Department of Music

Chia-chi Charlie Chang, born in Taipei, Taiwan and has lived in Virginia since 2000, is an image artist primarily working with the medium of photography. Inspired by the modern life, particularly the contrast between the urban and suburban lifestyle, sound, and music, she makes art that exudes a sense of the familiar while displaying a vague, uncertain, dreamlike visual experience, and evoking a hidden memory or a fragment of past experiences. view at imagecaffeine.net

Pinko Communoids is an improvisational trio based in Charlottesville, Virginia. The trio consists of Carey Sargent, Kevin Parks, and Wendy Hsu. We create both free and structured improvisations using conventional instruments including guitars, accordions and percussion, found objects, circuits, microphones, and other electronics. We enjoy the quiet interplay of small sounds and often employ a restrained sonic palette of diverse timbres. Though we like occasional loud cathartic noisy workouts, we play at appropriate volumes and always invite our audience to savor our sounds without earplugs. Our recent explorations have led us to investigate aspects of tuning and timbre and the relationship between the two. Since forming in 2006, Pinko Communoids have given over 30 performances both locally and abroad, including a tour of Taiwan's major cities in Summer 2007. We have been on COMA, Red Room, 804noise showcases, Sonic Circuits, Noise in the System, Technosonics, and various other concert series. We helped curate a series entitled Audio January at The Bridge PAI, in Charlottesville VA. Our music has been featured on radio shows such as Noise Solution and Ghost Don't Walk, and at Harold Golen Gallery in Miami, FL. Pinko Communoids have collaborated with artists including Jonathan Zorn, Kenneth Yates (Caustic Castle), Alice Hui-Sheng Chang (of 12 Dog Cycle), Aurie Hsu, Lee Alter (watercolorist), and Chia Chi Charlie Chang (photographer/videographer). listen/view/read at myspace.com/pinkocommunoids

Violist, Johanna Beaver has worked with several of today's acclaimed composers, including Elliot Carter, David Lang, Tristan Murait, Sheila Silver, and Richard Wernick. In 2005 Ms. Beaver joined the faculty at the University of Mary Washington where she teaches violin and viola and directs the University String Ensemble. She is principal violist for New York City’s Alpha Omega Ensemble, is a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Charlottesville, and since 2005 has served as principal violist of the Ash Lawn Opera Festival Orchestra. In the summer she performs at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival in Harrisonburg and is faculty at the University of Virginia’s Summer Chamber Music Festival “Beyond the Notes.” Former faculty positions have included the University of Virginia, Suffolk Community College, Stony Brook Pre-College, Interlochen Arts Camp, Ann Arbor Summer Arts Institute, and the Opus 118 Harlem Center for Strings, as well as assistantships at SUNY Stony Brook, University of Arizona, and the North Carolina School of the Arts. Ms. Beaver holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Aaron Hill teaches oboe on the faculty at the University of Virginia, plays principal oboe in the Charlottesville and University Symphony Orchestra, and performs chamber music with the Albermarle Ensemble and Washington, D.C.'s Sage Chamber Players. Mr. Hill holds the Master of Music and Artist Diploma degrees from Yale University's School of Music, where he was honored as the recipient of the Thomas Nyfenger Memorial Prize for outstanding woodwind performance and taught oboe lessons to undergraduate students in the Department of Music. In addition, he was an assistant teacher for graduate level Music History. At the University of Michigan, Mr. Hill received a Bachelor of Music degree with Highest Honors, achieved the school's prestigious rank of Angell Scholar, and played principal oboe on William Bolcom's "Songs of Innocence and Experience" under Leonard Slatkin, a Naxos release which received four Grammy awards including Best Classical Album.

Michael Schutz is currently the Director of Percussion Studies at Longwood University and is active as a performer and adjudicator in the Central Virginia area. Solo performances include guest appearances at the University of Virginia, Goucher College, Penn State University, and the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association State Convention. Active in the promotion of new music, he and I-Jen Fang co-commissioned Judith Shatin's "Time To Burn," giving the world
premiere PASIC 2006 along with oboist Scott Perry. A prize-winning researcher, Michael has also published on topics ranging from the role of visual information in music perception to the computer aided analysis of post-tonal music, presenting his research at conferences around the world including the International Conference on Music and Gesture (Manchester, UK) the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (Bologna, Italy), and Acoustics08 (Paris, France).

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