Our National Family

Shams Ahmed is an Emmy Award-winning producer, music director, and arranger based in Los Angeles. Alongside his partners Ben Bram and Scott Hoying (of Pentatonix), Shams produced the acclaimed ‘Ragged Old Flag: An American Chorus’, which earned a nomination and eventual win making Shams the first Bangladeshi-American to receive an Emmy Award for Music Direction. The trio also co-founded the popular female pop/R&B group Citizen Queen, who signed with Sony Music’s RCA Records, toured arenas with Pentatonix and Rachel Platten, and are now captivating millions on TikTok while preparing for the release of their first major original work as an independent artist. Shams is also a co-founder of Acapop!, a music brand for children that has recently appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show and America’s Got Talent and has garnered over 100M+ views for their exceptional music videos. Drawing inspiration from his dual identity, Shams has been taking on more projects in the Indian/South Asian music space. Most recently, he vocal produced Shreya Ghoshal in her first-ever English/Hindi crossover piece ‘Invincible’ in collaboration with Pentatonix. Shams also serves as a Director of Talent & Creative for Northeastern University signature events, producing entertainment for events such as Commencement Ceremonies at Fenway Park, as well as EXPERIENCE, Northeastern’s $1.5 billion fundraising campaign.

Tehillah Alphonso is a New-Jersey-born, Nebraska-raised, Nigerian-American vocalist, pianist, music director, and GRAMMY®-nominated arranger based in Los Angeles, California. A proud Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Southern California, she received her B.M. in Popular Music Performance from the Thornton School of Music and was named 2020 Outstanding Graduate, becoming the first Black woman in the pop program to achieve this award. While a full-time student at USC, Tehillah served as Business Manager and Music Director of USC’s premiere a cappella group, and five-time ICCA champions, the SoCal VoCals. Her time in the VoCals has led her to perform in venues such as the Staples Center, the Rose Bowl, Carnegie Hall, and many historic theaters in Los Angeles and New York. Upon graduating, she quickly made a name for herself in the session music industry, having sung on a number of films and television shows and alongside notable artists, including Chloe Bailey, Lebo M, Billie Eilish, and Olivia Rodrigo.

Saunder Choi is a Los Angeles-based Filipino composer and choral artist whose works have been performed internationally by various groups including Conspirare, the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Chorale, World Youth Choir, Brightwork New Music, People Inside Electronics, and many others. As an arranger and orchestrator, Saunder has written for Tony-Award winner Lea Salonga, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, etc.

As a choral artist, he sings with Pacific Chorale, L.A. Choral Lab, HEX Vocal Ensemble, as well as in film scores such as the soundtrack of Disney’s The Lion King (2019), Mulan (2020), Turning Red (2022), Nope (2022), Avatar: The Way of the Water (2022), etc. Saunder believes in music as advocacy, using the media as a platform for diversity, equity, inclusion, justice. His compositions are focused on narratives and conversations surrounding immigration, racial justice, LGBTQ+ advocacy, climate justice, and representations of his identity as a Filipino-Chinese. He is currently Director of Music at Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica and a teaching artist with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Stephen Cohn is internationally recognized for his music for the concert stage; his scores for feature films, theater, and television. His concert works have been performed and recorded by the finest orchestras and chamber music ensembles in the United States and Europe, such as the Arditti Quartet, the Kansas City Symphony, the Prague Philharmonic the Chroma String Quartet, the Eclipse Quartet, Palomar, Piano Spheres, the Hear Now Festival, the Jung Trio, Midnight Winds, Red Cedar Chamber Music, Pacific Serenades, Universal Sacred Music, Outside the Bach’s Festival, the Paulist Scholars and the Otzberg Festival. He has been Composer-in-Residence at The International Encounters of Catalonia in France and for Red Cedar Chamber Music in Iowa City and has been commissioned to compose new works that have been performed in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Fort Worth, Kearney, Tempe, Jacksonville, Black Mountain, Hoover, Montgomery, Huntsville, Iowa City and in Europe and Asia in Rome, Brussels, Ceret, Passau, Berlin, Orihuela, China (various cities), and Prague. Stephen’s classical and commercial recordings have been released by Warner Bros., Motown, A&M Records, MCA, Columbia Records, Albany Records and At Peace Media. He has been commissioned to compose music for theater productions which have played in large and small theaters in the Los Angeles area. He has received an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Music”, and his scores have been part of many award-winning productions and feature films which included stars such as Lily Tomlin, William Shatner, and Wallace Shawn. He has received a Parents’ Choice Gold Award for his CD release, “Two Together, An American Folk Music Suite.” He was recently Composer in Residence with Red Cedar Chamber Music for 2018-19.

Tan Dun, a world-renowned artist, and UNESCO Global Goodwill Ambassador has made an indelible mark on the world’s music scene with a creative repertoire that spans the boundaries of classical music, multimedia performance, and Eastern and Western traditions. A winner of today’s most prestigious honors including the a GRAMMY®, Oscar/​Academy Award, Grawemeyer Award, Bach Prize, Shostakovich Award, Italy’s Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, and most recently Istanbul Music Festival’s Lifetime achievement award. Tan Dun’s music has been played throughout the world by leading orchestras, opera houses, international festivals, and on radio and television. In 2019, Tan Dun was named as Dean of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. As dean, Tan Dun further demonstrates music’s extraordinary ability to transform lives and guide the Conservatory in fulfilling its mission of understanding music’s connection to history, art, culture, and society. As a conductor of innovative programmes around the world, his current season includes appearances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Tan Dun is an Artistic Ambassador of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and serves as the Honorary Artistic director of the China National Symphony, Principal Guest conductor at Shenzhen Symphony, and Honorary Artistic Director and Chief Guest conductor of the Xi´an Symphony Orchestra. Tan Dun has also led the world’s most esteemed orchestras, including London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Sharon Farber is a member of the Executives Committees of both the Motion Pictures and TV Academies, Four – time Emmy Award Nominated, Board member of ASCAP, GRAMMY winner (for her music on the GRAMMY® winning album WOMEN WARRIORS: THE VOICES OF CHANGE), VP of the Alliance for Women Film Composers, Winner of the Society of Composers and Lyricists Award for “Outstanding work in the Art of Film Music”, the Visionary Award in Music by The Women’s International Film & Television Showcase, and winner of the Telly Award. A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Film scoring and Concert composition (dual major), Sharon has been working with networks and cable broadcasters like NBC, CBS, Showtime, Lifetime and the WB as well as writing music for feature films and documentaries. Her film music has been released commercially and performed live in concerts. Sharon is one of 8 female composers featured at Lincoln Center, at the historical “Women Warriors” concert, curated by Maestra Amy Anderson that won the 2022 GRAMMY Award. Sharon’s latest score for award winning director Nina Menkes, “Brainwashed- Sex-Camera- Power”, premiered Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival and she recently completed the score for “Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff: The Kristine Carlson Story” for LIFETIME TV.  She is also signed to score director Gev Miron’s feature doc “Solar Wars” as well as a slate of films from Aegis film Group. The International Film Music Critics Association wrote about her music: “Composer Sharon Farber wowed the crowd with a suite of music from three of her scores: “Children of the Fall”, “When Nietzsche Wept” and “The Dove Flyer.” Sharon’s Corona project, arranged and produced by her for the United Nations’ Corona relief fund, “I’m Standing With You”, in collaboration with 12 time OSCAR nominee Iconic song-writer Diane Warren and award winning Director Gev Miron, features 17 lead singers from virtually every continent and 160 singers and instrumentalists. In the concert music world, Sharon has many national and international credits and commissions to her name, including The Los Angeles Master Chorale, Juilliard School of Music, Pacific Serenade Ensemble, The National Children Chorus, The Northwest Sinfonietta, Opera Națională București and many more, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (NY), Disney Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (LA), and internationally. Sharon taught music at the prestigious “Guitar Oasis International Music Festival” in Torchiara, Italy in July, at the invitation of Juilliard’s acclaimed guitar master Tali Roth. Sharon is the Music Director of Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills at the SABAN theater, where spirituality is infused with music, dance and art.

