Talujon Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 8:00pm

Talujon & Crossover Quintet Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 8:00pm

Crossover Quintet & The City of Tomorrow

Thursday, February 9, 2017 at 8:00pm

The City of Tomorrow & Spektral Quartet Friday, February 10, 2017 at 3:00pm

Spektral Quartet Saturday, February 11, 2017 at 2:00pm

College Hall Chapel

36 College Street, Montpelier, VT 05602 ~ 802-828-8600 ~ www.vcfa.edu

Talujon Michael Lipsey, percussion Bill Solomon, percussion Matt Ward, percussion

Crossover Quintet

Anna Webber, flute and saxophone Gregor Huebner, violin John Benthal, guitars

Patrick Swoboda, upright and electric bass River Guerguerian, drumset and percussion

The City of Tomorrow Elise Blatchford, flutes

Stuart Breczinski, oboe and English horn Rane Moore, clarinets

Nanci Belmont, bassoon Leander Star, French horn

Spektral Quartet Clara Lyon, violin

Maeve Feinberg, violin Doyle Armbrust, viola

Russell Rolen, cello

MFA in Music Composition Faculty & Administration Jonathan Bailey Holland, Faculty Chair

Rick Baitz Don DiNicola Michael Early

Andy Jaffe Carla Kihlstedt

Ravi Krishnaswami John Mallia

Diane Moser John Fitz Rogers

Roger Zahab

Carol Beatty, Program Director Sarah Madru, Assistant Director

TALUJON

TALUJON was created to explore and expand upon the contemporary per-cussion repertoire. Through the performance of 20th century percussion “classics” and the music of new and emerging composers, Talujon seeks to present programs that are diverse, educational, and provocative for the listener. The ensemble’s performances feature a battery of instruments from the tradi-tional percussion family as well as a variety of non-Western instruments from many cultures. Through formal concerts, family concerts, lecture/demonstrations, and master classes, Talujon seeks to increase the public’s awareness of percussion and its value in contemporary music. In the quest to locate new audiences, Talujon has proudly performed for school children, peo-ple in economically deprived areas, seniors and challenged individuals. For the past 20 years, Talujon has been performing in areas such as the South Bronx, Lincoln Center, hospitals and children's centers in Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

Described by the New York Times as an ensemble possessing an "edgy, un-flagging energy", Talujon has been mesmerizing audiences since 1990 with an annual schedule of more than 50 performances, workshops and masterclasses. Talujon is thoroughly committed to the expansion of the contemporary per-cussion repertoire as well as the education and diversification of its worldwide audience. Over the past 20 years, Talujon has commissioned over 60 new works for percussion quartet. Recent Talujon commissions include quartets by Henry Threadgill, Ralph Shapey, Wayne Peterson, Julia Wolfe, Ushio Torikai, Louis Karchin, Steve Ricks and Chien Yin Chen. Based in New York, the group’s performances have included collaborations with James Tenney, Chou Wen Chung, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, Meredith Monk and Tan Dun at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Sym-phony Space, The Kitchen and the Knitting Factory. Talujon has appeared in universities and concert halls throughout the US, and at such festivals as Taipei's Lantern Festival, BAM's Next Wave Festival, Muzik3 Festival, Chau-tauqua, Festival of New American Music and a recent European tour with Steve Reich and Bang on a Can. For the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Con-certs series, Talujon developed the program "A World of Influences", which incorporates Talujon group compositions featuring homemade instruments and traditional instruments. The group has also given master classes/workshops at institutions such as the Juilliard School, Stanford University, Uni-versity of Virginia, State University at Buffalo, Harvard University and the Uni-versity of Oregon. The group, while maintaining a respectable touring history, always produces adventurous programs in New York City. Talujon has pre-sented these programs in the past to great praise, including first prize in the Chamber Music America Adventurous Programming Award. Talujon chooses its performing venues in order to maximize exposure to as broad an audience

as possible. Talujon’s upcoming 20th season will feature past compositions written for the group as well as new works by Eric Moe, Steven Ricks, Chris-tian Wolff, Ross Bauer and other American composer. These performances will take place at venues such as Symphony Space, Roulette, Merkin Hall, St. Peter’s Church and LeFrak Hall.

MICHAEL LIPSEY holds a BM from Queens College and an MM from Manhattan School of Music. He has performed with such prestigious ensem-bles such as the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, Tan Dun, BBC Sym-phony, Zankel Band, Harry Partch Instrumentarium, Brooklyn Philharmonic and Bang on a Can and is a founding member of the Talujon Percussion Quartet. He has recorded for labels such as Sony Classical with the BBC Symphony, CRI Records, Albany Records, Mode Records and Nonesuch Re-cords. He has performed in cities around the world including Berlin, Mexico City, Taipei, Tokyo, Moscow and on festivals for Bang on a Can, Chautauqua, Library of Congress and the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. He re-cently became a tenured Associate Professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College where he directs the Percussion and Contemporary Ensembles. Michael is very interested in creating new works for hand drums. He is currently working on a project to commission and premiere works in this medium. Michael has received funding from the PSCUNY-36 Award for a solo CD that was released in 2006. The music on the CD con-tains recently commissioned works for solo hand drums and includes com-posers Jason Eckardt, River Guerguerian, Mathew Rosenblum, Arthur Kreiger, Eric Moe, Dominic Donato, David Cossin and David Rakowski. All the pieces from the cd are also published by Calabrese Brothers Publishing, LLC.

