Arthur Gottschalk, Composer

Arthur Gottschalk is Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he founded the electronic music studios (REMLabs) and chaired the department until 2010. Among others, he has won the First Prize of the VVX Concorso Internazionale di Composizione Originale (Corciano, Italy), and the 2017 Indianapolis Orchestra Composition Award. He was awarded a Bogliasco Fellowship for work in Italy, residencies at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and was Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome in 2016. In 2018, he was a featured composer for the Thailand International Music Festival, awarded a residency at The MacDowell Colony, and was a featured composer at the 2019 China-ASEAN Music Festival. 

Timothy Jones (Voice), Doctorate of Musical Arts University of Michigan, is an American Bass-Baritone who enjoys a reputation as a charismatic presence on operatic and concert stages throughout the United States, Europe and South America. The Boston Globe hailed his voice as "stentorian and honeyed" and the Chicago Tribune called his "complete connection with the text extraordinary." The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review praised him for his theatricality, noting that he "relished the dramatic possibilities of the songs' text and music." His eagerly anticipated performances combine intelligent musicianship, commanding vocal technique and a unique ability to connect with audiences. A distinguished concert performer, Mr. Jones has soloed with the Cleveland Orchestra singing Handel's Messiah and Bach's St. Matthew Passion. He has also performed with Boston Baroque, Baltimore Symphony, St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, Austin Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Portland Symphony, Saginaw Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Utah Symphony, Wichita Symphony Orchestra and the Virginia Symphony. Dr. Jones is widely celebrated as an enthusiastic champion of new and contemporary music. His tour de force performance of Eight Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies was called "an amazing feat, making unnatural demands seem natural … bizarre behavior coalesced into a sympathetic portrayal." (The Salt Lake Tribune) He has commissioned and premiered numerous compositions by composers Derek Beryl, Robert Avalon, James Balentine, Laura Carmichael, John Vasconcelos Costa, Kevin Puts, Marcus Maroney, Pierre Jalbert, Karim Al-Zand, Anthony Brandt, Kieren MacMillian, David Passmore, David Cutler, Jeffrey Goldberg, David Heuser, Doug Opel, and Jeffrey Nytch. His annual appearances with Kevin Noe and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble are a highpoint of the season. The Salt Lake Tribune raved over his performance of Argento's A Waterbird Talk conducted by Keith Lockhart, stating "Jones was a marvelous singing actor…. His wry enjoyment was contagious." His performance of Pulitzer Prize Winning Composer Kevin Puts' Einstein on Mercer Street is featured on PNME's recent recording Against the Emptiness. Other recordings include "Drunken Moon" and "The World of Ruth Crawford Seeger".

Pianist Scott Cuellar is an assistant professor of applied music and performance (piano) in the Setnor School of Music, where he teaches applied piano as well as other keyboard-related courses.

In reviewing Cuellar’s debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, David LaMarche of the New York Concert Review described Cuellar’s performance as “virtuosic in scope and expression, like a great man of the theater,” and praised his “ability to illuminate both the external structure and the emotional core of the work he plays.” He has been described by Cleveland Classical as possessing “nerves of steel, a formidable technique, and an architect’s understanding of structure.” The San Antonio Express-News praised his “luxuriant exploration” of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto, adding that his “technique was clean, his melodies and cadenzas were expressive, but most noticeable was his keyboard fluidity.”

Cuellar holds a doctor of musical arts from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where he studied with Jon Kimura Parker; he earned a master of music from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Julian Martin; and he received a bachelor of music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Alvin Chow. During his time at Oberlin, he won three of the largest prizes offered to pianists: the Oberlin Concerto Competition, the Arthur Dann Competition, and the John Elvin Prize for Juniors. He was previously an assistant professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of music, where he taught chamber music, secondary piano, and class piano.