The presence of a visiting performance ensemble on campus during Festival Week has long been a Walden School tradition.
Renowned contemporary music groups such as the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, The Peabody Trio, and Non Sequitur have completed residencies in years past, performing student pieces as well as sharing their own repertoire. For the last several years, Walden has hosted its own professional ensemble-in-residence, The Walden School Players. All distinguished musicians and specialists in contemporary music, the Players share their talent and wealth of experience in contemporary music with the Walden community each summer during the course of a two-week residency. Although the roster changes somewhat from year to year, several of the Players have been returning to Walden for many summers and have formed lasting relationships with students, faculty, and staff.
While in residence at Walden, the Players work closely with student composers in readings and rehearsals, giving feedback as students prepare their pieces for Festival Week. Then, over the course of three Festival Week Composers Forums, they perform students’ pieces. In addition to their work with students, the Players present a concert of modern and contemporary chamber music in an event that is always a highlight of Walden’s concert series.
The 2024 Walden School Players
Laura Cocks, flute
Erica Dicker, violin
Zachary Good, clarinet
Mabel Kwan, piano
Kyra Sims, french horn
Dennis Sullivan II, percussion
Chris Wild, cello
Laura Cocks is a New York based flutist who works in a wide array of creative environments as a performer and promoter of contemporary music. Laura is the flutist and executive director of TAK ensemble, a group of “young, fearless players” with whom she “slays the thorniest material like it’s nothing” (Boston Globe, WQXR).
She is a full time member of the Nouveau Classical Project and the Association of Dominican Classical Artists and is a regular guest with ensembles such as Talea Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and Others. She can be heard with TAK, International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and others on labels such as Carrier Records, ECM, New Focus Recordings, Sound American, Denovali Records, Double Double Whammy, Winspear, TAK editions and Gold Bolus.
She has been in residence at institutes such as Columbia University, New York University, Stanford University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Pennsylvania, The Delian Academy, and Cornell University and has given masterclasses in flute performance, chamber music, and professional development at institutions such as Oberlin Conservatory, Williams College, Columbia University, and DePaul University. Her scholarly work revolves around building analytic practices in contemporary music that see the body of the performer as its primary parameter.
Erica Dicker works in a wide variety of musical settings, bridging the realms of notated and improvised music. Taking Auspices (Tubapede Records), her “knockout solo debut,” [Bandcamp Daily] reflects her interest in experiencing eidetic memories as aural phenomena, a sensibility she brings to the Brandon Seabrook String Society, Carl Testa’s SWAY, Prairie Ghost (with Dana Jessen), Blood Luxury (with Dennis Sullivan) and her electro-acoustic trio Vaster Than Empires. A dedicated proponent of new music, Erica is a founding member of the commissioning horn-trio Kylwyria, working to generate interest in and commission adventurous chamber music repertoire for this unique instrumentation.
Always eager to collaborate, Erica is part of Wavefield, a collectively-organized new music ensemble and serves as an educational ambassador for Anthony Braxton’s nonprofit Tri-Centric Foundation. She has held leadership positions in regional orchestras in the Midwestern United States and section positions in Germany, performs regularly with the Grand Rapids Symphony and served as concertmaster of the Tri-Centric Orchestra, founded to premiere and record the operas of Anthony Braxton. Erica has appeared alongside Braxton in numerous contexts, most recently at the 2019 Berlin Jazz Festival with his ZIM Octet and as a leader in a sixty-musician-strong, six-hour installation of his Sonic Genome in the Martin-Gropius-Bau. Engaging others in Braxton’s music inspires Erica as an educator. She has written about and curates performances of his work and leads workshops on free improvisation and creative musicianship. Erica also enjoys her role as an instructor at Lehigh University and member of the Faculty String Quartet there.
Praised for her rich sound and stylistic versatility, Erica is an invaluable recording artist and colleague. Recent releases on which she is featured include David Lang’s opera Anatomy Theater (Cantaloupe Music), Durand Jones and the Indications’ Private Space (Dead Oceans) and music-videos for Aaron Frazer’s Introducing (Colemine/Dead Oceans). Further recordings include Contemporary Chaos Practices (Intakt Records) by Ingrid Laubrock, Concrete & Void (New Focus Recordings) with Wavefield Ensemble and Anna Webber’s Idiom (Pi Recordings).
Erica holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (BM), the University of Minnesota (MM) and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (DMA). She also attributes a significant part of her early musical education to the Illinois Wesleyan University college radio station 88.1 WESN (Radio to the Far Left) FM, broadcasting in her hometown of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois.
