Born in Austin, Texas and raised in Altadena, California, Carmen Bradford grew up with music in her home and in her heart. It was only natural that Carmen would follow in the footsteps of her great family legacy being the daughter of legendary trumpeter/composer Bobby Bradford and world renowned vocalist/composer Melba Joyce. Her grandfather Melvin Moore sang with Lucky Millender’s Big Band in the 1940’s making Carmen the third generation of incredible musicians. She has carved out a place in music history for herself and is playing an integral role in this uniquely American art form called jazz.

Carmen was discovered and hired by Mr. Count Basie and was the featured vocalist in the legendary Count Basie Orchestra for nine years. She has since performed and/or recorded with: Wynton Marsalis, Shelly Berg, John Clayton along with the Clayton Hamilton Orchestra, Nancy Wilson, Doc Severinsen, Tony Bennett, James Brown, Patti Austin, Byron Stripling, Dori Caymmi, George Benson, Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams, DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the National Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and countless artists around the world. Carmen performed on two GRAMMY Award winning albums with the Basie band in the 1980’s and later collaborated on a third GRAMMY Award winning album, Big Boss Band, with guitarist George Benson in 1991. Her soulful voice warmed the hearts of Americans through the celebrated performance of the classic duet, “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” on the Johnny
Carson Show that same year.

Carmen began another chapter in her illustrious career as a solo artist with her critically acclaimed debut album, Finally Yours (Evidence Records) in 1992. The 1995 release of her second solo album, With Respect, (Evidence Records) established the Atlanta-based singer as one of jazz music’s most diverse and exciting vocal stylists proving to the world that Carmen Bradford was a unique voice in jazz in her own right.

Carmen teamed with singer/composer Kenny Rankin for the Benny Carter Songbook Project making history once again. As Carmen looked around the room she exclaimed “What an honor!” upon seeing many faces of music history involved in the making of this special album. Some notable attendees were Joe Williams, Ruth Brown, Bobby Short, Peggy Lee, Shirley Horn, Jon Hendricks, Diana Krall, Dianne Reeves, among others. Carmen was chosen to sing Key Largo for this GRAMMY Award-winning album. Her performance on The Benny Carter Songbook marked Carmen’s
fourth studio collaboration reaffirming her stardom.

On occasion, Carmen has loaned her talented voice to stage productions and the music of Hollywood films. She sang on the haunting soundtrack for Oprah Winfrey’s Beloved, and recently starred in the title role of Duke Ellington’s Folk Opera Queenie Pie at the University of Texas, Butler School of Music.

At present, Carmen Bradford is doing it all whether it’s a duo concert with Shelly Berg, Big Band with the ladies of DIVA, or her new favorite, performing with Symphony Orchestras around the world. Carmen Bradford’s body of work reflects a vast depth of musical experience and technical brilliance. She is also recognized for the overwhelming passion she brings to the lyric.

Praised for her “bountiful gifts and passionate immersion into the music she touches” (The Plain Dealer), Chinese pianist Fei-Fei is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and a top finalist at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. She continues to build a reputation for her poetic interpretations, charming audiences with her “passion, piquancy and tenderness” and “winning stage presence” (Dallas Morning News).

Her burgeoning career includes a number of prominent concerto engagements in the 2017-18 season, including performances with the American Symphony Orchestra at the Bard Music Festival, the Buffalo Philharmonic, Long Beach Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Denver Philharmonic, Knoxville Symphony, and a return engagement with California’s Pacific Symphony for a special performance celebrating the Chinese New Year.  This season, Fei-Fei also performs in recital in ten states across the United States as well as nineteen cities in China.

In addition to her summer 2017 performances at the Bard Music Festival, recent festival highlights include Bravo! Vail Valley, Music at Menlo, Busan International Music Festival (Korea), Nantucket Musical Arts Society and the Highlands Chamber Music, Music Mountain and Lake George Music Festivals.

Fei-Fei was showcased prominently as a Cliburn finalist in the documentary film, Virtuosity, about the 2013 Cliburn Competition, which premiered on PBS in August 2015, and she has also been featured numerous times on New York’s WQXR radio.

Career concerto highlights in the US include the Fort Worth Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Corpus Christi Symphony, Austin Symphony, Anchorage Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, and the Juilliard Orchestra.  Internationally, she has performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Germany’s Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, and in China with the Shanxi and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestras.  In December 2016, she performed the world premiere of Shaosheng Li’s piano concerto Behind the Clouds with the China National Symphony at Beijing Concert Hall.  She has worked with such prominent conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Michael Stern, Jeffrey Kahane, Carl St. Clair, Leon Botstein, Randall Craig Fleisher, John Giordano, Yongyan Hu, and En Shao.

Fei-Fei has performed in recital at Alice Tully Hall as the winner of Juilliard’s 33rd Annual William Petschek Recital Award.  Other notable recent recitals in the US include her Weill Recital Hall debut at Carnegie Hall, Gilmore Rising Stars (Kalamazoo, MI), the Smithsonian American Museum in DC, SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center and The Cliburn’s spring 2015 Chopin Festival, and in Europe at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall and the Louvre.

She is a member of the Aletheia Piano Trio, which debuted at the Kennedy Center in February 2014 as part of its Conservatory Project, and performs across the US and in Asia. Deeply committed to sharing her joy for music and connecting with communities, Fei-Fei also engages students and community audiences through frequent school and outreach concerts and master classes.

Born in Shenzhen, China, Fei-Fei began piano lessons at the age of 5. She moved to New York to study at The Juilliard School, where she earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees under the guidance of Yoheved Kaplinsky.

Twenty-six-year-old American violinist Benjamin Beilman is recognized as one of the fastest rising stars of his generation, winning praise in both North America and Europe for his passionate performances and deep rich tone which the Washington Post called “mightily impressive,” and The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence.” The Times also praised his “handsome technique, burnished sound, and quiet confidence [which] showed why he has come so far so fast.” Following his performance of the Sibelius Concerto at the Montreal Competition, the Strad described his performance of the slow movement as “pure poetry.”

In recent seasons, Mr. Beilman has appeared in subscription with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and returned to play with them at the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival, and, last Summer, at Saratoga. He also made his debut in recital at the Berlin Philharmonie, and appeared with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and with Orchestra St. Luke’s at Alice Tully Hall.  He has recently appeared both in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium with the New York Youth Symphony and Weill Hall, for his recital debut, in a program that included the premiere of a new work by David Ludwig commissioned for him by Carnegie Hall. Mr. Beilman also previously performed with the Basel Symphony, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Eugene Symphony, and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Abroad, Mr. Beilman has appeared as soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and Sir Neville Marriner, with l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and with the Malaysian Philharmonic and Hans Graf. He has also appeared in recital internationally at the Louvre, Tonhalle Zürich, Wigmore Hall, and Festpiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Mr. Beilman is a frequent guest artist at festivals including at Music@Menlo, Music from Angel Fire, and Chamber Music Northwest as well as at the Bridgehampton, Marlboro, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Sedona Chamber Music Festivals.  Mr. Beilman collaborates abroad at the Kronberg Academy in Frankfurt, Spectrum Concerts Berlin, the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and at the Young Concert Artists Festivals in Tokyo and Beijing.

Mr. Beilman is the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, a 2012 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a 2012 London Music Masters Award.  In 2010, he won First Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and First Prize in the 2010 Montréal International Musical Competition. In 2009, he was a winner of Astral Artists’ National Auditions.  Beilman recorded Prokofiev’s complete sonata for violin on the Analekta label in 2011.

Mr. Beilman studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago, Ida Kavafian and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music, and Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy. Mr. Beilman plays an Antonio Stradivari violin kindly loaned to him through the Beares International Violin Society.

For nearly a decade, the virtuoso violinist Caroline Goulding has performed with the world’s premier orchestras, in recital, and on record and has blossomed from “precociously gifted” (Gramophone) 13-year-old soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra to “a skilled violinist well on her way to an important career” (Washington Post).

Remerging from a sabbatical from concertizing to focus her attention on meditative practices and the merging of meditation and music, Caroline will reopen the 2018 season with the release of her third album on Clives Records since her GRAMMY-nominated and chart-topping debut recording on Telarc in 2009. A prize of the Sommets Musicaux De Gstadd’s Prix ierry Scherz, this recording embodies Korngold’s luscious Violin Concerto and Mozart’s exuberant A major Concerto with the Berner Symphonieorchester led by conductor Kevin John Edesui. Last season’s release of Caroline’s album with pianist Danae Dörken on the ARS label including works by Schumann, Enescu, and Dvořák celebrated a nomination for the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik in the Chamber Music.

Since her 2006 Cleveland Orchestra debut, Caroline has appeared as soloist with the Symphony Orchestras of Toronto, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Boise, Victoria, Denver, Milwaukee, Stamford, Pasadena, Alabama, the National Symphony, Florida Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in North America. She has also appeared extensively in Europe and Asia with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Netherlands Philharmonic, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. She has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall, the Tonhalle-Zurich, the Louvre Museum, KKL-Lucerne, Beethoven-Saal Stuttgart, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A past participant of the Marlboro Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and Interlochen Arts Academy, Caroline enjoys connecting with others through chamber music masterpieces.

Widely recognized by the classical music world’s most distinguished artists and institutions for her “vibrant and intensely musical” playing (Cleveland Plain Dealer), Caroline was a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2011 and in 2009, she won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and was the recipient of the Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship. She has also garnered significant attention from music and mainstream press, appearing on NBC’s Today, MARTHA and Germany’s Stars von Morgen hosted by Rolando Villazón. Caroline has also been heard on NPR’s Performance Today, From the Top, and SiriusXM Satellite Radio.

Caroline has studied with Christian Tetzlaff, Donald Weilerstein, Paul Kantor, Joel Smirnoff and Julia Kurtyka. She plays a violin made by Brooklyn-based maker Sam Zygmuntowicz.

There are very few true living legends in the world of classical music, few who have sustained greatness and grown throughout their lives. Pepe Romero is such an artist. He has been honored by kings, heads of state, and major institutions-the accolades continue to pour in. But to Romero, his most important contribution has been reaching the common man. He has communicated the richness and beauty of the classical guitar to millions of people throughout the world. He has, indeed, become an ambassador of classical music, and, correspondingly, of the classical guitar.

But this gift did not just appear out of nowhere. Pepe is the second son of one of the greatest guitarists that ever lived—Celedonio Romero. And he is brother to two more musical phenoms—Celin and Angel Romero. But perhaps we should start at the beginning…

Pepe was born in Málaga, Spain, in 1944. In those days, following the devastating Spanish Civil War (1936‒1939) and during the Second World War, Spain was in desperate economic straits. Basic survival was the primary challenge. Yet, despite this, Celedonio Romero and his remarkable wife, Angelita, instilled in all three of their children a love of music that transcended the profound misery surrounding them.

By age seven, Pepe set foot on the concert stage for the first time, at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Sevilla. And now, more than sixty years later, he continues to mesmerize audiences throughout the world. During that time, he has given literally thousands of concerts worldwide, many with the remarkable Romero Quartet, and many as a solo instrumentalist. He has worked with almost every major conductor and has to his credit more than 60 recordings (among which are 20 concerto recordings with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, with both Neville Marriner and Iona Brown).

