When Ana Gasteyer steps up to the mic, she evokes the swagger of an era when a lady ruled a nightclub and an audience knew they were in for good time. The patter is real, the themes adult; the lyrics are timeless, and the music swings like crazy!

From songs like One Mint Julep and Proper Cup of Coffee to a surprisingly smooth rendition of Carrie Underwood’s Before He Cheats, Gasteyer’s saucy selections tell stories with humor, heartbreak…and just a little splash of soda. Her vibe recalls that of a time when entertainers truly entertained, an era when a broad could bring home the bacon, swing a set of sultry standards
and still be a gracious hostess. Ana’s heroes are those fun-loving dames who downed a cocktail, donned a dress and fronted a band of dapper gents in sharp suits wielding shiny horns—think Barbara Stanwyck in Ball of Fire as she captures Gary Cooper’s heart. And then breaks it.

A violin player from the tender age of five, Gasteyer always had an ear for music and a knack for timing. Years later, after a formal education as a classically trained singer, she made the fateful discovery that she could get people laughing—and laugh they did every Saturday night at NBC’s Studio 8H. Audiences fell in love with Gasteyer’s flair for irony and character driven comedy on six seasons of SNL, where she unabashedly played, and often sang, at full-tilt.

Eventually, Broadway came calling and Gasteyer spent several years belting out superstar vocals in shows like Wicked and Rocky Horror. But she felt most at home crooning and chirping with a big band in a nightclub, amidst laughter and the inviting clink of ice in a glass. Her acclaimed shows, Let it Rip and Elegant Songs from a Handsome Woman earned praise from audiences and critics alike who hailed the acts as “exuberant and rollicking entertainment” with “high-octane vocals” and “a topnotch swingin’ ensemble.”

The current star of ABC’s Suburgatory (and vampy Weight Watchers spoke-singer) has teamed with producer and “New York Nightclub Supernova” Julian Fleisher to make this Moxie Jazz album with an eclectic range of covers and reimagined classics.

Blessed with “poetic and sensitive pianism” (Washington Post) and a “wondrous sense of color” (San Francisco Classical Voice), pianist Joyce Yang captivates audiences with her virtuosity, lyricism, and interpretive sensitivity. As a Van Cliburn International Piano Competition silver medalist and Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Yang showcases her colorful musical personality in solo recitals and collaborations with the world’s top orchestras and chamber musicians.

Yang came to international attention in 2005 when she won the silver medal at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The youngest contestant at 19 years old, she took home two additional awards: the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music (with the Takàcs Quartet) and the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for Best Performance of a New Work.

Since her spectacular debut, she has blossomed into an “astonishing artist” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). She has performed as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Sydney, and Toronto symphony orchestras, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the BBC Philharmonic (among many others), working with such distinguished conductors as Edo de Waart, Lorin Maazel, James Conlon, Manfred Honeck, Jacques Lacombe, Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, Bramwell Tovey, Peter Oundjian, and Jaap van Zweden. In recital, Yang has taken the stage at New York’s Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Museum; the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; Chicago’s Symphony Hall; and Zurich’s Tonhalle.

Highlights of Yang’s 2016/17 season include her debuts with the Long Beach Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and San Diego Symphony, recitals in Anchorage, Beverly Hills, Cincinnati, Denver, Nashville, Seattle, and at Spivey Hall in Georgia, and concerts with her frequent duo partner, violinist Augustin Hadelich, in Dallas, New York City, Saint Paul, San Francisco, and more. She will also perform at Chamber Music International in Dallas with the Alexander String Quartet, with whom she has recorded the Brahms and Schumann Piano Quintets. Fall marks the release of her first collaboration with Hadelich for Avie Records, and the world premiere recording of Michael Torke’s Piano Concerto, created expressly for her and commissioned by the Albany Symphony. Additional appearances showcasing her vast repertoire include performances as orchestral soloist in Arizona, California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas. In Summer 2016 she appeared at the festivals of Aspen, Brevard, Lake Tahoe, Steamboat Springs and Sun Valley.

Recent season highlights include Yang’s debut with New Jersey Symphony on the occasion of Jacques Lacombe’s last concert as Music Director, multiple returns to the New York Philharmonic, Royal Flemish Philharmonic and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin debuts, UK debut in the Cambridge International Piano Series, Montreal debut with I Musici de Montréal with Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and Pittsburgh Symphony debut playing Schumann’s Concerto under music director Manfred Honeck. She concluded a five-year Rachmaninoff cycle with de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony, to which she brought “an enormous palette of colors, and tremendous emotional depth” (Milwaukee Sentinel Journal); joined the Takács Quartet for Dvořák in Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series; and impressed the New York Times with her “vivid and beautiful playing” of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet with members of the Emerson String Quartet at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center.

In 2014, Yang “demonstrated impressive gifts” (New York Times) with a trio of album releases: her second solo disc for Avie Records, Wild Dreams, on which she plays Schumann, Bartók, Hindemith, Rachmaninoff, and arrangements by Earl Wild; a pairing of the Brahms and Schumann Piano Quintets with the Alexander Quartet; and a recording of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Denmark’s Odense Symphony Orchestra that International Record Review called “hugely enjoyable, beautifully shaped … a performance that marks her out as an enormous talent.” Of her 2011 debut album for Avie Records, Collage, featuring works by Scarlatti, Liebermann, Debussy, Currier, and Schumann, Gramophone praised her “imaginative programming” and “beautifully atmospheric playing.”

Born in 1986 in Seoul, South Korea, Yang received her first piano lesson from her aunt at the age of four. She quickly took to the instrument, which she received as a birthday present, and over the next few years won several national piano competitions in her native country. By the age of ten, she had entered the School of Music at the Korea National University of Arts, and went on to make a number of concerto and recital appearances in Seoul and Daejeon. In 1997, Yang moved to the United States to begin studies at the pre-college division of the Juilliard School with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky. During her first year at Juilliard, Yang won the pre-college division Concerto Competition, resulting in a performance of Haydn’s Keyboard Concerto in D with the Juilliard Pre-College Chamber Orchestra. After winning the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Greenfield Student Competition, she performed Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with that orchestra at just twelve years old. She graduated from Juilliard with special honor as the recipient of the school’s 2010 Arthur Rubinstein Prize, and in 2011 she won its 30th Annual William A. Petschek Piano Recital Award.

Yang made her celebrated New York Philharmonic debut with Maazel at Avery Fisher Hall in November 2006 and performed on the orchestra’s tour of Asia, making a triumphant return to her hometown of Seoul, South Korea. Subsequent appearances with the Philharmonic included the opening night of the Leonard Bernstein Festival in September 2008, at the special request of Maazel in his final season as music director. The New York Times pronounced her performance in Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety a “knockout.”

Yang appears in the film In the Heart of Music, a documentary about the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. She is a Steinway artist.

www.artsmg.com

Photo credit: KT Kim

Silver medalist in the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition and winner of the prestigious XIV Concours International Grand Prix Animato 2014 Paris, George Li (黎卓宇) is regarded as one of the world’s most talented and creative young pianists. His astonishing technique, distinctive tonal quality, and exceptional musicality have earned him consistent critical acclaim (New York Times, Washington Post, International Piano Magazine, Toronto Star, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Music Intelligencer) and enthusiastic audience response worldwide for his solo recitals, orchestral collaborations, and chamber music performances.

JoAnn Falletta is internationally celebrated as a vibrant ambassador for music, an inspiring artistic leader, and a champion of American symphonic music. An effervescent and exuberant figure on the podium, she has been praised by The Washington Post as having “Toscanini’s tight control over ensemble, Walter’s affectionate balancing of inner voices, Stokowski’s gutsy showmanship, and a controlled frenzy worthy of Bernstein.” Acclaimed by The New York Times as “one of the finest conductors of her generation”, she serves as the Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center and music advisor to the Hawaii Symphony.

Ms. Falletta is invited to guest conduct many of the world’s finest symphony orchestras. Recent guest conducting highlights include debuts in Belgrade, Gothenburg, Lima, Bogotá, Helsingborg, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, a European tour with the Stuttgart Orchestra, return engagements with the Warsaw, Detroit, Phoenix, and Krakow Symphony Orchestras and a 13 city US tour with the Irish Chamber Orchestra with James Galway.
 