Zachary Good is a Chicago-based clarinetist, Baroque recorder player, composer, arranger, and educator. Zachary is clarinetist of the sextet Eighth Blackbird, a founding Co-Artistic Director of the performance collective Mocrep, one-third of the clarinet/percussion/cello trio ZRL, and one-fifth of the ensemble Honestly Same. He has frequently performed with International Contemporary Ensemble, Music of the Baroque Chicago, Manual Cinema, and Ensemble Dal Niente. He has been a featured soloist with International Contemporary Ensemble, DePaul University’s Ensemble 20+, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s All Access Chamber Series. His discography includes releases on American Dreams Records, Carrier Records, No Index, Homeroom, Parlour Tapes+, ears&eyes, and more. As a composer, Zachary explores contrapuntal possibilities on the soprano clarinet with close dyad multiphonics. His music is quietly virtuosic, inspired by the intricacies of the clarinet and a love for Baroque nuance and form. As a collaborator he has co-composed album/concert length works with Tonia Ko (Up High), Lia Kohl (Standing Lenticular), Ben Roidl-Ward (Arb), ZRL (Physics for Listeners), and Mocrep (I Like My Friends). Zachary’s “Style Brisé Bass Clarinet” project is an ongoing series of French Baroque harpsichord preludes arranged for bass clarinet. To enhance these arrangements, he has collaborated with Chris Wood to build a custom electronic sustain pedal to artificially recreate the resonance of a harpsichord. Born in Pittsburgh, Zachary is currently a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. He holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and DePaul University’s School of Music. He is the recipient of the 2021 Luminarts Classical Winds Fellowship. Zachary has participated in fellowships with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Aspen Contemporary Music program.
Pianist Mabel Kwan is fascinated by sounds, contradictions, and our perception of what is familiar or strange. Her interest in art and music began at an early age when she would accompany her father on art songs, lieder, and Chinese arias. A founding member of Ensemble Dal Niente, Mabel champions the music of living composers. She is also a founding member of improvised music groups Restroy, Fifth Season, Honestly Same, synthesizer duo Mega Laverne and Shirley, and electronic/instrumental trio Uluuul. Mabel is a keyboardist for the folk rock band Em Spel, and a frequent collaborator with choreographer and dancer Ayako Kato’s Art Union Humanscape.
Since 2009 Mabel has lived in Chicago. She is a 2020 City of Chicago Esteemed Artist, 2018 High Concept Labs Artist, and 2017 3Arts Awardee. A native of Austin, Texas, Mabel studied piano with Eun Young Lee, Danielle Martin, and Timothy Woolsey. She received piano performance degrees from Rice University studying with Brian Connelly, and Northern Illinois University with William Goldenberg. She enjoys running, eating, and camping with friends and family.
Kyra Sims is a collaborative French Hornist, vocalist, writer, and actress residing in New York City. She has worked with artists and ensembles such as Lizzo, Jon Batiste, Carole King, Kristin Chenoweth, Alarm Will Sound, Roomful of Teeth, Frank Ocean, and Dev Hynes. Kyra appeared as a backing musician in Taylor Mac’s Pulitzer finalist work A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, the critically acclaimed pop opera (and subsequent film adaptation) Now I’m Fine, and the internationally renowned podcast Welcome to Night Vale. She has also made television appearances on Mozart in the Jungle and VH1’s Big Morning Buzz Live.
Kyra has worked as a musician both on Broadway and Off, originating chairs at the Drama Desk-Nominated shows Carmen Jones, Superhero, and Soft Power, and the Emmy-Nominated online show Ratatouille: A Tik Tok Musical. Kyra has also worked regularly as a substitute musician on the hit Broadway shows The Lion King and Anastasia.
Recording credits include Zola Jesus’ Taiga, Disparition’s Faite, original cast recordings for Superhero and Grammy-nominated Soft Power, and films such as the well-received documentary Chèche Lavi, and Here and Now starring Sarah Jessica Parker.
Kyra made her composing debut in 2015 as the Composer/Sound Designer for the New York Neo-Futurists’ Mainstage production The Human Symphony, which received positive reviews. She was nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award for her work on this production.
In 2022, Kyra was named Co-Artistic Director of the New York Neo-Futurists, a wildly prolific experimental theatre ensemble that creates and performs its own work in the East Village every Friday and Saturday night for their landmark award-winning show The Infinite Wrench.
Born in Akron, Ohio, Dennis K. Sullivan II is a percussionist, composer and sound artist based in Queens NY. As a percussionist focusing on new and contemporary music, Dennis is a founding member of the performance duo, Radical 2 with percussionist/electronics engineer, Levy Lorenzo. A classification-defying duo that explores the use of theatrical, vocal, percussive and prototype electronic mediums, Radical 2 has been bringing this unique blend to contemporary audiences for 15 years. Radical 2 has been featured on the 2019 and 2017 OpenICE series at the Abrons Arts Center, 2016 Omaha Under the Radar festival and also has been heard in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Berlin, London, Hamburg and elsewhere. They have held residencies at CNMAT (UC Berkeley), Stanford University and Adelphi University. He is also one half of Popebama, a high octane experimental percussion/saxophone duo with composer/saxophonist Erin Rogers, a duo that applies text, electronics, and high-energy instrumental writing to non-traditional sounds. Dennis as well serves as percussionist and co artistic director for the Wavefield Ensemble, a collectively organized group of musicians dedicated to performing contemporary music and creating new artistic work at the highest level.
