Artistic Board
Bent Frequency is a performance ensemble possessing a vision to redefine the traditional music experience - ushering it from the strict formality of the concert hall into the fresh air of contemporary artistic expression and experimentation. This vision is a product of the close collaboration of our artistic board: Robert Ambrose, Matthew Cowley, Nickitas J. Demos, Stuart Gerber, and Lisa Leong.
Robert Ambrose
Conductor Robert J. Ambrose enjoys a highly successful and diverse career as a dynamic and engaging conductor. His musical interests cross many genres and can be seen in the wide range of professional activities he pursues. Ambrose studied formally at Boston College, Boston University, and Northwestern University, where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting.
An ardent supporter of contemporary and avant-garde music, Ambrose is co-founder, co-artistic director and conductor of the contemporary music ensemble Bent Frequency. Comprised of members of the Atlanta Symphony and Opera Orchestras as well as musicians from Atlanta’s independent music community, the ensemble has been hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “one of the brightest ensembles on the [Atlanta] scene,” and by the Atlanta Journal Constitution as “ a suddenly indispensable part of the Atlanta music scene.” Since their inception in 2003, they have received widespread critical acclaim for their musical virtuosity and innovative programming.
Ambrose is also founder and music director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble a highly select youth wind band comprised of nearly one hundred of the most talented high school musicians from the greater Atlanta area. In addition, he is founder and music director of the Atlanta Chamber Winds a professional chamber winds dectet.
Ambrose's interpretations have earned the enthusiastic praise of many leading composers including Leslie Bassett, Michael Colgrass, John Harbison, and Tristan Murail. He has guest conducted across the United States as well as in Canada, Australia, and Greece and ensembles under his direction have performed at Carnegie Hall, Spivey Hall, Boettcher Hall in Denver and at the Hatch Memorial Shell in Boston. He has conducted over two dozen premiere performances including works by Michael Colgrass, Christopher Theofanidis, Joseph Turrin, Fred Frith, and Charles Knox. In addition, a recent performance of Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms under his direction has been given repeated airings on Georgia Public Radio.
As a guitarist Ambrose has performed in dozens of jazz ensembles, combos, rock bands and pit orchestras. His rock band “Hoochie Suit,” formed with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, received rave reviews throughout the Chicago area and performed for such distinguished guests as Yo-Yo Ma, Larry Combs and Daniel Barenboim.
Ambrose currently serves as Director of Wind Studies and Ensembles at Georgia State University in Atlanta. He resides in Peachtree City, Georgia with his wife Sarah Kruser Ambrose, a professional flute player, and their daughter Isabelle Grace.
Matthew Cowley
As founding member of the Atlanta ensemble Bent Frequency, Matthew Cowley is responsible for helping to create visual materials and environments for the ensemble's performances. Mr. Cowley received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA and is currently working as a User Interface Designer for Employease, Inc, a web-based software company in Norcross, GA. A lifelong musical enthusiast, Mr. Cowley occasionally performs locally in various experimental music endeavors.
Nickitas J. Demos
Nickitas J. Demos (b.1962) holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University where he studied with Donald Erb. He also holds a Master of Music degree in composition from the Indiana University School of Music where he studied with Donald Erb, Eugene O’Brien, Harvey Sollberger, and John Eaton. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in clarinet performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied composition with Roger Hannay.
His music has been described as “rich…powerful…” as well as “…lively…attractive, kinetic and…intriguing” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; as “...fresh and exhilarating…” by The Nashville Scene; as “…compelling…deeply evocative music…well worth exploring...” by the Georgia Music News and as “ambitious…sophisticated” and “…a reflection of the current mix of styles and aesthetic postures” by the New York based magazine, The New Music Connoisseur. His activities were also cited in the April 2004 issue of GRAMOPHONE magazine.
Demos has received performances by the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Nashville Symphony and the New World Symphony, among others. His chamber works have been performed by North/South Consonance, Thamyris New Music Ensemble, Bent Frequency, the Atlanta Chamber Players and neoPhonia New Music Ensemble among others. His commissions include works for the Cleveland Orchestra, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Community Orchestra, the Atlanta Chamber Players and the Georgia Music Teachers Association.
