ABOUT

JUDITH BERKSON | accordion, voice

Judith Berkson is a mezzo-soprano, pianist and composer living in Los Angeles, California.

She has collaborated with Kronos Quartet, Wet Ink, Yarn/Wire and City Opera and has presented work at Picasso Museum Malaga, Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, Joe’s Pub, The Stone, Barbès, Bang On A Can, and the 92 Street Y. She has received a Six Points Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation grant, Meet The Composer grant, New Music USA funding and support from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her solo album “Oylam” (ECM Records) was called “Standards and Schubert and liturgical music, swing and chilly silences, a beautiful Satie-like piece to open and close the record” by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times.

Judith composed music for the film Christopher at Sea (2022), a queer retelling of Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise which premiered at Sundance and the Venice Biennale, and won awards at SXSW and at Outfest LA. Her latest chamber opera Partial Memories premiered at the NODO Festival in Ostrava, Czechia. It was dedicated to forgotten female artists Janet Sobel and Mary Gartside and featured the Ostravská Banda.

Judith is also a cantor and has collaborated on Yiddish and cantorial music with Frank London and Theodore Bikel. As a vocalist she has premiered works by Enno Poppe, Alvin Lucier, Rick Burckhardt and Chaya Czernowin. She has served as DMA Lecturer at California Institute of the Arts and as a guest lecturer at Columbia University and at The New School.  https://judithberkson.info/

LAURA CETILIA | cello, voice

As a daughter of mixed heritage, Mexican-American musician, Laura Cetilia is at home with in-betweenness, straddling multiple worlds as cellist / composer / educator / collaborator while working within acoustic / electronic / traditional / experimental sound practices. Her compositions have been described as “unorthodox loveliness” (Boston Globe) and hailed as “alternately penetrating and atmospheric' (Sequenza 21). Her works have been performed by San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, TAK Ensemble, loadbang, Mivos Quartet, Splinter Reeds, Dog Star Orchestra, a.pe.ri.od.ic, LCollective, and others. The Grove Dictionary of American Music describes her electroacoustic duo Mem1 (established in 2003 with Mark Cetilia, electronics/ modular synth) as a “complex cybernetic entity” that “understands its music as a feedback loop between the past and present.” And in the performer / composer collective Ordinary Affects she has collaborated with, commissioned and premiered works by composers such as Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Michael Pisaro, Jürg Frey, Eva-Maria Houben, and Magnus Granberg. Laura is currently pursuing her DMA in Music Composition at Cornell University and is also a proud mother of one. http://laura.cetilia.org

photo by Julie Fowells

KATIE PORTER | clarinets, voice

Katie Porter is a Brooklyn-based clarinetist, performer/composer, writer, and artist. Devoted to collaboration, Katie's projects include: Phase to Phase a bass clarinet duo with Lucio Capece in Berlin, Malosma a bass clarinet and bass flute duo with Christine Tavolacci in LA, Eternities with sound artist Bob Bellerue in NYC, Red Desert Ensemble with percussionist/composer Devin Maxwell, Quartet or Two Duos with James Ilgenfritz, Lucie Vítková, and Teerapat Parnmonkol in NYC, and MUD with poet/filmmaker Anne Penders in Brussels. Passionate about fostering musical communities, she co-founded Listen/Space in Brooklyn, the Listen/Space Commissions in the mountains of Utah, and the biennial VU Symposium for experimental, electronic and improvised music.  

She has premiered works by Sarah Hennies, Teodora Stepančić, Andre Cormier, Daniel Goode, John Luther Adams, Yvette Janine Jackson, Manuela Meier, Michael Pisaro, Jurg Frey, Laura Cetilia, Brian Harnetty, Phill Niblock, Carolyn Chen, Patricia Alessandrini, Nomi Epstein, Quentin Tolimieri, Teodora Stepančić, and Christian Wolff, among many others.  

Her writings are published in the journal Sound American, and she can be heard on the labels Another Timbre (UK), Gravity Wave / Erstwhile (US), Edition Wandelweiser (DE), FTARRI (Japan), Infrequent Seams (US), Karl Records (DE), Editions Verde (US), and Harmonic Ooze (US).  Katie is recording a multi-year project for solo clarinet in Nancy Holt's land artwork, Sun Tunnels, in the remote Utah desert.  http://www.fromkp.com

CHRISTINE TAVOLACCI | flutes, voice

Christine is a Los Angeles based flutist specializing in contemporary and experimental music. Currently, she is active as a soloist, improviser, curator and chamber musician both in California and internationally. She is co-founder and co-­director of Southland Ensemble, and has been a frequent performer in the Monday Evening Concerts series in Los Angeles, the world's longest-running series devoted to contemporary music. 

Christine has also performed with The Industry, Ojai Festival, LA Phil Noon to Midnight, the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, the Angel City Jazz Festival, and Microfest. She has had the pleasure of working in close contact with many celebrated 20th and 21st century composers, such as Christian Wolff, James Tenney, Larry Polansky, Clarence Barlow and Jurg Frey. Christine has been involved in the premieres of many new works, including those by Alvin Lucier, James Saunders, Laura Steenberge, Michael Pisaro, Carolyn Chen and Catherine Lamb.

Her playing has been released on Orenda Records, Bridge Records, BIG EGO Records, Slub Music(Japan) and Tzadik. In addition to her musical pursuits, Christine is a formally trained clairvoyant, trancemedium healer and psychic development teacher. Her metaphysical and spiritual practices are a continuous source of inspiration for her musical explorations. http://www.christinetavolacci.com

photo by Kat Knockles