36 College Street, Montpelier, VT 05602 ~ 802-828-8600 ~ www.vcfa.edu

Talujon Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 8:00pm

Talujon & loadbang Wednesday, August 8, 2018 at 8:00pm

loadbang & The Housewarming Project Thursday, August 9, 2018 at 8:00pm

The Housewarming Project

& Sirius Quartet Friday, August 10, 2018 at 2:00pm

Sirius Quartet Saturday, August 11, 2018 at 2:00pm

Talujon Ian Antonio, percussion

David Cossin, percussion

Michael Lipsey, percussion

loadbang Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet

Andy Kozar, trumpets

Jeffrey Gavett, baritone voice

William Lang, trombone

The Housewarming Project Jeremy Siskind, piano

Nancy Harms, vocals

Lucas Pino, clarinet and bass clarinet

Sirius Quartet Fung Chern Hwei, violin

Gregor Huebner, violin

Ron Lawrence, viola

Jeremy Harman, cello

MFA in Music Composition Faculty Michael Early, Faculty Co-Chair

Jonathan Bailey Holland, Faculty Co-Chair

Rick Baitz

Don DiNicola

Andy Jaffe

Carla Kihlstedt

Ravi Krishnaswami

John Mallia

Diane Moser

John Fitz Rogers

Roger Zahab

Program Staff & Administration Carol Beatty, Program Director

Sarah Madru, Assistant Director

Colin McCaffrey, Sound Recording Engineer

Reed Robins, Sound Recording Assistant

Justin Tosh, Support Specialist/Media Coordinator

Talujon

Described by the New York Times as an ensemble possessing an "edgy, un-flagging energy", Talujon has been mesmerizing audiences since 1990. For well over two decades, Talujon has committed itself to the growth of contem-porary percussion music through diverse performance, commissioning, educa-tional, and outreach activities.

Highlights of Talujon’s recent engagements include appearances at the Brook-lyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Carne-gie Hall, ISSUE Project Room, Miller Theatre, and New York Historical Soci-ety. International performances include Taipei’s Lantern Festival, Italy’s Sound Res Festival, and a tour with Steve Reich and Musicians. In addition to its di-verse performance schedule, Talujon has conducted residencies, clinics, and master classes at institutions across the US, including Harvard, Juilliard, Man-hattan School of Music, Stanford, and the universities of Virginia, Oregon, and Buffalo. Notable commissions and premiers include collaborations with com-posers Dewa Alit, Nick Brooke, Chien Yin Chen, Louis Karchin, Alvin Lucier, Eric Moe, Steve Ricks, Ralph Shapey, Henry Threadgill, Ushio Torikai, and Julia Wolfe.

Locally, Talujon engages in a series of residencies in the New York City Public Schools though the Department of Cultural Affairs After School Adventures program, as well as through a collaboration with the Midori and Friends or-ganization. The ensemble’s playing can be heard on the Cantaloupe, Tzadik, New World, Bridge, Albany, and Capstone record labels. Talujon proudly uses Mike Balter sticks and mallets and Black Swamp Percussion instruments.

Ian Antonio performs new and experimental music frequently in a wide vari-ety of ensembles and locations. In addition to his role in Talujon, Ian is a founding member of the piano percussion quartet Yarn/Wire and the collec-tive Wet Ink. Ian also performs frequently with the International Contempo-rary Ensemble, Albany Symphony Orchestra, and Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf. Recent performances have brought Ian to the Brooklyn Academy of Mu-sic, Lincoln Center, Edinburgh International Festival, Shanghai Symphony Hall, and Barbican Centre. From 2003-2011, Ian was a member of the difficult-to-categorize trio Zs. Ian is currently a Lecturer in Music at Purchase College.

David Cossin is a specialist in new and experimental music. David has worked across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms to incorporate new me-dia with percussion. David has recorded and performed internationally with composers and ensembles including the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Steve Reich

and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Tay-lor, Talujon Percussion Quartet and the trio, Real Quiet. Numerous theater projects include collaborations with Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and di-rector Peter Sellars. David was featured as the percussion soloist in Tan Dun's Grammy and Oscar winning score to Ang Lee's film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Most recently, David joined Sting for his world tour, Symphonicities, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. David has performed as a soloist with orchestras through out the world including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra Radio France, Saint Paul Chamber Orches-tra, Sao Paulo State Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Gothenburg Sym-phony, Hong Kong Symphony, and the Singapore Symphony. David ven-tures into other art forms including curator for the Sound Res Festival, an experimental music festival in southern Italy. David teaches percussion at the Manhattan School of Music and Queens College in New York City.

Percussionist Michael Lipsey has performed at festivals in Bali, London, Lisbon, Madrid, Berlin, Mexico City, Taipei, Macao, Tokyo, La Jolla, New York, Moscow, Bogota and France. Michael is the founding member of Talu-jon Percussion and has also performed with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, Steve Reich, Bang on a Can, Tan Dun, New York New Music Ensemble and Riverside Symphony. He has recorded for Sony Records, Red Poppy Records, Nonesuch, Albany, Capstone and Mode. Michael has per-formed throughout the world and given master classes at numerous schools including the Juilliard School of Music and California School of the Arts.

Michael has also worked with many musicians from around the world, most recently including Gamelan Dharma Swara, a Balinese gamelan located in New York City. He performed with DS at the first American gamelan at the PKB in Denpasar, Bali. He has worked with musicians Subash Chandran, Ganesh Kumar, Glen Velez, Carlos Gomez, Antonio Hart, Roland Vasquez, and River Guerguerian. His book and solo CD contains recently commis-sioned works for solo hand drums by Jason Eckardt, River Guerguerian, Mathew Rosenblum, Arthur Kreiger, Eric Moe, Dominic Donato, David Cos-sin and David Rakowski. Michael is a full-time Professor at the Aaron Cop-land School of Music at CUNY, Queens College, Director of the Percussion Program, Gamelan Yowana Sari and UnSemble - the New Music Ensemble.

Tyler Sherman—Mother embodies our first intimacy with human-ity. Mother embodies our connection with the earth and the beauty of nature. Mother is our natural conduit from the formless dimension. Mother can manifest in infinite forms and through different people. The suite that this movement is from was inspired by the Mothers who have birthed, watered and fed me with love throughout different seasons in my life. Julia, Mary, Donna and Pat, your expressions of love are endlessly unique and infinitely appreciated.

Special thanks to Jonathan B. Holland for your guidance and encouragement!

Tyler Sherman lives in Bowie, MD.

