Lizzie Burns

Lizzie Burns is a bassist and educator with a passion for discovery and sharing the love of music. As a specialist in small ensemble playing, she enjoys performing in settings from chamber orchestras and continuo sections, to rhythm sections and new music ensembles.

She loves working with composers to bring new works to life, as well as championing the modern solo repertoire that shines a spotlight on the unique qualities the bass encompasses as a solo instrument. Lizzie draws performs frequently with the International Contemporary Ensemble, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, The Knights, New Orchestra of Washington, New York City Ballet Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, and Decoda. She is an alum of Ensemble Connect: A Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and The Weill Music Institute in Partnership with The New York City Department of Education. During her fellowship she cultivated skills on and off stage while developing Interactive Performances, bringing music to community venues, and teaching in the Bronx. Burns has played alongside Josh Groban on Broadway in “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812” and was in the band for Dave Malloy’s “Great Comet” and “Moby Dick” at the American Repertory Theater. She is fortunate to have spent 5 formative years at the Yellow Barn festival in Vermont. Lizzie holds Bachelor’s degrees in both and Performance and Music Theory from the New England Conservatory of Music, and pursued graduate studies at Boston University. Her primary teachers include Don Palma and Ed Barker, to whom she is eternally grateful.

Joshua Roman

Joshua Roman is a cellist, accomplished composer and curator whose performances embrace musical styles from Bach to Radiohead. Before setting off on his unique path as a soloist, Roman became the Seattle Symphony’s principal cellist at just 22 years of age.

He has since become renowned for his genre-bending repertoire and wide-ranging collaborations. Roman was named a TED Senior Fellow in 2015. His live performance of the complete Six Suites for Solo Cello by J.S. Bach on TED’s Facebook Page garnered 1.8M live viewers, with millions more for his Main Stage TED Talks/Performances, including an improvisational performance with Tony-winner/MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Bill T. Jones and East African vocalist Somi. Roman’s adventurous spirit has led to collaborations with artists outside the music community, including creating “On Grace” with Tony-nominated actor Anna Deavere Smith. His compositions are inspired by sources such as the poetry of Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith, and the musicians he writes for, such as the JACK Quartet, violinist Vadim Gluzman, and conductor David Danzmayr. Roman’s outreach endeavors have taken him to Uganda with his violin-playing siblings, where they played chamber music in schools, HIV/AIDS centers and displacement camps.

Amy Burton

With a voice the New York Times has called, “luminous” and “lustrous,” soprano Amy Burton has sung with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, at the White House, and with major opera companies and orchestras throughout the US, Europe, UK, Japan, and Israel.

A frequent interpreter of 20th and 21st-Century music, she has premiered pieces by John Musto, Paul Moravec, Lee Hoiby, John Harbison, Richard Festinger, and Richard Danielpour, to name a few. Also specializing in French vocal music of the 1920s and 30s, Ms. Burton has performed both mélodies and chansons populaires throughout the US and Europe, and recorded a critically acclaimed CD with conductor Yves Abel, Souvenir de Printemps. Recent projects include a concert of music by Leonard Bernstein in Southport, Connecticut, performances throughout the US of Late Night with Leonard Bernstein, cabaret appearances at the Café Sabarsky with Musto, Double Date with William Bolcom and Joan Morris in New York and Ann Arbor, John Corigliano’s Mister Tambourine Man with the Midland-Odessa Symphony and Debussy songs with Lyricfest in Philadelphia. Her frequent collaborations with composer-pianist John Musto include recitals, cabaret evenings and residencies. Their recent recording for Bridge Records, Got a Little Rhythm, a collection of songs and duets from the Great American Songbook (with baritone Patrick Mason), has garnered rave reviews. Amy Burton has previously recorded for Bridge, Naxos, Harbinger, Albany, Angel/EMI, and CRI.

John Musto

A classical composer whose work is both critically acclaimed and widely performed, John Musto has also distinguished himself as an instrumental soloist and chamber musician. His activities encompass a variety of genres: orchestral and operatic, solo, chamber and vocal music, concerti, and music for film and television.

His music embraces many strains of contemporary American concert music, enriched by sophisticated inspirations from jazz, ragtime and the blues. As pianist he has performed repertoire from Galuppi sonatas to Bolcom études, Bach keyboard concerti to Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, his own piano concerti, Schubert lieder to the Great American Songbook.  He also performs frequently with his wife, soprano Amy Burton, in recital and cabaret. Mr. Musto was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his orchestral song cycle Dove Sta Amore, and is a recipient of two Emmy awards, two CINE Awards, a Rockefeller Fellowship at Bellagio, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, and a Distinguished Alumnus award from the Manhattan School of Music.  He is currently on the piano faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, where he also serves as  Co-ordinator of the D.M.A. Program in Music Performance.

Support for the House Blend Concerts is provided by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund.