Equal Billing Project 2023

As a consultant for the Amazon Prime series Mozart in the Jungle created by Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, Dr. Aubin was the off-camera conductor for an episode filmed on Rikers Island. Since then, Dr. Aubin has continued a relationship with the NYC Department of Correction, designing and conducting a series of concerts and education initiatives for detainees, both in person and online. He also served as the onstage conductor for the film Bel Canto with Julianne Moore and has been an artistic consultant for the hit television show Younger.

In his role as Music Director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Aubin has transformed the orchestra’s visibility, both in the community and on a national scale. He has collaborated with world-renowned soloists such as pianist Pascal Rogé, cellist and composer Jeremy Crosmer, cellist Julian Schwarz, and composer Lowell Liebermann. During Dr. Aubin’s time as Music Director, the JSO’s season has expanded, and the organization is now regularly reaching audiences of all ages through expanded family concerts, education concerts, and the JSO’s Music on Tap series geared towards young adults. During the 2020 pandemic, he launched a series of digital initiatives, most notably the Random Acts of Music series. Under Dr. Aubin’s leadership, the JSO is releasing a series of asynchronous, multimedia educational videos to be used in K-12 classrooms. These videos will be based on the 2021 season’s virtual programming and will explore musical concepts.

Dr. Aubin is the foremost scholar on the French composer Fernande Breilh-Decruck. He has earned multiple research grants to study her significant life and work. A champion of the critical role of women in composition, Dr. Aubin is working to promote Decruck’s newly discovered lost music. He has edited and created critical editions of her work, which are now in the process of publication with Gérard Billaudot Éditeur, and has organized performances of Decruck’s music in the United States and abroad. The 2021-2022 season will bring a large-scale recording project of Decruck’s orchestral works aimed at giving orchestras further access and insight into her brilliant work.

Dr. Aubin continues to be active as a freelance horn player, and regularly performs across the country. A devoted music educator, Dr. Aubin’s past associations include Assistant Professor of Music at Washington State University, Adjunct faculty at The Hartt School and Educational Programs Conductor for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Crosmer is a founding member of the modern music ensemble Latitude 49. He is also a current member of the band ESME, a duo which broadens the education of classical music by bringing cross-overs and mash-ups of pop and classical music to schools throughout Michigan. ESME released its first CD in December of 2016.

In April of 2013 Crosmer toured London with the Grand Valley State University Chamber Orchestra, performing the Boccherini G Major Concerto, No. 7. He performed the Vivaldi Double Concerto with Alicia Eppinga and the GRS in March of 2016. While still in school, Crosmer was awarded the prestigious Theodore Presser Graduate Music Award to publish, record and perform his Crosmer-Popper duets. He recorded the duets with Julie Albers, and both sheet music and CD are available online.

Crosmer has taught music theory, pre-calculus and cello at universities across Michigan. He draws mazes, writes science fiction and plays good old country fiddle in his spare time. He grew up in Conway, Arkansas.

As a concerto soloist his partners at the podium have included leading conductors such as Leif Segerstam, François Xavier-Roth, Ilan Volkov, Riccardo Minasi, Ludovic Morlot, Alexander Liebreich, Martyn Brabbins, Thomas Dausgaard, Antoni Wit, Thierry Fischer, Jiří Bělohlávek, and Ed Gardner with major symphony and chamber orchestras and contemporary music ensembles. He also varies his solo engagements with meaningful chamber music partnerships alongside artists such as Antje Weithaas (violin), Maximilian Hornung (cello), Stefan Jackiw (violin), Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Michala Petri (recorder), Adam Walker (flute), Hille Perl (viola da gamba), and Florence Malgoire (baroque violin).

Esfahani’s work with new and modern music is particularly acclaimed, with high-profile solo and concertante commissions from George Lewis, Bent Sørensen, Poul Ruders, Anahita Abbasi, Laurence Osborne, Gary Carpenter, Miroslav Srnka, Elena Kats-Chernin, Daniel Kidane, Michael Berkeley, and other contemporary voices in forming the backbone of his repertoire. His commitment to exploring the contemporary voice for the harpsichord is reflected in his 2020 Hyperion release ‘Musique?’ – a compilation of electronic and acoustic works including the modern revival of Luc Ferrari’s 1974 Programme commun for harpsichord and tape.

His richly-varied discography for Hyperion and Deutsch Grammophon – including an ongoing series of the complete works of Bach for the former – has been acclaimed in the English- and foreign-language press and has garnered one Gramophone award, two BBC Music Magazine Awards, a Diapason d’Or and ‘Choc de Classica’ in France, and an ICMA as well as numerous Editor’s Choices in a variety of publications including a spot in the Telegraph’s compilation of essential classical music and the New York Times List of Top Recordings.

He can be frequently heard as a commentator on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and as a host for such programs as Record Review, Building a Library, and Sunday Feature, as well as in live programmes with the popular mathematician and presenter Marcus du Sautoy; for the BBC’s Sunday Feature he is currently at work on his fourth radio documentary following popular programmes on such subjects as the early history of African-American composers in the classical sphere and the development of orchestral music in Azerbaijan.

