Our talented team
who loves music
In addition to their many talents, the faculty and staff of the Walden School are trained in performance, composition, conducting, theory and pedagogy.
YEAR-ROUND ADMINISTRATION
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Alex Christie
Director of Electronic Music, Academic Dean & Director of Composers Forums, Young Musicians Program -
Cara Haxo
Academic Dean, ---Young Musicians Program -
Caroline Mallonee
Director,---Creative Musicians Retreat -
Douglas Hertz
Director of Operations -
Elizabeth Susskind
Administrative Assistant -
Gaela Dennison-Leonard
Director of Development & Alumni Relations -
Loretta Notareschi
Faculty, Creative Musicians Retreat -
Sammi Stone
Director of Operations -
Seth Brenzel
Executive Director &--- Director, Young Musicians Program
Alex Christie
Director of Electronic Music, Creative Musicians Retreat
Academic Dean, Director of Composers Forums & Director of Electronic Music, Young Musicians Program
Alex Christie makes acoustic and electronic music in many forms. His music has been called “vibrant”, “interesting, I guess,” and responsible for “ruin[ing] my day.” He enjoys collaborating with artists in all fields and is particularly interested in the ways in which acoustic and electronic sound worlds intersect.
Recently, Alex’s work has explored the ecology of performance in intermedia art and interactive electronic music. Through real-time audio processing, instrument building, video, lighting, and theater, Alex expands performance environments to offer multiple lenses through which the audience can experience the work. He is curious about the design of power structures, systems of interference, absurdist bureaucracy, and indeterminacy in composition.
Alex began his compositional career many years ago as a student at Walden’s Young Musicians Program where he now serves as faculty. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and Mills College and is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) at the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Fellow. Other interests include baseball and geometric shapes.
alexchristie.org
Cara Haxo
At the encouragement of her mother, Cara Haxo begrudgingly attended Walden as a student in 2004. As soon as she arrived on campus, however, she immediately fell in love with everything about Walden and came back for another five summers. She is thrilled to return to Walden more recently as a faculty member. Haxo was awarded the 2013 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers Award, the 2013 International Alliance for Women in Music Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize, and second prize in the 2012 Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Student/Collegiate Composers Contest. Her works have been performed by the PRISM Quartet, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and Splinter Reeds, amongst other ensembles. Haxo recently earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Oregon, where she worked as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Music Theory. She also holds degrees from Butler University and The College of Wooster. When she is not composing, Haxo enjoys baking muffins, going on long road trips, and reading Harry Potter in French. http://chaxomusic.com.
Caroline Mallonee
Director, Creative Musicians Retreat
Caroline Mallonee has been on the faculty of The Walden School since 1998. A composer of orchestral, chamber, and choral music, Mallonee’s music has been performed by prominent American ensembles including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Present Music, Wet Ink Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Antares, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Spektral Quartet, Firebird Ensemble, Del Sol Quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Buffalo Chamber Players, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, VocalEssence, and American Opera Projects.
Her music has been programmed at venues in New York including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, Bargemusic, Town Hall, Roulette, and National Sawdust (as part of the New York Philharmonic CONTACT! series), as well as further afield at the Long Leaf Opera Festival (NC),Carlsbad Music Festival (CA), the Corcoran Gallery (Washington, DC), Jordan Hall (Boston, MA), Bennington Chamber Music Conference (VT), Cambridge Music Festival (UK), and Tokyo Opera City (Japan).
Her music is available from Boosey & Hawkes and Swirly Music. Carrie holds degrees from Harvard University, The Yale School of Music and Duke University, and she was a Fulbright scholar to the Netherlands in 2004. She first came to Walden as a student when she was 12 and has hiked Mt. Monadnock over thirty times.
Douglas Hertz
Director of Operations
Douglas Hertz (b. 1993) is a composer, percussionist, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. He first became involved with The Walden School as a Young Musicians Program Student in 2010 and has since participated in the Creative Musicians Retreat and held both staff and faculty roles.
Hertz’s compositions have been heard around the United States, having been recently programmed by the Aries Composers Festival, Midwest Composers Symposium, PASIC, Nief Norf Summer Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, the Dynamic Music Festival, Bard College’s Music Alive series and the Deer Valley Music Festival. He has also held recent residencies with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and Periapsis Music and Dance.
His music has been either performed or recorded by the University of Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra, Wet Ink Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, American Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Calidore String Quartet, Vanguard Reed Quintet, Up/Down Percussion Quartet, and BrassTaps Duo. He is also an avid collaborator, having worked recently with choreographer Al Evangelista, visual artist Lizzy Chiappini, and performance group, Call Your Mom.
Hertz holds a B.A. in music from Bard College a M.M. from the University of Michigan. His past teachers have included Evan Chambers, Bright Sheng, Kristin Kuster, George Tsontakis, Joan Tower, Kyle Gann, and Janet Weir.
Elizabeth Susskind
Administrative Assistant
A native Briton, Elizabeth worked her way west, ending up in California via St. Louis. Before leaving London, she studied voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and ultimately gained a degree in vocal performance at Trinity College of Music. In St. Louis, she sang with the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus and Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
The lure of the ocean and the sunshine ultimately proved too difficult to resist, so Elizabeth’s family moved to California. With her two daughters grown up and gainfully employed, Elizabeth now lives in Pacifica with her black Labrador, Winnie, where they explore beach walks, cliff hikes, and the quaint coffee shops. Taking advantage of the rich culture of the Bay Area, Elizabeth sings with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and many small ensembles, visits museums and art galleries, and attends concerts. Having worked for many years in hospital administration, she is delighted to bring her experience in administration and passion for music to the wonderful team at The Walden School.
Gaela Dennison-Leonard
Director of Development & Alumni Relations
Gaela joined the Walden staff in 2018. Growing up in Oregon, the camp that shaped her was formally an environmental science camp, yet the most important part always seemed to be the campfire songs at the end of the day. Her experiences as a camp counselor, creative writing teacher, and specific needs tutor inspire her to stay involved with holistic education and student well-being. She is passionate about the connections between music, nature, and community.
Gaela was a 2016-17 Watson Fellow, pursuing an independent project on women’s monasticism and spiritual communities across several countries and traditions. Looking for people with callings, nuns seemed like good people to spend time with. If this reminds you of The Sound of Music, it was not very much like that, but music played an important role nonetheless. Singing together transcends all traditions and all cultures as a way of connecting and appreciating one another. If you know exactly which words to search in Gujarati, it’s possible Gaela can be found on YouTube singing Jain prayers, but otherwise she does not perform.
Gaela believes when you have spaces of openness, creativity, and awe, that spills over into the rest of your life, shaping how you interact with the world and the people around you. She is grateful to have found her way to Walden.
Loretta Notareschi
Faculty, Creative Musicians Retreat
Called a “bright wom[a]n with big ideas” (Souls in Action), Denver-based composer Loretta K. Notareschi (b. 1977) prioritizes “connecting with the audience” (303 Magazine) and creating “deeply personal” (5280 Magazine) music known for illuminating a “path to compassion” (303 Magazine). Her work has been described as “compelling” (Deforming Prisms), “alluring” (The Denver Channel) “touching” (Collegian), and “powerful” (The Denver Post). Born in Canton, OH and raised in Stillwater, OK, Notareschi is a professor of music at Regis University and a summer faculty member of The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat. She received an MA and PhD in composition from the University of California at Berkeley, a BMus in composition from the University of Southern California, and the General Diploma from the Zoltàn Kodàly Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemèt, Hungary, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She has received awards and grants from Chamber Music America, the Cincinnati Camerata, IronWorks Percussion Duo, the American Composers Forum, the former Ensemble Eleven, and the GALA Choruses, and in October 2016, she was a TEDxMileHigh speaker.
lorettanotareschi.com
Sammi Stone
Director of Operations
Sammi Jo Stone is an oboist, saxophonist, and composer, originally from Baker City in rural northeastern Oregon. She holds degrees in music from Williams College in Williamstown, MA and the University of California San Diego. She has worked around the United States in pit orchestras and chamber ensembles, and as a senior counselor at the innovative Woodwinds @ Wallowa Lake chamber music camp in Joseph, OR.
She is passionate about learning and teaching music, going on hikes, and knowing which birds are which. She composes music and writes texts intended for musical setting, and aspires to honor the complex sounds of the natural world with songful compositions informed by spectral study.
In addition to working for the Walden School, she is an oboe lessons teacher and small-batch coffee roaster.
Seth Brenzel
Executive Director & Director, Young Musicians Program
Seth Brenzel, Executive Director, has been associated with The Walden School for more than 30 years. He was fortunate to be a student at Walden for six magical summers (1985-1990), and since 1994, has served the School as a staff member, faculty member, Director of Operations, and as the Associate Director from 1996 to 2003, when he became the School’s Executive Director. Since 1995, he has sung tenor with the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and is currently a professional member of that ensemble.
Seth has served as the co-clerk of the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Friends School, and in the past, he has served on the boards of The Walden School, Swarthmore College, and Earplay, a San Francisco-based new music ensemble. Seth received his B.A., with degrees in Music and Political Science, from Swarthmore College, where he served as President of the College’s Alumni Association. He received an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, with a focus in non-profit management and marketing; he has also served on the Haas School’s Development Council. He is a 2012 graduate of Leadership San Francisco, where he serves as an alumni advisor.
Prior to becoming Walden’s first full-time Executive Director, Seth worked part-time for Walden during the year and held positions as a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting, in marketing and public relations at the San Francisco Symphony, and led both the marketing and the enterprise sales teams for an internet software company, now part of Adobe. When not at Walden, Seth lives in San Francisco with his husband, Malcolm Gaines, and their daughter, Cora.
SUMMER FACULTY & STAFF
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A. Nirvaan Ranganathan
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Alex Christie
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Andrew Bobker
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Cara Haxo
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Caroline Mallonee
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Charlie Dees
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Christopher Luna-Mega
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Dana Jessen
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Daniel Felsenfeld
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Dennis Sullivan
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Derek David
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Douglas Hertz
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Erica Ball
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Erin Cameron
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Evan Williams
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Katherine Balch
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Kittie Cooper
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Loretta Notareschi
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Luke Schroeder
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Michael Kropf
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Moshe Shulman
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Nate May
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Osnat Netzer
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Renée Favand-See
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Sammi Stone
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Seth Brenzel
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Sky Macklay
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Thomas Colohan
A. Nirvaan Ranganathan
Aditya Nirvaan Ranganathan is a violinist, composer, producer, and student at Swarthmore College, where he is double majoring in Music and Physics. Nirvaan hails from, in equal parts, New York City and Mumbai. He picked up the violin at the age of 4, and currently studies violin with Ms. Barbara Sonies, and music theory and composition with Gerald Levinson.
Nirvaan spent 3 summers at the Young Musicians Program, and has performed with the International Honour Orchestra, Bombay Chamber Orchestra, and Swarthmore College Orchestra. You are most likely to find him meticulously editing Ableton music projects, watching soccer, or enjoying the company of friends and family.
Alex Christie
Director of Electronic Music, Creative Musicians Retreat
Academic Dean, Director of Composers Forums & Director of Electronic Music, Young Musicians Program
Alex Christie makes acoustic and electronic music in many forms. His music has been called “vibrant”, “interesting, I guess,” and responsible for “ruin[ing] my day.” He enjoys collaborating with artists in all fields and is particularly interested in the ways in which acoustic and electronic sound worlds intersect.
Recently, Alex’s work has explored the ecology of performance in intermedia art and interactive electronic music. Through real-time audio processing, instrument building, video, lighting, and theater, Alex expands performance environments to offer multiple lenses through which the audience can experience the work. He is curious about the design of power structures, systems of interference, absurdist bureaucracy, and indeterminacy in composition.
Alex began his compositional career many years ago as a student at Walden’s Young Musicians Program where he now serves as faculty. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and Mills College and is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT) at the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Fellow. Other interests include baseball and geometric shapes.
alexchristie.org
Andrew Bobker
A native of New England, Andrew Bobker grew up in Brunswick, Maine, and currently studies music and German at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He is a musician and an occasional composer.
Cara Haxo
At the encouragement of her mother, Cara Haxo begrudgingly attended Walden as a student in 2004. As soon as she arrived on campus, however, she immediately fell in love with everything about Walden and came back for another five summers. She is thrilled to return to Walden more recently as a faculty member. Haxo was awarded the 2013 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers Award, the 2013 International Alliance for Women in Music Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize, and second prize in the 2012 Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Student/Collegiate Composers Contest. Her works have been performed by the PRISM Quartet, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and Splinter Reeds, amongst other ensembles. Haxo recently earned a PhD in Composition at the University of Oregon, where she worked as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Music Theory. She also holds degrees from Butler University and The College of Wooster. When she is not composing, Haxo enjoys baking muffins, going on long road trips, and reading Harry Potter in French. http://chaxomusic.com.
Caroline Mallonee
Director, Creative Musicians Retreat
Caroline Mallonee has been on the faculty of The Walden School since 1998. A composer of orchestral, chamber, and choral music, Mallonee’s music has been performed by prominent American ensembles including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Present Music, Wet Ink Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Antares, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Spektral Quartet, Firebird Ensemble, Del Sol Quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Buffalo Chamber Players, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, VocalEssence, and American Opera Projects.
Her music has been programmed at venues in New York including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, Bargemusic, Town Hall, Roulette, and National Sawdust (as part of the New York Philharmonic CONTACT! series), as well as further afield at the Long Leaf Opera Festival (NC),Carlsbad Music Festival (CA), the Corcoran Gallery (Washington, DC), Jordan Hall (Boston, MA), Bennington Chamber Music Conference (VT), Cambridge Music Festival (UK), and Tokyo Opera City (Japan).
Her music is available from Boosey & Hawkes and Swirly Music. Carrie holds degrees from Harvard University, The Yale School of Music and Duke University, and she was a Fulbright scholar to the Netherlands in 2004. She first came to Walden as a student when she was 12 and has hiked Mt. Monadnock over thirty times.
Charlie Dees
A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Charlie Dees attended the Walden School Young Musician’s Program from 2002 to 2005. Growing up, he studied violin and composition along with dabbling in piano. After taking a hiatus from music, he co-founded the Missouri Quizbowl Alliance, which organized a statewide trivia circuit for high schoolers, and coached a local high school’s team. One day he picked up his violin again, realized that he sounded awful, and vowed to never sound that bad again, leading him to reboot his music studies. Ultimately, Charlie moved to Chicago and enrolled at Harold Washington College in 2014.
In 2015, he was accepted to transfer to Columbia University in New York, where he is currently pursuing degrees in music and history. Charlie studied violin with Tiberius Klausner and Richard Rood, and composition with Kris Bartmann and many legendary Walden faculty. Most importantly, he is super stoked to be back to Walden for his first summer in over a decade.
Christopher Luna-Mega
Christopher Luna-Mega is a composer and improviser. He studied Composition at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México –UNAM (B.M.) and Mills College (M.A.), as well as Film/Communication Theory (Universidad Iberoamericana –UIA, Mexico City. Influenced by coniferous forests, the films and writings of Andrey Tarkovsky, and the practice of focus and silence, his work analyzes sounds from natural and urban environments and translates them into notated music for performers and electronics.
His orchestral music has been performed by the Orquestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, cond. Tonino Battista; Iceland Symphony Orchestra, cond. Ilan Volkov; Montreal-Toronto Art Orchestra, cond. Gregory Oh; and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, cond. José Luis Castillo. Ensembles that have performed his work include Yarn|Wire, The William Winant Percussion Group, JACK Quartet, and The Arditti String Quartet. Recently, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov performed Splatter, commissioned by improviser and composer Roscoe Mitchell for the Tectonics new music festival in Glasgow, Scotland. The piece is a translation of a tempestuous free improvisation by Roscoe Mitchell (bass saxophone), Kikanju Baku (drum set) and Craig Taborn (electronics).
Luna-Mega has taught Composition, Musicianship, Orchestration and Introduction to Electronic Music in the National School of Music in Mexico, Mills College and the University of Virginia, where he currently pursues a PhD in Composition and Computer Technologies as a Jefferson Scholars Foundation fellow.
Dana Jessen
Praised for her diverse talents, bassoonist Dana Jessen is highly active as a chamber musician, improviser and new music specialist. She is the co-founder of the Bay Area reed quintet, Splinter Reeds, and has performed with prominent ensembles including the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Ensemble Dal Niente, Calefax Reed Quintet, Callithumpian Consort, Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra and the Amsterdam Contemporary Ensemble, among others. As the founder of the Rushes Ensemble, Dana spearheaded the consortium commission of Rushes, an hour-long composition for seven bassoons by composer and Bang on a Can co-founder, Michael Gordon.
Her recordings can be heard on Cantaloupe, New World, Splinter, Evil Rabbit, Oberlin Music, and the RIOJA record labels. She will be releasing her debut solo album on Innova Recordings in Fall 2016 featuring new works for bassoon and electronics by Sam Pluta, Paula Matthusen, Peter V. Swendsen and Kyle Bruckmann. Dana holds a M.M. in bassoon performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and a M.M. in improvisation from the Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. She lived in Amsterdam for three years as the recipient of a J. William Fulbright Fellowship and a HSP Huygens Fellowship where she researched contemporary and improvised music. Dana is currently the Director of Professional Development at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and along with playing with The Walden School Players she teaches for Walden’s Young Musicians Program.
Daniel Felsenfeld
Composer Daniel Felsenfeld has been commissioned and performed by Simone Dinnerstein, Opera On Tap, The Chorus of Trinity Wall Street, UrbanArias, Metropolis Ensemble, Transient Canvas, The Crossing/ICE, Meerenai Shim, the New York Philharmonic New Music Biennial, NANOWorks Opera, Kathleen Supovè, Two Sense (Lisa Moore and Ashley Bathgate), ASCAP, San Jose Opera, ETHEL, Great Noise Ensemble, American Opera Projects, The Secret Opera, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Transit, Redshift, Nadia Sirota, Jennifer Choi, Lara Downes, Blair McMillen, Metropolis Ensemble, Two Sides Sounding, Kristin Elgersma, Eleanor Taylor and Jen Devore, Alcyone Ensemble, Parhelion Trio, Bryan Haslettm Xanthos Ensemble, Friction Quartet, Momenta Quartet, Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne, Cornelius Duffallo, Emily Manzo, Stephianie Mortimore, Mellissa Hughes, Corey Dargel, Jenny Lin, New York City Opera (VOX), ACME, New Gallery Concert Series, Gabriella Diaz, Jody Redhage, Caroline Worra, Kristin Chambers, Marcy Richardson, Kamala Sankaram, The Jessold Consort, New England Conservatory Philharmonic in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Galapagos Art Space, The Kimmell Center, Jordan Hall, the Kitchen, Miller Theatre, Merkin Hall, Wigmore Hall, Stanford University, Harvard University, National Sawdust, The Stone, Brown University, Le Poisson Rouge, City Winery, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, and as part of the BEAT Festival, MATA Festival, Make Music New York, 21c Liederabend, Ecstatic Music Festival, Opera Grows in Brooklyn, New Brew, Serial Underground, and John Wesley Harding’s Cabinet of Wonders. When rapper Jay-Zperformed in Carnegie Hall, along with Alicia Keys and Nas, backed by a full orchestra, Felsenfeld was asked to do all of the orchestrations and arrangements. He also collaborated with The Roots (offering music on their Grammy-nominated record Undun, appearing with them and the Metropolis Ensemble on the Jimmy Fallon Show) and ?uestlove with Keren Ann and David Murray. He also wrote arrangements for noth ShuffleCulture and Electronium, shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with ?uestlove, Sasha Grey, Deerhoof, Reggie Watts, and How to Dress Well and the Metropolis Ensemble. He is also the Court Composer for John Wesley Harding’s Cabinet of Wonders, for which he wrote the theme—and which can be heard as an NPR Podcast. Residencies include Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, The Hermitage, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
Felsenfeld is also an accomplished essayist, annotator, and author, with eight books to his name as well as articles for the New York Times, Listen, Playbill, Time Out New York, Symphony Magazine, Strings Magazine, New Music Box, and Early Music Magazine; program notes for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Miller Theatre, Wigmore Hall, and Carnegie Hall; liner notes for Naxos, Bridge, Koch, EMI, Sony, and Adjustable Music. He served as curator for The Score in the Opinionator Section of the New York Times, he co-founded the New Music Gathering (an annual conference-concert series hybrid) which took place in San Francisco in 2015, as well as for Music After, a marathon concert on 9.11.11 he co-produced with Eleonor Sandresky. He is a teaching artist at the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.
Dennis Sullivan
Born in Akron, Ohio, Dennis K. Sullivan II is a percussionist and composer based in Queens, NY. Dennis explores cross-genre coalescence between acoustic, electronic and timbral based noise music. As a percussionist, Dennis is a founding member of the performance duo, Radical 2 with percussionist/engineer, Levy Lorenzo and Popebama, a high octane experimental percussion/saxophone duo with composer/saxophonist Erin Rogers. In addition, Dennis has shared the stage with The International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble ECCE, Ensemble Court Circuit, Wavefield Ensemble, Either/Or, Ensemble Pamplemousse, The Argento New Music Project and others.
His compositions have recently been performed by Yarn/Wire, Decoder, flutist Kenneth J. Cox, New Thread Saxophone Quartet, Hypercube, N/A Ensemble and others while being featured on the International Contemporary Ensemble’s OpenICE series, nymusikk Bergen, SPLICE Festival, Ball State Festival of New Music, Omaha Under the Radar, Cleveland’s reSound Festival and the Edmonton Fringe Festival. Upcoming projects include new works for Unheard-of// ensemble, guitarist Jay Sorce, flutist Kennith J. Cox, and “Fight. Songs,” an evening of music curated with Popebama bandmate Erin Rogers written for and performed with Decoder to be premiered at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie in March 2020.
Dennis holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) from Stony Brook University. He currently serves as adjunct professor of percussion and director of the wind ensemble at Adelphi University as well as adjunct professor of music at Manhattan College. Dennis’s other interests include hiking, Cleveland sports and heavy metal music. He owns an embarrassing amount of hats!
Derek David
Derek David is a composer based in Boston, Massachusetts. His dramatic and vibrant chamber music has been performed in both Europe and the United States and has received great recognition from audiences and critics alike. His works have garnered praise in the US and abroad and have won several prestigious awards. Upon hearing his Viola
Sonata, composer John Adams declared to be “dazzled by [David’s] capability and musicality, [and his] masterful demonstration of technique.” Derek’s String Quartet (2011), has been met with international recognition and repeated performances. It was described by Sabino Pena of France’s Classiquenews.com as “a true musical jewel of the 21st Century.” The quartet was awarded the EAMA Nadia Boulanger Institute Prize in (2011) as well as the Morton Gould ASCAP Award (2011). Additionally, the quartet was awarded first place by the American prize (2015). Dr. David holds a DMA from the New England Conservatory of Music and is currently a teaching fellow at Harvard University where he is a three-time recipient of the “Harvard University Distinction in Teaching Award”. Outside of composition, his musical areas of interest also extend to Medieval theory and musicology, The Beatles, and Jewish Music.
www.derekdavid.com
Douglas Hertz
Director of Operations
Douglas Hertz (b. 1993) is a composer, percussionist, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. He first became involved with The Walden School as a Young Musicians Program Student in 2010 and has since participated in the Creative Musicians Retreat and held both staff and faculty roles.
Hertz’s compositions have been heard around the United States, having been recently programmed by the Aries Composers Festival, Midwest Composers Symposium, PASIC, Nief Norf Summer Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, the Dynamic Music Festival, Bard College’s Music Alive series and the Deer Valley Music Festival. He has also held recent residencies with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and Periapsis Music and Dance.
His music has been either performed or recorded by the University of Michigan Philharmonic Orchestra, Wet Ink Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, American Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Calidore String Quartet, Vanguard Reed Quintet, Up/Down Percussion Quartet, and BrassTaps Duo. He is also an avid collaborator, having worked recently with choreographer Al Evangelista, visual artist Lizzy Chiappini, and performance group, Call Your Mom.
Hertz holds a B.A. in music from Bard College a M.M. from the University of Michigan. His past teachers have included Evan Chambers, Bright Sheng, Kristin Kuster, George Tsontakis, Joan Tower, Kyle Gann, and Janet Weir.
Erica Ball
Hailed by music critic Kyle Gann as a “precociously interesting composer,” Erica Ball’s works have been heard across the country in Chicago, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Her music has been performed by numerous ensembles including the Da Capo Chamber Players, the Colorado Quartet, the Arneis Quartet, pianist Blair McMillen, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and the American Symphony Orchestra. She has participated as a composer in the Deer Valley Music Festival, where her string quartet w(e)aving was premiered by the Arneis Quartet, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival, where she studied with composer Derek Bermel through the generosity of a Subito Grant from the American Composers Forum’s Philadelphia chapter.
Erica holds a B.A. in Music from Bard College, where she studied with Keith Fitch, Kyle Gann, and Joan Tower. She is currently pursuing a PhD in composition as a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studies with Jay Reise, James Primosch, and Anna Weesner. In addition to her work as a composer, Erica remains active as a violinist, pianist, and music educator, with a special interest in bringing contemporary music to new audiences.
www.ericajball.com
Erin Cameron
Erin Cameron enjoys a diverse career as a clarinetist, composer, and educator. Her clarinet playing has been heard in performances across the country, including appearances on Toledo’s WGTE radio station, with the North Texas Wind Symphony and Toledo Symphony, and on the Sounds Modern concert series in Fort Worth, Texas. Erin is an active educator and has worked with young musicians and artists at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, in addition to serving as a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas. An avid proponent of new music, she has performed over 30 world and regional premieres of new works. Her compositions have been performed in collaboration with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Chicago’s Zafa Collective. In her free time, Erin enjoys vegetarian cooking and nature walks. Erin is currently pursuing her doctorate in clarinet performance at the University of North Texas; she also holds degrees from Bowling Green State University and Northwestern University.
Evan Williams
The music of Evan Williams draws from a wide range of influences such as Romanticism, Modernism, Post-Minimalism, and pop music. Williams’s music has been heard across the country and internationally in Canada, Italy, and Switzerland. His work has been performed by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, the Verb Ballets, and at festivals such as Fresh Inc., SEAMUS, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, the New York City Electronic Music Festival, and the Midwest Composers Symposium. He has been commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra, the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, and others. His work the waters wrecked the sky for unaccompanied clarinet can be found on the album In Memoriam Dinu Ghezzo by The Namaste Ensemble’s “No Borders Quartet,” performed by Italian clarinetist Arianna Tieghi. Williams is also an aspiring conductor and has conducted concerts with the Lawrence University Symphonic Band, numerous chamber ensembles, at the 2012 New Music Festival at BGSU, and with Café MoMus (CCM’s contemporary chamber ensemble).
He has received awards from the National Federation of Music Clubs, ASCAP Plus, and Fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Williams completed his D.M.A. in Composition at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, where he studied with Michael Fiday, Mara Helmuth, and Douglas Knehans, and served as a teaching assistant for electronic music. He also holds degrees from Bowling Green State University and Lawrence University. Evan is excited to be on the faculty of the Young Musicians Program for his second summer.
Katherine Balch
Katherine Balch (b.1991) writes music that seeks to capture the intimate details of existence through sound. Her work has been commissioned and performed by the Minnesota and Albany Symphony Orchestras, Ensemble Intercontemporain, International Contemporary Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Yale Philharmonia, the New York Youth Symphony and wildUp, among others, and has been featured in IRCAM’s Manifeste, Aspen, Fontainebleau, Norfolk, and Santa Fe music festivals.
Katherine is the 2017-2020 composer-in-residence for the California Symphony, and recently joined the management roster of Young Concert Artists, Inc., where she is the 2017-2019 composer-in-residence. This season includes new pieces for the Tokyo and California Symphonies, and for violist Christophe Desjardins as part of the MANCA festival in Nice, France. Recognitions include awards from ASCAP, BMI, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
She completed her B.A./ B.M. in the Tufts University / New England Conservatory double-degree, and her M.M. at Yale School of Music. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at Columbia University, where she studies with Georg Haas and Fred Lerdahl. Passionate about education, she is faculty at Bard College-Conservatory Prep in the Hudson Valley, and is so happy to be returning to Walden for her second summer of creative music making! When not making or listening to music, she can be found baking, collecting leaves, and playing with her cat, Zarathustra.
www.katherinebalch.com
Kittie Cooper
Assistant Director of Composers Forums, Young Musicians Program
Kittie Cooper is a composer, performer, and educator based in Charlottesville, Virginia. She makes art that incorporates feminism and explores the spectrum between silliness and seriousness. Her work has been called “highly original and wonderfully fun”. She is interested in text and graphic scores, improvisation, and DIY electronic instruments. She has recently performed and presented at festivals and conferences including SPLICE, the International Alliance for Women in Music Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, N_SEME, and MOXsonic Festival. She also performs locally in Charlottesville as a guitarist, electronic musician, and improviser.
Kittie teaches music for students with visual impairments at the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind. She has taught in many settings, including public schools, self-contained special education schools, and a private progressive school. She holds a BM from Northwestern University in music education and guitar performance, and is pursuing a Master’s degree in special education at George Mason University. Kittie has spent the past five summers at Walden working as faculty, Assistant Director of Composers Forums, and staff. In her spare time, she enjoys counting down the days to Halloween and taking care of the stray cats in her neighborhood.
