December 8, 2013

COMPOSER’S VOICE

HARD EIGHT

Program:

run rabbit run
Robert Voisey
Roberta Michel, flute
Yumi Suehiro, piano
Callie Hatchett, choreographer
Caroline Dietz, dancer
Stanton Jacinto, dancer
Lee Katherine, dancer

INNERTERP
TJ Hospodar
Matthew Gantt
Phillip Gulley
Ellen O’Meara
Lisa Reynolds, ASL Performer

The Ridgefield Rag
Douglas Townsend
Christos Marinos
Maria Isabel Perez Dobarro

Il Est Ne
Douglas Townsend
Christos Marinos
Maria Isabel Perez Dobarro

Whale Cage
EMR
Douglas DaSilva, guitar
DAvid Morneau, iphone
and Rob Voisey, vocals


Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Istvan Peter B’Racz,
Bill Beckett,
Brendan Randall-Myers,
and Nate Trier

Jor-El’s Juju
Douglas DaSilva
Nicholas Handahl, flute
Diego Vasquez, clarinet
Josh Henderson, violin
Jennifer Shaw, cello
Erin Bomboy, choreographer
D Pace Short, dancer
Meghann Bronson, dancer
Ali Berg Nicola, dancer
Samantha Parsons

Dancers

Ali Berg

Ali Berg is a native New Yorker and received her training from Ballet Academy East and the School of American Ballet. She graduated with honors from Skidmore College where she received a B.A. in English & Dance. After a three year hiatus from dancing, she returned to her true passion, and attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University to pursue her M.F.A. in dance with a focus in performance and teaching. She has taught dance in New York and North Carolina, and is a certified pilates instructor from Balanced Body. She has danced with Lucinda Childs, Dances Patrelle, Isadora Duncan International Institute, Ariel Rivka Dance, and is thrilled to now be working with Erin Bomboy.

Meghann Bronson

Meghann Bronson is from Port Perry, Canada. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and certification in Dance Science from York University. She was a member of the York Dance Ensemble repertory company and had the opportunity to work with choreographers including Robert Glumbek, Yvonne Ng, Susan Cash, and Keiko Kitano. Meghann received her Master of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. While at NYU, Meghann had the privilege of performing in student, faculty and guest works, including original works by Pamela Pietro and Kyle Abraham. Outside of NYU, Meghann assisted Michael Clark during his residency at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Currently, she dances with KineticArchitecture, Touch Theory Dance, and BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance. Meghann is also an emerging choreographer. Her most recent work, Beneath the Roses, was presented at the Suite Summer Festival.

Caroline Dietz

Caroline Dietz is from Chester, New Jersey. She trained at Ballet Forte and New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble from 2003 until graduating high school in 2009. She then went on to graduate from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU with a BFA in dance in 2012. There she performed works by choreographers Kate Weare and Aszure Barton. Post graduation, she joined Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company in September 2012 and is currently in her second season with the company.

Lee Katherine Fink

Lee Katherine Fink first enrolled in dance at the age of 2 and trained in ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, contemporary, and musical theatre. She has competed regionally and nationally and has won numerous awards, including first place overall National Dance Competition for solo, duet, small group, large group and production. Lee Katherine was a soloist with Piedmont Dance Theatre and has danced roles in Nutcracker, Serenade, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, Who Cares, Free Verse, and Peter and the Wolf. She was also a member of the Queen City Jazz Company. She has studied with the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, NC Dance Festival at NC School of the Arts, Mike Minery, Alvin Ailey, the Rockettes and the dance companies of Larry Keigwin, David Dorfman, Ron K. Brown, Gina Gibney, Ellis Woods, Kate Weare and Battleworks.

Stanton Jacinto

Born and raised in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, Stanton began his training at the Mid-Pacific Institute School of the Arts under the guidance of Paul Maley and Sylvia Yamada-Brown. Stanton recently graduated from New York University with a BFA in Dance and a Minor in Sociology. He has attended the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Summer Camp, the American Dance Festival, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. In the Summer of 2012, Stanton studied abroad at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in Salzburg, Austria. As a student of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Stanton has performed in the faculty works of Pamela Pietro and Renee Redding-Jones, in the guest choreography works of Alex Ketley and Mark Morris, and in various student works. Outside of Tisch, Stanton has had the pleasure of performing and working with Ensemble Dance and MADboots Dance Co.

