2023 Festival
Stijn Kuppens
Belgium
Belgian cellist Stijn Kuppens has developed a distinct style all his own; a prolific composer, he has released five albums over the past few years. In his two solo cello albums, “Inner Cello” (2019) and “Cello Souls” (2022), he combines artistic storytelling with a desire to explore new cello techniques. His other albums, “First Meeting” (2022), a collaboration with composer and pianist Johan Hoogewijs, and “Desolate Drones” (2022), a collaboration with live electronics artist Benjamin Van Esser, are fully improvised.
In December 2022, Stijn released his latest album, “Seven Miracles,” which features collaborations with guest artists including Myrddin on flamenco guitar, singer Anu Junnonen, jazz drummer Gert-Jan Dreessen, accordion player Roel Van Camp, and jazz flute player Stefan Bracaval. Alongside his composing and performing, Stijn is also passionate about teaching the cello.
Vincent Courtois
Paris
Parisian cellist Vincent Courtois’s classical training has endowed him with technique, precision and instrumental control, while his curiosity and eclecticism has helped him forge a sound all his own and has led him to play with brilliant musicians from a multitude of backgrounds such as Rita Mitsouko, Christian Escoudé, Michel Petrucciani and Michel Portal. With Sylvie Courvoisier, Dominique Pifarely, Joëlle Léandre and Joachim Kühn, Courtois returns to his instrument’s classical roots, while his collaboration with Rabih Abou Kahlil frees him as a soloist. His collaboration with Louis Sclavis, with whom he shares a cinematic approach to music, allows for explorations of lush melodies and his solo work is a tour de force of all of these musical personalities. Vincent will be making his 3rd appearance this summer at the New Directions Cello Festival, having been featured previously in 2000 and 2019.
Strengthened by his many experiences and influences, Vincent Courtois has developed a unique musical exploration. His creative process builds on musical relationships, the balance of personalities and energies, the impact of contrast, ideas of sound, images, incertitude and silence. Creating a musical form where freedom is paradoxically managed with utmost rigour and attentiveness, he gives collective creation a chance and each collaborator a unique position in a spirit of trust and mutual involvement.
Mia Pixley
California Bay Area
Mia Pixley, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and artist who uses her cello, voice, and music performance to study and represent aspects of self and other, community, and the natural world. Mia has a Ph.D. from CUNY Graduate Center in NYC and a professional studies diploma in cello performance from San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Class of ‘18). She has studied with Wendy Sutter (previously of Bang on a Can), Jennifer Culp (previously of Kronos Quartet), and Mark Summer (previously of Turtle Island Quartet). Mia has performed on GRAMMY award winning albums, PIXAR shorts, award winning off-Broadway musicals, and has toured annually on Windham Hill Winter Solstice Tour led by multi instrumentalist Barbara Higbie.
Mia collaborates with artists within the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City and lives in the California Bay Area with her husband and their young son. In July 2021, she released her first full length album titled “Margaret in the Wild”, which was followed by a collaborative poem and music project called “Passage”- created with psychoanalyst and poet, Forrest Hamer, Ph.D in April 2022. You can find all of Mia’s music on streaming services and her bandcamp.
Kely Pinheiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/NYC
Kely Pinheiro is nothing like your typical classically trained cellist. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she grew up in a music-loving family and was drawn to the cello at a young age, but quickly realized she wanted to break barriers and stereotypes associated with the instrument.
In 2013, she joined Rio’s popular string orchestra Camerata Laranjeiras, where she began exploring different genres of music such as folk, pop, rock and Brazilian music and toured around Europe. Pinheiro moved to Boston in 2018 after receiving a full-tuition scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music. A year later, Kely backed up Norwegian artist Astrid S on her European tour. In 2022 Kely received her degree in Cello Performance as well as Contemporary Writing & Production and shortly after joined the Hadestown National tour.
Kely’s time at Berklee inspired her to start singing, writing, producing, joining the Nebulous string quartet (which she will perform with at this year’s festival), and most importantly finding her voice as an artist. Her relatable Portuguese and English lyrics are rooted in an attempt to connect her music to a broader, global audience and her heartfelt cello arrangements will surely move you as well.
George Crotty
Toronto
George Crotty has forged his own exciting vocabulary on the cello, pushing the boundaries of the cello as a jazz instrument. Following his graduation from the Berklee College of Music, Crotty immersed himself in New York’s jazz and world music scenes, playing with several ensembles, such as the Brooklyn Raga Massive, and the Detroit-based National Arab Orchestra. Additionally, he has enjoyed fruitful collaborations with Simon Shaheen, Paquito D’Rivera, Anat Cohen, and Darol Anger.
The George Crotty Trio’s Chronotope (2022) showcases the Canadian cellist’s expressive fluidity and modal orientation. Their cross-cultural interplay draws on diverse influences within jazz and global music traditions including post-bop, modal jazz, Indian Raga, and Arabic Maqam.
One half of the Loose Roots Duo with West Coast fiddler Gabriel Dubreuil, the Canadian cellist also performs in a unique solo setting that explores his Irish and Jewish heritage.
Patricia Santos
NYC
Patricia Santos is a songwriter and singing cellist of varied musical styles. She draws on her classical training to meld the cello with non-classical approaches and explorative techniques. Her own songs range from blues to rock to folk and art-pop. Lucid Culture called her a “dark, diverse cello rocker”, and Vance Gilbert describes her “as if Nina Simone and Yo-Yo Ma had a kid.” Her debut EP “Never Like You Think” was listed on New York Music Daily’s Top 50 NYC Albums of 2015.
Patricia is half of the duo of singing cellists The Whiskey Girls, half of Petty Larceny with her multi-instrumentalist husband Brian Broelmann, and is a member of parlor rock big band Kotorino. As a songwriter for the Bushwick Book Club, she was an artist in residence at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis in the fall of 2022; working with four other songwriters, an album’s worth of new songs were created as a part of Banned Books Week, an international anti-censorship project. A New York native, she has played in storied venues around the country including Carnegie Hall, Joe’s Pub, Bowery Ballroom, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 54 Below, NPR’s Tiny Desk, House of Blues, Beachland Ballroom, The Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland, and The Oriental Theater in Denver. She has worked with artists such as Hurray for the Riff Raff, Katreese Barnes, Martha Redbone, Charming Disaster, Emily
Mure, Tim Haufe, Valerie Simpson, The Orange Peels, and Prince Ea.
Patricia is a teaching artist for Musicambia, a non-profit that brings the transformative power of music education to incarcerated communities. She serves on the Board of Directors of the New Directions Cello Association and previously served on the Board of Violoncello Society of New York. She became a voting member of the
Recording Academy in 2022. She received her Bachelor’s of Music in Cello Performance from Baldwin Wallace Conservatory with Regina Mushabac, and her postgraduate studies were with Bryan Dumm of the Cleveland Orchestra. Patricia was born and raised in New York as a proud daughter of immigrants, and she now resides in the Hudson Valley with her husband. They share a house with a few four-legged folks and dozens of instruments.
Agustin Uriburu
Argentina/NYC
Born in Argentina, Brooklyn-based Cellist, Guitarist, Composer and Arranger Agustin Uriburu’s mission is to create music and develop a unique voice that embraces his Argentine roots and his passion for jazz, rock and chamber music. Agustin is always searching for innovative ways of expanding the cello, trying to break the mold of its traditionally perceived voice and taking it into previously (barely) uncharted areas.
As a bandleader of the Agustin Uriburu Quartet, he released the album SANTA FE, picked as one of the best jazz albums on Bandcamp in January 2022. The ensemble became active in the NYC scene performing in venues like Ornithology, Drom, Rockwood music hall, etc. Agustin collaborated with many renowned artists, such as Uri Caine, Leo Genovese, Sol Liebeskind, Daniel Binelli and multi Grammy Award Winner rapper Residente, with whom he recorded the Latin Grammy-winner song “Antes Que El Mundo Se Acabe”. During the last few years in NY, Agustin performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, National Sawdust, The Stone at the New School, Minton’s, among many others.
Agustin has a degree in Cello performance from the National University of the Arts (Universidad Nacional de las Artes) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has Toured in the US, South Korea, Colombia, Costa Rica and performed in the most outstanding Concert Halls in Argentina.
