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Stella Maris, Stella Caeli, Sterna Paradisaea (2025) is a 30-minute semi-staged cantata for soprano and tenor soli, treble chorus and string quintet. This production is directed by Ben Robinson and incorporates choreography by Amy O'Brien and projections of photography by Orkney-based artist Nicki Gwynn-Jones. The text by Orkney poet Yvonne Gray celebrates the Arctic tern, an adept but now threatened survivor in a changing world. The year of the tern is presented as two seasons – summer in the south; summer in the north – as the birds span the earth, flying over 60,000 miles from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic Ocean to their breeding grounds on land in the sub-Arctic and back.

The form of the eleven-movement work is symmetrical, featuring accompanied Latin chants at the beginning and end, with alternating choruses and arias which incorporate, at times, phonetic representations of bird calls. In the central movement, a solo tern sings “the sky harps in our feathers - a morning song!” “In Come, Come! Remembered Songs!” the bird chorus sings of the growing light in the north and the urge to return for the breeding season. In “Totus pulcher Es” (You are entirely beautiful) and in “They travel from seas of ice”, soprano and tenor soloists (birders) reflect on what they know of the birds, awe and concern mingled.

The harmonic language of the music is largely tonal, incorporating modes and other scales, and the music makes full use of text painting opportunities, “crissing” and “crossing” and “soaring”.

The year’s cycle ends with silence – “the dread”– that falls when the flock is poised to take off on its return journey south after the chicks have fledged. That pause might invite questions. What lies ahead – for bird and for human – and how well will we adapt? The final chant and chorus express hope and a plea to look at and listen closely to the world around us.

- Program Note written by Sally Lamb McCune & Yvonne Gray

Totus pulcher es, sterna paradisaea,
Tu gloria continentium et marium es.
Tu laetitia ignis et aeris es.
In tenebris tempestatis luces –
alas das cordibus nostris.
Maculae mundi non sunt in te.
In terra vagus es, nauta in mari es.

You are all beautiful, sterna paradisaea –the stains of the world are not on you.
You are a wanderer, a seafarer.
You are the glory of continents and seas.
You are the gladness of fire and air.
In the storm-dark you shine –
you give wings to our hearts!

The waves of the south sing
melting ice  sprats shrimps  crabs  krill
silver shoals of sand-eels

we circle  we swing
we arc  we seize
staccato!  spicatto!

shade deepens  the slant of light shifts
it ghosts in our feathers
a suspension  a lofting  a lifting . . .

They travel
from seas of ice
soaring on currents of air
over whalebacks, teeming waves.

They seek once more
the scrape or hollow
in the earth's side;
the right place, the true place.

As darkness falls
on the sea of the south
they long for the light
in the north . . .

Sea Swallow of the Coasts –
you are Lapland tern, Polar tern,
denizen of the air, a wind-spirit –
Pickie-terno, the Medrick, the Paytrick.

On ice or on land
you are red-legs, short-legs,
Mitkotailyak, Immerquatailaq –
he-who-walks-on-his-belly.

In the air you are bell-mouth,
tintinnabuli, the trilling clapper.
Kriá . . . kriá! – Northern rattle!
Screecher, skrekker, screamer-in-the-storm.

You are Lord Spiccato, Lady Staccato.
You are crab-grabber, spratt-snatcher,
grappling hook, stabber.
A handy pair of sand-eel tongs.

Angel-winged, you are the Ash-grey tern,
the Silver tern, the Snowy lark –
the black-capped, ruddy-footed
red-nebbed squabbler.

You are the scalpel-from-the-sky,
the stab-you-in-the-face,
the loner-in-the-crowd,
the long-lived-one, the life-long-mate.

sky  sings
winds that wing us north  from seas
of spreading ice  west to east  east to west

we criss and cross the ocean  soar and feed
feed and soar  turning towards  the growing light
north!  north!  it calls

and come!  come!  remembered songs –
mating dance  trembling egg
the starring of a shell

The sky
harps in our feathers –
a morning song!

We are air! We are movement!
We are constant light.

Our journeys
are written
in our airy bones.

Our stories
are inscribed
in the skulls of our chicks.

Aeons pass
as we map the coasts –
the melting ice, the falling cliffs.

We are air! We are movement!
We are constant light.

An evening song keens
through the chambers
of our bones –

resounds in the hull
of the earth.

The sky
harps in our feathers –
a morning song!

cliffs  sing
swathes of sea-pinks  heather
berries  swarms of insects

hollows in sun-warmed soil and stones
shadow-play egg-forms
echo the solstice nest-song

we toss and tumble  high flight!  fish flight!
we tongue the air – clappers trill
a thousand calling bells!

