Two-time Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has been called a “luminous standout” by the New York Times and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” by Opera News. Ms. Cooke has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Seattle Opera, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Gran Teatre del Liceu, among others, and with over 90 symphony orchestras worldwide frequently in the works of Mahler. In 2022 Ms. Cooke was appointed at the Music Academy of the West as Co-Director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute. Her album how do I find you was nominated for a 2022 Grammy Award for Best Vocal Solo Album.

Ms. Cooke began the 2024/25 season with a return to the Bard Festival as Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust followed by Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at the Gstaad Festival, conducted by Sir Mark Elder. On the operatic stage, she debuts at La Monnaie de Munt as Emilie Ekdahl in the world premiere of Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek’s Fanny and Alexander and returns to Houston Grand Opera in her role debut as Venus in a new production of Tannhäuser. On the concert stage, Ms. Cooke reprises much of her most celebrated repertoire, singing Mahler’s Second Symphony with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Daniel Harding, San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen in his final performances as music director, and Vienna Radio Symphony and Marin Alsop at the Wiener Konzerthaus. She sings Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Karina Canellakis, the Cologne Philharmonic and Cristian Macelaru, and the Tuscon Symphony Orchestra, where she also performs the Rückert-Lieder. She joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel for a program of Alma Mahler, which she also brings to Royal Festival Hall in London with the London Philharmonia and Marin Alsop. Other concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Schönberg’s Gurrelieder with the Vienna Symphoniker, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with St. Louis Symphony and Gemma New, and a concert with the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra featuring Des Knaben Wunderhorn with her husband, baritone Kelly Markgraf. In recital, Ms. Cooke returns to Wigmore Hall for a recital with pianist Malcolm Martineau, and Carnegie Hall for Shostakovitch’s From Jewish Folk Poetry with Susanna Phillips, Brandon Jovanovich, and pianist Evgeny Kissin.

American cellist Julie Albers is recognized for her superlative artistry, her charismatic and radiant performing style, and her intense musicianship. Heralded by the New York Times as being a fantastically eloquent player, with an elegant sound that is full of emotion but without exaggeration or overstatement. Born into a musical family in Longmont, Colorado, she began violin studies at the age of two with her mother, switching to cello at four. She moved to Cleveland during her junior year of high school to pursue studies through the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Richard Aaron. Ms.Albers soon was awarded the Grand Prize at the XIII International Competition for Young Musicians in Douai, France, and as a result toured France as soloist with Orchestre Symphonique de Douai.

She made her major orchestral debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at the age of 17 and thereafter has performed in recital and with orchestras throughout North America, Europe, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand. Past seasons have included performances with the symphony orchestras of Colorado, Grant Park Music Festival, Indianapolis, Munchener Kammerorchester, Rochester, San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra among others. In 2001, she won Second Prize in Munich's Internationalen Musikwettbewerbes der ARD, and was also awarded the Wilhelm-Weichsler-Musikpreis der Stadt Osnabruch. While in Germany, she recorded solo and chamber music of Kodaly for the Bavarian Radio, performances that have been heard throughout Europe. In 2003, Miss Albers was named the first Gold Medal Laureate of South Korea's Gyeongnam International Music Competition.

Ms. Albers was named principal cellist of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2015, a position she currently holds and in the fall of 2024 she will be joining the esteemed cello faculty at the New England Conservatory. In addition, she regularly participates in chamber music festivals including ChamberFest Cleveland, La Jolla SummerFest, Rome Chamber Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and Toronto Summer Music. 2009 marked the end of a three year residency with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two. Teaching has also held a very important place in Ms. Albers' musical life from the age of 12 when she started teaching her first students. She held the position of Assistant Professor at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia from 2009-2022.

Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes (violins), Richard O’Neill (viola) and András Fejér (cello)

The world-renowned Takács Quartet is now entering its fifty-first season. Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes (violins), Richard O’Neill (viola) and András Fejér (cello) are excited about the 2025-2026 season that features varied projects including a new work written for them by Clarice Assad, commissioned by a consortium of North American concert presenters. For Hyperion Records the Takács recently released ‘Flow’ by Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and an album with pianist Marc Andre Hamelin that features quintets by Florence Price and Antonín Dvořák. The Takács maintains a busy international touring schedule. In August 2025 the ensemble performs in New Zealand, and in Australia where the centerpiece of a tour for Musica Viva is a new work by Australian composer Cathy Milliken, inspired by Bertholt Brecht’s ‘Sonnet of an Emigrant’, narrated by Angie Milliken. As Associate Artists at London’s Wigmore Hall, the group will perform and record for Hyperion two viola quintets by Mozart with violist Timothy Ridout. During the season the ensemble will play at other prestigious European series including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Konzerthaus, Berlin. The group’s North American engagements include concerts in New York, Boston, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Schenectady, Portland, and at Duke University and Middlebury College, Vermont. The members of theTakács are Artists in Residence at the University of Colorado and during the summer months join the faculty at the Music Academy of the West, running an intensive quartet seminar there.

Richie Hawley ranks among the most distinguished clarinetists of his generation. As principal clarinet of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO), he impressed audiences around the world with his virtuosity and the velvety, sonorous tone that has become his trademark. The Cincinnati Enquirer has praised him for the “seamless flowing tone so many clarinetists long for and few can achieve.”

In 2011, Mr. Hawley left the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and moved to Houston, Texas to become the Professor of Clarinet at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. Mr. Hawley appears on stages around the world regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist. During the summer he is in residence as the clarinet teaching and performing artists at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. Highlights of this year’s season include the premiere of Georgina Derbez’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra with the UNAM orchestra of Mexico and the debut duo album with Conor Hanick featuring the music of Higdon, Copland, Tower and Jalbert. Mr. Hawley made his debut at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1999 and toured with the legendary “Musicians from Marlboro” for the 50th anniversary performance at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Hawley has garnered awards as both performer and educator. He won the Coleman-Barstow prize at the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition in 1988 with Trio con Brio, and that same year was one of five musicians to receive the Gold Medal as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts from Ronald Reagan in a ceremony at the White House. He has received the Léni Fé Bland Foundation Career Grant twice, and was awarded the 2009 Glover Award for outstanding teaching at University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

Originally from Los Angeles, Mr. Hawley began his clarinet studies with Yehuda Gilad at the Colburn School of Performing Arts at age 9. He made his orchestral solo debut at age 13 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at age 14 performed as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic. While a student of Donald Montanaro at the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Hawley appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

As a D’Addario performing artist, Mr. Hawley performs exclusively on a reeds and mouthpieces that he helped to develop. He is also an artist for Buffet Crampon and performs on the Tosca model of clarinet.

He has been a member of the Music Academy faculty since 2005.

Jeremy Denk is one of America’s foremost pianists. Winner of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, Denk was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Denk returns frequently to Carnegie Hall and in recent seasons has appeared with the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and The Cleveland Orchestra, as well as on tour with Academy of St Martin in the Fields and at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms.

In 2019-2020, until the COVID-19 pandemic led to the shutdown of all performances, Denk toured Bach’s Well-Tempered Klavier Book 1 extensively, and was to have performances culminate with Lincoln Center in New York and the Barbican in London. He returned to Carnegie Hall to perform Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and made his solo debut at the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. He also made his solo recital debut at the Boulez Saal in Berlin performing works by Bach, Ligeti, Berg, and Schumann, and returned to the Piano aux Jacobins Festival in France, as well as London’s Wigmore Hall. Further performances abroad included his debut with the Bournemouth Symphony, his returns to the City of Birmingham Symphony and the Piano Espoo Festival in Finland, and recitals of the complete Ives Violin Sonatas with Stefan Jackiw.

Highlights of the previous season included a three-week recital tour, culminating in Denk’s return to Carnegie Hall; play-directing Mozart Concerti on an extensive tour with Academy of St Martin in the Fields; and a nationwide trio tour with Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis. He also performed and curated a series of Mozart Violin Sonatas (‘Denk & Friends’) at Carnegie Hall.

Denk is also known for his original and insightful writing on music, which Alex Ross praises for its “arresting sensitivity and wit.” He wrote the libretto for a comic opera presented by Carnegie Hall, Cal Performances, and the Aspen Festival, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New Republic, The Guardian, and on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. One of his New Yorker contributions, “Every Good Boy Does Fine,” forms the basis of a book for future publication by Random House in the US, and Macmillan in the UK.

Denk’s recording of the Goldberg Variations for Nonesuch Records reached No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Charts. His recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32 in C Minor, Op. 111 paired with Ligeti’s Études was named one of the best discs of the year by the New Yorker, NPR, and the Washington Post, and his account of the Beethoven sonata was selected by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library as the best available version recorded on modern piano. Denk has a long-standing attachment to the music of American visionary Charles Ives, and his recording of Ives’s two piano sonatas also featured in many “best of the year” lists. His recording c.1300-c.2000 was released in 2018 with music ranging from Guillaume de Machaut, Gilles Binchois and Carlo Gesualdo, to Stockhausen, Ligeti and Glass.

Jeremy Denk graduated from Oberlin College, Indiana University, and The Juilliard School. He lives in New York City, and his website and blog are at jeremydenk.com.

Mr. Denk has been a Music Academy of the West faculty artist since 2015.