El fondo del agua by Santiago Diez-Fischer

interlude by Nick Cline

The Book of Ahania by Tiffany M. Skidmore

interlude by Nick Cline

The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy by Tiffany M. Skidmore

interlude by Nick Cline

Pieces of Light: Guardian by Alyssa Weinberg

interlude by Nick Cline

Tharmas the Father/Enion the Mother by Tiffany M. Skidmore

The Book of Ahania by Tiffany M. Skidmore

Hover by Anthony R. Green

interlude by Nick Cline

Mélodie imaginaire by Franco Venturini

interlude by Nick Cline

Pieces of Light: Phosphenes by Alyssa Weinberg

Performances by

Laura Cocks, flute
Jeff Siegfried, saxophone
Nick Cline, electronics
Tiffany M. Skidmore, instrumental
Walt Skidmore, electric guitar


DiMenna Center for Classical Music
Cary Hall
450 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018
March 7, 2025
7:00 pm

Laura Cocks

Laura Cocks (they/she) is a flutist with “febrile instrumental prowess” (The New York Times), who works in a wide array of environments as a performer of experimental music and “creates intricate, spellbinding works that have a visceral physicality to them” (Foxy Digitalis).

Laura is the executive director and flutist of TAK ensemble, “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), with whom Laura makes musics "that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (WIRE Magazine). They are also a member of Talea Ensemble, noted for their “astonishing fluidity,” “compelling lucidity, ” and “precise control” (The New York Times).


As a soloist, improviser, and chamber musician, they have performed with musicians such as DoYeon Kim, Shara Lunon, Timothy Angulo, yuniya edi kwon, Luke Stewart, Wendy Eisenberg, Lester St. Louis, Brandon Lopez, Madison Greenstone, International Contemporary Ensemble, Sun Ra Arkestra, Wet Ink Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, and many others in NYC and abroad.
Their recent solo album, field anatomies (Carrier Records), noted as one of Stereogum’s top-ten experimental releases of the year, charted in the Billboard top ten “Classical Crossover” releases and was praised for its “superhuman physicality” and “disciplined patience” (Bandcamp Best Contemporary Release and Experimental Release). Laura can be heard on labels such as ECM, Denovali Records, Catalytic Sound, TAK editions, Tripticks Tapes, Carrier Records, Chambray Records, Double Whammy Whammy, New Focus Records, Sound American, Orange Mountain Music, Supertrain, Gold Bolus, Hideous Replica, Sideband Records, and many others.

aura has been in residence at institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, Cornell, Wesleyan, Tulane, Oberlin, The Centre for Research in New Music at Huddersfield University, University of Chicago, The Delian Academy for New Music, and many others. They were named one of the top 40 music professionals in 2023 by Musical America and have given masterclasses and taught seminars in performance practice, composition, professional development, and applied critical theory at institutions such as Oberlin Conservatory, California Institute of the Arts, University of California San Diego, Columbia University, and at University of Pennsylvania, where TAK held the position of Long-term Visiting Ensemble in Residence from 2022-2023. They have served on the performance faculty of The New School College of Performing Arts and The Washington Heights Conservatory. Laura studied with Michel Debost, William Bennett, Kate Hill, and Tara Helen O’Connor at the Oberlin Conservatory, Royal Academy of Music, and Manhattan School of Music. They hold a doctorate from The Graduate Center and continue their writing and research in corporeal analyses of art and musical praxis.

Laura plays a custom-made open G# Almeida with a Boston-cut Powell headjoint.

Jeff Siegfried

Saxophonist Jeff Siegfried combines a “rich, vibrant tone” (South Florida Classical Review) with “beautiful and delicate playing” (Michael Tilson Thomas) to deliver “showstopper performances” (Peninsula Reviews). Hailed for his “quicksilver” interpretations (I Care if You Listen), Siegfried has become an important voice in his generation of concert saxophonists.

Siegfried has been honored at numerous international competitions. He has received first prize at the Luminarts Fellowship Competition and the Frances Walton Competition and was runner up in the Carmel Music Society Competition, the North American Saxophone Alliance Quartet Competition, and the Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Competition. He is the recipient of the 2016 Hans Schaeuble Award.

Siegfried has appeared as a featured soloist with the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own,” the University of Portland Wind Ensemble, the Oregon State University Wind Ensemble, and the Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble. He has also appeared as an orchestral saxophonist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and Spoleto Festival, USA. His recording credits appear on Parma, Mark Records, and Parlour Tapes.

As a champion of new music, Siegfried has commissioned many works for the saxophone. He has collaborated with numerous composers, including Matthew Browne, Nicholas Cline, Joey Crane, Gala Flagello, Sean Friar, Elliott McKinley, Clara Olivares, Joan Arnau Pàmies, Robert Reinhart, David Reminick, Karalyn Schubring, Gregory Wanamaker, Eric Wubbels, Katherine Young, and Daniel Zlatkin.

Siegfried is also an active scholar in the field of musicology. His scholarly interests included 20th century Jewish art music, Yiddishkayt, music and politics, performance studies, and the critical organology of the saxophone. He has presented his research at numerous international conferences from Brussels to Budapest.

Siegfried has collaborated with chamber ensembles from around the world. His saxophone sextet, The Moanin’ Frogs, has received considerable international acclaim and competitive success. His saxophone quartet, the Estrella Consort, has performed for diverse audiences from Ecuador to Tennessee. He has appeared with other award-winning ensembles, including casalQuartett and the Fonema Consort.

Siegfried holds masters degrees in saxophone and in musicology from Northwestern University and a doctorate in saxophone with certificates in musicology and in performance studies from the University of Michigan. His principal teachers are Timothy McAllister and Andrew Bishop. He is a Selmer Artist-Clinician and plays Selmer saxophones and mouthpieces exclusively. Siegfried serves as Assistant Professor of Saxophone at West Virginia University.

Nick Cline

Nicholas Cline makes music for voices, acoustic instruments, and by electroacoustic means. Deeply influenced by the natural world, his music draws on a broad range of subjects and experiences with the belief that music reveals, challenges, and shapes the listener’s understanding of the world. Recent projects include collaborating with the The Crossing for a performance and recording of his work, Watersheds, for 24 voices, tenor saxophone, and live electronics.

Cline's music has been performed by Spektral Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble VONK, Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble, Northwestern Contemporary Music Ensemble, Jeff Siegfried, Jena Gardner, Square Peg Round Hole, Stare at the Sun, Constellation Men’s Ensemble, and F-Plus. He has presented his music at festivals and conferences in the US and in Europe and his work is featured on the SEAMUS electroacoustic miniatures recording series: Re-Caged.

Cline has been an artist-in-residence with High Concept Labs and the Chicago Park District. His principal teachers include Hans Thomalla, Chris Mercer, Jay Alan Yim, Aaron Travers, Don Freund, John Gibson, Jeffrey Hass, and Ilya Levinson, studying at Northwestern University, Indiana University, and Columbia College Chicago. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with his family and teaches composition and music theory at Appalachian State University.

Santiago Diez-Fischer

Santiago Díez-Fischer’s music is based on the search for an organic sonority that combines the acoustic sounds of instruments and different objects with a very personal way to use electronics: a «tactile» music that invites the listener to explore the sculpture of his music.

His music has been performed by several ensembles as Collective Lovemusic, Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble Distractfold, Eunoia Ensemble, Ensemble Sur Plus, KNM Ensemble, Ensemble Soundinitiative, Vortex, Le balcon, TM+, BIT20, CAIRN, and L’imaginaire, among others. He has participated as composer-in-residences and festivals at IRCAM – CURSUS, Schloss Solitude Akademie 2011, Darmstadt Summer Course, Impuls Academy, Festival Borealis, and many others.

Díez-Fisher has received commissions and awards from Siemens Foundation, Pro Helvetia, Borealis Festival, the French Embassy in Argentina, Argentinian Mozarteum, Cité internationale des Arts, Clang Cut Book Berlin, Mixture Festival, Joan Guinjoan Prize, among others.

For 5 years, he was assistant professor in the Composition Class at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland. He now teaches composition in the Conservatory of Pantin (Paris). He created an instrumental and electronics composition class to work in new experimental luthery as a part of the electroacustique department. 

Santiago Díez Fischer was born in Argentina and has German and Argentine nationalities. He studied in Argentina, Germany and France with Philippe Leroux and Rebecca Saunders. He has lived in France since 2009. 

Anthony R. Green

The creative output of Anthony R. Green (b. 1984; composer, performer, social justice artist) includes musical and visual creations, interpretations of original works or works in the repertoire, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all of his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom, which manifest themselves in diverse ways in a composition, a performance, a collaboration, or social justice work.

As a composer, his works have been presented in over 25 countries across six continents by various internationally acclaimed soloists and ensembles, including : vocalists Anthony P. McGlaun, Julian Otis, Anna Elder, and Amanda DeBoer Bartlett; violists Ashleigh Gordon, Gregory Williams, Carrie Frey, and Wendy Richman; pianists Stephen Drury, Kathleen Supové, Jason Hardink, Kimi Kawashima, Lewis Warren Jr., Clare Longendyke, Hayk Melikyan, and Eunmi Ko; cellists Matthieu D’Ordine, Patricia Ryan, and Ifetayo Ali-Landing; percussionists Bill Solomon, Michael Skillern, and Dame Evelyn Glennie; saxophonists Neal Postma, Benjamin Sorrell, and Kendra Williams; and ensembles Tenth Intervention (Hajnal Pivnick – violin, and Adam Tendler – piano), ALEA III (with Gunther Schuller, conductor), the Thalea String Quartet, counter)induction, Ensemble Dal Niente, Dinosaur Annex, andPlay, NorthStar Duo, fivebyfive, Transient Canvas, the McCormick Percussion Group, the Icarus Quartet, Opera Kansas (as winner of the 2018 Zepick Modern Opera Contest), the American Composers Orchestra, the Lowell Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Minnesota Philharmonic, the String Archestra, the Playground Ensemble, Ossia New Music Ensemble, and Alarm Will Sound, to name a few. He has received commissions from the Fromm Foundation (a 2021 commissioned composer), Community MusicWorks, Make Music Boston, Celebrity Series Boston, Chamber Music Tulsa, Access Contemporary Music, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Boston University (for the 2023 Richmond Piano Competition), the Texas Flute Society (for the 2021 Myrna Brown Competition), NOISE-BRIDGE duo, Ghetto Classics (for the 2022 Kenya International Cello Festival), and various other soloists and ensembles. In 2021, three portrait concerts featuring his music were presented digitally by Boston University, and in live concerts at UMKC - presented by the saxophone studio, and in St. Paul, Minnesota - presented by the 113 Composers Collective. A fourth portrait concert featuring vocal works will be presented in December 2022 at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. He has been a resident artist at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (Nebraska), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Escape to Create (Florida), Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden), Space/Time (Scotland), atelier:performance (Germany), the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Nebraska), Gettysburg National Military Park (through the National Parks Arts Foundation), and the perfocraZe International Artist Residency (Ghana). Upcoming residencies include the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida) and Loghaven (Tennessee). 

As a performer, he has appeared at venues in the US, Cyprus, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Israel, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, South Korea, and Ghana, premiering original works and working with student, emerging, and established composers such as David Liptak, Renée C. Baker, and George Crumb for various performance presentations. Green has participated in consortium commissions organized by Neal Postma (saxophone), Meraki (clarinet and piano duo), and New Works Project (solo percussion). His music has been performed at Symphony Space (New York), Marian Anderson Theater at Aaron Davis Hall (New York), the DiMenna Center (New York), Jordan Hall (Boston), Tivoli Vredenburg (Utrecht), Kunstraum (Stuttgart), Cité de la Musique et de la Danse (Strasbourg), the Shoe Factory (Nicosia), the TWA Hotel (New York), the Edward A. Hatch Memorial Shell on the Charles River Esplanade (Boston), and the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), amongst many others. Selections of Green’s music and performances are on CDs and DVDs on the Navona, Ravello, Stone, and Innova labels. His recent engagement in performance art and divergent theater has yielded presentations of such works in Berlin (Spike Gallery), New York City (Union Square for the Art in Odd Places Normal Project, 2021; JACK in Brooklyn for the 2021 Radical Acts Festival), Oslo (Kulturkirken Jakob for the Periferien “SITES AND SOUNDS” project), and in Kumasi, Ghana. Other visual and sonic art projects have been presented at Galerie Wedding (Berlin), Federation Square (Melbourne), Monkey Bar (Hannover), Alliance Francaise Kumasi, the Tampa Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and venues in Malaysia, Venezuela, Spain, and more.

