Joanna Mattrey

Joanna Mattrey

Joanna Mattrey is a violist working in free improvisation, new music, and classical music. She uses extended techniques, modern compositional approaches, and electronic alterations to challenge the conventions of the viola. Drawing on her certifications in Alexander Technique, Yoga, and Martial Arts, Joanna creates an embodied performance practice centered on ceremony and ritual. Recent solo works include, ‘Dirge’ (Dear Life Recs 2021), 'Veiled’ (Relative Pitch Records, 2020),, and collaborative albums: ‘Death in the Gilded Age,' (Tripticks Tapes 2021), and 'i used to sing so lyrical' (Astral Spirits, 2019). As part of her solo commissioning project, Mattrey has premiered compositions by leading improvisors Nick Dunston, Lucie Vitkova, Weasel Walter, Leila Bordreuil, and Mattrey's own piece for performer and sculpture installation 'Weaver'. Mattrey is a current ISSUE Project Room 20/21 artist-in-residence. www.joannamattrey.com

Gleb Kanasevich

Gleb Kanasevich

Gleb Kanasevich is a clarinetist, composer, and noise/drone musician. He works in a variety of formats as a soloist and collaborates with many artists, from composers, to improvisers, to noise musicians, to death metal bands. Since 2013, he has been a core member of Ensemble Cantata Profana – a group based in New York City and in August 2018, he has taken on the duties of the ensemble's Associate Artistic Director after moving to New York City. He also runs Unknown Tapes, a small DIY recording artist community dedicated to showcasing different forms of spontaneous music making and improvisation techniques, regardless of genre.

Mary Prescott

Mary Prescott

Mary Prescott is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, composer and pianist who explores the foundations and facets of identity and social conditions through experiential performance. Featured in “21 for ‘21: Composers and Performers Who Sound Like Tomorrow,” The Washington Post describes her work as “masterfully envisioned… a bright light cast forward.”

Paul Pinto

Paul Pinto

Paul Pinto is glad to be making sounds and imagery for people. He's a multi-disciplinary creator and performer, and band member of thingNY, Varispeed and LoveLoveLove. He’s performed Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King, originated the role of Balaga in Dave Malloy's Great Comet of 1812, and wrote the autotuned opera Thomas Paine in Violence, and the dance arias 15 Photos.

Ariadne Greif

Ariadne Greif

Ariadne Greif, praised for her “luminous, expressive voice,” “searing top notes,” and “dusky depths,” (NY Times), started out as a ‘boy’ soprano at the LA Opera, making an adult debut singing Lutoslawski’s Chantefleurs et Chantefables with the American Symphony Orchestra. She starred in roles ranging from Therese/Tirésias in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias at the Aldeburgh Festival, Adina in The Elixir of Love with the Orlando Philharmonic, to Sappho in Atthis by Georg Friedrich Haas, which the NY Times called “one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances in recent times.”

Kayleigh Butcher

Kayleigh Butcher

Described as having a voice that "has a spiritual quality that [is] wholly arresting" (Steve Smith, Night After Night/The New Yorker) and and having "a sound that is well-suited for the strange world of new music" (Chicago Classical Review), Kayleigh Butcher (mezzo soprano) has gained critical and audience acclaim as a soloist and contemporary chamber musician.

Chase Elodia

Chase Elodia

Chase Elodia is a drummer and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. He will be releasing an album on Biophilia Records in May 2022.

Noah Gershwin

Noah Gershwin

Noah Gershwin is a guitarist and composer currently residing in New York City. As an active performer, Noah explores pushing the boundaries of free improvisation within the confines of the jazz idiom. Since moving to NYC, Noah has performed in venues such as The Stone and Bar Bayuex and has collaborated with artists such as Okkyung Lee, Billy Hart and Ben Street. Noah has had the privilege to perform both nationally and internationally at festivals such as the Iowa City Jazz Festival and The Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. With his collaborative jazz quartet, Junior Ranger, Noah had the opportunity to participate in the Avaloch Farm Music Institute as well as tour in the Netherlands as a result of being awarded the CIGSIE Grant for Study in Dutch Improvisation.

Nora Stanley

Nora Stanley

Nora Stanley is a New York-based saxophonist and composer whose interests and work live at the intersection of composed and improvised music. With strong roots in the jazz, afro-cuban and improvised music traditions, Nora’s music emphasizes interaction and collaboration. Her sound is melody-driven and reaches to expand the possibilities of the harmonic realm…

Bixby Kennedy

Bixby Kennedy

Admired for his “marvelous ringing tone” (Joseph Dalton, Albany Times Union) Bixby Kennedy is one of the most versatile clarinetists of his generation. He has performed concerti with the Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Bloomington Sinfonietta, and Indiana University Symphony. As a chamber musician, Bixby has performed throughout the US and Europe in venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, Marlboro Music Festival, and is the clarinetist for the “explosive” New York City based chamber ensemble Frisson. As an orchestral musician, Bixby currently holds titles as the Associate Principal Clarinetist of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Associate Principal in the Albany Symphony, and the Principal Clarinetist of Symphony in C. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. On period instruments, Bixby performs classical repertoire on original and replica instruments throughout the US with Grand Harmonie Orchestra. He is a former member of Ensemble Connect and works as a teaching artist throughout the US. As a university professor, he has held positions at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Vanderbilt University, and Tennessee State University. He loves traveling, trying new foods, laughing, hiking, and playing tennis.

