ELAINE DAIBER, soprano

Boston-based soprano, Elaine Daiber, has been heralded for her “spectacular vocalism”, which has garnered much acclaim on the operatic, concert, and recital stages. Elaine looks forward to engagements with Cambridge’s Coro-Dante as the soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria, as the soprano soloist with The New England Symphony in a concert of works by J.S. Bach, and in recital with JJ Penna in a performance of Messiaen’s rarely heard Harawi. Most recently, Elaine was at The Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival where she appeared in recital with famed pianist Gil Kalish, and also performed works by György Ligeti, Earl Kim, Claude Vivier, and György Kurtág. Last season, Elaine participated in a concert of Bach arias and duets with Emmanuel Music, a production of Poulenc’s La voix humaine in Boston’s Jordan Hall and in a concert of new works by women composers with NYFOS Next. Previous seasons have included a role debut as Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo in Boston’s Jordan Hall, and recital appearances as a Schwab Vocal Rising Star with the New York Festival of Song, as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Magnificat with Counterpoint Concerts, in the US premiere of Helen Grime’s Bright Travellers. Other engagements have seen the versatile soprano in a variety of performances with The Tanglewood Music Center, The Bard Music Festival, The New York Festival of Song, The Orchestra Now and the Albany Symphony, among others. Elaine holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, Bard College, and New England Conservatory.

More information about Elaine can be found at www.elainedaiber.com

THOMAS WEST, baritone

Thomas West is an American baritone and citizen-artist whose rich, expressive voice and thoughtful interpretations have brought him to stages across North America and Europe. Hailed for both his artistic and civic leadership, he was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts by President Barack Obama in 2014 and is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he was a Career Advancement Fellow and studied under Sanford Sylvan and Marlena Malas.

West’s previous engagements include Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles at the Rome Chamber Music Festival, Brahms’ Vier Ernste Gesänge with the Kennett Symphony, and appearances with Caramoor, Tanglewood, the Mississippi Symphony, and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. Operatic highlights include covering Silvio in Pagliacci (Opera San José), Morales in Carmen (Chattanooga Symphony & Opera), and Bill in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place (Tanglewood Music Center). West has also performed extensively with the New York Festival of Song, with Music on Norway Pond, Cantori New York, and gave the world premiere of Wayne Oquin’s Meditation at Alice Tully Hall. His competition accolades include winning the Kennett Symphony Vocal Competition and being named a finalist in both the James Toland Vocal Arts and Joy in Singing competitions.

In addition to his singing career, West is an experienced nonprofit leader, having previously served as the founding Executive Director of The Peace Studio, an organization developing artists and journalists seeking to inspire hope and bridge divides. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Buller Family Foundation. He also consults to small nonprofits on fundraising, strategic planning, and board building, with past clients including The Conversationalist, the U.S. Presidential Scholars Foundation, and Columbia University’s ERA Project at the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, West began his musical journey at age nine with the Atlanta Boy Choir, touring internationally in the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Austria, and Germany, and performing alongside artists like Josh Groban and Elizabeth Futral. He now lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts with his wife, soprano Elaine Daiber. Together, they have served as co-music directors at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Milton, MA, and remain active in the musical life of their community.

SOPHIA STOYANOVICH, violin

Hailed as "spectacular" (Bernard Jacobson, Seattle Times) and an artist commanding "superb musical instincts, a lustrous tone, and exemplary technique" (Huntley Dent, Fanfare) American violinist Sophia Stoyanovich has captivated audiences since her 2010 debut with the Seattle Symphony, and performs internationally today in solo, collaborative, and orchestral roles.

As recitalist, Ms. Stoyanovich has appeared in concerts across the United States. Winner of the New York International Artists Association First Prize, she made her solo recital debut in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in January of 2023. Recent recital highlights include performances for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, The Chicago Musicians Club of Women, Great Music LA, the Crocker Art Museum Classical Concerts, Encinitas Music by the Sea, and Project: Music Heals Us. Next season she will tour to the UK with recitals in Manchester, London, and Edinburgh.

Ms. Stoyanovich has distinguished herself with her leadership and sensitivity as a chamber musician. In December of 2024, she was joined by pianist Derek Wang and conductor Tengku Irfan to perform Alban Berg’s Chamber Concerto for Violin and Piano with 13 winds at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York. As a Fellowship Artist at La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, she has collaborated with artists including Carter Brey, James Ehnes, Alexi Kenney, Anthony McGill, Tessa Lark, Cynthia Phelps, and Masumi Per Rostad. In Europe, Ms. Stoyanovich has performed as a guest artist of the Rome Chamber Music Festival at the Teatro Argentina in Italy, and with members of the Berlin Philharmonic at the Zermatt Music Festival in Switzerland. Additional chamber appearances include performances at the Four Seasons, Olympic, Norfolk, Sarasota, and Aspen Music Festivals.

An active orchestral musician, Ms. Stoyanovich has performed under the baton of John Adams, Thomas Adès, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Vladimir Jurowski, Susanna Mälkki, Kurt Masur, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Jaap van Zweden. For the 2024-2025 season, Ms. Stoyanovich performed as a member of the first violin section with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in Germany. Previously, she has toured with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, Germany, and Denmark, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra in Germany, the Versoi Ensemble in Finland and the US, the Juilliard Orchestra in Finland and Sweden, and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States throughout the US, UK, and Russia.

In June of 2024, Ms. Stoyanovich released her debut album with Bridge Records, Rue Paradis: Chamber Works by Patrick Stoyanovich. Praised as a recording of "extraordinary communication" (Fanfare Magazine), Ms. Stoyanovich was joined by cellist Aaron Wolff and pianist Derek Wang to record chamber music by American-Serbian composer, Patrick Stoyanovich.

Born to a family of artists, Ms. Stoyanovich grew up on Bainbridge Island, WA. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School as a recipient of the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship and the Dr. & Kassie Biros Neuman Scholarship. Ms. Stoyanovich is currently based in New York City and is a doctoral candidate at The Graduate Center under the mentorship of Mark Steinberg.

More information on Sophia can be found at www.sophiastoyanovich.com

DEREK WANG, piano

With virtuosity and “enviable idiomatic rigor” (The Wall Street Journal) at the service of “pure poetry” (Seen and Heard International), pianist Derek Wang is drawing increasing acclaim in the roles of soloist, collaborator, curator, and communicator.

Derek first came to international attention with his performances of Liszt, receiving awards at the 12th Liszt Utrecht Competition in the Netherlands in 2022 (Second Prize) and at the inaugural New York Liszt Competition in 2021 (First Prize). Derek is a returning guest artist at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, at the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy, and at the Vail Dance Festival in Colorado. He is also a recital partner to violinist Robert McDuffie; the pair make regular appearances in Rome and at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. A proponent of the music of our time, Derek held a three-summer-long fellowship position as pianist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival under conductors Donald Crockett and Timothy Weiss, performing a total of over fifty works of the 20th and 21st centuries including premieres of works by the festival’s composition fellows.

In 2025, he began a role as Creative Enterprise Fellow at Juilliard, curating a range of programs including sesquicentennial celebrations of composer Charles Ives and poet Rainer Maria Rilke, an interdisciplinary pairing of ecological texts with George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae (Voice of the Whale), and an all-Philip Glass marathon concert on the composer’s 88th birthday.

Derek is widely praised for his ability to speak about music to audiences of all kinds and in formats ranging from traditional pre-concert talks to podcasts and other digital media. In 2023, he served as guest host for WQXR New York’s Young Artists Showcase. Previously, Derek appeared on NPR’s Tiny Desk video series for a special episode of From the Top, emceeing, interviewing, and performing with young instrumental soloists. In 2020, Derek partnered with violinist Sophia Stoyanovich to produce American Stories, a series of podcast episodes that examine and celebrate American identity through music, featuring guests including a nurse on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, an adventuresome family of five living in an RV, a poet and founder of a Black artists’ community center, and a long-haul truck driver.

Derek holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard, where he was the recipient of a Kovner Fellowship and the Joseph W. Polisi Prize for exemplifying the values of the artist as citizen. In 2024, he received an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music. His principal teachers have included Stephen Hough, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Matti Raekallio, and Boris Slutsky. He continues his studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, Germany in the studio of Arie Vardi.

For more information on Derek can be found at www.derek-wang.com