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Julia Adolphe

COMPOSER

Adolphe’s music is described as “alive with invention” (The New Yorker), “colorful, mercurial, deftly orchestrated” (The New York Times) displaying “a remarkable gift for sustaining a compelling musical narrative” (Musical America). Her works are performed across the U.S. and abroad by renowned orchestras and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Verona Quartet, soprano Hila Plitmann, and pianist Gloria Cheng, among others.

Current commissions include an orchestral work for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a violin concerto for the LA Philharmonic featuring concertmaster Martin Chalifour. Adolphe’s comic opera for all ages, A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears, based on the novel by Jules Feiffer with libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann, received initial workshops directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer at National Sawdust and Boston Court Pasadena in 2019. Her awards include a 2017 ASCAP Young Composer Award, a 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, a 2016 OPERA America Discovery Grant, and a 2015 Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters.

Adolphe’s orchestral work, Underneath the Sheen, commissioned by the LA Philharmonic for their centennial season opening night gala, was hailed as “majestic, filled with grandeur as well as intimacy” (Alta Magazine). In 2019, the New York Philharmonic and Decca Gold released their recording of Adolphe’s Unearth, Release, a viola concerto commissioned for Cynthia Phelps. Conducted by Jaap Van Zweden, Unearth, Release was called “a significant new work…a poetically haunting meditation” (Musical America) concluding with “a bold choice…[where] the viola floats mystical lines above the tremulous, shimmering orchestra” (The New York Times). A native New Yorker living in Nashville, Adolphe holds a Masters of Music degree in music composition from the USC Thornton School of Music and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University.

Learn more about Julia at juliaadolphe.com

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Sarah Kirkland Snider

COMPOSER

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression and vivid narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), “groundbreaking” (The Boston Globe), and “poignant, deeply personal” (The New Yorker). Recently named one of the “Top 35 Female Composers in Classical Music” by The Washington Post, Snider’s works have been commissioned and/or performed by the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Royal Ballet, eighth blackbird, The Knights, Roomful of Teeth, percussionist Colin Currie, mezzo Emily D’Angelo, vocalist Shara Nova, and tenor Nicholas Phan, among others.

The winner of the 2014 Detroit Symphony Orchestra Lebenbom Competition, her upcoming projects include the world premiere of Forward Into Light, an orchestral commission inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement for the New York Philharmonic, and an opera on 12th-century visionary/composer/polymath Hildegard von Bingen, commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects. Penelope and Unremembered, her first two LP song cycles, earned critical acclaim from NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and Pitchfork, among others. In fall 2020, Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam Records released Snider’s third LP: Mass for the Endangered, a 2018 work for chorus and ensemble performed by English vocal ensemble Gallicantus, to wide critical acclaim. In naming the album to its Best of 2020 list, NPR proclaimed: “Snider must be recognized as one of today's most compelling composers for the human voice."

A founding co-Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based New Amsterdam Records, Snider has a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a M.A. and Artist’s Diploma from the Yale School of Music. Her music is published by G. Schirmer, Inc.

Learn more about Sarah at sarahkirklandsnider.com

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Allison Walsh

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY PERFORMER

A bicultural and multi-disciplinary performer, Allison Walsh (she/her) started her career in dance then expanded to Broadway, TV/film and performance art. Her first decade in concert dance began with American Ballet Theater's Romeo and Juliet while in high school. Dancing at the Joffrey Ballet as a soloist, some of her favorite performances included The Chosen One in The Rite of Spring, Bianca in Lubovitch's Othello, and Balanchine's Tarentella, among many others. While at BalletX her contemporary work was recognized in Pointe Magazine for a Standout Performance. Next transitioning to musical theater, she found her voice starring as Lise Dassin in the First National Tour of Christopher Wheeldon's An American in Paris, as well as in the Original Broadway Cast. Other credits include originating the role of Odette/Olga Romanov in Aherns and Flaherty’s Anastasia, being featured as a company member in all episodes of the Starz Limited Series “Flesh and Bone,” and recording two Broadway cast albums. She has performed at the White House, Tony Awards, Whitney Biennial, and Guggenheim Museum. In 2023 she will graduate from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies. Allison lives in Brooklyn and loves to eat dim sum with her family.

