NOW Ensemble

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Sara Budde

Patrick Burke

Logan Coale

Peter Rosenfeld (emeritus)

Shawn Conley (First Alternate)

Andrew Rehrig (First Alternate)

Sara Budde

Sara Budde (clarinet/bass clarinet) performs frequently as a recitalist and chamber musician. Studying with David Shifrin, she recently received her Master of Music degree in clarinet performance from Yale University. Having premiered many works, including Kyle Gann's Last Chance Sonata and Judd Greenstein's The Sirens, for bass clarinet, Budde focuses primarily on recent and contemporary music, emphasizing newly-emerging composers. Sara has appeared with such dynamic groups as Bang on a Can, The American Composers Orchestra, Tactus, Arête Ensemble, The Woodstock Chamber Orchestra and The American Symphony Orchestra.

Patrick Burke

Patrick Burke, hailed as "unquestionably a composer of promise" (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review), composes visceral, emotionally charged music for chamber ensembles, orchestra, vocals, electronic media, and film. Patrick has received various awards, commissions, and fellowships to music festivals, and has written music for professional ensembles such as the Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and eighth blackbird.

Logan Coale

NOW Ensemble double bassist Logan Coale is a native of Portland, Oregon. Mr. Coale is the Assistant Principal Bass of the Sarasota Opera Orchestra and is on faculty at the Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont. In New York, Mr. Coale is a member of NOW Ensemble, The Knights Chamber Orchestra, and William Brittelle's Television Landscape. He also performs with Alarm Will Sound, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Wordless Music Orchestra, and The Long Count with members of The National. Mr. Coale is a graduate of the Tanglewood Music Center where he was a fellow in 2004 and 2006, and has participated in the Aspen, Schlesswig-Holstein, Domaine-Forget, National Repertory Orchestra, and Moritzburg Festival Academy summer music programs. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in double bass performance from Boston University. His teachers include Edwin Barker, Principal Bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, BSO member Todd Seeber and Tim Pitts, Principal Bass of the Houston Symphony. Mr. Coale can be heard on Sony Classical with The Knights, XL Recordings and Parlophone Records with Jonsi Birgisson of Sigur Ros, and on New Amsterdam Records with NOW Ensemble and Television Landscape.

Mark Dancigers

Mark Dancigers’ music has been called “entrancing”, “beguiling”, and “rich” (The New York Times). He has written music for the New York Youth Symphony, Opus 21, the Minnesota Orchestra, and members of So Percussion. His music has been heard at the Virginia Arts Festival, the Cabrillo Festival, the Percussive Arts Society International Conference, Merkin Hall, and BAM Café. As a guitarist he has performed with Tactus, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and has premiered a concerto by Kathryn Alexander. Mark studied composition at Yale and the Yale School of Music, and he currently studies at Princeton University.

Judd Greenstein

Judd Greenstein was born and raised in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, where he began his compositional life by writing hip hop beats as a teenager. His concert works reflect those origins, as well as his traditional piano background, combining an urban, beat-oriented sensibility with a late Romantic classical harmonic language. He has received degrees from Williams College and the Yale School of Music, has been a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Bang on a Can Summer Institute of Music, and is currently a fifth-year doctoral Fellow and Taplin Scholar at Princeton University, where he is writing a dissertation on hip hop music.

Michael Mizrahi

Pianist Michael Mizrahi has been hailed for his “splendid powers of concentration” (The Washington Post) and performances that are “exciting to watch and hear” (The San Diego Union-Tribune). Dazzling audiences and critics alike, Mizrahi has been hailed for his compelling performances of a wide-ranging selection of music and his ability to connect with audiences of all ages. He has appeared as concerto soloist with some of the leading orchestras of the United States in addition to appearances as recitalist, chamber musician, and music educator. He has won several prizes in major competitions and has appeared in several prominent music festivals around the world.

Alex Sopp

New York-based flutist Alex Sopp performs all different genres of music and was recently called “outstanding” and “an "admired new music mainstay"” by Time Out New York. Alex has commissioned, premiered, and recorded with some of the most exciting composers and songwriters of our time, including Björk, Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, Philip Glass, Judd Greenstein, The National, and makes professional appearances with The New York Philharmonic. Alex is a member of NOW Ensemble, The Knights, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), AXIOM, and has performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group Music Ensemble and Continuum. In the not-so-distant future Alex will make her solo recording debut with an album on the New Amsterdam Records label. A regular performer both in the US and abroad, she has performed at the Bang On A Can Marathon, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Look and Listen Festival, MATA Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, Festival WhyNote Dijon, Carlsbad Music Festival, and the Bowdoin Festival. A native of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, Alex completed both her Bachelors and Masters degrees at The Juilliard School, where she was a founding member of the student led contemporary music group AXIOM.

Shawn Conley

First Alternate Bassist Shawn Conley was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. While still in high school, he won a position with the Honolulu Symphony, as well as winning the State and Southwest divisions of the MTNA Solo String Competition. Shawn studied at Rice University with Paul Ellison, receiving his Bachelor and Masters in Music Performance. While at Rice, Shawn was awarded the Wagoner Fellowship to study in Paris with François Rabbath. After one year, he was awarded both performance and teaching diplomas by Msr. Rabbath. Along with teaching privately, Shawn is on the faculty of the bi-annual Hawaii Contrabass Festival. Shawn has attended the Tanglewood Music Center, Henry Mancini Institute, and Domaine Forget Academy. He has performed under conductors such as James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, and Sir Andrew Davis. In the jazz realm, Shawn won fist place in the International Society of Bassists Scott LaFaro Jazz Competition in 2009. He was also a semi-finalist in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition the same year. Shawn currently lives and performs in Brooklyn, New York.

Andrew Rehrig

First alternate flutist Andrew Rehrig began his studies of the flute at the age of 12 and two years later gave his concerto debut with the Ludwig Symphony Orchestra in Atlanta, GA. He went on to continue studies at Indiana University with Thomas Robertello, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree. While still an undergraduate, Mr. Rehrig was invited to become a member of the Columbus, IN Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held until graduation. During that time he was also invited to play with several orchestras throughout Indiana and Kentucky, including the Owensboro Symphony and the Evansville Philharmonic. Having completed a Master's degree at Stony Brook University under the direction of Carol Wincenc, Mr. Rehrig appeared regularly as a substitute flutist for Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, as well as with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the New England Symphonic Ensemble. Mr. Rehrig is a finalist for and substitute flutist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the New World Symphony and the Charleston, (SC) Symphony Orchestra. He was the guest principal second flutist of the Florida Grand Opera and the principal flutist of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. As a proponent of new music, Mr. Rehrig is dedicated to commissioning and premiering new works for flute, as well as the regular performances of contemporary music.

Peter Rosenfeld (emeritus)

A newly appointed member of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Canadian bassist Peter Rosenfeld continues to perform on occasion in New York, where he received his Master's Degree at the Juilliard School. Recent highlights include engagements with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, a gala performance with Wynton Marsalis and Rene Flemming, and tours with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra. Peter was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and principal bassist of the New York String Seminar Orchestra. He has also spent summers at the Verbier Festival, Sarasota Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. A devoted exponent of New Music, Peter was the founding bassist for NOW Ensemble and can be heard on NOW, the group's debut album.