Vermont Festival June 2024

As a dynamic composer and unique music educator, WYNN-ANNE ROSSI’s compositions have reached audiences throughout the United States and around the world. She has over 100 publications, primarily for piano, that are widely distributed online and in music stores. Her repertoire also includes works for vocal and chamber groups, concert band and orchestra. Various commissions have been sponsored by Minnesota Public Radio, the National Endowment for the Arts, Music Teachers National Association and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. 

Wynn-Anne has a specialty for bringing the art of composition to young musicians. She has been offering composition residencies in Minnesota schools and across the country since 2003, inspiring hundreds of students to write their own music. Partnerships have included the MUNDI Project (UT), the Linda Luebke Strings Festival (IN), the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (MN), and many more. Rossi has also written two comprehensive series that encourage young pianists to compose: Music by Me (FJH, with Kevin Olson) and most recently, Creative Composition Toolbox(Alfred).                   

Active as a presenter, Wynn-Anne is known for her innovative lectures, workshops and master classes. She lectures on a wide variety of subjects, including the importance of “Speaking Music” and “American Music: Jazz meets Latin,” inspired by her two popular series, Música Latina and Jazzin’ Americana (Alfred).  

Rossi was educated in music theory and composition at the University of Colorado. Further training included choral conducting at Harvard University and jazz pedagogy through the University of Illinois. She has also studied composition under Pulitzer Prize recipient Aaron Jay Kernis.

MARTHA HILL DUNCAN has been Abundant Silence’s Featured Composition Educator. A Texas native, she began piano lessons at the age of eight and later received a diploma in vocal music in the first graduating class of The Houston High School for Performing and Visual Arts. She earned a degree in composition from The University of Texas at Austin studying composition with Donald Grantham and piano with Gregory Allen, Danielle Martin, and Errol Haun. In Ithaca, New York she worked with pianist Trudi Borden and composer Robert Palmer and in 1982, moved to Canada with her husband, astrophysicist Martin Duncan. In Toronto she continued her musical studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music with composer Sam Dolin.

In recognition of her adopted country, many of Martha’s vocal and choral works are set to Canadian texts. Some of these songs have won awards in both American and Canadian choral and art song competitions. In addition to her vocal writing, Martha is also known for her piano compositions, many of which were inspired by places where she has lived or visited. A piano examiner for The Royal Conservatory of Music, Martha is also a renowned clinician and frequent adjudicator. She lives in Kingston, Ontario with her husband and has two grown children: Alex, a mathematician and Claire, a singer, actress and voice over artist.

JOHN SALMON is the only person to have served as a judge for the Festival every year since its founding in 2001. He has distinguished himself on four continents, as both a classical and jazz artist.

In the United States, he has given recitals for the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the Discovery Series in Indianapolis, the Van Cliburn Foundation in Fort Worth, and a Busoni Gala at Symphony Space in New York. He has also appeared as recitalist at many colleges and universities across the United States, including Tulane, Vanderbilt,  Cincinnati College Conservatory, and San Francisco State University.

His performances have been heard on many radio stations in the U.S., including NPR, WNYC in New York, WFMT in Chicago, and KUSC in Los Angeles; and on the national radio stations of Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Ukraine.

John is also a frequent guest performer at festivals in the U.S. and Europe, having appeared at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, South Carolina), Piano Festival Northwest (Portland, Oregon), Interlochen Piano Festival (Interlochen, Michigan), Festival Internacional de Música del Mediterráneo (Cartagena, Spain), and the International Bartók Festival (Szombathely, Hungary). He has toured China six times, with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Hangzhou. He has also been the featured artist for the Music Teachers National Association state conferences in California (CAPMT), Virginia (VMTA), and Minnesota (MMTA).   
 
John has recorded four compact discs of Dave Brubeck’s classical piano music, on the Phoenix, Naxos, and Albany labels. Brubeck dedicated two compositions to Salmon – “The Salmon Strikes (song sample)” and “Bach Again (song sample).”John’s CD of piano pieces by Nikolai Kapustin is also on the Naxos label, and his CD of his own jazz compositions, Salmon Is A Jumpin’, was released by Albany Records in November 2010.

As guest lecturer, John has spoken on a wide array of topics – e.g., “Beethoven’s Shadow” (The Juilliard School), “September 1828: Schubert’s Last Three Piano Sonatas” (Boston Conservatory), and “Adding Notes to Classical Scores” (Conservatorio de Música, Morelia, Mexico).
 
John has been a member of the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music since 1989. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin; the Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School; the Solistendiplom from the Hochschule für Musik, Freiburg, Germany; and the Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts (philosophy) degrees from Texas Christian University. His awards include the Premio Jaén (1979), the Gina Bachauer Award from Juilliard, a fellowship from the Beethoven Foundation (known nowadays as the American Pianists Association), and prizes from the 1979 University of Maryland (William Kapell Competition) and 1984 Busoni competitions.

KEVIN OLSON is an active pianist, composer, and member of the piano faculty at Utah State University, where he has taught courses in piano literature, pedagogy, collaborative piano, music theory, aural skills, and others. In addition to his collegiate teaching responsibilities, Kevin coordinates the piano program at Utah State University, and oversees the Utah State University Youth Conservatory, which provides weekly group and private piano instruction to more than 200 pre-college community students. The National Association of Schools of Music has recently recognized the Conservatory as a model for pre-college piano instruction programs. Before teaching at Utah State, he was on the faculty at Elmhurst College near Chicago and Humboldt State University in northern California.
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A native of Utah, Kevin began composing at age five. When he was twelve, his composition, An American Trainride, received the Overall First Prize at the 1983 National PTA Convention at Albuquerque, New Mexico. Since then he has been a Composer in Residence at the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and has written music commissioned and performed by groups such as the Five Browns, American Piano Quartet, American Festival Choir and Orchestra, Chicago a cappella, the Rich Matteson Jazz Festival, Music Teachers National Association, and several piano teacher associations around the country. He gives workshops and performances nationally and internationally, most recently in India, China, Canada, and Great Britain.

Kevin maintains a large piano studio, teaching students of a variety of ages and abilities. Many of the needs of his own piano students have inspired hundreds of books and solos published by the FJH Music Company, which he joined as a writer in 1994.

EVAN MAZUNIK plays contemporary and improvised music as a composer, keyboardist, and musical director in the Denver, CO area. Fluent in Soundpainting (52 videos), a sign language for live composition, Evan is composer/director for ZAHA, his NYC-based ensemble. He has performed with Carla Bley, Anthony Braxton, and Robin Eubanks, and has played at creative music venues such as Roulette, The Stone, and Dazzle.

As a composer, his commissions have included works for jazz band, chorus, and various solo instruments, as well as interdisciplinary works for theater, dance, and film. He scored the HBO2 documentary “The Checker King,” which received critical acclaim at the DOCtober Film Fest in Santa Monica, CA.

As an educator, he founded the Sunnyside Piano Academy while in New York, and has collaborated with Jeffrey Agrell for master classes and workshops at Colorado Mesa University, University of Indiana, University of North Texas, Southern Mississippi University, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and many others.

In 2016, he was the first (and only) person – in conjunction with
Jeffrey Agrell – to perform a 100% improvised audience-interactive concert on Colorado Mesa University’s Guest Artist Series (see Agrell-Mazunik program). He returned on September 25, 2019 to once again perform on CMU’s Guest Artist Series with another improvisation enthusiast, Conrad Kehn.

Evan received a Bachelors degree in piano performance and a Masters in jazz studies from the University of Iowa. He currently serves as Director of Worship, Music & Arts at Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in Englewood, CO.