Symposium of Contemporary Music, 2008

Illinois Wesleyan University

SCHOOL OF MUSIC presents

SYMPOSIUM OF

David Vayo, Director

GLOBAL CONNECTIONS Featured Guests

JOHN SHARPLEY,

composer

ORCHID ENSEMBLE Lan Tung, erhu

Bei Bei He,zheng Jonathan Bernard, marimba and percussion November 8-9,2008 Westbrook Auditorium J I I i

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Co-Sponsors: Sylvia Monti Anderson Commissioned Choral Work Fund honoring Delta Omicron at Illinois Wesleyan University; Joel and Shelley Jameson Fund; Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Symposium of Contemporary Music 2008-09 NOVEMBER 7:30

8, 2 00 8

PM

Improvisation Concert

Orchid Ensemble with John Sharpley, David Vayo, piano William Koehler, contrabass Manpreet Bedi, tabla This program is presented as part of the IWU New Music Series

NOVEMBER 3

9 , 20 0 8

PM

Music of John Sharpley Song of Love and Lament Kristin Siegfried, viola David Vayo, piano

from String Quartet No. 1 1. adagio/ allegro vivace/ tempo primo Janet Lyu, Rebekah Park, violin Molly Lieberman, viola Hannah Montgomery, violoncello

from renfant Sauvage Healing Anya Fetcher, soprano Carol Churukian, piano

(b. 1955)

from Songs of Sleep A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal Daniel Megli, baritone Eva Ferguson, piano

from Common Thread Song of the Earth Amber Johnson, mezzo soprano Eva Ferguson, piano

Voyage Wind Over Water From Within Horseplay Incarnation On the Wings of Icarus David Longawa, euphonium Momoko Gresham, piano

Brief Pause

A Dream Within a Dream Commissioned by the Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir Made possible by the Sylvia Monti Anderson Commissioned Choral Work Fund honoring Delta Omicron at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Moon and Sun . ... .... . .. . . .. . .. . . .. .... . ..... . ... . ... David Vayo Written for the Orchid Ensemble and the Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir World premiere performance made possible in part by the Joel and Shelley Jameson Fund to support the activities of the choral/vocal department at Illinois Wesleyan University. Funded in part by the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center.

Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir, J. Scott Ferguson, Director Orchid Ensemble Dan McGlaughlin, David Cramer, Benjamin Junya, Jacob Bisaillon, percussion (Moon and Sun); Emily Hopkins, mezzo soprano, James Hornor, baritone (A Dream Within a Dream)

Following the program, the audience is invited to a reception in the Presser Hall Reception Room, courtesy of Sigma Alpha Iota and Delta Omicron This program is presented as part of the IWU New Music Series

A Note from the Symposium Director One of the most significant developments in today's concert music is an enriching influx of instruments from non-European cultures. Early, somewhat isolated examples, dating from around 1970, include Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu's November Steps, in which soloists on two traditional Japanese instruments perform with a symphony orchestra, and Pacifika Rondo by American composer Lou Harrison, with an instrumentation including a variety of Asian and Native American instruments. By the late 1980's, such contemporary-music groups as the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and Bolivia's Arawi, both consisting exclusively of traditional instruments from their respective cultures, had appeared.

Currently, this trend has passed what appears to me a tipping point and is exploding around the globe. IiI Europe, ensembles such as the Atlas Orchestra and the Ziggurat Ensemble mix instruments from numerous cultures. In Argentina, an ensemble called Fronteras del Silencio combines indigenous instruments with computer-music technology, and a graduate degree program reflecting these concerns - perhaps the first of its kind in the world- has been established at a conservatory. Vancouver, with its large Asian population, is the most vital center of this phenomenon on the North American continent, with such groups as the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra and our guests the Orchid Ensemble making innovative contributions.

Such developments have Western-trained composers allover the world feeling like kids in a candy shop which has just introduced dozens of wonderful new flavors . An abundance of new tone colors and playing techniques, to say nothing of the intriguing musical aesthetics associated with these instruments, is more easily available to us than ever before and has the potential to vastly expand our musical creativity and expression. (By "us;' incidentally, I am including not only composers from western countries but also those from other parts of the world whose musical training has been western and who are now discovering or re-discovering the powerful musical contributions of their own lands.) While the focus of this year's Symposium is on the manifestation of this phenomenon in concert music, it is playing an equally important role in popular music and jazz.

