Manchester Music Festival Guest Artists
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Tom Bergeron
Currently residing in Manhattan, Tom Bergeron has performed across North America, Europe, and Asia with orchestras, chamber groups, jazz groups, show bands, as a soloist, and can be heard on the Naxos and Koch record labels. He is a sought after teacher and clinician across the Northeast. In addition to his work as Studio Teacher of Trumpet and Director of Brass Chamber Music at Williams College, Tom also teaches brass at Bennington College. Tom currently serves as principal trumpet with the Berkshire Symphony, plays regularly with the Vermont Symphony and Springfield Symphony, and is a seasonal player and Band Master with Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines. Mr. Bergeron holds an M.M. and A.D. in Trumpet Performance from Yale, where he won the Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition and received the John Swallow Award for excellence in brass playing. Tom also holds a B.A. in Business Management from The Isenberg School at UMass. While at Yale, Tom served as Assistant Director of the Yale Jazz Ensemble and as a T.A. for Allan Dean, teaching Yale College trumpet students. Mr. Bergeron has appeared as a soloist with the Hartford Symphony, has recorded with the Albany Symphony and Schola Cantorum, and has performed with The Smothers Brothers, Arlo Guthrie, The Triton Brass Quintet, Albany's Dogs of Desire, the I/O Ensemble, Orchestra New England, the New Hampshire Symphony, The New Haven Symphony, The Yale Philharmonia, and Emmanuel Music in Boston. His jazz trio performs every Sunday afternoon at Julius' in the West Village of Manhattan. Tom also plays with the salsa bands Mikata and Agua Por Chocolate, the pop group The Prescription, and the Pop/Rock/New-Soul band Brother Jocephus. As an educator, Tom recently created the "Music and Creative Writing" outreach program in New Haven's public school system. During regular visits to inner-city school classrooms, Tom helped young students write stories inspired by his original jazz compositions, and then incorporated their writings into the new jazz pieces. As a founding member of the Reveille Trumpet Collective, Tom has dedicated himself to the progressive new music movement, and in particular, exploring new relationships between composers and performers, and new ways of conceiving, performing, and presenting contemporary "art" music to reach wider audiences. In 2009, Tom commissioned and premiered a Trumpet Concerto by Jay Wadley for trumpet, winds, and live electronics. |
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Adam Neiman Pianist Adam Neiman is widely hailed as an artist of rare depth, sensitivity and virtuosity. With a repertoire that spans over fifty concertos, he has performed with many leading orchestras throughout the US and upcoming highlights include concerts with important orchestras in Milan, Moscow, Rome, Sicily and throughout the United States. As a recitalist, Neiman has been presented in the major halls of North America and recent tours have taken him to the most prestigious venues in Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Korea and Japan. A Grammy Award nominated artist, Neiman's wide-ranging discography can be heard on the VAI Audio and Naxos labels. |
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Di Wu
Praised in The Wall Street Journal as "a most mature and sensitive pianist', Chinese-born Di Wu's reputation as an elegant yet exciting musician continues to grow, and 2009 has been a banner year: During the spring and summer she made her New York Alice Tully Hall recital debut as winner of Juilliard's William Petschek Piano Debut Recital Award, was named Artist of the Month by MusicalAmerica.com, and was awarded a Vendome Virtuosi prize at Lisbon's prestigious Vendome Competition as well as one of the coveted prizes at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In September she made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut at a gala benefit concert under Charles Dutoit. Ms. Wu made her professional debut at 14 with the Beijing Philharmonic, since then she has toured widely in Asia, Europe and the United States, where her recent orchestral engagements have included appearances with Washington's National Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and twice in Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops. During the 2009-10 season, Ms. Wu is scheduled for 50 engagements which will take her from California to Germany. Di Wu came to the United States in 1999 to study at the Manhattan School of Music with Zenon Fishbein. From 2000 to 2005 she studied at the Curtis Institute with Gary Graffman, subsequently earning a Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School under Yoheved Kaplinsky and, in 2009, an Artist Diploma under the guidance of Joseph Kalichstein and Robert McDonald. Ms. Wu is currently represented by Astral Artists. |