Biophony 2.3

Biophony 2.3

May 22nd, 2022

DoYeon Kim, Henry Fraser, and Raf Vertessen perform on Tompkins Avenue as part of the 2022 Biophony project.

Biophony 2.2

Biophony 2.2

May 19th, 2022

Simone Baron, Raffi Boden, Mat Muntz, Pablo O’Connell, and Yuma Uesaka perform on Washington Street as part of the 2022 Biophony project.

Biophony 2.1

Biophony 2.1

May 18th, 2022

Akiva Jacobs, Matt Hull, Wendy Eisenberg, and Cleek Schrey perform at Jitu Weusi Plaza as part of the 2022 Biophony project.

Lily Pool Terrace

Lily Pool Terrace

the biophony project

Lily Pool Terrace

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6664156,-73.9622512)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
Sarah Ghandour
Sarah Ghandour

Sarah Ghandour is currently a doctoral student at Stony Brooke University, where she also completed her master's degree with Cellist Colin Carr in May 2020. She completed undergraduate education at Bard Conservatory, earning a Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of Cellist Peter Wiley and a Bachelor in Mathematics. Sarah was then the honored recipient of the 2017-2018 Harriet Hale Woolley-Fulbright Scholarship and one year artist residency in Paris, France.

Jennifer Beattie
Jennifer Beattie

Vocalist/Poet/Composer Jennifer Beattie, hailed by Opera News for her “exuberant voice and personality”, performs vocal music from early to experimental. She collaborates as a poet/lyricist with classical, jazz and experimental composers, and composes her own works combining the mediums of poetry, music, and theater. She has been a featured soloist with The National Opera Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Park Avenue Armory, as well as a regular Artist-in-Residence at Yale University.

Zach Pulse
Zach Pulse

Zach Pulse is an oboist, educator, writer, and nature enthusiast in the NYC area. As a performer, Zach likes to explore the intersection between the oboe and human voice, and has collaborated with singers to commission several new chamber works. He holds music degrees from the Chicago College of Performing Arts, the University of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin. In his work-from-home routine, Zach enjoys tending to his indoor garden and taking long walks with his partner, Max, and pandemic puppy, Otter.

Chelsea Lane
Chelsea Lane

Chelsea Lane graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Music, completed her M.A. in Harp Performance at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, and received her D.M.A. in Music Performance at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She is a regular substitute on the Broadway production Paradise Square and was a co-chair of the 2019 Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes…

Nhi Huynh
Nhi Huynh

Nhi Huynh made her orchestral debut with the Ho Chi Minh City Symphony Orchestra (Vietnam) at the age of thirteen. She is a new music advocate with a strong passion to promote contemporary music and bring it to a wider audience, having performed and premiered works by over 30 living composers. As a winner of 2020 Stony Brook University Concerto Competition, Nhi will perform Sheila Silver’s Piano Concerto (1996) with Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra in March 2022.

Baldwin Giang
Baldwin Giang

Baldwin Giang (b. 1992, Philadelphia) is a composer, pianist, and interdisciplinary artist whose work aims to empower communities of audiences and performers by creating concert experiences that are opportunities for collective wonder and judgment. Described as "taut and cohesive...challenging and rewarding" (Cacophony), Baldwin’s music has been performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center, and Chateau de Fontainebleau.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Linden Grove

Linden Grove

the biophony project

Linden Grove

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6655240,-73.9624815)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
Evan Runyon
Evan Runyon

Evan Runyon is a multi-instrumentalist and composer with a repertoire spanning six centuries, active in traditional and modern media across manifold genres. He is a member of L'histoire ensemble Exceptet and double bass quartet Large Furniture; has performed and/or recorded with Klangforum Wien, Talea Ensemble, The Knights, International Contemporary Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, Ludovico Ensemble and Ensemble Signal; Raphael Saadiq, Wye Oak, Emily Wells, Thundercat and Slipknot…

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.

Joe Tucker-Vikström
Joe Tucker-Vikström

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Joe is a performer, educator, audio engineer, repair tech, and general musical mercenary. A multi-faceted percussionist, Joe has performed with Talujon, Innovox, the Curiosity Cabinet, S.E.M. Ensemble, and others. He also plays in Gamelan Dharma Swara and Gamelan Yowana Sari, as well as playing in various jazz combos, Balkans groups, and accompanies Arabic dancers.

