Yvar Mikhashoff: Songs and Dances

Yvar Mikhashoff

Yvar Emilian Mikhashoff (1941–1993) was an American virtuoso pianist and composer best known for his performance of contemporary classical music. Born Ronald Mackay in 1941 in Troy, New York, he took the name of his Russian grandfather in 1968.

Mikhashoff began piano studies with Betty Weir and Stanley Hummel in Albany. At the Eastman School of Music in 1959, he first majored in composition and cello, then changed to piano studies with Armand Basile. In the 1961 academic year, he studied piano with Beveridge Webster at the Juilliard School. He also had a career as a ballroom dancer from 1962-1965.

In 1964 Mikhashoff entered the University of Houston for studies in piano with Albert Hirsh. He earned a B.M. in 1967 and continued with graduate study in composition with Elmer Schoettle and obtained his M.M. in 1968.

Receiving a Fulbright scholarship, Mikhashoff studied the music of the French Impressionists with Nadia Boulanger. After his return to the United States, Mikhashoff entered the University of Texas at Austin as a doctoral candidate in composition and studied with Hunter Johnson, Kent Kennan, Janet McGaughey and Karl Korte. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a major in composition and a minor in literature in August 1973.

In the Fall of 1973, Mikhashoff was appointed Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo, a position he held until his death in 1993. He founded the Cambiata Soloists and later moved the ensemble’s location from Houston to Albany, giving an annual series of concerts at the Albany Institute of History and Art. He received the Arts Council of Great Britain Performance Award in 1983 and the Arbeiterkammerpreis from the Austrian government in 1989. He also received Fulbright scholarships for study in Denmark and Argentina.

Mikhashoff was a leading performer of contemporary piano music with appearances at many of the world's leading music festivals, including the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Zagreb Biennale, Holland Festival, Ars Musica, Numus Festival, Huddersfield Festival, Music Nova Brazil, and Pan Music Festival Korea. He performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world including the Danish Radio Concert Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta filarmonica de Buenos Aires, Orchestra sinfonia di Roma, Norwegian Radio Orkestra, and many others. Mikhashoff was very active as a recording artist, with releases on the Nonesuch, CRI, Mode, Spectrum, Paula, EMI, and New Albion labels. He recorded for every major broadcast center in Europe as well as for Radio Hong Kong and NHK/Tokyo.

Mikhashoff worked closely with many illustrious composers including John Cage, Morton Feldman, Lukas Foss, Per Nørgård, Poul Ruders and Giacinto Scelsi. Sylvano Bussotti created the role of Mr. Fred for Mikhashoff in his opera Le Racine: Pianobar pour Phèdre, premiered at Piccolo Scala in Milan in 1980. He collaborated with Conlon Nancarrow on instrumental arrangements of his Studies for Player Piano, which are published by Schott and have been performed worldwide.

In addition to his performance schedule, Mikhashoff was artistic advisor for many festivals and venues: with Pierre Audi at the Almeida Festival in London and De Isjbrekjer in Amsterdam; with Geir Johnson in the formation of the Music Factory in Bergen; and as a co-founder with Jan Williams of the North American Music Festival in Buffalo.

From 1983 to 1991 Mikhashoff commissioned no fewer than 127 tangos for solo piano from 127 composers, nineteen of which he recorded for New Albion Records. Among his extensive recordings are six releases on Mode Records including the four-CD set “Panorama of American Piano Music” which recreates a marathon concert of music from Ives to Cage. His virtuosic opera transcriptions have been recorded by Jean-Yves Thibaudet on Decca and his monumental piano trilogy, Elemental Figures, has been recorded by Winston Choi on Albany Records. An archive of Mikhashoff's work is held by the Music Library of University at Buffalo Libraries.

Sarah Frisof

Sarah Frisof is currently the Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Maryland. She was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Kobe International Flute Competition, and the 2nd Prizewinner of the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition and the Heida Hermanns International Woodwind Competition. Sarah has attended the Verbier, Tanglewood, Pacific, and Aspen Music Festivals, and she has played with many major symphony orchestras. She serves as principal flute with the Dallas Wind Symphony, and each summer she plays at Music in the Mountains (Durango, CO) and the Sunflower Music Festival (Topeka, KS). Her interests in outreach and education have taken her to Zimbabwe and Brazil, where she ran music programs and participated in humanitarian work. Sarah previously served on the faculties of the University of Kansas and the University of Texas at Arlington, and is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, the Juilliard School, and the University of Michigan.

Daniel Pesca

Daniel Pesca is a composer and pianist whose interpretations stand out for their creativity and dynamism. Daniel has participated in the premieres of more than one hundred new works, many of which were composed for him. In the process, he has shared the stage with many leading new music ensembles, including Ensemble Signal, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Dal Niente. He is a founding member of the Grossman Ensemble and the Zohn Collective, both notable for their innovative approach to the development of new work. He has performed as concerto soloist with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Orchestra of the League of Composers, Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble and Slee Sinfonietta.

Daniel appears on recordings from Urtext Classics, Centaur, Albany, New Focus, CCCC, Nimbus, Furious Artisans, Neuma, Sideband, and Oberlin Records. His debut solo album Promontory, released Fall 2021, includes world premieres of works by Augusta Read Thomas, Alison Yun-Fei Jiang, and Aaron Travers, plus compositions by Daniel. In reviews of this album, Daniel has been hailed as “the perfect composer-virtuoso pianist” (All about the Arts) and “equally talented as pianist, composer and ad- vocate of his peers’ works” (Fanfare). Daniel is Assistant Professor of Music at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and was previously artist-in-residence at the University of Chicago.

Tiffany Du Mouchelle

Tiffany Du Mouchelle is most recognized for her fearlessness in exploring new and challenging repertoire, ushering the voice into new realms of expressivity, featuring over 100 different languages and exploring the genres of classical, world, contemporary, cabaret, and theatrical works. Recipient of the prestigious Richard F. Gold Career Grant for American Opera Singers, Du Mouchelle has performed across the world, from NYC's Lincoln Center to Yoro, Papua New Guinea. Performance highlights include: the Australian premiere of Stockhausen’s Sirius, the modern premiere of Karl von Seckendorff ’s Proserpina, the world premiere of Paul Botelho’s Proserpina, the world premiere of Roger Reynolds’ Justice: The Songs, and the world premiere of Anthony Davis’ Lear on the 2nd Floor. She is the co-founder of Aurora Borealis, a voice and percussion duo with her husband, Stephen Solook. She is a resident performer for the June in Buffalo Festival at the University at Buffalo, where she is on the voice faculty.

Amy Williams

Amy Williams is a composer of music that is “simultaneously demanding, rewarding and fascinating” (Buffalo News),“fresh, daring and incisive” (Fanfare). Her compositions have been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JACK Quartet, Bent Frequency, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Wet Ink, Talujon, International Contemporary Ensemble, Junction Trio, Orpheus, pianist Ursula Oppens, soprano Tony Arnold, bassist Robert Black and many others. Her works appear on the Albany, Parma, VDM (Italy), Blue Griffin, New Focus, Proper Canary, and Centaur labels. As a member of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, Ms. Williams has performed throughout Europe and the Americas and recorded six critically-acclaimed CDs for Wergo. She has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, Howard Foundation, American-Scandinavian Foundation, Macdowell and the American Academy of Arts and Letters and commissions from the Fromm and Koussevitsky Foundations. Ms. Williams has taught at Bennington College and Northwestern University and is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh. She is Artistic Director of the New Music On The Point Festival in Vermont.