Members
Sasha Bogdanowitsch is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist & composer whose work ranges from writing for chamber ensembles to multi-track tapes with live performance to music for unique ensembles, such as gamelan and early music groups, to live and recorded music for theater, dance and film. Sasha has a Master of Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied composition and world musics, integrating the two into multi-movement, interdisciplinary performances. For the voice, Sasha often uses a language of sounds and has developed a way of singing that incorporates his studies in world, early & contemporary new musics. He has composed music for numerous theater, dance & films, such as the television film scores Burkittsville 7 and Shadow of the Blair Witch for Artisan Entertainment; Grimm, a 2006 multimedia dance theater work; and Hidden Circle, an interdisciplinary work for voice, prepared tape, movement & projections. Some of the artists Sasha has worked with include: SaReel Project, composer Lou Harrison, American Festival of Microtonal Music, choreographers Faith Pilger & Otis Cook, and Meredith Monk on her new CD, impermanence, for ECM Records.
Sidney Chen, bass, has been featured throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in solo appearances with the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, San Francisco Choral Society, Berkeley Lyric Opera Orchestra, Soli Deo Gloria and others. Last season he sang in the Other Minds Festival with Volti, the acclaimed 20-voice ensemble devoted exclusively to contemporary music. In 2006 he performed Dolmen Music at Carnegie Hall as part of the Meredith Monk Young Artists Concert. He has sung with a wide variety of vocal ensembles, ranging from the San Francisco Symphony Chorus to chamber choirs such as the San Francisco Choral Artists, from vocal improvisation groups to doo-wop quartets. As the artistic administrator of the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Quartet, he has worked with some of the most significant composers and musicians of our time. He has appeared on NPR as the writer of The Standing Room, a popular blog about classical music. He is a graduate of Harvard University.
A native of Cincinnati, Emily Eagen recently moved to New York City after spending five years performing, studying, and teaching in the Netherlands. A specialist in both early and contemporary music, Emily studied voice at Macalester College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague. In Europe, Emily’s solo highlights include Tehillim (Reich) with the Residentie Orkest of the Hague, Tao (Andriessen) with the Amsterdam Concertgebow, solo works with the Baroque ensemble L’Arpeggiata, and new works by living composers at festivals in the Netherlands and Bosnia. Since moving back to the United States, Emily has quickly become a part of the contemporary music scene in New York, participating in a workshop for singers and composers with Dawn Upshaw and Osvaldo Golijov at Carnegie Hall, premiering works by composers at NYU and Princeton, and continuing to learn and perform the music of Meredith Monk. Emily is on the faculties of the Amherst Early Music Festival (CT), where she performs and teaches Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music, and the Augusta Heritage Center (WV), where she recently taught works by Meredith Monk and other living composers to a chorus of folk musicians. Also a professional whistler and two-time International Whistling Champion, Emily creates and performs original songs for voice, whistling, and viola da gamba with her ensemble EARL.
Mezzo-soprano Silvie Jensen enjoys a wide-ranging career encompassing early and contemporary music, opera and musical theater, and ethnic, improvised, and experimental music. She has performed with conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and Kent Nagano at some of the world’s renowned performance venues including London’s Barbican Centre, Davies Hall in San Francisco, and Carnegie and Zankel Halls in New York. In the opera house Ms. Jensen has appeared with Ash Lawn Opera, Stonington Opera House, Riverside Opera, New Amsterdam Opera, and the Mannes Baroque Ensemble. Her performance in Hildegard von Bingen’s chant opera Ordo Virtutum was critically acclaimed by the New York Times. As a soloist she has sung Bach’s Cantatas 68, 134, 140; St. Matthew Passion; Handel’s Messiah; the Mozart Requiem; she also frequently performs song recitals. Ms. Jensen has worked with many acclaimed ensembles including the San Francisco Opera Chorus, the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, and the Sanctuary Choir Of Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan. She is a frequent collaborator with composers and artists in other genres; she has premiered works created specifically for her and has appeared as a vocal soloist with the Christopher Caines Dance Company for several seasons. She has collaborated with and performed as a soloist with some of the leading figures in contemporary music including Ornette Coleman and Meredith Monk. Her numerous recordings can be heard on labels including ECM, London, Koch, and Helicon.
