Cellist Deborah Pae is captivating audiences on world stages as a seasoned recitalist and chamber musician. Since her international debut in 2003 at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards honoring cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and her European recital debut in 2005 on the Musée de Louvre recital series in Paris, Ms. Pae has performed across four continents and appeared at the invitation of the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Musée de Grenoble, Neue Galerie, Strad for Lunch Series, and the Van Wezel Foundation’s Young Artists Series. She has been featured at a number of highly regarded festivals including Marlboro, Ravinia, Amsterdam Cello Biënnale, 7th Adam International Cello Festival in New Zealand, International Musicians Seminar and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove, Perlman Music Program, and has been a participating artist on Ravinia’s 2012 Steans on Tour. This 2012-13 season, Ms. Pae is artist-in-residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapelle in Belgium where she is working with Gary Hoffman. She will be performing throughout Belgium, UK, Germany, Israel, the United States, and with the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie under the baton of Augustin Dumay. She will also be recording the second cello concerto by Saint-Saëns with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège to be released by Fuga Libera in 2013. Ms. Pae plays on a Vuillaume cello (ca. 1860) generously on loan to her from the Ravinia Festival.



Kirsten Paige received her Bachelor of Arts in Music History and Theory with honors from the University of Chicago in 2011, where she conducted research under the guidance of Philip Gossett, Philip Bohlman, and Berthold Hoeckner. She is currently studying for an MPhil in Music at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Stefano Castelvecchi. Kirsten's research at Cambridge investigates the many ways in which elements of Italian folksong and popular song resonate with the brindisi scenes in Verdi's late operas. Additional research interests include nineteenth-century music and culture (particularly the oeuvres of Wagner and Verdi), aesthetics, music-text relations, prosody, and temporality in music. While at the University of Chicago, Kirsten won a Collegiate Fellowship (2010/11), the Leonard B. Meyer Thesis Prize (2011), the David L. Fulton Award (2009), and a Lowell Wadmond Travel Grant (2008). An Edison Research Fellowship from the British Library and a grant from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund support her studies at Cambridge.  Beyond her academic work, Kirsten is also a committed double bassist and has performed as a member of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Britten-Pears Orchestra at the Aldeburgh Festival, Banff Festival Orchestra, Zermatt Festival Academy, and the Jeunesse Musicales World Orchestra.

Anne Slovin, soprano, is a recent graduate of Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music where she was a student of Theresa Brancaccio.  She sang the role of Valencienne in The Merry Widow with Northwestern Opera Theater as well as numerous solos with the Baroque Music Ensemble.   Anne has been frequently featured on the operetta stages of Chicago, singing the roles of Aline in The Sorcerer, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, and Gianetta in The Gondoliers, and covering the role of Elsie Maynard in The Yeomen of the Guard.  She has also sung with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and the North Shore Choral Society.  In summer 2010, Anne performed the role of Cupidon in Orphée aux Enfers in Périgueux, France and the surrounding region. Anne is currently studying voice in Paris with soprano Anna Maria Bondi at the Schola Cantorum.  As part of her project, she will make a specific study of the French operetta repertoire, culminating with recital performances in the spring. 

Matthew Thomas received a Beebe Grant in the Spring of 2011 to study Timpani and Percussion at the University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany. Originally from Texas, Matthew studied at the Eastman School of Music, where he completed his Bachelor of Music, and then went on to the Juilliard School in New York City for his Master of Music. Matthew has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Bochumer Symphoniker, the Victoria Bach Festival Orchestra, and the Castleton Festival Orchestra. He has performed with conductors Lorin Maazel, Alan Gilbert, Michael Tilson Thomas, Xian Zhang, Daniel Boico, Neil Varon, among others.

Yulia Van Doren completed her graduate studies at Bard College as a member of the inaugural class of soprano Dawn Upshaw’s innovative new graduate program. Beginning her professional career while still an undergraduate at the New England Conservatory, recent and upcoming performance highlights include debuts with the LA Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival, Ravinia Festival, Tanglewood Festival, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Opera Royal de Versailles, Opera de Nice, Macau International Music Festival, and Cartagena International Music Festival, as well as debuts with the majority of the North American early music festivals and orchestras. As a Beebe scholar, she continues her training through private instruction in Paris, with a particular emphasis on the French baroque repertoire. The only singer to win top prizes in all four North American Bach vocal competitions, Yulia has has been a young artist with the Tanglewood Music Center, Villecroze Academie (France), and Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme (UK). She joined the Astral Artists roster as a winner of their 2009 National Auditions, and is a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.