Administration

Erin Huelskamp, executive director

Erin Huelskamp, co-founder and executive director of Juventas, completed a Masters of Music in Composition from the Boston Conservatory, where she studied with Andy Vores and Dana Brayton. She earned a Bachelors of Music in both composition and flute performance from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she studied composition with Thomas McKenney and Stefan Freund and flute with Steven Geibel. In 2006, she acquired a paralegal certificate from the Boston University.

Compositionally, she received the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize for The Elements, a piece for flute, violin, and violoncello, and special recognition from the New York Youth Symphony First Music 23 for Contravention for chamber orchestra. In addition, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer for a cappella choir has been selected for performance by the Society of Composers, Inc. Region VI Conference in 2007 and the European American Musical Alliance in 2006. In 2004, she was awarded third place at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Student Composition Competition for Trials of Tubilation for tuba ensemble.

Ms. Huelskamp has had the privilege of performances both nationally and internationally, including such venues as L'Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, France, the Interlochen Acadamy of the Arts in Michigan, Bard University in New York, the University of Missouri-Columbia, Harvard University, and many more. Currently, she resides in Boston, Massachusetts.

Michael Sakir, music director

Twenty-three-year-old conductor Michael Sakir is becoming increasingly recognized as an exciting and versatile musician. He has conducted opera and musical theater productions with the Boston Center for the Arts, Boston Conservatory Opera Studio, Boston College High School, French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, and most recently, conducted the Boston Opera Collaborative's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

A passionate advocate for new music, Michael was recently appointed Music Director of the Juventas New Music Ensemble, a Boston-based ensemble dedicated to performing works by composers under 35, after having served as the group's Associate Conductor since June 2007. Previous positions include Founder and Music Director of the Gotham Contemporary Ensemble, Apprentice Conductor of the New York Youth Symphony and Assistant Conductor of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra.

In the summers of 2004 and 2005, Michael studied at the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors in Hancock, Maine. He has also participated in workshops with such distinguished conductors as Larry Rachleff, Otto-Werner Mueller, and Victor Yampolsky.

Equally active as a collaborative pianist, Michael serves as a vocal coach and accompanist for The Boston Conservatory Opera and Vocal Departments. He has also worked extensively with the Boston Opera Collaborative and the Performing Arts Center of Metrowest.

A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Michael received Bachelor of Music degrees in Piano Performance and Music History in June 2006. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting at The Boston Conservatory under the tutelage of Maestro Bruce Hangen. Michael is a native of Northern California.

Scott J. Ordway, associate conductor

Scott J. Ordway is a composer and new music conductor. He is the music director of the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, conductor of Portland's Filmusik Orchestra, and, most recently, Associate Conductor of the Juventas! New Music Ensemble in Boston.

His work has been featured at home and abroad by organizations such as the Estate Musicale Chigiana (Siena, Italy), the Oregon Bach Festival, Radio Classica Rome & Milan, the Oregon Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra (Portland), the Tobenski-Algera Concert Series (NYC), the Oregon Composer's Forum, the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Emerald Chamber Music Society, the Eugene Composer's Collective, the University of Puget Sound New Music Society, and others.

His First Symphony was awarded the 2008 John Kenneth Cole Composition Prize and David Russell, principal cellist of Opera Boston, recently performed his solo cello work, Butterscotch, Hopscotch, & Scotch, in New York City. His Piano Trio No. 2, "We Were Lost, But There Was Laughter There" was featured at the Festival Chigiana in Tuscany last summer, and his Second Symphony, "Crime in the House of Names" will be premiered in November 2008 in Eugene. Recent commissions include new works for soprano Melissa Fogarty (NY City Opera) and NYC's Percussia Ensemble, an amplified sextet for Classical Revolution PDX, and a new work for chamber orchestra to accompany screenings of vintage films for the Portland Filmusik Project. He is the recipient of grants and awards from the American Composer's Forum, the American Music Center, the Oregon Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, the University of Puget Sound, and the University of Oregon.

A distinguished alumnus of the University of Puget Sound (with degrees in both Music & English Literature), Scott now resides in Eugene, where he is a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Composition and Ruth Lorraine Close Music Fellow at the University of Oregon.

Paul Aaron Bohn, information technology director

Co-founder Paul Aaron Bohn is the information technology director of Juventas. The son of Deborah and Daniel Bohn, he is a native of Saint Louis, Missouri. During the day he is Produciton Engineer at the Boston University Electronics Design Facility where he builds sweet gadgets for research scientists. At night, Paul holds the official title of Juventas Tech Geek! He received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Northeastern University.

