ASMAC’s First WEDNESDAYS
“Celebrate Women Composers”
Wednesday, May 4, 2016 @ 7pm

Elise Michelle

Elise Michelle is a jazz guitarist, film orchestrator, concert music composer. A native to Los Angeles, she went to Horizons High school for the performing arts where she developed a love for jazz. As a guitarist, she went to The Dick Grove School of Music, and completed programs in guitar performance, composition/arranging and film scoring. She studied composition privately with David Angel and after working as an orchestrator in the 1990’s she decided to focus on concert music. She is currently splitting her time between composing a series of works for piano and running a horse ranch in the Malibu Mountains where she adopts horses.

Maria Newman

Maria Newman has been ecognized and Commended by the U.S. Congress, the California State Senate and Assembly, the County of Los Angeles, and her Home City of Malibu for her work in the field of classical music composition and performance, American composer Maria Newman is an Annenberg Foundation Composition Fellow. Her works have been presented in such novel locations as the U.S. Capitol Building Complex in Washington D.C, Hearst Castle Private Theatre, the Kennedy Center, the United States National Archives, the President’s Own Marine Band Barracks, the Washington State Capitol Building Dome and Rotunda, as well as many international settings. Newman’s extensive library of original works includes music for orchestra, choir, ballet, chamber/solo works & collaborative scores for vintage silent film. Newman’s recorded works may be heard on the Montgomery Arts House Modern Masterworks label.

Carolyn Yarnell

Carolyn Yarnell, composer and visual artist, expands the realm of classic beauty through sight and sound.  A fifth generation California native, Yarnell was raised in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  She holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Yale School of Music.  Noted as an orchestral composer, her compositions have been performed by Gerard Schwarz with the Seattle Symphony, Oliver Knussen with the Tanglewood Symphony, Dennis Russell Davies with the American Composers Orchestra, Apo Hsu, Jahja Ling and Mario Venzago – with premiers from Carnegie Hall to the National Cultural Center of Taiwan.  She served three years as composer in residence with conductor David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony, New York. Her music can be heard on recordings on the Albany, Koch, CRI and Tzadik labels. Among Yarnell’s awards are: A yearlong Fulbright Fellowship to Iceland, the National Endowment for the Arts for Music Composition and Oil Painting, a Guggenheim, Charles Ives Prize and  Prix de Rome.

Penka Kounova

Penka Kounova is a Film & Game composer and has worked as a Hollywood orchestrator. Her game music credits are: Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands game, co-composed with Steve Jablonsky; additional music on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen; and as a sole composer: H-Hour, Hades, IronKill, and others. A Sundance Institute Composer Fellow, Penka has scored dozens of independent features: Midnight Movie, Primrose Lane; and television shows: Forensic Files and Modern Marvels. Penka was the Lead orchestrator on Ender’s Game and  Elysium; and a team orchestrator on Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and The Transformers films. Games orchestrator: World of Warcraft (for Neal Acree), StarCraft II, Diablo III franchises, Sony’s Bloodbourne, and Microsoft’s Gears of War 2, 3. Penka has composed two concept albums in cinematic orchestral-electronica style, A Warrior’s Odyssey and The Woman Astronaut. Her awards include: the Career Recognition Award by Game Audio Network Guild, the Aaron Copland Award, Hollywood Music In Media Awards, Square Enix Music Online, two Ovation Awards, GRAND PRIX at the Tokyo Young Composers Competition, Meet the Composer Award, etc. Ms. Kounova was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria, studied at Duke University received Duke’s first-ever PhD in composition. She is a passionate advocate for artist growth and advancement of women composers.

Nan Schwartz

Nan Schwartz is an award-winning arranger, composer, conductor, orchestrator and songwriter. As an arranger, Nan won a Grammy Award for her arrangement of “Here’s That Rainy Day” for Natalie Cole. Arrangements for the London Symphony Orchestra, Gianmarco and Amy Dickson, and John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra have all been nominated for Grammys. Other arranging credits for artists include: Ray Charles, jazz clarinetist Eddie Daniels, jazz vocalists Mark Murphy and Kevin Mahogany, opera singer/crossover artist Thomas Quastoff, and trumpeters Arturo Sandoval and Till Brönner. Nan scored the hit television series, “In the Heat of the Night,” among many other TV assignments, and has been honored with 7 Emmy nominations for her music. Her songwriting includes the Emmy-nominated “All The Days,” collaborations with the lyricist Paul Williams, as well as songs for the Latin market. Her film orchestrations include, Godzilla, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I, Argo, The Life of Pi,  Julie and Julia, My One and Only, Benjamin Buttons, Rise of the Guardians, My Week with Marilyn, Gracie, The Express, Uptown Girls, Mulan II, Firewall, Freedom Writers, Bobby, Lions for Lambs among others. Nan’s symphony commissions include The New American Orchestra, Doc Severinsen, and The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.  Her latest, Angels Among Us, is a 15 minute tone poem for solo trumpet and symphony orchestra. Five of her symphonic pieces, including Angels will be recorded in Vienna, Austria in June 2016.  She has conducted orchestras in America and Europe including the Deutsches Symphonie Orchestra of Berlin. Nan teaches annually at the Hollywood Music Workshop in Baden, Austria. 

