Celebrating Women’s History Month at the University of Mount Saint Vincent
March 30 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
FREE
Join the Bronx Arts Ensemble String Quartet for a special Women’s History Month performance at the University of Mount Saint Vincent, featuring the premiere of a new string composition by Elizabeth Gartman. Celebrate the powerful contributions of women in music with this inspiring program, which will follow a panel discussion.
More details to follow.
PERFORMERS
Bronx Arts Ensemble String Quartet
Jorge Ávila, violin
Evelyn Petcher Brandes, violin
Sally Shumway, viola
Eliana Mendoza, cello
Honduran-born violinist JORGE ÁVILA has won consistent high praise from The New York Times through his many appearances as a soloist, concertmaster, recitalist, and chamber musician. A recipient of various awards and honors, Jorge received his Green Card under the “Extraordinary Talent” category, later becoming a US citizen. He was awarded first prize at the 2001 Mu Phi Epsilon Music Competition, and the Omar del Carlo Fellowship at Tanglewood Music Center. Jorge is concertmaster of the Ridgefield Symphony, DCINY and Sacred Music in a Sacred Space series, and is a longtime artist member of the Bronx Arts Ensemble. He has appeared as concertmaster with the Stamford, Westfield and Greenwich Symphonies. In 2015 Jorge served as concertmaster of the orchestra appearing with His Holiness, Pope Francis, at a televised Mass held at Madison Square Garden.
Violinist and composer EVELYN PETCHER BRANDES brings a passion for innovation and community to both her performing and teaching. Her work frequently blurs the line between performance and workshop; she has performed all over the US and abroad at venues from international concert halls to community spaces like hospitals, museums, and coffee shops. She is a co-founder of Leadlights Ensemble, a community focused string quartet based in Washington Heights, and East Lake Expression Engine, an El Sistema inspired music education program for underprivileged youth in Chattanooga, TN. Evelyn performs regularly with the Bronx Arts Ensemble and Leadlights around NYC, and has been awarded several grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for musical projects. She has served as a teaching artist for organizations such as the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers program, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, the Little Orchestra Society, the Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and LEAP NYC
Violist SALLY SHUMWAY has been an artist member of the Bronx Arts Ensemble since 1991. She appears on BAE recordings in works by Carlos Surinach, Robert Baksa, Meyer Kupferman, Soong Fu Yuan, Allen Brings and Roberto Sierra. Sally is a longtime member of the American Symphony Orchestra, and also appears on movie soundtracks, TV jingles and Broadway soundtracks. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Manhattan School of Music, and is on the faculty of the Ridgewood (NJ) Conservatory.
ELIANA MENDOZA has performed extensively as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. She received a Diploma in Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. A Winner of the Artists International Competition, she made her solo debut at Weill Recital Hall in New York. Eliana also performed a solo recital on WGBH, National Public Radio in Boston, and reviews from The Enterprise, Brockton, MA have praised her as “…. a total artist…with a fluid touch, an impassioned mood and notable bearing.” Eliana is also a member of the American Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra and Westchester Philharmonic.
ELIZABETH GARTMAN (b.1996) is a composer and soprano currently based in New York City. With compositions described as “refreshingly absurd” (The Washington Post) and “innovative” (Twin Cities Arts Reader), Elizabeth’s music calls attention to the implications behind the vocal instrument paired with the physical body. Her work also explores themes of process in performance, as well as active listening and response. Elizabeth has been commissioned by Washington National Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, New Chamber Ballet, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra Percussion Ensemble, Guerilla Opera, Ligament Duo, InfraSound Ensemble, Ensemble Chemie, the Why Collective, NYC Virtuoso Singers, Pax Duo, and others. Her work has been received internationally at venues from National Sawdust, Mark Morris Dance, Salzburg Stadtgalerie Lehen, the Cell Theatre, to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Elizabeth’s hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, among others.
In 2023, Elizabeth was selected as a composition fellow with American Opera Projects at the Kennedy Center. Later that year, Elizabeth received Honorable Mention for the Darmstadt Ferienkurse Kranichsteiner Musikpreis. In 2022, Elizabeth was named Runner-Up of Beth Morrison Project’s Next Gen Competition for emerging opera composers with her one-act opera It is a Comfort to Know, written with frequent collaborator librettist Susan Bywaters. The year prior, Elizabeth was awarded the William Schuman Prize for Most Outstanding Score in the BMI Composer Awards for her work [Weight], another collaboration with Bywaters. Additional accolades include Manhattan School of Music’s Carl Kanter Prize for Orchestral Composition (First Place), the Giampaolo Bracali Award for Composition, two finalist awards with the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Competition, the Theodore Presser Undergraduate Music Award, the Judith Life Ikenbery Award, the Geraldine B. Cooke Opera Scholarship, and the Ruth DeYoung Kohler Scholarship for Artistic Excellence.
As a performer, Elizabeth is dedicated to the contemporary dramatic stage, with a background in classical voice and a current emphasis on new works. She has been received as both a principle and ensemble singer on the dramatic stage and as a concert soloist. Recently, Elizabeth was received as a soprano soloist and chamber ensemble member at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden, the LGBT Center in New York, and the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center. In 2018, Elizabeth was featured as the principle role of “Bibi” in a workshop production of PRISM; a three-act opera written by Ellen Reid and produced by Beth Morrison Projects. Later that year, Elizabeth attended Songfest in Los Angeles as a Young Artist and Vivace Summer Opera in Vancouver.
The 2023-2024 season includes premieres with the Washington National Opera with the American Opera Initiative, New Chamber Ballet, and NYC Virtuoso Singers. Frequent collaborator librettist Susan Bywaters and Elizabeth are in the early stages of development for an evening length opera commissioned by Guerilla Opera, following their success of opera It Is a Comfort to Know (Beth Morrison Projects) and chamber pieces When You Leave Me, and [Weight], among others. Elizabeth serves as a faculty member in composition and theory at both the Special Music School at Kaufman Music Center and the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division in New York City.
Elizabeth received her Master of Music degree in composition from Manhattan School of Music after earning Bachelor’s of Music degrees in both composition and vocal performance at the University of Illinois. Compositional instructors and mentors have included Susan Botti, Missy Mazzoli, Dr. Reynold Tharp, and Dr. Carlos Carrillo. Voice instructors include Lucy Shelton and Dr. Ollie Watts Davis.