Gunther Tiedemann
Germany
Gunther Tiedemann Studies at Hochschule für Musik Köln with Prof. Ingrid Frohmüller-Seidel (Violoncello). Master classes with Prof. George Neikrug (Boston) und Prof. Siegfried Palm.
Solo projects and concerts with ensembles playing Jazz, Rock, Pop, Chanson, contemporary chamber music, classical music in Europe, USA, Brasil, West Africa, Pakistan (Rio Cello Festival in Rio de Janeiro, New Directions Cello Festivals in Ithaca New York, Cologne & Boston, Cello Akademie Rutesheim, etc.).
Concerts with Markus Stockhausen, Ernst Reijseger (NL), Roger Hanschel, Stephan Braun, Yaniel Matos (Cuba/Brasil), Stephen Katz (USA), David Haughey (USA), Chris Haigh (GB), Rupert Gillett (GB), José Feliciano (Puerto Rico), Nelly Furtado (CAN), Voces8 (GB), Rio Cello Ensemble (BRA) etc.
Duos with David Plate, Thomas Rückert, Ulrike Tiedemann, Michael Villmow. Cellist with the ensembles String Thing and Arcopia.
Ensemble director Cologne String Big Band, Cello-Orchester Baden-Württemberg, RMS Cello Big Band & Combo Köln (Celloversum). Collaboration with Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie, Chamber Orchestra of Groove, National Symphony Orchestra Ghana. Concert as a soloist and composter with Jena Philharmonic Orchestra.
Goethe Institut Tours with Jazz string quartet String Thing: 2007 West Africa Tour, Concerts/Workshops in 7 states. 2014 Pakistan Tour and collaboration with National Academy of Performing Arts Karachi.
Composer and arranger, CDs, TV and broadcast productions. Teacher at university Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Violoncello Jazz/Pop, String Big Band, Pop chamber music, Ensemble Coaching etc.). Workshops in Europe, USA, Brasil, West Africa.
Initiator and Co-Director of the 24th (and first European) New Directions Cello Festival Köln 20118 as a co-operation of NDCA (USA), Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, WDR 3 and Jeunesses Musicales NRW.
Jeremy Harman
USA
Massachusetts-based cellist, composer and songwriter Jeremy Harman is always exploring shifting musical terrain with a continual desire to evolve as both an artist and a person. Equally at home on acoustic and electric instruments, Harman embodies the “post-genre” attitude in his broad-based love of music and insatiable curiosity to explore it through the lens of the cello. Whether playing string quartets, jazz standards, freely improvised creations or hardcore and metal riffs, Harman’s musical voice is as impassioned as it is distinct. Drawing from an ever-changing pool of stylistic influences often including contemporary classical, modern jazz, progressive metal, downtempo, free improvisation and folk music of all kinds, his musical path has taken him across the globe and to venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and the Kodak Theatre to the House of Blues and the Newport Jazz Festival.
Jeremy is the cellist for the NYC-based Sirius Quartet who have brought their original compositions and progressive sound to audiences throughout the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and South Africa. Recent collaborators include Tracy Silverman, Uri Caine, Rufus Reid, Linda Oh, Billy Martin, John Escreet, Peter Stan, Frank Almond, and Marlis Petersen. He also appears frequently with instrumental chamber music/indie-rock alchemists Cordis, including performances on NPR’s Mountainstage and concerts throughout the U.S.
Harman has shared the stage with an extremely wide range of artists including Quincy Jones, John Williams, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Bobby McFerrin, Lady Gaga, Sir Elton John, Tony Bennett, Mary J Blige, Pinchas Zuckerman, DeVotchKa, Debbie Harry, Bright Eyes, Marc Ribot and Dame Shirley Bassey among others, and has done session and arranging work for countless indie artists in New England and beyond.
A passionate educator, Jeremy is an Associate Professor of Cello at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the creator of the online course Creative Expansion for Cellists, designed to help intermediate and advanced cellists develop their creative and improvisatory skills on the instrument. He lives with his wife and two kids in Western Massachusetts.
