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A dynamic and versatile conductor hailed for his profound musical performances, André Raphel is renowned for his technical brilliance. An adventurous programmer, he has also developed a reputation as a skilled communicator. Raphel has led critically acclaimed festivals, world premieres and commissioned works by Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon, Kenneth Fuchs, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Uri Caine and Hannibal Lokumbe.

Named Conductor Laureate of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra starting with the 2018/19 season, André Raphel led the orchestra as Music Director for 15 years. Other key positions have included, Assistant Conductor to Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic for two years. He was Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra for six years. Raphel served for three years as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony.

Raphel enjoys an active career as guest conductor. He has appeared with most of the major American orchestras including Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. In summer 2018, he returned to the Mann Center to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra. During the 2018/19 season, he returns to the Detroit Symphony to conduct the orchestra's Classical Roots program and to the San Antonio Symphony for performances of Star Wars: A New Hope film in concert. Raphel has led Germany's Bamberg Symphony in two recordings for Bavarian Broadcasting. He made his Los Angeles debut conducting at the gala opening of The Broad museum, and recently made his Buffalo Philharmonic debut.  

André Raphel made his European debut with the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie and has also led the Moravska Philharmonie. In the United States he has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, Milwaukee, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Seattle, the National Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra among others. He made his Carnegie Hall debut leading Robert Shaw and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in a concert celebrating the centennial of legendary mezzo-soprano Marian Anderson. Raphel’s international engagements have further included appearances with the Auckland Philharmonia, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Columbia and the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Costa Rica.

A guest conductor at major music festivals, Raphel has led programs at the Blossom Music Festival and Tanglewood Music Center. He has also appeared at the Mann Center, Grant Park Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Brevard Music Festival, and the Campos do Jordao Festival in Brazil.

Raphel has a strong commitment to education and community engagement. In 2010, he launched a highly successful College Series with the Wheeling Symphony. During his tenure with the Saint Louis Symphony, he was Music Director of the orchestra's "In Unison" program, a partnership between the orchestra and local churches. His commitment to education is reflected in his work at leading conservatories and training programs. He has led the Juilliard Orchestra, New World Symphony, Kennedy Center Summer Music Institute and Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.

Born André Raphel Smith in Durham, North Carolina he began formal music lessons at age 11. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Miami, and pursued further study at Yale University where he earned his Master’s Degree. While at Yale, he began conducting studies with Otto-Werner Mueller. He continued studies with Mueller at The Curtis Institute of Music earning a Diploma in conducting and at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship and received an Advanced Certificate in orchestral conducting.

Raphel is the recipient of numerous honors and awards which attest to his artistry. In 2012, he was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Miami. The Philadelphia Orchestra issued a special commemorative CD featuring William Grant Still’s Symphony No.1 with Maestro Raphel conducting. He received the Distinguished Service Award from Yale University. Raphel is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from West Liberty University. He has received Honorary Commendations from the cities of Philadelphia and Saint Louis. The North Carolina Senate awarded Raphel the “Order of the Long Leaf Pine.” The award, presented annually is the state’s highest honor for a civilian.

Tamara Tunie is an award-winning actor, director and producer whose body of work has garnered international acclaim and brings to light important social issues.

She  is currently recurring on both ALMOST FAMILY opposite Timothy Hutton and EMERGENCE.  Tamara was a series regular in the BBC/Netflix drama BLACK EARTH RISING as Eunice Clayton, Assistant Director of African Affairs, starring opposite of John Goodman and Michaela Coel.  The international thriller is written and directed by Hugo Blick.  Tunie wowed audiences in the AMC hit series DIETLAND as Julia, manager of “the beauty closet,” an underground warehouse filled with every kind of beauty product imaginable and is the heart of a mysterious plot.

Tamara was a series regular in Sundance TV’s The Red Road as tribal chief Marie Van Der Veen opposite Jason Momoa and Julianne Nicholson. She first gained an international following in the role of Medical Examiner Dr. Melinda Warner on the legendary NBC series Law & Order: SVU.  Recurring guest stars include such hit shows as Better Call Saul, Blue Bloods, Billions, Alpha House, 24, Elementary, and Survivor’s Remorse.  She first came to national prominence in a contract role in As The World Turns as Jessica Griffin.

Tunie recently starred in the Netflix film Irreplaceable You, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michiel Huisman; Flight, with Denzel Washington; The Devil’s Advocate, opposite Charlize Theron; City Hall, with Al Pacino; Snake Eyes; with Nicolas Cage and Gary Sinise; and The Caveman’s Valentine, opposite Samuel L. Jackson, to name a few. She also made her feature film directorial debut with the indie romantic comedy See You in September starring Estella Warren and Justin Kirk.

The Pittsburgh native boasts a storied career in theater both as an actor and a producer. On Broadway, she produced hit shows: Spring Awakening (winner of the 2007 Tony Award for Best Musical and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical), Magic/Bird, and August Wilson’s Radio Golf (2007 Tony and Drama Desk Award Nominee for Best Play). She produced Frog Kiss: The Musical – a re-imagined “bedtime story” with a bawdy twist at Virginia Stage Company.

Tunie starred in Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan’s two-person political suspense thriller Building the Wall alongside James Badge Dale at New World Stages. Prior, she realized the role of Marvelous in Danai Gurira’sFamiliar, for which she won an Obie; she brought Kendra to life in the Barrington Stage Company’s world premiere production of American Son; and portrayed the Lead Detective in Steven Soderbergh’s The Library at The Public Theatre. She starred as Maggie in the first all African American production of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Calpurnia in Julius Caesar opposite Denzel Washington, and the 20th anniversary post-9/11 benefit concert ofDreamgirls. She also shared the Broadway stage with the late, great Lena Horne in the musical Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music.

Beyond acting, producing, and directing, Tunie is deeply engaged in several community and philanthropic efforts. She has served as chair emerita of the Board of Directors of Figure Skating in Harlem, a nonprofit organization that teaches education and life skills to young girls through the art and discipline of figure skating. Tunie also is President of the Board of Directors at Harlem Stage/The Gatehouse, a board member of God’s Love We Deliver, and she serves on the Advisory Board of Hearts of Gold.

Shantanique Moore, flutist, is an accomplished musician and flute instructor. She has performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, among others. Ms. Moore is the winner of First Prize in the Ervin Monore Young Artist Competition (2016), the Southern Great Lakes Concerto Competition (2013), and the Wayne State Concerto Competition (2012). She is a graduate of Wayne State University (Master of Music, Flute Performance; Bachelor of Music, Flute Performance). Ms. Moore is the eighth recipient of a fellowship from the Pittsburgh Symphony's Orchestra Training Program for African American Musicians (OTPAAM).

Damon Young is a writer, critic, humorist, satirist, and professional Black person. He's a co-founder and editor in chief of VerySmartBrothas—coined "the blackest thing that ever happened to the internet" by The Washington Post and acquired by Univision and Gizmodo Media Group to be a vertical of The Root—and a columnist for GQ. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, LitHub, Time Magazine, Slate, LongReads, Salon, The Guardian, New York Magazine, EBONY, Jezebel, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Damon's writing—which vacillates from anthropological satire and absurdist racial insights to razor sharp cultural critique and unflinching indictments of privilege and bias—has often generated praise from from his peers. Ava DuVernay called his voice "clear and critical." Micheal Eric Dyson said he's "one of the most important young voices in humor writing today." And Kiese Laymon called his work "the best of American twenty-first century writing." 

Damon's debut memoir--What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir In Essays (Ecco/HarperCollins)--is a tragicomic exploration of the angsts, anxieties, and absurdities of existing while black in America, and was selected for a PEN America Literary Awards longlist. NPR, which named it one of the best books of 2019, called it an "outstanding collection of nonfiction" and The Washington Post "hilarious" and "unflinching."

A native Pittsburgher who attended Canisius College on a basketball scholarship, Damon currently resides in Pittsburgh's Northside, with his wife and two children.

Kathryn Bostic is a composer and artist known for her work on award-winning films, TV, and live theater.  She is a recipient of numerous fellowships and awards including the Sundance Institute/Time Warner Fellowship, which in part funded the development of The August Wilson Symphony (along with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it in 2018), Sundance Fellowships for Feature Film Scoring, Sundance/Skywalker Documentary Film Scoring, BMI Conducting Fellowship, and Best Music in Film by the African American Film Critics Association.

In 2016 she became the first female African American score composer to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Bostic's scores and songs can be heard in productions with a lineup of award-winning directors and writers. She scored the critically acclaimed documentary “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am” which premiered at Sundance 2019, followed by a theatrical release with Magnolia Pictures. The film won “Best Biographical Documentary” at the fourth annual Critics' Choice Documentary Awards. Bostic also wrote and performed its end-title song "High Above the Water", which was shortlisted for "Best Original Song" for the 2020 Oscars. Her score was nominated for a 2019 Hollywood Music In Media Award. At the Society of Composers & Lyricists' inaugural awards in January 2020, Bostic was awarded “Outstanding Score for an Independent Film”, while "High Above the Water" was nominated for “Outstanding Original Song for Visual Media.”

For the Sundance Grand Jury Winner “Clemency”, released with Neon Pictures in December 2019, Bostic provided the original score, wrote and performed the featured original song "Slow Train," and served as executive producer.

In the concert world, Bostic most recently premiered a new work at a Masterworks concert "Tovaangar: Coronation and Chaos," commissioned and performed by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.

Bostic has written for Broadway, most notably collaborating with the award-winning playwright August Wilson on Gem of the Ocean and various productions of his last play Radio Golf as well as the Mark Taper production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone directed by Phylicia Rashad. Consequently, Bostic was asked to score the PBS American Masters program “August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand.” Reflecting on Wilson's career, this documentary inspired her to write "The August Wilson Symphony," which received its world premiere in January 2018 by the Grammy Award-winning Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Grammy Award-winning conductor and composer Lucas Richman.  The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has commissioned Bostic to create cinematic versions from her score “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”  to be performed live to picture in February 2020.

In addition to her work with August Wilson, Bostic's work on Broadway includes “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph.  Her score garnered a win in the sound design category for this collaboration. She has been nominated for several additional awards including the Ovation Award, NAACP Theater Award, and Drama Desk nomination for "Outstanding Music in a Play." As a solo artist, Bostic toured extensively in festivals and venues worldwide. Also a vocalist, Bostic recorded and performed with many artists including Nas, Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne.