An Afternoon of Vocal Music
Donation protected
Composers Dosia McKay, Andres Soto, and Cheryl Krugel-Lee will present an afternoon of vocal music as part of the Composer's Voice concert series.These pieces will be performed by members of C4, a choral composer-conductor collective based in New York City. This FREE concert will take place on June 29, 2014 at the Jan Hus Presbyterian Church in New York City. Your support will go toward compensating the singers as well as toward renting rehearsal space. The works on this concert were written specifically for this group of musicians, and all of the works are world premieres. These three pieces are all fun and/or comical in nature, so be prepared to laugh! Members of the choir will also be performing 3 of their own works, with a total of 6 works written by living composers. Thank you for your support!
Concert Program:
SWEET BABY, by Dosia McKay (World Premiere)
THE END, by Cheryl Krugel-Lee (World Premiere)
MI MAMA ME MIMA, by Andrés Soto (World Premiere)
WEDDING MOTET, by Hayes Biggs
O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM, by Fahad Siadat
LOVE IS ANTERIOR TO LIFE, by Bettina Shepard
Dosia McKay's composition portfolio includes scores for film, dance, and multimedia, works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, choir, symphony orchestra, as well as synthesized sound. A versatile writer, Dosia fluently weaves elements of classical harmony, jazz, pop, avant-garde, ambient soundscapes, and the lyricism of folk melodies of her native Poland. Recent projects include a new album of music for string quartet recorded by NeoQuartet in February 2014, a new composition for Baroque lutenist Will Tocaben entitled "Parting", and an Asheville Ballet premiere of album "Lacrimosa", a post-classical fusion of the Medieval, Renaissance, Electronic Soundscape, and New Age Ambient music. Dosia McKay's music has been featured on National Public Radio and in concerts in New York, Washington, D.C., Poland, Spain, and others. www.dosiamckay.com
ANDRES SOTO (b. 1986) is a Costa Rican composer based in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. His music has been performed by orchestras around the world, including the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in Prague, El Paso Youth Symphony in Texas, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia in Costa Rica, which commissioned him for works in 2012, 2014 and 2015. An active film composer, he has scored over 20 short films, 2 feature-length films and 3 documentaries. His collaborations with violinist Jane Hunt have been heard at both the U.S. Open opening ceremony at Arthur Ashe Stadium and NYC Fashion Week in 2011. He was the recipient of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Scholarship in 2009 and 2010. www.andres-soto.com.
Cheryl Krugel-Lee is a Brooklyn-based composer, arranger, and orchestrator whose work spans both the commercial and classical worlds. She has composed scores for theatre productions and films, orchestrated for musical theatre, collaborated with choreographers, and created numerous works for a concert setting. Recent collaborations include the evening-length dance production of “Dry Bones: Resurrection of the Living” and “Last Night’s Symphonie”, a film based on Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Cheryl is the personnel manager and librarian of ensemble mise-en, a contemporary music ensemble based in New York City and has worked as a contractor for numerous musical productions. She earned her Master of Music degree from New York University where she studied primarily with Ira Newborn.
www.cherylkrugel.com
Composer's Voice
Choir Members:
Liz Derham is a fourth year violinist at The Juilliard School, pursuing her B.M. under the direction of Naoko Tanaka. In 2011, she was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Fontainebleau Summer Festival, where her quartet received the Chamber Music Award. During the Summers of 2006-2010, she attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, as a fellowship recipient. An avid performer of new music, she plays frequently with the New Juilliard Ensemble and AXIOM; and has premiered numerous works by composers at Juilliard, Aspen, and Fontainebleau, as well as works by freelance composers around New York City. Also an active choral soprano, Elizabeth currently sings with the Amuse Singers, C4, and the St. Agnes Schola Cantorum.
Melissa Wozniak is working as the School Programs Administrator at New York City Opera while she works on her thesis for her M.M. in Music History and Literature from the University of Southern Mississippi. Melissa has performed with the Southern Chorale, the Southern Mississippi Chamber Singers, and the Hattiesburg (MS) Civic Chorale The Meistersingers. In 2005, Melissa earned a B.M.E. in Music Education from SUNY Fredonia. Onstage performances include L’Orfeo (Fury), and choral roles in I Pagliacci, The Merry Widow, and L’Elisir d’Amore Melissa’s past voice teachers include J. Taylor Hightower, Kimberley Davis and Margaret Kuhl. She is a member of the American Musicological Society and Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity. She is now living and teaching on Long Island.
Karen Devine has been fortunate to sing with many esteemed choruses and conductors throughout her life, and is thrilled to add C4 to the list this year. Highlights include: Mrs. Comber’s 4th grade choir, Kenyon College Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Locke (with whom she also studied voice and conducting while completing her B.A. in Music), Cantori New York, and Amuse; she currently studies voice with Evelyn Troester. After dabbling a bit in the business side of music (helping to bring the world Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys), Karen decided to atone for her sins by becoming a massage therapist. She is now a highly-regarded therapist – perhaps, in part, because clients can will never hear Enya or Yanni during their massage.
Natalie Chamat was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa where she was involved in the arts and theatrics starting at a young age. She is a national winner of the AuditionPlus Competition of 2013 and has held operatic roles as Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore, Cinderella in Jacks are Wild, Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica, and Spirit in Cendrillion. She possesses a B.M. in Voice Performance from Iowa State University where she graduated cum laude with honors and a M.M. in Voice Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Hayes Biggs holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Columbia University. His teachers have included Don Freund, Mario Davidovsky, and Jack Beeson. Biggs has been a fellow in composition at the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley, at the Tanglewood Music Center, at Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Among his honors are a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, as well as the 2001 Aaron Copland Award. Since 1992, he has been on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. His Symphonia brevis, commissioned by the Riverside Symphony, received its first performance in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in February of 2010. Biggs’s music is published by C. F. Peters Corporation, APNM, and Margun Music, Inc. www.hayesbiggs.com
Brian Mountford studied music and electrical engineering at UC Berkeley, and sang in the Yale Glee Club as an undergraduate. He sings with the New York City Master Chorale as well as C4, and plays piano and organ. He spends his time as a computer programmer and composes occasionally, dreaming of the day that his chamber opera will receive the reception it deserves, or perhaps a better one.
Bill Heigen is a composer, arranger, musical director, singer, vocal coach and pianist. He has received national awards in Brazil for his vocal arrangements, and for his choral directing. He has composed some musical theaters shows, been the musical director of multiple vocal groups, and has performed in many other professional a cappella ensembles -- singing many musical styles -- from bossa nova and Brazilian popular music to Renaissance repertoire. He is also a voice teacher/vocal coach and has taught music theory courses at various conservatories and universities in Brazil. Bill is now living in New York City and taking his Master degree in Composition at Hunter College.
Joe Rubenstein grew up in Newport News, VA and currently resides in New York City. His music has been performed by groups including the Society for New Music, North / South Consonance, Boston Metro Opera, the Norfolk Contemporary Music Ensemble, The Columbia University Bach Society, C4, the Young New Yorker’s Chorus, DETOUR New Music, and the International Vocal Arts Workshop in Croatia. He received his BA in Music from Columbia University, where his primary teachers in composition were Joseph Dubiel and Sebastian Currier. From 2011 to 2013 Joseph was a masters degree student in composition at The Juilliard School, studying with Robert Beaser. He is currently a fellow in American Opera Projects' "Composers and the Voice" program.
As a vocalist, Fahad Siadat is a chorister and soloist specializing in contemporary and experimental music. As a composer, he focuses on music for the voice, but has written for theater, film, and classical ensembles such as the California EAR unit and The TOCCATA Orchestra. He is co-artistic director of The Resonance Collective in New York and a conductor of C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective as well as the Columbia University Glee Club. In 2012, he founded See-A-Dot Music Publishing, Inc., a company devoted to the advocacy of new choral works and emerging composers. Fahad holds a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in Music Performance and Composition and a Bachelor's of Music in Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University.
Concert Program:
SWEET BABY, by Dosia McKay (World Premiere)
THE END, by Cheryl Krugel-Lee (World Premiere)
MI MAMA ME MIMA, by Andrés Soto (World Premiere)
WEDDING MOTET, by Hayes Biggs
O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM, by Fahad Siadat
LOVE IS ANTERIOR TO LIFE, by Bettina Shepard
Dosia McKay's composition portfolio includes scores for film, dance, and multimedia, works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, choir, symphony orchestra, as well as synthesized sound. A versatile writer, Dosia fluently weaves elements of classical harmony, jazz, pop, avant-garde, ambient soundscapes, and the lyricism of folk melodies of her native Poland. Recent projects include a new album of music for string quartet recorded by NeoQuartet in February 2014, a new composition for Baroque lutenist Will Tocaben entitled "Parting", and an Asheville Ballet premiere of album "Lacrimosa", a post-classical fusion of the Medieval, Renaissance, Electronic Soundscape, and New Age Ambient music. Dosia McKay's music has been featured on National Public Radio and in concerts in New York, Washington, D.C., Poland, Spain, and others. www.dosiamckay.com
ANDRES SOTO (b. 1986) is a Costa Rican composer based in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. His music has been performed by orchestras around the world, including the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic in Prague, El Paso Youth Symphony in Texas, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia in Costa Rica, which commissioned him for works in 2012, 2014 and 2015. An active film composer, he has scored over 20 short films, 2 feature-length films and 3 documentaries. His collaborations with violinist Jane Hunt have been heard at both the U.S. Open opening ceremony at Arthur Ashe Stadium and NYC Fashion Week in 2011. He was the recipient of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Scholarship in 2009 and 2010. www.andres-soto.com.
Cheryl Krugel-Lee is a Brooklyn-based composer, arranger, and orchestrator whose work spans both the commercial and classical worlds. She has composed scores for theatre productions and films, orchestrated for musical theatre, collaborated with choreographers, and created numerous works for a concert setting. Recent collaborations include the evening-length dance production of “Dry Bones: Resurrection of the Living” and “Last Night’s Symphonie”, a film based on Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Cheryl is the personnel manager and librarian of ensemble mise-en, a contemporary music ensemble based in New York City and has worked as a contractor for numerous musical productions. She earned her Master of Music degree from New York University where she studied primarily with Ira Newborn.
www.cherylkrugel.com
Composer's Voice
Choir Members:
Liz Derham is a fourth year violinist at The Juilliard School, pursuing her B.M. under the direction of Naoko Tanaka. In 2011, she was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Fontainebleau Summer Festival, where her quartet received the Chamber Music Award. During the Summers of 2006-2010, she attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, as a fellowship recipient. An avid performer of new music, she plays frequently with the New Juilliard Ensemble and AXIOM; and has premiered numerous works by composers at Juilliard, Aspen, and Fontainebleau, as well as works by freelance composers around New York City. Also an active choral soprano, Elizabeth currently sings with the Amuse Singers, C4, and the St. Agnes Schola Cantorum.
Melissa Wozniak is working as the School Programs Administrator at New York City Opera while she works on her thesis for her M.M. in Music History and Literature from the University of Southern Mississippi. Melissa has performed with the Southern Chorale, the Southern Mississippi Chamber Singers, and the Hattiesburg (MS) Civic Chorale The Meistersingers. In 2005, Melissa earned a B.M.E. in Music Education from SUNY Fredonia. Onstage performances include L’Orfeo (Fury), and choral roles in I Pagliacci, The Merry Widow, and L’Elisir d’Amore Melissa’s past voice teachers include J. Taylor Hightower, Kimberley Davis and Margaret Kuhl. She is a member of the American Musicological Society and Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity. She is now living and teaching on Long Island.
Karen Devine has been fortunate to sing with many esteemed choruses and conductors throughout her life, and is thrilled to add C4 to the list this year. Highlights include: Mrs. Comber’s 4th grade choir, Kenyon College Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Locke (with whom she also studied voice and conducting while completing her B.A. in Music), Cantori New York, and Amuse; she currently studies voice with Evelyn Troester. After dabbling a bit in the business side of music (helping to bring the world Britney Spears and The Backstreet Boys), Karen decided to atone for her sins by becoming a massage therapist. She is now a highly-regarded therapist – perhaps, in part, because clients can will never hear Enya or Yanni during their massage.
Natalie Chamat was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa where she was involved in the arts and theatrics starting at a young age. She is a national winner of the AuditionPlus Competition of 2013 and has held operatic roles as Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore, Cinderella in Jacks are Wild, Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica, and Spirit in Cendrillion. She possesses a B.M. in Voice Performance from Iowa State University where she graduated cum laude with honors and a M.M. in Voice Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Hayes Biggs holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Columbia University. His teachers have included Don Freund, Mario Davidovsky, and Jack Beeson. Biggs has been a fellow in composition at the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley, at the Tanglewood Music Center, at Yaddo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Among his honors are a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, as well as the 2001 Aaron Copland Award. Since 1992, he has been on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. His Symphonia brevis, commissioned by the Riverside Symphony, received its first performance in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in February of 2010. Biggs’s music is published by C. F. Peters Corporation, APNM, and Margun Music, Inc. www.hayesbiggs.com
Brian Mountford studied music and electrical engineering at UC Berkeley, and sang in the Yale Glee Club as an undergraduate. He sings with the New York City Master Chorale as well as C4, and plays piano and organ. He spends his time as a computer programmer and composes occasionally, dreaming of the day that his chamber opera will receive the reception it deserves, or perhaps a better one.
Bill Heigen is a composer, arranger, musical director, singer, vocal coach and pianist. He has received national awards in Brazil for his vocal arrangements, and for his choral directing. He has composed some musical theaters shows, been the musical director of multiple vocal groups, and has performed in many other professional a cappella ensembles -- singing many musical styles -- from bossa nova and Brazilian popular music to Renaissance repertoire. He is also a voice teacher/vocal coach and has taught music theory courses at various conservatories and universities in Brazil. Bill is now living in New York City and taking his Master degree in Composition at Hunter College.
Joe Rubenstein grew up in Newport News, VA and currently resides in New York City. His music has been performed by groups including the Society for New Music, North / South Consonance, Boston Metro Opera, the Norfolk Contemporary Music Ensemble, The Columbia University Bach Society, C4, the Young New Yorker’s Chorus, DETOUR New Music, and the International Vocal Arts Workshop in Croatia. He received his BA in Music from Columbia University, where his primary teachers in composition were Joseph Dubiel and Sebastian Currier. From 2011 to 2013 Joseph was a masters degree student in composition at The Juilliard School, studying with Robert Beaser. He is currently a fellow in American Opera Projects' "Composers and the Voice" program.
As a vocalist, Fahad Siadat is a chorister and soloist specializing in contemporary and experimental music. As a composer, he focuses on music for the voice, but has written for theater, film, and classical ensembles such as the California EAR unit and The TOCCATA Orchestra. He is co-artistic director of The Resonance Collective in New York and a conductor of C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective as well as the Columbia University Glee Club. In 2012, he founded See-A-Dot Music Publishing, Inc., a company devoted to the advocacy of new choral works and emerging composers. Fahad holds a Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts in Music Performance and Composition and a Bachelor's of Music in Theory and Composition from Vanderbilt University.
Organizer
Cheryl Krugel-Lee
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY
