• Composer

    Richard Lavenda composes music that is sometimes boldly dramatic and sometimes poignantly lyrical, but always emotionally expressive and formally coherent. No matter what the piece, there are always clearly defined motives, an imaginative and personal use of instrumental color and melodic counterpoint, and strong rhythmic energy that comes as much from jazz and rock and roll as from his classical role models. His catalog of more than sixty works ranges from works for solo flute to an opera, and includes numerous pieces for orchestra and for a wide diversity of chamber ensembles.

  • Composer, Pianist

    Robert Dusek received his academic training at the Eastman School of Music, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Colorado – Boulder, where he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1990. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors in the field of composition, including Columbia University's Bearns Prize, the ASCAP Raymond-Hubbard Award, an A.H.A.B – Neodata Fellowship for his Symphony No. 1, and several national and local awards and grants. His music has been performed worldwide and recorded by such groups as North-South Consonance and the Warsaw Philharmonic. Dusek is the Founder/Director of DaCapo LLC, an organization devoted to the pursuit and development of artistic and compositional endeavors.

  • Pianist

    Bryan Pezzone is the consummate cross-over pianist of his generation. He excels in classical, contemporary, jazz, and experimental genres and is well known for his versatility and virtuosity as a recording and performing artist, improviser, and composer.

  • Composer

    Utah composer, Marie Nelson Bennett (1926 – 2018), earned her music degree from Yale while studying with Paul Hindemith. She earned her PhD in composition from the University of Utah.

  • Composer

    John Beall, a native Texan born in 1942, has been Composer in Residence at West Virginia University since 1978. Through his increasing devotion to hymn and folk sources of West Virginia and the surrounding Appalachian country, he has undergone a sort of musical adoption. He himself is a string player (bass, cello) and pianist, he is also the father of another musician, violist Stephen Beall, and husband of pianist Carol Allen Beall. His love of string playing, and the combinations of strings with the piano resound through many of his greatest works of chamber music.

  • Pianist

    A native of Niagara Falls, Canada, Jane Solose leads an active career as a featured concerto soloist, solo recitalist, chamber musician, duo pianist and master teacher that has taken her to Korea, Japan, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Russia, Argentina, Canada, and around the United States. She is listed on the distinguished international roster of Steinway Artists. Eroica Classical Recordings released three of her albums, and her articles have been published in the journals 20th Century Music and Clavier. Duo Solose, a duo-piano collaboration with her sister Kathleen, perform to enthusiastic ovations. Solose received her DMA degree from the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded their prestigious Performer's Certificate and was David Burge's first teaching assistant. She is currently Professor of Piano at the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

  • Composer

    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.

  • Pianist

    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.

  • Pianist

    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.

  • Composer, Violinist

    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).

  • Composer

    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

    Violist

    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.

  • Clarinetist

    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.

  • Ensemble

    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.

  • Composer

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

  • Composer

    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.

  • Composer

    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.

  • Composer

    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.

  • Pianist

    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.

  • Composer

    The music of Boston-based composer Richard Cornell deftly explores the nature of art and collaboration, highlighting the latent opportunities for artistic license and interpretation within music. His cross-disciplinary efforts combining visual elements with his works have led to installations, art works in virtual reality, and audio/video projects, one of which is included on his latest album TRACER on Ravello Records.