Artists

Described as “exquisite” (Gramophone), “riveting” (The New York Times), “arresting” (The Boston Globe), “compellingly original” (Boston Phoenix), “full, extravagant and wild” (Sydney Morning Herald), and “edgy, bright and entertaining as hell” (NewMusicBox), the works of Nicholas Vines (b.1976, Sydney) have been performed by the likes of Alarm Will Sound, BMOP, Ensemble Offspring, the Schola Cantorum Gedanesis Chamber Choir, the BT Scottish Ensemble and the Australian Piano Quartet. He has been commissioned by organisations around the world, such as Acacia Quartet, Callithumpian Consort, Firebird Ensemble, mmm…, Guerilla Opera, ChamberMade Opera, Ensemble Apex, the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and various Sydney schools.

Nada Radulovich is a dynamic and versatile artist who combines her skills as a cellist, transcriber and concert organizer to present unique concerts that synthesize the familiar and unfamiliar in a way that both entertains and educates the audience. A native of Detroit, she developed her artistry and craft at Smith College, the Manhattan School of Music and The Peabody Institute.

Diego Vega is a Colombian-American composer. His music has been performed in some of the most important concert halls in the United States, Europe and Latin America by ensembles such as Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble X, the Colombian National Symphony, the Bogotá Philharmonic, the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, the Quintet of the Americas, Soli Chamber Ensemble, and internationally acclaimed soloists and chamber groups. Diego has written commissioned works for the Colombian National Symphony, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, Banco de la República de Colombia, and the Salvi Foundation and the Cartagena International Music Festival, among others.

Australian composer Andrew Schultz studied at the Universities of Queensland and Pennsylvania and at King's College London and has received various awards, prizes and fellowships. His music, which covers a broad range of chamber, orchestral and vocal works, has been performed, recorded and broadcast widely by many leading groups and musicians internationally. He has held numerous commissions, including from the major Australian orchestras.

Acclaimed by Fanfare Magazine as “Masterful...a modernized Rachmaninoff” Christopher J. Keyes (b. 1963) began his career as a pianist, winning many competitions and later making his "double-debut" in Carnegie Hall as both soloist and guest composer with the New York Youth Symphony. He began formal composition lessons at the University of California at Santa Barbara earning a BM degree in Piano Performance and a BA in Creative Studies with an emphasis in composition.

Acclaimed violinist Moonkyung Lee, described by ResMusica as “one to follow,” has delighted audiences across Europe, the United States and Korea with her expressive performances. She has collaborated with many world-class ensembles, conductors, and performers, and is celebrated as an “expressive soloist” (Fanfare Magazine).

David Tanner studied at the Berklee College of Music and the University of Toronto, where he was saxophone instructor through the 1980’s and 90’s. He toured Canada and the USA with the rock band Lighthouse in the 1970’s. He performed in orchestras including the Toronto Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic, National Ballet, Canadian Opera Company and numerous others. He also played every genre of music from jazz to Broadway on stage or in the pit in most of the major venues in Toronto and the surrounding area. His compositions and arrangements can be heard on Navona Records: Of Birds and Lemons and Dashing!

Carlos Simon is a versatile composer and arranger who combines the influences of jazz, gospel, and neo- romanticism.

Prolific in all musical media, Wanamaker’s best-known works are those that exploit unique timbral characteristics and technical extensions of wind instruments. His earliest musical training began at age 6 in professional summer stock theater companies, and continued through both schooled and self-guided explorations through the American folk music of the 1960s, bebop and free jazz, and Western classical music of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He continues his study of sounds to those from around the world, to draw from a variety of musics to inform his continually evolving voice.

Allan Crossman has had the great pleasure to write for soloists and ensembles worldwide, including many commissions and awards. Millennium Overture appeared on the eponymous GRAMMY-nominated album from North/South Consonance; Music for Human Choir shared Top Honors at the Waging Peace Through Singing Festival in Oregon; Flyer, for cello solo and string orchestra, was written in 2003 for the centenary of the first Wright Brothers flight and premiered/recorded by the North/South Chamber Orchestra (NYC) under Max Lifchitz, with cellist Nina Flyer.

Emily Sternfeld-Dunn, soprano, is a strong advocate for new music and unconventional performances of art song and opera. Ms. Sternfeld-Dunn regularly gives recitals across the country featuring works of contemporary American composers. Significant performances with Hartford Opera Theater include Laetitia in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief and Aunt Polly and Susy Harper in Tom Sawyer, a new work commissioned by the company.

Sarah Feigin, 1928 – 2011, was born in Dvinsk, Latvia. A precocious child, her musical talent became apparent in the early age of two, as she began to replicate melodies on the piano without instruction.

Hailed as “brilliant” by Fanfare Magazine, multi-award winning pianist-composer Zhen Chen has performed as a soloist and chamber music artist at prominent music venues in USA and China, such as Stern Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall of Lincoln Center, Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center, and China National Centre for Performing Arts.

Composer Alejandro Rutty is best-known for his distinctive mix of South American styles, lyrical melodies, meticulous rhythmic detail, and textures suggested by modern recording processing techniques.

Dr. David Dickau is a choral conductor and composer residing in Mankato, Minnesota where he is Director of Choral Activities at Minnesota State University, Mankato. As a part of his duties, Dr. Dickau conducts the Concert Choir and teaches conducting and composition. Dr. Dickau holds advanced degrees in Choral Music from Northwestern University (Evanston IL) and the University of Southern California (Los Angeles CA) where he studied with Morten Lauridsen and Rodney Eichenberger. He has taught choral music on both the high school and college levels and has conducted community and church choirs.

Lionel Sainsbury began to play the piano at an early age and soon started to compose his own music. Born in Wiltshire, England, in 1958, he studied composition with Patric Standford at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. At the age of 21 he was awarded a Mendelssohn Scholarship, which brought him into contact with composers as diverse as Edmund Rubbra, John McCabe and Henri Dutilleux.

Patricia Julien writes extensively for theatrical productions, including composing the score for O, Caligula! A Mvsical. In the last ten years, she has composed the music for productions of India Song, Ostentatious Poverty, Eurydice, The Clean House, Peter Pan, The Arabian Nights, The Witches, Anna’s Journal, Winnie The Pooh, Marat/Sade, and Coracles, Castanets, Cadaques.

Composer Mark Volker is Associate Professor of Music at the Belmont University School of Music, where he is Coordinator of Composition Studies and directs the New Music Ensemble. He received degrees from the University of Chicago (Ph.D), the University of Cincinnati (M.M.), and Ithaca College (B.M.).

Dr. Nancy Zipay DeSalvo performs extensively as a soloist, a professional accompanying pianist (specializing in saxophone and string repertoire), and a chamber music collaborator. She has been a guest soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with various orchestras throughout the United States. She is an Associate Professor at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania where she is Head of the Piano Area.

Described as “harmonically lush and lyrically soaring” by the New York Times, and as having “abstract elegance, structural coherence, and tender feeling” by the Wall Street Journal, music by Daniel Crozier has been performed or recorded by the Fort Worth Opera, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the New York City Opera, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, Songfest 2004, Winsor Music, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, oboist Peggy Pearson, and pianists Heidi Louise Williams and Vivian Choi.