Foreign Impressions
Other Perspectives Across Time and Space

Martin Hennessy studied at Georgetown University and the Juilliard School with Samuel Sanders and Marshall. He describes himself as a composer, vocal coach and pianist. As an accompanist, he has travelled widely and received many awards. His opera, "A Letter to East 11th Street, will soon be premiered by Musician's Accord in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Katherine Gilliam has her Masters Degree from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland where she studied with Dr. Nicholas Maw and her Bachelors of Fine Arts from Tulane University where she studied with Dr. Barbara Jazwinski.

William Vollinger is primarily a composer of vocal music, performed by groups such as the Gregg Smith Singers and New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, whose performance of his "Three Songs About the Resurrection" won first prize at the Geneva International Competition. "The Violinist in the Mall" won the 2005 Friends and Enemies of New Music competition. "Sound Portraits", recorded by Capstone, features soprano Linda Ferreira, including "The Child in the Hole", the true story of a Jewish boy who was hidden for three years during the Holocaust. It was selected for the 2003 Contemporary Music Festival in Kearney, Nebraska, and the 2004 Society of Composers National Conference. Tennessee Technological University presented an entire concert of his music. His works have been performed and broadcast in Europe, United States, and Asia. NPR devoted an hour program to his music. He is published by Lawson-Gould, Laurendale, and Heritage, with four pieces featured as editor's choices in the Pepper Catalogue.
Writing in "Fanfare" (December 2003), Raymond Beegle writes, "I have known his work for years and believe, after much consideration, that there is genius in it. With astonishing depth and clarity, Vollinger brings his subjects to life. One finds a new musical language, not born out of a desire to be new, but a desire to be clear and to tell the truth. With all it's freshness, it is rooted in our past traditions, felicitously circumventing all the chaos, all the attitudinizing, and intellectualizing, and publicizing, that litter the present musical horizon."

Armand Russell has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from the University of Washington and his Doctorate in composition from the Eastman School of Music. His composition teachers were John Verall, George McKay, Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson.
Russell played double bass in several orchestras. Up until his retirement he was professor of music theory and composition at the University of Hawaii.
He lives and composes in Santa Rosa, California, USA

Martin Read studied music at the Colchester Institute, Goldsmiths College, London University, where he earned his Masters of Music in composition. In 1998 he became a Fellow of Trinity College of Music in London. He is currently Head the Music Department at Alton College.
In 2002 his opera, "dance to the end of time" toured Southern England to great acclaim.
He died in November 2012 at the age of 53.