Artists

Jonathan Santore is composer in residence with the New Hampshire Master Chorale, and professor of music at Plymouth State University. He has won prizes and awards for his work including The American Prize in Composition (Choral Division), the American Composers Forum Welcome Christmas! Carol Contest, and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

Czech violinist and producer Vít Muzík (b. 1972) is one of the most multifaceted musicians working on the contemporary classical music scene. His abilities both as a performer on the concert stage and in the recording booth have led to appearances on more than 60 recordings in the Navona and Ravello catalogs, making him one of PARMA Recordings' most frequent collaborators.

Charles Alan Beeler (February 10, 1939 - April 28, 2016) Beeler completed his graduate study in theory and composition at Washington University, where he received an M.A. and Ph.D. He studied composition with Robert Wykes, Robert Baker, and Harold Blumenfeld, theory with Leigh Gerdine, and musicology with Lincoln Bunce Spiess and Paul Amadeus Pisk.

Deb Scott grew up on the flat plains of Lubbock, Texas. With not much else to do but play trombone, she began soloing at an early age. By the time she was in high school, she had performed the Lars-Erik Larsson Concertino with her high school orchestra, performed with professional symphonies, and played regularly in a jazz combo. She graduated with top honors from Texas Tech University and also received the top award for her master’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado.

The music of adventurer-composer Lias is performed regularly around the world by soloists and ensembles including the Boulder Philharmonic, the Oasis Quartet, the Ensamble de Trompetas Simon Bolivar, and the Russian String Orchestra.

Brooklyn-based pianist Beth Levin is celebrated as a bold interpreter of challenging works, from the Romantic canon to leading modernist composers. The New York Times praised her “fire and originality,” while The New Yorker called her playing “revelatory.” Debuting as a child prodigy with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age twelve, Levin was subsequently taught and guided by legendary pianists such as Rudolf Serkin, Leonard Shure and Dorothy Taubman, Another of her teachers, Paul Badura-Skoda, praised Levin as a pianist of rare qualities and the highest professional caliber.

Viennese born violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot has settled in Canada since 1987 where she now is full professor for viola and chamber music at the Université de Montréal since 1990. She is principal violist of the Laval Symphony Orchestra and has an exhaustive background in chamber music and solo playing, performing in various formations and at various international festivals. Jutta likes to tour the world via the International Viola Congresses, where she shares with passion her new discoveries of forgotten music written for the viola, mainly around the turn of the 20th century.

After an injury in 1982 ended his career as a modern dancer, David Kirtley focused on a new path as a self-taught composer. His efforts were rewarded when in 1987 he was granted a residency/fellowship from the Yellowsprings Institute in Pennsylvania for his piece, Songs for the Outcasts of Great Turtle’s Back, a song cycle recounting the great losses of life, land, and culture suffered by the American Indians.

David DeVasto (b.1979) has presented works in the United States and Europe; including The IAEF International Summer Arts Institute, The Council for Undergraduate Research, Society of Composers, Charlotte New Music Festival, Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers, Electronic Music Midwest, The Iowa Composers Forum, Nevada Encounters of New Music, and The Electro-Acoustic Juke Joint.

Musica Pacifica has, since its founding in 1990, become widely recognized as one of America’s premier baroque ensembles, lauded for both the dazzling virtuosity and the warm expressiveness of its performances. They have been described by the press as “some of the finest baroque musicians in America” (American Record Guide) and “among the best in the world” (Alte Musik Aktuell). At home in the San Francisco Bay area, the artists perform with Philharmonia Baroque and American Bach Soloists, and appear with many other prominent early music ensembles nationally and abroad.

Phillip Rhodes was born in Forest City, North Carolina in 1940 and received degrees from Duke University and the Yale University School of Music. His principal teachers have been William Klenz, Iain Hamilton, Donald Martino, and Mel Powell.

Timothy Lee Miller (b. 1961) is an American composer, arranger and publisher writing unique contemporary concert music for chamber ensembles, orchestra, wind ensemble, chorus and solo voice, as well as jazz music. He has also written for several small film and television projects, however, his primary focus is concert music. He has earned degrees from the University of Tennessee (BS Music Ed, 1984), the University of Miami (MM Media Writing and Production, 1990) and Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA Composition, 2013).

Delvyn Case is a composer, conductor, scholar, performer and educator based in Boston.

Cited in The Washington Post as “one of the top 35 female composers in classical music,” Laura Kaminsky frequently addresses critical social and political issues in her work, including sustainability, war, and human rights. She possesses “an ear for the new and interesting” (The New York Times) and “her music is full of fire as well as ice, contrasting dissonance and violence with tonal beauty and meditative reflection. It is strong stuff.” (American Record Guide).

This remarkable quartet - hailed as "a triumph of ensemble playing" by the New York Times - is a multi-faceted ensemble taking chamber music in new directions. Touring music of the masters as well as original works from visionary composers of our time, the Fry Street Quartet has perfected a "blend of technical precision and scorching spontaneity" (Strad). Since securing the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the quartet has reached audiences from across the globe exploring the medium of the string quartet and its life-affirming potential with "profound understanding...depth of expression, and stunning technical astuteness" (Deseret Morning News).

Libby Larsen (b. 24 December 1950, Wilmington, Delaware) is one of America’s most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over twelve operas. Grammy Award winning and widely recorded, including over fifty CD’s of her work, she is constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles, and orchestras around the world, and has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory.

Native to Indonesia, Yudha is an accomplished pianist who has performed in the US, Austria, Cambodia, Canada, France, and Germany. She has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra in addition to being a frequent soloist with the Duke University Symphony Orchestra. She is a notable music educator haven given master classes and presentations all over the United States and Southeast Asia. She recently presented lecture recitals at TEDx Talks, the Ohio Music Teachers Association Conference, the College Music Society (CMS) National Conference, and CMS Regional Conference.

Robert A. Baker (born 1970, Toronto, Canada) is a composer, theorist, pianist and conductor of new music. His compositions have been performed at concerts and at festivals and conferences in North America and Europe including: the St. Magnus and York Spring New Music Festivals (UK); Jihlava International Choral Festival (Czech Republic); Festival "Giuseppe Rosetta" (Italy); New Music North (Canada); Miami New Music ISCM Festival (USA).

Douglas Anderson is a composer, conductor, educator, and producer who has been active in the New York area for 45 years.  He studied music and psychology at Columbia University, where his three degrees culminated in a doctorate in music composition in 1980. His professional career began as a jazz musician at the age of 12, and he performed widely in the Eastern United States before moving to New York to attend college. His work as a conductor has been his performance focus for the last several decades.

Composer Jeff Stadelman's (b. 1959) unusual, arresting, exacting musical voice has evolved over 25 years, amounting to a complex musical practice that suggests no obvious counterpart.