Chief Conductor of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Christian Reif has established a reputation for his natural musicality, innovative programming and technical command.

Since 2022, Reif has served as Music Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, a month-long summer festival in Minnesota featuring the nation’s top classical performers in programming that ranges from opera and chamber music to symphonic performances along with commissioned new works. LAMF believes that high quality arts experiences should be accessible to all and operates on a name-your-price ticket model.

Highlights of Reif’s 2024/25 season include debut performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Phoenix Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra. He leads the Cincinnati Symphony in the world premiere of Fantastica, a newly commissioned work by composer Jimmy López Bellido dedicated to Reif based on The Neverending Story, originally a fantasy novel by the German writer Michael Ende and later a major motion picture. He returns to SWR Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia and conducts his own arrangement of John Adams’ El Niño with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Gävle Symphony, and the American Modern Opera Company in December 2024. Reif and his wife, soprano Julia Bullock, also bring Bullock's original program History's Persistent Voice to performances at Lincoln Center and Yale University’s Schwarzman Center in February 2025.

In 2024, Reif won a GRAMMY® for the Nonesuch Records album Walking in the Dark, the debut solo album of classical singer Julia Bullock in which he accompanied her on piano and led London's Philharmonia Orchestra. The album was praised by Gramophone Magazine as “illuminating” and described Reif as providing “excellent support” for Bullock. In 2020 during the pandemic, Reif and Bullock recorded a series of at-home virtual “Songs of Comfort”, ranging from Carole King’s classic “Up on the Roof” to Schubert’s Wanderers Nachtlied. NPR Music featured the duo in a “Tiny Desk Concert” for their special quarantine edition of the series, and The New York Times highlighted them on their “Best Classical Music of 2020” list.

From 2016 to 2019, Christian was Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, after being the Conducting Fellow at the New World Symphony from 2014 to 2016 and at Tanglewood Music Center in 2015 and 2016.

Chinese-born stage director Mo Zhou is a visionary force in opera and theater, celebrated for her innovative and dynamic productions that transcend traditional boundaries. As a faculty member at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, she revitalizes the classical canon while championing cutting-edge projects. Her work has graced esteemed stages worldwide, including Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Elbphilharmonie, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in China.

The 2024-2025 season showcases Ms. Zhou's versatility and ingenuity with several exciting company debuts. These include directing the Butler Studio Showcase at Houston Grand Opera, reviving her acclaimed "Madama Butterfly" with Florentine Opera and Kentucky Opera, directing Così fan tutte at The Juilliard School, La Bohème at Arizona Opera, and returning to Virginia Opera for a new production of Così fan tutte. She will also make her Canadian directing debut with Madama Butterfly at Vancouver Opera.

Her 2023-2024 season featured the world premiere of The Big Swim at Houston Grand Opera and Asia Society Texas Center, a reimagined Madama Butterfly set in post-WWII Allied-occupied Japan at Virginia Opera, Tosca with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and La Calisto at Glimmerglass Festival. Previous highlights include a sold-out Rinaldo at Minnesota Opera and the critically acclaimed Iphigénie en Tauride with Boston Baroque, praised by Forbes for its digital innovation. She is a recipient of the OPERA America Grants for Women Stage Directors and Conductors as well as OPERA America Robert Tobin Director-Designer Prize.

An advocate for young talent, Ms. Zhou has taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, and has served as guest dramatic faculty at prestigious programs like the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Butler Studio at Houston Grand Opera, and Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

Ms. Zhou received her training at The Juilliard School, Merola Opera Program, Wolf Trap Opera, and Glimmerglass Festival. She has also worked on the directing staff at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Dallas Opera. She holds an MFA in Stage Directing from Columbia University, where she studied under Anne Bogart, and a BA in English and Theater from Bowdoin College.

Operas include The Magic Flute, The Bartered Bride, La Boheme (Music Academy of the West), La Calisto, (Glimmerglass Opera), Il Trovatore (Houston Grand Opera), Katya Kabanova, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni ,The Rake's Progress, Hippolyte Et Aricie,(Juilliard), Così Fan Tutte (Metropolitan Opera/Juilliard co-production), Fidelio (Santa Fe Opera), The Turn of the Screw, The Flood (Opera Columbus), L’Opera Seria (Wolf Trap). NY Theatre includes The O’Casey Trilogy (Henry Hewes Design Award, Lucille Lortel Award Nomination),The Seafarer, The Emperor Jones, The Weir (Irish Rep), Billy and Ray, (Vineyard Theatre). Regional Theatres  Include A Comedy of Tenors (Outer Critics Circle Award, Cleveland Playhouse)  Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie, The Old Globe, The McCarter Theatre, Two River Theatre, Center Theatre Group. Television credits include Project Runway, The Equalizer, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Mozart in the Jungle, and Madam Secretary.

Ruoxuan Li is a costume designer for both stage and screen work based in LA. She is the costume designer in residence for American Contemporary Ballet since 2017, and is the recipient of the Swarovski Award for Excellence in Costume Design 2014. Notable theatrical credits: Madama Butterfly (Virginia Opera, Florentine Opera, Kentucky Opera 2024), On Gold Mountain (LA Opera Connects 2022), I’ll Be Seein’ Ya (Center Theater Group 2021), Aubergine (South Coast Repertory 2019), The Nutcracker Suite (American Contemporary Ballet), The Midsummer Night’s Dream (ISC 2018), The Great Wall: One Woman's Journey (Drama Centre Singapore 2017) http://ruoxuanli.com

Off Broadway: Rheology, A Woman Among Women (Bushwick Starr); Six Characters (LCT3); Staff Meal (Playwrights Horizons); Grief Hotel (Clubbed Thumb); Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Playwrights Horizons/Abrons Art Center); Montag (Soho Rep). Regional: The Inspector (Yale Rep); Primary Trust (La Jolla Playhouse); Eternal Life, Part 1 (The Wilma); The Appointment (Lightning Rod Special); Dance/Opera: Plenum/Anima (LADP); Terce (Prototype); Me. You. We. They. (LA Dance Project/Paris Philarmonie); morning/mourning (Prototype/HERE); Deepe Darknesse (Lisa Fagan/Lena Engelstein/NYLA); Unstill Life (LA Dance Project); Rodelinda (Hudson Hall/Santa Fe Opera); Der Freischütz  (Wolf Trap Opera). She is a proud member of USA829. MFA Yale School of Drama. More info at www.mashald.com.