Artists

The Axiom Quartet is a dynamic professional ensemble based in Houston, TX. The group is known for creating and performing programs that mix traditional string quartet repertoire and transcriptions of works from a variety of genres (including jazz, electronic, rock, indie, etc.). By combining these genres, the quartet exposes classical music audiences to extraordinary music from different genres, and creates new fans of the classical repertoire.

Zephyr Quartet are Australia’s leading genre-defying explorers of dynamic cross-artform, music-focused collaborations. They are an award-winning string ensemble whose musicians compose, arrange, and improvise. This unique skill set, together with Zephyr’s open-minded approach, allows them to skillfully traverse musical worlds and gives them their own distinct voice.

Since the Benda Quartet began performing in 2012 they have achieved a wide variety of musical successes and established themselves among highly respected Czech ensembles. Their first significant landmark was the concert debut they performed at the 60th Jubilee of the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava in April 2014. The concert was recorded by Czech Radio and garnered a huge audience acclaim. Since then has the collaboration with the studio of Czech Radio continued on regular basis and resulted in a number of publicly appreciated recordings. The Benda Quartet have worked intensively together with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and artist management agency Janáčkův Máj on numerous chamber music and educational projects.

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.

Hailing from the island of Guernsey, Lydia Jane Pugh is an award-winning composer specialising in choral and chamber music, with much of her work being inspired by the islands’ history, culture, and beautiful landscapes. Her music’s universal appeal has led to performances around the world by several professional groups, including the Ebor Singers in the United Kingdom, and the Empire City Men’s Chorus in the United States.

Jim Puckett is a career Worship Pastor serving in Richardson, Texas. He is an adjunct professor for the Southern Nazarene University College of Professional and Graduate Studies, and an adjunct member of the music faculty at Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

Viennese born violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot has settled in Canada since 1987 where she now is full professor for viola and chamber music at the Université de Montréal since 1990. She is principal violist of the Laval Symphony Orchestra and has an exhaustive background in chamber music and solo playing, performing in various formations and at various international festivals. Jutta likes to tour the world via the International Viola Congresses, where she shares with passion her new discoveries of forgotten music written for the viola, mainly around the turn of the 20th century.

The works of Greek New Zealand composer John Psathas emerge from a truly dazzling 21st century backdrop, where dynamic collaboration with creative masters from all corners of the physical and artistic globe result in outcomes that are visionary, moving, and inspired.

The Opus Project is a chamber music initiative formed in 2020 in Montréal by Christophe Gauthier and Joanna Marsden. Inspired by the beauty of early musical prints and manuscript sources, the Opus Project explores unsung treasures of the baroque chamber music repertoire by focusing deeply on one collection at a time. 

Madison Choral Project seeks to enrich the lives of those in our community and beyond through the amazing power of humans singing together. Madison Choral Project has performed over 50 live concerts in Madison, Milwaukee, and beyond. They specialize in creating immersive and thoughtful concert experiences for each audience member through narrative story, art, text, lecture, and more. Nationally recognized for excellence, they won second place in the American Prize for Choral Music (Professional Division) in 2020.

Simon Proctor is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music where he gained the GRSM degree and LRAM diploma in piano performance and teaching. He won several prizes for composition, orchestration, and piano including the Eric Coates prize, the Academy’s top award for orchestral composition. As a pianist, he has given recitals in Germany, The Bahamas, and the United States and has appeared many times as a concerto soloist in the United Kingdom and America.

When honoring him with its Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters noted that “A rare economy of means and a strain of religious mysticism distinguish the music of James Primosch… Through articulate, transparent textures, he creates a wide range of musical emotion.”

Katherine Price (b. 1992, Indiana) is an American composer of choral music, orchestral music, and chamber music native to Indiana. Price began composing as a child, writing down her compositions at age 13. Drawing influences from the Anglican Choral Tradition, European early music, American folk music, Orthodox hymnody, and holy minimalism, her compositions reflect the styles of such composers as Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, and Knut Nystedt.

The deep humanitarian concerns that permeate much of Dr. Deon Nielsen Price’s music is represented in her duo War Ends-Song Endures, a tribute to the valiant spirit of Ukrainians, premiered in 2023 at the Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention in Texas by flutist Rik Noyce and commissioning pianist Mary Au. Named the "Tom Brady of Composers" (New York Times 12/24/2022), Price feels honored to represent octogenarian composers who are still professionally active. She was a Winner of The 2023 American Prize in orchestra for her Chamber Symphony as well as a finalist for The 2023 American Prize in vocal chamber music for her song cycle Ludwig’s Letter to Eternal Beloved, and, in opera/theater, for her chamber opera, Ammon and the King, Immigrant Speaks Truth to Power. Her Oratorio CHRISTUS was premiered and recorded in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in June 2023.

Eric Marshall Price was born November 8, 1944 in Philadelphia PA. He was raised in Abington PA, and graduated from Abington High School in June, 1962. Not exposed to classical music during his childhood and adolescent years, Price’s desire to compose did not begin until his early college years, when a roommate with a massive classical record collection introduced him to classical music. Also interested in a career in Psychology and Medicine, Price pursued classical composition as a side gig. He studied under Donald Rappoport at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia for a number of years. Price’s first major classical piece, which he called his Student Sonata, (Piano Sonata #1 in A minor) came around his 36th birthday.

John Dante Prevedini (b. 1987) is a composer, educator, and public speaker hailing from Connecticut and active throughout Southern New England. Drawing upon a variety of fields of knowledge (including linguistics, the fine arts, the physical sciences, religion, and philosophy), his work aims to examine unconventional facets of everyday life through a multidisciplinary lens.

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.

Richard Pressley (b. 1970) has enjoyed performances of his music at festivals and concerts in the United States, Europe, even Brazil and Australia, by such performers and ensembles as the JACK Quartet, the Minnesota Orchestra, Claire Edwardes, thingNY, Patrick Crossland, ensemble platypus, Richard Ratliff, the dissonArt ensemble, the Moran Quintet, the Definiens Project, and counter)induction, among others.

The Kühn Choir of Prague is one of the largest Czech choirs and has been part of the musical world for over 60 years. It devotes itself to the choral repertoire of all periods, and its activities include significant performances of contemporary music, performances of large vocal-instrumental works in collaboration with leading Czech orchestras and, last but not least, projects for the performance and recording of film music.

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.