PERFORMER BIOS

Pico Alt started playing the violin at the age of 3. She entered Juilliard’s Pre-College division at 10 years old and continued on to the College division where she received her Bachelor of Music degree. After graduating, she spent time traveling in New Zealand and playing with the Auckland Philharmonia. She has performed solo and chamber concerts around the NY area in venues including Weill Recital Hall and Brooklyn’s Bargemusic, among many others. A former pupil of Ann Setzer and Sally Thomas, she has participated in festivals ranging from Moab, Utah, to Spoleto, Italy. In April 2006, Pico joined the teaching staff at the Minimasters school in Tribeca.

A native of the United Kingdom and a graduate of The Juilliard School, Clarinetist Sarah Beaty has performed throughout Europe and the USA. Festival appearances have included the Lucerne Festival, RNCM Mendelssohnfest, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto Festival Italy, and Juilliard’s Focus Festival, and live performances on BBC Radio 2 and 3. Sarah has given her recital debut at The Bridgewater Hall (UK), The Royal Festival Hall, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. In New York City Sarah performs regularly with the Ikarus Chamber Players, the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra the Wet Ink Ensemble.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, Carl Christian Bettendorf is currently pursuing his doctoral degree at Columbia University where he is studying with Tristan Murail. Prior to moving to New York, he studied composition with Hans-Jürgen von Bose and Wolfgang Rihm. His works have been played at major new-music festivals and venues all over Europe as well as in North America. As a conductor, Mr. Bettendorf has worked with new-music ensembles in Germany and New York and served as assistant conductor of the Columbia University Orchestra. He has recorded for the ArtVoice and Cybele labels, and his music was broadcast on German, Swiss, Canadian, and Australian radio.

Pianist Yalin Chi made her debut in her hometown with the Beijing Central Opera Symphony Orchestra. Since moving to the United States, she has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Gardner Museum and Kumho Art Hall in Seoul and ZhongShan Music Center in Beijing. Ms. Chi completed her Masters degree at the Juilliard School in 2005. She attended Aspen Music Festival on fellowship and has studied and performed at the Taos School of Music, Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall and Bowdoin. Ms. Chi is now working towards an Artist Diploma degree at the Yale School of Music.

Simon Docking has performed both as a soloist and chamber musician in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Malaysia. He holds a doctorate in piano performance from Stony Brook University, where he worked with Gilbert Kalish, and was awarded the prestigious Thayer Fellowship for the Arts. Recognized for his “extraordinarily vivid” realizations of contemporary music, Simon has premiered dozens of new works. A founding member of several chamber groups, including the Toronto-based ensemble Toca Loca, he is also the artistic director of Kumquat, a contemporary music series in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Trumpeter Joshua Frank is active performing and teaching in New York City. He has played with many ensembles such as the Riverside Symphony, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Long Island Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, New World Symphony, and many other ensembles. Mr. Frank received his Bachelors Degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Raymond Mase and Mark Gould. He also completed his Masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music and received the John Clark Award. Mr. Frank is the trumpet teacher at Rye Country Day School.

David Goodman began his musical career as a rock & roll drummer at the age of 11. At 14, he had a "classical music conversion" after attending the Kinhaven Music School in Vermont. The following year he enrolled in the Juilliard School Pre-College Division, studying percussion, composition, and conducting. After graduating, he went on to study at the Curtis Institute of Music. At 19, he founded The Wild Ginger Philharmonic, an alternative musical ensemble, which toured throughout the Northeast. Mr. Goodman recently conducted the world premiere of Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky's Paths of Parables with the Silk Road Ensemble at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Joseph Gramley, percussion. Extensive performance career as both a soloist and member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble; numerous appearances as concerto soloist; orchestral work on Broadway, St. Luke’s, Orpheus, MET Opera and others. Two solo albums ("American Deconstruction," "Global Percussion”); duo album with organist Clive Driskill-Smith. Director of the Juilliard School's Summer Percussion Seminar. Presidential Scholar in the Arts and recipient of the Albert A. Stanley Medal ( University of Michigan). Master of Music from the Juilliard School; Adjunct faculty at Queens College and Faculty at Idyllwild Arts Festival. "Heifetz of the marimba" (Cleveland Plain Dealer).

Harpist Bridget Kibbey has received such honors as an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Premier Prix at the International Chamber Music Competition of Arles, France (in collaboration with flutist Julietta Curenton), the Juilliard School Peter Mennin Prize for musical leadership and excellence, an American Harp Society Anne Adams Award, and a Mustard Seed Foundation Harvey Fellowship. She appeared as featured soloist with the Haddonfield Symphony, the Juilliard Symphony, the Israel Youth Philharmonic, the Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra, America's Dream Chamber Artists, and the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra. She has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and has been featured on New York's WQXR, NPR's Performance Today. She can be heard on the Deutsche Grammaphon label in Luciano Berio's Folk Songs and Ayre by Osvaldo Golijov with soprano Dawn Upshaw.

Danielle Kuhlmann, hornist, has performed in symphony orchestras and chamber music concerts throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Currently studying at the Juilliard School, she has performed with the Seattle Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra and Brooklyn Philharmonic. She performs contemporary music in the New Juilliard Ensemble as well as the newly established Axiom Ensemble. Other performance highlights include chamber music concerts in the Baltic Sea region and circumnavigating the globe with the Verbier Festival Orchestra. In addition to classical performances, Ms. Kuhlmann can be heard on many television, video game and major motion picture soundtracks.

Cellist Jane O'Hara has performed extensively in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the United States. She recently made her New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Other recent performances have been at Zankel Hall, Merkin Hall, Bargemusic, New York Historical Society, Miller Theater, Symphony Space, Orensanz Center and Riverside Church. She has recently worked with Argento and Tristan Murail, IRCAM, Wet Ink Ensemble and Columbia Composers. She was selected to play with Yo Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in Carnegie’s Tradition and Innovation Workshop. Her teachers have included Hannah Roberts and Timothy Eddy.

A contemporary band of five soloists, Hexnut skirts the boundaries between classical, jazz, metal and improv. With fiery vocals and virtuoso performances, this band explores its unique instrumentation with uncanny invention, creating a new sound world both intricate and powerful. The blueprint for Hexnut was the work “Tools”, a high-energy, virtuosic set of nine miniatures by Ned McGowan that won the Henriëtte Bosmans Prize in the Netherlands in 2004. While mostly composed, their repertoire also exploits improvisation and theater. Recently their debut CD was released on Karnatic Lab Records. “brutal and humoristic” - Geneco.

Violinist Colin Jacobsen, a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, has performed as a soloist with orchestras across the country including the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony. As a member of the Silk Road Ensemble founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, he has toured worldwide, made two recordings for Sony Classical, and performed on the Late Show with David Letterman. He has also performed in China with Tan Dun his Water Passion based on St. Matthew. Mr. Jacobsen is a member of Brooklyn Rider as well as the Metropolitan Museum Artists in concert. He curated and performed live as the Young Artist in Residence on NPR’s Performance Today.

Cellist Eric Jacobsen, organizer of The Knights, has appeared as soloist with the Chamber Soloists of Austin, Texas, the Riverside Orchestra, the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, the Greenwich Village Orchestra and the Lake George Chamber Orchestra. He has been heard on the NPR programs ‘Sound Check’ and ‘Performance Today.’ He is a regular presenter and performer at Bargemusic and is curator and musical director of the 92nd Street Y’s Makor Center for Classical Café. He has traveled to Japan and Azerbaijan with Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project and collaborated with musicians from Armenia and Iran. He studied at The School for Strings, and The Juilliard School. http://www.jacobseneric.com]

Bradley Kemp, bassist and composer, is a member of Kilter, a Morton Feldman/John Cage repertoire & improvisation ensemble, and Ian Moss's Capital M, a guitar-driven new music ensemble. He is known for his ambient electronic music, as b-radius, electro-pop music in The Bunkbeds, and collaborations with choreographer and partner Antonietta Vicario. Kemp's compositions have been funded by the American Music Center and Meet the Composer. Mr. Kemp has been a guest with Anti-Social Music, the International Contemporary Ensemble, The Callithumpian Consort, The World Inferno Friendship Society, and Ensemble Inc., and performs with improvisers around NYC, Boston and Philadelphia. http://www.catapultparlor.com

The Knights have brought audiences varied and engaging programs consisting of classical masterworks, world premieres and arrangements of “roots” music—e.g. gypsy tunes, Neapolitan love songs and dances, original songs; searching for ways to bring new light to old works and new works to light. The group frequently presents concerts at Bargemusic, Old Westbury Gardens, and other venues throughout New York. The Knights is a flexible ensemble that appears most frequently as a string orchestra plus piano but has also collaborated with artists such as flautist Paula Robison. Members of the group are mostly recent graduates of Juilliard, Curtis, Manhattan and Mannes who are individually accomplished solo and chamber players. They have performed with many orchestras both in the US and abroad and have been heard at many of the most prestigious music festivals including Marlboro, Tanglewood, Salzburg, Taos, Ravinia and Verbier.

Andy Laster, a resident of Brooklyn, is a saxophonist and composer. He has recorded seven CDs as a bandleader, the most recent of which is Window Silver Bright (New World Records), with his band Lessness. His new project is a book of arrangements of the music of Dawud Husni, an Egyptian composer from Cairo’s café scene of the 1920s. Other recent activities include concerts with the Julius Hemphill Sextet and Roy Nathanson’s 4 Unsolvable Sax Cases, and tours with Floris Vermeulen’s Electric Barbarian and Matt Darriau’s Ballin’ the Jack.

Jenny Lin, one of the most respected young pianists today, is admired for her adventurous programming and charismatic stage presence. She has performed at venues such as Carnegie Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Miller Theatre, MoMA and the Whitney Museum, as well as at the Chopin, Archipel, Flanders, Ars Musica, BAM's Next Wave and Spoleto USA Festivals. Highlights of this season include appearances with Orchestra Sinfonica Nationale della RAI ( Italy), SWR Rundfunkorchester and a tour of Singapore, Malaysia, and China with Philharmonia Taiwan. Jenny records for Koch International Classics, Hänssler Classic, and BIS Records and is the subject of the documentary "Zahara" by Elemental Films Spain. [http://www.jennylin.net]

New York-based Shige Moriya has presented his video pieces locally and in Germany, Japan, Finland and Vietnam. Moriya’s artistic work includes video installations, ambient boxes (which involve creating an atmospheric mixed-media visual/sound installation), and collaborative work with dancers, musicians and visual artists. His installations are often sculptures made of the movements of light. Currently, he is the co-director of CAVE, co-curator of the New York Butoh Festival and core member of performance companies LEIMAY and CAVEnsemble.

A native of Eagle River, Alaska, Damian Primis has quickly gained a reputation as one of the most versatile bassoonists in the New York metropolitan area. He performs extensively with the Princeton Symphony, Absolute Ensemble, Bargemusic, the Handel and Haydn Society, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theater, the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Queens Symphony, and Long Island Philharmonic. Damien holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he also completed his bachelor’s degree as a scholarship student of Frank Morelli and David Carroll. As part of his fellowship program, Damian teaches in Brooklyn, at Marine Park IS 278.

Praised by The New York Times as “an inventive musician,” “fresh and surprising,” and “vividly lyrical,” saxophonist Brian Sacawa has firmly established himself as an important contemporary voice for his instrument. Active internationally as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, his versatile career has led to appearances ranging from the concert stage to club settings as well as the premieres of over 50 new works for saxophone by both established and emerging composers. Mr. Sacawa’s critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning recordings can be heard on the Naxos, Equilibrium, and BiBimBop record labels. His debut solo album, American Voices, is forthcoming from Innova.[http://www.briansacawa.com]

Kyle Sanna began learning rock guitar at age 12 and within a few years was studying jazz and composition as well as learning bluegrass and other folk traditions. His broad interests have led him into diverse musical territories professionally, and have earned him a reputation for challenging categorization. Kyle has performed throughout the US and in Canada, Luxembourg, France and Germany. Originally from Oregon, he performs regularly in New York on acoustic and electric guitar, dobro and lapsteel. He has studied guitar at the University of Oregon and composition at the Universite Lumiere in Lyon, France.

Miranda Sielaff, viola, received her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Karen Tuttle. She has appeared in concerts at Bargemusic, Weill Hall, Parlor Entertainment Jazz, and on Broadway. An advocate of new music, Miranda performs frequently with the Allsar String Quartet, New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Columbia Composers, the Knights, and Wet Ink. Trained in Suzuki pedagogy, she teaches at miniMasters and the School for Strings.

Flutist Alexandra Sopp lives and freelances in New York City. An advocate for new music, Alex has commissioned and premiered dozens of new works for the flute, including pieces by Nico Muhly, Judd Greenstein, and Mark Dancigers. She is a member of ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble), NOW Ensemble, and AXIOM Ensemble. Active as a studio musician, Alex can be heard on several film and television scores. Highlights of the current season include appearances at the Whitney Museum, Bargemusic, and two album releases on New Amsterdam Records. Alex is a graduate of the Juilliard School.

Amie Weiss has given premieres of music by James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Meredith Monk, Alvin Lucier, Lewis Nielson, Mario Diaz de Leon, Jay Eckerdt, and others. She joined the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in the fall of 2006 as the violinist for Blind Date, and is performing with the company in Australia, Europe, and Singapore. This season also includes a concert at IRCAM, Paris with NYC-based Ensemble 21; and performances in the NY area at Bargemusic, Museum of Biblical Art, Lyric Chamber Music Society, Red Light New Music, and Columbia Composers. Amie graduated from Oberlin Conservatory as a student of Milan Vitek.