Artists Biographies
Our Artist's Biographies
MICHAEL BEGAY
A Diné performer/educator/composer of Chamber Music, Experimental Sound, Native American Flute, and Metal music, Michael Begay is a guitarist and bassist, but also plays piano, and various instruments both Native American and orchestral.
A graduate of the Grand Canyon Music Festival’s Native American Composer’s Apprentice Project (NACAP), Mr. Begay has studied under both Native and nonnative American Composers: Brent Michael Davids (Mohican), David Mallamud, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (Chickasaw), Libby Larson, Raven Chacon (Diné), and Oscar Bettison.
Originally based on the Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona, Michael moved to Baltimore, Maryland, after being accepted to The Johns Hopkins Peabody Institute of Music, to further his studies in music composition. Michael Begay has studied music composition in the studio of Oscar Bettison at Peabody and is currently working on various compositions ranging from Chamber Music, Film, Electronic Ensemble, Solo and Orchestral works.
Recent activities include: Co-Composer and Music Director for Documentary, “Navajo Police – Class 57” due for release on HBO MAX; Composer for the documentary, “Look For Me” soon to be released at Sundance Film Festival; Experimental Improvisation album released, “Dark Red Skies” Michael Begay/Thollem McDonnas; 2023 Fall Concertia HTX Houston Texas, Sound installation; 2023 Fall Premiere of new commissioned work for Chatter in Albuquerque, NM.
He was a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation 2021 Shift Award recipient, alongside Raven Chacon. He has been a NACAP composer-in-residence since 2006.
STEPHEN BENSON
MARK BERMAN
Pianist, composer, producer, conductor, music director and arranger, Mark Berman has performed with Aretha Franklin, Blood Sweat & Tears, Carole King, Gladys Knight, Hugh Jackman, Illinois Jacquet, Ben E King, Jackie McLean, Cornelius Bumpus, Buster Poindexter, Clark Terry, Leslie Gore, Richie Havens, Helen Reddy, Jennifer Holliday, Phil Ramone, Chita
Rivera, Phoebe Snow, and Eartha Kitt.
Mark Berman’s piano and keyboard playing can be heard on the theme of the HBO series Sex and the City. Berman has written additional music for the program and can be seen on an episode. He has also written music for Bravo, the Food Network, Nurse Jackie, the Showtime series and a variety of network daytime series.
Berman has also appeared on television in The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, as well as Sex and the City (he was also the player and keyboard coach behind Nathan Lane’s appearance on the show).
On Broadway, he conducted Rent, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and Blood Brothers and played lead piano in the orchestras of The Boy From Oz, Hairspray, Dreamgirls, Jesus Christ Superstar, 42nd Street, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and others including the Public Theater of New York’s production of Hair in Central Park and its Broadway revival. He has also written additional music, a classical pas-de-deux, for Fame the Musical.
He has performed in jazz clubs around the world including The Blue Note, Rainbow Room, Birdland, The Cutting Room, B.B. King’s, the Supper Club and Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center. Berman has appeared at Weil Hall at Carnegie Hall, at Merkin Hall at Lincoln Center, and can be heard on numerous recordings.
ROBERT BONFIGLIO
Harmonica, is founding director of the Grand Canyon Music Festival. Called “the Paganini of the Harmonica” by the Los Angeles Times, he has shown the world what power there is in this little instrument, what possibilities there are for an almost infinite range of expressivity from only about four octaves. Robert holds a masters degree in composition from the Manhattan School of Music, (because there wasn’t a harmonica faculty!). He studied harmonica with noted harmonica virtuoso Cham-ber Huang, and honed his technique through coaching with flutist Andy Lolya. Traveling the world with harmonica in hand, Robert is among a small group of musicians who have raised its status as a serious concert instrument. He has soloed with over 200 Orchestras including the Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Leipzig MDR-Radio Symphony at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Boston Pops, with John Williams on PBS, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., New York Pops, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at Teatro Colon, to name only a few. Having studied composition with Charles Wuorinen and, as the first recipient of the Mihaud Scholarship at the Aspen Music School, Aaron Copeland, it comes as no surprise that he is an avid supporter and promoter of contemporary music, starting with the World Premiere of the Henry Cowell Harmonica Concerto with Lucas Foss conducting. This season he premiered the Radamés Gnattali Harmonica Concerto in Brazil with Miguel Campos Neto conducting and “Concerto Armonico” with Atlanta Ballet and Tara Simoncic conducting. Outside of the concert hall, he has raised the consciousness of the harmonica among the general public through appearances on many shows such as the CBS Morning Show, CBS Sunday Morning, Larry King and Garrison Keillor. He has recorded on such labels as RCA, Arista, CBS, Sine Qua Non, High Harmony, QVC and Naxos. Robert, along with his wife, flutist Clare Hoffman, founded the Grand Canyon Music Festival. Now in its 35th season, it not only brings top performers to Grand Canyon National Park but also engages in outreach programs to schools in rural areas with the Native America Composer Apprentice Project which has won the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award.
