Guest Artists and Faculty Performers

John Buffett

Baritone John Buffett enjoys a versatile career lending his “warm tone and ringing top notes” (Salt Lake Tribune) to music from the early baroque through the 20th and 21st centuries. Recent solo engagements include Haydn’s “Lord Nelson Mass” with the Flagstaff Symphony, Bach’s “St. John Passion” and “St. Matthew Passion” with Musica Angelica, The American Festival Chorus, and the Oregon and Charlotte Bach festivals, Copland’s “Old American Songs” with the Pacific Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah with Seraphic Fire, the LA Master Chorale and the Long Beach Camerata.

Buffett has been a featured soloist with the Pacific Symphony, the Utah, San Antonio, Winston-Salem, and Syracuse Symphonies, The Mark Morris Dance Group, The Pacific Chorale, and the Rochester Philharmonic.  He has also been a featured performer with many leading Early Music Ensembles including: Apollo’s Fire, Ars Lyrica, Bach Collegium San Diego, The Boston Early Music Festival, Con Gioia, The Charlotte Bach Academy, The Oregon Bach Festival, Musica Angelica and Tesserae Baroque.  Also an accomplished Chamber musician, he regularly performs with some of America’s best choral ensembles like Seraphic Fire, The Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.  Additionally, he frequently records in LA studio sessions for Film/TV.

Solo appearances at the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center highlight other important performances.  Buffett, currently on voice faculty at CSU Long Beach’s Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, and for the Professional Choral Institute at the Aspen Music Festival, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music.

Brian Giebler

Praised for his “lovely tone and deep expressivity” by The New York Times, GRAMMY® nominated tenor Brian Giebler radiates “shine and clarity” (Opera News) in every phrase using “his high-placed tenor with great skill” (Opera Magazine). His debut solo album “a lad's love” (Bridge Records, 2020) garnered high praise from significant industry publications including Gramophone, Opera News (Critics Choice), and San Francisco Classical Voice, debuted on the Billboard charts, and earned him his first GRAMMY® Award nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

His 2022/23 season begins leading a fully staged production of Craig Hella Johnson’s “Considering Matthew Shepard” with Music at Trinity Wall Street. Then, Giebler will debut with the Rhode Island Philharmonic singing Handel’s “Messiah;” and make return appearances with Santa Fe Pro Musica, Boston Early Music Festival, Baltimore Choral Society, and in a performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of NY. He will sing the role of Evangelist for Bach's “St. John Passion” with Voices of Ascension in March of 2023.

“The sweetness of Giebler's impressive high tenor” and his "expressive and elegant phrasing" (Cleveland Classical) have been heard as Apollo in Handel's Semele with The English Concert and The Clarion Choir in an international tour under Harry Bicket at the Theatre des Champs-Elysées (Paris), the Barbican (London), and Carnegie Hall (New York); as Adam in “REV 23” at the Prototype Festival (dir. James Darrah; cond. Daniela Candillari); and in the comedic role of Arnalta in Monteverdi's “L’incoronazione di Poppea” with Boston Baroque, joining a star-studded cast including Anthony Roth Costanzo and Amanda Forsythe. Last season highlights included a tour of the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals singing Monteverdi with Apollo’s Fire, Haydn’s “Creation” with Santa Fe Pro Musica, and returning with Mark Morris Dance Group, this time to sing the choreographer’s iconic version of Handel’s “L’Allegro, il Penseroso” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

He has performed Stravinsky with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst; Evangelist in Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” with Trinity Wall Street; Mozart at both Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center; and Bach Cantatas with the Grand Rapids Symphony and Handel & Haydn Society. Regularly engaged for Handel’s “Messiah,” he has performed the work with Music of the Baroque (available on recording), the Charlotte, Memphis, and Virginia Symphonies, as well as at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of NY and Musica Sacra. Giebler sang and recorded the role of Iff the Water Genie in Wuorinen's “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and made his debut with Boston Early Music Festival in Germany singing in Charpentier’s “Les Plaisirs” and de Lalande’s “Les Fontaines.”
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Vijay Gupta

Vijay Gupta, violin, is the founder and artistic director of Street Symphony, a community of musicians creating spaces of connection for people in reentry from homelessness, addiction and incarceration in Los Angeles. He is also a co-founder of the Skid Row Arts Alliance, a consortium dedicated to creating art for - and with - the largest homeless community in America. He was the recipient of a 2018 MacArthur Fellowship for his work “bringing beauty, respite, and purpose to those all too often ignored by society.” Gupta delivered the 33rd annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy for Americans for the Arts and his 2010 TED Talk, “Music is Medicine, Music is Sanity.”

He has performed as an international recitalist, soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician for more than 20 years, playing his solo debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta. Gupta was a member of the first violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 12 years, and has collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Yo-Yo Ma, and appears regularly with the Strings Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

As a recording artist, he recently released "Breathe," an album of the piano chamber music of Reena Esmail, under his own label, and "When the Violin," a solo violin album featuring the music of Esmail, J.S. Bach, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Gupta currently serves as the senior artistic and programs advisor for the Young Musicians Foundation. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Marist College, and a master’s degree in music from the Yale School of Music. His principal teachers have included Ani Kavafian and Glenn Dicterow. Gupta plays a 2010 violin made by Los Angeles-based luthier Eric Benning.

Ben Kazez

Ben Kazez has been praised for his “velvety and full voice” by Barcelona Clássica. He performs regularly in Europe and the U.S. As a soloist he has sung under the direction of William Christie, Václav Luks, Masato Suzuki, Christian Curnyn, Lionel Meunier and Shunske Sato. His solo performances have been at the Musikfest Bremen and London Handel festivals, and at venues including Snape Maltings and Petit Palau de la Música Catalana, and with the Netherlands Bach Society. Kazez has sung in the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, at venues including Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Westminster Cathedral, and Opera of Versailles, and at festivals such as the BBC Proms (Royal Albert Hall) and the Salzburg Festival. His 2023-24 season Bach performances include Pilatus arias from the St. John Passion and Christmas Oratorio solos at Amsterdam’s Westerkerk, cantata solos at Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, and Christmas Oratorio and Easter Oratorio with Vox Luminis. During the pandemic, Kazez created VMII, an award-winning search engine now used by 15,000 people monthly to explore early vocal music. He speaks French and Italian.

Andrew McIntosh

Andrew McIntosh is a violinist, violist and composer. He performs regularly on period instruments with Tesserae, Musica Angelica, and Bach Collegium San Diego. He has served as guest concertmaster for baroque operas with LA Opera and Opera UCLA, and has also performed with the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Musica Pacifica, and the American Bach Soloists. He is a frequent recitalist, performing with historical keyboardist Ian Pritchard and fortepianist Steven Vanhauwaert. He has been featured performing solo Bach at the San Francisco Symphony's SoundBox series.

McIntosh's compositions have been played at venues across Europe and the U.S., and he has received commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Industry Opera Company, Calder Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Bludenzer Tage Zeitgemäßer Musik, and the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet. He is based in the Los Angeles area and currently serves on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts teaching violin, viola, composition, chamber music, and historical performance practice.

Rebecca Myers

Rebecca Myers is a soloist, vocal chamber singer, collaborator, recording artist and creator. She has gained a reputation for her “timbral clarity and flawless pitch”, “nimble coloratura” and “vulnerability and grace”. She has appeared on three Grammy award- winning albums, most notably as a soloist on The Crossing’s “Born,” winner of the 2023 Grammy for best choral performance. In recent seasons Myers has appeared as a soloist with The New World Symphony, Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra, Seraphic Fire, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, TENET Vocal Artists and Lorelei Ensemble. Her 2023-24 season includes two international tours with The Crossing, and performances with Lyric Fest, Tempesta di Mare, and the annual Enlightenment Festival with Seraphic Fire. She is proud to be the artistic director, and a founding soprano for the cutting edge vocal chamber music ensemble, Variant 6.

Ian Pritchard

Ian Pritchard, harpsichordist, organist, and musicologist, is a specialist in early music and historical keyboard practices. As a continuo player he has performed with the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Florilegium, with which he has toured in Europe and in South America. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with Monica Huggett, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Elizabeth Wallfisch and Rachel Podger, and has performed under Christopher Hogwood, Christophe Rousset, Emanuelle Haïm, Nicholas McGeegan, and Laurence Cummings. Pritchard has won prizes in the Broadwood Harpsichord Competition, London (first prize), the P. Bernardi Competition in Bologna, and in the Bruges Competition. Pritchrd began playing the harpsichord at the age of 13, beginning studies in his native Los Angeles with Susanne Shapiro. Earning his Bachelor’s degree in Music from the Oberlin Conservatory, Ohio, in 1999 (where he studied with Lisa Goode Crawford), he moved to Europe in 2000. From 2000-02 he studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London (where he studied with John Toll, Laurence Cummings, and James Johnstone), earning the prestigious DipRam award. In 2003-04 Pritchard was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Italy, where he studied with Liuwe Tamminga and Andrea Marcon, and conducted research on early Italian keyboard music. In 2018, Pritchard earned his Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Southern California. As a musicologist, his interests include keyboard music of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, improvisation, notation, compositional process, and performance practice. He is currently a full-time faculty member at the Colburn School Conservatory of Music, and in 2015 was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Leif Thomas Woodward

Leif Thomas Woodward, cello, is an alumnus of the USC Thornton School of Music where he was granted the Colburn Foundation Scholarship for studies in Early Music Performance and graduated Pi Kappa Lambda. In addition to holding a doctorate degree from the University of Southern California, he also holds a Master of Music degree and Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Woodward works with groups such as Tesserae, Los Angeles Musica Angelica, Los Angeles Master Choral, Pacific Choral, Long Beach Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Bach Collegium San Diego, and Angeles Consort. He has appeared at the Carmel Bach Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Corona Del Mar Baroque Music Festival, and on the chamber music series at the John Paul Getty Museum, Norton Simon Museum, “Sundays Live” at LACMA, Les Salons de Musiques, Redlands Chamber Music Society, Musica Angelica Chamber Music Series, and at Centrum’s Chamber Music Series in Port Townsend, Washington. In addition, he is an active soloist and section player in the Los Angeles studio-recording industry. He has worked on film, television, and video game soundtracks for composers John Williams, James Newton Howard, Bear McCreary, Christian Linke, Sebastien Najand, Alex Temple, Austin Wintory, and Tom Holkenborg. Woodward thoroughly enjoys working with young musicians. He is the instructor of violoncello performance and chamber music at Mount Saint Mary’s University and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Southern California, University of California Riverside, and the Colburn School of Music. He is also on faculty for orchestral and chamber music studies at Orange County School of the Arts and Poly Technic High School in Long Beach. He coaches the All Southern California High School Honor Orchestra, Orange County Youth Symphony, and adjudicates for competitions such as the Los Angeles Spotlight Awards, MTAC State Finals and Regionals, CMEA, and the Long Beach Mozart Festival. Recently, his former private cello student was appointed principal cellist of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra.

Paul Woodring

Paul Woodring specialized in organ performance at Cal State Northridge, studying under Sam Swartz and David Britton. He then studied organ and harpsichord in Vienna under Otto Bruckner and Elfriede Stadlmann. As an accompanist, Woodring has worked with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Los Angeles Opera Company among other well-known ensembles. Locally, he has worked with Opera San Luis Obispo, Festival Mozaic, Central Coast Children’s Choir, San Luis Obispo Master Chorale, Tolosa Strings and several musical theater organizations. He is currently staff accompanist, coach and university organist at Cal Poly. He is music director for Mt. Carmel Lutheran Church and San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church.