LOUD Weekend 2024

Internationally acclaimed Canadian cellist ARLEN HLUSKO is a dynamic, versatile young artist who has performed extensively as soloist and chamber musician across North America, Asia, and Europe. A laureate of numerous competitions, Grammy-award winner for her collaboration with The Crossing, and recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Arlen is currently a member of Ensemble Connect (the resident ensemble of Carnegie Hall), and regularly performs with several ensembles based on the East Coast, including the Bang on a Can All Stars and Dolce Suono Ensemble. She has recently been featured performer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, among others. Arlen has also been on the roster of preeminent summer festivals including Music from Angel Fire, Tippet Rise, Spoleto USA, and Bay Chamber Concerts. As a teacher, she has served on faculty of Curtis Summerfest, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra Teaching Artists, and given masterclasses in USA, Canada, and Germany. Committed to using her music to serve her community, Arlen founded her own interactive chamber music concert series, Philadelphia Performances for Autism, and is involved with several communities in Philadelphia & NYC, including Carnegie Hall’s “Musical Connections” at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. arlenhlusko.com

David Cossin was born and raised in Queens, NY, and studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. His interest in classical percussion, drum set, non-western hand drumming, composition, and improvisation has led to performances across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms. David has recorded and performed internationally with Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio Real Quiet, as well as with Sting on his Symphonicity world tour. Theater work includes Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and projects with the director Peter Sellars. David was featured as the solo percussionist in Tan Dun’s award-winning score to the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra Radio France, and more. His sonic installations have been presented in New York, Italy and Germany, and he is also an active producer, composer, and instrument inventor, expanding the limits of traditional percussion. David teaches percussion at the Aaron Copland School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program.

Maya Stone (bassoon) is a faith-filled, Black female classical musician, creator, performer and educator. Her creative output is filtered through that personal and professional lens.

As a performer and creator, Maya Stone is the tenured 2nd bassoonist of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra and a bassoonist with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra. She regularly gives recitals and leads masterclasses around the U.S. each year. Maya Stone is frequently engaged as a freelance musician based in the Nashville, TN and upstate New York regions. Some of her freelance activities include studio (recording) musician, and serving as a member of Nashville alternative classical ensembles (Chatterbird and Intersection). Dr. Stone received her D.M.A. in bassoon performance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010, an M.M. in bassoon performance and woodwind specialty from Michigan State University in 2003, and a B.M. in music education from SUNY Potsdam in 2001. She has held multiple teaching positions, including visiting professorships at the University of Missouri in Columbia and Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Dr. Stone was the Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Middle Tennessee State University, and in 2004, she held a visiting professorship in Double Reeds at Austin Peay State University. She currently maintains an active teaching schedule in both private and academic settings, where she focuses on developing the musicianship and life skills of young people. As a musical entrepreneur, she founded and now manages the Negus (nēɡəs) Bassoon Ensemble, an ensemble of all-Black bassoonists dedicated to presenting Classical works by Black composers from the present and 100+ years back. She also performs with the Rushes Ensemble, a group of seven bassoonists which premiered, and tours, composer Michael Gordon’s hour- long work Rushes.

Other creative and entrepreneurial collaborations include working with spoken word artist, Stephanie Pruitt-Gaines. Together, they created a set of pieces titled Peace Like a River. A previous collaboration, Solo Bassoon in Black Gospel Music, features the bassoon as gospel soloist with piano. For this project, she engaged composers Raymond Wise, Mark Lomax II and William Menefield. Stone has commissioned and premiered several works by living composers, including, Molly Herron, John Steinmetz, Shannon Sea, Gary Nash, Paul Osterfield, Spencer Lambright, and Stephen Gorbos.

Dr. Stone is a public speaker and educator. Her voice projects from a personal connection of mental, spiritual and physical healing and health. These three focal points are all connected, and benefit from alignment. Her discourse is filled with experience, persistence, hopefulness and a desire for growth. Through her development over the years, Maya has cultivated a flexible perspective. This perspective continues to challenge and be challenged by the world we live in. This informs her approach to speaking and pedagogy.

Active behind the scenes with several musical organizations, Maya previously served on the Regional Orchestra Players Association (ROPA) Executive Board as a Member At Large from 2015 to 2019. She also as the ROPA Delegate and Alternate Delegate for the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra Players Association. Maya enjoys exploring matters of health and wellness. She loves walking other peoples dogs and dancing out loud.

Maya’s website

Maya Stone, bassoon

Nick Photinos, cello and conductor

Four-time Grammy Award-winning cellist Nick Photinos is one of the most innovative and multifaceted cellists of our time. An ardent advocate of new music, he has worked closely with many of the foremost composers of this era and has premiered hundreds of works throughout his career. He has received Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year Award, the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, the inaugural Chamber Music America Visionary Award, the Naumburg Award, and the Concert Artists Guild Grand Prize.

Described as a “commanding soloist” (ClevelandClassical.com) whose “virtuoso cello playing is scintillating” (Chicago Classical Review) and “outstanding for his exquisite precision” (SFCV.org), Photinos has collaborated and toured with an incredible array of artists including rock/pop artists Björk, Wilco, Bryce Dessner, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, film composer Gustavo Santaolalla, classical artists Dawn Upshaw, Philip Glass, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and jazz artists including Sheila Jordan, Laurence Hobgood, Zach Brock, and Matt Ulery. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras including the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Toronto, Utah, and Atlanta Symphonies, the last with whom he recorded Jennifer Higdon’s On a Wire. He has performed across the globe including the Sydney Opera House, the Barbican in London, KBC Hall in Seoul, Carnegie Hall in New York City, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver.

Photinos currently serves as Professor of Chamber Music and Eminent Scholar at the University of Cincinnati, and previously served on the faculties of the Longy School of Music of Bard College, the University of Michigan, and Northwestern University. He is faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and performs in the Grossman Ensemble at the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Nick’s website

Todd Reynolds is a self-proclaimed ‘solo classical violinist gone horribly wrong’. For years the violinist of choice for contemporary artists such as Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, and Bang on a Can, he’s also a founder of the string quartet known as Ethel. As a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall and in concert halls around the world, his compositional and performance style is a hybrid of old and new technology, multi-disciplinary aesthetic and pan-genre composition and improvisation. He thrives on a stage, whether virtual or physical, encircled by many speakers and a mission control with which to record himself and compose in real-time. His musical weapon of choice is made up of hybrid technology from the 1800s to the 2100s – a classical violin wired into digital technology running through Ableton Live and Cycling 74’s Max/MSP which was integral in creating his double-disc debut solo album Outerborough, released in 2011 on the Innova label. His thirty years of creating inside the music industry based in New York City have left him fortunate and grateful, with a bucket list of items greatly filled already, especially having collaborated with artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Todd Rundgren, Joe Jackson, Mark Mothersbaugh, and even Bruce Springsteen. He currently lives in the woods of Northwestern Massachusetts where he produces, records, coaches, streams, and supports like-minded artists through his education portal, Amplify This.

Todd Reynolds’ Website

photo credit: Bill Wadman

Alex Groves is an Ivor Novello-nominated composer and curator working across contemporary classical and electronic music. His work often combines instrumentalists and singers with live-processed electronics to create richly-detailed and all-consuming soundworlds. www.alexgroves.co.uk

Multi-instrumentalist and instrument designer Mark Stewart, founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and also a curator at MASS MoCA of the immersive Gunnar Schonbeck exhibit of musical instruments, leads the 30+ musicians of the Bang on a Can Summer Festival on customized orchestral instruments that everyone can play.

Alex Koi is a vocalist, composer/producer, and improvising musician. Her music is the mystical translation between the privacy of her inner world and the somatic extrication of such. Through polyphonic narrative, ecstatic release and coy murmurs, she bends between her diverse musical influences in the avant-garde, opera, Jazz, and electronic music. She heads her eponymous project and is the vocalist and co-composer for the art rock band saajtak called “one of the most interesting and unclassifiable bands in the country right now” [Tone Madison]. She creates an explosive sound that has been called “impossibly stunning” [Stereo Stickman], “primal and futuristic at the same time” [Current Magazine] and that “bends between operatic and punk rock” [Audiofemme].
She has had the privilege of working with musicians, composers, visual artists, directors and dancers such as Shara Nova, Toshi Reagon, Ragnar Kjartenson, Chris Bruce, Morley, Eric Ting, Nathan Thatcher, Trevor Dunn, Sally Gates, Kirin McElwain, Nathan Thatcher, Ching-I Chang, David Leon, Lesley Mok, Aaron Edgcomb and more. Performances have included those at venues including Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joe’s Pub, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, and more. She recently played the combined role of Tracy Dunn/Jillian Gilchrist in the Off-Broadway production of “Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower”, Toshi Reagon’s theatrical adaptation of the beloved novel. www.alexkoimusic.com

Born in Russia, Alexey Logunov is a composer and pianist whose music explores textural density and timbral complexity. His compositions have been consistently performed by internationally recognized ensembles at numerous festivals such as reMusik.org, Sound Ways and From Avantgarde to Present Days. He is a winner of the 2023 Georgina Joshi Composition Commission Award at Jacobs School of Music. alexeylogunov.ru

Anak Baiharn is a composer with a fascination for a diverse array of artistic disciplines. His creative passions encompass electronic music, sound art, spectralism, post-minimalism, and Thai music. anak-baiharn.com

Annika Socolofsky is a composer and avant folk vocalist who explores corners and colors of the voice frequently deemed to be “untrained” and not “classical.” Described as “unbearably moving” (Gramophone) and “just the right balance between edgy precision and freewheeling exuberance” (The Guardian), her music erupts from the embodied power of the human voice and is communicated through mediums ranging from orchestral and operatic works to unaccompanied folk ballads and unapologetically joyous Dolly Parton covers. Annika writes extensively for her own voice with chamber ensemble, including composing a growing repertoire of “feminist rager-lullabies” titled Don’t say a word, which serves to confront centuries of damaging lessons taught to young children by retelling old lullaby texts for a new, queer era. Annika has taken Don’t say a word on the road, performing with ensembles including Eighth Blackbird, New European Ensemble, Albany Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Latitude 49, and Contemporaneous. Her follow-up feminist rager-lullaby song cycle in collaboration with ~Nois, titled I Tell You Me, was recognized by the Chicago Tribune as “grotesquely gorgeous… among the most captivating compositions heard the whole festival [Ear Taxi 2021]” and was included in their “Chicago’s Top 10 for classical music, opera and jazz that defined 2021”.

