Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Katy Williams has performed the Fiddlesticks Family Concerts for the past 10 years and has loved every minute of it!  The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) has become a second home and she will sing the praises of all the musicians, Maestros and staff forever. Other wonderful organizations that she sings with are  Pittsburgh Opera, Civic Light Opera, Quantum Theater, the Mendelssohn Choir, Pittsburgh Opera Theater, Pittsburgh Concert Chorale and River City Brass Band. She has also had the frequent pleasure of singing with Maestro Larry Loh’s Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and in Syracuse, NY with Symphoria! Also, she has sung with Maestro Lucas Richman’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, TN and with Bangor Symphony Orchestra, ME.

Katy was a featured soloist for the PSO Holiday Pops concert series, singing the Marvin Hamlisch original song “Take Me to Christmas Past.” She made her Pittsburgh Symphony debut in September 2005 with Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Nights Dream and has been a frequent guest artist ever since. She was the boy soprano voice in Howard Shore’s Heinz Hall performance of The Lord of the Rings. She has also performed with the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, and has sung the National Anthem in Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium.

She has sung under the baton of Manfred Honeck, Sir Andrew Davis, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Rafael Frubeck de Burgos, Lucas Richman, Marvin Hamlisch, Robert Page, Lawrence Loh, and Daniel Meyer.

Currently, Katy is a chorister in Pittsburgh Opera and is adjunct music staff at Point Park University and Washington and Jefferson College. She is the soprano soloist at Rodef Shalom, Oakland, and the vocal artist-in-residence at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Mt. Lebanon, PA. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Vocal Performance. She lives in Mt. Lebanon with her husband, children and two dogs. She loves music, dogs, baking and a really good mac and cheese!

Thorgy Thor is a New York City based drag performance artist, professional musician, and event host.

Since appearing on season 8 of RuPaul's Drag Race and All Stars season 3, Brooklyn's fashion clown has been traveling the world, bringing to audiences her trademark wit, sense of humor, and musical charm.

In 2018, "Thorgy and the Thorchestra" made it's debut in Halifax, Nova Scotia with two sold out nights and to rave reviews. Since then, Thor has made plans to take her Thorchestra show to audiences around the globe.

Thorgy has appeared on Amazon's Mozart in the Jungle, where he showcased his violin skills in drag. He interviewed famed figure skater Adam Rippon in a special for Vice. Thor has also been a repeat guest on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live, appearing alongside Goldie Hawn, Amy Schumer, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda. He was also a special guest performer as part of Eliot Glazer's Haunting Renditions in 2017.

As a part of multiple "Haters Roast" and other comedy tours, Thor secured himself as a comedic powerhouse in the world of drag. Thor's comedic prowess also secured her a role in a new musical, "Oh My God, Broadway", set to debut in late 2018, alongside Sally Struthers and Bonnie Milligan.

Over the last few years, Thorgy Thor has had the pleasure of playing violin with many recording artists including NYC legend Joey Arias, as well as performing with over 6 major orchestras, gracing the stages of Town Hall NYC, Le Poisson Rouge, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Thor uses unconventional recording materials and music to create unique performances for theater, video, cabaret, and for nightlife entertainment. An explosive performer who loves to lip-sync just as much as create collaborative performance art that mashes together drag, music and comedy.

After spending his early years studying Violin, Viola and Cello, Thor earned a dual degree in Violin and Viola Performance. While studying at Hart School of Music and Purchase Conservatory, Thorgy also earned an honorary degree in Drag Ridiculousness, performing his original works of art entitled Maitri and Pocket to Pocket. Thor also starred in theater productions of Bad Splices and Psycho Beach Party.

Moving to Brooklyn in 2006, Thor exploded in nightclubs, theater projects, street performances and photo series throughout Brooklyn and NYC. He has since been nominated for numerous awards presented by the Glam Awards, Get Out Awards, Odyssey Magazine Awards, and the Brooklyn Nightlife Awards, winning the LEGEND award and taking home Best Group Show of the Year award at the Brooklyn Nightlife Awards and the Glam Awards, respectively.

Edwin Outwater is a visionary conductor who is reinventing the concert experience with major orchestras and institutions throughout the world. Equally adept at interpreting canonical masterworks, premiering new commissions, and connecting audiences with repertoire beyond the mainstream, he is, in the words of Michael Tilson Thomas, “one of the most innovate conductors on the scene today.”

Outwater’s recent projects include “Sound Health,”  a collaboration with soprano Renée Fleming, The Kennedy Center, and the National Institutes of Health, as well as a jazz version of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, with Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony. He also appeared with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall in a concert for families featuring a world premiere of composer Caroline Shaw, narrated by actor John Lithgow. This season, Chicago was introduced to The Line-up, an outdoor concert series he created and curated at Gallagher Way (adjacent to Wrigley Field), which combines multi-genre music performances with the technology and capabilities of major-league sports.

A long association with the San Francisco Symphony continues with multiple concerts and collaborations including his 4th appearance in 5 years as conductor and curator in their acclaimed SoundBox series. Outwater has previously served San Francisco Symphony Director of Summer Concerts (2014-2017), Resident Conductor (2001-2006), and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (2001-2005). Highlights include collaborations with artists such as Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, and Yo-Yo Ma in subscription appearances. Outwater premiered and recorded The Composer is Dead by Nathaniel Stookey and Lemony Snicket, which was subsequently released by HarperCollins and has become one of the most-performed works written in the 21st century, and in 2008, his SFS recording of music by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate was released to wide acclaim. In 2004 he lead the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra on a European tour, where the orchestra made debuts at Vienna’s Musikverein and Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and returned to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.

As Music Director of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony from 2007-2017, Outwater revitalized the orchestra and brought it international acclaim. He led notable world premieres from a wide range of composers, including Nico Muhly, Nicole Lizée, Richard Reed Parry, Owen Pallett, and many others. His Intersections series connected orchestral music to other disciplines, including quantum physics, neuroscience, literature, film, food, and yoga. It also featured a diverse array of artists from all musical genres, from cellist Johannes Moser to Inuit throat-singer Tanya Tagaq. The Intersections program “Quantum: Music on the Frontier of Science” has been performed multiple times, including a tour to Canada’s National Arts Centre and a performance with the Indianapolis Symphony. Parts of the program “Beethoven and Your Brain,” written with neuroscientist and author Daniel J. Levitin, were recently performed at The Kennedy Center as part of their “Sound Health” program. Outwater also recorded From Here On Out, the Kitchener-Waterloo-Symphony’s 2011 Analekta release of music by Muhly, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, a recording for which NPR Music praised Outwater for guiding “dexterous performances by musicians who play the music like they own it.” In 2016 he created “Hack The Orchestra,” the first ever orchestra hackathon that challenged young programmers to create new content for the concert experience. At the end of this tenure as Music Director, he was named Music Director Laureate of the orchestra. 

Outwater’s recent debuts include Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, the Nagoya Philharmonic, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Japan’s Pacific Music Festival, as well as return engagements with the Chicago, San Francisco, Utah, and Tokyo Metropolitan symphonies, among others. His commitment to music education and young musicians continues with returns to the New World Symphony, the Music Academy of the West, the San Francisco Conservatory and as conductor of the inagurual season of the Flemish Youth Orchestra. In the United States, Outwater has conducted the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as symphony orchestras including Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, Houston, and Seattle. In Canada, he has led the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the symphonies of Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Victoria. International appearances include the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony, Kyoto Symphony, BBCNOW, the Brussels Philharmonic, the New Zealand Symphony, Adelaide Symphony, Malmö Symphony, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Mexico City Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, and Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Summer festival appearances include the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Grant Park Festival, the Music Academy of the West and the Festival-Institute at Round Top. In 2009, Outwater made his professional opera debut conducting La traviata at the San Francisco Opera, and he has since led productions at Cincinnati Opera and New York’s Lincoln Center. He also works regularly with the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Outwater participated as Associate Conductor in both YouTube Symphony projects, at Carnegie Hall and at the Sydney Opera House. He is also is also featured on two 2014-15 recordings: Expanded, which captures his Barbican Centre debut with These New Puritans, and Sarah Kirkland Snider’s highly acclaimed recording of her work Unremembered.

A native of Santa Monica, California, Edwin Outwater graduated cum laude in English literature from Harvard University, where he was music director of the Bach Society Orchestra and the a cappella group Harvard Din and Tonics, and wrote the music for the 145th annual production of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. He received his degree in conducting from UC Santa Barbara, where he studied with Heiichiro Ohyama and Paul Polivnick, besides studying music theory and composition with John Stewart, Joel Feigin, and Leonard Stein.