BIOS

CHIRON Performing Arts

Christopher Kaufman - Founder/Artistic Director

BIOS

CHRISTOPHER KAUFMAN is a composer, performer, presenter and teacher. He has composed over seventy works for a wide variety of medium including orchestra, wind ensemble, dance, chamber groups, theater and solo works. He is the founder and artistic director of CHIRON Performing Arts through which he has presented the work of hundreds of artists of all disciplines. He has a large private studio of students and has led a wide variety of workshops for students of all ages in public and private schools and universities. He is a writer/reviewer for the New Music Connoisseur. His music has been featured at June in Buffalo, The Charles Ives Music Center, the NorthEastern Composer's Conference, Encore Summer Music, The Internationales Musikinstitut of Darmstadt, Germany and Eastman’s Musica Nova. His Ring of Fire - for orchestra was featured at the American Composers Orchestra readings. He has been a fellow four times at the MacDowell Arts Colony . He has received numerous commissions of his music including recently, Island (‘eeslahnd’) - for full orchestra and narrator. He has received support from the M.F. J. Copying Fund, Meet the Composer, UCC Council on the Arts, CAP, the CAP individual artists' award, as well as charitable donations from individuals in his community who support his work. Kaufman has recently completed a work for large orchestra titled THE PHOENIX - dedicated to the City of New York and presented a chamber version for ensemble and dance at his CHIRON Performing Arts event staged on 11/9/03 at THE FLEA Theater in NYC. He has recently created a new version of ‘Eeslahnd’ sans narration for performance overseas, a new solo work for pianist Daniel Rieppel titled ’Momenta’ (after Schubert), a new orchestral work based on salsa rhythms titled ‘Mambo’, and, for his CHIRON performing arts festival event 11/14/04 is compled an arrangement of improvised and composed music to accompany the live readings of poet Rene Robert Galvan. You may visit his web site for the latest news and to see the layouts for CHIRON Performing Arts events. Kaufman lives in Forest Hills, NY and maintains a large private studio of music students. site link: www.chkaufman.com - or - Jeffrey James Arts Consulting.

KATYA SURRENCE (Choreographer) began studying ballet at the age of five under lifelong mentor, Mahri Coshever, who was more interested in spreading the love of dance than the competiveness of it. When Katya was fifteen, she began teaching for Ms. Coshever and has continued to teach in many of the places where she has performed, such as Los Angeles, Atlantic City, The Bahamas, Japan, Guam, North Jersey and New York City. She began her performing career with Pacific Ballet Theatre and went on to perform with Joey Harris' The Group and other regional companies including Atlantic Contemporary Ballet Theatre and Hudson Repertory Dance Theatre. Ms. Surrence also performed in such musicals as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ,The King and I and The Merry Widow with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. She performed in revue shows in Lake Tahoe, Venezuela, Spain, Japan, Guam, Hawaii, Baltimore and Atlantic City where she started her Adagio team. Ms. Surrence and her partner went on to dance in the Bahamas, at Foxwood Casino in Connecticut, and on the television show Star Search. Ms. Surrence was then accepted into the American Ballroom Theatre's training program and studied the bronze and silver syllabi in the American technique with Pierre Dulaine and Yvonne Marceau. She received her teaching certificate in ballroom and was invited to join the company. With ABrT she traveled to Portugal, Africa and Hawaii and performed at the Joyce Theatre in New York City. She has recently returned from performing "around the world" with SilverSea Cruises where she was privileged to work with producer and choreographer, Walter Painter. Her own experiences along with studies in Kinesiology have led Ms. Surrence to her own holistic approach to dance -- to work within the student's physical limits to expand their abilities and to help them learn to express themselves through movement. She also believes deeply that dancing is not only for the "naturally gifted" student and that anyone who has the love and the drive can learn to dance.

Trombonist HAIM AVITSUR has premiered over 50 works for trombone solo, chamber music, and orchestra. In New York, he has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Noonday Concerts at Trinity Church Wall Street, Mannes College of Music, and the Aaron Copland School of Music. His chamber music appearances include Lincoln Center‚,
Alice Tully Hall, WQXR, New York‚s Classical Radio Station, Bard College, and the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Mr. Avitsur has presented master classes and workshop at the Aaron Copland School of Music, NY, the Sentor School of Music, Syracuse University, NY, Stanford University, CA, and the Tel-Aviv Music Center, Tel-Aviv, Israel. - site link: www.haimavitsur.com

IDITH MESHULAM was born in Israel and first studied piano with her mother, Shelly Asher-Meshulam. At age nine, she performed with the Tel Aviv Chamber Orchestra, and for several years with the Kibbutzim Orchestra, all the while giving solo recitals and broadcast concerts throughout Israel. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv, she focused on playing the works of contemporary composers, among them Olivier Messiaen, for whom she has played in person.
Ms. Meshulam received her Ph.D. from New York University, where she had taught for ten years. While a student at NYU, she researched the unpublished piano music of Stefan Wolpe for her doctoral dissertation. Also an exponent of the music of Nikos Skalkottas, whose mentor was Arnold Schoenberg, Ms. Meshulam was collaborating with the composer and conductor Gunther Schuller on a recording of Skalkottas’s Thirty-Two Piano Pieces, to be released on the GM label on 2004. Ms. Meshulam initiated, organized, and participated in a recent memorial concert for Robert Helps, her mentor and friend. The concert, which was held at New York’s Cooper Union, was reviewed in The New York Times and partially recorded for National Public Radio. She has most recently taken an active role in the programming and performance of a two-day festival of new music presented by American Composers Alliance at the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York City.

LARA KOHN (dancer/choreographer) was born in Ahmedebad, India, raised in Paris, France and presently makes her home in New York City. Lara trained at the London Contemporary Dance School and apprenticed with Dominque Bagouet at the Centre Choreographique National de Montpellier. Since beginning her professional career in 1990, she has been a member of several French National and Independent dance companies. Most notably: Centre Choreographique National de Tours/Daniel Larrieu and Compagnie Christine Bastin. She has also collaborated with theater director Frederic Fisbach on several productions. Currently she is working on a collaboration with a visual artist as well as developing projects of her own.

ROBERT DICK is a creative virtuoso in the tradition of Paganini and Hendrix.  Improvisor, composer, author, teacher and inventor, he is known worldwide for redefining the flute, for creating revolutionary visions of its musical role to stand alongside the flute's established musics.  Robert's musical tap roots are inspiration from the traditions central to him -- free improvisation, American and European contemporary classical art music, Blues, Indian and other world musics, Western classical music, electronic, rock, jazz. 
Robert has recently returned to New York City to live after a decade in Europe.  He is on the faculty at NYU. His discography includes over twenty CDs of original solo and chamber music by fellow composer/performers in such groups as the A.D.D. Trio (with electric guitarist Christy Doran and drummer Steve Argüelles) and the Ambient/Overdrive group King Chubby (with Ed Bialek, samples and keyboards and Will Ryan, handmade instruments and percussion).   Other CDs feature music by Telemann (the "Fantasies" for flute alone) and Jimi Hendrix.   A duo recording with Jaron Lanier "Columns of Air" is on the horizon. The Emerson Company manufactures the Robert Dick Model bass flute, and Dick is developing his radical "Glissando Headjoint" with Bickford Brannen or Brannen Brothers Flutemakers.   The "Glissando Headjoint", a telescoping mouthpiece, widens the flute's expressive possibilities enormously -- creating virtually a new instrument. Site link: www.robertdick.net

GEORGE ROSENBAUM started playing violin at age 6. He won the New Jersey statewide best young artist award 5 years in a row. He studied with Samuel Applebaum at the Manhattan School of Music and with George Papich at the University of North Texas. He is a National and International soloist, chamber ensemble musician and orchestral player and has held faculty positions at Texas Christian University, Northeast Louisiana University, the University of Memphis and Mesa State College. The list of works composed for him by composers of large and small reputations would take up the rest of this program. He is known for his tireless support of new music and masterful performances of works of the past. His ‘Fats Waller’ impressions are a matter of legend. About fifteen years ago he befriended a young composer named Christopher Kaufman, toured with him, cajoled the composition from him of 2 concertos, a duo and a solo work for viola and helped inspire the inception of this concert series.

