The SZALON Tech Team

Andrea Clearfield –
Salon host and founder, composer

Andrea Clearfield (Composer/Curator) is an award-winning composer of music for orchestra, opera, chorus, chamber ensemble, dance, and multimedia collaborations. Clearfield creates deep, emotive musical languages that build cultural and artistic bridges. She has been praised by the New York Times for her “graceful tracery and lively, rhythmically vital writing”, the Philadelphia Inquirer for her “compositional wizardry” and “mastery with large choral and instrumental forces”, the L.A. Times for her “fluid and glistening orchestration” and by Opera News for her “vivid and galvanizing” music of “timeless beauty”. Her works are performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. Among her 160+ works are fifteen large-scale cantatas including one commissioned and premiered by The Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent works are inspired by Tibetan music fieldwork that she conducted in the Nepalese Himalaya. Her first opera, MILA, Great Sorcerer with librettists Jean-Claude van Itallie and Lois Walden, commissioned by Gene Kaufman and Terry Eder, was presented at the acclaimed NYC Prototype Festival in January, 2019 to critical acclaim. She was appointed the Steven R. Gerber Composer in Residence with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for their 2018-19 season, and is currently 2020-2023 Composer-in-Residence with National Concerts at Carnegie Hall, writing a 3-part work on “What is home?” for multiple treble choirs, piano and percussion with premieres at Carnegie Hall and an upcoming recording with mirabai women’s choir. Dr. Clearfield was awarded a 2020 Pew Center for Arts & Heritage International Residency Award, two Independence Foundation Fellowships, a 2016 Pew Fellowship in the Arts and fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, American Academy in Rome, Yaddo, Ucross, Wurlitzer Foundation, Copland House and the MacDowell Colony among others. Her music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard and Seeadot and recorded on the Bridge, Sony, MSR, Albany, Crystal and Innova labels. She served on the Composition Faculty at The University of the Arts from 1986 – 2011. As a performer, she played keyboards with the Relâche Ensemble for 25 years and had the great honor of being invited to perform with the Court of the Dalai Lama. She is in demand as a curator, adjudicator, speaker, and concert host and serves on the Board of Directors of the Recording Academy/Grammys, Philadelphia Chapter. She also serves on the Executive Board of the Young Women Composers Camp. Andrea was awarded 2020 Fellowships at Yaddo and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM, 2021 composer residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ragdale, 2022 residencies at Bloedel Reserve in Bainbridge Island, Washington and a 2023 residency at the Visby Centre for Composers in Gotland, Sweden. She is currently composing large-scale cantatas for the Mendelssohn Chorus and the University of New Mexico Chorus and Orchestra, and works for the professional vocal quartet Fourth Coast Ensemble, guitarist William Kannengiser and soprano Laura Strickling. Passionate for building community around the arts, she is founder and host of the renowned Salon featuring contemporary, classical, jazz, electronic, dance, and world music since 1986. She is represented by Black Tea Music.

More at www.andreaclearfield.com
More about the Salon: http://www.andreaclearfield.com/music-salon/

Adam Vidiksis –
Technical Advisor

Adam Vidiksis is a composer, conductor, percussionist, improviser, and technologist based in Philadelphia whose music often explores social structures, science, and the intersection of humankind with the machines we build. Critics have called his music “mesmerizing”, “dramatic”, “striking” (Philadelphia Weekly), “notable”, “catchy” (WQHS), “magical” (Local Arts Live), and “special” (Percussive Notes), and have noted that Vidiksis provides “an electronically produced frame giving each sound such a deep-colored radiance you could miss the piece's shape for being caught up in each moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His work is frequently commissioned and performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in recitals, festivals, and major academic conferences. Vidiksis’s music has won numerous awards and grants, including recognition from the Society of Composers, Incorporated, the American Composers Forum, New Music USA, National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and ASCAP. His works are available through HoneyRock Publishing, EMPiRE, New Focus, PARMA, and SEAMUS Records. Vidiksis recently served as the Steven R. Gerber Composer in Residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for their 2017-2018 season and was selected by the NEA and Japan-US Friendship Commission to serve as Director of Arts Technology for a performance of a new work by Gene Coleman during the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Dr. Vidiksis is Assistant Professor of music technology at Temple University, President and founding member of SPLICE Music, which includes the annual Institute, Academy, and Festival, a Resident Artist at the Renegade Theater company, and a founding member of the Impermanent Society of Philadelphia, a group dedicated to promoting improvisation in the performing arts. He performs in SPLICE Ensemble and the Transonic Orchestra, conducts Ensemble N_JP, and directs the Temple Composers Orchestra and the Boyer College Electroacoustic Ensemble Project (BEEP). He produces real-time generative improvised electronic music (Circadia) alongside his longtime friend and collaborator Rajeev Maddela (Currency).

Website: www.vidiksis.com 
IG: @vidikulous 
Twitter: @vidikulous
FB: /vidiksismusic

Gerardo Razumney –
Technical Director

Gerardo Razumney is a musician and long time supporter of the Salon.  He has been involved in the music scene in Philadelphia for the past fifty years, both as a musician — playing folk music from Balkan, Greek, Turkish and South American traditions — and as a presenter, with the Cherry Tree Folk Music Co-op and currently with Crossroads Music.  In the lovely times of the live Salon he worked as its sound engineer and stage manager.  Currently, as Treasurer of Crossroads Music, the fiscal sponsor of the Zalon, he is helping with the collection of donations for the Zalon.  He is coordinating the remote Zalon and the hybrid SZalon tasks.  He is editing the past Salon and SZalon videos.  He is also a tango dancer and DJ, an activity that brings him back to his Argentine roots.

