Artists

Peter Castine was born in New York City on a Sunday in the year of the snake. Studies of composition, piano, and computer science in Stony Brook and Berlin were followed by work as a performer, concert and conference organizer, and developer of software-based musical instruments.

Steven D. Block was born in New York City on November 5, 1952. He is currently Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley after having served as Chair of the Department of Music at the University of New Mexico for 17 years.

Houston TX based Apollo Chamber Players “performs with rhythmic flair and virtuosity” (The Strad) and has “found fruitful territory” (Houston Chronicle) through innovative, globally-inspired programming and multicultural new music commissions. Winner of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Residency Partnership award, the quartet has performed for sold-out audiences at Carnegie Hall, and it holds the distinction of being the first American chamber ensemble to record and perform in Cuba since 1960. Apollo is featured frequently on American Public Media’s nationally-syndicated program Performance Today.

Mike Fansler is Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Western Illinois University in Macomb IL, where he provides direction and leadership for its comprehensive band program. He serves as conductor of the university Wind Ensemble and Chamber Players and teaches graduate and undergraduate conducting. He has served Western Illinois University since 2001.

Yuan-Chen Li (b.1980, Taiwan) first arrived on the contemporary music scene in Taiwan with her very personal use of instrumentation and style in her chamber music piece Zang (the funeral) in 2000. In 2003, the expression and orchestration of her orchestral work Awakening won the prize at the Asian Music Festival 2003 in Tokyo from the Asian Composers’ League, and was subsequently premiered by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Charles Corey is an American composer holding a Ph.D. in Music Composition and Theory from the University of Pittsburgh. His approach to composition exploits and subverts the relationships that exist between different tuning systems. Corey's compositions, known for their unexpected, evocative harmonies and their strong dramatic arcs, have been played across Europe and the Americas by performers including Cikada Ensemble, Iktus Percussion, Kjell Tore Innervik, Ere Lievonen, Inverted Space, and Entelechron, and recognized by the Young Virtuosos Foundation, the Foundation for Modern Music, and the Sociedade Pró-Sinfônica de Limeira.

Nearly all of Navid Bargrizan's compositions explore intonational and tuning concepts, ranging from just intonation and extended equal temperaments (e.g. 24-tone or 36-tone equal temperament) to various microtonal concepts taken from diverse musical cultures. Since 2014, his experiments with microtonality have resulted in 13 premieres and more than 40 performances of his works in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Austria, including at New York City Electroacoustic Festival, Toronto Electroacoustic Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Florida Contemporary Festival, and conferences of the Society of Composers, Inc.

Composer Mira J. Spektor was born in Europe, graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, and then studied at Mannes and Juilliard. In 1975, she founded the acclaimed Aviva Players, dedicated to presenting the rich repertoire of chamber music and songs by women composers from the 12th to 21st Centuries. The New York Times called her “An interesting composer” and “attractive and tonal,” with music described as “A passionate duet” and “A sprightly songfest.”

Harmonija Dissonance Ensemble evolved from the eponymous research and performance project that started at the Academy of Music in Zagreb in 2016. Guided by the idea of bridging the gaps between the worlds of academic and folk musicians, of traditional and art music, the project soon evolved into the lively and stimulating space of mutual learning, experimenting, and music-making of renowned traditional singers and the Academy’s students.

Jazz Orchestra of the Academy of Music in Zagreb was founded in 2016, following in the footsteps of the renowned Big Band of the Academy of Music of the early 1980s, founded and led by the distinguished professor Stanko Selak. The repertoire of the Orchestra encompasses standard pieces written for big band orchestra that in time became the canonical literature of big bands around the world, as well as works of contemporary composers of art music inspired by jazz.

Iris Graffman Wenglin is from a distinguished musical family. Joseph Graffman, Wenglin’s father, played the string bass in The New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch, and her cousin is pianist Gary Graffman. Wenglin made her first professional appearance as a pianist at age 13 on the Jinx Falkenberg TV program, and at age 16 she started working as a rehearsal pianist for NBC Opera Theatre. As a teenager she performed several times on WNYC’s “Young Artist” series. She graduated from Music and Art High School and holds a B.A. and an M.A. from New York University and a M.Ed. from the Manhattan School of Music.

Canadian-born composer Ruth Lomon (1930-2017) numbered among her teachers Frances Judd Cooke and Miklos Schwalb at New England Conservatory, Witold Lutoslawski at England’s Dartington College, and Lutoslawski and Henri Dutilleux at Centre Acanthes in Provence, France. A composer of concertos for piano, bassoon, and trumpet, Lomon was probably best known for her song-cycle Songs of Remembrance, and her oratorio, Testimony of Witnesses for chorus, orchestra, and soloists. Both works are based on the poetry of Holocaust victims and survivors that Lomon researched at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel, and the library at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Saxophonist Dr. Dave Camwell is a distinguished, versatile, and dynamic performer, and serves as the Director of Jazz Studies and Associate Professor of Music at Troy University in Alabama. Camwell has been a Yamaha Performing Artist since 2004, a D'Addario Performing Artist since 2009, a Beechler Artist since 2003, and has over 30 publications available through Jeanne, Dorn, and UNC Jazz Press.

IngridStölzel (b.1971) has been hailed “as a composer of considerable gifts” who is “musically confident and bold” by National Public Radio’s classical music critic. Her music has been described as “tender and beautiful” (American Record Guide) and as creating a “haunting feeling of lyrical reflection and suspension in time and memory” (Classical-Modern Review). At the heart of her compositions is a belief that music can create a profound emotional connection with the listener.

Chi-Hin Leung (b. 1984) was born in a metropolitan city - Hong Kong. With a diverse cultural background, his composition mixes with both East and West thoughts, and with special interests in timbral and textural explorations. He was the champion of the Hong Kong Handbell Festival Composition Contest, first runner-up at New Generation and won the Hong Kong Composers' Guild Audience Choice Award.

Elements of Gregorian chant, Indian raga music, gamelan, rock, and progressive rock are frequently present in Bill Whitley’s work. Western composers who continue to influence his work include Brian Eno, John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Tetsu Inoue, Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman, Lou Harrison, Pauline Oliveros, and Paul Dresher.

Erich Stem’s music has been described as “sophisticated and intriguing” (The Washington Post), “unique and beautiful” (Boston Theatre Review), and as having a “fluent and chaotic exchange that breaks minimalism apart” (A Closer Listen). It pulls from a variety of sources, including American jazz, Japanese shakuhachi music, and Stem’s interest in improvisation. His music has been performed live around the globe in places such as New York City, Boston, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Miami, England, the Netherlands, and Romania, and can be heard on albums by critically acclaimed groups such as counter)induction, Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, SOLI Chamber Ensemble, and the Cadillac Moon Ensemble. His commissions include music for recognized artists such as saxophonist Johan van der Linden and flutist Lindsey Goodman.

Mark Francis’ musical career has varied from teaching, composing, performing, and journalism to orchestral administration. He has studied composition with Walter Hartley and James Eversole and guitar with Joanne Castellani, Clare Callahan, and Joseph Fratianni.

A Midwest native (WI, MN), Marga Richter earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition from The Juilliard School. She has written over 150 works, encompassing virtually every genre. Her orchestral music has been performed by more than 50 orchestras including the Atlanta, Oklahoma, and Milwaukee Symphonies and the Minnesota Orchestra, and recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

Ian Erickson is a composer and performer from Southwest Missouri. He graduated from Missouri State University with two bachelor of arts degrees in music performance and composition, and he has extensive experience in improvisation. Many of his works aim to explore polyphonic textures through the use of complex rhythms and dense harmonies.