Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984, Huntington, NY) is a Brooklyn-based composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electronic music. A founding member and co-artistic director of the “enterprising ensemble” Red Light New Music (New York Times), and one of the “five talented guys” (The New Yorker) of the Sleeping Giant composers collective, Cerrone’s delicate, intricate works often evoke the many writers who have inspired him: Italo Calvino, Louise Glück, Kurt Vonnegut, Jorge Luis Borges. He music has been heard across the US and Europe, most recently at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and at the Bang on a Can Festival. His violin concerto, Still Life with Violin and Orchestra, commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony, will be premiered this spring by Violinist Hahn-Bin at Carnegie Hall. He is currently pursuing his doctorate at Yale University, where he also taught music composition and electronic music. www.christophercerrone.com
Nathan Koci is a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist and composer originally from Charleston, SC. Performing on the horn and accordion, as well as other brass and keyboard instruments, Koci is an enthusiastic advocate of music by living composers, also holding administrative roles in NYC's MATA Festival, and Charleston's New Music Collective. He has had the humble pleasure of performing with Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Modern, the Garage Cuban Band, New Music Collective, Signal, TILT Brass, Your Bad Self, and ZAHA. In addition to performing, Koci is an active composer, writing music for theater, dance, silent film and concert performance. Most recently, Koci composed an evening-length dance score for Anneke Hansen's look at them long and long, creating site-specific music called "hopeful and mysterious" by the New York Times. He has also written for Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance (Asheville, NC), Dancer Aurore Gruel of Compagnie Ormone (Nancy, France), and PURE Theatre (Charleston, SC).
Adrian Knight is a composer of electronic, orchestral, vocal and chamber music currently living and working in New Haven, Connecticut. His music draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including free improvisation, electroacoustic music, early music, and experimental electronic musics such as drone, microsound and noise. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in composition at Yale School of Music, studying with David Lang, Ezra Laderman and Martin Bresnick. He also teaches electronic music at Yale College. Since 2008, he operates “the smallest record label in the world,” Pink Pamphlet. http://adrian-knight.com & http://pinkpamphlet.net
Kyle Hillbrand is a maker of musics with heterogeneous qualities that accommodate for multiple modes of being. He has composed for soloists and ensembles, as well as performed with rock, metal, funk, and noise bands. Inspired by enigmatic texts and symbols, his work is based in traditions of self knowledge and discovery with the aim to carve a channel between philosophy and meditation. He is a multi-instrumentalist and studied composition with Nils Vigeland, Reiko Füting, and Justin Dello Joio. Currently he lives in Brooklyn.
Robert Pierzak is an active composer and conductor. He has written vocal, electronic and instrumental music. He especially likes composing for large numbers of homogeneous instruments. He studied composition at Ithaca College and the Eastman School of Music where he earned his Bachelor in Music and Master of Arts respectively. His composition teachers have included Mario Davidovsky, Phillipe Manoury, Robert Morris, Chinary Ung, Dana Wilson and Gregory Woodward. He is currently in the PhD program in composition at UC San Diego. Mr. Pierzak is interested in producing/organizing/curating concerts or artistic events. He also very much enjoys performing in any capacity.
Recently, Mr. Pierzak has been interested in the potential musical applications of phonetics, ontology, time travel, absurdity and repetition. He has spent the better part of the last couple of years finishing a cycle of five primarily vocal-based works entitled Endangered Banana, whose themes explore processes of how ideas can come to have meaning within a community.
Mr. Pierzak has been the recipient of the BMI Student Composer Award (including the Carlos Surinach Prize for being the youngest recipient that year), the Howard Hanson Large Ensemble Prize, the Smadbeck Composition Award, and the Yale College Composer's Group High School Composition Award. His music has been performed in New York City, New Haven, Aspen, San Diego, Ithaca and Rochester.
Vincent Raikhel is a composer currently living in Brooklyn, New York. His compositions often employ models and patterns extracted from the natural world, creating interactive processes and networks of musical dimensions. His works include solo, chamber, and orchestral pieces as well as installations and compositions that are performed in natural environments. Vincent received his Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Nils Vigeland and Reiko Füting. He received the Nicolas Flagello Composition Award upon his graduation. In 2006 Vincent moved to Berlin where he received his MeisterSchülerat the Universität der Künste Berlin with Walter Zimmermann. In 2010 Vincent received his Master of Arts from the University of California, San Diego where he studied with Philippe Manoury.
Liam Robinson is a composer and performer living in New York City. His compositions often deal with a relationship with text or other external stimuli, including theatrical, sculptural and installation elements. As a pianist, accordionist, and vocalist, Liam performs regularly with Jean Rohe, the Becca Stevens Band, and as a solo performer. He is currently Artistic Co-Director of Red Light New Music. In collaboration with Red Light colleague Vincent Raikhel, Liam recently co-edited the collection of writings, art, and music Original Tradition: The Influence of Nils Vigeland, Composer and Teacher, a book dedicated to his former teacher at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received his BMA.
Scott Wollschleger (b. 1980) received his Masters of Music in composition from Manhattan School of Music in 2005, where he studied with Nils Vigeland. Recent performances include The Logos Foundation (Ghent, Belgium), Symphony Space, Issue Project Room and The Stone, New York City. In 2009 Mr. Wollschleger was a recipient of a Meet the Composer grant for his participation in AMP's "Pairings" series at The Tank in New York City. For this event, Mr. Wollschleger presented a lecture-concert on his own work and the work of John Cage and Erik Satie. In 2010 he was given a special award by the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music for his collaborations with pianist David Broome.
