Mohammed Fairouz, born in 1985, is one of the most frequently performed, commissioned, and recorded composers of his generation. Hailed by The New York Times as “an important new artistic voice” and by BBC World News as “one of the most talented composers of his generation,” Fairouz integrates Middle-Eastern modes into Western structures, to deeply expressive effect. His large-scale works, including four symphonies and an opera, engage major geopolitical and philosophical themes with persuasive craft and a marked seriousness of purpose. His most recent symphony, In the Shadow of No Towers for wind ensemble, was described by Steve Smith of The New York Times as “technically impressive, consistently imaginative and in its finest stretches deeply moving.” His solo and chamber music attains an “intoxicating intimacy,” according to New York’s WQXR.
 
Fairouz’s cosmopolitan outlook reflects his transatlantic upbringing and extensive travels. His catalog encompasses virtually every genre, including opera, symphonies, ensemble works, chamber and solo pieces, choral settings, and electronic music. Prominent advocates of his instrumental music include the Borromeo String Quartet, The Imani Winds, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, and clarinetist David Krakauer, who all appear on his Naxos portrait disc, Native Informant; The Knights Chamber Orchestra, Metropolis Ensemble, and conductor Gunther Schuller.
 
Fairouz, described by Gramophone as “a post-millennial Schubert,” has composed an opera (with a second in progress), thirteen song cycles, and hundreds of art songs. Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times called his debut opera Sumeida’s Song “intensely dramatic [with] a searing score… The Arabic elements of his style – microtonal modes, spiraling dance rhythms, plaintive melodic writing – give fresh, distinctive jolts to the Western elements.” Among the eminent singers that have promoted his wealth of vocal music are Kate Lindsey, Sasha Cooke, D’Anna Fortunato, Mellissa Hughes, David Kravitz and Randall Scarlata.
 
Commissions have come from Rachel Barton Pine, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Borromeo Quartet, Imani Winds, New York Festival of Song, Da Capo Chamber Players, New Juilliard Ensemble, Cantus Vocal Ensemble, Cygnus Ensemble, Counter)induction, Musicians for Harmony, Cantori New York, Back Bay Chorale, Reach Out Kansas, and many others. Recordings are available on the Naxos, Innova, Bridge, Dorian Sono Luminus, Cedille, Albany, GM/Living Archive, and GPR labels.
 
Mohammed Fairouz was chosen by the BBC to be a featured artist for the television series Collaboration Culture, which aired globally on BBC World Service TV (viewership approximately 70 million). He has been heard in interviews on nationally syndicated shows such as NPR’s All Things Considered, BBC/PRI’s The World, and The Bob Edwards Show. He has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Symphony Magazine, Strings Magazine, New Music Box, and the Houston Chronicle, among others.
 
His principal teachers in composition have included György Ligeti, Gunther Schuller, and Richard Danielpour, with studies at the Curtis Institute and New England Conservatory. Fairouz’s works are published by Peermusic Classical. He lives in New York City.
 
photo credit Samantha West

Wayne Koestenbaum has published seventeen books of poetry, criticism, and fiction, including The Pink Trance Notebooks, My 1980s & Other Essays, Hotel Theory, Best-Selling Jewish Porn Films, Andy Warhol, Humiliation, Jackie Under My Skin, and The Queen’s Throat (a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist). Koestenbaum’s first solo exhibition took place at White Columns gallery in New York in 2012; a survey of his paintings appeared at the Art Museum of the University of Kentucky in 2015. He wrote the libretto for Michael Daughterty’s Jackie O, and has given piano/vocal performances at The Kitchen, REDCAT Gallery, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has taught at Yale (in the English department as well as in the School of Art’s painting department), and is a Distinguished Professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

Lloyd Schwartz was born on November 29, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Queens College of the City University of New York in 1962 and earned his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1976.
 
Schwartz’s most recent book of poetry is Cairo Traffic (University of Chicago Press, 2000), which was preceded by Goodnight, Gracie (University of Chicago Press, 1992) and These People (Wesleyan University Press, 1981). He is also editor of two volumes of collected works by Elizabeth Bishop: Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose and Letters (Library of America, 2008), which he co-edited with Robert Giroux, and Prose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). Schwartz’s most recent book, Music In—and On—the Air (PFP, 2013), is a collection of his music reviews that appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air.
 
About his work, the poet Richard Howard has said: “The poet has extended his reach as well as his grasp, and we are the richer for it, through no less ravaged: these people (and these poems) are devastated by life, of which they offer us, unnervingly, the flagrant shards.”
 
His poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Republic, The Paris Review, and The Best American Poetry series. In 1994, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
 
Schwartz has taught at Boston State College, Queens College, and Harvard University, and is currently Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He is also the senior editor of classical music for New York Arts and a regular commentator on NPR’s Fresh Air.

ADRIAN DAUROV is a versatile cellist, who performs on world-famous concert stages including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Madison Square Garden, and Boardwalk Arena in Atlantic City, ranging from classical solo recitals to playing shows with the likes of Alicia Keys, Josh Groban, Burt Bacharach, Frank Ocean and The Roots, The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Sarah Brightman and the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros. Most recently, Adrian has collaborated with the Swedish folk-rock band First Aid Kit, performing at iTunes Live Sessions and also frequently performs with the cello rock band Break of Reality.
Since Adrian’s debut as a soloist with The St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra at age 15, he has nourished his career by receiving the top prizes at prestigious international music competitions in the Netherlands in 2002 and The US in 2006 as well as touring as a soloist with the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra in 2004 and being appointed the principal cellist of the Bayreuth Youth Festival Orchestra in Germany. In 2008 Adrian Daurov was featured in a Gala Concert in celebration of Russia’s Independence Day at Carnegie Hall’s main stage along Russia’s opera stars Yelena Obraztsova and Vladimir Galouzine. After studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, Adrian received the Jerome L. Greene Scholarship to study at the Juilliard School with the renowned cello pedagogues Andre Emelianoff and David Soyer (of the Guarneri Quartet) where he completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in 2009. In June 2007 Adrian was also appointed the principal cellist of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, and a year later formed his own group – award-winning Voxare Quartet. Adrian’s cello playing was heard and broadcast on several radio station and TV channels like WNYC, WQXR and NTV-America and popular American TV shows such as Regis & Kelly Live, Good Morning America, Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Adrian was also featured on a jazz album by New York’s rising jazz star Romain Collin and appeared on America’s Got Talent show. Adrian made his New York solo debut at Merkin Hall at Lincoln Center and performed as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Daurov has also collaborated in chamber music programs with pianists Di Wu, Alexander Ghindin, Spencer Myer, Inon Barnatan, violinists Giora Schmidt, Mark Peskanov and flutist Eugenia Zukerman, the St. Petersburg String Quartet and many others. This season will also see Mr Daurov performing solo with the symphony orchestras of Wyoming, Corvallis, Longwood (MA) and St. Petersburg in Russia.
 
Daurov is a devoted performer of the music of our time. He has collaborated with composers Mohammed Fairouz, Daron Hagen (USA), Christopher Gunning (UK), Daniel Capelletti (Belgium) and Grigory Smirnov (Russia – USA), who have written works for him. Adrian’s two debut commercial recordings for Naxos label, to be released in 2015, will feature music by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici and the rising-star composer from New York City, Mohammed Fairouz.
 
Adrian Daurov official site

Praised by Opera News for her “richly focused voice”, young mezzo-soprano Rebecca Ringle’s performances have brought her acclaim on operatic and concert stages. The 2012-2013 season brought her Metropolitan Opera mainstage debut, singing Rosswisse in Die Walküre, which she also sang for the Tanglewood Festival, her role debut as Rosina in Barbiere di Siviglia with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles with the Bard Music Festival, and her return to the Marlboro Music Festival for the third time. In the 2013-2014 season, she returns to the Met for Shostakovich’s The Nose, will appear in concert with the National Chorale for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the Oratorio Society of New York for Handel’s Messiah, the New West Symphony Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem, Ars Antiqua as a soloist in The Borrowers, and will join New Orleans Opera as Dorothée in Cendrillon. Her New York City Opera debut as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana was hailed as “sultry” and “sweetly sung” by The Wall Street Journal and London’s Financial Times. She returned to NYCO as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Dorothée in Cendrillon and to cover Rosmira in Partenope. The 2010-2011 season saw Ms. Ringle joining the roster of the Metropolitan Opera in their productions of Nixon in China and Die Walküre, her international debut as Dido in Dido and Aeneas with the Macau International Music Festival, Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo with Opera Vivente, and Leda in Die Liebe der Danae with the Bard SummerScape. Engagements for 2011-2012 included Handel’s Messiah with Jacksonville Symphony and Augustana College and her return to the Metropolitan Opera.
 
Recent operatic highlights include the title role in Handel’s Ariodante and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with The Princeton Festival, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with Piedmont Opera, and Suzuki with Cedar Rapids Opera. In 2007, she performed as Rossweise in Die Walküre with Washington National Opera directed by Francesca Zambello and covered the role of the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos with Utah Opera. Ms. Ringle made her professional debut as Tebaldo in Don Carlo with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst. She has performed with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi as a soloist in Piazzolla’s Songe d’une Nuit d’été and as Pâtre/La chatte in L’enfant et les sortilèges. A consummate concert artist and recitalist Rebecca has performed Handel’s Messiah with Branford Camerata, Richmond Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Utah Symphony. She has been seen as the Alto soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Richmond Symphony, in Mozart’s Requiem with the National Chorale, and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. with Orchestra New England. She has appeared in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall performing de Falla’s Siete Cancones Populares Españolas, and has collaborated with Ars Antiqua Baroque Orchestra on arias from Handel’s Hercules and Rinaldo and Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans. During the summer of 2008 she joined the acclaimed Marlboro Music Festival, performing chamber music and songs by Ravel, Mahler, Janacek and Britten.
 
A frequent performer of new music, Rebecca appeared with concert harpist Grace Cloutier and soprano Jennifer Black in May 2006 at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall with Stanzas in Meditation, a work written for this trio by composer Sarah Kirkland Snider. She has performed Schoenberg’s Das buch der hängenden Gärten, Frazelle’s Appalachian Folksongs (I), Argento’s Casa Guidi, and Bolcom’s I will breathe a Mountain in recital. Rebecca performed the role of SHE in the new opera Decoration by Mikael Karlsson with the American Opera Projects and has been a frequent artist in the VOX Composers Showcase at New York City Opera. Rebecca is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and The Yale School of Music and has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Spazio Musica Orvieto Concorso per Cantanti Lirici and the Heida Hermanns International Opera Competition. She competed in Vienna at the international level of the 2007 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition.

 
Rebecca Ringle holds a B.A. with Highest Honors in Comparative Literature from Oberlin College. She lives in New York City.
 
Rebecca Ringle official site

Hailed by the New York Times for his “sweet intensity” and “insinuating smoothness,” modern saxophonist Michael Couper has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician at venues including the Seoul Arts Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie Hall, and is engaged by the Mimesis Ensemble, the San Diego Symphony, and the San Diego Opera, among others. Under the pseudonym “Shrodinger’s Sax”, Dr. Couper plays soprano saxophone with the musically acrobatic and genre-defying band SWARMIUS, described as “a sonic fusion of hip-hop and house-lounge-techno meets modern-classical.” He co-founded a music publishing company, Radnofsky Couper Editions that endeavors to enrich the repertoire of the modern saxophonist, offering as part of its catalog adaptations of historical masterworks as well as exciting new commissions. Dr. Couper is currently visiting faculty at CSU San Bernardino, was recently visiting faculty at San Diego State University, and is a Conn-Selmer Artist endorsing Yanagisawa saxophones.
 
Michael Couper official site

Lauded by The New York Times as a “terrific singer” and The San Francisco Chronicle as “an opera powerhouse”, Sidney Outlaw was the Grand Prize winner of the Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballe in 2010 and continues to delight audiences in the U.S. and abroad with his rich and versatile baritone and engaging stage presence.
 
A recent graduate of the Merola Opera Program and former member of the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, this rising American baritone from Brevard, North Carolina recently finished his first Operatic recording for Naxos Records recording in its entirety Darius Milhaud’sOresteia of Aeschylus singing the role of Apollo.  Mr. Outlaw was a featured recitalist with Warren Jones at Carnegie Hall this season performed Elijah with the New York Choral Society. He was also featured in the role of Burton in Abilene Opera Association’s The Hotel Casablanca. Mr. Outlaw traveled to Guinea as an Arts Envoy this season with the United States States Department, where he performed a program of American music, in honor of Black History Month and in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King. He closes the season with concerts of Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero with the New York Philharmonic and sings the role of Schaunard in La Boheme with the Ash Lawn Festival. Next season Mr. Outlaw will makes debuts with the North Carolina Opera in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte as Guglielmo as well as Atlanta Opera’s  Il Barbiere di Siviglia  in the title role as Figaro.
 
Mr. Outlaw made his English National Opera debut in the 2011-12 season as Rambo in “The Death of Klinghoffer” and appeared as Prince Yamadori in “Madame Butterfly” at Opera on the James. Other mainstage roles include Malcolm in “Malcolm X” at New York City Opera, Dandini in “La Cenerentola” with Florida Grand Opera (2009), Ariodante in Handel’s “Xerxes” (2010), Demetrius in Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the International Vocal Arts Institute, Papageno in “Die Zauberfloete” and a sensational international debut as Guglielmo in “Cosi fan tutte”, in both Germany and Israel (2009).
 
Continue reading at sidneyoutlaw.com

Equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and jazz performer, Geoffrey Burleson, pianist, has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America. The New York Times has hailed Burleson’s solo performances as “vibrant and compelling,” praising his “rhythmic brio, projection of rhapsodic qualities, appropriate sense of spontaneity, and rich colorings.”  Current recording projects include Camille Saint-Saëns: Complete Piano Works, on 5 CDs, for the new Naxos Grand Piano label. Volumes 1 (Complete Piano Études), 2, 3 and 4 have been released to high acclaim from Gramophone, International Record Review, Diapason (France) and elsewhere, and have garnered International Piano Choice Awards from International Piano Magazine.   Other noteworthy recordings by Burleson include Vincent Persichetti: Complete Piano Sonatas (New World Records), which received a BBC Music Choice award from the BBC Music Magazine, and AKOKA (Oxingale Records), featuring Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, as well as companion works, for which Burleson was nominated for a 2015 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year.  Mr. Burleson’s concerto appearances include the Buffalo Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, Boston Musica Viva and the Holland Symfonia in the Netherlands.  He has also appeared as featured soloist at the Bard Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, Santander Festival (Spain) and the Talloires International Festival (France).    He is a core member of the American Modern Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, the Tribeca New Music Festival, David Sanford’s Pittsburgh Collective, and Princeton University’s Richardson Chamber Players.   Mr. Burleson teaches piano at Princeton University and is Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College-City University of New York.
 
Geoffrey Burleson official site