Alan Seeger | Biographies

Patrick Zimmerli | Composer 

Patrick Zimmerli is a New York and Paris based composer. He writes a sophisticated yet approachable hybrid of contemporary classical and jazz music. Recent collaborators include Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, Ethan Iverson, Brian Blade, Luciana Souza, the Knights Orchestra and the Escher String Quartet. His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Salle Pleyel in Paris, Sala São Paolo in Brazil, the Vienna Konzerthaus Grosser Saal and the new SF Jazz Center.  He has performed for both American and European audiences and has earned significant attention and praise from many shores.   

Mirabelle Ordinaire | Director 

Mirabelle Ordinaire currently serves as Stage Director at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Directing credits include Sondheim’s Marry Me A Little (Théâtre Marigny, 2019), Kurt Weill Story (2018) and Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne (2017) at the Paris Opera Academy, where she was the first director in residence in 2015-2016, Rossini's Il Signor Bruschino with ONDIF (2017), and Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne Salle Gaveau (2015). She has also written and staged pedagogical concerts with ONDIF at the Paris Philharmonie. She has trans- lated numerous plays and librettos, received a PhD in Theatre at Columbia University, and teaches acting at Sciences Po Paris.

Kent Tritle | Conductor

One of America’s leading choral conductors, Kent Tritle has been called “the brightest star in New York's choral music world” by The New York Times. Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, he is also Music Director of Musica Sacra, the longest continuously performing professional chorus in New York; and Music Director of the Oratorio Society of New York, the acclaimed 200-voice volunteer chorus. 

In addition, Kent is Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music and is a member of the graduate faculty of The Juilliard School. Also an acclaimed organ virtuoso, Kent Tritle is the organist of the New York Philharmonic and the American Symphony Orchestra and a member of the organ faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. 

Kent’s 2019–20 season is highlighted by the U.S. premiere of a new critical edition of one of the masterpieces of choral music, Brahms’s A German Requiem at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, the same organization that performed the U.S. premiere of the work in 1877. He also leads three new or recent major works by American composers: with OSNY, the world premiere of A Nation of Others, an oratorio by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell about Ellis Island; and Robert Paterson’s Whitman’s America (2016); and with the Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine, the U.S. premiere of Patrick Zimmerli’s Instrument of Destiny (2017). He leads Bach’s St. John Passion with the Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine; and programs featuring Machaut’s watershed 14th-century mass Messe de Nostre Dame and their acclaimed annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah with Musica Sacra. 

As part of his work as Director of Choral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music, Kent Tritle established the school’s first doctoral program in choral conducting. Tritle is also renowned as a master clinician, giving workshops on conducting and repertoire; in 2017 he made his fourth appearance as a featured conductor at Berkshire Choral International, leading Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand,” and he leads annual choral workshops at the Amherst Early Music Festival. Recent years have included workshops at Summer@Eastman and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. A Juilliard School faculty member since 1996, he currently directs a graduate practicum on oratorio in collaboration with the school’s Vocal Arts Department. 

In more than 150 concerts presented by the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series from 1989 to 2011, Kent Tritle conducted the Choir and Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola in a broad repertoire of sacred works, from Renaissance masses and oratorio masterworks to premieres by notable living composers, earning praise for building the choir and the concert series into one of the highlights of the New York concert scene. From 1996 to 2004, Tritle was Music Director of the Emmy-nominated Dessoff Choirs. Kent hosted “The Choral Mix with Kent Tritle,” a weekly program devoted to the vibrant world of choral music, on New York’s WQXR from 2010 to 2014. 

Kent Tritle’s discography features more than 20 recordings on the Telarc, AMDG, Epiphany, Gothic, VAI and MSR Classics labels. Recent releases include the 2016 performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, David Briggs's organ-choral version, and Eternal Reflections: Choral Music of Robert Paterson with Musica Sacra. Other releases include the 2013 recording of Juraj Filas’ Requiem, Oratio Spei dedicated to the victims of 9/11, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Kühn Choir; Messages to Myself, an acclaimed recording with Musica Sacra of five new works; and two releases with the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola, Cool of the Day, an a cappella program of music ranging from Gregorian chant, Palestrina, and spirituals to Strauss’s Deutsche Motette, and Ginastera’s The Lamentations of Jeremiah with Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir. 

Recent honors include the 2017 Distinguished Achievement Award from Career Bridges and the 2016 President’s Medal for Distinguished Service from the Manhattan School of Music. Kent is on the advisory boards of the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective (C4) and the Clarion Music Society, and was the 2016 honoree at Clarion’s annual gala. 

Kent Tritle holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from The Juilliard School in organ performance and choral conducting. He has been featured on ABC World News Tonight, National Public Radio, and Minnesota Public Radio, as well as in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He was featured in Episode 6 of the first season of the WIRED video series “Masterminds,” an installment titled, “What Conductors Are Really Doing.” 

Thomas Enhco | Piano

Thomas Enhco, born in Paris, France in September 1988, is a French pianist and composer in jazz and classical music. He began classical training on the violin and piano as a child and studied formally at the CMDL and the Paris National Conservatory. Since then, he has achieved international recognition, recording for labels Verve, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Music and performing 100 concerts per year around the world. 

Among the venues that have invited him are Jazz Festivals of Tokyo, Montréal, Vienne, Montreux, Istanbul, North Sea, and Olympia Hall, and classical venues such as Philharmonie de Paris, Bordeaux Opéra, Flagey (Brussels), La Roque d’Anthéron festival, Shanghai Grand Theater, Mozarteum (Salzburg), Théâtre du Châtelet, and Beijing Concert Hall. 

Enhco has recorded and performed with top jazz and classical artists like Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Didier Lockwood, Kurt Rosenwinkel, José James, Peter Erskine, Renaud Capuçon, Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Anne Sofie von Otter, Quatuor Ebene, Lise de la Salle, and Beatrice Rana. 

As a classical soloist, he has played concertos by Mozart, Ravel, Gershwin and Beethoven as well as his own two concertos with symphony orchestras of Bordeaux, Kyoto, Pau, Avignon, Geneva Camerata, and Orchestra National de France, and with conductors Junichi Hirokami, James Gaffigan, Mathieu Herzog, and Fayçal Karoui. 

As a composer, he has written more than 100 works and gets commissions from orchestras, chamber music ensembles, choirs and soloists. 

He has won awards such as the “Révélation” prize at the Victoires du Jazz (French equivalent to the Grammy Awards), the Django d’Or “New Talent” award, the 3rd Grand Prize at the Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition, the 2nd Grand Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, and the FIPA d’Or for Best Film Music. 

Alex Richardson | Tenor

Alex Richardson has sung under the baton of Kent Tritle on numerous occasions. Most recently he was soloist in Uruguay with the Oratorio Society of New York in their presentation of Bruckner’s Te Deum and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. He has been a roster member of the Metropolitan Opera having made both his stage and HD broadcast debut as the Shepherd in Tristan und Isolde and is now in his fifth season. In past seasons he has soloed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra both in Boston and Tanglewood, Orlando Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Cecilia Chorus, Emmanuel Music and Atlanta Symphony. Mr. Richardson has been heard in major roles on the stages of New York City Opera, Spoleto USA, Toledo Opera, Opera Southwest, Boston Lyric Opera, Festival de Belle-Ile, The Princeton Festival and Opera San Antonio. Mr. Richardson holds degrees from the University of Colorado and The Manhattan School of Music and has been honored by the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation.

David Rozenblatt | Percussion

David Rozenblatt is a platinum selling and Grammy nominated drummer, percussionist, and composer. He has collaborated with some of the finest talents in pop, jazz and classical music, appearing to sold out stadiums and arenas all over the world. David received two Grammy nominations for classical and pop genres: Absolute Ensemble’s Absolution (Best Small Ensemble Performance) and Barry Manilow’s platinum recording In The Swing of Christmas (Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album). Both feature David with The Matt Herskowitz Trio, whose albums, Forget Me Not and Jerusalem Trilogy earned them Best Contemporary Jazz Album nominations from both Felix and Juno Award Academies.

David composed five original ballets: Othello (Charlotte Ballet), Dirty Wire, Chronicle (Complexions Contemporary Ballet), Three Point Turn (Diana Vishneva and Mariinsky Ballet) which won numerous Golden Mask Awards, and Imprint Maya, (Desmond Richardson) which was featured in LA Times and debuted at LA’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

David’s other compositions Flux (Baltic Sea Philharmonic) premiered at Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace and at Dubai Opera House, and of his Dispute In Conclusion Unplugged (Seattle Symphony Chamber Series) of which Bachtrack wrote, “Of the 21st-century composers, David Rozenblatt stole the show...[His score] left the audience breathless before they shouted a collective ‘Wow!’”

< Alan Seeger