CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Bobby McFerrin Young Artists Concert: Instant Opera

Zankel Hall
Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 7:30 PM

Bobby McFerrin, Workshop Leader

Workshop Participants
Clarice Assad
Max Baillie
Tim Buchholz
Akim Funk Buddha
Stacey Carter
OluShola A. Cole
Camille Dalmais
Nihan Devecioglu
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb
Anne-Marie Hildebrandt
Christiane Karam
Sofia Koutsovitis
Jo Lawry
Jennifer Jade Ledesna
Adam Matta
Stephanie Nilles
Antonio Parker
Randall Scotting
Gino Sitson
Charles Turner, III

After a five-day Professional Training Workshop with McFerrin, participants specializing in a variety of singing traditions will create Instant Opera—an improvised, a cappella work based on the story of the Tower of Babel. This work explores the origins of language while celebrating cultural differences.


Perspectives: Bobby McFerrin

The Bobby McFerrin Perspectives concerts are supported, in part, by The Rockefeller Foundation's New York City Cultural Innovation Fund.

Perspectives concerts are made possible, in part, by a generous grant from The Alice Tully Foundation.

Programs of The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall are generously supported by the City of New York: Office of the Mayor, the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York City Council; and by the New York State Council on the Arts.

Bobby McFerrin, Workshop Leader
Bobby McFerrin is one of the natural wonders of the music world. A ten-time Grammy Award winner, he is one of the world’s best-known vocal innovators and improvisers, a world-renowned classical conductor, the creator of “Don’t Worry Be Happy” (one of the most popular songs of the late 20th century), and a passionate spokesman for music education. His recordings have sold over 20 million copies, and his collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Chick Corea, the Vienna Philharmonic, and Herbie Hancock have established him as an ambassador of both the classical and jazz worlds.

With a four-octave range and a vast array of vocal techniques, McFerrin is music’s last true Renaissance man, a vocal explorer who has combined jazz, folk, and a multitude of world music influences—choral, a cappella, and classical music—with his own ingredients. As a conductor, Bobby is able to convey his innate musicality in an entirely different context. He has worked with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Bobby McFerrin’s career can be well described as “unconventional.” Those familiar with McFerrin’s shows, whether as a conductor or a vocalist, know that each one is a unique event that resonates with the unexpected. He is that rare artist who has the ability to reach beyond musical genres and stereotypes for a sound that is entirely his own. As one of the foremost guardians of music’s rich heritage, McFerrin remains at the vanguard with his natural, beautiful, and timeless music that transcends all borders and embraces all cultures.

Visit bobbymcferrin.com for more information, interactive games, sheet music, and merchandise.

Workshop Participants
Clarice Assad
A versatile artist of musical depth and sophistication, Clarice Assad is making her mark in the music world in three areas: as pianist, vocalist, and composer. Miss Assad’s works often have a thematic core, and explore the physical and psychological elements of the chosen story, object, or concept. Her work has been performed by some of the most visible orchestras, conductors, soloists and chamber music groups around the world, and recorded on the Nss Music, Telarc, Universal, Nonesuch, Sony, and GHA labels.

Clarice Assad’s commissions include the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, recorded by violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, conductor Marin Alsop, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra; “Brazilian Fanfare,” an overture for full orchestra commissioned for the Louisville Pops Orchestra; “Three Sketches,” for two guitars and violin, recorded by the Assad brothers and violinist Iwao Furusawa; “When Art Showed Up,” for pianist Anne-Marie McDermott; numerous works for guitar such as Bluezilian for the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet; and “Valsas do Rio,” which has become standard repertoire among several accomplished guitar duos.

Ms. Assad has also received commissions from Carnegie Hall, the Jerome Foundation, as well as numerous grants from the American Composers Forum and Meet the Composer.
A native of Rio de Janeiro, Clarice Assad was born into one of Brazil’s most famous musical families (she is the daughter of Sergio Assad, one of today’s preeminent guitarists and composers) and has performed professionally since the age of seven.

Max Baillie
Max Baillie began playing the violin at age six, and, from a background in classical music, was drawn to diverse influences. Multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, and teacher, he has on several occasions brought together different elements of his background in original collaborations. These include mixing the Brazilian martial dance capoeira with the music of Shostakovich and Haydn, and West African Kora (harp) music with Baroque chaconnes.

Baillie is principal viola of the London-based Aurora Orchestra, and founded his own annual chamber music course Es Muss Sein! in 2005. The fiddle player in gypsy-calypso Ska band the Brothers Bab, Max also co-runs Wormfood live music nights in London, leading the house band The Worm on calabash and plucking a ngoni-style (Malian lute) violin with an uplifting mix of lyrical story-telling and bouncy live dance beats.

Baillie graduated from Cambridge University in 2004 with a first-class degree in political science.

Tim Buchholz
Tim Buchholz is a first-year doctoral student in the studio music and jazz department at the University of Miami. This past year, he was named “Best Collegiate Jazz Arranger” for 2006-2007 by DownBeat magazine; in 2005-2006, he was named “Best Collegiate Jazz Singer.” Born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Tim recently graduated with honors from California State University at Long Beach with a master’s degree in jazz studies. Prior to his studies at CSULB, Buchholz was a member of the award-winning vocal jazz ensemble Gold Company at Western Michigan University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in jazz studies. Buchholz has performed at New York City’s Lincoln Center and toured internationally to such countries as South Africa, Costa Rica, France, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Austria, and Belgium. He has performed with many artists, including Bobby McFerrin, Darmon Meader, Janis Siegel, Danilo Perez, and Fred Hersch.

Akim Funk Buddha

Stacey Carter
Stacey Carter currently resides in State College, Pennsylvania. She received a basketball scholarship to play for Louisiana State University and obtained a degrees in art history and interior design. Stacey eventually came to realize her calling as a jazz vocalist and subsequently received a scholarship in the jazz studies program at Michigan State University, where she began to hone her gift. She was one of six students selected in the Dianne Reeves Vocal Jazz Residency at Michigan State University. Carter had the honor of receiving a scholarship for the Jazz in July program led by Dr. Billy Taylor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Stacey was among a group of promising young musicians invited to Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead program, developed by Dr. Billy Taylor and directed by Dr. Nathan Davis at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

OluShola A. Cole
Born in Brixton, England, OluShola Cole comes to the McFerrin Workshop and Young Artists Concert with experience in trombone, piano, and voice. Studying piano at age six under England’s Royal School of Music curriculum while learning violin and recorder, Ms. Cole has focused on piano since immigrating to the states at age 11; she also became involved with secular music and local theater, and began trombone at age 15. Ms. Cole has been selected for All-State Festivals for both categories, and has received honors for piano at the National Federation of Music Clubs Festivals.

With a bachelor’s degree focus from the University of Connecticut, Ms. Cole has diversified her training to also include choral and conducting studies; chamber groups; drum corps; marching, jazz, and NCAA basketball bands; amidst chartering a women’s brass ensemble and UConn women’s a cappella group RubyFruit. Ms Cole is excited to return to Carnegie Hall, making her professional vocal debut with Mr. McFerrin and the ensemble, and is eternally grateful to family and friends who continue to support her in her artistic endeavors.

Camille Dalmais
Camille Dalmais performed her first original song “Un homme déserté” at the age of 16, while attending a wedding. In early 2002, Camille released her first studio album Le sac des filles. In 2004, she began working with Marc Collin and his band Nouvelle Vague, which incorporates new wave and bossa nova music.

In 2005, Dalmais released the album Le fil, which was produced in collaboration with English producer MaJiKer. All of the songs in this album are based on the exploration of the voice, with only a double bass and/or keyboard as accompanying instruments. In June of 2007, Camille performed Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols and a new a cappella work “God Is Sound”(The 12 World Prayers) at L’église Saint-Eustache, in Paris. Her new album entitled Music Hole was released in April of 2008.

