Like A Rolling Stone
Michael Lanci is an active composer, educator and performer currently residing in Cincinnati, Ohio. His music is viscerally engaging, stylistically diverse and draws from a wide range of influences. Recent projects include a collection of 5 protest songs dedicated to nineteenth century singer-songwriter and labor rights activist Joe Hill, written in collaboration with soprano Jackie Stevens and the All Of the Above ensemble.
Michael’s works have been performed at festivals such as the Midwest Composers Symposium, Edmont Fringe Festival, Orford Music Festival, and the Vox Novus Festival. He has received commissions from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the harp duo Beyond Pluck, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Klangpar2, Erie Trio and the SUNY Fredonia Saxophone Ensemble. His works have been performed and premiered by the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra, Hypercube, Buffalo Chamber Players, Dou d’Entre Deux, Tres Por Radio, Decho Ensemble, Azalea Quartet and the SUNY Fredonia Brass Ensemble.
Michael holds a B.M. in piano performance from SUNY Albany, where he also studied composition with Max Lifchitz and a M.M. in composition from SUNY Fredonia, where he studied with Rob Deemer and Karl Boelter. Michael is currently completing a D.M.A. in composition at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where he is studying with Michael Fiday
Tombstone Blues
Michael Laurello (b. 1981) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist whose music reflects his fascination with rhythmic complexity, visceral power, and emotional immediacy. He has collaborated with ensembles and soloists such as Sō Percussion, the Nashville Symphony, Yale Percussion Group, the icarus Quartet (iQ), and bassist Sam Suggs. His work has been programmed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, PASIC, N_SEME, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. Laurello studied composition at Yale and Tufts, and his mentors include David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Christopher Theofanidis, and John McDonald.
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
Aurie Hsu is a composer, pianist, and dancer. She composes acoustic and electronic music, performs her own piano music, and collaborates with musicians, choreographers, and musical robots. Aurie performs with the Remote electroAcoustic Kinesthetic Sensing (RAKS) system, a wireless sensor interface for belly dance. She has presented at NIME, ICMC, MOCO, SEAMUS, SIGCHI, Pixelerations, Third Practice Festival, the Logos Foundation, and the Cite International des Arts, and her pieces have been performed by the Da Capo Chamber Players, Relâche, the Talujon Percussion Quartet, among others. Aurie is a Visiting Assistant Professor in TIMARA at the Oberlin Conservatory (2015-2017).
Michael Fiday
From A Buick 6
Michael Fiday’s music has been commissioned and performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe and elsewhere by a diverse range of performers such as Cincinnati Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Percussion Ensemble of The Hague, pianists James Tocco and Marc-Andre Hamelin, and electric guitarist Seth Josel. His principal teachers in composition have included Richard Toensing at University of Colorado, George Crumb at University of Pennsylvania, and Louis Andriessen, with whom he studied in Amsterdam under the auspices of a Fulbright Grant. Mr. Fiday is the recipient of numerous awards, grants and residencies from, among others, BMI, ASCAP, American Composers Forum, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Ohio Arts Council. He is currently Associate Professor of Composition at the College-Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati.
Ballad of a Thin Man
Jennifer Jolley (b. 1981) is an Ohio-based composer of orchestral, wind ensemble, chamber, and vocal music. She also dabbles in sound art and has participated in multiple group exhibitions.
Jennifer's work is highly influenced by both urban and rural environments with small tinges of nostalgia. Her works have been commissioned and performed by various ensembles, including the University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, Opera MODO, and the Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. She has served as Composer in Residence at Chamber Music Campania and the
University of Toledo.
She authors Why Compose When You Can Blog?, a web log about contemporary composing, and has served as a guest contributor on NewMusicBox. As an educator of new music, Jennifer is an active composer mentor with Music-COMP, and has joined the Interlochen Arts Camp music faculty in 2015. Jennifer has been a faculty member at Ohio Wesleyan University since 2012. Jennifer’s works are distributed through ADJ*ective New Music.
[encore] Queen Jane Approximately
Described as "an unabashedly expressive composer," (New Yorker) John Glover has created music for concert, opera, dance, and theater. His chamber opera New Arrivals was praised by Broadway World as an "intricate and intriguing score that is easy to lose yourself in emotionally." He has received commissions from organizations including Houston Grand Opera, New York Youth Symphony, Milwaukee Opera Theater, Washington National Opera, American Conservatory Theater, Mirror Visions Ensemble, Del Sol String Quartet, Liuh-wen Ting, Amber Sloan Dance, Crossman Dans(c)e, Ensemble Meme, String Noise, and the Five Boroughs Music Festival. His work has been presented in venues ranging from Rockwood Music Hall to Carnegie Hall, Invisible Dog, to the Rothko Chapel.
John has received numerous awards, fellowships and grants for his music from organizations including New Music USA, Meet The Composer, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Cambodia Living Arts, Cherry Valley Artworks, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Recent projects include Rudiments for multi-tracked voice and dancers at The Yard for Amber Sloan Dance and Tomas Cruz, the multimedia work Snow created with choreographer Jordan Morley for toy-pianist Phyllis Chen, and Squall for Mirror Visions Ensemble, and original scores and sound design for the immersive work HERE by choreographer Kelly Bartnik.
Currently in development are a new work for Del Sol String Quartet with Jesse Blumberg, a residency at MANA Contemporary with Amber Sloan, and a commission for Milwaukee Opera Theater. His song cycle Natural Systems, written for the New York Youth Symphony and Evan Hughes was described as a "vivid score ranging from energetic swirls to a gentle, enigmatic conclusion." (New York Times).
Highway 61 Revisited
Rob Deemer (b.1970) is a composer, conductor, educator, author, and columnist who advocates for composers of all ages and explores the role that contemporary concert music plays in today’s society. His works have been commissioned and performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the President’s Own Marine Band, the U.S. Army Orchestra (Pershing's Own), the wind ensembles at the University of Texas and the University of Missouri at Kansas City, contemporary chamber ensembles such as the Rasçher Saxophone Quartet, loadbang, Akropolis Quintet, Great Noise Ensemble, American Contemporary Music Ensemble, and Gaudete Brass, and soloists including Jeffrey Zeigler, Cornelius Dufallo, Tony Arnold, Lindsay Goodman, Michael Mizrahi, Timothy McAllister. His film scores have been heard in the Cannes Film festival, Directors Guilds of America in both Los Angeles and New York, the Festivale Pan African du Cinema in Ouagadougou, Africa and festivals in Chicago, Austin, San Antonio, Las Vegas and San Diego. As an author, Deemer has become well known for his writings for NewMusicBox, Sequenza21, and the New York Times. Deemer is Head of Composition in the School of Music at the State University of New York at Fredonia and is the composer-in-residence with the Buffalo Chamber Players and Harmonia Chamber Singers.
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Composer Marc Mellits is one of the leading American composers of his generation, enjoying hundreds of performances throughout the world every year, making him one of the most performed living composers in the United States. From Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, to prestigious music festivals in Europe and the US, Mellits’ music is a constant mainstay on programs throughout the world. His unique musical style is an eclectic combination of driving rhythms, soaring lyricism, and colorful orchestrations that all combine to communicate directly with the listener. Mellits' music is often described as being visceral, making a deep connection with the audience. “This was music as sensual as it was intelligent; I saw audience members swaying, nodding, making little motions with their hands” (New York Press). He started composing very early, and was writing piano music long before he started formal piano lessons at age 6. He went on to study at the Eastman School of Music, Yale School of Music, Cornell University, and Tanglewood. Mellits often is a miniaturist, composing works that are comprised of short, contrasting movements or sections. His music is eclectic, all-encompassing, colourful, and always has a sense of forward motion.
Mellits' music has been played by major ensembles across the globe and he has been commissioned by groups such as the Kronos Quartet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Holland), Duo Assad, Bang On A Can All-Stars, Eliot Fisk, Canadian Brass, Nexus Percussion, Debussy Quartet, Real Quiet, New Music Detroit, Four-In-Correspondence (National Symphony Orchestra), Musique En Roue Libre (France), Fiarì Ensemble (Italy), Percussions Claviers de Lyon (France), Third Coast Percussion, Talujon, the Society for New Music, Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, and the Albany Symphony's Dog's Of Desire. Additionally, Mellits’ music has been performed, toured, and/or recorded by members of the Detroit Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Minneapolis Symhony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, eighth blackbird, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New Millenium Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, and the American Modern Ensemble, among many others.
On film, Mellits has composed numerous scores, including the PBS mini-series “Beyond The Light Switch” which won a 2012 Dupont-Columbia award, the most prestigious award in documentaries. Mellits also directs and plays keyboards in his own unique ensemble, the Mellits Consort. He was awarded the prestigious 2004 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award. On CD, there are over 50 recorded works of Mellits' music that can be found on Black Box, Endeavour Classics, Cantaloupe, CRI/Emergency Music, Santa Fe New Music, Innova, & Dacia Music. Marc Mellits is an Assistant Professor of music at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two daughters, and spends significant time in Romania.
Desolation Row
Sara Corry is currently a member of the U.S. Army where she serves as a Staff Arranger for the U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own." For the last six years she has been a Teaching Fellow at Interlochen Arts Camp, providing instruction on electronic music and theory.
As a composer, Corry has had notable performances by the JACK Quartet, Harvard's Videri String Quartet, Dallas Symphony Chamber Players, Meadows Symphony Orchestra (Dallas), Interlochen Ensemble and the Musica Nova Ensemble (UMKC). She has received commissions from the Playground Ensemble, Dallas Museum of Art - Nasher Sculpture Center, and University of Colorado. She has been a featured composer at the Aquilla Summer Music Festival, ISCM Miami, and the UNC Open Space Festival. Her Composition "Aftersong" is included on the "Electronic Masters Vol. 5" CD released in 2016 by ABLAZE Records.
Coming from both a scientific and musical background, she was the recipient of a Catalyst grant to fund her ideas linking music and physics and won the O'Neal-Taniguchi prize for Arts Entrepreneurship for the development of a computer program that reads brainwaves and aids in musical performance.
In addition to composing and arranging, Corry is an active harpist. As a musician, she has performed in Carnegie Hall, Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Meyerson Symphony Center, Meng Concert Hall, as well as venues in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France.
She earned a Master's degree in Music Composition from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently finishing her D.M.A in Music Composition and Technology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her principle teachers include Dan Kellogg, John Drumheller, Donald Grantham, Dan Welcher, Yevgeniy Sharlat, and Rob Frank.
(Encore) Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence
Polish-American composer and conductor Martin A. Sedek (b. 1985) was born in Germany and raised in Poland and the United States. He is an award-winning voice in the world of choral and orchestral music, educated at Berklee College of Music in Boston (B.M, Composition) where he founded and conducted the 80-voice Berklee Concert Choir and Montclair State University (M.M.) where he studied composition and choral conducting. Martin has studied composition with Robert Livingston Aldridge, Matthew Harris, and Tarik O’Regan, with additional studies with Steven Stucky, Chen Yi, and Steven Sametz; conducting with David Callahan and Julius Williams, with additional studies with William Weinert, Craig Hella Johnson, and Heather J. Buchanan. Martin is Composer-in-Residence at Harmonium Choral Society & The Baldwin Festival Chorus of NYC and is currently the Music Director and Conductor of Choral Art Society of NJ and Associate Conductor for The Masterwork Chorus. As a member of the choral and theory faculties at Montclair State University’s Cali School of Music, Martin is Assistant Conductor for the MSU Chorale and Visiting Professor of Music Theory. Composition awards include Yale Glee Club Emerging Composer Competition, NoteNova Publishing Choral Composition Contest, Boston’s Kalistos Ensemble, Ithaca College School of Music Choral Composition Contest, and Society of Composers International. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, where he studies with Tarik O’Regan.
(Encore) Positively Fourth Street
Stephanie Ann Boyd (b. 1990) endeavors to write music that brings whimsical worlds to life, that is meaningful to audience and performer alike, and that refreshes and strengthens the creative spirit. Stephanie’s 2015/2016 season included commissions for a cello concerto for Alan Toda-Ambaras and the Eureka Orchestra, new works for Washington Square Winds in New York City and Cincinnati Soundbox in Ohio, and a co-commission involving 50 violinists across America. Other recent highlights involved co-directing the Tuesday Night New Music concert series, winning New England Conservatory's Donald Martino Prize for Excellence in Composition, being chosen as the NEC/Boston Modern Orchestra Project Competition winner, and having her violin concerto premiered in Jordan Hall by recent Michael Hill International Competition prize-winner Eunae Koh under the baton of Australian conductor Nathan Aspinall.
A two-time winner of the Chicago College of Performing Arts Vector Project, her orchestral music has been performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the JVL Festival Orchestra in Ontario, the Cremona Academy Festival Orchestra in Italy, the Chicago College of Performing Arts Symphony Orchestra, the Grammy-winning Pioneer Symphony Orchestra in Ann Arbor, and the New England Conservatory Orchestra in Boston. Stephanie’s music has been played on Hawaii Public Radio, New York City’s 89.9 WKCR, Chicago’s 98.7 WFMT, and WRBC The Blaze Radio. Her string orchestra works are published by TRN Music. She is a graduate of Roosevelt University in Chicago and the New England Conservatory in Boston.
Boyd is a frequent lecturer at universities and high schools, often speaking on the subjects of creativity, entrepreneurship, and how to create a career after music school. An advocate of the innate creativity in young people, she has brought composition programs to schools and music festivals in three countries. She maintains a studio of international composition students, with studio recitals being held twice a year in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and New York City. When not composing, Ms. Boyd secretly enjoys screaming trumpet music, openly enjoys John William Waterhouse paintings, and will never pass up a London Fog latte. Boyd resides in Inwood, Manhattan.
(Encore) Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
Brad Harris is an American composer from Atlanta, Georgia whose work is influenced by the prog rock, hip hop, minimalism, bebop and film music of his childhood. His musical focus is to bring the emotional and cultural resonance of the “everyman’s music” to each piece.
He was awarded first prize in the 2013 Ohio Federation of Music composition contest and was a finalist in the national MTNA composition competition. Recently, Mr. Harris finished writing a triple concerto for the New York Youth Symphony titled “#YO” which is set to be premiered at Carnegie Hall. He has also recently finished collaborating with choreographer and dancer James Cunningham from the Cincinnati Ballet on a new short ballet which will premiere in December. Mr. Harris’ cultural sensitivity in music was also celebrated in the “30 Americans” exhibit at the Cincinnati Art Museum, where he composed and debuted a series of pieces inspired by the works of significant African-American artists.
Brad graduated with his master’s in composition from the University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music and currently resides in Cincinnati.