MUSIC FOR NEW BODIES

Baron Fenwick, pianist, is the winner of numerous prizes, awards, and honors. He is currently a student at The Juilliard School pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts, and he graduated with his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Mannes School of Music. Among his recent collaborators include composers Julia Wolfe and Lowell Liebermann. He recently performed as a soloist with the Canton Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of Southern Maryland in works by Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich. His CD with violinist Isabella Li Lao will be released by Naxos Music. Originally from Boone, North Carolina, he lives in New York City where he keeps a busy performing and teaching schedule.

Ben Zamora is an American artist whose work is grounded in light and sculpture. He creates immersive installations and large-scale sculptural works that respond to the relationship between space, structure, and perception.

Zamora’s sculptures and installations have been presented at a wide range of creative and cultural venues, including the Park Avenue Armory in New York, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Amsterdam Light Festival, Kunsthalle Krems in Austria, the Vienna Festival, Holland Festival, the Frye Art Museum, Suyama Space, and Cannonball Arts. In addition to these projects, his work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and is held in private collections and public art programs throughout the U.S. and internationally. His projects range from temporary installations to permanent public commissions that engage with local communities and landscapes.

He has also created sculptures and light-based installations for performance works, including collaborations with Kronos Quartet, Saint Genet, the Berlin Philharmonic, Barbican Centre in London, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Over the last two decades, director Peter Sellars has been a key collaborator with Zamora.

Zamora’s work has been presented at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the Brisbane Festival in Australia, Donau Festival in Austria, Royal Festival Hall in London, Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, Helsinki Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, Le Grande Halle de La Villette in Paris, and The Getty Villa in Los Angeles.

Brad Balliett enjoys being a musical omnivore, focusing equal parts of his career on composing, playing bassoon, and teaching artistry.

Brad is principal bassoon of the Princeton Symphony, a member of Signal and Metropolis Ensemble, a founding member and former Artistic Director for Decoda, a member of the composer-collective band Oracle Hysterical, and on faculty at The Peabody Institute, The Juilliard School, and Musicambia.

As a teaching artist, Brad regularly leads composition and song-writing workshops in prisons, schools, hospitals, and homeless shelters. His work with Musicambia has given him the opportunity to guide aspiring composers and performers at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Allendale Correctional Facility, Brooklyn Detention Center, and San Quentin State Prison. With Project: Music Heals Us, Brad has led music history and composition workshops at Radgowski-Corrigan and Bain Correctional Center. With Decoda, Brad has participated in workshops for over six years at Lee Correctional Institute.

As a bassoonist, Brad has performed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, Houston Symphony, New York City Ballet, and the International Contemporary Ensemble, and at the Marlboro, Tanglewood, Stellenbosch, Newport Jazz, and Lucerne Festivals. He has performed as a soloist with the Houston Symphony and Johannesburg Symphony Orchestras.

As a composer, Brad has written orchestral, chamber, choral, operatic, and incidental music. Recent commissions have come from Carnegie Hall, Cecelia Chorus, Metropolis Ensemble, and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra Wind Ensemble.

Brad is a member of the band/composer-collective Oracle Hysterical, with whom he has released several critically acclaimed albums and produced several evening-length works, including a song cycle with the string orchestra A Far Cry and an opera premiered at the Lucerne Festival. With his brother, Doug Balliett, Brad teaches history courses at Juilliard, gives lectures for Carnegie Hall, and has developed a series of Interactive Shakespeare Reading Parties.

Raised in Westborough, Massachusetts, Brad graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University in 2005, where he studied composition with John Harbison, and holds an MM from Rice University. Brad spends as much time as possible outside, observing birds and trees.

Carrie Frey is a violist, improviser, and composer based in New York City. Frey is the violist of the Rhythm Method (“a group of individuals with distinct compositional voices and a collective vision for the future of the string quartet” – ICIYL) and a founding member of string trio Chartreuse and string quartet Desdemona. She has appeared with many of New York City’s notable new music groups, including Wet Ink Large Ensemble, AMOC*, Talea Ensemble, Wavefield, and International Contemporary Ensemble, and with Simone Baron’s genre-bending Arco Belo ensemble. Her compositions have been performed by the Rhythm Method, Adrianne Munden-Dixon, Kal Sugatski, and RE:duo. Her solo album Seagrass was released on Gold Bolus Records in December 2023. Carrie is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Performance Program and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Hailed as a “”formidable”” flutist (Scherzo), Catherine Winters Boyack enjoys a dynamic career as a versatile and in-demand musician and educator in New York City. Semifinalist in the prestigious Kobe International Flute Competition in 2021, Boyack was the first prize winner of the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition, and has won prizes in the Music Teachers National Association Woodwind Performance Competition and Jefferson Symphony Young Artists Competition. 

An avid chamber musician, Catherine is a co-founder of flute and percussion ensemble Coriolis Duo with percussionist Oliver Xu. She is a fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, performing chamber music in New York and Europe. In recent seasons, has performed and recorded with the Chelsea Music Festival and the Da Capo Chamber Players. Catherine is an advocate for new music and has given many premieres, including music by composers Katherine Balch, Katie Jenkins, and Hannah Ishizaki.  Her newest solo project, On Reclaiming, centers conversations around mental and emotional health in a large-scale, interdisciplinary set of commissions for solo flute and multimedia. As a concerto soloist, she has appeared with contemporary ensemble AXIOM, the Lake Forest Symphony, and the Utah Symphony. A frequent recitalist, Catherine has appeared in concert at the National Flute Association Convention, the New York Flute Festival, and the Utah Flute Festival.

Deeply devoted to music education, Catherine has led master classes at the Flute Center of New York, the Massachusetts Flute Festival, the Sacramento Flute Club, and the Utah Flute Association, and has served as a faculty member at Northern California Flute Camp. Through Ensemble Connect, she partners with schools in New York City, bringing interactive performances to students of all ages, as well as teaching instrumental skills and facilitating student-led creative projects in music classrooms. Catherine is a sought-after flute clinician and maintains a private studio teaching students of all ages and levels.

As an orchestral musician, Catherine has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Opera San Antonio, Juilliard Orchestra, AXIOM, New Haven Symphony, and New Juilliard Ensemble. Catherine is a Haynes Young Artist and plays on a 14K custom flute. She earned her MM in Flute Performance from the Juilliard School, and was awarded Juilliard’s Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant upon graduation. BM, Brigham Young University. She is deeply indebted to her mentors Gretchen Pusch, Carol Wincenc, April Clayton, Elizabeth Weissman, and Ronald Staheli.

Cellist and performer Coleman Itzkoff stands at the intersection of baroque/classical/new music, contemporary dance, and experimental theater. Whether premiering works by living composers and performing baroque music on historical instruments in the same concert, delivering enigmatic monologues in a piece of avant-garde dance theater, composing, arranging, and recording music for the Amazon film Le Bal des Folles, or simply playing solo Bach for hospital patients in the time of COVID, Coleman continues to push the boundaries of what it means to be a musician of the 21st century.  

As a soloist, he has been featured soloist with many great orchestras, including recent appearances with the Houston, San Diego, and Cincinnati Symphonies. He is a dedicated member of the early music ensembles Ruckus and Twelfth Night, and is a founding member of AMOC. Coleman holds a Bachelors in Music from Rice University, a Masters in Music from USC, and an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School.

Doug Balliett is a composer, instrumentalist, and poet based in New York City. The New York Times described his compositions as “brainily bubble gum and lovable shaggy,” his poetry as “brilliant and witty,” and his bass playing as “elegant.” Doug is a professor of baroque bass and violone at The Juilliard School, and he leads the Theotokos ensemble every Sunday at St. Mary’s Church. He plays regularly with Les Arts Florissants, Jupiter Ensemble, ACRONYM, Ruckus, BEMF, Alarm Will Sound, and other ensembles. In 2021, five of his Ovid Cantatas were filmed for Qwest TV with William Christie, Lea Desandre, and Nick Scott. 

For three years he and his twin brother hosted a weekly show dedicated to living composers on WQXR’s new music channel Q2. Upcoming performances of his work include Beast Fights at Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony bass section, and the annual New Year’s Eve performance of his opera Gawain and the Green Knight.

A 2023 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Emi Ferguson can be heard live in concerts and festivals with groups including AMOC*, Ruckus, the Handel and Haydn Society, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Manhattan Chamber Players, and as the music director of Camerata Pacifica Baroque. Her recordings celebrate her fascination with reinvigorating music and instruments of the past for the present. Her debut album, Amour Cruel, an indie-pop song cycle inspired by the music of the 17th-century French court, was released by Arezzo Music in September 2017, spending four weeks on the classical, classical crossover, and world music Billboard charts. Her 2019 album Fly the Coop: Bach Sonatas and Preludes, a collaboration with continuo band Ruckus, debuted at #1 on the iTunes classical charts and #2 on the Billboard classical charts, and was called “blindingly impressive … a fizzing, daring display of personality and imagination” by The New York Times.

Emi has been a featured performer at the Marlboro, Lucerne, Ojai, Lake Champlain, Bach Virtuosi, and June in Buffalo festivals, often premiering new works by composers of our time. Emi was a featured performer alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Paul Simon, and James Taylor at the 10th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony of 9/11 at Ground Zero, where her performance of Amazing Grace was televised worldwide. Her performance that day is now part of the permanent collection at the 911 Museum. Emi has spoken and performed at several TEDx events and has been featured on media outlets including the Discovery Channel, Amazon Prime, WQXR, and Vox talking about how music relates to our world today. As a radio host and programmer, Emi first started working with New York’s WQXR as a member of their Artist Propulsion Lab where she developed the podcast series “This Composer Is Sick” with Max Fine, exploring the impact of Syphilis on composers Franz Schubert, Bedřich Smetana, and Scott Joplin. She one of four new hosts for WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase and the host of Once Upon A Composer, sharing musical stories with the youngest radio listeners. Her book Iconic Composers, co-written with Nicholas Csicsko alongside illustrations by David Lee Csicsko, introduces music lovers of all ages to 50 incredible Western Classical composers from the past 1000 years. Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, she now resides in New York.

American Bass-Baritone Evan Hughes has been praised for his “appealing clarity and emotional heft” (New York Times) and his “burnished tone” (Opera News). 

This season Mr. Hughes makes his debut as Idreno in Haydn’s Armida with the Kammer Akademie Potsdam.  He will sing the bass solo in Mozart and Ullmann’s Kaiser Requiem with the Orchestre de Paris and Omer Meir Wellber and the world premiere of Nante’s Anahata at the Elbphilharmonie with Kent Nagano.  With AMOC in New York City, he will perform in Lewis/Monteverdi’s The Comet/Poppea and Matthew Aucoin’s Music for New Bodies.  Future engagements include debuts at La Fenice, Venice, the Opéra-Comique, Paris and the Opéra de Montpellier, all in leading roles.Last season Evan Hughes made his debut with the Theater an der Wien as Valens in a new Stefan Herheim production of Handel’s Theodora conducted by Bejun Mehta.  He then returned to the Opernhaus Zürich for Jupiter in a new Jetske Mijnssen production of Rameau’s Platée conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm.  Mr. Hughes also returned to the Boston Lyric Opera for Ophémon in Joseph Bologne’s Anonymous Lover.  In concert Mr. Hughes reprised his acclaimed portrayal of the Protector in George Benjamin’sWritten on Skin with the Orchestre National de Lille and Alexander Bloch.

Hunter O’Brien’s passionate musical approach has earned him top prizes in the Byron Hester, MTNA Young Artist, International Friedrich Kuhlau, Ervin Monroe, Yamaha Young Performing Artist, James Pappoutsakis, and New York Flute Club competitions. He currently serves as the Director of Education and Community Initiatives at DACAMERA. He holds a BM from the New England Conservatory as a Presidential Scholarship student of Paula Robison and a MM from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University as a student of Leone Buyse. Hunter is honored to be recognized as a Wm. S. Haynes Flutes Young Artist.

Brooklyn-based cellist, singer, and improviser Iva Casian-Lakos is a versatile performer known for her “fiery cello playing” (David Lang via Sequenza 21) and for singing “with an exquisite fragility” (Christian Carey, Sequenza 21). Her repertoire ranges from classical to contemporary works involving choreography, acting,  and improvisation. She has performed across the U.S., Mexico, and Europe with Bang on a Can All-Stars, American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), eco|tonal, PinkNoise, Synesthetic Project, and Unheard-of//Ensemble. In 2017 Iva co-founded Zagreb-based Ensemble Illyrica, who has been hailed for their “creative ecstasy, freshness, tonal harmony and rhythmic clarity” (Novi List). Illyrica has performed in major venues and festivals across Ireland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia, and released their first album on Hitchtone Music in 2022.

Iva has recently collaborated with legendary vocalist and composer Joan La Barbara on an upcoming album featuring a new work for singing-cellist, commissioned by Bang on a Can and performed at their inaugural Long Play Festival and Noguchi Museum series. She has also worked closely with composers Christopher Stark, Wang Lu, David Crowell, and Reiko Füting— and performs works of her own.

As an educator, Iva has given masterclasses, lectures, and workshops at colleges and festivals across the country, such as New York University, Oberlin Conservatory, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Miami University, New Directions Cello Festival, Lake George Music Festival, and more. She is on faculty at Vassar College and Musart Music.

Iva holds degrees from Stony Brook University (DMA.), New England Conservatory (M.M.) and Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.).

Classically trained from the age of 9, South African harpist Jacqueline Kerrod has worked at the highest level in the classical, pop, free jazz and improvised music worlds. Her debut solo record “17 Days In December” (2021)  released on LA-based label Orenda Records was noted as a best debut in 2021 by The New York City Jazz Record and selected as an album to listen to by JazzIs Magazine (December 2021). She has toured nationally and internationally with composer and multi-reedist Anthony Braxton, both in duo and as part of his ZIM music ensemble. Their live duo recording was released on Italian label I dischi di Angelica (2020). She has played principal harp with top orchestras and performed with elite chamber groups, contemporary music ensembles, and pop superstars including Anohni, Rufus Wainwright and Kanye West. She recently launched an improvised/creative music series hosted by Morpeth Contemporary in downtown Hopewell, NJ. Featured musicians have included, Mariel Roberts, Ingrid Laubrock, Joe Morris, Ken Filiano, and Keir GoGwilt. Her duo with Joe Morris was released on Relative Pitch Records (Feb 2025)

A native of New York City, Joseph Jordan is both an oboist dedicated to the instrument’s prominence and longevity for future eras of music and a composer keenly interested in close encounters with the unique capabilities and phenomena of acoustic instruments. In 2023, he earned a master’s degree in oboe performance from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Elaine Douvas and received additional instruction from Linda Strommen, Nathan Hughes, and Scott Hostetler. Joe was praised for his “substantial musicality” (New York Classical Review) following a performance of Varèse’s Octandre with Joel Sachs and the New Juilliard Ensemble as part of the 2022 Focus Festival.

Before his graduate studies, Joe studied oboe at Juilliard as part of the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange. He received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, where he majored in philosophy and was privileged to study composition with Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis, Eric Wubbels, Zosha Di Castri, and others. During his studies, his work received premiere performances by the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Wet Ink Ensemble, loadbang, and counter)induction. The Columbia Department of Music awarded him the Douglas Moore Prize for outstanding work as an undergraduate composer following his junior year. As part of his fellowship with Ensemble Connect, Joe teaches at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn.

Keir GoGwilt is a violinist, composer, and musicologist who was born in Edinburgh and grew up in New York City. His work combines historical research and collaborative experimentation across a range of musical styles and genres. He has soloed with groups including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Chinese National Symphony, Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. This year he is creating and performing a new stage role for Marie & Pierre by Bobbi Jene Smith and Celeste Oram with the Basel Sinfonieorchester and Ballet, composing for the JACK Quartet as artist-in-residence, performing his speculative-historical project Zarabanda Variations with AMOC, and publishing an article for the Bach Journal. 

GoGwilt earned his PhD in Music from UC San Diego in 2022 and was awarded the Chancellor’s Dissertation Medal. As an undergraduate at Harvard he studied Literature, and was awarded the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts. 

Mark Grey made his Metropolitan Opera debut with Doctor Atomic in 2008, returning there for L’Amour de Loin, The Merry Widow, Iolanta, Bluebeard’s Castle, El Niño, The Death of Klinghoffer, Nixon in China and Ainadamar, as well as Antony and Cleopatra spring 2025. As a composer, his opera Frankenstein premiered at Brussel’s La Monnaie in 2019, and his opera Birds in the Moon premiered with the New York Philharmonic in 2021. He has had several commissions from the Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and several other orchestras and ensembles. He is an Emmy Award–winning sound designer whose work appears at leading concert halls, theaters, and opera houses, and in 2002, he became the first sound designer for the New York Philharmonic. He is the resident sound designer for the Ojai Music Festival and Park Avenue Armory.

Matthew Aucoin is an American composer, conductor, and writer, and a 2018 MacArthur Fellow. He is a co-founder of the pathbreaking American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), was the Los Angeles Opera’s Artist in Residence from 2016 to 2020, and currently serves as an Arnhold Creative Associate at The Juilliard School.

Aucoin’s orchestral and chamber music has been performed, commissioned, and recorded by such leading artists and ensembles as Yo-Yo Ma, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Brentano Quartet. In the summer of 2023, the MET Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, featured Aucoin’s orchestral work “Heath” on its first European tour in several decades.

Aucoin is also well-known for his operas, which include Eurydice, Crossing, and Second Nature. These works have been produced at the Metropolitan Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Boston Lyric Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Canadian Opera Company, among others. The Metropolitan Opera’s recording of Eurydice was nominated for a Grammy in 2023.

Aucoin’s other recent conducting engagements include appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, San Diego Symphony, Salzburg’s Mozarteum Orchestra, Ojai Music Festival, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Rome Opera Orchestra, and many other ensembles. Aucoin’s book about opera, The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera, was published in 2021 by Farrar, Straus, & Giroux. He has taught at Harvard University, and his essays regularly appear in leading publications such as The New York Review of Books and The Atlantic.

Megan Moore’s extensive work in contemporary music most recently includes premiering Heggie’s song cycle CROSSING BORDERS; singing Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion at Seattle Symphony with the composer on the podium; both performing in Brett Dean’s Hamlet and covering Jess in Tesori’s Grounded at the Metropolitan Opera; performing Matt Aucoin’s This Earth as well as Freya Waley-Cohen’s Spell Book Volume 2 with Orchestra of St. Luke’s; and creating the role of Ino in Corigliano’s The Lord of Cries at Santa Fe Opera. Other recent engagements include the title role in Ariodante at Boston Baroque, Rossini’s Stabat Mater at Municipal de Santiago; Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Seattle Opera; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at San Diego Opera; Sesto in Handel’s Julius Caesar and Dorabella in Così fan tutte at Opera Theater of Saint Louis; recording Handel cantatas with The English Concert and Harry Bicket; performing Berlioz’ Les nuits d’été with The Orchestra Now; and singing Ida in Die Fledermaus with Les Musiciens du Louvre and Marc Minkowski. Next season Megan is glad to return to AMOC* and Opera Philadelphia for The Seasons.

Cuban-American soprano Meryl Dominguez has been praised for her “intensity and warm tone” (Bachtrack). An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Butler Studio and the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, she has been celebrated for her “gorgeous, crystalline highs and a powerful mid-range.” Recent seasons have seen Dominguez in performance with Houston Grand Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, and The Glimmerglass Festival, among others. 

Dominguez’s repertoire spans diverse roles, including Violetta (La traviata), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), and Donizetti’s titular Lucia di Lammermoor. In 2022, she made her return to the international stage in the title role of Maria Stuarda with Musica Viva Hong Kong, where she earned praise for her “Sutherland-like purity in the upper and middle registers, coupled with depth in the lower range” (South China Morning Post). This season she makes her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Strauss’ Die Frau Ohne Schatten singing Unborn 2 and covering The Falcon before appearing as Violetta in la Traviata for Vero Beach Opera.  She will also perform the role of Salud in de Falla’s La Vida Breve for The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle.

Dominguez has earned recognition in notable competitions, including as a winner of the Sullivan Foundation Award, a Finalist in the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition and a Semi-Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is the 1st Prize winner of the Vero Beach Opera Competition, the Felix Popper prize from Opera Index, the Charles Maggio Award from Shreveport Opera, and a prize winner with both the Gerda Lissner Foundation and the Giargiari Competition.

Passionate and invested in the realm of art song and new music, Dominguez has been involved in the creation and premieres of multiple new operas and recital programs. She was slated to sing Lucy Harper in Santa Fe Opera’s workshop of Corigliano’s The Lord of Cries (canceled due to COVID-19) and later premiered the role of Skyspace Woman in Another City (Beck/Fleischmann) with Houston Grand Opera. Most recently, she covered Callie van Lew in the world premiere of Intelligence (Heggie/Scheer/Zollar) also with Houston Grand Opera.

Dominguez’s recital work has celebrated her versatility, collaborating with LyricFest on the premiere of John Musto’s “Be Music, Night,” Lili Boulanger’s “clairières dans le ciel,” Wolf’s “Spanischesliederbuch,” and several other works. She is in the process of developing a recital combining her passion for fiber arts, the concept of ‘women’s work’, and the narrative trope of feminine madness that pervades the western musical canon.

A highly-acclaimed soloist and collaborator, violinist/violist Miranda Cuckson delights audiences with her performances of music ranging from older eras to the most current creations. She performs at venues ranging from Suntory Hall to the Berlin Philharmonie to the Teatro Colón and Cleveland Museum, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music, and the Ojai, Wien Modern, Grafenegg, Time Spans, Marlboro, Bard, West Cork, Portland, LeGuessWho, and SinusTon festivals. Miranda made her Carnegie Hall debut playing Piston’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the American Symphony Orchestra, and just recently made her debut at the Vienna Musiverein with the Haas Violin Concerto No. 2. 

She has released ten lauded albums, including Nono’s La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura, named a Best Recording of the Year by the New York Times. Miranda is a member of AMOC* and founder/director of Nunc. She studied at Juilliard and teaches at Mannes School of Music.

Praised by The New York Times for her ‘fearless, taut and impassioned performance,’ pianist Ning Yu emerges as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary music.  Combining traditional virtuosity with a mastery over contemporary keyboard performance practice and extended technique, Ning Yu is an ambassador for significant repertoire that exists at the forefront of current aesthetic trends. Ning Yu’s recent works include close collaborations with composers Michael Beil, Brigitta Muntendorf, Aaron Einbond, Annea Lockwood, David Bird, Heather Stebbins, and Alec Hall; and her performances been presented at venues and festivals including Time:Spans Festival, Sounds of Music, Third Practice Festival, Frequency Festival, Library of Congress, Lincoln Center, EMPAC, National Sawdust, the Corcoran music Festival where she also served as the festival’s artistic director. Ning Yu was a long-time member of the acclaimed ensemble Yarn/Wire.  As a soloist and a chamber musician, she has recorded over two dozen albums for Kairos, Wergo, Carrier, Innova, NorthernSpy, New Focus Recordings and others. Ning Yu was awarded the Yvar Mikhashoff Prize in 2024 for her performance and advocacy for living composers and their works. She is Associate Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the George Washington University.

Admired for his interpretive depth, vocal strength, and range of expressivity, tenor Paul Appleby is one of the most sought-after voices of his generation. He graces the stages of the world’s most distinguished concert halls and opera houses and collaborates with leading orchestras, instrumentalists, and conductors. Opera Newswrites, “[Paul’s] tenor is limpid and focused, but with a range of color unusual in an instrument so essentially lyric… His singing is scrupulous and musical; the voice moves fluidly and accurately.”

Appleby’s concert calendar for the 2024–25 season includes the title role of Berlioz’ La damnation de Faust with Hannu Lintu leading the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir, Haydn’s The Creation with Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque, concert performances of Puccini’s La Rondine with Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra, John Corigliano’s captivating Poem in October, inspired by a rich and imaginative poem by Dylan Thomas, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Evangelist in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion with Kent Tritle at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The tenor returns to the stage of the Metropolitan Opera for the company premiere of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra, reprising the role of Caesar which was written for him, in a staging by groundbreaking director Elkhanah Pulitzer.

Respected as a consummate recital artist, Appleby has presented solo appearances at the Wigmore Hall with Malcolm Martineau, toured North America extensively with pianists Natalia Katyukova, Ken Noda, and Conor Hanick, and has given his Tanglewood debut in a performance of Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Vanished with Emanuel Ax.  With pianist Wu Han, he has sung Schubert’s masterpiece, Winterreise, under the auspices of The Schubert Club. Paul Appleby’s recording catalogue includes Nico Muhly’s opera Two Boys, recorded live by the Metropolitan Opera and released by Nonesuch; DVDs of Glyndebourne’s acclaimed presentation of Handel’s Saul and Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict released commercially by Opus Arte; Dear Theo, the first album dedicated solely to works by American composer Ben Moore released by Delos; and Songs and Structures, a portrait album of recent vocal and chamber works by composer Harold Meltzer released on Bridge Records, in addition to other recordings by Virgin Classics, and EMI’s Juilliard Sessions. Appleby is a founding core member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*).

Director Peter Sellarshas gained international renown for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of classics, advocacy of 20th-century and contemporary music, and collaborative projects. His work illuminates the power of art as a means of moral expression and social action.

He has staged operas at the Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, and the Salzburg Festival, among others. He has also collaborated on the creation and production of many works with composers John Adams and Kaija Saariaho.

Recent productions include Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) for the Park Avenue Armory (New York), Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, a revival of Tristan und Isolde at the Opera de Paris, and a staging of Sorey’s Perle Noire:  Meditations for Josephine at the Dutch National Opera.  Upcoming in 2023/24 are new productions of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Medee in Berlin and Vincenzo Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda in Paris.

Sellars has led several major arts festivals, including the 1990 and 1993 Los Angeles Festivals and the 2002 Adelaide Arts Festival.  In 2006 he was Artistic Director of New Crowned Hope, a festival in Vienna for which he invited emerging and established artists from diverse cultural backgrounds to create new work in the fields of music, theater, dance, film, the visual arts, and architecture for the celebration of Mozart’s 250^th birthday anniversary.  He served as the Music Director of the 2016 Ojai Music Festival.

Mr. Sellars is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA and the founding director of the Boethius Institute at UCLA. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Erasmus Prize for contributions to European culture, the Gish Prize, the Polar Music Prize, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Described as “exhilarating” by The New York Times and “utterly mesmerizing” by The Guardian, the GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion champions living composers through its unwavering dedication to contemporary chamber music. In 2011, Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, and Terry Sweeney were brought together by their love of chamber music and the simple joy of playing together; they have since captivated audiences with performances that are both visually and aurally stunning. In 2024, Sandbox Percussion became the first percussion ensemble to be awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

The 2021 album Seven Pillars, featuring Andy Akiho’s title piece, was nominated for two GRAMMY® awards. Following performances throughout the United States and Europe, Sandbox Percussion performs Seven Pillars in October at the Beijing Music Festival. They will also perform the piece at select dates throughout the 2024-25 season.

This season, Sandbox Percussion and the Tyshawn Sorey Trio collaborate on a special Max Roach tribute with live performances that include the 92nd Street Y and the Library of Congress.  Together, the two groups explore the extraordinary legacy of jazz pioneer Max Roach, who was born 100 years ago. 

Sandbox Percussion recently teamed up with composer Michael Torke, who created the hourlong piece BLOOM for the group. The world premiere of BLOOM will take place in December at Tishman Auditorium, at The New School, New York City, following the album release in August, via Ecstatic Records. In October, Sandbox Percussion performed at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, collaborating with the London-based Gandini Juggling. Over the season, Sandbox Percussion will also perform music by Viet Cuong, Julius Eastman, Gabriel Kahane, Gabriella Smith, Paola Prestini, and Doug Cuomo. 

Sandbox Percussion recently recorded percussion music for its first feature film: The Wild Robot (DreamWorks, 2024), an animated science fiction survival film with music by Kris Bowers. The first recording of Lifeline, a vibrant percussion quartet composed by Ellis Ludwig-Leone for Sandbox Percussion, will be released on the album Past Life / Lifeline in December, on Better Company Records. A new album celebrating the group’s long-standing collaboration with Christopher Cerrone will be released in February on PENTATONE Records, including the piece Ode To Joy, co-commissioned by the group in 2023.

Sandbox Percussion holds the positions of ensemble-in-residence and percussion faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and The New School’s College of Performing Arts. Starting in 2024-25, Sandbox Percussion will also be on faculty at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

Sandbox Percussion endorses Pearl/Adams musical instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Black Swamp accessories.

Korean Soprano Song Hee Lee is an Artist Diploma candidate at The Juilliard School, studying under Darrell Babidge. In the summer of 2025, she will make her debuts at Lincoln Center and Tanglewood in Matthew Aucoin’s Music for New Bodies directed by Peter Sellars. In the 2025/26 season, she will debut with Les Arts Florissants in concerts led by William Christie in Paris, Versailles, and Madrid. Additional concert engagements include her debut with the Cecilia Chorus of New York in Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall and with the American Classical Orchestra in Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate. On the operatic stage, she will debut with North Carolina Opera in Cendrillon (La Fée). Future seasons include her debut with il Pomo d’Oro on a North American tour with Joyce DiDonato.

Last season, Song Hee starred as Cleopatra in R.B. Schlather’s new production of Giulio Cesare at Hudson Hall, performed with early music ensemble Ruckus. She also appeared with Juilliard415 in a program of Handel and Rameau arias conducted by William Christie, with The Juilliard Orchestra in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (La Princesse) led by Louis Langrée, and with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra in scenes from Der Rosenkavalier (Sophie). As a second-year Master’s student at Juilliard, Song Hee appeared as Aldimira in Cavalli’s L’Erismena and Valentina in John Musto’s Later the Same Evening, both conducted by Joseph Colaneri with Juilliard Opera. She also performed with Juilliard415 in Purcell’s King Arthur. She has worked with esteemed conductors including Lionel Meunier, Richard Egarr, Nicholas McGegan, Daniela Candillari, and William Christie across multiple seasons.

Victoria Bek is a NY based Costume Artist. Her work maintains a multifaceted approach through design, construction, and collaborative curation. Victoria works regionally and internationally in Dance, Theater, Opera, and Interdisciplinary Performance Art. Her recent collaborations include the Park Avenue Armory, Twyla Tharp Dance, Opera Philadelphia, The Juilliard School, The Shed, L.A. Dance Project, AMOC*, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Gibney Company, New York Philharmonic, Oregon Ballet Theater, BODYTRAFFIC , Little Island and more.

Hailed for her “enchanting” performances (New York Classical Review), her “lambent tone and persuasive phrasing” (Oberon’s Grove), Swiss-French clarinetist Yasmina Spiegelberg is the laureate of several international and national competitions including the Rotary International Competition Madrid Velazquez, the Frances Walton Seattle Competition, and the USC Concerto Competition. Additionally, she was awarded the Special Prize at the 2nd Vienna International Music Competition, and the Golden Medal at the 4th Manhattan International Music Competition.  Her former clarinet trio, The Tandru Trio, was the winner at the Beverly Hills National Auditions in 2019. With her  woodwind quintet, ConnectFive, she was an Ensemble Forward Grantee through Chamber Music America.

Based in NYC, she is an alum of Ensemble Connect, the resident ensemble of Carnegie Hall, which features extraordinary young musicians from around the globe who are committed to community engagement, teaching, entrepreneurship, and leadership. She has appeared in many renowned concert halls including the Oslo Concert Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie Hall.

Yasmina was a guest soloist with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Nomad Symphony Orchestra (France), String Ensemble Rapsodia (Switzerland), USC Thornton Edge, and USC Thornton Symphony Orchestra. She has been broadcasted live as a soloist on KUSC (California) and KING-FM (Washington) and she recorded an album in Switzerland featuring concertos and other works for clarinet and orchestra. She has collaborated with conductors such as Stefan Asbury, Richard Egarr, Franck Ollu, Paul Watkins, and Xiao Zhang.

She has appeared at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Caramoor, Chelsea Music Festival, Festival POTE (France), GatherNYC, International Ensemble Modern Academy (Austria), Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Rocket City New Music, TIME:SPANS Festival, Yellowbarn, and with renowned ensembles such as A Far Cry, American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), Argento New Music Project, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, On Site Opera, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Yasmina is a core member and co-founder of Trio Phōs, a NYC-based clarinet trio. She’s also the Principal Clarinetist of Pegasus: The Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of New York, as well as the Clarinetist of the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra. She was a designated substitute on the Broadway Show Camelot. Her chamber music collaborations include Natasha Brofsky, Peter Frankl, Clive Greensmith, Thomas Guei, Peter Kolkay, Cynthia Phelps, Hila Plitmann, Mark Steinberg, and Roger Tapping. A passionate advocate of contemporary classical music, she collaborates with composers Kalevi Aho, Reena Esmail, inti figgis-vizueta, Liza Lim, James MacMillan, and Michi Wiancko.

Yibin Wang is a New York-based theater and performance director from Hangzhou, China. Yibin’s interdisciplinary work explores cross-cultural narratives, communal experiences, new technology, and vibrant audience relationships. His recent directing/curatorial projects include Tongues (multiple venues), Cabin (East Village Basement), A Hunger Artist (Lenfest Center for the Arts), A Tree Has Not Yet Woken Up In A Dream (Beijing Fringe Festival), Playdate (En Garde Arts), A Theater Letter To You (Columbia University), The Vanya Project (Columbia University), Designing Care (Hangzhou Fengshan Community). Recent assistant credits include Music For New Bodies, Médée, This Body Is So Permanent… (dir. Peter Sellars); The Following Evening (Production Assistant, dir. 600 Highwaymen); Promenade (dir. Morgan Green). BA, Bard College; MFA in Directing, Columbia University. He is currently an artist-in-residence at the Performance Project @ University Settlement in New York, working on a project that delves into the Asian community’s diverse diaspora experiences through the lens of native languages.