World Premiere BalletCollective THE NIGHT FALLS
A BalletCollective and PEAK Performances Production
Book and Lyrics by Karen Russell
Music and Lyrics by Ellis Ludwig-Leone
Direction and Choreography by Troy Schumacher
Set Design Jason Ardizzone-West
Costume Design Karen Young
Lighting Design Amith Chandrashaker and Abigail Hoke-Brady
Sound Design Garth MacAleavey
Projection Design Hannah Tran
Visual Art Harold Garcia V
Hair and Makeup Design Suki Tsujimoto
Music Direction Naomi Woo
Assistant Music Direction Mila Henry and Daniel Schlosberg
Assistant Set Design Kenny Duecker
Ableton Programming Dana Haynes
Orchestration Assistant and Engraving Franky Rousseau
Cast
Staging Note
The space is divided into two spheres: the lower world of the stage, where the action unfolds, and an upper plane that represents a kind of metaphysical limbo. Each character, aside from the Sirens, is represented by a Dancer on the lower level, and a Singer on the upper plane. They are two halves of a whole person—someone who has been torn apart by the Sirens’ song.
Plot Synopsis
Overture
BalletCollective Artistic and Administrative Management Kristen Segin
Production and Company Management
Stacey-Jo Marine
Production Stage Management
Zachary Jenkins
Assistant Stage Management
Beatrice Perez-Arche
Rehearsal Direction Michael Breeden
Assistant Rehearsal Direction Elise Monson
Production Assistance Lauren Koval and Esther Bermann
Additional Graphic Design Katrina Peterson
ASL Interpreters Kimberlin Chelinski, Jenna Marcoux
Felisberto, a teenager from Queens ............... Amari Frazier (dancer), David Merino (singer)
Angela, the athlete ...................................... Dabria Aguilar (dancer), Olivia Puckett (singer)
George, the musician ................................ John Selya (dancer), Alexander Dobson (singer)
Nadia, the mother Laurie Kanyok (dancer), Ilene Pabon (singer)
Allan, the python hunter Brendon Chan (dancer), Allen Tate (singer)
Jarvis, the acrobat Reed Tankersley
Siren Singers ........................................................... Eliza Bagg, Claire Wellin, Angela Yam
Sirenette/Sufferer Dancers ........................ Kellie Drobnick, Katarina Smith, Tatiana Nuñez
Sufferers ..Sam Assemany, Nicole Ashley Morris, Courtney San Martin, Joshuan Vázquez
Additional Casting by Jason Styres of The Casting Collaborative.
The Night Falls Musical Ensemble
Isabel Gleicher, Flute; Kristina Teuschler, Clarinet; Nicolee Kuester, Horn; Daniel Schlosberg, Piano; Chelsea Lane, Harp; Jeremy Smith and David Stevens, Percussion; Benjamin Russell, Violin; Hannah Levinson, Viola; Clare Monfredo, Cello
Co-produced by BalletCollective, Inc., and PEAK Performances at Montclair State University. The Night Falls was commissioned by BalletCollective. The Night Falls was developed during a 2018 residency for Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals with further support provided during a virtual creative residency in 2021.
Leadership support for the world premiere production of The Night Falls is provided by Stephen Kroll Reidy, Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals with lead support from the Jerome Robbins Foundation and other funder support, Jonna Mackin, National Endowment for the Arts Grants for Arts Projects and Geoff Woolley Family Fund.
Singer rehearsal space generously provided by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Better Company Records. Duration: 1 hour, 22 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.
In consideration of both audiences and performers, please turn off all electronic devices. The taking of photographs or videos and the use of recording equipment are not permitted. No food or drink is permitted in the theater.
Three Floridian Sirens once sang to lure visitors to “The Night Falls,” a roadside attraction built around a mysterious grotto. They drowned during a nocturnal concert, each failing to rescue the others. Their spirits were transformed into monstrous birds, and their song became a spell of despair. Now they haunt the grotto where they once performed. All across America, suffering people begin to hear this song in their dreams, calling them to the water’s edge.
Act One
The show opens in the Queens, NY, bedroom of a teenager named Felisberto, in the middle of his recurring nightmare. Three winged women sing a dark lullaby to him. They promise to relieve him of every earthly care and drown out his pain. The Sirens sing at a shattering pitch, creating a fracture in Felis. A gulf opens between the part of him that wants to live and the part that has been possessed by the song.
Felis wakes and reminisces about his boyfriend who has recently died. Without him, Felis feels unmoored and unable to move forward. Ignoring his mother’s calls from behind the door, Felis sinks back into sleep.
Felis has another nightmare: he sees dozens of people struggling to resist the Sirens’ song. Troubled, he wakes and scans the channels of his television, landing on a commercial for a place called “The Night Falls.” He recognizes the singing women from his dreams. He decides to go there and learn why this song is haunting him.
Act Two
Felis arrives at the abandoned, decaying Night Falls and discovers he is not alone: others have been drawn here by the Sirens’ song. A sign reads THE SIRENS WILL SING AT NIGHT FALL. Fearing the song’s return, they band together and begin to tell each other stories. A mother relates the pain of losing her daughter to addiction; a python hunter shares his horror at becoming prey; an acrobat pantomimes a joyful day in his life; a professional athlete relives her public breakdown; and a composer whose wife has recently left him shares the simple melody from the beginning of their love story.
Right at sunset, Felis moves into the center of the group. He is surprised and overjoyed when the others merge into his story with him. But as the light disappears, the Sirens’ voices rise in volume, and Felis is spun away from the group and into the shadows.
Act Three
An old video from “The Night Falls” flickers to life. It informs the group that the concert is about to begin, synced to high tide and the solar eclipse. The athlete searches for Felis. The group firms up its bonds, preparing to enter the grotto together to save him.
Inside the grotto, the Sirens have become prisoners of their own echoing song, their wings fused to the rocks. They sing to Felis, urging him to drown and dissolve, solid to void. The group calls to him, waking him out of his trance. They pit everything they have against the song of the Sirens. Their voices tether Felis to the world outside the grotto.
Felis addresses the Sirens. He asks them who they were when they were fully human, before this song possessed them. They, too, begin to wake out of their long nightmare. They fall silent at last.
The humans are reunited with the parts of themselves from whom they have been exiled. The group exits together, no longer isolated sufferers but something closer to a family. The Sirens’ spirits are freed and released into the dawn.
For access to the full lyrics of The Night Falls, visit thenightfalls.net/lyrics.
