Ankush Kumar Bahl, Conductor
Currently in his first season as Music Director of the Omaha Symphony, Ankush Kumar Bahl has delivered resonant performances of masterworks, new and old, championing American composers and artists while pursuing innovative, community-based concert design. Bahl is recognized by orchestras and audiences alike for his impressive conducting technique, thoughtful interpretations, and engaging podium presence. In concert, he has left the Washington Post “wanting to hear more” and has been praised by the New York Times for his “clear authority and enthusiasm” and ability to “inspire.”
Amelia Zitoun, Cello | 2023 Stulberg International String Competition Gold Medalist
Amelia Zitoun, 17, is a scholarship Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college students. She has been a student there since 2019. She currently studies cello with Hans Jensen. Most recently Amelia was the first-place winner of the Bolz Final Forte Competition in Madison, WI. In October of 2022, Zitoun played the Barber Cello Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on their Family Concert and Youth Performance Series. In May of 2022, she was the winner of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Stars of Tomorrow Competition. She was also a winner of the 2022 Civic Music Association of Milwaukee’s High School Competition. In 2021, Zitoun won First Prize in the Schubert Club Competition, and in 2020 she was a winner of the DePaul Concerto Competition, performing the Kabalevsky Concerto with the Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra.
Living Voices | Composer Jonathan Bailey Holland
Originally from Flint, MI, composer Jonathan Bailey Holland (b. 1974) began studying composition while a student at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he received a school-wide award for his very first composition. Upon graduation from Interlochen, he continued his composition studies with Ned Rorem at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree. He went on to receive a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University in 2000, where his primary teachers were Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky. He has also studied with Andrew Imbrie, Yehudi Wyner, Robert Saxton, and Robert Sirota. He has recently been named the Jack G. Buncher Head of the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University. He has served as Chair of Composition, Contemporary Music, and Core Studies at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and was a Founding Faculty member in the low-residency MFA program in Music Composition at Vermont College of Fine Arts, where he also served as Faculty Chair from 2016 until 2019.
