Karol
Bennett, soprano • John
McMurtery, flute/piccolo •
Ted Gurch, clarinet/bass clarinet
Helen Hwaya Kim, violin/viola
Craig Hultgren, cello •
Adam Bowles, piano
James Romig,
conductor
 Karol
Bennett (guest soprano)
has appeared as soloist with numerous ensembles, including
the Boston Cecilia, the Boston Masterworks Chorale, the
Boston Musica Viva, Collage, Da Camera of Houston, Emmanuel
Music, the Flux Quartet, the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra,
the Mendelssohn String Quartet, the New York New Music
Ensemble, OrchestraX, the Quarteto Latino-Americano, the
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the San Francisco Contemporary
Music Players, and the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Orchestra
of Russia. Praised for her "bright, articulate"
singing (Opera News), operatic appearances include the
title role in the Russian premiere of Debussy's "Pélleas
et Melisande," Despina in Mozart's "Cosi Fan
Tutte," Adele in J. Strauss' "Die Fledermaus,"
and Gretel in Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel."
Conductors with whom she has performed include John Axelrod,
Sarah Caldwell, John Harbison, Edith Ho, David Hoose,
Allen Lannom, Richard Pittman, Gunther Schuller, Craig
Smith, Donald Teeters, Pascal Verrot, and Scott Yoo. As
a recitalist, she has performed a televised concert from
the Opéra Comique in Paris, as well as recitals
in France, Rome, Moscow, the Far East, Mexico, and throughout
the United States. Ms. Bennett has been a participant
at the Marlboro and Round Top International Festivals
of Music, and Artist-in-Residence at the International
Festival of Music in Morelia, Mexico.
In 1990-91, Ms. Bennett was Artist-in-Residence at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since then, she
has been in residence at Amherst College, the Universities
of California in Berkeley and Davis, San Francisco State
University, and the University of Oregon. In addition,
she has taught master classes in Russia, Mexico, Korea,
Taiwan, Mongolia, and at many universities in the United
States. Most recently, she served on the faculty of Boston
University, until moving to Houston with her husband and
children in the fall of 1998. A graduate of the University
of Kansas City-Missouri Conservatory of Music and the
Yale School of Music, she was honored as the Kansas City
Conservatory's "Alumna of the Year" in 1996.
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 Adam
Bowles (piano) is an
instructor on the Birmingham Southern College Conservatory
faculty. He is nearing completion of a D.M.A. at the
University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.
He received a B.M. from The Eastman School of Music
and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory of music.
Principal teachers include Milton Stern, Barry Snyder,
Jacob Maxin, and Eugene and Elizabeth Pridonoff. He
frequently collaborates with vocal students and faculty
at Birmingham Southern College. This is his second year
as ACS New Music Festival pianist. [Back
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 John
McMurtery (flute) performs
as a soloist, orchestra member and chamber musician
throughout the United States and Europe. In 2000, he
soloed with The New Vienna Chamber Ensemble. He is currently
a member of UpTown Flutes, which was recently awarded
a Carnegie Hall debut recital by Artists International.
As Assistant Director of the Society for Chromatic Art,
Mr. McMurtery is dedicated to commissioning and performing
works by contemporary composers. As part of Lincoln
Center's 2001 Focus! Festival Mr. McMurtery premiered
Nicola Sani's I binari del tempo (1998). He was a visiting
guest artist and lecturer at the Pittsburgh State University
Festival of New Music in 2001. Mr. McMurtery is principal
flutist of the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and the Dicapo
Opera Company. He is currently a Doctoral Fellow at
The Juilliard School, under the guidance of Julius Baker.
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 Ted
Gurch (clarinet) is Assistant
Principal/E-flat Clarinetist with the AtlantaSymphony
Orchestra, a position he has held since 1989. He also
performs frequently as a saxophonist with the ASO, both
orchestrally and accompanyingjazz and pop artists. Prior
to coming to Atlanta, he served for three seasons as Principal
Clarinet with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and the
Mississippi Opera Orchestra in Jackson. He attended the
Eastman School of Music where he studied with Stanley
Hasty and Charles Neidich, earning a Bachelor's Degree
in Applied Clarinet and the Performer's Certificate in
1986. While at Eastman he was active in the school's jazz
program, and was a member of the award-winning Eastman
Jazz Ensemble, as well as serving for two seasons as a
first-call extra player with the Rochester Philharmonic
Orchestra. In Atlanta, Ted is an active chamber musician
and is a member of the contemporary music ensemble Thamyris,
with which he has performed and recorded numerous world
and regional premieres, including a current release featuring
music from the National Black Arts Festival. He teaches
in the ASO's Talent Development Program, and is an Artist
Affiliate at Emory University.[Back
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 Helen
Hwaya Kim (violin)
made her orchestral debut with
the Calgary Philharmonic at the age of six, and has
gone on to become a respected and sought-after artist.
She recently appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops
at Boston's Symphony Hall, as well as with the Milwaukee
and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Ms. Kim earned her
Master's Degree from the Juillliard School, where her
teachers included Cho-Liang Lin and Dorothy DeLay. While
at Juilliard, she was concertmaster of the Juilliard
Orchestra, with which she also appeared as a soloist.
