Featured Artists

2019-2020 Season

  • TINA BERGMANN
    TINA BERGMANN
    hammered dulcimer
  • JESSE BLUMBERG
    JESSE BLUMBERG
    baritone
  • OLIVIER BRAULT
    OLIVIER BRAULT
    violin
  • DARK HORSE CONSORT
    DARK HORSE CONSORT
    early brass ensemble
  • TYLER DUNCAN
    TYLER DUNCAN
    baritone
  • AMANDA FORSYTHE
    AMANDA FORSYTHE
    soprano
  • SUSANNA PERRY GILMORE
    SUSANNA PERRY GILMORE
    violin
  • THEO HOFFMAN
    THEO HOFFMAN
    baritone
  • BRIAN KAY
    BRIAN KAY
    lute
  • CARRIE KRAUSE
    CARRIE KRAUSE
    violin
  • RAHA MIRZADEGAN
    RAHA MIRZADEGAN
    soprano
  • DANIEL MOODY
    DANIEL MOODY
    countertenor
  • DAPHNA MOR
    DAPHNA MOR
    ney & recorder
  • MOLLY NETTER
    MOLLY NETTER
    soprano
  • JACOB PERRY
    JACOB PERRY
    tenor
  • NICHOLAS PHAN
    NICHOLAS PHAN
    tenor
  • AMANDA POWELL
    AMANDA POWELL
    soprano vocals & guest co-director
  • ADRIANE POST
    ADRIANE POST
    violin
  • ERICA SCHULLER
    ERICA SCHULLER
    soprano
  • STEVEN SOPH
    STEVEN SOPH
    tenor
  • JEFFREY STRAUSS
    JEFFREY STRAUSS
    baritone
  • ZAFER TAWIL
    ZAFER TAWIL
    oud & qanoon
  • CARINE TINNEY
    CARINE TINNEY
    soprano
  • JULIAN WACHNER
    JULIAN WACHNER
    guest conductor
  • SORAB WADIA
    SORAB WADIA
    tenor

“The U.S.A.’s hottest baroque band.” –CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE (UK)

TINA BERGMANN
hammered dulcimer

is one of the world’s leading exponents of the instrument and was described by folk musician Pete Seeger as “the best hammered dulcimer player I’ve heard anywhere.” Playing in the aural tradition as a child, she made her solo debut at age 12 and led her first string band at age 16. Since then, she has been in demand at folk festivals and has performed as soloist with several symphony orchestras. Her contradance bands, Strings & Things and Hu$hmoney, have explored traditional American and Celtic music. She can be heard on the Apollo’s Fire CDs Come to the River, Scarborough Fayre, and Sacrum Mysterium: A Celtic Christmas Vespers.

JESSE BLUMBERG
baritone

enjoys a busy schedule of opera, concerts, and recitals, performing repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque to the 20th and 21st centuries. His performances have included the world premiere of The Grapes of Wrath at Minnesota Opera, Bernstein’s MASS at London’s Royal Festival Hall, various productions with Boston Early Music Festival, and featured roles with Atlanta Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Atelier, and Boston Lyric Opera. Jesse has made concert appearances with American Bach Soloists, Boston Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, Oratorio Society of New York, Montréal Baroque Festival, Arion Baroque, Early Music Vancouver, Pacific MusicWorks, and on Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. His recital highlights include appearances with the Marilyn Horne Foundation and New York Festival of Song, and performances of Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise with pianist Martin Katz. Jesse has given the world premieres of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakers, Lisa Bielawa’s The Lay of the Love and Death, Conrad Cummings’ Positions 1956, and Tom Cipullo’s Excelsior, and works closely with several other renowned composers as a member of the Mirror Visions Ensemble.

In 2018 Jesse returns to American Bach Soloists, Opera Atelier, TENET, New York Festival of Song, Berkshire Choral Festival and Oratorio Society of New York, debuts with Portland Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music, and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He also collaborates with the Diderot String Quartet for concerts in New Hampshire, New York and Washington, D.C., and performs recitals in Iowa, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Paris.

Jesse has been featured on nearly twenty commercial recordings, including the 2015 Grammy-winning Charpentier Chamber Operas with Boston Early Music Festival. His recent releases include Bach cantatas with Montréal Baroque, Winterreise with pianist Martin Katz, Rosenmüller cantatas with ACRONYM, and St. John Passion with Apollo’s Fire. He has been recognized in several competitions, and was awarded Third Prize at the 2008 International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau, becoming its first American prizewinner in over thirty years. Jesse received a Master of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and received undergraduate degrees in History and Music from the University of Michigan. Jesse is also the founder and artistic director of Five Boroughs Music Festival, which brings chamber music of many genres to every corner of New York City.

WEBSITE

OLIVIER BRAULT
violin

hails from Terrebonne in Québec and brings communicative enthusiasm and scholarship to concerts throughout North America and Europe. In addition to directing the chamber ensemble Sonate 1704, he performs as Music Director with Les Goûts Réunis in Luxembourg, as a member of Four Nations Ensemble in New York, and as soloist with many Montréal-based ensembles including the Ensemble Caprice, Les Boréades de Montréal, Quatuor Franz Joseph, and Les Idées heureuses. He holds a Doctorate from the Université de Montréal, where he specialized in 18th-century violin repertoire. He has led workshops and masterclasses at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, CWRU, Oberlin Conservatory, Penn State University, University of Michigan, the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles and The Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He has participated in over 65 recordings, many award-winning. In 2011 he received the medal of the Assemblée Nationale de Québec for cultural contributions to his nation. Beginning in the fall of 2017, he joins the early music faculty of McGill University in Montréal teaching baroque violin.

