Soprano Kathryn Guthrie Demos, a winner of the Astral Artists' 2012 National Auditions, is an artist of unusual artistic versatility, equally praised for her performances of the traditional operatic and concert repertoire and her vibrant and sharp-witted interpretations of contemporary works. She recently made her New York City Opera debut in Rufus Wainwright's American première of Prima Donna as Marie, whose Act II aria "outshone any other single moment on stage" (The Huffington Post). Photo: Peyton Lea  

Pianist Andrew Hauze is director of the Swarthmore College Orchestra. He is a graduate of the Helen F. Whitaker Fund Conducting Program at the Curtis Institute of Music. Passionate about vocal music, Mr. Hauze served as a vocal coach and accompanist for the Florence Voice Seminar for four summers and has served as vocal coach at the Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music and for the CoOperative Program at Westminster Choir College. He holds Fellowship and Choirmaster certifications from the American Guild of Organists. He has conducted productions of Domenick Argento's Postcard from Morocco for Curtis Opera Theatre and Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore and Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at Swarthmore College. Photo: Emily Hauze

 November 15

Colombian clarinetist Benito Meza, a winner of Astral Artists' 2009 National Auditions, has appeared with the Boston Philharmonic, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, Washington, D.C.'s Modern Music Set, the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, the Modern Music Ensemble, the Los Angeles Wind Ensemble, and on Harvard University's Chamber Music series, among many others. Also a composer, Mr. Meza's compositions and development as a musician have been greatly influenced by the wealth of varied forms of music he was exposed to throughout his childhood. From the beginning of his career, he was involved with both classical and jazz music, and Colombian folk music, Afro-Caribbean rhythms, and contemporary improvisation are also represented in the structure of his compo-sitions. Photo: Adriano Batti

Russian-American pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine, a winner of Astral Artists' 2009 National Auditions, has toured throughout Europe, Russia, North and South America, as well as in China and Japan. In recent seasons, he has appeared as soloist with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Television Orchestra of Spain, Cleveland Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Valencia Philharmonic, the Gran Canaria and Tenerife symphonies in the Canary Islands, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Panama, the National Symphonic Orchestra of Cuba, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra of the Czech Republic. His recital in London's Wigmore Hall was hailed by International Piano magazine as "grandly organic, with many personal and pertinent insights, offering a thoughtful balance between rhetoric and fantasy...technically dazzling." Photo: E. Appel