Biographies

Alison Lowell, Co-Artistic Director
Oboe/English Horn
Alison is an active musician based in Los Angeles. She has performed with groups such as the Lucerne Festival Academy under the direction of Pierre Boulez, the Ensemble Modern Festival Akademie, the Sarasota Chamber Music Festival,the Monday Evening Concert Series and as a guest principal oboist with the Santa Barbara Symphony. Alison also serves as an oboist with the Midnight Winds and frequently performs as a baroque oboist with period instrument ensembles around the country. She holds performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California and has studied with Robert Morgan, Richard Killmer, Allan Vogel and David Weiss. She is the recent recipient of an "Investing in Artists" grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation.

 

David Plylar, Co-Artistic Director
Piano/Composer-in-residence
David is an accomplished composer, scholar and pianist. He has collaborated with many ensembles in the United States and in Mexico, including as president of Ossia, a new music group based in Rochester, NY. His award-winning compositions range from solo piecs to large orchestral works and independent film scores. He holds degrees from Duke, the University of Louisville, and the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his PhD. Some recent awards and scholarships include a Raymond N. Ball Dissertation Year Fellowship (Eastman), the Belle S. Gitelman Composition Award, a Hanson Institute for American Music Commission, the Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize, a Composer’s Assistant Program grant from the American Music Center, participation in the Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and the Grawemeyer Fellowship (University of Louisville).

 

Sloan Hoffmann - Tour I 2009-10
Horn
Sloan Hoffmann is a musician, visual artist and writer who works from her studio in Venice Beach, California.  She has a degree in English literature from Tufts University and music degrees from the University of Denver, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California. In the musical world, Sloan has found her niche as a collaborative artist, working with musicians, artists, composers and creative thinkers through out the United States and Canada.

 

 

 

Melanie Sehman - Tour II 2010, Collaboration with Proper Glue Duo and Guests
Percussion
Melanie T. Sehman is a percussionist specializing in contemporary chamber music. She enjoys working in partnership with other musicians and composers, active in the creation of new works. Ms. Sehman has appeared as a performer and clinician at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, published articles in Percussive Notes magazine, and recorded on the Summit and Equilibrium labels. In 2002, she began playing and studying the mbira dza vadzimu. Ms. Sehman received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree and was awarded the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with John H. Beck. She has also studied with J.B. Smith and Andrew Spencer. Currently she is Assistant Professor at the City University of New York Queensborough Community College, where she teaches percussion, music theory and world music.  


Steve Sehman - Tour II 2010, Collaboration with Proper Glue Duo and Guests
Percussion
 Percussionist Steven Sehman performs as one-half of the percussion group Proper Glue Duo. The New York City based duo has performed concerts throughout North America. Mr. Sehman has also served on the board of directors and has performed frequently with the new music ensemble OSSIA, participating in numerous premieres. As a member of various ensembles, he has collaborated with composers Steve Reich, Harrison Birtwistle and Bernard Rands and U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. He has recorded on the New World, Equilibrium, Summit and d’Note Classics labels. Mr. Sehman received degrees from Arizona State University and the Eastman School of Music. He resides in Brooklyn, New York.


Paul Coleman - Tour II 2010, Collaboration with Proper Glue Duo and Guests
Composer
Paul Coleman is an active composer, teacher, and engineer residing in Rochester, NY. His music has been performed in the United States, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, and Brazil, and ranges from solo works with computer-generated sounds to works for large orchestra. Paul is pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he has received a Ralph Jackno scholarship and two Belle Gitelman awards in composition. He has served as Acting Administrative Director of the Eastman Computer Music Center and was on the board of directors of the Ossia New Music Ensemble. Paul received his Masters of Music degree from the University of Northern Colorado, where he taught music theory and co-produced and directed the Colorado Contemporary Music Consort. Currently, Paul is the Sound Director and engineer for the new music ensemble, Signal, and is on faculty at SUNY Fredonia, teaching composition, theory, and computer music. Paul will again serve as Acting Director of the Eastman Computer Music Center during the spring semester of 2010. 
www.paulcolemanmusic.com


Jamie Jordan - Tour II 2010, Collaboration with Proper Glue Duo and Guests
Soprano
Jamie Jordan is a versatile musician from Downers Grove, Illinois. She has earned degrees in Jazz Studies, Opera Performance, and Music Education. Miss Jordan has performed and taught throughout the midwest, Arizona, New York and Washington State. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center, Brooklyn Museum (for the Brooklyn Philharmonic's chamber music series), Miller Theater at Columbia University, The Harvard Club, The Liederkranz Foundation, and the Connecticut Early Music Festival. Additionally, she has sung on pre-concert lectures for the New York Philharmonic and was a teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic before relocating to Rochester, New York in 2007. She is an active performer with ensembles Musica Nova, Ossia, and the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble. During the 2009-10 season, Jamie premieres works by five composers and sings works by Crumb, Druckman, Ligeti, Reich, and Schoenberg.

David Leung - Tour II 2010, Collaboration with Proper Glue Duo and Guests
Violin
Dr. Chun-Chim (David) Leung is active in all aspects of performance as violin soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, concertmaster and orchestral conductor. He is currently the Music Director of the UB Symphony Orchestra and an adjunct Instructor of Violin at the University at Buffalo. He is also an adjunct Professor of violin at the Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York. He made his recital debut at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in April 2009 and his upcoming solo engagements include concerts in Michigan, Alabama, Colombia, Malaysia and Hong Kong. A native of Hong Kong, David Leung holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Violin Performance and Orchestral Conducting from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he studied with Mikhail Kopelman and Neil Varon respectively. He also holds a Master's Degree and the prestigious Performer's Certificate in Violin Performance from Eastman. Dr. Leung is the guest concertmaster of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and he is the founder of the Helios String Quartet, Felix Piano Trio and the Phoenix Trio. He also performs regularly with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Slee Sinfonietta, Skaneateles Festival Orchestra and Cayuga Chamber Orchestra. David Leung has become the associate conductor of the Brighton Symphony Orchestra since 2004 and he also guest-conducts the Auburn Chamber Orchestra and New Horizon Orchestra in Rochester.

Zuzanna A. Szewczyk - Tour II 2010, Collaboration with Proper Glue Duo and Guests
Piano
Zuzanna A. Szewczyk holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Piano Performance and an Arts Leadership Diploma from the Eastman School of Music. She is currently in her final year towards a Doctorate in Piano Performance from Eastman. She has studied at Eastman with Natalya Antonova and premiered numerous new works by composers there. She is a recipient of the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship and is the director of and full-time instructor at Z Piano Studio in Rochester, NY. 

Justin Hoke - Tour II 2010, Collaboration with Proper Glue Duo and Guests
Celeste
Justin Hoke is currently pursuing a B.M. degree from the Eastman School of Music. His piece, Che si sgretola, received a BMI Student Composer Award in May of 2008. In the same year, he also received both the Bernard Rogers Memorial Prize and a third place prize in the Young Composer’s Competition at Austin Peay State University.  Justin participated in the 2nd Warren Benson Forum on Creativity, an initiative in which renowned artists collaborate with several student composers; in April 2009, Justin presented a piece based on the poetry of guest Lia Purpura and worked with acclaimed, new-music soprano, Tony Arnold in the preceding months. Two of Justin’s pieces were commissioned and performed by the Ossia New Music Ensemble. He was a finalist in the ASCAP Awards 2009 for Melencolia I. He will be continuing his studies at Harvard University upon graduating from Eastman and is also an active pianist, frequently performing in chamber and new music ensembles.