Educational Outreach

Serenata provides vital learning opportunities through our teaching partnerships with ArtWorks, Santa Fe Public Schools, as well as Master Classes to students of all ages and levels. We cultivate an atmosphere of acceptance of each student for who they are.

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Piano Master Class

Serenata of Santa Fe works with passionate musicians like pianist, Yi-heng Yang to present insightful master classes for young budding musical talent.

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Cecelia Violetta López

Vocals

USA Today has named Cecilia Violetta López one of “Idaho’s Top 10 Most Influential Women of the Century” and has been named one of opera’s “25 Rising Stars” by Opera News. The singing actress is constantly praised for her “alluring voice and incredible range” (Washington Post).

She has received accolades for her signature role of Violetta in La traviata, which she has performed countless times throughout North America. Critic, James Jorden, exclaimed “she is a Violetta fully- formed and, I think, ready for the great stages of the world.” She has now performed the role with, Opera Orlando, Pacific Symphony, Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera Tampa, Opera Idaho, Ash Lawn Opera, The Northern Lights Music Festival, Madison Opera and Virginia Opera. Ms. López made her European début as Norina in Don Pasquale with Zomeropera in Belgium, for which Klassiek Centraal exclaimed: “She turns out to be the revelation of the show and wins over the audience with her funny rendition, irresistible charm, and [she is] natural in the different vocals.”

From her performance as Adina in The Elixir of Love with Virginia Opera, The Virginian-Pilot hailed, “Cecilia Violetta López is showing local audiences why Opera News named her one of its ’25 Rising Stars.’ In the lead role of Adina, she hit the highest notes with ringing clarity, performed the vocal runs with precision and grace and showed a particular charm and humanity in the softest passages and lowest ranges.” In her recent performance as Marguerite in Faust with Opera Omaha, the Omaha World-Herald claimed “...López sang Marguerite’s seduction, madness and salvation with an other wordly wisdom and artistry.”

Ms. López’ 2021-2022 season includes several engagements ranging from opera performances to keynote speaking. She will appear as Hanna Glawari in Opera Idaho’s production of The Merry Widow and will be a soprano soloist in Opera Idaho’s “Opera in the Park” concert. Cecilia will be the soprano soloist for Handel’s Messiah with the Boise Philharmonic and will make her to return to Zomeropera in Belgium singing Cio-Cio San in their production of Madama Butterfly as well as Virginia Opera where she will début the role of Beatrice in Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers. Additionally, Ms. López will be an Artist in Residence at the University of Central Arkansas, and will present recitals for Opera Orlando, Sun Valley Opera, New Mexico Performing Arts Society, JUMP Center in Boise, Idaho and Chamber Music Silicon Valley. Cecilia will be a keynote speaker for the Migrant Student Leadership Institute as well as the 9th Annual Women and Leadership Conference where previous speakers have included Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Conner and Interior Secretary, Sally Jewell.

Despite the halting effects of COVID-19 in the opera industry, Ms. López’ 2020-2021 season included both virtual and live recitals with Opera Idaho, Opera Las Vegas, Austin Opera, Opera Southwest, Chatter ABQ, Opera America, Madison Opera and Opera Colorado. Ms. López was also a featured soprano soloist in the world premier of Mi Camino, a virtual project with Opera Cultura, and made her company début with Pacific Symphony singing Violetta in their virtual production of La traviata. Ms. López also presented virtual Masterclasses with UC Boulder and The University of Montana.

In past seasons, Ms. López has made several role débuts including her now critically acclaimed role of Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Idaho, Virginia Opera and Opera Las Vegas, the title role in Massenet’s Manon with Opera Idaho, Nedda in I pagliacci with Opera Colorado, Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello with LoftOpera, Maria in West Side Story with Opera Idaho, Marguerite in Faust with Opera Omaha, Mimì in La bohème with Opera Orlando, Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas with Florida Grand Opera, Beatrice Russo in Il Postino with Opera Southwest and Opera Saratoga, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Tampa, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow with Opera Saratoga, Lucy in Fellow Travelers with Prototype Opera Festival, the title role of Suor Angelica with Opera San Luis Obispo, Magda in La rondine with Skylark Opera Theatre, Gilda in Rigoletto with Opera Idaho, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera Tampa and Opera Las Vegas. In addition to these débuts, she reprised the role of Micaëla in Carmen with Madison Opera and joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in their 2015 production of The Merry Widow.

Solo concert performances include Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and selections from Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne with the Henderson Symphony Orchestra, and Rutter’s Mass of the Children with the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society. Additionally, Ms. López has performed as a soloist at the reopening of the Idaho Museum of Natural History gala, various Christmas concerts with Madison Symphony, and as a featured soloist in concerts with the Boise Philharmonic, Austin Opera, and the prestigious Bard SummerScape Music Festival.

Ms. López also completed a two-year-tenure as a Soprano Resident Artist at Opera San José where she performed Leïla in Les pêcheurs de perles, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Leonora in Il trovatore, the title role in Suor Angelica, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Nannetta in Falstaff, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly.

Additionally, Ms. López is an alum of the Caramoor Music Festival where she covered the role of Hélène in Les vêpres siciliennes. She is also an alum of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival where she sang the title role in their production of L’incoronazione di Poppea. Her début of the role of Violetta in La traviata, was with Martina Arroyo Foundation’s prestigious summer festival, Prelude to Performance.

In January 2021, Opera Idaho appointed Ms. López as the company’s first Artistic Advisor. “Known to Opera Idaho audiences primarily through her appearances in operas over the last six-plus years, Cecilia takes on added responsibilities to advise and advocate for expanded repertoire, provide insights on diversity in artistic practices and community initiatives, and collaborate with senior management in identifying and securing financial support for the company. Cecilia will work closely with General Director Mark Junkert in helping shape the future of Opera Idaho.”

‘When I think of someone, active in the field as a performer who both knows what’s happening in the field nationally and internationally and knows our state, Cecilia is the perfect fit for the position. Many opera companies have similar positions, and it is a sign of Opera Idaho’s growth that we’re able at this point in our history to add an Artistic Advisor.’
—Mark Junkert, General Director, Opera Idaho

Recently, Ms. López became the recipient of an Idaho State Concurrent Resolution honoring her life as an Idahoan and her work in the world of opera.

“We should be so very proud of Cecilia Violetta López. She exemplifies all that is what America is about: apply yourself, work hard, dream big, and you can achieve those dreams. She tells every Idaho girl and boy that they, too, can succeed ... no matter where they came from, no matter how small they may start out, no matter how long their journey may appear to be. Idaho should be so very proud of this young lady and should hold her up as an example of what all Idaho children might achieve.”
—Senator Cherie Buckner-Webb.

Ms. López, “The Daughter of Idaho,” a Mexican-American native of Rupert, Idaho, is featured in two Idaho state museums and got her musical start at a young age singing mariachi music that she learned from her mother.

Nathan Salazar

Piano

Nathan Salazar is a native of Santa Cruz, New Mexico, and holds a master's degree in collaborative piano from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Martin Katz. He received his vocal and piano performance degrees from the University of Kansas, where he studied with Julia Broxholm and Jack Winerock. Salazar has performed in England, Scotland, Italy, Russia, and in major performance venues throughout the United States. He performed in the International Festival of Spanish and Latin American Music with renowned mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza and has been featured at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Boston’s Symphony Hall, and Carnegie Hall in New York City.

He received a fellowship to Songfest in Los Angeles where he studied with pianists Margo Garrett and Graham Johnson. Salazar has worked with composers Jake Heggie, John Musto, Libby Larsen, and William Bolcom. In 2014, he was invited to be part of Marilyn Horne’s 80th birthday celebration at Carnegie Hall, where he worked with Ms. Horne, Martin Katz, and the legendary Christa Ludwig. Salazar has worked with such singers and teachers as Julia Faulkner, Maria Zifchak, Stephen King, Susanne Mentzer, Luis Ledesma, Wolfgang Brendel, Joyce Castle, Neil Shicoff, Stanford Olsen, George Shirley, Angela Meade, Jennifer Johnson Cano, and Susan Graham. He has worked and performed with Serenata of Santa Fe, New Mexico Performing Arts Society, Skylark Vocal Ensemble, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Santa Fe Opera, The Handel and Haydn Society, The Boston Symphony, and the Boston Lyric Opera, where he most recently worked on the company’s monumental 2019 production of Poul Ruders’ “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

Most recently, Salazar performed with soprano Cecilia Violetta Lopez in recital for Austin Opera, Opera Idaho, Orlando Opera, Opera Las Vegas, Opera Southwest, Opera America, Madison Opera, and Opera Colorado, where he was recently appointed Principal Repertoire Coach for the company’s distinguished Artist in Residence program.

Salazar has also served as a voice faculty member at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and at the University of New Mexico. Nathan is currently based in Santa Fe, where he enjoys taking care of several chickens and goats.

Sterling Elliott

Cello

Sterling Elliott began his cello studies at the age of three and made his solo debut at the age of 7. Sterling’s recent accomplishments include being awarded 1st prize in the Senior Division of the 2019 22nd Annual Sphinx Competition in 2019. In October of 2018 Sterling had his solo debut at Carnegie Hall where Frank Daykin of New York Concert Review wrote: “The very fine young cellist Sterling Elliott played two movements from Cassadó’s Suite for Solo Cello with perfect intonation, style, and total involvement.”

Sterling has attended The Taos School of Music, Kneisel Hall, Perlman Music Program, Aspen Music Festival, and will participate in Music@Menlo, Chamberfest Cleveland, and Perlman Music Program.

Additionally, he has soloed with the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, as well as a performance at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Sterling currently studies with Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School working towards an undergraduate degree in Cello Performance where he is a recipient of a Kovner Fellowship.

Sam Rosenthal

Viola

Sam Rosenthal, viola is from Shaker Heights, OH. He is in the studios of Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang at the Juilliard School where he is a recipient of the Kovener Fellowship award.

Oliver Neubauer

Violin

Praised for his sensitive and uniquely beautiful playing, violinist Oliver Neubauer is establishing himself as an artist of great emotional depth and maturity beyond his years.

This past season, Oliver appeared with the Jupiter Chamber Players, performed as guest concertmaster with the Adelphi Orchestra (as winner of their 2020 competition), and performed virtual concerts for Music@Menlo and String Theory at the Hunter. Oliver has been invited to attend the Perlman Music Program Chamber Workshop as well as the Verbier Festival Academy in the summer of 2021. He will also give numerous performances at Bravo! Vail Music Festival and Music from Angel Fire.

Katherine Leidlein

Vocalist

Katherine Leidlein is a New York based singer and actor originally from Texas where she received a Degree in Vocal Performance from The University of Texas in San Antonio. Her favorite roles include playing Laurie in “The Tenderland” at Seattle Opera Academy, Lily in “The Secret Garden” at The San Antonio Playhouse, Papagena in “Die Zauberflöte” with Manhattan Opera Studio, Adele in “Die Fledermaus” at UTSA Lyric Theatre, and Meg in “Little Women” at The Public Theatre of San Antonio. Her most recent credits include Lena in “One Starry Night” tour of China, Becky US/Ensemble in “It Came From Beyond” at St. Luke’s Off-Broadway Theatre, and The Grand Dame in “Fate Still Rests with Vox Lumiere. She also sang on National Public Radio’s “From The Top” and appeared in the TV show “Evil Lives Here” and the podcast “Last Stop” by Multitude. As well as an industrial for Oxford University Press and other National Commercials.

Lucian Avalon

Oboe

Oboist Lucian Avalon, 23, has enjoyed an eclectic musical career beginning at age 6, which has taken him from Zimbabwean marimba, to Santa Fe Opera vocalist, to classical oboist. He is currently completing his Masters of Music degree at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Elaine Douvas, with additional instruction from Nathan Hughes and Linda Strommen (Oboe), Richard Dallessio and Scott Hostetler (English Horn), and is a proud recipient of both the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship and the Michael S. Currier Scholarship. For two years he attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy where he studied with Daniel Stolper. Upon graduation he received the Academy’s highest honor, the IAA Young Artist Award, and was named a National YoungArts Foundation Honorable Mention winner. Previously he studied with Pamela Epple, Artistic Director of Serenata of Santa Fe, for seven years.

Lucian has played under the baton of many influential conductors including Alan Gilbert, David Robertson, Jeffrey Milarsky, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Gary Wedow, Edward Gardner, Robert Spano, and Hugh Wolff, and has performed with the Juilliard Orchestras, New York String Orchestra, New World Symphony (FL), Montclair (NJ) Orchestra, Boulder (CO) Symphony, Music and Medicine Orchestra (NY), New York Youth Symphony, and all of the Aspen Music Festival and School orchestras. His chamber performances include the New Juilliard Ensemble, AXIOM, and Aspen Contemporary Ensemble for new music, and Juilliard Chamberfest 2018, Cantori New York, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall.

Recently, Lucian was recognized as a National Finalist and the Texas Regional Winner of the National Society of Arts & Letters 2018 Woodwind Competition, a Juilliard 2018 Concerto Competition Finalist, a finalist for the Pittsburgh (PA) Symphony and for the New World Symphony (FL).

His summer studies have included the Aspen Music Festival and School, Brevard Music Center, Sewanee Music Center, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, and National Orchestral Institute. He has played side-by-side with leading oboists, including Elaine Douvas, Alex Klein, Mingjia Liu, and Elizabeth Koch-Tiscione; and has performed in Master Classes with Francois Leleux, Olivier Stankiewicz, Stefan Schilli, and John Ferrillo.

Born and raised in the small, rural village of Coyote, New Mexico, Lucian recognizes the value of community. Since middle school he has organized concerts to fund local farmers markets, homeless shelters, and the Santa Fe Food Depot. In NYC, he mentors students from the NY Youth Symphony, Juilliard Pre-College and the Music Advancement Program, (serving underprivileged and underrepresented students), and regularly performs in the Juilliard Lab Orchestra with student conductors.

In addition to oboe, Lucian was trained as a competitive figure skater and became a USFS Moves Gold Medalist in 2013.

Kathleen McIntosh

Harpsichord

Like most musicians, Kathleen McIntosh found most of her 2020 engagements cancelled. The Postcard project has been a delightful respite, and she was also invited to “layer in” a continuo part for a production of the Havana based group, Conjunto de Musica Antigua Ars Longa. Another such project awaits with Cuban recorder virtuoso, Raul Zaballa, for a festival in Chile. She is nearly through Bach's monumental “Art of Fugue”, perhaps for a future performance.

Phoenix Avalon

Violin

Phoenix Avalon, is passionate about his study of the violin, being the proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at the Juilliard School, studying with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin.

Previously, he was a scholarship student at the Cleveland Institute of Music Young Artist Program with Jaime Laredo and Jan Sloman. Phoenix studied chamber music with members of the Cavani and Cleveland Quartets and attended the Meadowmount School of Music and the Perlman Music Program.

Phoenix has enjoyed solo performances with the Jena Philharmonic, the Cleveland POPS Orchestra, the Boulder Symphony, the Arapahoe Philharmonic, the New Mexico Philharmonic, and Performance Santa Fe Orchestras. He has been featured on USA national radio programs Performance Today and From the Top, as well as giving a solo presentation for TedXABQ.

Phoenix has won numerous competitions, most recently receiving first place at the Louis Spohr International Violin Competition, third place at the Johansen International Competition and Silver Medal at The Fischoff National Chamber Music Association as a member of the Razumovsky Quartet. He is honored to also be a recipient of a 2019 EMCY Prize.

Actively dedicated to community service, Phoenix has played for numerous fundraisers and outreach programs, and has developed and toured an interactive presentation of classical music history for school children as part of ‘From the Top’s Leadership Training’. Phoenix is grateful to be playing on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin, c. 1850, generously loaned by Kenneth Warren and Son Ltd. of Chicago. In addition to violin, enjoys philosophy, history and cooking.

Mike Kelley

Viola

Mike Kelley, Apple Hill String Quartet violist and Co-Artistic Director at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, graduated from The Walnut Hill School for the Arts and has received degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. His teachers have included Leonard Matczynski, Jeffrey Irvine, and Karen Tuttle.

A Primrose International Viola Competition finalist at the age of 18, Mike joined the resident ensemble of the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music three years later and has been performing and touring internationally with the group for over 20 years. He is the Music Director and Coordinator of Apple Hill’s Summer Chamber Music Workshop where he directs sessions, performs concerts, and coaches chamber music throughout the summer in New Hampshire.

An active composer, Mike has been a Teaching Fellow in Electronic Music at Juilliard, and a guest lecturer at Harvard on the subject of electronic dance music. Under a pop-disco alias, he has performed worldwide in clubs such as Webster Hall (NYC), the O2 (London), and Berghain (Berlin), and has written and produced music for many pop acts, including Metro Area, Caribou, Madonna, and Pharrell. His albums have been selected for the “best of the decade” lists of music magazines Stylus and Fact, and have been highly recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, and the Guardian.

Max Zeugner

Double Bass

Bassist Max Zeugner is currently Associate Principal Bass with the New York Philharmonic. Previously he served as Principal Bass with the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and was a member of the Netherlands Philharmonic. A native of Worcester, MA, Max attended the Juilliard School and Boston University before working as a chamber and orchestral musician in Europe for 8 years. He now resides in New York City, where he teaches at the Mannes College of Music and is an avid tennis player.

Kathlene Ritch

Soprano

Kathlene is comfortable performing in many different genres – early music, choral, and sacred, to musical theater and cabaret. From having grown up in church choirs and summer stock, with a year in Salzburg studying music after high school, to the halls of the University of Texas in Austin, Kathlene found a common thread in whatever style she was performing…the connection with the audience.

After earning a Bachelor’s of Music Studies degree from the University of Texas at Austin, she moved to New York City where she sang with such noted ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, and the Vienna Philharmonic. In 2001, she made her solo debut at Lincoln Center with the American Symphony Orchestra in Liszt’s Dante’s Inferno.

Kathlene’s true passion, musical theater, has been a lifelong pursuit. Her first role came at the age of 4, when she was cast as Marta in The Sound of Music. Some of her favorite roles include Sandy in Grease, Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Maria in The Sound of Music, and Eliza in My Fair Lady. Two of her career highlights were performing Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center with George Hearn, Patti Lupone and Neil Patrick Harris, as well as the concert version of Carousel at Carnegie Hall with Audra McDonald and Hugh Jackman. She is also an experienced music director, having led from behind the piano for Oklahoma!, Follies, Working, The Fantasticks, and Godspell, to name a few.

In 2011, Kathlene moved to Santa Fe to be the accompanist for the Santa Fe High School Choral Department and the Director of the Royal School of Church Music at the Church of the Holy Faith. In 2012, she became an on-air announcer for Classical 95.5 KHFM Albuquerque/Santa Fe, for which she has received a New Mexico Broadcasting Award. In 2016, Kathlene joined the voice faculty at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design in their musical theater program. She still continues to sing with such groups as the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and the Grammy-winning ensemble Conspirare, with whom she is a featured soloist in their PBS special “Conspirare, a Company of Voices” and their most recently Grammy-nominated “Considering Matthew Shepard” CD.

Joanna Jenner

Violin

Joanna Jenner is a violinist, violist, and teacher born in Seattle who studied at the University of Washington, the Juilliard School and the Mannes College of Music.

1972 saw her becoming a founding member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and since that time she has toured internationally with them as well as making between 40 and 50 recordings.

She has also been a member of the Orchestra of the 20^th Century, the International Trio that were resident at the University of Northern Iowa, a founding member of the Roerich String Quartet and The Empire Trio, with whom she performed in the studio and toured nationally.

Very involved in music festivals on a national and international level, she founded the Riverrun Chamber Players who are a resident ensemble at the Vermont Festival of the Arts. She has appeared as a soloist on many occasions and has also commissioned several violin works.

Her album tally is extensive and not restricted to one genre of music with her work being heard on Blue Minor by Elizabeth Brown, Golden Days by Jerry Hadley & Mario Lanza, Gershwin’s Worldby Herbie Hancock, A Set Pieces: The Music of Charles Ives by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Best Of… by Marcus Miller, Dress Casual by Mandy Patinkin, PNYC by Portishead, and Hideaway by David Sanborn to name a few.

In the field of musical education she has been the artist-in-residence at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, on the faculty of Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Bennington College, Mannes College of Music Preparatory Division and the University of Iowa, and held masterclasses at various venues.

Emily Cole

Violin

Emily Cole joined the Oregon Symphony in 2011. An avid chamber musician, Emily is a member of the Mousai Remix string quartet with fellow Oregon Symphony musicians Shin-Young Kwon, Jennifer Arnold, and Marilyn de Oliveira. She has also performed locally with Third Angle Ensemble, fEARnoMUSIC, 45th Parallel, and Northwest New Music. During the summer months, Emily has performed with the Oregon Bach Festival, the Seattle Opera, and the Apollo Music Festival. Emily is on the faculty at Lewis & Clark College; she also coaches chamber musicians with Portland Summer Ensembles and Seattle’s Music Northwest.

Emily earned her M.M. from the University of North Texas, where she held a teaching fellowship and studied with Emanuel Borok. She received her B.M. from the University of Texas at Austin, studying with Brian Lewis. A native of Seattle, Emily was also a longtime student of former Seattle Symphony concertmaster Ilkka Talvi.

Elise Kuder

Violin

Called “first-rate” by the Boston Globe, Elise Kuder is the first violinist of the Apple Hill String Quartet and a Co-Artistic Director of the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music where she has been a resident musician since 1998. With Apple Hill, Elise has performed and taught in venues as diverse as the Curtis Institute of Music, Moscow Conservatory, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Zipper Hall at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, the Institutes of Music in Damascus and Alleppo, Gitameit Music Institute in Burma, the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica in Lima, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Ketermaya refugee camp outside of Beirut, and the General Store in Harrisville, New Hampshire. With the Apple Hill String Quartet, described as “dashing and extraordinary” by The Strad magazine, recent studio recordings include a premiere of Dana Lyn’s Suite for Fiddler and String Quartet, a revival of Ahmed Adnan Saygun’s String Quartet No. 1, and transcriptions of Purcell Fantasias. Elise serves as a Music Director for Apple Hill’s Summer Chamber Music Workshop.

