JULIE BOULIANE, mezzo-soprano
Winner of the Prix Lyrique Français, French-Canadian Julie Boulianne has been acclaimed for the agility and expressive power of her dark-hued mezzo-soprano in a wide repertoire, with a special focus on the music of Mozart and Rossini.

Possessing a voice The New York Times calls "subtle and pure," she distinguished herself in the role of Isolier in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory while still a member of the Juilliard Opera Center. After summer performances of Elisa in Handel’s Tolomeo at Glimmerglass Opera, directed by Chas Rader-Shieber, Julie Boulianne opens the 2010/2011 season of Pacific Opera Victoria in her signature role of Rossini’s La Cenerentola. She makes her Metropolitan Opera debut as Diane in Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Iphigénie en Tauride, conducted by Patrick Summers, and returns to that company as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette, under the baton of Plácido Domingo. During the 2009/2010 season, Ms. Boulianne made her New York City Opera debut as the wily Lazuli in Chabrier’s comedic opera L’Étoile,  sang Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro at Vancouver Opera, and portrayed the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon at l’Opéra de Montréal and at l’Opéra de Marseille. Her concert calendar included Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Emmanuel Villaume and the Utah Symphony and Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été with l’Orchestre Symphonique du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. Julie Bouliane has appeared frequently at Montreal Opera, Quebec Opera, and McGill Opera.

In March 2009, Naxos Records released a recording of Shéhérazade and L’enfant et les sortileges featuring Julie Boulianne and the Nashville Symphony, which was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album. A graduate of McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, Julie Boulianne won the First Prize in both the Canadian Music Competition and the Joy of Singing Competition in New York. She has also been awarded the International Vocal Arts Institute’s Silverman Prize, and in 2007, the Prix de la Chambre des Directeurs for Most Promising Career at the Concours International de Chant de Montréal.

DANIEL GILBERT, clarinet 
Clarinetist DANIEL GILBERT joined the faculty at the University of Michigan as Associate Professor of Clarinet in 2007. Previously, he held the position of Second Clarinet in the Cleveland Orchestra from 1995 to 2007. Mr. Gilbert teaches at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and he also served as the Associate Professor of Clarinet at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 2000 to 2001. A native of New York City, Mr. Gilbert received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University and both a Master of Music degree and a Professional Studies Certificate from The Juilliard School. Before joining the Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. Gilbert was active as a freelancer in New York City, appearing regularly with groups including: The Metropolitan Opera, American Ballet Theater, New Jersey Symphony, Solisti New York, the Stamford Symphony and the New Haven Symphony, where he played principal clarinet from 1992 to 1995. He has appeared as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Heights Chamber Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony, Solisti New York, and the Aspen Mozart Orchestra. He is an active chamber musician, playing regularly on the Cleveland Orchestra Chamber Series, the Cleveland Museum of Art Chamber Series and the Oberlin Chamber Music series. Mr. Gilbert’s master classes and recitals have received critical acclaim throughout the world. His teachers have included David Weber, Robert Marcellus, Stanley Hasty, Richard Waller, Burt Hara and Judith Kalin-Freeman.

KAREN KEVRA, flute
Karen Kevra has been hailed as "having a musical focus and depth seen in few flutists anywhere." Her debut recording "Works for Flute and Piano of Louis Moyse", earned a 2003 Grammy nomination. "Romantic Music for Flute and Piano" her latest CD was praised by the Boston Musical Intelligencer for "sublimely satisfying flute-playing" and by superstar flutist Sir James Galway who wrote "There were many outstanding special moments which truly touched me." Kevra has performed in the U.S., Canada, and Europe and has shared the stage with Jaime Laredo, the Paris Piano Trio, Borromeo String Quartet, and Trey Anastasio of Phish. An active chamber musician and in demand as a soloist, of her 2011 West Coast tour, The San Francisco Voice called her "...a most excellent soloist….elegantly beautiful." The young rising star composer Mohammed Fairouz has been commissioned to write a chamber work based on Arab dance themes for Ms. Kevra in 2012. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Montpelier's Capital City Concerts and just completed her first season as Artistic Director of Summer Music from Greensboro, based in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. When she's not playing the flute, you can find her at home preparing Middle Eastern feasts, digging in the garden, and listening to her beloved Red Sox on the radio.