Musicians

Matt Barbier is a trombonist with a wide variety of interests. He received his education at the Cleveland Institute of Music (B.M.) and CalArts (M.F.A.).

My main loves are making microtonal, early and noise music, building tiny objects, damaging electronics and going hiking with my dog, Hari. I also have a love a trivia and therefor spend too much time on Wikipedia. For example, did you know that the Narwhal's scientific name, Monodon monoceros, is derived from Greek meaning one-toothed unicorn? I discovered my love of abnormal noises the first time I broke one of my bass's cables. I continue to indulge this desire by collecting a variety of stereo system lp tests and finding different ways to make my trombone feedback and sound like it shouldn't. I briefly abandoned this love to pursue orchestral music but I've since wised up and have devoted myself to a variety of projects.

My main project is Trio Kobayashi, an ensemble devoted to exploring the field of just intonation for brass instruments. Kobayashi was originally formed to play the music of Wolfgang von Schweinitz, but has gone on to work with a variety of composers including Marc Sabat, Larry Polansky, Nick Deyoe and Jürg Frey. I also devote myself to a variety of disparate projects including ,,duo, Gnarwhallaby and wildUp!

My desire to make odd sounds has led to extensive and fruitful work with my wife DanRae. Together we make sounds and objects for a variety of video and live puppet performances. We live in Culver City with our dog, cat, rabbit and the Gilded Guild (the fish variety) and excitedly search for more time to go hiking.

A percussionist for wild Up, Jessica Cameron is currently a freelance musician and educator in Los Angeles.

Jessica has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Redlands Symphony, and San Bernardino Symphony as well as with the Kansas City Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Jacaranda Music Series, American Youth Symphony and the Henry Mancini Institute. Throughout her career, she has had the privilege to perform with many incredible musicians including John Williams, Martha Argerich, Kenny Warner, Burt Bacharach, Doc Severinson, Keiko Abe, Giovani Hidalgo and Greg Bissonette.

In addition to performing, Jessica is an active educator and is on the teaching artist faculty for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Harmony Project. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Texas and a Performance Certificate from the University of Southern California.

Archie Carey is a multi-instrumental performer/composer living in southern California. As a bassoonist he aims to master every angle of the music he is presenting. He finds enjoyment in dedicating himself to music of all time periods and all genres, acting as a musical chameleon while still keeping a personal performance aesthetic present. He has had the opportunity to perform a wide variety of music in many great places and spaces including Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Alice Tully Hall, The Bowery Poetry Club, The Tank, Saban Theatre, Zipper Hall, Highways Performance Space, Pieter PASD, The Wulf, REDCAT, and various other art spaces coast to coast. He has also toured China with the Manhattan Symphonie and Western Europe with the AMA Wind Ensemble.

Aside from the bassoon Archie has a rich background in playing a wide variety of instruments, with various groups ranging in an array of styles. He also has experience teaching Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone, and Bassoon. He has studied the Shakuhachi and Japanese Traditional music, North Indian Classical music with Aashish Kahn, and Indonesian Music with Pak Djoko Walujo, playing in a Javanese Gamelan.

Archie’s work as a composer aims to magnify sound, pitch, timbre, and environment to make the subtlest details a point of focus, achieved by using long durations, minimal pitch content, and contrasts between extremely high volumes and silence. Music is a mentally moving art form that he approaches with interest in abrasive textures, hypnotic drones, alternative tunings, and a sense for a physical space to provide an audience with a unique experience. Archie is interested in writing music that is not only meditative for the listener, but also for the performer, to create a communal sense of timelessness inside a performance space. In solo work and in collaboration with dance and film he has been experimenting with field recording, analog electronics, aspects of performance art and often times combinations of all three.

Some of his most influential teachers have been Marc Goldberg, Julie Feves, Michael Pisaro, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, and Ulrich Krieger. Archie has a BM in bassoon performance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music and an MFA in performance and composition from the California Institute of the Arts.

Andrew McIntosh is a violinist, violist, and composer who focuses primarily on music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He has worked directly with composers such as Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Helmut Lachenmann, Joan Tower, Roger Reynolds, Wadada Leo Smith, Anne LeBaron, Art Jarvinen, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Marc Sabat, and many others. McIntosh is a member of the Formalist Quartet, which frequently performs adventurous and relevant repertoire around the country, has had residencies at Princeton and Stanford universities, and is currently in residence at the Villa Aurora in PacificPalisades. He holds degrees in violin and composition from the University of Nevada,Reno, and the California Institute of the Arts. He has performed as a soloist with the Reno Philharmonic, inauthentica, Ruby Mountain Symphony, and Carson City Symphony and has played in a variety of orchestras, chamber ensembles, and music festivals including the Sunriver Music Festival, the Mammoth Lakes Music Festival, the Dartington Festival (England), the Lake Tahoe Summer Music Festival, the Argenta Summer Chamber Festival (Reno), Unruly Music (Milwaukee), and MOSA concerts (New York). He has recorded for New World, Innova, Lakefire, Undermountain, and Road Runner records. Upcoming performances include concerts with the Quatuor Bozzini at the Other Minds festival in San Francisco, with the Formalist Quartet at the Reykjavik Arts Festival in Iceland, and several solo performances at REDCAT in Walt Disney Concert Hall. As a composer, McIntosh strives to write vibrant and compelling pieces while bringing a spirit of experimentalism to the music, usually through working with just intonation and frequency ratios. For more info please visit Plainsound Music Edition at www.plainsound.org. McIntosh is a proud resident of the City of Pasadena, where he lives with his fiancée and two cats.

Andrew Tholl started playing the violin when he was three and hasn’t stopped since (except for that year when he was five).  In his teens he began playing guitar and drums (because violinists can’t play in bands?!?) and shortly thereafter began composing music.  As a soloist and chamber musician, is devoted to the performance of new music.  He likes working with living composers and greatly prefers them to the those that are dead.  Aside from wild Up, other ensembles/bands that plays with regularly include TempWerks, touchy-feely, and the Formalist Quartet (which he co-founded in 2006).  Compositionally, his interest lies in, noise, nostalgia, memory, the exploration of the passage of time, and the physicality of making music.  He holds performance/composition degrees from Arizona State University, University of Michigan and, The California Institute of the Arts.  Currently works as a freelance musician and is completing his D.M.A. at CalArts.  He lives in Los Angeles where he is involved with music for concert halls, art galleries, films, puppet shows, bars, garages, bedrooms, and coat closets.

Brian Walsh is a musician who is interested in sound and communication, regardless of the genre. Mr. Walsh specializes in performance on the clarinet and bass clarinet, and is fluent in many styles of music. He is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts (MFA, BFA), and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

Mr. Walsh frequently performs with such diverse groups as Inauthentica, The New Century Players, The Industrial Jazz Group, PLOTZ!, The Doug McDonald Brass and Woodwind Coalition, and the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble. Mr. Walsh also leads Walsh Set Trio, a jazz ensemble focusing on the performance of his own compositions. Performances have taken him to Japan, Canada, Italy, England, the Netherlands, Iceland, and all over the United States. He has premiered pieces by Luigi Nono, Girard Grisey, James Newton, Rosalie Hirs and many others. Past collaborators have included Peter Maxwell Davies, Gavin Bryars, Bobby Bradford, Nels Cline, Money Mark, Bright Eyes, James Newton, Larry Koonse, Muhal Richard Abrams, the Henry Mancini Orchestra, and the Riverside Philharmonic. Mr. Walsh is also an active private teacher and clinician. He is an instructor at Baxter-Northup Music, the Oakwood School, and the Academy of Creative Education.

A native of Seattle, Washington, Caitlin Kelley has won several regional competitions, including the Simon-Fiset Violin Competition, American String Teachers Association State Competition, and the Seattle Young Artists Music Festival Competition. She has also been a finalist in the Hennings-Fischer Young Artists Competition, Parness Young Artists Competition, Schlern International Music Festival Competition, and Carmel Music Society Instrumental Competition. As a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award in 2006, Caitlin appeared as a featured performer on NPR’s From the Top.

Caitlin has soloed with several orchestras, including the Auburn and Olympia Symphony Orchestras, Philharmonia Northwest, and the Seattle Youth Symphony. Recent highlights include performing the Ligeti Violin Concerto with the YMF Debut Orchestra and solo appearances with the Colburn Chamber Music Society, Pasadena Community Orchestra, and Long Beach Chorale & Chamber Symphony.

An active chamber musician, Caitlin has appeared in concert with the Colburn Chamber Music Society and has collaborated with renowned artists including Menahem Pressler and Paul Coletti. Formerly the concertmaster of the YMF Debut Orchestra, she currently holds the position of co-concertmaster of the Colburn Orchestra.

Caitlin recently graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the Colburn School Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, where she is continuing her studies with Robert Lipsett as a candidate for the Professional Studies Certificate.

Caitlin plays on a Raphael & Antonio Gagliano violin on generous loan from the Mandell Collection of Southern California.

“not everyone would call this music. . .” – Los Angeles Times

Chris Kallmyer is a performer, composer, and sound artist living in Los Angeles, CA who works in sound installation, composition, trumpet, and electronic music. He has presented work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Walker Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, the Hammer Museum, REDCAT, Machine Project, the Goldwell Open Air Museum, and other spaces in America and Europe. His work is influenced by a sense of place, architecture, field recordings, and outdoor listening.

Chris is the Curator of Sound Programming for the Machine Project and earned his MFA in music from the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied with Thomas Stevens, Vinny Golia,Wadada Leo Smith, and Edward Carroll. He holds a BA in trumpet performance from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Derek Stein plays cello. He enjoys playing all styles of music, but has a special interest in contemporary music, also known as new music, also known as squeak-fart music. Derek began studying cello at the age of four under the tutelage of his father. He holds a Bachelors of Music Performance from Arizona State University and a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Derek has performed throughout Southern California, including performances at the University of California at San Diego, Chapman University, University of California at Irvine, California State University at Long Beach, Loyola Marymount University, California State University Los Angeles, REDCAT at Disney Hall and College of the Canyons in Valenica, California. Currently, Derek holds an Adjunct teaching position at the California Institute of the Arts and plays with several groups based in LA.

Derek Tywoniuk is a percussionist and composer currently residing in Los Angeles, CA. As a performer, he has appeared with WildUp, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, among others. He is also a member of the Smoke and Mirrors percussion ensemble, which has recently recorded an album with Yarlung Records (due for release in the next year), and will perform Takemitsu’s “From Me Flows What You Call Time” with The Colburn Conservatory Orchestra in the fall of 2011. In the summer of 2011, he will attend the MusicX festival and the Lucerne Festival Academy. Derek’s compositions have been performed internationally by artists such as Nancy Zeltsman and Beverley Johnston, published by C.F. Peters, recorded on Bridge Records, and included in the 2009 Paris International Marimba Competition.

Derek is currently in the Artist Diploma program at The Colburn School, prior to which he completed his Bachelor of Music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In his spare time, he enjoys watching documentaries, consuming unhealthy amounts of coffee, and avoiding the topic of sports while in conversation. His favorite composer is Toru Takemitsu, and his favorite beer is Stone IPA.

Eleanor Weigert has been a music geek for over ten years now. It started when she realized that you could play the music of STAR WARS separate from the movie itself, and since then her crush on epic symphonic music has only intensified.  Like many other Wild Up-ers Eleanor studied in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, continued at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto and has recently made her way to Los Angeles where she commutes to CSUF for yet another degree.  (Gotta catch ‘em all)  She has played with the Pacific Symphony, the Southern California Philharmonic, at the scoring stage in Warner Brother’s Studios and other places outside of California.  Favorite musicians include:  Beethoven, Jeff Buckley, Maria Callas, Radiohead, Brahms, Lightning Bolt, Ravel and John Williams.  For more about Eleanor, go to www.eleanorweigert.com

Erin McKibben began playing the flute at age 11 when her family acquired one in a trade for a freezer. She soon discovered the camaraderie and expressive possibilities of ensemble performance, fluting with the Portland Youth Philharmonic and singing with the Portland Symphonic Girlchoir. She has been immersed in music ever since.  

Erin earned her Masters degree studying with Amy Porter at the University of Michigan. She was a prize winner in the National Flute Association's Orchestral Excerpt Competition in NYC, and won the Las Vegas Flute Club's Young Artist Competition. She has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, and played Mahler with the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

Most recently, Erin's flute duo, Silver Winds, was engaged to perform a double flute concerto with the University of Puget Sound String Orchestra. Silver Winds was also proud to have been selected as performers at the 2011 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Between teaching and performing, Erin enjoys the natural beauty and excellent wines of  California, while her fiancé explores the mysteries of academia as a PhD student in music theory at UCSB. With a firm belief in the philosophy of wild Up, she's excited to keep exploring great music. She currently lives in Santa Barbara in body, and Portland in spirit.

Uruguayan violinist Javier Orman carries with him a diverse array of influences, from J.S. Bach to Philip Glass to Thom Yorke to Carlos Gardel to Horace Silver. He has co-founded and toured with Entropy Ensemble, a hybrid chamber/jazz group that routinely shuffles forward-driven rock'n'roll, jazzed-up reggae and minimalism, all while re-interpreting Radiohead, and with Tom Farrell in energetic, percussive Duo del Sol. He teaches in Santa Monica at Sol-La Music Academy, a place that feeds on community energy and fresh ideas.

In 2009, he founded Kidzymphony, an orchestral program for young children in Charleston, South Carolina, that continues to nurture 50 children in music. As a student, he was strongly guided by his experiences in the Venezuelan and Uruguayan versions of 'El Sistema' and later by teachers Lee-Chin Siow and Yehonatan Berick. He routinely reads The New York Times, The Economist, the Onion, five Uruguayan media outlets and has the ability to become exaggeratedly passionate about the politics of any place he barely knows. He lives with his wife, Janai, who changed his life by singing Liszt's 'Oh! Quand Je Dors'.

He plays violin, snare drum and piano. The latter two of which he disguises his mastery as primitive technique so that people under-estimate him. One day, he will show them.

Jeremy Swem is a Southern California Trombonist based out of Long Beach.  He'll play just about anywhere in driving distance for fun, money, or better yet, both!  During the day, Jeremy can be heard performing regularly with the Disneyland Band at The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, where he has been a regular member of the group since 2009.  In addition to performing with Wild Up, he can also be heard regularly with Pacific Coast Horns, the Pacific Brass Ensemble, the Golden State Pops Orchestra, and in the pit orchestra of Musical Theater West.  On occasion he has been allowed out of the back row and featured as a soloist with such groups as the Cal State Long Beach Wind Symphony and Symphony Orchestra, the USC Thornton Symphony and the Beach City Brass. Jeremy received his Bachelor of Music Degree in Trombone Performance from California State University, Long Beach, where he studied with Loren Marsteller, Jeffrey Reynolds, and James Miller. In addition to the Trombone, Jeremy also has substantial experience performing on the Euphonium, Cello, Bass Drum, and Beer Bottle.

Cellist Joo H. Lee, the artist director of Symbiosis Chamber Orchestra, is an active freelancer both in the Greater Los Angeles area and Las Vegas. Joo loves performing various kinds of music including contemporary, and has been performing with Wild Up since the first concert in February, 2010. Creating performing opportunities is one of Joo’s passions. With much of help from her staff members , she has been working with musicians in Los Angeles through Symbiosis Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless ensemble, giving 15 concerts since June of 2010.

Joo also loves teaching and has been coaching many years at Idyllwild Arts Academy and has taught at the Idyllwild Summer Festival. She also has taught through ETM, Harmony Project and YMF in Los Angeles. Early 2011, she was invited to serve as a judge for the LA Cello Society Scholarship auditions and will be serving as a judge in SYMF in July. In the Fall of 2011, Joo will start at Diamond Bar High School as their cello teacher. She enjoys working with children and teaches selected students privately as well. Joo received her Bachelor’s degree at New England Conservatory and her Master’s at the University of Southern California with Mr. Leonard.

In addition to playing the cello, Joo also plays piano, classical guitar and violin. Swimming and running, drinking coffee and tea while chatting with her friends, oil painting and going to exhibitions are some of her favorite ways to spend free time.

Joshua Bornfield has been called “a completely new and original voice” (Phyllis Bryn-Julson). He is a DMA composition student at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where he also studies music theory pedagogy. His works have been performed by Great Noise Ensemble, wildUp Modern Music Collective of Los Angeles, The Figaro Project, Eastern Michigan University, Atlantic Guitar Quartet, and the Dahlia Flute Duo. He has been commissioned to compose music for members of the United States Army Field Band, Boston Handel & Haydn Society, and Toronto Opera. His principal teachers include Robert Aldridge, Anthony Iannaccone, Kevin Puts, and Judith Lang Zaimont. He is also an active performer (guitarist/vocalist) of the works of young composers across the United States.

Based in Los Angeles, Maggie Hasspacher is an actively performing bassist/vocalist originally hailing from the Detroit area. In July 2008, Maggie announced her arrival on the contemporary music scene with her premiere of Pretty Polly, a solo piece for bass and voice by Jacob Richman at "The Tank" in New York City. Her stunning performance led the University of Michigan School of Music, where she earned her Bachelor's and was studying at the time, to select her has one of only a handful of artists featured in their annual showcase performance in Hill Auditorium. She later performed the piece as a guest artist at the Electroacoustic Juke Joint music festival at Delta State University in October 2008. Maggie currently collaborates with the modern music collective Wild Up, the What’s Next? ensemble, and with the University of Southern California Contemporary Music Ensemble. Maggie studied with David Moore at the University of Southern California where she completed a Master's of Music in double bass performance.

Melinda Rice is a Los Angeles improviser, performer, and teaching artist. She makes music with the band OK Music. New music projects have taken her to perform on violin and viola at RedCat, Disney Hall, Royce Hall, Maybeck Studios, and the Wulf, as well as in a coatroom at the Hammer Museum, and the Gallery Schijnheilig, a squatter’s concert hall in Amsterdam. She has also made music with hundreds of children in LAUSD schools, singing and strumming a mandolin. She and her Harmony Project string students are guest artists on a track of Dan Zanes’s newest album, Little Nut Tree, to be released later this year. Melinda comes from a tiny country town in eastern Pennsylvania, and hold degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and California Institute of the Arts.

Richard Valitutto is active in the Los Angeles area as a piano soloist, chamber musician, accompanist, improviser, experimental musician, teacher, and performance artist.  His playing has been compared with "..building vast cathedrals of sound from single melodic lines" (Los Angeles Times). He graduated with a BM summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music where he studied with the world-renowned piano duo of Eugene and Elisabeth Pridonoff.  He recently earned his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts where he was awarded the newly established Beutner Family Award for Excellence in the Arts, the institute’s most prestigious student scholarship.  At CalArts he studied piano with Vicki Ray, chamber music with Mark Menzies, improvisation with Vinny Golia, and Indonesian music and dance with I Nyoman Wenten and Pak Djoko Walujo.  Richard has performed at the Bang on a Can, Brevard, and Eastern Music Festivals as well as the MidWest Composers Symposium and the International Society for Improvised Music.  He has given premieres of numerous works for solo piano and/or various ensembles, most recently the world premiere of Chinary Ung's song "After Rising Light", which was dedicated to Richard Valitutto and the composer's daughter, soprano Kalean Ung.  Richard has also worked with composers such as Steve Reich and Sofia Gubaidulina, whose piano concerto Introitus he performed at REDCAT in May 2011.  More information at www.richardvalitutto.com.

Robin Kesselman, age 22, is a double bass player from Chicago, Illinois. He began studying at the age of twelve with Virginia Dixon before going on to study with Tanya Carrey, Robert Kassinger, Leigh Mesh, and Paul Ellison. Currently he is a student of David Allen Moore at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. Robin received the First Prize at the 2006 Stanger Young Artist Competition of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. The International Society of Bassists loaned the Karr-Koussevitzky bass to him to perform the Koussevitzky Concerto with the symphony. Robin has spent past summers studying as a fellowship student at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was the recipient of the 2011 Maurice Schwartz Prize, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Sarasota Music Festival, Domaine Forget, and the Pacific Music Festival of Sapporo, Japan. He has appeared in concert with a variety of performing ensembles, including Brooklyn Rider and Kayhan Kalhor, the New World Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Trumpeter Ryan Darke enjoys a diverse career as a performer and educator. Ryan is currently pursuing a Professional Studies Certificate at The Colburn School, where he is a student of James Wilt of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He completed his Masters in Music Performance from Rice University in 2010 and completed his Bachelors Degree at the University of California State Long Beach in 2008. Ryan is currently a contracted member of the American Youth Symphony and Young Musicians Foundation’s Debut Orchestra, in Los Angeles. He has also been able to substitute frequently with the Los Angeles Philharmonic since his return to Los Angeles this year.

Ryan has participated in Schleswig-Holestein Musik Festival, under the artistic direction of Christoph Eschenbach for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. He was featured playing principal trumpet on Mahler’s Fifth Symphony during the tours of Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, and Hungry under maestro Eschenbach, and recently completed a tour of Spain and Turkey performing Mahler’s Second Symphony and Brahms first symphony among other works. Other summer engagements have included Castleton Festival Orchestra under Lorin Maazel, consecutive summer’s at National Orchestra Institute, The Aspen Music Festival, Bar Harbor Brass Institute, and seminars at Domaine Forget.

In addition to performing Ryan is an active teacher and mentor of young musicians. Ryan maintains a private studio in addition to volunteering as a teacher and mentor for students of the Youth Orchestras of Los Angeles (YOLA). Starting in the fall of 2012, Ryan has been selected as a Young Artist Mentor for the Young Musicians Foundation (YMF), where he will lead group classes in general musicianship and trumpet performance. Ryan has recently been published in the International Trumpet Guild, with an article titled “The American Brass Quintet on Musical and Professional Accountability” which was published in January 2010.

Ryan has played many outreach concerts in the community and strives to share his genuine love for music with his community. One way Ryan gets to interact with the public is through his performance with the modern music collective, WildUp. A truly fresh addition to the Los Angeles music scene and an ensemble which Ryan enjoys performing with very much.