BU Tanglewood Institute: Welcome 2022 Visiting Artists!

Photo Credits: Matthew Murphy

Valerie Coleman (BUTI’89, CFA’95) – Visiting Artist
Valerie Coleman is regarded by many as an iconic artist who continues to pave her own unique path as a composer, GRAMMY®-nominated flutist, and entrepreneur. Highlighted as one of the “Top 35 Women Composers” by The Washington Post, she was named Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the Year, an honor bestowed to an individual who has made a significant contribution to classical music as a performer, composer or educator. Her works have garnered awards such as the MAPFund, ASCAP Honors Award, Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program, Herb Alpert Ragdale Residency Award, and nominations from The American Academy of Arts and Letters and United States Artists. Umoja, Anthem for Unity was chosen by Chamber Music America as one of the “Top 101 Great American Ensemble Works” and is now a staple of woodwind literature. Read more.

Photo Credits: Boston Singers Resource

Matthew DiBattista – Visiting Faculty, YAVP
Described as “brilliant” by Opera News, Tenor, Matthew DiBattista, is continually in demand on some of the world’s most prestigious stages having performed opera and concert works throughout the United States and Europe.  He has sung with such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Seiji Ozawa, Keith Lockhart, Sir Andrew Davis and Robert Shaw.  Known for an exceptionally varied repertoire, Mr. DiBattista has performed over 60 different roles to date spanning the entire operatic repertoire.  He performed the past three seasons with Lyric Opera of Chicago (Parsifal, Capriccio, Der Rosenkavalier) where he sings Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor in the 2016-17 season.  Other successes include performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Glimmerglass Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Omaha, Tulsa Opera, among others. Read more.

Photo Credits: Dario Acosta

Jessica Meyer – Visiting Artist
With playing that is “fierce and lyrical” and works that are “other-worldly” (The Strad) and “evocative” (New York Times), Jessica Meyer is a GRAMMY® – nominated violist and composer whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility and emotional clarity. Her first composer/performer portrait album recently debuted at #1 on the Billboard traditional classical chart, where “knife-edge anticipation opens on to unexpected, often ecstatic musical realms, always with a personal touch and imaginatively written for the instruments” (Gramophone Magazine).

Meyer’s compositions viscerally explore the wide palette of emotionally expressive colors available to each instrument while using traditional and extended techniques inspired by her varied experiences as a contemporary and period instrumentalist. Since embarking on her composition career seven years ago, premieres have included performances by acclaimed vocal ensembles Roomful of Teeth and Vox Clamantis, the St. Lawrence String Quartet as the composer in residence at Spoleto Festival USA, the American Brass Quintet, PUBLIQuartet, cellist Amanda Gookin for her Forward Music Project, Sybarite 5, NOVUS NY of Trinity Wall Street, a work for A Far Cry commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Juilliard School for a project with the Historical Performance Program, and by the Lorelei Ensemble for a song cycle that received the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award from Chorus America. Read more.

Photo Credits: Heidi Solander

Nico Muhly (BUTI’89, CFA’95) – Visiting Artist
Nico Muhly, born in 1981, is an American composer who writes orchestral music, works for the stage, chamber music and sacred music. He’s received commissions from The Metropolitan Opera: Two Boys (2011), and Marnie (2018); Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Tallis Scholars, and King’s College, Cambridge, among others. He is a collaborative partner at the San Francisco Symphony and has been featured at the Barbican and the Philharmonie de Paris as composer, performer, and curator. An avid collaborator, he has worked with choreographers Benjamin Millepied at the Paris Opéra Ballet, Bobbi Jene Smith at the Juilliard School, Justin Peck and Kyle Abraham at New York City Ballet; artists Sufjan Stevens, The National, Teitur, Anohni, James Blake and Paul Simon. His work for film includes scores for for The Reader (2008) and Kill Your Darlings (2013), and the BBC adaptation of Howards End (2017). Recordings of his works have been released by Decca and Nonesuch, and he is part of the artist-run record label Bedroom Community, which released his first two albums, Speaks Volumes (2006) and Mothertongue (2008). Read more.

Photo Credits: Boston University College of Fine Arts

Douglas Sumi – Visiting Faculty, YAVP
American pianist, Douglas Sumi, is a frequent collaborator with many of today’s artists and opera theaters. He is a versatile artist, comfortable in the capacities of pianist, coach, and conductor and has a recognized commitment to song and opera. He has assisted conductors such as James Conlon, Plácido Domingo, Patrick Summers, William Lacy, Michele Mariotti, and Emmanuel Villaume. He has worked with many great opera stars: Renée Fleming, Plácido Domingo, Carol Vaness, Sir Thomas Allen, Vladimir Chernov, Bejun Mehta, Linda Watson, Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, Ana María Martinez, Vittorio Grigolo, including many of today’s emerging young singers. Most notably, he collaborated with Renée Fleming in recital, after working together in A Streetcar Named Desire. He has performed throughout Europe and North America, including Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center for the Arts. Read more.

Photo Credits: J. Henry Fair

Terrence Wilson (BUTI’92’93) – Visiting Faculty, YAPP
Acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun as “one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” pianist Terrence Wilson has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Washington, DC (National Symphony), San Francisco, St. Louis, and with the orchestras of Cleveland, Minnesota, and Philadelphia and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked include Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Neeme Järvi, Jesús López-Cobos, Lawrence Renes, Robert Spano, Yuri Temirkanov, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Gunther Herbig and Michael Morgan. Read more.

Photo Credits: Lindsey Rome

Mariam Adam – Founding Member, Imani Winds
Mariam Adam, born in Monterey, California to an Egyptian father and a Mexican mother, has lived between New York, Paris and now Nashville, a composite of influences that has shaped her musicianship and collaborations worldwide. A founding and former member of the twice Grammy-nominated woodwind quintet, Imani Winds, she maintained an active international touring schedule for over 15 years. The quintet is a pillar in the classical music community, unparalleled in developing the wind quintet to a new level through virtuosity, style, repertoire and engaging programs. Their albums and legacy have won numerous awards and continue to influence wind chamber music through their commissions and original compositions. In November 2021 she reunited with members of the Imani Winds to premier Valerie Coleman’s “Phenomenal Women” in London. Read more.

Photo Credits: Manhattan School of Music

Monica Ellis – Founding Member, Imani Winds
Bassoonist Monica Ellis is a founding member of the twice Grammy nominated wind quintet, Imani Winds, who in their 25th season, continuous to dazzle audiences with their dynamic playing, adventurous programming and commitment to outreach, new works, and collaborations. Monica’s strong work ethic was instilled early on from her mother and father, the late jazz saxophonist, Clarence Oden. She is executive director & tour manager for Imani Winds, Co- Artistic Director for the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, and treasurer for the Imani Winds Foundation. A self-proclaimed “band kid”, growing up in her beloved city of Pittsburgh, Monica played clarinet, saxophone and piano. After being introduced to the bassoon in middle school, she began studying with Mark Pancerev, of the Pittsburgh Symphony and went on to receive her Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, studying with George Sakakeeny. While at Oberlin, her desire to connect with others flourished through her participation in the Panama Project – a month long camp for young Panamanian musicians. She received her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and Professional Studies Certificate from Manhattan School of Music in the Orchestral Performance Program, studying with Frank Morelli at both institutions. Read more.

Photo Credits: Jeffrey Scott

Jeff Scott – Founding Member, Imani Winds
A native of Queens, NY, Jeff Scott started the French horn at age 14, receiving an anonymous gift scholarship to begin his private study and formal introduction to music theory with the Brooklyn College Preparatory Division. An even greater gift came from his first private teacher Carolyn Clark, who taught the young Mr. Scott for free during his high school years, giving him the opportunity to study music when resources were not available. Since receiving degrees from Manhattan School of Music, ’90 and SUNY at Stony Brook, ’92, Mr. Scott has enjoyed a performance career as a studio, chamber, and orchestral musician, performing in Broadway shows, Ballet companies, touring with various commercial artists as well as recording for film, classical music, pop music and jazz music. Read more.

Photo Credits: Curtis Institute of Music

Toyin Spellman-Diaz – Founding Member, Imani Winds
Oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz grew up surrounded by her parents’ enormous record collection in Washington, DC. It was there that she absorbed the many layers of classical music’s beauty and the inspiring and uniting potential of the world’s diverse cultural landscape. Ms. Spellman-Diaz earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and her Master’s and Professional Studies degrees at the Manhattan School of Music. Her orchestral career includes performances with the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Hailed by the Washington Post for her “smooth, controlled tone and excellent technique,” Toyin has performed concertos with the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Manhattan Virtuosi, and with the Kennedy Center Youth Orchestra. Read more.