The music of American-Dutch composer Ellen Lindquist has been performed throughout the world. Lindquist finds inspiration in the discovery of unique sound-worlds and revels in collaboration, with dance, theatre, poetry, performance art and, particularly, devised music theatre — such as drömseminarium, a staged work for fourteen musicians based on the poetry of Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer. Her newest major work, Mantra (a concerto for Indonesian gamelan with Espen Aalberg and the Trondheim Sinfonietta) is being released by BIS Records in October 2018. Lindquist received her BA in composition from Middlebury College, Vermont, and both her MA and PhD in composition from New York’s Stony Brook University, where she has also taught. Lindquist has also taught at Sweden’s Gotland School of Music Composition, and since 2013 has been Associate Professor at Trondheim’s NTNU Institute of Music. She is a member of the Norwegian Society of Composers and has recently received a four-year Artist grant from Arts Council Norway. She lives with her family on the Fosen peninsula, near Trondheim, Norway. A deep respect for and love of the natural world is reflected in her work.
Espen Aalberg is a Norwegian percussionist and composer, working both in the jazz- and classical field of music. His most prominent work is with the Norwegian jazz-quartet ”The Core”, and the Scandinavia trio ”Basement sessions”(with Jonas Kullhammar and Torbjørn Zetterberg). With those groups Aalberg has toured in 20 countries, released 12 CD where he has composed a major part of the music.
As a classical percussionist Aalberg mostly is working as a contemporary musician. He has for 15 years been the percussionist in the Trondheim Sinfonietta. Besides of this, Aalberg works as a freelance with Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, and done several production with “den kuturelle skolesekken” (the Norwegian public school concert system). Here he has composed and developed production like “JUNK” with percussionist Lars Sitter and “Ispill” with the Alpaca ensemble.
As of 2016 Aalberg is a research fellow within the Norwegian artistic research program. His project is called “With gamelan as inspiration”, and is based around how to integrate Indonasian gamelan instuments and/or compositional techniques with more western oriented ensembles. Commission “Mantra” by Ellen Lindquist and the cooperation related to this, is one of the part of his project.
Christine Crook designs costumes for opera, theatre, and dance. Recent credits include,
Gloria (ACT),
The Threepenny Opera (West Edge Opera),
Weightless (Under the Radar NYC),
Men On Boats (ACT), Bernstein’s
Mass (Lincoln Center NYC), and
Abraham In Flames (Z Space). Upcoming projects include the world premiere of experimental opera
Birds In the Moon (Broad L.A.), and
Drömseminarium a new opera based on the poetry of Tomas Tranströmer premiering in Norway 2022. Christine has also presented design-driven live art and costume installations in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley California. She was awarded a Bridging The Gap Grant for continued experimentation with costume design funding a gallery residency in Berlin 2016. She also recently participated as an artist in residence with Light Box in Detroit 2019. Christine is an Assistant Professor of Costume Design at Southeastern Louisiana University.
http://christinecrook.squarespace.com
The Belgian clarinetist
Rik De Geyter is currently clarinettist/bass clarinettist of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway, assistant professor of clarinet and bassclarinet at NTNU Institutt for Musikk in Trondheim and since 2011 is he assistant-teacher of Eddy Vanoosthuyse (Belgium).
He is a former clarinettist of the Royal Band of the Belgian Guides, was a member of the EUYO (European Union Youth Orchestra) and played with the Brussels Philharmonic, Trondheim Sinfonietta, Trondheim Soloists, Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Bergen Philharmonic, Alpaca Ensemble amongst others. He ́s the clarinetist of Thelema Trio (21th century music) and Meleas. At the Lemmensinstitute in Leuven (Belgium), he studied with Eddy Vanoosthuyse and graduated as Master in Music in 2009 and Master-after-Master in 2013. In between he went to the Ghent conservatory where he studied bass clarinet with Marc Kerckhof.
Patrick Diamond has participated in numerous American and World Premieres of both operas and plays throughout his career; he is equally committed to developing new works and taking a fresh look at the standard repertoire. He is the Artistic Director Foundry Arts, a lab for collaborative experimentation in Opera based in New York City. Most recently, Pat directed a streaming production of Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis at the Shepherd School of Music as the inaugural production in their new Brockman Hall for Opera, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte at The Estates Theater in Prague. Known for his collaborative approach, he is co-creator of the devised piece, drömseminarium, with composer Ellen Lundquist and Nobel Laureate Tomas Tranströmer. He was producer and director of The Dido Project, a site-specific installation performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with frequent collaborators, Sybarite 5, at the Samsung Experience in New York. He directed the major American revivals of Moniuszko’s Halka, Wolf-Ferrari’s Le donne curiose at Wolf Trap, and Argento’s Postcard from Morocco for the composer’s eightieth birthday festival celebration. Pat has developed new work with playwrights A. Rey Pamatmat, Eric Sanders, and Kathryn Walat, and worked with composer Gregory Spears. Direction of established repertoire includes works by Shakespeare, Britten, Calderón, Mozart, Puccini, Janáček, Mayakovsky, and Verdi. Companies include Wolf Trap, American Opera Projects, Aspen Music Festival, West Edge Opera, 2G, Working Man’s Clothes, Trondheim Sinfonietta, Västmanlandsmusiken, Prague Summer Nights (in residence at the Estates Theater), and regional work in France. With Ellen Lindquist, he has co-led devising with music workshops in Västerås, Sweden, and Oslo, Norway. Pat teaches at Manhattan School of Music, Yale School of Drama, and Yale Summer Sessions.
After studying with Hermann Stefansson at Framnäs Music school,
Robert Ek entered the Royal college of Music in Stockholm. There he studied with Professor Sölve Kingstedt. After graduation in 1998 he spent a year in the USA studying with Håkan Rosengren. Robert has also taken lessons with Karl Leister, Yehuda Gilad and Mitchell Lurie. Since 2000 Robert has been working in Swedish orchestras but also focusing on working with different chamber ensembles recording several CDs and has premiered a number of works from mostly Swedish composers. As a soloist he has performed with Nordic Chamber Orchestra among others and collaborated with pianists like Bengt-åke Lundin and Mårten Landström. Since 2007 Robert has been a member of the contemporary ensemble Norrbotten NEO. NEO performs around 80 concerts a year and commissions works from Swedish and international composers.
http://www.remusik.se
Benedicte Elnes is a Norwegian freelance horn player based in Oslo. She studied with Kjell Erik Arnesen, Inger Besserudhagen and Frøydis Ree Wekre at the Norwegian Academy of Music and with Sibylle Mahni for her Masters degree from Hochschule für Musik, Mainz.
During her studies in Germany, she won the audition for a one-year ‘Praktikant’ (trainee) – position with the Philharmonischer Staatsorchester Mainz. She also played with Mainzer Kammerorchester as a soloist in a horn quartet, with extensive tours around the country. She worked with several project-based orchestras and established ensembles, such as the brass quintet Ensemble Schwerpunkt, which performed at the opening concert for the contemporary music festival Musik 21 in Hannover.
After moving back to Norway, Benedicte has had extensive contracts with both Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, as well as regularly working with most of the Norwegian professional orchestras, military bands and chamber orchestras, such as: Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Norwegian Opera and Ballet, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, Trondheim Soloists, Ensemble Allegria, Telemark Chamber Orchestra, Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces, Royal Norwegian Navy Band, Norwegian Air Force Band and more.
Benedicte also does various other freelancing jobs with studio musicians, pop-music, and a wide range of chamber music settings.
Kathleen Flynn has performed a repertoire spanning five centuries, and has performed across the globe. She has sung roles under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, Julius Rudel, Robert Spano, Christopher Hogwood, Mario Bernardi and Jane Glover and has sung with Chicago Opera Theater, at the National Arts Center of Ottawa, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Kathleen holds degrees from SUNY, Stony Brook (DMA), the Juilliard School (JOC and MMUS), University of Toronto (Diploma in Operatic Studies) Dalhousie University (BMUS). Kathleen is currently an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
https://www.newmusicusa.org/profile/kathleenflynn/
Wenche Merete Helbæk er utdannet oboist og obopedagog ved Østlandets Musikkonservatorium og Norges Musikkhøgskole.
Har vært ansatt som oboist i Det norske Blåseensemble og har siden 2007 vært oboist i Luftforsvarets musikkorps. Underviser ved Trondheim kommunale kulturskole og Trondheim katedralskole. Er administrativ koordinator for talenutviklingsprogrammet Unge Musikere ved NTNU.