She is the recipient of more than one hundred national
and international awards. In 1992, she won the prestigious
Artists International Competition in New York and, as
a result, gave debut recitals at Carnegie Weill Hall
and the Aspen Summer Music Festival. A native of Canada,
Ms. Kim has been engaged by many of Canada's leading
orchestras, including the National Arts Center Orchestra,
Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony,
McGill Chamber Orchestra, and the Windsor, Regina, Victoria
and Prince George Symphonies. She has also appeared
with the Aspen and Banff Festival Orchestras, and with
orchestras in the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.
A dedicated recitalist and chamber music performer,
Ms. Kim has toured extensively throughout Canada and
the United States, including performances at Alice Tully
Hall and the Sante Fe and La Jolla International Music
Festivals, where she performed with Cho-Liang Lin, Gary
Hoffman, Andre Previn, and the Orion String Quartet.
A featured performer duing the 1988 Olympic Arts Festival,
she has given command performances for the Governor
General and Prime Ministers of Canada. Ms.Kim has been
profiled on national and international television and
has appeared on CBC Saturday Report, PBS Live From Lincoln
Center, and CBS Sunday Morning.
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 Craig
Hultgren (cello) is a
strong advocate for new music, the newly creative arts,
and the avant-garde. Possessing a broad range of instrumental
techniques from traditional to radical, he has commissioned
over twenty new works for the cello. Through his collaborations
with living composers, he is changing the way people write
for and listen to the instrument. Besides playing written
compositions, Hultgren also performs his own spontaneous,
free-style improvisations. He presents programs of new
music throughout the country and abroad. His renditions
of contemporary music have been broadcast on National
Public Radio's Performance Today and European radio. The
Birmingham News said of him, "Hultgren...pushes the
limits of his instrument brilliantly by using extended
techniques in fascinating ways." Charleston, South
Carolina's Post & Courier observed, "Hultgren
has sure-fire technique and a keen sense of timing."
Hultgren has performed at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston,
Imagine '96 in Memphis, the Society of Electroacoustic
Music in the United States, the New Directions Cello Festival
in Boston, and the SKIIFestival in New York. He maintains
an active schedule of 50 new music performances every
year. Hultgren is featured in a debut solo recording Music
of the Next Moment on Minnesota-based innova Recordings.
In 1992, he received an Artist Fellowship from the Alabama
State Council on the Arts. He is a member of Thamyris,
a contemporary chamber music ensemble in Atlanta.
As a traditionally trained artist, he plays in the Alabama
Symphony and has served as principal cellist with the
National Symphony Orchestra of Panama and the Savannah
Symphony Orchestra. Hultgren is much sought after as a
teacher and nurtures a thriving private studio along with
faculty duties at Birmingham-Southern College, the University
of Montevallo, and the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
Hultgren also works in the behalf of arts as an organizer.
He has served as president of and on the board of directors
for the Birmingham Art Association, that city's oldest
arts organization. In 1992 as president, he instituted
Birmingham Improv the annual festival of improvisatory
arts. Now, Hultgren is a consultant for Living Music,
an international organization of composers. He also participates
on the steering committee of the New Directions Cello
Association. He was a founding member of the Birmingham
Art Music Alliance. [Back to top] |
 James
Romig (conductor) has
had compositions performed throughout the United States,
Europe, and Asia in recitals, music festivals, and as
accompaniment to dance. In the tradition of his musical
mentors, Charles Wuorinen and Milton Babbitt, Romig's
music celebrates dramatic balance, exuberant virtuosity,
and rigorous formal integrity. Among his commissioned
works are compositions for the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra,
the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Percussive Arts Society,
and new-music ensembles such as Suono Mobile, Helix!,
and the New Vienna Chamber Ensemble. In recent seasons,
his music has been included on concerts by the University
of Iowa Symphony Orchestra (James Dixon, conductor),
the Ensemble Musicattuale (Bologna, Italy), the Eastman
Contemporary Percussion Ensemble (Rochester, New York),
Duo Contour (Freiburg, Germany), and Holy Trinity Choirs
(New York City). Recent festival performances include
the 50th Annual Fulbright Music Gala (Berlin, Germany),
the UTSA Festival of New Music (San Antonio, Texas),
and Wien Modern (Vienna, Austria). Romig’s works
are available from Parallax Music Press, River Street
Publications, and the American Music Center.
Romig holds a Ph.D. in music theory and composition
from Rutgers University, and undergraduate and masters
degrees in music from the University of Iowa. A dedicated
educator, he gives frequent lectures and masterclasses,
including recent talks at Westminster Choir College
Conservatory, the Interlochen Arts Academy, and The
Juilliard School. Romig has taught at the University
of Iowa, Rutgers University, Bucknell University, and
is currently on faculty at Western Illinois University.
He also serves as music director and principal conductor
of The Society for Chromatic Art, a contemporary-music
ensemble based in New York City. [Back
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