PIACLAVA - Biographies

About Piaclava

Piaclava is a trio dedicated to performing engaging chamber works of the past and present as well as leading interactive concerts for audiences of all ages and backgrounds. With its unique instrumentation and virtuosic flair, Piaclava explores not only the standard repertoire written for this trio, but also a variety of solo and duo works from classical, popular, modern and world-music repertoires. This allows them to draw from a unique array of sounds and genres for each concert.

Piaclava welcomes new works written for their combination and has given the U.S. première of Daniel Godfrey’s Serenata Ariosa, and the world premières of Eli Yamin’s Rickshaw in the Rain and “....merely circulating,” written by Douglas Boyce. Since 1994, clarinetist Benjamin Fingland and his wife Jessica Meyer have partnered with several pianists to perform throughout the NY Tri-State area. For the past seven years, pianist and composer Beata Moon has added her own unique voice to the ensemble.

Venues have included the Aeolian Concert Series in London, Canada, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, the Continental Center and The Church for All Nations in Manhattan, and a highly-acclaimed three-week tour of over 20 public schools in the New York City area for the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education. For years, they were in residence at PS 153Q as part of Little Orchestra Society’s “Musical Connections: The School Partnership Program”, which inspired members of Piaclava to create their own version called “Tunes and Tales.” Currently, they tour as an ensemble for the Center for Arts Education.

(Click here for more information on "Tunes and Tales")

About the Artists

BENJAMIN FINGLAND
Photo: Andrew Fingland

With performances capturing “spiritedness and humor,” “unflagging precision and energy” (The New York Times) and playing described as “something magical” (The Boston Globe) and “thoroughly lyrical…expert” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Benjamin Fingland interprets many styles of music on a variety of clarinets. A proponent of the music of our time, he is a founding member of the critically-acclaimed new music collective counter)induction, plays frequently with the International Contemporary Ensemble, and has performed with the Philadelphia-based Network for New Music, New York New Music Ensemble, Continuum, Ensemble 21, The Locrian Chamber Players, The Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, the American Modern Ensemble and Sequitur. He has also collaborated, recorded, and toured with a wide variety of other artists – ranging in scope from Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble Intercontemporain to jazz legend Ornette Coleman and pop icon Sir Elton John. Mr. Fingland has held principal clarinet positions with the Prometheus Chamber orchestra and the New Haven Symphony. He has Bachelor and Master of music degrees from the Juilliard School, and is on the faculty of the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York City.

JESSICA MEYER
Photo: Ulla Suokko

Acclaimed for her “polish, focus, and excitement” (Allan Kozinn, The New York Times), violist Jessica Meyer is a versatile performer who has been featured as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout the world. As a passionate advocate of new music, Ms. Meyer is the co-founder of the critically-acclaimed contemporary music collective counter)induction, which performs regularly in NYC and around the country. Jessica has premiered pieces for solo viola throughout New York, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia, and has played with ensembles such as the Either/Or Ensemble, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, the Gotham Chamber Opera, Continuum, and SONYC (the String Orchestra of New York City). Jessica strives to perform a wide variety of chamber music and has appeared in many venues both large and small - including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Miller Theatre in NYC, Symphony Hall in Boston, and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Passionate about education, Jessica has conducted many workshops for hundreds of public school students and adults throughout the NY area for the Lincoln Center Institute, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. She also runs “Chops Beyond the Practice Room”, a series of workshops and coachings that train musicians on how they can be the best advocates for their own careers. For more info, please visit www.jessicameyermusic.com and www.chopsbeyondthepracticeroom.com

BEATA MOON
Photo: Tess Steinkolk

Korean-American pianist Beata Moon leads an active life as a performer, composer and educator. She is an ardent ambassador for new music and has enjoyed working as a host of her own music television series and as an Impresario in her efforts to reach out to broader audiences. Since graduating from Juilliard with a degree in piano performance in 1990, Moon has spent the last 16 years composing works in a variety of genres. Her CDs of original music, Perigee & Apogee, (Albany Records) Earthshine (BiBimBop Music) and Piano Works (Naxos) were enthusiastically received by press and public alike and continue to be broadcast on radio stations around the world. Reviewer Andrew Druckenbrod of Gramophone magazine writes, “Moon writes compelling music that is utterly sincere - this disc is exhibit A in the continuing court-of-public-opinion case on the accessibility of quality new music." An interest in aesthetic education led Moon to become a teaching artist for Lincoln Center Institute and for The Academy - a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School and The Weill Music Institute. She has collaborated with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in their “Composition in the Classroom” program and is a Music Facilitator for Arts Achieve, a 5-year research project between New York City’s leading arts institutions, the NYC Department of Education, and its schools to study the critical role of arts education. Currently, she is producing her fourth CD of original music. For more info, please visit www.beatamoon.com