All We Are Program Book by juventasmusic

ALL WE

ARE

Meditations on family, identity, and perseverance BRATTLEBORO MUSIC CENTER, BRATTLEBORO, VT SEP 26, 2026 | 7PM MULTICULTURAL ARTS CENTER, CAMBRIDGE, MA OCT 10, 2026 | 8PM + LIVE ON YOUTUBE FIRST PARISH SUDBURY, SUDBURY, MA OCT 11, 2026 | 4PM

UP NEXT ALL WE ARE

THOMAS SCHMIDT:

TRAIL OF STARS

CROSSINGS

SEP 26

CENTER STAGE

FEB 21

MARCH 13

OCT 10, 11

JAN 23, 24

WHERE WE GATHER

A MOMENT OF LIGHT

MUSIC

APRIL 17, 18

MAY 15, 16

IN BLOOM JUNE 6, 13

juventasmusic.org

ALL WE

ARE

Kian Ravaei

Celine Ferro, clarinet; Grant Houston, violin; Nicholas Johnson, cello; Julia Scott Carey, piano

Piano Trio (2019) I. II. III. IV.

Reena Esmail

Grant Houston, violin; Nicholas Johnson, cello; Julia Scott Carey, piano

~Intermission~ Wherever You Think There Is Nothing (2026) WORLD PREMIERE

Oliver Caplan

Kelley Hollis, soprano; Celine Ferro, clarinet; Grant Houston, violin; Nicholas Johnson, cello; Julia Scott Carey, piano

All we are given we cannot hold (2022) David Biedenbender I. The Darkness, Literal and Figurative II. One and a Half Miles Away from Dying III. Watching My Daughter through the One Way Mirror of a Preschool Observation Room IV. The Thorn Birds V. Model Nation VI. Body of Work VII. Cuttings Kelley Hollis, soprano; Celine Ferro, clarinet; Julia Scott Carey, piano This program is funded in part by the Mass Cultural Council’s Portfolio Program; the Cambridge Community Foundation; and the Sudbury Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

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JUVENTAS NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE Juventas New Music Ensemble is a dynamic contemporary chamber group with a special focus on emerging voices.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

We reimagine classical music as a vibrant living art form, uplifting rising voices and bringing audiences music from a diverse array of composers that live in today’s world and respond to our time.

Meghan Guidry

Juventas has earned a reputation as a curator, with a keen eye for new talent. Since our founding in 2005, we have performed the music of over 300 living composers. Our musicians champion these artists with exceptional professional performances that open doors. From climate change to mental health, our programs speak to the most critical topics of the 21st century. Our concerts center on the human experience, featuring deeply personal music that fosters conversation and reflection. Our work has been recognized with multiple American Prize wins and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, New Music USA and Boston Foundation. Juventas has been featured on over a dozen recording projects, including albums from Albany Records, Navona, New Dynamic and RMN Classical. John A. Carey has generously sponsored Juventas New Music Ensemble’s 2026-27 Mainstage Season.

John Carey President

Andrew Wilkins Treasurer Clerk

Margie Coffin Brown Carson Cooman Meg Fuchs Leslie Jacobson Kaye Karen Ruymann Oliver Caplan ex officio

STAFF Oliver Caplan

Artistic Director Andrew Wilkins has generously sponsored Oliver Caplan’s position for the 2026-27 concert season.

Christina George General Manager

Saskia den Boon Grants Coordinator Graphic Designer

Molly Breen-Aronson Development Coordinator

J Lamoureux

Social Media Coordinator Lynn Eustis has generously sponsored J Lamoureux’s position for the 2026-27 concert season.

Braden Willenbrock Arts Administration Intern

FROM THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Our Mainstage Season Opener program takes its title from a simple truth: all we are given, we cannot hold. Across these four works, that truth becomes not a lament, but an invitation to cherish. Kian Ravaei’s Unstoppable opens the first half, expressing gratitude for those who keep rising after every fall—the survivors, the activists, the quietly persistent people in our own lives who prove that love outlasts fear. Reena Esmail’s Piano Trio carries a different kind of resilience: the determination to live fully between two inherited worlds, weaving Hindustani raag and Western tonal harmony into a single voice rather than choosing one home over another. Both pieces ask what it means to persist—through hardship, through the pull of divided belonging—and both answer with conviction, that persistence itself is a form of love. The second half turns toward the ephemerality of life. My own Wherever You Think There Is Nothing, with poetry by my dear friend Hannah Fries, asks us to look more deeply into the spaces we assume are empty and insignificant, but rarely are: the spiral of a shell, “the blossom’s chamber, where the squash bee sleeps,” and my favorite, “the great choral breath before Handel’s amen.” David Biedenbender’s All we are given we cannot hold answers in kind, setting Robert Fanning’s poetry to music that lingers in small, ordinary instants: a child’s fading habit of cuddling close, a moment we won’t recognize as the last until it’s already passed. Taken together, these four works trace a single arc, from the strength to endure, to the wisdom required to understand what won’t last, to the insight that the two are really the same gift. This is what we are: not fixed, not permanent, but unstoppable in our capacity to hold on, to let go, and to find, in both, something worth celebrating. Sincerely,

Oliver Caplan Artistic and Executive Director

AMPLIFY YOUR ARTISTRY. Explore 60+ undergraduate and graduate music program offerings at bostonconservatory.berklee.edu/music. INTERESTED IN SUMMER TRAINING? Register online for one of our summer programs in brass, composition, voice, or vocal pedagogy.

IN THE COMPOSER’S OWN WORDS Kian Ravaei | Unstoppable (2022) This piece is dedicated to those people in our lives who are truly unstoppable—the people who prevail in the face of obstacles, the people who are beaten down by life again and again but continue to get back up and push forward; the cancer survivors, the civil rights activists, maybe even the underdog sports players. We all have these people in our lives, and this piece celebrates them by saying thank you for being unstoppable, thank you for never giving up, and most of all, thank you for being a living example that love always triumphs over fear. Reena Esmail | Piano Trio (2019) “I wish I could live in India and America at the same time,” says Reena Esmail, the daughter of Indian immigrants who has become one of the most respected young composers in the United States; “I wish they shared a border, and I could build a little home right in between them. I know I can’t do that in the physical world, but this is where I live every day in my music.” Esmail’s compositions straddle two of the world’s most sophisticated musical traditions. On one side is the art music of Europe and its system of tonal harmony that developed over the last 400-plus years, and on the other, Hindustani classical music from North India, organized around collections of tones known as raags that go back many centuries further. Studies at the Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music grounded Esmail in the practices of the West’s classical music, including its precise system of notation that allows performers of any background to interpret unfamiliar nuances. As a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, she was able to spend a year in India studying the classical music of her ancestors, absorbing the oral tradition built on complex patterns and pitches that often can’t be categorized within Western norms. Authentic raags appear in each movement of the trio, including the monsoon season raag known as Megh that informs a chorale from the strings and other gestures in the first movement. In a tempo marked “Ephemeral,” the smooth modal phrases and long slurs highlight Esmail’s affinity with Ravel, who also looked outside the Western canon to expand his shimmering soundscapes. Flutters, slides and harmonics continue in the slow movement, creating a sense of improvisatory freedom while the music slips in and out of time. (notes by Aaron Grad) 7

Oliver Caplan | Wherever You Think There Is Nothing (2026) WORLD PREMIERE Carson Cooman has generously sponsored the world premiere of this piece. Author Hannah Fries and I have been friends for about 25 years now, since we were freshman at Dartmouth College. Connecting over our mutual love of nature and music, we wandered the trails of the Connecticut River Valley, dreaming of life as artists out in the wide world. I’ve always been struck by Hannah’s uncanny ability to see beyond. I remember a magical summer evening in Norwich, Vermont, mesmerized by fireflies flickering above a grassy field. I saw the beetles and treasured every pulsation of light. But Hannah? Hannah saw constellations. It should come as no surprise then, that Hannah eventually turned her expansive vision to the ultimate void: nothing. Or, as she puts it, “Wherever You Think There is Nothing.” Hannah’s poem invites us to look deeply into the spaces where silence, rupture, and stillness reside, revealing that “nothingness” is rarely empty. Instead, it can be a vessel charged with latent vitality and connection. Moving fluidly between micro-sanctuaries (the spiral of a shell) and the vastness of the cosmos, Hannah finds profound significance in the in-between moments and spaces. What if meaning was centered not in solid, untroubled forms, but in the openings and vulnerabilities? What if these wounds, pauses and voids are what truly connect us to one another and to the broader fabric of existence? David Biedenbender | All we are given we cannot hold (2022) All we are given we cannot hold was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University and is dedicated to and written for my friends in the Haven Trio––Lindsay Kesselman, Midori Koga, and Kimberly Luevano. The songs are settings of poetry by my friend Robert Fanning, selected from three of his incredible collections of work: Our Sudden Museum, The Seed Thieves, and All we are given we cannot hold. All of the poems connect in some way to the idea of the fleeting––the ephemeral––often capturing some small, seemingly ordinary moment, and finding a profundity and beauty within it. These poems remind me of advice once given to me by a friend. We were talking about how my children often snuggle up and cuddle with me, and she was reflecting on how her grown child no longer does that when she said, “cherish those moments. They are so special and beautiful, because you won’t realize until later that it was the last time that they did that seemingly small thing.” There are so many moments in life like this, and my hope with this piece is to reflect on their poignant beauty in an attempt to live in them more fully. 8

TEXT AND LYRICS Oliver Caplan | Wherever You Think There Is Nothing (2026) WORLD PREMIERE Text by Hannah Fries In the hollowed-out heartwood of an old tree. In a jagged eggshell’s translucent blue. Between bars, between bombs, between blows. In the blossom’s chamber where the squash bee sleeps. In the spiral cupped by the calcium shell. Between sirens, between slaughters, between famine’s last grains. In the great choral breath before Handel’s amen. In the time-machine swirl of stone. Beyond our blindness, the fabric that holds sun and sun and sun. The pupil’s black hole. Garden scent of the fresh-dug grave. The hand’s open palm. Not in the flesh, but the wound. David Biedenbender | All we are given we cannot hold (2022) Text by Robert Fanning 1. The Darkness, Literal and Figurative —for Gabriel and Magdalena 9

Neither should frighten you, but both will. Tonight it’s the literal darkness, figuratively: your day’s stuffed animals now poised shadows ready to leap and devour you. Now I’m here with you, your living father, literally, arms around you, to say: As your known shapes take misshapen forms, know: everything you can’t fully see suggests more than it is. Later, it’ll be the figurative dark, literally: the stuffed shadows of your dazed anima poised now ready to leap and devour your loves. Later, I’ll be with you here, your dead father, figuratively, arms around you, to say: As your unknown misshapen shapes take form, know: Everything you can’t see fully suggests more than it is. Neither should frighten you, but both will. (from Our Sudden Museum) 2. One and a Half Miles Away from Dying the people in this car, unaware their sacred closing moments are here, exhaust their last travel game. In the back seat the girl hums, braiding her sister’s black hair. The boy traces his name in breath on the back window, each slow letter squeaking the chilled glass, making his mother shiver. Like a fish trapped in thin pond ice, gasping, she stares into the car through the visor vanity mirror. Her lips glisten under the lipstick wand. Yawning, the driver’s face is caught wide open in passing headlight amber, his left hand draped over the wheel at the wrist. His other hand tries to retrieve the lost

voice of The Late World News reporter, her words garbled by cloudbursts shattering over the flat horizon, east.

Shutting the radio off, he tries to lure his kids to sing one they know by heart. He turns the rearview mirror until it holds their three faces. Half in shadow, placid, they peer at him below, his cheeks splashed green by dashboard light. The clock’s last digit clicks one more minute. Beyond the blind curve, a truck’s hulk of silver screeches over the median wall. An oil tanker, sparks raging, airborne, careens toward this side of the freeway —meteor tail of flame, like a missile shot astray. Back in the car, before the turn, it is quiet. The people smile doing last minute things: one scratching an ankle, one blinking, one taking a breath preparing to sing. (from The Seed Thieves) 3. Watching My Daughter through the One Way Mirror of a Preschool Observation Room Maggie’s finishing a portrait of our family, gluing googly eyes onto a stately stick figure I hope is me. Now she doesn’t know who to play with, as other kids, posie-pocketed, all fall down. She wears my face superimposed. I almost tap the glass, point her toward the boy with yellow trucks. Lost, she stares out the classroom window toward snow-humped pines beyond the playground. When I’m dead, I hope there’ll be a thin pane such as this between us. I’ll stand forever

out in the dark to watch my grown children move through their bright rooms. Maybe just once they’ll cup their hands against the glass, caught by some flicker or glint, a slant of light touching their faces. (from Our Sudden Museum) 4. The Thorn Birds —for my mother “...Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain.... Or so says the legend.” —(Wikipedia, Gospel of Thomas, Ch. 9) Through the nettles of casual chatter the question flutters in again. For the fourth time this week, you ask what it was—the title of that novel you’ve read so many times. The one you loved so much you once framed its cover and hung it on your wall. This morning, I open a window of time, hoping it will help: let’s give it a minute— let’s see if it comes to you. You glance up, fingertip to your lips—the way I imagine you might have as a girl, given a problem to solve. Everything goes, you’d said only yesterday of the teeth, the ears, the eyes, before the white-coated ophthalmologist swooped in to stick a needle into both of your irises. Now you squint into the ink black vines of yet another thickening dark toward the sting of what escapes you. The way you’ve pressed your heart— your whole life—toward the face of God and love: readying to sing its missing name. (from All We Are Given We Cannot Hold)

5. Model Nation —for Gabriel As you speak, new worlds rise in your eyes. A voice within your voice—do you hear it, too?— could fill a whole sea with whale song. It sings fathom and league, sings launch and conquer. It is ocean wide now, this good force of your going. Yet still, my heart fumbles to fasten some small rope around the dock—and so love is—wishes for a way to keep us here. Too late. That little boat you were, giggling in the tub as I blew bubbles, is oceans away. Sailboat, tugboat, yacht, steamer, freighter, I’ve been watching from the dock and hear already the growing ache and groan of giant chains clanking an iron hull, the long horn of adulthood calling you with its sweeping wall of mist and fog. When you look back and see me wave, may I be the ocean’s shoulders ever rolling beneath you. Please—know me not as a country fading from view, but as one who carried with love the great world you now carry in you. (from All We Are Given We Cannot Hold) 6. Body of Work Because we want it brighter. Because we want our own beauty bared before us. Because we’ve lived long enough with the room’s deep forest print, we take to the wall. Faces masked, we begin the task of peeling off the torn, dog-eared green, opening the story of our house. Years bleed up from beneath the heat of steam: solids, stripes, prints and florals unfurling as we score and scrape—decades of blues and deep reds, of pastels and pale yellows, a spectrum of dust-wet flesh sloughed off, pages falling in strips and flakes at our feet. It’s more than a century of layers with their pentimento stains of breath and voices before we reach bone, breaking through plaster holes we patch later, before, at last, the last wet swaths of our chosen painted shade dry; we finish in the day’s fading gold. This is the work of house and body. Every decorous self a patchwork of seams and glue, a mashup of lives to make one. Each accretion

