ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
BRIDGET KINNEARY
Bridget Kinneary enjoys a career as an orchestral conductor, educator, violist, and collaborative artist. Presently, she conducts the Mannes Prep Chamber Orchestra in New York City and is completing studies for a Master of Music in orchestral conducting at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.
After winning a Fulbright grant to Germany in 2016, Bridget served as music director and site coordinator for Mit Mach Musik e.V, an El-Sistema-inspired music education initiative in Berlin for two years. She is currently on sabbatical from her position as orchestra director and head of secondary school music at Berlin Cosmopolitan School. In 2018, Bridget received the Jürgen Mulert Award for Mutual Understanding, commending the Mit-Mach-Musik Project and her work to bring music to diverse communities.
Collecting global perspectives on music teaching and learning is important to Bridget. While making a conscious effort to engage authentically with communities while traveling, Bridget appeared as a workshop leader/guest conductor internationally for the Harare Youth Orchestra in Zimbabwe, the National Youth Orchestra of Belize, El Sistema Sweden in Gothenburg, and Kaitia College and El Sistema Whangārei in Northland, New Zealand. She has participated in conducting masterclasses with Kristjan Järvi in Tartu, Estonia, and Sasha Mälakiä in Helsinki, Finland.
In the Summer of 2023, Bridget graduated with a Master of Business Administration in Arts Innovation as a part of the inaugural cohort of the degree program curated by The Global Leaders Institute and Woolf University. Additionally, she holds Bachelor's Degrees in Music Education and Viola Performance plus a certificate in Arts Leadership from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Professor George Taylor.
In her spare time, Bridget likes to learn tunes on the ganjo (guitar/banjo), take photos of trees, and visit supermarkets in foreign countries.
ASSISTANT TO THE CONDUCTOR (1996 to Present)
DR. BARBARA PODGURSKI
A native of New York, pianist and teaching artist Barbara Podgurski holds a DMA in piano performance from The Graduate Center (CUNY) as well as a BM in piano performance and an MM in both piano performance and music theory from the Mannes College of Music. Dr. Podgurski has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Europe, including a number of performances at Carnegie Hall. She has been featured in television and radio broadcasts which include appearances on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase, WNYC’s “Soundcheck”, NPR, WPLN Nashville’s “Live from Studio C”, WQED and numerous others. Dr. Podgurski was featured on the 2015 television documentary for NHK in Japan with her touring partner violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn and the famed “Red” Mendelssohn Stradivarius. Past collaborations with renowned artists include violinists Philippe Graffin, Grammy-award winner Jenny Oaks Baker, and the late Lorand Fenyves, flutist Harold Jones, clarinetist Charles Neidich, pianists Diane Walsh and Seymour Lipkin, and cellists Manfred Stilz, Marcy Rosen and the late Paul Tobias. Dr. Podgurski has premiered numerous new works including a concerto by Pulitzer-Prize winning composer George Walker.
Dr. Podgurski is currently the Executive and Artistic Director of Musica Reginae Productions in Queens, NY and is a member of the Pitcairn-Podgurski-Drachman Piano Trio which recently finished their first US tour. A former faculty member at The Mannes College of Music, Hunter College and Mercy College, she is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor at BMCC (CUNY), Staff Pianist for the Strings Department at NYU, and is on the faculty of the RiverArts Music Program in Hudson Valley. Barbara is a consultant for the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs as well as for the Board of Education in both NYC and NYS. By invitation in 2014, Dr.
Podgurski became a Steinway Teaching Artist. She recently performed with rock band Evanescence on their 2017/18 Synthesis Tour and with legendary vocal group Il Divo on their 2019 “Timeless” Tour and 2022 Greatest Hits Tour. Barbara is currently a contributing writer to Cambridge’s Nineteenth Century Music and has been an Arts Commissioner Advisor for the Queens Council on the Arts. Barbara is the organist and music director at Trinity St. Andrews Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maspeth, Queens.
The Oratorio Society of Queens is delighted to have extended an invitation to gifted composer, Yunhee Cho, to create and arrange music for OSQ’s choral performances.
COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE
YUNHEE CHO
Born in Seoul, South Korea, composer, music theorist, and accompanist Yunhee Cho earned a Bachelor's degree in composition from Chung-Ang University. She pursued Master's degrees in music theory and composition at Ewha Womans University and Mannes College of Music. To further her studies in composition, she enrolled and studied in the doctoral program at Rutgers University. Cho has been honored at the 5th Jean Schneider Goberman Composition Competition and the 44th Seoul Composition Festival. Additionally, she won the Mannes Orchestra Composition Competition in 2010. Currently active in both the United States and South Korea, Cho primarily focuses on composing and arranging for solo, choir, chamber, and orchestral works. Her compositions are performed by various city chorales and orchestras in Korea, as well as professional ensembles in the United States, with many of her choral works being professionally published and recorded. Yunhee Cho has been serving as the resident composer of Oratorio Society of Queens since February 2024.