About the Artists

Tara Helen O'Connor, flute

Tara Helen O’Connor is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique, and colorful tone spanning every musical era. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, she was the first wind player to participate in the CMS Two program. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, she is a regular participant in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Mainly Mozart, Spoleto USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, the Banff Centre, Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. She is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble, a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape and the Bach Aria Group. She has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and Live from Lincoln Center. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, and Bridge Records. Dr. O'Connor is the Area Head of the Wind Department at Purchase College School of the Arts Conservatory of Music and is the Chair of Classical Music Studies. Additionally she is on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory and the contemporary program at Manhattan School of Music. Her yearly summer flute master class at the Banff Centre in Canada is legendary.

Gemma New, conductor

Gemma New, in her second season as Principal Conductor of Camerata Notturna, was recently appointed Music Director of the Hamilton (Ontario) Philharmonic, and also currently serves as Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony and Music Director of the Baltimore-based Lunar Ensemble. In the recent seasons, she has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and made her Carnegie Hall debut as part of the American Soundscapes series, conducting music of Adams, Ives, and Norman. She has been a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, an Ansbacher Fellow with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Kurt Masur fellow with the Leipzig Symphony. Named as a "Woman Conductor on the Rise" by WQXR Radio, she is a graduate of the conducting program at the Peabody Institute.