Eliza Bangert

Flutist Eliza Bangert is in demand throughout the Midwest as an orchestral player, chamber musician, and new music interpreter. She has been a substitute with the Grant Park Symphony and with the Chicago Symphony, where her engagements have included subscription concerts, the MusicNOW series, and concerts at Ravinia. She has performed in the pit and in the stage band for Lyric Opera and Lyric Opera Unlimited, and in the pit at Chicago Opera Theater. She performs regularly with the Illinois Philharmonic, is a performing member of the Chicago Philharmonic, and in 2017 won the second flute audition with the South Bend Symphony. Since 2011, she has held the Third Flute/Piccolo chair with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra.

Since 2012, Eliza has been a core member of the experimental music ensemble a.pe.ri.od.ic, which recently gave the American premiere of Tim Parkinson’s opera Time With People following a Fall 2016 residency at High Concept Labs. She has also appeared with the International Chamber Artists, Fonema Consort, Palomar, and Ensemble Dal Niente. In 2014, together with flutist Dalia Chin and mezzo-soprano Kate McDuffie, she commissioned new chamber works from Monte Weber, Scott Scharf, and D. Edward Davis. This project, called “in the same breath,” toured to the Florida Flute Fair and the Omaha Under the Radar festival.

Eliza holds degrees in flute performance from DePaul University and the University of Northern Iowa, where her principal teachers included Mary Stolper, Angeleita Floyd, and Torleif Ander. She particularly enjoys playing piccolo, and has coached extensively with the CSO’s Jennifer Gunn.

In addition to her performing life, Eliza is an orchestra librarian for the Grant Park Symphony and AWR Music, where she enjoys the opportunity to organize and alphabetize everything in sight.

nomi Epstein

FOUNDER/DIRECTOR

Nomi Epstein, D.M.A., is an active composer, educator, and curator/performer of experimental music. Her compositions have been performed throughout the US and Europe at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Darmstadt, Bang on a Can, Ostrava Days, and Dog Star, by ensembles such as ICE, Ensemble SurPlus, Wet Ink, Mivos Quartet, Wild Rumpus, and Dal Niente. Her recent conceptual opera, Translation, was premiered by The Industry and Wild Up in Los Angeles in 2015. She is founder/curator of the critically acclaimed, experimental music performance collective a.pe.ri.od.ic, and also performs in the experimental improvisation trio, NbN. She produced the Chicago area 2012 centennial John Cage Festival, co-produced the 2014 Chicago Wandelweiser Festival, and continues to research, write, and lecture on post-Cagean, notated, experimental music. Epstein has served on the faculties of Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, DePaul University and the University of Iowa.

Photo by Ryan Bourque

Kenn Kumpf

Composer and singer Kenn Kumpf completed his doctorate in composition at Northwestern University in 2013 and currently resides in Chicago. His compositions have been performed by ensembles such as Ensemble SurPlus, the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, a.pe.ri.od.ic, and Outer Voices; and by soloists like Mike Svoboda, Lucas Fels, Peter Martin, Russell Rolen, and Stephen Menotti. He currently teaches composition and orchestration at Columbia College Chicago, and music theory at Northwestern University.

As a performer, Kenn has sung in the professional core of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Camerata, and has appeared as a soloist with the Alice Millar Chapel Choir, Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, and Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic. Specializing in contemporary vocal techniques, he has premiered over a dozen solo works and performed with new music ensembles newEar, a.pe.ri.od.ic, and The Music Room. He is the co-founder and music director of Outer Voices, a Chicago-based vocal ensemble that performs repertoire written before 1700 and after 1940.

Robert Reinhart

Robert Reinhart (b. 1975) is a Chicago-based composer originally from Danville, Illinois whose musical influences include timbralism, microtonality, early music, and continua. His works have been performed in the United States, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Ukraine.Reinhart obtained a Bachelor of Music in Composition-Theory from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Arts in Music Composition from San Francisco State University, and a Doctor of Music in Composition from Northwestern University. In 2008 he was a finalist for the Julius F. Jezek prize in composition for his vocal sextet Hexed Painting, and his Praeludium was honored by ASCAP in the 2005 Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. His works have been performed by Ensemble Dal Niente, flutist Maria Carolina Cavalcanti, trombonist Mike Svoboda, composer/pianist Joann Cho, and gambists Mary Springfels and Craig Trompeter.Currently the Coordinator of Sophomore Theory and Aural Skills at Northwestern, Reinhart is also co-director of Outer Voices and serves on the board of Dal Niente. He remains active as a bassoonist, vocalist, and recorderist for the a.per.i.od.ic ensemble, and is the bassoonist of the Triple Reed Trio.

Matthew Oliphant

Hornist Matthew Oliphant is a new music and chamber music specialist living in Chicago, IL. Oliphant is fast becoming known as an adventurous and courageous young player. As solo hornist with new music group Ensemble Dal Niente, he performs the music of our time by established and emerging composers, as well as classics of the new music repertoire.

In demand as a freelance chamber musician, he has performed with Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Access Contemporary Music, Fifth House Ensemble, Present Music, the New Millennium Woodwind Quintet, and on the Rush Hour concert series. In addition, he has performed as principal horn of the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestra Prometheus.

As a member of Axiom Brass from 2007-2014, he traveled the country performing for and engaging with audiences through music. Far from being constrained by the classical tradition, he regularly performs with experimental ensemble a.pe.ri.od.ic, performed as a member of the free jazz/classical/improv hybrid ensemble the Tomorrow Music Orchestra, and with various friends in free improvisation group An Outdoor Adventure.

Myra Hinrichs

member emeritus

Myra Hinrichs, violinist, is a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory and the Civic Orchestra training program. She has spent her summers performing in music festivals including the Barnes Ensemble, Finger Lakes Opera, Aspen Music Festival, and Spoleto USA. She is a member of Chartreuse, an ensemble devoted to performing contemporary music from around the world. She appears with other Chicago ensembles including the Morton Feldman Chamber Players, and Mocrep. She is always up for trying new kinds of music and has played shows with indy bands, folk singers, and free improvisers. In addition to performing, she teaches private lessons in the Chicago area.

Jeff Kimmel

member emeritus

Jeff Kimmel is a Chicago-based clarinetist, improviser, and composer. His work encompasses a commitment to expand the timbral possibilities of the clarinet and bass clarinet while presenting the instrument in a variety of formats.Currently, Jeff is a member of a.pe.ri.od.ic, a collective of performers and composers dedicated to notated, acoustic, experimental music, and he regularly collaborates with Chicago improvisers. His work has been funded by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and in the fall of 2011, he was selected to attend a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.Originally from Greenville, SC, holds a B.M. from the New England Conservatory of Music and relocated to Chicago in 2007.Photo by Julia Dratel.

Nora Barton

member emeritus

Nora Barton is a Chicago-based cellist and educator whose performance practice has surpassed the barriers established by classical training and allowed her to imbibe in a greater array of genres, with collaborations ranging from experimental improvisation to dancing around with an amplified cello in a punk marching band. In addition to her busy recording and performance schedule, Nora also organizes monthly concerts for Classical Revolution Chicago, providing accessible classical music performances in a variety of unexpected public spaces. Nora holds degrees from Roosevelt University and University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music.

Billie Howard

member emeritus

Billie Howard is a Chicago-based pianist, violinist, violist, and educator. As a performer, she is inspired by contemporary and experimental music on the farthest ends of the volume spectrum, ranging from the quietest sounds to fully-amplified extremes. She frequently works in collaboration, often with one of her groups: NbN Trio, a.pe.ri.od.ic, The Paver, and Blue Water Kings. She also composes under the moniker Akosuen, which ranges from a solo endeavor to a 6-piece band with chorus.

In addition, Billie is a dedicated arts curator and producer, working as the Artistic Director for High Concept Labs.

Intern 2024: Haotian Wang

Haotian Wang (b. 2000) is a multidisciplinary artist, songwriter, and composer originally from Yunnan, China, currently based in Chicago. He is pursuing a master degree in Sound Arts and Industries at Northwestern University. His artistic projects work across sound, field recording, performance, and poetry through the lens of travel, memory, and identity. In his debut album The Bridge in The Mountain's Hands (A Travelog) (2022), he weaves together Chinese folk music, ambient, and spoken-words and receives recognition as “Bandcamp New and Notable Album.”

Intern 2023: I-CHIEN CHEN

I-Chien Chen is an artist, curator, and performer from Taipei, Taiwan currently living in Chicago. Chen holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Chen explores architectural concepts, institutional frameworks, relationships, and identities through performative gestures, sound, and language. Chen has shown her work and performed as an ensemble member at the National Museum of Mexican Art, APIDA Arts Festival, Mana Contemporary, Experimental Sound Studio, Elastic Art, 6018|North, Mayfield, Nonation Art Lab, John M. Flaxman Library, ArTrend International Performance Art Festival, and Taiwan Contemporary Cultural Lab.

Intern 2019-2022:
Hannah Barnes

Hannah Barnes (b. 1997) is a Chicago-based composer, musician, and organizer. Her compositional interests include structure, memory, and perception of time, among others. She is currently a graduate assistant pursuing a master’s degree in Music Composition at DePaul University where she studies with Christopher Wendell Jones and Osnat Netzer, and conducting with Michael Lewanski. Hannah is also the director of the Purposeless Play contemporary recital series based at DePaul.

MEDIA Intern 2020-2021:
MALLORY REESE

Mallory Reese (b. 1999) is a professional actress from Los Angeles, California. Until she graduates in 2022, she will be studying film production at Beloit College. Mallory is skilled in camera and audio technique, both theatre and film acting, editing, writing, directing, and art. Her acting credits are located on IMDB at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7783747/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 and her short films are on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb90ny05qSSgjgPo59Ljn2g .

Intern 2018-2019:
Daniel Thao

Daniel Thao (b. 1995) graduated from Columbia College Chicago as a music composer and producer. He currently resides in Chicago and is composing/recording music and sounds for local artists. The range of fields he’s tapped into are, but not limited to, animation & film, games, illustration, and photography. Inside of the venue or concert hall, Daniel’s style of composition takes from ideas of new complexity, post-minimalism, and spectralism. Some of his works have been performed by Sonic-Hedgehog, members of Dal Niente, Fonema, and Mocrep, and Columbia’s Chamber Ensemble and New Music Ensemble. Daniel has had the opportunity to study with Kenn Kumpf, Dan Dehaan, Sebastian Huydts, and Drew Baker. His music may be found on Soundcloud at soundcloud.com/danielthao.

Intern 2017-2018:
DREW FARRAR

Drew Farrar (b. 1994) is a composer and guitarist based in Urbana-Champaign, IL. His works primarily explore the physical body's relationship to sound through gesture. Farrar graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2017, receiving a Bachelor's in Music Composition. He received Master's degrees in Music Composition and Guitar Performance from the University of Urbana-Champaign in 2020 and 2022 respectively where he studied composition with Kerrith Livengood, Carlos Carrillo, Erik Lunde, and Rick Taube. He studied guitar with Guido Sanchez-Portuguez. He currently serves as the Director for New Music Mosaic.

Intern 2016-2017:
Egan Franke

Egan Franke (b. 1995) is a composer and orchestrator from Indianapolis, IN currently attending Columbia College in Chicago. Born to classical music parents, performance seemed the logical choice for Egan for the first few decades of his life. Once arriving at Columbia College, he realized that composing was his passion and intends to continue his compositional studies in grad school. Egan has studied under Chicago composers Kenn Kumpf and Drew Baker at Columbia College.

Intern 2015-2016:
Ben Davis

Ben Davis (b. 1992) is a composer and music educator from Richmond, Virginia currently living in Chicago. Ben's music has been performed in the US and Germany by musicians including Ensemble SurPlus, Sinister Resonance, Clocks in Motion, Mark Hetzler, and Doug Lindsey. In 2015, he participated in the Summer Academy for Young Composers at Akademie Schloss Solitude where he studied with faculty members Chaya Czernowin, Rebecca Saunders, and Ming Tsao. Currently, Ben is a graduate assistant working toward an M.M. in Music Composition at DePaul University, where he studies with Christopher Wendell Jones and Seung-Won Oh.

Intern 2013-2015:
Owen Davis

Owen Davis (b.1989) is a composer, improviser, and percussionist based in Chicago, IL. He is a driven and adamant advocate of the creation and performance of new music in his community. Owen has been extremely active in projects, concerts, and collaborations that serve to advance creativity and innovation in the arts. He is currently a graduate assistant pursuing a master's degree in Music Composition at DePaul University where we studies with Chris Wendell Jones, Kurt Westerburg, and Seung-Ah Oh.