Scott Killian has composed works for such major American companies as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance-Chicago, Nikolais/Louis Dance, and the José Limón Dance Company. Killian has created numerous works with Cherylyn Lavagnino, as well as with Danny Shapiro and Joanie Smith, Johannes Wieland, ZviDance, and others. As a composer/sound designer for theatre, Killian has served as Resident Composer for the Berkshire Theatre Festival since 1997 and his work has been seen at theatrical venues including Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater, Women’s Project, The Acting Company, Rattlestick Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of Washington D.C., Shakespeare & Co., Seattle Rep, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Theatre Calgary and the Vancouver Playhouse. Music for film includes Witnessing, a documentary film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired on MSNBC, the film Undetectable: the Changing Face of AIDS (premiered on PBS and the NOW Film Festival/NYC) and Swan Lake, Minnesota an award-winning video adaptation of the classic ballet produced by the A&E network.
Martin Bresnick's compositions, from opera, oratorio, chamber and symphonic music to film scores and computer music, are performed throughout the world. Bresnick 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. At times his musical ideas spring from hardscrabble sources, often with a very real political import. But his compositions never descent into agitprop; one gains their meaning by the way the music itself unfolds, and always on its own terms. Besides having received many prizes and commissions, the first Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Rome Prize, The Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Koussevizky Commission, among many others, Martin Bresnick is also 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. Bresnick’s compositions are published by Carl Fischer Music Publishers, New York; Bote & Bock, Berlin; CommonMuse Publishers, New Haven; and have been recorded by Cantaloupe Records, New World Records, Albany Records, Bridge Records, Composers Recordings Incorporate Centaur, and Starkland Records. Photo by Marc Ostow.
Frank DenDanto III: lighting Design and visual artist, received his MFA in Design from NYU's Tisch School. Select NYC credits include Full Circle's Solar Powered at the New Victory Theater, Blind Alley at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Only You at the Jewish American Theater, Shadow Box at the Hudson Guild Theater, Title of Show for NYMF, People Are Wrong at PS122 and Acts of Love at the Kirk Theater. He has designed for Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, Karen Finely, Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, John Fleck, Deb Margolin, Ann Magnuson, and John Kelly and Sarah Jones. Dance Credits include work with Sarah Michelson, Lava Love, Stacy Dawson, David Neumann, and the White Oak Dance Project and of course two decades with Bridgman/Packer Dance. His regional credits work at Stage Works in Hudson NY, the Berkshire Theater Festival, New York Stage and Film and Delaware Valley Opera and Half Moon Theater Co.
Awards for his light installation/sculptures include First Runner Up in Light Forums 98, and a Jerome commission in 2002. His work and designs have been displayed at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, The Museum of Art and Architecture and The New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC, The ICA in Portland ME and the Basilica in Hudson NY. He is co-founder of Mother’s Milk Inc., a nonprofit arts support organization, based north of NYC, supplying production support, workshop and rehearsal space for theater and dance in NY.
When not working to support or create works of art, Frank designs lighting for retail, commercial and museum spaces. In his free time he enjoys building full size whale skeletal articulations with his brother Dan in ME that can be seen at the Nantucket Historical Society, Phillips Exeter Academy, Seacoast Science Center and Harvard University.
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
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
Charles Roussel (b. 1984, France) is a Brooklyn based photographer, specialized in portraiture and editorial work.
He holds a Masters in Communication Arts, and completed his education at the International Center of Photography in NYC.
He held his first solo show "The NY Chronicles" in 2017 in NYC.
Jesse Seegers is a New York-based spatial practitioner working between architecture, graphic design, writing, editing, publishing, and research practices. His hybrid creative practice includes; designing and fabricating pneumatic/inflatable environments commissioned for events, performances, parties and temporary social encounters; teaching graphic design and publishing at New York University in the Tandon School of Engineering's Media and Gaming Network (MAGNET) and at The New School for Social Research in the Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism MA program as well as the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons School of Design. He maintains a practice writing, editing and consulting on architecture, art, design and technology for publications, institutions and cultural organizations as a balance between both mental and tactile labor as well as technical and artistic faculties. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and has written about architecture, art, design, and technology for publications in print and online including: PIN-UP, REAL Review, The Architect’s Newspaper, TANK, Frog, DAMn°, and Volume, among others.
