Annamia Larsson

Annamia Larsson was born in Sweden in 1980 and has been co-principal horn of the Royal Opera in Stockholm since 2002. From 1999–2003 Annamia studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Dick Gustavsson. She also studied one semester in Vienna with Professor Roland Berger and Thomas Jöbstl. While studying in Vienna, Annamia appeared with the Wiener Volksoper and Wiener Horn Ensemble.

Annamia has participated in masterclasses with Markus Maskuniitty (Berlin), Dale Clevenger (Chicago), Hugh Seenan (London), Fergus McWilliam (Berlin), Ib Lanzky-Otto (Stockholm), Mark Gould (New York), and Michel Garcin-Marrou (Paris). She plays chamber music and performs solo concerts and at competitions in addition to her employment in the Opera orchestra. She has received many different scholarships in Sweden. Annamia was a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra 2000 and 2001. Since 2005 Annamia is a member of KammarensembleN.

Richard Todd

From Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl, from the Jazz Bakery to Birdland, internationally renowned concert, jazz and recording artist Richard Todd has earned acclaim as one of the finest horn soloists today. Gold medal winner of the 1980 Concours Internationale Toulon, he is a Pro Musicis International Foundation Award winner and is continually expanding the boundaries of the horn world. Todd has performed under the batons of such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Carlo Maria Giulini, Neville Marriner, Maurice Abravanel, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Helmuth Rilling, and Gunther Schuller.

His performances are described as “simply startling in their dexterity” and he is praised for his “heart-clutching sound.”

Equally at home in all styles, Richard breaks down the barriers of music. As a classical artist, his rigorous schedule includes recitals and solo engagements across North America, work in the film industry (he has more 1,000 motion picture soundtracks to his credit) and recording projects with many top artists. Richard is also principal horn of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, with which he has been a frequent soloist and member since 1980. In 2006, he performed at the Sydney Opera House on a concert tour of Australia. He is the only horn soloist who has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, Sydney Opera House, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Richard’s recordings showcase his versatility. He made two CDs with André Previn. Gunther Schuller personally selected Todd to record his Concerto No. 1 for Horn and Orchestra with the Saarbrücken Radio Orchestra. Richard’s solo albums, New Ideas (a crossover album of both classical and jazz) and Rickterscale, prompted him to step into the spotlight as a “star among jazz hornists.” More recently, he recorded an album entitled Horn Sonatas of Three Centuries; a jazz album, With A Twist; and Craig Russell’s Rhapsody for Horn and Orchestra with the San Luis Obispo Symphony, commissioned by that orchestra specifically for him.

Deeply committed to music education, Richard was among the most sought-after teachers on the faculty at University of Southern California and the Henry Mancini Institute. He has also taught at UCLA, CalArts, and the Chatauqua and Bowdoin music festivals.

New York Brass Arts Trio

• Haim Avitsur, trombone
• Joe Burgstaller, trumpet
• David Jolley, horn

James Naigus

James Naigus, currently a DMA candidate in horn at the University of Iowa, is a performer and composer of broadening recognition. He currently studies horn with Jeffrey Agrell, studied horn and composition with Paul Basler at the University of Florida during his masters degree, and while attending the University of Michigan for his undergraduate degree studied with Sören Hermansson, Bryan Kennedy, and Adam Unsworth. Naigus has been a guest clinician and composer in residence at American Horn Quartet founder David Johnson’s summer workshop in Daytona Beach for several years. He has played with the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, Gainesville Chamber Orchestra, Valdosta Symphony Orchestra, Ocala Symphony Orchestra, and soloed with many regional professional choirs in Florida.

Naigus’ compositions have been performed throughout the United States and beyond, with enthusiastic reception and rave review. In 2009 he was awarded an honorable mention award in the International Horn Society Composition Contest, selected from 85 entries spread over 16 nations. His music is published by R.M. Williams Publishing.

