South Berkshire Concerts to Feature Premier Performance
The South Berkshire Concert Series will present the adventurous violist Stephanie Griffin and the veteran new music
pianist Cheryl Seltzer on Sunday, April 2, at 3:00 p.m. in Kellogg Music Center at
Bard College at Simon's Rock. Admission is by a suggested donation of $10. For more
information, call 413-528-7212.
Griffin and Seltzer will perform an exciting and challenging program of works for
viola and piano, including “Sonata para Viola y Piano (2015)” written especially for
these performers by the distinguished Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra, the “Arpeggione”
Sonata by Schubert, and works by Wolpe, Mamlok, Babbitt, and Ms Griffin herself. 
Stephanie Griffin is an innovative violist/composer with a unique and eclectic musical vision. Born
in Canada and based in New York City, her musical adventures have taken her to Indonesia,
Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, England, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, and Mongolia.
From large concert halls to the sand dunes of the Gobi desert, she has performed as
a soloist and chamber musician in classical, contemporary, and improvisational contexts.
As a soloist, she has been praised by the Los Angeles Times as “enthralling” and has
worked closely with numerous composers, among them Salvatore Sciarrino, Tristan Murail
and Tony Prabowo.
Griffin founded the Momenta Quartet in 2004 and is a member of the Argento Chamber
Ensemble and Continuum. She serves as principal violist of the Princeton Symphony
and on the faculty of Brooklyn College, and is the former curator of contemporary
music at Galapagos Art and Performance Space. As an improviser, Stephanie was a 2014
fellow at Music Omi and performs regularly with numerous avant-jazz bands and composer/performer
collectives. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School where
she studied with Juilliard Quartet violist Samuel Rhodes. Griffin has recorded for
Tzadik, Innova, Naxos, Aeon, Centaur, Aksara, Firehouse 12, and New World, Albany,
and Aeon records. She is a 2016 fellow in Music from the New York Foundation for the
Arts.
Cited for her “brilliant” performances (New York Times), pianist Cheryl Seltzer is a founder and co-director of the internationally-acclaimed new music ensemble
Continuum. Avid about contemporary music since studying at Mills College with composers
Darius Milhaud, Leon Kirchner, and Lawrence Moss, Seltzer also holds graduate degrees
in musicology from Columbia University. She made her solo debut with the San Francisco
Symphony and has participated in the Tanglewood and Marlboro music festivals.
Seltzer performs traditional and contemporary repertoire at festivals worldwide, including
repeated visits to Mongolia and Central Asia with Continuum. She has had the privilege
of working with numerous 20th- and 21st- century composers, including Milton Babbitt, Ursula Mamlok, Roberto Sierra, and
Stefan Wolpe all of whom are on the Simon’s Rock concert program. Her extensive recordings
are on Naxos, Bridge, New Albion, TNC, Musical Heritage Society, CRI, Nonesuch, and
Vox. She serves on the piano faculty of the Lucy Moses School, New York, and for 10 years
directed its Young People’s Division. She is a founding officer of the Stefan Wolpe
Society and the newly-established Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Foundation.
Composer Roberto Sierra was born in 1953 in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, and studied composition both in Puerto
Rico and Europe, where one his teachers was György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik
in Hamburg, Germany. The works of Roberto Sierra are published principally by Subito
Music Publishing (ASCAP). For more than three decades the works of this five-time
Grammy nominated composer have been part of the repertoire of many of the leading
orchestras, ensembles, and festivals in the USA and Europe. At the inaugural concert
of the 2002 world renowned Proms in London, his Fandangos was performed by the BBC
Symphony Orchestra in a concert that was broadcast by both the BBC Radio and Television
throughout the UK and Europe.
Many of the major American and European orchestras and international ensembles have
commissioned and performed his works. Among those ensembles are the orchestras of
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Mexico, Houston, Minnesota, Dallas, Detroit,
San Antonio and Phoenix, as well as the American Composers Orchestra, the New York
Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish
National Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, the Spanish orchestras of Madrid,
Galicia, Castilla y León, Barcelona, Continuum, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Opus
One, and others.