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Terry Riley
 Composer Terry
Riley launched the minimalist movement with his revolutionary
classic In C in 1964. Its influence has been heard in the works
of prominent composers such as Steve Reich, Philip Glass and John Adams,
and in the music of rock groups such as The Who, The Soft Machine, Tangerine
Dream, Curved Air and many others. Riley's hypnotic, multi-layered, polymetric,
brightly orchestrated eastern-flavored improvisations and compositions
set the stage for the New Age movement that was to appear a decade later.
In 1970, Riley became a disciple of the revered North Indian raga vocalist
Pandit Pran Nath. He appeared frequently in concert with the legendary
singer as tampura, tabla and vocal accompanist until Pran Nath's passing in
1996. In addition to his solo piano concerts of his works from the past 30
years, Riley appears in duo concerts with Indian Sitarist Krishna Bhatt,
saxophonist George Brooks and Italian bassist Stefano Scodanibbio. He also
performs raga as a vocalist during his teaching seminars. From 1989 to 1993,
Riley formed and lead the ensemble Khayal.
Riley has collaborated with or composed works for numerous other
notable performers, including the Kronos Quartet, the Rova Saxophone
Quartet, Array Music, Zeitgeist, the Steven Scott Bowed Piano Ensemble, the
California E.A.R. unit, guitarists David Tanenbaum and the Assad brothers,
the Abel Steinberg-Winant Trio, pianist Werner Bartschi and the Amati
Quartet. He has also received commissions from the Salzburg Festival,
Carnegie Hall and the Koussevitsky Foundation, among others. His epic
five-quartet cycle written for the
Kronos Quartet, Salome Dances for Peace, selected as the best
classical album of the year by USA Today, was nominated for a Grammy.
Riley has been hailed by the London Sunday Times as "one of the 1,000
makers of the 20th Century."
Carl Stone
Carl Stone
was hailed by The Village Voice as "one of the best composers working
in the country today." He studied composition at the California Institute
of the Arts with Morton Subotnick and James Tenney, and now lives in San
Francisco. Stone, who has composed electro-acoustic and computer music
exclusively since 1972, has performed in the United States, Canada, Europe,
Asia, Australia, South America and the Near East.
He has received numerous awards and grants, including the Freeman Award
and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Commissions include
works for the Olympic Arts Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los
Angeles, ZDF Television in West Germany, Tokyo-FM, Michiko Akao, Sumire
Yoshihara, Sony PCL and the Paul Dresher Ensemble.
Recordings of his music can be found on New Albion, CBS Sony, Toshiba-EMI,
EAM Discs, Trigram, New Tone, World Windows and other labels. His music has
been used by numerous choreographers including Bill T. Jones, Ping Chong,
Blondell Cummings, Hae Kyung Lee, Kuniko Kisanuki and Katsuko Orita. Musical
collaborations include those with Yuji Takahashi, Setsuko Yamada, Kazue
Sawai, Aki Takahashi, Michiko Akao, Yoshihide Otomo, Rudy Perez, Stelarc,
Z'ev, Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, Tosha Meisho, Ned Rothenberg, Yumiko Tanaka
and Mineko Grimmer.
Ingrid Gordon
 Ingrid
Gordon made her debut as a marimba soloist with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra at age 18. In 1989 she made her first appearance as a percussion
solo recitalist in the Young Steinway Concert Series. Gordon has appeared
in numerous recitals and concert series since then, and has been an enthusiastic
advocate and performer of new music and chamber music, both as a percussionist
and marimbist. Also a frequent orchestral percussionist, she has appeared
with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, the Oregon
Ballet Theatre Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Sinfonia
Da Camera, among others. Gordon has also participated in the Spoleto USA
Festival, the Peninsula Music Festival and the Cascade Festival of Music.
She was a co-founder of the Kesatuan flute and marimba duo with flutist
Karen DeWig, with which she performed from 1995-2000. During its existence,
the duo commissioned and premiered numerous original works for flute and
marimba. Gordon's debut CD, Figures in a Landscape, is the culmination
of that collaboration.
In addition to her many accomplishments as a classical musician, Gordon has
also learned a number of world music traditions. She studied the Shona mbira
and kalimba of Zimbabwe with Paul Berliner and Patricia Sandler. Gordon has
also studied North Indian tabla with Shardda Sahai and Bob Becker, Javanese
gamelan with Sumaryono and Irish bodhran with Kevin Rice. In the fall of
1997 she traveled to Ghana to study Akan royal drumming with master drummer
Kwame Obeng.
Gordon earned her doctorate in percussion from the University of Illinois.
She holds a bachelor's degree and performer's certificate from Eastman,
and a master's degree from Northwestern University. Gordon's principal teachers
have been Patricia Dash, John Beck and Tom Siwe.
Alexa Still
Alexa Still
was appointed associate professor of flute at the University of Colorado
at Boulder in August 1998. A native New Zealander, she and studied at
the State University of New York at Stony Brook with the late Samuel Baron
and with the late Thomas Nyfenger. Still won the East & West Artists Competition
for a New York debut, the New York Flute Club competition and numerous
others, and has also been the recipient of a Fulbright Cultural Grant.
She held the position of principal flute with the New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra from 1987 to 1998, but frequently returned to the United States
for concert appearances. Still has also performed and presented master
classes in England, Slovenia, Canada, Mexico and Australia. She is known
internationally for her many recordings on the Koch International Classics
label, specializing in early 20th-century repertoire.
Freda Herseth
 Freda Herseth has sung critically acclaimed leading roles
in opera throughout Germany. She has performed with orchestras and chamber
ensembles throughout Europe, Russia and Israel, including the La Scala
Opera Orchestra in the world premiere of Richard Wernick's ...and a
time for peace, the Israel Sinfonietta, the Stuttgart State Theater
Orchestra in the world premiere of William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence
and Experience, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, New York New Music
Ensemble, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, and The Folger Consort of Washington,
D.C. Well known for her work in contemporary music, Herseth has premiered
many works written especially for her. She has performed at the Vienna
Festival, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Festival d'Automne at the Bastille Opera
in Paris, Steirischer Herbst in Graz, and with the American Music Theater
Festival of Philadelphia. Herseth has been the recipient of numerous awards,
including a stipend from the Richard Wagner Society in Bayreuth. She graduated
cum laude from the University of Puget Sound and received a master's degree
and performer's certificate from the Eastman School of Music, where she
studied with Jan DeGaetani. Herseth has recorded for CRI, Gasparo, South
German Radio and Television, Hessen Radio (Frankfurt), Bavarian Radio
(Munich), ORF Austrian Radio and Television, RAI Italian Radio, and Northeastern
Records. In summers she teaches at the Brevard Music Center. Herseth was
recently honored at the Voice Foundation Annual International Symposium
in Philadelphia with the award of the Van Lawrence Fellowship for research
in the field of vocal pedagogy.
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