2023 Season Musicians and Collaborators

Season Musician

Cellist Titilayo Ayangade has spent over two decades behind her instrument, performing in orchestras, chamber ensembles, and commissioning new music. She holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati-CCM and the University of Texas at Austin, and has also worked closely with members of the Artemis Quartet at the Queen Elisabeth Chapel in Belgium. Since exiting her role as cellist of the acclaimed Thalea String Quartet, in which she established an international presence as a star chamber musician, Titilayo has expanded her reach, becoming a Strathmore Artist-in-Residence, appearing on stage in Broadway’s Hadestown, at the Kennedy Center with the Black Radio Orchestra, at the Park Avenue Armory with Alarm Will Sound, with the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), and on the faculty of San Antonio’s Classical Music Institute.

During her five-year tenure with the TSQ, Titilayo received numerous accolades, including top prizes at the Fischoff and Chamber Music Yellow Spring international competitions, as well as artist residencies at the Caramoor Center for the Arts, Britten-Pears Arts, and the Universities of Texas and Maryland. She has also collaborated with many award-winning artists, including Julia Bullock, Isabel Charisius, Lawrence Power, Seth Parker Woods, Yo-Yo Ma, Christian Reif, Curtis Stewart, Robert DeMaine, James Austin Smith, and Sibbi Bernhardson. Her strongest advocates and mentors include cellists Ilya Finkelshteyn, Joshua Gindele, and Eric Kutz, as well as members of The Left Bank Quartet, Miro Quartet, Emerson Quartet, Artemis Quartet, and Ariel Quartet.

Titilayo has had the privilege of touring in China, Brazil, Canada, Belgium, the UK and many cities in North America. This seasons highlights include the world premier a work for solo cello and dancer by Akshaya Avril-Tucker, a performance with duo kayo at Lincoln Center in collaboration with a living statue artist, serving as a faculty teaching artist at the Kolob Canyon Festival and as an artist-in-residence at Newport Classical.

Titilayo particularly enjoys her collaborations with other artists from the greater African and African-American diaspora. She is a vocal advocate for the work of BIPOC musicians and is passionate about being a contributing part of a fully inclusive, ever-outreaching musical community. When not playing the cello, Titi runs a successful photography business and has had the fortune to work with clients such as the New York Youth Symphony, the Colburn School, Lakes Area Music Festival, members of the San Francisco Symphony, and other Grammy-nominated artists. www.titilayoandco.com

Recognized for her sense of style and musicality, Mun-Tzung Wong is a multi-faceted musician, leading a professional career as a pianist, conductor, mezzo-soprano, vocal and instrumental coach, and teaching artist. She has appeared on WQXR and performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Alice Tully Hall, Steinway Hall, and Lincoln Center.

As a mezzo-soprano, she has appeared as a soloist in performances of Mozart Requiem, Mass in C minor, Vivaldi Gloria, Bach Magnificat, and Duruflé Requiem, Bach St John Passion, Handel Messiah. She recently made her role debut as Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte at Opera America and as Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo in Philadelphia.

She has served as assistant conductor at the International Vocal Arts Institute, St. Petersburg Opera Company, New Rochelle Opera, Regina Opera, Dell’arte Opera Ensemble, Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, Missouri Symphony Orchestra, Macau Youth Symphony, and Orchestra dell’Opera di Parma.

As a teaching artist, Miss Wong maintains a private instrumental and vocal coaching studio in New York City. Featured in an article on music entrepreneurship in Forbes Magazine, Ms. Wong is the founder and executive director of the New York Conducting Institute. She has been on staff at the Manhattan School of Music since 2008. As a guest collaboration artist at The Juilliard School and Mannes School of Music, she also serves as an adjunct faculty at Columbia University.

Season Collaborator

Ana "Rokafella" Garcia is a NYC native who has represented women in Hip-hop dance professionally over the past three decades. She co-founded Full Circle Prod Inc, NYC's only nonprofit Hip hop Dance Theater company, with her husband Kwikstep generating theater pieces, dance training programs and NYC based dance events. She directed a documentary highlighting the Bgirl lifestyle entitled "All The Ladies Say" with support from Third World Newsreel and Bronx Council of the Arts. She is hired internationally to judge Break dance competitions and to offer her unique workshops aimed at evolving and preserving its technique and cultural aspects. She has worked within the NYC public school system and various NYC based community centers setting up programs that help expose young students to the possibility of a career in dance. In May of 2017 she launched “ShiRoka”-- a t shirt fashion line with Shiro, a Japanese Grafitti artist. She has been featured in pivotal Rap music videos, tours, film, fashion shows, and commercials including the NetFlix Series The Get Down. Rokafella has choreographed for diverse festivals / concerts such as The NY Philharmonic Orchestra’s Firebird in 2022, The Kennedy Center, Momma's Hip-hop Kitchen and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Branching out of her dance lane, she has also recorded original songs / poetry and performed at NJPAC's Alternate Routes in Newark and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Presently she is an adjunct professor at The New School and a content creator for Bronx Net TV producing her own TV series entitled “Kwik2Rok.” Rokafella is a multi faceted Afro Latin Hip-hop artist who references Nuyorican culture as her foundation.