8:00 – 10:00 am

Directions from Marriott to Cathedral of the Holy Cross

20 minutes

As you exit Marriott Hotel, turn RIGHT on Huntington Av.  Turn RIGHT on Dartmouth St.  You will cross over Tremont St.  Dartmouth St. becomes West Dedham St.  Continue walking straight on West Dedham St.  Turn LEFT on Washington St. to Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

Rafael Popper-Keizer

Hailed by The New York Times as “imaginative and eloquent” and dubbed “a local hero” by The Boston Globe, cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer maintains a vibrant and diverse career as one of Boston’s most sought-after artists. He is principal cellist of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a member artist of Emmanuel Music, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Winsor Music, the Ibis Camerata, and Monadnock Music. Praised by The Boston Globe for his “melodic phrasing of melting tenderness” and “dazzling dispatch of every bravura challenge,” Mr. Popper-Keizer has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States. In recent seasons he has performed the Saint-Saëns Concerto in A minor, with the Boston Philharmonic; the Beethoven Triple Concerto, with the Indian Hill Symphony; and the Dvorak Concerto, with the University of Santa Cruz Orchestra.

In April of 2009, Mr. Popper-Keizer was the subject of an in-depth profile in The Boston Globe in which he was recognized as one of the area’s busiest and most versatile musicians, his career routinely encompassing everything from continuo in 17th-century motets to solo recitals to avant-garde improvisation to indie rock. He has collaborated with members of the Borromeo and Muir String Quartets, the Museum of Fine Arts Trio, violinist Curtis Macomber, and flutist Eugenia Zuckerman, and has toured extensively with the CORE Ensemble, a nationally acclaimed percussion trio with over twenty commissions to its name.

Mr. Popper-Keizer has made guest appearances with innumerable ensembles throughout New England, including the Fromm Chamber Players, Boston Musica Viva, the Boston Trio, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Walden Chamber Players, Firebird Ensemble, and John Harbison’s Token Creek Festival, among others.

Mr. Popper-Keizer has been featured on over a dozen recordings, with five new releases in 2010 alone.

Rafael Popper-Keizer is an alumnus of the New England Conservatory, where he studied intensively with Laurence Lesser, and of the Tanglewood Music Center, where he served as Yo-Yo Ma’s understudy for Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. He also studied with Stephen Harrison, at Stanford University, and Karen Andrie, at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Noriko Futagami Herndon

  Noriko Futagami Herndon, violist, enjoys a distinguished career as a versatile and prolific soloist, orchestral and chamber musician.  She is Principal Violist for the Albany Symphony, an ensemble known for its with numerous world premier performances and recordings, and also a recipient of a 2013 Grammy Award.  She plays with their Dogs of Desire contemporary ensemble, as well as the New Jersey Symphony.  Now living in the Greater Boston area, she is the Assistant Principal Violist for the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Her dynamic virtuosity, combined with a passion for new music, has led to frequent performances with the Boston Ballet Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Musica Viva, Emmanuel Music, Cantata Singers, Odyssey Opera, Monadnock Music Festival and the Winsor Music Chamber Series. This year, she became a member of both the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Radius Ensemble, adding to her growing presence on the Greater Boston musical scene.

Born in Chiba, Japan, she received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, with post-graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  In 1994, she won first prize from the Geraldine B. Gee International Viola Competition.  She has also won concerto competitions for both the Aspen Music Festival and the University of Cincinnati.  A finalist for the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 1996, as well as a scholarship winner for the Japanese American Society of New York (1999), her teachers have included Masao Kawasaki, Catherine Carroll, Yuki Hyakutake, JunjiSuganuma, Toshiyuki Uzuka.

Gabriel Boyers

  Gabriel Boyers, violinist, has been praised for his “rock steady finger and bow technique” by New Music Connoisseur Magazine and has been described by The Boston Phoenix as an “elegant, accomplished player” and as one of “the most talented young string players in town.” As recitalist and chamber musician, Gabriel has been heard at numerous festivals and halls, including at the SandorVegh Institute in Prague, the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, Vail Valley Bravo Music Festival , the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, and Boston’s Jordan Hall. Gabriel has participated in many world-premiere performances, including as concertmaster for the 2005 Carnegie Hall premiere of “Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra” with DJ Radar, as well as the 2006 premiere of “For Lou” by John Luther Adams, which he also recorded for New World Records.  In 2007, Boyers was a resident artist at the “AtlanticCenter for the Arts” in Florida, where he worked with composer Lee Hyla to develop “Cadenza,” a work for solo violin based on portions of composer’s Violin Concerto.  In 2010, with pianist Keith Kirchoff, Boyers gave the world premiere of Leo Ornstein’s 3rd Sonata for Violin and Piano, a newly discovered work approximately 90 years old, which he will record this year as part of a survey of Ornstein’s complete works for violin and piano. Beginning in the fall of 2013 he will perform as a member of the newly formed Simrock String Quartet, with Gabriela Diaz, Stephanie Fong and Rafi Popper-Keizer.  Boyers holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from TuftsUniversity and New England Conservatory, where he was a student of MasukoUshioda and James Buswell.  In addition to his performing activities, Boyers is owner of Schubertiade Music & Arts (www.schubertiademusic.com) and deals in rare Musical Autographs, Antiquarian Music, Music Books, Art and Photographs of Musical Interest, and of Rare Musical Ephemera.

Gabriela Diaz

Georgia native Gabriela Diaz began her musical training at the age of five, studying piano with her mother, and the next year, violin with her father. Shortly before her sixteenth birthday, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, a type of lymphatic cancer. As a cancer survivor, Gabriela is committed to cancer research and treatment. In 2004 Gabriela was a recipient of a grant from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation. This grant enabled Gabriela to begin organizing a series of chamber music concerts in cancer units at various hospitals in Boston called the Boston Hope Ensemble. Gabriela holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from New England Conservatory, where she was a student of James Buswell. Devoted to contemporary music, Gabriela has been fortunate to work closely with many significant living composers on their own compositions, namely Pierre Boulez, Magnus Lindberg, Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Lucier, Steve Reich, Brian Ferneyhough, John Zorn, Roger Reynolds, Lee Hyla, and Helmut Lachenmann. Gabriela is actively involved in contemporary music in Boston, and is a member of the Callithumpian Consort, Firebird, Ludovico, Dinosaur Annex and Sound Icon Ensembles. You can hear Gabriela on Mode, Centaur, New World, BMOP Sound, and Tzadik records.

Cheryl Ryder

 Cheryl Ryder has worked with Canto Armonico since 2003, after serving for thirty-two years at The Church of the Advent in Boston as singer, editor of many motets, and substitute conductor and organist. A graduate of Wellesley College and Harvard and Boston universities, she is co-founder of Boston’s Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, and has been a frequent visitor to Leipzig since the Bach-Year 1985.

Ulf Wellner

Ulf Wellner holds degrees in church music from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, and in historical musicology for his doctoral dissertation on the title prints of Michael Praetorius’ publications. Acting music director of Leipzig University 2004-2005 and Kantor of St. Jakobi in Lübeck 2009-2013, he is now Kantor of St. Martini in Minden.

Canto Armonico

Canto Armonico, founded in 2000 for graduate students at Harvard University, now contains young professional choral singers alongside graduate and undergraduate students from the many universities and conservatories in the Boston area.

Bálint Karosi

  Bálint Karosi is an award-winning concert organist, composer, and recording artist. He has won first prizes at international organ competitions, including the J.S. Bach Competition in Leipzig, the Dublin International Organ Competition, and the Improvisation Competition of the University of Michigan. He has performed in Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and in many of the United States. As a composer, he received the 2014 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His works have been performed by the Yale Philharmonia Orchestra, the Miskolc Symphony Orchestra, at the Norfolk Festival, and at the National Concert Hall in Budapest A devoted teacher of tonal theory, counterpoint, and improvisation, Karosi has worked at the Yale Department of Music and has been on the faculties at Boston University and UMass Boston. His most recent CD recording, of the Clavier-Übung III, was released by Hungaroton in 2014.