Featured Artists
Writer, director, and composer Bill Barclay is best known for his 25+ productions of concert-theatre including Secret Byrd, Romeo & Juliet, Markus Passion and The Chevalier. He is artistic director of Concert Theatre Works which tours his productions to 30 cities internationally each year. He was last at the MSO with his largest theatrical concert, Peer Gynt. As Director of Music at Shakespeare’s Globe, he produced live music for over 130 productions and 100 concerts, composing original music for over a dozen which have toured to six continents. His Broadway and West End credits include Farinelli & The King, Twelfth Night, and Richard III, all starring Sir Mark Rylance. Barclay’s original works have been described as “witty and incisive” (NY Times), “emotionally supercharged” (The Times, London), “quietly transfixing” (New Yorker), “effortless perfection” (The Observer) and “quite simply exquisite” (The Guardian). Orchestral partners include The LA Philharmonic (at The Hollywood Bowl), National Symphony Orchestra (Kennedy Center), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Barbican), London Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, New World Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, symphonies in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, St Louis, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado, Indiana, Hartford, Harlem, Winston-Salem, and Chautauqua. He has been commissioned five times by The Boston Symphony Orchestra, staging his own original adaptations over 12 seasons including Romeo & Juliet, Peer Gynt, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, L’Histoire du Soldat, The Chevalier, and The Magic Flute.
An early music specialist, his productions Death of Gesualdo, Secret Byrd, Markus Passion, Bach’s Art of Fugue and others have variously featured The Gesualdo Six, Music of the Baroque, The English Concert, The Sixteen, Handel & Haydn Society, Fretwork, Academy of Ancient Music, Dunedin Consort, Barokksolistene, Orchestra for the Age of Enlightenment, St Martin-in-the-Fields, National Centre for Early Music, Oregon Bach Festival, Early Music Seattle, Portland Baroque, San Francisco Early Music Society, Abendmusik and others, at dozens of festivals around the world. As a composer, his original music has been performed for President Obama, for the Olympic Torch, at the United Nations, and three times for the British Royal Family. He was the composer for Hamlet Globe-to-Globe which toured 197 countries, and Call of the Wild which toured to 42 states. He directed Silkroad’s Heroes Take Their Stands, and conducted City of London Sinfonia on international tours. He has been commissioned by The Royal Albert Hall, Washington National Cathedral, The Hollywood Bowl, and four times by The Boston Symphony Orchestra.
A contributor to the Guardian and Songlines, Barclay is published on the music of Shakespeare by both Cambridge and Oxford University Presses, and he lectures widely on Shakespeare and the music of the spheres. His newest work is What Music Is, aimed at revealing music’s essential role on our planet (@whatmusicis). He is the recipient of a Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship, the largest grant for actors in the United States, and spent 12 years as a company member at both Shakespeare & Company and Actors’ Shakespeare Project, where he collaborated on over 40 productions as an actor, director, composer, and educator. Barclay earned his MFA in playwriting at Boston University. He can be followed @barclayarts and concerttheatreworks.com.
Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels in a versatile career that encompasses concerti, solo recitals, and chamber music appearances, while in high demand around the world as pedagogue, arts advocate, and administrator. She has held professional engagements in over 60 countries on seven continents and all 50 U.S. states.
Professor of Piano at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2002, Dr. Kwon is also the founder and director of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME), a non-profit dedicated to mentoring and supporting gifted young musicians. To date, CME has awarded 12 international performing arts grants, each up to $10,000, and currently features 20 young artists on the 2019 CME Young Artists Roster. CME’s alumni/ae list includes more than 100 young artists from 22 countries.
As soloist, Min Kwon has performed extensively in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, with such orchestras as Philadelphia, North Carolina, Atlanta, New Jersey, and Fort Worth, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Orquesta Estaudo Mexico, Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, Wiener Residenz Orchester, Bacau Philharmonic, as well as all major orchestras in Korea on several nationally televised concerts. Since her Avery Fisher (now David Geffen) Hall, Lincoln Center debut in 1992 with the Juilliard Orchestra, she has appeared with many of New York’s leading ensembles, including New York Classical Players, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and the New York Sinfonietta. As recitalist, Kwon has performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, where she returns each year as Artistic Director of critically acclaimed, themed concerts featuring Rutgers pianists. pianistminkwon.com
Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, who sings "from inside the music with unaffected purity and sincerity" (UK Telegraph), is an active soloist and chamber musician hailed for her "rich and radiant voice" (UrbanDial Milwaukee). She was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Upper-Midwest Regional Finalist, the winner of several competitions including Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artists Competition of Milwaukee, the Houston Saengerbund Competition, several time runner-up in The Schubert Club Bruce P. Carlson Scholarship Competition, and third place in the Madison Handel Aria Competition. Recognized for her excellence in Minnesota, Clara was a recipient of the prestigious 2018-2019 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music.
In international competition with pianist Tyler Wottrich, in March of 2017, Clara became the first ever American prize winner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff's International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg, Germany. Recent performance highlights include her debut with Minnesota Opera as Mrs. Herring in Britten’s Albert Herring, and active as a recitalist, she stepped in for Susanna Philips in The Schubert Club International Artist Series Recital with Eric Owens. She has also been a feature recitalist at the Enlightenment Festival of Seraphic Fire, The Pablo Center of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, and several universities.
Orchestral performance highlights include her soloist debuts of Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee, B Minor Mass with the Back Bay Chorale of Boston, Christmas Oratorio with Bach Society of Minnesota, Mozart’s Requiem with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with Tulsa Signature Symphony, Bernstein’s Jeremiah with Mid-Columbia Symphony, and Dominick Argento's orchestral song cycles Casa Guidi and A few words about Chekhov with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of Minneapolis.
In addition to performing, Clara serves as the Artistic Director of Source Song Festival, a week-long art song festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This festival strives to create and perform new art song, and cultivate an educational environment for students of song, including composers, vocalists, and collaborative pianists. claraosowski.com
Warren Wolf is a multi-instrumentalist from Baltimore, Maryland. Warren is an International touring musician and has performed throughout the United States of America, South America, Canada, Italy, Spain, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scotland, London, Greece, Singapore, Thailand, Jarkata, Bangkok, Tokyo, Paris, Moscow and many other countries. Warren has made ten recordings, most notably for Mack Ave Records. Warren is a member of the SFJAZZ Collective and Christian McBride & “Inside Straight”. Warren is a faculty member at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, MD & the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in San Francisco, CA. Warren endorses Musser Vibraphone and Marimbas and Innovative Percussion Mallets. warrenwolf.com
Visual Artists
Paul Collins is an artist and teacher in Nashville, TN. Paul has an MFA from Yale University and has been a resident at Skowhegan, the MacDowell Colony, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Hambidge Center, and the Vermont Studio Center. Paul teaches at Austin Peay State University.
Paul is an advocacy publisher developing public art projects that celebrate the diverse stories that make my community specific, real and magnificent.
Current ongoing projects include @unbannablelibrary and @unzinenashville. And, of course, drawing: I'm always going somewhere and drawing to try to learn & figure things out. The Unbannable Library is a community effort to fight censorship and intimidation in our libraries. Teams of artists, writers, teachers, librarians and students are joining forces to create larger than life interactive book sculptures based on banned books and original written works of singular voice and experience. Designed for display and use at libraries everywhere, this rich collection of interactive book sculptures are literally TOO BIG to ban.
The result of collaborations between local artists, writers, teachers, students and community members, these unique larger-than-life books employ text and image to draw attention to the voices and stories subject to censorship. In 2024 and 2025 this exhibition spanned a dozen sites across Middle Tennessee, New York and Kentucky to allow wide access for viewers to experience and interact with the voices of those affected by book bans. The Unbannable Library is growing in 2026. paulpaul.com
Derek Fordjour (b. 1974, Memphis, Tennessee) makes paintings, sculptures, and installations whose exuberant visual materiality gives rise to portraits and other multilayered compositions. Born of both broad sociological vision and a keen awareness of the body’s vulnerability, Fordjour’s tableaux are filled with athletes, performers, and others who play key roles in cultural rituals and communal rites of passage. In his paintings, Fordjour methodically constructs the ground of each composition through a collage-based process involving cardboard, newspaper, and other materials and pigments. The varied and textural surfaces that emerge are as complex—and physically engaging—as the dynamic subjects that Fordjour inscribes on top, within, and through them.
Derek Fordjour is the recipient of the 2025 Gordon Parks Foundation Artist Fellowship, the 2023 St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Spirit of the Dream Award, and previously served as the Alex Katz Chair at Cooper Union. He has received public commissions for the High Line, the NYC AIDS Memorial, MOCA Grand Avenue and the MTA’s Arts & Design program. Fordjour’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times. A monograph of his work will be published by Phaidon in 2027.
He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta Georgia. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Art Education from Harvard University and an MFA in painting from Hunter College. His work is held in the private and public collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Guggenheim Museum, and The Royal Collection in London among others. He is the founder of Contemporary Arts Memphis.
Park Joon Park Joon is a South Korean photographer, based in New York City who has had numerous exhibitions in the New York City area. He was educated in New York and was deeply inspired by Ansel Adams. He calls himself an “outsider,” and his photography reflects this self-identification. As an immigrant, one of his passions has been to document and archive the beautiful sceneries of the American landscape. In order to capture the beauty of the American landscape, he has driven through every state of the US more than fifty times in his small car which now has over 200,000 miles. Every trip has been an adventure, filled with inspirations and trials. It is truly a journey of passion and soul searching for him. This unassuming outsider has a giant vision and sharp eyes to catch the most inspiring beauty of America. He says he wants to give back to the community. The generosity of his heart can be seen in his art. parkjoonart.com
Ensembles
Hailed by The Strad for playing with “tremendous heart and beauty,” the Ivalas Quartet has been changing the face of classical music since 2017 with a mission to enrich the classical music world by spotlighting past and present BIPOC composers alongside the standard repertory. They have championed the music of Eleanor Alberga, Gabriela Lena Frank, Osvaldo Golijov, Jessie Montgomery, Angélica Negrón, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, Alvin Singleton, and George Walker, and premiered Derrick Skye’s Deliverance through a commission from Caramoor and recorded Carlos Simon’s Warmth from Other Suns for Rising Sun Music. They are the 2024-2025 Curator/Ensemble of the Schneider Concerts at The New School. The Ivalas Quartet was the Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School from 2022 to 2024, where they studied with the Juilliard String Quartet, and were previously in residence at the University of Colorado-Boulder under the mentorship of the Takács Quartet. In turn, they have devoted themselves to educational and community outreach, working in tandem with such organizations as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New Latin Wave, and countless public schools throughout the U.S.
The members of the Ivalas Quartet – violinists Reuben Kebede and Tiani Butts, violist Marcus Stevenson, and cellist Pedro Sánchez – have a shared dedication to their roles as educators. The quartet has nurtured students from the early stages of their musical journey to the collegiate level, with coaching experience including residencies at the University of Michigan’s Center Stage Strings program, the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Central Arkansas, Madeline Island Chamber Music, and the MacPhail Center for Music. In New York City, they have coached student groups at The Juilliard School in both the preparatory and undergraduate divisions. The Quartet has worked with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center through the Society’s Chamber Music Beginnings since 2022. ivalasquartet.com
Acclaimed as an “outstanding ensemble…cohesive yet full of temperament” (The New York Times), the Verona Quartet has firmly established itself amongst the most distinguished ensembles on the chamber music scene today. The group’s singular sense of purpose earned them Chamber Music America’s coveted 2020 Cleveland Quartet Award, and a reputation for its “bold interpretive strength, robust characterization and commanding resonance” (Calgary Herald). The Quartet serves on the faculty of the Oberlin College and Conservatory as the Quartet-in-Residence and as Artistic Directors at Nova Scotia’s Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance. In the 2024-25 season, the Verona Quartet will debut at numerous prestigious series institutions including the Grand Teton Music Festival, Eastman School of Music, Peabody Institute of Music, Music Mondays in NYC, Lebanon Valley College, San Antonio Chamber Music Society, Camerata Musica in Washington state, and for the University of Buffalo’s celebrated Slee Beethoven String Quartet Cycle. The Verona Quartet’s second album, SHATTER, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart in the summer of 2023. The ensemble’s “vibrant, intelligent” (The New York Times) performances emanate from the spirit of storytelling; the Quartet believes that this transcends genre and therefore the name “Verona” pays tribute to William Shakespeare, one of the greatest storytellers of all time. veronaquartet.com
Culinary Artist
Chef Hinnerk von Bargen is a Professor of Culinary Arts at the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio. Prior to moving to Texas he taught for almost ten years in the continuing education division of the CIA's main campus in Hyde Park, NY. Chef von Bargen is responsible for developing and teaching a broad spectrum of classes to chefs, culinary professionals, and food enthusiasts on campus and off-campus locations around the world. In addition, he is actively involved in the development and execution of the CIA ProChef® Certification program for culinary professionals. Along with his teaching assignments, Chef von Bargen takes part in product research and development efforts at the college, working with leading food companies to create new products and menu items. Chef von Bargen has been featured in The San Antonio Express News, The New York Times, Women's Health, Men's Health, and local periodicals, as well as in the book Culinary Boot Camp: Five Days of Basic Training at The Culinary Institute of America. In addition, Chef von Bargen is a regular contributing writer to the CIA's ProChef Quarterly for industry professionals, as well as Taste the magazine for food enthusiasts. In April 2015 he and the CIA community celebrated the publishing of his first book “Street Foods.” Chef von Bargen holds a master chef certificate from the Hotel School in Hamburg, Germany. He completed two apprenticeships in his native Germany before beginning his professional career, which has included chef positions in hotels and restaurants in Germany, South Africa, and China. The multilingual chef speaks English, German, Chinese, and, of course, food.
Festival Artists
Timo Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Andres’ season is threaded through by an ongoing collaboration with pianist Aaron Diehl; the duo performs a two-piano recital (including a new work by Andres) at Carnegie Hall and Howland Chamber Music in January. In recent seasons, Timo made his sold out solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall; received a Tony nomination for his work orchestrations and arrangements of Sufjan Stevens’s Illinoise for the acclaimed theatrical production by Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury; served as advisor and editor of a 2023 edition of the Philip Glass Etudes published by Artisan; and performed with the Pomegranate Arts productions of the Glass Etudes internationally, including recent dates at Lincoln Center, the Chicago Humanities Festival, the Elbphilarmonie, the Philharmonie Berlin, and for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. As a pianist, Timo was nominated for a Grammy award for his performances on 2021’s The Arching Path, an album of music by Christopher Cerrone. Andres’s collaborations with Sufjan Stevens also include his May 2023 recording with Conor Hanick of Stevens’s latest album, Reflections; arrangements of ballets for New York City Ballet, and a solo piano album, The Decalogue. A Nonesuch Records artist, Andres has multiple albums on the label, including 2024’s The Blind Banister with Metropolis Ensemble. A Yale School of Music graduate, he is a Yamaha/Bösendorfer Artist and is on the composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music at the New School. He was recently awarded the 2025 Stoeger Prize by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. andres.com
Praised for being in “total command of music and instrument with an excellent sense of style and character”, violinist Claire Bourg is quickly captivating audiences with her sincere artistry, virtuosity, and passion. Ms. Bourg has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in many of the world’s leading venues throughout the United States and Europe, such as Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Kimmel Center, Bremen’s Kleiner Saal, Pritzker Pavilion, Jordan Hall, and the Fryderyk Chopin University Hall in Warsaw. Most recently, she was a soloist with the Camerata Bern in Hannover, as part of the Joachim International Violin Competition. Ms. Bourg is extremely passionate about premiering and performing the works of living composers. She has worked with Augusta Read Thomas, Jorg Widmann, David Ludwig, and Steven Mackey, among many others. She recently performed the Clearwater Rhapsody by Bright Sheng with the composer himself at the piano, in both Philadelphia and New York. A native of Chicago, Ms. Bourg holds an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music studying with Pamela Frank and Arnold Steinhardt, and a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory as a student of Miriam Fried. Currently residing in New York City, she is a student of Joseph Lin at the Juilliard School, where she holds the prestigious Kovner Fellowship. Claire currently performs on a violin by Zosimo Bergonzi of Cremona, c. 1770 on generous loan through Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, Chicago. Claire holds the 2024 Esther deGrunigen Artist Chair. clairebourg.com
Catherine Winters Boyack, acclaimed for her "dazzling, brilliant flair" and "unparalleled artistry" as described by flutist Carol Wincenc, is a standout in the world of classical music. She achieved first prize in the National Flute Association's Young Artist Competition and was the sole American semifinalist in the esteemed Kobe International Flute Competition in 2021. With accolades from competitions such as the MTNA National Woodwind Performance Competition and the Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia Competition, Boyack has established herself as a soloist, performing with orchestras like the Lake Forest Symphony and the Utah Symphony. Additionally, she is passionate about music education, leading master classes and serving as a faculty member at Northern California Flute Camp. Boyack's dedication to her craft extends beyond performance, as she holds an MM from the Juilliard School and a BM from Brigham Young University, and actively collaborates with esteemed musicians and composers. As a Haynes Young Artist and performing ambassador, Boyack continues to inspire audiences with her virtuosity and passion for music.
GRAMMY Award-winning pianist and composer Alex Brown is at the forefront of a new generation of genre-defying artists. Hailed by The New York Times for his “crystalline touch and worldly approach,” Brown fuses jazz, classical, Latin, and contemporary traditions with a singular voice as both an improviser and composer. He was a co-recipient of the 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Compendium for Passion for Bach and Coltrane, alongside Jeff Scott, Imani Winds, and Harlem Quartet. In 2025, Brown was commissioned by Lyrica Baroque in New Orleans to compose a new sonata for oboe and piano, further expanding his contributions to the contemporary chamber music repertoire. In 2023, he wrote the string arrangements for Kendrick Scott’s Unearthed, featuring Harlem Quartet. He has created orchestral and large ensemble works for artists such as Cynthia Erivo and the National Symphony Orchestra, Bobby Broom and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown’s Global Big Band, and Andre Nickatina, with whom he reimagined the rapper’s music for orchestra in a genre-bending collaboration. His versatility has also led to work in film, TV, and commercial campaigns for brands such as Orbitz, Zimmermann, Omega, and Vogue. Born in 1987 and raised in Columbia, Maryland, Brown earned a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance from the New England Conservatory and a Master of Music in Studio Jazz Writing from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He currently serves on the faculty at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and has also taught at the New School, the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute and NYO Jazz. Brown is a Yamaha Artist. alexbrownmusic.com
Violinist Tiani Butts is a passionate solo and chamber musician that strives to use the arts to encourage and inspire young students from all backgrounds. She has performed in numerous concert venues throughout the U.S. as well as internationally in Germany, Austria, Iceland, and Italy as a violinist in the Rome Chamber Music Festival. Tiani has been a solo fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, the Wintergreen Summer Music Academy, and the Philadelphia International Music Festival as well as a quartet fellow at the Colorado Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards, and the Madeline Island, Walla Walla, and Great Lakes chamber music festivals. In addition to a notable performance career, Tiani is dedicated to teaching and engaging with the community through the arts. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, a dual master’s degree in violin performance and chamber music from the University of Michigan, and an artist diploma from The Juilliard School. Outside of her musical endeavors, you will find Tiani enjoying a good book, weightlifting, or relaxing in the park. ivalasquartet.com
Oboist Hsuan-Fong Chen (pronounced “SHUan-fong”) is known for her versatility across orchestral, Broadway, and contemporary music scenes. Based in New York City, she has performed across the U.S., Europe, and Asia with leading ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Albany Symphony, and the American Ballet Theatre. On Broadway, she has played in Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, Camelot at Lincoln Center, and served as lead oboist in Rocktopia. In 2023, she was featured in the world premiere of Watch Night, directed by Tony Award-winner Bill T. Jones. A passionate advocate for new music, she performs regularly with Rocket City New Music, Talea Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, and at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Ms. Chen teaches at Queens College (CUNY), Juilliard Pre-College, the Calhoun School, and the Greenwich Music School. She also maintains a private studio and has served in leadership roles, including Artistic Coordinator and Orchestra Manager for the National Youth Orchestra of China. Originally from Taiwan, she studied at The Juilliard School (B.M.), Yale School of Music (M.M., Artist Diploma), and the Manhattan School of Music (Orchestral Performance Diploma). A former competitive pianist, she performed at Carnegie Hall and was featured in the National Palace Museum’s film A Museum Without Walls. She lives in NYC with her husband, Sean Ritenauer, their young son, and Cockapoo, Hiro. hsuanfongchen.com
Returning for his second season with the Chelsea Music Festival, Paul Wonjin Cho is a Korean-American clarinetist whose vibrant career bridges orchestral performance, chamber music, and education. He currently performs as a substitute clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, appearing under Franz Welser-Möst in concerts, a European tour, and four commercial recordings. He also serves as the tenured bass and third clarinetist of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. His dynamic orchestral career includes a tenured appointment as principal clarinet of the Binghamton Philharmonic and acting principal positions with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Cho has also performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and The Knights.
A core member of Decoda—Carnegie Hall’s first ensemble-in-residence— Mr. Cho has led international tours and educational residencies, including a tour of South Korea that reached more than 5,000 audience members. A graduate of the Yale School of Music, Mr. Cho earned both an Artist Diploma and a Master of Music in Clarinet Performance under David Shifrin. His two-year fellowship with Ensemble Connect at Carnegie Hall sparked a deep commitment to community engagement and contemporary music. As a member of the ensemble, he performed at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Recital Halls, collaborated with composers including Timo Andres, Meredith Monk, Nico Muhly, and Andrew Norman, and brought music into New York City public schools through yearlong residencies. Mr. Cho’s discography includes GRAMMY-winning and critically acclaimed recordings with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Experiential Orchestra, and Naxos, featuring works by Richard Strauss, George Walker, Philip Glass, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Ethel Smyth.
Carson Elrod: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Soldier’s Tale (Concert Theatre Works with The Boston Symphony) Broadway: Peter and The Starcatcher, Reckless, Noises Off. Metropolitan Opera: The Merry Widow. Off-Broadway: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Seize The King (Classical Theatre of Harlem), The Alchemist (Red Bull), The Tempest, Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well (The PUBLIC: New York Shakespeare Festival), The Liar, The Heir Apparent (Classic Stage Company). Important Hats of the 20th Century, The Explorer’s Club, Based On A Totally True Story, House, Garden, Comic Potential (Manhattan Theatre Club), Lives of The Saints, All in the Timing (Primary Stages), Cavedweller (New York Theatre Workshop) Pygmalion (Gingold). Regional: Williamstown, Yale Rep, American Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Shakespeare Theatre DC, Westport Country Playhouse, Denver Center, Shakespeare & Company, Barrington Stage, Tanglewood, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Berkeley Rep. TV: EVIL, The Good Fight, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Medium, 30 Rock. Film: Wedding Crashers, Kissing Jessica Stein. MFA NYU Grad Acting. Executive Director of Arts Workers United (artsworkersunited.com). carsonelrod.com
Amanda Hardy is an assistant professor of oboe at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She became principal oboe of the Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine) in November 2013, where she currently occupies the Clinton Graffam chair. As a recipient of the Gillet Scholarship and Tourjée Alumni Scholarship Award, Hardy studied with Boston Symphony Orchestra principal oboist John Ferrillo at New England Conservatory (NEC). Hardy was the winner of the 2010 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award competition and has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall (2009), the Portland Symphony, the NEC Bach Ensemble, the Drake Symphony Orchestra, and the Des Moines Youth Symphony at the age of 16. In 2006, she won the grand prize in Iowa’s Bill Riley Talent Search, giving her statewide televised recognition. Recently, Hardy has been guest principal oboe with the Boston Pops, Boston Philharmonic, A Far Cry chamber orchestra, Emmanuel Music, and the Des Moines Symphony, and she frequently plays with the Boston Symphony, the Boston Pops, and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. Hardy is on the faculty of Boston Conservatory and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and she also teaches at Northeastern University; in addition, she has several years of private teaching experience on both oboe and piano. Hardy holds a B.M. in oboe performance with a piano minor from Drake University and an M.M. and G.D. from NEC. Previous festivals include the MasterWorks Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and School, and Tanglewood Music Center in 2010 and 2011, where she was awarded the Mickey L. Hooten Memorial Award both summers. Her teachers include John Ferrillo, Marilyn Zupnik, Anne Gabriele, and Jay Light, with additional summer studies with Elaine Douvas and Richard Woodhams.
Violinist Yuyu Ikeda debuted at the age of ten with the Bellflower Symphony Orchestra. Now based in New York, she teaches students and performs regularly with the New York Classical Players and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. A dedicated ensemble musician, Yuyu is a first-prize recipient of the Widder String Quartet Competition and has appeared at Juilliard’s 37th Annual Focus Festival, the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, and the Sarasota Music Festival, where her performance was featured on WQXR-FM. During the 2022–23 season, she served as concertmaster of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and assistant concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra. Alongside her performing career, Yuyu is an active educator and advocate for access to music education. She currently serves on the faculty of the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School and has previously taught at Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program and the Artists Program Chamber Music Festival. She is deeply committed to community engagement and has collaborated with organizations including Midori and Friends, Concerts in Motion, and Project Music Heals Us to bring live music and education to communities with limited access to the arts. Yuyu holds degrees from Juilliard and Oberlin Conservatory, as well as a bachelor’s degree in biology from Oberlin College, and is currently pursuing a Professional Performance Diploma at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studies with Nicholas Mann and Koichiro Harada.
Violinist Reuben Kebede has performed recitals across the U.S. and Europe. As first violinist of the Ivalas Quartet, he recently completed an Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School in the Graduate Resident String Quartet program. He also received an Artist Diploma in string quartet performance from CU Boulder under the tutelage of Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes, and the members of the Takács Quartet. Previously, he studied with Danielle Belen at the University of Michigan, where he served as concertmaster of both university orchestras, and with Sarah Plum at Drake University. In his free time Reuben loves reading, as well as watching and discussing soccer and films. ivalasquartet.com
Praised for her “beautiful tone, effortless precision, and musical maturity beyond her years,” Chinese-American violinist Alina Kobialka became one of the latest additions to the New York Philharmonic in 2022. A “jaw-droppingly assured” soloist whose musical sensibilities make “present and future converge” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Kobialka’s sensitive artistry defines her diverse career as a collaborator and soloist. “Watch for her name. She appears to be bound for greatness” (Las Vegas Review-Journal). Since joining the New York Philharmonic, Kobialka has worked with numerous lauded artists, including Hilary Hahn, Yo-Yo Ma, and Emanuel Ax, regularly performed in the Philharmonic’s Merkin Hall Chamber Series, and toured internationally in Taiwan and Hong Kong. A three-time artist at the competitive Marlboro Music Festival, Kobialka’s esteemed artistic counterparts include Dame Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, and Kim Kashkashian. An enthusiast of classical and non-classical music alike, her collaborations with Jacob Collier, Chris Thile, and Esperanza Spalding challenged the boundaries of classical, folk, and jazz. Awarded the second prize at the 2017 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, Kobialka’s accolades include a laureate nomination from the 2016 Irving M. Klein International Competition and Grand Prize recipient at the Mondavi Center National Young Artists Competition. A San Francisco native, Kobialka launched her career at the age of 14 with a solo debut at the San Francisco Symphony’s 100th Anniversary Concert in Davies Symphony Hall. She has since returned as a soloist three times, most recently alongside world-renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. Additional solo features include the Las Vegas Philharmonic, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, and Asheville Symphony. At the age of five, Kobialka began her violin studies with Li Lin. She continued to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s preparatory program where she studied with Wei He. After leaving San Francisco at 16, she attended the Colburn School’s Music Academy in Los Angeles, where she studied with Robert Lipsett and Danielle Belen. Most recently, she graduated with her master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Ilya Kaler. alinakobialka.com
A graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale School of Music, cellist Angela Lee is a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to study in London with William Pleeth, a grant from the Foundation for American Musicians in Europe, the Jury Prize in the Naumburg International Cello Competition, and a cello performance fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation. She is a founding member of The Lee Trio, which won top prizes in the Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition in Finland and the Gaetano Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in Italy. In its third decade, the Trio regularly gives master classes and performs worldwide and has commissioned and premiered works of numerous living composers and has recordings on Delos, Innova, and the Chelsea Music Festival Records labels. The Trio's latest album, Midsummer Night Magic, was released in 2024 to critical acclaim. Using music to foster peace and goodwill, Angela Lee has made humanitarian trips to the Republic of the Philippines and the former Yugoslavia. While on a U.N.-sanctioned tour of six war-torn cities throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina, she performed for NATO troops and displaced civilians. She joined Ensemble SF in 2022 and has been coaching chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 2017. She also serves on the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra Alumni Association Leadership Council and on the Board of The Resonance Project, which promotes empathy through live music.
Carlos Rafael Martinez Arroyo is a distinguished violinist acclaimed for his technical proficiency and artistic versatility. Born in Córdoba, Spain and based in New York City, Carlos has carved a noteworthy presence in the classical music scene through performances, chamber music collaborations, and festival appearances across the United States, Mexico, and Europe. Carlos holds both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he was awarded a full scholarship under the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program. His vibrant performance career includes featured solo engagements with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla in Spain, where he performed the Bruch Violin Concerto at the Teatro de la Maestranza, and the New York Session Symphony, presenting Brahms’s Double Concerto in Manhattan. Carlos’s chamber music contributions include performances at esteemed venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, WQXR Radio Studios, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, and Festival Haus der Musik in Mexico, highlighting his ability to seamlessly blend solo artistry with collaborative musicianship. Carlos has participated in notable festivals and residencies, including serving as a Chamber Music Fellow at the Heifetz International Institute of Music and collaborating with eminent artists such as Ani Kavafian and Miki Sawada. His commitment to community engagement is evident through educational workshops conducted with Midori & Friends and at the New York Public Library, fostering deeper cultural appreciation and accessibility. His dedication to musical excellence has earned him accolades, including Second Prize at the Chicago International Violin Competition (2022). Fluent in Spanish and English, and proficient in several other languages, he is dedicated to connecting with a global audience both through music and cultural exchange. He performs on a 2004 Mario Miralles violin generously loaned by the Maestro Foundation.
Caleb Mayo performed the title role of Peer Gynt in 2022 at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. A frequent collaborator with Concert Theatre Works (CTW), he originated Peer Gynt with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), later playing the role with the Symphony Orchestras of Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and St. Louis, and reprising it in Boston for the BSO’s 2024 season. He has also appeared with the BSO at Tanglewood in CTW's 2017 Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in 2025’s debut of Romeo and Juliet, and with the BSO Chamber Players in 2026's The Soldiers Tale. Caleb began his classical training at age 11 and made his professional debut at 15 in the Huntington Theatre Company’s To Kill a Mockingbird. He holds a B.A. in Drama from Vassar College, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He has worked in film (One-Eyed Monster), television (Criminal Minds), new media (WTUFO), and regional theatre across the United States, including with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC, the Knightsbridge Theatre in Los Angeles and the Stonington Opera House in Maine.
Chloe McFarlane (Boston): Romeo and Juliet (Actor's Shakespeare Project) as Juliet; Little Women (Actor's Shakespeare Project) as Amy; Film: Mr. Santa (Dir. Noel Calloway). Training includes Boston University School of Theatre, the British American Dramatic Academy, and the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
Arthur Oliver, Costume Designer, is a designer with 35 years of experience in the performing arts. His work has achieved praise from The London Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Boston Globe and Variety Magazine. Arthur’s first design for Concert Theatre Works, Secret Byrd, premiered at the National Cathedral, Washington, DC and The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in 2023. It continues to tour the United States and the United Kingdom. In the summer of 2025, he designed costumes for Romeo and Juliet, conceived and directed by Bill Barclay, Concert Theatre Works. It premiered with Maestro Andris Nelsons conducting The Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Shed. The production, commissioned by The Royal Albert Hall and The Boston Symphony Orchestra. Approximately 15,000 people were in attendance. International design work includes the Mikhailovsky Ballet Theatre (St. Petersburg, Russia) and The National Opera and Ballet (Kyiv and Odesa, Ukraine). He continues to design in the US for regional theatres, opera, ballet, and independent films. Arthur Oliver is a member of United Scenic Artists Local USA 829. arthuroliver.com
Maurice Emmanuel Parent is an award-winning actor, director, educator, and mentor with 20 years of professional experience. With over 40 acting credits, he has performed on stages across the nation and abroad, working with some of Boston’s most esteemed theatre companies, including the Huntington Theatre Company, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Lyric Stage Company, New Repertory Theatre, and Central Square Theater, among others. Regional Theatre’s Maurice has worked from include Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Geva Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Northern Stage, and Fulton Theatre in Lancaster PA. His work as both an actor and director has earned him numerous accolades, including three Elliot Norton Awards from The Boston Theater Critics Association, three Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards, and an ArtsImpulse Award. Beyond the stage, Parent has been a dedicated educator for over a decade. He has taught at Northeastern University, MIT, and The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, in addition to spending six years as a Performing Arts Specialist in the Boston Public School System. He is currently a full-time Professor of the Practice in the Tufts University Department of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. Parent is also the creator and performer of Mr. Parent, a one-man show inspired by his years as a public school teacher. Originally staged at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, the production has since been performed at Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY, and most recently at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. In 2016, driven by the lack of opportunities for artists of color and the urgent need to address racial inequities in Boston’s theatre landscape, Parent co-founded Front Porch Arts Collective, where he now serves as Producing Artistic Director. Under his leadership, The Porch has become a catalyst for change, creating space for dialogue, representation, and artistic excellence. mauriceparent.com
New York City based cellist Pedro Sánchez is originally from Caracas, Venezuela. His energetic style of playing was significantly shaped by his training with El Sistema and the Emil Friedman Conservatory in Caracas. In the United States, Pedro completed his high school education at Interlochen Arts Academy, followed by a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. He furthered his studies with a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and earned artist diplomas from both CU Boulder and the Juilliard School. Pedro has performed solo recitals internationally, including in Africa, South America, and the United States. During his time at the University of Michigan, he served as faculty for the university’s Artist Citizen program, which provides free music education to a diverse community of children in Ann Arbor. Pedro has coached chamber music at several prestigious institutions across the U.S., including Juilliard, Vanderbilt, and CU Boulder. Currently, Pedro is a teaching artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and serves as cello faculty at the Opportunity Music Project. He is dedicated to integrating social-emotional learning into his teaching approach, believing in the transformative power of music education to foster personal growth and resilience. His commitment to this philosophy stems from his experiences with El Sistema. Pedro plays a 2010 Marten Cornelissen Cello, generously loaned to him by the Maestro Foundation in California. ivalasquartet.com
Violist Marcus Stevenson is an avid chamber musician and educator based in New York City. Originally from New Jersey, Marcus is an alumnus of The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. In 2018, Marcus won the Rondo Young Artist Competition with the Neptune Piano Quartet, and the National League of Performing Arts Chamber Competition with the Milan String Quartet. Marcus was also previously a member of the Elless Quartet, who won Grand Prize in the 2020 Coltman Chamber Music Competition and was a finalist in the 2022 Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition. Marcus has performed with renowned artists, including Margaret Batjer, Jaime Laredo, Philip Setzer, and Sharon Robinson. Marcus holds a bachelor’s degree in viola performance and eurythmics pedagogy from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Jeffrey Irvine. He also holds a master’s degree in viola performance from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Heidi Castleman. While in Cleveland, he was the recipient of the inaugural Sidney D. and Nina Josephs Chamber Musician Award and the Darius Milhaud Award. While at Juilliard, Marcus was awarded the Joseph W. Polisi Prize and served as violist of the graduate string quartet in residence, studying with the Juilliard String Quartet. Currently based in Manhattan, Marcus teaches privately and serves as faculty for the Opportunity Music Project. ivalasquartet.com
S. Katy Tucker designs video and projection for live performance, working frequently in opera, theater and collaborating with composers and musicians. Her work has been seen internationally, including Broadway, The Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, New York City Ballet, Carnegie Hall, Park Avenue Armory, BAM, San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dutch National Opera, Sydney Opera House, and the Canadian Opera Company, among others. She began her career as a painter and video installation artist, exhibiting her work at a variety of galleries, such as the Corcoran Museum, Dupont Underground, Artist’s Space in New York City and a video installation titled Stone Memory, commissioned by The Kennedy Center. Tucker was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Letters from Max, a Ritual. Recent productions include Smash on Broadway with director Susan Stroman, The Ring Cycle with Sir David McVicar at Teatro alla Scala, Tannhauser(Houston Grand Opera), Florencia en al Amazonas, Eurydice, Peter Grimes, Verdi’s Requiem, and Prince Igor (Metropolitan Opera), Florencia en el Amazonas (Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Washington National Opera), Rebecca Das Musical (Vereinigte Bühnen Wien), Klangwolke23 (Brucknerhaus), and Turandot, MacBeth, Fidelio, Elektra, Don Giovanni, and Samson and Delilah (Washington National Opera).
Ania Vu (née Vũ Đặng Minh Anh) is a Polish composer-pianist of Vietnamese descent whose music explores the interplay between words, time, and sound. Her poetry in Polish and English guides her compositional process. Vu’s work has been supported by the American Opera Project, ASCAP, Copland House, Yaddo, and Tanglewood, and presented at festivals including Hear Now New Music, Ear Taxi, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Mostly Modern Festival, SEAMUS, ChimeFest, PASIC, and the Guild of Carilloneurs in North America. She has collaborated with leading new music ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Grossman Ensemble, ~Nois, and Brightwork Newmusic, as well as the Chicago Composers Orchestra. She was the 2024 Composer-in-Residence at the Chelsea Music Festival. An active educator, Vu is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. She previously held positions at Northwestern University and the University of Texas at Austin, and served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago (2022–23). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. in Composition and Theory from the Eastman School of Music. ania.vu/
Robert Walsh - Off-Broadway: Gloucester Blue (Cherry Lane), Big Maggie(Douglas Fairbanks), Penelope (Perry St. Theatre), and company member with the Theater of the Open Eye (Jean Erdman & Joseph Campbell), the Riverside Shakespeare Company and Circle Rep Lab Company. Boston: The Dybbuk & The Gaaga (Arlekin Players Theatre), Ah, Wilderness! and Hamlet (Huntington Theatre), Trouble in Mind (Lyric Stage), Our Town, Mass Appeal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Merrimack Rep), Sins of the Mother, The Subject Was Roses (Gloucester Stage) ‘ART’, The Cocktail Hour (New Rep), Next Fall (Speakeasy Stage), The Winter’s Tale, Coriolanus, Macbeth, Henry V (Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.), and King Lear, Henry IV, Titus Andronicus, and Hamlet, among others for the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, (founding company member). Film/TV: Fourth of July, Black Mass, Dead Reckoning, The Spirit of Christmas, Evening; State and Main; Amistad; Eight Men Out; Body of Proof (ABC), IMDb. Former Artistic Director of Gloucester Stage Company and the American Stage Festival, and currently serves on the faculty at Brandeis University. He directed the on-field ceremonies for the 1999 All-Star Game for Major League Baseball at Fenway Park in Boston.
