General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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The American Youth Harp Ensemble continues to dazzle audiences around the world as America's premiere youth harp ensemble, well known for its musical sophistication, rich sound, emotional power, and imaginative programming of repertoire. The ensemble has brought world-class music to enthusiastic audiences in the U.S. and abroad through hundreds of performances, recordings, television and radio features most recently on CNN, ABC, PBS and NPR. The Ensemble made its international debut, performing in the Maastricht Music Festival and has had other notable performances at the Kennedy Center; the Edinburgh Festival; the 34th American Harp Society National Conference; Salle Gaveau, Paris; Salla Puccini, Milan; and in 2001 in the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall. Unique in the nation, the American Youth Harp Ensemble programs serve over 80 elementary and secondary students and have received national recognition for outstanding educational achievement and youth development.

As music director since 1994, Lynnelle Ediger-Kordzaia has seen her dream of a high-caliber harp ensemble grow from infancy to maturity. A nationally recognized educator, it has been under her leadership that the ensemble has established and enjoyed its international reputation for musical and educational excellence. Mrs. Ediger-Kordzaia has been an invited presenter and performer at the Sixth World Harp Conference, the International Folk Harp Conference, the American Harp Society National Conference, The International Harp Therapy Conference, and many other conferences. She has been published in many journals including the American Harp Society Educators Forum and the Harp Therapy Journal, and her work was the subject of a feature interview in Harp Column magazine.

Since 1989, MidAmerica Productions has produced over 275 chamber concerts in Weill Recital Hall, presenting some of the most exciting chamber musicians working today. For more information about this concert or MidAmerica Productions contact Susan Case at 212-239-0205 or visit www.midamerica-music.com.

Tickets, at $94, 57, 35, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

***

Cheryl Anderson, conductor, has conducted choral and orchestral literature throughout the world. Making her Carnegie Hall conducting debut in this concert, she has, however, sung on this stage numerous time with Robert Shaw. In her sixteenth year as Director of Choral Activities at Cabrillo College, she is also founder/director of both Cabrillo Opera and Cabrillo Youth Chorus. She was recently elected president of Western Division American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and has also been named six times to Who's Who. Her ensembles have sung at all levels of ACDA and MENC, performing the gamut of choral literature from Medieval through Contempory. Her education includes West Liberty State College, University of Northern Colorado, and her doctoral work from College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. She settled on the Central Coast of California, having taught at Colorado State University, University of Northern Colorado, and Transylvania University. She is in demand as guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician. Numerous composers have written works for her ensembles. The Peace of Wild Things, which receives its New York premiere in this concert, was commissioned in June 2006 by Dr. Anderson's ensembles from composer Imant Raminsh and in collaboration with poet Morton Marcus.

Lynn Trapp, conductor, holds a distinguished career as conductor, concert organist, composer and liturgist. Through his many performances and clinician work for conferences across the country, conducting engagements in the U.S. and abroad, and publications of keyboard and choral music with seven major publishers, he has become well-known as a leader in sacred music. He has conducted numerous choir performance tours abroad to Italy, Germany, Austria, Ireland, England, the Holy Land, Spain, Portugal and Poland.

Mr. Trapp is a recording artist and clinician with World Library Publications, Chicago, IL. He serves as Director of Worship/Music, Organist at St. Olaf Church in downtown Minneapolis where he directs an extensive program including radio/television ministry. In 2001, he directed the installation of the 67-rank pipe Lively-Fulcher pipe organ at St. Olaf Church and has released the premiere organ CD recording, Recital in the City. He is co-director of the annual summer Liturgical Music Conference at St. John's University, Collegeville, MN, and Artistic Director of the Cracovia Cantat international choral festival in Krakow, Poland.

Dr. Trapp is the recipient of many academic and service awards including the international 2002 Spirit and Truth Award from the University of Notre Dame for contributions to the liturgy and music field. He holds degrees from Southern Illinois University (BM), University of Notre Dame (MM). He began doctoral work at the Eastman School of Music, and completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Kansas. He serves as adjunct organ faculty for Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN.

Kristen Plumley portrayed Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro with New York City Opera, Norina and Zerlina with Virginia Opera, Nannetta and Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice with Opera Festival of New Jersey, Sophie with Chautauqua Opera, Adele with Boheme Opera and Opera Theatre of Connecticut, Despina with Lyric Opera of Cleveland, the Sultan of Egypt with L'Opéra Français de New York, Yum-Yum with Opera Memphis, and Josephine with Nevada Opera. Other roles include Juliette, Lauretta, and Kathy, and numerous musical theater favorites. Ms. Plumley has been active in contemporary operas at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In 2007, she will debut with the Seattle Symphony and sing the role of Gilda with Greensboro Opera.

