2026 EMMF Guest artists
Jeffrey biegel
In an age when many artists’ fortunes begin with a meteoric ascent and quickly cool with the inexorable free fall, pianist Jeffrey Biegel has managed to buck that trend, fashioning a career of steady success studded with concerts at major venues with major orchestras, a Grammy-winning recording, and more than twenty-five commissioned works by living composers. His life takes its roots from age three, barely able to hear or speak, until corrected by surgery. The “reverse Beethoven” phenomenon explains his lifelong commitment to music, having heard only vibrations in his formative years. During the pandemic year of 2020, he focused on composing original “Waltzes of Hope;” “Sonatina;” and “Three Reflections: JFK, RBG and MLK,” for solo piano; and for piano and orchestra, orchestrations by Harrison Sheckler. The next year saw the world premieres of his “Reflection of Justice: An Ode to Ruth Bader Ginsburg” with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s “Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg” for mezzo-soprano, piano, and orchestra in tribute to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, featuring mezzosoprano Denyce Graves, as well as the world premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s “Shadows” newly arranged for piano and seven players with the Idaho State Civic Symphony. In 2022, he premiered Jim Stephenson’s Piano Concerto; Daniel Perttu’s “A Planets Odyssey” for piano and orchestra; Farhad Poupel’s “The Legend of Bijan and Manijeh” for piano, orchestra, and chorus; his own concerto, Three Reflections: Freedom (JFK), Justice (RBG) Equality (MLK); and Christopher Marshall’s “Thanksgiving Variations on ‘We Gather Together.’” For 2023, The fifty-state Rhapsody National Initiative begins, with the Utah Symphony leading a three-season effort with Peter Boyer’s Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue, with a world premiere recording of the new Rhapsody with Peter Boyer conducting the London Symphony Orchestra for a February 2024 Naxos digital release. The 2024-25 season foresees a new work for piano and orchestra by Adolphus Hailstork with the Pacific Symphony, Carl St. Clair conducting, and Grammy winning singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester’s “AWAKE” for piano and orchestra (premiere tba).
Considered the most prolific artist of his generation, Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters upon him in 2015, for his achievements in performance, recordings, chamber music, champion of new music, composer, arranger, and educator. In 2019, Kenneth Fuchs’s Piano Concerto: Spiritualist with the London Symphony Orchestra led by JoAnn Falletta received a Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium, featuring Jeffrey as its soloist. In 2019, the first digital recordings were released on his Naturally Sharp label: “Cyberecital: An Historic Recording,” “A Pianist’s Journey,” and the September 2021 release of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue 1924 version with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra, Bruce Kiesling conducting. Jeffrey created the first largest consortium of orchestras in 1998 for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s “Millennium Fantasy” premiered with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 2000; followed with Charles Strouse’s Concerto America with the Boston Pops; Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto no. 3 with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; William Bolcom’s “Prometheus” for piano, orchestra, and chorus with the Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale; Richard Danielpour’s “Mirrors” with the Pacific Symphony; Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s “Shadows” with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra; Jake Runestad’s “Dreams of the Fallen” with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony Chorus of New Orleans; Lucas Richman’s Piano Concerto: In Truth with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and recorded with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and Kenneth Fuchs’s Piano Concerto: Spiritualist with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MA). He also premiered and recorded Giovanni Allevi’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra and commissioned Christopher Theofanidis’s Concerto no. 2 for Piano and Orchestra with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra; the Peanuts Concerto by Dick Tunney, based on music by Vince Guaraldi; Jimmy Webb’s “Nocturne for Piano and Orchestra” and PDQ Bach’s Concerto for Simply Grand Piano and Orchestra by Peter Schickele with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Bringing new music to youth orchestras saw the world premiere of Daniel Dorff’s Piano Concerto with the Etowah Youth Orchestra, conducted by Michael Gagliardo.He studied at the Juilliard School with Adele Marcus, herself a pupil of Josef Lhevinne and Artur Schnabel, and is currently on faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College.
SHENG CAI
Recently nominated for Canada’s prestigious “2025 Oskar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance,” Canadian pianist Sheng Cai has been delighting audiences and critics across four continents with his electrifying performing charisma and individual personality. Recently described as “with seeming effortlessness and performing with gusto and a loving attention to detail” by Buffalo Hives in New York and as “having the inner passion paired with Rubinstein’s nonchalance” by Thüringer Allgemeine in Germany, Sheng Cai has gained praises worldwide for his performances of major keyboard works of the past four centuries. With a number of prizes and awards, he continues to push the boundaries in interpreting both the established and rarities of the piano literature.
Since winning top prizes at Concours OSM (Montreal Symphony Competition/Concours Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal) and Toronto Symphony’s competition at 15 years old, Sheng Cai has performed a broad spectrum of over 35 different piano concertos from Mozart to 21st century living composers with invitations to more than 60 orchestras worldwide as guest soloist. Recent concerto performance collaborations with orchestra includes the ORF Vienna radio Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Quebec Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Windsor Symphony, Canton Symphony of Ohio, Shanghai Symphony, Shenzhen Symphony, in Germany with Nuremberg Symphoniker, Erfurt Philharmonic, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester, Orchestre National de Cannes in France, Biel Solothurn Symphony of Switzerland, Armenian National Philharmonic, Krakow Philharmonic of Poland, North Bohemian Philharmonic in Czech republic, Malaga Philharmonic of Spain, among many others.
He has ongoing collaborations with many esteemed conductors such as Keith Lockhart, Yoav Talmi, JoAnn Falletta, Gerhardt Zimmermann, Sascha Goetzel, Rune Bergmann, David Lockington, Robert Moody, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Yannis Pouspourikas, Myron Michailidis, Donato Cabrera, Robert Franz, Eduard Topchjan, and Marco Parisotto.
In solo recitals, Sheng Cai has been presented at many prestigious venues in North America and Europe, such as Steinway Hall in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Chicago’s international Music Center, the Cleveland Play House, the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, the Alys Stephens Center in Birmingham, CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, and other distinguished venues in Stratford, Elora, Montreal, Kingston, and Winnipeg. As a chamber musician, Sheng Cai has collaborated with a number of fine artists, including the Enso String Quartet. Many of his recent performances have been broadcasted across North America and Europe such as Radio France Musique, CBC Radio Canada, WCLV Radio Ohio and WFMT Radio Chicago in US, and Czech Radio.
Sheng Cai is a passionate recording artist; his first recording was a CD of works by Mozart and Martinu for the Canadian Broadcast Company. His most recent Liszt, Grieg and Rachmaninoff discs on the ATMA Classique label gained international acclaim from the American Record Guide, ClassicsToday, MusicWeb International Review in the UK, Wholenote magazine in Canada, and Fanfare music magazine in the US.
He was a top-prize winner at many competitions throughout his teenage years, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition (Concours OSM), Toronto Symphony Piano Competition, The International Young Artists Competition of Colorado, The Bay State competition in Boston, and was the youngest finalist and special prize winner at the Bösendorfer International Piano Competition in the US. Recently he has been nominated for “2025 Oskar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance” by the Ontario Arts Council of Canada.
Sheng Cai is instrumental in advocating many neglected works that are peaks of the piano literature, works by composers such as Enescu, Kabalevsky, Kapustin, Medtner, Mathieu, Villa-Lobos, and a number of his own works frequently shows up on his concert programs, his creative programming have made audience aware of such treasures of the piano literature deserves a wider audience.
Sheng Cai began his musical studies in Canada and US where he was a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the Juilliard School’s pre-college division in New York. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree under full scholarship at The New England Conservatory in Boston. His teachers and mentors include pianists Anton Kuerti, Gary Graffman, and Russell Sherman.
Teresa Chung
Teresa Cheung is in frequent demand for symphonic, choral, operatic and balletic productions throughout the United States, Canada and Hong Kong. Following an acclaimed 13-season tenure as Music Director of Pennsylvania’s Altoona Symphony Orchestra, she was appointed Resident Conductor of the Endless MountainMusic Festival. Her current season is highlighted by herdebut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
Teresa Cheung’s recent engagements have found her on the podia of the Amarillo, American, Bakersfield, Chappaqua, Mid-Texas, Mobile, New Amsterdam (NYC), Phoenix, Portland, Stamford, Venice and Western Michigan symphony orchestras, Evansville, Fort Wayne and Rochester philharmonic orchestras, Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, New York City Ballet, Brooklyn’s Regina Opera and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Additionally, she often appears as conductor for colleges and universities and with All State/All County orchestra festivals. She has also served as a conducting clinician for Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ “Meet the Artist” program.
Widely known for her creative concert programming, collaborative projects and community outreach initiatives, Teresa Cheung is also a passionate advocate for music education for all ages. During her tenure in Altoona, she created numerous outreach programs that engaged area children and high school musicians and choristers, ballet companies and civic organizations.
Under her leadership, the ASO also performed with university instrumental and choral ensembles from Penn State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Juniata College. Her vision of extending the Altoona Symphony’s artistry and reputation beyond Central Pennsylvania led to the filming of Dvorák’s New World, an acclaimed joint-project with the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts’ Humanities on the Road program that was broadcast throughout Pennsylvania in December, 2011. Another highlight of Ms. Cheung’s novel interdisciplinary projects was the North American premiere of F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu on Halloween 2017, reuniting the original symphonic score of Hans Erdmann with the silent film in Berndt Heller’ s reconstruction. Teresa Cheung began her career as Resident Conductor of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, where she was also conductor of the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Evansville Philharmonic Chorus. Among her many artistic initiatives, she led the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra on its first international concert tour to Japan in 2002. Subsequently, she served as Resident Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Conductor for the Bard Music Festival and SummerScape. A native of Hong Kong, Teresa Cheung received her Masters Degree in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music. She is also the recipient of the JoAnn Falletta Conducting Award for the most promising female conductors.
MCLAIN FAMILY BAND
Direct from the hills of Kentucky, The McLain Family Band has become internationally known as one of the most spontaneous, creative and spirited groups performing contemporary Appalachian Bluegrass music.
Since 1968, they have performed in all 50 states – and 64 countries during 15 international concert tours, some as musical ambassadors of the U.S. Department of State. The McLain Family Band has appeared on prestigious stages such as the Grand Ole Opry, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Carter Family Fold. They have been featured at thousands of festivals and concerts and performed as soloists in more than 230 appearances with orchestras.
For eleven years, The McLain Family Band hosted The McLain Family Band Festival which was featured on NPR’s Folk Festival USA and produced by Kentucky Educational Television for national distribution. Other television appearances include NBC’s Today Show, The CBS Morning News, ABC’s Good Morning America, The Pearl Bailey ETV Special, The BBC, TNN’s Nashville Now and the Johnny Cash Christmas Special.
The McLain Family Band has consisted, through the years, of various combinations of family members. The core touring band includes: Raymond McLain, Ruth McLain, Alice and Al White and Daxson Lewis, with occasional guest appearances from NancyAnn Wartman and Michael & Jennifer McLain.
RON STABINSKY
Ron Stabinsky enjoys working in many stylistically diverse musical contexts throughout the United States and Europe with a wide variety of other musicians and ensembles. These include free-improvising saxophonist Jack Wright, lead trumpet legend Dave Stahl, bass trombone virtuoso David Taylor, NEA Jazz Master David Liebman, phenomenal drummer/composer Christian
Lillinger’s Open Form for Society, and innovative trumpeter/composer Peter Evans. Festival appearances include Newport Jazz Festival (Rhode Island), Big Ears Festival (Tennessee), North Sea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Moers Festival (Germany), Donaueschingen Music Days (Germany), JazzFest Berlin (Germany), Jazzfestival Saalfelden (Austria), Jazz Jamboree Festival (Poland), and Jazz and More Festival Sibiu (Romania). In 2016, his debut album, Free for One, received four stars in DownBeat and tied for number one debut of the year in the 2016 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. He is currently a regular member of numerous groups including Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Relâche, Grassy Sound, and the Meat Puppets.
Thomas Putnam
Thomas Putnam is artistic director of Hamilton-Gibson Productions, a community performing arts nonprofit in Wellsboro. Born and raised in Michigan, he spent every summer of his youth in Wellsboro, where his mother grew up. It was his grandmother
Alma who persuaded him to come to Tioga County in 1974 to earn his degree in education at what was then Mansfield State College. He taught after graduation in both public and private schools. In 1991, he and some friends founded Hamilton-Gibson, named for his maternal grandmother Alma Hamilton Webster and his paternal grandmother Clara Gibson Putnam. Five
years later he co-founded Hamilton-Gibson Youth Choirs with Kay Galloway and the late Katie Brennan.
Thomas has directed hundreds of plays. His acting credits are numerous and include several one-man shows, including Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe and Glen Berger’s Underneath the Lintel. He reprised the role of the Dutch librarian in September 2025—one he’d played in 2008 and 2020. Most shows were sold out.
“Stephen approached me last summer and said he’d found a work about Ellis Island and would Hamilton-Gibson be interested in providing the speakers,” he says. “When I listened to the piece—the beautiful, beautiful music—that sold me on it.”