Paul enjoys web-development, computer programming, audio recording, and of course, music. He constantly strives to identify innovative ways for technology to aid Juventas. In addition, his engineering interests include analog and digital circuit design, computer hardware/architecture, and solid-state circuits, devices, and materials.

Paul studied the violin at University of Missouri St. Louis with John McGrosso, Rebecca Rhee, and viola with Professor Sheila Brown, all members of the Arianna String Quartet. He worked at Bearden Violin Shop where he trained with Gregory and Gene Bearden for over four years on string-instrument restoration.

Kenny Smith, development director

Kenny is currently the Donor Acknowledgement and Gift Processing Coordinator at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His previous fundraising experience includes an internship with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. He graduated from Boston University and the New England Conservatory with degrees in trumpet performance; his teachers include Peter Chapman, Steve Emery, and Joe Foley. Kenny has performed at Symphony Hall, the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, Carnegie Hall, and other venues in the greater Boston and New York areas.

Daniel Koppel, chief financial officer

Daniel Koppel is the Chief Financial Officer for Juventas! New Music Ensemble. To this position he brings a unique combination of experience in both artistic and financial pursuits. Daniel studied piano performance, musicology, and music theory at Middlebury College with Cynthia Huard, Stacy Moore, Su Lian Tan, and Evan Bennett. He remains an active performer in his position as Music Director and Organist at the United Church of Christ in Abington, Massachusetts. After studying in the Financial Planning Certificate program at Boston University, Daniel began working in the financial services field in September of 2007. He holds a position with a Boston area planning firm and is developing his own personal practice as well. Daniel is very excited for the opportunity to blend two of his greatest interests through his new role with Juventas.

Heather Lee Ash, secretary and stage manager

Heather L. Ash, soprano, is currently a graduate student at New England Conservatory of Music. Before moving to Boston, she completed two separate undergraduate degrees - a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from Stephens College in Columbia, MO and a B.A. in Music from TheUniversity of Missouri-Columbia. While in Missouri, Heather won first places in the Tri-State MMTA and Missouri NATS. She sang with the Civic Light Opera of Columbia and was also a soloist with the Columbia Civic Orchestra, conducted by Kirk Trevor where she sang Anina in a concert version of La Traviata and the soprano soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass in C. Roles at the university include Mrs. Jenks in Copland's The Tenderland, Anna Gomez in Menotti's The Consul, and Otter Woman in the University commissioned world premier music drama, Michael Chang's Corps of Discovery. In her first year at New England Conservatory she has performed scenes from Die Zauberflote, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, and Don Pasquale. She has also had the opportunity to premier the new works of many composers. She studies voice with Bill Cotten.

Throughout her life in theatre, going back to age of 14, Heather has worked with the technical aspects as well as performing. While at Stephens College, she assistant stage-managed Little Women (the play), Company, and a professional production of Hello Dolly!. She also stage managed 1940's Radio Hour, The Crucible, and The Dining Room. While still a vocal student at the University of Missouri, she spent one summer as a lighting technician for Opera Theatre St. Louis. Though primarily a singer, she welcomes this opportunity to stretch her technical legs and help Juventas.

Tiven Weinstock, podcast producer

Tiven Weinstock serves as podcast producer of Juventas. He took up the trombone in his teens, but quickly found his musical niche as a composer. One of his earliest compositions, Mosaic, was performed by the 50-piece UC Santa Cruz Wind Ensemble. He now composes for the podcast audio drama Second Shift, which was nominated for two Parsec Awards in 2007.

Tiven majored in music, with an emphasis in composition, at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he studied with David Cope, David Jones, Hi Kyung Kim, and Paul Nauert. While a student, he won the Ernest T. Kretschmer Prize for his composition Nigun for the Victims of Terror, which expresses Tiven's feelings following 9/11. After graduating with honors, he interned in Los Angeles with film composers John Swihart (Napoleon Dynamite) and Greg Conway. In 2006, Tiven attended the European American Music Alliance in Paris, where he studied with Claude Baker and Philip Lasser. Tiven scored the film Quiche Lorraine, which took third place at the Salem Horror Festival in 2004.

Listen to some of Tiven's music on his website http://www.tivenweinstock.com

Carson Cooman, Opera Project co-producer

Carson Cooman is an American composer with a catalogue encompassing over six hundred musical works in many forms -- ranging from solo instrumental pieces to operas, and from orchestral works to hymn tunes. Cooman's primary composition studies have been with Bernard Rands, Judith Weir, Alan Fletcher and James Willey and he holds degrees from Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University. As an active concert organist, Cooman specializes exclusively in the performance of new music. Over 120 new works have been composed for him by composers from around the world, and his performances of the contemporary composers can be heard on a number of CD recordings. Cooman is also a writer on musical subjects, producing articles and reviews frequently for a number of international publications. He is currently the editor of Living Music Journal and has edited musical works of other composers for numerous music publishers. For more information about Cooman's music, visit his website at: http://www.carsoncooman.com

Julia Scott Carey, Opera Project co-producer

Julia Carey is a junior at Harvard and a student in the Harvard-New England Conservatory joint degree program, for which she studies composition with Lee Hyla. She has won numerous awards, including nine consecutive recognitions in the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers' Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Her orchestra pieces have received nearly seventy performances by twenty-four different orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She is the youngest composer ever published by the Theodore Presser Company. Recently, she served as the Principal Guest Composer for the Etowah Youth Symphony Orchestra, for which she wrote a piano concerto. At Harvard, Julia sings in the Harvard University Choir and the Radcliffe Choral Society, plays in the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and the Mather House Chamber Music program, is the co-president of the Harvard Radcliffe Contemporary Music Society, and serves on the board of the Harvard Early Music Society, the Dunster House Opera Society, the Harvard Piano Society.

Mark David Buckles, music director emeritus

Mark David Buckles is the co-founder and Music Director of Juventas. He received his Masters of Music in Conducting at Boston University, studying with Ann Howard Jones, Bruce Hangen and Theodore Antoniou. He is currently the Acting Music Director at Arlington Street Church in downtown Boston.

A native of Beverly Hills, Michigan, Mark received his Bachelors of Music in Composition from the University of Michigan, where he studied composition with Evan Chambers, William Bolcom, Karen Tanaka, Erik Santos and Susan Botti; and conducting with Jerry Blackstone, Theodore Morrison, and Sandra Snow. He also studied voice, piano, and carillon. Mark has received commissions from the University of Michigan Women's Glee Club, the University of Michigan Honors Convocation, Miller College, and Dixboro United Methodist Church, and his works have been performed and recorded by the University of Michigan Chamber Choir, the Boston Choral Ensemble and the Saint Petersburg String Quartet.

Mark is a 2006 graduate of the Conductors' Institute at Bard College, where he studied with Harold Farberman, Apo Hsu, Raymond Harvey, Leon Botstein, Sidney Rothstein, Guillermo Figueroa, and Marin Alsop. In 2003 and 2005, Mark participated in the European American Music Alliance through the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Claude Baker, Philip Lasser, Nacis Bonet, and Mark Shapiro, and received honors for his studies in counterpoint and harmony.

Christopher James Lees, guest conductor

Christopher Lees is the Associate Conductor of the Akron Symphony Orchestra and the Music Director for the Akron Youth Symphony, appointed in 2007 by Music Director Christopher Wilkins.

In 2006, he was only the second American conductor chosen for the Zander Fellowship with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, where he assisted and traveled with Music Director Benjamin Zander. A dedicated advocate of contemporary American music, he has premiered numerous new works, and served for a season as Associate Music Director for the Boston-based Juventas New Music Ensemble.

In 2007, Christopher was awarded a Conducting Fellowship at the Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordao in Brazil. Last year, Christopher was a finalist in the American Conducting Fellows Program, sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Baltimore Symphony Conducting Fellowship Program, and the London Philharmonic's International Young Conductors Academy. In 2003, Christopher was awarded first prize in the National Undergraduate Conducting Competition in New York City sponsored by the ACDA.

While attending the University of Michigan, Christopher received degrees in Performance and Music Education (BM), and studied Orchestral Conducting (MM) with Kenneth Kiesler. He was the Music Director of the University of Michigan Pops Orchestra for four consecutive seasons and founded Philharmonia 125, an orchestra whose programs of American music celebrated the 125th Anniversary of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance. Christopher has participated in numerous conducting workshops, led by Lorin Maazel, Gustav Meier, Jorma Panula, Larry Rachleff and Roberto Minczuk, among others.