Jessica Rivera, Soprano
Possessing a voice praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for its “effortless precision and tonal luster,” Grammy Award-winning soprano Jessica Rivera is one of the most creatively inspired vocal artists before the public today. The intelligence, dimension and spirituality with which she infuses her performances on great 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 and Nico Muhly, and has brought her together with such esteemed conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Robert Spano, Bernard Haitink and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Andrew Garland, Baritone
Baritone Andrew Garland is widely recognized as a leader in recital work with dozens of performances around the country including Carnegie Hall with pianist Warren Jones and programs of modern American songs all over the Unites States and in Canada. Jones, Marilyn Horne, Steven Blier, a number of American composers and several major music publications all endorse him as a highly communicative singer leading the way for the song recital into the 21st Century. He brings his highly communicative style to the concert stage with orchestras including the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Baroque, The Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Youth Symphony, National Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, Washington Master Chorale at the Kennedy Center and National Chorale at Lincoln Center.
Molly Morkoski, Pianist
Pianist Molly Morkoski has performed as soloist and collaborative artist throughout the U.S., Europe, the Caribbean, and Japan. In 2007, she made her solo debut in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perelman stage. Molly has performed in many of the country’s prestigious venues, including Weill and Zankel Halls, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Gardner Museum, the Kimmel Center, Zipper Hall, and the Smithsonian. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with many of today’s leading artists and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Camerata Pacifica, St. Louis Symphony, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Lark, Chiara, and Momenta Quartets. Her current music projects include film and a large scale commissioning Nocturne Project and a Goldberg Animation Project. She is Associate Professor at CUNY-Lehman College.
Mark Campbell, Dramaturgy
Mark Campbell’s work as a librettist is at the forefront of the current contemporary opera scene in this country. The fifteen plus librettos he has written—and the five new operas he premieres in 2017— demonstrate a versatility in subject matter, style, and tone, an adeptness at creating successful work for both large and intimate venues. The composers with whom he collaborates represent a roster of the most eminent composers in classical music, and include three Pulitzer Prize winners. Mark’s most known work is Silent Night, which received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music and is one of the most frequently performed operas in recent history. His other successful operas include As One, Later the Same Evening, Volpone, Bastianello/Lucrezia, Manchurian Candidate The Inspector, Approaching Ali, A Letter to East 11th Street, and most recently, The Shining.
Eric Nathan, Composer
Eric Nathan’s (b. 1983) music has been called “as diverse as it is arresting” with a “constant vein of ingenuity and expressive depth” (San Francisco Chronicle), “thoughtful and inventive” (The New Yorker), and “clear, consistently logical no matter how surprising the direction, and emotionally expressive without being simplistic or sentimental” (New York Classical Review). Nathan is a 2013 Rome Prize Fellow and 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, and has garnered acclaim internationally through performances by Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble, soprano Dawn Upshaw, violinist Jennifer Koh, at the New York Philharmonic’s 2014 and 2016 Biennials, and at the Tanglewood, Aspen, Aldeburgh, Cabrillo, Yellow Barn and MATA festivals. Nathan currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music in Composition-Theory at the Brown University Department of Music.