Artists

Jason Huffman (b.1978) was born and raised just outside Minneapolis and has made Boston his home for over 20 years. Though not exposed to classical music at an early age, he was drawn to self-taught score study after performing a band arrangement of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in high school. From there emerged a fledgling series of solo works — mostly in concerto form — for various instruments and full orchestra as studies in writing, first for his own instrument, and then for more-and less-familiar ones (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, horn, violin, horn, clarinet, oboe).

Regina Harris Baiocchi is a composer, author, and poet. Her music has been performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Philharmonic, U.S. Army Band, American Guild of Organists, Chicago Brass, Gaudete Brass, and Milwaukee Brass quintets, Lincoln Trio, Avalon String Quartet, and other acclaimed artists. Baiocchi has written music for symphony orchestra, a mass, libretto, opera, marimba concerto, hand drum concerto, ballet, chamber ensembles, choral, jazz, gospel, solo: voice, flute, oboe d’amore, bass oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano, and pipe organ.

Danya Katok, originally from State College PA, is an exceptionally versatile vocalist whose repertoire ranges from the pure straight tone of plainchant to the lush soprano of the Romantic era and the exciting belt of musical theater. She has performed in many of the country's top concert halls, including all three stages at Carnegie Hall, the State Theater and David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Kennedy Center, and Symphony Hall. She made her New York City Opera debut as Max in Oliver Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are, a role for which she was praised by The New York Times as being “superb."

Dr. Jesse Guessford serves as Director of Curriculum Undergraduate Education and as Associate Professor in the School of Music at George Mason University. Guessford received a B.S. in Music Education from West Chester University, a M.M. in Music Composition from the Crane School of Music, and a D.M.A. in Music Composition from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Guessford has focused on the scholarship of teaching with and about technology and the music of John Cage. In addition, his music focuses on human and computer interplay.

Peter Drew passed through many lifetimes until he honed in on a career in music. As a teenager, he joined the high school orchestra but nothing came of it. He then bought a student clarinet, looked at it, blew a few notes and stuck it in a closet.

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.

Israeli-born composer and singer/songwriter Ayala Asherov started writing songs at age 16. After serving in the IDF as an entertainer, she briefly pursued an acting career in theater, film, and television. She soon realized her passion was music, and she pursued and completed studies at the Rimon School of Music in Tel Aviv, followed by the Berklee College of Music in Boston where she received her Bachelor of Music Summa Cum Laude in composition and film scoring in 1998. She went on to receive her Masters in film scoring at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2000. Asherov’s music ranges from songwriting to music in the concert hall, and to multimedia including film, museum exhibitions, and dance.

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.

Jan Van der Roost was born in Duffel, Belgium in 1956. He studied at the Lemmensinstituut and at the Royal Conservatories of Ghent and Antwerp, where he qualified as a conductor and a composer. Besides being a prolific composer, he also is very much in demand as an adjudicator, lecturer, clinician, and guest conductor: his musical activities took him to over 50 countries while his compositions have been performed/recorded around the world.

Brian Belet lives in northwestern Oregon with his partner and wife Marianne Bickett. His album SUFFICIENT TROUBLE, containing ten of his computer music compositions, was published by Ravello Records in 2017. Stellar Nebulae, for string orchestra, was published on the album PRISMA VOL. 4 by Navona Records in 2020, and his brass quintet Three by Five was published on the album BRASS TACKS, also by Navona Records, in 2022. Additional music is recorded on albums published by Capstone, Centaur, Frog Peak Music, IMG Media, Innova, New Ariel Recording, SWR Music/Hänssler Classic, and the University of Illinois labels, with research published in Contemporary Music Review, Organised Sound, Perspectives of New Music, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, and Proceedings of the International Web Audio Conference.

Dr. Mikhail “Misha” Galaganov is Professor of Viola and Chair of Strings at Texas Christian University (TCU). As a soloist and chamber musician he has premiered more than 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. He also premiered his own arrangement of the 12 Fantasies for Bass Viol by Georg Philipp Telemann on viola — the first live performance of all bass viola fantasies on viola in one concert. As Principal Viola of the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Galaganov has premiered several pieces written for a small symphony orchestra and for 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.

Eric Biddington was born in Timaru, New Zealand in 1953, and received his schooling in Timaru and Christchurch. Upon leaving school, he began part-time work as a laborer and studied at the University of Canterbury, although this was interrupted by illness in 1974. In 1979 he returned to study, laboring work, and musical composition and graduated with degrees in music, arts, and science. Despite suffering from schizophrenia and depression since his teenage years, Biddington has become a prolific and widely performed composer.

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.

Georges Raillard was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1957, where he completed his education, culminating in studying foreign languages at the University of Basel. From 1983 to 2001 he resided in Madrid, Spain, where he worked as a language teacher, translator, and writer. From 2001 to 2019 he worked as a writer, composer, translator, and archivist, mainly in Basel. Returning to Madrid in 2019, he has since been focusing on his artistic endeavors.

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).