2025 Summer Season Performer Bios
Eliko Akahori - piano
Eliko Akahori has appeared as a recitalist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist to great acclaim in the United States, Europe, and Asia. This year’s projects include a recording with Midori and A Far Cry for Midori’s ORP Project, a world premiere of Reinaldo Moya’s “It was turning in a circle (2024)” for two pianos and a recital in NY with Karl-Heinz Schütz, principal flutist in Vienna Philharmonic. Past collaborators in recitals, chamber music concerts, recordings and radio/television broadcasts include members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Chicago, Montreal, Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, among others.
In the Boston area, Ms. Akahori has also appeared in concerts with A Far Cry, Winsor Music, Monadnock Music, and has performed regularly with Cantata Singers and Community MusicWorks. Eliko received the first prize, Coleman-Barstow Award, in the 57th Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition and has performed in many festivals including the Banff Centre in Canada, IMAI in Maine, and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Eliko is currently a performance faculty and director of the music performance program at Wellesley College.
Eliko Akahori holds a Doctorate of Music in Collaborative Piano and Master’s degree in Music Theory, both from the New England Conservatory of Music and Bachelor’s degree in Composition from the Kunitachi College of music in Japan. Upon her graduation, Eliko was invited to perform for the Japanese Emperor’s Family in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.
Tommy Barth - piano
Tommy Barth is a passionate and versatile composer, arranger, pianist, and performer who fell in love with music at the age of 4, when he first began studying piano. By 11, he made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall, an early highlight in a lifelong musical journey. A multi-year winner of the Piano Teachers' Society of America Composition Competition, Tommy has also sung with the American Choral Directors Association’s All Eastern and All National Choirs, performing under inspiring conductors like Lorraine Lynch and Anton Armstrong.
After graduating from the New Jersey Governor's School for the Arts, Tommy earned a Bachelor's degree in Music Theory and Composition from Boston University, where he studied conducting and performed under the esteemed Dr. Ann Howard Jones. He later completed a Master’s degree in Conducting at the Boston Conservatory. Along the way, Tommy shared his love for vocal music as the director and arranger for collegiate and semi-professional a cappella groups like Fermata Town and the Boston University Dear Abbeys.
Today, Tommy works with Carolina Crown, a drum and bugle corps based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, where he helps develop the next generation of music educators and leaders. When he’s not immersed in music, Tommy enjoys life in Boston with his energetic and lovable puppy, Billy.
Carrie Cheron - mezzo-soprano
Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano and multi-genre contemporary vocalist Carrie Cheron is a celebrated presence on stages across New England and beyond. With a career of repertoire that knows no boundary of genre, she is highly sought-after as both a classical performer and crossover artist. Carrie has been hailed as having the “voice of an angel” with “unfeigned expression,” and the kind of musicianship that “hushed the crowded room.” Her “rich, versatile, clear voice” and “velvety warmth” can be heard while performing as a soloist and ensemble member of such beloved groups as Skylark Vocal Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, Lorelei Ensemble, Musicians of the Old Post Road, and folk/baroque collective Floyds Row, among others.
The upcoming 2025-2026 season is filled with exciting performances, including Bach’s solo cantata, BWV 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust; Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew Passion; Marti Epstein’s Mary Magdalen; Francine Trester’s Neshot Hayil, and more!
Some of the 2024-2025 season’s performances and collaborations included Neal Hampton’s new musical adaptation of Sense & Sensibility with Plymouth Philharmonic, Bach’s B Minor Mass and solo cantata BWV 54, along with additional Bach cantatas with Boston’s own Emmanuel Music; a world-premiere performance of Francine Trester’s song cycle Neshot Hayil at NEC’s Jordan Hall; Carrie’s inaugural performance with Musicians of the Old Post Road, including the modern-day premiere of Graupner’s cantata Siehe, der Herr kommt; and a solo performance with Skylark Ensemble, presenting a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol, narrated by Tony Award-winning actress Christine Baranski, which will be reprised in December 2025 and which will be accompanied by a new recording of Skylark and Ms. Baranski.
Other recent highlights include performances of Bach’s B Minor Mass, Christmas Oratorio, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch, Britten’s A Charm of Lullabies, and countless Bach cantatas with Emmanuel Music, along with a solo performance with the orchestra and chorus of Emmanuel Music at Bachfest Leipzig in 2024; with Boston Landmarks Orchestra at Boston’s Hatch Shell; a solo appearance with Boston Baroque in Vivaldi’s Gloria; Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater with the Portland Bach Experience; the east-coast premiere of Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners; Reema Esmail’s This Love Between Us; an international solo debut with Skylark Ensemble at the Holy Week Festival at St. John’s, Smith Square in London, accompanied by a live on-air performance on BBC Radio 3’s program, “In Tune”; Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae solennes de Dominica, Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Messiah, Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus, and Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil; and much more.
On the operatic stage, Carrie recently performed the roles of Amore and Valletto with Boston Baroque in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea; Doctor/Loki in Guerilla Opera’s world premiere presentation of Per Bloland’s opera Pedr Solis; and Vicki in Francine Trester’s chamber opera Florence Comes Home.
A champion of contemporary classical composition, Ms. Cheron is a regular collaborator with Boston-based composer Francine Trester, performing three of her song cycles: The Azure World, A Walk in her Shoes, and Neshot Hayil. Carrie recently joined New Gallery Concert Series for the world premiere of weavery, by composer Marti Epstein, and she will return to New Gallery with Neshot Hayil in January of 2026. She also recorded the song cycle Alice, by composer Thomas Oboe Lee and performed the cycle Ascent, by late Boston composer Christopher Montgomery.
A featured soloist on all four of Skylark Ensemble’s GRAMMY®-nominated recordings, Carrie opens Skylark’s most recently nominated album, Clear Voices in the Dark, and performed a solo, a cappella track of “Wayfaring Stranger” on Skylark’s album, It’s a Long Way. Their album, A Christmas Carol, includes a devastating arrangement of “Coventry Carol,” by Benedict Sheehan, featuring Carrie as soloist. She also performs the opening track of Skylark’s album, La vie en rose, singing the title track with Joy Schreier on piano. Additionally, she can be heard as a soloist on Lorelei Ensemble’s recent recording, love fail, and is featured on their recent recording of Jessica Meyer’s I Long and Seek After.
Ms. Cheron is particularly proud to perform with Shelter Music Boston, which presents classical chamber music concerts of the highest artistic standards, in homeless shelters and other sheltering environments in and around the Boston area. She is also a founding and core member of Eudaimonia, a conductorless period orchestra that uses musical performance to support the social and humanitarian work of partner organizations. In 2017, Eudaimonia collaborated with the students of Longy School of Music to present a fully-staged production of Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans, in which Ms. Cheron performed the title role.
As a nationally recognized performing singer-songwriter, Ms. Cheron’s original compositions and singing have been celebrated by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Great Waters Folk Festival, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, and the Connecticut Folk Festival Songwriting Contest. She has shared the stage with such acclaimed artists as Sweet Honey In The Rock and Anais Mitchell.
A dedicated educator, Carrie is an Associate Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music, where she teaches healthy vocal technique of all genres. www.carriecheron.com
Sonya Chung - violin
Sonya Chung regularly performs across North America, the U.K., Europe and Asia. She has toured and recorded with the Baltimore Symphony, The Knights and A Far Cry. Theater credits include Concertmaster positions in the first U.S. national tour of HAMILTON and its opening residency in Asia. Festivals include Tanglewood, Ravinia, Naumburg, Newport, Caramoor, Rockport and BBC Proms.
Catherine Cosbey - violin
Described by Gramaphone Magazine as “delighting with a sense of unleashed HIP fun closer to Woodstock than to Wigmore Hall,” violinist Catherine Cosbey leads a far-reaching career as a chamber musician and educator. She has been a member of the Cavani String Quartet since 2019, and has performed with the Cecilia String Quartet and the Linden String Quartet, in which she was a founding member. Her performances, described by the Strad Magazine as “polished, radiant, and incisive,” have taken her to venues and festivals across the US, Canada, and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Ottawa Chamber Fest, Detroit Chamber Music Society, Esterhazy String Quartet Festival, and Festpiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Catherine has been awarded the Gold Medal and Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the ProQuartet Prize at the 9th Borciani String Quartet Competition. Her recent album of Mozart’s Violin and Viola Duos for Leaf Records has received critical acclaim. She was the founder and co-artistic director of the Regina Chamber Music Festival from 2014-2023, and she currently serves on the violin and chamber music faculty of McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.