Our guests reflect this increasing interconnectedness of musicians and musical cultures throughout the world, particularly emphasizing an East Asian/North American nexus. Composer John Sharpley is a Houston native who has become Singapore's most eminent resident composer. The Orchid Ensemble's personnel includes immigrants from Taiwan and mainland China as well as a native Canadian, and they perform on instruments from China and many other countries.

The extent to which the improvisations and compositions you'll hear during this year's Symposium sound Chinese, western, both at the same time, or neither, will change, in some cases fluctuating from moment to moment. Today's musical world is full of hybrid styles being born, and I hope you'll find that the biological phenomenon of hybrid vigor is valid for music as well.

The revolution taking place today in music is one based on mutual respect and curiosity rather than confrontation - I'll leave it to you to draw the political parallels. I fell blessed to be a musician at this moment in history.

- David Vayo Song of Love and Lament is a transcription for viola and piano of an aria from my opera Fences (2004-2007). The aria was premiered by the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra in Russia with Australian soprano Amanda Colliver and Singaporean conductor Darrell Ang. The version for viola and piano was premiered by American violist Karen Griebling and American pianist John Krebs at Hendrix College in Arkansas. The text is about a young woman who is in love with a man of another race and religion. Her parents fervently do not approve. Her lover is in a distant city. His parents also do not approve. The situation is dire. She even contemplates suicide.

String Quartet No.1 was composed and premiered in the wintry cold of Strasbourg, France in 1979 when I was a music student at the conservatory. The work later won the National Music Teachers' Association Composition Prize in 1980 (USA, University level). In 1987, the work was revised in collaboration with choreographer Lim Fei Shen and the Singapore People's Association Dance Troupe. The three movements are conceived as an unfolding drama amongst four sonic characters triggered by various inter relationships. The first movement (Adagio Allegro Vivace) begins slow and mysterious. The pace soon bursts into one of frenetic energy.

Healing comes from ];Enfant Sauvage (The Wild Child) with texts by Singaporean writer Ana Wang was originally set as a cycle of eight songs for soprano, children's chorus, and piano. The work was premiered in Singapore in 2003 as part of a charity for the Singapore Children's' Cancer Foundation. The poems vividly capture the plight of suffering children from antiquity to the present. Many voices, individual, collective, real and fictitious emerge in these poems. Ultimately, the texts point to a manifest right that all children have towards protection, nurturing and freedom.

Four of the eight songs feature the soprano and form an independent set of dramatic monologues. The first song, Twin Tales, is based on the incredulous Roman myth of Remus and Romulus. The second song, l'm Peter, The Wild Boy!, is based on a shocking 18th century fact involving European royalty and a feral child. War Cries is inspired by present-day horrors embodied in a fictitious soldier-slave girl in Africa. The last song, Healing, is a lullaby of hope for all children who suffer.

Hush little ones, Maladies call forth Remedies.

Thirst quenched By crystal springs; Hunger, by simple food.

New ideas sprout

In young heads.

Love opens gates To delicious sensations, Troubling young hearts Enjoying a thrill.

Our lives were once Of the feral child, Wild and free Fitting into Solitary bliss, Culture of simplicity.

Hush. Little ones.

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal comes from a cycle called Songs of Sleep (1994, - revised in 2007). Comprising three settings of poems by William Wordsworth, the scoring is for either baritone or mezzo-soprano and piano. The other poems set are Come, Gentle Sleep and To Sleep. The cycle was premiered by mezzo-soprano Suzanne Marion and the composer's mother, Geraldine Sharpley in Houston's Museum of Fine Arts. The revised version was premiered by Scottish baritone, Ralph McDonald and the composer at the Singapore Arts Museum. The last song, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal, is an extraordinary and visionary view of death which, paradoxically, not death.

A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years.

No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round on earth's diurnal course, With rocks and stones and trees.

Song of the Earth is the last song in the cycle Common Thread (1999). With a total of six songs the set pursues the commonalities amongst religious beliefs. The first, My Voice comes from a Psalm and represents the Jewish faith. The second song, In the Heart, is taken from the Hindu Upanishads. "Money:' the third song comes from the Sufi tradition within Islam. Water, the fourth song is drawn from Jesus' parable of the woman at the well. The fifth song, In an Instant, is adapted from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Song of the Earth is an adaptation of a Hozhonji or Navajo Healing song. The cycle was premiered in Singapore by Dutch mezzo-soprano Oda Vilrokz and the composer as pianist.

Song of the Earth (Translation by Natalie Curtis)

All is beautiful.

Now the Mother Earth And the Father Sky, Meeting, joining one another,

Helpmates ever, they.

All is beautiful, All is beautiful, All is beautiful, All is beautiful.

Voyage was commissioned by American pianist Christine Shaffer for her son, euphonium player, Richard Shaffer. The work was composed in 1990 and premiered at Louisiana State University in 1991.

The title Voyage signifies a sense of journey from the first movement to the fifth. In three sections, Wind Over Water is a miniature tour-de-force featuring fast repeating notes for the piano and long sustained notes for the euphonium. There is a contrasting more lyrical middle section. From Within is built on slow oscillating piano two-note chords, long sustained notes and reflective silence. Quick and cheeky, Horseplay often makes use of hocket (quick alternation between the piano and euphonium). Somewhat other worldly, Incarnation is based on a very slow single-note line in the piano, the non-pitched sound of breath into the euphonium and silence. Wild and rhythmic, On the Wings of Icarus opens with fast notes, often repeating, on the euphonium. The piano enters syncopated cluster-like chords. A brief middle section explores flutter tonguing on the euphonium and more clusters on the piano. The quick pace returns. This is followed by a coda with fast imitating ascending scales in both piano and euphonium. The work concludes with a violent euphonium "rip:' - John Sharpley

More often than not these days, when I finish composing a piece I don't have a title for it. There are three solutions to this dilemma: call it something generic (Sonata, String Quartet, etc.). deliberately goofy (Satie's Dessicated Embryos, Zappa's Son of Mr. Green Genes), or try to come up with a descriptive title suggesting the essence of the music. I usually go for the latter approach, and my method of choice is to look through the score, listen to the music run through my head, and jot on a piece of paper any and all words that come to mind, without censoring anything.

Then I read over the list to find what resonates the most. I'm usually pretty happy with the results - Mystery Play and Mosaics and Webs being two recent examples.

I also arrived at Moon and Sun through this process. The opening of the piece and most of the slower music have a nocturnal, mysterious yet lwninous quality, so "Moon" came to mind. The quicker sections for the most part are full of vital force and fire, hence "Sun:' I got a big kick out of writing for the beautiful colors of the Orchid Ensemble's instruments, and strove to make the choir's part equally colorful.

Note that there are no words- nevertheless, I hope you'll fmd the voices eloquent.

To me it's both odd and wonderful that Chinese instruments and a choir somehow pulled me into a piece featuring an Afro-Cuban jazz groove with an extra half a beat. Who knows, maybe someday I'll find myself writing a Viennese waltz in 3 1/4 for a Balinese gamelan. This is what I love about composing; I look forward to many more surprises.

- David Vayo

A Dream Within A Dream is an extraordinary poem by an extraordinary young man, Edgar Allen Poe. The poem contemplates the illusiveness of hope and love. It balances precariously between physical, metaphysical and spiritual realms of being. The poem ends with a question (perhaps THE question); Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?

- John Sharpley

A Dream Within A Dream Edgar Allan Poe Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now, Thus much let me avow You are not wrong, who deem That my days have been a dream; Yet if hope has flown away In a night, or in a day, In a vision, or in none, Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep - while I weep! o God! can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? o God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?

Illinois Wesleyan University maintains the oldest collegiate-level choral commission series in the United States. Since the first commission, Songs of Innocence

by Earl George, was performed in 1952, the Collegiate Choir has commissioned a work almost every year, adding many significant works to the choral repertoire. In 2004, through the generosity of Joseph and Sylvia Anderson, the Sylvia Monti Anderson Commissioned Choral Work Fund was established honoring the music fraternity Delta Omicron at Illinois Wesleyan University. This fund has made possible commissions by some of the leading composers of our day, including Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen, and Gyorgy Orban. It is an honor to add John Sharpley's A Dream Within a Dream to the list of distinguished compositions commissioned by the Collegiate Choir.

The Vancouver-based Orchid Ensemble blends ancient musical instruments and traditions from China and beyond, creating a beautiful new sound that is both . creative and distinct. The ensemble has embraced a variety of musical styles in its repertoire, ranging from the traditional and contemporary music of China, world music and contemporary concert music to jazz and creative improvisation.

Acclaimed as 'One of the brightest blossoms on the world music scene' (Georgia Straight) , the Orchid Ensemble has been tirelessly developing an innovative musical genre based on the cultural exchange between Western and Asian musicians.

Orchid Ensemble's 2004 release, 'Road to Kashgar: was nominated for a Juno award (Canada's equivalent to the Grammy) in the Best World Music category.

The Orchid Ensemble regularly collaborates with musicians from a wide variety of world cultures and actively commissions new works by Canadian and US composers for its unique instrumentation. The ensemble performs regularly in concerts across North America, and at prominent world, jazz and folk music festivals. Recent appearances include The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery; Canada Day Celebrations in Ottawa; Festival Miami, and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. Orchid Ensemble gratefully acknowledges touring support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

Trained at Taiwan's Chinese Cultural University, Lan Tung's interest in expanding the horizons of the erhu led her to perform with Gypsy, Indian, Celtic, Jewish, Korean, and other World Music ensembles and musicians, including the famous Tuvan ensemble Huun Hurr Tu and the Canadian legend Bill Bourne. Lan has premiered numerous contemporary works by Canadian and US composers and performed with some of Vancouver's most innovative improvisers such as Ron Samworth and Coat Cooke. Lan has received numerous awards from the B.c. Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts to pursue advanced study with internationally renowned erhu virtuoso Jebing Chen in San Francisco, Zhang Fun Min in Beijing, and Indian classical violinist Kala Ramnath in Bombay. Lan is the leader of the Orchid Ensemble.

Bei Bei He is a Gu Zheng performer, composer, and educator, born in Chengdu, China, and currently residing in Orange County, California. Having majored in the Gu Zheng at the Central University of Nationalities in Beijing, China and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Bei Bei is a multiple award winner, including the Dragon Cup International Gu Zheng Competition. As a performer, Bei Bei performs in a variety of genres from Classical to Jazz, and Rock to Electronica. Her composition credits include China Central TV's documentary series "Dun Huang", and "Dancing Dream" which was premiered at the Asian American Children's Dance Festival in 2007. Bei Bei released her debut album "Quiet your mind and listen" in 2006, receiving international attention. A dedicated educator, she is the director of Lotus Bud Gu Zheng Studio in Huntington Beach, CA. Jonathan Bernard combines his background in western percussion with a fascination for Asian traditions to create a unique sound palette incorporating a myriad of instruments, techniques and styles. Jonathan's interests span genres

from orchestral music to new music and world music. Having premiered over seventy chamber works, Jonathan regularly performs with Vancouver New Music, Fringe Group, orchestras including the Vancouver, Victoria, CBC Radio Orchestras, and is principal percussionist with the Vancouver Island Symphony.

Jonathan's interest in world music has led him to perform Chinese, Javanese, Balinese and Korean music and study traditional and contemporary Chinese percussion in Beijing, China, Arabic percussion in Cairo, Egypt, and Carnatic rhythm in South India with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and British Columbia Arts Council. Jonathan has toured throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.

Introduced to China in the Tang Dynasty, the erhu is a two-string stick fiddle that is played resting on the lap. The strings are tuned to a fifth, with the bow placed between them. There are a number of versions of the erhu that vary in the shape of the sound boxes, with hexagon, octagon, and round being the most common. On most versions, the sound box is closed at one end with a snakeskin resonator. A popular instrument in a variety of Chinese folk traditions, the erhu has now become a principle instrument in both instrumental and opera music.

The zh eng is a plucked half-tube wood zither with movable bridges, over which a number of strings are stretched. The parent instrument of the Asian long zither family, the history of the zheng can be traced back 2500 years. While the ancient zheng had 12 or 13 silk strings, modern instruments usually have 16, 21 or 25 strings, constructed of metal,or steel wound with nylon. It is traditionally tuned to an anhemitonic pentatonic scale, but many modern scales range from combinations of different pentatonic scales, to diatonic and semi-chromatic scales.

The marimba is a wooden keyboard percussion instrument, tuned chromatically. Having roots in the African balophone via the marimbas of Mexico, Central America and the Colombian coast, it is now found in ensembles throughout the world, in both folk music and on the concert stage.

John Sharpley Composer, performer and teacher, possesses a unique and multi-faceted career that spans geographic and cultural borders. Born in Houston, Texas, he earned a Doctorate in Composition from Boston University; a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the University of Houston; and diplomas for piano, violin, and composition at the National Conservatory of Music in Strasbourg, France. His composition teachers include Michael Horvit, David Del Tredici, John Harbison, Betsy Jolas and Leonard Bernstein. His piano teachers include his mother Geraldine Sharpley along with William Chaison, Lily Kraus, Ruth Tomfohrde and Olivier Gardon.

He has been featured as both composer and pianist in numerous concerts, institutions, conferences and festivals: the Texas Music Teacher's Association Convention (Dallas and Houston, USA), the New Composition Festival (Bangkok, Thailand), the Asia Pacific Festival (Wellington, New Zealand), Singapore Piano

Pedagogy Symposium, the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Symposium (Melbourne), Across Oceans International Festival (Toronto, Canada), the Autumn Artist Festival (Houston, USA) and the Hong Kong Asian Arts Festival. He has been guest artist/lecturer at various institutions including San Francisco State University, Hendrix College (Arkansas), University of Kansas, Concordia (Montreal) , University of Houston, Institut Technology Mara (Malaysia) and Lake Tuggeranongs College, Canberra, Australia. In 2000, he was awarded a special citation from Stanford University (USA) in recognition of his contributions as a teacher. He has held positions as assistant professor of music at Boston University, visiting music lecturer at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore) and composer-in-residence at LaSalle College of the Arts (Singapore). He was composer-in-residence for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra 2004 season.

Sharpley's honors include the Texas Music Teacher's Association Composition Commissioning Prize for 2007, an American Cine-Eagle Award (October Garden), and the New York Film Festival Award (Silent Hope). The film Gourmet Baby (2001) scored by Sharpley has been featured in major international film festivals including New York and Los Angeles. Datura , a Singaporean film that Sharpley scored, won the Singapore International Film Festival Award for Best Short Film (1999). His music for the CD ROM Around the World won the Ngee Ann Creative Excellence Award for music (1995). He is listed in the Cambridge Dictionary of International Biography, the American Biographical Institute and the Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards and appears on several commercial CDs. Sharpley's compositions include orchestral works, opera, music for theatre, film and dance scores, chamber music, songs, and solo piano works. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, the Sheffield Winds (Chicago), the Huqin Quartet, the Tang String Quartet are some of the prominent ensembles which have performed Sharpley's compositions. He worked with the rock group R.E.M ., composing an arrangement for the song Lotus. Recently his work, The Wild Child, was recorded for the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) by the Young Voices of Melbourne.

David Vayo David Vayo (b. 1957) is Professor and head of the composition department at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he teaches composition and contemporary music and coordinates the Symposium of Contemporary Music and the New Music Cafe concert series. Vayo has also taught at Connecticut College and the National University of Costa Rica. He holds an A.Mus.D. in Composition from The University of Michigan, where his principal teachers were Leslie Bassett and William Bolcom; his M. Mus. and B. Mus. degrees are from Indiana University, where he studied with Frederick Fox and Juan Orrego-Salas.

Vayo has received awards and commissions from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, ASCAP, the Koussevitzky Music Foundations,

the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Music Center, the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and the Illinois Council for the Arts, and has been granted numerous artists' colony residencies. Over three hundred performances and broadcasts of his compositions have taken place, including recent performances in Mexico, Japan, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, and France and at Northwestern University, Ohio State University and CalArts. Festivals which have programmed his work include the International Trombone Festival, the International Double Reed Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and three World Music Days of the International Society for Contemporary Music. His compositions are published by A. M. Percussion Publications, Berben/Italia Guitar Society Series, and the International Trombone Association Press. Vayo is also active as a pianist performing contemporary music and free improvisations.

William Koehler William Koehler is Professor of Music at Illinois State University where he teaches applied double bass, string techniques, string pedagogy, graduate courses in music education including psychology of music, and improvisation. Bill has just released his second CD entitled Vandana Journey2gether with tabla virtuoso Manpreet Bedi, featuring a number of original compositions in Indian and World music styles, and extended improvisations. The CD has received great reviews in Double Bassist (London) and Bass World, the official publication of the International Society of Bassists. In addition, Bill has completed a new book entitled A Guide to the Developmental Process of Improvisation and Composition, which is available through Schorer Publications, in Graebenzell, Germany. Bill's first CD entitled Glimpse features original compositions in jazz, and world fusion idioms, as well as Romantic and Contemporary classical pieces for unaccompanied solo bass.

A native of New York City, Dr. Koehler has performed in England, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Russia and Belo-Russia, Puerto Rico, and throughout the U.S. He has performed in numerous orchestras in New York City, the southeast, the mid-west and has performed with notable jazz and improvising musicians such as Sam Brown, Joe Tekula, Harold Seletsky, Ronu Majumdar, Umalpurim Siveraman, Patrick Marks, John Clark, Joe Morello, John Campbell, Carl Fontana, Dave Burrell, Jimmy Guiffre, Richard Davis, David Baker, Harvey Phillips, Turk Van Lake, and Nashville country music producer Byron Gallimore. Koehler is also an active performer in the electronic music medium on MIDI Electric Double Bass, having performed annually at the College Music Society - Technology Symposiums. Dr. Koehler is a frequent clinician (ISB, Richard Davis Festival, etc.); and, is a writer on bass pedagogy, and a reviewer of new music for string bass and string orchestra for the American String Teacher.

Dr. Koehler has a number of transcriptions and original compositions for solo double bass which are available through Schorer Publications. One of his early research interests in string education involves the application of biofeedback to

study physiology and to aid the reduction of excess muscle tension in string playing. He has illustrated double bass techniques and made editorial contributions in the two editions of Robert Klotman's string education textbook entitled Teaching Strings . Koehler earned his doctorate at Indiana University. His double bass teachers include: Murray Grodner, David Izenson, Philip Albright, Ernest Szugyi, and Neal Mason. Koehler's Double Bass recordings and book can be purchased through Schorer Publications - tel 011-49-174-9877994 or schorer.publications@tonline. de, through the Illinois State University School of Music (309-438-7631), or directly from Bill Koehler at wkkoehl@ilstu.edu. Visit Bill's personal website at www.bill-koehler.com

Manpreet Bedi Manpreet Bedi started learning table at the age of 6. At the age of 10 he gave his first performance in an inter-school music competition and is a holder of 3rd prize. He continued learning thru out his school life, under the guidance of Pt. Raman Sharma and his music teacher Ms. Jula Borah. Later on he continued learning for a short period of 1 year from Pt. Anup Ghosh, disciple of Pt. Shyamal Bose.

Currently, Manpreet is training directly under the guidance of his guru TaalYogi Pt. Suresh Talwalkar, a living legend, who has re-defined the present & future of Tabla and the art of playing Tabla. Pt. Suresh Talwalkar has been honored with many awards such as Sangeet Natak Academy award presented to him by ex President of Indian Mr. Abdul Kalam.

Manpreet also gets guidance from the senior disciple of his guru Pt. Ramdas Palsule.

Manpreet has many performances under his belt with various artists visiting from India and locally in US. He shares a great interest in teaching Tabla to all age.groups and has been teaching for over 6 years. He is actively involved in promoting Indian Classical music in Central Illinois via Indian Music SOciety, NFP. Manpreet works in Information Technology at RLI Corporation a Specialty Insurance firm based in Peoria. He holds Bachelor's Degree in Political Science International Relations and a Masters in Computer Science.

Illinois Wesleyan University Collegiate Choir J. Scott Ferguson, Director Semi-Chorus

Soprano I Rachel Carreras Martha Cordeniz Bridget Erickson

Tenor I Paul Cochran Daniel Cox James Stoia

Soprano II Anya Fetcher Sarah Kedzie Renee Pierce

Tenor II Kyle Hoffman Matthew Neylon Matthew Tannenbaum

Alto I Andrea Ambrosia Emily Hopkins Emma Rhine

Bass I Jeremy Kings Andrew LoDolce Daniel Megli

Alto II Anna File Emily Meade Ashley Puenner

Bass II Steven Larson Matthew Skibo David Wendler

Soloists

Soprano I Rachel Carreras Soprano II Laura Martino Alto I Andrea Ambrosia Alto II Amber Johnson Emily Meade Ashley Puenner Tenor I Daniel Cox James Stoia

Tenor II Kyle Hoffman Matthew Neylon Matthew Tannenbaum Bass I Jeremy Kings Andrew LoDolce Daniel Megli Bass II Eric Diaz Steven Larson David Wendler