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THE MUSIC: COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS

STANLEY SPERBER - conductor

Stanley Sperber, the music director and chief conductor of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 2000, is now its conductor laureate.

Mr. Sperber graduated from Columbia University in musicology and from the Julliard School of Music in conducting. In New York he founded the Zamir Chorale and made his Israel Philharmonic Orchestra debut in 1973, a year after immigrating to Israel. He served as the music director of the Holon Chamber Orchestra and the Tel Aviv Philharmonic Choir, and as the music director and chief conductor of the Rinat National Choir. He also conducted Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd" at the New Israeli Opera.

Mr. Sperber has toured extensively in Europe and North America. He has conducted the Symphony Orchestra of Baku, Azerbaijan, the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in Zholin, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), the Budapest Philharmonic, orchestras in Canada and the USA, the Saloniki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival, the Estonian Symphony Orchestra, two performances of Handel's "Messiah" in Chicago's Orchestra Hall with a chorus of 2500 singers, the Sofia Symphony Orchestra, and the Krakow Symphony Orchestra.

While music director of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, maestro Sperber commissioned numerous world premieres from Israeli composers and was recognized with awards such as the Order of Merit from the Israeli Composers Association (1987) and the National Council for the Arts and Culture Prize for the Performance of Israeli Music (1992).

PATRICIA GREEN - mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano Patricia Green has gained international acclaim for her expressive voice, noted for its three-octave ease in diverse repertoire, during performances at the Kennedy Center and the Concertgebouw with L'Orchestre de Radio-France, with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic, the National Symphony and the Cathedral Choral Society, and at the Posthoornkerk Concerts (Amsterdam), Continuum (London), MUSICA (Strasbourg), Library of Congress Concerts, Bethlehem Bach Society, Toronto Symphony's Massey Hall New Music Festival, the U.S. National Holocaust Museum Chamber Music series, Toronto's Opera in Concert, Vancouver New Music, Washington Choral Arts, Wolf Trap Festival, the Scotia Festival of Music, and the Michoacan Tri-National Arts Festival in Mexico. She is a member of Theatre Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center and has appeared with conductors Peter Eötvös, Zoltan Pesko, Leonard Slatkin, and Leon Fleisher. An avid performer of contemporary music, Ms. Green has sung works of Ligeti, Boulez, Berio, Dusapin, Schwantner, Schoenberg, Wuorinen, Berg, Schafer, and Weir, and has premiered many works of young composers.

Her performances have been broadcast on television and radio in Holland, France, Canada, and the US, and she has recorded the JS Bach and CPE Bach Magnificat with the Washington Bach Consort on CD.

Ms. Green received the Artist Diploma in Voice and the George Castelle Prize from the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Phyllis Bryn-Julson. She is a member of the voice faculty at Michigan State University. She comes from Saskatchewan, Canada.

NORMAN BAILEY - baritone

Dramatic baritone Norman Bailey has been listed as one of the top one hundred opera singers of the twentieth century. His career has spanned almost 50 years, and he has sung leading roles in virtually all of the major opera houses in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House in London, the Vienna State Opera, and the Paris Opera. He has also performed with the Berlin State Opera, with many major opera companies throughout the United States, including the Chicago Lyric Opera, and has appeared twice in Israel.

Mr. Bailey was born in England and immigrated with his parents to South Africa as a young man. After completing his initial studies there, he returned to Europe, singing in Austria and Germany before returning to the United Kingdom, where he appeared with all the major opera companies and orchestras. He was a member of the English National Opera before becoming a freelance singer in the 1970s.

Among the conductors with whom he has sung, both in opera and in concert, are Sir Georg Solti, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davies, Sir Reginald Goodall, James Levine, Eric Leinsdorf, Wolfgang Sawalisch, Carlo Maria Giulini, and Otto Klemperer. His audio and video recordings include Der Fliegende Holländer (Solti), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Solti), the entire Ring (Goodall), King Priam (Atherton), Peter Grimes (Davis), and La Traviata (Gibson).

He lives in Victor, Idaho, with his wife Kristine Ciesinski, a dramatic soprano.

JOHN DAVEY-HATCHER - tenor

John Davey-Hatcher is currently a regular chorus member of the San Francisco Opera, having previously sung the role of Piangi in the Toronto production of Phantom of the Opera. His opera experience includes Rodolfo in La Bohème, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, and Faust in Faust. He has performed with the Phoenix Symphony, the Phoenix Bach Choir, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Opera, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale.

