Ladies First - We're All Immigrants
–funded in part with a grant from New York Women Composers–
Opera America
330 7th Avenue
Scorca Hall
New York
Sunday,
October 2, 2016 7:00 PM
Photo by Meschida Philip
We are thrilled to invite you to the 4th production of our series:
Ladies First - We're All Immigrants.
Please join us for a festive evening of music, multimedia and celebration of diversity. A direct result of the integration of immigrants and their input, diversity continues to enhance our society and the arts.
We hope to see you at the event.
Program:
7PM - Reception
7:30PM - Awards Ceremony and Concert
9:30PM - AfterParty at ocabanon 245 W 29th Street
Between 7th and 8th Avenue
Music, Art, Video and Performances by:
Lynn Bechtold, Svjetlana Bukvich, Valerie Dee Naranjo, Jennifer DeVore, Marija Ilic, Adam Kent, Tania León, Nika Leoni, Cecilia Mandrile, Jessica Meyer, Igor Molochev, Tamar Muskal, Milica Paranosic,
Kamala Sankaram, Michiyo Suzuki, Mioi Takeda, Karen Tanaka, Yasuyo Tanaka and Keve Wilson.
The Ladies First award is donated by a NYC-based female artist and awarded to a woman of our team's choice. The names of these two women will be announced at the award ceremony.
We look forward to seeing you. Milica, Lynn and Keve!
Please also visit our Support Page
LF 2016 Artists
Photo by Dan Cooper
Lynn Bechtold- violinist, composer
Noted for her ‘virtuosity and technical expertise’ in All About Jazz, called 'unapologetically dominating' in San Diego Story, and labeled ‘up-and-coming’ by Time Out, violinist/composer Lynn Bechtold has appeared in recital throughout North America and Europe, and has premiered solo/chamber works by composers such as Carter Burwell, Gloria Coates, John Harbison, Alvin Lucier, and Morton Subotnick. She is a member of groups including Bleecker StQ, Miolina, SEM, and Zentripetal, and her performances have been broadcast on various TV and radio, including ‘30 Rock,’ ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,’ CBC, NPR, and NHK. An active performer of all genres of music, she has appeared at venues including Carnegie Hall, Joe’s Pub, Jordan Hall, Lincoln Center, (le) Poisson Rouge, and Madison Square Garden, with artists such as Willie Colon, Escort, Sir Simon Rattle, Donna Summer, Paul Taylor Dance, and Pablo Ziegler. She holds degrees from Tufts University, New England Conservatory, and Mannes College-The New School for Music, where she studied with noted violinist Felix Galimir. Her electroacoustic compositions have been performed on festivals such as Circuit Bridges, Composers Concordance Festival, Electro-Music, Music With A View, and NWEAMO, and in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, NYC, Paris, Philadelphia, and San Diego. She is on the faculties of the Dwight School, Greenwich House Music School, and the Town School in Manhattan.
http://miolinanyc.wixsite.com/miolina/lynn
Re’ut Ben-Ze’ev- singer
Israeli performer, Re’ut Ben-Ze’ev has been gaining international recognition for her ”bold, committed [and] deeply physical performance” (The New York Times), as well as “intense expression and pure voice, igniting fireworks” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Her voice has been most recently featured at the Cannes Film Festival and now internationally, singing two songs on the Soundtrack of Natalie Portman directorial debut film, A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS. The Soundtrack has been released on Warner Brother’s Milan Records. Ben Ze’ev has appeared throughout Canada, Europe, Israel, and the United States in venues such as Lincoln Center, Spoleto Festival, USA, Lortel Theater, The American Academy in Berlin, Jerusalem Music Centre, Israel Vocal Arts Institute, PBS webcast, WQXR, and others. She sang under conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Grammy Award Winner Lucas Richman, KarlHeinz Steffens and David Randolph. She worked with composers as David Del Tredici, Samuel Adler, Dalit Warshaw, Yehudi Wyner and others. Highlights of upcoming projects include performing Berio’s FOLK SONGS with members of the Berlin and Munich Philharmonic in Germany, touring and a recording with the Alexander Trio, Israel, and performing in Berlin, Munich and the USA we well as an Israeli-American Co-Production of Iconic Israeli songs concert, to be premiered at the Israel Festival. The songs will be re-orchestrated for her by their original orchestrator, Shimon Cohen. Re’ut also recorded for Naxos, Albany Records, Delos Records and others.
Photo by Robert Herman
Svjetlana Bukvich- composer, producer, media artist
"One of the most interesting electronic writers around" (SoundWordSight), Svjetlana Bukvich specializes in composing a prog-rock tinged blend of classical, avant-garde, and experimental music for dance, film, and the concert stage. Integrating technology, trail-blazing performers, and tuning of her own design in productions described as "ecstatic musical experiences" (New Music Connoisseur), she has appeared in numerous venues in the US and internationally. Sarajevo-born, Bukvich is featured in the book In Her Own Words - Conversations with Composers in the United States along with twenty-five contemporary women composers, including Meredith Monk, Joan Tower, and Pauline Oliveros. A 2013 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellow in Music/Sound, Bukvich received support from the Soros Foundation, ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard University, GENERATE: The Frances Richard Fund for Innovative Artists of Promise, and USArtists International. Bukvich’s only solo release to date, the genre-busting album EVOLUTION (PARMA Recordings) featuring bassist Tony Levin (David Bowie), guitarist Mordy Ferber (Miroslav Vitous) and electric violist Martha Mooke (Lou Reed) was hailed as "astounding, mind expanding" (babysue), and was featured on more than 20 radio stations across the US and abroad. Recent activities include commissions from Carolyn Dorfman Dance and Jeanette Stoner and Dancers, awards from New Music USA (2016 Live Music for Dance) and the O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, and performances at the Alvin Ailey City Center in NY, New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), Sowieso in Berlin, and Ultan Hall in Minneapolis. Bukvich is a board member of the American Festival of Microtonal Music, associate director of the New York-based Composers Concordance, and an honoree in 2014 Selected Honors, Awards & Achievements in ASCAP Concert Music. She is on faculty at NYU, and writes about music and media in Modern Diplomacy International.
Valerie Dee Naranjo- percussionist
Valerie Naranjo broke the gender barrier banning women from playing gyil (West African marimba) to be allowed to play in Ghana’s Kobine Festival, and was given there, in 1996 the only first place award ever given to a non-West African perfomer. She toured with the late gyil Maestro Kakraba Lobi for seven years, and has been the percussionist in NBCs Saturday Night Live Band for 21 years. She co-leads the African imbued "Mandara", a quintet of vocalists/multi- instrumentalists who explore the West African parentage of American popular music. Drum! magazine reader's poll named Valerie "World Music Percussionist of the Year" twice, and "Mallet Player of the Year” in 2012. She teaches West African Percussion at NYU, and has performed internationally, including nine African countries, and in such locations as The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver; The White House, The Jay Leno Show, New York's Lincoln Center, City Center, and Carnegie Hall; London's Royal Festival Hall; and The Johannesburg Civic Theatre. Valerie has published, several CDs, The series "West African Music for the Marimba Soloist", and "Joro" a collection of concerti for gyil and orchestra.
Jennifer DeVore- cellist
Jennifer DeVore earned her BA in art history at Harvard before earning her Masters degree from the New England Conservatory. Hailed as “superb” by the New York Times, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and London’s Barbican Center. A review of her violin/cello duo Zentripetal’s recent self-titled debut album mentions her “suave phrasing, impeccable intonation and effortless control.” As a champion of contemporary music, DeVore has worked closely with composers John Cage, John Zorn, Daniel Bernard Roumain and Ornette Coleman, and has played in the Bang-On-A-Can Marathon and on WNYC’s New Sounds. Her most recent collaboration, seven)suns, a string quartet with occasional drums and vocals, is breaking new ground in both classical and metal/hardcore worlds. Other groups she has played with include the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jose Limon Dance Company, FLUX Quartet and Sweet Plantain Quartet. Her diverse interests have led to recordings and performances with artists such as Il Divo, Alicia Keyes, DJ Spooky, Josh Groban, Suzanne Vega, Jay-Z, Pink Martini, Laura Branigan, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra as well as many bands in New York. DeVore is a member of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra.
Photo by Dan Cooper
Susan Hwang- accordionist, vocalist
Susan Hwang is a storyteller who makes things that are usually collapsible, like songs and times. Her instruments take up space (accordion, Jangu—traditional Korean drum, voice) but other physical objects she can’t play intimidate her, so she likes creations that don't take up any space at all, like her TV variety talk show—The La La La Show (vimeo.com/lalalashow) and the literature-inspired performance series she founded, curates and hosts--The Bushwick Book Club – (bushwickbookclub.com). She formed Lusterlit--a musical duo with producer Charlie Nieland playing all original songs about books (lusterlit.bandcamp.com). She just released an EP inspired by Kurt Vonnegut, which you can hear at Relastics.com. Susan plays accordions because they are pretty and lighter than pianos.
Marija Ilic- pianist
Pianist Marija Ilić is an active performer of the traditional repertoire and new music in New York City and has been praised as a "clear and decisive musician," "compelling," and "poetic", and noted for her "quiet intensity" by The New York Times. Her performances include recitals at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Clark Studio Theater at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, and Merkin Hall, as well as the Music Festival of the Hamptons, Aldeburgh Festival in England, Musica Viva and Kolarac Hall in Belgrade, Norfolk Contemporary Music Festival, the Hoch Chamber Music Series at Concordia University, and Trinity Church. She has been collaborating in recitals with violist Lawrence Dutton of the Emerson String Quartet, performing numerous concerts at such venues as the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., as well as in Woodstock, Stamford, and Bronxville. She is the founding principal pianist of Christopher Caines Dance Company, with which she has appeared regularly since 2000, and is a member of Dan Joseph Ensemble as a harpsichordist. Ms. Ilić has an ongoing collaboration in a two-piano duo with Milica Jelača Jovanović. A native of Belgrade, Serbia, Ms. Ilic holds her undergraduate degree from the Belgrade Music Academy, graduate degree from the Mannes College of Music, and a doctorate in piano performance from Rutgers University, with J. S. Bach's The Art of Fugue as her doctoral topic. Her solo piano CD, featuring music by J. S. Bach will soon be released.
Adam Kent- pianist
Adam Kent has performed in recital, as soloist with orchestra, and in chamber music throughout the United States, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and South America. A winner of the American Pianists Association Fellowship and Simone Belsky Music Awards, Mr. Kent also received top prizes in the Thomas Richner, the Juilliard Concerto, and the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competitions and is a recipient of the Arthur Rubinstein Prize and the Harold Bauer Award. In 2016, he was appointed to the Piano Faculty of SUNY Oneonta.
Spanish music has been a specialty of Mr. Kent’s, whose years of devotion to the music of Spain have led to his critically-acclaimed recording of Ernesto Halffter’s complete piano music on Bridge Records as well as the awarding of the Spanish government’s Orden al Mérito Civil. Mr. Kent has presented a series of all-Spanish programs at Weill Recital Hall and made his debut in Cuba in 2015. Summers find Mr. Kent serving as Director of Cultural Outreach for the Burgos International Music Festival, and teaching and performing at the Cursos de Verano of the Fundación Princesa de Asturias in Oviedo and at the Forum Muskae Festival in Madrid. Earlier this year, Mr. Kent performed the complete piano works of Tania León at the University of California in Riverside as part of the university’s Encuentros Festival, and a recording of this repertory is currently in the works.
Photo by Michael Provost
Tania León- composer
Tania León, born in Cuba, is a highly regarded composer and conductor recognized for her accomplishments as an educator and advisor to arts organizations. She has been the subject of profiles on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, Univision, Telemundo and independent films.
Recent commissions include the Little Rock Nine, an opera with libretto by Henry Louis Gates; Pa’lante, co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Music Artistic Director, and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE); and Pinceladas, for bassoon and piano. Appearances as guest conductor include the Symphony Orchestra of Marseille, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Guanajuato Symphony, and the Thailand Philharmonic, among others.
Her honors include the New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the
American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Fromm, Koussevitzky and Guggenheim Fellowships. A founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, she instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series, was co-founder of the American Composers Orchestra “Sonidos de las Americas Festivals,” New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic, and is the founder and Artistic Director of Composers Now.
She has lectured at Harvard University and the University of Humboldt in Berlin, and was a visiting Professor at Yale University and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Guest Composer/Conductor appearances include the Hamburg Musikschule, Germany and the Beijing Central Conservatory, China.
León has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin and SUNY Purchase Colleges. In 2008 she served as US Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. In 2012 she received both a Grammy nomination and a Latin Grammy nomination (for Best Contemporary Classical Composition), and 2013 she was the recipient of the prestigious 2013 ASCAP Victor Herbert Award.
A Professor at Brooklyn College since 1985 and at the Graduate Center of CUNY, she was named Distinguished Professor of the City University of New York in 2006. In 2010 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Photo by Ola Khalidi
Nika Leoni- composer, singer
Nika Leoni, a Russian-born classical singer with international performance credits, is an emerging composer with “a distinctive talent of drawing profound musical expression from dramatic context”. Her diverse cultural and musical background enriches her style and empowers her versatility as a creative composer in numerous musical genres, including vocal music, opera, chamber and orchestral music, as well as in scoring for theater, dance, and film.
Characterized by critics as “an exceptionally talented composer and singer, with triumphant femininity manifest in her music as well as her appearance,” Nika has charmed audiences performing her own vocal music and continues to work on expanding her composer repertoire. Recent commissions included the music score for an independent full feature film, for which she also wrote, recorded, and produced the feature song, and a song composed for the 35th anniversary of the Italian-American School in New York that was designated as the School Anthem and was premiered at the school’s Anniversary Celebration Gala before the Consul General of Italy and the Ambassador of Italy to the U.S., as well as NY Governor and other notable celebrity guests.
Nika’s recorded album of her own arrangements of Russian Romances titled Dark Eyes, released on Larion Records™, received high critical acclaim and is sold in music stores worldwide. Nika is currently finishing a one-act opera based on her original story, as well as drafting a full-scale opera and a number of chamber pieces. As producer, Nika has written, commissioned, and brought to stage a number of new productions, including opera, musical theater, and educational music shows for
children.
As a classical singer, Nika appeared on opera stages in the CzechRepublic, Germany, and Austria; performed concerts at Munich Philharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie,
Wałbrzych Filharmonia Sudecka (Poland), as well as recorded with Prague Stern Orchestra in the Czech Republic.
Photo by Ola Khalidi
Ceclia Mandrile- artist
Cecilia Mandrile is an artist, researcher and educator whose work focuses in the visual portrayal of displacement.
Born in Córdoba, Argentina, she has left her native country in 1995, and since then have lived and work in the United Stated, England, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Cecilia has exhibited in prestigious international venues such as El Museo del Barrio, NYC; The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; WPA Corcoran, Washington DC; and the National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the last years, Mandrile was a visiting artist at international residency programs such as Gasworks Studios, London; Makan-Bait, Amman, Jordan, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, Kunstihoone, Tallinn, Estonia and Ludwig Foundation of Cuba. She is the recipient of several fellowships, grants and awards. Her work is included in private and public collections around the world; among them, the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba; Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California and the City Museum of Art, Gyor, Hungary.
Cecilia holds a PhD from the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK, an MFA from the University of Maryland and a BFA in Print Media from the National University of Córdoba. She has taught in Argentina, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, England and the US. She is currently based in New York City.
Photo by Ana Pinto
Jessica Meyer- composer
With playing that is “fierce and lyrical” and works that are “other-worldly” (The Strad) and “evocative” (NY Times), Jessica Meyer is a versatile composer and violist whose passionate musicianship radiates accessibility, generosity, and emotional clarity. Ms. Meyer’s compositions explore the wide palette of emotionally expressive colors available to each instrument while using traditional and extended techniques inspired by her varied experiences as a contemporary and period instrumentalist. Recent commissions include works for cellist Amanda Gookin of the Public String Quartet and the Nautilus Brass Quintet as the composer in residence at the 2016 Women Composers Festival of Hartford. Upcoming commissions include works for pianist Molly Morkoski, the Mana Saxophone Quartet, and soprano Melissa Wimbish for her Carnegie Hall debut. Her current solo show and “intriguingly vivid” debut solo CD, Sounds of Being, is a surround-sound sensory experience of her own compositions for viola and loop pedal where she turns her viola into an orchestra to take the audience on a journey filled with joy, anxiety, closeness, anger, bliss, torment, loneliness, and passion. Performances include iconic NYC Clubs such as Joe’s Pub and SubCulture, to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and across the pond at Sunset Sunside in Paris.
Photo by Tore Claesson
Tamar Muskal- composer
Tamar Muskal earned her BA in composition from the Academy for Music and Dance in Jerusalem where she studied with Mark Kopytman. She earned her MA from Yale University, where she studied with Jacob Druckman and Martin Bresnick and continued her studies at the City University of New York, where she studied with Tania Leon and David Del Tredici.
Recent commissions include a double concerto for saxophone and viola for the Williamsport Symphony, music for the 50 minutes historic silent film "La Venganza de Pancho Villa” for string quartet and Mexican singers (commissioned by the National Gallery of Art), incidental music for a documentary film about the "Foundation Fighting Blindness” narrated by Robert Redford and a song cycle for Jo Lawry (Sting’s back singer) commissioned by ASCAP. Tamar has also served as the Westchester Philharmonic's education composer-in-residence in the years 2001-2004, and in that capacity has written three orchestral pieces based on students' artwork and poetry.
She received awards and grants from the Academy of Arts and Letters (2004), Meet The Composer (2006), IAWM/ Theodore Front Prize from (2007), American Composers Forum/Jerome Foundation (2007), Fromm Music Foundation/Harvard University (2007) two grants from the American Music Center (2008, 2009), Guggenheim Foundation fellowship (2009), Meet The Composer (2010) and a first prize from the "Third Millennium Ensemble (2013). "The Yellow Wind" was nominated for a Pulitzer prize. While at Yale, she received four awards for her compositions and achievements.
Photo by Meschida Philip
Milica Paranosic- composer
Milica Paranosic is a critically and internationally acclaimed composer, performing artist and educator.
Her music was hailed “Amazing…astonishing,” by The New York Times, her unique style compared to “liquor-filled pralines,” by Germany’s Morgenpost, and SEAMUS coins Milica “A painter, a musical Jackson Pollack”. Milica’s works range from one-woman multimedia shows, theatrical soccer chants, sound installations to operatic and symphonic works. Milica is a recipient of many honors and awards; her work was commissioned by major NYC organizations such as American Composers Orchestra, New Juilliard Ensemble, VisionIntoArt and Buglisi Dance Theater, her commission by the American Composers Orchestra's for a 2012-13 season opener at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, was co-sponsored by the LVMH Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton. She has appeared at stages of Symphony Space, Zankel Hall/Carnegie, Alice Tully Hall/Lincoln Center, BAM café, Bohemian National Hall and many others. International and intercontinental highlights include BEMUS (Belgrade, Serbia), EtnaFest (Catania, Italy) and Internacional De Música Contemporânea Ppgmus-Ufba, (Bahia, Brazil).
Milica earned her Master’s Degree in composition form The Juilliard School, where she is a current music faculty. She is also the Music Director of Gallery MC, associate director of Composers Concordance, founder of Give to Grow and founder and director of Paracademia, a Harlem-based non-profit for music education and performance.
Milica lives in Harlem, NYC.
www.milicaparanosic.com
Kamala Sankaram- composer, accordionist, vocalist
Praised as “strikingly original” (NY Times), Kamala Sankaram has received commissions from Beth Morrison Projects, HERE Arts Center, Opera on Tap, and Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, among others. She is the recipient of a Jonathan Larson Award from the American Theater Wing, and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, MAP Fund, Opera America, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Meet the Composer, the Augustine Foundation, the Anna Sosenko Trust and the Asian Women’s Giving Circle. Residencies and fellowships include the MacDowell Colony, the Watermill Center, the Citizens, HERE Arts Center, CAP21, Con Edison/Exploring the Metropolis, the Hermitage, and American Lyric Theater. As a resident artist at HERE Arts Center, Kamala created MIRANDA, a steampunk murder mystery, which was the winner of the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical. THUMBPRINT, her second opera (written in collaboration with playwright Susan Yankowitz), premiered in the 2014 PROTOTYPE Festival, and was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Agence French Presse, and over 25 media outlets around the world. THUMBPRINT will next be produced as part of the 2016/17 season at LA Opera.
As a performer, Kamala has been hailed as “an impassioned soprano with blazing high notes” (Wall Street Journal). She has performed with and premiered pieces by Anthony Braxton, Beth Morrison Projects, the Philip Glass Ensemble, the Wooster Group, Anti-Social Music, and Petr Kotik, among others. She is the frontwoman for the band, Bombay Rickey, whose debut album was nominated for a 2015 Independent Music Award.
In addition to her musical pursuits, Kamala has been a voice actor on Comedy Central’s Superjail and Cartoon Network’s Golden Age, and holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the New School for Social Research.
Michiyo Suzuki- clarinetist
Michiyo Suzuki began her musical studies with piano at age three, violin at age six and clarinet at age thirteen. As a recitalist and chamber musician, she has been performing internationally, particularly in contemporary repertoire. Ms. Suzuki is a member of Absolute Ensemble and NY Licorice Ensemble, andhas recorded and toured extensively with those groups.
http://licoriceensemble.com/members/michiyo-suzuki/
Mioi Takeda- violinist
Since she settled in NYC, Japanese violinist Mioi Takeda earned her reputation as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and as a seasoned new music specialist in town. Ms. Takeda has performed with various new music groups, including North/South Consonance as concertmaster, SEM Ensemble, and Composers Concordance, giving countless premieres. She is an artistic director of Miolina, violin duo group with Lynn Bechtold. She has also performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, American Symphony Orchestra, Washington Square Festival, Scandia Symphony, Stamford Symphony, Strathmere Orchestra, The Japan Philharmonic, and The New Japan Philharmonic. Ms. Takeda's performances can be heard on North/South and Naxos Recordings. Mioi was a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay and Masao Kawasaki at The Juilliard School, and she earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from The City University of New York under the guidance of Itzhak Perlman. She also enjoys doing yoga and watching The Big Bang Theory when she is not playing the violin.
Photo by Shawn Ehlers
Photo by Jeff Gerbec
Karen Tanaka- composer
Karen Tanaka is an exceptionally versatile composer and pianist. Her works have been performed by distinguished orchestras and ensembles worldwide including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Kronos Quartet, Brodsky Quartet, BIT20 Ensemble, among many others. Various choreographers and dance companies, including Wayne McGregor and Nederlands Dans Theater, have often featured her music.
Born in Tokyo, she started formal piano and composition lessons as a child. After studying composition with Akira Miyoshi at Toho Gakuen School of Music, she moved to Paris in 1986 with the aid of a French Government Scholarship to study with Tristan Murail and work at IRCAM. In 1987 she was awarded the Gaudeamus Prize at the International Music Week in Amsterdam for her piano concerto Anamorphose. She studied with Luciano Berio in Florence in 1990-91 with funds from the Nadia Boulanger Foundation and a Japanese Government Scholarship. In 1996, she received the Margaret Lee Crofts Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center. In 1998 she was appointed as Co-Artistic Director of the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Festival, previously directed by Toru Takemitsu. In 2012, she was selected as a fellow of the Sundance Institute’s Composers Lab for feature film and mentored by Hollywood’s leading composers. Karen Tanaka lives in Los Angeles and teaches composition at California Institute of the Arts.
Keve Wilson- oboist
Hailed by the New York Times for her “magnificently sweet tone,” oboist Keve Wilson released her solo album Pure Imagination on Composers Concordance Records/NAXOS. A past winner of Concert Artists Guild and solo oboist with the Grammy nominated Absolute Ensemble, Keve has performed in Amsterdam, Argentina, Austria, Dubai, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Mexico, Panama, New Zealand, and South Korea. A two-time recipient of the Clifford-Levy Creativity Grant, Keve traveled to Makuleke Village in South Africa where she participated in learning and teaching folk songs of the region. Keve enjoyed two years as the oboist in the Tony Award winning Broadway musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. She inspires visiting high school band and orchestra students from around the country with her original show Believe NYC---from the Band Room to Broadway. From Hyde Park, NY, Keve graduated from the Eastman School of Music. She studied oboe with Richard Killmer, piano with Judith Handman and dance with Elizabeth Clark. She lives in Audubon circle with her husband and two Portuguese water dogs.
Photo by Meschida Philip
