Amy Povich has been featured in the films An American Carol, Transamerica, Labor Pains and Gordy.  Her television credits include guest starring roles on Sex in the City, Miss Match, Without A Trace, and Law and Order among others.  Amy has starred on stage in productions across the country including  Ivanov and in the American Premiere of Search and Destroy at Yale Repertory Theatre and in the two hander Orgasms at the Canon Theater in Los Angeles.  Amy is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, where she received her M.F.A.

Hailed as the Spanish maestro of the guitar, Angel Romero is known throughout the world as one of the leading performers of his generation and continues in the tradition of great guitar virtuosos like Segovia and his father Celedonio Romero.

Whether inspired from a novel or personal experience, Antoniette Costa's music is candid. "For me, writing a song is like bottling an emotion in its most potent form." The twenty-five year old singer-songwriter is from Pittsburgh, PA and is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently studying science at Columbia University while concentrating on her music.

Indonesia's Budi Mulia Dua (BMD) Choir was established in 2007 as a creative outlet for BMD students who have shown a talent in music. Members of the choir come from BMD’s elementary, junior high, and senior high schools.

Chris Noth is an accomplished graduate of the Yale School of Drama who continues to build upon a versatile career in film, television and on stage.

Hailed by renowned music critic Harris Goldsmith as "the most exciting prodigy to ever come my way" (Musical America), 17-year-old Chinese-American pianist Conrad Tao gave his first piano recital at age 4, and at age 8, made his concerto debut performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major, K. 414. He has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Dallas and Baltimore Symphonies, among others, and has given solo recitals at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Ravinia Festival, the Verbier Festival, UC Berkeley’s Cal Performance Series, the Gilmore Series.

Founded in 1776 in Moscow by Prince Pyotr Urusov and English entrepreneur Michael Maddox, the Bolshoi Ballet is one of the world's most renowned artistic institutions.

Danielle de Niese’s “sweet, gleaming soprano,” “phenomenal musicality” and “sharply comic, yet utterly moving acting,” combined with an entrancing physical presence, have launched her into a spectacular career. She has been called “Opera’s coolest soprano” by the New York Times Magazine and “not just a superb performer, but a phenomenal one” by Opera News.

Darya Khokhlova is a dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet.

Dennis Haysbert captured the attention of audiences and critics alike with his ground breaking role as President David Palmer on FOX’s hit series “24” for which he received his first Golden Globe nomination. Haysbert returned to television starring in his own series “The Unit” for CBS which premiered with record breaking ratings.

Donald T. Sanders  (ERC Director of Theatrical Production) directed Seduction, Smoke and Music at the 2011 Tuscan Sun Festival starring Jeremy Irons and Sinéad Cusack . Other ERC productions include: Toscanini: Nel Mio Cuore Troppo di Assoluto at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, Sale Apolline, and Van Gogh’s Ear at New York’s Florence Gould Hall and the Festival de Musique de Chambre Montréal.

The Échappé String Quartet is a Preparatory Division ensemble at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). The Échappé String Quartet recently received the 2012 Mondavi Young Artist Competition Ensemble Award as well as the Bouchaine Young Artists Prize.

Emil de Cou assumed the full-time position of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Music Director and Principal Conductor at the start of the 2011-2012 season. He has also conducted New York City Ballet, Suzanne Farrell Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Netherlands Dance Theatre, Hong Kong Ballet, and National Ballet of Holland, among others.

Ensemble for the Romantic Century, now in its twelfth season, has created over 40 original theatrical concerts. In 2011, Seduction, Smoke and Music was performed in Italy at The Tuscan Sun Festival, with Jeremy Irons as Chopin and Sinéad Cusack as George Sand.

A truly multi-faceted and charismatic artist – for pianist Hélène Grimaud music is a limitless passion. Hélène regularly appears with the most important orchestras in the world, playing with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Philharmonia Orchestra and Münchner Philharmoniker, as well as all the great orchestras in North America.

British actor Hugh Dancy had an active career on stage and television before hitting the US box offices by storm with Black Hawk Down in 2001. His star continues to rise, with lead roles in motion pictures such as The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), Coach (2010), and Down and Dirty Pictures (2010).

A principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Irina Dvorovenko was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and began her ballet training at the Kiev Ballet School at the age of ten. 

Ivan Alekseev is a dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet.

