Praised for “hypnotic lyricism, causing listeners to forget where they were for a moment,” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins is known for “eras[ing] all kinds of boundaries” (USC Thornton School of Music) with her music.

Annie is the winner of the 2023 Pierre Fournier Award. In the coming seasons she will present a recital in London’s Wigmore Hall, record her debut album on the Champs Hill Label, and perform a concerto with the London Philharmonia Orchestra. In addition, Annie is 1st prize winner of the Chamber Orchestra of the Springs Emerging Soloist Competition, Father Merlet Award from the Pro Musicis Foundation, and New England Conservatory Concerto Competition. She is Artist-in-Residence of the EstOvest Festival Contemporary Cello Week in Turin, Italy and the Austin Chamber Music Center in Texas for the 2023-24 seasons. Jacobs-Perkins is also cellist of the Berlin-based Trio Brontë, winners of the 2023 Ilmari Hannikainen International Piano Chamber Music Competition. She regularly performs at venues such as the Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, Concertgebouw, Jordan Hall, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Ravinia Steans Institute, Yellow Barn Festival, and Marlboro Music.

Annie is an Artist Diploma candidate at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. She was a 2018 Outstanding Graduate and Trustee Scholar of USC’s Thornton School of Music (BM), the recipient of the Laurence Lesser Presidential Scholarship from NEC (MM ‘20, GD ‘21), and of the Ottilie-Selbach-Redslob Stiftung at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik Berlin (MM ‘23). Annie’s primary teachers include Frans Helmerson, Troels Svane, Laurence Lesser, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Kathleen Murphy Kemp.

Hailed as “spine-tingling” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram) and “thrillingly visceral” (Minnesota Star Tribune), American pianist Kyle Orth has distinguished himself globally as a captivating soloist and chamber musician. Since his orchestral debut at the age of fifteen, Orth has appeared as a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Oaxaca (Mexico), the Arequipa and Cusco Symphony Orchestras (Perú), under the batons of Osmo Vänskä, Jaap van Zweden, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Hugh Wolff, and others.

As a chamber musician, Orth has performed at the Perlman Music Program, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Pablo Casals Festival-Academie in France. Recordings of Orth’s concerto and chamber performances have been broadcasted on WGBH-WCRB classical 99.5 in Boston and New Hampshire, as well as WRR radio, classical 101.1 in Dallas.

Born in 1990, Orth received a B.M. from Texas Christian University as a Nordan Young Artist. He holds a M.M. from New England Conservatory, and is now a doctoral candidate in NEC’s DMA program. During his time at NEC, he was awarded the Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award (2018) and a Presidential Scholarship (2016-2018); he also won the piano department concerto competition and performed Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto in Jordan Hall. His primary mentors were Wha Kyung Byun, John Owings, Alex McDonald, and Marcy McDonald. Orth is currently on faculty at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Illinois.