Praised by The New York Times as a composer of "ear-grabbing invention," Fernando Benadon has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Tanglewood's Fromm Foundation Award, Copland House's Aaron Copland Award, the League of Composers/IscM composition prize, MSAC's Individual Artist Award, and UC- Berkeley's Ladd Prize (which funds a two-year residence in Paris). Ensembles that have performed his music include Talea, New York New Music Ensemble, Les Jeunes Solistes, Empyrean, and Continuum.
16Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County https://www.creativemoco.comSuzan.Jenkins@creativemoco.com(301) 565-3805
801 Ellsworth Dr
Silver Spring, MD 20910
United States
Rasha grew up between Damascus and rural south Georgia and cut their teeth organizing on the southsides of Chicago and Atlanta. They are a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers and Alternate ROOTS. Their work appears in online and in print, including the anthologies Halal if You Hear Me (Haymarket Press, 2019) and Letters to Octavia E. Butler (Twelfth Planet Press 2017).
I come from an artistic family. One of my earliest memories is of my mother teaching me how to play piano in our living room, where I first learned how to make music. ln the 3rd grade, I had to choose an instrument for school, and that instrument was the violin. I began private lessons with an instructor who gave me direction in classical technique but who also nurtured any curiosity I held in regard to other genres. My father plays the accordion, and from him I gained an interest in Irish music, the music him and the rest of his side of the family plays.
Dani Cortaza has three decades of artistic life to his credit. This talented musician specializes in Brazilian, Latin jazz and South America folklore, in both nylon and electric jazz guitar. ln addition, he also performs, composes and arranges Latin American folk music.
He has appeared in many prestigious concert venues around the world, namely in Japan, Europe, South America and the United States.
"My art aims to traverse the distance between traditional and contemporary, East and West, planned and spontaneous. As an American of Indian descent, my dance and music represent a hybrid of my two cultures - an effort to preserve the ancient cultures of India by interpreting them in a modern language and context. My artistic practice means, to me, acting as a conduit for the beauty of lndia's cultural arts in the West. I consider myself on the fringes between two worlds, floating somewhere in between, trying to act as a bridge between them.
For 40 years Karen Ashbrook has been an international pioneer and advocate for the hammered dulcimer. With Silver Spring, Maryland as home base, she has brought magic of the 76 resonating dulcimer strings to a wide audience, from the young children who attend her summer hedge schools in Irish culture to the elderly and infirm with whom she engages as a certified music practitioner in the healing arts. She has entertained at the John F. Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution and the White House, as well as concert halls and festivals in the U.S. and around the world.
John Deamond, labeling himself an autotype artist, deconstructs photography to investigate the meeting of the human and natural world. He links this border to the borders of what is photographic, breaking the medium into its constituent parts (direct capture, reproducibility, use of light, etc.). In this way, John simultaneously gains insight into how we can redefine the place of photography and our place in nature in the twenty-first century. While his artwork often takes on the appearance of sculpture and installation, its essence is photographic.
Nicole Salimbene (b. Trinidad, CO) is a Washington, D.C. based interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of poetics, psychology, environmentalism, and contemplative practice.
ADRIANE FANG is a dancer, teacher and choreographer with a keen interest in multidisciplinary collaboration. She was a member of the internationally renowned dance company, Doug Varone and Dancers, from 1996-2006 and has worked with several other choreographers including Colleen Thomas, Bill Young, Wally Cardona, Christopher K. Morgan and Nancy Bannon.
Proclaimed "a wizard of invention," by the Washington Post, Adrienne Clancy is a Maryland based dance artist. As a "tour de force of unpredictable partnering," (Washington Post) her work explores architecturally informed partnering developed amongst diverse artists. Assured to be simultaneously dynamic yet extremely human, the choreography exemplifies an environment of mutual respect and creates potent images that embrace diversity and community awareness.