June 23-25 in Northampton, MA
NEW DIRECTIONS CELLO FESTIVAL
2023 VIRTUAL SCHEDULE
Saturday, April 22nd, 11am-7pm EST via Zoom
11:00am-11:50am
Agustin Uriburu: Basic Tools for Improvisation
This workshop will explore various ways in which cellists can explore playing over simple chord changes. Starting simply with one note per chord, the group will explore various tools and ideas which can be utilized and developed to create balance in one’s improvisation and allow cellists to “see” the chords on the fingerboard.
12:00-12:50pm
George Crotty: An Improviser’s Approach to Ornamentation
Left Hand ornaments and right hand extended techniques can open the door to a spectrum of sonic minutiae and add depth and character to one’s improvisation and creative language. In this workshop, cellists will explore ornaments from celtic, arabic, hindustani and western traditions and way in which they can be utilized creatively.
1:00-1:50pm
Stijn Kuppens: Advanced Pizzicato Techniques
In this workshop, Stijn will discuss his unique approach to both pizzicato and percussive techniques on the cello; how he developed them and how he continues to push himself to evolve. Using examples from his composition Peyoneer Bouchakour, the workshop will start by disassembling sections of the piece and cellists will learn small excerpts which they can then utilize in their own creative ways, combining right hand and left hand pizzicato in increasingly complex patterns. Stijn will finish by sharing the background story behind the piece and giving a full performance!
2:00-3:00pm – BREAK
3:00-3:50pm
Patricia Santos: Playing and Singing: Making the Rhythmic and Textural Most of Yourself
In this workshop cellists will get a thorough walk through of how to get from simple cello settings (drones, block chunking, etc.) to more complicated grooves, then ultimately, to hold two completely independent rhythms across the cello and voice. Cellists will be shown how to slightly offset the vocal rhythm from the cello rhythm to create more motion and texture as a single performer, “filling the grid” – and how this helps highlight when they travel together on the beat.
4:00-4:50pm
Jeremy Harman: An Introduction to Improvising over Non-Diatonic Chord Changes
5:00-5:50pm
Mia Pixley (with Andrew Carruthers): The Ripple Cello
In this workshop, we will join Mia and Andrew from his actual workshop in California as they discuss origin and making of the Ripple Cello (featured in Strings magazine), a truly 21st century cello that pushes the boundaries of traditional instrument making.
6:00-7:00pm
Open Mic for Virtual Participants
28th Annual
28th Annual – NEW DIRECTIONS CELLO FESTIVAL
2023 IN-PERSON SCHEDULE
Friday June 23rd
1:30-3:30pm – Arrival and registration window.
3:30-5:00pm – Welcome Session & WORKSHOP BLOCK
Kely Pinheiro: The Art of Playing Brazilian Music
In this workshop cellists will learn the art of playing Brazilian music with contemporary techniques. This workshop will focus on innovative ways to incorporate rhythms, melodies, and harmonies from Brazilian music into one’s cello playing. With hands-on exercises and demonstrations, cellists will explore extended bow techniques and create unique textures and sounds in their playing.
5:30-7:00pm – Dinner
7:00pm – Concert #1 @ BOMBYX Center for Arts and Equity
Vincent Courtois – Kely Pinheiro – Agustin Uriburu
BOMBYX Center for Arts and Equity
Saturday June 24th
7:15-8:30am – Breakfast
9:30-10:45am WORKSHOP BLOCK (select one!)
Kely Pinheiro: Pizzicato Approaches to Accompanying and Comping
In this workshop cellists will explore new ways to use pizzicato, such as arpeggios, broken chords, and syncopated rhythms, to create bass lines and chords that add depth and complexity to their cello playing and performance.
Patricia Santos: Playing and Singing: Making the Rhythmic and Textural Most of Yourself
In this workshop cellists will get a thorough walk through of how to get from simple cello settings (drones, block chunking, etc.) to more complicated grooves, then ultimately, to hold two completely independent rhythms across the cello and voice. Cellists will be shown how to slightly offset the vocal rhythm from the cello rhythm to create more motion and texture as a single performer, “filling the grid” – and how this helps highlight when they travel together on the beat.
11:00am-12:15pm WORKSHOP BLOCK (select one!)
George Crotty: An Improviser’s Approach to Ornamentation
Left Hand ornaments and right hand extended techniques can open the door to a spectrum of sonic minutiae and add depth and character to one’s improvisation and creative language. In this workshop, cellists will explore ornaments from celtic, arabic, hindustani and western traditions and way in which they can be utilized creatively.
Mia Pixley: To Loop or Not to Loop?
This workshop will explore live looping as a cellist and the various ways in which it can be utilized. Cellists will explore the choice of when to loop to enhance a composition or song (and when not to!) as well as some additional loop work-arounds to grow your live sound.
12:15-1:30pm – Lunch
2:00-3:15pm WORKSHOP BLOCK (select one!)
Agustin Uriburu: Basic Tools for Improvisation
This workshop will explore various ways in which cellists can explore playing over simple chord changes. Starting simply with one note per chord, the group will explore various tools and ideas which can be utilized and developed to create balance in one’s improvisation and allow cellists to “see” the chords on the fingerboard.
Vincent Courtois: Improvising a Solo Piece
What are some of the tools we can use when Improvising in a solo context? Deep listening, the blending of conscious and unconscious sound, the embrace of both stage fright and pleasure will be discussed and practiced along with notions of simplicity, posture, and accessing one’s inner world through improvisation.
3:30-5:30pm – Cello Ensemble rehearsal – All participants are welcome to join!
5:30-7:00pm – Dinner
7:00pm – Concert #2 @ BOMBYX Center for Arts and Equity
Mia Pixley – George Crotty – Patricia Santos
Sunday June 25th
7:15-8:30am – Breakfast
8:00-9:00am – Yoga
9:30am-10:45am WORKSHOP BLOCK (select one!)
Mia Pixley: Finding and Owning Your Personal Groove
This workshop will focus on how to reach into and feel oneself when creating a song or composition, and how to stay in that feeling when performing. This workshop will explore feeling into the body, the soul, and the psyche, and bringing all of that juice into one’s musical ideas to get that deep musical and emotional resonance, and how to keep that nice vibe when performing.
George Crotty: Global Grooves and Polyrhythms
This workshop will focus on rhythm!! Cellists will explore cumulative rhythms, polyrhythms, limb independence, playing over grooves, and developing a stronger and deeper time feel.
11:00am-12:15pm WORKSHOP BLOCK (select one!)
Vincent Courtois: Improvising a Duo Piece
Improvising in a duo setting presents a different set of challenges that improvising solo. The ideas of sharing musical material and choices, playing with or playing against one another, controlling one’s listening, trust, tuning, quality of sound, clarity and more will be both discussed and put into practice in a very hands-on way.
Patricia Santos: Songwriting/Storytelling at the Cello
Songwriting is an extremely vast topic, but in this workshop, cellists will examine creating a cello setting to help serve the individual song. This will often start as a simple chord progression and develop into a thoughtfully composed piece.
12:15-1:30pm Lunch
2:00-3:15pm WORKSHOP BLOCK (select one!)
Agustin Uriburu: Piston’s “Melodic Curve” Applied to Improvisation
When improvising, understanding chord/scale relationships is important, but simply playing the “right” notes over chord changes doesn’t always yield the most interesting and cohesive results. Using (composer/theorist) Walter Piston’s idea of the “melodic curve” as a way of outlining a melody or melodic idea can give structure and form to our improvisations, and in this workshop, examples from the classical repertoire will be used as jumping off points for creating improvised melodic lines that have direction and intention.
Gunther Tiedemann: Grooves from the Grid
This workshop will explore pizzicato and arco techniques which are all based on the principle of a constant rhythmic grid, such as 8th notes, triplets and/or 16th notes to create constant grooves: strumming, single note lines, hammer on/pull off pizzicato lines and some arco equivalents. By keeping a constant rhythmic motion while leaving out certain notes in the grid and utilizing ringing notes, dead notes, and percussive sounds, lines can be layered to create grooves for jamming, composing and improvising.
3:30-4:30pm Cello Ensemble recording session
4:30-5:30pm Open Mic for Participants