Through music, text, and entrepreneurship, Green comments on many issues related to social justice. Such issues have included: immigration (Earned - narrator & double string quartet), civil rights (Dona Nobis Veritatem - soprano, viola, & piano), the historical links between slavery and current racial injustice in the US (Oh, Freedom! - spoken word, voice, flute, viola, cello), the contributions of targeted and/or minority groups to humanity (A Single Voice: Solitary, Unified - solo alto sax & fixed media), and more. His ongoing opera-project Alex in Transition highlights the life of Alex - a trans woman - and her journey to truth and authentic living. This opera has been featured in the Ft. Worth Opera Frontiers Festival, presented by New Fangled Opera and One Ounce Opera, and performed in a concert production at the Israel Conservatory of Music in Tel Aviv. For the Concord Revisited Project, organized by pianists Jason Hardink and Kimi Kawashima at Westminster College (Salt Lake City), Green composed The Baldwin Sonata : a concert-length piano sonata celebrating and musically analyzing the life, legacy, philosophy, and text of the legendary James Baldwin. Other social justice works include: short cabaret operas, which are comedic-yet-piquant critiques on capitalism via corporations (one of which was premiered by Strange Trace for their 2021 Stencils Festival); His Mind & What He Heard in Central Park in the Late 90s for solo voice, concerning a gay Black man’s encounters with queer racism and toxic exotification (premiered by Anna Elder at the 2019 Conference: Music & Erotics at the University of Pittsburgh); To Anacreon in the US for solo piano, concerning nationalism - especially US “patriotism” (premiered by Aristo Sham at New England Conservatory, with subsequent performances by Kathleen Supové at Barge Music, Clare Longendyke at the Mostly Modern Festival, and more); the sax quartet Almost Over, a musical symbol of Black history in the United States (featured in the 2017 Grachten Festival in Amsterdam and the 2017 Gaudeamus Music Week in Utrecht); rest - reflect - reignite, a video work exploring Black rest, inspired by the Nap Ministry (commissioned by the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project for the Re:Sound 2021 Festival); Piano Concerto: Solution, sonifying and visualizing the power of women (commissioned by the McCormick Percussion Group; presented at the University of South Florida in Tampa, and the Milwaukee Art Museum presented by Present Music); and I Returned. I wanted to., a video work examining Black joy, Black queerness, Christianity in Africa, and more (commissioned by CAP UCLA for the 2021 Tune In Festival), amongst others. Publications include text for New Music Box, TEMPO (Cambridge University), Archive Books, Positionen magazine (Berlin), and more. 

Green’s most important social justice work has been with Castle of our Skins : a concert and education series organization dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. Co-founder, associate artistic director, and composer-in-residence, his work with Castle of our Skins has included concert/workshop curation and development, community outreach, lecturing about the history and politics concerning Black composers of classical music, commissioning and supporting young, emerging, and established composers, curating the BIBA (Beauty in Black Artistry) Blog, and more. The current 10th season will be his final season with CooS, after which he will transition to director emeritus, occasional consultant, and lifelong friend. 

His primary teachers include Susan Kelley, Dr. Donald Rankin, and Maria Clodes-Jaguaribe for piano, and Dr. Martin Amlin, John Drumheller, Theodore Antoniou, Lee Hyla, and Dr. Robert Cogan for composition. He has participated in masterclasses with Laura Schwendinger, Paquito D’Rivera, Walter Zimmermann, Jonathan Harvey, the Fidelio Trio, and the JACK Quartet, amongst others. His solo and collaborative work has been recognized by grants from Meet the Composer, the Argosy Foundation, New Music USA, and the American Composers Forum as a McKnight Visiting Composer, among others. A passionate educator, Green has given courses, workshops, lectures, and studio visits at numerous institutions, including Walker West Music Academy, Boston University, the Longy School of Music, the Piet Zwart Instituut, the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO), UC Santa Cruz, the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, the Gotland School of Music Composition (Gotlands Tonsättarskola), Westminster College, the University of Milwaukee, and Columbia University. He has served on the faculty for the Sewanee Music Festival, Project STEP summer program, Really Spicy Opera’s Aria Institute, the Alba Music Festival Composition Program, and the Vienna Summer Music Festival’s Composers Forum. An avid thought contributor, he has appeared on panels concerning various subjects for the Wellesley Composers Conference, the 2020 New Music Gathering (along with Angélica Negrón, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and more), and most recently for the 2022 WASBE Conference in Prague (along with Jennifer Higdon and David T. Little, and more), among others. He has also taught various subjects and given private composition lessons at the Universität der Künste Berlin, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Music, Theater, and Dance. He is a 2021 graduate fellow (alumnus) of the Berlin Centre for Advanced Studies in Arts and Science (BAS) at the Berlin University of the Arts graduate school (Graduiertenschule), and also holds degrees from New England Conservatory and Boston University. 

Green was born on Nacotchtank land (Arlington, VA) and raised on Narragansett and Pauquunaukit land (Providence, RI) in a country named by violent Europeans and built significantly by the labor of the enslaved. He currently splits his time mostly between the US and Europe, with ever-increasing travel to Africa. He is married to his occasional piano duo partner and forever husband Dr. Itamar Ronen.

Tiffany M. Skidmore

Tiffany M. Skidmore is an American composer and performer based in Montréal, Québec, where she is currently a McGill University Visiting Professor in residence at CIRMMT (the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology). From 2023-2024, she held the Birge Cary Chair in Music Composition at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). She is Co-Founder, Executive Director, and Co-Artistic Director of the Twin Cities-based 113 Composers Collective, an organization that produces the Twin Cities New Music Festival, as well as concerts and guest artist residencies throughout the world. 

Dr. Skidmore has received numerous awards for her work from organizations such as the Schubert Club, the Jerome Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Rimon, and Opus7. She was a 2017 John Duffy Institute for New Opera Fellow, a 2018 McKnight Composer Fellow, and the 2018-2019 Zeitgeist New Music Ensemble Composer-in-Residence. Her chamber, choral, and orchestral work has been interpreted by acclaimed experimental music specialists throughout the United States and Europe, including Kyle Hutchins, Tiffany Du Mouchelle, Talea, TAK, loadbang, andPlay, Bent Duo, Fonema Consort, Ensemble Dal Niente, Duo Gelland, and many others. Her work has been featured in national and international festivals, including the US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium, the International Clarinet Association Festival, the MN Made Festival, the Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival, the Virginia Tech New Music + Technology Festival, the New York City Electronic Music Festival, the OpenAir Festival (Sweden), the Open Days Festival (Denmark), and the World Saxophone Congress (Gran Canaria), among others. She is on the composition faculty of the Vienna Contemporary Composers Festival, the Sofia Symphonic Summit, and the São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival.

Dr. Skidmore holds degrees in Music Composition and Vocal Performance from Gonzaga University, Eastern Washington University, and the University of Minnesota, where she studied with James Dillon and theorist Michael Cherlin, followed by post-doctoral studies with Chaya Czernowin. 

Soprano Nina Dante writes that “Tiffany Skidmore’s music brings to mind Sciarrino’s description of his own music: hearing it is like watching a volcano erupt from afar. While Skidmore’s music burns its own path outside of Sciarrino’s aesthetic, the description holds true. Her music often features slow moving textures dotted with energetic events (imagine a constellation moving across the sky over the course of the year, and interjecting shooting stars), a starry sound world, coldly emotional content, and a mix of musical abstraction with direct theatrical/conceptual content. For these reasons, like reading a myth of ancient times, we experience the drama of her works from a distance.”

As a performer, Skidmore has sung professionally with the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene Opera companies, Spokane Symphony Chorale, the Minnesota Chorale, the Contemporary Music Workshop, Hymnos Vocal Ensemble, the Gregorian Singers, the 113 Composers Collective, and as a free-lance soloist, primarily performing early and experimental music.

