, PATRICK HARDISH, FOUNDING COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR, composer, has had his music performed throughout the United States, Europe, Brazil and Japan. Commissions have come from the Composers Guild of New Jersey, Queens Philharmonia, Adolphe Saxquartette, and the North/South Consonance Ensemble, among others. His music is published by Calabrese Brothers Music, and Deffner Publications and is recorded on Capstone Records (The Hoffmann/Goldstein Duo) and Finnadar (William Schimmel, accordion). Two new Capstone CDs to be released soon by Esther Lamneck, clarinet and The Hoffmann/Goldstein Duo will include two recent works by Mr. Hardish. The composer has been in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, has lectured and given presentations of his music at New York University and the Governor's School for the Gifted in Virginia, has been guest composer at WNYC-FM, WKCR-FM Radio and Columbia University, has received several awards from Meet The Composer, and has been awarded the Margaret Fairbanks Jory Copying Assistance Program Award from the American Music Center. He has contributed to MLA's Notes and the New Music Connoisseur magazine where he serves on that magazine's Editorial Board. Mr. Hardish has studied music at the Juilliard School, Queens College of the CUNY (BA), Bennington College, and has done graduate work at Columbia University. Before becoming a composer he played drums professionally for several years in dance bands and to a lesser extent in shows. He also holds a MS degree in information science from the Pratt Institute. He is co-founder and co-director of the Composers Concordance and recently retired from a job as a Senior Librarian with The New York Public Library.

JOSEPH PEHRSON, FOUNDING COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR, composer, (b. Detroit, 1950) has written works for a wide variety of media including orchestra and chamber works. They have been performed at numerous venues including Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space in New York and throughout the U.S., Eastern Europe and Russia. Since 1983, Pehrson has been co-director of the Composers Concordance in New York. He studied at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan (DMA 1981). Pehrson's teachers included composers Leslie Bassett, Joseph Schwantner, and, informally, Otto Luening and Elie Siegmeister in New York. As of 2008, he has written more than 14 hours of music. Pehrson visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, in March 2008 for a series of concerts. In St. Petersburg, he participated in a Festival "From the Avant Garde to the Present Day," with a new piece Quixoddities based upon Cervantes' Don Quixote for piccolo and bassoon, performed by Mikhail Pobedinsky with bassoonist Maxim Karpinsky at the "House of Composers" in St. Petersburg (March 19, 2008). Linda Past-Pehrson also danced to three electronic pieces in alternate tunings as part of this festival at the "Smolny Institute." In Moscow, he had five pieces presented at the "Jurgenson Salon" on March 22, 2008: The day before, March 21, 2008, Linda Past-Pehrson danced to six electronic pieces in alternate tunings at the "Fireplace Hall" of the "Central Building for Workers of Art, (TsDRI)."Pehrson has works recorded on Capstone and New Ariel CDs and many pieces are published by Seesaw Music, Corp., now a division of Subito Music. TO JOSEPH PEHRSON'S WEBPAGE

WILLIAM HOLAB, FOUNDING COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR, comes from a long line of Chicago-area plumbers. At the age of 7 he realized that his destiny was not at the back end of a sewer drain, and focused his attention on less odoriferous output. In 1980, while studying composition at Juilliard, Holab began work for Music Publishing Services, an autography firm that prepared high-end engraving for publication. He later moved on to become an editor at C.F. Peters Corp., Director of Publications for G. Schirmer/Associated Music Publishers, Director of Production for Universal Edition, and Director of Sales and Publishing for Schott Music Corp. During this period the industry converted its various manual methods of music engraving to computer-based notesetting. The first program to be used was Leland Smith's SCORE program. Holab wrote the technical documentation for this program and consulted extensively on its development. Holab continues to consult for MakeMusic (Finale) and Sibelius on the details of plate engraving and how to translate its principles to computer-based note setting. Trained as a composer at the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School, Holab studied with William Albright, William Bolcom, Curtis Curtis-Smith, and Christopher Rouse. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. TO BILL HOLAB'S WEBSITE FOR ENGRAVING AND MUSIC SALES
WILLIAM RHOADS
COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR: Currently Director of Marketing for the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Mr. Rhoads is President and Managing Director of Bill Rhoads and Associates, New York, NY, which has represented the interests of Frank Zappa, Michael Torke, John Zorn, Daron Hagen, Ornette Coleman, Arabesque Records, ECS Music Publishers, and C.F. Peters, along with a host of other prominent artists and firms in the music industry. Prior to opening his own firm, Mr. Rhoads was Director of the Concert Music Division for Carl Fischer, LLC, New York, NY. He has been active as board member of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers, founder/director of the Ear and Now and 99 cents Concert Series', and associate director of Composers Concordance in New York City. In addition, Mr. Rhoads served the music industry as Board Member for CRI (Composers Recordings, Inc.), the Lotte Lehmann Foundation and the MPA (Music Publishers Association), as Honorary Advisory Board Member for The Women's Philharmonic, and as panel member, speaker and judge on numerous committees for organizations serving the needs of composers, educators, and performers, including ASCAP, MENC, and the American Symphony Orchestra League. An accomplished composer, Mr. Rhoads has an extensive background in audio engineering, arranging, composition (private studies with Stephen Dembski, John Corigliano, George Rochberg, and John Harbison), and philosophy and continues to be active as a composer and concert producer in the New York area.


