Performers

Russian-born, American pianist Elena Dorozhkina has captivated her audiences with an expressive warm tone, virtuosity, and passion in her playing. Genuinely committed to share emotions conveyed in music, Dorozhkina has performed solo and collaborative recitals at concert halls of the United States, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, and Ukraine. Dorozhkina’s 2022 Spivey Hall solo and collaborative recital performance was broadcast on The Atlanta Music Scene, WABE FM 90.1 radio. 

Founded in 1924 in Portland ME, the Portland Symphony Orchestra (PSO) has a long and illustrious history of bringing fine orchestral music to Maine and northern New England. It is an ongoing source of civic pride and artistic leadership, the largest performing arts organization in this city of 70,000 people. All volunteer at its start, the PSO now employs 83 professional musicians drawn from all six New England states. It performs nearly 40 concerts each season at Merrill Auditorium in Portland and at Seaside Pavilion in Old Orchard Beach. The PSO’s education and lifelong learning programs reach thousands of people across Maine every year, both in person and virtually.

Eckart Preu is the Music Director of the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra (CA), and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (OH). Previously, he was the Music Director of the Spokane Symphony (WA) and the Stamford Symphony (CT), Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony (VA), and Resident Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra. Also, Preu served as Music Director of the Orchestre International de Paris.

Described as a “striking interpreter” who gives a “committed and heartfelt performance” by Musical America and The New York Times, pianist Fanya Lin has entranced audiences worldwide with her charismatic and fiery performances. Lin’s “mesmerizing performance” of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in the United Kingdom was depicted as “a tornado had touched down through her body and lifted her, feathers fluttering, from the piano stool as she weighed into the keys.” Her orchestral appearances include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Toruń Symphony, Utah Symphony, Savannah Philharmonic, The Jackson Symphony, Mississippi Valley Orchestra, and New Art Symphony, among others.

The UNLV Wind Orchestra has received international acclaim for its fresh and creative approach to music making. Performing contemporary repertoire in addition to classical masterworks, the Wind Orchestra at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas has been responsible for commissioning and premiering nearly 70 significant new works by America’s finest young contemporary composers. The Wind Orchestra has recently commissioned and premiered new compositions by landmark American contemporary composers Bruce Broughton, Roger Nixon, and James Barnes. The ensemble is comprised of music majors, non-majors, and includes select graduate students enrolled in the masters and doctoral performance degree programs at UNLV.

As Director of the Division of Wind Band Studies and Professor of Conducting, Thomas G. Leslie has earned recognition for high-quality performances of the UNLV Bands. During his tenure at UNLV, his bands have received critical acclaim from fellow musicians internationally, from Grammy Award-winning recording artists to decorated members of the United States Marine Band, Air Force Band, Navy Band, and esteemed educators. Recognized for a fresh, interpretative style among collegiate wind orchestras, Leslie and the UNLV Wind Orchestra excel in their commitment to commission new works by the next generation of the world’s finest young composers.

Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa has established himself as one of the most charismatic, innovative, and engaging performers of his generation. Mesa was the winner of the $50,000 First Prize in the 2016 Sphinx Competition; the Thaviu Competition for String Performance (Chicago, 2013); The Astral Artists 2017 National Auditions; and the Alhambra Orchestra Concerto Competition. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States and Mexico, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Santa Barbara Symphony, Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra, which received this rave review from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “A listener with closed eyes would have been hard pressed to distinguish [Mesa’s] shapely, expressive performance from that of another gifted artist two or three times his age.”

Lauded as “technically fearless with…an enormous, rich sound” (La Scena Musicale), pianist Michelle Cann made her orchestral debut at age fourteen and has since performed as a soloist with prominent orchestras such as the Atlanta and Cincinnati symphony orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Featured in the Los Angeles Times in 2021, Giovanni Piacentini is a composer, performer, educator, and advocate for the music of others. Recently praised as “paying homage to the important cultural heritage of music in the west” by Forbes magazine, his original music has been described as “able to encapsulate tiny, winsome worlds as if passing through a gallery of paintings” (Winnipeg Free Press), and as “stunningly beautiful with accessible compositional language”(The Clarinet Magazine). Piacentini has established himself as a significant voice in Latin American classical music.

Gerry Bryant has been described by many as a renaissance man. Multi-talented Bryant graduated cum laude from both Phillips Andover Academy and Harvard, and received two graduate degrees (J.D. & M.B.A.) from UCLA. His musical influences range from masters of the Romantic Period in classical music (in particular Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff), to jazz legends Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington, to contemporary pianists Keith Jarrett and Ramsey Lewis. He describes his original music as “Third Stream,” a term coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller to describe a musical genre that is a synthesis of classical music and jazz.

