Longwood Symphony Orchestra

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.

A vibrant presence in the orchestral world, Lawrence Isaacson continues to make his mark as one of today's newest faces on the conducting scene. Interesting programming, energetic performances, audience interaction and a spirit of collaboration with presenters and ensembles alike, have earned him numerous re-engagements.

Currently, he is the Music Director and Conductor of the Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra (MA), an orchestra that he founded in 2007. Mr. Isaacson is a regular guest conductor at the Aspen (CO) and Round Top (TX) Music Festivals and has also guest conducted the Oregon Symphony (OR) and at the Eastern Music Festival (NC). He is the former Director of Orchestras at the Usdan Center for the Performing Arts (NY) as well as Conductor emeritus of the Parkway Concert Orchestra (MA).

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 the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Detroit Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony and the Empire Brass Quintet. These years of instrumental performance allowed him to collaborate with many great conductors, including Georg Solti, Edo de Waart, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Neemi Järvi, Leonard Bernstein, John Williams, Keith Lockhart and Erich Kunzel.

Born into a family of musicians and educators, Mr. Isaacson has taught for over 25 years. 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. As an educator of younger students, he has conducted Middle to High school students in all-District orchestras and at the Usdan Center for the Performing and Creative Arts on Long Island. His current teaching duties include a faculty position at The Boston Conservatory, where he is Assistant Director of the Music Division.

Mr. Isaacson has released two albums to date. "Heroic Sounds", performed by the Old South Brass, was released in 2001. The CD includes numerous transcriptions for brass, organ and timpani and four new commissions by Boston composer Kevin Kaska. The second CD was released in 2005 and brings together the Metropolitan Wind Symphony and two great brass soloists of today - Adam Frey, Euphonium and Scott Hartman, Trombone.

In addition to his work with Maestro Leonard Slatkin at the National Conducting Institute in Washington, D.C. (2002), Mr. Isaacson trained at the Academy of Conducting at Aspen (2000) under Maestros David Zinman, Muray Sidlin and Jorma Panula. He has had additional studies at workshops under several masters of the podium: Michael Tilson Thomas, Christopher Wilkins, Larry Rachlef, Daniel Lewis and Simon Rattle.

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.