artistic director     
vocalist     

Gilda Lyons (Artistic Director / Vocalist) is active both as composer and vocalist. Her one-act opera, The Walled-Up Wife, will receive its concert premiere on 30, 31 March 2007, presented by American Opera Projects. Commissions in the 2006/07 season include new works for the voice and piano duo Two Sides Sounding (13 March 2007, St. Peter's Church, NYC); the string quartet Sweet Plantain (20 February 2007, The Cutting Room, NYC); countertenors Daniel Gundlach and Mark Crayton (29 September 2006, St. Matthew & St. Timothy, NYC); and Amy Pivar Dances (21, 22, 23 April 2006, Dance New Amsterdam, NYC). She is the Artistic Director of The Phoenix Concerts series on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Her music is published by E.C. Schirmer.

As vocalist, Dr. Lyons performs regularly with Elaine Valby and Robert La Rue as the voice and cello trio Seraphim; the trio has commissioned new works by composers Hayes Biggs and Paula Kimper to be premiered on 27 April 2007. In June 2007, Dr. Lyons will sing the role of Nora Barnacle in Daron Hagen's The Antient Concert, the centerpiece of Symphony Space's Bloomsday on Broadway XXVI; she appeared as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic in their semi-staged concert production of Hagen’s opera Shining Brow in fall 2006. Dr. Lyons made her professional debut as composer and vocalist with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra in 1997, performing the world premiere of her orchestral song cycle Feis. She received her Ph.D. in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Bard College. Dr. Lyons has studied composition with Anne LeBaron, Eric Moe, Daria Semegen, Joan Tower and Roger Zahab; conducting with Roger Zahab; and voice with Arthur Burrows, Barry Busse and Elaine Valby. (www.gildalyons.com).

ensemble in     
residence     

It is a rare and wonderful event for a chamber ensemble to spring into existence with a concert repertoire entirely tailored to its nature and its personnel by composers of distinction. Such has been the great good fortune of Seraphim, a trio consisting of two voices and cello, founded in the autumn of 2005 around the premieres of three substantial new works written specifically for this unique combination by composers Daron Hagen, Paula M. Kimper, and ensemble member Gilda Lyons. Performed repeatedly to acclaim, the success of this initial program has inspired the ensemble to explore musical languages of the broadest possible stylistic range — re-examining and re-imagining ancient music, the cello suites of Bach, 19th century Evangelist hymn tunes, and traditional Christmas carols — and to collaborate in such projects as Amy Pivar Dances' Songs for Solo Dance and Voice; and ComposersCollaborative Inc.'s Serial Underground series. Seraphim's first concert was also the inaugural program of The Phoenix Concerts series, and Seraphim is delighted to serve as the series' Ensemble in Residence. The trio remains committed to contemporary music; commissions in the 2006-07 season included new works written for Seraphim by composers Hayes Biggs and Paula M. Kimper. 2007-08 commissions include new works by composers Eric Moe and Slavko Krstic. New York performances in the 2007-08 season include appearances at the Cornelia Street Cafe and the Center for Jewish History; the ensemble returns to The Phoenix Concerts series in spring of 2008.

Seraphim is Gilda Lyons, voice; Elaine Valby, voice; and Robert La Rue, cello.

pianist     

Jocelyn Dueck is a native of Kleefield, Manitoba. She has appeared on national broadcasts of Music da Camara with the MacPhail Trio, in recital at the fortepiano for the Schubert Club's Courtroom Concert Series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and at Seiji Ozawa Hall as a Tanglewood Fellow. This summer, Jocelyn was an apprentice coach and pianist for Glimmerglass Opera's productions of Lucia de Lammermoor and Death in Venice. She was an assistant conductor and pianist for the Tanglewood Music Center's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2004. A frequent performer of new music, she collaborated on the Princeton Atelier premiere of The Antient Concert by composer Daron Hagen and poet Paul Muldoon, and was the pianist for the east coast premiere of Hagen's one act opera Broken Pieces. In the fall of 2003, Jocelyn was awarded a grant from the University of Minnesota Graduate School and traveled to Paris to meet with the family of French composer Louis Durey, a member of Les Six. She continues to document and perform the unpublished song cycles of Durey, a generous gift of his daughter, Arlette Durey. Jocelyn completed the D.M.A. in Accompanying and Coaching under Professors Margo Garrett and Karl Paulnack at the University of Minnesota in March 2004. Together with her pianist siblings, Byron Dueck and Valerie Dueck, Jocelyn has formed a trio known as Dueck Three that specializes in solo, four- and six-hand works for the piano. The featured young artist for the Steinbach Arts Council Young Artists in Concert series this past winter, Jocelyn performed alongside her brother and sister to a sold-out crowd. She lives in New York City with her husband, Nathan Dyrud, where she works as a freelance coach and pianist. (www.jocelyndueck.com).

tenor     
pianist     
conductor     

Robert Frankenberry leads a multi-faceted career as a tenor, pianist, actor and conductor. He has performed roles ranging from Mozart in Amadeus and John Adams in 1776 to Cavaradossi in Tosca and Pollione in Norma. Recent operatic engagements have included Don Jose in Carmen for Erie Opera Theater, 1st G’Bich in Twilight of the Gods for Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and the dual position of assistant conductor and cover for the title roles of Don Carlo and Poliuto for daCorneto Opera. Other credits in music direction include productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, Madrigals of Love and War, La Serva Padrona, The Old Maid and the Thief and La Clemenza di Tito for the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh; the staged premier of Daron Hagen’s Vera of Las Vegas for the Center for Contemporary Opera; and The Tales of Hoffmann for Mercyhurst College and New York City’s After Dinner Opera Company. At the piano, Frankenberry is a member of the IonSound Project and the University of Pittsburgh’s Music On The Edge Ensemble. Devoted to new and recent works, he has participated in the premieres of solo and chamber music by such composers as Roger Zahab, Eric Moe, Bruce Taub, J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Dennis Riley and Barbara White. In 1999, Robert gave one of the first performances in the United States of Judith Weir’s Piano Concerto and last season played the North American premiere of her Piano Trio Two with violinist Roger Zahab and ‘cellist David Russell. Mr. Frankenberry holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Mercyhurst College, where he studied piano with Sam Rotman and conducting with Walter Hendl; and a Master’s Degree from Carnegie Mellon, where he was a student of John Shirley-Quirk.

pianist     
conductor     

The composer of four major operas, as well as numerous orchestral, chamber, choral, and lyric compositions that have received numerous performances worldwide, Daron Hagen's catalogue continues to grow dramatically as prominent orchestras and musicians, including the New York Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Gary Graffman, and the Kings Singers, continue to commission and record new works.

Current projects include major new works for the Seattle Opera, Jaime Laredo & Sharon Robinson with the Sacramento and Vermont Orchestras, Nathan Gunn, Michael Ludwig and the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Amelia Trio & a consortium of youth orchestras, the Finesterra Piano Trio, and the Sweet Plantain String Quartet, among others. Recent premiéres include Romeo and Juliet with soloists Jeffrey Khaner and Sara Sant'Ambrogio and the Albany Symphony; Susurrus with the National Symphony; The Antient Concert, an opera with the Princeton Atelier; Gesture Drawings with the Vermont Youth Orchestra; Flight Music with the Milwaukee Choral and Present Music; two works for the Elements String Quartet; one for the Amernet Quartet; and Figments, a song cycle for tenor Paul Sperry. Recordings (including the recent complete recording under his own baton of his opera Bandanna) are available on Albany, Arabesque, Arsis, Sierra, CRI, and other labels.

Although no longer affiliated with an educational institution, Mr. Hagen's activities as a collaborative pianist, conductor, and stage director of his own works is augmented by the maintenance of a vigorous private teaching schedule. He has served twice as Composer in Residence for the Princeton University Atelier; as Franz Lehar Composer in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh; as Artist in Residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Sigma-Chi-William P. Huffman Composer in Residence at Miami University; Artist in Residence at Baylor University; on the musical studies faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music; ten years as an Associate Professor at Bard College; as a Visiting Professor at the City College of New York; and as a Lecturer in Music at New York University. Along with his service as President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation in New York City, Mr. Hagen is a Lifetime Member of the Corporation of Yaddo. A graduate of the Juilliard School and of the Curtis Instititue of Music, his principal mentors were Leonard Bernstein, David Diamond, and Ned Rorem. His music is published by Carl Fischer and EC Schirmer. (www.daronhagen.com).

cellist     

Robert La Rue is a member of the New York City Opera Orchestra, where he has been performing as assistant principal and principal cellist during the autumn 2006 season. He was First Prize Winner of the National Society of Arts and Letters Cello Competition, selected by a jury chaired by Mstislav Rostropovitch. A former member of the New England String Quartet, he has appeared at Alice Tully, Merkin and Weill Halls, the Miller Theater and Bargemusic in New York; at Jordan Hall and the Harvard Musical Association in Boston; at Princeton University's Richardson Auditorium, on concert series at Middlebury, Williams and Bennington Colleges, and throughout the eastern and northwestern U.S. Internationally, he has been heard at France's Evian Festival, the Banff Festival in Canada, the Listasafn Sigurjons Olafssonar Concerts in Reykjavik, Iceland (sponsored by the American Embassy), the Frederiksdal Slotskoncerter series in Denmark, and in numerous concerts in Germany, the United Kingdom and Brazil. Mr. La Rue is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory (with Distinction) and the Juilliard School, and also attended Indiana University; his teachers included Bernard Greenhouse, Aldo Parisot, David Soyer, Janos Starker, and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi. He was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in the Midwest, and lives in New York City.

mezzo-soprano     

Elaine Valby sang the role of Catherine Wright in Daron Hagen’s opera Shining Brow with the Buffalo Philharmonic in November of 2006, and will sing May Joyce in Hagen’s The Antient Concert in upcoming performances in New York and Washington. Valby originated the role of the grown-up Eunice in the premiere of Paula M. Kimper's opera, The Captivation of Eunice Williams, and sang the part again in October 2006 in performances at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. The mezzo-soprano also played Sarah in the premiere of Kimper’s first opera, Patience and Sarah, at Lincoln Center Festival 98. Valby recently formed the ensemble SERAPHIM with cellist Robert La Rue and singer/composer Gilda Lyons; the group’s repertoire includes music composed especially for them by Daron Hagen, Hayes Biggs, Paula M. Kimper and Gilda Lyons. A long-term project has been an ongoing collaboration with dancer/choreographer Amy Pivar and director Freda Rosen, in performances titled “Songs for Solo Dance and Voice” – venues have included Dance New Amsterdam in Manhattan and BAAD! (Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance). Favorite past projects include the first concert performance of Ari Frankel's opera about Primo Levi, to scratch an angel; a concert of American folksongs and spirituals with the jazz and improvisational pianist Uli Geissendoerfer; and Connie Beckley's performance piece The Aquarium. CD releases include Frank Lewin's song cycle Variations of Greek Themes, and April 15th Blues — a 30-minute musical by Ben Yarmolinsky about doing your taxes.

percussion     

Matt Ward has performed with groups such as the Boston Symphony, Albany Symphony, New World Symphony, New Music Consort and Associated Solo Artists. Mr. Ward has received a bachelor of music degree from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Duncan Patton and Chris Lamb. He has a masters degree from the State University at Stony Brook under the direction of Ray DesRoches and is currently enrolled in the school's DMA program. Through organizations such as Arts Connection, Flushing Council on the Arts, Young Audiences, and Marquis Studios, he has actively been working with elementary school children throughout New York City. He has also been working as a chamber and sectional coach with the Empire State Youth Orchestra, New York Inter-School Orchestra and the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Ward was the recipient of the Ridley-Tree Fellowship at the Music Academy of the West in 1998 and in 1999 he participated in the Tanglewood Music Center under the direction of Seiji Ozawa and returned the following year as a member of the 60th Anniversary TMC Alumni Concert. Recent performance highlights include a concert with Emmanuel Ax on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center as well as a concerto performance with the North Shore Philharmonic. He can be heard on the recording labels Argo, Newport Classics, and Winston Ma. (www.timetablepercussion.com)

violinist     
conductor     

Roger Zahab’s multifaceted career as composer, violinist, conductor, teacher and writer has been encouraged by living in one of the most interesting vantage points of Time. His work straddles so many areas of endeavor that there are suspicions of a band of clones working all over the country under his identity.

He has written much chamber, vocal and orchestral music in addition to work in dance, theater and video. Recently, recordings on Albany Records have been made of levitation of pianos during a waltz played by pianist Eric Moe, and Earth’s Jig and Silence Orchids played by pianist Bennett Lerner. These recordings and others are also available on iTunes. Recent works include Ohio transparence for piano trio, ardent life for trumpet and orchestra, and Ohio entelechron, a multi-media performance work which uses various kinds of Time to explore the connections between identity, history and community.

As a violinist, Zahab has premiered more than a hundred works by such composers as John Cage, Daron Hagen, Gilda Lyons, Steven Mackey, Ursula Mamlok, Eric Moe, J.N. Kwabena Nketia, Dennis Riley, Tison Street, Orianna Webb and Christian Wolff. Recordings as violinist and composer are available on the Truemedia, Albany and Koch International Classics labels. His version of John Cage’s Thiurteen Harmonies for violin and keyboard instrument is published by C.F.Peters Corporation.

His conducting repertoire encompasses the history of ensemble music from Andrea Gabrielli up to the present. As conductor of the both the Music on the Edge Chamber Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra at the University of Pittsburgh he seeks to give students a well-rounded overview of Western music while exploring increasingly porous boundaries.

Zahab was awarded the first Louis Lane Scholarship (given by the Akron Symphony Orchestra) in 1978 and received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in 1995 and an Individual Artist Fellowship in 2005. Zahab has been Director of the Orchestra and instructor at the University of Pittsburgh since 1993 and became a full-time Lecturer in 1999. At home in Akron he helps foster the ideal of communal music-making with the Highland Square Philharmonic. (www.rogerzahab.net)