Cortona Contemporary Music Festival

Piano
Thomas Rosenkranz, chair
Nathanael May, festival director

Thomas Rosenkranz is a pianist possessing extreme versatility ranging from classical music to experimental improvisation. In 2003 He was awarded the prestigious "Classical Fellowship Award" from the American Pianists Association and since then has performed throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa including performances at Lincoln Center (New York), the Kennedy Center (D.C.), Hilbert Circle Theatre (Indianapolis), Poly Theatre (Beijing), National Concert Hall (Shanghai), L'Acropolium (Carthage), and Theatre de la Ville (Tunis). He has twice been was named an Artist Ambassador sponsored by the State Department of the United States and has toured North Africa and the Middle East promoting American Music.

He has performed as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, National Orchestra of Beirut, the Oberlin Orchestra, and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated with the Pacifica Quartet and recorded the music of Steve Reich with the ensemble, Alarm Will Sound for Nonesuch Records. He is a strong advocate for contemporary music and was worked with such notable composers as John Adams, George Crumb, and Frederic Rzewski. Emerging composers such as Beata Moon, Hyekyung Lee, Marcela Pavia and Donald Reid Womack have all dedicated pieces to him. Recent highlights includes performances of The People United Will Never Be Defeated! and De Profundis by Rzewski as well as the Concord Sonata by Ives throughout the United States and Italy. In celebration of the centenary of the birth of Olivier Messiaen, he will tour the complete cycle of Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus in 2008.

In addition to his work in classical music, Mr. Rosenkranz is also involved in various cross-cultural projects. He currently serves as Artistic Advisor and ensemble member of the Tunis-based ensemble, Le Minaret et la Tour which consists of Western and Arabic musicians. This ensemble has been presented in numerous festivals in Tunisia including the Tabarka Jazz Festival, Festival of the Medina, and the International Festival of Carthage where they performed with the Vienna Opera Orchestra under the baton of Uwe Theimer. He also collaborates frequently with the improvisational ensemble, Inward Becomes an Anthem.

He is currently Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and has served as Affliate Artist at Syracuse University. He is a jury member for the 2007 Oberlin International Piano Festival and Competition.

Mr. Rosenkranz completed his bachelor's degree at the Oberlin Conservatory where he studied with Robert Shannon and earned his master's and doctorate degrees from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with and was teaching assistant to Nelita True. He pursued further studies in Paris where he studied with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. He is the current President of the Honolulu Piano Teachers Association. www.thomasrosenkranz.com

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Nathanael May is a pianist with a penchant for contemporary music, whose performances composers have heralded as “first-rate, dynamic, and refreshing.” Recent collaborations have featured the world premieres of music by Karl Korte (Gold Medal; Queen Elisabeth Competition), and Pulitzer Prize nominated composer David Rakowski. He was also invited as a guest performer for the University of Nebraska's 2007 New Music Festival in Kearney. A forthcoming CD will feature Nathanael performing chamber music written for the unique trio instrumentation of piano, violin, and guitar. Since this trio’s inception in 2002, dedicated works for the ensemble have more than doubled the extant repertoire.

Nathanael maintains an active profile, with seasonal engagements on both sides of the Atlantic. He has presented a series of recitals featuring music of the 20th century in Italy, Turkey, and Cyprus. In the United States, he has performed solo and chamber recitals at many institutions of higher learning, including Harvard, the University of Florida, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Washington University in St. Louis. His performances have also been broadcast on National Public Radio affiliates around the USA, from Buffalo to Hawaii. He is a staunch advocate for developing an appreciation of modern classical music in the young, presenting lecture recitals at elementary and secondary schools throughout the mid-western United States.

In a habit of speaking from stage almost as much as he plays, Nathanael derives true joy from the educational act of performing. From 2001 to 2005, he taught applied piano, literature, and pedagogy as a faculty member of the music department at Eastern Mediterranean University on the island of Cyprus. In June of 2004, EMU hosted the 1st Beshparmak International Piano Festival and Competition, of which he was a founding member. The festival seeks to engender a musical dialogue between the war-torn communities of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and with the international community at large. Additional pedagogical activities encompass the adjudication of local and state competitions, including Missouri Music Teacher's Association district auditions in 2005, guest artist and featured clinician for the 2006 Gladys Frisch Harris Piano Festival at Hastings College in Nebraska, and additional master classes conducted at Uludag University State Conservatory in Bursa, Turkey; Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Michigan; and the Summer Piano Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, among others.

Nathanael is currently completing a DMA in piano performance at the University of Kansas. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Hochstein School of Music & Dance, and Lake Country Conservatory. Nathanael holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. www.nathanaelmay.com

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Violin & Guitar
Duo46, ensemble in residence
Beth Schneider, violin
Matt Gould, guitar

Duo46, violin & guitar

"Duo46 is all about breaking boundaries-emotional, harmonic, rhythmic, and textural. Guitarist Matt Gould and violinist Beth Ilana Schneider are musicians of rare sensitivity, unforced reflexivity and effortless virtuosity." The American guitar and violin ensemble has been committed to presenting music by living composers in audience-friendly, thematic programs since 1994. Duo46 promotes collaborative projects with composers around the globe by premiering and recording commissioned and dedicated works. Since the release of the group's self-produced debut recording in 1998, FMI: Homage to the 50's, their performance of new music has motivated composers, including rock composers, to create more than 70 new works for guitar and violin duo, and trios with digital sound, cello, viola, flute and piano. They have been heard around the world--live, radio, television, and webcasts-- and their intriguing mix of music has taken Matt and Beth to Austria, Cyprus, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey and the United States, appearing at venues of international importance such as the Guitar Foundation of America Festival and Kennedy Center.

Their commissioning project with American composers inspired their second recording, Untaming the Fury. This disc, in commemoration of 9/11, features American commissions by composers that are contributing to America's national heritage. This recording has garnered positive reviews by Gramophone, Strad and America Record Guide. Strad Magazine noted: "The pair flaunt their gift for the most spontaneous and fresh delivery from the outset...the works commissioned for the disc are so varied, inventive and enjoyable, and they are performed with such commitment and flair. A track from this CD was recently included on a compilation recording "Communing with Music: Practicing the Art of Conscious Listening, " which teaches the listener how to experience music with a new focus and intensity that will benefit the body, mind, heart and spirit. Their latest recording, "Aires de Sefarad", described as "one of the most gorgeous releases of the year", features 46 Spanish Songs for Violin and Guitar by Jorge Liderman (a commission funded in part by the Guggenheim Foundation) and has recently made the 2007 GRAMMY entry list for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The music was inspired by Liderman's visit to the Alahambra in Granada, Spain and the vibrant flamenco dancing and music of Seville, and reflects his impressions of past and present Spain in its vast and varied culture.

In addition to performing and recording, Duo46 has a keen interest in education and research. Performances and residencies at universities such as Harvard, Wellesley College, University of Florida and University of Arizona include master-classes and workshops on a wide variety of topics: composing for the guitar, music business, and working and living overseas; and concert performances regularly include an outreach component at primary and secondary schools with the program "Around the World in 46 Minutes," which explores folk music of many cultures. On faculty at Eastern Mediterranean University on the island of Cyprus from 2000-2005, Duo46 organized a bi-annual Visiting Composer Series that promoted global understanding, peace and cultural diversity through music. Composers and performers from around the world participated in composition workshops and interactive open-rehearsals culminating in a full concert of their works and the creation of new chamber works with guitar. Also, in the interest of expanding violin and guitar literature, Duo46 has discovered and accumulated a repertoire of more than 450 original works from the twentieth century, and an annotated bibliography is currently being prepared for publication so that other musicians can benefit and enjoy these unknown works.

2007 season highlights include a performance at CSU Fresno Inaugural New Music Festival, a record release concert at University of Florida, Gainesville featuring "Falling on Lobsters in the Dark", and "Cypriot Structures", two commissioned piano trios by Paul Richards and performances and reading/recording sessions in collaboration with the Birmingham Arts Music Alliance. www.duo46.com

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Flute
Lisa Cella, chair

Lisa Cella, flute

Lisa Cella has championed contemporary music in performances throughout the United States and abroad. She is Artistic Director of San Diego New Music and a founding member of its resident ensemble NOISE. With NOISE she has performed across the country premiering works of young composers. NOISE was also a featured ensemble at the Acousmania Festival in Bucharest, Romania in May of 2004 and an invited ensemble for the Pacific Rim Festival at the University of California, Santa Cruz in May of 2005. Dr. Cella is also a founding member of the flute duo inHale, a group dedicated to developing challenging and experimental repertoire for the flute duo. inHale was an invited ensemble at the National Flute Association Convention in San Diego in August of 2005. She is also a member of C2 , a flute and cello duo that will be touring through the 2006 season.