Pepe Romero has premiered works by some of the finest composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Joaquín Rodrigo, Federico Moreno Torroba, Lorenzo Palomo, Padre Francisco de Madina, Paul Chihara, Enrique Diemecke, Ernesto Cordero, and, most poignantly, Celedonio Romero, have written compositions for Pepe. Always a champion of music by composers in earlier periods of music history, he has also delved into rare archives to re-explore lost pieces by Fernando Sor, (world premiere and recording of Fantasie in D minor), Mauro Giuliani (world premiere recordings of Concerto No. 2 in A major and Concerto No. 3 in F major and Variations and Polonaise, op. 65), Francesco Molino (world premier recording of Guitar Concerto in E minor, op.56), Ferdinando Carulli (world premiere recording of Guitar Concerto in E minor, op. 140), Johann Kaspar Mertz, Luigi Boccherini, (world premiere recording of all 8 guitar quintets) and others.

In 1992, Pepe Romero performed on a groundbreaking laser disc of the Concierto de Aranjuez with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. He played a prominent role in the major film documentary Shadows and Light: Joaquin Rodrigo at 90, which received numerous plaudits worldwide (including the Chicago International Film Festival, International Emmy Awards, and San Francisco International Film Festival). In 2005, the Romero Quartet recorded Concierto vasco para 4 guitarras y orquesta by Francisco de Madina (written for the Romeros) with the Basque National Orchestra on a Claves release (entitled Aita Madina). A prominent recording entitled The Romeros: Generations, features premieres of works by Jorge Morel (such as El Maestro, dedicated to Celedonio) and by Pepe himself, Recuerdos del pasado. In the spring of 2005, a solo recital release called Corazón Español became available on the CPA Hollywood Records label. Shortly thereafter, on the same label, came, another invaluable recital recording. In the summer of 2008, Pepe Romero recorded a splendid solo guitar-vocal work by Lorenzo Palomo, with internationally recognized Spanish soprano Maria Bayo. It includes the song cycles Mi jardín solitario (with texts by Celedonio Romero) and Madrigal and Five Sephardic Songs and was released on the NAXOS label in 2009 along with Palomo’s Concierto de Cienfuegos with the Romeros Quartet and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting the Seville Royal Symphony Orchestra. Celebrating their 50th anniversary and released in 2009, is a recording by the Romeros for Sony´s RCA Red Seal Label entitled Los Romeros: Celebration. In November 2011, Deutsche Grammophon released Christmas with Los Romeros featuring the Romeros and Christmas favorites. A new Spanish solo guitar CD Spanish Nights performed by Pepe Romero includes a premiere recording of Suite Madrileña No. 1 by Celedonio Romero and was released June 2012 by Deutsche Grammophon.  In November 2012 Pepe Romero received a Latin Grammy Nomination for “Best Classical Album” for his recording of Concierto festivo by Ernesto Cordero. Celebrating his 70th birthday DECCA released an 11 CD set of recordings entitled Pepe Romero: Master of the Guitar. Recent recordings include a CD entitled Aloha España featuring guitar and ukulele performances with Daniel Ho. Released in October 2016 by Dacapo Records is a historic live performance DVD of Concierto de Aranjuez with his great life-long collaborator and friend, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro Romero’s many accomplishments include: world premieres of Rodrigo´s Concierto andaluz (with the Romero Guitar Quartet), Concierto madrigal (with Angel Romero), and Concierto para una fiesta (written for Pepe Romero); Federico Moreno Torroba’s Diálogos entre guitarra y orquesta (Pepe was personally chosen by Torroba and Andrés Segovia for the world recording premiere of this work dedicated to Segovia with an extended guitar cadenza written especially for Pepe), Concierto Ibérico by Torroba (written for and performed by the Romeros), Concierto en flamenco by Torroba was premiered in Málaga (performed by Pepe with Angel Romero conducting); and Lorenzo Palomo’s Concierto de Cienfuegos (with the Romero Quartet) and Nocturnos de Andalucía (both released on the Naxos label). Of the many guitar concertos by his father, Celedonio Romero, Pepe has performed the world premieres of Concierto de Málaga, Fiesta Andaluza and El Cortijo de Don Sancho. Other premieres include Troubadour Music for four guitars and orchestra by Morton Gould, Concierto vasco and Concierto flamenco by Francisco de Madina, Concierto festivo by Ernesto Cordero, Christmas Suite for four guitars and chamber orchestra by Massimo Paris, Concierto a Celedonio by Enrique Diemecke, Concierto Mariachi by Michael Zearott and the guitar concerto, Zareh, by Loris Tjeknavorian. He also revived the great orchestral work Metamorfosi de concert by Xavier Montsalvatge, with Gianandrea Noseda, and premiered as well as recorded the Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra with Trumpet Obbligato by Paul Chihara, with Neville Marriner and the London Symphony. In April 2014, Pepe Romero performed the German premiere in the Berlin Philharmonic of a new work by Lorenzo Palomo – Fulgores – for violin, guitar and orchestra. Upcoming projects include premieres of new guitar concertos by the wonderful Italian composer, Massimo Paris and by the imminent Spanish composer, Jose Peris Lacasa.

In the United States, he has appeared with leading symphony orchestras in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, New York, and Los Angeles, as well as with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and Boston Pops. European ensembles with which he has appeared include the Academy of St. Martins in the Fields, Dresden Philharmonic, London Symphony, la Accademia Santa Cecilia di Roma, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, I Musici, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Hungarica, Solisti di Zagreb, Hungarian State Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra, Spanish National Radio Television Orchestra, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Hamburg Philharmoniker, L’Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, New Moscow Chamber Orchestra, American Sinfonietta, and Bournemouth Symphony—among many others.

In addition, he has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Sir Neville Marriner, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jesús López-Cobos, Eugene Ormandy, Antoni Ros-Marbà, Josep Pons, Arthur Fiedler, Lawrence Foster, Enrique Jordá, Andre Kostelanetz, Leonard Slatkin, Phillipe Entremont, Odón Alonso, Morton Gould, Michael Palmer, Guillermo Figueroa, Michael Zearrot, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, Pedro Halffter, and Christoph Eschenbach.

Pepe Romero has always felt, along with his father and brothers, that the sharing of one’s art is a personal responsibility. Mr. Romero has served as Professor of Guitar at the University of Southern California, University of California at San Diego, Southern Methodist University, and the University of San Diego. Every summer at the Celedonio Romero Guitar Institute, currently held at Oklahoma City University, the Romeros conduct an intensive guitar workshop including master classes, private lessons, student concerts and a final concert featuring the students performing with the Romeros. Pepe has conducted master classes at the Salzburg Summer Academy, Córdoba Guitar Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival. In 2004, he was appointed Distinguished Artist in Residence at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. His newly revised guitar method “La Guitarra” was published and released by Tuscany Publications in 2012. Currently he is finalizing a teaching video that discloses the principles of the Pepe Romero guitar technique.

Pepe Romero holds honorary doctorates in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of Victoria, British Columbia. In June 1996, he received the “Premio Andalucía de la Música,” the highest recognition given by his native land for his contribution to the arts. In addition, His Majesty, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, has knighted Pepe and his brothers into the Order of “Isabel la Católica.”

A biographical documentary about the Romeros appeared on PBS in 2001 entitled Los Romeros, the Royal Family of the Guitar.” Following this production, German television released another brilliant documentary about the Romeros entitled Los Romeros, the Dynasty of the Guitar.  In 2007, the Romeros received the President’s Merit Award from the Recording Academy, producers of the GRAMMY Awards, for their significant contributions to the music world and professional career achievements.

Randall Gremillion is a former Metropolitan Opera Regional Finalist and winner of the Jan de Gaetani Prize at the the Naumburg Competition in New York. He was an Apprentice Artist at Indianapolis Opera and then spent five years in the cast of Phantom of the Opera in San Francisco before turning to Engineering and helping to raise his four amazing children with his wife Kathleen.

Kathleen and Randall, both members of Pacific Chorale, currently give recitals and are section leaders at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Newport Beach.

