Newly appointed Music Director of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, Yaniv Dinur is lauded for his insightful interpretations and unique ability to connect with concertgoers of all ages and backgrounds, from season subscribers to symphony newcomers.

Season 26/27 marks the beginning of Dinur’s tenth season with the New Bedford Symphony. Under his leadership, the New Bedford Symphony has been nationally recognized for its bold, engaging programming and artistic quality, leading to the League of American Orchestras selecting the orchestra to perform at the 2021 League Conference.

Dinur served as Resident Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra between 2016-2024, during which he conducted hundreds of concerts. Recognizing his leadership and impact, the Milwaukee Business Journal selected him as a 40 Under 40 honoree in 2019, an award for young professionals making a difference in the community. Dinur remains in close contact with the Milwaukee Symphony. He recently returned to the orchestra as a guest conductor, and he plays chamber music with members of the MSO year-round. He is the founder and artistic director of the Winterlude Chamber Music Series at the Villa Terrace Museum as well as the Milwaukee Chamber Music Festival.

Yaniv Dinur made his conducting debut at the age of 19 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, which led to multiple return engagements. Since then, he has conducted orchestras around the world, including the Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Houston Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, New World Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Portugal Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Festival Orchestra/Bulgaria, State Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Torino Philharmonic, Orchestra Filarmonica de Madrid, Edmonton Symphony, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. Recent and upcoming guest conducting highlights include debuts with the Utah Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, New Hampshire Music Festival, and Present Music in Milwaukee. Dinur has collaborated with world-renowned soloists such as Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, and Itzhak Perlman.

Dinur is the winner of numerous awards, among them the 2019 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Fellow Award, 2017 and 2016 Solti Career Assistance Awards, 2nd Prize at the 2009 Mata International Conducting Competition in Mexico, and the Yuri Ahronovitch 1st Prize in the 2005 Aviv Conducting Competition in Israel. He is also a recipient of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Zubin Mehta Scholarship Endowment.

Born in Jerusalem, Dinur began studying the piano at the age of six with his aunt, Olga Shachar. He continued his studies with Prof. Alexander Tamir, and most recently with Edna Golandsky and Robert Durso. He studied conducting in Israel with Dr. Evgeny Zirlin and Prof. Mendi Rodan, and holds a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where he was a student of Prof. Kenneth Kiesler.

Yaniv Dinur resides in Milwaukee with his wife, Christina, and two daugthers, Josephine and Alexandra.

A native of Waukesha, Wisconsin, Alex Ayers has played violin with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2013. He was previously a member of the Madison Symphony. After studying nine years at the String Academy of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with Darcy Drexler, Alex studied at Indiana University with Mimi Zweig and Alex Kerr. He has performed collaboratively with Joshua Bell, Alex Kerr, Jaime Laredo, Gilles Apap, and Soovin Kim at IU.

Alex was a member of the Indiana University String Academy's Violin Virtuosi ensemble for two years, performing in the group's concert tours to France and Argentina. He has attended several summer music festivals, including the IU Summer String Academy, Innsbrook Institute, Madeline Island Chamber Music Camp, Fox River Chamber Fest, and the Anchorage Chamber Music Festival as a faculty member. He has played at the Castleton Festival under Lorin Maazel and currently plays in the Peninsula Music Festival with Victor Yampolsky in the summer.

Alex received an honorable mention in the 2015 ASTA National Solo Competition and was a semifinalist in the 2010 WAMSO Young Artist Competition and the 2009 Lennox Young Artist Competition. He was the grand prize winner of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's Stars of Tomorrow Competition in 2006.

When not playing the violin, Alex enjoys playing Scrabble, various card games and board games, and Final Fantasy video games. He follows the tennis news closely and likes to watch the Bucks or Packers play.

Since her solo orchestral debut at age 15, Ilana Setapen has been flourishing as a violinist with a powerful and original voice. She is hailed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a violinist with “a sparkling sound” and “the kind of control that puts an audience completely at ease.” She is currently the First Associate Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

In recent seasons, Setapen has had solo performances with the Milwaukee Symphony, Festival City Symphony, and the Amarillo Symphony, among others. She also held the Assistant Concertmaster position of the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago for 6 years and is a favorite guest concertmaster with the Chicago Philharmonic. In recent summers, she has performed at the Olympic Music Festival on Bainbridge Island and the Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, Minnesota. She has also served on the faculty at Luzerne Music Center summer festival in Lake Luzerne, New York and is currently on the faculty at Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan.

