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8 aBoUt the artists Festival director Chris froh is a percussionist principally committed to influencing and expanding the repertoire through commissions and premieres. He began his training as a fellow with the National Symphony Orchestra, then continued at the Eastman School of Music with percussionist John Beck before moving to Japan to study and perform with marimba pioneer and composer Keiko Abe. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan with percussionist Michael Udow and marimbist Julie Spencer. He is currently on the faculty at UC Davis. Froh is a former founding director of the Ann Arbor-based new music group and series Brave New Works. Currently he is a core member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Empyrean Ensemble, the ADORNO Ensemble, and sfSound Group and is principal percussionist with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. As a guest artist, he has performed with a broad array of ensembles, including Alarm Will Sound, the Honolulu Symphony, and Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Solo festival appearances include performances at the Festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali, Music@Menlo, Festival of New American Music, Pacific Rim Festival, and Other Minds Festival. In addition to participating in commissions of chamber works through his various membership ensembles, Froh actively commissions solo works from renowned composers through his own Sixpack program. To date, the Six-pack is responsible for a dozen new pieces for solo multi-percussion, marimba, and vibraphone by composers across the aesthetic spectrum, with premieres at the Villa Aurelia in Rome, Mondavi Center for the Arts in Davis, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, among others. An upcoming recording of Six-pack commissions is forthcoming. Froh continues his close ties to Japan, touring with marimbist Mayumi Hama and as a soloist with Keiko Abe and the Galaxy Percussion Group. He has performed regularly at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and appeared as the solo percussionist for the Berkeley Repertory Theater’s production of Aeschylus’s The Oresteia. He is recorded as a soloist on the Albany, Equilibrium, and Innova labels. Music writer Derk Richardson’s oft-quoted observation, “If scott amendola didn’t exist the San Francisco music scene would have to invent him,” is truer than ever. But what’s become evident in recent years is that the extraordinarily resourceful drummer has evolved into a paragon of selfinvention, a bandleader, composer, and invaluable creative collaborator at the center of a vast array of improvisational ensembles. While rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area scene, Amendola has woven a dense and far reaching web of bandstand relationships that tie him to influential figures in jazz, blues, groove, rock, and new music. An organizer by nature, he has become a creative nexus for a community of musicians stretching from Los Angeles and Seattle to Chicago and New York. While he first gained widespread notice a decade ago for his work in eight-string guitar ace Charlie Hunter’s trio, in recent years Amendola has stepped forward as the leader of several compelling bands that showcase his supremely supple trap work. He continues to work as a sideman, accompanying artists such as the tart-toned vocalist Madeleine Peyroux, guitarist and singer/songwriter Kelly Joe Phelps, and the Nels Cline Singers, a volatile instrumental trio without a vocalist. mayumi hama completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in percussion performance (marimba) at the Toho Gakuen Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Keiko Abe and Kyoichi Sano. In 1998 she was admitted to the University of Michigan for a special post-master’s research course and studied the marimba with Michael Udow and the drum set with Michael Gould. Hama was awarded second prize at the Second World Marimba Competition in Okaya, Japan (1999). Her career as a marimbist includes performances with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, at the Yomiuri concert for noteworthy new players on the recommendation of the dean of the Toho Gakuen Conservatory of Music, and in China as a member of a goodwill mission. She also performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Conventions in 1998 (Florida) and 2000 (Texas). Currently Hama is pursuing a career as an international solo marimbist and has performed in the United States, Belgium, China, Ireland, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. She released her first CD, Soundscapes, in 2000 to high praise from many critics.
aBoUt the artists Vibraphonist-composer stefon harris is heralded as “one of the most important young artists in jazz” (Los Angeles Times). His passionate artistry, energetic stage presence, and astonishing virtuosity have propelled him into the forefront of the current jazz scene. Widely lauded by both his peers and jazz critics alike, Harris is committed to both exploring the rich potential of jazz composition and blazing new trails on the vibraphone. Harris is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, with a bachelor’s degree in classical music and a master’s degree in jazz performance. He has performed at many of the world’s most distinguished concert halls, including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, and the Sydney Opera House. He has toured and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and performed his original compositions with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra. He has toured South Africa, Brazil, and Europe performing in a variety of music festivals. An active educator, Harris conducts more than 100 clinics and lectures annually at schools and universities throughout the United States. Daniel Kennedy holds a master’s degree in music from the California Institute of the Arts and a doctor’s degree in percussion performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, under the guidance of multi-percussionist Raymond DesRoches, hand-drum specialist John Bergamo, and tabla master Swapan Chaudhuri. Kennedy has been the founding member of several contemporary music ensembles, including the California E.A.R. Unit and the Talujon Percussion Quartet, and he has performed throughout the United States, Europe, India, Bali, and Japan. His recent concert appearances include performances of Steve Mackey’s Micro-Concerto at the Kennedy Center and the Los Angeles County Museum, a performance with the So Percussion Quartet at the 2005 Other Minds Festival, and as a soloist for Day of Percussion events at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Queens College, Fresno State University, and Southern Oregon University at Ashland. Currently a member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and Gamelan Sekar Jaya, he resides in Sacramento, where he is the instructor of percussion at Sacramento State University. Loren mach is passionate about the arts as they relate to our 21 st century world and all who inhabit it. A graduate of the Oberlin and Cincinnati Conservatories of Music, Mach has premiered countless solo marimba and percussion pieces as well as chamber and orchestral works. Since arriving in the Bay Area in fall of 2005, he has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony, most of the many “freeway philharmonic” regional orchestras, the ADORNO Ensemble, Empyrean Ensemble, sfSound, and Worn Chamber Ensemble. The past two summers he performed at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and was guest artist with Dawn Upshaw and eighth blackbird at the 2006 Ojai Music Festival. Mach has enjoyed recent collaborations with the Mercury Soul Project/DJ Masonic and vocal ensemble Kitka and looks forward to parading in the SF Carnival with Brazilian bateria Grupo Samba Rio. michael mcCurdy lives in New York City and is currently a teacher at the Kaufman Center for the Arts and Stony Brook University. McCurdy performs with many groups in the NYC area, including Hi Red Center, the Mantra Percussion Quartet, Passenger Fish, the Mighty Buttons, Lauren Smith, Ensemble, Inc., and Forecast Music. Recently he has been a featured performer at Electronic Music Midwest, the Sparks Festival of Electronic Music, the New York City Day of Percussion, the Tarleton State Day of Percussion, the Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute, the Festival of New American Music, and the April in Santa Cruz New Music Festival. In the past he has performed with, among others, Continuum Chamber Ensemble, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Albany Symphony, the Sacramento Philharmonic, and the Sacramento Opera. McCurdy is a champion of new music, premiering and recording works by established composers such as Gavin Bryars, Richard Felciano, Michael Fiday, Annie Gosfield, Karen Tanaka, and Ushio Torikai. Michael has also developed relationships with many young composers to commission and perform new works. Most of these collaborations have blended music with dance, and music with text and theatre—many of these efforts have combined music with electronics or interactive computer. His recent and upcoming concerts include the 20 th anniversary Bang on a Can Marathon, a tour to Jakarta, an appearance with the Mantra Percussion Quartet at the f(x) New Music Marathon in Miami, clinics and recitals at universities throughout the United States, a residency at Mälardalen University in Västerås (Sweden), and concerts at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin with the experimental pop ensemble Hi Red Center. 9
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