ANN-SOFI SÖDERQVIST - SWEDEN
BORN 28 DECEMBER
Ann-Sofi Söderqvist was born 1956 in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a composer, arranger and trumpet player.
She is a teacher of composition, music arranging and ensemble leadership skills at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and since 2014 member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music.
Ann-Sofi has composed many pieces for big band, but her palette is wider than that, and includes symphonic music, pieces for choir, theatre music, and music for smaller ensembles. With her emotional, lyrical and expressive playing, she has, as well as being the leader of several groups, played with many orchestras, such as: Änglaspel, Hot Salsa, Stora Stygga, Bernt Rosengren BB, Gugge Hedrenius BBB, Norrbotten BB, Bohuslän BB, Sandviken BB, Blue House Jazz Orchestra etc.
Besides her own big band ASJO, a number of orchestras have played her compositions and arrangements. Today composing is Ann-Sofi Söderqvist's main priority. It has resulted in several works for big band, symphonic orchestras, choirs, theatre (8 plays at Stadsteatern in Stockholm) and smaller ensembles. A number of orchestras have played her compositions and arrangements: Composer´s Big Fun, Bohuslän BB, Norrbotten BB, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Frankfurt HR, Orchestre National de Lorraine, Sandviken BB, Blue House Jazz Orchestra, Gothenburg Chamber Choir, Voces Nordicae, Östgöta Symphonic Wind Orchestra, Göteborg Wind Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm etc.
♫ LISTEN
Trumpet Stories by Ann-Sofi Söderqvist
Trumpet Stories by Ann-Sofi Söderqvist
ALISSA DURYEE - USA
BORN 28 DECEMBER
Keyboardist Alissa Duryee began her musical studies by studying the piano with Donaldo Garcia at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division. After earning her BA at Vassar College in 1997, she came to France where she became a piano student of Gérard Frémy and Guigla Katsarava.
Several years later, motivated by an interest in understand the history of keyboard instruments, she constructed a clavichord. In 2001, a grant from the Harriet Hale Woolley Foundation allowed her to pursue this project further by building a French double manual harpsichord after Hemsch. She then became a harpsichord student, first of Olivier Baumont, then of Noëlle Spieth and Frédéric Michel. She earned a 'Diplôme Supérieur d'Etudes Musicales' at the Conservatoire National de Region de Paris, in 2007. She studied the fortepiano with Bart van Oort, as well as following masterclasses with Jérôme Hantaï and Malcolm Bilson. She earned an organ diploma in the classe of Patrick Delabre, titular organist of the Chartres Cathedral.
She has completed residencies at such institutions as the Banff Centre (Alberta, Canada) and the Abbaye de Royaumont (France), and has been invited to festivals in France and North America (les Journées Lyriques, les Clavecins de Chartres, the Amherst Early Music Festival) as pianist and harpsichordist.
In 2010, she was the winner (with cellist Jérôme Huille) of the Concours Musique au Centre, which allowed the duo to complete a recording project retracing the history of cello and keyboard repertoire through the centuries. Current projects include a recording using a historical clavichord situated in Bethlehem, PA, including contemporaneous repertoire by musicians active on the North American continent in the eighteenth century.
In addition to appearing regularly in concert as solist or member of various ensembles, she maintains a teaching career. Her pedagogical work strives to teach a broad spectrum of keyboard playing. She is the author of many pieces of music, mostly pedagogical in nature.
♫ LISTEN
Forager Journey by Alissa Duryee
Forager Journey by Alissa Duryee
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