CELLO, Isolation/Togetherness, Celestial Bodies

Clare Monfredo is a cellist originally from Seal Harbor Maine, currently living in Brooklyn, New York where she is pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the CUNY Graduate Center and is the recipient of the Graduate Center Fellowship. Clare has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader all over the world, collaborating with a diverse array of notable artists, from Patricia Kopatchinskaja to Jon Batiste, to groups such as Ensemble Intercontemporain and the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Clare holds a bachelor of arts in English from Yale University where she graduated with distinction and was a multiple-time winner of the Yale Friends of Music competition. She holds a masters of music degree from the Shepherd School at Rice University as a recipient of the Graduate Arts Award from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation where she studied with Norman Fischer, and studied with cellist Peter Bruns at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig, Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship. Clare’s other significant mentors include David Gebor, Julia Lichten, and Natasha Brofsky. Clare has appeared at 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. She was awarded the Karl Zeise Memorial Prize by the Tanglewood Music Center, the Gebor Rejto Prize from Music Academy of the West, and the Chamber Music Prize from the Fontainebleau Conservatoire Américain.

Clare teaches cello at Hunter College and is a member of the Sonora chamber music collective, the Sprechgesang Institute multi-disciplinary artist collective, and the Victory Players, a western Massachusetts based Pierrot ensemble focused on commissioning new works.

BASS, Isolation/Togetherness, Celestial Bodies

A graduate of the San Jose Unified Public School system, bassist Edward Kass has performed around the world as a chamber musician, orchestral musician, and soloist. Since 2016, he has performed with soprano Nina Guo as Departure Duo, a duo committed to performing, commissioning and researching music written for soprano and double bass. Recent duo performances include recitals at Spoleto Festival USA, Yellow Barn, Omaha Under the Radar, the Santa Cruz Museum and Art and History, and KM28. Their commissioning work was recently recognized by Chamber Music America. With Departure Duo, Kass has held teaching residencies at UC Santa Barbara, Brandeis University, and University of Georgia.

As a Lucerne Festival Contemporary Leader, Kass helped create the inaugural Lucerne Festival Forward in November 2022 and serves on the faculty of the Lucerne Festival Academy. He performs frequently with new music groups Ensemble Dal Niente and Callithumpian Consort. Additional festival appearances include fellowships at Tanglewood Music Center, Pacific Music Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA.

Kass completed his graduate and undergraduate studies at New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Todd Seeber and Lawrence Wolfe. In 2015, Kass received the New England Conservatory John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Music Performance.

VIOLIN, Isolation/Togetherness

Violinist Julia Danitz is currently a Doctorate of Musical Arts candidate at CUNY Graduate Center, and is a graduate of The Juilliard School with a Masters of Music. Prior to her doctoral studies, she completed a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Columbia University, where she was enrolled in the rigorous dual degree Columbia-Juilliard exchange program, majoring in Political Science. Her violin tutelage includes noteworthy professors such as Daniel Phillips, Yoko Takebe Gilbert, Masao Kawasaki, and Li Lin. She has performed at many prestigious summer music festivals like the Fontainebleau School, where she won 2nd place at the 2022 Ravel Prix competition, and others such as the Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Aspen Music Festival and School, Lake George Music Festival and Bowdoin International Music Festival. At Tanglewood she had the privilege of collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. In 2021, Julia performed Mozart’s 3rd concerto in G major, K. 216 with the Vienna International Orchestra. She was also a finalist in the 2022 Cadenza Contest online music competition. In addition to holding a private violin studio, Julia is the co-founder of a musicians collective, Sonora Collective, which performs chamber music in unique concert spaces in NYC. They perform and commission living composers and program underrepresented repertoire in the classical music canon as well.

VIOLA, Celestial Bodies

Carrie Frey is a violist, teacher, improviser, and composer based in New York City. Frey is the violist of the Rhythm Method (“a group of individuals with distinct compositional voices and a collective vision for the future of the string quartet” - I Care If You Listen) and a founding member of string trio Chartreuse and string quartet Desdemona. She has performed with many of New York City’s notable new music groups, including Wet Ink Large Ensemble, AMOC*, Talea Ensemble, Wavefield, Cantata Profana, and International Contemporary Ensemble. As an improviser, Frey is a member of Simone Baron’s genre-bending Arco Belo ensemble. Her compositions, described as “a moldering compost heap” (I Care if You Listen), have been performed by the Rhythm Method, Arco Belo, Adrianne Munden-Dixon, and Kal Sugatski. Her debut sonata album, The Grey Light of Day, with pianist Robert Fleitz, was released in 2016. Carrie is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Performance Program, and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

