disabitata and L’Infedelta Delusà, Grétry’s Zémire et Azor, and Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella.
With Will Crutchfield as pianist, Tharp presented The World of Schubert’s Songs and The World of Heinrich Heine, both multi-evening lieder series, at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. He performed at gala recitals celebrating Schubert’s 200th birthday at the 92nd Street Y and Weill Recital Hall and has appeared in recital at the Newport Chamber Music Festival, the Carmel Bach Festival, Caramoor. He is a frequent guest artist with the New York Festival of Song, most recently in Ned Rorem’s new full-evening song-cycle, Evidence of Things Not Seen.
He can be heard on Sir Georg Solti’s Grammy award-winning recording of Die Meistersinger for London/Decca and excerpts of La Calisto, from the Glimmerglass Opera, released by BBC Music. His world-premiere recording of the complete songs of Edward MacDowell has recently been issued by Naxos American Classics.
Stewart Goodyear, piano
Known for imagination, a graceful, elegant style and exquisite technique, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished young artist whose career spans many genres—concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist and composer.
Goodyear has performed with many of the major orchestras of the world, including six separate appearances to date with the Philadelphia Orchestra, in addition to performances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Bournemouth Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seattle Symphony and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, among others.
He has a long-standing relationship with the orchestras of Toronto and New Jersey, both of which have nurtured his career from an early age, and his continued work with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa covers his many sides with regular appearances in recitals and chamber music concerts in addition to his orchestral concerts.
Goodyear also continues his vibrant partnership with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Paavo Jarvi, with whom he appears frequently.
Recently, Goodyear made his subscription debuts with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and returned on main season concerts to the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, and many others.
Conductors with whom Goodyear has collaborated include Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Barenboim, Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Andrew Davis, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Andrew Litton, Yakov Kreizberg, Emmanuel Krivine, Osmo Vanska, Charles Dutoit, Pinchas Zukerman, Jun Markl, Hugh Wolff, Stefan Sanderling, JoAnn Falletta, Gerard Schwarz, Peter Oundjian, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Roberto Minczuk.
He has appeared in recitals in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Bad Kissingen, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and he has performed with the festivals of Caramoor, Santa Fe, and Ravinia.
In addition to his talents as a pianist, he is a composer and frequently performs his own works, including his solo piano work, Variations on ‘Eleanor Rigby’, which premiered at Lincoln Center in New York in August 2000, and his Piano Sonata, both of which have received continual acclaim by critics and audiences alike. He has written by commission for the Toronto Youth Symphony for its 25th anniversary as well as for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. His first large-scale work for orchestra, Caribbiana, was commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and received its premiere performances in March 2005 in concerts conducted by Vassily Sinaisky. A new work for chorus was premiered by the Nathaniel Dette chorale of Canada in Toronto (June 2005).
He has been noted for his innovation and is one of the rare classical musicians to always improvise his cadenzas when performing concertos from the classical period. He has been repeatedly praised for both the inspiring individuality and appreciation of the composer’s own style that he clearly conveys in every performance.
A native of Toronto, he holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Oxana Yablonskaya. He previously studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman and Claude Frank.
Stewart Goodyear last performed with The Florida Orchestra during the 2005/2006 season.
Stuart Chafetz, known for his ability to engage audiences with innovative classical, pops and family concerts, is a conductor increasingly in demand with orchestras nationwide. Maestro Chafetz is the resident conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
His guest conducting appearances include The Austin Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Chautauqua Symphony, Chicago Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony, Lansing Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Mississippi Symphony, Modesto Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, New Mexico Symphony, South Dakota Symphony, and Virginia Symphony.
Chafetz has worked with a variety of classical and pop artists such as George Benson, Regina Carter, Richard Chamberlain, Roy Clark, Natalie Cole, Jean Phillipe Collard, John Denver, Marvin Hamlisch, Thomas Hampson, Jason Scott Lee, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., Jim Nabors, Randy Newman, Jon Kimura Parker, Bernadette Peters, Awadagin Pratt, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Chee Yun.
