Performers

The Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra boasts 150 years of tradition of first-class musicianship in Zagreb and across Croatia. It acts as a promoter of the art of music in Croatia and a cultural ambassador of Croatia in the world. It is a symbol of the city in which it operates and a musical institution that captures the urban image of Zagreb as a central European musical, art and cultural centre.

Alexander Tchobanov has gained international recognition as a concert pianist, recording artist, chamber musician, and music pedagogue. Following his 2013 Carnegie Hall solo debut, the New York Concert Review wrote, “Mr. Tchobanov's colors and voicing were superb, creating that ineffable aura of Russian sadness we love so much, there is a major virtuoso there.” He was invited to perform at major international venues and festivals such as Jordan Hall in Boston, Steinway Hall in New York, Los Angeles Music Center, Manila Piano Artist Series, Auersperg Palace in Vienna, Madinat Theater in Dubai, International Piano Festival “Krystian Tkaczewski’’ in Poland, and CME Concerto Fest among others. Tchobanov's recordings of works by Scriabin and Rachmaninoff are commercially available on the Ulysses Arts label. He was featured as a soloist with Vienna Residence Orchestra and Tarnow Chamber Orchestra.

Tucker Biddlecombe (Ph.D.) is Director of Choral Activities at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. There he conducts the Vanderbilt Chorale, and Symphonic Choir, and teaches courses in Choral Conducting and Music Education. He also serves as Director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus, the offcial vocal arm of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Biddlecombe is a veteran teacher and a passionate advocate for music education. Ensembles under his direction have performed to acclaim at state and division conventions of ACDA, and he is active as a guest conductor. A native of Buffalo New York, Biddlecombe is a graduate of SUNY Pots dam and Florida State University, where he completed doctoral studies in choral conducting and music education with André Thomas. He resides in Nashville, TN with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, Artistic Director of the Blair Children’s Chorus.

Jâca is a clarinet and guitar duo that combines classical and world music to bring an adventurous, passionate, and completely original musical style to the stage. Jâca’s music reflects the versatility of their instruments, combining western classical training with their diverse musical and cultural heritage.

From Flamenco to Fado, Appalachia to Argentina, and guitar slides to clarinet smears, Jâca’s music is truly a unique fusion that fits into no single genre. The duo breathes new life into the traditional concert experience, ignoring convention and consistently leaving their audiences buzzing. “At a Jâca concert you’re not just a bystander – you feel a part of it.” (Humans of Chamber Music)

Bree Nichols is a young American soprano praised for her “rich vocal disposition” (KlasikaPlus) and compelling stage presence. A Fulbright grantee to the Czech Republic, Nichols is known for her sensitive interpretations of Czech vocal music as well as over a dozen operatic roles spanning a diverse repertoire. Her career has taken her to the stages of Symphony of the Mountains, Capitol City Opera, Opera Roanoke, Lewisville Lake Symphony, Opera on the James, Opera Experience Southeast, the Olomouc Baroque Festival, and more.

Laura Ward is pianist and Co-Artistic Director of Lyric Fest. As a distinguished collaborative pianist she is known for both her technical ability and vast knowledge of repertoire and styles. Concert engagements have taken her to Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Spoleto Festival (Italy) and the Colmar International Music Festival and Saint Denis Festival in France.

Dr. Sang-Hie Lee, Professor of Music at the University of South Florida, is an active teacher, pianist, researcher, author, and cross-disciplinary administrator. As the founder of Ars Nostra, she performs piano duo music by significant living composers: her music is featured in six albums by Ravello, Centaur, Capstone, and Albany labels. Lee is the principal author of Scholarly Research for Musicians: A Comprehensive Strategy (Learning Solutions Division, The McGraw-Hill, 2012, 2013 and Routledge 2017), and Scholarly Research in Music: Shared and Disciplinary-Specific Practices, 2nd Edition (Routledge 2022). She is the primary editor of Perspectives in Performing Arts Medicine: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Springer 2020) and was the founding editor of the Cultural Expressions in Music Monographs Series (College Music Society 2008-2014).

The Lowell Chamber Orchestra is Lowell’s first and only professional orchestra, providing the area with an ensemble that presents music at a very high level, of all styles and time periods, entirely free to the general population. Now in its third season, the LCO has presented concerts that encompass established orchestral repertoire as well as multimedia works, stage works, lecture-presentations, and chamber music. As part of its mission of promoting, preserving, and educating, the repertoire includes works from the Baroque to current commissions.

The conductor, composer, and pianist Jan Kučera is one of the most versatile Czech artists. At the National Theatre in Prague, he has conducted the productions of Lukáš Hurník’s opera The Angels, Shostakovich’s Antiformalist Rayok / Orango, Rossini´s La Cenerentola, and of his own comic opera Red Mary.

The Fischer Duo has performed on five continents in its over-50-year history. Founded in 1971 while students at Oberlin College, the Duo has developed a wide-ranging repertoire covering the “canon” plus many forgotten or unknown works of the past. In addition, the Fischers have been very active with music of our own time, commissioning over 30 works and recording even more. The Duo’s extensive discography includes 18 albums from Beethoven, Brahms, 20th Century French Masters, Chopin and Liszt to generations of American composers similar to this recording’s compendium. These recordings have garnered rave reviews from The Strad, Gramophone, Strings Magazine, and BBC Music Magazine.