Er aktiv som instruktør og freelance musiker og har blant annet turnert for Rikskonsertene og den kulturelle Barnehagesekken.
Helena Högberg was born in 1951 in Linköping Sweden. At an early age she became interested in dance and studied dance with Tatiana Niordsson from the age of seven.
She moved to Stockholm to start an education to become a dancer 1970. After that she studied dance for Matt Mattox in London in 1974 and continued to teach his dance style in among other places; Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
Helena worked as a dancer with many different companies in Scandinavia and in France.
In 1985 she moved with husband and two daughters to the island Gotland, in the Baltic Sea, and there she continued to work with performing, teaching and choreography.
The Theatre in Visby engaged her for many choreographical tasks.
In 1999 she studied at DOCH (Dance and Circus University in Stockholm) for one year to become a teacher in classical ballet.
In 2004 she started an education for dancers, teachers and choreographers and worked as an artistic leader in ten years.
After that Helena went back to freelance with dance in many different forms. The artistic leadership was a big task after that and she continues to work with dance as a dancer, teacher and a choreographer.
Henny Linn Kjellberg (1974) is an artist, ceramicist and art educator from Uppsala, Sweden. She holds a BFA from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Bornholm and an MFA from Konstfack – the University College of Arts and Craft in Stockholm, Sweden. She has also been a guest student at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, Norway. She has shown her work at galleries and museums in, amongst others, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Thailand, Canada and the US and has been an artist in residence and guest artist several times at the International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. She teaches and lectures on a regular basis.
Her works cross boundaries between ceramic practice and other art forms, ranging from land art, installation art and performance based works to public commissions. The pieces are often conceptual, mixed media, large scale and site specific. They have strong scenographic features, dealing with and relating to materiality, spatiality, architecture and the use of public space.
Many of my pieces are airy and large-scale and form a stage like feeling when activated by audience, movement and light, creating a space where the lines between the human physical existence and the infrastructure that surround us are blurred. I am interested in the ways in which scale and number affect interpretation, in the subtle language of the non-obvious and how our perceptions are challenged as we consider the transition of private to public.
Maestro
Timothy G. Long served as assistant conductor to Robert Spano at the Brooklyn Philharmonic and conducted the orchestra for their 9/11 Memorial Concert in October of 2001. He was associate conductor at New York City Opera for two years. Bridge Records recently released Mr. Long’s first recording as conductor and pianist, The Music Teacher, a play/opera by Wallace and Allen Shawn. He is a member of the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town of the Creek Nation of Oklahoma. During the 2007-08 season his operatic conducting engagements included Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Don Pasquale at Opera Colorado, Madame Butterfly at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Ariadne auf Naxos at Wolf Trap Opera. Engagements: Boston Lyric Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Colorado, Utah Opera, Tulsa Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, Aspen Music Festival, Moab Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Prague Summer Nights Festival, Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Recordings: Bridge Records, Naxos; Former assistant conductor of Brooklyn Philharmonic and associate conductor of New York City Opera. He is the Music Director of Opera at the Eastman School of Music.
http://timothylongmusic.com
Aaron Packard maintains a varied career as a violinist, performing music of many genres and periods. He is an avid improviser and proponent of new music, working closely with composers such as U.S.-born Norway resident Ellen Lindquist, and Elizabeth Adams and Ted Hearne in New York, to find and experiment with new sound ideas. Having studied period performance with Arthur Haas at SUNY Stony Brook, his interpretations are also informed by the strength of tradition and history. Performance collaborators include Orfeo Duo, 17th-century specialist and improvising harpsichordist Gabe Shuford, Mantra Percussion, violinist Vita Wallace, and bassist Nick Walker. He has been a frequent guest with Avery Ensemble, presenting works from Beethoven to Schnittke. Since 2007 Aaron has been honored to perform in and around Saranac Lake, NY as a part of the Loon Lake Live concert series. Major violin teachers include Greg Fulkerson and the late Mitchell Stern, but he is proud to say he was really started on the path toward becoming a listener by the incomparable pianist Gil Kalish, and Tim Eddy of the Orion String Quartet. While at home, Mr. Packard spends time meditating on breath and movement, raising chickens, and loving life with his wife and two young children.
Robert Signom III has been working in Production for over fifteeen years. As Production Manager, he has worked for Opera Saratoga, Gotham Chamber Opera, The Ensemble Studio Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Ideal Glass Gallery, and New Jersey Performing Arts Center, as well as The Civilians and Waterwell. Rob has worked on over 75 productions, concerts and industrials in New York and regionally with Frankie Valli, Jackie Mason, Susan Sarandon, Bruce Springsteen, Jack Nicholson, Toni Morrison, Yogi Berra, Buzz Aldrin, They Might Be Giants, and many others. Rob is on the Board of Directors of The Citizens’ Motorcar Company, America’s Packard Museum, as well as a member of Packard Automobile Classics, the Classic Car Club of America, First Presbyterian Church, and The Players’. He is also an Eagle Scout and a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His wife, Penelope Thomas is an Actress and Singer from Toronto, Ontario.
Trondheim Sinfonietta (TSi) is a chamber ensemble which specializes in contemporary music. Founded in 1998 by professional musicians from Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Norway’s Air Force Band, TSi’s mission is to perform music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Led in large part by the musicians themselves, TSi works with established composers, promotes new composers and creates programs which give something new and different to both ensemble and listener. Adopting a collaborative approach, it commissions and premières new works, working with such composers as Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Sofia Gubaidulina and Bent Sørensen. Previous recordings include
Så rart…! (2008) (Spellemanns Prize),
Snowblind (2010) and
Khipukamayuq (2015) (Spellemanns Prize nomination). Recently their 20
th-anniversary recording
Mantra was released on the BIS label, including works by Ellen Lindquist (
Mantra), Toshio Hosokawa, Bent Sørensen and Kristin Norderval.
http://trondheimsinfonietta.no/
Malin Trast was educated at the University College of Music in Piteå and at Mälardalens Högskola in Västerås. She is active as chamber musician, flute teacher and orchestral musician and works regularly with the Västerås Sinfonietta. During the years 2001-2010 she was a member of Vestmanniaensemblen, a chamber ensemble connected to the regional organization Vä stmanlandsmusiken. She has recorded with Björn J:son Lindh and Torbjörn Carlsson, and has played concerts with pianist Staffan Sandström in Paris, performing pieces from Lowell Liebermann, Prokofieff, Schubert and more. Beyond her work with Companion Star she has collaborated not only with other musicians but also visual artists. She is currently a member of Operarop, a small ensemble in Västerås whose goal is to bring opera to children and youth.
Katy Tucker is a New York based video and projection designer. Katy began her career as a painter and installation artist, exhibiting her work at a variety of galleries, such as The Corcoran Museum, Dupont Underground, The Dillon Gallery and Artist’s Space in New York City. She has collaborated with musicians like: Paul McCartney, Helga Davis, Pamela Z, Paola Prestini, Amanda Gookin and Jeffrey Ziegler. Her work in live performance has been seen around the world including Broadway, Off-Broadway, The Metropolitan Opera, The New York City Ballet, Carnegie Hall, The Park Avenue Armory, BAM, Kennedy Center, San Francisco Opera, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Dutch National Opera, The Sydney Opera House, The Houston Grand Opera, and more. Upcoming: Eurydice at the Metropolitan Opera with director Mary Zimmerman, the World Premiere of Castor and Patience with Kevin Newbury, and a series of digital projects with the Glimmerglass Festival, and Houston Grand Opera. Katy resides in Beacon, New York.
Born and raised in Paris,
Nicolas Tulliez holds a Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School, an Artist Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto, and a Master of Music from Yale University. His teachers include Pierre Jamet, Nancy Allen and Judy Loman. After spending three years as solo Harpist of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, he has been with the Basel Sinfonie Orchester for the past five years and is now principal harpist of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Winner of many competitions and scholarships, he has performed as a soloist in Europe, USA, and Canada. Since 1998 he has played with Trio Nobis. He is very active in the new music scene and has premiered and recorded many new pieces. Nicolas has recorded for EMI, CBC, Skarbo, Maguelone, and recently released his Lutoslawski double concerto with the National Polish Radio Orchestra for Naxos.
http://www.nicolastulliez.com/
