About Me
The Cortona Contemporary Music Festival brings composers and instrumentalists together in the creation of new repertoire for piano, violin, guitar, and flute.Founded in 2005, the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival seeks to cultivate an appreciation and renewed support of contemporary art music. Cortona welcomes emerging composers and musicians from around the world to explore the fascinating and diverse music of the 20th and 21st centuries. During the festival, participants engage in private lessons and masterclasses with a dynamic faculty, whose performances and advocacy of new music have garnered international acclaim. Daily workshops inform participants on a range of issues confronting the modern musician, from career planning and management, to developing collaborative initiatives between composers, performers, and community. Unique to this festival is the opportunity for performers and composers to meet and work together, culminating in the world premiere performances of new works. The 2006 season featured the world premieres of over 30 works composed for piano, violin, flute, and guitar, in a series of ten concerts. In addition to the invaluable experience of performing under the auspices of an international festival, participants join the ranks of an ever-expanding network of new music professionals.Situated in the heart of Tuscany, the festival is hosted in the medieval hill-town of Cortona, immortalized as the setting of Francis Mayes’ best selling novel, Under the Tuscan Sun. All festival facilities and accommodation are provided by the Hotel Oasi (pictured above). Formerly known as Le Contesse, the hotel is a renovated 13th century monastery whose exquisite tiered gardens command a sweeping vista of the Val di Chiana below. I invite you to take this opportunity to join us for a summer sojourn in Tuscany, exploring the landscape of new music and forging new relationships with musicians in the field! ~ Nathanael May; Festival Director and FounderDuo46, Ensemble in Residence"Duo46 is all about breaking boundaries-emotional, harmonic, rhythmic, and textural. Guitarist Matt Gould and Violinist Beth Ilana Schneider are musicians of rare sensitivity, unforced reflexivity and effortless virtuosity." The American guitar and violin ensemble has been committed to presenting music by living composers in audience-friendly, thematic programs since 1994. Duo46 promotes collaborative projects with composers around the globe by premiering and recording commissioned and dedicated works. Since the release of the group's self-produced debut recording in 1998, FMI: Homage to the 50's, their performance of new music has motivated composers, including rock composers, to create more than 70 new works for guitar and violin duo, and trios with digital sound, cello, viola, flute and piano. They have been heard around the world--live, radio, television, and webcasts-- and their intriguing mix of music has taken Matt and Beth to Austria, Cyprus, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey and the United States, appearing at venues of international importance such as the Guitar Foundation of America Festival and Kennedy Center.Their commissioning project with American composers inspired their second recording, Untaming the Fury. This disc, in commemoration of 9/11, features American commissions by composers that are contributing to America's national heritage. This recording has garnered positive reviews by Gramophone, Strad and America Record Guide. Strad Magazine noted: "The pair flaunt their gift for the most spontaneous and fresh delivery from the outset...the works commissioned for the disc are so varied, inventive and enjoyable, and they are performed with such commitment and flair. A track from this CD was recently included on a compilation recording "Communing with Music: Practicing the Art of Conscious Listening, " which teaches the listener how to experience music with a new focus and intensity that will benefit the body, mind, heart and spirit. Their latest recording, "Aires de Sefarad", described as "one of the most gorgeous releases of the year", features 46 Spanish Songs for Violin and Guitar by Jorge Liderman (a commission funded in part by the Guggenheim Foundation) and has recently made the 2007 GRAMMY entry list for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. The music was inspired by the composers visit to the Alahambra in Granada, Spain and the vibrant flamenco dancing and music of Seville, and reflects his impressions of past and present Spain in its vast and varied culture.In addition to performing and recording, Duo46 has a keen interest in education and research. Performances and residencies at universities such as Harvard, Wellesley College, University of Florida and University of Arizona include master-classes and workshops on a wide variety of topics: composing for the guitar, music business, and working and living overseas; and concert performances regularly include an outreach component at primary and secondary schools with the program "Around the World in 46 Minutes," which explores folk music of many cultures. On faculty at Eastern Mediterranean University on the island of Cyprus from 2000-2005, Duo46 organized a bi-annual Visiting Composer Series that promoted global understanding, peace and cultural diversity through music. Composers and performers from around the world participated in composition workshops and interactive open-rehearsals culminating in a full concert of their works and the creation of new chamber works with guitar. Also, in the interest of expanding violin and guitar literature, Duo46 has discovered and accumulated a repertoire of more than 450 original works from the twentieth century, and an annotated bibliography is currently being prepared for publication so that other musicians can benefit and enjoy these unknown works.Duo46 now resides in Phoenix, AZ commissioning, performing, recording and teaching. After one decade of passionate playing and pioneering programming, Duo46 enjoys a consummate mastery of their instruments having emerged as a “distinctly modern duo†with an “imaginative drive and inspiration.†- Gramophone.Thomas Rosenkranz, Chair of Piano Program
Dr. Rosenkranz has performed on four continents and has twice been named an Artistic
Ambassador sponsored by the State Department of the United States. His concert tours have
taken him throughout Japan, Taiwan, Lebanon, Tunisia, and China where he was a featured
soloist with the Oberlin Orchestra. He has been presented at such festivals as the Tabarka Jazz
Festival (Tunisia), Octobre Musicale (Tunisia), and the Kurt Weill Fest (Germany), and has given
performances at Lincoln Center (New York), the 92 Street Y (New York), the Kennedy Center
(D.C.), Hilbert Circle Theatre (Indianapolis), Poly Theatre (Beijing), L'Acropolium (Carthage),
and Theatre de la Ville (Tunis). He has performed as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony,
National Orchestra of Beirut, and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra. In recognition of his artistic
achievements, he was awarded the “Classical Fellowship Award" from the American Pianists
Association.In addition to his work in classical music, Mr. Rosenkranz continues to be involved in a variety of
cross-cultural projects, currently serving as Artistic Advisor to the Tunis based group, Le Minaret
et la Tour, which consists of Arab and Western musicians. This ensemble will perform with the
Vienna Opera Orchestra in a gala performance at the coliseum of El Jem, Tunisia. He also
performs with an improvisational ensemble, Inward Becomes an Anthem, which consists of
electronic and rock musicians. He has recorded works of Applebaum and Reich for the Tzadik
and Nonesuch labels.Mr. Rosenkranz trained at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music, and later
in Paris, his major teachers include Robert Shannon, Nelita True and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen.
A former faculty member at Syracuse University, he has been artist-in-residence at the Higher
Institute of Music of Beirut (Lebanon). He is Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of
Hawaii at Manoa.Nathanael May, Founder and Director; Cortona Contemporary Music Festival
Nathanael is a pianist with a penchant for contemporary music, dedicated to establishing a new
American repertoire for the 21st century. Composers have hailed his interpretations as “first-rate,
dynamic and refreshing.†Recent collaborations have featured the premiere performances of large
solo works by Queen Elisabeth Gold Medalist Karl Korte, and Hawaiian composer John Carollo. Also
in progress are several CD recording projects of assorted solo and chamber commissions by composers
Scott Brickman, Paul Richards, and Brian Hulse. Among these are a number of pieces for the unique trio
instrumentation of piano, violin, and guitar. Since the trio’s inception in 2002, Nathanael has served as
resident pianist for the critically acclaimed violin and guitar ensemble Duo46. Commissioned works
for Duo46 and Nathanael May have more than doubled the extant music for this trio format.Nathanael maintains an active profile, with seasonal engagements on both sides of the Atlantic. He
has presented a series of recitals featuring music of the 20th century in Italy, Turkey, and Cyprus, with
additional recitals planned for an upcoming solo tour of Venezuela. In the United States, he has
performed solo and chamber recitals at many institutions of higher learning, most notably Harvard, the
University of Florida, UW-Milwaukee, and the Summer Piano Institute of UW-Whitewater. He was also
featured in a live solo recital broadcast on Buffalo Public Radio (NPR). He is a firm believer in cultivating
an appreciation for modern classical music in the young, presenting lecture recitals at elementary and
secondary schools throughout the Midwest.In a habit of talking from stage almost as much as he plays, Nathanael derives true joy in the
educational act of performing. His exuberance is evident whether lecturing from the stage or teaching
in the studio. From 2001 to 2005, he taught studio piano, literature, and pedagogy as a faculty
member of the music department at Eastern Mediterranean University on the island of Cyprus. In June
of 2004, EMU hosted the 1st Beshparmak International Piano Festival and Competition, of which he
was a founding member. The festival seeks to engender a musical dialogue between the war torn
communities of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and with the international community at large. Additional
pedagogical activities encompass the adjudication of local and state competitions, including Missouri
Music Teacher's Association district auditions in 2005, as well as master classes conducted at Uludag
University State Conservatory in Bursa, Turkey; Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Michigan; and Wisconsin
Lutheran College, among others.In the spring 2005, he was awarded a Graduate Teaching Award in Diversity by the University of
Kansas for the commencement of studies in the Doctor of Musical Arts degree program. He has
previously taught at the Eastman School of Music, Hochstein School of Music & Dance, and Lake
Country Conservatory. Nathanael holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester,
New York, and the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater.Lisa Cella, Flute FacultyDr. Cella has championed contemporary music in performances throughout the United States and
abroad. She is Artistic Director of San Diego New Music and a founding member of its resident ensemble
NOISE. With NOISE she has performed across the country premiering works of young composers. NOISE
was also a featured ensemble at the Acousmania Festival in Bucharest, Romania in May of 2004 and an
invited ensemble for the Pacific Rim Festival at the University of California, Santa Cruz in May of 2005.
Dr. Cella is also a founding member of the flute duo inHale, a group dedicated to developing
challenging and experimental repertoire for the flute duo. inHale was an invited ensemble at the
National Flute Association Convention in San Diego in August of 2005. She is also a member of C2 , a
flute and cello duo that will be touring through the 2006 season.Dr. Cella is an assistant professor of music at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a founding
member of its faculty contemporary music ensemble, Ruckus. She received her Applied Bachelors in Music
with a dual concentration in Psychology from Syracuse University under the tutelage of John Oberbrunner.
She then received a Master of Music degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma from Peabody
Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where she studied with Robert Willoughby. Ms. Cella received
a DMA in contemporary flute performance at the University of California, San Diego while studying
with John Fonville. While in Baltimore, she was the winner of the 1992 Washington Flute Fair Young
Artist Competition and founded the flute and guitar duo, Adesso!, which was a finalist in the Baltimore
Chamber Competition. A dedicated performer of contemporary music, she was a member of the
Baltimore based contemporary ensemble Polaris in 1993. She attended the Norfolk Chamber Music
Festival in 1993 and was a fellowship member of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music
Festival for two summers. She was the founding member of the ensemble Sounding, a contemporary
quartet (flute, clarinet, piano, percussion) that had its origins in the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. She
has performed many solo recitals with the most recent being Stanford University and the University of
Hong Kong. She has premiered many works and performed at festivals and conventions around the
country. She has performed with SONOR, the faculty ensemble of UCSD, the ensemble SIRIUS, and in
various concert series and festivals in the San Diego area.
Brian Hulse
Brian Hulse, Chair of Composition ProgramDr. Hulse is Assistant Professor of Music (Theory/Composition) at the College of William & Mary in
Williamsburg, Virginia. As a composer, he has written extensively for instrumental and vocal ensembles,
including several chamber operas. As a theorist his principal interests are musical applications of post-
structural and analytic philosophy, particularly the work of Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze. Articles
under review include “An Analytic Deconstruction of Music†and “Repetition, Difference, and Virtuality:
A Post-Structural Analytic Technique.†Recently, Hulse gave a talk entitled “On the Virtual Environment
of Music†at the University of Kansas. Other recent papers he has presented include “Repetition Theoryâ€
and “Virtuosity in Rhythm and Rhyme: The Art of Ice Cube,†and an article of his on the music of Morris
Rosenzweig appears in the journal Perspectives of New Music.Brian holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Utah, a Master's of Music from the University of
Illinois, and a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard. His principal composition teachers have been Morris Rosenzweig,
Sal Martirano, and Mario Davidovsky. He has conducted numerous professional and student groups, both
choral and instrumental, and has previously held positions at Christopher Newport University and Wellesley College.
Ensembles that have performed Hulse's music include Speculum Musicae, Empyrean Ensemble, 20th Century
Unlimited, Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera Series, Wellesley Composers Conference, Harvard
Group for New Music, Fromm Players, Canyonlands Ensemble, the Harvard Glee Club, and the Wellesley College
Choir, among many others. He has been commissioned by the Empyrean Ensemble, Intermezzo, 20th Century
Unlimited, University of Utah Classical Greek Theater, and Rire-Woodbury Dance Company. Dr. Hulse wrote music
for the film "Couch Encounter," which appeared at several film festivals around the country. He also composed for
the hit HBO series "The Sopranos." Among his awards and honors are the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer
Award, BMI Student Composer Award, Meet the Composer Grant, and various awards from Harvard.
Recently, Hulse was Visiting Composer at Eastern Mediterranean University in Cyprus, a residency that included
lectures and a concert of his music. Duo 46 performed his work "Seastone" for violin and guitar at Harvard, Wellesley,
University of Florida, University of Minnesota, the Styria Chamber Music Festival in Austria, and at the Kennedy
Center. Most recently, Hulse’s composition Concerto for Piano and Symphonic Winds was performed by
Jeffrey Brown and the CNU Wind Ensemble under the direction of Mark Reimer.
