Karole Armitage is a dancer and choreographer widely known for combining disparate styles and themes with the discipline and techniques of classical ballet. Armitage danced with the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, before forming her own New York-based company in the 1980s.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, Glass spent two years of intensive study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and while there, earned money by transcribing Ravi Shankar’s Indian music into Western notation.

David Henry Hwang is a playwright, librettist and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of M. Butterfly, which won the 1988 Tony, Drama Desk, John Gassner, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and was also a finalist for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize.

A native of Bolivar, New York, soprano Joélle Harvey is quickly becoming recognized as one of the most promising young talents of her generation. She is the recent recipient of a 2009 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation.

Rebecca Luker is frequently seen in leading roles on Broadway, and is equally known for her interpretations of music, old and new, at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and the White House.

Tod Machover, called “America’s Most Wired Composer” by the Los Angeles Times, is celebrated for creating music that breaks traditional artistic and cultural boundaries.

Playwright, storyteller, musician, poet, and actor, David Gonzalez was nominated for a 2006 Drama Desk Award for his original production The Frog Bride at Broadway’s New Victory Theater.

Andrew Dawson is a theatre director, performer, Feldenkrais practitioner, and hand model. He studied dance with Merce Cunningham in New York and theatre in Paris with Phillipe Gaulier, Monika Pagneux, and Jacques Lecoq.

In 1998, Julie Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony® Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and also won a Tony® for Best Costumes, for her landmark production of The Lion King. The musical has won three Molière Awards including Best Musical and Best Costumes, garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards for Taymor’s direction.

David Hibbard most recently was in the 10 time Tony Award winning production of Billy Elliot, both on Broadway and in the second national tour. His mark on ‘the Great White Way’ is completing 2,197 performances in Broadway’s CATS, in the coveted role of the Rum Tum Tugger. Other Broadway credits include Spamalot, Once Upon A Mattress, and A Class Act.

David Kuhn, a musician, singer, songwriter, performer was one of the original musicians chosen for both the development and Broadway productions of Pete Townshend’s Tony Award-winning rock opera The Who’s Tommy.

Caitlin Trainor is the artistic director of Trainor Dance and a lecturer at Barnard College/Columbia University. Originally from Rhode Island, Trainor has taught, choreographed, and performed on both sides of the Atlantic.

Teal Wicks is best known for her critically acclaimed performance as Elphaba in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Broadway companies of Wicked. She was last seen making her TV debut on an episode of The Good Wife.

Peter Staley has been a long-term AIDS and gay rights activist, first as a member of ACT UP New York, then as the founding director of TAG, the Treatment Action Group. He served on the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) for 13 years.

Nell Benjamin is the playwright of The Explorers Club. She co-wrote the score to Legally Blonde: The Musical with composer Laurence O’Keefe, for which they received a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk nomination.

Jody Oberfelder is a choreographer and director who recently created her first immersive performance installation piece, “4Chambers,” which focuses on the heart.

Mark Brokaw’s work on Broadway includes Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Lyons, After Miss Julie, Cry-Baby, The Constant Wife, Reckless. He has directed at London’s Donmar Warehouse and Menier Chocolate Factory, Dublin’s Gate Theatre, and the Sydney Opera House. Brokaw is the Artistic Director of the Yale Institute for Music Theatre.

59 Productions is a multi-award-winning design studio and production company based in London and New York. Whether creating stage productions, museum installations, live music shows, large-scale events, or films, 59’s team generates creative and technical ideas to help realize ambitious artistic projects.

Blanca Li, whose ROBOT received its American premiere at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, has created music videos for Daft Punk, fashion videos for Beyonce, dances for films by Pedro Amodovar, runway shows for Jean Paul Gaultier, and commissions from the Paris Opera Ballet and Metropolitan Opera.

Tobias Picker, called “our finest composer for the lyric stage” by The Wall Street Journal, has composed works in all genres including five operas to date. Picker’s operas have been commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera, The LA Opera, The Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera, and have gone on to be produced by New York City Opera, L’Opera de Montreal, and many other distinguished companies.

Eric Jordan has been sought by opera companies for his trademark “big bass and presence to match” (Opera News). His voice is described as possessing “a resonant, ringing tone that was well produced throughout its range” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), and The New York Times stated that his “powerful, nuanced singing and thoughtful acting amounted to a wholly remarkable portrayal.”

Aletta Collins studied at the London Contemporary Dance School and is a former associate artist at the Royal Opera House where her commissions include The Red Balloon, Cocteau Voices, and Magical Night.

Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time. In 2013, President Obama awarded her America’s highest honor for an artist, the National Medal of Arts. Winner of the 2013 Grammy Award (her 4th) for Best Classical Vocal Solo, she brought her voice to a vast new audience in 2014, as the first classical artist ever to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.

Benjamin Pearcy joined 59 Productions in 2011 with the Broadway production of War Horse and works from 59’s New York studio. Also a projections designer, Pearcy has lit or designed projections for theater, opera, and architectural projects around the world.

Lars Jan is a director, writer, visual artist, and founder of Early Morning Opera, a genre-bending performance and art lab whose works explore emerging technologies, live audiences, and unclassifiable experience. His works have been presented by The Whitney Museum, Sundance Film Festival, and BAM Next Wave Festival.

Early Morning Opera (EMO) is a genre-bending performance and art lab whose works explore emerging technologies, live audiences, and unclassifiable experience, while reflecting artistic director Lars Jan’s background in progressive activism.

Jorge Sastre, PhD, is the Director of Performing Arts and Technology at the Universitat Politècnica de València. Sastre is also the Director of the Soundcool Project, a collaborative audiovisual project that uses smartphones and augmented reality.