Guest Artists
Adam Neiman, pianist
October 9, 2010
American pianist Adam Neiman is hailed as one of the premiere pianists of his generation, praised for possessing a rare blend of bravura, imagination, sensitivity, and precision. With an established international career and an encyclopedic repertoire that spans over fifty concertos, Neiman has performed as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Belgrade, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Slovenia, Umbria, and Utah, as well as with the New York Chamber Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington D.C. He has collaborated with many of the world’s celebrated conductors, including Jiri Belohlavek, Giancarlo Guerrero, Theodor Gushlbauer, Carlos Kalmer, Uros Lajovic, Yoël Levi, Andrew Litton, Rossen Milanov, Heichiro Ohyama, Peter Oundjian, Leonard Slatkin, and Emmanuel Villaume.
A highly-acclaimed recitalist, Neiman has performed in the major cities and concert halls throughout the United States and Canada. His European solo engagements have brought him to Italy, France, Germany, and Japan, where he made an eight-city tour culminating in his debut at Tokyo's Suntory Hall.
Neiman's '09-'10 season highlights include a tour of New England and New York City performing as soloist with the Manchester Chamber Orchestra, as well as performances with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Chile, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New Philharmonic Orchestra, Oakland Symphony, Santa Cruz Symphony, Symphony in C, and Plano Symphony. In addition, he will play recitals in Chicago, Santa Fe, Seattle, Vancouver, and Washington D.C., and he will take part in prestigious festivals in Great Barrington, Los Angeles, Manchester, Milwaukee, Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Seattle, as well as at the Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea and the International Festival Cervantinos in Mexico. He will also give the world premiere of a new piano trio by Gerard Schwarz at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival.
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Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor
December 11, 2010
Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo began performing professionally at the age of 11 and has since appeared in opera, concert, recital, film, and on Broadway. Future seasons include Mr. Costanzo’s debuts at the Metropolitan Opera, The Opera Company of Philadelphia as Artemis in the U.S. Premiere of Henze’s Phaedra, and as Ottone in Agrippina at the Boston Lyric Opera. In 2010, he makes his debuts at the New York City Opera as Armindo in Partenope, and the New York Philharmonic as Prince Go-Go in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre. He also returns to Glimmerglass Opera to sing the title role in their new production of Handel’s Tolomeo. This past fall, he debuted with the Cleveland Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, returned to Carnegie Hall for performances Messiah with Musica Sacra, and appeared as Polinesso in Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Ariodante with the Juilliard Opera Center. This past summer, he sang the Sorceress in Jonathan Miller’s production of Dido and Aeneas at Glimmerglass Opera. Mr. Costanzo was named a Grand Finals Winner of the 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions after performing in the Grand Finals Concert at the Metropolitan Opera with Patrick Summers conducting. In 2010, he won a George London Award, and became the first countertenor to ever win First Place in the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCullom competition, where he also won Audience Choice. He recently won a Sullivan Foundation Award, became the first countertenor to ever win First Place in the Opera Index Competition, was the First Place winner in the National Opera Association Vocal Competition, Artist Division, won First Place in the Jensen Foundation Competition, and won Second Place in the Palm Beach Opera Competition, Advanced Division. Mr. Costanzo has also received encouragement awards from the George London Foundation Competition, the Jensen Foundation, and the Mario Lanza Foundation as well as a grant from the Giulio Gari Foundation.
In the 2008/2009 season Mr. Costanzo appeared as a guest artist with Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program to perform the role of Oberon in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the summer of 2008, he performed the role of Nireno and covered the role of Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto at Glimmerglass Opera as a member of the company’s acclaimed Young American Artists Program. During the 2007/2008 season, Mr. Costanzo performed the title role in Manhattan School of Music’s mainstage production of Griffelkin by Lucas Foss. Mr. Costanzo has also performed the roles of the First Witch and the Second Woman in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Spoleto Festival USA and debuted with Santa Barbara Opera Company as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. As a young teenager, he performed in Amahl and the Night Visitors at Lincoln Center and with the Opera Company of North Carolina, made a critically acclaimed debut with the New Jersey Opera Festival as Miles in Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and appeared with Luciano Pavarotti in Philadelphia at the Academy of Music’s Opera Extravaganza.
On the concert and recital platforms, Mr. Costanzo has been a featured soloist with the orchestras of Indianapolis, Alabama, Detroit, Denver, Seattle, and was the soloist in the premiere of John Corigliano's A Dylan Thomas Trilogy with the National Symphony Orchestra at both the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. He has sung Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliées in a theater piece at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, performed Stefan Weisman’s From Frankenstein at Merkin Concert Hall, and premiered composer Gregory Spears’s hour-long piece 6 Owen Songs. Additional New York City appearances include performances at Le Poisson Rouge, the Asia Society, Simon Hammerstein’s The Box and at prominent art gallery Deitch Projects. Internationally, Mr. Costanzo has performed the title role in Balletto Teatro di Torino’s ballet Caravaggio with original music by Giovanni Solima and toured Italy as the Master of Ceremonies in Karole Armitage's Casanova.
While studying at Princeton University, Mr. Costanzo co-wrote, produced and starred in a narrative pasticcio about the life of a fictional 18th-Century Castrato entitled The Double Life of Zefirino. The work was directed by Karole Armitage, with costumes by James Ivory and sets by Andrea Branzi, and was performed in the University’s Richardson Auditorium. A documentary about the creation of the piece was directed by filmmaker Gerardo Puglia and was subsequently selected for the Cannes Film Festival and qualified for an Academy Award. It will air on PBS affiliates during the 2010 season. Mr. Costanzo made his film debut in the role of Francis in the Merchant Ivory film, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, earning international critical acclaim as well as a nomination for Best Debut Performance from the Independent Spirit Awards. He also appeared as Simon in Brice Cauvin’s film De Particulier à Particulier and can be heard singing in M Blash’s film Lying, and James Ivory’s upcoming film The City of Your Final Destination.
Mr. Costanzo’s professional performance career began with the Broadway touring production of Falsettos and he continued to workfor several years in musical theater, touring with Marie Osmond in The Sound of Music and appearing on Broadway in the Paramount Theater production of A Christmas Carol. The subject of the Winter 2007 edition of ME Magazine, Mr. Costanzo was also profiled with Yoko Ono, David Byrne, and Liza Minelli in Visionaire’s 2008 SoundIssue.
Mr. Costanzo graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University where he was awarded the Lewis Sudler Prize for extraordinary achievement in the arts. He received his Masters of Music at Manhattan School of Music and was awarded the Hugh Ross Award for a singer of unusual promise. He currently resides in New York City.
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Sarah Moulton, soprano
December 11, 2010
Sarah Moulton is an accomplished performer in opera, early music, and musical theater. She made her New York City Opera debut in April 2008 as the Pink Sheep in Candide. She worked with American Opera Projects on two recent projects, The Judgment of Midas and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. With Amore Opera, Sarah sang Papagena in The Magic Flute (May 2010) and the Dew Fairy & Sandman in Hansel & Gretel (January 2010). Other operatic credits include Madamoiselle Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor) with New York Opera Forum, Elisa (River of Women) with Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute, Gianetta (L’Elisir d’Amore) with Camp Musicales Lac St. Jean, and the Dew Fairy (Hansel & Gretel) with Opera of the Hamptons.??
Sarah has a great passion and love of early music, recently forming the group Ensemble Calandra with Christa Pehl, traverso and Wendy Young, harpsichord. Her early music credits include, soprano soloist for Ton Koopman at Zankel Hall in Handel’s Ode for St.Cecilia’s Day, Octavio (L’Europe galante) and 1st Witch (Dido & Aeneas) with Amherst Early Music Festival, performances with the New York Continuo Collective, and soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Church of St. Andrew & St. Paul in Montreal. In January 2009, she sang Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate at the historic St. Mauritius Church in Zermatt, Switzerland. Sarah will make her debut as the soprano soloist in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in December 2010 with the Symphony in C orchestra. Maestro Rossen Milanov is conducting.
Sarah has had the great privilege of working with acclaimed director/choreographer, Patricia Birch both in Candide at New York City Opera and as her assistant director for Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe at San Francisco Symphony. Ms. Birch continues to be a mentor to her work.??
A graduate from Barnard College in East Asian Studies (magna cum laude with departmental honors) Sarah holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Westminster Choir College. She currently studies voice with Nova Thomas and coaches with Daniel Beckwith, Ted Taylor, and Virginia Zeani.
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Di Wu, piano
February 19, 2011
Di Wu is a winner of Astral Artists’ 2007 National Auditions and joined its artist roster that year. The Chinese-born pianist was a recent finalist at the XIII Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where her performances were praised by The Wall Street Journal as “deeply poetic,” combining “assured, contained strength with high drama.” Astral has featured her as soloist on its "Rising Stars" concert with Symphony in C in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, in whichThe Philadelphia Inquirer called her "a paragon of flexible rubato" and The Bulletin said she “catapulted through the piece with staggering fingerwork.” Astral presented her acclaimed Philadelphia recital debut in October 2009. Also in 2009, she made her New York Alice Tully Hall recital debut as the winner of Juilliard’s William Petschek Piano Debut Recital Award, was named Artist of the Month by MusicalAmerica.com, was awarded a Vendome Virtuosi Prize at Lisbon’s prestigious Vendome Competition, and made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at a gala benefit concert under Charles Dutoit.
Di Wu made her professional debut at 14 with the Beijing Philharmonic. She went on to tour widely in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., where recent orchestral engagements have included appearances with Washington’s National Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, as well as two Carnegie Hall performances with the New York Pops. She made her solo debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 2005, and has given recitals in the Cleveland Playhouse, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Bass Performance Hall in Texas, among many others. In Europe, she presented recitals at the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund, Klavier Festival Ruhr, and the Busoni International Piano festivals, and in such venues as the Musée de Grenoble and Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
During the 2009-2010 season, Ms. Wu is scheduled for 50 engagements that take her from California to Germany, including debuts with the Fort Worth Symphony and the Hamburg Philharmoniker, as well as recitals in New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Additionally, she participates in residencies at both the University of Vermont and at the 72nd Annual Whittier College Johann Sebastian Bach Festival in California.
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Anthony McGill, clarinet
March 12, 2011
Anthony McGill, principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, has quickly earned the reputation of being one of classical music’s finest solo, chamber and orchestral musicians. Regarded as a music prodigy, before joining the MET Orchestra in 2004, at only 20 years old, he served as associate principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for four years. With the MET Orchestra, McGill frequently performs in Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium, as well as Zankel and Weill Halls with the MET Chamber Ensemble. He can be seen and heard on the Live in HD broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.
On January 20th, 2009, McGill performed "Air and Simple Gifts" by John Williams with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Gabriela Montero at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. In 2000, McGill was a winner of the highly prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and has also appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Hilton Head Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and The Curtis Orchestra. In the 2008 – 2009 season McGill appeared with the Peabody Orchestra, The New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra and the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra. This season McGill appeared with the Westchester Philharmonic, Annapolis Symphony, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.
As a distinguished chamber musician, McGill has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Sarasota Festival, La Musica International Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood, Music@Menlo, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, and the Interlochen Music Festival. He is also a member of the newly formed Schumann Trio with violinist Michael Tree and pianist Anna Polonsky.
McGill has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Lang Lang, Yefim Bronfman and Gil Shaham, as well as world-renowned string quartets including the Guarneri, Tokyo, Shanghai, Miami, Miró and Daedalus quartets. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a chamber and orchestral musician with artists including the Brentano String Quartet, Musicians from Marlboro, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mitsuko Uchida, Marina Piccinini and Barbara Sukova.
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Soovin Kim, violin
May 7, 2011
Known for his spectacular virtuosity as well as his probing musicianship, violinist Soovin Kim has received some of the most prestigious honors in the world including the Henryk Szeryng Career Award, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and first prize in the Paganini International Violin Competition. In 1998 Mr. Kim dazzled audiences all across Italy with an eleven-city tour of Paganini’s 24 Caprices. Last year he received glowing reviews for his performances of Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin in Philadelphia, a feat he will repeat next summer at the world-renowned Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. In Europe Mr. Kim has performed with the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, and the Prague Chamber Orchestra. U.S. engagements have included the Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Florida Philharmonic, and the Syracuse, North Carolina, and Indianapolis symphonies. He has also been heard in recital at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Ravinia, and in Seoul, Naples, Rome, and Hamburg. His first CD of duo works by Schubert, Bartok, and Strauss with pianist Jeremy Denk was released by Koch-Discover to critical acclaim. His varied musical interests include devoting two months each year to the serious study of the string quartet literature with the Johannes Quartet. He regularly spends summers at the famed Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. He plays on a 1709 Antonio Stradivarius violin, the "ex-Kempner."
