Week 1
Charles Dimmick
Violin – Concertmaster
Violinist Charles Dimmick enjoys a varied and distinguished career as concertmaster, soloist, and chamber musician. Praised by the Boston Globe for his “cool clarity of expression,” Charles is one of New England’s most sought-after orchestral musicians. In addition to his role with the New Hampshire Music Festival, he is co-concertmaster of the Boston Pops Esplanade, and concertmaster of both the Portland Symphony and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. Charles has appeared as guest concertmaster for the Arizona Music Fest and the Winston-Salem Symphony. A frequent soloist, Charles has garnered praise, packed houses, and received standing ovations for what the Portland Press Herald has called his “luxurious and stellar performances” and his “technical and artistic virtuosity.” Recent concerto engagements have included performances with the Portland Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Arizona Musicfest, Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Boston Civic Symphony, and NHMF. As a chamber musician, Charles can be heard collaborating with the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Festival, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Radius Ensemble, and Monadnock Music. He is featured as concertmaster on many recordings with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera, including the Grammy-Award winning opera The Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Tobias Picker. His debut recording as concerto soloist in Elliot Schwartz’s Chamber Concerto and his debut solo violin recording of Lisa Bielawa’s Synopsis #7 can be found at bmop.org. Charles lives with his wife, NHMF flutist Rachel Braude, and their daughter Chloe. He performs on a 1784 Joseph Gagliano violin.
Will Gunn
Guest Choral Conductor
William Gunn is the director of music at Plymouth Regional High School where he conducts both instrumental and choral ensembles. Mr. Gunn is also the music director of the Pemigewasset Choral Society. He received his bachelor of music in music education from Ithaca College and his masters of music in conducting from Colorado State University. Mr. Gunn has studied conducting with Wes Kenney, Dwight Bigler, Steve Peterson, and Eric Hammer. Mr. Gunn serves as the High School Repertoire and Resources chair for American Choral Directors’ Association Eastern Region.
Mr. Gunn’s choirs have consistently received high ratings at local and regional festivals. Mr. Gunn finished his Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies (CAGS) at Plymouth State University in 2026. His research focused on choral improvisation and vocal self-efficacy in amateur singers. Mr. Gunn regularly guest conducts and adjudicates at local and regional festivals. In 2018, he was a Conducting Scholar at the Delaware Choral Academy in Aix en Provence, France. Mr. Gunn was the 2023 recipient of the NH ACDA Choral Director of the Year.
Week 2
Connor Gray Covington
Guest Conductor
Described by Yannick Nézet-Séguin as “a musician who lives the music”, American conductor Conner Gray Covington performs an unusually broad repertory of symphonic, opera, and film repertoire ranging from Classical to the present day. In the 2025-2026 season, Covington debuts with the Boston Pops, Chicago Symphony, Houston Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, and Phoenix Symphony. He also makes return visits to the North Carolina Symphony, Portland Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, and Tucson Symphony. Additionally, Covington returns to the Utah Symphony where he maintains a close relationship after completing a successful four-year tenure as Associate Conductor and Principal Conductor of the Deer Valley Music Festival.
During his tenure with the Utah Symphony, Conner conducted nearly 300 performances of classical subscription, education, film, pops, and family concerts as well as tours throughout the state and has returned several times each season as a guest conductor since 2021. Other recent guest conducting includes appearances with the Hawai’i Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony as well as the Bellingham Festival of Music and the Grand Teton Music Festival. Conner is a five-time recipient of a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S. and was a featured conductor in the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview presented by the League of American Orchestras.
Conner’s recent concert engagements include Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, Mozart Symphony No. 36, “Linz”, Elgar Serenade for Strings, Britten Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and Mason Bates Philharmonia Fantastique with the San Diego Symphony, Rimsky Korsakov Scheherazade with the Knoxville Symphony, Dvorak Symphony No. 8 and Mozart Exsultate Jubilate with the Tallahassee Symphony, Richard Strauss Suite from Der Rosenkavalier and Brahms Symphony No. 2 with the Amarillo Symphony and Ravel Mother Goose (complete ballet) at the Bellingham Festival of Music.
With the Utah Symphony Conner has conducted the world premiere of Quinn Mason Trombone Concerto, Richard Strauss Don Juan, Barber Symphony No. 1, Debussy La Mer, Haydn Symphonies No. 49 and 88, Dvorak Symphonies No. 6 and No. 8, Beethoven Symphony No.
1 and Symphony No. 7, Mozart Symphonies No. 36, 39, and 40, Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 and 4, Handel Messiah, Ravel Mother Goose Suite, Stravinsky The Firebird (1919 Suite), Schumann Symphony No. 3, ‘Rhenish’, and Brahms Symphony No. 2.
Conner’s operatic engagements include Britten’s THE TURN OF THE SCREW for the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA and the world premiere of Rene Orth’s EMPTY THE HOUSE at the Curtis Opera Theatre and LE NOZZE DI FIGARO for his debut with Utah Opera. He has also conducted more than twenty feature films with orchestra including Frozen, Singing in the Rain, Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Star Wars and Jurassic Park.
