Hailed as “fearless, bold, and a life-force” (San Diego Union-Tribune) and “a brilliant and commanding conductor with unmistakable charisma” (Leipzig Volkszeitung), Ken-David Masur is celebrating his eighth season as Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony’s Civic Orchestra, his first summer as Artistic Partner with the Oregon Bach Festival, and recently concluded his tenure as Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony.

Season highlights of Masur’s 2026–27 Season include a return engagement with the Nashville Symphony as well as debuts with the Houston Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Charlottesville Symphony, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, and Symphony San Jose, in addition to his weeks with the Chicago Symphony Civic Orchestra. In January 2027, Masur embarks on a tour with renowned violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter leading the Tokyo Philharmonic and the China National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra in Beijing, and later in the season leads the Dresden Philharmonic with baritone Thomas Hampson.

Masur has conducted orchestras around the world including Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, l’Orchestre National de France, Kristiansand Symphony, NFM Wrocław Philharmonic in Poland, and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. He makes regular festival appearances at Ravinia, Tanglewood, Hollywood Bowl, Verbier, Pacific Music Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Born and raised in Leipzig, Germany, Masur was trained at the Mendelssohn Academy in Leipzig, the Gewandhaus Children‘s Choir, the Detmold Academy, and the Hanns Eisler Conservatory in Berlin. While an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York, Masur became the first music director of the Bach Society Orchestra and Chorus with which he toured to Germany and recorded the music of J.S. Bach and his sons.

Anthony J. Maglione is an American conductor, composer, producer, and tenor whose career reflects a deep commitment to artistic excellence, collaboration, and innovation in the choral arts. In addition to his work with the Houston Symphony Chorus, he serves as Director of Choral Studies at the University of Houston and Artistic Director of Cardinalis, a professional choir based in Kansas City. A graduate of Westminster Choir College of Rider University, East Carolina University, and the University of California, Los Angeles, Maglione has established a national reputation as a versatile musician and advocate for compelling contemporary choral music.

As a conductor, Maglione has prepared choirs for performances with artists and ensembles including Joyce DiDonato, The King’s Singers, The Canadian Brass, Boston Camerata, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. A sought-after clinician and guest conductor, Maglione has led honor choirs nationwide and served on the summer faculty at Westminster Choir College from 2008 to 2024.

A regularly commissioned and published composer, Maglione’s compositions have been performed at state, regional, and national conventions and appear on recordings released by Albany, Centaur, GIA Choral Works, and Gothic Records, as well as in television and video games. Maglione is also active as a producer, gaining national attention for his role in Verdigris ensemble’s recording of Betty’s Notebook by Nicholas Reeves, a groundbreaking programmable art music project. As a tenor, he has performed with ensembles including Capella Romana, Spire Chamber Ensemble, and the Grammy-nominated St. Tikhon Choir.

The Houston Symphony Chorus is the official choral unit of the Houston Symphony and consists of highly skilled and talented volunteer singers. Over the years, members of this historic ensemble have learned and performed the world’s great choral orchestral masterworks under the batons of Juraj Valčuha, Andrés Orozco Estrada, Hans Graf, Christoph Eschenbach, Robert Shaw, and Helmuth Rilling, among many others.

In addition, the Chorus enjoys participating in the Houston Symphony’s popular programming under the batons of conductors such as Steven Reineke and Michael Krajewski. Recently, the ensemble sang the closing subscription concerts with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic. Singers are selected for specific programs for which they have indicated interest. A singer might choose to perform in all 45 concerts, as was the case in a recent season, or might elect to participate in a single series. The Houston Symphony Chorus holds auditions by appointment and welcomes inquiries from interested singers.

A native of Bolivar, New York, American soprano Joélle Harvey has built a reputation as one of the finest singers of her generation, performing major roles on the world’s opera and concert stages.

Harvey’s 2026–27 season includes returns to the Handel & Haydn Society (Handel’s L’Allegro), Music of the Baroque (Bach’s B Minor Mass), Philadelphia Orchestra and Houston Symphony (Handel’s Messiah), New York Philharmonic (Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), National Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate with Bernard Labadie), and San Francisco Symphony (Haydn’s Creation). With The Cleveland Orchestra, she sings a performance of Creation celebrating the conclusion of Franz Welser-Möst’s tenure as Music Director.

Season debuts include the Pittsburgh Symphony (Carmina Burana) and Baltimore Symphony (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony). Harvey also tours the United States with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, for performances of Handel’s Alessandro.

The 2025–26 season featured debuts at the Bayerische Staatsoper and Washington National Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro; Pamina in Santa Fe Opera’s new Christopher Luscombe production of The Magic Flute, conducted by Harry Bicket; and a reprisal of Pamina with The Metropolitan Opera, in their holiday presentation. She performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with The Cleveland Orchestra (Franz Welser-Möst), Mahler’s Fourth Symphony in her Philadelphia Orchestra debut (Dalia Stasevska), Bach’s Easter Oratorio and Magnificat with the San Francisco Symphony (Bernard Labadie), and Bach Cantatas with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Chinese-American mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce, Third Prize Winner of the 2024 Operalia competition, is rapidly establishing herself as a versatile and dynamic artist in both traditional and contemporary repertoire.

Sun-Ly’s 2026–27 Season begins with her return to Houston Grand Opera for Faust(Siebel) and Boston Lyric Opera for Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino). Other highlights of the season include Handel’s Messiah with Boston Baroque and the Houston Symphony, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with The Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C minor on tour with Les Musiciens du Louvre.

She also returns to the stage at Carnegie Hall for a solo recital presented by the Music Academy of the West. Sun-Ly concludes the season at The Santa Fe Opera in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina). Future engagements include leading roles at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Houston Grand Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera.

Last season, Sun-Ly returned to The Metropolitan Opera for the world premiere of Mason Bates’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (Rosa Saks) conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and directed by Bartlett Sher. Other highlights of the season included debuts at LA Opera for Akhnaten (Nefertiti), Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Théâtre de Caen for La Calisto (Diana), Semperoper Dresden and The Santa Fe Opera for Madama Butterfly(Suzuki), and Madison Opera for Così fan tutte (Dorabella).

Sun-Ly’s 2024–25 season included returns to notable theaters including The Metropolitan Opera in Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino), Opera Philadelphia in L’amant anonyme (Dorothée), and Des Moines Metro Opera in The Cunning Little Vixen (Fox).

She has won top prizes in the Marilyn Horne Song Competition, Dallas Opera National Vocal Competition, and Butler Opera International Voice Competition. A native of Clinton, New York, she holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Nicholas Phan is a Grammy Award-winning lyric tenor, curator, and educator celebrated for his expressive artistry and versatility across a wide-ranging repertoire spanning nearly 500 years. Described by The Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” he has earned international recognition for his captivating stage presence, keen intelligence, and natural musicianship.

In 2010, he co-founded Art Song Chicago, where he serves as artistic director, to promote art song and vocal chamber music.

Phan won the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for his recording of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony. His album A Change Is Gonna Come was nominated for the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

His previous albums, Stranger: Works for Tenor by Nico Muhly, Clairières, and Gods and Monsters, were nominated for the same award in 2023, 2020, and 2017 — making him the first singer of Asian descent ever nominated in the category, which the Recording Academy has awarded since 1959.

As a performer, Nicholas Phan appears regularly with the world’s leading orchestras, pre-eminent opera houses, and premier recital platforms across multiple continents. Recent highlights include the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Wigmore Hall, and Carnegie Hall.

As a curator and programmer, Phan is the host and creator of BACH 52, a web series examining the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and has developed projects with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Wigmore Hall, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, San Francisco Opera Center, and Kaufman Music Center, where he was Artist-in-Residence during the 2023–24 Season. He was also Vocal Artist-in-Residence at San Francisco Performances from 2014 to 2018.

Praised by the Chicago Classical Review as “the kind of thoughtful, intelligent programming that should be a model,” his programs examine themes of identity, highlight underrepresented voices from history, and illuminate the relevance of music from all periods to the present day.

Hailed as an artist “alight with the spirit of the music” (Boston Globe), three-time Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Dashon Burton has built a vibrant career with regular appearances across the United States and Europe.

During the 2026–27 Season, Burton returns to many of the country’s leading orchestras and presenters. Orchestral highlights include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Colorado Symphony and Peter Oundjian, New World Symphony and Stéphane Denève, Baltimore Symphony and Oundjian, and the Pacific Symphony and Alexander Shelley; Mozart’s Requiem with the Seattle Symphony and Xian Zhang; and Handel’s Messiah with the Houston Symphony led by Ken-David Masur.

He also performs Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pace alongside Shawn E. Okpebholo’s What the Earth Remembers in Baltimore. In the spring, Burton appears in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the National Lutheran Choir and premieres a new work by Christopher Cerrone with the Calder Quartet with dates in Arizona, Napa Valley, San Francisco, Providence, and Amherst. He concludes the season with a return to The Cleveland Orchestra for Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten under Franz Welser-Möst.

A multiple award-winning singer, Burton won a Grammy in 2021 for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album with Dame Ethyl Smyth’s The Prison with The Experiential Orchestra (Chandos). As a founding member of the groundbreaking vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, he received his first Grammy in 2013 for their debut recording of new commissions, and his third in 2024 for Rough Magic, featuring works by Caroline Shaw, William Brittelle, Peter Shin, and Eve Beglarian.

His discography also includes Songs of Struggle & Redemption: We Shall Overcome (Acis), Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road (Naxos), Lori Laitman’s Holocaust 1944 (Acis), and Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. His album of spirituals was praised by The New York Times as “profoundly moving…a beautiful and lovable disc.”

Burton holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. He is currently Assistant Professor of Voice at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.