Dennis has been awarded the grand prize at the Van Rooy Competition for Musical Excellence, and has received the Stipiendienpreise at the Darmstadt International Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik (Darmstadt, Germany). He has shared the stage with leading contemporary music ensembles such as The Argento New Music Project, Either/Or, The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), ECCE Ensemble, Ensemble Court Circuit, Ensemble Pamplemousse, Sequitur, Newband, Iktus Percussion, Mivos, The Darmstadt Preistrager Forum, Ensemble Modern Academy, and many more. As an improviser he has shared the stage with the likes of Peter Evans, Brandon Lopez, Erin Rogers, Dana Jessen and others. Dennis holds a Bachelor of Music (BM) from the Hartt School of Music as well as a Master of Music (MM) and Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) from SUNY Stony Brook University. He serves as professor of percussion and director of the wind ensemble at Adelphi University.
Chris Wild‘s performances have been lauded as “insatiable” (New York Times), resulting from his enthusiastic pursuit of musical connections. A conductor, cellist, and music educator, he now resides in Indianapolis with wife Eliza Brown, where he was recently appointed conductor of the Wabash Valley Youth Symphony. Previously a resident of the Michiana tri-state region, he has served as faculty at Andrews University and the University of Notre Dame, and cellist of the Euclid String Quartet. Recognized for his performances and recordings of contemporary music, he has been a member of the Chicago-based Ensemble Dal Niente since 2007. Recent performances have taken him to Walt Disney Concert Hall, Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion, Symphony Center (Chicago), Teatro Colón (Argentina), and the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico). Chris enjoys a broad range of quality music but is befuddled by Eliza’s love for Bad Bunny. In addition to conducting and performing Classical repertoire, recent collaborations have included performances with fiddler Mark O’Connor, improvisations with guitarist Gabriel Datcu, and joining Mannheim Steamroller’s holiday tour.
Chris began his cello studies at the age of five in British Columbia, Canada, where he would later win first place in the strings category of the Canadian Music Competition. An active teenager, he filled his days playing varsity sports, keeping his rock band on life support, making award-winning animation videos depicting the life of Bigfoot, and practicing cello scales. In due time, he went on to earn a BM and MM in cello performance and music education from the University of Michigan, and many years later completed his DMA in orchestral conducting at Northwestern University, culminating with his thesis titled “Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England: an Interpretation and a Conducting Guide.” In addition to performing and teaching, he occasionally creates new episodes for his YouTube channel Great Moments in Orchestral History, and enjoys being a Hoosier with Eliza.
Other Members of the Walden School Players
Hailed as a “bassoon virtuoso” (Chicago Reader), Dana Jessen tirelessly seeks to expand the boundaries of her instrument through original compositions, improvisations, and collaborative work with innovative artists. Over the past decade, she has presented dozens of world premiere performances throughout North America and Europe while maintaining equal footing in the creative music community as an improviser. Her solo performances are almost entirely grounded in electroacoustic composition that highlight her distinct musical language. As a chamber musician, Dana is the co-founder of the contemporary reed quintet Splinter Reeds, and has performed with Alarm Will Sound, Amsterdam’s DOEK Collective, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Tri-Centric Ensemble, among many others. A dedicated educator, Dana teaches at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has presented masterclasses and workshops to a range of students from across the globe. More at: www.danajessen.com
Eric Wubbels is a composer and pianist, and a Co-Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble. His music has been performed throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the U.S., by groups such as Wet Ink Ensemble, yarn|wire, Splinter Reeds, Kupka’s Piano (AUS), SCENATET (DK), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and featured on festivals including Huddersfield Festival, LA Phil Green Umbrella Series, Chicago Symphony MusicNOW, New York Philharmonic CONTACT, and Zurich Tage für Neue Musik.
As a performer, he has given U.S. and world premieres of works by major figures such as Peter Ablinger, Richard Barrett, Beat Furrer, George Lewis, and Mathias Spahlinger, as well as vital young artists such as Rick Burkhardt, Francesco Filidei, Erin Gee, Bryn Harrison, Clara Iannotta, Darius Jones, Cat Lamb, Ingrid Laubrock, Charmaine Lee, Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Katharina Rosenberger, and Kate Soper.
He has recorded for Carrier Records, hatART, Intakt, New Focus, Spektral (Vienna), quiet design, and Albany Records, among others, and has held teaching positions at Amherst College and Oberlin Conservatory.
Canadian violist Tawnya Popoff enjoys an exciting and versatile international career. In addition to being principal violist with the Vancouver Opera (BC) since 2007, she is a member of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (TX), the Walden School Players (NH) and a founding member of Microcosmos string quartet/Kessler Academy (BC). Ms. Popoff has given solo and chamber music recitals throughout North America and Europe, was a prizewinner in the 2000 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, and a recipient of two consecutive Canada Council Individual Grants.
Ms. Popoff has a keen interest in inter-disciplinary projects and is an enthusiastic supporter of works by living artists. She has commissioned and premiered dozens of works and recorded for the Koch, Albany, Nonsuch, CRI, SHSK’H (web label), Columbia Composers Inc and others. She has served on the faculties of the Perlman Music Program, University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, SUNY Buffalo, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, The Walden School and Artes no Camiño (Spain).
She studied with Gerald Stanick (Fine Arts Quartet) in Vancouver, BC and Martha Katz (Cleveland Quartet) at Rice University in Houston, TX and was based out of NYC before relocating to Vancouver in 2014. Aside from musical pursuits, Ms. Popoff had a cycling tour company in NYC, designs handmade games and toys for her little friends, volunteers regularly and passionately enjoys the great outdoors in all seasons!
Katherine Schoepflin Jimoh, clarinetist, vocalist, pianist and composer lives in Chicago and works as a freelance musician. She is a rostered member of Ensemble Dal Niente, University of Chicago’s Grossman Ensemble and the faculty ensemble at The Walden School. Katherine is anticipating another incredible summer at Walden and cannot wait to see what the talented participants have in store for her to perform.
Katherine has had the privilege of working with and performing the works of Hans Abrahamsen, Louis Andriessen, Raphael Cendo, Brian Ferneyhough, Lee Hyla, George Lewis, Enno Poppe and Augusta Read Thomas amongst others. She had the extraordinary privilege of performing Enno Poppe’s clarinet concerto, Holz, on a program which Enno curated and conducted.
Katherine earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University where she won the IU clarinet concerto competition and was awarded a Performer’s Certificate. She was a participant at the 2006 Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles. In 2008, Katherine spent a year abroad in Japan where she was principal clarinetist of the Kakogawa Philharmonic Orchestra in Hyogo prefecture. Katherine is the recipient of an Essentially Ellington jazz soloist award for the clarinet.
Katherine earned her Master of Music degree from McGill University where she was awarded a full Schulich School of Music scholarship. While studying at McGill, Katie was a participant in the 2011 National Youth Orchestra of Canada, touring and performing extensively throughout Canada. Her primary instructors have been John Bruce Yeh, Alain Desgagne, James Campbell, Frank Kowalsky and Mary Kantor. When she is not making music, Katherine is designing and creating jewelry for her etsy shop.
Bonnie Whiting performs and commissions new experimental music for percussion. She seeks out projects involving non-traditional notation, interdisciplinary performance, and the speaking percussionist. Recent work includes a series of performances at the John Cage Centennial Festival in Washington DC, and work as a soloist in Tan Dun’s “Water Passion” under the baton of the composer himself. In 2011, she joined red fish blue fish percussion group in premiering the staged version of George Crumb’s “Winds of Destiny” directed by Peter Sellars and featuring Dawn Upshaw for Ojai Festival. Whiting has collaborated with many of today’s leading new music groups, including the International Contemporary Ensemble (American premiere of James Dillon’s Nine Rivers at Miller Theatre), Ensemble Dal Niente (the Fromm Concerts at Harvard), Bang on a Can (Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians for the LA Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series), and eighth blackbird (the “Tune-in” festival at the Park Avenue Armory.) Her debut album, featuring an original solo-simultaneous realization of John Cage’s “45′ for a speaker” and “27’10.554″ for a percussionist”, will be released by Mode Records in 2017. She received her DMA in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California San Diego, and also holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She directs the percussion program at the University of Waashington. Bonnie started her percussion career on pots and pans on her mother’s kitchen floor; this is something she is sharing with her young son Beckett. She is delighted to return for a third year as part of the Walden Players.
Critiqued as “a cellist of power and grace” (The Guardian) and possessing “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” Seth Parker Woods has established a reputation as a versatile artist straddling several genres. Outside of solo performances, he has performed with the Chineke! Orchestra (UK), Ictus Ensemble (Brussels, BE), Ensemble L’Arsenal (IT), zone Experimental (CH), Basel Sinfonietta (CH), New York City Ballet, Ensemble LPR and Orchestra of St. Luke’s (US). A fierce advocate for contemporary arts, he has collaborated and worked with a wide range of artists ranging from the likes of Louis Andriessen, Heinz Holliger, Helmut Lachenmann, and Liza Lim to Peter Gabriel, Sting, Lou Reed, Dame Shirley Bassey, and Rachael Yamagata.
Additionally, he has worked with visual/performance artists Ron Athey, Vanessa Beecroft, Aldo Tambellini, Jack Early and Adam Pendleton. Holding a Ph.D. from the University of Huddersfield, his principal teachers were Thomas Demenga, Lucas Fels, Frederik Zlotkin, and Daniel Morganstern.
In recent years, he has given talks, workshops, and performances at Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (FR), Le Poisson Rouge and the Bohemian National Hall (USA), Cafe OTO (London, UK), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Klang Festival (Durham, UK), INTER/actions Symposium (Wales), ICMC-SMS Conference (Athens, GR), NIME Conference (London), Sound and Body Festival (Lille, Brussels), Instalakcje Festival (PL), Virginia Tech, La Salle College (Singapore), and FINDARS (Malaysia) amongst others.
Recent awards and acknowledgements include a cover feature in Strings Magazine, Artist of the Month for Musical America, an Earle Brown/ Morton Feldman Foundation Grant (USA), McGill University- CIRMMT/IDMIL Visiting Researcher Residency (CA), Centre Intermondes Artist Residency (FR), Francis Chagrin Award (UK), Concours [Re]connaissance-Premiere Prix (FR), and the Paul Sacher Stiftung Research Scholarship (CH).
Peter Evans is an American trumpet player based in New York, who specializes in improvisation and avant-garde music. Mr. Evans has been a member of the New York City musical community since 2003, when he moved to the city after graduating from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He currently works in a wide variety of areas, including solo performance, chamber orchestras, performance art, free improvised settings, electro-acoustic music, and composition. In addition, he performs regularly as part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which is held annually in New York City.
Mr. Evans has toured throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and England. His solo trumpet album, More Is More, was released on Evan Parker’s psi label in 2006, and his debut album as a leader, titled simply The Peter Evans Quartet, was released by Firehouse 12 in 2007. He performs often with his quartet (with Brandon Seabrook, Tom Blancarte, and Kevin Shea), Moppa Elliot’s quartet Mostly Other People Do the Killing, the hyperactive free-improvisation duo Sparks (with Tom Blancarte), the Histrionics, the free-jazz quintet Carnival Skin (with Klaus Kugel, Perry Robinson, Hilliard Greene and Bruce Eisenbeil), the Language Of with Charles Evans, the Christmas Duo with trombonist Sam Kulik, and maintains an active interest in solo performance. He has also performed with groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Continuum, and Ensemble 21. He has continued to perform on piccolo trumpet in Baroque settings, performing Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 at the Bargemusic series, and in Bach’s Mass in B Minor at St. Peter’s Church. Other recent collaborators include: Mary Halvorson, Tim Dahl, Dave Taylor, Mark Gould, Perry Robinson, Fred Frith, Brian Chase (drummer for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Nate Wooley, Zach Hill (drummer for Hella), Stefan Tcherepnin, Chris McCintyre, Dave Reminick, Ned Rothenberg, Okkyung Lee, Briggan Krauss, Chris Speed, Weasel Walter, and Andrew Drury. This is Mr. Evans’ 5th summer as a member of The Walden School Players.
Ryan Muncy is a saxophonist who performs, commissions, and presents new music. He has been praised for his “superb” performances by the New York Times, and his ability to “show off the instrument’s malleability and freakish extended range as well as its delicacy and refinement” by The Chicago Reader. His work emphasizes collaborative relationships with composers and artists of his generation, and aims to reimagine the way listeners experience the saxophone through new music. He is a recipient of the Kranichstein Music Prize (Darmstadt Summer Courses), the Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists, and a Fulbright Fellowship (France), and has participated in the creation of more than 125 new works for the instrument. His debut solo album Hot was released by New Focus Recordings in 2013, and was described as “absorbing” (Alex Ross) and “one of the year’s best albums” (Time Out New York).
Muncy is the saxophonist of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and also serves as Grants Manager and Co-Director of the ensemble’s OpenICE program. He holds the Doctor of Music degree from Northwestern University. This is his fourth consecutive summer in-residence at The Walden School. ryanmuncy.com
Pianist Cory Smythe works actively in new, classical, and improvised music. He has performed widely, making appearances as soloist and chamber musician at the Darmstadt International Festival for New Music, the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City, the Green Mill jazz club in Chicago, and the Mostly Mozart festival at Lincoln Center. In recent seasons, Mr. Smythe has played alongside violinist Hilary Hahn in concerts throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. A Washington Post review of the duo’s performance at the Kennedy Center praised him for “…the ferocity and finesse of his technique.” Their 2015 Grammy Award-winning album, In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores, documents Hahn’s diverse collection of newly commissioned encores for violin and piano.
As a core member of the new music group the International Contemporary Ensemble, Mr. Smythe has given numerous premieres, collaborated in the development of new pieces, and worked closely with composers John Zorn, Philippe Hurel, Dai Fujikura, George Lewis, and Alvin Lucier among many others. ICE’s 2013 release on Mode Records features Mr. Smythe as the piano soloist in Iannis Xenakis’s Palimpsest. He has also been a featured guest and soloist with many new music ensembles throughout the United States, including Milwaukee’s Present Music, the Boston-based Firebird Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. He performs regularly in collaboration with many of the leading concert artists of his generation, appearing this last season with the cellist Joshua Roman, violinist Karen Gomyo, the Imani Winds, and members of the Providence and Rubens string quartets.
An innovative improviser, Mr. Smythe performs as a soloist and in collaboration with a wide array of jazz and creative artists, among them, most recently, Peter Evans, Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman, and Anthony Braxton. This season will see the release of recordings featuring Mr. Smythe in projects led by Tyshawn Sorey and Nate Wooley. His own album, Pluripotent — described by celebrated jazz pianist Jason Moran as “hands down one of the best solo recordings I’ve ever heard” — is available for free download at corysmythe.bandcamp.com. Mr. Smythe holds degrees in classical piano performance from the music schools at Indiana University and the University of Southern California, where he studied with Luba Edlina-Dubinsky and Dr. Stewart Gordon, respectively. This is Mr. Smythe’s 1st summer as a member of The Walden School Players.
Pianist Aaron Wunsch appears regularly on concert stages throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He has performed in Avery Fischer and Alice Tully Halls at Lincoln Center. Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Royal Albert Hall in London, and at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. A ten-city solo recital tour of China garnered critical acclaim and enthusiastic audience responses. A vigorous proponent of contemporary music, he has worked closely with many renowned composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Steven Stucky, Chen Yi, Fred Lerdahl, and Kaija Saariaho, and has performed new works by Saariaho and John Adams during Tanglewood’s Festival of Contemporary Music. He performed Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata during the Lincoln Center Focus! Festival and was subsequently invited to perform it at the Salle Cortot in Paris, France.
Mr. Wunsch began his studies at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, which awarded him the school’s First Prize for five consecutive years. Afterwards he studied with many revered pianists, including Peter Frankl, Andras Schiff, Claude Frank, Emmanuel Ax, Steven Kovacevich, Seymour Lipkin, Jerome Lowenthal, and Joseph Kalichstein. Mr. Wunsch received his Bachelor’s degree from Yale University. He then received a Fulbright Grant for further studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where he studied piano under renowned pedagogue Karlheinz Kämmerling. Afterward he completed his Master’s and Doctoral degrees at The Juilliard School under pianist Robert McDonald. Upon graduation, Juilliard presented him with the Richard F. French Prize, the school’s higher honor for doctoral students.
Mr. Wunsch is a faculty member at both the Juilliard School (Keyboard Studies, Music History, Graduate Studies) and at William Paterson University (Piano). His recent summers have included positions at the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont and as guest artist and faculty member at the Jakarta International Summer Music Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. He regularly gives including a Visiting Professorship at Shanghai Normal University. He frequently lectures about American music, including at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, and is Artistic Director of the Music Mondays concert series in New York City.
Jane Chung, violin, has performed as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician across the United States and Europe, including the festivals of Prussia Cove, Aspen, Taos, Britten-Pears, Utah and Spoleto. She has collaborated as a chamber musician with Joel Krosnick, Rostislav Dubinsky, Luba Edlina, and Steven Isserlis, and the dance company TERRAIN. An enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, Ms. Chung has been a regular guest artist of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players since January 2003, including recent tours to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Minsk. She has also appeared with the Elements Quartet, Non Sequitur, Azure Ensemble, odeonquartet, and worked with Mario Davidovsky and Eric Chasalow.
Ms. Chung trained primarily at Yale University, where she received a Master of Music degree and a B.A. in architecture, and was winner of both the graduate and undergraduate concerto competitions. She then studied in Vienna as a Fulbright grant recipient. Her main teachers include Peter Oundjian and Donald Weilerstein. Ms. Chung has served on the faculty of Mark O’Connor Fiddle Camp and the Great Neck Music Center, and taught violin and chamber music at Yale. She is also a recent hire of the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra.
Brooklyn-based cellist Jane Cords-O’Hara enjoys a busy and varied career in New York and abroad. She is a member of The Knights, SONYC, Syrius Trio, Tarab Cello Ensemble, North Sky Cello Ensemble, and the Caravel Trio. Recent performances in New York have been at Weill Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, New York Historical Society, Lyric Chamber Music Society, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, Brooklyn Lyceum, The Stone, Riverside Church, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, and at Bargemusic in Brooklyn, as well as performances at the Ravinia, Caramoor, Stillwater, and Canary Islands Music Festivals. In recent seasons, she has recorded several albums on the Sony Classical label with the Knights, and with the Syrius Trio on the Toccata Classics label. With the North Sky Cello Ensemble, she recently completed a tour of San Francisco and was featured on the album Monk Mix: Remixes & Interpretations of Music by Meredith Monk. She has also played with many other U.S. groups, including Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble at Zankel Hall, Argento, and Da Capo Chamber Players. Originally from Ireland, Ms. Cords-O’Hara studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in the U.K. before moving to New York to continue studies with Tim Eddy at Mannes College of Music.
Queens-based percussionist Russell Greenberg is interested in new music that spans a wide variety of styles. A co-founder of the new music piano and percussion quartet, Yarn/Wire, Russell has also worked with a number of other groups including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink, Argento Chamber Ensemble, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, sfSound, and the experimental theater troupe, Two-Headed Calf, among many others. In addition, he composes and performs with the innovative pop band Hi Red Center, and plays an assortment of instruments in Charlie Looker’s Seaven Teares.
Russell received his B.A. in music from the University of California at Berkeley in 2002, where he studied percussion with William Winant, and with Eduardo Leandro at Stony Brook University, where he earned his M.M. in 2004 and a D.M.A. in 2009. Greenberg has also penned music for the Off-Off Broadway theater production of Clubbed Thumb’s Gentleman Caller, among others. Greenberg is a faculty member at Suffolk Community College, where he teaches percussion and music.
Boston-based flutist Jessi Rosinski is highly sought after for her versatile skills as a performer and teacher. Recent projects include a tour with the United States Coast Guard Band, a premiere and recording of music by Tristain Murail, and a solo recital series focused on bringing contem-porary music to new audiences.
Specializing in avant garde music, Jessi works with composers regularly to bring new compositions to life and has recently been honored to collaborate with Helmut Lachen-mann, Christian Wolff, and Alvin Lucier. She performs regularly with Callithumpian Consort, Ludovico Ensemble, Harvard Group for New Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Sound Icon and has also appeared with contemporary music groups such as Collage New Music, Boston Musica Viva, and Firebird Ensemble.
As an educator, Jessi serves on the faculty at University of Massachusetts, Boston University/Tanglewood Institute, Winchester Community Music School, Milton Academy and maintains an active private studio. She has recently been an artist in residence at The Walden School, Harvard University, Boston College, and Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Jessi earned a Bachelor of Music degree from The Hartt School as a fellow of the Performance 20/20 Program and a Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory where she was awarded the 2006 John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Music Performance. Interested in exploring new ways to use her creative voice as a leader and arts advocate, Jessi is excited to continue her education and join the Babson College M.B.A. Class of 2015 as a Forte Fellow.
Christa Van Alstine, clarinetist, (born and bred in Saskatchewan, Canada) lives in New York City where she performs with a diverse list of contemporary ensembles and is on faculty at the United Nations International School.
Dedicated to expanding new music repertoire, she commissions works for clarinet and performs with Red Light New Music, a contemporary music composers collective and Praxis, an experimental ensemble dedicated to discovering new sounds and modes of performance by combining music, movement and text. Additionally, Christa has performed with contemporary ensembles Talea, Wet Ink, Novus NY (Trinity Wall St.), Mantra Percussion, Iktus, Hotel Elefant, Argento, Ascolta (Germany), Toca Loca (Toronto), skogensemble (Sweden); has worked with producers Beth Morrison and Com-panion Star; and has performed and premiered works at festivals including Darmstadt (Germany), Impuls (Austria), soundXis (Canada), avantX (Canada), Moving Sounds (New York City) and the 12 Nights (Miami).
Christa received an Artist’s Diploma from the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and her Master’s degree from Stony Brook University in New York.
Matthew Gold is a New York-based percussionist with a deep commitment to new music. A member of the Talujon percussion group and Talea Ensemble, and a former co-director of TimeTable Percussion, he performs regularly with Sequitur, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, SEM Ensemble, and many others. Mr. Gold is an Artist Associate in percussion at Williams College where he directs the Williams Percussion Ensemble and co-directs I/O New Music. Recent solo appearances include concerto performances with Sequitur, the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, and the Williams Symphonic Wind Ensemble. He performs frequently with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the New York City Ballet, and serves as an artist-faculty member for the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance at Mannes College.
Boston-based clarinetist Rane Moore enjoys an active performing schedule at home and abroad. An enthusiastic interpreter of contemporary repertoire, she is a member of the Callithumpian Consort and the Talea Ensemble. Ms. Moore has given numerous premieres of new works and appeared with Boston Musica Viva, Firebird Ensemble, Ludovico Ensemble, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Bang on a Can All-Stars, Guerilla Opera, Hyperion Ensemble, and Milwaukee’s Present Music. Festival Appearances include the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Open Sound Festival in Colorado, Festival Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo in Leon, Mexico, La Ciudad de las Ideas in Puebla, Mexico, Festival Internacional de Música Clásica Contemporánea de Lima, Spectrum XXI in London, Nevada Encounters of New Music (NEON), Bang on a Can Marathon, Ditson Contemporary Music Festival in Boston, and the Lucerne Festival. Ms. Moore has also been featured as a guest artist at the Royal College of Music and Drama at Wales. She has recorded for Gravina Música, Mode, New World, Parma, Bridge and Tzadik records and holds degrees from Indiana University and the University of California at Berkeley. A devoted teacher, Ms. Moore maintains a full studio of clarinet and saxophone students, coaches chamber music at Harvard’s Mather House, and has given master classes
American pianist Steven Beck continues to garner impressive acclaim for his performances and recordings worldwide. Praised by the New Yorker as “one of the city’s finest young pianists”, a recent New York concert by Mr. Beck was described as “exemplary” and “deeply satisfying” by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times.
Highlights of the 2010-11 season include the world premiere of Charles Wuorinen’s “Metagong” for two pianos and percussion and US premieres of works by Boulez and Hans Abrahamsen. In addition, he is making two appearances on the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series, and beginning a Schubert sonata cycle at Bargemusic, where he presents more than twenty concerts a year as an Artist Presenter. His annual performances of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” on Christmas Eve and “Brandenburg Concertos” on New Year’s Eve at the Barge have become something of a New York institution.
An eminent recording artist, Mr. Beck’s discography includes world premiere recordings of newly discovered works by Beethoven on Monument Records and a recording of Elliott Carter’s “Double Concerto” on Albany Records (this was described as “impressive” by Gramophone). His recording “Places of the Spirit” with flutist Paula Robison won the Classical Recording Foundation’s Samuel Sanders Award for 2008, and the debut CD of his chamber ensemble “Pleasure is the Law” was released on Boston Records in 2009.
Mr. Beck made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, and has toured Japan as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. Other orchestras with which he has appeared include the New Juilliard Ensemble (under David Robertson) and the Virginia Symphony. He has performed as soloist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and Miller Theater, as well as on WNYC; summer appearances have been at the Aspen Music Festival and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. He has performed as a musician with the New York City Ballet and the Mark Morris Dance Group, and appeared as an orchestral musician with the New York Philharmonic and the Riverside Symphony, as well as performing with the Pacifica and Manhattan string quartets.
A committed advocate of the music of our time, Mr. Beck has worked with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, George Perle, and Poul Ruders, and performed with ensembles such as Speculum Musicae, the Metropolis Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. He is a member of the Talea Ensemble and counter)induction and a member of the 2011 Walden School Players.
Cellist Robert Burkhart combines a deep commitment to the existing cello repertoire with what the New Yorker magazine calls an “adventurous” spirit in new music. With performance credits at Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and The Rose Studio at Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Robert has also appeared as a soloist throughout Japan as a member of the New York Symphonic Ensemble, and been featured in recital on WQXR’s “Young Artist Showcase.” At the center of new music in New York, Robert works frequently with living composers as a member of the American Modern Ensemble, Ensemble Pi, and as guest artist with Argento Chamber Ensemble, counter)induction, and SONYC. Recent collaborations include Georg Friedrich Haas, Aaron Jay Kernis, Steve Mackey, Joan Tower, Chen Yi, and Charles Wourinen. In 2007 he performed the New York premiere of John Harbison’s Abu Ghraib for cello and piano, and was the soloist in Augusta Read Thomas’s Passion Prayers for cello and chamber ensemble at the New York Times Center. He has taught at Syracuse University, Music Conservatory of Westchester, and been artist-in-residence at Yale University and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. His new CD “20/21: Music for Cello and Piano from the 20th and 21st Centuries,” features pianist Blair McMillen and the premiere of a work for cello and piano by composer Andrew Waggoner. Robert’s recording of solo Bach on the American Express commercial “Don’t Take Chances. Take Charge.” has garnered national attention.
Clarinetist Meighan Stoops has distinguished herself as a solo, chamber and orchestral musician. In a recent performance of Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms No. 12, Ms. Stoops was praised in The New York Times for her “vibrant, richly shaded performance.” Another review noted that “Meighan Stoops…had a star turn in [Joan] Tower’s Wings.”
In addition to playing with The Walden School Players, Ms. Stoops is a member of Da Capo Chamber Players and American Modern Ensemble. She regularly performs with other ensembles, such as Manhattan Sinfonietta, Newband, Music from Japan, Sequitur, John Eaton’s Pocket Opera Players, Music from Copland House, Sylvan Winds and the Quintet of the Americas. With the Quintet, she had the great honor of performing at the September 11th Commemorative Ceremony at Ground Zero. Orchestras with which Ms. Stoops can be heard regularly are the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Princeton, Westfield and Colonial symphonies.
Ms. Stoops has recorded for Bridge, CRI, Naxos, Albany and Chesky Records (Area 31, Grammy nominated). She can be heard on the soundtrack of Muhammed: Legacy of a Prophet, a PBS documentary with music by Martin Bresnick; Solidarity, a short film directed by Nancy Kiang with music by Richard Carrick; and, most recently, I Sell the Dead, a feature length zombie flick directed by Glen McQuaid with music by Jeff Grace. Ms. Stoops holds degrees from Northwestern and Yale Universities, and is currently pursuing her doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook. Ms. Stoops teaches clarinet privately and at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City.