Carley DeFranco - soprano
Described as “sunny”, “supple” and “soaring,” Carley DeFranco gives meaningful performances in Boston and beyond. The 2024-25 Boston Lyric Opera Shrestinian Award Winner, Carley’s favorite performances include a ‘Concert in the Courtyard’ with Boston Lyric Opera at the Boston Public Library, a fully staged Les Illuminations (Britten) with Emmanuel Music and Urbanity Dance choreographed by Shura Baryshnikov, singing and dancing onstage as a siren with Boston Ballet and Lorelei Ensemble in La Mer, and the premiere of Lost Birds by Christopher Tin with VOCES 8. Her recent and upcoming performances include Mass in B Minor with Jos van Veldhoven and Considering Matthew Shepard with Craig Hella Johnson (Oregon Bach Festival), the title role in Dido’s Ghost (Emmanuel Music), Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mahler 4 (Symphony NH), La Bonne Chanson (Emmanuel Music), Handel Messiah (Worcester Chorus), Beethoven’s 9th (Lexington Symphony), Mass in B Minor (Emmanuel Music), Rossini’s Giunone (Back Bay Chorale), music from 1775 in America (Sarasa Ensemble), and her German debut at Bachfest Leipzig with Emmanuel Music. Carley is the founder of DeFranco Music LLC, which partners with local schools to offer in-school music lessons. She is a voice Instructor in Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program and offers private lessons (in-person or online) from her home studio. www.carleydefranco.com
Michael Dell’Orto - narrator
Michael G. Dell’Orto is a professional actor, director and writer who lives in Wilton Center NH with his family. He is a volunteer with the Wilton Historical Society; a Lector and Eucharistic Minister at his parish, Divine Mercy, in Peterborough; and for twelve years served as the volunteer Area Liaison in New England for Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Actors and Stage Managers. He is a proud member of both Actors’ Equity (since 1977) and SAG-AFTRA (since 1983). He is very pleased to serve Monadnock Music as a member of its Board, and is committed to the organization’s mission of bringing the highest caliber of professional musical performance to the towns and villages of the Monadnock region.
Charles Dimmick - violin
Praised by the Boston Globe for his “cool clarity of expression,” violinist Charles Dimmick enjoys a varied and distinguished career as concertmaster, soloist, and chamber musician. As one of New England’s most sought after orchestral musicians, he is concertmaster of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Portland Symphony, the New Hampshire Music Festival, and co-concertmaster of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. A frequent soloist throughout New England and beyond, Charles has garnered praise, packed houses, and received standing ovations for what the Portland Press Herald has called his “luxurious and stellar performances” and his “technical and artistic virtuosity.” Recent solo engagements have included performances with the Memphis Symphony, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Portland Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Arizona Musicfest, Chamber Orchestra of Boston, and the Boston Civic Symphony. A resident of Melrose, MA, he is currently living out the pandemic in Lisbon, NH with his wife, RIPO flutist Rachel Braude, and their daughter Chloe. Charles performs on a 1784 Joseph & Antonio Gagliano violin.
Noriko Futagami - viola
Violist Noriko Futagami performs with some of the area’s most celebrated ensembles. She is a member of the Radius Ensemble, voted “Boston’s Best Classical Ensemble of 2016” by the Improper Bostonian, as well as working with the Boston Musica Viva, Emmanuel Music, Cantata Singers and Winsor Music on a regular basis. She is principal violist for Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and section violist with Rhode Island Philharmonic. As principal violist for Albany Symphony, she has participated in several Grammy nominated recordings, winning in 2014 John Crigliano’s Conjurer/Vocalise.
Since moving to Boston in 2011, she has become a fixture of the freelance scene, performing regularly with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Odyssey Opera Orchestra and Monadnock Festival Orchestra, as well the Boston Pops, Boston Ballet and Boston Landmarks Orchestras. She is a faculty member at Brown University.
Rohan Gregory - violin
Rohan Gregory, violinist, is a native of the Monadnock Region, receiving his early musical inspiration from study with the Apple Hill Chamber Players. He has cultivated a wide-ranging expertise in chamber music, new music and world music. He is a member of the Worcester Chamber Music Society, and of the Pedroia String Quartet, which recently had its first album of new works come out on Parma Records. He spent ten years as a member of QX, a string quartet that has been in residence at Clark University, and has recorded for Albany and Centaur records and he was also a founding member for ten years of the Arden String Quartet, performing new music concerts in New York, Boston, Amsterdam and St. Petersburg, Russia.
On the world music scene Rohan has toured extensively. His travels have taken him to Europe with the Klezmatics, to Thailand with multi-ethnic flute player Abbie Rabinowitz, to India with the Indo-jazz group Natraj to the U.S. west coast with the Sophia Bilides Greek Folk Ensemble. Recently he spent ten years performing nationally and internationally with the flamenco guitarist Juanito Pascual, and around the US with the Greek Folk band Revma. Locally, Rohan is a member of the Boston Lyric Opera Company. He has also performed with the Boston Pops, the Boston Ballet, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the New England String Ensemble, the Portland Symphony, the Springfield Symphony, and numerous other groups
Rohan coached chamber music at the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts for eighteen years, and presently teaches at the St. Paul’s School in Concord NH, the Putney School in Vermont, and with the Neighborhood Strings program in Worcester. He has an extensive private studio, and spends his summers coaching at Music at Port Milford in Ontario, Canada, at the WCMS Summer Chamberfest, and at the High School Composer’s Intensive at Boston Conservatory/Berklee.
