BARD PREP SUMMER MUSIC CAMP

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Sachiko Kato

Sachiko Kato is a Japanese-born, Los Angeles-raised, and Juilliard-trained pianist. Ms. Kato has performed extensively as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician throughout North and South America and Japan since her debut recital at Carnegie Weill Hall in 1994.

Her pianism has been feature-broadcasted by WNYC, “New Sounds” program, WQXR, KMZT, and SKCR FM, and as received critical acclaim: : “the velvet smoothness and silken beauty… an extremely imaginative player… she plays with such a sense of effortlessness and ease” (Fanfare Jan.-Feb. 2013); “a lovely, delicate touch… interpretive clarity… impressively crisp fingerwork and consistent energy.” (New York Concert Review).

Featured in the Juilliard centenary publication, “Dance Drama Music: 100 Years of the Juilliard School,” as one of the 100 outstanding alumni, Ms. Kato is known for her beautiful sonorous sound and a wide-ranging repertoire.

In addition, she has been active in the new music scene as the founder and artistic director of Weaving Japanese Sounds contemporary music concert project founded in 2004 to promote cultural exchanges through music. Ms. Kato has recorded the Goldberg Variations on the Centaur Records label in 2012. Jerry Dubins of Fanfare claims: “Sachiko Kato’s performance is truly special” and “… everyone who embraces Bach’s Goldberg Variations on piano, this deserves to be heard and is urgently recommended.”  In 2019, she released a CD of music by Debussy and Ravel, and also published a book, "The Sachiko Piano Method: How to Find the Music Within You".

She has recently been chosen to be a part of New York’s premier classical music radio station WQXR’s Chopin Marathon event and her live performance was broadcasted live globally through streamlining.

Ms. Kato currently resides in NYC.

Fore more information, please visit www.sachikokato.com.

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Janara Khassenova

Originally from Kazakhstan, pianist Janara Khassenova is a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory where she completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies. While in United States, she completed an Artist Diploma Program in Chamber Music from the Longy School of Music. She has performed as a soloist and with chamber ensembles and orchestras in countries of the former Soviet Union, Italy, Greece as well as United States.

Janara collaborates frequently with various musicians in a variety of projects and regularly performs in a piano 4-hand duo with pianist Ellina Blinder.

In addition to the Bard Preparatory Division, Janara currently teaches piano at her studio in New York City, where she resides.

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Luba Poliak

Born in Siberia, Luba Poliak made her debut playing Mozart concerto with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of eleven. In 1990, she immigrated to Israel, where she continued her studies and graduated magna cum laude from the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv. She studied in Brussels and earned her master’s degree with honors at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Ms. Poliak completed her doctorate in 2008 at Stony Brook University, where she worked and coached with Gilbert Kalish, Pamela Frank, Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr and members of The Emerson String Quartet. After winning the Stony Brook Concerto Competition in 2004, Ms. Poliak performed with the Stony Brook Symphony, conducted by David Stern. The same year her performances at the Sydney competition were aired on ABC Classic FM in Australia.

Luba Poliak has been performing solo and chamber music recitals across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia at the venues such as Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, Belgium; Jordan Hall, Boston; Dame Myra Hess Concert Memorial Series, Chicago, IL; 92nd Street Y and Harvard Club, New York City; Bulgarian Embassy, Washington D.C.; Dudley Hall, Houston; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Ms. Poliak has received numerous grants from the America Israel Cultural Foundation and was a fellow at such music festivals as Aspen, Colorado, Verbier, Switzerland, and the exclusive “German for Singers and Vocal Coaches” program at Middlebury College, Vermont.

Dedicated to music education of the younger generation, Ms. Poliak was invited to give master classes and lecture – recitals at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, University of Houston and Lehman College in New York. During the fall 2010, and spring 2013 semesters, Ms. Poliak served as a full time visiting piano faculty at the Lawrence University in Wisconsin. She was invited again for an intensive weekend of solo recital, technique workshop and master class in the fall of 2013. Luba Poliak teaches and performs regularly at such festivals as Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston, Heifetz Music Festival, Bowdoin Festival and Bard College Piano Camp. In addition to being on the faculty of the Bard Conservatory Preparatory division Ms. Poliak is also a piano and chamber music faculty member at the 92nd Street Y school of music in New York.

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Susanne Son, Preparatory Division Co-Director

Canadian born pianist, Susanne Son made her debut with the Toronto Symphony at the age of 12. Since then, she has appeared as soloist with several orchestras including the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras. In North America, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston, Academy of Music, Kimmel Center, Kravis Center, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, and Roy Thomson Hall. She has also performed throughout Canada and Japan.

Festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall Summer Chamber Music Festival, and Banff Centre School of Fine Arts.

A two-time recipient of a Canada Council Grant, she is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School. Ms. Son is a top-prize winner of the Canadian Music Competition and has received the Chalmers Award from the Ontario Arts Council.

An avid chamber musician, Ms. Son has performed with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and in the Minnesota Orchestra's Sommerfest series.

Her principal teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Stephanie Brown, Paul Shaw, James Anagnoson, and Jerome Lowenthal. In masterclasses, she has worked with Leon Fleisher, Peter Serkin, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Emanuel Ax, Jane Coop, Eugene List, and Misha Dichter.

Ms. Son currently resides in New York City.

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Victoria Schwartzman

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Victoria Schwartzman (formerly Mazin) performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. Victoria has appeared at the Music Mountain Festival with the St. Petersburg String Quartet, in the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series at Merkin Hall, at Summit Music Festival with Dmitri Berlinsky, at Bargemusic, in the Gessner-Schocken concert series in Cambridge, WMP Concert Hall, and the Nicolas Roerich Museum concert series in New York City. As a member of the Yanvar Trio, she was a prizewinner in the Val-Tidone Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Zinotti International Chamber Music competition, both in Italy.

After graduating from Jerusalem Conservatory, Victoria continued her education at the Longy School of Music and New England Conservatory. While pursuing various degrees in solo and chamber music performance, she was selected to perform in masterclasses given by Dmitri Bashkirov, Menahem Pressler, and Richard Goode, among others. Her principal teachers include Irina Kivaiko, Issak Kossov, Victor Rosenbaum, Sally Pinkas, Eda Shlyam, and Eteri Andjaparidze.

As soloist with orchestra, Victoria has performed with the Jerusalem Chamber Orchestra, the Longy School of Music Chamber Orchestra, and the Riverside Orchestra. She has performed at the Quartet Program in Pennsylvania, and participated in the Tel-Hai International Piano Festival in Israel and the Lyrica Chamber Music Festival in New Jersey. Also active in the field of opera and art song, Victoria was vocal coach and accompanist at Boston Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Bard Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center, the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute, and the American Institute of Musical Studies Festival in Graz, Austria.

Victoria is as committed to performance as she is to education. She recently gave a master class in Russian vocal repertoire at Queens College, NY. She is on the coaching faculty in the Vocal Department at Montclair State University and Long Island University Post. Victoria is also the co-founder of the Newburgh Music Festival, a week long immersive classical music program devoted to both solo performance and chamber music, located on the shore of the Hudson river, in Newburgh, NY.

Website: http://www.victoriaschwartzman.com

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Katherine Rossiter
 

Originally from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, soprano Katherine Rossiter, is a performer with diverse experience spanning from opera to musical theatre and oratorio to art song. In recent seasons she has been heard as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Coffee Cantata with the Broad Street Orchestra, the Grammy-award winning Albany Symphony Orchestra in Bach’s Jesu, der du meine Seele, in Handel’s Messiah with Classics on Hudson, in Requiem for Anna Poitkovskaya at Bard’s Fisher Center, and in recital with Concerts at Camphill Ghent and Saugerties Pro Musica. 

Her operatic roles include Morgana in Alcina and Le Feu/Le Rossignol in L’enfant et les sortilèges with CCM Opera d’arte, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival, Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea with the New York Lyric Opera Theatre, and Die Zweite Dame/Erste Knabe in Die Zauberflöte with the Bard Vocal Arts Program. 

Katherine has been a Young Artist with Songfest, Opera on the Avalon, and the Berlin Opera Academy. She is also an alumna of the Academie Nationale d’été de Nice in France and the Accademia Vocale di Lorenzo Malfatti in Lucca, Italy. She holds degrees from the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music, as well as the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. 

She currently lives in Tivoli, New York and is the director of admission for the Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Website: http://www.katherinerossiter.com

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Lucia Hyunju Song

Soprano Lucia H. Song is widely praised for her vocal talents and refined musicianship, and was described by Opera News as ‘an exceptionally lovely voice, exquisitely touching’.

She was the winner of the German Lieder Society Competition and First Prizewinner from the William Garrison Competition, and also received the Best Liszt Interpretation Award from the American Liszt Society. She was one of the recipients of the 2003-2005 New Triad for Collaborative Arts fellowship awards, for which she was awarded concert performances in and around New York City.

In 2009, she made her New Jersey State Opera debut in the title role as Serpina inLa Serva Padrona by Pergolesi. She made her Korean opera debut in the title role in Hänsel und Gretel at the National Theater of Korea. Recent operatic roles include Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amor, Pamina and Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, Gilda in Rigoletto, First Witch in Dido and Aeneas, and The Widow in The Boor by Dominick Argento.

Ms. Song received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University. She also holds a Master of Music degree and Professional Studies certificate from the Manhattan School of Music.

As a concert artist, Ms. Song sings with numerous orchestras, and has appeared as a soloist in Schubert’s C Major Mass, Bach’s Magnificat, Mozart’s C minor Mass, Faure’s Requiem, and Mozart’s Requiem. She has been invited to perform at the Washington Square Music Festival, the Midday Concerts at the United Nations, the Penn Alps “Schrock Memorial Concert” sponsored by the Alta Schrock Memorial Fund, and in faculty recitals at Rice and Indiana Universities.

