New Music for violinist Maya Bennardo
Elastic Arts
3429 W Diversey Ave #208, Chicago, IL 60647
May 24, 7:30pm
silver birch vignettes by Maya Bennardo
I.
II.
III.
Crickets by Benjamin J M Klein
Get Back! by Joshua Musikantow
Guardaci ben! by Tiffany M. Skidmore
I Thought You Said Forever by Kyle Hutchins
Maya Bennardo, violin
Maya Bennardo
Maya Bennardo (she/her) is an active performer and composer living in Stockholm, Sweden. Maya is interested in opening the dialogue and blurring the boundaries between composers and performers, and is devoted to performing music of the present. She is a founding member of the violin/viola duo andPlay, described by I Care If You Listen as “enthusiastic champions for new music and collaboration.” She performs new and traditional repertoire for violin and piano with pianist Karl Larson in their Bennardo-Larson Duo, and was a member of the internationally renowned Mivos Quartet.
Maya recently released her first solo record, ‘four strings’ with music by Eva-Maria Houben and Kristofer Svensson which was released on the kuyin label, September 2022 (named as one of The Best of Contemporary Classical 2022 on Bandcamp and one of Steve Smith’s 22 for ‘22). The album is a continuation of Bennardo’s work exploring sonic fragility and temporal stasis on the violin.
Maya is a sought-after chamber musician and soloist, and recent highlights include recording residencies at Electronic Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY and at the Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) in Stockholm, Sweden and performances at Darmstadt International Music Institute (DE), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Wien Modern (AT), Sound of Stockholm (SE), at the Library of Congress on the “Betts” Stradivarius violin (Washington D.C.), Walt Disney Hall on Noon to Midnight (Los Angeles, CA), Lucerne Festival Academy with Saul Williams (Lucerne, CH), North Sea Jazz Festival with Ambrose Akinmusire (Rotterdam, NE), June in Buffalo (Buffalo, NY), and Lincoln Center Festival (NYC). She has had releases on Deutsche Grammophon, Kairos, Another Timbre, kuyin, Nonesuch Records, New Focus Recordings, New World Records, Thanatosis, and others.
As a guest artist and educator, Maya has given performances and worked with students at universities around the world, including Kungliga Musikhögskolan (KMH), Berklee College of Music, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Tulane University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Hong Kong University, Brigham Young University, Boston Conservatory, University of California, Santa Cruz; University of California, San Diego; and University of Texas, Austin.
Maya's compositions are characterized by slow, unfolding timbral movements--exploring the co-existence of pitch and noise. Her compositions have grown naturally out of her improvisational practice on the violin, and the two continue to inform each other. Recently, Maya has composed new works for NoExit + andPlay, Lamnth, Alkemie + Amanda Gookin, Bennardo-Larson Duo, and a new long-form solo work for violin, and this season she is writing a new work for solo cello for Thea Mesirow, solo bandoneón for James Parker, and a piano, bass, percussion trio for NYC-based Bearthoven.
She graduated from NYU with a Master of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Music studying with Gregory Fulkerson at both institutions. Apart from performing, Maya enjoys a rich teaching life in her private studio. She performs on a modern instrument made by the late Tetsuo Matsuda.
Benjamin J M Klein
Benjamin J M Klein is a composer, tubaist, improvisor, and installation artist who focuses on innovating presentation and form by exploring experimental aesthetic concepts. Benjamin’s work is frequently heard at conferences, festivals, and concerts in the USA and abroad including the VU Symposium of Experimental Music, the Society of Electro Acoustic Music of the United States Annual Conference, the Hartford New Music Festival, the Cincinnati New Music Festival, the International Society of Improvised Music Annual Conference, and the NOWnow Festival of Improvised Music. Over the course of his career he has had the privilege to work with and learn from artists: Alvin Lucier, Anthony Braxton, James Dillon, Ron Kuivila, Diane Willow, Han Bennink, Katie Duck, Milo Fine, Matt Turner, Joanne Metcalf, and Zulu Tsuruyama. Benjamin has received degrees in music from the University of Minnesota (PhD), Wesleyan University (MA), and Lawrence University (BMus). Benjamin is a member of the 113 Collective. He currently resides in Saint Paul.
Joshua Musikantow
Joshua Musikantow is a composer, author, and percussionist specializing in nontraditional tuning systems. Much of his work contains both original text and music. His work has been performed in England, France, Sweden, Germany, the Czech Republic, and across the United States. He has been the recipient of the McKnight Artist Fellowship (2013), the JFund award (2012), a Foundation for Contemporary Art emergency grant (2017), and other honors. He earned his BM in Music Composition at Lawrence University, his BA in English at Lawrence University, his MA in Music Composition at the University at Buffalo, and his PhD in Music Composition at the University of Minnesota. His dissertation advisor was the acclaimed Scottish New Complexity composer, James Dillon.
Tiffany M. Skidmore
Tiffany M. Skidmore is an American composer and performer based in Columbia, Missouri, where she is currently Associate Director of the Mizzou New Music Initiative. She has held faculty positions at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Virginia Tech, and the University at Buffalo (SUNY), where from 2023-2024, she held the Birge Cary Chair in Music Composition. Most recently, she was a Visiting Professor at McGill University, in residence at CIRMMT (the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology). 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, Europe, and Colombia, 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 Veneto Art and Music Summit.
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. Her music may be heard on the New Focus and Neuma Records recording labels.
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 artist, primarily performing early and experimental music.
Kyle Hutchins
Kyle Hutchins is an experimental performance artist, composer, improviser, and educator who pushes sonic boundaries. Called “epic” (Jazz Times) and “gripping” (Star Tribune), his music has been heard at Carnegie Hall, The Walker Art Center, National Sawdust, and major festivals in over twenty countries across five continents, including the World Saxophone Congress, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, and the International Computer Music Conference. His fearless approach has been recognized with awards and support from DOWNBEAT, New Music USA, The American Prize, and Virginia’s “40 Under 40” from The Roanoker Magazine (2024).
A driving force in experimental and electroacoustic music, Kyle has premiered more than 350 new works and appears on over 40 commercial recordings. He’s a core member of 113 Composers Collective, Fonema Consort, and Strains Ensemble, and has collaborated with leading figures including Pauline Oliveros, George Lewis, Chaya Czernowin, James Dillon, Michael Pisaro, Steven Kazuo Takasugi, Claire Chase, Richard Barrett, and Douglas Ewart. Longstanding partnerships with artists like The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, Ted Moore, Tiffany M. Skidmore, Emily Lau, Charles Nichols, and Eric Lyon have fueled projects that blur the lines between chamber music, noise, and multimedia art.
Described as “part of electroacoustic improv’s well-hewn dynasty” (Downtown Music Gallery), Kyle’s improvisations are “undoubtedly brave” (Issues Magazine) and “frankly unsafe” (I Care If You Listen). His projects—including Binary Canary, Kill All Kings, and Banshee—draw on free jazz, noise, and punk, with recordings on Carrier, Lurker Bias, Noise Pelican, and Mother Brain.
Kyle has been a guest artist and educator at major institutions worldwide, including Stanford University, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), New York University, Manhattan School of Music, University of California – Los Angeles, Michigan State University, Arizona State University, McGill University, University of British Columbia, Shanghai Conservatory, University of North Texas, Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia (Rome), University of St Andrews, University of Limerick, Zagreb Academy of Music, Hanyang University (South Korea), Javeriana University (Colombia), and the Latvian Academy of Music, among many others. He has twice presented clinics at The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, and regularly gives residencies, masterclasses, and lectures across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Since 2016, Kyle has been on faculty at Virginia Tech, where he is Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Performing Arts and directs both the New Music + Technology Festival and the ARTx Program at the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts and a Master of Music from the University of Minnesota and dual Bachelor’s degrees in Music Performance and Music Education from the University of North Texas. His primary teachers include Eugene Rousseau, Eric Nestler, Marcus Weiss, and James Dillon.
Kyle is a Performing Artist for Yamaha, Légère, and E. Rousseau Mouthpieces.