The Red Light Ensemble

Christopher Matthews, flute
Christa van Alstine, clarinet
Nathan Koci, french horn and accordion
Kevin Sims, percussion
Yegor Shevtsov, piano
Erin Wight, viola
John Popham, cello
Ted Hearne, conductor





Individual Biographies:

Praised for his “edgy and attractive sound” (Hartford Courant), flutist Christopher Matthews began his professional studies at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and holds degrees from the University of Southern California and Yale University. He is currently working on a second Masters degree at The Juilliard School in the new Historical Performance program. His performances have taken him from Asia to Europe and around the United States. Christopher has performed in orchestras under the direction of conductors such as James Conlon, Jesús López-Cobos, Paavo Järvi, Sarah Ioannides, Peter Oundjian, Marin Alsop, Simon Carrington and Ransom Wilson, as well as composers Krzysztof Penderecki, John Williams, John Corigliano and Aaron Kernis in spaces such as Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall and Cincinnati’s Music Hall. His summer music festival experiences include the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Domaine Forget and l’Académie Internationale d'été de Nice. He frequently performs in masterclasses under flutists that include Emmanuel Pahud, Maxence Larrieu, Carol Wincenc, Jeffrey Khaner, Susan Hoepnner, Bradley Garner, Vincent Lucas, Philippe Bernold, and Baroque flutists Ashley Solomon and Christopher Krueger

Christa van Alstine performs with a wide variety of groups in New York City and abroad. She is on faculty at the United Nations International School and is the Director of Wind Chamber Music and clarinet at the Stony Brook School. Dedicated to expanding new music repertoire she has commissioned and premiered solo and chamber pieces by young and established composers from around the world. She is the co-founder and clarinetist with the Nordic new music ensemble: Skogensemble and performs with other New York based groups including The Talea Ensemble, Mantra Percussion, Beaten Paths, Iktus, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Camerata Notturna, Da Capo Opera Orchestra, pop singer Erin Hall, and has performed and premiered pieces at international music festivals including Darmstadt (Germany), Impuls (Austria), soundXis (Canada), Moving Sounds (New York City) and the 12 Nights (Miami). She collaborates with Canadian pianist Gregory Oh and the Toca Loca Ensemble on performances combining music, theater and dance. New this season, she is pleased to be a member of the Ilusis Ensemble a collective performance ensemble project consisting of performers and composers based throughout the United States.

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.

Kevin Sims was born in Los Angeles, California in 1983, and raised in Stormstown, Pennsylvania. Kevin graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 2005, In 2008 he received his diploma from the Musikhochschule Freiburg in Germany after two years of study with Bernhard Wulff on a DAAD scholarship. While in Freiburg he performed with Ensemble Aventuer, Kammerensemble Ensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Voyage en Block, and as a member of the Freiburg Percussion Ensemble appeared in concerts and music festivals in Germany, Switzerland, Korea, Ukraine, and Russia. In addition to his membership in Red Light, Kevin is a co-founder of the experimental percussion twelve-tet Ensemble XII, and has performed here in New York with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Opera Cabal, and the Metapoets.

Yegor Shevtsov appears in solo and collaborative recitals across the United States and abroad. Yegor was praised by The Miami Herald for his "superb musicianship and evocative piano playing," while The New York Times singled out his "gracious and engrossing" performances of the music of Morton Feldman. In 2003, Yegor participated in the month-long workshop on Beethoven?s Piano Sonatas with Daniel Barenboim at Carnegie Hall. Yegor is a regular guest pianist with the Mark Morris Dance Group and is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and MSM Precollege Division. Yegor was a George Soros scholar in economics and a champion ballroom dancer.

Violist Erin Wight, a Midwestern transplant to New York City, is an active chamber musician and avid performer of new music. She performs frequently as a member of the Red Light New Music Ensemble and Future In Reverse (FIRE), both ensembles with a dedication to exploring contemporary repertoire. Ms. Wight has also played with the New Juilliard Ensemble, Axiom, the Juilliard Electric Ensemble, and worked closely with members of the Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Intercontemporain. In addition, Ms. Wight is a founding member of the Toomai String Quintet, 2007 winners of the 92nd St. Y's Music Unlocked! competition for emerging ensembles dedicated to educational outreach. Currently a part of Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections program, Toomai has conducted residencies in hospitals, schools, and alternative care facilities throughout New York City. The quintet can also be heard on Songs of Synastry and Solitude, released by Tzadik. Ms. Wight is deeply committed to community engagement and is on the teaching artist faculty of the New York Philharmonic's School Partnership Program, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Wight completed her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School where she studied with Paul Neubauer.

Cellist John Popham was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. The New York Times has described his playing as "warm but variegated" and "finely polished". John holds a BM and an MM from the Manhattan School of Music where he was a student of David Geber and David Soyer. He has performed as a soloist with the Louisville Orchestra and the Starling Chamber Orchestra on numerous occasions. As a chamber musician, John has performed throughout North America, South America, and Europe in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall, The Great Hall of Cooper Union, The Kennedy Center, The Hanns Eisler Hochschule fur Musik, and at Yale, Princeton, and Columbia Universities. John is currently a member of the Toomai String Quintet, the Red Light Ensemble, and the Eupraxia Music and Arts Collective. John currently resides in the Washington Heights neighborhood in upper Manhattan. He teaches in the Extension Division of Rutgers University.

Ted Hearne (conductor) (b. 1982, Chicago) is a composer, conductor and performer with polyglot sensibilities in new and traditional classical music. His Katrina Ballads was awarded the 2009 Gaudeamus International Composers Award, released by New Amsterdam Records, and named one of the best classical albums of 2010 by Time Out Chicago and The Washington Post. In April 2011 the Yale Glee Club celebrated its 150th anniversary with the world premiere of his work Partition, in New Haven and at Carnegie Hall. Ted is resident conductor of Red Light New Music, and has recently conducted The Wet Ink Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and the premiere of Michael Gordon's Lightning at Our Feet at BAM Next Wave Festival. Upcoming commissions include works for DITHER, Toomai Quintet, and Ensemble Klang. Hearne’s work is available exclusively through Good Child Music. Website: www.tedhearne.com