Visiting Faculty
Andrew Gerle
Specialization: music theatre composition.
Bio: Composer, playwright and pianist Andrew Gerle is a three-time recipient of
the Richard Rodgers Award for musical theater writing, administered by the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, for THE TUTOR (book and lyrics by
Maryrose Wood). With lyricist Eddie Sugarman, he won a 2006 Jonathan Larson
Award for their show, MEET JOHN DOE, which received seven Helen Hayes
nominations for its world premiere last season at the Ford's Theatre in
Washington, DC. A revue of his songs, "UP", recently had its premiere at the
Zipper Factory Theater in NYC. Has been a Fellow at the MacDowell Artists'
Colony and a writer-in-residence at the Sundance Theater Institute. As a
musical director, he has worked on dozens of Off-Broadway, regional and
touring productions. He has served as musical director and accompanist for
such distinguished artists as Kitty Carlisle Hart, John Raitt, Jennifer
Holliday, Leslie Uggams, Liz Calloway, Mary Testa and Michael Rupert. As a
classical pianist, he has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony,
the Yale Symphony, the National Symphony, and on programs for National
Public Radio and Television. Andrew is a *magna cum laude* graduate of Yale
University.
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Sara Kohane
Specializations: vocal coaching, accompanying.
Bio: Sara Kohane holds a BM in piano performance from the University of Michigan and a MM in vocal accompaniment from Boston University, where she was twice the recipient of the Dean’s Scholar award. Her solo and accompanying studies have been with Gyorgy Sandor, Martin Katz, Allen Rogers and Gary Steigerwalt. Ms. Kohane has served as vocal coach and diction instructor at The Hartt School, Boston University, and New England Conservatory, and as head vocal coach at B.U.’s Tanglewood Institute. She has been the accompanist for Boston Concert Opera, Chorus Pro Musica, and the Zamir Chorale, and has accompanied under Leonard Slatkin, Lucas Foss and Peter Sellars. An active collaborative pianist, Ms. Kohane has performed in concerts and radio broadcasts throughout the Northeast, Midwest and Iceland. She is Principal Keyboardist for the Bridgeport Symphony, under the direction of Gustav Meier, and a founding member of the Guastavino Trio. Ms Kohane also serves on the board of the Lotte Lehman Foundation.
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Juraj Kojs
Specialization: composition and music technology.
Bio: Juraj Kojs was born (in 1976) and raised in Slovakia. He is a composer and performer. He has studied composition and computer music with Beth Wiemann, Kristine Burns, Orlando Jacinto Garcia, Fredrick Kaufman, Matthew Burtner, Judith Shatin, and Stefania Serafin. Kojs further participated in master classes with Mario Davidovsky, Judith Shatin, Eric Chasalow, Petr Kotík, Alvin Lucier, Kaija Saariaho, Christian Wolff, Ben Patterson and others. His studies in piano began in Slovakia and continued in the US. Kojs' piano teachers include Maria Vodakova, Alena Komorasova, Eva Pappova, Peter Cerman, Juraj Masinda, Baycka Voronietsky, Phillip Silver, Kemal Gekic and Jose Lopez.
Kojs' compositions were recently featured at the Ostrava Days Festival (Ostrava, Czech Republic), International Computer Music Conference (Copenhagen, Denmark), Sound and Music Computing (Lefkada, Greece), Sonoimagenes (Buenos Aires, Argentina), New Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference (Paris, France), Gaudeamus International Music Week (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Spark Festival (Minneapolis, Mn ), SEAMUS National Conference (Salt Lake City, Ut) and Society of Composers Inc. National Conference (Greensboro, NC).
Mr. Kojs is a founding member of SofIA: Sonorities of Interactive Acoustics and MIAMI: Medialogy Interactive Acoustics and Multimodal Interfaces. These groups specialize in interactive audio-visual performance and research. Recently, SofIA performed at the Cornell University, Ithaca. NY, and MIAMI appeared at Sonic Arts Research Center in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In the fall 2007, Mr. Kojs was in residence at The Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, where he composed a piece for Slovak sheep bells and cyber bells, using ACROE's GENESIS software. In December 2007, Mr. Kojs began curating a monthly concert series of computer music and art 12 Nights at the Harold Golen Gallery in the Wynwood District, Miami, Fl.
In May 2008, Mr. Kojs completed his Ph.D. in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia's McIntire Department of Music. His dissertation discusses how cyberinstruments by physical modeling synthesis facilitate a continuum between physical and virtual realities in music. Judith Shatin was his advisor. University of Virginia awarded Juraj Kojs a Dissertation Year Fellowship in the academic year 2006/2007 and the Award for Excellence 2007 in Scholarship in the Humanities & Social Sciences.
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Joshua Rosenblum
Specialization: music theatre composition.
Bio: Joshua Rosenblum received his B.A. in music summa cum laude from Yale College and his M.M. in Piano Performance from the Yale School of Music. He returns to Yale this fall for his second year teaching Composing for Musical Theater.
Rosenblum composed the score to the cult hit musical Fermat's Last Tango, which had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway production at the York Theatre Company in 2000, and spawned both CD and DVD recordings. Other works for the theater include The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite (Atlantic Theater Company), Arabian Nights, and Einstein’s Dreams, based on the best-selling novel by Alan Lightman. He is also the composer and creator of Bush Is Bad, the smash Off-Broadway musical revue, which Variety called “a sensation.” In addition to the New York production, the show has enjoyed successful runs in Los Angeles and Minneapolis, as well as numerous special benefit performances around the country.
For the concert hall, Rosenblum has written pieces for trumpeter Philip Smith of the New York Philharmonic, flutist Kathleen Nester of the New Jersey Symphony, Mannes School of Music faculty trombonist Haim Avitsur, French hornist Eric Ruske, the Herrick Trio, and the ground-breaking string quartet Ethel, among many others. Recordings of his instrumental music include Impetuosities—Music of Joshua Rosenblum, and the forthcoming Sundry Notes, both available from Albany Records. Rosenblum has won awards from ASCAP and the Meet the Composer Foundation, and his music, including his prize-winning choral setting of Jabberwocky, is published by the Theodore Presser Co.
Also a conductor, Rosenblum has led the orchestras for thirteen Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. Other conducting credits include guest appearances with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the American Repertory Ballet. He has also conducted world premiere productions for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the B.A.M. Next Wave Festival, Playwrights Horizons, and Lincoln Center Theater, as well as the soundtracks to five major motion pictures.
As a music journalist, Rosenblum has contributed articles to Newsday and Stagebill, as well as over 300 CD and concert reviews for Opera News. He lives in New York City with his wife, singer and author Joanne Lessner, and their two children, Julian and Phoebe.
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