Iktus Percussion official site | Chris Graham on Ensemble Moto Perpetuo website

Chris Graham is an international new music musician living and working in New York City. Chris has consistently worked and performed with notable groups such as Newband, Talea Ensemble, Ear to Mind, Talujon Percussion, Mantra Percussion, and is a founding member and director of Iktus Percussion. He has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Issue Project Room, Merkin Hall, The Knitting Factory, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and the National Sawdust, and has toured extensively across the U.S. performing for various festivals, colleges, and universities.

Chris has commissioned and/or premiered works by established composers such as Charles Wuorinen, Martin Bresnick, Michael Gordon, Philippe Manoury, Franco Donatoni, Philippe Hurel, Mauricio Kagel, Ron Ford, Michel Vander Aa, Hugo Morales, Gerard Grisey, Harry Partch, John Luther Adams, Lisa R. Coons, Daniel Wohl, Jenny Olivia Johnson, Angelica Negron, Sebastian Armoza, Mathew Welch, Philip Schuessler, Levy Lorenzo, Matt Hough, Joe DiPonio, Brian Jacobs, Aaron Siegel, Ted Herne, Tristan Perich, Inhyun Kim, Jen Wang, Joseph Waters, Stephan Weisman, and Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin, and Wood), among others.

In addition to his preforming credits, Chris organizes and curates concerts in NYC, working closely with young up-and-coming new music ensembles. He has co-organized several performances for Issue Project Room’s “Gaudeamus Muzieweek New York” and “Darmstadt Series”, receiving critical acclaim in 2010 from TimeOut New York as one of the top ten concerts of the year performing Karlheinz Stockhausen’s epic works, Mikrophonie and Kontakte.

As an artist-in-residence he has taught at Suny Purchase and Cuny Brooklyn College, working with both student percussion ensembles and student composers. He is the director of the Stony Brook pre-college percussion ensemble and is on faculty at Suffolk Community College. He received a Bachelors of Music and Performers Certificate from SUNY Purchase College, Masters of Music from Stony Brook University, where he is currently a candidate in the Doctoral of the Musical Arts program. Previous teachers include Raymond DesRoches, Dominic Donato, Tom Kolor, Joseph Pereira, and Eduardo Leandro.

Critically acclaimed pianist TAKA KIGAWA has earned outstanding international recognition as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber music artist since winning First Prize in the prestigious 1990 Japan Music Foundation Piano Competition in Tokyo, and the Diploma Prize at the 1998 Concurs Internacional Maria Canals De Barcelona in Spain, with such accolades from The New York Times as “Phenomenon, there’s no denying that he is something special,” “The extraordinary pianist.” and from The New Yorker “Unbelievably challenging program. Kigawa is an artist of stature.” and from La Nación (Buenos Aires) “Taka Kigawa is a stupendous virtuoso.” His New York City recital in 2010 was chosen as one of the best concerts of the year by The New York Times. His New York City recital in August 2011 was picked as one of the most notable concerts in the 2011-2012 season by Musical America.

Also his Buenos Aires recital in April 2014 was chosen as one of the best concerts of the year by Argentina’s leading paper, La Nación.

He has performed extensively as a recitalist and soloist in New York, Washington DC, Boston, Cleveland, Paris, Milan and Barcelona, with appearances in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Kosciuszko Foundation, Severance Hall in Cleveland, Cité de la Musique, and Salle Gaveau in Paris, Plau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. He frequently tours in his native Japan, appearing in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagano and Kyoto, both as a recitalist and a soloist with orchestra and in chamber music groups. He has performed with such distinguished institution as The Cleveland Orchestra. He has been a featured artist on many television and radio networks throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.

His repertoire is extremely large and varied, ranging from the baroque to avant-garde compositions of today. He has collaborated closely with such renowned musicians as the late Pierre Boulez, Myung-Whun Chung and Jonathan Nott. Also, he premiered the last solo piano piece of late Yusef Lateef, the jazz legend, in New York City in 2013.

Mr. Kigawa grew up in Nagano, Japan, where he began piano studies at the age of three, winning his first competition at the age of seven. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Shinshu University, and his Master of Arts degree from Tokyo Gakugei (Liberal Arts) University, graduating with honors in Piano Performance. During both his undergraduate and graduate years, he also studied composition and conducting, receiving high honors in both disciplines. He furthered his studies in the United States at The Juilliard School in New York, where he earned his Master of Music degree. Mr. Kigawa currently lives in New York City. Taka Kigawa is a Steinway Artist. For more information, visit takakigawa.com

John Luther Adams official site

John Luther Adams is a composer whose life and work are deeply rooted in the natural world.

Adams was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his symphonic work Become Ocean, and a 2015 Grammy Award for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition”. Inuksuit, his outdoor work for up to 99 percussionists, is regularly performed all over the world.

Columbia University has honored Adams with the William Schuman Award “to recognize the lifetime achievement of an American composer whose works have been widely performed and generally acknowledged to be of lasting significance.”

A recipient of the Heinz Award for his contributions to raising environmental awareness, JLA has also been honored with the Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University “for melding the physical and musical worlds into a unique artistic vision that transcends stylistic boundaries.”

Born in 1953, JLA grew up in the South and in the suburbs of New York City. He studied composition with James Tenney at the California Institute of the Arts, where he was in the first graduating class (in 1973). In the mid-1970s he became active in the campaign for the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and subsequently served as executive director of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center.

Adams has taught at Harvard University, the Oberlin Conservatory, Bennington College, and the University of Alaska. He has also served as composer in residence with the Anchorage Symphony, Anchorage Opera, Fairbanks Symphony, Arctic Chamber Orchestra, and the Alaska Public Radio Network.

The music of John Luther Adams is recorded on Cantaloupe, Cold Blue, New World, Mode, and New Albion, and his books are published by Wesleyan University Press.

Photo credit: Pete Woodhead

Christian Kriegeskotte official site | Christian Kriegeskotte on Twitter | Christian Kriegeskotte on Soundcloud

Christian Kriegeskotte (b. 1980) is a composer, conductor and musician who received both his Bachelor of Fine Arts (’02) and Master of Music (’09) from Carnegie Mellon University. His primary teachers included composers Leonardo Balada, Nancy Galbraith and Fabien Levy and choral conducting guru Robert Page.

Mr. Kriegeskotte began his professional career as a copyist in Hollywood, contributing to the preparation and recording of live orchestral scores for films including Star Wars: Episode III, War of the Worlds, Sin City, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and television shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy and King of the Hill.

Mr. Kriegeskotte’s compositions have been described as “jewel-like and fascinating” and “a force to be reckoned with” and have been performed by ensembles such as eighth blackbird, The Parker Quartet, The American Composers Orchestra, New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, The DePaul Wind Symphony and The Pittsburgh Opera. Mr. Kriegeskotte has also worked in tour production and artist management for Columbia Artists Management Inc., alongside artists including Marvin Hamlisch, Lorin Maazel and Pinchas Zukerman, and continues to work professionally in the record industry.