Members
Chris Graham is a freelance percussionist living and working in the Tri-State area. He has performed with a variety of groups at Columbia University, Princeton University, Queens College, William Paterson, Tenri Cultural Center, Issue Project Room, The Knitting Factory, New York Fringe Festival, Pasic, Symphony Space, and Carnegie Hall. He has worked and performed with notable groups such as Newband, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and Mantra Percussion Group and is a co-founding member of the Iktus Percussion Quartet. Previous teachers include Raymond DesRoches, Dr. Dominic Donato, Tom Kolor, Joseph Pereira, and Eduardo Leandro.
Percussionist Steven Sehman plays a wide variety of styles and genres, having performed at venues throughout New York including the Park Avenue Armory, Galapagos Art Space, Issue Project Room, Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, Pianos and The National Underground. As a member of various ensembles he has collaborated with composers Steve Reich, Harrison Birtwistle, Bernard Rands, John Luther Adams and U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove. He has recorded on the New World, Equilibrium, Summit and d’Note Classics labels. Sehman is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and resides in Brooklyn, New York. www.stevesehman.com
Justin Wolf is a percussionist and teacher currently living in Brooklyn, NY. He holds degrees from William Paterson University, SUNY Purchase College, and CUNY Queens College. As a member of Iktus since 2007, Justin has helped commission and premiere over 50 new works for percussion quartet, and has performed at venues and festivals such as Symphony Space, Galapagos Arts Space, Le Poisson Rouge, Issue Project Room, and the Bang on a A Can Marathon. Justin is also percussionist for the Brooklyn-based band Balún, and has performed with the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, and various orchestras and chamber ensembles in the New York tri-state area. As a teaching artist, Justin currently works in Queens and Long Island, NY teaching band and percussion. He has also participated in the Nancy Zeltsman Marimba Festival and a summer tabla workshop with Pandit Sharda Sahai. Justin has recorded on Atma Classique and LockStep Records labels .
Photo by Shawn Brackbil
Percussionist and composer Nicholas Woodbury uses music as a way to explore creativity and to engage and interact with people through sound. He is co-founder of the Sinopia Quartet, a two piano, two percussion ensemble that is devoted to commissioning new works for the unique instrumentation as well as re-imagining more standard repertoire. Nicholas is also co-founder of the Red Bench Music Concert Series, which offers free standing-length concerts with participation from artists of all genres. Red Bench provides artists with a platform to share their passions and incredible performances with the New York community and with the rest of the world through digital media, and takes place at the Brooklyn Art Library in Williamsburg.
Nicholas performs with the Iktus Percussion Quartet, in residency at Brooklyn College, and with Mantra Percussion Ensemble. He has performed with the Ensemble Modern Akademie in Austria and Italy, and at the Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordão in Brazil. He frequently performs with his collaborative improvisation group MoonBounce and his interest in improvisation has led him to perform on drum set and vibraphone in many different settings and styles.
As a teacher, Nicholas is currently a Teaching Artist with the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at C.W. Post Long Island University and was previously the percussion instructor of undergraduates at SUNY Stony Brook. Nicholas is a graduate of SUNY Stony Brook (Master of Music, Contemporary Percussion) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (Bachelor of Music).
Cory Bracken is a percussionist and program coordinator dedicated to exploring the possibilities of experimental and avant-garde music in American culture. He has studied contemporary music with some of the finest percussionists in the metropolitan area, including Dr. Dominic Donato, Tomas Kolor, Frank Cassara, and Matthew Ward, as well as pianist Ursula Oppens and vibraphonist Ted Piltzecker. Currently residing in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn, he is attending CUNY Brooklyn College with a Presidential Scholarship, having received the "Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Music Performance" in 2010, the Robert Starer Award for performing works of living composers in 2011, and the distinguished Brooklyn College Alumni Association award for outstanding contributions to the music community.
As a performer, Cory is the founder and percussionist of the BACK Voice + Percussion Duo with vocalist Amirtha Kidambi, an active member of the Iktus Percussion Quartet, and has appeared with such groups as the Electric Eel Multimedia Ensemble, One World Symphony, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, and the Brooklyn Symphony.
As a program coordinator, he is the founder and artistic director of the Stellar Frequencies concert series, dedicated to presenting staple repertoire and newly commissioned works of avant-garde music in non-classical music settings, founder and executive director of Performers Forum, a monthly event hosted at Exapno in Brooklyn, and advisor to The Sweat Lodge, a composer consortium featuring Dave Ruder, Joe White, Ian Munro, and Ellen O'Meara.
Cory has coordinated, programmed and performed in shows and concerts all over New York, including Symphony Space, the Stone, Issue Project Room, Pianos, the Tank, Death By Audio, Zebulon Cafe, Northeast Kingdom, 1012 Willoughby, and the Thalia Cafe at Symphony Space. He recently performed works by Iannis Xenakis, Philippe Hurel, and James Tenney in concerts at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at the New England Conservatory in June 2011.
www.stellarfrequencies.com
www.performersforum.com
