David Ludwig

Composer David Ludwig's music has been performed internationally by leading musicians in some of the world's most prestigious locations. His music has been called “entrancing,” and that it “promises to speak for the sorrows of this generation,” (Philadelphia Inquirer). It has further gained recognition for its “expressive directness” (The New York Times) and has been noted for “a yearning, poetic quality” (Baltimore Sun). The New Yorker magazine calls him a “musical up-and-comer” and the Chicago Tribune says that he “deserves his growing reputation as one of the up-and-comers of his generation.” He has had performances in such venues in as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Library of Congress, and been played on PBS and National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition.  NPR Music listed him as one of the world’s top 100 composers under forty in 2011.

Ludwig has received commissions from many prominent artists and ensembles. The Grammy Award-winning eighth blackbird ensemble commissioned his work Haiku Catharsis.  In 2005, Ludwig wrote a new work for violinist Jaime Laredo that the composer conducted in a dozen concert halls. According to the League of American Orchestras, his Concertino was one of the top ten most frequently performed orchestra works by a living composer that year.  He joined the Curtis On Tour Ensemble in 2009 for a tour with his song-cycle From the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayám in a season that also featured performances with the Minnesota Orchestra, the National Symphony, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

This season features performances by Marina Piccinini, eighth blackbird, the American Modern Ensemble, and the Detroit Chamber Winds, as well as the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 The Book of Hours with the Vermont Symphony.  The 2009-2010 season featured commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, Concert Artists Guild, The Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the University of Michigan Wind Ensemble, as well as a double concerto for violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson.  Other commissions have been received from important musicians including pianist Jonathan Biss, flutist Jeffrey Khaner, violinist Soovin Kim, violist Michael Tree, and guitarist Jason Vieaux.

Recipient of the First Music Award, an Independence Foundation Fellowship, and a Theodore Presser Foundation Career Grant, Ludwig has been twice nominated for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Stoeger Award.  He has received awards from the American Composers Forum, American Music Center, and had a three-year residency with the Vermont Symphony funded by the Meet The Composer “Music Alive!” program.  He was honored in 2009 as a cultural leader by the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia.

Ludwig was the Young Composer in residence at the Marlboro Music School for three consecutive years.  In addition to Marlboro, he has been in residence at the Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies.  He is a resident artist at the Isabella Gardner Museum, and is now the permanent New Music Advisor of the Vermont Symphony.  Ludwig directs several composition programs in prominent summer music festivals, as well.

Born in Bucks County, P.A., Ludwig comes from several generations of musicians.  His grandfather was the pianist Rudolf Serkin and his great-grandfather, violinist Adolf Busch.  He holds degrees from Oberlin, MSM, Curtis, and Juilliard, as well as a PhD from UPenn.  Ludwig is on the composition faculty of the Curtis Institute where he serves the Artistic Chair of Performance and as the director of the Curtis 20/21 Contemporary Music Ensemble

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Andrew Thomas

Andrew William Thomas, (born: 1939 in upstate, NY). He studied with Karel Husa at Cornell University, with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and earned his M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees in Composition at The Juilliard School. At Juilliard he studied with Luciano Berio, Elliot Carter, and Otto Luening. He teaches and was the chairman of the Composition Department at the Pre-College Division at Juilliard from 1969 to 1994. In 1994, The Juilliard School appointed him the Director of the Pre-College Division. In addition to composing, Dr. Thomas performs as a pianist, conductor, and is a guest teacher throughout the world. His many awards include a grant from The National Endowment for the Arts and a Distinguished Teacher Citation from The White House Commission on Presidential Scholars.

After Vladimir Ashkenazy conducted The Deutsches Symphonie Orchester/Berlin in Dr. Thomas's Marimba Concerto, 'Loving Mad Tom,' with Evelyn Glennie as the soloist, JŸrgen Otten of Der Tagespiel wrote "... his arsenal of romantic ghost music from Weber to Berlioz to Liszt is recognized here, and sound-consciously conveyed into the modern idiom."

Many soloists, chamber organizations, and orchestras have recorded Dr. Thomas's music in the United States and abroad, including his work for solo Marimba, 'Merlin,' commissioned by William Moersch, which has become a standard among percussionists. Numerous recordings of this work are available, including ones by Mr. Moersch on Newport Classics and Nancy Zeltsman on GM Records. "Three Transformations" for duo marimbas, commissioned by Nancy Zeltsman, was recorded by Ms. Zeltsman and Jack Van Geem and is available on their "Pedro and Olga Learn to Dance" CD and other recordings. Both works have been requirements for percussion competitions. The American Brass Quintet includes Dr. Thomas's 'Consonanze Stravaganti' a work which they commissioned- on their ÒAmerican VisionsÓ album on the Summit label. 'Loving Mad Tom,' a marimba concerto by Dr. Thomas and his concerto for guitar, percussion, and string orchestra, 'The Heroic Triad' was recorded by the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the Opus One label with the composer conducting. It will be released sometime in 2007.

Other works of Andrew Thomas that were commissioned and premiered by soloists and organizations within the past few years include: 'Wind' for solo Marimba, composed for Makoto Nakura, 'The Heroic Triad', for Twentieth Century Unlimited, 'For the class of 2003', for Renée Fleming, 'Valse Triste', a solo marimba work for Simon Boyar, 'Crane by the River Li', for the traditional Chinese instrument Orchestra of the Guangxi Arts College in Nanning, China, and 'A Samba', a work for two solo flutes (Carol Wincenc and Robert Langevin), two flute choirs, and chamber orchestra. Dr. Thomas has also orchestrated his music for lyricist, Gene Scheer's: 'Lean Away', which Nathan Gunn sang with the St. Louis Symphony and 'I Just Found Another New Voice Teacher' for a Metropolitan Opera performance of 'Die Fledermaus'. On January 4, 2001, Renée Fleming sang 'I Just Found Another New Voice Teacher' with the Orpheus Strings on ÒLive From Lincoln Center.

Although he has taught throughout the world, since 2000, Andrew Thomas has become a regular guest of the People's Republic of China. Under the auspices of the Chinese Government, Dr. Thomas performed his composition for solo piano, 'Music at Twilight', in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. He was the head western judge of a panel of pianists from all over the world judging the 2000 Chinese Works Piano Competition.

In December 2001, Dr. Thomas went to Nanning, China to conduct his "Three Scenes from the Summer Palace'" and other works, to perform as a pianist, and to teach master classes in composition. Dr. Thomas is now an Advisor of the Guangxi Arts College and a guest conductor of the Guangxi Arts College Youth Orchestra. He has returned yearly for further conducting and solo performances. He was honored as the main Western speaker at a conference of middle school administrators and government officials from all parts of China.

In an effort to upgrade music education throughout China, Dr. Thomas developed a program which brought together music academies in an effort to advance all the students' technical and artistic abilities in Western as well as Asian music.He has begun a music Library, now the largest in South China in Nanning at the Guangxi Arts College. In April 2004 he conducted the Shanghai Conservatory Youth Orchestra and the Nanning Symphony in a three concerto evening with student soloists from Shanghai, Nanning and, Juilliard.

He composed a new evening length cross-cultural ballet, "Focus of the Heart" for the Chinese people with an original story written by his partner Howard Kessler. The score utilizes both full Traditional Chinese and Western orchestras.

They have now been comissioned by the China Conservatory to produce a musical production of new works composed for traditional Chinese Instruments and singers. This will be scheduled for late in 2010.

Dr. Thomas lectured, taught, and performed in Korea at a music festival that he co- directed. This festival, The Seoul Music Festival + Academy brings together Western and Korean teachers to perform and to teach advanced String and Piano students. He conducted two programs with the Prime Symphony Orchestra, and one with the Suwon Philharmonic, then another program for the Korean Symphony Orchestra, including his concerto for marimba and orchestra, 'Loving Mad Tom,' all in Seoul, Korea.

On October 9, 2004 Dr. Andrew Thomas gave a piano recital in the Juilliard Theater at the Juilliard School celebrating his 65th birthday, 35 years teaching at the Juilliard School and ten years as its Pre-College director. After twelve years he stepped down from his administrative position in 2006 to concentrate on his composition works, to teach his gifted students, and hopefully to foster the musical talents of young international 'Citizens of the World.' At his farewell party Juilliard bestowed upon him the title of Director Emeritus.

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George Tsontakis

George Tsontakis has been the recipient of the two richest prizes awarded in all of classical music; the international Grawemeyer Award, in 2005, for his Second Violin Concerto and the 2007 Ives Living, awarded every three years by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He studied with Roger Sessions at Juilliard and in Rome, with Franco Donatoni. Born in Astoria, NY into a strongly Cretan heritage, he has, in recent years, become an important figure in the music of Greece and his music is increasingly performed abroad, with dozens of performances in Europe every season. Most of his music, including eleven major orchestral works and four concertos have been recorded by Hyperion and Koch, leading to two Grammy Nominations for Best Classical Composition, in 2009 and 1999. He is Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at the Bard Conservatory and Composer-in-Residence with the Aspen Music Festival for decades, where he was founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, from 1991-99. He served for three years as Composer-in-Residence with the Oxford (England) Philomusica and is continuing a six-year Music Alive residency with the Albany Symphony and is the featured Composer-In-Residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, 2008-09 season. He lives in New York State’s Catskill Mountains, in Shokan.

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Nils Vigeland

Nils Vigeland was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1950 and made his professional debut as a pianist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969, Lukas Foss conducting. He later studied composition with Mr. Foss at Harvard College, graduating with a BA in 1972. Graduate studies were at the State University of New York at Buffalo in piano with Yvar Mikhashoff (MFA 1975) and composition with Morton Feldman (PhD 1976).

For eight years Mr. Vigeland was the director of the Bowery Ensemble, which gave an annual series of concerts at the Cooper Union in New York City. The ensemble gave the first performance of over thirty works by composers including John Cage, Jo Kondo, Pauline Oliveros, and Dane Rudhyar. With Jan Williams, percussion, and Eberhard Blum, flute, Mr. Vigeland has recorded all the extended length works of Feldman for this ensemble on HAT ART. His own work appears on CD releases from Mode and Lovely Music and is published by Boosey and Hawkes.

In 1992 The English National Opera commissioned and gave the first performance at the Almeida Theatre in London of Mr. Vigeland's chamber opera, False Love True Love , based on two scenes from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. In 1989 his orchestral work My Father's Song was a winner of the Rose Prize and given its first performance by the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has been the recipient of grants from Harvard College, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust.

Mr. Vigeland has taught at Manhattan School of Music since 1984 and is presently the chair of the composition department.

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Robert Cuckson

Robert Cuckson was born in 1942 in the U.K., and grew up in Australia. He is a U.S. citizen and lives in New York City. His works have been performed in the U.S., Australia, the Far East, Europe, and Israel.

His principal compositions include three chamber operas and several orchestral works, including the Variations for Orchestra, three tone-poems, Concerti for Cello, Saxophone and Guitar, and a Rhapsody for Viola and Chamber Orchestra. He has written many chamber works, including a number of works with trombone. His piano works and violin works have received numerous performances in the U.S. and in Europe. In January, 2007, a concert of his chamber works was presented in the North River Music series at the Greenwich House Music School in New York City. In 2004, a concert of his vocal and chamber works was given by the Bach Society of Columbia University, conducted by David Rosenmeyer. His Piano Trio has been performed by the Mannes Trio on several occasions, including performances for the Philadelphia Chamber Society and at the Salt Bay Festival in Maine. A recording by Harvey Pittel of his Saxophone Concerto was released by the Contemporary Record Society in June, 2007.

He studied composition and piano in Australia, in the U.K., and the U.S., and holds a D.M.A. degree in Composition from Yale University (1978). He teaches at The Mannes College of Music in New York City and The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He is represented by the Australian Music Centre, Sydney.

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Robert Paterson

Cited by the press as “one of the major contenders in American music” and writing “exuberant and rhythmically vital music marked by energy and a wonderful sense of color,” Robert Paterson’s music continues to be in demand by audiences and musicians alike.

For the next three years, Paterson is the Music Alive composer-in-residence with the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, sponsored by Meet The Composer and the League of American Orchestras. This residency will culminate in a major commission for a twenty-minute work for orchestra and chorus.

A recipient of the 2011 Composer of The Year Award from the Classical Recording Foundation, Paterson is also the winner of the 2010 Cincinnati Camerata Composition Competition with his setting of Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep (text by Mary Frye). The panel chose this work from his cycle Eternal Reflections for its “expressive choral writing, text painting and imaginatively beautiful textures.”

