Welsh pianist-singer Nalini Ghuman is the Luther Marchant Professor of Music at Mills College and an award-winning ethno/musicologist. She studied piano at the University of Oxford and at the Royal Academy of Music, and has performed solo recitals, chamber music, and works for piano and orchestra in Oxford, London, and the Bay Area. In partnership with countertenor and baritone Paul Flight, Nalini has performed French mélodies (Chausson, Fauré, Cécile Chaminade and Reynaldo Hahn), and German Lieder; in April 2022, the Flight-Ghuman duo performed songs of Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison, including pieces for prepared piano and string piano, at the four-day festival, Music in the Fault Zone, at Mills College. Nalini has performed solo recitals on Berkeley’s Noon Concert Series in Hertz Hall, including music by Berg, Bartók, Ravel, and Debussy; Meredith Monk’s two-piano pieces at Mills College; and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms with the UCB Symphony Orchestra. She recently performed chamber music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms with her students at Mills College. In May, she will perform Brahms’ Requiem in the composer’s own two-piano arrangement with Chora Nova in Berkeley.
Soprano Mara McMillan holds a Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from San Francisco State
University, where she studied with Christine Brandes. She has performed as a soloist and chorister with
the California Bach Society, Bay Area Classical Harmonies (Bach St. John Passion and Vivaldi Gloria), San Francisco Renaissance Voices, Schola Cantorum SF, and the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland.
With Briarbird Baroque Ensemble, Mara has performed solo and duet works in two concert series, one of Charpentier’s Quatuor anni tempestates, for the Berkeley Early Music Festival Fringe concerts, and the second a concert set of German Baroque music for voices and viol consort. She has also sung in recital the complete Handel solo cantata HWV 110 Agrippina condotta a morire. Mara’s opera roles include Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Beatrice in Berlioz’s Beéatrice and Bénédict.
While early music is her primary interest, Mara has also performed such works as Arvo Pärt’s Passio (St.
John Passion), as one of the Evangelist solo quartet, under Ragnar Bohlin, and premiered John Hirten’s
Missa Brevis with the Camerata of the Cathedral of Christ the Light.
Bass-baritone Chung-Wai Soong has sung with companies and ensembles in Australia and the US, including West Bay Opera, Victoria State Opera, Volti, American Bach Soloists, and Philharmonia Baroque. He has sung the baritone solo in the Fauré Requiem with Grace Cathedral Choir, and was bass soloist in Schubert’s Mass in A flat and Mozart’s Coronation Mass, both with Chora Nova.
Chung-Wai has sung with the San Francisco Symphony as Mityukha in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under Kurt Masur, which he also performed at the Ojai Festival with Jeremy Denk. His extensive repertoire includes world premieres by David Chesworth (Sabat Jesus), Lisa Bielawa’s groundbreaking streaming opera, Vireo, and the title role in Meira Warshauer’s Elijah’s Violin. His performance of Schumann’s Dichterliebe at the Melbourne International Festival was broadcast live nationally on ABC. Recent roles include Erster Nazarener (Salome), Sadistic Sailor (Mazolli’s Breaking the Waves), High Priest of Baal (Nabucco), Melchior (Amahl and the Night Visitors), Kuligin (Katya Kabanova), and Un vieux paysan (Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue). Upcoming engagements include Marco (Gianni Schicchi, Hawaii Opera Theatre) and Chamberlain (Le Rossignol, West Edge Opera). He is excited to be making his debut with the California Bach Society.