MOMENTUM ARTISTS - Key Persons

Goldstein is the fourth generation in a family of musicians. He has worked extensively with Israel's leading artists contributing his skills as a producer, arranger, programmer and keyboard player/pianist. Goldstein is also a current member of the Israeli "Kochav Nolad" (Israeli Idol) band. He has scored music for movie soundtracks and critically acclaimed Israeli and international TV productions. In 2012, Goldstein launched his own stock music library called ‘AGsoundtrax‘ and started licensing music for films, commercials and new media. In 2013, Goldstein began developing web apps as the ‘Tags Generator' which helps socials marketers to build generated #hashtags, and also the ‘AG Watermark Generator' which helps musicians to protect their online music by adding an audio watermark files signatures. In 2016, Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton licensed Goldstein's music for their election campaigns. In 2017, he founded ‘Sampleso' - a company that creates music samples for KONTAKT (Native Instruments). Goldstein is currently working on a variety of live and studio projects for commercials, TV, Film & New Media.

Job Titles:

• Conductor & Arrangements
• the Conductor

Alexander Walker has pursued a unique path, championing the music he loves, in places where it is not well-known, conducting pioneering performances all over the world. He has contributed to the rediscovery and re-evaluation of several significant composers with his innovative discography. In 2017, for the Elgar Society honoured him with their highest award, the Elgar Society Medal. In the UK, he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in both concerts and the recording studio, conducting the prestigious Elgar Birthday concert with them in Malvern in 2011. He recently made a highly successful debut with the English Chamber Orchestra at London's Cadogan Hall. He has also conducted City of London Sinfonia and the BBC Philharmonic (with a concert broadcast on BBCRadio 3) and the New Queens Hall Orchestra in the UK. In Moscow he is a regular guest conductor with the legendary Russian State Symphony Orchestra, as well as with Symphony Orchestra New Russia (Music Director: Yuri Bashmet), the Russian Philharmonic and Musica Viva, conducting concerts at Moscow's Tchaikovsky Hall, Zaryade Concert Hall and International Performing Arts Centre and elsewhere. International appearances during the last couple of seasons have included concerts with Prague Philharmonia in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, the Belgrade Philharmonic, Belgrade Strings (broadcasting on National Television with them), the Georges Enescu Philharmonic, Bucharest, North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra and Wrocław State Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of recent seasons have included a performance of Britten's War Requiem to mark the 70 years since the invasion of Poland in Lublin, Poland and the first ever production in Turkey of an Opera by Benjamin Britten, conducting The Turn of the Screw for the Istanbul State Opera. He also recently conducted the first production of Julian Grant's new opera Prophet and Loss for Oundle International Festival. His pioneering recordings of orchestral music and music for violin and orchestra by Ignatz Waghalter and recordings of 12 symphonies by Havergal Brian on Naxos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra New Russia have won both critical and popular acclaim, as have his discs of contemporary British music. After completing a music degree at Bristol University and post-graduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Alexander Walker studied with Ilya Musin at St. Petersburg Conservatoire and has since performed throughout the former Soviet Union where many of his concerts have been broadcast on National television and radio. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Voronezh State Symphony Orchestra from 1999-2004. He is a regular guest conductor with the Mikkeli and Lappeenranta City Orchestras in Finland, and of the Esbjerg Ensemble and the Vestyjsk Sinfonieorkester in Denmark and of many orchestras throughout Poland, the Balkans, Turkey and Romania. He works regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and has toured with the Royal Ballet to the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres in Russia, throughout the USA including to the Metropolitan Opera and Kennedy Center, as well as to Singapore, Korea, Japan and Turkey. He has conducted performances of The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and other work for the Royal Ballet has included Giselle, Manon, Romeo and Juliet, and Swan Lake. He has also worked for the Finnish National Opera, conducting Kenneth Greve's new production of Swan Lake, Cinderella for Scottish Ballet, Romeo and Juliet for Northern Ballet Theatre, a gala performance with Anastasia Volochkova at Sadler's Wells and a production of The Nutcracker for the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo. His operatic repertoire includes the major operas of Verdi, Puccini and Mozart and Tchaikovsky as well as Tobias and the Angel, Carmen, Rusalka, Tristan und Isolde, Verbum Nobile (Moniuszko), A Life for the Tsar, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Gli Equivoci nel sembiante, Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (Adam), and Paradise Moscow. Companies he has worked for have included Opera North, Grange Park Opera, English Touring Opera, Oundle International Festival, Bampton Classical Opera, Chelsea Opera Group, European Chamber Opera, Opera de Baug é, London City Opera and the Ukrainian National Opera in Odessa. A passionate advocate for British music abroad, he has also been responsible for organizing festivals featuring the music of Nielson in Russia and Karłowicz in Finland. He is highly regarded for his interpretations of Middle and East European classical and 19th and 20th century repertoire. An enthusiast for contemporary music, he has given first performances of music by Andrei Petrov, Aki-Yli Salomaki, Vladislav Uspenski, and many others. He is conductor of Surrey Youth Orchestra, and in London teaches conducting at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, conducts Royal Academy of Music Junior Department Sinfonia and teaches at the Royal Academy of Music. A light and fleet account of the opening movement, demonstrated the orchestra skill with Mendelssohns transparent orchestral textures, bringing a vein of melancholy into the second movement whilst maintaining a delightful clarity. This second movement was clearly no funeral procession, but something far more subtle. Walker and his players brought out the echoes of Mendelssohns Midsummer Nights Dream in the third movement, before launching into a tarantella which impressed with its precision and control. - Robert Hugill / Planet Hugill