Nate Jasensky
Nate Jasensky

Nate Jasensky is a guitarist, composer, producer, arranger, and music educator born and raised in sunny Tucson, Arizona, and currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Nathan first started his music education at the age of three, when he was enrolled in regular music classes with musicians in the local symphony orchestra. Learning how to read music before written english, Nate quickly became proficient in the guitar and the saxophone…

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Water Garden

Water Garden

the biophony project

Water Garden

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6655240,-73.9624815)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
Clara Warnaar
Clara Warnaar

Clara Warnaar is a NYC based drummer and percussionist who plays with the band Infinity Shred and as a guest with the International Contemporary Ensemble. Her solo work is mainly ambient and experimental.

Emily Haughton
Emily Haughton

Emily Haughton has been a freelance dancer in New York City for about 2 1/2 years. She has had the pleasure of working with Gwen Gussman’s Holdtight company, the Warp Trio, Heidi Latsky, and being in a few short films in NYC. Before she came to New York City, she spent two years in San Francisco completing the Alonzo King Lines Training program. There she had the privilege of working with and performing works by Maurya Kerr, Gregory Dolbashian, Christian Burns, Kai Davis, Arturo Fernandez, Sidra Bell, Greg Dawson, Alex Ketley, and Alonzo King. Emily is thrilled to be a part of this biophony and is excited for the opportunities ahead.

Mikael Darmanie
Mikael Darmanie

Mikael Darmanie has performed throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, Russia and the Caribbean. Recent festival appearances have included: The Weil Institute at Carnegie, Trinity Wall Street, Prototype, Bang on a Can Marathon, Close Encounters With Music, Berkshire High Peaks Festival, Cape Cod Symphony Nth Degree, Pianofest in the Hamptons, the Mozarteum, Mainly Mozart, and L’Acadèmie de Musique de Sion.

Lauren Cauley
Lauren Cauley

Violinist and improviser Lauren Cauley has quickly risen in New York’s avant-garde as an artist known for genre-breaking performances that expand the sonic possibilities of her instrument. Now a “mainstay of the local new-music scene” (New York Times), she’s built a reputation as an interpreter of “fierce precision” and “excellence uncompromised” (Cleveland Classical)…

Erika Dohi
Erika Dohi

Described as "virtuosic" (NY Times) and "barrier-defying artist" (Mix Magazine), Osaka-born and New York-based pianist Erika Dohi is a multi-faceted artist with an eclectic musical background. From highly polished traditional classical to bold improvisation, she is a dynamic performer whose timeless style and unidiomatic technique sets her apart in contemporary NYC avant-garde circles…

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Children’s Garden

Children’s Garden

the biophony project

Children’s Garden

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6641758,-73.9620262)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
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.

Audrey Chen
Audrey Chen

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.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Fawcett Terrace

Fawcett Terrace

the biophony project

Fawcett Terrace

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.671091,-73.966051)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
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.

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.”

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Plant Family Collection

Plant Family Collection

the biophony project

Plant Family Collection

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6658805,-73.9629154)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
Alexander Davis
Alexander Davis

Alexander Davis is a New York City based freelance bassoonist whose artistic practice centers healing, connecting, and building community within classical music. He has played with orchestras and series such as Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, CityMusic Cleveland, Harlem Chamber Players, Symphony in C, Symphoria, and Sherman Chamber Ensemble to name a few. He has performed in summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Ensemble Evolution, Banff Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Maine Chamber Music Seminar, and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival. In addition to performing, Alexander is founder of Sugar Hill Salon Chamber Music in Harlem, bassoon faculty at Montclair State University, administrative manager for the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival, and a teaching artist at the Park Avenue Armory.

Amir Farsi
Amir Farsi

Iranian and Pakistani American flutist Amir Farsi was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has performed under prolific conductors such as Marin Alsop, David Robertson, Peter Oundjian, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Leon Fleisher, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn. Amir is currently a fellow in Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and is on the artist roster of Music@Menlo for Summer 2022…

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.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Plant Family Collection

Plant Family Collection

the biophony project

Plant Family Collection

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6669425,-73.9633841)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
Maren Rothfritz
Maren Rothfritz

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.

Leah Asher
Leah Asher

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.

Jessica Oddie
Jessica Oddie

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.

Nicolee Kuester
Nicolee Kuester

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.

Alan Toda-Ambaras
Alan Toda-Ambaras

Recipient of the Prize for Most Promising Contestant at the 2005 Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris, Alan Toda-Ambaras is active as both a soloist and a chamber musician. He has performed with Midori; Yo-Yo Ma, Sandeep Das, and other members of the Silk Road Ensemble; the Borromeo Quartet; the Parker Quartet; and has appeared twice as a soloist with the North Carolina Symphony. Recent appearances include performances in Tokyo’s Ohji Hall, Osaka’s Phoenix Hall, National Academy of Music in Vietnam, Massachusetts State Hall, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Taos Music Festival, Harvard University’s Paine Hall, and the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. He has been featured on French television and in several European documentaries due to his participation in the Rostropovich Competition; he has also been heard on NPR’s From The Top program, New York’s WKCR Classical station, and Boston’s Neighborhood News Network. Alan has a B.A. in History of Art and Architecture from Harvard and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Laurence Lesser. He is a co-founder of the Eureka Ensemble, a new social action-oriented Boston music organization.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Plant Family Collection

Plant Family Collection

the biophony project

Plant Family Collection

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6666618,-73.9634632)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
PinkNoise
PinkNoise

PinkNoise is a New York-based chamber ensemble dedicated to musical improvisation and compositions in acoustic and electronic mediums as a reaction and response to the conditions of our community and our society. Our mission is to reveal how improvisation in musical performances lies at the intersection of historical and contemporary works, and how it is a synthesis of multifarious cultures and styles from the past and the present that connect us to our conscience in society. We also believe in performing new works by composers in acoustic and electronic mediums and collaborating with visual artists and writers to present music as a collaborative and interdisciplinary art form.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Plant Family Collection

Plant Family Collection

the biophony project

Plant Family Collection

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6674801,-73.9636654)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
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.

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…

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

A.T. White Amphitheater

A.T. White Amphitheater

the biophony project

A.T. White Amphitheater

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6680109,-73.9631672)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
Carlos Aguilar
Carlos Aguilar

Carlos Aguilar is a flutist and interdisciplinary artist who believes in creating work that pushes the tradition of performance by creating surreal spectacles with the aid of electronic sound processing and visual technology. His classical playing has been described as having “expressed the release of the soul” and his "burnished sound poured forth in unbroken arcs of molten seduction” (Boston Musical Intelligencer).

Pablo O’Connell
Pablo O’Connell

Pablo O’Connell (he/him) is an NYC-based oboist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. Pablo’s varied musical life includes composing and interpreting contemporary concert music, improvising, performing music of the European Baroque on period instruments, writing and recording indie folk songs, studying traditional Andean music, and more…

Philip Sheegog
Philip Sheegog

Philip Sheegog forges new possibilities for what the cello can be — with an artistic versatility and fearless commitment that have made him sought out on all ends of the musical spectrum. A champion for musical innovation, Mr. Sheegog has crafted a unique technical vocabulary influenced by a myriad of musical styles, premiered over eighty new works by living composers, and collaborated with such disparate groups as the legendary 1970’s Steve Miller Band, members of the GRAMMY-award winning Turtle Island String Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the hip-hop/classical collective ShoutHouse.

Raquel Acevedo Klein
Raquel Acevedo Klein

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Raquel Acevedo Klein is an active vocalist, conductor, instrumentalist and visual artist. Raquel has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall, BAM, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Celebrate Brooklyn!, National Sawdust and elsewhere.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Japanese Hill and Pond Garden

Japanese Hill and Pond Garden

the biophony project

Japanese Hill and Pond Garden

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6687163,-73.9630636)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
Wilden Dannenberg
Wilden Dannenberg

Wilden Dannenberg is a multifaceted musician committed to engaging listeners in a range of musical styles and experiences. With a firm foundation in the repertoire of early to contemporary works, Wilden is regularly engaged as a hornist, conductor, arranger and organist. Recent highlights include the premiere of Silver, Blue, a Carnegie Hall commissioned quintet for Horn and Strings by TJ Cole, multiple collaborations as a conductor and performer with composer Tania León, and a performance of Schumann’s Konzertstücke for Four Horns and Orchestra. A South Georgia native, Wilden holds degrees from Florida State University and Stony Brook University, and is an alumnus of Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program of Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School.

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.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Cherry Esplanade

Cherry Esplanade

the biophony project

Cherry Esplanade

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6689426,-73.9645777)

Biomes Performed

 
 

Meet the Artists

Artist Collection
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.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Osbourne Garden

Osbourne Garden

the biophony project

Osbourne Garden

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6709330,-73.9654772)

Biomes Performed

 
 

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Marta Sánchez
Marta Sánchez

Born and raised in Madrid, Spain, pianist and composer Marta Sánchez is actively working in the contemporary creative music scene in New York City and around the globe. Charting a significant path through her innovative and original music, she has reached an international audience, gaining significant global recognition. As a bandleader, she is currently working with her New York based Quintet, with her band Room Tales, featuring singer Sara Serpa, and with the Quartet Open Can, featuring Ralph Alessi, Michael Formanek and Mark Ferber. She is involved in many other music projects as a collaborator, performer, and/or studio musician in the United States and abroad.

Amirtha Kidambi
Amirtha Kidambi

Amirtha Kidambi is the composer and bandleader of her quartet Elder Ones, with Matt Nelson, Max Jaffe and Nick Dunston and the leader of her vocal quartet Lines of Light, featuring Anaïs Maviel, Emilie Lesbros and Jean-Carla Rodea. Kidambi is also a regular collaborator of Lea Bertucci, in a voice and analog electronics duo, is a member of guitarist Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, featured in various projects with composer and alto saxophonist Darius Jones, a longtime contributor of Charlie Looker’s early music inspired dark folk band Seaven Teares and a soloist in Pat Spadine's analog percussion and light ensemble Ashcan Orchestra…

Zekkereya El-Magharbel
Zekkereya El-Magharbel

Zekkereya (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist originally from the Los Angeles Area. They are a member of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra and has also worked with West Coast Luminaries such as Busdriver, JMD, Trevor Lawrence, William Roper, Zeroh, MAIA, and Michael Session. They have also shown animated films internationally, most of them exploring visual music. They also make graphic scores both animated and still.

Lesley Mok
Lesley Mok

Informed by Afrological principles of drum ensemble playing, Lesley Mok performs on a percussion kit assembled especially for the ensemble. She combines bongos, cowbells, temple blocks, cymbals, and floor tom, and employs diverse performance techniques to produce a dynamic range of timbres and orchestrations. A true experimentalist, she has been mentored by Vijay Iyer, Henry Threadgill, Danilo Perez, Terri Lyne Carrington, and others.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Osbourne Garden

Osbourne Garden

the biophony project

Osbourne Garden

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6711975,-73.9651078)

Biomes Performed

 
 

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Pablo Menares
Pablo Menares

Pablo Menares is a Chilean bass player based in Brooklyn, NY. He is one of the most highly regarded bass players in Chile. Since moving to New York City in 2009, he has worked widely in both Jazz and Latin music. He has performed in many of New York’s notable jazz venues, including Blue Note, Jazz Standard, Jazz Gallery, Smoke, Smalls Jazz Club, Fat Cat, 55 Bar, Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall and Carnegie Hall. He has toured extensively in Europe, Asia, North, Central and South America. Among the luminaries with whom he has performed are Sam Yahel, Arturo O’Farrill, Randy Brecker, David Kikoski, Bob Moses, Greg Osby, Melissa Aldana, Claudia Acuña and Francisco Mela.

Vinicius Gomes
Vinicius Gomes

Guitarist and composer Vinicius Gomes released his first album in 2017 "Resilência", music dedicated to fusing the Brazilian universe with modern jazz. He has performed with important composers and interpreters, such as Zizi Possi (with whom he acts as guitarist and arranger in the show "À Flor da Pele"), Rosa Passos, Jane Duboc, Arthur Verocai and Oswaldinho do Acordeon, as well as instrumental music names such as Toninho Ferragutti (with whom he recorded the album "A Gata Café", winner of the 2017 Brazilian Music Award), Thiago Espirito Santo, Robertinho Silva and Mestrinho. He has also worked with orchestras such as OSESP and Jazz Sinfônica de SP.

Caroline Davis
Caroline Davis

Mobile since her birth in Singapore, composer and saxophonist Caroline Davis’s music covers a wide range of styles, owed to her shifting environment as a child. As a leader, she has released six albums: Live Work & Play (2012), Doors: Chicago Storylines (2015), Heart Tonic (2018), Alula (2019), Anthems (2019), and Portals (2021)…

Timo Vollbrecht
Timo Vollbrecht

Timo Vollbrecht is an internationally performing saxophonist-bandleader, composer, reeds player, educator, and scholar. Described as "luminously fine" by the New York City Jazz Record, his music is “blessed with rhythmic fluidity and intricate twists.” Based in between his home in Lower Saxony, New York and Berlin, he is particularly active in the international jazz and contemporary music scenes. A musical omnivore, he organically combines jazz with elements of new music, post-rock, electronics, and instrumental songwriting. He has appeared on 22 albums and at landmark stages such as the Village Vanguard, Winter Jazz Fest NYC, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. He holds a Ph.D. in Jazz Studies from NYU, where he currently teaches as an Adjunct Professor. As a Fulbright scholar, he also holds a master's degree in jazz saxophone from NYU where he studied with Mark Turner, Stefon Harris, and Joe Lovano. At the Berlin University of the Arts he studied with Peter Weniger, John Hollenbeck, and Kurt Rosenwinkel to receive a Bachelor in Music Education. His research interests range at the intersections of music production, pedagogy, band interaction, improvisation, artistic citizenship, and the digital avant-garde.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Osbourne Garden

Osbourne Garden

the biophony project

Osbourne Garden

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6705656,-73.9653508)

Biomes Performed

 
 

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Weston Olencki
Weston Olencki

Weston Olencki is a musician, composer, and sound artist. Weston is currently making work centered around questions of instrumental music and its contexts/constructs, various mediated practices of listening and improvisation, and the technological, material, and cultural histories of rural space/time…

Henry Mermer
Henry Mermer

Henry Mermer (b. 1999) is a drummer, improviser, and composer of instrumental and electronic music currently based in Ridgewood, Queens. As a collaborator and improviser, he has performed at venues including The Stone, The Jazz Gallery, The Blue Note, happylucky no. 1, Spectrum NYC, Public Records, and The Bar Next Door…

Tal Yahalom
Tal Yahalom

Tal Yahalom is an Israeli guitarist, composer and bandleader based in Brooklyn, New York.
In his music he seeks to create engaging storytelling, attentive interplay and distinct sonic environments, weaving together influences and elements of hard-bop, alternative-rock, impressionistic classical music and improvised music…

Isabel Crespo Pardo
Isabel Crespo Pardo

Isabel Crespo Pardo (they/them) is an NYC-based latinx vocalist, improviser, and composer creating art that constantly evolves to reflect the intra/interpersonal spaces they inhabit. Their practice is nourished by curiosity and (dis)comfort. Reveling in soft chaos, they embrace openness and specificity to create poetic work.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Osbourne Garden Entrance

Osbourne Garden Entrance

the biophony project

Osbourne Garden Entrance

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6715835,-73.9651084)

Biomes Performed

 
 

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Connor Parks
Connor Parks

Connor Parks is from Orlando, FL, where he began studying drums & percussion with Beth and Danny Gottlieb. He received a BFA in Jazz studies from the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in New York. Upon arriving in New York City, Connor has performed with Rodney Jones, Vic Juris, Linda Briceño, Dave Glasser, JD Allen, Ingrid Jensen, Aaron Parks, Mcklopedia, and Kandace Springs, among many others. He has appeared at venues ranging from the Blue Note to Madison Square Garden, and often performs at Music Festivals both internationally and in the United States.

Daniel Durst
Daniel Durst

Daniel Durst is a bassist, improviser, educator, and composer based in Brooklyn, NY. Known for his warm touch, deep sense of groove, and meditative approach to improvisation, Daniel brings his musical personality across a variety of genres from jazz to noise to indie rock.

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

Alfredo Colon
Alfredo Colon

Dominican-American saxophonist and composer, Alfredo Colon is a proud New York City native. His distinct sound lives at the crossroads of a wide range of experiences and inspirations, from his upbringing in Upper Manhattan, to his Dominican heritage, to his love of musicians with melodic approaches to improvisation, including Sonny Sharrock, Ornette Coleman, and Pharoah Sanders…

Kalia Vandever
Kalia Vandever

Kalia Vandever is a trombonist, composer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. She released her debut album, "In Bloom" in May, 2019 which features all of her original compositions written for quartet and duo with guitar. She has toured and performed internationally with her quartet, as well as a side-woman. Kalia is also an active composer and arranger. She has been commissioned to write works for groups and individuals including Tesla Quartet, The Westerlies, Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim, and Hats & Heels Duo.

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Fawcett Terrace

Fawcett Terrace

the biophony project

Fawcett Terrace

9/18/2021 / 1pm-4pm / Brooklyn Botanical Garden - 990 Washington Avenue (40.6712888,-73.9657049)

Biomes Performed

 
 

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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…

 
 

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“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.