EarShotReading: ROCO

June 4–7, 2024

‍

Participating Composers: Autumn Maria Reed, Naama Perel-Tzadok, Patricia Leonard, Stella G.Gitelman Willoughby

Mentor Composers: Jennifer Higdon, Valerie Coleman, Nina Shekhar

‍

About the Composers

‍

Autumn Maria Reed is a Wisconsin-based composer and Berklee alumna. Autumn has composed library and theatrical music for companies in Madison and Milwaukee. Her music is available to stream under the name AMReed8.

With Music Theatre of Madison, she composed and orchestrated for “BEYOND THE INGÉNUE: TRAILBLAZERS” and “AN AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY.” Her works include “YANKADI” for string quartet at LunART Festival and “RESILIENCE” for string orchestra performed by Brazil’s Orquestra Sinfônica Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro (OSTNCS) and soon by Women’s Orchestra of Arizona.

She plays the string bass with Dayvin Hallmon's The Black String Triage Ensemble and Black Diaspora Symphony Orchestra, where she composed “EXODUS FROM EXTINCTION” for the symphony orchestra. This group performs string music for trauma and violence victims. A documentary short titled “Black Strings (2023)” was produced by filmmakers Marquise Mays and RJ Smith, featuring the ensemble. PBS has distributed the film on its platform as “What Does It Look Like to Bring a Violin to a Gunfight?” and YouTube channel, “When Musicians Become First Responders. ‍

She advocates ending the stigma of mental illness. She also values spending time with her family.
More info: linktr.ee/amreed8

‍

‍

Naama Perel-Tzadok is a Multi-stylistic composer and creator. Her works are performed in Israel and around the world. Ph.D. student in composition at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and ISEF Doctoral Fellow. Graduated with a master's degree in composition from the University of Haifa. As the daughter of Yemenite and Tunisian immigrants, grew up on Yemenite, Arabic, and Jewish music. In her work, she draws inspiration from many sources––nature, current events, plastic art, and the diverse worlds of music she grew up in. In recent years she has tended to examine and expand the boundaries of ancient musical styles and traditions alongside new ones. Recently released a full length album named Memory Traces, which deals with the music of Yemenite women from a contemporary perspective.

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

Patricia Leonard is a composer of opera and musical theater; her musical education includes the Boston Conservatory and The Juilliard School. Her principal composition teachers are Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici and Larry Bell. Ms. Leonard’s works have been performed in major cities in the U.S. and Europe, interpreted by celebrated musicians from the New York Philharmonic, Zurich Opera, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Boston Symphony/Pops/Ballet, and featured soloists such as Grammy Award-winning clarinetist Eddie Daniels, Met Opera soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer and renowned pianists Simon Mulligan and Christopher Oldfather.

Patricia was honored to be one of the “Founding Ladies of Music” as part of the “Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman” Quilt Concert for the Women’s Suffrage anniversary, alongside acclaimed women composers such as Joan Tower and Thea Musgrave. She is a producer of a Special Benefit Concert for Ukraine at Lincoln Center, featuring artists from the Met opera, Broadway and beyond, and her upcoming international performances of her music include Italy, USA (New York and Arizona) and Belgium. She is the Managing Director of New York New Music Ensemble, and composer member of MAESTRA, New York Women Composers, and a founding member of NYCC, celebrating its 20th anniversary season. Her music can be heard on soundcloud.com/patricia-leonard-composer.

‍

‍

Stella G. Gitelman Willoughby (b. 2000) is an eight-time ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award winner and finalist and a national and international award-winning composer from Cambridge, Massachusetts. She writes for solo instruments, voice, chamber ensembles, and symphony orchestra. Valuing the unique qualities of each instrument and performer, Stella strives to create works that highlight their unique sound and embraces opportunities for her music to be performed in, and heard by, the public. 

Stella works collaboratively with musicians, dancers, filmmakers, and performance artists. She has completed commissions for concert programs, recording projects, music festivals, dance, film, audition repertoire, performance and public art installations, student musicians, academic presentations, and to accompany historical and liturgical texts. Her compositions are licensed in the US and around the world. 

Stella is a senior at Berklee College of Music majoring in composition with a self-designed minor in music archives. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Stella is completing a journal article on the history of quadrophonic sound in classical music. She recently interned at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and at the Folger Shakespeare Library for six summers.