Mr. Davey-Hatcher holds a master's degree in music from Arizona State University, has taught voice privately for several years, and has experience in film and television. A symphony member of the Second Bahá'í World Congress and a member of the choir that recorded the Congress music, he has founded and directed choirs in Bahá'í communities in both the United States and Canada.

His future engagements include Alfredo in La Traviata, and Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly with the San Francisco Lyric Opera. He comes from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

BIJAN KHADEM-MISSAGH - violinist

Bijan Khadem-Missagh is an award-winning violinist and conductor who has toured internationally, made many radio and television recordings, and compiled a substantial discography. His book Das Musische als Lebensweise was published in 1998.

After graduating with distinction from the Academy of Music in Vienna, he founded the Eurasia Quartet and was the Grand Prix and first prize winner at the International Chamber Music Festival in Colmar, France, in 1971. That same year he was appointed First Concertmaster of the NTO Symphony Orchestra Vienna and subsequently became a professor at the J.M. Hauer Conservatory in Austria. He founded the Tonkünstler Chamber Orchestra Vienna (1977); Allegro Vivo, the International Chamber Music Festival Austria (1979); and the Midsummer Music Academy Umeå, Sweden (1980 -1990), serving as artistic director of the latter two.

International contemporary composers K.H. Fuessl, L. Thoresen, K. Rapf, K. Etti, A. Rahbari, A. Baksa, A. Vujic, L. Schmetterer, and R. Stiegler have all dedicated works to him, and Mr. Khadem-Missagh has himself composed instrumental and vocal works.

He has received many awards, including the Austrian Cross for Sciences and Arts, and is president of GLOBArt, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the promotion of peace and the transformation of human society through the arts.

THE TRANSYLVANIA STATE PHILHARMONIC CHOIR

The Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir of Cluj was founded in 1972 by composer Sigismund Toduţă, then the artistic director of the philharmonic. The choir's first conductor was Professor Dorin Pop, a well-known personality in choral music in Romania. In 1976, Florentin Mihăescu, the assistant of Maestro Pop, assumed the directorship, broadening the choir's repertoire and achieving its first international successes; he was followed in 1986 by Cornel Groza. Main emphases of the ensemble are its vocal-symphonic repertoire, a cappella music, and Romanian works.

The choir has collaborated with Romanian and foreign conductors such as Gary Bertini, János Ferencsik, Lawrence Foster, Michi Inoue, Leopold Hager, Maurice Handford, Emil Simon, Edward Tschiwjel, Cristian Mandeal, Lászlo Heltai, Donato Renzetti, Lü Jia, and Klaus Peter Flor, as well as with the Israel Philharmonic, the Zürich Tonhalle, and the Luxembourg RTL orchestras, Philharmonie Lorraine, "George Enescu" Philharmonic Bucharest, and Orchestra Internazionale dell'Italia. It has performed at major festivals in Romania and in Berlin, Lucerne, Ravello, Pesaro, Macerata, Napoli, Luxembourg, Assisi, Amsterdam, Geneva, and Athens.

The choir's performances have been broadcast on radio and television. Its latest CD is of works by Brahms with the Bucharest Philharmonic under Cristian Mandeal.

THE ISRAEL NORTHERN SYMPHONY (Haifa Symphony Orchestra)

The Israel Northern Symphony, Haifa, was founded in 1950 by pianist-composer Frank Peleg. Today it has 75 musicians and is the focus of musical life in Haifa and northern Israel, attracting audiences of 100,000 to its annual season of 100 concerts.

Former music directors include Sergiu Commissiona, Avi Ostrovki, Mendi Rodan, Yuval Zaliouk, Dan Vogel, and Urs Schneider, and Stanley Sperber. The present music director is Cristian Mandeal, formerly general music director of the Romanian Philharmonic Orchestra.

The orchestra has toured in France, Switzerland, Belgium, West Germany, and Italy and has appeared at international festivals in Corsica, Besançon, Liège, Düsseldorf, and Cremona.

Guest conductors and soloists with the orchestra have included Sergiu Commissiona, Sidney Harth, Yoel Levy, John Nelson, Mendi Rodan, Gilbert Varga, and Ronald Zollman, Henryk Szeryng, Ida Haendel, Boris Belkin, Ivry Gitlis, Shira Rabin, Peter Zazovsky, Mischa Malsky, Boris Berman, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Gerhard Oppitz, Nicolai Petrov, Arie Vardi, Gary Karr, and Pieter Wispelwey.