I'm mainly using this Sound Cloud page to offer up some of the unheard steps of the songwriting process, as sort of a sketch book of new ideas and revisitation of older songs that perhaps never saw the light of day. 

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

I am a conductor, pianist and harpsichordist, vocal coach, and, on occasion, reference book editor. 

Award winning multi-instrumentalist/composer

Considered among the world’s singular clarinetists, Grammy nominee David Krakauer is recognized internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. He has appeared with the Tokyo, Kronos, and Emerson quartets, plus as soloist with the Dresden, Seattle, and Detroit symphony orchestras, among others. 

With his band Ancestral Groove, he has redefined the klezmer genre with major appearances at Carnegie Hall and internationally. His discography contains some of the past decade’s preeminent klezmer recordings, notably The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (Golijov/Kronos/Krakauer). 
 
Consistently defying categorization, Krakauer has collaborated with Dawn Upshaw, Itzhak Perlman, John Zorn, Fred Wesley, Music from Marlboro, Abraham Inc, the Klezmatics, John Cage, Danny Elfman, and Socalled. His newest project, The Big Picture, explores personal identity by reimagining familiar film themes in a cinematic concert with original visuals. 

Krakauer is an avid educator at Mannes (New School), the Manhattan School of Music, NYU, and the Bard Conservatory. 

Born October 27, 1975, in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, Igor began his professional training at age 19 at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria, where he studied with Doug Hammond. During this period, he was a member of Munich-based band Sidewinders, winner of the“Best Jazz Group of Germany” award.
After completing his studies with honors, Igor was invited by one of the world’s finest bassists, Reggie Workman, to study at the New School University in New York City. He received a scholarship and moved to New York in fall 2000.
In New York Igor trained with some of the world’s finest musicians—George Garzone, Reggie Workman, Buster Williams, Chico Hamilton and many others. In April 2002, Igor was selected for the New School All-Star Wayne Shorter Ensemble, which performed at the “Beacons In Jazz” award ceremony at the Supper club, where Mr. Shorter was honored. 
Igor performed at jazz festivals in Munich, Ljubljana, Belgrade,Novi Sad, Csfero, at major jazz clubs in New York including the Jazz Standard, Cornelia Street Cafe, Supper Club Birdland; and venues all over the world with such jazz legends as Reggie Workman, John Abercrombie, Chico Hamilton.
In 2011 Igor was commisioned to create a piece for a closure of European Capital of Culture. With multimedia artist Zeljka Blaksic he created “Resistance of the Earth”, which is a multimedia project that combines several artistic genres; from video, performance, 16 mm film to live music. The theme of the project covers the world of natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and tornados.
 
 
Igor’s band Innertextures represents Igor's passion for the music to journey to new and daring places.  He is supported in this effort by bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Nasheet Waits. Igor has released three CDs as a leader:
“Innertextures live” (2012), just came out on Portuguese label Clean Feed Records, “Mineral Mind” (2009),   “Innertextures” (2004)   In addition to his work as a performer, he has an active career as an educator, having taught master classes and improvisation lessons throughout Europe and the United States.

Maria Storm is following