LEN DETLOR and KEN FILIANO are professional musicians active on the New York
jazz scene. They have led their own groups, played with many leading
artists in the U.S. and abroad, and worked with dance and theater groups.
They have both previously performed for ARC gatherings.
JANICE HAMER studied at Harvard, holds a Ph.D. from City University of New York
and is currently writing an opera based on a Holocaust memoir, sponsored by
American Opera Projects. She has received awards from the Bunting
Institute, the NJ and PA Councils on the Arts, and ASCAP. She is a recent
winner of the Dale Warland Singers Competition and the Miriam Gideon Prize from
the International Alliance for Women in Music. Recent performances of her
music include the BBC Singers, Apple Hill Chamber Players, Orchestra 2001,
Philadelphia Concerto Soloists, Tacoma [WA] Symphony, and the Kharkov
[Ukraine] Symphony.
ALLEN LEVINES is an ARC Fellow and a composer, conductor, and faculty member at
Berklee College of Music. His music has won national and international
recognition, including an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
award and commissions in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Often pluralistic,
his works fuse musics as diverse as Ghanaian drumming, Scandinavian trall
[italicize this word] , and Japanese Gagaku within a Western compositonal
tradition.
YUMIKO MATSUOKA is an accomplished arranger, composer, performer and educator.
She was the founder of the Boston-based a cappella quintet VOX ONE, whose albums
VOX ONE, OUT THERE and CHAMELEON won multiple awards from the Contemporary A
Cappella Society. She is an associate professor at Berklee College of
Music, and has coached collegiate and professional ensembles in New England and
nationally.
ARAWANA HAYASHI is Artistic Director of the Jo Ha Kyu Performance Group
which performs contemporary dance and bugaku, Japanese Imperial court dance. She
studied Japanese dance with Suenobi Togi, ballet with Nina Fonarof, and modern
dance at the Merce Cunningham Studio. Among dance programs she has founded
and directed are Naropa Institute, The Institute of Contemporary Dance, and City
Dance Theater. Her many awards include support from the Rockefeller
Foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts
Cultural Council.
GEORGE RUCKERT is a master sarodist and a disciple of the legendary Ali
Akbar Khan. He has concertized and given workshops internationally,
composed scores for the film and dance, and accompanied many of India's finest
vocalists in concert and recordings. He has an extensive knowledge of both
Western and world music, and has published numerous articles and book s on
Indian music. He holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and is a Senior Lecturer
at MIT.
GRETCHEN HAYDEN is a Kathak dancer and a disciple of the renowned Kathak dance
master, Chitresh Das. She is one of the foremost practitioners among a new
breed of Western performers in this ageless dance tradition from India. She has
toured internationally with the Chitresh Das Dance Company and with her
husband, George Ruckert. She runs the Boston branch of the Chhandam School
of Kathak Dance, and teaches at Tufts University and Wellesley College.
MARK HARVEY is an ARC Fellow, composer, minister, and educator, teaching at MIT.
As a scholar of religion and music, he has lectured widely and published
numerous essays and articles on the religious dimension of Ives, Ellington,
Coltrane, Hindemith, and various aspects of modern culture. With his Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, he has released five CDs to international critical
acclaim and concertized at Jacob's Pillow, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and
for the American Academy of Religion.
KATE MATSON is a filmmaker with a theatre, art, and design background, and
with a Master's in Drama from Tufts University. She has participated
in numerous film/music performances with Mark Harvey, Fi Lmprov, and in concert
with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra.