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.

The Bard East-West Ensemble (BE/WE) is a bold and original group that fuses Chinese and Western musical traditions to create a new model of cross-cultural performance. Founded by conductor and educator Jindong Cai, the ensemble features a Western string quintet alongside seven traditional Chinese instruments, including dizi, erhu, pipa, ruan, suona, guzheng, and sheng, supported by Chinese and Western percussionists.

BE/WE has appeared at major U.S. venues including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. The group has collaborated with acclaimed soloists such as Guo Yazhi, Wu Man, and Duo Chinoiserie.

Its repertoire includes original works and dynamic new arrangements by renowned composers like Zhou Long, Tan Dun, and Xinyan Li. Committed to cultural exchange, BE/WE seeks to foster US-China understanding through music—and in June 2025, completed its first tour of China with 11 performances across 8 cities.

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.