Bios

"A Musical Feast Musician 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 ]
Remembering Jesse Levine
Feb. 21, 1940 — Nov. 11, 2008
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 ]
October 6 1953 - Aug.1 2008 www.buffalonews.com/obituaries/story/405274.html
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 | ITA Cover Photo [ 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 Taiwan, began piano lessons at the age of four and cello lessons at the age of ten. By age fifteen, she has won many national music competitions and performed 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 study at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston MA. Upon her graduation, Feng was offered full scholarship from NEC for her graduate school study. She received both Baccalaureate and Master's degrees with honors for Distinction in Cello Performance. Feng has studied with Laurence Lesser, Carter Brey, Colin Carr, Anner Bylsma, David Soyer, and Yo-Yo Ma. 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, Michael Tilson Thomas and Simon Rattle. A seasoned soloist, Feng has appeared with Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Ars Nova Chamber Orchestra, Amherst Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Chamber Orchestra, NTAA Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan Symphony Orchestra, NEC Symphony Orchestra, and Harvard Symphony Orchestra. As an enthusiastic chamber musician, Feng frequently performs with A Musical Feast, Chamber music on Elmwood, Buffalo Chamber Players and many other chamber music festivals around western New York and Canada.

Tom Kolor [ top ]
Assistant Professor
MM Juilliard School

Percussionist Tom Kolor specializes in 20^th and 21^st century music, and is one of New York City's most in demand chamber musicians. Currently an Assistant Professor at University at Buffalo, Mr. Kolor directs the Percussion Ensemble, teaches private lessons, and is Principal Percussionist with UB's Slee Sinfonietta.

Professor Kolor appears throughout the United States and Europe as a member of Talujon Percussion, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Ensemble 21, Sospeso, American Modern Ensemble and Newband. In addition, he is a frequent guest of such ensembles as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York New Music Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, Continuum, Da Capo Chamber Players, Group for Contemporary Music, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

As a soloist, Professor Kolor has given dozens of premieres by such composers as Milton Babbitt, John Zorn, Wayne Peterson, Tania Leon, and Jerome Kitzke. He has recorded for Bridge, New World, Albany, Capstone, Innova, Wergo, Naxos, CRI, Koch, Tzadik, North/South Consonance, and Deutsche Grammophon labels.

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 ]
www.rinozaki.com
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 ]
www.christianbaldini.info
The dynamic work of Christian Baldini, conductor and composer, has taken him around the world, to guest conduct the Buenos Aires Philharmonic (Argentina), the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, opera for the Aldeburgh Festival (United Kingdom), and as a featured composer at the Acanthes Festival in France. After conducting the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP, Brazil), critic Arthur Nestrovski from the Folha de Sao Paulo praised this "charismatic young conductor" who "conducted by heart Brahms's First Symphony, lavishing his musicality and leaving sighs all over the hall and the rows of the orchestra...."

Baldini's music has been performed throughout Europe, South America, North America and Asia by orchestras and ensembles including the Orchestre National de Lorraine (France), Southbank Sinfonia (London), New York New Music Ensemble, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Daegu Chamber Orchestra (South Korea), Chronophonie Ensemble (Freiburg), International Ensemble Modern Academy (Frankfurt). His music appears on CD on the Pretal Label, and has been broadcast on SWR (German Radio) as well as in the National Classical Music Radio of Argentina. He has also conducted contemporary Italian music for the RAI Trade label.

Baldini's work has received awards in several competitions including the top prize at the Seoul International Competition for Composers (South Korea, 2005), the Tribune of Music (UNESCO, 2005), the Ossia International Competition (Rochester, NY, 2008), the Daegu Chamber Orchestra International Competition (South Korea, 2008), and the Sao Paulo Orchestra International Conducting Competition (Brazil, 2006). He has been an assistant conductor with the Britten-Pears Orchestra (England), has conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal National Scottish Orchestra and served as a cover conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, DC). After conducting the Slee Sinfonietta and the Symphony Orchestra at the State University of New York in Buffalo, Baldini is now on the Faculty at the University of California, Davis, where he serves as the Music Director of the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra.

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 Associate 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.

Nils Vigeland [ top ]
Nils Vigeland was born in Buffalo in 1950. He made his professional debut as a pianist in 1969 with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Lukas Foss, con-ductor. He studied composition with Mr. Foss and David Del Tredici at Harvard College. He earned his Ph. D at the State University at Buffalo where he studied with Morton Feldman.

For eight years (1980-89) Mr. Vigeland directed The Bowery Ensemble which gave an annual series of concerts in Cooper Union, NYC. The group gave the first performance of over thiry works by composers including John Cage, Jo Kondo, Pauline Oliveros and Leo Smit. Mr. Vigeland has recorded with Eberhard Blum and Jan Williams a 10 CD series for HAT ART of the complete extended duration works for flute, percussion and piano by Morton Feldman. His own work appears on CDs from Mode and Lovely Music. His choral music is published by Boosey and Hawkes.

In 1992 his opera, False Love/True Love , based on two scenes from Char-lotte Bronte's Jane Eyre , was commissioned and performed by The English National Opera at the Alemida Theatre, London. In 1989 he was a recipient of The Rose Prize which included a performance of his orchestral work, My Father's Song , by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Michael Morgan , conductor.

Mr. Vigeland has been the recipient of grants and awards from The Ford Foundation, The NEA Consortium Commission Program, Harvard College, The MacDowell Colony and The Mary Flagler Cary Trust. He has taught at Manhattan School of Music since 1984 where he is presently Chair of the Composition Department.

Carol Wincenc [ top ]
Carol Wincenc was First Prize Winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Solo Flute Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with such ensembles as the Chicago, Saint Louis, Atlanta and London Symphonies; the BBC and Buffalo Philharmonics, the Saint Paul and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras, and the New York Woodwind Quintet. She has performed in the Mostly Mozart Festival and the music festivals in Aldeburgh, Budapest, Frankfurt, Santa Fe, Spoleto and Marlboro. Ms. Wincenc has premiered numerous works written for her by many of today's most prominent composers, including Christopher Rouse, Henryk Gorecki, Lukas Foss, Peter Schickele, Joan Tower and Tobias Picker. She has recorded for Nonesuch, London/Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, and Telarc. As a result of her fascination with the flute family, Ms. Wincenc created and directed a series of International Flute Festivals in St. Paul, Minn, feturing such diverse artists as Jean-Pierre Rampal, Herbie Mann and the American Indian flutist R. Carlos Nakai. Carl Fischer is publishing a series of Carol Wincenc Signature Editions, featuring her favorite flute repertoire.

One of today's international stars of the flute, Carol Wincenc has appeared as soloist with major orchestras around the world and has premiered works written for her by many of today's most prominent composers. Equally in demand abroad, Ms. Wincenc has given acclaimed performances with the London Symphony, the English and Stuttgart chamber orchestras, and the international music festivals in Aldeburgh, Budapest, Tivoli and Frankfurt. Carol Wincenc was First Prize Winner of the Walter W. Naumberg Solo Flute Competition and is presently a professor of flute at the Julliard School of Music in New York. Carl Fischer has published the first in a series of Carol Wincenc Signature Editions which will feature her favorite flute repertoire.

Jerry Kirkbride [ top ]
Jerry Kirkbride, professor of music for clarinet, is the clarinetist of the world famous Dorian Wind Quintet (www.dorianwindquintet.org). He has toured the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe extensively as well as India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. Before joining the Dorian Wind Quintet in 1970, Kirkbride was principal clarinetist with the Metropolitan Opera National Company and was a Creative Associate at the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Kirkbride has performed in numerous chamber music concerts and free-lanced extensively in New York City for nearly twenty years. He was principal clarinetist of the Brooklyn Philharmonic for six years. After graduating from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Mitchell Lurie, he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to continue his studies in Rome, Italy where he worked with such artists as Nadia Boulanger, Efrem Kurtz, and Franco Ferrera. Kirkbride wrote the clarinet section of Teaching Woodwinds, a text for college wind instrumental techniques classes and has several editions and arrangements published by International Music Publishing Company. He has recorded for Vox, Columbia, CRI, Deutsche Grammophon, New World and Summit Records. Kirkbride joined the faculty at the University of Arizona in 1987 and is a member of the Arizona Wind Quintet. He was principal clarinetist with the Arizona Opera from 1989-1998 and performs each year at the Arizona Musicfest in Carefree, AZ.

Amanda DeBoer [ top ]
Since moving to Buffalo in 2007 to pursue a masters in voice, Amanda DeBoer, soprano, has maintained an active performance schedule in Chicago, Buffalo and Omaha performing with Dal Niente, Opera Cabal, ai Ensemble, BABEL: An Experimental Voice Ensemble, and Abraxas Contemporary Ensenble . She recently attended the SoundSCAPE Festival for Composition and Performance in Pavia, Italy where she received the award for "Outstanding Performer" and premiered works by several composers. This year she will be revisiting the role of "Ursula's Immortal Soul" in Nicholas DeMaison's Ursularia in December, as well as premiering works by several Buffalo area composers.

Amy Williams [ top ]
Amy Williams has appeared as a pianist and composer at renowned contemporary music venues in the United States and Europe, including the Ars Musica Festival (Belgium), Gaudeamus Music Week (Netherlands), Dresden New Music Days (Germany), Musikhøst Festival (Denmark), Festival Aspekte (Austria), Festival Musica Nova (Brazil), Subtropics Festival (Miami), Spring Festival of New Music (UK), Sound Field Festival (Chicago), Music Gallery (Toronto), LA County Museum of Art, and Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. Her works have been performed by leading contemporary music soloists and ensembles, including The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Aleph, Duo Diorama, Empyrean Ensemble, California E.A.R. Unit, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Due East, Bent Frequency, Dinosaur Annex, pianists Yvar Mikhashoff and Amy Briggs, bassist Robert Black, and a piano concerto for Ursula Oppens and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. Her recent work, First Lines (2006) will be released on Rara Records in 2008, performed by Andrea Ceccomori (flute) and Elena Harbova (piano). Other pieces will appear on forthcoming CDs on the Southport and Capstone labels.

As a member of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, she has performed throughout Europe and the Americas, including the Ojai Festival (California), Merkin Hall, Miller Theatre, Americas Society, Symphony Space (New York City), Musica Contemporanea Ciclos de Conciertos (Buenos Aires), Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), Köln Triennale, and Wittener Täge für Neue Kammermusik. The Duo's debut CD of Conlon Nancarrow's complete music for solo piano and piano duet (Wergo) has garnered much critical acclaim. Wergo recently released the Duo's second CD of the music of Stravinsky. Williams has also recorded for Mode, Albany and Hat-Art.

Williams holds a Ph.D. in composition from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she also received her Master's degree in piano performance. She has taught at Bennington College (1997-2000) and Northwestern University (2000-2005) and is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the recipient of a Howard Foundation Fellowship for 2008-2009.

Jan Williams, Percussionist [ top ]
Jan Williams is a percussion soloist and conductor. Composers who have written works especially for him include Lukas Foss, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Joel Chadabe, Morton Feldman, Orlando Garcia, Gustavo Matamoros, Luis de Pablo, Frederic Rzewski, Nils Vigeland, and Iannis

Xenakis. He has toured extensively as a percussion soloist and conductor throughout the United States, Europe, New Zealand and Australia and has recorded for Columbia, Vox/Turnabout, Desto, Lovely Music, Spectrum, Wergo, DGG, Orion, Hat-Art, OO, New World, Deep Listening, EMF and Mode Records. He served as Co-Artistic Director of the North American New Music Festival, with Yvar Mikhashoff, from 1985-1991. He is Professor emeritus at the University at Buffalo where he directed the percussion program for 30 years and served as Chair of the Music Department from 1980-84. He is Trustee of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music.

Jan Williams, percussion soloist and conductor, has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, New Zealand and Australia. He has recorded for Columbia, Vox/Turnabout, Desto, Lovely Music, Spectrum, Wergo, DGG, Orion, Hat-Art, OO, New World, Deep Listening, EMF Media, and Mode Records. Composers who have written works especially for him include Lukas Foss, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Joel Chadabe, Morton Feldman, Orlando Garcia, Gustavo Matamoros, Luis de Pablo, Frederic Rzewski, Nils Vigeland, and Iannis Xenakis. With Yvar Mikhashoff, he was Co-Artistic Director of the North American New Music Festival from 1985-1991. He is Professor emeritus at the University at Buffalo where he and John Bergamo founded the Unversity at Buffalo Percussion Ensemble in 1964. He was the ensemble's director until his retirement in 1996. He is Trustee of the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music.

Morton Feldman's compositions "Why Patterns?", "Crippled Symmetry", and "For Philip Guston" were written for the "Feldman Soloists": Jan Williams, Nils Vigeland and Eberhard Blum. This group performed the premieres of these works and presented Feldman's music widely in Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

Christina Walsh [ top ]
Christina Walsh received her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from SUNY Brockport. She has performed at the American College Dance Festival Gala at the Kennedy Center, the 2007 Best of Brockport concert, with the Rochester based company BIODANCE, Missy Pfohl Smith, artistic director, and in the Vision of Sound concert series in venues throughout upstate NY. She relocated to Buffalo earlier this month and is currently dancing with Buffalo Contemporary Dance and Melanie Aceto Contemporary Dance.

Melanie S. Aceto [ top ]
www.melanieacetocontemporarydance.com
Melanie Aceto is a modern dancer, choreographer and educator. Her work has been performed in Toronto, New York (Cool NY and D.U.M.B.O Dance Festivals, American Dance Guild, Uptown Performance Series, Underexposed Festival and Hatch), Washington D.C., New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. Melanie has worked extensively with contemporary composer Mark Olivieri on projects including the ImageMovementSound Festival, the Heidelberg New Music Festival and co-directing the Vision of Sound Concert of Live Music and Dance. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and is currently Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo.

Charles Z Bornstein [ top ]
was born in Buffalo and worked with Lukas Foss as a youth in Composition, Piano, Orchestration and Conducting. Bornstein graduated from the Juilliard School, Salzburg Mozarteum and Vienna Masterclass with Hans Swarowsky. He has been named of Music Director/Conductor of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra (CA), London Mozart Festival (CA) the Rockford Symphony Orchestra (Il) and the Woodstock Summer Festival. Mr Bornstein worked exclussively with Iannis Xenakis and recorded his music on MODE, VANDENBURG, ASPHODEL and COL LEGNO labels. He was named LEONARD BERNSTEIN SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE of the NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC from 2005-2008 seasons. His work in analyzing the thought processes in Leonard Bernstein's interpretations has cultivated a new educational audience at the New York Philharmonic. He is presently compiling these lectures as a book under the title of BERNSTEIN CONCEPT. Bornstein played piano concertos with the Buffalo Philharmonic under Lukas Foss and Melvin Strauss. His works were performed at the Albright-Knox Evenings for New Music as well. For their first Martin Luther King Concert, the BPO engaged Bornstein to conduct his SYMPHONY JFK/MLK JR IN MEMORIAM for national broadcast. The symphony was premiered in Carnegie Hall with the ASO/Commissiona and later Bornstein conducted it for PBS with the Rockford Illinois Symphony.

