The ZALON Presents the Team!
August 22nd Program
1. Adam Vidiksis (drums) and Chris Biggs (live electronics) will perform an improvised excerpt from their work called Parenting, Summer Storms (2021)
2. Michael Schweisheimer will share the story that lead to the greatest moment in his career as a filmmaker
3. Jessica Beebe, soprano and Andrea Clearfield, composer/pianist, will perform “Rock Hill” that Andrea composed to poetry by Manfred Fischbeck, inspired by making music at the the Aaron Copland House
4. Jonah Pfluger will perform an electronic improvisation for electronic wind instrument and modular synthesizer
5. Connie Koppe and Larry Cohen will be performing two French Cabaret songs from Connie's home in the Germantown Section of Philadelphia
6. Lex Simakas (vocals/kalimba) will perform an original song and share a music video from his apartment in Philadelphia
7. Becka Lundy will be performing “Iolanthe’s Aria” from Ethel Smyth’s opera Der Wald and Cecile Chaminade’s song “Mots D’amour” from their home in Philadelphia
8. Andrew Litts will perform an original composition on piano, trumpet and guitar, electronically live-processed, from his home in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia
9. Alex Glass will be performing his arrangement of Bill Evans' "Waltz for Debby", followed by an original composition entitled "3223", from Andrea's Salon in Center City
Performer Bios, Program Information, and Link for Donations
Below you will find links that some of the performers have included where you can buy music and other merchandise, find additional content, or make a donation. Please consider supporting these musicians for donating their time and artistry this evening!
During these trying times for performers, your contributions are greatly appreciated.
For donations please click here, where you could contribute to the most current performance. To donate to specific performers, please see the links under their bios for the ZALON in which they performed.
Donations for the current ZALON will be collected on behalf of all performers by our fiscal sponsor, Crossroads Music. For questions about donations, please contact Gerardo Razumney at Zalon.Donations@AOL.com.
The ZALON is a labor of love. All team members are volunteering their time, including Andrea, who is also covering expenses. You may contribute to cover part of the ZALON expenses, by indicating this on the PayPal donation form.
Adam Vidiksis and Christopher Biggs
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. 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 composer in residence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia 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 during the 2020 Olympics in Japan. 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). [www.vidiksis.com]
Christopher Biggs is a composer and multimedia artist residing in Kalamazoo, MI, where he is Associate Professor of Music Composition and Technology at Western Michigan University. Biggs’ recent projects focus on integrating live instrumental performance with interactive audiovisual media. His music presents a “masterful combination between acoustic instruments and electronics” (Avant Scena), and has been described as “heartbreakingly beautiful” (Classical Music Review), and a “sonic foodfight” (Jazz Weekly). His music is available on Ravello Records, SEAMUS CD Series, PARMA Recordings, Electroacoustico Records, Thinking outLOUD Records, and Irritable Hedgehog. Biggs has written music for various ensembles and soloists, including Ensemble Dal Niente, the Western Brass Quintet, the Prism Saxophone Quartet, SPLICE Ensemble, Keith Kirchoff, Pangea Piano Project, Kari Johnson, Samuel Wells, Western Michigan University Symphonic Band, and the Truman State University Wind Ensemble. Biggs is a co-founder and the director of SPLICE Institute, which is a weeklong intensive summer program for performers and composers to experience, explore, create, discuss, and learn techniques related to music for instruments and electronics. SPLICE takes place each June in Kalamazoo, MI.
Program Note:
This improvisation was recorded on June 4, 2021 in Adam and Chris’s homes in Wilmington, Delaware and Kalamazoo, Michigan. Sessions leading up to the recording were heavily peppered by outbursts, comments, questions, and music-making by our children. Our discussions frequently turned to the joys and struggles of parenthood, especially during the pandemic. The cries, laughter, and discussions of children could be heard throughout the sessions. While recording an early summer storm passed over the Greater Philadelphia Region—Chris’s childhood hometown and Adam’s current one—like the love of a small child: gentle, fearless, immediate, urgent, inexorable, and heartbreakingly brief.
Michael Schweisheimer
Michael Schweisheimer has been a filmmaker for a long time, primarily working with nonprofit organizations. He's filmed across the country and on 5 continents (hint hint to anyone with projects on Oceania or Antarctica). He started his production company, PWPvideo, in 2000 based on a referral from the chair of the film program at Temple University. From that project it grew into the busy B-Corp it is today. In a typical week, Michael might interview an internationally renowned abstract painter on a Monday, a billionaire philanthropist on Wednesday, and an exoneree who was wrongfully imprisoned on a Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he's in meetings, because no job is perfect. Though Michael thinks his is the best job in the world. When he isn't making videos, he hosts an event called MISSION Story Slam, where do gooders share stories about their work.
You can find Michael and his work at www.pwpvideo.com
Andrea Clearfield and Jessica Beebe
Andrea Clearfield is an award-winning composer of music for orchestra, 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”. A recipient of a 2016 Pew Fellowship, a 2020 Pew International Residency Award, two Independence Foundation Fellowships and two Leeway Foundation awards among others, her works are performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. Her catalog includes fifteen large-scale cantatas including one for The Philadelphia Orchestra. She was appointed 2020-2023 Composer-in-Residence with National Concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Steven R. Gerber Composer in Residence with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for their 2018-19 season. She received a DMA in Composition from Temple University, served on the composition faculty at The University of the Arts from 1986 – 2011 and performed in the Relâche Ensemble for 25 years. She is the founder, curator and host of the renowned Philadelphia Salon (now SZALON) concert series featuring contemporary, classical, jazz, electronic, dance, and world music since 1986. More at www.andreaclearfield.com
Links:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Oi8JMX5cGutwO4HGcwc7Q
https://www.facebook.com/andreaclearfieldcomposer
https://www.facebook.com/andrea.clearfield/
https://www.instagram.com/andreaclearfield/
Videos
Lauded as having a “honey-colored tone” and “the most radiant solo singing” from Opera News, soprano Jessica Beebe is steadily gaining international attention as an affecting interpreter of repertoire from the Renaissance to contemporary American opera. As a sought-after soloist, Ms. Beebe has performed with several major orchestras and ensembles across the world including The New York Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, The English Concert, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, The Folger Consort, The Washington Bach Consort, Piffaro, Lyric Fest, The Princeton Festival Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra and more. Ms. Beebe’s operatic highlights include covering the East Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain with Opera Philadelphia, covering the role of the Angel in Norway's Bergen National Opera in Messiah, and in 2017 debuting and subsequently recording the role of Luna in David Hertzberg’s The Wake World with Opera Philadelphia. Ms. Beebe also covered the role of Winnie in Lembit Beecher’s Sky on Swings with Opera Philadelphia in 2018. In 2019, Ms. Beebe covered the title role in Handel’s Semele with Harry Bicket and the English Concert. In 2019, she made her Los Angeles Philharmonic solo debut in Meredith Monk’s opera, Atlas. Most recently, Ms. Beebe was a soloist on the Grammy nominated album ‘Carthage’ by James Primosch. For more information, please visit Stratagem Artists https://www.stratagemartists.com or www.jessicabeebesoprano.com
Facebook – facebook.com/jessicabeebesoprano
Venmo – @jessicabeebe
Paypal – flyingsoprano@gmail.com
Jonah Pfluger
Jonah Pfluger is a sound artist, computer musician, and bass player exploring music and arts technology through bespoke audio devices and sound improvisation.
Connie Koppe and Larry Cohen
Connie Koppe first performed on the Salon Stage almost 20 years ago, and most recently with her French Cabaret band, Enchanté in about 2007.
She is an adjunct professor at the University of the Arts teaching speech and Presentation Skills. Connie has performed for many years in Cabaret, Opera and Musical Theater around the Philadelphia area. She has also spent many years as a visiting artist teaching poetry and lyric writing to middle school students as well as directing operas, designing costumes and teaching singing and accent reduction. Most recently, Connie has collaborated with several friends to form the rounds singing group “Gather Round” . They have lead workshops at the Philadelphia Folk Festival and other venues around Philadelphia.
Connie Koppe can be found online at www.conniekoppe.com and on facebook at @KoppeVoiceStudio and @ConnieKoppe
Larry Cohen is a performing and recording instrumentalist on electric and acoustic bass, keyboards and occasionally other instruments. He is also a composer, arranger, music teacher, recording producer and a music and sound consultant. In a career that spans more than five decades and encompasses an enormous variety of musical styles and situations, the role that has earned Larry the most exposure and recognition has been as a founding member of the progressive bluegrass band, Skyline, featuring world-renowned banjoist, Tony Trischka.
Lex Simakas
Lex Simakas is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer, and graduate Music Technology (M.S.) student at Temple University. He received a B.M. in Piano Performance from Ithaca College with a concentration in Jazz Studies. Lex has worn many hats in his musical life, performing as a solo recitalist, collaborative pianist, dance accompanist/composer, jazz pianist/arranger, and pit orchestra musician. In recent years, he has learned how to play the kalimba. He is currently doing freelance work in audio/video engineering, and is honing his skills in music composition and sound design for video games. In his music, he strives to strike the right balance between synthetic and organic, immaculate and imperfect, and complex and accessible. He embraces a vast array of musical inspiration, and is always seeking out new worlds of sound.
Links:
Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuHRDy1q33kPCVYoywQdPWA
Venmo: @Lex-Simakas
Paypal: paypal.me/lexsimakas
Videos:
Becka Lundy
Becka Lundy is a soprano located in Philadelphia, PA. In 2020 they received a master's degree in Voice Performance from Temple University. During their time at Temple, they were slated to perform the role of Amy in Mark Adamo's Little Women and covered the role of the Governess in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw. In 2021, they founded opera company Poptart Punk Opera and produced the premier of Marc Hoffeditz's chamber opera Non Motus, in which they also sang the role of Hannah. Becka teaches voice lessons and yoga classes locally and loves making their own original music with local bands.
Links:
Videos can be found at https://www.youtube.com/c/BeckaSings. Original songs can be found at flamingochicks.bandcamp.com.
Audience members can donate directly through Venmo @becka-lundy
Videos:
Andrew Litts
Andrew Litts is a composer, electronic musician, and instrumentalist whose work focuses on the interaction of acoustic and electronic elements to explore our individuality in our technological society. His music has been performed in the United States, Taiwan, France, and Germany, and films he has scored have shown widely, including on Air Canada. He is completing his Doctorate in Music Composition & Theory at Temple University, where he teaches courses in music theory and electronic music, and he also teaches at Chestnut Hill College
Alex Glass
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.
Links:
Facebook: Alex Glass
Instagram: @notphilipglass
Venmo (for donations): @alexglass64
Videos:
Older Performance of "3223" from 2018:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17ZfmjeJ0sAoFjLh3BVJy9_mJ9_2QieH3/view?usp=sharing
Jabberwocky (2019) with Andrew Shaw, baritone:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HM2mZsKZUkWJsweupxERQb-KanS2jWWJ/view?usp=sharing
Improvisation on William Croft's Ground, Temple Early Music Ensemble Concert, April 2021:
Go to 22:47 in video
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-dH0SyBrGPVn5HVyo1WiBbQBU10f0mWq/view?usp=sharing
A special thank you to our wonderful Tech Team!! Thank you for volunteering your time.
Learn more about them on our Team Page.