2023 Festival Artists

Adji Cissoko was born and grew up in Munich, Germany, where she trained at the Ballet Academy Munich and graduated with a diploma in dance. Cissoko attended the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre in New York City on full scholarship before joining the National Ballet of Canada in 2010. In 2012, she was awarded the Patron Award of Merit by the Patrons’ Council Committee of The National Ballet of Canada. Cissoko joined LINES Ballet in 2014. Since then, she’s originated many central roles and guested for galas worldwide. Cissoko has given multiple master classes and taught classes around the world as part of the company’s outreach program. In 2020, she became certified in health/life coaching and ABT’s National Training Curriculum. Cissoko choreographed her first piece, “AZIZ,” for Ballet X in 2021. She is also a 2022 recipient of the Toulmin Fellowship and was the Artist-in-Residence for Vail Dance Festival in 2023. 

Olivia Bell is a corps de ballet member with New York City Ballet. Born in Fort Worth, Texas, she trained locally before being accepted to the School of American Ballet in 2018. While a student, Olivia originated a featured role in Gianna Reisen’s Signs. In 2022 Olivia became an apprentice with New York City Ballet and was then promoted to corps de ballet in 2023. As a corps member Olivia has performed featured roles in Kyle Abraham’s Love Letter on Shuffle, George Balanchine’s Swan Lake, Tiler Peck’s Concerto for Two Pianos, and Jerome Robbins Interplay.

Adji Cissoko was born and grew up in Munich, Germany, where she trained at the Ballet Academy Munich and graduated with a diploma in dance. Cissoko attended the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre in New York City on full scholarship before joining the National Ballet of Canada in 2010. In 2012, she was awarded the Patron Award of Merit by the Patrons’ Council Committee of The National Ballet of Canada. Cissoko joined LINES Ballet in 2014. Since then, she’s originated many central roles and guested for galas worldwide. Cissoko has given multiple master classes and taught classes around the world as part of the company’s outreach program. In 2020, she became certified in health/life coaching and ABT’s National Training Curriculum. Cissoko choreographed her first piece, “AZIZ,” for Ballet X in 2021. She is also a 2022 recipient of the Toulmin Fellowship and was the Artist-in-Residence for Vail Dance Festival in 2023. 

Denys Drozdyuk was born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine where he started dancing at the age of 4. From then on, he has been continuously trained in ballroom dance. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance from The Juilliard School and a Master of Arts Degree in Dance Education from New York University.

Together with Antonina Skobina, Denys co-founded a ballroom dance performance duet, “DNA.” He is also the co-founder of DNA Dance Academy, Manhattan’s first ballroom dance school dedicated specifically to children.

Denys participated on NBC’s TV show World of Dance for two seasons and was a finalist on the Canadian TV show Revolution. He is also a winner of So You Think You Can Dance Canada television show.

Some of his ballroom dance achievements include: 3-Time World Ballroom Champion, 3-Time USA National Ballroom Dance Champion, 7-Time German National Ballroom Dance Champion, 3-Time Canadian National Ballroom Dance Champion, and Blackpool Dance Festival Winner.

Denys performs frequently as a Guest Artist with the Stars of American Ballet, and in various international ballet galas, festivals, and productions worldwide.

Denys is the recipient of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, CUNY Dance Initiative Residency, Green Box Arts Residency, and was featured in Vogue (USA and International editions). He also teaches workshops and master classes throughout the world.

Philip Duclos is a soloist with The Royal Danish Ballet. He joined the company as a member of the corps de ballet in 2022, and was promoted to soloist in 2025. He has danced roles such as Prince Desiré in Christopher Wheeldon’s Sleeping Beauty, one of the principal men in Harald Lander’s Études, and Melancholic in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments. He has also danced featured roles in Wayne McGregor’s Dante Project, Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony, Jerome Robbins’ The Four Seasons, Gregory Dean’s Cinderella and Gotta Dance, John Neumeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Nikolaj Hübbe’s Raymonda and Don Quixote. He was also awarded the Ballettens Venner Talent Prize in the spring of 2025.

Lauren Lovette personifies the intertwining of dance and choreography, moving seamlessly from one to the other. Her work has been commissioned and performed by leading dance companies and festivals, including the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the Vail International Dance Festival, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Juilliard, Oregon Ballet Theater, Colorado Ballet, as well as a self-produced evening entirely of her own work in which she also danced, Why It Matters.

Born in Thousand Oaks, California, Lovette began studying ballet at the age of 11 at the Cary Ballet Conservatory in Cary, North Carolina. She enrolled at SAB as a full time student in 2006. In October 2009, Ms. Lovette became an apprentice with NYCB and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in September 2010. Promoted to soloist in February 2013 and to principal dancer in June 2015, she stepped down from her position at the company in 2021 in order to embark on a career devoted to dance and choreography in more equal measure. She is now the choreographer in residence at the Paul Taylor Dance Company and performs as a guest principal dancer around the world.

Ms. Lovette received the Clive Barnes Award for dance in December 2012 and was the 2012-2013 recipient of the Janice Levin Award.

Mira Nadon was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and began her ballet training at the age of six at the Inland Pacific Ballet Academy in Montclair, California.

She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of NYCB, in 2014 and 2015, before entering SAB full-time for the 2015 winter term.

In November 2017, Ms. Nadon became an apprentice with NYCB. She joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in November 2018. Ms. Nadon was promoted to the rank of soloist in January 2022 and principal in February 2023.

Ms. Nadon has danced as a guest at the Vail Dance Festival and Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival and has performed as a member of Ballet Collective. She is also a part-time student at Fordham University. She is the recipient of the 2021 Clive Barnes Award for dance and is a 2022 Princess Grace Award winner.

Unity Phelan was born in Princeton, New Jersey where she studied at the Princeton Ballet School. After attending summer courses at the School of American Ballet, Phelan was invited to attend the school full time and remained at the school for three years. Phelan was invited to join the New York City Ballet in the winter of 2012 as an apprentice and joined the company as a Corps de Ballet member in 2013. In the Winter of 2017, Phelan was promoted to Soloist dancer and in the Fall of 2021, she was promoted to Principal dancer. In her time at New York City Ballet, Phelan has danced numerous ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, Christopher Wheeldon and other choreographers. Phelan has been featured in Dance Magazine, Elle Magazine, and People Style Magazine. In the last couple years, Phelan has been found on the silver screen acting in “John Wick 3: Parabellum” and “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”. In 2019, Phelan was awarded the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award for her work at New York City Ballet.

Antonina Skobina was born in Mariupol, Ukraine. She is a 3-Time US National Ballroom Dance Champion and a Vice-World Champion. She is also a Blackpool Dance Festival Winner, which is the most prestigious ballroom dance competition in the world.

Together with Denys Drozdyuk, Antonina co-founded a collaborative ballroom dance performance duet, “DNA.” She is also the co-founder of DNA Dance Academy, Manhattan’s first ballroom dance school dedicated specifically to children.

Antonina participated on NBC’s hit television show World of Dance for two seasons and was a finalist on the Canadian TV show Revolution. She performs frequently as a Guest Artist with the Stars of American Ballet and at various international ballet galas, festivals, and productions worldwide.

Antonina is the recipient of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, CUNY Dance Initiative Residency, Green Box Arts Residency and was featured in Vogue (USA and International editions). In addition to dancing, she has a great passion for acting and is a graduate of the New York Film Academy. She also teaches workshops and master classes throughout the world.

Born on Long Island, New York, Cory Stearns began his classical training at the age of five with Mme. Valia Seiskaya at the Seiskaya Ballet. At age fifteen, he participated in the Youth America Grand Prix and was offered a full scholarship to The Royal Ballet School in London. Stearns performed in Madrid, Moscow, Milan, Düsseldorf and London while at The Royal, and appeared with Kylie Minogue in her music video Chocolate in 2004.  Upon graduating from The Royal Ballet School with honors, he received, for the second year, the Dame Ruth Railton Award for excellence in dance.

Stearns joined the American Ballet Theatre Studio Company in September 2004, the main Company as an apprentice in January 2005 and became a member of the corps de ballet in January 2006. He was appointed a Soloist in January 2009 and a Principal Dancer in January 2011.

Stearns repertory with the Company includes The Man in AfterEffect, Solor in La Bayadère, The Ballet Dancer in The Bright Stream, a featured role in Brief Fling, Her Prince Charming in Cinderella, Conrad in Le Corsaire, Daphnis in Daphnis and Chloe, Basilio and Espada in Don Quixote, Oberon in The Dream, a leading role in Études, Second Sailor in Fancy Free, Colas in Las Fille mal gardée, Kaschei in Firebird. Baron in Gaîté Parisienne, Albrecht in Giselle, Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel, Grand Pas Classique, Her Lover in Jardin aux Lilas, Armand Duval in Lady of the Camellias, The Leaves Are Fading pas de deux, Des Grieux in Manon, Beliaev in A Month in the Country, His Friend in The Moor’s Pavane, the Nutcracker-Prince in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, Onegin in Onegin, Iago and a Carnival Dancer in Othello, Other Dances, Man From the House Opposite in Pillar of Fire, Romeo and Paris in Romeo and Juliet, the Terrestrial in Shadowplay, Prince Désiré in Ratmansky’s The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Désiré, the Celtic Prince and a Fairy Knight in The Sleeping Beauty, Prince Siegfried and von Rothbart in Swan Lake, Act III, Juliet, James in La Sylphide, the Poet in Les Sylphides, Orion and Apollo in Sylvia, Prospero in The Tempest, Prince Coffee in Whipped Cream, The Awakening Pas de Deux, leading roles in Allegro Brillante, Duo Concertant, Études, Mozartiana Monotones II, Raymonda Divertissements and With a Chance of Ran and roles in The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Citizen, Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes, Duets, Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once, In the Upper Room, The Leaves Are Fading, Overgrown Path, Mozartiana, Rabbit and Rogue, Raymonda Divertissements, Symphony in C and Thirteen Diversions.

Stearns created roles in AFTERITE, From Here On Out, Her Notes, One of Three, Piano Concerto #1, Private Light and I Feel The Earth Move.

Stearns won the 2009 Erik Bruhn Prize for best male dancer.

Devon Teuscher began her ballet training at the age of nine under Deanna Doty of the Champaign Urbana Ballet Academy in Champaign, IL. When her family moved to Vermont, she continued her training at the Vermont Ballet Theatre School in Essex, Vermont under the direction of Alex and Kirsten Nagiba. At the age of eleven, Teuscher attended The Kirov Ballet Academy summer intensive. She also attended the Pacific Northwest Ballet summer intensive on full scholarship for two years.

From 2002 to 2006 Teuscher attended American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive, and was a National Training Scholar from 2003 to 2006. In January 2005 at the age of 15, Teuscher relocated to New York City to dance at American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School on full scholarship.

Teuscher joined ABT Studio Company in 2006.  She joined American Ballet Theatre as an apprentice in December 2007 and the corps de ballet in June 2008. She became a Soloist in August 2014 and Principal Dancer in September 2017.

Teuscher was nominated for the Clive Barnes Award in 2014 and received the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship in 2016.

Melissa Toogood has appeared on the Vail stage since 2015. She is a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) winning, internationally recognized dancer and master teacher celebrated for her work most notably with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, where she was one of the last dancers to work directly with Cunningham himself. A 2013 and 2015 Merce Cunningham Fellow and official stager for the Merce Cunningham Trust, Melissa has taught his technique worldwide since 2007 and continues to stage his work for renowned companies including the Stephen Petronio Company and the Washington Ballet. As a longtime dancer with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, she has served as Rehearsal Director and Artistic Associate for Tanowitz's company, assisting on new works for major institutions such as The Australian Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and The Royal Ballet. Melissa’s freelance career spans performances with leading artists including Tanowitz, Kyle Abraham, Kimberly Bartosik, Rosie Herrera Dance Theater, Sally Silvers, and the Petronio Company, alongside her own choreographic commissions for Boston Ballet, New York Theater Ballet, and the Vail Dance Festival. She teaches Cunningham Technique at Sydney Dance Company and continues to mentor the next generation of dancers. A prominent voice in the dance community, Melissa has lectured, written for publications like Dance Magazine, and appeared in several films and exhibitions, including the acclaimed Cunningham 3D film.

Adji Cissoko was born and grew up in Munich, Germany, where she trained at the Ballet Academy Munich and graduated with a diploma in dance. Cissoko attended the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre in New York City on full scholarship before joining the National Ballet of Canada in 2010. In 2012, she was awarded the Patron Award of Merit by the Patrons’ Council Committee of The National Ballet of Canada. Cissoko joined LINES Ballet in 2014. Since then, she’s originated many central roles and guested for galas worldwide. Cissoko has given multiple master classes and taught classes around the world as part of the company’s outreach program. In 2020, she became certified in health/life coaching and ABT’s National Training Curriculum. Cissoko choreographed her first piece, “AZIZ,” for Ballet X in 2021. She is also a 2022 recipient of the Toulmin Fellowship and was the Artist-in-Residence for Vail Dance Festival in 2023. 

Melissa Toogood has appeared on the Vail stage since 2015. She is a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) winning, internationally recognized dancer and master teacher celebrated for her work most notably with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, where she was one of the last dancers to work directly with Cunningham himself. A 2013 and 2015 Merce Cunningham Fellow and official stager for the Merce Cunningham Trust, Melissa has taught his technique worldwide since 2007 and continues to stage his work for renowned companies including the Stephen Petronio Company and the Washington Ballet. As a longtime dancer with choreographer Pam Tanowitz, she has served as Rehearsal Director and Artistic Associate for Tanowitz's company, assisting on new works for major institutions such as The Australian Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, and The Royal Ballet. Melissa’s freelance career spans performances with leading artists including Tanowitz, Kyle Abraham, Kimberly Bartosik, Rosie Herrera Dance Theater, Sally Silvers, and the Petronio Company, alongside her own choreographic commissions for Boston Ballet, New York Theater Ballet, and the Vail Dance Festival. She teaches Cunningham Technique at Sydney Dance Company and continues to mentor the next generation of dancers. A prominent voice in the dance community, Melissa has lectured, written for publications like Dance Magazine, and appeared in several films and exhibitions, including the acclaimed Cunningham 3D film.

Shelbie Rassler, recently named Truthspaper’s Young Woman of the Year, is an award-winning composer, conductor, and multi-instrumentalist. Shelbie is globally recognized for her CBS Award-Winning viral production of What the World Needs Now, featured on CNN’s Fourth of July Primetime Special, along with interviews on The Today Show, Forbes, GMA, NYTimes and many others. Shelbie was on the music production team of the Emmy Award-Nominated Celebrating America 2021 Presidential Inauguration Concert, and her production of Georgia On My Mind, featuring countless Tony Award-Winning Broadway performers, landed on the Top 50 Billboard charts. She has since helped to raise over $6 million through musical fundraisers for Covid Relief Funds, the NAACP, the Entertainment Community Fund, the Humane Society and many others, in large part as a Music Video Producer on Seth Rudetsky's hit show, Stars in the House. She has also been featured as a guest on Rudetsky’s SiriusXM radio show, On Broadway. Shelbie has been nominated for an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award and recently won the Eugene New Music Festival Call for Scores. Shelbie's recent commissions include the New World Symphony Orchestra (Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas), Decoda (Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble-in-Residence), the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute, the Female Quotient, the Broward Health Foundation, University of Kansas and University of Colorado, among many others. Shelbie has written arrangements for notable performers such as Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, Lara Downes, and members of the United Nations Chamber Music Society, as well as several SONY Artists. Shelbie has worked on various episodes and commercials for Netflix, HBO Max, PBS, and Lexus. She has had premieres and recognition at notable venues/events such as Carnegie Hall’s Second Sunday Series, Feinstein’s 54 Below, the Female Quotient’s Global Pack, SXSW, the Cannes International Film Festival, and the New York Musical Festival.

After graduating from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2020 as the institution’s Presser Scholar, Shelbie graduated summa cum laude from The Juilliard School with a Master’s in Music Composition, studying with Pulitzer Prize Winner John Corigliano, as a proud Juilliard Career Advancement Fellow. Shelbie has held residencies at the pianoSonoma Music Festival (Composer-in-Residence), the Vail International Dance Festival (Music Associate), the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute, The Juilliard School (Guest Artist), University of Kansas and University of Colorado Denver, where she will be arranging the institution’s new alma mater. Shelbie is the Co-Founder of the music production company, Jenkins & Rassler, LLC, alongside award-winning composer and producer Katie Jenkins. They are proud Satellite Collective Fellows, and Jenkins & Rassler employs over 40 artists on the J&R Artist Roster, the musicians who record and perform the many film scores, concert compositions and interdisciplinary collaborations composed and produced by Shelbie and Katie. As a motivational speaker, Shelbie served as one of the 19 Featured Speakers at the 2021 Imagine Solutions Conference, alongside individuals such as Robert Langer (co-founder of Moderna) and Cecilia Conrad (CEO of Lever for Change). She has spoken at countless conferences and on dozens of panels at organizations, such as the College Music Society, and has taught masterclasses at organizations and institutions such as Maestra Music, led by Georgia Stitt, Emerson College, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and more. This upcoming summer, Shelbie is greatly looking forward to returning to pianoSonoma as the Composer-in-Residence, and she is incredibly honored to return to Vail as the Music Director of the Vail Dance Festival!

Cameron Grant is recently retired after 37 years with the  New York City Ballet. As a solo pianist, he performed a vast repertoire for solo piano including the Bach Goldberg Variations, Pictures at an Exhibition, Dances at a Gathering, Polyphonia, In the Night, and numerous other solo premieres.  The concerti he has performed include works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Hindemith, Dohnanyi, Prokofiev, Bartok, MacMillan, Ravel and Gershwin.  He  toured with the company across the globe in theaters in St Petersburg, Athens, Edinburgh, Paris, London, Parma, Taipei, Tokyo and Seoul and has appeared in festivals in New Hampshire, Vail and Nantucket. A renowned collaborative pianist, Cameron has worked and/or recorded with Joel Krosnick, Ronald Thomas, Hiroko Yakima, The Leonardo Trio with Erica Kiesewetter and Jonathan Spitz, and Zina Schiff, among others. Zina and Cameron have collaborated for 30 years and recorded 8 CDs together. He spent five years touring with James Winn as half of the Grant-Winn piano duo, a duo that took top honors at the Munich Competition. Cameron was also a member of the New York New Music Ensemble. In 2004, he won an Emmy Award as a soloist in the Live From Lincoln Center broadcast, “Balanchine at 100,” and was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center Honors with three other members of the New York City Ballet for President Bush.

“A string quartet of boundless imagination.”—NPR

Celebrating twenty years of shared musical exploration, Brooklyn Rider originated in a living room, four friends in search of an outlet for their curiosities. Inspired by the probing spirit of Germany’s pre-WW1 artistic collective Der Blaue Reiter, they recognized parallels with their creative community in Brooklyn at the time and began to build projects. In the following two decades, Brooklyn Rider has undertaken a staggering amount of work, carving a singular space in the world of string quartets. Through thoughtful programmatic framing, deep-rooted collaborations, and innovative commissioning projects, Brooklyn Rider has used the medium at every point in their adventurous journey as a vehicle for exploration and discovery. Inspired equally by the rich repertoire of the past and the limitless canvas of new creation, Brooklyn Rider seeks to create meaningful and memorable experiences for their audiences.

To mark the twenty year milestone, a wide range of projects are on the horizon for 2025 and beyond that celebrate the key elements of their work. Honoring a long-standing relationship with the string quartets of Philip Glass (String Quartet # 3, Mishima was on Brooklyn Rider’s first public program), Brooklyn Rider has embarked on the first ever retrospective of the composer’s complete works for the medium. Initially presented by the Yale Schwarzman Center this past fall, the retrospective is next happening in May 2025 at the Met Cloisters in NYC before heading further afield. A major commission by Gabriela Lena Frank, Frida’s Dreams is due for the 2025-26 season. A forthcoming recording, The Four Elements (slated for May 2025) servesas a dual metaphor for the complex inner world of the string quartet and the future of planet Earth, the latest example of the kind of programmatic concept long associated with Brooklyn Rider. The quartet expands their reach into the orchestral world in future seasons with a new work for quartet and orchestra by Nico Muhly, to be presented by a wide ranging consortium of orchestras across Europe and North America. Lastly, a special concert at Tanglewood this August will feature the Schubert Cello Quintet as the centerpiece alongside the quartet’s friend and mentor Yo-Yo Ma.

The beginning days of Brooklyn Rider’s history included numerous self-produced concerts events, and the quartet has since cherished the live performance experience in its many guises. In more recent years, the quartet has made regular appearances in many of the major musical centers of North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia - from Zurich’s Tonhalle, Carnegie Hall, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Sydney Opera House, the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Comfortable in a wide range of performance outlets, they have also appeared on the main stage of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, at Austin’s South By Southwest Music Festival, and in two NPR Tiny Desk Concerts. Brooklyn Rider has been the long-standing resident string quartet of the Vail Dance Festival, collaborating with many of the finest dancers and choreographers of our time. They have also been privileged to use the balming powers of music at deeply challenging moments along the way. The quartet made a special appearance at a Buddhist Temple in the decimated fishing village of Kesennuma, Japan in the months following the devastating 2011 tsunami. Most recently, Brooklyn Rider played an all Glass concert at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills in the midst of the 2025 Los Angeles area fires.

Brooklyn Rider has remained steadfast in their commitment to generate new music for string quartet at every phase of their history. Through commissioning, collaborative exploration, and the inimitable works of BR’s own Colin Jacobsen, the quartet has left a lasting contribution tothe repertoire. Shared at the height of the US lockdown, the Grammy®- nominated recording and commissioning project Healing Modes (In A Circle Records) was described by The New Yorker as a project which "...could not possibly be more relevant or necessary than it is currently." The upcoming season will unveil a new program called Citizenship Notes with commissioned works by Don Byron, Ted Hearne, and Angélica Negrón.

Brooklyn Rider has had a voracious appetite for collaboration since their inception, encapsulating their wide-ranging projects and programmatic frames and giving rise to NPR Music’s observation that Brooklyn Rider is “recreating the 300-year-old form of string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” The Butterfly (In A Circle Records), an album which the Irish Times described as "a masterclass in risk-taking,” explored a collaboration with the legendary Irish fiddler Martin Hayes. The 2021-22 season boasted two unique partnerships: one with Israeli mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital, and the other a new chapter of work with Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter (following So Many Things on Naïve Records, 2016). 2022’s The Stranger (Avie Records) with tenor Nicholas Phan was nominated for a 2023 Grammy® award and made numerous best-of lists, including The New Yorker. In fall 2018, Brooklyn Rider released Dreamers on Sony Music Masterworks with Mexican jazz vocalist Magos Herrera which topped charts and garnered a Grammy® nomination for best arrangement (Gonzalo Grau’s “Niña”). Other collaborators include former NYC Ballet prima ballerina Wendy Whelan, banjo icon Béla Fleck, jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, and the Iranian kemancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor.

The Canadian-born pianist Tony Siqi Yun, Gold Medalist at the inaugural China International Music Competition (2019) and recipient of the Rheingau Music Festival’s 2023 Lotto-Förderpreis, is rapidly establishing himself as a sought-after soloist and recitalist. Praised as a “poet of the keyboard” (Pianist Magazine), his performances have drawn acclaim for their thrilling artistry and “interpretive flashes that point to an emergent big personality: moments of grandness or deep expressivity” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).

Upcoming recital highlights include debut performances at Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Koerner Hall Toronto, the Ravinia Festival, and Davies Symphony Hall at the San Francisco Symphony. He will also return to the Vancouver Recital Society and Muziekcentrum Ghent in Belgium. Orchestral engagements feature his debut with the Louisville Orchestra under Robert Spano performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and a return to the Orchestre Métropolitain with Glass Marcano playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Recent appearances include performances with the Nashville Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony, collaborating with conductors Giancarlo Guerrero, Daniel Harding, Jacek Kaspszyk, and Christoph König, among others.

In the 2023–24 season, Mr. Yun made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, following his 2022–23 debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Calgary Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic, and Rhode Island Philharmonic. Past recital engagements in North America include Stanford Live, La Jolla Music Society, the Gilmore Rising Stars Series, 92nd Street Y (New York), the Vancouver Recital Society, and Friends of Chamber Music Denver. In Europe, he has performed at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Muziekcentrum Ghent, among others.

Mr. Yun graduated from The Juilliard School in 2025 and will return as an Artist Diploma candidate. He is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship and studies with Professors Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio.

New York based Joel Wenhardt is a jazz pianist, and collaborator. While completing his studies at Juilliard (BM ‘18, MM ‘23) he has become a regular presence on the Jazz scene, as well an active participant in multi-medium productions. He has played or recorded with Paul Simon, Wynton Marsalis, Veronica Swift, Caroline Shaw, Claire Chase, and Brooklyn Rider as well as dancers from Juilliard, NYC Ballet, ABT, Alvin Ailey and more. Currently, he is Musical Directing at the McKittrick Hotel, where he can be found in the Manderley Bar leading The Nightingales. This will be Joel’s 4th time in Vail for the dance festival, and is grateful to call this community his artistic family.