_____Michael Arnowitt is one of the most creative and imaginative pianists in today's classical music world. He is best known for the clarity of his musical ideas, for his abilities to find new articulations and colors from the piano, and for his talents in constructing innovative and thought-provoking programs. _____Michael Arnowitt is also an active jazz pianist, and his recording 'Classical/Jazz' of jazz-influenced classical music and classically-influenced jazz explored the mutual influence of the two fields of music throughout the twentieth century. The disc won praise from both the classical and jazz communities, including L.A. Jazz Scene. _____Michael Arnowitt's recent accomplishments include his role as artistic director of the Vermont Millennium Music Festival. This festival took place over a four-day span in September 2000, and featured 24 concerts and special events presenting in chronological order music from the year 1000 to the year 2000. This festival attracted visitors from throughout the United States and was an extraordinary chronicle of the music and culture of the past thousand years. Michael Arnowitt was also the lead organizer in April 1999 of a successful benefit concert that raised $10,000 for humanitarian aid for Balkan war refugees; in addition to the monetary funds, the concert collected 300 emergency first aid kits and needed clothing for the refugee camps. [09/12/2002]

_____Helen Bledsoe, a native of Aiken, South Carolina, Helen is now based in Europe where she has an active career as a soloist and chamber musician. She won the top prizes from the Myrna Brown Competition, the Banff Concerto Award, and the International Gaudeamus Interpreter's Competition for Contemporary Music. Since her move in 1994, Helen has performed with the Klangforum Wien, and is a regular guest with Amsterdam's Nieuw Ensemble and the ASKO. She is a full member of the MusikFabrik, a contemporary music ensemble based in D¸sseldorf. Major solo activities include playing solo flute in Holliger's Scardanelli-Cyclus at the Concertgebouw under the composer's direction to critical acclaim, and upcoming CD's of flute works of Hans Zender and of Peter E–tv–s. Although considered a "specialist" in contemporary music, Helen comes fom a broad educational and professional background. While studying the traverso, she performed with the University of Pittsburgh Collegium Musicum. Helen has also studied Jazz with David Baker in Indiana and Carnatic (South Indian) music with Rafael Reina in Amsterdam. In the summer of 2000, she studied with singer Jahnavi Jayaprakash in Bangalore. [25/02/2001]

_____Clarinetist Laura Carmichael, a recent arrival in Amsterdam from San Francisco, California, is presently doing post-graduate studies with Harry Sparnaay at the Conservatorium von Amsterdam, as well as performing with local musicians. Originally from Ft. Worth, Texas, she studied at Michigan's Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Michigan, and privately in California with Rosario Mazzeo. _____In San Francisco, Ms. Carmichael performs chamber music with faculty from the San Francisco Conservatory and Stanford University, directs Alternate Currents, an award winning new music ensemble, and plays with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and Central West Ballet. She is also a member of John Schott's Diglossia, an ensemble which bridges new composition with improvisation. She often performs with experimental improvising musicians including Carla Kihlstedt, Scott Amendola, Gino Robair, Trevor Dunn, and Dan Plonsey, and groups including the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Left Coast Ensemble, and the Clubfoot Orchestra. Ms. Carmichael's recordings include Victoria Jordinova's "Mute Dance" on CRI records, Steve Horowitz' Quartet Music for PONK Records, and a forthcoming CD with Diglossia on the Music and Arts label. [22/01/2000]

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_____Lydia Forbes graduated from Yale University and the New England Conservatory. For a season she was Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada. She studied with Vera Beths in the Netherlands and now lives in Amsterdam, where she is a member of Zephyr String Quartet and is a free-lance chamber musician. Together Danny and Lydia have commissioned and performed several works for violin and percussion. [24/03/2001]

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_____Geoffrey Gartner received his Bachelor of Music with Honours from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he studied cello with Georg Pedersen. He performs widely as both soloist and chamber musician with appearances throughout Australia, as well as in Europe, Canada and New Caledonia. Geoffrey is a longstanding member of the new music group Ensemble Offspring and has also appeared with the Melbourne based Libra Ensemble. He has performed at the Sydney Spring Festival of New Music and the Totally Huge New Music Festival in Perth and has premiered numerous works, including 1st Australian performances of Horatiu Radulescu's String Quartet no.5 and Thomas Ades' opera Powder her Face. Geoffrey has enjoyed working relationships with many respected Australian and international composers including Michael Finnissey, Thomas Ades, Peter Sculthorpe, Thomas Meadowcroft, Damien Ricketson, Rosalind Page and Matthew Shlomowitz. Solo works written for him include Damien Ricketson's Imagining Le Verrier and Rosalind Page's Extrema. _____An accomplished chamber musician, Geoffrey is the founding cellist of the Tohzah Piano Trio, with whom he has toured extensively in Australia and overseas. The trio has worked with many distinguished musicians and tutors including Manahem Pressler, Lawrence Lesser, Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Bernadene Blaha, Ferenc Rados, Gyorgy Sebok and Marco van Pagee. Recent performances have included Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra as well as appearances at the Summer Arts Festival in Banff, Canada. [27/01/2002]

_____Patricia Green, Assistant Professor of Voice (Mezzo-Soprano). Ms. Green received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Ontario, and the Artist Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory. She is known internationally for her wide vocal range and expressive voice singing oratorio, chamber music, recitals and operas. She sang her debut at the Concertgebouw with the Dutch Radio Philharmonic, and has performed with major orchestras such as L'Orchetstre de Radio-France, the Northern Israel Symphony, the National Symphony, and with Festival MUSICA (Strasbourg), Continuum (London), Posthornkerk Concerts (Amsterdam), the Library of Congress Concerts, the Bethlehem Bach Society, the U.S. Holocaust Museum Chamber Music Series, the Cathedral Choral Society, Opera in Concert (Toronto), the Choral Arts Society of Washington, TapestryNewOpera, Vancouver New Music, Huddersfield Festival (U.K.), the Scotia Festival of Music, and the Michoacan Festival (Mexico). As a performer of new music sought after by composers, she has worked with G. Ligeti (Requiem), R. M. Schafer (Amente Neufe, Spring Child), P. Dusapin (La Melancholia, Aks), and S. Ran (O, the Chimneys), among others. She recently toured France, England and Canada with Autumnleaf Performance in "Kopernikus" by Claude Vivier, and her performance of two new oratorios in Haifa, Israel for the opening of the Terrace Gardens of the Bahý'i Faith in May was experienced live by 4000 international audience members and broadcast to sixty countries on television. She has recordings on Newport Classics (Bach) and Albany Records (T. Myron). [04/11/2001]

_____Wiek Hijmans (b. 1967) was in 1996 the first electric guitar student at the classical music department of the Manhattan School of Music. Supported by a Fullbright scholarship, he developed a solo repertoire for the electric guitar which he performed last season, for instance at new music festivals in Spain and in Vienna. In New York he won the Andres Segovia Award "for outstanding guitarplaying" in 1997. His 'American adventure' followed years of active involvement with contemporary composed and improvised music. Hijmans is a member of the renowned Maarten Altena Ensemble and co-artistic director of the American/Dutch ensemble TONK. He has worked with many other ensembles and orchestras, including Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Orkest De Volharding and The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, and performed at many festivals (e.g. Holland Festival, North Sea Jazz, New Music Accross America, Festival d'Otono). Composers including Arthur Kampela, Maarten Altena en Christian McLeer have written works for him. Wiek Hijmans is also a composer himself, having written works for ensembles such as De Volharding, Maarten Altena Ensemble, Ricciotti Ensemble and Escher Ensemble. [11/12/1999]

_____Mark Knoop has studied piano in Melbourne with Stephen McIntyre, and in Europe with Herbert Henck and Peter Feuchtwanger. He is co-artistic director of the Libra Ensemble, and has also performed with such groups as ELISION, the Melbourne Symphony, Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Offspring. He performs regularly as pianist and conductor, and has given premieres of works by Chris Dench, Ben Marks, Adam Yee and Matthew Shlomowitz. Recent performances have included the premiere of Chris Dench's solo piano work 'The Heart's Algorithms', alongside the Boulez first piano sonata and Michael Finnissy's 'Recent Britain' in the third concert of Libra's 2000 season. Other performances with Libra in 2000 included Messiaen's 'Quartet for the End of Time', as well as VarËse's 'Octandre' and Henze's 'Kammermusik 1958' as conductor. [25/02/2001]

_____Ben Marks is a freelance trombonist, teacher and composer. As a trombonist he as performed with the Melbourne Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Astra Chamber Music Society, ELISION Ensemble, Libra Ensemble, Melbourne Brass Ensemble, Melbourne Trombone Quartet, Melbourne Chorale and FontÈ Musicale. He has participated in the National Academy of Music Contemporary Repertoire Programme with tutor Alain Trudel, and played under Diego Mason with Camerata Australia. As a composer has has had performances through the ELISION and Libra Ensembles such as ' . . . ý l'abl"me bÈaut', written for Libra Ensemble, and 'The Black Shapes' which was premiered at the 1996 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival by ELISION Ensemble. [25/02/2001]

_____Jacob Plooij is an Australian born violinist with a diverse musical background. Having completed his Bachelor of music degree in Hobart , Tasmania in 1996 Jacob has performed the violin in a variety of venues and ensembles including professional Orhcestras in Australia and the Netherlands, Folk groups, as leader of Australias foremost electroacoustic ensemble the "Electra String Quartet", in various chamber ensembles and with dancers from the Autralian Dance Theatre on the roof of the Sydney Opera House for the Millenium Broadcast! Jacob has a special interest in recreational drugs and also enjoys cooking and rollerblading and would one day like to hangglide. Jacob has recently joined the Zephyr Kwartet and is looking forward to continuing the productive creative and inspiring time he has had since moving to the Netherlands. [21/10/2001]

_____Carl Rosman was born in 1971, and studied clarinet with Phillip Miechel and Peter Jenkin in Melbourne and Sydney. He is a founding member and co-artistic director of the Libra Ensemble, and a board member of ELISION. He regularly performs with both groups as clarinettist and conductor; other ensembles with which he has performed include Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), the Gavin Bryars Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring and Sydney Alpha. Carl has worked closely with a wide range of Australian and international composers, resulting in several premieres including Richard Barrett's 'interference', commissioned by ELISION and dedicated to him. He has also worked with Brian Ferneyhough on performance of 'Time and Motion Study I', receiving a Kranichsteiner Musikpreis in 1994 for his performances of this work and Richard Barrett's 'knospend-gespaltener' at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse. 'Time and Motion Study I' appears on ELISION's acclaimed disc of Brian Ferneyhough solo works, on the Dutch ETCETERA label (KTC 1206). [25/02/2001]

_____New York City-based conductor/percussionist Danny Tunick is active in both the Classical and Rock scenes of NYC. He is a member of the Bang On A Can 'Spit Orchestra', the SEM ensemble, and the Princeton Composer's Ensemble, as well as the rock bands Barbez, The Mad Scene, and the digital chamber punk band 'What Is It Like to Be a Bat?", with Bat members Dafna Naphtali and Kitty Brazelton. His most recent recording was as the drummer for Arnold Dreyblatt's "Orchestra of Excited Strings" to be released in the Fall on Bang On a Can's "Canteloupe" label. His last appearance in Amsterdam was at the Arena with the rock band Guv'ner, which has since imploded. [24/03/2001]