“Excit­ing, amus­ing, dis­turb­ing, beau­ti­ful, and always fas­ci­nat­ing, Don Fre­und has showed him­self to be a com­poser thought­ful in approach and imag­i­na­tive in style.” (Music and Musi­cians, The Wash­ing­ton Post) Fre­und has com­posed works rang­ing from solo, cham­ber, and orches­tral music to pieces involv­ing live per­for­mances with elec­tronic instru­ments, music for dance, and large the­atre works. An inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized com­poser, he is also active as a pianist, con­duc­tor, and lec­turer. His works are pub­lished by Lau­ren Keiser Music, Boosey and Hawkes, E. C. Schirmer, See­saw, and Vivace Press.

As Pro­fes­sor of Com­po­si­tion at Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity Jacobs School of Music since 1992, teach­ing com­po­si­tion con­tin­ues to be a major com­po­nent of Freund’s career. Freund’s stu­dents from 30 years of teach­ing con­tinue to win an impres­sive array of awards and recog­ni­tions. He has also served as guest com­poser at a vast array of uni­ver­si­ties and music fes­ti­vals. He has served as composer-in-residence at the Aus­tralian National Acad­emy of Music, the Bow­doin Inter­na­tional Music Fes­ti­val, and the Bre­vard Music Cen­ter and has given lec­tures and mas­ter classes at Royal Con­ser­va­to­ries in Brus­sels, Prague, Vienna, the Hague, the Royal Acad­emy of Music in Lon­don, and Tan­gle­wood Music Cen­ter. In the fall of 2005 Fre­und toured Asia, giv­ing mas­ter cases and lec­ture recitals in Seoul, Miyazaki, Tokyo, Shang­hai, Hong Kong, Kaoh­si­ung, and Bangkok, and returned in 2009 to var­i­ous uni­ver­si­ties in Tai­wan to give recitals, lec­tures, and mas­ter classes. Lec­tures from his 6-hour series enti­tled “Com­po­si­tion Lessons with JS Bach,” using color-coded scores and piano excerpts to make Bach’s WTC Book 1 a liv­ing cre­ative expe­ri­ence, are avail­able on YouTube.

Don Fre­und was born in Pitts­burgh in 1947; he stud­ied at Duquesne Uni­ver­sity (BM ‘69), and earned his grad­u­ate degrees at the East­man School of Music (MM’70, DMA’72). His com­po­si­tion teach­ers were Joseph Will­cox Jenk­ins, Dar­ius Mil­haud, Charles Jones, Wayne Bar­low, War­ren Ben­son, and Samuel Adler. From 1972 to 1992 he was chair­man of the Com­po­si­tion Depart­ment at Mem­phis State Uni­ver­sity. As founder and coor­di­na­tor of Mem­phis State University’s Annual New Music Fes­ti­val, he pro­grammed close to a thou­sand new Amer­i­can works; he has been con­duc­tor or pianist in the per­for­mance of some two hun­dred new pieces, usu­ally in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the composer.

Fre­und has received two grants from the National Endow­ment for the Arts (Cello Con­certo; Pas­sion with Tropes), grants from Jacobs School of Music to com­pose the bal­let Madame Bovary and Earth­dance Con­certo. Com­mis­sions includ­ing the Ten­nessee Arts Com­mis­sion with Opera Mem­phis (Opera: The Bishop’s Ghost), Ten­nessee Music Teach­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (Pas­toral Sym­phony), the Mem­phis City Schools (Vista for Three String Orches­tras), the Mem­phis in May Inter­na­tional Fes­ti­val (Spring­songs), the Verdehr Trio (Tri­omu­sic), the Ten­nessee Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion (Jug Blues & Fat Pickin’ for the Governor’s School Wind Ensem­ble), the Pitts­burgh New Music Ensem­ble (Hard Cells), the Jubal Trio (Back­yard Songs), Mem­phis Bal­let (Alice in Won­der­land), the Inter­na­tional Viola Con­gress (Fan­fare for Vio­las), the Pas­tiche Ensem­ble (Rough and Tum­ble), Florida State Uni­ver­sity and Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity (Beyond the Brass Gates), the Rodrigo Riera Inter­na­tional Gui­tar Fes­ti­val (One Singer, Two Voices), Baldwin-Wallace Con­ser­va­tory (Pri­mav­era Dou­bles), Voces Novae (Child­hood Awak­en­ing), Robert and Sara LeBien (Quilt Hori­zon), Ger­man­town Sym­phony Orches­tra (Pre­ludes for Orches­tra), What­com Sym­phony Orches­tra (Word on the Street), Ensem­ble Zel­lig (Crunch Time), and the Indi­ana Music Teach­ers Asso­ci­a­tion (Autumn­songs). Prizes include the Wash­ing­ton Inter­na­tional String Quar­tet Com­po­si­tion Com­pe­ti­tion, the Inter­na­tional Soci­ety for Con­tem­po­rary Music/League of Com­posers Inter­na­tional Piano Music Com­pe­ti­tion, the AGO/ECS Pub­lish­ing Award in Choral Com­po­si­tion (God’s Grandeur), the Rodrigo Riera Inter­na­tional Com­pe­ti­tion for Gui­tar Com­po­si­tion (Stir­rings), the Han­son Prize, the McCurdy Award, the Aspen Prize, 25 ASCAP Awards, and a Mac­ge­orge Fel­low­ship from the Uni­ver­sity of Mel­bourne, Aus­tralia. In 2005, Fre­und was also awarded a Guggen­heim Fel­low­ship for Romeo and Juliet: A Shake­spear­ian Music-Drama, which was given its pre­miere pro­duc­tion by the Bloom­ing­ton Play­wrights Project in 2008.

Recent per­for­mances of Freund’s music include Pri­mav­era Dou­bles and Sun­scapes by the Bre­vard Fes­ti­val Orches­tra, Rad­i­cal Light by the Kansas City Sym­phony, Sin­foni­etta by the IU Con­cert Orches­tra and the Inter­lochen World Youth Sym­phony Orches­tra, End of Sum­mer (orches­tral winds) at the Aspen Music Fes­ti­val, Depart­ing Flights (piano trio) pre­miered by Com­posers, Inc. in San Fran­cisco, Hard Cells for 14 instru­ments by the Cleve­land Cham­ber Sym­phony and the Pitts­burgh New Music Ensem­ble, Feux d’artifice-Tombeau (solo piano) and Depart­ingFlights at Merkin Hall (ISCM/League series), SoftCells (15 instru­ments) and QuiltHori­zon by New Music Ensem­bles at Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity and Uni­ver­sity of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, Life of the Party (Con­certo for Bas­soon and 16 friends) at the Mel­bourne Inter­na­tional Dou­ble Reed Con­fer­ence, and Sky Scrap­ings (alto sax­o­phone and piano) in Prague and Mon­treal. The Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity Bal­let The­atre pre­miered his bal­lets, Madame Bovary, Skin Rit­u­als, and Earth­dance Con­certo. Recent CD releases include Madame Bovary Bal­let Suite, Soft Cells, Viola Con­certo, Dis­solv­ing Music (Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity Orches­tra and New Music Ensem­ble, IUSOM-10 dis­trib­uted by Albany), Tri­omu­sic (Verdehr Trio on Crys­tal), Jug Blues & Fat Pickin’ (Cincin­nati CCM Wind Ensem­ble on Klavier), Pen­te­cost and Hard Cells (Indi­ana New Music Ensem­ble), Rad­i­cal Light (Bowl­ing Green Phil­har­mo­nia on Albany), Rough andTum­ble (Pas­tiche Ensem­ble on ACF-Innova) and Back­yard Songs (Jubal Trio on CRI). As a pianist, Freund’s recital reper­toire has extended back from new music to sev­eral com­plete per­for­mances of Bach’s WTC Book I and his own pianis­tic real­iza­tions of Machaut. He has per­formed his Earth­dance Con­certo with wind ensem­bles at Florida State Uni­ver­sity, West Vir­ginia Uni­ver­sity, and Bowl­ing Green State University.

soundSCAPE facilitates the flowering of new music and the exchange of ideas and culture between musicians of tomorrow's generation. Each summer in scenic Maccagno, Italy, soundSCAPE attracts composers and performers from around the world for two weeks of concerts, lectures, master classes and workshops. The essence of the festival is process and collaboration -- soundSCAPE has been the starting point for new music initiatives that have flourished long beyond the festival, all around the globe.

Musicians from soundSCAPE is a flexible chamber ensemble comprised of festival faculty and alumni performance participants. The ensemble has held residencies at the Logos Foundation in Belgium, University of California San Diego, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, University of Maryland Baltimore County, and others. soundSCAPE was founded in 2005 and is directed by Nathanael May, with institutional support from Missouri Western State University.

LISA CELLA:
A champion of contemporary music and Associate Professor at UMBC, Lisa Cella performs throughout the United States and abroad. She is a founding member of new music ensemble NOISE, the flute duo inHale, and the flute and cello duo C2.  She is a faculty member of the Soundscape Festival of Contemporary Music in Maccagno, Italy. She received degrees from Syracuse University, Peabody Conservatory, and the University of California, San Diego.

AIYUN HUANG:
Aiyun Huang enjoys a musical life as soloist, chamber musician, researcher, teacher and producer. She was the First Prize and the Audience Award winner at the Geneva International Music Competition in 2002. A champion of new music, Aiyun has premiered over 100 works over the last two decades internationally. She holds the position of Associate Professor in Percussion and was recently appointed a William Dawson Scholar at McGill University.

GLEB KANASEVICH:
A virtuoso clarinetist/composer Gleb Kanasevich widely performs as a soloist, improviser (clarinet and computer music), and a member of Cantata Profana, Lunar Ensemble and Trio Accendo. He appeared on stages of Spoleto Festival USA, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, PARMAfest, Festival Leonardo De Lorenzo and will appear as a visiting artist in 2015 at MusicArte in Panama, University of Miami, Alia Musica in Pittsburgh, Audeamus International Music Festival in Croatia and many more.

STEPHEN MAROTTO:
Stephen Marotto received a Bachelors degree with honors from the University of Connecticut, a Masters degree from Boston University, and is currently a candidate for a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at BU under the direction of Michael Reynolds. He has worked with numerous composers, and has played with several new music ensembles in the Boston area. Stephen has attended and performed at several new music festivals in both America and abroad. He has a wide range of musical interest that includes contemporary chamber music, improvisatory music, and electronic music.

DANIEL PESCA:
Daniel Pesca has been a guest performer at many university venues, as well as at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Interlochen Center, the Library of Congress, the New Hazlett Theatre (Pittsburgh), the Megaron (Athens, Greece), and the Chicago Cultural Center. Daniel has performed as a featured soloist with the Orchestra of the League of Composers, the Eastman BroadBand, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Slee Sinfonietta. An enthusiastic ensemble pianist, Daniel has appeared with Dal Niente, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Signal, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. He has recorded for Centaur, Block M Records, and Urtext Classics.

Susan Fancher-soprano, Robert Faub-altoSteve Stusek-tenor, Mark Engebretson-baritoneThe Red Clay Saxophone Quartet is a professional chamber music ensemble formed in October 2003 by four internationally recognized saxophonists. Susan Fancher has 15 years of experience as soprano saxophonist with the Vienna, Amherst and Rollin' Phones saxophone quartets. Robert Faub has performed extensively throughout the US and Europe as alto saxophonist with the New Century Saxophone Quartet. Steve Stusek, saxophone professor at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, is an international touring solo recitalist and chamber musician. Mark Engebretson is a veteran of the Vienna Saxophone Quartet and is Assistant Professor of Music Composition at UNCG. The RCSQ's repertoire includes original works for saxophone quartet by Alexander Glazunov, Michael Torke, Ben Johnston, Terry Riley, M. William Karlins and Perry Goldstein, and transcriptions for saxophone quartet of music by Steve Reich and Francis Poulenc. All the Red Clay Quartet members playVandoren Optimum mouthpieces.

Susan Fancher's tireless efforts to develop the repertoire for the saxophone have produced dozens of commissioned works by contemporary composers, as well as published transcriptions of music by composers as diverse as Josquin Desprez, Ben Johnston and Steve Reich. She has worked with a multitude of composers in the creation and interpretation of new music including Terry Riley, Michael Torke and Charles Wuorinen, just to name a few, and has performed in many of the world's leading concert venues and contemporary music festivals. The most recent additions to her discography are a solo CD entitled Ponder Nothin on the Innova label and a recording on New World Records of Forever Escher by Paul Chihara. Susan Fancher is a regularly featured columnist for the nationally distributed Saxophone Journal. Her principal teachers were Frederick Hemke, Jean-Marie Londeix, Michael Grammatico and Joe Daley. She is a clinician for the Selmer and Vandoren companies.

Robert Faub is an accomplished classical soloist, chamber musician and jazz artist. He was formerly the alto saxophonist with the widely acclaimed New Century Saxophone Quartet, with whom he performed extensively throughout the United States and in teh Netherlands. He appears on New Century's recordings A New Century Christmas and Standards. As a soloist, he gave the first performance of Ben Boone's concerto Squeeze with the University of South Carolina Symphony, adding to a long list of works he has premiered. His recording of Andrew Simpson's Exhortation, included on Arizona University Recording's America's Millenial Tribute to Adolphe Sax, was "immaculately played," according to The Double Bassist magazine. Robert Faub appears regularly with the North Carolina, Greensboro adn Winston-Salem Symphonies.

Steve Stusek is Associate Professor of Saxophone at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He performs frequently with Dutch accordion player Otine van Erp in the duo 2Track, was director of Big Band Utrecht and is a founding member of the Bozza Mansion Project, an Amsterdam-based new music ensemble. The list of composers who have written music for him include Academy Award winner John Addison. His many awards include a Medaille d'Or in Saxophone Performance from teh Conservatoire de la Région de Paris, winner of the Saxohone Concerto competition at Indiana University, Semi-finalist in the Concert Artists Guild Competition, Vermont Council on the Arts prize for Artistic Excellence, and Finalist in the Nederlands Impressariaat Concours for ensembles. His teachers include Daniel Deffayet, Jean-Yves Formeau, Eugene Rousseau, David Baker, Joseph Wytko and Larry Teal.

Mark Engebretson is Assistant Professor of Composition and Electronic Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A former resident of Vienna and Stockholm, he has received numerous commissions from the Austrian Ministry of Culture, STIM (Sweden) and the American Composers Forum Commissioning Program. His Duo Concertante was recently premiered by the Wroclaw (Poland) Philharmonic. Mark Engebretson has appeared twice as a concerto soloist with the Brno (Czech) Philharmonic Orchestra. He is well represented as a composer and performer on the Innova label and has performed with Klangforum Wien, Swedish percussionist Anders Åstrand and the Intergalactic Contemporary Music Ensemble. His principle teachers were Michel Fuste-Lambezat, Frederick Hemke, Jean-Marie Londeix, M. William Karlins, Pauline Oliveros, Marta Ptaszynska, Michael Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and Jay Alan Yim.

Concert pianist Mary Hellmann is a Chair of the Music Department and an Associate Professor at Chowan University.  She maintains an active performing schedule as both soloist and chamber musician.  Dr. Hellmann is an avid proponent of music of our time and is a frequent master class clinician, performer at various festivals and adjudicator for competitions. Her principal instructors were Menahem Pressler, Ian Hobson, Michel Block, and Noel Engebretson.  She has participated in a variety of master classes with some of the most renown pianists of our time including: Ward Davenny, Lillian Kallir, Joseph Kalichstein, Rebecca Penneys, Theodore Lettvin, Gyorgy Sebok, and Russell Sherman.  She has presented recital programs for the Alabama Public Television series Pianists at Work, and performed in numerous university and festival settings including: the Rutgers International Piano Festival, the International Computer Music Conference, the Midwest Composers Forum, the Festivale Internationale de Todi, Italy, the Society of Composers, Inc. National and International Conferences, and the Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States Conference. Dr. Hellmann believes that sharing one's knowledge and passion for music to students is paramount in a musician's life.  Mary received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Louisville; a Master of Music in Piano Performance and an additional Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Illinois; she received her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Alabama. Recordings of her performances can be found on itunes.com, amazon.com, and cdbaby.com.

Born in New York and raised in California, Daniel Koppelman has gained experience with many different musical traditions—classical and popular, composed and improvised, acoustic and electronic—which has led him to explore their intersections in search of new possibilities for performing, teaching, and creating music. Koppelman's current performance interests include digital signal processing of acoustic piano and improvisation with various real-time controllers in conjunction with Cycling '74's Max/MSP and Ableton Live software. He has recorded for CRI, New World Records, Neuma Records, Capstone, SEAMUS, C74, Everglade, and Innova. His 2005 2-disc CD/DVD set of 21st century music for piano and electronics, "Escapement", was hailed by Keyboard Magazine as "engaging, intelligent, and unpretentious." Koppelman holds degrees from San Francisco State University (B.M.), Indiana University (M.M.), and the University of California at San Diego (Ph.D.), where he was a Regents Fellow; his piano teachers have included Wayne Peterson, James Tocco, Cecil Lytle and Aleck Karis. Currently Professor and Director of Music Technology at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, Koppelman has been a resident artist at STEIM in Amsterdam, the Institute of Sonology in The Hague, and the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts in La Jolla, CA. In 2008 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach courses in Odessa, Ukraine in contemporary American music and the creative use of new technological tools. In 2009 his Fulbright was extended to provide for lecturing and concertizing across Ukraine. Koppelman combines with Ruth Neville to form duo runedako; their recent CD "Recombinant Nocturnes" features music for piano and electronics by Benjamin Broening.