Artists

Melissa Shiflett’s career began as resident composer for the experimental Dream Theatre in Chicago. She is a composer, librettist, and pianist whose operas have been produced by the American Chamber Opera Company, Peabody Chamber Opera Theatre, New York City Opera’s Vox Festival, Nautilus Music-Theater, New Dramatists, and the Pennsylvania Opera Theater. 

Ferdinando DeSena is a Miami-based composer who was born in Brooklyn NY. His earliest musical experiences were with neighborhood pop, and doo–wop groups. He worked as musician in Ithaca NY for 13 years, playing in several regional bands as keyboard player and lead singer. His final group was Uptown Revue, which he led for seven years

Arcadian Winds was founded at Boston University in 1987. Originally a woodwind trio consisting of flute, clarinet, and bassoon, the ensemble expanded to a wind quintet in 1989. Since its formation, Arcadian Winds has premiered almost 50 new works and championed many others. With a strong commitment to education, the group has brought chamber and contemporary music into the public, private and community schools in the Boston Area.

Megan Ihnen is a “new music force of nature.” The act of live performance is integral to Ihnen’s work and her performances thrive on elaborate sound worlds and fully-developed dramatic interpretations. Through narrative and non-narrative musical storytelling, she explores the subjects of memory, nostalgia, the perception of time, and relationships. Whether through chamber music, staged recitals, opera, or large ensemble soloist work, she emphasizes the full range of vocal sounds, timbres, colors, and uses that characterize the 21st century voice.

The Kühn Choir of Prague is one of the largest Czech choirs and has been part of the musical world for over 60 years. It devotes itself to the choral repertoire of all periods, and its activities include significant performances of contemporary music, performances of large vocal-instrumental works in collaboration with leading Czech orchestras and, last but not least, projects for the performance and recording of film music.

Lenka Navrátilová studied piano and harpsichord at the Teplice Conservatory and choral conducting (sacred music) under the guidance of Jiří Kolář and Marek Štryncl at the Faculty of Education of Charles University in Prague. She is second chorus master of the Kühn Choir of Prague, professor of opera coaching at the Prague Conservatory, and répétiteur of the Prague Philharmonic Choir. As the assistant to the chorus master of the Prague Philharmonic Choir, she has participated in its appearances in Doha, Berlin, and at the Sankt Gallen opera festival.

Juventas New Music Ensemble is a contemporary chamber group with a special focus on emerging voices. Juventas shares classical music as a vibrant, living art form. They bring audiences music from a diverse array of composers that live in today’s world and respond to our time. Since its founding in 2005, Juventas has performed the music of more than 300 living composers. The ensemble has earned a reputation as a curator with a keen eye for new talent. It opens doors for composers with top-notch professional performances that present their work in the best possible light.

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.

Recognized as an artist of unusual sensitivity and virtuosity, pianist Steven Masi has concertized extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He has appeared at the Casals Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Chautauqua Festival, Park City International Festival, Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival, and Music Festival of the Hamptons. His many orchestral appearances have included series with the The Atlanta Symphony, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and New Symphony Orchestra of London. In Germany he was an artist member of the Bonn Chamber Music Society.

Jennifer Bouton has performed around the world as a guest artist, clinician, and orchestral musician. A member of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2011, she performed two seasons with Lyric Opera of Chicago, and has played guest roles with the Chicago Symphony and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, among others. In 2019 she won an extended appointment with the Australian Ballet and Australian Opera in Melbourne, and was invited to become a permanent member of Orchestra Victoria.

Frank Alexander Clark is a board-certified adult outpatient psychiatrist at Prisma Health-Upstate. He also serves as clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville. Clark received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Monmouth College in Illinois and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Northwestern University. He then completed his residency in general psychiatry at Palmetto Richland Hospital in Columbia SC.

Described by audience members as “silky smooth butter in musical form” and “voices like I imagine angels might sound,” Voices of Concinnity is Connecticut’s versatile professional vocal chamber ensemble illuminating the breadth of choral music through innovative programming and richness of choral sound. Sponsored by Consonare Choral Community, Voices of Concinnity consists of 12 dedicated, seasoned choral artists from diverse backgrounds with a mission to connect with the community through exquisitely crafted, innovative choral programming that fosters inclusion, promotes collaboration, illuminates variety, and ensures affordable access. As an ensemble, Concinnity focuses on individual expression within a cohesive whole, harnessing each singer’s unique vocal qualities into a rich collective sound; thus embracing an honesty that enhances the listening experience and resonates with audiences.

