About the performers

Laura Harrison, a native of Indiana, received her M.M. from Boston University and while in Boston performed with the Boston Chamber Orchestra, New England Philharmonic, New Bedford Symphony, Opera Aperta, the American Composers Forum and has performed several times with New Music Brandeis at Brandeis University, most recently premiering a piece for solo bass clarinet in November. Ms. Harrison is a member of the Devil Music Ensemble based out of the Berwick Research Institute in Roxbury, Massachusetts, the Riverside Orchestra, the CUNY contemporary ensemble, Lost Dog New Musik, the Reflex ensemble and oxo, a collective of composers and performers in Brooklyn. She has appeared at Brooklyn College’s Festival of Electroacoustic Music and at the Storm King Music Festival in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York. She teaches for the Midori and Friends Foundation, Yonkers Music Academy and Musika.

Clarice Jensen (cello) is a native of Independence Missouri. She is currently working on her Master’s degree at Juilliard, where she also completed her undergraduate studies as a student of Joel Krosnick. Since moving to New York, Clarice has been an enthusiastic performer of new music, performing regularly with the New Juilliard Ensemble as well as Continuum. She has performed as soloist with the New Juilliard Ensemble twice, performing the US premiere of Guo Wenjing’s Concertino for Cello and Ensemble as part of the 2002 Lincoln Center Festival, and she performed the world premiere of Dimitri Yanov-Yanovsky’s Hearing Solution for cello and ensemble which was done as part of the Silk Road “Artist in Residence” program. Clarice has also appeared regularly in Juilliard’s Focus! festival of new music. At last year’s festival, she gave the US premiere of Roger Reynold’s Process and Passion for cello violin and computer.

Blair McMillen (piano) leads a varied life as soloist, chamber musician, improviser, and teacher. The New York Times has described his playing as “riveting,” “lustrous,” and “excellent….prodigiously accomplished and exciting.” Recent performances include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Moscow Conservatory, Carnegie Weill Hall, Caramoor, Harvard University, the Minsk (Belarus) Conservatory, and concerto appearances with American Ballet Theatre for their Fall 2003 season. Equally at home in both new and traditional repertoire, Mr. McMillen is a founding member of the composer/performer collective counter)induction, which holds a residency at Columbia University and will be a featured ensemble at the 2004 MATA Festival. He was also recently named pianist for the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, and traveled twice with them to Russia for concerts and workshops in 2003. A past winner of the Sony ES Career Grant, the Juilliard Gina Bachauer Award, and the National Young Artists Competition, he holds degrees from Oberlin College and the Juilliard School. Mr. McMillen is giving a solo recital on Miller Theatre’s groundbreaking “Piano Revolution” series on February 19, 2004, and he looks forward to a few days off afterwards to get away from the piano and go float on a lake, preferably somewhere down south.

Chris Nappi (percussion) has performed and recorded with Steve Reich and Musicians, the SEM Ensemble, Newband, and Ben E. King. As a composer he has created music for the dance, theatrical productions and multi-media installations and has recorded for the Ear-Rational, Mode, New Tone, Renč Block Editions, Tzaděk, Wergo, and Dog w/a Bone labels. He is on the faculties of Adelphi University, The Manhattan School of Music-Preparatory Division, and has been a guest lector/performer at the Ostrava Center for New Music, Czech Republic.

Orlando Pabotoy (narrator): New York Theater Credits include: Henry V (Shakespeare in Central Park), Magno in The Romance of Magno Rubio (Obie Award), Cascando, Genet Project (Division 13), Midsummer Nights Dream (Met Opera House), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Utopians (Flying Machine), Zibaldone, Middle Finger. Regional: Midsummer Nights Dream (The Old Globe), Taming of the Shrew (Yale Rep Theater) Film and TV: Strangers With Candy (3 Seasons), In the Weeds. Orlando is a graduate of the Juilliard School.

Matthew Quayle is a composer and pianist residing in Brooklyn, NY. He is currently working toward his doctorate in composition at New York University (GSAS), and also holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Cincinnati. This is his professional basketball-playing debut.

Sarah Schwartz (violin) is an active performer in the New York area. She performs with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, the American Symphony Orchestra, and the North/South Consonance Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. Her summer festival appearances include the Grand Teton Music Festival, Caramoor Festival, Bard Music Festival, Music From Salem Contemporary Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival. Recent recitals include performances at the Morgan Library, Bloomingdale School of Music, Donnell Library and St. Peter’s Church in New York City, and the South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Ms. Schwartz currently teaches at the Bloomingdale School of Music and has taught at P.S. 160 and P.S. 34 in New York City. She has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music as a teaching assistant, and the Cleveland School of the Arts. Ms. Schwartz graduated from Oberlin College and earned a Master of Music from The Cleveland Institute of Music.

Andrew Sterman (clarinet, tenor saxophone), whom the New York Times has praised for “beautiful and sensitive playing” and the Village Voice has called “formidable”, is founder and co-director of MLAEV (Music Lovers Against Empty Virtuosity) and generally prefers to play simple music. His own music is very simple, but nonetheless his new CD, Blue Canvas with Spiral (featuring Fred Hersch and Rashied Ali) is being very well received. After a recent Australian tour, the Melbourne Age wrote, “It is a sound as pure as moonlight, a richness that at times turns into melodic romanticism....” Mr Sterman has been a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble since 1991. In November 2003 Mr Sterman performed and recorded the world premiere of a major new duo piece of Mr Glass’s with the composer at the piano. He is also featured on the recent CD Philip Glass: Saxophone. Mr Sterman is a founding member of the improvisation ensemble Fish Love That.

Guest Performers