Artistic Board
Karim Al-Zand
Artistic Board Member
The music of Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand (b.1970) has been called “strong and startlingly lovely” (Boston Globe). His compositions are wide-ranging, from settings of classical Arabic poetry to scores for dance and pieces for young audiences. His works explore connections between music and other arts, and draw inspiration from diverse sources such as 19th-century graphic art, fables of the world, folksong and jazz.
Pierre Jalbert
Artistic Board Member
Earning widespread notice for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores, Pierre Jalbert (b. 1967) has developed a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and deeply personal. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2007 Stoeger Award, given biennially “in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory”, and a 2010 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Maiko Sasaki
Artistic Board Member
Dr. Maiko Sasaki is a distinguished clarinetist known for her dynamic performances as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. She has collaborated with prominent ensembles, including Musiqa, ROCO, Opera in the Heights, the Sarasota Orchestra, and the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston. Dr. Sasaki has also been featured in prestigious chamber music concerts such as the Kennedy Center Conservatory Project and ROCO’s Connections series. Her artistry has earned her the prestigious Presser Music Award, recognizing her excellence and outstanding promise in the field of music. Originally from Japan, Dr. Sasaki is admired for her kind and reserved demeanor off-stage, which contrasts with the vivid emotion and expressiveness she brings to her performances. Houston critic Sydney Boyd praised her clarinet solo in Act Two of La Traviata as “exquisite and full of overwhelming emotion.” In addition to her performing career, Dr. Sasaki serves as Artist Liaison for ROCO. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University and enjoys sewing as a creative hobby outside of music.
Anthony Brandt
Artistic Director
Composer Anthony Brandt (b. 1961) earned his degrees from California Institute of the Arts (MA ’87) and Harvard University (BA ’83, PhD ’93). Dr. Brandt’s catalogue includes three chamber operas, as well as orchestral, chamber, vocal, theater, dance, and television scores. His honors include a Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet-the-Composer, the Houston Arts Alliance, the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program. Recordings of his music are available on the Albany, Crystal, and Navona Live labels. Dr. Brandt and neuroscientist David Eagleman have co-authored The Runaway Species: How Creativity Remakes the World, which is being published in thirteen countries. Dr. Brandt has written extensively about music cognition and creativity and is currently a co-investigator in a study of music and stroke recovery at Methodist Hospital’s Center for Performing Arts Medicine. He is a Professor of Theory and Composition at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.
Marcus Karl Maroney
Artistic Board Member
Marcus Karl Maroney studied composition and horn at The University of Texas at Austin (B.M.) and Yale School of Music (M.M., D.M.A.). His principal composition teachers were Joseph Schwantner, Ned Rorem, Joan Tower and Dan Welcher. In 1999, he received a fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center, the First Hearing award from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and an ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer’s award. Other awards and fellowships followed, including a Charles Ives Scholarship from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Music 2000 Prize from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, further awards from ASCAP, two residencies at the Copland House and consecutive Woods Chandler Memorial awards from Yale University.