Page 22 - NWS March 2025 Digital Playbill

ABOUT the ARTISTS

MICHAEL CHRISTIE Artistic and Music Director
A GRAMMY award-winning and innovative conductor, Michael
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Christie is at home in both the symphonic and opera worlds.
As Artistic and Music Director of the New West Symphony, he
is focused on making the audience experience entertaining,
enlightening and enriching. The New West Symphony Board of
Directors recently announced the extension of Christie’s contract
through 2029.
Of his opening concert as Music Director in 2019, the Los Angeles
Times reported that the orchestra is “embracing the mission of
refreshing the modern concert experience for a new generation.”
In November 2024, Christie conducted the world premiere of The Amazing
Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, with music by Mason Bates and a libretto by Gene
Scheer, at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. The opera will subsequently
be performed at The Metropolitan Opera.
Christie’s more than 25-year symphonic conducting career has included serving
as Music Director of the Minnesota Opera (2011-18), Phoenix Symphony (2005-
13), Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005-10), and as Chief Conductor of the Queensland
Orchestra (2001-04) in Australia, as well as guest appearances leading top orchestras
such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonies
of Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, and more. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Colorado
Music Festival.
Michael Christie is married to Alexis, a physician, and they have two children.
michaelchristieonline.com

VIENESS PIANO DUO
Hailed as performers with “impeccable synchronized
timing” and “staggering technical prowess combined
with emotional depth,” Vieness Piano Duo has enthralled
audiences in their electric and captivating performances of
a wide range of repertoire. Their intuition for conversation
coupled with a commanding stage presence has made
them regularly in demand throughout the world. Vijay
Venkatesh and Eva Schaumkell together performed more
than 50 recitals last season, as well as a three-week tour of the Midwest and concerts
in Germany. In addition to their performing activities, the husband and wife team
regularly teach masterclasses and are featured guest artists on Silver Sea and Cunard
Cruise Lines.

CELENA SHAFER Soprano
After two summers as an apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera, the
career of soprano Celena Shafer was launched to critical raves as
Ismene in Mozart’s Mitridate, Re di Ponto. Since that breakthrough

22 | New West Symphony