Elise is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School where she studied with Marilyn McDonald and Joel Smirnoff. She attended the Tanglewood Music Center where she won the Kohn Award for outstanding musicianship and served as concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra under conductors Robert Spano and Bernard Haitink. As a Fulbright Scholar, Elise studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England with David Takeno.

In her spare time away from Apple Hill, she has performed at the Alhambra Ballroom in Harlem with disco legends Patrick Adams, Black Ivory, and Donna McGhee and teaches violin in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire.

Diva Goodfriend-Koven

Flute & Piccolo

Diva Goodfriend-Koven has performed worldwide as a soloist, in chamber music, and with major orchestras including the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, NY City Opera, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra. She lives in New York City where she is a long time member of the ABT orchestra, American Composer’s Orchestra, and American Symphony Orchestra.

A founding member of the new music group Locrian Chamber Players and Ragdale Ensemble, she frequently performs with Serenata Santa Fe.

Diva has recorded film scores, CDs with pop stars including Sting and John Legend, appeared on Letterman and SNL, backing up Diana Krall, Willie Nelson, Lena Horne, and Lucianno Pavarotti among others.

Diva has been a member of the Bard Music Festival for twenty-eight seasons and has been featured on NPR’s “Performance Today”.

As a teacher she has given master classes and coached at Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Montclair State (NJ), and at Carnegie Mellon University. She was a faculty member at the Apple Hill Music Center for ten years. She has recorded her own CD titled “Good Friends”.

Since the pandemic, Diva has created/participated in video performances with American Symphony, American Ballet Theater, Locrian Chamber Players, American Composers Orchestra, Queens Symphony, and Serenata of Santa Fe.

Mark O'Connor

Composer

Mark O'Connor began his creative journey at the feet of American fiddling legend Benny Thomasson, and the iconic French jazz violinist Stéphane Grappelli. Now, at age 55, he has melded these influences into a new American classical music, and is perpetuating his vision of an American School of String Playing. Mr. O’Connor has won three Grammys, seven CMA awards as well as several national fiddle, guitar and mandolin champion titles. His distinguished career includes representing the United States Information Agency in cultural diplomacy to six continents and performing in front of several U.S. presidents including being invited to the White House by President Ronald Reagan to perform as a teen.

After recording a series of albums for Rounder and Warner Bros including his multiple Grammy-winning New Nashville Cats, his recordings for Sony Classical with Yo-Yo Ma, Appalachia Waltz and Appalachian Journey sold a million CDs and gained O'Connor worldwide recognition as a leading proponent of a new American musical idiom.

Mr. O’Connor’s Fiddle Concerto released on Warner Bros. has become the most-performed violin concerto composed in the last 50 years. On his own OMAC Records label, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra recorded his sweeping Americana Symphony while his groundbreaking 9^th concerto, The Improvised Violin Concerto was recorded in Boston Symphony Hall. His new touring group, the Mark O’Connor Band consisting of family members (wife, son and daughter-in-law) debuted at #1 on Billboard Magazine’s bluegrass album chart and their first album Coming Home won a Grammy in 2017. Mr. O’Connor is set to release his 47^th feature album on June 7, 2017, an exciting new CD, Mark O’Connor Band Live!

Mr. O’Connor has authored a series of educational books called the O’Connor Method and is now the fastest growing violin method in the country and tens of thousands can credit the O’Connor books for learning how to play stringed instruments. The O’Connor Method features American music styles, creativity, cultural diversity and western classical technical training. Mr. O’Connor currently is artist-in-residence with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, touring nationally with the Mark O’Connor Band and resides in North Carolina with his wife, fellow bandmate and duo partner Maggie O’Connor. For more information, please see www.markoconnor.com, www.oconnormethod.com, and www.markoconnorband.com.

Kinan Azmeh

Composer

Born in Damascus, Kinan was the first Arab to win the premier prize at the 1997 Nicolai Rubinstein International Competition, Moscow. A graduate of New York’s Juilliard school as a student of Charles Neidich, and of both the Damascus High institute of Music where he studied with Shukry Sahwki, Nicolay Viovanof and Anatoly Moratof, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering. Kinan earned his doctorate degree in music from the City University of New York in 2013.

Kinan has appeared worldwide as a soloist, composer and improviser. Notable appearances include: Opera Bastille, Paris; Tchaikovsky Grand Hall, Moscow; Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the UN’s general assembly, New York; the Royal Albert hall, London; Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires; der Philharmonie; Berlin; the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, Washington DC; the Mozarteum, Salzburg and the Damascus opera house for its opening concert in his native Syria.

He has appeared as soloist with the Bavarian radio orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the NDR big-band, the Kiev Camerata, the Knights Orchestra, the Izmir State Opera Orchestra, the Corasara Orchestra, the Osnabruck Symphony, the Morgenland Festival Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic , the New Juilliard Ensemble and the Syrian Symphony Orchestra among others.; and has shared the stage with Yo-Yo Ma, Marcel Khalife, Aynur, Daniel Barenboim, Jivan Gasparian, Zakir Hussein Francois Rabbath, Simon Shaheen, Solhi-al-Wadi, Calefax Reed Quintet, and members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

His compositions include several works for solo, orchestra, and chamber music; film, live illustration, and electronics. His discography include three albums with his ensemble HEWAR, several soundtracks for film and dance, a duo album with pianist Dinuk Wijeratne and a recent album with his New York Arabic/Jazz quartet. He serves as artistic director of the Damascus Festival Chamber Music Ensemble, with whom he released an album of new contemporary Syrian chamber music written especially for the ensemble by various composers and is also a frequent guest faculty at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music and is on the advisory board of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra. He is also a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble.

Jessie Montgomery

Composer

Jessie Montgomery is a violinist, composer and music educator from New York City. She performs and gives workshops in the US and abroad and her compositions are being performed by orchestras and chamber groups throughout the country.

Jessie was born and raised in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the 1980s during a time when the neighborhood was at a major turning point in its history. Artists gravitated there and it was a hotbed of cultural activity and community development. Her parents (father a musician, her mother, an actress) were engaged in the activities of the neighborhood and regularly brought Jessie to rallies, performances and parties where neighbors, activists and artists gathered to celebrate and support the movements of the time. It is from this unique experience that Jessie has created a life in which performance, creativity, education and advocacy merge.

Jessie began her violin studies, at the Third Street Music School Settlement, one of the oldest community organizations in the country. Upon graduating with her Bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School in Violin Performance in 2003, she joined forces with Community MusicWorks in Providence, Rhode Island, a nationally recognized leader in community development and music education. With this appointment came her first experience as a professional chamber musician as a member of the Providence String Quartet. She continued her chamber music endeavors as a founding member of PUBLIQuartet, a string quartet made up of composers and arrangers, featuring their own music as well as that of emerging and established contemporary composers. Since 2012 she has held post as a member of the highly acclaimed Catalyst Quartet, raved by the New York Times as “invariably energetic and finely burnished…performing with earthly vigor”, touring regularly in the United States and abroad. Most recently she has become a collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble and will tour with them in the upcoming 2018-19 season.

Since 1999, Jessie has been affiliated with The Sphinx Organization, which supports the accomplishments of young African-American and Latino string players. As a member of the Sphinx network she has played numerous roles within the organization, as a teacher, juror, orchestra member and concertmaster, panelist and ambassador, as well as being a two-time laureate in their annual competition. Jessie was also Composer-in-Residence with the Sphinx Virtuosi, a conductor-less string orchestra which toured her music for 3 seasons. The tours resulted in radio broadcasts on Performance Today, WFMT in Chicago, Q2 and others, and a review in the Washington Post calling her music “Turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life.” In 2014, Jessie was awarded Sphinx’s generous MPower grant to assist in the recording of her acclaimed debut album, Strum: Music for Strings (October, 2015, Azica Records). The Whole Note states that the album displays “a remarkable self-assurance and confidence together with a striking musical inventiveness and imagination”; and Second Inversion, Seattle’s alternative classical radio station, remarks that “The album combines classical chamber music with elements of folk music, spirituals, improvisation, poetry and politics, crafting a unique and insightful new-music perspective on the cross-cultural intersections of American history.”

In 2012, Jessie completed her graduate degree in Composition for Film and Multimedia at New York University, at which point composing became a true focus on her path. Opportunities came about to partner with the American Composers Orchestra, the Sphinx Organization and chamber groups throughout New York City. Other commissions began to emerge from the Albany Symphony, the Joyce Foundation, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Young People’s Chorus of NY.

In fall 2018, Jessie will be an incoming Virginia B.Toulmin Fellow at the Centre for Ballet and the Arts, where she will complete work on a new ballet for Dance Theater of Harlem and the Virginia Arts Festival, in collaboration with choreographer Claudia Schreier. Other upcoming highlights include premieres of new work for soprano Julia Bullock, The Muir Quartet and performances by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Teachers and mentors include Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, Alice Kanack, Joan Tower, Derek Bermel, Mark Suozzo, Ira Newborn and Laura Kaminsky.

Thomas Oboe Lee

Composer

Thomas Oboe Lee has proven a very prolific composer. He has four symphonies to his name and a number of miscellaneous orchestral pieces that aren't quite tone poems, but do not fall easily into any other category. Titles invoking mythology or traditional Latin nomenclature -- like Euridice, Jubilatus, Cavatina Cavadini, String Quartet No. 3 (...Child of Uranus, father of Zeus), or Flauta Carioca -- are common throughout his catalog. Other pieces, like the chamber work The Mad Frog for oboe, bass clarinet, and harp, or I've Got the Munchies for violin duo, bass clarinet, and vibraphone, go by more fanciful names.

Those few of Lee's pieces that are assigned traditional, basic names -- like the symphonies -- seem almost invariably to bear pictorial or literary subtitles: Fallen Angels for Symphony No. 1 of 1993 - 1995, A Phantasmagorey Ballet for 1998's Symphony No. 2, the ambitious War and Peace for Symphony No. 4 of 2001.

Lee loves the string quartet and has also written better than a dozen pieces for singer or singers and ensemble, one of which is the chamber opera Unmasked (1990). Several major organizations, including Amnesty International, the Koussevitsky Foundation, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, have commissioned works from Lee and with more and more performing bodies -- like the American and Kronos quartets and the American Jazz Philharmonic -- jumping onto the Lee bandwagon, there seems little chance that he will slow the pace of his pen in the near future.

Gilles Silvestrini

Composer

Gilles Silvestrini is a living composer and oboist based in Paris, France, best known for his contemporary compositions for oboe. He also has written works for various other instruments, chamber groups and a few concertos. Silvestrini was born on June 4, 1961 in Givet, France, a commune in northern France close to the Belgian border. Silvestrini studied oboe at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris, where he won first oboe prize in 1985. He then went on to study composition from 1986 to 1988 at the Ècole Normale de Musique. His works for the oboe are often used for competition pieces, such as the International Double Reed Society Gillet Competition and entrance exams or auditions for some of the most prestigious universities and conservatories around the world including the National Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance of Lyon, and the Lynn University Conservatory of Music.

Gilles Silvestrini’s compositions for the oboe have been sought after because of their virtuosic nature, a good method to test advanced oboists technical abilities and as an option for an unaccompanied programmatic etude in a recital setting. One of his most famous works is the “Six Etudes for Solo Oboe,” which is a set of concert etudes each inspired and named after a specific French impressionistic painting. Oboists often play these works in competitions and recitals, however they are not often presented with any representation of the paintings to which they correspond. Many of Silvestrini’s other works take inspiration from various composers, artists, and poets.

Fred Rzewski

Composer

A highly respected composer and pianist, Frederic Rzewski is recognized both for his innovative works and for his strong political convictions.

A founding member of the groundbreaking improvisational collective MEV, Rzewski's pieces often bridge the gap between classical music and avant-garde jazz. In The People United Will Never Be Defeated, arguably his most well-known piece, and in many other compositions, Rzewski has drawn on folk songs, narratives and politically charged texts to issue musical calls for social change.

While Rzewski's unorthodox approach to performance and composition, as well as his political consciousness, was clearly influenced by the revolutionary atmosphere of the 1960s, his work remains equally relevant in the new millennium.

In 2005 the Boston Globe's David Weininger called him "one of the most prominent living American composers and a prodigiously talented pianist."

Eve Beglarian

Composer

According to the Los Angeles Times, composer and performer Eve Beglarian “is a humane, idealistic rebel and a musical sensualist.” A 2017 winner of the Alpert Award in the Arts for her “prolific, engaging and surprising body of work,” she has also been awarded the 2015 Robert Rauschenberg Prize from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for her “innovation, risk-taking, and experimentation.”

Beglarian’s current projects include a collaboration with writer/performer Karen Kandel about women in Vicksburg from the Civil War to the present, a piece about the controversial Balthus painting Thérèse Dreaming for vocalist Lucy Dhegrae, and a duo for uilleann pipes and organ that was premiered by Renée Louprette and Ivan Goff at Disney Hall as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 100th anniversary celebrations. Since 2001, she has been creating A Book of Days, “a grand and gradually manifesting work in progress…an eclectic and wide-open series of enticements.” (Los Angeles Times)

In 2009, “Ms. Beglarian kayaked and bicycled the length of the Mississippi River [and] has translated her findings into music of sophisticated rusticity… [Her] new Americana song cycle captures those swift currents as vividly as Mark Twain did. The works waft gracefully on her handsome folk croon and varied folk instrumentation as mysterious as their inspiration.” (New York Times)

Beglarian’s chamber, choral, and orchestral music has been commissioned and widely performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the American Composers Orchestra, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the California EAR Unit, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Sequitur, loadbang, the Guidonian Hand, Newspeak, the Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble and individual performers including Maya Beiser, Sarah Cahill, Lauren Flanigan, Marya Martin, and Mary Rowell.

Highlights of Beglarian’s work in music theater includes music for Mabou Mines’ Obie-winning Dollhouse, Animal Magnetism, Ecco Porco, Choephorai, and Shalom Shanghai, all directed by Lee Breuer; Forgiveness, a collaboration with Chen Shi-Zheng and Noh master Akira Matsui; and the China National Beijing Opera Theater’s production of The Bacchae, also directed by Chen Shi-Zheng.

She has collaborated with choreographers including Ann Carlson, Robert LaFosse, Victoria Marks, Susan Marshall, David Neumann, Take Ueyama, and Megan Williams, and with visual and video artists including Cory Arcangel, Anne Bray, Vittoria Chierici, Barbara Hammer, Kevork Mourad, Shirin Neshat, Matt Petty, Bradley Wester, and Judson Wright.

Performance projects include Brim, Songs from a Book of Days, The Story of B, Open Secrets, Hildegurls’ Ordo Virtutum, twisted tutu, and typOpera.

Recordings of Eve’s music are available on ECM, Koch, New World, Canteloupe, Innova, Naxos, Kill Rock Stars, CDBaby, and Bandcamp.

Dinuk Wijeratne

Composer

Sri Lankan-born Canadian Dinuk Wijeratne is a JUNO and multi-award-winning composer, conductor, and pianist who has been described by the Toronto Star as ‘an artist who reflects a positive vision of our cultural future’, and by the New York Times as ‘exuberantly creative’. His boundary-crossing work sees him equally at home in collaborations with symphony orchestras and string quartets, tabla players and DJs, and takes him to international venues as poles apart as the Berlin Philharmonie and the North Sea Jazz Festival. Dinuk was featured as a main character in What would Beethoven do? – the documentary about innovation in Classical music featuring Eric Whitacre, Bobby McFerrin and Ben Zander.

Dinuk made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2004 as a composer, conductor, and pianist, performing with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. A second Carnegie appearance followed in 2009, alongside tabla legend Zakir Hussain. Dinuk has also appeared at the Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Opera Bastille (Paris), Lincoln Center (New York), Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), Sri Lanka, Japan, and across the Middle East.

Dinuk grew up in Dubai before taking up composition studies at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), Manchester, UK. In 2001, he was invited by Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano to join his studio at New York’s Juilliard School. Conducting studies followed at New York’s Mannes College of Music under David Hayes, and doctoral studies at the University of Toronto under Christos Hatzis.

