Photo via Nadje Noordhuis
Trumpet/Guest Curator: Nadje Noordhuis. Born in Sydney, Australia, trumpet/flugelhorn player Nadje Noordhuis produces a unique sound characterised by a warm, rich tone and a lyrical approach to improvisation. Based in New York since 2003, she composes music that blends jazz, classical and world music genres. In 2010, Nadje was selected for a week-long residency as a Carnegie Hall Young Artist, working closely with trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas. In 2007, she was one of ten international semi-finalists for the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Trumpet Competition, where her performance was described as “recalling the great Rafael Mendez’s programming and technique” (Jim Santella; All About Jazz.
Nadje is a member of many big bands, notably the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, and the emerging Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society. She has played at international jazz festivals in the USA, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Croatia. She is a featured soloist on Johnny Mandel’s big band release The Music of Johnny Mandel, recorded live at Lincoln Center, and conducted by Johnny Mandel himself. Nadje was a special guest artist at the International Trumpet Guild’s annual conference in July 2010, performing at their Gala Concert, and presenting a concert of her original music.
In 2012 Nadje released her critically acclaimed self-titled CD, featuring the talents of pianist Geoffrey Keezer, violinist Sara Caswell, bassist Joe Martin, drummer Obed Calvaire and guests.
littlemysteryrecords.com/nadjenoordhuis/?page_id=4
Bass: Desmond White. Currently based in New York City, Australian bassist Desmond White is rapidly establishing himself as one of NYC’s first-call rhythm section stalwarts. He has performed with some of Australia’s leading artists including Joe Chindamo, Kate Ceberano, Jamie Oehlers, Rumberos, Los Cabrones, Julien Wilson, Mark Fitzgibbon, Stephen Magnusson, James Muller, Zac Hurren, Scott Tinkler and many others. After building a successful career in Australia, he relocated to NYC in 2009 to pursue his Master’s degree on a full scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music. He performs regularly with New York-based artists including Gilad Hekselman, Nir Felder, Ben Wendel, Camila Meza, Shai Maestro, Fabian Almazan, Marko Djordevic, Barney McCall and numerous others. He is a recipient of the ArtsWA Creative Development Fellowhip, the Australia Council’s Skills and Development grant and the PPCA Performers Trust Fellowship. He was a finalist in the National Jazz Awards at the Wangaratta Jazz Festival in 2008, and was recently was awarded the prestigious ArtsStart grant from the Australia Council. He recently released his full-length debut record “Short Stories”, mixing jazz, rock and pop influences to critical acclaim.
Piano: Barney McAll. Pianist, keyboardist, composer and arranger Barney McAll moved to New York City in 1997 after being invited to join the Gary Bartz Quartet . He continues to tour internationally with Bartz as well as with Fred Wesley and The JB’s, Josh Roseman, The Groove Collective and recently vocalists Daniel Merriweather and Sia Furler. Barney leads numerous ensembles including; Sylent Running and M.O.D.A.S and his new ensemble Graft which features 16 piece Invenio Choir, two pianos , Vibraphone and laptop.
Saxophone: Troy Roberts. Hailing from the remote location of Perth, West Australia, award winning saxophonist and composer Troy Roberts is currently based in the USA. Graduating with a Bachelor of Music at the young age of 19, he went on to receive numerous awards including The Bob Wylie Jazz Scholarship, The James Morrison Jazz Scholarship, 3 consecutive DownBeat Jazz Soloist Awards, and 2 consecutive West Australian Music Industry Awards. He has toured Europe and the US extensively with Australian jazz multi-instrumentalist, James Morrison and his own group VOID, completed a Masters Degree at The University of Miami, and has shared stage with Aretha Franklin, Jeff Hamilton, Orrin Evans, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Lew Soloff, Ari Hoenig, Bobby Sparks, Robby Ameen and Stephen Scott to name a few. Around the time of his 3rd release as a leader, The XenDen Suite (2008), Troy spent some time in L.A. as the only Australian finalist in the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition and also received his first Grammy Nomination medal for his performance on Sammy Figueroa’s 2nd record, “The Magician”. More recently, Troy represented Australia sharing the stage in an international septet comprised of jazz greats Wayne Shorter, Richard Bona, Vinnie Colaiuta, Zakir Hussein, Tineke Postma and Tarek Yamani for Herbie Hancock’s launch of the first International Jazz Day celebration, at NYC’s UN General Assembly Hall. Having been on faculty at The University of Miami for the past 4 years and internationally released his 5th record as a leader, Nu-Jive 5 (2013), Troy is currently based in New York and continues to maintain a busy performance and recording schedule around the globe.