North Macedonian pianist and composer Natasha Stojanovska has received numerous prestigious prizes and honors, including the American Prize. Having left her native country to continue her education in the United States, she was selected to be a member of the studios of Roberta Rust at Lynn University’s Conservatory of Music and Alexander Toradze at Indiana University. Stojanovska continued on to pursue a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University with James Giles.

South Korean pianist Sun Min Kim serves as Coordinator of Keyboard Studies and Assistant Professor of Music at Denison University. He made his debut with the Ulsan Symphony Orchestra at age 13, performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto. He has been a prizewinner of national and international competitions such as the Maria Canals International Piano Competition, MTNA, and International Crescendo Music Awards. In 2008, the professional music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon awarded him the Sterling Achievement Award, the highest honor that the fraternity bestows upon its collegiate members. As a laureate of various awards, he debuted at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and other prestigious venues across the United States and abroad.

Hilary Glen, cellist, has been praised as a “standout performer” who has successfully “taken on the demanding and most expressive responsibilities assigned to [her] instrument.” As an enthusiastic performer, she enjoys a varied career that has taken her from the Italian Alps to Carnegie Hall and many places in between. She has collaborated with musicians including Gil Shaham, Gary Hoffman, Yefim Bronfman, and The Who. Formerly a cellist with the New World Symphony, Glen currently performs as the Assistant Principal in the Atlanta Opera Orchestra, Principal of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Georgia, and is a section member of the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra and the Des Moines Metro Opera.

Dr. Misha Galaganov performs solo and chamber music concerts in major concert halls in the United States, Middle East, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He has premiered about 30 compositions for viola alone, viola with piano, and viola in chamber music, written for him by composers from Israel, Russia, Mexico, Peru, Belgium, Italy, Uruguay, and the United States. As Principal Viola of the Dallas Chamber Symphony, he also premiered many pieces written for small symphony orchestra and string chamber ensembles.

David William Ross is a New England–based guitarist with roots in both classical and jazz. His recordings and performances have been lauded for their sensitivity, virtuosity, and depth of all-around musicality. Ross frequently works with composers and is active in cultivating new repertoire for the guitar. He has premiered works by Frank Wallace, Georges Raillard, Ferdinando DeSena, Peter Dayton, Pierre Schroeder, among many others. Ross’ work as a session player has led to an extensive working knowledge of the recording studio. He has developed an approach to engineering and recording that not only serves as a means to capture and present music but also as an artistic tool in its own right.

A vibrant musician and innovative educator, Laura Talbott-Clark currently serves as associate professor of violin at Oklahoma State University. An avid chamber musician, she has performed as principal violinist of Tulsa Camerata, Janus 21 Chamber Ensemble, and as second violinist of the Tulsa Rock Quartet. Talbott-Clark has an extensive background as an orchestral musician, including membership in the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, and Cantata Singers Chamber Orchestra.

The Great Necks Guitar Trio has enchanted audiences across the United States with its whimsical, interactive, and daring performances. Founded by guitarists Scott Borg, Adam Levin, and Matthew Rohde, the trio — through its original madcap arrangements — stretches at the conventions — and at times, the physical limits — of the guitar with what American Record Guide calls “some of the most inventive artistry you are likely to find in today’s guitar world.”

Roberta Rust has concertized to critical acclaim around the globe, with performances at such venues as Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, New York's Merkin Concert Hall, Rio de Janeiro's Sala Cecília Meireles, Washington's Corcoran Gallery, Havana’s Basilica, and Seoul's KNUA Hall. Hailed for her recordings on PARMA (Navona), Centaur, and Protone labels, Rust has appeared with the Lark, Ying, Serafin, Amernet, and Fine Arts String Quartets and at Miami's Mainly Mozart Festival, the Philippines Opusfest, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, Festival Miami, Long Island's Beethoven Festival, and France's La Gesse.

Lauded for being “positively mesmerizing at the piano” by The Times-Tribune, Korean-American pianist Minju Choi Witte has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician. Witte presented recitals in cities in the U.S. and abroad, including Paris, New York City, Philadelphia, and Myra Hess Memorial Series in Chicago. She has performed solo concerts in prestigious venues such as David Geffen Hall, Chicago Cultural Center, Schola Cantorum in Paris, and Steinway Hall.

Pianist Dr. Marko Stuparević has appeared in over 500 concerts and festivals over the United States, Israel, France, Serbia, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Slovakia as a solo performer and chamber musician. Winning piano competition prizes resulted in many notable solo recitals in the United States and Europe, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and many other important venues. Stuparević has performed as soloist with Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra (under Joseph Hodge), Razgrad Philharmonic (Krasen Ivanov), Symphony Orchestra of the Army House of Serbia (Simone Fermani), National Symphony of Bulgaria (Stanislav Usev), and Foot in the Door Ensemble (Glen Adsit).