Dan Barrett, Director

Tyler Learned, Director and Stage Manager

Joe Gallant, Assistant Director

Milton Fletcher, Design/Cyber Gallery

Charles Moses, Technical Director

Daniel Palkowski, Astrid Steiner, aka VJ Luma and Florian Launisch, videographer

Bruce Silverglade, president of Gleason's Gym, Cannibal emcee, and co-presenter of STRIKE!

 

Dan Barrett, "a brilliant and driven cellist, composer, and conductor" - Huffington Post, is the creator, and current Director of the International Street Cannibals, whom the NY Times calls "a brash new-music ensemble", who Alan Lockwood of the Free Press has termed "kaleidoscopically eclectic", and of whose concerts Peter Christian Hall of the Huffington Post refers to as "performances that are creatively designed and rigorously executed".

Dan has played extensively for PBS, particularly as cellist for many of their featured documentaries, such as "The Great Depression," and Ric Burns' "The Way West", "Andy Warhol", "The History of New York" and "Death and The Civil War." At present, Dan can be heard on the top-rated BBC America series, "Copper", on which his solos are featured extensively.

His solo credits include the Radio France Festival, The Gulbenkian Festival(Lisbon), "Festival Presences"(Paris), the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and WQXR, as well as featured solos on record for works of Iannis Xenakis (Mode and Vanderberg labels) and on RCA for the renowned Irish ensemble Cherish The Ladies and on Sony for solos on the soundtrack for the Documentary "Andy Warhol". Other credits include onstage cellist in James Joyce's "The Dead" on Broadway, Orchestra of St. Luke's, NYC Opera, the American Ballet Theater, Philomusica, Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Sirius Quartet, and principal positions for the STX Ensemble, Strathmere Chamber Orchestra, Connecticut Grand Opera, the SEM Ensemble and the Crosstown Ensemble. His compositions have been performed by The Absolute Ensemble, The Absolute Chamber Players, Composer's Concordance, Mountain Stage, the ISC, The West Virginia Symphony, NY Mandolin Orchestra, and the North/South Consonance.

Dan has conducted the New York Bach Ensemble, James Joyce's "The Dead" on Broadway, the ISC Ensemble, the Ethos Ensemble, the Composers Concordance Ensemble, the Absolute Chamber Players on the Kostabi Series, and The Sound Liberation Ensemble. His television appearances include features with the rock group Third Eye Blind and appearances on Saturday Night Live and the Rosie O'Donnell Show. He has recorded extensively for Windham-Hill, Shanachie, RCA and Mode record labels.

Mr Barrett has taught at the Outreach Academy in Schwaz, Austria; at New York University; at The Norwalk Youth Symphony (Norwalk, Connecticut) and at the Chamber Music Institute for Young Musicians, in Stamford, Connecticut, since 2002 and at "Counterpoint Italy", in Lucca, Italy, where he teaches cello and orchestration.

 

Ariadne Greif, praised for her “luminous, expressive voice,” “searing top notes,” and “dusky depths,” (NY Times), began her opera career as a ‘boy’ soprano in Los Angeles and at the LA Opera, eventually making an adult debut singing Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the American Symphony Orchestra. She starred in roles ranging from Therese/Tirésias in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias , singing a “thoroughly commanding and effortless” run at the Aldeburgh Festival, to Sappho in Atthis by Georg Friedrich Haas, which the New York Times called “a solo high-wire act for Ms. Greif,” “a vehicle for Ms. Greif’s raw, no-holds-barred performance,” and “one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.” This season and last season include Carmina Burana, La Bohème, The Magic Flute, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 , Mozart Requiem , Mozart Vespers K.321 , and Babbit’s A Solo Requiem, performances with William Kentridge of the Dada masterpiece Ursonate, concerts of chamber music in Weill Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, across the US, Canada, Finland, the Middle East, and appearances with Mainly Mozart Miami, Contemporaneous, Metropolis Ensemble, Lukas Ligeti, Gabriel Kahane, SHUFFLE Concert, The Knights, and members of The Orlando Philharmonic. Greif created a twenty-composer commissioning project of her own, called Dreams & Nightmares. Her most recent role was Adina in The Elixir of Love with The Orlando Philharmonic
http://www.ariadnegreifsoprano.com/

Sammy Lesnick, is a clarinetist living in New York City, devoted to the performance of chamber music and contemporary music. A recent graduate of the Eastman School of Music, his teachers include Kenneth Grant, Jon Manasse, Sean Osborn, and Kim Fay. Sammy was the winner of Eastman’s 2013 clarinet concerto competition, performing Magnus Lindberg’s concerto with the Eastman Philharmonia and conductor Brad Lubman. He was awarded first place clarinet at the Washington State solo competition in 2012 and in the same year won the Seattle Symphony Young Artist Competition, performing the final movement of Weber’s Concerto No. 2 with the orchestra and conductor Ludovic Morlot. Sammy’s passion for new music has led to performances in St. Louis with Alarm Will Sound, in New York City with Ensemble Signal, and at many other venues around the country as well as in Italy, France, Spain, and Greece. He has worked with many composers, including Rand Steiger, Chaya Czernowin, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and recently with Steve Reich, performing his New York Counterpoint for clarinet solo at Eastman’s Kilbourn Hall in the presence of the composer, with an additional performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Sammy is an enthusiastic chamber musician, having performed much of the wind quintet repertoire, in addition to many works with strings and piano. He also has experience as a composer, arranger, and concert producer. In all his musical activities, he hopes to escape the boundaries of formality and convention by approaching everything with a sense of adventure and spontaneity. To this end, he often uses improvisation, electronics, and performance art in his concerts. Originally from Seattle, Sammy has had a life-long love for nature. When he’s not playing music, he’s usually out walking, biking, kayaking, and looking for funny animals.