Holly Nadal is active as both a soloist and chamber musician, frequently performing the music of the past five centuries as well as her own adaptations of medieval chant with live electronics and looping. Recent performances include appearances with the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York and Lost Dog New Musik Ensemble. She has recorded music for film written by Dominic Frasca, and premiered new works by composers Patrick Barnes, David Nadal, and B. Allen Schulz. In 2004 she and Rebecca Stanton founded Ursula, a duo that performs new works for voice, and traditional as well as new arrangements of music before 1400. Ursula has appeared at the Monkey and the Knitting Factory in New York City, and also as a featured artist with the Astoria Music Society. Holly studied voice with Dr. Patrick Woliver and Patrick Barnes and earned her degree in English Literature with a minor in Theater from Ohio State University. She also has had a keen interest in Meredith Monk’s music for years, most recently transcribing and performing her works.
Peter Sciscioli is a Brooklyn based performer and choreographer whose work spans the realms of music, dance and theater. He grew up singing as a boy soprano in productions throughout his hometown of Syracuse, NY, and began playing violin at the age of 4. While attending Oberlin College, he studied voice and opera in the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Richard Anderson, Steven Daigle and Patrick Yaeger. More recently he has performed in Mary Zimmerman/Philip Glass’s Galileo Galilei at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, at BAM and the Barbican in London, and in Meredith Monk’s Quarry at the Spoleto USA Festival and in her Young Artists Concert at Zankel Hall. Mr. Sciscioli has studied and understudied with Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, and has also worked with composers John Supko (with The Flux Quartet), and Tigger Benford and Joan La Barbara as a member of Jane Comfort and Company. His ongoing fascination with the voice extends into his work as a choreographer, recently creating a piece set to Brahms’ Two Songs op. 91, which required dancers to sing portions of the score. He is currently working on a new piece to Monk’s Epic, accompanied live by members of The M6. Peter has also composed several original pieces for violin and voice for inclusion in his interdisciplinary works.
Cellist Claire Bryant has appeared as a soloist with the Kuopion Symphony Orchestra of Finland, the National Symphony of Honduras in Tegucigalpa, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, and the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a founding fellow of The Academy: A Program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and The Weill Music Institute, a two year performing and teaching fellowship in New York City. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated with Donald Weilerstein, the Peabody Trio, Roger Tapping, Maria Lambros, and members of the St. Lawrence, Orion, Mendelssohn, and Pacifica string quartets. She is a founding member of the TETRAS Quartet, and a member of Ensemble ACJW, the resident ensemble at Weill Hall, among others. She is the founder, producer, and artistic director of the acclaimed chamber music series With Strings Attached, which has raised over $10,000 for arts education in her native state of South Carolina. Claire received her Bachelor of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. She now serves as assistant faculty to Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School.
Affiliate artist Matt Boehler, bass, recently received critical acclaim from The Washington Post for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd: “[He] is simply a marvel…possessed of a supple, clarion bass, the youngsinger delivers a thrillingly expressive performance.” A native ofMinnesota, he began his opera career as a resident artist with TheMinnesota Opera, and has sung in a multitude of venues since then, from Hawaii Opera Theater and Carnegie Hall to the Prague Estates Theater. Upcoming opera engagements include Chicago Opera Theater, Florentine Opera and Greenwich Music Festival. He will also take part in the worldpremieres of two one-acts by William Bolcom and John Musto with NewYork Festival of Song. At Viterbo University, his alma mater, Mr. Boehler had several musical and non-musical roles while pursuing his degree in Theatre Arts. He also trained at the Juilliard Opera Center,and has had several successes in the competition arena.