Full program with all artists biographies to be found at
About the Artists
Karen Russell (Librettist/Co-lyricist) is the author of three acclaimed story collections, most recently Orange World and Other Stories, the novella Sleep Donation, and the novel Swamplandia!, a New York Times bestseller, winner of the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, one of the New York Times’ best books of 2011, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her recent work has been featured in the 2022 Best American Short Stories and the 2022 Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy anthologies and optioned for TV and film. She won the 2018 and 2012 National Magazine Award for Fiction, and was chosen for the New Yorker ’s “20 under 40” list and the National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35 Award. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Bard Fiction Prize, and a Shirley Jackson Award. Born and raised in Miami, FL, she now lives in Portland, OR, with her husband, son, and daughter.
Ellis Ludwig-Leone (Composer/Co-lyricist) is a composer whose music combines lush, naturalistic textures with moments of thorny complexity. Lauded by the New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino for his “knack for simultaneously expressing beauty and crisis,” Ludwig-Leone writes music that exists in the fine margins between euphoria and dread. After coming to international attention as the songwriter behind the celebrated indie band San Fermin, Ludwig-Leone has spent the greater part of the last decade balancing his work as a songwriter with a robust career as a composer of concert works written for many of today’s contemporary classical luminaries. The 2022–23 season brings the premiere and album release of False We Hope, performed by the GRAMMY-winning Attacca Quartet and soprano Eliza Bagg (Roomful of Teeth); the premiere of The Night Falls, with a libretto by Ludwig-Leone and Karen Russell (Swamplandia! ) and direction and choreography from Troy Schumacher (New York City Ballet); the premiere and tour of a new work for harpist Lavinia Meijer and violist Nadia Sirota; and the premiere of a new work for choreographer Danielle Rowe and the Grand Rapids Ballet. Together with his bandmate Allen Tate, Ludwig-Leone is a founding partner of Better Company Records, a Brooklyn-based label with an emphasis on collaboration. He is a recipient of residencies from MacDowell and Banff Centre for the Arts. Born in Rhode Island and raised in rural Massachusetts, he lives in Brooklyn.
Troy Schumacher (Director/Choreographer) is a Bessie-nominated American choreographer, dancer, and director living in New York, NY. His athletic aesthetic draws upon the artists he collaborates with to produce fresh, unexpected results. He is a soloist dancer with New York City Ballet and the founder of BalletCollective. He has been dubbed a “visionary artist” by T Magazine and is “one of his generation’s most acclaimed choreographers” (PBS). Schumacher’s work has been presented by Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, Performa, Danspace Project, Guggenheim Works & Process, Guggenheim Bilbao, PEAK Performances at Montclair State University, the Joyce Theater, the Savannah Music Festival, and NYU Skirball Center, among others. He has collaborated with many artists including Jeff Koons, Karen Russell, Zaria Forman, Thom Browne, Ken Liu, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Maddie Ziegler, and David Salle. In addition to live performances, Schumacher has choreographed numerous art, fashion, and commercial shoots, including works for Google, Sony PlayStation, Capezio, HP, Aritzia, CR Fashion Book, Tom Ford, and the New York Times. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Schumacher created, directed, and produced the first live world-premiere ballets in the US: the one-act Natural History and the full-length Nutcracker at Wethersfield.
Jason Ardizzone-West (Set Design) is an Emmy award–winning set and production designer whose work spans the genres of live theater, dance, TV/film, concert design, and architecture. Recent and notable projects include Florence + the Machine, The Bluest Eye, Phish NYE, Jesus Christ Superstar Live (NBC), Wedding Band, Blue Man Group, Grace, and Bliss. Ardizzone-West has collaborated with creative teams and theaters across the country, including Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, the Atlantic, the Geffen, the Old Globe, Miami City Ballet, the 5th Avenue Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, The Huntington, Berkeley Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Cleveland Playhouse, the Vineyard Theatre, the Public Theater, and more. ardizzonwest.com
Kenny Duecker (Associate Set Designer) is a scenic designer and assistant living in Brooklyn, NY. He would like to thank Jason and NJ Transit for letting him help get The Night Falls ready for opening! He hopes you enjoy the show!
Karen Young (Costume Design) is a New York–based costume designer who has designed costumes for numerous dance, experimental theater, and video art projects. Recent design for dance includes works with BalletCollective, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Royal Ballet, Czech National Ballet, Martha Graham Dance
Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance, National Ballet of Cuba, and Miami City Ballet as well as projects with choreographers Kyle Abraham, Brian Brooks, Alejandro Cerrudo, Lucinda Childs, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Pontus Lidberg, and Sonya Tayeh. Recent design for theater includes Geoff Sobelle’s Home (BAM) and Third Rail Projects’ highly acclaimed immersive show Then She Fell. Collaborations with contemporary visual artists include costume design for the video works of Eve Sussman, Matthew Barney, Michelle Handelman, and David Michalek. Karenyoungcostume.com
Amith Chandrashaker (Lighting Design) has been featured at NYTW, The Public, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, The Atlantic, Signature NY, Soho Rep, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Colorado, and Atlanta Opera. Dance works include productions with Sidra Bell, Alexander Ekman, Liz Gerring, Cedar Lake, and Rennie Harris. He is the recipient of Drama Desk and Henry Hewes awards. He is a professor at the University of Maryland.
Abigail Hoke-Brady (Lighting Design) is a Brooklyn-based lighting designer whose work centers primarily in opera and new work. Work in New York City includes The Last Supper (SOPAC); The Beginning Days of True Jubilation and The Strangers Came Today (SOCIETY Theater Co.); BUST (Soho Repertory Theater) *scenic and lighting design*; Portrait and a Dream (Contemporaneous); Bound (Fresh Squeezed Opera); The Little Death: Vol. 1 (Prototype Festival); MukhAgni (Under the Radar/The Public Theater); and Silent Voices: Lovestate (New Victory Theater/Brooklyn Youth Chorus). Regional work includes Requiem (INSeries Opera); Those With 2 Clocks (co-design with Amith Chandrashaker, The Wilma); How I Learned What I Learned (Playmakers Repertory Company); Cosi fan tutte (San Diego Opera); The Last American Hammer and FLORIDA (UrbanArias); Glory Denied and Three Decembers (Tri Cities Opera); and Mad Forest (Bard College/Theatre for a New Audience). She is the resident designer at DiMenna Center for Classical Music. She has been a recipient of the Robert L.B. Tobin Director–Designer Grant (2017); a lighting design mentor: Williams College’s Senior Honors Projects (spring 2020); a guest artist at NYU’s Playwright’s Horizons Theater School (spring 2021); and a guest lecturer at Drew University (spring 2021) and Montclair State University (2021–22). Hoke-Brady received her BA from Drew University (2011) and her MFA from NYU (2016). She is a member of USA 829. hokebradydesigns.com; Instagram: @hokebradydesigns
Garth MacAleavey (Sound Designer), since cutting his teeth on the NYC new-music scene in 2008, has been a leader in high-fidelity new music sound design and live classical instrument amplification. He specializes in immersive surround sound, spatial audio mixing/system design, and transparent reinforcement and recording. MacAleavey is the director of sound and technical design of Brooklyn’s National Sawdust. In partnership with Meyer Sound, he is an expert in Constellation and Space Map systems and continues to move the art of spatial sound forward daily. Recent sound-design credits include A God of Her Own Making by JOJO ABOT and Esperanza Spalding, Black Lodge by David T. Little, Song of Songs by David Lang, In Our Daughter’s Eyes by Du Yun, Spatial...No Problem by Lee Scratch Perry and Mouse on Mars, Grammy-nominated Soldier Songs by David T. Little and Opera Philadelphia, Ellen Reid’s Pulitzer Prize–winning p r i s m, NYPhil Sound On: Leading Voices, Ted Hearne’s Dorothea, Michael Gordon’s Aquanetta, Nick Cave’s The Let Go at Park Ave. Armory, and David T. Little’s groundbreaking Dog Days.
Hannah Tran (Projection Design) is a freelance designer for live performance. She received a BA from the University of California–Irvine and is currently an MFA candidate at the Yale School of Drama, studying projection design.
Harold Garcia V (Visual Art) is a Cuban artist based in New York. Garcia has an active practice as a visual artist. He studied visual arts at the San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy (2004) in Havana, Cuba. He had a solo exhibition at the United Nations in New York at the Albanian building as well as two lectures, “A Guilt-Ridden Landscape” and “Welcome to the Everglades: An Investigative Project on Art and Environment,” at the United Nations and DDLS. He has also directed the “Reimagining Florida” workshop at two elementary schools in Miami. He operates an online shop to collect funds to help children learn to love and protect the Florida Everglades. His work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Verona, Turin, Washington, Havana, and Vienna.
Naomi Woo (Music Director) is a prominent young Canadian conductor and pianist, recognized by CBC Radio, ARTV, and Flare magazine as a rising star on the Canadian classical music scene. Currently assistant conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Woo is a finalist for the position of artistic and music director of l’Orchestre Symphonique de l’Estuaire, and a member of Tapestry Opera’s Women in Musical Leadership program and the Orchestre Metropolitain Montreal’s inaugural conducting academy. Following debuts with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, KitchenerWaterloo Symphony Orchestra, Regina Symphony Orchestra, and Thunder Bay
Symphony Orchestra in 2021–22, this season sees her debuts with the Calgary Philharmonic, Orchestra NOW (New York), the Ann Arbor Symphony, and at LSO St. Luke’s with the ensemble Tangram Sound. On the opera stage, she conducts the Canadian premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Angel’s Bone in Vancouver and Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s The Night Falls in New York City and assists at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Woo holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She has also studied mathematics, philosophy, and music at Yale College, the Yale School of Music, and Université de Montréal.
Mila Henry (Assistant Music Director) is a New York–based music director, pianist, and conductor who maintains a versatile career, spanning folk operas to rock musicals. Hailed “a stalwart contributor to the contemporary opera scene” (Opera Ithaca), she conducted the world premieres of Letters That You Will Not Get (The American Opera Project), Magdalene (PROTOTYPE), and Words on the Street (Baruch PAC); played for We Shall Not Be Moved (Opera Philadelphia, The Apollo, Dutch National Opera); and coached for Iphigenia (Real Magic, Octopus Theatricals) and The World Is Round (Ripe Time, Obie-winner). She is currently artistic director for The American Opera Project and has worked extensively with Beth Morrison Projects, HERE, and PROTOTYPE, including as pianist for Looking at You, Mata Hari, and Thumbprint and répétiteur for Acquanetta, Angel’s Bone and p r i s m, among others. She is also a member of the band Opera Cowgirls. Milahenry.com
Daniel Schlosberg (Assistant Music Director/Pianist), a Brooklyn-based composer, pianist, and conductor, has had his music performed by the Dover Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Nashville Symphony, Albany Symphony, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and Lorelei Ensemble at venues including Carnegie Hall, (le) poisson rouge, Royal Albert Hall, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption and has also been featured in the New York Times and WNYC’s Soundcheck. Schlosberg has received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards. Current projects include original music for Kate Tarker’s MONTAG, which ran in the fall of 2022 at Soho Repertory Theater, composition and music direction for Jeremy O. Harris’s A Boy’s Company Presents, premiering in LA in September 2023, and The Extinctionist, a new opera for Heartbeat Opera premiering in 2023–24. Schlosberg music directed the October 2022 run of Anthony Roth Costanzo and Justin Vivian Bond’s Only an Octave Apart at Wilton’s Music Hall in London, and he
also performed as a piano soloist with the New York Philharmonic when the show was mounted at Lincoln Center in January 2022. Schlosberg is the music director of Heartbeat Opera, for which his re-orchestrations of classic operas have garnered national acclaim. As a performer, Schlosberg has collaborated with such luminaries as Angel Blue, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Anthony McGill, David Shifrin, Ani Kavafian, Yura Lee, and the Imani Winds, and he was also the pianist for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Schlosberg’s work has been described as “richly detailed yet delicate” by the New York Times and “witty” and “ingenious” by the Wall Street Journal. danschlosberg.com
Dana Haynes (Ableton Programmer) is a musician and music programmer from Brooklyn NY. He has collaborated with Ellis Ludwig-Leone on a variety of projects and is excited to be part of the premiere for The Night Falls. Broadway credits include Moulin Rouge, Beetlejuice, Waitress, Be More Chill, and Kong. Off-Broadway credits include The Mad Ones and We’re Gonna Die. Regional credits include Lempicka (La Jolla Playhouse), Beetlejuice (tour), Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (tour), and Waitress (tour).
Suki Tsujimoto (Make-Up and Hair Design) Theatre: K-POP Broadway, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. Fashion and Editorial: Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Moschino, Thom Browne, Gucci, Coach, Tom Ford, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Fenty Beauty, Savage Fenty, Vogue.com, Vogue China, Allure, In Beauty, Ginza, OUT. Television/Film: The Chris Gethard Show season 1, 2, 3, 4; Billy and Billie season 1, Talking Evil season 1; MTV VMA Vanguard Awards 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022.
Stacey-Jo Marine (Production and Company Manager) has worked in over 35 countries and in all 50 states touring with dance and theater companies including Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Dance by Neil Greenberg, STOMP, New York Theatre Ballet, Dar A Luz, and Richard Move’s Martha @ series. Recent NYC dance credits include stage managing John Jasperse’s Visitation, Christopher Williams’s Les Sylphides, Kathy Westwater’s installation Wanderings at Staten Island’s Fresh Kills, and a Cage/Cunningham collaboration at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and she was the lighting designer for Colleen Thomas’s Bessie-nominated Light and Desire. Although best known as a refined production stage manager, she has been a lighting designer for hundreds of dances and loves teaching dance stagecraft, which she has done at Purchase College, Joffrey Ballet School, and Marymount Manhattan College. Marine served as the founding executive
director of CorbinDances (Patrick Corbin, artistic director) from 2005 to 2011, was the co-founder and producer of Cape Dance Festival 2013–19 and company manager at Bard College’s SummerScape and Bard Music Festival from 2015 to 2019. She recently served on an Arts Westchester granting panel and looks forward to her upcoming collaboration with Peter Chu at the 92nd Street Y.
Zachary Jenkins (Production Stage Manager) has worked Off Broadway on June Rites !! (Waterwell), Endlings (New York Theatre Workshop), A Thousand Ways (Part 2): An Encounter, the Under the Radar Festival, Twelfth Night, King Lear, The Odyssey (The Public), and A Funny Thing…(MCC). Regional credits include Endlings (American Repertory Theater), As You Like It, The Odyssey (Seattle Rep), The Tempest (Dallas Theater Center), and Lend Me a Tenor (Resident Theatre Company). Opera credits include the world premiere of Awakenings at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Houston Grand Opera, Opera North, the Princeton Festival, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera Omaha, Tulsa Opera, Music Academy of the West, and Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice. Events: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. He holds a BFA from Baylor University.
Beatrice Perez-Arche (Assistant Stage Manager) is a Cuban-American theater artist originally from Miami and currently based in New York City. She has primarily worked at the Public Theater on the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Under the Radar Theatre Festival, and with the Hunts Point Children’s Alliance. She is an associate artist at Sanguine Theatre Company and has also worked at a range of companies including Tectonic Theater Project, Women’s Project Theater, Little Island, Chelsea Factory, and Boston Playwrights’ Theater. She received her BFA in Theater Arts: Design & Production from Boston University. She focuses her work on creating community in the rehearsal room and currently freelances as a stage manager and dramaturg.
Kristen Segin (BalletCollective Artistic and Administrative Manager) is the artistic and administrative manager for BalletCollective since 2021 and a senior member of New York City Ballet’s corps de ballet. Segin graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University in 2019 with a bachelor of arts degree in organizational leadership and a minor in communications and media studies. In addition, she has helped found, organize, and serve as researcher and co-moderator for the NY Performing Arts Library’s Dance Division program “Corps Rep,” a virtual coaching platform. As a professional dancer, Segin became a member of the corps de ballet in August 2009.
She has performed featured roles in ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, August Bournonville, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Peter Martins, and Justin Peck. She was New York City Ballet’s 2018–19 Janice Levin Award honoree. Born in Voorhees, NJ, Segin studied ballet at the prestigious Rock School in Philadelphia, PA. She enrolled full time at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, in the fall of 2005, where in 2007 she was awarded the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise, and made an apprentice with the company in August, 2008.
Michael Breeden (Rehearsal Director) was born in Lexington, KY, and moved to New York City to train at the School of American Ballet. He was a member of the Miami City Ballet from 2006 to 2017, where he performed principal roles in the works of George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, and many others. He has been a part of the BalletCollective team since 2017, where he has assisted the company’s founder Troy Schumacher and other choreographers on the creations and rehearsal processes of over a dozen works. He has staged Peck’s works for many companies and universities, including Royal Danish Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, and Princeton University. He hosts the highest rated dance podcast on streaming platforms, Conversations on Dance, which has enjoyed residencies at the Kennedy Center, San Francisco Ballet, and the Vail Dance Festival.
Elise Monson (Assistant Rehearsal Director) is a dance artist originally from Salt Lake City, UT. She graduated from the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance in May 2022 as Presidential Scholar recipient and has performed the work of choreographers William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Jirí Kylián, Justin Peck, Merce Cunningham, Bret Easterling, and Barak Marshall, among others. While at USC, Monson also maintained many leadership positions, such as being co-president of the Southern California Choreographic Collective, where she created platforms for USC artists to showcase and present their artistic work. In this position, she also developed the SC Student Production Fund, which provided financial support to USC artists who wanted to create their own shows and productions. Post-graduation, she was a featured performer in USC Kaufman’s international performance debut in Fürth, Germany, and was part of the WOODWORKS residency program in Traverse City, Michigan. Monson’s choreography has also been presented in venues around the United States and has won prizes at both national and local choreography
competitions. She was named the Student Choreography Winner at SALT’s Shape Choreography Festival and received the Judge’s Choice Award and Student Choreography Award at the Utah Dance Festival. Monson is also a certified Stott Pilates instructor and implements this gained kinesthetic awareness and knowledge into her own personal practice.
Lauren Koval (Production Assistant) is thrilled to jump back into live theater after spending the last year working on set for Netflix, A24, Showtime, Starz, and HBO. Koval is a 2021 graduate of the University of Central Florida’s Stage Management program. Moving to New York after graduation, she dove headfirst into health and safety management with RCI Theatricals. Here she supported the reopening of Hadestown and Ain’t Too Proud and the opening of Chicken and Biscuits on Broadway.
Esther Bermann (Production Assistant) is a California native who is celebrating her 10th year of living in New York City. As a stage manager, she has worked Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep, and 59E59. Other NYC credits include the Public Theater, New York City Center, the Juilliard School, NYMF, and Bushwick Starr. Additionally, she has over 20 years of dance and theater performance experience and has worked in the administrative offices of Dance/NYC and Pentacle. She holds a BA in Dance and Drama from University of California, Irvine.
Cast
DANCERS
Dabria Aguilar (Angela, the athlete) is a native of Charleston, SC, where she danced competitively before attending the Dance Conservatory of Charleston. There, she was able to perform works under the direction of Lindy Mandradjieff Fabyanic and Darrell Grand Moultrie. She had the opportunity to attend many prestigious summer intensive programs such as Boston Ballet, Juilliard, Complexions, and Nashville Ballet. Once graduated from Hanahan High School in 2021, Aguilar chose to pursue her career at CLI Conservatory in Easthampton, MA, directed by Teddy Forance. This nine-month training program consisted of training under world-renowned artists and choreographers, which ultimately led to her being represented by Clear Talent Group. She now resides in New York City, pursuing dance professionally while obtaining a business degree
online. She has enjoyed the excitement of working in both commercial and concert worlds, and is especially eager to perform with BalletCollective.
Sam Assemany (Sufferer), of South Lyon, MI, studied her bachelor of fine arts in dance at Western Michigan University. In 2015 she moved to New York City as a freelance artist. Since residing in New York, she has had the opportunity to work for various artists including NOW Dance Project, Andrea Ward, Rosie DeAngelo, Eimile Davis, Shawn Bible Dance Co., and Hollye Bynum’s Of Bones ||. Assemany is currently dancing for BARE Dance Company, Alma Collective, and Jodie Randolph Dance and has performed in several New York–based shows, including Bryant Park Presents: Contemporary Dance, hosted by ITE Dance, and the Mr. Abbott Awards. Most recently, Assemany attended Dance Italia on scholarship, where she worked closely with artists Sandra Garcia, Stefano De Luca, and Milan Kampfer, among others, and she performed work by Maya Orchin at the Real Collegio in Lucca, Italy.
Brendon Chan (Allan, the python hunter) is a professional dancer and singer, born and raised in San Francisco. After graduating from UC Santa Barbara he started his career traveling the world performing on cruise ships until moving to New York City to pursue musical theater. His first show out of the city was The Bodyguard national tour, followed by West Side Story at the Guthrie Theater and the SF cast of Hamilton at the Orpheum Theatre, performing in his hometown for the first time. Upon returning to NYC, Chan has begun working his dance into the TV/film world, appearing in shows like Westworld, Mrs. Maisel, Up Here, and Saturday Night Live.
Kellie Drobnick (Sirenette/Sufferer), a 2016 graduate of the Juilliard School, is a native of Columbus, OH. This past Christmas season, Drobnick was a Rockette in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. TV and film credits include being a Jet Girl in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, choreographed by Justin Peck, as well as a principal dancer in Prodigal Son, The Kitchen, and Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, choreographed by Mandy Moore. Drobnick also performed in the National Tour of Dirty Dancing, Twyla Tharp’s company, and MOMIX. Drobnick is a 2019 Clive Barnes Award finalist and is excited to be back working with BalletCollective on The Night Falls.
Amari Frazier (Felisberto Robles, a teenager from Queens) (he/him) is from Chicago, IL, and graduated from the Chicago Academy for the Arts in 2019. He went on to study at the Juilliard School to obtain a BFA in Dance. He has attended summer
programs at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Springboard Danse Montreal, and Nederlands Dance Theater. He also worked with BalletCollective during the summer of 2021 and has done many projects with the company since. At Juilliard, Frazier performed the works of Sonya Tayeh, Ohad Naharin, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Spenser Theberge, and Jermaine Spivey, among others. Frazier has choreographed many performances at Juilliard and will premiere a new work in April for Juilliard’s Senior Production. He is now a fourth year and looking forward to a career as a performing artist and choreographer.
Laurie Kanyok (Nadia, the mother) has a performance career spanning across Broadway to television and film, having performed lead roles in Twyla Tharp’s Movin’ Out and Come Fly Away. Other Broadway credits include FOSSE directed by the late Ann Reinking, In Your Arms, and Saturday Night Fever. Kanyok has performed on all major awards shows, including The Tony Awards’ opening number with Billy Joel, The Grammy Awards with the Smashing Pumpkins, and The Academy Awards with Brian Adams, and has danced backup with recording artists and musical icons Elton John, Michael Jackson, and Ricky Martin. Off stage, Kanyok has worked globally as a choreographer with Cirque du Soleil and for Olympic champion Brian Boitano and as a casting consultant for Broadway’s An American in Paris. With a passion and commitment to cultivate the next generation of performers, in 2018 Kanyok founded Kanyok Arts Initiative, an intimate New York City training program that bridges aspiring artists from the studio to the stage with an elevated training curriculum and a world-class faculty. Kanyok is a sought-after dance educator, mentor, and coach and is looking forward to her return to the stage.
Nicole Ashley Morris (Sufferer/Swing) is a movement artist from Sarasota, FL. Starting at a young age, Morris has always had a passion for the arts. She trained heavily with Cheryl Copeland and Sarasota Ballet throughout her adolescence and then attended Florida State University, where she received a BFA in Dance. After graduation, Morris moved to New York City, where she started to work with Kristin Sudeikis Dance and Jackie Nowicki’s NOW Dance Project. As a concert dancer, Morris has also performed works by artists like Al Blackstone, Reed Luplau, Lauren Lovette, Gierre Godley, Hope Boykin, Melissa Hough, Josh Prince, and Cherice Barton. Aside from live performance, Morris has been seen on the Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen NYE special on CNN with Forward Space and can be seen featured in a Superbowl LV commercial for Paramount +. Additional dance credits include music
videos for Ben Harper, “Uneven Days” and “Disappear,” and Alison Sudol, “The Runner,” both choreographed by Kristin Sudeikis. Morris loves being part of any creation and offers a sincere artistic voice to any work she participates in.
Tatiana Nuñez (Sirenette/Sufferer), originally from South Florida, is a generous and well-rounded multidisciplinary artist. Nuñez received her BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She has danced with Deeply Rooted Dance Theater and Calpulli Mexican Dance Company (Principal). Nuñez has performed at various venues including Radio City Music Hall, Joyce Theater, Orpheum Theater, Little Island, Queens Theatre, and Symphony Space. Her choreographic works have been selected and performed at Battery Dance Festival and Steps Beyond Foundation. Nuñez’s films have premiered at the Queens Theatre Film Festival and Garet&Co Film Festival. She is also an alum of various dance programs: The School at Jacob’s Pillow, the Ailey School, Joffrey Ballet, Ballet Hispánico, Dorrance Dance Winter Intensive, the Jared Grimes Workshop, and Tisch Summer Residency with Gibney, Evidence Dance, Alvin Ailey, and David Dorfman Dance Company. tatiananunez.com / @tatinunez143
Courtney San Martin (Sufferer) is an American soprano and actor who delights in performing new works. Her recent opera credits include Diana (If I Were You ) with Nightingale Opera Theatre, Rose (At the Statue of Venus ) with Montclair State University, and Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw ) with Mannes Opera. In February, she will perform Zerlina (Don Giovanni ) with Light Opera of New Jersey. San Martin is equally comfortable on the concert stage. Most recently she made her Merkin Hall debut performing works by contemporary composer Kamala Sankaram. She has also worked with contemporary composers in the Mannes Sounds Festival. San Martin holds a bachelor of arts in music from Yale University, a master of music in voice from the Mannes School of Music, and an artist diploma in voice from Montclair State University.
John Selya (George, the musician), a native New Yorker, trained at the School of American Ballet. Upon completion of his training, he received the Mae L. Wien award for outstanding promise. Selya was then invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to join American Ballet Theatre, where he performed internationally as well as created choreography for the company. Selya went on to join Twyla Tharp Dance, where he originated and interpreted dances by the legendary choreographer. He went on to perform the leading role of Eddie in Twyla Tharp’s Tony-winning Broadway show Movin’ Out. His performances earned him a Tony nomination for best actor in a
musical, an Astaire award for outstanding dancing on a Broadway stage, and a Theater World Award for outstanding Broadway debut. Since then Selya has appeared as the Mambo dancer in Damn Yankees, Scranton Slim in Guys and Dolls, and Sid in Come Fly Away. Selya has also performed as a break dancer at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City. In addition to appearing on stage, Selya has appeared in movies, Everyone Says I Love You, Across the Universe, and Romance and Cigarettes. Selya is a choreographic associate for Twyla Tharp, staging and directing productions of Come Fly Away, Nine Sinatra Songs, Sinatra Suite, and In the Upper Room. Additionally, he regularly teaches throughout the world to educate and encourage future performing artists.
Katarina Smith (Sirenette/Sufferer), raised in Tampa, FL, began her dance training at the age of 10 and immediately fell in love with dance. She trained at Next Generation Ballet and Blake High School and graduated from Fordham University (BFA) and the Ailey School specializing in ballet, modern, contemporary, and jazz. She has performed works by Nijawwon Matthews, Bradley Shelver, Chuck Wilt, Janice Rosario, Wendy Powell, and Carlos Dos Santos. Smith choreographed for and performed in the film Left with Only Rain (2022). She has taught workshops in Guatemala, Columbia, Mexico, and the United States for JUNTOS Collective, for which she finished her capstone project, creating a curriculum and later working with vulnerable communities in Guatemala. Smith is currently dancing with Visions Contemporary Ballet as well as being a freelance dancer and instructor, teaching both Pilates and dance classes in New York City.
Reed Tankersley (Jarvis, the acrobat), born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, began his training at the age of five. After graduating from the Juilliard School in 2014, Tankersley joined Twyla Tharp’s 50th Anniversary Tour and continues to perform her works. Most recently he starred in Tharp’s In the Upper Room at New York City Center. As a freelance performer he has performed works by many New York–based choreographers, including Jonah Bokaer, Jessica Lang for Seattle Opera’s Aida, and Broadway’s Chase Brock. In 2019, Tankersley ran away to the circus and toured the country as the lead performer in Cirque Du Soleil’s Volta. Tankersley is a NFAA YoungArts award winner and one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.”
Joshuan Vázquez (Sufferer/Swing) is originally from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. He has trained and formed as a dancer with Western Ballet Theater, Ballet Escenario, and
EMBAE in Puerto Rico, where he had the opportunity to receive the resources to continue and complete his training in Classical Dance, Modern Dance, Jazz, and Urban Dance, among others. He danced as a guest artist and company dancer with Ballet Etudes of Florida, Mauro Ballet Company, Ballet Arts Dance Company, Charlotte Ballet Company, Ballet de Camara de Madrid, and Tabula Rasa Dance Theater. Vázquez is currently a company dancer with New Jersey Ballet and has a degree in Classical Dance Pedagogy (Cuban Technique) at the Alicia Alonso Dance Institute, Rey Juan Carlos II University (URJC) in Madrid. In 2018, he joined the Ballet de Cámara de Madrid, where he has been featured in many principal and soloist roles as part of the classical and contemporary repertoire with this company. In 2020, he was a top award winner for his Classical Variation, Contemporary Solo, and “Best” Pas de Deux at Dance Open America’s International Competition. Within his professional development and training are teachers such as Nana and Mumy Badrena, Iván Monreal-Alonso, Lázaro Carreño, Leydi Villalobos, Kelvin Santiago, Wilmaliz Mendret, Elmer Pérez, Armando Seda, Marena Pérez, Victor Gili Mendéz, Galina Alvárez, Deborah Marquéz, Laura Alonso, Martha Bosch, Orlando Salgado, Óscar Torrado, Luba Gulyaeva, and Maria Kowroski, among others.
SINGERS
Eliza Bagg (Siren) is a Los Angeles–based experimental musician, working primarily as a vocalist in contemporary classical music along with producing her own work. She has collaborated with prominent experimental artists, from performing in Meredith Monk’s opera Atlas with the LA Philharmonic to touring with Roomful of Teeth, playing the role of Ape in Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta to singing chamber motets by John Zorn to working collaboratively with Ted Hearne on his theatrical song cycle Dorothea. Her singing has been called “ethereal” by the New York Times and “gossamer” by the New Yorker. Bagg’s compositional work is grounded in the human voice mediated by technology, as she combines virtuosic singing with electronic processing. As a vocalist, Bagg has soloed with major symphonies including the CSO, BSO, New York Philharmonic, and LA Philharmonic, has performed at venues from Walt Disney Hall and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg to Iceland Airwaves, and has sung with opera companies such as The Industry, Beth Morrison Projects, and Re:Naissance Opera.
Alexander Dobson (George, the musician), a British-Canadian singer recognized for his “ringing, present sound” and “rich, flexible, baritone,” has been praised for
his musicality and dramatic awareness on both opera and concert stages. Some roles include the title roles in Wozzeck and Don Giovanni as well as Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Belcoré (L’elisir d’amore), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes), the Count (The Marriage of Figaro), and Marcello (La bohème). Dobson has appeared with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Trevor Pinnock, Nic McGegan, and Paul Goodwin on the stages of L’Opéra du Montréal, Opera Ontario, Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera, Calgary Opera, Opera Lafayette, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and with the Toronto Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Recent engagements include Handel’s Messiah in New York, Jacksonville, and Halifax; Escamillo in Carmen with the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony; Pulcinella with Artis Naples, Florida; Raimbaud in Edmonton Opera’s production of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory; Against Nature with Citadel and Compagnie; and Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro with Florentine Opera. Upcoming engagements include Das Lied von der Erde (Ontario Philharmonic), Winterreise (Société d’art vocal), St. Matthew Passion (St. Louis Bach Society), Angel’s Bone with Loose Tea Opera, and the Mozart Requiem with Arion Baroque Orchestra. schwalbeandpartners. com/alexander-dobson-baritone
David Merino (Felisberto Robles, a teenager from Queens) National Tour: Rent. Off-Broadway: Oscar @ the Crown. Regional: Lempicka (La Jolla Playhouse); Rent, Into the Woods (Signature Theatre); In the Heights (Broadway at Music Circus); Girlfriend (TheaterWorks Hartford). B.FA from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. @DavidLMerino
Ilene Pabon (Nadia, the mother) is an “extremely talented” (Papercut Magazine)
Puerto-Rican mezzo-soprano whose roles of note include Frugola in Il Tabarro, Estella in Miss Havisham’s Fire, Foreign Singer in Postcard from Morocco, La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Third Lady in The Magic Flute, and Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. A champion of new music, she has had the honor of performing for the late Dominick Argento during the Art of Argento Celebration, in which his operas were performed. In the fall of 2022 she sang the role of Andromache in the new opera The Trojan Women by Sarah Taylor Ellis. She has also toured nationally with Cirque Dreams in the role of Angel, collaborated with producer Brad Walsh on the Christian Siriano’s F/W runway music inspired by Russian opera, and originated the role of Lourdes in Gershwin’s Real Magic. She is
an alum of the emerging artist programs at Charlottesville Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, and the Maryland Opera Studio under Leon Major.
Allen Tate (Allan, the python hunter) is a vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn, NY. As a performer, he is best known as the lead singer and main collaborator for the indie rock band San Fermin. Over the last decade they have toured internationally, playing with acts such as St. Vincent, The National and alt-j as well as releasing four studio albums with Downtown Records (2), Interscope, and Sony Masterworks respectively.
Claire Wellin (Siren) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, teacher, actor, and advocate originally from North Dakota based in Queens, NY. She leads the surrealist folk band Youth in a Roman Field and is a member of the Brooklyn-based indie rock powerhouse San Fermin. She is on the coordinating committee of SURJ NYC and is a theomusicologist with the Poor People’s Campaign. She wrote and performed the score for the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway play Accidentally Brave and has composed for dance and immersive visual art projects, including “Simone,” choreographed by Katie Spelman (in celebration of Agnes deMille at the SDC’s George Abbott Awards Ceremony). She has worked as an arranger, writer, and performer on many records over the last decade. In addition to touring with her own project, she has logged extensive time on the road with San Fermin, Delta Rae, and Once the Musical, in which she also performed on Broadway. She sits in with a handful of bands in the NYC area, frequently performing with Behaviorist and Hallie Spoor. Broadway: Once; National Tour: Once; Regional: Eastland (Lookingglass Theatre Company), To Kill a Mockingbird and Man in Love (Steppenwolf Theatre Company).
Angela Yam (Siren), praised for her “huge, clear voice,” has sung with the New York City Ballet, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Fargo-Moorhead Opera, where her work was praised as “wickedly funny and talented” and “a powerful soprano that really gets your attention.” This spring, she premieres three world premieres (Siren in The Night Falls, the Bird in ICELAND, soloist in Fractured Voices), performs as Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore, Boston Opera Collaborative), and returns as Johanna (Sweeney Todd, Chautauqua Opera). Yam’s self-directed 2021 Visual Recital won third place in the American Prize Competition: Virtual Performance, and she will direct and compose for Nightingale Vocal Ensemble’s ADRIFT in March 2023. angelayamsoprano.com
Olivia Puckett (Angela, the athlete) is thrilled to be a part of this gorgeous piece. Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen (OBC), Motown. National Tours: Hamilton, Motown, American Idiot. TV: HBO’s Winning Time. @oliviapuckett
THE NIGHT FALLS MUSIC ENSEMBLE
Isabel Gleicher (Flute), a flutist/composer, has been called “excellent” by the New York Times and a “rising talent and stand out performer” by Miller Theatre, where she was a featured Pop-Up Concerts soloist. Gleicher is an artist member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Wild Up, and Ensemble Échappé. She is a founding member of Song Sessions Collective, which consists of four improvisers using acoustic and electronic instruments as well as an LED light installation to perform an ever-changing work based on the structure of whales songs. Gleicher has premiered works by Steve Reich, Missy Mazzoli, Augusta Read Thomas, and John Zorn, among others. She has curated solo sets of original music for the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, Experimental Sound Studio, In.Cont.Ensemble’s Tues@7, ChamberQUEERantine Virtual Festival, and George Mason University’s Mason Arts at Home, as well as contributing to Metropolis ensemble’s live-streaming perpetual sonic installation Flame Keepers. You can hear Gleicher on Wild Up’s latest album Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine, as well as The Bells Bow Down: The Music of Ilari Kaila, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Aequa, and San Fermin’s The Cormorant I. Gleicher is a teaching artist with the American Composers Orchestra. She has led master classes, and workshops in experimental music at Florida State University, University of Nebraska, SUNY Purchase, DePauw University, University of Massachusetts, and at the Texas Flute Festival. Gleicher has earned an MM in Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, an MM from the Yale School of Music, and a BM from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music. isabellepantogleicher.com
Nicolee Kuester (Horn), a New York City-based horn player, writer, and performance artist, divides her time between experimental music and the older stuff, recently performing with the International Contemporary Ensemble, The Knights, and Wet Ink Ensemble in NYC; Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris; Alarm Will Sound in St. Louis; and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra in LA. She is co-founder of MEANINGLESS WORK, a performance series that happily meanders between sounds, performance art, text, and movement theater. Kuester holds undergraduate degrees in horn performance and creative writing from Oberlin College & Conservatory and
graduate degrees in contemporary music performance from UC San Diego. In addition to mucking about with experimental sounds and chamber music, she continues to do teaching artist work with high school students in Ridgewood, Queens, as an alumna of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect fellowship. She also freaks out teens during the summer as the brass faculty at North Carolina’s Governor’s School West, where among other things students learn microtonal improv and how to stare into each other’s eyes without getting really squirmy.
Chelsea Lane (Harp), a Brooklyn-based harpist, endeavors to bridge the ever-widening division between classical and popular music through her innovative programming of contemporary compositions. Lane is passionate about collaborating with other musicians, visual artists, and dancers to help achieve this goal. A versatile musician, Lane is equally at home performing in a wide range of musical settings, from classical symphonic settings (as a sub for ensembles such as the Metropolitan Opera, Czech Philharmonic, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, among others) to intimate solo and chamber concerts (in the USA, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands) to Broadway (in the Tony-nominated musical Paradise Square and Christmas Spectacular starring the Radio City Rockettes). She is a prizewinner of several national and international competitions, including the American Harp Society’s Young Professional Competition, the Anne Adams Awards, the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Concerto Competition, the Lyon and Healy Awards, and the ASTA National Solo Competition. Lane graduated from Yale University with a BA in Music in 2014, completed her MA in Harp Performance at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels in 2017, and received her DMA in Music Performance from the Graduate Center, CUNY in 2022. She currently teaches courses in harp, chamber music, and music history as an adjunct associate professor at the College of Staten Island, CUNY and Rowan University.
Hannah Levinson (Viola) is an in-demand performer of contemporary and classical music based in New York City. She has recently been featured as a soloist and chamber musician at Carnegie Hall, The Stone, 92Y, Miller Theater, Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival, June in Buffalo, and the Andy Warhol Museum and at international festivals including the Kroch Festival (Stockholm), Musikprotokol Festival (Graz), Projektgruppe Neue Musik (Bremen), and Festival Musica (Strasbourg). Dedicated to working with living composers, Levinson has commissioned and premiered over 40 chamber and solo works and is currently editing the solo viola
works of Lucia Ronchetti. Levinson is a founding member and executive director of the violin/viola duo andPlay, described by I Care If You Listen as “enthusiastic champions for new music and collaboration.” Levinson is also a member of the Talea Ensemble and the Albany Symphony Orchestra and a former member of the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra. She frequently performs with ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble, counter)induction, Either/Or, Contemporaneous, ACME, and the Argento Ensemble. Levinson is currently Music Artist faculty at NYU Steinhardt and Viola faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. She earned her degrees at Oberlin College and Conservatory (BM in Viola Performance, BA in Russian East European Studies), Manhattan School of Music (MM in Contemporary Performance), and NYU Steinhardt (PhD in Performance).
Clare Monfredo (Cello) is a New York City–based cellist currently pursuing her DMA at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she is the recipient of the five-year graduate fellowship. She studied in Leipzig, Germany, on a Fulbright Scholarship with cellist Peter Bruns and also holds a bachelor of arts in English from Yale University as well as a master of music degree from the Shepherd School at Rice University, where she studied with Norman Fischer and was the recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Award. She has appeared in numerous festivals including Chamber Music Northwest, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Lucerne Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Cello Akademie Rutesheim, Kurt Weill Fest, and Music Academy of the West. Monfredo has collaborated with a diverse array of notable artists, from Patricia Kopatchinskaja to Jon Batiste, and has played with Ensemble Intercontemporain, International Contemporary Ensemble, Argus String Quartet, Locrian Players, and Ensemble newSRQ. Monfredo currently teaches cello at Hunter College in New York and is a member of the Sonora chamber music collective, the Sprechgesang Institute multidisciplinary artist collective, and the Victory Players, a western Massachusetts–based Pierrot ensemble focused on commissioning new works.
Benjamin Russell (Violin) is a violinist, vocalist, and composer who has played all over the world with all sorts of people. He is a member of American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and co-creator of the songwriting collective Founders. Russell began his career in 2005 by winning the principal second violin chair of Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine, which he held for eight years. In 2006 he co-founded Bryant Park Quartet, a classical string quartet dedicated to teaching
chamber music to high school and college students around the country. In 2008 he became a member of ACME, a daring new-music group focused primarily on the work of living American composers. In 2017, ACME released its first portrait album containing nearly all original music composed by members of ACME. In the past 10 years, Russell has performed with ensembles including International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Talea, A Far Cry, Wordless Music Orchestra, and Mark Morris Dance Group. He has toured and recorded with artists including Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire, The National, Blonde Redhead, Max Richter, and Jóhann Jóhannsson and has appeared on stage with Björk, Jonny Greenwood, and Paul McCartney. After releasing his self-titled solo album of original music for violin and voice in 2012, he co-created Founders, which combines classical and folk music with original compositions and pop arrangements. Founders released its debut album, You & Who, in early 2014. Russell studied violin performance at BIOLA and Amsterdam Conservatory and received his master’s degree from New England Conservatory.
Jeremy Smith (Percussion) received his classical training, the foundation of his playing, at the Juilliard School, but his musical scope includes a unique range of percussion styles from the ancient to the leading edge. He performs regularly with contemporary flamenco guitarist and composer Andreas Arnold, Afro-Peruvian music group Festejation, Middle-Eastern fusion group Baklava Express, and exotica jazz quintet Mr. Ho’s Orchestrotica. Notable collaborations and past performances include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ephrat Asherie Dance, New York Arabic Orchestra, and Nelida Tirado Flamenco. He is a live musical accompanist for modern dance classes at the Juilliard School, Steps on Broadway, and Ballet Tech School. He has also accompanied classes at NYU, Hunter College, Harkness Dance Center, Paul Taylor School, Joffrey School, the New School, and the Ailey School. As a passionate educator of the percussive arts, Smith has presented clinics at the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and Bowling Green State University. He has presented online classes for students at Indiana University, Ithaca College, and Tanglewood Institute. Smith is pursuing the leading edge of the percussive arts by integrating his skills as a player, his passion as an educator, and his steadfast seeking of spiritual and rhythmic philosophies.
David Stevens (Percussion) is a percussionist, timpanist, and educator based in New York City. As an orchestral musician, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York City Ballet Orchestra,
Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and The Knights. Also active as a chamber musician, Stevens is a member of Exceptet and has appeared with Talea Ensemble and Argento Chamber Ensemble. On Broadway, Smith has performed as a substitute percussionist in Beetlejuice; The Phantom of the Opera; Into the Woods; Hello, Dolly!; An American in Paris; and Pippin. He has also performed in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and played cities across North America with the first national tour of We Will Rock You—The Musical by Queen and Ben Elton. Stevens received his master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music and his bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School.
Kristina Teuschler (Clarinetist) enjoys performing in a variety of settings; she is comfortable in orchestral and contemporary ensembles as well as improvisational, electronic, and pop bands. In 2018 she joined the West Point Band full-time, one of the premier military bands, but maintains an active freelance career in New York City. Recent highlights have included performances on Orchestra of St. Luke’s chamber music series and Lincoln Center’s multimedia production of “New York Counterpoint,” commissioned for the reopening of David Geffen Hall. She is frequently recording and performing with many independent artists and bands in New York City, including Half Waif, the Arabic-influenced jazz trio Scree, Oropendola, and twig twig. She maintains her own electronic compositional practice and was commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble for their perpetual live-streaming sonic art installation Flamekeepers in January 2022. In addition to performing, Teuschler is a passionate arts administrator. She codirects Madison New Music Festival, a weekend-long summer event supporting contemporary music in her home state of Wisconsin. The festival’s programming works to decolonize and disrupt the boundaries of local arts and culture, encouraging engagement with local issues and fostering collaboration within its community. Teuschler previously served as community liaison for Orchestra of St. Luke’s and she has conducted workshops on equity in the arts for University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Illinois Music Educators Association (ILMEA), and Clarinet Maestro Festival. Teuschler received her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and her master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music. Her primary teachers were Mark Nuccio, Steven Cohen, and J. Lawrie Bloom.
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