Rhode Island native John Masko is a rapidly rising orchestral conductor with a knack for bringing contemporary music and time-honored classics together in new ways. He is currently music director of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra and the Providence Medical Orchestra, director of orchestral activities at Marywood University, and a frequent assistant and cover conductor with orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra. An enthusiastic advocate for new music, John is principal conductor of the Boston New Music Initiative. He has conducted at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music and the Atlantic Music Festival, and led numerous premieres, including recent works by Robert Ruohola and Oana Vardianu.

John holds a master’s degree in conducting from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Eric Dudley. He has also studied conducting with Charles Peltz at New England Conservatory. John has conducted in masterclasses led by Cristian Măcelaru, Rüdiger Bohn, Sian Edwards, Paavo Järvi, and Jorma Panula, and has assisted conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Krzysztof Urbanski, Cristian Măcelaru, and Osmo Vänskä.

Outside of music, he fancies himself maker of the best gumbo north of the Mason Dixon Line and is a devotee of the novels of Thomas Hardy.

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Anthea Kechley is an accomplished flutist and educator with a diverse background in performance and teaching.  Upon completing her Bachelor of Music Degree, she was immediately appointed as flute faculty and Director of Flute Choir at Williams College.  Her teaching career has since expanded to include positions at Miami Arts Charter School, Miami Music Project, and the Harmony Program in New York City, the latter two based on Venezuela’s El Sistema model.  Ms. Kechley’s pedagogical approach is deeply influenced by the Suzuki method, which she studied both as a student and teacher under her mother, Jerilee Kechley.

As a performer, Ms. Kechley has showcased her talents throughout the United States, Mexico, and Japan.  Her orchestral experience is extensive, having appeared with Sarasota Orchestra, Florida Grand Opera, Palm Beach Symphony, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Berkshire Symphony, and The Philadelphia Singers, among others.  She has also performed as a concerto soloist with The Chelsea Symphony and Orchestra Seattle.

Ms. Kechley has had the privilege of collaborating with renowned classical musicians such as Lang Lang, Andrea Bocelli, and Itzhak Perlman.  Her musical education was further enriched through participation in prestigious programs including Aspen Music Festival and School, Brevard Music Center, and Texas Music Festival.

Her approach to flute performance and pedagogy has been significantly shaped by Keith Underwood, Nadine Asin, Kim Lorimier, and Jerilee Kechley.  Through her multifaceted career, Ms. Kechley continues to inspire both students and audiences with her passion for music and dedication to excellence.

Shannon is a contemporary clarinetist living in Jamaica Plain.  She received her bachelor's degree in Music Education at Shenandoah University, and her master's degree in Contemporary Classical Music Performance at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee.  Shannon currently works at Berklee as the Senior Administrative Associate in the Professional Writing and Technology Division.  Shannon also walks dogs, teaches lessons, and loves a good (or bad) horror movie.

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Featured in Boston Globe and Hingham Journal, Boston-based concert violinist Ming-hang Tam has performed regularly as a soloist at Duxbury Music Festival, concertmaster with Cambridge Chamber Ensemble, The Company Theatre, and Shift Orchestra Project, as well as section violinist at Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra. He has appeared in Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center, Boston Symphony Hall, and Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre, where he premiered Aaron Jay Kernis’ Symphony No. 4 “Chromelodeon,” and Kevin Puts’ “Letters from Georgia” with Renée Fleming. Mr. Tam serves as a violin faculty artist at South Shore Conservatory, Boston String Academy (also as a teaching artist for Crescendo Music Education of Boston Philharmonic Orchestra), and Suzuki School of Newton. He holds a Master of Music degree in Violin Performance with Academic Honors from the New England Conservatory (NEC) in the studio of Nicholas Kitchen, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Applied Music (Violin) from the Eastman School of Music with Renée Jolles. Named on the Dean’s List for his academic excellence at both schools, Mr. Tam was the recipient of Dean’s Scholarship at NEC, Howard Hanson Scholarship at Eastman, and other merit scholarships at Heifetz International Music Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Catskill High Peaks Festival.

Arjun Mudan is a Boston-based violist/violinist, with a particular interest in the new and the unusual. This is his second season involved with the Boston New Music Initiative. He has performed with numerous Eastern MA ensembles, including the Boston Philharmonic, Cape Ann Symphony, and Plymouth Philharmonic. He was involved in the US and Swiss premiers of major works by Helmut Lachenmann and Friedrich Cerha, and has worked with conductors such as Matthias Pintscher, Jeffrey Milarsky, Heinz Holliger, and JoAnn Falletta. His festival credits include Spoleto, Round Top, and Lucerne. Arjun has a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, and influential teachers include Michelle LaCourse, Jessica Meyer, Cyrus Beroukhim, and Dimitri Murrath.