At the age of 21, Setapen won the concertmaster position of the Riverside Philharmonic in Los Angeles. She has also held concertmaster positions with the Juilliard Orchestra, the Colburn Orchestra, the American Youth Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the USC Thornton Symphony. As a committed chamber musician, Setapen is in demand as a collaborator throughout the Midwest. She performs frequently with Present Music. Her talent has led her to collaborations with such distinguished artists as Ron Leonard, Lynn Harrell, Toby Appel, Cynthia Phelps, Joseph Kalichstein, Robert DeMaine, Paul Coletti, the Fine Arts Quartet, Stefan Hersh, David Geber, and Joan Tower. Solo and chamber music performances have brought her abroad to China, France, Brazil, Holland, England, Monaco, and Italy.

Setapen grew up in Amarillo, Texas. Her father is a conductor and her first violin teacher was her mother. She was a student of Robert Lipsett both at the University of Southern California and at the Colburn Conservatory. She received her Master of Music Degree from the Juilliard School as a student of Donald Weilerstein and Ronald Copes. She is also a dedicated educator and loves teaching. In her spare time, Setapen enjoys spending time with her husband and their two sons and swing dancing.

Coming from Austin, Texas, Alejandro was a member of the Austin Symphony and the indie band Montopolis. He has performed at numerous music festivals such as the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. More recently, he has been a guest artist at the Sunset ChamberFest, Caroga Lake Music Festival, and Lakes Area Music Festival. Alejandro received his Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Southern California under the mentorship of Donald McInnes and most recently his Master of Music degree at UT Austin under Roger Myers.

Peter J. Thomas has been a member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2008 and has performed around the world as a multi-genre soloist, clinician, educator, and chamber musician. Peter frequently performs with the 414 Quartet, Present Music, Carthage Trio, and in collaboration with multiple bands. He is also the co-founder of MusiConnect, a community-building music series that safely brought people together during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was nominated as one of Milwaukee’s best music festivals in 2021. Additionally, Peter was the manager and cellist of the award-winning classical crossover indie-rock band, I’m Not A Pilot, that toured extensively across the Midwest at colleges, performing art centers, music festivals and in educational collaboration concerts with high school orchestras from 2009-2016.

Mr. Thomas has presented clinics and workshops across the country through his innovative use of the electric cello and has recorded, arranged, and edited music for numerous artists including 2Cellos and The Piano Guys through Hal Leonard Music. Peter was most recently recognized as the Best Acoustic Musician in the Best of Milwaukee 2021 annual competition by the Shepherd Express. He was also the winner of the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI)’s String Player of the Year award in 2012 and 2015 and has been nominated for the award five times. As a songwriter, Peter’s original song “Only in Dreams” featuring vocalist Amanda Huff took home the 2019 WAMI award for Song of the Year as well as being recognized in the same category by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

As an educator, Mr. Thomas holds the position of Adjunct Cello Professor at Carthage College and he also maintains a private cello studio of gifted musicians. During the summer, Peter teaches on faculty at CLAZZ, a multi-genre music festival in Arcidosso, Italy. He has also served on the faculty of the American Suzuki Institute each summer since 2013. Peter is the recipient of Civic Music Milwaukee’s 2018 Educator Award for Certificate of Excellence in Studio Music. His students have won competitions and full-tuition scholarships in music programs across the country. Peter has taught master classes at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater, Lawrence University, Gustavus Adolphus College, Eastern Michigan University, Maranatha Baptist University, Washington College, and at dozens of high schools across the state of Wisconsin.

Prior to joining the MSO, Mr. Thomas performed with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and the New World Symphony. Peter appeared as a soloist with the New World Symphony on two separate occasions, where he performed Richard Strauss’s ‘Don Quixote’ and Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, as the 2008 Concerto Competition winner. Originally from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where he was born into a family of musicians, Peter began playing cello at age five at the American Suzuki Talent Education Center and received degrees at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and the Cleveland Institute of Music. His primary teachers were Lawrence Leviton, Tanya Remenikova, Joseph Johnson, and Stephen Geber.

Peter enjoys the life of being a music ambassador and strives to spread awareness of the arts in the community through his many outlets. Peter performs on a fine English cello circa 1813 by maker Thomas Kennedy.

Principal clarinet of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and participant in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, four-time Grammy Award-winner Todd Levy has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Mostly Mozart, with the Israel Philharmonic, and at the White House, among many other venues. An active chamber musician, Levy has appeared with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Ying, Miro, and Miami string quartets, and with James Levine, Christoph Eschenbach, and Mitsuko Uchida. He has also been a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival for four summers and was a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Aspen Wind Quintet.

In demand as guest principal clarinet with the top American orchestras, Levy has played principal clarinet with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and frequently for Seiji Ozawa and Riccardo Muti in Japan with Tokyo Opera Nomori and the Mito Chamber Orchestra. An avid supporter of new music, he has performed world premieres of concerti and chamber works by composers such as John Harbison, Joan Tower, Peter Schickele, Paquito D’Rivera, Morton Subotnick, Magnus Lindberg, Marc Neikrug, and Outi Tarkiainen. He performs on the new release of Marc Neikrug’s Through Roses with violinist Pinchas Zukerman, actor John Rubenstein, and the composer conducting.

Levy’s new CD for Avie, Rhapsodie, features 20th-century classics for clarinet.

He has also recorded the Brahms clarinet sonatas and Schumann’s romances and

Fantasiestücke for Avie, as well as three educational CDs of clarinet competition works entitled The Clarinet Collection for G. Schirmer and Hal Leonard. In 2021, he compiled a book of French repertoire for publisher Alphonse Leduc called French Music for Clarinet. In addition, Levy has recorded and edited the new exclusive editions and CDs of the Bernstein clarinet sonata and Gerald Finzi’s five bagatelles for Boosey and Hawkes in addition to more than 20 other orchestral and chamber music CDs on the Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, and Decca labels. He performs on Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures, and Selmer Signature clarinets. Levy serves on the clarinet faculty at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University and at UW-Milwaukee. Levy is a graduate of The Juilliard School and an alum of the New World Symphony.

For a more complete biography, visit toddlevy.org.

Jennifer Bouton has performed around the world as a guest artist, clinician, and orchestral musician. A member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2011, she performed two seasons with Lyric Opera of Chicago, and has played guest roles with the Chicago Symphony and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, among others. In 2019 she won an extended appointment with the Australian Ballet and Australian Opera in Melbourne, and was invited to become a permanent member of Orchestra Victoria.

Jennifer’s album of the Vivaldi Piccolo concertos is the first complete recording of the concerti by an American piccoloist. She has performed the most famous of these, the C Major concerto (RV 443), numerous times, including a performance with the Milwaukee Symphony and Nicholas McGegan in 2023. Her own edition of the Vivaldi Piccolo concertos will be published in 2025.

Ms. Bouton has been a featured guest artist in numerous American and international festivals, including the Grant Park Music Festival, Lakes Area Music Festival, Peninsula Music Festival, Arizona Music Festival, Sunflower Music Festival, Artosphere Festival Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival (Piccolo Fellowship), and AIMS Summer Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria. In 2012 she was a prize-winner in the National Flute Association's Piccolo Artist Competition.

Jennifer is currently Artist Faculty at Roosevelt University and Carthage College; she has held prior faculty positions at Wisconsin Lutheran College and Carroll University. In 2009 Jennifer was an assistant editor and research assistant for the publication of the revised edition of Jeanne Baxtresser's essential book, Orchestral Excerpts for Flute (Presser). Other publication credits include contributing editor, interview subject, and columnist for Flute Talk Magazine and The Instrumentalist. As a Wm. S. Haynes Performing Artist, she plays a custom 10K gold flute with a 19.5K headjoint. She plays a custom Keefe piccolo with a cocus headjoint and 14K gold sleeve.

Ms. Bouton received a Master of Music degree and Certificate in Advanced Flute Studies from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory. Her teachers include Jeanne Baxtresser, Alberto Almarza, and Marina Piccinini. Originally from Denver, Colorado, in her spare time Jennifer enjoys being active outdoors with her husband and two young daughters.Lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle as “vocally resplendent” and possessing “impeccable coloratura,” in the 2024/25 season soprano Alisa Jordheim makes several role debuts: Violetta in La traviata with Opera Western Reserve, Adina in L’elisir d’amore with the New Philharmonic, Le Fée in Cendrillon with Opera Orlando, Daria prima donna in Viva la Mamma with Florentine Opera, and the Young Woman in Cipullo’s After Life for Music for Remembrance in Seattle and San Francisco, in addition to joining San Francisco Opera for their productions of The Handmaid’s Tale and Un ballo in maschera. On the concert stage, she sings further performances of Carmina Burana with both Pacific Symphony and Evansville Symphony, Christmas concerts with San Diego Opera and the Spreckels Organ Society, and Salute to Broadway in concert with the NW Indiana Symphony. Last season, she returned to the Pacific Symphony for her role debut as Musetta in La bohème, to Florentine Opera for Berginella of Offenbach’s Songbird, made her London debut in concert with the Voces8 foundation, and returned to Amarillo Opera in recital. She also recently returned to the role of Gilda in Rigoletto with both the Pacific Symphony and Amarillo Opera, and made her Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra debut singing Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Prangcharoen’s Endless Tears.

Ms. Jordheim recently sang her first performances of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro in her debut with Virginia Opera, joined the Enescu Festival as First Maid in Der Zwerg, returned to San Diego Opera as Despina in Cosi fan tutte, and returned to Central City Opera for Adele in Die Fledermaus and for further performances of Gilda in Rigoletto. She made her role and company debut as Clothilde in Pacini’s Maria, regina d’Inghilterra with Odyssey Opera, was engaged as Norina in Don Pasquale in a return to Boston Midsummer Opera, sang Hannah in The Merry Widow with the New Philharmonic, Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Bach Collegium San Diego, and joined the Bochumer Symphoniker in a concert of Rachmaninoff and Gershwin. Ms. Jordheim made her company and role debut as Gilda in Rigoletto with San Diego Opera, sang Ninetta in Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra with Teatro Nuovo, Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate with Milwaukee Symphony, Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Bel Canto Chorus, along with various concerts with the New Philharmonic and the New York Opera Society. She also recently joined Palm Beach Opera for Cunegonde in Candide, made her Paris Opera debut as 1^st Knappe in Parsifal, returned to Florentine Opera for both Venus in Venus and Adonis and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, and joined Boston Midsummer Opera for Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

Ms. Jordheim created the role of Lola in Aldridge’s Sister Carrie with Florentine Opera, a commercial recording of which was released on Naxos Records. Other recent performances include: Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Serpetta in La finta giardiniera with On Site Opera and Atlanta Opera, Yum Yum in The Mikado with DuPage Opera, Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites at the Caramoor International Music Festival, Marzelline in Fidelio with Madison Opera, Nannetta in Falstaff with Emerald City Opera, Micaëla in Carmen with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and Satirino in La Calisto with Cincinnati Opera, where she previously sang Zweite Knabe in DieZauberflöte and the Page in Rigoletto. She returned to Florentine Opera as Lulu Baines in Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry after participating in the company’s studio, where she sang numerous mainstage roles with the company including Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, and Frasquita in Carmen, as well as excerpts of Adina in L’elisir d’amore. She is also a former participant in San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola Opera program, where she sang both Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro. With Central City Opera, she sang Flora in The Turn of the Screw, Ellen in Oklahoma!, Fredrika in A Little Night Music, and Sirena in a family matinee performance of Rinaldo and received both the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Young Artists Training Program Award and the Young Artist Award.

On the concert stage, she has sung Torke’s Book of Proverbs at the Grant Park Music Festival, the title role in Gisle Kverndokk and Aksel-Otto Bull’s Letters from Ruth with the New York Opera Society at the National Gallery of Art, Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Insanae et vanae curae with Ensemble Pygmalion at the Chapelle Royale du Château de Versailles, further performances of Mozart’s Requiem with Baltimore Symphony, Yum Yum in The Mikado with the Northwest Indiana Symphony, “A Bernstein Banquet” with the Southwestern Suburban Symphony, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Lawrence University, Bach’s St. John Passion with Madison Bach Musicians, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with Madison Bach Musicians and the Milwaukee Symphony, Bestienne in Bastien und Bestienne also with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Rose in Portman’s The Little Prince with Cincinnati Chamber Opera, Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dreamwith the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and Greeley Philharmonic, Orff’s Carmina burana and Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate with the Fox Valley Symphony, and Bach’s Cantata No. 29 with the Dayton Philharmonic.

She holds both a Master of Music and Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where her roles included Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos in addition to singing Mozart’s Mass in C minor, with previous studies at Lawrence University. Ms. Jordheim is the 2016 Rose Bampton Award winner by The William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation, where she was also a career grant recipient in 2015. She was awarded an American Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship and US Student Fulbright Foundation Travel Grant for study and research in Scandinavia towards her doctoral work, also at the University of Cincinnati. She is a two-time winner of the Wisconsin district of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, 2015 winner of the Bel Canto Regional Artists Competition, and the second place winner of the Auditions Plus Classical Singer Vocal Competition. She is also the recipient of the Edith Newfield Scholarship in the Musicians Club of Women Scholarship Competition.