Alma Mahler-Werfel was an extraordinary woman who lived through extraordinary times. Musically gifted and beautiful, she became the centre of an extraordinary artistic world in Vienna in the early years of the twentieth century. Her admirers included the artists Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka, the composer Alexander Zemlinsky as well as Gustav Mahler, the architect Walter Gropius and the novelist Franz Werfel to each of whom she was married.

Bruce has been called a renaissance man. At age 15 he sang in the choir for Duke Ellington and by 19 was playing The Boy in the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks, in a run lasting more than 800 performances. Trained at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, he has performed in Shakespeare in the Park, television commercials and films, ran a small art business based in New York City, and was a founding member of ODC, San Francisco's premiere dance company. He left his musical theater career to join the vibrant California business community and founded and/or managed innovative businesses in the health care arena. Bruce continues to consult to health care organizations globally and has recently co-developed an app called Timeout2Thrive, designed to aid frontline healthcare and essential workers during this period of unprecedented stress and crisis. He was a founding director of the acclaimed HeartMath Institute and CEO of HeartMath LLC for 11 years, during which time his clients included Stanford University, Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, NASA, The World Bank, Unilever, Shell, Prudential Financial, the NHS, Cathay Pacific Airways, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Cisco Systems, and Yosemite National Park. He has taught global executives at Stanford Business School, Columbia University Executive Program, Haas Business School at University of California Berkeley, and Nanyang Polytechnic University in Singapore. After fully recovering from a two-year health ordeal, he began to sing and dance again through a project he developed called What Makes Your Heart Sing, co-created with multi-Emmy award winning composer Gary Malkin. In 2017 he recorded his first album of original songs, entitled Renaissance Human, co-produced by gifted singer/songwriter/recording artists the Brothers Koren - Isaac and Thorald Koren. His years in both the business and performing arts worlds led him to develop a body of work on Awakening Creativity called Renaissance Human, which is now being taught at Stanford University, University of Delaware, the New York Open Center, 1440 Multiversity in Silicon Valley, the European Transformational Teachers Gathering, and elsewhere. In 2018 he returned to NYC and rejoined the arts scene here. He has performed at the Norwood Club, Pangea, Don't Tell Mama, the United Palace Theater, and St. Clements Theater and Church. His digital photography is available through Instagram and Facebook. He is part of the vocal ensemble at St Clements Church and Theater performing a program each week called Peaceable Hour.

Job Titles:

• Director

Edna Landau has dedicated nearly 40 years of her life to the field of artist management. She was a Director of IMG Artists from its founding in 1984 until her departure from the company in October of 2007. Her global vision, passion for the arts and uncompromising work ethic played a major role in launching this unique company, which is now the only truly international performing arts management company in the world. At IMG Artists, Ms. Landau personally looked after the career of the world's premier violinist, Itzhak Perlman, for 21 years and launched the careers of current musical superstars such as pianists Evgeny Kissin and Lang Lang, violinist Hilary Hahn and conductors Franz Welser-Most and Alan Gilbert. She participated in the international strategic planning that contributed to IMG Artists gaining its current pre-eminent international standing and oversaw its operations in North America. In June of 2008, the Colburn School in Los Angeles announced the creation of a new position for Ms. Landau. In her role of Director of Career Development, she designed a special curriculum intended to broaden the horizons of its students and enhance their preparedness for post-conservatory life. She also offered personalized one-on-one career counseling to the students. Ms. Landau held this position for three years and has continued to offer career advice to its alumni. In September 2013, Ms. Landau was invited to work with students at The Juilliard School as a special career consultant. She greatly enjoys the one-on-one guidance and strategic planning that she offers the students, as well as the seminars and guest talks that have been part of her responsibilities. Edna Landau's intense desire to help young performing artists and advocate on their behalf inspired her to write a comprehensive article entitled "Getting Noticed in the 21st Century", which was published in Musical America's 2011 Directory. That association led to the creation of Ms. Landau's career advice blog, "Ask Edna," which was hosted by Musical America for three and a half years and which drew a large international readership each week. The columns remain available on Musical America's website. Edna Landau has been frequently invited to lecture at college and conservatory campuses and to meet with students in career training programs. She also offers consulting services to individual artists and to non-profit organizations such as the Friends of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, which she helped to found as a fundraising arm of the celebrated orchestra. Ms. Landau received her B.A. in Music and M.A. in Musicology from City College and the City University of New York. She was on the faculty of the prestigious High School of Music and Art in New York for five years. Longing to be more closely associated with performing artists, she became Assistant to the Director of Young Concert Artists in 1974. In 1979, she joined up with Charles Hamlen to launch Hamlen/Landau Management, a unique agency that was dedicated to the representation of extraordinary artists and to extending to them and to presenters an unparalleled level of service and integrity. The company quickly gained recognition and attracted the attention of International Management Group's Chairman, Mark McCormack, who acquired it in 1984 and re-named it IMG Artists. Edna Landau's many years of dedication to the field of arts management have been the subject of a CNN documentary on their series entitled "Movers", broadcast internationally in the year 2000. She was also featured in New York Magazine's May 15, 2006 issue entitled "The Influentials" in which she was described as "the intensely coveted, hugely devoted grande dame of New York managers who inspires a rare level of trust and commitment from her clients." In January of 2008, the International Society of the Performing Arts awarded Ms. Landau their International Citation of Merit, recognizing her Lifetime Achievement in the performing arts. From 2009 to 2015, she was proud to be a member of the Board of Directors of Chamber Music America.

Job Titles:

• Director at the Metropolitan Opera

Yefim Maizel has more than 37 years of experience directing opera and musical theater productions internationally. He has directed 61 original productions of both opera and operetta for opera houses of all sizes, and has worked with major opera stars as well as young professional and emerging singers. Formally trained, holding a degree in Opera Stage Direction and a Master's degree in Music, his love for interpreting the music score, his passion for theater, and deep insight into human emotion and behavior transform opera into storytelling at its best. For the last 18 seasons Yefim has been a Guest Stage Director at the Metropolitan Opera, after working for 8 seasons with San Francisco Opera. In 2005, Mr. Maizel established the Opera Academy of California (OAC), a non-profit 501(c)3 educational organization, where he serves as CEO, Artistic Director and Stage Director. In 2011, in addition to intimate theater performances, master classes, opera appreciation classes and programs for children, OAC opened the first Summer Program for Emerging Singers, which became one of the cornerstones of the OAC's vision of ensuring that opera as musical theater remains alive and relevant. In the last several years, Yefim directed productions of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" and "Nabucco" in Kazan, Russia. The productions have had great success both with critics and audiences. A prestigious opera festival named after Chaliapin in Kazan Opera Theater, Russia opened with his production of "Il Trovatore"on the 1st of February, 2016 and with "Nabucco" in 2018. Yefim Maizel will be directing the operatic masterpiece "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bartok for the Opera Academy of California in 2019.

Job Titles:

• Website Designer

With over fifteen years of website, graphic design and marketing experience, Jeremiah manages Momentum Artists' online presence. Graduating in 2004 from Oral Roberts University with a degree in Communications and PR/Advertising, Jeremiah has managed websites and online accounts for clients in industries ranging from book publishing, motivational speakers, hardware stores, dentists, and many trade professionals. Born in the Washington/Baltimore area, Jeremiah now lives in North Carolina with his wife and four kids. An avid backpacker and guitarist, he spends any remaining free time getting his heart broken by the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles and eating way too much ice cream.

Job Titles:

• Conductor, Violinist, Composer, Arranger
• Special Projects

John McLaughlin Williams co-composed the soundtrack, alongside Michael Kamen (Lethal Weapon, Die Hard), to Mr. Dreyfuss Goes to Washington (History Channel documentary starring Richard Dreyfuss).

Joseph "Yossi" Somer is an award-winning Norwegian-Israeli film industry professional and entrepreneur, based in Nesodden (a peninsula in the Oslo fjord). Across a forty year career, his work has won eight Israeli Academy Awards, two Gold Medals and one Bronze Medal at Worldfest Houston, and numerous awards and citations at various prestigious international film events. The Economist named him as one of the pioneers of cinematic "magical realism" because of his utilization of computer-generated images in motion picture production (Dybbuk).

Known affectionately as Mo Pleasure, this internationally renowned multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer began playing acoustic piano at the age of four, composed his first song at age 12 and by his early teens already mastered several instruments including bass, trumpet, guitar, drums and violin in genres that include pop, funk, jazz, R&B, soul, Brazilian, and classical music. Pleasure holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from the University of Connecticut. He has devoted time to philanthropic efforts including fundraising for the Guilford ABC Program and Guilford High School music programs and co-founded "We R 1 Voice" with his wife Lori in 2013. Pleasure is currently a Music Director for Bette Midler. Pleasure started his career as a bass player after graduating college when he became a member of Ray Charles' orchestra in 1986. From 1989 through 1992, Mo was both keyboardist and musical director with saxophonist Najee, pianist Alex Bugnon, and vocalists Philip Bailey, Patti Austin and Jon Lucien. In 1993, he became a member of the legendary group Earth, Wind & Fire, and ascended to become the band's musical director from 1994-2001. Mo was featured playing keyboards, trumpet and guitar with Janet Jackson's 2001 All for You tour and played keyboards and trumpet with Boney James' 2004 Pure tour. As a principal member of the group Devoted Spirits, he was featured playing keyboards for Jimi Hendrix's 60th Birthday Celebration and the 2004 Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix tour. He has also recorded and performed with artists including George Duke, Christina Aguilera, Dianne Reeves, Jonathan Butler, Rachelle Ferrell, Brian Culbertson, Michael McDonald, Oleta Adams, Marcus Miller, Average White Band, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole, Frankie Beverly & Maze, Peter Cetera, and David Foster. There are many Television and Video performances to Mo's credit, including the Ray Charles BBC Special, Mad TV, BET on Jazz, VH1, The Tonight Show, X- Factor, The Talk, George Lopez Show, Earth, Wind & Fire documentary Shining Stars and the HBO Special Janet Jackson in Hawaii. His movie soundtrack credits include "Talkin'" featured in the Disney movie Three Men and a Little Lady and the EWF single "Cruisin" featured in Spike Lee's Get on the Bus. Pleasure also appeared in the 2009 Michael Jackson documentary This Is It.

