Featured Performers

Joann Cho
ECM —April 6
Joann Cho

The compositions of Joann Cho (b. 1985, Orange, CA) have been premiered in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Santa Barbara, Portugal, and Spain. Her recent work, "Things Left Behind" for viola and electronics, was premiered by Rachel Galvin during the "New Works for Viola Festival" on the campus of the University of California-Santa Barbara on February 26, 2011. Joann is currently a PhD student in composition at UCSB studying with Clarence Barlow. Throughout her time at UCSB she has also worked closely with JoAnn Kuchera-Morin and Matthew Wright in completing acoustic and electroacoustic projects. At Northwestern University between 2003 and 2007, she studied composition with Jay Alan Yim, Reynold Tharp, and Augusta Read Thomas, while studying piano performance with Alan Chow. As a pianist she has performed in and around Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Chicago, and most recently Ghent, Belgium. Joann continues to perform her own compositions as well as other music written in the last 50 years with UCSB's Ensemble for Contemporary Music; she is also an advocate and performer of free improvisation and free jazz music.

Joel Feigin
ECM —March 8
Joel Feigin

Joel Feigin (b: New York City, 1951) is a composer whose music has been heard across the U.S., Europe and Asia, his works widely praised for their “very strong impact, as logical in musical design as they are charged with emotion and drama.” (Opera Magazine) Feigin’s many honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Senior Fulbright Fellowship at the Moscow State Conservatory in Russia (1998-1999) and a Fromm Foundation Commission from the Israeli-American pianist, Yael Weiss, for Aviv: Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, premiered under the direction of David Dzubay in September 2010. Previously, pianist Margaret Mills had commissioned and premiered Variations on Empty Space, which is included on her Cambria Master Recordings CD, Meditations and Overtones, along with Feigin’s Four Meditations from Dogen. The disk is available at http://cambriamus.com/. Feigin’s two operatic works, Mysteries of Eleusis and Twelfth Night, have been presented by the Moscow Conservatory, the Russian-American Festival of Operatic Art, Long Leaf Opera, and Theatre Cornell, as well as in New York City Opera’s VOX 2003 Showcase and the New Works Sampler at the 2006 Opera America Conference in Seattle, Washington. A scene from Twelfth Night can be seen on YouTube. Feigin’s chamber and orchestral music has been performed and commissioned by such groups as the Santa Barbara Symphony, Speculum Musicae, Parnassus, and Piano-Spheres. Transience, a 2-CD set on North/South Recordings, followed a full evening of chamber and vocal works performed by Musicians Accord in New York City in 1995; concerts devoted solely to Feigin’s music have also been given in Armenia and Russia. A student of Zen Buddhism and Professor of Composition at the University of California Santa Barbara, Feigin studied with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau and with Roger Sessions at The Juilliard School. His website can be found at www.joelfeigin.com.

Rachel White Galvin
ECM — March 8

Rachel White Galvin, a native Oklahoman, has studied the viola since the age of nine. She is currently pursuing a combined Master of Music and Doctoral degree in viola performance under the guidance of Helen Callus at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Just recently she received honorable mention in the UCSB Concerto Soloist’s Competition. In 2007, she received her Bachelor of Music in viola performance from the University of Oklahoma under the instruction of Dr. Matthew Dane. Ms. Galvin is an active chamber and orchestral musician playing previously with the Crouse and MacArthur graduate string quartets at OU, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Chamber Music Amarillo, the Quartz Mountain Music Festival, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, and the Cluster Chord String Quartet. In addition to her musical pursuits, Ms. Galvin holds a Teaching Assistantship in music theory at UCSB and is currently the Librarian for the Santa Barbara Symphony.

Jeremy Haladyna
ECM — March 8 and April 6
Jeremy Haladyna

Jeremy Haladyna holds prizes and academic qualifications from three countries. He is a diplòmè of the history-rich Schola Cantorum on Left Bank. He also holds the s degree with Distinction from the University of Surrey (U.K.). He has taught undergraduate composition at UCSB since 1991 and was awarded the Ph.D. in composition in 1993. In addition to his responsibilities with ECM, he teaches orchestration and is on the faculty of the College of Creative Studies, UCSB. As pianist, composer, conductor and organist, he has long been committed to the espousal of new music. Prizes from the Friends of Lili Boulanger and s MCPS Ltd. bear witness to his creativity, and his own music has recently been heard at St. s Smith Square, London; South Bank Centre, London; St. s Cathedral, London; BMIC, London; and the National Museum of Art, Mexico City. His On The Mat of The Jaquar Priest, written for Jill Felber, appears on Neuma records. PaulJohnBritainMasterParis)

Gentry Hill
ECM — March 8

Gentry Hill is a first year Master of Music student in viola performance at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She recently graduated in June 2010 with a Bachelor of Music degree from Western Washington University and was selected to receive the departmental honor of Oustanding Music Graduate. At age 19, Gentry was hired to play several concerts with the Juneau Symphony in Juneau, Alaska and the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra in Bellingham, Washington. She was the principal violist for the WWU Orchestra and was a member of the WWU Scholarship String quartet. In Summer 2010, she was selected for a Fellowship Scholarship to attend the Marrowstone Music Festival held in Bellingham, Washington. Her principal teachers include Eric Kean and Helen Callus.

Joel Hunt
ECM —April 6

Joel Hunt is a composer and saxophonist currently studying music theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He holds degrees in saxophone performance and composition from the State University of New York at Fredonia. While at Fredonia, Joel served as vice president of the Ethos New Music Society and directed the Fredonia Jazz Ensemble. Joel has studied composition with Donald Bohlen and Rob Deemer, electronic music with Keith Peterson, classical saxophone with Wildy Zumwalt, and jazz saxophone with Bruce Johnstone.

Virginia Kron
ECM —April 6
Virginia Kron

Virginia Kron, cellist, received her Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance from the University of Wisconsin, and her Master's degree, with a prize in performance, from the University of Southern California. In 1979 she traveled to England where she studied with William Pleeth for three years. Upon returning to the United States Ms. Kron joined the Pacific Symphony Orchestra for four years before moving to Ojai, where she makes her home.

She now freelances, specializing in performances of chamber and new music. Her concerto performances include the premier of John Bigg's Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra with New West Symphony. She subsequently recorded it in Prague with the Czech National Symphony. Ms. Kron has participated in festivals in Aspen, Tanglewood, Monterey, Bakersfield, Bear Valley, Ventura, Ojai, San Luis Obispo, Rome and, as a tenured member of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, in Santa Cruz, under the direction of Marin Alsop.

She has received favorable reviews for her performances in publications including Gramophone, the Los Angeles Times, the Ventura Star, the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune, the Monterey Peninsula Herald, the Rome Daily American, the Flagstaff Daily Sun, the Santa Barbara News-Press, and the Ventura County Reporter.

In 2010 she was selected for in depth documentation by Ventura County's Focus on the Masters.

ECM — March 8 and April 6

Kacey Link is a Doctor of Musical Arts student in collaborative piano at UCSB studying with Robert Koenig. She has performed as both a solo and collaborative pianist in the United States, France, and Switzerland as well as worked as an accompanist/coach for the Lyric Opera and New Theatre of Kansas City. She received both a Bachelor of Music in piano performance (2004) and a Master of Music in accompanying (2007) from the University of Kansas. She also has had masterclasses and lessons with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Benjamin Rawitz, and members of the Tokyo String Quartet as well as attended summer festivals including the Aspen Music Festival and the Cours international de musique. In the spring of 2009, she completed a second Master’s degree in musicology at the University of Miami under Deborah Schwartz-Kates.

Shannon McCue
ECM — March 8

Chicago native Shannon McCue was introduced to the viola at age ten through her public school music program, and began studying privately two years later. She is currently pursuing the Master of Music and the Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in viola performance at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she studies with Helen Callus. Shannon holds the Bachelor of Music (viola) and the Bachelor of Arts (English) degrees from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. In 2002, her string sextet advanced to the quarterfinals of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. As an undergraduate, she served as principal violist of the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra for four years, received the Miller Scholarship for excellence in string performance and won the Hollinger and Duncan Awards for her achievements in musicology and interdisciplinary studies, respectively. In 2005, Shannon won a section violist position in the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra and performed regularly with the ensemble before moving to California. She has performed in Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Vietnam as a member of orchestral and chamber music ensembles. As the violist in the rock band Denes, she traveled on two tours of the Midwest. Since relocating to the west coast, Shannon was named one of the winners of the University of California, Santa Barbara Orchestral Soloist Competition and performed with the UCSB Symphony in 2008; she also took first prize in the Santa Barbara and Los Angeles area finals, and the California state finals of the American String Teachers’ Association Solo Competition. Shannon is currently serving as the teaching assistant for the UCSB Symphony Orchestra. Shannon’s primary teachers are Christine Due, Matthew Michelic, and Helen Callus.

Dylan Morrow-Jones
ECM — March 8

Dylan Morrow-Jones is a third-year Biopsychology undergraduate and a native of Santa Barbara. He has studied Bebop with vibraphone virtuoso, Charlie Shoemake, and performed music at several local venues such as Cafe Buenos Aires, SOhO, and Velvet Jones. In his free time, he enjoys writing music.

Katie Stuwe
ECM —April 6

Katherine Stuwe is an MM student in flute performance at UCSB, under the guidance of Dr. Jill Felber.  In 2010, she graduated with highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Music degree. She is an initiate of Phi Beta Kappa, a national academic honor society, and Sigma Alpha Iota, an international music fraternity for women.  Katie also served as an operational assistant for the Marching Tar Heels, president of the Undergraduate Music Forum, and co-principal flute of the UNC Symphony Orchestra. Growing up in an Air Force family, Katie has lived and traveled all over North America and Europe. During 2008 and 2009, Katie spent nine months performing and studying in Vienna, Austria at the Institute for European Studies. She was recently named a winner of the 2010-2011 UCSB Orchestra Soloist Competition, and has appeared in master classes with prominent flutists including Wolfgang Schulz, Matthias Ziegler, Jeanne Baxtresser, Leone Buyse, Goran Marcusson, and Michel Debost. Her teachers include Dr. Christine Erlander Beard, Ulrike Anton, and Dr. Brooks de Wetter-Smith.

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