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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