ARTISTIC PARTNERS
Collage's Artistic Partner position, created in 2024, brings a leading performer into sustained collaboration with the ensemble across a season or more — appearing as soloist, shaping repertoire alongside the Artistic Director, and working with Collage's commissioned composers.
For the 2026-27 season, Collage has two Artistic Partners: soprano Tony Arnold and composer and bassist Kebra-Seyoun Charles
Tony Arnold, Artistic Partner, 2024–27
Arnold appeared in her first season as Collage's inaugural Artistic Partner in I Shall Be Brave: A Celebration in Song, singing Bernard Rands's Memo 7 and the Boston premiere of Eric Nathan and Mark Campbell's Some Favored Nook, alongside Lucy Shelton, William Sharp, and students from Longy's Historical Performance and Vocal Studies Programs.
Across three seasons she has sung Kareem Roustom's Xarja, Jörg Widmann's Sieben Abgesänge auf eine tote Linde, Marcos Balter's We Carry Our Homes Within Us, Which Enables Us to Fly with Longy students, Christopher Trapani's Waterlines, Inga Chinilina's In den finsteren Zeiten, and the world premieres of Michael Gandolfi's Lowell Songs and Eric Chasalow's Three Tastes of Home, both Collage commissions.
In 2026–27 she sings Kurtág's Scenes from a Novel, for the composer's hundredth birthday, and the world premiere of a new Collage commission by Peter Child.
BIOGRAPHY
“Soprano Tony Arnold is a luminary in the world of chamber music and art song. Today’s classical composers are inspired by her inherently beautiful voice, consummate musicianship, and embracing spirit” (Huffington Post). Hailed by the New York Times as “a bold, powerful interpreter,” she is internationally acclaimed as a leading proponent of contemporary music in concert and recording, having premiered hundreds of works by established and emerging composers. Since becoming the first-prize laureate of both the 2001 Gaudeamus International Competition (NL) and the 2001 Louise D. McMahon Competition (USA), Tony Arnold has collaborated with the most cutting-edge composers and instrumentalists on the world stage, and shares with audiences her “broader gift for conveying the poetry and nuance behind outwardly daunting contemporary scores” (Boston Globe). Her unique blend of vocal virtuosity and communicative warmth, combined with wide-ranging skills in education and leadership were recognized with the 2015 Brandeis Creative Arts Award, given in appreciation of “excellence in the arts and the lives and works of distinguished, active American artists.”
As the soprano of the intrepid International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Tony Arnold is a catalyst for dozens of groundbreaking projects, the most recent of which is David Lang’s Whisper Opera in ICE’s touring production directed by Jim Findlay. She has toured the U.S. extensively as a member of the George Crumb Ensemble, and has become the voice most associated with Crumb’s music since the beloved Jan DeGaetani. A noted guest artist at international festivals on four continents, Tony Arnold has been featured at the Darmstadt Festival and Witten New Music Days (Germany); Time of Music (Finland); Cervantino (Mexico); Musica Sacra Maastricht (Netherlands); Tongyeong Festival (Korea); Perspectives XXI Festival (Armenia), and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. She regularly appears with leading ensembles including the JACK Quartet, Orion Quartet, Ensemble Modern, Talea Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Now, Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
With more than thirty discs to her credit, Tony Arnold has recorded a broad segment of the modern vocal repertory with esteemed chamber music colleagues. Her recording of George Crumb’s iconic Ancient Voices of Children (Bridge) was nominated for a 2006 Grammy Award, and her recording with ICE of Nathan Davis’s On the Nature of Thingness (Starkland) was named Best Contemporary Classical Album at the 2016 Independent Music Awards. Other notable releases include György Kurtág’s monumental Kafka Fragments (Bridge); Jason Eckardt’s uncompromising Undersong (Mode) and Tongues (Tzadik); Olivier Messiaen’s mystical Harawi (New Focus); and the complete Webern project under the direction of Robert Craft (Naxos). Of the Webern, The Guardianwrites, “sung with remarkable poise and warmth by soprano Tony Arnold…each [song] is a perfectly etched miniature, a nugget of impacted lyricism, and Arnold unwraps them with immense care.”
