grand prix judges 2023
MARK CORTALE is a theatre producer and an artist manager. Since 2011 he has been Producing Artistic Director of The Art House in Provincetown, MA. He has presented artists that include Vanessa Williams, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Sutton Foster, Kristin Chenoweth, Chita Rivera, Megan Mullally and Christine Ebersole. In 2019, he produced the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominated Off-Broadway musical Midnight At The Never Get. He founded the international Broadway @ Concert Series featuring Seth Rudetsky in Provincetown and has presented these concerts with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The Broward Center, The Wallis, The Kimmel Center and the Leicester Square Theatre in London. In 2012 he formed the singing string quartet Well-Strung. He manages Christine Ebersole, Melissa Errico, Jeffery Roberson aka Varla Jean Merman, Well-Strung, Tori Scott and Edmund Bagnell. Mark recently joined the Board of Directors of The New York Pops. www.markcortalepresents/com
STEFANIA DE KENESSEY’s music has been heard throughout New York City, from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to Joe’s Pub and LaMama; internationally, it has been performed in more than 35 countries, from Australia to Venezuela. Her output ranges from choral, vocal and operatic pieces to chamber and orchestral work, as well as scores for documentary films, theater and dance companies. She has written concertos for such virtuosos as trumpeter Chris Gekker and flutist Elizabeth Mann; she has had premieres with St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Singapore Symphony, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and the Absolute Ensemble, conducted by Kristjan Järvi. Honored repeatedly with awards from ASCAP, her music is available on several CD’s, including Gotham Siren (North/South 2014), Keeping Time (Innova 2014), Of Water and Clouds (Tugboat Music 2012), Never Broken (Center Stage 2003), Sing for the Cure (TCC 2000) and Shades of Light, Shades of Dark (North/South 2000). Her radical operatic reimagining of Tom Wolfe’s classic novel The Bonfire of the Vanities debuted at El Teatro at El Museo del Barrio in 2015. Her Spontaneous D-Combustion, a concerto for solo piano performed by pianist Mary Kathleen Ernst, is aired regularly on WQXR-FM in New York City. Her Microvids, a set of 19 piano miniatures written during the Covid 19 pandemic, has just been recorded by award-winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman and will be released in 2022. Stefania de Kenessey holds degrees from Yale (BA) and Princeton (MFA, PhD), and she has taught at The New School as a Professor of Music.
Adrienne Boris is a talent agent with UIA Talent Agency, with special focus on concert, recital, and special projects bookings, bringing a varied background in symphony work, opera, literary management, theater, and musical theater. She has worked with ADA as an Artist Manager since 2021. As a representative, her personal mission is to champion, connect, and uplift artists on her roster while forging trusting, transparent relationships with companies and producers. Prior to her career as an agent, Adrienne had a decade-long career as a director/producer and still directs. She recently staged a 1983 production of Don Giovanni, set and performed in Nassau County, Long Island for Long Island Lyric Opera and the world premiere of Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg’s Nighttown: An Operatic Re-Imagining of James Joyce’s Ulysses at Harvard University, where she was Executive Producer and Stage Director from 2019-2022. She is the co-founding Chief Strategic Officer of Helios Opera, founded in July 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Helios most recently produced the film premiere of John De Los Santos and Christopher Weiss’s Service Provider. Helios was called by Schmopera “one of the forerunners in digital opera” and received national press from The Boston Globe and The Houston Chronicle. She received her MFA in Directing (Theatre) from Boston University College of Fine Arts and her BA from Kenyon College. Adrienne enjoys consulting with and coaching young singers on personal branding, audition, repertoire, and the search for representation. Manuel Campos, Young conductor, educator and trainer of children's and youth orchestras, of Venezuelan origin, he completed his musical studies, within the State Foundation of the System of Children's and Youth Orchestras of Venezuela, the Simón Bolívar Conservatory, University of the Arts of Venezuela, Conservatory Regional Music of Paris and the Latin American Academy of Violin. Invited and regular conductor in several child-youth and professional groups in Venezuela and Ecuador; He has been the creator of important projects, such as the “Antonio Neumane” Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Guayaquil Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has recently participated as guest conductor of the Ecuadorian Philharmonic Orchestra, Cuenca Symphony Orchestra, Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra, Guayaquil Municipal Philharmonic Orchestra, Loja Symphony Orchestra, University of Cuenca Symphony Orchestra, Strasbourg Symphony Orchestra (France) . As of January 2017, he combines his pedagogical activity in the violin area, with the musical direction of the project, Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de la Prefectura del Guayas, a group, with which he has carried out intense educational, social and cultural work, through the length and breadth of the province. Last August, Maestro Campos, participated as a guest conductor, in the Festival "Les Promenades Musicales de Lalouvesc", in France, invited by the organization of the same name, which every year brings together great musicians from all over Europe, for 2018 his commitments include concerts in Europe, the United States and South America. Dieu An Tran. Born and raised in a Vietnamese immigrant family, Tran Dieu An grew not only with Vietnamese traditions but Russian mentality. She studied piano at the Moscow State Conservatory under Prof. S. Dorensky. During 2020 she received her special degree and started post-graduate studies under prof. A. Pisarev supervision. After 7 years Dieu An graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory with Honors. Dieu An actively performed in different Russian cities (Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Velikiy Novgorod, Nizhniy Novgorod, Naberezhnye Chelny, Omsk, etc.) and abroad (Vietnam, Lithuania, Latvia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Israel, USA). She often participates in different concerts in her motherland Vietnam (The Hanoi Opera House, Saigon Opera House, Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music, Erato School). With the proper guidance from Tatiana Shklovskaya and prof. Sergei Dorensky Dieu An participated and won many competitions including Latvia (I prize), Hungary (II prize) and Italy (Grand-Prix), where she scored the highest points and many invitations for participating in competitions, concerts and masterclasses. Also, she was a member of Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation for many years, that gave her the opportunity to perform all around the world. |