RAVEN CHACON
Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music, Raven Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. His work is featured in the Whitney Museum’s 2022 Biennial “Quiet as it’s Kept.” As a solo artist, collaborator, or with Postcommodity, Chacon has exhibited or performed at Whitney Biennial, document 14, REDCAT, Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Chaco Canyon, Ende Tymes Festival, 18th Biennale of Sydney, and The Kennedy Center. Every year, he teaches 20 students to write string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). He is the recipient of the United States Artists fellowship in Music, The Creative Capital award in Visual Arts, The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship, and the American Academy’s Berlin Prize for Music Composition. He lives in Albuquerque, NM.
JUDITH GORDON
CLARE HOFFMAN
Flute. Co-founder and artistic director of the Grand Canyon Music Festival, Clare Hoffman has toured the United States, Europe and Asia, performing in a variety of settings from major concert halls to an ancient ampitheatre on the Greek island of Rhodes. Recent engagements include the Berkshire Bach Society (Tanglewood), Bang on a Can Festival (Lincoln Center), Cutting Edge (New York City, Victoria Bond, director), Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series), Scandia Symphony, and Bronx Arts Ensemble. She has premiered works by John Corigliano, Seymour Barab, Brent Michael Davids, Arnold Black and Richard Einhorn and recorded for television, film, and RCA and High Harmony Records. Ms. Hoffman’s 2001-2002 season included working with Music Givers, an organization founded by musicians after September 11, 2001, to offer their talents to the relief efforts in the New York City area. Under her guidance, the Grand Canyon Music Festival has been presenting critically acclaimed musicians and outreach education programs to schools in northern Arizona’s rural areas, primarily schools and communities on the Hopi and Navajo Nations, for 28 years, and received funding and recognition from diverse organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, WESTAF, and The Nina Mason Pulliam, Flinn, Compton, ASCAP, and APS Foundations. She is a dedicated advocate for the arts and has worked throughout the United States with students from diverse backgrounds, from inner-city schools in places like Los Angeles and New York City to farming communities in Iowa and Native American communities in Arizona. Her education projects for the Grand Canyon Music Festival include an arts curriculum for fifth graders that integrates music and visual arts with core subjects, developed with Arts Vision and Bank Street College of Education, and the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP) with composers-in-residence Raven Chacon and Trevor Reed, which was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities with a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award. She taught at the Turtle Bay Music School in New York City where she developed curriculum for the Flute Certificate Program, and is currently on the faculty of Concordia College Conservatory in Westchester, New York. She studied at the Mannes College of Music with Andrew Lolya, at L’École d’Été in France with legendary French flutists Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alain Marion, and with Samuel Baron and Julius Baker.
DR. DAVID KOERNER
In the decade of the 1980’s, Dr. Koerner switched gears to indulge a long-standing interest in science with studies in physics, geology, and astronomy and eventually received a doctorate in planetary science from Caltech for astronomical research in the origin of planetary systems. He subsequently worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and University of Pennsylvania before joining the astronomy faculty at NAU, where he recently retired as Emeritus Associate Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science. He remains keenly interested in the fields of astrobiology and indigenous astronomy and co-authored the book, “Here Be Dragons: the Scientific Quest for Extraterrestrial Life.
Since retirement from teaching and research in astronomy, Dr. Koerner has devoted more time to his earlier love of music. He completed the M.M. degree in instrumental performance at NAU in viola and violin and plays viola with Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra. He performed the unpublished D minor viola concerto of astronomer Sir William Herschel at the 239th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January 2022. He has also revived his keyboard artistry and recently performed the Tchaikovsky 1st and Beethoven’s 5th Concertos with Orchestra Northern Arizona. He currently studies piano with Dr. Silvan Negruƫiu and composition with Dr. Bruce Reiprich in the NAU graduate certificate program in piano performance where he recently performed a night-sky themed piano recital at Kitt Auditorium.
RHONDA RIDER
The Boston Globe describes Rhonda Rider as “a glorious cellist,” remarkable for her “extraordinarily expressive and inventive playing.” A founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Lydian String Quartet, with whom she played for over 20 years, Rider is a member of the Triple Helix Piano Trio. Her chamber music and solo recordings have been nominated for Grammy Awards and cited as critics’ choice in both the New York Times and the Boston Globe. As a chamber musician, she has won prizes at the Banff, Evian, Fischoff, and Portsmouth competitions. As a soloist, she won the Concert Artists Guild award. Dedicated to the performance of new music, Rider has premiered and recorded works by such renowned composers as John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Yu-Hui Chang, and Elliott Carter.
Rider has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and the American String Teachers Association. She has also adjudicated the Concert Artists Guild, Stulberg, and Fischoff competitions.
With an abiding interest in performing classical music out of the concert hall, Rider was named artist in residence at Grand Canyon National Park in 2010. Eleven pieces for solo cello were commissioned for her residency. The works were performed in 15 concerts across the United States and in Asia. More recently, she was named artist-in-residence at Petrified Forest National Park. Ten new solo cello pieces emerged from this project in 2017.
During the summer, Rider performs and teaches at festivals including Music from Salem, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Harvard Chamber Music Festival and the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong. Additionally, she holds the Cello Seminar dedicated to contemporary cello music in Salem, New York.
Rider was awarded the Hurlbutt Prize with a B.M. from Oberlin Conservatory. She holds a M.M. with the Haupt Award from Yale School of Music. Her teachers have included cellists Richard Kapuscinski, Aldo Parisot, and Zara Nelsova, violinists Robert Koff and Szymon Goldberg, and pianist Robert Levin.
She is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory.
BRYAN STONE
JOHN VAIL
THE CATALYST QUARTET
Hailed by The New York Times at their Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished…playing with earthy vigor,” Catalyst Quartet is comprised of top Laureates and alumni of the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Competition. Known for “rhythmic energy, polyphonic clarity and tight ensemble-playing,” the ensemble has toured throughout the United States and abroad, including sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, at Chicago’s Harris Theater, Miami’s New World Center and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie hall. The quartet has also appeared as concerto soloists with the Bogata Filharmonica, the Sphinx Virtuosi, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Catalyst Quartet has held concert residencies at the University of Michigan, University of Washington, Rice University, Houston’s Society for the Performing Arts, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the Virginia Arts Festival, and Pennsylvania State University. International residencies where they perform and teach master classes have included the In Harmony Project in England, the University of South Africa, and the Teatro de Bellas Arts in Cali, Colombia.
Their recordings span the scope of their interests and artistry. Their debut album The Bach/Gould Project – features the members’ own arrangement of J.S. Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations paired with Glenn Gould’s seminal String Quartet Op. 1, on the Azica label. The Catalyst Quartet can also be heard on Strum, CQ violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery’s debut album, Bandaneon y cuerdas, tango inspired music for string quartet and bandaneon by JP Jofre, and Dreams and Daggers, Cecile McLorin Salvants tremendous 2 disk Grammy-winning album, featuring the Catalyst Quartet in a unique musical role. CQ has performed on numerous television and radio broadcasts for Detroit Public Television, American Public Media’s Performance Today, and Chicago, Houston, Seattle and Vermont local stations. The ensemble was also featured in The Strad and Strings Magazine.
Highlights of past collaborations include Encuentros, featuring a commissioned work by innovative Cuban composer Jorge Amado Molina and other voices from across the Cuban diaspora; (Im)migration: and CQ Minute, a commissioning project of 10 miniature string quartets in commemoration of the quartet’s 10th anniversary with works by Andy Akiho, Kishi Bashi, Billy Childs, Paquito D’Rivera, Tania Leon, Jessie Montgomery, Kevin Puts, Caroline Shaw, Joan Tower, and two young composers selected from a national call for scores. The quartet premiered “Passage” a chamber ballet by Jessie Montgomery in celebration of Dance Theater of Harlem on their 50th anniversary with Kennedy Center honoree Tania Leon and was ensemble-in-residence for the Vail International Dance Festival, where they collaborated with members of the Silkroad Ensemble and some of the finest dancers in the world. Catalyst Quartet’s largest ongoing project, UNCOVERED, is a multi-volume set of albums on Azica records that celebrates composers of color whose works have been overlooked by the traditional canon. Volume 1, released February 2021, includes the string quartet and quintets of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Stewart Goodyear. Volume 2 features works by Florence B. Price and Volume 3, set to release February 2023, features Coleridge-Taylor, Perkinson, William Grant Still, and George Walker.
The Catalyst Quartet has been invited as guest artists at important music festivals, Mainly Mozart in San Diego, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Sitka Music Festival, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Strings Music FestivaL, the Grand Canyon Music Festival, and the Vail International Dance Festival. In 2014 they opened the Festival del Sole in Napa with Joshua Bell and also participated in England’s Aldeburgh Music Foundation’s String Quartet Residency with two performances in Jubilee Hall. Recent seasons have brought international touring in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Puerto Rico, and expanded U.S. tours in Virginia, Minnesota, Hawaii and California. Catalyst’s New York City presence has included concerts on the Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series, the Café Series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at New York’s City Center, at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, for Schneider Concerts at the The New School, and six concerts at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant.
Founded by the Sphinx Organization, the Catalyst Quartet combines a serious commitment to diversity and education with a passion for contemporary works. In October 2016 the Quartet completed their sixth national tour as principal players and featured ensemble with the Sphinx Virtuosi. Catalyst Quartet members serve as principal faculty at the Sphinx Performance Academy at The Cleveland Institute of Music and Curtis Institute of Music.
The Catalyst Quartet proudly endorses Pirastro strings: www.pirastro.com. Additional information with links to audio and video performances can be found on their homepage: www.catalystquartet.com.
MANHATTAN CHAMBER PLAYERS
MCP was recently praised in Strings Magazine for “A fascinating program concept…It felt refreshingly like an auditory version of a vertical wine tasting.” The article went on to applaud MCP for “an intensely wrought and burnished performance…Overall, I wished I could put them on repeat.” At the core of MCP’s inspiration is its members’ joy in playing this richly varied repertoire with longtime friends and colleagues, with whom they have been performing since they were students. Building upon that foundation, new works commissioned from its composer members keep the ensemble firmly grounded in the music of both the past and present. Its roster allows for the programming of virtually all the core string, wind, and piano chamber music repertoire—from piano duos to clarinet quintets to string octets. While all its members have independent careers as soloists and chamber musicians, they strive for every opportunity to come together and again share in this special collaboration, creating “a mellifluous blend of vigorous intensity and dramatic import, performed with enthusiasm, technical facility and impressive balance, relishing distinctions…a winning performance.” (Classical Source)
Members of MCP are current and former members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and the Amphion, Attacca, Dover, Escher, Vega, and Ying Quartets, and the Lysander and Aletheia Piano Trios. They are top prizewinners in the Banff, Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff, Melbourne, Naumburg, Osaka, Primrose, Queen Elisabeth, Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Tertis, and Young Concert Artists Competitions, and are some of the most sought after solo and chamber performers of their generation. The Manhattan Chamber Players has been featured multiple times on NPR’s Performance Today, and is the Ensemble-in-Residence at both the Northern Lights Music Festival in Mexico and the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival in New Orleans. In addition to its numerous concerts across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, MCP regularly tours in Asia and the Middle East, and has led chamber music residency programs at institutions throughout the U.S. and abroad. manhattanchamberplayers.com
Members of Manhattan Chamber Players
LUKE FLEMING
Viola. Praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for his “glowing refinement,” violist Luke Fleming’s performances have been described by The Strad as “confident and expressive…playing with uncanny precision,” and lauded by Gramophone for their “superlative technical and artistic execution.” Festival appearances include the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, Perlman Music Program, the Norfolk and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festivals, the Melbourne Festival, Bravo!Vail, and Festival Mozaic. Formerly the violist of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet, he has served as Artist-in-Residence for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and received the National Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award. He was awarded First Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. In 2015, Mr. Fleming became the Founding Artistic Director of both the Manhattan Chamber Players, a New York-based chamber music collective, and the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival. He has performed as a guest artist with the Pacifica, Solera, Serafin, and Canterbury Quartets, the Eroica and Gryphon Trios, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Sejong Soloists, Ensemble Connect, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the New York Classical Players, and has given masterclasses at UCLA, Louisiana State University, Ithaca College, Columbus State University, Syracuse University, Melbourne University, and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, among others. He has served on the faculties of the Innsbrook Institute, Renova Music Festival, Festival del Lago, and Houston ChamberFest, and Fei Tian College and is Lecturer-in-Residence for the concert series Project: Music Heals Us. Mr. Fleming holds the degrees of Doctor of Musical Arts, Artist Diploma, and Master of Music from the Juilliard School, a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and a Bachelor of Music summa cum laude from Louisiana State University. He is represented by Arts Global, Inc.
lukefleming.com
DANIEL ANASTASIO
A soloist and chamber musician based in San Antonio, Texas, pianist Daniel Anastasio combines an intellectual curiosity with “technical prowess and emotional sensitivity” (Rivard Report). His performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3, conducted by Leon Fleisher with the Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra, was “the highlight to everyone’s ears, if the full-house of standing ovation were any indication” (ECM reviews). Anastasio was a concerto competition finalist at Cornell University, Stony Brook University, and Juilliard, where he won the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. He received fellowships to Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall, Tanglewood Music Center and Yellow Barn Music Festival. Anastasio is the co-founder of Unheard-of//Ensemble, a group dedicated to commissioning composers and premiering their works.
Recently joining the faculty of San Antonio College as a full-time piano instructor, Anastasio is a member of Agarita, a San Antonio-based chamber ensemble dedicated to making classical music accessible to everyone in San Antonio, and reaching the whole of its community including the most underserved populations. Anastasio received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music and philosophy at Cornell University under Xak Bjerken, and a Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School under Jerome Lowenthal. Last Spring he received his Doctor of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University, under Gilbert Kalish and Christina Dahl.
JACOB FOWLER Cello. New Orleans-based cellist Jacob Fowler is the Founding Director of the Surf and Sounds Chamber Music Series (Outer Banks, North Carolina), and frequently performs with the Houston and San Antonio Symphonies. He is also a Festival Artist at the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival in New Orleans, where he has performed with members of the Manhattan Chamber Players, Dover and Escher Quartets and the Lysander Trio since the festival’s founding in 2016. Festival appearances include the Tanglewood Music Institute, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (Germany), and Thy Masterclass Chamber Music Festival (Denmark). In March of 2019, Mr. Fowler was a featured artist at the SXSW Festival performing in the HBO/Games of Thrones and American Red Cross production Bleed for the Throne, which received national coverage. Mr. Fowler can also be heard on the 2019 soundtrack recording of the Alley Theater production Constellations. Mr. Fowler was a regular performer with the Norfolk Chamber Consort and the Hampton Roads Chamber Players, was a founding member of the New Commonwealth String Quartet and for four years was Coordinator of the John Duffy Composers Institute. He performs regularly at Bargemusic in Brooklyn and has been a Festival Artist at the Festival de Febrero in Ajijic, Mexico. In November of 2014, Mr. Fowler collaborated with Todd Rosenlieb Dance Company to perform the Suite for Solo Cello by Gaspar Cassadó with choreography by Ricardo Melendez, which opened with great success and was hailed by M.D. Ridge of Norfolk’s WHRO as “the pièce de résistance. [Mr. Fowler] sang sweetly…and the result was spectacular.” A former student of Norman Fischer, Alan Harris, and Desmond Hoebig, Mr. Fowler holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and the Shepherd School of Music in Houston, TX.
CONNIE KUPKA Violin and Viola. Connie Kupka, a native Angelino, grew up in a music-loving family along with two other siblings, both of whom are also performers. After graduating from UCLA, she won a scholarship to study chamber music with the Guarneri Quartet at the Yale Summer Festival in Norfolk, Connecticut. The experience created a lifelong passion for chamber music (and orchestras), and inspired her and her future husband, cellist David Speltz, to form their own ensemble, the Arriaga Quartet. The group went on to win the grand prize in the prestigious Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition and was able to tour with a broad range of offerings from the magnificent quartet repertoire. Summers always find Connie participating in many of the wonderful festivals throughout the country. She has performed at the Oregon Bach and Mostly Mozart festivals; the Santa Fe and Grand Canyon chamber music festivals; and the Ojai, Colorado and Sedona Jam music festivals. In Los Angeles, she regularly performs on the South Bay Chamber Music Society and Pacific Serenades series. She and David are the proud parents of three sons who grew up attending Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concerts, two of them now pursue musical careers of their own. Connie loves performing with them at local chamber music venues.
BRENDAN SPELTZ Violin. NYC-based violinist Brendan Speltz second violinist of the world renowned Escher String Quartet, has toured the globe with groundbreaking ensembles such as Shuffle Concert, the Manhattan Chamber Players, A Far Cry, and the Harlem Quartet. As founder of FeltInFour Productions, Mr. Speltz has produced innovative concert events across the New York City area that have been described by ,The New Yorker as “Thrilling, poignant, unexpected, and utterly DIY.” Most recently, Mr. Speltz co-created a cross-disciplinary presentation of Steve Reich’s Different Trains with aerial dance troupe ABCirque which was sponsored by Meyer Sound Labs. In NYC he has performed as guest with the New York New Music Ensemble, Mark Morris Dance Group, American Ballet Theatre, the American Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and as a founding member of the conductorless string orchestra Shattered Glass. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and his Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Speltz plays a 1925 Carl Becker violin.
DAVID SPELTZ. Cello. David Speltz began his formal studies with Eleanore Schoenfeld after being introduced to the cello by his father. Later, he was invited to join the Piatigorsky masterclass at USC. He earned a master’s degree in mathematics from UCLA, but soon realized that the cello was the path to follow. In 1973 he co-founded the Arriaga Quartet, which went on to win first prize in the Coleman Competition. As a member of the ensemble Musical Offering, he performed at the Library of Congress, Lincoln Center, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and recorded for the Nonesuch label. He has been active for years on many Los Angeles chamber music series in Los Angeles, and participated in summer festivals throughout the United States. David was a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner, and served as the principal cellist of the California Chamber Orchestra under Henri Temianka. In 1989 he served as principal cellist for the German conductor Helmuth Rilling at the Bach Collegium Stuttgart. He has been active in the motion picture industry in Los Angeles, playing in the studio orchestras for over 500 movies, from the Godfather series to Star Wars! David has three sons, two of whom are professional string players in New York City. He is married to violinist Connie Kupka.
NEWMAN & OLTMAN GUITAR DUO
Newman and Oltman’s concert tours have taken them to world cultural capitals and premiere venues across five continents. The Duo has demonstrated extraordinary stylistic breadth in their collaborations with such diverse artists as composer/conductor Marvin Hamlisch and the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, fiddler Eileen Ivers, pianist Clarice Assad, violinist Tim Fain, and the ETHEL, Calder, and Turtle Island string quartets. Through their groundbreaking new music-commissioning program, Newman & Oltman have built a unique repertoire of works for two guitars by leading and emerging composers such as Paul Moravec, Augusta Read Thomas, Lowell Liebermann, Dušan Bogdanović, Arthur Kampela, and Roberto Sierra. Fanfare Magazine hailed the Duo’s latest CD, Music from Raritan River as “a winner all around.” The recording features a collection of world premieres commissioned by the duo over the past decade. Their artistry has also been captured on nearly a dozen other acclaimed recordings, including Songs of Spain (BMG), Laments and Dances: Music from the Folk Traditions (Music Masters) with the Turtle Island Quartet, Sally Rogers and Jay Unger, Tango Suite! Romance for Two Guitars (Music Masters) and Christmas Pastorale: 600 Years of Carols, Chorales, Preludes and Pastorales on Two Guitars (Musical Heritage Society). Their recordings uniformly garner critical praise: “A reference standard” (Billboard), “Their duet recordings reveal a finely blended sound and true unity of timbre and style” (The New York Times), “…beautifully realized performances” (Guitar Player Magazine). Michael and Laura are founders and artistic directors of the New York Guitar Seminar at Mannes (www.mannesguitar.com), the new Lanciano International Guitar Seminar in Italy (www.lancianoguitar.com) and Raritan River Concerts and Raritan River Music Festival (www.RaritanRiverMusic.org). Michael Newman, a graduate of Mannes College of Music, currently serves on their guitar and chamber music faculty. Laura Oltman serves on the faculties of Princeton University and Lafayette College.