| Pierrot Lunaire
Karol
Bennett, soprano • John
McMurtery, flute/piccolo • Ted
Gurch, clarinet/bass clarinet
Helen Hwaya Kim, violin/viola Craig
Hultgren, cello • Adam
Bowles, piano
James Romig, conductor
 Karol
Bennett (guest soprano) has appeared
as soloist with numerous ensembles, including the Boston Cecilia,
the Boston Masterworks Chorale, the Boston Musica Viva, Collage, Da
Camera of Houston, Emmanuel Music, the Flux Quartet, the Metamorphosen
Chamber Orchestra, the Mendelssohn String Quartet, the New York New
Music Ensemble, OrchestraX, the Quarteto Latino-Americano, the St.
Paul Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players,
and the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia. Praised for her
"bright, articulate" singing (Opera News), operatic appearances
include the title role in the Russian premiere of Debussy's "Pélleas
et Melisande," Despina in Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte,"
Adele in J. Strauss' "Die Fledermaus," and Gretel in Humperdinck's
"Hansel and Gretel." Conductors with whom she has performed
include John Axelrod, Sarah Caldwell, John Harbison, Edith Ho, David
Hoose, Allen Lannom, Richard Pittman, Gunther Schuller, Craig Smith,
Donald Teeters, Pascal Verrot, and Scott Yoo. As a recitalist, she
has performed a televised concert from the Opéra Comique in
Paris, as well as recitals in France, Rome, Moscow, the Far East,
Mexico, and throughout the United States. Ms. Bennett has been a participant
at the Marlboro and Round Top International Festivals of Music, and
Artist-in-Residence at the International Festival of Music in Morelia,
Mexico.
In 1990-91, Ms. Bennett was Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Since then, she has been in residence at
Amherst College, the Universities of California in Berkeley and Davis,
San Francisco State University, and the University of Oregon. In addition,
she has taught master classes in Russia, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia,
and at many universities in the United States. Most recently, she
served on the faculty of Boston University, until moving to Houston
with her husband and children in the fall of 1998. A graduate of the
University of Kansas City-Missouri Conservatory of Music and the Yale
School of Music, she was honored as the Kansas City Conservatory's
"Alumna of the Year" in 1996. [Back to top] |
|  Adam
Bowles (piano) is an instructor
on the Birmingham Southern College Conservatory faculty. He is nearing
completion of a D.M.A. at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory
of Music. He received a B.M. from The Eastman School of Music and
an M.M. from the New England Conservatory of music. Principal teachers
include Milton Stern, Barry Snyder, Jacob Maxin, and Eugene and Elizabeth
Pridonoff. He frequently collaborates with vocal students and faculty
at Birmingham Southern College. This is his second year as ACS New
Music Festival pianist. [Back to top]
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|  John
McMurtery (flute) performs as a
soloist, orchestra member and chamber musician throughout the United
States and Europe. In 2000, he soloed with The New Vienna Chamber
Ensemble. He is currently a member of UpTown Flutes, which was recently
awarded a Carnegie Hall debut recital by Artists International. As
Assistant Director of the Society for Chromatic Art, Mr. McMurtery
is dedicated to commissioning and performing works by contemporary
composers. As part of Lincoln Center's 2001 Focus! Festival Mr. McMurtery
premiered Nicola Sani's I binari del tempo (1998). He was a visiting
guest artist and lecturer at the Pittsburgh State University Festival
of New Music in 2001. Mr. McMurtery is principal flutist of the Manhattan
Chamber Orchestra and the Dicapo Opera Company. He is currently a
Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School, under the guidance of Julius
Baker. [Back to top]
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 Ted
Gurch (clarinet) is Assistant Principal/E-flat
Clarinetist with the AtlantaSymphony Orchestra, a position he has
held since 1989. He also performs frequently as a saxophonist with
the ASO, both orchestrally and accompanyingjazz and pop artists. Prior
to coming to Atlanta, he served for three seasons as Principal Clarinet
with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and the Mississippi Opera
Orchestra in Jackson. He attended the Eastman School of Music where
he studied with Stanley Hasty and Charles Neidich, earning a Bachelor's
Degree in Applied Clarinet and the Performer's Certificate in 1986.
While at Eastman he was active in the school's jazz program, and was
a member of the award-winning Eastman Jazz Ensemble, as well as serving
for two seasons as a first-call extra player with the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra. In Atlanta, Ted is an active chamber musician and is a
member of the contemporary music ensemble Thamyris, with which he
has performed and recorded numerous world and regional premieres,
including a current release featuring music from the National Black
Arts Festival. He teaches in the ASO's Talent Development Program,
and is an Artist Affiliate at Emory University.[Back
to top] |
|
 Helen
Hwaya Kim (violin)
made her orchestral debut with the Calgary
Philharmonic at the age of six, and has gone on to become a respected
and sought-after artist. She recently appeared as a soloist with
the Boston Pops at Boston's Symphony Hall, as well as with the Milwaukee
and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Ms. Kim earned her Master's Degree
from the Juillliard School, where her teachers included Cho-Liang
Lin and Dorothy DeLay. While at Juilliard, she was concertmaster
of the Juilliard Orchestra, with which she also appeared as a soloist.
She is the recipient of more than one hundred national and international
awards. In 1992, she won the prestigious Artists International Competition
in New York and, as a result, gave debut recitals at Carnegie Weill
Hall and the Aspen Summer Music Festival. A native of Canada, Ms.
Kim has been engaged by many of Canada's leading orchestras, including
the National Arts Center Orchestra, Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra,
Vancouver Symphony, McGill Chamber Orchestra, and the Windsor, Regina,
Victoria and Prince George Symphonies. She has also appeared with
the Aspen and Banff Festival Orchestras, and with orchestras in the
United Kingdom, Germany and Poland. A dedicated recitalist and chamber
music performer, Ms. Kim has toured extensively throughout Canada
and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall
and the Sante Fe and La Jolla International Music Festivals, where
she performed with Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Andre Previn, and
the Orion String Quartet. A featured performer duing the 1988 Olympic
Arts Festival, she has given command performances for the Governor
General and Prime Ministers of Canada. Ms.Kim has been profiled on
national and international television and has appeared on CBC Saturday
Report, PBS Live From Lincoln Center, and CBS Sunday Morning.
[Back to top]
|
 Craig
Hultgren (cello) is a strong advocate
for new music, the newly creative arts, and the avant-garde. Possessing
a broad range of instrumental techniques from traditional to radical,
he has commissioned over twenty new works for the cello. Through his
collaborations with living composers, he is changing the way people
write for and listen to the instrument. Besides playing written compositions,
Hultgren also performs his own spontaneous, free-style improvisations.
He presents programs of new music throughout the country and abroad.
His renditions of contemporary music have been broadcast on National
Public Radio's Performance Today and European radio. The Birmingham
News said of him, "Hultgren...pushes the limits of his instrument
brilliantly by using extended techniques in fascinating ways."
Charleston, South Carolina's Post & Courier observed, "Hultgren
has sure-fire technique and a keen sense of timing."
Hultgren has performed at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, Imagine
'96 in Memphis, the Society of Electroacoustic Music in the United
States, the New Directions Cello Festival in Boston, and the SKIIFestival
in New York. He maintains an active schedule of 50 new music performances
every year. Hultgren is featured in a debut solo recording Music of
the Next Moment on Minnesota-based innova Recordings. In 1992, he
received an Artist Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the
Arts. He is a member of Thamyris, a contemporary chamber music ensemble
in Atlanta.
As a traditionally trained artist, he plays in the Alabama Symphony
and has served as principal cellist with the National Symphony Orchestra
of Panama and the Savannah Symphony Orchestra. Hultgren is much sought
after as a teacher and nurtures a thriving private studio along with
faculty duties at Birmingham-Southern College, the University of Montevallo,
and the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
Hultgren also works in the behalf of arts as an organizer. He has
served as president of and on the board of directors for the Birmingham
Art Association, that city's oldest arts organization. In 1992 as
president, he instituted Birmingham Improv the annual festival of
improvisatory arts. Now, Hultgren is a consultant for Living Music,
an international organization of composers. He also participates on
the steering committee of the New Directions Cello Association. He
was a founding member of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance. [Back
to top] |
 James
Romig (conductor) has had compositions
performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in recitals,
music festivals, and as accompaniment to dance. In the tradition
of his musical mentors, Charles Wuorinen and Milton Babbitt, Romig's
music celebrates dramatic balance, exuberant virtuosity, and rigorous
formal integrity. Among his commissioned works are compositions for
the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Interlochen Arts Academy, the
Percussive Arts Society, and new-music ensembles such as Suono Mobile,
Helix!, and the New Vienna Chamber Ensemble. In recent seasons, his
music has been included on concerts by the University of Iowa Symphony
Orchestra (James Dixon, conductor), the Ensemble Musicattuale (Bologna,
Italy), the Eastman Contemporary Percussion Ensemble (Rochester,
New York), Duo Contour (Freiburg, Germany), and Holy Trinity Choirs
(New York City). Recent festival performances include the 50th Annual
Fulbright Music Gala (Berlin, Germany), the UTSA Festival of New
Music (San Antonio, Texas), and Wien Modern (Vienna, Austria). Romig’s
works are available from Parallax Music Press, River Street Publications,
and the American Music Center.
Romig holds a Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Rutgers
University, and undergraduate and masters degrees in music from the
University of Iowa. A dedicated educator, he gives frequent lectures
and masterclasses, including recent talks at Westminster Choir College
Conservatory, the Interlochen Arts Academy, and The Juilliard School.
Romig has taught at the University of Iowa, Rutgers University, Bucknell
University, and is currently on faculty at Western Illinois University.
He also serves as music director and principal conductor of The Society
for Chromatic Art, a contemporary-music ensemble based in New York
City. [Back to top]
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