Longwood Symphony Orchestra

Other recent debuts include the Atlanta and Dallas symphony orchestras, the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra as well as re-engagements with the Chicago, St. Louis, and Baltimore symphony orchestras.

Ms. Murray is also an avid recitalist having performed programs in Boston, Chicago, La Jolla, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Philadelphia with pianist Gilles Vonsattel. She returns this season to Philadelphia in collaboration with pianist Lambert Orkis, presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society.

A dedicated chamber musician, Ms. Murray is a member of the conductor-less East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO). She has been on tour numerous times with Musicians from Marlboro and was a member of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society II (2004-2006).

A native of Chicago, Ms. Murray studied with Yuval Yaron and Franco Gulli at Indiana University and Joel Smirnoff at The Juilliard School.  Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2004, Ms. Murray is currently a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-2010).  She performs on a violin dated 2007, made for her by distinguished and extraordinary luthier, Mario Miralles.

The success of Mr. Fisher’s debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra led to his immediate re-engagement to tour throughout Scotland with the orchestra the following Season. May 2006 marked his debut at Tivoli Gardens in Denmark, where he joined the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. Highlights of Mr. Fisher’s 2006-07 Season included recitals across the U.S., most notably as part of the inaugural season of the Morgan Library’s new concert series in New York City, and an appearance at the International Keyboard Festival at Mannes College. The season also marked his first appearance with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, performing the rarely heard ‘Recollections of Ireland Opus 69’ by Ignaz Moscheles.

Dedicated to the performance of new music, Mr. Fisher has given local and national premieres of numerous contemporary pieces and has worked in close collaboration with prominent composers such as Ronald Stevenson, Thomas Ades, and Arvo Pärt. In February 2006, Mr. Fisher partook in the New York Miniaturist Ensemble’s innovative concert series, unveiling the world-premiere performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s First Natural Durations for solo piano, and he has also appeared at the New York Focus! Festival at Lincoln Center.

Additionally known for his unique chamber music abilities, Mr. Fisher has become a highly sought-after ensemble performer, giving over fifty concerts per year. He has shared the stage with renowned performers such as tenor Robert White, pianist Sara Buechner, violinists Elmar Oliviera, Philippe Graffin and Augustin Hadelich, and Principal Trombonist of the New York Philharmonic, Joseph Alessi. Mr. Fisher has appeared at Music@Menlo, the Beethoven Chamber Music Festival and the Kyoto International Music Festival in Japan. He has been heard on New York’s WQXR and Boston’s WGBH, and has appeared on Ukrainian Television, the BBC, and MTV.      

Philip Edward Fisher began his musical training at the age of nine, and made his first public appearance only a year later. His concerto debut followed aged 12, performing Shostakovich’s Second Concerto at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. During this time, he studied with the pianist and composer, Philip Martin. In 1993, Mr. Fisher was named a recipient of the John Ogdon Memorial Scholarship, enabling his musical studies to continue at the Purcell School. That same year, Mr. Fisher was accepted into the studio of Professor Christopher Elton, Head of Keyboard at the Royal Academy of Music in London. During his studies at the Royal Academy, he was also guided by pedagogues Alexander Satz, Boris Berman, Stephen Kovacevich and Stephen Hough. He graduated from The Juilliard School in May of 2006, earning his Master’s degree as a student of Joseph Kalichstein and Jerome Lowenthal. In 2001, Mr. Fisher was granted the Julius Isserlis Scholarship by the Royal Philharmonic Society of London, the largest and most prestigious award of its kind currently available to a British musician, branding the young man with a mark of distinction as one of the finest breakout talents in the UK.

Songs, with both words and music by Mr. Scheer, have been performed by artists including Renee Fleming (with Christoph Eschenbach), Denyce Graves, Sylvia Mcnair, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Larmore and Nathan Gunn. Recently Norah Jones sang Scheer’s American Anthem in Ken Burns’ documentary film: THE WAR. The song, which was woven throughout the score of the film, has been performed by orchestras across the country including The National Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony and the Chicago Symphony.

Nathan Gunn recently performed Mr. Scheer’s song cycle “Voices from World War II” with the Isis Chamber orchestra. Mr. Gunn debuted the work at London’s Wigmore Hall. He has subsequently performed the work in New York, Berkeley California, Washington DC and most recently at the Monnaie in Brussels. Last year Mr. Scheer collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on a new piece entitled “It never goes away” which was featured in Mr. Marsalis’ oratorio entitled “Congo Square”. In November 2006 the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra with Nic McGegan conducting performed the premiere of a new Lyric Drama by Jake Heggie and Mr. Scheer entitled “To Hell and Back”. This new piece featured Patti LuPone and Isabelle Bayrakdarian. Last fall Mr. Scheer collaborated the composer Steven Stucky on a new oratorio for the Dallas Symphony based on LBJ’s presidency entitled “August 4^th 1964”. Next year the Dallas opera will premiere a new opera by Heggie and Scheer based on Melville’s MOBY DICK .with Ben Heppner playing Captain Ahab. Currently, Mr. Scheer is working on developing a new opera with Jennifer Higdon for the San Francisco Opera.

Gary Fry, composer, arranger and music producer

Emmy-winning composer Gary Fry (b. 1955) has been the composer/arranger for Welcome, Yule! since 1996, and is the creator of the music and lyrics for “Christmas in Chicago,” the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s own now-traditional Christmas song. He has written dozens of works for the CSO, as well as for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Philadelphia Pops, the American Jazz Philharmonic, and other regional orchestras. One of his choral compositions, a setting of Shakespeare entitled To Dream Again, was selected to open the gala concert celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Chorus this past April.

Fry has composed for films, television, live theatre, and more than 2,500 radio and television commercials for McDonald’s, Sears, Kellogg’s, and hundreds of other major national advertisers. He received a 2006 Emmy Award for his work for Chicago’s CBS affiliate WBBM-TV. Air travelers hear Fry's electronic version of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" when passing through the United Airlines terminal at Chicago's O'Hare airport, where it plays continuously. His music is also featured daily on the Cartoon Network program Baby Looney Tunes.

Music education and music for children are other areas in which Fry is active. He is the director of Voices Rising, the children’s choir of Midwest Young Artists, and has led children’s choirs in performances at such prestigious venues as the White House and the United Nations, and on tours throughout the United States. His teaching resumé includes positions on the faculties of the University of Miami and Northwestern University, and he has conducted workshops and seminars at many other educational institutions. He is a past governor of the Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Residing in suburban Chicago, Gary and his wife Carol have four children.

In London, Tapping played in a number of Britain's leading chamber ensembles, making several highly acclaimed CDs, and touring for the British Council in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Mexico before joining Britain's longest established quartet, the Allegri Quartet, with whom he played from 1989 to 1995. He taught at the Royal Academy of Music in London, was principal viola of the London Mozart Players, and a member of the English Chamber Orchestra. He was a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and a frequent participant in Sandor Végh's International Musicians' Seminar in Cornwall, England.

Tapping gives classes at major schools in America in addition to those where he is on faculty. Current summer festivals include Banff, the Yellow Barn Festival, the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, and the Tanglewood String Quartet Seminar. He performs both as a recitalist and as a chamber musician, playing regularly as a soloist on WGBH and making frequent guest appearances with quartets from the U.S. and Europe. He was a jury member and recitalist at the 2006 Tertis International Viola Competition, and is on the jury of the 2009 London String Quartet Competition.

Tapping is a member of the Order of the Knight Cross of the Hungarian Republic, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Nottingham, and is a fellow of the Guildhall School of Music in London.

New World Chorale
Holly MacEwen Krafka & John Zielinski, co-directors

The New World Chorale is one of the most in-demand choruses in the greater Boston area. The Chorale has performed major works with Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (formerly GBYSO). In May 2006, the New World Chorale was featured with the Boston Ballet in its production of Igor Stravinsky’s Les Noces at the Wang Theatre in Boston. In summer 2006, the New World Chorale performed in concerts at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade with both the Boston Landmarks Orchestra and the Longwood Symphony Orchestra.  The Chorale performed again with Boston Landmarks Orchestra at the Hatch Shell in July 2007. In December 2007, the Chorale performed Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass with  Longwood Sym­phony Orchestra. Show-casing its versatility, the Chorale has performed South Pa­cific in concert and, most recently, The Pirates of Penzance and Music Man with Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra, providing the leads and moving choruses from its own membership.

The New World Chorale was founded in 1999 by Holly MacEwen Krafka and John Zielinski with the mission of performing the best American choral music and the goal of performing with many of the finest orchestras in New England. The Chorale’s membership is comprised of some of the Boston area’s most experienced choral singers and soloists who have performed both locally and internationally with the world’s major orchestras.

The Chorale has performed world premieres encompassing a wide range of musical styles. Pieces commissioned and performed include: Opening Day, written for them by local composer Tom Hojnacki to texts about baseball by Bill Littlefield, host of the National Public Radio program “Only A Game”; How Sweet the Sound, an arrange­ment of hymns and spirituals for chorus and organ by John Zielinski; Mass by Gregory Short for chorus, percussion, and audience participation; and Infelix Ego for organ, percussion, brass quartet, and chorus, also by Mr. Zielinski.

For more information, visit www.newworldchorale.org.