Most recently, Stanton attended Springboard Danse Montreal where he had the pleasure of working and performing in a new work by Stephan Laks of the Gothenburg Ballet.

Samantha Parsons

Samantha Parsons is a recent graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she had the pleasure of performing works by Kate Weare, Sean Curran, and Cherylyn Lavagnino, as well as in a revival of Charles Weidman's Brahms Waltzes at the 92nd Street Y. During the Summer of 2011, she was chosen to study abroad at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD). Prior to attending NYU, Parsons received her training at the New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble under the artistic direction of Nancy Turano, where she had the privilege of performing the work of notable choreographers such as Robert Battle, David Parsons, Twyla Tharp, Andrea Miller, Jean Emile, Francisco Martinez, Belinda McGuire, Stephen Pier, Bradley Shelver, and Kate Skarpetowksa. She also studied at Ballet Forte, the Manhattan Youth Ballet, the Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, and the Movement Invention Project (MIP). In 2011, she attended Cedar Lake 360, where she performed choreography by Benoit-Swan Pouffer and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Parsons is currently enjoying work as a freelance artist in NYC.

Pace Short

Though currently residing in Brooklyn, Pace Short was born and raised in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. She began her dance training at age 8 under the guidance of inspiring teachers including, E. Laura Hausmann and Trinette Singleton. In 2009 she graduated from the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for Performing arts, earning the honor of distinguished dancer. After graduation Pace made the move south to attend the Department of Dance and Choreography at Virginia Commonwealth University. During her time at VCU she had the pleasure of working with an inspiring array of choreographers including Martha Curtis, James Frazier, Christian Von Howard, and guest artist Kate Weare. Pace graduated in May with a BFA and has since begun her life as a freelance dance artist.

Choreographers

Erin Bomboy

Erin Bomboy has performed as a professional ballet, contemporary, and competitive ballroom dancer. Classical ballet training includes scholarships at Houston Ballet Academy, Pacific Northwest Ballet Academy, and Virginia School of the Arts. She has danced with the Richmond Ballet, the Concert Ballet, and the Latin Ballet. Notable ballroom results include United States Rising Star American Smooth Finalist, Vice Theater Arts Champion, and North American Cabaret Finalist. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Dance at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Ms Bomboy has run her own innovative ballroom business in New York City called Start Dancing NYC which has been featured in Crain's, NYC Channel 7 news, and NYMother.com.

Callie Hatchett

Callie Hatchett grew up in rural Alabama. Although her childhood was spent in the midst of farmlands and country roads, she was introduced to a different world when she began studying classical ballet under the direction of Meryane Martin Murphy. From her first pirouette, she was hooked. Later, as a teenager, Callie developed a new artistic love when she discovered the freedom and expressive power of modern dance.

Callie has had the honor of performing for Southern Danceworks, The Charles Weidman Foundation, Carol Mendes and Artists, Deborah Jowitt, CherylynLavagnino, Sydney Skybetter, Anna Troester, Wes Veldink, and Thaddeus Davis. She has taught for Andalusia Ballet, Montgomery Ballet, The Harlem Dance Leadership Program, Future Dancers and Dancemakers, The Legacy School, Success Academy Charter Schools, Lurleen B. Wallace College, and Hunter College. Callie has presented her choreography at Dancenow’s RAW Festival, NYC10, Music and Motion, the Bessie Schonberg Choreography Workshop, Andalusia Ballet, and Composer’s Voice.

Callie is a certified Pilates instructor through the Pilates Certification Center and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dance from The University of Alabama as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Performers

Istvan Peter B’Racz

Istvan Peter B’Racz has been performed/played in many venues throughout the United States, as well as Europe, and on the airwaves. He was the Artistic Director/founder of the “New Haven Worx” and “SOUNDunderGROUND” concert series. Currently he is an active member in the “Sub-Verse” music group, and composer for “Projects for a New Millennium.” Istvan studied composition, electronic music, and conducting at the Hartt School of Music, piano at the Yale School of Music, Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest Hungary (awarded a Fulbright Grant), composition and piano at the Oberlin Conservatory, Neighborhood Music School (NMS), and the Educational Center for the Arts (ECA).

