Jindong Cai is director of the US-China Music Institute, professor of music and arts at Bard College, and associate conductor of The Orchestra Now (TŌN). Previously, he was a professor of performance at Stanford University. Born in Beijing, Cai received his early musical training in China, where he learned to play violin and piano. He came to the United States for his graduate studies at the New England Conservatory and the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati. Cai started his conducting career with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and has worked with orchestras throughout North America and Asia. He is a three-time recipient of the ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming for Contemporary Music. 

Over his 35-year career in the United States, Cai has established himself as an active and dynamic conductor, scholar of Western classical music in China, and leading advocate of music from across Asia. At Bard, Cai founded the annual China Now Music Festival, which has become a major platform in the West for new works by some of the most important Chinese composers of our time. 

With his wife, Sheila Melvin, Cai has coauthored many articles on the performing arts in China, as well as two books, Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese and Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People’s Republic.

Hailed as one of the most energetic, passionate, and respected pipa masters, Yang Jin graduated from the renowned Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and subsequently taught at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. Yang has won many awards. In 2004, she earned the prestigious Golden Bell Award for Music in China and she won a Silver Award at the Global Music Awards. Jin collaborates with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble and has performed at esteemed venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Harris Theater. She is an instructor at the University of Delaware’s Master Players Concert & Festival and serves as a judge for the Hummingbird International Music Competition at the Eastman School of Music.

Yang Jin has performed as a soloist with many prominent orchestras, including the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Macao Chinese Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Japan's Royal City Orchestra, the Chinese Orchestra of the Central Conservatory of Music, the Oriental Chinese Orchestra and The Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh. She was also the featured pipa performer at the 2020 Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival for the World Premiere of Quintet: Four Inscapes, composed by Ross Edwards. Since 2013, Yang Jin has led various crossover ensembles, including the Pittsburgh Purple Bamboo Music Ensemble, the Helio Phoenix Trio, HarmoniZing, Afro Yaqui Music Collective, J4, and the Summer Breeze Jazz Ensemble.

American soprano Karen Vuong is recognized for her expressive artistry and versatility across both standard and contemporary repertoire. Recent engagements include Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly with Opera Grand Rapids in a new production directed by Mo Zhou, Diane Tran in Huang Ruo's Bound with Anchorage Opera, the title role in Rusalkawith Portland Opera, Mimì in La Bohème with Seattle Opera, and Gänsemagd in Königskinder at the Tiroler Festspiele.

Additional career highlights include Tina in the film production of Flight with Seattle Opera, Suzel in L'amico Fritz at the Tiroler Festspiele, Maya Lin in the world premiere of Huang Ruo's The Rift at Washington National Opera, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Agata in Fioravanti's La cantatrici villane, Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, Gerhilde in Die Walküre, and Micaëla in Carmen.

From 2013 to 2019, Ms. Vuong was a member of the ensemble at Oper Frankfurt, where she performed a wide range of leading and supporting roles. She was also an inaugural member of Los Angeles Opera's Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program and studied at The Juilliard School, where she received the Novick Career Grant. Her honors include awards from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (formerly the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions), Operalia, and the Marilyn Horne Lieder Competition.

Daniel Klein has been hailed by the New York Times for his “stentorian bass-baritone” and “dark and steely voice.” Audiences and critics alike have found his performances imaginative, adventurous, and occasionally even downright terrifying. In 2023, he made his Seattle Opera debut as Judge Moriarty and Stanley in Huang Ruo’s Bound.

Recent performances include Prospero in the first fully staged production of Joseph Summer’s The Tempest with Teatro Grattacielo, where his portrayal was praised as “compelling,” with authority that “springs from inner strength rather than theatrical grandeur.” The production marked his third collaboration with the company, following appearances in Daniel Asia’s The Tin Angel and Nicolas Flagello’s Beyond the Horizon. Additional recent engagements include Colline in La Bohème with El Paso Opera; Simone in Zemlinsky’s Eine florentinische Tragödie with the Little Opera Theatre of New York at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Tonio in Pagliacci with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra; the Commentator in Scalia/Ginsburg with Opera Company of Middlebury; Frank Maurrant in Street Scene with the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College; and concert performances of excerpts from Le nozze di Figaro and Candide with the New West Symphony.

Daniel’s recent seasons have featured a wide range of contemporary opera alongside standard repertoire, including the title role in Gianni Schicchi with New Jersey Festival Orchestra and Opera on the James, and Ted and Dewey in Rob Handel and Eric Moe’s Artwork of the Future with Fresh Squeezed Opera, named one of New York City’s ten best classical music performances of 2023. Upcoming engagements include the world premiere of Plague Mass with Counter Codex in New York City, where he creates the role of Ronald Reagan, and Robert McNamara in The Rift with Bard College.