A native of Washington, D.C., Steven A. Ward is an emerging composer whose work bridges the worlds of classical art song, instrumental music, and African-American spirituals. Known for his expressive harmonic language and cultural reverence, Steven brings fresh perspective and heartfelt interpretation to the concert stage through both original compositions and thoughtful arrangements for solo voice and choir. Steven’s musical foundation began with violin and piano, eventually finding his voice—literally and figuratively—as a singer in high school. Over the next two decades, he served as a soloist and section leader in churches across Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Tennessee, while simultaneously pursuing a career in education. His compositional journey began in earnest during the global COVID-19 pandemic, a period that ignited his passion for writing music rooted in the rich legacy of African-American expression. In 2022, his first arrangement of the spiritual Hammering premiered in Memphis, and later that year one of his choral works was named runner-up among 32 new pieces by Black composers at the Bent, But Not Broken conference. Most recently, he completed a commission for the Augsburg University Choirs in Minnesota and will have a new choral piece published through Gentry Publications' Rock My Soul series, which highlights soulful choral traditions. He additionally was in the MNSong composer fellowship with Source Song Festival where his first song cycle, Invitation to Love, was premiered. Steven holds degrees from Virginia State University (B.S., Agriculture) and Trinity Washington University (M.Ed., School Administration), and currently serves as leader in residence with an education foundation in the D.C. area. A committed community leader and lifelong learner, he is a proud lifetime member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and an inaugural member of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship. stevenwardmusic.com
Percussionist Oliver Xu has been internationally recognized as a solo performer advocating for contemporary music. Based in NYC, he is an alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and performs with flutist Catherine Boyack as Coriolis Duo. This season, he will give the world premiere of Ted Babcock’s Daisy Chain, a Coriolis Duo commission supported by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s 2025 Creative Engagement Grant, and perform Wynton Marsalis’ A Fiddler’s Tale at Weill Recital Hall. Highlights from recent seasons include New York performances presented by Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City, and Chelsea Music Festival as well as performances abroad at Madrid’s Reina Sofía Museum and Shanghai’s Shangyin Opera House. An in-demand percussionist and timpanist, Oliver has performed with groups such as the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Manhattan Chamber Players, Metropolis Ensemble, and NOVUS NY. He has collaborated with conductors such as Matthias Pintscher, Susanna Mälkki, and David Robertson. Oliver graduated from The Juilliard School with a Master of Music, where he studied with Daniel Druckman and was awarded the Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant upon graduation. oxumusic.com
Artistic Directors
Lauded for her “impeccable technique and artistic interpretation” [The Columbian], pianist Melinda Lee Masur has performed on all three stages of Carnegie Hall, at London's Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, the Berliner Philharmonie, at the Ravinia Festival, Festival Les Muséiques Basel and in Boston’s Symphony Hall. An avid chamber musician, Masur has performed with such artists as Augustin Hadelich, Alban Gerhardt, Fanny Clamagirand, Adrian Brendel and Thomas Quasthoff.
She is pianist and founding member of The Lee Trio, praised worldwide for its “gripping immediacy and freshness” and "rich palette of tone colours" [The Strad]. The Trio has garnered awards such as the Recording Prize at the Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition in Finland and the Gotthard-Schierse-Stiftung grant in Berlin and has given world, American and European premieres of piano trios by composers including Edmund Finnis, Uljas Pulkkis, Nathaniel Stookey, Philip Lasser, Jane Antonia Cornish & Sylvie Bodorova and garnered awards such as the Recording Prize at the Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition in Finland and the Gotthard-Schierse-Stiftung grant in Berlin.
Masur has a passion for working with the next generations of musicians and has taught at the University of Chicago and Boston University, and will serve on the Piano & Chamber Music Faculty at Stanford University this Fall. Masur is the Director of Piano Chamber Music and Co-Director of the Young Artists Piano Program at the BU Tanglewood Institute. A graduate of Harvard University and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, Germany, Melinda Lee Masur is a Steinway Artist. theleetrio.com
Hailed as “fearless, bold, and a life-force” (San Diego Union-Tribune) and “a brilliant and commanding conductor with unmistakable charisma” (Leipzig Volkszeitung), Ken-David Masur is celebrating his seventh season as Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony’s Civic Orchestra, and newly announced Artistic Partner of the Oregon Bach Festival.
In 2025-2026, Masur will lead celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, featuring performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, as well as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion as part of the third annual Bach Festival. Ken-David Masur and the MSO will reunite with longtime collaborators such as Augustin Hadalich, Orion Weiss, Stewart Goodyear, Nancy Zhou as well as a special project with Bill Barclay and Concert Theatre Works to celebrate America’s 250th birthday with a program interweaving the music of Aaron Copland with the words of Mark Twain. In Chicago, Masur leads the Civic Orchestra, the premiere training ensemble of the Chicago Symphony, in a wide range of programs, including its annual Bach Marathon.
Masur has conducted distinguished orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore, Detroit, and San Francisco Symphonies, l’Orchestre National de France, Minnesota Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Norway’s Kristiansand Symphony and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. He has also made regular appearances at Ravinia, Tanglewood, the Hollywood Bowl, Grant Park, and international festivals including Verbier. Recent highlights include subscription debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the National Symphony as well as a triumphant return to the Oregon Bach Festival featuring a staged Carmina Burana.
Masur is passionate about contemporary music and has conducted and commissioned numerous new works over the years. Some notable pieces include Wynton Marsalis’ Harold Haller and Hallelujah, Augusta Read Thomas’ Bebop Kaleidoscope — Homage to Duke Ellington with the New York Philharmonic, Mannequin by Unsuk Chin with the Boston Symphony, Rounds by Jessie Montgomery, and Alan Fletcher’s Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Additional U.S. premieres under his baton include works by James B. Wilson, Dobrinka Tabakova, Christopher Cerrone, Edmund Finnis, Eric Nathan, and Jacob Beranek among others.
Masur has made recordings with the English Chamber Orchestra and violinist Fanny Clamagirand, and with the Stavanger Symphony, the latter of which was named by WQXR, New York’s classical music radio station, as a “Best New Classical Release.” Masur also received a Grammy nomination from the Latin Recording Academy for Best Classical Album of the Year for his work as a producer of the album Salon Buenos Aires.
Born and raised in Leipzig, Germany, Masur was trained at the Mendelssohn Academy in Leipzig, the Gewandhaus Children‘s Choir, the Detmold Academy and the „Hanns Eisler“ Conservatory in Berlin. While an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York, Masur became the first music director of the Bach Society Orchestra & Chorus with which he toured to Germany and recorded the music of J.S.Bach and his sons.
Music education and working with the next generation of young artists are of major importance to Masur. In addition to his work with Civic Orchestra of Chicago, he has conducted orchestras and led masterclasses at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan Chamber Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and The Juilliard School. kendavidmasur.com