Diane Saldick, LLC celebrates 10 years of creating successful collaborations with presenting organizations for its marketable roster of distinguished instrumental soloists, conductors and ensembles.

Conductor
Robert Franz Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic and Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony, Robert Franz, will conduct world premieres by composers Jake Heggie and David Ernest this season. Recent and upcoming guest conducting appearances include the St. Louis Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Musiqa, San Antonio Symphony, Asheville Lyric Opera, Portland Symphony (ME), Idaho Falls Symphony, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, and the South Bend Symphony. A champion of new music, he continues to build the composer-in-residence program with the Boise Philharmonic that has included Jennifer Higdon, Shulamit Ran and Lawrence Dillon. His collaborations include Opera Idaho, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Ballet Idaho.

Conductor
Jorge MesterJorge Mester, who for 25 years was music director of the Pasadena Symphony, has been named artistic director of the Young Musicians Foundation and its Debut Orchestra. Mester will continue in his current positions as Music Director of the Louisville Symphony and Naples (Fla.) Philharmonic and conduct the newly formed Hawaii Symphony.

Conductor
Robert Moody The 2011-12 season marks the 7th anniversary of Robert Moody's music directorship of the Winston-Salem Symphony, and his 4th season at the artistic helm of the Portland (Maine) Symphony, in addition to continuing as artistic director Arizona MusicFest. Following his highly successful engagement with the Chautauqua Festival Orchestra in Summer 2011, Moody leads the Stamford Symphony (CT), California Symphony and Louisville Orchestra as guest-conductor.

Conductor
Emmanuel Plasson, 2011-12 season includes a double debut: in Portugal with the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa in works by Berlioz, Liszt and Schumann and for his first appearances with the Orchestre de Pau-Pays de Béarne, with music composed by Mendelssohn, Grieg and Tchaikovsky. He conducts the Norwegian premiere of "L’étoile" with the Bergen Philharmonic and "Den Nye Opera" in the Mark Lamos production with which he was associated at New York City Opera in 2010. Two additional company debuts follow: at Alabama’s Birmingham Opera with "Carmen;" preceding "Faust," with the Opéra de Montréal. Massenet's "Thaïs" will complete Maestro Plasson’s season, his second as Music Director of the Opera Company of Middlebury.

Conductor
Andrew Sewell Conductor Andrew Sewell continues in his twelfth season as music director of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Madison, WI. Following his debuts with the OK Mozart Festival, and Syracuse and Green Bay Symphonies, he returns to Green Bay for the 2011/12 season as well as making his debut with the Eugene Symphony and Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestra. He continues also to guest conduct at the Masterworks Festival, Winona Lake, Indiana each year since 2003.

Conductor
Peter RubardtPeter Rubardt, now in his 15th season as Music Director of the Pensacola Symphony recently renewed his contract following two sold-out seasons in the newly-renovated Saenger Theatre. He debuts with the Yamagata (Japan) Symphony and the El Paso Symphony, and returns to the Hyogo Arts Center Orchestra (Osaka).

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Piano
Tanya Bannister Pianist Tanya Bannister;s latest recording, This is the story she began, featuring solo piano music of living American composers (David Del Tredici, Christopher Theofanidis, Suzanne Farrin and Sheila Silver), was released to critical acclaim on Albany Records in February 2009. Ms. Bannister has completed her 4th successful year as artistic director for the Alpenkammermusik festival in Austria and continues to expand her chamber music interests. She recently formed a new two-piano/percussion ensemble called Hammer/Klavier with pianist Stephen Buck and percussionists Svet Stoyanov and Eduardo Leandro.

Piano
Eduardus Halim Pianist Eduardus Halim has accepted the position of the Sascha Gorodnitzki Endowed Chair in Piano Performance Studies at New York University's Steinhardt Department of Music.

