Programs in Orchestra, Jazz, Chamber Music, Composition, Musical Theater Songwriting, and Conducting
Performances at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage and Weill Recital Hall, Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, Joe’s Pub, The Times Center, and more.
Orchestra Soloists include Michelle Cann, Francisco Fullana, and the New York Choral Society
NYYS Jazz welcomes trumpeter Ingrid Jensen and bassist Rufus Reid
Joe Iconis, James Lapine and Masi Asare visit Musical Theater Songwriting
Composition welcomes Amy Beth Kirsten, Aizuri Quartet, and Valerie Coleman
Seven (7) World Premieres by Bobby Ge, Ari Sussman, Sofia Rocha, Garrett Fasig, Eliana Fishbeyn, Michael Dudley, and Daniel Sabzghabaei
Additional Repertoire by Bernstein, Gabriela Lena Frank, Mahler, and Florence Price
Tickets & Information: www.nyys.org/events
New York, NY – New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), is proud to announce its 2022/23 season of performances for its Orchestra, Jazz, Chamber Music, Composition, Musical Theater Songwriting, Conducting, and First Music programs. The season will feature seven world premieres of new works commissioned through First Music composed for the Orchestra, Jazz, and Chamber Music ensembles. Soloists joining the NYYS in concert this season include violinist Francisco Fullana, pianist Michelle Cann, and New York Choral Society performing with NYYS Orchestra on Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. Bassist/composer Rufus Reid and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen will perform with NYYS Jazz and Director Andy Clausen at Dizzy’s Club and The Times Center, respectively. The complete NYYS 2022-2023 concert calendar follows at the end of this press release.
Founded in 1963, the NYYS is internationally recognized for its award-winning and innovative educational programs for talented young musicians. As the premier independent music education organization for ensemble training in the New York metropolitan area, the NYYS has provided over 7,000 music students unparalleled opportunities to perform at world-class venues including Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, Birdland, and The Times Center, and to study and perform with world-renowned artists. Beyond the instruction from accomplished musicians, students gain valuable life skills — commitment, discipline, focus, collaboration — and friendships that last a lifetime.
“The New York Youth Symphony’s position in the New York City educational landscape is one which grows ever deeper as we launch the 2022/23 season. Navigating through the pandemic, our students’ musical growth and engagement have become our raison d’ête. The guest artists and faculty visiting our workshops and masterclasses share NYYS’s mission to educate and inspire the next generation of musical citizens. We are delighted to be returning to NYC’s premier venues – Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, Joe’s Pub and more. We invite everyone to join us to witness our student’s enthusiasm and love of music,” stated Shauna Quill, NYYS Executive Director.
NYYS Orchestra
In his sixth and final season as Music Director of the NYYS, Michael Repper will lead the NYYS Orchestra in three performances at Carnegie Hall, building on his personal mission of using music as a vehicle for positive change within our communities.
On Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 2 PM, the Orchestra will open its season at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage with a program featuring Gabriela Lena Frank’s Escaramuza, Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole with violinist Francisco Fullana, and Georges Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite Nos. 1 and 2. The concert will also include the world premiere of Ari Sussman’s “I hope this finds you well” inspired by the compassion and empathy the world expressed to each other in emails during the pandemic.
Pianist Michelle Cann will make her long-awaited debut with the NYYS at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on Sunday, March 19, 2023 at 2 PM, tackling Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto. Originally scheduled to perform with the Orchestra in 2019 and cancelled due to the pandemic, NYYS and Ms. Cann instead recorded the Florence Price Piano Concerto for Avie Records which reached No. 1 on Billboard Classical Charts in April 2022. The March performance, also known as the McCrindle Concert, will also include the world premiere of First Music commission Sighting the Swallow by Bobby Ge and Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1.
The Orchestra’s season and Mr. Repper’s tenure will conclude on Sunday, May 28, 2023 at 2 PM, with the New York Choral Society joining the NYYS for a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. The program will open with the world premiere of a commission by Sofia Rocha entitled Lies I told you four days ago, and will finish with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, the “Titan”.
NYYS Jazz
Director Andy Clausen will lead the NYYS Jazz in his 7th and final season as director. Following a momentous debut in 2021, the band will return to the Birdland Jazz Club on Sunday, December 11, 2022 at 5:30 PM.