A native of Norwalk, Connecticut, Stephen has received a Bachelors degree with honors from the University of Connecticut, and Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Boston University.  Stephen’s formative teachers include Michael Reynolds, Kangho Lee, Marc Johnson, and Rhonda Rider.  A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Stephen plays regularly with groups such as Sound Icon, Callithumpian Consort, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and also performs on various new music concert series in the Boston area and beyond.  Stephen has attended music festivals at the Banff Centre, Cortona Sessions for New Music and SoundSCAPE festival in Italy, and the and the Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, Germany.  Stephen has a wide range of musical interest that include contemporary chamber music, improvisatory music, and electroacoustic music.  As a soloist, Stephen has commissioned several new works for the instrument, and is concerned with expanding and augmenting the tonal pallet of his instrument both with and without technology.  Stephen can be heard as a featured artist on Mode Records. In his spare time, Stephen is an avid hiker and outdoorsman.  

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Boston-based pianist, Paul Jacobs has performed across the United States as a soloist and chamber musician in concert halls, universities, and chamber music festivals including Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, UNC-Chapell Hill, and SUNY Plattsburgh. His repertoire covers four centuries of keyboard music with an affinity for 20th century and new works. Solo performances have featured Ives’s Concord Sonata, selections of Ligeti Etudes, and Philip Glass’s Metamorphosis and Etudes.

​ As a champion of new music, Mr. Jacobs has collaborated with American composers Allen Anderson, Martin Boykin, and Steve Rouse. He was the soloist for a recording of Mary Bichner’s piano concerto, Early Spring, commissioned by Mount Auburn Cemetery. He has also recorded with Juventas New Music Ensemble.

Mr. Jacobs is a member of the Thoreau Piano Trio whose past performances include the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival in Vermont, the White Lake Chamber Music Festival in Michigan, the Walker Lecture Series in New Hampshire, and Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Other noteworthy performances include a collaboration with Boston’s Commonwealth Ballet of Leonard Bernstein’s Piano Trio (1937) and a complete performance of the Beethoven piano trios.

Mr. Jacobs holds an Artist Diploma from Longy School of Music, an M.M. from Michigan State University, and a B.M. from Hope College. His former teachers include Randall Hodgkinson and Deborah Moriarty.

He teaches at his home studio in Medford, MA and performs four-hands piano music with his wife, Yilin You.

Matt Sharrock (they/them) is a vibrant musician whose performances have been praised as “eloquent” (San Francisco Chronicle), “sumptuous” (Boston Globe), “gorgeously lyrical” (Pittsburgh Gazette), and they have been hailed one of "Boston's best percussionists" (I Care if You Listen).

Along with clarinetist Amy Advocat as Transient Canvas, Matt tirelessly champions the music of living composers. Since its founding in 2011, TC has premiered over 80 pieces for bass clarinet and marimba while touring extensively in the United States and abroad. They have also sponsored an annual paid Composition Fellowship Program since 2017 that is free and open to composers of all ages. TC has released three albums on New Focus Recordings: Right Now, In a Second, noted by the Boston Globe for its “assemblage of fresh compositions” that “demonstrates the expanse that this pairing…can afford imaginative composers,” Wired, “a must-add to any new music lover’s library” according to I Care If You Listen, and Sift, which KLANG New Music called “one of the more refreshing things I’ve heard in recent years.”

In demand as a chamber musician, Matt is the resident percussionist with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston and has performed with the Lydian String Quartet, Boston Musica Viva, Sound Icon, the Lorelei Ensemble, and with cellist Andrés Díaz at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. They are also a founding member of the mixed quartet Hinge and the Boston Percussion Group. As an orchestral percussionist, Matt can be heard regularly with the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra of Indian Hill, and the Grammy-winning Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and they have performed with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, and Symphony New Hampshire, among others. From 2013-2020 they served as Music Director and conductor for Equilibrium. They have recorded as a soloist, conductor, chamber musician, and orchestra musician on Beauport Classical, BMOP/sound, Innova, Navona, New Focus Recordings, and Ravello Records.

A passionate educator, Matt teaches music theory and liberal arts at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music in addition to being a course developer and facilitator for Berklee Online. They regularly present masterclasses across the U.S. with recent engagements at Chapman University, East Carolina University, University of Missouri Columbia, and the University of Kansas. Dedicated to working with student composers, Transient Canvas has been an ensemble-in-residence with The Boston Conservatory High School Composition Intensive since 2013 and they have held residencies with the composition departments at Harvard, Brandeis, Tufts, and Northeastern Universities, the Dancz Center for New Music at the University of Georgia, Vermont College of Fine Arts, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, North Carolina NewMusic Initiative, Charlotte New Music Festival, Divergent Studio at Longy School of Music, and the Alba Music Festival Composition Program in Alba, Italy, among others.

Matt holds an M.M. in Marimba Performance from The Boston Conservatory and a B.M. in Music Performance (Percussion) from Baldwin Wallace University. Their primary teachers include Nancy Zeltsman and Jack Van Geem (marimba); Keith Aleo, Josh Ryan, and Sam Solomon (percussion); John Grimes (timpani), Sharan Leventhal (chamber music), and Dwight Oltman (conducting).
Matt proudly endorses Marimba One and Encore Mallets.

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