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Howard Watkins

American pianist Howard Watkins is a frequent associate of some of the world’s leading musicians both on the concert stage and as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. He has performed in numerous recitals and concerts throughout the Americas, Europe, Russia, Israel, and the Far East. In past seasons, he has appeared in concert and on television with Joyce DiDonato, Kathleen Battle, Grace Bumbry, Mariusz Kwiecien, Matthew Polenzani, Michelle De Young, Marcello Giordani, Diana Damrau, Ben Heppner, Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Alexandra Deshorties, Lawrence Brownlee, Anthony Dean Griffey, and violinists Xiang Gao and Sarah Chang. Under the aegis of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, Mr. Watkins has performed in recitals and educational residencies in the United States, and he has also appeared in the Horne Foundation gala New York recital.

Mr. Watkins made his Carnegie Hall performing debut in 2002 as the harpsichord recitative accompanist in Haydn's Die Schöpfung with James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus.  He has given recitals and concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Spivey Hall, Kennedy Center, the Pierpont Morgan Library, the United States Supreme Court, Alice Tully Hall with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the three stages of Carnegie Hall, and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Russia. In addition, he has performed with the MET Chamber Ensemble in Weill and Zankel Halls under the baton of James Levine. He has accompanied the classes of such legendary artists as Marilyn Horne, Renata Scotto, Regina Resnik, Regine Crespin, Frederica von Stade, Birgit Nilsson, Shirley Verrett, Håkan Hagegård, Elisabeth Soderstrom, and Josef Gingold among others. A number of his performances have been broadcast on WQXR in New York as part of George Jellinek’s “The Vocal Scene” and the “Young Artist Showcase”, and he has recorded for the Centaur and Prestant labels.

As an educator, Mr. Watkins was formerly the Vocal Arts Program Co Coordinator of the Tanglewood Music Center, and he has taught at the Aspen Music Festival; the Banff Centre; Meadowmount School of Music; the International Vocal Arts Institute in Virginia, Israel, Japan, and China; VOICExperience in Florida and Savannah, Georgia with Sherrill Milnes and Maria Zouves; and the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy. In 2015, he was a founding member of the Tokyo International Vocal Arts Academy. Currently on the faculties of The Juilliard School and the Washington National Opera Cafritz Young Artist Program, he was formerly a faculty member of the Mannes College of Music and the North Carolina School of the Arts in the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute. He has worked on the music staffs of the Los Angeles Opera, the Washington National Opera, and Palm Beach Opera.

A native of Dayton, Ohio, Mr. Watkins received his undergraduate degree from the University of Dayton, and he completed his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 1998 at the University of Michigan. In 2004, Mr. Watkins was honored as the recipient of both the Paul C. Boylan award from the University of Michigan for his outstanding contributions to the field of music, and a Special Achievement Award from the National Alumni Association of the University of Dayton. He is the 2019 recipient of the “Lift Every Voice” Legacy Award from the National Opera Association. He is currently a resident of New York City.

Mr. Watkins appears courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

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Jenny Q Chai

An artist of singular vision, pianist Jenny Q Chai is widely renowned for her

ability to illuminate musical connections throughout the centuries. With radical

joie de vivre and razor-sharp intention, Chai creates layered multimedia

programs which explore and unite elements of science, nature, fashion, and art.

The New Yorker describes Chai as “a pianist whose dazzling facility is matched

by her deep musicality.”

Chai’s instinctive understanding of new music is complemented by a deep

grounding in core repertoire, with special affinity for Schumann, Scarlatt

Beethoven, Bach, Debussy, and Ravel. She is a noted interpreter of 20th-century

masters Cage, Messiaen, and Ligeti, and her career is threaded through with

strong relationships and close collaborations with a range of notable contemporary

composers, including Tan Dun, Jarosław Kapuściński, Andy Akiho, Pamela Z,

Lukas Ligeti, Cindy Cox, Annie Gosfield and György Kurtág. With a deft poeti

touch, Chai weaves this wide-ranging repertoire into a gorgeous and lucid

musical tapestry. Chai is also a vital champion and early tester of the groundbreaking

synchronous score following software program, Antescofo. Developed at IRCAM by

scientist Arshia Cont, the software offers a real time computer and animation respons

to live performance elements, enabling performers to create multimedia presentations

of AI sophisticated and expressive fluency. Chai explored and helped hone Antescof

in residence at IRCAM alongside frequent collaborator Jarosław Kapuściński, and has

since toured internationally with the software offering multimedia performances i

Shanghai, New York, Havana, and elsewhere. In September 2019, Chai gave a TEDx

Talk titled When Classical Music Meets Technology.

Other notable highlights include her 2024 Shanghai Symphony Hall Audiovisual AI

Concert, 2012 Carnegie Hall recital debut; many

performances at (le) Poisson Rouge, including a 2016 Antescofo-supported

program, Where’s Chopin?; her 2018 Wigmore Hall debut with a program

exploring the relation between color and sound; lectures and recitals at Shanghai

Symphony Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, and Shanghai Mercedes Benz Arena; a

featured performance at Tan Dun’s International Music Medicine Festival in Qingdao;

the Leo Brouwer Festival in Havana, Cuba; Philippe Manoury’s double-piano concerto,

Zones de turbulences, at the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary

Music with duo partner, pianist Adam Kośmieja and the Polish National Radio

Symphony Orchestra; and much more.



Her immersive approach to music is also channeled into her work with FaceArt Institute

of Music, the Shanghai-based organization she founded and runs, offering musi

education and an international exchange of music and musicians in China and beyond.

In summer 2019, Chai oversees FaceArt’s first ever month-long Co-Creation Summe

Festival, which invites International piano and composition faculty. Additionally, Chai

served on the Board of Directors of the New York City-based contemporary music

organization Ear to Mind, and has published a doctoral dissertation on Marco Stroppa’s

Miniature Estrose which is collected by many schools including Stanford and Harvard

University.

Chai has recorded for labels such as Divine Art, Deutschlandfunk, Naxos, ArpaViva and

MSR. In 2010, she released her debut recording, New York Love Songs, featuring

interpretations of works by Cage and Ives among others, and her most recent

recording, (S)yn(e)sth(e)te, was released by MSR Records in 2017. She can also be

heard on Michael Vincent Waller’s Five Easy Pieces and Cindy Cox’s Hierosgamos. In

2021, her newest album on Bach, Ives and Schumann Kreisleriana received positive

reviews globally. The album was featured by Apple Music as one of its selected best

Classical Music albums.

The recipient of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust’s 2011 Pianist/Composer Commissionin

Project, the DAAD Arts and Performance award in 2010, Chamber Music America

commissioning award and first prize winner of the Keys to the Future Contemporar

Solo Piano Festival, Jenny Q Chai studied at the Shanghai Music Conservatory, the

Curtis Institute of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and in Cologne University of

Music and Dance. Her teachers include Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Seymour Lipkin,

Solomon Mikowsky, Marilyn Nonken, and Anthony de Mare.

Academically, Chai has given lecture recitals at universities such as Stanford, Harvard,

University of California Berkeley, NYU, Shanghai Conservatory and more.

Chai is a former piano faculty member of the University of California Berkeley, an

alumni mentor at Curtis Institute of Music and an official career mentor at Manhatt

School of Music. In 2022, Chai became Fazioli Global Piano Ambassador.

Chai is a social activist who works passionately on environmental causes through her

music and runs a personal animal shelter. She has rescued over one hundred small

animals in China since the pandemic and is an active donor to many animal rescue

organizations.