Artists

Apollo’s Fire

APOLLO’S FIRE
Ensemble

Joshua Bell

JOSHUA BELL
Violinist

Chanticleer

CHANTICLEER
Ensemble

Chineke!

CHINEKE! ORCHESTRA
Ensemble

Dance Theatre of Harlem

DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM
Ensemble

Sir Andrew Davis

MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Conductor

Simone Dinnerstein

SIMONE DINNERSTEIN
Piano, Artist-In-Residence

Kevin John Edusei

CHINEKE! ORCHESTRA
Conductor

Esther Heideman

ESTHER HEIDEMAN
Soprano

Craig Irvin

CRAIG IRVIN
Baritone

JLCO

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA
Ensemble

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

CHINEKE! ORCHESTRA
Cello Soloist

Natalia Khoma

UKRAINE NATIONAL SYMPHONY
Cello

Vladimir Lande

SIBERIAN STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Conductor

Wynton Marsalis

JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ORCHESTRA
Artistic Director, Trumpet

Audra McDonald

AUDRA MCDONALD
Singer, Actor

MSO

MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Ensemble

Mark Mummert

THE WORCESTER CHORUS
Assistant Director, Organist

NSOU

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF UKRAINE
Ensemble

Chi-chi Nwanoku

CHINEKE! ORCHESTRA
Founder, Double Bass

Garrick Ohlsson

GARRICK OHLSSON
Piano

Amanda Powell

APOLLO’S FIRE
Soprano, Vocals

Elena Radchenko

RUSSIAN NATIONAL BALLET
Artistic Director

William Fred Scott

CHANTICLEER
Music Director

Chris Shepard

THE WORCESTER CHORUS
Artistic Director

SSSO

SIBERIAN STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Ensemble

Volodymyr Sirenko

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF UKRAINE
Conductor

Jeannette Sorrell

APOLLO’S FIRE
Artistic Director, Harpsichord

Ilya Yakushev

ILYA YAKUSHEV
Piano

Milad Yousufi

MILAD YOUSUFI
Composer, Artist, Pianist

Apollo’s Fire

Named for the classical god of music and the sun, Apollo’s Fire was founded by its Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell, to revive the baroque ideal that music should evoke the various Affekts or passions in the listeners. Apollo’s Fire is a collection of creative artists who share Sorrell’s passion for drama and rhetoric.

Hailed as “one of the pre-eminent period-instrument ensembles” (THE INDEPENDENT, London), Apollo’s Fire made its London debut in 2010 in a sold-out concert at Wigmore Hall, with a BBC broadcast. Subsequent European tours took place in 2011, 2014, and 2015. European performances include sold-out concerts at the BBC Proms in London (with live broadcast across Europe), the Aldeburgh Festival (UK), Madrid’s Royal Theatre, Bordeaux’s Grand Théàtre de l’Opéra, and major venues in Lisbon, Metz (France), and Bregenz (Austria), as well as concerts on the Birmingham International Series (UK) and the Tuscan Landscapes Festival (Italy). AF’s London concert in 2014 was chosen by the DAILY TELEGRAPH as one of the “Best 5 Classical Concerts of The Year.”

North American tour engagements include sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall (2018), the Tanglewood Festival (2015 and 2017), the Ravinia Festival, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY (2013, 2014, and 2015), the Boston Early Music Festival series, and the Library of Congress, as well as concerts at the Aspen Music Festival, and major venues in Toronto, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The ensemble’s notable U.S. tours include two major tours of the Monteverdi Vespers (2010 and 2014); a 9-concert tour of the Brandenburg Concertos in 2013; and a semi-staged production of Monteverdi’s L’ORFEO in April 2018 (U.S. tour). Upcoming is an UK/Ireland tour in August 2018, including the Wexford Opera House, the National Concert Hall of Ireland (Dublin), and a return to the Aldeburgh Festival.

At home in Cleveland, Apollo’s Fire frequently enjoys sold-out performances at its subscription series, which has drawn national attention for creative programming.

Apollo’s Fire has released 26 commercial CDs and currently records for the British label AVIE. Since the ensemble’s introduction into the European CD market in 2010, the recordings have won rave reviews in the London press: “a swaggering version, brilliantly played” (THE SUNDAY TIMES) and “the Midwest’s best-kept musical secret is finally reaching British ears” (THE INDEPENDENT). Eight of the ensemble’s CD releases have become best-sellers on the classical Billboard chart: the Monteverdi Vespers, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos & Harpsichord Concertos, a disc of Handel arias with soprano Amanda Forsythe titled “The Power of Love” (Billboard Classical #3, 2015), and Jeannette Sorrell’s four crossover programs: Come to the River – An Early American Gathering (Billboard Classical #9, 2011); Sacrum Mysterium – A Celtic Christmas Vespers(Billboard Classical #11, 2012); Sugarloaf Mountain – An Appalachian Gathering (Billboard Classical #5, 2015); and Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (Billboard World Music Chart #2 and Billboard Classical #5, Feb. 2016); and Songs of Orpheus (Billboard Classical #5, 2018).

Joshua Bell

With a career spanning over thirty years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, conductor and director, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era. Since 2011, Bell has served as Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, succeeding Sir Neville Marriner, who formed the orchestra in 1958. Bell’s interests range from the repertoire’s hallmarks to commissioned works, including Nicholas Maw’s Violin Concerto, for which Bell received a GRAMMY® award. He has also premiered works of John Corigliano, Edgar Meyer, Jay Greenberg, and Behzad Ranjbaran.

Committed to expanding classical music’s social and cultural impact, Bell has collaborated with peers including Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, Chris Botti, Anoushka Shankar, Frankie Moreno, Josh Groban, and Sting. Recently, Bell joined cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Jeremy Denk to record Mendelssohn’s piano trios, slated for release in early 2020. He also collaborated with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra on a record featuring the Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto, to be released in fall 2020.

Bell maintains an avid interest in film music, commemorating the 20th anniversary of The Red Violin (1998) in 2018-19. The film’s Academy-Award winning soundtrack features Bell as soloist; in 2018, Bell brrought the film with live orchestra to various summer festivals and the New York Philharmonic. In addition to six Live From Lincoln Center specials, Bell is also featured on a PBS Great Performances episode, “Joshua Bell: West Side Story in Central Park.”

Through music and technology, Bell further seeks to expand the boundaries of his instrument. He has partnered with Embertone on the Joshua Bell Virtual Violin, a sampler created for producers, engineers, and composers. Bell also collaborated with Sony on the Joshua Bell VR experience.

An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded over 40 albums garnering GRAMMY®, Mercury®, Gramophone and OPUS KLASSIK awards. Sony Classical’s June 2018 release, with Bell and the Academy, features Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy and G minor Violin Concerto and received a GRAMMY® nomination.

In 2007, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post story, on Bell performing incognito in a Washington, D.C. metro station, sparked a conversation regarding artistic reception and context. It inspired Kathy Stinson’s 2013 children’s book, The Man With The Violin, and a newly-commissioned animated film. Bell debuted the 2017 Man With The Violin festival at the Kennedy Center, and, in March 2019, presents a Man With The Violin festival and family concert with the Seattle Symphony.

Bell advocates for music as an essential educational tool. He maintains active involvement with Education Through Music and Turnaround Arts, which provide instruments and arts education to children who may not otherwise experience classical music firsthand.

Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Bell began the violin at age four, and at age twelve, began studies with Josef Gingold. At age 14, Bell debuted with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and debuted at Carnegie Hall at age 17 with the St. Louis Symphony. Bell received the 2007 Avery Fisher Prize and has recently been named Musical America’s 2010 “Instrumentalist of the Year” and an “Indiana Living Legend.” He received the 2003 Indiana Governor’s Arts Award and a 1991 Distinguished Alumni Service Award from his alma mater, the Jacobs School of Music. Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin, with a François Tourte 18th-Century bow.

Chanticleer

Named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer was founded in 1978 by tenor Louis A. Botto, who sang in the Ensemble until 1989 and served as Artistic Director until his death in 1997. Chanticleer became known first for its interpretations of Renaissance music, and was later a pioneer in the revival of the South American baroque, recording several award-winning titles in that repertoire. Chanticleer was named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America in 2008, and inducted in the American Classical Music Hall of Fame the same year. William Fred Scott was named Music Director in 2014. A native of Georgia, Scott is the former Assistant Conductor to Robert Shaw at the Atlanta Symphony, former Artistic Director of the Atlanta Opera, an organist and choir director.

Chineke!

Chineke! was founded in 2015 by the double bass player, Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, to provide career opportunities for young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) classical musicians in the UK and Europe.

Chineke!’s mission is: ‘Championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music’.

The Chineke! Orchestra, the Foundation’s flagship ensemble, works closely with its sister ensemble, the Chineke! Junior Orchestra, a youth orchestra of BME players aged between 11 and 22, with senior players acting as mentors, teachers and role models to the young musicians.

In 2017, the Chineke! Orchestra made its BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in August and performed at many other leading festivals throughout England, all to great critical acclaim. Chineke! has released two albums over the past year with more planned in 2019.

The Chineke! Ensemble comprises the principal players of the Chineke! Orchestra. It has performed in Manchester in 2017 and made its debut at Wigmore Hall in 2018 before going on to play at the Cheltenham and Ryedale festivals. In the autumn of 2018, the ensemble performed at the Tonbridge Music Club, Wimbledon International Festival, Cambridge Music Festival and at St George’s Bristol.

Chineke!’s founder, Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, says: ‘My aim is to create a space where BME musicians can walk on stage and know that they belong, in every sense of the word. If even one BME child feels that their colour is getting in the way of their musical ambitions, then I hope to inspire them, give them a platform, and show them that music, of whatever kind, is for all people.’

In the words of Sir Simon Rattle: ‘Chineke! is not only an exciting idea but a profoundly necessary
one. The kind of idea which is so obvious that you wonder why it is not already in place. The kind of idea which could deepen and enrich classical music in the UK for generations. What a thrilling prospect!’

Dance Theatre of Harlem

Now a singular presence in the ballet world, the Dance Theatre of Harlem Company tours nationally and internationally, presenting a powerful vision for ballet in the 21st century. The 17-member, multi-ethnic company performs a forward-thinking repertoire that includes treasured classics, neoclassical works by George Balanchine and resident choreographer Robert Garland, as well as innovative contemporary works that use the language of ballet to celebrate African American culture. Through performances, community engagement and arts education, the Company carries forward Dance Theatre of Harlem’s message of empowerment through the arts for all.

Sir Andrew Davis

MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis is also Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He is Conductor Laureate of both the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony, where he has also been named interim Artistic Director until 2020. He also holds the honorary title of Conductor Emeritus from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. One of today’s most recognized and acclaimed conductors, Sir Andrew has conducted virtually all of the world’s major orchestras, opera companies, and festivals.

A vast and award-winning discography documents Sir Andrew’s artistry, with recent CDs including the works of Berlioz, Bliss, Elgar (winner of the 2018 Diapason d’Or de l’Année – Musique Symphonique), Grainger, Ives, Holst, and Handel (nominated for a 2018 GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance).

In 1992, Maestro Davis was made a Commander of the British Empire, and in 1999, he was designated a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honours List.

Simone Dinnerstein

PIANIST

American pianist Simone Dinnerstein is known for her “majestic originality of vision” (the Independent) and her “lean, knowing and unpretentious elegance” (the New Yorker).

2018 was a banner year for Simone Dinnerstein, including a highly lauded recital at the Kennedy Center, her debut with the London Symphony Orchestra, a live recital for BBC’s Radio Three, and an ambitious season as the first artist-in-residence for Music Worcester, encompassing performances, school outreach, master classes, and lectures. Future highlights include a European tour with Kristjan Jarvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic and a residency in San Francisco with the New Century Chamber Orchestra including a collaboration with Daniel Hope and Lynn Harrell for the Beethoven Triple Concerto.

Known for her highly-personal recital programs, she is increasingly branching out intointeresting collaborations. Upcoming projects include performances conducting and leading from the keyboard with her newly-formed string ensemble Baroklyn; duo recitals with cellist Matt Haimovitz; and Portals: Travels through Time, a performance piece with violinist Tim Fain.

Dinnerstein spent 2018 touring Piano Concerto No. 3, a piece that Philip Glass wrote for her as a co-commission by twelve orchestras. Circles, her world premiere recording of the concerto with Grammy-nominated string orchestra A Far Cry, topped the Classical Billboard charts. At their New York premiere, the New Yorker was “struck dumb with admiration” by this new addition to the piano concerto repertoire. She has performed the concerto in the U.S. and abroad, including performances alongside the co-commissioning orchestras. Future performances will be held in France, Germany, Italy, and Canada.
Dinnerstein released Mozart in Havana in 2017, recorded in Cuba with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra. She went on to bring the orchestra to the United States for their first-ever American tour, which was received with tremendous enthusiasm and was featured in specials for PBS and NPR. Also in 2017, she collaborated with choreographer Pam Tanowitz to create New Work for Goldberg Variations, which was on the year-end top ten lists of critics at the New York Times and the Boston Globe. This project continues to tour and will be given a run of performances at New York’s Joyce Theater in 2019.

Dinnerstein first attracted attention in 2007 with her self-produced recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. It was a remarkable success, reaching No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales and was named to many “Best of 2007” lists including those of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the New Yorker. The recording also received the prestigious Diapason D’Or in France and established Dinnerstein’s distinctive and original approach. The New York Times called her “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Since 2007, Dinnerstein has made a further eight albums with repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Ravel, all of which have topped the Classical Billboard charts. Dinnerstein’s performance schedule has taken her around the world. She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie, Sydney Opera House, Seoul Arts Center, and London’s Wigmore Hall; festivals that include the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival and the Aspen, Verbier, and Ravinia festivals; and performances with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, and the Tokyo Symphony.

Dinnerstein has played concerts throughout the U.S. for the Piatigorsky Foundation, an organization dedicated to bringing classical music to non-traditional venues. She gave the first classical music performance in the Louisiana state prison system at the Avoyelles Correctional Center and performed at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in a concert organized by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Dedicated to her community, Dinnerstein founded Neighborhood Classics in 2009, a concert series open to the public and hosted by New York public schools to raise funds for their music education programs. She also created a program called Bachpacking during which she takes a digital keyboard to elementary school classrooms, helping young children get close to the music she loves.

A winner of Astral Artists’ National Auditions, she is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she was a student of Peter Serkin. She also studied with Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music and in London with Maria Curcio. She is on the faculty of the Mannes School of Music and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, son, and Old English Sheepdog, Daisy.

Kevin John Edusei

CHINEKE!

Born in 1976 in Germany Edusei studied sound engineering (Tonmeister), classical percussion and orchestral conducting at the University of the Arts Berlin and the Royal Conservatory The Hague with Jac van Steen and Ed Spanjaard. In 2004 he was awarded the fellowship for the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival by David Zinman, in 2007 he was a prize-winner at the Lucerne Festival conducting competition under the artistic direction of Pierre Boulez, and in 2008 he won the International Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition.

Edusei was appointed Chief Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra in 2014. He has been applauded for introducing an eclectic range of repertoire into the MSO concert programs and cultivating a loyal, trusting audience, and in recognition of these achievements the orchestra was awarded the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government in 2018. Edusei made his conducting debut at The Proms (an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts in London) with the Chineke! Orchestra in August 2017 and led its first commercial recording for the Signum label. In 2019 Edusei will lead the Munich Symphony Orchestra on its first tour of China and Korea.

As Chief Conductor at Bern Opera House, Edusei has led many new productions including Peter Grimes, Salome, Bluebeard’s Castle, Tannhäuser, Kátya Kábanová, a cycle of the Mozart Da Ponte operas – described in the press as “rousing and brilliant” – and Ariadne auf Naxos which led the Neue Zürcher Zeitung to describe him as “the discovery“ of the production. Elsewhere Edusei has conducted at the Semperoper Dresden (Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Hindemith’s Cardillac) and in 2018 he made his debut at the Hamburg State Opera. He has conducted Die Zauberflöte at the Volksoper Wien and Komische Oper Berlin where he has also conducted Don Giovanni. In 19/20 he makes his debut at the Hannover State Opera in a new production of Tosca and at English National Opera in a new production of The Marriage of Figaro.

Edusei has a varied discography, which includes recordings with the Bern Symphony Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra and Tonkünstler Orchestra, and he is currently mid-way through a cycle of the complete Schubert symphonies with the Munich Symphony Orchestra.

Esther Heideman

SOPRANO

“Angelic” is the word most often used to describe the silvery, pure, sweet tone of Esther Heideman’s voice. A winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Lucia Albanese Competition, Esther Heideman continues to impress audiences around the world with her dynamic stage presence. Ms. Heideman has even been described as having Stradivarius vocal cords.

Esther took her first voice lesson when she was 18 and already attending college. Her passion for performing emerged quickly, and she has dedicated her life to it ever since. In 2001, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut singing Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. That performance was immediately followed by her debut with the New York Philharmonic, and her European debut with the Prague Radio Symphony.

Ms. Heideman’s career began with the Minnesota Orchestra, where she sang in more than 20 concerts. She moved to NYC and the very next day received word she was scheduled to make her Carnegie Hall debut, singing Handel’s Messiah. Since this time, she has performed with major orchestras throughout world, such as the Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Pops, Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Beijing New Music Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, National Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Boston Baroque, Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

In addition to performing the staples of traditional concert repertoire, such as Beethoven’s Symphony # 9, Mahler’s Symphony #4, Mozart’s C minor Mass, Handel’s Messiah and Orff’s Carmina Burana, Esther Heideman has featured prominently in the premieres of some of today’s most respected contemporary composers. These have included the role of Jenny Lind in Libby Larsen’s opera Barnum’s Bird, Sister Angelica in The Three Hermits by Stephen Paulus, Madame V in Casanova by Daniel Schnyder, The Revelation of St. John by Daniel Schnyder, and Deus Passus by Wolfgang Rihm. Ms. Heideman also performs regularly with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and has sung works by Szymanowski, Schoenberg, Essa-Pekka Salonen, Perrera, Druckman, Ravel, Delage, and Albert, to name a few.

Upcoming performances include Lucas Foss Time Cycle with the Aspen Music Festival, Songs of the Season/Christmas with Choral Arts Society (at Kennedy Center) and Beethoven’s Symphony # 9 with the National Philharmonic. Esther is also featured on a live recording of Evan’s Ireland’s Poet Patriots from the National Cathedral, to be released in October 2018. When not performing, Ms. Heideman enjoys teaching lessons and master classes and sharing her knowledge and experience with young performers.

Craig Irvin

BARITONE

Baritone Craig Irvin brings a vibrant sound and commitment to character to each role he portrays. Opera News has hailed his “rich, resonant baritone” while the Dallas Morning News has celebrated his “truly commanding baritone”. The 2017-2018 season included singing Dominik and covering Mandryka in Arabella with Canadian Opera Company, Handel’s Messiah with the Jacksonville Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem with Music Worchester, Stubb in Moby Dick with Utah Opera, Dandini in La Cenerentola with Opera Orlando, and Frank in Die Fledermaus with Des Moines Metro Opera. The 2018-2019 season saw the revival of his Dan Packard in Dinner at Eight with the Wexford Festival, Lt. Horstmayer in Silent Night with Austin Opera, Valentin in Faust with Opera Omaha, and Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Portland Symphony. This season includes returns to Minnesota Opera as Orest in Elektra and Utah Opera for a reprise of his Lt. Horstmayer in Silent Night.

While in residence with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, Craig was seen as Angelotti in Tosca, Zuniga in Carmen, Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sam in A Masked Ball, Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly, Doctor/ Professor in Lulu, and Ashby in La fanciulla del West.
Additionally, he covered the roles of Bottom, the title role in The Mikado, the title role in Hercules, Escamillo in Carmen (a role he sang in the student matinee performance), Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, and Brander in Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust.

Other recent engagements include Lieutenant Horstmayer in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ new opera Silent Night with Minnesota Opera and subsequent performances with Opera Philadelphia, Fort Worth Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Atlanta Opera. Additionally he has sung Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles with Utah Opera, Dan Packard in Dinner at Eight, Mandryka in Arabella, and Peter in Hänsel und Gretel with Minnesota Opera, made his role debut as Macbeth with LoftOpera, sang Escamillo in Carmen with Fort Worth Opera, debuted with Sarasota Opera as Marcello in La bohème and Anchorage Opera in the title role of The Mikado, sang Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance with Nashville Opera and Pensacola Opera, made his role debut as Dandini in Pensacola Opera’s La Cenerentola, and performed the Villains in The Tales of Hoffman and Leporello in Don Giovanni with Wolf Trap Opera. In addition, he has sung Betto in Gianni Schicchi and covered the role of Simone in A Florentine Tragedy with the Canadian Opera Company, covered the role of Paolo in Simon Boccanegra with Los Angeles Opera, sang Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Phoenix Symphony, returned to Canadian Opera Company as 1st Nazarene and Jochanaan/cover in Strauss’ Salome, made his debut with Opera Saratoga performing both Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and has sung Ramphis in Aïda with Pensacola Opera, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Intermountain Opera and Knoxville Opera, Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with Naples Opera, Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Des Moines Metro Opera, Private Willis in Iolanthe with Nashville Opera, and Don Alhambra in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers with Opera North. 

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, led by Wynton Marsalis, is made up of 15 of the finest soloists, ensemble players, and arrangers in jazz music today.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason

CELLIST

SHEKU KANNEH-MASON, ONE OF THE BRIGHTEST YOUNG STARS ON THE CLASSICAL MUSIC SCENE, BECAME A HOUSEHOLD NAME WORLDWIDE IN MAY 2018 AFTER PERFORMING AT THE WEDDING OF THE DUKE AND DUCHESS OF SUSSEX AT WINDSOR CASTLE. HIS PERFORMANCE WAS GREETED WITH UNIVERSAL EXCITEMENT AFTER BEING WATCHED BY NEARLY TWO BILLION PEOPLE GLOBALLY.

