Artists

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1989 and immigrating to Israel at a young age, Israeli violinist and recording artist, Boris Abramov, has established himself as a virtuosic soloist and chamber musician, performing across the world with several chamber ensembles and orchestras. Boris is the recipient of several awards and prizes; including the National Winner of the 2008 MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) Competition for strings in Denver CO and was awarded a special prize at the 2009 Pablo de Sarasate International Competition in Pamplona, Spain. He forms part of the violin faculty at the Columbus State University, Schwob School of Music in the United States, where he further immigrated and obtained his Bachelors, Masters and Artist Diploma degrees. Abramov has been heard on several radio broadcasts and international music festivals as a soloist and chamber musician.

To learn more about Boris Abramov please visit www.borisabramov.com

Composer and conductor Lee Actor has won a number of awards for his compositions, most recently for Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, which was the First Prize Winner in the 2007 International Horn Society Composition Contest. Variations and Fugue for Orchestra was a finalist in both the Columbia Orchestra's 2007 American Composer's Competition and the Holyoke Civic Symphony's 2005 Composition Competition, and Prelude to a Tragedy was selected as a finalist in the Columbia Orchestra's 2005 American Composer's Competition.

Actor's orchestral music is characterized by its dramatic impact and emotional expressivity, featuring striking use of harmony, counterpoint, motivic development, and lyricism with a fresh, modern flavor. These attributes are most prominent in Actor's large-scale dramatic works. Referring to Actor's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Keith Kreithman of the San Mateo County Times wrote "this is a major work deserving of national attentionÖthis concerto verges on masterpiece". His work has been characterized by conductor Kirk Trevor as "music of the highest quality in craftsmanship, inventiveness, and imagination."

A former violinist with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Actor has advanced degrees in both engineering and music composition. He has studied composition with Donald Sur, Brent Heisinger, Charles Jones, and Andrew Imbrie, and conducting with Angelo Frascarelli, David Epstein and Higo Harada. Actor was named Composer-in-Residence of the Palo Alto Philharmonic in 2002, following his appointment as Assistant Conductor in 2001, and named Assistant Conductor of the Nova Vista Symphony in 2008. Actor's past releases include a CD of orchestral works released by MMC Recordings in June 2005 and a second orchestral CD released by Albany Records in April 2008.

He is a member of the American Music Center and ASCAP, who recently named Actor the recipient of an ASCAPlus award for the sixth consecutive year.

A pianist who "can create whatever type of music he wants at the keyboard" (Chicago Sun-Times) and a composer who writes "with uncommon imagination" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), James Adler's extensive list of compositions is headed by Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem. A 75-minute for work for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, Memento mori has been performed worldwide since its 1996 premiere, and recorded by AmorArtis Chorale and Orchestra under the direction of Johannes Somary on Albany Records. Other works by Adler include the often-performed Carols of Splendour, which premiered at Carnegie Hall; It's Gotta Be America, commissioned for the Centennial Celebration of the Statue of Liberty; and Canticle For Peace, written for the opening of the 43rd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Adler made his performing debut with the Chicago Symphony at the age of 16 and has appeared in recital on the Orchestra's Allied Arts Piano Series. His concert schedule has also included appearances on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts Series at the Chicago Cultural Center; featured soloist performances at Alice Tully Hall and Symphony Space in New York City; festival performances in Grant Park (Chicago), Thesseloniki, Greece, and New York; and a special London orchestral performance at the Royal Albert Hall, broadcast by the BBC.

Adler holds a bachelor's degree in piano performance and a master's degree in composition from the Curtis Institute of Music. He is a member of the Fine Arts Department faculty at Saint Peter's College.

For more information, please visit his website.

Samuel Adler was born March 4, 1928, Mannheim, Germany and came to the United States in 1939. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in May 2001, and then inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in October 2008. He is the composer of over 400 published works, including 5 operas, 6 symphonies, 12 concerti, 8 string quartets, 4 oratorios and many other orchestral, band, chamber and choral works and songs, which have been performed all over the world. He is the author of three books, Choral Conducting (Holt Reinhart and Winston 1971, second edition Schirmer Books 1985), Sight Singing (W.W. Norton 1979, 1997), and The Study of Orchestration (W.W. Norton 1982, 1989, 2001). He has also contributed numerous articles to major magazines and books published in the U.S. and abroad.

Adler was educated at Boston University and Harvard University, and holds honorary doctorates from Southern Methodist University, Wake Forest University, St. Mary's Notre-Dame and the St. Louis Conservatory. His major teachers were: in composition, Herbert Fromm, Walter Piston, Randall Thompson, Paul Hindemith and Aaron Copland; in conducting, Serge Koussevitzky.

He is Professor-emeritus at the Eastman School of Music where he taught from 1966 to 1995 and served as chair of the composition department from 1974 until his retirement. Before going to Eastman, Adler served as professor of composition at the University of North Texas (1957-1977), Music Director at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas (1953-1966), and instructor of Fine Arts at the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas (1955-1966). From 1954 to 1958 he was music director of the Dallas Lyric Theater and the Dallas Chorale. Since 1997 he has been a member of the composition faculty at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, and was awarded the 2009-10 William Schuman Scholars Chair. Adler has given master classes and workshops at over 300 universities worldwide, and in the summers has taught at major music festivals such as Tanglewood, Aspen, Brevard, Bowdoin, as well as others in France, Germany, Israel, Spain, Austria, Poland, South America and Korea.

Some recent commissions have been from the Cleveland Orchestra (Cello Concerto), the National Symphony (Piano Concerto No. 1), the Dallas Symphony (Lux Perpetua), the Pittsburgh Symphony (Viola Concerto), the Houston Symphony (Horn Concerto), the Barlow Foundation/Atlanta Symphony (Choose Life), the American Brass Quintet, the Wolf Trap Foundation, the Berlin-Bochum Bass Ensemble, the Ying Quartet and the American String Quartet to name only a few. His works have been performed lately by the St. Louis Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Mannheim Nationaltheater Orchestra. Besides these commissions and performances, previous commissions have been received from the National Endowment for the Arts (1975, 1978, 1980 and 1982), the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the City of Jerusalem, the Welsh Arts Council and many others.

Adler has been awarded many prizes including a 1990 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Charles Ives Award, the Lillian Fairchild Award, the MTNA Award for Composer of the Year (1988-1989), and a Special Citation by the American Foundation of Music Clubs (2001). In 1983 he won the Deems Taylor Award for his book, The Study of Orchestration. In 1988-1989 he was designated Phi Beta Kappa Scholar. In 1989 he received the Eastman Schools Eisenhard Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 1991 he was honored being named the Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists. Adler was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1975-1976); he has been a MacDowell Fellow for five years and; during his second trip to Chile, he was elected to the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts (1993) for his outstanding contribution to the world of music as a composer. In 1999, he was elected to the Akademie der Kuenste in Germany for distinguished service to music. While serving in the United States Army (1950-1952), Adler founded and conducted the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra and, because of the Orchestras great psychological and musical impact on European culture, was awarded a special Army citation for distinguished service. In May, 2003, he was presented with the Aaron Copland Award by ASCAP, for Lifetime Achievement in Music (Composition and Teaching).

Adler has appeared as conductor with many major symphony orchestras, both in the U.S. and abroad. His compositions are published by Theodore Presser Company, Oxford University Press, G. Schirmer, Carl Fischer, E.C. Schirmer, Peters Edition, Ludwig Music, Southern Music Publishers, Transcontinental Music Publishers. Recordings of his works have been done on RCA, Gasparo, Albany, CRI, Crystal and Vanguard.

Daniel Adams (b. 1956, Miami FL) is a Professor of Music at Texas Southern University in Houston. Adams holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (1985) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Music from the University of Miami (1981) and a Bachelor of Music from Louisiana State University (1978). He served as the College Music Society Board Member for Composition from 2015 through 2017. Adams is the composer of numerous published musical compositions and the author of many articles and reviews on topics related to 20th-century percussion music, music pedagogy, and the music of Texas. His book entitled "The Solo Snare Drum" was published in 2000. He also contributed two entries published in 2009 in the Oxford Encyclopedia of African-American History: 1896 to the Present and has authored a revision of the Miami FL entry for the Grove Dictionary of American Music. Adams has served as a panelist and lecturer nationally and internationally. He has received commissions from The McCormick Percussion Group, The McCormick Duo, The Gulf Coast Community Band, The Leechburg (PA) High School Percussion Ensemble, the Louisiana State University Percussion Ensemble, the EOS flute and guitar duo, VioLet, Lee Hinkle, Richard Nunemaker Studios, Selmer Paris, Buffet Crampon, and D'Addario Woodwinds. Adams's music has been performed throughout the United States, and in Spain, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Costa Rica, Turkey, Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and South Korea. His music is recorded on Capstone Records, Ravello Records, Potenza, Albany, and Summit Records.

Eleanor Alberga is a highly regarded mainstream British composer with commissions and premieres from the BBC Proms and The Royal Opera. Her work is noted for its emotional impact, depth of craft, and brilliant coloring and orchestration. Born and growing up in Jamaica, her cultural inheritance is wide, including performing with the Jamaican Folk Singers and as a dancer with an African Dance company. Coming to the UK initially on a scholarship to study piano and singing at the Royal Academy of Music, her compositional talents came to the fore while working in the contemporary dance world. She now boasts a rich catalog of works in all genres: her Opera based on an Isabel Allende story, 'Letters of a Love Betrayed,' which drew comparison with Debussy's Pelléas and Berg's Wozzeck; the string quartets heard on this album; a growing sequence of chamber music Nocturnes featuring horn and oboe; and orchestral music including two violin concertos and a rip-roaring adaptation of Roald Dahl's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as well as her Last Night of the Proms opener Arise Athena. Her early piano music has a deep connection to her Jamaican heritage, and she has also written music for solo voice and for choir.

Alberga now lives in the English countryside with her husband, violinist Thomas Bowes, and together they have founded and nurtured an original festival - Arcadia.

For more information, please visit her website.

A graduate of UCLA in music and the child of European trained professional violinists, Adrienne began studying the piano at age 4 and composition at 10. She had the good fortune to have had great teachers: for piano, Jacob Gimpel and Aube Tzerko in Los Angeles, Joanna Graudan at the Aspen Music School and early composition studies with Saul Kaplan and Leonard Stein. After enjoying a lengthy hiatus performing other people's music, she returned to studying composition with Stephen "Lucky" Mosko at CalArts and orchestration with Albert Harris.

Altius Quartet is an ensemble determined to further the art of chamber music through performance, education, and outreach. Deriving their name from the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius (Latin for Faster, Higher, Stronger); Altius strives to communicate their vision of conveying art to a more diverse audience and engaging directly with the community. Hailed as "rich" and "captivating" by the renowned music blog, "I Care If You Listen," the Altius Quartet is garnering an international reputation and enrapturing the hearts of audiences through their charisma and dynamism.

altiusquartet.com

Musician and composer Kjell Magne Andersen, was born in 1954. At the age of ten he began to play guitar and later he was presented with the clarinet. He received his musical education from Barratt Due's Music Institute in Oslo, with clarinet as his primary instrument.

He studied clarinet with Professor Richard Kjeldstrup, at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and later with Monika Lund, solo clarinetist of the Norwegian Opera. This led to his debut concert at the Oslo Concert Hall in 1985.

His compositional skills were attained through several years of studies in theory and counterpoint with some of the most outstanding Norwegian composers, Maj Sønstervold, Trygve Madsen, and Wolfgang Plagge - among others.

Andersen has experience as a musician in many genres including the symphony orchestra, big band, folk, symphonic band, rock, and dance music; all of which have been an inspiration in his creative work. He also plays banjo in a traditional New Orleans jazz group.

Andersen has composed solo pieces for various orchestral instruments,choral music for both male and mixed choirs, songs for guitar, piano, string quartet, bassoon quartet, and a large landscaped works. He has also composed a Christmas Oratorio for choirs, soloists, narrator, and orchestra.

His compositions are characterized by their well crafted nature, both in form and composition. Andersen works today as a composer and music teacher. He also instructs in both clarinet and saxophone, in addition to teaching music theory.
www.kandersen.musicaneo.com

Andrew Anderson (born 1971) studied composition with Rodney Ford, violin with Barbara O'Reilly, and piano with Arvon McFadden in Melbourne, Australia. His choral writing is informed by engagements with parish choirs in the United States and the UK, as well as tuition in singing with Nigel Wickens (Cambridge UK).

His works have been recorded internationally by the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and have been performed by leading Australian ensembles including The Consort of Melbourne, Omega Ensemble, and the Streeton Trio.

Anderson is also interested in encouraging community engagement in music performance, co-founding the University of Melbourne Artists Register for this purpose. His scores are published by the Australian Music Centre.

Simon Andrews is an English composer who is earning a reputation as a creator of eloquent concert music that blends harmonic complexity and lyricism, introversion and broad gestures, delicate timbres and bold statements. His output ranges from large-scale orchestral works to intimate chamber music, with a special delight in chamber music with solo voices. He is a voracious reader of poetry and fiction, which provide the impulse for many of his compositions.

Winner of the 1985 Benjamin Britten Prize, his music has been commissioned and performed to critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. He moved to America in 1987, since when he has pursued a multifaceted career as composer, conductor, and teacher; a combination which led him to undertake his own edition completion of the Mozart Requiem, which also continues to garner both praise and performances on both sides of the pond.After gaining a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, he lived in Pennsylvania for twenty-five years before moving to Massachusetts.

He is currently working on his third string quartet Rilke Episodes and a new opera Po'pay: The First American Revolution. If you would like to order scores and parts of the pieces on his discs, peruse sample scores, or listen to clips of other works - please visit his website.

We believe in the unexpected. Douglas Detrick's AnyWhen Ensemble's signature instrumentation sets us apart, but the group makes its real impact through bold new music that integrates chamber music sensitivity with jazz spontaneity. We believe that great music can happen anywhere, anyhow, anywhy, and anywhen - ours is fitting music for this bright and rushing world.

www.douglasdetrick.com/anywhen

The Apollo Chamber Players is a non-profit chamber music organization that explores the intersection of classical and folk/ethnic music and provides exciting, innovative, and culturally enriching programs to a wide audience. While illuminating the unique folk sounds and styles imbued in Western classical composers" works, Apollo discovers and recreates lost, rarely heard, and culturally significant folk music through well-crafted arrangements and commissions for chamber ensembles.

Arend moves easily across genres such as classical, jazz, and electro-acoustic music. He has written or performed music in contexts ranging from theater, dance, and concert stage to art galleries, night clubs, and outdoor festivals. Arend's music has been performed in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

As a performer, Arend worked closely with composers Ornette Coleman, Thomas Ades, George Crumb, Chen Yi, George Tsontakis, and John Psathas. Arend has performed and recorded with the San Francisco Symphony and is a member of the Oakland Symphony, directed by Michael Morgan.

Arend began playing in jazz combos when he was ten years old, first as a trombonist, later as a pianist, and finally as a bassist. He continued to play jazz while pursuing classical double bass degrees at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School, championing new music and befriending many composers along the way. Arend has worked extensively with singer/songwriters and improvises live electro-acoustic bass in collaboration with DJs and electronic artists who create musical hybrids.

www.davidarend.com

Chris Arrell (b. 1970, Portland OR) writes music for voices, instruments, and electronics. Praised for their unconventional beauty by The Boston Music Intelligencer and hailed as "sensuous" and "highly nuanced" by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, his compositions blur conventional boundaries between color, line, harmony, and pulse.

Arrell has fulfilled commissions for a number of prestigious ensembles and institutions including the Boston Musica Viva (2010), Music at the Anthology (2005), Spivey Hall (2003), Cornell University (2003), and the Fromm Foundation (2001). Awards include the Ossia International Music Prize (2010), the League of Composers/ISCM (2008), the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award (2007), Cornell University (2001), SCI (1998), and ASCAP (1998 and 1997). His research grants include residencies at the MacDowell Colony (2005) and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (1997) as well as a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to Argentina and Chile (2004).
Arrell is Assistant Professor of Music at College of the Holy Cross and taught previously at Clayton State (Atlanta GA). He holds degrees from Cornell University (D.M.A), the University of Texas (MM), and the University of Oregon (BM), and also participated in the Cornell-Columbia Exchange Scholar Program. His composition teachers include Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, Tristan Murail, Dan Welcher, and Robert Kyr.
www.chrisarrell.com

Nicholas Anthony Ascioti was born in Syracuse NY on May 30th, 1974. He attended the College of St. Rose in Albany NY where he earned degrees in Composition and Conducting. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Composition from Bennington College in Vermont. Asciotis has studied with Allen Shawn, Dr. Amy Williams, and Stephen Siegel.

Ascioti received his debut at the age of 21, with a commission from conductor David Allen Miller, to write for the Albany Symphony's Chamber Orchestra the Dogs of Desire. In October of 2006 Ascioti released his debut album, Creationís Voice, on the Albany Records label.

Ascioti focuses on chamber music, song cycles, and choral works. His piano music has received performances throughout the United States and Canada by Justin Kolb. His chamber works have been performed by sopranos Eileen Strempel and Nancy Loesch, tenor Alex Diaz, pianists Sylvie Beaudette and Amy Dissanayake, guitarist Christopher Ladd, and internationally recognized organists Maria Helena Tharp and Stephen Tharp. Ensembles include the Hyperion String Quartet, Adirondack Saxophone Quartet, Musicians of Ma'awlyck, Arcadia Brass Ensemble, The College of St. Rose Chamber Singers, The Bennington Contemporary Ensemble, and the Society for New Music.

