Anthony McGill, winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, currently serves as principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Prior to this position he was associate principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, following studies at the Curtis Institute with Donald Montanaro and at the Interlochen Arts Academy with Richard Hawkins. An experienced chamber musician, he has participated at the Marlboro Music Festival, Sarasota Festival, Tanglewood, La Musica International Chamber Music Festival, and Music@Menlo. Since his solo debut in 1991, McGill has appeared with the Baltimore and New Jersey Symphonies, and with the Tokyo, Guarneri, and Avalon Quartets, and Opus One. He has been heard on Ravinia's Rising Star Series, toured with Musicians from Marlboro, performed at Carnegie Hall, and appeared at Lincoln Center as a member of its Chamber Music Society Two. Mr. McGill has also toured Japan with pianist Mitsuko Uchida and members of the Brentano Quartet, and has appeared in concert with cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Annaliesa Place made her solo debut at the age of twelve with the Heidelberg Orchestra and has since appeared with orchestras throughout the United States including the Jackson, Peabody, and North State Symphonies, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, and Concert Artists of Baltimore. An active chamber musician, Ms. Place has appeared as violinist and violist in the United States and Europe. She is a past participant at Encore, Sarasota, Music Academy of the West, Yellow Barn, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, Holland Music Sessions, and Verbier. She recently performed at the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival with Claude Frank, Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello, and the French Embassy in Madrid. She was featured on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center as part of the National Symphony's Beethoven Festival.

Annaliesa's degrees include a B.M. from Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and a M.M. from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers have included Vasile Beluska, David Russell, David Updegraff, Victor Danchenko, and Robert Mann. Ms. Place is on the faculty of the JCC-Thurnauer School of Music, Summertrios Festival, and EMS Summer String Festival.

Canadian soprano Amelia Watkins has performed with leading orchestras and opera companies in the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe. She has recently appeared in such prestigious venues as the Estates Theatre (National Theatre, Prague), the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, Weill Hall, Lincoln Centre, the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Verbier Festival (Switzerland), the Gewandhaus (Germany), and in concert in Hong Kong. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Amelia is a current and past recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation for Young Canadian Opera Singers, and is a laureate of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques. Amelia can be heard in recording on Albany Records, as well as with the MDR symphony in the premiere of German composer Manfred Trojahn's Requiem, on the new Bobby McFerrin recording of choral music for solo singers, and in various film and television scores.

Lyric tenor Thomas Young has appeared as a principal soloist in the major concert halls and opera houses of some 20 countries, and under the baton of, among others, Zubin Mehta, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Known for his unique dramatic and musical intelligence, as well as beauty of tone and exceptional technique, Mr. Young is recognized as today's foremost interpreter of tenor roles in contemporary opera. He has appeared in world premiere performances with the Chicago Lyric Opera, the New York City Opera, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Opera de la Monnale in Brussels and the Tulsa Opera. In addition to his distinguished performance career, Mr. Young serves as a tenured Professor of Music at Sarah Lawrence College.

Hailed by The Washington Post as "an extraordinarily charismatic performer," Mr. Boehler has been critically acclaimed for his dramatic ability and his "supple, clarion bass." With Wolf Trap Opera Company, Mr. Boehler garnered much praise in the title role of Sweeney Todd. As a graduate of the Juilliard Opera Center, he was seen as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as Kecal in The Bartered Bride. A Minnesota native, Mr. Boehler held a three year tenure as a resident artist with The Minnesota Opera, appearing in numerous roles including Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Njegus in The Merry Widow, Colline in La bohéme, and Il Frate in Don Carlo. At Viterbo University, his first alma mater, he was featured in several opera, musical theatre and straight roles while completing his B.A. in Theatre Arts. Mr. Boehler has won prizes in the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, the National Opera Association's competition and the Midwest Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He is a three-time first prizewinner of the Schubert Club vocal competition and a recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation.

Jonathan Yates is the Music Director of the Norwalk Youth Symphony and the conductor of the Principal Orchestra. Jonathan has earned high praise as a conductor, solo pianist, and collaborative artist for his musicianship, intellect, and the remarkable variety of his musical endeavors.

He made his professional orchestral conducting debut at 23, leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a Millennium Stages Concert.
The following year he made his Carnegie Hall debut as a participant in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop. Jonathan also serves as Music Director of the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, where he has been a driving force in reinvigorating the relationship between the symphony and its community.

He has collaborated as a pianist and conductor with many of the country’s most respected musicians, including Midori, Kim Kashkashian, David Finckel, Charles Neidich, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr, Gilbert Kalish, Paul Neubauer, Joseph Lin, and William Purvis; and the Avalon, Daedalus and Pacifica Quartets. He has been heard as a chamber musician at the 92nd Street Y, Miller Theater, Bargemusic and Merkin Hall, as well as at the Caramoor Festival and on the Ravinia Festival Rising Stars Series. As an ardent devotee of the music of our time, he has conducted new music concerts with the Argento Chamber Ensemble and the Knights, was the recipient of an ASCAP award for adventurous programming, and has given local and regional premieres of pre-eminent composers including Augusta Read Thomas, Huang Ruo, Zhou Long, Chester Biscardi, and Chen Yi.

Jonathan received his Graduate Diploma in conducting from the Juilliard School, where he studied with James DePreist and Otto-Werner Mueller, and was the holder of the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship. He received his Master of Music from State University of New York, where he worked with Gilbert Kalish, and his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University, where he studied with Robert Levin. His past work includes serving as founding Music Director of Camerata Notturna, as Music Director of Music Mountain, and on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College. He was recently named Director of Classical Series at 23Arts Windham Music and Jazz Fest. He descends from a family that has been on the forefront of the battles for the cultural and humanistic life of our country. His grandfather, U. S. Representative Sidney R. Yates, was the principal defender of the National Endowment for the Arts in his 48 years in Congress, and his father, the Honorable Stephen R. Yates, was the first judge in Illinois to approve same-sex adoption.