SARAH-YAKIR HADLEY
VIOLIN
Sarah-Hadley Yakir will join the Pioneer Valley Symphony on October 5, 2019 performing Sibelius’ Violin Concerto.
“A deeply musical, passionate and exceptional talent” Sarah-Hadley Yakir, delivers powerful performances with a “beauty of sound, musicality and intonation.” Brooklyn Press
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“Yakir is wise beyond her years” String Magazine.
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Sarah-Hadley Yakir is a deeply sensitive and sincere musician. Dedicated to bringing an authentic and committed performance to audiences around the world, She has performed in more than 20 countries and her music has been broadcast on U.S., Canadian, Swedish, Swiss, Polish, German and Belgian television and radio.
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Yakir attended New York’s Special Music School for musically gifted children and did her pre-college studies in Europe with world renowned pedagogue, Zakar Bron. She now attends New England Conservatory where her principal teachers are Donald Weilerstein and Soovin Kim.
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Sarah-Hadley performs on a 1722 Alessandro Mezzadri violin.
NOAH HORN
ORGAN
Noah Horn will join the Pioneer Valley Symphony on November 3, 219 performing Britten's Rejoice the Lamb and organ interludes.
As the conductor of choirs praised as "superb" (The New York Times), "well-prepared and joyful" (Detroit Free Press), and "excellent" (Opera News), Dr. Noah Horn presently serves as chorus master for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, artistic director and founder of the professional vocal ensemble Audivi, and in 2019-20 will teach at Oberlin College as interim Director of Vocal Ensembles. With Audivi he has conducted historically-informed landmark performances of Bach's Mass in B minor and Monteverdi's Vespers, as well as premiering dozens of new compositions and launching several tours around the US. He has worked with ensembles in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Turkey, Greece, Canada, and the Philippines.
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For several years, Dr. Horn served as director of choral activities at Wayne State University, where he directed three choirs and led the graduate program in choral conducting. Also a passionate orchestral conductor, he has served as interim director of orchestral activities at Wesleyan University and worked with orchestras around the country. Other teaching assignments have included posts at Western Michigan University, Yale University, and University of Michigan. His former graduate students hold choral artistic director positions across the country.
As a tenor specializing in oratorio, Dr. Horn has sung solo roles in much of the standard repertoire from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras. As a choral tenor, he regularly sings with Grammy award-winning professional ensembles across the country, such as Conspirare (Austin, TX). An avid organist, Dr. Horn has given recitals in several countries, and has served as music director at a number of churches. Recently he won several competitive national prizes from the American Guild of Organists. Dr. Horn also works freelance as a pianist, harpsichordist, and composer. He appears in numerous commercial recordings, including five albums released on Naxos Records.
Dr. Horn holds the D.M.A., M.M.A., and M.M. degrees from Yale University in choral conducting, and the M.M. and B.Mus. degrees from Yale and Oberlin College in organ performance. He lives in western Massachusetts.
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JIAYAN SUN
PIANO
Jiayan Sun will join the Pioneer Valley Symphony on November 16, 2019 performing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto
Praised by the New York Times for his “revelatory” performances, and by the Toronto Star for his “technically flawless, poetically inspired and immensely assured playing,” pianist Jiayan Sun has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Chinese and RTÉ (Ireland) National Symphony Orchestras, the Fort Worth and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, the Toronto and Aspen Concert Orchestras, and he has conducted from the keyboard the Meiningen Court Orchestra. His performances have been broadcast by the BBC, the RTÉ, China Central Television, and classical music radio stations in North America. Under the mentorship of Sir András Schiff, he was invited to give a number of solo recitals in Europe as part of Schiff’s “Building Bridges” project for the 2017–2018 season.
Mr. Sun has been awarded prizes at many of the major international piano competitions, including the Leeds, the Dublin, and the Cleveland, in addition to the first prize at the inaugural CCC Toronto International Piano Competition. Playing early keyboard instruments and studying historical performance practice have played a significant role in Mr. Sun's musical activities, with critically acclaimed appearances with the American Classical Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall.
Hailing from Yantai, China, he received Bachelor's, Master's and the Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Stephen Hough. His other mentors include pianists Malcolm Bilson, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, and harpsichordist Lionel Party. His devotion to the art of composition led him to study with the composer Philip Lasser. As the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College, he presented Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas in chronological order in the 2018–2019 season. In the current season, he presents the project “Schubertiade” in a series of eight recitals at Smith College, exploring Schubert’s major piano, chamber, and vocal works.
For more information, please visit jiayansunpianist.com.
EMILY JENSEN
SOPRANO
Emily Jensen, will join the Pioneer Valley Symphony on May 2, 2020 performing Poulenc Gloria and Dvorak Te Deum.
This season, Ms. Jensen makes her role debut as Suor Angelica at the Indiana University Opera Theatre. Last season, Ms. Jensen returned to the Boston Opera Collaborative to make her second role debut with the company as Donna Anna in their production of Don Giovanni. and appeared as a guest artist in concert at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts. She was recently selected as a finalist for the 2018 McCammon Voice Competition in Fort Worth, Texas.
In 2017, Ms. Jensen joined Sarasota Opera as an Apprentice Artist, and was previously a Studio Artist with Chautauqua Opera, where, in 2016, sang the role of 2nd Soprano in Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar and covered Annina in La Traviata with Maestro Steven Osgood. She returned the following season to cover the role of Soprano 2 in Hydrogen Jukebox.
Previous roles include Blanche (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Foreign Woman (The Consul), Suzel (L’amico Fritz), Governess (The Turn of the Screw), and Tiny (Paul Bunyan). Other engagements included selections as Ilia (Idomeneo), Mimi (La Bohème), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Zdenka (Arabella), Alma (Summer and Smoke), and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte).
Originally from San Diego, California, Ms. Jensen received a Graduate Diploma & Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance a the Eastman School of Music. Ms. Jensen is currently pursuing a Performance Diploma at Indiana University as an Associate Instructor scholarship recipient, and studies with Timothy Noble.
Next season Ms. Jensen joins the Florentine Opera Company’s Resident Artist program.
MADISON HATTEN
SOPRANO
Madison Hatten will join the Pioneer Valley Symphony on February 15, 2020 performing Ravel's Sheherazade
Soprano Madison Hatten, a California native, began her classical training and career in 2012. Ms. Hatten’s 2018/19 engagements included a debut with Boston Opera Collaborative as Donna Elvira in Don GIovanni and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tuttè with Boston Conservatory Opera. She enjoyed performing as a young artist with Janiec Opera Company the summer of 2017, debuting her role of Le Nozze di Figaro’s Countess Almaviva and Street Scene’s Anna Maurrant (cover) by Kurt Weill. Her performance experience also includes the highlight roles of Frau Fluth in Nicolai’s Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Michaela from Bizet’s Carmen with Center Stage Opera, and the title role of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta (cover) with Russian Opera Workshop in Philadelphia. Ms. Hatten will return this March to Boston Opera Collaborative’s “Opera Bites” in a short opera debut: Hamlet Inc. by Jonathan Shin, again under the baton of Maestro Tianhui Ng. Madison earned her Master in Opera Performance from Boston Conservatory at Berklee and continues her vocal studies with Rebecca Folsom.