Zoë Aqua, violin; Claire DiVizio, soprano voice; Mark Dover, clarinet; Ezra Donner, composer & piano; Jonathan Lubin, composer, piano & electronics; William Zuckerman, composer, piano & electronics
Influences
Mark: Brahms, Messiaen, John Coltrane, Pablo Casals, Stravinsky, Keith Jarrett, Glenn Gould, Don Byron, Wayne Shorter....
Ezra: Bartok, Copland, Stravinsky, Debussy, Webern, Barber, Schumann, Bill Evans, Andriessen....
Jonathan: Andriessen, Bach, Brahms, Denisov, Ives, Ligeti, Messiaen, Nancarrow, Stravinsky....
Claire: Maria Callas, Aprile Millo, Joan Sutherland, Carla Gavazzi, Anna Moffo, Karita Mattila, Koko Taylor, Etta James ....
We're a new music group from Ann Arbor, MI! Three of us are composers, and all of us are performers. We all met as undergrads at the University of Michigan, and right we're getting ready for our 2009-2010 tour! Stay tuned for more info!
William Zuckerman - composer and performer (piano and electronic performance)
Born in Boston in 1988, William Zuckerman is pursuing a degree in music composition from the University of Michigan, studying with Bright Sheng and Michael Daugherty. In the summer of 2008, William studied composition at the Freie Universität of Berlin with Juilliard Professor Samuel Adler. In February of 2009, William gained national exposure winning the 2009 New York Art Ensemble Young Composer Competition. Other awards and honors have come from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts’ youngARTS program, the New England Conservatory, and ASCAP, who has named William three times a finalist for their international Morton Gould Prize. His recent media appearances include two profiles, broadcast on WMUK radio in Kalamzoo, MI, and on the NTD-Television station in New York, New York. Recent projects include scoring the music to documentary film The Last Wilderness: Journey to the Western Arctic Reserve, a work about corporate destruction of beautiful lands in Alaska, to be publicly broadcast in 2009-2010. He has also recently served as a professional music engraver to Pulitzer-Prize finalist author Lewis Lockwood and theorist Alan Gosman. In March of 2008, Eighth Blackbird gave a private performance of a recent work at the University of Michigan. Other notable performances have been staged at the Berkshires’ historic Tanglewood, the New Synagogue Concert Hall of Berlin, Germany, the Tribeca New Music Festival, and the Midwest Composer’s Symposium. This summer, William holds a fellowship at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, working with Yale Professor Martin Bresnick and the New Music Workshop in residence. Other upcoming activities include a performance at the Aspen Music Festival, a concerto with orchestra for saxophonist Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, and the US release of his quartet “Current, Deep, and Cool” on the Block M Records label, to be distributed on the iTunes music store in late 2009.
www.myspace.com/williamzuckerman
Ezra Donner - composer and performer (piano)
A native of Buffalo, NY, Ezra Donner (b. 1986) is currently pursuing a Master of Music Degree in Composition at Indiana University, where he is studying with P.Q. Phan, and where he is serving as an Associate Instructor of Music Theory. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree with High Honors from the University of Michigan, where he studied with William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Betsy Jolas, Tania Leon, Michael Colgrass, and Christopher Harding, a degree from Interlochen Arts Academy, where he studied with Thomas Lymenstull, and he has also studied privately with Jonathan Golove and Frieda Manes. Awards and distinctions for music include the Arthur and Mary Platsis Award for Creative Works Inspired by the Greek Legacy (2008), and the Dr. Martin & Edith L. Horowitz Scholarship Award to an Outstanding Student in Music (2006), as well as advancing to the Finals in the University of Michigan Concerto Competition (2007), and to the Semi-Finals (Second Round) in the Oberlin International Piano Competition (2004). Ezra has performed his own music in New York, Michigan, and Indiana, and his music has been performed by the University of Michigan Creating Musical Theatre Class taught by Joan Morris, and by the University of Michgan University Symphony Orchestra conducted by Clinton Smith. He has also worked as a pianist for the Brooklyn Repetory Opera, Interlochen Arts Camp, and University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and as a canvasser in the 2004 and 2008 Presidential elections.