The NYYS Jazz Band will present the complete Duke Ellington / Billy Strayhorn arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, featuring such selections as Toot Toot Tootie Toot, Peanut Brittle Brigade, Sugar Rum Cherry, and more. This concert will also feature the world premiere of a NYYS First Music Commission entitled Cypress from Garrett Fasig.
On Monday, March 6, 2023, Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the NYYS Jazz Band is joined by esteemed bassist, composer, and bandleader Rufus Reid for a performance of his Grammy nominated “Quiet Pride” Suite, inspired by the sculptures of Elizabeth Catlett. With sets at 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM, this concert also includes the world premiere of a First Music commission by Eliana Fishbeyn entitled On Worlds Colliding.
NYYS Jazz will conclude its season on Monday, May 8, 2023 at 7:00 PM at The Times Center and is joined by the singular trumpet voice of Ingrid Jensen for a retrospective of her original works. The concert will also feature music from Christine Jensen and Sherisse Rogers, as well as the world premiere of a First Music commission by Michael Dudley entitled Red Eye.
Chamber Music
The NYYS Chamber Music program, led by director Dr. Lisa Tipton, offers young musicians an opportunity to explore the often-complex dialogue between instruments as a metaphor for learning skills that emphasize open communication, harmony, and compromise. The program provides coaching sessions and master classes with members of the Aizuri Quartet, Harlem Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, Imani Winds, Jasper String Quartet and more to over 100 students in more than 20 ensembles each season. The students will perform two showcases in the spring, hosted this year at Scandinavia House on Monday, April 24, 2023 at 7:00 PM, and at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on Monday, May 1, 2023, at 7:00 PM. First Music winner Daniel Sabzghabaei’s work entitled, outside(inside)out, will receive its world premiere at Weill Recital Hall. Violinist Rebecca Fischer will act as mentor to chamber music students this season and perform on the world premiere of outside(inside)out.
Composition
The Composition program, led by Dr. Kyle Blaha, has broken new ground in its acclaimed sessions for younger composers to examine orchestration styles, techniques, and skills. The program offers student composers the opportunity to explore the world of composition and orchestration through seminars, individual tutorials and workshops. This year’s guest composers and performers include Amy Beth Kirsten, Jae Lee, David Fulmer, Deirdre Chadwick, Katherine Balch, Aizuri Quartet, Emily Levin, Carlos Jimenez Fernandez, Valerie Coleman, Marcos Balter, and Decoda. NYYS will return to National Sawdust for its annual Composition Date 2023 performance on Monday, May 15, 2023 at 7:00 PM with world premieres of student’s compositions performed by members of the Orchestra, Chamber Music, Jazz, and Robert L. Poster Apprentice Conducting programs.
NYYS Musical Theater Songwriting
Led by director Anna K. Jacobs, the Musical Theater Songwriting Program continues into its fifth season, in partnership with the Harlem School of the Arts, Molloy/CAP 21, and Maestra. The program is designed to lead students through a range of musical theater songwriting processes. This season will feature guest lecturers Masi Asare, Composer/Lyricist (Paradise Square), Gilbert Bailey, Performer (Beetlejuice, A Bronx Tale, Book of Mormon), Brian Charles Rooney, Performer (the Threepenny Opera), Latoya Edwards, Performer (The Rolling Stone), Sushma Saha, Performer, Joe Iconis, Composer (Be More Chill), Amanda Green, Lyricist (Mr. Saturday Night, Bring It On), James Lapine, Playwright & Stage Director (Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Falsettos), Charlie Rosen, Orchestrator (Some Like It Hot, A Strange Loop, Moulin Rouge!), Rachel Sussman, Producer (What the Constitution Means to Me). The students’ original works will be showcased at a final concert at Joe’s Pub on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 7:00 PM performed by the students themselves, plus students from the Harlem School of the Arts and the Molloy/CAP21.
Robert L. Poster Apprentice Conducting Program
The world’s finest emerging conductors have found the Robert L. Poster Apprentice Conducting Program to be an unparalleled opportunity to sharpen their craft, develop their talent, and gain exposure in front of New York’s discerning audiences. Under guidance from Music Director Michael Repper, this program gives aspiring orchestral conductors the opportunity to study the art of conducting through rehearsal technique, stick technique, score analysis, podium time, observation, and guided talkback sessions. The program also features guest speakers throughout the season to work with the students and share insights from their careers. The conducting students will get their chance at the podium at the annual Composition Date 2022 performance on Monday, May 15, 2023 at 7:00 PM at National Sawdust, where they will conduct pieces composed by members of the Composition Program, performed by the members of the Orchestra, Chamber, Music, and Jazz programs.
NEW YORK YOUTH SYMPHONY 2022-2023 PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
Tickets & Information: www.nyys.org/events
ORCHESTRA
Michael Repper, Music Director
Francisco Fullana, Violin, Roy and Shirley Durst Debut Artist
Sunday, November 20, 2022, at 2:00 PM
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Gabriela Lena Frank: Escaramuza
Édouard Lalo: Symphonie espagnole, featuring Francisco Fullana, violin, Ari Sussman: I hope this finds you well (First Music commission and World Premiere)
Georges Bizet: L’Arlésienne Suite, Nos. 1 and 2
The McCrindle Concert
Michael Repper, Music Director
Michelle Cann, Piano
Sunday, March 19, 2023, at 2:00 PM
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Bobby Ge: Sighting the Swallow (First Music commission and World Premiere)
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, featuring Michelle Cann, piano
Florence Price: Symphony No. 1 in E minor
Mike’s Farewell Concert
Michael Repper, Music Director
New York Choral Society
David Hayes, Music Director
Sunday, May 28, 2023, at 2:00 PM
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
Sofia Rocha: Lies I told you four days ago (First Music commission and World Premiere)
Leonard Bernstein: Chichester Psalms, featuring New York Choral Society
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major, “Titan”
NYYS JAZZ
Andy Clausen, Director
The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker
Sunday, December 11, 2022, at 5:30 PM
Birdland Jazz Club
Garrett Fasig: Cypress (First Music commission and World Premiere)
Duke Ellington / Billy Strayhorn arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, featuring such selections as Toot Toot Tootie Toot, Peanut Brittle Brigade, Sugar Rum Cherry, and more.
Quiet Pride – The Elizabeth Catlett Project
Andy Clausen, Director
Rufus Reid, bass, composer
Monday, March 6, 2023, at 7:30 PM and 9:30 PM
Dizzy’s Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center
Rufus Reid: “Quiet Pride”
Eliana Fishbeyn: On Worlds Colliding (First Music commission and World Premiere)
At Sea
Andy Clausen, Director
Ingrid Jensen, trumpet
Monday, May 8, 2023, at 7:00 PM
The Times Center
Works by Ingrid Jensen, Christine Jensen and Sherisse Rogers
Michael Dudley: Red Eye (First Music commission and World Premiere)
CHAMBER MUSIC
Dr. Lisa Tipton, Director
An Evening of Chamber Music
Monday, April 24, 2023 at 7:30 PM
Scandinavia House
An Evening Among Friends
Monday, May 1, 2023 at 7:00 PM
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Daniel Sabzghabaei: outside(inside)out (First Music commission and World Premiere)
COMPOSITION
Dr. Kyle Blaha, Director
Composition Date 2023
Monday, May 15, 2023, at 7:00 PM
National Sawdust
Featuring original student compositions performed by members of the NYYS Orchestra, Jazz, Chamber Music, and Conducting programs.
MUSICAL THEATER SONGWRITING
Anna K. Jacobs, Director
Musical Theater Songwriting Showcase 2023
Wednesday, May 17, 2023, at 7:00 PM
Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater
Featuring original works, performed by NYYS students, and students from the Harlem School of the Arts and Molloy/CAP21
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS AND ARTISTS
ARTISTIC DIRECTORS
Praised by the Baltimore Sun for his “confidence and expressive nuance,” Michael Repper is one of the most sought-after young conductors in the world. With work spanning four continents, Mr. Repper has an international reputation for engaging and exciting audiences of all spectrums, and for promoting new and diverse musical talents. Mr. Repper is the Music Director of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, Northern Neck Orchestra of Virginia, and the Principal Conductor of Sinfonía por el Perú, one of South America’s most versatile social impact music programs. Recognizing his success at these ensembles, and his growing profile as a guest conductor all over the world, Mr. Repper was awarded a Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
His album with the New York Youth Symphony, featuring recordings of works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, and Valerie Coleman, achieved widespread critical acclaim, and reached #1 on the Billboard Chart. Mr. Repper has collaborated on large-scale productions of symphonic and theatrical works with the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia Festival, Peabody Institute of Music, and the New School of Music, among others. An avid pianist, he regularly performs as a soloist alongside his orchestras and choruses, and as an orchestral player as well. Most recently, he played in the Chicago Symphony for their performances of Bernstein’s Mass, which was broadcast on PBS Great Performances. Mr. Repper’s mission is to use music as a vehicle for positive change. Learn more at mikerepper.com.
Andy Clausen is a New York-based trombonist, composer, and educator. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Clausen is Artistic Director for Jazz at New York Youth Symphony and a member of the faculty at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Clausen is a founding member of The Westerlies, an award-winning new music brass chamber ensemble. From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along, creating music that is “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” –NPR. Clausen has collaborated with a diverse range of artists including Wynton Marsalis, Benny Golson, Gerald Wilson, Common, Dave Douglas, Theo Bleckmann, John Zorn, American Brass Quintet, Fleet Foxes, Feist, Nico Muhly, and Gabriel Kahane, appearing at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Radio City Music Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, Red Rocks, The Kennedy Center, Newport Folk Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Coachella, Pitchfork Music Festival, The Stone, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, and Jazz A Vienne. An active composer for film, television, radio, and advertising, Clausen has contributed original music to The Michelle Obama Podcast, PBS, Showtime, The New York Times, Bloomberg TV, Carnegie Corporation, The Whitney Museum, Freedom House, and NPR.
Dr. Lisa Tipton, violinist, co-founder of the award-winning Meridian String Quartet, has toured, held residences and won distinctions from the Evian International Competition, Artists International and Chamber Music America. A devoted interpreter of new music, Lisa, established the Made in America series at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, performed on the Interpretations series at Merkin Hall and recently launched The NY Chamber Music CoOP in NYC devoted to social justice programming. Lisa’s critically acclaimed recording of Charles Ives’ violin sonatas, Hammers and Strings, was released on Capstone Records in 2006. This past season Lisa launched The Unsung Chamber Music series on YouTube, a NYYS repertoire initiative to feature composers from diverse cultures. Lisa’s performances include Amici NY, American Symphony Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, Orchestra Lumos, and Phantom of the Opera, Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Spamalot, Sunset Boulevard, Spongebob, Aladdin and My Fair Lady on Broadway. Dr. Tipton has taught as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music/Queens College, is the Director of the NY Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, on the faculty of School for Strings, earned her B.A. from Cornell University, M.A. from The Aaron Copland School of Music, and DMA from the CUNY Grad Center.
Dr. Kyle Blaha received his D.M.A. and M.M. from Juilliard and his B.M. from Eastman School of Music with high distinction in composition, clarinet, and German. He has studied composition with Darrell Handel, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Carlos Sanchez Gutierrez, Samuel Adler, Philip Lasser, and Robert Beaser, and Solfège with Mary Anthony Cox. He is faculty at the European American Musical Alliance Program in Paris, faculty at The Juilliard School where he teaches Ear Training, Music Theory, and Advanced Score Reading and Musicianship for conducting majors, and chair of Music Theory and Ear Training at Juilliard Pre-College. He has received multiple ASCAP Young Composer Awards and awards for study in German, including a Fulbright grant and a D.A.A.D. (German government) grant as well as Arabic study in Cairo, Egypt.
Dr. Blaha’s work has been premiered by the Juilliard Orchestra and multiple performances by the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute and has received commissions from the NYYS, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Donald Sinta Quartet, and the American Composers Orchestra.
Anna K. Jacobs is a Jonathan Larson and Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award-winning composer, lyricist, and book writer. Her stage musicals include POP! (Yale Rep, Pittsburgh City Theatre, Studio Theatre, etc.), Teeth (NAMT, O’Neill; co-written w/ Tony & Pulitzer winner Michael R. Jackson), Anytown (George Street Playhouse), Harmony, Kansas (Diversionary Theatre), Echo (Musical Theatre Factory), and Stella and the Moon Man (Sydney Theatre Company/Theatre of Image). She also contributed music and lyrics to the multi-composer works, Witnesses (California Center for the Arts) and Letters to the President (Cooper Union), and penned the screenplay for The Real Gemma Jordan (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), which she is now adapting into a stage musical with composer-lyricist, Rob Rokicki. Currently, Anna and her playwright-collaborator, Anna Ziegler, are working on A House Without Windows, a new musical about the life and disappearance of child prodigy author, Barbara Newhall Follett, which was commissioned by Barbara Whitman Productions and Grove Entertainment, and recently seen as part of the Goodspeed Musicals 2022 Festival of New Musicals. She is also writing the book for a new musical adaptation for Disney Cruise Line Entertainment. Anna is a former Sundance Fellow and Dramatists Guild Fellow and received her MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from NYU-Tisch. As an educator, she is passionate about helping the next generation of songwriters to develop their voices and craft, and has served on the faculties of Temple University, Mannes School of Music, the Dramatists Guild Institute, and the Institute for American Musical Theatre. Learn more at www.annakjacobs.com.
ORCHESTRA SOLOISTS
Spanish-born violinist Francisco Fullana has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall and as a soloist and chamber musician with numerous European and American orchestras and festivals. Since 2018 he has performed regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Fullana’s debut recording, the Orchid Classics release “Through the Lens of Time” (2018), includes Max Richter’s orchestral work The Four Seasons Recomposed and contemporary works for solo violin and violin with piano. “Bach’s Long Shadow,” a second solo album released by Orchid in May 2021, juxtaposes J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 3 with virtuoso works from the next three centuries. Active as a chamber musician, Francisco has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, the Musicians from Marlboro tours, the Perlman Music Program, the Da Camera Society, and the Yellow Barn, Music@Menlo, Mainly Mozart, Music in the Vineyards, and Newport music festivals. Born into a family of educators, Mr. Fullana began his musical training in his hometown of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and later graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, where he matriculated under the tutelage of Manuel Guillén. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School following studies with Donald Weilerstein and Masao Kawasaki, and holds an Artist Diploma from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, where he worked with the renowned violinist Midori. A committed educator, Mr. Fullana co-founded San Antonio’s Classical Music Summer Institute and has served as its Chamber Music Director. He also created the Fortissimo Youth Initiative, a series of Baroque and Classical music seminars and performances with youth orchestras that aims to explore and deepen their understanding of 18th century music.
“A compelling, sparkling virtuoso” (Boston Music Intelligencer), pianist Michelle Cann made her orchestral debut at age fourteen and has since performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. A champion of the music of Florence Price, Ms. Cann performed the New York City premiere of the composer’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra in February 2021, which the Philadelphia Inquirer called “exquisite.” Highlights of her 2021–22 season include debut performances with the Atlanta, Detroit, and St. Louis symphony orchestras, as well as her Canadian concert debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.
She also receives the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization, and the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Embracing a dual role as both performer and pedagogue, her season includes teaching residencies at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association.
Ms. Cann regularly appears in solo and chamber recitals throughout the U.S., China, and South Korea. Notable venues include the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), and the Barbican (London). She has also appeared as cohost and collaborative pianist with NPR’s From The Top. An award winner at top international competitions, in 2019 she served as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s MAC Music Innovator in recognition of her role as an African-American classical musician who embodies artistry, innovation, and a commitment to education and community engagement. Ms. Cann studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, where she holds the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies.
The New York Choral Society has been hailed as “one of the mainstays of the city’s music scene, known for its adventuresome repertoire.” Founded in 1959, we are widely known for the outstanding artistic quality of our performances of live choral music. Our expansive range of performances includes eleven world premieres and commissions of new works by Paul Alan Levi, Morton Gould, Stephen Paulus and Robert De Cormier. We are committed to presenting new works by contemporary composers that have included Jennifer Higdon, James MacMillan, and Frank Ticheli. Collaboration is an essential part of our music-making. The New York Choral Society has partnered with many performing arts organizations including Lincoln Center Festival, Cirque de Soleil, New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York Youth Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Juilliard Symphony, the Opera Orchestra of New York, and The Athens Philharmonic. We have also performed with noted conductors Leonard Bernstein, Asher Fisch, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Emmanuel Villaume.
JAZZ SOLOISTS
In 1999, Rufus Reid retired from his twenty-year position of Director of Jazz Studies and Performance at William Paterson University. From 1999-2005, he was a member of the BMI Composers Workshop that ignited his intrigue and desire delve into the process of composition. In 2003 he was awarded the first BMI Composers Workshop Commission for his composition, Whims of the Blue Bird. In November 2015, this album received two Grammy nominations, for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and Best Instrumental Composition. In April 2016 Mr. Reid was named Harvard University’s Jazz Master in Residence, participating in public conversations, and performing in concert with his original compositions. In February 2020, Newvelle Records release a second vinyl recording, “Always in the Moment,” as a duo, featuring pianist Sullivan Fortner. Early March 2020, The WDR BAND in Köln, Germany featured nine compositions with The Big Band Sound of Rufus Reid. In October 2022, Sunnyside Records will release Rufus’ latest CD recording, “Celebration” featuring his trio and the Sirius Quartet.
Born in Vancouver and raised in Nanaimo, B.C. Ingrid Jensen has been hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation. A graduate from Berklee in 1989, she immediately went on to record three highly acclaimed CDs for the ENJA label, soon becoming one of the most in-demand players on the global jazz scene. After a teaching stint in Austria in her early twenties, Ms. Jensen settled in New York City where she played with the jazz orchestras of DIVA, Maria Schneider and Darcy James Argue. She often performs with the Grammy-winning Teri-Lyne Carrington and has appeared as featured soloist on both Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra Juno award-winning albums. Ms. Jensen has performed and or recorded with a multi-generational cast of jazz legends, from Esperanza Spaulding to Clark Terry, Art Farmer and Dr. Billy Taylor to Sarah McLachlan and Corrine Bailey Ray. Ms. Jensen is in high demand as a guest artist and educator, and is currently on faculty at Manhattan School of Music, where she is currently serving as Dean and Artistic Director of the Jazz Arts department. Her current projects on the Whirlwind label, INFINITUDE and INVISIBLE SOUNDS, received rave reviews and inspired numerous large festival invitations and tours. Fall 2022 brings many exciting recordings and releases including a second Blue Note album with the super band Artemis and a Large ensemble recording with her sister Christine Jensen and her orchestra.
FIRST MUSIC COMPOSERS
Praised for his “sophisticated writing” (GTM) and work that “weave(s) a trance-like mystical aura” (Zamir Chorale), Ari Sussman is a Philadelphia based pianist, clawhammer banjoist, and composer of vocal, chamber, orchestral, choral, and electronic music. His music has been featured and performed throughout the United States and Europe. Recently named composer-in-residence with the Boise-based ‘208 ensemble,’ Mr. Sussman has won the American Composers Forum: Philadelphia Chapter: Young Composers Scholarship, the University of Michigan Brehm Prize in Choral Composition, a “First Music” commission from the New York Youth Symphony, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, a BMI Student Composer Award, and the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship in Composition from the Tanglewood Music Center. Mr. Sussman holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees with honors in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music where he received the Donald Martino Award for Excellence in Composition, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from the University of Michigan. Sussman is currently an Adjunct Instructor of Music Theory and Composition at the Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance and the West Chester University Wells School of Music. His primary musical mentors include Michael Gandolfi, Kati Agócs, Evan Chambers, and Kristin Kuster.
Bobby Ge is a Chinese-American composer and avid collaborator who seeks to create vivid emotional journeys that navigate boundaries between genre and medium. He has created multimedia projects with the Space Telescope Science Institute, painters collective Art10Baltimore, the Scattered Players Theater Company, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Winner of the 2022 Barlow Prize, Mr. Ge has received commissions and performances by groups including the Minnesota Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, the Albany Symphony’s ‘Dogs of Desire,’ the Harbin Symphony Orchestra, Interlochen Arts Academy, Music from Copland House, the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, the Bergamot Quartet, the Boss Street Brass Band, and Mind on Fire. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D at Princeton University as a Naumberg Fellow, and holds degrees from UC Berkeley and the Peabody Conservatory.
Sofía Rocha writes music of uncompromising emotional intensity while exploring cognition, randomness, rhythm, and counterpoint within post-tonal frameworks. Upcoming projects include newly commissioned works for the International Contemporary Ensemble through their “Call for ___” program, the 2022 Aspen Music Festival, and the Fifth House Ensemble as a Fromm Foundation Fellow at the 2020 Fresh Inc Festival. Her work, Replier (2019), was chosen as the winner of the 2020 New England Philharmonic annual call-for-scores. Ms. Rocha received her master’s degree in composition from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, studying with Chen Yi, Yotam Haber, Paul Rudy and Zhou Long. She was also the 2019 composer-in-residence for the Graduate Fellowship String Quartet. She completed her undergraduate work at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College in 2019, studying composition with Avner Dorman. Besides composing, Ms. Rocha is also an avid trombonist and conductor, having performed with numerous symphony orchestras, wind ensembles and jazz groups.
Daniel Reza Sabzghabaei (دانیال رضا سبزقبایی) is a creator who aims to emphasize the malleability of time and how we experience it, not just in the concert hall but in everyday life as well. His work has been presented and commissioned by organizations including: the JACK Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble, National Sawdust, Intimacy of Creativity Festival, Music from Copland House, TAK Ensemble, Beth Morrison Projects, the New York Festival of Song, loadbang, bassist Robert Black, the Banff Centre, Wet Ink Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Guerilla Opera, the Moab Music Festival, [Switch~] Ensemble, the Young New Yorkers Chorus, Pro Coro Canada, The Esoterics, OPERA America, and VocalEssence among others. Mr. Sabzghabaei’s current research focuses on time and form within Persian moosiqi sonnati. He holds degrees from the University of North Texas and the Peabody Institute and is currently a doctoral candidate and Sage Fellow at Cornell University. Outside of music and sound-based projects, Mr. Sabzghabaei also translates Persian poetry, most recently exploring the works of Hafez, Rumi, and Saadi.
Garrett Fasig is a jazz saxophonist and composer currently studying at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. During his time there he has written and recorded music with the Brent Wallarab Jazz Ensemble, John Raymond Ensemble, Greg Ward Large ensemble, and the Plummer Jazz Quintet.
He has also had the opportunity to perform alongside world-class musicians including Walter Smith III, Oliver Nelson Jr., Dayna Stephens, and Steve Houghton. Garrett graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies and is continuing his education at Indiana University pursuing a Master of Music.
Eliana Fishbeyn comes from an immigrant Russian-Jewish family, where her mother, aunt and grandmother started her musical upbringing at an early age. At age 6, she began classical piano lessons with John Ruggero, to whom she owes much of her musical understanding. Ms. Fishbeyn received her bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and in spring of 2022 graduated with her master’s degree in jazz composition at Manhattan School of Music, studying with an important mentor figure and influence on her, Jim McNeely. She currently lives in New York. Starting in fall of 2021, she and fellow composer, Robert Buonaspina, have organized regular meetings of a large ensemble that workshops, rehearses, and performs new music on a semi-regular basis. Ms. Fishbeyn aspires to be a small part of a large collective of creatives attempting to understand and deal with the human experience on an individual and societal level. She believes a society’s music is, in one way, a reflection of its values, codes and political structures, and is therefore continuously becoming more aware of having only known a society which principally revolves around its economy. Ms. Fishbeyn aims to be part of the many that challenge that by collectively experimenting, imagining, and exploring beyond their personal norms. Most of her life having been spent in a musical world that came with a high degree of control, and only later in life being exposed to music that involve more infinite choices and spaces, she has recently become particularly interested in exploring the relationship between the two.
Michael R. Dudley Jr. is a trumpet player, composer, producer, educator, and photographer based in New York. With more than a decade of professional experience as a musician, he has played at venues like NYC’s Birdland Jazz Club and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola with groups such as the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Christian McBride Big Band, and the South Florida Jazz Orchestra. As a recording artist, Mr. Dudley has played lead trumpet on multiple GRAMMY®-winning albums. He most recently performed at the Newport Jazz Festival with the Maria Schneider Orchestra as well as with his own trio. As a composer and arranger, he has studied with Maria Schneider, Miho Hazama, Gary Lindsay, Noam Wiesenberg, and Stephen Guerra, recently earning a 2022 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award for his piece “Overture to The Before And After Times.” His works have been performed all over the United States, with more premieres scheduled soon. Mr. Dudley also values his work as an educator, serving as the Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. He is also an instructor and recording engineer at the JAS Academy in Aspen, Colorado alongside Shelly Berg, Christian McBride, and Chuck Bergeron.