DMA Performer Biographies

The following featured performers are pursuing their Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University.

Soprano Carolyn Anderson has performed with the finest arts institutions and venues of Northwest Ohio: the Toledo Opera, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo’s Rosary Cathedral, and the Lima Symphony Orchestra. In the Spring of 2023, she presented Messiaen’s Harawi with pianist Sandra Coursey. Other recent performances include the Novice in Toledo Opera’s production of Suor Angelica, Eric Whitacre’s Goodnight Moon with the BGSU Wind Symphony, and Steven Naylor’s chamber opera Visionary as Hildegard von Bingen at the 2022 BGSU New Music Festival. With pianist and composer Steven Naylor, Ms. Anderson won the Marjorie Conrad Art Song Competition in 2022. Ms. Anderson is in her third year of the DMA program and studies with Professor Keith Phares. She received her MM at BGSU and her BM at the Oberlin Conservatory.

Horn player Rachel Constantino is passionate about commissioning new works for both chamber and solo performance. She completed her undergraduate degree at the Manhattan School of Music and is a Dean’s Medal recipient from UCLA, where she received her MM. An avid chamber player, she is a member of Bowling Green’s PACEM Quintet. In addition to horn performance, her interests lie in analogue and digital synthesis and integrating electronics into her horn playing. She is in her 3rd year of doctoral studies with Dr. Andrew Pelletier at BGSU.

Stephen Eckert is a pianist and new music advocate from Newfoundland, Canada, now based in Bowling Green, Ohio. Dedicated to new music and experimental sound, Stephen has premiered dozens of new and original works in VERSFest, the Newfound Music Festival, the Orford Contemporary Workshop, soundSCAPE Festival, and with Ensemble Allure, a contemporary music ensemble they co-founded in 2020, which recently released its debut album, Dual. Appearing at venues such as the Ottawa Art Gallery for Pique: Winter Edition 2021, the National Arts Centre of Canada’s 4th Stage, NUNC!5, Sound Symposium, the MACCM New Music Festival, CMS Great-Lakes Conference, the Wintertide Festival, the Gros Morne Summer Music Festival, and the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival, Mx. Eckert has established themselves as an emerging voice in the contemporary art music community. Other performance honors include first prizes in the Nicole Senécal Emerging Artist Prize, the BGSU Concerto Competition, the Douglas Wayland Chamber Music competition, and the Marjorie Conrad Art Song competition. Stephen was named on CBC’s “Hot 30-under-30 classical musicians” in 2022 and performed Lutosławski’s Piano Concerto in 2023 with the BGSU Philharmonia.

Saxophonist Garrett Evans is a current doctoral student at Bowling Green State University. He has performed internationally, travelling to Strasbourg, France in 2015 with the Lawrence University Saxophone Quartet, and domestically, in universities, public schools, warming shelters, country clubs, parks, and malls. Garrett also spent several years teaching in the public schools in Wisconsin. He received degrees from Lawrence University and The Hartt School, where his primary saxophone instructors were Steven Jordheim and Carrie Koffman. He is currently studying with Dr. John Sampen at BGSU.

Francisca de Castanheiro de Freitas, a Brazilian pianist based in Bowling Green, is currently pursuing a DMA in Contemporary Music (Performance—piano) at Bowling Green State University. She earned her MMus in Piano Performance under the mentorship of acclaimed pianist Solungga Liu. Notable achievements include 2nd prize at the 2022 Marjorie Conrad Art Song Competition, where she collaborated with singer Keri Lee Pierson, and 2nd prize at the 23rd Piano Competition in Ituiutaba, MG, Brazil. She has also appeared in music festivals in both Brazil and the US, such as the Brazil-Germany Festival, the 56th Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival and the 42nd MAACM New Music Festival.

Chris Harris is a percussionist, educator, and composer from Fairfield, California who is currently pursuing a DMA in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University. He holds two BMs and an MM from California State University - Sacramento. His current and previous teachers consist of Dan Piccolo (BGSU), Jordan Shippy (CSUS), Shuying Li (CSUS), Chris Froh (CSUS), and Dan Kennedy (CSUS). In his solo performance career Chris has premiered works by composers including Sarah Lianne Lewis, Conor Shafran and Emily Joy Sullivan. He has won regional PAS competitions in 2022–2024 and performed at the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy. As an educator Chris has taught in the marching percussion discipline at both the high school and collegiate levels for 8 years and has taught private studio lessons for 5 years. Currently at BGSU he teaches individual lessons to undergraduate students in percussion

Clarinetist Haley Harrison is a dedicated performer and music educator from the Metro-East. Currently pursuing a DMA in Contemporary Clarinet Performance under the instruction of Kevin Schempf and Georg Klaas at Bowling Green State University, she previously earned her Master of Music from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and her Bachelor of Music from Eastern Illinois University. Haley has garnered recognition through numerous competitions and notable performances, including the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest, the National Level of the NAACP Act-So competition, and First Prize at the 2023 Charleston International Romantic Music Competition. She has been a featured soloist with both the EIU Wind Symphony and Eastern Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with ensembles such as the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the Indiana University Wind Ensemble. Additionally, she shares her passion for music as a clarinet instructor and clinician.

Martha Hudson is a Cuban-Mexican oboist pursuing a DMA at Bowling Green State University with Professor Dwight Parry. She has performed as principal oboe of the Zacatecas State Chamber Orchestra and second oboe of the Zacatecas Philharmonic Orchestra, and served as oboe instructor in social programs focused on the creation of youth orchestras and bands in Mexico. Her musical career has led her to perform with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Autonomous University of Zacatecas in Mexico and the Matanzas Symphony Orchestra in Cuba.  She has also participated in international competitions and tours in Belgium, Slovakia, Ecuador, and Spain. Additionally, Martha was the winner of top prizes in Mexico's 5th and 6th National Oboe Competitions. She received her MM at BGSU and her BM at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas in Mexico.

Niayesh Javaheri is a pianist and educator based in Bowling Green, OH, currently pursuing her DMA in contemporary music with Dr. Solungga Liu. She has performed as a soloist and with various ensembles in Iran, Europe, and the US. Niayesh has premiered and recorded numerous works, including a piece featured in the album Contemporary Music in Iran. Two of her other recordings are set to be published in 2025. Her notable achievements include an honorable mention in the Donna Turner Smith Competition in Oklahoma, second prize in the solo section of the Third Biennial of Piano in Tehran, and an honorable mention in its chamber music section. Niayesh earned her MMus in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma, and her BMus from the Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna, Austria.

Jacob Koch is a percussionist and educator who is passionate about contemporary music and music education. He is a chamber musician, orchestral musician, percussion soloist, and composer based in Northwest Ohio, and has performed with the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, Firelands Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Chamber Choir. Jacob also remains active in the drum corps community. He was a member of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps, and is the percussion caption head for Rhythm in BLUE, which recently won “Best of Show” for the second consecutive year. Jacob holds degrees in music performance from the University of Toledo and Kent State University. He is currently pursuing a DMA in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University, where he teaches applied lessons, coaches the percussion ensemble, and assists with music classes.

Shannon Lotti is a Miyazawa Emerging Artist and third-year DMA student studying Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University. She is an active flute teacher as well as a solo, chamber, and orchestral performer. Shannon performs as a member of Duo Aequalis with pianist Stephen Eckert, and Spectra Trio, with cellist Anthony Marchese and pianist Stephen Eckert. She made her concerto debut in 2024 performing Joan Tower’s Flute Concerto with the BGSU Philharmonia as a winner of the BGSU Competitions in Music Performance. Shannon’s accolades include 1st prize in the Atlanta Flute Club Young Artist Competition, Central Ohio Flute Association Young Artist Competition, South Carolina Flute Society Young Artist Competition, and Douglas Wayland Chamber Music Competition; 2nd prize in the Florida Flute Association Nancy Clew Eller Artist Competition; and a quarter finalist in the National Flute Association Young Artist Competition. Shannon received her BM from the University of Texas at Arlington and MM from the University of Nebraska.

As an active proponent of contemporary music, Anthony Marchese strives to work with living composers. Currently in the final year of his DMA at Bowling Green State University, Anthony has premiered numerous works for solo cello and chamber ensemble. Anthony also performs as a member of Spectra Trio, which won first place in the Wayland Chamber Music Competition and is a two-time finalist in the Glass City Chamber Music Competition. Throughout their professional career, Anthony has taught countless students, and performed in the Jackson Symphony, the Adrian Symphony, the Lakeside Symphony, the MahlerFest Symphony, and more. Anthony also works as a session cellist having been featured on various albums of popular music by his longtime collaborator Joanna Sterling, as well as the Juliets, and Three Body Problem. Recently Anthony recorded for an award-winning independent film soundtrack and performed an original song cycle with New Zeeland-based singer songwriter, Maggie Coco.

Oboist David Munro is a versatile performer who builds upon tradition while embracing contemporary, avant-garde, and electro-acoustic music, engaging audiences through thoughtful and innovative performances. David thrives in collaborative environments, performing regularly with the Diverge Trio (fl, ob, pn) and Newphonia Ensemble. He has been a Performance Fellow at the Bang on a Can, Nief Norf, and Splice Summer Festivals, exploring contemporary chamber performance in works like Ellen Reid’s Push/Pull and George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children. David is in the fourth year of his DMA program at BGSU and is studying with Professor Dwight Parry.

Planning interesting and audience involved events, with a lean towards contemporary chamber music, Keri Lee Pierson brings music from the medieval period through today to a variety of venues. She enjoys discovering and performing lesser-known pieces and collaborating on new ones to bring classical music to a wide audience. She recently finished the libretto for a chamber opera that she is creating and premiering with composer ChanJi Kim for International Women's Day, and is working on a project to commission new works for voice & guitar. In 2021, Keri Lee was awarded a grant from the FL Department of State to tour their event, iPlay: An Audience Perspective on New Music, throughout Northeast Florida. She has been teaching and performing since 2012, and has worked in grade school, college and university music departments as a teacher and administrator. Keri Lee is currently the Voice Instructor at Northern Michigan University and is in the 4th year of her doctorate at BGSU. www.kerileesoprano.com

Originally from Miami, Florida, Sam Valancy is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University. Valancy has won several accolades as a soloist and chamber musician, including Outstanding Soloist Award at the 20th Annual Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington Competition presented by Wynton Marsalis in 2015, a Downbeat Magazine Award for his performance with the Frost Salsa Orchestra in 2018, First Prize in the Frost School of Music Concerto Competition in 2018, and First Prize in the Charleston International Music Competition in 2024. Valancy has performed as a soloist with the Frost Wind Ensemble and Kansas City Wind Symphony. Valancy holds an MM in Saxophone Performance from Northwestern University, an MM in Music Theory and Artist’s Certificate in Saxophone Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and a BM in Saxophone Performance from the University of Miami. His primary teachers include John Sampen, Zach Shemon, Taimur Sullivan, Dale Underwood, and Gary Keller.