He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including Grand Prize in the 2004 Millennium Arts International Competition for Composers, seven ASCAP Awards as well as Honorable Mentions in the 2004 Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Shepherd Composer of the Year Award, International Clarinet Association Composition Competition and the ASCAP/Rudolf Nissim Composers Competition among others. Demos’ works have been programmed at festivals, symposia and conferences including the International Festival – Institute at Round Top; the Annual New Music & Art Festival (Bowling Green State University); the Biennial Festival of New Music (Florida State University) and at National and Regional Meetings of the College Music Society and the Society of Composers, Inc. His music is published by MMB Music, Inc., recorded on Capstone Records and has been broadcast on WABE-FM 90.1 (Atlanta NPR affiliate). His forthcoming CD, “Aegean Counterpoint” will be released by Centaur Records.
Demos currently holds the positions of Associate Professor of Composition and Coordinator of Composition Studies at the Georgia State University School of Music. He is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the neoPhonía New Music Ensemble. Outside of his work at Georgia State University, he served on the National Council of the Society of Composers, Inc. (SCI) from 1998 – 2002 and is Co-Founder, performer and Artistic Board member for Bent Frequency (www.bentfrequency.com), a professional contemporary music ensemble based in Atlanta
Stuart Gerber
Hailed as “Instrumentalist of the Year, Percussion” by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry (W.A.M.I.), Stuart Gerber is currently Assistant Professor and Percussion Coordinator at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Dr. Gerber has performed extensively throughout the US, Europe, Australia, and Mexico.
As an active performer of new works, Dr. Gerber has been involved in a number of commissions and world-premiere performances. He has given the US and Australian premieres of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Nasenflügeltanz for percussion and synthesizer, and, most recently, the US premiere of his solo percussion work Komet. In July 2005 Dr. Gerber will record these two works for the Stockhausen Complete Edition, and will become the faculty percussionist for the annual Stockhausen Courses in Kuerten, Germany. In addition to his work with Stockhausen, Dr. Gerber has worked with many other notable composers, such as Kaija Saariaho, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, George Crumb, Tania Lèon and John Luther Adams.
Dr. Gerber is a founding member of the Atlanta-based new music group Bent Frequency, performs internationally with the Australian pianist Michael Fowler in ENSEMBLE SIRIUS, and is regularly heard as extra percussionist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Gerber received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied with Michael Rosen, and was awarded a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). His principal teachers at CCM were Allen Otte and James Culley. He has also done advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany, with Professor Andreas Boettger.
Lisa Leong
Lisa Leong has worked with composers such as John Cage, Mario Davidovsky, Steven Stucky, Gunther Schuller, Alvin Singleton and Chen Yi. Her interest in new music have led to performances with the Auros Group for New Music and Underground Composers in Boston, Ensemble X at Cornell University, the Cornell Contemporary Chamber Players, the renowned synthesizer ensemble, Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece, Milwaukee Symphony clarinetist, William Helmers, Thamyris, and Soli. While still an undergraduate, she appeared as soloist in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has performed and premiered new music in Asia, Canada and the United States. In June 2004, she appeared at the Institute and Festival of Contemporary Performance at Mannes College in New York, alongside members of Speculum Musicae. She was the featured soloist in David Borden’s Perilous Night Companion for Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece performance at “500 Years of Keyboard” Symposium at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., which received rave reviews from Keyboard magazine. Her performances have been broadcast on Radio France, WGBH in Boston, and KPAC in San Antonio, and recorded by National Public Radio’s “Performance Today”. Most recently, her solo recital at Spivey Hall last season was aired in “Atlanta Music Scene” on Georgia Public Radio’s WABE.
Ms. Leong is adjunct faculty at Clayton College at State University in suburban Atlanta. Other adjunct appointments have included Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She graduated with her BA from the College of St. Catherine, holds an MM in Piano Performance at New England Conservatory, and pursued graduate studies in Music Theory at University of Texas-Austin. She is also the pianist and artistic board member of Atlanta-based Bent Frequency.