MICHAEL ADELSON is currently a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic and conductor of the Auros Group for New Music in Boston. He made his first appearance with a major American orchestra in 1992, conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also conducted the New York Philharmoinc, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra Bothnia, and the Uppsala Chamber Orchestra.
Equally at home in the opera house, Mr. Adelson has conducted Scandinavian productions of Turandot, La Bohème, Der Schauspieldirektor, and in Stockholm, the world premiere production of Qu Xiao-Song's Oedipus. He also assisted Esa-Pekka Salonen for Messiaen's St. François d'Assise at the Salzburg Festival.
Mr. Adelson is deeply committed to music of our time, having worked alongside composers such as Pierre Boulez, Bernard Rands, Magnus Lindberg and Donald Martino. In addition to his position as conductor of the Auros Group for New Music, he frequently guest conducts other new music ensembles, including Speculum Musicae, the Locrian Chamber Players, the Cygnus Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, and the Fromm Players at Harvard. He has led world premieres at the Venice Biennale and the Ultima Contemporary Music Festival in Oslo, and has introduced new American works to Japan, England, Estonia, and the Scandinavian countries. Mr. Adelson is an active composer himself, and is founding member of the Present Eye, an organization dedicated to experimental music and art.
Education continues to play an important part in Mr. Adelson's activities. He regularly leads workshops in conducting and orchestral technique for educators, college and pre-college musicians sponsored by the New York Philharmonic. He is the Conductor of the Preparatory Philharmonic Orchestra of the Mannes College of Music. As the Principal Conductor of the first annual Rencontres Musicales Europeenes in France, he led a festival orchestra which included students from France, Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic. With the Orkester Norden, he conducted students from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. He led opera, orchestral, and chamber music master classes at the Accademia di Musica in Sassari, Italy. He has written and conducted young people's concerts with the New York, Helsinki, and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He taught chamber music at Helsinki University, and at Connecticut College he conducted the orchestra and faculty ensemble, was a Fellow of the Center for Arts and Technology, and designed and taught courses in conducting, music history, and music pedagogy.
Michael Adelson studied at the New England Conservatory, the Mannes College of Music, and graduated summa cum laude from Jorma Panula's conducting class at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
A vocalist of extraordinary versatility and artistic breadth, mezzo-soprano SILVIE JENSEN performs music of numerous genres spanning centuries and traversing artistic boundaries. Her unique talent can be heard with artists as diverse as Pomerium, the Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble, Ornette Coleman, and the San Francisco Symphony and critics have described her voice as "...exquisite, floating and expressive."
Skilled in a wide variety of genres and repertoire, Ms. Jensen enjoys a wide-ranging career encompassing early and contemporary music, opera and musical theater, and ethnic, improvised, and experimental music. She has performed with conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and Kent Nagano at some of the world's renowned performance venues including London's Barbican Centre, Davies Hall In San Francisco, Tanglewood, and Carnegie and Zankel Halls in New York.
As a soloist she has performed in Bach's Cantatas 134, 140, 68, among others; and in the St. Matthew's Passion; Handel's Messiah; Schubert's Mass in G; Vaughan Williams' Mass in G; and the Rutter Requiem. She has appeared as a soloist with the Christopher Caines Dance Company for several seasons and also premiered several works created specifically for her. Ms. Jensen's New York recital appearances include performances at Weill Hall, the Liederkranz Club, the Roerich Museum, and at Symphony Space. She has worked with many acclaimed choral ensembles including the San Francisco Opera Chorus, the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, and the Sanctuary Choir Of Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan.
In the opera house Ms. Jensen has appeared with Ash Lawn Opera, Stonington Opera House, Riverside Opera, New Amsterdam Opera, and the Mannes Baroque Ensemble among others. Her performance in Hildegard von Bingen's chant opera Ordo Virtutum was critically acclaimed by the New York Times.
Ms. Jensen has collaborated with and performed as a soloist with some of the leading figures in contemporary music including Ornette Coleman and Meredith Monk. Her numerous recordings can be heard on labels including ECM, London, Koch, and Helicon.
Hailed for his "splendid powers of concentration" (The Washington Post) and performances that are "exciting to watch and hear" (The San Diego Union-Tribune), Michael Mizrahi has won acclaim for his compelling performances of a wide-ranging repertoire and his ability to connect with audiences of all ages. He has appeared as concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and music educator across the United States and in Europe.
Mr. Mizrahi has performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Haddonfield Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, and Prince Georges Philharmonic Orchestra, performing in venues such as the Kimmel Center, the Kennedy Center, and Houston's Jones Hall. In 2005 Mizrahi appeared as soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto K488 with the Curtis Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Leon Fleisher. Mizrahi is a founding member of the Moët Trio, which is quickly establishing itself as one of today's most exciting young piano trios. The Moët Trio is in residence at the New England Conservatory this season. Equally at home with contemporary music, Mizrahi is a founding member of NOW Ensemble, a chamber group devoted to the commissioning and performing of new music by emerging composers. A winner of Astral Artistic Services' 2005 National auditions, Mizrahi joined Astral's artist roster that year.
In January 2007 Mizrahi was selected to join The Academy: A Program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute (ACJW). Under the auspices of this ground-breaking new program, Mizrahi teaches music at a New York City public school one and-a-half days a week, participates in workshops with leading classical musicians and entrepreneurs, and appears with other Academy members in chamber music concerts at Carnegie Hall and throughout New York City.
Michael Mizrahi began piano studies at the age of four. He received a B.A. in music and religion from the University of Virginia and a Doctoral degree in piano performance from the Yale School of Music. Former teachers include Robert Wyatt, Eric Himy, Mary Kathleen Ernst, and George François.
A long-time Broadway Bach Ensemble member, Renée Oakford has been a soloist with the Goldman Memorial Band and the LaGuardia High School of Music and the Arts Orchestra. Renée performs regularly in New York with the Amato Opera Company and is a past member of the Brookly Lyric Opera, the Riverside Orchestra, New Amsterdam Orchestra and the The Eastern Winds. Among others, Ms. Oakford has studied with Judith Mendenhall, Michael Parloff and Trudy Kane and has participated in master classes by Julius Baker, Robert Dick, Thomas Nyfinger, and Jeanne Baxstresser. Renee holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music.
Violinist NURIT PACHT was selected as one of the "Stars of the
Year 2000" by Le Monde de la Musique and since then her career has
blossomed with appearances in London's Wigmore Hall, Vienna's
Musikverein, Moscow's Great Hall, Washington's Kennedy Center,
Carnegie's Weill Hall, The People's Hall of China in Beijing and at
Ravinia's Rising Stars Series. Chosen by director Robert Wilson to be
the featured musician in his multi-media piece Relative Light featuring
solo violin works by John Cage and J.S. Bach, Nurit is equally at home
in the standard repertoire as in the contemporary.
Last season, Nurit performed as soloist in collaboration with the dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones in one of Europe's greatest cathedrals, the Duomo in Milan as well as at Kennedy Center and on tour in many U.S. capitals with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company culminating in performances at the Lincoln Center Summer Festival. She is now in her third season serving as the artistic director of the Alliance Players, a dynamic group of musicians who perform innovative programs in New York City. Nurit performed in duo recitals with Philip Glass playing the composer's works for violin and piano. She commissioned and premiered works from other leading composers including, Michael Hersch, Noam Sheriff, Annie Gosfield and Octavio Vazquez.
Nurit has toured as soloist with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. She also performed the world premiere of Noam Sheriff's Violin Concerto Dibrot, a work dedicated to her, with the Israeli Contemporary Players in a radio broadcast from Jerusalem and in the Contemporary Music Festival in Tel Aviv. Nurit was also the soloist on a tour of China with the Young Israel Philharmonic, performing in the major concert venues of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In the United States she has been a soloist with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Alliance Players, American Youth Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony. In Italy she performed with the Filarmonica di Roma, in Poland and Germany with the Wroclaw Chamber Orchestra, with most of the major orchestras of Romania including the Georges Enesco Philharmonic and with the National Symphony of Columbia.
In the spring of 1996, immediately following the cease-fire, she concertized in six of the worst war-devastated cities of Bosnia to enthusiastic audiences of the three ethnic minorities, with the sponsorship of the United Nations and the European Mozart Foundation. At the invitation of the European Commission she also performed on the occasion of the inauguration of the European Monetary Union in Bruxelles. She was heard at the festivals of Santa Fe, Mecklenberg Vorpommern, Divonne, Stresa, Kfar Blum, George Crumb, Tartini, Monadnock and, at the invitation of Christoph Eschenbach, performed in Ravinia's Rising Stars Series. One of her live performances from Wigmore Hall was released by Nimbus records.
Nurit Pacht grew up in Texas and made her first solo public appearance on national television at the age of 12. In 1990, at age seventeen, she made her U.S. solo debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and has since won top prizes in international competitions in Europe and the United States, including the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Switzerland. She plays on a violin made by P. Guarneri in 1750.
While still a teenager in his western Nebraska hometown Jeff Spurgeon's radio career had what might be called a providential beginning: He was giving announcements in church, and one congregant – who owned a local radio station – heard him and offered an audition. Since then, Jeff has worked on the radio as an announcer, a news reporter, a newscaster, an interview, and a producer. He got his first New York radio position in 1989. Jeff became a member of the WQXR news department in 1997 and in 1999 was named the station's Mid-day Host. In 2006 Jeff became WQXR's Morning Show Host.
One of Jeff's proudest accomplishments has been his work as a schoolteacher. He recently developed and taught a course in broadcast journalism for Townsend Harris High School one of New York City's top public schools.
Jeff is also a singer. He has performed with several New York City – based choruses and church choirs, and is a member of a cappella quartet whose repertoire ranges from music of Renaissance masters to original arrangements in modern styles.
Jeff lives Brooklyn with his wife Judy, a high school English teacher.
MICHAEL F. TIETZ, Music Director and Principal
Conductor of The Broadway Bach Ensemble, has long been active in
many types of musical endeavors. Starting out musical life as a
'cellist, he has played (and still plays) in numerous orchestras
and chamber ensembles in the New York metropolitan area. After
studying at the High School of Music and Art and Yale University,
he attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania, where he
made his conducting debut and founded the Law School Light Opera
Company. Once in New York, he became a member of the Village Light
Opera Group, serving at various times as assistant music director,
member of the stage company, and pit-orchestra 'cellist. Mr. Tietz
began conducting orchestral works in 1979 and founded The Broadway
Bach Ensemble in 1985.