Artists

The TRANS-KALAHARI QUINTET (TKQ) is an instrumental Afro-jazz ensemble comprised of musicians from the United States, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. The band was formed as a quintet by Arthur “Makhwenkwe” Mengwe in 2010, but has steadily added regular members and featured artists over the past decade of collaborative work.

Professor Hans Lewitus was born in Vienna on July 25, 1905. He began piano lessons at the age of 6, and music became a lifelong passion. While studying law he also went to the Conservatory of Music of Vienna, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in clarinet in 1930. From then on music became his career.

Lucian Kano Balmer is a Bay Area violinist, vocalist, and composer who performs original compositions often described as "raga-infused." He’s performed extensively in the United States and Europe as a solo act as well as with large ensembles. He has studied with renowned North Indian Classical vocalist Shweta Jhaveri, and continues to study vocals and instrumental with Bruce Hamm, a senior disciple of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. He combines his Western Classical upbringing (under local violinist Ben Spilman) and love of chamber music along with the melodic and rhythmic ideas from North Indian Classical music to create new ideas using ancient musical languages.

Hevreh is a Hebrew word meaning “Circle of Friends.” Friendship, relationship, connection— these make up the DNA of the HEVREH Ensemble. Formed and cultivated by a group of friends, both new and lifelong, HEVREH Ensemble is the best kind of chamber group— their “clean, tight, creative… aesthetic that defies description” (Audiophile Audition) makes it abundantly clear that this is a group of people who know each other well and who work intensely and closely together.

Maltese-born flutist Fiorella Camilleri started playing the flute at age 14. Since then she has been an active chamber musician with different ensembles playing repertoire ranging from the classical to the contemporary, performing in Italy, Malta, and Japan respectively. Her latest chamber music achievement led her to Shizuoka and Tokyo, where she led a research project supported by the Malta Arts Fund. This project, which took place in 2017, involved merging Maltese and Japanese traditional music. She explores the subject of international cultural diplomacy through chamber music and research based projects.

Described as “a true pioneer” (Classic FM Magazine), award-winning London-based Cuban guitarist, Ahmed Dickinson Cárdenas, is one of the finest performers of the Cuban classical guitar school.

Tejaswini Niranjana, curator and producer, is the author of several books, including Mobilizing India: Women, Music and Migration between India and Trinidad (Duke UP, 2006), and Musicophilia in Mumbai: Performing Subjects and the Metropolitan Unconscious (Duke UP, 2020). She has also edited the anthology, Music, Modernity and the Public Sphere in India (OUP, 2020).

Alan Lewine, leader, bassist, and composer of the Alan Lewine Xtet, currently lives in Phoenix, Arizona from Philadelphia. Also the founder of Owlsong Productions (in 1982 while preparing a Thelonious Monk memorial concert in Taos NM), Lewine has performed and recorded all over the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Latin America. His influences include not just jazz, but all forms of music from Gamelan to flamenco, Zappa to Xenakis. Eclectic? Yes, and reviews have yielded high praise of the impact of these varied influences on Sephardic Treasures.

Ana Mariá Ruimonte was born and raised in Madrid, Spain, is a classical singer experienced in roles as both soprano and mezzo-soprano. She obtained her degree at Spain’s leading vocal conservatory, the Escuela Superior de Canto of Madrid in 2006, and studied further in Nuremberg, Philadelphia, and New York. She was a finalist at the International Opera Umberto Giordano competition in 2013 in Italy. Ana María appeared numerous times on Spanish National Radio and Television (RTVE) before and since moving to the United States.

Dayron Ortega graduated from the ENA in 1996 as a guitarist. His first professional musical group was "Son del Río" in Havana, of which he was the founder. A year later, he became part of the "Melao Son" project, with which he made his first International Tour in Canada. In 2000, he was called to be the founder of the project "Pancho Amat and his Cabildo del Son," in which he performed as an instrumentalist and vocalist (guitar), until the beginning of 2015. With this group he made international tours to different countries: Spain, Italy, Vienna, Holland, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, United States, Canada, Qatar, Japan, and Angola.

Maykel Erik Elizarde Ruano was born on February 1, 1979 in Santa Clara. He was from a very humble family where his great-grandfather, Mario Ruano Vila was a great concert guitarist in the 1950's.

Eduardo Silveira graduated from the Nivel Medio de la Escuela Nacional de Arte. Percussionist.

Founded in Pinar del Río on March 22, 1997 by four doctors who practiced both professions, VOCAL UNIVERSO began their journey with a wide coverage of local and national media, participating in important shows in their locality and in the country.

Joseph Sheehan composes and performs music to connect with musicians and audiences from diverse traditions. His music has been performed at prestigious concert halls, underground jazz clubs, outdoor music festivals, and intimate chamber settings. Musicians involved with his work include professional performers of jazz, classical, hip-hop, and African traditional music.

Cynthia Folio (b. 1954) is a composer, music theorist, and flutist. As a young flute player and army brat, her main inspiration came from her studies at the Panama Conservatory in the1960’s; there she studied with Eduardo Charpentier (first flutist in the Panama Symphony) and had rigorous studies in solfege. She received her Ph.D. in music theory and Performers Certificate in flute from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied composition with Joseph Schwantner and flute with Bonita Boyd; Robert D. Morris advised her dissertation on the music of Schwantner. From 1980 to 1990, she taught music theory and flute at Texas Christian University and played in the Fort Worth Symphony. She now serves as Professor and Chair of Music Studies in the Boyer College at Temple University, where she was honored with the Creative Achievement Award in 2012 and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1994.

Dr. J.A. Kawarsky (b. 1959) is Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton in NJ. Dr. Kawarsky received his B.M. in composition from Iowa State University and his M.M. and D.M.A. from Northwestern University.  At Northwestern he studied with John Paynter, Alan Stout, and Frederick Ockwell. In 1982, Dr. Kawarsky conducted the Opera Company of the Negev Region in Be’er Sheva in Israel. Before coming to Westminster in 1989, he taught at Fort Hays State University, the University of Wisconsin, and Moraine Valley Community College.

Meira Maxine Warshauer’s music has been performed to critical acclaim throughout North America and Europe, as well as in South America, the Middle East, and Asia. Her musical palette is wide, ranging from traditional Jewish prayer modes to minimalist textures with rich melodic contours, and from joyful jazz-influenced rhythms to imaginative orchestrations of the natural world. At its core, it expresses her personal spiritual journey. As Ina Esther Joost, principal cellist with Jerusalem Symphony, observes, Meira’s music comes from a place which is beyond music. It is like a prayer from deep within the soul[and] it always evokes deep responses from the listeners.

L Peter Deutsch is a native of Massachusetts, now living in Sonoma County CA and British Columbia, Canada. His early music education included performance and composition for voice, piano, and recorder. He received his M.A. degree in composition in 2011, studying with Frank La Rocca.

Timothy Lee Miller (b. 1961) is an American composer, arranger and publisher writing unique contemporary concert music for chamber ensembles, orchestra, wind ensemble, chorus and solo voice, as well as jazz music. He has also written for several small film and television projects, however, his primary focus is concert music. He has earned degrees from the University of Tennessee (BS Music Ed, 1984), the University of Miami (MM Media Writing and Production, 1990) and Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA Composition, 2013). His principle composition teachers have been John Anthony Lennon, James Progris, Tamar Diesendruck, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Andy Jaffe, John Fitz Rogers and Roger Zahab. He has received numerous commissions and awards, including several ASCAP awards. His works have been performed throughout the US and Europe. His music is recorded on ERMMedia, Navona and Ansonica Records, and Phoenix Classics.

Mona Lyn Reese concentrates on opera, orchestra, and choral music. Her work is melodic and accessible with an emphasis on driving or complex rhythms, movement, and contrasting textures. Her music communicates and expresses emotions traditionally or experimentally without allowing a prevailing fashion to dictate style, form, or harmony.