Music à la Carte: International Alliance for Women in Music Inaugural Concert

Ryan Biesack is a drummer, percussionist and educator who maintains an active teaching and performing schedule in the jazz, rock and improvised music worlds. He holds both a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Oregon. Biesack has been an instructor of music and drum set at Oregon State University since 2009, where he teaches drum set, The History of Rock & Roll, Reggae History, and directs the OSU Jazz Ensemble.

Some of Biesack's most recent playing can be heard with NYC based saxophonist Hashem Assadullahi’s Sextet, whose latest Origin Records release, “Pieces," features dynamic original jazz compositions performed by a stellar line-up of musicians, featuring the unparalleled Ron Miles on trumpet. Ryan is also a Crescent Cymbals Artist as of 2013.

Teil Buck embraces new technologies in her performances and compositions, such as in 2018 when she won first place at the Columbus Invitational Arts Competition All-Star Event performing songs by African-American women composers she reimagined for Oboe and Looping Pedal. She is an active musician and freelancer, performing with orchestras such as the Charlotte Symphony and Principal of Rock Hill Symphony. In 2018 she performed Oboe and English horn with Disney’s Broadway production tour of Aladdin in Columbus, Ohio. An international performer, Teil has previously performed at conferences for the International Double Reed Society, International Classical Guitar Festival, International Clarinet Association, and Charlotte New Music Festival. She is the co-Founder and Executive Director of Phoenix Down RPG, and recently produced her innovative performance of live Dungeons and Dragons gameplay with interactive improvisatory music. Teil Buck received her Master’s at the Cleveland Institute of Music and her Undergraduate at the University of Louisville.

Victoria Calderone-Moreira, flute. Active in her community, Victoria is in demand as a freelance performer, educator, personnel manager, and ensemble director. She regularly performs with ensembles such as the Eugene Symphony, Eugene Concert Orchestra, and OrchestraNEXT. With an interest in promoting underrepresented artists, she is the co-founder of Duo Brisa, a flute and piano ensemble that focuses primarily on repertoire by women composers. Ms. Moreira serves as the personnel manager for both the Achelois Collective and the Eugene Concert Orchestra. Victoria is the flute instructor at Linfield University (Go Wildcats!) and maintains a private studio based in Eugene. She currently directs the West Winds Flute Choir. She holds degrees in flute performance from Indiana University and the University of Oregon.

Michele Cheng, a 1.5 generation Taiwanese American, is an interdisciplinary composer intertwining diverse media such as music, experimental theatre, and puppetry to engage with social issues and cultural identities. Her works have been performed internationally at National Sawdust, Roulette, CCRMA, ICMC, ISSTA, SICMF, SEAMUS, Sonorities, MANTIS, NYCEMF, eavesdropping, New Music Gathering, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, among others. As an improviser-performer, Michele plays multiple instruments and self-built electroacoustic devices. She is a co-founder of the experimental pop duet Meoark and fff, an interdisciplinary improv collective led by feminist media artists. Michele has received a grant from the New Music USA, scholarship from Atlantic Center for the Arts, and is currently a JACK Studio artist commissioned by the JACK Quartet and an author for the "Casting Light" series by I Care If You Listen and the American Composers Forum. She is currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at Cornell University. https://www.michelecheng.com/

Percussionist Florian Conzetti has appeared at Music@Menlo, the Astoria Music Festival, Cascadia Composers Concerts, CalPerformances and Stanford Lively Arts, performed with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Berkeley Contemporary Chamber Players, Alarm Will Sound and the Meridian Arts Ensemble, and has recorded solo and chamber music works for Innova, Albany, and Music@Menlo LIVE labels.

Dr. Catherine Lee actively commissions evocative new music and has extensive experience in classical, contemporary, interdisciplinary collaborations, and free improvisation setting on the oboe, oboe d’amore, and English horn. A founding member of the Lee+Hannafin Duo alongside Matt Hannafin, Lee is also part of the Re:Soundings trio which performed Roscoe Mitchell’s seminal work Nonaah at the Park Avenue Armory (NYC, 2019) and whose recording of the piece is available on Roscoe Mitchell and Ostravaska Banda (WideHive Records, 2020). Lee’s most recent solo CD, Remote Together (Redshift Records, 2021), nominated for the 2022 JUNO Award Classical Album of the Year (Solo Artist), features works by Canadian and American composers residing in the Pacific Northwest. A well-known researcher and dedicated teacher, Lee is on faculty at Willamette University and holds a Doctor of Music in Oboe performance from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec), and a certification from the Deep Listening Institute (New York).

Migiwa Miyajima

Hailing from Japan, composer, producer, pianist, and bandleader of the 17-piece Miggy Augmented Orchestra, Migiwa “Miggy” Miyajima creates large-scale works manifesting her distinct life experiences. Birdland Jazz Club says, “Miyajima’s music reflects her journey as a musician and humanitarian.” Formerly editor-in-chief of a magazine in Japan, Miyajima trusted the power of music and became a full-time musician at the age of 30. In four years, the Grammy-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra found her and brought her two Grammy nominations as its associate producer. After surviving the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Miyajima received a Japanese government grant and a Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship, and relocated to the US. She is the recipient of grants and awards including the 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, 2020 NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre, and 2021 Creative Engagement program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Dr. Julia Mortyakova is professor and chair of the Department of Music at the university. She is the recipient of the 2021 Mississippi Arts Commission Performing Arts Fellowship and is the 2017 Honored Artist (Mississippi State Committee National Museum of Women in the Arts). Mortyakova is a laureate of the 2014 American Prize for her performance Cécile Chaminade, and the winner of the 2012 Sigma Alpha Iota Career Performance Grant. She maintains an international performing career and has performed in Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, Romania, Russia, Spain, Ukraine and throughout the U.S. She is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Vanderbilt University, New York University and the University of Miami. The Mortyakova/Bogdan Piano Duo are the second prize winners of the 2017 Ellis Duo Piano Competition.

Dr. Deborah Nemko regularly appears in concerts throughout the United States and abroad as soloist and collaborative artist. Dr. Nemko has performed in prestigious venues including the Carnegie Hall, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and the Bethanienklooster.  After completing her 2015 Fulbright Fellowship to the Netherlands for her project, “Suppressed and Forgotten Dutch Composers of World War II,” she developed innovative recitals and workshops on music from the Holocaust. In 2019 she performed for the Anne Frank Awards celebration in the Library of Congress sponsored by the Dutch Embassy. A committed educator, Dr. Nemko served as visiting faculty at Utrecht Conservatory (the Netherlands and is currently Professor of Music at Bridgewater State University and instructor at New England Conservatory’s Piano Preparatory and School of Continuing Education.

Dr. Andrea Reinkemeyer, DMA “offers a luminous glimpse of the next world” (Fanfare Magazine) as it “explores a reverent sound world that hovers just above the brink of silence” (Second Inversion), using “spare, melancholy passages to traverse a complex emotional landscape” (Eugene Weekly) “from reverence and supplication to mournfulness and despair” (textura), and praised as, “enchanting” (International Choral Bulletin), “clever, funky, jazzy and virtuosic” (Schenectady Daily Gazette). Her music explores intersectional feminist narratives, natural phenomena, and grief, including commissions from: Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and League of American Orchestras with support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra, Rhymes with Opera, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Rodney Dorsey, and Fear No Music. Her music is distributed by Murphy Press and the ADJ•ective Composers’ Collective and featured on several recordings. Dr. Reinkemeyer is Associate Professor of Music Composition at Linfield University. https://www.andreareinkemeyer.com/

Judy A. Rose holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Music Education degrees from Portland State University. She worked for Portland Public Schools for 20 years and is currently the US Music Teacher at The Catlin Gable School in Portland, OR. Judy has been an active music director, accompanist, and singer in the Vancouver, WA/Portland Metro area. She enjoys playing the Native American flute, composing music, birding, photography, and spending time with her family.

Dr. Deborah J. Saidel, PhD: an interdisciplinary scholar who is based in Richmond, Virginia (USA) where she is known for her innovative work in the humanities, designing/teaching classes that draw from the areas of history, religious studies, musicology, sound studies, anthropology, and women studies. As a freelancing artist specializing in flute performance and lecture recitals regarding women in music, she regularly performs at festivals and presents at conferences.Dr. Saidel serves as the Treasurer of the International Alliance for Women in Music. She is focused on promoting wellbeing in the world through music- making, mentorship, and feminist musicological scholarship. www.debsaidel.com

Dr. Jacqueline Wilson is an active performer, pedagogue, collaborator, and advocate. She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Bassoon at Washington State University where she performs with the Solstice Faculty Wind Quintet. As an active soloist and chamber musician, she regularly presents recitals, masterclasses, and clinics including engagements with the International Double Reed Society, the College Music Society, and the Meg Quigley Bassoon Symposium. Dr. Wilson currently serves as a Co-Executive Director of the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Bassoon Symposium and co-hosts the Double Reed Dish podcast with oboist Dr. Galit Kaunitz. As an avid supporter of new music, Dr. Wilson (Yakama) is especially passionate about embracing diversity in her performances by elevating music featuring underrepresented perspectives and lived experiences, with a special focus on collaborating with Indigenous composers. In this capacity, she has premiered and commissioned works by composers Juantio Becenti, Connor Chee, and Raven Chacon.