Emily Brandenburg

Emily Brandenburg

Living in New York City, Emily Brandenburg is an educator, chamber musician and freelancer in the New England area. She has performed with ensembles such as The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Princeton Symphony, Portland Symphony, Metropolis Ensemble and the Frisson Chamber Ensemble…

Julian Müller

Julian Müller

American German cellist Julian Müller, performs as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in the United States and Europe. Hailed as “...haunting and mesmerizing...” by USA Today, Julian appeared as soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, giving world premiere performances of the ballet How They Fade, composed by him and art-pop band, YASSOU, on a commission from the Louisville Ballet Company. Julian has been presented on NPR Live, with Sergei Babayan. Other chamber music collaborations include performances with Simone Dinnerstein, Matt Haimovitz, Peter Salaff, and members of the Cleveland Orchestra. Julian has made festival appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Caroga Lake Music Festival, among others. Julian appears frequently with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, performing in many of New York City’s various venues. Additionally, he performs with the Montclair Orchestra, has served as principal cellist of the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, Mannes Orchestra, was a member of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, and is principal cello of the Berkshire Symphony. Julian holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a Master of Music and Professional Studies Diplomas from the Mannes School of Music, and will receive a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Rutgers University. Principal mentors include Timothy Eddy, Georg Faust, Ronald Feldman, Sharon Robinson and Jonathan Spitz.

Isabel Lepanto Gleicher

Isabel Lepanto Gleicher

Flutist Isabel Lepanto Gleicher has been called “excellent” by The New York Times. Isabel is an artist member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Wild Up, new music sinfonietta Ensemble Echappe, the Annapolis Chamber Music Festival, and the band ShoutHouse…

Yen-Chen Wu

Yen-Chen Wu

Hailing from Taiwan, bassoonist Yen-Chen Wu recently received her doctorate degree from StonyBrook University. Passionate about chamber music, Wu is a Yellow Barn musician since 2019, and a founding member of the NYC based woodwind quintet, ConnectFive.

Tamara Winston

Tamara Winston

Paraguayan/American oboist Tamara Winston is a highly sought after chamber and orchestral musician. Tamara performs regularly in the greater New York City area and abroad. She has performed with the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the Montclair Orchestra. Ms. Winston is a founding member of the New York City based woodwind quintet, ConnectFive, and she is on faculty at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music.

Leo Sussman

Leo Sussman

Flutist Leo Sussman grew up playing chamber music in living rooms and gigging with a salsa band in his hometown of San Francisco. A recent alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect and founding member of the wind quintet ConnectFive, Leo delights in designing and performing interactive, interdisciplinary musical experiences for communities ranging from elementary schools to concert halls across New York City and beyond. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at Manhattan School of Music.

Deric Dickens

Deric Dickens

Brooklyn-based percussionist, composer and improviser Deric Dickens divides his time between the improvised and creative music scene and the indie rock scene in NYC. Dickens has toured, recorded and performed for many years with Robinella (Columbia Records) Daniel Carter, Aaron Quinn, Jaimie Branch, John Ralston, Russ Lossing, Caroline Davis, Eli Wallace, Eriika Dicker, Ben Cohen, Ted Brown, and Brad Linde, and has worked on soundtracks for James Schamusʼ Indignation, D.W. Youngʼs Too Cold to Swim, as well as many other indie films and T.V. projects.

Leia Slosberg

Leia Slosberg

Leia Slosberg is a New York based flutist committed to the performance of new music. She is a co-founder of the flute and cello chamber ensemble Berrow Duo, with Thea Mesirow, and a member of the Tredici Bacci. Leia pursued her undergraduate studies at The Boston Conservatory and holds a master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program.

Thea Mesirow

Thea Mesirow

Thea Mesirow is an NYC-based cellist, composer, and writer, a member of The Nouveau Classical Project, a founding member of CMA grant recipients Quartet121, and one-half of Berrow Duo. Hailed as “hypnotic” and “engaging” by Cleveland Classical, Berrow Duo has been presented by Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project, the 2018 NYU Music Conference, the SENSE Concert Series, and the Mise-En Place Curator Series. As a soloist and chamber musician she has worked with composers such as Reiko Füting, Michael Pisaro, and Sofia Gubaidulina and regularly performs at venues throughout New York City including Roulette, Lincoln Center Atrium, and National Sawdust. Her 2019/2020 season included the Actualizing Communities project, which involved commissioning new works by Wandelweiser community composers, such as Antoine Beuger and Emmanuelle Waeckerlé, and performing these new works within the composer’s communities in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Haan, Germany. Thea completed her Masters at the Manhattan School of Music in May of 2017 where she studied with Fred Sherry.

Abby Swidler

Abby Swidler

Abby Swidler is a composer, violinist, violist, and vocalist whose work appears in many contexts including new music, improvisational music, and song.

Abby is a passionate collaborator, frequently performing with ruby, a song collaboration with kim mayo; Xanthoria Quartet, a string quartet which performs new and old works ; Italian film-score band Tredici Bacci; and The Jessica Pavone String Ensemble, among other projects across genre lines.

Originally from Missoula, MT, they live in Brooklyn, NY.