Caleb Burhans
Composer, violinist/violist, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Burhans was born in Monterey, CA, and has lived in New York since 2003. He has been heralded by the New York Times as, “animated and versatile”, being a, “sweet voiced countertenor” as well as a “new music virtuoso”. His compositions have often been premiered by (and commissioned by) ensembles he works with, including his setting of Psalm 118 (for mixed choir, children’s choir, brass, and organ) commissioned by Trinity Church, Wall Street for Easter 2008; his arrangement of John Adams’s “Coast” from Hoodoo Zephyr commissioned by Carnegie Hall and Alarm Will Sound (and premiered at Carnegie Hall by AWS in 2006); and his upcoming oh ye of little faith… (do you know where your children are?) commissioned by Lincoln Center for the re-opening of Alice Tully Hall, which will be premiered by Alan Pierson and Alarm Will Sound on March 3, 2009. Other compositions include An Advent Song, Commissioned by Trinity Wall Street and premiered on December 7th, 2008, by Robert Ridgell and the Trinity Wall Street Choristers; In a distant place, commissioned by the Bloomingdale School of Music, premiered on June 20, 2008, at Christ and St. Stephens Church by Clay Greenberg and students of the Bloomingdale School of Music; and Amidst Neptune, commissioned by Brad Lubman and premiered by Brad Lubman and Eastman’s Musica Nova at Kilbourn hall in March of 2003 (which was also performed at the Whitney Museum in 2006 by Alan Pierson and Alarm Will Sound as part of Steve Reich’s 70th birthday celebration and at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall by Alan Pierson and AWS in a concert curated by John Adams). His works have been performed by faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, University of Wisconsin Madison and Smith College. They have won awards such as the Music Educators National Conference Composition Competition and Eastman’s Bernard and Rose Sernoffsky Prize. He has been featured on newmusicbox.org performing his own works.
His performing activities have included playing or singing (sometimes both) with groups including the All-American Rejects, Anti-Social Music, the Charleston Symphony, the Bach Choir at Holy Trinity, Ensemble21, Ethel, the Madison Symphony, the Michael Gordon Band, the Milwaukee Symphony, the New York New Music Ensemble, Nexus, Ossia, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Slee Sinfonietta, SO Percussion, Spring Awakening (On Broadway), Stars of the Lid, the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, The Hold Steady, the Todd Reynolds Situation, Trinity Wall Street Choir, the VOX Vocal Ensemble, the Wordless Music Orchestra, and the Zankel Hall Band. As a violin soloist, he’s also played with the Beloit Janesville Symphony, Eastman’s Ossia Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound and Eastman’s Collegium Musicum. As a countertenor soloist he’s sung with the Brockport Symphony, Rochester Bach Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Trinity on Wall Street Choir, Manhattan School of Music Percussion Ensemble, Eastman’s Musica Nova and Eastman’s Collegium Musicum. As a string player, Caleb has played with the Charleston Symphony, Madison Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Steve Reich Ensemble, Michael Gordon Band, Ensemble21, Tactus Contemporary Ensemble, University at Buffalo’s Slee Sinfonietta, Susie Kelly String Quartet, Ensemble Multicolour and the Rochester Bach Ensemble.
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William Brittelle
William Brittelle was raised in the 1980’s in small town North Carolina by his mother, a painter, and his father, a former pro athlete. He has spent the majority of his artistic life attempting to bridge the gap between pop music and NYC’s revitalized downtown classical scene. His primary mentors include Mike Longo, longtime pianist/arranger for Dizzy Gillespie, and Pulitzer prize-winning composer David Del Tredici. In 2003, his piece Seven Songs of Zen, Love, and Longing was released on Peacock Records by Anti-Social Music. With his rock band The Blondes, he performed on stages like Irving Plaza on bills with members of The Ramones, Pere Ubu, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Secret Machines. The Blondes’ debut album, produced by legendary punk guitar god Richard Lloyd (Television), was noted a number of top-ten lists and received mainstream and indie radio play. In 2004, Brittelle suffered a career ending vocal injury while performing at NYC’s Knitting Factory, forcing The Blondes to disband and leading Brittelle to start lip-synching his vocal parts. In 2006, Brittelle received an emerging composer grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation for the creation of Mohair Time Warp, a full-length art-music concept album featuring live musicians, and lip-synched vocals. Brittelle has since been featured on All Things Considered, in Time Out NY, on WYNC’s Soundcheck (CD pick of the month) and New Sounds, in Seattle’s Icebreaker Festival curated by Alex Ross and Kyle Gann, the Festival Internacional in Chihuahua, Mexico, Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge series, and New Music New College in Sarasota, Florida. Upcoming composition projects include Future Shock for violist Nadia Sirota, a new electro-acoustic album with ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble), and the release of his second full-length New Amsterdam release entitled Television Landscape. The apocalyptic yet hopeful concept album features an 18-person mixed-genre ensemble including strings, guitars, horns, saxes, flutes, and choir. In addition to his composing and performing schedule, Brittelle is co-director of New Amsterdam Records.
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Judd Greenstein
Judd Greenstein was born and raised in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, where he began his compositional life by writing hip hop beats as a teenager. His concert works reflect those origins, as well as his traditional piano background, combining an urban, beat-oriented sensibility with a late Romantic classical harmonic language. He has received degrees from Williams College and the Yale School of Music, has been a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Bang on a Can Summer Institute of Music, and is currently a fourth-year doctoral Fellow and Taplin Scholar at Princeton University, where he is writing a dissertation on hip hop music. In addition to his many compositions for NOW Ensemble, in which he is a composer and founding member, Judd writes music for a wide variety of ensembles and performers around the country. Recent commissions include those from Present Music, the Seattle Chamber Players, soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, flutist Alex Sopp, violist Nadia Sirota, percussionist Sam Solomon, cellist/vocalist Jody Redhage, and the Williams College Concert Choir. Judd is also active as a promoter of new music in New York City, co-directing New Amsterdam Records, an independent record label serving the emerging new music community of New York City; and Free Speech Zone Productions, a presenting organization focused on music related to issues of social justice and political concerns. As a solo artist, he recently performed as part of the Green Beat Box at Monkeytown, and will make appearances this summer at festivals in Seattle, WA and Wassaic, NY.
Rinde Eckert
Rinde Eckert, finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Drama, is a writer, composer, performer and director. His Opera / New Music Theatre productions have toured throughout America, and to major festivals in Europe and Asia.
His career began as a writer/performer in the 1980’s, writing librettos for Paul Dresher (Pioneer, Power Failure, Slow Fire, Ravenshead). Working subsequently with choreographers Margaret Jenkins and Sarah Shelton Mann, Eckert began composing dance scores, including the evening-length Woman, Window, Squarefor The Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. With The Gardening of Thomas D., his 1992 homage to Dante which was performed on tour in the United States and France, Rinde Eckert began composing and performing his own music/theater pieces. His staged works for solo performer include An Idiot Divine, Romeo Sierra Tango, and Quit This House. He wrote Shoot the Moving Things and Four Songs Lost in a Wall for radio. Recent writing credits include Horizon (2007-08 Drama Desk Nominations: Best Play and Best Director, Lucille Lortel Award: “Unique Theatrical Experience”); Orpheus X (Pulitzer Prize nomination); Highway Ulysses, and Four Songs Lost in a Wall (The American Academy of Arts and Letters 2005 Marc Blitzstein Award); And God Created Great Whales (OBIE Award: Best Performance, Drama Desk Nomination: “Unique Theatrical Experience”); and the two, one-act plays An Idiot Divine.
Current music projects include directing virtuoso percussionist Steven Schick in an evening-length solo-theater work composed/produced by Paul Dresher which debuts in March 2009. Eckert also wrote the text and directed the ensemble Zeitgeist in Sound Stage with Dresher. Eckert and composer Steve Mackey are creating, writing and will perform with the new music ensemble 8th blackbird in the concert-length music/theater work Slide, debuting in June 2009. Eckert wrote text and sang in Mackey’s oratorio Dream House, and the two musicians are members of BIG FARM, the 4-person ‘prog-rock’ band. Rinde Eckert’s uniquely eclectic music is available on the Intuition label in Germany and through Songline/Tonefield Productions. The critically acclaimed Sandhills Reunion (music by Jerry Granelli, text by Eckert) was released in 2005.
Rinde Eckert lives in New York with his wife, Ellen McLaughlin, the playwright and actress.