Eric Schwartz has studied composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, New York University, and both the Interlochen and Aspen Summer Music Festivals. Past teachers have included Margaret Brouwer, Donald Erb, George Tsontakis, and Randy Woolf. Primarily interested in a synthesis of musical archetypes, Schwartz is always at work on a variety of genre bending projects. Formative influences include an amalgamation of the glam metal of the late 80's, and the baroque intellectualism of Arnold Schoenberg. More recently, an interest in a variety of different musical styles has carved a path towards new directions both in musical construction and philosophy.

His music has been performed at various venues throughout New York City, from The Knitting Factory to Merkin Concert Hall, as well as such far flung places as Bucharest, Romania and Thunder Bay, Ontario. He has received awards and grants from ASCAP, The Puffin Foundation, The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and The Ohio Federation of College Music Clubs. Schwartz has served on the faculties of New York University, Hunter College, and the Lucy Moses Music School, and is the artistic director of the Brooklyn, NY based experimental music group Forecast Music. His debut CD "24 Ways of Looking at a Piano" has recently been released by Centaur Records and is available at http://www.centaurrecords.com.

James Barry's music has been awarded prizes, commissioned, performed, and recognized by many organizations including the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, the American Music Center, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's Fresh Ink, the Society for New Music (Syracuse, NY), the Chicago Ensemble, the Esterhazy Quartet, The Commission Project (Rochester, NY), the Tallahassee Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Cy-Fair College Orchestra (Houston, TX), the Auros Group for New Music, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the SCI/ASCAP Student Composition Commission, the Brevard Music Center, Music 2001 (Cincinnati Conservatory of Music), and others.

James was born in Newport, RI and grew up in the Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. Before moving to NYC he was on the composition faculty at the University of Florida and was an assistant instructor at Florida State University. He received a DM in composition from Florida State University, a MM in composition from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BM in composition and classical guitar performance from the University of South Florida. He has studied composition with Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Ladislav Kubik, Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, Stephen Montague, Mark Schultz, James Lewis, and Paul Reller and additional studies with Lewis Spratlan.

For more information visit: http://www.james-barry.com

Harry J. Marenstein holds a Master of Music Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music. His teachers have included Harold Farberman, Carl Topilow, and Louis Lane, former Resident Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony. He has participated in masterclasses with such noted conductors as Gustav Meier, Zdenek Macal, Daniel Lewis, Kenneth Kiesler, George Manahan, Apo Hsu, and Larry Rachleff, as well as composers Thea Musgrave and Richard Wargo. While at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Harry appeared on the podium of several of its orchestras, its opera theater, and many smaller ensembles. Highlights include the Cleveland premiere of Conrad Pope's Summer Sketches, Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Gondoliers," and a live radio and Internet broadcast from Cleveland's Tower City Celebration.

An active proponent of new music, particularly that of American composers, Harry began his affiliation with Forecast Music as its Resident Conductor in 2002, and became Music Director in 2004. This season marks his first as Music Director. Recording projects include Gal Ziv's "Iyov" for Soprano, Baritone, String Quartet, and Drum Loop, Franz Nicolay's "Each Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow" with Anti-Social Music, and Peter Gilbert's Introduction and Passacaglia for Orchestra. In 2002, Harry produced a series of new music concerts for the AugustArt Festival in 42nd Street's Raw Space Studios and from 2001-2004, he held the position of Chamber Music Coordinator with the Brooklyn Heights Music Society. From 2003-04, he was Associate Conductor of the Musica Bella Orchestra of New York.

Harry has appeared as a guest conductor in New York with Anti-Social Music and at the Diller-Quaile School.

Click here to send Harry an email: harry@forecastmusic.org

Christine Perea specializes in New Music, particularly electro-acoustic and avant-garde repertoire, and frequently collaborates with other performing artists such as dancers, comedians, and poets. New Music Connoisseur's, John de Clef Piñeiro in a recent review, described her playing as "sensitively executed" and "beautifully performed."

Christine has performed extensively in the New York area, presenting contemporary repertoire at Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie, Alice Tully Hall, the Knitting Factory, the Flux Factory, the Frederick Loewe Theatre, and the A.R.T. Space in Brooklyn. Recent appearances include Forecast Music, Vox Novus, the Lost Dog New Music Ensemble, the Jo-Jo Experiment, the NYU New Music Ensemble, solo performances at the 2001 and 2002 National Flute Association Conventions, and orchestral engagements with the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, the Greenwich Village Orchestra, the Chicago Classical Symphony Orchestra, and the Intrepid Wind Quintet.

Frequent collaboration with composers has led to the New York premieres of works by Marco Oppedisano, Lawrence Moss, Joanne Maffia, Will Redmond, Rene Mogensen, Young-Mi Ha, and Howard Sandroff. Her work with dancers led to collaborations with Amelia Derezynski of Torque Dance; Douglas Dunn, Dawn Stoppielo and Mark Coniglio of the Troika Ranch; Uniqua Sims of Eclectic Butterfly; and Renata Celichowska.

Currently Ms. Perea is on the faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory and the adjunct faculty at NYU, where she is also a Ph.D. candidate. Her research interests include the history of electro-acoustic music for the flute, with emphasis on the use of timbre in this repertoire, and a pedagogical guide to playing the alto and bass flutes. She received her Masters degree in Flute Performance at NYU, and received her Bachelors degree from DePaul University in Chicago. She has studied with Robert Dick, Keith Underwood, Linda Chesis, Mary Stolper, Clem Barone, Shaul Ben-Meir, and additional studies in contemporary music and electro-acoustic improvisation with Dr. Esther Lamneck, and chamber music with Sara Davis Buechner and Gregory Haimovsky.

Click here to send Christine an email: christine@forecastmusic.org

Reizen Ensemble (http://www.reizenensemble.com) is an exciting contemporary and new music group from New York City with a flair for the dramatic and a penchant for the beautiful. Founded and fronted by Soprano and Artistic Director Patricia Sonego, the group has a unique focus on works for voice with instruments, sometimes incorporating electronics and improvisation. The group consists of an outstanding ensemble of musicians, chief among them being the co-director and co-founder, flutist Christine Perea. As a noted specialist in improvisation and extended flute techniques, Ms. Perea plays a number of flutes, often with electronics. Among these is the bass flute, the alto flute, the quarter-tone flute and the glissando headjoint, with which she masterfully realizes a vast and varied array of tonal textures and expression.

"Reizen", pronounced "rights-n", is a German verb that means "to excite, stimulate, entice, attract, fascinate, charm" and "to provoke or irritate"—a perfect word for contemporary classical and avant garde music! The ensemble has a core membership of soprano Patricia Sonego, flutist Christine Perea, violist Stephanie Griffin, cellist Alistair MacRae, double bassist Troy Rinker, and pianist Hiromi Abe. George Brunner is composer-in-residence and performer for all electronics and sound diffusion. Guest performers, among who include clarinetist Enid Blount, percussionists Morris Lang, JoAnne Maffia, and Brian Willson, and pianist Joseph Bartolozzi, appear with the ensemble to fulfill the demands of larger works.

Reizen Ensemble is newly formed and will premier many works written or arranged for the group by American and international composers. Eric Lyon, Terry Winter Owens, George Brunner, Allen Molineaux and Beth Anderson have so far provided commissions for the group. Currently the ensemble-in-residence for Forecast Music (http://www.forecastmusic.org), Reizen Ensemble also performs works by Forecast composers Eric Schwartz and James Barry. Other repertoire includes works by American composer Ralph Shapey, Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave, Australian composers Padma Newsome and Michael Smetnin, British composer and bassist Tony Osborne, and American composers Robert Morris, Mark Zuckerman, Phillip Schroeder, Joseph Bartolozzi, and Tom Nazziola.

Reizen Ensemble is constantly seeking new and creative works that feature the singing voice, extended flute techniques, electronics and chamber ensemble. If you are interested in submitting works for consideration please send inquiries to psonego@gmail.com. You can visit them on the web at http://www.reizenensemble.com.