Zenas Hsu - violin
With a sound palette ranging from a ‘commanding tone’ to ‘delicate sentiment’ (Calgary Herald), Taiwanese-American violinist Zenas Hsu enjoys a vibrant career filled with chamber music, orchestral leadership, and education. He is a member of A Far Cry, a Grammy nominated ensemble in Boston and second violin principal at the Boston Ballet. He has served as guest concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Brockton Symphony, Chorus pro Musica, and Monadnock Music Symphony Orchestra. Zenas also performs regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops and Esplanade, and as a tenured member of Boston Lyric Opera.
Zenas is a founding member of Chamber Music by the Bay, a California-based interactive music series designed for schools, libraries, and public spaces. He is on faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music, and serves as a guest coach at Portland Summer Ensembles, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and Rivers Conservatory.
As an advocate of new music, Zenas has enjoyed personally working with composers such as Jorg Widmann, Carlos Simon, Philip Glass, and Lembit Beecher on commissioned or premiered works. He has premiered works also of Jungyoon Wie, Robert Honstein, Matthew Aucoin, and Jessie Montgomery.
A native of California, Zenas received his early training in the preparatory division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He was accepted at age sixteen to the Curtis Institute of Music for his Bachelor of Music degree, and received his Master of Music and Graduate Diploma degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers include Wei He, Ida Kavafian, Nicholas Kitchen, and Donald Weilerstein.
Jesse Irons - violin
Jesse Irons is an imaginative violinist and orchestral leader, celebrated for his “strongly committed and highly polished” performances. As Assistant Concertmaster of Boston Baroque and co-leader of the acclaimed chamber orchestra A Far Cry, Jesse brings a deep commitment to musical storytelling, shaping programs that captivate audiences and challenge expectations. He is a core member of The Musicians of the Old Post Road and collaborates regularly with the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel & Haydn Society, Sarasa, and Newton Baroque.
Having a penchant for combining old and new, Jesse has recently reimagined Vivaldi’s Four Seasons through the lens of climate change, using an algorithmically-modified score based on the 2050 United Nations Climate Model to provoke thought and spark dialogue on our environmental future.
Jesse happily lives in the Boston area with his musician wife Emily, face-painting daughter Isabelle, and high-fiving toddler Ennis.
Eunae Koh - violin
“Technically unflappable, a model of poise and empathy”
- Terry Blain, Star Tribune, 2020
Violinist Eunae Koh enjoys an established career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Since 2019, she was an active member of the Grammy Award-winning Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), where she regularly performed as a featured soloist and Creative Lead. From 2024-2025, Eunae served as Assistant Professor of Violin at Chapman University, where she developed a unique pedagogy curriculum, taught undergraduate violin students, and co-directed the chamber music program. During the summers, Eunae serves as faculty-artist at the Yellow Barn Music Festival’s Young Artists Program and regularly teaches masterclasses at the Seoul Central Conservatory.
Originally from South Korea, Eunae made her concerto debut at 9 years old with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra and quickly gained recognition by winning numerous national competitions. Following her Special Prize award at the Isang Yun International Competition in 2011, her international profile began to rise. After moving to the United States in 2013, she made her U.S. debut performing the Brahms Concerto with the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. Her performance of the same concerto with the Aukland Philharmonic Orchestra at the Michael Hill International Competition was acclaimed for its “beauty, bending the world to its will,” culminating in Second Prize and Chamber Music Prize awards.
At the SPCO, Eunae led solo unconducted performances of Haydn’s G Major Concerto, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, B minor Concerto, and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. She was an active multi-year member on the Artistic Vision Committee, shaping the orchestra's season programming, and as one of the first Creative Leads, curated "Romantic Landscapes with Eunae Koh," a chamber music program lauded for its programming and emotional depth by the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. She also collaborated with renowned artists Joshua Bell, Tabea Zimmermann, Richard Goode, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Abel Selacoe.
Eunae has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and Chameleon Arts Ensemble, as well as led from the concertmaster chair of the Hwaum Boston Chamber Orchestra, the New York Classical Players and the Symphony in C. Her solo and chamber appearances have taken her to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Jordan Hall and stages across Germany, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand.