As music director of the Maui Symphony and Maui Pops Orchestra from 1999 to 2009, Chafetz oversaw remarkable artistic growth and vastly increased statewide exposure. He was responsible for the island’s first symphonic live radio broadcasts on Hawaii Public Radio featuring the Masterworks concerts of the Maui Symphony, which gave the state of Hawaii the opportunity to hear classical music broadcast live from the island of Maui.
Formerly the associate conductor of the Louisville Orchestra and the assistant conductor of the Honolulu Symphony, he became a powerful advocate for the musical education of young people and their families. He has conducted hundreds of performances nationwide focusing on the importance of classical music and the fine arts in our everyday lives.
Chafetz hosted a nationally aired PBS special, Hawaii: the Old and the New, featuring some of Hawaii's most talented young performers and which is still being seen throughout the nation. In addition, Chafetz has conducted over 30 performances of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with Ballet Hawaii, the Honolulu Symphony, and principals from the American Ballet Theater.
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, Chafetz has been principal timpanist of the Honolulu Symphony since 1989. He and his wife, conductor Ann Krinitsky, currently divide their time between homes in Honolulu, Hawaii and Chautauqua, New York.
Teri Dale Hansen, vocalist
Teri Dale Hansen began her career starring as Magnolia in London’s West End in Harold Prince's Tony Award winning production of Show Boat; she then toured with the first National Company for three years (Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Denver, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Cleveland). Hansen starred as Rose on the Bravo channel as part of their Bravo on Broadway series in the film version of Street Scene, a film which has received international acclaim. It is also available worldwide on DVD. She reprised this role for the premiere production in Berlin at the Theatre Des Westens.
Hansen made her Broadway debut in 2002 in The Boys From Syracuse and in that same year began concertizing with Marvin Hamlisch worldwide. She has appeared numerous times at City Center with Encores!, and she starred off Broadway as Jessica Gatewood in Splendora. Her debut solo CD, Into Your Arms, Love Songs of Richard Rodgers, was released in 2003. Hansen toured nationally as Marian Paroo in The Music Man (2005) and starred as Guinevere, opposite Robert Goulet as Arthur, in the national tour of Camelot (2004).
Internationally recognized as an interpreter of Weill, Hansen was the first American to perform at the Kurt Weill Festival (Dessau) in 1995 and returned again in 2001 for the world premiere of Street Scenes. She has also sung Weill concerts all over the world, including three special 100-year anniversary celebration concerts of Weill at Abravenal Hall with the Utah Symphony in 2003. She returned to the Weill Festival again in 2008 for the world premiere of Broadway Dreams, which made its American premiere in 2009. She appears regularly at the Lincoln Center, where she is featured singing Gershwin as a part of the prestigious Meet the Artist series.
Internationally recognized for her versatility, Hansen has sung leading roles with the Houston Grand Opera, Theatre in Pfalsbau, Glimmerglass Opera, Theatre des Westens, Orlando Opera, Salle Esse, Florida Grand Opera and the Opera De Toulon. She has performed under the baton of Julius Rudel, Rob Fisher, John DeMain, Richard Hayman, Christoph Eschenbach, Don Pippin and Toshi Shimada. Hansen has appeared with the National Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, National Symphony of Brazil, Anhaltisches Philharmonie, Russian Philharmonic, Annapolis Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, Arlington Symphony, Austin Symphony, Boston Pops, Cape Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Colorado Springs Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Florida Sunshine Pops, Greenwich Symphony, Gulf Coast Symphony, Houston Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Las Colinas Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Midland Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Nashua Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Portland Symphony, Rhode Island Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Sacramento Orchestra, Saratoga Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, Southwest Florida Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Missoula Symphony and Tacoma Symphony.
Hansen is a Kennedy Center Irene Ryan Award nominee as a leading actor for her performance in Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a proud graduate of Florida State University, and alumnae of the Houston Opera Studio.
The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay
The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay is a highly select, all-volunteer chorus embracing a broad representation of singers from the entire Tampa Bay area.
