Performers

Federico Díaz

Born in Mendoza, Argentina, Federico Díaz is an upcoming versatile musician of the new generation of guitarists with a multi-faceted career as a performing artist, arranger, and composer in the Classical and Argentinian music worlds. His performances have taken him to distinguished festivals and concert halls across the US, Europe, and Latin America. He has appeared as soloist with the National University of Cuyo Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum University Chamber Orchestra, Polish Chamber Orchestra Sopot, Sinfonieorchester Magdeburg, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, among others. His passion for chamber music lead him to collaborate with musicians such as Lionel Cottet, Philippe Quint, Daniel Binelli, Juan Falú, Fernando Otero, Jeremías Serigiani, Nora Buschmann, Emilio Argento, Nicolás Giordano, Rodrigo Bauzá, Federico Nathan, Bruno Cavallaro, Matías González, JP Jofre, Pablo Woiz, Juan Emilio Cucchiarelli, and a variety of string ensembles. The label Epsa Music released in 2014 the album “Perspectiva 204” of the duo DiaZ-WoiZ. In 2013 he did the premiere recording of “Divertimento on Austrian Folk Songs” by Bernhard Romberg with Lionel Cottet for Sony Classical. As a member of Emilio Teubal Trio, he recorded the album “Memorias de otro tiempo” that was recently released. Federico studied at world-known institutions such as the National University of Cuyo, the University Mozarteum Salzburg, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, and Manhattan School of Music. His former teachers include Cristina Cuitiño, Eliot Fisk, Ricardo Gallén and David Starobin. Currently, he is pursuing a Doctor´s Degree in Performance, at the Graduate Center of City University of New York, under the guidance of Frederic Hand

 

Eva León

Hailed by critics as a violinist that “has the power to captivate the five senses of her audience” by La Vanguardia (Spain), and described as a “charismatic violinist who possesses, along with her musical talent and tremendous aura, a gift for expression”(Neue Press, Germany), Eva León has become one of the most successful Spanish violinists of her generation. A native of the Canary Islands, Ms. León has won all major Spanish violin competitions and several international competitions, including top prize at the Michelangelo Abbado International Violin Competition, and Laureate at The Maria Canals International Violin Competition. Eva León was also the winner of the 33rd Artists International Annual Debut Prize which led to her New York debut at Carnegie Hall.

Ms. León has performed to great audience and critical acclaim in some of the most prestigious music halls and festivals throughout the world. She has performed as soloist with many orchestras including the Mexico State Symphony Orchestra, Moldavia National Philharmonic, Boston Classical Orchestra, Colombia National Symphony, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic, Paris Chamber Orchestra, Rockford Symphony, Castilla y León Symphony, Bratislava Chamber Orchestra, Galesburg Symphony, Las Cruces Symphony, Alter Musici Camerata, Gran Canaria Philharmonic, Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Del Vallès Orchestra, and the Cologne Ensemble Orchestra, among others. As a critically acclaimed recording artist for Naxos, Ms. León has recorded multiple Naxos albums with music by Joaquín Turina, Xavier Montsalvatge and Joaquín Rodrigo. She has also recorded for other labels such as Moraleda and Klassic Cat and has made numerous recordings for TV and radio throughout Europe, the United States, Japan, and Latin America. An article written by Ms. León about Turina’s Piano Trios was featured in the Master Class section of Strings Magazine. Eva León is also an Artist in Residence at the Foundation for Iberian Music, Graduate Center, City University of New York. http://www.evaleon.com

Thomas Mesa

Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa is quickly establishing himself as one of the most charismatic and versatile performers of his generation. He is a winner of the Astral Artists Auditions (2017), the Sphinx Competition (2016), Thaviu Competition for String Performance (2013), and the Alhambra Orchestra Concerto Competition (2006). Concerto engagements include Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic at The Hollywood Bowl, Erie Chamber Orchestra, Firelands Symphony, and Elgin Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Mesa has performed for the Mainly Mozart Festival, Nantucket Musical Arts Society, Bargemusic, Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, The Supreme Court of the United States, The Heifetz Institute, Meadowmount School of Music, as well as in universities throughout the United States.

Thomas Mesa was one of the featured instrumentalists on the Crossing Choir’s album “Bonhoeffer” that was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2017. With Donald Nally, Director of the Crossing Choir, Mr. Mesa has performed as a soloist at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Longwood Gardens, The Winter Garden and the Theological Seminary in New York City and at the Washington National Cathedral. As a chamber musician, Thomas Mesa has toured with Itzhak Perlman. He is also a member of St. Petersburg Piano Quartet which has performed at Barge Music, Doheny Mansion, Kohl Mansion, Music Mountain and at the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach.

Mr. Mesa is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Northwestern University and is currently at the Manhattan School of Music. He performs on an 1820 Richard Tobin cello. http://www.tomasmesacello.com

Isabel Pérez Dobarro

Isabel Pérez Dobarro has appeared in solo recitals and chamber music concerts at the Stern Auditorium, Zankel Hall, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, Japan Society, Academy of Arts and Letters, Tenri Cultural Institute, Yamaha Center, DiMenna Center, Liederkranz Foundation, Rachmaninoff Hall at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Sala Manuel de Falla, Ateneo de Madrid, and Sala Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Bolzano, Italy. She was a prizewinner at the American Protegé International Piano and Strings Competition (2nd Prize), Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition (3rd Prize), Ciutat de Berga International Competition (1st Prize) and the Cidade do Fundao Piano International Competition (1st Prize), as well as the recipient of the Jorge Bolet Distinguished Performer Award at the Stony Brook International Piano Festival. She has performed at the Mannes Contemporary Music Institute and the New England Conservatory Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance and Practice, the Festival Internacional de Segovia, Música en Compostela, and Gijón Piano Festival, among others.

She recently performed at the Concert for a Sustainable Planet at Carnegie Hall along with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and members of the New York Philharmonic. In January 2018, she was a soloist with the Real Filharmonia de Galicia Orchestra under the baton of maestro Diego Masson. Her interest in contemporary music has led her to premiere works by Eduardo Soutullo, Octavio Vázquez, Pamela Sklar, Sonia Megías, Michael Boyman, Julia Dopico, Lars Graugard, among others. She is a frequent performer of works both for solo and ensemble of George Crumb, Juan Antonio Simarro, Consuelo Díez, Mercedes Zavala, Alexa Babakhanian, Miguel Bustamante, Benet Casablancas, Cristóbal Halffter, Luis de Pablo, Antón García Abril, Carmelo Bernaola, Debra Kaye, Marga Richter, Mary-Ann Joyce, among others. With composer Noelia Lobato and conductor Irene Gómez-Calado, she is working on a project entitled Spanish Women in Music.

Isabel has taught masterclasses at the Manuel Peleteiro Conservatory and the New York University ́s Undergraduate Collegium. She has also given lectures and speeches at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, United Nations General Assembly, ECOSOC Youth Forum, European Parliament within the European Arts Forum, I Jornadas Sostenibilidad e Instituciones Culturales, University of Michigan, IE University in Madrid, University of Vechta, Columbia University, Carnegie Hall, and Casina Pio IV at the Vatican. She has participated in Música en Compostela, Gijon International Piano Festival, and the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance and Practice at the New England Conservatory, among other festivals. In 2016, she organized the Festival Granados: Composer, Pedagogue, and Virtuoso at New York University, a series of lectures and concerts about Enrique Granados in which she premiered a newly reconstructed version for piano quintet of Granados ́ Concierto Patético by composer Sergi Casanelles.

With mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna, Isabel was awarded the 2016 New York Women Composers Seed Grant for their project Mujeres en Música, an initiative that promotes music composed by women in the United States and Spain. The project consists of two concerts per year (one at the Lincoln Center in New York and one at the International Institute in Madrid) in which they present music composed and performed by women. In addition to her concertizing career, Isabel leads the project UNSDSN-Youth Arts Twenty Thirty which combines arts with sustainability in the promotion of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Douglas Riva

American pianist Douglas Riva has gained international recognition for his profound knowledge of Spanish music and no less an authority than the distinguished Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge has described him as an exceptional pianist. Douglas Riva’s interpretations of the works of Enrique Granados have earned him his reputation as today’s leading exponent of Granados’ piano music. His recordings for Naxos of the complete piano works of Granados, comprising 231 works including 102 World Premiere recordings, have won worldwide critical acclaim. Douglas Riva is the Assistant Director of the eighteen-volume critical edition of the Complete Works for Piano of Enrique Granados, directed by Alicia de Larrocha and published by Editorial Boileau, Barcelona. In November 2016 the Complutense University, Madrid, published his critical edition of the complete orchestral works by Granados, including the first publication of 8 works. Mr. Riva recorded one of these works, Elisenda, with the City of Granada Orchestra, directed by Cristóbal Soler, for Deutsche Grammophon. Mr. Riva has performed at the White House, Carnegie Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and numerous festivals in Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and the United States. He gave the first American performance of a newly discovered Scarlatti sonata at the National Gallery of Art, Washington and the world première of Gazebo Dances by John Corigliano. Granados’s long-lost masterpiece Cant de les estrelles for piano solo, organ and choruses was performed for only the second time in history by Douglas Riva and the Voices of Ascension, directed by Dennis Keene in 2007. The Naxos recording of the première performance, Song of the Stars, was nominated for a GRAMMY award.

Anna Tonna

Mezzo Soprano Anna Tonna has been described as mezzo heroine who knows how to sing Rossini by the Rossini Gessellschaft and as showing off her warm, secure mezzo-soprano to maximum advantage by the New York Magazine; accolades such as these explain her constant demand as a recitalist and opera singer in both Europe and the Americas. The combination of a highly developed coloratura with a full, balanced, flexible lower register have guaranteed her acclaim as a lyric mezzo, both in familiar roles Rosina, Carmen, Dorabella, as well as in more rare repertoire by Paisiello, Vivaldi, Mascagni, Zandonai, and Giordano.

Additionally, Ms. Tonna’s passion for and excellence in the recital genre have garnered her increasing acclaim in both the U.S. and Europe, particularly her path-breaking explorations of the repertoire of composers from Spain and Latin America. Ms. Tonna’s recitals are a source of constant expectation and excitement in New York City, where she has performed at both the Alice Tully Hall and Rose Center of Lincoln Center, Bargemusic, Merkin Hall, New York’s Town Hall, Weill Recital Hall. The same excitement greets her appearances in Spain, with performances at the Auditorio Nacional de España and the Escorial Theatre in Spain.

She has collaborated with Casals Festival of Puerto Rico, Festival Iberoamericano de las Artes in Puerto Rico, Música de Cámara, Festival de Segovia, Joy in Singing, Elysium Between Two Continents and the Nassau Music Festival among others. Of note amongst the countless recital of songs are appearances at the Cosmo Club in Washington, D.C., a world premiere of a song cycle by Spanish composer Miquel Ortega with North-South Consonance in Manhattan, and performances for the Asociación Rioja Lírica in Logroño (Spain), Atheneum of Madrid and Barcelona, Teatro Comica-Lírica de Madrid and two editions of the Otoño Cultural Iberoamericano of Huelva. Her recital of “Songs of post Civil War Spain” at the Fundación Juan March of Madrid was broadcast on Radio Television Española and hailed as “a tour de force” by the Spanish newspaper ABC.

Ms. Tonna’s artistry has been recognized by the Liederkranz Foundation, The Gerda Lissner Foundation, National Opera Association, BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) grant from the Bronx Council of the Arts, and a Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research in and perform Spanish Art Song in Spain, where she has established a thriving career. Commercial recordings that have preserved some of these efforts include The songs of Julio Gómez with pianist Jorge Robaina with disc label VERSO and her new disc España alla Rossini with Spanish pianist Emilio González Sanz which premiered in April of 2016 with iTinerant Classics. She bowed this past May 2017 in the role of Laura Adorno with the Brno State Opera in the Czech Republic, and bowed in 2016 in said role in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda and as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto, both with New Jersey Association of Verismo opera. 

A native and resident of New York City, Ms. Tonna holds a B.A. in Music from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida and a Masters in Performing Arts from the Mannes College of Music in New York City. http://www.annatonna.com

Olga Vinokur

Olga Vinokur is an acclaimed pianist who is gaining recognition for “the strength and consistency of her artistry” as noted by New York Times. BBC magazine called her “superlative” and the New York Times praised her “exquisite performance.” She has appeared in US and internationally as recitalist, with orchestra and chamber musician in major venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, Merkin Hall in New York, Rudolfinum’s Dvorak Hall and Municipal House’s Smetana Hall in Prague, Shangai Oriental Art Center in China, King’s Place in London, among many others. Ms. Vinokur was a featured artist in the London Chamber Music Society, EuroArts Festival in Prague, Pour l’Art Music Festival in Switzerland, Prague Chamber Music Society, Young Artist Festival in Russia, Havana Piano Festival in Cuba, International Piano Festivals in Paris and Canary Islands of Spain.

Ms. Vinokur is presented in the film documentary Women of Music on Bravo TV station in Canada. She has been heard on WNYC’s “Soundcheck”, BBC, Czech National Radio, Dutch National Radio, French National Radio, Swiss National Radio, and Russian National Public Radio. She has appeared as a soloist with Prague Philharmonic and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra of Czech Republic, Salome Chamber Orchestra, La Primavera Chamber Orchestra of Russia, Lambeth Symphony of London, Prague Castle Orchestra. Ms. Vinokur toured China as a soloist with orchestra where she performed in 11 different cities.

A native of Russia, Olga Vinokur began her piano studies at the age of six, and at twelve was awarded First Prize in the National Young Artist Piano Competition in Russia. Since then she has been a recipient of numerous awards and prizes in national and international competitions. Olga Vinokur received her Bachelor’s Degree and Artist’s Diploma with honors from the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel-Aviv University. She pursued her Master and Doctor of Musical Art Degrees at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. http://www.olagvinokur.com