Ascioti has been a guest and his music frequently heard on the "Fresh Ink" radio program on WCNY-FM. He was a composer-in-residence with the Society for New Music in Syracuse, where he participated in the "Composer in the Schools Program." As a conductor, Ascioti focuses on performances of the 20th century choral repertoire and as a concert promoter he oversees the Concert Series at St. Jude the Apostle Church. Ascioti currently lives in West Sand Lake NY with his wife Emily and daughters Melody and Noelle. He serves as the Director of Music at St. Jude the Apostle Church and the St. Jude the Apostle School.

Israeli-born composer and singer/songwriter Ayala Asherov is a recipient of the 2011 ASCAPlus Award, winner of the 2011 Chamber Music Composition Award at the biennial Athena Music Festival, and 2010 recipient of the Wild Acres Residency. She is a member of ASCAP, The American Composers Forum, and ACUM. She has a long-reaching musical background, having been raised in a family of actors and directors (her grandparents were among the founders of the Habima National Theater of Israel). As a composer, Ayala's music ranges from songwriting to programmatic music in the concert hall to multimedia, including film scoring, museum exhibitions, and compositions inspired by the written word. She received her Bachelor of Music summa cum laude in composition and film scoring from the Berklee College of Music in 1998, and her Masters of Music in film scoring from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in 2000.

She has written musical scores for The Learning Channel, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic, and underscored exhibits at the Jerusalem Theater (Poetry and Pictures); Boston Aquarium, combining live music, electronics, and sound effects; and the interactive multimedia presentation, The Naharayim Experience, at the Gesher Museum in Israel. As a songwriter, her songs are published, recorded, and released by many celebrated Israeli artists. Her best known song, lyrics and music, Along the Sea (Le'Orech Ha Yam), was recorded by Ofra Haza in 1994, and is one of the most recorded songs in Israel. Ayala released her debut CD, Crossing the River in 2007. She has appeared and performed in Tel Aviv, Columbia, South Carolina, and at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston SC in 2008, and continues to perform her own material on the piano.

In 2011 Ayala completed the score for Second Act, a six part documentary series about the Israeli National Theater for Israel Educational Television. In 2010 Ayala scored The Forgotten Founder, part of the South Carolina ETV documentary series, Carolina Stories, which aired in October 2010.

For more information, please visit her website.

Born in Baltimore, DR. ELIZABETH R. AUSTIN received her early musical training at The Peabody Conservatory. When Nadia Boulanger visited Goucher College, she awarded the composer a scholarship to study in Fontainebleau, France. Her awards have included a Connecticut Commission on the Arts grant, selection by GEDOK (Society of Women Artists in Germany/Austria) in its 70th anniversary exhibition, and First Prize in IAWM's 1998 Miriam Gideon Competition. In 2001 The Rockefeller Foundation awarded her a residency at Bellagio, Italy. Dr. Michael K. Slayton, Professor of Theory/Composition at Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, wrote his DMA dissertation (University of Houston, 2000) on Austin's music. He also edited Women of Influence in Contemporary Music: Nine American Composers published by Scarecrow Press in 2011 that included his chapter on Austin's music. Dr. Austin was the BMI/Vanderbilt University Composer-in-Residence in 2015. An excerpt from her opera I am one and double too was performed there in a portrait concert. In 2018, the final scene will be staged through the Hartford Women Composers Festival. The Hartford Musical Club's commissioned choral music was premiered in an Austin portrait concert in honor of its 125th anniversary in 2016. Her music has also recently been performed in Berlin and New York City. It is published by Arsis Press, Tonger Musikverlag, Peer Musik, Certosa and recorded on the Parma (Capstone) and Leonarda labels among others. All of her scores are available through the American Composers Alliance.

The Axiom Quartet is a dynamic professional ensemble based in Houston, TX. The group is known for creating and performing programs that mix traditional string quartet repertoire and transcriptions of works from a variety of genres (including jazz, electronic, rock, indie, etc.). By combining these genres, the quartet exposes classical music audiences to extraordinary music from different genres, and creates new fans of the classical repertoire.

In 2017, Axiom was named Quartet-In-Residence at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX. The Axiom Quartet also serves as outreach ambassadors for Chamber Music Houston (CMH), which is one of the country's top chamber music presenters. The CMH sponsorship allows the group to perform their innovative programs in communities in which access to live music is limited.

For more information, please visit their website.