ELLIOTT SCHWARTZ was born in New York City and studied composition with Otto Luening and Jack Beeson at Columbia University. Since 1964 he has taught at Bowdoin College, where he holds the Robert K. Beckwith Professorship of music. He has also held extended visiting residencies at the University of California (Santa Barbara and San Diego campuses), Harvard University, Ohio State University, the London College of Music, Trinity College of Music (UK) and Cambridge University (UK). Schwartz has served as president of the College Music Society, vice-president of the American Music Center, and national chair of the American Society of University Composers.
Schwartz’s compositions have been performed by such groups as the Minnesota Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, and the Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands; they have also been featured at numerous international music centers and festivals including Tanglewood, the Library of Congress, Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Spoleto Festival (Charleston), the Bath, York and Kings Lynn Festivals (England), De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), Music of the Americas (London), “Leningrad Spring,” International Double Reed Festival (Rotterdam), and the European Youth Orchestra Festival (Copenhagen). Recent appearances as guest composer-lecturer include New York (Merkin Hall, NYU, SUNY/ Stony Brook, and the Museum of Modern Art), Berkeley (Sounds New), Boston (Extension Works, Tufts), London (Royal Academy of Music, and the Institute for United States Studies/ University of London), the Tokyo College of Music, Reykjavik Conservatory (Iceland), and the Weimar Hochschule (Germany). In the coming 2003-2004 season Schwartz will appear as guest composer-performer in New York (Flea Theater), London (Goldsmiths College and the Royal Academy), and Boston (Berklee College and Composers in Red Sneakers), Butler University, Adelphi University and Western Illinois University. He will also hold a week-long residency at Oxford University (UK), and introduce his new chamber work By George at the international “Handel MusikTage” (Germany). In addition to composing, Schwartz has written extensively on musical topics. His books include The Symphonies of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Music: Ways of Listening; Electronic Music: A Listener's Guide; Music since 1945 (of which he is co-author with Daniel Godfrey) and the anthology Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music (co-editor with Barney Childs). His compositions are published by Carl Fischer, G.Schirmer, Theodore Presser, and MMB; CD recordings of his music can be heard on the New World, CRI, Capstone, Innova, Vienna Modern Masters and GM labels. An Albany CD of his orchestral music is due for release this fall. More about Elliott Scwartz.

BOMBASTIQ BRASS exists both as a trio and as a quintet. This innovative ensemble presents programs that elevate the spirits and provide a good time. The individual players in BOMBASTIQ BRASS are all award-winning New York free-lance musicians with international careers. Usually there will be a theme to concerts by BOMBASTIQ BRASS. For instance “Popular American Classics” – a journey through American music history covering Stephen Foster, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Madonna and many more. Another program-example: “Something old, something new, Something borrowed, something blue” consisting of original compositions from the Romantic era and from present day, arrangements of music originally scored for other instrumentations, some down-and-dirty blues and a delightful jazz-transcription of Mendelssohn’s famous wedding march. Although BOMBASTIQ BRASS has had many new works written especially for it, and continues to give world-premieres, the main goal of BOMBASTIQ BRASS is to play music that people relate easily to in order to spread joy and happiness to audiences everywhere.

Norwegian horn player Karl Kramer-Johansen is a member of the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. He is a winner of many prizes and awards – American Horn Competition 1997 and 1999, and most recently, the 2001 American Scandinavian Society Cultural Award. Mr. Kramer is also active as a recitalist, lecturer, conductor and composer. He has recorded for the Philips and Aurora labels. The New York Times wrote of his performance of Milton Babbitt’s “Around the Horn”: “…is essentially a stand-up routine for a virtuoso soloist, excellently communicated by Karl Kramer.”
Gary Press (tuba) is an active freelance musician and teacher in New York City.   He has performed with such groups as the Albany and Allentown Symphonies, the Long Island Philharmonic and the Dallas Wind Symphony as well as the PAI Brass, Manhattan Brass Quintet and the Faculty Brass Quintet at Sam Houston State University. He holds the Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, as well as the Bachelor of Music degree and Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Press teaches privately, is currently on the faculty of the Performing Arts Institute in Kingston, PA and has been on the faculties of Midland College in Texas and the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division. He has recorded for the CBS Masterworks and MMC New Century labels.

