Individual Bios:
Luca Fontaine, a Paris-born actor of French-Italian heritage, is a Juilliard graduate (MFA Acting, Group 51) and an alum of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. His stage work includes *God’s Fool* at La MaMa Off-Broadway, directed by Martha Clarke. In 2024, Luca appeared in the American series *Evil* (CBS Studios/Paramount TV), Netflix’s Spanish thriller *La última noche en Tremor* by Oriol Paulo, and the French production *Zorro* for Paramount+. He also made his debut as a writer, producer, and actor with the short film *Blue or Green*, showcased this year at the Chelsea Film Festival.
Christian-Frédéric Bloquert is a French composer & conductor noted for his subtle and innovative uses of colour and orchestration, and his attention to detail. His music has been played by such groups as the Ensemble InterContemporain, Les Siècles, the MIVOS Quartet, the Juilliard Symphony, National Sawdust, the Society for New Music, and the PHACE Ensemble amongst others. He was most recently awarded the Pisar Prize. As a conductor, Bloquert often premieres works by fellow composers and is the Music Director & Co-founder of the BeComEnsemble.
Adrienne Schoenfeld is a composer, bassist and educator living in Brooklyn. Her work is based upon collaborative and improvisational practices. Alongside members Leah Micheal Whalen and Jake Miles, she founded the experimental new music trio, kon.trip. She has created music for a number of dance collaborations with artists Weichen Cui, Lu Wang, Tshedzom, and Rafailia Bampasidou. In 2022 and 2024, she participated in Ensemble Evolution led by International Contemporary Ensemble as a bass player and composer. Some of her recent bass performances include at the IRCAM Forum, with Noise Catalogue, and with DUO BEAL/SCHOENFELD. She graduated with a Masters in Concert Composition from NYU Steinhardt. She wrote the song cycle, Wildfire, on the life and work of Mary Shelly for Cristina Gallo’s concert program Lost Narratives collaborating with librettist Demree Mcgee Her music has been performed by Roadrunner Trio, The Rhythm Method, Hypercube, and BlackBox Ensemble, amongst others. Since 2023, she has been the Executive Director of BeComEnsemble.
Violinist Raina Arnett performs internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Her recent festival appearances include the London Jazz Festival (UK), Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Grafenegg Festival (Austria), Festival PAAX GNP (Mexico), Creative Dialogues XI (Finland), Bach Virtuosi Festival (USA), and Bang on a Can Long Play Festival (USA). Highlights of recent and upcoming seasons include leading the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra in Switzerland; performing at Carnegie Hall and National Sawdust with Ensemble Signal; leading the Southbank Sinfonia in a sold-out performance at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Rome; and performing as a soloist with the New Amsterdam Symphony (NYC). Passionate about contemporary music, Raina is a founder of the contemporary group the Glass Clouds Ensemble, a chamber music collective which performs imaginative concerts of classical & contemporary music on environmental themes. They have been invited to artist residencies at the Yellow Barn Institute, the Banff Centre, and the Avaloch Farm Music Institute. The Glass Clouds Ensemble is a recipient of grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Chamber Music America, and the Juilliard School. Her mentors include Leila Josefowicz, Brad Lubman, and Renee Jolles. Raina is a recent MM graduate of the Juilliard School and is based in New York City.
French-Lebanese-American violist Noémie Chemali enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and writer. Praised for her “formidable technique” (The Flip Side) and her “technical and interpretive skills” (New Music Buff), Ms. Chemali has received grants and awards from Chamber Music America, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Juilliard School, and the Barenboim-Said Foundation. Her performances have taken her across the United States, Canada, and Europe, performing in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Auditorium Conciliazione, Salle Bourgie, la Maison Symphonique de Montréal, the United Nations Headquarters, and many others. Noémie is the violist and co-founder of Riwaya Ensemble, a New York-based contemporary music ensemble that celebrates the rich heritage and artistic innovation of contemporary Middle Eastern classical music. She recently released her debut album of music by Lebanese composers, Opus 961 under the label Dreyer-Gaido, which has been critically acclaimed and featured by publications such as La Scena Musicale, Strings Magazine, The Violin Channel, L’agenda Culturel, L’Orient le Jour, Oberon’s Grove, and Chelsea Pianista, amongst others.
Praised by Christoph Eschenbach as an “extraordinarily musical and deeply emotional“ player, Berlin-born cellist Johannes Przygodda made his debut with orchestra at the age of eight in the Berlin Philharmonie and has since performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the German Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Badische Philharmonie.He is a founding member of the Quantum Clarinet Trio which released their debut CD in 2023, produced by Deutschlandfunk Kultur on the Hänssler label. They received 5-star reviews from major European magazines, and were broadcast on national radio stations in Germany, France and Italy. Johannes is a first-prize winner of several national and international competitions and appears regularly as soloist and chamber musician in festivals around the world. He has performed at the Teatro La Fenice, the Elbphilharmonie, the Tokyo City Opera, the Seoul Arts Centre and the Wiener Musikverein, among others. His teachers included Stephan Forck at the Hochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin, and Clemens Hagen at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 2020 he completed a master’s degree from the CNSM in Paris where he studied with Jérôme Pernoo. He is currently pursuing an artist diploma with Tristan Cornut at the Hochschule Stuttgart.
Alexander “Sasha” Yakub is pursuing his graduate diploma in violin performance under Leila Josefowicz as her first and only student at the Mannes School of Music (The New School) on a full scholarship, where he also completed his masters as a President’s Scholar under Miranda Cuckson in 2022. Sasha holds a bachelors in music from Harvard University, where he received the 2020 Robert Levin Prize in Musical Performance and was a 2019 Harvard Office for the Arts Development Fellow. Sasha was also a 2022 and 2023 Akademist at the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, 2021 Bang On a Can Summer Festival Fellow, 2020 Yamaha Young Artists Competition honorable mention winner, and a 2017 and 2018 Tanglewood Music Center Violin Fellow, during the second year of which he served as concertmaster for the 2018 Myrios recording of “In Seven Days” by Thomas Adès (Kirill Gerstein, soloist). The album containing it, also titled In Seven Days, was the 2021 winner of the contemporary category in the International Classical Music Awards. In November, Sasha served as concertmaster of the Mannes Orchestra for the world premiere recording of Jennifer Higdon’s new flute concerto, The Light That We Can Hear, featuring Valerie Coleman on flute. Previously, Sasha has studied under Lynn Chang, James Buswell, Minna Diner, and Giovina Sessions.
As part of Duo 404, a violin/keyboards duo with Forrest Eimold specializing in the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Sasha has traveled to the UK to study with Thomas Adès at the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove. Sasha’s other notable public performances include the world premiere of Paul Mortilla’s violin concerto “Animal Brain: ad infinitum perplexus confixium” with New Music New Haven at the Yale School of Music and the performance of “Synchronisms No. 9” at the Harvard Music Department’s memorial concert for Prof. Emeritus Mario Davidovsky. Sasha lives in New York, where he contracts with Lincoln Center Stage and the American Composers Alliance, and serves as concertmaster of the BeComEnsemble.