Lights of the Season: A Holiday Encore

A touch of holiday magic, from us to you ✨
Join me and my incredibly talented colleagues
to extend Christmas and listen to beautiful masterpieces.

Kofi Hayford is a prize-winning British Ghanaian-American bass, acclaimed for an “impressive,” “sonorous,” and “stentorian” voice of distinctive timbre. With more than 40 operatic roles in his repertoire, he has appeared in opera and concert with organizations including the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Fort Worth Opera, Indianapolis Opera, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

A double laureate of the 2024 Grand Voix Lyrique d’Afrique International Competition, Hayford made his mainstage Carnegie Hall debut in May 2024. His performances have drawn enthusiastic, sold-out audiences from the Arctic Circle to the Caribbean, and across Europe and Africa. Recent engagements include a concert tour in Martinique, a performance at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Auditorium as part of AfterArts’ Annual Showcase, a six-city concert tour in France, and the bass solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the United Nations Orchestra.

In September 2025, he made his Lincoln Center debut at Alice Tully Hall with the Manhattan Philharmonic Society, performing a major work about the Yellow River in Mandarin. Upcoming engagements include concerts in New York City, the United Kingdom, and France, as well as his Verdi Requiem debut in Massachusetts in April 2026.

Mr. Hayford holds a Bachelor’s degree from SUNY Buffalo, is the co-founder of the DictionBuddy mobile app, and serves as Chairman of the Board of the Groupmuse Foundation, where he is active in arts leadership and advocacy.

Maria Brea, soprano, is one of Venezuela’s most celebrated operatic artists, praised by OperaWire for her “luxurious,” “versatile,” and “very classy” voice. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she has appeared on major stages including Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Opera, Palais Garnier, and Teatro Liceu. Her debut album, Alba Beyond Borders (Lexicon Classics)—an exploration of Latin American and Jewish art song—streams worldwide and has launched a multi-city U.S. concert tour. Her operatic repertoire includes leading roles such as Violetta, Mimì, Gilda, Nedda, and Liù, and she has performed with companies including Arizona Opera, Opera San José, Palm Beach Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. An award-winning artist, Ms. Brea represented Venezuela at Operalia, was a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, and received the Best Musical Actress Award from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors.

Taisiya Losmakova, violinist, is an internationally active performer acclaimed for her versatility, musical depth, and dynamic presence on stage. She trained at the Republican Gymnasium-College of the Belarusian State Academy of Music and earned her degree from the Belarusian State Academy of Music, where she appeared as a soloist with the Belarusian State Philharmonic, performing Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Her early career included performances across Europe and the Middle East, with appearances in Germany, Belgium, Qatar, and at the Musica Mundi Festival, collaborating with artists such as Maxim Vengerov and Misha Maisky. A former Concertmaster of the Presidential Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus (2019–2021), she relocated to the United States in 2021 and earned her Master of Music from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music, studying with Eduard Schmieder and Lambert Orkis. Ms. Losmakova has appeared at leading venues including Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), Lincoln Center, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and the Kimmel Center, and regularly collaborates with ensembles such as Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, Manhattan Opera Studio, and New Amsterdam Opera. A dedicated chamber musician and producer, she curates and performs concerts throughout New York and the Northeast, and her artistry is featured on the album Frozen Reflections.

Aleksander Bolotin, pianist, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and began studying piano at age eight. He is a graduate of the Special Music School for Gifted Children at the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory and continued his studies there under Professor Alexander Sandler before moving to the United States. Since 2021, he has studied at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, currently in the class of Inesa Sinkevych. A prizewinner of numerous international competitions—including multiple First Prizes at Frederic Chopin Competitions in Estonia, Poland, Russia, and Italy—he has appeared as a soloist and with orchestra across Russia, Europe, the United States, and Asia, performing with ensembles such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Praised by New York critic Donald Isler for his imagination, tonal range, and artistic restraint, Mr. Bolotin is an active recitalist and festival artist and regularly performs in concerts supporting Ukraine in the United States.

What's the music?

Kofi Hayford Bass

Maria Brea Soprano

Alexander Bolotin Piano

Taisiya Losmakova Violin

Attendees

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Katrina N.