Drums: Rajiv Jayaweera. Rajiv Jayaweera was born in London with Sri Lankan heritage but grew up in Melbourne, Australia. He completed his Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2000 and spent the following ten years performing with many of the Australia’s finest musicians including Paul Grabowsky, Joe Chindamo, Andrea Keller, Stephen Magnussen and Gian Slater. In 2011, he moved to New York to do his Masters in Jazz Studeis at SUNY Purchase College where he studied with Professor John Riley. Over the years, Rajiv has also regularly spent time based in Copenhagen working with musicians such as Jakob Dinesen, Jakob Bro, Hugo Rasmussen and Anders Christensen and performing at festivals around Europe. Since moving to New York, he has played with Kenny Werner, Shai Maestro, Gilad Hekselman, Cyrille Aimee, Joel Frahm, Anat Cohen and The Louis Armstrong Centennial Band and has also recorded albums with Cyrille Aimee, Michael Valeanu, Rotem Sivan and Angela Davis.
Director: Tim Hansen is an Australian composer, music director, and youth-arts tutor who has been engaged by a diverse range of companies and individuals to create new works for theatre and music. He has had work performed around Australia as well as New Zealand, Germany, France, Belgium, the UK, Mexico and the USA. After attending the 2007 Bang on a Can Summer Institute as a composition fellow he was inspired by the diversity of New Music in the US. Currently based in New York, he is a co-founding director of the W4 Music Collective and Artistic Director of New-York based Australian new music ensemble exhAust. He has studied with Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Larry Sitsky and Jim Cotter amongst others.
Tim has written for ensembles such as The Jack Quartet (Paper Roses), Saffire (Spiderwine), Griffyn Ensemble (Killa Chinchilla), Dominant 7 (Comic Book Hero), Canberra Youth Orchestra (Of Flying and Falling), and Guitarstrophe (Trouble in the Ribcage), the NYU Contemporary Music Ensemble (Dog Biscuit), and has composed new works for guitarists Daniel McKay (Dark Deeds and Wicked Words; Earwig) and Tim Kain (Little Bloody and FIERCE!), American violinist Patti Kilroy (Fat Bird), and a series of miniatures featuring tarogato and electronics for clarinetist Nicole Canham (Secret Things). In 2012 his cello quartet Traveller was performed at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival.
Tim’s uniquely evocative composition style has attracted the attention of a number of theatre and dance companies. He has composed scores for productions such as Dancing Giant’s gothic, circus-inspired Death’s Waiting Room, Centrepiece Theatre’s bizarrely unsettling A Most Curious Dream (with Warwick Lynch), and ARTS Theatre Company’s poignant exploration of sexuality, Telling Moments (with Helen Way). He composed scores for 2010 Sydney Fringe Festival shows Cuckoo (created by Margot Politis) and Dancing Giant’s, Molly: A Tale of Blood and Guts and Giants and Weddings, as well as Asylum, a dance-piece created by Adelaide-based choreographer Danny Hales, which enjoyed sell-out season at both the ’10 Adelaide Feast Festival and the ’11 Adelaide Fringe Festival. He has created a chamber opera Distant Rain, based on Australian children’s author Shaun Tan’s tale of the same name, and commenced an ongoing collaboration with Spanish performance artist Alfredo Tauste on the creation of a new cabaret, Freddy Malaboca’s Woodland Spectacular.
Residencies and fellowships are an important part of Tim’s ongoing artistic development, and he has been a resident at the Darwin International Guitar Festival, the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, the Hill End Artist-in-Residence program, the Norfolk New Music Workshop, and the NYU Symphony Orchestra.
Tim is an enthusiastic supporter of young people in the arts, and has created a number of works with young people including King Jack (2003), The Moth Tree (2006), A Minute Past Midnight (2009) and Too Good to be True (2009). In Australia he has tutored music and drama with Canberra Youth Theatre, Canberra Youth Music, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Music for Everyone, the ANU Pre-tertiary music program, PACT centre for emerging artists, Shopfront Youth Theatre and Contemporary arts space, Australian Theatre for Young People. In New York, Tim has worked with the Lucy Moses School and The New Group as a teaching artist.
Tim’s work is theatrical and evocative, and he enjoys creating pieces with a sense of humor.
http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/hansen-tim
Flute: Shaun Barlow
is a freelance flutist based between Sydney and New York City. He holds a Masters of Music (Performance) (2011) and a Bachelor of Music (Performance) Honours Class 1 (2009) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he studied under Dr. Alexa Still.
Known for his passion for whacky sounds, improvisation, flute beatboxing, and collaboration with composers, Shaun has premiered and recorded new flute, piccolo, alto and bass flute works. He was a fellow at the 2011 Bang on a Can Summer Festival (USA) and featured as soloist during the Kammerklang 2009 new music project. The Kammerklang project included a performance of Stuart Greenbaum’s Concerto for flute, percussion and large ensemble and recordings for the “Kammerklang 2009 with Claire Edwardes” album including Chris Williams’s flute concertino Amid your candles and lilies.
In demand as a soloist, chamber musician and educator, Shaun is currently engaged as flutist and producer with the New York City-based ExhAust New Music Collective, as Junior Program Coordinator of the Australian Flute Festival (since 2010) and as flute soloist with the Eastman School of Music Composers Sinfonietta. In the opera pit, he has performed chamber operas by Benjamin Britten with the Sydney Chamber Opera and the Sydney Conservatorium Opera Department.
Shaun has taken lessons with Robert Dick, Molly Barth, Greg Pattillo, Bonita Boyd, Susan Palma-Nidel, Aldo Baerten, Michel Bellevance and performed in masterclasses with John Wion, Michael Cox, Katherine Kemler and Ashley Solomon. Equally at home performing in the concert hall, the opera pit or busking on a street corner, Shaun is keenly interested in finding ever more inventive musical roles for the flute.
Previous ExhAust Artists
Clarinet: Ashley Smith is a rising star, his performances have been critically described as “incandescent… a masterly display of skill and insight.” The Age music critic, Clive O’Connell, has claimed “as an apologist for contemporary music-making, you would search hard to find this young clarinetist’s equal.” Also known for his sensitive performances of standard repertoire, The West Australian has described his interpretations as “a compendium of musical marvels… flawlessly fashioned, the presentation bore the stamp of distinction.”
Ashley’s principal area of interest is in contemporary music and experimenting with new approaches to music presentation which has seen him give numerous Australian premieres, including those of works by Jorg Widmann and Magnus Lindberg. Ashley has appeared as a soloist with most of the Symphony Australia network orchestras and has given major public recitals in most major Australian centres. Other career highlights include performing the Lindberg Clarinet Quintet at the World Congress of Chamber Music Competitions and an anniversary performance of Quartet for the End of Time with renowned Messiaen interpreter, Peter Hill. Also a passionate teacher, Ashley is a casual faculty member at the University of Western Australia and the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
An alumnus of the University of Western Australia, Ashley graduated with First Class Honours and all of the school’s performance prizes including the Vose Memorial Concerto Prize, the Lady Callaway Medal and the Edith Cowan Prize. In addition he was awarded the Sir Harold Bailey Award as the most outstanding graduate of the UWA Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and was a nominee for the J.A. Wood Prize, the institution’s most prestigious honour. Ashley is also an alumnus of the Australian National Academy of Music, where he was granted a 2010 Academy Fellowship. In 2009 he won both the jury and audience prizes at the Academy’s Concerto Competition and in 2010 was awarded the inaugural Harold Mitchell Fellowship. In 2010, Ashley was the winner of the ABC Symphony International Young Performers Award in the Other Instruments category. He is currently pursuing a Master degree on a full scholarship at Yale University, studying under the tutelage of David Shifrin.
Piano: Isabelle O’Connell.
Described by the New Yorker as “the young Irish piano phenom”, Dublin-born and New York City-based pianist Isabelle O’Connell has a growing international career that has taken her across four continents. As soloist and chamber musician she has performed around the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Italy,
U.K. and Ireland. Receiving a standing ovation at her New York Debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in January 2002, the New York Concert Review wrote: “She has the technical prowess… and a spirit and intelligence to bring it all together.”
Isabelle made her début as concerto soloist at the National Concert Hall, Dublin in 1999. She has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under conductors William Eddins, Gerhard Markson and Gavin Maloney. She recently recorded Kevin Volans’ Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Winds with the NSO for future release on the Lyric FM label.
As a chamber musician, Isabelle often performs with the CRASH ensemble, joining them on tours of Australia and the United States and performing at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival, Sydney Conservatoire, Kennedy Center, Le Poisson Rouge in New York and the Reich Effect Festival, Ireland. She has also performed with Alarm Will Sound at Duke University in North Carolina and Denver, Colorado and with Ergodos ensemble at Issue Project Room in New York.
She has performed at festivals in Europe and the U.S. including the Pablo Casals Festival (France), Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (USA), Mannes Contemporary Music Festival (USA), Belfast Festival (N. Ireland), Sligo New Music Festival (Ireland), Waterford New Music Week (Ireland) and the West Cork Chamber Music Festival (Ireland). In 2003 Isabelle gave a solo recital at the John Field Room in Dublin to benefit Amnesty International’s Irish section and the global struggle for human rights. Isabelle was invited to do a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada from 2003 – 2004 where she collaborated with various artists including the New Zealand String Quartet. More recently she has also worked with Grammy award-winning vocalist Susan McKeown, playing on her album Singing in the Dark.
Piano: Lisa Moore. Described as “beautiful and impassioned” (The New York Times) Lisa Moore’s playing combines music, theatre and emotional power – whether in the delivery of the simplest song, a solo show or the most challenging chamber score. Crowned “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” (The NewYorker) this Australian pianist has performed with a large and diverse range of musicians and artists – the London Sinfonietta, Bang on a Can, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, American Composers Orchestra, So Percussion, Signal, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Two Sense, Paul Dresher Double Duo, Terra Australis, Mabou Mines and John Jasperse Dance. Her festival performances include Lincoln Center, BAM, Crash, Graz, Tanglewood, Huddersfield, Paris d’Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Israel and Warsaw in venues such as La Scala, Carnegie Hall and the Musikverein. Lisa Moore has released 6 solo discs (Cantaloupe, Tall Poppies) and over 30 collaborative discs (Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion). From 1992-2008 Lisa Moore was the founding pianist for the electro-acoustic sextet, The Bang On A Can All-Stars – winner of Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year Award. She has collaborated with composers ranging from Iannis Xenakis, Elliot Carter and Ornette Coleman to Meredith Monk, Don Byron and Frederic Rzewski. As an artistic curator Moore produced Australia’s Canberra International Music Festival Sounds Alive ‘08 series. Moore teaches at the Yale-Norfolk Summer Festival and at Wesleyan University.
Cello: Rich Vaudrey. Australian cellist Richard Vaudrey is quickly becoming a notable force in the new breed of string players, classically trained and proficient across a multitude of genres.
Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Richard was a scholarship holder at The Australian National Academy, Music before heading to the United States, where he completed graduate study in classical cello performance and contemporary improvisation at SUNY Stony Brook under Colin Carr and Ray Anderson. Currently the Teaching Assistant to the Emerson String Quartet, Richard has had a prolific background in chamber music, having performed with musician’s such as Phil Setzer, Gil Kalish, Daniel Panner, Brett Dean, William Hennessy and Howard Penny and taken masterclasses with Peter Wispelway, Thomas Demenga, Steven Isserlis, Jian Wang and Matthew Barley. In 2009 Richard was a finalist at Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne Australia performing with his group The Lorelei trio.
As a prolific performer of cross genre music including jazz, pop and new music, it’s not uncommon to find Richard playing Bach and chamber pop on the same night. Richard co-fronts and writes for the indie chamber pop band Lonely Brook who released their debut EP earlier this year. Richard has performed venues throughout New York City as both a soloist and collaborator. He is currently working on a project for cello and voice, including transcriptions and studies into the late Arthur Russell. He currently resides in Brooklyn, and plays “The Beleura Cello” – a 1791 William Forster cello generously loaned by the Tallis Foundation.
