PEOPLE
leonard bopp, conductor & executive director
Leonard Bopp is a conductor, trumpet player, curator, and educator passionate about creating and serving communities through ambitious and affecting performance experiences. A passionate champion of both classical and contemporary repertoire, Leonard is the Founder and Conductor of the BlackBox Ensemble, a New York-based contemporary music ensemble devoted to producing culturally-resonant projects rooted in creative experimentation. Under his leadership, BlackBox has performed numerous world premieres, presented performances at major museums and concert venues in NYC and beyond, and held residencies at numerous universities and educational institutions around the country. Recent projects include a site-responsive dance performance at the Clark Art Institute, the staged premiere of Borrowed Landscape, a play by tauchgold with music by Dai Fujikura, at the Noguchi Museum, and a reprise performance as part of a series at the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. He also produced and curated the ensemble’s inaugural BlackBox Festival, a weekend-long performance series at ShapeShifter Lab and Roulette celebrating the ensemble’s fifth anniversary in January 2024. In addition to their NYC concert series, the ensemble’s 2024-2025 season includes tours to Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina, including performing the season-opening performance of the Southern Exposure Series at the University of South Carolina, and a residency at the University of Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.
Leonard has recently studied at masterclasses with Johannes Schaefli and the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz in Radolfzell, Germany, and with Jorma Panula and the MAV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, Hungary. He was a student in the Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Seminar in 2023 and 2024. Furthermore, he studied at the Divertimento Ensemble Conducting Academy in Moncalvo, Italy, where he was chosen to conduct the final concert at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan. He returned to the Divertimento Ensemble as a guest conductor on their Milan concert series in February 2024, and will return once again in April 2025. In the summer of 2022, Leonard was a recipient of the American Austrian Foundation/Faber Young Conductors Fellowship, through which he was in residence at the Salzburg Festival observing rehearsals and of the Vienna Philharmonic.
Originally from upstate New York, Leonard studied trumpet at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, where he also began studying conducting. He then earned his BA in Music and English at Williams College and his Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.
annie nikunen,
flute & Artistic planning and communications manager
NYC-based composer, flutist, dancer and choreographer Annie Nikunen merges sound, physicality, and space. Rooted in collective yet personal experiences, her work and performance have spanned diverse mediums including concert, film, radio, installation and Live Art, and genres such as experimental, classical, opera, theater, indie rock, jazz, Baroque and Taizé. She is inspired by sounds evoking movement and narratives reflecting human dynamics, inviting personal interpretation. Trained in ballet, she expanded into including and studying other movement styles, forming an amalgamated language of universal movements guided by emotion and ephemeral installation. As former Business Manager, Classical Head and DJ at WKCR as well as Resident Composer/Choreographer of Periapsis Music & Dance, she further synthesized her roles in sound and movement. Nikunen dissects compositional methodology through movement, and her theoretical understanding of music informs her choreography.
Annie has performed and had her work presented in spaces across the US and Europe including Musikkittalo at the Sibelius Academy, Tanglewood Music Center, Roulette, National Sawdust, Movement Research at Judson Church, Symphony Hall (The Phoenix Symphony), the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Mark Morris Dance Group, The Clark Art Institute, HighLineNine for the Chelsea Music Festival, The Noguchi Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, Harn Museum of Art, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Bulgaria and Miller Theater. An avid collaborator, she has worked with composers, performers, theorists, visual and sound artists, technologists, photographers, cinematographers, dancers and choreographers. She has taught, led workshops and presented at NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts, NYU Tisch, Stetson University, RPI, Williams College, Five Towns College, and Posey School of Dance.
Annie holds a MM in Composition from NYU and a BA in Music from Barnard College of Columbia University. She has received recognition and fellowships from Tanglewood (2023 Composition Fellow), ASCAP, American Composers Forum and Columbia University. As an Artist Ambassador for Creatives Care, she is committed to cultivating safe spaces for artistic vulnerability, and addressing its unique mental health challenges.
tyler neidermayer, clarinet & technical director
Tyler Neidermayer is an NY-based electroacoustic composer/performer who is pushing the boundaries of the clarinet and bass clarinet to new extremes. Dedicated to consistently presenting new works for clarinets and live electronics, he frequently collaborates with emerging composers to explore the extremes of his instruments and realize new musical ideas. Tyler likes to explore live sound processing and manipulation within his compositions, allowing space to create and control in performance. Tyler is a member of Apply Triangle, an NYC-based electroacoustic trio. He also runs sound and records shows for multiple ensemble and solo artists in NYC, as well as editing audio for various podcasts. He recently released his self-produced EP This Isn’t You. Tyler earned undergraduate degree from Northern Arizona University and his masters degree in Contemporary Clarinet Performance from the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program.
Lauren Conroy, violin
Violinist and composer Lauren Conroy is a New York-based musician who is passionate about performing contemporary music in dynamic multidisciplinary contexts. She performs solo and ensemble works spanning traditional to modern. An avid performer of new music, she is a member of the BlackBox Ensemble. Lauren has co-produced and performed on several multidisciplinary projects including Juilliard’s Future Stages and NYC Ballet’s Choreographic Institute. She is currently the co-director of composer Hannah Ishizai’s chamber opera titled Tsuru no Ongaeshi, which will premiere in Fall 2025.
Lauren has been invited to several festivals and residencies including Toronto Summer Music Fellowship, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Norfolk New Music Workshop, Bowdoin International Music Festival Fellowship, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, and The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Lauren is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she completed her Master of Music and was the Departmental Assistant at The Juilliard School’s Center for Innovation in the Arts. After graduating from Juilliard, she then attended NYU and completed her Master of Arts in Contemporary Musical Arts Performance and Administration as a Koppenaal Scholar. At NYU, she was granted the Dean’s Award for Summer Research where she was a resident scholar at The John Cage Trust at Bard College culminating in a multidisciplinary performance project at the NYU Blackbox Theater.
Lauren previously attended Indiana University studying with Simin Ganatra and graduated from the Hutton Honors College and Jacobs School of Music with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Violin Performance. She also completed a minor in Political and Civic Engagement and a certificate in Performing Arts Entrepreneurship.
With a passion for teaching as well as performing, Lauren teaches violin at West Amadeus Music Studios.
TEAGAN FARAN, VIOLIN
A native of Buffalo, NY, Teagan Faran is a multidisciplinary musician focused on enacting social change through the arts. Faran has collaborated with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Palaver Strings, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. Recent recording features include albums with Carlos Simon, La Martino Orquesta Típica, and loadbang. She has had compositions featured at the NYSSMA Conference and the Persis Vehar Competition for Excellence. Also active in the world of tango music, she has performed with Victor Lavallén and the Orquesta Escuela de Emilio Balcarce, as well as at festivals across the United States.
As a soloist, Faran has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Greater Buffalo Youth Orchestra (including a performance in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy), the Ann Arbor Camerata, the Williamsville East Symphonic Orchestra, and the University of Vermont Symphony. Administratively, she worked as the AAC’s executive director for a season, and held internship positions in the Marketing and Education Departments of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and Education and Concerts/Touring with Jazz at Lincoln Center. She founded Ann Arbor arts collective Red Shoe Company and is a teaching artist with the Kennedy Center, the University Musical Society and the Sphinx Organization.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, Faran moved to Buenos Aires on a Fulbright grant. Faran was also a Turn The Spotlight Fellow, receiving their inaugural Hedwig Holbrook Prize. Faran participated in OneBeat, a fellowship in musical diplomacy, DeeDee Bridgewater’s Woodshed Network, and recently graduated from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied Contemporary Performance. Faran teaches at DePauw University and the Sa’Oaxaca International Strings Festival as well as being a certified personal trainer, with a focus on career longevity for performers.
DUDLEY RAINE, IV, VIOLA
Dudley Raine, IV is a freelance violist currently based in New York City. His most recent musical endeavors include performing in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, American Ballet Theatre at the Met, and with the American Symphony Orchestra. In addition to BlackBox Ensemble, he has also performed with Contemporaneous, Infrasound, and Semiosis Quartet in New York City, and Kassia in Washington DC, among others. Some other notable appearances this season included a performance with composer & singer Nia Imani Franklin (Miss America 2019), and premiering “The Sparks Fly Upward” by Cathy Lesser Mansfield as principal violist in Cleveland. Dudley is artistic director of the Seven Hills Chamber Music Festival in his hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia, and is currently organizing a tour with pianist & SHCMF programming director Nicole Brancato for the festival musicians in a future season. Dudley earned his Bachelors and Masters in Viola Performance from Manhattan School of Music, studying with Karen Ritscher and Shmuel Katz. Outside of the arts, Dudley is a distance running hobbyist, who completed the 2017, 2018, and 2021 New York City Marathons. The viola Dudley plays was made by Carlo Carletti in 1910.
jordan bartow, cello & PROGRAMS MANAGER
Jordan Bartow is an internationally touring cellist/improviser based between South Carolina and New York City. Noted for his “booming resonance” by icareifyoulisten.com, He is especially dedicated to the promotion, development, and performance of contemporary music. Jordan has appeared across the world championing contemporary music with groups such as the BlackBox Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Decoda, and Orange Road Quartet. Jordan also appears regularly as “side man” for singer-song writers and improvisers, as well as various interdisciplinary projects.
Jordan is the cellist and engagement director of the Blackbox Ensemble, a New York City-based contemporary music ensemble devoted to using new music as a platform to engage critically with the social and cultural issues of our time. Jordan has appeared with BlackBox Ensemble in performances across the United States in venues such as Roulette, The Smithsonian, The DiMenna Center, The Noguchi Museum, The Clark Art Institute, and many more. They have also appeared as artist in residence in such institutions as NYU, Florida University, Mannes, and more with upcoming engagements at University of Michigan, and USC. During Jordan’s tenure with the group, Blackbox Ensemble has been featured in The New Yorker Magazine,Timeout New York, New Music USA, icareifyoulisten.com, Steve Smith’s Night after night, and Which Sinfonia.
Jordan is also the cellist of contemporary string Quartet Orange Road, the Cuker and Stern quartet in residence at The New School in NYC. During their brief time together they have enjoyed performances nationally and abroad, with recent performances in Italy and upcoming shows in NYC, the Netherlands, and residencies and performances at University of Florida, USC, and UC Davis to name a few. Their performance of “Tetras” by Iannis Xenakis was referred to as “Life Changing” by an audience member at their Italian debut performance.
Equally at home in the orchestra, Jordan enjoys serval positions in orchestras across the Carolinas, including assistant principal cello in the Aiken Symphony orchestra.
Sam zagnit, bass
A versatile bassist, composer, and educator, Sam Zagnit is a New-York-based musician who enjoys a multifaceted career. Performing and composing contemporary music make up a large part of Sam’s career, and he is dedicated to performing works by living composers and creating a more inclusive environment in every musical context. He is currently a bassist with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Acting Associate Principal Bass with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, where he plays alongside his former teacher, David Grossman. As a composer, his work focuses on self-reflection as a way to deepen connections and build intimacy with his audience and fellow musicians on stage. Sam has worked and studied with many exemplary musicians from many generations, including John Adams, Marin Alsop, Orin O’Brien, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Lucy Shelton, Jessie Montgomery, and Seth Parker Woods, and David Grossman. Sam is part of the duo confluss, with soprano Amber Evans, an up-and-coming chamber ensemble committed to the exploration of their unique timbre and sound through performing original compositions for their ensemble, some by Sam himself. As an educator, Sam is a teaching artist for the Harmony Program in NYC, and leads workshops and residencies with the arts education program, LEAP. Sam is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Don Palma, and a recent graduate of the Performer/Composer MM at the New School. Sam is co-founder and administrator for Bass Players for Black Composers, a collective of bassists, composers, and patrons devoted to expanding the solo bass repertoire with works by Black composers.
J CLANCY, PERCUSSION & DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
J Clancy is an NJ/NYC-based experimental musician, improviser, A/V engineer, and abolitionist activist/organizer. Originally trained in piano, drumset, classical percussion, and Balinese gamelan, they now thrive in the queered outer edges of instrumental, vocal, electroacoustic, and theatrical performance. In collaboration with experimental guitarist and activist Corey Mahaney, they are building towards the grassroots creation of an all-inclusive and safe community space in NYC, intended to sustain and uplift radical, queer approaches to artmaking and community organizing. In professional spheres, jc is the core percussionist of Blackbox Ensemble, and has had the privilege of performing with numerous established ensembles, including Hong Kong New Music, Da Capo Chamber Players, the United Nations Chamber Society, Contemporaneous, Man Forever, Nief-Norf, So Percussion, Tilted Axes, and InfraSound. Additionally, jc’s international experimental duo with Australian vocalist Amber Evans, panSonus, is a recent co-recipient (in collaboration with composer Max Vinetz) of Harvard University’s 2020 Fromm Foundation Commission grant. In the near future, jc will be featured as the drummer on a forthcoming full-length record from NJ hardcore band Dumpweed.
YIFEI Xu, piano
New York - based Chinese pianist Yifei Xu has been acclaimed for her charismatic stage presence and appraised as an “incredibly passionate and logical pianist,” with “an amazing demonstration of prodigious skills” and “unique touches for the distinctive sound.” Sun News Austin says “In the capable hands of Xu, the piano effortlessly glides in despite the waves by the raucous orchestra. Xu immediately asserted control over it…”.
The adaptability of her programming to traditional Baroque, Classical, Romantic repertoires and the Avant-garde style of current modern times, speaks to the range of Xu’s versatility. Her playing combines lyricism and virtuosity with expressive and emotional power. Her performances over the years span many cities and prestigious venues in Asia, Europe, America such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Harvard Club of New York City, Bryant Park, Merkin Hall at Lincoln Center, BargeMusic, Roulette, The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Noguchi Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, etc.
As a soloist, Xu has recently been invited to Austin Symphony Orchestra performing Gershwin Piano Concerto in F under the baton of Music Director Peter Bay; performing Rautavaara Piano Concerto No.1 with American Modern Orchestra; BargeMusic Eclectic Concert Series; NYC Contemporary Music Symposium at Columbia University; Ensemble Residency at University of Florida, Clark Art Institute; Asian Cultural Symphony at American Dream; and performing in the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival at Yale University, Aspen Music Festival, Bang on a Can, Mostly Modern Festival, Almalfi Coast Piano Festival, Brevard Music Festival, Minnesota International Music Festival, etc.
Given a special passion for the music of modern times, Xu has performed with the BlackBox Ensemble as pianist-in-residency, American Modern Ensemble, Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble, Infrasound Ensemble, Unheard-of Ensemble, Numinous Ensemble etc., as well as many world premieres nation-wide and internationally.
Xu has been awarded the the first prize in The American Prize Professional Solo; The second price in The American Prize Professional Concerto Competition; Winner of MMF Concerto Competition; First prize in Vivo International Music Competition - piano; Roy M. Rubinstein Award, and was honored by the Eisenberg/Fired Concerto Competition.
She earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at Manhattan School of Music, and is completing her Doctoral of Musical Arts degree at MSM, studying with Dr. Marc Silverman. She has been on the faculty of collaborative piano at Mostly Modern Festival since 2023, and has been invited as adjudicator for Elite International Music Competition since 2021
AMBER EVANS, SOPRANO
Amber Evans is originally from Brisbane, Australia, currently based in New York. A recent graduate of the contemporary classical Masters at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Lucy Shelton, she premiered over thirty new vocal works and became well-versed in modern contemporary classic works of the last few decades. Previous summer engagements have included the Cortona Sessions for New Music, Darmstadt Summer Music Festival, Melbourne International Singer’s Festival and the Contemporary Performance Institute as part of Mario Davidovsky’s Composer’s Conference. An avid chorister and ensemble singer, Ms. Evans can frequently be seen singing with the Cathedral Choir at St. John the Divine, where she was recently a featured soloist in Arvo Pärt’s Miserere, Choir of St. Luke in the Fields, and the New York early music vocal group, Pomerium. Ms. Evans is also a featured soloist on the CD of Poul Ruders’ opera The Thirteenth Child under the Bridge Records label, released in the summer of 2019.