Scott Killian, a well-known artist in the dance world, has collaborated with Cherylyn on eighteen dance works. He has composed scores for Zvi Gotheiner (over 30 works), Shapiro & Smith Dance, David Dorfman, Susan Marshall, Ralph Lemon, Bebe Miller, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis. His works have been performed with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Limon Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, PACT Dance (South Africa), Repertory Dance Theater of Salt Lake City, et al. As a dance musician, he is a regular accompanist at Gibney 890 Studios and NYU Tisch School of the Arts. As a composer and sound designer for theater, Scott has created works for over 120 professional productions in NYC and at many regional theaters. NYC theatrical venues include Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Manhattan Class Company, Red Bull Theatre, Primary Stages and Rattlestick Theatre. Regional theatres include Berkshire Theatre Group (Resident Composer/Sound Designer--over 50 productions), George Street Playhouse (over 25 productions), Alley Theatre, A.C.T. of San Francisco, Shakespeare Theatre (DC), Seattle Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Shakespeare and Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Boston’s Huntington Theatre, Theater Calgary, Vancouver Playhouse and the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
Born in New York City in 1946, Martin Bresnick’s compositions - from opera, dance, choral, chamber and symphonic music to film scores and computer music - are performed throughout the world. He delights in reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable, bringing together repetitive gestures derived from minimalism with a harmonic palette that encompasses both highly chromatic sounds and more open, consonant harmonies and a raw power reminiscent of rock. Bresnick’s orchestral music has been performed by the National Symphony, Chicago Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Münster Philharmonic, Kiel Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Radio Televisione Italiana, Orchestra New England, City of London Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonika, and Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, Fairfax Symphony, New Haven Symphony, and the Australian Youth Orchestra. His chamber and choral music has been performed in concert by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Crossing Choir, Sonor, Da Capo Chamber Players, Speculum Musicae; Bang on A Can All-Stars, Nash Ensemble, MusicWorks!, Zeitgeist, Musical Elements, Alarm Will Sound, Double Entendre, Tactus, Le Train Bleu, White Ibis Ensemble, Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo, New Morse Code, NakedEye Ensemble, TwoSense, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Chamber Music Northwest, Yale Choral Artists, Prism Saxophone Quartet, Great Noise Ensemble, Brentano String Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, Sō Percussion, Icarus Quartet, Crux Duo, Mammoth Trio, and Plexus Trio. Festivals throughout the world have featured Bresnick’s music: New York Philharmonic Biennial Festival, Bang on a Can Marathons, Big Ears Festival, Chautauqua Festival, Tanglewood, Olavsfest (Trondheim Norway), Oviedo New Music Festival (Spain), International Navy Saxophone Symposium, Missouri Chamber Music Festival, Evolution Contemporary Music Series, Tura New Music Festival Perth (Australia), International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven), Sonic Boom, Adelaide, Sydney, Israel, Prague Spring, South Bank's Meltdown (London), Almeida, Melbourne Metropolis, Turin, Banff, Norfolk, ISCM, New Music America, New York Philharmonic New Horizons, and Red Note New Music Festival. Bresnick has written music for films - two of which, Arthur & Lillie (1975) and The Day After Trinity (1981) were nominated for Academy Awards in the documentary category (both with Jon Else, director). Other films include Cadillac Desert, Mohammed - Legacy of a Prophet, The Botany of Desire, William Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens - Made Made Out Of Words. Bresnick’s prizes and commissions include the inaugural Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Rome Prize, The Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Koussevitzky Commission, Fulbright Fellowship, three N.E.A. Composer Grants, A.S.C.A.P. Awards, MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Morse Fellowship from Yale University, First Prize - Premio Ancona, First Prize - International Sinfonia Musicale Competition, Connecticut Commission on the Arts Grant with Chamber Music America (1983), two First Prizes, Composers Inc. Competitions, Semi-finalist - Friedheim Awards, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Elise L. Stoeger Prize for Chamber Music, Composer-in Residence, American Academy In Rome. Bresnick is recognized as an influential teacher of composition. Students from every part of the globe and of virtually every musical inclination have been inspired by his critical encouragement. He is currently a professor at the Yale University School of Music, where he has been a widely influential teacher of contemporary composition since 1981. His teaching has been recognized by a Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching at Stanford University, ASCAP Foundation's Aaron Copland Prize for Teaching, and the Yale School of Music’s highest honor - the Sanford Medal for Service to Music. Educated at the High School of Music and Art NYC, University of Hartford (B.A. '67), Stanford University (M.A. '68, D.M.A. '72), and the Akademie für Musik, Vienna ('69-'70), Bresnick’s principal teachers of composition include György Ligeti, John Chowning, and Gottfried von Einem. Martin Bresnick is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His compositions are published exclusively by Carl Fischer Music Publishers, New York; Bote & Bock, Berlin; CommonMuse Music Publishers, New Haven. They have been recorded on Cantaloupe Music, New World Records, Albany Records, Bridge Records, Tall Poppies, Composers Recordings Incorporated, Centaur, Starkland Records, and Artifact Music.
Karen Boyer designs and builds costumes in NYC. Past and recent collaborators include choreographers Catherine Galasso, Faye Driscoll, Sidra Bell, Abigail Levine, Sarah Dahnke, nicHi douglas, Katy Pyle, and Sunny Hitt; Opera Columbus, Fresh Squeezed Opera, and theater makers Yangtze Rep, the New Wild, Object Collection, harunalee, Little Lord, Pan Asian Repertory, and Target Margin Theater. BFA: Maryland Institute College of Art, MFA: NYU Tisch. karenrachelboyer.com
MARK LONDON (Lighting Designer) Newly retired from 24 years in broadcast lighting, Mark is happy to reconnect with Cherylyn Lavagnino after so many years. Some of Mark’s design credits include ZviDance, Noche Flamenca de Madrid, Stars of the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet and the Chinese Opera of Taipei, Jeanette Stoner, Muna Tseng and ISO Dance as well as theatre productions at the Public Theater and the Brooklyn Academy of Music among many other intimate venues. Mark credits his wife Gail and children Rachel and Ian as a constant source of inspiration.
Christopher Metzger is a Brooklyn based designer working in theatre, opera, and dance. Designs for CLD include: Kamila, Veiled, Ru, Treize en Jeu, Hera’s Wrath, and Naděje. His work with the company has been seen at the Beijing International Contemporary Dance Festival, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, American Dance Guild, and Danspace Project. Recent designs include: "Little Gem" (Irish Rep), Orlando (AADA), Sweat (Mobile National Tour, Public Theater), Harlequin & Pantalone (Dorrance Dance), LIFE SUCKS., Happy Birthday, Wanna June, Enemy of the People (Wheelhouse Theater), La Traviata (Philharmonia of New York), West Side Story (Sioux City Symphony), Tosca (Opera Roanoke), Sehnsucht (Jack). Associate credits include: Sweat (Broadway), Falsettos (First National Tour), The Public Theatre, Santa Fe Opera, Theatre for a New Audience, Glimmerglass Opera. Christopher’s work in television includes, Apple TV’s, Dickinson. MFA, NYU. Proud member Local USA 829. www.christophermetzgerdesign.com
New York-based Australian musician Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, a prolific recording artist, and an avid collaborator. The New York Times has singled out her playing for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”, The New Yorker describes her as “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano” while Pitchfork claims “she’s the best kind of contemporary classical musician, one so fearsomely game that she inspires composers to offer her their most wildly unplayable ideas”. Given a special passion for the music of our time, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition and has since performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres – having worked with more than two hundred living composers, while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. Moore has performed throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia - on some of the world’s great stages: New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, La Scala in Milan, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She has released twelve solo albums - ranging from music by Leoš Janáček to Julia Wolfe - and more than thirty collaborative discs. Gramophone writes about her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc: “what becomes abundantly clear is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music”. Moore’s 2016 album The Stone People was selected by The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017. In June 2022, Moore released no place to go but around – her second album of music by Frederic Rzewski – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked that the album is “meticulous...clever...hits the gas with controlled force”. For sixteen years (92-08) Moore was the founding pianist for the award-winning electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars. She has performed with leading artists, ensembles and dance companies – Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Frederic Rzewski, Don Byron, Pamela Z, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, London Sinfonietta, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, American Composers Orchestra, and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a concerto soloist, Moore has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Symphony, Thai National, Monash MAPA, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Wesleyan University Orchestra-Sumarsam Gamelan, and the Queensland Philharmonic. She has worked under the batons of David Robertson, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Brett Dean, Roger Benedict, Bradley Lubman, Steven Schick, Benjamin Northey, Richard Mills, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jorge Mester, Leonard Dommett, Dobbs Frank, and Angel Gil-Ordonez. Moore’s festival appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Banff, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, PianoSpheres LA, Chamber Music Northwest, Huddersfield, Vale of Glamorgan, Liquid Music MN, Holland, Graz, Hamburg, Taormina, Paris d’Automne, Rome, Milan, Turin, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Barbican, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw. Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist.
New York based pianist and composer Dr. Hayk Arsenyan has appeared in numerous recitals throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas, in venues such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Salle Cortot (Paris), the Concourse (Sydney), Cadillac-Shanghai Concert Hall (China), Kumin Hall (Tokyo), Petranka Mozarteum (Prague), Auditorio Delibes (Valladolid), Dar-Al-Assad Opera House (Damascus), Sala Cervantes (Havana), MoBU (Sao Paolo), Tchaikovsky Hall (Moscow), Philippines National Museum (Bacolod), and televised recitals at the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, the Phillips Collection Series in Washington DC and at the Nixon Presidential Museum in Los Angeles.
At the age of 11 Mr. Arsenyan made his debut at the Armenian Philharmonic performing his own Requiem for the piano and orchestra. At the age of 17, he made his European debut as a soloist with the Radio France National Philharmonic Orchestra and was awarded a platinum medal by the City of Paris. In 2007, Mr. Arsenyan debuted at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall performing with Pinchas Zukerman and the Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia.
A long-time professor at NYU Tisch School, Dr. Arsenyan has presented guest lectures and masterclasses at universities and conservatories around the globe, such as University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia, the Hong Kong University, Waseda University in Tokyo, Superior Conservatory of Seville (Spain), the Manhattan School of Music in NY, University of Texas in Austin, and National Conservatory in Damascus.
Dr. Arsenyan is a scholar of Iberian 18th-century music and compiled a performance guide to Antonio Soler’s sonatas as part of his doctoral dissertation, which was translated into Spanish and published by the prestigious publishing house Boileau Editorial de Musica in Barcelona.
Adeline DeBella is a contemporary flutist, vocalist, improviser, and chamber musician based in New York City. She is active in performing and commissioning interdisciplinary works for solo flute/voice, low flutes, and unconventional chamber ensembles. Adeline is a Trevor James Low Flutes artist. Additionally, she is a founding member of Dice Trio and Duo Bellota, both ensembles committed to experimental performance and discovery of new music.
Addy holds a Master’s of Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and a Master’s of Music Performance in flute from SUNY Purchase College, where she studied under Dr. Tara Helen O’Connor. She holds a Bachelor’s of Music Performance in flute from Columbus State University, where she studied under Dr. Andrèe Martin.
Praised for his "elegant and rounded sound" (Albany Times Union) and "effortless...unmatched" technique (The Clarinet Online), Graeme Steele Johnson is an artist of uncommon imagination and versatility. His diverse artistic endeavors range from a TEDx talk comparing Mozart and Seinfeld, to his reconstruction of a forgotten 125-year-old work by Charles Martin Loeffler. Johnson’s recent appearances include the Library of Congress, Chamber Music Northwest, Ravinia, Emerald City Music, and the Bridgehampton, Rockport, Orcas Island and Phoenix Chamber Music Festivals, as well as solo recitals at The Kennedy Center and Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess series. Since 2022 he has served as the clarinetist of the award-winning quintet WindSync, one of only two American wind quintets with a full-time, international touring schedule. In 2020, Johnson discovered the unpublished manuscript to a forgotten 125-year-old Octet by Charles Martin Loeffler, one of the most performed American composers of his time. Johnson spent a year reconstructing the Octet's score, creating the first critical edition of the music and revealing a kaleidoscopic piece spanning a half-hour. Johnson’s world-premiere recording of the work will be released on Delos Productions in the spring of 2024, coinciding with the first modern performances of the piece at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, Harvard Musical Association, Phoenix Chamber Music Festival and The Stissing Center. Interested in shedding fresh perspective on familiar music, Johnson has authored numerous chamber arrangements of repertoire ranging from Mozart to Messiaen, and performed them around the country with such artists as the Miró Quartet, Valerie Coleman and Bridget Kibbey. Johnson is the winner of the Hellam Young Artists’ Competition and the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition and holds an exclusive recording contract with Delos. He earned graduate degrees from the Yale School of Music, and his major teachers include David Shifrin, Charles Neidich, Nathan Williams and Ricardo Morales.