Cello: Will Martina. An active performer, Will has developed an approach to performing and collaboration – incorporating improvisation as well as more traditional ways of playing – which has enabled him to work across a broad range of musical styles. He appears regularly with The Bassam Saba Ensemble, Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, Jason Lindner’s Breeding Ground, in musical and theatrical projects with Melvin Van Peebles, and is a founding member of the New York Arabic Orchestra.
Will has also recorded two albums as a leader; the first an album of duets and trios with the drummer Nasheet Waits and vocalist Justice Dilla-X, and a trio album, ‘Dam Levels’, with the pianist Jason Lindner and drummer Richie Barshay (currently in post-production).
Bass: Lisa Dowling is a bassist and improviser living in New York. Her playing has been described as ‘sublime and lovely’ (Bruce Gallanter; Downtown Music Gallery). Her debut CD “The Invention Room” with Sitarist and electronic improviser Gian Luigi Diana, was praised as “exotic” (DMG) and is distributed by the Downtown Music Gallery.
As a versatile musician she performs a wide variety of music including baroque, experimental, classical, jazz and hip-hop. She considers improvising and collaborating with artists from all backgrounds essential to her development as a musician and human being. Her energetic and feisty commitment to new music and emerging composers has resulted in over 12 works for double bass written specifically for her. She has also premiered additional works from American and European composers. Her primary focus as a musician is to develop the sound world of the electric and upright bass and abolish any preconceived limitations of these instruments. She has appeared on stage with members of the Emerson Quartet, Colin Carr, Eduardo Leandro, Frank Morelli, Steven Tyler, Carolyn Sampson, Niia Bertoni, Bang on A Can, Argento New Music Project, Arcos Chamber Orchestra and has appeared as a soloist with TACTUS and The New York Chamber Players. She has performed at the Sydney Opera House, TheConcertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Citi De La Musique in Paris and notable New York venues such as Le Poisson Rouge, Alice Tully Hall, Galapagos Art Space, Symphony Space, Miller Theater, The Tank, and The Downtown Music Gallery. She is the founding member of the electro-acoustic trio Concert Black and The Low End Theory, a duo with cellist Mariel Roberts.
Conductor: Sam Nester graduated with a Bachelor of Music Studies degree from the Queensland Conservatorium in 2007, furthering his studies and receiving first class honors from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in 2009. He is a recipient of the Brian Boak Developing Artist Award, a Dame Joan Sutherland Award, a PPCA Grant and an Australia Council ArtStart Grant.
In 2010 he was awarded an Australian-American Fulbright Scholarship, enabling him to study trumpet performance with Mark Gould at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, along with conducting. He has recently graduated with a Master of Music degree and is involved in a number of projects as a trumpet player and conductor in Europe and the USA.
He had his first conducting opportunities with Richard Gill and the Victorian Opera company’s Youth Opera program and since then has worked as conductor with the Queensland Conservatorium, Manhattan School of Music, Mueller Chamber Orchestra, Sounding Out, W4 New Music Collective and premiered works by Liam Flenady, Izzy Gliksberg, Molly Herron, Ronnie Reshef and Riley Smethurst amongst others.
Clarinet: Eileen Mack
grew up in Australia and is now based in New York. She is a sought after new music clarinetist, and regularly performs in the city with the amplified Newspeak Ensemble, the European-inspired Red Light Ensemble, and the post-minimalist girl-band, Victoire. Eileen appears frequently as a soloist in electro-acoustic works, including several written especially for her. She has recently performed as soloist at the Canberra International Chamber Music Festival and the Bang on a Can Marathon. She has worked with composers such as Steve Reich, David Lang, and Michael Gordon, with conductors including Oliver Knussen and Pierre Boulez, and has performed in venues around the world including Zankel at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and London’s Royal Albert Hall. She has been a fellow at the Bang on a Can and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals.
Eileen has a Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Charles Neidich, and is currently a doctoral student at Stony Brook University. She also studied at the University of Queensland and the Queensland and Sydney Conservatoriums. Before moving to the US in 2004, Eileen played with the Aark ensemble in Sydney and was a founding member of the Six New Music Ensemble in her home town of Brisbane. She has performed with the Queensland Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, and as soloist with the Adelaide Symphony.