Thomas Hewitt Jones is an award-winning composer, music producer, and songwriter. Since winning the BBC Young Composer Competition in his teens, his music has been published by many of the major music publishers and is frequently heard in concert and on radio, TV, and in the cinema. Thomas’s diverse catalog includes small instrumental, orchestral, choral, and ballet works, and his large number of choral titles includes seasonal carols. His music is regularly featured on Classic FM. Large-scale works include the
Christmas cantata Incarnation, released on Regent Records, and Panathenaia – a Symphony in Stone, which received a premiere in acclaimed violinist Hugo Ticciati’s O/Modernt festival in Stockholm, followed by a UK premiere in the British Museum; both works have libretti by writer Paul Williamson. He has written a musical version of ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ with lyrics and book by Matt Harvey, which enjoyed four productions having been launched at the Theatre Royal, Bath. Thomas’s work in the commercial field has included work in America and scores for films in the UK, as well as music for the London 2012 Olympics Mascots animated films, with stories by Michael Morpurgo. He has written a catalog of around a thousand commercial music tracks which can be heard on a variety of media worldwide. Thomas’s track ‘Funny Song’ (published by Cavendish Music) was recently number 3 in the world on TikTok, having gone megaviral on the platform in 2022-4 as well as on YouTube. It has since been covered by Crazy Frog, the video of which has currently 49 Million streams, and the main track on Tiktok has had 13 billion streams to date. The statistic is that most people in the world have heard it! On Christmas Eve 2023, Classic FM featured ‘The Christmas Story’, an orchestral retelling of the Nativity story with narration by Stephen Fry, and they are due to repeat it during Christmas 2024. ‘The Night Before Christmas’ for choir, flute, piano, bass & kit was commissioned and premiered in New York in December 2023, and was recorded in January 2024 by the BBC Singers, with Thomas producing. Thomas’s recent album ‘Regards from Rochester’ has just been released on the Vivum Music label, and he is currently writing the music for a forthcoming UK film. Thomas is also a cellist, pianist, and organist, and is the proud owner of two pipe organs as well as his cutting-edge composing studio.

Sage Lewis writes cutting-edge music for VR/AR film, television, theater, and brand campaigns that can be heard on Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, public television, the Oculus Store, and Apple. His films have been screened at festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, Cannes, Telluride, Slamdance, International Documentary Film Festival, and the Havana Film Festival. He has written original music for tech and fashion companies such as Facebook, Stripe, Maiyet, John Hardy, and Google. Sage was a Sundance Film Scoring Lab fellow at Skywalker Sound and a fellow for the BMI Conducting Workshop for Visual Media Composers. He has received numerous grants, awards, and commissions from institutions including the American Composers Forum, Theatre Communications Group, Center Theatre Group, and the City of Los Angeles. He has an MFA from CalArts and a BA from Oberlin Conservatory in Music Composition. He is a member of BMI and is represented by Evolution Music Partners.

Ibrahim Maalouf has gone from winner of the world’s greatest international classical trumpet competitions to the most popular jazzman on the French music scene in 18 albums.. Filling Istanbul’s Volkswagen Arena, New York’s Lincoln Jazz Center and Washington’s Kennedy Center, in 2016 he became the first jazzman in history to sell out France’s biggest concert hall, Paris Bercy’s Accor Arena. Spotted by living legend Quincy Jones and described as a “Virtuoso” by the New York Times, Ibrahim has collaborated in recent years with Wynton Marsalis, Angelique Kidjo, Melody Gardot, the Kronos Quartet, Trilok Gurtu, Josh Groban, Marcus Miller, Salif Keita, and many others. In 2021 he appeared on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show with Jon Batiste, who introduced him as a living jazz legend. After participating alongside Sting in the reopening of the Bataclan in Paris, then paying tribute at his funeral to Tignous, one of the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo murdered, then honoring the memory of the victims of the attacks of autumn 2015 during a national tribute by composing an anthem sung by the young Louane, the musician and composer of film music, multi-awarded (Victories of Music, Caesars, Lumières, …) has become in a few years an essential artist and a symbol of intercultural dialogue to the point of being chosen to interpret the national anthem in front of 6 million viewers on July 14, 2021 at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Never where one expects him to be, with his 17th album “Capacity To Love”, Ibrahim Maalouf intends to leave his mark on the world with popular, original, surprising and innovative music. In 2022, he became the first Lebanese instrumentalist nominated for a Grammy Award for his album Queen of Sheba in collaboration with Angelique Kidjo.

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer, and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films, and installations. Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance.” Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound, discovering and weaving together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which there are no words. Celebrated internationally, Ms. Monk’s work has been presented at major venues throughout the world. Over the last six decades, she has been hailed as “a magician of the voice” and “one of America’s coolest composers.” In conjunction with her 50th Season of creating and performing, she was appointed the 2014-15 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall. Recently Monk received three of the highest honors bestowed to a living artist in the United States: induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2019), the 2017 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and a 2015 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. Monk’s numerous honors and awards include the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, three “Obies” (including an award for Sustained Achievement), and two “Bessie” awards for Sustained Creative Achievement. More recently Ms. Monk was named one of National Public Radio’s 50 Great Voices, the 2012 Composer of the Year by Musical America, and an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Republic of France. She also received a 2020 John Cage Award, 2012 Doris Duke Artist Award, a 2011 Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts, and an inaugural USA Prudential Fellow award in 2006. Monk holds honorary Doctor of Arts degrees from Bard College, Boston Conservatory, Concordia University, Cornish College of the Arts, The Juilliard School, Lafayette College, Mount Holyoke College, San Francisco Art Institute, University of the Arts, and University of Hartford. Among the many highlights of Monk’s performances from the last twenty-five years is her Vocal Offering for His Holiness the Dalai Lama as part of the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles in October 1999. Several marathon performances of her work have taken place in New York at the World Financial Center (1991), Lincoln Center Music Festival (2000), Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (2005 and 2015), Symphony Space (2008), and the Whitney Museum (2009). In February 2012, MONK MIX, a CD of remixes and interpretations featuring 25 artists from the jazz, pop, ,DJ and new music worlds was released. Most recently, Monk has developed Indra’s Net, the third part of a trilogy of music-theater works exploring our interdependent relationship with nature, following the highly acclaimed On Behalf of Nature (2013) and Cellular Songs (2018).

Nico Muhly, born in 1981, is an American composer who writes orchestral music, and works for the stage, chamber music and sacred music. He’s received commissions from The Metropolitan Opera: Two Boys (2011), and Marnie (2018); Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Tallis Scholars, and King’s College, Cambridge, among others. He is a collaborative partner at the San Francisco Symphony and has been featured at the Barbican and the Philharmonie de Paris as composer, performer, and curator. An avid collaborator, he has worked with choreographers Benjamin Millepied at the Paris Opéra Ballet, Bobbi Jene Smith at the Juilliard School, Justin Peck and Kyle Abraham at New York City Ballet; artists Sufjan Stevens, The National, Teitur, Anohni, James Blake and Paul Simon. His work for film includes scores for The Reader (2008) and Kill Your Darlings (2013), and the BBC adaptation of Howards End (2017). Recordings of his works have been released by Decca and Nonesuch, and he is part of the artist-run record label Bedroom Community, which released his first two albums, Speaks Volumes (2006) and Mothertongue (2008).

Sarah Quartel, Canadian composer and educator, is known for her fresh and exciting approach to choral music. Deeply inspired by the life-changing relationships that can occur while making choral music, Sarah writes in a way that connects singer to singer, ensemble to conductor, and performer to audience. Her works are performed by choirs across the world, and she has been commissioned by groups including the American Choral Directors Association, the National Children’s Chorus of the United States of America, and New Dublin Voices. Since 2018 she has been exclusively published by Oxford University Press, and she continues to work as a clinician and conductor at music education and choral events at home and abroad.

Rufus Wainwright, praised by the New York Times for his “genuine originality,” has established himself as one of the great male vocalists, songwriters, and composers of his generation. The New York-born, Montreal-raised singer-songwriter has released ten studio albums to date, three DVDs and three live albums including the Grammy-nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall. He has collaborated with artists such as Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Miley Cyrus, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys, Heart, Carly Rae Jepsen, Robbie Williams, Jessye Norman, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting, and producer Mark Ronson, among many others. He has written two operas, numerous songs for movies and TV, and is currently working on his first musical for the West End and a Requiem. His latest GRAMMY® and JUNO nominated album of original songs, Unfollow the Rules, finds Wainwright at the peak of his powers, entering artistic maturity with passion, honesty, and a new-found fearlessness. His newly-released studio album Folkocracy features reinvented folk duets with artists like Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, John Legend and Anohni, and many more.

Ryan Heffington: “Occasionally someone rattles the arts industry cage so hard that they demand a rethink of what constitutes good, satisfying, and important practice. In contemporary dance that player is Ryan Heffington” – Hold & Corner Magazine

In March 2020, Ryan Heffington became a north star of empowerment and self-expression for hundreds of thousands of people through his free, online dance class SWEATFEST. Together with his community, they raised over 300k for charities that supported Black Lives Matter, LGBTQI+ and other organizations. Heffington’s 2022 TED TALK angles on accessing happiness through movement – another vehicle to get the world to dance, which has been a goal of Ryan’s since his mid-20s. The pandemic also brought closure to his dance studio The Sweat Spot (Los Angeles) which offered an array of dance styles for the novice to the professional dancer. The Sweat Spot created a community through yearly recitals, benefit concerts, workshops, screenings, and dance parties alike. After a 10-year run, The Sweat Spot remains an example of the world’s desire to commune and dance. 

Heffington is also a two-time Grammy nominated, and Emmy-winning, choreographer and director. Pioneering contemporary dance in a commercial context, Heffington’s global exposure came in 2014 for Sia’s “Chandelier” (winner of MTV’s Best Choreography of the Year Award). Since, other notable works include HBO’S Euphoria (Emmy nominated for Best Choreography), Spike Jonze’s commercials for Kenzo World (winner Cannes Grand Prix), and Apple’s “Welcome Homepod” featuring FKA Twigs (winner Cannes’ highest award the Titanium Lion), Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial film debut Tick, Tick…Boom!, Edgar Wright’s critically acclaimed film Baby Driver, Netflix’s groundbreaking television series The OA, and 100 years of Chanel’s N°5 commercial directed by Johan Renck with Marion Cotillard. 

Additional collaborators include directors Vincent Haycock, Autumn De Wilde, Hiro Murai, Christopher Guest, Martin De Thurah, Jean-Paul Goude, Judd Apatow, Alma Har’el, Roman Coppola, Khalil Joseph and Paul Thomas Anderson where Heffington plays Steve opposite Bradley Cooper in his recent film Licorice Pizza. Ryan is known for extracting magic out of non-dancers and actors alike. It’s through his experience of teaching novice dancers for a decade that sharpened this skill. Actors: Kristin Wiig, Elijah Wood, Zendaya, Kate Hudson, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, Judith Light, Ewan McGregor, Juliette Lewis, Alison Brie, Brit Marling and Phyllis Smith are a few Ryan has coached. 

Heffington’s directorial work infuses choreography with his keen eye for design and expression. Free People, Paul McCarney, SK-II, Grey Goose and Fleet Foxes are a few entities to enlist Ryan’s expertise.

Heffington happily resides in the high desert a few hours outside Los Angeles where he throws “TITS + PALMS” – a monthly dance party for queers and their allies. He’s in the early stages of developing a residency for multi-disciplinary creatives, continuing to build community as he did in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years.

Caroline Polachek: Caroline Elizabeth Polachek is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. Raised in Connecticut, Polachek co-founded the indie pop band Chairlift while studying at the University of Colorado. The duo emerged from the late-2000s Brooklyn music scene with the sleeper hit “Bruises“.

During her time in the band, she worked on the solo projects Ramona Lisa and CEP before embarking on a career under her own name after Chairlift’s disbandment in 2017. Her debut studio album, Pang (2019), featured collaborations with producer Danny L Harle and was released to critical acclaim. On December 5, 2022, Polachek announced her second studio album under her full name, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, and was released on February 14, 2023.

Polachek has worked extensively with other artists, collaborating with Blood Orange, Fischerspooner, Sbtrkt, Christine and the Queens, Charli XCX, and the British music collective PC Music, as well as penning material for Beyoncé (“No Angel“) and Travis Scott.

Jessica Rivera: Possessing a voice praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer for its “ravishing fullness,” GRAMMY® Award-winning soprano Jessica Rivera “has established herself as a singer of uncommon vocal luster and musical intelligence” (San Francisco Classical Review). The dimension and spirituality with which she infuses her performances on international concert and opera stages has garnered Ms. Rivera unique artistic collaborations with many of today’s most celebrated composers, including John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jonathan Leshnoff, Nico Muhly, and Paola Prestini, and has brought her together with such esteemed conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, James Conlon, Robert Spano, Markus Stenz, Bernard Haitink, Teddy Abrams, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

Rivera opens the 2023-2024 season singing Gabriela Lena Frank’s Conquest Requiem with the Columbus Symphony, a work she performed and recorded last season with the Nashville Symphony and premiered with the Houston Symphony in 2017. She appears with the Anderson Symphony in “An Evening of Song,” gives a recital at Converse University with guitarist Sharon Isbin, and performs at the Urtext Cuarto Festival in Mexico City. She returns to Cincinnati Opera as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.

A champion of new music, Rivera recently gave the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s The Right of Your Senses, commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and performed by the National Children’s Chorus and the American Youth Symphony at Walt Disney Concert Hall. A major voice in the rich culture of Latin American music and composers, Rivera recently performed in Antonio Lysy’s Te Amo Argentina with Arizona Friends of Chamber Music. During the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Rivera and guitarist Sharon Isbin embarked on a multi-city US tour with a program of Spanish art songs, a project the duo debuted during the 2019 Aspen Music Festival.

Rivera’s decade-long collaboration with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra included singing Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Spano’s farewell concert. Other highlights with Spano and the ASO include Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and Jonathan Leshnoff’s Zohar at Carnegie Hall. She joined Spano for Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Hadyn’s Creation with the Fort Worth Symphony and for Christopher Theofanidis’s Creation/Creator in Atlanta and at the Kennedy Center. Here she also sang Robert Spano’s Hölderlin Lieder, a song cycle written specifically for her and recorded on the ASO Media label.

Recent orchestral highlights include Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos with the Minnesota Orchestra, Gabriela Lena Frank’s La Centinela y la Paloma with the Aspen Philharmonic, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 at the Grand Teton Music Festival and with the Detroit Symphony, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Louisville Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony. She has sung Handel’s Messiah with the Nashville Symphony and Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth with the Atlanta and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestras, Mahler’s Fourth with Colombia’s Orquestra Filarmónica de Bogotá, Brahms’s Requiem with the Kansas City Symphony, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Five Images After Sappho and Poulenc’s Gloria with the Colorado Symphony, Strauss’s Orchesterlieder with Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, the role of Eileen in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town with Seattle Symphony, and Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Rivera has worked closely with John Adams throughout her career and received international praise portraying Kumudha in the world premiere of A Flowering Tree directed by Peter Sellars at Vienna’s New Crowned Hope Festival. Under Adams’s baton, she has sung the role with the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center, and London Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed Kumudha with the Berlin Philharmonic, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon and Cincinnati Opera. Rivera made her European operatic debut as Kitty Oppenheimer in Sellars’s production of Adams’s Doctor Atomic with the Netherlands Opera, a role that also served for her debuts at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Finnish National Opera and Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Spain. She joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for its production of Doctor Atomic under the direction of Alan Gilbert. Rivera has also performed Nixon Tapes with the Pittsburgh Symphony; and El Niño with the Boston and Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, San Francisco Symphony, and at the Edinburgh International Festival with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Rivera made her Santa Fe Opera debut in the summer of 2005 as Nuria in the world premiere of the revised edition of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar. She reprised the role for the 2007 GRAMMY® Award-winning Deutsche Grammophon recording of the work with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano, and bowed in the Peter Sellars staging at Lincoln Center and Opera Boston, as well as in performances at the Barbican Centre, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Cincinnati Opera, and the Ojai, Ravinia, and New Zealand International Arts Festivals. She also performed Margarita Xirgu in Ainadamar at the Colorado Music Festival and the Teatro Real in Madrid.

Rivera has appeared in recital halls in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas and Santa Fe. She was honored to receive a commission from Carnegie Hall for the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s song cycle The Adulteress. She was recently presented by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Society of the Four Arts, and Wolf Trap in Voices of the Americas, a program featuring works by Ginastera, Chávez, and León alongside pianist Michael Stephen Brown and cellist Nicholas Canellakis.

Rivera’s extensive discography includes releases on the Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, Naxos, Telarc, Urtext, VIA Records, Opus Arte, CSO Resound, and ASO Media labels. Her performance of John Harbison’s Requiem with the Nashville Symphony and Chorus under Giancarlo Guerrero was recorded and released on the Naxos label in October 2018 and her third release for Urtext, an Homage to Victoria de los Angeles was released in 2022. Ms. Rivera serves on the vocal faculty at Miami University in Oxford, OH. jessicarivera.com

Lisa Vroman: Lisa starred for several years on Broadway as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera. As Christine, she garnered Theatre Critics’ awards for the role in a record-breaking run in San Francisco and did a return engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. Ms. Vroman starred as Rosabella in The Most Happy Fella, making her New York City Opera debut with Paul Sorvino playing the title role. She played the role of Charlotte in A Little Night Music with Michigan Opera Theatre, starring Leslie Uggams and Ron Raines. She starred as Lili Vanessi in Kiss Me Kate with both Glimmerglass Opera and the MUNY Theater of St. Louis and played Marian Paroo in The Music Man with Shirley Jones (Mrs. Paroo) and Patrick Cassidy (Harold Hill) at The Bushnell Theatre in Hartford CT. Lisa sang the role of Birdie in Regina with Utah Opera, conducted by Keith Lockhart; made her New Jersey Opera debut as Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus (directed by Ira Siff); and premiered and recorded two Comic Operas by composers John Musto (Bastianello) and William Bolcom (Lucrezia) with the New York Festival of Song.

Her Broadway debut was in Aspects of Love, and she was the first to play both Fantine and Cosette in Les Miserables. For PBS she was featured with Colm Wilkinson and Michael Ball in Cameron Mackintosh’s Hey, Mr. Producer! at the Lyceum Theatre in London, a Royal Gala attended by Queen Elizabeth II.  She sang the role of Johanna in the San Francisco Symphony’s Emmy Award winning Sweeney Todd in Concert, with Patti Lupone and George Hearn. Both are available on DVD. Lisa starred as Laurey in Oklahoma, filmed live in concert for the BBC Proms Festival at Royal Albert Hall in London, and starred as Mary Turner in Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing/Let ’em Eat Cake in concert with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, directed by Pat Birch. Other roles have included  Lucy Brown in Threepenny Opera at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco with Bebe Neuwirth, Nancy Dussault, and Anika Noni Rose; Laurie in The Tender Land at the Cabrillo Music Festival, with Marin Alsop, conducting; Maria in The Sound Of Music with Tulsa Opera; Josephine in HMS Pinafore and Yum-Yum in The Mikado with the Utah Opera; and Anna 1 in The Seven Deadly Sins with the Utah Symphony,, Florida Symphony, Portland Symphony, and Parnassus Symphony. She has sung Maria in West Side Story, Guenevere in Camelot, Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel, Christine in Maury Yeston’s Phantom, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, and Amalia Balash in She Loves Me, as well as many other well-known musical roles.

Her many performances have included a multi-city concert tour of China; concerts of Cole Porter’s 1928 La Revue des Ambassadeurs with L’Opera de Rennes in France; and playing the role of Maria Callas in Terence McNally’s award-winning play, Master Class.

Lisa is a George London Competition Grant recipient and a 1999 Minerva Award recipient from the State University of New York at Potsdam.  She received an Undergraduate degree in Music Education from the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam,  a Masters degree in Fine Arts and opera Performance from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and was recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Music from SUNY Potsdam.  She has become an active mentor and sought-after clinician with many colleges and universities across the country and around the world.

With a repertoire that ranges from Stravinsky to Weill to Broadway, Lisa is a frequent guest soloist with theater and opera companies, and orchestras including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, the National, Malaysia, Seattle, Hong Kong, Cleveland, Nashville, Pacific, Utah, Dallas, the Boston Pops with Keith Lockart, the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, and the Philly Pops with Peter Nero. She made her debut at The Hollywood Bowl in Disney’s 75th celebration, singing and dancing with legend Dick Van Dyke in a medley from Mary Poppins, (John Mauceri, conductor). She guest starred with SONY artist Greek tenor Mario Frangoulis in his NYC debut concert at City Center; and has performed many times with the New York Festival of Song, including a tribute to Broadway director Harold Prince. Lisa has sung in concert with composer Stephen Schwartz, organist David Higgs, and the Empire Brass Quintet. Her solo CD, Broadway Classic, features Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and 47 of San Francisco’s finest orchestral players. Lisa had the honor of singing at the Profiles in Courage Award dinner in Boston at the JFK Library, as a guest of the Kennedy family. She has also sung on separate occasions for Queen Elizabeth, former presidents Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, and former Vice President Al Gore.

Lisa is part of an ongoing multimedia symphony project produced by Music Unwound and the Kurt Weill Foundation which features the work of Kurt Weill, Berthold Brecht, and Marc Blitzstein.  Her upcoming season includes celebrations of the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein with the Philly Pops and Santa Barbara Symphony.

Lisa lives in Pasadena, CA with her husband Patrick O’Neil, and their beautiful dog Barber.

Center Theatre Group is one of the most influential and active theatre companies in the United States, located in Los Angeles. Founded in 1967, the group includes the Ahmanson Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, and Kirk Douglas Theatre. They present a wide range of productions, from Broadway hits to cutting-edge new works. The company is dedicated to producing theatre that challenges and inspires, while also providing education and community engagement programs to broaden the reach of the arts.

The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is a symphony orchestra that plays at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1991 by John Mauceri, the orchestra has become known for its versatility and wide-ranging repertoire, including classical music, film scores, jazz, and popular music. The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra is dedicated to making music accessible to all, providing high-quality performances in one of the most iconic outdoor venues in the world.

The Joffrey Ballet is a world-renowned dance company based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1956 by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino, the company is known for its unique blend of classical ballet and contemporary dance, presenting works from traditional ballets to cutting-edge contemporary choreography. The Joffrey Ballet is committed to the development of the art of dance through performances, education programs, and outreach initiatives, maintaining a legacy of excellence and innovation.

The Kronos Quartet, founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973, is a San Francisco-based string quartet known for its dedication to contemporary music and collaborations with composers from around the world. The quartet has released over 60 recordings and performed thousands of concerts, and they have premiered more than 1,000 works and arrangements. Kronos is celebrated for its innovative spirit, exploring the boundaries of string quartet music through a diverse range of influences and genres.

Founded in 1964, the Los Angeles Master Chorale is the resident chorus of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and one of the world’s leading professional choirs. Under the direction of Artistic Director Grant Gershon, the Chorale is celebrated for its vibrant performances, innovative programming, and commitment to new music. The ensemble has premiered numerous works and regularly collaborates with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, bringing choral music to a broad audience through performances, recordings, and outreach programs.

The Los Angeles Opera, founded in 1986, is one of America’s most prominent opera companies, known for its bold productions and diverse repertoire. Under the leadership of General Director Plácido Domingo and Music Director James Conlon, the company presents both classic operatic works and contemporary pieces, often involving innovative staging and multimedia elements. The LA Opera is committed to nurturing new talent and expanding the reach of opera through education and community engagement initiatives.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded in 1919, is one of the leading orchestras in the world. Known for its innovative programming, the LA Phil performs a wide range of music, from classical to contemporary, under the leadership of Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel. The orchestra is based at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, where it presents over 250 concerts annually. The LA Phil is also deeply involved in education and community outreach, making music accessible to all.

Musica Angelica is a renowned period instrument orchestra based in Los Angeles, specializing in Baroque music. Founded in 1993, the orchestra performs works from the 17th and 18th centuries, bringing historical performance practices to life with a high level of artistry and authenticity. Musica Angelica has collaborated with many of the world’s leading early music specialists and regularly tours internationally, earning acclaim for its vibrant and historically informed performances.

The New York City Master Chorale, founded in 2005, is a premier choral ensemble in New York City, known for its dynamic performances of a wide range of choral literature. The Chorale, under the direction of Dr. Thea Kano, performs a mix of classical and contemporary works, often featuring new commissions and collaborations with composers. The ensemble is committed to musical excellence and community engagement, making choral music accessible to diverse audiences across New York City.

The Tokyo International Children’s Choir is a prominent youth choir in Japan, known for its commitment to fostering international understanding and cultural exchange through music. The choir performs a wide range of music, including classical, folk, and contemporary works, and has participated in numerous international festivals and competitions. The ensemble is dedicated to nurturing young talent and promoting peace and harmony through the universal language of music.

Tonality is a Los Angeles-based vocal ensemble founded by Dr. Alexander Lloyd Blake in 2016. The group is dedicated to performing concerts on themes of social justice to bring awareness and create dialogue on issues such as immigration, civil rights, gun violence, climate change, and more. Tonality’s mission is to use music as a tool to unify communities, promote understanding, and inspire action. The ensemble’s innovative and impactful performances have garnered national recognition and acclaim.

VOCES8 is an internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble known for its wide-ranging repertoire, which spans from Renaissance polyphony to contemporary commissions. Founded in 2005, the group has gained a reputation for its precision, versatility, and captivating performances. VOCES8 is also deeply committed to music education, running a successful outreach program that reaches thousands of young people worldwide each year. The ensemble’s recordings and live performances have won numerous awards and continue to attract global audiences.

David Alan Miller, Two-time GRAMMY®  Award-winning conductor David Alan Miller has established a reputation as one of the leading American conductors of his generation. As music director of the Albany Symphony since 1992, Mr. Miller has proven himself a creative and compelling orchestra builder. Through exploration of unusual repertoire, educational programming, community outreach, and recording initiatives, he has reaffirmed the Albany Symphony’s reputation as the nation’s leading champion of American symphonic music and one of its most innovative orchestras. He and the orchestra have twice appeared at “Spring For Music,” an annual festival of America’s most creative orchestras at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, and at the SHIFT Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Other accolades include Columbia University’s 2003 Ditson Conductor’s Award, the oldest award honoring conductors for their commitment to American music, the 2001 ASCAP Morton Gould Award for Innovative Programming, and, in 1999, ASCAP’s first-ever Leonard Bernstein Award for Outstanding Educational Programming. 

Frequently in demand as a guest conductor, Mr. Miller has worked with most of America’s major orchestras, including the orchestras of Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco, as well as the New World Symphony, the Boston Pops, and the New York City Ballet. In addition, he has appeared frequently throughout Europe, the UK, Australia, and the Far East as guest conductor.  Since 2019, Mr. Miller has served as Artistic Advisor to the Little Orchestra Society in New York City, and, from 2006 to 2012, served as Artistic Director of “New Paths in Music,” a festival of new music from around the world, also in New York City. 

Mr. Miller received his most recent Grammy Award in 2021 for his recording of Christopher Theofanidis’ Viola Concerto, with Richard O’Neill and the Albany Symphony, and his first Grammy in 2014 for his Naxos recording of John Corigliano’s “Conjurer,” with the Albany Symphony and Dame Evelyn Glennie. His extensive discography also includes recordings of the works of Todd Levin with the London Symphony Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon, as well as music by Michael Daugherty, Kamran Ince, Michael Torke (London/Decca), Luis Tinoco, and Christopher Rouse (Naxos). His recordings with the Albany Symphony include discs devoted to the music of John Harbison, Roy Harris, Morton Gould, Don Gillis, Aaron J. Kernis, Peter Mennin, and Vincent Persichetti on the Albany Records label.  He has also conducted  the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic in three acclaimed recordings on Naxos. 

A native of Los Angeles, David Alan Miller holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from The Juilliard School. Prior to his appointment in Albany, Mr. Miller was associate conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. From 1982 to 1988, he was music director of the New York Youth Symphony, earning considerable acclaim for his work with that ensemble. Mr. Miller lives in Slingerlands, New York, a rural suburb of Albany.

Eric Whitacre, GRAMMY®  Award-winning composer and conductor, is among today’s most popular musicians. A graduate of The Juilliard School (New York), his works are programmed worldwide, and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united well over 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries. Among his accolades and awards, in recent years Eric received the Richard D. Colburn Award from the Colburn School and an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Chapman University (CA). Eric served consecutive terms as Artist in Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and currently holds the position of Visiting Composer at Pembroke College, Cambridge University (UK). He’s also an Ambassador for the Royal College of Music in London (UK) and is proud to be a Yamaha artist. A long-term relationship with Universal/Decca Classics has produced several no.1 albums which have had enduring success. New works include Eternity in an Hour which will receive its premiere in 2024 at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall (London) followed by performances in Belgium, Australia and the USA. In 2025, Murmur, commissioned by revered violinist, Anne Akiko Meyers, will receive its premiere performance by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Insatiably curious and a lover of all types of music, Eric has worked with legendary Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer, as well as British pop icons Laura Mvula, Imogen Heap and Annie Lennox. A widely respected conductor, Eric has worked with the world’s leading choirs and orchestras including the Minnesota Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2024, he conducted Mozart Requiem alongside his own pieces with The Louisville Orchestra. His collaboration with Spitfire Audio resulted in a trail-blazing vocal sample library which became an instant best-seller and is used by composers the world-over. His composition, Deep Field, was inspired by the achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope and became the foundation for a pioneering collaboration with NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and film-makers 59 Productions. His long-form work The Sacred Veil, a profound meditation on love, life and loss, was premiered by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conducted by the composer, and released on Signum Records. In 2021, Eric launched the Virtual School with its first course “The Beautiful Mess: Masterclass in Composition and Creativity”. A charismatic speaker, Eric Whitacre has given keynote addresses for many Fortune 500 companies, in education and global institutions from Apple and Google to the World Economic Forum in Davos and the United Nations Speaker’s Program. His mainstage talks at the influential TED conference in Long Beach CA received standing ovations.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is known as both a composer and conductor. He is currently the Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, where he works alongside eight Collaborative Partners from a variety of disciplines ranging from composers to roboticists. He is Conductor Laureate for London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, where, as Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor from 2008 until 2021, he spearheaded digital projects such as the award-winning RE-RITE and Universe of Sound installations and the much-hailed app for iPad, The Orchestra; theLos Angeles Philharmonic, where he was Music Director from 1992 until 2009, and was instrumental in opening the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall; and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. As a member of the faculty of LA’s Colburn School, he develops, leads, and directs the pre-professional Negaunee Conducting Program. He is the cofounder—and until 2018 served as Artistic Director—of the annual Baltic Sea Festival. In 2015 he addressed the Apple Distinguished Educator conference on the uses of technology in music education, and his Violin Concerto was featured in an international campaign for iPad.

Grant Gershon, Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director, has been hailed for his adventurous and bold artistic leadership, and for eliciting technically precise and expressive performances from musicians. The Los Angeles Times has said the Chorale has become “the best-by-far chorus in America” under Gershon, a reflection on both his programming and performances. In April 2022, Chorus America honored Gershon with the Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art in recognition of his career’s work.

Gershon has led more than 200 Chorale performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in programs encompassing a wide range of choral music, from the early pillars of the repertoire to contemporary compositions. He has led world premiere performances of major works by such compoers as Michael Abels, John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Jeff Beal, Eve Beglarian, Billy Childs, Reena Esmail, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ricky Ian Gordon, Shawn Kirchner, David Lang, Morten Lauridsen, Steve Reich, Ellen Reid, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Chinary Ung. 

Gershon is committed to increasing representation in the choral repertoire, and in 2020 he announced that the Chorale will reserve at least 50% of each future season for works by composers from historically excluded groups in classical music. 

In July 2019, Gershon and the Chorale opened the famed Salzburg Festival with Lagrime di San Pietro, directed by Peter Sellars. The Salzburg performances received standing ovations and rave reviews from such outlets as the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which called Lagrime “painfully beautiful” (Schmerzliche schön). Gershon and the Chorale debuted the production in Los Angeles in 2016 and began touring the world with it in 2018. In his review of the premiere of Lagrime, the Los Angeles Times noted that the production “is a major accomplishment for the Master Chorale, which sang and acted brilliantly. It is also a major accomplishment for music history.”

As resident conductor of LA Opera, Gershon conducted the West Coast premiere of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha in November 2018. He made his acclaimed debut with the company with La Traviata in 2009 and subsequently conducted Il Postino, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Florencia en el Amazonas, Wonderful Town, The Tales of Hoffmann, and The Pearl Fishers. In 2017, he made his San Francisco Opera debut conducting the world premiere of John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West, directed by Peter Sellars, who also wrote the libretto, and made his Dutch National Opera debut with the same opera in March, 2019. Gershon and Adams have an enduring friendship and professional relationship that began 27 years ago in Los Angeles when Gershon played keyboards in the pit for Nixon in China at LA Opera. Since then, Gershon has led world premiere performances of Adams’s theater piece I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, premiered his two-piano piece Hallelujah Junction with Gloria Cheng, and conducted performances of Harmonium, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, El Niño, The Chairman Dances, and choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer.

In New York, Gershon has appeared at Carnegie Hall and at the historic Trinity Wall Street, and he has performed on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and the Making Music series at Zankel Hall. Other major appearances include performances at the Ravinia, Aspen, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Salzburg, and Vienna festivals, the South American premiere of the LA Opera’s production of Il Postino in Chile, and performances with the Baltimore Symphony and the Coro e Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino in Turin, Italy. He has worked closely with numerous conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, and his mentor, Esa-Pekka Salonen.

His discography includes the Grammy-nominated recordings of Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti’s Grand Macabre (Sony Classical); commercial CDs with the Chorale, including Glass-Salonen (RCM), You Are (Variations) (Nonesuch), Daniel Variations (Nonesuch), A Good Understanding (Decca), Miserere (Decca), and the national anthems (Cantaloupe Music); and two live-performance albums, the Chorale’s 50th Season Celebration recording and Festival of Carols. He has also led the Chorale in performances for several major motion pictures soundtracks, including, at the request of John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Gershon was named Outstanding Alumnus of the USC Thornton School of Music in 2002 and received the USC Alumni Merit Award in 2017.

Gustavo Dudamel, is driven by the belief that music has the power to transform lives, to inspire, and to change the world. Through his dynamic presence on the podium and his tireless advocacy for arts education, Dudamel has introduced classical music to new audiences around the globe and has helped provide access to the arts for countless people in underserved communities. He currently serves as the Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and in 2026, he becomes the Music and Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic, continuing a legacy that includes Gustav Mahler, Arturo Toscanini, and Leonard Bernstein.  

Dudamel’s bold programming and expansive vision led The New York Times to herald the LA Phil as “the most important orchestra in America—period.” In the 2023/24 season, Dudamel and the LA Phil celebrated the legacy of architect Frank Gehry on the 20th anniversary of Walt Disney Concert Hall’s opening with a Gala event and an acclaimed production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, directed by Alberto Arvelo with set designs by Gehry. The LA Phil also partnered with the San Francisco Symphony and the San Diego Symphony for the inaugural California Festival, a celebration of the state’s collaborative and innovative spirit, with more than 90 organizations participating throughout California.  Dudamel continues his exploration of opera with the revival of the LA Phil’s ground-breaking production of Beethoven’s Fidelio in partnership with Deaf West Theatre and Coro de Manos Blancas (White Hands Choir) of Venezuela, with performances in Los Angeles followed by an international tour to London, Paris, and Barcelona in the Spring of 2024. As part of Carnegie Hall’s World Orchestra Week celebrating international youth orchestras, Dudamel returns to New York in August 2024 to lead the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela in a program that includes John Adams’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine along with Estevez’s Mediodía en el llano, Ginastera’s “Four Dances” from Estancia, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. Dudamel and the National Children’s Symphony of Venezuela will also tour the program throughout the United States throughout August 2024.

During the 2024 Hollywood Bowl season, Dudamel will lead the LA Phil in performances of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 with pianist Yunchan Lim, an evening of music from the Marvel cinematic universe, two performances with brother-sister pianists Sergio Tiempo and Karin Lechner in Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals and mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb singing scenes from Carmen, and a program with 18-time Latin GRAMMY® winner Natalia Lafourcade singing music from her critically acclaimed De Todas las Flores. Dudamel will also conduct Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, before closing the season with a star-studded evening of opera duets and arias, with soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Jonas Kaufmann.

Dudamel’s advocacy for the power of music to unite, heal, and inspire is global in scope. Inspired by his transformative experience as a youth in Venezuela’s immersive musical training program, El Sistema, Dudamel, the LA Phil, and its community partners in 2007 founded Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, which now provides 1,500 young people with free instruments, intensive music instruction, academic support, and leadership training. In 2021, YOLA opened its first permanent, purpose-built facility: the Judith and Thomas L. Beckmen YOLA Center at Inglewood, designed by architect Frank Gehry. In 2012, Dudamel launched The Dudamel Foundation, which he co-chairs with his wife, actress and director María Valverde, with the goal of expanding “access to music and the arts for young people by providing tools and opportunities to shape their creative futures.” In 2017, he formed the “Orchestra of the Future,” made up of young people representing five continents and more than a dozen countries, around the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Sweden, where he also delivered a lecture on the unity of the arts and sciences. His 2018 “Americas” tour with the Vienna Philharmonic marked his first Encuentros program in Mexico City, which celebrated the symbolic union of a “United Americas,” a bridge Dudamel further strengthened with an LA Phil residency there in 2019. In 2021, The Dudamel Foundation presented its first European Encuentros in Spain as a way to explore cultural unity and celebrate harmony, equality, dignity, beauty, and respect through music. In 2022, Dudamel conducted the LA Phil and a star-studded cast in a new production of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, produced in collaboration with Los Angeles’ Tony ® Award-winning Deaf West Theatre, Deaf performers of El Sistema Venezuela’s White Hands Choir, and The Dudamel Foundation. The Dudamel Foundation also brought its Encuentros initiative to the Hollywood Bowl as part of the venue’s 100th anniversary season, in a two-week intensive global leadership and orchestral training program for young musicians from around the world, culminating in a concert at the Bowl and a tour with the Orquesta del Encuentros to the legendary Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California.

One of the few classical musicians to become a bona fide pop culture phenomenon, Dudamel conducted the score to Steven Spielberg’s new adaptation of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and starred as the subject of a documentary on his life, ¡Viva Maestro!, released by Participant Media. He voiced the character of Trollzart in the DreamWorks animated feature Trolls World Tour and appeared in Amazon Studios’ award-winning comedy series Mozart in the Jungle, as well as in Sesame Street, The Simpsons, and Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, for which he also recorded the score. At Williams’s personal request, he guest conducted the opening and closing credits of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and performed with the LA Phil at the 2019 Academy Awards®. Dudamel has also performed with music icons such as Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Gwen Stefani, Nas, and Tyler, the Creator, and he led the LA Phil alongside international superstar Billie Eilish and FINNEAS as part of the concert film experience Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles, released on Disney+. It was a first for a classical musician when Dudamel, together with members of YOLA, participated in the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show alongside pop stars Coldplay, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars. In 2019, Dudamel was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, joining Hollywood greats as well as such musical luminaries as Bernstein, Ellington, and Toscanini.

Dudamel’s extensive, multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning discography includes 67 releases, with recent releases including Nonesuch’s recording of Thomas Adès’s Dante with the LA Phil, which won the GRAMMY® Award for Best Orchestral Performance. Fandango, Dudamel and the LA Phil’s first release on the innovative Platoon label with violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, was also nominated for several GRAMMY® Awards. Other recent releases include Deutsche Grammophon LA Phil recordings of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which won the GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance, and the complete Charles Ives symphonies and Andrew Norman’s Sustain, which both won the GRAMMY® Award for Best Orchestral Performance. Sony Classical released audio and video recordings of Dudamel’s Sommernachtskonzert 2019 with the Vienna Philharmonic, following their 2017 New Year’s concert recording, where he was the youngest conductor in history to lead the famous annual performance. He has made several acclaimed recordings with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, including the soundtrack to the feature film Libertador about the life of Bolívar—for which Dudamel composed the score, and digital releases of all nine Beethoven symphonies, which were also released in video form on his YouTube channel free to the public for the first time. In January 2024, Dudamel released video footage from his 2021 performance of Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at Spain’s Burgos Cathedral for free on his YouTube channel. 

In February 2023, the New York Philharmonic announced that Gustavo Dudamel would become the orchestra’s Music and Artistic Director, beginning in the 2026/27 season, after serving as Music Director Designate in 2025/26. Dudamel’s relationship with the orchestra began with his NY Phil debut in 2007 (when he conducted works by Dvořák, Prokofiev, and Chávez) and continued through 2009 performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, 2022’s The Schumann Connection—two weeks featuring the Romantic composer’s symphonic cycle coupled with premieres by Gabriela Ortiz and Andreia Pinto-Correia—and 2023’s acclaimed performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9. In April 2024, Dudamel will return to the NY Phil for a weeklong celebration of music education marking the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s beloved Young People’s Concerts. The centerpiece of this week is the Spring Gala, where Dudamel will conduct the orchestra with special guests Common, soprano Hera Hyesang Park, and guitarist and former New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams.  

Gustavo Dudamel was born in 1981 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. His father was a trombonist and his mother a voice teacher, and he grew up listening to music and conducting his toys to old recordings. He began violin lessons as a child but was drawn to conducting from an early age. At the age of 13, as a member of his youth orchestra, he put down his violin and picked up the baton when the conductor was running late. A natural, he began studying conducting with Rodolfo Saglimbeni. In 1996, he was named Music Director of the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, where his talent was spotted by José Antonio Abreu, who would become his mentor. In 1999, at the age of 18, he was appointed Music Director of the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, composed of graduates of the El Sistema program. Dudamel gained international attention when he won the inaugural Bamberger Symphoniker Gustav Mahler Competition in 2004. He went on to become Music Director of the Gothenburg Symphony (2007–2012), where he now holds the title of Honorary Conductor. Dudamel’s talent was widely recognized, notably by other prominent conductors of the day, but it was the Los Angeles Philharmonic that took the initiative to sign the 27-year-old Dudamel as Music Director in 2009. Dudamel also held the position of Music Director of the Paris Opera from 2021 to 2023, leading acclaimed productions of Puccini’s Turandot and Tosca, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and John Adams’ Nixon in China, adding to an extensive operatic résumé that includes more than 30 staged, semi-staged, and concert productions around the world, including at Teatro alla Scala, the Berlin and Vienna State Operas, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the LA Phil, with repertoire ranging from Così fan tutte to Carmen, from Otello to Tannhäuser, and from West Side Story to contemporary operas by composers like John Adams and Oliver Knussen.

Dudamel has become one of the most decorated conductors of his generation. Among his many honors, he has received Spain’s 2020 Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, the 2019 Konex Foundation Classical Music Award, the 2019 Distinguished Artist Award from the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA), the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, the Páez Medal of Art, and the Pablo Neruda Order of Artistic and Cultural Merit in 2018, the Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award in 2016, the 2014 Leonard Bernstein Lifetime Achievement Award for the Elevation of Music in Society from the Longy School of Music, and the Medal of the University of Burgos, Spain, in 2021. Leading publications such as Musical America and Gramophone have named him their artist of the year. Dudamel has received honorary doctorates from the Universidad Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado in his hometown and also from the University of Gothenburg and the Colburn School. He was inducted into l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres as a Chevalier in Paris in 2009. The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela was awarded Spain’s prestigious annual Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2008. Dudamel was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2009. In 2016, he delivered the keynote speech for recipients of the National Medal of Art and National Humanities Medal.

Helmuth Rilling, “Music should never be merely comfortable, never fossilized, never soothing. It should startle people and reach deep down inside them, forcing them to reflect.” Helmuth Rilling

Born in 1933 in Stuttgart, Mo. Rilling is acclaimed worldwide as a conductor, pedagogue and Bach scholar. In 1954, he founded the internationally recognized Gächinger Kantorei choir, which joined forces with the Bach Collegium Stuttgart as its regular orchestral partner eleven years later. It was at this time that Professor Rilling began his intensive work with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Rilling has both fervently advocated neglected choral music of the Romantic period and promoted contemporary music by regularly commissioning and performing pieces by key composers of our time.

He has toured across Europe, the United States, Canada, Asia and South America, both as guest conductor and with his own ensembles. Maestro Rilling has collaborated with the world’s first-class orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Japanese NHK-Symphony Orchestra. Over the last 30 years a special friendship has developed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom Professor Rilling has performed in more than 100 concerts.

He is co-founder and, until 2013, was Artistic Director of the Oregon Bach Festival, which since its inception in 1970 has become one of America’s most prestigious music festivals. In 1981, he established the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, which initially focused on the promotion of J.S. Bach’s music and in the course of time grew into an exceptional institution that excels not only in its ensembles (Gaechinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart) but devotes considerable resources to education and outreach through master classes, symposia and children’s programmes.

Working with young musicians from around the globe has always been a central focus of Rilling’s work. As part of a project of the Bach Academy Stuttgart, from 2001 -2009 he worked with the Festivalensemble Stuttgart, which led to the foundation of the Young Stuttgart Bach-Ensemble in 2011. Since 2014, Helmuth Rilling is the Artistic head and conductor of the Weimar Bach Cantata Academy, a master class for students from all over the world dedicated to the performance of Bach’s cantatas in their historic backdrop in Thuringia.

Through his worldwide network of Bach Academies, Rilling offers workshops for students across the globe. In recent years Maestro Rilling traveled to Japan, USA, China, Taiwan, Spain, Russia, Poland, Hungary and Italy. Current engagements include Academies in Taiwan and Hong Kong and a production of Bach’s B minor Mass with his own “Bach Ensemble Helmuth Rilling” in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Helmuth Rilling’s inexhaustible, creative activity is documented in hundreds of CD, radio and television productions. He was the first to record all of the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach, and was the initiator of the International Bachakademie’s critically acclaimed project to record Bach’s complete works, released on 172 CDs during the Bach anniversary year in 2000. In the same year, Rilling won the coveted Grammy Award for his recording of Krzysztof Penderecki´s Credo, and was again nominated in 2001 for his recording of Wolfgang Rihm´s Deus Passus. Recent recordings include works by Haydn, Händel, and Gubaidulina, as well as a live recording of Britten’s War Requiem (Editor’s Choice Award of the British Gramophone Magazine), the Messiah by Sven-David Sandström, which Rilling commissioned, and Verdi’s Requiem. His recording of Honegger’s Joan of Arc was published in 2014.

Helmuth Rilling received the UNESCO International Music Prize in 1994, and the Theodor Heuss Taten der Versöhnung (Deeds of Reconciliation) prize the following year. In 2003, he became an Honorary Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, and in November 2011 Maestro Rilling was awarded the prestigious Herbert von Karajan Music prize in Baden-Baden. Helmuth Rilling was honored for his unique lifetime engagement with Johann Sebastian Bach as well as his teaching activities around the world. In October 2013 Prof. Rilling received the ECHO Klassik live achievement award by the German Phono Academy.

James Conlon, one of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic, and choral repertoire. Since his 1974 debut with the New York Philharmonic, he has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography and videography, numerous writings, television appearances and guest speaking engagements, Conlon is one of classical music’s most recognized figures. 

Conlon is Music Director of LA Opera, where since 2006 he has led more performances than any other conductor in the company’s history—to date, over 460 performances of more than 60 different operas. He will serve as Music Director of the company until his 20th season in 2026, at which time he will become Conductor Laureate. This season he conducts Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Verdi’s Rigoletto. He has been Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera; General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany, where he was Music Director of both the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and the Cologne Opera; Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and Principal Conductor of the Orchestra Nazionale Della RAI in Torino, Italy. He has served as Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony, and Artistic Advisor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He is now Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival, where he was Music Director for 37 years. As a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, he has led more than 270 performances since his 1976 debut. 

In an effort to call attention to lesser-known works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime, Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this music throughout Europe and North America. For his efforts, he was awarded the Roger E. Joseph Prize at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (2013); a Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League (2007); and the Zemlinsky Prize (1999). His work on behalf of suppressed composers led to the creation of The OREL Foundation and the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School.

Conlon is an enthusiastic advocate of public scholarship and cultural institutions as forums for the exchange of ideas and inquiry into the role music plays in our shared humanity and civic life. At LA Opera, his immensely popular pre-performance talks — each attended by over 1,000 people — draw upon musicology, literary studies, history, and social sciences to contemplate the enduring power and relevance of opera, and classical music in general. His appearances throughout the country as a speaker on a variety of cultural and educational topics are widely praised.

Conlon’s extensive discography can be found on the Bridge, Capriccio, Decca, EMI, Erato and Sony Classical labels; and his recordings of LA Opera productions including Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles released on PentaTone and Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny on EuroArts have received four Grammy® awards. Conlon received a 2023 Cross of Honor for Science and Art (Österreichische Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst) from the Republic of Austria, and has been named Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic, and Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2002, he received France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur from then-President of the French Republic Jacques Chirac.

John Mauceri’s distinguished and extraordinary career has brought him not only to the world’s greatest opera companies and symphony orchestras, but also to the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood, as well as the most prestigious halls of academia. Regarded as the world’s leading performer of the music of Hollywood’s émigré composers as well as composers outlawed by the Third Reich, he has taken the lead in the restoration and performance of many kinds of music and is an internationally published author of three books, and a recording artist with over 70 albums to his name.

Maestro Mauceri has championed forgotten composers and underrepresented works for more than fifty years and was given the prestigious Ditson Award on the stage of Carnegie Hall by Columbia University for “a career spanning five decades [to] become one of the world’s leading authorities of… film scores and Broadway musicals.” Mr. Mauceri has been entrusted with editing and restoring works controlled by the families and estates of Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Harold Arlen, Marc Blitzstein, Kurt Weill, and Leonard Bernstein.

A graduate of Yale, he was appointed to the university’s faculty at twenty-one, serving for fifteen years and occasionally returning as a visiting professor. He has lectured at Harvard university, Columbia University, New York University, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American Academy in Berlin, Vienna’s Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, the Royal College of Music (London), the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. He is the former music director of four opera companies and three symphony orchestras and has conducted most of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras and opera companies. For eighteen years, he worked with Leonard Bernstein as both an editor and trusted colleague, conducting many of the composer’s premieres at Mr. Bernstein’s request.

For sixteen seasons, Maestro Mauceri led the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, which was created for him by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, conducting an unprecedented 325 concerts that played to sold-out houses at the 18,000-seat amphitheater, with a combined audience of four million people. Beginning in 1991, he worked on creating the electronic systems that allow orchestras and conductors to accompany films in “live-to-picture” concerts, which has transformed the symphonic world in the subsequent decades.

Mr. Mauceri has worked with the greatest pop, jazz, rock, Broadway, and classical artists, including Madonna (the soundtrack to Evita) Billie Eilish, Lang Lang, Leontyne Price, Herbie Hancock, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Santana, Josh Groban, Garth Brooks, Patti LuPone, Jose Carreras, Ute Lemper, Carlo Bergonzi, Brian Wilson, and Julie Andrews. John Mauceri is the only conductor ever to conduct for Carnegie Hall (American Symphony Orchestra), the Metropolitan Opera (rehearsals for last national tour with Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette) and Broadway (Song & Dance with Bernadette Peters) on the same day in 1986.

 Mr. Mauceri is the recipient of a Tony, Olivier, Grammy, Drama Desk, Edison, Billboard, Cannes Classique, an ECHO Music Prize, two Diapasons d’Or, three Emmys, and four Deutsche Schallplatten Awards., and has been published in Air Mail, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, the Times of London, the Wall Street Journal, Gramophone Magazine, Opera Magazine, and various musicological journals.

Mr. Mauceri served as music director (direttore stabile) of the Teatro Regio in Torino (Turin) Italy for three years after completing seven years as music director of Scottish Opera (22 productions and three recordings), and is the first American ever to have held the post of music director of an opera house in either Great Britain or Italy. He previously was music director of the Washington Opera (The Kennedy Center) and was the first music director of the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall after its founding director, Leopold Stokowski, with whom he studied. From June of 2000 until July of 2006, he conducted 22 productions as music director of the Pittsburgh Opera.

In 1999, Mr.Mauceri was chosen as a “Standard-bearer of the Twentieth Century” for WQXR, America’s most listened-to classical radio station. According to WQXR, “These are a select number of musical artists who have already established themselves as forces to be reckoned with and who will be the Standard Bearers of the 21st Century’s music scene.” The recipients were chosen for “their visionary talent and technical virtuosity.” In addition, CNN and CNN International chose Mr. Mauceri as a “Voice of the Millennium”.

His latest book, The War on Music—Reclaiming the 20th Century (Yale University Press) was a Los Angeles Times Best Seller in 2022.

John Rutter, was born in London and studied music at Clare College, Cambridge. He first came to notice as a composer during his student years; much of his early work consisted of church music and other choral pieces including Christmas carols. From 1975–79 he was Director of Music at his alma mater, Clare College, and directed the college chapel choir in various recordings and broadcasts. Since 1979 he has divided his time between composition and conducting. Today his compositions, including such concert-length works as Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions are performed around the world. His music has featured in a number of British royal occasions, including the two most recent royal weddings. He edits the Oxford Choral Classics series, and, with Sir David Willcocks, co-edited four volumes of Carols for Choirs. In 1983 he formed his own choir the Cambridge Singers, with whom he has made numerous recordings, and he appears regularly in several countries as guest conductor and choral ambassador. He holds a Lambeth Doctorate in Music, and in 2007 was awarded a CBE for services to music. In September 2023, he received the Ivors Academy Fellowship, joining a prestigious list of 24 Fellows including John Adams, Pierre Boulez CBE, Kate Bush CBE and Sir Elton John.

Paul Salamunovich, (June 7, 1927 – April 3, 2014) was a Grammy-nominated, American conductor and educator.

He was the Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1991 to 2001 and its Music Director Emeritus from 2001 until his death in 2014. He served as Director of Music at St. Charles Borromeo Church in North Hollywood, California, for 60 years between 1949 and 2009. In addition, he held academic positions at a number of Southern California universities. He was also a master clinician, having been invited to conduct just under 1000 festivals and workshops around the world including an unprecedented four consecutive ACDA national conventions—all with different groups.

He was acknowledged as an expert in Gregorian chant and has long been recognized for his contributions in the field of sacred music, most notably receiving a Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, the highest laity award from the papacy in 2013 and was appointed knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great from Pope Paul VI in 1969.

Stephen Layton; Awarded with an MBE for services to classical music in October 2020, Stephen Layton is one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation, whose ground-breaking approach has had a profound influence on choral music over the last 30 years. Often described as the finest exponent of choral music in the world today, Layton is regularly invited to work with the world’s leading choirs, orchestras and composers. His interpretations have been heard from Sydney Opera House to the Concertgebouw, from Tallinn to São Paolo, and his recordings have won or been nominated for every major international recording award. He has two Gramophone Awards and a further ten nominations, five Grammy nominations, the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in France, the Echo Klassik award in Germany, the Spanish CD compact award, and Australia’s Limelight Recording of the Year.

Founder and Director of Polyphony, and Director of Holst Singers, Layton has recently announced he is to step down as Fellow and Director of Music at Trinity College Cambridge in the summer of 2023. His former posts include Chief Conductor of Netherlands Chamber Choir, Chief Guest Conductor of Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of City of London Sinfonia, and Director of Music at the Temple Church, London.

Layton is constantly in demand to premiere new works by the greatest established and emerging composers of our age. A longstanding partnership with Arvo Pärt has resulted in premiere performances and award-winning recordings, including three discs with Polyphony on Hyperion. With the late Sir John Tavener, premieres include Layton’s bold realization of his epic seven-hour vigil The Veil of the Temple, a new departure in British choral music. Passionate in his exploration of new music, Layton has introduced a vast range of new choral works to the UK and the rest of the world, transforming the music into some of the most widely performed today. His long association with music from the Baltic includes acclaimed recordings of works by Eriks Ešenvalds, Uģis Prauliņš and Veljo Tormis. His captivating discs, with Polyphony, of the American Morten Lauridsen’s Lux aeterna and Eric Whitacre’s Cloudburst were nominated for Grammy Awards, with Cloudburst spending a year in the USA’s Billboard Classical Album Chart. On the Deutsche Grammophon label, Layton and Polyphony recently recorded a disc of Karl Jenkins’ Motets which entered the Classical Artist Albums Chart at No. 1 during the week of its release, and on Decca they recorded Karl Jenkins’ Miserere with the Britten Sinfonia.

Layton’s recordings have consistently broken new ground, creating a new sound world in British choral music that continues to influence and inform conductors and choirs throughout the world. Award-winning discs with Polyphony include Britten’s Sacred and Profane, James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross and Poulenc’s Gloria. In a recent Gramophone critics’ poll of the world’s 20 greatest choirs, not only was Polyphony voted second finest, but The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge also made it into the top five: confounding expectation, Layton had led a student choir into the highest ranks. Now the choir tours at the highest international level and records prolifically, recently receiving a Gramophone award, a Grammy nomination, and Australia’s Limelight Recording of the Year.

Layton guest-conducts widely, working with and inspiring the world’s finest choirs and orchestras: Netherlands Chamber Choir; Danish National Vocal Ensemble; SWR Vokalensemble, MDR Leipzig and NDR Hamburg Radio Choirs in Germany; Latvian State and Radio Choirs, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, and Voces Musicales in the Baltic; Polish Radio, NFM, and Wroclaw Philharmonic Choirs; Slovenian Philharmonic Choir; Eric Ericsson Chamber Choir, Stockholm; Die Konzertisten, Hong Kong; and the inaugural concert of Yale Center for Music and Liturgy at Carnegie Hall. With Britten Sinfonia, his eight highly acclaimed recordings include Handel’s Messiah (“Best Messiah recording” – BBC Music Magazine); with City of London Sinfonia (where Layton succeeded Richard Hickox as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor), tours included Latin America and premieres uniting cathedral choristers across Britain; and with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment he has recorded Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, B Minor Mass and St John Passion.

Layton’s interpretations of Bach and Handel have been heard with orchestras ranging from Academy of Ancient Music to the London Philharmonic and Philadelphia orchestras. Performances include Messiah in Sydney Opera House, the first staged St John Passion with English National Opera, and regular BBC broadcasts. He has worked with London Sinfonietta; BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Opera North; Scottish and Australian chamber orchestras; Auckland Philharmonia; Seattle, Queensland, Melbourne, Adelaide and West Australian symphony orchestras; and Minnesota, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National and Hallé orchestras. Layton is also Artistic Director of the Annual Christmas Festival at St John’s Smith Square.

Layton continues to innovate, taking bold and original steps, and leading the way in the use of new technologies in choral music. Everything sung by The Choir of Trinity College Cambridge is webcast live and available to listen again online. Layton was the first in the world to webcast every single note sung in this way, laying bare the music-making without any digital editing. This searchable archive of over 4,000 musical tracks recorded live forms an invaluable resource for listeners around the world and forms a major part of his legacy to the Choir.