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Jaram Kim

A laureate of the 2000 Yehudi Menuhin International Young Violinists Competition, Jaram Kim made her debut at the age of six in GwangJu Namdo Art Concerto Hall. The following year Jaram won the Gold Medal in the GwangJu HoNam Art Competition and at the age of ten, she performed Wieniawski Second Violin Concerto with the Seoul Chamber Orchestra. After receiving the Keum Ho scholarship, Jaram came to the United States to study at the Juilliard PreCollege in the studio of Hyo Kang. While attending Juilliard, she won the Juilliard Concerto Competition and performed with the Juilliard PreCollege Chamber Orchestra. She then went on to study in the Precollege program in the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Grigory Kalinovsky, and made her New York concerto debut performing with the Jupiter Symphony under the baton of Maestro Jens Nygaard.

Jaram graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree in 2007 from the studio of Ida Kavafian; while at Crutis she performed under the baton of conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Otto­-Werner Mueller. Then in 2008, she began her graduate studies at the Yale School of Music under the direction of Ani Kavafian. In 2009, Jaram moved to Italy to continue her studies at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Florence under the tutelage of M. Pavel Vernikov, and in 2010, Jaram joined the studio of M. Salvatore Accardo at the Accademia Walter Stauffer Fondazione in Cremona, Italy.

She has been an active performer while participating in numerous festivals in the United States of America, Canada and Europe, including Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Heifetz Institute. She was also one of the youngest participants of Pinchas Zukerman's National Arts Centre Orchestra Young Artists Program in Canada. Her festival engagements in Europe include the Kronberg Academy in Germany, Aurora Masterclasses in Sweden, International Summer Academy of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Austria, Amiata Festival and Festival of Spoleto in Italy. Jaram also has an extensive teaching experience, a year of which she spent teaching the violinists of the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana. In 2011, Jaram accepted the position of Primo Violino of the orchestra La Verdi.

Besides the tours in Europe and Middle Asia with the La Verdi Orchestra, Jaram toured South America and India as a soloist with the Gracias Choir Orchestra under the sponsorship of the International Youth Foundation. She collaborated as a Guest Concertmaster with orchestras such as the Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia of Madrid under the direction of Maestro Kynan Johns.
For three consecutive years, she served as violin faculty member at the Music in the Mountains Conservatory in Durango, Colorado. Jaram was also invited to give masterclasses in La Coruña and as an associate faculty at the Indiana University Summer String Academy. She was an outside instructor at Columbia University and held a violin faculty position at Gracias Music and Mahanaim in Huntington, NY.

In 2019, she received the Doctoral of Music Arts degree from the Stony Brook University under the guidance of Hagai Shaham and Phil Setzer, where she also served as a Teaching Assistant. Currently, she holds a Violin Faculty position at the Bard College Conservatory of Music Pre­College in New York and is appointed Artistic Director of Manhattan in the Mountains Summer Music Festival.

Website: http://www.jaramkim.com

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Emmanuel Koh

Emmanuel Koh is a recent graduate from The Orchestra Now (TON) degree program at Bard College, where he received a Masters of Music in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies.

He holds a B.M. in Viola Performance with highest honors from the University of Michigan and an M.M. in Performance from the University of Akron, where he also studied conducting under Maestro Guy Bordo and conducted the Akron University Symphony. As a soloist, Emmanuel received "most outstanding violist" award in Singapore's 3rd Performers' Festival, and has appeared as a soloist in many parts of South East Asia, including Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

In his studies, he was also appointed principal violist for Michigan's University Philharmonia Orchestra, Akron University Symphony Orchestra, and The Orchestra Now. He was a fellow in The Orchestra Now and regularly performed with the orchestra in the greater New York Area, including Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum and The Richard B. Fisher Center of Performing Arts. In addition to teaching at Bard College Conservatory of Music’s Preparatory Division, Emmanuel has also served as violin and viola faculty at Do Re Mi Music and Arts in New Jersey.

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Sean Katsuyama

Sean Katsuyama is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees, studying with Channing Robbins and Harvey Shapiro.

He has toured Asia and Europe as a member of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Japan with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, and North America with Star Wars in Concert.

Currently residing in New York City, he has performed solo and chamber music in many of its important halls, and had the honor to play for workers at the World Trade Center site following the events of September 11th.

Aside from performing, Mr. Katsuyama teaches music appreciation courses, and teaches cello privately.

His hobbies include golf, photography, and the Chinese, Japanese, and Western versions of chess.

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Jisoo Ok

As a Latin Grammy nominee, Jisoo Ok enjoys a multi-faceted and vibrant musical career as a cellist, festival director, arranger, orchestrator, recording artist and educator of classical and tango music.

Jisoo is deeply committed to exploring connections with musicians from other backgrounds and disciplines. This deep commitment can be seen in her collaborations with distinguished artists, such as latin jazz clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera, tango pianist Pablo Ziegler, bandoneonist Hector Del Curto, jazz violinist Regina Carter and bassist Ron Carter.

She has performed at prestigious venues and festivals, such as Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest, the Chautauqua Institute, Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Blue Note, and National Concert Hall in Taiwan. As a soloist, she has performed with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Lancaster Symphony Orchestra.

Jisoo's arrangements, orchestrations and transcriptions have been performed by top orchestras, such as Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Billings Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, Hector Del Curto Tango Orchestra and Stowe Tango Music Festival Orchestra.

Her dedication as a teacher can be seen in the success of her cello students, who have won numerous competitions and were accepted to New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University, The Juilliard School Pre-College, All-National Honors Orchestra and All-New York State Orchestra. She has recently published Hello Cello Positions!, a series of cello method books for young cellists to learn and understand the positions on the cello.

Jisoo was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in New Zealand. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Juilliard School as a recipient of the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship and the Heward Memorial Scholarship, studying with Bonnie Hampton and Fred Sherry and she studied chamber music with Itzhak Perlman and Robert Mann. She has participated in numerous Master Classes with Janos Starker, Bernard Greenhouse, Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser and Anner Bylsma. 

She is the co-founder and executive director of the Stowe Tango Music Festival, the premier tango music festival in the United States noted both for its unique series of performances and its high level of tango music training.

Website: http://okcellist.com

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Ryan Kamm, Preparatory Division Co-Director

Ryan Kamm has taught double bass and musicianship in the Preparatory Division since 2008. In 2011, with Susanne Son, he founded the Bard Music Camp, a two-week summer program serving 80 students annually, which is now in its 10th year.  He has been codirector of the Preparatory Division since 2012.

As a double bassist, Kamm held a tenured position with the Nashville Symphony, was a New World Symphony fellow, and had a one-year appointment in the Cleveland Orchestra. Other performance experience includes substitute work with the New York City Opera, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Albany Symphony, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, New Hampshire Symphony, and North Carolina Symphony.

Festival appearances include Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival USA, National Repertory Orchestra, Kent/Blossom Chamber Music Festival, and Eastern Music Festival.

A dedicated teacher, Kamm’s teaching experience includes Middle Tennessee State University, the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts, and, in the New York area, the Diller Quaile School of Music, St. David’s School, and the JCC Thurnauer School of Music.

Kamm holds a bachelor’s degree with distinction in double bass performance from Indiana University and a master’s degree from Boston University, and as a postgraduate studied with Harold Robinson. His primary teachers include Edwin Barker, Lawrence Hurst, and Craig Brown.

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Greg Dinger

Greg  is the child of musical parents (his mom was a pianist and his father a  cellist with the New York Philharmonic).  In addition to  Dalcroze/Eurythmy training as a child he studied the piano until his  early teens (with Katerina Rado, Edgar Roberts and Jacqueline Marcault),  and credits those early experiences for much of his strong  musicianship.  Greg  began to play guitar as a youngster,
like so many others of his  generation, inspired by The Beatles and others rock performers (though he began with a Joan Baez folk music songbook). He formed his first  band in 7th grade and played in it throughout much of high  school.

In  9th grade Greg became interested in the classical guitar, and began his study of it with the area’s leading teacher, Luis Garcia-Renart (also a prize-winning cellist & conductor). Greg studied with Garcia-Renart for 4 years and then went to Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received his Bachelors of Music degree with honors in 1980.  At  NEC he studied with Robert Paul Sullivan and Frank Wallace, formed the Parnassus Guitar Duo, and gave the school’s first all-solo  graduating guitar recital.  At the start of his career in the 1980s Greg played in  masterclasses of several of the world’s leading classical guitarists: Manuel Barrueco,  Eliot Fisk, Frederic Hand, Sharon Isbin and  Christopher Parkening.

After returning to Woodstock, N.Y., where he grew up, Greg began teaching the  guitar, and soon was teaching various guitar styles several days a week  at Allegro Music in Kingston.  In the 1980s he also became the  classical guitar instructor at SUNY New Paltz and Bard College and began  teaching guitar & other music subjects (music theory & history) at Ulster County Community College in Stone Ridge (now called SUNY  Ulster).  In the 1990s he began teaching the Classical Guitar Seminar at  Bard and Greg is still the classical guitar instructor for their Music Dept.  Greg also plays each year in the Faculty Showcase concerts and often presents recitals at these schools.  At present Greg teaches private lessons primarily at his home music studio in  Woodstock, N.Y.,  and is also affiliated with Barcone’s Music, in Kingston, NY.