Born in Haifa, in 1955, Israel, Ofer Ben-Amots gave his first piano concert at age nine and at age sixteen was awarded first prize in the Chet Piano Competition. Later, following composition studies with Joseph Dorfman at Tel Aviv University, he was invited to study at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland. There he studied with Pierre Wismer and privately with Alberto Ginastera. Ben-Amots is an alumnus of the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany, where he studied with Martin C. Redel and Dietrich Manicke and graduated with degrees in composition, music theory, and piano. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Ben-Amots studied with George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his Ph.D. in music composition. Currently Chair of the Music Department at Colorado College, Dr. Ben-Amots teaches composition, music theory, and a wide variety of liberal arts subjects. Ofer Ben-Amots' compositions are performed regularly in concert halls and festivals Worldwide. His music has been performed by such orchestras as the Zürich Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, the Austrian Radio Orchestra, Bruckner Orchestra, Moscow Camerata, Heidelberg, Erfurt, Brandenburg, the Filarmonici di Sicili, Milano Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, North/South Consonance in NY, Portland Chamber Orchestra, and the Colorado Springs Philharmonic among others. His compositions have been professionally recorded by the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony, Odessa Philharmonic, the BBC Singers, and the renowned Czech choirs Permonik and Jitro. Ben-Amots has received commissions and grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, Amado Foundation, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Fuji International Music Festival in Japan, Delta Ensemble from Amsterdam, Assisi Musiche Festival, the Geneva Camerata and many others. Ofer Ben-Amots is the winner of the 1994 Vienna International Competition for Composers. His chamber opera, Fool's Paradise, was premiered in Vienna during the 1994 festival Wien modern and has become subsequently part of the 1994/95 season of Opernhaus Zürich. He is recipient of the 1988 Kavannagh Prize for his Fanfare for Orchestra and the Gold Award at South Africa's 1993 Roodepoort International Competition for Choral Composition. His Avis Urbanus for amplified flute was awarded First Prize at the 1991 Kobe International Competition for Flute Composition in Japan. In 1999, Ben-Amots was awarded the Aaron Copland Award and the Music Composition Artist Fellowship by the Colorado Council on the Arts. In 2004 he won the Festiladino, an international contest for Judeo-Spanish songs, a part of the Israel Festival in Jerusalem. In 2015, Ben-Amots won the First Prize at the 4th Smareglia International Composers Competition in Udine, Italy. His innovative multimedia opera, The Dybbuk, has been produced in over ten different productions in the US, Germany, and Israel. The opera has been described as "a uniquely beautiful and powerful new work" and its production as "a service to music and to what is best in our humanity" (Listen for Life Reviews, by Donna Stoering, September 30, 2016. Ofer Ben-Amots' works have been repeatedly recognized for their emotional and highly personal expression. The interweaving of folk elements with contemporary textures, along with his unique imaginative orchestration, creates the haunting dynamic tension that permeates and defines Ben-Amots' musical language. His music has been published by Baerenreiter, Kallisti Music Press, Muramatsu Inc., Dorn, and The Composer's Own Press. It can be heard on Naxos, Vantage, Plæne, Stylton, and the Milken Archive of jewish Music. For more information on Ben-Amots, visit www.

Roman Markowicz, the Polish born pianist, has been a New York resident for nearly half a century. Graduating from Manhattan School of Music with the Harold Bauer Award (B.M.), as a student of Artur Balsam, Markowics then continued his piano studies in the Juilliard School (M.M.), taking lessons from Ania Dorfman. As a soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Markowicz has performed throughout the Eastern United States and in Europe. For the last three decades, Mr. Markowicz has been active as a music reviewer for Polish-language publications on both sides of the ocean (Nowy Dziennik, Kurier Plus, Ruch Muzyczny). Three seasons ago, he joined the New York staff of the well-known French classical music website Concertonet.com as an English language contributor and critic.

Virginia Grasso, a native New Yorker, has been performing since the age of 13. She won her first vocal award at the age of 17 and went on to win seven more. She was a principle artist with New York City Opera for 8 years. As a bel canto specialist, Virginia has also been presented at Bellas Artes, Mexico City; Teatro Cervantes, Malaga, Spain; The San Francisco Opera; Washington Opera; Teatro Sao Carlo, Lisbon; Grand Theatre of Geneva; Cape Town Opera, South Africa; Alfredo Kraus Theatre, Canary Islands; Teatro Colon, Bogota; Opera Grand Rapids, Michigan; Fort Worth Opera, Texas; Gold Coast Opera, Florida; The Sinaloa Festival, Mexico; and Opera Orchestra of New York. Her roles included: Norma; Violetta, La Traviata; Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni; Alaida, La Straniera; Elizabetta, Roberto Devereux; Lucia, Lucia di Lammermoor; Gilda, Rigoletto; Musetta, La Boheme; Susanna, Le Nozze di Figaro; Adele, Die Fledermaus; Micaela, Carmen; Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi. Virginia excelled as a soloist in many concert and oratorio performances on such stages as The Teatro Rossini in Pesaro, Italy; Palau de la Musica in Barcelona; Casa Verdi in Milan; Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York City; New Jersey Performing Arts Center; Bruno Walter Recital Hall; Donnell Library Series; and in concerts with The New Jersey Symphony, Haifa Symphony, The Grace Choral Society, The Collegiate Choral, The Berkshire Festival, and The Brooklyn Philharmonic, - performing works of Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, Honegger, Mozart, Poulenc, Schubert, Vivaldi, and others. Since 2000, Virginia has dedicated her time to teaching voice full time. Occasionally teaching through her performing years, she now has over 30 years experience teaching voice. Her students have performed at The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, on Broadway, regionally and internationally. She facilitates singer forums and Master Classes. In 2001, she was honored with an invitation to give a series of Master Classes on the Art of Bel Canto singing in Tokyo, Japan. She has also been invited to give Master Classes for Opera Noire of New York and has been a frequent guest speaker with the Exploring Opera series in San Francisco and New York City. Virginia is an approved voice teacher for the Lindemann Young Artist Program at The Met and has a professional affiliation with Hunter College in NYC. She has studios in Midtown and Upper Manhattan. She also teaches in San Francisco on occasion.

Job Titles:

• Conductor, Composer, Pianist

Yaron Gottfried is one of the most prominent musicians of his generation in Israel, a multidisciplinary artist who bridges classical, contemporary and jazz music. Gottfried held the position of Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra for 11 years between 2002-2013 with great success, presenting fresh innovative programs, packed halls, rave reviews and over 120 concerts in a season. He graduated his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem under Maestro Mendi Rodan. Gottfrieds conducting repertoire spans from the renaissance period to contemporary music. In January 2015 he led the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, replacing Maestro Valery Gergiev at short notice with an Israeli premier of Shostakovich 4th Symphony; the concert received rave reviews from the critics. As a result the IPO invited him to lead the 2016 Annual Gala event in October in an all-Gershwin program. In September 2015 he performed a German premier with WDR Funkhausorchester of his Pictures at an Exhibition-Remake for jazz trio and orchestra after Mussorgsky. Yaron Gottfried has taken a classic Romantic suite and musically translated it into a contemporary happening. His multiple views of the famous "Promenade" are extraordinary. The orchestrations are well done and the performance exemplary. Dave Liebman Yaron Gottfried is an excellent pianist and arranger and I enjoy listening to his music. His arrangements of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky are inventive and imaginative and his playing blends beautifully with the larger ensemble. His version sheds new light on a well known piece and opens up the piece for creative improvisation. Uri Caine