Piano
Yu Kosuge Pianist Yu Kosuge’s busy 2011/12 season includes concerts in the Far East and Europe. Yu tours the USA, including the cities of Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and New York with Thierry Fischer conducting the Kioi Sinfonietta. She also appears as soloist with the Missoula Symphony. As a Sony Artist Yu Kosuge will also be recording Mozart’s Piano Concerto’s No’s 22 K482 and 24 K491 with Camerata Salzburg conducted by Hans-Joerg Schellenberger.

Piano
Simon Mulligan British pianist Simon Mulligan is well known for his highly acclaimed performances and recordings with Joshua Bell, Lynn Harrell, Leonard Slatkin and the late Yehudi Menuhin. Now focusing on his solo career, his 2011-12 season includes, in North America, a recital at New York's Symphony Space and concerto engagements with the Allentown, LaCrosse and Manchester (IN) symphonies. His keen interest in film composition led to a long association with composer Michael Kamen, culminating in his performance on the soundtrack to Spielberg’s "Band of Brothers." He has led his own jazz quartet since he was thirteen, which has performed in major international festivals. His eclectic work has led to profiles in Downbeat, JazzTimes, BBC Music, Classic FM, and Gramophone magazines, among others.

Piano
John O'Conor John O'Conor's 2011/2012 season began with a residency in Aspen where he performed Beethoven's last three Piano Sonatas at the Festival. He then went to Positano, Italy to give the annual Wilhelm Kempff Beethoven Course. He has a recital tour of Ireland (and also performs with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland with conductor Andreas Delfs) and plays at the Wigmore Hall in London on their Piano Series. He visits Estonia, Romania, Italy, Canada (with recitals in Toronto and Vancouver) and Japan. In the United States he will return to the Ravinia and Aspen Festivals in the summer of 2012, plays numerous recitals and performs with the Peninsula (CA) and Shreveport Symphonies.

Piano
Antonio Pompa-Baldi Upcoming concerto engagements include the Stockton and Pensacola Symphony Orchestras. Recital engagements include Orlando (FL), Fort Worth (TX), Cleveland (OH), the Liszt Society of Eugene (OR), and Corvallis (OR), as well as a tour of South Africa. Mr. Pompa-Baldi recently recorded the entire piano output of Edward Grieg in 11 CDs, an all-Rachmaninoff album, the Hummel Sonatas, and a Schumann album on the Centaur Records label.

Piano
Bryan Wallick American pianist Bryan Wallick makes his debut with the Capetown Philharmonic, and will return to perform with the Johannesburg Philharmonic and Durban Philharmonic. He will also perform on the Scottsdale Center's Steinway Recital Series, and will play recitals throughout South Africa.

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Violin
Lindsay Deutsch Lindsay Deutsch opens her season at the Walt Disney concert hall with the US premiere of her newly commissioned "Rhapsody in Blue" for solo violin and orchestra. She goes on to solo with orchestras in Marina Del Rey, Lincoln City, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Portland, Boulder, Longmont, San Diego, Pacific Palisades and Eugene, Oregon. Aside from the standard concerto repertoire, Lindsay will be collaborating on special projects with the legendary jazz pianist Dick Hyman and the California based band SWARMIUS.

Violin
Ilya Kaler is one of the most outstanding personalities of the violin. He has many awards to his credit and is the only violinist to have won Gold Medals at the Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Paganini Competitions. His Chautauqua Festival concerto performance in Summer 2010 is followed by concerto engagements with the Flint and Long Beach Symphonies, as well as the Boston Philharmonic and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (Santo Domingo).

Violin
Alexander Sitkovetsky Violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky made his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra in Summer 2010 at the Exeter Festival. He also participated at the Cyprus Chamber Music Festival, Julia Fischer and Friends Festival and Oklahoma's OK Mozart Festival (Paul Neubauer, Artistic Director) In addition to numerous concerts throughout the world in 2010-11, Mr. Sitkovetsky performs with the Malmo and Aarhus Symphonies, Kobe Chamber Music Festival (Japan), Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Tucson Symphony, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and a return engagement with the Netherlands Philharmonic (Prokofiev 2 with Yakov Kreizberg).