Mario Lavista, composer [ top ]
Born in Mexico City in 1943, Mario Lavista began piano studies as a child and enrolled at the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica in 1963 under the guidance of Carlos Chavez, Hector Quintanar and Rodolfo Halffter. He studied at the Schola Cantorum in Paris(1967-1969), where he also attended courses given by Henri Pousseur, Nadia Boulanger, Christoph Caskel and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Upon his return to Mexico he founded Quanta, a collective improvisation group. In 1972, he worked at the electronic music studio of radio and television in Tokyo, Japan. He has worked on interdisciplinary projects, such as Jaula (1976), and in the creation of multiple scores for films produced by Nicolas Echevarria. Around 1980, he explored extended techniques of traditional instruments in collaboration with performers Marielena Arizpe (flutist), Bertram Turetzky (bassist), Leonora Saavedra (oboist) and El Cuarteto Latinoamericano (strings), in the compositions Triptico, Dusk, Marsias and Reflejos de la noche, respectively. In 1982, he founded Pauta, one of the most important music journals in Latin America, and has served as its chief editor ever since. As a writer, he has produced many essays, most of which are collected in Textos en torno a la musica.

In 1987 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his first and only opera Aura, based on the short story by Carlos Fuentes. He has received many awards, such as the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes and the Medalla Mozart. Since 1998, Lavista has been a member of the prestigious EI Colegio Nacional. He has taught in Mexico and abroad, especially in North American institutions, including the University of Chicago, Cornell University, the University of California San Diego, Indiana University and McGill University. His works are frequently performed by some of the most distinguished chamber and orchestral groups. For recordings of his music, he has received the award for best classical album of the year from the journal Viceversa (1998, for Missa Brevis ad Consolationis Dominam Nostram) and a Grammy nomination (1999, shared with the other composers featured on the CRI recording Voces Americanas

Valerie Heywood [ top ]
Valerie Heywood is Principal Violist of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. She has appeared as soloist on numerous occasions, most recently in Mozart's Sinfonie concertante. Prior to coming to Buffalo she performed with the New York City based Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Barge Music, the Virtuosi Ensemble, and the Con Brio Ensemble. During the summer she performs with the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. She has been professor of viola and chamber music at the University of Toledo (Ohio), and as viola faculty at SUNY at Buffalo and Fredonia. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan and her Masters degree from the Juilliard School.

Alan Feinberg [ top ]
Pianist Alan Feinberg has forged a remarkable career based on musical exploration. His intelligence, integrity, and affinity for an unusually wide range of repertoire place him among those few artists who are able to build a bridge between the past and the present. From Bach to Babbitt, Feinbergs creative approach to programming has placed him in an unusual position. With over 300 premieres to his credit (by such composers as John Adams, Charles Ives, Steve Reich, John Harbison, Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen) he is well known for recitals that pair old and new music and put a fresh and provocative perspective on both. Alan Feinberg has toured several times with the Cleveland Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnanyi, first performing Shulamit Rans Concert Piece (including an appearance in Carnegie Hall). He has also performed the Brahms Second Piano Concerto on tour with the Cleveland Orchestra, and his most recent collaboration with it featured the world premiere of Charles Ives Emerson Concerto, and subsequent performances in London, Paris, and Amsterdam were hailed as a major achievement by Ives scholars. Mr. Feinberg is often on the cutting edge. He was featured on opening night of the San Francisco Symphonys Maverick Festival, at the New Horizons Festival of the New York Philharmonic, the 10th anniversary concert of the American Composers Orchestra, the 92nd Street Ys Berio Sequenza Marathon, the first performance of Act 1 of John Adams Nixon in China for the Guggenheims Works in Progress Series, and the Carnegie Hall birthday celebration of George Gershwin with Dick Hyman. He has performed as soloist with the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish, the American Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the New World Symphony, and many others. Alan Feinberg has recorded four solo CDs for Decca that survey American music: The American Romantic, The American Virtuoso, The American Innovator, and Fascinating Rhythm:American Syncopation. In addition he has recorded piano concerti by: Mel Powell, Milton Babbitt, Andrew Imbrie, Kamran Ince, Morton Feldman, Paul Bowles, Amy Beach, Charles Ives, Don Gilles, and Robert Helps. He recently received his fourth Grammy nomination for Best Instrumentalist with Orchestra for the recording of the Amy Beach Piano Concerto with the Nashville Symphony.

