Ming Luke serves as music director and principal conductor of the Nashville Ballet, education director for the Berkeley Symphony, and music director for the Las Cruces (New Mexico) Symphony, Merced Symphony, and Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra. He has also appeared with San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, New York City Ballet Orchestra, San Diego Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Bolshoi Orchestra, and collaborated with leading choreographers including Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmansky, Cathy Marston, Benjamin Millepied, and David Dawson. His recent performances at Classical Tahoe were broadcast on PBS, and as a pianist, he has soloed with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, and San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut with a virtual Chinese New Year concert in January 2021 and made his live debut in December 2023.

Luke has been recognized nationally for his work in music education and has designed and conducted more than 150 education concerts and programs with organizations including the Berkeley Symphony, Houston Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, and San Francisco Opera. He has served on grant panels for the National Endowment of the Arts and the Grants and Cultural Committee of the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. He holds a master of fine arts in conducting from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor of music in music education and piano pedagogy from Westminster Choir College.

Fusing together elements of cirque acrobatics, classical dance, and contemporary theater, Troupe Vertigo brings audiences on a spellbinding journey through the world of artistic movement. Consisting of world-class aerial artists, contortionists, and ballet dancers, the Los Angeles–based company was founded in 2009 by artistic director Aloysia Gavre, formerly of Cirque du Soleil, and technical director Rex Camphuis, whose background is with the fabled Pickle Family Circus.

Troupe Vertigo’s 2024–25 season includes performances with the Utah Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic. Recent seasons have brought them to the Detroit Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Utah Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Vancouver Symphony. They made their San Francisco Symphony debut in December 2023.

The company is known for their collaborative custom thematic programs from Cirque España, Cirque Noir, Cirque Goes to Broadway, Cirque Goes to Hollywood, and Cirque Dances featuring The Firebird, to complete cirque-ballet presentations of The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Cinderella. The ensemble premiered its first offering, Big Top for a New Generation, in 2010 at the Ford Amphitheater, and has gone on to present Nighthawks: A Film Noir Circus, inspired by American jazz, Edward Hopper paintings, and crime novels. In 2016 they brought Tableaux, featuring five women grappling with the constrictions of society, to life at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles.

Rex Camphuis and Aloysia Gavre, a husband-and-wife team, frequently bring their gifts and knowledge to the film and television industry, most notably with Rebel Wilson’s aerial performance in Pitch Perfect 2 and with Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz in the film Water for Elephants. Their unique perspective on the circus arts has led to speaking engagements with the Center Theater Group Los Angeles, Directors Lab West, TEDx, and the Chicago Contemporary Circus Festival, as well coverage in Dance Teacher Magazine and the book Ordinary Acrobat.