Tomoko Kanamaru

As a versatile recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative artist, Japanese pianist Tomoko Kanamaru has garnered the respect of musicians and the acclaim of critics. Having been praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer as a “charismatic pianist,” Ms. Kanamaru continues to capture audiences’ attention with her stunning virtuosity and unequaled sense of lyricism.

Tomoko Kanamaru made her first public performance with a professional orchestra at the age of nine in Japan. She has since then been seen in numerous concert venues in the world, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York; Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia; Sumida Toriphony Hall in Tokyo; and Stefaniensaal in Graz, Austria. She made her concerto debut in the United States with the Savannah Symphony Orchestra as part of the Orchestra’s classical series in December 2000. During the summer of the same year, Ms. Kanamaru was featured in one of the National Repertory Orchestra’s concerts at the Breckenridge Music Festival in Colorado. Ms. Kanamaru recently appeared with the Toledo Symphony and with the Binghamton Philharmonic, performing Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto, and Stravinsky’s Petrushka respectively. During the 2009–2010 season, she performed Liszt’s First Concerto with the Middletown Symphony Orchestra (Ohio) for its Season Finale Concert. For the 2010&ndah;11 season, Ms. Kanamaru is scheduled to perform Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto with the Symphony of Southeast Texas as a part of the Classical Master Series Concert, in addition to her debut appearance as a guest artist for the Philharmonic Ensembles at Merkin Concert Hall in New York.

Other past appearances include concerts presented by Karl Böhm Foundation in Germany, the Kravis Performing Arts Center in Florida, Rode Kruis Amsterdam in Holland, and Bechstein Piano Centre in New York for the Grand Opening Series among others. She recently performed the Mozart’s Quintet with the Philharmonic Quintet of New York. With an enthusiasm for new music, Ms. Kanamaru has performed works by acclaimed contemporary composers: she premiered Eric Ewazen’s trio Gold Cost Harmony with MirrorImage, horn duo, with which she also premiered Paul Basler’s Majaliwa during the Fall 2009 Tour at ten US venues. With hornist Randy Gardner and oboist Mark Ostoich, Ms. Kanamaru gave a premier performance of a Trio by Douglas Lowry in Denver, Colorado during the summer in 2008. Ms. Kanamaru’s performances have also been heard on radio broadcasts, television, and commercials in Japan and the United States. She has recorded solo and chamber music works for the Nippon Columbia label. She has also performed in the MirrorImage at the Opera, which was released from the MSR Classics during the summer 2008.

Besides maintaining an active performance schedule, Ms. Kanamaru has devoted herself to teaching piano and collaborative arts, and is a sought-after lecturer and guest speaker across the country. Through the invitation of the Yamaha Corporation of America, she has given master classes and seminars to teachers in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Fredericksburg, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Ms. Kanamaru has written articles for several publications, in addition to co-editing more than 30 volumes of educational piano music with the Yamaha Music Foundation. During the summer 2009, Ms. Kanamaru presented a workshop at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago, and the Washington Post included an interview with her on the subject during the same week. She was also interviewed for the BBC’s The World Today, which was broadcast worldwide. Having previously held teaching positions at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, College of Mount St. Joseph, Ms. Kanamaru currently serves as Associate Professor/Keyboard Area Coordinator at The College of New Jersey.

Ms. Kanamaru holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in music from Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo, an Advanced Certificate from The Juilliard School, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati. Her principal teachers include Tetsuro Ishikawa, Jeffrey Kahane, Eugene and Elisabeth Pridonoff, and Yoheved Kaplinsky. She continues her studies with Benjamin Kaplan in London, while occasionally receiving coaching from Maestro Ignat Solzhenitsyn.

Julie Nishimura

​Pianist Julie Nishimura celebrates 23 years as faculty accompanist for the Department of Music at the University of Delaware, having performed more than 380 collaborative recitals and 45 opera and scene-study performances with the Opera Workshop and Opera Theatre. As secondary faculty, she teaches Sight-Reading at the Keyboard and Accompanying/Chamber Music.