Greg  has been involved with a large variety of music groups throughout his career, from chamber music ensembles to rock bands to orchestras.  In the 1980s he played in a heavy-metal  group called “Uncle Sam” as well as in the blues &  originals “Ben Prevo Band.” In the 1990s he played Beatles & Eagles songs in “The Beagles” and a variety of guitars in a  folk-pop-oldies group called “TimePieces.”
Lately Greg has played guitar & sung in “Decoy” (2015), the “West Saugerties Boys” (2016-18), and currently with “Fishbowl” and “Rare Bird.”
In  the course of his performing career Greg has played electric guitar,  steel-string & nylon-string guitars, banjo and mandolin
in a number of musical theater productions including “The  Three-Penny Opera,” “Tommy,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Footloose,” “The Sound of Music,” “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” “Evita,” “8-Track:  The Sounds of the 70s,” and “Honky Tonk Laundry.”
As  a classical guitarist Greg has been a member of several chamber music ensembles, including the Arabesque Trio (flute, guitar & bassoon; formerly: Trio Con Brio), the Catskill Mountain Renaissance  Consort (recorders, viola da gamba, guitar & hand percussion), Cantilena (flute & guitar; formerly: Interlude), and the SAGAD Trio (viola, guitar & cello).  Greg’s talents as an arranger — taking music  originally intended for one instrument or ensemble and creatively recasting it in a new setting — have produced most of the repertoire of  these groups. Years ago he published through Music Arts Graphics; now his GDG Editions — music for solo guitar & guitar in ensemble — are available through this website.

With the Arabesque Trio he has recorded a CD of music by Debussy, Bach, Faure, Mozart, Granados, Handel, Joplin, Ligeti, de Falla, Bartok & Lennon/McCartney titled “Reverie.” Available from his website.

Many people in the Hudson Valley fondly remember his 15+ years providing live classical guitar music on weekends at Joshua’s Cafe in Woodstock.  Greg  has played over the years with many of the best instrumentalists and singers in the Hudson Valley:  violinists Carole Cowan and Akiko Kamigawara, cellists Susan Seligman, Ling  Kwan & Jean Vilkelis, violist Anastasia Solberg, flutists Marcia Gates, Pauline Mancuso, Lynn Peck, Sarah Plant, Melissa Sweet and Marisa Trees, oboist Joel Evans, clarinetists Tony Penz and Kay Sutka, classical guitarists Terry Champlin & Helen Avakian, David Temple and Richard Udell, fiddle & guitar duo Jay Ungar & Molly Mason,
and singers Harvey Boyer, Kimberly  Kahan, Cecelia Keehn, Jonell Mosser, Anita Shamansky, and Danielle  Woerner, among others.  In the 1990s Greg was a member of the early music acapella group Woodstock Renaissance, and he has sung (bass) with Ars Choralis since the 1990s; he is currently that organization’s president too.  He frequently accompanies them in music that involves various types of guitars, and has arranged a number of  songs for them: several Beatles songs, The Beach Boys’ “Good  Vibrations,” Springsteen’s “American Land,” and an ambitious setting of “Where Have All The Flowers  Gone” (premiered in 2014).  The chorus has gone on tour to Europe several times in the 21st century, always with Greg & his guitar! Greg also did the instrumental music arrangements for Ars Choralis’ “Music in Desperate Times” program which they performed in NYC’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine as well as  their  2009 tour to Germany.  Greg’s also been the curator of Ars Choralis’ “Artist Within” series of concerts at the Sheeley House in High Falls, NY, including  Valentine’s Day-themed shows, a folk “jamboree,” the “Just For The Fun Of It!” show, several classical recitals, a Kung Fu martial arts (Greg’s hobby for 35+ years) demonstration, and 2017’s “A Night In Argentina."

Greg also programmed & hosted WDST radio’s innovative classical music  show “Sunrise Concert” for over 25 years starting in the mid-1980s (and winning Hudson Valley Magazine’s Best Classical Music show award for 1996); and  for a number of years he reviewed classical CD releases for the Kingston  Daily Freeman’s “Preview” magazine.

More recently Greg helped form the Mid-Hudson Classical Guitar Society, presenting their first concert at  the Morton Library in Rhinecliff in 2010, and closing their 8th season  in May 2017.

Greg  directs & arranges music for SUNY Ulster’s Guitar & Mixed  Instrument Ensembles, producing new arrangements of music ranging from Renaissance pavanes to Haydn piano sonatas, solo guitar pieces expanded, and a variety of famous songs including:
“Tico Tico,”  “Miserlou,” “Fever,” “Someone To Watch Over Me,” “Shenandoah,” “Down  On The Corner,” “Billie Jean,” “Everybody  Wants To Rule The World,” “Fragile” & several Beatles medleys, and an original minimalist piece: “Blip, Blop, Plink, Plunk, Ting & Bong.”  Greg  became involved with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra soon after  graduating from NEC and returning to Woodstock (when that orchestra was forming); he played the popular Vivaldi Concerto in D major with them in 1980.  Since then he has performed works for  guitar & orchestra with them several times: Herbert Haufrecht’s  “Divertimento” in 1985, Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Guitar Concerto in 1993,
the  “Fantasia para  un Gentilhombre” by Joaquin Rodrigo in 1999, and his famed “Concierto de Aranjuez” in 2004 and again in January of 2018.  In the fall of 2018 the orchestra became the Woodstock Symphony Orchestra. Greg has served as president of the WCO since 1995, seeing the orchestra through several Conductor Searches, and he’s organized & played in  numerous fundraising concerts for the WCO over the years.

