Together we raised $3,600 for the Sarcoma Foundation of America!

Musicians' Photos

Musicians' Bios

Musicians' Photos

David Schreiber

Alexander Ameen

Fred Goldrich

Ramsey Ameen

Musicians' Bios

Alexander Ameen (piano): "I am currently 16, and I began playing the piano at age 4. I have been playing and listening to classical and jazz music for most of my life. Some composers whose advanced works I have studied are Bach, Beethoven, Bartok, Henri Lazarof, "Fats" Waller, Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans. My goals as a musician are to understand and originally interpret all the music I play, in order to reach the listeners as much as possible. My experience with music has helped me to be a more thoughtful and analytical person, and to be an abstract thinker. Through music I have also been able to explore and convey a wide range of emotions. In February, 2001 I was the youngest participant in a one-month Cecil Taylor Master Class and Workshop. in NYC."

Ramsey Ameen (composer of "Cancione", violin): "Imagine two concentric circles; the inner circle: Mathematics; the surrounding annulus: Technology, Education, and Music. This is my creative Workspace, first encountered as a child holding the hand of my father, Hussein Mohammed Ameen, for whom, navigating the war wracked North Atlantic, spherical trigonometry was a matter of life and death, and the violin music of a shipmate was a thread of hope. My experiences at the Bronx High School of Science inspired me with a lifelong enthusiasm for learning, a first-hand engagement with mathematical inquiry, a hands-on connection with science and technology, and an immersion in the ancient pas-de-deux of music and mathematics. Course work in music, mathematics, and education, primarily at CCNY, was valuable as much for its content as for the restless discontent with which I responded. I received the CCNY Music Department "Greenberg Award" in 1967, and thereafter participated as a violinist in NYC's avant-garde jazz circle. Since 1973 I have developed and taught challenging mathematics and music curricula at alternative/gifted schools, including City-As-School, Creative Music Studio, Hudson School for the Gifted, and most recently at MSU Academic Gateways (K-8): "Computer Chips and Violin Strings", and "Classical and Quantum Information and Computing for Kids." From 1978-1981 I was violinist with jazz innovator Cecil Taylor, participating in a series of landmark recordings, tours of the USA and Europe, the Newport Jazz Festival at Carnegie Hall, and was a Down Beat Critics Poll Award winner. In 1983, newly married, I received a BA in Mathematics from Excelsior College/SUNY and began an information technology career, which included founding, in 1988, my home-based consulting business, Resolution Corp, whose clientele have spanned the public and private sectors. My wife, Mary D. Ameen, and I have two children, Alexander, b.1988, and Amber, b.1991. The most important work of my life has been to walk the path of discovery hand-in-hand with my family, as we navigate the oceans of our creative Workspace. My composition "Cancione" is one of a series of requiem dedications."

Jon Dreyer (cello, bass) has been playing cello since childhood. He has studied with Washington DC-area cellists Ben Levenson, Irvin Klinkon, and Glenn Garlick, and has performed in a master class with Janos Starker. He has played in the Fairfax (VA) Symphony and the Boston Philharmonic. He appears on the Philharmonic's recordings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. He taught himself bass as a teenager and plays primarily jazz on that instrument. He studied briefly with Richard Davis. He appears on the recording Sacred Space: Melodies to Welcome Shabbat. Jon is also a professional software engineer at Concept Shopping. His previous employers include Bolt Beranek and Newman and Sun Microsystems. For more information about Jon, please visit http://jondreyer.org

Sandi-Jo Malmon (cello) made her Lincoln Center debut in 1991 with the Boston Quartet. A founding member of the Boston Quartet and Kaleidoscope, Ms. Malmon also performs with the New Hampshire Symphony, the Cantata Singers, the Boston Academy of Music/ Opera Boston and The Lake George Opera Festival (NY). She has served on the faculties of the International Composers' Conference at Wellesley College, the International String Conference in Pennsylvania, Powers Music School and the Brookline Music School. She is currently on the cello faculty of Northeastern University. She studied cello with Richard Kapuscinski and Paul Tobias. Ms. Malmon received degrees in cello performance from Oberlin College/Conservatory of Music, the New England Conservatory of Music and an Artist Diploma in Chamber Music from the Longy School of Music. Sandi-Jo is the Librarian for Collection Development at the Loeb Music Library at Harvard University.

