Sound Off with Price and Lancaster: Live at St. John's in the Village

Florence Price - Piano Quintet
Yaz Lancaster - our streets

All string musicians who are comfortable reading aleatoric music and would like to perform the Lancaster are invited to a 3-4 PM prep rehearsal the day of the concert at the venue (May 16th, St. John's in the Village), where the Lancaster will be explained and played through. Please message us directly if you would like to get involved!

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BIOS:

A strong advocate for social equality, critically-acclaimed pianist Kyle P. Walker (he/him) believes music can speak to social issues better than verbal language can, the understanding of which he brings to both traditional Western repertoire and that of the living world-wide composers with whom he collaborates. Many of his performances have been featured on media broadcasts including The Green Space at WNYC, WQXR’s Mcgraw-Hill Financial Young Artists Showcase, South Carolina Public Radio, Sunday Baroque, NPR’s Public Radio East, NPR’s 1A, CNN, and PBS. He has been featured in recitals at New York’s Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and with orchestra in Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall. Highlights of past seasons include solo performances at The Apollo Theater, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Crocker Art Museum, The Frist Museum of Art, The Tantaloona Cave of Australia, the Lied Center of Kansas, Adelaide Town Hall, Berkeley Piano Club, and The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Walker is pianist of DARA + KYLE, innovative piano/cello duo and 2021 recipient of the Chamber Music America “Ensemble Forward” career grant. The award-winning duo is committed to bringing excellence and respect to all under-represented composers in the canon. Walker also performs with The Harlem Chamber Players, an ethnically diverse collective of professional musicians dedicated to bringing high-caliber, affordable and accessible live classical music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. As an advocate of social justice Walker is a founding member and chamber musician of The Dream Unfinished, an activist orchestra which supports NYC-based civil rights and community organizations through concerts and presentations. As a teaching artist and educator, he has co-presented at the Human Rights Center, New York Society for Ethical Culture, and the Brooklyn Public Library.

Walker has performed as soloist with the East Carolina Symphony Orchestra and Colour of Music Chamber Orchestra, and in addition he has presented performances at The Kennedy Center, Steinway Hall NYC, The Great Hall at Cooper Union, The House of the Redeemer, Birmingham Jefferson Concert Hall, Tishman Auditorium, National Opera America, Lincoln Center’s Metropolitan Opera, and National Sawdust. He has performed at Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, Storm King Art Center, The Colour of Music Festival, Tibor Varga Music Festival in Switzerland, The Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, The Ferrara Chamber Music Festival, Enso Chamber Music Festival, the Beethoven Institute, and spent numerous summers at PianoFest in the Hamptons, NY. He is a frequent collaborator in new music performance projects with living composers such as Vijay Iyer, John Link, Courtney Bryan, Jeffery Scott, Evan Williams, Matthew Lyon Hazzard, Joan Szymko, Tania Leon, and Mary D. Watkins.

A dedicated educator, Walker is a member of the piano faculty at NYU Steinhardt’s program in Piano Studies. In addition he is also on faculty of the Lucy Moses School at Kaufman Music Center, and on the chamber music faculty of The Artist Program at Suzuki on the Island. He has presented recitals, residencies, and masterclasses at various institutions such as The University of Dayton, The University of Virginia, Belmont University, Allen University, The Harlem School of the Arts, and The Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He has also co-presented extensive workshops alongside The Dream Unfinished including the Carnegie Hall Music Educator Workshop, speaking about arts activism and building diverse curriculums for students, to include composers that reflect the communities in which they serve. Kyle Walker holds degrees from Mannes College, The New School for Music, East Carolina University, and from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. His principal teachers include Thomas Sauer, Benjamin Hochman, Keiko Sekino, Henry Doskey, and Clifton Matthews.

He is currently touring with a solo performance project entitled Bach to BlackNotes, which features works of J.S. Bach juxtaposed with music of neglected composers who speak to issues of oppression and inequality. See and hear more of Kyle Walker’s musicianship on Instagram @klassicalkyle and at www.kylewalkerpiano.com.

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Originally from Uniondale, New York, 24-year old first-generation Filipino-American Jay Julio (they/them) is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and composer-arranger. They are a newly appointed member of the Tucson Symphony and the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, a regular substitute with the Phoenix, Memphis, Virginia, Fort Worth, and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, and have been invited to play with the American Composers Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, PROTESTRA, and the Metropolis Ensemble. They have shared the stage with Broadway singers, pop stars, and classical music’s hottest young talents in performances from Washington D.C. to the Philippines, and can be heard on Captured Tracks, Fiendish Endeavor, and Broadway Records. They appeared in the official collaborative music video for Major Lazer & Marcus Mumford’s single, Lay Your Head On Me, released as a fundraiser for COVID-19 research efforts, recently performed with Nigerian artist Burna Boy in his Hollywood Bowl debut, and have been invited by British icons Foreigner to join their California orchestral performances. Their compositions and arrangements have been heard at the Cannes Film Festival and at New York Fashion Week and performed by soprano-double bass duo confluss.

Jay has attended the Music Academy of the West, Orpheus@Mannes, the New York String Orchestra Seminar and the Aspen, Pacific, Thy, Spoleto and Lake Tahoe music festivals; they have also spent summers at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program and the National Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute as a Young Artist of Color. They have served as a Teaching Fellow at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, instructed at Interlochen Center for the Arts, and worked as substitute viola & chamber music faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division. They coach the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, are on faculty at the Stony Brook University Chamber Strings Camp, and teach strings privately online.

A prizewinner in national competitions held by the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Music Teachers National Association and recipient of a 2019 Juilliard Career Grant, Jay is indebted to the Virtu Foundation and the American Viola Society for their past support through instrument and bow loans. They were recipient of a 2020 Music Academy of the West Fast Pitch Award for their music-meets-prison-analysis organization Sound Off: Music for Bail, which was also recently awarded a 2021 Juilliard Career Grant to further an upcoming recording project highlighting string quartet music of Florence Price, George Walker, Yaz Lancaster, and Dorothy Rudd Moore.

After taking their first viola lesson at age 14 at the Mannes Preparatory Division, Jay graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy at 16 studying with Renee Skerik with their highest musical honor, the Young Artist Award, received their BM in Viola Performance from the Manhattan School of Music under Karen Ritscher on full scholarship, and received their MM at the Juilliard School on a full-tuition Susan W. Rose Fellowship under the tutelage of Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory. Other important mentors include Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti and Lina Bahn. For rhythm, Jay studies poetry.

They are a proud member of AFM Local 47, 33, and 802, as well as the IWW. @jay.julio on IG and jayjulio.com

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Yaz Lancaster (they/them) is a Black transdisciplinary artist. They are most interested in practices aligned with relational aesthetics & the everyday; fragments & collage; and liberatory politics.

Yaz performs as a violinist, vocalist & steel-pannist in a wide variety of settings; and their work is presented in many mediums & collaborative projects. It often reckons with specific influences ranging from politics of liberation and identity to natural phenomena and poetics. Their ongoing independent studies navigates prison-industrial-complex abolition, Marxist theory, and internet/social media cultures. Their writing appears in various online & in-print publications including I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, Afternoon Visitor, the tiny, and Underblong, where their poem “Ratios” was awarded the 2021 Blongprize, as well as a Pushcart nomination.

Yaz has had the privilege & opportunity to build community & create with artists like A Far Cry, Andy Akiho, ContaQt (with Evan Ziporyn), Contemporaneous, Freddie June, George Lewis, Hypercube, JACK Quartet, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Skiffle Steel Orchestra, and Wadada Leo Smith. Most recently, they have been developing the post-genre duo laydøwn with Canadian guitarist-producer Andrew Noseworthy; and working on new music for Beth Morrison Projects, BRKFST Dance Company (with Minnesota Symphony Orchestra), and Bearthoven. Yaz has recording credits on upcoming projects with AIYYER, Massa Nera & Miss Grit. Their debut album of commissioned music for violin/voice & electronics with video AmethYst is forthcoming on people | places | records in summerv2022.

Yaz holds degrees in violin and poetry from New York University where they studied with Cyrus Beroukhim, Robert Honstein, Joan La Barbara & Terrance Hayes (among others). They currently live in Lenapehoking (Harlem, NYC) with their bassador puppy Nori. https://www.yaz-lancaster.com/

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Violist Kayla Williams (she/her) is an advocate for music, who hopes to diversify music through her own experiences as a Black woman.

Originally from Florida, Kayla’s music endeavors began on the violin at age four, joining the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra soon after. It wasn’t until age ten that she discovered her true passion, the viola. As a winner of the 2018 Lynn Concerto Competition, she made her concerto debut performing Bartok’s Viola Concerto. Kayla has been the guest of music festivals across a range of music genres including the Aspen Music Festival and School, Eastern Music Festival, and the Florida Folk Festival. Kayla earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance from the Lynn Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida and a Master of Music degree in Viola Performance from the Juilliard School in New York City. She is also the recipient of the 2021 Juilliard Career Advancement Fellowship.

Kayla believes music should be accessible to students of all backgrounds. She aspires to create a foundation of her own that will provide access and funding needed to support music programs in underrepresented communities.

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Mosa Tsay (she/her) is a contemporary-minded cellist and concert experience designer who has performed as a solo, chamber, and orchestra musician across North America, Europe, and Finland. She has collaborated with 30 composers to premiere works with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Wavefield Ensemble, AXIOM Ensemble, New Juilliard Ensemble, Celli@Berkeley, and Eco Ensemble. With the International Contemporary Ensemble, she gave the world premiere of Mikael Karlsson’s multimedia opera Echo Drift at the PROTOTYPE Festival, as well as recorded on two composer-centric albums: Zosha Di Castri’s Tachitipo and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s AEQUA, both critically acclaimed. Performance highlights include a Juilliard tour to Stockholm and Helsinki with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Carnegie Hall with Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop, and performances with Joseph Silverstein and the Danish String Quartet.

As a worker-owner of Groupmuse, a cooperative that organizes house concerts, Mosa has performed over 100 times in living rooms in New York and in eccentric venues such as a chocolate factory, whiskey distillery, and sculpture warehouse. Mosa is a co-founder of Versoi Ensemble, a Finnish-American collaboration of musicians, which made its debut in New York in 2018 and was the first classical ensemble to perform at Finland’s Kyröfest, a celebration of international award-winning gin, Kyrö. She also received praise as a “vivacious MC” by the San Francisco Classical Voice for speaking at Bard West Music Festival’s 2019 celebration of the Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz.

Mosa is a graduate of The Juilliard School, and holds Bachelor’s Degrees in Music and in Society and Environment from the University of California, Berkeley. As a recipient of the Fulbright Award and Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, she studied in Paris in 2019-2020, researching works composed for cellist Anssi Karttunen by Kaija Saariaho, Betsy Jolas, and Pascal Dusapin.