Mr. Feinberg also enjoys an outstanding reputation abroad. He has appeared at the festivals of Edinburgh, Bath, Cambridge, Huddersfield, Geneva, Budapest, Berlin, Brescia and Bergamo, and he was the first pianist to be invited by the Union of Soviet Compsers to represent American contemporary music with performances in Moscow and Leningrad. This year Mr. Feinberg was featured in a series of programs by the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. He has participated in collaborations with Robert Wilson and with a dance company as part of the Guggenheim Museum's Works and Process series, and recently recorded Charles Wuorinen's Violin Sonata with violinist Mark Steinberg after a 70th Birthday concert for Mr. Wuorinen at the Library of Congress.

J.T. Rinker [ top ]
J.T. Rinker writes acoustic music, electronic music and live interactive music and works in other media such as film, video, and robotic arts. His work is informed by and often combines elements from these various fields. J.T. is currently Managing Director of the Center for 21st Century Music at the Unversity at Buffalo and teaches a course in Interactive Computer Art as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Visual Studies.

Vincent O'Neill [ top ]
www.irishclassicaltheatre.com
An honors graduate in Arts from University College, Dublin, and in Education from Trinity College, Dublin, O'Neill trained as an actor at the prestigious Abbey Theatre School of Acting, attached to Ireland's National Theatre. Subsequently he trained as a mime artist with the legendary Marcel Marceau for several years in Paris, and graduated from Marceau's International Mime School in 1980.

On returning to Ireland, he won the Harvey's National Theatre Award for "Best Newcomer in Irish Theatre". He then founded the Oscar Mime Company, Ireland's first professional mime company, and became its Artistic Director. He also founded and was director of the Dublin Theatre School, a conservatory for professional actors. Having taught mime at virtually every theatrical institution in Ireland, Vincent was appointed to the Drama Faculty at Trinity College.

In 1985, he was invited to become a member of the internationally celebrated Abbey Theatre Company, both as actor and director. With the Abbey Company, he toured to the Edinburgh Theatre Festival, ( winner of the Fringe First Award ), London, Paris, Philadelphia, New York , Hong Kong, the Bolshoi Theatre in Leningrad and to the Moscow Arts Theatre.

He was invited by both the President and Prime Minister of Ireland to give command performances of his internationally acclaimed one-man-show, "Joyicity".

He has toured this show extensively throughout Europe and the USA, with two runs off-Broadway, and also to Toronto, Sydney and Tokyo.

Since relocating to Western New York in 1989, he has worked both as actor and director in all of the region's major theatres, and has won numerous awards for acting, directing and playwriting.

He has been a member of the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo since 1990, where he is former Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance.

O'Neill was awarded the YMCA's Toast of Buffalo Award for his contribution to the cultural life of Western New York.

A co-founder of the Irish Classical Theatre Company, winner of the Arts Council's Outstanding Artistic Organization Award, he has also been its Artistic Director since 1990.

Elliot Caplan [ top ]
Filmmaker, producer/director Elliot Caplan is currently Professor of Film, Department of Media Study, and Director, Center for the Moving Image, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. His work in documentary, art filmmaking, and performance with choreographer Merce Cunningham, composer John Cage and video artist Nam June Paik is internationally recognized. His films and videos are in museum and film collections throughout the world. Caplan also designs and directs theatrical presentations incorporating media as décor. Caplan received an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Cultural and Historical Programming" for his work on the PBS Network. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards. In 1996, Caplan founded Picture Start Films to facilitate his artistic work.

The Washington Post said of "Cage/Cunningham", "One of the things which makes the film remarkable is that although the ingredients are familiar with other documentaries…the tapestry that Caplan has woven from these threads is not like any you've seen before".

On "CRWDSPCR", London's TIME OUT reads, "Attention: genius at work. Elliot Caplan's lovingly observed film is one of the most entertaining and revealing entries in the short 'Summer Dance' season."

Charles Wetherbee [ top ]
Violinist Charles Wetherbee has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. He has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, the Garth Newell Center, the Hidden Valley Festival, the Roycroft Chamber Festival, the Nouvelle Academie International d'Été (Nice, France), the Olympic Music Festival, the MidAmerica Music Festival, and at Strings in the Mountains in Steamboat, CO. Charles has been the Concertmaster of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra following his appointment in 1994. He has appeared numerous times as soloist with the orchestra, earning high praise both from audiences and critics. After a recent performance with the Columbus Symphony, The Columbus Dispatch wrote "...a first rate showman...his doublestops, harmonics, and beautiful sound kept the audience spellbound".

A native of Buffalo, New York, Charles gave his first performances at age six. He made his debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under Symon Bychkov, and since then has performed with the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovitch, as well as the Alexandria Symphony, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, the Minnesota Synphonia, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Orchestra Nacional de Mexico, the Symphony Orchestra of the Curtis Institute, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Virginia Symphony, among others. In 1988, he toured Asia with the National Repertory Orchestra as concertmaster and soloist, including performances in Seoul, Korea as part of the Olympic Arts Festival. In the same year he also made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim as a participant in the American Music Competition. In 1990, he traveled to the Persian Gulf to perform for the men and women of the armed services. The Washington Post called Wetherbee "a consumate artist...with flawless technique". The Virginia Pilot said that he "...gave a performance of great conviction and emotion". Recently, Mr. Wetherbee was awarded the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra's 2005-2006 Ashworth Artist award. He was also the recipient of the Columbus Symphony's 2003 George Hardesty Award.

Charles is an artist dedicated to the music of today, as well as the great literature of the past. In May of 2007, he was invited to St. Petersburg, Russia, to give the Russian premeire of Grammy Award winning composer John Corigliano's Violin Concerto, and he was subsequently invited back to perform the Beethoven concerto in the famous Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall. In November 2005, Charles gave the World Premiere of the Violin Concerto by composer Jonathan Leshnoff with the Columbus Symphony, and subsequently performed the concerto in Baltimore, MD with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. After this performance, The Baltimore Sun wrote "This was very classy fiddle playing, with a golden, penetrating tone, sterling technique and strongly communicative phrasing." Mr. Wetherbee then performed the Leshnoff concerto in Mexico City, Mexico, with the Orchestra Nacional de Mexico, in Kyoto, Japan, with the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, and in Breckenridge, Colorado, with the National Repertory Orchestra. Charles has been heard nationwide on the NPR program "Performance Today", featuring his performance of the Red Violin by John Corigliano with Joanne Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2002, he gave the Latin American premiere of the Red Violin, and was immediately re-engaged to return in 2003, for performances of the Szymanowski Violin Concerto. He has also been heard throughout the Northwest United States on public radio as a performer in the Olympic Music Festival from 2002 - 2006.

A devoted chamber musician, Charles is the first violinist of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, with whom he tours and performs regularly. He is also the Artistic Director of The Marble Cliff Chamber Players, a music festival based in Columbus, Ohio. He is founding member of Opus 3 piano trio, and with Opus 3 has performed in the French, German, Austrian, and Dutch embassies, as well as the Terrace Theater of the Kennedy Center, the National Gallery, the Corcoran Gallery, Strathmore Hall, and throughout the eastern United States. He is also the artistic director of the Snake River Chamber Players, in Keystone, Colorado.

Charles is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Aaron Rosand. Other mentors include Sylvia Rosenberg, Karen Tuttle, and Felix Galimir. As a recording artist, he is represented on Naxos, the Vienna Modern Classics, as well as the Cascade labels, and in 2002 was also featured on a recording with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra playing Massenet's Meditation from Thais. In 2002, Charles was fortunate to acquire a violin made by Kurt Widenhouse.

