2023 guest artists coming soon!

Laraaji

LARAAJI is a New York City musician and one of modern new-age and experimental music’s most distinctive, prolific, and charismatic characters. A master of multiple instruments, Laraaji primarily constructs lengthy, meditative, celestial ambient soundscapes from an electronically altered zither supplemented with kalimba, synthesizers and piano as well as field recordings and vocals.

Born Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia in 1943, Laraaji attended Washington, D.C.'s Howard University on a music scholarship before relocating to New York City in the 1960’s with the intention of making a living as an actor and comedian. Upon arriving in New York City, Laraaji became immersed in studies of Eastern mysticism, which would change the course of his life. Happening upon a zither at a local pawn shop and experimenting with it, he developed a unique sound through electronic enhancement and unconventional playing techniques. He released his first album, Celestial Vibration, under his own name in 1978 and began busking in New York City parks leading to a chance encounter with famed ambient innovator Brian Eno who would produce Laraaji’s first widely available release, Ambient 3: Day of Radiance on his EG label in 1980.

Since first gaining exposure in the early '80s,  Laraaji has released over 50 albums, ranging from the mantra-like, gospel-tinged synth-pop to expansive, extended drone works. In just the last decade Laraaji has experienced something of a late career renaissance as many of his early recordings have been re-discovered by a new generation of fans via reissues from the likes of the Numero Group, Light In The Attic and Leaving Records; new collaborations with underground musicians Dallas Acid and Sun Araw; a revitalized live presence that has seen him share concert stages worldwide with the likes of Solange and Jonathan Wilson; and a wide amount of media coverage: from discussing his love of orange clothes in Vogue, to demonstrating the benefits of transcendental music on BBC4 or performing a coveted NPR tiny desk concert.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic Laraaji returned to his first instrument, the piano, releasing a stunning and critically lauded trilogy of elegant and minimal improvisations for the All Saints label, introducing a new chapter to the story of a much-loved cult icon.

Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble

Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble consists of some of the finest and most adventurous singer/ instrumentalist/ performers active in new music. Founded in 1978 to further expand Monk’s groundbreaking exploration of the human voice, the Ensemble has received multiple awards and critical acclaim, including a 2008 GRAMMY nomination for impermanence. Appearing in festivals, theaters and concert halls around the world, Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble can also be heard on numerous recordings on the ECM New Music Series label.

Theo Bleckmann

Theo Bleckmann is a Grammy-nominated singer, composer and arranger whose work spans concerts, installations, live electronic vocal processing, contemporary music theater, cabaret, ambient music and performance art. Bleckmann has released a series of diverse albums including his collection of acoustic solos for voice (I dwell in possibility) and his highly acclaimed Hello Earth – the music of Kate Bush. He has worked with such artists as Ambrose Akinmusire, Laurie Anderson, Uri Caine, Philip Glass, Ann Hamilton, John Hollenbeck, Sheila Jordan, Phil Kline, David Lang, Kirk Nurock, Frances McDormand, Ben Monder, Kenny Wheeler, John Zorn, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and, most prominently, with Meredith Monk since 1994. Mr. Bleckmann has performed with Laurie Anderson on The Late Show with David Letterman and has been a guest of Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air. Mr. Bleckmann recently released his first CD, elegy, for ECM.

Katie Geissinger

Katie Geissinger has performed with Meredith Monk worldwide since 1990, in concert and in theater pieces such as ATLAS, mercy, the Grammy-nominated impermanence, Songs of Ascension, On Behalf of Nature (all on ECM), Cellular Songs and The Politics of Quiet, for which she received an ensemble Bessie award. Other career highlights include the premiere of Bang on a Can’s Obie-winning The Carbon Copy Building (Canteloupe), touring with Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach (Elektra Nonesuch), and performances at Carnegie Hall as a soloist in Bach’s Magnificat, Honegger’s Le Roi David, and Monk’s WEAVE. Katie also sang in Jonathan Miller’s staging of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at BAM, John Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple at Lincoln Center, and Ann Hamilton’s the event of a thread, with music by David Lang, at the Park Avenue Armory. Her Broadway credits include Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Boheme, and Coram Boy. Recent performances include Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer in collaboration with Anne Bogart’s SITI Company and The Bang on a Can All-Stars, Marisa Michelson’s oratorio Naamah’s Ark, conducted by Ted Sperling, and concerts at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. Katie is a member of the professional Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine under the direction of Kent Tritle. She has recorded for ECM, Canteloupe, and Elektra Nonesuch. Teaching experience ranges from choral work in Estonia and San Francisco to workshops at Naropa, Oberlin, the Experimental Theater Wing at NYU, Berklee, and the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop.

Allison Sniffin

Allison Sniffin, a multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer, has been a member of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble since 1996, performing in The Politics of Quiet, A Celebration Service, Magic Frequencies, mercy, Turtle Dreams, Book of Days (concert version), impermanence, Songs of Ascension, On Behalf of Nature and Cellular Songs. She has collaborated with Meredith Monk on the orchestration of Possible Sky, Night, WEAVE, Realm Variations and Backlight; arranged Monk’s music for Bang on a Can All-Stars; edited and contributed to two albums of her piano music; and prepared many of her a capella and instrumental works for publication. Ms. Sniffin has received grants from Meet the Composer and Concert Artists Guild for her compositions. She is a frequent arranger/orchestrator for The Stonewall Chorale and Melodia Women’s Choir, NYC. She was also winner in the New York Philharmonic’s 2017 New World Composition Challenge. Ms. Sniffin serves as organist at Middle Collegiate Church and Temple Sha’aray Tefila in NYC.

Daniel Neumann

Daniel Neumann is a Brooklyn-based sound artist, organizer, and audio engineer originally from Germany. A main focus throughout these different occupations is how sound interacts with space and how spatial perception can be shaped by sound. He holds a master’s degree in media art from the HGB Leipzig and also studied electronic music composition. In his artistic practice he is working in hybrid installation-performance formats. He understands sound as an intersubjective field, enabled and expanded by audio procedures.

His works have been presented at Fridman Gallery, TEA Tenerife, Moss Arts Center VA, Sinne Gallery Helsinki, Pinacoteca Bellas Artes Manizales Colombia, AMEE Madrid/Valencia, Loop Barcelona; Fergus McCaffrey, MoMA PS1, MoMI, Knockdown Center, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Pratt Institute, Eyebeam, Diapason Gallery, Sculpture Center, Hunter College in New York; Eigen & Art Gallery Leipzig, Skolska28 Prague, Lothringer13 Munich, and more. Curatorially he runs an event series in New York City [CT::SWaM] that engages in spatial sound works and focused listening. As an audio engineer he has worked for Stockhausen’s Oktophonie performances at the Park Avenue Armory (2012); at MoMA PS1 (2013-2016), David Guetta (2014-2018), and acoustic designer of The World Is Sound at the Rubin Museum (2017). He currently works for Diamanda Galás, Oneohtrix Point Never, Alarm Will Sound, and is sound projectionist for Maryanne Amacher’s Adjacencies.

Richard Crawford

Richard Crawford studied with Jacques Lecoq, and also at Rose Bruford College, London. He is a founding member of the internationally-acclaimed New York physical theater ensemble The Flying Machine and played for two years on Broadway in War Horse. He also played the lead in the off-Broadway hit show Slava's Snowshowfrom 2004-2006 and has directed clown work for Cirque du Soleil including Dralion, MJ1(Vegas) and the newest Cirque show Volta. He is an award-winning director whose projects have included a Commedia dell'Arte version of Petrushkaat Carnegie Hall; The Bourgeois Gentlemenat the UMN/Guthrie and Comedy of Errorsat TheatreWorks, Colorado Springs. He also performed in the 2002 OBIE Winning [Sic]at Soho Rep., NYC, and as the lead in La Jolla Playhouse's groundbreaking The Adding Machinein 2007. Richard has been teaching for the past twelve years in London, Paris, Santiago, Montreal and New York. In the U.S. he has taught Neutral Mask, Commedia dell'Arte and Lecoq Technique at NYU/Tisch, SUNY Purchase, Yale School of Drama, Sarah Lawrence College, Bard College, The Actor's Center, Marymount Manhattan, Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute, Michael Howard Studios, The Stella Adler Studio, and the University of Minnesota. He is currently on the faculty at PACE University and Rutgers, Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Katherine Manley

Soprano Katherine Manley studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, Glasgow and the Benjamin Britten International Opera School at the Royal College of Music, London. 

In the 2017-18 season, Katherine sang Pamina in Mozart's Magic Flute, she featured in Michel van der Aa’s latest one-woman-opera, BlankOut which she performed at the Beijing Music Festival, KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen and Musica Nova Helsinki, for Finnish National Opera. Other recent world premieres include the role of Wife in The Last Hotel by Donnacha Dennehy (music) and Enda Walsh (text) at the Edinburgh Festival, London Covent Garden and New York St Ann's Warehouse. Katherine also performed Dennehy's revised score of The Hunger in BAM, New York, the Kennedy Center Washington DC, and for St. Louis Opera, with contemporary ensemble Alarm Will Sound. She recently revisited the role of Zenna Briggs in Van der Aa's Sunken Garden which she created at English National Opera, both the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Essen Philharmonie 2017, and most recently with Dallas Opera.

In addition to her growing reputation in the contemporary operatic repertoire, Katherine is already established as an outstanding performer of baroque music. She played Creuse in David McVicar’s production of Charpentier’s Medée, ENO. A number of Monteverdi roles include the title role in Poppea, conducted by Christian Curnyn, Messaggera/Proserpina in Orfeo with Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican Centre London, The Return of Ulysses (the Young Vic) for English National Opera. Katherine has sung Venus, Venus & Adonis with director Netia Jones, and Belinda in After Dido, a joint venture by ENO/The Young Vic directed by Katie Mitchell. She made her US stage debut as Oriana in Handel’s Amadigi for Central City Opera, Colorado.

Over the past seasons Katherine has been a popular guest artist at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, featuring in the leading roles of Eliza Doolittle in Robert Carson's My Fair Lady and Maria in The Sound of Music, proving equally at home in high profile musical theatre productions, she also sung Maria for Central City Opera and Julie in Carousel for Opera North at the Barbican Theatre.

Her concert engagements include Judith Weir’s Natural History for Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Max Richter’s Memoryhouse, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, Edinburgh International Festival singing The Indian Queen with The Sixteen. Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with Capriccio Barockorchester, Saul with Daniel Reuss, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 at The Sage, Northern Sinfonia. La Statue in Rameau’s Pigmalion with the OAE. Bach's Matthew and John Passions, Bach Cantatas with Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra & Britten Sinfonia, and Christmas Oratorios throughout Europe. She has sung Jephtha with The King’s Consort, Switzerland, Israel in Egypt on tour with Musik Podium Stuttgart. The Fairy Queen with McCreesh & Gabrieli Consort & Players, & La descente d’Orphée at the Wigmore Hall. Recordings made include Handel's Il Pastor Fido with Harmonia Mundi, LNM, and Joshua with the London Handel Festival, Laurence Cummings.

Future engagements 2019/20 include Xerses with Badisches Staatstheater, and a disk recording for the label Nonesuch with Alarm Will Sound. Katherine is currently singing Pamina with Central City Opera, Colorado in Mozart's The Magic Flute.

