Eliran Avni

Hailed as "The new hope of Israeli music" by Ma'ariv and described as possessing both "ironclad technique" and "ample suppleness" by the New York Times, Eliran Avni is an emerging force in the contemporary classical music scene. Having made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta at age seventeen, Mr. Avni has appeared as a soloist and chamber collaborator throughout Europe, North and South America, as well as in his native Israel and has made numerous recordings for the Naxos label and the Israeli and German broadcasting systems. A charismatic lecturer and teacher, Mr. Avni has given master classes and lectures on the connection between music and the emotions in the US and Israel and has taught at prestigious institutions such as The Juilliard School and the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival.

Mr. Avni began his musical training at the Tel Aviv Academy studying with Marina Bondarenko. He soon developed a strong affinity for chamber music and worked with leading musicians such as Yo Yo Ma, Isaac Stern, and Yefim Bronfman. At age sixteen he won first prize in both the Clairmont and Rachmaninoff Competitions and was an annual scholarship recipient from the Israel-America Cultural Foundation from 1989- 2000.

A frequent collaborator, Mr. Avni has worked with renowned musicians such as Yehonatan Berick, Daniel M�ller-Schott, Yehuda Hanani, Terrence Wilson, Jennifer Aylmer, William Sharp, the Chicago Chamber Music Players, actors Sigourney Weaver and Richard Chamberlain, as well as in performances of Schumann's Symphonic Etudes with dancer Laura Careless.

Mr. Avni received both his BM and MM degrees while studying with Veda Kaplinsky at The Juilliard School and completed his DMA degree as a student of both Veda Kaplinsky and Jerome Lowenthal. His dissertation: "The Musician's Challenge: Merging Emotion and Structure in Performance", written under the advisement of Dr. Carl Schachter,presents an original methodology designed to assist musicians in uncovering and understanding the emotional content of musical works.

A preeminent interpreter of the music of Israeli composer Avner Dorman, Mr. Avni has been privileged to record two CDs of Dorman's music. The first, The Piano Works of Avner Dorman, was recorded at Tanglewood's Ozawa's Hall in 2006, was produced by Grammy winner David Frost and was released on the Naxos label. The second CD, of Dorman's Chamber Concerti with the Metropolis Ensemble and Maestro Andrew Cyr, will be released in 2010, also on Naxos.

Currently Mr. Avni is dividing his time between performing solo and chamber concerts, conducting workshops and master classes on the subject of emotional understanding of music and teaching at both The Lucy Moses School and The New York Chamber Music Program.

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Mindy Kaufman

Solo piccolo and flutist Mindy Kaufman joined the New York Philharmonic in 1979 at the age of 22, after performing for three years with the Rochester Philharmonic. In addition to her duties as solo piccolo with the orchestra, she has performed as the Orchestra's Associate Principal Flute, including most recently during the 2007 Europe tour and the residency at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.

Ms. Kaufman received a bachelor of music degree from the Eastman School of Music, and at the age of 19 won her first audition for a position, which led to her being Second Flute at the Rochester Philharmonic. For one season she served as Acting Principal Flute of the Milwaukee Symphony, during which time she recorded works by Dvorák and Kodály conducted by Zdenek Macal.

Mindy Kaufman has appeared as a piccolo soloist with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of then music directors Zubin Mehta and Kurt Masur. Her playing on both flute and piccolo has been acclaimed throughout the world, as she has been praised for "the extraordinary control of the piccolo's long sustained pianissimos" (The Times of London), and The New York Times wrote, "Mindy Kaufman... played the flute solos in the Takemitsu beautifully." The S & H International Concert Review wrote of her, "Who would have thought that during the evening the piccolo would have such a sensational day in the sun, but that is exactly what happened after intermission in the Shostakovich Tenth, with the Philharmonic's Mindy Kaufman at her most mesmerizing. Both the first and third movements end with conspicuous... roles for this instrument, and she just did a fabulous job."

Ms. Kaufman plays chamber music regularly with her colleagues in the New York Philharmonic Ensembles at Merkin Concert Hall, and she has performed at summer festivals including the Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music and the Grand Teton Music Festival. She can be heard on dozens of film soundtracks, including The Cotton Club, The Untouchables, Cape Fear, Aladdin, The Alamo, Hitch, and The Last Holiday, and she played with The Four Tops on CBS's The Late Show with David Letterman.

