Performers

Serbian accordionist Jovica Ivanović was born in 1987 in Zvornik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within the pedagogical field he accomplished his diploma of Musical Education (ME) as well as his master in art-based education (KA) at the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media in Germany, studying accordion. During his time at university, Ivanović earned prestigious scholarships such as the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Award and the Germany Scholarship.

Apart from showing incredible potential, Ishkhanov already demonstrates mature and unique artistic capabilities. Amongst his biggest accomplishments, at the age of 14 Ishkhanov debuted in Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and conductor Miran Vaupotić. Furthermore, in September 2016, at the age of 11, Ishkhanov represented Malta at the Eurovision of Young Musicians held in Cologne Germany, and became the youngest finalist in the Eurovision history. Ishkhanov marks this release of Chopin’s works with a return to Carnegie Hall in December 2021.

We believe that we have the opportunity to be a living metaphor that celebrates unity. We believe that fostering and embracing the music of emerging composers is critical to our art form. We believe that our community deserves to hear the greatest performances of new choral music. We believe that passion and sincerity should be at the forefront of all musical endeavors. We are Choral Arts Initiative.

Megan Ihnen is a “new music force of nature.” The act of live performance is integral to Ihnen’s work and her performances thrive on elaborate sound worlds and fully-developed dramatic interpretations. Through narrative and non-narrative musical storytelling, she explores the subjects of memory, nostalgia, the perception of time, and relationships. Whether through chamber music, staged recitals, opera, or large ensemble soloist work, she emphasizes the full range of vocal sounds, timbres, colors, and uses that characterize the 21st century voice.

Jon Hynes is a prize-winning pianist of several competitions including the gold medal of the Nena Wideman International Competition, the Eastman Concerto Competition, and the Young Keyboard Artists International Competition.

Huang is the Full Professor of Violin at James Madison University School of Music and contributes to the community as a concertmaster of the Waynesboro Symphony. Her recordings of the complete Sonatas of Eugène Ysaÿe, Partitas and Sonatas of J.S. Bach for unaccompanied violin, and music by William Walton and Benjamin Britten in a collaboration with longtime friend and pianist Robert Koenig, are all on the Centaur Records label, have been excellently reviewed. “. . . her incisive technique and an exceptionally rich and beautiful tone. . .” was noted by Phil's Classical Reviews, Audio Video Club of Atlanta.

Rae Howell is an award-winning Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist. She is founding director of Sunwrae, a music performance and production enterprise, and works across a vast range of music concert hall and multi-artform projects. She has studied music in Melbourne, London, and New York; she lectures in music and creative industry subjects; and has worked professionally in many places across the globe, producing a large catalog of original music albums, publications, and collaborative recordings.

Dr. David Holdhusen is the Director of Choral Activities and the Douglas and Susan Tuve Distinguished Professor of Choral Music at the University of South Dakota. His responsibilities include serving as conductor for the Chamber Singers and teaching courses in conducting. In addition to his teaching duties, Holdhusen is currently the Chair of the Department of Music and Director of the university’s annual Choral Directors Institute as well as the USD Summer Music Camp. He is also the co-founder and Executive Director of the Vermillion Children’s Chorus.

Pianist Russell Hirshfield has received critical acclaim for his original and powerful interpretive insights across a wide repertoire. He has performed in recitals regularly throughout the world, giving concerts across the United States, Brazil, China, Belgium, England, Serbia, Costa Rica, and South Africa, including recent performances at the Sheldonian Theater and Holywell Music Room in Oxford, and the Royal Flemish Academy in Brussels. His latest solo recording, ALEXANDER SCRIABIN: EARLY WORKS (Navona Records, 2020) has been programed in radio broadcasts in at least 20 countries. It features a brilliant program of Scriabin’s earlier, and lesser-known, works for solo piano.

Having been praised by the press as “precise and keenly projective” and demonstrating “the highest level of proficiency,” Japanese-Canadian pianist Yoko Hirota is considered one of the leading interpreters of contemporary piano repertory of her generation. Hirota received her doctoral degree in piano performance under Louis-Philippe Pelletier at McGill University. Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts allowed her to study in Europe, with Gabor Eckhardt in Hungary, Herbert Henck in Germany, and Florent Boffard in France.

Roaring onto the operatic stage in recent seasons, Melanie Henley Heyn made her Straussian and Wagnerian debuts as Salome & Brünnhilde, followed closely by a harrowing portrayal of Magda Sorel in Gian Carlo Menotti’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, The Consul. Singing a vast repertoire of music spanning the opera, concert, and folk worlds, her 33 divas recording project combining classic Wagner, Verdi, and Puccini roles with modern American opera heroines remains the No. 1 Most Funded Kickstarter for a Solo Classical Artist.