Kebra-Seyoun Charles, Artistic Partner, 2026–27
Charles joins Collage in November 2026 on Scenes from a Novel, performing his own This is the Day and I Know the Lord Laid His Hands on Me, Kurtág's Shadows and Hommage à John Cage from Signs, Games and Messages, Kurtág's Scenes from a Novel with Arnold, and two world premieres of commissioned works by Eun Young Lee and Peter Child.
BIOGRAPHY
2022 Sphinx Competition winner Kebra-Seyoun Charles (they/them) is a double bassist and composer lauded for their innovative and integrated approach to musical expression, as both soloist and creator. As a modern virtuoso and composer of concerti, ballets, and pop ballads, Kebra’s music has been praised for its “buoyancy and verve — pushing the far reaches of tonality while savoring hummable grooves” (ICareIfYouListen). A rising star and advocate for a more inclusive classical music community, The Strad confirms that “Versatility defines Charles’s approach.”
The 2024/2025 season opens with the world premiere of Kebra’s new double bass concerto Nightlife conducted by Mei-Ann Chen at Carnegie Hall featuring the American Composers Orchestra. This season also features the premiere of a new ballet commissioned by Peter London Global Dance Company in Miami, plus chamber collaborations with NYC supergroups Bang On a Can, Alarm Will Sound, and International Contemporary Ensemble.
After being recognized with the Robert Frederick Smith Prize from the Sphinx Organization, Kebra has continued to receive honors including the American Composers Orchestra Van Lier Fellowship and perform recital events featured on Performance Today, Young Arts, and NPR’s From The Top. They are also two-time winner of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra’s concerto competition, winner of the American Music Talent Competition, and winner of the NAACP’s ACT-SO concerto competition. Kebra has soloed with orchestras including the New World Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Wilmington Symphony, and was the featured soloist on a national tour with the Sphinx Virtuosi. Other notable performances include those at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kagoshima Jazz Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Library of Congress.
Growing up the child of an African drummer and dancer, Kebra was exposed to music at a very early age.They grew up around jazz, gospel, and traditional African music, which led Kebra to develop an interest in a diversity of contrasting genres and a new fusion of styles they term “Counterclassical”: a third wave of classicism blending stylistic influences from jazz, gospel, pop, and RnB with the formal and harmonic structures of the classical canon. This synthesis is exemplified in Kebra’s ballet Enby, commissioned by Sphinx’s MPower grant, which is centered around the life of a Black non-binary classical musician, and shared with new generations of musicians via groundbreaking educational initiatives such as the Counterclassical Treatise, which empowers young people to reimagine the concept of musical ornamentation updated for today’s omnivorous ears.
In addition to their solo and compositional career, Kebra is a passionate chamber musician. Playing with groups like East Coast Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, and Palaver Strings affords Kebra the opportunity to showcase their musicianship and lead from within an ensemble (as in their role performing the 2019 Emmy Award-winning Broadway production “Hadestown”). Kebra has collaborated with esteemed improvisers and composers such as Jon Batiste at Carnegie Hall, 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner Tyshawn Sorey at the New England Conservatory, and jazz musician/composer Jason Moran via an interactive installation at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art.
Originally from Miami, Florida, Kebra received their Bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, where they studied with Todd Seeber and Lawrence Wolfe. In 2022, they graduated from the Juilliard School with a Master’s degree under the tutelage of Joseph Conyers, receiving the Benzaquen Career Grant and Morse Teaching Artist Fellowship in recognition of their talents. Kebra’s lifelong commitment to both the performance and creation of music ensures that they are always learning, experimenting, and building a more inclusive classical music community.
Learn more at www.kscharles.com.