Carrie Frey is a violist, teacher, improviser, and composer based in New York City. Frey is the violist of the Rhythm Method (“a group of individuals with distinct compositional voices and a collective vision for the future of the string quartet” - I Care If You Listen) and a founding member of string trio Chartreuse and string quartet Desdemona…
Adrianne Munden-Dixon is a violinist, improviser, and composer living in New York and Montreal. Her work often explores timbre, texture and energy in acoustic and electronic environments. She grew up playing notated and improvised music in Savannah, Georgia and still lives in and between those mediums as a solo and chamber musician…
Hungarian-American violinist Hajnal Pivnick has developed a career as a performer and curator promoting community-driven music by modern and living composers. Her work has been recognized through foundational support from New Music USA, the Barlow Endowment, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She is part of the duo Shepherdess and co-artistic director of Tenth Intervention, a collective of musicians that explores the intersection of performance and experiential art, and its potential to reflect social issues.
Darius Jones has created a recognizable voice as a critically acclaimed saxophonist and composer by embracing individuality and innovation in the tradition of African-American music.
Jones has been awarded the Van Lier Fellowship, Jerome Foundation Commission, Jerome Artist-in-Residence at Roulette, French-American Jazz Exchange Award, and, in 2019, the Fromm Music Foundation commission at Harvard University. Jones has released a string of diverse recordings featuring music and images evocative of Black Futurism. Jones’ music is a confrontation against apathy and ego, hoping to inspire authenticity that compels us to be better humans.
Alaina Ferris is a composer, poet, and music educator who specializes in composing for choir, theater, and opera. Her work is inspired by a love of Renaissance chorales, video game soundtracks, and her daily practice of teaching piano, voice, and harp lessons. Alaina was selected as a 2019 National Sawdust Summerlab Musician, and was a co-winner of the 2019/2020 Brooklyn Youth Chorus Composer Competition. She is a 2019-2021 Composer Fellow at The American Opera Project. She earned her B.A. in Music and Creative Writing from the University of Denver and her M.F.A. in Poetry from New York University.
Chanan Ben Simon is a vocalist, composer and a multimedia artist, born in Jerusalem, currently Brooklyn based. Chanan’s work combines voice, sound, visuals, installation art and new media. Chanan creates short films, releases recorded music (as 'Ben Simone'), writes music for different ensembles, performs music by contemporary composers, creates audio/visual installations, creates music for film and much more. He holds a B.mus in composition from the music academy in Jerusalem and an MFA in performance and interactive media from Brooklyn College.
Sarah Beth Pfeifer is an NYC based singer/actor/director/artist. Member of the Chor since 2017, past performances include Experiments in Form and The Desire/Divinity Project. She recently made her Broadway debut in The Lightning Thief as Clarisse and others. Other notable performance credits include The Lightning Thief (Lucille Lortel), Goldstein (The Actors Temple), and Legally Blonde (National Tour). An eternal student, SB is a proud member of Marisa’s Libero Canto based vocal studio, and the Freeman Studio for actors. She feels so very lucky to be a part of the heart centered, deeply felt, intensely collaborative group of humans that is the Constellation Chor!
Marisa Michelson is a singer, improviser, composer, and the founder/director of the collective Constellation Chor | An Immersion in Voice, Movement and Spirit. Constellation Chor has been in residence at the historic Judson Memorial Church, Spectrum, Pioneer Works and National Sawdust. The Chor’s collaborators include Claire Chase, Sarah Hennies, Ash Fure, the New York Philharmonic, the Kitchen, Heartbeat Opera, Harvard Art Lab, Maria Popova, Paola Prestini. Marisa lives, works and teaches singing in New York City and Hudson, NY.
Maya Carney is a Brooklyn born and based, vocalist and trombonist. Throughout the years she’s worked with many artists including DJ Serge Negri, Arturo O’Farrill, the Constellation Chor and many others. Maya primarily roots her practice in her spirituality, letting her music act as a form of release and personal expression before a performative act. One of her goals inside of her practice is to recognize, access and release through her source. This is something Maya is always trying to develop and learn from both individually and through collaborations. She views her voice as an entire instrument, exploring and manipulating sound utilizing her entire range to find new ways of expressing.
Jen Anaya (they/them) is a theater/music/art/ritual space maker, doula and energy healer from the desert of Yavapaiv Apache, Cocopah and O'odham land. They have created for and performed in rock bands, web series, art installations, plays, operas, dance theater, films, solo shows, healing rituals and musicals all over LenapeHoking, Turtle Island and beyond. The intersection of art, expansion and healing is where Jen's passion and curiosity are most alive.
Kalli Siamidou is a greek pontian dancer, choreographer and performer based in New York City. She is interested in exploring many different dance forms from studio born styles like ballet and modern to more folklore like salsa and greek folk dances. She has been a core member of Constellation Chor since 2016.
Nikko is an NYC-based writer and performer, a recipient of a 2016 Jonathan Larson grant, and an O’Neill Music Theater Conference Finalist. Projects include Nikola Tesla Drops The Beat (w/ Benjamin Halstead, Adirondack Theater Festival); Start Again (Musical Theater Factory); ElseWhere (Town Stages) and In Pursuit of Magic (Kennedy Center Millenium Stage). Writer’s residencies at Village Theater Festival, Pace New Musicals, the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project, Catwalk, Songspace, and Goodspeed Writers Colony.
Shawn Shafner (he/they) is an artist, educator and facilitator. As founder of The People's Own Organic Power (POOP) Project, Shawn catalyzes conversations about sustainable sanitation for every pooper - and the planet we poop on. Look for his book Know Your Shit on shelves Feb 2022, and find more at www.thePOOPproject.org/ When he’s not pooping, Shawn teaches meditation and mindful creativity, leads movement classes through the lineage of choreographer Tamar Rogoff, sings with Marisa Michelson’s Constellation Chor Ensemble, and facilitates arts-integrated workshops for learners of all ages.
Martine Thomas is a violist and poet based in New York City. She began her Doctorate of Musical Arts at CUNY Graduate Center in Fall 2021 and she has a Masters in Viola Performance as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English from the Harvard-New England Conservatory dual degree program…
Gabrielle Chou is a New York-based pianist and violinist seeking to defy genres and break barriers in music education and performance tradition. On both instruments she performs solo, chamber music, and in large ensembles, teaches and lectures in the studio and classroom, coaches chamber music, collaborates with composers and dancers, and is active in community engagement. Her education includes the Colburn Music Academy, The Juilliard School, and the CUNY Graduate Center, where she is getting her doctorate. Gabrielle serves as faculty at Baruch College, staff pianist and teaching fellow at Juilliard, and plays with the Center for Musical Excellence, Metropolis Ensemble, and Nu Deco Ensemble. She loves art museums, aquariums, playing video games, and reading science fiction.
A Washington native, cellist Audrey Chen is a passionate solo and chamber musician dedicated to sharing the music-making process of discovery and collaboration with the rest of the world. She has performed across the globe, including at Carnegie Hall, the Mariinsky Theatre, Royal Albert Hall, and the Kennedy Center, and has performed as a guest artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society, A Far Cry, the Silk Road Ensemble, the Parker Quartet, and the Borromeo Quartet. Audrey’s festival appearances include at Music@Menlo, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Perlman Music Program, Tanglewood Music Center, Taos School of Music, and Sarasota Music Festival. After receiving a Bachelor’s from Harvard University and Master’s in Music from the New England Conservatory, she is now pursuing a Doctorate in Musical arts from the CUNY Graduate Center. Her main teachers include Laurence Lesser, Lluis Claret, and Marcy Rosen.
Violist Maren Rothfritz is a passionate artist and educator who is equally at home on the concert stage and in the teaching studio. As violist in the Argus Quartet since 2019, Maren enjoys seeking colorful musical expressions across a wide range of repertoire old and new. From 2016-2018 she was a Fellow with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, performing and teaching throughout New York City. Previously, she completed her Master’s degree with Kim Kashkashian at New England Conservatory, where her concentration was Music-in-Education. Her festival credits include Yellow Barn, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the Lucerne Festival Academy, and Keshet Eilon. Born in Paderborn, Germany, Maren began violin studies at age of four. At sixteen, she entered into the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and joined the viola class of Diemut Poppen a year later. She subsequently attended the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid (2011-13) and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (2013-14), where she studied with Nobuko Imai. She moved to the United States in 2014 and is now working towards a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she was awarded the prestigious CUNY Graduate Center Fellowship and is mentored by Ettore Causa. Currently, she teaches at Brooklyn College as a Teaching Fellow, and is on faculty at the annual festival “Point Counterpoint” in Vermont.
Violinist/violist, composer, and visual artist Leah Asher is an avid performer of contemporary music and creator of new artistic works. Leah is a member of The Rhythm Method string quartet, the violin-piano duo Aether Eos, and co-creator of the series ‘Meaningless Work’ with Nicolee Kuester. She has been featured as a concerto soloist with NOSO Sinfoniettaen and Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble. Leah formerly served as solo violist of NOSO Sinfoniettaen and co-principal viola of the Arctic Philharmonic. She regularly performs with other New York-based ensembles such as International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea ensemble, and Shattered Glass.
Violinist Jessica Oddie has recently returned to New York City after working as the Assistant Concertmaster of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician and soloist, she has performed recitals at Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Le Poisson Rouge, Lincoln Center, Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, the Sydney Opera House, and the Melbourne Recital Centre.
Horn player Nicolee Kuester is based in NYC and divides her time between experimental music and the Older Stuff, recently performing with the International Contemporary Ensemble, The Knights, Talea, and Wet Ink Ensemble in NYC; Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris; Alarm Will Sound in St Louis; and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra in Los Angeles. She is co-founder with Leah Asher of MEANINGLESS WORK, a performance series that happily meanders between sounds, performance art, text, and movement theater.
Nicolee holds undergraduate degrees in horn performance and creative writing from Oberlin College & Conservatory and graduate degrees in contemporary music performance from UC San Diego. In addition to mucking about with experimental sounds and chamber music, she continues to do teaching artist work with high school students in Ridgewood, Queens as an alumna of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect fellowship. She also freaks out teens most summers as the brass faculty at North Carolina’s Governor’s School West, where among other things students encounter microtonal improv and learn how to stare into each other’s eyes without getting really squirmy.
