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10
aBoUt the artists
michael spiro is an internationally recognized percussionist, recording artist, and educator,
known specifically for his work in the Latin music field. He has performed on thousands of
records, co-produced and played on several instructional videos for Warner Bros. Publications
(including Talking Drums, Changuito, Giovanni Hidalgo, and Ignacio Berroa), and produced
seminal recordings in the Latin music genre, including Orquesta Batachanga, Grupo Bata-Ketu,
Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, and Grupo Ilu-Aña. He currently resides in San Francisco,
where he is an integral part of the Bay Area music scene. He records and produces with groups
throughout the West Coast and still tours worldwide with the percussion trio Talking Drums,
which he co-leads with David Garibaldi and Jesus Diaz.
A champion of contemporary music in the U.S. and abroad, violist ellen ruth rose currently
is a member of Empyrean Ensemble, the new music ensemble in residence at UC Davis, and
Earplay, the San Francisco-based contemporary ensemble, and performs regularly with other California
ensembles such as the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Santa Cruz New Music Works, Left
Coast Ensemble, and the Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players. She has worked extensively
with Frankfurt’s Ensemble Modern and the experimental ensembles Musik Fabrik and Thürmchen
Ensemble, appearing at the Cologne Triennial, Berlin Biennial, Salzburg Zeitfluß, Brussels Ars
Nova, Venice Biennial, Budapest Autumn, and Kuhmo (Finland) festivals. She has performed as
soloist with the West German Radio Chorus, Empyrean Ensemble, Thürmchen Ensemble, the
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Santa Cruz New Music Works, and the symphony
orchestras of UC Berkeley and UC Davis, and at the San Francisco Other Minds and Ojai Music
festivals. She has appeared on numerous recordings, including a Wergo CD of the chamber music of
German composer Caspar Johannes Walter—featuring several pieces written for her—which won the
German Recording Critics’ new music prize in 1998. In 2003 she created, organized, and directed
Violafest!, a four-concert festival at UC Davis celebrating the viola in solos and chamber music new
and old, including solos from the recently published anthology The American Viola (JB Elkus & Son,
2003) and premieres of pieces for four violas by Yu-Hui Chang and Laurie San Martin.
Rose has premiered several works by Northern California composers, including Kurt Rohde
(Double Trouble double viola chamber concerto, 2002), Pablo Ortiz (Le vrai tango argentin for
solo viola, 2001), Miguel Galperin (Projections for solo viola, 2004), Steed Cowart (Zephyr for
solo viola, 1989/2001), Edmund Campion (Melt me with thy delicious numbers for viola and live
electronics, 2003), Aaron Einbond (Self Similarity for viola and live electronics, 2008), William
Beck (Aquarium for viola, theremin, and tape, 2002), and Robert Coburn (Fragile Horizons for
viola, video, voice, and computer, 2007). Recent projects include performances of Rohde’s Double
Trouble at the Ojai Festival, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; a world premiere recording of Thomas
Stiegler’s Unisono for two solo violas and ensemble; the West Coast premiere of Frances White’s
A Veil Barely Seen for viola and tape; and performances of Campion’s Melt me with thy delicious
numbers and Ortiz’s Le vrai tango argentin in Stockholm, Sweden.
Rose holds degrees in performance from the Juilliard School and the Northwest German Music
Academy in Detmold, Germany, as well as a bachelor’s degree with honors in English and
American history and literature from Harvard University. Her teachers have included Heidi
Castleman, Nobuko Imai, Marcus Thompson, and Karen Tuttle. She is on the instrumental faculty
at UC Davis and UC Berkeley and has also taught at the University of the Pacific.