“Unafraid of melody” and “astonishingly beautiful.”

Charlottesville Classical

 

Composer/pianist/educator Amanda Harberg’s music has been presented at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Verizon Hall, and Symphony Center. Her writing for a wide range of instruments weaves classical Western tradition with contemporary influences to create a distinctively personal style which “conveys a thoroughly original sense of happiness in music,” according to Cleveland Classical. “She invigorates the brain and touches the soul,” says composer John Corigliano. “I love her work.”

In 2021, Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the premiere of her Piccolo Concerto with soloist Erica Peel and the Philadelphia Orchestra, calling it “an extraordinary addition to the limited repertoire.” A widely commissioned composer, her music is published by the Theodore Presser Co. and by AH Publications. It has been recognized by a Fulbright Hays Fellowship, Juilliard’s Peter Mennin Prize, two New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowships, a New York State Council on the Arts fellowship, a MacDowell Colony summer residency, and nine NFA Newly Published Music awards. Her woodwind concerti have been performed on Gala Concerts at 2022 ClarinetFest® and the 2021 NFA Convention. Her Concerto for Viola and Orchestra was recorded on Naxos American Classics to critical acclaim, and has been played all over the world. Harberg’s recital music is frequently required repertoire at competitions on regional and national levels. Her music has become particularly beloved and bestselling in the woodwind world, and the website of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has called her “a hero to the flute and piccolo community.”

Also active as a concert-level pianist, Harberg takes great joy in her activities as a collaborative pianist. She has a duo with Erica Peel (piccoloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and has recent performances with principles of major orchestras including Martin Chalifour (Los Angeles Philharmonic), YaoGuang Zhai (Baltimore Symphony), Robert Langevin (New York Philharmonic), Dennis Kim (Pacific Symphony), William Short (the Met Orchestra), and Keith Buncke (Chicago Symphony), as well as with close colleagues including Cobus du Toit, Adrian Morejon, Julietta Curenton, Matthew Roitstein, Eric Schultz, Sharon Sparrow, Valerie Coleman, Benjamin Fingland, Wendy Stern, Mindy Kaufman, and Andrea “Fluterscooter” Fischer.

As the in-house composer for Common Good Productions, Harberg has composed scores for The Abominable Crime, an award winning feature documentary, and Beyond Borders: Undocumented Mexican Americans which aired over 2,000 times on PBS stations across the country, as well as a number of shorter films for Common Good Productions.

Dr. Harberg is a dedicated educator with more than two decades of experience teaching composition, piano, music theory, aural skills, and 20th/21st century music history. She is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music in the Contemporary Writing and Production department, and in the summers she is on the composition faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp. Harberg began teaching through the Morse Fellowship program, which sends Juilliard students into New York City public schools. She also served on the faculty of the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, which is dedicated to educating students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. Previously, Harberg was on the composition faculty at Rutgers University. She is a frequent guest at schools and universities where she enjoys working with young composers and performers.

Francisco Noya is a prominent figure in the Boston and New England music scene, where he has earned a reputation as a versatile interpreter of symphonic and operatic literature. He served as music director of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston and Symphony by the Sea in Manchester. Mr. Noya currently serves as resident conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, where he represents the Philharmonic artistically and educationally throughout the Rhode Island community. He is also the music director of the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Newton, MA.

Noya is also a respected member of the conducting faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In the fall of 2008, he began his tenure as music director of the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, where he is actively engaged in the exploration of cutting-edge orchestral repertoire.

Noya began his professional career in his native Venezuela, as conductor of the Youth Orchestra of Valencia, one of the original ensembles of “El Sistema.” After earning advanced degrees in composition and conducting from Boston University, Noya was appointed to serve as assistant conductor of the Caracas Philharmonic and assistant to the music director of the Teatro Teresa Carreño, one of the most prestigious theaters in Latin America. Noya continued his conducting career in the United States by serving as music director of the Empire State Youth Orchestra in Albany, New York for ten seasons. During his tenure, he led the group on two European tours as well as in concerts at both Carnegie Hall in New York City and in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.

In the U.S., Noya has appeared as guest conductor of the Boston Pops, Baltimore, Nashville, San Antonio, and Omaha Symphony Orchestras, and the Cape Cod Symphony, among others. In addition, he has performed internationally with orchestras in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and Russia. In Venezuela, Noya has collaborated with “El Sistema,” teaching Master Classes and conducting orchestral performances throughout the country. For the past three seasons, Noya has been a guest conductor with the Orquesta Académica of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Japanese-American conductor Ken Yanagisawa is the Music Director of the Boston Opera Collaborative and the Boston Annex Players, the Associate Conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony, the Assistant Conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra, and an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music. He made his Japanese debut conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Kansai Nikikai and the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra in February 2023 and will return in Fall 2026 to conduct Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito. A 2024 Aspen Conducting Academy Fellow and James Conlon Conductor Prize recipient, Ken has previously served as a Conducting Apprentice with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and has assisted/covered the National Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Berlin Academy of American Music, and Berlin Opernfest, among others.

Ken recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting at Boston University under the guidance of James Burton and also holds graduate degrees in conducting from the Manhattan School of Music and a B.A. in music from Yale University. Prior to Yale he attended the New England Conservatory as an Undergraduate Diploma candidate for Oboe Performance under the tutelage of John Ferrillo. His other teachers include George Manahan, William Lumpkin, Bernard Labadie, and Tatsuya Shimono. In masterclasses and festivals, he has been taught by renowned artists and pedagogues such as Robert Spano, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Stringer, Dame Jane Glover, Gerard Schwarz, and Jorma Panula. He is deeply grateful for all the excellent guidance and mentorship he has received thus far in his life as a musician.