Bill Beckett

Bill Beckett is a guitarist/composer who has been active in a number of diverse musical situations in the New Haven, CT region for over two decades. He has played guitar with the alternative rock group, The Streams, rockabilly with Dean and the Dragsters, acoustic blues with Micah Anderson, funk with 7th Avenue, he has composed and provided live music for performance artists John O’Donnell and Erika Van Natta, improvised electric jazz with the Miles Davis tribute project Dog Hunch, provided live accompaniment for silent movies with The Lyric Hall Theatre Orchestra, and has worked as a solo performer with his ambient project, Enokizu78. Currently Bill is working on a solo guitar project entitled Icebucket. Bill is also providing arrangements and guitar tracks for the current Streams recording.

Maria Isabel Perez Dobarro

Maria Isabel Perez Dobarro (born 1992, Santiago de Compostela, Spain) has appeared in solo recitals and chamber music concerts in NYC venues Steinway Hall, Tenri Cultural Institute, Yamaha Center, Frederick Lowe Theater, Provincetown Theater; and in Moscow and Madrid venues Rachmaninoff Hall at Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Sala Manuel de Falla, and Ateneo de Madrid. She won first prize at de Ciutat de Berga International Competition and the Cidade do Fundao Piano International Competition; and received the Jorge Bolet Distinguished Performer Award at SBPIF. Maria Isabel has participated in Spain's Gijon International Piano Festival, the Stony Brook Piano Festival, and Spain's Musikeon and Musica en Compostela, performing in recitals and masterclasses.

Maria Isabel Perez Dobarro holds a Master's degree from NYU and is currently pursuing her Advanced Certificate degree there, studying with Dr. Jose Ramon Mendez. She holds a Professional Studies degree from Manhattan School of Music, studying with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky.

Nicholas Handahl

Flutist Nicholas Handahl comes from Onalaska, Wisconsin. He is on faculty at the Luzerne Music Center, a summer music festival in Lake Luzerne, NY. He has given solo recitals in Wisconsin and New York. Last April, Nicholas premiered composer Ian Ng’s “Sonata for Flute and Piano” at the Alwan Center for the Arts in lower Manhattan. Nicholas performed Nielsen’s Flute Concerto with the NYU Symphony Orchestra in 2012 after winning the woodwind competition. In 2011, he travelled to Germany to perform with the Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie (IJOA), an orchestra which tours and raises funds for children’s cancer research. Nicholas has also worked with the Chippewa Valley Youth Symphony. His additional interests include conducting and carefully brewing coffee.

Matthew Gantt

Matthew Gantt is a composer, improviser and graduate student at CUNY Brooklyn College. Originally a jazz performance major, he now focuses on the compositional possibilities of live drum sequencing, sampling and synthesis. Matthew Gantt harmonizes with car alarms.

Phillip Gulley

Phillip Gulley is a Brooklyn-based interactive and media artist who explores many assets of live performance. He has created original pieces and performed in venues such as The Kennedy Center, The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, The Nuyorican Poet’s Café, La MaMa ETC, and Marian Spore Gallery and worked with such groups and organizations as Witness Relocation, 3LD, The Foundry Theatre, The Civilians, Everywhere Theatre Group, Performance Space 122, Art In General, Art Amalgamated, The Field, and The Goethe Institut. Currently, Phillip is collaborating with Alex Melamid and is full-time staff at 3LD. He is a graduate of Brooklyn College, CUNY, where he received his MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Art. http://www.phillipgulley.net/

Josh Henderson

The versatile violinist, Josh Henderson is gaining recognition as a musician for all seasons. He has performed classical music in venues all over the world including prestigious European concert halls such as The Gasteig in Munich, the Kennedy Center, Beijing's Forbidden City, as well as high energy electric violin performances in iconic venues of popular music such as Manhattan’s Highline and Hammerstein Ballrooms. As a soloist, he has performed with the Starling Chamber orchestra, Accent X Orchestra, CCM Showcase Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, China-Performing-Arts-Broadcasting-Troupe-Orch. He has studied with Kurt Sassmannshaus in Cincinnati and studies with Naoko Tanaka at New York University.

Christos Marinos

Christos Marinos was born in Greece and raised in New York. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed in recitals, concerts, and school projects in Greece, Austria, Holland, England, and New York. He holds the Recital Certificate in Pianoforte Performance from the Guildhall School of Music in London, as well as diplomas in Tonal Harmony, Baroque and Renaissance Counterpoint, and Piano Performance from Conservatories in Greece. Very significant to his development has been his association with the pianist and conductor George Hadjinikos. He has taken violoncello, vocal, and conducting lessons, and has attended master-classes by Masur, Kolmanovich, Malouf, Fleisher, DiDonato a.o. He has served as administrator of the Jani Christou Archive, article writer at www.classicalmusic.gr, and collaborates with the Cultural Foundation ‘Angelinis-Hadjinikos’ in Horto Greece. He is currently a graduate collaborative piano student at NYU Steinhardt, studying with Dr. Grant Wenaus, where he also serves as an Adjunct Piano Instructor.

Roberta Michel

Flutist Roberta Michel is an active performer of solo, chamber, and orchestral music. Michel recently won the Artists International Special Presentation Award and was presented in her debut recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall for which she was described in the New York Concert Review as a “solid craftsman” who “riveted with her performance, inspiring one to want a repeated hearing”. Michel has performed with groups throughout North America including the Portland StringQuartet, SEM Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Cheyenne Symphony, and the Greeley Philharmonic in venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tulley Hall, Merkin Hall, and The Kennedy Center. She can be heard on New Dynamic Records and Innova Records.

Brendon Randall-Myers

Praised as "a unique musical voice" (Dustin Soiseth, The Loose Filter Project), Brendon Randall-Myers is a composer and guitarist whose music examines people's interactions, expectations, and boundaries, spanning the worlds of experimental rock, classical music, and free improvisation. Brendon is a co-founder of the punk- and math rock-inflected composing/improvising groups Grains and Marateck, and has been commissioned by organizations such as the Guitar Foundation of America and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, and by performers such as The Living Earth Show, Tigue, New Keys, Friction Quartet, Nonsemble 6, Mobius Trio, and clarinetist Gleb Kanasevich. He is currently pursuing an MM in composition at the Yale School of Music, where he has studied with David Lang, Ingram Marshall, and Martin Bresnick.

Ellen O’Meara

Ellen O’Meara is a Brooklyn based composer, performer and music engraver.

Lisa Reynolds

Lisa Reynolds has been a performer for the past 16 years, most recently in Emily Mast's B!RDBRA!N performed at the Rauschenberg Gallery in NYC and at REDCAT in Los Angeles, CA. Lisa works as Project Coordinator for FuturePerfect and is a NIC Certified ASL Interpreter for the Deaf. She has incorporated ASL in many past performances including such plays as Love Person and Signs of Change. She recently composed an ASL score for Alison O'Daniel's film Night Sky which toured cross country including performances at MOCAD, Anthology Film Archives and Museum of Jurassic Technology. It was also featured in Art Forum. She holds a MFA from Brooklyn College's Performance and Interactive Media Arts program.

Jennifer Shaw

Jennifer Shaw began playing the cello at age nine in Taipei, Taiwan. Her various experiences have brought her to perform with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the Eagles, and in NYC venues including Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and the Beacon Theater. Recent projects around NYC include performing with the One World Symphony and NYU Tisch’s production of Ragtime, as well as recording with the bands Hunter & Wolfe and The Arcane Insignia. Jennifer received her M.M. as a student of Edward Arron at New York University, where she also taught cello as an adjunct instructor. She graduated with her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied with Karen Buranskas.

Yumi Suehiro

Born in Osaka, Japan, pianist Yumi Suehiro started piano at age 6, and started marimba a year later. Ms. Suehiro has won numerous national and international competitions, including the top prize at the KOBE International Competition in Japan as the youngest winner. In 2007 and 2008, she was invited to perform her debut at the Carnegie Weill recital hall as a winner of AMTL audition, and in following year, she was featured as a guest marimba player in Latin percussionist, Victor Rendon's recoding “Fiesta Percussiva”. Ms. Suehiro won the second prize at Dora Zaslavsky Koch piano concerto competition in Manhattan School of Music where she currently earned Master of Music under the tutelage of Mr. Zenon Fishbein and Dr. Peter Vinograde.

Nate Trier

Nate Trier is a composer and music educator in New Haven, CT. Described as "the Rosetta Stone of avante garde jazz" by the New Haven Register, Trier creates music that explores the intersection of free improvisation and chamber music. He has released several albums under his own name, recorded as a sideman, and contributed to compilations. Trier is currently pursuing an MFA in Music Composition at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Diego Vasquez

Diego Vasquez is currently in his final year as a graduate student in clarinet performance at Mannes College The New School for Music. He received his Bachelor’s of Music from Ithaca College, with a minor in dance. He has studied clarinet with Edward Cabarga, Richard Faria, Janet Hilton, Thomas Piercy, and Charles Neidich. Diego is currently a member of the Mannes American Contemporary Ensemble, under the direction of composer Lowell Lieberman, and performs regularly with Ensemble Mise-en, a downtown contemporary music ensemble. He has performed at venus such as Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Dance performances with Pearson Widrig Dance Theater, Peter Kyle, and sculptor Roland Gebhardt.

Composers

Douglas DaSilva

Douglas DaSilva is a composer, guitarist, educator and music curator in New York City. As Artistic Director of the Composer's Voice Concert Series and Premiere Salon Concerts he is dedicated to promoting new music and living composers. He has been curator for concerts in New York, Rio de Janeiro and Valencia. As a guitarist he has performed at places as diverse as Lincoln Center’s Rose Ballroom, the Jan Hus Church, The Bitter-End, and The Cutting Room. As a composer of chamber music with a background in jazz, rock and blues, Douglas composes in variety of styles from the hummable to highly experimental. Much of his music is influenced by Brazilian music and self-inflicted stress. His extensive and daily work with preschoolers (where he is known by his nom de guerre: Mr. Doug) manages to keep him sane while giving him the opportunity to share his love for music with future generations. His chamber music has been performed throughout the US, Europe and Brazil.

TJ Hospodar

My primary passions are photography and performance. Hospitality and tourist/neighbor relations are interests of mine that inform my research, while meal-sharing and theatricality pervade my artwork. I am compelled by modes of participation, and invest in work that is activated by the viewer, often incorporating correspondence, audience contribution, and/or community-based collaboration. I enjoy collaborating with other artists and have developed a series of situations with life-partner 0H10M1KE called “Dinner Theatre.” Episodes have explored work presented in settings as varied as homes, automobiles, boardrooms, galleries and public space. Born in Ohio, residing in New York, I currently perform “car service,” free for all, here in the USA.

Douglas Townsend

American composer, musicologist and native New Yorker Douglas Townsend was still actively composing, teaching, coaching ensembles and producing concerts until shortly before his death in Manhattan (where he was born), at age 90, on August 1, 2012. Townsend's career was effectively launched at age 17, when he won a nationwide student composition contest while attending Manhattan's High School of Music and Art. The prize was a nationally broadcast radio performance by the CBS Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Herrmann, the great film composer. After graduation Townsend privately studied composition with Aaron Copland, Stefan Wolpe (five years), Otto Luening, Tibor Serly, and Felix Greissle. Over his 75 year career, he composed over 100 original works: symphonies, concertos, chamber works (including several for piano four-hands), as well as ballet music, film scores, and incidental music for theatrical productions. His vocal works include operas, operettas and choral music; and he has written extensively for wind ensembles and symphonic bands. Townsend was the recipient of numerous commissions and grants, among them a grant in composition from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, the NY State Bicentennial Revolution Commission, and the NY State Council on the Arts. To see videos of Douglas Townsend's works and recent performances, go to www.instantencore.com/douglastownsend.

Robert Voisey

Robert Voisey born Decmebr 8, 1969, is a composer and producer of electroacoustic and chamber music. He founded Vox Novus in 2000 to promote the music of contemporary American composers and in 2001 created The American Composer Timeline, the first in-depth listing of American composers to appear on the Internet. A producer of new music and multi-media concerts and events, Voisey is best known for producing the 60x60 project, which he started in 2003 in order to promote electronic composers and their music. He also founded and directs the Composer's Voice Concert Series as well as the chamber music project Fifteen Minutes of Fame.

Program Notes


Presenters:

Remarkable Theater Brigade

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.

Remarkable Theater Brigade creates and produces new works including operas, orchestral pieces, ballets, musicals, and electro-acoustic works and co-produces the Composer's Voice Concert Series concerts. Remarkable Theater Brigade was founded in 2002 by Christian McLeer, Monica Harte, and Dan Jeselsohn.

Jan Hus Church

This is the place you were welcome, long before you arrived!
www.janhus.org

Vox Novus

Vox Novus promotes contemporary music and its creators through concerts, recordings, publications, broadcasts, and online publicity. Vox Novus believes strongly in the intrinsic value of contemporary music, recognizing it as a force in the advancement of culture and art. Our goal is to keep music alive by strengthening the connection between composer and audience, providing greater exposure to new music.