Featured Guests

2008 FLEFF Guest Bios

Robby Aceto is an internationally recognized musician whose unconventional sonic approach and unending fascination with the electric guitar place him among the new breed of  “color”guitarists. He has toured and recorded with artists like David Sylvian, the Heads, Tom Tom Club, Jansen/Barbieri/Karn, David Torn, Splattercell Italian ambient pop diva Alice Visconti, jazz singer Lizz Wright, and Cape Bretonsinger/songwriter Douglas September. His debut solo CD Code was released tounanimous critical praise at home and abroad. In 2001 he collaborated with composer/drummer Bobby Lurie to create the original score for Emily Hart’s environmental documentary, The God Squad. His original film score credits include Saved by Deportation: The Unknown Odyssey of Polish Jews, Walking the Line,The Closure Myth, Jolly Black Slaves, and Invisible Ink. He composed the them music for NPR’s World@Work. He has also scored several short films for the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of American Art, as well as the environmentalmultimedia walls linking the Lunder Conservation Center with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C

Ramin Bahrani, born and raised in the United States, received his BA from Columbia University in New York City before moving to his parents’ homeland of Iran for three years where he made his student thesis film, Strangers (2000). Bahrani then lived in Paris before returning to the states to begin work on his first feature film, Man Push Cart (2005). The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival (2005) and screened at The Sundance Film Festival (2006) before being released theatrically world-wide to critical acclaim. Winning over ten international prizes, Man Push Cart was also nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards (2007). Bahrani’s second feature film Chop Shop (2007) premiered at The Cannes Film Festival (2007) where Le Monde declared it: “The major revelation of the Director’s Fortnight.” Chop Shop next screened at The Toronto Film Festival (2007), and it will be released in America in early 2008. Bahrani is currently in post-production on his third feature film, Solo.

Daniel Binelli (FLEFF distinguished composer in residence) is an internationally renowned bandoneón virtuoso from Argentina who tours internationally. The bandoneón is a unique and sensuous keyboard instrument associated with the tango. A prolific composer, Binelli is also widely acclaimed as the foremost exponent and torchbearer of the music of Astor Piazzolla. In 1989 he joined Astor Piazzolla’s New Tango Sextet. From 1968 until 1982, he was a member and arranger of Osvaldo Pugliese’s Orquesta Típica. He has also performed as guest soloist on bandoneón with the Symphony Orchestras of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Buffalo, Atlanta, Virginia, Sidney (Australia), Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, NHK (Tokyo), and Teatro Colon Orchestra of Buenos Aires. He has recorded more than 50 CDs including Tangazo with the Montreal Symphony conducted by Charles Dutoit, Orquestango with Polly Ferman (piano) and the Uruguayan Philharmonic, Daniel Binelli Tango, Daniel Binelli and the Camerata Bariloche, Daniel Binelli: Astor Piazzolla New Tango Sextet, La Música Argentina y el Tang with guitarist Eduardo Isaac, and New Tango Vision with the Binelli-Ferman-Isaac Trio. He is musical director of Tango Metropolis and the Daniel Binelli Quintet.

Rodrigo Brandao* joined art film distributor Kino International as Director of Publicity in 2002. Brandão now spearheads national publicity campaigns for theatrical and video titles released by Kino International, while also assisting Kino President Donald Krim with the acquisitions of new films. He has also worked at Sony Pictures Classics.  Brandão is also currently developing a series of workshops and panel discussions ­ on topics ranging from film distribution to new media ­ for at the upcoming Brazilian Film Festival in Miami. In the meantime, Brandão is also unhurriedly working towards his Master's degree in Liberal Studies at CUNY's Graduate Center in New York City. He was a double major in Cinema and Photography and Art History at Ithaca College.

Gretjen Clausing* (Women Direct media artist in residence) has worked for over 18 years in independent media exhibition as a programmer, administrator, activist, and publicist. In fall 2004, she joined the staff of Scribe Video Center (www.scribe.org) as program director and producer of the 2005 National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture Conference. From 1999 to 2004 she was the program director of Film at the Prince, where she created and ran a repertory film program. She has also served as the coordinator of the Philadelphia Independent Film/Video Association (PIFVA). She has been a staff member of the Neighborhood Film/Video Project and Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema. She was the filmmaker/facilitator on two of Scribe Video Center’s community visions projects (a Precious Places project) and a publicist on the inaugural year of Street Movies (an outdoor summer screening series). She is one of the cocreators/producers of the television show Big Tea Party (www.bigteaparty.com), an educational television series that has aired weekly on DUTV since January 1999 and on Free Speech TV since 2004. She is a 1986 graduate of Ithaca College.

Pablo Cohen, one of the foremost South American guitarists, has participated in solo, ensemble, and orchestral concerts in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He has appeared at Philadelphia’s Mozart on the Square, the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico, the Carrefour Mondial de la Guitare in Martinique, the Geneva International Festival, Musickfest ’95 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Hall, Tel-Aviv Guitar Festival, and Festival de Guitarra Clásica in Buenos Aires. He has performed recitals at universities and concert series across the United States. Cohen has received numerous prizes and awards for his performances in national and international competitions. Most recently, he recorded the premiere of Carlos Guastavino’s Jeromita Linares with the Camerata Bariloche chamber orchestra of Argentina for Dorian Records. He is assistant professor of guitar at Ithaca College.

The Common Railers are an acoustic band from Ithaca, New York. Their sound ranges from country, blues, and bluegrass to singer-songwriter, pop, and rock. They write and sing original songs, and covers are from Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams, Tom Waits, and the Old 97’s. At live shows, members often switch between multiple instruments, with acoustic upright bass, guitar slide dobro, mandolin, banjo and accordion, fiddle, and banjo. The band has been playing together since summer 2006 and plays a wide variety of venues from coffee houses to rock clubs. The members of the band are Mike Costello*, Chad Crumm, Peter Glanville* and Gordon Rowland*.

Leslie Daniels worked as a literary agent for nearly two decades with The Joy Harris Agency before she opened her own agency, Daniels Books LLC. She is the fiction editor for The Green Mountains Review. Leslie Daniels represents both fiction and nonfiction writers. She is a writer as well, with stories published in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Florida Review, among others. Her stories have been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and for the best of the AWP. Her academic credentials include a BA in linguistics, U Penn, MA in psychology, The New School, and an MFA in fiction.

Peter Dodge* is a musician and composer. A graduate of the Ithaca College School of Music, Dodge has performed in a variety of genres including classical, folk, rock, Afro-Caribbean, and experimental jazz. He has collaborated with choreographers, poets, storytellers, painters, sculptors, ritual artists, and filmmakers. He is a multi-instrumentalist and a collector. He is also part of the Hospicare music program.

Lloyd Fales* has worked as an independent television producer and documentary filmmaker for 16 years. His media work focuses on explorations of science and nature. For National Geographic, he produced and directed Search for the First Dog, The Crows, Street Dogs, and Tundra Swans: Tireless Voyagers. He has also produced and scripted for PBS, the BBC natural history unit, and the National Audubon Society. In 2006–7, he collaborated with scientists sponsored by the National Science Foundation to tell the story of how Antarctic penguins are responding to rapid climate change, producing two documentaries, Penguin Science (an educational DVD and website), and Return to Penguin City, which will premiere on Animal Planet this year. He has also been a producer for Martha Stewart and MTV. He is currently producing episodes for a new 13-part series on evolution for the History Channel. He is a 1988 graduate of Ithaca College.

Jairo Geronymo was born in Brazil, where he studied with Attilio Mastrogiovanni and Gilberto Tinetti at São Paulo State University (B.M.). Currently assistant professor of piano at Ithaca College, he has studied with Caio Pagano at Arizona State University (M.M.) and Craig Sheppard at the University of Washington (D.M.A.). He lived for 12 years in the Seattle area, teaching at Pacific Lutheran University and Western Washington University. A winner of many competitions in Brazil and the United States, he maintains a busy schedule as a recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral soloist. He has performed as a soloist with the São Paulo State Symphony, Brazilian Symphony (Rio de Janeiro), Northwest Sinfonietta (Tacoma), Lake Union Civic Orchestra and Eastside Symphonies (both in Seattle), and as a solo recitalist in Brazil, Canada, and Portugal.

Ariana Gerstein has made many award-winning experimental films. Her most recent short, Alice Sees the Light, has recently been screened at the Images Festival in Toronto; Full Frame Documentary Film Festival; South by Southwest Music, Film, and Interactive Conferences and Festivals; SilverDocs; and the New York Film Festival. Hybrid, her collaboration with Montieth McCollum, won awards at International Film Festival in Amsterdam, Slamdance, and the Truer Than Fiction/Independent Spirit Award. She is also a visual artist who constructs glowing light box collages with outtakes from her filmic works. She teaches film and video production in the cinema department at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton.

Steve Gordon served as executive vice president of creative affairs for Viacom Productions in television program development and production over a 20-year period. Under his aegis, nearly 2,000 hours of programming were produced, including several successful series: Ed for NBC; The Chris Isaak Show for Showtime; Emmy-nominated The 4400 for USA Network, which was the most-watched series premiere on basic cable; and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, the most successful series in the company’s history. Currently he does graduate work in the Park School where he consults on the Imagination Awards, a national competition; teaches television and radio writing at SUNY Cortland; produces the National College Television Awards for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; and in his spare time runs his own consulting website, Hollywood Creative Connection.

Cynthia Henderson is an assistant professor with Ithaca College’s Department of Theatre Arts. A professional performer for a number of years in the United States, Europe, and Africa, her Ithaca credits include Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Hangar Theatre, and Lily in Crumbs from the Table of Joy and Callie in Stop Kiss both at the Kitchen Theatre. Her New York City credits include A Wrinkle in Time at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, and Dorothy Dandridge: An Evening of Song and Remembrance, Brother’s Keeper, and It’s Only a Play off Broadway. Her European credits include leading roles in Dreamgirls, Into the Woods, Children of a Lesser God, and Little Shop of Horrors. She was acknowledged by the European Tournament of Plays with a best supporting actress in a musical award for her role in Little Shop of Horrors. African credits include Charlayne in Pretty Fire and a production of For Colored Girls, which she directed. Television credits include a starring role in UPN’s Ghost Stories, as well as numerous commercial and industrial credits. She is also the recipient of a Fulbright award.

Brad Hougham is a lyric baritone, born and raised in Saskatchewan, Canada. He sang with the Saskatoon Opera Association and the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival. He has performed many roles with various opera companies including Il Conte (Le Nozze di Figaro), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), and Schaunard (La Bohème). He sang at the Metropolitan Opera for eight seasons and has appeared in their productions of Benvenuto Cellini, Fidelio, Götterdämmerung, Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Moses und Aron, Oedipus Rex, Parsifal, Tannhäuser, and War and Peace. He has worked with companies such as the Aldeburgh Festival, Bronx Opera, Jarvis Conservatory, New Rochelle Opera, and Manhattan Opera Ensemble. He has also been featured as a soloist on National Public Radio. His singing can be heard on two recordings: Rossini in Venice (Albany Records), and Soldier Stories (Mulatta Records), with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra. Each summer, he teaches voice at the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium, an international institute for vocal studies and opera performance in Italy. He has taught master classes and clinics in the United States, Europe, and Canada. He is assistant professor of performance in the School of Music at Ithaca College.

Dale Hudson is a film, video, and new media theorist and curator. His research examines cinema and new media in relation to racialization, nationalism, immigration, and globalization, particularly within the contexts of the United States, France, and India. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in 2004. He has published articles in Refractory (University of Melbourne, Australia) and Screen (University of Glasgow, Scotland), as well as reviews of new media scholarship and digital archives in Afterimage. In spring 2006, he served on the faculty steering committee for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF). With Lisa Patti, he cocurated a preview event for FLEFF 2006 in collaboration with the UCLA Film and Television Archive, Northeast Historic Film, and the Human Studies Film Archives at the Smithsonian Institution. He is currently a visiting assistant professor at Amherst College.

Sorayya Khan (FLEFF distinguished writer) is the author of the novels Noor (2003) and the forthcoming Five Queen’s Road(Penguin India, 2008). She has published in literary journals including the Kenyon Review, North American Review, and Asian American Pacific Journal. Her work has been anthologized in several collections, including Bapsi Sidhwa’s recent City of Sin and Splendor: Writings on Lahore. She is the recipient of a Fulbright award, a Constance Saltonstall Foundation artist grant, and the Malahat Review novella prize. She is currently completing her third novel.

Nicholas Knouf is a graduate student at Cornell University in information sciences. His work straddles the boundaries of computer science, robotics, science and technology studies, critical theory, and new media art. He is interested in the ways technological artifacts can be designed, used, and modified in a participatory manner, enabling others to create their own realities.

Deborah Lifton is a soprano at home in opera, song recital, and musical theater. A recent winner of the 2007 Joy in Singing Award and the David Adams Art Song Competition, her recent appearances include both Susanna and Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Beth in Little Women, Ellie in Showboat, Elisa in Il Re Pastore, and Catherine in A Death in the Family (Albany Records), as well as the title roles in Bastien und Bastienne, L’Enfant et les Sortileges, and Armida. Lifton has sung with Mercury Opera Rochester, Natchez Opera Festival, Ash Lawn–Highland Festival, Rising Sun Opera Theatre, Aspen Music Festival, Bronx Opera Company, University of Michigan Opera Theatre, and the Long Island Philharmonic. She regularly performs on soundtracks for documentaries and nationally televised commercials. She currently serves as assistant professor of voice at Ithaca College.

Brandon Loveall and Doug Robinson* have been playing together for several years as part of “Nuages”,
Ithaca’s only group devoted to classic French chansons.  They pursue this common interest further as an accordion and guitar duo,  exploring the exciting sounds of French musette waltzes and “hot club” jazz.  Their music has  old world charm and elan.

Deborah Martin is a pianist who began her performance career in California when she was selected as a member of the Young Artists Guild and played with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra while still in high school. With a special interest in piano pedagogy, she has been a high-profile figure in the National Piano Pedagogy Conference and New York State Music Teachers Association. An active seminar and workshop presenter, in 1999 she was invited to speak on teaching excellence at the state convention for the National Federation of Music Clubs. She has also adjudicated for numerous music organizations across New York State and the Northeast. She coauthored the text Tonal Harmony at the Keyboard with Gary Wittlich. She is associate professor of piano at Ithaca College.

Steve Mauk is a saxophonist who has presented numerous international solo, chamber music, and concerto performances in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Croatia, Slovenia, New York City, St. Louis, Atlanta, Boston, Washington, Cleveland, and Chicago. He has given three recitals at Weil Hall (formerly Carnegie Recital Hall), a concerto presentation at Alice Tully Hall (New York City), four concerto performances with the United States Navy in Washington, D.C., and five concerto presentations in Russia. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities on the soprano saxophone. He is the soprano saxophonist and a founding member of the Empire Saxophone Quartet, the Dunnick/Mauk Duo, and Remeleixo. His European classes have been presented in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Pesaro (Italy), Zagreb (Croatia), Ljubljana (Slovenia), and Moscow. He is currently professor of saxophone in the School of Music at Ithaca College.

Monteith McCollum is an independent artist and filmmaker whose films Hybrid and Lawn have won numerous international awards. His films have been screened on the PBS series P.O.V. and on the Arte television network throughout Europe. He composes and performs film music using saws, violins, and any other objects found around his barn in upstate New York. He composed and performed the original score to Milk in the Land, Ballad of An American Drink. His filmic collaborations with Ariana Gerstein focus on producing works out of the most neglected and mundane subjects and objects.

Ulises Mejias*  is an educator and technocultural theorist whose research interests include networked sociality, the philosophy of technology, and learning design. His work focuses mainly on the use of the network as a model for organizing and mediating social realities. He is Assistant Professor of New Media at the State University of New York, College at Oswego. He holds an Ed.D. form Columbia University in Communication, Computing and Technology in Education, and a MS and BFA from Ithaca College. Previously, Dr. Mejias was Director of Learning Systems Design at eCornell, a Cornell University subsidiary. http://ulisesmejias.com

Ann Michel and Phil Wilde (FLEFF distinguished multimedia producers in residence) have produced award-winning film, video, interactive, and digital media for three decades. They are the principals of Insights International, a production firm that specializes in science and educational nonfiction media for international clients. Their groundbreaking use of media has been widely recognized for bringing the real world into the classroom and the classroom into the real world. They have produced media for major museums, educational institutions, and organizations, professional and scientific associations, and corporations. Most recently they were awarded the blue ribbon for educational aids competition from the American Society of Agricultural Engineers. They serve as technical consultants for the Light in Winter Festival, an annual festival in Ithaca that links science and the arts. They have been involved with the Robert Flaherty Film Seminars for over two decades.

Tim Murray is curator of the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art and is professor of comparative literature and English at Cornell University. He directs the Cornell graduate programs in comparative literature and film and video studies. A moderator of the electronic arts e-mail list server, -empyre-, he is known for his international curating initiatives in the digital arts, including the Goldsen Archive (goldsen.library.cornell.edu), CTHEORY Multimedia (ctheorymultimedia.cornell.edu), and Contact Zones: The Art of CD-Rom (contactzones.cit.cornell.edu). He is the author and editor of essays and books on new media art, video and cinema, performance, and theory, including his forthcoming book from the University of Minnesota Press, Digital Baroque: New Media Art and Cinematic Folds.

Fe Nunn* is a songwriter and composer who lives in Ithaca, New York. He has written music for television and radio commercials, as well as for film. As a pianist, he specializes in jazz and avant-garde musical forms. He grew up in Buffalo, New York, during the powerhouse jazz era there in the 1960s, where he regularly heard John Coltrane, Sonny Stitt, and Roland Kirk perform live at the Blue Moon. He wrote the score for the All of Us Project, an initiative to involve the entire community in children’s education. With Jeff Claus and Baruch Whitehead, he helped to launch the Community Unity Music Education Program, a new form of music school. His CDs include We Can Make It (1999) and Precious Moments (2004). He currently teaches media literacy and television production at Boynton Middle School. He and Mike Vitucci, guitarist, have played together for over 25 years. His band, Fe Nunn and Friends, has worked with silent film and live music events, most notably the Within Our Gates project, recently featured in the archival journal Moving Image as an innovative project combining archival research, African American silent film, and live music.

Claudia Pederson is a Ph.D. candidate in history of art and visual studies at Cornell University. She researches interactive and tactical arts, and critical theory. Her dissertation research focuses on the intersections among entertainment, the military, and medicine through experimental digital gaming. She is a member of Culturally Embedded Computing Group (cemcom.infosci.cornell.edu/home.php), dedicated to analyzing, designing, building, and evaluating computing devices within cultural contexts. The focus is on art-inspired reflective design.

Peter Rothbart* is a professor of music theory, history, and composition, and director of electroacoustic and recording studies at the Ithaca College School of Music. He is active as a composer, performer, writer, and artist, with performances and art shows throughout the United States, Europe, and Russia. He has published over 300 articles and is currently working on two books about film music. His music is published by Seesaw Press, Lorenzo Music, and the International Trumpet Guild.

Stephanie Rothenberg (Women Direct new media artist in residence) is a new media artist working at the intersection of art and technology. Her interdisciplinary practice merges performance, installation, and networked media to create solicitous interactions that question the boundaries and social constructs of manufactured desires. She has lectured and exhibited in the United States and internationally at venues such as the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah; Hallwalls Media Art Center, Buffalo, New York; 2007 ConFlux Festival, New York City; Interaccess Media Arts Centre, Toronto; 2006 Chicago Underground Film Festival; Radiator Festival New Technology Art, Nottingham, England; 2004 Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts, Helsinki; Knitting Factory, New York City; and the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing. Her recent awards include the 2007 Eyebeam Atelier artist in residence in New York City, SUNY Buffalo 2020 Scholars Award, and a free103point9 artist in residence. She is currently assistant professor of visual studies at SUNY Buffalo, where she teaches courses in the communication design and emerging practices concentrations.

Sarah Rubenstein-Gillis is an experienced educator and a New York State licensed social worker. She recently coauthored a World Health Organization–funded review of strategies for delivering critical maternal/child public health interventions in developing countries. Her article, “Reel Milk: Uncovering Breastfeeding in American Movies,” will be published in Mothering magazine in November 2008. She is slated to present her “Reel Milk” multimedia presentation at several international conferences. She has been a Fulbright lecturer in India and a trainer specializing in early child development and family violence prevention. She is currently a visiting fellow in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University.

John Scott (Central New York Filmmaker Showcase) is a field producer with Street Cents, a consumer and media advocacy show for teenagers produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Among other awards, he has received a Gemini Award (Canada’s equivalent to the Emmy) for best youth series. He has directed 11 independent film and/or video works that have been shown at festivals and events throughout the United States, Canada, and South America. His most recent production, the feature-length project entitled Scouts Are Cancelled premiered in 2007 at North America’s largest documentary film festival, the Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival in Toronto. His next most recent project, Dear Pam, has won five awards and distinctions, and was one of eight documentaries from Canada chosen to screen at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in a series entitled New Canadian Documentary. Dear Pam’s awards included the Audience Choice Award for best documentary at the Denver Underground Film Festival and a jury award at the New York Film and Video Festival.

Sharon Lin Tay is a film, video, and new media theorist and curator. She is cocurator with Dale Hudson of the 2008 FLEFF online digital art exhibition, ubuntu.kuqala. She is a lecturer in film studies at Middlesex University in London, where she teaches film theory, world cinema, and digital culture. Born in Singapore, she was educated in Singapore, New Zealand, and England, and received her Ph.D. in film studies from the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, England. Her work is sustained by a commitment to feminist politics and revolves around film theory, the specificities of filmic materiality, and filmmaking practices. She has published journal articles and book chapters on feminist film theory, Deleuze, world cinema, and women filmmakers, and writes for various film and media publications. She is currently working on projects about digital cinemas and the contemporary political documentary

Gossa Tsegaye* is a documentary video-maker who was born and raised in Ethiopia and came to United States at the age of 17. He has produced over 75 videos and received numerous awards for cable excellence. His work has been broadcast on cable access and PBS. His documentaries such as Dream Street and The Dividing Line focus on marginalized groups in Tompkins County, New York. He is assistant professor of television-radio at Ithaca College and president of the faculty council at Ithaca College.

John Valadez has been producing and directing award winning, nationally broadcast documentaries for PBS and CNN for the past 14 years. He directed the critically acclaimed film Passin’ It On, which aired nationally on the PBS series P.O.V. He directed the first hour of the PBS series Making Peace and was a producer for the PBS series Matters of Race, Visiones: Latino Arts and Culture, and Beyond Brown. He produced High Stakes Testing, an award-winning primetime program for CNN Presents. He is currently writing and directing the third hour of the four-hour primetime PBS series Latin Music USA for WGBH/PBS and the BBC. He has been a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow twice, a Rockefeller fellow, and a PBS/CPB Producers Academy fellow. He currently serves on the board of trustees of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. He is founding member of the New York chapter of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP). He is also a professional sound recordist.

Nicholas Walker is an accomplished musician who brings a broad range of training and experience to the string bass—classical and jazz, modern and baroque, solo recitals and chamber ensembles—that transcends arbitrary musical boundaries. He has worked with Clark Terry, Hank Jones, Frank Wess, Abbey Lincoln, John Hendricks, José Fajardo, Alfredo Valdez Jr., Paquito D’Rivera, Daniel Binelli, Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Tilson Thomas, Blossom Dearie, Steve Ross, and others. He began music in the Rochester public schools and subsequently studied bass at Rice University and at the Rabbath Institute (Paris Conservatory) on a Fulbright scholarship. He earned a doctorate in early music from SUNY Stony Brook. He is currently assistant professor of bass in the School of Music at Ithaca College, and he also teaches bass at Cornell University.

Chris White* is a classical, jazz, and improvisational cellist and cello teacher based in Ithaca, New York. He has performed and taught in the United States, Canada, Europe, and North Africa. He has several solo recordings and has played on numerous recordings of other artists. He has a jazz book and CD series for string instruments called Jazz Cello, Jazz Viola, and Jazz Violin and has authored articles in national string and jazz magazines. His most recent CD release is called First Principles, which features his original compositions as well as originals by the pianist Eric Hangen. He performed with his jazz quartet at the First World Cello Congress (1988), the Quanzaine de Montreal (1992), the International New Directions Cello Association and Festival (1995, 1997, and 2001), and at the sixth American Cello Congress in Maryland (2001). He also performs regularly as a classical cellist with the Binghamton (New York) Symphony and frequently freelances with chamber and jazz groups. He is on the faculty of the Community School of Music and Arts in Ithaca, and he gives workshops on improvisation for cellists. He is the founder and director of the International New Directions Cello Association and Festival, now in its 13th year. 

* Ithaca College alumni