Verdant Vibes Ensemble
Chuck Furlong, clarinets
Piero Guimaraes, percussion
Kirsten Volness, piano
Alexander Dupuis, electric guitar
Roseminna Watson, violin
Lilit Hartunian, violin
Gillian Gallagher, viola
Zan Berry, cello
Jacob Richman, bass
Piero Guimaraes, percussion
Kirsten Volness, piano
Alexander Dupuis, electric guitar
Roseminna Watson, violin
Lilit Hartunian, violin
Gillian Gallagher, viola
Zan Berry, cello
Jacob Richman, bass
Chuck Furlong is an active performer in the Boston and New York areas. He has performed with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, North End Music and Performing Arts Commission (NEMPAC) Opera Project, and Boston Opera Collaborative. In the fall of 2014, he co-founded Soundry, an ensemble dedicated to performing contemporary music rarely heard in Boston.
In New York, Chuck has performed with Contemporaneous, played Pierrot Lunaire as part of the Austrian Cultural Forum’s Arnold Schoenberg series and performed in the Nouveau Classical Project’s In & Around C at Gallery 128. Chuck has also been involved with Bang On A Can, performing as a fellow at the 2013 and 2014 Summer Festivals and playing at the 2012 marathon. With two other 2014 Summer Festival alumni, he helped to create Exceptet, an ensemble using the instrumentation of Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat. Exceptet debuted at Cloud City in May 2015, premiering five new works.
In addition to playing, Chuck has produced a number of performances, including a reimagining of L'Histoire with 100 Proof Arts Collective, which he co-founded with actors Niall Powderly and William Vaughn. His latest project is Alone... Together!, a showcase of emerging artists performing solo works.
Chuck earned his MM at the Boston Conservatory, where he studied with Michael Norsworthy, and his BM at New York University where he studied with Larry Guy. Chuck studied bass clarinet with Dennis Smylie. • clarinetchuck.com
In New York, Chuck has performed with Contemporaneous, played Pierrot Lunaire as part of the Austrian Cultural Forum’s Arnold Schoenberg series and performed in the Nouveau Classical Project’s In & Around C at Gallery 128. Chuck has also been involved with Bang On A Can, performing as a fellow at the 2013 and 2014 Summer Festivals and playing at the 2012 marathon. With two other 2014 Summer Festival alumni, he helped to create Exceptet, an ensemble using the instrumentation of Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat. Exceptet debuted at Cloud City in May 2015, premiering five new works.
In addition to playing, Chuck has produced a number of performances, including a reimagining of L'Histoire with 100 Proof Arts Collective, which he co-founded with actors Niall Powderly and William Vaughn. His latest project is Alone... Together!, a showcase of emerging artists performing solo works.
Chuck earned his MM at the Boston Conservatory, where he studied with Michael Norsworthy, and his BM at New York University where he studied with Larry Guy. Chuck studied bass clarinet with Dennis Smylie. • clarinetchuck.com
Percussionist Piero Guimaraes stands at the forefront of a new generation of international performers specializing in orchestral and contemporary music. A native of Brazil, Guimaraes presented the Brazilian premiere of several pivotal works by influential composers including Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich and Peter Eotvos. Guimaraes concertizes extensively, having made his mark in halls across the United States, Brazil, Austria, Germany, Spain, and Holland. A versatile player, Guimaraes is a frequent participant in orchestral and contemporary music festivals including The World Orchestra, International Ensemble Modern Academy, Pommersfelden Summer Akademy and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. He has collaborated extensively with living composers, working with John Luther Adams, Heinz Holliger, and Kaija Saariaho to name only a few. Additionally, Guimaraes performs regularly with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Musica Viva, the United States Coast Guard Band and the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and has performed under the baton of many world-renowned conductors including Maestro Kurt Masur. Guimaraes earned his bachelor's degree from Sao Paulo State University in Brazil and holds a Master's and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University in New York.
Guimaraes has performed at such prestigious venues as Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and Roulette and serves as a core member of the Iktus Percussion and Providence based new music ensemble, Verdant Vibes. Guimaraes and Iktus frequently perform world premieres and have presented master classes in the elite music departments of Oberlin Conservatory, Michigan State University. the University of Michigan, Eastman School of Music, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Piero serves as percussion coordinator and faculty member at the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School and faculty at Rhode Island College and Stonehill College. • piero-guimaraes.com
Guimaraes has performed at such prestigious venues as Merkin Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and Roulette and serves as a core member of the Iktus Percussion and Providence based new music ensemble, Verdant Vibes. Guimaraes and Iktus frequently perform world premieres and have presented master classes in the elite music departments of Oberlin Conservatory, Michigan State University. the University of Michigan, Eastman School of Music, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Piero serves as percussion coordinator and faculty member at the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School and faculty at Rhode Island College and Stonehill College. • piero-guimaraes.com
Smart, transcendent, and immersive, Kirsten Volness’ emotive soundscapes integrate electronics and modern composition techniques with jazz and pop influences to create intimate and “irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle) listening that is “nothing short of gorgeous.” (New York Arts). Each of her compositions reveals “an exquisite sound world” (New Classic LA) with disparate, suggestive musical elements woven together to create sublime atmospheres inspired by nature, myth, spirituality, and environmental and sociopolitical issues.
Volness’ music has featured at The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), L’Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), Illuminus Boston, Electronic Music Midwest, Tribeca New Music, American Composers Alliance, and the Montréal and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Her rich commission history includes projects with the World Future Council Foundation, ASCAP/SEAMUS, BMI Foundation, The American Opera Project, Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance, Metropolis Ensemble, NOW Ensemble, Transient Canvas, Cambridge Philharmonic, and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. Volness received an OPERA America Opera Grant for Female Composers (supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation), the MacColl Johnson Fellowship in 2017, the Fellowship in Music Composition from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts three times (2018, 2014, 2010), and the 2017 Composer-in-Residence position at the Music Mansion.
Also a sought-after performer, producer, and a passionate promoter of multimedia, Volness has cultivated and curated numerous festivals and series featuring the work of interdisciplinary artists. She is the Co-Founder, Co-Director and pianist for Verdant Vibes (Providence); multi-instrumentalist for Hotel Elefant (NYC); and Co-Director of homeless advocacy group Tenderloin Opera Company (Providence) among other affiliations. A graduate of the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota (summa cum laude), her teaching history includes positions at Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, and the University of Rhode Island with guest appearances at Brown University, the University of Michigan, and Interlochen Arts Camp. • kirstenvolness.com
Volness’ music has featured at The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), L’Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), Illuminus Boston, Electronic Music Midwest, Tribeca New Music, American Composers Alliance, and the Montréal and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Her rich commission history includes projects with the World Future Council Foundation, ASCAP/SEAMUS, BMI Foundation, The American Opera Project, Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance, Metropolis Ensemble, NOW Ensemble, Transient Canvas, Cambridge Philharmonic, and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. Volness received an OPERA America Opera Grant for Female Composers (supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation), the MacColl Johnson Fellowship in 2017, the Fellowship in Music Composition from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts three times (2018, 2014, 2010), and the 2017 Composer-in-Residence position at the Music Mansion.
Also a sought-after performer, producer, and a passionate promoter of multimedia, Volness has cultivated and curated numerous festivals and series featuring the work of interdisciplinary artists. She is the Co-Founder, Co-Director and pianist for Verdant Vibes (Providence); multi-instrumentalist for Hotel Elefant (NYC); and Co-Director of homeless advocacy group Tenderloin Opera Company (Providence) among other affiliations. A graduate of the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota (summa cum laude), her teaching history includes positions at Reed College, Lewis & Clark College, and the University of Rhode Island with guest appearances at Brown University, the University of Michigan, and Interlochen Arts Camp. • kirstenvolness.com
Alexander Dupuis is a composer, media artist and performer working at the intersection of experimental music and animation. His work draws on the parallel and often overlapping lineages of perceptual exploration and structural experimentation within these two fields, translating and applying their approaches to new contexts as musical pieces, videos, and multimedia performances. He is a guitarist and designer of new musical and multimedia interfaces, and has performed extensively with his custom audiovisual systems as well as his electro-freak-disco outfit Gravies and the Main Dish Sauce. He received his MA in Digital Musics from Dartmouth College in 2012 and is pursuing a PhD in the MEME program at Brown University. • alexanderdupuis.com
Roseminna Watson is most known for her work as a classical violinist, while she continues her life-long exploration of multiple expressive mediums— painting, print making, writing, video, composition and movement. She holds a B.A in Visual Art from Yale University, an M.M. in Violin Performance from Stony Brook University, and an A.D. in Chamber Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Fascinated by the human body as a vehicle that can carry us closer to the divine, Ms. Watson’s creations are imbued with a haunting immediacy and poignant nostalgia. She currently makes art of all kinds, performs as a solo-act multimedia artist/singer/songwriter/violinist, is a frequent collaborator with dancers, artists, and other musicians, and is a founding member of H u m m i n g O w l—a duo with her singer/songwriter/sitarist husband, Pablo Escalante. Limbic Hymnal, Roseminna’s first solo album, is available at roseminnawatson.com for physical copy, and on the iTunes store for digital download.
Violinist Lilit Hartunian performs at the forefront of contemporary music innovation, both as soloist and highly in-demand collaborative artist. First prize winner in the 2021 Black House Collective New Music Soloist Competition, Ms. Hartunian’s "Paganiniesque virtuosity" and “captivating and luxurious tone” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) are frequently on display at the major concert halls of Boston, including multiple solo performances at Jordan Hall and chamber music at Symphony Hall (Boston Symphony Orchestra Insights Series), as well as at leading academic institutions, including the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, Brandeis University, and Tufts University, where she often appears as both soloist and new music specialist. Described as “brilliantly rhapsodic” by the Harvard Crimson, Ms. Hartunian can be heard on Mode Records, Innova Recording, SEAMUS records, New Focus Records, and on self-released albums by Ludovico Ensemble and Kirsten Volness. She has appeared as soloist in the SEAMUS, SCI, NYCEMF, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, Open Sound, and Third Practice festivals. Ms. Hartunian frequently performs works written for her by leading composers, including a world premiere by Guggenheim Fellow Marti Epstein, duo recitals with composers John McDonald and Ryan Vigil, and both audio album and special video projects with composer Sid Richardson. A long-time collaborator with the the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Ms. Hartunian curated and performed a season of chamber music paired with visual art in the museum’s collection in her one-year chamber music residency, Vellumsound, and has also given numerous solo recitals at the museum, including an innovative online performance that reached over 20,000 viewers and was picked up by Forbes Magazine. As collaborative artist and ensemble musician, Ms. Hartunian regularly performs with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, A Far Cry, Sound Icon, Emmanuel Music, Callithumpian Consort, Guerilla Opera, and Ludovico Ensemble, and recently performed as guest artist with the Lydian Quartet and the Arneis Quartet.
Violist Gillian Gallagher is making a considerable name for herself as a multi-dimensional artist and chamber musician, having collaborated with such eminent performers as violinist Arnold Steinhardt, pianists Claude Frank and Emanuel Ax, the Tokyo String Quartet, and violinist and composer Mark O'Connor. Gillian toured the United States extensively as violist of both O'Connor's acclaimed Appalachia Waltz Trio, with whom she has performed since 2007, and the O'Connor Quartet. Having participated in and performed at festivals around the world, such as the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, and California's Music@Menlo, Gillian has also given recitals in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. A devoted promoter of new and contemporary music, since 2005 Gillian has premiered over a dozen new works at the Museum of Modern Art's Summergarden Series in New York. Gillian is also a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher, and has been on viola faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Mark O'Connor's String Camps, and the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival. Originally from Saratoga Springs, NY, Gillian received both her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang.
Zan Berry is a passionate and creative musician, who tries to weave together his diverse musical interests in his work as a performer and teacher based in Providence, RI. While Zan enjoys playing many different genres of music on cello, one of his main passions is contemporary classical music and he tries to perform the works of living composers as much as possible. He has most recently participated in the Bang on a Can Summer festival at MASS MoCA and has worked with composers such as Steve Reich, John Luther Adams, Bright Sheng, Yehudi Wyner, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe. Additionally, Zan is active as an experimental composer and improviser, exploring new sound worlds and mixing genres through songs that he writes for cello and voice. His personal creative journey as a performer has also informed his teaching philosophy. Zan believes in cultivating a student’s creative voice and an individual engagement with the instrument even from a young age. He has led experimental music workshops for kids and recently designed a music and mindfulness class for a music camp in Nashville, TN. Zan received his BM Cello Performance from Vanderbilt University and his MM Cello Performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Felix Wang and Anthony Elliott. Some of his other interests include yoga, hiking, and music listening parties.
Jacob Richman is a multimedia composer, performer, scholar, and educator who is fascinated by the interconnectedness of things—sounds with images, places with memories, people with the natural world. His creative work focuses on unique performance settings and eclectic mixtures of live performers, media arts, and site-specific installations. He feels that exploring relationships between sounds, images, live performers, space, and movement is an effective way to both investigate and convey greater connections that surround us. Jacob’s recent work also explores the practice of "roving performances"—those in which the audience moves to experience the piece. He is interested in how movement through a performance setting can help express complex topics such as personal and collective loss, and expose the hidden linkages between things.
Jacob has played double bass and trombone since his youth and graduated with a joint BA in music composition and film/video from Harvard University. He received an MA in Media Arts from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Music and Multimedia production from the MEME program at Brown University in 2013. He has studied music composition, film/video production, and media arts with Bernard Rands, Kurt Stallmann, Robb Moss, Ross McElwee, Hal Hartley, Ed Osborn, and Steven Subotnick. Jacob’s work has been performed and screened at an eclectic array of venues in NYC, Boston, Los Angeles, and all around the country. He has presented papers on multimedia performance techniques and audience reception at conferences in Boston and Virginia and has had articles on performance practice published at Howlround.
Jacob taught at the University of Michigan's School of Art and Design, Brown University, University of Rhode Island, Portland State University, and has been a teaching artist at Providence CityArts! for Youth. He currently teaches video and multimedia production at Portland Community College. • jacob-richman.com
Jacob has played double bass and trombone since his youth and graduated with a joint BA in music composition and film/video from Harvard University. He received an MA in Media Arts from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Music and Multimedia production from the MEME program at Brown University in 2013. He has studied music composition, film/video production, and media arts with Bernard Rands, Kurt Stallmann, Robb Moss, Ross McElwee, Hal Hartley, Ed Osborn, and Steven Subotnick. Jacob’s work has been performed and screened at an eclectic array of venues in NYC, Boston, Los Angeles, and all around the country. He has presented papers on multimedia performance techniques and audience reception at conferences in Boston and Virginia and has had articles on performance practice published at Howlround.
Jacob taught at the University of Michigan's School of Art and Design, Brown University, University of Rhode Island, Portland State University, and has been a teaching artist at Providence CityArts! for Youth. He currently teaches video and multimedia production at Portland Community College. • jacob-richman.com
Guest Artists
Laurie Amat is an acclaimed vocalist, improvisational performer, experimental composer and teacher. Her approach to singing is informed by broad experience including pop, rock, traditional and inventive opera, spoken word, video, dance, theater and performance art.
Ms. Amat’s talent for inspiring upcoming vocalists and other artists stems from her focus on the power of the voice as an instrument to convey a pure expression of direct human emotions and story through technique, raw talent and experimentation.
She has performed pure-voice, site-specific resonant space pieces internationally in such traditional venues as concert halls, museums and galleries, cathedrals and alternative spaces including castles, bunkers, cisterns, rivers and concrete overpasses. She is also known for her solo and collaborative performances throughout Europe, including projects with The Residents, Czech scholar/keyboardist Mirek Vodražka and the Sad Song Singers (Deutsch Nepal and Der Blutarsch).
Her recording and performance techniques have expanded to use electronic devices as sound-altering instruments. The resulting electronic manipulation and looping of vocal sounds support the emotional element and enhances improvised solo and ensemble works.
Ms. Amat’s European performances have included her five-country concert and lecture tour including multiple performances in Prague’s Alternativa Festival, Club Echschloraque in Berlin and Dal Verme with the Basque Cultural Society in Rome, and collaborative recording in Stockholm with Boysen. In Prague, she also conducted her voice workshop “Listen to the Silence” and lecture workshops at the Anglo American University and Charles University ECES. She also appeared in spontaneous and planned multiple East Coast solo, multi-media and collaborative projects collaboration performances Manhattan, Providence and Boston.
She is currently planning a European “Mobile Artist’s Residency” beginning in June 2013 with solo and collaborative performances and recordings, continued development of her voice/improvisation workshop “Listen to the Silence”, and an exploration of poetry and sound, “Ballast” based on a poem by Michelle Murphy.
She has performed in SF Sinfonietta’s Mozart Requiem, multiple works of John Cage, and her own original acoustic and electronic looping performances at such venues as Tom’s Place, the Luggage Store Gallery and in “Garden of Memory” at Chapel of the Chimes. She has also returned to her lyrical roots with a retrospective concert of the music of longtime collaborator J. Raoul Brody.
She performs a wide range of music including modern chamber and opera works, experimental structured and improvised solo and ensemble works, punk rock and popular song. Ms. Amat has sung everywhere from small salons, alternative performance spaces, clubs and underground pubs to galleries, cathedrals, castles, movie palaces, bunkers, tunnels and symphony halls. Ms. Amat is also well known and respected for her solo and collaborative performances throughout Europe, with critically acclaimed appearances in festivals, symposia and technical artworks.
Ms. Amat’s talent for inspiring upcoming vocalists and other artists stems from her focus on the power of the voice as an instrument to convey a pure expression of direct human emotions and story through technique, raw talent and experimentation.
She has performed pure-voice, site-specific resonant space pieces internationally in such traditional venues as concert halls, museums and galleries, cathedrals and alternative spaces including castles, bunkers, cisterns, rivers and concrete overpasses. She is also known for her solo and collaborative performances throughout Europe, including projects with The Residents, Czech scholar/keyboardist Mirek Vodražka and the Sad Song Singers (Deutsch Nepal and Der Blutarsch).
Her recording and performance techniques have expanded to use electronic devices as sound-altering instruments. The resulting electronic manipulation and looping of vocal sounds support the emotional element and enhances improvised solo and ensemble works.
Ms. Amat’s European performances have included her five-country concert and lecture tour including multiple performances in Prague’s Alternativa Festival, Club Echschloraque in Berlin and Dal Verme with the Basque Cultural Society in Rome, and collaborative recording in Stockholm with Boysen. In Prague, she also conducted her voice workshop “Listen to the Silence” and lecture workshops at the Anglo American University and Charles University ECES. She also appeared in spontaneous and planned multiple East Coast solo, multi-media and collaborative projects collaboration performances Manhattan, Providence and Boston.
She is currently planning a European “Mobile Artist’s Residency” beginning in June 2013 with solo and collaborative performances and recordings, continued development of her voice/improvisation workshop “Listen to the Silence”, and an exploration of poetry and sound, “Ballast” based on a poem by Michelle Murphy.
She has performed in SF Sinfonietta’s Mozart Requiem, multiple works of John Cage, and her own original acoustic and electronic looping performances at such venues as Tom’s Place, the Luggage Store Gallery and in “Garden of Memory” at Chapel of the Chimes. She has also returned to her lyrical roots with a retrospective concert of the music of longtime collaborator J. Raoul Brody.
She performs a wide range of music including modern chamber and opera works, experimental structured and improvised solo and ensemble works, punk rock and popular song. Ms. Amat has sung everywhere from small salons, alternative performance spaces, clubs and underground pubs to galleries, cathedrals, castles, movie palaces, bunkers, tunnels and symphony halls. Ms. Amat is also well known and respected for her solo and collaborative performances throughout Europe, with critically acclaimed appearances in festivals, symposia and technical artworks.
Michael Avitabile is a flutist, arts entrepreneur, and educator exploring new possibilities in 21st century music making. He is the Executive and Artistic Director of Hub New Music, a Boston-based collective actively performing and commissioning the latest generation of composers. Under his leadership, Hub has regionally and world premiered music by the nation’s most innovative musical minds including Robert Honstein, Spencer Topel, Ian Dicke, Missy Mazzoli, and Nathan Davis.
In addition to his work with Hub, Mike has collaborated with today’s most prominent composers including Harrison Birtwhistle, John Zorn, Brett Dean, and Christian Wolfe. He performs with the Callithumpian Consort, EQ Ensemble, Verdant Vibes, and the Unitas Ensemble as well. As an orchestral musician, he has received fellowships to play with the National Repertory Orchestra, Banff Festival Orchestra, and has also performed with the New World Symphony. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan and New England Conservatory, where he was awarded the John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Music. In his free time, Mike is a total foodie and can found reading a recipe blog at any given moment.
In addition to his work with Hub, Mike has collaborated with today’s most prominent composers including Harrison Birtwhistle, John Zorn, Brett Dean, and Christian Wolfe. He performs with the Callithumpian Consort, EQ Ensemble, Verdant Vibes, and the Unitas Ensemble as well. As an orchestral musician, he has received fellowships to play with the National Repertory Orchestra, Banff Festival Orchestra, and has also performed with the New World Symphony. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan and New England Conservatory, where he was awarded the John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Music. In his free time, Mike is a total foodie and can found reading a recipe blog at any given moment.
Rhode Island-born bassist Joseph Bentley has enjoyed a career as an active performer, educator, and lecturer throughout New England.
As a soloist Joseph has performed with the Narragansett Bay Symphony, Wheaton College Sinfonietta, and the Rhode Island College chamber orchestra, and regularly performs in faculty recitals and in various solo engagements throughout the region.
As a symphonic bassist, Joseph has performed with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, New Bedford Symphony, Symphony New Hampshire, the Cape Symphony, the Community MusicWorks players, Gloria Dei Artes, the London Firebird Orchestra, and the London Arts Orchestra.
His contemporary work has put him on the national stage, recording two sets for international Christian recording artist Ryan Tremblay for the national CatholicTV station. Joseph has played in bands with Grammy-winning producer Jack Gauthier, and former Sesame Street music director Mike Renzi.
Joseph directs the double bass studios at Wheaton College, and the University of Rhode Island– where he also lectures and coaches the URI String Quartet– and is the director of the chamber music program at the internationally-renowned Portsmouth Abbey School.
Joseph studied with Duncan McTier, Graham Mitchell, and Rodney Stewart at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he earned his MA in 2013. Before that, Joseph earned his B.M. from Rhode Island College where he studied with Eliot Porter. Joseph has played in master classes for Bozo Paradzik, Dominic Seldis, and Matthew McDonald.
As a soloist Joseph has performed with the Narragansett Bay Symphony, Wheaton College Sinfonietta, and the Rhode Island College chamber orchestra, and regularly performs in faculty recitals and in various solo engagements throughout the region.
As a symphonic bassist, Joseph has performed with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, New Bedford Symphony, Symphony New Hampshire, the Cape Symphony, the Community MusicWorks players, Gloria Dei Artes, the London Firebird Orchestra, and the London Arts Orchestra.
His contemporary work has put him on the national stage, recording two sets for international Christian recording artist Ryan Tremblay for the national CatholicTV station. Joseph has played in bands with Grammy-winning producer Jack Gauthier, and former Sesame Street music director Mike Renzi.
Joseph directs the double bass studios at Wheaton College, and the University of Rhode Island– where he also lectures and coaches the URI String Quartet– and is the director of the chamber music program at the internationally-renowned Portsmouth Abbey School.
Joseph studied with Duncan McTier, Graham Mitchell, and Rodney Stewart at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he earned his MA in 2013. Before that, Joseph earned his B.M. from Rhode Island College where he studied with Eliot Porter. Joseph has played in master classes for Bozo Paradzik, Dominic Seldis, and Matthew McDonald.
Kate Bergstrom, currently pursuing her MFA in Directing at Brown/Trinity Rep, serves as artistic director of On The Verge Summer Repertory Festival. She also served as the head of Drama at Laguna Blanca School from 2012-2015 and Artistic Director of Stripped Scripts. A graduate of UCLA's School of Theatre, Film & Television with a degree in acting and directing, her thesis production of Woyzeck with an all-female cast was featured as a in season department show. She spent the years working as an educator, director and performer in the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara areas, bringing theater into classroom curriculum through Laguna Blanca and various non-profits, such as BluePalm while directing for companies around the central coast.
As an actor (AEA), her work ranges from Chorus in Medea with Annette Bening to the Steward in Suzan-Lori Park's 365 Plays/365 Days at Highways Performance Space.
Her directorial work - described as colorful ruptured hauntings- centers around the inherent queerness of performativity and the blurred lines between the self and other in relationship to gender, politics and socioeconomic identities. In 2013 she conceived and directed Wholed - a performance about Alexander Haig at REDCAT in the Walt Disney Concert Hall with member Elizabeth Hayhurst of GSF.
Most recently Kate has finished production on The Children's Hour at Brown/Trinity which will be workshopped again at the Granoff Center for the Arts in December. Her recent assistantships include Richard and Sharon Jenkins for Trinity Repertory's Oklahoma!
This summer, after attending La Mama Umbria's director symposium in late July 2016 she directed two shows in On The Verge's second season of new work. Catch her Taming of The Shrew as part of Brown/Trinity's fall repertory season with the fabulous B/T acting class of 2018.
As an actor (AEA), her work ranges from Chorus in Medea with Annette Bening to the Steward in Suzan-Lori Park's 365 Plays/365 Days at Highways Performance Space.
Her directorial work - described as colorful ruptured hauntings- centers around the inherent queerness of performativity and the blurred lines between the self and other in relationship to gender, politics and socioeconomic identities. In 2013 she conceived and directed Wholed - a performance about Alexander Haig at REDCAT in the Walt Disney Concert Hall with member Elizabeth Hayhurst of GSF.
Most recently Kate has finished production on The Children's Hour at Brown/Trinity which will be workshopped again at the Granoff Center for the Arts in December. Her recent assistantships include Richard and Sharon Jenkins for Trinity Repertory's Oklahoma!
This summer, after attending La Mama Umbria's director symposium in late July 2016 she directed two shows in On The Verge's second season of new work. Catch her Taming of The Shrew as part of Brown/Trinity's fall repertory season with the fabulous B/T acting class of 2018.
Stephanie Clark is a Boston based clarinetist. As a long time member of the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra, she has premiered and recorded many original film scores, and has played in world renowned film festivals in San Francisco and throughout New England. Ms. Clark is the clarinetist in the scores to the official releases of renowned silent films The Last Laugh and Varieté. She can also be heard on the soundtrack for the Jules Verne documentary Passage to Mars as well as the official orchestral version of Dream Theater's False Awakening Suite. She plays regularly throughout Massachusetts and has performed with a variety of groups including Arlington Children's Theater, New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, East Coast Scoring, jazz trio TRIchrO, and the contemporary experimental group Ordinary Affects. Stephanie has also appeared with the Boston New Music Initiative, performing chamber works as well as being featured on several works for solo bass clarinet. As a co-founder of the clarinet quartet J4MN, she has premiered and recorded several works, including a recording at WGBH and performing with composer and clarinetist Eric Mandat on his Shadows from Flames. Ms. Clark studied at The Boston Conservatory where she was selected to work with artists including Louis Andriessen, Gunther Schuller, Monica Germino, and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) with Claire Chase. As a student of Michael Norsworthy she received her Bachelor's degree and in 2016 was the first recipient of a G.P.D. with an Auxiliary Specialization on Bass Clarinet.
Gisela Creus is a dancer, educator and choreographer with international and interdisciplinary interest. She graduated with a Dance Diploma in Barcelona and moved on to Laban Centre in London where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in Dance-Theater. She has worked for a number of different Dance companies and choreographers throughout Europe and has presented more than 10 professional pieces of work as choreographer/performer both individually and collaboratively. She is a founder of NunArt, a creative practices association for artists in Barcelona where she remains a member of the leading board and the Head of Education.
Creus has been teaching contemporary, ballet, improvisation and creative dance for over 8 years; from beginners to professionals. She has developed her own project that introduces Creative Dance in Public Schools, and together with Laura Vilar, created a programme called AREA-CREA to promote and develop creative approach in the professional dance training. Since moving to Providence, she has taught at the Deep Dance Series at the Dance Complex in Boston, at Moving Target in Green Street Studios and holds a regular class at AS220 in Providence. She has also joined the New Movement Collective in Boston where she assists on outreach for the Festival Lion’s Jaw.
In collaboration with Daniel Davidson, Creus premiered Airing Quest / Missió d’Aire at the Modern Movements Dance Festival and Provincetown Dance Festival. She has also developed a solo piece, performed at the Festival Ballet Black Box Theatre for the RI Women’s Choreographic Concert. Creus has recently premiered a solo piece The quiet A, at the nunOff Festival in nunArt Barcelona and will be performing and creating work for Jump! Dance Company this Fall. More at : www.giselacreus.com (goes live in October)
is a dancer, educator and choreographer with international and interdisciplinary interest. She graduated with a Dance Diploma in Barcelona and moved on to Laban Centre in London where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in Dance-Theater. She has worked for a number of different Dance companies and choreographers throughout Europe and has presented more than 10 professional pieces of work as choreographer/performer both individually and collaboratively. She is a founder of NunArt, a creative practices association for artists in Barcelona where she remains a member of the leading board and the Head of Education.
Creus has been teaching contemporary, ballet, improvisation and creative dance for over 8 years; from beginners to professionals. She has developed her own project that introduces Creative Dance in Public Schools, and together with Laura Vilar, created a programme called AREA-CREA to promote and develop creative approach in the professional dance training. Since moving to Providence, she has taught at the Deep Dance Series at the Dance Complex in Boston, at Moving Target in Green Street Studios and holds a regular class at AS220 in Providence. She has also joined the New Movement Collective in Boston where she assists on outreach for the Festival Lion’s Jaw.
In collaboration with Daniel Davidson, Creus premiered Airing Quest / Missió d’Aire at the Modern Movements Dance Festival and Provincetown Dance Festival. She has also developed a solo piece, performed at the Festival Ballet Black Box Theatre for the RI Women’s Choreographic Concert. Creus has recently premiered a solo piece The quiet A, at the nunOff Festival in nunArt Barcelona and will be performing and creating work for Jump! Dance Company this Fall.
Creus has been teaching contemporary, ballet, improvisation and creative dance for over 8 years; from beginners to professionals. She has developed her own project that introduces Creative Dance in Public Schools, and together with Laura Vilar, created a programme called AREA-CREA to promote and develop creative approach in the professional dance training. Since moving to Providence, she has taught at the Deep Dance Series at the Dance Complex in Boston, at Moving Target in Green Street Studios and holds a regular class at AS220 in Providence. She has also joined the New Movement Collective in Boston where she assists on outreach for the Festival Lion’s Jaw.
In collaboration with Daniel Davidson, Creus premiered Airing Quest / Missió d’Aire at the Modern Movements Dance Festival and Provincetown Dance Festival. She has also developed a solo piece, performed at the Festival Ballet Black Box Theatre for the RI Women’s Choreographic Concert. Creus has recently premiered a solo piece The quiet A, at the nunOff Festival in nunArt Barcelona and will be performing and creating work for Jump! Dance Company this Fall. More at : www.giselacreus.com (goes live in October)
is a dancer, educator and choreographer with international and interdisciplinary interest. She graduated with a Dance Diploma in Barcelona and moved on to Laban Centre in London where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in Dance-Theater. She has worked for a number of different Dance companies and choreographers throughout Europe and has presented more than 10 professional pieces of work as choreographer/performer both individually and collaboratively. She is a founder of NunArt, a creative practices association for artists in Barcelona where she remains a member of the leading board and the Head of Education.
Creus has been teaching contemporary, ballet, improvisation and creative dance for over 8 years; from beginners to professionals. She has developed her own project that introduces Creative Dance in Public Schools, and together with Laura Vilar, created a programme called AREA-CREA to promote and develop creative approach in the professional dance training. Since moving to Providence, she has taught at the Deep Dance Series at the Dance Complex in Boston, at Moving Target in Green Street Studios and holds a regular class at AS220 in Providence. She has also joined the New Movement Collective in Boston where she assists on outreach for the Festival Lion’s Jaw.
In collaboration with Daniel Davidson, Creus premiered Airing Quest / Missió d’Aire at the Modern Movements Dance Festival and Provincetown Dance Festival. She has also developed a solo piece, performed at the Festival Ballet Black Box Theatre for the RI Women’s Choreographic Concert. Creus has recently premiered a solo piece The quiet A, at the nunOff Festival in nunArt Barcelona and will be performing and creating work for Jump! Dance Company this Fall.
Michael DeQuattro is an eclectic artist known for fusing together acoustic, electronic, and improvisational elements. He is able to move freely between classical, jazz, popular, and world idioms often bringing these styles together in his compositions. The Providence Journal critic Channing Grey has described his work as “energetic” and “glittering”.
As a performer, he has worked with The Rhode Island Festival Ballet Orchestra, Boston Festival Orchestra, and The Rhode Island Philharmonic, The Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra. He has also performed with numerous theater orchestras, jazz combos, rock bands, singer/song writers, folk musicians, and electronic musicians.
As an accompanist, Michael has worked with many modern dancers, dance companies, colleges, and with many of the world’s top choreographers and performers. Among these are The Boston Conservatory, Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University, The Boston Ballet Theater, Fusionworks, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., George Faison, Dudley Williams, Rachel Chavis, Janet Wong, Sean Curran, Jenny Rocha, and David Dorffman. He has also been employed by The Dance Umbrella, The Bates College Dance Festival, and The American Dance Festival.
As a composer, He has been commissioned by Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University, The Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Fusionworks Dance Company, Kathy Gordon Smith, Gary Shore, Colleen Cavanaugh, and France Hunter. His work has been heard at the Joyce SoHo in New York City with Rocha Dance Theater, Green Street Studios in Cambridge, MA with Fresh Squeezed Dance, the Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, Festival Ballet’s Up Close on Hope Series, and the West End Theater’s Soaking Wet Series in New York, and The Fringe Festival NYC 2014. His latest work includes two compositions for Gary Shore’s Film “Little Bed Big Dreams” and the performance theater show also titled “Little Bed Big Dreams”.
Other awards and distinctions include the New England Foundation for the Arts Meet the Composer Grant in collaboration with Fusionworks in 2012, the McCall/Johnson Fellowship Merit Award in Composition through the Rhode Island Foundation in 2009 and again in 2012. He was inducted as a Rhode Island College Alumni Honoree in Music in 2009, and awarded the Rhode Island Council on the Arts Fellowship Award in Composition in 2011.
At this time, he is currently Accompanist/Composer for the Roger Williams University Dance Department. He is currently Percussion Chair, Percussion Instructor, and Percussion Ensemble Director at Rhode Island College as the percussion instructor and chair. Past academic teaching duties include The Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School, The Community College of Rhode Island, and instruction in jazz at Citrus Community College in Covina California.
As a performer, he has worked with The Rhode Island Festival Ballet Orchestra, Boston Festival Orchestra, and The Rhode Island Philharmonic, The Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra. He has also performed with numerous theater orchestras, jazz combos, rock bands, singer/song writers, folk musicians, and electronic musicians.
As an accompanist, Michael has worked with many modern dancers, dance companies, colleges, and with many of the world’s top choreographers and performers. Among these are The Boston Conservatory, Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University, The Boston Ballet Theater, Fusionworks, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., George Faison, Dudley Williams, Rachel Chavis, Janet Wong, Sean Curran, Jenny Rocha, and David Dorffman. He has also been employed by The Dance Umbrella, The Bates College Dance Festival, and The American Dance Festival.
As a composer, He has been commissioned by Rhode Island College, Roger Williams University, The Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Fusionworks Dance Company, Kathy Gordon Smith, Gary Shore, Colleen Cavanaugh, and France Hunter. His work has been heard at the Joyce SoHo in New York City with Rocha Dance Theater, Green Street Studios in Cambridge, MA with Fresh Squeezed Dance, the Dance Theater Workshop in New York City, Festival Ballet’s Up Close on Hope Series, and the West End Theater’s Soaking Wet Series in New York, and The Fringe Festival NYC 2014. His latest work includes two compositions for Gary Shore’s Film “Little Bed Big Dreams” and the performance theater show also titled “Little Bed Big Dreams”.
Other awards and distinctions include the New England Foundation for the Arts Meet the Composer Grant in collaboration with Fusionworks in 2012, the McCall/Johnson Fellowship Merit Award in Composition through the Rhode Island Foundation in 2009 and again in 2012. He was inducted as a Rhode Island College Alumni Honoree in Music in 2009, and awarded the Rhode Island Council on the Arts Fellowship Award in Composition in 2011.
At this time, he is currently Accompanist/Composer for the Roger Williams University Dance Department. He is currently Percussion Chair, Percussion Instructor, and Percussion Ensemble Director at Rhode Island College as the percussion instructor and chair. Past academic teaching duties include The Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School, The Community College of Rhode Island, and instruction in jazz at Citrus Community College in Covina California.
Providence-based singer/songwriter/animator Orion Rigel Dommisse utilizes her talents on piano, synthesizers, and cello to craft haunting songs. The Virginia native released her debut album What I Want from You Is Sweet on the Language of Stone label in 2007. Her album Chickens was released in 2011, followed by her third album Omicron from 2014: "a mysterious adventure in which eerie melodies, experimentation and classic songwriting haunt each room, emerging slowly from the dark. “Take Her Away” moves like a moonbeam across the floor, enchanting and bright." (last.fm) The album, recorded in Vallesvilles, France, is available digitally via her Bandcamp page and on 12” from What a Mess! Records.
Clarinetist David Dziardziel is becoming increasingly active in the greater Boston area. He is a versatile musician playing everything from classical to contemporary music. Mr. Dziardziel frequently performs as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, and soloist.
As an orchestral musician, he has performed with groups such as the Boston Chamber Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic, Boston Opera Collaborative, Boston Civic Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, Haffner Sinfonietta, Mercury Orchestra, Freisinger Chamber Orchestra, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory Philharmonia. Mr. Dziardziel has worked under world-renowned conductors including Hugh Wolff, Andrew Litton, Jeffrey Kahane, David Loebel, Julian Kuerti, Stephen Lord, and Benjamin Zander. He has had the privilege to perform in Boston’s Symphony Hall, New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, and Harvard University’s Sanders Theater on numerous occasions.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Dziardziel has performed with some of the world’s finest musicians including legendary harpist Ann Hobson-Pilot (former principal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and violinist Susie Park (former member of the Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio). He appeared in the Rockport Chamber Festival, Music for Salem, and the Sarasota Festival. Mr. Dziardziel is also one of the founding members of Calliope Winds, a newly formed wind quintet that regularly performs in and around Boston. The quintet was invited to perform in Jordan Hall for the New England Conservatory’s gala performance in 2013, performing Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet, Op. 43 as well as the 2013 Arthur Berger Memorial Concert. The group has been coached by NEC faculty; John Heiss, as well as, performed masterclass for the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. In addition, Mr. Dziardziel has performed with Equilibrium, a new music chamber ensemble based in Boston, and is a member of Hub New Music.
As a soloist, Mr. Dziardziel has performed with The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble as a winner of the 2010-2011 Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition. In addition, he has been featured as a soloist in the NEC Philharmonia under the direction of Stephen Lord in a special concert version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s La Clamenza di Tito.
Mr. Dziardziel began studying the clarinet at the age of 14 through University of Hartford’s Community Music Division with Dr. Richard Shillea and Alan Francis. He then went on to obtain his Bachelor of Music from The Boston Conservatory having studied with Michael Norsworthy, and most recently earned his Master of Music from the prestigious New England Conservatory under the tutelage of two-time Grammy Award winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.
As an orchestral musician, he has performed with groups such as the Boston Chamber Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic, Boston Opera Collaborative, Boston Civic Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, Haffner Sinfonietta, Mercury Orchestra, Freisinger Chamber Orchestra, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, and the New England Conservatory Philharmonia. Mr. Dziardziel has worked under world-renowned conductors including Hugh Wolff, Andrew Litton, Jeffrey Kahane, David Loebel, Julian Kuerti, Stephen Lord, and Benjamin Zander. He has had the privilege to perform in Boston’s Symphony Hall, New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, and Harvard University’s Sanders Theater on numerous occasions.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Dziardziel has performed with some of the world’s finest musicians including legendary harpist Ann Hobson-Pilot (former principal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and violinist Susie Park (former member of the Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio). He appeared in the Rockport Chamber Festival, Music for Salem, and the Sarasota Festival. Mr. Dziardziel is also one of the founding members of Calliope Winds, a newly formed wind quintet that regularly performs in and around Boston. The quintet was invited to perform in Jordan Hall for the New England Conservatory’s gala performance in 2013, performing Carl Nielsen’s Wind Quintet, Op. 43 as well as the 2013 Arthur Berger Memorial Concert. The group has been coached by NEC faculty; John Heiss, as well as, performed masterclass for the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. In addition, Mr. Dziardziel has performed with Equilibrium, a new music chamber ensemble based in Boston, and is a member of Hub New Music.
As a soloist, Mr. Dziardziel has performed with The Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble as a winner of the 2010-2011 Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition. In addition, he has been featured as a soloist in the NEC Philharmonia under the direction of Stephen Lord in a special concert version of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s La Clamenza di Tito.
Mr. Dziardziel began studying the clarinet at the age of 14 through University of Hartford’s Community Music Division with Dr. Richard Shillea and Alan Francis. He then went on to obtain his Bachelor of Music from The Boston Conservatory having studied with Michael Norsworthy, and most recently earned his Master of Music from the prestigious New England Conservatory under the tutelage of two-time Grammy Award winning clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.
Noted for her “dazzling, virtuoso singing” (Boston Globe), and “musically stunning and dramatically chilling” performances (Twin Cities Daily Planet), Lucy Fitz Gibbon is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the baroque to the present. After a performance of Fred Lerdahl’s Wake at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the Berkshire Review for the Arts praised Lucy’s “agile and beautifully focused soprano of exceedingly wide range, uniform timbre, and great flexibility… a remarkable performer who stood out among many other remarkable musicians.”
Lucy believes that creating new works and recreating those lost in centuries past is integral to the continuation of classical music today. As such, Lucy has performed the U.S. premieres of works by Francesco Sacrati (La Finta Pazza, Deidamia), Barbara Strozzi (Presso un ruscello algente), and Agostino Agazzari (Eumelio). With composer and animator Anna Lindemann, Lucy has helped to create three diverse multimedia performances: Bird Brain (chamber work with film); Theory of Flight (stage work with digital animation and electronic music); and a new project based on communication in ant colonies. She has also worked closely with numerous other composers, including John Harbison, Sheila Silver, David Hertzberg, Maria Schneider, and Pauline Oliveros, on projects ranging from song to opera. In helping to realize the complexities of music beyond their written notes, the experience of working with these composers translates to music written in any period. The commitment to faithfully communicate not only the score, but also the underlying intentions of the composer, traverses centuries, languages, and ultimately the stage’s footlights.
In addition to her forays into early and new music, Lucy has given song recitals with her collaborative partner, pianist Ryan McCullough, in venues throughout North America. Upcoming projects include the Wigmore Hall and Concert Artists Guild competitions, a program of works by Polish composer Roman Palester, a semi-staged recital with the Cincinnati Song Initiative, and recording a CD of works by John Harbison and James Primosch, to be released by Albany Records. Recent operatic appearances include Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (Miles) with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the workshop premieres of Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (Laila) and Pauline Oliveros’ The Nubian Word for Flowers (Hermione). Other recent performances include Maria Schneider’s Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories at the Lucerne Festival, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Ithaca College and UC Davis Orchestras, two appearances with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and Max von Schillings’ opera Mona Lisa (Dianora) with the American Symphony Orchestra in her Carnegie Hall debut. The coming season also includes premieres of works by Geoffrey Gibbs, a concert at Merkin Hall, Berio’s Folk Songs, and Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915. Lucy has spent summers at the Tanglewood Music Center (2014, 2015) and Marlboro Music Festival (2016, 2017).
A graduate of Yale University, Lucy is the recipient of numerous awards for her musical and academic achievements. Lucy also holds an artist diploma from The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory and a master’s degree from Bard College Conservatory’s Vocal Arts Program. She currently holds the position of Visiting Lecturer at Cornell University.
Lucy believes that creating new works and recreating those lost in centuries past is integral to the continuation of classical music today. As such, Lucy has performed the U.S. premieres of works by Francesco Sacrati (La Finta Pazza, Deidamia), Barbara Strozzi (Presso un ruscello algente), and Agostino Agazzari (Eumelio). With composer and animator Anna Lindemann, Lucy has helped to create three diverse multimedia performances: Bird Brain (chamber work with film); Theory of Flight (stage work with digital animation and electronic music); and a new project based on communication in ant colonies. She has also worked closely with numerous other composers, including John Harbison, Sheila Silver, David Hertzberg, Maria Schneider, and Pauline Oliveros, on projects ranging from song to opera. In helping to realize the complexities of music beyond their written notes, the experience of working with these composers translates to music written in any period. The commitment to faithfully communicate not only the score, but also the underlying intentions of the composer, traverses centuries, languages, and ultimately the stage’s footlights.
In addition to her forays into early and new music, Lucy has given song recitals with her collaborative partner, pianist Ryan McCullough, in venues throughout North America. Upcoming projects include the Wigmore Hall and Concert Artists Guild competitions, a program of works by Polish composer Roman Palester, a semi-staged recital with the Cincinnati Song Initiative, and recording a CD of works by John Harbison and James Primosch, to be released by Albany Records. Recent operatic appearances include Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (Miles) with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the workshop premieres of Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns (Laila) and Pauline Oliveros’ The Nubian Word for Flowers (Hermione). Other recent performances include Maria Schneider’s Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories at the Lucerne Festival, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Ithaca College and UC Davis Orchestras, two appearances with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and Max von Schillings’ opera Mona Lisa (Dianora) with the American Symphony Orchestra in her Carnegie Hall debut. The coming season also includes premieres of works by Geoffrey Gibbs, a concert at Merkin Hall, Berio’s Folk Songs, and Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915. Lucy has spent summers at the Tanglewood Music Center (2014, 2015) and Marlboro Music Festival (2016, 2017).
A graduate of Yale University, Lucy is the recipient of numerous awards for her musical and academic achievements. Lucy also holds an artist diploma from The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory and a master’s degree from Bard College Conservatory’s Vocal Arts Program. She currently holds the position of Visiting Lecturer at Cornell University.
Kyle Forsthoff is a diverse percussion educator and performer based in Richmond, Rhode Island. In addition to his appointment at the University of Rhode Island, he is an instructor at The Rhody Center for World Music and Dance and is the percussionist for several groups located throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts including Fellswater, Shamanic, Deaf Reverend, the Island Time Steel Band, and the L’Esperance Mandolin Ensemble. He has also recently performed with the Boston New Music Initiative. Kyle is an active member of RIMEA, helping to coordinate percussion logistics for the all-state festival season, and is the current President of the Rhode Island chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. Previous teaching positions include appointments as an adjunct faculty member at Rhode Island College, instructing in the percussion studios of Morehead State University and Capital University, as a staff accompanist in the University of Kentucky Dance Department, and as a percussion instructor at The Lexington School and SCAPA-Bluegrass.
Ashley Frith is a Community MusicWorks fellow who was recently enrolled in a masters program at The Boston Conservatory, where she studied with Lila Brown. There, she was the principal violist of the baroque ensemble, and active in the contemporary music program. Ashley studied viola with Kathie Aagaard, and chamber music with Scott Kluksdahl and Svetozar Ivanov at the University of South Florida. She has served as a teaching artist with the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, and with El Sistema Somerville and Revolution of Hope in Boston. For the past few years, Ashley has been studying the use of sound as a healing modality, in combination with mindfulness and nutrition, to help those suffering from mental illness. She also volunteers with Tunefoolery, an organization committed to promoting mental health recovery through music.
A native of Knagawa, Japan, Dr. Yukiko Fujimura actively plays recitals of solo and chamber music, as well as concerti with orchestra. She won prizes at numerous competitions, including the Stanislaw Moniuszko International Competition of Slavic Music in Lithuania, Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Performance competition in Wisconsin, Ball State University Concerto Competition, and Yokosuka International Piano Competition in Japan. In 2011, she appeared with Belarusian National Symphony in Minsk, Belarus, as a soloist performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Andrei Galanov. Fujimura earned her Doctorate in piano performance at Ball State University where she held a full teaching assistantship. During her academic studies, she recorded a two CD set of Samuel Barber's "Complete Works for Solo Piano," the first recording to include the composer's recently published early works. Her primary teachers include, Ray Kilburn, Alexandre Dossin, Penelope Ceechini, Yoshiaki Yano, and Junko Taguchi. She has also received guidance from many musicians including Noel Flores, Pavel Gililove, Asaf Zohar, and Dina Yoffe.
Violinist Julie Haring has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Central America. Currently, she is a freelance musician throughout the New England area, serves as concertmaster of the Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra, and teaches a full studio of young violinists and violists. Globally, Ms. Haring has worked with Teaching Artists International to bring music to underprivileged students around the world, most recently in Guatemala. Ms. Haring holds violin performance degrees from Bradley University and The Hartt School and is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The Hartt School under the guidance of Anton Miller. Her dissertation research is centered around Icelandic composer Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson and his Sonata for Violin and Piano. In her spare time Julie enjoys hiking, running, playing games, and spending time with her “little brother” through Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Audrey Harrer is an alt-chamber composer/vocalist/harpist. She collaborates with chamber groups, runs DIY shows, experiments with music technologists, and works in music education. She finds clever ways to connect lyric and gesture and is particularly interested in the space where music and drama collide.
Akiko Hatakeyama is a composer, singer, and audio-visual performer / artist who is a native of Yokohama, Japan. She is interested in crossing boundaries between traditionally written music, improvisation, electronics, computer based live interactivity, and visual components. Storytelling, memories, and nature often play an important role in Akiko's work, and she most often finds beauty in simplicity. Designing and building instruments/controllers is a part of her current study as well. Akiko obtained her B.A. in music from Mills College and M.A. in Experimental Music/Composition at Wesleyan University. Since September 2011, Akiko has been engaged in PhD study in the MEME program at Brown University. Her instructors include Alvin Lucier, Anthony Braxton, Ronald Kuivila, Maggi Payne, Chris Brown, Jim Moses, Todd Winkler, and Butch Rovan. Akiko is a founding member of OPENSIGNAL, a collective of artists concerned with the state of gender and race in experimental electronic-based sound and art practices.
Kimberleigh A. Holman is an artist working interdisciplinarily in dance, theatre and design. Her work gravitates to the exploration of human social interaction and behavior, both real and fictitious, miniscule instances or broad patterns, through comedic, dark, sensory or abstract narrative. As a mover and maker, one of her biggest considerations is authenticity; she hopes to enable those performing her work to find genuine ways to be present in the performance space and hopes to inspire viewers to react in genuinely felt ways of their own. Kim excitedly creates work around these principles for Luminarium, where she passionately leads the company’s Arts in Action Project; an annual outreach program that strives to make social impact through youth arts experiences. Besides nearly 80 performances with Luminarium across New England, Kim has been invited to choreograph for commercials and film, dozens of theatrical productions across Boston, and to bring her work to stages ranging from public library basements to the globally renowned APAP conference in NYC. Kim is frequently hired as a guest artist at Boston-area universities, speaks on her career as an arts entrepreneur, and serves on multiple boards of directors. Some favorite recent projects include collaborating on a video/performance piece by Adara Meyers, which debuted at the Boston Center for the Arts in early 2018, and a research and performance project where Holman traveled up the Eastern Seaboard, performing in public locations in each of the fifteen East Coast states. Kim earned her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
Patrick Hutchinson is an internationally recognized performer and teacher of the Irish Uilleann pipes, with more than thirty years experience and an eclectic repertoire that encompasses both the traditional and the experimental.
He grew up in Liverpool where he had his first lessons on the tin whistle, but learned to play the pipes in Canada, a student of the well-loved Toronto piper and teacher Chris Langan.
Patrick has appeared on WGBH's A Celtic Sojourn, with the Cambridge Revels, and on recordings by Loreena McKennitt and Oliver Schroer, among others. He has provided the music for many theatrical productions including Brian Friel's Translations, Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, and Carthaginians, and his piping can be heard in the Highlander movies. He holds a Ph.D in ethnomusicology from Brown University, which he did in order to write about his teacher, Chris.
Currently, he teaches pipes for the Comhaltas Boston Music School. He twice won the All-Ireland title in Uilleann Pipes Slow Airs, twenty-two years apart, most recently in 2014 in Sligo.
You can find Patrick teaching in the Video Tutor section of the Na Píobairí Uilleann website at pipers.ie. He is known for his own unique settings, and for bringing to light tunes long buried.
He grew up in Liverpool where he had his first lessons on the tin whistle, but learned to play the pipes in Canada, a student of the well-loved Toronto piper and teacher Chris Langan.
Patrick has appeared on WGBH's A Celtic Sojourn, with the Cambridge Revels, and on recordings by Loreena McKennitt and Oliver Schroer, among others. He has provided the music for many theatrical productions including Brian Friel's Translations, Frank McGuinness's Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, and Carthaginians, and his piping can be heard in the Highlander movies. He holds a Ph.D in ethnomusicology from Brown University, which he did in order to write about his teacher, Chris.
Currently, he teaches pipes for the Comhaltas Boston Music School. He twice won the All-Ireland title in Uilleann Pipes Slow Airs, twenty-two years apart, most recently in 2014 in Sligo.
You can find Patrick teaching in the Video Tutor section of the Na Píobairí Uilleann website at pipers.ie. He is known for his own unique settings, and for bringing to light tunes long buried.
My name is Christopher Johnson. I am a Providence resident artist, artist educator, curator and producer here in the city since 2001. Upon arriving in the city I have independently organized and produced performances and events on small and large scales for nonprofit organizations, clubs and citywide festivals. When I started in this city I worked with no budget and focused on building relationships with artist, audiences, businesses, art organizations, and funding organizations. My rapport with afore mentioned individuals has allowed me to gain success after success in grant writing and finding alternative funding for projects (such as Poetry in Public Places for Sound Session 2004 through 2010), in being an agent of intersectionality between organizations (Pairing Everett Dance “Freedom Project” with WaterFire and Roger Williams Memorial Park 2015 &20016), organize and curate independent artist for pop up and stage performance for downtown festivals (First Works 2004, Sound Session 2004-10, Straight Mixed Culture 2005-09, Wilbury Theater’s PVD Fringe Fest 2014-15, PVDFest 2015-16). • thencredibull.com
Nicole C. Laliberté, artistic director of Freedom Dances, performed with Sidelong Dance Co., Boston Dance Co., EBA Dance Theatre, and Honolulu Dance Theatre, among others. She holds her MFA in Choreography from UNCG and a BFA in Dance from The Boston Conservatory. Ms. Laliberté’s choreography has been presented at The Boston Conservatory, The Dance Complex, Green Street Studios, James Madison University, Darton College, Rhode Island College, Providence College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, AS220, American College Dance Festivals, Greensboro and Providence Fringe Festivals, Regional Youth America Grand Prix, American Dance Festival, North Carolina Dance Festival, Charlotte Dance Festival, Old Dominion University’s Regional Choreographers’ Showcase, countless studios nationwide, and in the repertories of Maude Baum and Company, Albany, NY, and Sidelong Dance Company, Winston-Salem, NC.
Soprano Stephanie Lamprea is an active performer, recitalist and curator in the United States, specializing in 20th and 21st century classical repertoire. Her solo performances have been described as “electrifying”, and she was awarded 2nd place in the international John Cage Awards, sponsored by the John Cage Orgel Stiftung in Halberstadt, Germany. Her work in curation was also recently awarded a grant from the Puffin Foundation. Stephanie devours mammoth works of virtuosity and extended technique with ease and creative insight. In 2018 she performed the entirety of Georges Aperghis’ Recitations in New York and in Boston. Other works of note she has performed include Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs, and Shostakovich’s Seven Verses of Alexander Blok. She has performed as a solo and chamber musician at National Sawdust, Spectrum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Miller Theater at Columbia University, Symphony Space, the Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center, the Slipper Room, and Park Avenue Armory.
Founded by Merli V. Guerra and Kimberleigh A. Holman in Boston in 2010, Luminarium Dance Company is an award-winning modern and contemporary dance company that is regularly hailed for its unique combination of dance and light.
Luminarium® is proud to present professional annual dance productions alongside its yearly community outreach programming. The company's 24-Hour ChoreoFest, Cultural Community Outreach Project, Arts in Action Project, and DANCE+ Series, challenge the limits of dance while enriching community: Giving choreographers a creative overnight outlet; using dance to highlight local historical and cultural landmarks; and offering underserved youth the chance to merge dance with other fields such as science, music, technology, and light.
Luminarium is more than a dance company. It was born as a new outlet for performing arts. It is a think tank, a museum, a gallery for contemporary dance and for contemporary ideas. Luminarium is a space to merge dance with art, projection, video, film, lighting design, and music, and we welcome you to join the experience.
Luminarium® is proud to present professional annual dance productions alongside its yearly community outreach programming. The company's 24-Hour ChoreoFest, Cultural Community Outreach Project, Arts in Action Project, and DANCE+ Series, challenge the limits of dance while enriching community: Giving choreographers a creative overnight outlet; using dance to highlight local historical and cultural landmarks; and offering underserved youth the chance to merge dance with other fields such as science, music, technology, and light.
Luminarium is more than a dance company. It was born as a new outlet for performing arts. It is a think tank, a museum, a gallery for contemporary dance and for contemporary ideas. Luminarium is a space to merge dance with art, projection, video, film, lighting design, and music, and we welcome you to join the experience.
Alexandra Medeiros recently graduated from Williams College studying Music and Psychology. She is 2020 Teach for America Corps Member and teaches low-income, marginalized students of color at Achievement First Iluminar in Cranston. In addition to teaching, she intends to study music and continue composing, performing and collaborating with other musicians, especially with young students and musicians in her community.
At Williams, she directed the Gospel Choir and played bass clarinet in the Wind Ensemble as well as performing on different instruments in various other ensembles. She was one of five winners of the 2020 Berkshire Concerto Competition and was awarded the Hubbard Hutchinson Memorial Fellowship for pursuing a career in the arts.
As an aspiring composer, she has explored music as an outlet to express her identities, thoughts, and perspectives, which culminated in a piece that depicted her internal struggle of being biracial.
At Williams, she directed the Gospel Choir and played bass clarinet in the Wind Ensemble as well as performing on different instruments in various other ensembles. She was one of five winners of the 2020 Berkshire Concerto Competition and was awarded the Hubbard Hutchinson Memorial Fellowship for pursuing a career in the arts.
As an aspiring composer, she has explored music as an outlet to express her identities, thoughts, and perspectives, which culminated in a piece that depicted her internal struggle of being biracial.
Kelly Moran is a composer and pianist from New York. As the sole engineer and producer of her five solo albums, her intricately arranged electro-acoustic compositions have been described as accomplishing “the rare feat of making the work of a single individual sound like the artistic output of a veritable creative army.” (Zoe Camp, Clrvynt) As a pianist, Moran specializes in works that employ extended techniques and prepared piano. Her album Bloodroot was released by Telegraph Harp Records in March 2017 and received praise from Pitchfork, NPR, The Log Journal, KEXP, and many more.
In recent years she has performed as a bassist in Weasel Walter’s no-wave outfit Cellular Chaos, and keyboardist for avant-rock band Voice Coils. Recent collaborations include projects with Toby Driver (Kayo Dot), Charlie Looker (Extra Life), and acclaimed pianist Margaret Leng-Tan.
Moran completed her undergraduate degree at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor where she studied piano performance, sound engineering, and composition. In 2010, Moran received a fellowship for the MFA program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology at University of California-Irvine. Moran works as a freelance pianist in NYC and is on staff as an accompanist at Barnard College and the Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance.
In recent years she has performed as a bassist in Weasel Walter’s no-wave outfit Cellular Chaos, and keyboardist for avant-rock band Voice Coils. Recent collaborations include projects with Toby Driver (Kayo Dot), Charlie Looker (Extra Life), and acclaimed pianist Margaret Leng-Tan.
Moran completed her undergraduate degree at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor where she studied piano performance, sound engineering, and composition. In 2010, Moran received a fellowship for the MFA program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology at University of California-Irvine. Moran works as a freelance pianist in NYC and is on staff as an accompanist at Barnard College and the Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance.
Jim Moses is an audio producer, composer, sound designer, engineer, and musician. His compositions and sound designs include work presented by the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), Providence Firstworks, Free Music Archive, and The Acoustical Society of America. Jim is currently technical director and lecturer at the Brown University Music Department and MEME (multimedia and electronic music experiments) program.
Jane Murray is frequently recognized by the Providence Journal for her “beguiling” English horn solos with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. Long a champion of oboe d'amore and English horn, she has premiered several new works for the "deeper oboes", and was recipient in 2012 of a RI State Council for the Arts Grant for a series of concerts of music for English horn and organ performed in several of the area’s magnificent churches.
She also is an accomplished oboist, and performs regularly with several New England area orchestras and choruses, in the pit for Broadway tours, and with the wind quintet Northeast Chamber Ensemble, who were the recipients of a Continental Harmony Grant from the NEA, resulting in a series of concerts in collaboration with Gospel choirs on both coasts.
She is a devoted pedagogue, training oboists of all ages, and is on the faculty of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School, St. Georges School, Salve Regina University and the University of Rhode Island, where she teaches Oboe and Pedagogy. She has served on the faculty of the Vermont Youth Orchestras Summer program, and was the artistic director of the Northeast Quintet Camp.
She has performed as soloist with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Ocean State Chamber Orchestra, Fall River Symphony and “Concerts on the Island" Chamber Orchestras, and was the featured oboist at the Newport Music Festival from 1993-2003. She also appeared at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in 1995 and 2008, and at Vermont's Reveille Festival from 2011-2014.
She has performed much of the solo repertoire for English horn and orchestra including Copland's Quiet City (with trumpet virtuoso Rolf Smedvig), Sibelius' Swan of Tuonela, Reicha's Recitative and Rondo, Vaughn Williams' Folksong Variations and Donizetti's Concertino, as well as Bach's Concerto for Oboe D'amore and Orchestra.
Most recently, she has become a licensed Andover Educator, teaching Body Mapping for musicians: a somatic awareness curriculum which can help musicians of all ages retrain their movement to allow them to play without pain and avoid injury. She is in demand as a clinician and will be featured at the 2016 International Double Reed Society Conference in Columbus GA in June.
She also is an accomplished oboist, and performs regularly with several New England area orchestras and choruses, in the pit for Broadway tours, and with the wind quintet Northeast Chamber Ensemble, who were the recipients of a Continental Harmony Grant from the NEA, resulting in a series of concerts in collaboration with Gospel choirs on both coasts.
She is a devoted pedagogue, training oboists of all ages, and is on the faculty of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Music School, St. Georges School, Salve Regina University and the University of Rhode Island, where she teaches Oboe and Pedagogy. She has served on the faculty of the Vermont Youth Orchestras Summer program, and was the artistic director of the Northeast Quintet Camp.
She has performed as soloist with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Ocean State Chamber Orchestra, Fall River Symphony and “Concerts on the Island" Chamber Orchestras, and was the featured oboist at the Newport Music Festival from 1993-2003. She also appeared at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in 1995 and 2008, and at Vermont's Reveille Festival from 2011-2014.
She has performed much of the solo repertoire for English horn and orchestra including Copland's Quiet City (with trumpet virtuoso Rolf Smedvig), Sibelius' Swan of Tuonela, Reicha's Recitative and Rondo, Vaughn Williams' Folksong Variations and Donizetti's Concertino, as well as Bach's Concerto for Oboe D'amore and Orchestra.
Most recently, she has become a licensed Andover Educator, teaching Body Mapping for musicians: a somatic awareness curriculum which can help musicians of all ages retrain their movement to allow them to play without pain and avoid injury. She is in demand as a clinician and will be featured at the 2016 International Double Reed Society Conference in Columbus GA in June.
Simon Olaoye and Ellen Oliver, choreography and dance
Simon Olaoye, in addition to being an active dancer in RI, is a University of Rhode Island TD scholar double majoring in Kinesiology and Biology on the pre-professional route to Physical Therapy. |
Ellen Oliver spearheads the MDC Youth Program at TEN31 Productions, and is most inspired through interdisciplinary collaborations. She has performed most recently with Lorraine Chapman the Company and Metamorphosis Dance Company. She is the 2020 White Mountain National Forest Artist in Residence, and she co-founded ProviDANCE Project and 3 Spice Dance. She is a mover, filmmaker, and mixed media painter. She studied dance at UNC School of the Arts and Hampshire College.
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Violinist Kate Outterbridge, was a violin fellow with Community MusicWorks, and recently earned her Masters of Music and Masters of Chamber Music from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Aaron Berofsky. Prior to that, she earned her Bachelors of Music degree at Boston University, where she studied with Bayla Keyes. Kate enjoys learning and performing a variety of musical styles, including early Baroque performance practice, exploring sounds and experimentation with newly composed music, keeping up with her Irish fiddling, and most recently exploring jazz improvisation. Kate has been a participant in many notable music festivals including eighth blackbird's Creative Lab, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Aspen Music Festival, National Orchestra Institute, and Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, where she has had the opportunity to learn from world-class artists. Kate particularly enjoys the communal aspect of violin playing, and aims to focus her energies on developing classical music in urban communities as a means of empowerment.
Jake Pietroniro, violist, began his studies in New Hampshire through a Waldorf school program. Jake now holds two degrees in viola performance from the University of California at Santa Barbara and The Hartt School, where he studied with Helen Callus and Rita Porfiris. Jake has appeared as a soloist with the Kankakee Valley Youth Symphony, and was a founding member of the Luna String Quartet, which was awarded a fellowship at The Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in 2019. In competition, Jake won first prize in the Hartt Chamber Music Competition and was recently a finalist in the Coltman Chamber Competition in Austin, TX. Jake has also appeared as a guest teaching artist with Arpeggio Peru and El Sistema de Guatemala. In his spare time, Jake likes to learn about physical therapy as it relates to healthy playing, and enjoys playing basketball, reading, and hiking in the White Mountains.
Mary Prescott is an adventurous and explorative pianist and composer, who has exemplified exactly what it means to go "beyond the beyond." Prescott has performed at venues internationally, including Bargemusic, Steinway Hall, Abrons Art Center, MacPhail Center for Music, Tenri Cultural Institute, Jazz Central, ShapeshifterLabs, and Chandler Center for the Arts, among others. As a collaborator, she has performed in the NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, Ritz Chamber Music Society, the Josip Kasman Festival in Croatia, the Carnegie Room Concert Series, and the Heber Springs Chamber Music Festival; playing with artists from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra. In 2015, Prescott performed at Carnegie Hall in a masterclass with Richard Goode under Carnegie’s new education initiative.
Recently named a 2016 NYFA Emerging Leaders fellow, Prescott is the Artistic Director, Co-Founder and CEO of the Lyra Music Festival & Workshop at Smith College. In demand as an educator, she is head faculty of piano, chamber music and music history at Lyra, and maintains a private studio in Manhattan. Prescott has been on faculty at music schools and festivals worldwide, including the Goppisberger Music Festival in Switzerland, the Louisiana Chamber Music Institute, Larchmont Music Academy, and the Great Neck Music Conservatory.
Primarily trained as a classical pianist, Prescott revealed her skill as a composer and improviser in 2011/12 through her large-scale work, Where We Go When. In 2013/14, she presented her collaborative work, Hook & Eye, with American visual artist Angela Costanzo Paris. In 2015, Prescott was commissioned to score the avant-garde film, Nocecrepa, by Austrian visual artist, Thereska Gregor, which was presented at RUNDGANG ‘4, and Theater im KunstQuartier in Salzburg; and Accademia di belle Arti di Venezia. Additional presentations featuring dancers from the SEAD Academy of Salzburg were hosted by Teatro Marinoni in Lido of Venice, Italy in the summer of 2016. In July/August 2016, Prescott was a composer-in-residence at the Hudson Opera House (NY), expanding her solo improvised work, ALICE, into a chamber opera.
Prescott holds piano performance degrees from The University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (Bachelor of Music), and the Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music).
Recently named a 2016 NYFA Emerging Leaders fellow, Prescott is the Artistic Director, Co-Founder and CEO of the Lyra Music Festival & Workshop at Smith College. In demand as an educator, she is head faculty of piano, chamber music and music history at Lyra, and maintains a private studio in Manhattan. Prescott has been on faculty at music schools and festivals worldwide, including the Goppisberger Music Festival in Switzerland, the Louisiana Chamber Music Institute, Larchmont Music Academy, and the Great Neck Music Conservatory.
Primarily trained as a classical pianist, Prescott revealed her skill as a composer and improviser in 2011/12 through her large-scale work, Where We Go When. In 2013/14, she presented her collaborative work, Hook & Eye, with American visual artist Angela Costanzo Paris. In 2015, Prescott was commissioned to score the avant-garde film, Nocecrepa, by Austrian visual artist, Thereska Gregor, which was presented at RUNDGANG ‘4, and Theater im KunstQuartier in Salzburg; and Accademia di belle Arti di Venezia. Additional presentations featuring dancers from the SEAD Academy of Salzburg were hosted by Teatro Marinoni in Lido of Venice, Italy in the summer of 2016. In July/August 2016, Prescott was a composer-in-residence at the Hudson Opera House (NY), expanding her solo improvised work, ALICE, into a chamber opera.
Prescott holds piano performance degrees from The University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (Bachelor of Music), and the Manhattan School of Music (Master of Music).
The Providence Research Ensemble was set in motion by J. P. A. Falzone in order to encourage the performance of new music of his own design as well as that of other contemporary composers and of his fellow members of the Ensemble.
Alec K. Redfearn is a composer, accordionist, songwriter, improviser, videographer/video editor, audio engineer and performance artist who grew up listening to classic rock, progressive rock, hardcore punk and metal. He began his music career at the age of 14, which at the time mainly consisted of screaming and playing the piano in his parents' basement with a hammer. In his eighteenth year, Alec began taking music more seriously. He began to vigorously study the electric bass for his first serious band, “Laverne,” which he founded with his best friend Don Larson. Laverne eventually evolved into “Wavering Shapes," a slightly expanded band which dissolved when Alec moved to Providence, RI in the late 80s and became involved in the AS220 Arts and Performance Collective. At AS220, he became immersed in the worlds of dada and fluxus performance art as well as free improvised music. In 1990 he bought an accordion on a whim and quickly became obsessed with learning how to play it. “I taught myself accordion as a reaction to grunge,” Redfearn explains. “Anything that’s hyped, I immediately despise. Since accordion was hated, I said ‘this will be my fuck you’ to the rock world. Then I got obsessed with it.”
He listened to gypsy music in all its global variations as well as Turkish and Arabic music, discovering their intersections with Western sounds. He played in several folk and contradance ensembles including the New Orleans-style blues/boogie group “The Smoking Jackets” with pianist Keith Munslow. Around this time he founded his first compositional project Space Heater, an absurdist “miniature industrial” band. Space Heater eventually evolved into the Amoebic Ensemble. Redfearn composed the bulk of the music, a mix of classical, rock, and folk influenced by Weimar Republic composers, traditional European folk music, free jazz and no wave. The noise music explosion in Providence made him realize he could take the music he was doing - a mix of circus-y sounds and the folk music he’d been listening to - and combine it with punk to make “the kind of aggressive music the noise bands were making.”
When the Amoebic Ensemble dissolved, he founded Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores, combining the influences shared by Amoebic (folk, cabaret, jazz) with a melancholy atmosphere invoked by Redfearn’s bleak lyrics and songs based on country and rock music. The band’s 1998 debut, The Eyesores, was a six-song cassette. After a series of self-produced mini-albums, they cut a proper album, May You Dine on Weeds Made Bitter by the Piss of Drunkards, on Magic Eye Singles. Bent at the Waist (Handsome 2002), their second offering, was hailed for its left-field alternative pop sound. Every Man For Himself & God Against All (Corleone, 2003) was embraced by lovers of avant/experimental and indie-rock music. Dream Magazine raved: “From harsh nightmare riddles, to sweetly swooning tranced-out droning somnambulant reveries, psychedelic folk, prog-rock, old-time country, acidic cabaret, dark circus music, and sinister dream fragments … well worth investigating.”
In 2005, Cuneiform released The Quiet Room, a 15 song, primarily instrumental album featuring an 11-piece band plus guests laying down lush layers of strings, horns and feedback - electronics, telephones, noise-making devices - over a solid backbone of drums/percussion, accordion and bowed contrabass. On The Smother Party (North East Indie, 2006) Redfearn and the band played in a more traditional song format, and although the subject matter was grim, they were presented with a playful, fairy tale-like lyricism.
The Blind Spot (Cuneiform, 2007) was a musically and conceptually ambitious work, mixing classical and folk instrumentation, electronics and processed noise, vocals and invented/experimental musical instruments. It was a multifaceted epic, a lyrical requiem mass in secular form, but highly spiritual. It was a cathartic work that dealt with Redfearn’s own drug addiction and coming to terms with the friends he lost on his path to sobriety.
Sister Death continues to expand on Redfearn’s singular vision with another excursion into subliminal emotion and skewed songwriting, a worthy addition to his already impressive catalogue.
He listened to gypsy music in all its global variations as well as Turkish and Arabic music, discovering their intersections with Western sounds. He played in several folk and contradance ensembles including the New Orleans-style blues/boogie group “The Smoking Jackets” with pianist Keith Munslow. Around this time he founded his first compositional project Space Heater, an absurdist “miniature industrial” band. Space Heater eventually evolved into the Amoebic Ensemble. Redfearn composed the bulk of the music, a mix of classical, rock, and folk influenced by Weimar Republic composers, traditional European folk music, free jazz and no wave. The noise music explosion in Providence made him realize he could take the music he was doing - a mix of circus-y sounds and the folk music he’d been listening to - and combine it with punk to make “the kind of aggressive music the noise bands were making.”
When the Amoebic Ensemble dissolved, he founded Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores, combining the influences shared by Amoebic (folk, cabaret, jazz) with a melancholy atmosphere invoked by Redfearn’s bleak lyrics and songs based on country and rock music. The band’s 1998 debut, The Eyesores, was a six-song cassette. After a series of self-produced mini-albums, they cut a proper album, May You Dine on Weeds Made Bitter by the Piss of Drunkards, on Magic Eye Singles. Bent at the Waist (Handsome 2002), their second offering, was hailed for its left-field alternative pop sound. Every Man For Himself & God Against All (Corleone, 2003) was embraced by lovers of avant/experimental and indie-rock music. Dream Magazine raved: “From harsh nightmare riddles, to sweetly swooning tranced-out droning somnambulant reveries, psychedelic folk, prog-rock, old-time country, acidic cabaret, dark circus music, and sinister dream fragments … well worth investigating.”
In 2005, Cuneiform released The Quiet Room, a 15 song, primarily instrumental album featuring an 11-piece band plus guests laying down lush layers of strings, horns and feedback - electronics, telephones, noise-making devices - over a solid backbone of drums/percussion, accordion and bowed contrabass. On The Smother Party (North East Indie, 2006) Redfearn and the band played in a more traditional song format, and although the subject matter was grim, they were presented with a playful, fairy tale-like lyricism.
The Blind Spot (Cuneiform, 2007) was a musically and conceptually ambitious work, mixing classical and folk instrumentation, electronics and processed noise, vocals and invented/experimental musical instruments. It was a multifaceted epic, a lyrical requiem mass in secular form, but highly spiritual. It was a cathartic work that dealt with Redfearn’s own drug addiction and coming to terms with the friends he lost on his path to sobriety.
Sister Death continues to expand on Redfearn’s singular vision with another excursion into subliminal emotion and skewed songwriting, a worthy addition to his already impressive catalogue.
Rested Field is a Boston-based experimental ensemble, invested in exploring alternative modes that integrate both deterministic and improvisatory strategies. Taking their name from agricultural allegory, Rested Field fosters interdisciplinary action, striving to cultivate meeting-places for the creative practices of its collaborators and participants. Roots in common-era and contemporary concert music, improvisational traditions, and experimental practices inform a democratic process. This emphasis on inclusivity of means and aesthetics finds the use of text and graphic systems on equal footing, all used with the intent of presenting their music as a physical experience, tying it to a time and place. Formed in 2015, Rested Field has performed across the greater Boston area, having been featured on the stages of ESS OSCILLATIONS 2016 festival (Chicago IL), Equilibrium Concert Series, Gallery 263, The Green Room, Nave Music Series, Opensound, and Third Life Studio. The core of Rested Field is Chuck Furlong (clarinets, electronics), Clifton Ingram (guitars, electronics), and Daniel T Lewis (percussion, electronics).
Alexey Shabalin has been Artist-Director of the Rhode Island Youth Philharmonic Orchestras since 2003. He also founded and conducts the Rhode Island Youth Soloists, a chamber orchestra of the top string players. For several years, Shabalin has been the assistant conductor and strings coach of the MIT Symphony. He coaches chamber music at Brown University. At Providence College, he conducts the symphony orchestra, coaches violin and chamber groups, and teaches music theory. In 2005, Siemens Foundation appointed Shabalin as Artistic Director to select talented students from elite colleges around the country. He created a concert in New York City featuring an eclectic mix of pieces by these young performers. Currently, he is a member of the Rhode Island Philharmonic.
Shabalin graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1995, having studied with Professors Igor Besrodny and Alexander Melkinov. As a student he won third prize in the Soviet national string quartet competition in 1991. During the same year he was a semifinalist in the International Shostakovich Chamber Music Competition. In 1995 he won the "Best Violinist in a Duet" category in the International Bashmet Competition Moscow. From 1992 to 1996, Shabalin toured with the world-renowned Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra. In 1995 the group gave the second performance ever held of Mozart's newly unearthed Triple Concerto, with Shabalin playing the solo violin part. In recognition of his talent, he was allowed to perform on a priceless Stradivarius violin owned by the Russian government. He moved to the United States in 1996, and has since played in many orchestras, chamber groups, and here.
Shabalin graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1995, having studied with Professors Igor Besrodny and Alexander Melkinov. As a student he won third prize in the Soviet national string quartet competition in 1991. During the same year he was a semifinalist in the International Shostakovich Chamber Music Competition. In 1995 he won the "Best Violinist in a Duet" category in the International Bashmet Competition Moscow. From 1992 to 1996, Shabalin toured with the world-renowned Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra. In 1995 the group gave the second performance ever held of Mozart's newly unearthed Triple Concerto, with Shabalin playing the solo violin part. In recognition of his talent, he was allowed to perform on a priceless Stradivarius violin owned by the Russian government. He moved to the United States in 1996, and has since played in many orchestras, chamber groups, and here.
Consuelo Sherba (viola) is a founder and co-artistic director of Aurea Ensemble. An active chamber musician for many years, she has performed throughout the US as well as in Sweden, France, England and Brazil with the Charleston String Quartet and with her husband, violinist, Charles in the Sherba duo. She performs with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Vermont Symphony, New Hampshire Symphony, Monadnock Music Festival and as principal violist of the Simon Sinfonietta, where she was featured last year in a performance of the Bruch Double Concerto for violin and viola with her husband, Charles Sherba. She has also performed with the Milwaukee Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Boston Pops, and as principal violist of the West Virginia Symphony, Atlanta Ballet, Atlanta Chamber Orchestra and Boston Virtuosi. Other festival appearances include the Grand Teton, Aspen, Colorado Music Festival and Carvalho Festival in Brazil. She was co-named “Person of the Year for 2007” by the Pawtucket Foundation for her contributions to the arts in Pawtucket, RI.
Andie Tanning Springer is primarily a violinist specializing in new and experimental music. As a soloist and through her ensembles Redshift,TRANSIT and Hotel Elefant, Andie has commissioned and premiered numerous works by young and established composers alike. The 2015–16 season will see the release of an audio-visual album of commissioned pieces for solo violin and electronics, and an album of music for violin and steel-string resonator guitar with duo partner James Moore. Andie is also active in the theater through her work with New York City Players and Object Collection, whose pieces resulted in performances on mandolin, accordion, electric bass, percussion and voice. A native of Alaska, Andie is a cofounder of Wild Shore New Music — a presenting organization dedicated to bringing adventurous new chamber music to the communities in and around Kachemak Bay, Alaska — and the New Music Coordinator of the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival.
Andie earned her BFA at Carnegie Mellon University with Professor Andres Cardenes, and her MFA at New York University with Professor Arturo Delmoni. She has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Strings Festival Orchestra in Steamboat Springs, the Orchestra for a New Century and the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys teaching and is currently on the faculty the Larchmont Music Academy.
Andie earned her BFA at Carnegie Mellon University with Professor Andres Cardenes, and her MFA at New York University with Professor Arturo Delmoni. She has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Strings Festival Orchestra in Steamboat Springs, the Orchestra for a New Century and the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys teaching and is currently on the faculty the Larchmont Music Academy.
Meg Sullivan is Executive Artistic Director of the Manton Avenue Project. She received her MFA in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance in 2007, and is a company member of Austin-based Rude Mechs. There she served as the co-director of their education program, Grrl Action, from 2008 to 2010, advancing girls’ self-efficacy and resilience through original solo performance works. Meg originated the role of Annabellee in Rude Mechs’ operetta I’ve Never Been So Happy, winner of the NEA’s Distinguished New Play Development Award. It was presented at Arena Stage in Washington, DC in January 2011 as part of the New Play Festival and by the Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in LA in October 2011. Meg is also a dancer and performed for several years with The Meeting Point (chr. Julie Nathanielsz), whose Working the Line performance at the 2011 Fusebox Festival was awarded Best Short Work by the Austin Critics Circle. For Women and Their Work in Austin, Meg coordinated Learning Through the Arts, a professional development program that helped teachers integrate more arts-based lesson plans to core curriculum. Meg taught acting and theatre history at Texas A&M University and The University of Texas at Austin, where she also served as a consultant and workshop facilitator for the Living Newspaper project of the Humanities Institute, and a guest curator, choreographer and director for the Harry Ransom Center.
As a community-engaged artist, Meg creates and performs multi-media performance works that explore issues of place, memory, history, and social justice. Her most recent project, Veja Doolitte: Live in Concert, directed by Susie Schutt, was presented in 2013-2014 at The Wilbury Group as part their new play development program, and at the RISD Museum, as part of Local Acts Exhibit, during a week of performance she curated titled Story-lines. Other performers during this week included Katie Pearl, Nicole Maynard, Kelly Seigh, Stephanie Turner, and Melody Ruffin-Ward.
As a community-engaged artist, Meg creates and performs multi-media performance works that explore issues of place, memory, history, and social justice. Her most recent project, Veja Doolitte: Live in Concert, directed by Susie Schutt, was presented in 2013-2014 at The Wilbury Group as part their new play development program, and at the RISD Museum, as part of Local Acts Exhibit, during a week of performance she curated titled Story-lines. Other performers during this week included Katie Pearl, Nicole Maynard, Kelly Seigh, Stephanie Turner, and Melody Ruffin-Ward.
Elegant, articulate, and expansive, Juniper, the new record from instrumental percussion trio Square Peg Round Hole manages to convey – and evoke – an entire range of human emotions despite its lack of a single sung word. “ Because we are an instrumental group, our hope is that people connect with the songs and assign their own meanings to them,” says Evan Chapman. ”Without lyrics telling the listener how to feel, it leaves the music as an open-ended question.” A sonic mirror reflecting the listener’s subconscious emotional state back at themselves, Juniper engages with the fundamental and primeval.
When it came time to write Juniper, the follow up to 2013’s Corners, the group made a conscious effort to compose together as an ensemble. Evan Chapman, Sean M. Gill, and Carlos Pacheco-Perez split writing sessions between a cabin in rural western Maryland and a remote area of Wisconsin called Egg Harbor at farm-turned-music center Birch Creek. “There is a large, resonant space where we performed at Birch Creek called Juniper Hall,” explains Chapman, “which is actually where we came up with the name for the album.”
To put the new songs to tape, the band teamed up with Evan’s brother Justin Chapman. With a battalion’s worth of gear in tow they converted their shared house in Manayunk, PA into a proper, modern recording studio. Listening to Juniper it’s almost impossible to imagine that the bulk of the recording was done live in full takes.
In the years prior to Juniper, the band spent time honing their instrumentation and specific roles within the band. As a result, Juniper feels like it was written holistically, by a cohesive creative unit; drum set, vibes, and Rhodes being the primary sound palette. The band also dove deeper into sampling and analog synthesizers with Juniper, adding further dimensionality and nuance to their work. Together Gill, Pacheco-Perez, the brothers Chapman, and mix engineer Bryan Laurenson (Copeland) created a record that speaks without words, taking listeners on a journey through the self.
The ultimate headphone record, luxurious with the energy of unison drums, or the serenity of bowed vibraphone, and the fascinating timbres of found objects/scrap metals, Juniper is a bold artist statement from a fearless creative force, at once expansive and intimate. “This is a dynamic record, with moments that are heavier, grittier, and faster than we've ever written, and others delicate, fragile and introspective,” says Chapman. “We strive to make our music stimulating and intelligent. At the same time, we’ve found that people connect with percussion on a very primitive level, and therefore we think that there is something for all types of listeners on this record.”
Square Peg Round Hole formed in 2011 while studying music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in Bloomington, Indiana. The band has shared bills with Built To Spill, The Album Leaf, Mae, This Will Destroy You, and The Joy Formidable, and has been featured at major venues across the country including the Electric Factory, Le Poisson Rouge, Old National Centre, and the World Café Live.
When it came time to write Juniper, the follow up to 2013’s Corners, the group made a conscious effort to compose together as an ensemble. Evan Chapman, Sean M. Gill, and Carlos Pacheco-Perez split writing sessions between a cabin in rural western Maryland and a remote area of Wisconsin called Egg Harbor at farm-turned-music center Birch Creek. “There is a large, resonant space where we performed at Birch Creek called Juniper Hall,” explains Chapman, “which is actually where we came up with the name for the album.”
To put the new songs to tape, the band teamed up with Evan’s brother Justin Chapman. With a battalion’s worth of gear in tow they converted their shared house in Manayunk, PA into a proper, modern recording studio. Listening to Juniper it’s almost impossible to imagine that the bulk of the recording was done live in full takes.
In the years prior to Juniper, the band spent time honing their instrumentation and specific roles within the band. As a result, Juniper feels like it was written holistically, by a cohesive creative unit; drum set, vibes, and Rhodes being the primary sound palette. The band also dove deeper into sampling and analog synthesizers with Juniper, adding further dimensionality and nuance to their work. Together Gill, Pacheco-Perez, the brothers Chapman, and mix engineer Bryan Laurenson (Copeland) created a record that speaks without words, taking listeners on a journey through the self.
The ultimate headphone record, luxurious with the energy of unison drums, or the serenity of bowed vibraphone, and the fascinating timbres of found objects/scrap metals, Juniper is a bold artist statement from a fearless creative force, at once expansive and intimate. “This is a dynamic record, with moments that are heavier, grittier, and faster than we've ever written, and others delicate, fragile and introspective,” says Chapman. “We strive to make our music stimulating and intelligent. At the same time, we’ve found that people connect with percussion on a very primitive level, and therefore we think that there is something for all types of listeners on this record.”
Square Peg Round Hole formed in 2011 while studying music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, in Bloomington, Indiana. The band has shared bills with Built To Spill, The Album Leaf, Mae, This Will Destroy You, and The Joy Formidable, and has been featured at major venues across the country including the Electric Factory, Le Poisson Rouge, Old National Centre, and the World Café Live.
Cellist Benjamin Swartz has concertized extensively in the United States and Europe with a particular emphasis on historically-informed performance, electroacoustic collaboration, and the exposure of neglected repertoire. Equally at home on cello, Baroque cello, and viola da gamba, he is gaining increased recognition for multi-instrumental virtuosity spanning the Ars Subtilior to the present day. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Ben is an honors graduate of Johns Hopkins University (BA/MA, American history), Peabody Conservatory (BMus.), and the Royal Academy of Music in London (MMus.), as well as additional private studies of historically-informed performance practice with Anner Bijlsma and Pieter Wispelweij in Amsterdam, Holland. He was a DAAD Scholar to Germany (2013-14) where he researched music theory (proportional ratio systems of extended Just Intonation) and performed as a chamber musician throughout Europe. His festival credits include Aspen, Tanglewood, Kneisel Hall, London Master Classes, Aurora, and Manchester, and his major teachers have been Alison Wells and John Moran in Baltimore, Mats Lidström and Jonathan Manson in London, and Anner Bijlsma and Pieter Wispelweij in Amsterdam. Now a resident of Boston, Ben performs regularly with Sound Energy, Semiosis Quartet, Les Enfants d’Orphée, Boston Microtonal Society, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and he recently recorded the complete Cello Suites by Benjamin Britten. He currently serves on the cello & chamber music faculty at the Community Music Center of Boston. For more information, please visit www.benswartz.net
Susan Thomas is an active orchestral, solo and chamber musician in the New England area. She is Principal Flute with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and a founding member of the Block Ensemble, a prize-winning woodwind quintet. She has made solo appearances with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Ocean State Chamber Orchestra, the Cape Ann Symphony, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and the American Band.
An award-winning soloist, Thomas studied with the noted player and pedagogue James Pappoutsakis and also with James Galway in Lucerne, Switzerland. She has garnered prizes in a range of noted competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild, the Performers of Southern Connecticut and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra.
She has received numerous accolades in her performance career. The San Antonio Express-News said “…her agility and breath control were impeccable… (she) possesses an uncommon musical instinct.” The Providence Journal commented about “…her obvious joy in making music, her performance a lesson in perfect placement and clarity.” James Galway remarked that “….her playing and bright personality…won the unanimous admiration of all.”
Thomas teaches applied flute and chamber music at the University of Rhode Island and is responsible for creating the e-folio for students and overseeing the technology needs of the URI Music Department. She also teaches music appreciation online in the summer and is in the process of developing a series of adult education courses in music for the JER Group of Atlanta, Georgia.
An award-winning soloist, Thomas studied with the noted player and pedagogue James Pappoutsakis and also with James Galway in Lucerne, Switzerland. She has garnered prizes in a range of noted competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild, the Performers of Southern Connecticut and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra.
She has received numerous accolades in her performance career. The San Antonio Express-News said “…her agility and breath control were impeccable… (she) possesses an uncommon musical instinct.” The Providence Journal commented about “…her obvious joy in making music, her performance a lesson in perfect placement and clarity.” James Galway remarked that “….her playing and bright personality…won the unanimous admiration of all.”
Thomas teaches applied flute and chamber music at the University of Rhode Island and is responsible for creating the e-folio for students and overseeing the technology needs of the URI Music Department. She also teaches music appreciation online in the summer and is in the process of developing a series of adult education courses in music for the JER Group of Atlanta, Georgia.
Thread Ensemble surprises and delights listeners by involving them directly in the creative process. Through its annual series of varied interactive events, Thread Ensemble adapts to each unique audience and environment with original music created in the moment. Thread Ensemble is the convergence of three unique voices: Abigale Reisman and Rachel Panitch on violins, and Andria Nicodemou on vibraphone and percussion.
Thread Ensemble is a 2018 recipient of The Boston Foundation’s Live Arts Boston grant. Their “Interaction Day” in 2017 was funded by a City of Boston and Boston Cultural Council award. Thread’s successful Kickstarter campaign brought together 112 supporters whose stories, drawings, and pictures informed a concert of 12 new works. In 2019, the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation brought Thread’s production of “Win Win Situation” to the Faneromeni19 Festival in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Thread Ensemble has been commissioned to create pieces for a Sleeping Weazel production at Boston Center for the Arts and an anchor performance at Make Music Boston. They have also performed at Arnold Arboretum, Boston Children’s Museum, and the Outside the Box Festival.
Thread formed via an Ensemble Fellowship at New England Conservatory’s Community Performances & Partnerships Department in 2012 where they performed at community centers and schools around Greater Boston. Thread has since been chosen to represent NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department in a number of settings including a storytelling residency at Bridge Boston Charter School.
Thread Ensemble curates the connection between listeners’ lived experiences and improvised music.
Thread Ensemble is a 2018 recipient of The Boston Foundation’s Live Arts Boston grant. Their “Interaction Day” in 2017 was funded by a City of Boston and Boston Cultural Council award. Thread’s successful Kickstarter campaign brought together 112 supporters whose stories, drawings, and pictures informed a concert of 12 new works. In 2019, the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation brought Thread’s production of “Win Win Situation” to the Faneromeni19 Festival in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Thread Ensemble has been commissioned to create pieces for a Sleeping Weazel production at Boston Center for the Arts and an anchor performance at Make Music Boston. They have also performed at Arnold Arboretum, Boston Children’s Museum, and the Outside the Box Festival.
Thread formed via an Ensemble Fellowship at New England Conservatory’s Community Performances & Partnerships Department in 2012 where they performed at community centers and schools around Greater Boston. Thread has since been chosen to represent NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation Department in a number of settings including a storytelling residency at Bridge Boston Charter School.
Thread Ensemble curates the connection between listeners’ lived experiences and improvised music.
The TRAVELING BUBBLE ENSEMBLE, formed in 2013, is Bevin Kelley, Michael Kelley, and Elise Kuder. On December 6th they will present two electroacoustic sci-fi radio plays, adapted from classic short stories. Co-composed by Bevin Kelley and Michael Kelley, these works are for strings, electronic music, live and recorded voices, and video.
Bevin Kelley is an electronic music / multimedia composer and sound designer, violinist and veterinary nurse. Her work can be heard in radio plays, electronic toys, theater spaces, film and television scores, advertisements, clubs, concert halls, headphones, and art spaces. Working solo and in collaboration (with Kristin Grace Erickson as Blectum from Blechdom), she has released a dozen or so records since 1998, on labels such as Tigerbeat6, Orthlorng, Phthalo, and Aagoo. 'Emblem Album', her fifth solo album as Blevin Blectum, will be released December 7th 2013, on the Aagoo label. She has degrees from Oberlin College, Oberlin Conservatory, and Mills College. As a duo with Kristin Erickson, she received the Digital Music Award of Distinction at the Prix Ars Electronica in 2001. She plans to complete her Ph.D in MEME / Computer Music and Multimedia from Brown University in May of 2014.
Michael Kelley has received degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. His teachers have included Leonard Matczynski, Jeffrey Irvine, and Karen Tuttle. A prize winner at the Primrose International Viola Competition at the age of 18, Mike is the violist of the Apple Hill String Quartet and has been an artist-in-residence at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music since 1996. An active composer, Mike has been a Teaching Fellow in Electronic Music at the Juilliard School, has written music for everyone from Madison Square Garden to Yale University, and frequently gives lectures/ demonstrations on the subject of creating electronic music. As disco-pop singer Kelley Polar, he has performed at major European pop-rock music festivals and in club venues worldwide, most recently co-writing music with Madonna and Pharrell Williams for the former's MDNA tour.
Called “first rate” by the Boston Globe, Elise Kuder is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. Her teachers and coaches have included Monica VanderBaan, Marilyn McDonald, Joel Smirnoff, David Takeno, Eugene Lehner, Felix Galimir, Gilbert Kalisch, Robert Merfeld, and Lenny Matczynski. She attended the Tanglewood Music Center, where she won the Kohn Award for outstanding musicianship and served as concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. As a Fulbright scholar, Elise studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England, where she was first violinist of the Tate Quartet, which made its successful debut at Wigmore Hall in London. Beginning her association with Apple Hill as one of its youngest participants at age 12, Elise is currently first violinist of the Apple Hill String Quartet and has been an artist-in-residence at Apple Hill since 2001.