The Musicians of Venge Art

Saxophonist Tom Bergeron has performed with Ella Fitzgerald, Anthony Braxton, Robert Cray, Natalie Cole, Bobby Shew, Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadiens, and Marin Alsop's String Fever. He has premiered dozens of new concert works for the saxophone, including appearances at the World Saxophone Congress in Chicago and New York's "Bang on a Can" festival, and he is widely recongnized as one of the world's foremost authorities on multiphonics. Tom performs regularly with his jazz group, Whirled Jazz, and the chamber trio, SoundMoves, as well as with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, Mason Williams and Friends, and the Tone Sharks. He has appeared as Principal Saxophonist with the Oregon Festival of American Music and the Bach, Cabrillo, Cascade and Oregon Coast festival orchestras. He also tours and records with the Europe-based jazz quartet, Labirynt. His work as a performer and composer can be heard on the Black Saint, Folkways, Teal Creek, Louie, Mark, Helicon Nine, and Panting Hyena record labels. As a composer, Tom draws not only on the rich jazz heritage, but on music traditions from around the world. One reviewer writes: "Bergeron's playing is so sweet it makes your blood sugar soar."

Ellen Campbell is Associate Professor of Horn at the University of Oregon School of Music and Hornist for the Oregon Brass Quintet. She has held faculty positions at the University of New Mexico and Southwest Texas State University. As a soloist she has appeared with orchestras throughout the United States, and has toured Finland, the Soviet Union, Mexico, and Australia with the New Mexico Brass Quintet. She has performed as Principal Horn with the Santa Fe Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Austin Chamber Orchestra, and Oregon Bach Festival. She has also played with the Oregon Symphony, Houston Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Lansing Symphony, and Michigan Opera Theater. In the summers she performs chamber music with the Fontana Ensemble for the Fontana Festival of Art and Music in Shelbyville, Michigan. She is a regular guest artist/clinician at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. She has presented solo recitals throughout the United States, and has performed at regional and international workshops of the International Horn Society.

Cellist Hamilton Cheifetz has received international recognition as a performer and acclaim for his solo recordings. Fanfare Magazine wrote "Cheifetz is unquestionably a magnificent player...an expressive lyricism reminiscent of Casals...combined with the precision of Starker." He studied with Janos Starker at Indiana University and later became teaching assistant to Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi at the University of Western Ontario. Winner of the Piatigorsky Prize at Tanglewood, he toured the United States and Canada on the Music From Marlboro concert series and performed at the White House. Mr. Cheifetz has been guest artist with the symphony orchestras of Toronto, Oregon, and Milwaukee, and has toured with the Paul Winter Consort. He presented a solo recital at the Sydney Opera House and has often been featured on National Public Radio's "Performance Today." His playing was highlighted, together with jazz great Dave Frishberg and vocalist Rebecca Kilgore, on the CBS television special "Gary Larson, Tales From the Far Side." Since 1977, Mr. Cheifetz has been cellist of the Florestan Trio, which has traveled to Japan on concert tours. Mr. Cheifetz performed duos with Janos Starker in Portland in 2001, which were broadcast on NPR. He is a member of the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, and has recorded for Koch, Delos, and Gagliano Recordings. Professor of Music at Portland State University, Mr. Cheifetz appears regularly at Chamber Music Northwest and the Oregon Bach Festival.

Violinist Anthony Dyer received his Bachelors of Music from the University of California at Northridge, and his Masters of Music degree in Violin Performance at the University of Oregon. Along with being a member of the Eugene Symphony and Oregon Mozart Players, Mr. Dyer heads a full teaching studio, and works as a freelance violinist and solo performer.

Pianist Randall Hodgkinson, grand prize winner of the International American Music Competition sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation, has performed with orchestras in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Boston, Cleveland and abroad in Italy and Iceland. In addition he has performed numerous recital programs spanning the repertoire from J.S. Bach to Donald Martino. He is an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and performs the four-hand and two-piano repertoire with his wife Leslie Amper. Festival appearances include Blue Hill-Maine, Bargemusic,Chestnut Hill Concerts in Madison Connecticut, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest (Portland, OR) and Mainly Mozart in San Diego, CA. A CD of solo piano music on the Ongaku label has recently been released to critical acclaim. Other recordings include a live world premiere of the Gardner Read Piano Concerto for Albany records. Mr. Hodgkinson is on the faculties of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Longy School.

Composer/pianist Art Maddox holds master's and doctoral degrees in music composition. He was pianist for the U.S. Womens Gymnastic Team from 1971 to 1976, which included performances at the Olympic Games in Munich and Montreal and other competitions and exhibitions throughout the world. Since 1981 he has worked with Emmy Award-winning composer/guitarist Mason Williams on many projects. In 1986, Art created the musical setting for novelist Ken Kesey's retelling of an Ozark folk tale, Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear. The orchestral version of this work, commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, has since been performed by the Oregon and Kansas City Symphony Orchestras, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, and on conductor Bill McGlaughlin's syndicated radio program St. Paul Sunday Morning.

Forrest Moyer is Principal Bass in the Oregon Festival of American Music orchestra. He is Assistant Principal Bass in the Eugene Symphony. In 1995 he was featured soloist with the Eugene Symphony in a performance given for the American Symphony Orchestra League. He has been a member of the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra since 1984 and is a section bassist on several OBF recordings, including Krzyzstof Penderecki's Credo, conducted by Helmuth Rilling. Moyer plays and records with Grammy Award-winner Mason Williams, teaches for the Eugene (Oregon) School District, and conducts a youth orchestra for the Eugene Arts Umbrella. Also known as a jazz bassist, Moyer has performed and recored with Anthony Braxton and the Northwest Creative Orchestra (Black Saint label), Charles Dowd's 100 Grooves for Drums & Bass (Warner Bros.), and Tom Bergeron & Whirled Jazz in Leopard's Tale.

Violist Katherine Murdock has performed throughout the world with such groups as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the New York Philomusica, the Boston Chamber Music Society, and the Brandenburg Ensemble. For seven years, Ms. Murdock was a member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet, a group with which she has toured internationally and held positions of Artist in Residence at Harvard University and the University of Delaware. As a participant at the Marlboro Festival, she has toured with Music from Marlboro, and performed on their fortieth anniversary concerts in Philadelphia and New York's Carnegie Hall. She has appeared on the "Great Performers at Lincoln Center" series as a guest of the Beaux Arts Trio. In recent seasons she has performed as a guest of the New Zealand String Quartet, the Vermeer Quartet, the Audobon Quartet, and the Axelrod Quartet. As soloist she has performed with the Fairfax Symphony, the Reading Symphony, and the New England Chamber Orchestra, among others, and with the Boston Musica Viva on West German Radio and the BBC. Her orchestral career includes extensive performing experience with the Boston Symphony and the National Symphony, as well as a one-year position in 1996 with the New York Philharmonic. Ms. Murdock has been a participant in the Edinburgh, Salzburg, and Gulbenkian Festivals, the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, and in the U.S. at Aspen, Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Saratoga, La Musica, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. She has served on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory, the Longy School, Wellesley College, and the Hartt School, and recently served as adjudicator of the Banff International String Quartet Competition. She is on the faculty of SUNY Stony Brook and the University of Maryland. During the summers she is on the artist-faculty of the Yellow Barn and Kneisel Hall festivals. She is currently a member of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet and the Theater Chamber Players.

Tasana Nagavajara has studied violin with Supot Chomboon, Sutin Srinarong and Choochart Pitaksakorn of Chulalongkorn University. He was a member of the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, the Ibycus Chamber Orchestra, and Concertmaster of the Thai National Youth Orchestra. In 1988 he was appointed Concertmaster of the ASEAN Youth Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He has studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland and Vorarlberg Conservatory in Austria. His teachers in Europe were Alberto Lysy, Grachia Arutiunian, Johannes Eskar and Roland Baldini. He was a member of Camerata Lysy Gstaad, the Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Bregenz and the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in most major European cities, in the U.S.A., Canada, and South America. During this period he participated in a number of recordings and was also invited to teach chamber music at Festival Piceno in Italy. He has studied violin with Kathryn Lucktenberg at the University of Oregon. While in Oregon he was active as Assistant Violin Instructor, Concertmaster of the University Symphony and the Oregon Mozart Players.

Fearless and resolute, the Onyx Quartet-Anna Presler, Phyllis Kamrin, violin, Kurt Rohde, viola and Leighton Fong, cello-continues its mission of exploring new music and revisiting old masterworks for excited audiences around the country. This dynamic ensemble, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, has received rave reviews for presenting definitive interpretations of new and old compositions. The Onyx Quartet has performed new works for: The Otherminds Festival, the Ernest Bloch Composers Symposium, 20th Century Forum, National Association of Composers USA, New Release Alliance and University of California at both Davis and Berkeley. They have worked with master composers George Crumb, Donald Erb and Henry Brandt, recorded for New Albion, and appear regularly with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. The Onyx Quartet enjoys the support of the Chamber Music Partnership, a non-profit corporation.

Carol Robe has been a member of the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Mozart Players, and Principal Clarinet of the Eugene Opera Orchestra for more than ten years. She was recently appointed to a position with the Portland Opera Orchestra and is currently a member of the Arrieu Wind Quintet. She holds degrees from Cornell College (Iowa) and the University of Oregon and has studied with Gervase de Peyer and Rosario Mazzeo.

Pianist Victor Steinhardt has performed throughout the United States and Taiwan, Germany and the Czech Republic. He has been a featured artist at the Oregon Bach Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming, the Mohawk Trails Concerts in Massachusetts, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival in California, Chamber Music Northwest in Oregon, and Bargemusic in New York. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with cellists Leonard Rose and Jules Eskin; violinists Arnold Steinhardt, Ida Kavafian, Josef Suk, and Pamela Frank; violist Michael Tree; clarinetist David Shifrin; flutist Ransom Wilson, and the Penderecki, Peterson, Angeles, LaFayette, and Guarneri String Quartets. He also performs four-hand and duo piano music with his wife, Mary Elizabeth Parker. Mr. Steinhardt has received wide acclaim for his compositions. Sonata Boogie for violin and piano, Running Blue for clarinet, violin and piano, and Ein Heldenboogie for piano solo have been enthusiastically received by audiences all over the country. Recent compositions include a piano trio and several pieces for violin and piano. Mr. Steinhardt's recordings include chamber works by Jon Deak (CRI); David Schiff's Scenes from Adolescence (Delos); An American Sampler (Olympic), song of Bartok and Kodaly (Vox-Turnabout); and with his brother Arnold Steinhardt, works by Robert Fuchs for viola with piano (Biddulph). The Oregon Arts Commission recently awarded Steinhardt a Fellowship Grant to facilitate the production of a CD recording of his own compositions, available from Town Hall records (THCD 52). Mr. Steinhardt teaches at the University of Oregon School of Music as a Professor of Piano and Chamber Music.

As a bassist, Guy Tyler has performed and recorded with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Parnassus, Speculum Musicae, Boston Musica Viva, the New York Chamber Ensemble, New England Bach Festival, Bang-on-a-Can, and others. He is a member and contributing composer for the American Festival of Microtonal Music. He has worked with such composers as Phillip Glass, La Monte Young, Johnny Reinhard and Ben Johnston. He has also given workshops and taught at N.Y.U. and Columbia University.