DARK HORSE CONSORT
early brass ensemble
TYLER DUNCAN
baritone

Canadian baritone Tyler Duncan recently performed at the Metropolitan Opera as Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. At the Spoleto Festival he debuted as Mr. Friendly in the 18th-century ballad opera Flora/em>, returning the next season as the Speaker in Mozart’s The Magic Flute/em>. Other appearances have included the role of the Journalist in Berg’s Lulu/em> and Fiorello in Rossini’s Barber of Seville/em>, both at the Metropolitan Opera, Raymondo in Handel’s Almira/em> with the Boston Early Music Festival, Dandini in Rossini’s La cenerentola/em> with Pacific Opera Victoria; and Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream/em> at the Princeton Festival. Issued on the CPO label is his Boston Early Music Festival recording of the title role in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis/em>.

WEBSITE

AMANDA FORSYTHE
soprano

The American soprano Amanda Forsythe sings Euridice on the recording of Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux enfers with Boston Early Music Festival which won the 2015 GRAMMY AWARD for Best Opera Recording. She has been praised by Opera News for her “light and luster”, “wonderful agility and silvery top notes”. She was a winner of the George London Foundation Awards and was sponsored by them in her New York recital début. She also received prizes from the Liederkranz Foundation and the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation.

Amanda Forsythe made her European operatic début in the role of Corinna Il viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro which led to an immediate invitation to make her début at the Grand Théâtre de Genève as Dalinda Ariodante where she was proclaimed “the discovery of the evening” (Financial Times). She returned to the Rossini Opera Festival to perform the role of Rosalia L’equivoco stravagante and Bellini duets in the ‘Malibran’ recital at the invitation of Joyce di Donato, and, most recently, Jemmy in the new production of Guillaume Tell for which she received considerable critical acclaim.headshotyellow400

Amanda Forsythe made her débuts at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich as Dalinda Ariodante and as Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Theatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. She returned to Covent Garden to perform the roles of Manto in Steffani’s Niobe, regina di Tebe under Thomas Hengelbrock and Nannetta Falstaff under Daniele Gatti, described by Gramophone Magazine as “meltingly beautiful”. She also sang Nannetta for Opéra d’Angers-Nantes.

Amanda Forsythe made her USA stage début with Boston Early Music Festival, where her roles have included Niobe and Manto (recording) in Niobe, regina di Tebe, Aglaure in Lully’s Psyché, Venus Venus and Adonis (John Blow), Drusilla L’incoronazione di Poppea, Pallas in Eccles’ The Judgment of Paris and Edilia in Handel’s Almira, for which she received rave reviews.

Amanda Forsythe’s operatic repertoire also includes Iris Semele, Poppea Agrippina, the title role in Partenope, Amenaide in Rossini’s Tancredi, Bastienne Bastien und Bastienne, Serpina La serva padrona, Ninfa/Proserpina Orfeo (Monteverdi), Amore Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Oberto Alcina, Dafne Apollo e Dafne, Atalanta Xerxes, and roles in Les Indes Galantes and The Fairy Queen.

Amanda Forsythe created the role of Young Margarta/Nuria in Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, a role which she later repeated with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Calgary Philharmonic. She also received high critical acclaim for her début as The Angel in the North American première of Peter Eötvös’ opera, Angels in America. She has also sung world premières by John Austin and Elena Ruher, and recorded songs by the composer Ken Sullivan.

Amanda Forsythe’s concert engagements in North America have included her recent débuts at the Tanglewood Festival and Lincoln Center in the title role of Teseo with Philharmonia Baroque, and her début with Seattle Symphony in Handel’s Messiah. Other highlights have included Dorinda Orlando and Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo with Early Music Vancouver, Dafne Apollo e Dafne with Pacific Musicworks, and Haydn and Mozart arias with Apollo’s Fire, Handel arias with Portland Baroque Orchestra, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Handel and Haydn Society, and Haydn’s Creation and Messiah with the Charlotte Symphony.

Overseas major concert engagements have included Alexander’s Feast with the Ulster Orchestra and L’allegro, il perseroso, ed il moderato with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, both under Kenneth Montgomery, Rossini Arias at Gran Teatro la Fenice in Venice, Scarlatti Pastorale per la natività and arias from Messiah with the Brabants Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands, and Mahler Second Symphony with L’Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico.

Amanda Forsythe is a regular soloist with the highly acclaimed baroque ensembles Philharmonia Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, Boston Baroque and Pacific Musicworks. Her concert repertoire also includes Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, Vivaldi’s Nulla in mundo pax sincera, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Amanda Forsythe recently made her début at Seattle Opera as Iris Semele which resulted in an immediate invitation to return to sing Pamina Die Zauberflöte in 2017. In the Autumn she returns to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as Amour in Gluck’s Orfeo under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, a role she then repeats in concerts with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, before returning to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia to sing the role of Marzelline in concert performances of Fidelio. She also recently sang Poppea Agrippina for Boston Baroque. She sings Poppea L’incoronazione di Poppea, Giunone Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, and the Monteverdi Vespers for the 2015 Boston Early Music Festival.

On the concert platform, Amanda Forsythe recently made her début with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome in performances of Bach Magnificat under Sir Antonio Pappano. In January 2016 she makes her début with The Boston Symphony under Andris Nelsons in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, following a tour of Mozart Requiem and Mass in C minor with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Other forthcoming concert engagements include Messiah with Philharmonia Baroque and Kansas City Symphony, Bach Cantata 51 and Vivaldi’s Gloria with Seattle Symphony, Handel and Vivaldi Concert arias and performances and a recording of Bach St John Passion with Apollo’s Fire.

Amanda Forsythe’s recordings include the 2015 Grammy-winning CD of Charpentier’s La déscente d’Orphée aux enfers, as well as Venus Venus and Adonis, Aglaure Lully’s Psyché, and La Grande Pretresse in Lully’s Thésée with Boston Early Music Festival (all for CPO), Manto Steffani’s Niobe with BEMF (Erato), the title role in Handel’s Teseo with Philharmonia Baroque (PBO’s own label) , Mozart’s Lucio Silla: In un istante Parto, m’affretto and Messiah with Apollo’s Fire (Avie), Minerve Dorinda Handel’s Orlando with Early Music Vancouver (ATMA) and Haydn’s Creation with Boston Baroque (Linn). She also sings on the DVD recordings of the Pesaro productions of L’equivoco stravagante and Guillaume Tell as well as Manto in the Royal Opera production of Steffani’s Niobe (Opus Arte).

In Autumn 2015 her début solo recording of Handel arias with Apollo’s Fire was released on the Avie label to critical acclaim.

WEBSITE

SUSANNA PERRY GILMORE
violin

enjoys a multifaceted career as solo artist, chamber musician, and orchestral concertmaster. Performing on both modern and period instruments and versatile in diverse styles from classical to fiddling, she is hailed as a player who is both “thrilling and sensitive” by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “luminous and hypnotic” by the Omaha World-Herald, and “authentic with exquisite good taste” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Shehas frequently been heard in chamber ensembles on National Public Radio shows such as Performance Today, A Prairie Home Companion, and America’s Music Festivals.

After beginning her career as a chamber player, at the age of twenty-six Ms. Gilmore became concertmaster of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. There, as in Omaha, she frequently appeared as a soloist performing works such as Mozart’s Violin Concerto in A Major, Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, Max Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy, Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto, Ravel’s Tzigane, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. In July 2014 she performed the European premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s The Singing Rooms for solo violin, choir and orchestra in Paris, France. In May 2016 she was guest concertmaster and soloist with the Naples Philharmonic, Florida, for a baroque concert and was soloist and leader of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerti for the inaugural concert of the Tippet Rise Music Festival, Montana, in June 2016.

Ms. Gilmore has been a frequent guest violinist/fiddler with the acclaimed period music ensemble Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), with whom she appears on the CD Sugarloaf Mountain: An Appalachian Gathering(Billboard Top 10 classical bestseller) and the CD Sephardic Journey: Wanderings of the Spanish Jews (Billboard Top 10 classical bestseller) which features the early 17th-century composer Salamone Rossi. In the spring of 2017 she will perform Sugarloaf Mountain around the U.S. culminating in a performance at the National Gallery in D.C. in April.

Ms. Gilmore holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oxford University (UK), where she studied musicology and performed both early music and symphonic repertoire while studying privately with Yfrah Neaman. She spent a post-graduate year in the Advanced Solo Studies Program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Upon returning to the United States, she earned a Master’s in Violin Performance from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with James Buswell. Prior to her studies in England, Ms. Gilmore studied with Christian Teal at the Blair School of Music in the pre-college program and as a child began her violin studies with Mimi Zweig at Indiana University. On baroque violin Ms. Gilmore has studied with Robert Mealy, Cynthia Roberts, and Marilyn McDonald at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute.

Ms. Gilmore learned to play Celtic fiddle in her youth through sitting in on Irish sessions during her years in Nashville and England. In March 2016 she made her Celtic fiddle debut in Omaha on the Celtic Journey pops concerts, which she helped produce.

When not working as a classical and baroque violinist and fiddler, Ms. Gilmore spends time with her two daughters, Katy and Zoe. She performs on a 1776 Joseph Odoardi violin.

THEO HOFFMAN
baritone

Theo Hoffman is among the most refined and dynamic classical singers of his generation. Hoffman debuts this season with Seattle Opera and Opera Philadelphia, and has been seen previously at Los Angeles Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Des Moines Metro Opera.

Mr. Hoffman has concertized with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Wiener Akademie and Il Giardino Armonico at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, Marlboro Music, Orchestre National de Lille, Grand Teton Music Festival, Portland Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Music Northwest. He has appeared in recital at some of the world’s leading venues, including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully Hall.

Mr. Hoffman is the recipient of the 2018 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, as well as awards from the Sullivan Foundation, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and The Kurt Weill Foundation. Hoffman was a Grand Finalist in the 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Hoffman is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

WEBSITE

BRIAN KAY
lute

is a modern-day troubadour. He holds a Master’s degree in music from Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied lute and theorbo. He specializes in historical plucked instruments and ancient songs of various world traditions. He is a songwriter and poet, and also paints and plays a variety of percussion and wind instruments. Cleveland Classical.com called him “far-ranging,” “brilliant,” and “exciting,” and Early Music America called his work “phenomenal.” His newest album, Three Ravens, was released in January 2015.

CARRIE KRAUSE
violin

Raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, Carrie Krause performs as baroque violinist with ensembles across the country and on numerous international series. This past season, Carrie was guest artistic director and concerto soloist with Seattle Baroque in a performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. She has performed as concertmaster of New Trinity Baroque in Atlanta, as guest concertmaster of Pacific Baroque in Vancouver and the San Francisco Bach Choir, and as associate concertmaster of Apollo’s Fire. Carrie has also appeared with Chatham Baroque, New York State Baroque, Portland Baroque, Passamezzo Moderno, Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Clarion, American Classical Orchestra, and Concert Royale in New York. Festival engagements include the Leipzig Bach Festival as soloist, the Belgrade Early Music Festival in Serbia, Sastamalla Gregoriana in Finland, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Festival Dan les Jardins de William Christie, and the BBC Proms. Carrie has worked under such conductors as Jordi Savall, Ton Koopman, Richard Egarr, Nie McGegan, and Masaaki Suzuki. Carrie founded the 1-90 Collective, a baroque ensemble, which performs a house concert series across Montana, has been presented on series from Seattle to Syracuse, and was recently featured on Spokane Public Radio. She also founded Baroque Music Montana, which presents a series of community concerts in southwest Montana and a workshop on period performance. Carrie has presented classes on baroque style for the Fairbanks Suzuki Institute, Montana State University, and the Bozeman Symphony.

RAHA MIRZADEGAN
soprano

Persian-American soprano, Raha Mirzadegan is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist based in New York. Her repertoire spans the medieval chant of Hildegard von Bingen to premiering new works by living composers. She was a member of the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, where she received a Bachelor of Music. During her time at the university she studied with Gran Wilson, and was a chorister/soloist with the award-winning Chamber Singers, lead by Dr. Edward Maclary.

Raha is the founder and director of The Undercroft, a DC-based vocal ensemble dedicated to unearthing obscure works and premiering them for modern audiences. The group specializes in one-on-a-part renaissance polyphony.

This season, Raha will be performing with groups such as Clarion music society, Bridge Ensemble, Chamber Singers, and The Undercroft in venues along the East Coast.

DANIEL MOODY
countertenor

Countertenor Daniel Moody has garnered widespread acclaim for his commanding yet expressive vocal timbre and his breathtaking musicianship. Praised as having a “vocal resonance, [which] makes a profoundly startling impression” (The New York Times) and for his “vivid and powerful” voice (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), Mr. Moody is equally known for his “sweet and melancholy sound” (The Washington Post) and ability to “pierce hearts” and “utterly silence a room” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer) with his expressivity and deep connection with audiences.

Recent opera appearances include Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, the title roles in Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and L’Enfant in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges. In Mr. Moody’s most recent role as Rinaldo, he drew attention from the San Diego Story for his unusually powerful tone: “[Mr. Moody] may help to create a new operatic vocal category: Helden Countertenor.” Mr. Moody has also appeared in Mark Morris’ productions of Britten’s Curlew River and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Tanglewood Music Festival (and again at BAM in March, 2017), where the Financial Times noted his “inspired and absorbing performances”.

A proponent of early music, Mr. Moody has performed at the Boston, Indianapolis and Washington Early Music Festivals, Maryland’s Mountainside Baroque, and Boston’s Antico Moderno,and under such conductors as Stefan Asbury, Nicholas Kramer, Ken Lam, and Lyle Nordstrom. A graduate of the prestigious Yale Voxtet – resident at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music – he has performed as a soloist at such venues as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, London’s St. John’s Smith Square and, Cambridge’s Trinity College, working closely with renowned conductors David Hill, Simon Carrington, Masaaki Suzuki, and Matthew Halls. His performances have been broadcast live in concert on BBC Radio 3 in the United Kingdom, and on Boston’s WGBH, Indiana’s WFIU, WSHU’s Sunday Baroque.

Highlights of recent and 2016-17 seasons include the American premiere of George Benjamin’s Dream of the Song at the Festival of Contemporary Music at the Tanglewood Music Center, one of four vocalists in Joyce DiDonato’s Carnegie Hall opera workshop (broadcast on Medici TV), Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Handel’s Messiah with the Charleston Symphony and Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestras, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon) at the Lakes Area Music Festival (Minnesota), and engagements with Mark Morris Dance Group, Apollo’s Fire, and Boston Symphony Orchestra covering for countertenor Bejun Mehta.

Mr. Moody is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory (BM ’14) and sang with the Washington National Cathedral Choir during his years in Baltimore. He recently graduated with a Master’s Degree from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, and has won awards at the George London Competition, Handel Aria Competition, New York Oratorio Society Competition, and the Russell Wonderlic Competition.

WEBSITE

DAPHNA MOR
ney & recorder

has performed throughout Europe and the United States as both a soloist and ensemble player. Mor’s “astonishing virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune) has been heard in solo recitals in the United States, Croatia, Germany and Switzerland. She has performed as a soloist with the New York Collegium, the New York Early Music Ensemble and Little Orchestra Society, and as a member of the orchestra with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Mor was awarded First Prize in the Settimane Musicali di Lugano Solo Competition and the Boston Conservatory Concerto Competition, and has appeared in a duo with Joyce DiDonato on the singer’s promotional tour for the album In War and Peace. Devoted to new music, Mor has recorded on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, and has performed the world premiere of David Bruce’s Tears, Puffes, Jumps, and Galliard with the Metropolis Ensemble. Also active in the world music community, Mor has performed in festivals and on stages worldwide, including New York’s Summer Stage and Munich’s Gasteig. She can also be heard on Sting’s album If On A Winter’s Night for Deutsche Grammophon. Mor serves as the Music Director of Beineinu, a New York initiative dedicated to the modern cultivation of Jewish culture, and is a performer and teacher of liturgical music of the Jewish diaspora. She leads programs for the Education Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

MOLLY NETTER
soprano

Molly Netter, soprano, enlivens complex and beautiful music, both old and new, with a voice described as “crisp and clear, white yet warm” (Seen and Heard International).

