Performers / Composers / Poets

Bios

American soprano Sarah Tuttle enjoys a multifaceted career as a performer, teacher, and public radio host. Sarah is committed to authentic storytelling, joyful collaboration, and meaningful connection with her audiences - onstage, on the air, and beyond.

From Wagner roles to modern opera, chamber music to art song, Sarah’s performances have been praised for their "fine balance of energy and introspection." (The Wall Street Journal). Sarah has a special interest in contemporary vocal music and collaboration with composers, and she’s delighted to have participated in the creation of new works. Most recently, Sarah launched Songs From Here, a Maine-based initiative dedicated to commissioning new vocal works from Maine’s composers. Songs From Here is now in its third season of concerts, and has introduced new compositions by Erica Ball, John Newell, Marianna Filippi and others to enthusiastic audiences around Maine.

Beyond Songs From Here, Sarah enjoys collaborating with musicians throughout New England. She has appeared as part of TUNDI’s Wagner in Vermont Festival, most recently offering a recital of art songs by Wagner and Brahms. Other recent collaborations include chamber performances with Venticordi, solo appearances with Classical Uprising and the Amethyst Chamber Ensemble, and a performance at Merrill Auditorium with organist James Kennerley.

Sarah holds a Masters degree from the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College, and a Bachelors degree from the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College. She is proud to have spent two summers as a Vocal Fellow with the Tanglewood Music Center, from whom she received the Grace B. Jackson Prize for Excellence. She makes her home in Portland, Maine.

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A musician who enjoys performing music of our time, pianist Bridget Convey has found much fulfillment in collaborating with living composers. She has been fortunate to work with composers such as Morton Subotnick, Mel Powell, James Tenney, Daniel Sonenberg, Vineet Shende, Elliott Schwartz, John Newell, and many others.

As a soloist and ensemble musician, Bridget has been heard at venues such as Lincoln Center,  Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ojai Music Festival, Maybeck Performing Arts Studio, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, among many others.

She received her Diploma from Mannes College of Music, NYC (Pre-college Division) 1989; BFA from State University of New York at Purchase 1993; and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts 1997.

Bridget performs regularly with the VentiCordi Chamber Ensemble and Songs From Here with Sarah Tuttle, and is co-founder / director of the Resinosa Ensemble, with Joëlle Morris (mezzo-soprano) and Eliza Meyer (cello). She can be heard on Navona, Cuneiform, Independent and Nataraja labels. Bridget serves as adjunct piano faculty at Bates College and has a private piano studio in Central Maine.

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Marianna Filippi was born in Vermont, and has grown up with highly artistic and creative parents. She spent her childhood on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, and the following years in Maine and Vermont. From the time she was born, she was always in the company of animals and nature, and began learning piano from the time she was two years old. She wrote a multitude of solo piano pieces from the time she was seven years old, improvising themes and creating complex melodies many years before she learned standardized notation.

Her desire to become a professional composer stemmed from these initial roots, and Music composition became clear as her career path when she attended The Walden School of Music, a five-week summer camp for composers in New Hampshire when she was fifteen. There, she composed her first notated piece for small ensemble, The Whale’s Dream, which led to a lifelong pursuit of learning formal composition.

As a composer, the core of her musical style is highly versatile, and what she strives to convey in her pieces are themes of environmental conservation, nature, and animals. She prefers to compose intuitively, inventing a storyline structure depending on the chosen instrumentation and concept, and then uses piano improvisation to form her initial melodic and harmonic material, from which the pieces evolve like living beings. 

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Emmalynn Craft is a senior at Greely High School, who currently studies composition and violin with Dr. Erica Ball outside of school. “Let Me Make the Songs for The People” is her first commission, which she is delighted to share and have performed by these wonderful musicians! 

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Translating everyday life into music is at the heart of Erica Ball’s whimsical and playful works. Inspired by the natural world, a childhood spent dreaming of becoming a ballerina, and studies of 20th-century American avant-garde music, Erica is equally at home writing lyrical melodies that sweep across an orchestra and collaborating with animators and circus dancers. Erica resides in Portland, Maine where she is active as a violinist, pianist, and educator with a special interest in bringing contemporary music to new audiences. www.ericajball.com/

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September 15, Denmark - David Stankiewicz

David Stankiewicz is the author of two collections of poetry: Night Garden & My First Beatrice.  A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program, David is professor of English and Humanities at Southern Maine Community College.  He lives in Cape Elizabeth with his family.  davidstankiewiczpoet.com