Susan Hurley

Susan Hurley is an opera, concert and film composer. Susan’s theatrical work includes the one-act chamber opera ANAÏS, about the life of writer Anaïs Nin that was presented in New York by the Center for Contemporary Opera.  Other underscore for classical theater includes original songs for The Tempest, Trojan Women and Oedipus. The audio book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for KCRW was narrated by Harry Shearer with Vanessa Shaw, Michael York, Malcolm McDowell and Elliott Gould. Susan’s independent film scoring includes, Whiskey RIddles, Soapy Soapy Samba, Here DIes Another Day, starring John Randolph, The Organ Grinder, starring Tom Jane, The Last Stand, narrated by Ed Asner. Susan has been commissioned and performed by the Sage City Symphony, the New Calliope Singers, New Music Chicago, Panopticon, Craftsbury Chamber Players, Vox Novus’ 60×60 and the Buffalo New Music Ensemble and by numerous artists and university ensembles. Her song cycle, Wind River Songs, has been released by Capstone Records and her choral work, Vermont Poems, on the Finnadar label. Ms. Hurley’s MA is from Eastman School of Music a her Doctor of Music is from Indiana University. Among other teachers, she took group classes with Nadia Boulanger in Fontainebleau and voice, piano and oboe with other distinguished teachers. She has been an composer-in-residence with the Atlanta Symphony and Lawrence University. Her music is published by Ludwig Music and MearaSound.

Marlene Hajdu

Marlene Hajdu has worked as a Film composer for Indie films, Theater and Concert Music. By working on Independent Films, Marlene has experienced Composing, Conducting live to film and Conducting a larger Orchestra, Choir supervising (Latin), Orchestrating and Songwriting. She spent years working closer to camera and was part of a film co-op, 20 Max, which she scored and worked as a songwriter and music supervisor. (Monkey Love, Winner of the Big Bear Film Festival). Music for theater includes music directing the Alliance Theater’s, The Hostage (Winner of 4 Theater Alliance Awards /4 Nom. Ovation awards). She helped form, The Composers Group, who have had concerts of new music at local colleges and venues and hosts composer salons. Marlene’s music has been heard on KCRW’s Sundays at 4:00. She produced a CD of chamber music “Nightwalk,” and a yoga CD on CD Baby. Marlene won ASMAC’s Big Band Competition with performance by the Les Brown Band. Marlene has been on many teams doing music preparation for A-list film composers. Learning is constant, but she especially thanks David Angel, Ron Gorow and Conrad Pope. She continues to create longer works, paints, and continues her work with ASMAC.

Asuka ito and Mae Crosby present animation videos

Sally Stevens

Sally Stevens is a singer, vocal contractor and lyricist, who has also dabbled in song writing, & recorded a CD of her own songs in 2011.  She has written lyrics for film, television and sound recordings with Dave Grusin (Who Comes This Night? recorded by James Taylor in his first Christmas CD and film score for Absence of Malice); with Burt Bacharach (There Is Time recorded by Burt Bacharach and the Houston Symphony); and with Dominic Frontiere (main title for On Any Sunday, and source cues for Hammersmith Is Out). She has contracted choirs for John Williams, Alan Silvestri, James Newton Howard, Thomas Newman, David Newman, James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Shirley Walker, Bill Conti, Marc Shaiman and many others over the last four or five decades, and has sung solo and ensemble cues for a thousand TV and Film scores. Her first film score was, How the West was Won, and her most recent project was Finding Dory, for Thomas Newman.  Her voice can be heard on the Main Title for The Simpsons and Family Guy. She has served as Choral Director for the Oscars broadcast for 24 years. She has also served on the Boards of Directors of SAG, AFTRA (prior to merger of the unions)  and NARAS and is currently a National Trustee of the AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds.

Leslie Soultanian

Leslie Soultanian Originally from Michigan, Leslie’s Regional credits include: West Side Story (Maria), The King and I (Tuptim), My Fair Lady (Eliza), Brigadoon (Jane), Carousel (Juie), Anything Goes (Hope), Dracula: An Original Musical (Vamperella), Terri in Life in the Trees at the Raven Playhouse in the NoHo Theater District, Patty Andrews of the Andrews Sisters in the Workshop of Peter Ratray’s adaptation of Studs Terkel’s The Good War at the Blank Theater Company and in New York Off Broadway at The McGinn-Cazale Theater. Also, The Merry Widow, with Edie Adams and a benefit concert of Jesus Christ Superstar with Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson for the Rubicon Theater Company. Leslie has sung on many independent movie recording projects, demos and original musical recordings and performances throughout Los Angeles. She recorded / performed / and toured in an independent original music project that went to NY, LA and France. Most recently she can be heard on the Pitch Perfect 2 soundtrack. Motion Picture credits include: Nothing in Common, Harlem Nights, The Naked Gun, and Naked Gun 331/3. Recent Television credits include, General Hospital, and Days of Our Lives. Currently living in LA, she is involved in many new recording projects as well as heading up her own graphic design company called, lasoul design.

Bryan Pezzone

Bryan Pezzone is a multi-faceted pianist who has been part of the Los Angeles community since 1987. He performs in all genres, classical, contemporary, jazz and improvisational styles as well as composes. He appears regularly with symphony orchestras in the area either as an orchestral member or as a soloist. Mr. Pezzone can be heard on numerous T.V. and Film soundtracks as well as many different recordings with individual artist as a collaborative pianist. He travels frequently with the group Te Amo Argentina. He has also travelled extensively with Jim Walker and the group Free Flight, a very well known ensemble that blends classical and jazz repertoire. He has many performances coming up where he will be performing with Michele Zukovsky at the Pasadena Conservatory and as guest artist at Summer Arts 2016 in Monterey. He continues to contribute solo piano recordings to the library of the Yamaha Disklavier, which he has done for the last 30 years. Lately, he has been doing more presentations for the MTAC in various locations around the Southland presenting innovate programs that blend traditional performance with improvisation. Bryan Pezzone is very much in the mold of the 18th century keyboard artist who functions in many different capacities in the community and nationally and is invested in fostering the development of this role and kind of education for young performers so that they might enjoy a full musical life. http://www.bryanpezzone.net