About the Featured Performers

As both musical and life partners, the FITZ GIBBON - McCULLOUGH DUO (soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and pianist Ryan McCullough) bring an intimacy to their performances that speaks to their many years of collaboration. Praised as “breathtaking” by The Wall Street Journal, the husband-and-wife duo has performed throughout North America and Europe in such venues as New York’s Merkin Hall, Park Avenue Armory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Di Menna Center; London’s Wigmore Hall; and Toronto’s Koerner Hall, in addition to a recent appearance on PBS’ Great Performances.

The MOUNT HOLYOKE CHAMBER SINGERS is a highly select chamber choir of 12–18 voices drawn from Glee Club and Chorale. Led by conductor Colin Britt, the group specializes in challenging repertory from the 20th and 21st centuries, but regularly performs works from varied musical periods and genres. While the students in the Chamber Singers are talented and accomplished musicians, they major in a broad range of academic subjects including music, gender studies, biology, politics, psychology and architecture.

The MOUNT HOLYOKE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA is one of the largest musical groups on campus. Led by conductor Tianhui Ng, the group reflects the diversity of the college's community, with musicians from the five colleges and the Connecticut River Valley, in addition to students, faculty and staff from Mount Holyoke College. Among their varied repertoire, the Symphony Orchestra has also pioneered the Mary Lyon Concert series, which commemorates the central role of music in Mount Holyoke College's history by celebrating the contributions of women musicians and composers.

ALLISON MONROE, Director of the Five College Early Music Program and Lecturer in Music at Mount Holyoke College, specializes in Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical violin and viola, viols, vielle, rebec, medieval harp, and voice. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Historical Performance Practice from Case Western Reserve University, where she directed the Collegium Museum from 2018 to 2023. She is a co-founder and Director of Programming for Trobár, a trio of voices and instruments dedicated to bringing medieval music to modern audiences. Dr. Monroe also performs regularly with Newberry Consort, Boston Camerata, Apollo’s Fire, Les Délices, and numerous other early music orchestras and ensembles.

SHEREZADE PANTHAKI, Lecturer in Music and Coordinator of Voice Instruction at Mount Holyoke College, is internationally renowned for her expertise in the performance of Baroque music. Ms. Panthaki enjoys ongoing collaborations with many of the world’s leading conductors including Nicholas McGegan, Masaaki Suzuki, Mark Morris, Nicholas Kraemer, and Stephen Stubbs. An active and passionate music educator, Ms. Panthaki is highly in demand as a guest clinician, presenting vocal masterclasses at Universities and Arts Schools across the United States including the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, and many more. She is a founding member and Artistic Advisor of the newly-formed Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, celebrating racial diversity and musical excellence in early/new music. She holds graduate degrees from Yale University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

JIAYAN SUN, Assistant Professor of Music and Associate Chair of Performance Activities at Smith College, has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the Chinese and RTÉ (Ireland) National Symphony Orchestras, the Fort Worth and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, the Toronto and Aspen Concert Orchestras, and the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has conducted from the keyboard the Meiningen Court Orchestra. Sun has been awarded prizes at many of the major international piano competitions, including third prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, second prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition, fourth prize and the audience prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, and first prize at the inaugural CCC Toronto International Piano Competition. Playing early keyboard instruments and studying historical performance practice have played a significant role in Sun’s musical activities, with critically acclaimed appearances with the American Classical Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall.