On any program, you're likely to hear music drawn from the Classical, Jewish, Latin and Jazz genres including an ever-growing collection of works written or arranged for them by the composers, and a hallmark of CROSS ISLAND is that every program includes a free improvisation - a spontaneous work never heard before and never to be played again. Audiences have been responding enthusiastically, with bravos and standing ovations, and presenters have been quick to commit to return performances.
The duo frequently performs with clarinetist Joseph Rutkowski, Jr., and it can expand further by drawing upon a roster of some of the finest freelancers in the region to add voice, violin, viola, oboe, bass, percussion, and other instruments as needed for specific works.
CROSS ISLAND welcomes collaboration with composers seeking performers interested in new musical experiences, and is eager to form new relationships with adventurous presenters.
CORE MEMBERS OF CROSS ISLAND
Cellist Suzanne Mueller is a native of Roslyn and currently resides in Great Neck. She is a graduate of both the Pre-College and College of The Juilliard School and has studied with such notable cellists as Alexander Kouguell, Channing Robbins, Harvey Shapiro, Marion Feldman, and Lorne Munroe. Her chamber music coaches have included Joseph Fuchs, William Lincer, and collaborative pianist Margo Garrett, and she has also coached with cellist Eugene Friesen, for improvisation and non-classical performance and perspective.
She made her New York recital debut under the auspices of Artists International, as a member of the piano/cello duo ELYSIAN DUO and went on to perform as half of its successor, ELYSIAN II, for ten years. Currently, she is Beech Tree Concerts Artist-in-Residence at Old Westbury Gardens, where she presents a series of outdoor summer concerts, and at North Shore Synagogue in Syosset. In addition, she is also half of McCarron & Mueller, a partnership formed in 2000 with guitarist/composer/arranger Mark McCarron. that has been performing in recent years with percussionist Stefan Schatz.
A proponent of non-traditional cello performance styles and genres, Suzanne is a member of the New Directions Cello Association. She currently performs with singer/songwriter Terry Winchell and Retro Folk duo Hungrytown (Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson). She can be heard on the following CDs: Hungrytown’s Hungrytown Road, Terry Winchell’s Vice Versa, and Dave Rave’s and Mark McCarron’s In the Blue of My Dreams (2007); Alli Collis’s Signal on the Starboard, and Lauren Agnelli’s Love Always Follows Me (2004) and Rebecca Hall’s Sunday Afternoon (2002).
Suzanne is consistently praised for her ability to communicate the love she has for music and the pleasure she derives from it.
For more information on Suzanne Mueller, to hear sound clips of her playing, and to find out where and when she will be appearing, please see her website: http://www.myspace.com/cambiatagn
Pianist Elinor Abrams Zayas is a favorite of Long Islanders as a piano soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative artist, as well as being a music educator. The Brightwaters native began her studies with Ruth Koch of Brightwaters, at the tender age of three, and then continued with Claude Gonvierre of Oakdale. She studied at the Juilliard Pre-College Division with Howard Aibel and Leonard Eisner.
At the Usdan Center for the Performing Arts on Long Island, Ellie met a woman who changed the course of her studies: Valerie Capers. At the age of thirteen, she studied blues and jazz improvisation with Capers, and it was through these studies that Ellie learned to infuse her classical playing with the colors of jazz and Latin music. Undergraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music were shaped by the extraordinary Constance Keene, who inspired Ellie to tackle the major works of the piano repertoire. Her graduate studies, also at Manhattan, were with the legendary Robert Helps, who introduced her to contemporary music, and also to the techniques of Abby Whiteside. Ms. Sophia Rosoff—a Whiteside disciple, whose pupils included Gary Grafman and jazz pianist Barry Harris—was a major influence at this time. She also studied jazz composition and arranging with John Carisi, and jazz piano with Joanne Brackeen.
Elinor formed the chamber ensemble Nepenthe in 1984, and served as its Artistic Director. The ensemble presented a successful concert series at the Boulton Center for the Arts in Bay Shore in 2005, and has concertized all over Long Island. She has also been the pianist for New York’s Most Dangerous Big Band, Long Island Masterworks Chorus, and the Long Island Philharmonic Chorus, a musical director at the Gateway Playhouse in Bellport, NY, and a soloist in the metropolitan area, at such venues as Trinity Church in NYC, and the Friends of the Arts Beethoven Festival at Planting Fields Arboretum, and the Islip Arts Council Free Sunday Concert Series. Elinor maintains a private piano studio in Brighwaters, and has served on the music faculties of Five Towns College, Hofstra University, the Massapequa Public Schools, and is currently on the music faculty of the Sachem Public Schools.
Hailed by The New York Times as "...an agile and powerful player" and by International ClarinetMagazine as a clarinetist with "awesome technical prowess," Joseph Rutkowski has performed with James Galway, Mstislav Rostropovich and Maurice Andre and under the batons of Alan Hovhaness, Karel Husa, Laszlo Halasz and JoAnn Falletta. His recording of Schubert's "Shepherd on the Rock" for Ali Mar Records received critical acclaim in Richard Gilbert's The Clarinetist's Discography.
Joseph studied in New York and Germany, receiving degrees in performance from Mannes College and Queens College and in Educational Administration from Hunter College. His musical lineage includes studies with Lawrence Sobol, Heinrich Geuser and Eric Simon. He has worked with composers Leo Kraft, Alan Hovhaness, Elliot Finkel, Nelson Kole, Michael Flamhaft, Roger Ames, Alan Schwartz and Dr. Karel Husa.
As Director of Instrumental Music at Great Neck North High School since 1991, Joseph is a two-time Presidential Scholars Teacher Recognition Award recipient. He served on the faculties of Queens College, Mannes College, Westchester Conservatory and was the Symphony Orchestra conductor and teacher at Stuyvesant High School for the eight years preceding his appointment in Great Neck.
Joseph resides in New York City In his leisure time, he enjoys playing classical music and jazz and with his sons: 21-year-old Benjamin (a former All-State and All-Eastern trombonist) and 18-year-old Daniel (trumpeter and pianist). They often perform jazz concerts together with Joseph's father, "Grandpa" Joe, Sr., a legendary polka band drummer.
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