String Music with a View!

works by

Ajibola Rivers (Suites for Solo Cello)
Rebecca Clarke (Lullaby & Grotesque)
Jessie Montgomery (Duo for Violin and Cello)
Ludwig van Beethoven (“Eyeglasses” Duo for Viola and Cello)
Jay Julio (Jennifer Laude / Lubna Alyaan)
Constancio De Guzman (Maalaala Mo Kaya)

and more!

BIOS:

Ajibola Rivers is a Nigerian-American-Cherokee performing artist currently residing in Norristown, PA.. He received his Cello Performance degree from the Boyer College of Music and Dance and is a proud recipient of the prestigious TU 30 Under 30 award for 2024. Ajibola is also a self-taught composer and arranger. He began informally composing during his junior year of high school. When he applied to Boyer, he applied for a Music Composition degree as well as Cello Performance. He was accepted into a double major program but quickly found that the popularized twentieth and twenty first century writing styles were not in line with his interests. Ajibola left the program and after a two-year hiatus he resumed composing, following his own instincts. He now regularly writes and premieres original compositions and arrangements, and he has been commissioned several times.

Ajibola has a strong passion for teaching, viewing it as the final evolution of performing art, and he heavily incorporates learning into both composition and performance. He wishes to revive several "unfinished conversations" in classical music and to facilitate a healthy dialogue between classical music and other genres.

Originally from Uniondale, New York, first-generation Filipinx-American Jay Julio (b. 1997) is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and composer-arranger currently serving as Violin III / Viola on the tour of Broadway’s Hamilton (Angelica tour). Jay is the Assistant Principal Violist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, substitute violist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, the Dallas, Memphis, Charleston, and Virginia Symphonies, and has been invited to play with the New York Pops, the American Composers Orchestra, the Metropolis Ensemble and PROTESTRA. Recent appearances include solo turns with the Ocala Symphony, the Marquette Symphony, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and chamber music performances on the TIME SPANS Festival with the Talea Ensemble, the Broadway Advocacy Coalition‘s Arts in Action Festival, and at the Museum of Modern Art.

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, performed with Nigerian artist Burna Boy in his Hollywood Bowl debut, and have played behind Audra McDonald on Carnegie Hall’s Great Artists series. A prizewinner in national competitions held by the YoungArts Foundation, the National Federation of Music Clubs, 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.