of wound and scab a making and unmaking, the flesh a roll of film, a wall of swatches in the shifting fashions of light. How I’ve peeled back year into year, hoping to see the face of the child I was, the one breathing just beyond this last brittle layer of blue, whose shadow blossomed into this life, this room. Who blooms through his million lids of sleep, his chorus of bruise and roses. Who sings and sings: Be true, be true. (from All We Are Given We Cannot Hold) 7. Cuttings On the porch at dawn I watch my childrens’ commingled curls wander toward my feet, tumbleweeds in a coming storm’s unsettled air. Last evening they each stood here wearing a black plastic bag, their heads poked through the ripped neck hole, as my wife snipped at bangs, her trimmings making scrunched noses itch. I should get the broom to whisk these tufts into a bag—she likes to keep their hair. But I watch them drift instead, these little nests of them we left and cannot bear. The wind will take what we forget to sweep. And cannot keep. (from Our Sudden Museum)

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ABOUT THE COMPOSERS KIAN RAVAEI | b. 1999 Composer Kian Ravaei takes tone painting to a new level, synthesizing diverse inspirations into evocative musical portraits. Whether he is composing a string quartet inspired by wonders of the natural world, electronic music that evokes the pulsating energy of late-night dance clubs, or a symphonic poem that draws from the Iranian music of his ancestral heritage, he takes listeners on a spellbinding tour of humanity’s most deeply felt emotions. From Carnegie Hall to the Concertgebouw, musicians such as Grammy Award winner Fleur Barron, Performance Today Classical Woman of the Year Lara Downes, and New York Philharmonic clarinetist Anthony McGill have brought Ravaei’s music to global stages. His works have been commissioned by Seattle Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Northwest, and American Composers Orchestra, with commissioning awards from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, and the Barlow Endowment. Ravaei’s commercial recordings have earned critical acclaim from outlets including Gramophone, Bandcamp Daily, and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. He counts celebrated composers Valerie Coleman, John Corigliano, and Richard Danielpour among his teachers, and holds degrees in composition from UCLA and Indiana University. Ravaei is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School. REENA ESMAIL | b. 1983 Reena Esmail’s music weaves together the traditions of Hindustani and Western classical music, drawing musicians from many perspectives into shared creative spaces. Esmail divides her attention evenly between orchestral, chamber and choral work. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony and her music has featured on multiple Grammy-nominated albums, including The Singing Guitar by Conspirare, BRUITS by Imani Winds, and Healing Modes by Brooklyn Rider. 17

Many of her choral works are published by Oxford University Press, and her piece TaReKiTa has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide. Her life and music was profiled on Season 3 of PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This, as well as “Frame of Mind”, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Esmail was the Los Angeles Master Chorale‘s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and was Seattle Symphony’s 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. She has been in residence with Tanglewood Music Center (co-Curator—2023), Spoleto Festival (Chamber Music Composer-in-Residence—2024) and Marlboro Music Festival (2025 Composer in Residence). Esmail holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM’05) and the Yale School of Music (MM’11, MMA’14, DMA’18). Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazumdar, and she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled “Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians” explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers. Esmail resides in her hometown of Los Angeles, CA. OLIVER CAPLAN | b. 1982 Award-winning American composer Oliver Caplan offers a voice of hope in an uncertain world. Inspired by the resiliency of the human spirit and beauty of the natural world, his music celebrates stories of social justice, conservation and community. From Kearney, Nebraska to Carnegie Hall, Oliver’s music has been performed by over 75 ensembles. He has been commissioned by the American Wild Ensemble, Atlanta Chamber Players, Bella Piano Trio, Bronx Arts Ensemble, Brookline Symphony Orchestra and New Hampshire Master Chorale, among others. Winner of a Special Citation for the American Prize in Orchestral Composition and the Oratorio Society of New York’s 150th Anniversary Competition, additional recognitions include fellowships at Ragdale, Millay Arts and VCCA. His vocal works include settings of poetry by Maya Angelou, Richard Blanco, Hannah Fries and Meghan Guidry. Oliver’s music is featured on seven albums and has been streamed over a half million times. 18

DAVID BIEDENBENDER | b. 1984 David Biedenbender is a composer, conductor, performer, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator. His music “…seizes the ear through a blend of expressive beauty and formal prowess…at turns rapturous and intimate, menacing and exuberant Biedenbender isn’t afraid to wear heart on sleeve as he applies telling nuances to concise, exquisitely shaped sonic tales” (Gramophone). His creative interests include working with classically trained musicians and improvisers, chamber and large ensembles, interactive electronic interfaces and live brain data. His music is often influenced by experiences performing in rock and jazz groups, classical ensembles and concert bands, a New Orleans-style brass band, as well as Indian Carnatic Music. He has collaborated with many renowned performers and ensembles, and his works have been performed, recorded, and broadcast around the world. “…active, compelling…shot through with energy….wonderfully imagined…Clearly, this is a composer to watch out for” (Fanfare Magazine).

Credit: James Jones Photography

A dedicated teacher, he is currently Associate Professor and Chair of Composition in the College of Music at Michigan State University. He holds degrees in composition from the University of Michigan and Central Michigan University, and has also studied at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, the Aspen Music Festival, and in Mysore, India where he studied carnatic music.

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS KELLEY HOLLIS | soprano Karen and Fred Ruymann have generously sponsored Kelley Hollis for the 2026–27 season. Kelley Hollis is a classically trained soprano known for her interpretations of new and lesser known works. In summer 2019, Kelley traveled to London to record Arnold Rosner’s Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios (Tocatta Records, 2020). In 2018, she performed a concert at the Prague Castle in the Czech Republic, along with a series of recitals in cities around the country, as a featured artist with the Americké jaro festival. In 2019 Kelley premiered the role of Juana in Omar Najmi’s En el ardiente oscuridad. Her other opera roles include Rosalinda in J. Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Mimi in Puccini’s La (femme) boheme (MassOpera), Beth in Adamo’s Little Women (Metrowest Opera), Eliza in Muhly’s Dark Sisters (Third Eye Theater Ensemble); Florencia Grimaldi in Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas, Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Micaela in Le Tragedie de Carmen, Harper in Eötvös’ Angels in America (BU Opera Institute), and Nina in Pasatieri’s The Seagull (Opera del West). Kelley has performed twice at Boston Symphony Hall: In 2016 she appeared as the First Orphan in The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s concert production of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier alongside Renée Fleming and Susan Graham, and in 2015 she was the soprano soloist for Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, performing with the BU Symphony Orchestra. Her most recent concert repertoire includes Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem, Handel’s Messiah, and Faure’s Requiem.

Credit: James Jones Photography

In 2014, she was a finalist for Lyric Opera Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center and in 2011 Kelley received an encouragement award at the district level from the Metropolitan Opera National Council. Kelley Hollis received both her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern University and is a graduate of the Boston University Opera Institute. Kelley is also a graduate of A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts.

CELINE FERRO | clarinet Meghan Guidry has generously sponsored Celine Ferro for the 2026–27 concert season. Celine Ferro is a clarinetist whose work spans chamber music, orchestral performance, and creative collaboration. She is the core clarinetist of the Juventas New Music Ensemble, a force in the Boston based all-bass clarinet ensemble Improbable Beasts, and the clarinetist of the Kalliope Reed Quintet, where she can be heard on their latest album, Cañas sin Fronteras. Seeking diverse collaborations that take her work beyond the typical concert hall, Ferro is also the clarinetist and bass clarinetist of the groove ensemble Shibui, who recently headlined at the Boston Progressive Jazz Festival. Ferro has performed with other notable ensembles and organizations throughout New England including Vivo Performing Arts (formerly Celebrity Series of Boston), Castle of our Skins, the Cobb’s Hill Concert Series, and the Nightingale Vocal Ensemble. In addition to performing, Ferro is a dedicated educator who has private clarinet studios at Winchester Community Music School, Roger Williams University, Concord Academy, and Powers Music School where she also serves as department chair. When she’s not performing or teaching, she enjoys hiking, reading, and drinking good coffee. GRANT HOUSTON | violin, guest artist Violinist Grant Houston connects with listeners through performances of unbridled energy and emotional magnetism. Particularly devoted to chamber music, he appears frequently at festivals across the country such as the Grand Canyon Music Festival, Staunton Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and is in demand as a performer at numerous chamber music series, including Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, Chiarina Chamber Players, Monadnock Music, Wellesley Chamber Players, First Mondays at Jordan Hall, Castle of Our Skins, and Juventas New Music. He is a member and co-artistic director of the GRAMMY-nominated ensembles Palaver Strings and A Far Cry, and also performs with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. As the violinist of Trio Gaia, Houston tours with one of today’s most exciting piano trios, recognized for bringing audiences dynamic, personally relevant experiences inside and outside the concert hall. Houston completed undergraduate and graduate study at the New England Conservatory of Music. 21

NICHOLAS JOHNSON | cello, guest artist Nicholas Johnson is a Boston-based cellist whose work centers on collaboration, adventurous programming, and bringing new music to life. Equally at home in chamber music, orchestral performance, and composer-driven projects, he enjoys creating performances that connect audiences with both established repertoire and the voices shaping classical music today. A regular performer with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera, Nicholas has appeared on eight BMOP/sound recordings, including two GRAMMY-nominated opera albums and Paul Dooley: Masks and Machines, on which he serves as principal cellist. Since 2018, he has performed with a wide range of ensembles throughout the Boston area, including Juventas New Music Ensemble, Sound Icon, Ensemble Dal Niente at Walden School, Analog By Choice, the American Repertory Theatre, and Florida’s Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, where he served as visiting principal cellist. Each summer, Nicholas coordinates and performs with the string quartet-in-residence for the Grand Canyon Music Festival and the Native American Composer Apprentice Project. Working closely with Navajo and Hopi high school composers, the quartet develops and premieres new works before presenting them alongside diverse chamber repertoire at the Shrine of the Ages on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Nicholas holds degrees from the University of South Florida and Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where he studied with Scott Kluksdahl, Andrew Mark, William Weidrich, and Judith Eissenberg. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and performs on a 2016 cello by Boston-area luthier Curtis Bryant. JULIA SCOTT CAREY | piano Julia Scott Carey began her music training at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, where she received the Lanier Prize for Most Outstanding Graduating Senior. She was one of the first students admitted to the Harvard-New England Conservatory joint degree program, through which she received a master’s degree in composition. She received a second master’s degree in collaborative piano from Boston University. Julia is the Minister of Music at the Central Square Congregational Church in Bridgewater, where she leads the adult and children’s choirs from the keyboard. She is one of the accompanists for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the Boston Symphony 22

Children’s Choir. She also serves as the accompanist for the Metropolitan Chorale of Brookline, the Dedham Choral Society, the Boston College University Chorale, and the Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus. She previously served as the pianist for the Handel and Haydn Society’s Educational Vocal Quartet, the Wellesley College Chamber Singers, and the Boston Children’s Chorus. She is also a founder and core ensemble member of Juventas New Music Ensemble. As a composer, her orchestral works have been performed by numerous orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, and her works have been broadcast on national TV and radio in the United States and in Russia. She was the youngest composer ever published by the Theodore Presser Company. She was also chosen to arrange a folk song for Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Chang to play at Deval Patrick’s inaugural ball. Julia lives in Winchester with her husband and her daughter. In addition to music, she loves cooking, running, and spending time on Cape Cod.

MAKE A DONATION Donate to Juventas and help us touch hearts in New England and around the world. This year, with a budget of just $238,000, we are performing 25 concerts. They will reach over 2,500 people in-person and 1,000 online. Three easy ways to donate: •Venmo: @JuventasMusic •Credit Card: www.juventasmusic.org/donate-now •Check: Juventas New Music Ensemble, P.O. Box 102, Medford, MA 02155 Juventas New Music Ensemble is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Your fully tax-deductible contributions are essential for us to present new music. Advertise with Juventas Advertise in Juventas’s 2026-27 concert season! Attract patrons from New England and beyond, while supporting arts in your community. Advertising supports the work of Juventas and creates good will by identifying your business as a patron of the arts! For more information, please contact General Manager Christina George, christina.george@juventasmusic.org. Make a Planned Gift Bequests and planned gifts are simple, mutually beneficial ways for you to support Juventas New Music Ensemble beyond your lifetime. You can create your own legacy and keep supporting emerging composers for years to come by leaving a bequest in your will, life insurance policy, retirement plan, or other assets in your estate plan to Juventas New Music Ensemble, while at the same time reaping tax benefits for yourself and your descendents. If you would like more information about making a bequest to Juventas New Music Ensemble or if you’ve already included us in your estate plans, please contact our Artistic Director Oliver Caplan at olivercaplan@juventasmusic.org. Juventas New Music Ensemble is a nonprofit corporation, organized and existing under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with a principal business address of: Juventas New Music Ensemble P.O. Box 102 Medford, MA 02155 Our tax identification number is 26-2583870.

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VOLUNTEER WITH JUVENTAS!

Juventas is in search of enthusiastic volunteers to support our concert performances. As a volunteer, you'll be showered with gratitude and rewarded with complimentary tickets! To become a part of our volunteer community, please reach out to our General Manager, Christina George, at christina.george@juventasmusic.org. We'll reach out with volunteer opportunities when they arise, and joining our list comes with no obligations.