Eunae earned her Doctor of Musical Arts at the Manhattan School of Music under the guidance of Mark Steinberg. Her dissertation, "The Violin Poème as Hybrid Genre," delves into the works of Ysaÿe, Chausson, and Bloch. She obtained a Master of Music and Graduate Diploma with the Presidential Scholarship at the New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University. During this time, she taught undergraduate and graduate students as a teaching assistant of Donald Weilerstein and Young Uck Kim.
Caitlin Lynch - viola
Violist and Grammy Award recipient Caitlin Lynch has performed across the globe in collaboration with artists from Itzhak Perlman to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. She is violist of the Aeolus String Quartet, and a member and co-Artistic Director of the conductorless chamber orchestra A Far Cry. Ms. Lynch’s performances as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist with orchestra, and recitalist have spanned fourteen countries across five continents - from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House to the United Nations - and include appearances with members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, and Guarneri String Quartets. Passionate about collaborations with other art forms, she enjoys performing with dancers (Mark Morris Dance Group, Wendy Whelan), artists from other musical genres (Bjork, The National), and on film (Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!). Ms. Lynch is the founder and Artistic Director of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley, a nonprofit organization that supports public school music programs and provides funds for private instrumental lessons for students for whom the cost would be otherwise prohibitive. She was an Artist in Residence at Cleveland’s Judson Manor senior living community, an intergenerational relationship that continues today and has been celebrated by CBS and NBC News, The Plain Dealer, and the New York Times. Recent and upcoming highlights include performances at the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series with the Aeolus Quartet, the Kennedy Center with A Far Cry, and BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Ms. Lynch performs on an 18th century viola made by English luthier William Forster, and thanks to the generosity of the Five Partners Foundation, a viola by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.
John McKean - harpsichord
John McKean is a harpsichordist and musicologist whose performances and scholarship bring the music of the past into the present with energy and depth. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, McKean has performed extensively throughout Europe and North America, with concert engagements bringing him to venues as far afield as the Norðurljós Hall in Reykjavík, Museu da Música in Lisbon, Fondazione Cini in Venice, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, and the Philips Collection in Washington, D.C. As both a soloist and continuo player, McKean’s repertoire extends from intimate solo recitals and chamber music to large-scale orchestral, choral, and operatic performances.
He collaborates with an array of period instrument ensembles, among them Boston Baroque, Handel + Haydn Society, Boston Camerata, Emmanuel Music, Upper Valley Baroque, Sarasa, and Apollo’s Fire. Regularly featured at festivals like Bay Chamber Concerts, the Portland Bach Experience, and the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival, he has also performed with a variety of modern groups, including A Far Cry and the Worcester Chamber Music Society, as well as the Rhode Island and Naples Philharmonics, and the Portland, Jacksonville, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras.
A faculty member at the Longy School of Music, McKean previously served as chair of its Historical Performance Department. He holds degrees in German Studies and Harpsichord Performance from Oberlin College and Conservatory, an advanced performance diploma from the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and a Ph.D. in historical musicology from the University of Cambridge. An internationally recognized expert in the history and development of Baroque keyboard technique, this area of research serves as a vital intersection between his academic and performing careers.
Having received instruction from some of the most distinguished harpsichordists of our time—including Lisa Crawford, Webb Wiggins, Robert Hill, and Gustav Leonhardt—McKean draws continual inspiration from this rich lineage of mentorship, blending stylistic integrity with expressive immediacy.
McKean regularly performs on a Flemish harpsichord of his own manufacture, reflecting his broader interest in the design, construction, and maintenance of historical keyboard instruments. Beyond the harpsichord, he is deeply engaged with the world of historical keyboard instruments in general, and the clavichord in particular. As a board member of the Boston Clavichord Society, he enjoys promoting this most intimate and expressive of keyboard instruments.
Originally from Maine, McKean draws inspiration from his home state’s juxtaposition of tradition and individualism, qualities that mirror his approach to historical performance. As both an artist and educator, he is passionate about fostering connections between today’s audiences and the rich legacy of earlier musical traditions, creating experiences that are as vibrant and engaging as they are historically informed. For more information, visit www.johnmckean.info.
Francesca McNeeley - cello
Haitian-American cellist Francesca McNeeley has received critical acclaim as a collaborator and soloist, and enjoys an eclectic career in the Boston area as a chamber musician, orchestral player, and modern music advocate. She is a core member of the twice-Grammy-nominated A Far Cry chamber orchestra, and is a frequent performer with Castle of Our Skins and the Celebrity Series of Boston. She has also performed and toured with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops orchestras as a substitute player.
Francesca graduated Princeton University Phi Beta Kappa, and went on to receive scholarships to attend the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and the New England Conservatory for her graduate degrees in cello performance. She has earned fellowships and prizes from the Tanglewood Music Center, and was a New Fromm Player for two seasons. She is a recipient of the Sphinx Organization's 2025 MPower Artist Grant in support of her research into Haitian chamber music. Francesca is dedicated to community engagement through teaching and mentoring, and serves on the faculties for the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Intensive Community Program, Project STEP, and the Charles Ives Music Festival.
Tanner Menees - viola
Born in Orange, CA in 1993, Violist Tanner Menees is forging a robust career as a chamber musician. Mr. Menees has collaborated in chamber music performances with a range of notable artists including Miriam Fried, Susan Graham, Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Kim Kashkashian, Laurence Lesser, Danny Phillips, Marcy Rosen, Mitsuko Uchida, and Donald Weilerstein.
Tanner Menees has performed internationally at festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Caramoor Evnin Rising Stars, Chamberfest Cleveland, Menuhin Festival String Academy, Edinburgh Music Festival, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, and with NEXUS Chamber Music Chicago. As a proponent of new American music, he regularly performs and records with Copland House. Tanner has performed as a soloist with the Colburn Orchestra under maestro Thierry Fischer and with Symphony New Hampshire. He is also featured in a fun video by Mike Grittani, Dreaming of Boccherini, shot in Guarneri Hall as part of the NEXUS Chamber Music Festival in 2019.
Tanner received his Bachelor of Music degree and Artist Diploma from the Colburn School, where he studied with Paul Coletti. Later he studied with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory where he earned a Master of Music degree. Tanner plays on a viola of the Tarasconi school made in Milan, Italy c. 1880 courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins.
Sergio Muñoz Leiva - viola
Chilean violist Sergio Muñoz Leiva is a versatile performer whose repertoire spans from early Baroque to music that is fresh off the press, performed on modern and baroque viola. He is a member of the Providence Baroque Orchestra and has performed as a guest artist with A Far Cry, Palaver Strings, the Rasa String Quartet, Carnegie Hall’s Link Up Orchestra, the United Nations Chamber Music Society, Orchestra of the Americas, and the Chile Chamber Orchestra in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jordan Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Teatro Municipal de Santiago, and the Guangzhou and Shenzhen Opera Houses. He is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and The Juilliard School. Dr. Muñoz Leiva is a Boston-based freelance performer; he is the Director of Chamber Music at College of the Holy Cross and serves as Music Theory Instructor at Project STEP.
Omar Najmi - tenor
GRAMMY-nominated artist Omar Najmi splits his time between composition and performance, maintaining a busy schedule as an operatic tenor. He enjoys a long-standing relationship with Boston Lyric Opera, where he has appeared in over 15 productions since his principal debut in 2013, including Enoch Snow in Carousel, Valcour in The Anonymous Lover, Nick in The Handmaid's Tale, Beppe in Pagliacci, and many more. His upcoming season includes Malcolm in Boston Lyric Opera's production of Macbeth, Arbace in Boston Baroque's production of ldomeneo, Mozart's Requiem with Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and a concert at Carnegie Hall in collaboration with hornist Radek Baborak featuring the music of MA-based composer Joseph Summer. Recent performing engagements include Peter Quint/Prologue in The Turn of the Screw with the Spoleto Festival, Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore with Bar Harbor Music Festival, Demler in Frederick Douglass with Odyssey Opera, Simon in Adoration with LA Opera, Handel's Messiah with Boston Baroque and the Seattle Symphony, Bach's St. Matthew Pasison, St. John Passion, and Christmas Oratorio with Emmanuel Music, 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, and he has additionally had works commissioned by White Snake Projects, Emmanuel Music, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and Boston Opera Collaborative. Najmi is co-founder and co-artistic director of Catalyst New Music, a Boston-based new music development and production company. Since its founding in 2022, Catalyst has commissioned and premiered two of Najmi's original operas, presented a tour of Shohreh Shakoory's children's opera Zal & the Phoenix at elementary schools throughout greater-Boston, and commissioned and premiered 15 song cycles as part of FUSE: Collaborations in Song, an annual art song initiative.
Rafael Popper-Keizer - cello
Hailed by The New York Times as “imaginative and eloquent” and dubbed “a local hero” with “silken tone and subtle attention to each note” by the Boston Globe, cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer maintains a vibrant and diverse career as one of Boston’s most celebrated artists. He is principal cellist of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Emmanuel Music, and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and a core member of many notable chamber music organizations throughout New England, including the Chameleon Arts Ensemble and Winsor Music. His 2003 performance with the Boston Philharmonic of the Saint-Saëns Concerto in A minor was praised by the Globe for “melodic phrasing of melting tenderness” and “dazzling dispatch of every bravura challenge;” more recent solo appearances include Strauss' Don Quixote with the Boston Philharmonic, Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Emmanuel Music; and the North American premiere of Roger Reynolds' Thoughts, Places, Dreams with sound/icon.
