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Composers
Bob Bralove,
Elizabeth Brown, Tom Constanten,
Sidney Corbett, Stefania
de Kenessey, Dean Drummond, Harold
Farberman, Wendy Griffiths, Ping
Jin, Bruce Lazarus, Carman
Moore, Coleridge Taylor Perkinson, Yuzuru
Sadashige, Eric Somers, Brian
Taylor, Jim Theobald, Raymond
Torres-Santos
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Performers
Lois Anderson,
Cheryl BishKoff, James
Borchers, Justine Fang Chen, Tom
Chiu, Dose Hermanos, Michèle
Eaton, Emily Faxon, Laura Flax, Cristina
Fontanelli, Martin Goldray, Lizbeth
Goodman, John Goodsall, Stephanie
Griffin, Leslie Terrell Hamilton,
Phil Helm, David Holzman, Joanna
Jenner, Percy Jones, Frank
Katz, Heawon Kim, Tom
Kolor, Michael Lipsey, Kathryn Lockwood,
Newband, Jeff Nelson,
Nuove Musiche, Enrique
Orengo, Jan Paulson, Sarah Pillow,
Daniel Pincus, Jim Pugliese,
Ruthanne Schempf, Barbara Siesel, Larry Spivak, Stefani
Starin, Margaret Steele, John
Thomas, Marc Wagnon
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Artistic Director
Barbara Siesel,
Artistic Director Storm King Music Festival, Flutist. Ms. Siesel is a
Flutist who performs traditionally and is also active in experimental
new media and performance projects. Ms. Siesel has appeared as soloist
in principal halls of China, Korea, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, Russia and the
United States. She has made extended tours of the Far East, Spain and
China including three weeks of workshops, master classes and recitals
at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, and appearances in Japan and Taiwan
sponsored by the Altus Flute Co., Ltd. In 1995, representing women in
the arts, she appeared in solo concert at the United Nations Conference
on Women in Beijing. Ms. Siesel served as soloist at Jornados de Musica
del Siglo XX in Segovia, Spain, California's Redwood Festival, the Adirondack
Festival of American Music, the Derriere Guard Festival in New York City,
and the Festival of the Performing Arts at Florida International University.
Continuing her long-standing interest in interdisciplinary work and multimedia,
Ms. Siesel was asked to create and direct an experimental interdisciplinary/
multimedia program at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida.
She serves as the Artistic Director of Art Culture & Technology, ACT,
a pioneering organization at the crossroads of art and digital media;
creating classical music videos, installations, and fostering cross-disciplinary
collaborations for the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia,
The Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Downtown Arts Festival in New York,
the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, and more.
In progress is a collaboration with composer Sidney Corbett on a video
performance piece in full evening recital. The work will explore the cultural
impact of one family's escape from Germany through a montage of computer
imagery and new music in a traditional setting.
In 1982 Siesel co-founded the Andiamo Chamber Ensemble, serving as Artistic
Director from 1984 to the present. Andiamo has commissioned and premiered
works by such noted American Composers as Aaron Kernis, Michael Torke,
Ronald Caltabiano, Jay Yim,Zhou Long, and Stefania de Kenessey among others.
Known for its' innovative and thematic programming, Andiamo over the years
has presented various adventurous series including: The Millennium Project:
a lecture/concert series looking at 20th century composition through the
issues of the century, concerts exploring the Second Viennese School,
and other recitals that presented multicultural collaborations (notably
Chinese and Western). Andiamo has held residencies at the New School and
Florida International University, and been the recipient of grants from
the National Endowment of the Arts, the New York State Council on the
Arts, and the Manhattan Fund among others.
During 1999, she served as a panelist for the NY State Council on the
Arts Composers Commissions and participated in the Manhattan School of
Music's Careers in the 21st Century. Recently, she organized with ACT
a session on music and new technology for Chamber Music America's Annual
Conference.
In Summer 2001 Ms. Siesel will release her first solo CD on the ERM label
playing works by "New Traditional American Composers" including
Lowell Liebermann, Stefania de Kenessey, Elena Ruehr and others. She will
also release two music videos co-produced with ACT of works by composers
Fredrick Kaufman and Elena Ruehr, incorporating the visual art of noted
filmmaker and painter Donna Cameron. She can also be heard on CRI, Opus
One and BMG.
Ms. Siesel received her Bachelor's and Master's degree's from The Juilliard
School where she was a student of Samuel Baron. She has had further studies
wit Julius Baker, Gerardo Levy, and Thomas Nyfenger; and master classes
with Jean Pierre Rampal and James Galway.
Other works of Ms. Siesel can be seen on her website www.BarbaraFlute.com
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Executive Producer
Iva Kaufman is the
founder of Art, Culture & Technology. She is a specialist in designing
programs that address contemporary issues, including artist and community
access to new media and technology. Most recently, she co-produced public
art installations for the Downtown Arts Festival in New York; Art Center
South Florida; the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia; and
the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Ms. Kaufman has helped
initiate programs in the public interest that range from conflict resolution
to women's financial and economic empowerment. She directs the Sun Hill
Foundation's program on the environment, community development, and arts
education and outreach. Ms. Kaufman has assembled the team of program
and technical consultants, curators, and multimedia producers to carry
out the work of ACT.
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Development Director
James Kraft is a director of development
for arts organizations. He was a Senior Vice President at Brakeley, John
Price Jones where he advised and directed campaigns at Arena Stage, Cleveland
Museum of Art, John F. Kennedy Library, and London Symphony Orchestra,
among others. He was Assistant Director at the Whitney Museum of American
Art where he was responsible for development and membership, and Vice
President for Development at Manhattan School of Music. He is now a private
consultant and directs the capital campaign at the American Craft Museum.
He has a Ph.D. in English and has taught at the University of Virginia,
Université Laval in Quebec, and Wesleyan University.
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Technical Director
Howard Weiner is responsible for
coordinating and managing technology and engineering for the Storm King
Music Festival. He is the leading specialist in integrating computers
and video in film environments. In addition, his company, Video 35, has
provided videowalls and computer displays for commercial productions and
the advertising campaigns of Lucent Technology, AT&T, MCI, NEC, Microsoft,
Federal Express, Chrysler Corporation, and others. As Director of Systems
and Technology for Art Culture & Technology his credits include equipment
and technical support for festivals such as "CrossWaves/Performance =
Technology," the Alternative Museum, and the recent antigun violence launch
event of PAX. He engineered the 26-monitor videowall for the 1992 Democratic
National Convention and works regularly on feature films and episodic
television.
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Co-Producer
Robin Hastey, Co-Producer, web
site designer, graphics work. After 15 years in the banking industry,
Robin switched to music working primarily with folk artists. She has been
creating publicity materials and web sites while managing a small crafts
business locally.
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Composers
Bob Bralove
Bob
Bralove (pictured on the left) was the sound designer and co-producer
for the GRATEFUL DEAD from 1987 until they disbanded in 1995, and is best
known for for his involvement in the mindbending "Drums and Space"
segments of a Dead Show. Those moments between Drums and Space where the
music was flowing and the lights throbbing and no one seemed to be on
stage were usually Bralove wailing on a synth behind the drum riser.
He first crossed paths with the Dead while sharing scoring credits with
them on the CBS remake of The Twilight Zone (which can still be seen on
the Sci-Fi cable channel). During the previous eight years he directed
the computer synthesis and sound design for STEVIE WONDER in his live
shows and recordings. His relationship with the Dead grew to co-writing
songs,(Picasso Moon, Way to go Home and Easy Answers) production credits
("Infrared Roses" and "Built to Last") . Website:
www.dnai.com/~ssight/
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Elizabeth Brown
The music of composer/performer Elizabeth Brown is intimate, lyrical,
and melancholy. Recent commissions include Blue Minor (St. Luke's Chamber
Ensemble, DIA Center for the Arts), Catalog of Scents in the Garden at
Night (Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival), Lost Waltz (Orpheus, Carnegie
Hall) and Delirium (Newband, Knitting Factory and the Great Hall at Cooper
Union).
Collected Visions, an installation done in collaboration with photographer
Lorie Novak, has been presented by the International Center of Photography
in NYC, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Center for Creative Photography
in Tuscon. Delirium, which features the original microtonal instruments
of American composer/inventor Harry Partch, was performed by Newband to
open the 2001 Bang On a Can Marathon at BAM's Opera House. Brown has written
for a number of other unusual instruments, including viola d'amore, glass
armonica, and traditional Japanese instruments (she is an accomplished
shakuhachi player). In fall 2001, she was a fellow at the Rockefeller
Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy working on a piece for Dan Bau (traditional
Vietnamese monochord) and chamber orchestra. Her music can be heard on
CRI's Emergency Music: Bang on a Can Live Vol. II, Dance of the Seven
Veils (Newband) on Music and Arts and The Aids Quilt Songbook on Harmonia
Mundi. Brown still performs extensively, and recently gave solo moonlight
shakuhachi performances in Maine's Acadia National Park and in the sculpture
quarry of the Lacoste School for the Arts in Provence.
Brown was born in 1953 in Camden, Alabama, where she grew up on an agricultural
research station. She received a Master's degree in flute performance
from The Juilliard School, and started composing in her late 20's. Now
living in Brooklyn, she's an avid reader, quilter, gardener, and birdwatcher.
For more information visit Elizabeth's website.
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Tom Constanten
Rock
and Roll Hall of Famer, was the keyboardist for the Grateful Dead from
1968 through 1970, adding his magic to such psychedelic classics as "Anthem
of the Sun," "Live Dead" and "Aoxmoxoa," as well
as hundreds of live shows. A composition student of Karlheinz Stockhausen
and Luciano Berio, Constanten was Artist in Residence at Harvard University
in 1986. He has produced several solo albums of both classical and contemporary
music. Website: www.dnai.com/~ssight/
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Sidney
Corbett
Sidney
Corbett was born in Chicago in 1960. He studied composition and philosophy
at the University of California, San Diego and at Yale University, where
he earned his doctorate in 1989. From 1985 to 1987 he studied composition
at the Hamburg Academy of Music with György Ligeti. His composition
teachers also included Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, Bernard Rands
and Pauline Oliveros.
Corbett has composed orchestral, instrumental and vocal music, and also
one opera. His works have earned him numerous awards and prizes (e.g.
Irino Foundation, Tokyo, Radio France Musique, BMI) and have been performed
widely both in the United States and abroad. Corbett's music has been
featured at a number of prominent international festivals for contemporary
music, such as the Gaudeamus Music Week, Amsterdam, Styrian Autumn, Graz,
the Zagreb Biennale, the Zürich Festival and in New York's Lincoln
Center In 1998, portrait concerts dedicated to Corbett's music were held
at the Wien Modern Festival, Vienna and at the Festival for New American
Music, in Sacramento. Interpreters of his works include the RSO Stuttgart,
the NOA Orchestra, New York, the Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera,
Helsinki, the South German Radio Chorus and many well known soloists.
Recent commissions have come from IKAB Berlin (Chamber Symphony, for the
Leipzig Sinfonietta), Performing Arts Chicago (for the Raschèr
Saxophone Quartet) and from the Schwetzinger Festival (a song cycle for
soprano Ruth Ziesak). Corbett's first full-scale opera, NOACH, based on
a libretto by Christoph Hein and commissioned by the Bremen Theatre, was
premiered in Bremen in October 2001.
In 1995 Sidney Corbett was a guest professor for composition and analysis
of contemporary music at Duke University. He has also lectured at Yale
University, the University of California, Berkeley, University of Illinois,
Urbana, and internationally at the House of Composers, Moscow, the Royal
Danish Conservatory, the University of Münster, Hamburg University
and at Martin Luther University in Halle. Corbett is the author of articles
on musical subjects in both English and German. His works are published
by Moeck Verlag, Celle (European-American Music), Bärenreiter Verlag,
Kassel, and by Verlag Neue Musik, Berlin. Radio recordings of Corbett's
music have been broadcast by NPR, KPFK San Fransisco, Radio Tokyo, Radio
Moscow, Nederlands Radio, Radio France Musique, Radio Zagreb and by virtually
every German radio station. Commercial recordings have been released on
CRI/Emergency Music, New York, Ambitus Records, Hamburg, Koch International
and BIS Records, Sweden. A solo CD of Sidney Corbett's music was released
on Kreuzberg Records in 1998. Sidney Corbett currently resides in Berlin,
Germany.
Website: www.chaconne.com/corbett/corbett_en.html
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Stefania de
Kenessey
is
a leading figure in the current contemporary classical music revival.
Honored repeatedly with awards from ASCAP, her music has been heard on
five continents as well as throughout the US. She is founder and artistic
director of The Derriere Guard, an alliance of traditionalist contemporary
artists, architects, poets and composers. Highly regarded as a composer
of instrumental works her concerto for trumpet virtuoso Christopher Gekker
will be released on Helicon Records. She has written for, among others,
flutist Elizabeth Mann and the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the Meridian
String Quartet, the San Jose Symphony, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra,
and the Absolute Ensemble. Her popular piano sonata Sunburst has been
honored with three different recordings and is available simultaneously
on the North/South, E.R.M. and Leonarda labels; "Shades of Light,
Shades of Dark", a CD of her chamber music performed by the Andiamo
Chamber Ensemble is also available.
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Dean Drummond
Composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, music instrument inventor,
co-director of Newband
and Director of the Harry Partch Instrumentarium Professor of Music, Montclair
State University.
Born in 1949 in Los Angeles, Drummond received degrees in music composition
from the University of Southern California (Bachelor of Music, 1971) and
California Institute of the Arts (Master of Fine Arts, 1973). While a
student, he studied trumpet with Don Ellis and John Clyman, composition
with Leonard Stein, and worked as musician for and assistant to Harry
Partch, performing in the premieres of Partch's Daphne of the Dunes, And
on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma, and Delusion of the Fury,
as well as on both Columbia Masterworks recordings made during the late
60's. In 1976, Drummond moved to New York, where he co-founded Newband
the following year with flutist Stefani Starin. Since 1977, Drummond has
been engaged in a multifaceted career including composition, hundreds
of performances, recordings, production of Harry Partch's music theatre
works, encouragement and education of composers interested in new microtonal
resources, and many educational activities for children.
Drummond's numerous compositions feature new instruments, synthesizers,
new techniques for winds and strings, and large ensembles of exotic percussion.
Since the late 1970's, his music has been largely concerned with the exploration
of microtonal possibilities. Drummond's music has been performed throughout
the world including at The Library of Congress, Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie
Hall and The Barbican Centre in London, and recorded on Mode, Music and
Arts, and Talujon. His music has won numerous awards and commissions including
a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State
Council on the Arts, Library of Congress, Koussevitzky Foundation, Meet
the Composer, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Chamber Music America,
and The Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University.
Recent works include: The Last Laugh - a live film score for the silent
film by F.W. Murnau, commissioned by the Meet the Composer/Readers Digest
Fund and Bruce Ide, premiered by Newband at the Wexner Center for the
Arts in Columbus, Ohio, 9-28-96; Mars Face for violin and microtonally
programmed synthesizer commissioned by The Library of Congress and premiered
by Newband at The Library of Congress in Washington, DC, 3-11-97; and
Congressional Record for low voice and eight instrumentalists commissioned
by Chamber Music America and premiered by Newband at Washington Square
Church in New York City, 6-4-99.
As co-director of Newband, Drummond has produced and conducted Harry
Partch's The Wayward at Circle in the Square, Oedipus at The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, and Daphne of the Dunes with choreographer Alice Farley
at La Mama Experimental Theater. He has produced and performed on recordings
of music by Harry Partch, John Cage, Thelonius Monk and numerous others.
He has premiered unperformed works by Partch and new works by Cage, John
Zorn, Muhal Richard Abrams, Mathew Rosenblum and numerous others. As a
Director of the New York Consortium for New Music, he helps produce the
annual Sonic Boom Festival in New York City.
Drummond has invented two musical instruments, the zoomoozophone (1978)
and the juststrokerods (1988). Drummond's instruments have been used in
movie soundtracks, television, and many new compositions, including by
Drummond, John Cage, Ezra Sims, Muhal Richard Abrams, Steve Gorn and Elizabeth
Brown. Since 1990, Drummond has served as Director/Curator of the Harry
Partch Instrumentarium, supervising the replication, renovation and improvement
of Partch's creations. As an instrumentalist, Drummond has performed upon
many of the Partch instruments (especially kithara, surrogate kithara,
harmonic canons, adapted guitar) and his own zoomoozophone throughout
the U.S. and Europe.
Drummond has served in many educational capacities. He was: Coordinator
of Newband's Chamber Music America Residency at Northern Westchester Center
for the Arts and the Katonah Lewisboro School System, Artist in Residence
at Nyack High School, and Artist in Residence at Purchase College of the
State University of New York. He has conducted hundreds of workshops for
middle school, high school and college music students, and professional
composers. He has taught at Purchase College and Sarah Lawrence College
and is currently Professor of Music at Montclair State University, New
Jersey.
Drummond's multifaceted career has received increasing accolades from
colleagues and press. Avant Magazine (UK) has written "We're not
talking musical novelty here; we're talking major landmarks in musical
history. Forget the labels such as iconoclasts and outsiders; Harry Partch,
Dean Drummond and Newband are as much a part of 20th century music as
Copland, Stockhausen and Takemitsu and must be respected as such."
The Village Voice has written "No music happening in America today
is more culturally crucial than what Dean Drummond's Newband ensemble
is doing to recreate, restore and preserve Harry Partch's theater works."
The Washington Post wrote "Drummond's music is richly emotional and
deeply expressive...also music that finds considerable power in what would
be cracks on a piano keyboard...Drummond may be opening a world to people
who had thought they would never like that kind of music."
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Harold Farberman
(biography taken from Bard
faculty site ) Harold Farberman was born on November 2, 1929, on New
York City's Lower East Side. Coming from a family of musicians (his father
was the drummer in a famous 1920s klezmer band led by Schleomke Beckerman;
his brother was also a drummer), it was inevitable that he would pursue
music as a career. After graduating from the Juilliard School of Music
on scholarship in 1951, Farberman became the youngest member of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra (BSO) when he joined its percussion section.
With a performer's knowledge of percussion instruments and a dissatisfaction
with their conventional treatment by most composers, Farberman became
an early advocate for the use of percussion sonorities as a major voice
in compositional structures. During his twelve-year tenure with the BSO,
Farberman earned a master's degree in composition from the New England
Conservatory of Music. His very first work, Evolution, written in 1954
for soprano, French horn, and seven percussionists, is scored for over
one hundred percussion instruments and has been recorded four times, once
by Leopold Stokowski.
After hearing Evolution in 1955, Aaron Copland invited Farberman to study
composition with him at Tanglewood. In 1956 his Quartet for Flute, Oboe,
Viola and Cello received first prize in the New England Composer's Competition
with Walter Piston as head of the jury. In 1957 Greek Scene, a trio for
mezzo soprano, piano, and percussion, was chosen to represent the United
States in an International Composer's Symposium held in Paris. Within
the next few years a growing interest in his music led to several commissions
and awards.
During the summer that Farberman studied composition with Copland, he
was also one of three active conductors in Maestro Eleazar de Carvalho's
conducting class, and in 1963 Farberman left the Boston Symphony to embark
on a conducting career that has earned him an international reputation.
He has been music director of the Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Oakland,
California symphonies, and principal guest conductor of the Denver Symphony
and the Bournemouth (Great Britain) Sinfonietta. Farberman has been a
frequent guest conductor and recording artist of major orchestras, including
the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, BBC, Stockholm Philharmonic,
Swedish Radio, Danish Radio, Hessischer Rundfunk, and Hong Kong Philharmonic.
For his dedication to the music of Charles Ives through performance and
recordings, Farberman was awarded the Ives Medal. He is the founder of
the Conductors Guild and also created the Conductors Institute, the premiere
training ground for young conductors from around the world. His text The
Art of Conducting Technique is published by Warner Brothers.
Like Farberman the conductor, the music of Harold Farberman is well traveled
and has been heard in numerous international venues. Albany Records released
four CDs featuring works written by Harold Farberman, and his Cello Concerto
was premiered by the American Symphony Orchestra in November 2000 at Lincoln
Center's Avery Fisher Hall. Among his many works that have received awards
and commissions are:
An opera for Lincoln Center for the opening of the Juilliard Opera Theater.
Symphonies for the Oakland Symphony Orchestra, Oakland, California; Denver
Symphony Orchestra and Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, Colorado;
Concordia Symphony Orchestra, New York; and Bournemouth Sinfonietta, England.
Chamber works for the Kroumata (Sweden) Chamber Ensemble, Stuttgart (Germany)
Chamber Ensemble, and the Lenox String Quartet.
Music for dance performances for the Murray Lewis Company and the Emily
Grankel Dance Drama Company.
Music for the Academy Awardwinning film The Great American Cowboy
(1974).
Commissions from PBS New York, Channel 13.
Grants from National Endowment of the Arts, Colorado Arts Council, New
York State Arts Council.
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Wendy Griffiths
Wendy
Griffiths' music has been performed in New York beginning in the 1980's
when she performed with her band at clubs like CBGB's. Since then she
has composed chamber works, art songs, dance scores and an opera, "The
Quiet American," funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her
music has been performed on the Composers Concordance series, at the Merce
Cunningham studio and the Manhattan School of Music, at the Yale-Norfolk
Chamber Music Festival and in Stockholm as part of a festival of American
Chamber Music. Ms. Griffiths has an M.M. the Mannes College of Music and
a D.M.A. from CUNY where she studied with Thea Musgrave, Bruce Saylor
and David Olan. She currently teaches in the Extension and Preparatory
Divisions of the Mannes College of Music and directs the vocal music division
of Music Under Construction of which she is a founding member. Ms. Griffiths
appears as a keyboard player with the Greenwich Village Orchestra and
with her ensemble Changing
Modes.
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Ping Jin
was born in 1964, in Shenyang, China. He studied composition at the
Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. In 1990 he came to the United
States to study composition at Syracuse University and the University
of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, where he received his doctorate.
Ping Jin is currently Assistant Professor at the State University of
New York at New Paltz, where he teaches composition, music theory, electronic
music, and world music. As a composer, his interests lie in the integration
of Western and Eastern aesthetics. These interests are reflected in his
current compositions, which have been widely performed. In his Pipa Dance,
commissioned and premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Chinese
instrument pipa and the Western orchestra engage in a dialogue in which
they maintain their distinct characters. In Jin's piano trio, "Xipi,"
commissioned and premiered by the Newstead Trio, he focused on the relationship
between instruments, as well as the juxtaposition and transformation of
disparate musical ideas. This piece has been performed in China, Italy,
and many cities in the US The influences of Eastern philosophy, such as
a sense of space and timing, can be found in his Second String Quartet
and in The Rites of the River Gods, written for trombone and percussion.
These two pieces have been performed in Hong Kong and Mexico, respectively.
Among Ping Jin's publications include The Happiness of the Snowflakes,
written for soprano and piano, which won the first prize at the national
Contest for Art Song Writing in China in 1988, and Autumn Moon in the
Qing Temple, for piano solo. Both works were published by the Musical
Works in Beijing. Three pieces for Chinese instrument ensemble, Xi Fang
Zang, Xing Xiang Zi, and Eternal Panorama, were released on China Record
label. His A Buddhist Nunnery Incantation, written for pipa solo, was
released on CD in a project funded by the City of Cincinnati. Ping Jin's
piano trio, Xipi-Themes from Peking Opera, was released on Prince Productions
label.
Ping Jin received an award from the New York State Council on the Arts
(NYSCA) for his recent work Yangtze! Yangtze!, written for flute, clarinet,
violin, violoncello, piano, and percussion. The piece was premiered by
the Society for New Music in Syracuse, in March, 2002. His other two pieces,
A Green Willow, written for Chamber Orchestra, and Four Chinese Folk Tunes
for piano, were also premiered in March.
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Bruce
Lazarus
Bruce Lazarus' ouvres include 30 major works which range from choral
and orchestral pieces, music for ballet and modern dance, chamber music,
and solo piano to experimental combinations
such as bagpipe and saxophone. He studied composition at Juilliard with
Vincent Persichetti and Andrew Thomas and earned his B.M. and M.M. in
music composition. 2001 commissions include: Three Winter Madrigals for
the Cantabile Chamber Choral; StarSongs, for the Juilliard Precollege
Chorus; Eight Candles - A Hanukkah Cantata for the Men's Chorus of South
Miami; Alpha Centuri for the Rasia chamber ensemble; and the Shirley Perlman
Foundation (for Celestial Navigation, two pianos, performed by Duo Turgeon).
Lazarus' music is featured regularly at the Storm King Festival in Cornwall-on-Hudson,
NY
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Carman
Moore
is both a composer and conductor, who played the French horn with the
Columbus Symphony before moving to New York. He studied composition privately
with Hall Overton and at the Juilliard School with Luciano Berio and Vincent
Persichetti. Moore began composing for symphony and chamber ensembles
while writing lyrics for pop songs, gradually adding opera, theatre, dance
and film scores to his body of work that reflect his upbringing in black
culture, his classical training and his voracious curiosity. Moore is
the Founder, Conductor, and principal composer of the electro-acoustic
SKYMUSIC ENSEMBLE. In-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine,
his Intermedia Mass for the 21st Century, commissioned by Lincoln Center,
attracted the largest outdoor audience in history. Among Moore's scores
for theatre are Yale Rep's production of Shakespeare's Timon of Athens
and When The Bough Breaks at LaMama E.T.C. A well-known composer for dance,
his scores for dance include Goddess of the Waters, choreographed by Alvin
Ailey for the Ballet Company of La Scala, and several major works for
Donald Byrd and Ruby Shang with whom he was awarded coveted Meet-the-Composer
Readers Digest Composer/Choreographer Awards. A dedicated educator, Moore
has taught at the Yale University Graduate School of Music, Carnegie-Mellon,
and The New School for Social Research. In 1995 he served as consultant
to Wynton Marsalis on the PBS-broadcast series for children, Marsalis
On Music. Carman Moore has served as music critic and columnist for the
Village Voice and has contributed to The New York Times, The Saturday
Review of Literature, and Essence among others. He is the author of two
books: Somebody's Angel Child: The Story of Bessie Smith (Dell), and Rock-It.
His work for string trio and synthesizer The Mystery of Tao had its world
premiere in February 2001 with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
In the Spring of 2002 Moore's large intermedia work for children RASUR,
GOD OF PEACE will have its premiere in San Jose, Costa Rica, opening their
International Festival of the Arts.
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Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
(Biography taken from CBMR
website) Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson is principal conductor and Coordinator
of Performance Activities at the CBMR. Mr. Perkinson is one of the nations
foremost composers and conductors. He studied composition at the Manhattan
School of Music and Princeton University; and he studied conducting at
the Berkshire Music Center, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and with Franco
Ferrara and Dean Dixon. From 1965 to 1970, he was co-founder and associate
conductor for the Symphony of the New World and was its acting music director
during the 197273 season. He has appeared as guest conductor with
many orchestras around the world and has served as music director for
the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem, and for productions
at the American Theatre Lab, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts,
and the Goodman Theatre. He has composed and conducted scores for numerous
award-winning theatrical, television, and documentary films.
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Yuzuru Sadashige
Yuzuru
Sadashige received his MM in composition from Manhattan School of Music
and a BM in composition from Berklee College of Music. His composition
teachers include Elias Tanenbaum and James Russell Smith. Mr. Sadashige
has received the Brian M. Israel Award from the Society for New Music,
honorable mentions from Vienna Modern Masters and Percussive Arts Society.
His score for an independent film ANA: Portrait in Days won the New York
University 54th Annual First Run Festival's award for best original film
score. Mr. Sadashige has written several theater scores for The Actors
Company Theatre and dance scores for Music under Construction composer-choreographer
collaboration series. His works have been featured by NewEar, Synchronia,
Civic Orchestra of Chicago, The New York Clarinet Quartet, the ONIX New
Music Ensemble of Mexico City, Music Under Construction and Nota Bene
Ensemble In 1999, Mr. Sadashige was a composer-in-residence for the American
Chamber Music Festival at Edsvik, Sweden. He is a cofounder and co-artistic
director of the New York based new music group NeWorks. He is a member
of an alternative rock band Changing
Modes.
Top
Eric Somers
is Chair of the Department of Performing and Visual Arts at Dutchess
Community College. He began his career as a classical music television
producer for network television where he worked with many noted musicians
including Eugene Ormandy, Thomas Schippers, Wolfgang Sawallisch, William
Steinberg, Benita Valente, Richard Goode, Radu Lupu, Paul Zukofsky, Rudolf
Bookbinder, Ruth Laredo, and others. He maintains a sound design practice
called The Sandbook
Studio which creates fine art sound recordings and electronically
produced sound compositions for theatre, dance, film, video and art gallery
installations. Mr. Somers is senior Editor of the Newsletter of the Society
for Electro-Acoustic in the United States and President of the International
Community for Auditory Display. Eric Somers has taken master classes in
electro-acoustic composition with Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio and Joel
Chadabe.
Top
Brian Taylor
is a music director/arranger/producer who has studied classical flute
since age eight. After receiving numerous national awards in classical
and jazz performance as a college student, he moved to New York City in
1979 to study flute with Julius Baker. In 1981 he co-founded the Baroque
Invention with his writing partner Bettina Covo, and that group has performed
at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital hall, and many other venues. In the mid
80's, Brian co-founded an original electric band Chromatica, taking a
completely different path from classical to creating a new and innovative
approach to modern music. The 1990's brought more musical changes, as
Brian became heavily involved on Broadway as performer in Sunset Boulevard
and Miss Saigon, while establishing himself as one of the most versatile
and imaginative arranger/producers on the music scene. His rich musical
tapestries can be heard on numerous television and movie soundtracks,
as well as guest performances as a world musician with other recording
artists. In recording, Brian surrounds himself and the artist with some
of the world's best musicians, recording engineers and studios to create
truly unique and emotionally involving music. Website:
www.headystuff.com
Top
Jim Theobald
Jim Theobald was born in 1950 and grew up in northeastern
Massachusetts, in the town of Wakefield. He began musical studies at the
age of 4, although his first performance was at the age of 18 months,
in which he sang a portion of La donna e mobile in a talent show. His
first instrument was the piano, but his hands were too small so he took
up the accordion at the age of eight. In seventh grade he began studying
the trombone, which he played through his college years, until composing
began to take most of his musical time.
He has studied with some of the major composers of recent
times: Jack Beeson, Edward Miller, Edward Diemente, Charles Dodge and
Chou Wen-Chung.
Jim Theobalds music has been performed at, among other places,
Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Donnell Library, Lincoln Center
Library, the University of Michigan, the Queens Museum, Roulette, Experimental
Intermedia Foundation and Bargemusic, and has been broadcast in New York
and by the Australian Broadcasting Company. His work has been performed
by many artists worldwide, including flutist Andrew Bolotowsky, saxophonist
Paul Cohen, percussionist Bruce Smith, cellist Enrique Orengo, trombonists
David Taylor and Dale Turk, the American Baroque Ensemble, Alliance for
American Song, the Brooklyn Philharmonia, the World Saxophone Quartet,
the Paul Price Percussion Ensemble, Magevet Jewish Choir, the Lowell Philharmonic
Orchestra, the Cherokee Symphony and the Ukiah Symphony and the Columbia
Mid-Gorge Symphony.
From 1972 to 1985, Jim was the host of a regularly-scheduled radio program
of 20th century music on WBAI in New York one of the few such programs
on New York radio at that time. He has interviewed composers from Alan
Hovhannes to Earle Brown to Yannis Xenakis. He also has written extensively
on music topics for The Villager, The Brooklyn Phoenix, Ear Magazine and
New Music Connoisseur.
Theobald has over 200 pieces in his catalog, including three symphonies
for orchestra and several large wind-ensemble works, two full-length and
three short operas, concerti for piano, viola, cello and euphonium, sonatas
for trombone, cello and tenor saxophone, numerous piano solo pieces, a
series of solo works called Mantras which can be performed in any combination
with each other, a cantata, numerous choral works, songs, four string
quartets, many short pieces for chamber orchestra and dozens of chamber
works for groups ranging from the traditional to the bizarre. One of his
pieces requires several hundred years for a complete performance. His
work has been recorded on Opus One, Soaking Towel and Joes Smashing
Records. Jim has been commissioned by the SoHo Baroque Opera, the Lowell
Philharmonic, Andrew Bolotowsky, serpentist Douglas Yeo, euphonium virtuoso
Kevin Thompson, the Caerleon Music Center in Wales, cellist Enrique Orengo
and the Hollis Town Band. His Three Sketches from Mark Twain for piano
trio received its premiere on March 17, 2002 at Weill Recital Hall in
New York City.
Recently, Theobalds music was performed by the Composers
Concordance, the Hollis Town Band, the Battleground Symphony, the University
of Maine at Farmington Orchestra, the Cherokee Symphony in Iowa and received
several performances by Andrew Bolotowsky, including the premier of Variations
on an Inappropriate theme for Baroque Flute. He has just finished a piece
for the Cherokee Symphony in honor of the Great Bike Ride Across Iowa
this summer.
Top
Raymond
Torres-Santos - Composer and Conductor
Raymond
Torres-Santos' multifaceted career encompasses amazing wide range of musical
talents as a composer, teacher, conductor, pianist and arranger, equally
at home in both classical and popular music. His style bears the hallmark
of no particular orthodoxy, but rather shows the effect of an assimilating
musical ear, subtle and sophisticated but also startling and novel as
well. In recent years his versatility and music has attracted audiences
in Europe, Latin America and the United States. He is considered one of
the leading composers of his generation. His works have been performed
by the American Composers Orchestra, Boston Pops, Pacific Symphony, Bronx
Arts Ensemble, Continuum, New Jersey Chamber Music Society, Queens Symphony,
Quintet of the Americas, the orchestras of Virginia, Taipei, Puerto Rico,
México City, London, and Vienna as well as many other independent
groups in the USA, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Argentina. Featured at the
Casals Festival, World Fair in Seville and Op Sail 2000, his music has
been used for television and radio programs, and choreographed by dance
companies.
Born in Puerto Rico, he studied at the Casals Conservatory of Music and
at the University of Puerto Rico. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in composition
at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and completed advance
studies at Stanford and Harvard University. He furthered his studies in
Europe; first at the Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik in Germany, and later
at the University of Padua in Italy. His major professors were Henri Lazarof,
David Raksin and Alberto Ginastera.
As a composer, his works include orchestral, electronic and vocal music
for the concert hall, ballet, film, theater, television and radio. Recipient of awards given
by ASCAP, BMI, Meet the Composer, American Composers Forum and the Puerto Rico Symphony has recorded
the American Music Center in New York, his music -published by RTS Music (ASCAP)-.
His Requiem is available on CD. His music for films has been featured in national television, at the
Venice Film Festival and earned him a Henry Mancini Award in Los Angeles.
In addition to composing, Torres-Santos is an accomplished arranger,
conductor and pianist, equally at home in both classical and contemporary
music. He has arranged for the best performers in the Americas, such as:
Frank Sinatra and Julio Iglesias. Most recently, he arranged for Placido
Domingo's Christmas in Vienna with the Vienna Symphony. Recipient of the
Frank Sinatra Award in jazz composing and arranging, he has also served
as orchestrator for film composers in Hollywood, such as Dave Grusin,
Lalo Schifrin, Ralph Burns (Vacation, Phantom of the Opera), Ron Jones
(Star Trek) and Ry Cooder (Brewster's Millions). A studio jazz pianist,
he has worked with Maynard Ferguson, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Shew, and
Tito Puente.
As conductor he has conducted the Bronx Arts Ensemble Orchestra, American
Symphony Orchestra, New York Virtuosi Ensemble, Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra,
México City Philharmonic, Queens Symphony Orchestra, the Darmstader Ensemble, the
Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei Philharmonic, and members of the London Symphony.
He has also conducted the symphony orchestras and choruses at UCLA, Manhattan School of Music,
Northwestern University and California State University. He has also conducted Hollywood
studio orchestras in films and served as music director for pop singer Vikki Carr and Dianne
Schuur.
Top
The Performers
Lois
Anderson
Pianist, is also active as a composer and improvisanist. She has performed
with the New Jersey Symphony and Chamber Music Society, and the National
Chorale, at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, on WQXR and National Public
Radio. As a composer and arranger, her musical scores have been heard
on ABC-TV and PBS. A frequent performer of new music, Lois contributed
original music to "Breaking Out of the Virtual Closet," one
of the first global Internet collaborative art projects. She is heard
on the recently released CD "The Saxophone Project," featuring
John David Lamb. She received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from
Manhattan School of Music. Currently Ms. Anderson is on the faculty of
New Jersey City University.
Top
Cheryl Priebe Bishkoff
Cheryl Priebe Bishkoff, described as "a musician of incredible artistry"
(Richmond News Leader), is universally recognized for her inspiring musicality,
uniquely glorious sound and characteristic performing style. Her recent
appearances include performances of Copland's Quiet City with New York
Philharmonic trumpeter Phil Smith and Beethoven chamber music at the renowned
Newport Music Festival. She is currently in her eighth season as principal
oboe of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the New Hampshire Symphony.
In addition she is also principal oboe of the Western (NY) Chamber Orchestra
and assistant principal of the Bethleham (PA) Bach Festival Orchestra.
Previous to her appearances in Rhode Island, Ms. Bishkoff has served as
Acting Principal of the Buffalo Philharmonic and as principal in many
other orchestras, including the Albany (NY) Symphony, the Lancaster (OH)
Festival Orchestra, the Wheeling (WV) Symphony and the Virginia Symphony.
An accomplished recitalist, she frequently appears both as soloist and
in chamber music programs including recent concerto performances at the
Bach and Beyond Festival. Ms. Bishkoff is an instructor at Vassar College
in Poughkeepsie, NY and has a large private studio in Rhode Island. She
has recorded on the Dorian label. A student of Ray Still, Fernand Gillet
and Ralph Gomberg, Ms. Bishkoff attended the New England Conservatory
of Music.
Top
James Borchers
James Borchers is an active Performer and Composer. He has performed
in a variety of settings including Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, Chamber Groups,
Musicals, Jazz/ Big Band and Drumset/percussion for numerous rock bands
including the group, Strange Pleasures. As a Composer he has written for
a variety of ensembles and has had performances in the Midwest, England,
and New York.
Top
Justine Fang Chen
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Justine began piano, composition,
and violin studies at an early age. As a violinist, she has appeared internationally
as a soloist with orchestras in prestigious venues including Moscow's
Tchaikovsky International Concert Hall, the Beijing Conservatory, the
Shanghai Conservatory, the Taipei Municipal Concert Center, Taichung Cultural
Center, New York's Alice Tully Hall and Town Hall, and Meyerson Symphony
Hall in Dallas, and other venues in Los Angeles, Taipei, Kaohsiung, and
Tienjing. As an orchestral musician, she has performed in Avery Fisher
Hall, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Suntory Hall in Japan under
such distinguished conductors as Kurt Masur, Otto-Werner Mueller, Marin
Alsop, Andre Previn, Pierre Boulez, Hugh Wolff, Carl St. Clair, Gerard
Schwarz, and Bobby McFerrin.
In recent seasons, Ms. Chen has made recital appearances in New York,
Shanghai, Osaka, and Taiwan. Critical acclaim from The Strad :"Justine
Chen performed Bernstein's Serenade with conscientious instrumental authority,
self-discipline and variable expressivity.", and the Hardwick Gazette
reviewed her as: "Playing her lead instrument with unerring fingering,
flamboyance, and professional confidence, Chen showed that she was a master
violinist in every respect." The Osaka daily paper called her recent
recital performance "Intoxicating."
In 1998, she began extended studies of computer music. Since 1999, she
has been actively studying the intricacies of interactive computer music
program MAX/MSP. Her education, led by Mari Kimura, cutting-edge violinist
and MAX/MSP programmer, has resulted in her composition and performance
of three interactive computer pieces: One, Two, Three (2000), Good Ol'
Smoke and Mirrors (2001), and Aria Ex Machina (2001). To this end, she
has recently received a grant to study at IRCAM in June 2003.
As a composer, she has won numerous awards and commissions including
two ASCAP Awards to Young Composers, the Interlochen Arts Academy National
Composition Competition, the Fourth International Aaron Copland Composition
Competition, and the National Federation of Music Clubs' Composition Competition.
Recent projects and performances include collaborations with several Juilliard
choreographers and a commission from the New Juilliard Ensemble, which
was premiered in Alice Tully Hall. When her collaborative piece, Of Roots
and Stones was featured on the Spring Dance Concert at The Juilliard Theater,
February 2000, the New York Times praised her music as ". . the kind
of propulsive, emotionally resonant score that choreographers tend to
dream of." In summer of 2000, she served as Composer-in-Residence
in the Appalachian Summer Festival in Boone, North Carolina. There she
collaborated with choreographer Adam Hougland and the Broyhill Chamber
Ensemble in the creation of a new dance work, Stand Nine, in which the
dancers and musicians interact as equal dramatic partners onstage. Recent
performances include critically acclaimed performances in The Special
Prisoner, a collaboration with director James Glossman, and Trilemma,
a collaboration with digital artist Ye Won Cho, which has been selected
for major festivals such as the Student Academy Awards and the International
Animation Festival Hiroshima, will be broadcast on PBS in June 2002.
Recent commissions include a sextet for Concertante, the virtuoso New
York based string ensemble, scheduled for premiere in February 2003, an
oratorio using the text of Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market, for the
Henry Street Settlement, scheduled for premiere in May 2003, and a chamber
opera with computer enhancement, for The Juilliard School, scheduled for
premiere in December 2003.
After finishing her Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School
as a Violin and Composition major, she was awarded the prestigious Peter
Menin Prize at her graduation for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership
in Music. Upon completion of her Master's Degree last spring in Violin
and Composition,
she received the William Schuman Award for Outstanding Achievement in
Leadership in Music for Graduate Students. She is currently in her second
year of Doctoral studies at Juilliard as a C.V. Starr fellow, studying
composition with Robert Beaser. Her former violin teachers include Stephen
Clapp, Sally Thomas, Ann Setzer, and Hisako Resnick; and in composition,
David Diamond, Andrew Thomas and Philip Lasser.
Top
Dose Hermanos
Bob
Bralove was the sound designer and co-producer for the GRATEFUL
DEAD from 1987 until they disbanded in 1995, and is best known for for
his involvement in the mindbending "Drums and Space" segments
of a Dead Show. Those moments between Drums and Space where the music
was flowing and the lights throbbing and no one seemed to be on stage
were usually Bralove wailing on a synth behind the drum riser.
He first crossed paths with the Dead while sharing scoring credits with
them on the CBS remake of The Twilight Zone (which can still be seen on
the Sci-fi cable channel). During the previous eight years he directed
the computer synthesis and sound design for STEVIE WONDER in his live
shows and recordings. His relationship with the Dead grew to CO-writing
songs,(Picasso Moon, Way to go Home and Easy Answers) production credits
("Infrared Roses" and "Built to Last") . Website:
www.dnai.com/~ssight/
Tom Constanten, Rock and Roll
Hall of Famer, was the keyboardist for the Grateful Dead from 1968 through
1970, adding his magic to such psychedelic classics as "Anthem of
the Sun," "Live Dead" and "Aoxmoxoa," as well
as hundreds of live shows. A composition student of Karlheinz Stockhausen
and Luciano Berio, Constanten was Artist in Residence at Harvard University
in 1986. He has produced several solo albums of both classical and contemporary
music. Website: www.dnai.com/~ssight/
Top
Michèle Eaton
Soprano Michèle Eaton has earned praise for her "ravishingly
pure, silver-hued voice" (St. Louis Post Dispatch) and her sensitive
interpretations. Highly respected for her mastery of many styles, she
is best known for her performances of Baroque and Renaissance music. She
frequently sings on the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series at St. Ignatius
Loyola Church, where she has performed Handel's Solomon and Saul, Bach's
Mass in B minor, Tavener's Lament of the Mother of God and Monteverdi's
Vespers of 1610. She has frequently toured and recorded with the acclaimed
Renaissance vocal group Pomerium, long recognized as one of the world's
premiere ensembles for its beautiful phrasing and perfect intonation.
With the Ensemble for Early Music she has appeared in staged productions
of Sponsus, a medieval morality play. She also sings with the period instrument
orchestra, the New York Collegium.
Ms. Eaton's other solo oratorio performances have included Handel's Israel
in Egypt. Judas Macabaeus and the Messiah, Mozart's Vesperae Solennes
de Confessore, Bach's St. John and St. Matthew Passions and Jauchzet Gott
in Allen Landen, Faure's Requiem, Haydn's Missa Sancti Johanni, Vivaldi's
Magnificat, Carissimi's Jephte, Purcell's Come Ye Sons of Art and Schubert's
Mass in G. In addition, with Mr. Schickele's alter ego, P.D.Q. Bach and
tenor David Düsing, she tours annually with Peter Schickele Meets
P.D.Q. Bach and Peter Schickele & P.D.Q. Bach: The Jekyll & Hyde
Tour.
She is equally at home in performances of contemporary music. She has
sung John Adams' Grand Pianola Music with the Jacksonville Symphony, and
she has toured internationally with the Philip Glass Ensemble in performances
of Einstein on the Beach; she has also performed and recorded Glass' Hydrogen
Jukebox. At the Aspen Music Festival, she was a Vocal Chamber Music Fellow
and premiered Henry Brant's Rain Forest Requiem. She can be heard on the
soundtrack for the film Dead Man Walking, and has recorded on the Deutsche
Grammophon, Angel, Dorian, Sony Classics, Nonesuch, Arabesque and Delos
labels. She lives in New York City.
Top
Emily Faxon
Violinist, Assistant Concertmaster, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Hudson
Valley String Quartet, Artist in Residence State University of New York
at New Paltz. PONE Ensemble for New Music. Festival including Music in
the Mountains and the Bach festival.
Top
Laura Flax,
Clarinetist has been praised by the New York Times as "one of those musicians
for whom everything is not only possible, but easy." She is recognized
as one of New York's most versatile players. Ms. Flax is currently Principal
clarinetist with the New York City Opera Orchestra, the American Symphony
Orchestra and the Bard Festival Orchestra. This past season she had the
distinction of playing Principal clarinet with 3 Lincoln Center Orchestras:
the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City
Opera. She has been a member of the San Francisco and San Diego Symphonies,
and is also a member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Eos Chamber Orchestras.
Ms. Flax is a frequent guest of the St. Luke's, Orpheus, and American
Composers Orchestra. Her recent solo appearances include performances
with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra, the Puerto Rico Symphony
and the New York Chamber Orchestra. A member of the Naumburg award winning
Da Capo Chamber Players for twenty years, Ms Flax was involved in over
100 premieres including works by Joan Tower, Shulamit Ran, Philip Glass
and Elliott Carter. She has given master classes and recitals throughout
the country at institutions and chamber music societies including Eastman
School of Music, Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society, U. of Chicago , Carnegie
Recital Hall, and MIT. As a chamber artist, Ms. Flax has appeared regularly
with Jaime Laredo's Chamber Music at the Y series, Suzuki and Friends
in Indianapolis, Da Camera of Houston, and with the Bard Music Festival.
Ms. Flax's recordings of Joan Tower's Wings is available on the CRI label.
Her recent release of Shulamit Ran's clarinet music is available on Bridge
records.
Top
Cristina Fontanelli
"-Elegant
and vivacious - a young Callas" according to the review of
Mario Fratti, the Tony Award-winning playwright. Cristina is quickly becoming
a well-known personality through her appearances on Italian and American
radio, TV, opera and in concerts, where she is gathering rave reviews
for her performances.
A listing of some of the popular "giants"
she has appeared with would include Tony Bennett, Joel Grey, Joan Rivers,
Vic Damone, Red Buttons, Kaye Ballard, Sergio Franchi and many others.
Her beautiful soprano voice has taken her to the White House s part of
President Clinton's holiday celebration, to Gracie Mansion at the invitation
of New York's Mayor Giuliani, and to Washington, D.C. to open the ceremonies
for the National Italian American Foundation's 20th Anniversary, whose
honorees included President Bill Clinton and Tony Bennett.
She is a favorite guest artist with many
prestigious orchestras throughout the United States and the world, including
the Boston Pops, the St. Louis Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the
Grand Rapids Symphony, the New Jersey Pops and the Bloomington Pops and
has appeared in major venues such as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center
and the Philadelphia Academy of Music. Ms. Fontanelli has also completed
three world-tours with the Mantovani Orchestra.
In the world of classical music, Ms. Fontanelli
has appeared with opera companies throughout the United States and abroad
including the Palm Beach Opera, the New York Grand Opera, the Cairo Opera,
the Teatro Nacional, Santa Domingo and the Sha Tin Auditorium in Hong
Kong. She has toured the Middle East extensively as an "Ambassador
of Opera". Her operatic repertoire includes such heroines as Mimi,
Musetta, Violetta and the title role of "Madame Butterfly".
She has also toured as a solo concert artist in major concert halls throughout
Japan, Korea, Italy and the United States.
Ms. Fontanelli has performed with such prestigious
theatres as the Coconut Grove Playhouse and the New Jersey Shakespeare
Festival. Her "popular" dates have included appearances at the
Tropicana Trump Taj Mahal and Marina Casinos in Atlantic City and
on the Crystal and Cunard Cruise Lines. She is a favorite at many Italian
Festivals throughout the U.S including Milwaukee (more than 10 appearances),
Chicago and L.I.'s Eisenhower Park.
She has been the recipient of many awards
including winning her Italian operatic debut through the American Opera
Auditions, receiving grants from the Puccini and Koussevitsky Foundations,
performing at the Casa Verdi in Milan under the auspices of Giulietta
Simionato, being named "Woman of the Year" by the Ethnic Press
Council of Toronto and being awarded the Italian- American Heritage Award
by the St. Ann's Festival in Hoboken, New Jersey. Two of her most recent
achievements were awards presented by Boys Town of Italy and the Sergio
Franchi Music Foundation.
Ms. Fontanelli is proud to announce the release
on the Meadowlands Record Company label of "Cristina Fontanelli Sings
Great Italian Favorites" produced by platinum record award-winning songwriter/producer
Sandy Linzer.
She is much in demand for radio broadcasts
across the country and has had the privilege of appearing on N.Y.'s WQXR
Robert Sherman Show and Boston's WGBH with host Ron Della Chiesa. TV appearances
have included the "Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon" and RAI/USA's
"Italians in America".
Ms. Fontanelli was born in Brooklyn, New
York of Italian heritage and is a graduate of the American Academy of
Dramatic Arts. She has also attended the Juilliard School in New York.
Many major publications, including The
New York Times, have praised Ms. Fontanelli's singing having
"technical ease" and "flaunting bravura", but perhaps this quote taken
from a recent review best sums up the artistry of this versatile soprano
- she is a "show stopper".
More information can be found on Ms. Fontanelli's website at
www.CristinaFontanelli.com
Top
Dr. Lizbeth Goodman
is a performer, director and scholar whose work in theatre,
dance and convergent media have led to the production of many programmes
and performances worldwide. She is Director of the SMARTlab Centre for
Site Specific Media, Performing and Digital Arts at Central Saint Martin's
College of Art and Design, the London Institute. She also directs the
Practice-based Ph.D. programme for CSM. She is the Principal Investigator
of the SMARTshell Project (creating innovative tools for synchronous and
asynchronous online/integrated performance and learning), and of the Virtual
Interactive Puppetry Project, the British Council's Cultural and Media
Studies development programmes in North Africa, and the European Commission's
RADICAL project (Research Agendas Developed in Creative Arts Labs). She
is also the UK Executive Producer of Sara Diamond's Code Zebra Project,
working with international partners at the Banff New Media Institute,
BBC Imagineering, V2, UCLA, UC Berkeley, et al. Dr. Goodman has written
and edited some 13 books including a range of titles on women and theatre,
the arts, representation and creativity. Her books have been translated
into several languages and are set on courses internationally.
Top
Stephanie Griffin
Canadian violist Stephanie Griffin has performed internationally as a
soloist and with many types of ensembles, reflecting her wide-ranging
musical interests. Her greatest commitment is to the music of Indonesian
composer Tony Prabowo, with whom she has collaborated since 1998. Important
solo engagements include Alfred Schnittke's Viola Concerto with the Juilliard
Symphony; the Walton Viola Concerto in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England; Art
Summit 1998 in Jakarta; and recitals at St. Paul's Chapel, Jakarta's Teater
Utan Kayu and the Chicago Cultural Center. Ms. Griffin has recorded for
Siam Records, Koch International, Arte Nova and Harmolodic, and is the
founder and artistic director of New Music on North Sixth at Galapagos
in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She studied in Belgium and the United States,
where she received a Masters degree in music from the Juilliard School,
under the guidance of Samuel Rhodes.
Top
Leslie Terrell Hamilton
Leslie Hamilton, Soprano, has thrilled audiences with her beautiful lyric-coloratura
voice throughout the United States and abroad. While pursuing her graduate
degree at the Juilliard School, Ms. Hamilton made her New York City debut
at Alice Tully Hall. Ms. Hamilton, a native Washingtonian, has also made
her Kennedy Center debut with the National Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Hamilton
is the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships such as the DiPanni
Scholarship, Morse Fellowship, the Maxwell and Murial Gluck Fellowship
for performing artists, and the Lucrezia Bori grant, to further her study
both in America and Europe. Most recently, Ms. Hamilton performed the
role of Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville and the leading role
in The Impressario during a tour of Italy.
Ms. Hamilton's international performances include recitals in Senegal,
Africa, Florence, Vietri sul Mare, and Salerno-Italy. Her credits also
include the making of a world-wide operatic commercial for Fresca soft
drink for the Coca-Cola company. Ms. Hamilton's extensive repertoire encompasses
works ranging from baroque to contemporary composers.
A Distinguished Scholar of the State of Maryland, Ms. Hamilton was awarded
a full scholarship to study music at the University of Maryland where
she received a Bachelor of Music degree. Ms. Hamilton also holds a Master
of Music degree from the Juilliard School. Upcoming engagements include
recitals throughout the Northeast including the French Embassy, Washington,
DC, excerpts from Bach's St. John Passion, and Brahms' German Requiem.
Top
David Holzman
Hailed
as "a master pianist" (Andrew Porter, The New Yorker), David
Holzman has won acclaim both for his recitals and his recordings. Among
his honors and awards have been recording grants from the National Endowment
for the Humanities and the Alice B. Ditson Fund. Commissioning grants
have come from such organizations as Reader's Digest-Meet the Composer
and the New Jersey Council on the Arts. Concentrating on Twentieth Century
keyboard masterworks, Holzman has premiered hundreds of works by composers
throughout the world and has made first recordings of many of them. His
all-Wolpe CD, to be released on Bridge Records in 2001, features several
premieres and is sponsored in part by the Stefan Wolpe Society. Mr. Holzman's
website is www.battlemuse.com
Top
Joanna Jenner
JOANNA
JENNER, violin, A member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Joanna Jenner
has toured throughout the world and recorded more than forty discs. She
has appeared as soloist with them, most recently in Vivaldi's Spring Season,
and in many chamber music tours, most recently a tour to Madrid, Bratislava,
Athens, and Warsaw. She has also participated in chamber music festivals
in Bennington and Stowe, Vermont; Crested Butte, Colorado; the Grand Tetons,
Wyoming; Rockport and Marblehead, Massachusetts; Hamden-Sydney, Virginia;
Lockenhaus, Austria; and Prussia Cove, England. Performing on both violin
and viola as a member of the Empire Trio,for several years she presented
concerts and lectures throughout the U.S. and recorded for Crystal Records.
Interested in expanding the scope of the violin in concert, she has commissioned
"performance art" works from Jon Deak, Larry Bell, and Elizabeth
Brown and introduced them to audiences from New York to Alaska. She appears
in solo works by Allen Shawn on two Opus One recordings. On the faculty
of the Mannes College of Music she has also taught at Bennington College,
the University of Northern Iowa, the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music
and has served as artist-in-residence at Lafayette College in Easton,
Pa. Ms Jenner is the founder and artistic director of the Riverrun Chamber
Players, in residence since 1998 at the the Vermont Festival of the Arts.
Top
Heawon Kim
Heawon Kim's auspicious studies began in her native Korea
as its most prized young pianist. She appeared at the age of 7 with the
Korean Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic. Subsequently
she won numerous competitions, appearing with these orchestras as soloist
frequently on television and radio. Ms. Kim came to this country in 1972
to attend the North Carolina School of the Performing Arts under the guidance
of Clifton Mathews winning the Vittorio Giannini Award, the Southeastern
Music Teachers Competition, and appeared with the Orchestra of the North
Carolina School of the Performing Arts under Nicholas Harsanyi. Following
rave reviews, she was brought to New York by Claude Frank, with whom she
studied at the Mannes School of Music, and subsequently completed her
M.M. under Robert Goldsand at the Manhattan School of Music. She has frequently
performed for the classes of Josef Gingold, Janos Starker, Franco Gulli
and Andre Watts. Ms. Kim has performed as soloist with regional orchestras
in the United States, in chamber music with such groups as the Bronx Arts
Ensemble, Pierrot Consort, Rosewood Chamber Ensemble, Garrett Lakes Festival,
Leonia Chamber Players and the Colonial Symphony. She has appeared with
the KBS at the opening of the Sejong Arts Center. She is much in demand
as a partner in recitals with such artists as Erick Friedman, Sanford
Allen, Marion Davies and her husband, Dale Stuckenbruck. She is on the
faculty of the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in an innovative
new program for instrumentalists. She is active in the Korean musical
community of New York as a pianist for major recitals.
Top
Michael Lipsey,
Percussion, has performed with Westchester Philharmonic, Lincoln Center
Chamber Music Society II, Talujon Percussion Quartet. Mr. Lipsey is on
the faculty of Queens College and Wagner College. He is recorded by Sony
and has performed on thirty to forty CDs. He has appeared on numerous
NPR Radio presentations.
Top
Kathryn Lockwood
Since
coming to the US from Australia in 1991, violist Kathryn Lockwood has
captured some of the most sought-after awards in the country - the Naumburg
Chamber Music Award, Coleman Chamber Music Competition, Concert Artists
Guild Management Award, Primrose Competition, Washington International
Competition, and the Pasadena Instrumental Competition.
As a former member of the Pacifica Quartet, Kathryn has appeared on National
Public Radio's "Performance Today", Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully
Hall, Ravinia, Corcoran Gallery, St. Lawrence Center, and University of
Thessaloniki/Greece. Kathryn has collaborated with violist Michael Tree
on an all Dvorak CD and composer Easley Blackwood on recordings released
by Cedille Records.
Kathryn is currently on faculty at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
She was previously on the faculty at Northwestern University, University
of Chicago, Interlochen Academy, Music Institute of Chicago, and National
Music Camp in Australia. Kathryn earned her Master's Degree with Donald
McInnes at the University of Southern California, and her Bachelor of
Music Degree from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music with Elizabeth
Morgan.
Top
Jeff Nelson
Jeff Nelson, Bass Trambone, has been a resident of New York City for
many years, since graduating and receiving a Performer's Certificate from
the SUNY Fredonia School of Music in 1985. He has toured and performed
with many renowned music artists including Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie,
Maria Schneider, Harry Connick, Jr., Toshiko Akiyoshi, Slide Hampton,
and Louie Bellson, as well as with such groups as the Carnegie Hall Jazz
Band, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, the Manhattan
Chamber Orchestra, Solid Brass, and the Hora Decima Brass Ensemble.
Jeff is also very active on the Broadway theater circuit, having been
a member of numerous show orchestras, most recently for the TONY Award
winning show "Thoroughly Modern Millie". He is in demand for
many concert and recording studio dates, having recorded for such artists
as Terence Blanchard and Dave Liebman, as well as for numerous TV and
radio jingles, and movie soundtracks. He can also be heard with his own
seven piece group, the New York Trombone Conspiracy, which released its
debut CD "A Matter of Time" a few years ago.
Top
Newband
While many regard NEWBAND as the world's preeminent microtonal music
ensemble, NEWBAND regards itself as the traveling circus of new and experimental
chamber music. The internationally renowned new music ensemble NEWBAND
was founded in 1977 by composer Dean Drummond and flutist Stefani Starin
who continue as Artistic Directors. With Drummond's invention of the 31-tone
zoomoozophone in 1978, NEWBAND began to explore music using microtonality
and alternative tuning systems in an innovative and eclectic repertoire
influenced by jazz, rock and world music. In 1990, NEWBAND received custodianship
of the original Harry Partch Instrument Collection. The typical NEWBAND
concert involves a stage filled with some of the world's most amazing
musical instruments performed upon by an ensemble of virtuosos who move
from instrument to instrument with incredible ease.
NEWBAND has performed throughout North America and Europe including at
New Music America in Houston, The Library of Congress and the Kennedy
Center in Washington, Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Walker Arts
Center in Minneapolis, World Music Days in Oslo, Festival de Lille in
France, USARTS Festival in Berlin and The Icebreaker in Amsterdam. In
its New York home base, NEWBAND has performed at the New York Philharmonic
Horizons New Virtuosity Series at Avery Fisher Hall, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, Bang on a Can Festival, La Mama
Experimental Theater, Merkin Concert Hall and Columbia University. NEWBAND
has premiered works by Harry Partch, Dean Drummond, John Cage, John Zorn,
Ezra Sims, James Pugliese, Elizabeth Brown, Anne Le Baron, Lois V Vierk
and Julia Wolfe and recorded on Mode, Music and Arts, Point and Aurora
Records.
NEWBAND currently consists of a core of nine virtuosic multi-instrumentalists,
equally at home in concert performances and in productions involving theater,
dance and film. NEWBAND productions have included: Harry Partch's The
Wayward and Oedipus (both directed by Tom O'Horgan); Partch's Daphne of
the Dunes with the Alice Farley Dance Theatre; Henry Cowell's Trickster
Coyote with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company; and a live soundtrack by
Dean Drummond for F.W. Murnau's landmark silent film, Der Letzte Mann
(The Last Laugh). NEWBAND has pursued many educational projects, including
in-school residencies and the creation of a new music children's show.
The Harry Partch Instrument Collection is the largest component of the
Newband Instrumentarium, including all of the instruments built by the
composer-inventor during the period 1930-1974, as well as several instruments
replicated by the Harry Partch Foundation and Newband since 1974. Other
instruments in the Newband Instrumentarium are the zoomoozophone and juststrokerods,
both invented by Dean Drummond, a microtonally programmed synthesizer,
and a large collection of exotic percussion instruments. NEWBAND performs
on the Instrumentarium as well as standard Western instruments - flute,
cello and percussion regularly - voices, clarinet, brass and strings as
repertoire demands.
Newband's website is www.Newband.org
Top
Newband
STEFANI STARIN
Flutist STEFANI STARIN is Co-director of Newband. Her career
has taken her to Europe and coast to coast as a soloist, chamber and orchestral
musician, teacher and recording artist. As a soloist she has received
awards from The Martha Baird rockefeller Foundation,The Alice Ditson Fund,
and was invited to be on the roster of Affiliate Artists. Stefani has
performed with many new music ensembles and dance companies in New York
and California. Many composers have written music especially for her,
taking advantage of her remarkable microtonal abilities on the flute.
She has been invited to perform on major music festivals in Europe and
United States. She is currently on the faculties of Juilliard and the
Music Conservatory of Westchester. A graduate of Marlboro College and
California Institute of the Arts, her teachers have been Harvey Sollberger,
Paula Robison, Julius Baker, Ann Diener Giles and Louis Moyse. Stefani
has recorded for Musical Heritage Society, Opus One, Mode, Lovely, I Virtuosi,
Aurora, Music and Arts, and Innova.
Top
DEAN DRUMMOND
Dean Drummond is a composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, music
instrument inventor, Co-director of Newband, Director/Curator of the Harry
Partch Instrumentarium, and Professor of Music at Montclair State University,
New Jersey. Drummond's compositions feature new acoustic
instruments, synthesizers, new techniques for winds and strings, and large
ensembles of exotic percussion. His music has been largely concerned with
the exploration of microtones (musical scales with
smaller than normal increments) and just intonation (the tuning of musical
scales to the intervals of the overtone series). His music has been recorded
on five CD's, on Innova, Music and Arts, Mode (2) and
Talujon. Drummond's music has been performed internationally, and in New
York in venues ranging from Knitting Factory and The Kitchen to Carnegie
Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. His music has received numerous awards and
commissions including a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for
the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Library of Congress, Chamber
Music America, and The Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. As
Co-director of Newband, Drummond has produced
and conducted Harry Partch's Oedipus at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
and The Wayward at The Bang on a Can Festival. He has produced four Newband
CD's, with a fifth on the way. As a Director of the New York Consortium
for New Music, he helps produce the annual Sonic Boom Festival in New
York City. Drummond has also invented two musical instruments, the zoomoozophone
and the juststrokerods. Born in 1949 in Los Angeles, Drummond received
degrees in music composition from the University of Southern California
(1971) and California Institute of the Arts (1973). While a student, he
worked as musician for and assistant to Harry Partch, performing in the
premieres of Partch's Daphne of the
Dunes, And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma, and Delusion of
the Fury, as well as on both Columbia Masterworks recordings made during
the late 60's.
