Hila Plitmann
A glittering jewel on the international music scene, Grammy Award-winning soprano Hila Plitmann is known worldwide for her astonishing musicianship, light and beautiful voice, and the ability to perform challenging new works. She has been described by The New York Times as possessing a “radiant sound, even during passages of sky-high vocal writing.” Plitmann regularly premieres works by today’s leading composers while maintaining a vibrant and extraordinarily diverse professional life in film music, musical theater, and song writing. Described as a performer with “tremendous vocal and physical grace,” and “a vocal instrument that is simply unreal in its beauty,” Plitmann has appeared as a headliner with numerous ensembles in the U.S. and abroad, such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and she has worked with many of today’s leading conductors, including Leonard Slatkin, Kurt Masur, Robert Spano, Marin Alsop, Esa Pekka Salonen, Andrew Litton, Giancarlo Guerrero, Steven Sloane, and Carl St. Clair.

In constant demand as a singer of new and contemporary music, Plitmann has been involved in a great many world premieres, including Paul Revere’s Ride with the Atlanta Symphony, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici; Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of the composer; Mr. Tambourine Man written by Oscar and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano with the Minnesota Orchestra; the world premiere of Gerard Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Two Awakenings and a Double Lullaby, a song cycle written for her by Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Jay Kernis; Richard Danielpour’s Towards a Season of Peace with Pacific Symphony; and Frank Zappa’s orchestral staged version of 200 Motels with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

When originating the role of Exstasis in Eric Whitacre’s groundbreaking electro-musical Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings at the Boston Court Theatre in Pasadena, Plitmann sang, acted, danced, and fought in long martial arts battles nightly for a seven-week sold-out run, a tour-de-force performance that prompted Backstage West to call her “brilliant, eliciting strong empathy and singing gorgeously,” and Theatre Mania to declare she “fights like a warrior and sings like the angel she portrays.” For her work in the show she received nominations for Best Actress in a Musical from the Los Angeles Ovation Awards and The L.A. Ticketholder Awards.

Other notable performances include Philip Glass’ The Civil Wars with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Grant Gershon conducting); Thomas Adès’ The Tempest Suite with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Adès conducting); David Del Tredici’s Final Alice with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra (all conducted by Leonard Slatkin). Other collaborations include performances of Salonen’s Sappho Songs with the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra (Salonen conducting); selections by Bernstein and Golijov with the Seattle Symphony (Joana Carneiro conducting); Paola Prestini’s Oceanic Verses with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Singers at the Barbican Centre; a selection of Barbara Streisand songs with the Hamburg Symphony (Stuart Barr conducting), the New York premiere of Eric Whitacre’s Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings at Carnegie Hall; a recording of Xiaoyang Ye’s Symphony No. 3, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (José Serebrier conducting); George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center (composer conducting); the world premiere of Mark Adamo’s opera Becoming Santa Claus with the Dallas Opera; Michael Daugherty’s Labyrinth of Love with the University of Michigan symphonic band, and the world premiere of Paola Prestini’s opera Gilgamesh in Boston, as part of the Ouroboros Trilogy Opera Project.

Plitmann has accumulated an impressive catalogue of professional recordings, appearing on the Decca, Telarc, Naxos, Signum, CRI, Reference Recordings, and Disney labels. Some of her latest discography encompasses Richard Danielpour’s Toward A Season of Peace (Pacific Symphony) and John Corigliano’s Conjurer/Vocalise (Albany Symphony), both released to critical acclaim on Naxos; The Ancient Question…A Journey Through Jewish Songs was released to critical acclaim in December 2012 (Signum Classics); both David Del Tredici’s Paul Revere’s Ride (Telarc), and Hans Zimmer’s The Da Vinci Code (Decca) received Grammy nominations, and in 2009 Plitmann won the Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Performance for her work on the Naxos recording of Corigliano’s song cycle Mr. Tambourine Man with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Plitmann can also be heard on the soundtrack of the film New York, I Love You, singing a song written by composer Paul Cantelon.

Born and raised in Jerusalem, Plitmann received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, with high honors, from The Juilliard School of Music, and has been awarded the coveted Sony ES Prize for her outstanding contribution to the vocal arts. She also has a Black Belt in Taekwondo.

David Shifrin
One of only two wind players to have been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize since the award's inception in 1974, Mr. Shifrin is in constant demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator.

Mr. Shifrin has appeared with the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras and the Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee, Detroit and Denver symphonies among many others in the US, and internationally with orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. In addition, he has served as principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra (under Stokowski), the Honolulu and Dallas symphonies and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and New York Chamber Symphony. Mr. Shifrin has also received critical acclaim as a recitalist, appearing at such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York City as well as the the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. A sought after a chamber musician, he collaborates frequently with such distinguished ensembles and artists as the Guarneri, Tokyo, and Emerson String Quartets, Wynton Marsalis, and pianists Emanuel Ax and André Watts.

An artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1989, David Shifrin served as its artistic director from 1992 to 2004. He has toured extensively throughout the US with CMSLC and appeared in several national television broadcasts on Live From Lincoln Center. He has also been the artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon since 1981.

David Shifrin joined the faculty at the Yale School of Music in 1987 and was appointed Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Yale and Yale's annual concert series at Carnegie Hall in September 2008. He has also served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, University of Southern California, University of Michigan, Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Hawaii. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary professorship at China's Central Conservatory in Beijing.

Mr. Shifrin's recordings on Delos, DGG, Angel/EMI, Arabesque, BMG, SONY, and CRI have consistently garnered praise and awards. He has received three Grammy nominations - for a collaborative recording with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center of the collected chamber music of Claude Debussy (Delos), the Copland Clarinet Concerto (Angel/EMI) and Ravel's Introduction and Allegro with Nancy Allen, Ransom Wilson, and the Tokyo String Quartet (Angel/EMI).

His recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, performed in its original version on a specially built basset clarinet, was named Record of the Year by Stereo Review.

His latest recording, Shifrin Plays Schifrin (Aleph Records), is a collection of clarinet works by composer/conductor Lalo Schifrin. Both the recording of the Copland Clarinet Concerto and a 2008 recording of Leonard Bernstein's Clarinet Sonata with pianist Anne-Marie McDermott have been released on iTunes via Angel/EMI and Deutsche Grammophon.

Mr. Shifrin continues to broaden the repertoire for clarinet and orchestra by commissioning and championing the works of 20th and 21st century American composers including, among others, John Adams, Joan Tower, Stephen Albert, Bruce Adolphe, Ezra Laderman, Lalo Schifrin, David Schiff, John Corigliano, Bright Sheng and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

In addition to the Avery Fisher Prize, David Shifrin is the recipient of a Solo Recitalists' Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the 1998 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Music Academy of the West. At the outset of his career, he won the top prize at both the Munich and the Geneva International Competitions. Mr. Shifrin resides in Connecticut with his wife and is the father of four children - Henry, Olivia, Sam and William.