Known for having “exquisite poise” (NY Times) and “[embuing] every word of the text with signification” (The Examiner), she has performed as a soloist with the GRAMMY-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Les Canards Chantants, the Clarion Music Society, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, Yale Opera, Heartbeat Opera, and Experiments in Opera, as well as with Juilliard415 at Lincoln Center, touring internationally in Japan, Singapore and Burma under Masaaki Suzuki and with the Triplepoint contemporary/jazz ensemble.

Ms. Netter holds an ad hoc Bachelor of Music degree in composition and contemporary voice from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master’s degree in early music voice and oratorio from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where she studied with James Taylor. Between degrees, she taught English in Kyoto, Japan.

JACOB PERRY
tenor

Jacob receives praise for his instincts singing in small vocal consorts in addition to his work as a soloist. He is a core tenor of the soloist-ensemble Les Canards Chantants and the chamber choir The Thirteen. Jacob can be heard singing with The Clarion Choir, ACRONYM, Piffaro, and as a featured soloist with Mountainside Baroque and Apollo’s Fire.

Born and raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, Jacob has cultivated a passion for a wide variety of music ranging from medieval folk song to the tight harmonies of vocal jazz. He has experience singing solo and chamber works by contemporary composers through engagements with Third Practice Ensemble, hexaCollective and Great Noise Ensemble.

Jacob’s 2016-2017 season includes numerous choral/solo appearances with Apollo’s Fire, a complete tour of masses and concerts in each of the Papal Basilicas in Rome, Italy with the Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and an expansive series of engagements with Les Canards Chantants including concerts in Beijing, China for the first festival of early music hosted by Central Conservatory of Beijing. In April 2017, Jacob will give recitals with artists of Tempesta di Mare in Philidelphia to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi’s birth.

Jacob is a cantor and chorister at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. He earned his B.A. in Vocal Performance from University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Jacob teaches private voice lessons in his home in Downtown Sivler Spring, MD. Use the contact form on this website request more information about bookings and teaching.

WEBSITE

NICHOLAS PHAN
tenor

Named one of NPR’s “Favorite New Artists of 2011,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognized as an artist of distinction. Praised for his keen intelligence, captivating stage presence and natural musicianship, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, in 2010 he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) to promote art song and vocal chamber music.
In the summer of 2017, he returns to the San Francisco Symphony for Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette with Michael Tilson Thomas, to the Oregon Bach Festival, to the Thüringer Bachwochen’s Weimar Bach Academy, and to Wolf Trap for Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda. Highlights of his upcoming 2017/2018 season include his debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra for Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and the Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo for Britten’s War Requiem with Marin Alsop; and returns to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philharmonia Baroque, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony for Schubert’s Mass in E-flat with Riccardo Muti, and the Toronto Symphony for performances as the title role in Bernstein’s Candide. He also serves as artistic director of two festivals next season: Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago’s sixth annual Collaborative Works Festival, and as the first singer to be guest Artistic Director of the Laguna Beach Music Festival.

Mr. Phan has appeared with many of the leading orchestras in the North America and Europe, including the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Philharmonia Baroque, Boston Baroque, Les Violons du Roy, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, and the Lucerne Symphony. He has also toured extensively throughout the major concert halls of Europe with Il Complesso Barocco, and appeared with the Oregon Bach, Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Rheingau, Saint-Denis, and Tanglewood festivals, as well as the BBC Proms. Among the conductors he has worked with are Marin Alsop, Harry Bicket, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Alan Curtis, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Charles Dutoit, Jane Glover, Manfred Honeck, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Nicholas McGegan, Zubin Mehta, John Nelson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Helmuth Rilling, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Masaaki Suzuki, Michael Tilson Thomas and Franz Welser-Möst.

An avid proponent of vocal chamber music, he has collaborated with many chamber musicians, including pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Jeremy Denk, Graham Johnson, Roger Vignoles, Myra Huang and Alessio Bax; violinist James Ehnes; guitarist Eliot Fisk; harpist Sivan Magen; and horn players Jennifer Montone, Radovan Vlatkovic and Gail Williams. In both recital and chamber concerts, he has been presented by Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, Boston’s Celebrity Series, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. In 2010, he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, an organization that promotes the art song and vocal chamber music repertoire of which he is Artistic Director.

Mr. Phan’s many opera credits include appearances with the Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Maggio Musicale in Florence, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Frankfurt Opera. His growing repertoire includes the title roles in Bernstein’s Candide, Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Fenton in Falstaff, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Lurcanio in Ariodante.

Phan’s most recent solo album, Gods and Monsters, was released on Avie Records in January. His first three solo albums, A Painted Tale, Still Fall the Rain and Winter Words, made many “best of” lists, including those of the New York Times, New Yorker, Chicago Tribune and Boston Globe. Phan’s growing discography also includes a Grammy-nominated recording of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony, the opera L’Olimpiade with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Scarlatti’s La gloria di Primavera with Philharmonia Baroque, Bach’s St. John Passion (in which he sings both the Evangelist as well as the tenor arias) with Apollo’s Fire, and the world premiere recordings of two orchestral song cycles: The Old Burying Ground by Evan Chambers and Elliott Carter’s A Sunbeam’s Architecture.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Mr. Phan is the 2012 recipient of the Paul C Boylan Distinguished Alumni Award. He also studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Aspen Music Festival and School, and is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. He was the recipient of a 2006 Sullivan Foundation Award and 2004 Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation.

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AMANDA POWELL
soprano vocals & guest co-director

has been praised for her “abundant vocal technique and infectious spirit” (ClevelandClassical.com) and enjoys a diverse career in the realms of classical, folk, and jazz. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Shenandoah Conservatory and a certificate in jazz improvisation from the Jazz in July Institute (University of Massachusetts). Ms. Powell’s solo performances with Apollo’s Fire in recent seasons have included Handel’s Messiah (mezzo soloist), Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Second Lady), Praetorius Christmas Vespers (soprano soloist), and Liza Jane in the 2013 national tour of the acclaimed Come to the River program. Her work as an internationally recognized leader in the field of sacred world music has taken her to concert halls in Italy, Spain, France, Mongolia and China. Her debut solo album, entitled Beyond Boundaries, was released in 2015 and quickly sold out on Amazon. The album explores folk and jazz traditions of cultures around the world.

ADRIANE POST
violin

formed her first quartet at age 11 and found her love of chamber music. She can be heard as leader of Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, founding member of ACRONYM Ensemble, member of Apollo’s Fire and Handel & Haydn Society, as a regular with Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra and performing with many period instrument ensembles across the US. Described as one of North America’s “brightest and best” by Early Music America, Adriane has received a fellowship from The English Concert and has performed with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie in Thiré, France, and as concertmaster for Nicolas McGegan and Jordi Savall with Juilliard 415.

Recent performances include Spoleto USA, Tanglewood, The BBC Proms and the Carmel Bach Festival. Adriane received her BM from Oberlin Conservatory and her MM from The Juilliard School’s Historical Performance program. A proud Vermonter, Adriane admits to residing happily in Brooklyn with her husband, Paul Dwyer.

ERICA SCHULLER
soprano

Praised for her lively personality, abundant charm, and luscious vocalism (Chicago Tribune), soprano Erica Schuller is a versatile performer, bringing committed artistry to a broad musical repertory. Her particular affinity for Baroque repertoire has brought her increasing attention from some of the country’s finest Early Music ensembles. Upcoming engagements include roles with The Boston Early Music Festival and a concert appearance with The Haymarket Opera Company’s Summer Workshop.

This past season, Ms. Schuller performed leading and supporting operatic roles with The Boston Early Music Festival, The Haymarket Opera Company and Opera Siam. In Boston, Ms. Schuller performed the roles of La Fortuna and Damigella in the 2015 Festival centerpiece opera L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and was praised for bringing beauty and bearing to her roles (Boston Globe). As Oriana in The Haymarket Opera Company’s production of Handel’s Amadigi di Gaula, Chicago Classical Review praised “her warm, agile soprano, full of passion and depth.” She also created the roles of Joan Strasinsky and Princess in the world premiere of the newly composed opera The Snow Dragon by award winning novelist and composer Somtow Sucharitkul, and was described as “ethereal” by Broadway World Magazine. She reprised these roles in Thailand with Opera Siam. Ms. Schuller also made her debut performance with Great Lakes Baroque this season, under the direction of renowned harpsichordist Jory Vinikour. Additional performances include a recital of English Baroque lute songs with The Church of Beethoven, a presentation of Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres through St. Chrysostom’s Church Concert Series in Chicago, and engagements with Second City Musick and Bella Voce ensembles.

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STEVEN SOPH
tenor

An active Bach interpreter, Steven has “expertly inhabited” (Chicago Classical Review) and “intoned the long, intricate and gruelingly difficult lines of the Evangelist with precision of pitch and rhythm” (Palm Beach Arts Paper) in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Chicago Chorale and Seraphic Fire (Mendelssohn version). He performed “with a tenor ranging from feathered intimacies to powerful, glinting top notes” (The Dallas Morning News) and was deemed “first-class across the board” (Chicago Classical Review) as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with the University of North Texas’ Collegium (1725 version) and Chicago Chorale. Steven appeared in Bach’s B minor Mass with Symphony Orchestra Augusta, the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, and Chicago Chorale; Bach’s Magnificat with Voices of Ascension, True Concord Voices & Orchestra, and Seraphic Fire; and employed “brilliant clarity and warm color” (South Florida Classical Review) in Bach’s Easter Oratorio with Seraphic Fire. Additionally, Steven has performed as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Bach Society of St. Louis, Brown University, and Boston University’s Marsh Chapel; as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Boston University’s Marsh Chapel and Concord Chorale; performed arias in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Voices of Ascension, Chicago Chorale, and Colorado Bach Ensemble; arias in Bach’s St. John Passion with Spire Chamber Ensemble (Kansas City) and Musikanten Montana; and brought his “excellent lyric tenor” (South Florida Classical Review) to BWV 34 and The Cleveland Orchestra, under Franz Welser-Möst.

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JEFFREY STRAUSS
baritone

an “authoritative artist” (CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER) whose performances have been praised as “captivating” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) and “serenely beautiful” (NEW YORK TIMES), has appeared with period-instrument ensembles including The Consort of Musicke with Emma Kirkby, the Taverner Consort under Andrew Parrott, Tafelmusik, the Handel & Haydn Society (Boston), the Newberry Consort (Chicago), Seattle Baroque, and Tempesta di Mare (Philadelphia). This season marks his 25th with Apollo’s Fire. He made his professional debut at 17 with the Buffalo Philharmonic and studied voice in Paris with Gérard Souzay. An accomplished stage actor, favorite projects have included the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Jesus and Pilate in the Bach Passions, Méphistophélès in Berlioz’ Damnation of Faust, and Apollo in Handel’s Apollo e Dafne. His 2014 portrayal of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof was hailed by the BUFFALO NEWS as “masterful.” His longstanding commitment to contemporary music includes numerous appearances with the Contemporary Chamber Players (Contempo) in Chicago and performances of Ned Rorem’s song cycle Aftermath, Lawrence Axelrod’s The Immanence of Angels and Ophélia, Paul Schoenfield’s Camp Songs, a jazz oratorio with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and premieres of works by Bernstein, Babbitt, Shapey, and Cipullo. CD recordings with Apollo’s Fire include the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610; Handel’s Messiah; Sephardic Journey, which debuted in 2016 at #2 on the BILLBOARD World Music chart; Bach’s St. John Passion; and Apollo’s Fire’s most recent CD release, Christmas on Sugarloaf Mountain.

ZAFER TAWIL
oud & qanoon

is an accomplished Palestinian musician and a virtuoso on ‘oud, qanun, violin, and Arab percussion. He performs across the U.S. and in the Middle East with such musicians as Sting as well as celebrated world music artists. He was a featured composer and performer in acclaimed director Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-nominated film “Rachel Getting Married” and is composing and performing for Demme’s next film project, Zeitoun. Zafer is continuously exploring the boundaries of Arab music, and often performs collaborative concerts involving classical Indian and Persian music, as well as Jazz fusion. He has been a guest teacher at workshops on Arab music at many institutions and universities across the United States. A native of Jerusalem, he resides in New York City.

CARINE TINNEY
soprano

Carine Tinney began her musical studies, learning the violin and piano at Douglas Academy Music School, in Milngavie, Scotland. She studied at the Edinburgh Napier University under Andrew Doig and Paul Keohone, where she received the Harold Gray Prize for Solo Singing. Moving to Germany in 2011, Carine continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, Germany where she graduated with two master’s degrees in Lied singing and in Opera under Gerhild Romberger and Manuel Lange.

During her time in Germany, Carine has worked as a soloist with renowned conductors Helmuth Rilling, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Jeannette Sorrell and Jonathan Cohen. Concert highlights include Mahler’s 2nd Symphony at the Berlin Philharmonie, Bach’s St Matthew Passion at Centennial Hall, Rock Island (USA), Händel’s Messiah with the St Paul’s chamber orchestra (USA) and Mozart’s C moll messe at the Kreuzkirche, Dresden. In 2018, Carine made her debut at the Händel Festspiele in Halle under the direction of Attilio Cremonesi and the Camerata Bern. She also performed a new opera “Are these waves” from Scottish composer Jane Dickson at La Monnaie, Belgium.

WEBSITE

JULIAN WACHNER
guest conductor

SACRED BACH

Grammy-nominated conductor Julian Wachner is one of North America’s most exciting and versatile musicians, sought after as conductor, composer, and keyboard artist. As Director of Music and the Arts at New York’s historic Trinity Wall Street, Wachner oversees an annual season of over 900 events, including Trinity’s numerous and varied concert offerings, series and festivals, museum expositions, dance and theatre performances, poetry and literary readings, and educational/outreach initiatives in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn in partnership with New York City’s public school system.

At Trinity Wall Street, Wachner serves as the Principal Conductor of NOVUS NY (Trinity’s resident contemporary music orchestra), and the Trinity Baroque Orchestra & Choir of Trinity Wall Street, recently nominated for a 2012 GRAMMY award for its recording of Handel’s complete Israel in Egypt. He also is the director of Bach at One, Trinity’s weekly performances of the Cantatas of J. S. Bach. Performances this season with TWS include Bach’s Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, B-minor Mass, the complete late works of Igor Stravinsky (April 2013), and the complete non-operatic works of Benjamin Britten (Fall 2013). To open the 2012-13 Season, Wachner conceived of and directed Trinity’s Twelve in 12 Festival celebrating the Pulitzer Prize in music. Of this festival, Steve Smith noted in Time Out that “some ideas seem so utterly obvious and right at a glance that you wonder why it took someone so long to hatch them. ‘Twelve in 12’ is that kind of notion…Mark your calendars, and give thanks.”

Wachner is also Music Director of the Grammy Award-winning Washington Chorus, with whom he won ASCAP’s Alice Parker award for adventurous programming in 2011. Wachner has also made memorable guest appearances with such major organizations as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Montreal and Pittsburgh Symphonies, Spoleto Festival USA, the Handel and Haydn Society, Glimmerglass Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, New York City Opera and the Boston Pops. A Baroque specialist, he was the founding Music Director of the Boston Bach Ensemble and the Bach Académie de Montréal, besides serving as Artistic Director of International Bach Festivals in Boston and Montreal. In 2011 he founded New York City’s newest music festival, The Twelfth Night Festival of Early Music, most recently presented in collaboration with Gotham Early Music Society (GEMS) and featuring many of New York’s leading baroque and renaissance ensembles.

In 2010, Wachner made New York City Opera history when he was selected as both conductor and composer at the company’s annual VOX festival of contemporary opera leading to the invitation to be the sole conductor of this Festival in 2012. His original music has been variously described as “jazzy, energetic, and ingenious” (Boston Globe), having “splendor, dignity, outstanding tone combinations, sophisticated chromatic exploration…a rich backdrop, wavering between a glimmer and a tingle…” (La Scena Musicale), being “a compendium of surprises” (Washington Post), and as “bold and atmospheric”, having “an imaginative flair for allusive text setting” and noted for “the silken complexities of his harmonies” (New York Times.) The American Record Guide noted that “Wachner is both an unapologetic modernist and an open-minded eclectic – his music has something to say.” E. C. Schirmer publishes his complete catalogue, comprising over 80 titles.

