Nicolas Roulive 

nicolas.roulive@hotmail.fr 

Composer and Pianist

Eighth Blackbird is “one of the smartest, most dynamic contemporary classical ensembles on the planet” (Chicago Tribune). Launched in 1996 as a twinkle in the eyes of six entrepreneurial Oberlin Conservatory undergraduates, this Chicago-based super-group has earned its status as “a brand-name…defined by adventure, vibrancy and quality….known for performing from memory, employing choreography and collaborations with theater artists, lighting designers and even puppetry artists” (Detroit Free Press).


Eighth Blackbird kicked off its 20th anniversary in 2016, quickly garnering a fourth GRAMMY Award as well as the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, Chamber Music America’s inaugural Visionary Award, and Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year (2017). Anniversary celebrations continue throughout the 2016-17 season, culminating in the June 2017 launch of The Blackbird Creative Lab, an annual tuition-free two-week intensive for emerging artists at the Besant Hill School in Ojai, California.


Eighth Blackbird first gained wide recognition as the winner of the 1998 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and has since commissioned and premiered hundreds of works by dozens of composers including David T. Little, Steven Mackey, Missy Mazzoli, and Steve Reich, whose commissioned work, Double Sextet, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize (2009). A long-term relationship with Chicago’s Cedille Records has produced seven acclaimed recordings (most recently, Hand Eye) and four impressive GRAMMY Awards for Best Small Ensemble/Chamber Music Performance: for strange imaginary animals (2008), Lonely Motel: Music from Slide (2011), Meanwhile (2012), and Filament (2015).


Eighth Blackbird’s members (Nathalie Joachim, flutes; Michael J. Maccaferri, clarinets; Yvonne Lam, violin & viola; Nicholas Photinos, cello; Matthew Duvall, percussion; Lisa Kaplan, piano) hail from the Great Lakes, Keystone, Golden, Empire and Bay states. The name “Eighth Blackbird” derives from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens’s evocative, aphoristic poem, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (1917). Eighth Blackbird is managed by David Lieberman Artists' Representatives.

www.eighthblackbird.org

Flutist Camilla Hoitenga travels extensively, bringing her eclectic repertoire and charismatic performances with her wherever she goes, whether Berlin or New York, the Kremlin in Moscow or the Forbidden City in Beijing. Whether accompanied by orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony or the London Philharmonic, or playing alone on stage, Camilla’s concerts have been acclaimed by the press as „brilliant “ and „ideally transparent and precise.“ Her recordings, in particular those with Kaija Saariaho, have won awards in France, Great Britain and in North America. Inspired by traditional Japanese music, she has been a frequent guest in Japan and has premiered dozens of pieces written for her by Miyuki Ito, Mio Minamikawa, Shoko Shida, Takehito Shimazu, Yoshiro Kanno, Harue Kondoh, Yu Kuwabara and many others.

Her repertoire ranges from music of Bach, Mozart and Schubert to concertos written for her by Kaija Saariaho, Pèter Koeszeghy or KenIchiro Kobayashi; from Stockhausen's theatrical Zungenspitzentanz for piccolo to Jean-Baptiste Barriere's state-of-the art pieces for live video and electronics to improvisations with Jean-Marc Montera. In addition to her intensive collaborations with Saariaho, Stockhausen, Köszeghy, and Barrière,  with  a wide range of composers, including Anne LeBaron, Oliver Schneller, Jovanka Trbojevic, Yasutaki Inamori, Christopher Fox, Donnacha Dennehy and Bryan Wolf have dedicated pieces to her. Furthermore, the sculptor Ansgar Nierhoff (1941-2010) created a three-dimensional "score" out of iron for Camilla, a piece called Anlehnen ("to lean on"), which she has interpreted in various environments. Additional commissions for her own music and improvisation have come from painters and sculptors (e.g. Jörg Immendorff, Raija Malka, Mutsumi Okada, Peter Drake) as well as from galleries and museums (e.g. „for Yves Klein“ in the Museum Ludwig, Cologne).

Camilla Hoitenga has taught at the State University of New York and at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen/Duisburg and continues to give masterclasses and workshops on various subjects for musicians of all ages. Her own flute teachers were Darlene Dugan, Alexander Murray, Peter Lloyd and Marcel Moyse. Further inspiration came in the course of studies with philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorf at Calvin College (B.A), and with early-music expert George Hunter, composers Ben Johnston and Sal Martirano and ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl at the University of Illinois (M.Mus., D.M.A.), with Maurico Kagel and, especially, with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne.

Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan (USA), Camilla Hoitenga now lives in Cologne, Germany and Sylva, North Carolina. 

Italian composer, born in Bergamo in 1962. Stefano Gervasoni began studying composition in 1980 on the advice of Luigi Nono: this encounter, as well as others with Brian Ferneyhough, Peter Eötvös and Helmut Lachenmann, turned out to be decisive for his career. After attending the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Stefano Gervasoni studied with  György Ligeti in Hungary in 1990, and then, in 1992, he attended the IRCAM Course in Composition and in Computer Music in Paris. The first three years in France launched Gervasoni's international career that eventually led him to be artist-in-residence at Villa Medici in Rome for the biennium1995-1996.
With commissions from prestigious institutions such the WDR, the SWR, the Orchestra Nazionale della RAI, the Münchner Kammerorchester, the Festival d'Automne in Paris, Radio France, IRCAM, the Casa da Musica in Porto, the Festival Archipel in Geneva, the Divertimento Ensemble in Milan, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva, the Maerzmusik festival in Berlin, the Ars Musica Bruxelles, the Festival Musica in Strasbourg, the French Ministry of Culture, Milan Teatro alla Scala and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Stefano Gervasoni has established himself as one of the most important Italian composers of his generation. His catalogue – which includes chamber and vocal music, concertos, works for orchestra, for ensemble and an opera (Limbus-Limbo), commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Percussions de Strasbourg (2012) – was first published by Ricordi, from 1987, and then, from 2000, by Suvini Zerboni.
A monographic CD entitled Antiterra, which features the pieces An, Animato, Antiterra, Least Bee, Godspell, and Epicadenza, released in 2008 by Aeon, bears witness to «a sonic world of great wealth, subtlety, refinement, expressive but also organic, that immediately captures one’s attention» (Philippe Albèra). Other monographic recording collections include the Harmonia Mundi CD in the series Musique Française d'Aujourd'hui (Ensemble Contrechamps), the Stradivarius CD by Divertimento Ensemble and the CD Dir-in dir released in 2014 by Winter & Winter (Académie Charles Cros price and Diapason d'or in France). A recent CD by Winter & WInter, released in 2016, entitled Le pré includes the three books of a piano cycle.
Winner of numerous prizes, including the recent Premio della Critica Musicale "Franco Abbiati" (2010), his work has allowed him to be a grant-holder at the Fondation des Treilles in Paris (1994) and at the DAAD in Berlin (2006) and composer-in-residence at the Domaine de Kerguéhennec during the period 2008-2010. He has also been invited to teach at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse, on the courses organised by the Fondation Royaumont (Paris), at Toho University in Tokyo, at the Festival International di Campos do Jordão in Brazil, at the Conservatory in Shanghai, at Columbia University (New York), at Harvard University (Boston) and at Takefu International Music Festival. He has been composer-in-residence at Lausanne Conservatoire (2005) and at Yellow Barn Summer Academy (Vermont, 2016). Moreover, he has been visiting professor at ESMUC in Barcelona for the 2012-13 academic year.
Since 2006 Stefano Gervasoni has held a regular teaching post as professor of composition at the prestigious Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris.
The musicologist Philippe Albèra wrote a substantial book on Stefano Gervasoni's work, Stefano Gervasoni. Le parti pris des sons, published in 2015 by Editions Contrechamps (Geneva).

Regarded as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), TAK delivers energetic performances "that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.” (WIRE Magazine). The ambitious ensemble “impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity” (New Sounds, WQXR). Dedicated to the commissioning of new works and direct collaboration with artists working in a variety of disciplines, TAK promotes ambitious programming at the highest level. 
 The quintet has released four albums to critical acclaim, including Oor (2019), which launched their in-house media label TAK editions. This label creates broadly accessible platforms for audience engagement with a host of new music media with a focus on original TAK content. The ensemble's Youtube videos have been viewed 15,000 times, and the TAK Editions Podcast has received over 5,000 listens from across the globe.

'Love, Crystal and Stone' by Ashkan Behzadi out on TAK editions 5/10/22

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TAK’s operations occur on Lenape lands—Lenapehoking; we acknowledge the Lenpae as the original people of this land and their continuing relationship with their territory.

Vittorio Montalti (Rome, 1984) obtained his Composition Master degree with Alessandro Solbiati at the Conservatory G. Verdi in Milan and in Piano under the guidance of Aldo Tramma at the Conservatory S. Cecilia in Rome. Then he studied composition with Ivan Fedele at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and electronic music at the IRCAM-Centre Pompidou in Paris.

In 2010 during the Venice Biennale – 54th International Festival of Contemporary Music he was awarded the “Silver Lion”.

In 2016 he was awarded the “Una Vita nella Musica” prize by Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

His works have been performed at various festivals such as New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Gran Teatro La Fenice, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, IRCAM-Centre Pompidou, La Biennale di Venezia, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Roma Europa Festival, I Teatri di Reggio Emilia/Festival Aperto, Teatro Regio di Parma/Festival Verdi, Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Orchestra Regionale della Toscana, Milano Musica, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Ex Novo Musica, Bergamo Musica Festival, Divertimento Ensemble – Rondò, Festival Pontino, Festival Traiettorie, Sinfonieorchester Orchesterzentrum|NRW, Italian Cultural Institute of Sidney, Melbourne, London, Paris, Strasbourg and many others.

He has been composer in residence at Italian Cultural Institute in Paris (2013), at American Academy in Rome – Marcello Lotti Italian Fellowship (2014), Civitella Ranieri (2017), FortissimissimoFirenzeFestival – Amici della musica di Firenze (2017), Divertimento Ensemble (2018), La Società dei Concerti di Milano (2018-2019).

He is a member of Nuova Consonanza and he also works as a curator for the MA/IN Festival.

Particularly interested in music theater, he has written four operas on librettos by Giuliano Compagno that have been staged in different productions. He has worked with stage directors such as Francesco Saponaro, Alessio Pizzech, Claudia Sorace/Muta Imago and Giancarlo Cauteruccio.

In recent years Vittorio is also active as electronic music performer. In particular with two projects: The smell of blue electricity, a 50 minutes project for percussions and electronics that involve Blow Up Percussion and Tempo Reale, and The great void, a work written for Gloria Campaner and commissioned by MAO – Museo d’arte orientale di Torino.

He teaches composition at the Conservatory “Alfredo Casella” of L'Aquila.

The works written until 2017 are published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni – SugarMusic S.p. A.
Since 2018 his music is published by Casa Ricordi – Universal Music Publishing.

PH: Simone Petracchi

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