The New Face of the Cello is a composition project for cello solo that aims to show all the technical and expressive possibilities of the instrument in a modern style. My goal is to show the young generation what the cello can do, and break all assumptions on what it is traditionally expected to do. I am working on an original contemporary piece that is innovative and uses studio post-production. It will attract a wide audience whilst at the same time being a showcase of technical ability and virtuoso playing. I will also make the piece into a video.

Performance & Biography

The luzAzul Chamber Music Residency is an artistic and cultural program between the USA and Spain. Musicians will bring vibrant chamber music programs to concert halls and community venues in Spain during an 8-day residency. These programs will include, at least, one work from an American composer and/or Spanish composer. While the classical music landscape in America has become increasingly dynamic, with several groups evolving the concert experience and expanding expectations, the scene in Spain remains rather conservative. Audiences are rarely challenged with new modes of presentation, especially in classical music.

Performance & Biography

New Music for Strings is a new festival located in Aarhus, Denmark. The vision behind the festival is to create an interdisciplinary space between the fields of string instrument performance and composition, as well as between American and Scandinavian traditions. The idea was developed by Anne Sophie Andersen and mentored by Philip Setzer (Emerson Quartet). Our first festival will take place in August 2016. We look forward to welcoming participants from New England Conservatory, Stony Brook University and Stanford University along with their Scandinavian peers. This application is aimed at covering the cost of travel for our overseas participants.

Performance & Biography

Patrick Galvin and the Thalea String Quartet will create the pilot episode of a new web series called “Why Are We (Still) Doing This?” The pilot will be the first of five light-hearted, informative and engaging videos in which Patrick and the Thalea String Quartet will explore why young musicians still dedicate their lives to the study and performance of classical music and how new audiences can learn to appreciate what musicians see, hear and feel in the music they study and perform. Each season will consist of five episodes exploring a specific genre of classical music. The series will cover topics ranging from solo instrumental repertoire to the symphony orchestra with the first season focusing on the string quartet.

Performance & Biography

I would like to compose a work for cello quartet, and produce a short-film to accompany the composition. The music and film would explore synesthesia, and I would like to incorporate the visual colours of the work I see throughout the composition process. The film would consist of the cellists playing the piece, while on top of the footage, we would see extreme slow-motion paint superimposed over the footage. The change of speed and movement of the paint would encapsulate the bow movements and the physicality of playing, while the colours would explore the sounds of the work.

Performance & Biography

Franz Schreker and Paul Ben-Haim: Composers in the Weimar Republic, a lecture-recital and world premiere
Through the world premiere of Ben-Haim’s early violin sonata, alongside Schreker’s rarely-played early violin Sonata, the program follows both composers’ creative paths in turbulent historic times; from the late-romantic style of their early works, to Schreker becoming an important opera composer in Germany (the program features performance of his songs and an operatic scene by soprano Susanna Phillips), and Ben-Haim becoming the founding father of Israeli music, using middle-eastern materials (Yizkor with Heifetz Cadenza, and Songs without words).

Performance & Biography

Energy Made Visible A pocket concert for solo cello by four New York composers, performed in exhibits of works by Jackson Pollock. John Cage, Morton Feldman, Jason Eckardt and John Zorn are composers who I believe embody the innovative spirit of Pollock. This concert – part pop-up show, part demographic exploration (why can so many people excited about modern art, but so much less inclined to explore contemporary art music?), part celebration of American art – will be performed in as many museums are interested and willing.

Performance & Biography

Warp Trio will be partnering with the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra (UPCO) to premiere a Triple Concerto for Piano Trio and chamber orchestra. This new work, written by members of Warp Trio, will feature their characteristic genre fusion of Rock, Funk, Hip-Hop, and Jazz, all within a Contemporary Classical setting. The premier performance has been set for November, 2016, and we are applying for funds to help off-set the costs of production, advertisement, and recording.

Performance & Biography

Having worked together as a fiddle & harp duo since meeting in 2012 at Berklee College of Music, we plan to record our first full-length album. Màiri is from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and Jenna is from Chautauqua Lake, NY, and we make new music that combines deep roots in Scotland and Appalachian melodies with wide-ranging influences, merging into a sound that is at once grounded and adventurous. Our goal with this album is to make innovative music that explores the connections and capacity for constant evolution between our living traditions in Scottish and American roots music.

Performance & Biography

The Rhythm Method, a NYC-based string quartet, is currently planning a residency at La Marbrerie, an exciting Parisian venue, for their 2016-17 season. This week-long residency will include a series of performances and workshops focusing on the (female) voice and body in music, exploring themes of movement, improvisation, body language, the string instrument body vs. the human body, vocalization as a non-elitist musical practice, and representations/expectations of the female body. Besides performing new works by woman composers (including the members of the quartet), the ensemble will collaborate with Parisian vocalists from a variety of stylistic backgrounds, investigating the uncannily expressive capabilities of the female voice.

Performance & Biography

Towards my mission of redefining the solo double bassist through inventive programming, I will commission Samuel Adams and Andy Akiho to each write a 5- to 7-minute work for solo bass which I will then premiere and connect to an audience of over 500 bassists in my prize-winner’s recital at the 2017 International Society of Bassists Convention (Ithaca College, NY). To further the audience reach of these new works, I will also record a genre-bending digital album including these works, a recently completed commission by Michael Laurello, my own Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Caprices, and a suite of Neo/Baroque re-imaginings.

Performance & Biography

3 Millenniums with Armenia As an Armenian classical musician, folk music has been a very important part of my musical development. The idea of 3 Millenniums with Armenia initially started with just 1 Millennium of music. As I started researching for more material, it turned out that the oldest Armenian music comes from the Pagan times dated 10-20 century BC! The CD will begin with Sasna Tzrer Epos dated between 8-20th century BC and end with 21st century talented composer Alexandr Iradyan. Arrangements will be by Jordi Savall, Arto Tunjboyajyan, Tigran Hamasyan and Gata Band.

Performance & Biography

Music Hop is a multi-venue concert in public space organized by the VIVO Music Festival to create a launchpad for musical engagement in Columbus Ohio. Our project brings together local music organizations with area businesses to present pop-up performances throughout the Short North Arts District during the September Gallery Hop. We will engage thousands of visitors who will experience first hand the wealth of musical activity in Columbus. Through our specially designed webpage, social media campaign, Music Hop Map, and volunteers on the ground, we will convert listeners into new audiences for classical music in Columbus Ohio.

Performance & Biography

The Freestyle Orchestra is an interdisciplinary string chamber orchestra whose members also have professional skills in other performance arts including various circus disciplines, gymnastics, ballet, martial arts, yoga, costume design and other music genres. Integrating our unique skills with as high a standard of classical performance as possible, we explore boundaries of what is physically possible for an orchestra to do. We wish to challenge perceptions of how classical music looks, how it is presented, show that classical music is for everyone and create a show that is as flexible as it is engaging, connecting with wide and varied audiences.

Performance & Biography

Permutations is a project exploring the social capacity of architecture and music. It consists of a composition by Freya Waley-Cohen, performed by violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen and an architectural setting designed by Finbarr O’Dempsey & Andrew Skulina. Both the music and its setting are developed simultaneously, each acting as a muse for the other. The composition is written for six violin parts in counterpoint. Each part is housed within an individual chamber. There is a central chamber where all parts are heard equally. The listener moves around freely, opening and closing sliding doors and curtains, to hear individual voices, duets, trios, and the complete ensemble. They ‘play’ the architectural space like an instrument, becoming integral part of the creative process.

Performance & Biography