Pianist and composer Scott Kirby specializes in distinctly American musical styles which include classic ragtime, new ragtime, Creole music, and terra verde. A performer, he is also an educator, providing historical context and musical insight into the program as it unfolds.

His presentations include examples from North America, South America, and the Caribbean, by composers Louis Moreau Cottschalk, Scott Joplin, Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, Jazz pioneer Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, and Ernesto Lecuona of Cuba. Concerts may also contain short pieces from Latin America and the French Caribbean such as the Haitian merengue, the biguine from Martinique, the Puerto Rican danza, and the cumbia or the Cuban habanera. In addition, Kirby champions writers of new ragtime and terra verde, contemporary counterparts to the more traditional styles. As a composer, Kirby combines the influence of nineteenth century romanticism with these new world idioms into his own individual, syncopated language. 

A native of Ohio, Scott Kirby began his study of music at the age of six, and continued formal piano instruction for seventeen years. He worked under Robert Howat of Wittenburg University of Ohio and Sylvia Zaremba at Ohio State University. After obtaining a degree in English from Ohio State University, Kirby moved to New Orleans and began his professional music career. In the following four years, he recorded the complete rags of Scott Joplin and made his debut at all of the major ragtime festivals in the United States, as well as festivals in Belgium, France, Norway, and Hungary. 
 

Gunther Schuller, MPC 38 Keynote Speaker 
“Music on Public Radio: Perspectives at the Start of a New Century”
8:00 a.m. Thursday, February 17

Gunther Schuller is a composer, conductor, French horn player, and publisher. He’s heard on the historically important Miles Davis recording, “Birth of the Cool.” He has composed over 145 original compositions. In 1943 he dropped out of high school to join Antal Dorati and the Ballet Theatre Orchestra on tour. His first full-time professional job came that year, as first horn with Cincinnati Symphony under Sir Eugene Goossens. In 1945 he joined the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra horn section and stayed until 1959. Milton Babbit describes Schuller as “a musician whose singular influence in multiple musical domains has shaped our musical epoch.” He is author of Early Jazz and The Swing Era and will soon have a third volume on jazz history from 1945 to the present.
 

Stephen Salyer, CEO, Public Radio International
“Making Art Matter in Public Radio’s Future”
10:00 a.m. Thursday, February 17

Stephen L. Salyer was elected president, chief executive officer, and a director of Public Radio International in 1988. Salyer’s involvement with public broadcasting includes serving as assistant to the president, vice-president and senior vice-president of public television station WNET, New York. From 1979 to 1988 he led departments responsible for program development, international co-production, education, research, governmental affairs, communications, and marketing.

Apart from his work in public broadcasting, Salyer has been active in the field of international affairs, with a particular emphasis on the role that population plays in development.

Salyer currently serves on boards of Minnesota Meeting, Save The Children, and the National Peace Foundation. He is a graduate of Davidson College and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and was a Root- Tilden Scholar at New York University’s School of Law.
 

Constantine Orbelian, Conductor and Pianist (Delos Artist)
7:00 a.m. Thursday, February 17

Born in San Francisco to Russian and Armenian emigré parents, Constantine Orbelian demonstrated rare musical gifts at an early age and made his debut as a pianist with the San Francisco Symphony at the age of eleven. In his early teens he went to the Soviet Union on a musical scholarship and studied in Moscow and Yerevan, Armenia, with Anaida Sumbadian, with whom Vladimir Ashkenazy had also studied. At age eighteen, after graduating from Juilliard, Orbelian embarked on a solo career that typically involved eighty-five to ninety concerts per year.

This past August, Evgeny Svetlanov, Music Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra, invited Orbelian to become Artistic Director of the Orchestra.

Orbelian’s piano recordings have won international acclaim, including Best Concerto of the Year award in the UK for his recording of the Khachaturian Piano Concerto with Neeme Järvi and the Scottish National Orchestra.

Orbelian’s guest conducting appearances in 1999 include the world premiere performance in Jerusalem of Josef Bardanashvili’s work, “A Time for Love.” Orbelian performs regularly as piano soloist and conductor, both as guest and with his own orchestra, in concerto repertoire ranging from Mozart to Schnittke.

