LONGWOOD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Just finishing up his third season as Music Director and Conductor of the Neponset Valley Philharmonic, Lawrence Isaacson continues to make his mark on the local and national conducting scene.   Known for his interesting programming, energetic performances, audience interaction and spirit of collaboration, he has held numerous conducting positions around the country including Director of Orchestras at the Usdan Center for the Performing Arts on Long Island, Conductor at the Performing Arts Institute in Kingston, PA and Guest Conductor at the Aspen and Round Top Music Festivals.  He has also guest conducted the Oregon Symphony and at the Eastern Music Festival and is Conductor Emeritus for the Parkway Concert Orchestra.

Mr. Isaacson brings to the podium many years of experience as an orchestral musician. A former trombonist, who began his career at the age of 19 performing as an extra with the Chicago Symphony at Carnegie Hall, he has performed worldwide in concert and on recordings with many of America’s finest ensembles. He was a member of the Empire Brass Quintet, the San Francisco Symphony and the Boston Pops and has had numerous performances with the Boston Symphony, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Detroit Symphony and the San Diego Symphony.

Born into a family of musicians and educators, Mr. Isaacson has continued with the family tradition.  He is a former faculty member of Boston University, MIT, New England Conservatory, Tufts University, University of New Hampshire, Mannes College of Music, McMaster University and Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute.  His current teaching duties include a faculty position at The Boston Conservatory, where he is Associate Director of the Music Division.

Winner of both the coveted 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award and the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, 21-year-old pianist Charlie Albright makes his recital debuts this season in New York and Washington, DC in the Young Concert Artists Series.  He also makes his debuts with the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Alondra de la Parra, performing Ellington's New World A-Comin', with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gerard Schwarz, performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, and with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lawrence Isaacson, performing Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2. 

Mr. Albright appears in the Irving S. Gilmore Rising Stars Series, makes his debut at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and performs recitals at Patrons for Young Artists, the Brownville Concert Series, Longwood Gardens, Music for Youth, the Hudson Valley Music Club, Fox Hill Village, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, the University of Georgia in Athens, Port Washington Library, the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, and the Jewish Community Alliance of Jacksonville, in addition to educational residencies around the country.  Last season, he appeared in six concerts at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, a concert in Paris at the Salle Cortot, and performed Mozart's Concerto in D minor as soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Lockington and the Olympia Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Albright won the Paul A. Fish First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions as well as the Summis Auspiciis Prize, which sponsors his New York debut, the Ronald A. Asherson Prize, the John Browning Prize, the Sander Buchman Prize, the Ruth Laredo Award, and four performance prizes: the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize, the Friends of Music Concerts Prize for an engagement in Sleepy Hollow, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival Prize, and the Embassy Series Prize for a concert in Washington, DC.  Other awards include a Vendome Virtuoso Prize and the Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award at the 2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition in Lisbon, Portugal.  Mr. Albright won the 2008 Harvard Bach Society Orchestra's competition to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto, Third Prize as the youngest competitor at the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and First Prizes in the 2006 Eastman Piano Competition, the 2006 Stecher and Horowitz Foundation's New York Piano Competition and the 2005 IIYM International Competition in Lawrence, Kansas. 

At the age of 18, Mr. Albright performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at a ceremony at which Senator Ted Kennedy received an honorary degree from Harvard University, and again performed with Mr. Ma in a program commemorating the 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, featuring Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison.  He has given concerto performances with the Seattle Philharmonic and the Olympia, Port Angeles, and Northwest Wind symphonies in Washington State.

Born in Centralia, Washington, Mr. Albright began piano lessons at the age of three.  He has studied with Nancy Adsit and has participated in master classes with Richard Goode, Leif Ove Andsnes and Abbey Simon.  Mr. Albright earned an Associate of Science degree at Centralia College while he was also in high school, and is currently in the Harvard College/New England Conservatory of Music joint program, pursuing a Bachelor's degree as a Pre-med and Economics major at Harvard and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, with Wha-Kyung Byun. 

Violinist Zina Schiff's playing has been described by the New York Times as "Luscious high voltage... vintage Heifetz." A protégée of the legendary Jascha Heifetz, Zina has captivated audiences and critics with her passion and communicative power, soloing with major orchestras and in recital on four continents. 

Of her eleven CDs, Zina's highly acclaimed debut recordings, Bach/Vivaldi and The Lark Ascending, were as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic. Three recital discs, King David's Lyre, Here's One, and Music of Cecil Burleigh were selected Critics Choice of the Year by American Record Guide. Her latest orchestral CD, on the Naxos label, is the music of Ernest Bloch accompanied by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, which was named "Recording of the Month" by MusicWeb International and given a perfect 10/10 rating by ClassicsToday.com.   

Zina recorded the sound track for the MGM movie, "The Fixer", composed by Academy-Award-winner Maurice Jarre. Television viewers worldwide saw her on the PBS Nova program "What Is Music?" performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto on an experimental violin designed by Texas A&M Professor Joseph Nagyvary.

Winner of the junior and senior auditions of the Philadelphia Orchestra while a student at The Curtis Institute of Music, Zina received the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Award, San Francisco Symphony Foundation Award, and a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music. Musical America named her an "Outstanding Young Artist", and Glamour Magazine selected her one of the "Top Ten College Winners" while at the University of California at Berkeley.

Zina has previously performed in the area at the Isabella Gardner Museum and at the Newport Festival, and she is delighted with her recent move to Boston with her husband, Dr. Ronald Eisenberg, who is a radiologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.       

Audiences on four continents have been spellbound by Zina's "sensational violin talent" (San Francisco Chronicle) and her "complete mastery of the violin" (London Daily Telegraph).

Joanna Porackova has been celebrated for her "soaring majesty" (Opera News) and "huge vocal and emotional range" (Boston Globe) in both the mezzo soprano and soprano dramatic repertoire.  In March 2010 the Boston Musical Intelligencer praised her for "using her impressive instrument to full dramatic effect" for the mezzo soprano solo in Verdi's REQUIEM with the Masterworks Chorale.  The New York Sun, in reviews of DIE WALKUERE in the 2008 Easter Salzburg Festival with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle singled her out of the Valkyries.  The New York Times praised her for singing with "great fervor and skill" as Magda Sorel in THE CONSUL directed by the composer himself Gian Carlo Menotti at the Washington National Opera, and for "transmitting the character's obsessive passion and warmth" as Senta at Katharina Wagner's directorial debut of DER FLIEGENDE HOLLAENDER  in Wuerzburg Germany.

In 2005 she sang Isolde in TRISTAN UND ISOLDE with the Grand Theatre de Tours, France, under the direction of Jean Yves Ossonce.  The Neue Zuericher Zeitung acclaimed her for her "technical mastery" in the complex title role in the world premiere of Rolf Liebermann's MEDEA at the Stadtheater in Bern under the direction of Daniel Klajner.  James Conlon later engaged her for the same role with the Paris Opera Bastille.  She made her Alice Tully Hall debut (LIncoln Center) singing Anaide to Jerome Hines' MOSE IN EGITTO.

She has been engaged with the Aix en Provence, Salzburg, and Opera North (Canada) Festivals, was well as the  Paris Opera Bastille, Grand Theatre de Tours, Klagenfurt, Wuerzburg, Bern Stralsund, Hong Kong, Boston Lyric, Opera Boston, Seattle, Connecticut, Boston Bel Canto opera companies.  She has performed the title roles of Norma, Tosca, Aida, Medea, Turandot, Dalila, Carmen, Salome, Isolde, and La Wally.  Her concert repertoire includes Wagner's WESENDONCK LIEDER, Strauss's VIER LETZTE LIEDER,  Brahm's REQUIEM, ,the mezzo and soprano roles in the Verdi REQUIEM to name a few.

Her voice has been heard on Swiss National Radio, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WGBH, BBC, and ARTE and she appears on the DVD of DIE WALKUERE with the Berliner Philharmoniker on the Bel Air Classiques label released in 2009 and as the sole musician on the BBC special "The Estate."

She has performed recitals at the Paris Conservatory, Gerlesborgsskolan, Sweden, and the prestigious Beaulieu Abbey (UK), Boston and New York Wagner Society recital series.  She has released a CD of Rachmaninoff and Medtner songs on the Americus Record label in their Russian Master Series with the acclaimed pianist Dag Achatz. She will be singing a concert of DIE WALKUERE with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2012.

Ms. Porackova is honored to perform with the Longwood Symphony again.  She still maintains her RN license, holding a Master of Science degree in Nursing.  Before her music career she taught at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Boston University School of Nursing, and worked in the Intensive Care Unit at Boston Children's Hospital.

David Kechley, composer

Since the 1968 premiere of Second Composition for Large Orchestra by the Seattle Symphony, David Kechley has produced works in all genres. His music draws from a variety of sources including the "usual suspects" of twentieth century concert music, concert composers from the more distant past and present, and many forms of vernacular, popular, and ethnic musics. Although these influences are generally integrated into a consistent style, the resulting musical narratives often create sharp contrasts between lyricism, virtuosity, and dramatic gesture.

His works have been commissioned and performed throughout the USA and abroad by the Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Pops, Cleveland Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Colorado Symphony, United States Military Academy Band, Mistral Saxophone Quartet, Kronos String Quartet, Lark Quartet, Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, Vienna Saxophone Quartet, among others. His music has been recorded and released on the Liscio Recordings, Albany Records, Reference Recording, and others.

Kechley's work has been recognized by a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1979), grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1976, 1979), and commissions from the Barlow Foundation (1998) and the New England Orchestra Consortium (2004).  Five Ancient Lyrics on Poems by Sappho was first prize winner of the 1980-81 Shreveport Symphony Composers' Competition and Concerto for Violin and Strings won the 1979 Opus I Chamber Orchestra Contest for Ohio Composers.  In the Dragon's Garden, a work for guitar and alto saxophone, was a winner of the 1994 Lee Ettelson Prize.  Lightning Images received honorable mention in the 1994 ASCAP Nissim Competition and TRANSFORMATIONS: An Orchestral Triptych was an honorable mention in that same competition in 1998. Restless Birds before the Dark Moon, a work for alto saxophone and wind ensemble, was the winner of the 2000 National Band Association, William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest. Kechley received Artist Fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council in 1985 and the Massachusetts Cultural Council in 1995, 2005 and was a grant finalist in 2011. Four of his most recent premieres are BOUNCE: Inventions, Interludes, and Interjections, premiered at the World Saxophone Congress in July, 2006 in Ljubljana, Slovenia by the Ryoanji Duo, COLLIDING OBJECTS: Interactions for Piano and Percussion, premiered at the Barge in Brooklyn, NY in 2008, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION: Trialogues for Trumpet, Saxophone, and Percussion on THE BOX-music by living composers, a new music series at Williams College, September 10, 2010 and AVAILABLE LIGHT: Midwinter Musings for Flute and Harp also at Williams College on October 27. 2010.

He was awarded residencies at The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in 2002, Yaddo in 2006, Copland House in 2008, and the MacDowell Colony in 2009.

Born in Seattle, Washington, March 16, 1947, Kechley was educated at the University of Washington, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Case Western Reserve University. His teachers include Paul Tufts, Robert Suderburg, William Bergsma, James Beale, and Donald Erb. His music is available and released on the Liscio Recordings, Albany Records, Reference Recording, and others. He is presently on the music faculty at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.