las maldiciones in concert

Born in Mendoza, Argentina, he studied at the Escuela Superior de Música at  the Facultad de Artes at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (Mendoza), studying piano with Maestro Jorge Urbay and Mónica Rizzo. He studied  bandoneon with Maestros Jorge Puebla and Alberto Hilario Iribarne, and since his teens he has been a member of numerous Tango ensembles.

In  2003 he directed the Operita María de Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla  and Horacio Ferrer under the auspices of the Astor Piazzolla Foundation.

He  has also collaborated with numerous Symphony and Chamber Orchestras,  performing on important stages in the United States, such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Birdland, etc. He has shared the stage with artists such as Ann Hobson, Pablo Ziegler, Emilio Solla, Leo Genovese, Daniel  Binelli, Martin Palmeri, Fabian Veloz, Savion Glover, among others. He has been awarded the First Prize of the International Bandoneon Competition “Che Bandoneón”. In 2018, the album “Vigor Tanguero” recorded with the Cuarteto Giraudo won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Tango Album. Until recently he was President of the Pan American Music  Art Research.

Praised  for her “versatility” and “splendid vocalism”, Colombian soprano Sasha  Gutiérrez is a distinguished opera performer, soloist, recitalist, and  impresario. Her roles include Mimì in La Bohème, Micaëla in Carmen, the  title role in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Helena in Britten’s A Midsummer  Night’s Dream, and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. A graduate of  the Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Gutiérrez was honored with the  International Advisory Board Scholarship. She has made guest soloist  appearances with prestigious ensembles such as the United Nations  Symphony Orchestra, Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, and Bogotá  Philharmonic. She has graced renowned venues including the Kaufmann  Center, Lincoln Center, the Hopkins Center for the Arts, the Met Museum,  and Symphony Space.

Sasha founded  The Opera Next Door (TOND), an independent opera company based in  Brooklyn. TOND’s mission is to foster community engagement through free,  site-specific opera productions in collaboration with local groups and  leaders in diverse, working-class neighborhoods. The company's debut  production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte in May 2021 was met with acclaim.  For her efforts in creating opportunities for fellow musicians during  the pandemic, Sasha was named one of Musical America’s Top 30  Professionals of the Year 2021.

Jorge Parodi is the Music Director at the Moores Opera Center, and Professor of Conducting at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. He is also the General and Artistic Director of Opera Hispánica; and Music Director of Gulfshore Opera; and of Opera in Williamsburg (VA). He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Tokyo International Vocal Arts Academy Summer Workshop, and he is faculty at The Juilliard School.  

He conducted productions at The Atlanta Opera, New York City Opera, Opera San José, Merola Opera Program, New Orleans Opera, Knoxville Opera, Savannah OPERA, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Orlando, Opera Tampa, Gulfshore Opera, Amarillo Opera, El Paso Opera, Buenos Aires Lírica (Argentina), Castleton Festival, The Banff Centre (Canada) and The Juilliard School.

World Premières: Tom Cipullo’s Hobson’s Choice (Moores Opera Center), John Musto’s Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt (On Site Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric’s Unlimited and Pittsburgh Opera); and Anton Coppola’s Lady Swanwhite (Opera Tampa); and Michael Ching’s The Birthday Clown (Savannah OPERA). 

Other conducting credits: Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Castleton Festival Orchestra, Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Zipoli for the American Baroque, Juilliard Pre College Orchestra, Volgograd Opera (Russia), Ensamble XXI, Orquesta del Conservatorio Nacional (Argentina).

He has collaborated with such artists as Isabel Leonard, Eglise Gutiérrez, Verónica Villarroel, Nancy Fabiola Herrera, Tito Capobianco, Sherrill Milnes, Aprile Millo and Rufus Wainwright and has assisted conductors Lorin Maazel and Julius Rudel, among others.

Melisa Atoyan, violin 1

Violinist Melisa Gohar Atoyan was born in Argentina to Armenian parents. She is the first violinist and a founding member of the Arya String Quartet, most recently featured in 2019 at the Pleasantville Chamber Music Society. She has performed as a soloist with the Adelphi Symphony Orchestra, with which she served as co- concertmaster: With immense opera experience, she has served as concertmaster and in the first violin sections of the Utopia Opera, New

Opera, Regina Opera, and New Rochelle Opera companies. Additionally, she appeared in America's Got Talent in 2014, playing in the string section for Emily West's performance at Radio City Music

Hall. Melisa has also appeared in notable venues such as Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall).

Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center's Midsummernight's Swing, Teatro Coliseo... among others. Besides being classically trained, Ms. Atoyan also performs tango music and has worked with grandiose tango musicians such as Grammy Nominee: Emilio Solla, Pedro Giraudo, JP Jofre, Hector Del Curto...Melisa has also worked with Polly Ferman and Glamour Tango, "Tango Untangled" (Teatro Circulo) and has served as violin solo for Astoria

Tango Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Binelli. At the age of 8, Ms. Atoyan was awarded 1st prize-Junior Division in the Fundación Banco Mayo Competition (Argentina). After receiving the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) Performing Arts Fellowship in 2009, she was accepted into "La Scuola di Musica di Fiesole* (Italy) International Competition Training Course the

following year, studying with renowned pedagogue, Pavel Vernikov. Under the tutelage of Valery Ostrakh at the Brussels Royal

Conservatory, she received her B.M. in Violin Performance. As a dedicated teacher, Ms. Atoyan has served on the violin faculty at

the Brooklyn Music House, Herald Music School, Music Box School, Vienna Music, PS 11 (Brooklyn) and currently teaches violin at Bergen Academy of Music and

Art as well as co-leading the intermediate orchestra and teaching group violin classes at UCMP.

Rebecca Racusin, violin 2

Violinist Rebecca Racusin has performed across the United States and

internationally in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center,

and the National Gallery of Art. Praised for her “sparkling” sound

(Washington Classical Review), she performs regularly with the New

Jersey Symphony and has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony

Orchestra, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, and the San Francisco

Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Racusin was a tenured member of the Baltimore

Chamber Orchestra, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and the Maryland

Symphony, and was appointed a principal player of the GRAMMY-nominated

Washington, D.C.–based Inscape Chamber Orchestra in 2012. She has

recently performed as a soloist with the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra and

the Central Jersey Symphony Orchestra. She has spent a decade with the

Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra and served on the orchestra and

chamber music faculty at the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival and

Academy from 2013–2016.

Ms. Racusin is the founder and president of acclaimed Jackson Hole

Chamber Music. Now entering its ninth season, JHCM brings together

world-class musicians from across the country for intimate concerts in

the breathtaking surroundings of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Ms. Racusin

received her B.A. from Harvard University while studying with James

Buswell at the New England Conservatory, and her M.M. from the

University of Maryland School of Music, where she held a graduate

assistantship under the tutelage of Elisabeth Adkins.

Laura Sahin, viola

Laura Manko Sahin has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. Laura regularly performs with the New York City Opera Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the American Symphony, and on Broadway. During the summers, she is a resident artist at the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival. She was formerly the Principal violist of the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, violist of the Hubbard Quartet and Boston Harp Trio, and a member of the Bilkent (Ankara, Turkey), Knoxville, and Winston-Salem Symphony Orchestras. 

Laura has been on the string and chamber music faculties of Skidmore College, Boston University Tanglewood Institute and Luzerne Music Center. Currently, she teaches at The Lawrenceville School, New Jersey Youth Symphony Orchestra, UCMP, and holds a private studio of wonderful violin and viola students in West New York, NJ. 

Laura completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Music from Bilkent University as a student of Ece Akyol. She earned her Artist Diploma and Master of Music from Boston University as a student and teaching assistant of Michelle LaCourse and Bachelor of Music Degree from University of North Carolina School of the Arts as a student and teaching assistant of Sheila Browne. 

Laura lives in West New York, NJ with her husband, and two children, ages six and three.

Molly von Gutzeit, cello

With a passion for collaboration and expansion, cellist Molly von Gutzeit (Aronson) looks to bring people together through the arts to discover innovative takes on presenting classical music. She enjoys a varied career, taking her across the U.S. and internationally as a soloist, chamber, orchestral musician, arranger, and educator. Molly is the founder and cellist of Ensemble Mycelium, and the Music in Words project with radio broadcaster Judith Krummeck, with whom she will be premiering her string trio and orator arrangement of Richard Strauss’ Enoch Arden this spring.

As a proponent of new music, Molly frequently performs contemporary music, including works by Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim and Grammy-winning recipients, and has premiered over 50 chamber music and solo works. Additionally, Molly has performed with popular artists including the Eagles, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, and Michael Bublé. She can be heard on albums on the Arabesque and Naxos Labels as well as movie soundtracks for Warner Brothers and Sundance films. 

Using music as a vehicle for positive change, Molly has performed at the United Nations, in nursing homes, schools, prisons, and has organized multiple fundraisers for causes related to Autism. She believes that opportunity begins with exposure and accessibility, and aligns herself with organizations and patrons that support young musicians in need. Molly currently maintains a private studio of cellists, many of whom have been competition winners, and been admitted to major conservatories and music degree programs.