Designated in 1989 as the principal chorus of The Florida Orchestra, it is featured annually on the Masterworks series. In 1999, the chorale was appointed as artist in residence at the College of the Arts' School of Music at the University of South Florida.
Over the years, the chorale has performed and premiered many symphonic choral works under the direction of Jahja Ling, Robert Shaw, John Nelson, Julius Rudel, Jo-Michael Schiebe, and Founding Music Director Emeritus Robert Summer. They have also performed abroad at London's Westminster Cathedral and King's College Chapel in Cambridge, among other locales.
The chorale has seven recordings, including Christmas with the Master Chorale and Empire Brass.
Thomas Wilkins, guest conductor
Thomas Wilkins is music director of the Omaha Symphony, a position he has held since 2005. Additionally, he is principal guest conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Past positions have included resident conductor of the Detroit Symphony as well as The Florida Orchestra and associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony (Virginia). He served on the music faculties of North Park University (Chicago), the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Committed to promoting a life-long enthusiasm for music, Wilkins brings energy and commitment to audiences of all ages. For his significant contribution to the children of Tampa Bay, the Pinellas County Music Educators Association named him 1998 Friend of the Arts and the Hillsborough County Elementary Music Educators recognized him as 1998 Music Educator of the Year. In the 2007/2008 season, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra awarded Wilkins the Classical Roots Musical Achievement Award.
During his conducting career, he has been featured with orchestras throughout the United States, including the Dallas Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Houston Symphony and the National Symphony in Washington D.C. He is also a frequent guest conductor of the Baltimore Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, San Diego Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recently he debuted with the Utah Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Rochester (New York) and Rhode Island philharmonic orchestras.
Wilkins also serves as a director at large for the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce and has served on the board of directors of such organizations as the Center Against Spouse Abuse (CASA) in Tampa Bay, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Academy Preparatory Center for Education, both in St. Petersburg. Currently, he serves as chairman of the board for the Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund.
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, he earned his bachelor’s of music education degree from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in 1978. In 1982, he was awarded the master’s of music degree in orchestral conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
Wilkins and his wife, Sheri-Lee, reside in Omaha with their twin daughters, Erica and Nicole.
Time for Three
The groundbreaking, category-shattering trio Time for Three transcends traditional classification, with elements of classical, country western, gypsy and jazz idioms forming a blend all its own. The members—Zachary (Zach) De Pue, violin; Nicolas (Nick) Kendall, violin; and Ranaan Meyer, double bass—carry a passion for improvisation, composing and arranging, all prime elements of the ensemble’s playing.
What started as a trio of musicians who played together for fun while students at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute for Music evolved into Time for Three, or Tf3 for short—a charismatic ensemble with a reputation for limitless enthusiasm and no musical boundaries. Violinists Zachary De Pue and Nicolas Kendall first discovered their mutual love of fiddling in the country western and bluegrass styles. Then bassist Ranaan Meyer introduced them to his deep roots in jazz and improvisation. After considerable experimentation, the three officially formed Tf3. The ensemble gained instant attention in July 2003, during a lightning-induced power failure at Philadelphia’s Mann Center for the Performing Arts. While technicians attempted to restore onstage lighting, Meyer and De Pue, who were both performing as members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, obliged with an impromptu jam session that included works as far afield from the originally scheduled symphony as Jerusalem’s Ridge, Ragtime Annie, and The Orange Blossom Special. The crowd went wild.
To date, the group has performed more than two hundred engagements as diverse as its music: from featured guest soloists with The Philadelphia Orchestra to opening for k.d. lang at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center.
Tf3 sets itself apart not only with its varied repertoire performed with astonishing technical acuity but also through its approach. Its high-energy performances are free of conventional practices, drawing instead from the members’ differing musical backgrounds. The trio also performs its own arrangements of traditional repertoire, and Meyer provides original compositions to complement the trio’s offerings.
Tf3 has performed on many of the nation’s important stages, including the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the 92nd Street Y in New York, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The group recorded the soundtrack to the History Channel's production, The Spanish-American War, and will soon release its third CD, Three Fervent Travelers. Their first recording, titled Time for Three, was released in October 2002, followed by a second CD released in January 2006, We just burned this for you!
The ensemble started a major commissioning program to expand its unique repertoire for both symphony orchestras and concert series. One of these projects involved a new work written by celebrated composer Jennifer Higdon, which premiered in six performances by Tf3 with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach in January 2008.
Other highlights of Tf3’s recent past seasons include the Beethoven Society in Washington, D.C., Cerritos Center in Los Angeles, Joanne Woodward’s Westport Playhouse, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Wyoming’s Grand Teton Music Festival, and Chicago’s Music in the Loft series. Recently, the trio performed with the Cleveland Pops in Severance Hall, the San Francisco Symphony, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, in a two-week residency at the University of Michigan, a New Year’s Eve concert with the Indianapolis Symphony, in Memphis with the IRIS Chamber Orchestra, in three cities in Florida with the Sunshine Pops, with the New World Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, and with the Philly Pops and Peter Nero.
In addition to its demanding performing schedule, the trio is committed to reaching younger audiences and has participated in a number of educational residencies and outreach concerts including Paul Newman’s Hole In The Wall Gang Camp (involving Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Baldwin, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Joanne Woodward); The Fox Channel’s Good Morning Philadelphia telecast from the Kimmel Center; the Liberty Awards Ceremony honoring Colin Powell; and the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s morning debate banquet for gubernatorial candidates Edward Rendell and Mike Fisher. Tf3 was also featured in the Pennsylvania Society’s televised annual gala from New York’s Waldorf-Astoria.
Time for Three has been seen and heard frequently on various television and radio broadcasts throughout the country, including numerous times on public television and NPR. The trio was featured in a documentary film about Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square directed by Robert Downey, Sr.
Zach De Pue comes from a musical family; in addition to the De Pue Brothers, his father is a composer and professor emeritus of music composition at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Born in Bowling Green, De Pue graduated in 2002 from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with renowned violinists Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo. He was the recipient of a merit-based full-tuition scholarship and held the Institute’s David H. Springman Memorial Fellowship.
Prior to entering Curtis, De Pue attended the Cleveland Institute of Music. He made his solo debut with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and performed as soloist with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra in 1995. De Pue has performed at the Isaac Stern Music Workshop, the Angel Fire, La Jolla and Sarasota music festivals, and at the Chautauqua Institution and Interlochen Arts Academy. In September 2007, he was appointed concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
Nick Kendall studied at the Curtis Institute with the internationally renowned violinist Victor Danchenko. He maintains a strong interest in other musical instruments and genres and is an enthusiastic teacher who utilizes elements from both classical and non-traditional repertoires in his popular workshops.
Recent highlights of his career include performances with Israel’s Jerusalem Symphony under conductor James Judd; an acclaimed Philadelphia recital debut under the auspices of Astral Artistic Services; a quartet performance at Carnegie Hall; performances as a member of the Astral Trio at both the Los Angeles Chamber Music Festival and at the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall; and a guest artist appearance on tour with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra. Kendall debuted with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra as the winner of their young artists competitions. He has since performed in the concert halls of Anchorage, Chapel Hill, Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Louisville, San Francisco and Tokyo. In addition to his extensive recording and performance activities as a member of Tf3, Kendall is also a member of both the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO) and the Dryden String Quartet.
Ranaan Meyer began his musical studies at the piano at age four and, when he was big enough to hold it, took up the double bass at 11. He attended the Manhattan School of Music and graduated from Curtis in 2003. Beyond regular appearances with ensembles such as the Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra, Meyer is increasingly in demand as a composer, creating unique new works for Tf3 as well as for other ensembles and for solo bass. Most recently, Meyer completed a commission, My Zayda (for violin, piano and double bass), for the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in Rhode Island. Other recently completed commissions include a solo double bass piece for Network for New Music, a double bass and harp duet, a set of pieces for Astral Artistic Services, and a Tf3 composition for the City of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Symphony, Of Time and Three Rivers. All commissions have been expedited through the American Composers Forum.