Mr. Popper-Keizer is a member of nationally acclaimed conductorless string ensemble A Far Cry, which has won recognition for both artistic excellence and its democratic model of collective decision-making at every level. In 2017, A Far Cry commissioned, premiered, and recorded a new piano concerto by Philip Glass, with soloist Simone Dinnerstein. The release of this recording was followed up a few months later by the group’s album Visions and Variations, which received two Grammy nominations. A Far Cry’s recent and upcoming performance schedule includes tours of California and Colorado, regular appearances at the Rockport Music Festival and Central Park in NYC, and a concert at the Kennedy Center in DC featuring the Tchaikovsky Serenade played from memory.
In 2019, Mr. Popper-Keizer was appointed Artistic Director of Monadnock Music, where he has been in residence every summer since 2002. Based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the central mission of Monadnock Music is to bring free concerts featuring world-class artists to the villages and towns of the region. Over the course of the festival’s more than fifty-year history, Monadnock Music has worked closely with composers including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Roger Sessions, and (in more recent years) Richard Danielpour, Dalit Warshaw, and Jing Wang.
Mr. Popper-Keizer has been featured on over two dozen recordings, including the premieres of Robert Erickson's Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, Thomas Oboe Lee's cello concerto Eurydice, Yehudi Wyner's De Novo for cello and small chamber ensemble, and Malcolm Peyton's unaccompanied Cello Piece. His most recent solo recording, on Musica Omnia, is a disc pairing two monumental works for unaccompanied cello: Zoltan Kodaly’s notoriously virtuosic Sonata for Solo Cello and Ralf Gawlick’s At the still point of the turning world, a powerful exploration of sonority and silence written for and dedicated to Popper-Keizer.
As an alumnus of the New England Conservatory (A.D. 1999, M.M. with honors 1997), Mr. Popper-Keizer studied with master pedagogue and Piatigorsky protégé Laurence Lesser; at the Tanglewood Music Center he was privileged to work with Mstislav Rostropovich, and was Yo-Yo Ma’s understudy for Strauss’ Don Quixote under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. His prior teachers include Stephen Harrison of Stanford University, and Karen Andrie at the University of California in Santa Cruz. At the age of ten he began undergraduate coursework in mathematics at UCSC, where he was accepted as a full-time student two years later.
Mr. Popper-Keizer is currently on faculty at Gordon College in Wenham, MA, and has previously taught at Philips Exeter Academy, Brandeis University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With A Far Cry, he has participated in college and university residencies nationwide, including guest lectures and presentations at Baldwin Wallace University and Connecticut College, and masterclasses at Yale University.
Amanda Romano Foreman - harp
Harpist Amanda Romano Foreman grew up in New York City and by the age of 15 had already made her debut at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. Studying with former principal Boston Symphony Orchestra harpist Ann Hobson Pilot brought her to Boston where she maintains a busy musical career. As an orchestral player, Ms. Romano Foreman can be seen
playing with the Boston Lyric Opera, Portland Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Coro Allegro, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Cod Symphony, Boston Festival Orchestra, Landmarks Orchestra and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra to name a few. She was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and has
participated in many other festivals such as the International Ensemble Moderne Academy in Austria, Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice in New York City, Assisi Music Festival in Italy and International Festival of Contemporary Performance in Boston. Ms. Romano Foreman can be heard on more than 15 albums including the Grammy award winning 2020 best opera recording of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She received her Masters degree at Boston University and Bachelors degree at the New England Conservatory both in harp performance. Aside from music, Ms. Romano Foreman loves to be outside and is usually found gardening with her two small children and husband or in the kitchen baking award winning pies and desserts which sometimes include harp shaped cookies for her students!
Mika Sasaki - piano
Praised as a “superb interpreter” (Fanfare) and for her “virtuosity… and sparkling sound” (Times Argus), pianist Mika Sasaki enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has performed across the U.S. and in the U.K., Italy, Japan, and Switzerland, appearing in venues such as the Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the Sinfonia of Cambridge, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York, and has been broadcasted on WQXR, WFMT, WCRB, KQAC, Vermont Public, and Radio Sweden.
A passionate chamber musician, Mika has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Manhattan Chamber Players, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, and A Far Cry, as well as in festivals such as Tanglewood, Chigiana, Yellow Barn, Aspen, Taos, and Music@Menlo. She is a member of Ensemble Mélange, Decoda, and Longleash. Dedicated to education and audience engagement, she has presented interactive performances at schools and community venues across the country, including residencies at String Theory, Skidmore, and Chamber Music Northwest.
Based in New York City, Mika is a faculty member at The Juilliard School, where she teaches keyboard skills, piano, and chamber music in the College, Pre-College, and Extension. She is an alumna of Peabody (B.M., M.M.), Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and Juilliard (D.M.A.). When not at the piano, she can be found tending to her houseplants, folding origami, or chasing after her cat. mikasasaki.com
Ryan Shannon - violin
Ryan Shannon is a violinist/violist based in Boston. He performs widely throughout the New England area, collaborating with ensembles of any size: from small quartets to 100 piece orchestras. He has shared the stage with A Far Cry, Celtic Woman and Johnny Mathis, as well as such masters as Yo-Yo Ma (as Asst. Concertmaster) and Andrea Bocelli. Although he specializes in the newest music of the contemporary period, frequently performing such composers as Jessie Montgomery, Paul Wianko, and Caroline Shaw, Ryan holds a deep fondness and love for the great masters, particularly Brahms, Haydn, and Beethoven. Ryan studied at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Lucy Chapman and Nicholas Kitchen. He is the Artistic Director of Heartspur Arts Festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as well as a core member of Juventas New Music Ensemble in Boston.
Ryan began his musical journey in the mountains of Colorado at five years old when his father, a pianist and singer, gave him his first violin. Sensing his love of music, his parents made it possible for him to attend the Walnut Hill School for the Arts. As a student, Ryan had the life-changing opportunity to attend the Center for the Development of Arts Leaders program at From The Top. Through this year-long partnership with the Hope Lodge, a residence for cancer patients, he learned that music can bring together those who are struggling through difficult circumstances. In recent years he has worked to bring this love to as many people as possible.
Elizabeth Schumann - piano
Dr. Elizabeth Schumann has a diverse career portfolio of projects, recordings, and performances which have brought her all over the world as recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. The Washington Post noted her playing as “deft, relentless, and devastatingly good—the sort of performance you experience not so much with your ears as your solar plexus.”
The first place winner of both the Bösendorfer International Piano Competition and the Pacific International Piano Competition, Elizabeth has won over 25 prizes and awards in other major national and international competitions, including the Cleveland International Piano Competition and the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Elizabeth was honored with the prestigious Gilmore Young Artists Award, and was highlighted in a PBS Television documentary on the Gilmore Festival. She has performed at premier venues such as the Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Bösendorfer Saal, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, and Montreal’s Place des Arts. She was featured at the Cannes Film Festival, the Gilmore Festival, Australia’s Huntington Festival, the Ravinia “Rising Stars” Series, and National Public Radio's “Performance Today”, and her recitals have been broadcast live on public radio and television in cities around the world, including Washington D.C., New York, Sydney, Cleveland, Montréal, Dallas, and Chicago.
As a dedicated chamber musician and advocate for community engagement, Elizabeth is a core member of Ensemble San Francisco, the Ives Collective, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, and the Schumann Duo. Co-founded by Elizabeth and her sister Sonya, the Schumann Duo aims to captivate diverse audiences with a unique mix of piano music, theater, literature, art, and technology. Through projects like Piano Carnival, which has distributed educational resources to over 20,000 children, and Son et Lumière, a concert series that transforms outdoor spaces with live music and video projections for audiences up to 8,000, Elizabeth strives to make music accessible and engaging, breaking traditional barriers to reach broader audiences.
Elizabeth carries on the pedagogical tradition of her teacher, Sergei Babayan, as the Billie Bennett Achilles Director of Keyboard Programs and Assistant Professor of Music at Stanford University. In this role, she integrates rigorous classical music training with principles of neuroscience, psychology, and biomechanics to empower the next generation of musicians. Her current research tackles ergonomic challenges in piano design, focusing on how variations in hand size and keyboard dimensions impact performance and injury risk, promoting safer and more inclusive piano performance practices. Elizabeth has also served on the faculty at Summer and Winter Performing Arts with Juilliard, Itzhak Perlman’s Perlman Music Program, and the Crowden Chamber Music Workshop. She is the founder and director of the Schumann Studio, a recording space in San Francisco designed to provide a personal, individually tailored recording experience for classical musicians.
Hikaru Yonezaki - violin
Praised by the Boston Globe for her “silky tone,” violinist Hikaru Yonezaki is passionately committed to connecting to the world around her, having already been heard in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. She has a strong affinity to chamber music repertoire and currently enjoys freelancing and collaborating on various projects in Boston and New York City. She continues to be inspired by Masao Kawasaki and Hyo Kang, whom she studied with at The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music.
