Tri-Centric Ensemble Personnel (partially documented . . .)
Violins Todd Reynolds was a student of the late Jascha Heifetz, studied at the Eastman School of Music, and received his Master's degree from SUNY at Stony Brook. He is the former principal second violinist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and has performed with such diverse entities as the Group for Contemporary Music, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and recording artists, The Health and Happiness Show. Currently he performs and tours with The Michael Gordon Philharmonic and his own acoustic jazz trio, Subject to Change. He also writes and performs with two interactive electronics ensembles which he co-founded, Portable Electronic Coffee House, and Paradigm Shift.
Gregor Kitzis has performed and recorded with bands including Elliot Sharp's Orchestra Carbon, Songs From Random House, Church of Betty, Brian Woodbury's Popular Music Group and Zombie Staatsoper, and has appeared on the Tonight Show with Don Byron. Plays the Music of Mickey Katz. With these bands he has played in New York at CBGB's and the Knitting Factory and elsewhere at the Montreal and San Francisco Jazz Festivals, Seattle's Earshot festival, the Quebec Festival D'Ete and Festival Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville. As concertmaster of Peter Kotik's S.E.M. Ensemble, he has performed at the US Arts Festival in Berlin and New York's Carnegie Hall, where he has also appeared numerous times with other New York based orchestras. In this capacity he has appeared at Alice Tully, Avery Fisher, Alsop, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and been concertmaster for Horizon Concerts, conducted by Gail Archer and the Gregg Smith Singers. He has worked with John Cage, Morton Feldman, Elliot Carter, George Crumb, John Adams, Lukas Foss and Nils Vigeland on performances of their music. His Broadway credits include Phantom of the Opera and Fiddler on the Roof , in which he was also mandolin soloist.
Gwen Laster, a former student of Dr. Billy Taylor and Yusef Lateef, among others, has performed with the Harlem Festival Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Dearborn Symphony, along with six other orchestras in New York and Michigan. She's done extensive studio work for recordings with some of the biggest names in the pop and jazz scenes. She was a 1994 recipient of the Lila Wallace Development Initiative Award, a 1993 NEA Jazz Study Fellowship Award winner, first-place winner in the 1992 Hennessy Jazz Search, and works as an instructor both privately and at the Harlem School of the Arts.
American-born Chinese violinist/composer Jason Kao Hwang has received the NEA and NYSCA grants for composition. His CD Caverns, The Far East Side Band was recently released by New World Records. He has recently recorded with Sola Liu and Henry Threadgill, and is currently a member of the Anthony Braxton Sextet, the Diedre Murray Band and the Reggie Workman Ensemble. Mr Hwang has also performed with Butch Morris, William Parker, "X Communication," Sirone, Michelle Kinney, Fred Hopkins, Milford Graves, Billy Bang, Ushio Torikai, Ken McIntyre and others in New York, and in South Korea with Sin Cha Hong and Samul Nori. Mr. Hwang has scored numerous films and was in the original cast to M Butterfly performing music he co-arranged.
Violas Martha Mooke holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Albany. Based in New York City, Ms. Mooke performs with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the orchestras of the Dance Theater of Harlem and American Ballet Theater, the S.E.M. Ensemble and the Opera Orchestra of New York, among others. As a composer/performer on the five-string electric viola, she performs at such diverse spaces as Roulette, CBGB's and Merkin Concert Hall. Ms. Mooke is the recipient of several awards from Meet-the-Composer, and won a residency at Harvestworks/Studio Pass in 1993. She has been presented by the Festival of Women Improvisers, P.S. 122, the Trenton Avant Garde Festival, Downtown Music Productions and SUNY Albany. She has produced several recordings including We've Got (Poly) Rhythm on Albany Records, Indigena on CRI, and her own Enharmonic Vision. She can also be heard on the recent 10,000 Manlacs Unplugged and Richard Barone's Clouds Over Eden recordings.
