Guest Artists

Guest Artists are graciously hosted by
Hilton Santa Cruz / Scotts Valley

Sheryl Staples, violinist

Violinist Sheryl Staples joined the New York Philharmonic as principal associate concertmaster in September 1998, and made her solo debut with the Orchestra in 1999. During her tenure in New York, she has been featured with the Philharmonic as soloist in concertos of Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, Bach and Vivaldi, collaborating with conductors Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis and Alan Gilbert.  In addition, Ms. Staples has performed as soloist with more than 40 orchestras nationwide, including The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic.

At the age of 26, Ms. Staples was the associate concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra and later went on to become the concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony and Santa Barbara Chamber orchestras. She is a former member of The Cleveland Orchestra Piano Trio, and currently performs with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles and the Lyric Chamber Music Society. She recently performed at a wide variety of festivals including La Jolla Summerfest, Martha’s Vineyard, and Aspen, and appears on three Stereophile compact discs with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Staples has recorded traks for numerous motion pictures, performed chamber music for ambassadors in London, Paris and Beijing, and collaborated with artists including Emanuel Ax and Yefin Bronfman.

Now in New York, in addition to her Philharmonic duties, Ms. Staples is on facutly at the Juilliard School working with students aspiring toward orchestral careers. Upcoming this season, Ms. Staples will perform the Bach Double Concerto for violin and oboe with the New York Philharmonic, with Philharmonic principal oboist, Liang Wang and conductor, Jeffrey Kahane and  Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra and conductor, Heiichiro Ohyama. Ms. Staples performs on the “Kartman” Guarnerius del Gesu, circa 1728, now in the collection of the New York Philharmonic.

Chetan Tierra, pianist

Emerging American pianist, Chetan Tierra, has been seen on concert stages as soloist and recitalist in America, Europe, and Africa since the age of six. He holds top prizes many competitions, most recently receiving second prize at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and the Audience Award and Third Prize at the Jose Iturbi International Music Competition. He has also received First Prize at the California International Young Artists’ Competition, First Prize at the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition, and Second Prize at the New Orleans International Piano Competition. Mr. Tierra was also a finalist in the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Mr. Tierra made his Carnegie Hall debut with high praises in November, 2006 where New York Concert Review called his performance “magnificent.” As a busy concert pianist, Mr. Tierra has appeared multiple times with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Santa Cruz County Symphony, Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, and the TSO Orchestra among others, working with great conductors such as Andrew Grahms, Klauspeter Seibel, and John Larry Granger. He has been featured on television and radio all over the world including Italy’s Teleblu television channel and WCLV and KUSP radio stations.

Mr. Tierra gives most of his credit to his teachers Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Hans Boepple along with his father Michael Tierra who was his first teacher and biggest supporter. Born in Santa Cruz, California in 1983, Mr. Tierra began studies at the early age of two.

Nikki Chooi, violinist

Born in 1989 in British Columbia, Nikki Chooi Mr. Chooi was the First Prize Winner of the 2009 Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco, and was awarded the “Special Prize” at the XIII Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in 2007 in Moscow, Russia. He is a recipient of the 2008 Sylva Gelber Foundation Award, First Prize Winner of the 2004 Montreal Symphony Standard Life Competition, and the Grand Award winner of the 2004 Canadian National Music Festival. In 2008, he was featured soloist with the National Arts Centre Orchestra on its Western Canada Performance Tour. He has performed in the Vancouver Recital Series, Debut Atlantic Recital Tour, Canadian National Arts Debut Series, and Chamber Music Tulsa.

Mr. Chooi, a student of the Curtis Institute of Music, has been a soloist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Toronto, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed at chamber music festivals including Music in the Vineyards, Music from Angel Fire, Eine Kleine Summer, and at the Ravinia Festival as a recipient of the Gene Witz Memorial Scholarship. In summer of 2011, Nikki will make his first appearance at the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival. Nikki plays the Guarneri "del gesu" of 1729 on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts Instrument Bank.

Aaron Miller, pianist

Aaron Miller has been familiar to local audiences since his first performances with the Santa Cruz County Symphony at the age of twelve. He received first prize at the Aspen Music Festival Piano Concerto Competition and second prizes at the Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition and National MTNA Yamaha Piano Competition. He is an alumnus of the Music Teachers Association of California Young Artist Guild and the Arts Recognition and Talent Search program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

Mr. Miller won the Mozart Society Orchestra Concerto Competition while at Harvard and was invited to participate in the European tour of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. He organized and performed in two concerts of contemporary works by Korean composers with the UC Berkeley Center for Korean Studies. He was orchestral pianist with the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony during the 2010-11 Season.

In addition to numerous performances with the Santa Cruz County Symphony and Youth Symphony, Mr. Miller has appeared with the Aspen Sinfonia Orchestra, the California Youth Symphony, the Idyllwild International Chamber Orchestra, and the Cabrillo Music Festival Orchestra. His primary teacher was Hans Boepple of Santa Clara University, and he also worked extensively with Herbert Stessin of the Juilliard School and Patricia Zander of the New England Conservatory.

Jonathan Dimmock, organist

Concert organist Jonathan Dimmock has distinguished himself through his dazzling and highly sensitive performances in major concert halls, music festivals and cathedrals throughout the across the globe, and is considered by many to be one of the world’s leading organists.

A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, Yale School of Music and Yale Divinity School, Mr. Dimmock became the first American ever to hold the prestigious position of Organ Scholar of Westminster Abbey. He then went on to serve two major American cathedrals in New York City and Minneapolis. He now resides in California, serving as organist of Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church and St. Ignatius Church and Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco, and organist for the San Francisco Symphony, where he has had the privilege of working with some of the world's greatest conductors. With the San Francisco Symphony he participated in the Grammy award-winning CD recording of Mahler's Eighth Symphony (Classical Album of the year for 2009).

Mr. Dimmock is a published composer and writer, and has released over 30 CDs on labels including BCI Records, Time-Warner Recordings, and Koch International. He has been interviewed and featured on National Public Radio, Radio France, BBC3, ABC, and MTV2.  Mr. Dimmock has founded many organizations, ensembles, and non-profits, including the award-winning American Bach Soloists and Artists' Vocal Ensemble, the acclaimed Renaissance polyphony group which he directs. His appreciation of the healing power of music and the arts led him to found the non-profit organization, Art to the Nations, using music in international conflict resolution.

Jon Nakamatsu, pianist

One of the most sought-after pianists of his generation, Jon Nakamatsu is a frequent concerto soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and solo recitalist throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. He enjoys a continuously expanding career based on a deeply probing and illuminating musicality as well as a quietly charismatic performing style.

Initially brought to global attention in June 1997 by being named Gold Medalist of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Jon Nakamatsu subsequently appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the Boston Pops at Tanglewood, as well as with, among many others, the orchestras of Cincinnati, Honolulu, Milwaukee, San Francisco, and Seattle. Abroad, he has been heard as a soloist with Italy’s famed Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Berlin’s Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Orquestra Sinfónica Nacional de Santo Domingo and Japan’s Tokyo and Hiroshima Symphony Orchestras. Jon Nakamatsu’s festival appearances include France’s Evian and Montpellier music festivals and Germany’s Klavier Festival Ruhr, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Lincoln’s Meadowlark Music Festival, California’s Midsummer Mozart Festival, and the Vail Valley Music Festival.

Named Debut Artist of the Year (1998) by NPR’s “Performance Today,” Jon Nakamatsu has been profiled by “CBS Sunday Morning” and Reader’s Digest magazine, and is featured in the nationwide PBS documentary, “Playing with Fire.” His 1998/99 season was highlighted by a White House performance of Rhapsody in Blue, hosted by President and Mrs. Clinton. Earlier, in 1995, he was named the First Prize winner of Miami’s Fifth United States Chopin Piano Competition. Jon Nakamatsu and his duo-partner, the renowned clarinetist Jon Manasse, serve as Artistic Directors of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.

Cheryl Anderson, choral director, Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus

Cheryl Anderson is in her 21st year as Choral Director for Cabrillo College. She is Founder/Director of Cabrillo Youth Chorus Project, Cabrillo Opera, Voice Master Class, and Renaissance Consort. She has received the Board of Governors’ Meritorious Teaching Award and routinely receives the Alpha Gamma Sigma student award for outstanding teaching. She has taught at Transylvania University, Colorado State University, University of Northern Colorado, and UCSC. She is currently president of the Western Division American Choral Directors (ACDA).

Ms. Anderson sang in the Carnegie Hall Concert Series for seven seasons. Her choirs have sung throughout the world, including St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Mark’s Cathedral, and the great concert halls of Europe. The Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus sang the Berlin premiere of Eric Whitacre’s Paradise Lost in 2003. In June 2007, Cabrillo Symphonic and Youth Choruses performed the East Coast premiere of Imant Raminsh’s The Peace of Wild Things at Carnegie Hall.

Ms. Anderson has conducted numerous All-State Choirs, and is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor. She is also the Director of Music at the First Congregational Church of Santa Cruz. The Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus regularly performs with the Santa Cruz County Symphony.

Anja Strauss, soprano

The German soprano Anja Strauss has established herself as one of the most sought-after sopranos in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Besides her signature role Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, her operatic roles include Oscar in Un Ballo In Maschera, Blonde in Abduction from the Seraglio, Despina in Così fan tutte and The Governess in The Turn of the Screw among others. She sang with Sacramento Opera, San Francisco Lyric, Pacific Repertory Opera and the German Opera companies of Lübeck, Flensburg, Detmold and Potsdam.

In addition to opera, Ms. Strauss has performed a vast repertoire of sacred music. She has appeared as the soprano soloist for Handel’s Messiah at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and has toured Europe, singing Bach’s B Minor Mass, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Haydn’s Seasons, and the German Requiem by Brahms. During her tenure at Juilliard in NYC, she performed Mozart’s Requiem for the September 11 Commemoration at Lincoln Center.

A passionate Lied Singer, Ms. Strauss has performed in recitals at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Goethe Institute in New York City, with the Wagner Society in San Francisco, the Olympic Music Festival in Seattle, the Mozart Society of California in Carmel and in Lübeck, Germany. She has collaborated with contemporary composers, such as Kirke Mechem and Pulitzer Prize winner Aaron Jay Kernis, and has performed Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with conductor Kent Nagano. She serves on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory’s Preparatory Division and Adult Extension.

Steven Berlanga, baritone

Steven Berlanga received a Bachelor of Music in Opera Performance at the California State University, Long Beach-Bob Cole Conservatory of Music in 2011, where he was a recipient of the Bob Cole Conservatory Scholarship. During his time at the Conservatory, Mr. Berlanga was the Assistant Director of the Chamber and University Choirs, Chorus Master for the Opera Institute and the Director of the Women’s Chorus for 2 years. He has been a soloist and chorister with both the First Congregational Church of Santa Cruz and First Congregational Church of Long Beach.  Mr. Berlanga recently began his Masters in Music degree, attending the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, where he was granted a rare full scholarship. 

In 2005 he performed with Cabrillo Stage in their production of Jesus Christ Superstar as the role of Caiaphas.  Mr. Berlanga sang the world premiere of Imant Raminsh’s Masterwork: The Peace of Wild Things in Carnegie Hall.   While at Cabrillo College, Mr. Berlanga sang in Cantiamo! and the Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus and was honored as one of the Music Department’s Outstanding Graduates in 2008.  In 2010, he performed with the Western Division American Choral Directors Association Collegiate Honor Choir under Weston Noble.  The following summer, he performed as part of a small ensemble with composer/conductor Eric Whitacre for the Los Angeles premier of Whitacre’s work in Disney Hall.  Shortly after, Mr. Berlanga was the Baritone Soloist for Cabrillo Symphonic Choir’s performances of Hindemith’s epic requiem, When Lilacs Last on the Dooryard Bloom’d.