March, 2009

Phyllis East [ top ]
Phyllis East, Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Keyboard Area at SUNY College at Fredonia, holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the School of Music at SUNY College at Fredonia. Further studies followed at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, Case-Western Reserve University in Cleveland, the Marlboro Summer Music Festival in Vermont, and the Franz Schubert Institute for singers and pianists in Vienna. A much sought-after chamber musician, Mrs. East continues an active career with frequent concerto and recital appearances. Pianist with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, she has performed as soloist with the orchestra in concertos by Mozart, Ravel, Gershwin, Messiaen, Bach, Poulenc, Schumann, and the premiere of the Ballade for Piano and Orchestra by American composer Byron Adams. She has also performed as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Erie Philharmonic and as harpsichordist with the International Baroque Soloists Bach and Beyond Festival. Her recording of Schubert's Winterreisse with baritone Patrick Mason was released by Bridge Records in the spring of 1995 and has received glowing reviews. For seven years she served as piano instructor for the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts. In 1989 the SUNY College at Fredonia honored her as the recipient of the President's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Virginia Barron [ top ]
Violist Virginia Barron is equally adept as a chamber player, orchestral musician, and teacher. A native of Toronto, Canada, Virginia received her training at the University of Toronto and the Manhattan School of Music. Her principal teachers were Lillian Fuchs, Kim Kashkashian, and Paul Armin. An experienced orchestral player, Virginia has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Lyric Opera Orchestra, and the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. She has been a regular sub with the Chicago Symphony for the past 18 years, and has gone on five international tours with the orchestra, most recently to Amsterdam, London, and Lucerne, under Bernard Haitink.

An ardent chamber musician, Virginia has served the Colorado College Summer Music Festival for many years, as performer, teacher and Associate Director. She is also Associate Director of the Sweetwater Chamber Music Weekend in Owen Sound, Ontario, and heads the Education Committee of that festival. Other summer chamber music festivals she has appeared at include Ravinia, Grand Teton, Algonquin, Yellow Barn, and the Greenwood Music Camp. She has performed frequently with Robert Aitken's New Music Concerts in Toronto, and is heard on a recent Naxos release of the music of Elliot Carter. A dedicated teacher and chamber music coach, she currently serves on the faculties of the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto.

Shieh-Jian Tsai, Violin [ top ]
Shieh-Jian Tsai was born in Taipei, Taiwan. He began playing the violin at age 6, and attended music schools in Taipei until 1991, when he immigrated to the US with his family. Shieh-Jian received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory in Boston, MA. His principle teachers include Mr. Gerardo Ribeiro, Mr. Sherban Lupu, and Ms. Masuko Ushioda. Shieh-Jian has been a participant of Musicorda, Tanglewood, and Sarasota Music Festivals, where he learned from great musicians such as Ronald Copes, Pamela Frank, Emanual Ax, and Arnold Steinhardt, and performed orchestral and chamber music with colleagues from around the country. As a member of the Nuance Chamber Ensemble, he has performed regularly in concert halls in Taiwan and at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. He has also been a soloist with the Taiwan Strings Orchestra after winning their 5th violin concerto competition in 2004. Most recently, he was invited on European and South American tour with the Verbier Festival Orchestra under direction of Maestro Jiri Belohlavek and pianist Yundi Lee and Lang Lang. Shieh-Jian performs frequently with the Buffalo Chamber Players and is currently in the second violin section of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Barry J. Crawford [ top ]
Flutist, Barry J. Crawford is a member of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York City and the international touring group, Poetica Musica, with whom he has performed and given master classes in over 16 countries. He regularly performs as a guest artist with some of New York's leading ensembles. The New York Sun reported, "Mr. Crawford is a musician with guts….and brought a robust flute sound", "Crawford always performs with steely accuracy and a superb, singing tone". The Southampton Press said of his performance, " … Crawford's playing was superb. I admired his tone, his phrasing and breath control, and the joy-giving communicative quality of his playing.'' "Crawford is a superb flutist with a silvery tone, exquisite phrasing, and a fluid deftness". He has participated in numerous internationally recognized music festivals, such as Mostly Mozart, the Lincoln Center Festival, the Spoleto Festival in Spoleto, Italy, and the Pablo Casals Festival, in San Juan, Puerto Rico . Mr. Crawford is a staff member at the Composers Conference at Wellesley College, an Affiliate Teaching Artist at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, and Assistant Adjunct Professor of Flute and director of the flute ensemble at the University at Buffalo.

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