As music director and conductor, Orbelian takes the Moscow Chamber Orchestra on extensive international tours, and he conducts forty concerts each season in Russia, including a ten-concert sold-out subscription series in the Great Hall of Moscow’s renowned Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
 

Trio Voronezh (Vladimir Volochin, domra; Sergei Teleshev, bajan; Valerie Petruchin, double-bass balalaika--Angel Records Artists)
11:45 a.m. Thursday, February 17

Discovered playing Bach in a Frankfurt (Germany) subway station, Trio Voronezh (pronounced Vo-RO-nesh) made its U.S. debut at the 1996 Oregon Bach Festival (Helmuth Rilling, Artistic Director). They were the sleeper-hit of the summer and were immediately invited to return. Their debut United States tour in the fall of 1998 began by bringing down the house at NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor. They went on to perform at such prestigious organizations as UCLA Performing Arts, Lively Arts at Stanford, New York’s Rockefeller University, the University of Georgia, and UA Presents at the University of Arizona, among many others.

The trio’s diverse repertoire ranges from classical works of Bach, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky to popular songs by Gershwin, to Russian folk and gypsy dance music. This ever-expanding concert material is arranged by the trio’s members and performed with extraordinary virtu-osity and entirely from memory!

Classically trained at the Conservatory in Voronezh, Russia, this true Cinderella-story began in the streets, sub-ways, and small clubs of European cities. The members still make their home in the working-class city of Voronezh.
 

Giovanni De Chiaro, Classical Guitarist (Centaur Records Artist)
2:30 p.m. Thursday, February 17

American classical guitarist Giovanni De Chiaro made his New York debut in 1976 in a Carnegie Hall Recital Hall performance which brought a rave notice from the New York Times and launched a career of growing distinction. He has concertized throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe and has performed for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in Rome. He was invited to perform for President Clinton at a special Christmas function at the White House.

He records for Centaur Records of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Among his recordings are two discs which feature his own arrangements of traditional Christmas carols and another comprised of his arrangements of popular Broadway classics. His most recent release features his guitar transcriptions of the complete works of Scott Joplin. 

The editors of Musical America named Giovanni De Chiaro as one of the magazine’s “Young Artists of the Year” in 1982. He is a contributing editor for guitar magazines published in both the United States and England.

De Chiaro has also recorded two nationally televised special programs for the PBS network. Both of these programs have received Gold Awards and top honors at the International Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio; The Houston International Film Festival in Houston, Texas; and the International Film and Television Festival of New York. 

Giovanni De Chiaro is a member of the music faculty of  The University of Southern Mississippi. Before going to Hattiesburg, he taught at the College of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station, New Jersey, while pursuing his own graduate studies at New York University.
 

Joyce Schreiber, Manager, Station Development Services, NPR
“Fundraising Tools for Music Formats: Presentation of NPR's First-Time Givers Study”
3:00 p.m. Thursday, February 17

Joyce Schreiber is NPR’s Manager of Station Development Services, a department which includes the On-Air Fundraising Partnership, underwriting and special event support, on-air promotion, and other station fundraising support services. Schreiber has more than fifteen years’ experience in public broadcasting development and marketing and has received awards for these efforts from PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Ohio Educational Broadcasting. 

She served as Development Director with WOSU-AM/FM/TV, Columbus, Ohio; Promotion Director with WDCN-TV, Nashville, Tennessee; and Development and Promotion Director with WFSU-FM, Tallahassee, Florida. Before joining NPR, she was Development Director for the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) and had previous experience in marketing and communications for non-profit professional theatres. 

Schreiber holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, and a Master’s in Mass Communication from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Public Radio Association of Development Officers (PRADO).
 

Samite (Windham Hills Artist)
7:00 a.m. Friday, February 18

Samite was born and raised in Uganda, where his grandfather taught him to play the traditional flute. His primary schooling was within the King's Courtyard, where the royal musicians played for the King. That daily influence permanently instilled within the young boy the rhythms and patterns of the traditional music of his people--the Baganda. 
Recognizing his talents, a teacher at his high school in Kampala put a western flute in his hands and helped him to become one of the most highly acclaimed flutists in East Africa. 

In 1982 he fled to Kenya as a political refugee, where he played with the Bacchus Club Jazz Band and the popular African Heritage Band. Increasingly drawn to instruments and rhythms from the traditional Ugandan music scene, he eventually played solo at the Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nairobi. Delivering his mellifluous vocals in his mother tongue, Luganda, he mesmerized audiences with original compositions played on kalimba (finger-piano), marimba (wooden xylophone), litungu (seven-stringed Kenyan instrument) and various flutes, traditional and western.

Emigrating to the United States in 1987, Samite now makes his home in Ithaca, New York, where he recorded his first tour-de-force Shanachie release “Abaana Bakesa (Dance My Children, Dance).”  His second release, “Pearl of Africa Reborn”, contains new recordings which retain the essence of African tradition. Both albums relate images conjured while dreaming, and folk tales and stories passed on to him by his grandfather. Samite’s third U.S. album “Silina Musango,” released by Xenophile, is a joyful collection of melodic, trans-cultural songs, featuring kalimba melodies, which are the heartbeat of Samite’s music. This CD reached #2 on the CMJ World Music Chart in the summer of 1997. Samite's third US album "Silina Musangom” released by Xenophile, is a joyful collection of melodic, trans-cultural songs, featuring kalimba, flute, percussion and other African and western instruments. Kalimba melodies are the heartbeat of Samite's music, with other instruments and his own tranquil voice giving texture and shape to the songs. 

As a new Windham Hill artist, Samite is currently working on a fourth album to be released by year’s end. He is also featured on two recent Windham Hill releases: Will Ackerman’s “Sound of Wind Driven Rain” and “Summer Solstice II.” He also worked with Narada Artist John Whelan on his recent release, “Flirting with the Edge.” Samite spent last summer traveling through parts of Africa filming a PBS documentary, “Song of the Refugee.” It was inspired by a desire to present African refugees’ hope for the future in spite of the suffering and loss they have endured. Media coverage during the darkest days of crisis concentrated on violence and destruction, with little or no coverage of the reconciliation and healing process now underway. “Song of the Refugee” also captures Samite’s first visit to Uganda since he fled in 1982. For the past ten years, Samite has made his living as Uganda's unofficial music ambassador to the United States. One of his goals is to open peoples' minds and hearts to the common threads of human concerns, conveying optimism through stories and song. "I am convinced that we are all moved by the same desires, needs and emotions, regardless of the language in which those feelings are expressed," says Samite. Recent appearances include headlining UNICEF's Day of the African Child in NYC; Woodstock '94 on Peter Gabriel's WOMAD Stage; the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and tours in Japan, Australia, and Germany.
 

Kit Pfeiffer, Radio Consultant
8:00 a.m. Friday, February 18

Kit Pfeiffer has been a public radio classical music host since 1987, when she began working at Maine Public Radio. As the station’s first host of a new afternoon classical show which included a half-hour folk and jazz segue into “All Things Considered,” she also designed a twentieth-century classical program for Maine Public Radio.

From 1992 to 1996, Pfeiffer was the afternoon classical music host for Interlochen Public Radio in Michigan, serving as Program Coordinator in her last year there. Since returning to Maine, Pfeiffer has consulted with Maine Public Radio on an assessment of the competition posed by a growing network of commercial classical stations in Maine.

Pfeiffer serves as substitute host for the weekday morning and afternoon classical programs, and she is a free-lance writer on classical music for the Maine Times. She holds a BA in Music from Colby College and an M.Ed. in Counseling from the University of New Hampshire.
 

Angela Cheng, Piano (CBC Records Recording Artist)
9:00 a.m. Friday, February 18

Conductors, critics, and audiences around the world have praised Angela Cheng’s technique and interpretive skills as “magical,” “profound,” “transcendental,” and “dazzling.” After winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Artur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, she went on, in 1988, to become the first-ever Canadian pianist to win the Montreal International Piano Competition. During her stellar concert career, she has played to enthusiastic audiences in London, Salzburg, New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and in all major Canadian cities.

A masterful interpreter of Mozart, Cheng was awarded the Medal of Excellence by the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1991. With more than thirty concertos at her command, her repertoire beyond Mozart embraces a broad array of classical, romantic and early twentieth-century masterpieces.

Cheng’s new release on CBC Records of Spanish-based repertoire, “Nights in the Gardens of Spain,” has one national critic exclaiming, “ I do not know of a better-recorded album than this one.” The Spanish disc comple- ments her highly acclaimed recording of Mozart’s piano concertos Nos. 9 and 11, also on the CBC Records label.