In 2008/2009 she studied with Francois Rabbath and is now an educator and promoter of his technique. In that same year she was the first and only bassist to be accepted into Paris Conservatoire’s Historical Performance Master’s Degree program, studying Viennese Violone and Baroque Bass with Richard Myron. She has served as section Bassist with the Paris-based orchestras Les Siecles under Francois Xavier Roth and Opera Fuoco, under David Stern, performing on baroque and modern bass. She has participated in the Juene Atlantique festival (France) working with conductor Philippe Herreweghe and the Tafelmusik Baroque Institute in Toronto. In 2007 she was a sponsored artist at the Boston Early Music Festival performing on Viola da Gamba and Double bass. In 2010 she was a fellow at the Bang on a Can summer institute at MassMoCA, MA. Lisa holds a Masters Degree in Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of music and is a graduate of Stony Brook University where she was awarded a URECA grant for research into double bass pedagogy. Lisa is also a professional DJ. She enjoys spinning Hip-Hop, Jazz, Soul, Funk and Afrobeat.
Percussion: Peter Wise grew up playing music in Stockbridge, MA and studied percussion at SUNY Stony Brook and the Eastman School of Music, where he received the school’s first certificate in World Music. Currently splitting his time between Brooklyn and the Berkshires, he plays with an eclectic array of ensembles including Newspeak, Oliphant, JG Thirlwell’s Maxorexia and Banana Bag and Bodice’s award-winning production Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage. He is one of the co-founding artistic directors of The Berkshire Fringe in Great Barrington, MA, a festival of all new theater, music and dance now in its 7th season [berkshirefringe.org]. Peter also does freelance website design, with many clients in the New York music and non-profit communities [squarecandydesign.com]
Piano/Keyboards: Nicole Brady has performed throughout Central Europe, Australia, Singapore and New York. She has recorded on ABC, 2Mbsfm and radio czesky. Her collaborations as a soloist have included conductors Jan Chalupecky, Petr Sumnik, Piotr Vronsky, Andreas Herm Baumgartnera, and as a chamber musician Sydney Omega Ensemble, Ronald Thomas, Wanda Wilkomirska. As a keen interpreter of modern music, Nicole has performed for the Austrian Modern Music Society, during international music festivals in Vienna, Olomouc, Prague, Zlin, and is the pianist for New York based composer collective Vision Fugitive, where past performances have included Le Poisson Rouge, Littlefield, and the Flea Theatre during the Music with a View festival. Her teachers have included Gerard Willems, William Motzing and she has participated in masterclasses by Lorin Hollander, Giya Kancheli and Yonty Solomon.Nicole graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2004, with the Winifred Elizabeth Nerious award for the top graduating recital. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Music at New York University courtesy of the Brian May and the Dame Joan Sutherland Scholarships.
Cello: Ezra Seltzer. Hailed for his “beauty of tone and keenness of musicianship” (Opera Brittania), cellist Ezra Seltzer recently graduated from The Juilliard School in the inaugural class of the historical performance division. He maintains an avid interest in both contemporary and early music, and has performed as a chamber musician at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival and the Banff, Norfolk, and Aspen Music Festivals. As a baroque cellist, he frequently performs at Trinity Wall Street in the Trinity Baroque Orchestra. He has appeared on several albums and toured with the Brooklyn-based band Dirty Projectors. Mr. Seltzer attended Yale University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in history and Master of Music in cello performance, studying with Aldo Parisot and Ole Akahoshi. At Yale, he was also a post-graduate fellow in early music as a student of Robert Mealy and a member of the Yale Baroque Ensemble.
Conductor: Ted Hearne is a composer, conductor and performer with polyglot sensibilities in new and traditional classical music. His Katrina Ballads was awarded the 2009 Gaudeamus International Composers Award, released by New Amsterdam Records, and named one of the best classical albums of 2010 by Time Out Chicago and The Washington Post. In April 2011 the Yale Glee Club celebrated its 150th anniversary with the world premiere of his work Partition, in New Haven and at Carnegie Hall. Ted is resident conductor of Red Light New Music, and has recently conducted The Wet Ink Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and the premiere of Michael Gordon’s Lightning at Our Feet at BAM Next Wave Festival. Upcoming commissions include works for A Far Cry, DITHER, Toomai Quintet, and Ensemble Klang. Hearne’s work is available exclusively through Good Child Music.
ExhAUST 