Franco Venturini

Franco Venturini studied Piano, Composition and Electronic Music at the Conservatory of Bologna. He received a diploma from the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome with I. Fedele and a Master's Degree in composition, theory and research from the Paris 8 University. He attended Composition Master Classes in various international contexts, including the Centre Acanthes in Metz, and the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt. In the university domain in Paris, he met internationally recognized composers, such as M. Jarrell, M. Stroppa, T. Murail, B. Furrer, W. Rihm, P. Hurel, U. Chin, and J. M. López. As a pianist, he improved his competences in performance, attending Piano Master Classes by N. Starkman, S. Perticaroli, O. Yablonskaja and, mostly, with M. Campanella and the Trio di Trieste, receiving a Diploma of Merit in piano and chamber music courses at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and at the International Chamber Music High School of Trio di Trieste.

Venturini dedicates himself to the composition of instrumental works with use of electronics. He has been performed in various international contexts, as: Biennale Musica in Venice, Milano Musica Festival, Festival MITO in Milan, Festival Traiettorie in Parma, Parco della Musica in Rome, Radio Suisse Romande in Genève, Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Pharos Arts Foundation International Contemporary Music Festival in Cyprus, Festival musikprotokoll in Graz, Leibniz Tempel - Georgengarten in Hannover, Altes Rathaus der Stadt in Leipzig, Festival Mixtur in Barcelona, Musica para el tercer milenio in Madrid, Festivals Suona Italiano and Suona francese in Paris and Strasbourg, Lee Foundation Theater of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore, College of Music Seoul National University, and the Central Conservatory in Beijing. He was involved in the PRIME project (Paetzold Recorder Investigation for Music with Electronics) promoted by the conservatory of Lausanne. 

Among the interpreters of his music are internationally recognized musicians as Quartetto Prometeo, Trío Arbós, the ensembles Klangforum Wien, Proxima Centauri, Das Neue Ensemble, Divertimento, l'Imaginaire, FontanaMIX, Icarus, the Orchestre National de Lorraine, and conductors J. Deroyer et J.-M. Lavoie. Some of his works and performances have been broadcast on Radio France Musique, Radio Österreich 1, and RaiRadio3. He has given lectures-concerts on contemporary music and pianistic language, with particular attention to “extended techniques,” in Italian and French conservatories and universities (Università di Roma Tre, Université de Bourgogne, etc.). He has received commissions by the Biennale Musica of Venice, the foundation Arena di Verona, the Universal Exposition 2015 of Milan and the Festival Traiettorie of Parma. He has also obtained an artistic residence in the Italian Culture Institute in Paris, for the project “Les promesses de l'art.” 

As a pianist he has active collaborations with the French ensemble Soundinitiative and Italian FontanaMIX and he collaborated also with Accroche Note and Icarus, mainly devoting himself to the interpretation of contemporary repertory, and collaborating with composers. He has also collaborated with several internationally recognized musicians like M. Pintscher, S. Gervasoni, N. Isherwood, G. Knox, N. De Paz, L. Pfaff, G. Zagnoni, and the choreographer L. Veggetti. He has performed in concert for various societies and festivals in different countries: Italy (Ravello Concert Society; Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna: Bologna Festival; Biennale Musica in Venice; REC/APERTO Festival in Reggio Emilia; Nuova Consonanza in Rome; Trieste Prima; Villa Romana in Florence; Festival Nuove Musiche in Palermo; Filarmonica di Rovereto in MART (museum of modern and contemporary art); theaters: Comunale in Bologna, G. Verdi in Pisa, Politeama and Massimo in Palermo), France (Paris – Salle Cortot; Manifeste IRCAM; Théâtre Adyar; Centre Pompidou; Orléans - Matinées du piano; Strasbourg – L'imaginaire; Festival international de Wissembourg; OCI (Orléans Concours International in FRAC centre; Annecy - Festival Sons d'Automne; Italian Culture Institutes of Paris and Strasbourg), Spain (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Festival Mixtur), Austria (Schönberg Center in Wien, Bludenzer Tage zeitgemasser Musik), Croatia (Biennale Musica of Zagreb), Slovenia (Festival Slowind in Ljubljana), Sweden (Connect Festival – Malmö), Australia (Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music, Brisbane Festival), Singapore (Yong Siew Toh Conservatory). 

Among the prizes in composition, piano and chamber music competitions he has won are the PRIX Mention Spéciale A. ROUSSEL and the PRIX SACEM in the 8ème Concours International de piano d’Orléans (member of the Fédération Mondiale des Concours Internationaux de Musique), The modern recorder project – International Composition Competition 2008 of Musikinstitut Darmstadt, the Leibniz' Harmonien – Internationaler Kompositionswettbewerb in Hannover, the 9ème Forum de la Jeune Création Musicale organized by S.I.M.C. (International Society for Contemporary Music) in Paris, the Premio Trio di Trieste – Coral International composition award, the Sofia Soloists Prize in Bulgaria, and the Premio Farnesina sonora for composers by the Federazione CEMAT in Rome (for whom he received an “Honorable mention”). He was a finalist for the Prize of arts San Fedele – Section Music, an international triennial competition for young composers that promoted the publication of three DVDs with some works by the selected composers.

Venturini has also been a pianistic collaborator in various theaters for the “A. Toscanini” Foundation and a teacher in the “Scuola dell’Opera Italiana” for the “Teatro comunale di Bologna.” He has taught piano, musical theory and analysis in schools of music, including the Conservatory of Bologna, where he also taught the piano contemporary repertory. He currently supervises various workshops on improvisation and electronic music in some conservatories in the Parisian region, where he resides.

Alyssa Weinberg

Composer Alyssa Weinberg (b. 1988) uses color, texture and gesture to channel big emotions, creating music that is “quite literally stunning” (Chicago Tribune). She is fascinated with perception and loves to play with form, subverting expectations to create surreal scenarios, often in dreamy, multidisciplinary productions.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season include the premiere of Bioluminescence, commissioned by the Juilliard School in collaboration with ARCO Collaborative, artistic director Jennifer Koh, for the Sounds of US Festival presented by the Kennedy Center, and the premiere of The water-clock bleeds, commissioned by an international consortium of over 50 saxophonists, in collaboration with consortium leaders Aporii (Doug O’Connor and Jeff Siegfried). This season also celebrates the announcement of two new operas: Claude & Marcel, written with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann and director Elkhanah Pulitzer, commissioned by West Edge Opera and premiering in August 2027; and DRIFT, written with librettist J. Mae Barizo and director Mary Birnbaum, commissioned by Opera Saratoga, and made possible by a commissioning grant from Opera America’s 2024 Opera Grants for Women Composers, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. 

Weinberg’s music has been performed by celebrated artists and ensembles around the world, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, as well as So Percussion, yMusic, PUBLIQuartet, and the Aizuri Quartet. She has received commissions and awards from organizations including Chamber Music America, Copland House, New Music USA, FringeArts and the Pennsylvania Ballet, Paris Dance Project, the Barnes Foundation, and the Curtis Institute of Music. Alyssa’s percussion music has been celebrated for its inventive use of color and innovative performance techniques, most notably for her prepared vibraphone duo Table Talk which has received hundreds of performances across the globe. 

Weinberg’s poetic monodrama ISOLA, a prismatic meditation on time, mental health, and isolation written in collaboration with librettist J. Mae Barizo, was premiered by Long Beach Opera in February 2024 to critical acclaim, and she was awarded a 2022 Opera America Discovery Grant to facilitate the development of DRIFT, an opera with collaborator Barizo centering themes of migration, motherhood and climate change. 

A dedicated educator, Weinberg currently teaches at Peabody Conservatory, Mannes School of Music, and Juilliard Pre-college. She is the Founding Director of the Composers Institute at the Lake George Music Festival, a summer program that centers mentorship and community alongside the craft of composition.

Alyssa Weinberg holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University, as well as degrees from Vanderbilt University, Manhattan School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Walt Skidmore

Walt Skidmore works as a software developer and makes music whenever he can. Though primarily a trumpet player, he also plays guitar, bass, piano, and many other instruments. He performed Laborintus II (Berio) with the Contemporary Music Workshop, Consolation II (Lachenmann) for the 2018 Twin Cities New Music Festival, Six for New Time (Oliveros) and Sound Patterns and Tropes (Oliveros) for the Zeitgeist Early Music Festival, Diary of a Lung (Takasugi) for the 2021 Twin Cities New Music Festival, and contributed sound material to Vessel (Horton). He also performs regularly with the Buffalo Silver Band. When not working or making music, he spends time with his wife, Tiffany, children, and menagerie of pets. He's happy to be performing as part of Hover (Green).