 |
![[ Composer's Voice ]](http://www.voxnovus.com/img/Composers_Voice_Collaboration_Logo.png){kind=logo} |
| August 30, 2009 | |
| Jan Hus Church 351 East 74th Street New York, New York 10021 |
| The Composer’s Voice Concert Series is an opportunity for contemporary composers to express their musical aesthetic and personal “voice” created in their compositions. | |
| Title | Composer | Performer |
| A Woman's Life and Lovesbased on an idea by Eileen Moore | David Wolfson |
Lauren Pastorek (voice) David Wolfson (piano) |
| Ah Vastness of Pines text by Pablo Neruda | Brent Chancellor |
Shabana Tajwar (voice) Shiau-uen Ding (piano) |
| Dos Palabras text by Alfonsina Storni | Robert Voisey |
Beth Griffith (soprano) Shiau-uen Ding (piano) |
| Summer texts by William Shakespeare & Anne Cammon Fiero | David Morneau |
Shabana Tajwar (voice) Shiau-uen Ding (piano) |
| 3 Japanese Songs texts by Ono No Komachi & Izumi Shikibu | George Brunner |
Monica Harte (voice) Christian McLeer (piano) |
| Performers | |
 |
Shiau-uen Ding (piano) A native of Taiwan, pianist Shiau-uen Ding is a rising presence on the new and electro-acoustic music scenes, and an original and energetic performer of traditional solo and chamber repertoire. She studied piano with Eugene Pridonoff, Elizabeth Pridonoff, and Lina Yeh, computer music with Mara Helmuth and Christopher Bailey, and contemporary improvisation with Alan Bern at National Taiwan Normal University and University of Cincinnati, where she received her doctoral degree. She lives in New York City. She has performed in France, Germany, Belgium, China, and throughout the US and Taiwan. Her virtuosic and sensitive interpretations have won standing ovations. She was called a "daredevil" by the New York Times for her performance at Bang on a Can Marathon and "a powerful force on the new music scene" by Array for her performance at Spark Festival in Minneapolis. She was a semifinalist in both International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in Amsterdam and Concours International de Piano d'Orléans. She has collaborated with internationally renowned performers and composers, including Steve Reich, Michael Kugel, George Tsontakis, who refers to her performance of his Ghost Variations as a "monster performance," and Moritz Eggert, who dedicated his Hämmerklavier XIX: Hymnen der Welt (Afghanistan bis Zimbabwe) to her. In addition, new compositions have been written for her by Mara Helmuth, Christopher Bailey, Eric Lyon, Burton Beerman, and Naxos artist Gao Ping. She has recorded for Capstone, Centaur, Innova and Electric Music Collective. |
 |
Beth Griffith (soprano) eth Griffith (soprano) has appeared with Sequentia, Musikfabrik, Ensemble13, L'Art pour L'Art, Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Paris Nouvel Orchestra Philharmonique and has worked with composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, Mauricio Kagel and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Her one-hour, solo recording of Feldman's "Three Voices" was awarded the German Record Critics Prize. |
 |
Monica Harte (voice) Originally from Reno, NV, Monica grew up back stage in an opera company founded by her parents, Ted and Deena Puffer. She was in her first opera at 3 years old and studied violin and dance until she was old enough to study voice with her father at 16. Living in NYC for the past 17 years, Monica sings, teaches and runs her own company, Remarkable Theater Brigade (RTB), which she founded with Christian McLeer and Dan Jeselsohn. RTB produces contemporary operas, musicals and concerts with special programs for at-risk and special-needs children. RTB's Opera Shorts at Weill-Carnegie Hall sold out for the past 2 years with composers such as John Corigliano, Tania Leon, Tom Cipullo, and Mark Adamo all present and participating in the production. Next year's production will include Jake Heggie, William Bolcom, Davide Zannoni and more. Monica has performed more than 25 coloratura roles in the standard operatic repertoire and many world premieres. She has also sung numerous concerts throughout North America and Europe. Recently, she performed in "Opera Shorts" at Weill-Carnegie Hall, "Music in Midtown" (Elebash Hall, NYC) and the EMM Festival (Lewis University, IL). Future engagements for 2010 include "Composers, Compositions and Questions" (NATS-NYC) and finally, "HOUSE" and "G Train The Musical" to be filmed in front of a live audience for Brooklyn Cable (BCAT). Monica is the soprano soloist on 2007 CD release "McLeer's Requiem" (now available on iTunes) and is the featured soloist on the CD "Songs from Another Place" (released 2009) and "Long Island Songs" for MSR Classics label (to be released 2010). Monica recorded Tom Cipullo's "Going" for his recently released "Landscape with Figures" CD r on Albany. Monica's students are having great success at the professional and young artist levels. They are currently singing with major opera companies including The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera and Washington National Opera as well as young artist programs such as Glimmerglass, Des Moines Metro, and St. Louis Opera. |
