AT-HOME: Premiering A Song by Mahler

Artists

Jennifer Johnson Cano Mezzo-soprano

Jennifer Johnson Cano’s portrayal of Michele in the recent premiere of The Righteous at Santa Fe Opera earned her accolades from The New York Times, which noted how she “voluptuously captured” the pain and strength of her character; Opera Today called Ms. Cano’s arias in The Righteous “flawless combinations of radiant, poised, attractive singing invested with heartfelt delivery.”
After creating the role of Michele in the world premiere of Gregory Spears’s The Righteous with Santa Fe Opera in summer 2024, she was invited back to sing the role of Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw as well as Schwertleite in Wagner’s Die Walküre in summer of 2025. Her 2025-2026 season includes engagements with the Chicago, San Francisco, Colorado, and Seattle Symphonies and The Apollo Orchestra. The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents Ms. Cano in recital with pianist Christopher Cano and violist Beth Guterman Chu. Tours include a project with Simone Dinnerstein and her ensemble Baroklyn as well as a week with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. Ms. Cano returns to the MET Opera in her role debut as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She premieres a new song cycle by Gregory Spears at the Tucson Desert Song Festival.

Ms. Cano joined the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera after winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Among her honors are Winner of the Young Concert Artist International Auditions, a Sara Tucker Study Grant, a Richard Tucker Career Grant, and a George London Award.

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David Shifrin Clarinet & Artistic Director Emeritus 1981–2020

David Shifrin began performing with Chamber Music Northwest in 1978 and served as its Artistic Director from 1981 to 2020. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1982 and served as its Artistic Director from 1992 to 2004.

Shifrin received Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Avery Fisher Prize, as well as numerous awards and prizes competitions and organizations worldwide.

David Shifrin is the Samuel S. Sanford Professor in the Practice of Clarinet at the Yale School of Music where he teaches a studio of graduate-level clarinetists and coaches chamber music ensembles. He is also the Artistic Director of Yale’s Oneppo Chamber Music Society and the Yale in New York concert series. Previously, Shifrin served on the faculties of the Juilliard School, the University of Southern California, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Hawaii. He has appeared with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad and has served as principal clarinetist with the Cleveland Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestras of New Haven, Honolulu, and Dallas. Shifrin also continues to broaden the clarinet repertoire by commissioning and championing more than 100 works of 20th and 21st-century American composers. Shifrin’s recordings have consistently garnered praise and awards including three Grammy nominations and “Record of the Year” from Stereo Review.

Shifrin is represented by CM Artists in New York and performs on Backun clarinets and Légère reeds.

Artist's Website

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Clarinet Masterclass with David Shifrin (2021)
• EXCLUSIVE DONOR CONCERT: The Emerson Quartet with David Shifrin

Marc Neikrug Composer

Marc Neikrug has been the Artistic Director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival since 1998. An internationally renowned pianist, he’s well known for his 35-year partnership with violinist Pinchas Zukerman, which produced highly acclaimed recitals and recordings. Also widely recognized as one of today’s leading composers, Neikrug has had his works performed at the Aspen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hollywood Bowl, Ravinia, Schleswig-Holstein, and Tanglewood music festivals, among many others; by the Berlin State Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin; and by ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, and the Atlanta, BBC, Boston, Houston, Jerusalem, Milwaukee, National, Pittsburgh, and Polish National Radio symphony orchestras. He’s served as Composer-in-Residence for Music from Angel Fire and the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest.

Recent compositions by Neikrug include his Fourth Symphony, commissioned by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, which premiered the work in Hamburg in May 2022, and A Song by Mahler, a theater-and-music work that premiered at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon in July 2021. The work was co-commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest with the support of the CMNW Commissioning Fund, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the La Jolla Music Society for SummerFest, and the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival.

Neikrug was born in New York City in 1946. In the 1980s, he moved to Santa Fe, where he lives with his wife, Dolly Naranjo, and their family, which now includes two great-grandchildren. His honors include receiving a 2019 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.