In 2004, Jessica began her clarinet performance training with Andrew Lamy, Miriam Lockhart and David Sapadin. Jessica began her composition studies under Daniel Bar-Hava at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege, where she had her orchestral and chamber works frequently featured in performances. She has had both her orchestral works and chamber music performed by the Kinhaven Music School Symphony in 2003 and 2004.

Jessica continued her education at the New England Conservatory of Music with a minor in composition under Malcolm Peyton and studied clarinet with Ricardo Morales and Craig Nordstrom. In Boston, Jessica has had her music performed at venues including The New England Conservatory of Music’s Jordan Hall and Williams Hall, as well as the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Café. Jessica was accepted into the prestigious New York Youth Symphony’s Making Score, where she studied under Derek Bermel. After the NYYS Making Score Final Concert at CAMI Hall, Jessica was mentioned in The Symphony Magazine (October, 2004) as having given “a star-turn performance” of her Clarinet Quintet. Jessica has had a reading of her music with the American Composers' Orchestra in May 2008. Her most recent performances include her Octet at Symphony Space in 2008, Debut Concert at The Kaufman Center’s Merkin Concert Hall in June 2009, and featured performance at Galapagos Art Space in August 2009.

I am currently in my 3rd year at Trinity college of music studying for a degree in Music Performance with study options including conducting, instrumental conducting, communication skills, arts in music, instrument repair, music therepy and music technology.

I have played with many ensembles and orchestras. At current I am the Principal Bass Trombone of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and Principal Bass Trombone of the North London Philharmonic and Ernest Reed Symphony Orchestra. I also play in a Brass Quintet that does workshops and recitals throughout London and has been to Seattle.

Interesting work in the UK has included a series of concerts with Patrick Moore, the astronomer, where Debra appeared as guest artist and sang many of Mr. Moore’s own compositions. Extensive work abroad has included Operas and Concerts in Dortmund, Zurich, Munich, Berlin, Luxembourg, Venice, Japan and Jerusalem. As a renowned oratorio specialist her repertoire includes The Creation (Haydn), The Messiah (Handel), Nelson Mass (Haydn), Petite Messe Solenelle (Rossini), Carmina Burana (Orff) and the Requiems of Faure, Brahms and Mozart. Her operatic roles include Susanna (Marriage of Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Queen of the Night (Magic Flute), Norina (Don Pasquale), Olympia (Tales of Hoffman), Despina (Cosi fan tutte) and Micaela (Carmen).

With Coro Cervantes Debra has performed in Spain, Mexico and Russia. She was featured soloist on Coro Cervantes’ first CD O Crux, which was voted Gramophone’s Critic’s Choice of the Year. As a session singer, Debra has recorded vocals for film soundtracks, CD library music, launch music for car companies and radio jingles. She was featured soloist during the opening and closing ceremonies for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester with music especially commissioned for the occasion and also performed the vocals for the soundtrack for the Beijing Olympic Torch Ceremony in London.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Richard Sladek, Pianist, has performed professionally in the Chicago area for the past 20 years. A native of Chicago, he has been the recipient of several awards including those from the Chicago Musical Arts Club and the Grace Welsh National Piano Competition. Mr. Sladek has received a New York Film Festivals award for Outstanding Achievement for his Original Music for Video with the nationally acclaimed education theater troupe, Wavelength. As their musical director/composer for 16 years, he performed for over 100,000 educators in North America and the Netherlands.

He has served as staff accompanist for Columbia College and the Second City National Touring Company. He has also accompanied for the Salt Creek Ballet, and The Academy of Movement and Music. He has played keyboards in numerous musical theater productions, most notably for the Shubert, Marriott Lincolnshire, Theater at the Center, Apple Tree and Circle Theaters, and the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse.

Jeni Slotchiver's historic 1997 all-Busoni recital, at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City (the first in thirty years), received the 'heart-felt appreciation' of the Busoni Foundation. Her series, Busoni The Visionary has received worldwide critical acclaim. Anthony Tommasini, writing for The New York Times (December 30th 1999), selected her debut CD for an article titled 'Appropriate For Millennial Reflection.' Michael Tanner, in CLASSIC CD, described her performance as, "A towering spiritual statement, especially in a performance as fine as Slotchiver's, where the technical accomplishment is entirely at the service of the music's inward grandeur." From Singapore, Tony Gualtieri wrote, "A revelation…Bold and brazen…Jeni Slotchiver is a pianist of the highest artistry. Fully in control of this notoriously difficult material, she has the technical equipment to let the music speak without impediment…One feels the music is being allowed to sing." David Hurwitz, in Classics Today, made the point succinctly when he described her playing as, “Quite simply mesmerizing…positively physical."

Her North American piano repertoire ranges from Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, to Nathaniel Dett and Luis Gottschalk to the avant-garde Frederic Rzewski. Moreover, her expansive Latin American repertoire includes the work of; Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino, Ernesto Lecuona, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Francisco Mignone, Win Muller, Astor Piazzolla, and Frutuoso Viana.

Performances of my compositions have been given throughout Canada, the United States, China, and Europe. Most recently, my "Requiem" for full orchestra and choir was premiered in London, Ontario, while three of my choral works were included on a compact disc ("The World Awaits") this past fall.

Years before the White Stripes, JMS was half of the progressive guitar/drums duo Medicine Hat, later known as Batwanger.

JMS' first solo release, "Music For Sophisticated Schizophrenics" was a noted pick by Electronic Musician Magazine.

His musical studies started at 6 years of age and included the Birmingham School of Drumming and the Conservatoire. He toured internationally at 15 and taught at the B.S.D. from 16 and subsequently in many schools and colleges.

He has worked as a Session Musician, Recording Engineer, Producer and Music Industry Consultant and with many international artists including Jerry Lee Lewis, The Herd, The Crystals, Dave Pegg (Jethro Tull, Fairport Convention), Fats Domino and many more. He is currently with the Joe Cocker Experience and AfroCuBaz.

Between 2001-3, being awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award, Gregory undertook a Master of Creative Arts degree studying performance practice issues in Russian piano music. And has since undertaken research into the music of Nicholas Medtner. Gregory has presented several papers on the music of Medtner, including the Australian Musicological Society in Sydney in 2005, and the combined Australian and New Zealand Society Conference in Wellington in 2003.

Gregory is a freelance composer and accompanist. As a soloist he has played in Malaysia as part of the University of Newcastle's overseas graduation ceremonies, and Japan, as part of the Newcastle-Ube Sister City 20th Anniversary celebrations in 2000. In July 2001, he was a participant in the London Master classes, run by Norma Fisher.

Besides that stage-work she has made 15 albums, many of them being listed as indispensable to refined music lovers.

Raphaella Smits is internationally praised as an inspiring teacher for both guitar and chamber music. In addition to her chair at the Lemmens Institute in Belgium, she regularly gives master classes in West and East Europe, in North and South America and in Japan. Organizers of international music competitions ask Raphaella as a member of the jury because of her ability to listen and to judge so accurately.