Jenny Beck – Co-Founder and Executive Director of NMOP

As the Director of Point CounterPoint, a children’s chamber music camp which was started in 1963, Jenny was convinced that new music should be heard and celebrated.  Beck recruited composer Kathryn Alexander, Professor at Yale University, to co-found a two-week summer festival devoted to music by young composers. And in June 2011 New Music On The Point (NMOP) entered the music world. NMOP emphasizes the creation and performance of new music including voice, reflecting Jenny Beck’s long-time love of vocal music.

Amy Williams – Artistic Director and Faculty

The “fresh, daring and incisive” (Fanfare) compositions of Amy Williams have been presented by leading international performers, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JACK Quartet, Bent Frequency, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Wet Ink, International Contemporary Ensemble, Junction Trio, Orpheus, pianist Ursula Oppens, soprano Tony Arnold and bassist Robert Black. Her pieces appear on the Albany, Parma, Blue Griffin, Centaur and New Focus labels. As a member of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo, she has performed throughout Europe and the Americas and recorded six critically-acclaimed CDs for Wergo (works of Nancarrow, Stravinsky, Varèse/Feldman and Kurtág), as well as appearing on the Neos and Albany labels. Ms. Williams has been awarded a Howard Foundation Fellowship, Fromm Music Foundation Commission, Guggenheim Fellowship, Koussevitsky Music Foundation Commission, two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Scholars Fellowship to Ireland, a MacDowell fellowship and the 2024 Henri Lazarof International Commission Prize. Ms. Williams holds a Ph.D. in composition from the University at Buffalo, where she also received her Master’s degree in piano performance. She has taught at Bennington College and Northwestern University and is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh.  She can’t wait to return to New Music On The Point!

Kerrith Livengood – Managing Director

Kerrith Livengood’s works have been performed at SEAMUS, KISS 2018, ACO’s SONiC Festival, June in Buffalo, Bargemusic, CCM’s MusicX festivals, the North American Saxophone Alliance annual conference, the Atlantic Music Festival, the Contemporary Undercurrent of Song series, the Cortona Sessions, and Alia Musica Pittsburgh’s Conductors Festival. She has composed works for the JACK Quartet, Third Angle Ensemble, Duo Cortona, Altered Sound Duo, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Beattie and pianist Adam Marks, soprano Amy Petrongelli, and the h2 Quartet. Her works feature unexpected musical forms, complex grooves, lyricism, noise, and humor. Her string quartet This Is My Scary Robot Voice, performed by the Argus Quartet, features speech rhythms intoning an anxious inner monologue, which the New York Times described as “sketchy seeming.” Kerrith’s set of Four Jennifer L. Knox Songs including “Hot Ass Poem” for mezzo-soprano, flute, and piano, features shouting, theatrical ogling, and pretty bird-like flute chirps. Kerrith is also a flutist, drummer, and improviser. She has premiered many new works by young composers with members of the JACK Quartet, eighth blackbird and the American Modern Ensemble, and once played a wild duet in concert with Anthony Braxton. She is a native of Springfield, Missouri, and previously taught composition and music theory at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). Kerrith is Assistant Director of the New Music On The Point Festival, an annual summer festival for young composers and performers.

Brian Riordan – Technical Director

Brian Riordan is a composer, performer, improviser, producer, and sound artist originally from Chicago, IL. He completed his PhD in Music Composition and Theory at University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches a class he designed called “Programming Environments in Music: An Introduction to Max/MSP”. His research interests are temporal discontinuity, delay-based performance, real-time digital signal processing, and laptop performance aesthetics. As an avid collaborator, he has performed in numerous ensembles ranging from rock, jazz, classical, and experimental throughout North American, Europe, and Asia. His compositions have been performed by The JACK Quartet, The Callithumpian Consort, Wet Ink Ensemble, andPlay, The Meridian Arts Ensemble, Kamraton, Untwelve, The H2 Quartet, Alia Musica, Wolftrap, and his compositions have been featured at STEIM, SEAMUS, SICPP, New Music On The Point, SPLICE, and The Walden Creative Musicians Retreat. In 2023 he arranged the string parts for the album “The Above” by grammy nominated heavy metal band Code Orange. As a member of the Pittsburgh ensemble “How Things Are Made,” he produced and performed on over 70 recordings for the group and has commissioned 52 compositions.

www.brianriordanmusic.com

Emmanuel Berrido – Assistant Technical Director

Emmanuel “Manny” Berrido is a Dominican-American composer with a passion for telling stories through sound and images. His work has been performed by a variety of artists including the JACK Quartet and the Amernet String Quartet, cellists Megan Chartier, and Craig Mehler, violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved, the Illinois Modern Ensemble, and the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra. Notable experiences have included participation at the American Composer’s Orchestra EarShot Readings with the Grand Rapids Symphony, the New Music Miami Festival, the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival, and the Ball State University Festival of New Music. He has been the recipient of the Louis Smadbeck Composition Prize in Ithaca, NY, for his work “Bend the Knee” for brass quintet, the Ithaca College Orchestral Composition Competition for his “Danza Ritual” for orchestra, and the 2022 Pittsburgh Composer’s Project by ensemble NAT 28. Manny is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition and Music Theory at the University of Pittsburgh, and is the pianist and music director for Pittsburgh-based Latin American music group GAVAS Beat.

Dietary/Allergy Accomodations:

We are a nut-free facility. We offer fresh and healthy meals, with vegetarian and vegan options daily. In addition, we offer dairy-free and gluten-free options everyday. A high priority is placed on providing well-balanced meals. Please let us know of food allergies prior to arriving at NMOP. In order to maintain rodent and vermin-free living areas, we do not allow food in the cabins. For specific questions or concerns regarding food, please do not hesitate to contact our Executive Director Jenny Beck.

We use many locally sourced food products and we make everything but the bread from scratch. NMOP is known for its delicious and nutritious– and often unusual–meals!