Magnificently Mozart Performers

Petra Somlai was born in Hungary where she graduated in conducting and piano performance at the Béla Bartók Conservatory, Budapest. She completed her modern piano degree at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music also in Budapest in 2007. During these years the focus of her interest gradually turned to the historical interpretation on period instruments. She studied fortepiano and harpsichord with David Ward in England, and later under the direction of Fabio Bonizzoni, Menno van Delft, and Bart van Oort at the Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam, and the Royal Conservatory The Hague, where she graduated summa cum laude for her Masters in 2011.

Andrew Schwartz has been the principal Bassoon player for the American Classical Orchestra. He will be featured in the well-known Mozart Bassoon Concerto.

Thomas Crawford, Founder & Artistic Director of the American Classical Orchestra, is a champion of historically accurate performance styles in Baroque, Classical, and Early Romantic music. He founded two Connecticut orchestras- the Fairfield Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy- the latter being the period instrument offshoot of the Fairfield Orchestra. With the Fairfield Orchestra, Crawford commissioned numerous works by composers, including John Corigliano and William Thomas McKinley, and he collaborated with artists such as Joshua Bell, Vladimir Feltsman, Richard Goode, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, André Watts, and Dawn Upshaw. He also conducted the world premiere of Keith Jarrett’s Bridge of Light at Alice Tully Hall, subsequently recorded on the ECM label. He is an accomplished composer, organist, and choirmaster. He won the prestigious BMI composition award for his organ work Ashes of Rose, which premiered at the American Guild of Organists.