Wachner’s performances inspire uncommon praise. The New York Times pronounced his Trinity Wall Street debut “superbly performed” and, this season, noted that the ensemble’s annual Lincoln Center presentation of Handel’s Messiah was “led with both fearsome energy and delicate grace…a model of what is musically and emotionally possible with this venerable score.” Of his interpretation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, according to the Boston Globe, “there was genius here and no mistaking it.” Anne Midgette, of The Washington Post, declared recent Wagner and Verdi performances “exhilarating,” commenting: “Julian Wachner knows how to draw maximum drama from a score,” and noted that he was “emphatic and theatrical and so at home in opera that he could bring out the requisite sense of drama.” Following his account of the Messiah at the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns observed: “Few conductors have drawn such focused, committed, and meticulous music-making as Julian Wachner. … [He] built the music, line by line, as an architectural edifice, serving both the music’s emotional and more purely aesthetic elements.” As a result, Stearns “couldn’t help fantasize that [Wachner] might do an annual Philadelphia Orchestra festival of Bach and Handel.”

An award-winning organist and improvisateur, Wachner’s solo recital at the Spoleto Festival USA featured an improvised finale that inspired one reviewer to conclude: “This stupefying wizardry was the hit of the recital, and it had to be heard to be believed” (Post and Courier, South Carolina). As a concert pianist, in his recent Kennedy Center Rachmaninoff performance, the Washington Post noted “Wachner dazzled with some bravura keyboard work, both in the rhapsodic accompaniments to the songs and…in the highly virtuosic transcription of the Dances.”

Wachner’s recordings are with the Chandos, Naxos, Atma Classique, Arsis, Dorian, Musica Omnia, and Titanic labels.

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SORAB WADIA
tenor

With his ethnically ambiguous looks and his nearly three-octave range Sorab Wadia has sung music from the 11th century to pop and rock via oratorio and opera and taken on an array of characters from – in alphabetical order – Algeria, Afghanistan, Brunei, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, and the United States. He relishes resisting the clutches of typecasting.

Most recently he played CL Chawla in the world premier of Mira Nair’s new musical, Monsoon Wedding at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and reprised his role of Shylock #1/Gratiano in Karin Coonrod’s critically acclaimed production of The Merchant Of Venice at Peak Performances in Montclair, New Jersey.

The 2014-2016 seasons brought two wonderful collaborations with Karin Coonrod, her production of The Merchant of Venice in Venice, Italy, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Ghetto, and The Tempest at LaMama, an appearance on Madame Secretary, a guest spot on Blacklist: Redemption, and a leading role in the film The Spectacular Jihad of Taz Rahim.

Nothing thrills Sorab more than collaborating with writers and composers to create new roles in fresh-off-the-press plays and musicals. He’s been lucky to have birthed some deliciously colorful characters: The Sultan of Nubai, the world’s richest man, in Niko Tsakalakos and Janet Allard’s Pool Boy, at Barrington Stage; Hussein al-Mansour, the beleaguered middle-management terrorist in Benjamin Scheuer and Zoe Samuels’ Jihad! The Musical on London’s West End; and Raj Dhawan, the grandiose, if sadly over-the-hill, Bollywood hero in Ayub Khan Din and Paul Bogaev’s Bunty Berman Presents… off-Broadway with The New Group.

Some of the new plays he has premiered recently include: The American premiere of the English translation of Évelyne de la Chenelière’s Bashir Lazhar, a haunting story of an Algerian immigrant to Quebec, at Barrington Stage; Stephanie Liss’s Faces of War with BIMA, NY; Fear Up: Stories from Bagdad and Guantanamo at the NY Fringe; Big Shoot by Koffi Kwahulé at The Lark, and Anuvab Pal’s Chaos Theory with Pulse Ensemble Theater off-Broadway.

Sorab performs a one-man play of Khaled Hosseini’s novel, The Kite Runner, which has been touring the U.S. for the past seven seasons, with international hops to Canada and India. The novel was adapted by Wynn Handman, a veritable guru of New York theater, for his company, American Place Theater.

He is relieved to announce that he has popped his Law & Order cherry on SVU and done the requisite guest spots on 30 Rock and Chappelle’s Show. He dreams of being the lead on a sitcom – something he believes he was put on earth to do – so, feel free to make him offers!

Born in Bombay, India, to a pair of highly talented and artistic people, Sorab has never known life without music, drama, and art. His mother, Coomi, a graphic artist and conductor of the globetrotting Paranjoti Chorus, was prepping and conducting Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony up until nine days before he was born. His father, Nariman, was a maverick: jewelry designer, electronics engineer, composer…did pretty much whatever he set his mind to.

Sorab went to the United States to study piano at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, got his Masters there. After the briefest of careers as a classical pianist he began to pursue opera and theater at the University of Tennessee, where he got a second Masters. Two degrees not satisfying him, he went on to study the Meisner technique with master-teacher Maggie Flanigan at her studio in NYC; two years of intense study with Ms. Flanigan have profoundly changed his approach to acting. He is now based back home in Bombay, but will jump on a plane for a gig at the drop of a hat. In show business, home is where the laptop is.

Infected with an unquenchable case of wanderlust, he travels whenever he can – 62 countries and counting – and prefers couchsurfing and hostels to hotels when he’s on holiday. Besides English, he speaks – in order of proficiency – Italian, Gujarati, Hindi, German, French, with smatterings of Marathi, Spanish and Urdu. Other hobbies include: photography, painting, hiking, gardening, knitting, and dreaming about having a dog and a small farm.

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