Described by NPR's Ron Schachter as "a musical Lewis and Clark, opening up new musical territories," Duo Cello e Basso “unites passion with elegance” (Boston Globe). Cellist/composer Emmanuel Feldman and double bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman partner to perform repertoire ranging from Bartok, Mozart, and Rossini to Feldman, Pinkham, and Schnittke. With more than 20 commissions and premiers to their credit, the duo creates dynamic programming that surprises and energizes audiences.

Hailed by John Williams as “an outstanding cellist and truly dedicated artist,” Emmanuel Feldman performs in the United States and abroad as a soloist, chamber musician, and composer. Described by Gramophone as “an artist who combines communicative urgency with tonal splendor,” Feldman’s recent release Our American Roots (Delos) includes Pulitzer Prize winning composer George Walker’s cello sonata. An enthusiastic collaborator, he has partnered in a wide range of performances with Bobby McFerrin, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Verona String Quartet, and Boston Pops. 

Praised by the New Music Connoisseur for her “technical certainty and musical imagination,” French double bassist Pascale Delache-Feldman has been described as “a gifted colorist who produced an entire range of orchestral effects” (Boston Phoenix). In her recent appearance at the Kennedy Center, Delache-Feldman performed her own arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, which is included in her Navona Records album LET’S TANGO with Duo Cello e Basso and pianist Victor Cayres. Other recital credits include performances at Radio France; Franz Liszt Academy, Hungary; and Teatro Victoria Eugenia, San Sebastian, Spain. As a soloist, she has performed with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, the North Shore Philharmonic, and the Greensboro Festival Orchestra.

The Ulysses Quartet has been praised for their “textural versatility,” “grave beauty,” and “the kind of chemistry many quartets long for, but rarely achieve” (The Strad), as well as their “avid enthusiasm ... [with] chops to back up their passion” (San Diego Story), “delivered with a blend of exuberance and polished artistry” (The Buffalo News). Founded in the summer of 2015, the group won the grand prize and gold medal in the senior string division of the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and first prize in the 2018 Schoenfeld International String Competition. In 2017, the quartet finished first in the American Prize and won second prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition.

The nationally recognized Nevada Wind Ensemble is the flagship wind and percussion ensemble at the University of Nevada, Reno. Using one-per-part instrumentation, the Wind Ensemble performs a broad repertoire of classic and contemporary styles, ranging from large band works to chamber pieces. The ensemble tours regularly throughout the Western United States and provides the opportunity to collaborate with world-class guest conductors and guest artists. The group consists of graduate and undergraduate students.

Reed Chamberlin serves as director of bands at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he conducts the Nevada Wind Ensemble, teaches conducting, and guides the band program. He holds a doctor of musical arts degree in conducting from the Eastman School of Music where he was the assistant conductor of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, a Fennell Conducting Fellow, and recipient of the Walter Hagen Prize in conducting.

Daniel Schlosberg leads a kaleidoscopic musical life. He has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in numerous chamber music concerts and new music concerts, and was a featured soloist in subscription performances of Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies. He has a passion for contemporary music, collaborating frequently with Eighth Blackbird and Third Coast Percussion.

Caitlin Edwards is a violinist, arranger, recording artist, and teacher based in Chicago. She began her musical journey at the age of 8 within a non-profit organization in her hometown of Birmingham AL. She later attended the University of Louisville (B.M.) and DePaul University (M.M.). Edwards is a classically trained violinist, but she’s inspired by gospel, jazz, hip-hop, and neo-soul. She released her debut album, Exhale, in 2021. She composes original music and intentionally performs the works of Black composers to help ensure that these composers and their compositions are remembered and spotlighted for aspiring young BIPOC musicians and the world as a whole. 

Clipper Erickson made his debut at age nineteen in Los Angeles as soloist with the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra, followed by studies at The Juilliard School, Yale University, and Indiana University, where he trained with the renowned British pianist John Ogdon. Erickson has won top prizes at international competitions and performs as soloist with orchestras throughout the US, as well as recitalist in venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Hall, and Symphony Space in New York.

Robyn Jacob is a pianist, singer, composer and educator who lives and works on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm and Səl’il’wətaʔ Nations, also known as Vancouver. She has toured Canada and internationally with her avant-pop project Only A Visitor, who have released four albums to date, recently signing on with Mint Records. Her recent composition projects include commissions by Third Coast Percussion, So Percussion, Chor Leoni, Re:Naissance Opera, and Little Chamber Music. Her work often explores writing for unusual ensembles, as well as collaborations with visual artists and instrument makers.