Loretta Notareschi
Faculty, Creative Musicians Retreat
Called a “bright wom[a]n with big ideas” (Souls in Action), Denver-based composer Loretta K. Notareschi (b. 1977) prioritizes “connecting with the audience” (303 Magazine) and creating “deeply personal” (5280 Magazine) music known for illuminating a “path to compassion” (303 Magazine). Her work has been described as “compelling” (Deforming Prisms), “alluring” (The Denver Channel) “touching” (Collegian), and “powerful” (The Denver Post). Born in Canton, OH and raised in Stillwater, OK, Notareschi is a professor of music at Regis University and a summer faculty member of The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat. She received an MA and PhD in composition from the University of California at Berkeley, a BMus in composition from the University of Southern California, and the General Diploma from the Zoltàn Kodàly Pedagogical Institute of Music in Kecskemèt, Hungary, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. She has received awards and grants from Chamber Music America, the Cincinnati Camerata, IronWorks Percussion Duo, the American Composers Forum, the former Ensemble Eleven, and the GALA Choruses, and in October 2016, she was a TEDxMileHigh speaker.
lorettanotareschi.com
Luke Schroeder
This is Luke Schroeder’s first year with Walden. Luke was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, but grew up and currently lives in Wichita Falls, Texas. In the fall, Luke will be entering his sophomore year at Texas Tech University, where he majors in Music Education. He hopes to become a teacher one day and share his passion for music with his students. At Texas Tech, Luke plays Viola in the University Symphony Orchestra. He has played with the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra as well. Luke enjoys listening to a wide range of music and spending time with good friends. His hobbies include collecting records, discovering different coffee shops, and watching football. Luke is looking forward to a fun and exciting summer at Walden!
Michael Kropf
Michael Kropf is a composer whose work deals with hidden emotions and evocative places. He has collaborated with Marin Alsop, the Telegraph Quartet, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. In 2016, Michael was commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, in partnership with John Adams and Deborah O’Grady’s Pacific Harmony Foundation, to write a new orchestral work called “Spinning Music.” The work was later described as “a brilliant, rapid fire stretch of perpetual motion,” by the SF Chronicle’s Joshua Kosman. Recent projects include a collaboration with the Apple Hill String Quartet, as well as a piano quartet for the 2018 Aspen Music Festival.
Michael completed his Master’s degree in Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2016, where he won First Prize in the Highsmith Orchestral Composition Competition, the Bienial Art Song Composition Competition, and the Telegraph Quartet Composition Competition, as well as Third Prize in their Biennial Choral Competition. In 2014, his composition for chamber ensemble “Kinesthesia” received an honorable mention at the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Awards.
He served as Co-Director of the Hot Air Music Festival, a daylong marathon of new music which takes place annually at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is also a Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Dynamic Music Festival, a two day concert-series in New York City focused on creating a dialogue between student composers from different schools in and around the Tri-State area. He currently teaches composition and musicianship at the Walden School in New Hampshire and the San Francisco Conservatory Pre-College.
Michael was born in Danbury, Connecticut and received his Bachelor of Music degree from New York University. His teachers and mentors have included David Conte, John Adams, Justin Dello Joio, Luboš Mrkvička, and Youngmi Ha. He will be beginning a doctoral degree in music composition at the University of Michigan this fall.
Moshe Shulman
Russian-born Israeli composer, violin, viola, bandoneon and accordion player, Moshe Shulman (b.1978) holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in composition from the Jerusalem Academy of Music, and a PhD in composition from the NY State University at Buffalo, studying with Mark Kopytman, David Felder, and Johannes Schollhorn. His music has been performed in Israel, Canada, United States, Russia, France and Hungary with various ensembles such as Norrbotten NEO and Juventas New Music Ensemble, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Meridian Brass Quintet, Slee Sinfonietta (Buffalo, NY), International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Arditti Quartet.
As a student he received numerous awards, scholarships and assistantships from Israel and the US. He received a 2015 Fromm Foundation Commission from Harvard University. In summer 2009, Moshe won 3rd prize for “Construction 3” at the Jurgenson Contemporary Music International Competition in Moscow.
Moshe is a performer of classical/contemporary music, Argentine tango, klezmer, and Gypsy music. He also coaches soccer and plays in amateur leagues in WNY. In 2012, Shulman led the Baires Klezmer Orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina and formed Buffalo Tango Orkestra.
Currently he is on the Music Faculty at the University at Buffalo and is a composer in residence with Commonwealth Lyric Theater in Boston, MA, since 2009.
www.mosheshulman.com
Nate May
Nate May (B. 1987) is an American composer whose music draws on research and imagination, often treating contemporary issues of place, migration, and environment with textural intricacy, rhythmic drive, and a taste for repurposed sounds. Raised in Huntington, West Virginia, much of his work stems from a “fascination, love, and respect for the people” of Appalachia (Soapbox), including his oratorio State—premiered by singer Kate Wakefield (Lung) and MUSE, Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir—and his monodrama, Dust in the Bottomland—set in present-day West Virginia and sung by lyric bass Andrew Munn, which has been performed twelve times in seven states and broadcast on radio and television. He has been a fellow at the highSCORE festival (Pavia, Italy) and the Sō Percussion Summer Institute (Princeton, New Jersey), and was selected as one of three U.S. composers to participate in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2017 National Composers Intensive. He has received commissions from the Walden School, Brianna Matzke, Thea Rossen, and Neutrals Duo, and his work has been performed by Eric Wubbels, Adam Sliwinski, Nathan Nabb, Patchwork Duo, Hajnal Pivnick, Quartetto Indaco, and many others. Large-scale collaborations include the world-touring work Spiral by choreographer/dancer Wanjiru Kamuyu, and Kalahari Waits, the debut album of indigenous experimental trio Khoi Khonnexion, produced during a year in South Africa on a Reese Miller scholarship from the Telluride Association.
Currently pursuing a D.M.A. in composition at Yale, he holds degrees from Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (M.M., Composition) and the University of Michigan (B.F.A., Jazz and Contemplative Studies), and has studied with Christopher Theofanidis, Geri Allen, Ellen Rowe, Stephen Rush, Miguel Roig-Francolí, and Michael Fiday. His work has received support from ArtsWave, People’s Liberty, and the Berea College Appalachian Sound Fellowship. He currently serves as a Teaching Fellow at Yale, and previously served on adjunct faculty at Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. This is his second summer teaching at Walden.
Osnat Netzer
Faculty Mentor, Young Musicians Program
Osnat Netzer /osˈnat ˈnɛtsɛʁ/ is a multi-faceted musician based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Born in Haifa, Israel, she developed a love of music at a very young age, and trained intensively as a composer, pianist and singer-songwriter throughout her high school years, military service and undergraduate studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She came to the United States in 2003 for graduate studies in composition, music theory and piano at Mannes, and continued her studies in composition at New England Conservatory, where she earned her doctorate in 2011. Her highly theatrical and kinetic compositions have been performed in Israel, France, Germany, Korea, China, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey, Croatia, Canada and the United States, published by Edition Peters and earthsongs, and recorded on Bridge Records. Performers of her music include International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Talea Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Israel Contemporary Players, Spektral Quartet, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Firebird Ensemble, saxophonist Geoffrey Landman and bass David Salsbery Fry.