Iarla O'Lionaird

Iarla Ó Lionáird has carved a long and unique career in music both internationally and in Ireland. From his iconic early recording of the vision song “Aisling Gheal” as a young boy to his ground-breaking recordings with Dublin's Crash Ensemble and New York’s Alarm Will Sound, he has shown a breadth of artistic ambition that sets him apart in the Irish Music fraternity.

He’s a child of traditional music, born and bred in Cúil Aodha, in the belly of the West Cork Gaeltacht, with Seán Ó Riada a neighbour and indisputable early influence. His great aunt, the traditional singer Elizabeth Cronin, had forged a reputation for rich interpretation before him, paving the way for the young Ó Lionáird to still audiences with his plaintive, textured voice at Mass, and later, in parlors, front rooms, snugs, town halls and concert halls. 

A twice Grammy-nominated artist, Ó Lionáird has worked with a stellar cast of composers internationally including Donnacha Dennehy, Dan Trueman, Nico Muhly, Gavin Bryars, and David Lang, and he has performed and recorded with such luminaries as Peter Gabriel, Nick Cave, Robert Plant, and Sinead O'Connor. His unique singing style has carried him to stages and concert halls all over the world, from New York's Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House and beyond.

Also an accomplished broadcaster, Ó Lionáird’s recent radio series “Vocal Chords,” on the mysteries of the human voice, for Ireland’s National Classical Music Broadcaster, RTE Lyric FM, won both Gold and Silver Awards at the “New York Radio Festival” 2017.

His voice has graced the silver screen also, with film credits extending from The Gangs of New Yorkto Hotel Rwanda, and most recently as featured singer in the film Brooklynstarring Saoirse Ronan. He is the vocalist with the critically acclaimed Irish/American band The Gloaming. He holds a Masters Degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Limerick, where he is currently completing a PhD. Appointed as Global Scholar 2017-20, he is Visiting Lecturer in Music and the Humanities at Princeton University.

Bels Lontano

Inspired by an eclectic range of musical and non-musical sources, Bels Lontano explores concepts of liminal spaces, natural beauty, therapy, and personal growth through the creation of rich sonic tapestries and melodic beat music stemming from the traditions of IDM, hip-hop, contemporary classical, and ambient.

Eli Keszler

Eli Keszler is an American percussionist, composer, and visual artist based in New York City. Known for his complex and intricate style of drumming, as well creating sound installations involving piano wire and other mechanisms to accompany his live performances, his shows have involved visual elements such as Keszler's drawings, diagrams, screen prints, and writings. In 2012, Pitchfork wrote that "Keszler deserves recent attention for his large-scale sound art installations, which not only force musical ideas to interact with an acoustic environment but, in turn, for flesh-and-bone musicians to interact with both of them."

Keszler has also toured or collaborated with artists such as Tony Conrad, Jandek, Loren Connors, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Oneohtrix Point Never, and has released several solo albums since 2008. The most recent, Alps in 2014, was a collaboration with guitarist Oren Ambarchi. Keszler recently debuted a sound installation project where he mounted wires up to 800 feet long off the Manhattan Bridge.

He has had exhibitions of his visual work, installations and performances at museums and galleries such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Kitchen, South London Gallery, LUMA Foundation, Tectonics Festival in Reykjavik, Centraal Museum in Utrecht, and Boston Center for the Arts. He and David Grubbs recently debuted a piece at the MIT List Center.

The University of Missouri Clarinet Quartet

The University of Missouri Clarinet Quartet (MCQ), founded in 2017 under the guidance of Dr. Wesley Warnhoff, has a strong commitment to community engagement and the expansion of the clarinet quartet repertoire. The quartet has performed outreach concerts and clarinet workshops throughout Missouri. The members of the quartet include Victoria Hargrove, Michigan State University DMA Clarinet Teaching Assistant candidate; Andrew Mahonen, University of Missouri Theory Teaching Assistant; Wesley Warnhoff, clarinet professor at the University of Missouri; and Austin Wright, University of Missouri New Music Ensemble Clarinet Teaching Assistant. As well as performing at MICF this summer, MCQ will make its international debut at ClarinetFest 2018 in Ostend, Belgium performing world premieres composed by University of Missouri composers: Professor of Composition Dr. Stefan Freund and senior composition major Mr. Aaron Mencher.

American clarinetist Victoria Hargrove is an avid performer, researcher, and pedagogue. She has performed internationally and throughout the United States. Her research and pedagogical instruction has reached individuals of all ages and levels of education. 

Victoria was recently named one of the winners of the 2018 University of Missouri Concerto Competition. She has been actively performing with the Mizzou New Music Ensemble as the Clarinet/ Bass Clarinet Graduate Assistant with whom she has premiered many new works. Victoria has performed as a guest soloist with the Missouri Symphony and as guest bass clarinetist with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra (GA). Internationally, she has been featured as a soloist and chamber musician in Belgium and Quebec. 

Her pedagogical research has been referenced in other academic writings such as theses and university research papers. Victoria's pedagogical techniques nurture her studio's success resulting in her students being accepted into undergraduate performance programs. 

Victoria holds a Bachelor’s in Music Performance from Columbus State University, a Master's in Music Performance from University of Missouri, and will begin her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Michigan State University in the fall of 2018. Her principal instructors are Dr. Lisa Oberlander and Dr. Wesley Warnhoff.

Clarinetist Andrew Mahonen is an avid performer, researcher, and educator. Recently, Andrew worked as a Performance Fellow with the Odyssey Chamber Music Series during their 2017-2018 season where he curated their concert “Scenémagic.” Additionally, he was selected as one of the winners of the University of Missouri’s Emerging Artists Competition and was a performer at the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest 2018 in Ostend, Belgium. 

Andrew has been a featured soloist numerous times along with performing in the Duluth/Superior Symphony Orchestra (DSSO), the Lyric Opera of the North, and the Minnesota Ballet Orchestra. Being a passionate chamber musician, he was the clarinetist for the Northern Winds Quintet and a member of the University of Minnesota Duluth Chamber Winds and the DSSO chamber music series. 

As a researcher, Andrew is primarily working with how chamber music can be better utilized in public high schools. His completed research coupled with his experience teaching students of all ages has led Andrew to develop a teaching style where music is viewed as a diverse art. 

Andrew holds his Bachelor’s of Music in Clarinet Performance from the University of Minnesota, Duluth and is currently pursuing his Masters of Music in clarinet performance at the University of Missouri. His primary teachers have been Dr. Theodore Schoen and Dr. Wesley Warnhoff. 

A native of Independence, Iowa, clarinetist Austin Stanley Wright is highly involved as a solo, chamber, and large ensemble musician. He has recently begun his career as an emerging solo artist.

As a large ensemble player, Austin is a rotating principal clarinetist for the University of Missouri Wind Ensemble and is a member of the clarinet section for the University of Missouri Philharmonic Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, he is currently a member of MCQ, the graduate clarinet quartet at the University of Missouri which has recently commissioned new works for the medium.   

As a soloist, Austin has recently been announced as a winner of University of Missouri Concerto Competition for the 2018-2019 season with his colleague Ms. Victoria Hargrove and will be performing Krommer’s Concerto for Two Clarinets, Op. 35 with the University Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Austin holds a Bachelors of Music from the University of Northern Iowa in the studio of Dr. Amanda McCandless and is working towards a Masters of Music in clarinet performance in the studio of Dr. Wesley Warnhoff. Austin has also performed in master classes with Dr. Elsa Ludwig-Verdehr and Wonkak Kim.

Clarinetist Wesley Warnhoff’s “thoughtful, effortless, and intense” performance style has gained him international acclaim as a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician.  Dr. Warnhoff is currently serving as Assistant Teaching Professor of Clarinet at the University of Missouri where he leads the clarinet studio, performs with the Missouri Quintet, coaches the Missouri Clarinet Quartet, and directs the clarinet choir.  He is a founding member of the VCP Trio, a violin, clarinet, and piano trio that advocates new music performance.  Dr. Warnhoff is also the principal clarinet of the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra in Michigan and a regular performer with the Missouri Symphony Orchestra.

An avid proponent of music education, Dr. Warnhoff’s research into the clarinet’s contemporary extended techniques has helped him to develop a unique pedagogical approach that provides a new perspective on creating the ideal embouchure and sound concept.  It is this dedication to teaching that makes him a sought-after artist and clinician throughout the United States.

As a champion of new music, Dr. Warnhoff has commissioned and given many new music premieres including the world-premiere of Murray Gross’ Rhapsody for Clarinet, “I Surrender.”  

Dr. Warnhoff holds his degrees in higher education from Michigan State University, where he earned his DMA and MM, and Missouri State University where he earned his BM. His primary teachers include Dr. Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, Dr. Allison Storochuk, and Dr. Jack Scheurer.

DRAX

DRAX is the newest ensemble-in-residence at the University of Missouri School of Music with faculty members Leo Saguiguit (saxophone) and Megan Arns (percussion). Formed in the fall of 2014, DRAX has already made its international debut at the World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, France in July 2015. Additionally, the duo has performed at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, the Region 4 Conference of the North American Saxophone Alliance in Oklahoma, and the Missouri Percussive Arts Society Day of Percussion. Dedicated to creating new repertoire for this unique combination of instruments, DRAX recently commissioned and premiered a new work for saxophone, percussion, and electronics from award-winning Colombian composer José Martínez.

Saxophonist Leo Saguiguit joined the MU faculty in 2002 after holding previous faculty positions at Northwestern University, University of the South (Sewanee), and Emory University. His degrees are from Emory University and Northwestern, where his major teachers were Stutz Wimmer and Fred Hemke, respectively. Additional teachers include Paul Bro and Jonathan Helton. He has performed throughout the US and abroad, including France, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Cuba, China, Thailand, and the Philippines. He collaborates with many ensembles and currently performs with the Athens (Greece) Saxophone Quartet, Missouri Saxophone Quartet, Chicago Saxophone Quartet, and Trio Chymera. He has performed regularly with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra, and Missouri Symphony. He appears in over a dozen CD recordings, including six with the professional wind ensemble Philharmonia à Vent and three with the Athens Quartet.

Megan Arns is a percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and music educator with a diverse set of skills and a driven passion for her craft. She recently joined the music faculty of the University of Missouri as Assistant Teaching Professor of Percussion, having previously served on the faculties of Mansfield University in Mansfield, PA and the National Music Conservatory in Amman, Jordan where she was also the Principal Timpanist of the Amman Symphony Orchestra. Active as a contemporary chamber percussionist, Megan’s recent highlights include collaborative performances in India, Jordan, Costa Rica, Ghana, and the United States at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Millennium Park, and the Smithsonian Institution. She is the editor of Rhythm! Scene, a Percussive Arts Society publication, and received her D.M.A. in Percussion Performance & Literature at the Eastman School of Music. Megan endorses Vic Firth Sticks & Mallets and Pearl/Adams Musical Instruments.

Eli Lara

Regarded for thoughtful interpretations, compelling execution, and depth of understanding, cellist Eli Lara has been praised for creating “a sense of complete awe.” As an ensemble and solo musician, Dr. Lara has performed across North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. She is co-founder of Trio Séléné and was formerly cellist of the award-winning Calla Quartet and the Franklin String Quartet.

Dedicated to promoting contemporary music, Dr. Lara has worked with many composers including Fernando Buide, Krzystof Penderecki, Caroline Shaw, Julia Wolfe, and Jeffrey Wood. She has performed and/or premiered new works in numerous concerts and festivals including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and Summergarden at the New York MoMA. This Fall, the MU School of Music will welcome Dr. Eli Lara as the Assistant Professor of Cello and the newest member of the Esterhazy Quartet.

Dr. Lara performed as co-principal of the Gateway Chamber Orchestra, guest principal of the Paducah Symphony, and in the Nashville Opera Orchestra; while in the Nashville area, she also worked frequently as a studio recording musician. Highlights include recording with Willie Nelson as well as video games for Insomniac, Oculus Rift, and Electronic Arts including Madden 16. Dr. Lara has appeared on NPR, at major venues such as New York's Alice Tully Hall and London's Wigmore Hall and at festivals including Birdfoot, Kneisel Hall, Sarasota, Banff, and Festival Pablo Casals (France).

Dr. Lara previously taught at Austin Peay State University. She graduated from Yale University with an undergraduate degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry and an M.M. in cello performance. A recipient of the C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellowship, she completed her D.M.A. at The Juilliard School. Her primary teachers include Joel Krosnick, Aldo Parisot, Ole Akahoshi, and Stephen Kates. Awarded the Richard F. French Prize, Eli traveled to Prague and Vienna to study the string quartet manuscripts of Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff and was subsequently invited to present her research at an international conference at Arizona State University.

Julie Rosenfeld, Peter Miyamoto, and the Missouri Saxophone Quartet

Violinist Julie Rosenfeld is an artist of great depth and passion.  In 32 years as the First Violinist of the Colorado Quartet, winner of both the First Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award within ten days in 1983, she played more than 1200 concerts, touring throughout every part of the United States and Canada, and in more than 20 other countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bosnia, Norway, Denmark, Israel, Korea, the British Virgin Islands, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico.  Their recordings of both standard and contemporary repertoire (most recently the complete Quartets of Beethoven) garnered praise from critics far and wide, as has their championing of many of today’s leading composers such as Karel Husa, Joan Tower, Richard Wernick, Katherine Hoover, George Tsontakis, Laura Kaminsky and Libby Larsen.  The Soundfest Festival and Institute of String Quartets, a music camp for players aged 10 to adult amateur, founded in 1991 in Falmouth, Massachusetts, was directed by the Colorado Quartet until 2013, and they were the Quartet-in-Residence at Bard College from 2000 until 2009.  They have held residencies at Oberlin, Swarthmore and Amherst Colleges, and have given Master Classes at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School and at Yale University, among others.

Ms. Rosenfeld plays on a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin, made around 1750, and owns bows crafted in the early 19th Century by Dominique Peccatte and Nicolas Maire.

Pianist Peter Miyamoto has enjoyed a brilliant international career, performing to great acclaim in Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, China, and Japan, and in major US cities such as Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. In 1990 he was named winner of the Irving S. Gilmore Young Artist Award. He also won the American Pianists Association National Fellowship Competition, the D’Angelo International Competition, the San Francisco Symphony Competition and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Competition, and was a prize-winner in the National Chopin Competition.

Currently Associate Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the University of Missouri, Peter Miyamoto holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music (B.M.), Yale University (M.M. and A.D.), Michigan State University (D.M.A.), and the Royal Academy of Music (A.D.) in London. His teachers have included Maria Curcio-Diamand, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Aube Tzerko, and Ralph Votapek as well as Szymon Goldberg, Felix Galimir, and Lorand Fenyves for chamber music.

The Missouri Saxophone Quartet (MSQ) was formed in 2009 and is devoted to exploring and promoting new music, particularly that of Missouri composers. The group has inspired several commissions which they have presented at venues such as the World Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews, Scotland, the North American Saxophone Alliance's Biennial Conferences at the University of Georgia and the University of Illinois, the United States Navy Band's International Saxophone Symposium in Fairfax, Virginia, and the Odyssey Chamber Music Series of Columbia, Missouri. The MSQ performs a wide variety of styles from baroque transcriptions, to traditional French repertoire, to jazz and tango, and the avant-garde. The MSQ is also committed to educational outreach, having performed at numerous high schools throughout the State of Missouri. MSQ is Leo Saguiguit, Neil Ostercamp, Joel Vanderheyden, and Matt Kendrick.

New Muse Piano Duo

The New Muse Piano Duo (Paola Savvidou and Jonathan Kuuskoski) is an ensemble-in­residence at the University of Missouri School of Music specializing in music of the 20th and 21st centuries. They actively commission and perform newly composed works for four-hands and two pianos, incorporating visual and interactive components, often within unexpected concert formats.

In 2014-15, the Duo premieres new works by Amy Williams, Jeffrey Hoover, and Haley Myers in performances in Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Baltimore. Highlights include return performances to the Odyssey Chamber Music Series and a Guest Artist Recital at the Missouri Theatre for the Missouri Music Teachers Association State Conference.

During their inaugural 2013-2014 season the Duo curated a program of new works by living composers selected from a call-for-scores that generated more than 90 submissions from across the Americas and Europe. Guest artist residencies followed at the University of North Carolina – Wilmington, Truman State University, Missouri State University, the Ionian University in Corfu, (Greece), along with a lecture recital at the European Piano Teachers Association Conference in Oslo, and guest artist recitals at the European Association for Music in Schools Conference and Biennial Euro-Mediterranean Musicological Conference at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus.

DRAX

DRAX (Megan Arns, percussion and Leo Saguiguit, saxophone) is the newest faculty ensemble­in-residence at the University of Missouri formed in fall 2014. Since then, the ensemble has already made its international debut at the 2015 World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, France. The duo has also performed at the North American Saxophone Alliance Region 4 Conference in Norman, Oklahoma and the Missouri Percussive Arts Society's Day of Percussion. The ensemble is committed to exploring the existing repertoire for saxophone and percussion duo and commissioning new works for this dynamic combination.

Prometheus -an American vocal consort

Prometheus is dedicated to an art form, which we collectively believe has the power to unite, heal, and enlighten. The group's eleven members are professional singers, conductors, teachers, and graduate students from all over the country. We approach each performance with the intent to connect ourselves and our listeners intimately to the music.

The inspiration for our name stems from our interest in the various facets in which fire imagery manifests itself in music. The Greek god Prometheus stole the spark of fire from Zeus and presented it to mankind. Like Prometheus, we desire to share the spark of passion in our music with our audiences.

Katherine Skovira

American mezzo-soprano Katherine Skovira has performed with the Aspen Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

Katherine is a passionate advocate of new and contemporary music, having sung in numerous world and regional premieres of Georges Aperghis, Jennifer Bellor, John Cage, Gerard Grisey, Zvonimir Nagy, Robert Whalen and others.  As a soloist with the Contemporary Music Workshop of the University of Minnesota under the direction of James Dillon, she performed the regional premiere of Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil and Aperghis’ Récitations, as well as the Twin Cities centennial celebration of Pierrot lunaire and selections from Cage’s Songbooks.  Also in the Twin Cities, she was the soloist in Feldman’s I met Heine on the Rue Furstenberg and at the world premieres of Zvonimir Nagy’s Cantus Jubilus and Kirsten Broberg’s Collecting Winter.  She has collaborated on new works with such distinguished composers as James Dillon, Robert Aldridge and Augusta Read Thomas.

In concert, Katherine recently performed “Der Abschied” as mezzo soloist in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde at the University of Chicago, the American premiere of John Ireland’s Psalm 42 and Mendelssohn’s Cantata no. 42 with Augsberg College, and Frank Ticheli’s Angels in the Architecture with the 2011 MMEA Conference.  With Noriko Kawai, she performed Schoenberg’s op. 2, Schumann’s Frauenliebe und leben, and the world premiere of Whalen’s Meditations.  In a recent Minneapolis recital, she paired Ravel’s Chansons madécasses and Olivier Messiaen’s Trois Mélodies with selections from Aperghis’ Récitations.  She has also sung Dominic Argento’s Letters from Composers and John Corigliano’s Three Irish Folksong Settings.

As an operatic performer, Katherine has performed Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Flora in La Traviata, Singer 1 in Cage’s Europera no. 5, Parasha in Stravinsky’s Mavra, Cathleen in Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea, and Jordan in Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, as well as in performances of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg at the Bard Music Festival Summerscape Opera.  She recently placed first in competition at the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Katherine holds degrees from Cornell University, Westminster Choir College and the University of Minnesota.  At Cornell, she was the recipient of the Barbara Troxell Vocal Music Award.

Jay Carter

American countertenor Jay Carter is quickly gaining recognition as one of the North America's finest. A frequent collaborator with both period and modern ensembles, Carter is recognized as a leading interpreter of Baroque repertoire. He has also gained acclaim for recital programs of modern classics typically outside the standard countertenor repertory by composers such as Brahms, Britten, Schubert, and Hahn.

Carter made his Carnegie Hall debut in Messiah with Musica Sacra directed by Kent Tritle and recently made his Kennedy Center Debut with The National Symphony under the baton of Matthew Halls in Messiah. Recent appearances include Bach's Matthew Passion with the American Bach Soloists, the Choir of St. Thomas and Concert Royal; Handel's Messiah with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center; Handel's Saul with Musica Vocale and the Kansas City Baroque Consortium; and the North American Premiere of John Tavener's Lament for Jerusalem with the Choral Arts Society of Washington. He has worked as a soloist with noted conductors Ton Koopman, John Scott, Matthew Halls, Sir Philip Ledger, Arnold Epley, Simon Carrington and Helmuth Rilling. In the coming season Carter will make his Cleveland Orchestra debut and Philharmonia Baroque debut under the baton of Nicholas McGegan as well appearing in return engagements with The Kingsbury Ensemble, The National Symphony, The Houston Symphony, and The Choir of St. Thomas Church New York.

Mr. Carter is increasingly in demand as a guest lecturer on countertenor technique and repertory, frequently offering interactive lecture-recitals and masterclasses. He received a Masters in Music from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied with James Taylor, Simon Carrington, and Judith Malafronte and was singled out for the Louise E. McClain scholarship. He received his undergraduate degree in music from William Jewell College where he studied voice with Arnold Epley. He lives in Liberty, Missouri with his wife and two children, and serves as Artist-in-residence at William Jewell College mentoring undergraduate music students and leading the Schola Cantorum.

Anne-Carolyn Bird, soprano

Recipient of a 2008 Sullivan Foundation Award, soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird is rapidly gaining attention by major companies in her young career. Of a recent performance, the Seattle Times says “no one shone brighter than Anne-Carolyn Bird...her stage presence [is] nothing short of magnetic.”

In the 2009-2010 season, engagements include role debuts as Micäela in Carmen at Opera Carolina and Marguerite in Faust at Dayton Opera, as well as a return to the Metropolitan Opera for Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Trittico and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos. In concert, she will perform CPE Bach's Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu with Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, and an All-American concert at Merkin Hall with New York Festival of Song.

Ms. Bird opened the 2008-2009 season with two role and company debuts: Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Nashville Opera and Yum-Yum in The Mikado at Arizona Opera. Completing the season, she performed at Opera Carolina as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. as Camille in Louise and soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem. Three recital collaborations with Jocelyn Dueck rounded out the season, including one at her alma mater, the University of Georgia. During the summer 2009, she reprised the role of Yum-Yum in the Mikado at Opera New Jersey.

Ms. Bird made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007, singing two roles in a new production of Il Trittico, and then returned the next season to sing Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro. Also in the 2007-2008 season she performed Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Grand Rapids and Rosina in Dayton Opera’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. In the summer of 2008, she returned to Wolf Trap Opera to perform Cunegonde in Candide with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Lord and starring Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander as Pangloss.

Concert appearances include A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Cleveland Orchestra, “An Evening of Musical Shakespeare” with the Atlanta Symphony, both conducted by Nicholas McGegan, and her Carnegie Hall debut in Evan Chamber’s oratorio The Old Burying Ground. Past performance highlights include Celia in John Musto’s comedic masterpiece Volpone at Wolf Trap Opera, Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat with Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Noémie in Laurent Pelly’s highly-acclaimed production of Cendrillon at Santa Fe Opera. She has been seen in staged and concert versions of Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar and can be heard on the Grammy award-winning recording. In 2006, she toured internationally with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to perform Golijov’s La Pasion de segun San Marcos(“luminous” ­The New York Times).

The Bhakti Project, Ms. Bird’s on-going recital project with Ms. Dueck, included a recent world premiere: Hillula by Judd Greenstein. Steve Smith from Time Out New York wrote of the performance: “Bird proved herself a singer capable of ... getting under the skin of a piece, touching its inner passions and revealing them to a listener.” Ms. Bird reprises Hillula with the Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO as part of Beth Morrison Projects’ 21C Liederabend in the fall 2009.

Ms. Bird has been a recipient of grants and awards from many organizations, including the Santa Fe Opera, the Oratorio Society of New York, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Twice a Young Artist with the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers and twice a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, she holds degrees from New England Conservatory and the University of Georgia. Ms. Bird keeps a blog chronicling her life as a singer; it is read daily by music writers, administrators, opera fans, and singers worldwide at theconcert.blogspot.com. She lives in New York City with her husband, bass-baritone Matthew Burns.

For more information on Ann-Carolyn Bird, visit www.annecarolynbird.com.

Susan Narucki

Grammy award winning soprano Susan Narucki has earned international acclaim as a singer of luminous tone, superb musicianship and extraordinary expressivity. One of today's outstanding interpreters of contemporary music, she has presented over one hundred world premieres in opera, concert and recording, and has enjoyed close collaborations with many of the world's leading composers.

Ms. Narucki has appeared as a soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, MET Chamber Ensemble, on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center, and at Carnegie Hall. and has worked with numerous conductors, including James Levine, Pierre Boulez, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Oliver Knussen, Reinbert de Leeuw, Herbert Blomstedt, and and Kent Nagano. She has appeared at major European festivals in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Warsaw, Torino, London, Vienna, Lisbon, Munich and Amsterdam, at the Aspen and Ojai Festivals and at the Cabrillo Festival of New American Music with conductor Marin Alsop.

The soprano has been a featured soloist with contemporary music ensembles across the globe, including the Asko/Schoenberg, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Nieuw Ensemble, ELISION, SMCQ, Remix, ICE, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Speculum Musicae, NYNME , Network for New Music and Collage. She has been a frequent guest on the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series and of the Making Music Series at Carnegie Hall, on which she presented Kurtag's monumental cycle, Kafka Fragments with violinist Daniel Phillips, on a concert honoring the composer.

Ms. Narucki made her Netherlands Opera debut creating the role of Catherina Bolnes in Louis Andriessen's Writing to Vermeer, and traveled with the production to the Adelaide and Lincoln Center Festivals. She was also featured in the world premiere of Claude Vivier's Rèves d'un Marco Polo, directed by Pierre Audi. Of her performance, Vrij Nederland wrote "...one name we will never forget: Susan Narucki, the American soprano, who gave us all goosebumps and moved us to tears." The Netherlands Opera production was filmed for European broadcast and Opus Arte DVD. With T&M of Paris, Ms. Narucki gave the premiere of To Be Sung (the collaboration of composer Pascal Dusapin and American artist James Turrell) and travelled with the work for over fifty performances throughout Europe. Her recent portrayal of "Mama" in Elliott Carter's What Next?, directed by Christopher Alden, was praised by the New York Times as "compelling and luminous".

A distinguished chamber musician, she has appeared at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Santa Fe, Norfolk, Da Camera, Bridgehampton. Moab and Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festivals. Ms. Narucki has been a guest of the Brentano, Orion and Schoenberg String Quartets; her numerous recital appearances include Kleine Zaal in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Tisch Center for the Arts at the 92nd Street Y, Liszt Academy in Budapest, Princeton University, American Academy in Rome, and on the Horowitz Recital series at Yale University with pianist Boris Berman.

In 2007, Ms. Narucki and The Knights Chamber Orchestra presented the world premiere of Chance Encounter, a work that she co-conceived with Rome Prize winning composer Lisa Bielawa, which brings modern music to audiences outside traditional concert hall settings. The work, which earned grants from the Creative Capital Foundation, has since been performed at Yale University, and the Whitney Museum of Art, and in conjunction with visionary urban planner Robert Hammond, at the grand opening of the MAXXI Museum and as "Chance Encounter on the Tiber", both in Rome, Italy. The work will have its Canadian premiere at Music on Main's Modulus Series in Vancouver in October 2010.

Susan Narucki earned a 2000 Grammy award for George Crumb's Star-Child , and a Grammy nomination (Best Classical Vocal Performance) for Elliott Carter's Tempo e Tempi, both on Bridge Records. The soprano's extensive discography ranges from operas of Andriessen (Nonesuch) works of Schoenberg and Zemlinsky (Chandos) , Tavener's Song of The Angel (Angel/EMI), song cycles of Mario Davidovsky (Bridge) and a solo disc of music of Aaron Jay Kernis (Koch). Her performance of Jacob Druckman's Salome with the David Zinman and the Aspen Festival Orchestra was included in a two-CD set commemorating the Festival's 50th Anniversary Ms. Narucki's recent release, The Light that Is Felt: Songs of Charles Ives, with pianist Donald Berman (New World), received international acclaim and was selected as Editor's Choice of BBC Music Magazine.

Ms. Narucki has been a guest faculty member of Yale University. She currently serves as Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego, where she directs the ensemble kallisti.  For more information, visit www.susannarucki.net.

Jaime E. Oliver

Jaime Oliver (Lima, 1979) – Computer Musician At the present time he works towards a Phd in Computer Music at the University of California, San Diego, (UCSD), where he studies with M. Puckette, P. Manoury, R. Reynolds, D. Wessel,

G. Balzano and F. Richard Moore. He is a researcher in the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) and collaborator to composer Roger Reynolds.

His current production consists of music pieces for computer, sound performance and installation. Borrowing from cognitive science, media and software studies, his research attempts to understand how, in their historical evolution, the diverse practices of electronic and computer music have designed and construed the concept of musical instruments to the point of redefining the term altogether to instruments that can listen, understand, remember and respond, as well as contain composed structures and exhibit agency or independent behavior.

Some recognitions include scholarships and grants from the Fulbright Commission, the University of California, Meet the Composer and the Ministry of Culture of Spain. He obtained the 1st prize in FILE PRIX LUX 2010, a GIGA-HERTZ-PREIS 2010 special prize from ZKM, the 1st prize in the 2009 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology and was finalist in the Bourges Electronic Arts Competition 2009. He served as member of the board of directors of Realidad Visual, an organization for culture and electronic arts and music curator of VAE, Lima’s Video/Art/Electronics festival.

For more information on Jaime Oliver and his music, visit www.jaimeoliver.pe.

Lisa Moore

Australian-American pianist Lisa Moore is based in New York City where she has lived since 1985, collaborating with a large and diverse range of musicians and artists. The New York Times claims "her energy is illuminating" and the New Yorker magazine crowned her "visionary" and "New York's queen of avant-garde piano". Moore has released 5 solo discs (on Cantaloupe Music and Tall Poppies) and 30 collaborative discs (on Sony, Nonesuch, DG, CRI, BMG, Point, New World, ABC Classics and New Albion). Her solo EP "Seven" (music by Don Byron) has just been released on Cantaloupe. Two more solo EPs are scheduled for release in 2010 featuring original music by Annie Gosfield and Donnacha Dennehy.

Moore's performances combine musical and emotional power with vivid vocal theatricality-­whether in the delivery of the simplest song or the most complex score. She performs music and texts ranging from Randy Newman and Leos Janacek to Oscar Wilde and Kurt Schwitters. Her shows include "ipiano: my brilliant career", "Wilde's World", "Totally Wired Piano", "Janacek, from the street" and "Musically Speaking". Recent performances of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition have been widely praised. Moore has performed at La Scala, the Musikverein, the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall and has made guest appearances at festivals such as Holland, Lincoln Center, Schleswig-Holstein, BBC Proms, Israel, Warsaw, Uzbekistan, Musica Ficta Lithuania, Prague Spring, Istanbul, Athens, Taormina, Southbank's Meltdown, Dublin's Crash, Graz, Huddersfield, Scotia, Paris d'Automne, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Turin, Palermo, Barcelona, Heidelberg, Berlin, Perugia, Tanglewood, Houston Da Camera, Jacob's Pillow, Aspen, Norfolk, Sandpoint, Saratoga, Victoriaville, Ojai, Other Minds, NY's Sonic Boom, BAM Next Wave, MassMoca, Bang on a Can, Keys to the Future, Healing The Divide, Adelaide, Perth, Queensland, Canberra, Sydney, Sydney's Olympic Arts, Sydney Spring and Mostly Mozart, Brisbane Biennale, and the Darwin Festival.

Moore has performed with the New York City Ballet, London Sinfonietta, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, BargeMusic, St. Lukes Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Steve Reich Ensemble, So Percussion, Don Byron Adventurers Orchestra, Signal, Da Capo Chamber Players, Paul Dresher Double Duo, Mabou Mines Theater, Susan Marshall Dance Co, Sequitur, Newband, Music at the Anthology, The Crosstown Ensemble, Australia Ensemble, Westchester Philharmonic, New York League of Composers ISCM, Newband, Alpha Centauri Ensemble, Terra Australis, Essential Music, and the John Jasperse Dance Co. As a concerto soloist she has played with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany, Sydney, Tasmania, Thai and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, Philharmonia Virtuosi and the Queensland Philharmonic, under the baton of conductors Reinbert de Leeuw, Pierre Boulez, Jorge Mester and Edo de Waart.

Lisa Moore won the silver medal in the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. From 1992-2008 she was the founding pianist for the Bang On A Can All-Stars -­the New York based electro-acoustic sextet and winner of Musical America's 2005 "Ensemble of the Year" Award. As an artistic curator she produced Australia's Canberra International Music Festival 2008 “Sounds Alive” series, importing musicians from around the world for 10 days of music making at the Street Theatre.

Lisa Moore teaches at the Yale-Norfolk New Music Workshop Summer Festival and at Wesleyan University. She was born in Canberra and raised in Australia and London. Moore is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Eastman School of Music and SUNY Stonybrook. For more Moore please visit www.lisamoore.org.