You are a high-rise-tenant, a cliff-dweller,
a skerry-squatter, an ice-floe-sitter.
You’re a fly-by-night, a sun-seeker,
sea-stack shitter, shape-shifter.

You are high-flight and food-flight –
the swoop, the hover, the fall.
You are quill, rachis, barb and vane.
The tail-streamer, the feathering of light.

You are the summer-murmurer
among bog star and sea pinks.
You are fledglings, shell, a ruckle of stones.
You are silence. The dread. The lifting flock.

Kip, Clett and Rittoch! Ki-ti-ki-teeach!
Tu-kuthl-kwi-uk and Tiruyarak!
Tiny harp of the Atlantic maelstrom,
the Arctic and Antarctic bear-storm.

Hooded in dusk or sea-spray
you are near-sight and far-sight –
the eye that scans the myriad rainbow
for a fix on fish, star, horizon.

You are the high-wire artist
of longitude and latitude,
a shuttle in the loom of continents,
the warp and weft of wind and waves.

Stella maris, star of the sea.
Stella cæli, star of the skies.
Sterna paradisaea, tern of secret gardens –
bird of two summers, bird of light . . .

Criss-cross, criss-cross. . .
They travel such long paths

from seas of ice; criss-cross
the ocean on currents of air –

see lighted continents
drift by, vast ships in the night.

What longing draws them south?
What call we cannot hear?

But the waves round these islands grow empty –
shoals of sand eels move on.

The tern's eggs grow thin –
Do we hear tiny voices tremble inside?

Do we hear the silence fall?
Empty shells. Empty nests.

An empty place.

the ocean booms and wind-songs swell
horizons are fledged in fire
stars soar and sprangle the dark

day and night dither into equilibrium
a yearning stirs –
follow the fading sun!

we gather now  silence  stillness
the dread  that falls  before the wing-storm
that lifts  and carries us  towards the growing light.

Ubi caritas et amor, ibi spes.

Ex pulvere stellarum, in terra formamur.
Pinnulae et squamae nostrae in petra antiqua scripta sunt.
Ungulae nostrae in campestribus resonant.
Pulsus alarum nostrarum tremit in aere.

Videamus – ut audiamus. Audiamus – sic videre possumus.

Per paludem et desertum, per valles et montes excelsos,
vestigia nostra sicut fila texunt.
Fraxinus noster in Antarctica iacet, in stratis glaciei caeruleae.
Calles nostra maria et caelum turbant.

Ubi caritas et amor, ibi spes.

Gaudeamur in mundo indomito et mutabili.
Videamus luscus in hoc loco et omnia quae in eo vivunt.
Aperto aure et corde puro, audiamus verba Terrae.
Vestigia nostra hic sint mitia et benigna. Amen.

Where kindness and love are, hope is there.

From the dust of stars, we have formed on Earth.
Our fins and scales are written in ancient rock.
Our hooves resound on the plains.
Our wingbeat trembles in the air.

Let us look – so we can hear. Let us listen – so we can see.

Through marsh and desert, through valleys and high mountains,
our footprints weave like threads.
Our ash lies in Antarctica, in layers of blue ice.
Our wake trails through seas and sky.

Where kindness and love are, hope is there.

Let us rejoice in the untamed, changing world.
Let us look, clear-eyed, on this place, and all who live in it.
With open ear and pure heart, let us hear the words of the Earth.
Let our footsteps here be gentle and kind. Amen.

Kaeleigh Banda
Sofia Beaulieu
Emma Cardamone
Hope Carey
Bean Cesari
Sybella Chaine
Chloe Cramer
Isabella Cruz
Mo de Poortere
Amara Evans
Chloe Farkouh
Kirsty Ferguson
Jasmine Foster
Abinaya Ganesh
Katie May Gang
Cordelia Gilbert
Taylor Hagquist
Lusi Halaifonua

Jordyn Halper
Alexandra Ives
Andrew Kadar
Lucy Montgomery
Sabeena Mori
Ella Padilla
Regina Ramirez-Sastre
Grace Rankel
Elena Rodenborn
Kelly Rogers
Lindsay Rusakow
Margot Saganich
Katherine Sochor
Rachel Somers
Mackenzie Sturm
Lily Suchomel
Sammie Tesoriero

Rehearsal Pianist
Alexei Aceto

Sally McCune’s work has received performances across North America and Europe. Ensembles have included the U.S. Coast Guard Band, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, University of Michigan Wind Ensemble, Carolina Concert Choir, Sinta Quartet, Viridian Saxophone Quartet, Resonance Women’s Chorus, Oriel Singers, New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia, Central Band of the Canadian Armed Forces, University of Toronto Wind Ensemble and Bläserphilharmonie Aachen. She has received commissions from NYSSMA, Opera Ithaca, Cornell University, University of Georgia, Melodia, The College of New Jersey and many others. Her work has been required repertoire by music educator associations and has been featured at several CBDNA and NYSSMA conferences. McCune has been recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Fellowship), the American Composers Orchestra and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her works are published by Hal Leonard Corp., G. Schirmer, and Murphy Music Press. She has taught at Cornell University and Syracuse University and currently serves on faculty at Ithaca College.

Yvonne Gray is a writer and musician who lives in Orkney in the Northern Isles of Scotland. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh with MA (Hons) in English Language and Literature and from the University of the Highlands and Islands with MLitt (Distinction) in Literature of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

She writes poetry, gives readings, leads renga and writing workshops. She has worked with visual artists, musicians and writers in collaborative projects including Between the Terminals (with film-maker Tim Fitzpatrick for the St. Magnus Festival 2001), Shadows of our Ancestors (with Historic Scotland, 2011), Writing the North (with Edinburgh University and Shetland Museum, 2014) and Words into Music (for the George Mackay Brown Centenary, 2021).

She has received a Scottish Arts Council Writers’ Bursary and a Hi-Arts Award. Reflections, a collaboration with artist John Cumming, was shortlisted for the Callum MacDonald Memorial Award for Scottish poetry pamphlets in 2013.

Her work has been published in journals and anthologies in Scotland and beyond, including New Writing Scotland, These Islands, We Sing (2011), The Dark Horse and Beyond the Swelkie (both 2021). Other publications include Swappan the Mallimacks (2006), In the Hanging Valley (2008), Hours (2011), and Reflections (2012).

Hailed for her “diamantine high notes, witty characterization, and giddily delirious coloratura” (Boston Globe), Welsh-American soprano Rachel Schutz is known for her sensitive and evocative performances and wide range of repertoire. She enjoys a multi-faceted career which includes opera, concert, and recital performances, as well as research, publication, and teaching.



In recent seasons Ms. Schutz won first place in both the 44th NATS Artist Award Competition and the Pro Musicis Competition. She also gave her solo debut recital at Weill Hall and a world premier with the Orchestra NOW at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and Stanford’s Bing Hall, appeared in concert with Xak Bjerken on the Oneonta Concert Society series, sang Viardot’s Cendrillon and Scalia/Ginsburg with Opera Ithaca and Glass’s Les enfants terrible with Opera Parallèle, was featured on WQXR’s “Young Artist Showcase, and appeared at numerous festivals including Cornell’s Mayfest, the Mostly Modern Festival, and Yellow Barn.

Ms. Schutz has been praised for her "vibrant, convincing stage presence" (San Francisco Examiner) and "vivacious spirit" (San Francisco Chronicle) on the opera stage. Her recent opera roles have included Lise in Glass's Les enfants terribles, Thérèse in Les mamelles de Tirésias and Jessie in Mahagonny Songspiel with Opera Parallèle; Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Johanna in Sweeney Todd and Diana in Dove's Siren Song with Hawaiʻi Opera Theatre; Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Adele in Die Fledermaus and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Stockton Opera; Maguelonne in Viardot’s Cendrillon with Opera Ithaca; and Giannetta in L'elisir d'amore with the Santa Fe Opera. Other roles have included Musetta in La Bohème, Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Euridice in Orpheus ed Euridice, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Rose in A Street Scene, Gloria in Handel's O come chiare e belle, First Maid in Daphne, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and St. Settlement in Four Saints in Three Acts.

Equally at home in concert repertoire, she has performed Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Dvořák's Stabat Mater, Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra, Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre with the Stony Brook Symphony, Imbrie's Adam with the Riverside Symphony, Hayes’s Spirit Suite with DCINY, has toured the Northeast with the Boston Pops Orchestra, singing, most notably, Bernstein's "Glitter and be gay," and recently gave the premier of Zhou Long’s Men of Iron and the Golden Spike with the Orchestra NOW.

A seasoned recitalist known for her "communicative zest" (Boston Globe), Ms. Schutz has been invited to perform at prestigious venues around the world including Carnegie Hall's Stern, Zankel, and Weill Halls; the Ravinia, Ojai, Yellow Barn, Tanglewood, and Mostly Modern Festivals; the NATS National Conference; concert series around the country including the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the Honolulu Chamber Music Series, the Hawaiʻi Concert Society, the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, and the Oneonta Concert Society; and in venues around China, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand and Germany. Ms. Schutz has performed with famed artists such as Dawn Upshaw, James Levine, James Conlon, JoAnne Faletta, Keith Lockhart, Leon Botstein, Gilbert Kalish, William Sharp, and Martin Katz.

