Courtney Bryan, a native of New Orleans, is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow, and currently serves as composer-in-residence with Opera Philadelphia.

This season sees two world premieres: Dreaming (Freedom Sounds), performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble at New York’s Kaufman Music Center, and a new orchestral piece for Jacksonville Symphony. Last season, Bryan performed as soloist in the world premiere of her piano concerto House of Pianos, which debuted in a chamber ensemble version with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group led by Paolo Bortolameolli, and in a full orchestra version with the Cincinnati Symphony, conducted by Louis Langrée. Bryan’s Gathering Song, with libretto by Tazewell Thompson, also received its debut with the New York Philharmonic and bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, conducted by Leslie B. Dunner.

Other recent works include Blessed, commissioned by Opera Philadelphia and produced as a film that weaves together musical recordings and footage from New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia; Syzygy for violin and orchestra, premiered by Jennifer Koh and the Chicago Sinfonietta; and Yet Unheard for soprano, chorus, and orchestra, commissioned by The Dream Unfinished and premiered with Helga Davis.

Bryan’s interest across multiple artforms have led to collaborations with visual artists Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Steffani Jemison, Abigail DeVille, Kara Lynch, Lake Simons, Amy Bryan, and Alma Bryan Powell; director Patricia McGregor; writers Sharan Strange, Matthew D. Morrison, and Ashon Crawley; and musicians Branford Marsalis, Brandee Younger, and Damian Norfleet.

Bryan holds a doctorate in composition from Columbia University, where she studied with George Lewis. She also holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (BM) and Rutgers University (MM). Bryan completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. She is currently the Albert and Linda Mintz Professor of Music at Newcomb College in the School of Liberal Arts at Tulane University. 
 

John Wilson frequently performs as a pianist with the San Francisco Symphony and serves as principal keyboard for the Marin Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Oakland Symphony. This season he appears at Carnegie Hall, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and on the SF Symphony’s Chamber Music Series. He performs Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra and Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Marin Symphony. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Wilson has premiered works by Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams, Timo Andres, and Steve Reich.

Wilson performed on the Grammy Award–winning recording of Michael Tilson Thomas’s Meditations on Rilke as well as on the recent release of Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas on Pentatone. His 2022 solo debut album on Avie Records featured the world premiere of MTT’s Upon Further Reflection.

Poised and playful soprano Arianna Rodriguez was an Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera, where she sang the roles of Frasquita in Carmen, Gianetta in L’elisir d’Amore, and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. She made her mainstage debut with the company in Die Frau ohne Schatten and performed as Musetta in the production of Bohème Out of the Box. 

Other recent performances include Ask Your Mama, a multimedia work based on poetry by Langston Hughes and originally composed by Laura Karpman for Jessye Norman, and a staged production of Bernstein’s Mass under the baton of Marin Alsop. Additional roles include Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Krysia in Jake Heggie’s Two Remain, and Musetta in Opera North’s La bohème.

Of Guayanese and Puerto Rican heritage, Rodriguez was a District Winner and Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, a finalist in the Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition, and received encouragement awards from the Vero Beach Opera Rising Star Vocal Competition and Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition. A graduate of the Merola Opera Program, she is also a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation.
 

Turkish-German conductor, pianist, and composer Mert Yalniz has been described as “extremely individual, charismatic and convincing” (Osthessen News), his piano playing as “passionate, enthusiastic and highly virtuosic” (Braunschweig Newspaper), and his compositions as a “statement from the new generation” (Heidelberger Frühling). This season, Yalniz will make his debut with the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hanover, where he will conduct Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with pianist Igor Levit, Weber’s Clarinet Concertino, Chausson’s Poème, and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Yalniz is also a Salonen Fellow in the Negaunee Conducting Program at the Colburn School and on the conducting staff of the San Francisco Symphony, assisting Esa-Pekka Salonen internationally.

Recent performances include Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Uniorchester Leibniz and Braunschweiger Kammerorchester; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester and Deutsches Juristenorchester, Bach’s Concerto in D Minor and Joaquín Turina’s Rapsodia Sinfonica with the Beethoven Orchestra Hessen, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the chamber orchestra La Tempesta. Yalniz made his debut at the international music festival Heidelberger Frühling, performing excerpts from Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated and conducting and playing in his nearly 45-minute long composition People-Fantasy for chamber ensemble. In 2023, Yalniz debuted at the KKL as part of the Lucerne Piano Festival and played his first concerts in the United States at the Soundboard Institute, performing classical repertoire, his own compositions, and improvisation. He also participated in the festival Ouverture of the Heidelberger Frühling and worked with the Ballet of Differences and its director Richard Siegal on their production based on Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated variations, which he performed in full alongside the choreography.

Yalniz has regularly attended the Panula Academy of Maestro Jorma Panula in Finland and worked with several orchestras on various repertoire, such as Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture with the Theater für Niedersachsen Philharmonie, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Philharmonisches Kammerorchester Wernigerode, and Ravel’s Ma mère l‘oye and Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1 with the Pori Sinfonietta. He also attended conducting masterclasses with Joana Mallwitz and the International Conducting Workshop & Academy (ICWA) led by Matthias Bamert and Ken Lam.

Yalniz has won first prizes as a pianist in the national music competition Jugend musiziert as well as the Eduard Söring Prize, a highly regarded special prize from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the NDR Kultur-Förderpreis. In 2015 and 2017, he was a prize winner at the International Grotrian-Steinweg Competition in Braunschweig and received a scholarship from the Louis Spohr Gesellschaft. In 2016, Yalniz won the first prize at the International Music Competition for Young Talents in Istanbul and was awarded the special award for Best Musical Interpretation. Additionally, Yalniz won the first prize at the Hamburg Instrumental Competition and received the Trübger Special Prize for Young Pianists which provided him a debut recital at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. In 2022, Yalniz received both the jury prize and the audience prize at the international competition of the 15th Pianale Piano Festival in Fulda. Yalniz has been part of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Hannover program, visiting social institutions and regularly giving concerts for people who can no longer attend ordinary concerts due to their conditions.

Yalniz has attended piano masterclasses with Bernd Goetzke, Jacques Ammon, Konstanze Eickhorst, Francesco Libetta, Gülsin Onay, Igor Levit, Uta Weyand, Matti Raekallio, William Fong, Markus Schirmer, Filippo Gamba, and Roland Krüger. In 2022, he began studying piano with Igor Levit at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (HMTMH).

Yalniz is a Colburn Artist.