Chief Conductor of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, Christian Reif has established a reputation for his natural musicality, innovative programming, and technical command.

Since 2022, Reif has served as Music Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, a month-long summer festival in Minnesota featuring the nation’s top classical performers in programming that ranges from opera and chamber music to symphonic performances along with commissioned new works. LAMF believes that high quality arts experiences should be accessible to all and operates on a name-your-price ticket model.

Highlights of Reif’s 2025–26 Season include debut performances with the Nashville Symphony, The Florida Orchestra, Danish Chamber Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and Australian Youth Orchestra. He returns to conduct the Houston Symphony; National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada; Netherlands Radio Philharmonic; Belgrade Philharmonic; and National Radio Orchestra of Romania.

In 2024, Reif won a Grammy Award for the Nonesuch Records album Walking in the Dark, the debut solo album of classical singer Julia Bullock in which he accompanied her on piano and led London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. The album was praised by Gramophone Magazine as “illuminating” and described Reif as providing “excellent support” for Bullock. In 2020 during the pandemic, Reif and Bullock recorded a series of at-home virtual “Songs of Comfort,” ranging from Carole King’s classic “Up on the Roof” to Schubert’s “Wanderers Nachtlied.” NPR Music featured the duo in a Tiny Desk Concert for their special quarantine edition of the series, and The New York Times highlighted them on their Best Classical Music of 2020 list.

From 2016 to 2019, Christian was Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, after being the Conducting Fellow at the New World Symphony from 2014 to 2016 and at Tanglewood Music Center in 2015 and 2016.

Conductor, Composer, and Producer Anthony J. Maglione is Director of Choral Studies at the University of Houston and Director of the Houston Symphony Chorus. He joins the Moores School of Music faculty from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, where he was the Director of Choral Studies and held the Robert H. McKee Chair of Music. Choirs under his direction have appeared at state, regional, and national conventions, released internationally-distributed commercial recordings, and have twice been named “Runner Up” for the American Prize in Choral Performance, College/University Division. A frequent collaborator, he has prepared choirs for performances with the American Spiritual Ensemble, Boston Camerata, The Canadian Brass, Joyce DiDonato, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Kansas City Civic Orchestra, The King’s Singers, Kings Return, and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

An often-performed and commissioned composer with a growing national reputation, Maglione’s music has appeared at state, regional, and national-level conventions, on TV, in video games, and has been recorded on Albany Records, Centaur Records, GIA Choral Works, and Gothic Records. Several of his choral works are published on James Jordan’s “Evoking Sound” choral series through GIA Publications as well as “The Amanda Quist Signature Choral Series” on Gentry Publications. In 2018, Maglione’s cantata for soloists, choir, and orchestra, The Wedding of Solomon, premiered at the American Guild of Organists National Convention. The Miami University Men’s Glee Club premiered Maglione’s On Life at the 2019 National ACDA Conference. In early 2020, Verdigris Ensemble premiered his extended dramatic work Dust Bowl as part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Elevator Project in Dallas, Texas. Dust Bowl was recently revised and performed again in 2024 at the Wyly Theatre in Dallas through funding in-part from the National Endowment of the Arts. From 2023 to 2025, Maglione served as Composer-In-Residence with Te Deum, a professional choir based in Kansas City.

As a producer, Maglione lends his ears to recording projects around the country and recently received national attention through his production work with Sam Brukhman and Verdigris Ensemble on Betty’s Notebook  by composer Nicholas Reeves. This ground-breaking, programmable art music is the first of its kind and the first to be sold using blockchain technology.

As a tenor, Maglione has appeared with renowned organizations such as Artefact Ensemble, Cappella Romana, Kansas City Baroque Consortium, Kantorei KC, The Same Stream, The St. Tikhon Choir, Sunflower Baroque, and Spire Chamber Ensemble.

A sought-after clinician and frequent guest conductor, Maglione teaches workshops and has conducted All-State and honor choirs in California, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. He holds degrees from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, East Carolina University, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

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.

Renaissance woman Hélène Grimaud is not just a deeply passionate and committed musical artist whose pianistic accomplishments play a central role in her life. Her multiple talents extend far beyond the instrument she plays with such poetic expression and technical control. Grimaud has established herself as a wildlife conservationist, a human rights activist, and a writer; her deep dedication to her musical career is reflected in and amplified by the scope and depth of her environmental, literary, and artistic interests.

She has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2002 and her recordings have received prestigious accolades. Her discography includes acclaimed albums such as Credo, Reflection, and a Beethoven album with Staatskapelle Dresden. Her 2010 solo album Resonances and subsequent releases—including Duo with cellist Sol Gabetta and Memory (2018)—highlight her diverse musical range. Her latest project, For Clara (September 2023), revisits Robert Schumann’s Kreisleriana alongside Brahms’s Intermezzi and songs.

In the 2025–26 season, Hélène Grimaud brings her exceptional artistry to George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, performing this iconic work with prestigious orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, among others. Alongside these highlights, she embarks on a West Coast tour with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performing Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto, while additional orchestral engagements underscore the rich breadth of her repertoire. Throughout the season, she continues to captivate audiences worldwide with solo recitals and chamber music performances.

Born in Aix-en-Provence in 1969, Grimaud entered the Paris Conservatoire at 13. In 1987, she gave her debut recital in Tokyo. That same year, conductor Daniel Barenboim invited her to perform with the Orchestre de Paris, marking the launch of her career, which has since been characterized by concerts with major orchestras and celebrated conductors worldwide.

Critics have described American cellist Brinton Averil Smith as a “virtuoso cellist with few equals,” hailing him as “a proponent of old-school string playing such as that of Piatigorsky and Heifetz.” Gramophone praised Brinton in his debut recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Cello Concerto as a “hugely eloquent, impassioned soloist,” writing “The sheer bravura of Smith’s reading is infectious.” BBC Music magazine wrote of his recent Naxos recording of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Cello Concerto, “his is a cast iron technique of verve and refinement put entirely at the service of the music… The artistry on display here is breathtaking,” while David Hurwitz of Classics Today wrote, “Smith plays the living daylights out of it. His full tone, impeccable intonation, and fleet passage work–never for a moment ungainly or stressed–lets the music soar.” Gramophone also wrote of Smith’s most recent Naxos recording, Exiles in Paradise, which explores the rich legacy of the émigré composers who gathered in Hollywood in the mid-20^th century, “Smith plays the bejesus out of it, making child’s play of the rapid-fire spiccatos and almost impossible-to-control harmonics. …and teems with old-school elegance and just the right dose of schmaltz.”

Brinton’s North American engagements have included performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and recital and concerto engagements throughout the country, while his broadcast performances include CBS’s Sunday Morning and regular appearances on NPR’s Performance Today and Symphonycast. He has appeared regularly as a soloist with the Houston Symphony since joining the orchestra as principal cellist in 2005. Prior to this, he was the first musician chosen by Lorin Maazel to join the New York Philharmonic and the principal cellist of the Fort Worth and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. His live concert performances on YouTube have been viewed more than one million times, including more than 250,000 views of a live encore of Paganini’s 24^th Caprice. Devoted to expanding the cello repertoire, Brinton performs a wide variety of violin, piano, and vocal transcriptions, and gave the North American premiers of rediscovered cello works of Jean Sibelius and Alexander Zemlinsky as well as the world premiere of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonata for violin and cello. He also gave the first professional performance of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s cello concerto since its 1935 premiere with Arturo Toscanini and Gregor Piatigorsky.

An active chamber musician, Brinton has collaborated with violinist Gil Shaham on numerous occasions, including Carnegie Hall’s Gil Shaham and Friends series. He has also collaborated with cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell; pianists Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Jeffrey Kahane, and Kirill Gerstein; violinists James Ehnes, Cho-Liang Lin, and Sarah Chang; soprano Dawn Upshaw; and members of the Beaux Arts Trio; and the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, Cleveland, and Berg quartets. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Brevard Music Festival, and the Texas Music Festival. Brinton is currently an associate professor at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and a faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival.

The son of a mathematician and a pianist, Brinton Averil Smith was admitted to Arizona State University at age 10, where he took courses in mathematics and German and, at age 17, completed a B.A. in mathematics. He then became a student of Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California, where he was also a teaching assistant in the mathematics department, and completed work for an M.A. in mathematics at age 19. He subsequently studied with the legendary cellist Zara Nelsova at The Juilliard School. While there, he was a prize winner in several consecutive Juilliard concerto competitions and the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition and received a doctor of musical arts degree, writing on the playing of Emanuel Feuermann. Brinton lives in Houston with his wife, the pianist Evelyn Chen, and their enormous but benevolent dog. Their daughter, Calista, is a soprano studying at Northwestern University. His cello was made by Gaetano Pasta in Brescia, c.1710.

Visit www.brintonaverilsmith.com