Amy Sedan, flute
Sophie Huet, clarinet
Naomi Hoffmeyer, harp
Margaret Halbig, piano
Dan VanHassel, electric guitar/composer
Christy Kyong, violin
Anne Suda, violoncello
Kali Wilson, soprano
Jen Wang, composer

Directors: Sophie Huet, Dan VanHassel, Jen Wang
Contact: jen@wildrumpusmusic.org

Amy Sedan, flute

Originally from North Carolina, flutist Amy Sedan is now a freelance Bay Area musician and arts administrator who enjoys sharing her love for music in many capacities, whether with her San Francisco Symphony colleagues, in various new music groups, or with the students she teaches.

Amy received her Master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in May 2009, where she studied with Tim Day, principal flute of the San Francisco Symphony. Later that summer, she was invited to be a fellow at the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado for an eight week orchestral festival. Other fellowships and festivals have included the Texas Music Festival Fellowship in 2008, Eastern Music Festival, and Interlochen Arts Camp. Amy has performed in masterclasses of many well-known flutists including Marianne Gedigian, Jill Felber, Jeanne Baxtresser, Robert Langevin, Jonathan Snowden and Tadeu Coelho.

Amy is currently on the staff of the San Francisco Symphony, where she has the pleasure of working with world-class musicians every weekday. When the weekend rolls around however, you can find her collaborating with such groups as the local band The Family Crest, or most recently, Wild Rumpus. Additionally, as a founding member of the Magik*Magik Orchestra, an orchestra dedicated to bridging the gap between independent rock musicians and classical musicians, she has had the opportunity to perform in diverse venues around the Bay Area, including Davies Symphony Hall in collaboration with Sting, The Palace of Fine Arts, The Great American Music Hall, and the SFMOMA for their 75th anniversary.

Sophie Huet, clarinet

Clarinetist Sophie Huet recently earned her Master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Luis Baez. Prior to her studies in San Francisco, she earned her BM in clarinet performance and BA in English at the University of Michigan, where she studied with Fred Ormand and Monica Kaenzig. An avid proponent for new music, Sophie has performed with Nothingset Ensemble, San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s New Music Ensemble, as well as the Magik*Magik Orchestra, and is a member of the New Spectrum Ensemble. She has also premiered works by Michael Daugherty, Eliza Brown, and Sahba Aminikia and performed in masterclasses with Mark Nuccio, Daniel Gilbert, Eli Eban, and David Krakauer.

Naomi Hoffmeyer, harp

Harpist Naomi Hoffmeyer took first prize in the Advanced Division of the American Harp Society National Competition in July 2009, and placed as an alternate in the 2010 Anne Adams Awards. Her recent performances around the Bay Area include appearances with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Parallèle, the Santa Cruz County Symphony Orchestra, and performances at the San Francisco International Airport as part of the You Are Hear program to boost cultural experiences to the airport. She recently participated in the Round Top Music Festival in Round Top, Texas in June and July 2011.

As a member of various orchestras, Naomi has performed in San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, the Detroit Orchestra Symphony Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Tanglewood’s Seiji Ozawa Hall. She has worked with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, JoAnn Falletta, and Shi-Yeon Sung.

Naomi graduated with honors from the Interlochen Arts Academy in 2006, where she studied with Joan Raeburn Holland. She went on to study with Ann Hobson Pilot at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and with Douglas Rioth at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She also counts among her primary influences Karen Gottlieb, Heidi O’Gara, and the late renowned harp pedagogue Alice Chalifoux.

While maintaining an active musical schedule, Ms. Hoffmeyer is an enthusiast of the culinary arts and holds certification in Pâtisserie and Baking from the California Culinary Academy.

Dan VanHassel, composer & electric guitar

Dan VanHassel is a composer and multi-instrumentalist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. His music has been performed across North America, Europe, and Asia by performers such as pianist Keith Kirchoff, Red Fish Blue Fish, Ensemble SurPlus, percussionist Joseph Van Hassel, and saxophonist Michael Straus. Active as a performer, Dan draws influence from his experience performing in rock bands, gamelan orchestras, free jazz groups, and chamber ensembles. Dan is co-director of the Wild Rumpus new music collective in San Francisco and was a founding member of the new music ensemble Agenda, the free-improv group Output, and the composers collective Test Pattern. He has studied composition at Carnegie Mellon University, the New England Conservatory, and the University of California at Berkeley. Visit his website www.danvanhassel.com for more information and sound samples.

Margaret Halbig, piano

Pianist Margaret Halbig recently completed a Doctorate in collaborative piano from UC Santa Barbara. During her time there, she worked as a pianist for Opera Santa Barbara and Westmont College. This summer, Margaret relocated to the Bay Area and is working at the San Francisco Conservatory and San Francisco Girls Chorus. She is thrilled to be part of Wild Rumpus as her study and enjoyment of chamber music in particular highlights her passion for musical expression in a collaborative environment.

Margaret holds degrees from the University of Evansville in Indiana as well as the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory. She has also studied at the University of Kansas and the Music Academy of the West.

Christy Kyong, violin

Christy Kyong earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music and Interdisciplinary Studies in Early Childhood from University of California at Berkeley where she studied with Mariko Smiley, David Abel and Heather Haughn. She received her Masters in Violin Performance from Northwestern University Bienen School of Music studying in Blair Milton’s studio. Christy Kyong has been an active performer and has soloed with groups such as the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, Berkeley University Symphony, and other various groups. Kyong also loves to perform solo recitals and accompanies on the piano and the pipe organ on a regular basis. Christy Kyong resides in Oakland where she happily teaches privately and is a faculty member of the Crowden School CCMC Program, Bentley School, and the Nomura School.

Anne Suda, cello

(Bio forthcoming)

Kali Wilson, soprano

Kali Wilson debuted with San Francisco Lyric Opera as Donna Elvira in its 2009 production of Don Giovanni. She was touted as a “vocal triumph” by the San Francisco Classical Voice and the Epoch Times wrote that she sung the role “with exceptional clarity and emotion”. Most recently she won first prize in the East Bay Opera League’s 2009 Vocal Competition. The Eureka, California native currently resides in San Francisco, where she studies with renowned teacher and tenor, Cesar Ulloa.

While at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for both her undergraduate and graduate studies, she performed the roles of Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hero in L’Egisto, Charlotte in A Little Night Music and Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods, and was a soloist in the Conservatory’s final performance of the “Sing-It-Yourself-Messiah” at Davies Symphony Hall. As winner of the Conservatory’s 2007 Voice Concerto Competition she performed Barber’s Andromache’s Farewell with the Conservatory Orchestra in its opening concert for the 2007-2008 season.

An active soloist, she has made appearances with the Monterey Symphony, San Jose Symphonic Choir, and Eureka Symphony and has performed in master classes with acclaimed stage director Lotfi Mansouri, singers Frederica von Stade and Catherine Naglestad, and composer William Bolcom.

Jen Wang, composer

Jen Wang’s work has been featured at the Wellesley Composers Conference, the International Computer Music Conference, the Bang On A Can Summer Institute, the California EAR Unit Residency at Arcosanti, the Music ’03 and ’04 festivals, and the SPARK Festival. Her past commissions include works for the Iktus Percussion Quartet, Coro D’Amici, the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, flutist Janet McKay, NeXT Ens, and clarinetist Cristhian Rodriguez; she has also been performed by Lucy Shelton, the California EAR Unit, Onix Ensamble, the Eco Ensemble, and the percussion ensembles of Mannes College and the University of California, Davis. Her first installation work, Black Cloud (for streaming data and electronics), premiered as part of Panorama, an evening-length multi-media performance featuring choreography by Merce Cunningham and Lisa Wymore.

Jen has been commissioned to write a chamber work for Talea to premiere at the 2012 Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt, as one of the recipients of the Staubach Honoraria. Other upcoming projects include a song cycle for contralto Karen Clark and a work for orchestra. She has held residencies at the MacDowell Colony, where she was a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and the Millay Colony of the Arts, where she was a Robert W. Simpson Fellow. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (M.M.) and Carleton College (B.A.). Currently, Jen is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, where she has been awarded the Eisner Award in Music, the Nicola de Lorenzo Prize, and the William V. Power Graduate Award.