Angela Cheng will play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans on Thursday and Saturday, February 17 and 19. The concert features Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 and is titled “Mahler’s Last Masterpiece.”

Leila Josefowicz, Violin (Philips Classics Artist)
11:45 a.m. Friday, February 18

In 1994 Leila Josefowicz made her Carnegie Hall debut performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The following year she gave her Boston Symphony Orchestra debut, Seiji Ozawa conducting, with performances in Boston and then at Carnegie Hall.

Josefowicz performs regularly throughout Europe. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Jaime Laredo and Jascha Brodsky. In addition to her solo work, she studied chamber music at Curtis with Felix Galimir and participated at several Marlboro Music Festivals. Most recently she participated in the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and the Stavanger Festival in Norway.

Twenty-one-year-old Leila Josefowicz performs on the 1739 “Ebersolt” Guarnerius del Gesu violin.
 

Nick Spitzer of “American Routes” (Produced by MBK Productions)
2:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Friday, February 18

Host of  “American Routes,” produced by MBK Productions, Nick Spitzer is a scholar, documentary producer, and program host known for his informed and witty style in presenting American cultures and communities to audiences from Carnegie Hall to the National Mall, from PRI to PBS. Formerly with the Smithsonian, Spitzer is known to public radio audiences for his award-winning “Folk Masters” series from Wolf Trap and cultural features
on “All Things Considered.”
 

Allen Toussaint, Pianist/record producer (NYNO Records Artist)
3:00 p.m. Friday, February 18

Allen Toussaint is one of America’s greatest musical treasures. Singer, pianist, songwriter, arranger and producer—the New Orleans native has been making hit records for over forty years. His influence on American music reaches deep into the idioms of rhythm and blues, pop, country, musical theater, blues, and jazz. Two years ago, Toussaint added yet another credit to his lengthy list of accomplishments, co-founder of NYNO Records. Toussaint has been an integral part of New Orleans’ musical landscape since the late fifties.
 

Chris Brubeck (Koch International Classics and Jazz Artist)
5:00 p.m. Friday, February 18

Though well known for his jazz performance and composition, Chris  Brubeck, one of four sons of jazz great Dave Brubeck, has established himself as a Renaissance man of music, from performing with a rock band in the 1970s to recording an album with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Brubeck, who plays four instruments, toured with The Dave Brubeck Quartet for ten years; Brubeck joined two siblings to form the aptly named Brubeck Brothers group. 
 

Rick Phillips & Mark Kay Kurzweg, Trainers and Facilitators
“Listeners As Customers”
8:00 a.m. Saturday, February 19

Rick Phillips and Mary Kay Kurzweg are both international speakers, authors, leaders in their professional organization (both being past-presidents of the National Speakers Association of Louisiana) and have helped thousands of people reach higher levels of success. They discovered several years ago that much of the training being offered in American business was at best inadequate or woefully misplaced. “People are still taught to memorize words and techniques... instead of understanding the principles. Principles are constants that don’t change.” They explain the factors that influence self-assurance and that capitalization on these insights allows one to become more effective in communicating with listeners while creating enthusiastic supporters. They have written hundreds of articles dealing with customers' needs and practical ways to connect and build customer satisfaction.
 

Jay Ungar and Molly Mason (Angel Records Artists)
9:45 a.m. Saturday, February 19

Jay Ungar and Molly Mason have become two of America's best-known folk musicians through their work on numerous PBS documentary soundtracks and as frequent guests on Garrison Keillor's “A Prairie Home Companion” on public radio. Known as a fiddler's fiddler, Jay gained international fame by composing and performing “Ashokan Farewell,” the haunting theme from the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack of Ken Burns’ “The Civil War” on public television. 

They also run the Fiddle and Dance Workshop at Ashokan in upstate New York, where each summer people come to learn traditional music and dance. On record in concert , on radio, on film soundtracks, and as educators, their love and enthusiasm for music are infectious and their passion and expertise are unmatched.
 

Andreas Vollenweider (Sony Classical Artist)
11:30 a.m. Saturday, February 19

Andreas Vollenweider, one of the world's most popular contemporary instrumental artists, has sold close to six million records worldwide. As harpist and versatile instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and producer, Vollenweider seeks to expand the boundaries of music.  He is very excited to share his latest work with you at the Music Personnel Conference, as he will perform music from his new Sony Classical CD, "Cosmopoly." In stores late February, "Cosmopoly" is a contemplative journey around the globe and features collaborations with renowned musicians Bobby McFerrin (on three tracks), Milton Nascimento, Djivan Gasparyan, Abdullah Ibrahim, Carlos Núñez, and Carly Simon. 

Vollenweider has released six albums for Sony Classical and its predecessor, CBS Masterworks. His 1986 record "Down to the Moon" became the first album by a Swiss artist to win a Grammy and is one of four Vollenweider titles to be certified Gold in the United States.  His last CD, "Kryptos" (1998), was followed by Vollenweider's first-ever solo concert tour of the United States. These concerts featured Vollenweider performing on not only his electric and acoustic harps, but also a variety of wind and percussion instruments.
 

Skip Pizzi, Technology Consultant
“Twenty-First Century Choices for Our Listeners” 
1:30 p.m. Saturday, February 29

Skip Pizzi is a Program Manager in the Interactive Television Technology Group at Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington. He previously served as Audio Technical Manager for Microsoft’s Media Services Department. Before joining Microsoft, Pizzi spent seven years with Primedia/Intertec Publishing as Technical Editor of Broadcast Engineering magazine and Editor of BE Radio magazine. He continues to write regularly for broadcast, media-production, and computer industry trade publications, and he currently serves as Executive Editor for BE Radio. He has also provided new-technology consulting services for broadcasters around the world.

Pizzi spent thirteen years as a technical director, engineering supervisor, and technical training coordinator at National Public Radio in Washington, DC. He currently serves as a member of the Distribution and Interconnection Committee of NPR’s Board of Directors and as an advisor to the NAB and NRSC on Internet streaming media. He was recently appointed Secretary of the T3/S17 Subcommittee of the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC), a group that is developing a standard for interactive software in North American DTV.

Pizzi’s background includes work as a performing musician, a sound designer for theater and broadcast productions, a music mixer, a broadcast producer and an award-winning radio drama director. He studied Physics, International Economics and Fine Arts at Georgetown University, graduating in 1975. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE), a former chair of the DC chapter of the AES, the chair of the AES 8th International Conference    (1990), and the recipient of the AES Board of Governors  Award and Public Radio PRO Award.
 

The Virtual Consort with Peter Blanchette (Dorian Records Artists)
6:00 p.m., Saturday, February 19

The Virtual Consort is an ensemble of three musicians from widely diverse backgrounds who create strikingly original music in many different styles with a uniquely beautiful voice. The instrumental combination is one of the reasons for their distinctive sound, with the eleven-string archguitar (played by arranger Peter Blanchette), trumpet (Charlie Schneeweis), and bass (Jean Chaine). Their styles include ethnic music, particularly Eastern European; jazz; renaissance; Italian film music; even Stravinsky. 

In 1998 the consort won the Silver Watertower trophy on “A Prairie Home Companion’s” annual “Talent from Towns Under Two Thousand” contest.
 

“Absolute Mix” Kristjan Järvi, Absolute Ensemble (Recordings available on CCn’C records, distributed by Qualiton)
Closing Banquet, 7-10 p.m. Saturday, February 19

Absolute Ensemble aspires to be a catalyst for change. It aims to throw open the doors of the concert hall to welcome in all kinds of music and all kinds of audiences. Fusing energetic, young performers with a rich variety of substance and style, the ensemble challenges the prevailing rigid perceptions of what constitutes "serious" music. 

The Ensemble was founded in 1993 on the proposition that good music, whether old or new, regardless of genre, deserves performances of the highest skill and commitment. Frank Zappa and Charles Mingus have found a place on the bill with Bach, Beethoven, and the works of younger composers whom the ensemble is often the first to promote and present. This ensemble of soloists is more like a band whose repertoire includes the whole canon: medieval, baroque, Viennese classical, jazz, rock, world, the lot. 

The Absolute Ensemble has premiered over sixty contemporary works to noteworthy acclaim, an astounding feat for a relatively new group, and a surprising one considering the supposed conservatism of the concert going public.
 
 

Copyright 1999 2000  Association of Music Personnel in Public Radio

Updated 2/7/2000