Eight Philadelphia area composers selected to work with cellist Tom Kraines
ACF Philadelphia is pleased to announce the names of eight Philadelphia area composers who will workshop their compositions with cellist Tom Kraines this spring. These artist were selected from an open call for scores earlier this spring. Each composer will receive one on one time with Kraines as well as a reading recording of their piece.
Nico Bennett
Daniel de Jesús
J Diaz
Adah Kaplan
David Middleton
Kurt C Nelson
Sepehr Pirasteh
Nina Siniakova
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Nico Bennett (they/them) is a composer, bass player, painter, art event organizer and general maker of many things. The versatility of art forms is a quality that never ceases to amaze them, and their fascination with the interaction between different art mediums is one of their main creative inspirations. Bennett’s auditory and visual composition processes are incredibly intertwined, reflective of many years spent experimenting, exploring, and finding beauty in the different types of messes their hands can create. Born in California and currently living in West Philadelphia, Bennett studied Music Composition and Studio Art at University of California, Davis before making their mark in the living room concert and mural scenes in Philly. Whether exploring with pigment, noise, light, wire, thread, or live performance, Bennett is always looking to be fully immersed in the next cross-genre collaboration or mash-up of artistic play.
nicobennettmakes.com
Daniel de Jesús (he/they) is a painter, composer, and songwriter versed in the worlds of visual & sonic tapestries. de Jesús finds inspiration from historical figures like mystics, scholars, artists, and martyrs; all of these are their muses. Daniel de Jesús has ten studio recordings of their music and performs with interdisciplinary artists and rock bands in the region and performs worldwide.
danieldejesus.art
J Diaz (he/they) is a sound artist based in Philadelphia, PA. He designed and composed sound for "MESSIAH", a dance work premiered in Ghana in 2017 with the Accra Theatre Workshop. The adaptation included choreography by Elisabeth Efua Sutherland, electronics, and contemporary pop and Afro-beat music. J has completed projects with the RadioTheatre Company, Poetic Theatre Productions, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and Wide Eyed Productions, where he served as the Resident Sound Designer from 2014 - 2017. He assistant sound designed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015 including for the world premiere of Lynn Nottage's Sweat. J's piano duet an incomplete autobiography was the runner up for the Anderson & Roe piano duo's New Music New Video composition competition in 2018. J's first commission, three distant moods for solo flute, was composed for Devon Jaquez with a recording coming out in 2021.
facebook.com/dutchoven969
Adah Kaplan (she/her, born 2006) is a composer and violinist that currently attends Germantown Academy. She studies music composition with Melissa Dunphy and her works draw inspiration from all the music in and of the world, including anything from ancient Israeli folk tunes to 70s rock to a kid tapping their pencil in class. Recently, Adah’s solo violin piece “whitewashed” was recorded by violinist Lara St. John and aired on GatherNYC’s “Mindful Minutes,” and her violin and piano duo “Inspiration for Prayer” was selected as honorable mention of the Pennsylvania MTNA competition and has won her a spot as a finalist of New Music on the Bluff (which will be premiering the piece in April 2021). She studies violin with Kimberly Fisher and participates in Philadelphia Sinfonia, Philadelphia Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, and the Auger Ensemble of the Settlement Advanced Study Program -- a string trio that exclusively plays contemporary music.
adahkaplan.com
Performer, composer, teacher David Middleton’s (he/him) professional music experience began in the 1990s, alongside legendary DJ Tat Money's Halfro Productions team. Throughout that decade he created his own ensemble, JazGuardian, that went on to engage corporate, political and public performances for nearly 15 years. Since 2000, he continues to rehearse, internationally tour and record as a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of Marshall Allen. Internationally, he has played alongside many seminal Arkestra members and others including Wayne Krantz of MC5, poet John Sinclair, Bernie Worrell, DJ Spooky, violinist Billy Bang, avant-garde multi-instrumentalists William Parker and Kali Fasteau, Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Alash, legendary Tuvan musician Kongar-ol Ondar, and toured and filmed with Solange Knowles. He is currently a member of Philadelphia’s Arcana New Music Ensemble, beginning with resurgent performances of the works of avant garde composer Julius Eastman. Recently, he’s begun touring and recording with Arkestra vocalist/violinist Tara Middleton -- as guitar/vocal electronic-jazz duo Jupiter Blue.
