Lidiya Yankovskaya / Conductor & Artistic Director
Russian-born conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya serves as Artistic Director of Refugee Orchestra Project and Music Director with Chicago Opera Theater. She is also a resident artist at National Sawdust in NYC. Until recently, Lidiya also served as a conductor with Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, as a regular guest chorus master with Boston Symphony Orchestra, and as the Artistic Director of Juventas New Music Ensemble/Boston New Music Festival. Lidiya’s conducting engagements this season include Spoleto Festival USA, Washington National Opera, Stamford Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Wolftrap Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, Symphony New Hampshire, and a workshop of a new opera with The Metropolitan Opera. She was also featured in the 2017 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, and is a part of Marin Alsop’s Taki Concordia Fellowship and The Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors, and has previously served as assistant conductor to Lorin Maazel at the Castleton Festival, where she regularly stepped in for Maazel in rehearsals and performances. Other previous positions include serving as Music Director with Harvard’s Lowell House Opera, where she was also a resident artist and Davis Center associate scholar. In her work as an artistic leader, Lidiya has become known as a champion of living composers and cross-disciplinary collaborative projects, alongside her work with traditional repertoire. Under her leadership, Juventas New Music produced annual operatic premieres and performances that cross disciplinary boundaries, including musical collaborations with robots, puppeteers, visual artists, circus performers, and more. Lidiya has also been an advocate for lesser known repertory and Russian operatic works, most recently conducting American premieres of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kashchej the Immortal, Symphony No.1 and Snegurochka, Rubinshteyn’s The Demon, and an upcoming U.S. premiere of Donizetti’s Pia de’ Tolomei. Under her leadership, Chicago Opera Theater is establishing a new Vanguard Initiative, focused on composer mentorship and development of new work. More at www.LidiyaConductor.com
Portia Dunkley / Executive Director
Born to immigrant parents, Portia Dunkley is a native of Miami, FL with Bahamian and Haitian carribean roots. Early on in life, she was introduced to the double bass and continued her studies graduating from The New World School of The Arts in Miami, FL and attended Florida State University where she received both a Bachelor Degree in Performance and a Master Degree in Arts Administration. She currently resides in South Florida where she continues the joy of creating music with her husband, jazz trombonist, Waldron Dunkley and daughter Auriel, who also plays double bass.
In 2017, Portia started Teeny Violini, a mobile music education program for preschools and afterschool programs, providing music education services for historically underserved communities, reaching over 600 students from preschool-5th grade weekly through programming. In 2019 Portia was chosen as a Fellow for the SphinxL.EA.D (Leaders in Excellence, arts and Diversity) inaugural cohort. In that same year she was recognized by the Knight Foundation with an Arts Challenge Grant to establish a new South Florida ensemble for her project, Music of the Unsung America, a multi event lecture-concert series that highlights music compositions by Black composers in the shadows of history. This project creates opportunities for Black and Latinx professional classical musicians in South Florida to perform works by Black and other minority composers left out of the “traditional” canon of music.
Inspired by her own experience as a Black woman musician and double bassist and having learned about these Black composers late in her career, Portia hopes that her work with Unsung America and The Refugee Orchestra Project will help build communities of belonging, amplify the voices and creative talents of marginalized artists and inspire young people of all cultures to see themselves reflected in classical music.
In 2017, Portia started Teeny Violini, a mobile music education program for preschools and afterschool programs, providing music education services for historically underserved communities, reaching over 600 students from preschool-5th grade weekly through programming. In 2019 Portia was chosen as a Fellow for the SphinxL.EA.D (Leaders in Excellence, arts and Diversity) inaugural cohort. In that same year she was recognized by the Knight Foundation with an Arts Challenge Grant to establish a new South Florida ensemble for her project, Music of the Unsung America, a multi event lecture-concert series that highlights music compositions by Black composers in the shadows of history. This project creates opportunities for Black and Latinx professional classical musicians in South Florida to perform works by Black and other minority composers left out of the “traditional” canon of music.
Inspired by her own experience as a Black woman musician and double bassist and having learned about these Black composers late in her career, Portia hopes that her work with Unsung America and The Refugee Orchestra Project will help build communities of belonging, amplify the voices and creative talents of marginalized artists and inspire young people of all cultures to see themselves reflected in classical music.
Allison Provaire / Director of Operations
Soprano Allison Provaire has been hailed for her "gleaming tone" as an up and coming artist in the Boston area where she has performed with several companies including Lowell House Opera, Opera Brittenica, Boston Opera Collaborative, Odyssey Opera and as a soloist with Calliope Music Ensemble of Boston. Recent credits include Mrs. Webb (Our Town), Mrs. Gross (Cover, Turn of the Screw), Lady Billows (Albert Herring), and Kitty Hart (Dead Man Walking).
Allison has also been seen abroad as a soloist with the International Lyric Academy of Rome as part of the Tuscia Opera Festival in Viterbo, Italy under the direction of Timothy Leon of L.A. Opera, as well as in China where she was a soloist with the Cultural Arts and Music Festival of Shanghai. Allison has been an invited singer in masterclasses throughout Boston and abroad and has worked with The Metropolitan Opera's Nico Castel, renowned Baritone Anton Belov, and International Conductor Maestro Stefano Vignati, among several others. Allison also enjoys working with organizations in an administrative capacity and has served as the Development Assistant and Financial Officer for Boston Opera Collaborative. She currently volunteers her time as an Event Planner and Administrative Coordinator for a women’s advocacy group within the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she also works as an Executive Assistant and Development Assistant.
Allison has also been seen abroad as a soloist with the International Lyric Academy of Rome as part of the Tuscia Opera Festival in Viterbo, Italy under the direction of Timothy Leon of L.A. Opera, as well as in China where she was a soloist with the Cultural Arts and Music Festival of Shanghai. Allison has been an invited singer in masterclasses throughout Boston and abroad and has worked with The Metropolitan Opera's Nico Castel, renowned Baritone Anton Belov, and International Conductor Maestro Stefano Vignati, among several others. Allison also enjoys working with organizations in an administrative capacity and has served as the Development Assistant and Financial Officer for Boston Opera Collaborative. She currently volunteers her time as an Event Planner and Administrative Coordinator for a women’s advocacy group within the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she also works as an Executive Assistant and Development Assistant.
Zachary Goodman / Associate Conductor
Considered by many to be a vibrant and inspired young conductor, Zachary Goodman began studying conducting in Paris, France at l’École Normale de Musique and la Schola Cantorum. Recently, he finished his Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting at Mannes College of Music. Zachary is a recipient of the Buffalo Philharmonic Julius Rudel Fellowship, serving as cover conductor with JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Zachary works regularly in New York City having most notably collaborated with the soprano Frederica von Stade in the 2016 production with American Songbook of “A Coffin in Egypt.” His upcoming projects include guest conducting with the Buffalo Philharmonic, productions with On-Site Opera and the PROTOTYPE Festival, and serving as Associate Music Director of the Refugee Orchestra Project.
John Connolly / Director of Marketing & Communications
John has extensive experience in the arts, from his time as theatre manager at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester to his time with the Mayor's Office of Arts, Tourism & Special Events in Boston. He has held other marketing leadership positions at the Boston Children's Chorus, Urban Nutcracker, School For International Training, World Learning and has served on various marketing committees with the Boston Harbor Islands Alliance, Boston Lyric Opera. He is currently co-chair for the City Ballet of Boston. One of his favorite jobs though was when he was site supervisor for the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in 2003. He currently works at the Harvard Art Museums.