Download WCM Inaugurates Immersion Program at Summer Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2014
WCM Inaugurates Immersion Program at Summer Festival
Jeffersonville - Weekend of Chamber Music introduces a new element to the summer festivals - a
Chamber Music Immersion (CMI) Fellowship opportunity for pre-professional musicians. This summer,
join us in welcoming Branic Howard and Lydia Parkington. They will work intensely with the WCM
artists and administration learning how festivals run, participating in master-classes and career
mentoring; creating their own work, and presenting it at the free Open Rehearsal night at 7pm July 25
at the Adams Barn in Jeffersonville.
Meet the first WCM Festival Immersion Fellows
Branic Howard
Branic Howard is a composer engaged with sound and how place is inscribed
with meaning through its negotiations with its sonic surrounding. Whether
writing for acoustic ensembles, electronic media, or dealing with recorded
sound his focus is on the specific aural situation of that place or the internal
‘space’ of the music.
He studied with Daniel S. Godfrey and Andrew Waggoner at Syracuse University
and with Margaret Schedel and Daniel Weymouth at Stony Brook University
where he is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition. He has participated in
master-classes with Mark Applebaum, Lukas Ligeti, Ensemble Nordlys, and
Fireworks Ensemble, among others. And, recently, his music has been performed by cellist Caroline
Stinson, pianists José Menor and Michael Smith. Howard is a member of NYC based multi-disciplinary
performance group, Space We Make, he performs as an improviser with electronics and computer, and
runs Open Field Recording, an on-location mobile recording business.
Most recently his work incorporates short distance FM radio transmissions into site specific sound
installation and explores the representation of urban soundscape through nature recording. And he is
currently collaborating on a sound piece with visual artist Myranda Gilles that deals with hypnotism,
human breathing and legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt.
Lydia Parkington
Lydia Parkington is pursuing the Master of Music degree in Cello at the
Syracuse University Setnor School of Music. She is principal cellist of the
University Symphony Orchestra and a member of the graduate quartet
at Setnor. She has performed with the Society for New Music and
Symphoria as well as for the grand opening of the WCNY radio station in
Syracuse. She has performed as a soloist with the Cape Cod Symphony
and has toured extensively throughout the United States at celebrated
venues such as the Bonnaroo Music Festival. In her travels Lydia has collaborated with esteemed nonclassical musicians such as the Dropkick Murphys and Bruce Springsteen. This year she had the
opportunity to work alongside and perform with the Kronos Quartet in collaboration with SU Arts
Engage to recreate an Intonarumori, an instrument envisioned and invented by Italian Futurist Luigi
Russolo. Lydia has performed in master classes with Pieter Wispelwey, the New Orford Quartet, the
Attacca Quartet, and the Lark Quartet. She received her bachelor of music degree at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst and has studied with Astrid Schween, Harumi Rhodes, and Gregory Wood. Her
favorite non-musical pastime is reading comic books and drinking coffee.
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