SEASON 4

Praised for playing that is "warm and vocal" (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Michael Avitabile is a flutist, entrepreneur, and educator dedicated to the music of our time. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Hub New Music, a Boston-based mixed quartet that has quickly become a prominent force among younger contemporary music organizations.

Under his leadership, HNM has commissioned quartets and collaborative projects from a diverse cohort of innovative musical minds including Hannah Lash, Robert Honstein, Kati Agocs, Takumah Itoh, Angel Lam, and the composer-collective Oracle Hysterical. He has also spearheaded collaborations with Boston’s Urbanity Dance, the Silk Road Ensemble’s Kojiro Umezaki, and the Asia-America New Music Institute. The ensemble maintains an active touring schedule and has been featured in the Boston Globe, WQXR (NYC), WFMT (Chicago), New York Times, WBUR (Boston), and the Oregon Artswatch among several others.

As an educator, Avitabile focuses on empowering students with skills to build the arts organizations of tomorrow. His lectures translate the day-to-day experiences of running an artist-led organization into a series of workshops covering topics such as self-management, non-profit development, and commissioning new work. He has been a guest lecturer on Arts Entrepreneurship and Contemporary Music at institutions such as Harvard University, the University of Michigan, University of Colorado Boulder, New England Conservatory, University of Texas at Austin, and others.

Outside of his work with HNM, Avitabile has worked with prominent composers including Harrison Birtwhistle, John Zorn, Brett Dean, and Christian Wolfe. As an orchestral musician, he has received fellowships to play with the National Repertory Orchestra, Banff Festival Orchestra, and has also performed with the New World Symphony.

He holds degrees from the University of Michigan (BM) and New England Conservatory (MM), graduating with top honors from both schools. At Michigan, he was a Shipman Scholar, one of the highest awards given to an incoming student university-wide. While at NEC, he received the John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Music. In his free time, Avitabile enjoys developing recipes, practicing yoga, and exploring Boston’s many coffee shops. Avitabile is a Haynes Flutes Artist.

Detroit-based violinist and violist Magnolia “Meg” Rohrer (they/them/she/her) specializes in new and experimental chamber music. Magnolia is the violinist of Hub New Music, a touring quartet dedicated to commissioning and performing new chamber music repertoire. Magnolia is also the violinist and violist in Virago, a Michigan-based quartet that melds contemporary chamber music with free improvisation. For two years, Magnolia was a member of the award-winning Converge String Quartet, a group dedicated to premiering new works by University of Michigan composers, and they now perform regularly with the Kalkaska String Quartet. Other current projects include Violet Booleans: a violin + live-processing electronics duo with Derek Worthington, Willis/Rohrer: an improvising violin + bass duo with Ben Willis, a violin/viola duo with Madeline Warner, and a solo project with fixed media exploring microtonal polyphony.

Magnolia performs regularly with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and has made guest concertmaster appearances with the Michigan Philharmonic. Solo concerto engagements include the National Chinese Orchestra Taiwan in Taipei, Taiwan, the Thailand International Composer Festival in Mahidol, Thailand, and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra in Palo Alto, CA. As an educator, Magnolia has trained in the Suzuki method and is influenced by the pedagogies of Mimi Zweig, Mark Mutter, Marilyn O’Boyle, Blair Milton, Danielle Belen, and Ed Sarath. Magnolia has taught through the Sphinx Organization, Crescendo Detroit, the Crowden Music Center in Berkeley, CA, the Ann Arbor Public Schools camp at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Àkójọpò Music Festival, The People’s Music School in Chicago, and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra summer workshop. Rohrer has led free improvisation workshops in Detroit, Flint, Ypsilanti, and Interlochen.

Magnolia earned their masters degree at the University of Michigan studying with Danielle Belen and Caroline Coade, and holds a bachelors degree from Northwestern University where they studied with Blair Milton.

Magnolia is a New Mexican who grew up in California and is now embracing life as a Michigander. In their free time, Magnolia enjoys baking sourdough bread, the ever expanding Star Wars universe, and spending time with their eight younger siblings.

Gleb Kanasevich is a clarinetist, composer, and noise/drone musician.He currently works primarily with feedback and modified instruments, while exploring expressive possibilities in very simple electronic processing. He works often as a soloist and collaborates with composers, chamber music groups, improvisers, noise musicians, death metal bands, and many more types of artists. His blackened noise album Asleep (Unknown Tapes) and the immersive 45-minute Subtraction (Flag Day Recordings) came out to critical acclaim in 2019.

Most recently, he was commissioned by Ensemble Intercontemporain, Callithumpian Consort, and No Exit New Music Ensemble. In 2020, he released a new improvisation project for modified recorder and guitar amplifiers Capacity. It came out as a very limited edition of 20 lathe cut vinyl records with unique hand-drawn sleeves in July, 2020. Capacity has been survived by fully composed follow-up works for cello (written for Peter Kibbe, commissioned by NakedEye Ensemble) and bass clarinet (scheduled for a 2021 premiere by Ashley Smith, commissioned through Cultural Council of Australia).

Since 2013, he has been a core member of Ensemble Cantata Profana - a group based in New York City. In August 2018, he has taken on the duties of the ensemble's Associate Artistic Director after moving to New York City.From 2016 until Spring, 2019, Kanasevich also worked as a curator/video maker for the online new music database and audio/video/score resource ScoreFollower/Incipitsify. In March 2021, he transformed Unknown Tapes from a self-release platform into a recording artist community dedicated to showcasing work by artists with unique approaches to spontaneous music making and improvisation techniques, regardless of genre. As of July, 2022, he is the new permanent member of Hub New Music.

Versatile cellist Jesse Christeson wears a number of musical hats around the country. Usually in the creative workshop with Boston-based Hub New Music, he also travels to serve as Principal Cellist of the Huntsville (AL) Symphony. He held the same position in the Mississippi Symphony for several years prior. Jesse is a founding member of the Inaugural Piano Trio in Jackson, MS, and also returns to collaborate with New JXN. In Boston, he can often be heard performing with start-ups Phoenix and Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra.

For several years Jesse was very active as a multi-faceted performer and teacher in Houston, TX. In addition to working as a freelance cellist, he performed as a vocalist in the Houston Grand Opera and Bach Society of Houston choruses. He taught a cello studio at the Rice Preparatory Program and local public schools.

Mr. Christeson has frequently spent summers performing at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he featured in the New Fromm Players and orchestra festival. His other summer engagements have included the festivals of Aspen, Brevard, and the National Orchestral Institute. Jesse received his MM from Rice University (studio of Norman Fischer), and his BM from Stetson University in DeLand, FL, where he studied cello (studio of David Bjella), voice, and philosophy.

Choo Choo Hu has performed all across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist. Recent solo engagements include appearances with the Atlanta Symphony, the Spokane Symphony, and the Atlanta Philharmonic. She frequently collaborates with the Atlanta Symphony as an orchestral pianist, and with the Atlanta Opera as music director/repetiteur. She has also performed with the Baltimore Symphony, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, The York Symphony, and Prince George’s Philharmonic. Choo Choo is a founding member of ensemble vim, a new music collective dedicated to bringing multidisciplinary performances of underrepresented living composers to underserved communities. Choo Choo is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music where she studied with Leon Fleisher and Brian Ganz. She and her husband currently reside in Atlanta’s Ansley Park neighborhood. They love nothing more than to host wine and music reading parties, and dream of one day opening a chamber music festival in the mountains.

Dr. Andrew Lynge has served as the Percussion Area Coordinator at The University of Alabama since 2019. His debut solo album, Alchemy: Music for Solo Percussion and Fixed Media, was released in 2024 on the Equilibrium Recording Label and includes works by Wharton, Viñao, Walker, and Psathas. He leads the internationally acclaimed UA Percussion Ensemble, winners of the 2020 and 2024 PAS International Percussion Ensemble Competitions, the highest honor received by a university percussion ensemble. The UA Percussion Ensemble performed Showcase Concerts at the 2021 and 2024 Percussion Arts Society International Conventions. The UA Percussion Ensemble’s debut album, Fear/Release, was released in 2024 on the Equilibrium Recording Label and includes works by Akiho, Reid, Muhly, Peruzzolo-Vieira, Curtis, and Psathas.

As an international percussionist, Dr. Lynge has performed and presented in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Italy, South Korea, and Thailand. He was a concerto soloist with the Dallas Winds at the 2021 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic and has performed at five Percussive Arts Society International Conventions, both as a soloist and ensemble musician. He was a featured artist at the 16th, 18th, and 20th Patagonia International Percussion Festivals in General Roca, Argentina; the 2019 and 2021 World Percussion Movement in Bari, Italy; the 2019 Percussion Seminar at Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Campinas, Brazil; the 2022 JeJu International Brass and Percussion Festival in JeJu, South Korea; and the 2nd International Thailand International Percussion Festival in Bangkok, Thailand.

Dr. Lynge is a founding member of Epoch Percussion, a percussion quartet who has gained a national reputation as concerto soloists with top wind bands in the United States. With over a dozen concerto performances, Epoch Percussion have been featured soloists with the Dallas Winds, The University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble, The University of Alabama Wind Ensemble, Columbus State University Wind Ensemble, Kennesaw State University Wind Ensemble, Las Vegas Academy of the Arts Wind Ensemble, and the World Youth Wind Symphony at the Interlochen Arts Camp. They premiered the wind ensemble arrangement of Orbital by John Psathas with the Dallas Winds and The University of Texas Wind Ensemble in 2023. Tim Diovanni, from The Dallas Morning News, states, “The Epoch Percussion Quartet, made up of Cory Fica, Nigel Fernandez, Oni Lara, and Andrew Lynge, combined rhythmic precision with nonstop energy.”

Dr. Lynge is an artist and clinician for Innovative Percussion, Pearl/Adams Percussion, Zildjian, REMO, and Black Swamp Percussion.