With performances described by The New York Times as “breathtakingly beautiful”, violinist Sean Lee is quickly gaining recognition as one of today’s most talented rising artists. His debut album, “The Juilliard Sessions: Sean Lee”, was released by EMI Classics in 2012 and reached the iTunes top 20 classical bestsellers list.

John Brancy is on the verge of an exciting and diverse performing career, and has been hailed by the New York Times as “a vibrant, resonate presence” and a “dashing, strong-voiced baritone”. In the 2014-2015 season, John Brancy’s debuts include: Opera San Antonio as the title role in Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox along with a gala appearance at the opening of San Antonio’s new Tobin Center; Edmonton Opera as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte; and Opera Lyra Ottawa as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. His numerous concert engagements include his debut with Musica Sacra in Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall, where he also performs a recital with pianist, Ken Noda later that season for “The Song Continues”. He makes his recital debut at the Kennedy Center with Vocal Arts DC, and reprises the same program with CAIC (Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago), and Société d’art vocal de Montréal in collaboration with pianist, Peter Dugan. He also returns this season to the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) performing at Merkin Hall with pianist, Steven Blier. Future seasons include a debut with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera Tour, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and a return to Carnegie Hall in recital as part of their “Evening of Song Series.” Last season Mr. Brancy made important debuts at Oper Frankfurt as Sonora in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, Gotham Chamber Opera in Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, and Pacific Opera Victoria as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos. Mr. Brancy’s concert and recital engagements for the year included performances with the Saskatoon and Regina Symphonies, San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Art Song Society, and Carnegie Hall’s Discovery Day Series. During the 2012-2013 season, Mr. Brancy made his professional debut with the Dresden Semperoper, singing the role of Fiorello in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, performed in a new production of John Adams’ I Was Looking at the Ceiling, and Then I Saw the Sky with Paris’ Theatre du Chatelet, and finished his graduate degree at The Juilliard School as Harasta in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen. Mr. Brancy closed the season performing the role of Papageno in Die Zauberflöte at the prestigious Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California where he was described by Opera News as having “impeccable timing, dynamic physicality and robust voice”. In that same summer, Mr. Brancy garnered the first prize in the 2013 Marilyn Horne Song Competition. While still an undergraduate student at The Juilliard School, Mr. Brancy made his Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall debuts as the Baritone soloist in Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and Schubert’s Mass in G. He was the winner of the 2010 Juilliard School Honors Recital Competition and in the following year made his Alice Tully Hall debut, with pianist, Brian Zeger. Mr. Brancy is a recent winner of the Sullivan Foundation Grand Prize and career grants, 1st Prize at the Classical Singer Magazine Competition, and the Gold Award for Voice at the YoungArts Foundation competition. He was a 2nd Place winner in the Gerda Lissner and Liederkranz competitions, and a laureate of the 2012 Montreal International Music Competition. For more information, click here to visit the artist’s website.

Pianist Peter Dugan has been praised by the Capital Gazette as “nothing short of superb” and by the Baltimore Sun as “spellbinding.” Prizing versatility as the key to the future of classical music, Mr. Dugan is equally at home in classical, pop, and jazz idioms. He has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States, including performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, and Philadelphia’s Academy of Music and Verizon Hall. He has also performed internationally in Canada, South America, the Cayman Islands, and across Europe, including a recital in 2013 with violinist Sean Lee at the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna. A sought-after crossover artist, Mr. Dugan recently joined violinist Itzhak Perlman to perform “I Cannot Hear The City” from The Sweet Smell of Success in a memorial concert for Marvin Hamlisch at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Following this performance, he was invited to perform his own solo arrangements of Hamlisch tunes in a tribute concert on Broadway at the historic Hudson Theater. Dugan’s collaboration with violinist Charles Yang has garnered critical acclaim across the United States. Yang and Dugan’s upcoming performances will include the Brauntex Performing Arts Theater in Texas, Joe’s Pub in New York City, and Juilliard’s “Dreams Come True” Gala, as well as a two-week residency at pianoSonoma, a music festival in California. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Dugan has studied under and collaborated with Donald Weilerstein, Paul Katz, and Itzhak Perlman, including a 2010 performance of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Mr. Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a member of the Tristan Piano Quartet for three years, Dugan performed across the country, including residencies in Palm Beach and Lake Wales, Florida, and recitals at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and New Jersey’s South Orange Performing Arts Center. Dugan is a frequent performer of new music. He has appeared for two consecutive years at Juilliard’s Focus Festival and, in 2013, joined the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) for a residency at Dartmouth College, workshopping a new opera by Phil Kline and Jim Jarmusch. Peter performs regularly in hospitals, nursing homes, and community centers throughout New York City. He advocates the importance of music in the community and at all levels of society. As a founding creator and the pianist for OPERAtion Superpower, a superhero opera for children, Peter has traveled to dozens of schools in the greater New York area, performing for students in public and private schools and encouraging them to use their talents – their superpowers – for good. Peter was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA where he studied under Aida Epstein and Harvey Wedeen. In 2011, he received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School and was awarded the John Erskine Commencement Prize for outstanding artistic and academic achievement. A Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar, Peter will receive a Master of Music degree from Juilliard this May. He studies under Matti Raekallio and holds teaching fellowships in Music Theory and English. In his spare time, Peter enjoys painting, cooking, composing, and writing. For more information, click here to visit the artist’s website.