Artists

• Fabio Biondi

  Conductor

  Driven by a deep cultural curiosity, Fabio Biondi is a musician ceaselessly in pursuit of a style free from constraints. From his early development, guided by period performance pioneers, Biondi’s work has incorporated repertoire spanning three centuries. His infectious enthusiasm and determination to put music first mark him out in his quest for an “original language,” both in globally known works and in his commitment to researching and illuminating lesser-known masterpieces.

  In 1990, following extensive work with specialist ensembles including Les Musiciens du Louvre and The English Concert, Biondi founded Europa Galante, which quickly became the foremost Italian period ensemble. They have appeared at leading international festivals and stages, including recent appearances at the Berlin Pierre Boulez Saal, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Vienna Konzerthaus, Enescu Festival, and Edinburgh International Festival.

  Biondi brings an authentic and engaging approach to modern symphony and chamber orchestras, which he conducts and also directs from the violin. Recent and future highlights include the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, RAI Torino, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg. He concluded his 11-year tenure as artistic director for Baroque music at the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra for in 2016.

  Fabio Biondi has earned numerous awards for his releases on the Warner Classics, Virgin, and Glossa labels, including the Diapason d’Or de l’Année and Choc de Musique, and organizations in five countries honored his recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Europa Galante. His recent recording of Paganini’s Sonatas for Violin and Guitar was named Editor’s Choice by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. He has recorded with Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Philippe Jaroussky, Vivica Genaux, and Rolando Villazón, and he recently released his first recording of J.S. Bach’s complete sonatas and partitas.

  Biondi has been an academician of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia since 2011, was named an Officer of the National Order of Arts and Letters in 2015 by the French Ministry of Culture, and was awarded the medal of Courage and Veracity in 2019 by the Polish Government. He plays a 1768 Gennaro Gagliano, owned by his teacher Salvatore Cicero and kindly lent to him by the Salvatore Cicero Foundation in Palermo, where he was born.

   

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• Hera Hyesang Park

  Soprano

  Hera Hyesang Park is an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist working with orchestras and opera houses worldwide. The Korean soprano has made house and role debuts as Adina in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love (at Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin), Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Bavarian Staatsoper and Glyndebourne Festival), Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème (Komische Oper), Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Julliette (Korean National Opera), and Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Teatro Colón Buenos Aires). Her concert appearances have included Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem at Carnegie Hall, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Naples Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony, Handel’s Acis and Galatea at Tanglewood and Caramoor with Philharmonia Baroque, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Seoul Philharmonic, and recitals at Vocal Arts DC, Alice Tully Hall, Friends of Chamber Music Miami, Montreal’s Bourgie Hall, and Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música.
  
  As a participant in The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist program, Park made her Met debut as the First Sprite in a new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka conducted by Mark Elder. She sang Barbarina in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Dew Fairy in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and has since returned as Pamina, Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff.

  
  

• Hannah Ludwig

  Alto

  In the 2023–24 season mezzo-soprano Hannah Ludwig makes her New York Philharmonic debut singing Handel’s Messiah conducted by Fabio Biondi; this following her first collaboration with him on the same piece with the National Symphony Orchestra in the 2022–23 season. In that same season she returned to the Colorado Symphony for Elgar’s Sea Pictures and sang Messiah with the Las Vegas Philharmonic. She reprised the roles of Isabella in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeria (at Eroica Berlin) and Maddaela in Verdi’s Rigoletto (Utah Opera), as well as Floßhilde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Dallas Opera.

  
  

• John Matthew Myers

  Tenor

  Tenor John Matthew Myers is widely recognized for his distinctive, warm, and vibrant voice. He is equally at home in recital, orchestral, and operatic repertoire, and regularly garners acclaim for his emotional depth and range in a variety of settings. A champion of new music as well as a classicist, he brings his nuanced and powerful voice to repertoire ranging from John Adams to Puccini. 

  
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• Joshua Conyers

  Baritone

  A native of the Bronx, Grammy-nominated baritone Joshua Conyers is known for his captivating performances and recognized as one of the promising young dramatic voices of today. His 2023–24 season includes performing and covering the role of Reginald in Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at Seattle Opera and The Metropolitan Opera, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, and Iago in Verdi’s Otello with Vashon Opera, as well as Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic. He also debuted his solo recital, Journey: My American Story, at University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

  
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• Handel and Haydn Society Chorus
  

  Chorus

  Boston’s Grammy-winning Handel and Haydn Society (H+H) performs Baroque and Classical music with a freshness, a vitality, and a creativity that inspires all ages. H+H has been captivating audiences for 209 consecutive seasons (the most of any performing arts organization in the United States), speaking to its singular success at converting new audiences to this extraordinary music, generation after generation.
  
  H+H performed the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah in its first concert in 1815, gave the complete oratorio’s American premiere in 1818, and ever since has been both a musical and a civic leader in the Boston community. During the Civil War, H+H gave numerous concerts in support of the Union Army (H+H member Julia Ward Howe wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic), and on January 1, 1863, H+H performed at the Grand Jubilee Concert celebrating the enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation. Two years later, H+H performed at the memorial service for Abraham Lincoln.
  
  Today, H+H’s Orchestra and Chorus, under the leadership of artistic director Jonathan Cohen, delight more than 50,000 listeners annually with a nine-week subscription series at Boston’s Symphony Hall and other leading venues. Through the Karen S. and George D. Levy Education Program, H+H supports seven youth choirs of singers in grades Two through Twelve, and provides thousands of complimentary tickets to students and communities throughout Boston, ensuring the joy of music is accessible to all. H+H has released 16 CDs on the CORO label and has toured nationally and internationally. In all these ways, H+H fulfills its mission to inspire the intellect, touch the heart, elevate the soul, and connect all of us with our shared humanity through transformative experiences with Baroque and Classical music.

  
  Learn more about Handel and Haydn Society Chorus