Performer, Violinist
Since winning the 1998 Gold Medal of the prestigious International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, JUDITH INGOLFSSON has established herself world-wide as an artist of uncompromising musical maturity, extraordinary technical command and charismatic performance style.
A native of Iceland, Judith Ingolfsson made her debut as orchestral soloist in Germany, at the age of eight. In the United States, she has been heard with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of Austin, Binghamton, Dayton, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Memphis, New Haven, Omaha, Pacific, San Diego, South Carolina, Vermont, Victoria, West Virginia and Wichita; and she has collaborated with many of the acclaimed maestri of our time, including Jesus Lûpez-Cobos, Raymond Leppard, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Gerard Schwarz and Leonard Slatkin. Ms. Ingolfsson was also heard as soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra on its 2000 15-city North American tour, highlighted by a performance at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, while, abroad, her engagements have included the Czech Republic’s Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Tokyo and Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, with which she recorded the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto for the orchestra’s BPO Live label.
Highlights of Judith Ingolfsson’s current season include performances with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Louisville Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Columbus (GA), Dubuque, Fairfax, Greenwich and Long Bay (SC). She also appears in recital with pianist Vladimir Stoupel on Brooklyn’s famed Bargemusic series.
Judith Ingolfsson’s recital performances have taken her throughout the United States and around the world: National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Cleveland Institute of Music, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Reykjavìk Arts Festival, Pro Arte Musicale of Puerto Rico, La Asociaciûn Nacional de Conciertos de Panama, Macao Cultural Center and Tokyo Metropolitan Art Center. An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with the Avalon and Miami String Quartets and the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, and has appeared, both on tour and at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Alice Tully Hall, with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two. Her festival appearances include the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Finland’s Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Germany’s Bodensee Festival, Switzerland’s Menuhin Festival and the Orlando Festival in The Netherlands.
Judith Ingolfsson has frequently appeared on radio and television broadcasts, beginning with a performance on Icelandic TV at the age of five. Since then, she has been seen on PBS, “CBS Sunday Morning” and Japan’s National Broadcasting Company (NHK). In 1999, National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” named her “Debut Artist of the Year” for her “remarkable intelligence, musicality, and sense of insight.” She is also the recipient of the 2001 Chamber Music America/WQXR Record Award for her debut CD for Catalpa Classics, featuring a varied program ranging from Bach to Ned Rorem.
At the age of 14, Judith Ingolfsson was admitted to The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she pursued studies with the legendary violinist and pedagogue Jascha Brodsky. She went on to earn her Master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music as a student of David Cerone, and continued her graduate studies at the same institution while working with Donald Weilerstein. Prior to her triumph at the Indianapolis Competition, Ms. Ingolfsson, who began violin studies at the age of three, was a prize winner at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York City and the Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy.
Judith Ingolfsson makes her home in New York City.
Narrator, Performer, Vocalist
Nathan is not only a well-known Baritone in the New York opera world, but is a favorite amongst children as well, having appeared as Silas Barnaby in Babes in Toyland with the Little Orchestra Society at Avery Fisher Hall.
With the Bronx Opera, he has sung Sgt. Meryll in The Yeomen of the Guard and Bartolo in The Barber of Seville. Mr. Hull is a frequent performer at the Amato Opera. This season alone he is performing Marcello in La Bohème, the four villains in The Tales of Hoffmann, Father in Hansel and Gretel and Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Favorite recent New York roles include Figaro in both The Barber of Seville and Le Nozze di Figaro, Escamillo in Carmen, Papageno in The Magic Flute, and both Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte. Mr. Hull has also appeared as a soloist with the Broadway Bach Ensemble in Tubby the Tuba.
Mr. Hull has made something of a specialty of Gilbert and Sullivan. Recently, he was seen as the Sergeant in the Village Light Opera Group’s The Pirates of Penzance, and as Captain Corcoran in Amato Opera’s H.M.S. Pinafore. With VLOG, he has also been seen in many other roles such as Wilfred in The Yeomen of the Guard, the title role in The Mikado, both Lord Mountararat and Pvt. Willis in Iolanthe, and both Don Alhambra and Giuseppe in The Gondoliers. Mr. Hull has also performed Giuseppe with the Blue Hill Troupe.