Her opera, The Wondrous Woman Within, was described as “riotously funny” in The New York Times when its first scene was performed at New York City Opera’s VOX festival in 2012 and “challenging and fascinating” by critic Amir Kidron when it received its premiere in a sold out run at Tel Aviv’s Cameri Theatre in 2015. Other recent and upcoming performances of her compositions include Are you yet living? (ICE), Zwang und Zweifel (Patchwork) and Luce Cantabile (Kenneth Radnofsky and the Bach, Beethoven & Brahms Society Orchestra).
As a pianist and performer, she regularly plays and conducts new music by fellow composers, as well as her own songs and compositions. Also a committed and passionate educator, Dr. Netzer currently serves on the faculties of Harvard University, Longy School of Music of Bard College and The Walden School.
osnatnetzer.com
Renée Favand-See
Renée Favand-See is a composer and soprano living in Portland, Oregon. Her works explore the music of words, natural and made environments, emotions and spiritual questions. These investigations yield vocal music of all stripes, Musique Concrète-esque electronic pieces, and lyrically driven instrumental music cultivating relationships that unfold in the spaces between voices.
Current projects include a commission for Northwest Art Song entitled Ten full moons to be premiered in September 2019. Recent projects include: Wie der Katz mit der Maus for fEARnoMUSIC; Growing for Portland Piano International; as well as a recording project of her work Only in falling with Resonance Ensemble. Among her commissions are works for Resonance Ensemble, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Lucy Shelton and Eighth Blackbird, Sequitur, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, American Opera Projects, Wet Ink Ensemble, Outer Voices Festival, and cellist Ha-Yang Kim. Other groups who have performed her music include The Julians; Friends of Rain; Electrogals; Del Sol String Quartet; Peabody Trio; and many singers, including Hai-Ting Chinn, Jesse Blumberg, Blythe Gaissert, Hannah Penn, Anna Haagenson, Alissa Rose, Jennifer Aylmer, Kristin Norderval, and William Ferguson.
Renée has written chamber, orchestral, choral and electronic pieces, as well as music for video and dance, including collaborations with Ten Tiny Dances in Portland, TRIP Dance Theatre in Los Angeles, Group Motion in Philadelphia and video artist Christine Sciulli in New York City. Renée has also ventured into theater, with long-time friend and collaborator, Hai-Ting Chinn, with Science Fair, a staged vocal recital produced by HERE Arts Center in New York City.
Her music has been heard at Resonant Bodies Festival, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub Public, American Opera Projects at South Oxford Space, Opera Index, Outer Voices, and HERE Arts Center in New York City; Agnes Flanagan Chapel, Lincoln Hall and First Presbyterian in Portland; WGBH Radio Boston and Pickman Concert Hall in Cambridge; The Longy School of Music in Paris; New Music New Haven, Kilbourn Concert Series in Rochester; First and Franklin Street Concert Series in Baltimore; and Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.
Renée’s works are featured on Five Borough’s “Five Borough Songbook” on GPR Records; Sequitur’s “To Have and to Hold” available on Koch, and on Prism Quartet’s “Dedication” on Innova. This year, her choral work Only in falling will be recorded and released by Resonance Ensemble.
Her honors include a grant from the American Music Center for her oratorio Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes., a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Bearns Prize from Columbia University.
She holds B.M. and M.M. degrees in composition from the Eastman and Yale Schools of Music, respectively. She studied composition with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson and David Liptak at Eastman, and then with Mathias Spahlinger at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and with Martin Bresnick, David Lang and Jacob Druckman at the Yale School of Music. Her earliest compositional studies began at age twelve at The Walden School, a summer program for young musicians in Dublin, New Hampshire.
Renée currently teaches music composition and theory at Portland State University and Creative Musicians Retreat in New England.
reneefavand.com
Sammi Stone
Director of Operations
Sammi Jo Stone is an oboist, saxophonist, and composer, originally from Baker City in rural northeastern Oregon. She holds degrees in music from Williams College in Williamstown, MA and the University of California San Diego. She has worked around the United States in pit orchestras and chamber ensembles, and as a senior counselor at the innovative Woodwinds @ Wallowa Lake chamber music camp in Joseph, OR.
She is passionate about learning and teaching music, going on hikes, and knowing which birds are which. She composes music and writes texts intended for musical setting, and aspires to honor the complex sounds of the natural world with songful compositions informed by spectral study.
In addition to working for the Walden School, she is an oboe lessons teacher and small-batch coffee roaster.
Seth Brenzel
Executive Director & Director, Young Musicians Program
Seth Brenzel, Executive Director, has been associated with The Walden School for more than 30 years. He was fortunate to be a student at Walden for six magical summers (1985-1990), and since 1994, has served the School as a staff member, faculty member, Director of Operations, and as the Associate Director from 1996 to 2003, when he became the School’s Executive Director. Since 1995, he has sung tenor with the Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and is currently a professional member of that ensemble.
Seth has served as the co-clerk of the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Friends School, and in the past, he has served on the boards of The Walden School, Swarthmore College, and Earplay, a San Francisco-based new music ensemble. Seth received his B.A., with degrees in Music and Political Science, from Swarthmore College, where he served as President of the College’s Alumni Association. He received an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, with a focus in non-profit management and marketing; he has also served on the Haas School’s Development Council. He is a 2012 graduate of Leadership San Francisco, where he serves as an alumni advisor.
Prior to becoming Walden’s first full-time Executive Director, Seth worked part-time for Walden during the year and held positions as a senior consultant at Deloitte Consulting, in marketing and public relations at the San Francisco Symphony, and led both the marketing and the enterprise sales teams for an internet software company, now part of Adobe. When not at Walden, Seth lives in San Francisco with his husband, Malcolm Gaines, and their daughter, Cora.
Sky Macklay
Academic Dean, Young Musicians Program
The music of composer, oboist, and installation artist Sky Macklay (b. 1988) explores bold contrasts, theatrical elements, audible processes, humor, and the physicality of sound. Her works have been performed by ensembles such as ICE, Yarn/Wire, Wet Ink Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, Hexnut, and The Da Capo Chamber Players. Her piece Dissolving Bands, an abstract orchestral reflection on the American Revolutionary War, was commissioned and premiered by the Lexington (MA) Symphony and was the winner of the 2013 Leo Kaplan award, the top prize in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. In 2015, her sonic and kinetic installation of inflatable harmonica-playing robots, Harmonibots, received the Ruth Anderson Prize commission from The International Alliance for Women in Music. She has also been commissioned by The New York Virtuoso Singers and the Jerome Fund for New Music. Her string quartet Many Many Cadences, recorded on Spektral Quartet’s newest album, also received an ASCAP award.
Originally from Waseca, Minnesota, Sky is currently pursuing her D.M.A. in composition at Columbia University in NYC where she studies with Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis, and Fred Lerdahl. As a 2015-17 Composers and the Voice fellow with American Opera Projects, Sky is currently writing an opera set inside a woman’s uterus. Sky first joined the Walden community through the Teacher Training Institute in 2009, and she has taught for the Young Musicians Program every summer since 2010. Some of Sky’s favorite things about Walden include sharing the summer with 70 best friends, helping young composers bring their music to life, and dancing to Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, and Michael Jackson all in the same night.
Thomas Colohan
Choral Director, Creative Musicians Retreat
Award-winning conductor, composer and teacher Thomas Colohan has been the Artistic Director of the Washington Master Chorale since its founding in 2009. The Washington Post has acclaimed Colohan’s work with the Master Chorale as “skillfully wrought and moving.” He has led choruses at Carnegie Hall, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington National Cathedral, The Library of Congress, Prague’s Rudolphinum Concert Hall, and the Stephansdom in Vienna. Colohan is active as a guest conductor, teacher and clinician on both the East and West coasts. In his choral/orchestral engagements he has conducted members of the Prague Radio Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra, the San Jose Symphony, the California Chamber Symphony, and the Richmond Symphony. He has earned numerous honors, including regular recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He has twice been the recipient of a Choralis Foundation Washington Area Choral Excellence Award.
Before coming to the Washington Master Chorale, Colohan served as Music Director for All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington, DC, Director of Choral Activities at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, Music Director of the Santa Clara Chorale, and Founder and Artistic Director of the James River Singers in Richmond, Virginia. His teachers have included renowned choral musicians such as Robert Shaw, Dale Warland, Morten Lauridsen, Helmut Rilling, Donald McCullough, and William Dehning. A lyric baritone who maintains an active voice studio, Mr. Colohan has sung professionally with the Washington Bach Consort and on Public Television’s “Great Performances” series at the Kennedy Center with the Washington Opera Chorus. He holds a Master of Music in Choral Music from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Photo credit: Rhianna Victoria Nissen
“ Walden only asks that you do your best. To be the best version of yourself you can possibly be. Being around 60 or so individuals with that common goal is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I’m a better human for it. ”
– Dennis Sullivan, Walden faculty
Past Faculty and Staff
Adam Albrecht
Ben Aldridge
Jim Altieri
Anne Deane Berman
Meade Bernard
Whit Bernard
Madeline Bersamina
Christianne Bessières Lane
Marshall Bessières
Megan Grace Beugger
Tamar Bloch
Amy Bolaños
June Bonacich
Ethan Borshansky
Cynthia Brackbill Harkum
Sara Brown
Tom Brustman
Liz Bucko
Ann Callaway
Thomas Carr
Nansi Carroll
Alan Chan
Joshua Clampitt
Mitchell Clark
Jeffrey Cohen
Sarah Cornog
Stephen Coxe
Robert Crites
Shawn Crouch
Carol Thomas Downing
Amy Dinsmore
David Drucker
Anouk Erni
Paul Ettlinger
Bradley Evans
Hali Fieldman
Stacy Garrop
Michael Gilberston
Ann Goehe
Maddy Greenfield
Kathryn Grisbacher
Susan Hahs
Steven Hankle
Dawn Denham Haynes
George Halsell
Jason Haney
Jeffrey Hebden
Lynn Taylor Hebden
Thomas Hecht
Erika Homann
Joyce Jopkins
Brooke Joyce
Rachel Israel
Bonnie Jacobowitz
Nancy Tsuyuki Jerome
Beatrice Jindra
Michael Johanson
Ben Kamen
Laura Keeler
Alysoun Kegel
William Kelly
Seth Knopp
Elyse Kolodin
Josie Kovash
Thomas Kraines
Kary Kramer
Leland Kusmer
Gabriel Kyne
Marguerite Ladd
Esther Landau
Damon Lee
Teresa LeVelle
Wesley Levers
Amy Logsdon
Lois London
Tom Lopez
Amelia Lukas
Virginia Luna-Mega
Tony Makarome
Emil Margolis
Ted Masur
Jed McGiffin
Rob McLean
Laura Mehiel
Jenna Melissas
Sally Mitchell
Jonathan Miller
Noah Mlotek
Gary Monheit
Ian Munro
Pedja Muzijevic
Paul Nauert
Aurora Nealand
Georgann Nedwell
Alex Ness
Elliot Nguyen
Tierney O’Brien
Francois Oeshkin
Nnenna Ogwo
Denise Ondishko
Jefferson Packer
Robert Paterson
Susanna Payne-Passmore
Molly Pindell
Patricia Plude
Carol Prochazka
Erin Quist
Pamela Layman Quist
Judith Pannill Raiford
Ruth Rainero
Brendon Randall-Myers
Lance Reddick
Brian Rogan
Montana Rogers
Julia Swift Saul
Danielle Schindler Cheung
Robin Seto
Daniel Shaud
Noelle Shipman
Hamilton Sims
Bill Stevens
Garth Sunderland
Zoltan Szabo
Dan Temkin
Andrew Thams
Peter Thompson
Jennifer Turner
Leo Wanenchak
Marie Claire Whiteford
Cody Wright
John Yankee