Annika’s Website

Photo by Nadine Dyskant-Miller

Annija Anna Zariņa is a Latvian composer based in The Hague, The Netherlands. She’s currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music. Annija’s compositions focus on reflecting her inner quest for meaning and fulfillment. Using simplistic means to create a sense of ambiguity can be described as the main characteristic of her work. Annija’s music has been performed and commissioned by the Residentie Orchestra, Latvian Radio Choir, New European Ensemble, Ensemble Fractales, Orkest De Ereprijs, Signum quartet, Kāna Trio, among others. www.annijaannazarina.com

Bang on a Can All-Stars perform Meredith Monk’s MEMORY GAME and a new collaboration with SHABAKA!

Bang on a Can All-Stars website

Beth Daunis is a classically trained violinist who broke free into the realm of improvisation as a teen, and hasn’t looked back. She is currently recording and touring with the globetrotting rock band, The Durgas, and calls North Adams home.

Dániel Janca is a multifaceted percussionist and drummer, creating out-of-the-box solo concert programs that feature improvised electroacoustic music, mimes, body-percussion, and adaptations of baroque works. Both in solo and in collaborations, the music Dániel is involved in is often characterized as innovative and experimental. Being versed in contemporary/new music and enhancing his literacy in early music by conducting doctoral research serves Dániel’s dual pursuit of pioneering and nourishing traditions.  DANIELJANCA.COM

Daniel Knapp is a cellist, manager, and improviser who aims to support the ever-changing world of contemporary music. As the founding member of The Ἔrιs Quartet and Executive Director of The Musikos Collective, Daniel encourages creative collaborations and community placemaking, with a particular focus on the sounds that make your face scrunch up a little. Recent performances have included collaborations with The JACK Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, Wendy Eisenberg, Du Yun, and Nicole Lizée. Daniel’s favorite color is somewhere between a blood orange and a mango. And a pomegranate. danielknapp.net

David Lang, prayers for night and sleep

Some prayers are gentle, some are about spreading good will and health and happiness throughout the world. Some are just about getting a good night’s sleep. Hear David Lang’s prayers for night and sleep on a special concert set of David’s vocal music.

David Lang’s Website

photo credit: Peter Serling

Duet Behavior 2022 is an intimate evening of Meredith Monk’s music as it has never been experienced. Through a conversational approach, long-time friends and colleagues Monk and Hollenbeck expand and improvise on pieces from across Monk’s 50+ year catalogue, combining her pioneering vocal magic with his inventive and masterful percussion to generate new arrangements of Monk’s iconic compositions.

Meredith Monk, voice, piano, jew’s harp
John Hollenbeck, percussion

Meredith’s website

Photos by Christine Alicino and Mercedes Jelinek

Elena Collins is a clarinetist based in Kansas City, Missouri with a Bachelor’s in Music from DePauw University and a Master’s in Music from UMKC Conservatory. Moreover, she is the co-founder and clarinetist of Full Gremlin, a mixed chamber ensemble in KC that focuses on promoting new music to a wide array of audiences. You can find more information about her on her website: https://www.elenacollinsmusic.com/

Ella Beard (they/them) is an early career violist and teaching artist from Adelaide/Kaurna and Brisbane/Meanjin, Australia. With a special interest in new music, Ella is most excited by music that tells diverse stories, connects communities, broadens perspectives, and has meaningful social impact. Ella’s time has recently been spent performing with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Camerata, Momentum Ensemble, and When We ensemble, as well as working on projects such as Lullaby Project Australia, The Nest, and A Room of Her Own workshops. https://www.ellabeardviola.com.au/

EunMoo Heo has had a diverse and dynamic career as a soloist, concertmaster, educator, and director. She graduated from the Korean National University of Arts and completed her master’s degree at Yale University with a scholarship. She has won numerous musical competitions, including those sponsored by Sunwha Music School and the Chosun Daily News, and performed at prestigious venues worldwide, like Seoul Arts Center, Lincoln Center, Yale University, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Berlin Konzerthaus, Finland Kuhmo International Music Camp and the Texas Round Top Orchestra Festival. In 2004, she received the Award for Best New Artist, sponsored by the Journal of Music. In 2006, she held a prestigious faculty position at the St-Cherly-d’Apcher International Music Camp in France. EunMoo has also served as concertmaster of the Joy of Strings Orchestra for 10 years and has collaborated with artists and conductors abroad in France, Korea, and Germany. She is currently contributing to the expansion of contemporary music as a leader of Ensemble PAN, as well as through her work as a soloist and chamber musician.

Eric Bergeman is a flutist originally from Forman, North Dakota. He recently completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Flute Performance at the Eastman School of Music, studying with Bonita Boyd, and will be attending the Colburn School this fall for his Master’s Degree. Eric is the 1st Place Winner of the 2024 National MTNA Young Artist Woodwinds Competition, the 2023 Tal Perkes Flute Competition, the
Jacqueline Avant Young Artist Competition, and the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. While in Rochester, he was president of Eastman’s student-run contemporary ensemble, OSSIA New Music, for the 2022-2023 season and is a flute instructor at the Eastman Community Music School. Recently, he has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Musica Nova, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Sarasota Festival Orchestra, and was Principal Flutist of the Northern Ambassadors of Music European Tour.

GEORGE is:
Anna Webber-tenor sax/flute
Sarah Rossy-voice/keyboards
Chiquita Magic-keyboards/voice
John Hollenbeck-drums/piano/composition

GEORGE
From the Greek name Georgios, which was derived from the Greek word georgos meaning “farmer, earthworker”, itself derived from the elements γῆ (ge) meaning “earth” and ergon meaning “work”.
George Washington Carver, George Gervin, George Clooney, George Floyd,
George Wein, Georgia (the state and the country), Georgia O’Keefe, Saint George, George Saunders, George Michael, George Carlin, George Clinton, George Frideric Handel, George Orwell, Boy George, Curious George, George the magazine, etc…

John Hollenbeck formed GEORGE during the Covid pandemic. He brought together three great musicians/people whom he loved and admired for a long time! Even though most of the members had never met each other, John was confident from knowing them himself, that this group would immediately be, as one of the members calls it, “tight” (which means “very cool” in case you were wondering). Their group sound is firmly planted outside any categories or labels! They remotely recorded a literal “Proof of Concept” in March 2021 and finally met in person in January 2022 in Montreal, Canada where they recorded “Letters to George”, which was released on vinyl/cd/digitally on Out Of Your Head Records in January 27, 2023. On August 27th, 2023, GEORGE released “shorts”, 4 re-composed remixes based on improvisations from their 1st recording session.

Anna Webber is a flutist, saxophonist, and composer whose interests and work live in the aesthetic overlap between avant-garde jazz and new classical music. She was recently named a 2021 Berlin Prize Fellow and was voted the top “Rising Star” flutist in the 2020 Downbeat Critic’s Poll.
Sarah Rossy is a vocalist, keyboardist, composer and producer based in Montreal, Canada. Sarah’s practice combines live electronic processing with jazz, folk, and Arabic music to create autobiographical, ethereal, and socially-outspoken soundscapes. Recent themes in Sarah’s work include ancestral continua, intergenerational linkage and community healing. A debut audiovisual album, a tender autobiographical soundscape imagined through a kaleidoscopic electronic jazz lens entitled ‘OF WHO WE HAVE BECOME’, is set for release in 2024.
Isis Paola Giraldo AKA Chiquita Magic is a latinx artist/producer hailing from Colombia and based in Canada. She uses microtonal synthesizers, her voice, and a drum machine to create a unique sound that can be described as futuristic electro pop with elements of EDM, hip hop, cumbia, funk, reggaeton, choirs & jazz.

Genre-crossing composer/percussionist John Hollenbeck, renowned in both the jazz and new-music worlds, has gained widespread recognition as the driving force behind the unclassifiable Claudia Quintet and the ambitious John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, groups with roots in jazz, world music, and contemporary composition. He has earned six GRAMMY nominations and has worked with many of the world’s leading musicians in jazz including Bob Brookmeyer, Fred Hersch, Tony Malaby, and is well known in new-music circles for his long-time collaboration with Meredith Monk.

Hatis Noit is a Japanese vocal performer hailing from distant Shiretoko in Hokkaido who now resides in London. Her accomplished range is astonishingly self-taught, inspired by everything she could find from Gagaku — Japanese classical music — and operatic styles, Bulgarian and Gregorian chanting, to avant-garde and pop vocalists.

Hatis’ website

Photo by Fiona Garden

Composer Huang Ruo has been lauded by The New York Times for having “a distinctive style.” His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, experimental, noise, natural and processed sound, rock, and jazz to create a seamless, organic integration using a compositional technique he calls “Dimensionalism.”  Huang Ruo’s diverse compositional works span from orchestra, chamber music, opera, theater, and dance, to cross-genre, sound installation, architectural installation, multimedia, experimental improvisation, folk rock, and film.  His music has been premiered and performed by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, National Polish Radio Orchestra, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Royal Danish Opera, Asko/Schoenberg, Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, and conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marin Alsop, Andrew Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, and James Conlon.  His opera An American Soldier (with libretto by David Henry Hwang) has recently received its world premiere at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in June 2018, and was named one of the best classical music events in 2018 by The New York Times.  His installation opera Paradise Interrupted was premiered at the Spoleto Festival USA in 2015 and was performed at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2016.  Another opera, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, premiered at the Santa Fe Opera in 2014.  His recent new opera M. Butterfly (with libretto by David Henry Hwang) received its world premiere with the Santa Fe Opera in 2022.  His future opera commissions will be for the Met Opera and the San Francisco Opera.  He served as the first composer-in-residence for Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and was the visiting composer for the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in Brazil. Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, China in 1976 – the year the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended. His father, who is also a composer, began teaching him composition and piano when he was six years old. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, when China was opening its gate to the Western world, he received both traditional and Western education at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.  As a result of the dramatic cultural and economic changes in China in the 80s and 90s, his education expanded from Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, and Lutoslawski, to include the Beatles, rock and roll, heavy metal, and jazz. Huang Ruo was able to absorb all of these newly allowed Western influences equally.  After winning the Henry Mancini Award at the 1995 International Film and Music Festival in Switzerland, he moved to the United States to further his education. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in composition from the Juilliard School. Huang Ruo is a composition faculty at the Mannes School of Music in NY, and is the artistic director and conductor of Ensemble FIRE.  He was selected as a Young Leader Fellow by the National Committee on United States–China Relations in 2006.  Huang Ruo’s music is administered exclusively by European American Music Distributors Company (ASCAP).  For more information about the composer and his music, please visit: (www.huangruo.com)

HxH will present a concert of long form electroacoustic improvisations intertwined with selections from their Upcoming EP on KMRU’s imprint ‘OFNOT’.

