Red Light New Music Board of Directors 2011-2012

Scott Wollschleger, president
Christopher Cerrone
Nathan Koci (2011–2012 Red Light Ensemble Chair)
Dax Monta
Janina Morrison
Vincent Raikhel
Liam Robinson
Kenneth Scheff
Nils Vigeland
Courtenay Scanlan Wood, Esq.


Individual Biographies:

Scott Wollschleger (b. 1980), a native of Erie, PA, received his Masters of Music in composition from Manhattan School of Music in 2005, where he studied with Nils Vigeland. Recent performances include The Logos Foundation, Ghent, Belgium, Symphony Space, Issue Project Room and The Stone, New York City. In 2009 Mr. Wollschleger was a recipient of a Meet the Composer grant for his participation in AMP's "Pairing" series at The Tank in New York City. For this event, Mr. Wollschleger presented a lecture-concert on his own work and the work of John Cage and Erik Satie. In 2010 he was given a special award by the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music for his collaborations with pianist David Broome. Mr. Wollschleger co-directs Red Light New Music, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to presenting new music.

Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984, Huntington, NY) is a Brooklyn-based composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and electronic music. Recently praised as a "rising star" (The New Yorker) and "dangerously talented" (New Haven Advocate), Cerrone’s delicate, intricate works often evoke the many writers who have inspired him: Italo Calvino, Louise Glück, Kurt Vonnegut, Jorge Luis Borges. His music has been heard across the US and Europe, most recently at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall. His music has also been commissioned performed by New York City Opera, the New York Youth Symphony, the Orchestre National de Lorraine, violinist Hahn-Bin, the Virginia Arts Festival, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, Loadbang, and the Yale Philharmonia, among others, and he is co-artistic director and composer-in-residence for the New York City-based ensemble Red Light New Music. He recently received the Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2010 and 2011 ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, and three CAP Grants (2009-2010) from the American Music Center. Upcoming projects include a new work for Ensemble ACJW commissioned by Carnegie Hall and a new piece commissioned by a consortium of percussionists throughout the US. He is currently pursuing his doctorate at Yale University, where he also taught music composition and electronic music.

Nathan Koci is a NYC-based multi-instrumentalist and composer originally from Charleston, South Carolina. Performing on the horn and accordion, as well as other brass and keyboard instruments, Nathan is an enthusiastic advocate of music by living composers, working with NYC's MATA Festival of New Music, and Charleston's New Music Collective. Diversity equals comfort for Koci, performing in musical settings from jazz to theater to free improvisation to garage bands and old Cuban folk songs. In addition to performing, Nathan has written music for theater, dance, and chamber performances. He has been humbled by the opportunity to work with folks such as Alarm Will Sound, Anneke Hansen Dance, Bang on a Can, Compagnie Ormone, Ensemble Modern, Garage Cuban Band, Lone Wolf Tribe, MacArthur Dance Project, New Music Collective, The Opposite of a Train, PURE Theatre, Red Light New Music, Signal, Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance, TILT Brass, Yes is a World, Your Bad Self and Zaha.

Dax de la Monta was born, raised, and educated in Michigan, where he met Vince Raikhel. He set up chairs and stands for some of Red Light's first concerts and is honored to be on the Board of Directors.

Janina Lord Morrison began her musical career as a violinist, but only because she was told she was too small for the viola at age 4. This was thankfully rectified at age 10 and she grew up loving performing both chamber and orchestral music, most avidly as a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Sadly, she did not enjoy practicing the viola as much as playing music with others and opted to pursue a career in medicine. She is currently finishing her internal medicine residency at Columbia and will be working next year at the New York City Department of Health. She is thrilled to be a new member of Red Light's board.

