Cellist, Current Season Guests, Performer
Isaac Pagano-Toub is a New York and Toronto-based cellist, composer, and improviser known for his stylistic versatility and compelling performances. He is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Glenn Gould School under the tutelage of Hans Jensen and Andres Diaz. Isaac previously earned degrees from the New England Conservatory, studying with Paul Katz, as well as at the Eastman School of Music under David Ying. Other teachers include Steven Doane, Sibylle Johner and Alex Croxton.
He has spent his summers at the National Arts Center Orchestra of Canada Mentorship Program, Fontainebleau School of Music and Fine Arts, Schleswig–Holstein Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop, among others. Isaac has played in master classes with Gary Hoffman, Richard Aaron, Arnaud Sussman, John Manasse, Clive Greensmith, Natasha Brofsky, and Claudio Bohórquez and played in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Kodak Hall.
An avid orchestral and chamber musician, Isaac toured Germany in 2024 as a featured soloist with pianist Lang Lang, performing The Swan by Saint-Saëns with the Schleswig–Holstein Music Festival Orchestra. In 2022, Isaac won the Eastman School of Music cello concerto competition and performed the Cello Concerto of Elgar with the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2019, Isaac played the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto with the CMC orchestra in multiple venues across New York and Italy. He returned as a guest artist in 2020 and played the third movement of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major with the CMC orchestra. As a composer, Isaac was the recipient of the 2024 Intercultural Institute Competition at NEC and the Make Music Alliance’s 2021 Young Composers Contest.
At NEC, Isaac spent much of his time involved in the Contemporary Musical Arts (formerly Contemporary Improvisation) department, where he studied many styles including jazz, Jewish music, Turkish classical music, American roots, Brazilian choro and more.
Isaac has amassed a large body of original compositions including chamber music, concerti, choral music, film scores, and orchestral works and has had works performed by the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra and the Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra as well as other professionals such as baritone Christopher Herbert and the CMC Chamber Music Players. His most recent work was premiered at the Opus One winery in Napa Valley. He is currently working on creating a new style of Jewish art music, combining elements of cantorial music, klezmer, impressionism, and neo romanticism. His mentors include Kevin Puts, Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez, Hankus Netsky, and Alex Yagupsky.
As a native New Yorker growing up in a musical family, Isaac has been playing chamber music since the age of 4. His interest in filmmaking as a young boy is often reflected in his compositions. He has no pets and gave up soccer to practice the cello.
Current Season Guests, Performer, Violinist
Polish-born and New York City-based violinist Kinga Augustyn has been described as “an adventurous performer valuable to New York’s scene” (NY Concert Review), “a violinist for whom nothing seems too difficult” (Nowy Dziennik Polish Daily News), “stylish and vibrant” (The Strad Magazine).
She has performed as a soloist with orchestras in the United States and Europe. Among them are the Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra Leopoldinum, the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the American Academy of Conducting Orchestra at the Aspen Music Festival, the Empire State Sinfonia, the Gateway Classical Music Society Orchestra, the Broadway Bach Ensemble, the Glacier Symphony, and the Augusta Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to her many orchestra appearances, she maintains a busy concert schedule as a recitalist and chamber musician with appearances at Carnegie Hall (in both the Stern Auditorium and the Weill Recital Hall), Alice Tully Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Merkin Hall, The Kosciuszko Foundation, 7 World Trade Center, Bargemusic, Polish and Hungarian Embassies in Washington, DC, The Aspen Music Festival, and the Ethical Society in Philadelphia. She has also performed as a featured artist at music festivals such as the Paderewski Festival, the Sevenars Music Festival, and the Chopin & Friends Festival.
Her recent prestigious collaborations include solo performances with The Jose Limon Dance Company at the Joyce Theater in NYC. Ms. Augustyn is also a member of pianist Jeffrey Biegel’s Trio 21 with cellist Robert deMaine. The ensemble has recently recorded Glen Roven’s Runaway Bunny CD for GPR Records, with Catherine Zeta- Jones as a narrator, as well as Kenneth Fuchs’ Falling Trio for Naxos. Ms. Augustyn’s Album of Polish music, was just released in June 2013 on Naxos.
Ms. Augustyn is committed to increasing awareness of music by Polish composers, as well as promoting contemporary music. She has premiered Michael White’s Sonata for Violin and Piano and his Trio Sonata, which were composed especially for her. She has also recorded his Quartet for Piano and Strings. Ms. Augustyn’s new album of contemporary music is coming out very soon on GPR Records. Her former discography includes a CD of Niccolo Paganini 24 Caprices for Solo Violin.
Ms. Augustyn has won international awards, including First Prizes at the Alexander & Buono International String Competition (NYC), Artist International Presentations (NYC), J.S. Bach String Competition (Zielona Gora, Poland), and Ackerman Chamber Music Competition at Stony Brook, NY. Other top honors include prizes at the Kosciuszko Foundation Wieniawski Violin Competition (NYC), the Johannes Brahms International Competition (Poertschach, Austria), and the Kloster Schoental International Young Artist Competition (Kloster Scheontal, Germany).
Kinga Augustyn began her music studies at the age of seven in her native Poland. She eventually went on to study at The Juilliard School, where she worked with Dorothy DeLay, Cho-Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka, and earned both the bachelor’s and the master’s degrees. She also holds a doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she took lessons from Phil Setzer and Pamela Frank.
As a teacher, Ms. Augustyn has served as a Violin Faculty for The Alexander & Buono Festival of Music. She has also conducted various violin and chamber music masterclasses and workshops in the United States and Poland.
Kinga Augustyn is thrilled to perform again with the Broadway Bach Ensemble!
Current Season Guests, Performer, Pianist
Pianist DANIEL EPSTEIN received international acclaim in 1973 with his performances of the Yellow River Concerto – the first piece of Chinese classical music to be performed in the United States – in a series of concerts and RCA debut recording with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Since then, he has become recognized as one of the most vital and versatile solo and chamber pianists of his generation, as well as an articulate communicator and educator.
Winner of the prestigious Kosciuszko Chopin Award, the National Arts Club Prize, the Prix Alex de Vries at the Marguerite Long Competition, in Paris, and the Concert Artists Guild Award — which afforded him his Carnegie Hall debut recital — Epstein was also selected for an NEA Recitalist Grant to perform recitals throughout the US. He has appeared as guest soloist with such eminent American orchestras as Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Detroit, and Rochester. He has given recitals at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the 92nd Street Y as well as in major cities throughout the US, complemented by master classes and intensive seminars for pianists at colleges and universities. He has also toured in China, Japan and Europe.
As pianist and founding member of the famed Raphael Trio, since 1975, he has performed virtually the entire piano trio repertoire. The Trio has appeared regularly in New York’s Carnegie and Town Halls, The Kennedy Center in Washington, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna, Paris, Geneva, Budapest, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, as well as numerous other musical centers throughout the U.S. and Europe. The Trio’s recordings of Beethoven, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, and Wolf-Ferarri have received wide critical and public praise. He has collaborated with many renowned string quartets, including the Ying, American, and Talich, and has played with members of the Juilliard and Guarneri quartets as well as many other distinguished chamber musicians and soloists.
In the fall of 2004, Mr. Epstein was invited to Shanghai, China, serving as visiting faculty at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He has visited China since then at least annually, performing and teaching in the conservatories of Shanghai, Beijing (Central) Xi’an and performing recitals and concerti. In the summer of 2017 he performed the Yellow River Concerto for the first time in China at the Xiamen International Piano Festival.
Additional recent performances have included the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Broadway Bach Ensemble in May, 2017, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in September of 2017 with the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in March of 2018 with the Bartlesville OK Symphony.
Mr. Epstein has been a member of the piano faculty of the Mason Gross School of Music at Rutgers University since 2007 and Manhattan School of Music since 2001. In February of 2018 he was appointed Head of Keyboard at Rutgers.
Daniel Epstein’s unique and comprehensive teaching style has made him one of the most sought-after teachers in the United States. Among his current and former students are major competition prizewinners, performers with major conductors and symphony orchestras throughout the world, and recording artists on major record labels.
Recordings: RCA, Sony, Albany, Sonar, Nonesuch, Newport Classic, ASV, Unicorn-Kanchana and EMS.
Conductor, Current Season Guests, Performer
Conductor Audrey J. Edelstein brings sensitivity, power, and connection to the podium, championing a compassionate experience between herself, ensemble, and audience. Incorporating a background in classical dance in her conducting, Audrey shapes soundscapes with fluidity and grace in a variety of settings including the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, a fully staged production of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat, and Musical Passport with the Arcadian Chorale featuring choral pieces in eleven languages and original orchestrations for string quartet. Actively engaged in programming women and underrepresented voices, Audrey blends the richness of the classical tradition with perspectives of the next generation of creators.
Previous positions include Assistant Conductor of the Oratorio Society of Queens and Northwinds Symphonic Band. Audrey is a founding member of the New Conductors Orchestra, a NYC-based civic orchestra committed to showcasing emerging conductors. Audrey earned a MM in Orchestral Conducting at the Aaron Copland School of Music, and a BA at Swarthmore College. Learn more at www.audreyjedelstein.com
Conductor, Current Season Guests, Performer
Michael F. Tietz is the Music Director and Principal Conductor of The Broadway Bach Ensemble, which he founded in 1985. His conducting repertoire spans baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary works. Mike has had the privilege of working with numerous professional musicians as soloists, including members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Juilliard String Quartet, Raphael Trio, New York City Opera Orchestra, Orpheus, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the American Brass Quintet.
Mike started his conducting activities at the University of Pennsylvania Law School Light Opera Company, which he founded in 1978. He is a member of New York’s Village Light Opera Group, where he has served as Music Director, member of the company/chorus, and orchestra member.
An active ’cellist and violist, Mike plays in orchestras and chamber ensembles in the New York City metropolitan area.
