JoAnn Falletta was named the Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s Connie and Marc Jacobson Music Director Laureate in 2021 after serving as VSO Music Director for 29 seasons. Winner of multiple GRAMMY® Awards, she also serves as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Brevard Music Center, and Conductor Laureate of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra.

Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser and composer. He, famously, has performed all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in a single day in Toronto, Princeton, Davis, CA, Dallas,and Cincinnati. Goodyear has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, just to name a few.

Adolphus Cunningham Hailstork III  has written over 250 works for chorus, solo voice, piano, organ, various chamber ensembles, band, orchestra, and opera. His works blend musical ideas from the African, Native American and European traditions. In 2012, a Naxos recording of his piece, An American Port of Call was released featuring the VSO. In October 2022, he was featured as “Composer of the Week” on BBC Radio 3. In 2021, Fanfare on Amazing Grace was performed by the United States Marine Band at the inauguration ceremony of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Since 1945, when Harry Savage organized the first choir, to present day, the Norfolk State University Chorus has offered a place for talented student vocalists of all majors to express themselves, nurture their talents and represent the entire University through the highest levels of performance artistry. NSU Choirs currently consists of the NSU Concert Choir, The NSU Vocal Jazz Ensemble and the Voices of Inspiration Gospel Choir.  

Valerie Kahler started playing cello and piano in 3rd grade but didn't officially fall under the spell of classical music until high school when she began exploring her parents' LP collection. There, tucked between the Herb Alpert and an abandoned children's record, she found an album of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She played the A side (Ravel's Bolero and Tchaikovsky's Marche Slave) over and over, mesmerized by the changes of color the composers could produce with different instruments, and by the images the music conjured in her imagination. Thanks to teachers and professors with high expectations and a taste for demanding repertoire, Valerie was able to explore orchestral, chamber and vocal music from the inside out, all through high school and college. At some point during an unfocused pursuit of a bachelor's degree, she wandered into the studios of KNAU (now Arizona Public Radio) in Flagstaff, Arizona. A stint as a volunteer in the music library inevitably led to being placed, unwillingly, in front of a microphone. It became surprisingly less terrifying each time, so she stayed. Ten years later, she packed her bike and her cat into a small pickup truck and drove to St. Paul, Minnesota to work for American Public Media. In 2025, Valerie stepped into a new role as the host of APM’s Performance Today. When she's not playing classical music or talking about classical music, she's likely to be reading, sewing, singing or cooking. Valerie shares her life with her partner John, an artist, and their cat Mirra.