Composer/clarinetist Derek Bermel has appeared as a soloist alongside Wynton Marsalis in his sprawling Migration Series for jazz band and orchestra, and performed his clarinet concerto Voices with dozens of orchestras worldwide, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The founding clarinetist of Music from Copland House, Bermel’s chamber music appearances also include the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, festivals across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and with the Borromeo, Pacifica, and JACK quartets.

As both clarinetist and composer, he has collaborated with musicians from an eclectic musical landscape, from jazz luminaries Paquito D’Rivera and Luciana Souza, to virtuoso violinist Midori, and hip-hop legend Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), to composer/conductors John Adams and Tan Dun.

Bermel has twice been nominated for GRAMMY Awards – for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Migrations (Naxos 8.559871), and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) for Voices (BMOP/sound).

He is currently artistic director of the American Composers Orchestra, and his many honors include the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, Rome Prize, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships.

For more information, visit www.derekbermel.com.

For information on Christopher Otto, please visit the JACK Quartet’s page.

Wiek Hijmans has dedicated his life’s work to integrating the electric guitar into the realm of classical music. He was the first electric guitarist to study in the classical guitar department of the Manhattan School of Music, for which he received the Andrés Segovia Award.

He has travelled Europe, North America, Russia and the Far East performing recitals that feature contemporary music, and as a soloist with orchestras and chamber ensembles he has reached many audiences. His albums have received critical acclaim, and many composers, including Derek Bermel, Christian Wolff and Tristan Murail, have written for him.

He has given masterclasses, directed guitar festivals and written a comprehensive instrumentation guide for the electric guitar. As a composer, Wiek has written for many settings, including 150 guitar solo pieces as musical reactions to each of the Psalms.

For more information, visit wiekhijmans.wixsite.com/firste-attempt.

The widely celebrated JACK Quartet has maintained an unwavering commitment to its mission of performing and commissioning new works, giving voice to underheard composers, and cultivating an ever-greater sense of openness toward contemporary classical music.

It is the quartet-in-residence at the Mannes School of Music, and hosts the JACK Frontiers Festival, a multi-faceted festival of contemporary music for string quartet. The members of the quartet also regularly teach at New Music On the Point and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, as well as at the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program and the Lucerne Festival Academy, of which they are all alumni.

The quartet was nominated for a GRAMMY Award in 2022 for John Luther Adams’ Lines Made by Walking (Cold Blue Music) and for Alkaline from the concept album Imaginist (Panoramic Recordings) with the Le Boeuf Brothers in 2018.

For more information, visit www.jackquartet.com.

Photo: Kevin Condon

Composer/clarinetist Derek Bermel has appeared as a soloist alongside Wynton Marsalis in his sprawling Migration Series for jazz band and orchestra, and performed his clarinet concerto Voices with dozens of orchestras worldwide, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The founding clarinetist of Music from Copland House, Bermel’s chamber music appearances also include the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, festivals across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and with the Borromeo, Pacifica, and JACK quartets.

As both clarinetist and composer, he has collaborated with musicians from an eclectic musical landscape, from jazz luminaries Paquito D’Rivera and Luciana Souza, to virtuoso violinist Midori, and hip-hop legend Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), to composer/conductors John Adams and Tan Dun.

Bermel has twice been nominated for GRAMMY Awards – for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Migrations (Naxos 8.559871), and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra) for Voices (BMOP/sound).

He is currently artistic director of the American Composers Orchestra, and his many honors include the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, Rome Prize, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships.

For more information, visit www.derekbermel.com.