This season, mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford returns to the Metropolitan Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, and will be presented in recital by the Frick Collection in New York. She also appears in two special projects with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: performances of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, and performances of Schumann's Paradies un die Peri directed by Peter Sellars. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she made her debut there as Laura in Luisa Miller, and has since appeared in more than 140 performances with the company. Also an active concert performer and recitalist, she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Utah Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and Milwaukee Symphony orchestras, and at the Hollywood Bowl and the Ravinia, Tanglewood, Grand Teton, Vail, Tucson Desert Song, Britt, and La Jolla Summer Music festivals. She has been presented in recital by the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. She has appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's Met: Live in HD series broadcasts of Anna Bolena, Das Rheingold, Gotterdämmerung, The Magic Flute, Nixon in China, Manon Lescaut, and Il Trittico. Her recordings include Handel's Messiah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and Beethoven's Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. A native of Sandy, Utah, Ms. Mumford holds a bachelor’s degree from Utah State University.

Ken Noda is Musical Advisor for the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. He is a regular guest coach at the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and the Marlboro Music Festival. Since 2020, he has coached a 3-year cycle of Mozart’s da Ponte operas in Salzburg conducted by Andras Schiff. He studied piano with Daniel Barenboim, and in his career as a piano soloist, he has played with the Berlin, Vienna, New York, Israel, and Los Angeles Philharmonics; the London, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago Symphonies; and the Cleveland Orchestra, L'Orchestre de Paris, and Philharmonia Orchestra of London. Conductors he has worked with include Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Rafael Kubelík, Erich Leinsdorf, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, and André Previn. He has collaborated in chamber music with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Nigel Kennedy, Cho-Liang Lin, and the Emerson String Quartet, and as vocal accompanist to Kathleen Battle, Hildegard Behrens, Maria Ewing, Aprile Millo, James Morris, Kurt Moll, Jessye Norman, Matthew Polenzani, Dawn Upshaw, and Deborah Voigt. He was born in October 1962 in New York City to Japanese parents.

Taiwanese-American violinist Richard Lin continues to gain international prominence since his Gold Medal prize at the 2018 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. Following his June 2022 Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium recital debut, New York Concert Review asserted, “Richard Lin. Remember the name. For he has everything required to take the world by storm.” He has collaborated with numerous orchestras and performed at celebrated concert venues throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. He is a laureate of the Sendai, Joseph Joachim, Singapore, and Michael Hill International Violin competitions and has just joined the faculty of the National Taipei University of Education. He opened the 2022–23 season as soloist with the Chippewa Valley Symphony and Hong Kong Sinfonietta. He appeared in recitals in Indianapolis, Washington, DC, and Baton Rouge. Passionate about chamber music, he continues to perform with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, at many music festivals, and on tours of Asia. In the spring of 2023, he released a new album with pianist Thomas Hoppe on the Azica label featuring his Carnegie Hall program with works by Vitali, Richard Strauss, John Corigliano, and Frolov. Born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in Taiwan, Lin graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Aaron Rosand and Lewis Kaplan, respectively.

Violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow into a family with a well-established musical tradition. His concerto debut came at the age of eight and in the same year he moved to the UK to study at the Menuhin School. Last season he debuted at Vienna’s Musikverein with the Tonkünstler Orchester, made return visits to Anima Musicae Budapest and Russian Philharmonic Novosibirsk and appeared with the Sitkovetsky Trio at festivals throughout Spain, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany. Recent concerto performances include appearances with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Moscow and St Petersburg Symphony Orchestras, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. He directs and performs as a soloist regularly with chamber orchestras, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players, New York Chamber Players, Camerata Zurich, and most recently with the Romanian Sinfonietta. He is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Trio, which regularly performs throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The trio’s fourth disc for BIS Records, Ravel’s Piano Trio and Saint-Saëns’s Second Trio, was released to great critical acclaim in July 2021. Sitkovetsky is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and plays the 1679 ‘Parera’ Antonio Stradivari violin, kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society by a generous sponsor.

