New York's foremost piano sextet supergroup, described by the New York Times as "the Traveling Wilburys of the city's new-music piano scene," consisting of pianists Vicky Chow, David Friend, Paul Kerekes, Blair McMillen, Lisa Moore, and Isabelle O’Connell.

Composer, vocalist, director, and pedagogue. Currently based in Buffalo NY.

James Ricci (b. 1954 in NYC) composes compelling works for soloist, chamber ensemble, voice, and orchestra.
 

He studied in Boston at the Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, and at Brandeis University with Donald Martino, Martin Boykan, and Harold Shapero. He also participated in diverse seminars and master classes in Europe and the United States with composers György Ligeti, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Earle Brown, Jacob Druckman, Ralph Shapey, Betsy Jolas, Sylvano Bussotti, Anthony Payne, Milton Babbitt and Elliott Carter.  He obtained fellowships to attend Indiana University Composer's Forum, the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Music, and in Europe on a Sacher grant (Brandeis University).

As co-director of the LUMEN Contemporary Music Ensemble Ricci curated a series of successful concerts of new music for both concert and educational settings.

His “To the Solar Winds” was commissioned by the Arlington Arts Council and premiered by the Solar Winds Woodwind Quintet.

A collection of his music for piano has been released by David Holzman for Albany Records (TROY1875).


George Grella of NY Classical Review wrote regarding his NYC premiere of Intermezzo, “Ricci explained that he took an intuitive approach to writing the music, exploring the pathways of his subconscious and the sound of the piano. It initially presents itself as an atonal work, but quickly and smoothly becomes the fundamentally romantic reverie of Ricci’s technical approach. The music seems to sound just the way it should and, in Holzman’s performance, was completely absorbing.”


New Music Connoisseur described Ricci’s Sonatina for Solo Viola as “…cleverly expressed, while the string writing is emotive, showy, and telling - a fine listen.”


Ricci’s music was nominated three times for an award from the American Arts and Letters.

His String Quartet No. 1 (1984) won mention in the 1985 Boston League-ISCM Competition and a recording by the QX String Quartet is available on streaming services.

Ricci's album of piano music titled "Musical Connections" was released in September of 2021. It features Grammy-nominated pianist David Holzman. It is available on the Albany Records label (TROY1875).

Two recent works by Ricci for orchestra - Rune and Night Music - were recorded by Filharmonie Brno (Czech Republic) for Ablaze Records and conducted by Mikel Toms. The recording is available under the title "Orchestral Masters Vol. 9" (Ablaze AR-00066).


In Boston Ricci held a position of Assistant Professor of Composition at the Berklee College of Music. He now resides in Chapel Hill, NC.

His work is published by Universal Edition (UE) and affiliated with BMI (Broadcast Music Inc.).

Composer/Conductor/Trumpeter/Improviser/Educator

check out www.soundcloud.com/dbtrumpet for more of my trumpet/improvisational work!

WE'RE NOW AT ANCHOR FM! Come find us at https://anchor.fm/bitchconoclast OR SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES. 

BITCHCONOCLAST is a mother-daughter podcast about sex, feminism, & power.

Jason Huffman is a Boston based composer and trumpet player whose works take much inspiration from the interplay of mathematics with the perception of time and sound.

Dedicated to contemporary composers and performers

All episodes recorded and published between January 2009 through February 2012
 

Byron Adams (b. 1955) is a composer, conductor, and musicologist. His essays have appeared in journals such as 19th-Century Music, The Musical Quarterly, Music and Letters, twentieth-century music, and the John Donne Journal, and have been included in volumes such as The Cambridge Companion to Elgar (2004), Walt Whitman and Modern Music (Garland, 2000) The Cambridge Companion to Vaughan Williams (Cambridge, 2013) and The Music of Herbert Howells (Boydell, 2014) In 2000, the American Musicological Society presented him with the Philip Brett Award. In 2007, he was appointed scholar-in-residence for the Bard Music Festival, and edited the volume Edward Elgar and His World (Princeton, 2007). In addition, Adams has been a Visiting Fellow for the Institute of Musical Research, School of Advanced Studies, of the University of London, and is an Associate Editor of The Musical Quarterly. In 2010, he was named scholar-in-residence for the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles.


Adams’s music has been performed at the 26th “Warsaw Autumn” International Festival of Contemporary Music, the Leith Hill Festival in England, the Conservatoire Américain in Fontainebleau, France (where he taught in the summer of 1992), and the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra.  A recipient of numerous awards and grants, Adams’s music has been programmed in America by such ensembles as the West Virginia Symphony, Cantori New York, and the Riverdale Sinfonietta. His Serenade for nine instruments was performed during the 2013 Hot Air Festival of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Recent commissions include the Variationes alchemisticae for Chamber Music Palisades, Le Jardin Provençal, for Pacific Serenades, and Illuminations for piano, which was commissioned by the distinguished pianist Armen Guzelimian. In the summer of 2011, The Philharmonia Orchestra performed his Midsummer Music under the baton on Peter Oundjian; that same year the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra performed his Capriccio concertante, conducted by Grant Cooper. In 2013, the celebrated violist Nokathula Ngwenyama première d Adams’ Sonata for Viola and Piano; in March of 2014, the celebrated male voice ensemble Cantus sang the première of a score that they had commissioned, “Eventide,” which they featured on their annual Thanksgiving Day broadcast over NPR. In October of 2014, the distinguished ‘cellist Julie Albers gave four performances of Adams’s Concerto for violoncello and orchestra with Grant Cooper conducting the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra; in November celebrated pianists Alexander Peskanov and Rafal Lewandowski played the première performance of his Trittico for piano duet on a concert on the Bargemusic series in New York.


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