Biographies of the Participants

Dominique Eade

Poetic and passionate, American vocalist, composer and improviser Dominique Eade blends musical virtuosity with a songwriter's straightforward emotional sensibility, creating music that has garnered critical acclaim, inspired audiences, and served as a creative signpost for generations of singers. The New York Times called Eade "an exceptional singer" with a "wide vocal range and a grasp on the intricacies of style," one "who weighs a chanteuse's coolness against a jazz musician's exploratory instincts." The Atlantic Monthly recognized Eade for her "rich voice and effortless delivery" while the Boston Phoenix called her music "sublime and daring." Eade's performances throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe include the Buenos Aires Jazz Festival, the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival, Mountain Stage, the Rigas Ritmi Jazz Festival, the Panama Jazz Festival, the Molde International Jazz Festival, and the What is Jazz Festival, and clubs such as Los Angeles' The Jazz Bakery, New York's The Blue Note, The Five Spot and The Jazz Standard, D.C.'s Jazz Alley and Boston's RegattaBar. Eade was signed to RCA Victor in 1998, recording with jazz luminaries Dave Holland, Victor Lewis and Benny Golson.

Deemed "a fearless collaborator" by pianist Fred Hersch, Eade's musical associations have ranged from Alan Dawson and Stanley Cowell to MacArthur grant recipients Ran Blake and Anthony Braxton. In 2017, NPR Critic Nate Chinen listed Blake and Eade's performance of music from their critically acclaimed Town and Country (Sunnyside) at New York's Park Avenue Armory as one of the Top Ten Jazz Performances of the year. Eade has recorded and co-produced 7 CD's under her name, landing her on top ten lists at Billboard, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, DownBeat magazine, the Jazz Journalist Association, and elsewhere. Appearing as a guest in jazz and contemporary classical ensembles including the Either Orchestra and Boston Musica Viva, Eade is the featured vocalist on the 2020 Dave Douglas/Elan Mehler album, If There Are Mountains (Newvelle). Eade was nominated for Best Debut Artist in the 1998 First Annual Jazz Awards in New York City, and received the 2006 Outstanding Alumni Award at New England Conservatory, where as a teacher for over 3 decades, she has mentored an array of talented musicians including Roberta Gambarini, Michael Mayo, Rachel Price, Sofia Rei, Jorge Roeder, Sara Serpa, Sarah Jarosz, Darynn Dean, Luciana Souza, Akenya Seymour, Jo Lawry, Aoife O'Donovan, and many others.

"An immensely appealing sound." The New York Times

"Her voice was rich and clear and strong in all ranges; she had musicianship and cool intelligence…she had absorbed some of Sarah Vaughan's fearsome technique." The New York Times

"For all her virtuosity, it's her sound that carries the performance." The New York Times

The Cassatt String Quartet


Hailed for its "mighty rapport and relentless commitment," the New York City-based Cassatt String Quartet has performed throughout the world for nearly four decades, with appearances at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall; Tanglewood Music Center; the Kennedy Center; Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; Centro National de las Artes; Maeda Hall; and Beijing's Central Conservatory.

Highlights of the Cassatt Quartet's upcoming season include major performances, premieres, and recordings of works by Tania Leon, Victoria Bond, Chen Yi, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Adolphus Hailstork, Joan Tower, Zhou Long, Shirish Korde, Anthony Paul De Ritis, Allen Shawn, and Daniel S. Godfrey; collaborations with Ursula Oppens, David Jackson, Dov Scheindlin, Dominique Eade, Eliot Fisk, Doris Stevenson, Magdalena Baczewska, Haim Avitsur, and Kyo-Shin-An Arts; hometown concerts in the New York area, including performances at Cutting Edge Concerts at Symphony Space, Bethany Arts in Ossining, and Bargemusic in Brooklyn; and appearances at Treetops Chamber Music Society, Maverick Concerts, and Music Mountain. The CSQ's 2023-2024 teaching schedule includes masterclasses and residencies at Texas Tech University, University of Texas Permian Basin, College of the Holy Cross, and Columbia University's Music Department and Office of the Core Curriculum.

The Quartet's prolific discography - featured three times in Alex Ross's "10 Best Classical Recordings" column in The New Yorker - includes over forty recordings, for the Koch, Naxos, New World, Point, CRI, Tzadik, and Albany labels. The CSQ's playing has been featured on NPR's "Performance Today," WGBH Boston, WQXR and WNYC of New York, Canada's CBC Radio, and Radio France.

The Cassatts are devoted to nurturing young musicians, and have given classes at Columbia, Cornell, Princeton, and Syracuse Universities; the University of Pennsylvania and Bard Conservatory; the American Academy in Rome and the Toho School in Tokyo; and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. The CSQ is in residence annually at the Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music in Vinalhaven, Maine; and at Cassatt in the Basin!, an educational residency in West Texas.

Named for the great Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt.

Please visit the Cassatt String Quartet website for more information:

http://www.cassattquartet.com

Anna Griffis (Substitute Violist for the Cassatt Quartet)

Equally at home on steel and gut strings and with new and old music, Boston-based violist/violinist Anna Griffis is a sought-after collaborator across a variety of styles and settings. She made her concerto debut with the Baltimore Symphony at 16 and has gone on to perform in Mexico, Turkey, Austria, Slovenia, Czechia, Taiwan, and across North America. She is principal viola with New Bedford Symphony and the Boston Festival Orchestra, a member of the Albany Symphony, and performs with the Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Boston Ballet, and the Boston Lyric Opera.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Anna frequently collaborates with Blue Heron and A Far Cry, and has been a guest artist with the Arneis and Cassatt Quartets, Sheffield Chamber Players, Winsor Music, and the North Country Chamber Players. She co-founded Chicago-based Trio Speranza, prize winners at the Early Music American Baroque Competition, and is Executive Director and violist with the new music group Ludovico Ensemble. Anna's playing has been featured on PBS' American Masters and in releases by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Albany Symphony (for which the orchestra won a GRAMMY), and Les Bostonades. Keen on alternative settings and partnerships, Anna has shared the stage with Aimee Mann, DJ Premiere, Weird Al, Hugh Jackman, and Audra McDonald, and was a featured soloist for a Moth Mainstage performance and taping.

Anna teaches and coaches chamber music at The New School of Music (Cambridge) and Tufts University, and is an affiliate artist in the Emerson/Harris program at MIT. In addition to her playing and teaching, she oversees communications for the Tufts Music Department and is a freelance graphic designer specializing in concert programs and arts marketing. Originally from Annapolis, MD, Anna is the proud product of her public school music program and the Peabody Institute's Preparatory program. She now lives in the great neighborhood of Lower Allston with her bassoonist husband and their cat, Pig and gets excited about fonts, road trips, and diners. Anna studied at Lawrence University, The Hartt School of Music, Tanglewood Music Center, and Boston University.

Peter Weitzner

Peter Weitzner, a graduate of the Juilliard School, has performed with Solisti New York, the Jupiter Symphony, EOS Ensemble, SONYC, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Stamford Symphony, Musicians Accord, and the New Jersey Symphony. As soloist, he has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony and performed the New York premiere of Sheila Silver’s Chant for bass and piano. Mr. Weitzner has been a frequent participant at international music festivals including Mostly Mozart, OK Mozart, Cape May, Festival of the Hamptons, Bratislava Music Festival, and the Bruckner Festival in Linz, Austria.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Weitzner is currently the curator and host of the BPL Chamber Players in residence at the Central branch (Grand Army Plaza) of the Brooklyn Public Library. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orion, Ens?, Daedalus and Clarosa Quartets, Trio Solisti, New York Chamber Ensemble, Yale at Norfolk, Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, New York Philomusica, Garden City Chamber Music Society, Sherman Chamber Ensemble and the Berkshire Bach Society.

He has also performed with the dance companies of Lar Lubovitch and David Parsons as well as Merce Cunningham's 80th birthday celebration at the Lincoln Center Festival in the New York premiere of Biped. He also participated in a performance at NJPAC (NJ Performing Arts Center) with the re-emerging Alice Coltrane shortly before her passing. For ten years Mr. Weitzner toured the world as a member of the Giora Feidman Trio. In the spring of 2009, he was invited to become a member of the Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium, an arts education advocacy group comprised of arts related non-profits, musicians and educators.

His work can be heard on the Nonesuch, Albany, Pro Gloria Musicae, New World Records, Musical Heritage Society, Delos, Grenadilla, and Berkshire Bach Society record labels. He has also produced recordings of the Brandenburg Concerti with the Berkshire Bach Society and the critically acclaimed complete flute music of J.S. Bach with flutist Susan Rotholz and Kenneth Cooper, fortepiano, released by Bridge Records. A CD of American flute music with Susan Rotholz and pianist, Margaret Kampmeier has also been released by Bridge. He is also a frequent contributor of concert recordings to NPR’s Performance Today.

Wang Jie

Wang Jie's stylistic versatility is a rare trait among today's composers. One day she spins a few notes into a large symphony, the next she conjures a malevolent singing rat onto the opera stage. Unveiling beauty in this world, and paving new paths for lasting public engagement with classical music are at the heart of her artistry.

For the past three years running, Jie's "Symphony No. 1" has been the most-broadcast work on the most-listened-to classical music show on public radio. A popular concert opener, her "Symphonic Overture - America the Beautiful" is adored by tens and thousands of live audiences across the United States. During previous seasons, you might have heard about her pioneering opera "It Rained on Shakopee," based on her mentoring experience at the Minnesota state prison. Her career is made possible by trailblazers at The League of American Orchestras, American Composers Orchestra, Opera America, the Toulmin Foundation, to name a few. She is a frequent collaborator with organizations that vitalize the beauty of classical music as relevant today as ever, such as the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival, Musica Sacra, The Apollo Chamber Players, etc.

She studied at the Manhattan School of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music and holds a PhD from NYU. Co-founder of the Emerging Composers Intensive in CA and a serious instrumentalist herself, Jie tirelessly mentors young composers with a focus on somatic, collaborative, and a musicianship-based approach in creativity. Born in Shanghai, Jie now considers herself a New Yorker.

Jing Jing Luo (Visual Artist and Composer)

Jing Jing Luo is an award-winning Chinese-American composer and a visual artist whose music has been performed by acclaimed artists and orchestras at major venues worldwide.

She has received a Ford Foundation individual artist award, 3 Rockefeller Foundation’s individual artist fellowship awards, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a commissioning award from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation, a recipient of Discovery Grant for Female Composers and a 2023 Commissioning Award for the new operatic works by women composers supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, a 2023 featured artist for the EarShot from American Composers Orchestra, 2022 Harvard University Barwick Lecture Series guest speaker for the music department, a Commissioning Award from Jerome Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, Honorary Prize Winner for the Fourth Fanny Mendelssohn International Composition Competition in Germany, five artist residencies at MacDowell Colony and number of Composers in residencies.

A formal visiting professor in music composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She is currently working on an opera for the White Snake Project for a full production in 2026.