MILLER THEATRE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Programs
- Finance
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Communications Manager
Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. The Grammy Award-winning Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world premiere performances of over 90 new creations. With a career spanning 30 years, Hannigan's artistic colleagues have included Reinbert de Leeuw, Pierre Boulez, Sasha Waltz, John Zorn, Krszysztof Warlikowski, Simon Rattle, Katie Mitchell, Henri Dutilleux, Vladimir Jurowski, Gyorgy Ligeti, Kirill Petrenko, George Benjamin, Andreas Kriegenburg, and Hans Abrahamsen. She is Principal Guest Conductor of the Göteborgs Symfoniker, Première artiste invitée of l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Associate Artist of the London Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (2024/25 onwards) and Reinbert de Leeuw Professor of Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London. With Alpha Classics, she has released six albums including her latest recording, Infinite Voyage (2023). Hannigan's commitment to the younger generation of musicians led her to create the mentoring initiatives Equilibrium Young Artists (2017) and Momentum: our future now (2020).
Job Titles:
- Audience Services Manager
Drummer Kenny Grohowski has been performing since the age of 14 and has collaborated with Vernon Reid, Corey Unger (Blood Has Been Shed), Emeline Michel, Peter Cincotti, Bobby Sanabria, Bill T. Jones, Rory Stuart, Cassandra Wilson, Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz, Giovanni Hidalgo, John Benitez, Domingo Quinones, and Bobby Valentin, among others. Grohowski has been a member of bassist Lonnie Plaxico's band since 2003 and a member of Andy Milne's Dapp Theory since 2006. He has recorded on over 40 albums, including Plaxico's hit So Alive (Sony, Japan) and has also toured in the U.S., South America, Europe, and Australia. In addition to teaching drum set, guitar, and bass in New York City, Grohowski is an affiliated private instructor at The New School.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Production & Operations
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Born and raised in Tokyo, Ikue Mori moved to New York in 1977 where she began playing drums and formed the experimental no wave band DNA with Arto Lindsay. In the mid ‘80s, John Zorn introduced her to the New York downtown-improvising scene where she began performing with drum machines, an unusual choice for improvised music that allowed her to forge her own unique approach. Over subsequent years, she has collaborated with numerous musicians in diverse genres and styles throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, while continuing to produce and record her own compositions. Commissioners of Mori's work include the Tate Modern, the Montalvo Arts Center, SWR German radio program, Rel che, the Mary Flagler Charitable Trust, and the Sharjah Art Foundation in the United Arab Emirates. Mori has been awarded the Prix Ars Electronica (1999), a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship (2000), a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2006), the Instant Award in Improvised Music (2019), and a MacArthur Fellowship (2022).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Drawing on his experience in a variety of genres including jazz, rock, hardcore punk, classical, klezmer, film, cartoon, popular and improvised music, John Zorn has created an influential body of work that defies academic categories. A native of New York City, he has been a central figure in the downtown scene since 1975, incorporating a wide range of musicians in various compositional formats. He learned alchemical synthesis from Harry Smith, structural ontology with Richard Foreman, how to make art out of garbage with Jack Smith, cathartic expression at Sluggs, and hermetic intuition from Joseph Cornell. Early inspirations include American innovators Ives, Varese, Cage, Carter, and Partch, the European tradition of Berg, Stravinsky, Boulez, and Kagel, soundtrack composers Herrmann, Morricone, and Stalling as well as avant-garde theater, film, art, and literature.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing & Engagement
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Executive Director at Columbia University School
Melissa Smey is Associate Dean and Executive Director at Columbia University School of the Arts, where she leads the Arts Initiative, Miller Theatre, and oversees the Lenfest Center for the Arts. Passionately dedicated to creating new work and fostering audience development, Smey has commissioned over 40 new works from leading international composers including Marcos Balter, Courtney Bryan, Chaya Czernowin, Tyshawn Sorey, Augusta Read Thomas, and John Zorn, launched a visual art commissioning project for the theater's lobby, produced free programs serving tens of thousands of audience members, and commissioned critically acclaimed chamber operas from Hannah Lash and Missy Mazzoli. In 2020, she created Live from Columbia, a free series of streaming concerts that attracts a global audience for Miller's programming. A two-time recipient of the ASCAP-Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming for her work at Miller Theatre and one of Musical America's 2019 Top-30 Professionals of the Year, Smey has served as speaker and panelist for organizations including the Canadian New Music Network, Chamber Music America, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York University, Philadelphia New Music Project, and Works and Process at the Guggenheim. Smey is also the co-creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Mission: Commission, which demystifies the process of how classical music gets made.
Peter Evans is a composer, trumpet player, bandleader, and educator based in New York City. For 20 years Evans has been pushing the boundaries of creative music in formats as divergent as solo trumpet improvisation, symphony orchestras, jazz ensembles, noise/electronic music, and through-composed works. He has been the recipient of awards and commissions worldwide including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2022. Evans has released 20 albums of original music including Ghosts, Lifeblood, and Being & Becoming. A prolific composer and performer, he tours regularly with his ensembles Being & Becoming, SYMPHONY, Forever 21, and as a soloist and collaborator with some of the leading lights of modern music.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Administrative Planning
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Sae Hashimoto is a Japanese-born percussionist whose multifaceted career extends beyond barriers of genre and classification. Her unique approach to performance is cultivated by her intensive classical training and a decade of freelance experience in NYC performing symphonic, baroque, contemporary, and avant-garde music. She currently serves as the principal timpanist of the New Jersey-based orchestra Symphony in C, and performs as a baroque timpanist, collaborating with groups such as Clarion, TENET Vocal Artists, and Juilliard 415. In the fall of 2021, she joined the acclaimed piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire. Hashimoto also performs frequently with other leading contemporary ensembles, including Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink Large Ensemble, and National Sawdust Ensemble. As a leading interpreter of John Zorn's music for the vibraphone, she has performed his music, including over a dozen premieres, at venues all around the U.S. and beyond. Her latest project featuring original music is Archipelago X, an improv-based trio consisting of Brian Marsella on keyboards and 2022 MacArthur Fellow Ikue Mori on electronics. Hashimoto is a graduate of The Juilliard School.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Advisory Board
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Stile Antico is regarded as one of the most innovative and accomplished vocal ensembles in the world. Working without a conductor, its twelve members have captivated audiences on four continents with their performances of Renaissance polyphony. In addition to its core repertoire, Stile Antico has premiered works by Joanna Marsh, John McCabe, Nico Muhly, Giles Swayne, and Huw Watkins. The group's diverse range of collaborators includes Fretwork, the Folger Consort, Marino Formenti, B'Rock, Rihab Azar, and Sting. Its bestselling recordings have earned accolades including the Gramophone Award for Early Music, Diapason d'or de l'année, Edison Klassiek Award, and Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. The group has received three Grammy® nominations, and performed live at the 60th Grammy® Awards at Madison Square Garden. In 2023, Stile Antico marked 400 years since the death of William Byrd with the release of an acclaimed album on Decca Classics.
The London-based ensemble has performed internationally at numerous venues and festivals, including Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms, Buckingham Palace, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Cité de la Musique, Luxembourg Philharmonie, and Leipzig Gewandhaus, as well as the Antwerp, Bruges, Utrecht, and York Early Music Festivals, the Lucerne Easter Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. In the U.S., the group appears regularly in Boston and New York and has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Washington's National Cathedral and Library of Congress, Vancouver's Chan Centre, and in concert series spanning twenty-five states. In addition to touring in Mexico and Colombia, Stile Antico visited East Asia for the first time in 2018, performing in Korea, Macau, and Hong Kong.
Alongside its concert and recording work, Stile Antico holds masterclasses and workshops and leads courses at the Dartington International Summer School. The group has been in residence at Zenobia Música, and is often invited to work alongside ensembles at universities, festivals, and early music forums. The support of the charitable Stile Antico Foundation has enabled Stile Antico to expand its work in schools, to lead Youth Consort courses for students, and to offer scholarships to young professional singers and ensembles.
Job Titles:
- Director of Artistic & Production Planning
Yura Lee is one of the most versatile artists of today and is one of the very few in the world that has mastery of both violin and viola, actively performing both instruments equally. Her career spans various musical mediums: both as a soloist and as a chamber musician who captivates audiences with music from baroque to modern. At age 12, Lee became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the "Performance Today" awards given by National Public Radio. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. As a soloist, she has appeared with many major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and San Francisco Symphony, to name a few. As a chamber musician, she regularly takes part in festivals worldwide, and is currently a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Boston Chamber Music Society. Lee studied at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Salzburg Mozarteum in Austria, and Kronberg Academy in Germany. She teaches at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California.