Born in Louisiana, Covington studied conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music, Eastman School of Music, and the Aspen Music Festival where his primary teachers included Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Neil Varon, and Robert Spano.
Conner currently lives in Boston with his two cats, Razel and Oreo.
Ashley Marie Robillard
Soprano
“A tour-de-force” — Bachtrack
Ashley Marie Robillard is a dynamic artist celebrated for her compelling performances and versatility across opera, concert, chamber music, and cabaret. She has performed at prestigious venues such as the War Memorial Opera House, Jordan Hall, Verizon Hall, and the National Portrait Gallery, collaborating with esteemed organizations including Opera Philadelphia, Washington Concert Opera, Opera Lafayette, Opera San Jose, Opera Grand Rapids, Early Music Now, and the Amarillo Symphony. Her repertoire spans from the Seikilos Epitaph to the traditional operatic canon to contemporary premieres, earning her a reputation as a passionate interpreter and captivating storyteller across the ages. This year, she looks forward to debuts with the New Hampshire Music Festival, the Berkshire Opera Festival, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, a return engagement with the East Passyunk Opera Project.
Chamber music and recital work are central to Ashley’s artistry. She has collaborated with ensembles including Dolce Suono Ensemble and Seraph Brass, toured with Curtis on Tour, and appeared in celebrated series such as Music From Angel Fire, Classical Movements, the La Jolla Athenaeum, and Music for Montauk. Her staged rendition of Italienisches Liederbuch toured to critical acclaim, and her extended collaborative work with composers and instrumentalists has brought innovative new works to life across several premieres with the likes of Fang Man, Dai Wei, and Alistair Coleman. Ashley equally thrives on smaller, smokier cabaret stages, where she has worked with The Bearded Ladies, Martha Graham Cracker, and Stephanie Blythe’s drag persona Blythely Oratonio. Known for her playful yet powerful stage presence, she brings her own flair to an eclectic repertoire spanning Gershwin and Kurt Weill to Green Day and Carole King. Favorite escapades include performing French vaudeville and American classics with Don Flemons and exploring Emily Dickinson through the bluegrass lens of Tony Trischka.
An alumna of the Merola Opera Program, the Opera Philadelphia Emerging Artist program, the Wolf Trap Opera Studio program, and the Curtis Institute of Music, Ashley holds awards from the Gerda Lissner Lieder/Art Song competition, Opera Index, and the Orpheus Music Competition. Ashley seeks to continuously push artistic boundaries while enchanting audiences with her vibrant performances and boundless curiosity.
Week 3
Samuel Lee
Guest Conductor
Samuel Lee is the winner of the Malko Competition for Young Conductors 2024. Previously, he was awarded first prize winner of the BMI International Conducting Competition in Bucharest and the International Conducting Competition in Taipei. At the end of the 2024/25 season, he completed his tenure as Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony.
Lee’s 2025/26 season includes his conducting debuts with the Iceland Symphony, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Turku Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bodensee Philharmonic, Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova as well as returns to the Cincinnati Symphony and Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, as well as the Korean National Symphony Orchestra, where he leads a tour to Japan’s Tokyo Opera City and NHK Hall in Osaka. He also makes his first appearances with the Orquesta Cuidad de Granada and Arctic Philharmonic as soloist and conductor.
Amongst the orchestras Lee has conducted are Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Hamburger Camerata at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Leipziger Symphonieorchester at the Gewandhaus, Symphoniker Hamburg, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt State Orchestra, Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bucharest Symphony Orchestra, Arad Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra and the SAC Festival Orchestra.
An avid promoter of contemporary music, Lee has conducted premieres by Bryce Dessner, Giuseppe Gallo-Balma and Marc Migó. He was also a conducting fellow with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2021 and 2022.
Lee is an alumnus of Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ Berlin, where he studied viola with Tabea Zimmermann and later, orchestral conducting with Christian Ehwald. Lee completed his studies in orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Ulrich Windfuhr.
As a violist, Lee has performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, Münchener Kammerorchester, Bodensee Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony and Korean National Symphony orchestras, and at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival.
From 2009 until 2017, Lee was the violist of the Novus String Quartet, touring all over the world to venues such as the Berliner Philharmonie, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Kölner Philharmonie and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. He also was the second prize winner of the 61st International Music Competition of ARD Munich, and first prize winner of the Salzburg International Mozart Competition. He served as a viola professor at Hochschule für Musik und Theater ‘Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’ in Leipzig, Germany until 2022.
Avery Gagliano
Piano
Celebrated as “a distinctive young talent” (International Piano), pianist Avery Gagliano is recognized for interpretations with great emotional depth and a “distinctly narrative approach” (Miami International Piano Festival). Having first risen to international acclaim as the winner of the first prize and best concerto prize at the 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition, she has established herself as an artist to watch and has performed in prominent venues including Carnegie Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Salle Cortot, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Ehrbar Saal in Vienna, and La Grange au Lac in Évian.
Avery’s 2025-26 season includes performances with the Kansas City, Kalamazoo, and Galveston symphony orchestras and recitals at Wigmore Hall, Warsaw University, Kronberg Academy’s Casals Forum, Washington Performing Arts, and California State University, Sacramento. Recent orchestral highlights include the Buffalo Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Maryland Symphony, and i Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, as well as the Indianapolis Symphony and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra as a finalist in the 2025 American Piano Awards. She has appeared at leading festivals including the Verbier, Gilmore, Aspen, Bravo! Vail, Sanibel, Duszniki, and Miami International Piano festivals.
Avery’s debut album, Reflections (Steinway & Sons, 2021), features repertoire at the heart of her music making, including works by Chopin, Haydn, Schumann, and Adès. Her interpretations of works by Chopin have been hailed as “revelatory” (New York Classical Review), while recent programs have featured her passion for Schubert’s late piano sonatas and highlighted lesser-known works.
Avery is a graduate of Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Robert McDonald, Gary Graffman, and Jonathan Biss. She currently resides in Germany and studies with Sir András Schiff at Kronberg Academy.
Avery Gagliano is represented by Curtis Artist Management at Curtis Institute of Music.
Week 4
Maurice Cohn
Guest Conductor
Acclaimed for his “depth, musicality, and expressive power” and for leading “sensational” performances with “exceptional colours”, Maurice Cohn stands at the forefront of a new generation of American conductors. A three-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award, he is currently the 11th Music Director of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights of his 2025/26 season include debuts with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with TwoSet Violin, Würth Philharmonic with Hélène Grimaud, and Brussels Philharmonic with Alexandra Conunova. He also leads the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in a subscription week featuring Jan Vogler and Chad Hoopes.
Recent seasons have seen Cohn in debut engagements with the Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, Omaha Symphony, Utah Symphony, and the Syracuse Orchestra. He continues an ongoing relationship with the Colorado Music Festival and maintains a strong presence in contemporary music through collaborations with ensembleNEWSRQ and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.
Maurice served as the Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi until the end of the 23/24 season, where he conducted notable performances including the world premiere of Mason Bates’s Philharmonia Fantastique and a concert version of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones. He made his subscription debut in 2023, jumping in for Mo. Luisi on a program of Brahms, Antheil, and the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Snapshots. Cohn was also a two-time Assistant Conductor at the Aspen Music Festival, where he led the world premiere of Peng-Peng Gong’s Late Bells for Concertante Piano and Orchestra with the Aspen Chamber Symphony.
Now, as Music Director of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Cohn has quickly made his mark with artistic vision and community engagement. Appointed in June 2023, his tenure has included the orchestra’s first performances of works by Duke Ellington, Louise Farrenc, and Kurt Weill; a return to opera after its nearly 20-year absence with a semi-staged production of Carmen; and genre-crossing concerts through a collaboration with NPR’s Mountain Stage. Now in his third season, Cohn will direct a series of programs featuring soloists including Stephen Waarts, Hayoung Choi, and Barbara Nissman, among others. A significant highlight this season is a new commission by Gabriel Kahane, If love will not swing wide the gates, to be premiered by clarinetist Anthony McGill.
Maurice is the recipient of the Robert J. Harth Conducting Prize and the Aspen Conducting Prize. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College, where he studied History and Mathematics. He received a Master of Music in Conducting from the Eastman School of Music.
Nicholas Canellakis
Cello
Nicholas Canellakis is one of today’s most sought-after and innovative cellists, whose career seamlessly blends traditional classical performance with boundary-pushing creative ventures. He performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician and is also a composer/arranger, artistic curator, teacher, and filmmaker, with comedic digital content that has reached millions of views worldwide.
Recent highlights include concerto appearances with the Orlando, Virginia, Albany, Delaware, Stamford, Richardson, Lansing, and Bangor Symphonies, the Erie Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now, the New Haven Symphony as Artist-in-Residence, and the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall. He tours extensively in recital throughout the U.S. with his longtime duo collaborator, pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown.
A long-time artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Canellakis appears regularly in Alice Tully Hall and on international tours, including at Wigmore Hall, the Louvre, the Seoul Arts Center, and the National Concert Halls of Shanghai and Taipei. He is also a frequent guest at leading festivals such as Santa Fe, Music@Menlo, Bridgehampton, La Jolla, Moab, Chamberfest Cleveland, and Rockport. As Artistic Director of Chamber Music Sedona in Arizona, he has revitalized the organization with dynamic programming, education initiatives, and community engagement.
An avid teacher, Canellakis is on the cello faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, his alma mater.
His latest album, b(romance), featuring original works and arrangements with pianist Michael Stephen Brown, was released on First Hand Records in 2023. Also active as a filmmaker and comedian, his short films My New Cello and the award-winning Thin Walls were screened at major festivals, while his comedic shorts have earned over 40 million views online.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and New England Conservatory, he studied with Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, Paul Katz, and Madeleine Golz. He performs on an 1840 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume cello.