Violinist and composer Marina Kifferstein enjoys an international and multifaceted career, with a focus on contemporary chamber music performance. She is a founding and current member of TAK Ensemble and The Rhythm Method string quartet, and performs regularly as a guest artist with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink, Talea, and the Ensemble of Lucerne Festival Alumni. She is on violin faculty at the United Nations International School and the Composers Conference summer festival, and has conducted residencies, workshops, masterclasses, and guest lectures at dozens of universities across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. She holds a BA and a BM from Oberlin, an MM in Contemporary Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, and is currently pursuing a DMA from the CUNY Graduate Center.
Thomas L. Read, noted composer and violinist, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Vermont. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1938, he studied violin, composition and conducting at the Oberlin, Mozarteum, New England and Peabody Conservatories with such noted musicians as Andor Toth Sr., Richard Burgin, Bernhard Paumgartner, Leon Fleisher, and Benjamin Lees. As violinist he has been a member of the Erie Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Festival Arts (under Harold Farberman), Vermont Symphony and the Saratoga Festival of Baroque Music. He joined the faculty of the University of Vermont in 1967, becoming Professor Emeritus in 2008. During his more than 40 years on the faculty he taught countless students, conducted and coached many concerts and musical theater productions, and led an innovative series of new music concerts and lectures (Symposium on Contemporary Music, held annually from1968 until 1991).He remains active as a violinist and conductor as well as a composer. He has written music for a variety of media- much of it on commission: music for small ensembles, full orchestra including two symphonies, solo voice, chorus and musical theater. Working with many performers and venues, his music has been heard live and through radio broadcasts across the U.S. and in various European cities from London to Sofia. He has been a recipient of Vermont Arts Council and University Stipends, UVM Faculty Emeritus Development Award, and fellowships from organizations such as the McDowell Colony, the Charles Ives Institute, and the Johnson Composers Conference.
Eclogues Among the Ruins - Thomas L. Read
Recorded at home in Brooklyn, NY, May 2020
Marina Kifferstein, violin
Mastered by Robert Scott Thompson, Aucourant Records.
Property of Shelter Recording Project, American Composers Alliance
