David Fulmer: immaculate sigh of stars

David Fulmer

Winner of the 2019 Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, David Fulmer has garnered numerous international accolades for his bold compositional aesthetic combined with his thrilling performances. A Guggenheim Fellow, and a leader in his generation of composer-performers, the success of his Violin Concerto at Lincoln Center in 2010 earned international attention and resulted in immediate engagement to perform the work with major orchestras and at festivals in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, and Australia. Fulmer made his European debut performing and recording his concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Matthias Pintscher in 2011. That same year, Fulmer debuted at Tanglewood, appearing with the work. A surge of recent and upcoming commission include new works for the New York Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt, BMI Foundation, Concert Artists Guild, Washington Performing Arts, Kennedy Center, Fromm Music Foundation, Koussevitzky Foundation, and Tanglewood.

As conductor, Fulmer recently led the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Elision Ensemble, Sydney Modern Music Ensemble, along with appearances at the New York Philharmonic Biennial, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Lucerne Festival. Recent highlights include important debuts leading the Ensemble Intercontemporain, ASKO|Schönberg Ensemble, South Netherlands Philharmonic, and assisting concerts and projects with the New York Philharmonic. Fulmer made a triumphant return to the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra, which included a collaboration with IRCAM. This season he returns as Director, curator, and conductor of the Mannes American Contemporary Ensemble in programs of 20th and 21st Century music, and continues his close relationship with the International Contemporary Ensemble. Recently appointed as Music Director and Conductor of the Hunter Symphony Orchestra, Fulmer will lead programs including works of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Debussy, Schubert, Fauré, and Florence Price. He made his debut appearance in 2014 on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series at Walt Disney Concert Hall. During the summer seasons, Fulmer leads concerts at the Chamber Music Northwest Festival, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and has maintained a very close relationship with the Lucerne Festival and Tanglewood Music Festival.

Fulmer was recently the recipient of both the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Carlos Surinach Commissioning Prize from the BMI Foundation. He is the first and only American recipient of the Grand Prize of the International Edvard Grieg Competition for Composers. He has also received the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, the BMI Composer Award, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a special citation from the Minister of Education of Brazil, the Hannah Komanoff Scholarship in Composition from The Juilliard School, and the highly coveted George Whitefield Chadwick Gold Medal from the New England Conservatory. Fulmer appears regularly and records often with the premiere new music ensembles in New York, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Argento New Music Project, Speculum Musicae, The Group for Contemporary Music, and the New York New Music Ensemble. His work is recorded by the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He has appeared recently on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Live from Lin- coln Center broadcasts. Fulmer is Director of Orchestral Studies, Head of Strings, and Composition Faculty at Hunter College, CUNY. He graduated from The Juilliard School.

Stefan Jackiw

Stefan Jackiw is one of America’s foremost violinists, captivating audiences with playing that combines poetry and purity with an impeccable technique. Hailed for playing of “uncommon musical substance” that is “striking for its intelligence and sensitivity” (Boston Globe), Jackiw has appeared as soloist with the Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco symphony orchestras, among others. Abroad, Jackiw has appeared with such ensembles as the London Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Tokyo Philharmonic. He regularly performs at important festivals and concert series, including the Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival, the Celebrity Series of Boston, the Philharmonie de Paris, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Jackiw’s discography includes the complete Brahms violin sonatas on Sony, and a forthcoming recording of the complete Ives violin sonatas with his frequent collaborator, pianist Jeremy Denk. Jackiw also recently recorded the Beethoven Triple concerto with cellist Alisa Weilerstein, pianist Inon Barnatan, and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, conducted by Alan Gilbert and released on Decca.

Matthias Pintscher

Matthias Pintscher is the newly appointed Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony, effective from the 2024-25 season. He has just concluded a successful decade-long tenure as the Music Director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the iconic Parisian contemporary ensemble founded by Pierre Boulez and winner of the 2022 Polar Prize. During his stewardship, Pintscher led this most adventurous institution in the creation of dozens of world premieres by cutting edge composers from all over the world and took the ensemble on tours around the globe–to Asia and North America, and throughout Europe to all the major festivals and concert halls.

The 2023-24 season will be Pintscher’s fourth year as Creative Partner at the Cincinnati Symphony. He will also tour with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie where he is artist in residence. As guest conductor, he returns to the RAI Milano Musica, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, NDR Hamburg, Indianapolis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, Lahti Symphony, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, La Scala, and Berlin’s Boulez Ensemble. Pintscher has conducted several opera productions for the Berliner Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, and the Théatredu Châtelet in Paris. He returns to the Berliner Staatsoper in 2024 for Beat Furrer’s Violetter Schnee.

Pintscher is also well known as a composer, and his works appear frequently on the programs of major symphony orchestras throughout the world. In August 2021, he was the focus of the Suntory Hall Summer Festival–a week-long celebration of his works with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra as well as a residency by the EIC with symphonic and chamber music performances. His third violin concerto, Assonanza, written for Leila Josefowicz, was premiered in January 2022 with the Cincinnati Symphony.

Jay Campbell

Armed with a diverse spectrum of repertoire and eclectic musical interests, cellist Jay Campbell has been recognized for approaching both old and new works with the same probing curiosity and emotional commitment. His performances have been called “electrifying” by The New York Times; “gentle, poignant, and deeply moving” by The Washington Post; and on WQXR by Krzysztof Penderecki for “the greatest performance yet of Capriccio per Sigfried Palm”. A 2016 recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Jay made his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2013 and worked with Alan Gilbert in 2016 as the artistic-director for Ligeti Forward, a series featured on the New York Philharmonic Biennale at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2017, he was be Artist-in-Residence at the Lucerne Festival with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, where he gave the Swiss premiere of Michael Van der Aa's multimedia cello concerto Up-Close, and the world premiere of a new concerto by Luca Francesconi, conducted by Matthias Pintscher in Lucerne's KKL Auditorium and the Cologne Philharmonie.

Dedicated to introducing audiences to the music of our time, Mr. Campbell has worked closely with some of the most creative musicians of our time including Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Matthias Pintscher, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, and countless others from his own generation. His close association with John Zorn resulted in the 2015 release of Hen to Pan (Tzadik) featuring all works written for Campbell, and was listed in The New York Times year-end Best Recordings of 2015. Forthcoming discs include George Perle's Cello Concerto with the Seattle Symphony and Ludovic Morlot (Bridge), a disc of Beethoven, Debussy, Stravinsky and Pintscher (Victor Elmaleh Collection), and a collection of works commissioned for Campbell by David Fulmer (Tzadik). Equally enthusiastic as a chamber musician and teacher, Mr. Campbell is a member of the JACK Quartet, a piano trio with violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Conrad Tao, has served on faculty at Vassar College and has been a guest at the Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Moab, Heidelberger-Fruhling, DITTO, and Lincoln Center festivals.

Conor Hanick

Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation's most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose "technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master." (New York Times) Hanick has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and worked with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ludovic Morlot, Alan Gilbert, Pierre Boulez, and David Robertson. He has been presented by the Gilmore Festival, New York Philharmonic, Elbphilharmonie, De Singel, Caramoor, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Park Avenue Armory, and the Ojai Festival, where as a founding member of AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) he served as the festival’s artistic director in 2022.

A fierce advocate for the music of today, Hanick has premiered over 200 pieces and collaborated with composers ranging from Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich, to the leading composers of his generation, including Tyshawn Sorey, Samuel Carl Adams, Caroline Shaw, Eric Wubbels, Marcos Balter, and Anthony Cheung. In recent seasons, Hanick presented recitals in the US and Europe, including performances with Julia Bullock, Jay Campbell, Joshua Roman, Seth Parker Woods, AMOC*, and the TAKT Trio. Hanick is the director of Solo Piano at the Music Academy of the West and serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School, Mannes College, and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Mike Truesdell

Percussionist Mike Truesdell is a 2nd-prize winner of the TROMP International Percussion Competition in the Netherlands and has performed recitals across Europe and Asia. Additionally, he has performed with numerous artists and ensembles, including the Lucerne Festival Ensemble conducted by Pierre Boulez, New York City Ballet, International Contemporary Ensemble, and members of the New York Philharmon- ic, and Metropolitan Opera, among others. He has recorded with Renée Fleming, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (Grammy-nominated), John Zorn, Charles Wuorinen, Gil Evans Project (Grammy-nominated), and many more inspiring artists.

As an educator, Mike is Associate Professor of Percussion at Ithaca College and Director of the Percussion Program at Cornell University. His recent projects include collaborations with fashion designer Jenny Lai (NOT by Jenny Lai), multiple video recordings with Four/Ten Media, and a music-related podcast (The MikeDrop Podcast) with Arizona State University faculty member Michael Compitello.

Conrad Tao

Conrad Tao has appeared worldwide as a pianist and composer, and has been dubbed a musician of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times, who also cited him “one of five classical music faces to watch” in the 2018-19 season. Tao is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and was named a Gilmore Young Artist—an honor awarded every two years highlighting the most promising American pianists of the new generation. At the 2019 New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessies”), Tao was the recipient of the award for Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition, for his work on More Forever, his collaboration with Caleb Teicher.

A Warner Classics recording artist, Tao’s debut disc Voyages was declared a “spiky debut” by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross. Of the album, NPR wrote: “Tao proves himself to be a musician of deep intellectual and emotional means – as the thoughtful programming on this album...proclaims.” His next album, Pictures, with works by David Lang, Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter, Mussorgsky, and Tao himself, was hailed by The New York Times as “a fascinating album [by] a thoughtful artist and dynamic performer...played with enormous imagination, color and command.” His latest album, American Rage, was released to acclaim in Fall 2019 and features works by Julia Wolfe, Frederic Rzewski and Aaron Copland. Conrad’s creative process behind the album was highlighted as part of a November 2019 profile in The New York Times.

Tao was born in Urbana, Illinois, in 1994. He has studied piano with Emilio del Rosario in Chicago and Yoheved Kaplinsky in New York, and composition with Christopher Theofanidis.

Nathan Ben-Yehuda

Nathan Ben-Yehuda is a pianist, arranger and composer based in Los Angeles. He has gained notability for his proficiency in a wide array of genres and different keyboard instruments, as well as his impassioned and probing performances. Nathan has been a winner of the Yamaha Young Performing Artist award, and has also received 3rd prize in the Seattle International Piano Competition. He has worked closely with such composers as George Lewis, Kaija Saariaho, Oliver Knussen and Thomas Ades. Nathan has held a fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed in a variety of new music and chamber music groups, and took part in a complete performance of Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux alongside pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and performed Nancarrow Studies on two pianos with composer/pianist Thomas Adès. He has been featured in live broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 “In Tune” as well as on WMHT Radio. He has appeared on Musiqu3 TV in Belgium as a competitor in the 2021 Queen Elisabeth competition. He recently was one of two pianists invited to the Taos School of Music, directed by Robert McDonald, performing as part of their young artist chamber music series. He is also the pianist for the Victory Players, a recently formed new music ensemble based in Holyoke, MA. Most recently, Nathan became a permanent member of Los Angeles based music collective Astral Mixtape, who perform original music and arrangements inspired by a myriad of styles. Nathan completed his Undergraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with Professor Hamish Milne, and his masters degree at the Juilliard School with Joseph Kalichstein and Jerome Lowenthal. He continued studies with Shai Wosner and Richard Goode at Bard College as part of their Advanced Performance Fellowship.

León Bernsdorf

Praised for his “technically superb and musically convincing playing” (Hamburger Abendblatt), León Bernsdorf continues to establish himself in the international classical music scene. León gave his orchestra debut at age 15 in the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, performing Grieg’s piano concerto with the Hamburg Youth Symphony Orchestra. Further orchestral engagements soon followed, including the Heidelberg Philharmonic and the Hamburg Camerata. Aside from Germany and the US, he has performed concerts in Canada, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, China, and South East Asia. Through his success at the Liszt Competition in Budapest in 2016 (3rd Prize), León has concertized extensively in all parts of Hungary, and will be returning there in the 2019-20 season to perform numerous recitals and piano concerti with the orchestras of Budapest and Eger.

As a competition veteran, León has succeeded at both national and international contests. In 2017, he was awarded the 3rd prize at the Dallas International Piano Competition. A few months later, he won the 3rd prize at the Jaen Competition in Spain, as well as the “Rosa Sabater” Award for the best performance of a Spanish work. León holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees from Boston University, where he studied with Boaz Sharon and Pavel Nersessian. After finishing his Artist Diploma with John Perry and David Louie at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto, he is now a second-year DMA student at The Juilliard School in the studio of Prof. Robert McDonald.

Horszowski Trio

Giving performances that are “lithe, persuasive” (The New York Times) and “eloquent and enthralling” (The Boston Globe), the Horszowski Trio has quickly become a vital force in the international chamber music world since their formation in 2011. In 2019, they made their sold-out London debut presented by Wigmore Hall followed by a successful 21-concert tour of Germany. In 2023, the “Horszowski Trio Prize” was created by the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, to encourage the next generation. The trio is based in NYC and named after the legendary pianist, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, with whom their pianist studied as his last pupil at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Parker Ramsay

Parker Ramsay has forged a career defying easy categorization. Equally at home on modern and period harps, he pursues his passions in tackling new and underperformed works and bringing his instrument to new audiences. He has commissioned and performed solo works by composers such as David Fulmer, Josh Levine, Nico Muhly, Marcos Batter, Michael Seltenreich and Saad Haddad. Alongside gambist Arnie Tanimoto, Parker is co-director of A Golden Wire, a period instrument ensemble based in New York. He has presented talks, performances and lectures on period instruments at the Smithsonian Collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham Baroque and the Royal Academy of Music, London. As a writer, he has been published in VAN Magazine, Early Music America Magazine, the Washington Post and the New York Times. Raised in Tennessee, Parker began harp studies with his mother, Carol McClure. He served as organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge before pursuing graduate studies at Oberlin and Juilliard. In 2014, he was awarded First Prize at the Sweelinck International Organ Competition. He lives in Paris.