Festival Miami Artist Bio Archive
Great Performances
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S. Mark Aliapoulios
S. Mark Aliapoulios is visiting professor of voice at the Frost School of Music and artistic director of The Choral Society of the Palm Beaches. For a number of years, he served on the faculties of the University of Massachusetts, Boston University, and Palm Beach Atlantic University. A baritone, Aliapoulios has appeared as guest soloist with the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Portland Symphony, the…
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Mason Bates
The music of Mason Bates fuses innovative orchestral writing, the rhythms of electronica and techno, and imaginative narrative forms brought to life by cutting edge sound design. A composer of symphonic music who often includes live electronica in his orchestral music, he has become known as an artist who moves fluidly between those two worlds — performing on electronic drumpad and laptop, for example, under Maestro Michael Tilson…
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Amy Burton
Amy Burton is one of New York’s most notable singers, at the Metropolitan Opera from 1993 to the present, and as one of New York City Opera’s leading sopranos in over a dozen productions. From her New York debut recital at the 92nd Street Y in 1997 to her appearance with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center this season, Burton is a vital part of New York’s cultural scene, performing with Mostly Mozart Festival, The…
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Juan Chattah
Juan Chattah is a music theorist, pianist, and composer. As a theorist, his primary research interest concerns the application of models drawn from linguistics and critical theory to the analysis of music. As a pianist, he studied with David Kuyken, Michel Beroff, Ivan Moravec, and Paul Badura-Skoda, and performed extensively in Europe and South America. As composer, his music ranges from tangos regularly performed by Osvaldo Barrios…
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Huifang Chen
Conductor Huifang Chen enjoys a dual career as a performer and an educator. In addition to being the Music Director of the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, she is a frequent guest conductor for Alhambra Orchestra and Broward Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Chen was the interim Director of Orchestra at the Florida International University from 2009-2010, and has led orchestras in major venues including Carnegie Hall.
As violinist,…
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Michael Colgrass
Composer Michael Colgrass began his musical career in Chicago, where his first professional experiences were as a jazz drummer. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1954 with a degree in performance and composition. He also trained with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Festival and Lukas Foss at Tanglewood.
He began his professional composing career in New York City, where he also worked as a free-lance percussionist for the…
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Timothy Conner
Timothy Conner (trombone) is adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Instrumental Performance at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. Tim Conner held the position of principal trombone with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra for 18 years. During his orchestral career he performed with the Spoleto, Chautauqua, Heidelberg, and Bedford Springs Festival orchestras, the National Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, and Tonhalle Orchestra…
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Paul Dooley
Composer Paul Dooley’s music embraces a cross-cultural range of contemporary music, dance, art, technology and the interactions between the human and natural worlds. He has composed for solo instrument, orchestra, band, electronics, and chamber ensemble.
Recognition for Dooley’s music includes a 2010 BMI composer award, a 2008 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, a fellowship to the 2008 Aspen Music Festival Composition…
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Judy Drucker
Judith Drucker is internationally beloved for making the Concert Association of Florida one of the world’s most formidable artistic presenting organizations in Florida since 1967. Thereafter, she formed the Great Artists Series. Drucker has presented the world’s most eminent classical musicians in South Florida, including: Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Zubin Mehta, Beverly Sills, Cecilia Bartoli,…
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Leon Fleisher
At 83 years young, 2012 Stamps Distinguished Visitor Leon Fleisher continues to thrive as a conductor and pianist. The youngest-ever student of Artur Schnabel, Fleisher debuted with the New York Philharmonic in 1944. In 1952, he became the first American to win the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition, establishing him as one of the world’s premier classical pianists.
At age 36, a neurological affliction left two… -
Rachelle Fleming
With a “glorious, rich voice and a timbre that goes directly to the heart,” Rachelle Fleming has touched audiences in a wide variety of music styles ranging from cabaret to classical.
This versatile vocalist and actress has collaborated with acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch for “Classical Action,” a New York-based non-profit devoted to AIDS awareness, as well as for her demo recording, which includes the standards…
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Marjorie Gould Hahn
Marjorie Gould Hahn is in her 40th year as conductor and teacher of the South Florida Youth Symphony organization. She became the Executive Director ten years ago, has guided the organization to a superb level of programming, teaching, touring and ensemble development. In addition to holding the podium for the youth symphony, she has secured and appointed a musical staff dedicated to the development of South Florida’s young talent. …
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Jennifer Higdon
Composer Jennifer Higdon, a major figure in contemporary classical music, is one of America’s most frequently performed composers. Her works represent a range of genres, including orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal, and wind ensemble music.
Higdon received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto. She has also received awards from the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy…
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Claire Huangci
Claire Huangci won both the International Chopin Competition in Darmstadt, Germany in October 2009 and the National Chopin Piano Competition of the United States in March 2010 for her distinguished Chopin interpretations.
Born in Rochester, New York, Claire has played the piano since she was seven years old. Now 20, she studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with G. Graffmann and E. Sokoloff and is continuing her music education…
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Delma Iles
Delma Iles holds an M.F.A. Degree in Dance from New York University and a B.A. in Teaching of Dance from Virginia Intermont College. She has danced with the Cincinnati Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Atlanta Ballet. In New York she worked with Rachel Lampert and Dancers and Stuart Hodes as well as choreographer Steve Goldbas and theatre director Mark Roth.
In Miami, Iles has been a soloist with Fusion Dance Company and Guest…
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Imani Winds
More than North America’s premier wind quintet, Imani Winds has established itself as one of the most successful chamber music ensembles in the United States. Since 1997, the Grammy-nominated quintet has taken a unique path, carving out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming, genre-blurring collaborations, and inspirational outreach programs. With two member composers…
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Thomas Jaber
Thomas Jaber is Professor of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and Music Director of the Rice University Chorale. For the past 24 years, he has coached singers, collaborated as pianist, organist and harpsichordist in countless recitals with both faculty and students, conducted chorus and orchestra concerts, and several operatic productions at Rice University and around the country. In 2007, Jaber was guest conductor…
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Gary Keller
Gary Keller (jazz saxophone) is a lecturer in the Department of Studio Music and Jazz at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. A versatile saxophonist, Gary Keller has toured with the Woody Herman Thundering Herd and performed and/or recorded with such prominent jazz artists as Kenny Werner, Billy Hart, Maria Schneider, Jim McNeely, Ira Sullivan, and the late Jaco Pastorius. In the classical realm, Keller has performed and/or recorded…
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Lynn Klock
Lynn Klock is in demand as a saxophone soloist and Selmer clinician throughout the United States and abroad. He has performed as a featured artist in Great Britain, Canada, and the British and American Virgin Islands and has the distinction of being the first saxophonist to be presented on the Warsaw Philharmonic Recital Series in Warsaw, Poland. His Carnegie Hall debut received great acclaim from Peter G. Davis of the New York…
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Colby Leider
Colby Leider has received prizes and honors from the American Composers Forum, the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, Princeton University, the International Computer Music Association, and Dartmouth College. He has composed music for the Nash Ensemble of London, Paul Hillier and the Theatre of Voices, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, contrabassist Bertram Turetzky, percussionist Gregory Beyer, and accordionist…
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Sandra Lopez
Soprano Sandra Lopez, a graduate of the University of Miami Frost School of Music and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, has received accolades from vocal competitions such as Palm Beach Opera Competition, the McAllister Awards, and George London Foundation. In 1998 she was the Grand Prize winner in the College Division of the Florida Grand Opera Competition. Lopez appeared at the Metropolitan Opera…
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Jerome Lowenthal
Jerome Lowenthal continues to fascinate audiences, who find in his playing a youthful intensity and an eloquence born of life-experience. He is a virtuoso of the fingers and the emotions.
Lowenthal studied in his native Philadelphia with Olga Samaroff-Stokowski, in New York with William Kapell and Edward Steuermann, and in Paris with Alfred Cortot, meanwhile traveling annually to Los Angeles for coaching with Arthur Rubinstein. After…
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Ana María Martínez
Grammy Award winning soprano Ana María Martínez‘s career spans the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls. Martínez has sung every major lyric role, including: Mimi in La Boheme; Violetta in La Traviata; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni; and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at such venerable houses as: the Metropolitan Opera; Teatro alla Scala; the Vienna Staatsoper; the Royal Opera House Covent…
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Momentum Dance Company
Momentum Dance Company, Artistic Director Delma Iles, is currently celebrating its Twenty-Eighth year with over forty performances in 2009-2010. Founded in 1982, and in continuous operation since, Momentum is one of the oldest and most established contemporary dance companies in the Southeastern U.S. Momentum’s activities include: the Miami Dance Festival concert seasons in South Florida; concert series for children in both Miami Beach…
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Anastasiya Naplekova
Winner of the Rudolf Firkusny International Piano Competition in Prague, Anastasiya Naplekova was born in Kharkov, Ukraine. There she received her B.M. and M.M. in piano performance from Kharkov State University of Arts studying under Professor Nataliya Melnikova. Naplekova is currently a doctoral student at the Frost School of Music, studying piano performance under distinguished artist Professor Santiago Rodriguez.
Naplekova has…
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John Olah
John Olah (tuba, euphonium) is associate professor in the Department of Instrumental Performance at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He received a B.M. degree from the Baldwin Wallace College Conservatory, an M.M. degree from the University of New Mexico, and has pursued advanced studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. A student of Ronald Bishop, Olah has performed with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland…
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Brian Powell
Brian Powell is the newly appointed professor of Double Bass and String Music Pedagogy at the Frost Music School of the University of Miami. He has a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance and a Masters degree in Teaching from Indiana University, and he is a doctoral candidate at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He is a former member of The New World Symphony, under the direction of Michael Tilson…
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Carlos Rivera
Of Cuban-Guatemalan descent, Carlos Rafael Rivera has established a name for himself as a composer with the unique ability to incorporate a large diversity of musical influences in his captivating compositions, which reflect his multi-cultural upbringing in Washington, DC, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Miami, and Los Angeles.
His music has been performed by some of the world’s most prominent ensembles, including Chanticleer,…
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Gunther Schuller
Pulitzer Prize winner Gunther Schuller began his career at age 16 when his French horn playing was heard in the American radio premiere of Shostakovich’s then brand-new “Leningrad” Symphony. Soon after he joined the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and performed 14 seasons in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. In the 1950s he turned his attention to composing and began combining jazz and…
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John Stewart
John Stewart, composer and music theorist, is a Visiting Professor of Music Theory and Composition. He has earned degrees from the New England Conservatory and Harvard University, where he studied with Earl Kim, Leon Kirchner, and Lukas Foss, among others. A composer of chamber, vocal, and orchestral music, Dr. Stewart taught at the New England Conservatory for many years before joining the faculty of Harvard University, where he taught…
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Scott Stinson
Scott Stinson is a lecturer in theory and composition in the Department of Music Theory and Composition at the Frost School of Music. A graduate of Indiana University, Scott Stinson studied composition with electronic music pioneer and micro-tonalist John Eaton, before completing his Doctorate at the University of Miami under the tutelage of Dennis Kam. An early performance (at age 24) of his opera Tutankhamen by the Indiana University…
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Jamila Tekalli
Jamila Tekalli, an American pianist of Japanese and Libyan descent, has dazzled audiences all across Florida and beyond with her impeccable technical command and profound musical expression. Winner of many awards including the Music Teachers National Association Baldwin Piano Competition; National finalist in the MTNA Yamaha Piano Competition, and finalist in the Junior Division at the 1995 Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition,…
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Dave Van Horne
Dave Van Horne has broadcast Major League Baseball for 43 years. For 32 years, he was the “voice of the Montreal Expos,” and for the last 11 years he has been the “voice of the Florida Marlins.” Van Horne began his career in the International League in Richmond, Virginia, in 1966, where he was twice named the state’s sportscaster of the year before joining a Major League broadcast team. His debut with the Montreal Expos coincided…
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George Weremchuk
George Weremchuk has performed with such diverse groups as the New World Symphony, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, and Sam Rivers’ Rivbea Orchestra. He is featured on the New World Symphony’s recording entitled New World Jazz (RCA Red Seal), and has performed with Sam Rivers at the Chicago Jazz Festival, Matosinhos Jazz Festival in Portugal, and at Lincoln Center in New York.
In Europe, Dr. Weremchuk performed…
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Sheri Wills
Sheri Wills, appearing in FORM AND FRACTURES, is an artist whose work is based in film, video performance & digital media. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the London Film Festival and the International Film Festival in Rotterdam and is featured in the Rizzoli book, Sonic Graphics: Seeing Sound, by Matt Woolman. She holds an MFA in filmmaking & an MA in art history,…
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Richard Yaklich
In addition to conducting the South Florida Youth Symphony, Dr. Richard Yaklich has conducted orchestras throughout the United States and Eastern Europe, including the Maikop Philharmonic and the Socchie Symphony Orchestra. Yaklich attended the Tanglewood Music Center where he studied conducting with Gustav Meier, Charles Dutoit, Leon Fleisher, Maurice Abravanel, and Seiji Ozawa. A former Director of the Jubilate Chamber Orchestra,…
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Zoe Zeniodi
Appearing in TRANSCENDENCE with Sandra Lopez, Zoe Zeniodi is the Associate Conductor for the Frost Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theater. Studying with Thomas Sleeper, Zenoidi is pursuing a Doctoral Degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. Recently, Zeniodi has appeared as guest conductor with the New Philharmonic (Miami) and the National Youth Orchestra of Spain (JONDE). For the closing night of Festival…