Bios

Charles Haupt - Pulse review - Spree Article [ top ]
Reviews from the Mostly Mozart Festival, New York City:

" Mr. Haupt's lithe and expressive playing is the epitome of singing on the violin. " NEW YORK TIMES

".........the incredible display of virtuosity and stamina by Charles Haupt who was featured in virtually every work of the evening." INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Charles Haupt was given his first lessons by the celebrated violinist and pedagogue Joseph Gingold. He attended the Julliard School of Music, studying with Dorothy DeLay and Ivan Galamian, and the Manes College of Music where he worked with William Kroll. Mr. Haupt won a Fulbright Scholarship to Paris where he studied with the revered Nadia Boulanger in both performance and composition. During this time he also performed extensively in France, England, Holland and Belgium.

Mr.Haupt became the youngest concertmaster of a major symphony orchestra in the U.S. when he was engaged by the San Antonio Symphony under Victor Allesandro. He was invited to Buffalo by Lucas Foss in 1966 to join The Center for the Creative and Performing Arts at UB , and in turn was awarded the position of concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic in 1969, a post he has filled with distinction, including his duties as yearly soloist with the BPO in a diverse repertoire of concertos by Bach, Beethoven , Brahms, Barber, Delius, Amram and others.

Apart from his Buffalo responsibilities Mr. Haupt has also performed as first violin with the Stravinsky and Koussevitzky chamber music festivals at Lincoln Center , was concertmaster and soloist for several years at the Caramoor Music Festival under Julius Rudel and performed for 21 years at the Mostly Mozart Festival as concertmaster and soloist, also in Lincoln Center. He has been a featured soloist with the N.Y. Philharmonic on several occasions and served as concertmaster for Leonard Bernstein on his last recording of West Side Story for Deutsche Gramophone the video of which has been shown widely on PBS among the Bernstein documentaries.

Mr. Haupt has also performed with the American String Project in Seattle, was the violinist in the Baird Trio in residence at UB for several years and participated in many festivals around the world, including performances in Italy with renowned pianist Fabio Bidini. He also performs with the new music festival "June in Buffalo" at UB.

Mr. Haupt is a member of the faculty of the Eastman School of Music and has been a frequent coach of members of the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida . He is also the founder of the highly successful concert series "Musical Feast" in Buffalo, NY.

Charles Castleman - Website [ top ]
Medalist in the Tchaikovsky and Brussels Competitions, Charles Castleman has performed as soloist with the orchestras of Boston , Brisbane, Chicago, Kiev, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Philadelphia, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai, and made appearances at the Australian, Budapest, Fuefukigawa, Marlboro and Vienna Festivals. A recently released boxed CD set of the 17 best prize-winning violin performances of the Brussels competition's 50-year history includes his Jongen Concerto.

Charles Castleman's solo CDs include Hubay Csardases, Ysaye solo Sonatas, and Sarasate cameos on Music and Arts, Gershwin and Antheil on Musicmasters, and his Ford Foundation Concert Artists commission - the David Amram Concerto - on Newport Classic. In the Raphael Trio he recorded Dvorak, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Wolf-Ferrari on Sony Classical, Nonesuch, Unicorn, Discover and ASV; in the String Trio of N.Y., Reger and Martin for BASF.

His seven-week summer workshop for solo and chamber music performance The Quartet Program , now at SUNY Fredonia in its 38 ^th season, has been praised by Yo-Yo Ma as "the best program of its kind.. a training ground in lifemanship".

He is the Chair of Strings at Eastman, his international pedagogical reputation has led to master-classes in Australia, Austria, China, England, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Ukraine.

His violin is the Stradivarius "Marquis de Champeaux", (1708) named after a noble french family of amateur violinist who owned it for about a century.

Jesse Levine [ top ]
Jesse Levine, violist and conductor, is Professor (Adjunct) of Viola and Chamber Music and Coordinator of the String Department at the Yale School of Music, and Music Director and Conductor of the Purchase Symphony Orchestra at the Conservatory of Music at the State University of New York at Purchase.

Mr. Levine has held the positions of Music Director and Conductor of the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta del Principado de Asturias in Spain, the Chappaqua Orchestra and the Feld Ballet. A noted violist as well as conductor Mr. Levine has been Principal Violist of the Buffalo, Dallas, Baltimore and New Jersey symphony orchestras and has appeared as conductor or as viola soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in Europe, South America, Israel, Australia, Mexico and throughout the United States.

As an active guest conductor some of the many orchestras directed by Mr. Levine include the Puerto Rico Symphony, the Granada Symphony Orchestra (Spain), the Rochester Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Kennedy Center, the National Orchestral Association at Carnegie Hall, the Ives Center Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Texas Festival Orchestra at the Round Top Festival, the Orchestras of Paraiba and San Paulo (Brazil), the Orchestre Symphonique Francaise in Paris and the New York Chamber Symphony at Lincoln Center. Mr. Levine, known for his work in contemporary music, had frequently been invited to conduct the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in its annual North American New Music Festival, and continues to participate in the annual June-in-Buffalo Festival, both Festivals devoted to the performance of new music. With the June-in-Buffalo Festival Orchestra he recently recorded Morton Feldman's "The Viola in my Life" (IV), the first recording of this major work, for EMF. In the dual role as Conductor/Teacher Mr. Levine has conducted the National Youth Orchestra of Spain in Madrid, the Youth Orchestra of Andalucia in Seville, and the Youth Orchestra of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. As a member of the Bruch Trio he has recorded the music of Max Bruch, Rebecca Clarke, Jean Francaix, Gordon Jacob and Mozart for Summit Records.

In addition to his active performing schedule as conductor and violist Mr. Levine has been a member of the faculties of the State University of New York at Buffalo and Stony Brook, and at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Frequently invited to present Master Classes in viola, Mr. Levine has offered these Classes at Festivals in Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Morella, Segorbe, San Sebastian, Cartagena and Vitoria (Spain), Festival Flaine Musique (France), and the Paris and Lyon Conservatories of Music.

Cheryl Gobbetti-Hoffman - Website [ top ]
Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman is a wonderful flutist, with plenty of techniques and grace enough to spare… she is a member of the University at Buffalo's Music Department faculty, and former member of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. While these are distinguished credits on any resume, they don't begin to suggest Gobbetti Hoffman's originality, both as a music administrator and a programmer. As a champion of her chosen instrument she has organized a flute advocacy group with the whimsical name of Who-o-o-osh, and in her faculty position she's founded a large ensemble that performs under the name Plosion…", writes the Buffalo News. Cheryl credits a scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music and international masterclass studies with James Galway, Aurele Nicolet, and Peter Lloyd for informing her performance concepts and flute voice. Other mentors include Mischa Schneider, members of the original Cleveland Quartet, pianist/composer Leo Smit, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

David Felder [ top ]
Composer Web Site | Computer love at June in Buffalo
DAVID FELDER has long been recognized as a leader in his generation of American composers. His works have been featured at many of the leading international festivals for new music including Holland, Huddersfield, Darmstadt, Ars Electronica, Brussels, ISCM, North American New Music, Geneva, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Aspen, Music Factory, Bourges, Vienna Modern, IRCAM Agora, Musique En Scenes, ISCM World Music Days, and many others, and earns continuing recognition through performance and commissioning programs by such organizations as the New York New Music Ensemble, BBC Orchestra, Arditti Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, American Brass Quintet, Ensemble InterContemporain and many others. Felder's work has been broadly characterized by its highly energetic profile, through its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials (including his "Crossfire" video series), and its lyrical qualities.

Felder has received numerous grants and commissions including many awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, two New York State Council Commissions, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Guggenheim, Koussevitzky, and two Fromm Foundation Fellowships, two awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer "New Residencies" (1993-1996) with the Buffalo Philharmonic, two commissions from the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, an Argosy Foundation commission, and many more.

Currently, Felder is Professor of Composition at the University at Buffalo, where he has held the Birge-Cary Chair in Composition since 1992, and has been Artistic Director of the"June in Buffalo" Festival from 1985 to the present. In 2006, he founded the "Center for 21^st Century Music" at the University at Buffalo and assumed the Directorship in Fall, 2006. From 1992 to 1996 he was Meet the Composer "New Residencies", Composer-in-Residence to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and WBFO-FM. In 1996, he formed the professional chamber orchestra, the Slee Sinfonietta, and has been Artistic Director since that time. His works are published by Theodore Presser, and a first full CD of his works was released to international acclaim (including "disc of the year" in chamber music from both the American Record Guide, and BBC Music Magazine) on the Bridge label (Bridge #0049) during 1996. A second disc containing orchestral work was released by Mode Records (Mode #89; "Editor's Best of the Year" selection, Fanfare Magazine, 2002) in Spring, 2000, and EMF #033 was released in July, 2001, containing premiere recordings of orchestral works by Morton Feldman and David Felder (two works for each composer) to very enthusiastic critical review. A dvd-audio project featuring works with electronics is in preparation and will be released in late 2007.

DavidTaylor - Website [ top ]
David Taylor holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science degree from the Julliard School of Music and began his career with Leopold Stokowskis American Symphony Orchestra. David has won the National Academy of Recording Artts and Science's Most Value Player Award 5 times, the most it can be awarded to a musician, and he is the only bass trombonist this honor has been bestowed upon. He has been on numerous grammy award winning recordings . And, has recorded with artists from Duke Ellington to YoYoMa, to Miles Davis and the Rolling Stones. He has 7 solo Cd's Mr. Taylor currently performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Charles Mingus Big Band, The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, The Michelle Camillo Band, , The Bob Mintzer Band, the Daniel Schnyder, David Taylor, and the Kenny Drew Jr Trio., Trio Hidas, and B3+ He appears frequently with Orpheus, and the St. Lukes Chamber Orchestra, and he is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College. In 2008, Mr. Taylor will be performing and teaching in Europe. Highlights include a teaching and performing residency at the principal conservatory in Vienna and a residency at the Anton Bruckner Haus in Linz, as well as performing on May 8, as both a trombonist and a vocalist in the premier of the chamber/hip-hop opera Money, by Gene Pritsker, at the Etna Festival in Catania, Sicily. He currently teaches at Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College and is an artist clinician for Edwards Trombones.

Salvatore Andolina [ top ]
In the worlds of classical music and jazz, cross-over versatility is rarely found in a single individual. But over the past decade or so the Buffalo Philharmonic has witnessed the keen achievements of one of Buffalo's native sons in the person of Salvatore Andolina, who is now the Orchestra's switch-hitter in his position as clarinetist, bass clarinetist and saxophonist.

Mr. Andolina's performance career was launched very early as a founding member of the renowned Amherst Saxophone Quartet with which he toured and recorded widely.

As a soloist and chamber player Sal has made many appearances at major concert venues across the United States and abroad, including spotlight performances from coast to coast at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York and in Los Angeles with Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show.

In addition to appearing as a recent soloist with the BPO under JoAnn Falletta, Sal has been featured with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Grand Rapids Symphony, Niagara Symphony, the Fresno Philharmonic, the Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra under Marylouise Nanna and the Artpark Festival Orchestra. Sal's various CDs feature his artistry as both a clarinetist and saxophonist. Of special significance is the release by QRS Piano Rolls Company of his tribute to Benny Goodman on a solo CD titled "Like Benny to Me," now distributed Koch International. This recording was featured across the US and Canada on NPR, APR and the BBC networks.