Soprano Jacqueline Piccolino, a native of Chicago, is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Illinois studying under the direction of Cynthia Haymon. Ms. Piccolino was seen recently as a Studio Artist with the Wolf Trap Opera Company in the summer of 2011, where she sang in the mainstage productions of Le donne curiose, Sweeney Todd, and Les contes d’Hoffmann.

Joshua Bell has enchanted audiences worldwide with his breathtaking virtuosity and tone of rare beauty, earning him the title “classical music superstar.”  An Avery Fisher Prize recipient and Musical America’s 2010 Instrumentalist of the Year, Bell is The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields’ newly named Music Director. Bell came to national attention at age 14 in his debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Today he is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestra leader and composer who performs his own cadenzas to several of the major concerto repertoire.

Josie is Artistic Director of London's Donmar Warehouse. Josie was born in Salford, Greater Manchester. She read English at Cambridge University and trained as the Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse, was Trainee Associate Director at the Royal Court Theatre, Associate Director at Sheffield Theatres and Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre which, in 2011, she moved into its new home. Josie is a Board Member of Channel Four and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Julie is a music director, vocal coach, and song arranger, and she is passionate about songs and singers. She designs and performs song recitals, and has appeared on many prestigious series over the last several years, including the Carnegie Hall Pure Voice Series, Lincoln Center Great Performers, Londonís Queen Elizabeth Hall, Brussels Theatre de la Monnaie, the 92nd Street Y, University of Chicago Presents, San Francisco Performances, Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Oberlin College, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

Karen Carpenter (Director) has directed over one hundred of our most celebrated comediennes in the smash hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore, by Nora Ephron & Delia Ephron, since it's record-breaking premiere.  Winner of the 2010 Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Theatrical Production, this phenomenon of a show is now enjoyed worldwide. Karen just opened a new musical, Spoolie Girl, for the Midtown International Theater Festival, and will direct Wendy Yondorf's Admit One for Broadway, later this season.

Best known as Cissy on the classic CBS sitcom "Family Affair," Kathy Garver has garnered critical acclaim  in film, television and theatre since she was a young girl. She played a child-slave in the  movie "The Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston, and later appeared in such TV series as "The Rifleman," "Dr. Kildare," "The Patty Duke Show," "New Love, American Style" and many more.

Cellist and beat-boxing sensation Kevin Olusola is a member of the a cappella group Pentatonix. He performed at Carnegie Hall twice as soloist on the cello and saxophone, and was on NPR’s From The Top. 

This Lithuanian youth choir was established in 1997 and is comprised of young girls aged 16-18. The all-girl choir sings without a conductor, moves about the stage, and create their own inventive improvisations.

Denmark's Klarup Pigekor Girls' Choir consists of some 35 girls aged 14-25 and hailing from Aalborg and its surrounding area. The choir's ideals and characteristics are that of a pure Nordic choir mediated through its diverse repertoire.

Pianist Kristin Pankonin performs regularly throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, the US and Europe. In summer 2007, she performed on the Festival del Sole concert series in Napa, California and Cortona, Italy.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Lauren Yee is a playwright whose work includes Ching Chong Chinaman; Crevice; Hookman; in a word; A Man, his Wife, and his Hat; and Samsara. She has been a Dramatists Guild fellow, a MacDowell fellow, and Public Theater EWG member. She was a finalist for the Heideman Award, the Jerome Fellowship, the PEN USA Literary Award, the PONY Fellowship, and the Wasserstein Prize. Ching Chong Chinaman was a finalist for the Princess Grace Award, with productions at Artists at Play, Impact Theatre, Mu Performing Arts, Pan Asian Rep, and SIS Productions, and is published by Samuel French. She has also had her work produced/developed at Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3, The Public Theater, PlayPenn, Hangar Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, AlterTheater, Company One, MoxieTheatre, and others. She is currently under commission by Lincoln Center Theatre. BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD. www.laurenyee.com

American soprano Lisa Delan has won acclaim as an outstanding interpreter of a vast repertoire and is recognized for her versatility and breadth of accomplishment in opera, song, and recording.

A principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Maxim Beloserkovsky has a polished technique and confident stage presence, easily meets the technical challenge of both the classical and contemporary repertory, making him one of ABT's most versatile dancers. 

Internationally acclaimed flutist Maxim Rubtsov has been called “miraculous,” “superb,” “absolutely impeccable” and “one of the best flutists of the Modern Age.” He is also one of Russia’s best musical ambassadors.

Seventeen-year-old violinist Mayumi Kanagawa is recent graduate of The Colburn School Academy in Los Angeles, where she studied with Robert Lipsett, and the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences.  First prize winner of the 2011 Irving M. Klein Competition in San Francisco, she has also won top prizes in the Cooper, Stulberg, and Corpus Christi International Competitions, and has soloed with many orchestras including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the New West Symphony, Culver City and Torrance Symphonies, and the Western Michigan University Orchestra.

Keaton was born Michael John Douglas on September 5th, 1951 in Corapolis, Pennsylvannia and studied speech for two years at Kent State, before dropping out and moving to Pittsburgh. After serveral projects Tim Burton cast him in 1989 as millionaire playboy / crime-fighter "Bruce Wayne" in the big Batman. More recently, Keaton has appeared in various productions like ‘Multiplicity”, ”Live from Baghdad”, “First Daughter” and “Herbie Fully Loaded”.

Minnie Driver is an English actress and singer-songwriter. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, as well as for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Riches. Her first major role was in the film Circle of Friends in 1995. In the next few years she had roles in films such has GoldenEye, Sleepers and Grosse Pointe Black. In 1997 she starred in the popular and financially successful film Good Will Hunting. The film also earned Minnie an Oscar nomination for best actress in a supporting role.

Nathan Gunn has made a reputation as one of the most exciting and in-demand baritones of the day. He has appeared in internationally renowned opera houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Bilboa, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels.

Nicholas McGegan is loved by audiences and orchestras for performances that match authority with enthusiasm, scholarship with joy, and curatorial responsibility with evangelical exuberance. The London Independent calls him “one of the finest baroque conductors of his generation” and The New Yorker lauds him as “an expert in 18th-century style.”

Since her Western debut in Prague with the Prague Radio Orchestra in 1986 after winning the Prague International Competition, Nina Kotova has appeared with some of the world’s greatest orchestras and often tours the U.S., Europe, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and Singapore. 

Hailing from the Caribbean, Ashton & Pan Extasy has enjoyed continued success since its inception. They perform a wide variety of Caribbean music, Reggae, Soca, and Calypso that is accessible across all age groups and musical tastes.

San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra has been dedicated to historically-informed performance of Baroque, Classical and early-Romantic music on original instruments since its inception in 1981. Under Music Director Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque has been named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America, and “an ensemble for early music as fine as any in the world today” by Los Angeles Times critic Alan Rich.

Dynamic Italian conductor Riccardo Frizza studied at Conservatory of Music in Milan and at Chigiana Academy in Siena. In 1998 he won the International Competition of South Bohemia State-Philharmonic Conductors (Czech Republic). From 1994 to 2000, he served as conductor-in-residence for Symphonic Orchestra of Brescia, conducting Beethoven's symphonies and other orchestral repertoire.

Founded in the fall of 1990, at the same time as the RNO itself, the RNO String Quartet has been acclaimed for its virtuosic performances of the quartet literature of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and contemporary Western and Russian composers.

The Russian National Orchestra was founded by the conductor and pianist Mikhail Pletnev in 1990, following sweeping changes in the former USSR. Under his artistic leadership, the orchestra soon achieved international renown and established its hallmarks of innovation and excellence.

Sarina Zhang has accumulated a mantel full of top awards as both pianist and cellist. She was awarded First Place in the 2010 Aspen Music Festival’s low strings competition, and in 2009 won the Juilliard Pre-College Dvorák Cello Concerto Competition. Sarina has been featured on the national radio program “From the Top” as a pianist and as a cellist and also on the television series “From the Top Live from Carnegie Hall.”

With the ability to perform a diverse range of repertoire – from Haydn and Chopin to Debussy and Stravinsky – Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski has captivated audiences worldwide and established himself as one of the most remarkable young musicians to have emerged in recent years. Mr. Trpceski is praised not only for his impeccable technique and delicate expression,but also for his warm personality and commitment to strengthening Macedonia’s cultural image.

Susan Graham, one of the world’s foremost stars of opera and recital, is a compelling and versatile singing actress. Celebrated as an expert in French music, Graham has been honored by the French government with the title "Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.”

Praised as a "huge talent" (London's Evening Standard) and a "world class-musician who excels at blending the best of Western and Middle-Eastern compositions" (Gulf News), Tara Kamangar brings audiences rarely-heard works by Iranian composers of the past century.

The first production of The 24 Hour Plays in New York was intended to be a one-off. Yet the adrenaline and excitement generated by what is instant theatre in its purest form continues to electrify audiences around the world. In July, 24 Hour Plays comes to Napa.