Artists

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.

Praised by The New York Times for having "traversed the palette of emotions" with "gorgeous tone and an edge of-seat intensity" and described by Diario de Menorca as an "ideal performer" that offers "elegance, displayed virtuosity, and great expressive power," Spanish-born cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios has played as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. First Prize winner of numerous international competitions and awards, Casarrubios has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Piatigorsky, Ravinia, and Verbier Festivals.

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.

Brian Latchem is an English composer who was born in Bath and started to learn the piano at the age of 5. He comes from a musical family with both parents, grandparents, and great grandparents playing a variety of musical instruments. He trained to be a music teacher and started his career in Felixstowe, where he taught Music and Drama to pupils aged 11 to 14. In 1972 he moved to a new school to become responsible for music, teaching children from 5 to 11.

James Shrader is a composer, conductor, author, and retired academic administrator. He holds degrees from Bradley University (Music Education), The Cleveland Institute of Music (Opera Direction), and Texas Tech University (Fine Arts/Conducting). He was Director of Music and Fine Arts at The First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, Associate Director of Choral Activities at Texas Tech and Oklahoma State Universities, Chair of the Music Department and Director of Choral and Opera Studies at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, and Head of the Department of Music at Valdosta State University. He was Chorus Master for Tulsa Opera where he prepared nine productions.

A great artist can manifest answers to otherwise perplexing aspects of our world through their craft and help us find understanding. Composer, author, and long-time PARMA artist Michael G. Cunningham (1937-2022) was the embodiment of this truth, a prolific artist whose timeless body of work will resonate for years to come. From symphonies and other orchestral works to piano pieces, art songs, opera, choral compositions, and works for jazz ensembles spanning 11 Navona Records releases, Cunningham showed an unwavering dedication to sharing his music with the world. Upon receiving his doctorate from Indiana University, Cunningham embarked on an artistic journey that would lead him to write over 250 musical compositions spanning multiple genres, pedagogical music books, and more.

Kim Diehnelt (b. 1963) is compelled to create beauty through her work as a conductor, composer, and artistic coach. Trained in the United States and Europe, Kim Diehnelt established her musical crafts in Finland and Switzerland, leading Baltic, Russian, and European ensembles. Trained in the United States and Europe, Kim Diehnelt established her musical crafts in Finland and Switzerland, leading Baltic, Russian, and European ensembles. She currently resides in Burlington VT. Diehnelt has been composing works for solo instruments, chamber, orchestral and choral ensembles since 2011 when, after decades on the conductor’s podium, she “suddenly had something to say.”

Born in Hollywood CA on April 26, 1941, American classical composer John Mitchell has written works for solo piano and organ, choral music, chamber music, operas, and more than 400 art songs over the course of his life. Mitchell comes from an artistic family, his father being pianist John Stewart Mitchell, and Canadian novelist W. O. Mitchell and Hungarian-born singer Teresa Hideg Mitchell, his cousins. Mitchell studied composition under the guidance of Dr. John Vincent, the successor of Arnold Schoenberg as professor of composition at the University of California, Los Angeles until 1965. From there, he went on to work as a church music director, organist, opera coach, and composer, all of which he continues.

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.

Daniel (Dan) Powers found his way into music by way of an early love of newspaper comic strips. When he noticed that a character in a highly popular strip kept mentioning someone named Beethoven, he had to ask his parents who Beethoven was. After correcting his pronunciation, they explained who Beethoven was and what he did, and for some reason he decided he wanted to do that too.

David R. Peoples writes with a ginger ale in hand on a balcony surrounded by forest. It’s from Flowery Branch GA, surrounded by nature, that all his compositions begin before being released into and around the world. Peoples enjoys sharing his own and other composers’ new music in recitals. From April 2021 to May 2022, he presented recitals featuring over 100 composers in all 50 states through the National Association of Composers, Music Teachers National Association, Research on Contemporary Composition Conference, and Electrophonic Concerts.

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.

Paul Kopetz is an award-winning composer and a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, conductor, and teacher. He is a graduate of The University of Melbourne, The Victorian College of the Arts, The Rotterdam Conservatorium, and Monash University. His works have been performed in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Kopetz’s music has been described as “a highly emotive and colorful mix of polystylistic soundscapes where Contemporary Classical forms provide a flexible springboard for personal journeys of reflection, social commentary, explorations of the natural world and above all artistic integrity.”

Gary Smart’s career has encompassed a wide range of activities as composer, classical and jazz pianist, and teacher. Always a musician with varied interests, he may be the only pianist to have studied with Yale scholar/keyboardist Ralph Kirkpatrick, the great Cuban virtuoso Jorge Bolet, and the master jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. A true American pluralist, Smart composes and improvises music that reflects an abiding interest in Americana, jazz, and world music, as well as the Western classical tradition.

Ahmed Alabaca is an African American composer, conductor, songwriter, pianist, and community facilitator creating power and possibility, through music, for himself and the diverse communities he is a part of. Raised in San Bernardino CA, in a low-income community, Alabaca knows the value of hard work and perseverance in the face of systemic and interpersonal challenges. Alabaca’s vision is “a new renaissance” for underrepresented composers, which centers on the works of people of color and creates opportunities for them to perform, record, and archive their work.

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. 

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.