Members

Herbert Rothgarber is a composer, pianist, and teacher. His composition teachers include, Wallingford Reigger, Bernard Wagenaar, Michael Fiveisky and Hale Smith. A composer of music in all genres,including works for musical theatre and opera, his music has been performed internationally, as well as the U.S. In 2009 his Brass Quintet and Trio For Violin, Cello and piano were played at the Hot Springs Music Festival, and in August of 2010 he performed his “Wayfarer Fantasy Suite” along with violinist, Dr. Anne Yarrow, at Cambridge University, England. Performances of his works have also taken place in Italy and Bulgaria. A CD (his first) entitled “Another Place, Another Time” is a collection of pieces in every aspect of music, while his second CD,”Prisms”,recently produced, consists of all his violin – piano music. In addition to his serious compositions he has written a library of music for young people.  “The Magic Yo-yo,” an opera for young voices, was performed at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, and was then televised by NBC. “The Trial of Pinocchio” was featured a number of years ago, in Beijing.  He has had a long career as an educator, privately, in the public school system and Nassau Community College, and has given workshops throughout the US.  He is the winner of many ASCAP and Meet The Composer awards, as well as the first prize in choral composition from the Northport Chorale.  His music has been published in the U.S. by William Presser, Alfred Music, Warner,Southern Music, Consort and Sweet Pipes Publications, and in Spain by Periferia Music.

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Email: jmsuny@comcast.net
 
Born: 1930, New York, NY
 
Music and Art H.S., NYC, 1948
Juilliard School (B.S., M.S. 1959)
Professor of Music, 1968-1994
Suffolk County Comm. College, Selden, NY
 
For information on how to obtain Mr. Suny’s music please contact Joan Suny 978-207-6006.
 
Serge Suny, Composer/Pianist, is a graduate of the Juilliard School (B.S.M.S.) where he studied with Peter Mennin and Beveridge Webster. His works have been performed in Town Hall and Carnegie Recital Hall where they were well reviewed by the New York Times…”the three short songs by Mr. Suny were single, well-made and charming”. Herald Tribune: “Serge Suny’s Toccata proved it to be an attractive and effective vehicle for Mr. Guttman’s considerable technique and an extremely well written work for the instrument”. Mr. Suny is a member of the Long Island Composers Alliance where he served as Business Director, Publicity Director and Vice President. He has been awarded a number of Meet the Composer grants. His Brief Encounters for piano was recorded on CAPSTONE Records. Mr. Suny is a retired professor from Suffolk Community College where he taught for twenty-six years.
 
Among his other musical experiences he has conducted the opera Anoush at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and was director of music for an Acorn Production seen on CBS and NBC tv.

Margaret Collins Stoop is a member of Lica.

Email: composers@verizon.net
Web Page: www.clearstarinternational.com/asbio.html

SHORT BIO (For LONG BIO, See Below)

Avraham Sternklar, pianist, composer,  educator, began his career in Israel, both as recitalist and soloist with the Israel Philharmonic.
Upon his arrival to this country he was awarded scholarships for study at the Juilliard School. Numerous concerts followed which took him from coast to coast as well as abroad – often appearing in the triple role of pianist, composer and lecturer.
His compositions are published, recorded and performed by soloists and ensembles internationally.
He has served as Associate Professor of Piano Performance at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and has been instrumental in launching the careers of hundreds of young musicians.
He also held the office of Co-Director of the Long Island Composers Alliance for 6 years and is currently a member of the board.
Mr. Sternklar is the recipient of many awards, among them MEET THE COMPOSER and several BEST OF THE YEAR awards by the Piano Quarterly Magazine.
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LONG BIO

Avraham Sternklar’s spectacular concert career began in Israel where his early studies took place. Concerts followed both as recitalist and soloist with the Israel Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, including broadcasts of some of his solo and symphonic compositions. When Leonard Bernstein met young Sternklar, he was truly impressed with his talent. Together with the help of the then USA Ambassador to Israel, the Hon. James McDonald (who attended all of Sternklar’s concerts), he urged that he come to the USA for advanced studies. Upon his arrival to this country he was awarded scholarships for study at the Juilliard School of Music, an honor he maintained for five consecutive years. He also competed for and won a special scholarship for study at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, thus pursuing studies at two major musical institutions. Numerous concerts followed which took him from coast to coast, as well as abroad, often appearing in the triple role of pianist, composer and lecturer. He was commissioned to write music for Ballet, modern dance, educational literature and as a supplement to computer software programs. His compositions are published, recorded and performed by soloists and ensembles on an international level in such remote places as Japan and Peru. One of his works entitled, A PROMISE FULFILLED is based on paintings by his mother, the noted artist TEA STERNKLAR. Mr. Sternklar often performs this work while exhibiting the paintings and discussing the magnificent scenes they represent. Recently a performance was held outdoor at Heckscher Park in Huntington, New York, during which a modern dance company danced to this set of pieces as the paintings were displayed on a giant screen. Following the war with Iraq, Mr. Sternklar composed a march in honor of Gen. Schwarzkopf appropriately entitled The General Schwarzkopf March. The General himself has written to Mr. Sternklar expressing his delight in hearing the work. Sternklar held the office of Co-Director of The Long Island Composers Alliance for six years and in that capacity he played a major role in performing new music and introducing budding young composers to a curious public.

Some of the artists and ensembles Mr. Sternklar performed with represent the cream of the musical world, a brief list follows: MISCHA ELMAN, RUGGIERO RICCI, OSCAR SHUMSKY, ZVI ZEITLIN, TOSSY SPIVAKOVSKY, BARBARA MALLOW, LEONID HAMBRO, LEONARD LEHRMAN, ANNE YARROW, LOUIS ALCURI, MARGA RICHTER, HERBERT FELDMAN, JASCHA HORENSTEIN, PAUL RUDOFF, ROBERT MANN, THE HOFSTRA STRING QUARTET, SEYMOUR BENSTOCK, THE DAVINCI PLAYERS, THE CANTILENA TRIO, AVRON COLEMAN, SEYMOUR RUBINSTEIN, THE BAYVIEW CHAMBER PLAYERS, DANIEL STERNKLAR and hundreds more. He has served as Associate Professor of Piano Performance at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and at present continues to teach privately at his Plainview, New York studio. Over the years he has been instrumental in launching the careers of hundreds of talented young musicians. In the past he also served on the faculties of the Training Orchestra Chamber Music Workshop, the 92nd Street YMHA and the Brandeis Institute of the West in California. Sternklar has appeared in concert in most major halls including Town Hall, Carnegie and Lincoln Center in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, also on screen in Documentaries about the well known Siena Pianoforte, on Television, written musical analysis for The Voice Of America, given master classes in music education and performance, lectures about chamber music, contemporary music, music from Israel, duo piano ensemble presentations and recitals, conducted workshops, seminars, was a special guest performer at the Stratford Festival in Canada.

Mr. Sternklar is the recipient of many awards, grants and honors amongst them MEET THE COMPOSER (more than 17 awards to date), New York State Council on the Arts, three BEST OF THE YEAR awards by the Piano Quarterly Magazine, National Endowment for the Arts, The Helena Rubinstein Foundation, Men of Achievement Award. His biography appears in 18 WHO IS WHO’S including the INTERNATIONAL WHO IS WHO IN MUSIC where he serves on the Board of Advisors.

Dozens of reviews and articles have been published about his performances and compositions. Here is what The NEW YORK TIMES wrote about Mr. Sternklar’s playing, following a performance at Carnegie: “He makes the accents and phrasing of Romantic style seem as natural as breathing….” And in Montreal, Canada the STAR wrote: “he can command the admiration and astonishment of any audience….”

The Piano Quarterly in reviewing a newly released piano work wrote: “Sophistication of treatment….., a piece that sings simply through many refinements of rhythm, texture, and counterpoint. It seems lovingly crafted.”

Additionally hundreds of letters of appreciation and notes were written over the years about Mr. Sternklar’s art, many by leading musical personalities, individuals at high institutions of learning, etc. A few brief excerpts follow:

“Your presence in the Town of Oyster Bay and your outstanding compositions enhance our cultural environment.” (Lois Manning, Superintendent, Town of Oyster Bay.)

“I have seldom come across a young man with so much talent…..” (Mischa Elman)

“…we thank you for the time, patience, expertise, love, discipline and all the other qualities which have had such an important impact on your students. You do the work from which we all benefit…..”(Director of Admissions, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.)

” To Avraham Sternklar, not only for the joy your art brings to so many but also its example to the younger generation. Greetings from Marian Anderson”.