Happily, good news travels fast in that Mr. Andolina is now accepting special engagements on the national scene featuring his performances of American Jazz. At the end of August he was the featured soloist at the prestigious Frick Historical Center concerts in Pittsburgh. Brilliant reviews followed the sold-out event, complete with encores and a standing ovation. Appearances at the Chautauqua Institute yielded duplicate results.

This past season Sal performed a 'Tribute to Benny Goodman' as featured artist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and followed that up with The Sal Andolina Big Band appearing on the very successful Artpark Big Band Series. Sal is also in the planning stages for several new recordings to be released early next year. Look for these releases at salandolina.com.

Mr. Andolina is very pleased to be collaborating with Charles Haupt, a musician he has long admired, on this concert and looks forward to continuing their music making in the future.

Claudia Hoca [ top ]
Claudia Hoca is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where her teachers included Eleanor Sokoloff and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. She has a Master's degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where studied with Leo Smit. A Fulbright grant enabled her to return to her native Austria, where she pursued advanced studies under Bruno Seidlhofer. Ms. Hoca is the recipient of numerous awards, including top prizes in the Chopin Young Pianist Competition and the Washington International Bach Competition. She has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Pops and the Philharmonia Virtuosi of New York. During the 1990s she played over twenty different concertos with the Buffalo Philharmonic as conducted by Semyon Bychkov, Christopher Keene, Kazuyoshi Akigama, Hermann Michael, Carlos Kalmar, and Maximiano Valdes. She has appeared in recital throughout the United States and abroad, and she is much sought after as a chamber music collaborator. He repertoire ranges far and wide, extending from Bach, Mozart, Chopin and Brahms to Stravinsky, Bernstein and Messiaen. Her Spectrum recording of the piano music of Leo Smit was included in a list of best classical recordings of 1984 by Buffalo News critic Herman Trotter, and subsequently on Harris Goldsmith's 1985 "Christmas Shopping List" in Opus Magazine. Her critically-acclaimed recordings of Swiss composer Frank Martin's Petite Symphonie Concertante with harpsichordist Anthony Newman and the Philharmonia Virtuosi was released in 1991 on Richard Kapp's Essay label. Her live performance at SUNY Purchase of Poulenc's Aubade with the Philharmonia Virtuosi has recently been release on Essay. The CD, titled French Dressing, is available at www.essaycd.com .

Tony Arnold [ top ]
Soprano Tony Arnold is internationally recognized for her interpretation of the contemporary repertoire. Spanning the styles from new vocalism to the new complexity, she has performed and recorded music of the preeminent composers of our time, including Berio, Crumb, Carter, Kurtág, Ligeti, Andriessen, Saariaho, and newer voices such as Adès, Thomas and Zuidam. In 2001, Ms. Arnold became the only vocalist ever to be awarded first prize in the Gaudeamus International Interpreters Competition. Later that year, she claimed first prize in the Louise D. McMahon International Music Competition. She has received critical acclaim for her performances with MusicNOW, New York New Music Ensemble, eighth blackbird, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, George Crumb Ensemble, Fulcrum Point, Contempo, Fromm Players, Callisto Ensemble, Chicago Chamber Musicians, and June in Buffalo. In 2003 Ms. Arnold joined the faculty of the University at Buffalo, where she is a founding member of the new music ensemble HEARD. Her recordings include music of Luciano Berio on Naxos, and a 2006 Grammy Nominated performance of George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children on Bridge Records. In 2004, Ms. Arnold was the featured guest artist at both the First International Festival of Contemporary Music in Morelia, Mexico, and a special memorial concert for Luciano Berio at the Parco della Musica in Rome. She sang at the 2004 Lucerne Festival, and participated in a ten-city tour with the composer George Crumb in celebration of his 75th birthday, culminating in a performance at the Library of Congress. In 2005 she appeared with Ensemble 21 at the Miller Theater in a rare performance of Ferneyhough's Etudes Transcendantales. In 2006 Ms. Arnold toured Armenia with violin virtuoso Movses Pogossian in Kurtág's monumental Kafka Fragments.

Feng Hew [ top ]
Feng Hew a native of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, began piano lessons at the age of four and cello lessons at the age of ten. By age 15, she was performing throughout Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. As the recipient of a full grant of the Evergreen music foundation in Taiwan , she came to the United State for her Baccalaureate and Masters degrees from The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston MA. She received both with honors for Distinction in cello performance. Feng has studied with Laurence Lesser, Carter Brey, Colin Carr, David Wells, Yo-Yo Ma and Emmanuel Ax.

Prior to her appointment by JoAnn Falleta as Associate Principal cellist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1999, Feng has performed under Yehudi Menuhin, Seiji Osawa, and Simon Rattle. A seasoned soloist , Feng has appeared with NTAA Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan Symphony Orchestra, NEC Symphony Orchestra, Harvard Symphony Orchestra, Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra, Amherst Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Chamber Orchestra and Buffalo Philharmonic. As an enthusiastic Chamber musician, Feng frequently performs around western New York in many chamber music festivals.

Tom Kolor [ top ]
Cited by the New York Times as a "virtuosic percussionist", Tom Kolor specializes in 20th and 21st century music and holds a Master's Degree from the Juilliard School.

Mr. Kolor has appeared throughout the world as a member of the Talujon Percussion Quartet, Ensemble Sospeso, New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Newband and Ensemble 21. He is a frequent guest of Speculum Musicae, the Group for Contemporary Music, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Capo Chamber Players, Continuum, New Millennium Ensemble, New York New Music Ensemble and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

As a soloist, Mr. Kolor has premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Tania Leon, Wayne Peterson, John Zorn, and dozens of others. Solo performances have been presented at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York's MOMA and Guggenheim, Holland's State Museum at Amsterdam, Princeton University, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Mr. Kolor has recorded for Koch, Mode, New World, Albany, Capstone, North/South, Wergo, Innova, Naxos, CRI, and RCA Classics labels. He currently teaches at William Paterson University and Columbia University.

Paolo Cavallone [ top ]
Paolo Cavallone's (b. 1975, Sulmona, Italy) has been described among the new generations of composers as "one of the most interesting talents in the contemporary music panorama" (Musicalnews, Biblio-net). Mr. Cavallone studied with Mauro Cardi, Guido Baggiani and Alessandro Sbordoni. He earned his degrees in composition, piano, instrumentation for band and in literature at the State Conservatory Alfredo Casella in L'Aquila, Italy, and the State University of L'Aquila. He also studied piano with Giovanni Carmassi at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and composition with Azio Corghi and at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. After having completed his advanced studies in Italy, Mr. Cavallone came to Buffalo, where he is currently living, in order to work with David Felder. His compositions are regularly broadcast internationally by RAI (the Italian Broadcasting Corporation), Radio Capodistria, Radio Onda Blu, and Radio Città Futura. His music, which Musibox magazine has called " fascinating and complex," has drawn the attention of critics in America and abroad.. In his native Italy, his pieces have been performed in Rome at the Auditorium and the festival Domani Musica (together with Guido Baggiani, Franco Piersanti and Ennio Morricone), in Siena at the Accademia Chigiana in Bari at the "Meeting with Contemporary Music," festival, and in Aquila at the Societa' Barattelli. In 2007, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra selected his symphony "Porte" for its "Composer Forum" and, in June, his work was featured in Buffalo's Dilijan music series. As a pianist, Mr. Cavallone has performed both as a soloist and as part of chamber ensembles playing both classical and contemporary repertoires, as well as his own works. He also has played in modern and contemporary improvisation ensembles. His music has been released on CDs by Domani Musica and Suono Sonda labels. Since 2005, Paolo Cavollne has been a member of Nuova Consonanza.

Jean Kooperud [ top ]
Jean Kopperud is one of the most versatile and innovative clarinetists appearing before the public today, known for her virtuoso performances both in the concert hall and in music theater. A graduate of the Juilliard School and former pupil of Nadia Boulanger, Ms. Kopperud has toured internationally as a concert soloist and chamber musician. National acclaim for her performances of Karlheinz Stockhausen's HARLEKIN, a tour-de-force for dancing clarinetist, resulted in her Avery Fisher Hall debut, presented by the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Kopperud is currently a member of the New York New Music Ensemble, the Chamber Players of the League of Composers/I.S.C.M., Washington Square Chamber players, Ensemble 21 and the Omega Ensemble. She is on the faculty of SUNY Buffalo and the Juilliard School. At Juilliard she teaches a class called "On the Edge" as well as private and class clarinet in the Music Advancement Program. "On the Edge" is a course to practice performing that is also done in workshop around the country.

Paul Todaro [ top ]
theskiffleminstrels
Paul Todaro is a professional actor and amateur musician. He has directed and acted on all of Buffalo's stages including several concerts with the BPO. He spent ten years in New York with Independent Theatre Company which was voted Best Off Off Broadway Theatre in 1993. He is a member of Actor's Equity, The Lincoln Center Director's Lab and a founding member and bass player of the award winning, bar hoping group The Skiffle Minstrels. Paul teaches acting privately. call 882 2307.

Rin Ozaki [ top ]
Rin Ozaki is a marimbist and percussionist from Tokyo, Japan.

She studied with Keiko Abe and Gordon Stout. She holds degrees in percussion performance from Toho School of music and a master's degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Rin has performed a variety of solo recitals and international concerts. She was a finalist at the Second World Marimba Competition. She won the audition for a solo recital concert series in Yokosuka, Japan. She was invited to perform on the live radio broadcast of the final concert at the World Marimba Competition in Stuttgart, Germany. She also performed in the final concert of "Acadamie Musicale de Villcroze" in France.

Rin has presented marimba master classes at Universities throughout the United States and at the PAS Western New York Day of Percussion. She currently teaches at State University of New York at Buffalo.

Jon Nelson [ top ]
Currently Associate Professor of the State University of New York at Buffalo, Jon Nelson maintains an active career as performer, producer and collaborator. He is a founding member of the Meridian Arts Ensemble, and has collaborated with numerous contemporary composers, most notably Milton Babbitt and Frank Zappa.

Jon has been instrumental in the commissioning of over sixty new works for trumpet in various ensembles, and his arrangements have been performed and recorded by the Cologne Stadt Ballet, Atlantic Brass Quintet, Lake George Opera, Ethos Percussion Quartet, Lark Quartet, and Dweezil Zappa. He is the founder of The Consortium for New Trumpet Music, which seeks to create new music for trumpet in a variety of contexts, and is the Managing Director of Blue Bison Music, which publishes new music for brass instruments.

With the Meridian Arts Ensemble, he records exclusively for Channel Classics and 8bells Records. As an independent artist, he has produced two solo recordings for 8bells Records; Gran Calavera Electrica and Metalofonico! . He is currently working on a series of cd recordings for 8bells that feature contemporary and newly commissioned works for brass. He can be heard on over 30 other recordings with various ensembles.

He served as Principal Trumpet for the Festival Orchestra d'Aix en Provence in France under the direction of Pierre Boulez (2000), and the Mineria Festival Orchestra in Mexico City (1998). Jon has also performed with the Baltimore Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

Active in the field of education, he regularly teaches at numerous festivals including Tanglewoood, Meridian Seminar @ ECU, Bar Harbor Brass Week, Wellesley Composers Conference, Atlantic Brass Seminar, June in Buffalo, and the Festival Centro Historico in Mexico City. He has presented master classes in the US, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Taiwan, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, and Costa Rica, and has served on the faculties at Princeton University, Boston University, Hartt College, and Middlebury College.

Jon Nelson holds a B.M. from The Juilliard School where he studied with Mark Gould.

Christian Baldini [ top ]
http://christianbaldini.info/home.htm
Conductor and composer Christian Baldini has been internationally recognized by several awards in global competitions including the Seoul International Competition for Composers (South Korea, 2005), the Tribune of Argentinean Music (UNESCO, 2005) and the Sao Paulo Orchestra International Conducting Competition (OSESP - Brazil, 2006). A CD including his tango "Forest Ella" was released in November 2007 by the PRETAL label. His music has been performed with great critical acclaim in festivals and venues throughout Europe, South America, North America and Asia by orchestras and ensembles including the SouthBank Sinfonia (London), New York New Music Ensemble, Chronophonie Ensemble (Freiburg), the Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble (Vienna), Quinteto Latino (California), the Barton Workshop (Amsterdam) and the National Polyphonic Choir of Argentina.

He has worked with orchestras in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany, Italy and the US, including the Sao Paulo Orchestra (OSESP), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Concepcion, Orquesta Sinfonica de Mar del Plata, Orquesta Sinfonica de Tucuman, Penn State Philharmonic, Cincinnati Concert Orchestra, Slee Sinfonietta and the Genova Ensemble. Following his succesful debut with the Britten-Pears Orchestra in the United Kingdom, Christian was reengaged by the Britten-Pears Foundation to conduct in October 2008 productions of Britten´s "Rape of Lucretia" in the Aldeburgh Festival in England. Christian currently serves as Music Director of the Symphony Orchestra of the University at Buffalo, where he also conducts regularly the Slee Sinfonietta. Recently Maestro Leonard Slatkin chose him personally, as one of six conductors in the US to work during 2008 with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC as part of the National Conducting Institute Scheme.

Jonathan Lombardo [ top ]
Jonathan Lombardo is Principal Trombone of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he has held since 2004. He has played with the Syracuse, San Antonio, Albany, and Aspen Chamber Symphonies as well as The Spoleto Festival Orchestra.

Jonathan began playing trombone at age eleven in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas and continued his studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy under Thomas Riccobono from 1996-1999. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School in 2003 where he studied with Joseph Alessi and Per Brevig.

As a soloist, Jonathan has performed recitals in Europe and throughout the United States. His performance of Nina Rota's Concerto for Trombone with the Juilliard Orchestra was featured several times on NPR's Performance Today. In 2005, he was a guest soloist with the University of New Mexico Wind Ensemble while participating in the prestige's Alessi Seminar.

Jonathan has given master classes in the United States, South America and Europe. Notably he was on faculty at the 2007 International de Campos do Jordão Musica Festival in Brazil. At home in Buffalo he is faculty at The University at Buffalo and maintains a private studio.

Edmond Gnekow [ top ]
Edmond Gnekow joined the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the summer of 2000. He was born and raised in northern California, earned a B.A. in English at the University of California at Berkeley, then moved east to earn a M.M. at Indiana University.

Other orchestras in which he has played include the Pittsburgh Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, and American Bach Soloists. Mr. Gnekow is grateful to live in a city with as much cultural heritage and possibility as Buffalo.

Martha Malkiewicz [ top ]
Martha Malkiewicz joined the bassoon section of the Buffalo Philharmonic in 1984 and the faculty of Canisius College in 1987. She received her degrees from Indiana University (Bachelor of Music Performance) and the Eastman School of Music (Master of Performance and Master of Music Education) and did advanced study at the Hochschule fur Musik in Vienna, Austria where she received a Young Artists Award. Ms. Malkiewicz has been a member of the Evansville Symphony Orchestra and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and has performed in Italy, Austria, Germany and Hawaii. Ms. Malkiewicz has given solos recitals and performed chamber music through out Western New York State as a member of Young Audiences, Amherst Chamber Winds and Ars Nova. She has taught at the College of Charleston, Geneseo State College and Villa Maria College. As a member of the BPO, Martha has worked extensively with the Education department, designing performances and speaking about the BPO to schools and community organizations. Martha designed and currently teaches the course, Canisius and the BPO Experience, which brings BPO musicians and staff members to the college and takes Canisius students to Kleinhans Music Hall for concerts and backstage viewing of the BPO. Ms. Malkiewicz is also the founder of Informally-Formal, a chamber music series that brings BPO musicians to the Montante Cultural Center for music, light refreshments, and conversations with the audience.

Jonathan Golove [ top ]
Cellist Jonathan Golove is a native of Los Angeles, California and a resident of Buffalo, New York, where he serves as Assistant Professor in the University at Buffalo's Department of Music. Mr. Golove's developing career is marked by its versatility, sense of adventure, and commitment to the performance of both new and traditional works, as well as of improvised music. Mr. Golove has been featured as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Slee Sinfonietta, New York Virtuoso Singers, and, as a baroque cellist, with the USC Early Music Ensemble. He has recorded for the Albany, CRI, ICMC, Sunken Gong, and Nine Winds labels, and his performances and interviews have been broadcast by public radio stations of Colorado, Buffalo, and Dayton, as well as the West German Radio and Radio France. His summer festival appearances include the Sebago-Long Lake and Roycroft Chamber Music Festivals, as well as numerous festivals devoted to new works, including June in Buffalo, the North American New Music Festival, the Aki Festival of New Music, and the Festival del Centro Histórico, Mexico City. A member of the critically acclaimed Baird Trio, Mr. Golove is a former member of the Elisha and June In Buffalo String Quartets, and has performed as a guest with the Cassatt Quartet and the Cleveland Octet.

Mr. Golove is also active as an electric cellist, particularly in the field of creative improvised music. He has performed and recorded with groups including the Michael Vlatkovich Quartet, Ubudis Trio, and Vinny Golia's Large Ensemble, and made appearances at the Vancouver Jazz Festival, the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival (Oakland), and the International Meeting of Jazz Musicians (Monterrey, Mexico). He has also been honored to perform with such leading figures as Andrew Cyrille, Rashied Ali, Sonny Fortune, Andrew Hill, Grachan Moncur III, and Andre Jaume. His collaborators in experimental electronic improvisation have included Cort Lippe, Barry Moon, and Misha Nogha.

Johnny Reinhard [ top ]
Johnny Reinhard (1956), bassoonist, recorder player, vocalist, composer, director and teacher, is director of the American Festival of Microtonal Music which he initiated in 1981 in New York. His compositions are performed worldwide, and he has produced numerous exclusively microtonal concerts. All his works, like Dune, Raven, Atlantis, Cosmic Rays, Neo, Adam and Eve and Middle Earth (for symphony orchestra) are "polymicrotonal".

He was co-editor of a microtonal issue of "Ear Magazine" in 1981-1982. He has published "PITCH for the International Microtonalist" himself.

In June 1996 Johnny Reinhard conducted his realisation of Charles Ives' Universe Symphony . In the same year he conducted Ensemble 2e2m in a performance of Reinhard's elaboration of Varèse's Graphs and Time in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Other compositions where microtonality let to a special performance were Terry Riley's In C (in just intonation), Harry Partch's December 1942, Percy Grainger's Free Music and La Monte Young's Vision. In 1997 Reinhard was guest conductor of the first International Theremin Festival in Portland, Maine. The last eight years Johnny Reinhard presents a popular radio programme at WCKR Radio New York entitled Microtonal Bach. Furthermore he is employed as teacher of composition and theory at the University of Long Island and teacher of bassoon at the University of New York. The American Festival of Microtonal Music organises yearly microtonal festivals under the names Microthon and Microfest. In 2002 it has produced a series of 20 microtonal CDs.

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