Musicians

Daria Binkowski, flutes
Rane Moore, clarinets
Erik Carlson, violin
Erin Wight, viola
Chris Gross, cello
Anthony Cheung, piano
Alex Lipowski, percussion
Vince Lee, conductor

Although our core group of musicians is listed above, we often expand or reduce the size of the ensemble as needed.

Daria Binkowski, flutes and co-director

An avid devotee of contemporary music, flutist Daria Binkowski has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. She is a co-founder of the Talea Ensemble in New York and also performs with the East Coast Composers Ensemble (ECCE) and the New York Miniaturist Ensemble. In addition to this, Daria has also worked with Bang on a Can, the St. Louis Symphony, and was recently a guest artist with cellist Elinor Frey at Cornell University. Daria has worked with composers Steven Stucky, Sydney Hodkinson, and Marc-Andre Dalbavie as a member of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble from 2004-2006. She has also worked with Brad Lubman, Michael Gordon, and David Lang at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. Daria has also appeared at the Greenwich Music Festival (Greenwich, CT), American Composers' Forum (Washington, D.C.), the Nevada Encounters of New Music Festival (Las Vegas, NV), the Heidelberg College New Music Festival (Tiffin, OH), the Women in New Music Festival (Rochester, NY), the Music of Japan Today Festival (College Park, MD) In addition to her work in contemporary music, Daria has also performed with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra (Charleston, SC), the Ohio Light Opera (Wooster, OH), and was a member of the Eastman School of Music Wind Ensemble during its 2004 tour of East Asia. Daria can be heard on recent recordings of the Ohio Light Opera (featuring Victor Herbert's Sweethearts and Schubert's Das Dremiaderlhaus) and the Eastman School of Music Wind Ensemble (Danzante). She has also appeared with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble on NPR's Performance Today. Daria received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Eastman School of Music, studying with Bonita Boyd, Anne Harrow, and Martha Aarons. She is receiving her Master’s Degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, studying with Timothy Hutchins.

Rane Moore, clarinets

Hailed by the Boston Phoenix as "phenomenal," clarinetist Rane Moore performs regularly on the East Coast and abroad. An enthusiastic interpreter of contemporary repertoire, she has given numerous premieres of new works and appeared with groups such as the Firebird Ensemble, the Callithumpian Consort, and the Fifth Tier New Music Ensemble. Her recent performance with Boston Musica Viva was called a "tour-de-force" by the Boston Globe. This year Moore was featured as a guest artist at the Royal College of Music and Drama in Wales and for the last three years has worked closely with Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland. As an orchestral musician she has performed with the Owensboro Symphony in Kentucky, the Columbus, Indiana Philharmonic, and the New England Philharmonic. She holds degrees from Indiana University, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, and the University> of California at Berkeley. In addition Rane maintains a full studio of clarinet and saxophone students and serves as a chamber music coach for students at Harvard University.

Erik Carlson, violin

Erik Carlson has performed for audiences around the world, playing both as a soloist and as a member of various ensembles. He has soloed with orchestras in Europe and America, including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Radio/Television Orchestra of Ireland. He is the founder and director of The New York Miniaturist Ensemble and Ensemble 176. The New York Times called his recent performances of Berio and Dallapiccola "first-rate" and "a revelation". He plays frequently with the inter-arts ensemble VisionIntoArt, The Trinity Bach Players, and the New Chamber Ballet. As a composer and a playwright, he has had his works performed across the country. He studied violin with Jorja Fleezanis, Ronald Copes, and Robert Mann, and graduated from The Juilliard School with a Masters Degree in violin performance. Highlights of Erik's 2007-2008 season include performances on Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival and tours to Russia, Mexico, and Belgrade.

Erin Wight, viola

Violist Erin Wight is currently completing her Master of Music degree with Paul Neubauer at The Juilliard School. She is an avid performer of new music, playing as a member of both the New Juilliard Ensemble and Axiom, as well performing with the Juilliard Electric Ensemble. Ms Wight also performs with Future In Reverse (FIRE) and the Red Light Ensemble, and has appeared with the both Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and in the New York Art Ensemble's performance series. Ms. Wight, a committed teaching artist and proponent of outreach education, is also a member of the Toomai Quintet, 2007 winners of the Music Unlocked! Competition at the 92nd Street Y.

Chris Gross, cello

Following Christopher Gross' performance of Brian Ferneyhough's Time and Motion Study II for solo cello at the Lincoln Center Festival, the New York Times wrote: "...for 20 minutes this skinny young cellist with a punkish hair cut seemed like a musical master of the universe..." He is a founding member of The iO Quartet, currently the Billy Joel Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence at SUNY Purchase. As a soloist, he most recently premiered Milton Babbitt's piece More Melismata for solo cello on the 2006 Focus! Festival. As an active educator, he is on the Teaching Artist faculty at The New York Philharmonic.

Anthony Cheung, piano and co-director

Anthony Cheung (b. 1982, San Francisco) is a doctoral composition student at Columbia University, where he has taught in the Core Curriculum and Music Department. He received his BA in Music and History from Harvard. His principal teachers have been Tristan Murail and Bernard Rands for composition and Robert Levin and Paul Hersh for piano. He is also active as a pianist of contemporary and standard repertoire as well as jazz, and is a co-founder and pianist of the Talea Ensemble in New York. He has received fellowships to attend the Tanglewood, Aspen, Acanthes, and Fontainebleau festivals. Ensembles that have played his music in performances or readings include the Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Orchestre National de Lorraine and Ensemble InterContemporain (at Acanthes), eighth blackbird, Dinosaur Annex, the Marin and Berkeley symphonies, and the New York and San Francisco youth orchestras. Recent projects have included a sax/harp duo, a solo harpsichord piece, and a new ensemble work for the Paris Conservatory. Honors include first prize and public prize in the 6th International Dutilleux Competition, the Charles Ives Fellowship and Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and several ASCAP Morton Gould awards. His musical interests include aesthetics (particularly related to ideas of notation), jazz improvisation and transcription, timbral/microtonal harmony and tuning systems, rhythmic polyphony, and temporal perception. An interest in poetic imagery and syntax, the mystery and beauty of natural phenomena, and the visual arts also contribute to many facets of his music.

Alex Lipowski, percussion and co-director

An advocate of contemporary music, Alex Lipowski has performed in ensembles such as the Second Instrumental Unit, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Janus Trio, Argento Ensemble, and is the Performance Director of the East Coast Composers Ensemble (ECCE) and co-director of the TALEA Ensemble. He has been seen on concert stages throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Recently, he gave a recital in Sao Paulo, Brazil at the State University of Campinas featuring works by Globokar, Hurel, and Xenakis. As a soloist and chamber musician he has premiered works by Denisov, Malpica, Aylward, and Lunsqui. After performances at Harvard University, New Music Connoisseur labeled him, '...remarkably demonstrative and pleasing.' Other recent collaborations include working with the Columbia Composers Ensemble, Latin American composers group, altaVoz and premiering new works with dance at the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute. In 2007, he premiered a new work of choreography with dancers of the New York City ballet set to the music of Milton Babbitt. While on tour with ECCE, Lipowski presented guest lectures at the University of Virginia Commonwealth. In the past, Lipowski has served as the director of the Juilliard Pierrot Ensemble and Duo Maintenant with whom he commissioned works extensively for french horn and percussion. In 2006, he was featured with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble on NPR's Performance Today. During the summer of 2007 he toured with Pierre Boulez through Europe and then to Japan performing Boulez's work, sur Incises. During the same summer he served as Artist-Faculty at the Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea. He has recorded works by Alexandre Lunsqui with the Argento Ensemble and can be heard on the Living Artists Label with the TALEA Ensemble.

Vince Lee, conductor

Vince Lee began his studies in classical piano at the age of five, but his professional career began at age 9 as a singer and stage actor. At 13, he made his professional conducting debut with the Cincinnati Pops under the tutelage of Erich Kunzel, appearing as a guest artist seven times over six years. Upon receiving the Bruno Walter memorial scholarship in 2005, Mr. Lee began his studies with Maestro James DePreist at the Juilliard School. A vigorous supporter of musical collaboration, Mr. Lee has conducted for the Juilliard Dance and Composition departments, as well as for the acclaimed "Beyond the Machine" series through the music technology department. He has also served as assistant to the Axiom Ensemble and directed the Symphony Singers program of the New York Youth Symphony. Mr. Lee was recently appointed Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.