James Austin Smith

James Austin Smith

 

James Austin Smith

Praised for his “virtuosic,” “dazzling" and “brilliant” performances (The New York Times) and his “bold, keen sound” (The New Yorker), oboist James Austin Smith performs new and old music across the United States and around the world.  Mr. Smith is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Decoda, co-principal oboist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Artistic and Executive Director of Tertulia, a chamber music series that takes place in restaurants in New York and San Francisco  He is a member of the oboe and chamber music faculties of Stony Brook University and the Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Smith’s festival appearances include Marlboro, Lucerne, Music@Menlo, Spoleto USA, Bowdoin, Bay Chamber Concerts, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Orlando; he has performed with the St. Lawrence, Parker, Rolston and Orion string quartets and recorded for the Nonesuch, Bridge, Mode and Kairos labels.

Mr. Smith received his Master of Music degree in 2008 from the Yale School of Music and graduated in 2005 with Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) and Bachelor of Music degrees from Northwestern University.  He spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Leipzig, Germany at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” and is an alumnus of Ensemble Connect, a collaboration of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, the Weill Music Institute and the New York City Department of Education.  Mr. Smith’s principal teachers are Stephen Taylor, Christian Wetzel, Humbert Lucarelli and Ray Still.  Follow him on Instagram @jaustinsmith.

 
 
 

Alice Yoo

Alice Yoo

 

Alice Yoo

Cellist Alice Yoo has been warmly hailed for her sensitive musicianship, expressive nuance, and passionate commitment to teaching. She has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.

Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Denver Chamber Music Festival, she and cellist Matthew Zalkind have created a new chamber music festival in Denver, Colorado that features the world’s most sought-after chamber musicians in world-class chamber music summer concerts all around the city of Denver.

 
 
 

Dane Johansen

Dane Johansen

 

Dane Johansen

Dane Johansen joined The Cleveland Orchestra at the beginning of March 2016. He was cellist with the Escher String Quartet for five years, during which he and his colleagues were BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, and also recipients of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Martin Segal Award from Lincoln Center. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician around the world. Mr. Johansen made his Lincoln Center debut in a performance of Elliott Carter’s Cello Concerto under the direction of James Levine in celebration of the composer’s centennial. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as first winner of the Juilliard Leo Ruiz Memorial Award and, in November 2016 performing William Walton’s Cello Concerto, made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

For many years, Dane Johansen has dedicated time and energy exploring Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello. He performed them at New York’s Alice Tully Hall in 2010 and also throughout his 580-mile pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain in 2014; the story of his adventure on the Camino with Bach was made into a documentary film called Strangers on the Earth.

A native of Fairbanks, Alaska, Dane Johansen studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, and at the Juilliard School, where he earned his artist diploma. He studied privately with Bernard Greenhouse.

 
 
 

John Stulz

John Stulz

 

John Stulz

John Stulz (b. 1988) is a member of the Paris based new music group Ensemble Intercontemporain and co-artistic director of VIVO Music Festival in Columbus, Ohio. His performances have been noted for their "taut control and poetic intensity" (Boston Globe) and "glowing tone and stunning technique" (the Los Angeles Times).

As a member of Ensemble Intercontemporain, John is on the cutting edge of new musical creation, collaborating with the world's leading living composers and performing masterpieces of the 20th and 21st century repertoire across the globe.

In 2015, the same year he joined the ensemble, John co-founded the VIVO Music Festival in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio with violinist Siwoo Kim and Ted Ou-Yang. Together they work to bring vital, singular and accessible chamber music performances across central Ohio.

 
 
 

Danny Kim

Danny Kim

 

Danny Kim

Violist Danny Kim joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the start of the 2016-2017 season and was appointed 3rd chair of the viola section during the 2017-18 season. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, he earned his master of music degree in viola performance from the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Samuel Rhodes. Having begun his musical studies at a young age on the violin with his mother, Ellen Kim, he transitioned to the viola in high school under Sabina Thatcher.

Mr. Kim completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied with Sally Chisholm, receiving a BA in viola performance and a certificate in East Asian Studies. An alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center, where he won the Maurice Schwartz Prize, he has participated in such festivals as the Pacific Music Festival, Lucerne, Aspen, and Marlboro and has toured with Musicians from Marlboro. As a teacher, he was in residence with El Sistema in Caracas and the Northern Lights Chamber Music Institute in Ely, Minnesota. Mr. Kim also appeared on Sesame Street with conductor Alan Gilbert and participates in the BSO’s Concerts for Very Young People at Boston Children’s Museum.

As an avid chamber musician, he has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Concordia Chamber Players, and Pro Arte Quartet, and has collaborated with artists including Joseph Silverstein, Peter Wiley, Marcy Rosen, Richard O’Neill, Charles Neidich, Anthony McGill, among others. Mr. Kim toured South Korea in 2014 with his string quartet, Quartet Senza Misura, and violist Richard O’Neill, and was also a tenured member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra while earning his undergraduate degree. He was also one of the first musicians to participate in the Boston Symphony-Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra musician exchange, joining the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany during the 2018-19 season. Recently Mr. Kim joined the Boston University College of Fine Arts faculty as a Lecturer in Music.

 
 
 

Sean Lee

Sean Lee

 

Sean Lee

American violinist Sean Lee is one of few violinists who dare to perform the complete 24 Caprices of Niccolò Paganini in concert. A recipient of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Lee has captured the attention of audiences worldwide, with performances described by the New York Times as “breathtakingly beautiful”.

Lee’s ongoing educational YouTube series, “Paganini POV”, utilizes modern technology to share a unique perspective on violin playing. In January 2022, Lee and pianist Peter Dugan released selections from Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices as arranged by Robert Schumann, as an EP and video series titled “Paganini X Schumann: 9 Caprices”, after giving the first performance of the complete 24 Caprices in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 52-year history. 

Lee’s debut album was released by EMI Classics, and reached the iTunes top 20 classical bestsellers list. In 2018, Lee collaborated with pianist Peter Dugan to release a second album, SONGBOOK, featuring songs from all over the world from classical to jazz. As a soloist, Lee has appeared with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Israel Camerata Jerusalem, and Utah Symphony, and recital appearances have taken him to Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Festival di Carro Paganiniano of Italy, and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. A top prizewinner at the “Premio Paganini” International Violin Competition, Lee embraces the legacy of his late mentor, violinist Ruggiero Ricci, who made the first solo recording of the 24 Caprices in 1947.

 
 
 

Emily Smith

Emily Smith

 

Emily Smith

A violinist praised as playing “gorgeously” and with “gracefulness and easy rapport” (The Boston Globe), violinist Emily Daggett Smith performs regularly as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Her performances have taken her across the United States, Europe, South America and Asia, and she has appeared on many of the world’s greatest stages including Carnegie Hall, Caramoor, The Kennedy Center, Ravinia, and Tanglewood.

As a soloist, Dr. Smith made her New York concerto debut at the age of 21 in Alice Tully Hall, playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra and conductor Emmanuel Villaume.  Since then she has performed concerti with many orchestras including Iris Orchestra, Festival Mozaic Orchestra, New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Classical Players. She has performed solo recitals across the country at venues including the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Music in the Loft in Chicago, and Washington Performing Arts’ “Music in the Country”. As a concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra she worked with renowned conductors including Michael Tilson-Thomas and Leonard Slatkin, and has appeared as guest concertmaster of orchestras including Iris Orchestra, The Orlando Philharmonic, and The Knights.

 
 
 

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

 

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Questlove is an American drummer, DJ, music journalist, and record producer. He is best known as the drummer of the Grammy Award-winning band The Roots.

As the son of doo-wop star Lee Andrews (of Lee Andrews & the Hearts), Thompson was exposed to music at an early age. He was performing on drums by the age of seven, and by 13 had become a musical director. His parents then enrolled him at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, where he was exposed to a wide range of music and other performing arts. In 1987 Questlove co-founded The Roots with high school classmate Tariq Trotter. He has been with the group ever since. The group is now the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Questlove has also maintained an active career in music outside of his work with The Roots. He has produced for artists such as Common, D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, and Jay-Z, and more recently, Al Green, Amy Winehouse, and John Legend. He has played drums on albums by Christina Aguilera, John Mayer, and Joshua Redman, to name a few, and was one of a handful of musicians picked to back Hank Williams Jr. on a new version of "All My Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" for the season premiere of Monday Night Football.

The list of Questlove's side projects is equally impressive. In 2001 he helped create The Philadelphia Experiment, a collaborative instrumental jazz trio with bassist Christian McBride and avant-garde jazz pianist Uri Caine. In 2011 he teamed up with Parisian star Keren Ann to present Philly-Paris Lockdown, a one-night celebration of 1900s Paris that took place at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. The two were joined by a slew of artists to present an event awash in jazz, classical, and hip-hop styles. The collaboration reworked compositions by Satie, Ravel, Debussy, and Stravinsky.

In addition to the list of awards and nominations he has received as a member of The Roots, Thompson was awarded an Esky for Best Scribe in Esquire magazine's 2006 Esky Music Awards, was ranked #2 in the "50 Top Tweeters in Music" by Rolling Stone, and placed 8th as Rolling Stone Reader's Pick for "Best Drummers of all Time."

 
 

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Ayaka Matsui

Ayaka Matsui

 

Ayaka Matsui

Ayaka is a harmony creator on the piano. Keenly sensitive to emotions in music, combined with pitch-to-color Synesthesia, Ayaka brings colors and sensibility to her musical storytelling. Classically trained as a pianist in Tokyo, Ayaka has journeyed through jazz, rock, funk, pop, metal, experimental and improvisation over the past 30 years. Ayaka translates energy, colors and emotions into harmonies, which serve as a container for stories to flow through the audience. Her collaborative platform Flow in Harmony showcases musical meditation, poetry piano improvisation, and live painting to music improvisation. Her art always pushes the boundaries of existing art mediums to expand sensory experiences.

 
 
 

Adam November

Adam November

 

Adam November

Adam November is a creative technologist and musician living in Brooklyn, New York. Adam combines electronics, code, sound, and light to create new experiences and products, often centering on music technology and LED art. Currently he is Director of Physical Technology at NYC-based innovation lab Future Colossal, and tours with bassist Karina Rykman on guitar and electronics.

 
 
 

Ricardo Romaneiro

Ricardo Romaneiro

 

Ricardo Romaneiro

Ricardo Romaneiro was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil and moved to the U.S. at an early age. A graduate of The Juilliard School in composition, Ricardo’s music synthesizes his major musical influences and passions: classical music and electronic music. The New York Times described his work as “a blissful and compelling mix of Minimalist-derived rhythmic ecstasy and nightclub beats.” Ricardo is the co-founder of an audiovisual studio called SUBHAZE, creating immersive concerts, festival installations with an array of artists, brands, ensembles, and venues that transcends the traditional forms of presentation experience.

 
 
 

Hannah Sumner

Hannah Sumner

 

Hannah Sumner

Hannah Sumner has already established herself as one of New York’s finest alternative artists. As a producer, vocalist, and songwriter, the triple-threat has performed on a myriad of the city’s stages including sold-out shows at Barclays Center, National Sawdust, Perez Art Museum, Miami’s Art Basel, Le Poisson Rouge (LPR), Webster Hall, and House of Yes.

In the winter of 2015, Sumner released her debut EP ‘To The Almost’ - a work consisting of Sumner’s original songs arranged and produced by Avi Gunther (Snarky Puppy, Lalah Hathaway) to critical acclaim.

"An absolutely incredible voice" - BBC Radio 

“Sumner creates pop music of a beautiful atmospheric hue” - Clash Magazine

With her long list of her own performances and recordings, Sumner has also managed to expand into creating with a variety of well-known names such as, Bravo TV, Tori Burch, Nu Deco Ensemble in Miami, FL creating original compositions for Lululemon’s ‘Beats Per Moment’ tour, composer Ricardo Romaneiro (Terrence Malick, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra), producers J Chris Griffin (Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Kanye West), Avi Gunther (Snarky Puppy, Lalah Hathaway), Gazzo, Pool Cosby, Adam Neely, and Kastra, as well as pianists Julien Marchal and Ola Gjeilo.

 
 
 

Mélanie Genin

Mélanie Genin

 

Mélanie Genin

Hailed as “a globe-trotter” and “singular harp virtuoso” by L’Union France and the Epoch times of New York, Mélanie Genin is known for her “desire to re-shape and re-invent classical music” (Justine Philippe, L’Union, France).

Since her solo debut at Carnegie Hall with the International Shining Stars, Ms. Genin has performed in some of the most prestigious halls in the world, including Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall London, KKL Luzern, Audi Hall München, Avery Fisher Hall, Salle Pleyel, Théâtre du Châtelet, and Théâtre des Champs Elysées, under conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Mark Elder, Matthias Pintscher, Alan Gilbert, Pablos Heras-Casado, and Leonard Slatkin.

 
 
 

Terry Sweeney

Terry Sweeney

 

Terry Sweeney is an avid chamber musician and collaborator. In addition to Sandbox Percussion, Terry is a member of quaquaqua, and The Percussion Collective and has performed over 250 concerts across the United States.Recent projects include a world premiere of Seven Pillars, a percussion quartet by Andy Akiho, QUIXOTE – a multi-year collaboration with the theatrical ensemble HOWL, and a world premiere piano/percussion quintet by Chris Cerrone. Terry’s 2021/2022 season will feature world premieres by composers: Jessica Meyer, Tawnie Olson, Loren Loiacono, Molly Joyce, Tyshawn Sorey, and David Crowell. 

Sandbox released their debut album And That One Too on Coviello Classics in 2020. In 2021, Sandbox released Seven Pillars which was subsequently nominated for two GRAMMY® awards.

As an educator, Terry directs the percussion studies for the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program, is a faculty member at the University of Missouri Kansas City, co-directs the NYU-Sandbox Seminar, and during the 2019 Spring semester was a visiting artist at the University of Massachusetts. Terry holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music and endorses Pearl/Adams musical instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Black Swamp accessories.

 
 
 

Victor Cacesse

Victor Cacesse

 

Victor Caccese is the founder of the Brooklyn-based percussion quartet, Sandbox Percussion. As a member of Sandbox, Victor has performed over 150 concerts worldwide and taught at institutions such as The Peabody Conservatory, The Curtis Institute, Michigan State University, Vanderbilt University, University of Kansas, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Victor has collaborated with composers such as Amy Beth Kirsten, Andy Akiho, David Crowell, James Wood, John Luther Adams, and Thomas Kotcheff. In the Spring of 2020, along with Sandbox Percussion, Victor will give the world premiere of an evening-length work by Andy Akiho entitled Seven Pillars at the Mondavi Center in Davis, CA. Next summer Victor will teach and perform at the fifth annual NYU Sandbox Percussion Seminar, a chamber music festival accepting students from around the world to study and perform some of today’s leading contemporary percussion pieces. 

Also a composer and arranger, Victor has written a number of pieces for percussion. His works have been performed by Sandbox Percussion more than 50 times throughout the United States. While music and percussion is at the core of his professional life, Victor has also worked as a photographer and videographer. As head of media and content development for Sandbox Percussion, he has developed and maintained a YouTube presence consisting of performance videos, workshop documentaries, and travel vlogs.

Victor holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. He is also a member of The Percussion Collective, a stunning ensemble founded by performer and pedagogue Robert van Sice. Victor serves on faculty at the Dwight Conservatory in Manhattan and was a visiting artist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with Sandbox Percussion as the ensemble in residence in the Fall of 2019. Victor endorses Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth drumsticks and Remo drumheads.

 
 
 

Luke Marantz

Luke Marantz

 

Luke is a pianist, composer, photographer and person from dallas, texas currently living in brooklyn, new york. born to a musical family, his studies began at an early age with piano, voice, saxophone and visual art. he attended the booker t. washington high school for the performing and visual arts and upon graduating moved to boston, massachusetts to attend the new england conservatory of music and upon graduating moved to new york city. 

As a leader and a sideman he has traveled the world playing and recording music having performed across america, europe, japan and south america playing alongside the likes of gilad hekselman, walter smith iii, dayna stephens, john ellis, jason palmer, jeff tain watts, nate wood, jochen rueckert, adam o’farrill, olli hirvonen among many others. he has played at the montreux, copenhagen, pori and monterey jazz festivals, the kodak theater in los angeles, the meyerson symphony center in dallas, jordan hall in boston as well as jazz clubs in new york city and all around the world.

 
 
 

David Jacobs-Strain

David Jacobs-Strain

 

David Jacob-Strain is a striking slide guitar player and song poet from Eugene, Oregon. His deep love of blues and roots music is evident in every one of the songs he writes. He studied masters like Robert Johnson, Taj Mahal and Jackson Browne, but plays his own sound, his own song, with a virtuosity that is uniquely his. David began playing on street corners and at farmers markets as a teenager, and bought his first steel guitar with the quarters he saved up.  Before he dropped out of Stanford to play full time, he had already appeared at festivals across the country, often billed as a blues prodigy, but he had to fight to avoid being a novelty act:  “I wanted to tell new stories, it just wasn’t enough to relive the feelings in other people’s music.”