SUPPORTERS Juventas New Music Ensemble is deeply grateful to the incredibly generous community that supports our artistic programs. Juventas received the following individual gifts from August 1, 2025 through July 31, 2026. Please visit www.juventasmusic.org/donate-now to learn about making a tax-deductible gift. We make every effort to ensure that our roster of supporters is complete and accurate. If you notice an error or omission, please accept our apologies and let us know by contacting Development Coordinator Molly Breen-Aronson at molly.breen-aronson@juventasmusic.org. $5,000 and Above Anonymous The Boston Foundation Free for All Fund Oliver Caplan and Chris Beagan Margie and Chris Brown John A. Carey Bonnie Hirsh Massachusetts Cultural Council Karen MacDonald Ruymann & Frederick W. Ruymann, MD Andrew Wilkins $2,000-$4,999 Cambridge Arts Council Cambridge Community Foundation Medford Arts Council The Puffin Foundation The Ripley-Steinemann Family Fund $1,000–$1,999 Brookline Commission for the Arts Paula Luria Caplan and William Caplan Julia Scott Carey and Richard Mitrano Carson Cooman Christie Gibson and Michael Emanuel Good Treble Fund Max Hobart Leslie Jacobson Kaye and Richard Kaye Stella J. Lee Louise Scribner Emily Lyons and Ryan Snyder Wegmans Medford $500–$999 Boylston Cultural Council Laurel A Copeland and John Zeber Diane Droste April and Jon Durant Meg Fuchs Beth D Jacob Gloria Lee Nagesh Mahanthappa & Valentine Talland A. Charles Sheketoff and Naseem Rakha Sudbury Cultural Council $250–$499 Anonymous Larry Cohen and Susan Worst

Brian Cron Joanne Dreher William Dwyer Yukiko Egozy Lynn Eustis Ann Ferentz Jim Fogel Moriah Freeman Elizabeth Igleheart and Millan Galland Jacob Hilley Ian Lai Joshua Levit Alexandra Bowers and James Liu Jane Parkin Kullmann Katie and Bryce Remesch Kathryn Ritcheske Alexis and Nate Ruegger Lori K. Sanders & Jennifer A. Lewis Lucy and Len Schmolka Ben Sweetser $100–$249 Anonymous (4) Hugh Russell and Kenneth Allen Charlie & Lea Anderson Erin Anderson Scott and Tina Apelgren Jonathan Barnhart Anne Bilder & Johan den Boon Lee & Deb Binnig Carol Bloom Mary Bragg Mary Frances Breen Mary P. Breen and James Aronson Gail Bucher Michele Caniato Susan Carlson David Chia Deanne Coolidge Sarah Cummer Kathryn Denney Daniel Doña Barry Duncan Casey Elia Andrew Elliott and John Varone Andy Foery In memory of Jean and Ken Royer Lorna Gibson Myra and Roy Gordon John H. Graves Louise & Michael Grossman Meghan S. Guidry Jennifer Guthrie Jan Hardenbergh Heidi Hellring & Nathan Arnell

M L Hetz Maureen Hollis David and Mary Howarth Barbara Hughey Sachiko Isihara Howard Jacobson Jim Kane and Sharon Williams Tim Kane Kenneth Krause and Maura McEnaney Ludmilla Leibman Steven Levine and Laurie Jacobs David and Andrea Jones Kimberly and Chris Lehner Harold Lichtin Beth Manca May Marquebreuck Honor McClellan Ralph and Sylvia Memolo Claye and Mary Pederson Metelmann Reeva Meyer Cathi and Jeff Myer Bob Page and Dean Vassil Nathan Painter Jason Pavel and Marie Walcott Dan Perkins Velura Perry Brian Pingree and Alexis Dearborn Kathleen Quigley Quigley Family Ron Raines & Laura Kiessling Peter Ruymann Colin Ryan Ellen Sarkisian Jon Saxton and Barbara Fox Sidney Slobodkin Scott Smith Arlene Stevens Ann B. Teixeira Terry Lockhart and Kelsey Thompson Bradley Vernatter Elaine Walsh Hanjay Wang Emma Kent Wine Vicki and Andrew Wittenstein Sandy & Craig Blocker Beverly Woodward & Paul Monsky Pat & Greg Yukna Berkshire Partners $50–$99 Anonymous (3) Ruth Abram Brad Amidon

Gail Barry Laura Basford Bob Bassett John Beagan & Sarah Peck Robert Beagan J. L. Bell Kenneth Bigley Johanna Biviano Kyla Blocker David Brewster Margaret Cain Russell Capasso Rachel Ciprotti Tammis Coffin Molly Coombs Sharon Daniels Sullivan Elizabeth A Dean Susan Dolan Allison Donelan Claudine Donikian Cynthia Farnsworth Ellen Feingold David Feltner and Robert Edward Smith Celine Ferro David and Ellen Fries Hannah Fries David E. Fuchs John Garton Holly Greenhalgh, in memorial Nancy Goodwin Raymond Greenhalgh Jon and Carrie Hammond Mary and David Howarth Adam Howarth Wolcott Humphrey Catharine Hyson Stephanie Kacoyanis and Lawrence Wind Leonard and Terry Kahn Gerry Kane Susan Kendall William Krein Paul Lamoureux Joleen & James Larabee Dino Martins Kevin Mathieu Andrea Mazzariello Tom McAuliffe Ann McDonald Jennifer Moore Joe Sodroski & Alice Noble Rachel Panitch Karen Poggi Ajay Rai Mark and Jody Raider Bobbi Ritcheske Isadel & EB Saunter Andrew & Margot Schmolka In memory of Howard Schranz Gordon and Shannon Shannon Jonathan Simon, DC Sivazlian Family Robert Swander Kathleen Sweadner Barbara Turen Lauri Wasson

Up to $49 Anonymous (6) Cindy & John Adams Eva Adib Halden Aistrup Nate Aistrup Ian Aistrup Jaime Alberts Katherine Alden Hina Allen Aaron Alon Nancy Bakey Dawn Beckman Brittney Benton Steven Bergman Lauren Bernofsky Vivian Best Emily & Stuart Blitz Molly Breen-Aronson Sarah Brustin Rufus Burns-Heath Riikka Caffrey Judith Mitrano Althea Carroll Casey Cavanaugh Madeline Champagne Jennifer W Chan Lucy Cheng Grace Chua Minjin Chung Linda Ciesielski Beth J. Ciesielski Jenna Clark Stewart Coffin Lana Crosson Julia Crosson Eve Cruanes James Curtis Gian D’Agostino Saskia den Boon Alex Dobin Dr. Gerd Burger David L. Eddy Marry Eddy Richard Farnsworth Evan Fein Anthony Ferello Roderick Ferguson Maggie FInnegan Anna Fischer-Roberts Kimberly Fletcher Gay Foster Frederick Frank Gia Fuchs Avi Gahm-Diaz Stacy Garrop Thomas Garvey Tobin Gedstad Richard George Christina George Alvaro Gonzalez Orellana Scott Goodwin Mary Greene Matthew Gschwend Sylvia Giessel Britt Harter Hans Heilman Anna Hennessy Cara Herbitter

Shannon Hickey Jillian Hogan Kelley Hollis Michaele Hollis Paige Hopkins Anne Howarth & Frederick Frank Jr. Henry Huberty Meghan Hyland James Isherwood Cynthia Johnson Jon and Jean Jones Amie Jones James Jones Nathan Kane Leah Kane Antony Karacic KJ Karapetkov Jasmine Kaur Melody Laye Bella Kelly Robert Kendall Lauryn Koeppl Lawrence Labagnara J Lamoureux Theodore Lanman Lisa LaRochelle Ellie Lee Noah Lee JB Leitko Aimee Lents Kurt Lents Naomi Lev Steve Lewis John R Lister Tammy Lynch Ann MacDonald Megan Martin Andrea Martine Jennifer Matasick Patrick McAllister Amy McCaffery Patrick McGovern Taylor McNulty Alexandra Mendez-Diez Erin Merceruio Nelson Ily Metzger Libby Meyer Donna Migdal Annemarie Mitrano Rebecca Murray Linda Ng Ayumi Okada Amy O’Neill Nicola Payne Lisa Samols Katherine Potter Teresa Pyo Nate Raider Jennifer Raider Matt Raider Ellen Rathjen Anne Ray Fern and Ginny Remedi-Brown Sophia Reyes Susan Rizzo Hanna Roos Patricia Roos Haley Royer

We’re proud that our donor roster includes 100% of Juventas board, staff and ensemble members, plus 31 of our artistic collaborators We are also extremely thankful to the dedicated volunteers who gave their time and talents to Juventas in the past year: Chris Beagan Margie Brown Meg Fuchs Leslie Jacobson Kaye Ava McBurney

Credit: James Jones Photography

Jason M Rubin Melissa Rubinsky Christina Rusnak Anna Salvato Antonio Santos Tom Schmidt Alida Schmidt Leo Scmidt Caitlin Schmidt Kristen Schroeder Joseph Sedarski Ryan Shannon Daron Sharps Sadie Shelkey Nancy Shepard Alex Shiozaki David Sinagra Carolyn Soucy Nicholas Southwick Charlene Southwick Matthew Sperling Sydney Spicer Greg A Steinke Colleen Tay Maria Thompson Corely Benjamin Thurtle Caroline Todd Amy Tuttle Katharine & Dave Velleman Rachel Veto Hannah Vokal Leo Walsh Jennifer Walsh Beverly Waring Beth Wasson Abbie White Sharon Williams S. Wright Sophia Xie Noah Yonge Lu Yu Michael Zammito Lily Zielinksi

UP NEXT

THOMAS SCHMIDT

CENTER STAGE Featuring Juventas’s celebrated percussionist in a virtuosic solo program

MULTICULTURAL ARTS CENTER, EAST CAMBRIDGE, MA JAN 23, 2027 | 8PM + LIVE ON YOUTUBE FIRST PARISH SUDBURY, SUDBURY, MA JAN 24, 2027 | 4PM

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Learn more at juventasmusic.org/thomas-schmidt-center-stage