A native of Fairbanks, Alaska and currently based in Brooklyn, Andie Springer is a violinist specializing in contemporary music. A founder and co-director of new music ensembles TRANSIT and Redshift, Andie is also a member of Steve Griesgraber’s electric/chamber/improv band Redhooker, Angelica Negron’s ambient and playful Arturo en el Barco, and Lainie Fefferman’s folk-inspired Phthia. Andie has also had the pleasure of performing with David Byrne, Victoire, Ensemble de Sade, Anti-Social Music, the Wordless Music Orchestra, the Argento Ensemble, and American Opera Projects.
As a soloist, Andie has premiered and commissioned numerous works including “Dandelion” by Mary Kouyoumdjian, “The Warmth of Other Suns,” by Leaha Villareal, “The Truth Touches Everything” by Rich Shemaria, “Stealing an Image,” by Bryan Jacobs, and “For Andie Springer Showing the Form of a Melody, ‘Standing in the Shadows,’ by Robert Ashley” by Robert Ashley. Other composers Andie has worked closely with include Chinary Ung, Anthony Braxton, Robert Rowe, Sean Heim, Richard Carrick, Jad Abumrad, Daniel Felsenfeld, Bryan Senti of Found Objects Music Productions, and composer/director Richard Maxwell of the New York City Players.
Andie earned her BFA at Carnegie Mellon University with Professor Andres Cardenes, and her MFA at New York University with Professor Arturo Delmoni. She has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, and her playing has been broadcast on stations WQED FM, KUAC FM, WBGO FM, and WFMU FM. She enjoys teaching and is currently on the faculty the Larchmont Music Academy.
Clarinetist and Bass Clarinetist Sara Budde performs frequently as a recitalist and chamber musician both in the US and abroad. Premiering many works for solo and chamber ensembles including Missy Mazzoli, Kyle Gann, Tristan Perich, and Nico Muhly. Budde focuses primarily on recent and contemporary music, emphasizing newly emerging composers. Sara has made professional appearances with such diverse and dynamic groups as Bang on a Can, So Percussion, The American Composers Orchestra, Sequitur, Copland House, The National, The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra and The American Symphony Orchestra. Some of the festivals she has performed at include the Bang on a Can Marathon, Look and Listen, MusicNow, MATA festival, New Sounds Live and the Carlsbad Music Festival. Studying with David Shifrin, she received her Master of Music degree in clarinet performance from Yale University. Currently a member of Transit, Sara is performer and founding director of NOW Ensemble, a new music collective dedicated to the commissioning and performing of fresh new works.
David Friend, piano, has performed new and experimental music around the world in venues such as Carnegie Hall (NYTimes: ‘enlivening vigor’), Lincoln Center, Royal Festival Hall (UKGuardian: ‘streamlined virtuosity’), the Chan Centre (Vancouver), and the Reina Sofia Museum (Madrid) and in alternative spaces such as Issue Project Room, Le Poisson Rouge, the World Financial Center Winter Garden, the Players Theater, and New York art galleries. He has performed with innovative and diverse artists including the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Talujon Percussion, Trio Mediaeval, Bill Frisell, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Red Light New Music, Ensemble Pamplemousse, and Ai Ensemble; and worked with composers including Julia Wolfe, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Charles Wuorinen, and Steve Reich.
As a founding member of the TRANSIT collective, Mr. Friend enjoys working with young composers from around the world and performing the latest music from emerging composers. He also enjoys working with artists from other disciplines, and creating multimedia projects, most recently including a large-scale installation involving found sounds, a live choir, video art, and modern dance.
Evelyn Farny, cello, is an active performer and ardent supporter of new music. A co-founder of TRANSIT, Evelyn has premiered many pieces and worked with Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Academy Festival in Switzerland. She is also a member of Arturo en el Barco, the innovative lo-fi ambient chamber rock group led by composer Angélica Negrón. In addition to her dedication to new music, Evelyn’s eclectic freelance work has included performances at venues across the city including Le Poisson Rouge, Issue Project Room, Trinity Wall Street, Carnegie Hall, and Radio City Music Hall. She holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and SUNY Purchase, and has toured with musical groups throughout the U.S., Europe, Japan, and South America.
Joe Bergen, percussion, is an active performer, an advocate of new music, and a co-founder of several ground-breaking groups including TRANSIT and Mantra Percussion. Joe also performs with numerous other groups including Beaten Path Percussion Duo, Newband (Harry Partch Ensemble,) Fragile, New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, S.E.M. Ensemble, Blarvuster, Jason Cady and the Artificials, and the Aaron Siegel Ensemble. In the fall of 2010, Mantra Percussion will give the U.S. premiere of Michael Gordon’s latest work Timber, for percussion sextet. Joe can be heard on Innova, Shsk’h, Peacock, Equilibrium, and Atma Classique record labels. He is currently a teaching artist for New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s where he teaches and lectures music as well as accompanies modern dance.
Daniel Wohl is a Paris born composer based in Brooklyn who writes for a variety of instruments that range from computers and slide whistles to orchestras, chamber ensembles and string quartets. He works with groups such as Eighth Blackbird, the California E.A.R Unit, the Calder Quartet, NY York Youth Symphony, Dither, Mantra, Da Capo Chamber Players, St Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra, and his music has been played at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Galapagos Art Space, Chelsea Art Museum, Mass MoCA and the Dia Beacon amongst others.
Daniel is committed to the music of today’s young composers, and as co-founder of the TRANSIT ensemble he has commissioned and presented pieces by emerging composers from around the world. Also active as an educator, Daniel teaches courses in composition, orchestration, and theory at Sarah Lawrence College.
Daniel’s work “+ou-” for chamber ensemble and electronics, and “Helium” for orchestra were 2008 and 2009 ASCAP Foundation/Morton Gould Young Composer Award winners. In 2009 he received commissions from Meet the Composer/ Commissioning music USA fund to create a 40 minute work for Transit with 12 channel electronics, as part of a residency at the Brooklyn based Diapason Gallery. Also in 2009 he received a Jerome Foundation grant to create a multi media chamber / electronics piece in conjunction with several New York based video artists.
Recent events include the premiere at Carnegie Hall of Ten Thousand Things part of the 2008 New York Youth Symphony Chamber Series commission, a new work for the Calder Quartet part of the 2009 Carlsbad Music Festival commission, and performances of “Foret Mecanique” for piano and electronics by pianist Vicki Ray at Disney Hall’s REDCAT and at Mass MoCA . Other awards, recognition and/or grants have come from Meet the Composer, Society for New Music, Music Now, ASCAP Plus, NY Look & Listen, Music IX, the Definiens Project, and the Brooklyn Arts Council among others. Daniel is also actively involved in writing for independent film, and his scores have been heard in theaters across France and on PBS.
Daniel holds degrees from the University of Michigan School of Music (M.M), studying with Bright Sheng and William Bolcom, and from Bard College (B.A) where he studied with Joan Tower. In 2007 he received a fellowship to attend the Bang on a Can Summer Institute where he worked with Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon.