Margaret Lancaster, flutes

“New-music luminary” (The New York Times) and “leading exponent of the avant-garde flute” (Village Voice), Margaret Lancaster has built a large repertoire of new works composed for her that employ extended techniques, multi-media, and electronics fusing music, theater and movement. Performance highlights include Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Ibsen Festival, Santa Fe New Music, Edinburgh Festival, Tap City, New Music Miami, and Festival D’Automne. A member of Either/Or, Ensemble Ipse and Fisher Ensemble, she has been a guest of many groups including Argento, American Modern Ensemble and the New York Philharmonic.  She has appeared as a lecturer/soloist at many sites including Stanford, Dartmouth, Princeton, Columbia, Bennington, and the National Flute Association, has recorded on New World Records, OO Discs, Innova, Naxos, Tzadik and Mode, and was selected for Meet the Composer’s New Works for Soloist Champions project. Noted for her interdisciplinary performances, Lancaster, who also works as an actor, dancer, and amateur furniture designer, presents solo and chamber music concerts worldwide. Recent collaborations include projects with Jean-Baptiste Barrière, ArmitageGone!Dance, BMP’s Kocho, touring Morton Feldman’s 5 hour epic For Philip Guston, and playing Helene in the 7-year global run of OBIE-winning Mabou Mines Dollhouse…www.margaretlancaster.com.

Esther Noh, violin

Violinist Esther Noh has garnered acclaim for her achievements as both a classical and alternative music performer. She won the Audience Prize at the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition in Denmark and first prize in the Julius Stulberg International String Competition. She has soloed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and the Danish National Philharmonic.

As a chamber musician, she won first prize in the junior division of the 1994 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and has participated in residencies in Banff, Canada, the Smithsonian Museum, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She has toured throughout the country with the ETHEL string quartet, eighth blackbird, Fireworks Ensemble, and the Meredith Monk Ensemble, and has performed in New York City at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, and Miller Theater.

Ms. Noh is also an active champion of improvised and alternative music. She has collaborated with John Zorn, Mark O' Connor, and Bang on a Can, and has presented avant-garde music at Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, The Stone, and the Cutting Room. She plays and records with singer/songwriters and is the featured violin soloist in the Oscar-winning short film God of Love (Best Short Film, 2011). A strong supporter of contemporary music, she performs with numerous groups, including Signal, Wordless Music Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and Either/Or. She premieres composers’ works for both solo violin and chamber ensembles, and has recorded for the New Amsterdam and E1 labels. 

Ms. Noh received degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Michigan. She holds a doctorate with honors from SUNY Stony Brook and is a member of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. She was the visiting professor of violin at Wichita State University and concertmaster of the Wichita Symphony from January 2004-May 2005.  She currently resides in New York City.

Caleb van der Swaagh, cellist

A versatile chamber musician and soloist, cellist Caleb van der Swaagh is an alumnus of Ensemble ACJW (now known as Ensemble Connect) - a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. Caleb is the recipient of the Manhattan School of Music Pablo Casals Award and the Tanglewood Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Prize, and is a first prize winner in the SAVVY Chamber Competition. An advocate of contemporary music, Caleb is a member of counter)induction and Ensemble Échappé and also performs his own compositions and arrangements. As a recording artist, Caleb has appeared on many chamber music recordings including albums on Albany Records, Bright Shiny Things, Supertrain Records, Linn Records, and Avie Records. A native New Yorker, Caleb graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University as part of the Columbia – Juilliard Exchange program with a degree in Classics and Medieval & Renaissance Studies. He received his master’s degree from New England Conservatory and later studied at the Manhattan School of Music. His primary teachers are Bonnie Hampton, Laurence Lesser, and David Geber. For more information, visit www.calebvanderswaagh.com.

Geoffrey Burleson, pianist

Equally active as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and jazz performer, Geoffrey Burleson, pianist, has performed to wide acclaim throughout Europe and North America. The New York Times has hailed Burleson’s solo performances as “vibrant and compelling,” praising his “rhythmic brio, projection of rhapsodic qualities, appropriate sense of spontaneity, and rich colorings.”  Current recording projects include Camille Saint-Saëns: Complete Piano Works, on 5 CDs, for the new Naxos Grand Piano label. Volumes 1 (Complete Piano Études), 2, 3 and 4 have been released to high acclaim from Gramophone, International Record Review, Diapason (France) and elsewhere, and have garnered International Piano Choice Awards from International Piano Magazine.   Other noteworthy recordings by Burleson include Vincent Persichetti: Complete Piano Sonatas (New World Records), which received a BBC Music Choice award from the BBC Music Magazine, and AKOKA (Oxingale Records), featuring Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, as well as companion works, for which Burleson was nominated for a 2015 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year.  Mr. Burleson’s concerto appearances include the Buffalo Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, Boston Musica Viva and the Holland Symfonia in the Netherlands.  He has also appeared as featured soloist at the Bard Music Festival, International Keyboard Institute and Festival (New York), Monadnock Music Festival, Santander Festival (Spain) and the Talloires International Festival (France).    He is a core member of the American Modern Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, the Tribeca New Music Festival, David Sanford’s Pittsburgh Collective, and Princeton University’s Richardson Chamber Players.   Mr. Burleson teaches piano at Princeton University and is Professor of Music and Director of Piano Studies at Hunter College-City University of New York.  He is also on the piano faculties of the CUNY Graduate Center, the International Keyboard Institute & Festival (New York), and the Interharmony International Music Festival (Italy).

Christa Van Alstine, clarinets

Clarinetist Christa Van Alstine began her musical life in the great plains of Saskatchewan, Canada. She currently lives in New York City where she is on faculty at the United Nations International School.

After studying at the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School in Toronto, and performing in Canada's National Academy Orchestra, Christa moved to New York for graduate school at Stony Brook University. She dedicates her time to collaborating with ensembles, performers, and composers. Christa is the clarinetist with Ipse, bass clarinetist with Hotel Elefant, and has performed and collaborated in NYC and abroad with Mantra Percussion, Wet Ink, Beth Morrison Projects, A Far Cry, Talea, ICE, Either/Or, Red Light New Music, Iktus Percussion, Ascolta, and Toca Loca.

Stephanie Griffin, viola

Stephanie Griffin is an innovative composer and violist with an eclectic musical vision. Born in Canada and based in New York City, her musical adventures have taken her to Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, England, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Mexico and Mongolia. Stephanie founded the Momenta Quartet in 2004; and is a member of the Argento Chamber Ensemble and Continuum; principal violist of the Princeton Symphony; and viola faculty at Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges. She received prestigious composition fellowships from the Jerome Foundation (2017) and the New York Foundation for the Arts (2016), and was a 2014 fellow at Music Omi. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Samuel Rhodes, and has recorded for Tzadik, Innova, Naxos, Aeon, New World and Albany records.

Matt Ward, percussion

Percussionist Matt Ward is dedicated to performing and commissioning new music and has been cited by the New York Times as “a fine soloist”.  With a particular interest in chamber music, he is a principal member with the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Talujon, the American Modern Ensemble, Associated Solo Artists and is the Percussion Department Coordinator at The Juilliard School.  Dr. Ward also performs regularly with groups such as the Albany Symphony, Talea Ensemble, SEM Ensemble, The Orchestra of the League of Composers, Sequitor and the Riverside Symphony. Dr. Ward was the recipient of the Ridley-Tree Fellowship at the Music Academy of the West in 1998, and in 1999 he participated in the Tanglewood Music Center under the direction of Seiji Ozawa and George Benjamin and returned the following year for the American Premiere of Pierre Boulez's Sur Incises at the 60th Anniversary TMC Alumni Concert.  Recent performance highlights include the American Premieres of works by Bernhard Lang, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Philippe Hurel.
 
Matt Ward began studying conducting as the student director of the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players and in residence at the Bang On a Can Summer Music Festival.  Since then, he has premiered new works by Phillipe Manoury, Lawrence Moss, Ross Bauer, Meyer Kupferman, Barbara White, Sebastian Armoza and many other young composers.  He is also a guest conductor with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink, Ensemble Inc., DaCapo Chamber Players and the New York New Music Ensemble, premiering dozens of new pieces by young composers every year.
 
Dr. Ward holds a BM degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a MM and DMA degree from SUNY Stony Brook.  He is on faculty at Queens College, The Aaron Copland School of Music and Brooklyn College.  Through organizations such as the 92nd Street Y, Westchester Philharmonic, Marquis Studios, and Carnegie Hall, Dr. Ward has worked with elementary school children throughout New York City and the surrounding area.  He can be heard on the recording labels Aeon, Argo, Cantaloupe Music, Capstone Records, Newport Classics, Soundspell, and Albany Records.

Benjamin Grow, conductor

Conductor Benjamin Grow has worked with a wide array of ensembles in New York City and serves as Music Director/Principal Conductor of Chelsea Opera and Co-Director of the sinfonietta Ensemble Échappé. As music director of Tom Cipullo's acclaimed opera, Glory Denied, at the Prince Theater in Philadelphia, Grow "expertly coached the singers and led the orchestra" (Broad Street Review), and his "fine detailing delivered the ferocious power of this score" (Huffington Post), in what The Philadelphia Inquirer said was the "most unforgettable opera" of the year. He has also conducted studio recordings and workshops for Opera Philadelphia. In 2015, Grow won the International Conducting Workshop and Competition in Atlanta, GA.

​Mr. Grow has been guest conductor at the Manhattan School of Music, assistant conductor at The Juilliard School, and currently conducts the chamber orchestra at Berkshire Summer Music. For several years, Mr. Grow co-presented an annual lecture at the 92nd Street Y, "The Physics of Music," as part of their Mysteries of Science series, and has given pre-concert talks at the Museum of Biblical Art. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and his Master of Music at the Manhattan School of Music.