Learn more about Allison at allison-walsh.com

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Michael Stephen Brown

PIANIST-COMPOSER

Michael Stephen Brown has been described as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers” (New York Times). Winner of a 2018 Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, he is an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and an alum of CMS's Bowers Program. He makes regular appearances with orchestras such as the National Philharmonic, the Seattle, Grand Rapids, North Carolina, and Albany symphonies, and was selected by pianist András Schiff to perform an international solo recital tour, making debuts in Zurich’s Tonhalle and New York’s 92nd Street Y.

This season he opens the season at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center with Bach and Mendelssohn concertos and makes European recital debuts at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn and the Chopin Museum in Majorca. He has appeared at the Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, Marlboro, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Tippet Rise, Gilmore, Bridgehampton, and Bard music festivals and performs regularly with his longtime duo partner, cellist Nicholas Canellakis. His Piano Concerto (2020) was co-commissioned by the Gilmore Piano Festival and the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra in Poland and was premiered by the Kalamazoo Symphony with Brown as soloist. He was the composer and artist-in-residence at the New Haven Symphony for the 2017–19 seasons and a 2018 Copland House Award winner. He is the First Prize winner of the Concert Artists Guild competition and earned degrees in piano and composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied with pianists Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald and composer Samuel Adler.

A native New Yorker, he lives there with his two 19th-century Steinway D’s, Octavia and Daria. He will not reveal which is his favorite, so as not to incite jealousy. In his spare time, he learns Italian, carves stumps into coffee tables, and plays a lot of Mendelssohn.

Learn more about Michael at michaelbrownmusic.com

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Annie Nikunen

MULTI-DISCIPLINARY ARTIST

NYC-based composer, flutist, dancer and choreographer Annie Nikunen merges sound, physicality, and space. Annie’s work spans mediums including concert, film, installation and Live Art. Her performing has encompassed experimental, classical, theater, indie rock, jazz, Baroque and Taizé. Trained in ballet, she expanded into modern and contact improvisation, crafting a movement language focused on universality, emotion and ephemeral installation. As former Business Manager, Classical Head and DJ at WKCR, she curated acclaimed programs synthesizing music and dance. Annie has performed and had work presented in spaces including Helsinki Music Centre, Tanglewood, Roulette, Judson Church, The Clark, HighLineNine/Chelsea Music Festival, and the Smithsonian. She is the flutist and Marketing Director of Blackbox Ensemble, and former Resident Composer/Choreographer of Periapsis Music & Dance. A 2023 Tanglewood Composition Fellow, Annie holds degrees from NYU and Barnard College, Columbia University.

Learn more about Annie at annienikunen.com

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Chryssie Whitehead

DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER

"Broadway: A Chorus Line (Kristine), Chicago (Kitty,US Velma performed)
NY Theatre: Company (Kathy with Neal Patrick Harris as Bobby, Lincoln Center), The Radio City Rockettes. Film: West Side Story, Revenge of the Bridesmaids with Raven Simone, Every Little Step, Save the Last Dance (Julia Stile's Dance Double). TV: Greys Anatomy, Castle, The Mentalist, Warehouse 13, Private Practice, Switched at Birth, The Tony's. Tours: The Producers (1st National), Paul McCartney's ""Driving Rain"", Fosse (1st National). Co-founder of www.BroadwayArtsCommunity.com as a mentor and coach to performing artists, teens to pros. Author & artist of an autobiographical play with music, normalizing conversations around mental health, ""In My Own Little Corner, My Work in Progress with Bipolar Disorder.

Learn more about Annie at chryssiewhitehead.com