MACCM Projects & New Music Events

Ongoing Projects Across the College of Musical Arts

The annual Bowling Green New Music Festival

RESONATE - a multi-year collaboration that will explore the African Diaspora through the lens of contemporary American chamber music in partnership with Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, the Carr Center, Oberlin College-Conservatory, the University of Michigan, Michigan State, and Western Michigan.

Additional seasons of Living American Composers: New Music from Bowling Green, produced in partnership with WGTE Public Media

EAR|EYE: Listening and Looking, a collaborative project featuring BGSU DMA students performing at the Toledo Museum of Art

New Music from Bowling Green, a multi-year recording project featuring the Bowling Green Philharmonia

Ongoing partnerships in collaboration with the Klingler Electro-Acoustic Residency (KEAR)

The annual Toledo Symphony Orchestra Composer Readings

Student composer performances, residencies, and special events through the Composition Department

Music at the Forefront 26-27

A showcase for exceptional performers of contemporary music

Duo Tesserae at Bryan Recital Hall on Monday, October 24, 8 p.m.

Formed in 2025, Duo Tesserae brings together violinist Alwyn Tomas Westbrooke and pianist Michiko Saiki, two specialists in contemporary music whose collaboration began in 2018. Since then, they have worked together continuously in a variety of chamber ensembles before founding this duo.

Praised for their precision, clarity, and color, Westbrooke and Saiki are dedicated to exploring sonic language of music today. They work closely with both emerging and established composers, often highlighting hitherto undiscovered voices, and creating performances that illuminate new perspectives in sound.

Departure Duo at Bryan Recital Hall on Tuesday, March 23, 8 p.m.

Known for their “inestimable chemistry” with “both intimacy and power” (Take Effect), Departure Duo creates “performances [that] are so secure, so colorful, so full of personality” that “the results are magical” (The Arts Fuse). As “virtuosic performers of undeniable gifts” (Fanfare), soprano Nina Guo and double bassist Edward Kass “simply draw the listener in” (The Arts Fuse) with their “phenomenal musicianship [and] humor” (Which Sinfonia).

Committed to performing and commissioning repertoire for their high+low combination, Departure Duo has premiered dozens of new works resulting from in-depth collaborations, including commissions from Katherine Balch, Sarah Gibson, and Mikhail Johnson. In demand internationally, Departure Duo has sold out performances at Spoleto Festival USA, with recent highlights including Constellation’s Frequency Series (Chicago), Sequence at km28 (Berlin), and Yellow Barn, and more.

Departure Duo has been in residence at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Brandeis University, UC Santa Barbara, and more, with upcoming residencies at Stanford University and Northwestern University.

In addition to performing, Departure Duo has cataloged over 170 pieces as part of their “30x’30” project with the goal of finding 30 hours of soprano and double bass repertoire by 2030. 

Zodiac Ensemble at Bryan Recital Hall on Tuesday, April 6, 8 p.m.

Aaron currently resides in Astoria, NY. He is active as a musician and producer in the performing and recording arts. Aaron is a member of Andy Milne’s “Dapp Theory”, which he plays clarinets, saxophones, and duduk. He collaborates with hometown brethren in indi-jazz band, “Zodiac Ensemble”, where Aaron sings and plays woodwinds. Aaron also leads his own band, “Education Reform”, in which he sings, plays keyboards and woodwinds. Education Reform is performing at the Chelsea Music Festival in Summer ’12, and is recording there first EP: a space opera. Aaron has played major jazz festivals in Toronto, Vancouver, Oslo, Tunis, Luxembourg, Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Denver, and Halifax, and has toured extensively throughout Canada and America. In his spare time, Aaron likes to garden and practice yoga.

Mike Bjella is a composer, performer, teacher currently residing in Montreal Canada. Performing on multiple woodwinds Mike has played at venues all across North and South America and Europe.

Peter Schlamb is a vibraphonist currently living in Kansas City. In the fall of 2006, Peter moved to New York City and began attending New School University. There, he studied privately with several frontrunners of today’s jazz scene, including Stefon Harris, Aaron Parks, Nasheet Waits, Ben Street, and Aaron Goldberg. While attending school, Peter met several talented young musicians with whom he began collaborating and performing, including Ben van Gelder, Kyle Wilson, and Rick Rosato. Peter graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Jazz Performance in May 2010. Currently, Peter remains an active member of the New York City jazz scene, performing as a sideman with artists such as Mike Moreno, David Binney, and Logan Richardson in venues including the Jazz Gallery, 55 Bar, and Fat Cat. Peter also leads several projects under his own name, and he is in the process of booking shows throughout the Midwest as well as in New York.

Originally from Boylston, MA, Glenn Zaleski is a jazz pianist/composer currently living in Brooklyn, NY. He attended the Brubeck Institute Fellowship program in Stockton, CA from 2005-2007, then finished his undergraduate studies at The New School in 2009. From 2009-2011, while working towards his graduate degree at NYU, Glenn was also on NYU faculty, teaching a variety of classes and private students. Meanwhile, he was also a finalist for the 2011 APA Cole Porter Fellowship in Jazz, and a semi-finalist in the 2011 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. After completing his graduate studies in 2011, Glenn has been maintaining an active performance and teaching schedule nationally and abroad, working with such artists as Ravi Coltrane, Ari Hoenig, Lage Lund, Ben Van Gelder and Maria Neckam.

Karl is a double bassist, cellist, writer, painter and composer living in Kansas City. Improvisation, development, and art that reframes your worldview are things that inspire him. Be like water.
In 2009 Karl graduated with a BFA from the New School in New York, NY where he studied with Dennis Irwin and Ben Street. Subsequently he formed the Zodiac Ensemble, an original quintet including Aaron Kruziki, Mike Bjella, Colin Stranahan and Glenn Zaleski, and ARK, a new music trio with pianist Carlos Homs and Colin Stranahan. He has also made a nasty habit of performing with Ben van Gelder, Peter Schlamb, Jonathan Kreisberg, Peter Evans, Tommy Crane, Devin Drobka, and many other eccentric folks.