Greg also played with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic in their “New Wave”  concerts in the 1990s, backing Sterling Morrison of The Velvet Underground, and  providing support for singer Natalie Merchant.  One of his toughest  musical challenges was negotiating the guitar part for Frank Zappa’s  “Alien Orifice” with the HVP when no other guitarist around could do  it!  Greg also played solo guitar as the “opening act” for that  concert.  He’s also opened for Leon Redbone and “3” (Emerson, Palmer & Berry) at The Chance in Poughkeepsie. Greg has also played with other top Hudson Valley music organizations including Cappella Festival, the Mendelssohn Club, the  Gilbert & Sullivan Musical Theater Company, the Pone Ensemble and the Hudson Valley Recital Project.

 

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Ian Tyson

Dr. Ian Tyson is a New York City–based clarinetist, saxophonist, and flutist. He has performed with orchestras and chamber groups and given solo recitals in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Merkin Hall. He is a member of Trio 212, was previously a clarinetist with the United States Air Force bands, and was most recently an Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Fellow. A champion of new music, Dr. Tyson recently commissioned the piece Crystal Cathedral from composer Leanna Primiani.

A dedicated pedagogue, Dr. Tyson is faculty at Vassar College and teaches flute, clarinet, and saxophone at Bard Conservatory Preparatory Division, clarinet at Special Music School, and clarinet and saxophone at New York Conservatory of Music and Arts, in addition to maintaining a substantial private studio. He has performed and given master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa. As a teaching artist with Daraja Music Initiative, Dr. Tyson works in Tanzania teaching students to play the clarinet and helping to conserve the African Blackwood tree.  

Dr. Tyson received a DMA from Stony Brook University, MM from Michigan State University, and BM from Miami University (Ohio). His principal teachers include Alan Kay, Anthony McGill, Frank Ell, and Michele Gingras.

Website: https://www.iantysonclari.net

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Ian Tyson

Dr. Ian Tyson is a New York City–based clarinetist, saxophonist, and flutist. He has performed with orchestras and chamber groups and given solo recitals in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Merkin Hall. He is a member of Trio 212, was previously a clarinetist with the United States Air Force bands, and was most recently an Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Fellow. A champion of new music, Dr. Tyson recently commissioned the piece Crystal Cathedral from composer Leanna Primiani.

A dedicated pedagogue, Dr. Tyson is faculty at Vassar College and teaches flute, clarinet, and saxophone at Bard Conservatory Preparatory Division, clarinet at Special Music School, and clarinet and saxophone at New York Conservatory of Music and Arts, in addition to maintaining a substantial private studio. He has performed and given master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa. As a teaching artist with Daraja Music Initiative, Dr. Tyson works in Tanzania teaching students to play the clarinet and helping to conserve the African Blackwood tree.  

Dr. Tyson received a DMA from Stony Brook University, MM from Michigan State University, and BM from Miami University (Ohio). His principal teachers include Alan Kay, Anthony McGill, Frank Ell, and Michele Gingras.

Website: https://www.iantysonclari.net

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Jessica Jones

Tenor saxophonist and pianist Jessica has worked with Joseph Jarman, Cecil
Taylor, Don Cherry, and Peter Apfelbaum as well as a variety of Haitian, Caribbean and African bands. These influences helped form her compositional direction which is grounded in the jazz tradition and, as is truly traditional in jazz, reaches for new directions and a unique sound. The primary outlet for her compositions for the past twenty years has been the Jessica Jones
Quartet, a pianoless quartet founded with fellow tenor player and husband Tony Jones. She has released four albums of her band, including guest artists from the community of innovative east and west coast musicians and poets. Jones received an NEA study grant, and has been profiled in JazzTimes magazine.

The Jessica Jones Quartet has played in the Knitting Factory Festival in New York City, the Bay Area Jazz Poetry Festival, and the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival in Oakland, California, where the group headlined with special guest Don Cherry. The group has been featured in venues on the East and West Coast including Yoshi’s and Dizzy’s Club and released several CDs to critical acclaim including “Nod,” featuring Tristano-lineage pianist Connie Crothers and Joseph Jarman of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and their most recent, “Moxie.”

In addition to her work with the band and as a sideman in NYC, Jessica is an innovative jazz educator and consultant, working with children on improvisation, composition, and oral traditions for Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Vision Festival, Brooklyn Friends School and others. She has worked with Cazadero Performing Arts Family Camp, Jam Camp West, the City of Oakland, and Jazz at Lincoln Center developing music programs for youth, including JALC’s JazzGirls Day program.

Media coverage includes reviews in Wire, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Jazz Now, All About Jazz, New York City Jazz Record, Signal to Noise, Nashville City Paper, Bay Guardian, East Bay Express, Cadence and several jazz websites and blogs.

Website: https://www.jessicajonesmusic.com

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Ian Tyson

Dr. Ian Tyson is a New York City–based clarinetist, saxophonist, and flutist. He has performed with orchestras and chamber groups and given solo recitals in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Merkin Hall. He is a member of Trio 212, was previously a clarinetist with the United States Air Force bands, and was most recently an Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Fellow. A champion of new music, Dr. Tyson recently commissioned the piece Crystal Cathedral from composer Leanna Primiani.

A dedicated pedagogue, Dr. Tyson is faculty at Vassar College and teaches flute, clarinet, and saxophone at Bard Conservatory Preparatory Division, clarinet at Special Music School, and clarinet and saxophone at New York Conservatory of Music and Arts, in addition to maintaining a substantial private studio. He has performed and given master classes throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa. As a teaching artist with Daraja Music Initiative, Dr. Tyson works in Tanzania teaching students to play the clarinet and helping to conserve the African Blackwood tree.  

Dr. Tyson received a DMA from Stony Brook University, MM from Michigan State University, and BM from Miami University (Ohio). His principal teachers include Alan Kay, Anthony McGill, Frank Ell, and Michele Gingras.

Website: https://www.iantysonclari.net

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Hsiao-Fang Lin

Hsiao-Fang Lin, trombone, was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. She completed her double degrees at Bard College: a bachelor of music degree in trombone performance, studied with John Rojak, Demian Austin, Weston Sprott, and Denson Paul Pollard, and a bachelor of arts degree in computer science.

In addition to working as an audio video engineer for Bard SummerScape for the past few years. Hsiao-Fang performed with America Symphony Orchestra for Le Roi Malgré Lui (The King in Spite of Himself) in The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in 2012. She has also participated in numerous music festivals including the Summer Trombone Workshop and the Asian Trombone Seminar, studied with Dietmar Küblböck, Haim Avitsur, David Taylor, James Olin, Ko-ichiro Yamamoto.

Hsiao-Fang is currently working as the Director of Music Programming at the US-China Music Institute and the orchestra manager at Bard Conservatory of Music.

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Kyle Hoyt

Kyle Hoyt is an in-demand French Horn player and teacher in New York City and nationally. He has appeared as soloist with the Jerusalem, Montclair State University, Israel Chamber Orchestra, and Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestras. He can be heard frequently playing with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the American, New Jersey, New Haven Symphony Orchestras, and the St. Paul and the Knights Chamber Orchestras. Previously he was Associate Principal horn of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and held full time positions with the Columbus and Syracuse Symphony Orchestras.

His ballet work includes regular performances with the New York City Ballet, the American Ballet Theater, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Chamber music work includes performances at the Bard Music Festival Orchestral and Chamber Music Programs, Montclair State Faculty Gala and the North Jersey Chamber Music Society. Ensembles include brass quintet, wind quintet, and horn quartets.
Equally at home in the film, commercial and Broadway music realm, Kyle recently performed on the soundtrack of Hollywood blockbuster “The Joker.” He was a member of the Broadway pit orchestras of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Something Rotten”, “Sideshow”, and the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular" Orchestras. He has performed on countless commercial jingles. 

Additional recent recording work includes a live concert at Carnegie Hall with Alma Deutscher and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s for Medici TV, and a studio release of “Azul” with Yo-Yo Ma and the Knights from Warner Classics, and a PBS release of Alexander Kastalsky's requiem “Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes” with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Kyle has also recorded for Naxos, Telarc, Nimbus Records, CBS, and NFL Films and recently for the Broadway Cares and Local 802 Emergency Relief fund.

Since 2014 he has served as French Horn Faculty at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey. He has given masterclasses at the University of Michigan, the Ohio State University, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Kansas. He currently serves on the Executive board of American Federation of Musicians Local 802, and on the Board of Deacon’s at Calvary Baptist Church in New York City. Kyle received his Bachelor’s degree in music performance at the University of Michigan, and Master’s degree of orchestral performance at the Manhattan School of Music. His principal teachers were Bryan Kennedy, Soren Hermansson, Erik Ralske, and Jeffrey Lang.

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David Degge
 

David Degge is an active performer of contemporary solo and chamber music for percussion. He comes from a widely varied musical background, growing up in a choral singing tradition, but he quickly developed an affinity for percussion instruments when he was ten. Noted for his virtuosity on the hammered dulcimer, he has given numerous performances as a soloist and has used free improvisations on the dulcimer as a basis for much of his own music composition.

David’s attendance at the first annual So Percussion Summer Institute in 2009 confirmed a growing interest in contemporary percussion music, and it was there that he met the other founding members of Mobius Percussion, a new music group in which he currently plays. He has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, (le) Poisson Rouge, An Die Musik, Budapest Music Center, and the Liszt Academy of Music, among others. He has collaborated with various groups including S? Percussion, NEXUS, Mantra Percussion, SONAR New Music Ensemble, UMZE Chamber Ensemble, and the Amadinda Percussion Group. In 2013, David received a Fulbright grant to Hungary, where he studied with Zoltán Rácz as an exchange student at the Liszt Academy of Music. A highlight of his time in Budapest included participation in the first Liszt Academy student performance of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians under the direction of Mr. Rácz.

David holds a Bachelor of Music in education from Abilene Christian University and a Master of Music in performance from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. He is currently the Percussion Teaching Fellow at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. His teachers have included Allen Teel, Keith Lloyd, Robert van Sice, David Skidmore, Judah Adashi, and Zoltán Rácz.

Website: https://daviddegge.com

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Shawn Jaeger

Described as “mournful” (New York Times), “luminous” (Washington Post), and having “a sound world of its own” (Pioneer Press), the music of composer Shawn Jaeger (b. 1985, Louisville, Kentucky) often engages Appalachian folksong, field recording, and creative placemaking.

He has worked with leading performers, including Dawn Upshaw and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, JACK Quartet, Talea Ensemble, Dal Niente, Longleash, Contemporaneous, Alexi Kenney, Ryan Muncy, and Vicky Chow.

His music has been featured at venues including Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Morgan Library, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Roulette, Jordan Hall, and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, and on such festivals as Tanglewood, MATA, FERUS, and Resonant Bodies.

Jaeger has received commissions from Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, the American Composers Forum/Jerome Fund for New Music (JFund), Roulette/Jerome Foundation, the BMI Foundation/Concert Artists Guild (Carlos Surinach Commission), and Chamber Music America.

His awards include the Claire Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists, Northwestern University’s M. William Karlins and William T. Faricy Awards, the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and two BMI Student Composer Awards. His opera, Payne Hollow, received coverage in Modern Farmer and a mention in Gene Logsdon’s Letters to a Young Farmer.

Jaeger holds a DMA from Northwestern University, and a BM from the University of Michigan. He has taught composition at Tufts University, Princeton University (as a 2016-18 Princeton Arts Fellow), and Brown University. 
He lives in Brooklyn.

Website: https://www.shawnjaeger.com

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Martha Sullivan

Composer Martha Sullivan creates music in various genres but is best known for her works for the human voice. She has earned accolades for her choral music and has won competitions sponsored by such organizations as the Dale Warland Singers and the Sorel Organization. Her music has been commissioned and performed by groups as far away as Glasgow, Tokyo, and Zurich, as well as by numerous choral groups in the United States. 

She is also a professional singer, specializing in new music; she has recorded and premiered works by such avant-grade composers as Toby Twining and John Zorn. She currently sings with, conducts in, and composes music for C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective in New York City. She has also sung in every opera staged at Bard Summerscape since 2009. 

Her education includes a B.A. in Music from Yale and studies at Boston University's Opera Institute; she is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Music Composition at Rutgers. Her dissertation focuses on the semiotic implications of one particular musical gesture—the Siren topos—in music ranging from early 19th-century Lorelei songs to 20th-century operas to 1960s television theme songs. She has presented parts of this work at various international conferences on music theory. 

She has taught for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (as voice faculty and as coordinator of the Music Theory program for high-school singers); New York University/CAP21 (teaching music theory to music-theater students at NYU's Tisch School); the Gregg Smith Singers (teaching voice and composition to students in Gregg's summer workshops); Rutgers (Aural Skills, Intro to Music Technology, and Intro to Music); and Westminster Choir College (Musicianship I and Musicianship III, both of which combine music theory with hands-on aural skills work).

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Jessica Jones

Tenor saxophonist and pianist Jessica has worked with Joseph Jarman, Cecil
Taylor, Don Cherry, and Peter Apfelbaum as well as a variety of Haitian, Caribbean and African bands. These influences helped form her compositional direction which is grounded in the jazz tradition and, as is truly traditional in jazz, reaches for new directions and a unique sound. The primary outlet for her compositions for the past twenty years has been the Jessica Jones
Quartet, a pianoless quartet founded with fellow tenor player and husband Tony Jones. She has released four albums of her band, including guest artists from the community of innovative east and west coast musicians and poets. Jones received an NEA study grant, and has been profiled in JazzTimes magazine.

The Jessica Jones Quartet has played in the Knitting Factory Festival in New York City, the Bay Area Jazz Poetry Festival, and the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival in Oakland, California, where the group headlined with special guest Don Cherry. The group has been featured in venues on the East and West Coast including Yoshi’s and Dizzy’s Club and released several CDs to critical acclaim including “Nod,” featuring Tristano-lineage pianist Connie Crothers and Joseph Jarman of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and their most recent, “Moxie.”

In addition to her work with the band and as a sideman in NYC, Jessica is an innovative jazz educator and consultant, working with children on improvisation, composition, and oral traditions for Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Vision Festival, Brooklyn Friends School and others. She has worked with Cazadero Performing Arts Family Camp, Jam Camp West, the City of Oakland, and Jazz at Lincoln Center developing music programs for youth, including JALC’s JazzGirls Day program.

Media coverage includes reviews in Wire, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Jazz Now, All About Jazz, New York City Jazz Record, Signal to Noise, Nashville City Paper, Bay Guardian, East Bay Express, Cadence and several jazz websites and blogs.

Website: https://www.jessicajonesmusic.com