LARYSA KUZMENKO

LARYSA KUZMENKO is a Toronto-based composer and pianist. Her music has been performed and broadcast throughout the world. Her choral works have been published by Boosey and Hawkes.
In 1990, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Simon Streatfeild, performed her Concertino for Vibraphone, Marimba, and Orchestra, with soloist Beverley Johnston. This performance was recorded for broadcast by the CBC on the National Network show "Mostly Music," and was chosen for re-broadcast as a highlight of the season during the summer. This same work was performed in April and May of 1991 in Russia and Ukraine, and in April in Bayreuth, Germany. Also in April of 1991, her work "Traveller on a Dark Wind" was premiered at the Music Gallery in Toronto by Continuum, and was recorded for broadcast by the show "Two New Hours" in July of 1991. In June of 1991, the Elmer Iseler Singers premiered her new work "Spirits of the Dead," on a text by Edgar Allan Poe, at St. Andrews in Toronto.
In March of 1992, Ms. Kuzmenko appeared as pianist in the premiere at Jane Mallet Theatre of her "Sonata for Cello and Piano." This work was repeated on a Continuum concert in June of 1992, and was broadcast on " Two New Hours " in August of 1991. It was subsequently released on CD. In 1992, the Royal Canadian College of Organists commissioned a new work for solo organ, "Atlantis," which has been published by Jaymar Publishing Company. "Atlantis" was premiered by Michael Bloss on July 15, 1993, in Montreal. On February 19, 1993, "A Prayer" for String Orchestra was premiered by the Mississauga Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra.. In March of 1993, "Tekahionwake" for narrator, voice, and piano, based on the life and poetry of Pauline Johnson, was premiered at the George Ignatieff Theatre. It was commissioned for Classical Cabaret by the Laidlaw Foundation. On July 24, 1993, The Composers' Orchestra premiered Kuzmenko's Accordion Concerto, with soloist Joseph Macerollo, conducted by Gary Kulesha. This was broadcast on Two New Hours in the fall of 1993.
Ms. Kuzmenko's Piano Concerto, commissioned by the CBC, was premiered on January 23, 1996 by the Winnipeg Symphony under the direction of Bramwell Tovey, with soloist Christina Petrowska. In October of 1996, it was performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jukka Pekka Saraste. In 1996, she received an Ontario Arts Council commission to write a Cello Concerto for Shauna Rolston. On July 6,1998, her song cycle "In search of Eldorado" was premiered by mezzo soprano Catherine Robin. This work was commissioned by the Laidlaw Foundation, as was her "Suite of Dances" for flute, cello and piano, which was premiered at the Glenn Gould Studio, and released on CD by Musica Viva. Her solo piano piece "In memoriam: to the Victims of Chornobyl" (1997), was released on CD by Christina Petrowska. In November of 1998, Ms. Petrowska toured this work in New York City, China, and Taiwan. In January of 2002, Naida Cole performed this work at the Jane Mallet Theater. This work was subsequently performed throughout the world by several pianists. In September of 2000, Ms. Kuzmenko was commissioned through the Ontario Arts Council to compose "Lilith", for English Horn and string quartet, and a concerto for piano, percussion and string orchestra. "Lilith" was premiered at Jane MalletTheatre by Mooredale Concerts, and the Concerto was premiered by Bev Johnston, Mary Kenedi, and the Windsor Symphony, conducted by Susan Haig on January 12, 2001. Ms. Kuzmenko has recently been commissioned by the Laidlaw Foundation to compose a work for string quartet, percussion, and four flutes. This work will be premiered in March of 2003, by Mooredale Concerts with soloists Beverly Johnston, and Vicky Blechta. She has also been commissioned by the Hanniford Silver Band to write a piano concerto to be premiered in November of 2002 with pianist Andrew Burashko. Ms. Kuzmenko has been approached by others to compose a violin concerto, a ballet score to Hansel and Gretel, and incidental music to a native Indian story.
Ms. Kuzmenko has appeared as a pianist in several countries, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, the St. Lawrence Centre, Roy Thomson Hall, and Massey Hall, as well as several other venues throughout Canada.
Ms. Kuzmenko is currently on the staffs of the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, where she teaches piano, theory, harmony, and history.

ANNE MCGINTY

Anne McGinty is the most prolific woman composer in the field of concert band literature. Her many compositions and arrangements (over 150 titles), all of which have been published, extend from the elementary through the college level. More than 30 of these compositions were commissioned from bands in the United States. Ms. McGinty was also the first woman commissioned to write an original work for the United States Army Band. That composition, entitled "Hall Of Heroes," featured the US Army Band & Chorus and was premiered in March, 2000, with the composer conducting. She was also commissioned to write an original composition for the Bicentennial of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Entitled "To Keep Thine Honor Bright," it was premiered in September, 2001.
She began her higher education at The Ohio State University, where Donald McGinnis was her mentor, band director and flute teacher. She left OSU to pursue a career in flute performance, and played principal flute with the Tucson (Arizona) Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Pops Orchestra, and in the TSO Woodwind Quintet, which toured Arizona under the auspices of a government grant. When she returned to college, she received her Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, and Master of Music from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she concentrated on flute performance, music theory and composition. She studied flute and chamber music with Bernard Goldberg and composition with Joseph Willcox Jenkins.
She is a life member of the National Flute Association and served on its Board of Directors. She taught flute at several colleges in the Mid-West, taught flute and chamber music to underprivileged children, and was leader of a Royal American Regiment Fife and Drum Corps. She performed professionally in orchestras, chamber groups and as a flute clinician for a major manufacturer. She also was the editor of a flute column for a music magazine and co-founder of the NFA Newsletter, now known as "The Flutists' Quarterly."
Although no longer performing as a flutist, Ms McGinty remains well known as a flute choir specialist and was the first person to convince two major educational music publishers to publish a series for flute choir. As the flute editor at Hansen Publications in Miami Beach, Florida, she arranged and produced the first such flute choir series. She has composed and arranged music for solo flute, flute with piano accompaniment, flute duets, trios and quartets, as well as flute choirs.
She is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and has received annual composition awards since 1986. She received the Golden Rose Award from the Women Band Directors National Association and the Outstanding Service to Music Award from Tau Beta Sigma, a national honorary band sorority.
Ms. McGinty and John Edmondson formed Queenwood Publications in 1987 and were responsible for the creation, production, promotion, and international sales and distribution of Queenwood's catalog of concert band, jazz band and string orchestra music. They sold their company to the Neil A. Kjos Music Company in March, 2002, and are writing exclusively for them under the Queenwood/Kjos company name.
Ms. McGinty is also active as a guest conductor, clinician and speaker throughout the United States and Canada. She has conducted regional and all-state bands, given clinics at many state conventions and universities on band performance, literature and emotions in music, and has given speeches at state and national conventions, with many diverse topics, all of which are related to the performance and enjoyment of music and the values of music education.
Her other interests include weight lifting, reading murder mysteries, learning to play the bagpipes and nurturing her two cats, Starz and Stripes.

FAYE-ELLEN SILVERMAN

Faye-Ellen Silverman began her music studies before the age of four at the Dalcroze School of Music. She first achieved national recognition by winning the Parents League Competition, judged by Leopold Stokowski, at the age of 13. She holds a BA from Barnard, an AM from Harvard, and a DMA from Columbia in music composition. Her teachers have included Otto Luening, William Sydeman, Leon Kirchner, Lukas Foss, Vladimir Ussachevsky, and Jack Beeson. Approximately 60 of her compositions are published by Seesaw Music Corp. Oboe-sthenics is recorded on Finnadar-Atlantic, and Passing Fancies, Restless Winds, and Speaking Alone are on New World Recordings.
Silverman's awards include the selection of her Oboe-sthenics to represent the United States at the International Rostrum of Composers/UNESCO, resulting in international radio broadcasts (1982); winning the Indiana State [Orchestral] Composition Contest, resulting in a performance by the Indianapolis Symphony (1982); a Governor's Citation (1982); and having September 30, 1982 named Faye-Ellen Silverman Day in Baltimore by Mayor Donald Schaeffer. Additionally, she has been the recipient of the National League of American Pen Women's biennial music award (2002), yearly Standard Awards from ASCAP since 1983, several Meet the Composer grants, and an American Music Center grant. She was a resident scholar at the Villa Serbelloni of the Rockefeller Foundation (1987), a Composers' Conference Fellow (1985), a Yaddo Fellow (1984), and a MacDowell Fellow (1982). She is currently a Board Member of The International Women's Brass Conference (for which she served as composer-in-residence), and a founding member of Music Under Construction, a composers' collective.
Dr. Silverman's works have been performed by the Baltimore Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, the New Orleans Philharmonic, the International Experimental Music Festival in Bourges, ISCM - Korea section, Grupo Musica Hoje (Brazil), the Monday Evening Concert series (L.A.), and the Aspen Music Festival. She has received commissions from Thomas Matta, the International Women's Brass Conference for Junction, the Monarch Brass Quintet, the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, the Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates, the Con Spirito woodwind quintet, the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore, and a joint commission from the American Brass Quintet, the Catskill Brass Quintet, the Mt. Vernon Brass Players, and the Southern Brass quintet (under the National Endowment for the Arts Consortium Commissioning Program).
Silverman is also the author of several articles, record reviews for The Baltimore Sun, and the 20th century section of the Schirmer History of Music. She has taught at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College, several branches of the City University of New York and at Columbia University. She has been a member of the Mannes College faculty since 1991, and of its Extension Division since 1995. She also teaches at the Eugene Lang College, a division of The New School in New York.
An accomplished pianist as well, she has recorded for Radio Cologne (WDR), and has performed at the International Festival of Experimental Music in Bourges, the Library of Congress, and as soloist with the Brooklyn Philharmonic.

AMY WILLIAMS

Photo by Jim Newberry

Amy Williams has appeared as a composer and pianist at renowned contemporary music centers in the United States and Europe, including the Logos Foundation and Ars Musica (Belgium), Musikhøst Festival and Funen New Music Society (Denmark), Subtropics New Music Festival (Miami), Festival of New American Music (Maine), American Landmarks Festival and Greenwich House (New York City), SEAMUS, Society for New Music (Syracuse), Festival of the Human Voice (Vermont), Sound Field Festival (Chicago), North American New Music Festival and Hallwall's Contemporary Arts Center (Buffalo). Her works have been performed by leading contemporary music soloists and ensembles, including The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, North/South Consonance, Empyrean Ensemble, pianists Yvar Mikhashoff and Luk', and bassist Robert Black. Upcoming commissions include works for Klang (two pianos and two percussion), the Monarch Brass Ensemble, cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, Ensemble Noamnesia (six players at one piano) and the CUBE Ensemble (alto flute and percussion), for which she is currently composer-in-residence. As a member of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, she has performed at the NUMUS Festival (Denmark), Jordan Hall (Boston), June in Buffalo, Merkin Concert Hall, 3-2 Festival, Goethe-Institut/German Cultural Center (New York), Teatro San Martin (Buenos Aires), Musik aus Solitude (Germany) and the OGNAT Festival (Sweden), as well as numerous colleges and universities throughout the US and Europe. This season, the Duo will be recording their debut CD of Conlon Nancarrow's complete music for solo piano and piano duet (including 11 new transcriptions for piano duet of his remarkable Studies for Player Piano), produced by the Südwestrundfunk (German Radio). Ms. Williams has recorded for MODE and HAT-HUT Records. She has won the Wayne Peterson Composition Prize, the Thayer Award for the Arts, an ASCAP Award for Young Composers, and grants from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, American Music Center and Meet the Composer. She holds a Ph.D. in composition from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she also received her Master's degree in piano performance. Her principal teachers were composers David Felder, Charles Wuorinen and Nils Vigeland and pianists Yvar Mikhashoff and Alan Feinberg. Before her current position on the composition faculty of Northwestern University, she taught at Bennington College and SUNY at Buffalo, where she served as Assistant Director of the annual June In Buffalo festival for emerging composers. She is currently the Director of New Music Northwestern and Associate Director of the Northwestern Contemporary Music Ensemble.