Aaron Haas and Anastasia Malliaras of Duo Apollon perform art song repertoire for voice and guitar, as well as transcriptions from piano. The repertoire originally written for guitar and voice is more obscure and showcases song cycles that are rarely heard, while the transcriptions reinterpret classic art song with the unique sound of the guitar-voice duo.

The pair met while studying music at the University of Southern California. They began by performing The Divan of Moses ibn Ezra by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, which they plan to record. After playing a number of recitals at USC, they began to branch out and play at various venues throughout Los Angeles. The Sundays Live series at LACMA is one of the first concert series that the duo was featured o. They were also selected as winners of the 2019 Beverly Hills National Auditions, which gave them the opportunity to perform in various concert series in Los Angeles and the surrounding communities. Since then, they perform regularly in concert series throughout Southern California and are in the process of recording their debut album.
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Aaron Haas uses the classical guitar as an instrument of musical storytelling. Coming from a family of singer-songwriters, he sees the classical guitar as an instrument of wordless poetry and narrative, using it to explore and deepen the communicative power of music. He came to music later in life, having only begun to play the classical guitar in his sophomore year at Skidmore College, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and gave a senior recital that was nominated for the Periclean Scholar’s Award. He then went to study in Milan for two years with Italian virtuoso Lorenzo Micheli at the Conservatoria della Svizera Italiana to prepare for graduate school, and in 2013 he was awarded a teaching assistantship at the University of Colorado at Boulder for his Maser’s in Music with ten-string guitar expert, Nicolò Spera. Returning to Italy in the summer of 2015, he studied with Maestro Oscar Ghiglia at the prestigious Accademia della Chigiana in Siena. He completed his studies with his DMA at the University of Southern California in 2019, having also taught as a teaching assistant there, under William Kanengiser of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. A love for meditation has also worked its way into Aaron’s musical career, having published an article in the Journal of Singing entitled “Creativity Through Silence: Exploring the Use of Meditation in Musical Performance.” He now sees music as a meditation through the activity of sound, whereas meditation is a silent devotion to the place from which music, and everything else, lovingly emerges.
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Soprano Anastasia Malliaras is a versatile artist whose repertoire ranges from Early Music to Contemporary works. Most recently, Anastasia made her debut with West Bay Opera singing the role of Nannetta in Falstaff and is the resident vocalist of the American Contemporary Ballet in Los Angeles. In 2017 she performed the role of Marie Astor Hampton in the world premiere of Tesla with SoBe Arts in Miami Beach. Previously, she has been a Studio Artist at Central City Opera where she played the role of Ruth Baldwin in the company’s production of Later That Same Evening, as well as Despina (Cosí fan tutte) and Marie (La fille du regiment) in the scenes program. Furthermore, she has participated in the iSing! International Young Artist Festival and the Young Artist Vocal Academy at Houston Grand Opera. A finalist in the 2019 Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition, Anastasia was also a winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Los Angeles District and the recipient of the Encouragement Award at the Metropolitan Opera Western Regional Auditions. Anastasia is a graduate of USC where she received a Masters of Music in Vocal Arts.