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Avi Avital

The Israeli mandolin player Avi Avital (born 1978) graduated from the Jerusalem Music Academy and specialized at the Padua Conservatory.

He has played with major orchestras, such as the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rostov State Theatre Soloists, I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, the Ingolstadt Kammerorchester and the New York Metropolis Ensemble, and under the baton of such illustrious conductors as Mastislav Rostropovitch, Asher Fisch and Philippe Entremont.

In 2007, Avi Avital won the first prize at Israel's prestigious competition for soloists, the "Aviv competition - Doris and Mori Arkin Award", thus becoming the first mandolin player in the history of the competition to achieve this recognition. He has received in the following year a special award from the Israeli Minister of Culture and an ECHO Prize for his recording with David Orlowsky Trio for Sony BMG.

His intense artistic activity includes numerous international appearances, with performances in concerts throughout Europe, the USA and South-East Asia.

He has been invited to give lectures and Master Classes at the Conservatorio Verdi di Milano, Stanford University (California), the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel and at New York's Julliard School of Music.

His innate curiosity of all aspects of music - from experimental to ancient music, passing through world music - has made him one of the most multi-faceted mandolin-players of our time.

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Caleb van der Swaagh

Praised for his “entrancing” performances (National Sawdust Log), cellist Caleb van der Swaagh is a versatile chamber musician and soloist. He is an alumnus of Ensemble ACJW (now known as Ensemble Connect) – a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. Caleb is the recipient of the Tanglewood Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Prize and the Manhattan School of Music Pablo Casals Award, and was also a grant recipient from the Virtu Foundation.

In demand as a chamber musician, Caleb is member of Exponential Ensemble, a mixed instrumentation chamber ensemble. He is a first prize winner in the SAVVY Chamber Competition and has performed with such ensembles as The Knights, A Far Cry, Orchestra of St. Lukes, the Borromeo String Quartet, Metropolis Ensemble, Ensemble LPR, and the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. Recent festival appearances include appearances at the Chelsea Music Festival, Ottawa ChamberFest, Garth Newel Music Center, Music from Montauk, 23Arts Summer Music Festival, Edelio Festival, and Birdfoot Festival. As a recording artist, Caleb’s recent releases include the Against Method with counter)induction on New Focus Recordings and Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Quintet with Phoenix Ensemble on Navona Records. Additional appearances include albums on Albany Records, Bright Shiny Things, Supertrain Records, Linn Records, and Avie Records.

An advocate of contemporary music, Caleb is a member of counter)induction, Ensemble Échappé, and Ensemble Ipse. He also performs regularly with leading contemporary music ensembles including Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Either/Or, S.E.M Ensemble, and Hotel Elefant. He has premiered works by such composers as Georg Friedrich Haas, Beat Furrer, Christian Wolff, Roscoe Mitchell, and Iancu Dumitrescu, among others, as well as performing his own compositions and arrangements.

A native New Yorker, Caleb graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University as part of the Columbia – Juilliard Exchange program with a degree in Classics and Medieval & Renaissance Studies. Caleb received his master’s degree with academic honors from New England Conservatory and later studied at the Manhattan School of Music. His primary teachers are Bonnie Hampton, Laurence Lesser, and David Geber. Caleb plays on a cello made by David Wiebe in 2012.

Jay Julio

Originally from Uniondale, New York, 25-year old first-generation Filipino-American Jay Julio (they/them) is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and composer-arranger currently based in NYC. Jay is the Assistant Principal Violist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, a section member of the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony in C, substitute violist with the Phoenix, Memphis, Virginia, Fort Worth, and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, and has been invited to play with the American Composers Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, PROTESTRA, and the Metropolis Ensemble. They have shared the stage with Broadway singers, pop stars, and classical music’s hottest young talents in performances from Washington D.C. to the Philippines, and can be heard on Captured Tracks, Fiendish Endeavor, and Broadway Records. They appeared in the official collaborative music video for Major Lazer & Marcus Mumford’s single, Lay Your Head On Me, released as a fundraiser for COVID-19 research efforts, recently performed with Nigerian artist Burna Boy in his Hollywood Bowl debut, and have been invited by British icons Foreigner to join their California orchestral performances. Their compositions and arrangements have been heard at the Cannes Film Festival and at New York Fashion Week and performed by soprano-double bass duo confluss. 