New York based musician, Jessica Han (Jesse), is Principal Flute of Opera Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, NY, a member of Jazz Band, The Gil Evans Project and is a substitute musician for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony, and broadway musicals Wicked and The Lion King. Additionally, Ms. Han performed as Guest Principal flute and piccolo for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (2014) and Opera National de Lorraine/Orchestra Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy et de Lorraine (2012). This past January (2018), Ms. Han made her debut with the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur as Principal Flute, and will be on trial as their new Principal Flute during the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2018-2019 season. As a member of the Gil Evans Project, Ms. Han performed on three time Grammy nominated album, Centennial: Newly Discovered works of Gil Evans) and Grammy nominated album Lines of Color. The Gil Evans Project was awarded two JJA Jazz awards for Large Ensemble of the Year (Ryan Truesdell’s Gil Evans Project) and Record of the Year (Centennial: Newly Discovered works of Gil Evans). Ms. Han also had the privilege of performing flute and bass flute for Maria Schneider and the late David Bowie on Bowie's last single Sue (Or in a Season of Crime). Sue (Or in a Season of Crime) received Grammy awards for best arrangement, best instrumental and vocals for Maria Schneider. After completing her conservatory training at the Juilliard School in 2010, Ms. Han returned to university to get a traditional liberal arts education. In 2015, she graduated cum laude from Columbia University with a B.A. in French literature. Upcoming projects include scoring for short film, Redemption Song by August Dannehl, play, Dark was the Night by Maurice Decaul and short film, Printed in Fire by John Kowalchuk.

Nara Avetisyan Armenian pianist Nara Avetisyan has garnered accolades as a performer equally at home in recital, concerto, and chamber music appearances. Born into an artistic family, Nara began her piano studies at the age of six at the Alexander Spendiaryan Music School, and just a year later won her first competition. An in-demand artist, Ms. Avetisyan has given recitals in Vienna, Munich, Geneva, London, Monaco, Sochi, Boston, Los Angeles and other European and U.S. cities

Ms. Avetisyan is currently pursuing her Doctor in Musical Arts degree (DMA) at Stony Brook University with Gilbert Kalish and Christina Dahl. She finished her Master's double-degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) in both solo and collaborative piano performance, studying with Sergei Babayan and Anita Pontremoli, respectively. She also holds a certificate in piano pedagogy from CIM. In 2014, Ms. Avetisyan received first prize in the "Grant" piano competition in Sioux Falls. She has received prizes in numerous competitions, including the Balys Dvarionas International Piano Competition (Lithuania), "Konzerteum" International Piano Competition (Greece), "Le Muse" International Piano Competition (Italy), and the "Chopin Rome 2008" International Piano Competition (Italy).

As a winner of the CIM Concerto Competition, Nara recently performed with the CIM orchestra in Severance Hall, under the baton of the well-known conductor Jahja Ling. She received her B.M. in piano performance from CIM in 2014 as a student of Sergei Babayan. Ms. Avetisyan has been a recipient of Sergei Babayan Prize in Piano, and Dr. Joseph and Bess Scharff Leven Prize in Piano at CIM.

During her time at CIM, Nara was selected to participate in the Advanced Piano Trio Program under the tutelage of the well-known cellist Sharon Robinson, with whom she has also concertized. Ms. Avetisyan has performed with the Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra, Youth Chamber Orchestra, Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, and the CIM Orcherstra. Ms. Avetisyan took part in festivals such as Cleveland's Art Song Festival, Pianofest in the Hamptons, New York, and National Gallery International Music Festival in Armenia. Nara actively collaborates and performs with various instrumentalists and singers, including violinist Eli Matthews, first assistant principal of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 1987, Anna Tsukervanik started her studies at the age of 4 at the Uspensky Specialist Music School. Her first solo performance was at the age of 8. At the age of 14, she took first prize in the Glazunov International Violin Competition in Paris. She is the Grand-Prix winner of the International Violin Competition held in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan). In 2009 Anna performed with the Gunma Youth Symphony Orchestra Festival in Tokyo, and in concert series with the Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg (Germany), conducted by Claus-Peter Modest, held in Bukhara (Uzbekistan). In 2013 she performed a debut recital in New York City at the Lyric Chamber Music Society. Anna has served as Concertmaster of the Lynn University Philharmonia in Boca Raton, FL and Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra in Stony Brook, NY. Participated in master classes with Leon Fleisher, Guillermo Figueroa, Schmuel Ashkenasi, Elmar Oliveira, Wu Han, Philip Setzer, Ilya Kaler, Philip Fowke, Mikhail Gotzdinner; as a member of orchestra performed under the baton of John Nelson, Albert-George Schram, Jon Robertson, Guillermo Figueroa, Greg Ritchey, Jens Georg Bachman among others; worked and performed with such distinguished artists as Ilya Kaler, Lawrence Dutton of the Emerson String Quartet, Mark Jackobs, Yael Weiss, and Ralph Kirshbaum. Anna graduated from the Uspensky School in 2007 and entered the State Conservatoire of Uzbekistan. Currently, Anna is studying with Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet for her Doctoral Degree in Violin Performance at Stony Brook University, NY.

Pianist Conor Hanick’s wide-ranging musical abilities and diverse artistic interests have led to acclaimed solo and chamber performances around the world. In programs ranging from the early Baroque to the newly written, Hanick has collaborated with some of the world’s leading ensembles and conductors, including Pierre Boulez, David Robertson and James Levine. He has been heard throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and in virtually every prominent arts venue in New York City. Season highlights include the premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Piano Concerto with Carlos Izcaray and the Alabama Symphony; György Ligeti’s Piano Concerto with Alan Gilbert for the NYPhil Biennial; and performances with the Talea Ensemble, ICE, The Knights and Chatter. In addition, Conor continues his partnership with cellist Jay Campbell, giving recitals in Seattle, San Francisco, Indianapolis and New York, featuring premiere performances of works written for them by Eric Wubbels, David Hertzberg and David Fulmer. He will appear in the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW series, performing solo music of Pierre Boulez. A recent finalist for the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, Hanick is a graduate of Northwestern University and the Juilliard School, where he received his Masters and Doctorate degrees studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio. He is a faculty artist at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, produces radio for New York Public Radio’s Q2 Music, and resides in Brooklyn, New York. Conor Hanick is a Yamaha Artist. www.conorhanick.tumblr.com

Arthur Kampela has received commissions and awards from the The New York Philharmonic (2009), Guggenheim Foundation (2014), Koussevitzky Foundation (2007), Collegium Novum Zurich (2013), DAAD (Artist-in-Residence Berliner Künstlerprogramm 2012-13), Fromm Music Foundation (1998), ISCM/World Music Days Stuttgart 2006, Germany, Rio-Arte Foundation, Brazil (1999) and fellowships from the Brazilian Government (CNPq) among many others.

Alastair Greig studied composition with Oliver Knussen before entering the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has received commissions from a number of ensembles and performers, including BCMG, Rolf Hind, ESO, the Lyric Quartet and Virelai. He has been the recipient of many awards and commissions, such as the Kazimierz International Composition Competition (Warsaw), first prize at the Gino Contilli International Composition Competition, the Henri Dutilleux Composition Prize (France), the Eurorchestries International Composition Prize (France), first prize in the Francesc Civil International Composition Competition (Girona, Spain), the prize at Sesto Concorso Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea Citta di Udine, and the first international London Ear Festival Composition Competition; Sydney Contemporary Orchestra, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and Bromsgrove Mixing Music.

Dominique Lemaître studied humanities and then musicology at the University of Rouen. He embarked on electro-acoustics and composition with Jacques Petit at the Paris Conservatory, took part in various public classes, notably those of Klaus Huber, and collaborated with the studio of Vierzon after meeting Nicolas Frize. Infused with the work of Bach, Debussy, Edgar Varèse, György Ligeti and Giacinto Scelsi, but also with extra-European music, Dominique Lemaître finds inspiration in mythology (Circé, 1998), the visual arts (La Ghirlandata, 1998) and poetry (Un oubli servant d’étoile, 2000). He has written for various groupings: solo (Mnaïdra, 1992; Échos des cinq élements, 2003), quartet (Paysages imaginaires, 1994; Lignes fugitives, 2009), ensemble (Gravitations, 1989; Secrète perspectives, 2010), orchestra (Tellus, 1995; Le quark et le papillon, 2004), mixed music, with a preference for concertante music (Hypérion, 1997; Horizons réflexes, 2006) and the voice (Babilim, 2004; Nocturnal, 2008). His work has been performed in more than 30 countries, including China, the U.S., Great Britain, Japan, and Russia, and by the Philharmonique de Radio France, and l’Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI.

Christopher Lyndon-Gee’s international renown as conductor has been described as “that rare phenomenon: an artist whose spiritual depth and intellectual mastery rise far above the marketing dominated glamour industry that characterises so much of music today.” His approach on the podium is rooted in his scrupulous, refined, highly regarded work as composer. Honoured as Laureate of the Onassis Foundation, Athens, for his ballet score Il Poeta muore, his music has also won the Adolf Spivakovsky Prize, three ‘Sounds Australian’ awards (for his Hymn for Sarum - Te Deum and other works), and two MacDowell Fellowships. His Overture Intrada Cubana has been widely played in many countries, most recently celebrating Sofia Gubaidulina’s 80th birthday in Poland.

He is currently writing a new Violin Concerto for Lithuanian violinist Justina Auškelyte?. He is included among the 300 conductors described in Naxos’s 600-page book and CD compilation A to Z of Conductors, covering the entire history of the art form from Hans von Bülow and Arthur Nikisch to the present day. Christopher Lyndon-Gee was nominated for GRAMMY® Awards in 1998 for ‘Best Orchestral Performance’ for the first volume of his groundbreaking series of the complete works of Igor Markevitch (originally released on Marco Polo); in 2003 for the world premiere recording of George Rochberg’s Symphony No. 5 and Transcendental Variations on Naxos American Classics; and again in 2007 for Hans Werner Henze’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 3. Others of his seventy-nine (plus four in the pipeline!) CD recordings have been listed among Gramophone magazine’s Editor’s Choice, Fanfare magazine’s Outstanding CDs of the Year, Penguin Guide to Compact Discs’ multiple Rosettes and Key Recordings listings, and he won the Pizzicato prize in Luxembourg. Frequently invited to Poland, at the jubilee 50th Anniversary Warsaw Autumn Festival in 2007 he conducted four world premieres in a single concert – new symphonies by the Slovakian composer Roman Berger; Lithuania’s leading female composer Onute? Narbutaite?; and the Polish composers Jerzy Kornowicz and Alexander Lason´’s Fourth Symphony. Nine years later, Lason´ insisted on this conductor for the world premiere of his Fifth Symphony in 2016; and both the Fourth and the Fifth will feature in a forthcoming Naxos release.

Since an auspicious 2013 debut, he has been invited several times each year to return to guest-conduct the National Symphony Orchestra of the Lithuanian Philharmonic, conducting also at the renowned GAIDA Festival of contemporary music in Vilnius, most recently with world premieres of several younger Lithuanian composers alongside David Lang and Arvo Pärt, in the presence of all the composers. Lyndon-Gee studied conducting under Rudolf Schwarz in London, and Franco Ferrara in Rome; Leonard Bernstein invited him to study at Tanglewood after hearing him conduct a student concert in Rome. At Tanglewood, he worked also under Maurice Abravanel, Erich Leinsdorf and Kurt Masur. He was Bruno Maderna’s assistant at La Scala, Milan, later becoming second conductor at the Teatro Regio in Turin, and with the RAI orchestra Torino. With composer Lorenzo Ferrero he co-founded the Ensemble Fase Seconda, who premiered dozens of commissioned new works throughout Italy, Germany, France and at many international festivals. As composer, he studied with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome, Luciano Berio, Sylvano Bussotti, Pierre Boulez and Jean Martinon. Britain’s great musicologist and composer Arthur Hutchings remains a powerful guiding influence, several decades on.

Fernando Maglia has written works for chamber and symphonic music, opera, and electronics. His eclectic style investigates the boundaries of silence and noise, poetry and drama, and draws from sources as varied as European early music, Latin American ethnic music, and African chant. His works have been widely performed in Latin America and Europe, and as a soloist, he has performed with, among others, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the Royal Academy of Music (London). He is Professor of Guitar at the Conservatorio de Musica de Bahia Blanca (Buenos Aires). He studied Mathematics at the Universidad Nacional de Sur, and composition with Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, Franco Donatoni, Luca Lombardi and Giacomo Manzoni.

Dubbed by Pierre Boulez as "an instrumentalist without peer", Linda Wetherill has been principal flutist with the orchestras of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Boulez' IRCAM Ensemble Intercontemporain of the renowned Centre Pompidou for International Acoustical Research (Paris), where she was resident flutist, and collaborated and premiered works of internationally acclaimed composers. Wetherill is on the faculty of Adelphi University, and has held posts as lecturer on contemporary music at Bosphorus University (Istanbul), the French National Conservatory, Philadelphia University of the Arts, and at the Turkish Universities in Izmir, Ankara, and Istanbul.
lindawetherill.com

Composer/bassist/filmmaker and sound designer, Joe Gallant, is an Emmy Award winner and 6-time nominee. As filmmaker, his edgy-smart style has attracted such luminaries as director Robert Altman, who chose a number of Gallant's scenes as on-camera story material in his acclaimed network series "Tanner on Tanner".

An NYC network-tv, theater and orchestral composer, Mr Gallant has garnered international press and numerous commissions. With his signature ensemble, the 18-piece orchestra, "Illuminati", he has written, arranged, and produced 8 large-scale CD projects. Receiving a 1995 commission from "The Grateful Dead" to rearrange the legendary group's acclaimed "Blues for Allah", Mr Gallant created, conducted, arranged and recorded the "Blues for Allah Project" CD, released on Knitting Factory Records - an orchestrated tribute in honor of the original project's 20th anniversary.

A selection of Gallant's original compositions, film scores, experimental films and writings were chosen in 2006 for New York University’s Fales Collection, an internationally recognized collection of the works of NYC artists and writers including William S. Burroughs, Patti Smith, Richard Hell, Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno and Kathy Acker, among others.

Renowned luthier Alleva-Coppolo Guitars has worked closely with Gallant, incorporating his advanced chordal chamber/post-jazz aesthetic into the design and creation of their first 6-string contrabass guitar. The "Joe Gallant" Tribute model debuted at the NAMM 2011 expo.

Michel Strauss studied at Conservatoire superieur de Paris and at Yale University with Paul Tortelier, Maurice Gendron and Aldo Parisot. In 1980 he was appointed principal cello solo of the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. In 1987 he was named the successor to Maurice Gendron at the Conservatoire de Paris. As a soloist and teacher, Michel Strauss is considered one of the most accomplished French musicians of his generation. He is founder of the festival, Musique de Chambre à Giverny. He has collaborated with Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Krzysztof Penderecki, and is the dedicatee of a number of their works. He has also worked in cinema with Jean-Luc Godard, and for musical theatre, in Avignon. http://www.conservatoiredeparis.fr/

Jed Distler , hailed as "The Downtown Keyboard Magus"; by The New Yorker, is a renowned recitalist, whose new music programs have been presented across the United States and Europe, from Italian festivals in Ravello, Sorrento and Erculano, to New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. His 2012 solo piano project, which featured Thelonious Monk’s complete song output, has been performed in New York, Las Vegas, Berkeley, Italy and Germany. Distler has premiered works by Frederic Rzewski, Lois V Vierk, Wendy Mae Chambers, Simeon ten Holt, Richard Rodney Bennett, Alvin Curran, William Schimmel, Virgil Thomson, Andrew Thomas and Virko Baley, among many others. His keyboard work can be heard on numerous CDs, which have appeared on the CRI, New World, Spectra, Fin Alley Arts, Strange Music, Laserlight and Coney Island labels.

David Taylor, Bass trombonist, started his career as a member of Leopold Stowkowski's American Symphony Orchestra, and by appearing with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. He was a member of the Thad Jones Mel Lewis jazz band, and recorded with Duke Ellington (The New Orleans Suite), The Rolling Stones, and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. He has recorded four solo albums (Koch, New World, and DMP). Taylor has appeared and recorded with artists including Barbara Streisand, Miles Davis, Quincey Jones, Frank Sinatra, and Aretha Franklin. He has won the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Most Valuable Player Award for five consecutive years, and the NARAS Most Valuable Player Virtuoso Award. He has been a member of the Gil Evans Band, George Russell's Band, the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, and the Chuck Israel Band. In 1998 Taylor performed on four Grammy nominated CD's. Taylor currently performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Charles Mingus Big Band, Eos Orchestra, The NY Chamber Symphony, The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, The Michelle Camillo Band, Areopagitica (a brass trio in residence at Mannes College), The Bob Mintzer Band, and the Daniel Schnyder, David Taylor, and the Kenny Drew Jr Trio. He is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College.

Critically acclaimed pianist Taka Kigawa has earned international recognition as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber music artist since winning First Prize in the prestigious 1990 Japan Music Foundation Piano Competition in Tokyo, and the Diploma Prize at the 1990 Concurs Internacional Maria Canals De Barcelona in Spain. The New York Times has referred to him as "a pianist with a thoroughly contemporary sensibility", and has said that his artistry possesses "a thoroughly contemporary sensibility, Steve Smith of Time Out New York called him "Ever-adventurous" and The New Yorker noted that, Kigawa is a young artist of stature." He has performed in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Paris, Milan and Barcelona, with performances in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kosciuszko Foundation, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Salle Gaveau in Paris, and Plau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona. He tours Japan and appears in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagano and Kyoto, both as a recitalist and a soloist with orchestra and in chamber music groups. Kigawa has been a featured artist on many television and radio networks throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He has Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and lives in New York City.
takakigawa.com

Javier Diaz, percussionist and native of Cuba, has performed with the the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Symphony, NY Chamber Symphony, Hilliard Ensemble, and New Jersey Symphony; as Afro-Cuban drummer with Donna Summer, Lazaro Galarraga, Angel Figueroa, Candido Camero, Pedro Martinez, Los Acustilocos, Panamerican Jazz Band, The Ethnix, and the New York World Music Institute. He has taught Afro-Cuban seminars at the Peabody, the University of Southern California (USC), and Juilliard, the latter where he now teaches seminars. His works have been commissioned by the Aspen Festival, New York University and USC. He holds his Masters in Music from The Juilliard School.

Clarinettist, composer and teacher Matthias Müller is Professor for Clarinet at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) as well as the Artistic Director of various institutions and for various projects. He has performed as a soloist with renowned orchestras such as the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Basle Symphony Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, as well as a chamber musician in various formations. Matthias Müller is a former member of the Collegium Novum Zürich, and is presently Artistic Director of ‘ensemble zero’. As composer, he has followed a line of development that might be termed the ‘Aesthetics of the Second Modernism’. Along with works of music theatre and for orchestra, his œuvre encompasses many pieces of chamber music and electronic music. He has written an instructional work for the clarinet and continues regularly to compose works for children. At the Institute for Computer Music und Sound Technology at the ZHdK he is in charge of the research project centered around the "Sensor Augmented Bass Clarinet", an instrument that is playable in the usual way but that triggers computerized tone, for which he has begun - with the encouragement and cooperation of renowned colleagues and institutions - to generate repertoire.

John Feeney is principal double bass of Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the period instrument groups American Classical Orchestra, Sinfonia New York, and Opera Lafayette in Washington, D.C. A chamber musician and soloist of international renown, he was first prize-winner of the Concert Artists Guild and Zimmerman-Mingus International Competitions and a medalist-prizewinner in the Geneva and Isle of Man Competitions. Of his performance of the world premiere of the Dragonetti concerto, the The New York Times said: "a skilled and passionate performance... bravura solo passages that feature rapid passage work and double stops, which Mr. Feeney played with flair."

In 2007 John played the world premiere of Paquito D’Rivera’s Conversations With Cachao a concerto for clarinet, sax, and double bass at the Caramoor International Music Festival with Paquito and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Subsequent performances have been with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional in Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico. The Strad declared: “There is much virtuosity on display... accurate, muscular, and impressively controlled playing.”

Krista Bennion Feeney is the co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, a member of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, and the Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco. Her quartet, the Loma Mar Quartet, has recorded works written by Paul McCartney expressly for the quartet. Her solo credits include appearances with St. Luke's, as well as with the San Francisco, St. Louis, and Elgin Symphonies. She has recently premiered Terry Reilly's SolTierraLuna with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra.

Over the past thirty years, Buenos Aires native Leo Grinhauz has performed as a soloist, recitalist, and ensemblist at the International Festivals at Marlboro, Ottawa, and Lanaudiere. Heard frequently over the airwaves of Canada's CBC, his discography includes 1999’s Musique Des Ameriques, music for cello and piano, which includes Leo’s mother, Berta Rosenohl. Occasionally, the family still perform together as members of Musica Camerata Montreal. Grinhauz is a former member of the New York Amati Trio. He debuted at Town Hall, performed with the late Ruth Laredo, and was a member of the Bronx Arts Ensemble, with which he is featured on Roberto Sierra’s chamber opera El Mensajero de Plata. In 2004 Grinhauz performed at the National Black Arts Festival, which led to the recording of George Walker’s first string quartet, included in a recently released retrospective. He worked with Paquito D’Rivera and Diva Denyce Graves on the recording, The Lost Days. Grinhauz enjoys a "secret" voice-over career in Spanish and English for radio and television.

Max Pollak is 2008 fellow in Choreography at the New York Foundation of the Arts, and one of the most prestigious names on the international tap scene today. He is recognized worldwide as the first person to merge authentic Afro-Cuban music and dance with American rhythm tap and body music to create RumbaTap. Originator of Cuba's first tap festival - Arts International Grant 2001 - he has been teaching and performing in Cuba since 1998. He has worked with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cuba's top-ranked Rumba group, Chucho Valdés, Lila Downs, and jazz legends Ray Brown, Phil Woods, Paquito D'Rivera, Slide Hampton, and Danilo Perez. On the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, Pollak travels the world with his company and is about to release his first music CD: RumbaTap.

Violist/conductor/composer Jill Jaffe has performed in virtually all of the concert venues in New York City with all of the major free lance orchestras including Orch of St. Lukes, NYC Ballet, NYC Opera, American Composers Orchestra and Mostly Mozart. A veteran of the downtown music scene - the Lounge Lizards, John Zorn, Evan Lurie, etc. - she is one of the early crossover artists. She has concertized and recorded throughout much of Europe, Japan and Mexico. An avid chamber musician, Jill is a founding member of the Crescent String Quartet. As a composer of theatre music Jill is the recipient of numerous ASCAP awards, her ballets in response to the tragedies of 911 have been performed with profound effect. She has played for almost 100 different Broadway and off-broadway shows, has recorded numerous soundtracks and much commercial music, and was Music Director/conductor of Vienna Lusthaus national tour, 2003.

A dedicated chamber musician, Chelsea Wimmer is an active member of the internationally renowned harpsichordist Arthur Haas’ Baroque Players, the acclaimed Contemporary Chamber Players, and the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. She is also an active freelance violist in New York, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, and has been privileged to perform extensively in Argentina and throughout Europe. An avid researcher, she is currently studying the Late Baroque music of Heinrich Biber, World War II-era music and the aesthetics of Paul Hindemith. She received her BA in Music with a concentration in Viola Performance from Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana in 2013, where she was the Principal Viola of the Goshen College Symphony Orchestra and winner of the Goshen College Concerto-Aria Competition. She completed her MM in Viola Performance in 2016 at Stony Brook University, where she is currently pursuing

Violinist Natalie Kress is currently artistic director of Three Village Chamber Players, which presents classical concerts at numerous venues throughout New York State, and provides educational outreach performances. She is a recipient of the 2012 Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center, and The Edith Salvo Prize from Stony Brook University (where she had undergone studies with Soovin Kim). Also a baroque violinist, she has performed with members of the Handel and Haydn Society. She has studied with Beth Wenstrom, Robert Mealy and Aisslinn Nosky.

Gray Palmer is a writer, composer, director, and performer based in Los Angeles. His plays have been published by Padua Press and produced by Padua Playwrights, Animal Show, Gunfighter Nation, Sharon's Farm, Pharmacy, and Machine Project. His theater journalism is online at stageraw.com Mr. Palmer has a special interest theater poetry. He has been affiliated with Jean Erdman's Theater of the Open Eye in NYC, Appaloosa Productions in Dallas, and since 2005, with Padua Playwrights and Gunfighter Nation in Los Angeles. @jamesgraypalmer

Soprano Lynn Norris has appeared in New York and at regional houses in roles as diverse as Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Nanetta in Falstaff, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Miss Silverpeal in The Impressario, and The Forest Bird in Siegfried. Her performances in the world premieres of Gerald Ginsburg, Marjorie Maxine Rusche’s She Stoops to Conquer (Kate Hardcastle) and Jorge Martín’s The Mappined Life (The Niece), have received critical acclaim in both New York Times and in American Record Guide. She's been a guest artist with New York ensembles, regional orchestras, in such works as the Poulenc Gloria, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts, Mozart’s C minor Mass and “Exsultate, jubilate” motet, the Bach B minor Mass, the Vaughan Williams cantata Dona nobis pacem, the Fauré Requiem, Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock, and Mahler’s 4th Symphony. She has regularly collaborated with composers Gerald Ginsberg, Dan Barrett Cobo, and is regarded in NYC as a specialist in new music. Other composers whose works she's represented are Jorge Martin, Beatriz de Mello, Bruce Saylor, Thomas Pasatieri, and Tom Cipullo, to name only a few. A seasoned cabaret performer, appearing at such venues as Don't Tell Mama in NYC, her skill in the genre is well exhibited on her cd of songs and arias with Harry Huff, entitled "si j'étais roi." Ms Norris is featured on two albums of new music on the Composers Concordance/NAXOS label, in songs by Luis Andrei Cobo, and in Gene Pritsker's opera, William James's Varieties of Religious Experience.

Tish Edens served as principal cellist of the New York City Opera National Company. She has performed with a variety of ensembles as a freelance musician in such Tish Edens served as principal cellist of the New York City Opera National Company. She has performed with a variety of ensembles as a freelance musician in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York. She also performed on Broadway: "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Annie", and in "West Side Story" in Basel, Switzerland. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and The Juilliard School.

Caroline Mariko Stucky is an award winning Swiss-Japanese independent filmmaker with a fierce passion for American culture. For Caroline, film, the world of the image, is the ultimate language that trumps the kaleidoscope of spoken languages of her childhood. The bulk of Stucky's work has been as a cinematographer, most notably on "The Perfect Bunny" (2014), written and directed by multiple Goya Award winner Jorge Laplace, "Homage to Switzerland" (2015), an adaptation from Ernest Hemingway's short story, directed by Pierric Tenthorey, "Wishful Whiskers" (2017), a children's short starring Ilana Becker and Sophie Knapp, and "Starfish" (2017), a feature film about grief and healing, starring Margaret Curry and Pascal Yen-Pfister. Other upcoming projects include "Brunch Wars", written and directed by Kamran Khan, which is a second collaboration with producer Pulkit Datta, writer/director of Wishful Whiskers. In 2018, she will be the cinematographer for "Betting Big", a show about tech investors, hosted by the business journalist Bonnie Halper and "Carry Me" a half-hour drama series starring Alison Bartlett.

Bassist and gamba player Jay Elfenbein is the director of the Ivory Consort, and principal bassist with the New York Collegium, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Washington Bach Consort (D.C.). He is a featured gamba soloist at the Kennedy Center. Elfenbein's career embraces both classical and popular music. He has performed on bass and gamba with Yo Yo Ma, Judy Collins, Paul McCartney, Lou Rawls, Leonard Bernstein, Christopher Hogwood, Dave Brubeck, Chris Potter, and Anthony Braxton, and plays early instruments on Paul Simon's gold CD You're the One.

Margaret Lancaster is noted for her interdisciplinary collaborations and hailed as "our leading exponent of the avant-garde flute" (Kyle Gann, Village Voice). Lancaster has premiered over 100 pieces and has built a large repertoire of new works composed specifically for her that employ extended techniques, dance, drama, multi-media and electronics. Performance highlights include Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Ibsen Festival, Santa Fe New Music, Whitney Museum, Edinburgh Festival and Festival D'Automne. She has recorded on New World Records, OO Discs, Innova, Naxos and Tzadik, and was selected for Meet the Composer's New Works for Soloist Champions project. An amateur furniture designer and avid tap dancer, Lancaster performs solo and chamber music concerts worldwide and acts in Lee Breuer's OBIE-winning Mabou Mines Dollhouse.
http://www.margaretlancaster.com

While at Oberlin College, Amanda Mottur was a member of the Aicha Bellydance Troupe under the direction of Adriane Dellorco. She has studied extensively with Kaeshi of Bellyqueen, Elena Lentini, Mimi Fontana, Morocco, and Tarik Sultan. Besides working artistically in the tradition of Egyptian Cabaret, Mottur has studied ballet, modern dance, American Tribal Style, balinese dance, and mime. She has performed at Tagine Gallery, L'Orange Bleue, Mamlouk, Dandana, Sahara East, and Aldiwan.

Organizations he is associated with include: Composers' Concordance, Absolute Ensemble, The International Street Cannibals and the Austrian Outreach Festival. Some of Gene Pritsker's music is published by: Falls House Press, Gold Branch Music, Periferia Sheet Music & Calabrese Brothers music and recorded by: Col Legno, Enja, Eutrepe, Wergo, Innova and Capstone record labels.

Joseph Pehrson has written works for a wide variety of media and they have been performed at numerous venues including Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space in New York and throughout the U.S., Eastern Europe and Russia. Since 1983, Pehrson has been a founding director of the Composers Concordance in New York. He studied at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan (Doctor of Musical Arts 1981). Pehrson visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, in March 2008 for a series of concerts. In St. Petersburg, he participated in a Festival "From the Avant Garde to the Present Day," with a performance at the "House of Composers" in St. Petersburg. Linda Past-Pehrson also danced to three electronic pieces in alternate tunings as part of this festival. In Moscow, he had five chamber pieces presented at the "Jurgenson Salon" and Linda Past-Pehrson danced to six electronic pieces in alternate tunings at the "Fireplace Hall" of the "Central Building for Workers of Art, (TsDRI)." In 2009 Italian trumpeter Ivano Ascari toured the U.S. with a piece Pehrson wrote for him. In 2008, 2009 and 2010 several chambComer works were presented by the Composers Concordance, the New York Composers' Circle and Dan Barrett's "International Street Cannibals." Pehrson has works recorded on Capstone and New Ariel CDs and several pieces are published by Seesaw Music, Corp.,a division of Subito Music.

In USA Trombone Online, critic Rene Lanaan called jazz trombonist and composer Sam Blaser "one of today's finest trombonists." The fertile ground between hard bop and free jazz continues to attract the next generation of jazz artists, most notably trombonist Samuel Blaser. On Pieces of Old Sky, his new CD from Clean Feed, the Swiss-born and New York-developed brassman (now residing in Berlin—yes, he´s an inveterate globetrotter) shows off the fruits of his rapid development as a bandleader and instrumentalist. In a quartet featuring three like-minded collaborators—guitarist Todd Neufeld, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Tyshawn Sorey — Blaser delivers a work that is both imaginative and forceful. He began his career with the prestigious Vienna Art Orchestra, then represented Switzerland in the European Radio Big Band "Tribute to Oscar Peterson" tour in 2005. A Fulbright scholarship to the conservatory at SUNY Purchase followed, and the next year he won the J. J. Johnson Prize, the Public Prize, and the Jury´s Favorite Player at the Fribourg Jazz Festival. In addition to his own quartet Blaser performs with the new Braff Blaser Duo, Malcolm Braff & TNT, Animal Forum, Peter van Huffel & Sophie Tassignon, and the Ravitz / Blaser Duo. He has released acclaimed CDs, including "7th Heaven," on Between the Lines (2008), "Yay" with the Braaf Blaser Duo on Fresh Sound New Talent (2008), and Solo Bone on Slam Productions (2009). He has most recently shared the stage with Renee Rosnes, Hal Galper, and David Taylor.

Frequent STRIKE! emcee and President of Gleason's Gym, Bruce Silverglade has served as president of the Metropolitan Amateur Boxing Federation, chairman of the National Junior Olympic Committee, and is a member of the National Junior Olympic Selection Committee. Silverglade has promoted fights for such international champions as Arturo Gatti, Vinny Pazienza, Mark Breland, and Zab Judah.

Charles Moses President and CEO of Viper Studios - Audio Production Services, New York. Viper Studios supplies the International Street Cannibals with professional technicians, concert sound, AV, lighting, staging, HD video archival & event production services, including complete sound & AV design and installation services; The "best known secret" in the events industry.

Guest Artists:

Gregor Kitzis, violinist and violist, has performed and recorded with the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Concordia, and Bang On A Can's Spit Orchestra.

Pianist/composer Matt Herskowitz, recipient of Quebec's Prix Opus, and solo pianist for the Absolute Ensemble

Trumpet player and composer Thomas Gansch of Mnozil Brass, Gansch & Roses, Wiener Staatsopernorchester, and Vienna Symphony. ganschandroses.com

composer and saxophonist Daniel Schnyder

Dary John Mizelle, composer/trumpet player/trombonist, faculty at Oberlin College Conservatory and SUNY Purchase

BassistMat Fieldes, collaborator with Joe Jackson, Ornette Coleman, Steve Vai, Paquito D'Rivera, Arturo Sandaval

Bass vocalist Daniel Hague, of Arizona Opera and Opera Theatre of Connecticut

Composer/Vocalist/Conductor Charles Coleman, Composer-in-Residence of the Absolute Ensemble

Lutz Rath, artistic director of Washington Square Festival

Mary Jo Pagano serves as Artistic Director for the Chamber Music Center of New York

Joe Pehson, composer and director of Composers Concordance

Jazz trombonist and composer Sam Blaser, leader of the Sam Blaser Quartet

Hanako Yamagata, pianist, Martha Graham Dance Company

John Clark French hornist for Speculum Musicae, McCoy Tyner, the Aspen Wind Quintet, and winner of the Downbeat Critics' Poll and Professor at SUNY Purchase.

Violinist/saxophonist/composer Andy Stein, of the house band of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion

Paul Lieberman, saxist/flutist for Airto & Flora Purim, Pat Metheny, David Sanborn, Jaco Pastorius, Taj Mahal, Paquito D’Rivera; and faculty of U. Mass.

Peter Krysa, violinist for Leontovych String Quartet, Geister Trio, and collaborator with pianists Vladimir Feltsman; Artistic Director of the Lake Winnipesaukee Music Festival.

Ann Ellsworth is solo hornist with Absolute Ensemble, Manhattan Brass, the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, and with the alternative horn group Confluence. The New York Times has called her solos "outrageous" and "splendidly projected." Ellsworth records regularly for film and television, and has performed with Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Shakira,Tony Bennett, and Chaka Kahn, as well as with orchestras and chamber ensembles around the world. Ellsworth is artist in residence at The New School, where she collaborates with dancers, video artists, architects and songwriters. At present she is working on a recording of all new works for alphorn. Ellsworth is a former member of the Phoenix Symphony, the Esbjerg Ensemble (Denmark), and has recorded the Eric Ewazen Horn Concerto with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra.

Soprano Greta Feeney, of San Francisco Opera, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble

Keyboardist Robert Wolinsky, of Orchestra of St. Luke's

Friends, Collaborators and Guest Artists

Tony Falanga, bassist with Ornette Coleman, and the Orchestra of St Luke's
Jeremy McCoy, bassist, the Metropolitan Opera
John Patitucci, Grammy-winning bassist with Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, and others
Joseph Pehrson, composer, founding director of the Composers' Concordance
Robert Wolisky, resident keyboardist, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Luke's

and . . .
Greg Baker, guitarist
Erik Blanc, puppeteer, instructor, New York University
Tom Carlo Bo, conductor, pianist, and presenter
Steve Cohen, pianist
Janet Coleman, soprano (voce)
Susan Fanale soprano (voce)
Peter Herbert, bassist
Zahari Kalaitsis, dumbek and percussion
Yevgeny Karafin, pianist
Ron Lawrence, violist, director, the Sirius Quartet
Annette Homann Violinist
Linda McKnight, bassist, faculty, Manhattan School of Music
Andrew Meshberg, painter
Kurt Muroki, bassist
Lynn Norris, soprano (voce)
James Noyes, soprano saxophonist
Jon Morrell, tenor (voce)
Jose Moura, electric bassist
Mauricio O'Reilly, tenor (voce)
Sean Satin, guitarist
Carmela Sinco, composer, pianist
Anna Smirny, pianist, composer
Victoria Wefer, soprano (voce)
Kingsley Wood, bassist