We are thrilled to announce our 2013-14 EtM Con Edison Composers-in-Residence.  The following eight composers will be in residence in four facilities:

 

Bloomingdale School of Music – Brian Krock and Robert Vuichard

Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy – Christopher Cerrone and Rima Fand

Flushing Town Hall – Gustavo Casenave and Sam Willmott

Turtle Bay Music School – Chris Parrello and Joelle Wallach

 

In addition, Rima Fand has been named this year’s first EtM Mount Tremper Arts Fellow. Rima will be in residence at Mount Tremper Arts in the Catskills in 2014. This is the first year of the partnership between EtM and Mount Tremper Arts.

The EtM Con Edison Composers Residency Program is funded by Consolidated Edison, The Amphion Foundation, Credit Suisse, the George L. Shields Foundation, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, AOH Foundation, DJ McManus Foundation and individuals. The EtM Con Edison Composers Residency Program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Office of Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

We thank OPERA America for generously donating the use of their space at the National Opera Center during the panel process.

Gustavo Casenave is a pianist/composer and a 2012 Latin Grammy Award Nominee. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music where he was selected among the ten best composers: from 1966 to 1996. Gustavo has performed worldwide with such luminary artists as Eddie Gomez, Bette Midler, Forever Tango, Tango Fire, Neil Sedaka, Yo-Yo Ma, Robert Duvall, Mark Egan, Manolo Badrena, Nestor Torres, John Benitez, Federico Britos, Miguel Zenon and Jane Ira Bloom.  He is the recipient of a 2013 New Music USA Composition Grant and a 1999 International Award: “Europe Jazz Fest.” Gustavo teaches at The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Columbia University, Yale, Harvard and NYU and was the Jazz Department Director of the Harbor Conservatory (NYC) from 1997 – 2012. He has received commissions for The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic (2001), and Yo-Yo Ma (2011).

Christopher Cerrone is a Brooklyn-based composer who has been hailed as “a rising star” by The New Yorker. With works ranging from chamber music, orchestral works, and fully staged operas to multimedia projects, ambient electronic works and collaborations with visual artists, Cerrone’s compositional voice is unified by its resonant and evocative beauty. Recent collaborations include performances by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, eighth blackbird, New York City Opera, Tulsa Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble ACJW. His opera, Invisible Cities, will be presented by The Industry in collaboration with the LA Dance Project in the fall of 2013; the interactive production, directed by Yuval Sharon, will take place in LA’s historic Union Station.

Rima Fand is a Brooklyn-based musician and composer with a love for multidisciplinary performance. Her most recent project was a Lorca-inspired musical puppet play entitled Don Cristóbal, Billy-Club Man, co-created with puppeteer Erin Orr, which was produced at the Abrons Arts Center in February 2013. She has also created music for her raucous NYC string band, Luminescent Orchestrii, which toured internationally for a decade, for her Balkan-inspired acoustic quartet, Sherita, and for her women’s vocal trio, Hydra. Rima is also a devoted music teacher who has conducted arts residencies with young people in NYC schools for many years. She is thrilled about the prospect of a residency at the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy.

Brian Krock is both a jazz musician and classical composer. He has played in many of New York’s legendary venues with his band, Life Size; his trio, Heart/Math; and his large ensemble.  His String Quartet No. 1 won the Manhattan Prize and he has written chamber music for his contemporaries, including current projects with the trio Dead Language and Lithuanian violinist Barbora Valiuk.  In his spare time he can be found playing rock guitar, trad-jazz clarinet, writing independent film scores, or his favorite- bringing these disparate worlds together.

Chris Parrello is a New York-based guitarist and composer who has performed across varied genres at world renowned venues from The Blue Note, to the Mercury Lounge, to Carnegie Hall. He is a winner of the Marc Brunswick Award for Composition and has been commissioned to compose for The Museum of Modern Art. His original group, Things I Wonder, released their self-titled debut in 2011, and sophomore EP in 2012, to critical praise, enjoying a feature on NPR and a Jazz Journalist Award nomination. Chris holds a B.M. from Oberlin Conservatory and an M.A. from The City College of New York.

Robert Vuichard has been hailed by The New York Times as “exuberant,” and a composer of great “clarity, rhythmic precision, and passion.” Robert holds degrees in music composition from the University of Michigan and Manhattan School of Music. He has received commissions from the Westminster Choir, University of Michigan Chamber Choir, the Yale University Glee Club, and the University of Washington Chamber Singers, with music currently published by both Boosey & Hawkes, as part of the Yale Glee Club New Classics Series, and GIA’s Westminster Choir College’s Choral Series. Selected by an advisory board of world-renowned arts administrators, Robert recently completed a residency at The Hermitage Artist Retreat.

Joelle Wallach composes music for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo voices and choruses. Winner of numerous international awards and competitions, Joelle has composed works for the New York Philharmonic Ensembles and the New York Choral Society.  Her ballet, Glancing Below, a 1999 Juilliard Dance Theater showcase production, was commissioned by the Carlisle Project.  After studying piano, voice, theory, bassoon and violin at the Juilliard Preparatory Division, she earned bachelors and masters degrees at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. In 1984 the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with John Corigliano, granted her its first doctorate in composition. Joelle has served as Visiting Professor of Composition at the University of North Texas and this season she will be the New York Philharmonic’s speaker for Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s concertos as well as the piano concertos of Ravel and Gershwin. Wallach grew up in Morocco, and lives in New York City.

Sam Willmott is thrilled to be a 2013-14 EtM Con Edison Composer-in-Residence. A musical theater composer/lyricist, Sam’s work has been honored with the 2013 Harold Adamson Award, the 2012 Fred Ebb Award, the 2012 John Wallowitch Award and the 2009 Kennedy Center ACTF Musical Theater Award.  He is the author of Standardized Testing – The Musical!!!!, Scarlet Takes a Tumble, and, with Marcus Stevens, Yo, Vikings!.  Earlier in 2013, Sam was the Composer-In-Residence at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, a member of the Mercer Colony at Goodspeed, and a featured writer in Stephen Schwartz’s ASCAP Workshop.