Born in Tehran in 1984, Esfahani grew up in the United States and studied musicology and history at Stanford University and worked as a repetiteur and studied in Boston with Peter Watchorn before completing his studies in Prague with the celebrated Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. Following several years spent in Milan, Oxford, and London, he now makes his home in Prague. 

At age 12, she travelled abroad to study in Seoul, South Korea at the prestigious and competitive Sun Hwa Performing Arts School. Upon returning to Seattle five years later, she studied with Helen Callus at the University of Washington – Mitsuru later followed Professor Callus to the University of California, Santa Barbara. While in California, Mitsuru was Assistant Director of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony’s Preparatory String Orchestra and was a frequent freelancer. She went on to continue her education at the Peabody Institute of Music under the tutelage of Victoria Chiang, completing her Graduate Performance Diploma.

Mitsuru has attended festivals all over the country, including Marrowstone Music Festival, the Heifetz Institute, Centrum Chamber Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival. Her performance opportunities include playing for classical music greats Yo-Yo Ma, Marin Alsop, Richard Goode, Gil Shaham and James Galway to name a few. Her performance credits include venues such as Kennedy Center, the United Nations, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC.

Recently, Mitsuru has been sought after as a soloist. She has collaborated with conductor Matthew Aubin and composer Jeremy Crosmer to premiere new works with both the Jackson Symphony Orchestra and The Chelsea Symphony. Mitsuru also continues to expand on a range of musical styles. Mitsuru co-wrote and recorded an album with alternative pop/rock band Sonic Cult, with whom she toured across the US, Korea and Japan. Mitsuru is a founding member of the BeneSori String Quartet, members of which she met on the set of NBC’s Saturday Night Live, playing for Imagine Dragons. She is also a regular member of The Chelsea Symphony, New England Symphonic Ensemble and Westchester Music of India Group.

In addition to her performance career, Mitsuru is a dedicated teacher. Along with her private studio, she is on faculty at Love Viola USA, Friends With Music and the 4Strings Music Festival.

Mitsuru’s future engagements include a residency at Washington State University and a return solo appearance with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra.

As a consultant for the Amazon Prime series Mozart in the Jungle created by Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, Dr. Aubin was the off-camera conductor for an episode filmed on Rikers Island. Since then, Dr. Aubin has continued a relationship with the NYC Department of Correction, designing and conducting a series of concerts and education initiatives for detainees, both in person and online. He also served as the onstage conductor for the film Bel Canto with Julianne Moore and has been an artistic consultant for the hit television show Younger.

In his role as Music Director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Aubin has transformed the orchestra’s visibility, both in the community and on a national scale. He has collaborated with world-renowned soloists such as pianist Pascal Rogé, cellist and composer Jeremy Crosmer, cellist Julian Schwarz, and composer Lowell Liebermann. During Dr. Aubin’s time as Music Director, the JSO’s season has expanded, and the organization is now regularly reaching audiences of all ages through expanded family concerts, education concerts, and the JSO’s Music on Tap series geared towards young adults. During the 2020 pandemic, he launched a series of digital initiatives, most notably the Random Acts of Music series. Under Dr. Aubin’s leadership, the JSO is releasing a series of asynchronous, multimedia educational videos to be used in K-12 classrooms. These videos will be based on the 2021 season’s virtual programming and will explore musical concepts.

Dr. Aubin is the foremost scholar on the French composer Fernande Breilh-Decruck. He has earned multiple research grants to study her significant life and work. A champion of the critical role of women in composition, Dr. Aubin is working to promote Decruck’s newly discovered lost music. He has edited and created critical editions of her work, which are now in the process of publication with Gérard Billaudot Éditeur, and has organized performances of Decruck’s music in the United States and abroad. The 2021-2022 season will bring a large-scale recording project of Decruck’s orchestral works aimed at giving orchestras further access and insight into her brilliant work.

Dr. Aubin continues to be active as a freelance horn player, and regularly performs across the country. A devoted music educator, Dr. Aubin’s past associations include Assistant Professor of Music at Washington State University, Adjunct faculty at The Hartt School and Educational Programs Conductor for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Millstein is the Program Manager of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School. The purpose of this initiative is to promote and perform music by composers whose lives and works were suppressed as a result of Nazi policies from 1933-1945. Adam spearheaded the Initiative’s Schulhoff and More! Project: a unique online series focused on the life and music of Recovered Voices composer Erwin Schulhoff. He curated, performed, and organized filmed recordings of Schulhoff’s music. The critically acclaimed album Shapeshifter: Music of Erwin Schulhoff on the Delos Label was made from these recordings.

Millstein has had the great honor to work extensively with internationally renowned conductor Maestro James Conlon, Music Director of the LA Opera and the Artistic Director of Recovered Voices. Adam curated, performed, and produced a filmed online concert for the Library of Congress that featured musicians from the Colburn School and Recovered Voices composers. This concert included music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Mieczysław Weinberg, Franz Schreker, and a world premier by Herbert Zipper. Adam has collaborated with pianist Dominic Cheli and cellist Clive Greensmith in performances and a recording of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Piano Trio. Millstein is a passionate advocate for educating performers and audiences about Recovered Voices. He has performed lecture recitals across the United States and abroad, notably at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, Colburn School, and Accademia Musicale Chigiana. He has been invited to guest lecture at Arizona State University on the subject of Herbert Zipper, a Holocaust survivor, conductor, composer, and ideological forefather of the Colburn School, whose archive Millstein has used as a source of inspiration, curation, and educational programming.

As an orchestral musician, Millstein has already played with some of the country’s greatest orchestras. He acted as guest associate concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony and guest assistant concertmaster of the Louisville Orchestra. He has played as a substitute in the Los Angeles Opera and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. He has acted as concertmaster of the Sequoia Symphony and Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra where he received an Orchestral Leadership Fellowship for two summers.

Adam has also collaborated extensively with violinist Sarah Chang on tours of the United States and China as a member of an elite string quintet accompanying Ms. Chang.

As soloist, Millstein has appeared with the Sequoia Symphony with Maestro Bruce Kiesling and on two tours of Bulgaria with Maestro Maxim Eshkenazy.

Adam has participated in the Mainly Mozart Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, and performed at the La Jolla Music Series.

Through the works of notable Black composers who have redefined musical landscapes, the album celebrates the centrality of the African American spiritual to the history of American music. Ennanga features The Harlem Chamber Players and Ashley’s harp transcriptions of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Alice Coltrane, as well as original compositions by William Grant Still and Brandee Younger.

She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Music Department at Hunter College. Ashley holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School, a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University.

Since the launch in 2020 of the video channel La Boîte à pépites, Héloïse Luzzati has been the artistic director of about a hundred videos of which she is also the author. In a wide variety of forms, the channel offers animated documentaries, a digital advent calendar, and video recordings.

In 2022, the system was expanded with an eponymous record label whose purpose is to publish monographs of women composers.

The first monograph of the label, a triple disc dedicated to the composer Charlotte Sohy, was released at the end of April 2022 in France and continues its development abroad, notably in England and the United States. In just a few months, the label’s success has been dazzling, hailed by the press, this first recording has already been listened to more than a million times on streaming platforms.

With Elles-women composers, Héloïse Luzzati collaborates with numerous cultural structures such as the Orchestre National Avignon Provence, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Abbaye de Royaumont, the Abbaye de Maubuisson or the Palazzeto BruZane and hopes to disseminate as widely as possible the research work and readings of the collective.

Passionate about chamber music, Héloïse Luzzati graduated from the CNSMDP in the class of Roland Pidoux and Xavier Phillips. During her studies, she also benefited from the advice of Philippe Muller, Marc Coppey, Hatto Beyerle, Alain Planès and members of the Ysaÿe Quartet. She has performed with such artists as Xavier Phillips, Célia Oneto Bensaid, David Kadouch, Dana Cioccarlie, Marie-Josèphe Jude, Léa Hennino, Alexandre Pascal, Elsa Dreisig…

As a recognized leader for the promotion of musical diversity in symphonic orchestral music, Dave Beck, of Seattle Classical KING FM wrote, “The Seattle Collaborative Orchestra under Dr. Anna Edwards’ excellent musicianship, inspired vision, and creative leadership, is doing everything a modern orchestra should be doing to insure the future of the art of symphonic music. The spirit of collaboration among these professional, gifted amateur and excellent student musicians fosters innovation, diversity, and new possibilities in the life of the 21st century symphony orchestra. SCO is showing the way forward like no other orchestra in our region.”

Along with her passion for diversity on the concert stage, in 2022 Edwards launched Anna’s Composer Database; a curated list of underrepresented composers that provides ideas for excellent, well-rounded, and interesting concert programs. Edwards continues to follow her commitment to program innovative music, which balances traditional classical music with music by women, underrepresented composers, and Northwest artists. Commissioned premieres include works by Joe Jaxson, Sarah Bassingthwaighte, Leanna Primiani, Julian Garvue, Brendan McMullen, Andy Clausen, David Lien, Tim Huling, Angelique Poteat, and Victoria Bond. Anna additionally offers lectures concerning music, gender, and leadership to up-and-coming musicians and community leaders in public schools, community businesses, Colleges, and Universities.

Edwards’ dedication to quality musical performance started with her early career as a professional violinist, performing with prestigious ensembles such as the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Northwest Sinfonietta, Auburn Symphony, and multiple Seattle area chamber ensembles. As she has turned her career towards conducting, Edwards has attended numerous festivals and workshops, with mentors such as Ludovic Morlot, Michael Jinbo, Diane Wittry, Neil Thomson, and Gustav Meier. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Washington, and holds a Bachelor of Music Education and Masters in Violin Performance.

In 2013, 2014, and 2018, Edwards received 2 nd and then two – 1st place honors (respectively) for conducting in The American Prize, a national competition for conductors and musical ensembles. Seattle Collaborative Orchestra received two – 2nd place and then 1 st place honors for The American Prize orchestra performance division. In SCO’s performance of Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra, American Prize described Edwards’ conducting as “strong and committed” and “…always ‘in the moment,’ showing clarity of beat, intensity and focus.…the conductor’s face is alive to each musical gesture and the nuance.”