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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Caroline Mallonee
Director, Creative Musicians Retreat -
Elizabeth Susskind
Administrative Assistant -
Sammi Stone
Director of Operations -
Seth Brenzel
Executive Director & Director, Young Musicians Program
Caroline Mallonee
Director, Creative Musicians Retreat
American composer Caroline Mallonee finds inspiration in visual art, science, languages, and musical puzzles. Her music has been programmed across the United States including at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, Bargemusic, and National Sawdust, as well as further afield at the Long Leaf Opera Festival (NC), Carlsbad Music Festival (CA), Bennington Chamber Music Conference (VT), Jordan Hall (Boston, MA), Cambridge Music Festival (UK), and Tokyo Opera City (Japan). Mallonee has been commissioned to write new works for the New York Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Spektral Quartet, Firebird Ensemble, Present Music, Wet Ink Ensemble, Antares, PRISM Quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Ethos Percussion, and the Buffalo Chamber Players, for whom she serves as composer-in-residence. Carrie has been on the faculty of The Walden School since 1998 and is the director of the Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat. She first came to Walden as a student when she was 12 and has hiked Mt. Monadnock more than thirty times. She holds degrees from Harvard, Yale and Duke, and held a Fulbright Fellowship to the Netherlands, where she studied with Louis Andriessen. For more information, please visit www.carolinemallonee.com.
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.
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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Alex Christie
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Anastasia Baker
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Arté Warren
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Becca Van Kirk
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Brian Fancher
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Cara Haxo
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Caroline Mallonee
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Demmanuel Gonzalez
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DJ Sparr
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Douglas Hertz
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Eliza Brown
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Emi Ostrom
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Francesca Hellerman
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Jacob Sachs-Mishalanie
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Karissa Ulrich
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Katherine Balch
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Kittie Cooper
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Leah Asher
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Lila Meretzky
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Loretta Notareschi
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Lukáš Janata
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Luke Schroeder
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Michael Kropf
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Nate May
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Nate Trier
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Nina Kindrachuk
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Osnat Netzer
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Rebekah Griffin-Greene
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Renée Favand-See
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Sam Pluta
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Sammi Stone
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Sarah Riskind
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Seth Brenzel
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Sky Macklay
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Terry L. Greene II
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Theo Trevisan
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Trevor Danko
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William Hawkins
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 the design of power structures, systems of intervention, and absurdist bureaucracy in composition. Alex is the founder and co-curator of the multidisciplinary arts series SOLOS (Charlottesville, VA) and the program coordinator for Synths for Beginners, a creative workshop series that provides free arts education and music equipment to Charlottesville youth. He is also a member of the bands Trash Cats, Altra, and Ear Infection, all of which are really great.
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. Alex has performed and presented at a variety of conferences and festivals whose acronyms combine to spell nicedinsaucesfeeeemmmmmmfogascabsplotnort.
Alex began his compositional career many years ago as a student at Walden’s Young Musicians Program where he now serves as faculty, Director of Electronic Music, and an academic dean. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory, Mills College, and the University of Virginia where he is currently completing a PhD in Composition and Computer Technologies (CCT). Other interests include baseball and geometric shapes.
Anastasia Baker
Arté Warren
Becca Van Kirk
Brian Fancher
Brian Fancher is a music educator and vocalist residing in Waite Hill, Ohio. He teaches at Mayfield High School where he works with two bands, three choirs, marching band, show choir, and the fall and spring musicals, while also teaching music theory courses and advising the Ultimate Frisbee Club and Drama Club. He can also be found singing Baritone in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. He earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from The College of Wooster, where he studied voice with Dr. Carrie Culver.
In his spare time, he likes to eat, play Ultimate Frisbee, play video games, and take pictures of people, places, and things.
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, 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 and academic dean. Cara is the winner of the 2022 National Women’s Musical Festival Emerging Women Composers Competition. She was also awarded the 2019 International Alliance for Women in Music Libby Larsen Prize, the 2013 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers Award, and the 2013 IAWM Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize. Her works have been premiered by the May Festival Youth Chorus, International Contemporary Ensemble, Quince Ensemble, and Splinter Reeds, amongst other ensembles.
Cara earned her Ph.D. 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. She previously taught courses in composition and theory as an Adjunct Instructor of Music at Notre Dame College (Ohio), and private piano, theory, and composition lessons through the Butler Community Arts School in Indianapolis. This coming fall, she will serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor at The College of Wooster. When she is not composing, Cara enjoys baking desserts, going on long road trips, and hanging out with her cat, Pippin. For more information, please visit http://chaxomusic.com.
Caroline Mallonee
Director, Creative Musicians Retreat
American composer Caroline Mallonee finds inspiration in visual art, science, languages, and musical puzzles. Her music has been programmed across the United States including at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, Bargemusic, and National Sawdust, as well as further afield at the Long Leaf Opera Festival (NC), Carlsbad Music Festival (CA), Bennington Chamber Music Conference (VT), Jordan Hall (Boston, MA), Cambridge Music Festival (UK), and Tokyo Opera City (Japan). Mallonee has been commissioned to write new works for the New York Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Spektral Quartet, Firebird Ensemble, Present Music, Wet Ink Ensemble, Antares, PRISM Quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Ethos Percussion, and the Buffalo Chamber Players, for whom she serves as composer-in-residence. Carrie has been on the faculty of The Walden School since 1998 and is the director of the Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat. She first came to Walden as a student when she was 12 and has hiked Mt. Monadnock more than thirty times. She holds degrees from Harvard, Yale and Duke, and held a Fulbright Fellowship to the Netherlands, where she studied with Louis Andriessen. For more information, please visit www.carolinemallonee.com.
Demmanuel Gonzalez
DJ Sparr
Composer and electric guitarist D. J. Sparr, who Gramophone recently hailed as “exemplary,” is one of America’s preeminent composer-performers. He has caught the attention of critics with his eclectic style, described as “pop-Romantic…iridescent and wondrous” (The Mercury News) and “suits the boundary erasing spirit of today’s new-music world” (The New York Times). The Los Angeles Times praises him as “an excellent soloist,” and the Santa Cruz Sentinel says that he “wowed an enthusiastic audience…Sparr’s guitar sang in a near-human voice.” He was the electric guitar concerto soloist on the 2018 GRAMMY award-winning, all-Kenneth Fuchs recording with JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2011, Sparr was named one of NPR listener’s favorite 100 composers under the age 40. He has composed for and performed with renowned ensembles such as the Houston Grand Opera, Cabrillo Festival, New World Symphony, Washington National Opera, and Eighth Blackbird. His music has received awards from BMI, New Music USA, and the League of Composers/ISCM. Sparr is a faculty member at the famed Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat in Dublin, New Hampshire. His works and guitar performances appear on Naxos, Innova Recordings, and Centaur Records.
D.J. lives in Baton Rouge, LA with his wife Kimberly, son Harris, Nannette the hound dog, and Bundini the boxer. Sparr’s music is published by Bill Holab Music.
Douglas Hertz
Project Manager
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.
Eliza Brown
Composer Eliza Brown attended The Walden School as a YMP student from 2000-2002 and has since returned for many years as a staff and faculty member. Eliza’s music, described as “delicate, haunting, [and] introspective” by Symphony Magazine, has been performed around the world by leading new music ensembles including Ensemble Dal Niente, ensemble recherche, Network for New Music, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, Spektral Quartet, ICE, Wet Ink Ensemble, Wild Rumpus New Music Collective, and PRISM Saxophone Quartet. Deeply interested in the relationships between music and the other arts and humanities, Eliza has also engaged in interdisciplinary collaborations with practitioners of theater, dance, architecture, painting, and film, frequently taking on other artistic roles in these collaborations in addition to “composer.”
When not at Walden, Eliza teaches music theory and composition as an Assistant Professor of Music at DePauw University (Greencastle, IN). Eliza has also taught at Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University, where she earned her DMA in composition in 2015. elizabrown.net
Emi Ostrom
I am an oboist, singer, educator and composer, and do my best to avoid being boxed into any of these categories. I am currently completing a master’s degree in baroque oboe at the Juilliard School, and have performed with the Juilliard415 orchestra in Lincoln Center, Paris, New Zealand and San Francisco. I sing in the professional choir at St. James Episcopal Church in Manhattan as a mezzo-soprano. I am a music theory teaching assistant for Juilliard’s Evening Division, and previously served as oboe fellow for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (MAP) where I had the opportunity to design and teach advanced music seminars.
Before moving to New York I enjoyed life as a freelance musician in Seattle, singing at St. James Cathedral, teaching piano and composition at Puget Sounds Piano Academy, and teaching oboe for the Seattle Youth Symphony. I founded Les Chanterelles, a professional a cappella ensemble specializing in medieval and contemporary music, and performed in concerts presented by Early Music Seattle, Music at 9th and Stewart, and Tacoma Early Music. I gave numerous solo recitals, premiering my own compositions and other new works alongside classic repertoire.
Some of my favorite musical moments have been experimental, genre-bending collaborations: playing in a funk orchestra with jazz bassist Evan Flory-Barnes for his show “On Loving the Muse and Family,” playing with the Seattle Rock Orchestra, and collaborating with Jason Everett’s Deep Energy Orchestra in a fusion between Indian classical and prog rock. I have worked with people of various spiritual traditions, including as a soloist with the Medieval Women’s Choir, a season with the Seattle Jewish Choir, gospel music with St. Paul’s UMC in Brooklyn, new music composed for a Hare Krishna service, and monthly improvisations for Taizé (Christian mysticism).
I hold a MA in solo voice ensemble singing from the University of York (UK) and double bachelor’s degrees in neuroscience and oboe performance from Oberlin College and Conservatory. In my spare time I enjoy creative coding, 3D printing, vegetarian cooking and urban cycling.
Francesca Hellerman
Wistful, playful, or dreamy, Francesca Hellerman’s music seeks to transport audiences into the sonic environment it creates. Her work has been performed by the PRISM Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and the Walden School Players. Originally from Montreal, Canada, Francesca studied at the McGill Conservatory, where she was awarded the Kenneth Woodman Scholarship for her excellence in piano, theory and composition. She is currently a music major at Williams College, where she studies piano with Doris Stevenson and sings in the Concert and Chamber Choirs directed by Brad Wells. She also co-directs the education and outreach portions of Williams’ I/O Festival, an annual celebration of new music at the college.
In her spare time, Francesca enjoys cooking experiments, historical novels, and long walks surrounded by interesting sounds. After attending the Walden School Young Musicians Program for eight wonderful and transformative summers, she is thrilled to have returned to Walden as a staff member.
Jacob Sachs-Mishalanie
Originally from Utica, NY, Jacob Sachs-Mishalanie is a Brooklyn based composer. He is pursuing a PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center, where his research focuses on the music of Pierre Schaeffer. He teaches Music Technology at Hunter College and Brooklyn College. Beginning in November 2020, he created & hosted “Algorithmic Sound,” a series of free virtual masterclasses featuring composers and artists that engage with creative coding. Recently, he is working on a variety of projects as an audio engineer.
In his chamber music, he is interested in questioning commonly assumed dualities of electronic sound, such as live vs. recorded, acoustic vs. amplified, and synthetic vs. natural. His pieces often involve polarizing or blurring the lines of these dualities by juxtaposing acoustic instruments with imitations of themselves. In his tape, Scribble (Mondoj, 2020), and other electronic music, he playfully engages with algorithmic composition, pop production techniques, uncanny MIDI instruments, and field recordings. He has released a number of free Max for Live devices that generate MIDI patterns and gestures.
Karissa Ulrich
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 performed and presented at a variety of festivals and conferences across the United States, and performs locally in Charlottesville as a guitarist, electronic musician, and improviser.
Kittie’s music has been commissioned and performed by International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Ensemble Dal Niente, Splinter Reeds, Popebama, and Ghost Ensemble. She serves as Director of Composers Forums and Faculty for The Walden School Young Musicians Program and staff for the Creative Musicians Retreat. Next year, she will begin pursuing an MFA in interdisciplinary arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. She holds a BM from Northwestern University in music education and guitar performance, and an MEd in special education from George Mason University. In her spare time, she enjoys taking care of the stray cats in her neighborhood.
Leah Asher
Violinist/violist, composer, and visual artist Leah Asher is an avid performer of contemporary music and creator of new artistic works. Leah is a member of The Rhythm Method string quartet, the violin-piano duo Aether Eos, and co-creator of MEANINGLESS WORK with Nicolee Kuester. She has been featured as a concerto soloist with NOSO Sinfoniettaen and Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble. Leah formerly served as solo violist of NOSO Sinfoniettaen and co-principal viola of the Arctic Philharmonic. She regularly performs with other New York-based ensembles such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea ensemble, and Shattered Glass. As a composer, Leah has been commissioned by ensembles including andPlay, Chartreuse, Periapsis, NorthArc Percussion Group, The Great Learning Orchestra, Du.0, and solo artists such as Meaghan Burke, Tristan McKay, and Jennifer Torrence. Leah released her debut solo album, Retreat into Afters, on SCRIPTS records in 2018.
Lila Meretzky
Lila Meretzky is a composer from New York City, currently based in New Haven, CT. Lila works primarily in chamber, vocal, electronic, and electroacoustic mediums. Her work is often concerned with (the warping of) memory, language, and subjective experiences of time. She enjoys collaborating with artists in other mediums, and has recently created music for the dance companies New Dialect, X-Contemporary Dance, and the Nashville Ballet. She is a graduate of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where she co-founded a new music concert series called A Humming Under My Feet. The series, which Lila produced for three years featured live projections and collaborations with poets, and prioritized an open and welcome approach to the concert experience.
Her other pursuits include performing as a singer and pianist, teaching composition and musicianship, studying German, reading Yiddish poetry, and making noise on her laptop and accordion. As a critic, her writings have been published on the arts blog ArtsNash and she has been featured on the radio at WXNA Nashville. Lila is a current student in the masters program at the Yale School of Music.
Loretta Notareschi
Faculty, Creative Musicians Retreat
Called a “bright wom[a]n with big ideas” (Souls in Action), Colorado composer Loretta K. Notareschi seeks to create “compassion” (303 Magazine) and connection through her “powerful” (The Denver Post) and “deeply personal” (5280 Magazine) music. Whether writing for string quartet or symphony orchestra, church congregations or classical ukulele, she seeks to move listeners with music of meaning. Notareschi is a professor of music at Regis University and a faculty member of The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat. She received master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, a bachelor’s of music from the University of Southern California, and the General Diploma from the Zoltàn Kodàly Pedagogical Institute of Music, where she was a Fulbright Scholar. Notareschi’s music has been performed by groups such as the Spektral Quartet, the Sacred and Profane Chamber Chorus, The Playground Ensemble, and the Boulder Symphony. She has received awards and grants from the Cincinnati Camerata, IronWorks Percussion Duo, the American Composers Forum, and the GALA Choruses, and in October 2016, she was a TEDxMileHigh speaker.
lorettanotareschi.com
Lukáš Janata
Lukáš Janata (b. 1995) is a Czech composer, performer, and educator. His music has been widely performed in his native country and many countries throughout the world. He has received numerous commissions, most notably by the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox, New York Cantori, Punkt Contemporary Choir, Aries Percussion Ensemble, and the Jablonova Youth String Orchestra (for the occasion of Concerto Bohemia held in Prague). He will serve as Composer in Residence for the International Orange Chorale, San Francisco, in the 2021-2022 season.
Lukáš’ composition mentors include John Corigliano, David Conte (MM ’19, San Francisco Conservatory Of Music), and Otomar Kvěch (DiS (BA) ’17, Prague Conservatoire,) He has participated in masterclasses with composers George Lewis, Allain Gaussin, Liviu Marinescu, Dimitris Maronidis, Michel Merlet, and Ériks Ešenvalds, and is collaborating on various projects with a composer Nico Muhly, and conductors Ragnar Bohlin and Mark Shapiro. Lukáš began his musical activities as a choral singer with the award-winning children’s choir Severáček, participating in performances in many European countries. He sings in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and is a cantor and bass section leader for St Monica’s Catholic Church. He has served as a visiting artist and lecturer at the Millennium School, the California State University, East Bay, (with Tin Yi Wong,) New York University. He currently teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music. He has taught piano and music education at the Willow Creek Academy, Mid Peninsula Music Academy, and the California Conservatory of Music. Lukáš will be on the composition faculty at the Walden School for the summer 2021.
Lukáš is an enthusiastic advocate for the performance of new music. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Mouthscape, a chamber choir based at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, which focuses on championing new works by SFCM students, alumni, and faculty composers. In 2014 he was a founding member of Punkt, a contemporary chamber choir based at the Prague Conservatoire.
The young composer is also a passionate hiker and had biked across Europe.
Luke Schroeder
Luke was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, but grew up and currently lives in Wichita Falls, Texas. In the fall, Luke will be entering his Senior 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, Ensemble Bravura, and New Music Ensemble. He has played with the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra as well. Luke also works for the Texas Tech String Project. String Project is an organization funded by Texas Tech University that allows string music education students to teach beginner string players. 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 sports. 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.
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.
Nate Trier
Nate Trier is a composer and producer, based just outside of New Haven, CT, who creates electronic music that features lyrical piano and accordion melodies over churning soundscapes of buzzing drones, fuzzy drums, and crackling static. He describes his music as “classical ambient beats,” and others have said it’s “quite engrossing” (KFFP) and “like looking into your soul” (Raighes Factory); the New Haven Independent dubbed him a “Rosetta Stone” for his ability to make experimental music accessible to listeners. His music has travelled worldwide: abstract visual artist Sergei Petrov used Trier’s music for installations in Zelenograd, Russia, and the 48th International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany distributed a recording of Trier’s fixed-media piece, “Serial Parameter Shift,” to participants. Additionally, Trier co-released a cassette of experimental ambient music with UK-based guitarist and modular synthesist encym. To date, Trier has released 8 collections of electronic music, including singles, EP’s, and albums (including two albums of 60-minute ambient drone compositions). Currently, Trier is releasing a new song every month in 2021.
Nina Kindrachuk
Nina Kindrachuk is an indie-pop singer/songwriter based in Music City and graduated this past May, also in Nashville, Tennessee with a music business degree. Although she loved the honor of initially belonging to the School of Music as a vocal major, having an understanding of the business side of the music industry was equally important to honing her craft as a developing artist.
Nina was first introduced to the Walden School in the summer of 2015, as she dragged her feet in fear of a new dialect of music making (to her); composing. Having taken voice lessons since the fifth grade, she was very comfortable with performing in a commercial setting (pop, jazz, indie, classical) and learning vocal techniques. Before she knew it though, her eyes were opened to an entirely new perspective through the welcoming commentary in weekly composer’s forums, the zany Walden dances and camp traditions, and the overwhelming show of affection and open-mindedness from the entire Walden community.
Outside of attending Walden for two summers, she attended Brentwood, TN’s JAM Camp for one summer; collaborating in the jazz band as the frontwoman and singer in a separate vocal ensemble. In the summer of 2016, Nina attended Middle Tennessee State University’s Governor’s School for the Arts (GSFTA), learning classical voice and has been involved in the Tennessee All-state and Mid-state choirs since middle school. Her vocal coaches, Morgan Kasprowicz and Mark Thress, had an especially profound impact on her respect for vocal health and maximizing one’s vocal mechanics in a creative way. Furthermore, she has had an amazing time partaking in high school, college, and extracurricular a cappella groups (both SATB and SSAA).
Nina hopes to combine her experiences from all of the aforementioned schools and private vocal lessons to fuel her budding artist career through more consistent songwriting and an eventual EP release.
In her spare time, Nina can be found testing out new recipes for herself and her friends, listening to a funny or psychology-heavy podcast, or continuing to teach herself acoustic guitar. She does not recommend performing all of these activities at the same time.
Osnat Netzer
Osnat Netzer /osˈnat ˈnɛtsɛʁ/ is a composer, performer and educator. Osnat creates her compositions collaboratively, tailoring her work to the performer’s sensibilities, physicality and improvisational inclinations. She takes inspiration from cognitive linguistics, and in dialogue with the embodied experience of physical forces, such as potential and kinetic energy, resulting in compositions that are rich in musical languages and connected to the fulsome pursuit for tension and relaxation.
Born in Haifa, Israel, Netzer studied composition and piano at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where her primary composition teacher was Menachem Zur. She came to the United States in 2003 for graduate studies in composition with Robert Cuckson at Mannes school of Music and continued her studies with Lee Hyla at New England Conservatory, where she earned her doctorate in 2011. In 2019, she joined the faculty of DePaul University as Assistant Professor of Composition and Musicianship.
Netzer’s works have been commissioned and performed by Ensemble Dal Niente, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Patchwork, mezzo-soprano Lucy Dhegrae, bass David Salsbery Fry, saxophonists Kenneth Radnofsky, Doug O’Connor and Geoffrey Landman, Spektral Quartet, and Winsor Music, among many others, published by Edition Peters and earthsongs, and recorded on Bridge Records and New Focus Recordings.
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, Netzer teaches at The Walden School and has served on the faculties of New England Conservatory, Longy School of Music of Bard College and Harvard University.
Rebekah Griffin-Greene
Dr. Rebekah Griffin Greene is an award-winning bassist, composer, pianist, cellist, poet, and singer who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in bass performance, composition, and music education from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, as well as a doctorate in bass performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
After recovering from a serious wrist injury and winning the Alice Nelson Music Competition in 1995 on the bass, she orchestrated her own bass and piano piece for the San Luis Obispo Symphony, launching her career as a composer and bass soloist. Now active in New York City as a freelance jazz, solo, chamber, Broadway and orchestral musician, she has performed her own works, as well as traditional recital repertoire, in such places as Hong Kong, Quebec, New York City, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Chicago. Her chamber pieces have been performed by ensembles on four continents, and her Atlantis Revelation soundtrack has had hundreds of thousands of internet radio plays since 2012.
Her composition teachers include Morten Lauridsen and Frank Ticheli, and her bass teachers include Paul Ellison, Joseph Carver and Kurt Muroki. Having taught classroom music in both Los Angeles Unified and New York City Schools, she is currently teaching private and group bass at the Lucy Moses School, Bloomingdale School of Music, and the Thurnauer Music School, where she is also the Head of Theory and Ear Training. She lives in Queens, New York City, with her trombonist husband, Dr. Terry Greene II, her son, Kayden, daughter Phoenix, and many instruments. Please visit YouTube to see some of Rebekah’s compositions and performances.
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.
In January, 2021 Trio Triumphatrix and Voices of Ascension premiered Renée’s works First Flight and We Need Earth for their production Astronautica: Voices of Women in Space. Recent projects include: Solitude for soprano Arwen Myers; Ten full moons for Northwest Art Song; 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 Voices of Ascension, 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 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. 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.
Sam Pluta
Sam Pluta is a composer, electronics performer, and sound artist. Though his work has a wide breadth, his central focus is on using the computer as a performance instrument capable of sharing the stage with groups ranging from new music ensembles to world-class improvisers. By creating musical systems of shared agency, Pluta’s vibrant sonic universe focuses on the visceral interaction of instrumental performers with reactive computerized sound worlds.
As a composer of instrumental music, Pluta has written works for Wet Ink Ensemble, the New York Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, Spektral Quartet, and other groups. His compositions range from solo instrumental works to pieces for ensemble with electronics to compositions for large ensemble.
Pluta is the Technical Director for the Wet Ink Ensemble, a group for whom he is a member composer as well as principal electronics performer. As a performer of chamber music, in addition to his own works, Pluta has performed and premiered works by Peter Ablinger, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Charmaine Lee, Katharina Rosenberger, George Lewis, Alvin Lucier, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels and others.
As an improviser, Pluta has collaborated with some of the finest creative musicians in the world, including Peter Evans, Evan Parker, Ikue Mori, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Ben Lamar Gay, and Anne La Berge. Pluta is a member of multiple improvisation-based ensembles, including the jazz influenced Peter Evans Ensemble, the free improvisation-based Rocket Science, and the analog synth/laptop duo exclusiveOr (with Jeff Snyder). With these various groups he has toured Europe and America and performed at major festivals and venues, such as the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, the Moers and Donaueshingen Festivals in Germany, Bimhuis in Amsterdam, and The Vortex in London.
Pluta studied composition and electronic music at Columbia University, where he received his DMA in 2012. He received Master’s degrees from the University of Birmingham in the UK and the University of Texas at Austin, and completed his undergraduate work at Santa Clara University. His principal teachers include Brad Garton, George Lewis, Tristan Murail, Fabien Levy, Scott Wilson, Jonty Harrison, Russell Pinkston, Kevin Puts, and Lynn Shurtleff. Previous to joining the Computer Music faculty at Peabody Institute, Pluta taught composition and computer music at the University of Chicago, Bennington College, Manhattan School of Music, and The Walden School.
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.
Sarah Riskind
Sarah Riskind is the Director of Choral Activities/Assistant Professor of Music at Eureka College in central Illinois, where she conducts choral and instrumental ensembles and teaches composition, musicianship, and music appreciation courses. In her nine summers at Walden, she has shared her specialties in choral composition and improvisation, arrangements of Judeo-Spanish melodies, and Renaissance polyphony.
Among her original works are Jewish and Judeo-Christian music, secular pieces with improvisatory elements, and frequent settings with string obbligato parts. In February 2020, her Psalm of the Sky for tenor-bass choir, violin, and piano was premiered by St. Xavier High School’s Ensemble X as part of the Creative Commissions Project through the University of Cincinnati. Other recent premieres include the tenor-bass arrangement of Oseh Shalom by the Appalachian State Glee Club in April 2019, the Robert Frost setting Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter by the Pacifica Choirs Interludes Ensemble in March 2019, and several arrangements of Judeo-Spanish melodies by the Seattle Jewish Chorale and Sarah’s own ensemble Las Kantaderas del Noroeste in November/December 2018. She has also written for the Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Dal Niente as part of the Walden School Faculty Commissioning Project. Several of her works are featured in the Project Encore catalogue of contemporary choral music.
Sarah sings soprano and accompanies voices as a violinist/fiddler and improviser. She holds a DMA in Choral Conducting from University of Washington, an MM in Choral Conducting from University of Wisconsin at Madison, and a BA in Music from Williams College.
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.
Terry L. Greene II
New York native Dr. Terry L. Greene II is a trombonist, improviser, drummer, arranger, composer, educator and poet. Terry received his Doctorate in Musical Arts from Stony Brook University in 2008, studying under trombonists Ray Anderson and Michael Powell, as well as outside of school studies with trombonists Steve Turre and Vincent Gardener.
He has since then performed with The Roots, Tony Allen, Amp Fidler, Macy Grey, David Murray, Oliver Lake, Elliot Sharp, Mark Helias, Ray Anderson, Charlie Persip, Rufus Reid, Steve Turre, Kim Burrell, Kirk Franklin, Israel Houghton, and several other notable creative artists.
You can hear Terry as a trombonist on Oliver Lake’s latest big band album titled “Wheels,” Elliot Sharp’s 2016 Aggregat album called “Dilectrical,” an NPR filming of David Murray’s Cuban Ensemble, and “congahead.com” performances with Chia’s Dance Party at LP founder Martin Cohen’s home. He plays with the Astoria Symphony, and played funk and gospel with the Christian Cultural Center Band. Terry has additional experience playing other musical genres including new music, hard rock, free improvisation, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and Colombian music.
As a composer, he has collaborated and performed his own music and poetry with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and Splinter Reeds woodwind quintet in conjunction with faculty commissions from the Walden School Young Musicians Program in Dublin, New Hampshire. Terry has also written and arranged for the Christian Cultural Center Band and his own small jazz ensembles on several freelance projects. His pieces have been performed in New York City, Carmel Valley, California, and New Hampshire.
In addition to his versatile performance abilities, Terry also teaches students of all ages and economic backgrounds. Most notably would be his work with The Walden School Young Musicians Program as a faculty member, composition forum moderator, band leader, jazz and free improvisation instructor, coach for singer/songwriters, choral singer, and creative musical contributor on trombone and drums.
Some of his other adventures include teaching theory and performance ensembles at Frank Sinatra High School of the Arts, teaching jazz history and performance at Stony Brook University, teaching musical instruments and poetry/hip hop to children in the South Bronx and Far Rockaway for the Thrive Collective, and teaching general music to students at Clara Barton High school in Brooklyn. Terry also led improvisation workshops as an educational facilitator for The Coltrane Home, which is the organization that preserves the home of John and Alice Coltrane.
Terry is passionate about being an artist who is a husband and father in New York City, and lives in Queens with his equally accomplished wife, Rebekah Griffin Greene, their son Kayden and daughter Phoenix.
Theo Trevisan
Theo Trevisan (b. 1999) is a composer and bass-baritone about to start his senior year at Princeton University. His compositions have many influences, including the Renaissance, algorithms, minimalism, and memes, and he primarily draws from 20th-21st century repertoire for voice.
As a child, Theo sang with the American Boychoir School, performing in over 30 states and South Korea; ensembles and conductors performed with include Alan Gilbert with the New York Philharmonic, Yannick Nezet-Seguin with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Michael Tilson Thomas with the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. Currently, Theo studies music composition, computer science, and electronic music performance at Princeton. He studies composition with Dan Trueman and Dmitri Tymozcko; electronics with Jeff Snyder; voice with Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek; and conducting with Gabriel Crouch. Festivals recently attended include the So Percussion Summer Festival and Collaborative Workshop, The Walden School’s Creative Musicians Retreat, and the International Music Festival of the Adriatic.
Theo’s music has been performed by a wide variety of ensembles and collaborators, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Antioch Chamber Ensemble, the Walden School Players, Harmonium Choral Society, DJ Sparr, and Soo Yeon Lyuh. Currently, Theo sings in the Princeton Glee Club, Chamber Choir, and the Kaztenjammers (co-ed acapella group that he formerly directed), and performs with the Princeton Laptop Orchestra. He also has contributed to software development for Dan Trueman’s bitKlavier app and Jeff Snyder’s Vocodec instrument.
Trevor Danko
Trevor Danko is an artist based out of New Jersey and Philadelphia. From a very young age music has always been a part of his life, and is the art form he feels most passionately about. His first instrument was the piano, followed by the guitar, then the bass, then the drums. Most of these instruments were self taught. Throughout his schooling, he has always participated in choral groups, both large and small, as well as musical theatre and theatre arts. Shortly after beginning to play the drums, he joined his school’s jazz band. In addition to participating in school music programs, Trevor also played in multiple bands with friends of his growing up, usually as the bassist or the drummer. Throughout high school, he took many opportunities to perform in student showcases and student-organized music festivals with fellow musicians.
About four years ago, Trevor started composing his own original music, and began songwriting. In 2017, he began by releasing a few original songs on soundcloud, then self-released his debut single on streaming platforms in the summer of 2018. A follow up single was released the next year, as well as his debut EP, which came out in November of 2019. Since then, Trevor has continued to compose his own music, while working in collaborative partnerships with other producers and musicians in an effort to release a larger body of work. He has begun to teach himself electronic music production, and hopes to one day fully produce his own music, and also be able to produce other artists’ work.
Other interests of Trevor’s include philosophy, being outdoors, dancing, making visual art, and learning about new ways to be creative.
William Hawkins
William Hawkins (b. 1997) is a composer, violinist, dancer, and visual artist at Brown University. Hawkins has had works performed by chamber groups including the American Modern Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, the Momenta Quartet, the Neave Trio, the Walden School Players, and violinist Nigel Armstrong. His work has also been presented at the Mostly Modern Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, the Walden Creative Musician’s Retreat, the Eastern Division Festival’s Young Composer’s Event, and the NEC contemporary music festival. Hawkins currently studies composition with Wang Lu and Eric Nathan; in the past he has worked with Rodney Lister, Shawn Jaeger, and, through master-classes, John Harbison and Michael Daugherty.
When not composing, Hawkins can be found practicing violin for local performances, singing in the Brown University Chorus, drawing, and dancing hip-hop and Latin-dance styles. He is pursuing a major in music composition but finds much inspiration from the problem-solving skills and knowledge of the physical world gained from engineering and the sciences.
“ 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
Erica Ball
Anne Deane Berman
Meade Bernard
Whit Bernard
Madeline Bersamina
Christianne Bessières Lane
Marshall Bessières
Megan Grace Beugger
Tamar Bloch
Andrew Bobker
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
Tom Colohan
Sarah Cornog
Stephen Coxe
Robert Crites
Shawn Crouch
Derek David
Charlie Dees
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
Dana Jessen
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
Christopher Luna-Mega
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
Nirvan Ranganathan
Lance Reddick
Brian Rogan
Montana Rogers
Julia Swift Saul
Danielle Schindler Cheung
Robin Seto
Daniel Shaud
Noelle Shipman
Moshe Shulman
Hamilton Sims
Bill Stevens
Garth Sunderland
Zoltan Szabo
Dan Temkin
Andrew Thams
Peter Thompson
Jennifer Turner
Leo Wanenchak
Evan Williams
Cody Wright
Marie Claire Whiteford
John Yankee
We are always looking for outstanding team members.