 |
Christian McLeer (piano) Christian McLeer is artistic director and founder of Remarkable Theater Brigade (RTB), a company that creates and produces new musical works. Originally founded to produce his work, RTB has grown, and in its 6th season, will begin presenting the music of other living composers as well. His musical success began as a youth, winning piano competitions and commissions while still in high school. He received his first commission at the age of 14 for the American Cancer Society for which he wrote and performed HOPE, later included on the CD Encores 2 by the renowned pianist Anna Marie Bottazzi. He attended Julliard Pre-College and worked his way through Manhattan School of Music where he acquired his Bachelor’s degree, composing and performing professionally for classical, jazz and rock ensembles. He has performed at many respected venues including Alice Tully Hall, Weill-Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the New Orleans Astro Dome among others. Performing his own compositions has won him special acclaim from publications such as The New York Times, Newsday and OCS. |
| Lauren Pastorek (voice) | |
| Shabana Tajwar (voice) | |
| Composers | |
 |
George Brunner is a composer and performer, researcher/writer, recording engineer/producer and teacher. His music has been performed throughout the United States, in Europe, Asia, and South America. Brunner has been composer-in-residence in 1996, 1998, 2001 at EMS (Electroacoustic Music Studios) in Stockholm, Sweden and in 2001 also at Kungliga Musikhögskolan i Stockholm (Royal College of Music in Stockholm), Sweden. A recent recipient of research grants from the American Scandinavian Foundation and the Svenska Institutet of Sweden, he is at present writing a book on Text Sound Composition and is considered an authority on the subjec In February, 2005 Brunner was invited to participate in the SPARK Festival at the University of Minnesota where he presented a paper, “Text Sound: Interlingua, Intermedia and Electronica”; and, had a concert of “Pianelan”, a quasi-electroacoustic music work for piano, voice and flute. In Spring 2004 Brunner was commissioned to write a percussion piece for Morris Lang (plus ensemble). The “Elixir of the Central Fire” for timpani soloist and 3 percussionists plus CD playback had its first performance at The Helix in Dublin, Ireland in June 2004 as part of the first International Percussion Music Festival in Dublin. In April 2004, Brunner presented “Constellation 2: Fragile Light” for soprano, flute, percussion and live electronics at The International Electroacoustic Music Festival at Brooklyn College, New York and at The New Music Days Festival sponsored by Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul, Turkey. In January/February 2003, Mr. Brunner was composer-in-residence at the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (France) and composed “Within/Without”, an electroacoustic work commissioned by the IMEB and designed for LE CYBERNEPHONE, a 20-60 speaker, multi-dimensional sound diffusion system. The work was premiered at Festival Synthese 2003 Bourges, France at the Palais Jaques-Coeur. In June of 2003, Brunner completed “Union” for percussion trio. The work was commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin Ireland and was first presented at The University of Dublin June 2003 and again in San Sebastien, Spain. In May 2002, Mr. Brunner was Co-Director of the first Electroacoustic Music Festival in Istanbul, Turkey sponsored by Istanbul Bilgi University. Istanbul Bilgi University commissioned Brunner to write an interactive work for the festival based upon spoken text (in Turkish and English) and field recordings of the sounds of the City of Istanbul. In 2002 Mr. Brunner received a commission to create an all electronic score for sixteen 45 minute radio programs on Sound Poetry for the Radio/Radio program, London England; Martin Spinelli, produce Brunner is the Director of the Music Technology Program for the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College and is the founder of the Brooklyn College Electroacoustic Music Ensemble, which under his direction produces an annual CD. He also founded and coordinates the biannual International Electroacoustic Music Festival at Brooklyn College, New York City. Mr. Brunner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
