Bach to Berio

Clare Lesser Biography

Clare Lesser teaches voice at NYUAD and specializes in the performance of 20 th century and contemporary music. She has given over 50 premieres to date, and her work in this field has previously been nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society award. She has worked with many leading composers, including Karlheinz Stockhausen, James Dillon, Heinz Holliger, Jean-Claude Risset, Mathias Spahlinger, Betsy Jolas, Michael Finnissy and Richard Rodney Bennett. She has ecorded four discs on the Métier label and is currently recording a 5 th (to be released in 2017), and preparing a 6 th, of newly commissioned works. She has performed throughout Europe, including at the Edinburgh, Gaudeamus and Avignon festivals.

Her most recent recording of solos, duos and trios by Michael Finnissy was critically acclaimed, her performance being described variously as: ‘so varied and nuanced it seems scarcely credible’ by Simon Cummings (5:4), ‘these recordings of Finnissy’s quite remarkable songs are unlikely to be bettered’ by Bruce Reader (The Classical Reviewer), ‘performed with considerable grace’ Philip Clarke (Gramophone) and ‘… the astounding soprano Clare Lesser, who handles Finnissy’s near impossible vocal demands without blinking..’ Allen Gimbel (American Record Guide).

She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Birmingham University, Birmingham Conservatoire and the University of Sussex.

David Lesser Biography

David Lesser studied piano and composition at the Royal College of Music, London, and then took a masters in composition at the University of Huddersfield. He was Senior Teaching Fellow in music at the University of Warwick, where he taught music history, opera studies, composition and orchestration, history of art and aesthetics, and supervised original research. Since moving to Dubai in 2007 he has taught extensively at the American Universities of Dubai and Sharjah, and at NYUAD.

His music has been widely performed in Britain and Europe by distinguished performers including: Ensemble Aleph, Accroche Note, Linda Hurst, Ian Pace, Les Trois en Bloc and others. His works are published by Edition Tre Fontane, Münster. He has also published scholarly articles on music, dialectics and deconstruction.

As a performer, he specializes in 20th century and contemporary music and in accompanying choral and solo vocal repertoire, and has given a number of world and British premieres. He performs regularly throughout the UK and Europe, and at NYUAD. A number of CDs of his performances are available on the Métier/Divine Art label.

Later this year, he will complete a new disc of music by Heinz Holliger, and will give the world premiere of a newly commissioned work, Weißschatten, by Hans-Joachim Hespos.

Cristina Ioan Biography

Romanian flautist born in 1980, in Ploiesti, Cristina Ioan is a doctoral student at the University of Aveiro advised by prof. Jorge Salgado Correia, having completed her master’s degree at the same institution in 2007.
Cristina Ioan began her musical training at the age of 6 in Ploiesti Vocational School which she completed in 1999. In 2004 she graduated from the National Music University in Bucharest with a degree in Music Interpretation and Pedagogy.

She complemented her musical studies with flute masterclasses and private classes taught by Robert Dick, Vicens Prats, Jorge Caryevschi, István Matuz, Ion Bogdan Stefanescu Michel Bellavance, Heidi Indermuehle and Demetrius Popp. She also took singing and singing pedagogy lessons during her master degree at the Aveiro University under the supervision of prof. Isabel Alcobia.
She won several prizes including the Special Jury Prize in the National Contest Timisoara (1997) and Resita (1993), first prize in the National Competition for Music Interpretation in Flute (1992).
She was awarded with various scholarships and programs such as “Meritus Scholar” during her student years in Bucharest, “Erasmus Student” (2004) and Doctoral Scholarship from Fundação para a Ciencia e Tecnología (Portugal, 2009).

In her activity as an instrumentalist she took part in several concerts as a soloist and as a member of orchestras and chamber groups in Romania, France, Portugal and United Arab Emirates, with some of her recitals been transmitted by public radio stations.

She also took part in different projects involving music for film and dance, such as Jinn (choreographic work by Carlos Guedes, Nella Turkki, Kirk Woolford and Saguenail) and La revoyure and Mau dia (films by Saguenail).
She also presented her work as a researcher and performer in Music Conferences; her latest participation being at the Conference for artistic research “Hands on Flute” in Portugal, 10-14 of April.
Cristina Ioan started teaching in 2007, in the Music School Silva Monteiro (Porto), and later on other several music institutions in Portugal. She is currently Adjunct Instructor in flute at New York University Abu Dhabi (UAE).