Tom West –
A/V Engineer

When 12 years as Chief Engineer and Project Manager for an industrial machinery company became boring, I shifted to full time work with my formerly part-time 'hobby' and lifetime love, Stage and Movie technical production.
Currently semi-retired, although still building occasional electro-mechanical and electronic Props and set pieces, consulting, and enjoying my 7 Grandchildren.
And, of course, providing Zoom camera/monitor assistance with Andrea's wonderful, and eclectic SZalon programs!

Lex Simakas –
Website Manager

Lex Simakas is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, and music editor. He received a B.M. in Piano Performance from Ithaca College with a concentration in Jazz Studies, graduating summa cum laude, and a M.S. in Music Technology at Temple University, receiving the Dr. Cynthia Folio Award. He is currently working as a freelance composer and as a music editor for NFL Films. At NFL Films, he has recently worked on shows such as Hard Knocks, Quarterback, A Football Life, Inside the NFL, Peyton’s Places, and others. In his music, he strives to strike the perfect balance between the synthetic and organic, the immaculate and imperfect, and complexity and accessibility. He embraces a vast array of musical inspiration, and is always seeking out new worlds of sound.

Website: lexsimakas.com

Alex Glass –
Engineer

Alex Glass is a composer and pianist from Cherry Hill, NJ. He started composing at the age of seven and was encouraged to pursue composition by his piano teacher and mentor Michael Nikolidakis. Over the years, Alex has written for solo piano, solo guitar, small chamber groups, and jazz big band, performed in both classical and jazz ensembles, and accompanied numerous performances and musicals. He can also be seen playing keyboard in the Sonorants, a Bollywood/jazz fusion group based in South Jersey. Alex is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, and has studied with Dr. Matthew Greenbaum, Dr. Cynthia Folio, Dr. Maurice Wright, and Dr. Emiliano Pardo-Tristan. 

Bill Houston –
Video Engineer

Bill Houston is a retired pediatrician with a 35+ year passion for supporting music and musicians as a volunteer live sound and live recording engineer for folk, world, classical and jazz. He spent many years as a sound engineer for the Cherry Tree Music Co-op and Crossroads Music and continues to do archive recording for the Old Songs Festival of Traditional Music and Dance. He’s also the recording engineer for the Chestnut Street Singers and the Wayne Oratorio Society. He has recording credit for six live recordings plus partial credit for others. More recently he has added live performance videos by the jazz singer Phyllis Chapell to his credits.

Shrish Jawadiwar –
Engineer

Shrish Jawadiwar is a composer, double bassist, viola da gamba player, and violone player from South Brunswick, NJ. His first foray into music was learning Hindustani (North Indian) classical singing as well as tabla, the pair of Indian drums. He started composing at age ten and had his first premiere at age fourteen: one movement from his String Quartet for beginning musicians. Since then, Shrish has composed for orchestra, choir, solo voice, chamber ensembles, and solo instruments, including piano, bass saxophone, and double bass. He has also played double bass and violone in various ad hoc chamber ensembles. As a tabla player, he has accompanied family members and friends. Shrish holds a bachelor's degree from The College of New Jersey in political science and music, and a master’s degree in music composition from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, where he studied with Dr. Ellen Fishman, Dr. Andrew Litts, Jan Krzywicki, and Dr. Maurice Wright. Given his interest in early music and historical performance, Shrish has been a member of Temple University’s Early Music Ensemble, playing both tenor and bass viola da gamba, violone, and percussion. He is currently serving as the Young Players’ Representative on the Viola da Gamba Society of America’s board of directors.

Miranda Peak -
Engineer

Miranda Peak graduated from Mills College with a BA in computer science in the Spring of 2022. Her choice of major came as a surprise to many, as she expressed interest in music and studio art prior to this new passion. She is now a full stack developer with startup company Art Hub Studio LLC. 

Afraid of completely abandoning the arts, she recently picked up cello and enjoys doing crafts over the weekends. Miranda’s current, specific interests include wikipedia diving, reading books on web hacking, and solving Dell math and logic puzzles. 

A Wilmington, Delaware native, Miranda now resides in Southern California where she is currently learning how to “person” as a tech worker, art hobbyist, and Renaissance Faire enthusiast.

Thilo Marg Bracken

Thilo Marg Bracken is a ship captain, product manager, craftsman and father.

His command of the obscure is only outmatched by his recall.

Thilo FAQ: it is pronounced TEE-low. He’s a Frisian. And he’s 6’5”.

Chip Powell –
Audio Engineer

Chip Powell has 40+ years of audio engineering experience in pro-audio product development, system design, concert production, FOH/monitor mixing and remote recording. Owner of Powell Live Sound Engineering, LLC formed in 2010 to provide remote recording and concert production services to clients and venues in the Philadelphia and Wilmington markets. Chip is the Chair of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society; Technical Director of the Kennett Flash; Recording Engineer/Stage Manager for the Kennett Symphony; A1 Audio Engineer for Longwood Gardens and a volunteer Archival Recording Engineer for the Philadelphia Folk Festival. In a parallel universe, Chip also has decades of software engineering experience in the eCommerce, Fintech, Telecom, and Pro-Audio industries. Positions held include Project Architect, Technical Lead, Data Engineer, DBA, Web Developer, and QA Test Engineer.