Nihan Devecioglu
Nihan Devecioglu comes from Istanbul, Turkey. She received her bachelor’s degree in communications from Bilgi University and her master’s degree in music management from Istanbul Technical University. Since 2003, Devecioglu has been studying Western classical singing with Gudrun Volkert and Hannelore Leiffolts at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Nihan has also explored alternative vocal techniques through intensive studies in improvisation with Lisa Sokolov (New York) and in Turkish Sufi music repertoire with Muhammed Egbhal (Salzburg). Her vocal studies have been supported by the City of Salzburg Cultural Fund and the Kurt and Felicitas-Vössing Foundation. Nihan has performed as a soloist in the operas Le Chinese by C.W. Gluck and Lady Ligea by Hüseyin Evirgen, both in Salzburg. She has given several solo concerts throughout Europe, presenting music from classical European and traditional Turkish folk / Sufi genres.

Ayelet Rose Gottlieb
Ayelet Rose Gottlieb’s sound reveals a unique improvisational approach infused with elaborate composition, spiced up with Middle Eastern scales and adventurous texts. Born in 1979 in Jerusalem, Israel, she currently resides in New York City. After graduating from New England Conservatory in 2002, Gottlieb formed her sextet and released her first CD Internal-External, which was chosen as Best Debut of 2004 by All About Jazz. The sextet recently recorded a new CD, anticipated for release this year. Mayim Rabim, a song cycle Gottlieb composed to erotic poetry from the bible, was released on John Zorn’s Tzadik Records in 2006 to international critical acclaim. She collaborated with director Franny Silverman and video artist Renate Aller to transform Mayim Rabim into a multi-sensory performance, which received a BRIC grant and residency in 2007; the piece will be performed at this year’s Best of the Boroughs Festival at New York’s PS122.

Anne-Marie Hildebrandt
Anne-Marie Hildebrandt is an accomplished songwriter, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist skilled in multiple musical styles. A 1996 graduate of The Juilliard School in piano performance, Ms. Hildebrandt taught ear training at the college and pre-college levels at Juilliard. A highly creative individual, she has recently found success in the various songbooks and arrangements that she has made available, including several choral arrangements newly accepted by Hinshaw Music for publication.
Long driven by a love for Irish music, from 1996 to the present, Ms. Hildebrandt has been immersed in the Irish traditional music scene in New York City and elsewhere. She has studied Irish fiddle and voice with acclaimed masters in the field, and has developed a deep knowledge and appreciation for the Irish musical tradition as it is practiced today.
A skilled pianist, vocalist, and composer, Ms. Hildebrandt has won many awards throughout her lifetime. She has also had extensive performing experience as a pianist playing classical, cocktail, and contemporary music in recital halls, homes, and clubs; and as a harpist, singer, and fiddler performing Irish music in pubs, performance spaces, and other venues.

Ms. Hildebrandt has released two solo CDs featuring her vocals and instrumentals: Celtic Night in 1995 and At Jesus Knee in 2007, the companion CD to the best-selling songbook of the same name. Currently, Anne-Marie performs, records, composes, and teaches piano, voice, and fiddle. She recently formed a new all-female vocal group, Citrine, which will combine Irish-influenced vocals with Anne-Marie’s considerable skills in writing, arranging, singing, and piano playing.

Christiane Karam
Christiane Karam was born and raised in Beirut during Lebanon’s civil war. After earning a diploma in classical piano and working with local acts as a vocalist and writer, she came to Boston in 1998 to study film scoring, songwriting, and voice at the Berklee College of Music. She then went on to earn a masters’ degree in contemporary improvisation from the New England Conservatory, all the while deepening her knowledge and understanding of traditional Arabic music thanks to her mentors Simon Shaheen, Bassam Saba and Rima Khcheich. Christiane is the founder and leader of the Boston-based, award-nominated world music group ZilZALA; the group blends classical, traditional, and folk music styles from various regions of the Middle East and the Balkans with contemporary jazz. Karam is also an award-winning songwriter, and is on the faculty of Berklee College of Music.