Vincent Raikhel is a composer currently living in Brooklyn, New York. His compositions often employ models and patterns extracted from the natural world, creating interacting processes and networks of musical dimensions. His works include solo, chamber, and orchestral pieces as well as installations and compositions that are performed in natural environments. In 2005 Vincent co-founded Red Light New Music with Scott Wollschleger, a contemporary music series and ensemble based in New York City. Vincent has been a member of the Red Light composer collective and has served as co-Artistic director of the organization since its inception. In 2010 Vince co-edited Original Tradition: The Influence of Nils Vigeland, Composer and Teacher, a compilation of essays and music with Liam Robinson. His 2009 composition Espejos for solo Vibraphone was supported by funds from Meet the Composer. Current projects include a cello concerto entitled Cryovolcano being written for Red Light cellist John Popham as well as a dramatic multi-media installation/composition for the percussion quartet for Matra Percussion. Vincent is currently collaborating with composers Bob Pierzak and Nicholas Deyoe in creating a collection of visual analyses of the late works of Morton Feldman. Recordings of his music are available on Carrier Records. Vincent received his Bachelor in Music from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Nils Vigeland and Reiko Füting. He received the Nicolas Flagello Composition Award upon his graduation. In 2006 Vincent moved to Berlin where he pursued his MeisterSchüler studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Walter Zimmermann. In 2010 Vincent received his Masters in the Arts from the University of California, San Diego where he studied with Philippe Manoury.

Liam Robinson is a composer and performer living in New York City. His compositions often deal with a relationship with text or other external stimuli, including theatrical, sculptural and installation elements. He is constantly working with the delicate balance between an attraction to external association and a dedication to pure sound. As a pianist, accordionist, and vocalist, Liam performs regularly with Jean Rohe, the Becca Stevens Band, and as a solo performer. He can be heard on the acclaimed debut of the Becca Stevens Band, Tea Bye Sea and on Jean Rohe's worldly and literate Lead Me Home. Liam is an avid folk musician and dance caller, and has recently formed a duo act with Jean Rohe in the performance and instruction of traditional songs and dances. Liam is currently Artistic Co-Director of Red Light New Music, a 501(c)3 non-profit based in New York City. In collaboration with colleague Vincent Raikhel, Liam recently co-edited the collection of writings, art, and music Original Tradition: The Influence of Nils Vigeland, Composer and Teacher, a book dedicated to his former teacher at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received his BMA.

Kenneth Scheff. I was raised in a musical family in the suburbs of New York. I studied history in college and have an M.B.A. in marketing. I have been in residential real estate for over 20 years and am now the sales director of the Stribling & Associates Uptown Office (on Madison Avenue). Professionally, my strengths are in management, sales, and marketing.

Through my mother, a pianist, I was exposed to classical music, including modern and contemporary music. I have been going to the New York City Ballet, primarily for George Balanchine’s choreography, since high school. I attend many concerts of contemporary and classical music, opera, and dance. I have been a fan of Red Light for several years now, and am delighted to join the board.

Nils Vigeland was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1950 and made his professional debut as a pianist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969, Lukas Foss conducting. He later studied composition with Mr. Foss at Harvard College, graduating with a BA in 1972. Graduate studies were at the State University of New York at Buffalo in piano with Yvar Mikhashoff (MFA 1975) and composition with Morton Feldman (PhD 1976). For eight years Mr. Vigeland was the director of the Bowery Ensemble, which gave an annual series of concerts at the Cooper Union in New York City. The ensemble gave the first performance of over thirty works by composers including John Cage, Jo Kondo, Pauline Oliveros, and Dane Rudhyar. With Jan Williams, percussion, and Eberhard Blum, flute, Mr. Vigeland has recorded all the extended length works of Feldman for this ensemble on HAT ART. His own work appears on CD releases from Mode and Lovely Music and is published by Boosey and Hawkes. In 1992 The English National Opera commissioned and gave the first performance at the Almeida Theatre in London of Mr. Vigeland's chamber opera, False Love True Love , based on two scenes from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. In 1989 his orchestral work My Father's Song was a winner of the Rose Prize and given its first performance by the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has been the recipient of grants from Harvard College, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust. Mr. Vigeland has taught at Manhattan School of Music since 1984 and is presently the chair of the composition department.

Courtenay Scanlan Wood, Esq. holds a B.A. from NYU (2006) and a J.D. from CUNY School of Law (2010). During law school, Ms. Wood worked for low-income clients in East New York at Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A and served as legal intern to the Hon. Marcy Friedman, of New York’s Supreme Court. An Associate Board Member of the Kahn Education Foundation, she has served on the board since 2002. Ms. Wood is a founding member and the current President of Common Sense Tax Solutions Inc.; a 501(c)(3) dedicated to providing under served communities with tax preparation resources and Tax Policy education. A Texas native, Ms. Wood currently resides in Brooklyn, where she is committed to nonprofit and pro bono work and serves as the Kahn Foundation’s Northeastern Beneficiaries’ Liaison for the Museum Of Modern Art and other grant recipients.