Ms. Schutz is also a passionate supporter of new music and enjoys close working relationships with many young composers and new music ensembles. She has premiered dozens of new works, including pieces by Eugene Drucker (of the Emerson String Quartet), Sally Lamb McCune, Michael-Thomas Fumai, Jeff Myers, Thomas Osborne, Zhou Long, and Peter Winkler, and has worked with composers Phillip Glass, George Crumb, Jonathan Dove, William Bolcom, Will Healy, Libby Larsen, John Musto, Brett Dean, and Augusta Read-Thomas on their music.

In addition to winning the NATSAA competition, Ms. Schutz won third prize at the 2016 Jensen Foundation competition, was a finalist in the 2016 Hans Gabor Belvedere competition, and was the recipient of the 2012 Sorel Fellowship. She has been featured on New York City’s WQXR singing Rachmaninoff and Welsh art song, Hawaiʻi's 88.1 KHPR, and Chicago's WFMT, and can be heard singing Thomas Osborne's Rumi Songs on "Elements," an Albany Records album of contemporary American music, and Cone's "Silent Noon" on an Ebb & Flow Ensemble recording of Cone's chamber music.

Beyond her performing career, Ms. Schutz is an active scholar and dedicated teacher. Her book Welsh Vocal Music: A Guide to Lyric Diction and Repertoire will be published by Routledge in April 2025. The book introduces audiences to the vast vocal repertoire of Wales and provides readers with the tools to accurately and confidently sing in the Welsh language. Previously, she published two articles on Welsh diction and art song repertoire in the prestigious Journal of Singing, and co-authored a book chapter on perceptions of linguistic style in a 2021 book for Cambridge University Press. Ms. Schutz has been an Assistant Professor of Voice at Ithaca College since 2018.

After making her professional debut at age 12 premiering John Hardy’s The Roswell Incident with Music Theatre Wales, Ms. Schutz began studying with Mark Gruett of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. She holds a BA in Music from Stony Brook University, received her MM degree from the Dawn Upshaw-run Vocal Arts Program at Bard College, completed an MA in Linguistics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and in 2016 received her DMA from Stony Brook University.

GRAMMY-nominated artist Omar Najmi splits his time between composition and performance, maintaining a busy schedule as an operatic tenor. Recent and upcoming performances include Simon in Adoration with LA Opera/Beth Morrison Projects, Handel’s Messiah with Boston Baroque and the Seattle Symphony, Enoch Snow in Carousel and Valcour in The Anonymous Lover with Boston Lyric Opera, Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw with the Spoleto Festival, Demler in Frederick Douglass with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Mr. Herz in Mozart in the Museum with Anchorage Opera, and Ruggero in La Rondine with Opera on the James. He recently made his compositional debut at the Kennedy Center, where his and librettist Christine Evans’ opera Mud Girl was premiered through Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative. He was a 2023 finalist in Atlanta Opera’s 96-hour opera project, where his and librettist Catherine Yu’s opera The Portrait received its premiere. In 2020, Najmi served as Boston Lyric Opera’s first ever emerging composer in residence, culminating in the premiere of his song cycle my name is Alondra in collaboration with Boston youth poet laureate Alondra Bobadilla. He has additionally had works commissioned by White Snake Projects, Emmanuel Music, and Juventas New Music Ensemble

Ben Robinson is the General Director of Anchorage Opera, the Artistic Director of Raylynmor Opera (New Hampshire), and the Managing Director of Lyric Fest (Philadelphia). He works as a director, librettist, educator, and arts administrator. As a stage director, he is best known for his “inspired” and “engaging storytelling” in diverse works ranging from Baroque to modern.

He directed the internationally acclaimed film, Gianni Schicchi, for Opera Ithaca in 2020, which Opera Magazine heralded as the "deftest use... of Covid-era technology as part of modern operatic reality." He was announced as a 2021 recipient of the Ewing Arts Award, which celebrates the diversity and excellence of artists in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. In February 2023, his 2022 "moving, visually daring" (Opera News) Julia Child-inspired Hansel and Gretel film joined the Opera Philadelphia Channel and was subsequently streamed at a series of outdoor events for the company in September 2023.

Directing highlights include Nabucco for the inaugural Opera Ithaca Festival, L’elisir d’amore for Anchorage Opera, a cruise ship setting of L'Italiana in Algeri for St. Petersburg Opera (nomination for Best Director, Theatre Tampa Bay), The Pirates of Penzance for Ithaca College, a soap-opera inspired conceptual production of Così fan tutte for Cedar Rapids Opera, Ariodante (First Place, Division V, National Opera Association) and Hänsel und Gretel for Temple University, Orpheus in the Underworld for Opera Ithaca and Raylynmor Opera, a suburban American Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Ithaca), a reimagined double blind production of The Medium (Amarillo Opera), a fashion-world inspired La Cenerentola (Raylynmor Opera), a new chamber production of Suor Angelica (West Texas A&M University), and the world premiere of Sally Lamb McCune's We Wear the Sea Like a Coat (Opera Ithaca/Ithaca College).

