GUEST ARTISTS

Jennifer Margaret Barker, composer
Jennifer Margaret Barker’s compositions have been hailed by critics in North America, Europe and Asia as “extraordinarily moving”, “soul-stirring”, “at once gripping and timeless”, “blazingly alive, with lovely, aching melodies”, “show-stopping”, “anything but passive”, “beautiful…warm”, “haunting”, “thrilling new sounds”, “familiar and yet always new”, “illuminated by dreamy images”, and her compositional output has been noted for its “amazing array”.

Barker has received commissions and performances from most notably The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra with the St. Louis Children’s Choirs, The New Jersey Symphony

Orchestra with the New Jersey Youth Chorus, The Virginia Symphony with The Virginia Children’s Chorus, The Fort Collins Symphony, The Bearsden Choir with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Brass and Percussion Ensembles, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra String Quartet, The Scottish Chamber Orchestra String Trio, Relâche, Network for New Music, The Society for New Music, Trio Arundel, The Taggart-Grycky Duo, Del’Arte, Musica Nova, Mélomanie, The Holywell Ensemble, Marimolin, The Children’s Chorus of Maryland, and The Bay Youth Symphony, as well as an extensive list of international concert artists. She was invited to compose a work for The 2002 American Liszt Society National Conference, and her compositional work is featured on the Distant Voices Touring Theatre ‘September Echoes’ production. Her compositions have also been featured on documentary and art films, including “No Denying”. To date, her works have been performed in China, Australia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, The Czech Republic and Slovenia, as well as in the United Kingdom (Scotland, England and Wales) and the United States.

In addition to ASCAP awards and varying international awards, Barker has received grants from organizations such as The National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trust, the American Composers Forum, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Norfolk (USA) Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Grant, the Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, the Philadelphia Music Project and The Scottish Arts Council. In 2007 she received an Established Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts for her contributions to the State of Delaware.

Published by Theodore Presser, Vanderbeek & Imrie Ltd. and Southern Percussion, Barker has received numerous broadcasts of her compositions on American public radio and the BBC. Her first CD, ‘Nyvaigs’, was released in April 2000 on the CRI label and is currently distributed by New World Records. Her second CD, ‘Geenyoch’, which includes a bonus DVD featuring four music videos of her compositions filmed by award-winning cameraman John Anthony Palmer, was released in May 2005 on the Meyer Media LLC label (www.meyer-media.com). In reviewing this second CD, critic Jon Alan Conrad noted that Barker’s music “sounds familiar and yet always new. While speaking in her own distinctive compositional voice, it answers the emotional and visceral needs that music has always met”. Conrad also notes Barker’s ability to “incorporate thrilling new sounds”, and that “there is always a gratifying curve and arch to her vocal and instrumental phrases, as well as in the shaping and pacing of whole movements”.

Barker is a Full Professor of Music Theory/Composition at the University of Delaware. She is Co-Chair of New Music Delaware and Co-Artistic Director/Founder of Still Breathing: The University of Delaware Contemporary Music Ensemble. As a William Penn Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, she received the Ph.D. and Masters degrees in music composition. She received two Masters degrees in piano performance and music composition respectively from Syracuse University, and an Honors Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Born and raised in Scotland, Barker has lived in America since 1987. In addition to composing, Barker remains active as a pianist.

Eve Friedman, flute
Eve is actively involved in contemporary and historical performance. She has recently performed with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Tafelmusik (Toronto), American Bach Soloists (San Francisco), the Washington Bach Consort, and Tempesta di Mare, and was a judge in a National Flute Association competition. She has also performed in master classes with James Galway, Julius Baker, Leone Buyse, Barthold Kuijken, and Sandra Miller.

In 2004, Friedman was invited to perform at the National Flute Association convention in Nashville, where she was a finalist in the Baroque Artist Competition. Of a recent performance, The Washington Post commented, "a particularly fine solo was contributed by Eve Friedman on flauto traverso in the aria 'Seele, deine Spezereien.'" Friedman received her Master of Music degree from Boston University, where she was a student of Doriot Anthony Dwyer, retired principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. At Ms. Dwyer's invitation, Friedman spent two summers at the Tanglewood Institute. In 2006, Friedman became the first person ever awarded the Doctor of Music degree in Baroque Flute from Indiana University's renowned Early Music Institute, where she also won the 2001 Baroque Orchestra Concerto Competition. Friedman is currently on the faculties of Friends School Mullica Hill and Rowan University.

Mark Hagerty, composer
Mark studied trumpet, voice, and composition at Oberlin Conservatory (B. Mus.), and composition at Brandeis University (special arrangement, non-degree study). Early in his career he was awarded the prestigious Joseph H. Bearns Prize from Columbia University for his String Quartet: Formations and was invited by the eminent composer-conductor Jacques-Louis Monod to have his works published by the Association for the Promotion of New Music. More recently, he received Delaware’s highest music award for The Realm of Possibility, a large, multi-movement piano work of flexible form premiered in Turin by composer-pianist Curt Cacioppo.

Mark's music has been performed across the US and around the world, notably in Italy, the Netherlands, Israel, and Brazil. With numerous chamber, keyboard, and vocal pieces to his credit, he is currently concentrating on works for larger forces and investigating the melding of “sound sculpture” with more traditional musical expression. In keeping with his belief that academe should be the province of dedicated scholars and teachers, he has worked—apart from musical commissions—primarily in non-musical positions, including quarryman, machinist, programmer, science and technology copyeditor, technical writer, and manager in high-tech firms. Having lived and composed in Massachusetts, New York State, and the Netherlands, he now lives in Delaware.

Mark Rimple, composer
Mark is an accomplished performer-composer whose original works incorporate the rhythmic and tonal aspects of early music and often include early instruments and techniques. His works have been performed by leading ensembles including The League of Composers/ISCM Chamber Players, Parnassus, Network for New Music, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Piffaro, and Mélomanie. Most recently, his Nouvelle Chanson des Ouiseaux (for SATB soloists, choir and lute) was called "nothing short of a masterpiece" by Michael Caruso of The Chestnut Hill Local, and "movingly beautiful" by Tom Purdom of the Broad Street Review. In 2009, the Kennedy Center’s American Music Theater Festival recognized his original music for West Chester University’s production of Love’s Fire with a Certificate of Merit.

He has garnered critical praise for his lute playing and singing from national newspapers (Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times) and early music journals (Early Music, Early Music America Magazine, The Lute Society of America Quarterly). Recently, a Philadelphia Inquirer critic wrote that his lute playing has “the specificity of a great vocal performance.” He has appeared as countertenor and lutenist with his ensemble Trefoil, The Newberry Consort, The Folger Consort, Ex Umbris, Piffaro, the Renaissance Band, Mélomanie, The New York Collegium, and New York’s Ensemble for Early Music. He can be heard on recordings of 14th Century music by Trefoil (Christo e Nato and Monsters, Mazes and Masters, MSR Recordings) and the Newberry Consort (Puzzles and Perfect Beauty, Noyse Productions), as well as the 2011 Meyer Media recording of Melomanie's Florescence. He has recently formed the Musica HumanaVocal Consort, an ensemble devoted to performing works of the 15th & 16th Centuries.

He is an active champion of new music for lute and countertenor, having performed and recorded new works with Network for New Music and Cygnus Ensemble, with whom he recorded Jonathan Dawe’s Siren for Countertenor, Guitar and Viola (Furious Artisans Records), a demanding work based on the music and poetry of Thomas Morley. He has collaborated with composer-performer Van Stiefel on an improvisational work for countertenor and laptop, and has also premiered Larry Nelson’s Symphony in Grey Major for countertenor, laptop, percussion and keyboard.

Mark holds a DMA in Composition from Temple University, and is Professor of Music Theory and Composition at West Chester University, where he also directs the Collegium Musicum. He is currently writing a perceptually driven music theory textbook that incorporates a wide cross-section of musical styles with theorist and West Chester University colleague, Alexander Rozin. As a music theorist, he has also written on the influence of the Roman polymath Boethius on poetics, historical music composition, and modern analysis of medieval music.

Kile Smith, composer
Gramophone magazine hailed Kile Smith’s Vespers as “spectacular.” The Philadelphia Inquirer found it “breathtaking,” The Buffalo News called it “altogether gorgeous and haunting,” and Audiophile Audition said, “a masterpiece of the deepest kind… Seldom do I come across a piece with such profoundly direct emotional appeal… easily one of the best releases of the year.” Kile’s frequently performed music is praised by audiences and critics for its emotional power, direct appeal, and strong voice.

He is Curator of the Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music, co-host of Discoveries from the Fleisher Collection, and host of Now is the Time on WRTI-FM in Philadelphia.

He has composed for Jennifer Montone, Principal Horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra, David Kim, Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Anne Martindale Williams, Principal Cello of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Vespers is on the Navona label, and Where ﬂames a word is due to be released on Navona Records by The Crossing this year. Among his 2011 season premieres will be major works for The Crossing and the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival.

Priscilla Smith, baroque oboe
Priscilla has performed with The Waverly Consort, Early Music New York, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Musica Angelica, Trinity (Wall St.) Baroque Orchestra, The Handel & Haydn Society, Ex Umbris, Concert Royal, Baroque Band, the Clarion Society, Juilliard Baroque and Orchester Wiener Akademie. She has toured the United States, Europe and South America, and as a member of Piffaro, has collaborated with such groups as the Concord Ensemble, Capilla Flamenca, Psallentes, The Crossing, The Newberry Consort, Parthenia, and ARTEK.

She has also appeared with acclaimed new music ensembles Cygnus, the Momenta Quartet, and the Second Instrumental Unit. Her performances have been called "spirited" by the New York Times and "particularly fine" by the Washington Post. Priscilla is a graduate of Temple University, where she was a modern oboe student of Louis Rosenblatt, and The Juilliard School, where she was a baroque oboe student of Gonzalo Ruiz.