Artists

Adrienne Elisha (1958-2017), a native of Glen Cove NY, studied violin and composition at Indiana University. She earned an Artist Diploma in Viola Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a doctorate in Composition at the University of Buffalo. As a performer, she specialized in the performance of contemporary music, playing in new-music ensembles such as the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Slee Sinfonietta, as well as the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Dr. Cassandra Eisenreich is Associate Professor of Flute and Music Education at Slippery Rock University. She is the principal flutist with the Butler Symphony Orchestra (Butler PA) and has performed with the Pierce Theatre Players, Florida Grand Opera, Florida Sunshine Pops, and New World Symphony. She has also performed and recorded with top artists including George Benson, Michael Feinstein, Dave Grusin, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Mark O’Connor, Terence Blanchard, Jon Secada, Patti Austin, Arturo Sandoval, Nestor Torres, Sammy Figueroa, Pharrell Williams, Josh Groban, Lou Gramm, and groups including The Jacksons, Evanescence, Take 6, and Tiempo Libre.

Kenneth Eggert (b. 1969) began his musical career at age 10, with a love of music theatre and an obsession with the music of Billy Joel. After starting his first of many bands at age 12, he began writing songs for them, which led him to eventually study Music Composition at Carnegie-Mellon University with Marilyn Taft Thomas. Feeling more comfortable at that time in the realm of rock and jazz, he transferred to Berklee College of Music as a Film Scoring major, and then left school to pursue a career in performance.

Ruud van Eeten (b. 1973) composed his first pieces when he was 11 years old. He earned Bachelor's degrees in Orchestral Conducting and Theory of Music at the Brabants Conservatory of Tilburg, and received his Master's degree in Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague.

Timothy Dwight Edwards (b. 1962) was born in Ferndale, Michigan. His solo, choral and chamber music combines rhythmic, avant-garde, jazz and contrapuntal elements that cross boundaries between musical genres, often including electronic elements to explore and extend the sound palette of the other instruments. His works have been performed by numerous ensembles including Eighth Blackbird, Dal Niente, the Lincoln Trio, Pinotage, New York Virtuoso Singers, Cube Ensemble, The Contemporary Chamber Players and many others.

Caitlin Edwards is a violinist, arranger, recording artist, and teacher based in Chicago. She began her musical journey at the age of 8 within a non-profit organization in her hometown of Birmingham AL. She later attended the University of Louisville (B.M.) and DePaul University (M.M.). Edwards is a classically trained violinist, but she’s inspired by gospel, jazz, hip-hop, and neo-soul. She released her debut album, Exhale, in 2021. She composes original music and intentionally performs the works of Black composers to help ensure that these composers and their compositions are remembered and spotlighted for aspiring young BIPOC musicians and the world as a whole. 

David Eccott lives and works as a peripatetic instrumental music teacher, specializing in piano and brass in his home county of Kent in England. He studied trombone with Denis Wick, former principal trombone with the London Symphony Orchestra, and piano with Robert Collett at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He has worked as an orchestral freelance trombonist and was an examiner for The Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music for 23 years. He also composes. His Concertino For Oboe And Small Orchestra and his symphonic poem Rochester Creek: Scenes From PreColumbian Utah for large orchestra have recently won online composition competitions.

Matthew Durrant's music has been performed throughout the United States at festivals, conferences, and recitals. His style is very melodic and can be thought of as neo-tonal. While his music is generally triadic in nature, its richness is expanded by borrowing from beyond the diatonic realm and employing tonality in unconventional ways.

Sophie Dupuis (b.1988) is a francophone composer from New Brunswick, Canada, interested in acoustic, electroacoustic, vocal, and interdisciplinary art music. She finds her inspiration in the picturesque scenery of the Maritimes where she grew up, as well as in various performance and visual art forms. Her work has been commissioned and performed by soloists and groups including Duo Holz, Made in Trio, Din of Shadows, Ballet-Opéra-Pantomime, Thin Edge New Music Collective, ECM+, the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy, Quasar saxophone quartet, and Esprit Orchestra.

duo526 was founded in 2011 by violinist Kerry DuWors and pianist Futaba Niekawa at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester NY) where they worked extensively with professors Jean Barr and Charles Castleman. Invited to the Banff Centre for the Arts four times as Artists-in-Residence between 2011-2018, they worked with Henk Guittart, Roger Tapping, Lafayette String Quartet, Hardy Rittner, and Mark Steinberg. They have been featured on radio broadcasts including “Backstage Pass” WXXI (Rochester NY) and Classic 107 “Morning Light” (Winnipeg MB).