Sonia Oram (viola), 16, has been playing the viola for 8 years. She was accepted into the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras at age 12 and toured with them last summer to Russia, Latvia, and Estonia. She attends the Cambridge School of Weston. She also enjoys juggling, unicycling, (often simultaneously) and film making.

Barbara Oren  (violin). Barbara’s teachers have included Heidi and Charlie Castleman at the Philadelphia Musical Academy, as well as Nancy Cirillo, Marylou Speaker Churchill and Atruro Delmoni. She graduated from the New England Conservatory with a degree in Violin Performance. She is a founding member o the Abbott Chamber Players, a group specializing in 20th century music, and she performs regularly with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lexington Sinfonetta. She also has a private violin studio of 15 students.

Harris Shilakowsky (violin) is the music director of the Bristol Chamber Orchestra, a professional chamber orchestra formed in 1999. The Bristol Chamber Orchestra presents talented guest soloists including members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and collaborations with other area featured performing groups such as the Neponset Choral Society and the Sharon Music Academy. The orchestra also features the winners of the BCO Music Scholarship Fund, established in 1999 to reward excellence in the performance and composition of music. The scholarship provides young virtuoso musicians with the opportunity to perform with the professional musicians in Young Artist Concerts as soloists. Harris Shilakowsky has also appeared as solo violinist with the New Orleans, Omaha and Charleston Symphony Orchestras, the New England Conservatory and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestras and in live recitals on NPR Stations in Boston, Omaha and Nashville.  Shilakowsky is the leader and first violinist of the Shilakowsky String Quartet (SSQ). He performs with groups such as the Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Pops, the Boston Ballet, Pro Arté Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Lyric Opera Co., the American Symphony & the Rhode Island Philharmonic. He was on-stage solo musician for the 'Frankfurt-1995' production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. He was a guest leader of the London Symphony Orchestra performing recording sessions, tours and performances under music director Michael Tilson Thomas and Sir George Solti, Sir Colin Davis and André Previn in performances with Jessye Norman, Yuri Bashmet, Peter Zimmerman, and Kiri Tekanawa, among others. He is an active performer in many New England venues. Shilakowsky has performed with Rod Stewart, Luciano Pavarotti, Moody Blues, Itzhak Perlman, in Broadway musicals such as Phantom of the Opera, Fiddler on the Roof, Titanic, Showboat and many others. He has also performed at prestigious venues including Tanglewood, Boston's Symphony Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Wolf Trap, Blossom Festival and others around the world. He is a former concertmaster of the Charleston, New Orleans, Omaha, Grand Rapids and Las Palmas Symphony Orchestras and the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra. He has also performed with the Boston, Chautauqua and Nashville Symphonies, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Handel-Haydn Society of Boston, and the Opera Company of Boston. Harris Shilakowsky earned his Bachelor of Music cum laudé from New England Conservatory of Music and a Master's Degree from Yale University. His teachers include Joseph Silverstein, Koichiro Harada, Nancy Cirillo, and Leo Panasevich of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, David Cerone, Vali Bluttner and Yair Kless, Joseph Gingold, Louis Krasner, Rudolph Kolisch, Eugene Lehner, Oscar Shumsky and members of the Tokyo Quartet. He is a Tanglewood alumnus, and is an active composer listed in 'Who's Who in Musical America'. He has taught at New England Conservatory Preparatory School, Thayer Conservatory, South Shore Conservatory, and as an adjunct professor at the College of Charleston.

.

  Except where otherwise noted, this site is licensed under a Creative Commons License

Some rights reserved by Ramsey Ameen, 2005-2007.