Event Calendar
New Chamber Music Concert #1
Tuesday, October 29, 2024, 7:00 pm
Instrumentation:
Violin, Cello, Piano,+ Clarinet (or any combination of these instruments)
Concert Location:
Moravian University's Peter Hall
COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES
Clarice Assad | Chicago, IL
Elementos (Violin, Clarinet, Cello, Piano, Voice)
A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian-American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop, and jazz genres and is acclaimed for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. A prolific Grammy Award–nominated composer with more than 70 works to her credit, she has been commissioned by internationally renowned organizations, festivals, and artists and is published in France (Editions Lemoine), Germany (Trekel), Brazil (Criadores do Brasil), and the U.S. (Virtual Artists Collective Publishing). An in-demand performer, she is a celebrated pianist and inventive vocalist who inspires and encourages audiences’ imaginations to break free of often self-imposed constraints. Assad has released seven solo albums and appeared on or had her works performed on another 34. Her music is represented on Cedille Records, SONY Masterworks, Nonesuch, Adventure Music, Edge, Telarc, NSS Music, GHA, and CHANDOS. Her innovative, accessible, and award-winning VOXploration series on music education, creation, songwriting, and improvisation has been presented throughout the world. Sought-after by artists and organizations worldwide, the multi-talented musician continues to attract new audiences both onstage and off.
Eamon Bonner | Schnecksville, PA
Drifting Balloon (Clarinet, Cello, Piano)
Eamon Bonner is a senior at Muhlenberg College studying music theory and composition with a minor in philosophy. He is a lifelong musician, having played the violin for 12 years and being a self-taught pianist of 10 years. Eamon’s love for making arrangements of his favorite video game music led him to find a deep passion for composing, and he now has goals of pursuing a career in music education and of composing soundtracks for video games.
Kaitlyn Borthwick | Bloomsburg, PA
Acquiensco Allentown (Violin, Clarinet, Cello, Piano)
Kaitlyn Borthwick graduated from Central Columbia High School in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania in 2021. She is currently a Senior Music Education major at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, studying composition with Dr. Patrick Long. As a saxophone primary, her compositions have an instrumental emphasis, but she has written for a variety of different performers. Her music tends to explore transformations: both natural and psychological.
Drew Cosover | Easton, PA
Variations on a Moonlit Memory (Clarinet, Violin, Piano)
Drew Cosover is fourteen years old and excited to begin his freshman year at Easton Area High School. He has always loved playing and writing music. He plays six instruments including piano, guitar, violin, mallet percussion, trombone and saxophone. He is very passionate about music and loves to partake in all of the ensembles available including jazz band, chamber ensemble, the marching band, and orchestra. Aside from lessons at school, Drew has studied privately with the following music teachers: guitar with Skip Azzalina, piano with Kyle Angst, violin with Melissa Salvadeo, and music composition with Dr. Larry Lipkis at Moravian University. Music is a big part of Drew’s life and he is excited to see where it leads him.
Calvin Deifer | Bethlehem, PA
Scoundrel's Sonata (Piano, Violin)
Calvin Deifer is a junior at Moravian University, majoring in composition, which he studies under Larry Lipkis. His primary instrument is the bass guitar, taught by Paul Rostock. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, as well as Titusville, NJ, Calvin has been interested in music since the age of 11. Thus far, he has participated in the university’s big band, choir, marching band, orchestra, wind band, and small jazz combos. While his primary focus is jazz, he enjoys composing in all genres. Outside of music, Calvin enjoys studying political science and spending time with friends and family.
Bettina Gray | Pocono Pines, PA
Contra-Dances (Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano)
Bettina Gray is currently Composer-in-Residence with Slavyanka Chorus of San Francisco. She has composed and arranged for vocal, choral, instrumental, and electronic media as well as for television and theater and has judged for international composition competitions.
Ms. Gray’s formal education includes early childhood studies in piano, clarinet, guitar and violin, with an applied degree in voice, post-graduate studies in piano with Roy Bogas, composition and orchestration with master composer, David Sheinfeld, and coaching in choral writing with Eriks Ešenvald and Steven Sametz. Her musical compositions cover a wide range of styles with an eclectic and adventurous musical taste, exploring novel combinations of sound and instrumentation.
She most recently completed a choral work titled “LIGHT” in 2023 for chorus and bowed vibraphone, written at the American Choral Directors Association during a week-long master class at Lehigh University, June 2023. And in 2021 she completed a mixed live and electronic media composition, ""I Was Singing,” using professional vocal quartet paired with the San Francisco Bay Area Parkinson’s singing group, Tremolos. It was completed during the Covid 19 pandemic and was featured in July 2023 at the 2023 World Parkinson’s Congress.
Michael Leibowitz | Havertown, PA
Moto Perpetuo from Cello Sonata (Cello, Piano)
Michael Leibowitz (b. 1981) is a composer and music educator living in Philadelphia, PA. He holds his Bachelors in Composition from Oberlin Conservatory and his Masters in Art and Teaching from the University of the Arts. Michael has studied composition privately with Randolph Coleman and Lewis Nielson at Oberlin Conservatory, Andrea Clearfield and Norman Davis at the University of the Arts, and Howard Frazin at the Longy School of Music.
Michael’s compositions explore the expressive possibilities of sound and the relationship between the composer, performer, and audience. At times subtly beautiful and at others violent and alienating, the audience is both challenged and rewarded by attentive listening. Chance elements in many of his works allow the performer great interpretive freedom and expressive potential.
Michael has had works performed and commissioned by numerous performers and ensembles including pianists Kimberly and Michelle Cann and Karen Burgman, the Jasper String Quartet, The Borderlands Ensemble, Philadelphia Opera on Tap, The Perspective Collective, baritone Michael Weyandt, cellists Arlen Hlusko and Timothy Leonard, saxophonist Crystal Alexander Duckett and the Marple Newtown High School Choir. His choral piece, One Last Seed, co-written with librettist Jeremy Basescu, is a current finalist in the Ithaca College Choral Festival.
Francis Rodriguez | Brooklyn, NY
La luz y el escondite (Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano)
Francis Rodriguez is a composer known for his unique way of navigating the blurry lines of musical genres or writing styles. Graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Music Composition from the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, he later pursued advanced studies at New York University (NYU), earning a Master's degree in Composition with a focus on Scoring for Film and Multimedia, Music Technology, and Contemporary Jazz Composition.
Rodriguez has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to seamlessly transition between various roles and musical genres, a skill honed under the mentorship of jazz legends Gil Goldstein and Jim McNeely, among others. His collaborations with acclaimed ensembles such as the Lumina String Quartet, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, and Coro Orfeón de San Juan Bautista have further improved his development as a music composer.
In recognition of his talent and contributions to the field of music composition, Francis Rodriguez has been the recipient of numerous accolades. Notable among these honors are The Elmer Bernstein Award in film scoring and the Henry Mancini Music Fellowship.
With an open-minded commitment to pushing the boundaries of musical expression, Rodriguez continues to share his unique approach to listeners that value evocative and storytelling compositions.
Patrick Thompson | Brooklyn, NY
Triple Helix (Violin, Cello, Piano)
Patrick Andrew Thompson is a composer of dramatic musical narratives. Described as “a musician bursting with ideas,” (Atlanta Journal Constitution) he strives to carefully craft works of great emotional breadth and immediacy, marked by colorful, poignant harmonies, rich textures, and constant evolution. His works draw on a broad range of disciplines, from poetry and visual art to his background in math and science.
An ardent collaborator, Patrick’s pieces have been performed by a wide range of ensembles including the Sinta Quartet, the Inscape Chamber Orchestra, the Zodiac Trio, Pure Winds, the Beo String Quartet, and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. Current projects include a piece for the F-Plus trio. Recent performances include the premieres of And Into the Fire with the Inscape Chamber Orchestra and Moments Sweep Past: three poems of Tracy K. Smith with the Boston New Music Initiative as a winner in its “Literary Elements” call for scores.
Patrick has a master’s degree in composition from the Peabody Institute, where he studied with Kevin Puts, and a degree in mathematics from Princeton University. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Max Vinetz | Princeton, NJ
LIne and Color (Violin, Clar, Cello, Piano)
Max Vinetz is an American composer whose music draws inspiration from various intersections between improvisatory, popular, and classical forms and aesthetics. His recent and upcoming works address grief, the impact of media on rhetorical structures in music and our daily lives, and structures that circumvent linear narratives.
Max is a two-time recipient of ASCAP’s Morton Gould Award, a Fromm Foundation Commission, the Paul and Christiane Cooper Prize, the Gardner Prize from the American Viola Society, and was the 2019-2020 Emerging Composer Fellow for Musiqa. A graduate of both Yale and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Max is currently pursuing his PhD Composition at Princeton University as a Naumburg Doctoral Fellow.
Albert Wen | Bethlehem, PA
Loop (Piano, Cello)
Yandi Albert Wen is an 11th grader at Southern Lehigh High School. Since 2018, he has been studying piano with a gifted teacher Darlene Ziegler. Albert has participated in various piano performance competitions such as AAA, Junior Festival, and Dorothy Sutton. He is also an active member of the Allentown Music Club’s Young Musician Club and participates in regular club activities. This year, he has been taking composition lessons with Dr. Lipkis.
He enjoys video game music and electronic music, and loves discussing musical ideas with his composer sister Sophie (a past National award winner of NFMC Junior Composers Contest) on a daily basis. Albert has been arranging and composing music since 2016. In the summer of 2023, he attended the Walden Young Musicians Program summer camp and composed two pieces which were performed in the Composer's Forum.
Recently he has won the PMEA Composition Competition in 2020, NFMC Junior Composers Contest National Award in 2023, NFMC Easton PA Regional Jr. Piano Solo Competition in 2023, and PMTA Keystone Composition Competition in 2023. He has arranged pieces for celebrating the Chinese moon festival and other occasions, or just for fun.
Nina Worsley | Bethlehem, PA
A Childhood Spring (Clarinet, Violin, Cello)
Nina Worsley is a senior at Moravian university pursuing a major in composition with a jazz vocal concentration. Her musical style is heavily influenced by nearly a decade of experience in musical theater. Nina hopes to pursue as many musical avenues as she can. She is most drawn to religious-narrative writing. Nina currently studies vocal jazz with Lora Sherrodd, jazz piano with Dave Roth, and composition with Dr. Larry Lipkis. She hopes to make the world a better place one piece of music at a time.