Paul Smith-Stewart

D.J. Tetreault—These two short pieces were inspired by poetry which ap-proaches the moon in very different ways. I say inspired because one of my aims this semester was to convey story and emotion without the direct use of text, treating the vocalist as a true instrumental member of the ensemble.

The first poem I wanted to incorporate was "Autumn" by T.E. Hulme, in which the harvest moon plays a casual and grounding role in the nighttime wanderings of the poems subject. The second poem is from a chain of love poems between a Zen student and master. In a reply by the student, Teishin, she uses the moon as a symbol of hope and love, but one that sometimes can't be seen behind the clouds.

D.J. is finishing his third semester at VCFA and lives in Burlington, VT. He sings regularly with Solaris Vocal Ensemble, Opera Company of Middlebury, and with whomever will feed him.

Barrett Tuttobene was a founding member of the now defunct experimental group 100 Onces, which released 3 full length albums and headlined multiple international tours before breaking up in 2015. He recently shifted his focus to the study of composition at VCFA, where he wants to explore writing for a wider variety of instrumentation.

Tiffany Pfeiffer Tiffany Pfeiffer is a vocalist and bandleader based in Bur-lington, Vermont, where she maintains a private teaching studio and enjoys the fresh air and Lake Champlain. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, she studied voice and magazine journalism at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and spent several years living and working in San Francisco, and Brook-lyn. In 2008, she made her way to Vermont, in need of the rhythm of nature. She released her first original EP, Amor Frio, in 2010, and a short album of jazz standards, Stampede of Love, in 2016. She'd like to thank her advisor this semester, Diane Moser, for making the path clearer and the journey more complete.

Family Dynamics came from exploring the patterns or characters present within the idea of a family unit. The first movement, “Increases”, is my at-tempt to capture the essence of these “characters” and to create a conversa-tion among them. The second movement, “Surface Waves”, illustrates how we can easily fall into set patterns in how we relate to others, recreating a kind of family dynamic in various situations in life, unless we actively work to take notice and break out of them. The last movement, “Don’t Like That Boogie”, was inspired by a frustrating day and my singsong response to it. With the simplicity and power of the boogie woogie form, tied in with the idea of a sing-along, it is my hope that this song may catch on in some way with others who may like to sing it.

Eric Sample teaches music, synthesis and film scoring at Champlain College. He also runs its recording studio. A design buff, who once fed his children as a graphic designer on Madison Ave, (Photoshop and Illustrator!) He was thrilled to visit Holland en route to Africa, and commune with Vermeer in Delft (first visit to any European city!) Rietveld in Utrecht, (Rietveld house!) and Mondrian in Den Haag.

I was fortunate to travel to Cuba, Brazil, Kenya, Ghana, Gambia and Senegal this semester. Each place is wildly unique and in each place I fell in love with the people and the music. Final Triptych is a set of three songs which are based on traveling I did this semester, as well as this being my final semester at VCFA-Life changing experiences!

In the song I wrote to Brazil, it says "I would like to thank you, for treating me so kindly." This is how I feel about VCFA- it is an enclave of kindness and creativity in a harsh world.

Many thanks to Don DiNicola this semester for sticking with me while I trav-elled, great feedback, inspiring me, and welcoming me to his awesome studio!

Thanks to all the incredible teachers at VCFA for their extreme levels of knowledge, their delight in sharing it, and for the inspirational trajectory they send us all on.

Many thanks to Carol, Sarah and Colin for incredible behind the scenes work in making it all happen in a patient, fully supportive way.

loadbang

New York City-based new music chamber group loadbang is building a new kind of music for mixed ensemble of trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet, and baritone voice. Since their founding in 2008, they have been praised as ‘cultivated’ by The New Yorker, ‘an extra-cool new music group’ and ‘exhilarating’ by the Baltimore Sun, ‘inventive’ by the New York Times and called a 'formidable new-music force' by TimeOutNY. Their unique lung-powered instrumentation has provoked diverse responses from composers, resulting in a repertoire comprising an inclusive picture of composition today. In New York City, they have been recently presented by and performed at Miller Theater, Symphony Space, MATA and the Avant Music Festival; on American tours at Da Camera of Houston, Rothko Chapel, and the Festival of New American Music at Sacramento State University; and internationally at Ostrava Days (Czech Republic), China-ASEAN Music Week (China) and Shanghai Symphony Hall (China). loadbang has premiered more than 250 works, written by members of the ensemble, emerging artists, and today's leading composers. Their repertoire includes works by Pulitzer Prize winners David Lang and Charles Wuorinen; Rome Prize winners Andy Akiho and Paula Matthusen; and Guggenheim Fellow Alex Mincek. They are in residence at the Charlotte New Music Festival, the Longy School of Music's summer program Divergent Studio, and all four members are on the instrumental and chamber music faculty of the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Bos-ton.

Portuguese clarinetist Carlos Cordeiro is stalwart in creating and broadcast-ing new music, collaborating with composers and different disciplines, impro-vising, studying and performing on each of the instruments of the clarinet family.

Working with Joan Tower, Carlos recorded for KUHF (Houston, TX) and as a soloist he has previously recorded for RDP (Portugal). As an orchestral and ensemble player, Carlos Cordeiro has toured Spain, China, Italy, France, Swit-zerland, Germany, Hungary, Russia and the United States and played as part of groups such as Argento New Music Project, [kla], Reflex Ensemble, Me-tropolis Ensemble, DaCamera Young Artists in Houston, Texas, Tactus En-semble in New York and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Switzerland.The conductors and coaches he's worked with include Pierre Boulez, Antonio Saiote, Andrew Cyr, Magnus Lindberg, Chen Halevi, Anssi Karttunen, Alain Damiens, Phillipe Couper, Larry Combs, Ernesto Molinari and Marcus Weiss, among others.

Carlos is a freelancer based in New York City, equally as a soloist and cham-ber musician and a member of loadbang. He holds a Master’s Degree in Con-

temporary Performance from Manhattan School of Music, a Master’s Degree from Rice University and a Bachelor’s Degree from ESMAE (Portugal).

A native of Pittsburgh, Andy Kozar is a New York City based trumpeter, improviser, composer and educator that has been called a 'star soloist' by Time-OutNY and has been said to be ‘agile as he navigated leaps and slurs with grace...he shifted between lyricism and aggression deftly’ by the International Trumpet Guild Journal. A strong advocate of contemporary music, he is a founding member of the contemporary music quartet loadbang. With loadbang, his playing has been said to be ‘polished and dynamic, with very impressive playing’ by the Baltimore Sun, and that he 'coaxed the ethereal and the gritty from [his] muted instru-ment...and revealed a facility for shaping notes and color' by the San Francisco Classi-cal Voice. He is also a member of TILT Brass, the Byrne:KozarDuo, and has performed with new music ensembles including Bang on a Can, Ensemble Signal, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Ensemble Echappe, Ensemble ACJW, Wet Ink, and Mark Gould’s Pink Baby Monster. He has performed alongside artists such as Dave Douglas, Pablo Heras Casado, James Thompson, Mark Gould and Brad Lubman, in addition to working closely with numerous composers including Helmut Lachenmann, Augusta Reed Thomas, Christian Wolff and Pulitzer Prize winning composers David Lang and Charles Wuorinen. Kozar has performed has performed at venues both domestically and abroad including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, MoMA, Rothko Chapel, The Barclays Center, and Shanghai Symphony Hall.

Equally well versed in the traditional repertoire, he is the principal trumpet of the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Stamford and Hudson Valley Philharmonics. As a baroque trumpeter, he has performed as a part of the Boston Early Music Festival and with ensembles including Rebel Baroque, American Baroque Orchestra, The Bach Players of Holy Trinity in New York City, at St. Thomas alongside the St. Thomas Boys Choir, and with Ensemble Musica Humana.

In addition to contemporary and traditional classical music, his versatility has also allowed him the opportunity to perform with the Grammy nominated Travis Sullivan’s Bjorkestra, Russian pop-stars Tamara Gverdtsiteli and Igor Krutoi, indie pop bands including YUCK, the Generationals and Emanuel and the Fear and on Broadway’s Mary Poppins.

Jeffrey Gavett (baritone), called a “brilliantly agile singer” by the New York Times, performs a repertoire spanning from Gregorian chant to newly com-missioned works and his own compositions. He has performed with a broad range of collaborators, from the Rolling Stones and indie rock group Clogs to new music groups ICE, New Juilliard Ensemble, Red Light New Music, Roomful of Teeth, SEM Ensemble, Signal, Talea Ensemble, Le Train Bleu,

Rev. TJ McGlinchey is a folk singer-songwriter from Philadelphia, PA. He received his MA in Education from Goddard College before attending VCFA to earn his MFA. "Don't Be Afraid" is a song from his 2012 debut album ti-tled "Tell Me To Stay" which has been arranged as a bossa nova for The Jer-emy Siskind Trio.

Brian E. Mejia is a composer who lives in Springfield Massachusetts; he also is a craftsman, artist, and blade smith. When he composes he likes to develop his music from an internal story. He commonly will write a short story or de-scriptive language to springboard his compositions. This semester he has composed a set of themes and variations entitled "Commonalities". All four variations have common elements yet also stand on their own as individual pieces. Brian Mejia also strives to give performers as much freedom as possi-ble to express themselves and take liberty to make the music their own, so that no two performers will play exactly the same. The subtitle next to each commonality is meant to give the musician a chance to explore the various possibilities that it may bring to mind.

Robert Monroe—Birds fascinate poets and composers. John Keats sat listen-ing to a nightingale in a garden, and emerged a few hours later with most of his ode, a poem about birds, music, poetry, life, eternity, and so many other things. My song includes some of the highlights of that poem's journey. I had the contours of birdsong somewhat in mind, though not too consciously. I often visit the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and listen to the birds there and near my home. The birds and other creatures in these spaces of nature seem to go about their lives rather happily, with an air of timelessness and eternity about the whole scene.

Keats embodied "in-feeling," the ability to tune into the consciousness of an-other creature. The poem moves between the world of the bird and the poet's own psyche, and I replicate this back-and-forth in the duet between clarinet and voice. The receding end frame of the piano acts a sort of dramatic chorus. There are various moments of isomorphism between poem and mu-sic, such as a beat of eleven, like Keats's lines, that with a mid-line pause make for an eleven-beat line.

"Birds A-Wing" looks at two sides of flight and transcendence. In my mind was William Appling, one of my first music teachers. What a gift inspiring teachers of music give us. And thusly, a big thank you to Rick Baitz, who guided my process with great sensitivity, for which I am grateful. I would also like to thank the many others at VCFA who have encouraged and helped me in ways great and, well, great.

With an education in architecture and fine art, Paul Lorenz combines the principals and immediacy of painting, drawing and music with the logic of architecture and construction. All media are a balance of physical structure (wood, canvas, paper, film); visual structure (brush strokes, scrapes, lines, notes); and tool (musical instruments, brushes, cameras, found objects), allow-ing the process to be the final subject and the resulting imagery and music to be a record of time and place.

'The Sky is a Wall' is the third of three poems by writer Tariq Shah being ex-plored during the August residency at VCFA.

Huge thanks go to Carla Kihlstedt for wanting to take this journey, play within the language and keep me focused on the horizon.

Jan McBride—I live on a ranch in San Diego with 3 goats. I have played, composed and taught music most of my life. I graduated from U of A in Tuc-son, AZ. with a degree in Sociology and from Grove School of Music in L.A. in Performance, Composing and Arranging.

This is my 3rd semester and my faculty advisor is Don DiNicola. Don has given me the keys to the kingdom with technology. I had a studio 10 years ago and could not deal with the tech. It was overwhelming for me. Don has taken me to another place with my tech, including setting up another studio from scratch. In today’s world, music and tech are intertwined and this semes-ter I got to feel and experience the freedom from that fear. Thank you Don! You are the greatest!!

The Dream is my musical statement for all little girls who dream and are told they can’t have their dream because it is a man’s world.

The events in the past year with #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have opened doors for me and millions of other women. I truly believe that women are making huge inroads toward equality.

The first movement is The Little Girl. She has a dream.

The second movement is You Can’t Dream Little Girl. This is that confus-ing concept we live with every day.

The third movement is 2017.

Lauren McCall is a composer and musician who lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. She enjoys teaching music and playing various instruments. Lauren would like to thank Andy Jaffe for his mentorship, patience, and crea-tive insight this semester.

Foot in the Hand is a ballad based on a childhood story of one of her family members who struggles with insomnia to this day, but as a child would fall asleep with her foot in her mother's hand.

and Wet Ink Ensemble. In 2010 he founded the Ekmeles vocal ensemble, which is dedicated to performing new works for a cappella voices and classics of the avant garde. Ekmeles has been praised by the New York Times for their “extraordinary sense of pitch”, and described as “virtuosically adventur-ous” by Alex Ross.

As a solo vocalist, he has performed in Alice Tully Hall, Issue Project Room, The Kitchen, Le Poisson Rouge, Merkin Hall, Roulette, The Stone, and Zankel Hall. He recently gave several world premieres by Chaya Czernowin with ICE at Miller Theatre, and was praised by the New York Times as “brilliantly agile.” He has also championed new theatrical and operatic works, giving the US premiere of Steven Takasugi’s Strange Autumn, and singing numerous premieres under the auspices of American Opera Projects and Ex-periments in Opera.

Mr. Gavett is also an accomplished ensemble singer, having performed with the choirs of Trinity Wall Street, St. Thomas Church, and St. Bartholomew’s Church. He also joined George Steel’s Vox Vocal Ensemble to sing in the inaugural concert given at EMPAC in Troy, New York.

Originally from Long Island, trombonist William Lang is an active per-former and improviser in New York and Boston. Hailed for his “superb per-formance” of James Bergin’s Langmusik by the Boston Globe, William is dedicated to playing premieres and new music. He has performed solo recitals at New York City's premiere floating concert venue: Bargemusic, the Di-menna Center, the Stone, the Tank, the Gershwin Hotel, and Greenfield Hall, as well as other venues throughout the country. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Janacek Philharmonia in an acclaimed performance of Iannis Xenakis' trombone concerto: Trookh, as well as with the Fredonia Wind En-semble on a tour of New York State; and as a guest soloist with Ensemble Pi and the Broadway Bach Ensemble, as well as on the Avant Media Festival, the Defacto Music Series, and the Electronic Music Festival.

As a chamber musician William has appeared with the Argento Chamber En-semble, Wet Ink, the SEM Ensemble, Tilt Brass, TACTUS, and Talea. Wil-liam is also a founding member of two New York City based groups: the Gui-donian Hand, a trombone quartet hailed by the New York Times for their "expertly played, with meaty low brass textures" performance; and loadbang, his groundbreaking ensemble consisting of Baritone, Bass Clarinet, Trumpet, and Trombone, hailed as “inventive” by the New Yorker. He is also a mem-ber of the SEM Ensemble, Brooklyn Brass, and the Boston Microtonal Soci-ety’s premier ensemble: Notariotous, where he works alongside like minded composers and performers on the definition of pitch.

Mr. Lang is also an accomplished orchestral and opera musician as well, ap-pearing with many ensembles throughout New York, such as the American Ballet Theatre, Dicapo Opera, Musicra Sacra, the Little Orchestra Society, the Garden State Philharmonic, and the Manhattan Chamber Symphony.

The Housewarming Project

The Housewarming Project is a jazz trio that moves with the grace of a chamber ensemble and sings with the soul of the singer-songwriter move-ment.

The group is led by pianist-composer Jeremy Siskind, who – recently armed with a Masters in English Literature from Columbia University – began writ-ing music and lyrics inspired by poets like Jorge Luis Borges, Seamus Heaney, and Derek Walcott in 2011. These songs have been brought to life for six years by vocalist Nancy Harms, who ushers a listener into a magical, mysteri-ous world with her innate story-telling abilities; and Lucas Pino, who colors the music with whispering tenor work, mournful clarinet, and murmuring bass clarinet.

The group’s two albums, Finger-Songwriter (2012), and Housewarming (2014), have both received critical acclaim and landed on many “Best of the Year” lists in blogs and magazines. Housewarming, which features guest vocalists Kurt Elling, Peter Eldridge, and Kendra Shank alongside Ms. Harms, was lauded as “a shining example of chamber jazz” in a four-star review, by Downbeat maga-zine, who included it as part of their annual “Best of the Year” list.

When the trio began touring in 2012, they decided to focus on matching the intimacy of the music with intimacy of venues, leading to a strong interest in in-home concerts. As of 2018, the Housewarming Project has performed in about 130 homes of all shapes and sizes in 25 different states and Siskind has become a leader of the house concert movement, writing about the experi-ence for Clavier Companion and Piano Teacher Magazine, and presenting on the subject at the Chamber Music America, Jazz Education Network, and Music Teachers National Association conferences.

In 2018, the Housewarming Project released a series of live videos, entitled “at_Home/at_Play” which highlighted the differences between performances at a jazz club (the Blue Whale in Los Angeles) and a house concert venue. The Steptempest blog lauded these videos as “a delightful blend of music” ranging from “uptempo and hilarious” to “quiet and wistful.”

Pianist Jeremy Siskind is the winner of the 2012 Nottingham International Jazz Piano Competition and the second-place winner of the 2011 Montreux Solo Piano Competition. A two-time finalist for the American Pianist Asso-ciation’s Cole Porter Fellowship, Siskind has performed jazz and classical mu-sic at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and in Japan, Switzerland, Colom-bia, Denmark, Thailand, Cyprus, England, Lebanon, India, Tunisia, France, and China. Siskind began serving full-time on the keyboard faculty of Fuller-ton College in Southern California in 2017 after teaching at Western Michigan University for five years.

Ben Lieberman is a composer, guitarist and singer who lives and works in Ridgewood, Queens, with his partner, Emily, and two very ridiculous crea-tures some might (questionably) identify as cats, known formally as Alice Col-trane and Francesca Schubert (née Pretzel and Mustard). His musical inter-ests span the gamut from emotive folk songs to psychedelic rock to micro-tonal chamber music.

Amulet: a bridge from the tangible to the unseen; a charged object, that can transport or imbue. Wear it to heal, to hide, to take flight or refuge; con-versely, to empower, to grow, to give rise to the unrealized within. A—mu—let: the lilt of the “let,” rolling off the soft “mu,” falling from the half-open “A.” Amulet: a song in itself.

Amulet is really an aspirational title. It will take a whole lot longer to get there (if “there” is even attainable or definable), but maybe this piece is a step in that direction — toward affording entry to that ineffable space where dreams and thoughts and memories intermingle; toward connection, bridging worlds; toward getting closer. Here, try this on. Don the Amulet.

I’d like to thank my advisor, John Mallia, for his insights and encouragement this semester (and for steering me to shore when I was floundering about in the shoals). I’d also like to thank Sirius Quartet, who were a huge inspiration for this piece, and to whom it is dedicated. Also shout out to Emily, Mom, Karin, Blake, Trev and Simone, who all nudged me along the way.