THE WINNER OF THE 2016 BBC YOUNG MUSICIAN COMPETITION, SHEKU IS ALREADY IN GREAT DEMAND FROM MAJOR ORCHESTRAS AND CONCERT HALLS WORLDWIDE. IN JANUARY 2018, HIS DEBUT RECORDING FOR DECCA CLASSICS, INSPIRATION, WAS RELEASED, FEATURING THE SHOSTAKOVICH CELLO CONCERTO NO. 1 WITH THE CITY OF BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND MIRGA GRAŽINYTĖ-TYLA. THE PHENOMENAL SUCCESS OF THE ALBUM PROPELLED SHEKU TO A DEBUT SPOT AT NUMBER 18 IN THE OFFICIAL UK ALBUM CHARTS, AND NUMBER 1 IN THE CLASSICAL CHART. ALONGSIDE SHORT WORKS BY SHOSTAKOVICH, OFFENBACH, CASALS, AND SAINT-SAËNS, SHEKU’S OWN ARRANGEMENT OF BOB MARLEY’S NO WOMAN NO CRY WAS ALSO FEATURED ON THE ALBUM, AND WENT VIRAL ON SOCIAL MEDIA, CLOCKING 1 MILLION STREAMS IN ITS FIRST MONTH ON SPOTIFY ALONE. IN JUNE 2018, SHEKU RECEIVED THE MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR AND THE CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS AT THE RE-LAUNCHED CLASSIC BRIT AWARDS, AND IN JULY 2018 BECAME THE FIRST ARTIST TO RECEIVE THE NEW BRIT CERTIFIED BREAKTHROUGH AWARD, HAVING SOLD OVER 30,000 COPIES OF HIS DEBUT ALBUM IN THE UK AND SURPASSING 100,000 ALBUM SALES WORLDWIDE.

SHEKU HAS ALREADY PERFORMED WITH A NUMBER OF THE MAJOR UK ORCHESTRAS AND MADE DEBUTS IN THE 18/19 SEASON WITH THE SEATTLE SYMPHONY, THE ORCHESTRE PHILHARMONIQUE DE RADIO FRANCE, NETHERLANDS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AT THE CONCERTGEBOUW, THE ATLANTA SYMPHONY, THE JAPAN PHILHARMONIC AS WELL AS RETURNING TO THE BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA TO PERFORM THE ELGAR CONCERTO IN HIS HOMETOWN OF NOTTINGHAM.

IN 19/20, HE OPENS THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC SEASON AND MAKES DEBUTS WITH THE FRANKFURT RADIO SYMPHONY, BALTIMORE SYMPHONY, AND THE LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA AMONG OTHERS. HE ALSO MAKES HIS DEBUT IN A NUMBER OF MAJOR GERMAN CITIES PERFORMING ELGAR WITH THE CBSO.

RECITAL PERFORMANCES IN 18/19 AND 19/20 HAVE INCLUDED AND WILL INCLUDE DEBUTS AT THE BARBICAN CENTRE’S MILTON COURT, WIGMORE HALL, ZURICH TONHALLE, LUCERNE FESTIVAL, AS WELL AS A MAJOR TOUR OF NORTH AMERICA TO INCLUDE CONCERTS IN BOSTON, LOS ANGELES, BERKELEY, ANN ARBOR, MINNESOTA AND SHEKU’S RECITAL DEBUT AT CARNEGIE HALL NEW YORK.

IN 2017, SHEKU MADE HIS BBC PROMS DEBUT AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL AS SOLOIST WITH THE CHINEKE! ORCHESTRA, AN ENSEMBLE WITH WHICH HE ENJOYS A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP, HAVING TAKEN PART IN THEIR DEBUT CONCERT AT THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL IN 2015 AND RETURNING AS SOLOIST TO PERFORM THE HAYDN CONCERTO IN SEPTEMBER 2016. HE RETURNED TO THE ALBERT HALL TO PERFORM THE ELGAR CONCERTO AT THE PROMS IN SUMMER 2019. SHEKU IS PASSIONATE ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING CLASSICAL MUSIC ACCESSIBLE TO ALL AND IS CURRENTLY THE FIRST LONDON MUSIC MASTERS JUNIOR AMBASSADOR. IN 2018/19, HE BEGAN A TWO YEAR ROLE AS ‘YOUNG ARTIST IN RESIDENCE’ AT THE ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC TAKING PART IN THE ORCHESTRA’S EDUCATION PROGRAMME AS WELL AS PERFORMING IN LIVERPOOL A NUMBER OF TIMES ACROSS THE TWO SEASONS.

IN FEBRUARY 2018, SHEKU PERFORMED ‘EVENING OF ROSES’ AT THE BAFTAS AWARDS SHOW AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL. HE WAS JOINED ON STAGE BY FOUR OF HIS SIX SIBLINGS, ALL OF WHOM PERFORM CLASSICAL MUSIC TO AN EXCEPTIONAL STANDARD. THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME ANY ARTIST HAS BEEN INVITED TO PERFORM DURING THE CEREMONY TWO YEARS RUNNING AND FOLLOWED HIS MEMORABLE PERFORMANCE OF LEONARD COHEN’S ‘HALLELUJAH’ AT THE 2017 BAFTAS, THE SUBSEQUENT RECORDING GOING VIRAL ON YOUTUBE.

IN JULY 2019, SHEKU WAS AWARDED THE PRESTIGIOUS 2019 PPL CLASSICAL AWARD AT THE O2 SILVER CLEF CEREMONY IN SUPPORT OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC THERAPY CHARITY, NORDOFF ROBBINS. IN 2017, HE WAS AWARDED THE SOUTH BANK SKY ARTS BREAKTHROUGH AWARD, GIVEN BY THE JUDGES TO THE MOST PROMISING YOUNG ARTIST ACROSS ALL GENRES, FOLLOWING RECENT WINNERS BILLIE PIPER AND STORMZY. HE HAS PERFORMED ALONGSIDE HOLLYWOOD A-LISTERS IN ‘THE CHILDREN’S MONOLOGUES’ DIRECTED BY DANNY BOYLE AT CARNEGIE HALL NEW YORK AND HAS PLAYED AT NO. 10 DOWNING STREET IN FRONT OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS GUEST LIST FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH.

SHEKU IS CURRENTLY A FULL-TIME ABRSM SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC, STUDYING WITH HANNAH ROBERTS. HE BEGAN LEARNING THE CELLO AT THE AGE OF SIX WITH SARAH HUSON-WHYTE AND THEN STUDIED WITH BEN DAVIES AT THE JUNIOR DEPARTMENT OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF MUSIC WHERE HE HELD THE ABRSM JUNIOR SCHOLARSHIP. HE HAS RECEIVED MASTERCLASS TUITION FROM GUY JOHNSTON, ROBERT MAX, ALEXANDER BAILLIE, STEVEN DOANE, RAFAEL WALLFISCH, JO COLE, MELISSA PHELPS AND JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER AND IN JULY 2017, PARTICIPATED IN THE VERBIER FESTIVAL ACADEMY IN MASTERCLASSES WITH FRANS HELMERSON AND MIKLOS PERENYI. A KEEN CHAMBER MUSICIAN, SHEKU PERFORMS WITH HIS SISTER, ISATA AND BROTHER, BRAIMAH, AS A MEMBER OF THE KANNEH-MASON TRIO. HE PLAYS AN ANTONIUS AND HIERONYMUS AMATI CELLO C.1610, KINDLY ON LOAN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION.

Natalia Khoma

UKRAINE NATIONAL SYMPHONY

Natalia Khoma is an internationally renowned cellist. Since winning the All-Ukrainian competition, Khoma has won top prizes at the Budapest Pablo Casals International Competition, Markneukirchen Competition in Germany, and the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow, as well as First Prize at the Belgrade International Cello Competition.

A native of Lviv, Ukraine, Ms. Khoma studied for eight years at the Moscow Conservatory and in the United States, received an Artist Diploma from Boston University. The first and only Ukrainian cellist to become a laureate of the Tchaikovsky Competition, Natalia Khoma has since distinguished herself as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras throughout Russia, as well as the U.S., Canada, South America, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, South Africa and the Middle and Far East. She has performed as a soloist with such leading ensembles as the Berlin Radio Orchestra, Moscow Radio Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Ukrainian National State Symphony Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Ensemble of New York City Symphony Orchestra, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra and has had solo recitals in Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), Carnegie Hall (New York), Jordan Hall (Boston), Schauspielhaus (Berlin), Palais des Beux Arts (Brussels), Amphitheatre Richelieu de la Sorbonne, Salons de Boffrand de la Presidence du Senat (Paris), Philharmonic Big Hall of Columns (Kyiv) and in a host of countries across the globe.

She is often invited to appear at international festivals in Switzerland,Germany, Spain, Canada, Ukraine and the U.S. among others. Natalia Khoma has been hailed around the world as “technically dazzling”, “intense, brilliant, and with perfect structure”. She also has been praised for “the precision of her executions, Slavic Zen, full warm cello tone….and, what a drive!” Natalia made her first public appearance on TV at age ten and performed her first concerto with orchestra at age thirteen. Ms. Khoma has been a Professor at the Lviv Conservatory in Ukraine, Roosevelt University College of Music in Chicago, Michigan State University and was a visiting Professor of the University of Connecticut School of Music. In 2010 Natalia was featured on a Grammy nominated CD for the Dorian Sono Luminus label. She has also recorded for NHK-TV (Japan), Naxos, TNC/Cambria, Blue Griffin, IMP, Dorian, Centaur and Ongaku labels, as well as for Ukrainian, Russian, German, Spanish, Serbian, Israeli and Hungarian Radio and Television and has appeared on WNYC-FM in New York, WGBH-FM in Boston and CKWR in Ontario (Canada).

Natalia Khoma is an Honorary Professor of Lviv State Academy of Music, Odesa State Music Academy and Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory). For several years she played on famous Stradivarius cello.

In 2011 she was appointed Artistic Advisor of the Music and Art Center of Greene County, New York. Natalia serves as organizer of the Children and Music Foundation, which provides musical training, instruments and financial aid to young, gifted Ukrainian students in need.In addition to her performing activities, Natalia is an Associate Professor of cello at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC and Director of the Charleston Music Fest

Vladimir Lande

SIBERIAN STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Russian-American conductor Vladimir Lande is the Music Director and Conductor of the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra (Krasnoyarsk, Russia). In 2008, Maestro Lande was appointed principal guest conductor of the St. Petersburg State Symphony, and in 2011 he led the orchestra on a 24-concert “Tour of the Americas” including New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Philadelphia’s KimmelCenter, Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Hall, and the Society of the Performing Arts in Houston, as well as the most prestigious venues in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile and Uruguay.

A graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory and a former student of the renowned professor Gustav Maier, Maestro Lande enjoys a remarkable career as principal and guest conductor of major orchestras including the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the National Gallery Orchestra (in Washington D.C. and on a U.S. tour), the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Argentina, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, Naples Philharmonic Orchestra (Florida) the Baltimore Opera Orchestra, and many more.

Maestro Lande actively tours with various orchestras; his most recent notable tours include Central and South America, United States, South Korea, and Europe. He is also Music Director and Conductor of Washington (DC) Soloists Chamber Orchestra.

Vladimir Lande boasts an extraordinary recording career. His recordings received high critically acclaim and numerous awards, such as the Clef d’Or Global Music Award and the Award of the German Classical Music Critics Association. His CDs of Schubert’s Unfinished and Great Symphonies were released on Brilliant Classics in the summer of 2011, and his CD of American composer James Aikman’s music was released on Naxos. Other notable recordings include works by Respighi and Castelnuovo-Tedesco as well as contemporary works for the Parma label. Currently, Maestro Lande is in the process of recording a 17 CD cycle of the complete symphonic works of Soviet composer Mieczslaw Weinberg, whose centennial will be celebrated in 2019. Maestro Lande is an expert and active champion of contemporary music, having recorded more than 30 CDs of contemporary compositions.

Vladimir Lande’s vision for contemporary music crosses genre boundaries in such ground-breaking projects as “Concerto for Chef and Orchestra,” and, in collaboration with the perfume industry in France, “The Fragrance of Sound.”

In June of 2011 Maestro Lande successfully launched a series of video recordings for Naxos titled “Concerts from the Palaces of St. Petersburg.” His future plans include multiple high-definition video projects with the Siberian State Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Lande divides his time between Russia and the USA when not on tour.

Wynton Marsalis

Trumpet

Wynton Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer and bandleader, an educator and a leading advocate of American culture. He has created and performed an expansive range of music from quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras and tap dance to ballet, expanding the vocabulary for jazz and classical music with a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers.

Always swinging, Marsalis blows his trumpet with a clear tone, a depth of emotion and a unique, virtuosic style derived from an encyclopedic range of trumpet techniques. When you hear Marsalis play, you’re hearing life being played out through music.

Marsalis’ core beliefs and foundation for living are based on the principals of jazz. He promotes individual creativity (improvisation), collective cooperation (swing), gratitude and good manners (sophistication), and faces adversity with persistent optimism (the blues). With his evolved humanity and through his selfless work, Marsalis has elevated the quality of human engagement for individuals, social networks and cultural institutions throughout the world.

Claudia Schreier

DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM

Claudia Schreier has been praised for her distinctive choreographic voice, which fuses neoclassical technique with a contemporary vocabulary. Born in New York, Ms. Schreier trained at the Ballet School of Stamford under the direction of Stephanie Marini and received a B.A. in Sociology and Secondary Degree in Dramatic Arts from Harvard University in 2008.

Ms. Schreier’s most recent awards include the 2018 Princess Grace Award for Choreography, the 2018 NEFA National Dance Project Award, the 2018 Dance/NYC Dance Advancement Fund supported by the Ford Foundation, and the 2017 Lotos Foundation Prize for Dance.

Ms. Schreier has choreographed over 25 ballets including the premiere of Passage for Dance Theatre of Harlem (co-commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival and the Kennedy Center).

She is the Artistic Director of Claudia Schreier & Company, which since 2015 has presented several full-evening performances of her choreography featuring dancers from New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Miami City Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem, among other leading companies, and collaborations with composers and musicians, including Emmy Award-winning composer Jeff Beal, Juilliard composer Will Stackpole, and chamber choir Tapestry.

Her TEDx talk “Thinking On Your Feet,” was presented at Columbia University.

Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry, as both a singer and an actress. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy Award, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2015 and received a 2015 National Medal of Arts – America’s highest honor for achievement in the arts – from President Barack Obama. Blessed with a luminous soprano and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth telling, she is as much at home on Broadway and opera stages as she is in roles on film and television. In addition to her theatrical work, she maintains a major career as a concert and recording artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is a leading cultural figure in the Australian arts landscape, bringing the best in orchestral music and passionate performance to a diverse audience across the nation and around the world.

Each year the MSO engages with more than 5 million people through live concerts, TV, radio and online broadcasts, international and regional tours, recordings and education programs.

Under the spirited leadership of Chief Conductor, Sir Andrew Davis, the MSO is a vital presence, both onstage and in the community, in cultivating classical music in Australia. The Orchestra is internationally acclaimed, nurturing strong cultural partnerships throughout South East Asia. The MSO is the only Australian orchestra partnered with UNITEL, the world’s leading distributor of classical music programs for film, television and video.

The MSO regularly attracts great artists from around the globe; including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lang Lang, Renee Fleming and Thomas Hampson, while bringing Melbourne’s finest musicians to the world through tours to China, Indonesia, Europe and the United States.

The nation’s first professional orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has been the sound of the city of Melbourne since 1906. The MSO was the first Australian orchestra to perform overseas (1965) and the first to debut at Carnegie Hall (1970).

From its home at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, to free summer concerts at Melbourne’s largest outdoor venue, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, to its Secret Symphony performances at unique inner-city locations, the MSO evolves and inspires a broad range of audiences with more than 160 concerts a year.

Committed to shaping and serving the city it inhabits, the MSO regularly reaches beyond the customary classical audience by collaborating with artists such as Professor Brian Cox, Nick Cave, Flight Facilities, Kate Miller-Heidke, Tim Minchin and Laura Mvula.

As a national ambassador for the arts and a champion of music education, the MSO campaigns for the rights of all people to access and learn music. Boasting carefully curated education programs, a regional touring schedule, accessible concerts and free community events, the MSO provides opportunities for all music lovers to be involved with the Orchestra, no matter their age or location.

Mark Mummert

WORCESTER CHORUS

Mark Mummert is Cantor at Trinity Lutheran Church, Worcester, MA where he leads the worship music of the congregation, conducts the Trinity Choir, the Trinity Choristers, the Trinity Bells, and is the Artistic Director of the Music at Trinity fine arts series. Mark is also Artistic Director of Diamonds From The Dust, a professional vocal ensemble based in Worcester and Assistant Director / Accompanist for the Worcester Chorus, directed by Dr. Chris Shepard.

Prior to moving to Massachusetts in 2016, he was the 2015 Distinguished Visiting Cantor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, now United Lutheran Seminary. He was Director of Worship at Houston’s Christ the King Lutheran Church, the home of Bach Society Houston (2008-2015). He was the
Seminary Musician at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, now United Lutheran Seminary, (1990-2008) where he led the music for the daily chapel, conducted the Seminary Choir, and taught courses in hymnology, liturgical practice, and church music.

As an organist, Mark has appeared at the conventions of the Societas Liturgia in Würzburg, Germany, the National conventions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University, and the American Guild of Organists (AGO). He is the Dean of the Worcester Chapter of the AGO. Mark’s recording Reformation Chorales Reformed including organ works by Bach,
Mendelssohn, Distler, and Clarke was released in March 2017. Mark appears in an organ recital in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin and at evensongs at the cathedrals of Worcester, Coventry, Gloucester, and St. Paul’s London in the summer of 2019 with Worcester Masterworks Chorale.

Mark is a composer of the first musical setting of Holy Communion in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), the commended worship book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Augsburg Fortress publishes his numerous psalm settings and other works for the liturgy.

As a choral conductor, Mark led the Christ the King Lutheran Church Choir tour throughout Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, and St. Petersburg, Russia (2013). His conducting of Arvo Pärt’s Passio in 2016 and the North American premiere of Robert Koolstra’s reconstruction of J. S. Bach’s St. Mark Passion in 2017 in Worcester has been highly praised by his peers. In 2019, Mark produced and served as organist for the New England premiere of James MacMillan’s St. Luke Passion with the Trinity Choir, Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Festival Chorus, and the Worcester Children’s Chorus to a capacity crowd on Palm Sunday at Trinity Church in Worcester, with Dr. Joshua W. Rohde conducting. In April of 2020, Mark conducts J. S. Bach’s beloved St. Matthew Passion on Palm Sunday with the Trinity Choir and
Orchestra and Diamonds From The Dust.

As a professional singer, Mark has performed with the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart Festival, Worcester Chorus, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the Bach Choir Houston, Houston Chamber Choir, CONCORA (Connecticut Choral Artists) and St. John’s Schola Cantorum. Mark studies voice with Jane Shivick.

Artistic management for Mark is provided by Seven Eight Artists.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine

Formed by the Council of Ministers of Ukraine in November of 1918, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is considered to be one of the finest symphony orchestras in Eastern Europe. Its first conductor was Oleksander Horilyj. Natan Rachlin was the Artistic Director of the Orchestra from 1937 until 1962. Stefan Turchak, Volodymyr Kozhuchar, Fedir Hlushchenko, Igor Blazhkov and Theodore Kuchar consequently conducted the Orchestra as its Principal Conductors. Other conductors who worked with the NSOU include Leopold Stokowski, Igor Markevitch, Kurt Sanderling, Evgeny Mravinsky, Kiril Kondrashin, Evgeny Svetlanov, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Soloists who performed with the NSOU include Artur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Gidon Kremer, OlehKrysa, Monserrat Caballe, Jose Carreras, and Juan Diego Flores.

The NSOU was entrusted with the premier performances of the works of the following composers: Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khatchaturian, Boris Lyatoshynsky, Valentyn Silvestrov, Myroslav Skoryk, and Evgen Stankovych.

The Orchestra has gained international recognition over a remarkably short period of time. After an appearance in Moscow, Dmitri Shostakovich commented: “This orchestra has as distinguished a group of performers as one would be likely to find anywhere. The ensemble of the orchestra is of the highest level. In addition, the various soloists and instrumental groups within the Orchestra play exceptionally and complement each other beautifully – as would the greatest of the world’s symphony orchestras.”

Since 1993, the NSOU has released more than 100 sound recordings which include both Ukrainian and international repertoires. Most of these recordings have received the highest international acclaim. In 1994, the Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) rated NSOU’s recording of Boris Lyatoshynsky’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 3 as “The Best Recording of the Year.” The CD of Silvestrov’s “Requiem for Larissa” was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005. The CD of Bloch and Lees’ Violin Concertos was nominated for a Grammy Award four years later.

The NSOU has performed in successful concert tours throughout Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Belarus, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, England, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates.

“… A program rich with energy and unusually adventurous placed the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in a highly favourable light when it gave its only Sydney concert during its Australian tour on Friday. This is an orchestra with many virtues. Its strings can conjure up a vibrant songfulness; the woodwinds have a fruity, penetrating ripeness; the brass could endanger the walls of Jericho; the percussion might wake the dead…” ~The Sydney Morning Herald

Since April of 1999, Volodymyr Sirenko has been the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the NSOU. Since June of 2006, Alexander Hornostai has been its Managing Director and Producer.

Chi-chi Nwanoku

CHINEKE!

An ex-sprinter and half the size of her double bass, Chi-chi Nwanoku has gained a reputation as one of the finest exponents of her instrument today.

The eldest of five children from Nigerian and Irish parents, Chi-chi was seven when she discovered the piano at a neighbour’s. She returned to their house daily to play until the neighbours got so fed up they wheeled the piano up the road and gave it to her! Meanwhile, she was spotted by an athletics coach and trained as a 100-metre sprinter, eventually competing at National level. This career ended abruptly due to a knee injury aged 18, which is when (and why) she took up the double bass and actively pursued a career in music. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and with Franco Petracchi in Rome, and soon found herself in demand internationally.

Chi-chi is the Founder, Artistic and Executive Director of the Chineke! Foundation, which supports, inspires and encourages Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) classical musicians working in the UK and Europe. The Chineke! Foundation celebrates diversity in the classical music industry through its two orchestras, the Chineke! Orchestra and Chineke! Junior Orchestra, as well as its educational and Community engagement work. Ultimately, the Chineke! Foundation aims to give classical BME musicians a platform on which to excel, and by such methods increase the representation of BME musicians in British and European orchestras.

Chi-chi was a founder member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and held the position of Principal double bass there for 30 years. She is Professor of Double Bass Historical Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where she was made a Fellow in 1998.

Chi-chi’s range of musical interests have resulted in a broad career performing and recording in a diversity of styles from authentic baroque through to 21st century and new commissions, with many of Europe’s leading chamber orchestras and ensembles. Some of her notable chamber recordings include Schubert’s Trout Quintet (recorded three times), and Octet, Beethoven Septet, Hummel Piano quintet and Boccherini Sonatas. Her solo recording of Dittersdorf and Vanhal Concertos with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Hyperion) received critical acclaim.

In 2012 Barrie Gavin directed a documentary film about Chi-chi’s career, called Tales from the Bass Line.

As a broadcaster, Chi-chi presented BBC Radio 3 Requests for four years, she guests for the TV Proms and was Jury member of BBC 2 TV Classical Star. She presented a two-part series for BBC Radio 4 in 2015 which brought to life the stories and music of black composers and musicians from the 18th century, whose vivid presence on the classical music scene have slipped through the net. Chi-chi was also the ‘mentor’ for the 2016 BBC 4 TV series All Together Now, the Great Orchestra Challenge. Chi-chi is featured in the BBC Radio 4 series Only Artists, and was Kirsty Young’s guest on BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs in February 2018.

Chi-chi is a trustee of the London Music Fund, Tertis Foundation a Council Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. She served on the board of the Association of British Orchestras (ABO) from 2008–13 and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain 2000-18. She created the ABO/RPS Salomon Prize, which celebrates the ‘unsung heroes’ working in the ranks of British orchestras.

Chi-chi was awarded the OBE for Services to Music in 2017 and the MBE in the 2001 Queen’s Birthday honours. She was one of the 100 – Happy List in the Independent on Sunday 2011. In 2016 she was appointed as an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Laban Conservatoire in recognition of her ‘pioneering contribution to music, in particular the inspiration she provides, the commitment she has shown, and the contribution she has made to addressing inequalities within classical music in the UK, most recently through the Chineke! Foundation’.

Chi-chi was awarded the Black British Business Awards, Person of the Year 2016 and was the recipient of the ABO Award 2017, which is awarded for ‘the most important contribution to the orchestral life of the UK’. She was named in the Top 10 of the BBC Woman’s Hour, Women in Music Power List 2018 and, in 2018, was awarded the inaugural Commonwealth Cultural Enterprise Award for Women in the Arts at the Commonwealth Business Women’s Awards. Also in 2018 Chi-chi was made an Honorary Doctor Music at the University of Chichester. She is featured in the Royal Academy of Music exhibition ‘Hitting the Right Note: Amazing Women of the Academy’. She was awarded the Creative Industries Award at the Variety Catherine Awards 2018 and shortlisted for the Groucho Maverick Award. Chi-chi was voted to the ‘Powerlist of Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People 2019.

Garrick Ohlsson

Piano

Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although long regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire, which ranges over the entire piano literature. A student of the late Claudio Arrau, Mr. Ohlsson has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire.

A frequent guest with the orchestras in Australia, Mr. Ohlsson has recently visited Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart as well as the New Zealand Symphony in Wellington and Auckland. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Ohlsson has collaborated with the Takacs, Cleveland, Emerson, and Tokyo string quartets, among other ensembles.

Amanda Powell

APOLLO’S FIRE

Amanda Powell has been praised for her “abundant vocal technique and infectious spirit” (ClevelandClassical.com) and enjoys a diverse career in the realms of classical, folk, and jazz. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Shenandoah Conservatory and a certificate in jazz improvisation from the Jazz in July Institute (University of Massachusetts). Ms. Powell’s solo performances with Apollo’s Fire in recent seasons have included Handel’s Messiah (mezzo soloist), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Second Lady), Praetorius Christmas Vespers (soprano soloist), and Liza Jane in the 2013 national tour of the acclaimed Come to the River program. Her work as an internationally recognized leader in the field of sacred world music has taken her to concert halls in Italy, Spain, France, Mongolia and China. Her debut solo album, entitled Beyond Boundaries, was released in 2015 and quickly sold out on Amazon. The album explores folk and jazz traditions of cultures around the world. Amanda spent her childhood summers riding through the Blue Ridge Mountains in the back of her grandpa’s pickup truck and later lived in the Shenandoah Valley, within sight of Sugarloaf Mountain.

Elena Radchenko

RUSSIAN NATIONAL BALLET

In 1994, the legendary Bolshoi principal dancer Elena Radchenko was selected by Presidential decree to assume the first permanent artistic directorship of the company. Ms. Radchenko is the founder of the Russian National Ballet, focusing on upholding the grand national tradition of the major Russian ballet works and developing new talents throughout Russia, with a repertory of virtually all of the great full works which continue to enlighten, inspire, and entertain audience across the continent.

William Fred Scott

CHANTICLEER

William Fred Scott was named Music Director in 2015. He is the fifth music director for Chanticleer, and the graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service has been involved in music for more than 40 years. He was the artistic director and principal conductor of the Atlanta Opera from 1985-2005 and associate conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1981-88.

Scott spent five years as director of choral music at the Westminster Schools in Atlanta before joining Chanticleer and is a well-known organist. His family has a long history with the Thomasville Entertainment Foundation, which brought Chanticleer to the TCA as part of its 80th season. His grandfather was one of the first supporters of the TEF.

Chris Shepard

WORCESTER CHORUS

Artistic Director of the Worcester Chorus since 2009, Chris also serves as Artistic Director of the Connecticut Choral Artists (CONCORA) in Hartford and the Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey. His choirs have collaborated with a number of orchestras, such as the Juilliard Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, in venues that include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Radio City Music Hall in New York, as well as the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Chris has prepared choirs for major international conductors, including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Simone Young, Carlos Miguel Prieto and William Boughton, as well as for Broadway legend Patti Lupone and Ray Davies of the Kinks. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2015, and made his conducting debut with the New Haven Symphony in 2016.

Chris returned to America in 2008 after a dozen years in Sydney, Australia, where he founded the Sydneian Bach Choir and Orchestra. He led their BACH 2010, a project to perform all of Bach’s choral cantatas. Under his direction, the ensemble performed over eighty cantatas, as well as the two Passions, B Minor Mass, and Christmas Oratorio; they completed the cantata cycle in 2013. In addition to the music of J.S. Bach, Chris has conducted many staples of the choral-orchestral repertoire, and he has commissioned and premiered a number of new choral works in both Australia and America. He also leads two of the longest-running annual Messiah performances in America, with the Worcester Chorus at Mechanics Hall, and at Carnegie Hall with the Masterwork Chorus.

A committed music educator, Chris has served on the faculty of the Taft School, Sydney Grammar School, Hotchkiss Summer Portals, and Holy Cross College. He founded the Litchfield County Children’s Choir in 1990, and has conducted numerous middle and high school festival choirs in New England, New York and Australia. He presented two documentaries with SBS-TV, an Australian national public television network, and has given several presentations at conferences for American Choral Directors Association and Australian National Kodàly Association. Chris has been a guest conductor at Emmanuel Church in Boston, a church renowned for its four-decade Bach cantata project, and he currently serves as Music Director of St John’s Episcopal Church in Stamford, Connecticut. He led the Dessoff Choir in New York City from 2010 to 2016.

A pianist and keyboard continuist, Chris holds degrees from the Hartt School, the Yale School of Music (where he studied choral conducting with Marguerite Brooks) and the University of Sydney. He researched the performance history of Bach’s B Minor Mass in New York City for his PhD in Musicology; his dissertation won the American Choral Directors Association’s 2012 Julius Herford Prize for outstanding doctoral thesis in choral music.

The Siberian State Symphony Orchestra

The Siberian State Symphony Orchestra dates back to 1977. Very quickly in it’s early history the orchestra, then led by eminent Soviet conductor Ivan Shpiller, has won the reputation of one of the best orchestras in former Soviet Union. SSSO has worked with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Dmitri Jurowski, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Vladislav Chernushenko among others, and performed regularly with the soloists Mikhail Pletnev, Vadim Repin, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Lazar Berman, Igor Oistrakh, Denis Matsuev, Rudolf Buchbinder, and Nikolai Lugansky, to name a few.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain The Siberian State Symphony has started touring internationally to critical acclaim.

In 1993, by the special Decree of the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Orchestra was awarded the title of State Orchestra and in 2009 received the venerable status of a Particularly Valuable Object of Cultural Heritage.

In 2015 Vladimir Lande became orchestra’s new Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. Since then, SSSOhas started successful new collaborations with international recording labels such as Naxos, Delos, and Parma Records and orchestra’s televised concerts became available for online streaming. The orchestra and it’s new Artistic Director are not only maintaining the high performing standards but also dedicate significant amount of time to their mission as educators in the region of Central Siberia.

Volodymyr Sirenko

NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF UKRAINE

Born in the Poltava region of Ukraine, Volodymyr Sirenko has been compared by the international press to other brilliant conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Simon Rattle.

His conducting debut took place at the Kyiv Philharmonic Hall in 1983 with works by Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Boulez. In 1989 Sirenko graduated from the Kyiv Conservatoire where he studied conducting under Prof. Allin Vlasenko. In 1990, he was a finalist at the International Conducting Competition in Prague. A year later, he was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Ukrainian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 1999. During this period he made over 300 recordings that are kept in the funds of the Ukrainian Radio and include Mozart Symphonies Nos. 38 and 41, Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Brahms A German Requiem, Rachmaninov Bells, Dvorak Symphonies Nos. 7 and 9.

He has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine since 1999. Among hundreds of programs that he has performed with the orchestra, highlights include The Complete Symphonies by Gustav Mahler, the four Passions and Mass in B Minor by Bach, and Lyatoshynsky’s Complete Symphonies.

He recorded over 50 compact discs and the CD of Silvestrov’s Requiem for Larissa was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005. He premiered many works by Ukrainian composers including Silvestrov’s Symphonies No. 7 and 8, and Stankovych’s Symphony No. 6. He has worked with many international orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Sinfonia Warsovia, NOSPR (Katowice), the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, the Bratislava Radio Symphony, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Russia, the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

Sirenko has appeared in numerous concert halls around the world, including Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Brucknerhaus (Linz), Barbican Hall and Cadogan Hall (London), Theatre des Champs-Elysees and Opera Comique (Paris), Seoul Art Center, Palau de la Musica in Valencia and Centro Manuel de Falla in Granada, Filharmonia Narodowa (Warsaw), the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and the Great Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonia, the Roy Thomson Hall (Toronto), the Tokyo City Opera and the Osaka Symphony Hall.

Volodymyr Sirenko is a People’s Artist of Ukraine and laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize, Ukraine’s most prestigious award. He is Professor of the opera and symphonic conducting at the National Music Academy of Ukraine.

Jeannette Sorrell

APOLLO’S FIRE

Award-winning harpsichordist and conductor Jeannette Sorrell has been credited by the U.K.’s BBC Music Magazine for forging “a vibrant, life-affirming approach to the re-making of early music… a seductive vision of musical authenticity.” Sorrell made her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony in 2013 as conductor and soloist in the complete Brandenburg Concertos. With standing ovations every night, the event was hailed as “an especially joyous occasion” (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). Other guest conducting engagements include the Seattle Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony (Miami), Utah Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), the Opera Theatre of St. Louis with the St. Louis Symphony, Omaha Symphony, and the Houston Early Music Festival where she filled in for British conductor Richard Egarr on five days’ notice, leading the complete Brandenburg Concertos and playing the harpsichord solo in Brandenburg No. 5.

Sorrell and Apollo’s Fire record for the British label AVIE RECORDS, and have released 24 commercial CDs, of which seven have been Top 10 bestsellers on the Billboard Classical chart. Her recordings include the complete Brandenburg Concerti and harpsichord concerti (with Sorrell as harpsichord soloist and director), which was praised by the London Times as “a swaggering version… brilliantly played by Sorrell.” She has also released four discs of Mozart, and was hailed as “a near-perfect Mozartian” by Fanfare Magazine. Billboard bestsellers include the Brandenburgs, the Monteverdi Vespers, and Sorrell’s 4 crossover/folk programs: Come to the River – An Early American Gathering; Sacrum Mysterium – A Celtic Christmas Vespers; Sugarloaf Mountain – An Appalachian Gathering; and Sephardic Journey – Wanderings of the Spanish Jews.

Sorrell has attracted national attention and awards for creative programming. She is a two-time recipient of the prestigious “American Masterpieces” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the research and production of early American music. Her awards include an honorary doctorate from Case Western Reserve University, the Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society of Early Music and the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society, given for her work in reconstructing early American repertoire. As a teenager, Ms. Sorrell lived in the rural Shenandoah Valley, where she grew to love Appalachian music and Southern harmony.

Ilya Yakushev

Piano

Winner of the 2005 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Yakushev received his first award at age 12 as a prizewinner of the Young Artists Concerto Competition in his native St. Petersburg. In 1997, he received the Mayor of St. Petersburg’s Young Talents award, and in both 1997 and 1998, he won First Prize at the Donostia Hiria International Piano Competition in San Sebastian, Spain. In 1998, he received a national honor, The Award for Excellence in Performance, presented to him by the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation in Moscow. Most recently, Mr. Yakushev became a recipient of the prestigious Gawon International Music Society’s Award in Seoul, Korea.

Mr. Yakushev attended the Rimsky-Korsakov College of Music in his native St. Petersburg, Russia, and subsequently came to New York City to attend Mannes College of Music where he studied with legendary pianist Vladimir Feltsman.

Ilya Yakushev is a Yamaha artist.

Milad Yousufi

COMPOSER, MUSICIAN, ARTIST

Milad Yousufi is a pianist, composer, conductor, poet, singer, painter and calligrapher who is deeply inspired by his Afghan culture and heritage. He is the first Afghan-influenced western classical composer.

Mr. Yousufi was born in 1995 during the civil war in Afghanistan. Under Taliban rule, music was completely banned. As a very young child he painted the piano keyboard on paper to quietly practice. When Taliban rule was lifted he took advantage of every opportunity to study music and art. At age twelve he was teaching painting and attending Kabul’s one music school, and he soon won an international piano competition in Germany and began performing internationally.

Milad started drawing at the age of 2, and officially enrolled to Ghulam Mohammad Maimanagi Art Center at age 5 where he started learning Persian and Arabic Calligraphy. At age 7 he started taking drawing classes and at the age 12 he become teacher assistant at Afghan Art Center. He has exhibited his paintings – in oil, watercolor, pastel and oil pastel – in 2014 at Paknegar Art Center. and in 2015 he started a mural painting at Afghanistan National Institute of music where he was a faculty member.

In Afghanistan Mr. Yousufi taught piano, theory, and a course on Sibelius at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. When the Afghan Youth Orchestra was formed in 2011 he became the pianist and the first Afghan conductor, and arranged music for their performances. The orchestra performed sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and at The New England Conservatory, where Mr. Yousufi performed as pianist.

Mr. Yousufi moved to the U.S., where he won a full scholarship to Mannes School of Music and studies piano with Simone Dinnerstein. He has composed Afghan-influenced music for The New York Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and The Refugee Orchestra Project, and has had additional commissions, including from the Kronos Quartet and Music Worcester.