Artists

Mary Ann Joyce was born in Champaign-Urbana IL, and received her B.A. from Fontbonne University, St. Louis, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in theory and composition from Washington University, St. Louis. After graduate school, she moved to the New York City area where she has remained. She is an active composer of instrumental, choral and vocal music, and a professor of music at Manhattanville College. Her works have been performed at international festivals and concerts through the United States, Europe, and Russia. Mary Ann's works are published by Pioneer Drama, World Library of Sacred Music, Ars Nova, Scribner & Sons, and Gold Branch; her pieces are available on CDs from Navona Records, Capstone and Pioneer Drama.

While Lubet was written works in many media, his creative output in this millennium has focused almost exclusively on his own performance, mostly on a variety of plucked string instruments associated with American folk traditions. These include acoustic guitar, mountain dulcimer, National steel guitar, ukulele, and electric and acoustic bass. He performs solo and with groups including the Japanese-inspired ensemble-Ma, Deep State, with pianist Guerino Mazzola, One World, with Kurdish-Canadian kamanche (spike fiddle) player, Shahriyar Jamshidi, and a jazz duo (name tbd) with saxophonist Christopher Rochest. In addition to his own works, many composers have written works for Lubet, in particular composers from China, where he was lectured, taught, and concertized live and on television. Of late, he has become particularly well-known for his unique approach to mountain dulcimer.

Bruce P. Mahin is a Professor of Music, and Director of the Radford University Center for Music Technology. Mahin received the 2007 Radford University Distinguished Scholar Award. He is a former president of the Southeastern Composers League, a former co-chair of Society of Composers Region 3, a former research fellow at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) and former resident composer at Le Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the recipient of awards from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, Meet the Composer, Annapolis Fine Arts Foundation, Res Musica, Southeastern Composers League and others. His works are available on Capstone Records (CPS-8747, CPS-8624 and CPS-8611) and as digital reissues on the Ravello Records label.

Midwest-native composer Marga Richter grew up in Wisconsin and Minnesota prior to moving to New York, where she earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in composition from The Juilliard School. Her compositional output consists of over 150 works encompassing virtually every genre of classical music. Her orchestral music has been played by more than 50 orchestras including the Atlanta and Milwaukee Symphonies and the Minnesota Orchestra, and recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Walter Ross (b. 1936), whose works have been performed in over 40 countries, is perhaps best known for his compositions featuring brass and woodwinds. Raised in Nebraska, he became a professional orchestral French horn player by the age of seventeen and went on to gain more performance experience in college as member of the University of Nebraska symphonic band, as a string bass player in a polka band, and as a flute player with a baroque ensemble. Currently he plays bass in the Blue Ridge Chamber Orchestra in Charlottesville VA.

Newton D. Strandberg (1921-2001) was born in River Falls, Wisconsin and raised in his youth in mid-America, Iowa. He first attended North Park College (now North Park University) in Chicago and later, in 1983, was awarded an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from the school. He studied piano and composition with Anthony Donato at Northwestern University, receiving a Bachelor of Music Education in 1942, a Master of Music in Piano Performance in 1947, and a Doctorate of Music in Composition in 1956, the first music degree of its sort to be awarded at Northwestern.

Mark Vigil (b. 1954) was born in Spokane WA in October of 1954. In 1981, Vigil received a Bachelor of Music degree in composition and piano performance from the Cornish Institute of the Allied Arts. Cornish is located in Seattle Washington. At Cornish, Vigil studied composition with Janice Giteck and piano performance with Corri Celli. In 1996, Vigil received his Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Oregon School of Music. The University of Oregon School of Music is located in EugeneOR, a very cosmopolitan city. From 1991-1996 Vigil studied composition with Robert Kyr and Hal Owen. At present he studies composition with Tomas Svoboda. Vigil has been his student for ten years. He currently makes his home in Eugene Oregon.

Composer Pamela J. Marshall (b.1954) writes chamber, orchestral, choral, and electronic music. Nature and environmental themes run through Marshall's music. There are influences of Bartok, Messiaen, jazz, and American songs from the 1800s. Clever twists, humor, beautiful melody, and wild noise sometimes occur. She loves obscure American folk music, bird songs, and any kitchen object that makes an interesting noise.

Karolina Rojahn is a Los Angeles based pianist who has dedicated the last decade of her career to premiering and recording contemporary music repertoire. She has premiered over a hundred new works and collaborated with various classical music labels, most notably Naxos, having released over 43 recordings of chamber and solo piano music, including 5 piano concertos written specifically for her.

New York composer Debra Kaye has honed her craft collaborating with musicians of Manhattan's dynamic new music community. AND SO IT BEGINS, her debut album, is the result of this cross-pollination, with most of the music played by those who commissioned and premiered it. Music is movement - a concept from Kaye's Dalcroze studies, these pieces have a visceral, visual quality, balancing pathos and humor, poetry and drama, taking the listener on a wide ranging journey that blends her deep classical roots with traces of jazz, world music, folk and pop.

David Liptak's music has been described as "luminous and arresting," "richly atmospheric," and having "transparent textures, incisive rhythms, shimmering lightness".

The music of Mexican-born composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon is characterized by its detailed sculpting of musical ideas and "kaleidoscopic" contrapuntal design. Mexican literature has provided the point of departure for many of his compositions, such as Pluck. Pound. Peel., on aphorisms by Raul Aceves, the miniature opera NinoPolilla, on a libretto by Juan Trigos Sr., and the scenic cantata Comala, based on the novel Pedro Paramo, by the noted Mexican writer Juan Rulfo. Comala was selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. Other professional honors include the 2011 Lillian Fairchild Award and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Camargo Foundation, and Mexico's Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Artes. Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon joined the composition faculty of the Eastman School in 2002.

The members of Trio Verlaine are drawn together by friendship and a strong desire to further this unusual instrumental combination first dreamt of by Debussy. Each player has distinguished themselves in their respective field. David Harding is Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. He has an extensive solo and chamber music career, having performed in such venues as the chamber music halls of Berlin Philharmonie and Concertgebouw, and Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. In addition to Trio Verlaine, David is also member of Philip Glass' chamber ensemble, the "Days and Nights Festival Players" with whom he has made several recordings.

Sauro Berti, bass clarinetist of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, has collaborated with the most important Italian orchestras (Teatro alla Scala, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, RAI National Orchestra), the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla. He has played under G.Prêtre, R.Chailly, M.W.Chung, R.Muti, W.Sawallisch, V.Gergiev, L.Maazel, P.Boulez, and Z.Mehta.

An active soloist and chamber musician, American pianist Kate Boyd has performed solo recitals at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Schubert’s birth house in Vienna, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Musikhalle Hamburg, in addition to many places throughout the US, Greece, Ireland and Canada. As a faculty member at Butler University, she has appeared as a soloist with each of the University’s large ensembles in performances ranging from Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Boulder, Colorado-based pianist Amy Briggs has established herself as a leading interpreter of the music of living composers, while also bringing a fresh perspective to music of the past. From 2001 to 2016 she was a featured soloist and chamber musician on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series, and played world, US and Chicago premieres of works by Pierre Boulez, Oliver Knussen, Augusta Read Thomas, David Lang, Simon Bainbridge, Tania Léon, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Rakowski, and others.  She has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Lisa Miles is a creative artist of 25+ years from Pittsburgh PA. Uniquely blending the arts and humanities, she composes and performs, is the author of two books and a personal and professional development consultant. She has a B.A. in English and Applied Music minor (Youngstown State). Grants have included Meet the Composer and PA Arts & Humanities Initiative; recent recognition has been inclusion in John Shelton Ivany's "Top 21" (Natl. News Bureau).

Michael J. Veloso (b. 1977) was born in Brooklyn, NY. He earned his B.A. in Music in 1998 from Williams College, where he studied composition with Lewis Spratlan, Robert Suderburg, Karl Korte, and David Kechley. After graduating Cum Laude and with Highest Honors in Music, he continued his education at New England Conservatory, earning an M.M. in 2001 and Graduate Diploma in 2002 while studying composition with Michael Gandolfi and piano with Douglas Buys. Michael has written dozens of works for a wide range of musical forces. He has composed music for Joshua Lawton, David Stansbury, Sharon Hsin-Yi Chen, Fireworks, New Century Voices, and Roseae Feminae, and has received commissions from the NOW Ensemble and the Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus.

Shelly Tramposh has enjoyed a varied career as a chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher. She has performed as recitalist in venues across the United States and Canada and in Central America and Europe, including the American Viola Society national conference. Tramposh has also presented lectures and master classes at the ASTA National Conference and various colleges and music schools in the United States and abroad; her first article was published by The Strad in the Fall of 2011. She has been performing with Cullan Bryant for the last five years; in addition to the pieces presented here, they have performed works by Hindemith, Shostakovich, Brahms, Enesco, Kiel, Clarke, and Milhaud. Other chamber music affiliations include The Perron Trio, the Potsdam Piano Quartet, and the Ariel Chamber Players.

Matthew Malsky's (b. 1961) compositional style is characterized by its rhythmic vitality, dramatically crafted gestures, melodic angularity, and irony. His music has been described as economical and elegant in both its technical and intellectual rigor, and in the way cutting-edge electronics are fully integrated with live performance. Malsky's compositions speak with intensity, seriousness, and an underlying inquisitiveness about the boundaries between a complex world and a searching interior voice.