The artists performing at the second annual Muzzy Ridge Concerts in August, an intimate concert series launched by Searsmont composer Robert Sirota last year, include world-renowned composer and performer Nico Muhly and four other talented performers linked to Sirota.  

All four 2022 Muzzy Ridge Concerts will take place in the Searsmont studio, where Sirota has composed much of his music over the past 35 years. Each concert will be approximately 60 minutes long with no intermission. Indoor seating is limited to 40 patrons, with additional outdoor seating on the covered patio for another 15 people.

Tickets for each Muzzy Ridge Concerts performance are now on sale at www.robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts.

Featured in the performances on Friday, Aug. 20, 7 p.m., and repeating Saturday, Aug. 21, 3 p.m., are Nico Muhly and Nadia Sirota, who will perform Muhly’s music for piano and viola. Performing on the second and final weekend of the series on Friday, Aug. 21, 7 p.m., and repeating Saturday, Aug. 28, 3 p.m., are oboist Regina Brady, violist Jonah Sirota, and pianist Victoria Sirota who will present a program of J. S. Bach’s Concerto in C minor for oboe and violin, August Klughardt’s “Schilflieder (Reed Songs)” for oboe, viola and piano and “COVID OBOE VIOLA OVID” by Jonah Sirota.

Nico Muhly is a 42-year-old American composer whose orchestral music, opera and stage works, chamber and sacred music have been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and King’s College, Cambridge. He has collaborated with Paris Opéra Ballet and New York City Ballet choreographers and with singer Paul Simon. He has also scored films, worked with vocal artists, and created site-specific pieces for London’s National Gallery and the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Nadia Sirota is a violist who has performed as soloist with orchestras around the world and whose career also includes chamber music, producing, curation, and broadcasting. She is a member of the chamber sextet yMusic, and has appeared on albums and concert stages with Bjork, David Bowie The National and Paul Simon. She received a Peabody Award for her podcast Meet the Composer, which she co-created, co-produced, and hosted. She is the New York Philharmonic’s Creative Partner, creative associate at The Juilliard School and artist-in-residence at UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. 

Regina (Gigi) Brady lives near Los Angeles and loves Midcoast Maine. She is adept on both the oboe and English horn and is a sought-after performer on both coasts. She has appeared with the LA Opera orchestra in collaboration with the Hamburg Ballet, a chamber music performance live-to-film at the Wende Museum of the Cold War in Culver City, an English horn solo in an upcoming pop release, and the premiere performance of an Opera NFT at NFT LA. Gigi performs chamber music in a duo with her partner, violist and composer Jonah Sirota. At Oberlin College and Conservatory, she majored in oboe performance and neuroscience.  

Jonah Sirota is a multi-talented composer, producer and violist who scores and records music for TV, film, and video games, writes concert music and performs as a soloist and chamber musician. Violist for the recently-disbanded Chiara Quartet for nearly 20 years, he has performed or arranged music for the 2021 Oscar-nominated animated short “If Anything Happens I Love You…,” the 2021 Sundance film “Wild Hearts” and major cinematic releases including “Mulan” and “The Mandalorian.” He has performed works for the viola by Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Arthur Joseph McCaffrey, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Robert Sirota, Kurt Knecht, and his own works. Jonah teaches viola at Cal State University Fullerton and gives viola and composition master classes and residencies across the country.

Victoria Sirota now lives in Searsmont. She is an Episcopal priest who occasionally serves at Belfast’s St. Margaret’s Church, a pianist and organist, Chaplain for the Association of Anglican Musicians and former Chaplain of the American Guild of Organists. She is a recognized authority on the music of Fanny Mendelssohn Henzel, has given recitals in the United States and Europe, and taught at Yale Divinity School and Institute of Sacred Music and Boston University. After nine years as Canon Pastor and Vicar at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York, she retired as Rector of Saint John's Episcopal Church in Yonkers, New York. She often collaborates with her husband, composer Robert Sirota. 

During his 50-year career, composer and Muzzy Ridge Concerts Artistic Director Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the U.S. and Europe by ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; by the Chiara, American, Telegraph, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; and at the Tanglewood, Aspen and Cooperstown festivals. His recent commissions include music for the American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, yMusic, and arrangements for Paul Simon. Sirota retired as President of the Manhattan School of Music in 2012 after previously serving as Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.