HxH is an improvisatory electro-acoustic duo of Lester St. Louis and Chris Williams. The duo utilizes a mix of trumpet, cello and electronics to build worlds traversing through acoustic sound, grainy textures, expansive pools of sounds, breaks, cuts and beats. We’ve developed these varied sound worlds through live performance, studio recording, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The approach is conceived as an expansiveness that holds a personal intimacy. HxH wants to bring the listeners in, tune them to the experience and take a long trip. HxH functions as a vehicle to bring together the mass of references and influences Chris and Lester share and create ways to crystalize those ideas in real, expanded time to an experience over minutes or hours. Along with creating their own body of original music, the duo also work as sound and installation designers; collaborating with other artists and institutions.

Jack is an artist and educator based in New York City and Boston. Jack seeks in all things the delight of discovery and the thrill of exploring the unknown.

Jacob Fullinwider is a recent alumni of the University of North Texas and has been awarded the Graduate Percussion Fellowship at the University of Delaware starting in fall 2024. His festival experience includes the Sō Percussion Summer Institute, Lake George Music Festival, Warner Brothers Film Orchestra Intensive, and the International Timpani Intensive. While at UNT, he played with various ensembles around the Dallas/Fort Worth area, performed in two European tours, and has competed at the international level.

The return of composer Jeffrey Brooks to LOUD Weekend!

Jeffrey Brooks Website

​​Jessica Ackerley is a Canadian guitarist, improviser, composer and visual artist based in Honolulu and a current PhD candidate at University of Hawai’i after a decade of living in New York City. Ackerley continually develops a hybrid musical language drawing on the influences of Black American Music and avant-garde improvisers, as well as the culture of the thriving New York City rock and noise scenes. Since 2017, Ackerley has released 19 albums to much critical acclaim with features in Wire Magazine, Pitchfork, BBC Radio, and BandCamp and has been commissioned by Adult Swim, Mutual Mentorship, and New Music USA. https://www.jessicaackerley.com/

Described by Performance Today as “one of the top young guitarists of his generation,” Jordan
Dodson is a musician and educator. An advocate of contemporary music, Dodson has given
the premiere of hundreds of new works. He has appeared on several commercially available
recordings including Jason Eckardt’s Subject and Elliot Cole’s Nightflower and Journals, vol. 1.
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Dodson is on faculty at EzraGuitar and The Smith School in
New York City.

Jordan’s website

About Julia Wolfe

photo by Peter Serling

Julius Eastman’ Gay Guerilla, performed by Summer Festival fellows and faculty!

Justin Wright is a composer, cellist, and multimedia artist from Montreal, Canada. After finishing his master’s in molecular biology, Justin left science to perform in bands of all sorts before eventually starting to compose, using the techniques he learned in recording studios. Justin’s primary composition tools, for both electronic and acoustic music, are his cello, Ableton Live, a modular synthesizer, and a 4-track tape machine. Lately, Justin has focused on filmmaking, early music, virtual reality, and in situ composition.

https://www.justinwright.ca/

Juwon Lim is a composer who likes to create a nuanced sensation in her work through organizing sounds that are vibrant and unfamiliar to people’s ears. www.juwonlimcomposer.com

Karl Larson is a Brooklyn-based pianist and specialist in the music of our time. A devoted supporter of contemporary composers and their craft, Larson has built a career grounded in commissioning and long-term collaborations. He frequently performs in a variety of chamber music settings, most notably with his trio, Bearthoven, a piano / bass / percussion ensemble focussed on cultivating a diverse new repertoire for their instrumentation. As a soloist, Larson is known for championing the works of his peers and the recent canon alike, often gravitating towards long-form, reflective works of the 20th and 21st centuries. Through his work with Bearthoven, collaborations with a wide variety of chamber musicians, and his solo projects, Larson has helped to generate a large body of new work, resulting in world premiere performances of pieces by notable composers including David Lang, Sarah Hennies, Chris Cerrone, and Michael Gordon.

Karl’s Website

In line with their upbringing, Kebra-Seyoun is able to give prominence to the dance qualities in all forms of music. Exhibiting their versatility, Kebra-Seyoun has performed alongside esteemed improvisers and composers such as Jon Batiste, at Carnegie Hall, and Tyshawn Sorey, at the New England Conservatory. Kebra-Seyoun was also featured in “Slugs’ Saloon” at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, an interactive installation created by famed jazz musician and composer Jason Moran.

Currently, in addition to their solo career, Kebra-Seyoun Charles is a passionate chamber musician. Playing with groups like East Coast Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, Palaver Strings, and the Sphinx Virtuosi afford Kebra the opportunity to showcase their musicianship while still playing within an ensemble. A prime example of this is their tenure on the 2019 Emmy award-winning Broadway production “Hadestown”.

As if this weren’t enough, they also have 32 piercings.

Kebra-Seyoun Charles

Keri Lee Pierson is a vocalist currently pursuing a DMA in Contemporary Music at BGSU. She holds degrees from the University of South Carolina, and UCF. Planning interesting and audience involved events is Keri Lee‘s primary focus. For 2021-22, she was awarded two grants from the Florida Department of State for her duo, Deux Saisons. Keri Lee has performed at many venues and festivals in the US and Europe, as well as concerts and events she has curated.

kerileesoprano.com

My name is Lainie (pronounced “LAY-nee”) Fefferman. I was born in New York City in 1982 and my pronouns are she/her. I love music.

I’m drawn to artistic experiences that are either extremely minimalist or extremely maximalist. I love process pieces that wear their structures and conceits on their sleeves, and I love wacky patchwork quilts of whimsy, built from idiosyncratic intuitions. I love abstraction and rigor; I love narrative and documentary. As a listener, a watcher, an audience member, a fan, I just want to be subsumed into someone else’s world – I’m much less concerned with what the world looks like than the wondrous feeling of being firmly lost within it.

I’m a music maker, advocate, and teacher. I’m a Jew and a lover of mathematics. I’m a baker and a third generation American. I love to laugh, but even more: I love to make others laugh and feel full.

I make music by putting dots on lines (mostly Euro-classical staff notation), drawing curves in software (mostly Reaper with fun plugins and endless automation), writing code in boxes (mostly Max MSP and soon RNBO), and finding new and surprising ways to wiggle my vocal chords (surprising to me, at least). I make music for myself and for other people, for acoustic instruments and electronic instruments, for live performance and static albums. I’m less interested in the instrumentation or scope of a commission than the people who commission it. I want to work with kind, curious compatriots who are committed to making new sounds with me in a spirit of fun and collaborative commitment; a lot of my musical philosophy and family are centered around the warm and wacky Bang on a Can universe. I’ve been lucky to make music for and with glorious folks like this, including: Space Lazers, Recap Quartet, TRANSIT New Music, Greg Oakes, JACK Quartet, Kamilla Akru, Transient Canvas, Aaron Larget-Caplan, Ensemble Decipher, Tenth Intervention, ” Sō Percussion, Sideband, Make Music New York, Experiments in Opera, ETHEL, Kathleen Supové, TILT Brass, James Moore, Eleonore Oppenheim, and Dither.

Lanie’s Website

Photo Credit: Bill Wadman

Lesley Flanigan is an experimental electronic musician living in New York City. Inspired by the physicality of sound, she builds her own instruments using minimal electronics, microphones and speakers. Performing these instruments alongside traditional instrumentation that often includes her own voice, she creates a kind of physical electronic music that embraces both the transparency and residue of process; sculpting sound from a palette of noise and subtle imperfections.

Her work has been presented at venues and festivals internationally, including The Red Bull Music Festival at Saint John the Divine (New York), De Doelen (Rotterdam), Sonar (Barcelona), The Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park (Chicago), the Guggenheim Museum (New York), The Kitchen (New York), The Broad Museum (Los Angeles), ISSUE Project Room (Brooklyn), TransitioMX (Mexico City), CMKY Festival (Boulder), the Roskilde Museum of Contemporary Art (Denmark) and KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin.

Lesley’s website

Summer Festival fellows and faculty perform Louis Andriessen’s Symphony for Open Strings

photo credit: Nils Andriessen

href=”http://www.composers21.com/compdocs/andriesl.htm”>Louis Andriessen Website

Praised by The Chicago Tribune as “minutely crafted” and “utterly lovely,” The New York Times as “whimsical” and “surreal,” and The Washington Post as “dark and deeply poetic,” the music of composer Marcos Balter (b.1974, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is at once emotionally visceral and intellectually complex, primarily rooted in experimental manipulations of timbre and hyper-dramatization of live performance.

Marco’s Website

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, song leader, composer and instrument designer Mark Stewart has been heard around the world performing old and new music. As musical director for Paul Simon’s band, he has recorded and toured with Simon since 1998.  A founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the duo Polygraph Lounge with keyboard & theremin wizard Rob Schwimmer, Mark has also worked with Steve Reich, Sting, Anthony Braxton, Bob Dylan, Wynton Marsalis, Meredith Monk, Stevie Wonder, Phillip Glass, Iva Bittova, Bruce Springsteen, Terry Riley, Ornette Coleman, Edie Brickell, Don Byron, Joan Baez, Hugh Masakela, Paul McCartney, Cecil Taylor, Bill Frisell, Jimmy Cliff, Charles Wourinen, the Everly Brothers, Steve Gadd, Fred Frith, Alison Krauss, David Krakauer & Klezmer Madness, Bobby McFerrin, David Byrne, James Taylor, The Roches, Aaron Neville, Bette Midler, and Marc Ribot. He has worked extensively with composer Elliot Goldenthal on music for the films The Glorias, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Across the Universe, Titus, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, In Dreams and Heat. He has designed instruments for Julie Taymor’s Midsummer Nights Dream & Theater For A New Audience’s production of King Lear. He is the inventor of the WhirlyCopter, a bicycle-powered Pythagorean choir of singing tubes and the Big Boing, a 24 ft. sonic banquet table Mbira that seats 30 children playing 490 found objects, and he is a Visiting Lecturer in musical instrument design & performance practice at MIT. Mark is also a curator at MASS MoCA of the immersive Gunnar Schonbeck exhibit of musical instruments and co-founder of SoundstewArt, a company that designs immersive sound environments & community music making experiences. Since 2012, he has been the Artistic Director of Guitar Mash, leading the participatory communal Urban Campfires together with renowned artists sharing their favorite songs and life stories. Mark can be heard on Blue Note, Warner Bros., Sony, Sony Classical, Point/Polygram, Nonesuch, Label Bleu, Resonance Magnetique, Cantaloupe and CRI recordings. He lives in Brooklyn, NY & North Adams, MA, playing, singing & writing popular music, semi-popular music and unpopular music, whilst designing instruments that everyone can play.

Mathew Rosenblum’s works have been performed by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and many others, and appear on the MODE, New World Records, New Focus Recordings and BMOP/sound labels. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, three Fromm Foundation Commissions, a National Endowment for the Arts Music Fellowship Grant, and a Barlow Endowment Commission. Using a variety of tuning systems, his work does not live within traditional boundaries, creating a compellingly fresh landscape. Rosenblum received degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music and Princeton University.

Mathew’s website

Describing cellist, producer, and multifaceted artist Maya Beiser, The New York Times writes, “The adventurous Ms. Beiser has been called the ‘cello goddess,’ which is not hyperbole: She summons from her instrument an emotional power so stirring that even the most stoic audience members risk turning into sobbing sacks of flesh.” Passionately forging her artistic path through uncharted territories, Maya Beiser has been captivating audiences worldwide, bringing a bold and unorthodox presence to contemporary classical music, reimagining solo cello performance in the mainstream arena, and defying conventional norms with her boundary-crossing performances. Hailed as “the reigning queen of avant-garde cello” by The Washington Post, she has been called a “cello rock star,” by Rolling Stone and praised as “a force of nature,” by The Boston Globe.

Maya’s Website

Maya Fridman, based in the Netherlands, is a multi-faceted composer, cellist and singer, acclaimed for her innovative approach to music making. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD trajectory at Leiden University researching ways of integrating ritual experience in concert practice.

Maya’s website

Meredith Monk is a composer, singer, director/choreographer and creator of new opera, music-theater works, films and installations. Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, she is a pioneer in what is now called “extended vocal technique” and “interdisciplinary performance.” Monk creates works that thrive at the intersection of music and movement, image and object, light and sound, discovering and weaving together new modes of perception. Her groundbreaking exploration of the voice as an instrument, as an eloquent language in and of itself, expands the boundaries of musical composition, creating landscapes of sound that unearth feelings, energies, and memories for which there are no words.

Meredith’s website

Queens College Gamalan perform the work of Michael Gordon

Michael Gordon’s Website

Paul Hadley (horn) is principal horn with Tundi Opera, a member of Juno Orchestra and New England Repertory Orchestra and horn professor at Keene State College. Before moving to New England Paul performed in the San Francisco Bay Area with North State Symphony, Ukiah Symphony and bay area opera and theater compa

Rachel Smith is a versatile violist and violinist with a passion for new and early music. She studied with Gunter Teuffel in Stuttgart and later with George Taylor and Masumi per Rostad at the Eastman School of Music. Since 2022, she has been an active member of Eastman’s Musica Nova ensemble. She was part of the Landesjugendorchester Baden-Württemberg from 2017-2020, performing under conductors like Christoph Altstaedt and Johannes Klumpp. Rachel has performed solo and chamber works by composers such as Garth Knox and Caroline Shaw. In 2023, she attended the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, studying with Geneviève Strosser. She holds Eastman’s Certificate of Achievement in Performance Practice, having studied early music with Paul O’Dette, Christel Thielmann, and Cynthia Roberts. Rachel has performed at prestigious events like the Boston Early Music Festival and the National Orchestral Institute. She currently resides in Germany and Rochester, NY.

RICHARD AN is a composer and performer, born and raised in Los Angeles.

Richard likes playing new music and performs with house on fire, stickytack and quartet friends, and has performed with Monday Evening Concerts’ Echoi Ensemble and The Industry. Richard plays piano and percussion, and has been known to sing, conduct, and teach.

Richard’s music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Calder Quartet, members of Yarn/Wire, HOCKET, Resound Duo, Great Noise Ensemble, and more.

Richard has a BM in Composition from the University of Southern California and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. He is on faculty at the Pasadena Waldorf School. He plays taiko and tabla.

Roan Ma is a multi-faceted musician passionate about creating space within the classical music world where diverse voices are represented. During the past several years, her work has focused on rediscovering music and musicians obscured by time and social constrictions, as well as introducing contemporary repertoire. Roan received her BM and MM degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, graduating with the 2018 Hugo Kortschak Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chamber Music. She then received her Master’s in Music Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College in 2020. Currently, Roan is pursuing a DMA in violin performance at the University of Toronto.

Robert Grahmann is a musician currently based out of Amherst, MA. Though trained primarily in contemporary and jazz music, he is interested in music making of all types and most enjoys the collaborative process of music making with others. In his professional work, he hopes to make listening to new music an inviting experience for all.

Ruben Høgh is a NYC-based Danish pianist, fully dedicated to exploring the realms of contemporary music. Having already obtained a master’s degree in classical piano performance at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Denmark, as well as studies in Germany, he is now enrolled in Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program with piano teachers Margaret Kampmeier and Anthony de Mare. Finding inspiration in everything from post rock music to composers such as D. Shostakovich, John Adams and Julia Wolfe, Ruben was especially drawn to New York in the process of discovering Bang on a Can with its multifaceted aesthetical profile.

Sahara von Hattenberger is a professional cellist from Vancouver, Canada. As a graduate of the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, (B.A. 2016 / M.M. 2018), she was based in Montreal until 2024, where she was signed with Canadas only classical label; ATMA Classique. With a special connection to contemporary music, she co-founded Duo Étrange, a cello/soprano duo that has collaborated with figures such as Nicole Lizée, Kyoko Hashimoto, Joanne Kang, and Airat Ichmouratov. Sahara is releasing her first solo album in October 2024. She is a member of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. saharavon.com

Shabaka Hutchings has established himself as a central figure in the London jazz scene. Hutchings has a restlessly creative and refreshingly open-minded spirit, playing in a variety of groups—most notably, Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka & the Ancestors—and embracing influences from the sounds of London’s diverse club culture, including house, grime, jungle, and dub.

Shabaka Hutchings’ Website

photo credits: atibaphoto

Stef Van Vynckt is a Belgian harpist specializing in contemporary classical music. He has worked closely with leading contemporary composers to further expand the harp repertoire in works that showcase both the delicate side of the harp we are accustomed to, as well as the lesser explored and at times abrasive possibilities that the instrument can possess. Amongst the many collaborations he has been involved in in recent years, he has worked with, amongst others, Dai Fujikura, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Maja Bosnic, Jason Eckardt and Baldwin Giang. Stef is regularly invited to perform with leading ensembles within the contemporary music field. In 2023 he joined Ensemble Modern in the premiere of Blühen, an opera by Vito Zuraj. He performed at several festivals and venues such as Classical:NEXT 2024 (DE), cresc… Biennale für aktuelle Musik (DE), Klarafestival Young artists in the city (BE), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (CA), Korzo (NL), Muziektheater Transparant Antwerp (BE), Ha Concerts Ghent (BE), BOS! Festival (BE), Bockenheimer Depot (DE). Future projects include collaborations with Christopher Cerrone, Alexander Schubert, Elena Rykova, John Supko e.a.
stefvanvynckt.be

In a small room, the sound of tilt rings out like one big voice. Composed of vocalist Isabel Crespo Pardo, vocalist/bassist Carmen Quill, and trombonist/vocalist Kalia Vandever, the Brooklyn-based group writes intricate, viscerally affecting art-pop compositions that blend carefully interwoven motifs with improvisation. Their melodies are chiseled at extremes, vacillating between the angular and the achingly lyrical. All three members are accomplished artists and composers in their own right, coming from strong backgrounds in the jazz world. Their stunning debut LP, something we once knew (out May 3, 2024 on Dear Life Records), is in its own class, stylistically distinct from each player’s solo work—a record that teaches us how to listen to it as it progresses. Recorded live in the studio without overdubs, its songs chart troubled and surreal journeys toward understanding or acceptance, passing through mystical corners of its members’ singular musical vocabularies.

Photo Credit: Lisa Glynn

Thomas Gauthier-Lang is a saxophonist, performer, and improviser driven by the exploration of the saxophone’s role in contemporary music, specifically in the realm of contemporary aesthetics. Fascinated by the chameleon nature of the saxophone, he cultivates a kaleidoscopic  sound palette through mastery of extended techniques and a growing experience in interpreting new music repertoire.

Tristan Perich is a composer, an inventor, a technologist and a visual artist, and all of these parts of his persona come together in his music.

Tristan’s website

Vashawn Arora is a clarinetist based in New York, NY. He has just completed his Master’s degree in Music Performance at Mannes School of Music, The New School, and is currently pursuing the Professional Diploma at Mannes. Studying with David Krakauer (and previously with instructors such as Charles Neidich, Anat Cohen, and Darius Jones), Vashawn focuses on and performs in a variety of different genres and styles, such as classical, jazz, and contemporary. Born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, he previously studied at Arizona State University, receiving his undergraduate degrees in Music Performance and Music Theory and Composition with Robert Spring and Joshua Gardner. His current projects and interests include freelancing with musical theater and opera pit work, teaching K-12 public and private school lessons, and releasing a new album composed of original works with his jazz group, in April 2024.

Hong Kong/Canadian pianist Vicky Chow (she/her) has been described as “brilliant” (New York Times) and “one of our era’s most brilliant pianists” (Pitchfork). Since joining the Bang on a Can All-Stars in 2009, she has collaborated and worked with artists/ensembles such as the Tania León, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Terry Riley, George Lewis, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Sasha Waltz Dance Company, BBC Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Tyshawn Sorey, John Zorn, Kronos Quartet, to name a few. She has toured to over 40 countries and has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms in London, Teatro Colón in Argentina and many others. In 2023, her recording of Canadian composer Vince Ho’s Supervillain Etudes were nominated for a JUNO award. In 2022, she released Philip Glass: Piano Etudes Book 1 which Mr. Glass says, “”It’s a highly dynamic and expressive performance. There’s a certain energy that is uniquely hers.” The New Yorker wrote about her 2018 recording of Michael Gordon’s Sonatra: “Sonatra is a milestone of composition, and Vicky Chow’s recording of it is a milestone of pianism.” Her album Tristan Perich: Surface Image on New Amsterdam Records was among the top 10 Avant Music albums in Rolling Stone in 2013. Her other recordings can be found on Nonesuch, New Amsterdam, Cantaloupe, Tzadik,  among others. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, she is based in Brooklyn, NY. She serves as faculty at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, Nief-Norf summer festival, and has been on faculty at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. She is on the Board of Advisors for Composers Now, and is also a mentor at The Juilliard School. A graduate of The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Chow is a Yamaha Artist. www.vickychow.com

Zach Miller (he/him/his) is a passionate music educator, percussionist, and composer from Central Kentucky. As a musician, Zach has had the honor of working with numerous collegiate and professional ensembles around the United States at conferences and music festivals, as well as commissioning new works for various instrumentations. As an educator, he has presented research displaying the importance of equity and advocacy within public school music programs, particularly concerning students with disabilities and their contributions to effective music education practices. Zach hopes to continue these missions as he finishes graduate school and dives into the world of professional musicianship.

Queens College Gamelan Yowana Sari performs new works by Michael Gordon, Kyle Miller, Margapati (traditional) and more!

Kyle Miller, Stones Are The Flowers
I Dewa Ketut Alit, Pangenter Alit
with dancer, Miranda Danusugondo
Margapati, (traditional)
Vivian Fung, Kreasi Mekanik Mainan
Michael Gordon, Sea Salt

Yowana Sari’s website