 |
David Morneau does not compose his music with a ‘poetic power’ that emphatically discharges from his work enchanting you in a hallucinogenic state of borderline exaltation. He does not intensely attempt to infuse symbolism into his work and shows no melodic motivation whatsoever. This is not David. So you ask, ‘Well, then what does this so-called proclaimed musical talent propose to do?’ David is a composer of an entirely undecided genre. He works in a variety of media and has an affinity for creative collaboration including: experimental music video, dance, video game, and much more. David recently completed 60x365, a year-long podcast project for which he composed a new one-minute piece every day. Do not think of him as yet another one of those ‘unique composers’ but rather a provider of exclusive unprecedented experiments. |
 |
With few opportunities and much competition,...composers show creativity in just getting heard.” And in Chris Pasles’s article in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Voisey is highlighted as one of those composers. Composing electroacoustic and chamber music, his aesthetic oscillates from the Romantic to the Post Modern Mash-Up. His work has been performed in venues throughout the world including: Carnegie Hall, World Financial Center Winter Garden Atrium, and Stratford Circus in London. Voisey has been profiled and music broadcasted on HEC-TV public television in St Louis, Elektramusik in France, as well as radio stations all around the world including: Cityscape NPR St. Louis Public Radio; Arts & Answers & Art Waves on WKCR, Upbeat with Eva Radich on Radio New Zealand; and Kol Yisrael Israeli Radio. |
 |
David Wolfson is a composer, music director, arranger, pianist and copyist who has lived in New York City since 1986. Mr. Wolfson studied composition with Eugene O'Brien and John Rinehart at the Cleveland Institute of Music, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1985. In that same year he was awarded the first annual Darius Milhaud Award by the Darius Milhaud Society and won the Bascom Little Musical Theatre Composition Competition for his short opera, Rainwait. While in Cleveland, Mr. Wolfson spent four years as assistant musical director for the Cleveland Play House and taught on the faculty of the Play House Youtheatre. He is the composer of Story Salad, a series of stage revues for children, which was produced for thirteen consecutive years by Maximillion Productions, and one year by Story Salad Productions, Inc. Story Salad was seen by well over a million children, teachers and parents. He supplied incidental music for Merry Enterprises Theatre’s production of Dammit, Shakespeare, the Actors/Playwrights Lab’s premiere production of Richard Nash’s The Loss of D-Natural, and the Queens Theatre in the Park production of Ronald Gabriel Paolillo’s The Lost Boy. The Don Quijote Experimental Children's Theatre's Number 21, for which Mr. Wolfson wrote music and lyrics, was produced in 1989 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and his songs for Riverside Amusement Park’s big-headed-costumed-character show Country Critter Jamboree were played 510 times over the course of one summer there. From 1989-1992, Mr. Wolfson was resident composer and music director of EM/R Dance Co., a choreographer’s collective. From 1993-1996, he was co-artistic director (with choreographer Lynn Wichern) of Wichern/Wolfson dance & music, a company dedicated to performances involving both dance and live music; their final collaboration was Breath: The Passionate Life and Extraordinary Language of Emily Dickinson, an evening-length music-theatre work which they produced at St. Mark’s Church in New York City in 1996. In connection with the company, Mr. Wolfson received several grants from Meet The Composer and a grant from the Music Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Wolfson’s concert works have been performed by such diverse forces as Synchronia, the Sirius String Quartet and the Bassoon Quartet of the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as on faculty recitals at Baldwin-Wallace Convservatory, Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Music School Settlement. In 2002, the Symphonic Workshop of the 92nd St. Y (conducted by John Yaffé) and soprano Juliana Janes-Yaffé read his Songs of Love and Distance, a song cycle for soprano and