Carlos Manuel Vargas' performances have received accolades from both audiences and critics in the United States, South America, and Europe. Reviews of Vargas’ performances in the 2022 season, which included his solo debut recital in Germany at the Musiken concert series, have described his playing as “highly emotional and thoughtful” while praising the “striking energy and uncompromising honesty” of it. Highlights of the upcoming 2023–2024 season include a series of recitals in New England and California featuring music of what is to be his debut album titled SOUVENIRS as well as his debut with the National Symphony of Ecuador performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in honor of the composer’s 150th birth anniversary.

Lawrence Ball grew up surrounded by music of all kinds, perpetually, in the home. He is a largely self-taught composer and musician, who began playing melodies by ear at age 4. Ball holds a Computer Science BSc Hons. degree from London University, 1972, where he also studied computer-generated music research. Notable collaborations include those with The Who’s guitarist and principal songwriter Pete Townshend on the Lifehouse-Method project, which resulted in over 10,000 generated music portraits over the internet. A related album, METHOD MUSIC, was released in 2012 on Navona Records. Over the course of his career, Ball has covered a broad palette of media expressions, scored over 200 musical pieces, recorded a wide range of music including electronic, programmed computer software, and improvised over 4000 improvised piano works.

The Society of Composers, Inc. is a professional society dedicated to the promotion, performance, understanding, and dissemination of new and contemporary music. Members include composers both in and outside academia interested in addressing these issues on a national and regional level. The governing body of the Society consists of a National Council made up of co-chairs who represent regional activities, and an Executive Committee made up of the editors and directors of Society publications and projects. We are actively promoting new music through conferences, festivals, publishing of scores, contests, and the release of members’ recordings.

Chris Arrell (b. 1970, Portland OR) composes music for throats, fingers, and oscillators that celebrates the blurring of lines between human and machine, the natural and the digital, and the popular versus the avant-garde. His music, praised for its nuance and unconventional beauty (New Music Box, Boston Music Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution), has led to commissions from the Alte Schmiede (Austria), Boston Musica Viva, MATA, Spivey Hall, Cornell University, and the Fromm Foundation. A winner of the Ettelson Composer Award for his work Of Three Minds, he holds additional honors from Ossia Music, the League of Composers/ISCM, the Salvatore Martirano Competition, the MacDowell and ACA colonies, and the Fulbright Hays Foundation. His music is available from Beauport Classical, Electroshock Records, Navona Records, PARMA Recordings, and Trevco Music. Arrell is an associate professor at the College of The Holy Cross in Worcester MA.

Flutist Linda Wiley studied at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville TX, earning a B.M. Education degree in 1975 and an M.A. in performance in 1977. While at SHSU, she studied flute with Jan Cole, who had studied privately with Jean-Pierre Rampal for five years. Unrelated to flute performance, Wiley earned a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary education from Texas A&M University in 1986.

Jonathan Sheffer is a Grammy-nominated composer and conductor whose diverse career in music spans the worlds of classical, opera, dance, and film and television. Born in New York City, Sheffer graduated from Harvard University, where his teachers included Leonard Bernstein, and later attended The Juilliard Extension School and the Aspen School of Music. Sheffer’s range of works comprises television and feature film scores, works for orchestra, solo piano, concertos, musicals, and short operas. In addition to several scores for Hollywood films, including Encino Man, Pure Luck, A Shallow Grave and others, his most recent films include the documentaries Mann v. Ford (HBO) and the German/Israeli film, The Decent One, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.

Edwin Barker is recognized as one of the most gifted bassists on the American concert scene. Barker graduated with Honors from the New England Conservatory of Music and immediately joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, before being appointed, at age 22, to the position of Principal Bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has held that position for nearly 50 years. Barker’s primary teachers were Peter Mecurio and Henry Portnoi.

Frank Felice (b. 1961) is an eclectic composer who writes with a postmodern mischievousness: each piece speaks in its own language, and his works can be by turns comedic/ironic, simple/complex, subtle/startling, or humble/reverent. Recent projects of Felice’s have taken a turn toward the sweeter side, exploring a consonant adiatonicism.