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To Be Heard
Every Day Life and Insanity for Your Reflection

  • Acts of Kindness

  • composed 2005 by William Vollinger
  • Texts by William Vollinger
  • Two Necklaces
  • First Journey
  • Second Journey
  • Freedom Begun
  • First Sacrifice
  • Second Sacrifice
  • Threnody
  • Two Songs

  • composed 2006 by Emanuela Ballio
  • Texts by William Shakespeare
  • Sonnet 125, Let me be obsequious in thy heart
  • Sonnet 121, I am that I am
  • Trains

  • composed 2006 by Rodney Waschka II
  • Texts by Rodney Waschka II
  • 1. In Memory
  • 2. The Train grows arms
  • 3. Cars Clang
  • 4. Having Lost
  • 5. After the Offensive
  • 6. This Train Never heard
  • 7. This Train Struck
  • 8. The Train Welcomes
  • 9. In the Cold Morning
  • 10. When It Carries
  • Evenly Spaced Waves of Irony

  • composed 2005 by David Cutler
  • Text by Billy Collins
  • I. The Willies
  • II. Flames
  • III. Weighing the Dog
  • IV. Embrace
  • William Vollinger is primarily a composer of vocal music, performed by groups such as the Gregg Smith Singers and New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, whose performance of his "Three Songs About the Resurrection" won first prize at the Geneva International Competition. "The Violinist in the Mall" won the 2005 Friends and Enemies of New Music competition. "Sound Portraits", recorded by Capstone, features soprano Linda Ferreira, including "The Child in the Hole", the true story of a Jewish boy who was hidden for three years during the Holocaust. It was selected for the 2003 Contemporary Music Festival in Kearney, Nebraska, and the 2004 Society of Composers National Conference. Tennessee Technological University presented an entire concert of his music. His works have been performed and broadcast in Europe, United States, and Asia. NPR devoted an hour program to his music. He is published by Lawson-Gould, Laurendale, and Heritage, with four pieces featured as editor's choices in the Pepper Catalogue.
    Writing in "Fanfare" (December 2003), Raymond Beegle writes, "I have known his work for years and believe, after much consideration, that there is genius in it. With astonishing depth and clarity, Vollinger brings his subjects to life. One finds a new musical language, not born out of a desire to be new, but a desire to be clear and to tell the truth. With all it's freshness, it is rooted in our past traditions, felicitously circumventing all the chaos, all the attitudinizing, and intellectualizing, and publicizing, that litter the present musical horizon."

  • Paul A. Epstein is Professor Emeritus of Music Theory at Temple University, where he taught from 1969 to 2001. Born in Boston in 1938, he is a graduate of Brandeis University and the University of California at Berkeley. His composition teachers included Harold Shapero, Seymour Shifrin, and Luciano Berio, with whom he studied privately on a Fulbright grant to Italy in 1962-63. Epstein has been involved in closely collaborative work with artists in theater and dance. He was associated with the New York environmental theater group The Performance Group from 1969 to 1972, and from 1974 to 1987 he was composer and music director for ZeroMoving Dance Company of Philadelphia.

  • Emanuela Ballio was born in Milan (Italy) in1968. She started studying the piano at a very early age and classical dance at the “La Scala” theatre in Milan. At the age of 22 she graduated in composition with top marks from “G.Verdi” Conservatory in Milan under the guidance of U.Rotondi. She studied electronic music with A.Vidolin and film music with E.Morricone and was awarded an advanced diploma in composition with F.Donatoni at the “Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia” in Rome, after which she soon became a teacher of Composition. She is currently on the teaching staff at the Conservatory “Luca Marenzio” of Brescia.

  • Rodney Waschka II is a composer/performer working with algorithmic composition, intermedia pieces, and music for traditional ensembles. His teachers include Larry Austin, Paul Berg, Charles Dodge, Thomas Clark and Clarence Barlow. Waschka's works consist largely of computer music compositions for traditional instruments and/or synthesizer/tape and frequently include other media: visuals, theater, poetry. His pieces have been performed throughout Europe and North America, and in Asia and South America. Composition, performances, and recordings of Waschka's music have been supported by grants and commissions from The National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, The Texas Composers' Forum, RESONANS (The Netherlands), the Logos Foundation (Belgium), North Carolina State University, Addison Centre Theater, the Hip Pocket Theater, and the University of North Texas. The recipient of numerous commissions and prizes in support of his musical activities, his music is published by Borik Press. His pieces, A Noite, Porem, Rangeu E Quebrou; Last Night; Help Me Remember; Xuan Men, and Visions of Habakkuk have all appeared on recent Centaur compact discs, with Ravel Remembers Fascism forthcoming. Recordings of Waschka's music are also available on the IRIDA and Ama Romanta labels. A former officer of the International Computer Music Association, Waschka is an Associate Professor at North Carolina State University where he directs the computer music studio.

  • David Cutler is a multi-dimensional composer whose compositions reflect a colossal range of musical styles. His works have been commissioned and performed by ensembles and artists such as the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Classical Orchestra of Milan, Repertory Symphony Orchestra, LAVIE Singers, Korean Chamber Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Airmen of Note Air Force Big Band, Eastman Studio Orchestra, singer Nancy Wilson, harpist Jung, and saxophonist Benny Golson. His music has often interfaced with dance, film, actors, costumes, stage design, and visual artists.
    Cutler studied piano at the University of Miami (BM), composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria, jazz arranging and composition at the Eastman School of Music (MM), and composition at Indiana University (DM). He was chair of the composition program at the Brevard Summer Music Festival (2000-2004), and has served on the faculty of Duquesne University since 2000.