He has also made an occasional foray into musical theatre, such as his appearance as Emile de Becque in the British American Light Opera production of South Pacific.
Mr. Hull works extensively as a director. This season, he directed The Mikado for Morgan State University in Baltimore — a production he has also done at Indiana State University, Seaside Music Theatre in Daytona and for the Village Light Opera. His production of H.M.S. Pinafore is currently in repertoire at the Amato Opera, and his production of A Gilbert and Sullivan Victorian Valentine will tour the Midwest this spring.
In addition to his work in the opera world, Mr. Hull is a long-time professor at New York University.
Performer, Trumpet
Kevin joined the American Brass Quintet in the fall of 1998, and with that appointment also became a faculty member of the Juilliard School.
Originally from Bowling Green, Ohio, he began trumpet studies at the age of ten. His first solo appearance was at age fifteen with the Toledo Symphony. After attending Interlochen Arts Academy, he graduated in 1993 with a bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Frank Kaderabek; two years later he received a master of music degree from the Juilliard School as a student of Mark Gould.
Since his days at Curtis, Mr. Cobb has enjoyed touring and performing in Japan, Central America and Europe, as well as in the U.S. He also toured as solo trumpet with the Israel Camerata of Jerusalem, where he was praised for his “beauty of tone” by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. In New York Mr. Cobb is regularly active with such organizations as the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Lukes, New York Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet.
He also performs with New York Big Brass and in Broadway shows, and can frequently be heard in radio and television commercials.
Performer, Vocalist
Soprano SARA CLARK is a New York City local. She was born on Long Island and is no stranger to the performing arts in this great city.
She recently graduated with honors from The Boston Conservatory and received her bachelor of music in vocal performance. While studying in Boston, she enjoyed many roles including Peasblossom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Papagena in The Magic Flute, Ilia in Idomeneo, and Sor Isabel in With Blood, With Ink (a contemporary opera by Daniel Crozier and Peter M. Krask).
Upon moving back to New York City, Sara has performed with the Village Light Opera as Kate in Yeoman of the Guard and Rose Maybud in Ruddigore. She also got the chance to perform overseas in Buxton, England this past summer with the Actor’s Opera in productions of The Zoo and Trial by Jury.
Actor, Performer
As a writer, his books for musicals have been performed off-Broadway and around the country; he has also written five children’s books, published by HarperCollins. His adaptation of The Impresario is not a literal translation, but a very free acting version based on the plot outline of the original; it has also been performed in a longer version, incorporating music from other Mozart operas.
As a director, he has staged numerous productions for the Village Light Opera Group and others. As a performer, he has appeared frequently with the New York Grand Opera in Central Park for audiences of several thousand, playing such roles as Goro in Madama Butterfly, Bardolpho in Falstaff and Pang (or was it Pong?) in Turandot. He has specialized in the realm of Gilbert & Sullivan, having performed 31 different roles in the repertory as well as chorusing 10 of the 14 operettas.
He met his wife, the talented and beautiful mezzo Lynne Greene-Brooke, onstage at the Light Opera of Manhattan, where they were frequently married before they ever spoke to each other.
Organist, Performer
The Organist/Music Director of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and Children’s Community Choir in Peekskill, NY and of Union Chapel, Shelter Island Heights, L.I., Linda is a recitalist on concert series in Westchester and Rockland Counties, New Jersey and New York City, and has performed as a soloist in England and Italy.
Ms. Betjeman has performed with the Chappaqua Chamber Orchestra and Mimosa Chamber Ensemble of Manhattan. In addition, she is the keyboard soloist (organ, harpsichord, piano) with The Broadway Bach Ensemble of Manhattan and is piano accompanist for the Taghkanic Chorale and Tri-County Opera of northern Westchester.
Ms. Betjeman has taught on the music faculty of Walden-Lincoln School and The Trevor Day School in New York City, and is currently accompanist for the Riverdale Country School and Sarah Lawrence College choirs.
Conductor, Performer, Pianist
Robert Ainsley began his musical career at the age of eleven, studying the piano and violin at Durham School, in England.
He became a Licentiate of Trinity College of Music, London, in solo piano performance at age 17 and won the National Schools’ Chamber Music Competition twice. Rob won the organ scholarship to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he studied with Dr Peter Hurford, Dr John Butt, and David Sanger and directed the chapel choir for three years, conducting and playing in major venues in around the world. In 1999, he graduated with a degree in Mathematics, and later that year was invited to become senior organ scholar at Christ Church, Greenwich, CT.
Since then, he has also served as assistant conductor and accompanist of the New Haven Chorale and Greenwich Choral Society, Musical Director of the Marsh Singers, and completed a master’s degree in solo piano performance at Mannes College of Music, NYC.
After serving as Maestro Joseph Colaneri’s assistant for a year at Mannes College of Music, Mr. Ainsley joined the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the beginning of the 2003-2004 season. He has just completed his two years in the program, which culminated in his acting as assistant conductor and pianist for Wagner’s Die Walküre with Maestro Valery Gergiev and Placido Domingo this season. Mr. Ainsley will continue to work as a vocal coach, repetiteur and church musician, with the intention of eventually conducting some of the music he enjoys so much.
Cellist, Performer
Cellist Maxine Neuman’s solo and chamber music career spans North America, South America, Europe and Japan. A grant recipient from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts and a three-time Grammy Award winner, her biography appears in Who’s Who in the World. She is a founding member of the Claremont Duo, the Crescent String Quartet, the Vermont Cello Quartet, and the Walden Trio, groups with which she has traveled and recorded extensively.
Her long list of recording credits includes Deutsche Grammophon, Columbia, Angel, EMI, Nonesuch, Biddulph, CRI, Orion, Leonarda, Argo, Opus One, SONY/Virgin, AMC, Artek, Vanguard, Musical Heritage, Albany, Northeastern and CBS World Records.
She has appeared as soloist before a sold-out audience in New York’s Town Hall in the American premiere of Giovanni Battista Viotti’s only cello concerto, and for Austrophon, she recorded Schumann Cello Concerto in Count Esterhazy’s historic palace in Austria. She can also be heard in such diverse settings as the Montreux Jazz Festival, the films of Jim Jarmusch, and with the rock band Metallica. She has expanded the chamber ensemble repertoire — especially for multiple celli and cello and guitar — by arranging and transcribing works from every period. A longtime champion of contemporary music, she has commissioned and premiered works by many of today’s leading composers.
Distinguished as a teacher as well as performer, Ms. Neuman has served as a juror for numerous international competitions. On the faculty at New York’s School for Strings and Hoff-Barthelson Music School, she has taught at Bennington College, Williams College and C.W. Post University.
Her cello is a J.B.Guadagnini, dating from 1772.
Conductor, Performer
Chorus, Performer
New Amsterdam Singers is an amateur chorus of 70+ skilled singers whose performances in New York City and abroad have won critical acclaim. We rehearse at Broadway Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and perform three subscription concerts per year in and around New York City under the direction of Clara Longstreth.
In 1966, the Master Institute Chorus, conducted by Allan Miller, was run as an adult education course, with Clara Longstreth as assistant conductor and Elizabeth Rodgers as accompanist. On Miller’s departure in 1968, Clara Longstreth became conductor.
When the Master Institute dissolved in 1971, Clara, Elizabeth and an informal group of singers decided to regroup under the name New Amsterdam Singers. From 1972-1978 NAS was in association with the Bloomingdale House of Music. In 1978 it became fully independent under the management of its own elected Board of Directors.
Today NAS is a chorus of 70 skilled singers whose concert performances in New York City and abroad have won critical acclaim. The group is known for the variety and interest of its repertoire, ranging from the 15th century to the present day. The chorus specializes in a cappella and double chorus repertoire and regularly performs 20th century, contemporary and commissioned works. It continues to rehearse on the Upper West Side, performing three subscription concerts and giving a number of other performances around the greater metropolitan area each season.
All subscription concerts are performed in Manhattan at such locations as Merkin Hall, St. Peter’s Church at Citicorp, St. Ignatius Episcopal Church and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. The chorus has also performed at most of the city’s major halls, including Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall, and in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Washington, D.C., Westchester and New Jersey.
