About the Artists

Maurice Cohn, conductor

A two-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, Maurice Cohn currently serves as Assistant Conductor for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He is a regular guest conductor with the Chicago-based contemporary ensemble Zafa Collective and is also the Assistant Conductor of the Aspen Music Festival for the 2022 season.

Recent and upcoming engagements include the Cincinnati Symphony, Utah Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, Symphoria New York, and the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of last season also include two world premieres, Mason Bates's Philharmonia Fantastique with the DSO, and Liza Sobel’s chamber opera I DID, DID I? with the Zafa Collective. In September 2022, Maurice was a finalist in the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition, where he received the Orchestra Award.

Maurice spent two summers as a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, where he received the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize (2019) and the Aspen Conducting Prize (2021). He recently received an M.M. from the Eastman School of Music, where he worked frequently with the Eastman orchestras and OSSIA New Music Ensemble. He holds a B.M. in cello performance from Oberlin Conservatory and a B.A. from Oberlin College, where he studied history and mathematics. When not conducting or playing cello, you can find him reading mystery novels, playing tennis, or continually searching for the best podcast app.

Gil Kalish, Piano

As head of the performance faculty, Gilbert Kalish had done much to create the uniquely supportive and stimulating environment of Stony Brook's music department. Through his activites as performer and educator, he has become a major figure in American music making. A native New Yorker, Mr. Kalish studied with Leonard Shure, Julius Hereford and Isabelle Vengerova. He is a frequent guest artist with many of the world's most distinguished chamber ensembles. He was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a pioneering new music group that flourished during the 1960's and '70's. He is noted for his partnerships with other artists, including cellists Timothy Eddy and Joel Krosnick, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and, perhaps most memorably, his thirty-year collaboration with mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani. In addition to teaching at Stony Brook, he has also served on the faculties of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Banff Centre and the Steans Institute at Ravinia. Mr. Kalish's discography of some 100 recordings encompasses classical repertory, 20th-century masterworks and new compositions. In 1995 the University of Chicago presented him with the Paul Fromm Award for distinguished service to the music of our time.

Gilbert Kalish leads a musical life of unusual variety and breadth. As educator he is Leading Professor and Head of Performance Activities at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. From 1968-1997 he was a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center and served as the "Chairman of the Faculty" at Tanglewood from 1985-1997. He often serves as guest faculty at distinguished music institutions such as the Banff Centre and the Steans Institute at Ravinia, and is renowned for his master class presentations.

Mr. Kalish's discography of some 100 recordings encompasses classical repertory, 20th Century masterworks and new compositions. Of special note are his solo recordings of Charles Ives' Concord Sonata and Sonatas of Joseph Haydn, an immense discography of vocal music with Jan DeGaetani and landmarks of the 20th Century by composers such as Carter, Crumb, Shapey and Schoenberg. In 1995 he was presented with the Paul Fromm Award by the University of Chicago Music Department for distinguished service to the music of our time.