soundcloud.com/akimboresearcher
jupiterblue.bandcamp.com
Kurt C Nelson (he/him) is a classically trained composer living in Philadelphia. His music explores materials means that are at once logical and expressive and is influenced by such divers composers as Elliott Carter, Lutosławski, Alban Berg and others. He has studied in the US and in Europe with Ladislav Kubik, Krzysztof Meyer and, most recently, with Louis Karchin at New York University, where he earned the PhD in composition and music theory in 2015. His interest in the music of Tadeusz Baird has led to further studies Poland as a Fulbright scholar. Kurt's music has gained recognition through frequent performances by leading contemporary ensembles, including the JACK Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society and violinist Miranda Cuckson. He is currently an adjunct professor of composition and music theory at the Boyer School of Music at Temple University, Philadelphia.
Kurtcnelson.com
Sepehr Pirasteh (he/they, b. 1993) is a composer and conductor born in Shiraz, Iran. His compositions draw on Persian classical and folk as well as contemporary classical music vocabularies to express his concerns and fears about the political and social realities of the world we are living in. Sepehr’s works have been performed by ensembles such as Unheard-of, Orquestra Criança Cidadã, Hole in the floor, fivebyfive, and members of the Fifth House Ensemble. He has been commissioned by Detroit Composers’ Project, YInMn project, Pushback Collective, Fresh Inc. Festival, Yara Ensemble, Central Michigan University’s (CMU) Percussion Ensemble, and the CMU Saxophone Ensemble. His music has been performed in Argentina, Brazil, Iran and the United States. Sepehr currently is a Ph.D. candidate in composition at Temple University. He pursued his MM in Composition and Orchestral Conducting at Central Michigan University.
sepehrpirasteh.com
Praised as one of the most interesting composers of her generation, Nina Siniakova (she/her) is active as a composer, pianist, and educator. Siniakova is a recipient of numerous awards, including First Prize and People’s Choice Award at Andrey Petrov Symphonic Music competition in St. Petersburg, Russia, DAAD (German Students’ Exchange Service), Exploring the Metropolis program NYC and many others. As a pianist and a composer she has appeared at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space New York, Harvard University, Beethoven House Bonn, Academy of Music in Philadelphia, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Zink jazz bar New York. Her music has been featured on WQXR, WWFM, and WRTI radio stations. List of works includes music for orchestra, numerous chamber works, compositions for choir, voice, solo instruments, plays, documentary, jazz compositions, music for children.
ninasiniakova.com
Cellist Thomas Kraines, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, has gained renown as a versatile cellist, composer, and teacher. He performs around the world as the cellist of the Daedalus Quartet, and also performs as a duo with his wife, violinist Juliette Kang, with the Philadelphia-based Network for New Music, and with the Philadelphia free-jazz ensemble Great Blue Heron. Kraines’ solo cello and chamber compositions have been heard around the country. He has performed his own works in collaboration with artists such as Awadagin Pratt, Mimi Stillman, Maria Jette, Maren Montalbano, Wayman Chin, and Kenneth Woods and the English Symphony Orchestra. In July 2020, he premiered his cello duo Slipshod/Shelter with Kinan Abou-afach at a concert livestreamed from Turtle Studios in Philadelphia. As a member of the Daedalus Quartet, Kraines has recorded the music of Joan Tower (her fifth quartet and piano quintet), Brian Buch, Vivian Fung, Fred Lerdahl, and George Perle, and he can also be heard on recordings of the music of Lori Laitman and Bernard Rands, both for Albany Records; John Musto, with Music from Copland House; and Shulamit Ran, with the Peabody Trio. His recent recording of Fred Lerdahl's solo cello piece, There and Back Again, was released by Bridge Records on Volume 6 of its survey of Lerdahl's music. Kraines has served on the faculty of the Longy School of Music, Princeton University, the Peabody Conservatory, Phillips Academy Andover, and the Yellow Barn Festival, and currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia. He has performed chamber music at the Moab Music Festival, Spoleto’s Festival dei Due Mondi (Italy), the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Caramoor NY, the Next Generation Festival, the Portland Chamber Festival, and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, as well as at the Mostly Mozart Festival and Bard Music Festival. Mr. Kraines studied cello with Frederic Raimi, Orlando Cole, and Joel Krosnick, and composition with Tom Benjamin. He Mr. Kraines and Ms. Kang live in Philadelphia with their daughters Rosalie and Clarissa.