Musicians

Interested in playing or singing with Juventas? We are always looking for new musicians! Please contact our music director Michael Sakir regarding auditions and performance opportunities.

Emily Culler, soprano, recently received a Master of Music degree from Boston University. Before arriving in Boston, she completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, and a 2-term course of study at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England. While in Birmingham, Emily performed as both a soloist and chorister with Alabama Operaworks, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Samford University's Opera Workshop, and the Samford A Cappella Choir. She served as soprano section leader at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, and Southside Baptist Church. In Boston, Ms. Culler has appeared as a soloist with Boston University's opera program, Chamber Chorus, and Marsh Chapel Choir & Collegium under the direction and batons of Ann Howard Jones, David Hoose, Sharon Daniels, and Scott Allen Jarrett. She is also a founding member of Quatro Angeli, a quartet of Boston-based musicians specializing in Baroque trios and duets.

Emily is Outreach & Alumni Development Officer for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, a world-renowned summer music program for gifted musicians of high school age.

Flutist Laura Heinrichs has been a memeber of Juventas since January 2007. A native of Philadelphia, PA, she currently resides in Boston, MA and attends New England Conservatory where she will graduate with her Masters in Flute Performance in May 2008 under the tutelage of Fenwick Smith. An advocate of new music, Laura is always recruiting composers to write for flute. In Spring 2007, she performed a newly comissioned piece for flute, bass clarinet and bassoon by NEC recent graduate Dan VanHassel in Jordan Hall. Laura received her B.M. from Rutgers University where she studied with Bart Feller. Other teachers include David DiGiacobbe, Tadue Coelho, and Robert Dick who is known to many flutists as the innovator of extended techniques on the instrument.

Gregory Grobe, oboe, is currently in his last year of work for a Bachelor of Music degree in oboe performance from the University of Missouri-Columbia. A native of Hillsboro, Missouri, Gregory is highly active in the music community of Columbia. Along with positions in both the Columbia Civic Orchestra and the Ninth Street Philharmonic, Gregory also holds the principal position in the University of Missouri-Columbia's Symphonic Wind Ensemble and is a member of the award wining FAB 5 Quintet. He has also performed with the University Philharmonic of UMC, and has participated in many chamber ensembles. Gregory Grobe is a student of Dan Willett.

Gabe Merton is an active freelancer in the Boston area. As an orchestral musician, he has performed with the Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston, the Newton Symphony Orchestra, and the Brahms Society Orchestra. He recently won 2nd prize in the 2007 Bay State Concerto Competition, winning a chance to solo on a Hingham Symphony Orchestra Chamber concert. He is also an active figure in Boston's contemporary music scene, having performed with Alea III and Juventas and premiered works by area composers Anthony Green and Ramon Castillo.

Gabe received dual degrees (a BS with honors in Mathematics and a BM in Clarinet Performance) at Indiana University where he studied with James Campbell. He went on to receive his MS in Pure Mathematics from UCLA where he was a recipient of the prestigious VIGRE Fellowship. He receieved his MM in Clarinet Performance at BU where he studied with Craig Nordstrom, bass clarinetist of the Boston Symphony.

Remaining active as a teacher, Gabe has taught English at Brookline Adult and Community Education, the Asian Student Center, and in Hunan, China. He has taught math through Upward Bound and has served as a mathematics and astronomy faculty member at the New England Institute of Art and the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. He taught clarinet in the Hopkinton school district. Gabe now works as a research analyst for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.

Clarinetist Kiera Thompson is currently performing and teaching in the Boston metropolitan area. At this time, Ms. Thompson is a member of several chamber groups throughout Boston, including her newly established Zinnia Ensemble, the Somerville based Serenata Chamber Musicians, and the Boston Clarinet Quartet. With these fine groups she has been successful with other Boston musicians on New Music outreach projects, along with season concert and recital tours. In addition, Ms. Thompson has also presented several solo recitals, as well as community outreach performances. As an orchestral player, Ms. Thompson was principal clarinet of the Civic Symphony of Boston from 2003 to 2006, and is now affiliated with several other orchestras in the Boston area including the Isabella Gardner Museum Chamber Orchestra. She has previously performed as a soloist with the American Youth Philharmonic and the DC Youth Chamber Orchestra in her native Washington DC. She has recently attended the International Comtemporary Music Academy in Graz, Austria, and the Buffet-Crampon Clarinet Academy. Her clarinet studies began at an early age with Michael Rusinek, while she later studied with Nancy Genovese, Marguerite Baker, and William Wrzesien. Ms. Thompson received her Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet performance in 2005 from the New England Conservatory of Music, and has since studied with William Wrzesien, Mark Nuccio, and Ernesto Molinari.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Ryan Yuré recently performed the Artie Shaw Clarinet Concerto with the Boston Pops Orchestra under John Williams. He is currently a clarinet performance masters student at New England Conservatory, having previously received his bachelors degree summa cum laude from Boston University in both clarinet and saxophone performance. Ryan was also previously an exchange student at the Royal College of Music in London. Ryan has appeared at the Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Santo Domingo Music Festival, Hampden-Sydney Music Festival, as well as several klezmer music festivals across North America and Europe. Mr. Yuré is currently the bass clarinetist with the Hingham Symphony Orchestra, and has also played with the National Orchestra of Santo Dominigo, Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston, Boston Repertory Orchestra, Pasadena Pops Orchestra, and Los Angeles Doctors Orchestra. Ryan was the winner of the 2006 Boston University Soloist Competition, and as a soloist he has performed the Artie Shaw, Mozart and Weber Concertos. Mr. Yuré has been honored with a Bank of America Achievement award in Fine Arts, a Semper Fidelis Award for Musical Excellence from the United States Marine Core, and a Woodwind Departmental Award from Boston University.

Nick Dinnerstein graduated from Mannes in 2006. Taking an active interest in contemporary music, Nick has been a guest solo artist at the Thailand International Composition Festival in Bangkok in the summers of 2005 and 2006. And last January, Nick was invited to Illinois State University to perform an unaccompanned cello piece written for him by David Feurzeig. Additionally, he has performed the "standard repertoire" in solo and chamber concerts throughout the East Coast and in Asia. While modern cello has been Nick's main focus, he also performs on baroque cello, playing in the small chamber group, Point D'Arret, based in New York. He currently studies modern cello privately with George Neikrug.

John Andress, percussion, was born in Houston, TX and currently lives in the Boston area. A devoted disciple of contemporary music, John performs with Longitude, the contemporary ensemble of the Longy School of Music, and Juventas New Music Ensemble. He is a founding member of both Fifth Tier New Music Ensemble and Marvin violin/percussion. John has performed regularly with Stephen Drury's Callithumpian Consort, SICCP, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Orchestra X in Houston. He has worked along side many noted composers, among them Lee Hyla, Lew Spratlan, Michael Finnissy, and John Luther Adams and has recorded for Elan, Albany, and Mode Records. John received degrees from Rice University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst studying with Richard Brown and Eduardo Leandro respectively.