GENE PRITSKER,
COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR, composer/guitarist/rapper Gene Pritsker has written over three hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music, songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles, etc. All his compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles and are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation, an eclectic hip-hop/chamber/jazz/rock/etc. ensemble currently releasing a new CD for Con Legno records. Other organizations he is associated with include: Composers Concordance (advisory board since 96, Associate Director since 04), Absolute Ensemble (co-founder/composer -in -residence 93-96). Some of Gene Pritsker's music is published by: Falls House Press, Gold Branch Music, Periferia Sheet Music & Calabrese Brothers Music. In the 2006 -07 season Gene premiered two chamber operas; Money 1 & Money 2, at the Flea Theater and at the Players Theater in New York, He also performed these 2 operas at the Outreach Festival in Schwaz, Austria in the summer of 07 and will be performing them in Catania, Sicily in May of 08. At the 07 Outreach Festival Gene had many performances, including his Bassoon and samplestra piece; Electrically Tragic Premiered by Martin Kuuskmann and various performances with his band Sound Liberation and The International Street Cannibals a group that combines chamber music and boxing. On September 15, 2007 Three Poems From Flowers of Evil, on poetry of Baudelaire was performed by the The Absolute Ensemble, The Latvian State Choir and himself as Di.J. at the 07 Bremen Music Festival. Also at this concert Gene's orchestrations from the movie Perfume were performed. Gene is very excited to have had the opportunity of working with the legendary Joe Zawinul; he has arranged/orchestrated Zawinul's music for the Absolute Ensemble to be recorded and released on Birdjam records in 09 and to be toured around the world in upcoming years. In recent years Absolute has been performing arrangements Gene did of Frank Zappa's music as well as many of his own compositions, including Lost Illusion, a concerto for bass, orchestra and samplestra (pre recorded electronics). This piece was also performed by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra with Mat Fieldes on various basses and Kristjan Jarvi conducting. Gene has written a new piano concerto: Reinventions for piano and chamber orchestra based on J.S. Bach's piano Inventions premiered at the '08 Bremen Musicfest on with pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Absolute Ensemble with K. Jarvi conducting. Sound Liberation will be performing in New York venues to promote thei new Cd on Col Legno records:'Open Up your ears & Get Some,' his Piece Bach Speaks for trombone and samplestra will be performed by Steve Parker in various venues and a one and a half hour concerto for jazz piano trio and orchestra, 3 Stages of Truth, is being scheduled to be premiered in 2010 by the Mad Fusion trio, the Bremen Kammerphilharmonia and Kristjan Jarvi conductor. He performed at the Blaine Jazz Festival in July '08 in a program consisting of his Sound Liberation music and at the '08 Outreach festival where he had many performances including a new concerto for Moog and concert band. Gene has just orchestrated the new Tom Tykwer motion Picture called The International to be released everywhere in '09. For more information and music samples, go to: www.genepritsker.com


DAN COOPER,
COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR: Composer Dan Cooper was born in 1970 in Manhattan and worked for several years as music assistant and secretary to nonagenarian American composer, conductor, flutist, and electronic music pioneer Otto Luening, who mentored him in composition, orchestration, and musical life in general. With Luening's recommendation, Cooper was awarded an ASCAP Young Composer's Prize for his electronic setting of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". In 1994, Cooper received a scholarship to the New England Conservatory, where he won the Honors Ensembles Competition for his "Brass Quintet", and studied primarily with composer, conductor, and flutist John Heiss. In 1996, Cooper received the Master of Music degree with both academic honors and distinction in performance. In 