Jay has attended the Music Academy of the West, Orpheus@Mannes, the New York String Orchestra Seminar and the Aspen, Pacific, Thy, Spoleto and Lake Tahoe music festivals; they have also spent summers at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program and the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute as a Young Artist of Color. They have served as a Teaching Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, instructed at Interlochen Center for the Arts, and worked as substitute viola & chamber music faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division. They have coached the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, have been on faculty at the Stony Brook University Chamber Strings Camp, and teach strings privately online.

A prizewinner in national competitions held by the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Music Teachers National Association and recipient of a 2019 Juilliard Career Grant, Jay is indebted to the Virtu Foundation and the American Viola Society for their past support through instrument and bow loans. They were recipient of a 2020 Music Academy of the West Fast Pitch Award for their music-meets-prison-analysis organization Sound Off: Music for Bail, which was also recently awarded a 2021 Juilliard Career Grant to further an upcoming recording project highlighting string quartet music of Florence Price, George Walker, Yaz Lancaster, and Dorothy Rudd Moore.

After taking their first viola lesson at age 14 at the Mannes Preparatory Division, Jay graduated from theInterlochen Arts Academy at 16 studying with Renee Skerik with their highest musical honor, the Young Artist Award, received their BM in Viola Performance from the Manhattan School of Musicunder Karen Ritscher on full scholarship, and received their MM at the Juilliard School on a full-tuition Susan W. Rose Fellowship under the tutelage of Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory. Other important mentors include Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti and Lina Bahn. For rhythm, Jay studies poetry.

Jordan Dodson

Jordan Dodson, described by Performance Today as “one of the top young guitarists of his generation,” is a musician and educator. A passionate advocate of contemporary music, Dodson has given the premiere of hundreds of new works. In 2013 he was the first guitarist to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music’s new guitar program. In the same year he won Astral Artists’ National Auditions and was selected to be Young Artist in Residence on American Public Media.
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He recently appeared as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia with the premiere of Andrea Clearfield’s new concerto, Glow. He plays in several New York City chamber ensembles including the Metropolis Ensemble and the New York City Guitar Quartet, and frequently collaborates with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Curtis on Tour, the American Modern Opera Company, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and Contemporaneous. He has performed alongside such musicians as Roberto Díaz, Anne Marie-McDermott, and Ransom Wilson.

Dodson has appeared on several commercially available recordings including Jason Eckardt’s Subject. His most recent recordings are Elliot Cole’s Nightflower and Journals, vol. 1. As collaborator with American Modern Opera Company, he has helped create the guitar part for a new arrangement of John Adams’ El Niño, which will receive its premiere in France in 2024.

Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Dodson is on faculty at EzraGuitar and The Smith School in New York City. He has given many masterclasses and lectures and holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Cincinnati, and his teachers have included Clare Callahan, David Starobin, and Jason Vieaux.

Jordan is endorsed by Oasis strings and plays a Gary Lee guitar.

Mivos Quartet

The Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (The Chicago Reader), is devoted to performing works of contemporary composers and presenting diverse new music to international audiences. Since the quartet's beginning in 2008 they have performed and closely collaborated with an ever-expanding group of international composers representing a wide aesthetic range of contemporary composition. Highlights during the 2022/23 season will include performances and residencies at Walker Arts Center with Cécile McLorin Salvant and Ambrose Akinmusire, UPenn, ECLAT Festival (DE), Columbia University, Peak Performances with Mary Halvorson, and the announcement of a new album of Steve Reich string quartets.

Mivos is invested in commissioning, premiering, and growing the repertoire of new music for string quartet, striving for rich collaborations with composers over extended periods of time. Recently, Mivos has collaborated on new works with Jeffrey Mumford (LA Philharmonic/Library of Congress), Michaela Catranis (Fondation Royaumont), Chikako Morishita (rainy days festival), George Lewis (ECLAT Festival Commission), Sam Pluta (Lucerne Festival Commission), Eric Wubbels (CMA Commission), Kate Soper, Scott Wollschleger, Patrick Higgins (Zs), and poet/musician Saul Williams. For this work and the continuation of it, the quartet was the recipient of the 2019 Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Prize for Interpreters of Contemporary Music.

Beyond expanding the string quartet repertoire, Mivos is committed to working with guest artists exploring multi-media projects and performing improvised music. Mivos has worked closely with artists such as Cécile McLorin Salvant (Ogresse), Ambrose Akinmusire (Origami Harvest), Ned Rothenberg, Timucin Sahin, Nate Wooley, and most recently guitarist, composer, and 2019 MacArthur Fellow, Mary Halvorson.

Mivos has performed to critical acclaim on prestigious series such as Noon to Midnight (USA), Lucerne Festival (CH), Jazz at Lincoln Center (USA), the New York Phil Biennial (USA), Wien Modern (AT), the Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (DE), rainy days festival (LU), Asphalt Festival (DE), HellHOT! New Music Festival (Hong Kong), Shanghai New Music Week (CN), Música de Agora na Bahia (Brazil), Aldeburgh Music (UK), and Lo Spririto della musica di Venezia (IT).

In addition to their performance season, Mivos is committed to the education of young composers and string players, and is regularly the quartet in residence at the Creative Musicians Retreat at the Walden School (USA) and the Valencia International Performance Academy and Festival (ES). The quartet has conducted workshops at Columbia University, Harvard University, Boston University, UC Berkeley, US San Diego, Duke University, Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Shanghai Conservatory (China), University Malaya (Malaysia), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), the Hong Kong Art Center, and MIAM University in Istanbul (Turkey) among others. Along with their work at educational institutions, Mivos grants the Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize, a yearly award to support the work of emerging and mid-career composers residing in the USA, and the I-Creation prize, a competition for composers of Chinese descent worldwide.

The members of Mivos are violinists Olivia De Prato and Maya Bennardo, violist Victor Lowrie Tafoya, and cellist Tyler J. Borden. Mivos operates as a non-profit organization dedicated to performing, commissioning, and collaborating on music being written today.

Laura Weiner

Laura Weiner is a passionate horn player and advocate for classical music based in New York City. An experienced chamber musician, orchestral performer, soloist, and teaching artist, she is an alumnus of Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program of Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School. A native of Colorado, she received her Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude from Northwestern University, and her Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a University Fellowship.

Laura has performed with diverse musicians from the New York Philharmonic to Adele, and is a member of the groups Alarm Will Sound, Decoda, and Genghis Barbie, where she channels her high-altitude roots as "Alpine Barbie." She regularly performs a wide variety of concerts across New York City in venues like Lincoln Center, Trinity Church, and public school auditoriums. She was a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall under the baton of Robert Spano, and has performed at the Bravo! Vail Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, among others. Laura’s principal teachers include Gail Williams, William Barnewitz, and Douglas Hill.

Huanyi Yang

Trumpet player Huanyi Yang was born in Beijing, China in 1999. He started learning trumpet at the age of 10 and began to receive professional music practice in high school. He then transferred to Walnut Hill Art High School, where he studied under Joseph Foley --- trumpet professor at the Boston Conservatory. He is currently studying at The Juilliard School and is currently the first Chinese student in this major. During his academic career, Yang Huanyi has been mentored by many experts, including Chris Martin, Chris Gekker, Tom Hooten, Mark Inouye, Sergei Nakariakov, etc.

Huanyi Yang is a member of NYO-China in 2017 and 2019. He has participated in the Curtis Institute of Music Summer Music Festival in the United States and the Rafael Mendez Brass Festival in the United States. In 2021 and 2022, Huanyi and friends organized Jhao-yin Summer Music Festivel in Shenzhen, China, which is the first music festivel entirely organized by Chinese music students.

He also won the first prize in the Concerto Competition of the Brookton Symphony Orchestra and the "From the top" Radio Young Artist Award in the United States.

As a special guest performer, he has performed with China Philharmonic Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Central Opera House, Ningbo Symphony Orchestra and other Chinese first-class orchestras. In 2020, he participated in the founding of the only professional brass ensemble in China, Jhao-yin Brass, and performed with the troupe.

Robert Garrison

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Robert Garrison is a versatile freelance performer of the classical, baroque, and jazz genres in the New York City area. Robert has had the honor of performing with world-renowned orchestras, such as the MET Opera, New York Philharmonic, MusicAeterna, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and many others. Robert has been accepted into many of the top music festivals, such as the Tanglewood Music Center, the Spoleto Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, the National Orchestra Institute, and several more.

Robert currently attends the Manhattan School of Music for an Orchestral Program Performance Studies certificate. He holds a masters degree from The Juilliard School and a bachelors degree from the University of North Texas. His primary teachers include David Krauss, Ethan Bensdorf, Christopher Martin, Raymond Mase, John Thiessen, Caleb Hudson, Ryan Anthony, Dr. Jason Bergman, Tanya Darby, Adam Gordon, and Dr. Leonard Candelaria.

Paige Quillen

Paige Quillen is a current student at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City under the instruction of Mr. Erik Ralske. Previously to her studies at the Juilliard School, she was a member of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra and studied under Mr. Greg Hustis - Former principal of the Dallas Symphony- as well as Staff Seargant Nicole Caluori - Principal Horn of the West Point Band. In her free time Ms. Quillen enjoys reading and painting as well as spending time with family and loved ones.

Zachary Neikens

Zach is a bass trombone student currently at the Juilliard School, studying with Blair Bollinger of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Zachary is a graduate of the Pre-College division and is set to complete his collegiate studies in May of next year. In summer of 2021 Zach won the Kleinhammer orchestra excerpts competition at the international trombone festival, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic.

Todd Reynolds

Violinist, composer, educator, improviser, and technologist Todd Reynolds is well known for his work with amplified violin and electronics, both solo and his work in the string group ETHEL. He is on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music.

Sarah Cahill

Sarah Cahill, pianist, writer, and producer has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano, recorded extensively, and produced a series called The Future is Female. She also hosts a radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, which airs on KALW in San Francisco.

Libby van Cleve

Libby van Cleve is an author, educator, and oboeist. She is one of the foremost interpreters of chamber and contemporary music for the oboe, and featured on the internationally acclaimed Dark Waters music by Ingram Marshall.

Benjamin Verdery

Guitarist, composer, and teacher Ben Verdery tours regularly throughout the US, Canada, Europe and Asia, performing at venues and festivals. He has written music for countless performers, and had works written for him. Ben has been guitar professor at the Yale School of Music, Artistic Director of 92Y’s Art of the Guitar series since 2007.

Du Yun

DU YUN, born and raised in Shanghai, China, and currently based in New York City, works at the intersection of opera, orchestral, theatre, cabaret, musical, oral tradition, public performances, electronics, visual arts, and noise. Her body of work is championed by some of today’s finest performing groups and organizations around the world.

Known for her “relentless originality and unflinching social conscience” (The New Yorker), Du Yun’s second opera, Angel’s Bone (libretto by Royce Vavrek), won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music. She was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Classical Composition category for her work Air Glow. Her collaborative opera Sweet Land with Raven Chacon (for opera company The Industry) was the 2021 Best New Opera by the North America Critics Association. Four of her feature studio albums were named The New Yorker’s Notable Recordings of the Year, in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively. Her latest monodrama opera In Our Daughter’s Eyes was a notable performance of the year in 2022 by the New Yorker.

A community champion, Du Yun was a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble; served as the Artistic Director of MATA Festival (2014-2018); conceived the Pan Asia Sounding Festival (National Sawdust); and founded FutureTradition, a global initiative that illuminates the provenance lineages of folk art and uses these structures to build cross-regional collaborations from the ground up. Du Yun was named one of 38 Great Immigrants by the Carnegie Foundation (2018), “Artist of the Year” by the Beijing Music Festival (2019).

In 2022, she was granted a Creative Capital Award for an AR inter-generational Kun-opera project. Asia Society Hong Kong has honored her for her continued contribution in the performing arts field. Other notable awards include Guggenheim, American Academy Berlin Prize, Fromm Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts. The Carnegie Foundation and the Vilcek Prize in Music have honored her as an immigrant who have made lasting contributions to the American society. In 2023 Harvard University honored her as centennial medalist, the highest recognition for its alumni.

As an avid performer and bandleader (Ok Miss), her onstage persona has been described by the New York Times as “an indie pop diva with an avant-garde edge.”

Du Yun is Professor of Composition at the Peabody Institute, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Her concert music is published worldwide by G.Schirmer.

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