Lisa Moore’s playing has been singled out by The New York Times for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”. Pitchfork writes: “The New York-based Australian pianist Lisa Moore is a tightrope-walker, a daredevil. 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. She can play them all.” The New York Times remarks ‘Lisa Moore has always been a natural, compelling storyteller'. Moore has released 10 solo discs (Cantaloupe, Tall Poppies, Orange Mountain, IGM, Bandcamp) and over 30 collaborative discs (Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland, Harmonia Mundi). Her 2016 disc The Stone People (Cantaloupe) was listed in The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and the 2017 Naxos Critics’ Choice. Her recording of Ishi’s Song by Martin Bresnick (Stone People CD) is ranked no.4 in the 2020 Naxos Best of Indie Classical. Moore has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet, Steve Reich Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, So Percussion, Ensemble Signal, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She is currently a member of TwoSense, Grand Band, Signal, and the Paul Dresher Double Duo. Her festival performances include Lincoln Center, BAM, Graz, Tanglewood, Gilmore, Chautauqua, Huddersfield, Paris d'Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, La Scala, Carnegie Hall, and the Musikverein. From 1992-2008 Lisa Moore was the founding pianist for the electro-acoustic sextet The Bang On A Can All-Stars - winning Musical America's Ensemble of the Yea’ Award. www.lisamoore.org
American cellist Ashley Bathgate has been described as an “eloquent new music interpreter” (New York Times) and “a glorious cellist” (The Washington Post) who combines “bittersweet lyricism along with ferocious chops” (New York Magazine). Her “impish ferocity,” “rich tone,” and “imaginative phrasing” (New York Times) have made her one of the most sought after performers of her time. The desire to create a dynamic energy exchange with her audience and build upon the ensuing chemistry is a pillar of Bathgate's philosophy as a performer. Dynamism drives her to venture into previously uncharted areas of ground-breaking sounds and techniques, breaking the mold of a cello's traditionally perceived voice. Bathgate was a member of the acclaimed sextet Bang on a Can All-Stars from 2009-2019. She is also a member of the chamber music group Eighth Blackbird, TwoSense with pianist Lisa Moore, and the Mammoth Trio. Most recently, Ashley was appointed Artistic Director of Avaloch Farm Music Institute, a creative residency program for professional chamber music groups situated in Boscawen, NH. (ashleybathgate.com)
A native of Osaka, Japan, violinist Elly Toyoda has performed in major festivals throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. She has been a featured soloist in a program of baroque concertos performed by Rutgers faculty and has performed standard repertory through solo and chamber recitals at the Château Fontainebleau in France, the Oratorio dei Disciplinanti in Italy, and Japan's Symphony Hall and Ishikawa Ongakudo among others. An avid supporter of contemporary music, Dr. Toyoda was awarded the Prix de Musique Contemporaine by the Fontainebleau Schools, has recorded for Cantaloupe music, has appeared on programs at the National Sawdust, Le Poisson Rouge, and the Elb Philharmonie in Germany, and has premiered numerous works through the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Lucerne Festival, Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts, and Talis Festival. She is also a frequent collaborator with Eighth Blackbird, the 4-time Grammy award-winning contemporary music ensemble. Dr. Toyoda currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin and Chair of the String Department at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. She was previously a part-time Lecturer teaching Performance Practice at Rutgers University, and served on the faculties of SpeakMusic Conservatory and Lindeblad School of Music. Dr. Toyoda served as a secondary violin instructor at Oberlin and Yale and was a guest artist at the University of Oklahoma. She holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Marilyn McDonald, the Yale School of Music where she studied with Syoko Aki, and from Rutgers University where she studied with Yura Lee.
Composer and vocalist Carol Lipnik has built a dedicated following in New York City as the artist in residence at the East Village Boîte Pangea (where she enjoyed a three year long run), and through her frequent performances at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater. She was an artist in residence at The Philadelphia Kimmel Center (Theater Residency Program in conjunction with The Public Theater) and has also appeared at the Atrium and the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center. Ms. Lipnik has released six CDs on her Mermaid Alley Music label, most recently the acclaimed “Almost Back To Normal,” produced by Jacob Lawson and funded through a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation. Notably, she composed music with performance artist John Kelly for “The Escape Artist” and for Michelle Handelman’s video installation “Hustlers and Empires” at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Visit mermaidalley.com for more info.
Jacob Lawson is a composer, producer and violinist who creates works for theatre, dance and popular music. His composition clients have included Tami Stronach Dance, The Flying Machine, David’s Bridal, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, Shakespeare and Co., Haus, Overcoast, Cellfish, Jumping Giant, and Spork Productions. He scored the award winning film Fray and the animated series The Passion of Jimmy and was a contributing composer for the films Boy Wonder and Kartellet. In the world of popular music he has recorded with and composed arrangements for best selling recording artists including Guster, Sixpence None-the-Richer, Jars of Clay, Ce Ce Winans, Vienna Teng, and Venus Hum as well as dozens of other major label artists. He has produced albums and remixes in a diverse range or genres for Jennifer Knapp, Carol Lipnik, Genna & Jesse, Dave’s True Story and dozens more. He has performed with these and other artists including Tim McGraw, Jill Sobule, and Richard Julian throughout the US and Europe and has appeared in broadcast on the BBC, MTV, Vh1, CBS, ABC and NPR.
Kathy Kaufmann has been a resident designer at the Danspace Project at St. Marks Church for over 10 years. She received a “Bessie “(New York Dance and Performance Award) for her body of lighting design work in 2004 and for Yvonne Meier's Stolen in 2009. She was also honored to be included in Curtain Call: Celebrating 100 Years of Women in Design at the New York Performing Arts Library and currently teaches lighting design at Sarah Lawrence College. Recent projects include designs for Sally Silvers, Joanna Kotze, Eiko & Koma, Vanessa Anspaugh, Cori Olinghouse, Jon Kinzel, Rebecca Stenn, Gina Gibney, and Michelle Dorrance.
Travis Magee received his BFA in dance from the Boston Conservatory where he had the privilege of working with such legends as Yuriko, Murray Louis and Jennifer Scanlon. Since his graduation he has been a frequent guest with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet and a member of the Lucinda Childs Dance Company. As a photographer, Travis has worked with some of the world's greatest dancers to create high energy, kinetic images.