Teresa Cheung is in her third season as the assistant conductor for the American Symphony Orchestra and her second season as the music director and conductor for the Manhattan College Orchestra. She began her conducting career as apprentice conductor of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. For six years, Cheung served as resident conductor for the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor of the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and Evansville Philharmonic Chorus. During her tenure in Evansville, Cheung played a major role in the musical life of the community. Among her many initiatives, she led the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra on its first international concert tour to Japan in 2002. A strong advocate for music education for all ages, Cheung has created numerous innovative concerts and lectures for educational programs with the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra. Cheung is equally at home with orchestral and choral genres and is in frequent demand for symphonic, choral, and operatic productions in New York City, including the world premiere of Ruth Schonthal’s opera Jocasta. She was also the rehearsal conductor for Marc Blitzstein’s Regina and the first US fully-staged production of Robert Schumann’s Genoveva while serving as assistant conductor to Maestro Leon Botstein at the Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival. Recent and upcoming guest conducting appearances include Bard Music Festival with the American Symphony Orchestra, Altoona Symphony Orchestra, Centre Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble, and Phoenix Symphony. A native of Hong Kong, Cheung earned her MM in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music. She is the recipient of the JoAnn Falletta Conducting Award for the most promising female conductors.

Winner of the 2000 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition at the Juilliard School, Ching-Wen Hsiao has performed throughout the North America, Germany, Portugal, Mexico, and Asia. Ms. Hsiao made her concerto debut with the Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra in the Philippines at age 16 and has appeared with the Ars Viva Orchestra in Chicago, New York Youth Symphony, Du Page County Youth Symphony, and Yi-Qi Orchestra at the Taiwan National Concert Hall.

After winning the first place in the 1995 Taiwan National Piano Competition, she continued her competition victory in the United States, winning the Steinway Society Solo Piano and Concerto Competition, American Musician Scholarship Competition, Chinese Arts Competition in Chicago, Concerto Competition at the Music Institute of Chicago, and was the second place winner of the Concerto Competition at Juilliard. Ms. Hsiao was also a national finalist of Music Teacher National Association Piano Competition and the audition for Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II.

An avid chamber musician and Twentieth-Century music performer, Ms. Hsiao has performed with renowned violinist Cho-Liang Lin at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and University of Texas in Austin. Her performance of John Corigliano’s Etude Fantasy earned the composer’s acclaim. In 2006, she was awarded the “New Rising Star” prize in Taiwan, which led to two recitals at the Taiwan National Concert Hall in 2006-2008 seasons. Ms. Hsiao’s performances have been broadcasted live on WNIB in Chicago and WQXR in New York. She is scheduled to record with Cho-Liang Lin in 2008.

Ms. Hsiao has taught at the International Music Festival in Portugal, and attended the Aspen Music Festival, La Jolla Music Festival, Music at Menlo, and Music Academy of the West. She has performed in masterclasses for Krystian Zimerman, Arie Vardi, and Claude Frank, and worked with musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Jeffrey Kahane, David Finckel, Gilbert Kalish, and Gary Hoffman.

Ms. Hsiao is currently a Doctoral of Musical Art candidate at the Juilliard School. She holds her B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Juilliard School, receiving the Alan Fay “Outstanding Pianist Award”. Her principal teachers include Yoheved Kaplinsky, Jerome Lowenthal, and Emilio del Rosario. Ms. Hsiao is an Assistant Professor of Piano at the Southeastern University in Florida.

Samuel Banks became a member of the bassoon section of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in June 2004. Born in the San Francisco Bay area, Banks began his instrumental career on the clarinet at age 9 and switched to bassoon at age 11. His father, Ridgway Banks, was a composer who studied with Nadia Boulanger and provided early encouragement to Samuel’s pursuit of music.

Samuel Banks earned a B.M. degree from Northwestern University where he studied with Robert Barris. Before coming to Indianapolis, he played with the Chicago Civic Orchestra, where his bassoon coach was Bill Buchman, the Elgin Symphony and as a substitute with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He won first prize in the Van Waynen Winds Competition and has played with the National Repertory Orchestra, the New York String Orchestra and the Kent-Blossom Music Festival. Away from the Orchestra Banks enjoys cooking, running, playing chamber music and rooting for his beloved Oakland A’s.

Described as an “energetic” conductor who leads with “clear authority and enthusiasm” by the New York Times after his Carnegie Hall debut, Ankush Kumar Bahl is currently in his second season as the Music Director of the New Jersey Youth Symphony. Mr. Bahl spent his formative years in the San Francisco Bay Area receiving a double Bachelors Degree in Music and Rhetoric from the University of California at Berkeley. He has been a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and completed his Master's Degree in conducting at the Manhattan School of Music with teachers Zdenek Macal, George Manahan and David Gilbert. Prior to MSM, Mr. Bahl's principal conducting teachers included Kenneth Kiesler, Alasdair Neale, and David Milnes. He is also fortunate to have participated in master classes and workshops with Sir Colin Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, Christoph Eschenbach, Kurt Masur, David Zinman, David Robertson, James Conlon, Sergiu Comissiona, Gunther Schuller, Gustav Meier, Larry Rachleff, Jorma Panula, Michael Stern, Murry Sidlin, Colin Metters, and David Effron.