Dr. Cella is an assistant professor of music at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a founding member of its faculty contemporary music ensemble, Ruckus. She received her Applied Bachelors in Music with a dual concentration in Psychology from Syracuse University under the tutelage of John Oberbrunner. She then received a Master of Music degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where she studied with Robert Willoughby. Ms. Cella received a DMA in contemporary flute performance at the University of California, San Diego while studying with John Fonville. While in Baltimore, she was the winner of the 1992 Washington Flute Fair Young Artist Competition and founded the flute and guitar duo, Adesso!, which was a finalist in the Baltimore Chamber Competition. A dedicated performer of contemporary music, she was a member of the Baltimore based contemporary ensemble Polaris in 1993. She attended the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 1993 and was a fellowship member of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival for two summers. She was the founding member of the ensemble Sounding, a contemporary quartet (flute, clarinet, piano, percussion) that had its origins in the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. She has performed many solo recitals with the most recent being Stanford University and the University of Hong Kong. She has premiered many works and performed at festivals and conventions around the country. She has performed with SONOR, the faculty ensemble of UCSD, the ensemble SIRIUS, and in various concert series and festivals in the San Diego area.

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Composition
Brian Hulse, chair

Brian Hulse, composition

Brian Hulse is Assistant Professor of Music at the College of William & Mary. He is an active theorist and a composer of chamber music and opera. His scholarly interests involve intersections between post-structural, analytic, and Eastern philosophy as they relate to issues of analysis, musicality, and intuition. His article "Of Art and Artifice: Style and Technique in the Music of Morris Rosenzweig" was published by Perspectives of New Music (vol. 43 no. 1, Winter 2005). A paper "Repetition Theory," was recently presented at the Indiana University Forum on Research in Music Theory and at the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Society for Music Theory. Under review are articles on deconstruction and music, Kierkegaardian repetition, and on virtuosity in the music of Ice Cube. During the summer, Hulse directs the composition program at the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival in Cortona, Italy.

Hulse holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Utah, a Master's in Choral Conducting from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in Composition from Harvard. His principal teachers have been Morris Rosenzweig, Sal Martirano, and Mario Davidovsky.Throughout his studies, he conducted numerous professional and student groups, both choral and instrumental. He has taught courses in music theory at Harvard and Northeastern, and was Visiting Assistant Professor for three years at Wellesley College.

Ensembles that have performed Hulse's music include Speculum Musicae, Empyrean Ensemble, Duo 46, Strung Out Trio, 20th Century Unlimited, Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera Series, Wellesley Composers Conference, Harvard Group for New Music, Fromm Players, Canyonlands Ensemble, the Harvard Glee Club, and the Wellesley College Choir, among many others. He has been commissioned by the Empyrean Ensemble, Intermezzo, 20th Century Unlimited, University of Utah Classical Greek Theater, and Rire-Woodbury Dance Company. Hulse wrote music for the film "Couch Encounter," which appeared at several film festivals around the country. He also composed for the HBO series "The Sopranos." Among his awards and honors are the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, BMI Student Composer Award, Meet the Composer Grant, and various awards from Harvard.

Recently, Hulse was Visiting Composer at Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus, a residency that included lectures and a concert of his music. Duo 46 performed his work "Seastone" for violin and guitar at Harvard, Wellesley, University of Florida, University of Minnesota, the Styria Chamber Music Festival in Austria, and at the Kennedy Center. A new piano work, In a Pinch, was performed at venues in the U.S. and abroad by Nathanael May and Jefferey Brown. Hulse's most recent composition was Concerto for Piano and Symphonic Winds, performed by Jefferey Brown and the CNU Wind Ensemble under the direction of Mark Reimer. He is currently working on a full-scale opera based on Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. www.operascore.com

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