Tyler Hay was born in 1994 in Kent and began learning the piano at the age of 6. He studied with the Head of Keyboard, Andrew Haigh at Kent Music Academy for three years before gaining a place to study at the Purcell School for Young Musicians in 2007 where he continued under Tessa Nicholson. He completed his studies as an ABRSM scholar at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2016 where he studied with the Head of Keyboard Graham Scott and Professor Frank Wibaut.

Patrick Hawkins holds degrees in performance from the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, East Carolina University, and Arizona State University. Post-graduate studies in music education were taken at California State University, Los Angeles, and at the University of Washington, Seattle. His major teachers have included Janette Fishell, Peggy Haas Howell, Kimberly Marshall, and Carole Terry (organ); Shirley Mathews, and Webb Wiggins (harpsichord); and Shuko Watanabe and Joseph Rackers (piano).

Growing up on a farm outside of Spartanburg SC, Dr. Phillip Chase Hawkins serves as Principal Trumpet with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since 2013. He is also a member of the cornet section in Fountain City Brass Band and is an active performer on historical instruments as a member of Kentucky Baroque Trumpets and Saxton’s Cornet Band. Hawkins can also be heard as a performing and recording artist for the Nashville Music Scoring Studio and Sound Lair Studio.

Jean Hatmaker is a founding member of the Kontras Quartet, the internationally acclaimed quartet-in-residence at Grace Lutheran Church of River Forest IL. Known for their well-crafted performances, diverse programming, and accessible audience relations, Kontras Quartet has brought their message of inclusivity to concerts across the United States, Europe, and Africa. In addition to classical concerts, Kontras Quartet performs with the bluegrass trio the Kruger Brothers, with whom they have appeared at festivals internationally.

Semir “Sammy” HASIĆ (b. 1964) began playing music at the age of 6. He attended music school in Zenica and studied theoretical and pedagogical direction under professor Vinko Kreitmeyer in Sarajevo, eventually completing his studies of composition and conducting in Würzburg where he became professor of composition and conducting.

Hailed by the Calgary Herald as having “beauty of tone and a wonderfully flexible phrasing”, Sara Hahn has been Principal Flute for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) since 2006. In 2005 she was Assistant Principal Flute/Piccolo with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and in 2002 she completed a three week tour of Japan and Hong Kong with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.

Yoko Hagino was born and raised in Japan, where she began her piano studies at the age of 4. As a child, she performed her own compositions, which took her to Europe and the United States, including performances as a concert soloist with the Czech Symphony, the University of Southern California Symphony, Kyoto City Symphony, and Ensemble Orchestra Kanazawa. Hagino has appeared as a soloist with Osaka Century Orchestra, UMass Boston Chamber Orchestra, Key West Symphony Orchestra, White Rabbit Sinfonietta, and has also performed various piano recitals ranging from the music of Bach to contemporary repertoire. Hagino is a prize winner of the Steinway Society Piano Competition, the First International Chamber Music Competition, the All-Japan Selective Competition of the International Mozart Competition, and Chamber Music Competition of Japan.

Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine is acclaimed for her “utterly thrilling, agile voice” and praised for bringing “pathos, beauty, and heartbreaking skill” to her performances. She has performed on the stages of Los Angeles Opera, Minnesota Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Austin Opera, Utah Opera, Fort Worth Opera, the Madison Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, The National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, and the Santa Fe Symphony, among many others.

The Arts Fuse lauds de la Guardia’s sound as “lovely, natural” and “as clear and powerful as grain alcohol.” As an active soprano vocalist, Aliana de la Guardia has garnered acclaim for her “dazzling flights of virtuosity” (Gramophone) in “vocally fearless” performances that are “fizzing with theatrical commitment” (The Boston Globe). A graduate of the Boston Conservatory and consummate interpreter of new classical concert repertoire, she has enjoyed collaborations with many ensembles featuring today’s most eminent composers including “Scenes from a Novel” and “Kafka Fragments” with violinist Gabriela Diaz by György Kurtág, “Aspen Suite” by Salvatore Sciarrino,“Nenia: the Death of Orpheus” by Harrison Birtwistle conducted by Jeffery Means, and the world premiere of “Earth Songs” by Ronald Perrera with New England Philharmonic, among others.