Mr. Bahl lives in New York City where he is on the conducting staff at the Manhattan School and has been a cover conductor for the New Jersey Symphony. This past season he concluded his 3 year tenure as the Music Director of the Ridgefield Symphony Youth Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra during which he frequently substituted for their then ill, Music Director. Local reviewers have described Mr. Bahl as “energetic,” “passionate,” “sensitive,” and “impressive” while also observing his “total mastery of the evening's scores, a fine conducting technique, and the obvious respect of his musicians.” Additional guest conducting over the 2006-07 season will include the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, the Chelsea Symphony, a summer tour to Ireland with the NJYS, and his debut with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Bahl currently spends his summers in Switzerland as the Music Director of the International Goppisberg Music Festival.

Eugene Tzigane won Second Prize at the Fourth International Lovro von Matacic Competition of Young Conductors in Zagreb, Croatia, this past
September. Mr. Tzigane was also awarded the prize for “Best Artistic
Achievement” by the Croatian Society of Music Artists. Immediately following the final concert, he was invited to conduct the Zagreb Philharmonic in the coming seasons. In late November, Mr. Tzigane will compete in the Eighth Grzegorz Fitelberg International Competition for
Conductors in Katowice, Poland, having been chosen from over 200 applicants from 41 countries.

Mr. Tzigane is currently the Apprentice Conductor to the Royal
Stockholm Philharmonic where he is mentored by Alan Gilbert, the newly
appointed Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. Alongside his
apprenticeship, Mr. Tzigane works closely with renowned Finnish
conducting teacher Jorma Panula as a member of his conducting class at
the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

Mr. Tzigane was a Conducting Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival for two summers, where he studied with David Zinman and conducted in a master
class of Alan Gilbert. In August 2006, Mr. Tzigane conducted the Trondheim Symphoniker in Norway as part of a master class with Jorma Panula. He has also participated in a number of opera master classes with George Manahan conducting scenes from Puccini’s La Bohиme and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Lucia di Lammermoor. Mr. Tzigane also recently conducted a performance of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore for Opera for Humanity, a non-profit organization that helps fund cancer research.

Mr. Tzigane holds a master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from the
Juilliard School, where he worked with all of the Juilliard orchestral ensembles; highlights include numerous orchestral performances in Alice Tully Hall, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Bruno Walter Auditorium, and Paul Hall. Mr. Tzigane conducted the Western Hemisphere performance of Hungarian composer Gyula Csapу’s "Tundragobelin" for the Magyar Legacy 2007 FOCUS! Festival at the Juilliard School. Mr. Tzigane is the
recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship at the Juilliard School, where he was a student of James DePreist.

Karen Lubeck attracts attention as a promising artist with a beautiful voice, intelligent musicianship, and thoughtful interpretation. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2002, sharing the stage with trumpeter Arturo Sandoval. She recently sang Frasquita in Carmen with the Duluth-Superior Symphony and appeared as a guest soloist with the New York Choral Society in Orff's Carmina Burana. She was also featured as a soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic as part of the Interfaith Committee of Remembrance's concert. In New York, she sang the role of Sophie in a concert version of Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier with Dell'Arte Opera. Ms. Lubeck has appeared with Opera Illinois as Despina in Mozart's Cosм Fan Tutte, and as soloist in numerous performances throughout the United States and Europe. She appeared as Papagena in Die Zauberflцte with Opera Illinois and was a soloist at the American Symphony Orchestra League's convention in Washington, D.C.

Highlights of recent seasons include a performance of Mahler's Fourth Symphony with the Keene Chamber Symphony, and Mozart concert arias for the Westchester Symphony's 10th anniversary concert. Her engagements included Faurй's La Bonne Chanson with Newburgh Chamber Music and at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, song recitals at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Maryland and the Norfolk Library in Connecticut, as well as concerts throughout the United States.

Ms. Lubeck participated in a Gershwin celebration at the Tilles Center in Long Island and appeared at the Berkshire Opera in Mozart's Die Zauberflцte. She also took part in the National Symphony Orchestra's Mozart Festival with a concert at the Austrian Ambassador's residence. Switzerland's Verbier Academy invited her to its summer workshop with Gundula Janowitz and Brigitte Fassbaender. She attended the European Mozart Academy, where she studied with Benita Valente, Eva Blahova,
and Kerstin Meyer, most notably, and was a featured soloist in concerts in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. She made her European operatic debut as Silvia in Haydn's L'isola disabitata at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in Germany.

Founded by Jenny Clarke in 2003, Melodia explores, performs and promotes rarely heard women’s choral music, including classical, contemporary and premiere works. Central to our mission is a commitment to create opportunities for women musicians and composers including through our annual composers’ commissioning program. Under the direction of conductor Cynthia Powell since its inception, the ensemble aspires to achieve the highest level of performance while offering innovative programs that appeal to broad audiences.