07-08 Composer Biographies

Described by the Washington Post as "expressively engaging," and "the evening's climactic moment," Garrison Hull's music is distinguished by breadth of melodic line, lyricism, and clarity of tonality, all merged into a contemporary idiom.

Garrison is currently working on a work commissioned by the renowned violoncellist Brigitta Gruenther. His most recently completed work, Violin Sonata No. 2, written for the international renowned virtuoso duo of Michael Appleman, violin and Alexander Paley, piano, premiered in 2004 at Strathmore Hall, in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The sonata was subsequently featured as the only new work at the 2004 Paley International Festival in Richmond, Virginia. His full-length dramatic opera Nancy, commissioned by Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia premiered in 2004. The Washington Post review reported that Hull's opera, Nancy "stands up well when compared with the...first operas of Verdi and Puccini." In 2000, his first violin sonata, the Strathmore, premiered at Strathmore Hall.

He has been interviewed on Voice of America and has been a regular contributor to the national monthly journal, 21st Century Music. He currently writes a regular column on concert music for Rhode Island's Motif magazine. He has also written scholarly articles including "Between the Staves" which was published in Sonus, the award-winning music journal. Garrison has twice been a Resident Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He chaired the Virginia Music Teachers Association's Commissioned Composer Contest from 1991 through 1994. He has served as Board President and Music Director of the New Music Society from 1988 to 1993.

Garrison studied conducting with Russell Woollen, composition with Serge DeGastyne, and received his Bachelors Degree from George Mason University where he studied composition with Stephen D. Burton. He is on the Faculty of The Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. He has served on the Board of the Rhode Island Chamber Music Series as co-chair of the organization's Program Committee. Garrison resides in Providence and is married to Karen Davie.

Michael Kelley studied viola with Lenny Matczynski, Jeff Irvine and Karen Tuttle, and holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. He has been a prize winner at the Primrose International Viola Competition, a member of the Arden String Quartet, and a Teaching Fellow in Electronic Music at Juilliard. He is currently president of Trifecta Music for Film, a New-York based production company.

A frequent student at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire since the age of 11, Michael has been performing as a member of the Apple Hill Chamber Players since 1996. He lives in Providence's West End neighborhood.

Learn more about the Apple Hill Chamber Players here.

The roots of Forrest Larson's music are in working with old pre-digital analog electronic instruments and collecting of “found sounds” from both natural as well as urban landscapes. In his instrumental works, he explores the coloristic and lyrical possibilities of non-tonal harmonies. Some pieces combine electronic sounds and live acoustic instruments. He has written music for string orchestra as well as works for unaccompanied violin and cello. Recently he finished a piece for the MIT Wind Ensemble that incorporates sounds of Eastern seabirds. In February 2007 he was invited to perform electronic music on the experimental music series CTRL+ALT+REPEAT, which was co-sponsored by Mem1 and Community MusicWorks. His music has been performed at various venues in the Boston area, Ithaca NY, at Carnegie-Mellon University, Washington and Jefferson University, Southern Oregon University, and in Iceland.

As a violist, Forrest Larson has played in the New England Philharmonic, Boston Chamber Ensemble, and other chamber groups. Before becoming a violist he played violin in the Commonwealth Vintage Dance Orchestra, performed traditional Scottish fiddle music, and was the musician for the Middlesex Morris Dance Troupe.

Jessie Nzinga Montgomery began her musical studies at age four on the violin at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City. Thanks to the creativity and expertise of her teachers Alice Kanack and Nicholas Scarim, she was already seriously involved in the art of improvisation and composition by age eleven. In 1998 and 1999, she was a recipient of the Composer’s Apprentice Award given by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

After high school, Jessie pursued a bachelor’s degree in violin performance at The Juilliard School. Midway through her studies, she served as a composer for a new music series presented by the New York Youth Symphony in 2001. While living in New York City, she continued her studies with composers Derek Bermel, and Steven Burke. She has been a composer for two independent films, one of which was in collaboration with her father, Ed Montgomery, also a composer and independent film producer.

Jessie resides in the West End of Providence where she is a member of the Providence String Quartet and teaches violin, improvisation, and composition to Community MusicWorks students.

Alec K. Redfearn is a composer/songwriter/free improviser/accordionist etc. who has been playing in and around Providence for close to fifteen years.

In addition to being the leader of his own band, he has played in over thirty bands and been involved with dozens of theatre, dance, and film collaborations. He is predominantly self taught and he tends to work with musicians of all calibers. His songs, compositions and accordion playing are fiercely individual and his music has been very difficult to categorize.

Learn more about Alec's band, The Eyesores, by clicking here.