Meyer is also an accomplished jazz musician who has performed with Jane Monheight, Victor Lewis, Jason Moran, Mark O’Connor, Ari Hoenig, Duane Eubanks, Mickey Roker and many others. At age 19, he produced, directed and performed in the very first Washington Township Jazz Festival that was also broadcast live on Philadelphia’s WRTI. An avid teacher, Meyer has held adjunct double bass professorships at both Princeton University and the University of Delaware. He spent several summers teaching alongside Hal Robinson, principal bass of The Philadelphia Orchestra, at the Strings International Music Festival in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He has also taught at the Intermountain Suzuki Camp in Sandy, Utah, and at Mark O’Connor’s String Camp in San Diego, California.
Meyer is the founder of a new program called Project Interactive (PI), whose purpose is to culturally connect communities’ artistic possibilities. He is also committed to expanding the double bass repertoire and composed eight new works for the instrument. In the summer of 2008, he launched a double bass camp along with Eric Larson (of the Houston Symphony) and Hal Robinson.
Victor Vanacore, guest conductor
Grammy Award winner Victor Vanacore has been at the nexus of popular music for more than 25 years. Widely respected for his versatility, he has had a long history of fruitful collaborations with the biggest names in the entertainment industry as a conductor, pianist, composer and arranger.
Vanacore’s latest musical incarnation is that of symphony pops conductor. Recent engagements have included the St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Buffalo, and Phoenix symphonies, among others. He has also worked with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony and San Francisco Symphony. Abroad he has worked with the philharmonic orchestras of Calgary, London, Belgrade, Bratislava, and Skopije as well as the Hanover Pops, the Mozarteum Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Sydney, Melbourne, Edmonton and Vancouver. During the 2010/11 season, he conducts the symphony orchestras of Detroit, Ft. Worth, Hartford and Greensboro as well as The Florida Orchestra.
In conjunction with his career as a conductor, Vanacore has had numerous associations with celebrity vocalists. He served as conductor, keyboardist and musical arranger for the Jackson Five as well as conductor and arranger for the Fifth Dimension. Not long afterward, Johnny Mathis hired him as musical director for his world tour. He joined Barry Manilow for 6 years in the same capacity, receiving album credits including If I Should Love Again, Barry Live in Britain, Barry, and The Greatest Hits.
Additionally, Vanacore feels honored to have enjoyed a close ongoing relationship with the musical icon Ray Charles, whom he met in 1990. They remained colleagues and friends until Charles’ passing in 2004, until which time Vanacore served as his musical director, arranger, and opening act. Ray Charles’ only platinum album entitled Genius Loves Company features Vanacore’s orchestral arrangements, including the Grammy-winning Somewhere Over the Rainbow with special guest Johnny Mathis.
As a composer/arranger, Vanacore’s recent work has included the Motown themed Detroit Soul for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; America Then and Now for the New Jersey Public Television Network; Spain Meets Birdland for the Berklee College of Music’s 60th Anniversary; and original neoclassical music based on the texts of Pope John Paul II, which he composed at the request of Placido Domingo. He has also been composing in collaboration with his brother David on the critically acclaimed hit CBS show Survivor. Other television credits include music for the 2005 Academy Awards show, Donald Trump’s The Apprentice and American Idol.
Originally from New Haven, Connecticut, Vanacore began learning the piano at age six and wrote his first composition at the age of eight, thus beginning his life-long fascination with music. As a teenager, he played the piano in nightclubs, shows, and theatres, receiving valuable experience along the way by accompanying Broadway acts, opera singers, and celebrities. After serving in the U.S. Navy Band, he enrolled in the Berklee College of Music, from which he recently received an Alumnus Recognition Award as one of the top 50 alumni.
Vanacore is a member of ASCAP, AFTRA, the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences, The Society of Composers and Lyricists and the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. He lives in Southern California where he enjoys spending time with his family. His hobbies include sailing, golf, scuba diving, and making pizza in his imported outdoor ovens.
For more information about VictorVanacore, please visit www.VictorVanacore.com.
