Mark G. Simon

Mark G. Simon received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Cornell University, where he studied with Karel Husa, Steven Stuckey and Robert Palmer. His compositions include orchestral, chamber and vocal works, many featuring the clarinet. His musical history Jennie’s Will was commissioned for the bicentennial of the Village of Dryden, New York in and revived in 2015 for the sesquicentennial of Cornell University. The Carnival of the Subatomic Particles, a 13-movement exploration of particle physics for chamber ensemble and narrator set to a poem by Cornell physicist N. David Mermin, was commissioned and premiered by Music’s Recreation in Ithaca, New York. His Duo for Mandolin and Guitar was written for the Duo Ahlert & Schwab, who have performed it throughout Germany. It is published by Corvus Editions. Murmuration was written for the flute quartet Quaternity, and remains in their repertory. Nevertheless, She Persisted, for three cellos and bass, was written for bassist Ron Wasserman and was premiered by him and three colleagues from the New York City Ballet and New York Philharmonic in May, 2017.

 

Simon studied clarinet with Harry Schmidt at the Florida State University, and later studied privately with Steven Hartman (principal clarinetist of the New York City Ballet). He has performed with many orchestras in central New York and in Maryland, including the Binghamton Symphony Orchestra, The Ithaca Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, The Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, the Prince George’s Philharmonic, the Avanti Orchestra of the Friday Morning Music Club, and the Pan American Symphony Orchestra. Since 2012 he has conducted the Montrose Ensemble, an amateur wind octet in Montgomery County, Maryland, for whom he wrote his Harmonie nos. 2, 3 and 4. He also has played chamber music and recitals. This recording comes from recitals performed in Ithaca, New York between 1998 and 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Aleeza Meir, piano

Pianist Aleeza Meir is based in New York City. Raised as a homeschooler, she pursued her musical studies independently with fortepianist Malcolm Bilson (who called her one of the most talented students he’d ever had) and composer Steven Stucky.

 

Accomplished on piano, organ and harpsichord, she began her career as a staff pianist at the Ithaca College School of Music at the age of 16.  She has since appeared with artists and composers including the Cayuga Vocal Ensemble, Bob Chilcott, Edward Carroll, Kronos Quartet, Jan Opalach, Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and the New England Symphonic Ensemble, in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, to National Sawdust, to St. Olaf's Church in Balestrand, Norway.  She has also performed in the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, and North America, in a wide variety of venues and capacities ranging from concerto soloist to continuo player.  She placed second in the International Piano Masterclass of Bechyne festival competition and was a prizewinner in the Otto B. Schoepfle national organ competition.

 

Ms. Meir served as pianist for the Boys Choir of Harlem, and spent ten years as keyboardist for John Rutter in New York City. Currently she is principal pianist for the celebrated Brooklyn Youth Chorus, which regularly commissions and premieres works of today's leading composers including Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, and Caroline Shaw; with them she has performed at festivals including MusicNOW, Ecstatic Music Festival, Bang on a Can, and numerous broadcasts on WQXR in NYC.  She also serves as faculty pianist for the Allen-Stevenson School, pianist for Middlebury Language Schools' German for Singers program, music director for historic Old First Reformed Church in NYC, and founder/director of Baroque in Brooklyn

 

 

 

 

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Linda Larson, soprano

Linda Larson's wide-ranging soprano repertoire includes opera, oratorio, recital, and chamber music, with an emphasis on new American music. She has sung leading operatic roles throughout the United States with the New York City Opera National Company, Opera Illinois, Syracuse Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Opera Memphis, and others.

Larson has premiered new American music at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall and with many of New York's leading new music ensembles. A favorite of composer John Eaton's, she has performed many of his works, including the premieres of his operas The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Pumped Fiction. In April 2011 she premiered David Glaser's Catullus Dreams with NYC new music ensemble Sequitur.

 

Larson earned her bachelors degree in vocal performance from the University of Michigan, and her masters in choral conducting and doctorate in voice from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a graduate of the Tri-Cities Opera Resident Artist Training Program, and participated in the Twentieth Century Opera and Song program at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She spent twelve summers on faculty with the University of Alaska Summer Fine Arts Camp, where she taught voice, conducted choirs, and served as vocal coach and assistant music director for music theater productions. She has taught at New York University and Ithaca College and served as coordinator of the Vocal Coaching Program at Cornell University.

 

Larson joined the Hayes School of Music faculty in the fall of 2012 as conductor of the Appalachian Chorale. In the summer of 2012 she began teaching at Cannon Music Camp, conducting several choirs and teaching voice lessons. She has also served as vocal coach for the University's Musical Theatre Club's productions of Rent and Godspell.