BioGraphies

HARMONNIA JUNUS
Artistic Director, violin

Australian born violinist Harmonnia Junus has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. Most recently, she appeared with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra at the Adelaide Festival Centre. She was also a soloist with the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra on their Australian Debut Tour “The Sound of Taiwan” performing at the Sydney Opera House and Brisbane City Hall. Under the baton of maestro Gernot Schmalfuss, Ms. Junus performed with the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan and has appeared with the Sichuan Philharmonic Orchestra in the JaoZi Concert Hall in Chengdu, China with conductor Xu Dong Yang. Ms. Junus has performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the National Opera Center, Symphony Space, the National Cathedral in Washington D.C.

Ms. Junus is the co-founder and Artistic Director of New York based performance collective Artists By Any Other Name - an interdisciplinary ensemble centred around classical music and contemporary dance. The group has been an incubator for a variety of projects that experiment and expand on traditional conventions of the form. As an active chamber musician, Ms. Junus performs regularly with various groups. When touring in Taiwan with pianist Eduard Laurel, the duo performed at the Taichung Seaport Arts Center, Kaohsiung Cultural Center and the National Recital Hall in Taipei. As a member of Ensemble NYC, Ms. Junus performed in New York City, South Korea and Australia.

Ms. Junus is the Artistic Director of Young Artist Exchange, a festival where students and teachers from Australia, China and the United States connect through music and the arts. She was also a chamber music coach for Zhang Summer School.

Harmonnia Junus earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from New York's Mannes College the New School for Music under the tutelage of Sally Thomas. Other notable teachers include Dr. Goetz Richter, Daniel Phillips, Stephanie Chase and Professor Shi-Xiang Zhang. Ms. Junus performs on a Giovanni Grancino violin made in Milan, 1719.

Sarah Eddie, Dance

***Dance (guest Artists By Any Other Name)***

From Sydney, Australia, Sarah trained at North Shore Dance Academy until she was accepted into Elmhurst, School of the Birmingham Royal Ballet in the UK in 2014. Whilst in The UK, Sarah performed alongside Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

Since graduating in 2018 with a Diploma in Professional Dance, she has performed as a company artist with Ajkun Ballet (New York City) both as a soloist and in the Corps de Ballet in The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty. Her roles included the Arabian Princess, Mirliton and Mouse Queen in the Nutcracker, and Little Red Riding Hood and the Courage Fairy in Sleeping Beauty.

Sarah has taught at North Shore Dance Academy and Northern Beaches Dance Academy.

Whitney Janis, dance

Whitney Janis is originally from New York, NY. She received her early training at Ballet Academy East, The Manhattan Ballet School, and on scholarship at The Ailey School. She later completed her professional training through Ailey’s Independent Study Program, and participated in summer intensives at Elisa Monte Dance, The Ailey School, and San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She is a member of VashtiDance Theater, ARIM Dance, NYC Dance Arts, and the multi-disciplinary group Artists By Any Other Name. As a guest artist, she has appeared with Elisa Monte Dance, Dance Visions NY and Buggé Ballet. Her professional choreographic debut, Neoarchean, premiered at The Secret Theatre with Artists By Any Other Name in November 2018. She has performed at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, The Secret Theatre, Cedar Lake Theatre, Lake Placid Center for the Arts, Loews Jersey Theatre, and Dixon Place. Whitney is a Teaching Assistant in ballet and Horton at The Ailey School and is on faculty with the Police Athletic League and The Dance Source. Whitney has an undergraduate degree in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and is a founding member of the Hopkins contemporary dance group Jaywalk, where she served as Secretary, dancer, and choreographer.

Dance, choreography (Artists By Any Other Name)

morganne aaberg, violin

Violin (Artists By Any Other Name)

An avid chamber performer, Morganne is a founding member of the interdisciplinary ensemble Artists By Any Other Name. With Artists By Any Other Name, Morganne performed in and produced shows featuring chamber music, dance, drama, and visual art in the US and abroad. With a particular affinity for the violin-piano sonata repertoire, she has championed works by Debussy, Ravel, Copland and Bolcom in recitals across the country. As an orchestral musician, Morganne has appeared in renown venues such as Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. Always eager to explore other genres, Morganne has performed as an Irish and Bluegrass fiddler with Qunicy Street Band and Cinder Blue.

As a dedicated educator Morganne focuses on high-level string pedagogy, specializing in private violin instruction, group violin classes, and music literacy classes. She has served on the faculties of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Diller-Quaile School of Music, Cuyahoga Community College’s Orchestra Program, and Cleveland Institute of Music’s Sato Center for Suzuki Studies. Morganne has taught at several summer festivals, including Midsummer Sound (Barrie, Ontario) and the Meadowmount School of Music (Westport, NY), where she served as teaching assistant to Dr. Ann Setzer (Juilliard/Mannes). Morganne’s teaching is informed by her training in string pedagogy with Dr. Setzer, workshops at Indiana University with Mimi Zweig and Dr. Brenda Brenner, and her experience in the Dalcroze and Orff approaches. She is a certified Suzuki teacher, and received her training at the School for Strings and Cleveland Institute of Music.

Morganne received her masters degree in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her bachelors of music in violin performance from the Mannes School of Music. Her primary teachers included Dr. Ann Setzer and David Updegraff, and she studied chamber music with Todd Phillips (Orion String Quartet/Orpheus Chamber Orchestra) and Peter Salaff (Cleveland Quartet). In the fall of 2019, Morganne will begin working towards a PhD in music education at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. She hopes to bridge the gap between performance and pedagogy, ensuring that the most gifted performers also become qualified and passionate teachers.

LANA TRAMONTE, DANCE

Lana Tramonte grew up in Sydney, Australia with a love and passion for dance from a very young age. The purity of communication through dance has been a powerful tool she has come to appreciate and expressing this in performance is something she strives for. She has always enjoyed how dance allows for exploration in the body and mind and is constantly furthering her development of her artistic personality.

During her time with Tanya Pearson Classical Coaching Academy in Sydney, she participated in international competitions including the RAD Genee, London and the Youth America Grand Prix in New York.

Lana graduated from TPCCA in 2016 and moved to the Netherlands where she studied at the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague working closely with Netherlands Dance Theatre performing works by Jiri Kylian, Hans Van Manen, Johan Inger, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon to name a few.

Lana performed in many gala performances including, Holland Dance Festival, Netherlands Dance Theatre Young Talent Project, Assemble Internationale in Canada and Orchard Ballet Gala, Tokyo, Japan. Lana graduated with a Bachelor of Dance in 2018. In her graduation performance she performed her dream role of Odette in Swan Lake.

Abby Marchesseault, dance

Abby Marchesseault hails from Herndon, VA, where she first studied classical dance at The Fairfax Ballet. She spent summers studying with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, LINES Ballet, and Paul Taylor Dance Company. She graduated summa cum laude from Southern Methodist University with a BFA in Dance Performance, and was awarded “Outstanding Achievement in Dance” in 2015. Abby has performed works by Danny Buraczeski, Adam Hougland, Joshua L. Peugh, Tina Croll, Lila York, and Paul Taylor, among others. She currently resides in New York City, teaching and performing with the Connecticut Ballet and freelancing with modern dance companies such as AbunDANCE Co., MachineH Dance, and Avoir Motion Dance Project, based in Dallas, TX. Abby’s choreography has been featured on the Manhattan News Network; in music videos by Emmeline; and by Nimbus Dance Works, Inaside Chicago Dance, Dallas Catholic Youth Conference, and Inwood Art Works. She joined Artists By Any Other Name in 2018, and is thrilled to continue creating collaborative performance art.

Dance, choreography (Artists By Any Other Name)

DR. Goetz Richter, YAE Advisor

Goetz Richter is a violinist, teacher and thinker with a dual background in music and philosophy. He is currently Associate Professor at the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music where he co-ordinates performance studies for violinists. Previous positions include a fifteen-year tenure as Associate Concertmaster with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (1987-2002) and early career positions as Associate Principal Violin II with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1986-87) and Concertmaster of the Queensland Theatre Orchestra (1985-1986). As a violinist Richter has appeared as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe. He has given concerto performances with Australian Orchestras and has been a leader and guest leader of a number of Australian Orchestras. Chamber music collaborations include performances with Herrmann Baumann, Gerard Fauth, Bernhard Greenhouse and others. With pianist Jeanell Carrigan he has a long standing duo partnership that has included recital performances throughout Australia and in Europe, appearance for Musica Viva and broadcasts for the ABC. As an orchestral musician, principal and leader Richter has worked with eminent conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Neeme Jaervi, Yuri Temirkanov, Edo de Waart, David Zinman, Mariss Jansons, Vladimir Ashkenazy and many others.

Pedro Vizzarro Vallejos, viola

Pedro Vizzarro Vallejos is an Argentine-American violist. He regularly performs in a variety of styles: standard orchestral repertoire with the Metro Chamber Orchestra, new compositions with the Curiosity Cabinet, authentic tangos with Binelli’s Astoria Tango Orchestra, chamber music combined with dance with Artists By Any Other Name, and Dominican folk music with La Camerata Washington Heights. He appeared as a soloist with La Camerata Washington Heights at Aaron Davis Hall in City College.

He is a founding member of the Washington Heights Community Conservatory, where he teaches violin and viola. The Conservatory offers full scholarships and instruments to students in need. He holds a Master of Arts from Hunter College and a Bachelor of Music from Brooklyn College where he studied privately with Ji-Hyun Son and chamber music with Fred Zlotkin.