Top
TOM CHIU
Violinist TOM CHIU has received wide acclaim for his performances as
a soloist, chamber artist, and experimental improvisor. An avid performer
of new music, Mr. Chiu has worked closely with noted composers such as
Milton Babbitt, Virko Baley, Dean Drummond, and Zhou Long, among others,
as well as free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman, with whom he appeared at
the 2000 Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in New York. He has also collaborated
with lesser-known fringe artists whose work he admires, such as balloon
virtuoso Judy Dunaway, avant dancer Eun-Me Ahn, and electronicist/synthesist
Virgil Moorefield. His discography includes recordings for the BMG, Cambria,
Koch, Sombient, and Tzadik labels. With the FLUX Quartet, of which he
is founder and first violinist, Mr. Chiu has appeared at international
festivals in Melbourne and Oslo, as well as American festivals such as
Ojai, Summergarden, and Lincoln Center's A Great Day in New York. Currently,
FLUX is resident ensemble in When Morty Met John..., a three-year series
at Carnegie's Weill Hall featuring the music of John Cage, Morton Feldman,
and composers from the New York School. Holding degrees in music and chemistry
from Juilliard and Yale, Mr. Chiu occasionally reminisces about his childhood
appearance with Tom Hanks in the feature film, The Man With One Red Shoe.
Top
MICHAEL LIPSEY
Michael Lipsey (zoomoozophone, kithara, harmonic canons, diamond marimba,
bass marimba, marimba eroica, cloud chamber bowls, juststrokerods,surrogate
kithara, percussion) received his M.M. from Manhattan school of Music.
He is ensemble instructor at Queens College, Wagner College and Connecticut
College. Beside performing with Newband, Michael is a member of the Talujon
Percussion Quartet and many other new music groups.
Top
TOM KOLOR
Cited by the New York Times as "a virtuosic percussionist",
Tom Kolor specializes in 20th and 21st century chamber music. He has appeared
internationally as a member of the Talujon Percussion Quartet, New Jersey
Percussion Ensemble, Ensemble Sospeso, and Ensemble 21, and has been a
guestof the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Speculum Musicae,Bargemusic,
the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Newband, New York New Music Ensemble, Da Capo
Chamber Players, and the Group For Contemporary Music. Mr. Kolor can be
heard on New World, Capstone, Naxos, Koch, and Innova.
Top
JIM PUGLIESE
Jim Pugliese has been playing drums, percussion, and composing music
for over 25 years. Born in Newark N.J. in 1952 Jim grew up listening to
and playing soul music and rhythm and blues. He later went on to study
jazz drumming with Carl Wolf, composition with Dr. George Walker and percussion
with Raymond Des Roches, performing and or recording new music with John
Cage, Lukas Foss, Kent Nagano, Philip Glass and Carlos Chavez. At the
same time he developed an interest in Afro-Cuban music and studied drumming
and rhythm with Master Drummer Pablo Landrum.
For the last fifteen years, while living in the East Village of New York
City, Jim has been performing, composing and recording with many of downtowns
most prominent composer/improvisers. He has recorded on over 60 CD's of
new music, jazz and rock. Jim has established himself as both performer
and composer throughout the United States, Europe and Japan.
In 1998 Jim was selected as Artist In Residence at Harvestworks in NYC
where he recorded his solo CD "Sonic Soul". On November 23rd,
1997 Avant released the first cd for his collaborative trio EasSide Percussion
with Christine Bard and Michael Evans. This group is about to release
their second CD for the Avant label.
In his ongoing quest to explore the powerful, enlightening and spiritual
secrets of drumming Jim is currently collaborating with Nii Tettey Tetteh
master musician from Ghana and continuing his work with Milford Graves
learning about drumming and healing.
Top
MARTIN GOLDRAY
Martin Goldray holds a BA from Cornell University, a DMA from Yale, and
studied piano in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship. He was a member of
the Philip Glass Ensemble from 1983-1998 and has played and conducted
new music by Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt, Anthony Davis and many others.
He recently conducted Jon Cale's soundtrack to the film American Psycho.
He is currently on the faculty at Sarah Lawrence College where he teaches
music theory and history and conducts the Sarah Lawrence College Orchestra.
Top
Nuove Musiche
In
1601 the Italian composer Giulio Caccini published a book of songs and
entitled it "Le Nuove Musiche", or "The New Music".
These songs introduced a new way to interpret spoken text and led to a
revolution in singing style. Award winning vocalist, Sarah Pillow has
international experience in the historically informed performance of early
Baroque song. These accomplishments were preceded by her highly acclaimed
performance as a jazz musician.
After presenting the two styles separately and making several recordings
of both early and modern music for the BBC and ASV Records, Sarah was
inspired to put these genres together and create her own version of "Nuove
Musiche". Joined by leading musicians of rock and jazz, Sarah Pillow
takes these beautiful songs from another world and brings forth their
relevance in the 21st century. This group of Brand X members, bass player
Percy Jones, guitarist John Goodsall, midi vibes player Marc Wagnon and
drummer Frank Katz have inspired the unique sound of the programs, with
rock and jazz influences. Composers include Henry Purcell, Claudio Monteverdi
and John Doland. The result, moving in a fresh, new direction, proves
that great music lasts forever.
Top
Sound Clip
from Nuove Musiche
BAND BIOGRAPHIES
Percy
Jones: A native Wales, Percy played with Liverpool Scene and Scaffold, and
toured the U.K. pub/club circuit extensively. He is a founding member
of Brand X and it is his and John Goodsall's musical character that has
defined the band throughout the years. His album credits include three
albums with Liverpool Scene, seven with Brand X, Paranoise, Masami Tsuchiya,
Tunnels, two solo albums and numerous sessions and performances with names
such as Brian Eno, Bill Frisell, Roy Harper, Nova, Elliot Sharpe, Bobby
Previte and Suzanne Vega. Percy is considered to be one of the greatest
bass players in the world by Bass Player Magazine. This master's unique
approach to the fretless bass can be best summarized with his quote: "I'll
try anything to make the bass sound like it usually doesn't. " Percy's
performances with Nuove Musiche are inspirational.
Top
Marc Wagnon:
Born in Switzerland, Marc studied classical percussion at the Geneva Conservatory
while performing as a drummer in several jazz-rock groups. Marc moved
to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music, focusing
on the vibraphone and percussion. He soon moved to New York City where
the cultural diversity influenced him in his playing and compositions.
His first group in New York, Shadowlines, includes such prestigious musicians
as Dave Kikoski, Ray Anderson and Dave Douglas.
Marc has performed and recorded extensively in the United States, South
America and Europe with Shadowlines, the avant-rock group Dr. Nerve, Brand
X, Gongzilla, and Tunnels. Marc is co-author of most of the arrangements
for "Nuove Musiche".
Top
John Goodsall:
John began playing guitar at age 7; at 15 he started his first band, Babylon,
with members who would later become Joe Cocker's Grease Band. He then
began touring extensively, and at 17, John was playing large stadiums
and festival shows, headlining over acts like Emerson, Lake and Palmer
and the New Yardbirds (later to be Led Zeppelin). In London, his session
work would eventually lead him to cross paths with Percy Jones, Robin
Lumley and Pete Bonas; the players that would become Brand X. John moved
to L.A. and emerged himself in the session scene, working with such musicians
as Bill Bruford, Peter Gabriel, Billy Idol, Bryan Adams, Toni Basil, Mark
Isham, as well as many others. His movie soundtrack credits are also quite
extensive. In addition John helped pioneer MIDI technology with Gibson
Laboratories and released two albums with his band The Fire Merchants,
before reuniting with Brand X in the early nineties. John met Marc Wagnon
on the last Brand X tour, and started working with him and Sarah Pillow
on the Nuove Musiche project. John is co-author of most of the arrangements
for "Nuove Musiche."
Top
Frank Katz:
According to Herbie Hancock's drummer Mike Clark, "Frank Katz is
one of the most exciting discoveries since Jack Dejohnette and Tony Williams."
Frank started playing drums at the age of six and appeared on his first
album at the age of seventeen. Two years later Frank joined the faculty
of the New York Drummers Collective. Frank has toured extensively with
Brand X and appears on their 1992 release X Communication and their latest
album Manifest Destiny.
Top
Sarah Pillow
has
paved her own way in the music world, with an eclectic career that spans
many vocal styles. Her work in early Baroque repertoire has been extensive,
including performances and recordings for BBC Radio 3 in England. She
has performed in Ireland, England, France and the United States with historical
harpist Jan Walters, with whom she founded the group Musica Fabula. Sarah
has recorded eight albums, three of which on the early music series of
ASV Records, the Gaudeamus label. As a jazz musician, Sarah has performed
at the Montreux and Ozone Jazz Festivals in Europe, and with her trio
in Switzerland, New York City, Pennsylvania and California. Her latest
recording, "Nuove Musiche", is a selection of 17th century songs
that have been given modern arrangements, and features the original members
of the post-fusion band Brand X. This past summer Sarah performed and
taught at the Berkshire Choral Festival in Sheffield, Massachusetts. In
addition to her singing, Sarah teaches privately, is the conductor of
Viva Voce, a New York-based a capella vocal group, and is vice-president
of Buckyball Music, an artist-run music company devoted to raising the
musician up the totem pole of the music business hierarchy. More information
about Sarah can be found at scentertainmentonline.com
or buckyballmusic.com
Top
Enrique Orengo
Cellist Enrique Orengo was born in Puerto Rico, yet his
entire life as an artist is representative of the musically rich life
he has lived in New York City. At the age of 11, while a student in the
New York public schools, Enrique's life was transformed by the discovery
of the cello. After initial studies with Channing Robbins, he continued
his formal training at the Manhattan School of Music with Ardyth Alton
and at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College with Robert
Gardner.
Mr. Orengo has appeared as soloist with the Bronx Symphony
Orchestra where he was principal cellist and soloist for several years.
A recipient of grants for chamber music from the National Endowment for
the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the Bronx council
on the Arts, he has been a featured solo artist since 1994 with the chamber
music concert series, Musica de Camara, Inc. In 1999, Enrique Orengo performed
a successful recital debut at Weill Hall and was a recipient of the Cultural
Music Award from the Instituto De Puerto Rico of New York.
Much in demand as a recording artist, he has recorded over
40 albums in the Latin Music industry. He has several CDs with David Byrne
of "The Talking Heads" to his credit, a recent recording of
original chamber music by composer Daniel Levy, and the cast album CD
of Paul Simon's Broadway show "The Capeman," which was subsequently
nominated for a Tony Award for best musical score.
Enrique Orengo is also a dedicated teacher. He is on the
faculty of the Harbor Conservatory for the Performing Arts. As a Teacher/Artist
he has been active in the Guggenheim Museum's Learning through Art children's
program, the New Jersey Consortium for Gifted Children, and the Lincoln
Center Institute. Engaged by the Board of Education for its city-wide
Project ARTS program, Mr. Orengo is building an exceptional String Performance
Program at the Intermediate Middle School Academies I.S. 218, in partnership
with the Children's Aid Society, in the Inwood section of Washington Heights.
Top
Daniel Pincus
whom the New Yorker described as a "lively and engaging tenor",
has performed with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Marlboro Music
Festival, The Washington Chamber Symphony, The New Jersey Baroque Ensemble,
the Long Island Baroque Ensemble, and with the Berkshire Bach Society.
In 1994, he received critical adulation for his performance of Holofernes
in A. Scarlatti's Giuditta with the Monadnock Music Festival in New Hampshire.
Moreover, he received critical notice for his performances on "Jane's
Hand," a collection of Jane Austen's favorite vocal music on Vox.
Most recently, he sang in the opera recording "The Trial of the Century"
by Anthony Newman on Albany Records. He also premiered vocal compositions
of Bruce Adolphe.
Mr. Pincus received his cantorial investiture from the the Hebrew Union
College- Jewish Institute of Religion, School of Sacred Music in May,
2000, where he received numerous academic and musical prizes. He currently
serves two congregations part-time - the Reform Congregation Mickve Israel
in Savannah, GA and the conservative Temple Emanuel of North Jersey in
Oakland, New Jersey. Cantor Pincus is heard on the soundtrack of the film
"Antisemitism" currently showing at the National Holocaust Museum
in Washington, D.C. He also sang and coached the Hebrew for Volume I of
Salomone Rossi's Songs of Solomon with New York Baroque, Eric Milnes,
conductor, on the Dorian label.
Ruthanne Schempf
Pianist, Probably the most sought after Pianist in the Hudson Valley
She is a pianist for the West point Glee Club with which she performs
worldwide and is on the faculties of Marist College and SUNY New Paltz.
She has performed with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, The Hudson Valley
String Quartet among others. As a soloist she has performed with the West
Point Band and Wind Ensemble. Top
Barbara
Siesel
Flutist, Artistic Director Storm King Music Festival. Ms. Siesel is a
Flutist who performs traditionally and is also active in experimental
new media and performance projects. Ms. Siesel has appeared as soloist
in principal halls of China, Korea, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, Russia and the
United States. She has made extended tours of the Far East, Spain and
China including three weeks of workshops, master classes and recitals
at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, and appearances in Japan and Taiwan
sponsored by the Altus Flute Co., Ltd. In 1995, representing women in
the arts, she appeared in solo concert at the United Nations Conference
on Women in Beijing. Ms. Siesel served as soloist at Jornados de Musica
del Siglo XX in Segovia, Spain, California's Redwood Festival, the Adirondack
Festival of American Music, the Derriere Guard Festival in New York City,
and the Festival of the Performing Arts at Florida International University.
Continuing her long-standing interest in interdisciplinary work and multimedia,
Ms. Siesel was asked to create and direct an experimental interdisciplinary/
multimedia program at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida.
She serves as the Artistic Director of Art Culture & Technology, ACT,
a pioneering organization at the crossroads of art and digital media;
creating classical music videos, installations, and fostering cross-disciplinary
collaborations for the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia,
The Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Downtown Arts Festival in New York,
the Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, and more.
In progress is a collaboration with composer Sidney Corbett on a video
performance piece in full evening recital. The work will explore the cultural
impact of one family's escape from Germany through a montage of computer
imagery and new music in a traditional setting. In 1982 Siesel co-founded
the Andiamo Chamber Ensemble, serving as Artistic Director from 1984 to
the present. Andiamo has commissioned and premiered works by such noted
American Composers as Aaron Kernis, Michael Torke, Ronald Caltabiano,
Jay Yim,Zhou Long, and Stefania de Kenessey among others. Known for its'
innovative and thematic programming, Andiamo over the years has presented
various adventurous series including: The Millennium Project: a lecture/concert
series looking at 20th century composition through the issues of the century,
concerts exploring the Second Viennese School, and other recitals that
presented multicultural collaborations (notably Chinese and Western).
Andiamo has held residencies at the New School and Florida International
University, and been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment
of the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Manhattan
Fund among others.
During 1999, she served as a panelist for the NY State Council on the
Arts Composers Commissions and participated in the Manhattan School of
Music's Careers in the 21st Century. Recently, she organized with ACT
a session on music and new technology for Chamber Music America's Annual
Conference.
In Summer 2002 Ms. Siesel will release her first solo CD on the ERM label
playing works by "New Traditional American Composers" including
Lowell Liebermann, Stefania de Kenessey, Elena Ruehr and others. She will
also release two music videos co-produced with ACT of works by composers
Fredrick Kaufman and Elena Ruehr, incorporating the visual art of noted
filmmaker and painter Donna Cameron. She can also be heard on CRI, Opus
One and BMG.
Ms. Siesel received her Bachelor's and Master's degree's from The Juilliard
School where she was a student of Samuel Baron. She has had further studies
wit Julius Baker, Gerardo Levy, and Thomas Nyfenger; and master classes
with Jean Pierre Rampal and James Galway.
Barbara's website is www.BarbaraSiesel.com
Sound clips from Barbara Siesel's CD - New Traditions in American
Flute Music
Stefania de
Kenessey - Sonata in D Minor - Andante (Real Audio - better for slower
connections)
Top
Margaret Steele
Margaret Steele's performances as both a magician and musician have taken
her to Europe, Japan, Australia and South America, as well as throughout
the US and Canada. Her magic has been featured on television on WNBC's
Today in New York, and the CBC documentary, The Magic Mystery School.
She has designed and performed magical family programs for the New Jersey
Symphony Orchestra, Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the US Army Band at
West Point. She has been featured at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, as
well as at international festivals, corporate events and aboard cruise
ships.
Margaret is also a playwright, specializing in works that combine music
and magic. Woodwind Wizardry debuted at the Harlem School of the Arts,
where it was filmed for the Discovery Channel Canada documentary series,
Grand Illusion, the Story of Magic.. Her earlier play, Young Wolfgang,
was produced Off-Broadway at New York's Vineyard Theatre. Her orchestral
family program, Enchanted Mother Goose , made its debut with the New Sussex
Symphony and was most recently presented at the Rhinebeck Center for Performing
arts, alongside her Christmas play, The Magical Holiday Elves. Her latest
work, Spells and Enchantments, debuted in October 2000 with the Queens
Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of The Juilliard School, Margaret has played oboe with (among
many others) the American Symphony Orchestra, Opera Orchestra of New York
and American Ballet Theatre. She has played on Broadway in the orchestras
of nine hit musicals.
Top
John Charles Thomas
trumpet, has performed in the premieres of works in both Carnegie Hall
and Lincoln Center, performed in Europe, Asia, Canada and the US as soloist
and chamber musician. Originally from Springfield, Ohio, he is currently
the principal trumpet with the Ridgefield Symphony (Connecticut), associate
principal trumpet of the Queens Symphony (NYC), cornet soloist with the
New York Ragtime Orchestra, and a member of the Modern Brass Quintet (NYC).
His has performed regularly with the New York Philharmonic, Hudson Valley
Philharmonic, and several Broadway shows. He has also performed with the
American Symphony, Solisti New York, Trier Bach Soloists (Germany), Vienna
Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony.
Dr. Thomas has performed on several classical and contemporary recordings,
and has also recorded on the baroque (natural) trumpet several works of
Handel, Bach and Buxtehude, including Messiah and The B-Minor Mass. His
distinctive trumpet sound can be heard on several film soundtracks including,
most recently, Titus (Julie Taymor's adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus
Andronicus), and as the trumpet soloist on the Bill Moyers/ Joseph Campbell's
six-part series for public television, The Power of Myth, He is currently
teaching trumpet at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, and the Allen-Stevenson
School (NYC). He has taught music and trumpet privately and at the State
University of New York at Stony Brook, Marist College, Packer Collegiate
Institute (Brooklyn, NY), and the Parsons School (NYC).
Top
Visual Artists
Elizabeth Harington
Born of British parents in South Africa, Harington
has worked as an artist, teacher and printmaker most of her life. She
relocated to the United States in 1978 and became affiliated with the
Printmaking Workshop. Harington has shown internationally and is presented
in many prominent collections. She is also a recipient of many awards
including a Gottlieb Foundation Grant in 1992 and in 1991 and 1995 a Pollock-Krasner
Award.
On January 25th 1997 Elizabeth Harington released the
most extraordinary eight-year achievement in the field of fine art etchings.
The portfolio features 24 etchings, Preludes and Fugues, that are as varied
and different as the elements that make up the superbly integrated musical
pieces it accompanies. Coming from South Africa in 1978, she started to
print in New York, and found a new home and the ability to throw herself
into her art. She began a series of etchings, focusing first on her outstretched
body as a cross, then the seated lotus position as the triangle and finally
the extended hand as the spiral, then moving her focus from her body to
her hand and to the keyboard and finally to the J.S. Bach's The Well Tempered
Clavier, Book 1. Four years after completing these prints she decided
to work on yet another composition of Bach, the Art of Fugue. Etchings on JS Bach's
The Well-tempered Clavier. Top
Bruce Wands
is an artist, writer and musician. He is the Chair of the MFA Computer
Art Department and the Director of Computer Education at the School of
Visual Arts in New York. He has taught for eighteen years in the graduate,
undergraduate, and continuing education programs in Computer Art. His
department's site, www.sva.edu/mfacad was named by Yahoo Internet Life
as one of the "100 Best Sites of 2002" for Best Original Web
Art. Time Out New York named Bruce as one of the "99 People to Watch
in 1999". He has lectured and exhibited his creative work internationally,
including Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and Beijing, China. His digital art,
photography, music and writing explore the invention of new forms of narrative
and the relationship between visual art and music. Bruce was the first
musician to perform live over ISDN lines on the Internet in 1992. His
Web site is www.brucewands.com.
His book, Digital Creativity, was published by John Wiley & Sons,
Inc. in 2001 (www.wiley.com/wands). He is the Director of the New York
Digital Salon, an international digital art exhibition (www.NYDigitalSalon.org).
Bruce is also an independent producer/composer with his own company, Wands
Studio, which has created award winning design, video, animation and music
for AT&T, General Motors, United Technologies, Colgate Palmolive and
others. As an educational and corporate consultant, his clients have included
the New York State Department of Education, the Center for Creative Studies,
Buffalo State College and Direct Gas Supply. He served on the NYC ACM
SIGGRAPH Board of Directors for ten years. He has a BA with honors from
Lafayette College and an MS from Syracuse University, where he studied
computer art and mass communication.
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