Quatra Duo, comprised of guitarist Jeff LaQuatra and flutist Michelle Stanley, have been performing together since 1998. Through their performances, they have enjoyed presenting much of the great repertoire for this ensemble, but their most recent commitment lies in commissioning new works for flute and guitar. Commissions include Painted Music by Bryan Johanson, James McGuire’s Suite for Flute and Guitar, and a piece in 2020 by Grant Ferris.

The Fischer Duo has performed on five continents in its over-50-year history. Founded in 1971 while students at Oberlin College, the Duo has developed a wide-ranging repertoire covering the “canon” plus many forgotten or unknown works of the past. In addition, the Fischers have been very active with music of our own time, commissioning over 30 works and recording even more. The Duo’s extensive discography includes 18 albums from Beethoven, Brahms, 20th Century French Masters, Chopin and Liszt to generations of American composers similar to this recording’s compendium. These recordings have garnered rave reviews from The Strad, Gramophone, Strings Magazine, and BBC Music Magazine.

Martha Hill Duncan’s passion for music started early, inspired by her mother, who sang and played the piano by ear. She was a member of the first graduating class of the Houston High School for Performing and Visual Arts, (Vocal Music ’74) and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin (1979). She is grateful to many inspirational and generous teachers including composers Dr. Donald Grantham and Dr. Sam Dolin and pianists Danielle Martin, Gregory Allen, Dr. Errol Haun, and Trudy Borden.

Praised for his "utmost commitment, and sensitivity to the composers' diverse voices" by Fanfare Magazine, Brazilian violist Amaro Dubois has become known for his work in expanding and popularizing lesser-known repertoire for the viola through collaborative projects in Brazil and North America. Recently, Dubois has collaborated with orchestras such as the Paducah and Pensacola Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Iris Orchestra in Germantown-Memphis TN, where he was awarded their Fellowship position under the guidance of music director and conductor Michael Stern for the 2019-2021 seasons.

Karen Dreyfus has distinguished herself as a recipient of many prizes both in this country and abroad including the Naumburg Viola Competition (1982), the Lionel Tertis Competition (1980), the Washington International Competition (1979), and the Hudson Valley Competition (1978). Ms. Dreyfus has concertized extensively in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America. Some of her musical collaborations have been with Musicians From Marlboro, Philomusica, Theater Chamber Players of the Kennedy Center, the New York Philharmonic and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Peter Drew passed through many lifetimes until he honed in on a career in music. As a teenager, he joined the high school orchestra but nothing came of it. He then bought a student clarinet, looked at it, blew a few notes and stuck it in a closet.

Clarinetist Gary Dranch, a specialist in new and contemporary music, obtained his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1981. Dranch has devoted his career to promoting new compositions for clarinet and enlarging its repertoire. As a native New Yorker, Dranch returned home to embark on a freelance career, performing and championing new music compositions with NYU’s Contemporary Players, The New Repertory Ensemble of New York, The American New Music Consortium, The Forum For New Music at NYU, and with North/South Consonance, performing at The Loeb Center, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and LaMama, among other contemporary new music venues.

Duo Dramatique, a renowned violin-piano ensemble based in Houston TX, has been hailed as “a force to be reckoned with” whose concerts have been described as “passionate and transporting.” Violinist Dominika Dancewicz and pianist Donald Doucet have earned recognition for their compelling, eclectic, and thought-provoking programs that include significant classical music from every era, as well as jazz, broadway, and pop. The duo’s programming is always thoughtfully planned to communicate with audiences beyond just the musical content. The ensemble creates contexts that introduce deeply affecting stories based on historic, social, and emotional issues featured in the music they perform.

John Downey studied musical composition with Lewis Spratlan and electroacoustics with Eric Sawyer at Amherst College. During medical school at Stanford, John continued his involvement in music as a collaborator with Jenny Kallick and Lewis Spratlan on ARCHITECT. John's most recent work for orchestra, The Tides at Golden Gate, had its world premiere at Stanford University and its east coast premiere in 2010 at Amherst College. Dr. Downey is currently a resident radiologist at Stanford University hospital.

Russian-born, American pianist Elena Dorozhkina has captivated her audiences with an expressive warm tone, virtuosity, and passion in her playing. Genuinely committed to share emotions conveyed in music, Dorozhkina has performed solo and collaborative recitals at concert halls of the United States, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, and Ukraine. Dorozhkina’s 2022 Spivey Hall solo and collaborative recital performance was broadcast on The Atlanta Music Scene, WABE FM 90.1 radio.