SOPRANO, Isolation/Togetherness

Soprano Nina Guo is interested in the sounds of recent and ongoing times, and her performance practice includes interpreting notated music, improvising, and collaborating on interdisciplinary projects. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in classical voice from the New England Conservatory of Music (2015), she completed a Master’s degree in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (2020). As a contemporary music specialist, her upcoming performances include solo appearances with Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt) and Decoder Ensemble (Hamburg), and recently, she has been featured at festivals like Acht Brücken (Köln), Passion:SPIEL at the Deutsches National Theater (Weimar), and Music in Time at Spoleto Festival (Charleston). Nina’s own projects include several duo collaborations. Departure Duo, a contemporary music soprano+double bass duo with Edward Kass, released its debut album 'Immensity Of' on New Focus Recordings (NYC). With artist Leonie Brandner, Nina made MOSSOPERA, a long duration installation opera for two voices, dictaphones, and ceramic resonators. In the last years, radio has become an important part of her practice, and her live comedy variety show, The Entertainment, is hosted by Cashmere Radio (Berlin) and supported by DMR Neustart Kultur. www.facesound.org

PIANO, COMPOSER, Celestial Bodies

Pianist, percussionist, and composer Danny Holt recently relocated from Southern California to Washington County, Maine. Called “phenomenal” by the late music critic Alan Rich, and hailed as one of the “local heroes” of the Los Angeles music scene (LAcitybeat.com), Holt performs around the globe in concert halls (Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl), clubs (Joe’s Pub, The Blue Whale, Copenhagen Jazzhouse) art galleries (MASS MoCA, Hammer Museum), churches, living rooms, and wherever else he can find a piano and someone to listen. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Blue Man Group, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, the California EAR Unit, and the Calder Quartet, and he has held fellowships at the Bang On a Can Summer Music Institute, the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, and New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice. His recorded catalog includes the recent solo album “Piano Music of Mike Garson” and other solo, chamber, and orchestral releases on the Innova Recordings label, pfMENTUM, New World Records, Deutsche Grammophon, and l’st records. As a composer, recent works were commissioned by the Hammer Musuem (Los Angeles) and University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire). Holt holds degrees from California Institute of the Arts, Hampshire College, Smith College, and Interlochen Arts Academy. He is thrilled to be part of the inaugural season of DownEast New Music, and is loving every minute of his new life in Maine. For more information, please visit: www.dannyholt.net.

VIOLIN, Celestial Bodies

Michelle Barzel Ross is a violinist, composer, and multi-instrumental improviser. A protege of Itzhak Perlman-turned-multidisciplinary artist, Michelle is known for her debut album, pop-up project and blog Discovering Bach: Complete Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach. Michelle is featured on Movement 11’ of Jon Batiste’s GRAMMY winning Best Album of the Year: We Are. Michelle was recently guest 1st violinist with the Juilliard String Quartet for US and European tours. Passionate about expanding the bounds of contemporary music as both a creator and performer, Michelle is a member of Ensemble Échappé, a guest with International Contemporary Ensemble, co-curator of Lucerne Festival Forward and faculty at Lucerne Festival Contemporary. Michelle was recently the soloist in Arvo Pärt’s Fratres with James Blachly and EXO at the Met’s Temple of Dendur celebration of Arvo Pärt. Collaboration highlights also include Bach Double with Itzhak Perlman, Michael Tilson Thomas and San Francisco Symphony, and Musician from Marlboro tours. Michelle has been guest concertmaster all around the world, such as with Orchestre de Paris, Radio France, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, and others. Recent compositional highlights include creating an electronic city-wide installation piece for Lucerne Festival. Recent album releases include “The Whale Song,” for cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, “Haiku,” for cellist Arlen Hlusko, and featured performances on Samuel Adler: Chamber and Instrumental Music. Michelle is the recipient of the 2012 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund, and was recently Artist-in-Residence at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. Michelle holds degrees from the Juilliard School and Columbia University.

CIMBALOM, Isolation/Togetherness

Nicholas Tolle is one of America's premiere cimbalom artists. In 2019 he won 3rd prize in the Budapest Music Center International Cimbalom Competition. He has performed as soloist in Pierre Boulez’ Repons with the composer conducting at the Lucerne Festival in 2009, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Péter Eötvös in 2012, and with Steven Schick at UC San Diego in 2017. Based in Boston, MA, he plays regularly with such groups as the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Emmanuel Music, and Sound Icon, and with his own group, the Ludovico Ensemble. He has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, New York Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Signal. He is featured performing Boulez’s Repons in the EuroArts documentary Inheriting the Future of Music: Pierre Boulez and the Lucerne Festival Academy, and in Kurtág's music for cimbalom and voice on soprano Susan Narucki's 2019 album The Edge of Silence, which was nominated for a 2020 Grammy award. His recording of Kurtág’s Seven Songs from The Edge of Silence was named one of the best classical tracks of 2019 by the New York Times.