Additional Bios

David LaMarche has been working as a conductor in the dance field for over thirty-seven years. He served as Music Director for the Dance Theatre of Harlem from 1993 to 1998, conducted many of the company’s premieres, and composed and arranged several scores for their permanent repertory. As a guest, he has conducted for New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, The Jose Limon Company, The Paul Taylor Dance Company, L’Opera di Roma, Het National Ballet, Les Grand Ballets Canadiens, Ballet British Columbia and Ballet West. 

The orchestras he has directed include the Houston Symphony, the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, the Pacific Symphony, St. Luke’s Orchestra, the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Moscow Radio Orchestra, the Tivoli Festival Orchestra and the Orchestre Lamoreux of Paris.

He has been on the staff of American Ballet Theatre since 1998 and is Music Director of the Jose Limón Company. As a writer, he is a regular contributor to New York Concert Review and Ballet News. He is a graduate of Boston University and resides in New York City.

Tara Simoncic has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies such as the American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Ballet West where she served as Music Director from 2015-2018. Last season, she made guest conducting appearances with American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company. Ballet Estable at Teatro Colón, and the Cincinnati Ballet. Ms. Simoncic has also conducted the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Bridge Musik Chamber Orchestra, and Camerata Nova at the Manhattan School of Music. Most recently in 2023, she stepped in at the last minute to replace Andrew Litton for the New York City Ballet’s world premiere of Standard Deviation, composed by Jack Frerer and choreographed by Alysa Pires. Ms. Simoncic is Music Director of the Louisville Ballet and the Flexible Orchestra. She holds a Bachelor of Music in trumpet performance from New England Conservatory, a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University, and a Professional Studies Certificate in conducting from Manhattan School of Music. She studied conducting with Victor Yampolsky, Iloh Yang, Zdenec Macal and George Hurst.

William Catanzaro is an eclectic composer and multi-instrumentalist based in New York. His style is an amalgam of sources where classic meets contemporary, jazz and world music. 

Born in Buenos Aires Mr Catanzaro arrived to NY in 1989 establishing himself as a world-class pianist and percussionist. His expertise as a performer and composer led him to write scores for many renowned choreographers such as Anna Sokolow, Steve Paxton, Viola Farber, Motoko Hirayama, Sara Rudner, Milton Myers, and Larry Keigwin. His work has been presented nationally and internationally with The Paul Taylor Dance Company, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New Danish Dance Theater, TanzFabrik Berlin, Amsterdam Theatreschool, Cyprus Festival, Irish Modern Dance Theater, Architanz Tokyo, Kyoto Arts Center, Teatro San Martin Buenos Aires, Institute for Contemporary Art Boston, Philadanco, Player’s Project, Pom Dance Paris, Kennedy Center, Dallas Black Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center, and more.

Michael Daugherty has achieved international recognition as one of the ten most performed American composers of concert music, according to the League of American Orchestras. His orchestral music, recorded by Naxos over the last two decades, has received six GRAMMY Awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2011 for Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra and in 2017 for Tales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra. Current commissions for 2020 include new orchestral works for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Omaha Symphony and a concerto for violinist Anne Akiko Meyers who will give the world premiere with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in 2021. 

Michael Daugherty was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1954 and is the son of a dance band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. As a young man, Daugherty studied composition with many of the preeminent composers of the 20th century, including Pierre Boulez at IRCAM in Paris (1979), Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Bernard Rands and Roger Reynolds at Yale (1980-82), and György Ligeti in Hamburg (1982-84). Daugherty was also an assistant to jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York from 1980-82. In 1991, Daugherty joined the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance as Professor of Composition, where he is a mentor to many of today’s most talented young composers. He is also a frequent guest of professional orchestras, festivals, universities, and conservatories worldwide.

Kevin Puts is the winner of numerous prestigious awards, including the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for his debut opera Silent Night. His works have been commissioned, performed, and recorded by leading ensembles, and soloists throughout the world, including Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Jeffrey Kahane, Dame Evelyn Glennie, the New York Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Orchester (Zurich), the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Miro Quartet, and the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit, Atlanta, Colorado, Houston, Fort Worth, St. Louis, and Minnesota.

His orchestral work, The City, was co-commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in honor of its 100th anniversary and by Carnegie Hall in honor of its 125th anniversary. His vocal work Letters From Georgia, written for soprano Renée Fleming and orchestra and based on the personal letters of Georgia O’Keeffe, had its world premiere in New York in the fall of 2016. His first chamber opera, an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd’s gothic novel The Trial of Elizabeth Cree, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia, premiered in September 2017, and was followed by performances with Chicago Opera Theater in February 2018. His opera, The Hours, based on Michael Cunningham’s novel, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 2022, starring Renée Fleming as Clarissa, Kelli O’Hara as Laura and Joyce DiDonato as Virginia Woolf. Kevin is currently a member of the composition department at the Peabody Institute and the Director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer’s Institute.

Mikel Rouse is a New York-based composer, director, performer, and recording artist hailed as “a composer many believe to be the best of his generation.” (New  York Times) His works include 37 records, 7 films, and a trilogy of media operas: Failing Kansas, Dennis Cleveland, and The End Of Cinematics. His work has frequently appeared on Top Ten lists around the country. 

In 1995, he premiered and directed the first opera in his trilogy: Failing Kansas, inspired by Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. This led to an emerging art form he calls “counterpoetry,” which involves the use of multiple unpitched voices in counterpoint. In 1996 he premiered and directed the modern talk show opera Dennis Cleveland, hailed by The Village Voice as “the most exciting and innovative new opera since Einstein on the Beach“. The third opera in his trilogy, The End Of Cinematics, was presented at the BAM Next Wave Festival in 2006. 

An innovator in arts technology, he was the first Visiting Research Artist at the Center for Super Computing Applications in Urbana Il. Music for The Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s eyeSpace premiered in NYC in October 2006. The piece was scored for multiple iPods set to “shuffle” so that each audience member had a different realization of the score. The music for the piece, International Cloud Atlas, was released on iTunes and was available for download prior to the premiere. 

Recent premieres include the song cycle Gravity Radio at BAM’s next Wave Festival (2010) and The Demo, a techno opera based on Douglas Engelbart’s landmark 1968 computer demo, at Stanford Live, CA (2015). In 2016 he released Metronome-Take Down hailed by Pitchfork as “Slippery like Radiohead’s “Daydreaming”—and as chaotically clattering as work by Oneohtrix Point Never—it reestablishes Rouse’s brilliance.” He is currently working on the 13-hour music installation piece One Boy’s Day, based on a 1940’s behavioral study. In spring 2024, Rouse will release the album Language Barrier. Also, in spring 2024, University of Illinois Press will publish Rouse’s memoir: The World Got Away. An excerpt from this memoir, which discusses Quorum, the music for Ulysses Dove’s Vespers, can be found here: mikelrouse.com/the-world-got-away. More information at www.mikelrouse.com.

Jennifer Tipton is well known for her lighting for theater, opera, and dance. Her recent work in theater includes To Kill A Mockingbird for Broadway, Beckett’s First Love for Zoom and all of Richard Nelson’s Rhinebeck plays. Her recent work in opera includes Ricky Ian Gordon’s Intimate Apparel with libretto by Lynn Nottage, based on her play by the same name, at the Lincoln Center Mitzi Newhouse Theater; her recent work in dance includes Lauren Lovette’s Pentimento for the Paul Taylor Company and Balanchine’s Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Paris Opera Ballet. Among many awards she has received the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2001, the Jerome Robbins Prize in 2003, and in 2008 she was awarded the USA “Gracie” Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. She has lit for the Paul Taylor Dance Company since her beginnings.

James F. Ingalls has designed the lighting for Paul Taylor’s Brief Encounters, To Make Crops Grow, Perpetual Dawn, Marathon Cadenzas, Sea Lark, Death and the Damsel, Sullivaniana, Dilly Dilly, Ports of Call and The Open Door. For PTAMD he has designed Doug Elkin’s The Weight of Smoke and Lila York’s Continuum. Recent designs for dance include Giselle for the Finnish National Ballet, The Nutcracker for Miami City Ballet and Twyla Tharp’s 50th Anniversary Tour. His work for Mark Morris Dance Group includes Layla and Majnun, The Hard Nut, Mozart Dances, Dido and Aeneas, and L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato. His designs for opera include the world premieres of John Adams’s Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, El Niño, Doctor Atomic, A Flowering Tree, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, and the world premieres of Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin, Adriana Mater, La Passion de Simone, and Only the Sound Remains. For the Druid company in Galway he has designed Sive, King of the Castle, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Waiting For Godot and DruidShakespeare, all directed by Garry Hyndes. He often collaborates with the Wooden Floor Dancers in Santa Ana, California.

Alex Katz was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens, and studied at Cooper Union and The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In the early 1960s, influenced by films, television, and billboard advertising, he began painting large-scale works, often with dramatically cropped faces. In the years following, he began alternating these with large-scale environmental landscapes. His paintings have been the subject of more than 200 solo exhibitions, including museum exhibitions in New York, London, Paris, Vienna, Seoul, and Madrid.

Katz began designing sets and costumes for choreographer Paul Taylor in the early 1960’s, and has collaborated on the productions of Meridian; Scudorama; Private Domain; Sunset; Lost, Found and Lost; and Last Look, among others.

Santo Loquasto is known as a designer for theater, film, dance, and opera. His work in New York theater won him Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his set design of Café Crown in 1989, and his costume design for The Cherry Orchard in 1977 and Grand Hotel in 1990, and an additional 15 Tony nominations. He has collaborated with Woody Allen on 30 films. He received Academy Award nominations for production design for Radio Days and Bullets Over Broadway and for costume design for Zelig. Mr. Loquasto has worked with most major international dance companies and has collaborated with Mark Morris, Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, Helgi Thomasson, Agnes de Mille, James Kudelka, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Dana Reitz, Lila York, Alexei Ratmansky and Twyla Tharp. For the Taylor Company, he has designed costumes and/or sets for 52 of Mr. Taylor’s works. Recent New York designs include Fences, The Assembled Parties, Bullets Over Broadway, A Delicate Balance, and Shuffle Along. He received the Merritt Award for Excellence in Design and Collaboration in 2002, was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2004, and received the Pennsylvania Governor’s Award for the Arts in 2006, the Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2007, and the Breukelein Institute Gaudium Awards 2013.

William Ivey Long has designed for Paul Taylor The Open Door, Equinox, Byzantium, Roses, Kith and Kin, and Danbury Mix. Highlights from his Broadway career of over 70 shows include Chicago, now in its 22nd year; The Prince of Broadway, A Bronx Tale, The Musical, On the Twentieth Century; Cabaret (2014 and 1998), Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Grey Gardens; The Producers; The Boy from Oz; Hairspray; Crazy for You; Guys and Dolls; Nine. Recent television work includes A Christmas Story, Live!, Grease, Live!, and the re-imagination of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. William has been nominated for 15 Tony Awards, winning 6 times. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2005, and recently completed a 4 year elected term as Chairman of The American Theatre Wing. www.williamiveylong.com

Vanessa Williams is one of the most respected and multi-faceted performers in the entertainment industry today.  Having sold millions of records worldwide, Vanessa has also achieved numerous #1 and Top 10 hits on various Billboard Album and Singles charts, from Pop, Dance, R&B, Adult Contemporary to Holiday, Latin, Gospel and Jazz.

Her discography includes such releases as her debut album, The Right Stuff, The Comfort Zone, The Sweetest Days, Next, Greatest Hits: The First Ten Years, Everlasting Love and The Real Thing.  Her holiday albums, Star Bright and Silver & Gold became instant holiday classics.  Her numerous hit singles include “Save the Best For Last,” “Dreamin’,” “The Right Stuff,” “Work to Do” “Oh How the Years Go By” and “Love Is,” among many others.

Her critically-acclaimed work in film, television, recordings and the Broadway stage has been recognized by every major industry award affiliate including 4 Emmy nominations, 11 Grammy nominations, a Tony nomination, 3 SAG award nominations, 7 NAACP Image Awards and 3 Satellite Awards. Her Platinum single “Colors of the Wind,” from Disney’s “Pocahontas,” won the Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

A graduate of Syracuse University, Vanessa is a strong advocate for equal rights, especially concerning the gay community and minorities. She was honored with the Human Rights Campaign Ally for Equality Award for her humanitarian contributions. Vanessa also achieved a career pinnacle with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. Vanessa’s autobiography, You Have No Idea, co-written with her mother Helen Williams, was a New York Times Best Seller in 2012.

In 2020, Vanessa released Bubble Kisses, her first picture book for children, which tells the story of a young girl with the ability to transform into a mermaid. This effervescent, lively tale is based on a song which is also available with the book and as a download.  Bubble Kisses was honored with The American Book Fest Award, The National Indie Excellence Award and The International Book Award in the Category of Best Children’s Picture Book – Hardcover Fiction.

Vanessa recently starred in the World Premiere of Selina Fillinger’s new Broadway comedy, “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive,” directed by Tony Award-winner Susan Stroman with an all-female cast featuring Lilli Cooper, Lea DeLaria, Rachel Dratch, Julianne Hough, Suzy Nakamura and Julie White.  Her Broadway credits include “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “St. Louis Woman,” “Into the Woods,” “Sondheim on Sondheim” and “After Midnight.”

She co-starred with Cicely Tyson in The Trip to Bountiful, (the #1 play of the 2013 season) and headlined a special limited engagement of Hey, Look Me Over at New York City Center in 2018. She starred in the revival of City of Angels in London’s The West End and a special performance of Stephen Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle at Carnegie Hall.

Her many film credits include “Eraser,” “Soul Food,” “Shaft,” “Dance With Me,” “Hoodlum,” “Light It Up” and “Johnson Family Vacation.”  On television, she starred in ABC’s global hit series “Ugly Betty” and “Desperate Housewives,” as well as “Daytime Divas,” “666 Park Avenue” and such television movies and miniseries as “Bye Bye Birdie” and “The Odyssey.”

In 2021, Vanessa joined the star-studded panel of judges for RuPaul’s Paramount+ competition series, “Queen of the Universe,” along with Michelle Visage, Trixie Mattel and Leona Lewis.  Hosted by Graham Norton and produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and World of Wonder, the series will return for a second season with Melanie Brown (Spice Girls’ Mel B) joining the celebrity judging panel.

Vanessa is the mother of four – Melanie, Jillian, Devin and Sasha. Her charitable endeavors are many and varied, embracing and supporting such organizations as Black Theatre United, The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, Special Olympics, Broadway Cares-Equity Fights AIDS and several others.

Vanessa is a successful entrepreneur and one of the world’s most accomplished concert artists, appearing regularly on the concert and cabaret stage and performing with the most prestigious symphony orchestras in the world.

Grammy and Emmy-winning ensemble TIME FOR THREE defies conventions with their genre-bending excellence. Spanning classical music, Americana, and singer-songwriter styles, their captivating sound merges eras, styles, and traditions. Comprising Charles Yang, Nicolas Kendall, and Ranaan Meyer, TF3’s remarkable blend of instruments and voices resonates with listeners globally. Collaborating with contemporary classical composers like Chris Brubeck and Pulitzer Prize winners William Bolcom and Jennifer Higdon, TF3’s recent commission, Contact, premiered with the San Francisco Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra. Their album, Letters for the Future, conducted by Xian Zhang, reached the Billboard top 10 and won a Grammy. With charismatic performances on renowned stages, TF3’s versatility shines through collaborations with artists like Ben Folds and Arlo Guthrie. Their achievements, including an Emmy and collaborations with acclaimed artists, showcase TF3’s unwavering dedication to pushing creative boundaries and captivating audiences worldwide.

Zac Posen is an internationally acclaimed fashion designer and cookbook author who appeared as a judge on six seasons of the Emmy-nominated Project Runway. He has been bestowed prestigious memberships, most notably with the Chambre Syndicale, and received awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) among others. The documentary, House of Z, chronicling Posen’s career, premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival to critical acclaim. A consummate natural speaker, Zac has engaged with countless institutions on topics ranging from food, fashion, and tech. Having the utmost respect for aspiring designers, he has enjoyed speaking at educational institutions such as Harvard, Wharton, NYU, RISD, SCAD, and many others. 

Posen launched his eponymous collection in 2001 with a vision for modern American glamour that married couture technique with striking innovation. Zac is known globally for his technique in artisanal craftsmanship, anatomical construction, and textile manipulation. Over the years, his designs have been worn by leading women, including Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman, Oprah, First Lady Michelle Obama, Gwyneth Paltrow, Naomi Watts, Claire Danes, and Rihanna. Posen served as a costume designer on The Outfit, a gripping and masterful thriller from the Academy Award-winning writer of The Imitation Game. He both appeared in Warner Bros’ Ocean’s 8 and designed exclusive pieces for the film, as well as for the blockbusters Sex and the City 1 and 2.

