Graeme Steele Johnson

Graeme Steele Johnson

Winner of the Hellam Young Artists' Competition, the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition and the Center for Musical Excellence's inaugural Lee Memorial Scholarship, Graeme Steele Johnson has established a multifaceted career as a clarinetist, writer and arranger. Johnson's diverse artistic endeavors range from his TEDx talk comparing Mozart and Seinfeld, to his music- and poetry-weaving show IMPRESSION--based on his octet arrangement of Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun--to his performances of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in its original form on a rare elongated clarinet that he commissioned.

Kristin Lee

Kristin Lee

A recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prize winner of the 2012 Walter W Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-themill instrumentalists from true artists.”

Henry Wang

Henry Wang

A native of St. Louis, Grammy Award winning violinist Henry William Wang has been described by the Washington Post as an artist "that makes the audience cheer lustily". He has won several engagements as soloist with orchestras including the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Alton Symphony Orchestra, the University City Symphony, the Belleville Philarmonic, and the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. Venues of solo performances have included The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Powell Symphony Hall. Henry resides in New York City, performing with such ensem. Currently residing in New York, Henry performs with various ensembles including Metropolis Ensemble, the New York Classical Players, Trinity Wall Street NOVUS ensemble, Quodlibet Ensemble, the Manhattan Chamber Players,Ensemble Melange and is a substitute member of the New York Philharmonic.

Sophie Delphis

Sophie Delphis

Born in Paris, France and raised partially in the California Bay Area, Sophie Delphis received her Bachelor’s with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and her Master’s in voice performance at the University of Michigan, where she was an Andrea Person Voice Scholarship recipient. She enjoys collaborating with composers, improvisers and theatre artists on new works and currently resides in New York City.

Alec Goldfarb

Alec Goldfarb

Alec Goldfarb is a Brooklyn based guitarist, composer, and Hindustani classical musician. Active in the NYC improvised and new music communities, Alec directed the chamber ensemble “Laughing Coffin” and served as Jonah Bokaer Choreography’s inaugural Composer in Residence for 2018...

Carrie Frey

Carrie Frey

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

Adrianne Munden-Dixon

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…

Hajnal Pivnick

Hajnal Pivnick

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

Darius Jones

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

Alaina Ferris

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

Chanan Ben Simon

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

Sarah Beth Pfeifer

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

Marisa Michelson

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

Maya Carney

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

Jen Anaya

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

Kalli Siamidou

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 Benson

Nikko Benson

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

Shawn Shafner

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

Martine Thomas

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

Gabrielle Chou

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.