Recent performances include the European premiere and sixteen additional performances of Dancing Games by the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (France), Wind Quintet by the Philharmonia Quintet (Poland), Eternal Reflections, commissioned for the San Francisco-based Volti choir, Embracing the Wind by the Aureole Trio and New York Harp Trio, the Louisville Orchestra world premiere of Electric Lines, winner of the orchestra’s new music competition, and a work previously selected for the Minnesota Orchestra and American Composers Orchestra Whitaker New Music Readings

Other recent performances include Enlightened City, commissioned for the 100th anniversary of the IHS Orchestra and the world premiere of Crimson Earth by the University of Connecticut Wind Ensemble. Ensembles that have performed his music include the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, New York New Music Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, California EAR Unit, Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble, Ensemble Aleph (Paris), Naiades Ensemble (London), Ensemble Nouvelles Consonances (Belgium), the Kairos String Quartet, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the MANCA Festival presented by the Centre National de Création Musicale (CIRM) and the June in Buffalo new music festival.

Upcoming commissions through 2009-11 include a new work for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra to be conducted by Jaime Jaredo, two new choral works for the Chamber Choir of Europe conducted my Nicol Matt and a new work for orchestra and chorus for the Vermont Youth Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Domoto. Paterson is also embarking on an orchestral opera in two acts with writer and librettist David Cote of which two scenes have been completed.

Awards include the Copland Award, Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition, Brian Israel Prize, two ASCAP Young Composer Awards and grants from Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum and ASCAP, as well as fellowships to Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Paterson appears on recordings for Mode Records, Centaur Records, Capstone, Riax and American Modern Recordings (AMR), and he will be releasing two additional CDs of his music in 2011-12 on the AMR Label.

Born in 1970, Paterson was raised in Buffalo, New York, the son of a sculptor and a painter. Although his first love was percussion, he soon discovered a passion for composition, writing his first piece at age thirteen. Paterson is active as a professional percussionist and pioneered the development of a six-mallet marimba technique, presenting the world’s first all six-mallet marimba recital at the Eastman School of Music in 1993. Paterson has received degrees from Eastman (BM), Indiana University (MM), and Cornell University (DMA), and his composition teachers include Frederick Fox, Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner, Roberto Sierra, and Steven Stucky. He resides in New York City with his wife, Victoria, a violinist, and their four-year-old son Dylan.

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Sheridan Seyfried

Composer Sheridan Seyfried was born in Philadelphia in 1984. He attended the Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. His music has been performed by the piano quartet OPUS ONE, clarinetist David Shifrin and violinist Ani Kavafian, as well as by the Minnesota Orchestra. Mr. Seyfried teaches music theory at the Curtis Institute as well as the Mannes College of Music. Recently, he was the composer-in-residence at Pennsville Memorial High School's Music Academy program.

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Stephen Cabell

A native of Owensboro, Kentucky, New York-based composer Stephen Cabell has received considerable acclaim for his deft orchestration and propulsive sense of rhythm. A graduate of Michigan’s renowned Interlochen Arts Academy, Mr. Cabell also holds a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and a master’s degree from the Juilliard School. His principal teachers have included Christopher Rouse, Jennifer Higdon, Richard Danielpour, and John Boyle.

As a recipient of the Marylyn K. Glick Young Composer Award, Mr. Cabell’s LUX received its premiere performance from the Indianapolis Symphony in early 2009, with the Indianapolis Star recognizing the composition as “an arrestingly-wrought work.” Stephen has also been recognized by ASCAP as the winner of two Morton Gould Young Composer awards, as well as the recipient of the 2008 Nadia Boulanger Prize, awarded to him at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. In 2006, Columbia University awarded Stephen the distinguished Joseph H. Bearns Prize for his orchestral composition Cosmicomic.

In addition to his compositional output, Stephen is a horn player and pianist. His knowledge of instrumental technique has had a substantial effect on his writing, with much of his catalogue devoted to works for brass ensemble, percussion, and full orchestra.

Mr. Cabell has served on the composition faculty of the Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, Maine, since the organization’s inception in 2009. In New York, Stephen is also currently on the theory faculty of the Manhattan School of Music’s Pre-College Division and teaches theory and composition at the Kaufman Center’s Young Artist Program and Lucy Moses School.

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