 In addition to being a designer, Zac is an expert in business and entertainment on a global scale. Having a deep understanding of venture capital in the landscape of fashion in conjunction with his coveted skills as a creator and performer, his insight is invaluable – his experience vast. Posen, a lover of food and an inventive chef, gained an enormous following on Instagram where he showcases his cooking with the hashtag, #cookingwithzac, which led him to create his first cookbook, Cooking With Zac. His recipes have been featured in Food & Wine, Vogue.com, On the Table with Eric Ripert, Good Morning America, The Martha Stewart Show, and The Chew. Along with his consistent support of St. Jude’s, the LGBTQIA community, and City Harvest, among others, Zac Posen is also an Ambassador for The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and CARE.

Alfred Dove a native of Columbia, South Carolina, graduated cum laude from Howard University with a BFA in Acting, and a MFA Dance from the University of California, Irvine. Since 1996, he has directed The Dove Art Programs, Inc., and his brother, Ulysses Dove’s, 26 ballet estate, serving as the estate’s Administrator. As Administrator, he has worked with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Deeply Rooted Dance Theatre, Collage Dance Collective, Ballet West, BalletMet Columbus, Contemporary West Dance Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Dallas Black Dance Theatre. He teaches the following Performance Arts courses: Acting, Dance, Musical Theatre movement, and choreography. Staging productions for colleges and universities such as: University of California at Irvine, Howard University, The Ohio State University, Columbus State Community College, Arizona University, Oklahoma University, Wittenberg University, Denison University, Northern Kentucky University, George Washington University, The University of Utah, The University of South Florida, and University Arts Philadelphia. Collaborating with BalletMet, Columbus Area, Inc., and served as the Regional-Director of The Original Chocolate Nutcracker (TOCN). TOCN is an educational program servicing over 2,400 youth and adult performers in the Columbus area for over 10 years. As an Artist-in-Residence, he has directed The House of the Blues, Black Nativity, Goin’ Home; Ain’t Nothing But the Blues; Wedding Band, Beehive; The Wiz, and Harvest the Frost. He’s also directed, choreographed, and starred in the PBS Square One special “Think about the Problem. He’s choreographed for Denison University, Copenhagen Ballet in Denmark, and the New Talent Showcase Northeastern Ohio Dance Conference at Cuyahoga Community College. Dove’s twenty-five-year career includes Broadway national, and international touring productions of Walter Nicks’ Dancers “Paris” France; Louis Johnson and Eleo Pomare’s The Negro Ensemble Black Dance Classics NYC, Raisin, The Musical; Geoffrey Holder’s The Wiz; Donald McKayle’s Purlie, Sweet Charity, Emperor Jones; and Judith Jamison’s Philadelphia Opera Mefistofele. His motto “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” Dove finds satisfaction working with in-school/at-risk and/or incarcerated youth programs.

MAYA GUNJI (Percussion) received her BM and MM from the Juilliard School, and has performed with many of New York’s leading ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, the New York City Ballet Orchestra. 

Maya has also performed as a guest artist with the Berlin Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Mariisnky Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. She is a member of the Orchestra of St Luke’s, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and was the timpanist for the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, from 1992-2006. She has performed on Broadway in productions of The Threepenny Opera, Man of La Mancha, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, and Mary Poppins.

MARGARET KAMPMEIER (Pianist) enjoys a varied career as soloist, collaborative artist, and educator. Equally fluent in classical and contemporary repertoire, she has concertized and recorded extensively. She has performed with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic Ensembles, Kronos Quartet, New Millennium Ensemble, Saratoga Chamber Players, and Mirror Visions Ensemble. As a recording artist, Ms. Kampmeier can be heard on the Albany, Centaur, CRI, Koch, Nonesuch, and Bridge labels. She teaches piano and chamber music at Princeton University, serves as Chair of the Contemporary Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music, and directs the Contemporary Performance Institute at the annual Composers Conference. She attended the Eastman School of Music and SUNY Stony Brook, and is most grateful to her mentors, Barry Snyder, Gilbert Kalish, Julius Levine, and Jan DeGaetani. A native of Rochester, NY, Ms. Kampmeier resides in New York City.

JULIEN LABRO (Bandoneón) has established himself as one of the foremost accordion and bandoneón players in both the classical and jazz genres. Deemed to be “a triple threat: brilliant technician, poetic melodist and cunning arranger,” his artistry, virtuosity, and creativity as a musician, composer, and arranger have earned him international acclaim and continue to astonish audiences worldwide. 

French-born Labro was influenced early on by traditional folk music and the melodic, lyrical quality of the French chanson. Upon discovering the music of jazz legends, he quickly became inspired by the originality, freedom, creativity, and endless possibilities in their musical language. After graduating from the Marseille Conservatory of Music, Labro began winning international awards, including the Coupe Mondiale, the Castelfidardo Competitions, and many others. In 1998, Labro moved to the United States, where he further pursued his musical dream. Equipped with advanced degrees in classical music, jazz studies, and composition, Labro draws from his diverse academic background and eclectic musical influences as he searches for new themes and untried concepts, transforming and developing his creative ideas into new projects. 

Julien’s musical journey has taken him all across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. His classical collaborations include A Far Cry, Spektral Quartet, Arneis Quartet, Takács Quartet, Ensemble Vivant of Toronto, Curtis On Tour from the Curtis Institute of Music faculty of Philadelphia, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St Luke’s, New World Symphony, the Hartford Symphony, the Arkansas Symphony, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York City Ballet, and many more. Julien has written for numerous ensembles, from quartets to full symphony orchestras. In the summer of 2021, Labro premiered his orchestral work “The Django Fantasy” at the Berks Jazz Festival. He has premiered works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun, Bryce Dessner, Angélica Negrón, Clarice Assad, Ethan Iverson, and Avner Dorman. Julien has collaborated with Cassandra Wilson, Maria Schneider, Anat Cohen, João Donato, Marcel Khalife, Paquito D’Rivera, Pablo Ziegler, Uri Caine, Miguel Zenón, James Carter, John Clayton, guitarists Larry Coryell, Tommy Emmanuel, and John and Bucky Pizzarelli.

 In his free time, Labro is composing a new bandoneón concerto that will be a sequel to his accordion concerto Apricity. To learn more about Labro, visit http://julienlabro.com.

BLAIR McMILLEN (Pianist) Hailed by The New York Times as “prodigiously accomplished and exciting” and as one of the piano’s “brilliant stars,” leads a musical life unbounded by convention. He is known for his advocacy of living composers and contemporary music, as well as for championing very early keyboard music and more recently neglected masterpieces. For over two decades he has divided his time as soloist, ensemble leader, music festival director, and educator. He has performed in major concert venues throughout New York City, the United States, and around the world. He has played frequently with the Knights, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the New York Philharmonic, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and jazz legends Fred Hersch and Don Byron. He is a member of several ensembles, including American Modern Ensemble, the six-piano “supergroup” Grand Band, and Perspectives Ensemble, among others. For 11 years, McMillen was pianist for the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players. His first solo CD Soundings was released to critical acclaim in 2000. Since then, Blair McMillen has been featured on dozens of commercially-released solo and ensemble recordings, spanning numerous musical genres. A recent album of contemporary American two-piano music with Stephen Gosling, “Powerhouse Pianists II,” was declared “one of the finest piano recordings of the year” by NPR. McMillen is the co-founder and co-director of the Rite of Summer Music Festival, an outdoor contemporary and world-music series in New York. Recently celebrating its tenth anniversary, Rite of Summer is the only annual music festival on Governors Island, a place the New Yorker has called “an enormous playground for the arts.” Blair McMIllen holds degrees from Oberlin College, The Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music. At Juilliard, he was principal soloist on a tour of Japan with the Juilliard Orchestra. While there, he also won the Juilliard Gina Bachauer Competition and the Sony “Elevated Standards” Career Grant. Having taught at Bard College and Conservatory since 2005, McMillen also serves on the piano faculty at Mannes at the New School in New York City. He is grateful for the many teachers who have inspired him; including Jerome Lowenthal, Robert McDonald, Joseph Kalichstein, Sophia Rosoff, and Byron Janis. www.pianoblair.com