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Violin
Livia Sohn Livia Sohn's 2011-12 season includes appearances at the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia, Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, and the Wheeling Symphony in West Virginia. This year Livia will release a CD of the Britten Violin Concerto together with the concerto "Jiyeh" by Israeli-American composer Jonathan Berger, which was written for and premiered by Livia, on the Gramercy Records label.

Viola
Paul Neubauer Violist Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing distinguish him as one of this generation's quintessential artists. A two-time Grammy nominee, his recording of Joan Tower's "Purple Rhapsody," commissioned for him by seven orchestras and the Koussevitsky Foundation, was recently released by Summit Records. Future projects include a consortium commission of a new viola concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis, and recordings as a guest of the Emerson Quartet for Sony Classical.

Cello
Denise Djokic Cellist Denise Djokic makes her Carnegie Hall debut this season performing with the Edmonton Symphony and William Eddins. This concert will feature John Estacio's Triple Concerto, which she will perform with violinist Juliette Kang and pianist Angela Cheng. Ms. Djokic will also tour with the Academic Orchestra of Zurich, and will take part in a special collaboration with Ballet Victoria, performing solo Bach. She will be featured in recital with violinist Pekka Kuusisto, as well as in chamber music performances with the Supernova and Jupiter string quartets. This season will also see the release of her new CD on the ATMA label with pianist David Jalbert, which will include the Chopin and Rachmaninoff Sonatas.

Cello
Wendy Warner’s Wendy Warner's 2011-2012 season includes concerto appearances with Camerata Chicago (Beethoven Triple with Beethoven Project Trio), Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Valdosta Symphony Orchestra and Barber Concerto with Columbus State Symphony Orchestra, where Ms. Warner is currently on the faculty. She will also perform with pianist Irina Nuzova in Minneapolis on The Schubert Club's Music in the Park Series, Boston's Gardner Museum in an all Beethoven Sonatas program and Chicago Chamber Musicians.

Clarinet
Charles Neidichis continuing his collaboration with conservatories in Beijing and Xi’an as well as the music seminar he began with his wife, Ayako Oshima, in Kita Karuizawa, Japan. This year, he will be giving a series of concerts and lectures in Kirishima and Sendai, Japan. He continues his close collaborations with composers and recently both Elliott Carter and Ursula Mamlok wrote have written works for him. He is now performing the works of Brahms on reproductions of the instruments which Richard Mühlfeldt played allowing audiences to experience performances as close as possible to what Brahms would have actually heard. Mr. Neidich is also performing his reconstruction of the original basset clarinet version of the Mozart Concerto on an instrument modelled after the one which Anton Stadler played and which inspired Mozart to write the work. He is playing as well his restoration of the original versions of both the Copland Concerto and the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto. He continues to perform at chamber music festivals around the world and has added the Moritzburg Festival in Germany and the Pharos Festival in Cyprus to festivals such as Marlboro and Sarasota where he is a regular performer. Mr. Neidich has also been busy composing, finishing works for solo clarinet, clarinet and piano, cello, french horn, and woodwind quintet this past year. He continues his conducting career as well, conducting the Rising Stars Series, the orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Beijing, and at the Aaron Copland School of Music where he is Music Director of the Queens College Chamber Orchestra.

Flute
Carol Wincenc Carol Wincenc performed the Rouse Flute Concerto with JoAnn Falletta at the 2011 Round Top Texas Summer Music Festival. She performed Joan Tower's RISING, also written for her, in the Canadian premiere at the Banff Festival, the Connecticut premiere at the Yale/Norfolk Festival as well as the National Flute Association Convention in Charlotte NC, while receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. She performs and recorded Henryk Gorecki's "Concerto Contata" with the Warsaw Philharmonic in September 2011 and records it for NAXOS on the occasion of the passing of Gorecki. Jake Heggie has adapted "Sunrise" for Ms. Wincenc into a new flute concerto premiered at the National Flute Convention in Anaheim, August 2010. She collaborates with the Boise Philharmonic for the world premiere of "Fury of Light" by Heggie.

Native American Flute
R. Carlos Nakai R. Carlos Nakai, the premiere native American flutist, brings a unique artistry to performances in the symphonic and chamber music traditions. Mr. Nakai will premiere James DeMars’ work for string quartet and native American flute entitled “Tarot” with Chamber Music Sedona and the Mozart Project. He will also perform a suite of songs written by Mr. DeMars with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, in honor of the Arizona centennial.

Guitar
Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic Guitarist Ana Vidovic's Summer 2011 performance at Vienna's Musikverein is followed by tours to Japan, Australia and New Zealand in 2011-12, as well as throughout the U.S. including recitals at the Virginia Arts Festival, La Guitarre Festival in San Luis Obispo (CA) and Portland, OR; with concerto performances with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Erie Philharmonic and Dearborn Symphony (MI).

Guitar
Fabio Zanon Last November Fabio Zanon's CD "Solo Guitar Works by Villa-Lobos" was chosen Best Classical CD of 2011 at the Bravo Prize, a major cultural award in Brazil, with strong competition from the Argerich-Freire duo and the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. On the same occasion he was shortlisted, for his outstanding work in classical music, as Artist of the Year. 2011-12 takes him to major concert venues in Ljubliana, Montreal, Seattle, Montevideo, La Paz and Quito, as well as all major capitals in his native Brazil and the South Bank Centre in London. He has increaed his activities as a conductor, having conduted the London premiere of Timothy Walker's Concerto for a Rainbow and frequently leading chamber orchestras from the guitar. He has also returned to the radio with a series of programmes for Radio Cultura in Sao Paulo.

Ensemble
The Cassatt String Quartet Acclaimed as one of America's outstanding ensembles, the Manhattan based Cassatt String Quartet is equally adept at classical masterpieces and contemporary music. This season they join pianist, Ursula Oppens and narrator, Isaiah Schaffer at New York's Symphony Space as its "All-Stars". They return to Bargemusic with guest violinist, Mark Peskanov and to the New Paths Music Festival. In Connecticut, they appear at Treetops Chamber Music Society with clarinetist, Oskar Espina-Ruiz and at Music Mountain Festival. They make their debut at the Big Sky Classical Festival in Montana, appear at Texas A & M University with pianist, James Dick and return to their sixth annual Texas educational residency, Cassatt In The Basin! which includes a Triple Quartet performed side-by-side with students and the Cassatt..

Ensemble
Les Amies with Carol Wincenc (flute), Cynthia Phelps (viola) and Nancy Allen (harp) perform on the series of the Detroit Chamber Music Society, University of Vermont, Westchester (NY) Chamber Music Society and at the Brattleboro Music Center.

Ensemble
Shuffle Concert Ground breaking chamber music ensemble, SHUFFLE Concert, continues to excite audiences around the world with their original and interactive create-your-own-concert format. 2011-12 engagements include a concert tour to Oregon and California, a return trip to Israel and a debut performance at King's Place in London.

Ensemble
Sitkovetsky TrioFirst prizewinners of the International Commerzbank Chamber Music Award 2008 and recipients of the NORDMETALL Chamber Music Award at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival 2009, The Sitkovetsky Trio (Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin; Wu Qian, piano; Leonard Elschenbroich, cello)having met and worked together at the Yehudi Menuhin School, have emerged as one of the outstanding trios of today. In 2011-2012, The trio will hold a three concert residency at the King's Place in London, another three concert residency at the Kettle's Yard in Cambridge as well as various recitals in the UK and abroad including a re-invitation to Bath's Mozartfest. They will be Trio in Residence at the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Festival's Chamber Music week and will perform the Beethoven Triple there in the Summer of 2012 with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin.

Ensemble
Tempest TrioCombining technical mastery, expressive depth, and performance experience, pianist Alon Goldstein, violinist Ilya Kaler and cellist Amit Peled have joined forces to form the Tempest Trio, one of the most exciting trios on the international scene. Each virtuoso member of the ensemble has a successful solo career; together, they bring a vitality to the concert stage with their dynamic musical interplay and collaborative spirit.

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