Tharanga Goonetilleke is a native of Sri Lanka. She graduated with her Artist Diploma for Opera Studies from The Juilliard Opera Center, New York, NY in 2010. She also obtained her Master of Music degree in Voice and Opera at The Juilliard School, where she was the first woman from Sri Lanka ever to be accepted, and her Bachelor of Music degree from Converse College, Spartanburg, SC. She is also an Associate of the Trinity College of Music, London, England. Tharanga's operatic experience includes performing the roles of Mimi in La Bohème (Puccini), Lauretta and Nella in Gianni Schicchi (Puccini), Pamina and Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), the title role of Iphigénie en Aulide (Gluck), Despina in Così fan tutte (Mozart), Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach), Venus in Orphée aux enfers (Offenbach), Genevra in Ariodante (Handel), and Blanche in Dialogues des carmélites (Poulenc). Last summer she sang La princesse and La bergère in L'enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel) for the Castleton Festival, VA under the baton of Lorin Maazel. Tharanga made her New York City Opera debut in 2010 as Resi in Intermezzo (R. Strauss) under the baton of George Manahan.

Her most recent concert highlights include the soprano solo in Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Dame Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons as narrators (Toronto, Canada and Washington, DC) and the Castleton Festival's Bizet extravaganza where she performed Michaela alongside Denise Graves as Carmen - both concerts conducted by Lorin Maazel. This month she performed Songs of the Wayfarer by Gustav Mahler with the Argento Chamber Ensemble.

In her home country, Tharanga made her solo debut with The Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka (SOSL) after winning the Concerto Competition of Sri Lanka in 1998. In addition, she has won the Trinity College of Music examination prizes in singing for three consecutive years, and for this achievement she was awarded the Yamaha Trophy in 1997. Since then she has reappeared as soloist of SOSL in 1999, 2000 and 2011. In the US she has been adjudged a winner in both New York and South Carolina districts at The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is also a winner of the Palmetto Opera competition in Columbia, SC. And at Juilliard, she was awarded the Makiko Narumi Memorial Prize.

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.