Artists

A trombonist and prolific, highly diverse composer who recently retired from The University of Utah's School of Music after nearly 40 years as Director Of Jazz Studies, Henry Wolking has found creative inspiration in writing for almost every imaginable type of large and small ensemble in classical and jazz music. His prodigious orchestral output includes symphonies, fantasies, and an overture as well as eight concertos featuring various soloists such as jazz quartet, trombone, flute, heckelphone, bassoon, contrabassoon, two pianos and horn.

Anne Vanschothorst (The Netherlands) is a landscape music composer, minimal harp pioneer, and multimedia artist exploring creativity in applied music, film, and spoken word — using overdub and making sound sculptures with 47 strings. She received international critical acclaim as an indie composer and producer who records sound on sound stilled mystical landscape music for in-a-room, film, multimedia, and spoken word. This new poetic and inventive, edgy sonic universe next to the existing harp planet and music world, indicates that Vanschothorst walks off the beaten track. The written note-scores are frequently performed by international musicians and added to their repertoire. The “You Play I listen!” platform is an ongoing creativity project that was initiated to share Harp and Soul Music performed by others via videos and sound-clouds.

Dr. Jordan VanHemert is a Michigan-based saxophonist and composer lauded for his skill as a modern jazz improviser. VanHemert’s music—including his new album I AM NOT A VIRUS—is deeply informed by his political consciousness, employing his distinctive compositional voice to address issues of race and social justice.

The musicians of THE LARKSONG TRIO, Peggo Horstmann Hodes, soprano, Jennifer Yeaton-Parris, flute, and Calvin Herst, piano, began playing together more than a decade ago on a lark. From that happy accident, they discovered their signature sound - elegant, playful and stunningly beautiful. From Celtic to Copland, from Beatles to brand new, the Larksong Trio dazzles with surprising arrangements and breath-taking musicianship. Each member of the trio is a classically trained, expressive, world-class musician. Together, they enjoy an engaging irreverence and spiritual connection that tugs at your heart and brings you home.

Mika has toured to 19 countries and 65 cities around the world. She has performed 10 times at Carnegie Hall (Zankel and Weill Hall), as well as at PASIC 2005 and 2007, the Blue Note in New York, the Tokyo and Cairo Jazz Festivals, and the Rockport Jazz Festival. She regularly performs around the world in a duo with her husband, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, at major venues in New York, Boston, Austin, Buenos Aires, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, and many more.

Richard Stoltzman's virtuosity' technique' imagination' and communicative power have revolutionized the world of clarinet playing' opening up possibilities for the instrument that no one could have predicted. He was responsible for bringing the clarinet to the forefront as a solo instrument' and is still the world's foremost clarinetist. Stoltzman gave the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall' and' in 1986' became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize.

Joseph T. Spaniola is a composer on a passionate quest to engage the hearts and minds of audiences and performers through the communicative powers of music.

Connecticut-based Kim Scharnberg has evolved from a young music student growing up in Cedar Rapids' Iowa' to an acclaimed producer' arranger' composer and conductor. His vast experience ranges from conducting major international orchestras to producing highly-commercial recording artists. To say that Scharnberg grew up in a diverse musical environment would be an understatement.

Phil Scarff has pioneered the performance of North Indian classical (Hindustani) music on soprano saxophone, capturing the music's subtlety and depth. His performance at the famed Tansen Samaroh, Gwalior, India with Saskia Rao de Haas was "the highlight of the festival" (Dainik Bhaskar). He has made Indian classical appearances at India's Nehru Center, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and Dadar-Matunga Cultural Centre (Mumbai); Saptak School of Music (Ahmedabad); Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture (Kolkata); ICCR Theater and India Habitat Centre (Delhi); JKK (Jaipur); and Pt Chatur Lal Festival (virtual).

Allen Savedoff' a member of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Pacific Symphony' is a busy freelance musician based in Los Angeles' CA. On this' his third solo album' he is featured on bassoon and contrabassoon and is heard playing many other woodwinds.

Christina Rusnak (b. 1959) is a multifaceted composer whose work reflects a diversity of styles. Actively seeking to integrate artistic and geographic elements into her work, her goal is to compose music that engages the performers as well as the audience.

Bassist Mike Rivard defies easy categorization and finds himself at home in a bewildering array of settings, from the low-rock of Mark Sandman and Morphine, to the mountains of Morocco with local Berber musicians, with side trips into the Broadway pits of The Lion King and Wicked, and sessions with Medeski, Martin & Wood. Growing up in the wide expanses of Minnesota, he took in the local sounds of Prince, Husker Du, and the free-jazz coming out of the Dinkytown/University of Minnesota milieu, before heading to Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 1981.

Jayshree Bala Rajamani is one of the leading practitioners and teachers of the ancient Indian dance form of Bharathanatyam in Massachusetts. She was initiated into this art by her mother and then came under the tutelage of eminent Guru K.J. Govindarajan. She specialized in Abhinaya with Guru Jamuna Krishnan.

The Oscuro Quintet is an international group of 5 accomplished musicians of diverse disciplines pursuing their collective passion for tango and contemporary music.

The Muir String Quartet has long been acknowledged as one of the world’s most powerful and insightful ensembles, distinguishing itself among audiences and critics with its “exhilarating involvement” (Boston Globe), “impeccable voicing and intonation” (San Francisco Examiner) and “unbridled musicality” (American Record Guide).

​​Winner of the 1981 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and 1980 Evian International String Quartet Competition, the Muir String Quartet first appeared on the scene in 1980, and was greeted with rave reviews and an extensive feature in The New Yorker. The quartet was also featured on the internationally acclaimed PBS broadcast, In Performance at the White House for President and Mrs. Reagan. Formed in 1979 following graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music, the Muir String Quartet’s principal chamber music teachers were Felix Galimir and members of the Guarneri and Budapest Quartets.

Joe Porter is a Canadian percussionist, teacher, and composer. He is the recipient of the Global Music Awards, Gold Medal Prize for Creativity and Originality, and has been a winner in multiple performance, composition and recording contests. Joe has performed in Brazil, Britain, Holland, Japan, China, Trinidad and Tobago, Hawaii, Florida, Indiana, Idaho, and throughout Canada.

Gay Pearson received a B.M. in applied piano from Lawrence University in '65 and a B.S. in Meteorology from Purdue University in '83. During her twelve years of employment in air quality evaluation with New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection in Trenton, she also studied jazz harmony, theory and improvisation. Since relocating to Maine, she is finishing her eighth year of studying advanced improvisation and composition with Vardan Ovsepian, first in her home town of Newburyport MA, then via skype.

Pianist, electric bassist, composer, and arranger, Ron Paley has composed works for solo piano, big band, and symphony orchestra. He formed the Ron Paley Big Band in 1976 after playing electric bass with the big bands of Buddy Rich, and Woody Herman, with whom he recorded two album’s.

Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. Oxley, a self-taught pianist by the age of eight, first began playing the drums at age seventeen. While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960 he studied music theory and improved upon his drumming technique.

Electronisist Josh Oxford, born in 1985,  is a composer, arranger, and performer of myriad styles of music. He has performed throughout the world, especially in his native central New York, on piano, percussion, and Moog synthesizer.  After suffering a debilitating car crash in 2010, Josh has devoted his energy to composing.  His music can be heard on releases from Aaron Tindall, Frank Gabriel Campos, Tim Winfield, Lindsey Goodman, Yung-Ju Pan and on the debut CD of his band The OXtet. He holds two degrees from Ithaca College and a masters from Queens College, where he was awarded The ASCAP Foundation Louis Armstrong Scholarship. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at Arizona State University.