Alice Cotton Architectural Artist and Illustrator
Beautifully detailed pen and ink drawings
Home portraits, book illustrations and advertising art

Alice Cotton is a professional illustration artist, educator, musician, author and speaker. Alice's niche is portraying historical architecture in a distinctive pen and ink drawing style. Alice enhances her architectural work with color and creates semi-sculptural works with clay, wood and acrylic painting.
Her pen and ink work is featured in her book, When Buildings Speak, where she introduces the reader to a wealth of beautifully designed buildings, each with its own unique story. Alice believes these architectural treasures offer answers to some of our most important historical and philosophical questions. “Every time I draw one of these buildings, I feel like I am being sent along a powerful chain of human lives.” Alice's book, When Buildings Speak (Artemis Publishing, 2001) is available at most major book stores and on the web.
Alice also teaches Math Artistry to intermediate students through the Science and Technical Foundation of Oregon and is a frequent participant in artist-in-residency programs.
For more information contact:
503-254-3173
to see artist's portfolio go to www.artemisillustration.com

JOHN EATON was called "The most interesting opera composer writing in America today" by Andrew Porter in The London Financial Times.  Through his vast works in a variety of mediums, he has received international recognition as a composer and performer of electronic and microtonal music, and has written over fifteen operas.
Eaton's works have been performed extensively throughout the world.  Several works have been broadcast on Public Radio and Television including his opera, Myshkin, which was seen throughout world by an estimated 15,000,000 people.
John Eaton has received several prestigious awards including a Mac Arthur Foundation "genius" award in 1990.  His music was chosen to represent the U.S.A. in 1970 at the International Rostrum of Composers (UNESCO). He has received a citation and award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, three Prix de Rome Grants, two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as commissions from the Fromm and Koussevitsky Foundations and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  He has lectured at the Salzburg Center of American Studies, and was Composer in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. In September 2000, his career was celebrated in the American Music Center’s web site and excerpts of his operas can still be seen as well as an extended interview in the archives of http://www.newmusicbox.org.
Eaton is Professor Emeritus of Music Composition at the University of Chicago.  He taught there for 10 years and at Indiana University (Bloomington) for 20.  His compositions have been recorded by Albany, C.R.I., Indiana University Press, (American) Decca, and Tournabout, and are handled by Shawnee Press, G.Schirmer (A.M.P.) and European-American Music. More about John Eaton.

RAUL CONTI
American-Argentine Painter and Sculptor
Raúl Conti's work, both paintings and sculptures, speaks volumes through symbols universal to man. Although he often employs pre-Columbian elements, these works have a proto-historical perspective common to the whole race. Raul Conti was born in Morteros, Argentina, in 1931. Beginning in his adolescence, under the tutelage of Alfredo Lazzari and Juan Grela, Mr. Conti studied throughout Latin America and Europe. His interests have long been centered on the resolution of plastic compositions through the austerity of a palette based on earth tones. Later, he sought the luminosity of forms through the contrast of complimentary colors using saturated dyes. He blends these saturated dyes with their complimentaries, producing the grays of colors that have evolved in his works. He is committed to the seemingly contradictory worlds of meaning and emotion, expressing basic impulses that appeal to a distant faculty. In 1977, Raul Conti moved to New York, where he graphically painted the scenes he saw. Mixing signs, buildings, and people, he portrays well the nostalgia he must have felt for Argentina. Recently, however, pre-Columbian symbols have returned to his works.
Master Conti’s Lists of Exhibitions and Collections are simply far to vast to list here.
Raul Conti -
457 West 35th Street, Apt. 1E, New York, NY, 10001
Tel: (212) 244-0936 or (718) 846-2351
email: mirian.conti@verizon.net

JENNIFER RODERER
Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Roderer began the 2004-2005 season as Junon in Mark Morris’ production of Platée at New York City Opera, where she has appeared regularly since her 1999 debut as Third Lady in The Magic Flute, notably as Jade Boucher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. In May, she will be featured in City Opera’s first tour to Japan as Cecilia March in Mark Adamo’s Little Women. Earlier this spring, she portrays Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana at Sarasota Opera, where she has previously sung Gertrude in Hänsel und Gretel. She began 2004 with her American Symphony Orchestra debut at Avery Fisher Hall, singing the dramatic leading role of Klementia in Hindemith’s opera Sancta Susanna, and later sang Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes with the New York City Ballet, also appearing in its nationally televised Balanchine Gala.

Ms. Roderer made her European debut at Opern Air Gars in Austria as Amneris in Aida, a role she has also sung at Opera Illinois. A specialist in the Verdi, Wagner, and verismo repertories, she has sung Waltraute in Die Walküre at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Seattle Opera, a Flowermaiden in Act II of Parsifal with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez, Die Notarin in Strauss’ Intermezzo at Santa Fe Opera, Emilia in Otello at Opera Pacific, the First and Second Serving Maids in Elektra at Los Angeles Opera, Virginia Opera, and Washington Opera, and l’Ostessa in Zandonai’s I Cavalieri di Ekebù with New York’s Teatro Grattacielo, as well as covering the role of Eboli in Don Carlos at San Francisco Opera.
Ms. Roderer’s interest in music of our time is reflected by her appearances at Toledo Opera as Mrs. Grose in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Glimmerglass Opera in Britten’s Paul Bunyan, and Opera Festival of New Jersey in Floyd’s Susannah. She has frequently participated in New York City Opera’s Showcasing American Composers program, in excerpts from operas including Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun and Bright Sheng’s Madame Mao, in which she also covered the title role at Santa Fe Opera. She also recently sang John Eaton’s microtonal song cycle Lettere with Ensemble Pi at the American Composers Alliance’s 2004 American Music Festival.

A busy orchestral soloist, Ms. Roderer has sung with the New Jersey Symphony (Hansel and Gretel and Mozart Requiem), Jacksonville Symphony (Messiah and Beethoven Symphony No. 9), Anchorage Symphony (Beethoven Missa solemnis), Pacific Symphony (Beethoven’s Ninth), and Hudson Valley Philharmonic and Peoria Symphony (Verdi Requiem). She has also sung Stravinsky’s Les noces with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Dvor¹ák’s Requiem with the Berkshire Choral Festival, and the Bach Magnificat and Mozart Requiem with Berkshire Lyric Theater.
Ms. Roderer has appeared in New York recitals under the auspices of the Wagner Society of New York and the Austrian Cultural Forum. She has been presented in concert by and received support from the Thomas Stewart and Evelyn Lear Emerging Singers Program of the Wagner Society of Washington, DC, and is recipient of a grant from the William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation, as well as the Arthur E. Walters Memorial Award from Opera Index. She has also won grants from the Wagner Society of New York and Opera Buffs of Southern California, and first prize in the Opera Guild of Southern California competition. Born in Illinois and raised in Los Angeles, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California.

The Argentine pianist MIRIAN CONTI enjoys a growing reputation as a musician whose performances combine technical brilliance with striking originality and artistic insight. Stylistically assured in a wide range of repertoire, Ms. Conti is considered a leading exponent of Spanish music; and her rare ability to communicate passion and excitement when playing contemporary scores has won the admiration of leading American and Argentine composers such as Bowles, Broeders, Cohn, Diamond, Gould, Lees, Persichetti, Ramey, White, Zyman, etc. She premiered Lalo Schifrin's Piano Concerto No.2 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles. She was invited by the French Cultural Center in Tangier, Morocco to perform a concert in homage to Paul Bowles.
The pianist has made solo, orchestral and chamber appearances at Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (debut in 1987 as a winner of Artists International Auditions) in New York , and has performed at numerous concert halls throughout the world, including the Teatro Colón in her native Argentina. In 1989, she was awarded a special prize as the best performer of Spanish music in the International Pilar Bayona Piano Competition in Zaragoza, Spain. In 1995, she was awarded the Andrés Segovia-José Miguel Ruiz Morales Prize as the best performer of Spanish music in the XXXVIII Santiago de Compostela International University Course on Spanish Music, Spain. She has appeared with the Jupiter Symphony and the American Composers Orchestra in New York City and most recently with the Queens Symphony Orchestra. She was invited to perform in the prestigious Beethoven-Liszt Concerts Cycle organized by the Juan March Foundation in Spain.
Miss Conti's latest CD release, on Towerhill, features works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann. Conti has also recorded for the Antilles New Direction Label of Island Records several compact discs featuring works by Mexican, Argentine, and Spanish composers. Her CD on the Koch International Classics label features rarely performed piano works by Joaquín Turina and has been enthusiastically received by critics. A recording featuring American solo piano music has been released on the Albany label.

more about Mirian Conti.

ALBERTO GINASTERA (Evaristo)(born 1916, Buenos Aires--died 1983, Geneva), a leading 20th-century Latin-American composer, known for his use of local and national musical idioms in his compositions.
Ginastera was musically talented as a child and studied in Buenos Aires at the Conservatorio Williams and the National Conservatory. He received a Guggenheim award and lived in the United States in 1946-47.Ginastera's music marks him as a traditionalist, despite his advanced musical vocabulary, which owes much to the great musical figures of the early 20th century. His synthesis of techniques is unique and eclectic, and he makes use of microtones (smaller than half tones), serial procedures (basing works on selected series of pitches, rhythms, etc.), and aleatoric, or chance, music as well as older established forms. Ginastera's Piano Concerto and Cantata para América mágicawon great acclaim at the 1961 Interamerican Music Festival. His first opera, Don Rodrigo (1964), unsuccessful in its premiere in Buenos Aires, was hailed as a triumph in New York City in 1966.
Ginastera's masterpiece is the chamber opera Bomarzo (1967), which established him as one of the leading opera composers of the 20th century. This highly dissonant score is a reworking of a cantata of the same name for narrator, male voice, and chamber orchestra, commissioned by the E.S. Coolidge Foundation at the Library of Congress (1964). In Bomarzo Ginastera made use of novel and complex compositional techniques but preserved the traditional opera format of arias and recitatives in its 15 scenes. He further developed this style in his final opera, Beatrix Cenci, which had its debut in 1971 in Washington, D.C.

WILL RYAN -- the Fluid Druid -- handmade instruments, chanting, and percussion -- a spirit driven musician playing percussion, birimbau, “reed cornet”, Shakuhachi, hand-made reed instruments of his own creation, and voice.
His organic approach to new and other world music is uniquely his own. A blend of rhythms and timbres that can be heard on projects as diverse as recordings with Buddhist monks, performing at the Clio awards, collaborating on dance, television, multimedia productions, and films that have been nominees for both the Cannes and East Hampton Film Festivals. Will along with Robert Dick, Mark Egan, Michael D’Agostino and Ed Bialek form the instrumental world fusion quintet King Chubby. Will Ryan is also an internationally recognized visual artist.

Violinist - CAROLINE CHIN made her solo debut with the South Suburban Symphony of Chicago at age 13, and has since performed with the North Suburban Symphony of Lake Forest, Kishwaukee Symphony, and Skokie Valley Symphony. She performed at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington DC during the “Imagination Celebration” and the White House during their Christmas Festivities. She has performed with Colin Carr and Charles Neidich in Europe and has collaborated with members of the Chicago Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Tokyo String Quartet, and Vermeer Quartet. Caroline received her master’s degree from the Juilliard School and her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University. Her principal teachers have been Robert Mann, Miriam Fried, and Shmuel Ashkenasi.

Cellist YUN-JOO NA - a native of South Korea, Cellist YUN-JOO NA is active as a soloist and chamber musician, and has been featured in performances at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Donnell Library, The National Arts Club, and the Banff Certer of the Arts, and other venues. While in her native country, she was recipient of numerous awards, including the Yook-Young and Ewha-kyunghyang Daily News competition, among other awards. As a concerto soloist she has performed with the Seoul Philharmonic and the New Seoul Philharmonic Orcherstras. Miss Na has participated in the master classes of Daniel Sharpran,Ralph Kirschbaum,Ani Kavafian, Joel Krosnick, and the Orion String Quartet, and has couched with Laurence Lesser, Seymour Lipkin, Gilbert Kalish, and the Emerson String Quartet. She also has been featured as a collaborating artist with pianist Thomas Sauer and violinist Lorand Fenyves. After receiving her master's degree from the Mannes College of Music as a student of Paul Tobias, she continued her studies at SUNY in Stony brook, where she is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree as a student of Colin Carr.

ROBERT RENE GALVAN (Kan Balam) was born in San Antonio, Texas. He was educated at Southwest Texas State University, the State University of New York at Stoneybrook and the University of Texas. He has performed extensively as a poet and as a musician, conducting choirs and orchestras. Mr. Galvan is Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation Scholar and Fellow, and received the Texas Excellence in Teaching Award for his work at the University of Texas. At present he is professor of Conducting and Choral Studies at the Brooklyn-Queens Conservatory of Music and Conductor of the Springfield Symphony Chorus. He also appears as arranger and conductor on a CD released in November 1999 entitled Jam & SPice: the Music of Kurt Weill. His collection of poems - METEORS - was published by Lux Nove Editions in 1997. He resides in New York City with his wife Holly and their four year old daughter Gina Renee.