COMPOSER BIOS Maestro Robert W. Butts has entertained and thrilled audiences through his passionate conducting and performing.!He currently serves as Music Director/Conductor of The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey and New Jersey Concert Opera and as artistic director with Opera At Florham. Since 2006, he has provided dynamic leadership as Artistic Director for the Summer Festival of Baroque Music held in Madison, New Jersey. He has conducted performances featuring The New Jersey Symphony, Harmonium Choral Society, and the Masterwork Chorus. Maestro Butts is a 2010 Finalist for the American Prize in Orchestral Conducting.! One of New Jersey's leading opera performers, Maestro Butts’ performances have been praised in Wagner Notes: Newsletter of the Wagner Society of New York: "Under the luminous baton of Maestro Robert Butts…brought forth a beautifully nuanced performance from his musicians.”! His performance of Puccini's Tosca was described thealternativepress.com as "a complete operatic experience, the full measure of the work vibrating powerfully in every bar." As a composer, Maestro Butts has had many chamber music and orchestral works performed throughout New York and New Jersey.! Maestro Butts is also a revered lecturer throughout New Jersey on a variety of musical topics. He is on the faculties of Montclair State University and The College of Saint Elizabeth.
Richard has been active in the New York Composers Circle for several years having served on its steering committee and as Managing Director. His music is published by Design for Lightning Music (ASCAP). Visit rdrussell.com for more information. i
PERFORMER BIOS Alexandra Altonjy is a student at the College of St. Elizabeth, pursuing a Double Major in Music and English. She has previously performed in musicals including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the operetta Pirates of Penzance, and Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. She will perform in Die Fledermaus and L’Incoronazione di Poppea later this summer. Alexandra is excited to be working with In Mid Air Productions and participating in an event which promotes contemporary music and local composers. i
Aimee Morrill Briant Aimee Morrill Briant received her bachelor’s degree at The Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut in violin performance.! At age 16, she began her first professional orchestra experience as a member of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.! ! She is currently a member of the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, assistant concertmaster of the New Sussex Symphony, and concert master for the Essex County Summer Players.! i
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Andrew Pecota has served as principal bassoonist with The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, New Jersey Concert Opera, Opera at Florham and other orchestras and opera companies throughout NJ.! An early music enthusiast, he has performed several times at the Boston Early Music Festival.! His interest in Baroque and Classical era music has led him to discover rarely heard works of the period, edit and analyze them, then bring them to life, often presenting the first modern day performance of these musical masterpieces. i
Richard. D. Russell, a multi-year ASCAPlus winner, has had his music performed internationally and at prominent venues in New York. Highlights include a September 11, 2002 memorial performances of Remembrances at Merkin Concert Hall. His music has been performed in Bulgaria, Japan, and Israel. New York venues include Symphony Space Thalia, CAMI Hall, the Ethical Culture Society, and Mannes College of Music, where he serves as the director of the Extension Division. Richard’s most recent success was an awarded commission by Fordham University’s “Poets Out Loud” faculty group; this commission was referred by the esteemed musicologist Lawrence Kramer.
Jessica Castro is pleased to return for her third Seasonal Salon after debuting last April in a portrayal of Emily Dickinson in “A Little Madness in the Spring.” She was president of the St. Joseph Theater Company in Metuchen and is currently a freshman at the Barnard College of Columbia University. i
Nancy Connell majored in music/ composition at Middlebury College and went on to receive a PhD in bacterial genetics at Harvard. During graduate school, she played in Boston’s Longwood Symphony Orchestra and in the Albert Einstein Symphony Orchestra during her post-doc fellowship in the Bronx. Now Professor of Infectious Disease at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, Nancy plays in the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, and is a student of Semyon Fridman.! i
Aaron Dai, a graduate of Columbia University and Mannes College of Music, has concertized as a pianist around the country, performing in New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Phoenix, and San Francisco. As a composer, he is best known for his fifteen-minute miniature opera Hamlet, and The Night Before Christmas for Narrator and Orchestra, which has been narrated by Richard Kind (2006), Ana Gasteyer (2007), David Hyde Pierce (2008), and Charles Busch (2009). Most recently, Mr. Dai was the Musical Consultant for the award-winning Off-Broadway play The Temperamentals by Pulitzer-nominated playwright Jon Marans. Mr. Dai lives and teaches in New York City. i