She has guest conducted over a hundred orchestras in North America, and many of the most prominent orchestras in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa. Her North America guest conducting appearances have included the orchestras of Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Seattle, San Diego, Montreal, Toronto and the National Symphony and international appearances have included the London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Korean Broadcast Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, China National Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester BBC Philharmonic, Scottish BBC orchestra, Orchestra National de Lyon and Mannheim Orchestra among others. Ms. Falletta’s summer activities have taken her to numerous music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, the Hollywood Bowl, Wolf Trap, Mann Center, Meadow Brook, OK Mozart Festival, Grand Teton, Eastern, Peninsula and Brevard Festival.
 
Falletta is the recipient of many of the most prestigious conducting awards including the Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award, the coveted Stokowski Competition, and the Toscanini, Ditson and Bruno Walter Awards for conducting, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra League’s prestigious John S. Edwards Award. She is an ardent champion of music of our time, introducing over 500 works by American composers, including more than 110 world premieres. Hailing her as a “leading force for the music of our time”, she has been honored with twelve ASCAP awards. Ms. Falletta served as a Member of the National Council on the Arts during both the George W Bush and Obama administrations.
 
Her growing discography, which currently includes over 90 titles, consists of recordings with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Czech National Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony London Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Netherlands Radio Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony, Philadelphia Philharmonia, Prague Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Virginia Symphony and the Women’s Philharmonic. Her recording with the Buffalo Philharmonic and soprano, Hila Plitmann of Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man received two Grammy Awards in 2009. Grammy nominated discs include her recordings with the Buffalo Philharmonic of Tyberg’s Symphony No. 3, Corigliano’s Red Violin, Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, Strauss’s Rosenkavalier, and Dohnanyi’s Variations on a Nursery Song. In her role as Principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra from 2011-2014, Ms. Falletta recorded 6 CDs for the Naxos returning the orchestra to its renowned recording history.

Upcoming discs on the Naxos label include the works of Florent Schmitt, Novak, Scriabin and Wagner with the Buffalo Philharmonic, works of Paine and Victor Herbert with the Ulster Orchestra and works of Stravinsky and Mahler with the Virginia Symphony.
 
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2015-16Season celebrates the 75th anniversary of Kleinhans Music Hall with works showcasing the hall’s exquisite acoustics. Recording highlights for the Buffalo Philharmonic’s 2015-16 season include the release by Naxos of the music of Florent Schmitt, and Beau Fleuve releases of The Essential Sibelius in honor of his birthday and the BPO’s Finland Celebration, and the Orchestra’s first ever Children’s CD, featuring Carnival of the Animals, Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Mother Goose Suite.
 
Since stepping up to the podium as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the fall of 1999, Maestro Falletta has been credited with bringing the Philharmonic to a new level of national and international prominence. This season, the BPO will once again be featured on national broadcasts of NPR’s Performance Today and SymphonyCast, and international broadcasts through the European Broadcasting Union.
 
Under Falletta’s direction, the VSO has risen to celebrated artistic heights. The VSO, which made critically acclaimed debuts at the Kennedy Center and New York’s Carnegie Hall under Falletta and entered into their first multinational recording agreement with Naxos, performs classics, pops and family concert series in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News and Williamsburg.
 
In addition to her current posts with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Virginia Symphony, Brevard Music Center and Hawaii Symphony, Ms. Falletta has held the positions of principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Phoenix Symphony, music director of the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, associate conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and music director of the Denver Chamber Orchestra.
 
Ms. Falletta received her undergraduate degree from the Mannes College of Music in New York and her master’s and doctorate degrees from The Juilliard School.

www.joannfalletta.com

Robert Istad is beginning his inaugural season as Artistic Director of Pacific Chorale. Mr. Istad’s 2016-2017 season included debuts with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, and return engagements with Pacific Chorale, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Sony Classical, and Long Beach Camerata Singers. He is also Dean of Chorus America’s Academy for Conductors. In June 2016, Istad made his debut with Berkshire Choral International and Santa Rosa Symphony Orchestra.

Istad has prepared choruses for a number of America’s finest conductors and orchestras, including: Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Carl St.Clair and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, as well as conductors Esa–Pekka Salonen, Keith Lockhart, Nicholas McGegan, Vasilly Sinaisky, Sir Andrew Davis, Bramwell Tovey, John Williams, Eugene Kohn, Eric Whitacre, Giancarlo Guerrero, Marin Alsop, George Fenton, and Robert Moody.

Istad is former Artistic Director of Long Beach Camerata Singers and Long Beach Bach Festival. Under his leadership, Long Beach Camerata Singers became recognized as one of the leading arts organizations of the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, created a performing partnership with Long Beach Symphony Orchestra and Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, as well as performed with Pacific Symphony Orchestra, and Long Beach Opera.

Istad is also Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at California State University, Fullerton. He was recognized as CSUF’s 2016 Outstanding Professor of the Year.  At CSU Fullerton, Istad conducts the University Singers and Women’s Choir in addition to teaching courses in conducting, performance practice and literature. Recently, he and the University Singers performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Andrea Bocelli, Kathleen Battle, recorded albums with Yarlung Records and with composer John Williams and Sony Classical.

He and his singers performed a concert of Tarik O’Regan’s music for Distinguished Concerts International New York at Carnegie Hall in November 2015.  They performed at the 2013 ACDA National Conference in Dallas, Texas and the 2012 ACDA Western Division Conference in Reno, Nevada. They also performed for the 2013 National Collegiate Choral Organization National Conference in Charleston, SC. Istad and the CSUF University Singers have performed all over the world, including a 2015 residency and performances in Paris, France, engagements at the 2012 Ottobeuren Festival of Music in Germany, the 2012 Eingen Festival of music in Germany, a 2010 performance for UNESCO in Pisa, Italy, and in 2008 at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.

Istad received his Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, his Master of Music degree in choral conducting from California State University, Fullerton and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral music at the University of Southern California. He studied conducting with Dr. William Dehning, John Alexander, and Dr. Jon Hurty.

Istad is President of the California Choral Director’s Association and is in demand as an adjudicator, guest conductor, speaker and clinician throughout the nation.

Award-winning violinist Carrie Kennedy has been the featured soloist with orchestras throughout the United States including the San Antonio, Richardson, University of Southern California, Torrance, Suburban, Brevard Festival, Clear Lake, Westchester, Solano and Magic Valley symphonies, and has performed concerts around the world.

She joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in January 2012. Currently, she is also a member of the New West, Long Beach and Pasadena Symphonies, and the Fiato Quartet. She also performs with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Symphony and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra. She has toured with the Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra in South America, the Percy Faith Orchestra in Japan, the Fiato Quartet in Costa Rica and with Andrea Bocelli. She has also recorded music for many commercials, motion pictures and records.

Kennedy is an alumnus of intensive chamber music programs at Tanglewood and Amelia Island where her quartet was coached by the American, Guarneri, Emerson, and Takacs quartets. While at Tanglewood, she served as concertmaster under Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and was broadcast live on New York’s WQXR in Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. She has also spent summers at the International Holland Music Sessions where she studied with Hermann Krebbers, the Santander Master Courses in Spain with Zakhar Bron, and the London Master Classes where she studied with György Pauk and was chosen to have her lesson filmed by Online Classics for a television documentary on the master classes.

She holds a Master of Music degree from The State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she studied with Pamela Frank and Ani Kavafian, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California with Robert Lipsett.

Carrie resides in Pasadena with her husband and fellow LACO violinist Joel Pargman.

A Southern California native, violinist Roger Wilkie has been the beloved concertmaster of the Long Beach Symphony for over 27 years. He has appeared as a soloist throughout his career with the Symphony, performing the concertos of Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and more recently Sibelius to critical acclaim. Mr. Wilkie’s professional career began at age 21 when he joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, eventually being appointed Principal Second Violin, a position he held until 1989. He has since returned to the ensemble as Guest Concertmaster. He has also served as Guest Concertmaster with the LA Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Real Filharmonia De Galicia, Spain under Music Director, Helmut Rilling.

Mr. Wilkie’s career extends to the Hollywood Studios, where he has participated in the soundtracks of over 1000 films as well as television recordings. Mr. Wilkie has received the honor of serving as concertmaster for John Williams’ scores for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Indiana Jones IV, Munich, and Memoirs of a Geisha. You may hear his recent solo work on the score of the movie A Single Man and in The Adventures of Tintin score by John Williams. Wilkie has also performed on scores for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Deadpool, Avatar, Gone Girl, The Town, and many more.

Mr. Wilkie is an accomplished and sought-after chamber musician and is the founding member of the Angeles String Quartet, performing and touring with them from 1988–1993. He was the solo violinist with Santa Barbara-based Camerata Pacifica, on whose series he played hundreds of concerts as recitalist and chamber musician over a ten year period. He has appeared at many chamber music festivals including La Jolla Summerfest, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Festival. Presently, Mr. Wilkie is a member of the Pacific Trio. The Trio has made several tours of Europe and participated in the Silver Lire International Festival of Chamber Music in St. Petersburg.

Kimberlea Daggy has spent the last twenty-five years as a classical music announcer/producer for various public radio stations, including KUSC in Los Angeles, the Classical Public Radio Network, WFDD in Winston-Salem, NC and WILL in Urbana, IL.  She has created and presented a wide array of programs on classical music stations throughout the country, from daily shows to quarterly specials celebrating composers’ birthdays to her highly successful contemplative choral music program, Soul Music. Kimberlea has co-hosted live broadcasts of Los Angeles Opera performances, providing commentary and interviewing international artists such as Placido Domingo, Marilyn Horne and William Friedkin. She has given pre-performance talks and emceed programs for a variety of organizations, including LA Opera, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Ojai Music Festival, the Broad Stage, and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

In addition to her radio career, Kimberlea has taught adult classical music education classes, most recently at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music.  These classes explore various aspects of classical music, from opera to choral works to symphonic favorites.  She is a board member of the Sierra Summer Festival in Mammoth Lakes, CA, where she has presented seminars and emceed concerts.  Kimberlea is also committed to furthering the careers of young musicians.  She served on the board of the Orchestra Parents Association at Santa Monica High School, where she hosted concerts, wrote program notes and connected students to professional musicians, including LA Opera Music Director James Conlon and former Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Zubin Mehta.  She also helped coordinate the Santa Monica High School Symphony Orchestra 2014 tour to Vienna, Prague and Baden-Baden, Germany.

Kimberlea now lives in the Shenandoah Valley.  She hosts programs on classical station WEMC and NPR News station WMRA, both located in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  She also sings and conducts the choir at First Presbyterian Church in Waynesboro, VA, where her husband, Roger, is Music Director and Organist.  Kimberlea and Roger have two children in college:  Max, who is studying computer programming, and Celia, who is a viola performance major at Boston University.

Stephanie Stetson grew up in the Seattle area and while there studied with Anna Cloud and Christopher Leuba.  She moved to Los Angeles and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Horn Performance from the University of Southern California.  While there she had the privilege of studying with Jim Decker and Vincent DeRosa.  She has been a free-lance musician in Los Angeles ever since.  Stephanie regularly performs with the Pacific Symphony, LA Opera Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Santa Barbara Symphony, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Long Beach Symphony and the Long Beach Municipal Band.  She has performed in numerous Broadway shows at the Schubert, Ahmanson and Pantages Theatres such as: Wicked, Lion King, The Producers, Phantom of the Opera etc…  She also has extensive studio recording experience in TV, radio, audio recordings and motion picture soundtracks.

Stephanie has been teaching at Azusa Pacific University since 2004 where she has taught Applied Horn, Horn Master Class, Horn Literature and Horn Pedagogy.  She is a member of the APU Faculty WW Quintet.  Since the beginning of 2010 she has also been teaching applied horn at Citrus College.

Stephanie is married with 4 children.  She loves her family very much and enjoys the blessings of a good family and good music every day of her life.

Darren Mulder enjoys an active performing, teaching and recording career in Southern California. He has been a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra since 1996, and he actively works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera, Long Beach Symphony Orchestra and Santa Monica Symphony. Darren spent three years as principal trumpet of the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Philharmonic Orchestra. He also enjoyed performing at the Spoleto Festival of the Two Worlds in Italy. He is currently trumpet professor and wind ensemble director at The Colburn School of the Performing Arts. Darren earned a Bachelor’s degree in music education from CSU Long Beach and a Master’s degree in trumpet performance from the USC.