Dance. Inspired.
COLLABORATORS
ALEX APPEL
Composer/Musician
Alex Appel, a Vic Firth Artist, is attempting to narrow the gap between classical music styles and contemporary genres by both composing and performing works for live acoustic percussion with electronics. A native New Yorker, Alex is no stranger to the stage, having performed with large ensembles in American venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Adrienne Arsht Center, and Benaroya Hall, as well as internationally in London, Scotland, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and China. In 2016, he played in the off-Broadway production of the New York Times Critic’s Pick Di Goldene Kale. He also performed alongside So Percussion in the collaborative There Might Be Others for percussion and dance ensembles, which won a Bessie Award for Outstanding Music Composition. The past two summers have been spent drumming for the Barrington Stage Company's productions of West Side Story and Fall Springs (World Premiere). Alex enjoys composing/producing original music as well. He was selected as a composer fellow by Cisum Percussion and has participated in the Electronic Music Workshop at the SICPP Festival held at New England Conservatory. www.facebook.com/alexappelmusic @percappel
JAMY HSU
Guest Choreographer
Jamy Hsu is from Houston and graduated from Columbia University. She has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Thang Dao Dance Company, Nomad Contemporary Ballet, Viewpointe Dancers, NuLuDanza, Annabella Gonzalez Dance Theater, the Kansas City Starlight Theatre, Michael Mao Dance Company, Vertex Theater, H.T. Chen & Dancers, Eva Dean Dance, Avila/Weeks Dance, and ENCOUNTERS.
CAIT NISHIMURA
Composer
Born in 1991, Cait is a Canadian composer, songwriter, and music educator based in Toronto, Ontario. Described as having a "refreshing buoyancy", her music uses minimalist patterns, simple yet lush harmonies, and themes that linger in listeners' minds, drawing inspiration from the beauty of the natural world. With a special focus on wind band and choral music, Nishimura strives to present contemporary concert music that is accessible and enjoyable by musicians of all levels. Her work for wind band, Chasing Sunlight, was selected as the winner of the 2017 Canadian Band Association Composition Competition, and has since been added to regional and national wind band syllabi. Nishimura holds undergraduate degrees in music and education from the University of Toronto. Her work is regularly programmed and commissioned by ensembles across North America, where she is in demand as a visiting composer and educator. Outside of her work in the "classical" realm, Cait is currently writing her first musical and has released her first pop single: https://smarturl.it/c2uh8y https://caitnishimura.com/
CHARLIE SIEM
Composer
Charlie Siem is one of today’s foremost young violinists, with such a wide-ranging diversity of cross-cultural appeal as to have played a large part in defining what it means to be a true artist of the 21st century.
Born in London to a Norwegian father and British mother, Siem began to play the violin at the age of three after hearing a broadcast of Yehudi Menuhin playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. He received a broad and thorough education at Eton College, before completing the intellectually demanding undergraduate degree programme in Music at the University of Cambridge. From 1998 to 2004 he studied the violin with Itzhak Rashkovsky in London at the Royal College of Music, and from 2004 he has been mentored by Shlomo Mintz.
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Siem has appeared with many of the world’s finest orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Bergen Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Czech National Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with top conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Edward Gardner, Zubin Mehta, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Roger Norrington, Libor Pešek and Yuri Simonov. International festival appearances to date include Spoleto, St. Moritz, Gstaad, Bergen, Tine@Munch, Festival Internacional de Santa Lucía, and the Windsor Festival. Siem’s regular sonata partner is renowned pianist Itamar Golan.
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Currently signed to Sony Classical, Siem has a varied discography and has made a number recordings, including with the London Symphony Orchestra (Warner Classics, 2011) and Münchner Rundfunkorchester (Sony Classical, 2014).
A great believer in giving to worthwhile causes, Siem is an ambassador of The Prince’s Trust. He is also a Visiting Professor at Leeds College of Music (UK) and Nanjing University of the Arts (China). He gives masterclasses around the world at top institutions such as the Royal College of Music (London), and the Accademia di Musica (Florence).
Passionate about bringing classical music to new audiences around the world, in addition to his classical performance career Siem has revived the age-old violinistic tradition of composing virtuosic variations of popular themes, which he has done alongside artists including Bryan Adams, Jamie Cullum and The Who. In 2014 he wrote his first composition – Canopy, for solo violin and string orchestra – which was commissioned by US television station CBS Watch!, and recorded with the English Chamber Orchestra. Siem has also had numerous collaborations with fashion brands including Armani, Chanel, Dior, Dunhill, and Hugo Boss.
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Charlie Siem plays the 1735 Guarneri del Gesù violin, known as the ‘D’Egville’.
STEVE ZINK
Composer/Musician
The music of composer Steve Zink is noted for its power of expression, its lyrical beauty and its richly poetic character, across a catalogue of works that includes orchestral works, choral works, chamber works, vocal works and solo instrumental works.
Steve Zink received his initial musical training in piano in the early 1990’s, expanding to the study of guitar, composition, improvisation and theory, studying under singer-songwriters and jazz musicians. In addition, he studied Voice with Ian Garrett in Toronto, training in baritone operatic and art song repertoire.
Steve’s diverse musical background has contributed to a distinctive musical voice in the modern classical genre. With a Catalogue of Works that encompasses a wide variety of instruments and instrumental combinations, from solo piano and chamber music to choral and orchestral works, his recent scores include a string quartet, a string quintet, a set of ‘songs without words’ for cello and piano, as well as a large scale dance work for piano and string orchestra.
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His debut recording, The Cloud of Unknowing (Azederac Music, 2019) includes a variety of chamber works as well as his String Quartet and String Quintet.
ALLAN GREENE
Composer/Pianist
Allan Greene composes music from time to time, seeking to craft a musical language that translates the complexity of our world through his personal aesthetic experience. In addition, he incorporates his experience as an architect into his exploration of compositional techniques. He has composed more conventionally for film, theater and the concert room, drawing on his talents as a performer and musical director. He has also accompanied the dance for many years, including having been company pianist for Dance Theater of Harlem and Aterballetto (Italy). He holds degrees from Carleton College (music) and the City College of New York (architecture), and has held fellowships from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation and the Camargo Foundation. He has joyfully collaborated with Gisela Quinteros at the Joffrey School for a number of years.