Heidi Skok performed in numerous productions at the Metropolitan Opera between 1992 and 2003, some of which include Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Rigoletto, Jenufa, and Britten's Death in Venice. During the 1998-1999 MET season, she performed as Masha in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, which was featured on PBS's "Live from Lincoln Center." In later seasons Ms. Skok sang in the MET's premiere of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron and again under Maestro Levine's baton as a Flowermaiden in Parsifal. Ms. Skok also performed with the companies of Pittsburgh Opera, Wolf Trap Opera and Kansas City Lyric Opera.

Renowned as a recital and concert artist, Ms. Skok participated in the Schubertiade at the 92nd Street Y. Other New York City concert appearances included Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream, Fauré's Requiem at Carnegie Hall, and Positive Music at Weill Hall. She sang Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Puerto Rico Symphony, and Brahms's Ein Deutches Requiem with the Jacksonville Orchestra. Ms. Skok performed at the summer festival Ravinia, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Saratoga Choral Festival.

Buffalo, New York native John Tiranno, tenor, has most recently sung with the Connecticut Grand Opera, New York Grand Opera, Teatro Grattacielo, and Nashville Opera, while appearing as a soloist with the National Academy Orchestra (Hamilton, ON, Canada) and the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey. Mr. Tiranno holds a BM from SUNY Fredonia, and a MM from West Virginia University.

American baritone Robert Gardner has appeared on opera, concert, and recital stages throughout the world. He has performed with the Bavarian National Opera, Edmonton Opera, Washington National Opera, the Spoleto Festival, USA, Santa Fe Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Munich Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, Idaho Civic Symphony, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Taejun Symphony and the Waterbury Symphony.

Over the past 23 years, MidAmerica Productions has brought together conductors, choruses, soloists, and orchestral musicians for performances at some of the world's greatest venues, especially at New York's Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.

Under the guidance of MidAmerica's founder, Peter Tiboris, the company has presented over 895 concerts worldwide and more than 765 in New York at Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

More than 2500 American ensembles, representing each of the 50 states, have appeared with MidAmerica in New York, as have more than 100 symphonic and choral ensembles from Europe, the Far East, South America, and Canada. There have more than 300 guest conductors, 650 solo artists, and over 100,000 performers who have appeared on MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall.

In addition to presenting classic choral and instrumental works, MidAmerica Productions has championed the works of contemporary composers. On MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, there have been approximately 31 World Premieres, 16 United States Premieres, and 50 New York Premieres.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact Susan Case at 212-239-0205 or scase@midamerica-music.com

Tickets, at $94, 57, 35, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

***

John Rutter, conductor, a native of London, is well known on both sides of the Atlantic as a composer, conductor, and recording artist. His compositions span choral and orchestral works, carols, school operas, popular music, and music for television. He was director of music at England's Clare College from 1975-79, later forming the Cambridge Singers, a mixed-voice choir that has recorded over two dozen albums, many for his own label, Collegium. In the last few years, several of his recordings have reached Billboard magazine's Classical Top 25 chart. Recently, he initiated the Collegium Choral Series, a music-publishing project aimed at making available to choral groups works performed by the Cambridge Singers.

Madeline Bender was recently praised in Opera News for her "glowing, full-bodied lyric soprano" and "haunting timbre." Recent performances include Violetta in La traviata with Vancouver Opera; the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Opera Birmingham; Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with the Théâtre Du Capitole, Toulouse; Violetta in La traviata, and Elvira in L'Italiana in Algeri with Santa Fe Opera; Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and at La Monnaie in Brussels; Ippolito in Ippolito ed Aricia with Opéra de Montpellier; Violetta and Mimi in La bohème with Opera Birmingham; Ismene in Mitridate for the Châtelet; Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and in Luxembourg; Tigrane in Radamisto with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Eurydice in a new Robert Wilson production of Orphée et Eurydice, and the role of Sister in Kurt Weill's Der Protagonist with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis. She has appeared as Beauty in the world premiere of Paul Schoenfield's The Merchant and the Pauper with Opera Theatre of St. Louis; Micaela in Carmen and Pannotchka in Rimsky-Korsakov's May Night at the Sarasota Opera, Marzelline in Fidelio for Connecticut Grand Opera, Mimi for Capital City Opera, Valencienne in The Merry Widow for Opera Illinois, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte for Teatro Lirico d'Europa. She portrayed Dectora in the world premiere of David Gilbert's I Follow the Grey Wings at Columbia University's Miller Theater.

Madeline Bender graduated from the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater.

Mezzo-soprano Megan Dey-Tóth first came to the opera world's notice with performances of Siébel in Faust and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Los Angeles Opera. Recent career highlights include performances of Young Offred in the American premiere of The Handmaid's Tale with Minnesota Opera, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with Arizona Opera, Charlotte in Werther with Sarasota Opera and Dicapo Opera, and Siébel in Faust with New Orleans Opera. She has performed Sesto in La clemenza di Tito with West Bay Opera, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with Sarasota Opera, and Pauline in The Queen of Spades with Central City Opera. She has also performed roles with San Diego Opera, Long Beach Opera and Glimmerglass Opera.

Ms. Dey-Tóth was a resident artist with Los Angeles Opera and an apprentice artist with Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and Central City Opera. She studied at Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts and in Italy as a Fulbright Grant recipient.

Equally at home in opera and concert repertoire, tenor Daniel Weeks started his career as a finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and later was invited by Mairlyn Horne to sing his New York debut recital. Since then he has performed with major opera houses and orchestras, including Cincinnati Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Nevada Opera and Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, and Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Baritone Daniel Hoy, from Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, has recently performed in the chorus of numerous operas with the Metropolitan Opera, including the world premiere of The First Emperor. Since graduating with his master's of music from College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Hoy has sung with the Tanglewood Music Festival, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Indianapolis, Sarasota, Ash Lawn, Kentucky, and San Diego Operas.

Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse, artistic director and principal conductor of the New England Symphonic Ensemble, is a violinist, pianist, composer, and conductor. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Boston University, and the Peabody Conservatory, Dr. Rittenhouse has performed as recitalist and soloist with orchestras throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Africa, and the West Indies. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the London Associate Board Overseas Award, the New York Concert Artists Guild Award, the International Music Guild Award, and the New York Madrigal Society Award.

New England Symphonic Ensemble was organized more than two decades ago by Dr. Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse. Since 1982 the ensemble has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa, Russia, and Israel, and has performed frequently at Carnegie Hall under the auspices of MidAmerica Productions.

Over the past 23 years, MidAmerica Productions has brought together conductors, choruses, soloists, and orchestral musicians for performances at some of the world's greatest venues, especially at New York's Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.

Under the guidance of MidAmerica's founder, Peter Tiboris, the company has presented over 895 concerts worldwide and more than 760 in New York at Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

More than 2500 American ensembles, representing each of the 50 states, have appeared with MidAmerica in New York, as have more than 100 symphonic and choral ensembles from Europe, the Far East, South America, and Canada. There have more than 300 guest conductors, 650 solo artists, and over 100,000 performers who have appeared on MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall.

In addition to presenting classic choral and instrumental works, MidAmerica Productions has championed the works of contemporary composers. On MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, there have been approximately 31 World Premieres, 16 United States Premieres, and 50 New York Premieres.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact Susan Case at 212-239-0205 or scase@midamerica-music.com

Tickets, at $94, 57, 38, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

***

David Thye, Principal Conductor-in-Residence at MidAmerica Productions, has been professor of music, director of choral activities, and music department chairman at Southwestern College since 2000. Having received his bachelor's degree in music education and voice from the University of Sioux Falls, Mr. Thye began his teaching career as a public school choral director, teaching two years in Iowa and nine years in Kansas City. He completed and received his master's and a Ph.D. in musical arts in choral conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music while studying with Eph Ehly, Glenn Block, and LeRoy Pogemiller. He was professor of music and director of choral activities at both the University of Montana in Missoula and the University of Sioux Falls in South Dakota, where he was music area chairman.

Under Thye's direction, various high school, collegiate and adult choral organizations have been selected to perform in Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York City; in Hollywood with the Young American's National Invitational Choral Festival; for the State Music Educators and American Choral Directors Associations (ACDA) of Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming; and for the Music Educators National Conference North Central Convention. Dr. Thye has directed, performed in or produced over 100 oratorios, operas and operettas, or large-scale productions including Handel's Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Menotti's The Telephone and Amahl and the Night Visitor, Brahms's, Verdi's, Fauré's and Mozart's Requiems, Vivaldi's Gloria, Bach's B Minor Mass, Joseph Haydn's Missa Sancti Nicolai, Schubert's Mass in G Major, Respighi's Laud To The Nativity, and many others.

Almeda Berkey, conductor, leads the professional Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum in concert and on seven choral recordings with SDG Records. The newest, Norman Luboff Remembered, documents her many concerts with the touring Luboff Choir. The American jurist for the annual International Folksong Choir Festival in Barcelona, Spain, she continues to guest conduct. Ms. Berkey maintains a private voice studio, and her lyric soprano can be heard on the CD Berkey Meets Horowitz on the 503. She served nine years on the Chorus America board of directors and has been playing keyboards with Mannheim Steamroller since 1973.

Ronald J. Williams, conductor, musician and international composer, is the founder and artistic director of the Colorado Repertory Singers, a Broomfield, Colorado-based chorale now in its sixth season. He is the director of worship and arts at Broomfield United Methodist Church where he oversees all phases of the worship and arts program. Mr. Williams is also the founder and artistic director of the Broomfield Choral Festival, created in 2006.

Williams holds a master of music degree in composition from the University of Colorado where he studied with both Richard Toensing and Luis Gonzalez, and received private and master class lessons with composers George Crumb and Joan Tower. He graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of music degree in theory from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. He attended the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where he studied composition with Alvin Singleton, former composer-in-residence for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Williams holds a master of business administration degree from Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.

Angela L. Batey is associate director for graduate studies and associate director of choral activities at the University of Tennessee. She directs the school of music graduate studies, conducts the UT Concert Choir, teaches conducting and music education courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and supervises student teaching interns. Additionally, she is music director of the Roane Choral Society, festival director of the International Cathedral Music Festival and is director of music at Farragut Presbyterian Church. Ms. Batey holds two degrees from Birmingham-Southern College in music education and musical theatre; a master's degree from The Florida State University in music education and the D.M.A. degree in choral conducting from the University of South Carolina. Ms. Batey also serves the profession as past-president of the Tennessee State ACDA.

After making an impressive debut at Tanglewood as Nannetta in Falstaff under Seiji Ozawa, soprano Sharla Nafziger has established herself as an artist of unusal caliber. She has performed with many top Canadian orchestras in addition to various symphony orchestras, opera houses and oratorio societies in the US. This season she returns to the New York City Opera as Frasquita in Carmen and Juliette in Die Tote Stadt, then sings Messiah with the Pensacola Symphony and the St. John Passion at the Winter Park Bach Festival. She has recorded for Naxos, Telarc, and Albany Records.

Tenor Kurt Alakulppi has been gaining critical acclaim and new repertoire since his move to New York from his native Seattle. He sang his first Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Anchorage Opera in 2005, and the summer of 2006 saw him as Simon Stimson in the professional company premiere of Ned Rorem's Our Town at Lake George Opera.

Acclaimed for his vocal artistry, baritone Marco Nisticò's singing career has taken him to many theaters throughout Europe and across the United States. He became a resident artist at the New York City Opera after his successful debut in the role of Morales in Carmen in spring of 2005 followed by performances of Prudenzio in Il Vaggio a Reims, Schaunard in La bohème and Morales in Carmen in spring 2006, covering Zurga in Les Pecheurs de Perles.

In the 2004 and 2005 seasons, Mr. Nisticò was seen in the role of Shaunard in La bohème with the West Florida Symphony Orchestra and in the role of Figaro in The Barber of Seville. He also performed the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.

Marco Nisticò received his BA in Theater Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.

Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse, artistic director and principal conductor of the New England Symphonic Ensemble, is a violinist, pianist, composer, and conductor. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Boston University, and the Peabody Conservatory, Dr. Rittenhouse has performed as recitalist and soloist with orchestras throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, South Africa, and the West Indies. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the London Associate Board Overseas Award, the New York Concert Artists Guild Award, the International Music Guild Award, and the New York Madrigal Society Award.

New England Symphonic Ensemble was organized more than two decades ago by Dr. Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse. Since 1982 the ensemble has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Africa, Russia, and Israel, and has performed frequently at Carnegie Hall under the auspices of MidAmerica Productions.

Over the past 23 years, MidAmerica Productions has brought together conductors, choruses, soloists, and orchestral musicians for performances at some of the world's greatest venues, especially at New York's Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.

Under the guidance of MidAmerica's founder, Peter Tiboris, the company has presented over 895 concerts worldwide and more than 760 in New York at Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

More than 2500 American ensembles, representing each of the 50 states, have appeared with MidAmerica in New York, as have more than 100 symphonic and choral ensembles from Europe, the Far East, South America, and Canada. There have more than 300 guest conductors, 650 solo artists, and over 100,000 performers who have appeared on MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall.

In addition to presenting classic choral and instrumental works, MidAmerica Productions has championed the works of contemporary composers. On MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, there have been approximately 31 World Premieres, 16 United States Premieres, and 50 New York Premieres.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact Susan Case at 212-239-0205 or scase@midamerica-music.com

General admission tickets to Weill Recital Hall concerts are $35. Tickets may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, by going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at 57th Street and 7th Avenue. $15 tickets for students and seniors (with proper ID) are available at the Carnegie Box Office. Weill Recital Hall is located at 154 West 57th Street. For more information, call MidAmerica Productions at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

***

Stephanie Mortimore has been piccoloist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 2000. Prior to that, she was principal flutist of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and an active freelance flutist throughout New England, as well as around the country. She has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Boston Philharmonic and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Mortimore has won numerous distinctions, including earning top honors in the 1998 Myrna Brown Competition, resulting in a concerto performance with the Dallas Chamber Orchestra; the 1996 James Pappoutsakis Competition; and the 1995 Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Competition. She received her master's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and her bachelor's from DePaul University. A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Stephanie also spent a year studying at the Conservatoire de Genève in Switzerland. Her teachers have included Geralyn Coticone, Isabelle Giraud, Paula Robison, Fenwick Smith and Mary Stolper.

Elizaveta Kopelman, piano, was born in Moscow in 1974. She enjoys an international career as solo pianist and chamber musician. A graduate of Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Kopelman won the prestigious Young Concert Artist Trust competition in London in 1995. She has since performed at major venues throughout Europe and the United States including Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elisabeth Hall, Barbican Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and at the Flanders, Mozarteum and Mecklenburg festivals. As a concerto soloist Ms. Kopelman performed with London Philharmonic, London Chamber Orchestra, Iceland Shymphony Orchestra, Guildford Philharmonic and New York Chamber Symphony, among others. She has collaborated with Jupiter Chamber Players, Leopold String Trio, British violinist Priya Mitchell, violist Jeanne Mallow in addition to regular performances with her father, violinist Mikhail Kopelman, and her husband, Metropolitan Opera flutist Stefan Ragnar Hoskuldsson. Ms. Kopelman was featured on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and has recorded for Naxos label.

Violist Mary Hammann graduated from the Curtis Institute and the Mannes College of Music, studying with Michael Tree, Karen Tuttle, and Walter Trampler. She has collaborated with Felix Galimir, Eugene Lehner, Misha Schneider and Alexander Schneider, as well as members of the Guarneri Quartet. Ms. Hammann played principal viola for the New York String Orchestra, as well for Solisti New York. She has appeared in numerous chamber music festivals, including Marlboro Music, Grand Canyon, Sarasota, and Monadnock. As a concerto soloist, she has performed with the Jupiter Symphony at Lincoln Center and with Solisti for Mostly Mozart in collaboration with the Lar Lubovitch dancers. Her tours have taken her throughout the United States, Asia and Europe with such ensembles as Orpheus, Philomusica, Solisti, the Brandenburg Ensemble, the New Amsterdam Ensemble, and the Metropolitan Opera.

A member of the Met Orchestra, since 1992, Ms. Hammann has recorded on Sony Classical and Deutsche Grammaphon, as well as on Koch, with her numerous Aureole CDs-one of which was short- listed for a Grammy Award.

In addition to her recordings, she has performed live on many radio programs, including the weekly Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, as well as Performance Today, New Sounds, and St. Paul Sunday Morning. Ms. Hammann also enjoys performing and recording with many pop stars, including David Bowie, Queen Latifah, Rod Stewart, Patti Labelle, Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin and Elton John. She has also appeared on the television shows of Conan O'Brian, Michael Moore and David Letterman.

David Heiss is a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and principal cellist of The New York Pops, as well as a sought-after guest principal for many New York area orchestras. He is a founding member of the New York Piano Quartet and is a frequent guest artist at chamber music festivals throughout the northeastern United States. In his career he has performed a number of world and American premieres, including Alain Gagon's Le Rameau de Soie (for solo cello and chamber choir), Robert Manno's Cello Sonata No. 1, Theodore Antoniou's Jeux (for cello and orchestra), Irving Robbin's Cello Concerto and Hester Prynne at Death by Stephen Paulus. As the onstage cellist in The Elephant Man, he performed his own arrangements of incidental music for the Tony Award-winning drama. Mr. Heiss was a scholarship student of famed cellist Leonard Rose at The Juilliard School.

Jeremy McCoy is assistant principal double bass with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra where he has been a member since 1985. After attending the Curtis Institute of Music, from which he holds a bachelor of music, Mr. McCoy began his career as a member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in his native Ottawa, Canada. Apart from his orchestral duties, Mr. McCoy is active as a soloist, chamber musician and commercial session player. He has performed as recitalist in New York and on CBC Radio and as concerto soloist at the National Arts Centre, with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Atlantic Chamber Orchestra and Musica Viva of New York. His festival appearances include Marlboro, Kneisel Hall, Banff and the Grand Tetons. He has collaborated with many distinguished chamber musicians including members of the Arditti, Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, Juilliard and Tokyo string quartets. Mr. McCoy has served on the faculty of Japan's Affinis Music Festival and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He currently teaches at Columbia University and is a regular contributor to Strings Magazine. As a performer of new music, Mr. McCoy appears with Speculum Musicae, Sequitur, the Columbia Sinfonietta and Ensemble Sospeso and has recorded for Koch Classics, CRI, Albany and Mode Records.

Born in New York City, Rebecca Pechefsky has degrees from Columbia University, Queens College, and the CUNY Graduate Center. A founding member of Brooklyn Baroque, she has performed in series such as Music at Morris-Jumel, Bach at Zion, and the Miami Bach Society, as well as at the Boston Early Music Festival and the Harpsichord Center of Southern California. Ms. Pechefsky has premiered works by Frank J. Oteri, Louis Pelosi, Mary Inwood, Johnny Reinhard, and Ben Yarmolinsky. For Quill Classics she has recorded the complete harpsichord works of François d'Agincour. Her most recent release, Bach and his Circle, features the music of Bach and his contemporaries. Currently organist at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Glendale, Queens, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Erik Ryding, with whom she has coauthored Bruno Walter: A World Elsewhere, winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award.

Since 1989, MidAmerica Productions has produced over 275 chamber concerts in Weill Recital Hall, presenting some of the most exciting chamber musicians working today. For more information about this concert or MidAmerica Productions contact Susan Case at 212-239-0205 or visit www.midamerica-music.com.