Hailed as a "fine soloist" (NY Times) and a "stand out" (The Boston Globe), percussionist BILL SOLOMON performs with Ensemble Signal, having appeared at Lincoln Center, Tanglewood, LA Philharmonic, Guggenheim, Miller Theatre, Big Ears Festival, June in Buffalo and the Stone. He's worked composers including Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Oliver Knussen, Georg Friedrich Haas, Unsuk Chin, Roger Reynolds, Brian Ferneyhough, Charles Wuorinen, Hilda Paredes and Michael Gordon. He performed the solo vibraphone part for Pierre Boulez's Répons in collaboration with the Lu-cerne Festival, IRCAM and Ensemble InterContemporain with Mr. Boulez as conductor. He appeared with the Liz Gerring Dance Company performing Michael S. Schumacher’s solo percussion score for Horizon. Other solo ap-pearances have included the New York City premiere of Unsuk Chin's Double Concerto, Harvard University, Victoriaville Festival, and as featured soloist at SEAMUS National Convention. He performed at BAM Next Wave Festival with Dawn Upshaw, Gil Kalish and Talujon Percussion. Mr. Solomon has

also performed with Hartford Symphony, Alarm Will Sound, Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink, American Modern Ensemble, Sound Icon, Callithumpian Consort, Yale Repertory Theatre and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. His re-cordings can be found on Mode, EUROArts, Cantaloupe, Naxos, New World, Capstone, Tzigane and Equilibrium labels, the film score to Philip Glass' Project Rebirth. He has also recorded two discs of music by Steve Reich with Signal on harmonia mundi, including Music for 18 Musicians.

MATT WARD is dedicated to performing and commissioning new music and has been cited by the New York Times as “a fine soloist”. He is a princi-pal member with the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talujon, the American Modern Ensemble, Associated Solo Artists and is the Percussion Department Coordinator at The Juilliard School. Dr. Ward also performs regularly with groups such as the Albany Symphony, Talea Ensemble, SEM Ensemble, The Orchestra of the League of Composers, Sequitor and the Riverside Sym-phony. Matt Ward began studying conducting as the student director of the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players and in residence at the Bang On a Can Summer Music Festival. He is also a regular guest conductor with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Inc., Da Capo Chamber Players and New York New Music Ensemble and has premiered new works by Phillipe Manoury, Lawrence Moss, Ross Bauer, Meyer Kupferman, Bar-bara White, Sebastian Armoza and many other young composers. Dr. Ward holds a BM degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a MM and DMA degree from SUNY Stony Brook and is currently on faculty at Queens College, The Aaron Copland School of Music and Brooklyn College. Through organizations such as the 92nd Street Y, Westchester Philharmonic, and Mar-quis Studios Mr. Ward has worked with elementary school children through-out New York City and the surrounding area. He can be heard on the re-cording labels Aeon, Argo, Capstone Records, Newport Classics, Soundspell, and Albany Records.

CROSSOVER QUINTET

Aside form being the guitarist at Lion King on Broadway, NYC, JOHN BENTHAL has toured withe many artists: the most recent being the 2015 World Tour with Idina Menzel. He also frequently tours in Europe with Ute Lemper. John has done world and U.S. tours with R&B singer Regina Belle, saxophonist Warren Hill, jazz artists Chico Hamilton, Charles Earland, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and recorded/ worked with many other artists, including: Paul Simon, Peabo Bryson, Harry Connick Jr, Steven Van Zandt, #51 Bernie Williams, Denny Dougherty, Patina Miller, Jane Krakowski, Kelli O’Hara, Wayne Newton(!), and others.

In New York, he has performed with the American Symphony Orchestra, the New York City Ballet, many jingles and film soundtracks, on-camera man-dolinist in the movie "The Royal Tenenbaums", and was the principal guitarist in many Broadway shows. Mr Benthal toured internationally for 10 years with the cutting-edge New-music ensemble "Bang on a Can All-stars" as an alter-nate guitarist. He has played on soundtracks for several award-winning mov-ies, including: "Enchanted", "Nanny Diaries" ,"Doubt", "Sin Nombre", and was recently featured in the documentary "Listen to the World" in an inter-view and demonstration of ethnic instruments. When home, John often re-cords from his studio, Benthal_MusicLab, via file-sharing with many compos-ers for film, documentaries, games, and jingles.

John endorses: Fender guitars, D’Angelico Guitars, Carol-Ann Custom Am-plifiers, Xotic Pedals, Earthquaker Devices, L.R. Baggs, LaBella Strings, Luthier Strings, and Lava Cables.

RIVER GUERGUERIAN (Multi-Percussionist/Composer/Educator) has been inspiring audiences with his ecstatic and versatile percussion for over thirty years. Whether collaborating with world-class artists, supporting sym-phonies or creating his own dynamic explorations of rhythm, River’s devotion and attention to the vibrant life of the drum reverberate through the mind and soul of the listener. River has performed internationally with such groups as the BBC Concert Orchestra, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Tan Dun, Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble, Lionel Hampton, Chuck Berry, Ziggy Marley, and his world jazz trio Free Planet Radio. He has recorded on over 200 albums and film soundtracks. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music Conservatory in 1989, and soon after left civilization for five years to live in a wildlife sanctuary in the Himalaya mountains. River is the Music Director of the Odyssey Community School, and as Artistic Director for Asheville Rhythm, produces The Asheville Percussion Festival, now in it’s sixth year. He conducts rhythm and sound exploration workshops throughout the country. Visit him at www.ShareTheDrum.com

A violinist, pianist and composer of contemporary music from small ensem-bles to symphonic orchestras, Grammy nominated GREGOR HUEBNER makes music that is accessibly sophisticated and interesting, breaking down borders in between contemporary music, jazz and world music. He has re-leased a series of albums including the “Round About Bartok, Mompou and Monteverdi” series together with Richie Beirach and George Mraz, his own “El Violin Latino Vol I and Vol.II ,” Paths become Lines with the Sirius Quartet and New Music for Strings which features his orchestral composi-tions. His newest projects will be a recording of his new works for string quartets, another “EL Violin Latino, the Cuban Album” as well as a new re-cording with his NY-NRG Jazz quartet.

As a composer commissioned by Helmut Rilling’s International Bach Akademie, the SWR Radio Orchestra and Big Band, the WDR Big Band, Orpheus Vokalensemble, Tribeka New Music, Grand Theatre de Luxemburg and many others, Huebner is constantly working on creating new works bringing his own voice to audiences all over the world.

As a seasoned educator, Huebner has given workshops and master classes on performance, composition and improvisation with esteemed institutions like the Manhattan School of Music, Berlin Music School, Cologne College of Music, Lübeck Academy of Music, the Klagenfurt Music Forum, the Kauf-man Music Center and Face the Music. He is currently a guest professor of composition at the University of Music and Theater in Munich.

PATRICK SWOBODA is a NYC-based bass player dedicated to performing the works of living composers. Recent highlights include Silent Voices a col-laboration between the International Contemporary Ensemble and the Brook-lyn Youth Chorus at the 2017 Prototype Festival, Shawn Jaeger's The Cold Pane for voice and small ensemble with Dawn Upshaw at the 2015 Resonant Bod-ies Festival in Merkin Hall, and soloing in Chris Cerrone's High Windows with the String Orchestra of Brooklyn. As a founding member of the trio Beartho-ven, Swoboda engages young composers to commission and present music for bass, piano, and percussion in largely unexplored new contexts. He has also held the position of upright and electric bassist for NYC-based contem-porary chamber orchestra Contemporaneous since 2012. Swoboda is a core member of the punk-jazz quartet Gutbucket which released Dance in 2016, an album of new original material recorded live at The Stone in NYC. In years past, Swoboda participated as a fellow in both OneBeat's 2015 residency and tour on the west coast and OneBeat Istanbul. OneBeat is a program which employs collaborative original music as a potent new form of cultural diplo-macy. In 2016, Swoboda was very happy to join fellow OneBeat Alumni Ladama, a group of four women from across the Americas. The band per-forms a mix of original cumbia, joropo, and samba and focuses gender ine-quality in all aspects of music. In the Summers of 2013-14 Swoboda was a Robert Black bass fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival.

ANNA WEBBER is an integral part of a new wave of the Brooklyn avant-garde jazz scene. A saxophonist and flutist who strives for the unexpected, she has furthermore consistently proven herself to be a forward-thinking composer with releases such as 2014’s SIMPLE (Skirl Records) and 2013’s Percussive Mechanics. Binary, the follow-up to SIMPLE which features band-mates John Hollenbeck and Matt Mitchell, further establishes Webber as a compelling improvisor and composer.

Webber is featured on Dan Weiss’ album Sixteen: Drummers Suite and on an upcoming release from Jen Shyu’s band Jade Tongue. She is a member of Ohad Talmor’s Grand Ensemble, Matt Mitchell’s Sprees, and the Erik Hove Cham-ber Ensemble.

In 2015 she was the recipient of a grant from the Shifting Foundation, and 2014 she won the BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composition Prize as a member of the BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop. Webber is originally from British Columbia.

THE CITY OF TOMORROW

Approaching the delta where contemporary classical music, experimental mu-sic, environmentalism, and humanism converge, the CITY OF TOMOR-ROW is a woodwind quintet with unusual ambition. Seeking to give voice to emotions of people living in the world today, the quintet makes music to pro-vide an outlet for our reactions to environmental destruction, endless war, the pixelization of our memories, the overwhelming mass of information col-lected on humanity every day, and other contemporary issues.

Forging a new identity for the wind quintet in the same way that Kronos Quartet did for strings, the City of Tomorrow commissions new works, seeks relevancy for older compositions from the 20th century, and continues to shatter expectations for a concert of wind chamber music. This frequently means unexpected sounds: conch shell horns, strange timbres coming from double-reed instruments, wails from the French horn, improvisation in the clarinet, and a flute that can whisper, spit, talk, and sigh.

The City of Tomorrow is a touring ensemble that has performed across the U.S. and Canada in venues ranging from concert halls to the Mayo Clinic. The group is the first woodwind quintet to win a gold medal at the Fischoff Na-tional Chamber Music Competition in over ten years and in 2014 was awarded a Classical Commissioning Grant from Chamber Music America.

Hailed for her “superb command of color and nuance” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ELISE BLATCHFORD is the flutist with the City of Tomorrow and the Assistant Professor of Flute at the University of Memphis School of Music. Ms. Blatchford's willingness to take risks has extended to multidiscipli-nary performance art at the BAM Next Wave Festival, touring with the ampli-fied cello rock band Portland Cello Project, and creating choreography for all-electronic programs. Also at home in the traditional orchestra world, Ms. Blatchford has performed with the Oregon Symphony, the Memphis Sym-phony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas. With YOA, she toured extensively throughout South America, the Caribbean, and mainland China, made an appearance at Carnegie Hall with Valery Gergiev, and recorded with Philip Glass. She holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Clarinetist RANE MOORE enjoys an active performing schedule at home and abroad. An enthusiastic interpreter of contemporary repertoire, she is a member of the Talea Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, The City of Tomor-row and Sound Icon. Ms. Moore has given numerous premieres of new works and appeared with Boston Musica Viva, Firebird Ensemble, Ludovico En-semble, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Brave New Works, Guerilla Opera, New York New Music, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. She is a frequent guest with Boston-based groups Radius Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Boston Ballet Orchestra. Ms. Moore has recordings available on Gravina Música, New World, Bridge, Navona, and Tzadik. Critics have praised her “enthralling,” “tour-de-force,” and “phenomenal” performances. ranemoore.com

STUART BRECZINSKI is a New York-based oboist, improviser, com-poser, and educator whose early interest in making unusual sounds on the oboe has developed into a passion for creating and sharing innovative audio with audiences of all backgrounds. A proponent of chamber and contempo-rary music, Breczinski is a member of the City of Tomorrow, a traveling woodwind quintet dedicated to the promotion and performance of contem-porary works. He performs regularly as a chamber musician with NOVUS NY and the Talea Ensemble, and he has also performed with Bang on a Can, Contemporaneous, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, and Signal. He received an honorable mention at the 2015 IDRS Gillet-Fox International Competition, and in 2014 he completed his tenure with Ensemble ACJW, a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education.

Praised as "Outstanding" by the New York Classical Review, bassoonist NANCI BELMONT is a dynamic musician enjoying a diverse career as an soloist, orchestral and chamber musician, and teaching artist. Nanci is the Second Prize winner in the 2016 Fernand Gillet-Hugo Fox Competition of the International Double Reed Society. She made her New York City debut as a soloist in 2013, performing Strauss' Duett Concertino for Clarinet and Bas-soon. Since then, additional solo appearances have included the Gubaidulina Concerto for Bassoon and Low Strings with Ensemble mise-en, and several New York and World premieres of contemporary solo bassoon works. An avid chamber musician, Nanci is a member of the City of Tomorrow, a wood-wind quintet dedicated to the performance of contemporary works. She has also performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble ACJW, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, and Decoda, and has enjoyed additional performances with the Charleston, Princeton, and Cape Cod Symphony Orchestras. Following her passion for teaching, Nanci was a 2012-2014 Fellow of Ensemble ACJW (now Ensemble Connect), a Program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weil Mu-sic Institute, and currently works as a teaching artist through Carnegie Hall and the Bridge Arts Ensemble. Nanci serves on faculty at the Special Music School and the USDAN Camp for the Creative and Performing Arts.

As well as his current work with the City of Tomorrow, LEANDER STAR holds positions as in the Oregon Ballet Theater Orchestra and the Portland Opera Orchestra, both in Portland, Oregon. In the Midsouth, he plays regu-larly with the IRIS Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and the Arkansas Symphony. Leander Star teaches horn at Rhodes College in Mem-phis, Tennessee and the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Other projects include playing horn, singing, and speaking in "Wayfinders," a new staged performance art song cycle by Holcombe Waller and arranging and perform-ing in "Homomentum," a new musical by Portland, Oregon playwright Max Voltage. In early 2017, Leander performed the Brahms and Ligeti Horn Trios with Jacob Coleman and Timothy Shiu in a concert tour of the Midsouth.

SPEKTRAL QUARTET

Clara Lyon (violin) Maeve Feinberg (violin)

Doyle Armbrust (viola) Russell Rolen (cello)

SPEKTRAL QUARTET actively pursues a vivid conversation between ex-hilarating works of the traditional canon and those written this decade, this year, or this week. With its most recent album described by Gramophone as “highly-interactive, creative and collaborative...unlike anything its intended au-dience—or anyone else—has ever heard,” Spektral is known for creating seam-less connections across centuries, drawing in the listener with charismatic deliv-eries, interactive concert formats, an up-close atmosphere, and bold, inquisitive programming.

RECENTLY

2016 saw the release of Serious Business (Sono Luminus), the foursome’s most ambitious recording project to date, nominated for a 2017 GRAMMY Award®. “A delirious new record” (Alex Ross), Serious Business is an intrepid exploration of the many-sided face of humor in classical music, featuring vi-brant premieres by stunning young composers Sky Macklay, David Reminick, and Chris Fisher-Lochhead, paired with a centuries-old gut-buster, Haydn’s Quartet Op.33 No. 2, “The Joke.” The quartet’s multi-city tour of Beat Fur-rer’s “String Quartet No. 3” and Bagatellen, a new work by Hans Thomalla, “proved that they [the quartet] have everything: a supreme technical command that seems to come easily, a capacity to make complicated music clear, and, most notably on this occasion, an ability to cast a magic spell…” (The New York Times).

COMING UP

At home both in and out of the concert hall, Spektral Quartet enthusiastically seeks out vehicles to bring classical music into the sphere of everyday life, pri-oritizing immersion and inclusivity through close-proximity seating and inti-mate, unconventional venues. Major upcoming projects in the quartet’s native city include the Chicago premiere of Morton Feldman’s notorious six-hour String Quartet No. 2 at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Toledo Art Museum, the quartet's Italian debut in Rome, the recording of new works by composer Anthony Cheung, and a major new initiative on Chicago’s South Side in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Theaster Gates. The 2016–17 season will also see dynamic new programs pairing works of Ravel, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn with the voices of emerging composers, and new works by George Lewis, Augusta Read Thomas, Samuel Adams, and Tomeka Reid.

OTHER PROJECTS

The ensemble is regarded for forward-thinking endeavors such as Mobile Miniatures, which rallied more than forty composers from across the nation, including David Lang, Augusta Read Thomas, Nico Muhly and Shulamit Ran, to write ringtone-length pieces available for download to mobile devices. As ardent advocates for new music in their home city, the group recorded its de-but album, Chambers (Parlour Tapes+), in 2013, featuring works by dynamic, Chicago-based composers. Other discography includes a recording with Third Coast Percussion of Selene, an octet by Augusta Read Thomas for the album Of Being Is a Bird (Nimbus Records); and From This Point Forward (Azica Records), an exploration of nuevo tango and Latin jazz with bandoneon virtu-oso Julien Labro. It is central to Spektral Quartet’s mission to cultivate a love of, and curiosity for, unfamiliar sonic territory and exceptional works of the past among the next generation of string players. Currently ensemble in-residence at the University of Chicago, the quartet has also participated in resi-dencies at the New World Symphony, Stanford University, Northwestern Uni-versity, University of Wisconsin— Milwaukee, and the Walden School, among others.

COMPOSER BIOS

DAVID ALM currently works as an instructional assistant/piano accompanist at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California. He received his BA in piano performance/composition at UC Berkeley where he studied with the pianists, Charles Fuery and Janet Guggenheim (Itzhak Perlman’s longtime ac-companist) and the distinguished composers, Richard Felciano and Jorge Liderman.

David would like to thank Roger Zahab whose considerate and generous na-ture provided ample guidance during the creation of several piano works for ballet barre; Michael Early who graciously facilitated the composing of a work for piano trio based on a set of Irish traditional tunes; Andy Jaffe, whose hu-manity and fired-up eagerness for all things music made for an inspiring men-tor while composing a work for string quartet; and John Mallia whose dedica-tion and knack for detail helped give shape and form to “Oceano,” today’s work for woodwind quintet.

“Oceano” is a celebration of the birds living in and around the tiny California beach town of Oceano. The musical material mimics and emulates the many natural world sounds emanating from the habitats of six particular shore bird species (listed in the program). As is Dave’s custom of late, two Irish tradi-tional tunes appear within this shore bird suite, an air and hornpipe. Beyond providing a means to further explore a woodwind quintet’s capacity for sonic beauty, Dave hopes that the inclusion of such tunes could demonstrate a kind of mythical/real interaction between the human beings and avians inhabiting Oceano.

ANDREW AMENDOLA is a frustrated composer from Connecticut. This semester he studied with Jonathan Bailey Holland, a fantastic mentor and com-poser, without whom this score would have exceeded six hundred pages, popu-lated mostly with rests. Drew’s description of the piece is as follows:

'The Assumption' examines the dichotomy and transition between elements purely rhythmic in nature, and those purely melodic. This transition/dichotomy got me thinking about the Catholic doctrine of the Assumption, or the bodily ascension of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life (an obvious train of thought). I began to think of the possibility of more widespread occurrences of this phenomenon, which led me to envision a man, reclined in his living room easy chair on a Sunday afternoon, watching a foot-ball game on TV while partaking in the customary American comestibles of domestic beer and a bowl o’ chips. As his cat, Louise, walks back through the living room from the kitchen where she briefly grazed from her own food bowl, she is suddenly enveloped in a stream of light, and slowly lifted to Heaven while her owner looks on in dull-witted bewilderment.

Thus, the original title of the piece was “The Assumption of My Cat Louise.” However, since no self-respecting music aficionado would take such a title seri-ously, it was truncated to its current iteration. I nonetheless hope you enjoy it.

JOHNPAUL BEATTIE received his BM in composition from the Univer-sity of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he is now an Adjunct Professor and the Master Sound Engineer for the College of Performing Arts.

Decisive Ambivalence attempts to convey a sense of perpetual uneasiness by displacing the down beat and slowly phasing the entrances of each instrument. When the piece finally comes together rhythmically, it modulates to a twelve-tone row, keeping the sense of "home" at an arms length.

BUNNY BECK—One day I was a bit agitated so I sat down at the piano and said to myself, "breathe". I did and relaxed and at that point began composing "Breathe". I had no idea what melodic or harmonic direction it would go in. After presenting it at the August 2016 Master Class as a piano piece, I realized it sounded like an etude, so I broke up a lot of the chords, changed rhythmic figures, added hits, arranged it for 5 instruments and it morphed into a jazz piece.

RIKKI BELL is a 2003 graduate of Berklee College of Music earning a BM in Songwriting/Voice and will be forever grateful for her teachers Andrew List and Pat Pattison. Special thanks this semester goes to VCFA faculty Ravi Krishnaswami for his talented and patient guidance in shaping concepts into sound.

"Fences" is a cautionary, yet hopeful, tale about the barriers and illusions we construct around our many attachments. For where there is an awakening lies the possibility of transformation.

ANDREW BOSCARDIN is a composer from Seattle, Washington, where he leads the 12-piece band Zubatto Syndicate.

A divergent boundary is a location where tectonic plates are moving away from one another, causing seismic events from earthquakes to volcanic formation in the rifts created by their growing separation. This is not a metaphor for any-thing.

TAMARA CASHOUR is primarily interested in writing hybrid new music theatre works that make a socio-political statement. She is a student of phi-losophy and critical theory, in particular, the writers of The Frankfurt School and contemporary writers on political economy and technology, such as Stiegler and Feenburg, and her readings overwhelmingly inform her creative work. Her compositional work could be described as "eclectic humanist"; the musical form is generated out of the connection/message to the broader cul-ture at-large as the composer sees it; audience perception/reception of course cannot be dictated and responses will take many forms.

LOVE IS NOT A SUBARU falls into the above vein. The title is based on the famous television commercial--still morphing and still running after a year or so--which equates the human elemental emotion of Love with the touted superior technology of the automobile being advertised. When I first viewed this commercial--the one with the tearing-up father viewing a young infant girl in the driver's seat, who then morphs into a 16-year old naif taking her first solo drive in the family Subaru as a voiceover speaks "Love...it's Like A Subaru"--I flew into a kind of silent rage. Of course, this is the Libidinal Economy doing its best work, but I thought this commercial went a bit too far. Inspired by my strong reaction, I subsequently developed a short tune--an antithetical statement to the commercial 'hook': "Love IS NOT a SUBARU".

Thank you for listening and considering the messages of this piece as abstracted via musical motif and form. The piece is now temporally-based (inspired by cur-rent events) but has the potential to change it's form entirely, as future vignettes are added, and old ones removed. It is hoped that the work will also be consid-ered simply on the merits of its music, and not necessarily the events that inspired it.

NICHOLAS AARON CREED tries to be cool by using all three of his names to sound Fancy like Johann Sebastian Bach.

He is a Composer, Singer, Horn player and Choral Conductor from Fort Worth Texas. He currently resides in Houston, Texas with his Fiancée Elyssa and their two children Greyson (5) and Emmeryn (11 Months).

String Quartet No. 1 "String Thing" was originally based on two separate melodies previously written by Creed in his Undergrad at Tarleton State Uni-versity. "Demon Dance" for its dance like motive in the beginning section and "Angel Wings" for the slow section in the middle were two considered Titles.

However, after Creed's first conference with his Mentor, John Fitz Rogers the two started referring to the Quartet as "The Thing". The name "String Thing" stuck ever since.

CHRISTIAN DANCY lives in Springfield, MA with his wife and son. He works as a freelance guitarist in many different capacities, as well maintaining a schedule, teaching many private students. This semesters studies have been very enlightening in learning to combine his love of many different styles, and genres of music into works that convey his own style and voice. His piece presented this semester "Traces", for string quartet, is a great representation of this love of rock, jazz, and concert music and his feeling equally at home in all three worlds. This piece was a study in combining different styles, as well as learning to utilize consistent themes over different moods and a larger form that what he is used to writing. I would like to thank Michael Early for all his guidance, advice, and patience over this semester which has pushed me to a new level as a composer. I hope you all enjoy this piece and I look forward to hearing all your work as well.

JENNY DAVIS is a professional, international, jazz vocalist from the Seattle area, with over 20 years of experience performing, recording, and teaching vocal jazz. She holds an undergraduate degree from Cornish College of the Arts in Jazz Music. She has studied with such jazz artists: Kurt Elling, Hadley Caliman, Bud Shank, Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton, Julian Priester and performed with multiple world class jazz artists, including Brazilian guitarist, Diego Fi-gueiredo. She has also worked as a jazz booking agent JWP Agency based out of Florida. Some clientele included Jackie Ryan, Freddy Cole, Kevin Mahog-any, Cyrille Aimee, Jim Cullum. Her work at VCFA is to direct focus to com-posing and arranging her own music for herself as a vocalist, and other per-formers. This semester she studied with Andy Jaffe, focusing on jazz stan-dards. She hopes to expand her compositional craft to include other genres, and instrumental (only) music. However, her continued desire is to compose songs that address human rights, specifically the LGBTQ community.

Acceptor is a standard 32 measure jazz bossa nova. Aceptar Spanish transla-tion: to accept or receive. The lyric is expressing the dilemma of lovers afraid to receive love from each other until the timing is right for both. The message is to accept love, now.

J DIAZ—

EL INFIERNO MUSICAL by Alejandra Pizarnik Golpean con soles Nada se acopla con nada aqui Y de tanto animal muerto en el cementerio de huesos filosos de mi memoria Y de tantas monjas como cuervos que se precipitan a hurgar entre mis piernas La cantidad de fragmentos me desgarra Impuro dialogo Un proyectarse desesperado de la materia verbal Liberdad a si misma Naufragando en si misma

A MUSICAL HELL by Alejandra Pizarnik Trans. by Yvette Siegert They strike with suns Nothing couples with anything here And with so much carrion in this graveyard for the sharp bones of my memory And with so many nuns who rush like crows to poke between my legs All these fragments rend me Impure dialogue A desperate expulsion from the verbal matter Free unto herself

ANDY GAGNON—This work for string quartet was composed under the guidance of the ever-outstanding Roger Zahab. (Thanks Roger!) It is largely inspired by the simple and pure joy of exploring sounds on an instrument, a feeling that is placed here amongst some of life's other emotions. As a music educator, the moment a student finds a new and pleasing sound on their in-strument is one of my personal favorites. I hope that this piece captures a bit of that magic.

PAUL GILLILAND earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Composition and Theatre Design from Olivet College, Michigan in 1984. He retired from the US Army in April 2016 after nearly 31 years of service. He worked with Mike Early this semester and for this residency wrote a percussion trio in three movements - Terrestrial Bodies - using 12-tone techniques. Each movement depicts a different terrestrial planet: Mercury – Messenger of the Gods, Venus – Goddess of Love and Beauty, and Mars – God of War. He used physical characteristics of each planet to provide a guideline and framework for each movement.

ROBERT OGILVIE GRIEVE is a Toronto based guitarist/composer. In the past, he has worked with such artists as Donny McCaslin, Rich Perry, Aoife O'Donovan, Fred Penner, and Nick Fraser. He currently works primar-ily as a session guitarist for a number of pop/rock/country artists in addition to playing in numerous new music and improvised music ensembles. Robert's Master's work focusses on the manipulation of time as an objective entity; organizing sonic events to create fractals from sound waves.

ANDREW RICHARD HORDES was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and is currently living in North Carolina. He is a practicing Cardiologist who studied and performed classical piano for several years. His teachers included Valentina Gershgorin in NYC, George Pappastavrou at Syracuse University, Dr Franklin Morris (electronic music composition), composer Leo Smit, Adrian Carr, Stephen Savage at the New England Conservatory and Jean Kopperud at Julliard. His first composition was at age six and he has contin-ued writing solo piano music to the present day. He has released two albums of piano compositions (Pianoworks and Pianoworks II).

Brazil Suite is inspired and loosely based upon Samba and Bossa Nova. Many thanks to Roger Zahab for his teaching and guidance through this process, and to my wife Adriana for enduring my musical obsession and remaining my biggest fan.

MARIO INCHAUSTI—The Affirmation is a story written in the Noir style a lá Dashiell Hammett & Raymond Chandler. It is also a tribute to some of the glorious soundtrack music of the Noir movie genre. While narrative is the recounting of events from the private eye's point of view, the music reflects his internal monologue. He's working. He falls in love. He's working stuff out. He gets a little vertigo when he realizes he's still a chump. He emerges from the experience having learned nothing.

Mario, however, has learned a thing or two this semester thanks, in no small part, to his mentor, Diane Moser. Without her guidance, the piece would've included more slide whistle, woodblock & extended tuba solo. Same subject, though.

RANDY KAPRALICK received his Bachelor’s in Studio Music & Jazz Per-formance from the University of Miami School of Music. His first gig out of college was playing lead trombone for the legendary Motown group the Four Tops, touring for 5 years with the Four Tops and the Temptations, also play-ing with the Spinners, Aretha Franklin and Frankie Valli, among others. Cur-rently, Randy is the Coordinator of Ensembles and Chair of the Trombone Department at University of the Arts in Philadelphia where as a full-time As-sistant Professor his classes include Musicianship, Jazz Improvisation, and

Jazz Theory. He performs with the Philly Pops Big Band Jazz Combo, Terell Stafford’s Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Norman David & The Eleventet, and the Tiffany Jones Band. Most recently, Randy has performed with Wyn-ton Marsalis, George Garzone, and Pat Martino.

Now graduating from VCFA, Randy would like to sincerely thank all of the faculty, administration, and staff for their expertise, stories and art. Randy views diversity at VCFA as a major strength and vital guiding tenet of the pro-gram. Given the current U.S. political climate, he feels compelled to dissemi-nate this vision of embracing one another and celebrating diversity in art.

Migration is in three movements: Propulsion, Signals, and In The Stream. The title, Migration, speaks to my overall experience at VCFA, which has helped me hone the direction and instinct to create more spontaneously and organi-cally.

My deepest gratitude to Don DiNicola, without whom this piece simply would not exist. Thank you for inspiring me as an artist and an educator.

PETER KARP—"Karp’s a great writer and performer whose songs are driven by verbal word-play and insights into the human experience. Like James Taylor and Bob Dylan, Karp embodies Americana Music." USA Today

Face The Wind is an original anthemic ballad that incorporates gospel, R&B, blues and early American church and folk hymns. It is dedicated to Peter's late wife Mary Lou Bonney Karp, poet, mother and one of the most loving and compassionate people to ever walk this earth.

ZACHARY KOHLMEIER is a composer and educator from Bourbonnais, Illinois. He has Attention-Deficit Disorder, and so as a composer he can't write in one genre for too long before…

"Muriel" is a three-movement horror story for narrator and woodwind quintet with text written by Ian Mattthews. A young girl goes sledding in the woods on an icy winter night, and something oddly familiar leads her deeper within. Ian Matthews is a professor of English language studies at Olivet Nazarene Uni-versity.

This is Kohlmeier's final residency, and during his time at Vermont College of Fine Arts he was blessed to study under composers Diane Moser, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Mike Early, and Ravi Krishnaswami. (Also, a shout out to Don DiNicola, who invested in one of my ideas on his own time. Thank you!)

Thank you Vermont College of Fine Arts, this has been an amazing adventure.

JESSE MITCHELL has been an active composer, music educator, and ad-judicator in Arizona for more than a decade. Over the past two years, Jesse has built a vast portfolio of music for use in media and the marching arts. He has studied with Dr. Doug Nottingham, Dr. Steven Hemphill, Dr. Bill Sallak, Diane Moser, Don DiNicola, and Ravi Krishnaswami.

Jesse’s thesis composition, 'Ø' was inspired by the stages of sleep deprivation. The symbol carries different meanings various languages. For the purpose of this piece, the slashed circle is intended to represent a broken loop or cycle both musically and conceptually.

KYLE PEDERSON usually writes church music for church choirs who sing in churches.

But not this time. This semester Kyle channeled his inner Diane Moser and wrote some far out grooves for piano, drums, flute, electric guitar, bass, and violin. Huge thanks to Diane for the guidance and for the opportunity to write a piece for her trio.

A note about the title of my piece... The: the Hennepin: a hip avenue in Minneapolis Shake: to dance, to boogie (but more like a strut...nothing awkward or spas-tic)

Cuban-born, Brooklyn-based pianist, violist, and composer ARUÁN ORTIZ has written music for jazz ensembles, orchestras, dance companies, chamber groups, and feature films. His work incorporates influences from contempo-rary classical music, Cuban-Haitian rhythms, and avant-garde improvisation, and consistently strives to break stylistic musical boundaries. He has been called “the latest Cuban wunderkind to arrive in the United States” by BET Jazz and "one of the most versatile and exciting pianists of his generation" by Downbeat Magazine.

He has received numerous accolades such as the Doris Duke Impact Award (2014), Composers Now Creative Residency Award (2014), and the Jerome Foundation Travel & Study Grant (2013), among others.

Aruán has released several albums as a leader and co-leader. His most recent album Aruán Ortiz trio "Hidden Voices" featuring Eric Revis and Gerald Cleaver was published by the prestigious Swiss label Intakt Records. This al-bum was named "best trio album of 2016" by Francis Davis (NPR) and has been selected as one of 2016's top jazz albums by numerous established jazz magazines.

Although he tours in with his own trio often, Aruán has also played, toured, or recorded with Esperanza Spalding, Don Byron, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ralph Alessi, Cindy Blackman-Santana, Cameron Brown, Greg Osby, Wallace Roney, John Bestch, Wadada Leo Smith, Hamiet Bluiett, and Drew Gress, to name a few.

TORREY RICHARDS—This piece was conceived as an expression of gratitude to VCFA and all of the community here. Additionally it was an in-trospective look on the process of coming to VCFA and now saying goodbye.

PHILIP W. RIEGLE earned his Bachelor of Music Education degree from Elmhurst College with minors in Theatre and Classical Voice Performance. He is currently the Director of Vocal and General Music at District 94 in North Riverside, IL. There, he coordinates K-8 general music curriculum, a fourth and fifth grade Beginner Chorus, junior high Concert Choir, and SoliVoce, a junior high a cappella ensemble. He is the Assistant Conductor for the Spirito! Singers choral arts organization of Elmhurst, IL where he works with Bravura, a high school women’s ensemble, and the Men of Spirito!, an adult men’s ensemble. He resides in the Chicago suburbs with his loving and supportive husband, John. Philip worked with Andy Jaffe this se-mester and would like to thank him for his guidance and encouraging insight.

SAGE/Sapphire is dedicated to Philip’s parents, Willam (Sage) and Rene (Sapphire) Riegle for their unconditional love and support. May the disso-nances of your lives bring out the joy of each consonant moment we are so fortunate to share.

ERIC SAMPLE teaches music, synthesis and film scoring at Champlain Col-lege, as well as running its recording studio. He is always amazed at the joy teaching and learning music brings.

Many thanks to Diane Moser for her guidance and inspiration this semester.

Eric studied music on the island of Jamaica for six years, and delights in its backcountry and winding roads that pulse with vibrant life. He has recently taken up playing the french horn again since writing for wind quintet.

Foxy was my boyhood dog. She had a pointed nose and the features of a fox. We set out on a beautiful morning—I on bike, and she on foot. She got hit on a country road. The story of her death forms the narrative for this piece.

STEVEN K. SANFORD, BSEE, MSIA, retired from a 42-year business career as a US Army Captain, a cost accountant for Mellon Bank, and an engi-neer and project executive for IBM. After retirement, Steven went back to school for a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from Shenandoah Uni-versity (2015), and is pursuing an MFA in Composition and Film Scoring at VCFA (August 2017). Steven has studied at VCFA with both Don DiNicola and Rick Baitz.

"The Constant" is Episode 5, season 4, the television series "Lost". The com-poser has condensed the entire 45-minute episode down to 10 minutes, and rescored it for live performance by the Talujon Percussion ensemble.

"The Constant" (synopsis): Desmond finds himself bouncing back and forth between 1996 in Scotland and 2004 in the South Pacific, caught in an unex-plained temporal phenomena. A physics professor explains that these danger-ous uncontrolled time jumps can only be stopped if he identifies something or someone in both 1996 and 2004 that he really cares about. He approaches his estranged girlfriend, Penny, in 1996 for her phone number and tells her he will call her back in 2004. Will she take the call in 2004, and end Desmond's dilemma?

ROBERT CORNELIUS SPENCER is a native of Macon, Georgia. Cor-nelius earned a Bachelor’s degree with emphasis in Piano from the Townsend School of Music, where he studied with Dr. John Noel Roberts and was a member of the Mercer Jazz and Percussion Ensembles. He participated in a number of chamber recitals and performances while completing his under-graduate studies.

Currently, he serves in the music department at Saint John Church, where his father serves as Pastor and Director of Music at Ash Street Church. Over the years, Cornelius has collaborated with a number of well known classical, gos-pel, and jazz artists. When he is not performing, he can be found teaching and has taught piano and Hammond organ since 2004 and feels that one of his greatest musical responsibilities is to his students by helping guide them to a life filled with quality musicianship and integrity.

In 2009, Cornelius began producing and composing, and founded CBM Pro-ductions, LLC, specializing in music production and composition for film, television, and media. Most recently, he has developed and enhanced those skills through study at Vermont College of Fine Arts under the tutelage of Don DiNicola, Ravi Krishnaswami, and Rick Baitz.

“Virtus Vitae” is a rescore of a previously released short film from the Cine Film Scoring Competition. The composition consists of sampled instruments and effects but also integrates live instrumentation.

GIOVANNI TABOR is a freelance composer and graduate student from Randolph, Vermont. He particularly loves collaborating with game developers to find new and interesting ways to implement music and audio within video games. This semester, Giovanni studied orchestration with Roger Zahab.

BRADLEY TURNER lives alone in Alabama. He thanks Carla Kihlstedt for her invaluable guidance this semester and Joseph Cornell for being an inspiration.

RICHARD TUTTOBENE is a Los Angeles based composer working in TV and film. He has written and produced music for many television shows including America's Most Wanted, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and over 400 live-action episodes for Nickelodeon -- All That, Kenan & Kel and The Amanda Show. Among his many jazz compositions, Tuzz's Shadow was adapted and performed by Steely Dan as well as recorded by Warren Bern-hardt and Bob Mintzer, with "Top pick' in both Downbeat and Jazztimes magazines and was published in the Sher Real Book, Volume III and subse-quent editions.

CFLC is a piece I wrote for percussion trio in three sections representing three stages of transformation I’ve recently undergone that have led to a new source of energy in which I’ve found renewal, strength, and a sense of having discovered the fountain of youth.

ERIK C. WENDELKEN started studying double bass at age 12 with Linda McKnight and went on to study with renowned bassist Homer Mensch at Manhattan School of Music and The Juilliard School. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance from Montclair State University, and a Master’s Degree in Education from Cambridge College, and is the Music Department Chair in the Nantucket Public School System where he teaches instrumental music. Erik has written and arranged many pieces for middle school and high school instrumental ensembles, and has several student pieces published by Audible Intelligence Music. The title “Inertia” refers to the resistance of change with regards to the pulse of the music in this piece. Despite changes of meter and rhythmic energy, the pulse remains the same throughout the com-position. Thank you John Fitz Rogers, for all of your time and direction with this project.