A much sought-after collaborative artist, Ms. Nishimura has performed in the chamber music series of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theatre and the Delaware Symphony Orchestra at the Hotel DuPont, and she has been a guest artist at more than 35 college campuses. Ms. Nishimura is a perennial favorite at the Delaware Chamber Music Festival and California Summer Music. At Strings International Music Festival, she has given recitals with cellists Hai-Ye Ni and John Koen, violinist Carrie Dennis, contrabassist Harold Robinson and violists Choong-Jin Chang and Rachel Ku. Most recently, she collaborated with retired University of Delaware soprano Marie Robinson on a CD of vocal music of African-American women composers. In the 2011–2012 season, Ms. Nishimura will be a guest artist with the Gold Coast Chamber Players in an all-Spanish program.

Ms. Nishimura and her husband, writer, director and acting teacher Danny Peak, serve as co-artistic directors of Wilmington-based Distant Voices Touring Theatre. They are currently touring two documentary theatrical pieces with piano: Distant Voices, based on Ms. Nishimura’s father’s diary of his time in a Japanese-American concentration camp during World War II, and September Echoes, chronicling the events of and following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

A native of San Francisco, Ms. Nishimura began her piano studies at the age of seven with Alla Sviridoff. Subsequent studies were at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Paul Hersh, the New England Conservatory with Leonard Shure and the Longy School of Music with Victor Rosenbaum.

Russell Wilson

Russell Wilson is adjunct keyboard faculty at VCU Music. He is a native of Memphis, Tenn., and an outstanding classical and jazz pianist who received his bachelor’s and master’s of music degrees from Memphis State University. Formerly a member of Virginia Union University’s faculty, he now teaches at VCU and the University of Richmond. Wilson performs regularly with the Russell Wilson Quartet, the Joe Kennedy Quartet and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.

Wilson enjoys a distinguished career as a solo and chamber music performer. He is the principal pianist of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra and the Richmond Sinfonia, where he has performed as a soloist and accompanied world class artists including Mel Tormé, Dick Hyman, Cab Calloway, Chet Atkins, Steve Allen and Carol Lawrence. Wilson’s performances over the years have been numerous and varied—pianist with the Joe Kennedy Quartet at the National Association of Jazz Educators Conference in Atlanta; with the Louisville Symphony Orchestra as accompanist for flutist Leslie Burrs; and at the Smithsonian Institution as pianist with Trio Pro Viva, a chamber ensemble devoted to the performance of music by black composers. As a soloist, he has performed Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 1 in C Major with the Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Duke Ellington’s New World a’ Comin’ with the New River Valley and the Richmond symphony orchestras and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 in A Major. Wilson was also selected to perform in master classes conducted by Earl Wild and Leon Fleisher.

In addition to his performances, Wilson has conducted improvisational workshops for the Richmond Music Teachers Association, Richmond Jazz Society (Bach, Bop and Beyond), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Virginia State University with violinist Joe Kennedy Jr. He has also presented benefit concerts for American Field Services and Richmond Area Retarded Citizens.

As a recording artist, he is featured as soloist on Moonlight Piano and The Memphis Convention. During the summer of 1995 he became pianist for the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra conducted by David Baker and Gunther Schuller. Wilson began touring with the SJMO in January 1996, in celebration of the Smithsonian’s 150th year. The group has since traveled throughout the U.S., Canada, Spain, Italy, France, London, Istanbul, Helsinki and the Hague, performing The Cotton Club Revue, featuring the music of Duke Ellington. During July 2002, in conjunction with the Smithsonian Associates and Raíces Latin Music Museum, Wilson presented a lecture/performance at the Museum of the City of New York. His program traced the development of Latin jazz and its influence on American jazz.

He received the Theresa Pollak Award for excellence in the arts in 2002.