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Membership: ASCAP
Email: margarichter@optonline.net

A Wisconsin native, Marga Richter received her early musical training in Minneapolis and her Bachelors and Masters Degrees in composition from The Juilliard School, where she studied with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti. Her music first came to national attention in the late 1950s through a series of recordings commissioned and released by MGM Records. One of her best known works is the ballet ABYSS, which has been performed by the Harkness(which commissioned it), Joffrey, Boston, Pennsylvania and other ballet companies. Richter’s music has been performed by such eminent soloists as Jessye Norman, Menahem Pressler and Daniel Heifetz, and by over 60 orchestras, including the Atlanta and Milwaukee Symphonies, the Minnesota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic and London Philharmonic Orchestra, which recorded her BLACKBERRY VINES AND WINTER FRUIT. Twenty-two of Richter’s other works have been released on LPs and CDs, the most recent of which are SPECTRAL CHIMES/ENSHROUDED HILLS and QUANTUM QUIRKS OF A QUICK QUAINT QUARK by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and OUT OF SHADOWS AND SOLITUDE by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, both with Gerard Schwarz conducting. QUANTUM QUIRKS was premiered in 1992 by Marin Alsop and the Long Island Philharmonic. Richter has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, the National Federation of Music Clubs, Meet the Composer and ASCAP.

Membership: LICA, SCI, ASCAP
Email: richardson_dana@hotmail.com
Web Page: www.danarichardson.org
 
Dana Dimitri Richardson was born in Long Beach California in 1953. His music has been broadcast over more than 70 radio stations in the U.S. and Greece including WNYC and ERT, Athens, where he spent three years teaching music theory. During that period he was interviewed by Bobby Kanas on ERT and became a member of the Greek Composer’s Union
 
His record released on the Dionysian label in 1987 features The American Chamber Ensemble. Between 1990-1991 he wrote and produced a monthly series of two-hour programs on WBAI-FM that explored the relation between music and society. After earning a Ph.D. in Theory and Composition from New York University in 2001, he taught at Fredonia College and New York University. Since then he has taught music theory and history at Cooper Union, Nassau Community College, and Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. His essay on his original system for musical composition “Syntonality” is published online by the Goldberg Stiftung and has been accepted for publication by The International Journal of Musicology.
 
He is also a published poet whose Aphrodite and Other Poems is available on Amazon.com. His music is available at richardson_dana@ hotmail.com. For more information on Dana Richardson, please go to www.danarichardson.org.

Email: frankretzel@aol.com

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Email: martinh@andromeda.rutgers.edu
Web Page: henrymartin.org
 
The music of Henry Martin has been described by Paul Griffiths of the New York Times as “that of someone who knows and loves jazz to its bones (not discounting its flesh).” Martin is in the forefront of composers dedicated to writing attractive works that combine the flavors of jazz and popular music with classical forms. He is a recipient of numerous awards and commissions from such organizations as the Aaron Copland House, Columbia University, The Bogliasco Foundation, American Public Media, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and the Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon.
 
Martin’s best-known work is his Preludes and Fugues, which won the 1992 National Composers Competition and the 1998 Barlow Foundation International Composition Competition. According to the New York Times, the pieces “respond to the long history of jazzing Bach by Baching jazz.” The Washington Post critic Joseph McLellan cites the work’s “wholehearted tribute to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, but . . . with traces of bebop, tango, stride piano, etc., popping up unexpectedly.” John Sunier in Audio magazine states “I can’t think of a more impressive recent contemporary keyboard work.”
 
On the occasion of winning the 1998 Barlow International Composition Competition, the Barlow Endowment commissioned At Midnight’s Hour for piano solo, which was premiered by Logan Skelton of the University of Michigan. The San Antonio International Piano Competition 2000 commissioned Fuga XXIV for the competition’s semi-finalists. The work was premiered by medal winner Gloria Chien.
 
Other major works by Martin include Shadows of the Moon (for violin and orchestra), which was premiered by violinist Carole Cowan with JoAnn Falletta conducting the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Pippa’s Song, a solo piano work commissioned by the Focus 2000 Festival of Piano Literature at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and Piano Trio in C# Minor. Martin’s recent Sonata for Clarinet and Piano was written for the Long Island Composers Alliance.
 
Martin’s CDs include Preludes and Fugues (performed by Sara Davis Buechner; GM Recordings 2049), Preludes and Fugues, Part 2 (performed by Henry Martin; Bridge Records 9140), and Chamber Music for Strings and Piano (performed by the Innisfree Piano Trio; Albany Records Troy804).
 
Martin teaches music theory, composition, and music history at Rutgers University in Newark, where he is a professor of music. Among his teachers are David Del Tredici and Milton Babbitt. He holds a Ph. D. from Princeton University, an M. M. from the University of Michigan, a B. A. from Oberlin College, and a B. M. from Oberlin Conservatory. He is also a pianist and music theorist with a long list of performances, articles, and books.

Joel

Leonard J. Lehrman is the most prolific composer living on Long Island today, with 196 works in his catalog, including 10 operas, 6 musicals, and over 400 individual vocal pieces.  The first person to hold the title of President of LICA (1991-98), he was LICA’s first Archivist and at his retirement became Archivist Emeritus. The producer of 11 CDs, including the first 4 of LICA’s on Capstone Records, he is the author of Marc Blitzstein: A Bio-Bibliography (Praeger, 2005) and co-author of Elie Siegmeister, American Composer: A Bio-Bibliography (Scarecrow, 2010), with a Foreword by Herbert A. Deutsch.  With his wife Helene Williams, he co-founded the Elie Siegmeister Society and Court Street Music in Valley Stream.  Formerly Assistant Chorus Master of the Metropolitan Opera and Chief Coach/Conductor at Theater des Westens in Berlin, he is also Founder/Director of the Metropolitan Philharmonic Chorus, Reference Librarian at Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library, Conductor of the Blaue Jungs/Hanseaten Deern German Chorus in East Meadow, High Holidays Organist at Congregation Beth Mordecai in Perth Amboy NJ, and Interim Organist/Music Director at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Castleton, Staten Island.  Having studied with Nadia Boulanger on a Fulbright, he has degrees from Harvard (B.A. cum laude), Cornell (M.F.A., D.M.A.), and Long Island University (M.S.L.S.), plus equivalencies from Indiana University (B.M. Piano, M.M. Conducting).

Membership: New York Women Composers, ASCAP
Email: juliemandel@nyc.rr.com

Julie Mandel writes both chamber music and music for theatre. Her woodwind quartet, CONVERSATIONS, was  premiered in May 2010 in New Jersey by the Englewinds Quartet. Her String Quartet #6 was premiered in December 2009 by The Stony Brook String Quartet.  She has had numerous performances of her chamber works at Queens College and  Hofstra College, Her chamber works have received many performances by the American Chamber Ensemble in New York City. Her commission from Paul Taub, flutist of the Seattle Chamber Players, resulted in Blues For Paul for flute and piano which has had several performances.

“A Glorious Day”, based on a Shaw play, recently had a staged reading at the York Theater. Her one-act opera, “I  Wish, I Wish, I Wish”, was produced at Otterbein College. Her theatre works include “Subway Suite”, a 2-act musical accompanied by string quartet, was produced at Queens College “Presidents”, had two national tours. “2”, was produced by Actor’s Equity, and “Le Grand Café” by National Music Theater Network. Her works are frequently played at concerts by The Astoria Jazz Band.  Marks Music has published many of her choral works  Her children’s opera, Pari and the Prince, based on a William Saroyan story, published by McGraw Hill, has been produced nationally.

She has received several Meet the Composer and ASCAP Awards; is a   member of Long Island Composer Alliance, New York Women Composers and American Composers Forum. She studied composition with Ernst Krenek and Eric Zeisl. Theodore Presser publishes her Trio for Flute, Viola and Harp, and her String Quartet #3 which received the Burton Award for Contemporary Music.

She has just completed a second one-act opera based on Stephen Vincent Benet’s, “Story About The Anteater”.

Her String Quartet #6 was premiered by The Stony Brook String Quartet.  Her woodwind quartet, CONVERSATIONS, was recently premiered in New Jersey by the Englewinds Quartet.  She has had numerous performances of her chamber works at Queens College and  Hofstra College, Her chamber works have received many performances by the American Chamber Ensemble in New York City.  Her one-act opera, “I  Wish, I Wish, I Wish”, was produced at Otterbein College. Her theatre works include “Subway Suite”, a 2-act musical accompanied by string quartet, was produced at Queens College. “Presidents”, had two national tours. “2”, was produced by Actor’s Equity, and “Le Grand Café” by National Music Theater Network. Marks Music has published many of her choral works.  “A Glorious Day”, based on a Shaw play, recently had a reading at the York Theater.  Her children’s opera, Pari and the Prince, based on a William Saroyan story, published by McGraw Hill, has been produced nationally.

Her commission from Paul Taub, flutist of the Seattle Chamber Players, resulted in Blues For Paul for flute and piano.

She has received several Meet the Composer and ASCAP Awards; is a   member of Long Island Composer Alliance, New York Women Composers and American Composers Forum. She studied composition with Ernst Krenek and Eric Zeisl. Theodore Presser publishes her Trio for Flute, Viola and Harp, and her String Quartet #3 which received the Burton Award for Contemporary Music.

She has just completed a second one-act opera based on Stephen Vincent Benet’s, “Story About The Anteater”.

Membership: ASCAP
Email: info@janelesliemusic.com
Web Page: www.janelesliemusic.com

Pianist and composer JANE LESLIE has been honored with several ASCAP Awards and Meet the Composer grants for her compositions. Her music is a blend of classical and popular styles, and has been performed in concert halls, as well as informal venues. Her two albums of piano solos, “Southampton Sunset” and “Dreamsongs,” have been featured in radio broadcasts in the U.S. and abroad, and on many Internet sites. She holds two degrees from the Juilliard School, as well as the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

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Leo Kraft was born in New York City in 1922. He was educated in the New York City public schools, Queens College and Princeton University. His composition teachers were Karol Rathaus, Randall Thompson, and Nadia Boulanger. He served for 41 years on the music faculty of Queens College, retiring with the rank of Full Composer. While the majority of his works are in the field of chamber music, he has also written orchestral, choral, vocal and piano music. Mr. Kraft’s music is published by Seesaw Music and Theodore Presser. He is past president of the American Music Center and has been active in the College Music Society and the Society for Music Theory.  He is a member of ASCAP.

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Membership: ASCAP, APTLI
Email: patriciaking@yahoo.com

First Prize winner of the Ithaca College-Theodore Presser International Choral Composition Competition. First Prize winner of the Long Island Arts Council Third International Musical Composition Contest. Composer-in-Residence for the Amherst Music Festival in Amherst, Massachusetts. Recipient of grants from the “Meet the Composer” Foundation. Selected as a composer honored in the New York State “Composerfest”.   Works include music for solo instruments and piano, SATB (choral music),  and humorous festival ensembles (16 hands, 2 pianos). Publishers include: Lee Roberts Music Publications, Inc., Theodore Presser Publishing Company, the Neil A. Kjos Music Company and Creative Music.
Founder and Director of the Long Island Keyboard Ensemble Festival, Faculty Chairperson of the Dorothy Taubman School of Piano. Consultant for the National and International Piano Foundation, Creative Festival Adjudicator, Speaker at the Roland Keyboard Technology Seminar and Instructor for “Merging Technology with Tradition. Former teacher of 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner in music,  Judge, speaker and writer for educational organizations.  Studied with Rita Harmon, Harold Weiss and Edna Golandsky.

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Membership: LICA
Email: jackh@korgusa.com
 
Composer/ performer /synthesist Jack Hotop studied arranging and composition at Berklee College of Music, and later went on to study orchestration with Ghita Steiner.
 
Since 1975, Jack has worked on several film, television and recording projects in the New York area. In addition to numerous performance credits, Jack also toured with Drifters, Gloria Gaynor, Silver Convention, Equinox, Rat Race Choir, Leslie West, and John Entwistle.
 
Jack ‘s early passion for synthesis began at Boston School of Electronic Music.
In 1983, Jack started working for Korg USA & Korg Inc. as a sound designer and product development specialist. Currently, he is the Senior Voicing manager at Korg USA.
 
Some of Jack’s sound design & development credits with Korg include:
Poly 800, DW 6000, DW 8000, DSS-1, DSM-1, DS-8, 707, M1, T-Series, M3R, Wavestation, 01/W, 03R, X Series, N Series, Trinity, SG Pro, Triton, KARMA, OASYS, M3
 
During the past 25 years, Jack has done clinics and performances for Korg in the US, Europe and Asia. He has also done interviews, articles, webinars and videos for Korg, Keyboard Magazine, and Electronic Musician Magazine.
 
Jack Hotop CDs:
Stages of Life
Earth Songs
Passionate Journey
Suite for Piano & Orchestra
 
With Other Artists:
Alligator Stew (Leslie West)
Message (Richie Samboura)

Membership: ASCAP
Email: phpac@optonline.net
Web Page: www.paulhefner.com
 
Paul Hefner attended Hofstra University as a Dorothy B. Hoag Scholar of Music and earned a B.S. degree (magna cum laude) with highest honors in music. He was a piano performance major and studied with concert and recording artist Morton Estrin. He also studied electronic music composition with Herbert Deutsch, and composed and arranged for vocal ensembles and big band both as a student and professionally thereafter.While an undergrad, he was inducted int Pi Kappa Lambda (the National Music Honor Society,) and listed in “Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities.” As a graduate theory major at New York’s Manhattan School of Music he studied composition with Ludmilla Ulehla. He has worked professionally as an arranger, transcriber and copyist. The Stanley and Naomi “Drucker Duo” premiered his “Three Duets for Clarinets” on an American Chamber Ensemble concert bill, and Gary Karr uses his “Twelve Double Double Bass Minatures” in his global master classes. His piano music has been both premiered and performed globally by concert artist Rorianne Schrade. For more than two decades he has been a bandleader in the private party industry servicing New York City’s finest hotels and private clubs, and his ensemble has performed both nationally and internationally. His high-end client base includes captains of industry, fashion and finance, members of The Kennedy Family, film stars, royalty, and every “Inner Circle-New York Mayoral Ball” since Ed Koch first took office. He continues his artistic endeavors as a pianist/”real time” composer both in American Jazz and World Musics, and has recorded numerous CDs. He also currently serves as a LICA’s Concert Director,on the Board of Directors and as LICA’s Director of Special Events.

Membership: ASCAP, SCI, New York Composers Circle
Email: marhalp@aol.com
Web Page: http:/www.martinhalpern.com
 
Martin Halpern had a productive career as playwright, poet and educator until, in 1994, he retired from the Theater Arts Department at Brandeis University to devote himself full-time to music composition. Since then he has been awarded a Masters degree in composition at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, and there have been more than eighty performances of his chamber and vocal works, and fifteen productions of his chamber operas, in the New York area.  He has received several ASCAP Plus awards and Meet the Composer grants, and from 1997 to 2oo8 was Concerts Director of the Long Island Composers Alliance.

Membership: ASCAP
Email: debgordon@optonline.net
 
Pianist-composer Deborah Nodel Gordon received a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School at age 9. She studied with Leonard Eisner, Nadia Reisenberg, and Oxana Yablonskaya. She is the winner of various piano competitions including the first prize at the Young American Artist Competition at age 14 and high awards at the WQXR Piano Competition. She has performed at many venues, including various universities, BAM, WNYC, and the Church Center of the United Nations. She is the recipient of the Judith Grayson Memorial Award and numerous awards from Meet the Composer and ASCAP. Her work has been performed by international prize-winning violinists and singers, including soloists from both the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera. Her Sonata for Piano and Violin has been programmed by the Montgomery Symphony Society. She has performed her works at the United Nations International Human Rights Day and International Women’s Day, at the Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Ebenezer Baptist Church National Historic Site in Atlanta. Transport To Poland, Ms. Nodel Gordon’s holocaust piece with words written by Else Weber, who perished in Auschwitz, was premiered at the 85th commemoration of Raoul Wallenberg’s birth. Her human rights concert featuring music based on Sophocles’ Antigone was recommended by The New York Times as the “Best Bet.” Her compositions have been recorded and distributed internationally. Ms. Nodel Gordon was commissioned by the Project People Foundation to write the song for their Celebrating Life national concert series, which premiered April 22, 2007 in Delray Beach, Florida. The Celebrating Life series of concerts will support the foundation’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance, leadership training and education for South African women and children in need.

Email: composer@brianpgillett.com
Web Page: www.brianpgillett.com
 
Brian P. Gillett was born in 1972 in Marietta, GA. He is a self taught composer and pianist. His talent as a composer surfaced by necessity while an adolescent when he overzealously scheduled too many piano performances for the same retirement community. With multiple performances programmed and a limited piano repertoire, his adeptness for improvisation and composition surfaced trial-by-fire.
 
While a student at Oberlin College, he continued formal training in piano performance, but his development as a composer remained self-directed. During this time, he performed original works and improvisations for solo piano at various venues throughout the East coast. Concealing a small clock in the piano’s performer side ledge, he secretly improvised, at times, entire concerts. After establishing credibility as a solo performer and composer, he revealed the improvisatory nature of his performances and continued explicitly performing piano improvisation. His facility with extemporization colored his development as a composer, and an improvisatory character underlies even his most structured compositions.
 
During his studies at Oberlin, he developed an interest in the Biologic Sciences. In 1995, he enrolled in McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, PQ. Drawing from his experiences in the hospitals of Montreal, he composed works for voice, electronic media, solo instruments and chamber ensembles. Four years later, he arrived in New York as both a composer and medical doctor.
 
Dr. Gillett presently resides in New York City where he composes and works as an emergency medicine physician. His Neo-Romantic style resonates Judaic tonality. While Dr. Gillett is a secular Jewish composer, Eastern European Judaic elements appear instinctively woven into nearly all of his works.
 
The integration of two ostensibly disparate worlds, Art and Science, into one balanced texture is also paralleled in his compositional style. Rooted in extemporization, and often comprised of dissimilar sounds, his rich sonic textures fuse elements of romanticism and the avant-garde.

Membership: Secretary, LICA; Amer. Music Center; Society of Fellows Amer. Academy in Rome; Marquis Who’s Who in America 2006. ASCAP
Email: jayanthonygach1@aol.com
Web Page: members.sibeliusmusic.com/jgach
 
Jay Anthony Gach’s instrumental concert music has been critically acclaimed as “witty, virtuosic and accessible”, “so exuberant [and] so characterful”, “a natural crowd pleaser”, “vibrant textures”, “multi-layered, wirling and propulsive”. Summarized by the composer Lukas Foss during his tenureship as conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, “his writing for orchestra is brilliant beyond words”. Mr. Gach’s compositions for the voice have been aptly characterized with the simple phrase, “such beautiful music”. The composer Hugo Weisgal wrote of him, “a composer… of extraordinary technical command and intellectual grasp of what music is all about”.
 
Mr. Gach’s original concert music has been performed, recorded and broadcast internationally by ensembles including the Millenium Symphony Orch./Robert Ian Winstin, St. Paul Chamber Orch./Enrique Diemecke, Brooklyn Philharmonic/Lukas Foss, American Composers Orchestra/Paul Dunkel, National Italian Youth Orchestra/Vinko Globokar, City of London Sinfonia, Haydn Chamber Orchestra of London, the Britten Sinfonia Soloists, Vox Juventus Poland, the Gregg Smith Singers, and by solo artists including British pianist Ronan Magill, American clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, Canadian cellist Soo Bae and the soprano and tenor duo Grace Hart & Enzo Citarelli. He has received commissions and awards in over thirty national and international competitions including the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Astral Foundation (Pew-Bandy) of New York and Philadelphia, Frederick P. Rose Prize, Valentino Bucchi Concorsi Internazionale, Third British Contemporary Piano Music Competition, Delta Omicron Composition Prize, Dr. J. Howland Auchincloss Society for New Music Composition Prize, New York Foundation for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, Tanglewood Music Center (Bruno Maderna Fellowship), National Endowment for the Arts, et al. Between 1981 and 1999 he resided and worked throughout Europe returning to New York in 2000. In the summer of 2005 his music was featured at the Dubrovnik Music Festival, the Edinburgh Arts Festival, the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the Adirondack Music Festival. Mr Gach has written and conducted many arrangements and original scores for the educational and commercial media, including: The Selfish Giant, a children’s musical; A lot a’ Nerve Naomi Grubenstein, a ‘parve’ musical comedy; Nora at the Altar Rail, a one-act opera; Legends from Bodmin Moor, a film; British Rail’s “Mind the Doors”, an advertisement; and The Hurlers, an animation film. In 2006 he was honoured at an induction ceremony as a National Patron of the Delta Omicron Music Fraternity. His biography has appeared in Marquis ‘Who’s Who in America’ since 2006.
 
International and National Fellowships: Dartington, England International Summer School 1991. American Academy in Rome, Italy Composition Fellowship 1984. Research Assistantship University Tubingen, Germany 1980-1. Wellesley, New Hampshire, Johnson & Bennington Colleges Composers Conferences 2001/1989/82/81.
 
Selected Commissions, Grants, Prizes: American Lyric Theatre’s Edgar Allan Poe Opera Project Commissions USA 20010. American Chamber Ensemble (The Ingenue & the Matinee Idol) 2009. New York Treble Singers (ELI, ELI) 2008. Concert Artists Guild/ Long Island Composers Alliance (Toccare Cielo) USA 2008. American Lyric Theatre Composer Librettist Development Program (Nora at the Altar Rail) USA 2008. Music+Culture International Piano Music Competition (A “London” Sonata) USA, 2007. Children’s Aid Society Chorus (My Letter to the World), USA 2005. Saxtet Publications Composition Competition, (Trains, Steam Whistles and….) UK 2004. Peter B. Allen Sacred Hymn Arrangement Competition USA 2004. XI International Festival of Advent and Christmas Music Prague, Czech Rep. 2003. Upbeat-Hvar International Summer School 2003, Croatia. Kathryn Thomas International Flute Composition Competition (Tre Ecloghe) 2000, UK. SPNM/Huddersfield Festival 1998, UK. Haydn Chamber Orchestra of London (Selfish Giant) 1997, UK. Oberlin College Chorale 1995 (Hashir Hashem Luchem), USA. Islington (London) International Festival 1995, UK. Third British Contemporary Piano Competition 1994, UK. American Composers Orchestra 1988, USA. Frederick P. Rose Orchestral Prize 1988 USA. St. Paul Chamber Orch. American Composers Competition 1985 USA. ASCAP Standard Awards 1988-2010, USA.
 
Critical Commentary: “[the saxophone quartet] requires excellent ensemble and precise articulation. It is witty, virtuosic and accessible. Gach has cleverly used the quartet to convey the title in a very original way.” Trains, Steam Whistles and Radiator Pipes, Clarinet & Saxophone Magazine, UK. 2006. “Unmistakably Ol’ Scratch at work…The piece continues in an equally virtuosic way for all the instrumentalists.” Idle Hands are the Devil’s Workshop, Syracuse New Times, 4/06. “Every so often I hear a piece of music which makes me stop what I am doing and simply listen.” (From the Land of TV, MENSA Newsletter, 9/03). “Finding inspiration in a Calliope’s refrain.” Calliope, New York Times 1/03. “..exuberant sonata…so characterful…could have been written especially for [the pianist].”
A “London” Sonata, SPNM New Notes 11/94. “Bravo e bravissimi…” TATTOO, La Repubblica 12/92. “Lively duets…notated precisely and popular with performers.” Six Pieces for Two Violins, Strings Magazine 7/91. “…vibrant textural transformations.” Simple Figures, NY Times 4/89. “…a natural crowd pleaser.” CHANT, New York Newsday 5/88. “The music is multi-layered, whirling and propulsive…well-scored and vividly played.” Il Ponentino, Minneapolis Star 10/85. “I believe he will make a real contribution to the music of his generation.” (composer, John Lessard). “…above all a musician, a craftsman. And there are too few of those in this world. (composer, Billy Jim Layton).
 
Publications & Recordings RCA Red Label, ERM Naxos, Carl Fischer, Merion Music, Theodore Presser, Classical Vocal Reprints of New York, Granta/Little Book-room, Peter B Allen Music Publishing, Saxtet Publications, SibeliusMusic.com, G7 Music.
Education Ph.D State University of New York at Stony Brook 1982; Fellow London College of Music FLCM 1993.

No member information at this time.

Membership: ASCAP
Email: ldresner@optonline.net
Web Page: www.LaurenceDresner.com

BA music composition and performance SUNY
MA in composition New England Conservatory of Music
Studied with: Bud DeTar, George Russell, Jimmy Guiffre, William Thomas McKinley, David Liebman, David Baker, Jamey Aebersold, Miroslav Viteous

Past participant in ASCAP musical theatre workshop
Member of ASCAP, MACNYC, Dramatist Guild
Member of the Long Island Philharmonic’s Chorus

Musicals:
Homeseekers (book and lyrics by Allen Deitch) – 1981 Urban Arts Theatre

Lying and Other Misdemeanors (book by Roberto Monticello) – 1984 Vandam Theatre

Heartbeat (book and lyrics by Dale Johnson) – Pallson’s/Duplex 1986

Tiffany (book and lyrics by Dale Johnson) – chosen as a “recommended work” by the National Music Theater Network.

Lysistrata (book by Aristophanes, lyrics by Doris Willens) – staged readings

She Stoops to Conquer (book by Goldsmith, lyrics by Eben Keyes) – staged readings