Projects for the 2024-2025 season include directing Così fan tutte for Opera Ithaca, Mozart in the Museum (his newly developed adaptation of The Impresario) and Madama Butterfly for Anchorage Opera, Cendrillon (Massenet) for Cedar Rapids Opera, A Little Night Music for St. Petersburg Opera, L'Italiana in Algeri for Opera in the Heights, and Carmen for the Bay View Music Festival.

Nicki Gwynn-Jones

Untethered Spirits

I have lived in Orkney for nine years and I spend much of my time photographing our spectacular

seabirds, their epic journeys and migrations a constant source of fascination and wonder.

Seabirds are often thought to be the souls of the dead, but I have always believed that arctic terns

are angels. I try to capture the essence of their flight, their freedom from gravity, their total mastery

of movement and their awesome control in wind of 40 mph, when I can barely hold the camera still.

I realise that I want to capture what they be, rather than what they are, to somehow find their soul

within that 4000/sec. From time to time I am rewarded with an image that moves me and I know

that perhaps I have been granted a glimpse into their untethered spirit.

One day I will arrive at the colony and the terns will be gone. The companions to my imagination,

half real, half from another realm, have left to live out their mysterious lives between the edge of

our world and theirs, always just out of reach beyond the horizon.

Until next summer, beloved nomads.

Nicki Gwynn-Jones FRPS

www.nickigwynnjones.com

Amy O'Brien's work has been presented at Vision of Sound, Society for New Music, Schwartz Center at Cornell University, ACDFA, Ithaca College, the Hangar Theatre, and the Cherry Art Space. She is a former member of The Washington Ballet under the Artistic Direction of Mary Day where she performed works by Nils Christe, Choo-San Goh, John Goding, and Krzysztof Pastor. She also performed with the Zig Zag Ballet, Bernier Dance Company, and Ballet Etudes. She is interested in how ballet dancers can deconstruct their technique and begin to listen to the "self" and the "space" to create work that is their own. Amy is an Associate Professor of Dance at Ithaca College and holds a BFA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA from Montclair State University.

Sean Linfors is an Associate Professor of Music Education at Ithaca College, where he directs ensembles and has taught choral methods, choral conducting, and choral literature. He received his undergraduate degree in trumpet performance from University of Richmond and graduate degrees in choral conducting and choral music education from Florida State University, studying with André Thomas. Prior to graduate study, he taught public school in Florida and Virginia. In 2013, he was the Guest Conductor and Clinician for the East African Choral Festival in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2016 he was semi-finalist for The American Prize, as a conductor and as director of the Tallahassee Community Chorus. In 2019 Linfors was named the Artistic Director of the Syracuse Chorale in Syracuse, New York, and in 2020, he was named to the same position by the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble in Ithaca. Ensembles under Linfors’ direction have toured Canada, Italy, and the United States, and have been featured at National ACDA Conference and regional conferences. The Ithaca College Choir, under his direction, was awarded the 2023 American Prize in Choral Performance for larger collegiate programs. He’s an active commissioner of new choral works for collegiate and community ensembles. Recent performances have included Reena Esmail’s This Love Between Us, Margaret Bonds’ Credo and The Ballad of the Brown King, and Carol Barnett’s Bluegrass Mass: the World Beloved, Locally, he has prepared choirs for Opera Ithaca and Cayuga Chamber Orchestra.

Chris Coletti is a trumpeter, arranger, conductor, and educator renowned for his trumpet virtuosity, musical nuance, and extensive body of arrangements. With a longstanding commitment to new music, he has premiered over 50 works and co-directs the Contemporary Ensemble at Ithaca College. He has also conducted the IC Gamer Symphony, Trumpet Ensemble, and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. A former member of Canadian Brass, he toured internationally for more than a decade and appears on over a dozen of the group’s acclaimed recordings.

He is Principal Trumpet of ROCO (Houston) and the Huntsville Symphony, and frequently performs as guest principal with the Saint Louis Symphony and others. His collaborations span a wide range of artists and ensembles, from Pierre Boulez to Kanye West and Jon Batiste, and he appears in the Netflix documentary American Symphony. Coletti’s students have been accepted to top graduate programs including Juilliard, New England Conservatory, and Manhattan School of Music, and now hold positions in professional orchestras, military bands, and academia.

Described by Classical Voice of North Carolina (CVNC) as an “impressive conductor…outstanding in his attention to detail and his command of the big picture”, Hong Kong-born conductor Ho-Yin Kwok is a three-time winner of The American Prize, 2021, winner of 2017-2018 Vincent C. LaGuardia, Jr. Conducting Competition and 2021 International Conductors Workshop and Competition. Recently appointed as Director of Orchestras at Ithaca College, New York, Kwok also serves as Music Director of Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in Duluth, Minnesota and Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mississippi Valley Orchestra in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Having established a nationwide professional reputation, he has served as Assistant Conductor of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and cover conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. Kwok was previously Assistant Conductor of Collegium Musicum Hong Kong and has performed in esteemed venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Musikverein in Vienna. His most recent guest conducting engagements include the New World Symphony (FL), the Syracuse Orchestra (NY), Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra (MN), Arapahoe Philharmonic (CO), Cayuga Chamber Orchestra (NY), Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra (GA), and Eastern Festival Orchestra (NC).

An avid music educator, Kwok previously served as the Director of the Duluth Superior Youth Symphony, and in the faculty of Eastern Kentucky University and University of Minnesota Duluth. His recent educational guest conducting engagements include the Connecticut All-State Orchestra, Suffolk County All-County Orchestra on Long Island, Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras, University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, and Foster Music Camp. He was invited as adjudicator for concerto competitions such as those of Minnesota Orchestra Young People's Symphony Concert Association, University of Minnesota, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville and Binghamton University.

Kwok is a first prize winner of The American Prize in opera conducting. He had served as Music Director of the Opera Theatre at University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. He enjoys conducting operas of a wide range of periods and styles, from Mozart's Idomeneo to Puccini's La Bohéme, Britten's Albert Herring, and Menotti’s The Consul. He was the instigating artistic force behind the formation of opera orchestra at Eastern Kentucky University and has collaborated professionally with Arbeit Opera Theatre and Lyric Opera of the North. In the 2021-22 season, Kwok gave one of the first performances of Laura Kaminsky’s new opera, Hometown to the World.

Known for his passion in diversifying the orchestral concert repertoire, Kwok has been involved in multiple initiatives and special projects. With the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, he created the annual Foreground Composers Series, a year-round celebration and in-depth research on an underrepresented composer. This ongoing project has led to numerous US premieres of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Ruth Gipps, and Ina Boyle, along with many other neglected composers. Kwok is also a panel member of …And we were heard, a national initiative to promote contemporary music and composers of underrepresented backgrounds. Kwok appeared as conductor for the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa.



Kwok studied conducting at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and the University of Iowa. His principal teachers are Mark Russell Smith and William LaRue Jones. He has also studied with Gerard Schwarz, Kevin Noe, Cristian Măcelaru, Giancarlo Guerrero, Kathy Saltzman Romey, Grant Cooper, José-Luis Novo and Eric Garcia

Stephen W. Kress (Pre-Concert Talk) is the founder of National Audubon Society’s Project Puffin and a Visiting Fellow of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. He previously served as Vice-President for Bird Conservation for the National Audubon Society and Director of the Hog Island Audubon Camp in Bremen, Maine. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in zoology and wildlife management from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. from Cornell in Environmental Education. He is author of many books on seabirds, bird watching, gardening for birds, and online courses.

A native of Buffalo, NY, Teagan Faran is a multidisciplinary musician focused on enacting social change through the arts. Her playing has “brought the house down” (Represent Classical) as she explores the boundaries of genre and performance. An avid collaborator, she has worked with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. Recent recording features include albums with Carlos Simon, La Martino Orquesta Típica, loadbang, and Diamanda Galás. She has had compositions featured at the NYSSMA Conference and the Persis Vehar Competition for Excellence. Also active in the world of tango music, she has performed with Victor Lavallén and the Orquesta Escuela de Emilio Balcarce, as well as at festivals across the United States.

As a soloist, Faran has performed throughout the United States, Italy, Argentina, Germany, México, and Canada, including appearances with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Uptown Philharmonic, the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra the Ann Arbor Camerata, the Williamsville East Symphonic Orchestra, the Clarence Summer Orchestra, the Amherst Symphony, the Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra, and the University of Vermont Symphony.

Administratively, she has held positions in the Marketing and Education Departments of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and Education and Concerts/Touring with Jazz at Lincoln Center. She founded Ann Arbor arts collective Red Shoe Company and worked as a teaching artist with the Kennedy Center, the University Musical Society and the Sphinx Organization.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Faran moved to Buenos Aires on a Fulbright grant. Faran was also a Turn The Spotlight Fellow, receiving their inaugural Hedwig Holbrook Prize. Faran participated in OneBeat, a fellowship in musical diplomacy, DeeDee Bridgewater’s Woodshed Network, and recently graduated from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied Contemporary Performance. She is a co-artistic director of the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble Palaver Strings, forms half of the electroacoustic duo Persephone & the Phoenix, and is an Assistant Professor of Violin at Ithaca College.



Faran plays on a 1977 Silvano Rebessi violin and “The Briar” viola by John Perrin Bean, as well as enjoying experiments with luthiers to push the boundaries of what makes a violin a violin.

Kyle Armbrust started playing the viola at age three. Since giving his New York solo debut with Kurt Masur and the Juilliard Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, he has created a multi-dimensional career performing and recording a wide range of music. The New York Times has described him as “assured, brilliant, and stylish…” and the New York Post called him “musically mature, technically sound...”

As soloist, Kyle has performed with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Lake George Chamber Orchestra, Maple City Chamber Orchestra, and Woodstock Festival Orchestra.

An active proponent of contemporary music, Kyle has worked with Elliot Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Osvaldo Golijov, Steve Reich, Charles Wuorinen, and others. He first performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2011 as part of the Tully SCOPE Festival, then again in Chicago at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and he participated in the Carlos Iturralde ICElab in February 2012. Kyle also performs with Argento Ensemble and the Orchestra of the League of Composers. In addition to his other activities, Kyle is currently the assistant principal viola of the New Jersey Symphony, principal viola of the Westchester Philharmonic, and a founding member of the Knights Chamber Orchestra. He is a substitute member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra.

Kyle’s dedication to chamber music has led to festival appearances at Aix en Provence, Caramoor, Charlottesville, La Jolla Summerfest, Marlboro, Monadnock, Moritzburg, Ravinia, Schleswig Holstein, Stillwater, and Verbier. He has performed at Bargemusic, the Gardner Museum, Freer Gallery, New York Yacht Club, Neue Gallerie, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Kyle has also worked with Herbie Hancock, Lauryn Hill, Mya, Sufjan Stevens, Sting, and made an appearance on the show "30 Rock."

Kyle received his BM, MM, and Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School where he studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Michael Tree. He has recorded for Ancalagon, Cedille, Interscope, Naxos, Ondine, and Sony. Kyle plays a Carlo Antonio Testore viola made in Milan in 1752 and plugs in with a DPA 4099V.

Greg Hesselink leads an eclectic musical life as a chamber musician, orchestral cellist and soloist. As a chamber musician, he is a winner of the Naumburg Chamber Award with the New Millennium Ensemble, and is a former member of numerous other ensembles including Sequitur, Newband (former caretakers of the Harry Partch instrument collection), the Argento New Music Project and New York Philomusica. Other ensembles he has performed with include the the Vivaldi Consort, Talea Ensemble, Flux Quartet, Speculum Musicae, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Group for Contemporary Music, American Symphony Chamber Players, and with the dance companies Cedar Lake, Mark Morris, Merce Cunningham and Nai Ni Chen. As an orchestral cellist, he was a member of the Manhattan Sinfonietta and the Bang on a Can ‘Spit’ Orchestra, as well as performing with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and American Symphony. He continues to perform with the Locrian Chamber players, the Orchestra of the League of Composers and as principal cellist of Riverside Symphony.

An active promoter of new music, Greg has premiered more than 150 works including cello concertos by Ross Bauer and Daniel Weymouth, as well as James Tenney’s Song and Dance for Harry Partch at the Donaueschingen Musiktage (a double concerto for tenor violin and diamond marimba, performed on the tenor violin). Premieres include works by Stephan Wolpe, Charles Wuorinen, Helmut Lachenmann, John Harbison, Harry Partch and the chamber version of Duke Ellington’s piano concerto. He has been the recipient of numerous awards with his ensembles, including the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, NEA, Ditson Fund, Copland and Mary Flagler Cary recording grants, CMA, Fromm, Meet the Composer and NYSCA commissioning grants. Recordings can be heard on CRI, Nonesuch, Naxos, Bridge, Koch, Neuma, Albany, Wergo, Innova, PPI and Point Records.

Greg has performed at venues and in festivals across North America, Europe, Turkey, Japan and Indonesia. Venues include Carnegie’s three halls, Alice Tully, Avery Fischer, MOMA, the Guggenheim and Metropolitan museums, the Library of Congress (100th birthday celebration for Eliot Carter), the National Cathedral, the Smithsonian Freer Gallery, Zipper Hall, the Andy Warhol Museum, Vienna’s Musikverein and Palais Lobkowitz, Philharmonie Chamber Hall (Berlin), Oji Hall (Tokyo), Salihara (Jakarta), throughout the Cappadocia region of Turkey, as well as numerous performances in Italy at the Spoleto festival with Colla Marionette, concerts with cellist Giovanni Sollima, and at the American Academy in Rome.

Greg Hesselink received his training at the Interlochen Arts Academy with Cris Campbell, the Eastman School of Music with Steve Doane and SUNY Stony Brook with Tim Eddy, as well as summer studies with Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot, Orlando Cole and Stephen Geber. He studied chamber music extensively with members of the Cleveland, Juilliard, Alban Berg, Emerson, Tokyo, Prague, Bartok and Mendelssohn String Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, Gil Kalish, Julius Levine, Jan De Gaetani and Martha Katz. A dedicated teacher his entire professional life, Greg has taught at Princeton, Sarah Lawrence, Hunter College, for 20 years at Mannes prep, and now at Ithaca College. During summers he has taught at Yellow Barn, Kinhaven, the Interharmony International Music Festival, the Summer Music Academy at Ithaca College and he regularly teaches at Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music.

Tristen Jarvis is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, composer, and teaching artist. Having witnessed powerful examples of how music can heal, empower, elevate, and inspire audiences from all walks of life, Tristen aims to transform the human condition across the myriad of spaces he engages. Present in his artistry are the tenets of joy, adaptability, resilience, versatility, imagination, and sensitivity. These qualities allow him to function as an ambassador for the arts and as an advocate for arts education being intrinsic to a healthy society.

Known for his chameleonic aesthetic, Tristen has experienced a diverse array of fulfilling performances and collaborations that demonstrate his ability to “cross-over” in today’s 21st century musical landscape. In orchestral settings he has appeared with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble X, Frisson Ensemble, and is a member of the Snow Pond Chamber Players. He can also be heard on the soundtrack of Netflix's GRAMMY Award-winning feature film Maestro written and directed by Bradley Cooper. In solo settings he has won First Prize at the Anthony R. Stefan Concerto Competition in 2014, as well as Honorable Mention at the International Society of Bassists Solo Division Competition in 2021 for his conceptual solo recital program, “Hyperlink.” In rock and pop settings, Tristen has appeared on tour with hard rock/heavy metal royalty Joan Jett and Halestorm as a supporting act alongside Mariah Formica (NBC's The Voice), as producer in recording settings with Grammy-nominated jazz and groove-music drummer Nate Smith for the music of Aaron Rizzo, as sideman with "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton, and as featured performer at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA. Equally versed on the electric bass, Tristen embodies the full breadth and scope of the skills required of the modern bassist.

Tristen earned music performance degrees from Ithaca College (B.M. ’18) studying with Nicholas Walker, and from the Cleveland Institute of Music (M.M. ’20) studying with Scott Dixon, as well as an Advanced Certificate in Orchestral Studies in 2022 as a member of The Orchestra Now while in residence at Bard College. He also studied privately from the age of 13 with Luke Baker, Principal Bass of the Vermont Symphony. Tristen has spent summers at Le Domaine Forget, Orford Musique, Wabass Institute, Peabody Bass Works, and the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America program through Carnegie Hall, all of which allowed him to work closely with renowned pedagogues such as Francois Rabbath, Paul Ellison, John Clayton, David Allen Moore, Etienne Lafrance, Tracy Rowell, Derek Zadinsky, Ira Gold, Harold Robinson, Ranaan Meyer, Eric Larson, Ali Yazdanfar, and Jeffrey Turner. He has also studied chamber music with members of the Orion, Emerson, Meliora, Dover, and Manhattan String Quartets, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Knights Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

From 2022-2023, Tristen was fortunate to serve as the Interim Double Bass instructor at his alma mater, Ithaca College, where he now serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Bass. He also teaches at Cornell University as Visiting Lecturer of Bass and the Opus Ithaca School of Music where he works with children aged K-12 and adult students. During the summer, Tristen teaches at the New England Music Camp in Sidney, Maine, and has given masterclasses and been on faculty at the Ithaca College Summer Music Academy and International Society of Bassists Young Bassists Program. He has also been a featured presenter at the 2024 Winter NYSSMA Conference.

Tristen performs on a double bass made by Keiran O'Hara in 2019, as well as a Schroetter Hybrid double bass restored by Arnold Schnitzer for solo playing. Tristen owns bows made by Jeffrey Krieger, John Norwood Lee, Bernard Walke, and David Herman. He also is a proud owner of custom bow sleeves made by Birdie Chesanek at The Bird's Nest. For electric basses, Tristen performs on a custom Dingwall Super P, as well as a Fender P-bass and Schecter Diamond P-bass. Tristen uses Ampeg, Lahney, and Carvin amplification. He is also a proud member of the International Society of Bassists.