Lauded for their “fine bow control and excellent intonation” (Cleveland Classical), violinist Michael Ferri forges a multifaceted career spanning solo, chamber, and orchestral playing. Born in Bergamo, Italy, Ferri holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Rice University, and Yale School of Music. Awards include First Prize at the Mika Hasler Young Artist Competition, the Shepherd School of Music Concerto Competition, the Duquesne Young Artists National Competition, and the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition; Second Prize at the Fischoff Competition, and the Jack Kent Cooke Award. They have appeared as soloist with the Houston Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Yale Philharmonia, among others. Michael’s summer festival appearances include Aspen, Mimir, Avaloch, St. Lawrence Quartet Seminar, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, and The Chamber Music Collective at Cornell.
At age 2 Miriam Liske-Doorandish requested her first cello and began lessons with her mother, Lisa Liske-Doorandish. She has since studied with Jonathan Kramer, Hans Jensen, Bartholomew LaFollette (BMus studies at the Royal College of Music), Amir Eldan (BA and AD at Oberlin Conservatory) and Paul Watkins (MM and MMA at the Yale School of Music). Raised in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, Miriam is motivated by a love of collaboration which has led her into traditional chamber settings as well as traditional fiddling sessions. As cellist of the exploratory ensemble Trio Ondata, Miriam is a recipient of the gold and audience prizes at the 2023 Yellow Springs Chamber Competition. The trio also won silver medal and the Horszowski Prize at The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (‘22), and were winners of the 2022 Yale School of Music Chamber Competition. Miriam is at home with music up to and beyond the edges of the classical canon, embracing baroque and contemporary performance throughout her studies. In recent years Miriam has appeared at festivals such as Mimir Chamber Music Festival, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Norfolk New Music, IMS Prussia Cove, Kneisel Hall, Four Seasons, the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Musique à Marsac, and Bowdoin International Music Festival. Recognized for her arts advocacy, Miriam has received support from The Secular Society and Oberlin’s Flint Initiative Grant for her work as a founder and co-director of the Cello Springs Festival, a cross-genre education and performance project in Yellow Springs, OH. Miriam is currently based in New Haven, CT where she plays with Trio Ondata, the Havenwood Quartet and Versicolor New Music. In counterpoint with her performing and teaching life, Miriam is invested in community-building, the culinary arts, and exploring the Great Outdoors. She plays a Rocca model cello (2019) by Maryland-based luthier Howard Needham.
Tristan Kasten-Krause is a bassist and composer living in Brooklyn, New York whose work enlarges the minutiae of close tones and subtle gestures. As a bassist he has been credited with lending his “low-end authority to vital New York institutions” (the New Yorker) and praised for his “heavenly” (the Guardian) original compositions. His work exploring duration and expanded time has led to multiple showcases on the Hudson Basilica’s 24-Hour Drone festival, performances of cathartic, hour-long compositions with experimental black metal band Scarcity, and the premiere of the marathon 6-hour opera, Stranger Love, for the LA Phil. Over the last decade Tristan has worked with forward-thinking artists such as Sigur Ros, Alvin Lucier, Caroline Shaw, LEYA, Sarah Hennies, and Steve Reich. He has served as bassist in many prominent New York ensembles including Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink, Ensemble Signal and Contemporaneous.
Brendon Randall-Myers is a Brooklyn-based composer, guitarist, and sound designer who creates intricate and visceral music at various intersections of rock, experimental, electronic, theater, and classical. His work has been described as "an unflinching testimonial on grief and endurance" (Pitchfork), “emotive and gripping” (The Quietus), “physically punishing, but also detailed with fanatical precision” (Night After Night), and "a yearning explosion” (The Wire). Brendon co-leads avant-black metal band Scarcity, and is a member of the Glenn Branca Ensemble - having conducted the group since Branca’s death in 2018 - and avant-electric guitar quartet Dither. He writes music for classical performers (pianist Miki Sawada, Friction Quartet, cellist Annie Blythe, Chicago Symphony), cross-genre/experimental groups (Bang on a Can, Dither, Warp Trio), and film scores (Docked, Swimming with Stones, We the Economy: Recession). Brendon's work has received support from the Jerome Foundation, New Music USA, New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Guitar Foundation of America, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and ASCAP. He has performed in clubs, concert halls, and basements around the world, including the Barbican Theatre (London), the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), and the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing).