A New American Day: Artist Residency and World Premiere Performance with Composer Kevin Day

Sebastian Bonaiuto

Since his appointment in 1989, Ensemble Director Sebastian Bonaiuto has designed and implemented a Bands Program that comprises over 250 student musicians who participate in wind bands, jazz ensembles, chamber ensembles, athletic ensembles, and classes. In addition to serving as the principal administrator of the Boston College Bands Program, Mr. Bonaiuto conducts the University Wind Ensemble and BC bOp! Under Mr. Bonaiuto's leadership, BC bOp! has developed into an award-winning, nationally recognized ensemble. During his tenure as Marching Band Director, the "Screaming Eagles" Marching Band gained national recognition in the 1995 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

Mr. Bonaiuto has conducted ensembles throughout the United States, Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and at New York's famed Carnegie Hall. He has guest-conducted school ensembles from New England, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Ontario, Canada. In addition, he has presented clinics and workshops for the Massachusetts Music Educators Association and the Texas Music Educators Association.

Mr. Bonaiuto received his Bachelor's of Music degree from Boston University, where he studied trumpet performance with Roger Voisin, Andre Come, and Peter Chapman and wind conducting with Robert A. Winslow. He later studied Music Theory at the graduate level at the New England Conservatory of Music and earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Boston College. Most recently, Mr. Bonaiuto has studied wind conducting with Frank Battisti. Mr. Bonaiuto maintains an active schedule as clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor. Prior to his appointment at Boston College, Mr. Bonaiuto taught music in the Westwood, Massachusetts public schools for eight years. 

Dr. Riikka Pietiläinen Caffrey

Dr. Riikka Pietiläinen Caffrey holds the position of Associate Professor of the Practice and Director of Choral and Vocal Performance. Dr. Riikka was born in Kemi, Finland, and sang and toured with the acclaimed Finnish choir Philomela. She has held academic positions at American University in Beirut, Lebanon, Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, and Bunker Hill Community College in Boston.

Dr. Riikka's research interests include holistic choral experience, cross-disciplinary artistic collaborations, and redefining the choral canon. Her articles have appeared in American and Australian choral journals. Her compositions and arrangements have been published with Alliance Music Publications and Kandinsky music. Dr. Riikka is an active member of the Advocacy and Collaboration Committee of the American Choral Directors Association, and the International Alliance for Women in Music. 

Dr. Riikka holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Jazz Performance from the City College of City University of New York, Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Choral Conducting from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Anna Wittstruck 

Dr. Anna Wittstruck holds the position of Associate Professor of the Practice, Director of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra. She has held academic positions in the School of Music at the University of Puget Sound, and at Stanford University. She has also directed the Federal Way Youth Symphonies, served on the faculty of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska, and from 2019 until 2023 conducted the West Seattle Symphony Orchestra. 

Wittstruck has conducted concerts across the United States, in Latin America, Europe and in Asia. She has served as a guest conductor with the Harbin Symphony in China, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Federal Way Symphony, and the Eastern Sierra Symphony, as well as the orchestra programs at Pacific Lutheran University and Whitman College. In 2023 she was named the national winner of the American Prize in Orchestral Conducting (college division). Her article, “Embodying Eroica: Pregnancy and Performativity on the Podium,” appeared in the 2024 volume of Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture. 

She received her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Princeton University with certificates in orchestral conducting and creative writing, and her PhD in musicology from Stanford University. Conducting teachers include Edwin Outwater, Michael Jinbo, Kenneth Kiesler, Michael Pratt, Ruth Ochs, Stephen Sano, and Jindong Cai.

Leo Eguchi

Leo Eguchi, cello soloist, has been described as “copiously skilled and confident” (New York Times) with performances that were "ravishing" (New Bedford Standard-Times) and "played with passion and vitality" (Boston Music Intelligencer).

A native of Michigan, Leo has performed extensively across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. An active soloist and chamber musician who believes in the power of music for social change, he is the co-founder and co-artistic director of two institutions which are helping to reshape the classical concert model, Sheffield Chamber Players, which builds community by bringing world-class chamber music out of the concert hall and into intimate spaces; as well as the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival which pairs music and wine to provide new inroads into the artistic experience. Leo also performs with Shelter Music Boston, an arts organization which delivers classical music to homeless shelters and substance misuse recovery centers. In 2022, Leo launched a nationally acclaimed immigration-themed solo cello project titled UNACCOMPANIED, which brings together immigrant, refugee, and first-generation American composers to use music to explore shared experiences of American identity, and displacement in society.

Leo can be heard in large ensembles as the principal cellist of the New Bedford Symphony, a member of Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, New Hampshire Music Festival and the Portland Symphony Orchestras; and appears frequently with the Boston Pops.

A strong advocate of new music, Leo has worked closely with, and premiered dozens of solo and chamber works by some of today’s most important composers, including Jessie Montgomery, Gabriela Lena Frank, Osvaldo Golijov, Reena Esmail, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, George Crumb, Lukas Foss, Joan Tower, Ken Ueno, Yehudi Wyner, and Daniel Bernard Roumain.

Recent performing highlights include being a prize winner at the 2021 ProCello International Cello Competition, having several GRAMMY nominated recording releases from Parma recordings, multiple concerto appearances, an artist residency and solo performances in Kabul, Afghanistan, and opportunities to share the non-classical stage with the likes of Pete Townshend, Queen Latifah, Melissa Etheridge, Demi Lovato, Brian Wilson, Kelly Clarkson, Peter Gabriel, Billy Idol, Jennifer Hudson, Nick Jonas, Josh Groban, and Audra McDonald, to name a few.

Leo is on the music faculty of Boston College, and is the Assistant Conductor of the MIT Symphony Orchestra. His degrees include a BM (Cello Performance) and BS (Physics) cum laude from the University of Michigan, and MM (Cello Performance) from Boston University, where he received the String Department Award for Excellence. Leo, along with violinist wife Sasha Callahan and cat-obsessed daughter Freya, live in Boston and spend their non-musical time appreciating the outdoors, food, and wine.

Sasha Callahan

Violinist Sasha Callahan has established a vibrant and diverse career as a recitalist, chamber and orchestral musician, and artistic director. She has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia, and is a founding member and co-artistic director of Sheffield Chamber Players and the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival. Chamber music has been one of Sasha’s great loves since she played her first string quartets with her sister Eve and their grandparents. She’s particularly interested in projects that bring audiences and performers closer together to forge connection and community. The Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival, Sheffield Chamber Players, and the educational string trio All Ears were each formed with this in mind. Sasha is passionate about exploring new music alongside masterpieces of the past, and has premiered, recorded, commissioned, and worked closely with composers including Osvaldo Golijov, Joan Tower, Gabriela Lena Frank, Evan Ziporyn, Jessie Montgomery, Kenji Bunch, Reena Esmail, Juanito Becenti, Kevin Day, Kareem Roustom, and Gunther Schuller.

In addition to performing more than 50 chamber music concerts a season, she can be heard as a member of the Portland (Maine) Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and New Hampshire Music Festival, as well as with the Boston Pops, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Lyric Opera, Odyssey Opera, and the Boston Ballet Orchestra. Sasha has performed on multiple Grammy nominated and award winning albums, as well as a recent album of string quartets by Gabriela Lena Frank called Her Own Wings. She recently served as a faculty mentor to emerging composers at the innovative Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music in California. A native of Portland, Oregon, Sasha received her BM degree in violin performance from Rice University and MM from Boston University. Principal teachers include Lucia Lin, Sergiu Luca, Denes Zsigmondy, and Carol Sindell. She currently resides in Boston with her husband Leo Eguchi and daughter Freya.