Sofia Koutsovitis
Vocalist and composer Sofia Koutsovitis grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She began singing professionally in the prestigious Children’s Choir of the Opera House, Teatro Colón, at age nine. Sofia has toured Europe, Asia, and North and South America, singing at renowned international festivals and venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Lincoln Center (NYC), the Blue Note (NYC), the Chicago World Music Festival (Chicago, IL), the International Jazz en Lima Festival (Peru), the Festival Iberoamericano de las Artes (Puerto Rico), the Festival de Jazz de Barcelona (Spain), and the IAJE Conference 2008 (Toronto, Canada). Sofia has collaborated with the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Geoffrey Keezer’s Aurea, Lionel Loueke, Russ Ferrante, Bob Moses, and Samuel Torres among others. She holds a master’s degree in jazz and improvisation from the New England Conservatory. Her debut recording OJALÁ (2005) features her original compositions and arrangements in a mix of jazz with South American folkloric elements.

Jo Lawry
Jo Lawry’s career began in her homeland, Australia, but in 2003 she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for study in the US. While earning a master’s degree in jazz performance at Purchase College, she recorded with Renee Rosnes, Peter Washington, and Lewis Nash, and was named as a semifinalist in the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Since arriving in the US, Ms. Lawry has worked with Jon Faddis, Donny McCaslin, and Hal Galper, and enjoys ongoing collaborations with vocalists Kate McGarry and Peter Eldridge. Ms. Lawry is also Artist-in-Residence at the US Embassy of Australia. In 2006 she commenced studies at New England Conservatory for a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Performance. She will be the first vocalist to be awarded this degree from the New England Conservatory.

Jennifer Jade Ledesna
Vocalist Jennifer Jade Ledesna, a trilingual New York City native, is an alumnus of the New School University Jazz Conservatory and the LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. She is currently touring the globe with the legendary Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company in “Chapel/Chapter.” Ledesna recently performed in the Kennedy Center’s highly selective Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency of 2008, the IAJE Toronto 2008 Kurt Elling Masterclass, and the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival International Voice Competition of 2007.

Jennifer also has been featured on CBS’s The Nueva Estrella Awards (Latin Idol Semi-Finalist), France 2’s Envoye Special Broadway Documentary, NY1, and also in the New York Times article “In the South Bronx, the Arts Beckon.” She has sung at the Lincoln Center Kaplan Penthouse with her Afro-Cuban sextet, and has toured in Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech-Slovac Republic, France, Hungary, and the US with her jazz trio. Some of her favorite roles include: The Wiz (Dorothy), Company (Marta), Carousel (Julie Jordan), and West Side Story (Maria). Ledesna is honored to have performed with Reggie Workman, Candido Camero, Junior Mance, Dave Valentin, Eric Lewis, Wycliffe Gordon, and Wynton Marsalis, among others.

Adam Matta
Adam Matta, vocal percussionist and sound effect artist, is a 2007-08 Artist in Residence at Cornell University, where he produces live events and beatboxes for dance classes. Solo shows include: The New Museum for Contemporary Art, Here Arts Center, La MAMA Annex, PS 122 and Galapagos. Featured in:” Beatbox Bard," Bruce Levitt’s 2007 play, mixing beatboxing and Shakespeare; Damon Wayan’s” The Underground," on Showtime. Music appears in:” The L Word: Season II, Sessions," released on Tommy Boy Records; Benson Lee’s documentary,” Planet B-Boy;" NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and Storycorps. He has performed with the Cornell Chamber Orchestra, Bora Yoon, Sxip Shirey, Eyal Maoz, Tim Lefebvre(bass), Shara Worden, and Beatboxer Entertainment, at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room, Madison Square Garden, Town Hall, and the Apollo Theater.

Stephanie Nilles
Stephanie Nilles was born in Chicago, and began to play the piano at the age of six and cello at the age of ten. At age 17, she was a semi-finalist in the Young Concert Artists’ International Auditions. She holds a bachelor’s degree in classical piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Olga Radosavljevich. As a chamber musician, Nilles has been awarded the gold medal at the Fischoff Competition, and she has appeared on WFMT’s “Live from Studio One” and on the Dame Myra Hess Series. After graduating from her conservatory studies in 2006, Stephanie moved to New York, intent on quitting music altogether, but the endeavor lasted six months. These days, she performs her own funk/blues/anti-folk music around the city. She has appeared at The Sidewalk Café, The Cutting Room, and The Bitter End, and collaborates regularly with jazz musicians, bluegrass fiddlers, burlesque performers, and classical chamber musicians alike.

Antonio Parker
Antonio Parker is a student at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. At NCCU, he is a junior majoring in jazz studies under the direction of Dr. Ira Wiggins in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in jazz vocal performance. He is a member of NCCU’s acclaimed vocal jazz ensemble, and is often featured as a soloist in their concert and tour performances.

Antonio spent his childhood in Washington, DC, and developed his early music training during his high school years at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, graduating with honors. He has studied jazz and classical voice, and enjoys the continued development of his vocal talents at NCCU, studying classical voice under Elvira Green, and jazz voice and jazz vocal improvisation from Lenora Zenzalai Helm.

Highlights of his performance credits include featured soloist with the NCCU Vocal Jazz Ensemble at the 2008 International Association of Jazz Educators conference in Toronto, Canada. With the Ensemble, he has shared the stage with drummers Joe Chambers and Ed Thigpen, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, pianist Geri Allen, NCCU artist-in-residence Joey Calderazzo, vocalists Carmen Lundy and Kevin Mahogany, trumpeter Derrick Gardner, and saxophonist and NCCU artist-in-residence Branford Marsalis. For the past three years, Antonio has been a featured soloist for NCCU’s annual jazz festival.

Parker enthusiastically continues his pursuits in developing skills as a vocal arranger, composer, lyricist, vocalist, and performer.

Randall Scotting
Randall Scotting is enjoying a rising career as one of this generation’s top countertenors. Past engagements include work at New York City Opera, the Sopeto Festival (Italy), Des Moines Metro Opera, and Opera Colorado. He is featured on the recently released DVD of Vivaldi’s opera Ercole sul Termodonte. Mr. Scotting is an avid concert singer performing such 20th-century works as Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg and Eight Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies.

Gino Sitson
The award-winning, New York–based vocal virtuoso Gino Sitson is from the Bamileke region of Cameroon, Central Africa. He comes from a long line of musicians known as ntontas (“players of horns”), and his mother is a vocalist and choir director.

Before embarking upon a professional career in music, Gino Sitson divided his time between music studies and the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he earned degrees in languages and ethnomusicology. He was gradually drawn into the multicultural Paris music scene, initially as a drummer, then as a singer.

Mr Sitson’s four-octave voice plus his skills as a composer and arranger put him in high demand for recording sessions, commercials, and radio and television jingles. The versatile young vocalist performed in the musical Jeanne et le garçon formidable, for which he co-composed part of the musical score. He has laid down tracks or shared the stage with Manu Dibango, Ron Carter, Papa Wemba, Wally Badarou, Geri Allen, David Gilmore, Ray Lema, Craig Harris, James Hurt, Antoine Roney, Jorge Ben, John William, Mario Canonge, Wallace Roney, Brice Wassy, Oliver N’Goma, Exile One, Steve Potts, So Why?, and La Compagnie Créole, among others.

After the release of his first album, Vocal Deliria, Sitson toured in France and abroad. He performed at a number of jazz clubs and fests in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, even opening for stars like Brazilian singer João Bosco. Sitson also became a regular at top Parisian venues like New Morning, Petit Journal Montparnasse, Duc des Lombards, and Sunset.

Charles Turner, III
A Californian native, Charles Turner III is presently a sophomore at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He participates in various advanced jazz ensembles, and was highlighted in the 2007 Singers Night. He also performed with Grammy Award winner Marcus Miller.

Charles is presently studying abroad at The Jazz and Rock Schule in Freiburg, Germany. He won the Best Jazz Vocalist Next Generation at the Monterey, Reno, and Fullerton Jazz Festivals, and also performed at the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE).

Charles was one of eight singers selected to participate in the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensemble for two consecutive years. He has performed at many Grammy Award functions, as well as with Jon Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Dave Koz, and the late Oscar Peterson.