Tickets, at $94, 57, 35, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

***

In 2002, Larry Dissmore became the seventh conductor to lead the Springfield Youth Symphony. Under his leadership the Orchestra performed at the Midwest Clinic in 2005 and toured within the state of Missouri as well as to neighboring states. Currently, he serves as Professor of Music at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri, where he conducts the university orchestra, concert orchestra, and string ensemble, and teaches applied violin, viola, and instrumental conducting. Under his leadership, the Evangel Concert Orchestra has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and has recorded six compact discs.

In addition to his work with the Springfield Youth Symphony and Evangel University, Dissmore remains active as a violinist. He performs regularly as a member of the Excelsis Trio, as principal second violinist in the Springfield Symphony and as concertmaster of the Springfield Regional Opera Orchestra. As a violin soloist, Dissmore has appeared with orchestras in Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Past orchestral positions have included serving as concertmaster of the La Crosse Symphony, as a first violinist with the Wichita Symphony and Music Theatre Orchestras, and as a first violinist in the Rochester Symphony in Minnesota. In the commercial arena, Dissmore has performed with such varied entertainers as Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Rogers, Regis and Kathy Lee, John Tesch, Mel Torme, and many others.

Dr. Dissmore holds a bachelor's of music education degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a master's of music in violin performance from Wichita State University, and a doctorate of musical arts in orchestral conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music.

Michael R. Gagliardo was named the second music director and conductor of the Etowah Youth Orchestras (EYO) in August of 1995. Since his appointment, he has led the orchestras to national recognition, including the receipt of eight ASCAP awards for Programming of Contemporary Music, and the 2006 ASCAP Award for American Programming on Foreign Tours. He had led the ensembles of the EYO in performances at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers for the Performing Arts, and on a highly acclaimed tour of England in 2005.

Gagliardo's work with the EYO has been featured in two documentaries for Alabama Public Television. In addition to his duties with the Etowah Youth Orchestras, Gagliardo serves as music director and conductor of the Jacksonville State University/Community Orchestra and Director of Orchestral Studies at Jacksonville State University.

Before arriving in Alabama, Gagliardo served for two years as the principal conductor and administrator of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of East Central Indiana, housed at Ball State University. While at Ball State, he also was appointed assistant conductor of the Ball State Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor for the school of music's composers' forums and student composition recitals. He has served as guest conductor of the 2003 All-West Tennessee Honor Orchestra Festival Senior Orchestra, the Eastern Illinois University/Community Orchestra, the Alton and Wood River Municipal Bands, and at the 1997 Alabama All-State Orchestra Festival.

William W. Wiedrich is in demand as a conductor and clinician throughout the United States. His Tampa appointments include the positions of Music Director and Conductor of the University of South Florida Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre since 1995, where he maintains a large graduate conducting studio, and the Patel Conservatory Tampa Bay Youth Orchestras since 1999. He has guest-conducted members of the Detroit Symphony and Spokane Symphony Orchestras, and has appeared as guest conductor with the Florida Orchestra.

In 2005, he was named Florida's Collegiate Music Educator of the Year by the Florida Music Educators Association.

Prior to his appointment in Tampa, Wiedrich held faculty conducting positions at East Carolina University, Michigan State University, and the University of Michigan, where he later earned his doctorate. He is a member of the Board of Directors of "Quorum," a professional contemporary music ensemble, and is a founding member of "newmusic," a similar ensemble based in Tampa Bay. He is currently writing an innovative conducting textbook incorporating the philosophies of Stanislavsky.

Over the past 23 years, MidAmerica Productions has brought together conductors, choruses, soloists, and orchestral musicians for performances at some of the world's greatest venues, especially at New York's Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.

Under the guidance of MidAmerica's founder, Peter Tiboris, the company has presented over 890 concerts worldwide and more than 760 in New York at Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

More than 2500 American ensembles, representing each of the 50 states, have appeared with MidAmerica in New York, as have more than 100 symphonic and choral ensembles from Europe, the Far East, South America, and Canada. There have more than 300 guest conductors, 650 solo artists, and over 100,000 performers who have appeared on MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall.

In addition to presenting classic choral and instrumental works, MidAmerica Productions has championed the works of contemporary composers. On MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, there have been approximately 31 World Premieres, 16 United States Premieres, and 50 New York Premieres.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact Susan Case at 212-239-0205 or scase@midamerica-music.com

Tickets, at $94, 57, 35, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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Peter Tiboris, Founder, General Director and Artistic Director of MidAmerica Productions, has pursued a unique and highly successful musical career in two separate arenas. As an orchestra conductor, he has presented great masterworks and contemporary classics in major venues throughout the world. In addition to his wide podium activities, Mr. Tiboris has become one of today's important musical innovators.

Mr. Tiboris made his New York conducting debut in January of 1984 with the American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center and his European debut in June of 1985 in Dubrovnik. He has led some 250 concert performances, not only in New York (in Carnegie Hall, with the American Symphony Orchestra or with his own Manhattan Philharmonic), but in such cities as Washington, Montréal (Société Philharmonique), Mexico City (Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico), London (Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia), Rome (Rome Philharmonic and Rome Opera House Orchestra), Palermo (Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana di Palermo), Hannover (Niedersächsische Orchester), Prague (Virtuosi di Praga), Warsaw (Warsaw Philharmonic), Sofia (Sofia Opera Orchestra), Istanbul (Millî Reasürans Chamber Orchestra), St. Petersburg (Glinka Capelle Philharmonic), and Moscow (Radio and Television Orchestra of Moscow) as well as throughout the Czech Republic, Poland (Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice, Poznan Philharmonic), Portugal (Orquesta Classica da Madeira, Orquestra Cåmara de Cascais e Oeiras), Italy (Vincenzo Bellini Symphony Orchestra of Catania, Orchestra Sinfonica della Magna Grecia in Taranto, Orchestra Sinfonica Citta di Grossetto, Firenze Opera Orchestra) and in Vienna. Critics all along the way have hailed his performances.

In 1984 Peter Tiboris founded MidAmerica Productions, which has since developed into New York's largest independent company for concert production. Through its work, thousands of musicians-- professional and amateur; singers, choirs, instrumental ensembles, and directors--have been enabled to perform on the finest of New York's stages, including Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the latter's Weill Hall. Under the MidAmerica umbrella, Mr. Tiboris has developed further undertakings, such as the Elysium recording label (issuing performances both his own and by others), the Manhattan Philharmonic, the Elysium Chamber Ensemble, Just Tenors, Inc., a management company, and Performers Management Exchange.

More than a dozen of Mr. Tiboris's musical interpretations have been preserved on disc, including nine recordings for Elysium Recordings, Inc., a label he founded in 1995. Other artists who have recorded on Elysium's 25 albums include Lukas Foss, Stanley Drucker, members of the New York Philharmonic, and members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra David Chan and Rafael Figueroa.

Mr. Tiboris received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Finnish-Canadian soprano Eilana Lappalainen's opera repertoire includes such Verdi sopranos as Violetta in La traviata, the title role in Giovanna D'Arco, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, and Amalia in I masnadieri. She is quickly becoming one of the world's most sought-after interpreters of Strauss's Salome, having performed the role to great acclaim in New York, Seattle, Trieste, Nashville, Warsaw, Montreal, Ottawa, Mannheim, Dessau, Kentucky, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and twice on tour in Japan. Other roles include Marie in Wozzeck, Minnie in La fanciulla del West, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Maddalena in Andrea Chenier, Elsa in Lohengrin, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana, Nedda in Pagliacci, and the title roles of Lulu, Jenufa, Madama Butterfly, and Tosca. Ms. Lappalainen credits her artistic foundation and acting training to companies Opera San Jose (where as the first principal resident artist she sang 30 leading roles) and Anhaltisches Theater Dessau (where she sang 25 leading roles).

Ms. Lappalainen has sung at La Scala, San Francisco Opera, Deutshe Oper Berlin, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Finnish National Opera, Bellas Artes Mexico City, New Israeli Opera, and Aalto Theater Essen, as well as in Cinncinati, Columbus, Portland, Ontario, Minnesota, Virginia, Arizona, Warsaw, Bremen, Wiesbaden, Halle, Würzberg, Bielefeld and Linz. On the concert stage, Ms. Lappalainen has sung Salome, Strauss's Four Last Songs, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, as well as works by Mahler and Berg. She has sung recitals and Verdi galas in New York City, Alabama, California, Japan, Finland, Greece and throughout Germany. In 2006 she made her Weill Recital Hall debut and her Michigan Opera Theater debut as Salome. In January 2007, she was the soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem at Carnegie Hall.

Jennifer Larmore is a leading American mezzo-soprano who has parlayed operatic success in Europe into international stardom. Known for excelling in the coloratura roles of the baroque and bel canto, she may be heard on the major recording labels in over 70 CDs to date, which has earned her the distinction of being the most recorded mezzo-soprano of all time.

Following her European debut in 1986, her vocal talents, energetic acting and natural beauty quickly established her as an emerging star, and the next years found her performing leading roles in the prestigious theaters of Paris, Vienna, Prague, London, Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Brussels, Geneva, Amsterdam, Milan, Tokyo, Melbourne, Seoul, Buenos Aires, and Salzburg.

In 1994, Larmore returned to the United States in a triumphant Carnegie Hall appearance. This success was followed by being chosen to receive the coveted Richard Tucker Award, and the subsequent debut at the Metropolitan Opera in her signature role as "Rosina" in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Since then, she has been a regular attraction at the Met, singing a wide range of roles from Handel's Giulio Cesare to the world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy.

Recital and symphonic repertoire plays a large role in this busy mezzo's career, with the works of Mahler, Schoenberg, Mozart, deFalla, Debussy, Berlioz, and Barber featuring prominently. World orchestras under the direction of such renowned conductors such as Muti, Levine, Lopez-Cobos, Bernstein, Runnicles, Sinopoli, Masur, von Dohnanyi, Jacobs, Spinosi, Guidarini, Kalmer, Rudel, Barenboim, Queler, Mackerras, Bonynge, Maazel, Rostropovich, Ozawa, and many others are regular collaborators.

Miss Larmore was the honored vocalist selected to close the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games with the singing of the "Olympic Hymn," and, in 2002, Dr. Larmore (conferred by Westminster College of P rinceton) was knighted by the French government with the title Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres in recognition of her contribution to the world of music.

The Russian Chamber Chorus of New York was founded in 1984 by Artistic Director and Conductor Nikolai Kachanov. Over the course of its twenty-year history, the chorus has become America's preeminent Russian vocal ensemble and one of the world's greatest ambassadors of the Russian creative spirit. Known for its stylistic versatility and heartfelt singing, RCCNY commands a repertoire spanning many centuries and styles, from ancient liturgical chants, through Russian Baroque, classical and folk music, to world premieres by leading contemporary composers.

Over the past 23 years, MidAmerica Productions has brought together conductors, choruses, soloists, and orchestral musicians for performances at some of the world's greatest venues, especially at New York's Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.

Under the guidance of MidAmerica's founder, Peter Tiboris, the company has presented over 895 concerts worldwide and more than 760 in New York at Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

More than 2500 American ensembles, representing each of the 50 states, have appeared with MidAmerica in New York, as have more than 100 symphonic and choral ensembles from Europe, the Far East, South America, and Canada. There have more than 300 guest conductors, 650 solo artists, and over 100,000 performers who have appeared on MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall.

In addition to presenting classic choral and instrumental works, MidAmerica Productions has championed the works of contemporary composers. On MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, there have been approximately 31 World Premieres, 16 United States Premieres, and 50 New York Premieres.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact Susan Case at 212-239-0205 or scase@midamerica-music.com

Tickets, at $94, 57, 35, may be obtained by calling CarnegieCharge at (212) 247-7800, going online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue in NYC. For more information, call our Box Office at (212) 239-4699 or visit our web site at www.midamerica-music.com.

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Ida Steadman, conductor, a graduate of Texas Western College and the University of Georgia, teaches at Coronado High School and Morehead Middle School. She is the principal cellist for the El Paso Symphony. Ms. Steadman has been recognized in the El Paso community as outstanding ex-student for Burges High School and with the "Conquistador Award" from the city of El Paso. She received the "Elizabeth Green School Educator Award" from the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) in 2000 and was an Olympic torchbearer for the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002.

Marianna J. Vail, conductor, began teaching in 1983. She holds a bachelor's degree from Western Washington University and a master's degree from the University of Washington. Mrs. Vail has been concertmaster of Philharmonia Northwest and the Sammamish Symphony. She joined the Issaquah School District in 1988 and was the third orchestra teacher hired after restarting the orchestra program when it had died away. She is a recipient of the Unsung Hero Award, Chain of Achievement award and is in Who's Who Among American Teachers. Mrs. Vail is a frequent clinician for large group and solo and ensemble festivals. She was a clinician for the Washington Music Educators National Conference (WMENC) in 2004.

Iolani K. Yamashiro studied the violin at the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music in Stockton, California, earning a bachelor of music in violin performance; she then earned a master of music in violin performance from the University of Texas at Austin School of Music.

Ms. Yamashiro has been a private violin instructor at the Punahou Music School and has taught orchestra classes at Hanahauoli School, the University of Hawaii Laboratory School, and the University of Texas String Project. In 1992, she was hired by the Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus to teach orchestra to middle school students. In 2002, when the Kamehameha School Maui decided to begin an orchestra program, Iolani moved to Maui to start their program.

In 2005, Ms. Yamashiro founded the Maui Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, which is the first youth orchestra outside of Honolulu, the capital of Hawai'i. This season she also began the Maui Youth Philharmonic Junior String Orchestra.

In addition to her teaching career, Ms. Yamashiro has been a violinist in the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra since 1985. She was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra in the summer of 1990. As a freelance musician, she has performed with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Liza Minelli, Johnny Mathis, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Smokey Robinson, Charlotte Church and others.

Over the past 23 years, MidAmerica Productions has brought together conductors, choruses, soloists, and orchestral musicians for performances at some of the world's greatest venues, especially at New York's Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall.

Under the guidance of MidAmerica's founder, Peter Tiboris, the company has presented over 900 concerts worldwide and more than 760 in New York at Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, and Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.

More than 2500 American ensembles, representing each of the 50 states, have appeared with MidAmerica in New York, as have some 100 symphonic and choral ensembles from Europe, the Far East, South America, and Canada. There have been more than 300 guest conductors, 650 solo artists, and 100,000 performers who have appeared on MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall.

In addition to presenting classic choral and instrumental works, MidAmerica Productions has championed the works of contemporary composers. On MidAmerica's series in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, there have been approximately 35 World Premieres, 20 United States Premieres, and 50 New York Premieres.

For more information about MidAmerica Productions, please contact Susan Case at 212-239-0205 or scase@midamerica-music.com