Nilo Cruz is a Cuban-American playwright and pedagogue. With his award of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Anna in the Tropics, he became the second Latino so honored, after Nicholas Dante.
The music of Alaska is a broad artistic field incorporating many cultures.
Mass is a musical theatre work composed by Leonard Bernstein with text by Bernstein and additional text and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy, it premiered on September 8, 1971, conducted by Maurice Peress and choreographed by Alvin Ailey. The production used costume designs by Frank Thompson. The performance was part of the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Mass premiered in Europe in 1973, with John Mauceri conducting the Yale Symphony Orchestra in Vienna.
The Alaska Center for the Performing Arts is a performance venue in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. Opened in 1988, it hosts over 200,000 patrons annually, and consists of three theaters:
Douglas William Walter, DMA is Professor of Percussion at the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music, and was the first marimba and vibraphone artist to win a First Prize in the Concert Artists Guild Competition in NYC.
Randall Craig Fleischer was an American conductor. He was the Music Director of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Anchorage Symphony, and Youngstown Symphony orchestras.
Andrea Centazzo is an Italian-born American composer, percussionist, multimedia artist and record label founder.
Donald Knaack is an American percussionist. He performs on and composes for recycled materials exclusively.
Cleveland Watkiss,, is a British vocalist, actor, and composer.
The Bob Cole Conservatory of Music is the school of music at California State University, Long Beach. In March 2008, the music department was renamed the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music in honor of an endowment gift of $16.4 million from the estate of Robert "Bob" Cole. Cole, a Long Beach real estate investor, long-time music lover, and amateur pianist, died in 2004. Following its disbursement, the gift will benefit the students of the conservatory in the form of scholarships and other awards.
Alaska Youth Orchestras (AYO), formerly known as Anchorage Youth Symphony (AYS) is an organization comprising 2 youth orchestras. It was founded in 1965 as a single orchestra and is located in Anchorage, Alaska. In 2011, due to increased enrollment, the orchestra split into the Anchorage Youth Philharmonic and Anchorage Youth Symphony. The organization's name changed to Alaska Youth Orchestras to reflect this. AYO provides orchestral performance experience for young musicians, and furthers musicianship of members through rehearsals, concerts, education, tours, and community involvement. When not on tour, AYO performs at the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.
Zachary "Zach" James is an American actor, singer, recording artist and 2022 Grammy Award winner. He is best known for creating the role of Lurch in The Addams Family on Broadway, Abraham Lincoln in the world premiere Philip Glass opera, The Perfect American, Amenhotep III in the Olivier and Grammy Award-winning production of Akhnaten and for appearances on the television shows, 30 Rock,Murphy Brown, Law & Order: Organized Crime and The Blacklist. Zachary was named the Most Innovative Opera Singer of 2019 by The Classical Post, Breakout Opera Artist of 2019 by Verismo Magazine and was identified as an industry leader and invited to be an official ambassador for Opera America. He has sung with some of the world's top opera companies and orchestras including English National Opera, LA Opera, Teatro Real, The New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia and NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2019 in Akhnaten. His debut visual album, Call Out, has played 31 film festivals worldwide and received the highly commended designation from London’s Classical Music Digital Awards. His solo show, On Broadway, won him BroadwayWorld’s Vocalist of the Decade and Performer of the Decade awards for the years 2010-2020. The show was filmed live at Chris’s Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia, produced by Des Moines Metro Opera, and released as an album in 2021. Zachary is the host and creator of the comedy talkshow, What Happened Was... airing every Friday on TDO Network, produced by Dallas Opera.
Andrew Gerle is an American composer and pianist known for his musical adaptation of "Meet John Doe" with librettist Eddie Sugarman which premiered at the Ford's Theater in Washington. He is the recipient of four Richard Rodgers Awards administered by the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Jonathan Larson Grant. His opera "The Beach", a collaboration with librettist Royce Vavrek was presented on May 14, 2011 as part of New York City Opera's VOX Contemporary American Opera Lab.
Derek Gleeson is an Irish/American musician. Born in Dublin, Ireland. He is currently the music director and conductor of the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra and has been the conductor at the Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival. Since 2012 Gleeson is also music director & conductor of the Rachmaninov Festival Orchestra. Since January 2016 Gleeson is Principal Guest Conductor or The Harbin Symphony Orchestra, Harbin, China. He also composes musical scores for film and television and of symphonic music for the concert hall.
Missy Mazzoli is an American composer and pianist who is a member of the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music. She has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral and operatic work. In 2018 she became one of the first two women to receive a commission from the Metropolitan Opera House. She is the founder and keyboardist for Victoire, an electro-acoustic band dedicated to performing her music. From 2012-2015 she was composer-in-residence at Opera Philadelphia, in collaboration with Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theater Group. Her music is published by G. Schirmer. Mazzoli received a 2015 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, a Fulbright Grant to the Netherlands, and in 2018 was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Composition. In 2018, Mazzoli was named for a two-season term as the Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Mazzoli was named the Bragg Artist-in-Residence at Mount Allison University beginning in 2022.
Allan Zavod was an Australian pianist, composer, jazz musician and occasional conductor whose career was mainly in America.
Arthur Post is an American conductor. He was music director of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and the San Juan Symphony.
Michael Alden Bayard is an American percussionist, drummer, composer, recording artist, music lecturer, and author. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music Pre-College Division and the Curtis Institute of Music who made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 16, Bayard has performed percussion and timpani under numerous conductors. As a percussion soloist, he served with the Sacramento Symphony as the principal percussionist for 17 years and has been featured with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Queens Symphony, Joffrey Ballet Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Reno Philharmonic, Stockton Symphony, and Santa Rosa Symphony. Bayard currently performs with Grammy award-winning Mary Youngblood.
Morris Goldenberg was an American percussionist, music teacher, and method book author. He wrote several books on orchestral snare drumming, mallet percussion, and timpani. He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.
