A Masterclass with Anton Rist, Clarinetist

Anton Rist was appointed principal clarinetist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2016. He has performed as guest principal clarinet with the NY Philharmonic, the Grant Park Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the American Ballet Theater, and has appeared as soloist with the Mainly Mozart Festival of Orchestras, the Cheyenne Symphony, and the Knoxville Symphony. He has performed and taught at the Pacific Music Festival, the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, the Hidden Valley Festival of Winds, Festival Mosaic, the St. Barts Music Festival, Bravo!Vail, and the Montserrat Music Festival. He received two degrees from Juilliard School, where he studied with Jon Manasse.

Pianist Luis F. Ortiz made his international debut with a 2010 recital in Miraflores, Peru. Winner of the Round Top International Festival Concerto Competition, the New England Philharmonic Young Artists Competition and others, Mr. Ortiz holds an M.M. in Collaborative Piano from The Juilliard School, a B.M. in Piano Performance from The Eastman School of Music, a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Rochester, and is a graduate of Phillips Academy Andover. He has most recently performed as a guest artist at the Hidden Valley Seminar and has joined the faculty of the Perlman Music Program. Mr. Ortiz performs frequently around New York City and is currently working as a studio pianist at the Juilliard School.

Donna Weng Friedman — Award winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman enjoys a varied

career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, curator, producer and app developer. Her

album Heritage and Harmony: Silver Linings, featuring exclusively AAPI/BIPOC artists, was

intended as a response to the wave of violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander

(AAPI) individuals, and aims to promote understanding and tolerance among people of all

backgrounds. Recorded and released during the pandemic, the album was presented with

two Silver Medals at the 2022 Global Music Awards.

In collaboration with WQXR, Donna created and produced Heritage and Harmony, a virtual

concert series in celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Her story was featured on

Asian Americans of New York & New Jersey | WLIW21, a segment of which has been aired

on PBS numerous times.

Donna was awarded a 2022 New York Women Composer’s grant. She is the co- creator and

co-host of HER/MUSIC;HER/STORY with soprano Allison Charney, a mini- series on WQXR

as well as a concert series that shines a light on women composers, past and present. She

was the guest speaker on TEDx Santa Barbara’s series Making Waves: Conversations with

Influencers and Disruptors. Donna is the Artistic Advisor of Ariel Rivka Dance, an all-female

dance company.

Donna was the featured guest artist on the National Women’s History Museum’s series

NWHM Presents: Sundays@Home, honoring women whose activism and talents serve to

inspire others. On March 8th, 2022, she launched a virtual education program in

collaboration with the National Women’s History Museum called Heritage and Harmony: Her

Art, Her Voice, featuring leading female BIPOC role models in the arts who share their

stories of heritage, their challenges and their triumphs, as they seek to inspire and empower

future generations of groundbreaking young women.

Donna has performed in concert halls worldwide, and appeared as soloist with major

symphony orchestras, including the Atlanta, Philadelphia and Shanghai Symphony

Orchestras. She has collaborated with world-class artists including Carter Brey, Anthony

McGill, Elizabeth Mann, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Paul

Neubauer, and Kelly Hall-Tompkins.

The curator of the Donna Weng Friedman ’80 Master Class Series at Princeton University,

she is also a member of Princeton University Music Department’s Advisory Council. Donna is

currently serving as Vice Chair to the Friends of Thirteen Advocacy Board/WNET. She

received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University where she was a University

Scholar and a Master’s of Music Degree from the Juilliard School where she was a winner of

the highly coveted Gina Bachauer Piano Competition as well as the William Petschek full

scholarship award. Donna had the honor and privilege of studying with the great pedagogue

Nadia Boulanger and the inimitable pianist Radu Lupu.