Musicians

The
Core
Ensemble

Juventas New Music Ensemble

Lidiya Yankovskaya, Music Director
Avlana Eisenberg, Associate Conductor
Matt Sharrock, Assistant Conductor
Zach Jay, Flute
Marguerite Levin, Clarinet
Brian Calhoon, Percussion
Julia Scott Carey, Piano
Yohanan Chendler, Violin
Emily Deans, Viola
Rachel Arnold, Cello

Lidiya Yankovskaya, Music Director

In addition to her work as Music Director of Juventas New Music Ensemble, Lidiya Yankovskaya serves as conductor with Boston Opera Collaborative (BOC), pianist and conductor with Opera Boston, and assistant conductor for the Zamir Chorale of Boston. This season’s projects include serving as Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master for Opera Boston’s production of Hindemith’s Cardillac and as Music Director for Bernstein's Candide at Harvard University's Lowell House Opera. Other projects this season include collaborations with Stage Director Roxanna Myhrum on productions of Dvořak’s Rusalka (Diva Day Foundation) and Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen (Boston Opera Collaborative). Yankovskaya received her B.A. in Music, Phi Beta Kappa with Departmental Honors, focusing on piano, voice and conducting from Vassar College. While at Vassar, she also actively studied philosophy and languages. Upon graduation, Yankovskaya received the Francis Walker Prize as the top pianist in her graduating class. In 2010, Yankovskaya graduated with an M.M. in Conducting, Pi Kappa Lambda, from Boston University. In addition to her work as a conductor, Yankovskaya is active as a pianist, singer and vocal coach. She accompanies regularly for Opera Boston and sings with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. www.LidiyaYankovskaya.com.

"Ms. Yankovskaya and [the Juventas New Music Ensemble] kept it humming with
intensity, spirit and perfect coordination."

~Vance Koven, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Avlana Eisenberg, Associate Conductor

Avlana Eisenberg comes to Boston after serving as Music Director of the University of Michigan Gilbert & Sullivan Society, where she conducted full productions of The Mikado, Gondoliers, and Patience. Avlana has also conducted performances of Britten’s The Turn of The Screw (Peabody Opera Department), Sondheim’s Into the Woods (Moores Opera Center), and Herbert’s Orange Blossoms (Comic Opera Guild). As Music Director of Blue Line Arts, she conducted The Scarlet Letter, a world premiere musical, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Avlana is also active as a guest conductor, most recently performing with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra and recording a debut CD with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. She has conducted the San Diego Ballet Orchestra and musicians of the Columbus Symphony and has also performed with such orchestras as the Stanford Symphony, the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, and the New Symphony Orchestra of Sofia, Bulgaria. Avlana has served as Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Opera, the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, and the U-M Life Sciences Orchestra, and as cover conductor for the Baltimore Symphony and the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra.

A Fulbright Fellow and winner of Glamour Magazine’s Top Ten College Women, Avlana began conducting while an undergraduate at Yale University, where she founded and directed the Silliman Symphony, a 60-member chamber orchestra, and was awarded Yale's V. Browne Irish Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts. Avlana holds a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Michigan, a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Institute, and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. She currently serves on the teaching faculty of Harvard Law School as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law.

Matt Sharrock, Assistant Conductor

Matt Sharrock is a versatile marimbist and percussionist. As a soloist, chamber musician, and section percussionist, he has performed with a variety of notable ensembles including Juventas New Music Ensemble, the Boston Opera Collaborative, Lowell House Opera, and the Video Game Orchestra. In addition, Sharrock currently performs in duos with clarinetist Amy Advocat and percussionist Karlyn Mason, and he is a founding member of Boston Percussion Group (BPeG) and Front Street Percussion Quartet. A passionate educator, Sharrock is currently a teaching artist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he presents master classes and educational concerts with BPeG and Front Street. Also interested in adult music education, Sharrock was the percussion instructor for the Baldwin-Wallace College New Horizons Band Program, teaching group lessons, coaching rehearsals, and organizing, programming and conducting a percussion ensemble of students over the age of 50.

Sharrock was a founding member and acted for two years as music director and principal conductor of l(a contemporary music ensemble, a new music group in residence at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, OH. Currently, Sharrock is an organizer and performer for Equilibrium Concert Series and serves as principal conductor for The Fifth Floor Collective, a consortium of Boston-area composers.

Sharrock holds an M.M. in Marimba Performance from The Boston Conservatory and a B.M. in Music Performance (Percussion) from Baldwin-Wallace College. His primary teachers include Nancy Zeltsman and Jack Van Geem (marimba); Keith Aleo, Josh Ryan, and Sam Solomon (percussion); John Grimes (timpani), Sharan Leventhal (chamber music), and Dwight Oltman (conducting). (www.mattsharrock.com)

Zach Jay, Flute

Flutist Zach Jay earned his B.M. in Flute Performance from Boston University's College of Fine Arts studying with Doriot A. Dwyer and Renee Krimsier.

Mr. Jay's career has allowed him to share his passion for creating music with audiences of all ages and backgrounds. As an orchestral musician, he has had the pleasure of working under some of the most esteemed conductors of his generation, including Andrew Litton, Craig Jessop, and Federico Cortese. His solos have been heard in some of the finest halls in the world, including New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, and Seiji Ozawa Hall in Lenox, MA. Mr. Jay has performed as principal flutist of the Boston University Symphony Orchestra, Boston University Opera Orchestra, Boston's Cantata Singers, and the New York Youth Symphony.

Equally at home as a soloist and chamber musician, Zach has performed in collaboration with other passionate musicians at venues such as Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, the Harvard Club of New York, among others in America. Also a passionate pedagogue, Mr. Jay served on the faculty of the 2008 Boston University Tanglewood Institute Flute Workshop as a Teaching Assistant to the eminent Doriot A. Dwyer. He continues to devote time to his studio as a private teacher and mentor in the Boston and New York areas.

Mr. Jay has performed in masterclasses for distinguished musicians such as Jim Walker, Elizabeth Rowe, Carol Wincenc, Jill Felber, and Claude Frank. He has also had the good fortune to work with many wonderful and esteemed coaches such as Martin Pearlman, Peter Sykes, and members of the Muir String Quartet.

Zach currently resides in Boston where he is a student of Geralyn Coticone. He is working on a number of projects in the Greater Boston and New York Metropolitan areas.

Maguerite Levin, Clarinet

Marguerite Levin is a recent addition to the musical landscape in the Boston area and is thrilled about this season of performances with Juventas New Music Ensemble! In the Washington, D.C./Baltimore region, Levin was a sought-after musician and teacher and performed with the finest orchestras and small ensembles including the Wolf Trap Opera Orchestra, Maryland Symphony, Post Classical Ensemble, the United States Navy Band, Quintigre and the Atlantic Winds wind quintets. She was Principal Clarinet of the Baltimore Opera Orchestra from 1999 until 2009 where she played under some of music’s most noted conductors and singers. More recently, she served as Principal Clarinet of Wolf Trap’s Premiere Opera Production and Recording of John Musto’s Volpone, a 2010 Best Opera Grammy Nominee.

Levin earned her B.M. in Music Education from the University of North Texas, her M.M. from Catholic University of American and her D.M.A. from the University of Maryland/College Park. She was a Lecturer of Music at Howard University in Washington, D.C. for 7 years and from 2002-2011, she was the Professor of Clarinet at Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Other upcoming 2011-2012 engagements include performances with the South Florida Symphony, Symphonic Voyages Orchestra, Metropolitan Wind Symphony, and an October 2011 recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. At Weill Recital Hall, she will be performing with her group, Trio Montage, an ensemble dedicated to establishing a repertoire for the not-often heard, but beautiful instrumental and voice combination of Clarinet, Baritone, and Piano.
www.ClarinEssence.com

Brian Calhoon, Percussion

A San Francisco bay area native, Brian Calhoon enjoys combining percussion, marimba, and voice in creative ways. He is equally comfortable in a symphony hall, a theater pit, recording new works—even playing the marimba and singing simultaneously.

Brian has performed at Davies Symphony Hall and in recording studios throughout San Francisco and Boston. He has shared the stage with Jack Van Geem, Principal Percussionist with the San Francisco Symphony, and Nancy Zeltsman, a renowned marimbist. Brian also sang and played percussion in a concert with famed keyboardist, Lyle Mays (Pat Metheny Group). Composer Steve Reich praised Brian's performance in “Music for 18 Musicians” in concert at the 2009 Bang On A Can festival.

Recent appointments include principal timpanist with the Brookline Symphony Orchestra, and Core Member with the Juventas New Music Ensemble. Brian continues to adapt and commission new works for marimba/vibraphone/voice (for one player) and has plans soon to record an album of his unique repertoire.

Brian remains involved with arts administration at the Boston Conservatory and Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc. He holds degrees from Boston Conservatory and San Francisco Conservatory. Brian currently lives, works, and plays in Boston, MA. www.BrianCalhoon.com

Julia Scott Carey, Piano

A recent graduate of the Harvard-New England Conservatory joint degree program, in which she studied composition with Michael Gandolfi, Julia Scott Carey is now a collaborative piano student at Boston University. As a composer, her orchestral compositions have been performed by numerous orchestras, including the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops, and her works have been broadcast on national TV and radio in the United States and in Russia. She was also chosen to arrange a folk song for Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Chang to play at Deval Patrick's inaugural ball.

She has served as a music director, accompanist, or vocal coach for over forty opera and musical theater productions. Recent productions for which Julia was the music director include Cy Coleman's City of Angels with the Longwood Players and Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg with OperaHub. Julia works as an accompanist for the Boston Children's Chorus and has served as a teacher and music director for the Belvoir Terrace Arts Camp and the Boston Children's Theatre. Next year, she will become a music theory faculty member at Boston College. www.JuliaScottCarey.com

Yohanan Chendler, Violin

Yohanan Chendler is a diverse artist who divides his time between writing, performing and teaching music. His chamber, solo and vocal works have been performed festivals and venues around in Israel, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Japan and the US. Born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel, he received his Bachelor degree in music theory and composition from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance where he studied with Mark Kopytman. He also studied composition with George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music Festival and with Azio Corghi in the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

As a freelance violinist, Chendler is an avid new music player, and in recent years premiered dozens of chamber and solo works in the Boston area, and several composers have written works especially for him. One of his recent projects include recording chamber and solo music by composer Martin Boykan. Chendler has played in several festivals in Europe including the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, the International Youth Orchestra and others. He has received scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation for violin performance, composition and chamber music.

Chendler is a PhD candidate in composition at Brandeis University. His teachers there included David Rakowski, Eric Chasalow and Martin Boykan, as well as violinist Dan Stepner. Chendler has taught music at Brandeis University, at the Conservatory Lab Charter School and he is currently an adjunct professor at Clark University. His works have been published by Berben Musical Editions and Lucian Badian Edition.

Drew Riccardi, Viola

Drew Ricciardi has participated in various festivals, including the Britten-Pears Orchestra and Contemporary Composition and Performance Workshop of Aldeburgh, England, directed by Oliver Knussen, the Emerging Quartets Program, taught and founded by the Muir Quartet, and the Banff Festival Orchestra, as principal viola under the Berliner Symphoniker's chief conductor, Lior Shambadal. His world premiers include a gala performance of Marcel Tyberg’s Sextet for Strings, hosted by the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies, honoring Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, JoAnn Falletta, and Pressure, a work by Leah Reid for solo viola and electro-acoustics, performed at McGill University's Pollack Hall for their 2008 conference in electro-acoustic composition. As a chamber musician, Drew Ricciardi was violist of the Winsor Music Quartet with oboist, Peggy Pearson, and has collaborated with artists including the artistic director of Boston Chamber Music Society, Marcus Thompson, and the Portland String Quartet. As an educator, he has held the position of violin/viola faculty for New England Conservatory's Festival Youth Orchestra and the Common Time Chamber Music Workshop of Lexington, Massachusetts. Currently, he resides in Boston and studies regularly with Mela Tenenbaum in New York City.

Rachel Arnold, Cello

Cellist Rachel Arnold, a Los Angeles native, is an active chamber musician and teacher living in the Boston area. She has performed in numerous chamber music festivals including Zephyr (Italy), Bowdoin, and the Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice at the New England Conservatory. Rachel is a core member of Juventas, the ensemble in residence at the Boston Conservatory. She collaborates frequently with flutist Ashley Addington, and they perform contemporary music and premiere commissioned works for flute and cello. Rachel can also be seen performing with local rock bands Guillermo Sexo, Mascara, and Ryan Lee Crosby. She has been a member of the Los Angeles-based Partch Ensemble, in which she played the microtonal music of Harry Partch on an adapted viola and a kithara (a 72-stringed harp-like instrument). Rachel is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and the Longy School of Music where she earned her Master of Music degree. Her principal teachers are Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick and Terry King. Rachel can be heard on the pfMentum, Cold Blue, 7Tangram Records, Afrasia, and Innova record labels. A multi-talented artist, Rachel also teaches yoga and is a passionate crafter who sells her creations on her website. www.LadyRayCello.com

2011-2012 Guest Artists

David Balandrin, French horn

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