June 26, 2020 COMPASS Concert Program: Community Online Meditation Performance and Salon Series, An online Zoom concert presenting live music programming.

Laura Amoriello is a pianist, pedagogy specialist, and meditation instructor. She was a college professor for 18 years and now finds joy in helping students make music mindfully.

Laura teaches with a holistic approach, emphasizing the mind-body connection and collaborating with students on problem-solving and goal-setting. She incorporates mindfulness practices into the lesson to help students ease their movement, calm their thoughts, and focus their minds. At the core of her teaching is collaboration with students, as setting authentic goals is a key to unlocking expressive joy.

Laura has directed teaching studios in three states, where she has taught students ages 3 to 76 privately and in groups. Her students have been admitted to the Eastman School of Music and Berklee College of Music. Laura has served on the faculties of Ithaca College, Westminster Choir College, and The College of New Jersey. She chairs the Wellness Committee for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy and is an Associate Teacher of the Art of Practicing Institute, where she works closely with Madeline Bruser. Laura has a keen interest in teaching and performing works by new composers, including Higdon, Suesse, and Wallen. She is a MNDFL Certified Meditation Instructor.

Laura holds a Doctor of Education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in piano performance and pedagogy from Penn State University and Westminster Choir College. She lives in Ithaca, NY with her husband, writer Pete Croatto, and their spirited kindergartener, Olivia.

Visit Laura's teaching website here: www.lauraamoriello.com

Kristin Barone-Samadi

Kristin Barone-Samadi (Born 1984), a mother of two, pianist and teacher, currently serves on the music faculty at Adelphi University and is the senior choir director and organist at St. Joseph's Episcopal Church in New York. Kristin received her BA in Performance in 2006 from Adelphi. Graduating cum laude, she was the recipient of the James Gould Award for Excellence in Music. While at Adelphi, Kristin was among the featured performers at the college’s chamber music ensemble—playing at graduation recitals, choral performances, and opera workshops. Kristin received her Master's Degree in 2008 at the Aaron Copland School of Music. She continued her studies in the “Artist Diploma Program” (2009), a program for the advanced study of chamber music. Kristin has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. Participating in a series of master-classes overseen by cellist Kalin Ivanov and pianist Tamara Puddabnaya, Kristin then joined them in travels through Eastern Europe resulting in a final signature concert in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 2008.

Kristin performed with the Adelphi Symphony Orchestra from 2005 to 2008 where she was a featured soloist. She also serves as a substitute organist and music director at various churches in the metropolitan area. She has also studied the pipe organ with David Enlow of Juilliard, Peggo Hsiao of First Presbyterian Church and David Smith (RIP) of Christ First Presbyterian Church.

In collaboration with flutist, Linda Wetherill, Kristin has unveiled new works by contemporary composers, recording and performing them at the “Counterpoint Italy Composition Competition”—an international music festival founded by Ms. Wetherill in 2007. Kristin was the staff accompanist of the Young People's Chorus of NYC in 2011. Having a deep enthusiasm for the music of the Renaissance, Kristin became a keen collaborator with guitarist/lutenist, Daniel Keene—the two of them perform regularly as the Samadi-Keene Duo (formerly, The Barone-Keene Duo).

Kristin and her husband Saman Samadi have created their own international composition competition known simply as “Samadis'.” This festival concluded with a successful winners' concert in March of 2016 and published as a record album. The two also operate a record label known as “Samadis'.”

Kristin enjoys a successful teaching career—she has been a faculty member of the Brooklyn Music House, The Piano School of NYC, Long Beach Music, Oceanside Music, and Adelphi University—she also manages her own private studio. Currently teaching as an adjunct professor at Adelphi University, Kristin teaches courses, there, in Basic Keyboard Skills as well as Form and Analysis. Kristin is a strong advocate of the training programs of Madeline Bruser (author of “The Art of Practicing”), applying this method in her teaching philosophy—having discovered its utility and value as a faculty member during the Sound of Manhattan Music Festival 2018—while teaching several masterclasses and judging the competition there—Kristin saw tangible results in this method and uses it today.

The apple of her eye these days is an ensemble with two other musicians, "Trio de Reínas": they are Kristin (keyboard instruments), Blanca Cecilia-Gonzalez (violin), and Asuka Elias (clarinet). They are a proud Mommies' collective, towing instruments, strollers, and children to their rehearsals.

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Stephen Burns

Conductor, composer and trumpeter Stephen Burns is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project in Chicago. He has been acclaimed on four continents for his virtuosity and interpretative depth in recitals, orchestral appearances, chamber music, and multi-media performances. He has worked closely with composers John Corigliano, Osvaldo Golijov, Gunther Schuller, Jacob TV, and La Monte Young. Native to Wellesley, Massachusetts, Mr. Burns studied under Carmine Caruso, Armando Ghitalla, Arnold Jacobs, Vincent Penzarella, Gerard Schwarz, Pierre Thibaud, William Vacchiano, and Roger Voisin at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Julliard School, and postgraduate work in Paris. He won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Avery Fisher Career Grant, the NEA Recital Grant, the Naumburg Award, the Charles Colin Award, the Meier Arts Achievement Award, and the Maurice André Concours International de Paris. Mr. Burns is on faculty at DePaul University’s School of Music and The Beinen School of Music at Northwestern University. A former tenured Professor of Music at Indiana University, a certified teacher in The Art of Practicing and Performing Beyond Fear, Prof. Burns is a Visiting Lecturer with Amici della Musica in Florence, Italy. CDs at Naxos, MHS, Dorian, Delos, Essay, Kleos, & Innova. Stephen Burns is a Yamaha performing artist.

Marine Cornuet

Marine Cornuet is a poet and a translator based in Brooklyn (NY), and an MFA candidate at Queens College on the literary translation track. Her first poetry chapbook, Keeping the Chaff and the Wheat came out in 2018 with Unsolicited Press. She has translated poems by American writers such as Kaveh Akbar, Monica Youn, and Cynthia Manick for the French magazine Catastrophes. Marine is also a curator and arts administrator at FiveMyles, a utopian not-for-profit arts organization.

Julia Grace

Julia Grace is a 15-year-old sensational singer-songwriter. In the past three years, Julia has compiled more than 15 original songs, performing her own material in front of thousands. She began piano lessons at age seven, and is self-taught on the acoustic guitar and ukulele. Julia Grace is coached by the renowned Renee Grant-Williams, considered to be the world’s foremost voice coach (www.myvoicecoach.com), whose former clients include Garth Brooks, Miley Cyrus, Faith Hill, and Carrie Underwood.

Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Julia moved to Florida in August 2019, and entered Miami Beach Senior High School as a freshman. At the school's talent show, and armed only with her ukulele and gifted voice, she quieted a rowdy crowd of high schoolers by performing her debut of "Sand" -- and received a standing ovation. In February 2020, Ms. Grace auditioned for and won a solo performance spot in the prestigious "Miami Beach Youth Music Festival."

In addition to writing poetry and song lyrics, Julia published her first story about the evolution of influential musical artists in the school’s newspaper, “The Beachcomber.” She is an honors student, fluent in Spanish, an award-winning archer, and an accomplished photographer.

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Mari Hwang

American pianist Mari Hwang believes in creating a safe world where people are inspired to live wholeheartedly. As a co-producer of The COMPASS Concerts (Community Online Meditation Performance and Salon Series), she and her partners, Shinichiro Inaji and Louis Yungling, have established a welcoming, safe environment for music performance where people from all over the world feel a sense of community, support, and healing.

Ms. Hwang’s earlier experiences and challenges with stage fright for solo performances has guided her to share mindfulness awareness practice, easing psychological tension, and connecting heart to music. She performs in variety of venues, in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Merkin Hall, Walt Disney Hall, and in cathedrals, hospitals, libraries, music schools, and private residences.

Her programming frequently shines light on works by unknown, undervalued, minor works of well known composers, and women composers. Her embodiment of often deeply personal storytelling resonates profoundly with audiences and leads to open and courageous dialogue.

In addition to her private teaching studio and being on the faculty for MSM Summer Program, she serves as a collaborative pianist at Manhattan School of Music in NYC.

Ms. Hwang has moved from a sunny suburb of Los Angeles, CA, to attend Manhattan School of Music, where she has received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance. Subsequently, she has received a Master’s in Music from Mannes School of Music and a minor in impact entrepreneurship from The New School.

Shinichiro Inaji

Shin loves piano and has been learning on his own since he was a child, and finally started long-sought piano lessons under teacher and friend Louis Yungling since 2018. Piano and music are a big part of the joy of his life and he is very curious and appreciative to learn the connection of mind and body through piano playing. Currently he works as a freelance illustrator/animator and Licensed Massage Therapist in Portland Oregon where he lives with his husband Walter and Shiba-inu Yuki.

Shin is very happy to be a part of the COMPASS Concerts as a performer, an audience and co-producer with Mari and Louis through which he has been able to meet and interact with wonderful friends and musicians.

Jamie Johnson

Since retiring from the corporate world in 2001, Jamie has moved on to far more interesting things. For about 3 years, she was Executive Director of School of Hope, helping to build schools for girls in Afghanistan—and she got to experience Afghanistan first-hand. In 2006, she founded Art Connects New York which, in its 13-year history, placed hundreds of original artworks in over 40 social services throughout all 5 boroughs of New York City.

Since 2007, Jamie has had two key foci: 1) making the artwork of her late husband, William S. Dutterer, available to the public, and 2) creating artwork of her own. For the Dutterer estate she has published a book and has had some success showing, selling, and placing work in various public institutions ( www.WilliamDutterer.com). As for her own work—her leather body-wear has been shown in numerous exhibitions and her Covid-19 project, a quilt made of Dutterer’s studio clothes, is coming along just fine.

She reads widely because she loves to “hear” the wisdom of others.

AKaiser

AKaiser is the Pushcart Prize nominated author of <glint>, co-winner of the inaugural Milk and Cake Book Prize (www.milkandcakepress.com). Her poem, Shape Shift, was long-listed for the 2020 Fish Publishing Poetry Prize. Her work has placed as finalist for awards such as the North American Review James Hearst Poetry Prize and the Eggtooth Editions Chapbook Prize. Poems and photos can also be found in Harbor Review, Lavender Review, Mudfish, NewSquare, and The Rumpus. She is currently translating the collected works of Catalan poet Anna Gual, and writing the biography and translating the work of the first Iberian translator of Whitman, into Catalan, transatlantic urbanista, Cebrià Montoliu. In February, she was Fellow at the ATLAS Translation Workshop and in April, she curated and participated in events for the Sant Jordi 2020 Festival. These videos, including her reading of Horse Behavior, the subject of her essay, The layered life of a poem, can be viewed at: www.santjordinyc.org/program.

Ravenna Michalsen

Ravenna Michalsen is a cellist based in New Haven, CT. where she is faculty at Neighborhood Music School and maintains a private studio. She regularly plays with several area symphonies including Bridgeport, Ridgefield, Wallingford and Waterbury. She is the founder of Dignity Music, which brings live classical music to New Haven area soup kitchens and transitional housing center (www.DignityMusic.org). Ravenna hold two degrees from Yale University and one from the University at Colorado, Boulder and has released three original albums of dharma songs available on iTunes / Apple Music.

Jack Ryfiak

Jonathan Ryfiak who goes by the family nickname of Jack is a non-traditional music student attending the Aaron Copland School of Music as a Music Education major, and has a passion for sharing music with others. He has been studying piano since the age of six, but took time off between highschool and his initial college years, where he began studying pre-medicine at Calvin College in Grand Rapids Michigan. He left Michigan at the age of 19 to pursue a career in modeling which led him to New York City. For two years he was an international model for Re:Quest Model Management, where he walked in New York fashion week, and has appeared in editorial fashion magazines including Taiwan GQ, Squint Homme, Arena, Cosmopolitan, and many more. He went on to become a Director of New Faces for Exxcel Model Management at their satellite office in West Palm Beach, Florida; eventually returning to work in the New York City office. Although the fashion and entertainment industry was exciting, he felt the need to return to a more fulfilling life in the study of music. With the help and guidance of Madeline Bruser he was able to successfully audition and gain acceptance to the Aaron Copland School of Music where he now attends. Here he has been named a Provost Scholar in the academic year of 2018-2019 and has the current standing of a high honors student. He hopes to give back by teaching music and being a mentor to students who may struggle with acceptance and support from their families. Also to nurture and support inner city students who may not have the best resources, whether it be at school or at home, so that they can be lifted to reach their fullest potential.

Louis Yungling

Hello, my name is Louis Yungling and I'm the founder of COMPASS. I'm also a pianist and teacher.

Meditation, mindfulness and awareness exercises are an integral part of my teaching and practice. Musicians benefit greatly from these practices by being able to fine tune their focus and get more out of their practice as well as increase their responsiveness to sound and be more present and confident in performance.

I created COMPASS concerts to extend these practices to audiences and give everyone a moment to pause and go inward. We do this by sharing a brief contemplation exercise before every concert. In this way we practice being aware of one another and give ourselves a chance to feel and appreciate our unique contribution.

Preparing our minds and bodies to receive and make music allows us to be more receptive to the beauty and generosity that goes into a musical performance. And practicing this type of mindful preparation regularly can help us open our hearts more to the experiences of our day to day lives.

I am thrilled to share this journey with you and the very talented, generous artists who perform here. Thank you to all my musician friends for sharing your gifts and creating beautiful programs of music for our COMPASS community. And thank you to all who come and partake in these heart-warming community concerts.

I currently live and teach piano in Valencia, Spain. My teaching website: Yungling Piano Studio.