Department of Music

• Sunday, May 3, 2009
• McGuffey Art Center Studio ”11”
• 3:00pm
• Free

Original music composed by UVA graduate students for The Youth Orchestras of Charlottesville – Albemarle (YOCA) and performed by the YOCA Flute Choir & Ensemble, conducted by Wayla Chambo.

• “Three Winters” by Lanier Sammons
• “Les Papillons et Les Reves” by Aurie Hsu
• “River Anna” by Steven Kemper
• Encore performance: “Sans Nuages” by Anna Russell (YOCA Ensemble Flutist)

Lanier Sammons is a composer based in Charlottesville,Virginia whose music often explores ideas like audience interactivity, improvisation, extended techniques, the intersection of popular and classical music, and the pairing of electronic and acoustic sound.Lanier is pursuing graduate studies at theUniversityofVirginia, where he is presently studying under Judith Shatin.He has also studied composition with Bonnie Miksch, Arthur Kampela, Brad Garton, Joseph Dubiel, George Edwards, and Ted Coffey.

Aurie Hsu is a Ph.D. student in Composition and Computer Technologies at UVA where she has studied with Matthew Burtner, Ted Coffey, and Judith Shatin. Aurie holds degrees in Piano Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and in Piano Performance and Electronic Music/Recording Media from Mills College. Current projects include dance pieces with sensor-controlled electronics and pieces for extended piano and electronics. Aurie dances with Fire in the Belly, a tribal-fusion belly dance company and is the administrator for the World and Experimental Arts Group (WeArts), an organization that seeks to promote cultural and experimental arts in Charlottesville, VA.

Steven Kemper, originally from Baltimore, received a B.A. in music from Bowdoin College where he studied composition with Elliott Schwartz and Vin Shende. Upon graduation he moved to Chicago where he worked as a sound engineer for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Apple Tree Theatre, studying composition privately with Howard Sandroff. Steven completed a master of music degree in composition at Bowling Green State University where he studied with Marilyn Shrude, and worked as a teaching assistant for music technology. Currently, Steven is a graduate student at the University of Virginia in the composition and computer technologies program. In 2005, Steven’s saxophone quartet Gliding Through a Misty Phosphorescence was premiered in Madrid, and his video Neoga has been shown at numerous electroacoustic festivals and concerts around the world. His mixed quintet Run From Fear was part of the American Composers Alliance 2008 Festival of American Music, and At the Crossing of Five Paths for flute and electronics was premiered at Pixilerations [v.5] in Providence. Along with Troy Rogers and Scott Bartion, Steven is a co-founder of Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI), a robot instrument-building collective.

Wayla J. Chambo is a versatile teacher and performer committed to promoting new music for flute alongside the traditional repertoire. In addition to directing the YOCA Flute Ensembles, she teaches at Eastern Mennonite University and has a private studio in Charlottesville. Also an active performer, she has appeared locally with the Virginia Consort, the Oratorio Society of Charlottesville-Albemarle, the UVA New Music Ensemble, Noise in the System, and Du Ciel flute and harp duo. Wayla holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Music from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Anna Russell, flutist and composer, is a junior at Charlottesville High School. This school year, Anna has been selected for the Senior Regional Orchestra, All-District & All-State Bands and performed in the orchestra for UVA’s theatre production of Oklahoma.