1996, Cooper enrolled on full fellowship for a PhD at Princeton University, where he studied composition with Paul Lansky, Steve Mackey, and Barbara White. At Princeton, Cooper taught undergraduate courses in twentieth-century American music, and was enrolled in Toni Morrison's interdisciplinary "Atelier". In April 1998, The New Jersey Symphony gave a reading of his song "The Millennium," (1996-97,) which won a certificate of achievement from the New York Youth Symphony's First Music 16 in early '99. In May of that year, Steve Mackey conducted the premieres of two more orchestra songs at Princeton: "Ozymandias" and "Design". Imani Winds premiered Cooper's "Wind Quintet", and Cooper received a commission from the Cary Trust: to compose a solo flute "Suite" for the Otto Luening centennial concert at Miller Theater. For this concert, Cooper also transcribed Luening's 1952 Nocturnes, originally for flute on tape recorder, in a new score for flute and 'live' electronics. In the summer of 2000, Cooper received a composition fellowship from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music to Tanglewood, where he studied primarily with Michael Gandolfi and Osvaldo Golijov. At Ozawa Hall, conductor Stefan Asbury led a reading of Cooper's orchestra music, flutist Alicia DiDonato recorded Cooper's "Suite", and pianist Elena Baksht performed a solo version of "The Millennium". Since 2000, Cooper has composed and produced at Tanglewood incidental music for several acclaimed Shakespeare & Company productions: "The Winter's Tale", "Coriolanus", "King Lear", and "A Midsummer Night's Dream", directed by Tina Packer. In 2001, Cooper also assisted Dutch composer Louis Andriessen on a collaboration between Tanglewood and Jacob's Pillow. From 2000 to 2002, Cooper performed in some fifty cities internationally on tour with Decca recording artist Ute Lemper. As a multi-instrumentalist in the group, Cooper played 7-string bass guitar, electric upright bass, and flute with electronics at many renowned halls, including New York's Town Hall, San Francisco's Davies Hall, London's Royal Albert Hall, Tokyo's Orchard Hall, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, and the Sydney Opera House, (2000 Olympics Arts Festival,) among others, with various excerpts broadcast on NBC, CNN, Radio France, RAI, and Bravo. Cooper endorses Overwater bass guitars of Carlisle, UK. In 2002, Cooper performed his setting of "Ozymandias" with the New York New Music Ensemble at the June-in-Buffalo festival, and also led a music workshop for children at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, with musicians from the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. In 2003, Cooper received a grant from Meet-the-Composer for a performance of his "String Quartet" on the Composers Concordance series, and was an Artist-in-Residence at Engine 27, the multi-channel sound performance space in Tribeca. In addition, the Circadia ensemble commissioned and premiered Cooper's setting of Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and the Turtle", Palisades Virtuosi commissioned and premiered a new "Trio", and the Albany Symphony Orchestra/Dogs of Desire, conducted by David Alan Miller, recorded Cooper's work "The Mass Inertia". In March 2004, Cooper performed as soloist in the premiere of his "Concertino for 7-string Bass Guitar", commissioned by the Albany Symphony. Cooper's score "So Calamari", transcribed for flute quartet, won a composition competition for a performance at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, presented by Artists International. In the fall of '04, Cooper's "Hawthorne Fanfare and Meditation" for brass quintet. percussion, and electronics was premiered at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall, as part of a Nathaniel Hawthorne Bicentennial event produced by Gordon Hyatt, directed by Tina Packer, and hosted by Mike Wallace, with readings by Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei, and David Strathairn. Since 2002, Cooper has been on the faculty of the State University of New York/FIT, where he teaches courses in European classical music and American music from 1750 to the present. Currently, Cooper is completing an orchestra score on commission from the Empire State Youth Orchestra for their 25th season.