Sean Barela, bassonist

Mr. Barela, a native of Southern California, has enjoyed an active and diverse career as a freelance bassoonist and as a teacher in the Greater Los Angeles area. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree with a minor in Psychology from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Stephen Maxym (former solo bassoon, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and Rose Corrigan (principal bassoon, Pacific Symphony). He holds a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Clouser (principal bassoon, Cleveland Orchestra). And he is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music as a scholarship student, where he teaches a class in bassoon methods. Mr. Barela has received a fellowship from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and numerous scholarships from organizations throughout the United States, including the Trustee Scholarship (full tuition) from the University of Southern California. Sean Barela has worked with such notable conductors as Christoph von Dohnanyi, Jorge Mester, Kent Nagano, Carl St. Clair, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Called “a fantastic, daring musician” by Christoph von Dohnanyi, Sean Barela’s playing is celebrated for being rich with sophisticated lyricism, sparkling tone, and technical mastery. Mr. Barela plays on Heckel #7022.

Megan Berti, mezzo-soprano

Megan Berti is a first-year masters student and a mezzo-soprano in Jan Opalach's studio. She has sung in choirs since the age of 10 and has studied with Shigemi Matsumoto and Ruth Onstadt. Megan made her Eastman debut last semester singing the mezzo solo in Bach's B Minor Mass. She has also performed with Ossia, Eastman's new music ensemble, and with the choral groups Voices and Apeiron. For three years she sang with SummerSong and performed the roles of Orpheus in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, Sesto in Handel’s Julius Cesare, and Otto in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea. She has sung Mercedes from Bizet’s Carmen, Sesto in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, and Sister Helen Prejean in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in the CSU Long Beach Opera Scenes. She was also Sheep 1 in the CSULB production of Bernstein’s Candide, La Messaggiera in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, and Sesto in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito. Megan was a soloist in the CSULB performance of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor in 2007 and the mezzo-soprano solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. She has also participated in the SongFest artsong program and the International Lyric Academy in Italy. She was a scholarship recipient for the Fine Arts Affiliates, the Dramatic Allied Arts Guild, the Presser award, and she has received two CSULB Choral awards. Megan is also a member of the SAI music fraternity and the Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society.

John Liberatore, composer/pianist

A native of Auburn, NY, composer and pianist John Liberatore now lives with his wife in Rochester where he is pursuing a doctoral degree at the Eastman School of Music. At Eastman, he serves as president of the new music ensemble Ossia, and he teaches in the computer music center under Allan Schindler. He holds degrees from Syracuse University (BM) and Eastman (MM).

His music has been performed around the United States, as well as in Canada, Europe, and South America. In the summer of 2009, he participated in the Music09 Festival at the Hindemith Music Centre in Blonay, Switzerland where he worked with musicians from the ensemble eighth blackbird. Other recent venues have included the Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, the American Cultural Institute of Peru, the Stone (NYC), the Buffalo Philharmonic Young Composers' Forum, the Charles E. Gamper Festival, and the Bowdoin Music Festival. Current projects include works for violist John Graham, and for the ensemble Dal Niente with soprano Amanda DeBoer.

Michael McMillan

Michael McMillan is pursuing master’s degree in composition at Eastman School of Music, and holds a bachelors degree from Princeton University in New Jersey. Michael likes writing music that is concise and focused on clarity. His principal teachers have included Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Steven Mackey, and Barbara White, and he has been a fellow at Aspen Music Festival and Brevard Music Festival. Recent musical interests include jazz, György Ligeti, Japanese Shakuhachi, and computer applications to music and performance.

Geoffrey Pope, composer/conductor

Geoffrey Pope (b1986) has been recognized through numerous commissions and appointments as a composer and conductor. He received his BM from the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Donald Crockett and Tamar Diesendruck, and is currently a student of composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and conductor Brad Lubman at the Eastman School of Music, where he is completing master's degrees in composition and conducting. At USC, he served as assistant conductor to Donald Crockett of the Thornton Contemporary Music Ensemble, and was the inaugural composer in residence of the Chamber Opera. In 2007, his music was performed in European cities including Prague, Budapest and Leipzig by the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. His ongoing projects include a second opera—set in Sarajevo in the 1990s—in collaboration with visionary tenor and concept artist Timur Bekbosunov, who commissioned and produced his chamber opera, The Stone House. The forthcoming opera, Sarajevo Vespers, recently received endorsement from the America-Bosnia Cultural Foundation to aid research in Bosnia and promote international recognition of the project. In June, his music will be performed at the Kennedy Center by flutist Catherine Branch. Pope has conducted works by composers including Peter Maxwell Davies, Jacob Druckman, Robert Morris, Augusta Read Thomas, Allan Schindler, Chen Yi and Luciano Berio—many performances of which have been coastal or world premieres. Next year he will begin his two-year appointment as assistant conductor of MusicaNova, Eastman's official contemporary music ensemble. For more information, please visit www.geoffreypopemusic.com.

Gilad Rabinovitch, composer

Gilad Rabinovitch's principal composition teachers are André Hajdu, Menachem Zur, Yinam Leef, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez. He holds an M.A.Mus in composition and musicology from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and the Hebrew University (2009, summa cum laude). Entered the doctoral program at the Eastman School of Music as a Sproull doctoral fellow for 2009-2013. Recently admitted to a summer course with Samuel Adler at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, as well as to the New Music Session at Domaine Forget, Quebec, for summer 2010. Awarded the Mozart-2006 prize for his String Quartet (Austrian Cultural Forum in Tel-Aviv), first prize in the Chana Yador-Avni memorial competition's choral category (2007) and a fellowship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation. Commissioning institutions include the Israel Contemporary Players, Aviv Competitions, Jerusalem Music Centre, Meitar Ensemble and Ensemble Adapter. Other performing groups include the Israel Contemporary String Quartet and the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Choir.

Ben Thomas, bassist/composer

Ben Thomas is a Bassist and Composer who has been fortunate to have played with Ralph Alessi, Clay Jenkins, Ted Poor, Bob Brookmeyer, Michael Davis, and The Dave Rivello Ensemble. Ben has attended the School for Improvised Music in Brooklyn for two years, having studied with Ralph Alessi, Tony Malaby, Drew Gress, Jim Black, Andy Milne, John Hebert, Tyshawn Sorey, and attended master classes with Mark Helias, Vijay Iyer, and Steve Coleman. Ben was born in Hartford, CT and currently lives in Rochester, NY and is in his last year at the Eastman School of Music where he has studied Double Bass with James VanDemark and now studies with Jeff Campbell. At Eastman, Ben plays in the award winning New Jazz Ensemble under Dave Rivello and in Musica Nova under Brad Lubman. Ben also performs extensively with the school’s student run new music group, OSSIA.

Ben sleeps with a teddy bear.

Stephanie Titus, pianist

Stephanie Titus holds a Bachelor in music with honors from the University of South Carolina, a Masters in piano performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music and is currently pursuing a Masters in Pedagogy of Music Theory at Eastman. She is a passionate performer of standard solo piano repertoire with an avid interest in new music. Her current repertoire in progress includes Stockhausen's Kontakte and Klavierstucke I-IV, Reich's Piano Phase, and Adam's American Berserk and Phrygian Gates. Over the past few years she has been sought to perform premieres for newly composed works for solo piano as well as chamber works. Her most recent performance was Feldman's Crippled Symmetry for flute, piano/celeste, and percussion at the UCSD Experimental Theater.

Aaron Yarmel, violinist

Aaron Yarmel began studying the violin at the age of 5, and recently completed his violin performance degree requirements at the Eastman School of Music with Zvi Zeitlin. He is currently studying at the U of R as a Take 5 Scholar. He has appeared as a soloist with the InterHarmony International Music Festival Orchestra, the Penfield Symphony Orchestra, and the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Aaron has performed in master classes for Peter Salaff, Zvi Zeitlin, Charles Castleman, Walter Verdehr, Sergiu Schwartz, Charles Haupt, Juliana Athayde, Tracy Silverman, and Mark Wood. Chamber music coaches include Donald Weilerstein, Edward Dusinberre, Stephen Picard, András Fejér, Nico Abondolo Warren Jones, Misha Quint, and the Ying Quartet.

Aaron has sat concertmaster in both of Eastman's orchestras, and principle second violin in the Music Academy of the West Festival Chamber Orchestra. Other orchestral experience includes performing with the New World Symphony.

As a music educator, Aaron has served as a mentor in the Music Academy of the West's MERIT program and has taught violinists in the Rochester City School District's School 19 and the Rochester City School District's School 17. In addition to teaching standard repertoire, he has given masterclasses in rock improvisation. He served, in 2007-2008, as the chief arranger, conductor and violist of a rock string ensemble he managed at the U of R.

An advocate of new music, Aaron is the Vice President, director of public relations, and director of community outreach of the OSSIA New Music Organization, and frequently performs in OSSIA concerts. He has also performed in Musica Nova and as concertmaster of the Eastman Graduate Composers' Sinfonietta.