www.myspace.com/ezradonner
Jonathan Lubin - composer and performer (piano and electronic performance)
A native of North Carolina, Jonathan Lubin (b. 1987) is a student currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in composition at the University of Michigan. His teachers have included William Bolcom, Susan Botti, Evan Chambers, and Erik Santos. Much of his music has focused on the blending together of different genres, such as serialism, minimalism, and romanticism. Some composers that strongly influence him are Andriessen, Ligeti, and Messiaen. As an ardent supporter of new music, Jonathan has actively participated in some of the ensembles at Michigan, including the Contemporary Directions Ensemble, the Digital Music Ensemble, and a vocal rep ensemble that focused on new music. He has also had many of his pieces played in the Composers Forum, which is a concert series put on by the student composers at Michigan.
Claire DiVizio - performer (soprano voice)
Soprano Claire DiVizio currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she attends the University of Michigan's School of Music. At the University, she has studied with Carmen Pelton, John C. Pierce, Robert Swedberg, and has sung under the direction of choral directors Paul Rardin and Jerry Blackstone. She is the winner of a First Place Award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing (Michigan Chapter), as well as the recipient of the Gloria Katlan Bennish Memorial Scholarship from the University of Michigan's Gilbert & Sullivan Society, the Anna Varga Memorial Scholarship for Singers from the Royal Oak Musicale, and a First Place award in the Birmingham Musicale's Scholarship Competition for Young Vocalists. In 2007, Ms. DiVizio was honored to be the only undergraduate singer invited to perform in a master class led by soprano Jessye Norman at the University of Michigan. Ms. DiVizio's performance experience includes opera, operetta, oratorio and choral solos, and recital performances. Roles to date include La Bergère and La Chouette in Ravel's L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Mad Margaret in Gilbert & Sullivan's Ruddigore, Katisha in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado, Phoebe in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Yeomen of the Guard, and The Queen of the Fairies in Gilbert & Sullivan's Iolanthe. Most recently, Ms. DiVizio performed in New York City as an ensemble member of the Brooklyn Repertory Opera's production of Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, and was subsequently selected to perform as a soloist in an outreach recital program put on by the same company. Ms. DiVizio has been the soprano soloist in Bach's Cantata 140 and Benjamin Britten's "Hymn to St. Peter" with the U of M's University Choir under Paul Rardin. She has also performed César Franck's "Panis Angelicus" and Mozart's "Exsultate Jubilate" with orchestra in St. Joseph's Cathedral in Detroit. Ms. DiVizio is currently planning a recital program of French melodies and cabaret songs to be performed at the University of Michigan in the fall.
www.myspace.com/clairebdivizio
Mark Dover - performer (clarinet)
Mark Dover (Ann Arbor, MI) graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in 2005 and went on to receive his B.M. in Clarinet Performance from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance. His teachers have included Deborah Chodacki, Monica Kaenzig, Nathan Williams, and Jay DeVries. He has performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin, a joint collaboration with other University of Michigan students, and was acting principal clarinet with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra fall of 2007, and as principal clarinet of the Rome Festival Orchestra. He was also awarded “Best in Show” for his solo clarinet performance at the University of Michigan Collage concert winter of 2007. Mark is a jazz saxophonist as well and has performed in concert with The Temptations, Conrad Herwig, and on board the Queen Mary 2 ocean liner.
Zoë Aqua - performer (violin)
Zoë Aqua was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, and started playing the violin at age four. She is currently pursuing a dual degree in Violin Performance and Music Education from the University of Michigan and is studying violin with Yehonatan Berick. For two summers, Zoë was a student of Jennifer John at the Aspen Music Festival and School. She is passionate about performing new music and during the 2008-09 school year collaborated with U of M composers David Biedenbender, Collin Wassel, Suby Raman, and William Zuckerman. In her free time, she enjoys sketching, cooking, and snowboarding.
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