About Osvaldo Golijov

Osvaldo Golijov was born and raised in Argentina, surrounded by classical music, Jewish litiurgical and klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. After studying in Israel, he moved to the US to study with George Crumb. While a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, he studied with Oliver Knussen and first developed his relationship with the Kronos Quartet, with whom he has since collaborated on more than 30 works.

The composer¹s recent works include a one-act opera, Ainadamar (Fountain of Tears), featuring Dawn Upshaw; Ayre, a set of folksongs also with Ms. Upshaw; and Tekyah, written for a film marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. He is currently working with director Francis Ford Coppola on the score of an upcoming film.

The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Mr. Golijov is an associate professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and is on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory and Tanglewood.

Dawn Upshaw has achieved international celebrity as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging from the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. Her acclaimed performances on the opera stage comprise the great Mozart roles as well as modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Messiaen. From Salzburg, Glyndebourne, and Paris to The Metropolitan Opera, where she began her career in 1984 and has sung nearly 300 performances, Ms. Upshaw has also championed numerous new works created for her, including The Great Gatsby by John Harbison, the Grawemeyer Award­winning L'Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho, John Adams's nativity oratorio El Niño, and Osvaldo Golijov¹s chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre, the latter commisioned by Carnegie Hall for her Perspectives and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.

As a recitalist, Dawn Upshaw has premiered more than 40 works in the past decade. She began her career as a winner of The Metropolitan Opera Young Artists Development Program and the Young Concert Artists Auditions. She is the artistic director of the graduate program in vocal arts at The Bard College Conservatory of Music.

In 1954, Helmuth Rilling founded the Gächinger Kantorei and, 11 years later in 1965, founded the Bach Collegium Stuttgart as the choir's regular orchestral partner. Ever since, Mr. Rilling has been intensely involved with the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and has felt a strong link to this composer's works. In addition, Mr. Rilling has been a fervent advocate of "neglected" Romantic choral music as well as contemporary choral music. In 2000, he was involved in the critically acclaimed premiere of Passions composed by Wolfgang Rihm, Sofia Gubaidulina, Osvaldo Golijov, and Tan Dun.

Furthering his devotion to Bach, in 1981 Mr. Rilling founded the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, which presents public concerts, master classes for singers and conductors, symposia, and residencies all over the world. Of special importance to Mr. Rilling is the encouragement of young musicians, and in 2001 he founded the Festvalensemble Stuttgart. This ensemble, consisting of choir and orchestra, draws on the participation of talented young musicians from 25 different countries.

Either together with his house ensembles in Stuttgart or as a guest conductor, Mr. Rilling is active on the international concert podium, performing regularly throughout Europe, the US, and Canada. As a testament to his inexhaustible activity are hundreds of CD, radio, and TV recordings. From 1970 to 1984, Mr. Rilling was the first musician to record all of Bach's Cantatas (for Hänssler Classic).

Helmuth Rilling was awarded the UNESCO International Music Prize in 1994 and the Theodor Heuss Prize in 1995. In 2003, he became an Honorary Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. He won a Grammy Award in 2000 for his recording of Krzysztof Penderecki's Credo and was again nominated in 2001 for his recording of Wolfgang Rihm's Deus Passus.

Kathy Saltzman Romey is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Minnesota and Artistic Director of the Minnesota Chorale, the principal chorus of the Minnesota Orchestra.

Known for her meticulous training of choruses, she has prepared programs for such internationally recognized conductors as James Conlon, Lorin Maazel, Nicholas McGegan, Bobby McFerrin, Roger Norrington, Helmuth Rilling, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, and Osmo Vänskä. A staff member of the Oregon Bach Festival since 1984, Romey is also principal chorus master of the Festival Choir, which she prepares for annual performances and recording projects. She has assisted with ten recordings, including the Festival’s Grammy Award–winning CD of Penderecki’s Credo under Helmuth Rilling, and the 2008 Grammy–Nominated CD of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Osmo Vänkä and the Minnesota Orchestra and Chorale. Romey regularly serves as a chorus master to the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart for special programs and tours, and has also prepared programs with the Westminster Symphonic Choir and Netherlands Radio Choir. She has assisted Mr. Rilling with the Carnegie Hall Choral Workshops since 2005.

Romey earned a B.A. in Flute Performance from the University of Oregon in 1979, and an Artistic Degree in Choral Conducting under Helmuth Rilling from the Frankfurt Musikhochschule in 1984. She returned to the United States to assist Dale Warland at Macalester College and served as Director of Choral Activities at the college from 1985-1992. Active as a guest conductor and clinician, Romey was named 2002 Conductor of the Year by the Minnesota chapter of the American Choral Directors Association.