chamber orchestra. Milica’s music has been performed in numerous venues across her native Serbia, the U.S, and all over the world. She has aired on radio stations in Switzerland, Romania, The Netherlands, USA, Russia, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Macedonia, Great Britain, Spain, and Italy. Milica’s music has been released on Bridge, Electroshock Records and The New Sound record labels, and she is currently working on a solo CD (record label TBA). Most recently, The Rain It Raineth Every Day and A Ball Of Gold, both for mixed chorus, were premiered by the New York Theatrical Community Chorus. his theatrical song cycle Dreamhouse, based on the poetry of Barbara DeCesare, premiered in 2005 in New York City as part of the Sixth Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival. “Song For An Accident” from Dreamhouse was recorded by Tamra Hayden on her CD A Day At The Fair. Other recent compositions include the lullaby “Like Water” (recorded by Karen Jolicoeur on her CD The Dream That You Wish) and four songs for Diane Menges’ recital program The Jesus Project. Since 2005, he has been the Associate Artistic Director and Music Director of Experience Vocal Dance Company (EVDC). Mr. Wolfson’s compositions for EVDC have been performed at Symposion "Tanz und Musiktheater" in Hannover, Germany, and in New York at The Field’s Fielday, New Dance Group’s The Exchange, Movement Research’s Open Performance, and The Composer’s Voice series at Jan Hus Church. Milica’s love of collaborations resulted in many relationships, such as the ongoing one with Charlotte Griffin, a noted trio D’Divaz and VisionIntoArt . Mr Wolfson’s music has been called “brilliant” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer; the New York Times referred to it as “musically inventive” and “theatrically forceful.” |
A Woman's Life and Loves - text by David Wolfson
1.
I have (No! Down from there!) many keys (After supper, maybe.)
on a ring (In the parlor, dearest!) at my waist.
Each key (Because I said you couldn't.) opens (It doesn't look fresh.)
a door (Try another, then.) to somewhere.
Are they (Give that back to your brother!) keys to (There isn't any left?)
ballrooms (When I'm finished in here, dearest.) or pantries?
Someday (Put those down before you hurt yourself!) I'll have (Dearest don't forget your medicine!)
time to (Then I'll have to take the cheaper one.) try (Oh, no! What have you tracked in?) them
(No! Down! After supper in the parlor doesn't look because I said so try another give that back there isn't any when I'm finished put those down before your medicine Oh, no!) try them all... 2.
The butcher's boy looked at me today.
It was a kind of half-smirk, half leer,
Part insolence, part tenderness;
I remember that look well, from other eyes.
It used to make me flustered, and silly,
And outraged, and happy.
Thank goodness I'm beyond that now.
I drew my shawl closer around me
And did not look again at the butcher's boy.
3.
Oh God my boy, a solder!
How could he be a solder!
My boy, with his model trains, and his pastry crumbs,
and his runny nose, his unending questions,
his dirty knees, his dirty diaper!
My boy!
He'll put on a uniform,
He'll wave goodbye.
Then he'll disappear,
And so will I.
Oh God my boy, a soldier.
How can he be a solder?
You might as well tell me that a cow stood on its hind legs and swallowed the sun.
I could believe it as well.
It can't be right that my son will be shot at and sleep in the dirt.
That can't be right.
That can't be right.
You might as well tell me that a fish spoke poetry and then burst into flame.
It can't be right that my son will take orders and shoot to kill.
That can't be right.
That can't be my boy!
Who used to have such a temper
Who used to play with bugs
Who used to tell me that he loved me ev'ry morning when I told him to go play...
He'll put on a uniform,
He'll wave goodbye.
Then he'll disappear,
And so will I.
4.
We have been married many years,
You and I.
It has not been what I expected.
I knew I would become part of you;
I did not know you would become part of me.
I did not know the way bad days mix with good days over time,
And settle like an old snowfall on our house.
I did not know the way little things wear out big things,
the way ev'ry day pecks at you like hungry chickens.
I did not understand how all the broken pieces of those hungry days fit together,
like dough and yeast, like mortar and stone.
How could I have known that you would change?
How could I have known that I would?
How could I have known that we would change
into a man and a woman who love each other so much...
We have been married many years,
You and I...
Ah Vastness of Pines - text by Pablo Neruda
This is part of a song cycle for orchestra and soprano based on poems by Pablo Neruda. The piano and voice version may be performed with amplified piano and electronics or solo piano. Today’s concert will be performed with solo piano. Ah vastedad de pinos, rumor de olas quebrándose,
lento juego de luces, campana solitaria,
crepúsculo cayendo en tus ojos, muñeca,
caracola terrestre, en ti la tierra canta!
En ti los ríos cantan y mi alma en ellos huye
como tú lo desees y hacia donde tú quieras.
Márcame mi camino en tu arco de esperanza
y soltaré en delirio mi bandada de flechas.
En torno a mí estoy viendo tu cintura de niebla
y tu silencio acosa mis horas perseguidas,
y eres tú con tus brazos de piedra transparente
donde mis besos anclan y mi húmeda ansia anida.
Ah tu voz misteriosa que el amor tiñe y dobla
en el atardecer resonante y muriendo!
Así en horas profundas sobre los campos
he visto doblarse las espigas en la boca del viento.
Ah vastness of pines, murmur of waves breaking,
slow play of lights, solitary bell,
twilight falling in your eyes, toy doll,
earth-shell, in whom the earth sings!
In you the rivers sing and my soul flees in them
as you desire, and you send it where you will.
Aim my road on your bow of hope
and in a frenzy I will free my flock of arrows.
On all sides I see your waist of fog,
and your silence hunts down my afflicted hours;
in you, with your arms of transparent stone
my kisses anchor, and my moist desire nests.
Ah your mysterious voice that love tolls and darkens
in the resonant and dying evening!
Thus in deep hours I have seen, over the fields,
the ears of wheat tolling in the mouth of the wind.
Dos Palabras - text by Alfonsina Storni
Dos Palabras means "two words" which refers to the words two Spanish words "Te amo" meaning "I love you" in English. Alfonsina Storni is considered is considered the Virginia Woolf of Argentina, who also met her end by drowning herself in the sea. Dos Palabras (Two words)
Esta noche al oído me has dicho dos palabras comunes.
Dos palabras cansadas de ser dichas.
Palabras que de viejas son nuevas.
Dos palabras tan dulces,
Que la luna que andaba filtrando entre las ramas se detuvo en mi boca.
Tan dulces dos palabras
Que una hormiga pasea por mi cuello y no intento moverme para echarla.
Tan dulces dos palabras
Que digo sin quererlo: ¡oh, qué bella, la vida!
Tan dulces y tan mansas
Que aceites olorosos sobre el cuerpo derraman.
Tan dulces y tan bellas
Que nerviosos, mis dedos, se mueven hacia el cielo imitando tijeras.
Oh, mis dedos quisieran cortar estrellas.
Tonight you have said two words to my ear, which are common,
Two words tired of being said.
Words which being so old are new.
Two words so sweet
That the moon, filtered through branches,
stop in my lips,
Two sweet words
That an ant walks along my neck
and I don't even try to move to shake it off.
Two sweet words
Tat I say unwillingly: Oh, how beautiful life is!
So sweet and so tame
That they spill as aromatic oils on my body.
So sweet and so beautiful
That nervous my fingers move towards heaven like scissors.
Oh! my fingers wish they could cut stars.
Queja (Complain)
Señor, mi queja es ésta,
Tú me comprenderás:
De amor me estoy muriendo,
Pero no puedo amar.
Persigo lo perfecto
En mí y en los demás,
Persigo lo perfecto
Para poder amar.
Me consumo en mi fuego,
¡Señor, piedad, piedad!
De amor me estoy muriendo,
¡Pero no puedo amar!
Lord, my complain is this,
You will understand me:
Of love I'm dying,
but I cannot love.
I pursue perfection
In myself and in others,
I pursue perfection
to be able to love.
I consume myself in my fire,
¡Lord, piety, piety!
Of love I am dying,
¡But I cannot love!
Summer
(Sonnet no. 18 & In a hot country)
Summer is the first song from a set called Love Songs that I am in the process of composing. The concept for this set is simple: pair texts by contemporary poets with Shakespeare's sonnets as the basis for new songs. Initially these songs are composed for piano and soprano voice, but I am planning a whole series of alternate versions that include additional instruments, different voices, and live electronics. Sonnet no. 18
by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
In a hot country
by Anne Cammon Fiero
A languid afternoon
in heat
that feels like summer.
I turn on the fan and stretch
across the bed. Listening
to its subtle crooked whir,
I wonder if fans
become unscrewed
from their hinges.
Through the thin rectangular screen,
I watch the same tree
I’ve watched
for months.
Though as always with spring in a hot country
it seems the leaves have burst like flames
upon branches
that appeared as though dead.
3 Japanese Songs
1. Flowers
by Ono No Komachi
How invisibly
It changes color in this world.
The flower of the human heart.
2. Crickets
by Izumi Shikibu
Although the cricket’s song
Has no words
Still it sounds like sorrow.
3. No Color
by Izumi Shikibu
In this world
Love has no color
Yet, how deeply
My body is stained by yours.
Composers George Brunner, Composer and Artistic Director of Electronic Music New York (EM-NY), is an American composer with international acclaim. The theme concerts and elecroacoustic dramas he presents include virtuosic singing and dancing as well as drama. His most recent work, Lady MacBeth, was premiered at the International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges in France in June. In July, he directed the New Waves in Electroacoustic Music concert for the RTB Young Artist Program and he is currently developing an Electroacoustic Shakespeare Series that will be performed in NYC and tour to various Shakespeare Festivals and operatic young artist programs throughout the US. Mr. Brunner is an authority on Text Sound Composition and lectures worldwide on the topic. Brent Chancellor is a New York based composer and conductor. His music has been performed in the United States, Canada and Germany and has been featured at the Festival of New American Music as well as in films and gallery installations. Most recently he served as assistant conductor to Maestro Paul Nadler for productions of La Traviata and Rake’s Progress in Tel Aviv, as well as for concerts with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. Upcoming projects include music for a motion comic, his first opera, music for amplified string quartet and music for two flutes and two cellos. He also serves as assistant conductor for Astoria Symphony. David Morneau is a composer of an entirely undecided genre, a provider of exclusive unprecedented experiments. In his work he endeavors to explore ideas about our culture, issues concerning creativity, and even the very nature of music itself. His current projects include a short concert-opera based the classic Simon electronic game and a/break machinations – a series of music videos for a dance in collaboration with Amiti Perry. He is also an active member of Seen Performance, an artist collective in New York City, and co-founder of Elevator Machine Room, an electronic music performance project. More information can be found at his website http://5of4.com. “With few opportunities and much competition, young composers show creativity in just getting heard.” And in Chris Pasles’s article in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Voisey is highlighted as one of those composers. Composing electroacoustic and chamber music, his aesthetic oscillates from the ambient to the romantic. Rob Voisey embraces a variety of media for his compositions, and pioneers new venues to disseminate his music and reach audiences. He is also director of Vox Novus and 60×60, as well as co-director for the Composer’s Voice concert series. David Wolfson is a freelance composer, music director, arranger, pianist and copyist who has lived in New York City since 1986. He is Associate Artistic Director, Music Director and resident composer of Experience Vocal Dance Company (www.experiencevocaldance.org). The Strollers of Maplewood, New Jersey recently produced the premiere of his children’s musical Cat: Adventures of a Caterpillar. Mr. Wolfson’s most recent concert works were the cello quartet Time Flies, which was premiered last fall by the cello quartet Cello and Feet First for solo violin, which was premiered on the Composers Voice series last spring by Suzy Perelman. Performers A native of Taiwan, pianist Shiau-uen Ding is a rising presence on the new and electro-acoustic music scenes, and an original and energetic performer of traditional solo and chamber repertoire. She received her degrees from National Taiwan Normal University and University of Cincinnati. She has performed in Germany, France, and throughout the US and Taiwan. She was called a “daredevil” by New York Times for her performance at Bang on a Can Marathon and “a powerful force on the new music scene” by Array for her concert at Spark Festival in Minneapolis. She has recorded for Capstone, Centaur, Innova and Electric Music Collective. http://shiauuending.com Beth Griffith has appeared with Sequentia, Musikfabrik, Ensemble13, L’Art pour L’Art, Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Paris Nouvel Orchestra Philharmonique and has worked with composers John Cage, Morton Feldman, Mauricio Kagel and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Her one-hour, solo recording of Feldman’s “Three Voices” was awarded the German Record Critics Prize. Monica Harte, Soprano and General Director of RTB, has performed more than 25 coloratura roles in the standard operatic repertoire and numerous world premieres. This season she sang concerts in France and throughout North America and recorded for Albany, Pogus Productions and MSR Classics Labels. Her students sing for the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Miami Grand Opera, Oper Frankfurt, and other respected venues. Also, Monica is the Director for the Natchez Festival of Music Educational Outreach Tour and Production Coordinator for Electronic Music New York. Christian McLeer, Composer and Artistic Director of Remarkable Theater Brigade (RTB), received his first commission at 14 for the American Cancer Society. By 25 he had won numerous piano competitions, performed his works at Carnegie, Steinway and Merkin Concert Halls, received more than 20 commissions, had works recorded by numerous labels and founded his own professional company, RTB. In the last 5 years, Christian has had more than 100 performances of his orchestral, operatic, electroacoustic, solo instrumental, choral, solo voice and chamber works and has written film scores and commercials. Lauren Pastorek, mezzo-soprano, has been enjoying a busy and varied career. This past year she starred Off-Broadway in The Marvelous Wonderettes. She has also appeared with NY Gilbert and Sullivan Players at City Center and Symphony Space. Lauren has toured North America with Mackintosh’s My Fair Lady, The Will Rogers Follies (Betty Blake u/s) and the 1st National Tour of Oklahoma!, and she appeared at the Kennedy Center in Carnival! (Rosalie u/s), directed by Robert Longbottom. Past roles include the title role in Xerxes, Lady Angela in Patience, Bianca in The Rape of Lucretia, Guenevere in Camelot, and Meg Brockie in Brigadoon. Recordings of her performances with the Ohio Light Opera as Phoebe in Yeomen of the Guard, Treszka in Autumn Maneuvers, and Hederl in Das Dreimaederlhaus are available online and in stores. Lauren was the mezzo soloist in Philip Glass’ Choral Symphony No. 5 with the composer in attendance, Beethoven’s Ninth, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, and was a repeated performer in the Cincinnati Pops’ Home for the Holidays. As Grand Prize Winner of the 1st Annual Lotte Lenya Competition, Lauren was invited to sing in Weill’s 100th birthday performance of the Mahagonny Songspiel. She has her BM from Eastman School of Music, and her MM from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Lauren is a native of Houston, TX and now hides out in Queens. Shabana Tajwar spends her days as an Environmental Engineer and her nights wondering what it might be like to be a classical singer. Some of her questions have been answered through valuable performance opportunities that have ranged from recitals at The Juilliard School to concerts in the Austrian Alps as part of the Tyrolean Opera Program. Shabana has also had the incredible opportunity to perfom in her own concert of opera arias at New York’s Lang Recital Hall, programmed by her coach Joan Dornemann, Assistant Conductor/Coach of the Metropolitan Opera of New York. Shabana is thrilled to be able to sing just for the love of it.
Vox Novus is a collective of composers, musicians, and music enthusiasts collaborating together to create, produce, promote, and enjoy the new music of today. Our members are from a variety of composers committed to the creation and dissemination of new music. Their music is of a variety of styles, aesthetics, and ideologies. Vox Novus produces and promotes new music. They are dedicated to contemporary music, the musicians who perform, and the composers that write the music of today. Their mission is to cultivate a music community and make their work available to the greater public.
Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children’s versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.
| Brought to you by | ||||
 |
 |
 |
||
| Funding by | |||
 |
|||
| Funding also provided by the Puffin Foundation, "...continuing the dialogue between art and lives of ordinary people." | |||
| Home | ||||||||||||
| Calendar | ||||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||
| Opportunities | ||||||||||||
| Vox Novus | ||||||||||||
| Site Map | ||||||||||||
| Contact | ||||||||||||
| Hosted by Malted/Media and Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar | ||||||||||||
| | ||||||||||||