Violinist Daniel Phillips enjoys a versatile career as a chamber musician, solo artist, and teacher. A graduate of Juilliard, his major teachers were his father Eugene Phillips, Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas, Nathan Milstein, Sandor Végh, and George Neikrug. Since winning the 1976 Young Concert Artists Competition, he has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Houston, New Jersey, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Yakima symphonies. He appears regularly at the Spoleto USA Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Chesapeake Music Festival, the International Musicians Seminar in England, Marlboro Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, where he is co-artistic director. He has served on the faculty of the Heifetz Institute and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar at Stanford. He was a member of the renowned Bach Aria Group and has toured and recorded in a string quartet for Sony with Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma. A judge in the 2022 Leipzig Bach Competition and 2018 Seoul International Violin Competition, Phillips is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Bard College Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. He lives with his wife, flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, and their two dachshunds on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Romanian-born cellist Mihai Marica is a first-prize winner of the Dr. Luis Sigall International Competition in Viña del Mar, Chile, as well as the Irving M. Klein International Competition, and is a recipient of Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. He has performed with orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, Xalapa Symphony in Mexico, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Jardins Musicaux Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, the Louisville Orchestra, and the Santa Cruz Symphony in the US. He has also appeared in recital performances in Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Holland, South Korea, Japan, Chile, the United States, and Canada. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed at the Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk, and Aspen music festivals where he has collaborated with such artists as Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, André Watts, and Edgar Meyer. He is a founding member of the award-winning Amphion String Quartet. A recent collaboration with dancer Lil Buck brought forth new pieces for solo cello written by Yevgeniy Sharlat and Patrick Castillo. He recently joined the acclaimed Apollo Trio. Marica studied with Gabriela Todor in his native Romania and with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded master's and artist diploma degrees. He is an alum of CMS's Bowers Program.

Educator, entrepreneur, and youth advocate Joseph Conyers—Principal Double Bass of The Philadelphia Orchestra—has spent the whole of his career as a multi-faceted 21st-century artist whose innovative work in music education and access has been recognized internationally. Awards for his celebrated initiatives include the Sphinx Organization’s Medal of Excellence (2019), the organization’s most prestigious recognition; the Theodore L. Kesselman Award from the New York Youth Symphony (2019); the C. Hartman Kuhn award (2018), the highest honor bestowed upon a musician of the Philadelphia Orchestra; and Musical America’s 30 Top Professionals: Innovators, Independent Thinkers, and Entrepreneurs (2018). In 2015, he was the inaugural recipient of the 2015 Young Alumni Award from his alma mater, the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer. During the summer of 2021, he was profiled on PBS in an Articulate feature that highlights his work as Founder and Vision Advisor of Project 440, an organization that helps young people use their interest in music to forge new pathways for themselves and ignite change in their communities. He is the Music Director of Philadelphia’s All-City Orchestra, which showcases the top high school musicians of the School District of Philadelphia. He was named the Director of the Young Artists Orchestra for the prestigious Boston University Tanglewood Institute in 2020. A frequent guest clinician and speaker presenting from coast to coast, Conyers serves on the double bass faculty of The Juilliard School.

Tara Helen O'Connor is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique, and colorful tone spanning every musical era. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, she was the first wind player to participate in CMS’s Bowers Program. She regularly appears at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Spoleto Festival USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Mainly Mozart Festival, Music from Angel Fire, the Banff Centre, Rockport Music, Bay Chamber Concerts, Manchester Music Festival, the Great Mountains Music Festival, Chesapeake Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. She is the newly appointed co-artistic director of the Music From Angel Fire Festival in New Mexico. She is a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape, the legendary Bach Aria Group, and is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble. She has premiered hundreds of new works and has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet, St. Lawrence Quartet, and Emerson Quartet. She has appeared on A&E's Breakfast for the Arts, Live from Lincoln Center and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, CMS Studio Recordings with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Bridge Records. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, she is an associate professor at Purchase College. Additionally, she is on the faculty of Bard College, Manhattan School of Music, and is a visiting artist at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Ontario.

Clarinetist Sebastian Manz has been praised for his “enchantingly beautiful intonation and technical prowess” by Fono Forum. He has performed as a soloist with major European orchestras such as the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Germany. On the chamber music stage, he has given performances at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Beethovenhaus Bonn, and has appeared at festivals including the prestigious Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern and the MDR Musiksommer in Germany, collaborating with artists like Sebastian Studnitzky, Sarah Christian, Julian Steckel, Danae Dörken, the Danish String Quartet, and the Armida Quartett. At the ARD International Music Competition in 2008, he won not only first prize in the clarinet category, which had not been awarded for 40 years, but also the coveted Audience Prize and other special prizes. He is Principal Clarinet of the SWR Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart. He is also active in the “Rhapsody in School” organization founded by Lars Vogt, which is committed to bringing classical music into schools. His recording A Bernstein Story was awarded with the Opus Klassik award in 2020. He recently released his recording of clarinet concertos by Carl Nielsen and Magnus Lindberg, as well as a recital recording of works by Brahms and Schumann with pianist Herbert Schuch. Manz was born in Hanover, and his teachers include the acclaimed clarinetists Sabine Meyer and Reiner Wehle. He is an alum of CMS's Bowers Program.

Called “superb” by the Washington Post and “stunningly virtuosic” by the New York Times, Peter Kolkay is the only bassoonist to receive an Avery Fisher Career Grant. In addition to performing with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he regularly appears at the Music@Menlo and Bridgehampton summer festivals, and has performed on the Emerald City, Tertulia, and String Theory series. He actively engages with composers in the creation of new music for the bassoon and has premiered solo works by Joan Tower, Mark-Anthony Turnage, and Tania León, among others. His 2022–23 season included the premiere of a new work for bassoon and piano by Reinaldo Moya, and the release of two recordings: an album of contemporary works performed with the Calidore Quartet, and the Christopher Rouse Bassoon Concerto with the Albany Symphony. He is a member of the IRIS Collective in Germantown, Tennessee, and has also served as guest principal bassoon of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. A dedicated teacher, he is Associate Professor at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and has given master classes throughout the United States and Mexico. Kolkay is an alumnus of CMS’s Bowers Program, and holds degrees from Lawrence University, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University. A native of Naperville, Illinois, he currently calls the Melrose neighborhood of Nashville home, and is the recipient of a 2022–23 Individual Artist Fellowship in music performance from the Tennessee Arts Commission.

Brandon Ridenour is a stylistically diverse trumpet soloist, collaborative artist, composer, and arranger. Recognized as “heralding the trumpet of the future” (Chicago Sun-Times) and for his “full-bodied, atmospheric arrangements” (New York Times), he began learning about the wonders of music at age 5, studying piano under the tutelage of his father. This morphed into “tootelage” when he picked up the trumpet in 5th grade band class in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Upon graduating from the Juilliard School, he immediately began touring the world with the Canadian Brass and embarked on a solo career. He is also an active composer/arranger, writing in a wide variety of styles for various instrumentations and artists. He has won competitions ranging from the International Trumpet Guild Solo Competition to the American Composers Forum. Emphasizing the role of performer-composer, he assembled a group of similar-minded musicians based in Brooklyn called Founders. He has played with a diverse array of musicians including Jon Batiste, Sting, James Taylor, Marvin Hamlisch, Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Esperanza Spalding, Bruce Cockburn, John Williams, and esteemed ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, the Knights, Orpheus, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and many others. Ridenour is on faculty at Manhattan School of Music and the New School, where he is passionate about developing a new model of education for a well-rounded, progressive musician of the future.

Weston Sprott enjoys an exciting career that includes orchestral, chamber, and solo performances. He is a trombonist in New York’s Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, of which he has been a member since 2005. He has performed with several of the world’s leading orchestras and music festivals and has been a featured soloist throughout the United States, Europe, South Africa, and Asia. He is Dean of the Preparatory Division at the Juilliard School, leading the Juilliard Pre-College and Music Advancement Program. A dedicated and tireless teacher, he holds faculty positions at Juilliard Pre-College and Bard College. He regularly serves on the faculties of numerous summer programs and appears frequently as a guest teacher at conservatories, universities, and other leading programs such as the New World Symphony and The Orchestra Now. He is an active speaker, writer, and consultant for diversity and inclusion efforts in classical music, and is a recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the Atlanta Symphony Talent Development Program’s Aspire Award. Sprott is the Board Chair of the Friends of SICMF, a member of the Bronx Arts Ensemble’s Artistic Advisory Board, and a member of the Avery Fisher Artist Program's Recommendation Board.

The first percussionist to be chosen for The Bowers Program, Ayano Kataoka is known for her brilliant and dynamic technique, as well as the unique elegance and artistry she brings to her performances. Together with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the American Museum of Natural History, she gave the world premiere of Bruce Adolphe's Self Comes to Mind for cello and two percussionists, based on a text by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, and featuring interactive video images of brain scans triggered by the live music performance. She presented a solo recital as part of the prestigious B to C (Bach to Contemporary) recital series at the Tokyo Opera City Recital Hall, which was broadcast nationally in Japan on NHK television. Other highlights include a performance of Steven Mackey’s Micro-Concerto for Percussion Solo and Chamber Ensemble at Alice Tully Hall, a theatrical performance of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale at the 92nd Street Y with violinist Jaime Laredo and actors Alan Alda and Noah Wyle, and performances of Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion at the Chamber Music Society with pianists Emanuel Ax and Yoko Nozaki. Her performances can be also heard on Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, New World, New Focus, and Albany recording labels. A native of Japan, Kataoka began her marimba studies at age five, and percussion at 15. She received her artist diploma degree from Yale School of Music, where she studied with marimba virtuoso Robert van Sice. She is currently a full professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst.