Performers

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).

With a charismatic blend of technical flair, polish, and grace, Portuguese-Canadian clarinetist Wesley Ferreira is widely considered a gifted expressionist. Equally at ease performing masterworks and contemporary repertoire, he has been praised by critics for his “beautiful tone” and “technical prowess” (The Clarinet Journal) as well as his “remarkable sensitivity” (CAML Review), and Fanfare Magazine notes that he is “clearly a major talent.”

Laudon Schuett is a lutenist and early music specialist. He has been called “a masterful performer ...[and] a brilliant educator” (Classical Voice of North Carolina) with “immaculate articulation and sensitive phrasing” (Fanfare). In addition to performing and expanding the solo repertoire, he formed the lute song duo BEDLAM with Kayleen Sánchez. They have toured the U.S. and recorded two albums, BEDLAM, and Died for Love, both for Soundset Recordings. Schuett has a forthcoming book on the lute being published by Mel Bay, which includes many of his solo works. He studied with Paul O’Dette, Frank Koonce, and Chuck Hulihan. He holds a D.M.A. in Early Music from the Eastman School of Music.

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.

Founded in 2016, Duo Chinoiserie is a unique pairing that combines the Chinese guzheng and the European classical guitar. This duo reproduces the elegance of the Chinoiserie style and brings the best of Eastern and Western culture together through music. Its bold and carefully handpicked selection of repertoire explores the instruments’ dialogue and complementary textures while uniting contrasting musical styles into a cohesive, well-defined one.

The New London Chamber Ensemble is a wind quintet with a difference. For over two decades the NLCE has challenged traditional ideas of chamber music with their innovative programs combining classic repertoire with semi-staged works incorporating drama, speech, and action.

Praised for her “beautifully full and lyrically strong tone” by Gramophone Magazine, Meredith Blecha-Wells is a sought-after performer and instructor. She has played throughout much of the United States, as well as Europe, Australia, South America, and Asia. Currently based in Oklahoma City, Blecha-Wells performs regularly with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and the Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble.

The Croatian Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1988 and has since hosted more than 600 artists and premiered nearly 100 works by Croatian and foreign composers. The orchestra has collaborated with eminent maestros such as Nikolai Alexeev, Johannes Wildner, Enrico Dindo, Berislav Klobučar, Milan Horvat, Igor Gjadrov, Gleb Nikitin, Alan Buribaev, Uroš Lajovic, Daniel Bortolosy, Michał Dworzynski, Lawrence Rene, Nicholas Milton, Tibor Boganyi, Nikša Bareza, Saša Britvić, Vjekoslav Šutej, Ivan Repušić, Guido Mancusi, Michalis Economou, and others. Chief Conductors were Kazushi Ono, Pavle Dešpalj, Dian Tchobanov, and Miran Vaupotić.

Pianist Chuck Dillard is a multi-faceted and sought-after performer, educator, conductor, lecturer, producer, and arranger. Highlights from his 2020-2021 season include performing with Met Opera baritone Damien Geter, producing a virtual production of Menotti’s “The Old Maid and the Thief,” presenting a lecture — “Beyond the Pants Role” — for the College Music Society, and speaking at a Symposium on Transgender and Non-Binary Voice Pedagogy.

Dana Zenobi has earned national recognition as an interpreter of Art Song by women. She has also garnered operatic success in roles ranging from Mozart and Verdi to Mark Adamo and Philip Glass, appearing with Austin Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, The Living Opera, Opera in the Heights, line upon line percussion ensemble, and the Austin Civic Orchestra. Both her performing and her studio teaching have received accolades from The American Prize.

Baritone Oliver Worthington has received international and regional acclaim for performances as an opera singer, oratorio soloist, and recitalist with organizations like Indianapolis Opera, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, San Antonio Opera, San Antonio Symphony, Hill Country Lyric, Austin Opera, and Lone Star Lyric in roles ranging from Eisenstein to The Duke of Plaza Toro. A champion of living composers, he frequently premieres new works. Worthington is the Vocal Area Coordinator and the Producing Director of Butler Opera Theater at Butler University in Indianapolis.

A graduate of the University of Alberta (B.M., Piano) and The Juilliard School (M.M., D.M.A., Piano), Maria Thompson Corley has performed in venues like the Liszt Academy. Her solo and collaborative recordings are released by Naxos, Albany, MSR Classical, and others. Excerpts from her albums have been featured in films and television soundtracks, as well as on radio and digital platforms, nationally and internationally.

Maria Clark has been acclaimed for her virtuosic skills of expressive singing across the idioms of Opera, Oratorio, and Art Song, and has been critiqued as possessing “The Voice of An Angel.” One of the most important aspects of her vocal abilities is her superb control of a very large instrument, all the while presenting a beautiful, rich, and layered voice.

Elaine Greenfield is a widely acclaimed pianist, recognized internationally for her performances, recordings, and teaching, with a distinguished career as soloist/lecture recitalist, and collaborative artist. She has received rave reviews from The New York Times for performances at Carnegie, Merkin, and Steinway Halls; and nationally for performances at the Phillips Collection, Boston’s Gardner Museum; plus, university and community concert series coast to coast. She has been televised and broadcast over national and international radio, including the BBC, NPR, WGBH, WNYC, WAMC, WVPR, and KBAQ. Elaine was a founder of VT Contemporary Music Ensemble, and toured for two decades with Philadelphia flutist & NY Concert Artist Guild winner, Pamela Guidetti.

Dominick DiOrio (b. 1984) is a conductor and composer who has won widespread acclaim for his contributions to American music. He has been recognized with The American Prize in both Choral Composition (2014) and Choral Performance (2019, with NOTUS). Since 2012, he has been a member of the choral conducting faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he serves as Professor of Choral Conducting and leads the select, new-music chamber chorus NOTUS. DiOrio has conducted ensembles around the world, from the Houston Chamber Choir and Choral Arts Initiative in the United States to Allmänna Sången and Ars Veritas abroad. In July 2020, he became the 14th Artistic Director & Conductor of the Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia.

Violinist Audrey Wright is a multifaceted artist across solo and chamber music, as well as orchestral realms. She is Associate Concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Concertmaster of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, has performed across the globe in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, and the Vatican, and has soloed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony, and Cape Symphony Orchestra. With a passion for innovative programming and juxtaposing a wide range of musical styles, her repertoire spans the early 17th century to modern day and her performing experience includes the full spectrum of these musical styles, from period performance practice to the premiering of new and personally-commissioned works.

Gillian Zammit is a versatile soprano with a varied repertoire, who trained with Carlo Bergonzi and Victoria de los Angeles. Opera productions include The Turn of The Screw, Rigoletto, Die Zauberflote, and Orphée et Eurydice. She has performed with Joseph Calleja, Andrea Bocelli, Eugene Kohn, and Emma Kirkby among others.

Jonathan Rhodes Lee is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He studied harpsichord with Laurette Goldberg, Joscelyn Godwin, Davitt Moroney, and Jacques Ogg. He holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of California, Berkeley, and he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, Netherlands. Lee’s work as a musicologist focuses on 18th-century repertoires and film music, and his recordings can be heard on the MSR, Equilibrium, and Navona labels.

Chi Young Song (he/him/his), violinist and educator, has engaged with audiences throughout Asia, North America, and Europe. A passionate collaborator in both orchestral and chamber music, Chi Young is frequently invited to lead and perform with various ensembles and orchestras throughout the United States. As a recitalist, he is committed to putting into dialogue the works of marginalized and underrepresented composers within traditional repertoire.

Pianist HyeJin Kim has been described as “passionate, indisputably masterful technique with colorful interpretations,” (Der Westen) and is recognized as one of South Korea’s top artists with a comprehensive career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and educator. Born in Seoul, Kim trained at the prestigious Yewon Arts School and Seoul Arts High School, and received numerous awards at competitions including the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, DAAD Prize in Germany, Steinway & Sons Advancement Award Competition, and the Toronto International Piano Competition. Kim was the youngest prize winner of the 55th Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. Kim recently made her Carnegie Hall debut and has performed as a soloist with the Korean Chamber Orchestra, Westchester Philharmonic, San Bernardino Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic where Kim’s performance “had the utmost delicacy…. with a terrific flourish. She threw herself into music with grace and fortitude.” (The Buffalo News)