Pops & Patriots

Soprano Christine Taylor Price earned her Masters and Artist Diploma of Opera Studies in vocal performance at The Juilliard School. In 2021, she performed Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Opera in Williamsburg, and she performed at The Ravinia Festival as part of the Steans Music Institute. In 2019, she performed The Rose in Tulsa Opera’s The Little Prince and was a soloist in the New York Festival of Song tour. Her 2018 credits include Frau Fluth in Juilliard’s production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and songs of Leonard Bernstein with The New World Symphony. In 2017, she performed Serpetta in Juilliard’s production of La finta giardiniera and The Governess in Opera Columbus’s The Turn of the Screw. Price also performed Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Opera in Williamsburg as well as the soprano solo in Mahler’s 4th Symphony in Alice Tully Hall. In 2016, she sang Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, was a semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and was a featured soloist in a gala performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She has participated in masterclasses with many great artists including Joyce DiDonato, Fabio Luisi, Gerald Finley, and Renata Scotto. Price was a Schwab Vocal Rising Star at Caramoor in 2017. 

To learn more about Christine Taylor Price, please visit her website. 

Named by President Barack Obama as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 2014, Thomas West is an accomplished citizen-artist leader making waves for his dual career as an accomplished operatic baritone and as the founding Executive Director of The Peace Studio, a nonprofit that equips and mobilizes artists and journalists to challenge injustice and bridge divides. 

Thomas’ 2021 – 22 season kicked off in November with his European debut as the baritone soloist in Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles at the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Rome, Italy. In March 2022, he debuted with the Kennett Symphony in Kennett Square, PA, performing a special arrangement of Brahms’ Vier Ernste Gesänge for string orchestra and baritone. 

His recent operatic roles include Bill in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place at Tanglewood Music Festival, Silvio in Pagliacci with Opera San Jose, and Morales in Carmen with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. Other recent highlights were Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Mississippi Symphony, the Fauré Requiem with Music on Norway Pond in Hancock, NH, An Evening of Bach Cantatas with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Winnipeg, Canada, the world premiere of Wayne Oquin’s Meditation in Alice Tully Hall, as well as multiple performances with the New York Festival of Song. 

He has previously won the Kennett Symphony Vocal Competition, and he has been a finalist in the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition and the Joy in Singing Competition. 

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from The Juilliard School, where he was named a Career Advancement Fellow and an ambassador to the National Artist as Citizen Conference. He is an alum of Caramoor’s 2020 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars mentoring program. 

To learn more about Thomas West, please visit his website. 

Curt Ebersole has served as the Conductor and Music Director (John P. Paynter Memorial Chair) of the Westchester Symphonic Winds since 2008, fostering its exponential growth over the past 14 years. He retired from Northern Valley Regional High School (Old Tappan, NJ) in 2013 after serving as Director of Instrumental Music for 31 years. His ensembles were honored with consistent critical accolades, and his instrumental Prism Concerts became a local rite of spring. He now serves on the faculty at The Masters School, in Dobbs Ferry, NY (Jane Rechtman Faculty Chair), where he teaches String Ensemble, Chamber Music, and Public Speaking. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education and a Master’s degree in Conducting from Northwestern University, where he studied with John P. Paynter and clarinet with Larry Combs, and a Master’s degree in clarinet performance from SUNY Purchase, where he studied with Ben Armato.  

Maestro Ebersole has served as a guest conductor and clinician for numerous county, regional, all-state, and adult community ensembles around the world, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Symphony Space, with the U.S. Army Field Band, along with performances in Las Vegas, South Korea, and Australia. He is the founding coordinator of the Music Educators of Bergen County Wind Conducting Symposium. He has served as a clinician at the Midwest Clinic, Temple University, Florida Music Educators Association, and presented his TED Talk, “Framing Failure,” at TEDxOneonta in 2017. His performance achievements include solo and ensemble performances as both a clarinetist and basset hornist. 

Westchester Symphonic Winds — an adult, community-based, 60-piece wind and percussion ensemble — celebrates its 34th season in 2021 – 22. The ensemble strives to promote music in our area, instill pride in our nation and heritage, provide opportunities for personal expression and growth within its membership, and nurture the love of music by offering an exceptional musical experience for people of all ages. 

The ensemble was founded by Rachel Eckhaus, Robert LaPorta, and the group’s first conductor, James D. Wayne, who conducted the band from 1988 – 2004. Dr. Luis Fernando Jimenez was conductor from 2005 – 08. Curt Ebersole was invited to conduct the 20th Anniversary Gala Concert in 2008, and was subsequently invited to stay on permanently as Conductor and Music Director. Since 2008, guest conductors and clinicians have included Dr. Mallory Thompson, Dr. John Lynch, Dr. Tom McCauley, Dr. Shelley Axelson, Travis Cross, and Joseph Greco. 

Over the years, the ensemble has given benefit concerts for many groups, including the Food Bank for Westchester, Student Assistance Services, Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation, Irvington Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Rotary Club of Briarcliff Manor, Emergency Ecumenical Food Pantry, Family Services of Westchester, Yonkers Arts Education, and others. 

The ensemble made its New York City debut at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in March of 2010, its national debut at the 2012 Association of Concert Bands National Convention, and this event marks its eighth performance at Caramoor. The organization is an Ensemble-in-Residence at the historic Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, and rehearses there on Monday evenings from September through June. 

To learn more about Westchester Symphonic Winds, please visit their website.