2021

Quince Ensemble

Singing with the precision and flexibility of modern chamber musicians, Quince Ensemble is changing the paradigm of contemporary vocal music.  Described as "the Anonymous 4 of new music" by Opera News, Quince continually pushes the boundaries of vocal ensemble literature.

As dedicated advocates of new music, Quince regularly commissions new works, providing wider exposure for the music of living composers. They recently launched the Quince New Music Commissioning Fund, a fund to grow the repertoire for women and treble voices.  Quince has released four studio albums, Realign the Time, Hushers, Motherland,  and David Lang's love fail, all available on iTunes, CD Baby, Spotify, Bandcamp, and Amazon. 

In 2016, Quince was featured on the KODY Festival Lublin, Poland in collaboration with David Lang and Beth Morrison Projects. They have also appeared on the Outpost Concert Series, the Philip Glass: Music with Friends concert at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, Alia Musica, and the SONiC Festival in New York.  During the 2019-20 season, they can be seen with The Chicago Symphony Orchestra/MUSICNOW, at the Boston Conservatory, The Schubert Club, and UC Davis, to name a few.

Comprised of vocalists Liz Pearse (soprano), Kayleigh Butcher (mezzo soprano), Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (soprano), and Carrie Henneman Shaw (soprano), Quince thrives on unique musical challenges and genre-bending contemporary repertoire.

Andrey Gonçalves and Ensemble

Andrey Gonçalves is an Illinois transplant Brazilian bassist. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Jazz Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he taught the bass studio for three years and directed several combos/big bands as a graduate teaching assistant. His dissertation focuses on whole-body engagement and preventative care in bass playing, blending music education with kinesiology, and healthy habits in music performance. Andrey Gonçalves is the Instructor of Bass at Olivet Nazarene University and Eastern Illinois University.

With a strong background in Brazilian music, B.A.M., Afro-Caribbean music, and Pop, Andrey navigates through different styles while composing, performing, and connecting with the audience. Check out his album Nocturnal Geometries, released on November 2020, and be ready for a new aural experience: www.andreygoncalves.com/music/

Friday @ 2:15 PM, UWL Presents: Music NOW!

 Selah-Marie Castellano is a senior voice performance major at UWL studying both classical music and jazz. She has spent some time teaching voice at the Onalaska Music Academy and sings professionally at a La Crosse area church as a cantor. She is currently a vocalist with the chamber ensemble "UWL's Good Company" who is presenting her collaborative piece "Reverse Chromesthesia" at the 2021 New Music festival. She would also like to credit Josh Wolfe and the chamber ensemble for their contributions to this work. In addition to this piece, Selah-Marie has some experience composing both experimental and sacred music. She also performs with several of the jazz groups at the university such as the Jazz Orchestra, Jazz ensemble and one of the jazz combos. 

"Hello! My name is Joshua Wolfe and I am a 5th year student majoring in Art and Computer Science here at UWL. I enjoy sculpting and creating intuitive gestural drawings and paintings. I am also a part of the Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Combo, and the Marching band on campus. I am excited to combine my musical experience with my artistic knowledge through this piece."

imageifd8.pngFabio Fabbri holds second level academic qualification cum laude with highest marks and mention of honour at Conservatorio “G.Puccini” in La Spezia, Italy as well as at the Hodgson School in Athens (Atlanta) his personal formation. His works have been executed at the Festivals Nuovi orizzonti sonori, New York Electroacoustic Music Festival 2018, Barcelona Zeppelin 2018, Leicester Convergence 2019, Barcelona Flexus Project 2019, NACUSA Mid-South composers concert at the University of North Georgia, Monterrey Ecos urbanos Festival de arte sonoro y transmedia 2019, University of Tennessee Contemporary Music Festival 2020, MOXsonic Missouri Experimental Sonic Arts 2020, New York Electroacoustic Music Festival 2020, Turin SMC 2020, Nottingham Lakeside Arts Acousmatic Journeys 2020, Chile ICMC 2021. He regularly holds masterclasses, seminars and summer courses in his current city of residence, i. e. Santa Margherita Ligure (Musicamica Association), Madrid (Autonomous University), Australia (Rosebank College in Sidney and Alexandra Hills High School in Wellington Point).

Originally from Bangor, WI, Josh Beron graduated from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse in 2020 with degrees in Instrumental Music Education and Trumpet Performance. He is currently the Associate Director of Bands at La Crosse Central High School and Polytechnic School. In addition to teaching, Josh also plays in the La Crosse Concert Band and serves as the Trumpet coach for the La Crosse Area Youth Symphony Orchestras.

image70ruf.pngCalifornia-born composer Eric Delgado is currently based in Madison, Wisconsin. His works have been performed and publicly read by professional ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, the Del Sol String Quartet, The Florida Orchestra, and members of the Cleveland Orchestra. He holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music in Florida. His previous mentors include Ken Ueno, Cindy Cox, Charles Mason, Dorothy Hindman, Lansing McLoskey, and Laura Schwendinger. Since August 2020, Eric has been working towards a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin, Madison as a Graduate School Fellow, under the guidance of Les Thimmig.

Jacob Jorstad, a native of Hokah, Minnesota, is a senior at UWL and a clarinet student of Professor Mary Anderson. He has been principal clarinetist in various large ensembles at both Wartburg College and UWL and has performs in the scholarship Cordiero Woodwind Quintet. When not playing msuic, Jacob works as a Guest Service Leader at Kwik Trip or spends time with his dog Lily (he calls her Billy)! He plans to teach music at the high school or elementary school level while continuing to perform in ensembles.

Mackenzie Taylor is a junior from Chilton, WI, and a student of Dr. Jonathan Borja. She is the principal flute in the UWL Symphony Orchestra and is a member of the Cordiero Woodwind Quintet. She also performed in the UWL 2021 Honors Recital. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in counseling psychology.

Dylan Findley writes music as a sacred act of expressing and exploring intangible truths through the convergence of heart, mind, spirit, and body. He has received commissions from the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, the Barlow Endowment, the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival Orchestral Commissioning Project, New American Voices, the American Guild of Organists Student Commissioning Project. His works have been featured on three continents and at festival across the United States by groups including newEar, Transient Canvas, members of the Cleveland Orchestra, Ensemble Mise-En, Quarteto L’Arianna, Mnemosyne Quartet, Great Noise Ensemble, PULSE Trio, Frost Symphony Orchestra, and Brigham Young University's Wind Symphony. He is Lecturer of Music at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and received his Doctor of Musical Arts at University of Missouri-Kansas under the mentorship of Chen Yi, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, Jim Mobberley, and Yotam Haber. Listen at www.dylanfindley.com.

Wallace McClain Cheatham is an internationally recognized composer, performing artist, and scholar. His compositions, covering a variety of genres and published by prominent houses, have been programmed at festivals, symposiums, conventions, concerts, and recitals.  He has continued to grow as a musician, researcher, and teacher. From the podium, he has introduced major works of African-American composers to audiences in Wisconsin and Illinois. His compositions, which span a variety of genres, have been performed in national and international settings. Some of his scores have been published by Shawnee, Alfred, Master-Player Library, Oxford University Press, and the American Composers Alliance. Dr. Cheatham's research dealing with opera as it relates to the African-American experience has been published in internationally circulated journals of scholarship. His book, Dialogues On Opera and The African American Experience, is housed in libraries worldwide. Dr. Cheatham was a public school music teacher for more than three decades. Recently, he was a guest professor at Wisconsin's Cardinal Stritch University. He has been called upon to be a piano accompanist for instrumentalists and singers, and a lecturer in national and international performance and professional venues. Poets with whom he has collaborated include Stephanny  Alameen, Nikki Giovanni, and Matthew Umukoro. "Heaven On Mother Earth," his most recent score, completes a choral trilogy that deals with the three great institutions of learning: church, school, and home.

Hunter Adams is a junior finance major with a music performance minor at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. He is one of Dr. Mary Tollefson's piano students and has experience in both solo performance and accompanying vocalists and instrumentalists. He has been a tenor in the UWL Concert Choir since his freshman year. In the church community, he has served as a worship leader and pianist in La Crosse churches as well as the "Bruce Federated Church" in Bruce, Wisconsin (his hometown).

Born in Ghana to Nigerian parents,  multiple award-winning composer Fred Onovwerosuoke grew up in both countries before settling in the United States. "FredO," as friends call him, has spent time in over thirty African countries researching and analyzing some of Africa’s rich music traditions. "I see hidden across Africa a gold-mine of unlimited musical scales and modes, melodic and harmonic traditions, and, yes, rhythms - abundant yet largely untapped," says Onovwerosuoke of his dominant influences. He also maintains that "my compositions are informed by my travels around the world, and each piece is harnessed and nurtured by an African sensibility that is unmistakable and genuine." FredO has also traveled in the American Deep South, the Caribbean and South America for comparative research in what he likes to call "traceable musical Africanisms." His influences are wide and varied, and is much at home discussing Beethoven, Debussy and Stravinsky as well as foremost exponents of various traditional musics. In 1994 he founded the St. Louis African Chorus to help nurture African choral music as a mainstream repertoire for performance and education in America. Today, the organization's mission has broadened to include classical/art music by lesser-known composers particularly of African descent and renamed Intercultural Music Initiative.

Friday @ 7:30 PM, UWL Large Ensembles Perform Danyew, Phipps, Galindo

Justin Davis is a versatile artist who is respected on the concert hall stage, in the musical theater/opera pit and the musical marching idiom. Dr. Davis is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Studies at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse. At UWL he conducts the wind ensemble, orchestra, and teaches applied horn and conducting courses. Dr. Davis has been recognized nationally for his conducting as a semi-finalist for Opera conducting in The American Prize (2015). He holds the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in instrumental conducting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Masters Degree in conducting and Bachelors Degree in Music Education from Western Illinois University. Davis has conducted professional and student groups in Tennessee, Colorado, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Illinois and Florida. Ensembles under his direction have toured internationally to Canada and throughout the United States. Dr. Davis is a veteran music educator at high school and college levels and has presented sessions this year in Wisconsin, Illinois and Florida on conductor health. As a performer, Dr. Davis has performed as a hornist in the Walt Disney World Orchestra, Knox-Galesburg Symphony (IL) and the Southern Tier Symphony (NY).

Dr. Davis is a member of the International Horn Society, College Band Directors National Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, National Association for Music Education, Phi Delta Kappa, Wisconsin Music Education Association, National Band Association and the Conductors Guild.

With performances described as “the highlight of the evening” (Kansas City Star), Jonathan Borja enjoys a varied career as a performer and educator. Dr. Borja is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse where he teaches flute and music history. As an orchestral musician, he is a member of the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, currently serving as Acting Principal Flute.

Dr. Borja holds three graduate degrees from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance (Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance, Master of Music in Flute Performance, a Master of Music in Musicology) and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Principia College. Before coming to the United States, he studied at the National Conservatory of Music in his native Mexico City. His teachers and mentors include Marie Jureit-Beamish, Mary Posses, and María Esther García. He has appeared in master classes in both the United States and Europe with some of the world’s leading flutists, including Jeanne Baxtresser, Jacob Berg, and Peter-Lukas Graf.

Dr. Borja has performed throughout the United States and Mexico and has appeared in festivals devoted to the music of J.S. Bach, George Crumb, Gustav Mahler, Olivier Messiaen, and Elliott Carter. He has performed at Steinway Hall, Helzberg Hall, Powell Symphony Hall, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the National University of Mexico, the National Conservatory in Mexico City, and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Singapore. His continued advocacy for the music of our time has led him to collaborate with some of today’s finest composers, including Chen Yi and Zhou Long, George Crumb, Libby Larsen, Yehudi Wyner, Narong Prangcharoen, and Samuel Zyman.

Dr. Borja’s research includes the music of Mexican composers Mario Lavista, José Pablo Moncayo, Silvestre Revueltas, and Samuel Zyman. He recorded the complete chamber music for flute by Samuel Zyman (Albany Records, 2020), and can be heard in Samuel Zyman: Un mexicano en Nueva York (Urtext Digital Classics, expected 2020). He also recorded the complete flute music of Icelandic composer Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson (Smekkleysa, 2015), and is featured in Narong Prangcharoen’s recording Mantras (Albany Records, 2010). He has contributed articles to The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time: A Guide to the Legends Who Rocked the World, and The Flutist Quarterly. Dr. Borja has presented his research at the National Flute Association Convention, College Music Society National Convention, the Wisconsin Flute Festival, the North Central Council of Latin Americanists, and the Midwest Association for Latin American Studies. For updates and more information, please visit www.jonborjaflute.com.

Saturday 2PM, Of Songs and the Elements

imaged6nm5.pngThe music of prize-winning composer Jerry (Chiwei) Hui (Eau Claire, WI) has been performed in the United States, Germany, France, Scotland, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. As a conductor, Dr. Hui has founded and directed various ensembles, and has performed often as a singer of early and contemporary music. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he is the Director of Choral Activities at University of Wisconsin-Stout, assistant conductor for the Madison Early Music Festival, and is directing the early music ensemble Schola Cantorum of Eau Claire. More at www.jerryhui.com.

blobid2.jpgA native of Spencer, Iowa, Aaron M. Durst has earned the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Saxophone Performance at the University of Georgia, the Master of Arts Degree in Music (Wind Conducting) at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education from the University of South Dakota. He has studied saxophone with Kenneth Fischer and Kenneth Carroll, and been a saxophonist in the United States Army, stationed with the 9th Army Band at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Durst is an experienced performer on soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass saxophones as a soloist and as a chamber musician. He is a past member of the Kenneth Fischer Saxophone Quartet and the University of Georgia Saxophone Quartet. He pursues performance opportunities throughout the Midwest and currently collaborates with percussionist David Kile to perform saxophone and percussion compositions as Duo Eigentone. The duo recorded an album in 2019. Dr. Durst is Director of Instrumental Music at the University of Wisconsin – Stout in Menomonie, WI.

image2obm.pngJohn Mayrose’s compositions have been performed throughout the world and at festivals including the CBDNA conference, SEAMUS, Toronto International Electro-acoustic Symposium, Boston Early Music Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival by, among others, Drew Whiting, Michael Mizrahi, Duo 46, Fireworks Ensemble, Pulsoptional, and several university wind and percussion ensembles. Mayrose has received prizes from the Percussive Arts Society and the ASCAP Morton Gould Award. His music is recorded on New Amsterdam, Innova, Fugu Fish, and Classic Concert labels. An active performer on guitar and electric bass, he is a founding member of Pulsoptional, a new music ensemble with recordings on Innova and Fugu Fish labels. Mayrose holds degrees from Duke University (Ph.D. Music Composition) and the University of South Carolina (B.M. Guitar Performance). John Mayrose resides in Oshkosh, WI and is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

TedKingSmith-Headshot Ted King-Smith is a composer, educator, and saxophonist based in  Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a composer he is interested in the combination of acoustic and electronic forces in music, and emphasizes virtuosity and improvisation in his works. Recent recognition for his music has come from The National Band Association, I Care if You Listen, the American Prize, and BMI. Ted’s music has been featured at numerous conferences and festivals as well as Late Night at National Sawdust, and WFMT and WKCR radio stations. He holds degrees from the Hartt School of Music, Washington State University, and the University of Missouri – Kansas City. Ted is a full-time instructor in Audio Engineering at the Milwaukee Area Technical College where he teaches courses in music technology and recording. He is also an active performer with the Mnemosyne Quartet, and founded the Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival in 2017 with the newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.

imageeexxe.pngPeter O’Gorman is a composer and a percussionist interested in creating and performing music that defies categorization. He strives to create multidimensional work that is visceral, emotive, cerebral, and kinetic. Peter’s music has been performed by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Amy Knoles of the California Ear Unit, NYC’s Ethos, and numerous other performers. Peter’s music has also been performed at: the American Dance Festival, the Harkness Dance Festival, the Havana International Theater Festival, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and many other notable events. Critics have described his work as "...wildly inventive..." and have referred to Peter as a "...sonic shape shifter…." His compositions have earned him grants, fellowships and commissions from: the American Composers Forum, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Goodale Family Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation (including two McKnight Fellowships), NewMusicUSA, and the Walker Art Center. Peter currently resides in Chisago City, MN.

Ray Songayllo, a native of Chicopee, MA, earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in piano from Northwestern University. Following service in the U.S. Army, he studied at the Aspen Music Festival and with several well-known artists, such as Alexander Uninsky and Grant Johannesen in New York and Alexander Borovsky in Boston. As a composer, Mr. Songayllo received a certificate for composition study in Fountainbleau, France, working with Nacis Bonet at the Conservatoire Americaine. He is a founding member of the Ioaw Composers Forum and was the recipient of the 1993 Pyle Commission for his Piano Quintet. In 2001 he performed his Ballade Sonata at the College Music Society International Conference at the University of Limerick in Ireland. His "Ten Short Pieces" are published by Oxford University of Press. He has received grants from both the Minnesota Composers Forum and Meet the Composer. A three-time winner of the Delius International Composition Contest, he has had works presented in various venues, college and university events, festivals, and conferences.

Jonathan Posthuma (b. 1989) is a freelance composer and musician living in Saint Paul, Minnesota. His musical style seeks to combine lyricism, evocative imagery, and intense emotional contrasts while maintaining clarity in form and function at their deepest levels. He is often inspired by natural landscapes, gardening and visual art in his compositions and his largest project is Paul Klee : Painted Songs, an ongoing collection of chamber music inspired by the paintings of Paul Klee. He received his Masters in Music Composition from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where he studied with Stephen Dembski and Laura Schwendinger and also studied composition with Luke Dahn at Dordt University. Jonathan is an active member of the Twin Cities choral community and has sung with VocalEssence Chorus, Kantorei, and impulse (MPLS) which have premiered several of his choral works have received premieres in recent seasons. He also works as the Artistic Planning Manager of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Olivia Quintanilla is a Twin Cities based cellist, composer and teacher. She takes her classical training to a modern stage with her live performances to create a unique and progressive musical style. With a hand in over a dozen musical groups - from hard rock to classical symphony - Quintanilla has quickly become synonymous with the progression of modern cello composition and performance.

Saturday @ 4:30PM, Dreams, Visions, and Realities

imagela9i.pngYiheng Yvonne Wu (b.1981 Taiwan) studied composition at the University of California, San Diego (Ph.D., M.A.) and Yale University (B.A.). She has received commissions from the La Jolla Symphony conducted by Steven Schick, Arraymusic, Palimpsest, Michael Mizrahi and the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association, Figmentum, Todd Moellenberg, Bonnie Whiting, and Jessica Aszodi, among others. Her music has been performed by MIVOS string quartet, a.pe.ri.od.ic, Figmentum, the University of Washington Percussion Ensemble, Ensemble SurPlus and featured in the Festival of New American Music, WasteLAnd concert series, the University of Tennessee Contemporary Music Festival, New Music on the Bayou, SoundSCAPE Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Schloss Solitude Summer Academy. Awards include the 2018 Judith Lang Zaimont Prize (IAWM) and the 5th Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize. She lives in Beloit, Wisconsin, where she teaches composition and music theory and directs the InterArts Ensemble at Beloit College.

A native of Japan, Satoko Hayami (she/her), DMA, is an active pianist and teaching artist, whose works explore music as an act of empowerment and empathy. Satoko regularly collaborates with diverse partners including vocalists and instrumentalists, composers, interdisciplinary artists, and community organizations. A versatile pianist, also performing on harpsichord and toy piano, Satoko has performed and taught solo and chamber music all over the world, most notably, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Canada, as well as throughout the United States. A passionate performer of new music, she co-founded Sound Out Loud Collective, a contemporary chamber ensemble, which won the first prize in Chamber Music Performance, American Prize in 2018. She serves as a Lecturer in Collaborative Piano at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Adjunct Piano Instructor at Beloit College, an interdisciplinary artist-teacher at Madison Japanese Language School, and Community Engagement Coordinator at LunART Inc. in Madison, Wisconsin.

imagedfrol.pngTIMOTHY ROY composes music steeped in imagery and allusion, which often seeks to conjure a sense of time, place, and feeling. His music has been presented at such venues and events as the National Theater of Taipei, Music Biennale Zagreb, ISCM World Music Days, Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre, Bowling Green New Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, Sweet Thunder Music Festival, International Computer Music Festival, Center of Cypriot Composers, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States National Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, and the International Electroacoustic Music Festival of Chile, “Ai-maako.” Tim was a visiting faculty member at Western Michigan University during the 2018–2019 academic year, where he taught private composition lessons, undergraduate theory, and graduate seminars in musical form and the aesthetics of electroacoustic music. He is completing a doctorate at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he served for three years as the Teaching Fellow for the Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs. Tim and his wife currently reside in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Finding joy in abstruse corners of music and art, J.J. Pearse (he/him) is a multifarious performer specializing in percussion, conducting, and voice. Previous engagements include toy piano recitals at The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures and performances with Omaha Under the Radar as King George III in Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King and conductor for Kate Soper’s Voices from the Killing Jar. J.J. is an out-and-proud member of the Mid-America Freedom Band, serves as contributor and board member with DiaKCritical, and is secretary to the Kansas City Electronic Music & Arts Alliance.

Olivia Kieffer is a composer, percussionist, educator, and writer from the great state of Wisconsin. She currently resides in Miami Florida, where she is pursuing a DMA in music composition at University of Miami. Her music has been described as "immediately attractive", "like a knife of light," and "honest, to the point, and joyful!".

image3f64s.pngKris Peysen is a composer currently in the process of completing his Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of Iowa (Iowa City). He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Texas and a Master of Music degree from the University of Louisville, both specializing in composition. His works have been commissioned and performed by the Iowa City New Horizons Band, Hypercube, and the Unheard-of Ensemble, with further performances by Voices of Change, Invoke, the Out of Bounds Ensemble, Dal Niente, saxophonist Erin Rogers, and members of the Beo String Quartet. His music is typically rhythmically active, formally inventive, orchestrationally vivid, and harmonically a mix of tonal and non-tonal elements. Influences range from classical composers such as Stravinsky, Beethoven, Shostakovich, and numerous others to progressive rock bands such as Tool, Anglagard, and The Mars Volta. His music often strives for a synthesis of these disparate elements, combining the immediacy of rock music with the detail and nuance of the contemporary classical practice. For more information, visit his website at www.krispeysen.com.

imagev43ua.pngRamin Roshandel’s compositional work is based around incorporating ‘experience’ as a fundamental concept through a non-experimental approach in performance. Considering phenomena such as instability, cultural identity, and communicational language on one hand, and being inspired by Persian music microtones as a setār (an Iranian instrument) player on the other, has led him to consider indeterminate, improvisatory, and abstract structures in his music to contrast or converge with post- or non-tonal forms.

MARY ELLEN HAUPERT (b. 1960) spreads her musical abilities between her roles as Music Director for Roncalli Newman Parish and as a tenured Associate Professor of Music at Viterbo University, both in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Her performing interests are almost exclusively in the realm of chamber music. In the four-hand world, her collaborations with Timothy Schorr have included appearances in St. Louis, Missouri; Joliet, Illinois; Winona, Minnesota, at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians, and on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Live from the Chazen. She enjoys an ongoing relationship with violinist Nancy Oliveros and the ARTARIA STRING QUARTET in Viterbo University’s ONE-of-a KIND CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES (for which Haupert is both founder and artistic director). Haupert has received both of Viterbo University’s most prestigious teaching awards--the Alec Chui Memorial Award (2012) and Teacher of the Year (2014)--recognizing her dedication to excellence in student research and music composition. She happily shares a home in La Crosse with her husband, Mike, and their four one-of-a-kind children.

Sonja Larson studied vocal performance at Viterbo University, where her international research on Music in the Holocaust developed into a Fulbright Musicology Research Grant to Poland facilitating multicultural music projects. She also holds a Master of Arts in Theology from the Augustine Institute and has worked extensively with Gregorian chant and liturgical music. She now serves as Director of Faith Formation in several Catholic parishes of rural Minnesota.

Jean Saladino is Professor Emeritus of Viterbo University where she taught voice and choral ensembles. She came to Viterbo from Walnut Hill School in Natick, MA.

Brooke Joyce’s music has been described as “vividly pictorial” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “exceptionally gripping” (Los Angeles Times) and has been performed by soloists and ensembles around the world, including the Cincinnati Symphony, the Brentano Quartet, and the Nash Ensemble. In addition to his concert music, Brooke collaborated on several musical theater works with playwright Frederick Gaines, including An Imaginary Line, based on the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. His dance-opera based on the writings of Julian of Norwich, “The Showing of Love,” was recorded last spring and is available to stream online. Brooke serves as composer-in-residence at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, is a Teaching Artist with the non-profit organization Avivo, is a founding faculty member of the International Music Festival of the Adriatic, and is the past chairperson of the Iowa Composers Forum.

image2h518.pngLuther College piano faculty members Xiao Hu and Du Huang perform widely as the Unison Piano Duo. The duo has performed in concert halls in Europe, Asia, and America, including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City and Orchestra Hall in Chicago. They have performed numerous concerts in the Czech Republic as part of the Vysočina Music Festival and the South Bohemia Music Festival. Xiao Hu and Du Huang toured Brazil, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and many cities in China. Committed to be engaged in music of our times, the duo premiered, commissioned, and recorded many new works for the piano duo medium. Unison Piano Duo has issued recordings on Innova and MSR Classics labels in the United States, and on Yangtze River label in China. Their performances have been broadcast by National Public Radio’s Performance Today, Minnesota Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio, and Iowa Public Television. They currently reside in Decorah, Iowa with their two sons.

Navigating A 21st Century Music Career

What advice do our headliners give on launching a professional career in music today?

Members from vocal ensemble Quince, composer Steve Danyew, and jazz bandleader Andrey Gonçalves discuss and answer questions about contemporary music scene, their professional lives, and general musicianship highlighting lessons learned from their diverse experience and backgrounds.

Quince Ensemble, Andrey Gonçalves, and Steve Danyew will also participate in workshops and lecture for UWL students during their classes.