SistaStrings

The sound of SistaStrings can’t be described in one word. Formed in 2014 after the sisters graduated from college, the Milwaukee-based duo combines their classical background with R&B with a touch of gospel influence that culminates in a vibey, lush sound. With thick string harmonies between violin and cello and soulful voices, SistaStrings takes you on a journey. The sisters not only write and arrange but find pleasure sitting in with musicians and exploring what sounds come from improvisation and spontaneity. SistaStrings has performed with Malik Yusef, opened for Black Violin, Bone Thugs ‘N Harmony, Lupe Fiasco, BJ The Chicago Kid, and The Roots. Outside of playing music venues, SistaStrings goes into schools and conducts assemblies, encouraging young people to pursue the arts and to not be afraid of hard work. The ladies are advocates for diversity in the arts and promote social justice in all that they do musically. Biography and photo courtesy of SistaStrings.com

Kevin Day

Kevin Day, an American composer whose music has been “characterized by propulsive, syncopated rhythms, colorful orchestration, and instrumental virtuosity,” (Robert Kirzinger, Boston Symphony Orchestra) Kevin Day (b. 1996) has quickly emerged as one of the leading young voices in the world of music composition today. Day was born in Charleston, West Virginia and is a native of Arlington, Texas. His father was a prominent hip-hop producer in the late-1980s, and his mother was a sought-after gospel singer, singing alongside the likes of Mel Torme and Kirk Franklin. Kevin Day is a composer, conductor, producer, and multi-instrumentalist on tuba, euphonium, jazz piano and more, whose music often intersects between the worlds of jazz, minimalism, Latin music, fusion, and contemporary classical idioms. Day currently serves as the Composer-In-Residence of the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra. Biography and photo courtesy of kevindaymusic.com

Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Singer, songwriter, cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a rare exception to the rule that classical and alternative r&b music cannot successfully coexist. Graduating with a first from both Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Manhattan School of Music, Ayanna was a participant in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Young Composers Scheme and became an Emerging Artist in Residence at London’s Southbank Centre. She was a featured artist with Courtney Pine’s Afropeans: Jazz Warriors and became the only non-American to win Amateur Night Live at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem, NYC. A performer of extraordinary versatility her live shows are intimate journeys that chronicle her experience as a female artist in the 21st century. Because of her musical prowess, mesmerising vocals, non-compromising lyrics and ability to deftly reinterpret songs on the cello, Ayanna is able to straddle both the classical and urban worlds effortlessly. Biography and photo courtesy of ayannamusic.com

Philip Herbert

From an early age Philip Herbert’s talent for music was nurtured by his parents, and later at the Yorkshire College of Music, where he was awarded a scholarship to further develop his musical studies at the piano, with the late Dr. John Foster, and Irene Ingram. He later went on to complete a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education at King Alfred’s College, Winchester, and later to read music at postgraduate level at Andrews University, Michigan USA. He also gained piano teaching and piano performing diplomas from the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music respectively. Philip has taught music at all educational levels, as well as making music through composing, performing as a pianist and conducting. He has coordinated master classes, workshops and concert series; as well as devised courses and community projects for young people and adults, with creative and interactive contributions from some of Britain’s finest musicians, across an eclectic range of musical genres. He has also been involved in projects that have been broadcast on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 as well as BBC TV. Biography and photo courtesy of philipherbert.org.

Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice, a conductor of vision and distinction who passionately believes that “music has the power to change lives”. She is recognized internationally for her innovative approach to programming and audience development, for her deep commitment to education and advocating for music’s importance in the world.

From the 2019/20 season, Alsop becomes Chief Conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (Vienna RSO), performing in their main series at the Wiener Konzerthaus and Wiener Musikverein, recording, broadcasting, and touring nationally and internationally. Her first season coincides with the orchestra’s 50th anniversary and will emphasize women in classical music.

Her outstanding success as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) since 2007 has resulted in two extensions in her tenure until 2021. Alsop has led the orchestra on its first European tour in 13 years and created several bold initiatives including OrchKids, for the city’s most disadvantaged young people. At the end of 2019, following a seven-year tenure as Music Director, she becomes Conductor of Honour of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP), where she will return to conduct major projects each season.

Photo source: https://www.marinalsop.com/media/
Biography source: https://www.marinalsop.com/biography/

Xian Zhang currently serves as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She will become the Principal Guest Conductor of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2020. She also holds the post of Conductor Emeritus of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, following a hugely successful period from 2009–2016 as Music Director. She has previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales, becoming the first female conductor to hold a titled role with a BBC orchestra.

The acclaim she has been receiving for her work in New Jersey has resulted in a strong North American career, with upcoming engagements which include Chicago, Dallas, Baltimore, Montreal, Ottawa (NAC), Cincinnati, Houston, Minnesota Symphonies. In August 2019, she returned to Los Angeles Philharmonic to conduct the world premiere of a work by Caroline Shaw and Beethoven 9.

Biography and photo source: https://imgartists.com/roster/xian-zhang/

Grammy-winning conductor JoAnn Falletta serves as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center and Artistic Adviser of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. Hailed for having “Toscanini’s tight control over ensemble, Walter’s affectionate balancing of inner voices, Stokowski’s gutsy showmanship, and a controlled frenzy worthy of Bernstein”, she is a leading force for the music of our time.

Internationally celebrated as a vibrant ambassador for music and an inspiring artistic leader, Ms. Falletta is invited to guest conduct many of the world’s finest orchestras. She has guest conducted over a hundred orchestras in North America, and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

Biography source: http://www.joannfalletta.com/biography.html
Photo source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoAnn_Falletta

Kay George Roberts is the founder and music director of the New England Orchestra (NEO). Based in Lowell, Massachusetts, NEO is committed to building a vital artistic partnership with the community by linking cultures through music.

Guest conducting engagements have included the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Nashville and National Symphony orchestras as well as the Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, where she conducted Jazz greats Max Roach, Diane Reeves, and the New York Voices. Ms. Roberts has served as a cover conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she is the conductor for Philadelphia’s Opera North performances of Leslie Burrs’ award-winning opera, Vanqui. In 2006, The Washington Post praised her “intensely paced concert version of Vanqui, carefully balancing soloists, orchestra and chorus”.

An advocate for new and overlooked music, critics admire her “precision and passion” in leading audiences “to make new discoveries.” She premiered Jennifer Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico at the Blossom Music Festival with the Cleveland Orchestra and was co-conductor for the highly acclaimed 2004 Sphinx Inaugural Gala Concert in Carnegie Hall. In 2007, she led the Sphinx Symphony in the world premiere of Michael Abels’ Delights and Dances in Detroit’s Orchestra Hall to celebrate the Sphinx Competition’s 10th anniversary.

A champion of music education, Ms. Roberts is a professor of music at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) and director of the UML String Project, a community outreach program for public school students that fosters diversity in classical music. She is the first woman to earn the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from Yale University where she studied with Otto-Werner Mueller. Ms. Roberts also studied conducting at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier and Seiji Ozawa, and at the Bachakademie Stuttgart with Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Photo source: https://www.uml.edu/fahss/music/faculty/roberts-kay.aspx
Biography source: http://www.operanorthinc.org/kay-george-roberts

Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fiercely committed advocate for Russian masterpieces, operatic rarities, and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music.

As Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, this season Ms. Yankovskaya leads the world premiere of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride and the Chicago premieres of Joby Talbot’s Everest, Rachmaninoff’s Aleko, and David T. Little’s Soldier Songs at Chicago Opera Theater. Elsewhere in the 19/20 season, she conducts Ricky Ian Gordon’s Ellen West at New York’s critically acclaimed Prototype Festival, and makes house debuts leading Daron Hagen’s Shining Brow at Arizona Opera and the world premiere of Paola Prestini’s Edward Tulane at Minnesota Opera. In standard repertoire, she leads performances of Stravinsky’s The Firebird at Illinois Philharmonic, Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony in C minor at Chicago Philharmonic, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni in her Glimmerglass Festival debut.

Ms. Yankovskaya is Founder and Artistic Director of the Refugee Orchestra Project, which proclaims the cultural and societal relevance of refugees through music, and has brought that message to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world. In addition to a National Sawdust residency in Brooklyn, ROP has performed in Boston, Washington, D.C., and the United Nations, and will make its UK debut in London in an upcoming season. She has also served as Artistic Director of the Boston New Music Festival and Juventas New Music Ensemble, where she led operatic experiments with puppetry, circus acts, and robotic instruments, as well as premieres by more than two dozen composers. Under her artistic leadership, Juventas was the recipient of multiple NEA grants and National Opera Association Awards.

Photo source: https://lidiyayankovskaya.com/
Biography source: https://lidiyayankovskaya.com/bio

Gabriela Lena Frank

Currently serving as Composer-in-Residence with the storied Philadelphia Orchestra and included in the Washington Post’s list of the 35 most significant women composers in history (August, 2017), identity has always been at the center of composer/pianist Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Born in Berkeley, California (September, 1972), to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Gabriela explores her multicultural heritage most ardently through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Gabriela is something of a musical anthropologist. She has traveled extensively throughout South America and her pieces reflect and refract her studies of Latin American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own.
Recommended Listening: Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout

Caroline Shaw

A New York-based musician, vocalist, violinist, composer, and producer, who performs in solo and collaborative projects. She was the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for Partita for 8 Voices, written for the Grammy-winning Roomful of Teeth, of which she is a member. Recent commissions include new works for Renée Fleming with Inon Barnatan, Dawn Upshaw with Sō Percussion and Gil Kalish, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s with John Lithgow, the Dover Quartet and many more.
Recommended Listening: To the Hands: No. 6. I Will Hold You

Angélica Negrón

Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón writes music for accordions, robotic instruments, toys and electronics as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR) and “mesmerizing and affecting” (Feast of Music) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise” and her “quirky approach to scoring”. Angélica is currently working on a lip sync opera titled Chimera for drag queen performers and chamber ensemble exploring the ideas of fantasy and illusion, as well as the intricacies and complexities of identity.
Recommended Listening: Sueño Recurrente

Fanmi Imen (Human Family) by Valerie Coleman

Last year, I premiered in Oregon, Valerie Coleman’s Fanmi Imen (Human Family), inspired by Maya Angelou’s poem Human Family. Written in 2018, the piece acknowledges differences within mankind, due to ethnicity, background, or geography. Angelou’s refrain: “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unlike,” reaffirms our humanity as a reminder of unity. Coleman’s work draws inspiration from French flute music blending with an underlying pentatonicism found in Asian traditions, a caravan through Middle Eastern parts of the world merging with Flamenco, and an upbeat journey southward into Africa with the sounds of Kalimba. I absolutely love playing this piece! Fanmi Imen speaks to me on a deep level and one that brings peace and unity to myself as I read the poem. Fanmi Imen helps to make people feel good about the progress we have made in society.

Tangente au Yanvalou by Julio Racine

Last year, I heard of another composer and fellow flute player by the name of Julio Racine. He’s a Haitian-born flute player that studied flute with the legendary Francis Fuge at the University of Kentucky at Louisville. One of my favorite pieces of his is, Tangente au Yanvalou for flute and piano which represents a form of dance associated with Haitian Voodoo, but originated in Benin, West Africa. In Haiti, Yanvalou is performed in a group as a prayer, invoking deities and moving the dancers to lose consciousness and enter into a state of trance. Even though I’m not of Haitian descent, I truly connected with the sacredness of this piece after doing much research, and it helped me to eliminate certain projected biases and prejudices of the Voodoo religion. Julio’s daughter, Maria, was a 2010 Abreu Fellow and like myself, became a program director for an El Sistema inspired program. After learning about Julio and his beautiful works for flute, I sent Maria a Facebook message asking her about Julio and letting her know that I had recently discovered his music and how much I was in love with his works. She proceeded by giving me his phone number so I can call him myself. I haven’t called, yet.