Celli Fred Lonberg-Holm (b. 1962, Delaware) is active as a cellist, composer and improvisor in NYC and has performed throughout the U.S. as both leader and member of various ensembles. He has studied composition with Bunita Marcus, Morton Feldman and Anthony Braxton and cello with Orlando Cole and Ardyth Alton. As a composer and/or improvisor, he has collaborated with many different artists throughout the US for performances in theaters and other public spaces as well as radio and television.
Margaret Parkins took her M.M. and D.M.A. degrees from State University of New York and her B.M. from Eastman School of Music. She has studied under Timothy Eddy, Steve Doane, Louis Potter and has taken master classes from Yo Yo Ma, Joel Krosnick, Bernard Greenhouse, Paul Tobias and Paul Katz. She has performed internationally at the Bach Aria Festival, Victoriaville, Tactlos, Tanglewood, Banff, Music at Shawnigan, Taos,Spoleto, Heidelberg Castle, and Chautauqua Festival, and has won several prizes, awards, and first places in major competitions. She's performed in chamber music contexts with the Omni Ensemble, the Soldier String Quartet, the Stonybrook Piano Trio, the Rothko Trio, North Shore Pro Musica, among others. She has recorded with Elliot Sharp, Zeena Parkins and others and works regularly in New York orchestral, new music, and jazz contexts.
Niyoko Workman is a cellist, vocalist and producer with strong roots in jazz and new music. She has studied classical cello with Martha Williams and Alan Stepanski of the New York Philharmonic. She has performed with many groups around the New York City area such as Opera Ebony, Harlem Festival Orchestra, Connecticut Grand Opera, and the Queens Philharmonic; and with jazz artists Alice Coltrane, Reggie Workman, Terusama Hino, Gerry Eastman, Barry Harris, Anthony Braxton, Akua Dixon Turré, and John Blake. She is currently involved in the Brooklyn Conservatory piano trio, the Omni Ensemble (new music), and is performer in and co-founder of Ebon's "Jam Time!" Productions. Her teaching experience has taken place in PS 167 Annex (Brooklyn), Harlem School of the Arts, Queensborough College, the Brooklyn Conservatory, the Long Island Music Institute, the Diller Quaille School, and Ebon's Productions at St. Luke's Church.
Basses Joe Fonda is a composer, bassist, recording artist, interdisciplinary performer and producer. An accomplished international jazz artist, Fonda has performed as a leader in his own ensembles throughout the United States and Europe and as a sideman with Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre and Charlie Persip, Lou Donaldson, Fred Ho, Bill and Kenny Barron, Perry Robinson, Chico Hamilton, Curtis Fuller, and others. He has received numerous grants and commissions and has released three recordings. He is Founding Director of Kaleidescope Arts and Musical Director of the Kaleidescope Performance Ensemble since 1982.
Bill Kannar (+ computer) has served as principal bassist with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, the Connecticut Philharmonic, Center for Contemporary Opera and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. As a soloist he has appeared with North/South Consonance, Composer's concordance and the National Association of composers. Bill is also a member of First Avenue, an electro-acoustic improvisation trio in residence at Princeton University, which has a new CD on O.O. Disks. As a computer software programmer/designer Bill has been involved with Hologramophone Research Software since 1988. He is co-author of Pixound, nationally available software which allows the user to "play" paintings and graphics as music, and author of CyberMusic, a real-time MIDI improvisation software. His new interactive video software has been presented at performances at Princeton University, Merkin Concert Hall and The Kitchen.
String Doublers Mark Steward (guitar, cello)
Jay Elfenbein (electric gamba, bass)
Winds Scott Robinson (multi) is a Berklee College of Music (1981) graduate who joined that school's faculty as its youngest member (22) the following year. Since moving to New York in 1984 he has performed on over 25 recordings, made numerous TV and radio appearances, and toured and performed with the orchestras of Illinois Jacquet, Mel Lewis, Buck Clayton, Lionel Hampton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Louis Bellson and others. His own quartet, sometimes featuring piano great Horace Parlan, has appeared in New York, Paris, and Copenhagen, and his 1990 recording Winds of Change earned five stars (the max) from Down Beat magazine. He has received three Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, celebrated the 150th anniversary of the saxophone with a concert at the Smithsonian Institution, and has appeared at Carnegie Hall eight times.
Michael Attlas (multi) has performed with Anthony Braxton in various duet and orchestral situations. He currently performs in the quartet Peep, led by cellist Frederick Lonberg-Holm; and Anthony Coleman's Selfhaters Orchestra. He recorded a CD of Thelonious Monk compositions in Paris, and is releasing a CD of his own pieces soon.
J.D. Parran (multi) originally from St. Louis, with musical roots in the Baptist Church, public schools, blues bands and the Black Artist Group, earned degrees from Webster College (Bachelor of Music, Clarinet) and Washington University, St. Louis (Master of Arts, Music Education). He has resided in New York City for over 15 years and is Director of the Institute of Jazz and African American Music at Harlem School of the Arts. As a performer, he has recorded with: Anthony Davis, Hamiet Bluiett, Stevie Wonder, George Lewis, Lena Horne, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Leroy Jenkins, Anthony Braxton, Douglas Ewart, and others.
Lily White (sax) In the past few years, Lily has caught the ear of some of the music's most renowned veterans. She frequently works with Mario Bauza, the father of Latin Jazz, and his Afro-Cuban orchestra. In 1991, she took part in Bauza's 80th birthday celebration, performing alongside Dizzy Gillespie and vocalist Celia Cruz. Since 1990 Lily has been a regular member of master organist Jimmy McGriff's group. She has also played with the legendary jazz and blues pianist Jay McShann. Audiences in Europe have also enjoyed Lily's music. She has toured overseas with both Bauza and McGriff, appearing at the major European jazz festivals and on German television. In the fall of 1992, Lily did a one-week tour of Denmark, performing her original music with an ensemble of Danish musicians. While there, she recorded with Brazilian bassist Jorge Degas. In 1989, Lily formed her own group, which has performed in numerous New York clubs. A writer as well as a player, Lily has released a CD under her own name entitled Somewhere Between Truth & Fiction on Knitting Factory Works.
Randy McKean (multi) Not only music but a multitude of sources inform Randy McKean's work: the abstract expressionist films of Stan Brakhage, the multi-tiered writings of Cortazar, Robbe-Grillet and Philip K. Dick, concepts from chaos theory and modern physics have all influenced his use of form and representation. Motivic and transformational devices such as "articulation zones," "ghost tones," and "rhythm molds" are at work in McKean's music, which includes compositions for solo saxophone, saxophone quartet, woodwind quintet, string octet, and creative orchestra. McKean lives in New York City and has performed there with Derek Bailey, Tim Berne, Robert Dick, Mark Dresser, Jason Hwang, Gary Lucas, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Paul Plimley, Herb Robertson, and Ned Rothenberg at such venues as the Knitting Factory, Roulette, P.S. 122, CB's 313 Gallery, and LaMama Galleria. He has toured the Midwestern and Northeastern US as a member of the Gregg Bendian Project and the Boston band Debris, and is a member of the sax quartet SPONJ and the avant-rock band Teratoma.
Melinda Newman (multi-oboe) A native of Brooklyn, New York, oboist Melinda Newman has appeared in recital and at festivals throughout North America and Europe. She has studied with renowned oboists Stephen Taylor, Maurice Bourgue, Ronald Roseman, and Lois Wann, and holds a DMA from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Melinda has olso been the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including the Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship for musical studies in Paris in 1991. She has appeared at the Banff, Norfolk, and Bowdoin festivals, as well as at the Adirondack Festival of American Music. As an active chamber and orchestral player in New York, Melinda is a core member of the Cygnus Ensemble, and has played with the American Composers Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Horizon Concerts, and Princeton Pro Musica. She recently appeared as a soloist with the Tchaikovsky Chamber Orchestra. Melinda is a member of the faculty of the Mannes College of Music Preparatory Division in New York City.
Tara O'Connor (multi-flutist) gave her Carnegie Hall concerto debut in l986, performing Frank Martin's Ballade , and her solo recital debut in Weill Hall in 1992. Tara has collaborated with the Orion String Quartet and the Bach Aria Group and has performed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto U.S.A., the International Musicians' Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto U.S.A., the International Musicians' Chamber Music Seminar in Cornwall, England, and Incontri in Terra di Siena in Italy. She has been a featured artist on WQXR's Young Artist Chowcase as well as on numerous broadcasts on NPR and CBC. She received her D.M.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied with Samuel Baron, Robert Dick and Julius Levine.
Trumpets Paul Smoker formed the Paul Smoker Trio in 1981 and began to receive international attention upon the release of the recording, QB , as well as an appearance in 1984 at the Moers [Germany] International New Jazz Festival. Since that time, Smoker has recorded and toured the U.S., Europe and Canada not only with his trio, but also with the co-op quartet Joint Venture , Anthony Braxton, Phil Haynes' 4 horns & What? , the Corner Store Syndicate Big Band , and Borah Bergmon, among others. In addition, he has worked professionally with a wide diversity of other musicians over the years: Dodo Marmaross, Art Pepper, Frank Rosolino, David Liebman, Doc Severinsen, George Lewis, David Sanborn, Joe Lovano, Ellery Eskelin, Gerry Hemingway, Marilyn Crispell, Marty Ehrlich, Don Byron, Frank Lacey, Pheeroan ak Laff, Tim Berne, Misha Mengelberg, Drew Gress, and Mark Dresser.
Chris Matthay , one of the youngest ensemble members, has performed with his own groups in New York and Connecticut, as well as with the Cecil Taylor large ensemble in rehearsal at the Knitting Factory. He has studied and performed with Anthony Braxton at Wesleyan University, and with others at Columbia University, Yale University School of Music, Jay Hoggard's Wesleyan University Jazz Orchestra, Skidmore College Jazz Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst Jazz Institute, Stanford University Jazz Workshop, among others. He won three awards at the 1993 Berklee Jazz Festival, including the Outstanding Musician Award.
Trombones Mike Heffley Mike Heffley's musical career started in 1965, in his home town of San Francisco, when he won a scholarship from Down Beat magazine to the Berklee School of Music for his composing/arranging and performance for his own big band and small group. After also attending UCLA on scholarship as a composition major, he moved to the Pacific Northwest shortly thereafter. There he studied with Down Beat Hall of Fame educator Gene Aitken, and played in his big band, and worked as a free-lance musician leading his own groups Headliners, Conflict of Interest, Trios, the Original Art Musicians of Oregon, and the Northwest Creative Orchestra, and with those of others. He has worked in Oregon with most of the region's busiest players, as well as with Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake, Vinny Golia, Meredith d'Ambrosio, and Andrew Hill. He coproduced Anthony Braxton's CD Eugene (1989) for Black Saint, the recording of Braxton's music performed by Heffley's Northwest Creative Orchestra. He has performed the music of Christian Wolff in concert with the composer. His most recent performance project is a tribute concert to the late Julius Hemphill, in a sextet with Tim Berne, Marty Ehrlich, Jay Hoggard, Pheeroan ak-Laff, and Joe Fonda, in collaboration with the pianist Ursula Oppens.
Tubas Dave Brainard A tubaist from age 8, Dave has studied with Bill Barber, and (at the Manhattan School of Music) Herb Weksleblatt and Toby Hanks. He is the principal tubaist for the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, a member of Parnassus Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and an extra with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has recorded the Charles Wuorinen Tuba Concerto on CRI records, and has played on Stravinsky recordings with Robert Craft and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. He performs on numerous jazz and commerical recordings.
Brass Doublers Stewart Gillmor Brass Doubler. Professor of History and Science at Wesleyan University. Former research worker at National Bureau of Standards; NASA; Cambridge University, England; Paris, France; and in Antarctica. Co-founder and former leader of Nutmeg Foxtrot-Jazz Orchestra. Mediocre chops but good attitude.
Piano, Percussion, Accordion, Harp John Ferrari (mallet percussion) is an active percussionist in most any genre. He appears regularly with the New Millennium Ensemble, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, and the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble. He has recorded for Koch International, Centaur, CRI and Composers Guild of New Jersey labels. Mr. Ferrari is active as a conductor as well, premiering pieces by such composers as Jay Gach at Merkin Hall and Kamran Ince at Weill Recital Hall in New York. He holds the BM degree from William Paterson College and the MM degree from SUNY at Stony Brook, where he is currently a doctoral candidate and student of Raymond DesRoches.
Kevin Norton (percussionist/composer) received his Bachelors from Hunter College, the City University of New York and his Masters degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He has performed and/or recorded with Milt Hinton, Fred Frith, the Microscopic Septet, Phillip Johnston's Big Trouble, Erik Friedlander's Brickhouse Band, the Klezmatics, Slam Stewart, Joe Gallant, Mary Napoleon, Joel Forrester, John Zorn, George Cartwight, Fred Lonberg-Holm, the Sirius String Quartet and the Soldier String Quartet. Kevin has performed at jazz and new music festivals in France, Germany, Canada, Russia, Scotland and England. He has received numerous scholarships and awards including Meet the Composer and National Endowment for the Arts.
Ted Reichman (accordion), upon entering high school, began his studies in jazz piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Barry Shapiro, accordionist of the Klezmer Conservatory Band and a student of Ran Blake and Jaki Byard (actually for the first year, Ted's piano lessons were in Ran Blake's office). Shapiro encouraged Ted to explore the world of music in the Conservatory record library and in the Boston concert scene, where he would first experiece the music of Anthony Braxton, Sun Ra, Anton von Webern and so many others. Ted has recorded with Anthony Braxton on his most recent Black Saint release Four (Ensemble) Compositions 1992 and has performed live with Braxton, Roland Dahinden and others.
Gino Robair (percussion) Gino Robair has performed & recorded with Wadada Leo Smith, Pauline Oliveros, Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, John Zorn, Sergey Kuhryokin, Otomo Yoshihide, Davey Williams and LaDonna Smith, and The Splatter Trio. He has written music for theater (including 5 seasons at the California Shakespeare Festival), MTV, dance, gamelan and is Music Director for the CBS Saturday morning cartoon The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, featuring music by Club Foot Orchestra. Gino also plays mandolin and theremin.
Vocalists Lisa Bielawa (S) At Yale University, where Lisa Bielawa received her BA in 1990, she studied composition and voice and founded and directed the Yale Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Ms. Bielawa tours internationally as the vocalist of the Philip Glass Ensemble; recent recordings with Glass on the Nonesuch label for release in the Fall of 1993 include the complete Einstein on the Beach and Music in Twelve Parts. As soprano soloist with a capella quartet Toby Twining Music, she has recorded on the BMG/RCA New Music label Catalyst. She appears regularly on the Garrison Keillor radio show and in concert in New York as the soprano soloist in the Holy Trinity Bach Cantata series. A composer as well, Ms. Beilawa has received commissions from choral and vocal groups all over the country. She was one of five composers selected to participate in the NEA-sponsored 1993 New Dramatists Composer/Librettist studio in New York, which concentrates on the development of collaborative music theater work. Current Projects include a full-length opera entitled Vireo in collaboration with California playwright Erik Ehn. Abroad, her concert music has been performed in Germany, Japan and Poland.
Dominique Eade (S) has been a featured vocalist and composer in festivals including the Toulon Jazz Festival in France, the Molde International Jazz Festival in Norway and several Boston Globe Jazz Festivals. In 1994 she was an artist-in-residence at the Wichita Jazz Festival. A former resident of Boston, she was nominated three times for Best Jazz Singer in the Boston Music Awards. She teaches voice, composition, and improvisation at the New England Conservatory. Her singing, composing, and producing debut CD The Ruby and the Pearl , featuring Stanley Cowell and Alan Dawson, won critical acclaim from Billboard , The Boston Phoenix , CD Review , Jazz Hot , Jazziz , and many other US publications. She has also collaborated with Ran Blake, Ricky Ford, Bill Frisell, David Holland, Cecil McBee, Fred Hersch, Butch Morris, Bob Moses and others.
Matthew Pass (T)