Cadillac Moon Ensemble
Cadillac Moon Ensemble is expanding the idiom of quartet music.
“That is the virtue Cadillac Moon Ensemble brings to new music: for all their effortless accuracy, they imbue their material with humanity.” (The Examiner)
Cadillac Moon Ensemble is a new music quartet dedicated to retaining the intimacy and artistry of traditional chamber music while exploring the expansive sonic possibilities presented by its unique instrumentation (flute, violin, cello, and percussion). Since its formation in 2007, Cadillac Moon Ensemble has commissioned and premiered over eighty works, in the process cultivating close relationships and ongoing collaborations with many of New York City’s most talented emerging composers.
The “commission-crazed” (Time Out NY) Cadillac Moon Ensemble is one of New York’s most visible new music groups, performing not just in traditional venues such as Roulette and the DiMenna Center, but in non-traditional spaces such as the High Line as well as in collaborations with dance, theater, and cabaret artists. The group strives to present a cross-section of contemporary music styles, tying together both uptown and downtown aesthetics with the creative use of thematic programming. Recent commissions have included works by Timothy Andres, Caleb Burhans, Shawn Allison, Nicholas Deyoe, Rick Burkhardt, Osnat Netzer, and Alex Weiser.
Cadillac Moon Ensemble’s first full CD, Atlas, released on the New Dynamic Records label in September 2012, was hailed as “an auspicious collection of new compositions by contemporary composers that combines the fun and wit of rock and film music with the intensity and challenging sonics that have come to define the best of the New York indie classical scene.” (Lucid Culture). CME was also featured on the critically acclaimed release of Zack Browning’s “Secret Pulse” on Innova Records in 2012. The group has also been featured on John Shaefer’s New Sounds program on WNYC, Jackson Parodi’s Classical Lunch program on WVUM, the University of Rhode Island’s WRIU Music for Internets, and WQXR.
In its mission to work closely with composers throughout the creative process, Cadillac Moon Ensemble works frequently with student composers. Their university work has included a residency at Indiana University Southeast, a workshop performance with Queens College composers, an appearance on NYU’s Interactive Arts Series, and collaborations with Rutgers University graduate composers. Their upcoming season will include several university performances, as well as an increased effort to illuminate the collaborative process between composers and performers through open rehearsals and live-streamed workshops. Planned commissions include works by Matt Marks, Alex Temple, Melody Loveless, Viet Cuong, and Jacob Cooper.
CME has recently been awarded funding by the Amphion Foundation, Eric Stokes Music Fund, the Met Life Creative Connections Grant, and the American Composers Forum’s Encore Program. Cadillac Moon Ensemble has performed on Kathleen Supové’s Music With a View series, Ear Heart Music, the Lark Society Chamber Series of Portland, ME, the Trinity Church Wall Street Concerts at One, the Vox Novus Composer’s Voice series, and at numerous non-traditional venues. The quartet has also collaborated with Ethos Percussion Group, TRANSIT, Sospiro Winds, Circles and Lines Composers’ Collective, Random Access Music, KDNY Dance, and Iktus Percussion.
Individual Members
Grammy Award-winning Karen Kim, violin, is widely hailed for her sensitive musicianship and passionate commitment to chamber and contemporary music. She has performed extensively throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, appearing in such venues and concert series as Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Recital Halls, Lincoln Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York; the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and Library of Congress in Washington, DC; the Celebrity Series of Boston; the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; the San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival in Mexico; the Vienna Musikverein; London’s Wigmore Hall; the Musée d’Orsay in Paris; the Seoul Arts Center; and Angel Place in Sydney. Her recordings as a founding member of the Parker Quartet from 2002 to 2012 include the complete string quartets of György Ligeti, which received the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance in 2011. With the Parker Quartet, Karen Kim also received the Grand Prize and Mozart Prize at the 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition.
Esteemed for her versatility across a broad spectrum of musical idioms and artistic disciplines, Karen Kim has collaborated with artists ranging from Kim Kashkashian, Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, Jörg Widmann, and Shai Wosner to Questlove & The Roots and the James Sewell Ballet.
She frequently performs with such groups as the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Metropolis Ensemble, Chameleon Arts Ensemble, Green Lake Chamber Players, and East Coast Contemporary Ensemble. She is also a devoted advocate of the music of our time, and has premiered works by Lera Auerbach, Wang Jie, Jeremy Gill, Patrick Castillo, Craig Woodward, and others.
A native of La Crosse, Wisconsin, Karen Kim received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance and her master’s degree in chamber music from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein; she also studied jazz violin with vocalist Dominique Eade.
Roberta Michel, flute, is equally at home playing classical and new music. Praising her “extreme adventurousness,” New York Concert Review said she “riveted with her performance, inspiring one to want a repeated hearing.” Michel is a founding member of the Cadillac Moon Ensemble, a quartet of unusual instrumentation dedicated to commissioning and performing new works. To date, the group has commissioned over fifty pieces.
Michel has performed with groups including Duo RoMi (with pianist Mirna Lekic), the Portland String Quartet, SEM Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Wordless Music Orchestra, Ensemble Moto Perpetuo, Lunatics at Large, Kagel Nacht, Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, Cheyenne Symphony, and the Greeley Philharmonic in venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tulley Hall, Merkin Hall, The Kennedy Center, Bargemusic (with tenor Robert White), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a guest artist, Michel has appeared at Bloomsburg University and the University of Southern Maine. She has recorded on New Dynamic Records, Meta, Bridge, and Innova Records.
Michel has been a Bang on a Can Summer Institute fellow and a participant in the Institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance at Mannes College, as well as participating in festivals at Banff and Domaine Forget. Michel recently won the Artists International Special Presentation Award and was presented in her debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Other awards include: Purchase College’s Baroque Concerto Competition, Bay Chamber Summer Music Woodwind Prize, Dante Alighieri Society of Denver Music Scholarship, and the Emily K. Rand Award.
Michel holds a Bachelor of Music with highest honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a Master of Music from SUNY-Purchase College, and Doctor of Musical Arts from the City University of New York Graduate Center. Her teachers include Robert Dick, Tara Helen O’Connor, Alexa Still, and Jean Rosenblum. Michel resides in Brooklyn and is on faculty at Great Neck Music Conservatory.
Aminda Asher, cello, is an active performer of orchestral and chamber music New York City. She has appeared in concerts at many of New York’s greatest performance venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, Bargemusic, and (Le) Poisson Rouge. She has performed with several regional orchestras in the New York metropolitan area including the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Arcos Orchestra, and Riverside Symphonia. Outside of New York, Ms. Asher has performed with the New World Symphony in Miami, Fl, the Santo Domingo Music Festival Orchestra in the Dominican Republic, the Arcos Orchestra on two European tours, as well as participating in the intensive summer study programs at the Music Academy of the West and the Banff Centre of the Arts Chamber Music Residency Program. As an avid performer of chamber music, Ms. Asher has been a member of the neoLIT ensemble, and performs regularly with Periapsis Music and Dance. Also a dedicated teacher, Ms. Asher is on the faculties of CPSM at Queens College and the 92nd Street Y. Ms. Asher holds a B.M in cello performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and a M.M. in Orchestral Performance from the Manhattan School of Music.
Performer, composer, and educator Sean Statser, percussion (b. 1983) has been called “Lithe, muscular, and mesmerizing” by the New York Times. As an advocate for new music, Mr. Statser actively collaborates with several New York City artists and ensembles including: the Grammy-nominated Metropolis Ensemble, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Syzygy New Music, Blind Ear Music, Ensemble Moto Perpetuo and is a founding member of NoiseBox. He has performed with the American Symphony Orchestra and One World Symphony as a section percussionist, and has appeared at several major venues including: Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space, three appearances at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (2007, 2008, 2010), Galapagos Art Space, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Roulette, The Tank and the Alba Music Festival. He recently performed with the Metropolis Ensemble as part of Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Festival, under the baton of Maestro Tan Dun.
Mr. Statser has recorded with a variety of artists, including jazz pianist Kenny Werner (No Beginning, No End - Winner of the 2010 Guggenheim Award). He has appeared as a featured soloist on several albums, and is currently working on his latest release, It’s Mutual, comprised of commissioned and new works for percussion. He has recorded for labels including: Naxos, Nonesuch, Orange Mountain Music, Innova Records, Half Note Records, Albany Records and New Dynamic Records.
Mr. Statser received his M.M. in Instrumental Performance from New York University, studying under the instruction of Jonathan Haas and Simon Boyar. He holds a B.A. in Music Performance from Fort Lewis College, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. Upon graduating in 2010, Mr. Statser joined the Percussion Studies faculty at New York University and serves as Coordinator for the NYU Steinhardt Broadway Percussion Seminar/Summit.