Dinuk has composed specially for almost all of the artists and ensembles with whom he has shared the stage; to name a few: Suzie LeBlanc, Sandeep Das, Kinan Azmeh, James Ehnes, Andrew Armstrong, Bev Johnston, Tim Garland, John Dankworth, Nikki Iles, Julian Argüelles, Victor Mendoza, Buck 65, Skratch Bastid, Joseph Petric, Nick Halley, Ed Thigpen, Pandit Ramesh Misra, Adrian Spillett, David Jalbert, Kevork Mourad, Mayookh Bhaumik, Yolande Bavan, Christina Courtin, MIR, the Afiara & Cecelia String Quartets, the Apollo Saxophone Quartet, TorQ & 4-Mality Percussion Quartets, McGill Percussion Ensemble, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Onelight Theatre, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the orchestras of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Buffalo, Illinois, Fresno, Windsor, and KwaZulu Natal (South Africa).

Dinuk is also a creativity consultant, and works with private clients as well as the Rebanks Fellows of Toronto’s Glenn Gould School.

A passionate educator, Dinuk is a founding faculty member at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (LAMP), and enjoyed a 13-year tenure as Music Director of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra. He is the recipient of the Canada Council Jean-Marie Beaudet award for orchestral conducting; the NS Established Artist Award; NS Masterworks nominations for his Tabla Concerto and piano trio Love Triangle; double Merritt Award nominations; Juilliard, Mannes & Countess of Munster scholarships; the Sema Jazz Improvisation Prize; the Soroptimist International Award for Composer-Conductors; and the Sir John Manduell Prize – the RNCM’s highest student honor. His music and collaborative work embrace the great diversity of his international background and influences.

Brooke Joyce

Composer

Brooke Joyce’s music has been described as “vividly pictorial” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “exceptionally gripping” (Los Angeles Times) and has been performed by soloists and ensembles around the world, including the Indianapolis Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, the Brentano Quartet, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Nash Ensemble, and James Gilchrist. In addition to his concert music, Brooke collaborated on several musical theater works with playwright Frederick Gaines, including Unbekannt, a musical based on the life of the famous Anastasia pretender Anna Anderson, and An Imaginary Line, based on the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.

A CD of his chamber music, Waves of Stone, was released on the Innova label in 2009, and according to MusicWeb International, features “dramatic pieces which are rhythmically energetic, with … a sense of underlying strength of will.”

Brooke is the recipient of the Joseph Bearns Prize, the Wayne Peterson Prize, the Darius Milhaud Award, and many citations from the National Federation of Music Clubs and ASCAP. He earned degrees in composition from Princeton University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Lawrence University, and attended summer courses with Joan Tower, Magnus Lindberg, and Alun Hoddinott.

Brooke is the Composer-in-Residence at Luther College and a faculty member at the International Music Festival of the Adriatic. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, and sons Keegan and Kyle, in a quiet neighborhood in Decorah, a small town in northeast Iowa.

Viet Cuong

Composer

Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, the music of American composer Viet Cuong has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as Sō Percussion, Eighth Blackbird, Alarm Will Sound, PRISM Quartet, Albany Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Minnesota Orchestra, among many others. Viet’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center, and his works for wind ensemble have amassed hundreds of performances worldwide.

Passionate about bringing these different facets of the contemporary music community together, his upcoming projects include a concerto for Eighth Blackbird with the United States Navy Band and a Sousa-inspired work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Viet also enjoys exploring the unexpected and whimsical, and he is often drawn to projects where he can make peculiar combinations and sounds feel enchanting or oddly satisfying. His recent works thus include a snare drum solo, percussion quartet concerto, and, most recently, a double oboe concerto.

Currently the 2020 Early Career Musician-in-Residence at the Dumbarton Oaks, he was recently appointed the California Symphony’s 2020-2023 Young American Composer-in-Residence.

Viet holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music (AD), Princeton University (MFA), and Peabody Conservatory (BM/MM).

Leslie Wildman

Composer

Composer Leslie Wildman grew up outside Chicago where she studied piano with Ellen Graff Mehegan. Her first composition teacher was William O. Smith at the University of Washington. She moved to Berkeley, California and studied with Andrew Imbrie. In 1986, she received a Masters in Music in Composition from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ms. Wildman worked briefly as an orchestrator for the film composer Laurence Rosenthal. She has worked with the choreographer Henning Rübsam, and SENSEDANCE, based in New York.

She presently divides her time between New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. Major works include Overture to a Wink for large orchestra premiered in 1987 in Berkeley, California; Let Me Not Mar for soprano, oboe and piano, premiered in 1988 at the Aspen Music Festival; and Solo Flight, a theater work for soprano and electronics based on Amelia Earhart’s flight across the Atlantic, premiered in 1995 in Vienna, Austria.

Conrad Cummings

Composer

A versatile composer on the faculty of the Juilliard School Evening Division, Conrad Cummings writes operas, instrumental music, and music for amplified instruments and voices. His work is heard in venues from Carnegie Hall and BAM to alternative clubs (le) Poisson Rouge and The Knitting Factory.

Opera productions range from the three-act, large-forces exploration of the Vietnam War Tonkin, commissioned and premiered by Opera Delaware, to a three-week Off-Broadway run of the electoral campaign opera Photo-Op by Ridge Theater at New York’s legendary La Mama ETC.

Honors include selection of The Golden Gate as one of Opera News Magazine’s “Best New Operas of the 21st Century,” fellowships to the MacDowell and Djerassi Foundations, and grants from the NEA, Opera America, and the Rockefeller Foundation.