CERISE LIM JACOBS was born in colonial Singapore into a traditional Chinese family. She grew up at the confluence of many disparate influences stemming from Singapore’s multicultural environment. When she was sixteen, her family emigrated to Australia to escape the turbulence created by the end of the Vietnam war and the bankruptcy of the British Empire. She dropped out of school at the age of nineteen to follow her heart and began a sojourn that took her from Melbourne, Australia, to Oxford, England, East Lansing, Michigan, Vancouver, Canada, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania until she finally settled in Boston

CHARLES M. JACOBS
Who is Charles? Charles is always "Charles." Not "Charlie," not "Chuck." Born Charles David Jacobs on May 28, 1933, in Brooklyn, he acquired the middle initial "M" through a process now obscure, but it stuck. Always entrepreneurial, at the age of twelve, Charles realized that he lived in a less-than-optimum school district. He falsified his address so he could attend Erasmus, the best high school in Brooklyn. Charles won a scholarship to the University of Chicago at the age of 16. This launched a lifetime of innovation

SCOTT WHEELER has received commissions and performances from the orchestras of Minnesota, Houston, Toledo andIndianapolis, as well as New York City Opera, sopranos Renée Fleming and LaurenFlanigan, baritone Sanford Sylvan, and the Chamber Music Society of LincolnCenter. Scott Wheeler’s opera DEMOCRACY: AN AMERICAN COMEDY on a libretto of Romulus Linney, was commissioned andpremiered by the Washington National Opera. His chamber symphony CITY OF SHADOWS was commissioned by Kent Nagano and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchestra Berlin and premiered as a part

ZHOU LONG is internationally recognized for creating a unique body of music that brings together the aesthetic concepts and musical elements of East and West. Zhou Long was born into an artistic family and began piano lessons at an early age. During the Cultural Revolution, he was sent to a rural state farm, where the bleak landscape with roaring winds and ferocious wild fires made a profound and lasting impression. He resumed his musical training in 1973, studying composition, music theory, and conducting, as well as Chinese traditional music. In 1977, he enrolled in the first composition

PAOLA PRESTINI is a composer and entrepreneur. In 1999, she co-founded VisionIntoArt (VIA), an interdisciplinary production company that has created over 50 multimedia productions and garnered the title “Best of 2009" in classical and opera by TimeOut NY. VIA has been called “always intriguing and frequently beguiling” by the New York Times. She was recently appointed the Creative Director of the new Brooklyn non profit venue, Original Music Workshop. Named by NPR as one of the Top 100 composers in the World under 40, her compositions have been deemed “radiant”[and] amorously evocative” by The New

MICHAEL COUNTS is a visual artist, stage director and designer who has been focused on creating large-scale immersive installations and theatrical productions, often in unconventional spaces, for the last 18 years. Recent projects include Rossini’sMoses In Egyptwith the New York City Opera at NY City Center,Philharmonic 360with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic at the Park Avenue Armory andMonodramas, his New York City Opera debut at the Koch Theater, in 2011. In 1996 Michael co-founded GAle GAtes et al, a visual and performance art

LAN SHUI has been Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra since 1997, Chief Conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra since the 2007/08 season and recently concluded a five year period as Artistic Advisor of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra...

JULIAN WACHNER, Grammy-nominated conductor Julian Wachner is one of North America's most exciting and versatile musicians, sought after as conductor, composer, and keyboard artist. Recent and upcoming engagements include those with the Lincoln Center Festival (The Blind), BAM Next Wave Festival (Liederabend 2013), Juilliard Opera Theatre (2013 Mainstage), The Rolling Stones (50th anniversary tour), New York City Opera (VOX), Hong Kong Philharmonic, TENET (TENEbrae), Portland Baroque (Messiah), and with Carnegie Hall (Arvo Pärt Passio). As Director of Music and the new

Recognized as a conductor of extraordinary versatility CAROLYN KUAN has enjoyed successful associations with top-tier orchestras, opera companies, ballet companies, and festivals worldwide. Her commitment to contemporary music has defined her approach to programming, and established her as an international resource for new music and world premieres. Ms. Kuan’s recent North American engagements have included performances with the symphonies of Baltimore, Detroit, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Seattle; the Florida and Louisville orchestras; the New York City Ballet; Colorado

LIDIYA YANKOVSKAYA’s recent work as a symphonic and opera conductor has been hailed as “superb,” “expert,” and “coax[ing] every possible expressive note from the instrumentalists.” Currently, Lidiya serves as Music Director of Harvard University’s Lowell House Opera, Artistic Director of Juventas New Music Ensemble (a professional instrumental ensemble based in Boston), Music Director with Commonwealth Lyric Theater (where she has worked with top artists from the Met Opera, Bolshoi Theater, La Scala, etc.), and also works regularly with Gotham Chamber Opera, Center for Contemporary

CORI ELLISON is Dramaturg at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and recently joined the Vocal Arts Faculty at The Juilliard School. Active in developing contemporary opera, she teaches dramaturgy for American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program, and was the first dramaturg invited to participate in the Yale Institute for Music Theatre. She was staff Dramaturg at New York City Opera from 1997-2010, where she was a curator of the annual VOX American Opera Showcase, helping to select the featured pieces and working with individual composers and librettists.In fall 2009,