Praised by the Orange County Register as being “resonant and warm” and by the classical music site Bachtrack as “a ringing stentorian tenor”, Hawaii native Nicholas Preston, is in demand as a soloist in Southern California and beyond, having performed throughout California, and touring as a soloist in France, Italy, and Spain. He has been a member of Pacific Chorale since 2002, and has frequently appeared as a soloist with the chorale as well as with Pacific Symphony. Nicholas currently resides in Brea, with his wife Dr. Kathleen Preston and their daughter Zelda.

I-Chin “Betty” Feinblatt, Mezzo-Soprano, is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton in Vocal Performance and Music Education. She currently sings professionally with Pacific Chorale, the John Alexander Singers and First Presbyterian Church in Old Town Orange. Ms. Feinblatt has performed as a chorister and soloist with Pacific Chorale on numerous occasions, most recently as the mezzo soloist in Duruflé’s Requiem in March 2009 and an alto soloist in Bach’s St. John’s Passion in April 2009. Among her Southland solo performances was her performance as alto soloist of “Messiah” with The National Children’s Choir formally known as The Paulist Chorister at The Broad Stage of Santa Monica in June 2009, and The Camerata Singers of Long Beach in Dec. 2009.

Ms. Feinblatt also was one of the guest artists of “Organica” a concert at UCLA’s Royce Hall with organist Christoph Bull in April 2009. Ms. Feinblatt is a frequent guest of “Organica”. In June 2008, her performance in “Organica” was reviewed by Charles Lonberger in The Beverly Hills Outlook: “Best of all the guest artists… who vocally caressed art songs by Fauré and Gounod with a low, velvety dark yet strong and sturdy instrument… She was a wonder and a revelation this night.”

Ms. Feinblatt was a featured soloist in the world premiere of The Passion of Ramakrishna by Phillip Glass at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in September 2006. She was also the mezzo soloist in Bach’s Mass in B Minor at the Orange County Performing Arts Center with the John Alexander Singers in October 2004. Ms. Feinblatt has been a vocal music teacher at Fountain Valley High School since spring 2007. She currently studies with voice teacher Monika Bruckner in Sherman Oaks and has coached with Dr. Kathleen Roland-Silverstein in Studio City.

Countless theater, television, film and comedic endeavors have pushed David Alan Grier’s career to remarkable heights and his ability to excel across all mediums and contexts is a testament to his inherent sense of comic timing and creative drive. The three-time Tony and GRAMMY Award nominee was trained in Shakespeare at Yale where he received an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. Grier has enjoyed many accolades and awards throughout his career, not the least of which was his inclusion on Comedy Central’s list of the “100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.”

On the big screen, David Alan Grier was recently seen starring in PEEPLES, produced by Tyler Perry, opposite Kerry Washington and Craig Robinson. Grier made his film debut in STREAMERS (1983), directed by Robert Altman for which he won the Golden Lion for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. He also appeared in the Wayans Brothers’ spoof movie DANCE FLICK (2009).

Grier’s television work is highlighted by a turn as principal cast member on the Emmy Award winning In Living Color (1990–1994) where he helped to create some of the show’s most memorable characters, DAG (2000–2001) and Life with Bonnie (2003) which earned an Image and Golden Satellite nomination. David created, wrote and executive produced a show for Comedy Central called Chocolate News (2008). Last fall, David starred in THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM, a Hallmark Channel adaptation of Paul Curtis’ 1996 Newbery Award-winning novel by the same name. Grier recently wrapped shooting a starring role as ‘Principal Carl Gaines’ in a new series for CBS, Bad Teacher.

Grier began his professional career on Broadway as Jackie Robinson in The First, for which he earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and won the Theatre World Award (1981). He then joined the cast of Dreamgirls before going on to star opposite Denzel Washington in A Soldier’s Play, for which both actors reprised their roles in the film adaptation, A SOLDIER’S STORY (1984).

In 2009/2010 Grier starred in David Mamet’s acclaimed play RACE opposite James Spader and Kerry Washington at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway for which he received his second Tony Award nomination. Grier received the third Tony Award nomination of his career in 2012 for his performance in the “stand-out role of the rakish, drug-dealing Sporting Life” (NY Times) in The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess. Grier received his first GRAMMY nomination when the cast recording of The Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess received a 2013 GRAMMY Award nomination for Best Musical Theater Album.

Maestro Paul Polivnick is a prominent figure on the world stage, conducting fine orchestras across the United States, Europe and Asia.

In recent seasons he has focused on guest conducting, continuing long associations with the National Orchestra of Lille, France and Symphony Silicon Valley in San Jose, California for performances and recordings. Other notable recent engagements have included a production of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, return engagements with the orchestras in Barcelona, Spain, Bucheon and Gwangju, Korea and Portland, Maine and debuts with the UNAM Orchestra in Mexico City and the new orchestra in Boca del Rio. On the educational front, Paul conducted a filmed concert with the Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic.

Currently the Music Director and Conductor Laureate of the New Hampshire Music Festival, Paul was also its Music Director from 1993-2009 enjoying both critical and popular success. Due to his energetic and inspired leadership, the Festival season expanded, the orchestra roster grew, the first commercial recording, “Summer Lightning” was met with enthusiasm and high praise, and ticket sales went over the 100% mark. Musicians came from near and far to live closely together for six weeks each summer creating musical magic, renewing friendships and recharging their energies.

From 1997-2002 Polivnick served as Music Director of the Oberlin Conservatory Orchestras while maintaining an active schedule of national and international guest conducting engagements.

Prior to that he served as Music Director of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra for eight years, during which time the season grew from 40 to 46 weeks. His talent, charisma and energy were very much in evidence at the ASO’s debut at the Kennedy Center in 1988, which resulted in an impressive review in the Washington Post praising… “a fine collection of musicians who gave a bright, precise, energetic and highly enjoyable performance. After three seasons under conductor Polivnick, the ASO seems to be leaving its regional status to claim national attention.” This national attention was further enhanced by the production of a series of critically acclaimed commercial recordings.

From 1988-1993 Polivnick was the Principal Conductor of Harmonia Classica of Vienna, Austria, a composers’ society devoted to “beautiful new music.” This post enabled him to conduct concerts and recordings in all of the principal Viennese halls. The tonal qualities of these great musical spaces have become an inseparable part of Maestro Polivnick’s “sound.”

In the spring of 1987, Mr. Polivnick was nominated for the Seaver Award, an award given annually to the most outstanding young conductor in the USA. In August of the same year, he made his European debut in Portugal with the Gulbenkian Orchestra. Since that time, he has been seen on many podiums abroad including those of the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Austrian Radio Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, National Orchestra of Lille, France, Orchestral Ensemble of Paris, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Russian Philharmonic of Moscow, Kiev Camerata, Brno Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra London, Ontario, UNAM Symphony Orchestra of Mexico City, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and all of the leading orchestras in Korea: the KBS Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Korea Symphony, and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Busan, Bucheon, Daejon, Taegu and Gwangju.

Polivnick has also guest conducted over 40 orchestras and opera companies in the USA including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Silicon Valley in San Jose, California, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, San Diego Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Central City Opera, Santa Barbara Grand Opera and Charleston Opera.

Maestro Polivnick conducted the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from 1981-85, first as Associate Conductor and then as Associate Principal Conductor. During those four years, Paul conducted an amazing 360 concerts with a vast amount of repertoire while serving in the demanding role of spokesman to the community-at-large for the orchestra. One of the highlights of his time in Milwaukee was a performance of Messiaen’s monumental “Turangalila Symphony” that was broadcast on 300 classical radio stations nationwide through the WFMT network. This performance prompted the composer to write a personal letter to maestro Polivnick praising the performance as “truly remarkable” and his direction as “magnificent!”

Prior to the MSO, he held a similar title and post with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for three years. While in Indianapolis he was popularly received by its critics, audiences and musicians. He conducted subscription and Bach series concerts, regional touring engagements, Youth Concerts, the “Sunday Night Pops” series, outdoor concerts and special events. He was also the very popular host of the TV show, “Symphony Backstage”.