2009
Festival
Season
2009
Concert Schedule
2009 Artists
2009 Artists
Tom Artin, trombone, has played throughout the U.S. and Europe with a number of world-renowned jazz groups, including the Smithsonian Jazz Repertory Ensemble and the Louis Armstrong Alumni All-Stars. He played lead trombone in Mel Tormé's big band and was also the house trombonist at Eddie Condon's jazz club in New York for nearly a decade. He currently leads his own sixteen-piece swing band, a traditional jazz band, and Standard Brass, an adventurous seven-piece jazz ensemble.
Laura Burns, violin, is a member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and their HeartStrings quartet, which brings live interactive music programs to adults and children with disabilities. She also performs with many local groups including the Oakwood Chamber Players and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. A dedicated teacher, Ms. Burns has taught middle and elementary school strings, and has been a faculty member of Summer Music Clinic (UW-Madison), Prelude Music Academy, and Music Makers, a program that offers violin instruction to economically disadvantaged children.
Bassist Ross Gilliland has played with the Madison Symphony, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and other area orchestras. He performs chamber music regularly with area ensembles Con Vivo, the Oakwood Chamber Players, the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, the Faculty Concert Series at the University of Wisconsin, the Madison Bach Musicians, and as a fellow at the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. He has toured extensively as the electric bassist of his ska band. A student of Richard Davis, Mr. Gilliland holds degrees in music and physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is currently studying Environmental Policy and Management at the University of Washington.
Composer John Harbison, pianist and artistic co-director of the Token Creek Festival, is one of the nation's most distinguished artistic figures. He is recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including the Pulitzer, MacArthur, and Heinz awards. Recent works include A Clear Midnight (Pro Arte Singers), Winter's Tale (BMOP, complete revised version), Symphony No. 5 (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Gatsby Suite (Aspen Festival Orchestra), Cortège (New England Conservatory), and Milosz Songs (New York Philharmonic with soprano Dawn Upshaw). His opera The Great Gatsby premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1999. Mr. Harbison is Institute Professor at MIT and President of the Copland Fund.
Rose Mary Harbison, violin, is artistic co-director of the Token Creek Festival. Recent performances include Bach's D minor Partita, Harbison's Crane Sightings, and Schoenberg's Phantasy. She has been guest artist with the Santa Fe, Aspen, Tanglewood, and Berlin Festivals. With Rudolph Kolisch she founded the Kolisch Ensemble, and she is a founding member of Emmanuel Music Boston. Ms. Harbison taught at Brandeis and MIT, and was a Scholar at the Radcliffe Institute and winner of an Ingram-Merrill Award. In March she presented, with physicist Jack Fry, “Solving the Stradivarius Secret” at the Boston Museum of Science, illuminating his groundbreaking research into the acoustical properties of the world's finest violins.
Eli Kalman, piano, has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in Romania, Israel, Germany, Hungary, the USA and Canada. Appearances include the Banff Music Festival, Emmanuel Music (Boston), the Connoisseur Series (Wichita), “Music in the Mountains” (Colorado), and the Token Creek Festival. Dr. Kalman currently serves as Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and is a piano faculty member of “Maestro,” a non-profit organization in Israel that provides a home base for accomplished Israeli musicians living abroad.
Parry Karp, 'cello, is Professor of Music, Artist-in-Residence, and director of the string chamber music program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1976 he became a member of the Pro Arte Quartet – the oldest string quartet in the world, about to celebrate their 100th anniversary – and with them has concertized throughout the world and recorded prolifically, most recently works of Sessions, Rhodes, Mays, Mendelssohn and Dvorak. As a solo artist he has recorded works of Bloch, Bridge, Britten, Clarke, Chausson, Fauré, Ireland, Magnard, Martinu, Pierné, Rachmaninoff, and Strauss, and several new albums are anticipated this year.
Robert Levin has performed on the modern Steinway with major orchestras throughout the world, and on period pianos with every important baroque and classical orchestra. A noted Mozart scholar, Mr. Levin is renowned for his improvised cadenzas in Classical period repertoire, and his completions of Mozart's Requiem, C-minor Mass and other unfinished works have been recorded and performed throughout the world. Also a passionate advocate of new music, Mr. Levin has commissioned and premiered a large number of works, and he has recorded extensively. He is Artistic Director of the Sarasota Music Festival, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Akademie für Mozartforschung, and President of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (Leipzig).
Karl Lavine is principal 'cellist with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and a member of the Milwaukee-based new music ensemble, Present Music. He is also a founding member of the Kepler Quartet, and 'cellist with the HeartStings Quartet, an innovative program of the Madison Symphony designed to address special-needs populations. As a chamber musician Mr. Lavine has performed with faculty members of Lawrence University, Beloit College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and with members of the Pro Arte Quartet.
Jennifer Clare Paulson, viola, recently earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in viola performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a minor in jazz studies. She is currently on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, teaching studio viola and violin, and she is a member of the Madison Symphony Orchestra. In addition to regional work in chamber music and orchestral settings, Ms. Paulson is also a member of several new music ensembles based in Chicago including PPK, Kyle Bruckman's WRACK and Guillermo Gregorio's Madi Ensemble.
Vocalist Annette Sanders has had a long and distinguished career in New York night clubs and as a much sought-after studio singer. In 1966 Benny Goodman chose her as featured vocalist for his prestigious Rainbow Grill engagement, and since then has been heard on literally thousands of jingles, movie soundtracks and CDs. During the late '80s Annette co-founded the jazz-tinged vocal quintet, Group Five. She also has four solo albums to her credit and has most recently released Let’s Get Lost.
John Schaffer, jazz bass, is Director of the School of Music and Professor of Music Theory at UW-Madison. For the last ten years he has been freelancing actively in the Madison area, and can be heard regularly with the Jim Erickson Trio, the Michael B.B. Quartet, and the Bill Evans Repertory Trio. He also makes frequent guest appearances with artists such as Jan Wheaton, Michelle DuVall, Doug Brown, Dave Stoler, Kurt Lang and the Madison Jazz Orchestra.
Pianist Russell Sherman has been acclaimed as a soloist with many major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Sherman is the first American to record both Beethoven's complete piano sonatas and the five piano concertos. He has presented recitals throughout the U.S., Europe, South America, and the former Soviet Union. Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory of Music , he is one of the great pianists of our age.
Todd Steward, drums, performs regularly in the Madison area with such groups as the Michael B.B. Quartet, the Madison Jazz Orchestra, CTM Theater Orchestra, Doc DeHaven's Jazz Band, Kelly DeHaven's Misbehavin' Band, Brad Pregeant's New Orleans Low-Down, the Ed Anders Quartet, Five-by-Design, The Dry Martinis, and folk singer Ken Lonnquist. He has also toured the world performing in ten cruise-ship orchestras.