Vanessa Littrell—Every semester I think I will write the overture to the mu-sical I've been working on for 10 years. And every semester I am lured into experimentation. This semester is no different. Instead of safely working with an already written set of melodies, I decided to veer off into the land of un-conventional ensemble, while still staying within the comfort zone of working with a vocalist. "Do U Dine?: began it's conception last residency in some-what of a half-dream state. This compelling, seductive voice whispered in my ear, and sounded a lot like the devil on my shoulder. Curious to explore this voice, I decided to dive in full throttle and work with loadbang, an expressive and experimental group. To statisfy both my need for stability and explora-tion, this score has been written in traditional staves as well as two pages of graphic scoring. Today's performance will be the true test of the piece, for when the composer hands the reigns to the performers, that is when the true magic happens. Sit back and enjoy this dialogue between a soul taken too soon in a car crash, and the devil as he sings his sweet melody of false prom-ises. The biggest question being..."Do U Dine?"

Composing music for over twenty years, Vanessa's musical range includes classic instrumental, folk songs, rock and musical theater. Her compositions span generations as well as genres. Vanessa began her study of music, art and sign language at CSU, Northridge. She currently holds a BA in Fine Art from CSU, Chico and a music credential from University of Reno, Nevada.

For his final submission, Mario Inchausti presents this rescore of "Viaje a Júpiter", a short film made in 1909. It is a blah, blah, blah from blah, blah. Inspiration was taken from blah, blah, blah & Blavatsky. In short, movie silent. Mario add noise. But, mostly, Mario (while still in the 3rd per-son) would like to express his profoundest gratitude to all his mentors at VCFA: Diane Moser, Rick Baitz, Ravi Krishnaswami & Don DiNicola who provided much guidance for this piece & actually encouraged Mario(!) to run rampant.

Composer/Student/Performer Adam Kale draws inspiration from an eclectic minstrelsy of artists, musicians, writers, and shamans. Some cards in the Ar-cana include: Pierre Boulez, Toru Takemitsu, Anthony Davis, Hossein Ali-zadeh, and William Blake.

Adam holds a B.A. in composition and classical guitar performance. He cur-rently studies Persian radif (classical repertoire) and tar (lute) with Persian musician/composer Sahba Motallebi.

During the winter 2018 semester Adam studied with Diane Moser at VCFA, and is deeply grateful for her mentoring, patience, and support.

Adam and his wife Jacqui, live in Beverly Massachusetts with their dog, Cargo.

Carl J. LaMark is a pianist, composer, and writer from Chicago, IL. The composition of "Circular Ruins" began with a reencounter with the Borges' story of the same name, which - to put it simply - is a parable on the nature of the creative act itself and to what degree the artist is himself a creation, an idea dreamed up by another - not purely a product or idea, something con-crete, but immune from destruction, immolation. The work incorporations a number of "failed" processes, purposefully half-realized additive and subtrac-tive approaches that are readily abandoned in a "block" fashion before reach-ing a full realization and, despite itself, ending in flames.

Sarah LeMieux teaches, writes and performs with the Castlefield Trio (jazz), The Girls from Ruby Falls (Americana) and Madame Thalia's Vaudeville Re-view (hotsy-totsy!), as well as composing more experimental things that she can only get people to sit through here. She has three kiddos, one husband, and is on the Board of Education.

blue prayer" is intended to honor the sacred intersection of dive bars, blues, whiskey and the little piece of heaven they provide us.

Thank you to John Mallia for an excellent semester.

As a pedagogue, Siskind boasts eleven publications with Hal Leonard, includ-ing the landmark instructional books, Jazz Band Pianist and First Lessons in Pi-ano Improv. Siskind is also a leader of the house concert movement, having performed in well over 100 houses in 24 different states around the U.S., and given presentations on in-home concerts at Jazz Education Network, MTNA, and Chamber Music America conferences.

Siskind’s many other projects reveal a diverse portfolio - arranging songs for ascendant soprano Julia Bullock, writing the theme song for the Obies (New York’s annual Off-Broadway theater awards), collaborating with saxophonist Lucas Pino on a jazz song cycle entitled “Golden Rule, Turing Test” which premiered at Lincoln Center, serving as musical director for comediennes Lea Delaria and Sandra Bernhard, performing and recording with jazz artists like Nick Finzer, Darcy James Argue, and Andrew Rathbun, teaching piano prod-igy Justin Schultz (who recently appeared on Harry Connick Jr. and Steve Harvey’s television shows), and collaborating with jazz vocal star Nancy Harms.

A proud Yamaha Artist since 2013, Siskind holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (Jazz Performance and Music Theory) and Columbia Univer-sity (English and Comparative Literature). His teachers include Tamir Hendel-man, Tony Carmaia, Harold Danko, Rose Grace, Sophia Rosoff, and Fred Hersch.

Learn more about Jeremy Siskind at www.jeremysiskind.com.

Possessing a voice filled with delicious subtleties and striking authenticity, Nancy Harms has been declared “an original" with "a truly special voice and style” by DOWNBEAT magazine. Will Friedwald of the Wall Street Journal stated that “she engages the listener by seeming to put her whole soul com-pletely forward…after hearing her just once, you’ll never want to let her go.” Audiences all over the world keep coming back again and again to hear this rising-star, international jazz vocalist cast her spell and bare her heart.

Born and raised in Minnesota, Harms relocated to New York City in 2010. She has toured Europe multiple times since 2011, with her most recent tour taking her to such prestigious venues as Copenhagen's "Standard", Paris' "New Morning", "Herr Nilsen" in Oslo, and other stops in Norway, Italy, and Denmark. She has played Norway’s SORTLAND JAZZ FEST twice .... Nancy’s NYC appearances have included her own shows at BIRDLAND, ZINC BAR , SMALLS JAZZ CLUB, THE KITANO, 55 BAR, ROCK-WOOD MUSIC HALL, and several other venues, including a series of per-formances with trombone legend WYCLIFFE GORDON; among them DIZZY’S CLUB COCA-COLA, THE LENOX LOUNGE, and concerts in Toulouse, France. Her most recent Manhattan appearance was in the famed METROPOLITAN ROOM, where she premiered her brand new show enti-

tled "ELLINGTON AT NIGHT", in which the NEW YORK TIMES de-scribed her as "...[an] enigmatic woman of mystery forging her own path". In addition to her own CDs “DREAMS IN APARTMENTS” and “IN THE INDIGO”, she appears on WYCLIFFE GORDON’S disc “HELLO POPS” and on JEREMY SISKIND’S releases “FINGER-SONGWRITER” and "HOUSEWARMING". Nancy appeared in the PITTSBURGH JAZZLIVE FESTIVAL, TWIN CITIES HOT SUMMER JAZZ FEST, and headlined a stage at the 2015 COPENHAGEN JAZZ FESTIVAL. One of her self-penned tunes from the "Dreams In Apartments" album ("Weight Of The World") placed 3rd in Popjazzradio.com's international listener poll of top jazz tunes of 2014 with over a million and a half votes.

Lucas Pino has traveled to perform around the world in Japan, Australia, Poland, Spain, Britain, The Netherlands, Brazil, Costa Rica, as well as throughout the United States and Canada. He has appeared at venues such as the Blue Note (Tokyo and New York), Dizzy's, The Jazz Standard, Yoshi's, Bimhaus, The Jazz Kitchen, The Rex, and Chicago Symphony Hall, as well as the North Sea Jazz Festival. Lucas was a featured guest artist at the 2016 Northern Arizona University Jazz Festival, as well as a featured artist at the 2015 Ballard Jazz Festival. Pino is the leader of The No Net Nonet, a nine piece ensemble that has maintained a monthly residency at Smalls Jazz Club in NYC since March 2013.

Lucas works frequently as a sideman for artists including Lea DeLaria, Gideon van Gelder, Takuya Kuroda, Richard Boukas, David Lopato, Bryan Carter, Lauren Desberg, Rafal Sarnecki, Nick Finzer, Jeremy Siskind, Dave Baron, Alex Wintz, Jorn Swart, Marike van Dijk, and Florian Hoefner. He also plays frequently with the Birdland Big Band and the Eyal Vilner Big Band. His past experience also includes performances with Dave Brubeck, Curtis Fuller, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Christian McBride, Carl Allen, Benny Green and David Sanborn.

Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Lucas grew up singing hymns in church and in the choir at school. The first music he ever listened to was Jazz, and he started playing Saxophone at age 10. As a high school Junior, Lucas won the Downbeataward for Best Instrumental Soloist in 2004. He went on to attend the Brubeck Institute from 2005-2007, where he studied closely with Dave Brubeck, and finished his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Jazz Perform-ance at The New School in 2009. He received a Master of Music from Juil-liard in 2011.

Lucas' major influences on the saxophone include Stan Getz, Lucky Thomp-son, John Coltrane, Michael Brecker, and Chris Cheek. Compositionally, he is heavily influenced by the sound of big band, and composers including Wayne Shorter, Maria Schneider, Walt Weiskopf, and Thad Jones.

Paul Gilliland—I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Composition and Theatre Design from Olivet College, Michigan in 1984. I retired from the US Army in April 2016 and decided to pursue my lifelong aspiration of earning a Master’s Degree in Music Composition. This semester I worked with Don DiNicola and based the lyrics on two poems written by my late wife Lori (1963-1996). The work is written for Voice, Bass Clarinet, and Piano over fixed me-dia. The piece is based entirely on notes generated from the mathematical ra-tios of the first four Lucas Numbers. Special thanks to Don DiNicola for his guidance and mentorship in the developing of the fixed media track that ac-companies the live performance and for his enthusiasm as I explored the won-ders of mathematics and its possible uses in developing musical compositions.

Andrew Richard Hordes grew up in Brooklyn, NY and is now residing in North Carolina. He is a practicing Cardiologist who studied and performed classical piano, developing an interest in composing by age six. He has gone on to write piano music and has released two albums of original music. His teachers have included Valentina Gershgorin, George Pappastavrou, Dr Frank-lin Morris (electronic music), Leo Smit, Adrian Carr, Stephen Savage, Jean Kopperud and now the incredible faculty at VCFA.

This semesters composition is entitled “Transformation”. It was inspired by a time many years ago, when I would improvise on children's tunes at the piano, while my daughter would dance. Many of these tunes were similar yet different and recognizable. This string quartet utilizes simple themes which transition through different but, related musical flavors. There is a musical transforma-tion within the composition, metaphorically, the transformation of my children growing up, and my transformation as a composer during my time at VCFA. The various themes that can be recognized within the piece include: Shaker, A child on a pony, Irish Pub, Waltz, Carousel, Sunrise over a peaceful lake, Tango, and finishing with a return to the Pub. Enjoy!

Many thanks to Rick Baitz for his teaching and skillful guidance throughout the semester and to all the faculty at VCFA who have been my teachers and friends. A special thanks to my wife Adriana, who has stood by me while I have tried to create some beautiful noise.

Ethan Foote (b.1987) is a composer, arranger, and performer engaged in various modes of musical practice. His work has fallen primarily within jazz, classical, and folk idioms, both apart from and in dialogue with one another. He also writes and performs in the context of theatre, dance, and interdiscipli-nary art, living out his devotion not only to music but to the arts and humani-ties as a whole.

I chose to compose a setting of "I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day," by the English poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), not be-cause I consider it a particularly great poem. Rather, it called to me as a text with which I, as a composer, could creatively interact, as much via its imper-fection as its achievement. I found myself both averse and attracted to the poem, to its formal and narrative excesses and to the extremity of its moral and psychological posture. I felt compelled to engage it musically.

My treatment of the text plays heavily on the fragility of the narrator's self-relation, which is by turns tender and loathing, eloquent and grotesque. The music flirts with tonality at several points but never really commits, and it breaks its composure repeatedly, sometimes in conjunction with the text and sometimes not.

I wish to thank my advisor, John Fitz Rogers, for all his expert tutelage and warm encouragement, as well as everyone at VCFA who helped make this past semester's endeavor possible, and of course, loadbang for performing my work.

Julian Gerstin— "When You Turn the Corner" is a song of this political moment, and the sooner it goes out-of-date the better. It is in the spirit (though not the style) of Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso's 1969 tropicana anthem "Divino Maravilhoso" (sung by Gal Costa, if you want to look it up). Too bad 1960s Brazilian dictatorship is echoed in the U.S. today. The song mentions several names — real people — heroes of mine — see if you can guess who they are ... My advisor this semester, Andy Jaffe, kept me focused on the basics of harmony that, as a life-long percussionist, are still a new play-ground for me. I had a great time building sandcastles, knocking them down, and building new ones, all the while looking at how other composers built theirs, strong and beautiful. Thank you, Andy.

Sirius Quartet

Internationally acclaimed veterans of contemporary music, Sirius Quar-tet combines exhilarating repertoire with unequalled improvisational fire. These conservatory-trained performer-composers shine with precision, soul and a raw energy rarely witnessed on stage, championing a forward-thinking, genre-defying approach that makes labels like 'New Music' sound tame.

Since their debut concert at the original Knitting Factory in New York City, Sirius has played some of the most important venues in the world, including Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Beijing Music Festival, the Cologne Music Triennale, Stuttgart Jazz, Musique Actuelle in Canada, the Taichung Jazz Fest – Taiwan's biggest jazz event – and many others.

Having premiered works by significant living composers, Sirius continues their long-running commitment to musical innovation with bold, original works by its own members, pushing beyond the conventional vocabulary of string instruments by incorporating popular song forms, extended techniques, gripping improvisations and undeniable, contemporary grooves.

Fung Chern Hwei is a current member of Sirius Quartet and Seven)Suns, and freelances as a musician in New York City. He plays violin and viola, and com-poses on the side. He co-scored a Malaysian film, Mrs K, with his counterpart from the theremin-violin duo, FUGU. His latest composition, "THERE." for sitar and string quartet, commissioned by the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival (MA), will be premiered next week at the festival.

A violinist, pianist and composer of contemporary music from small ensembles to symphonic orchestras, Grammy nominated Gregor Huebner makes music that is accessibly sophisticated and interesting, breaking down borders in be-tween contemporary music, jazz and world music. He has released a series of albums including the “Round About Bartok, Mompou and Monteverdi” series together with Richie Beirach and George Mraz, his own “El Violin Latino Vol I and Vol.II ,” Paths become Lines with the Sirius Quartet and New Music for Strings which features his orchestral compositions.

His newest projects will be a recording of his new works for string quartets, another “EL Violin Latino, the Cuban Album” as well as a new recording with his NY-NRG Jazz quartet. As a composer commissioned by Helmut Rilling’s International Bach Akademie, the SWR Radio Orchestra and Big Band, the WDR Big Band, Orpheus Vokalensemble, Tribeka New Music, Grand Thea-tre de Luxemburg and many others, Huebner is constantly working on creating new works bringing his own voice to audiences all over the world.

From John Adams to John Zorn, violist Ron Lawrence has performed and recorded with many of new music’s most exciting personali-ties. Besides being a founding member of the Sirius Quartet, he has per-formed extensively with Cuartetango, Quartet Indigo, the Soldier String Quartet and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Other collaborators in-clude Anthony Braxton, John Blake, Bob Beldon, Anthony Davis, Regina Carter, Elliott Sharp, James Blood Ulmer, Cassandra Wilson, John Cale, and Eumir Deodato. Further uptown, he has recorded with Kathleen Bat-tle, Robert Craft, John Cage, and Andre Previn.

One of Ron’s most exciting projects was a journey to Alaska to record John Luther Adams’ multi-media spectacular, Earth and the Great Weather – A Sonic Geography of the Arctic. Despite a rigorous performance schedule, he was able to break away each evening to cross-country ski under the Northern Lights.

Boston-based cellist, guitarist, singer-songwriter and composer Jeremy Har-man has performed his music in concert halls and other venues throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia as the cellist of Sirius Quartet, a string quartet who writes and performs original multi-genre instrumental music. Working as a freelance cellist in the Boston and NYC music scenes for the better part of a decade, he has shared the stage with artists as diverse as Peter Gabriel, Sting, Lady Gaga, Bobby McFerrin, Placido Domingo, Tracy Silverman, Pinchas Zu-kerman, Tony Bennett and John Williams. Harman embraces the stylistic breadth of the cello that is rooted in the classical tradition but not limited by it, and seeks to create music that is not limited by genre or preconception. His solo project Long Is The Walk recently released its debut album Spirits + Ghosts, a collection of haunting songs and instrumentals which blend elements of folk, jazz, indie rock and contemporary classical music. Jeremy is a dedicated music educator and maintains a private teaching studio in the Boston area in which he teaches cello and guitar to students of all ages.

jeremyharman.net

longisthewalk.com

Quincy Davis—In case you did not know this, everything vibrates. Yes, EVERYTHING! Even things which do not appear to be vibrating are vibrat-ing. Crazy, right!?! Before I began my research for this composition, I did not know that either.

Once learning more about vibration and sound frequencies and their impor-tance to everything in the existing world, I felt inspired to try and write a com-position that depicts some of these vibrations and frequencies that I know eve-ryone is familiar with.

The World In Vibration can be divided into five parts: The big bang, the fast growth of an expanding world, love, hate and hope/despair. Though all of these occurrences involve integral vibrations that allow this world to exist, the most important vibrations are the ones we share with each other. The rest will take care of itself.

Thank you Diane for your guidance!

Megan DiGeorgio is a violist, composer, and educator based in the Washing-ton, D.C. area. She holds a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music from The Catholic University of America and University of Delaware, respectively, both in viola performance, with a music composition minor. Her music has been performed at Catholic University, at the New Voices @ CUA Festival, at Uni-versity of Delaware, and by The Euphonic Syndicate. She has received com-missions from The Euphonic Syndicate, who premiered her piece "The Wind Blows," in Fort Collins, CO in 2017, and from Tsuna Sakamoto, violist of the National Symphony Orchestra. In October of 2018, the Susquehanna Sym-phony Orchestra will be premiering her piece, "These are the Generations." She has performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at several Smithsonian museums, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immacu-late Conception, and for Pope Francis during his 2015 American visit. She maintains an active studio at the International School of Music in Bethesda, Maryland of violin and viola students. In addition, she is a professional singer in the Schola Cantorum at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Wash-ington, D.C. "Unspoken Order" was written for loadbang, with an original text by poet Maria Beben, based in Frederick, Maryland. The piece is comprised of a narrated, rather than sung, text, with the instruments providing support and color. The text deals mainly with the natural elements and their interaction with each other.

which point passenger Mrs. Long John Silver leaves the deck to go her bunk below. Her dreams incorporate rhythms from the work songs around her, her own inherent diasporic rhythm, a bembe, and a contrafact reimagining of a folk tune from her most recent country of residence. She's just heard the Walk Away Halyard Shanty Roll the Old Chariot Along, a shanty for the hoisting of sails, as she is setting out on her journey. The beginning of her journey looks toward the end, and thus a Capstan Shanty takes her to the more piratical Coast of High Barbary. The dream reaches its acme where the work of reuniting and the inversion of the loss coalesces in the contrafact of I'll Love My Love simultaneously. The dream evaporates into his limping rhythm coming up the walk, hopping up the stairs coming home to align with her bembe.

Jenny Davis, a mom, composer, vocalist, tennis addict and a Gemini from Seattle. Okay enough about me, I’m going to tell these people how much I LOVE THEM: Nicholas Aaron Creed- a three named wonder, JP Beattie - my other best ‘Aquarius’ friend, Vanessa my twin, Tiffany, Eric, Jan, Andy (both), Tamara, Carl, Mario, Bunny, Bridget, Nikki, Sarah, TJ, DJ, Ben, Paul, Quincy, and on and on. Mostly I love Roger Zahab. He has been through it with me. And Carol. Thank you so much. I’m graduating because of both of you.

The song cycle trilogy is now complete. The invitation, what it was like, and the prayer going forward. Hope you like it.

If you could change my heart If you could change me If you take my fear And rearrange me Into someone choosing love Transforming anger To rise above

If you could show me Everything will be okay If you could grant me just A little faith? You said ask me and you shall receive If you could change me Change them too

(Lyrics by Jenny Davis)

Composer Bios

Andrew Amendola—The initial concept for this piece was a musical manifes-tation of an imagined internal monologue of Darth Vader at various points spanning the period from the end of The Empire Strikes Back, through Return of the Jedi. It relates to Vader’s changing feelings toward his son Luke (and later his daughter Leia), and his growing realization that perhaps he didn’t want to be remembered as a destroyer of civilizations—especially with the possibility of grandkids in the future.

As I began composing the piece, news of the “tender age shelters” surfaced, and outrage over the separation of immigrant families reached a fever pitch. I was horrified and disgusted with the government’s conduct, yet was also in-spired by the protests that ultimately caused a policy change. The situation evoked images of the WWII Japanese American internment camps, reminded me of the remark often attributed to Mark Twain that “history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.”

The impetus for the string quartet, as well as its musical material focus, and development, changed quickly as I considered the trauma suffered by immi-grant families torn apart at our border, by people who could be our colleagues, neighbors, friends, or siblings.

I dedicated History Rhymes to the immigrant families torn apart and displaced by the United States’ abhorrent Zero Tolerance Immigration Policy.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to John Fitz Rogers for his astute evaluation, commentary, and assistance throughout the semester. His meticu-lous attention to detail proved invaluable to my progress.

ultimately meaningless emoting is a piece that I decided to just let happen. Typically with my music there is some narrative or extramusical reasoning to give it meaning [in my head]. But here I wanted absolute music, governed only by where I wanted the music to go, as I had done when I was younger and going against what my head tells me makes my music interesting now.

Devin Barone [DVB] (b. 1996) is a composer of electronic music, concert works and music for media. His music primarily explores concepts, gesture, narrative storytelling, and motivic development through these mediums. Also present is a love for groove, polystylism, and texture as well as flow and pacing.

DVB recently finished [unity], an electronic concept album embodying an arti-ficial intelligence having a nervous breakdown, utilizing glitches as musical ideas. And flox.EP, featuring a fourth-wall breaking multi-voiced robot, both available at dvb9340.bandcamp.com.

His full orchestra work Expansion! was featured at the Tennessee Valley Music Festival in 2013, and [unity] tracks fail_better and perverted_sentimentality [ft. Andrew Yee] at the Frontwave New Music Festival and Electroacoustic Barn Dance in 2018. DVB’s timpani solo Impetus (2014) was also selected for inclu-sion in the NYSSMA Manual (Ed. 32).

Barone is currently studying for his MFA in Music Composition at the Ver-mont College of Fine Arts with Mike Early and Don DiNicola. He has previ-ously studied at SUNY Fredonia with Paul Coleman, Jamie Leigh Sampson, Rob Deemer and at Bay Shore High School with Ed Schaefer.

JohnPaul Beattie received his BM in music composition from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he is now an Adjunct Assistant Professor and the Master Sound Engineer for the College of Performing Arts.

String Quartet No. 2 is his thesis composition and composed of two move-ments. The first is entirely acoustic and without any processing. The second uses a Max/MSP patch to control the each of the instruments and place or move their sound around the quadrophonic speaker setup. This piece is dedi-cated to his wife, Jackie, and son, Carson. JohnPaul wishes to thank John Mal-lia and Ravi Krishnaswami for their mentorship, insights, guidance, kindness and friendship during his time at VCFA.

Bunny Beck—"Two Rivers and An Ocean" is a three movement tone poem that depicts my favorite bodies of water.

I have tried to express their images and convey my feelings and perceptions by composing "The Journey of the Hudson River", "The Sprightly Weisse Lutschine River" (which is a Swiss River), and "The Atlantic Ocean".

I composed the piece for percussion instruments that include glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, tamtam, snare drum, bass drum, bamboo wind chimes, rainstick, thunder tube, bodhran with marbles, wood block and Tibetan singing bowl.

David Blonstein is a first-year student at VCFA with a background in piano performance and composition. This past semester, he studied with faculty member Ravi Krishnaswami. His major musical influences include John Wil-liams, Danny Elfman, Koji Kondo, and a host of the old masters. Currently, he aims to pursue a career scoring for films, games, and television.

The first of these three pieces, Whisked Away seeks to convey the motion of flight and the idea of total freedom as one leaves the earth behind. After a brief and spirited excursion through the clouds and beyond, the listener touches down safely.

Next, Respite explores melancholy and the search for inner peace. Two pen-sive main themes are briefly interrupted by a resurgence of two motifs from Whisked Away, suggesting liberation and the desire to move forward. Dedi-cated to the memory of good friend.

Finally, Vaudevillainy is a swinging piece all about being up to no good. Devi-ous and sneaky, its two infectious main themes slink their way through a vari-ety of tonal areas, before eventually allowing the performers to have their say.

Nikki Capra is a composer and writer living in Denver, CO with her hubby, 3 young children and lovable Puggle, Max. Sometimes, late at night, when no one else is awake, she writes stories that she may or may not attempt to pub-lish someday. She will graduate this Saturday and describes her future as “hope rooted in reality.” To her family: “100 million trillion ba-zillion thou-sand times to the moon and back.”

OF (a study of migrations) AN EXPLORATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG THE NATURAL WORLD, INDUSTRIALIZATION, AND MACHINE LEARNING Fantastic Machine all things being equal

Water’s Edge echoes sirens

Beacons harmless endeavors the distinction of indifference

Giants a hesitation results in a reluctant concession nightfall

Bridget Carson's natal Norwich, Connecticut is a long way from her current residence in Independence, Kansas where she lives with her family and teaches at Independence Community College. Both places, however, foster and enable her love of literature and history. Guided and inspired by Andy Jaffe this semester, she found a return to an old favorite brought her to a dreamscape for percussion. While Young Hawkins is overhearing a dastardly plan for mutiny on the Hispaniola, another voyage has departed the quay at Bristol. Imagine the Second Mate striking the bell for the change of watch at