Deviant Septet Welcomes New Violinist and Trombonist
Deviant Septet is thrilled to announce the appointment of two new members:
violinist Karen Kim, and trombonist Mike Lormand.
Karen Kim
Grammy Award-winning violinist Karen Kim is widely hailed for her sensitive musicianship and passionate commitment to chamber and contemporary music. Her performances have been described as “compellingly structured and intimately detailed” (Cleveland Classical) and “muscular and gripping” (New York Classical Review). She has appeared in such venues as Carnegie Hall's Zankel and Weill Halls, Lincoln Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York; the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and Library of Congress in Washington, DC; the Vienna Musikverein; London’s Wigmore Hall; the Musée d'Orsay in Paris; the Seoul Arts Center; Angel Place in Sydney; and many more. As a founding member of the Parker Quartet (2002-2012), her recording of the complete string quartets of György Ligeti received the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance in 2011. With the Parker Quartet, Karen Kim also received the Grand Prize and Mozart Prize at the 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. Esteemed for her versatility across a broad spectrum of musical idioms and artistic disciplines, Karen has collaborated with artists ranging from Kim Kashkashian, Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, Jörg Widmann, and Shai Wosner to Questlove & The Roots and the James Sewell Ballet. She is a member of Third Sound, East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, and Ensemble Échappe, and frequently performs with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Metropolis Ensemble, and many others. She is also a devoted advocate of the music of our time, and has premiered works by Lera Auerbach, Jeremy Gill, Michael Harrison, Patrick Castillo, Wang Jie, Osnat Netzer, and others. A native of La Crosse, Wisconsin, Karen received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance and her master’s degree in chamber music from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and jazz vocalist Dominique Eade.
Mike Lormand
New York City‐based trombonist Mike Lormand is a performer of eclectic classical and contemporary music in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings. In addition to Deviant Septet, Mike performs internationally as a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and Weather Vest Quartet. He performs frequently with new music powerhouses Talea Ensemble, Argento Chamber Ensemble, TILT Brass, as well as Steve Coleman’s Council of Balance. Mike is a member of the period-ensemble Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, which tours the country playing a wide variety of music from the early 20th Century. As a freelance trombonist, he has appeared on Broadway, and as lead trombone on the Radio City New York Spectacular, as well as in venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Stone, Littlefield, and many more. His passion for the orchestral repertoire has led to performances with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, The Knights, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, IRIS Orchestra, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Mike previously served as principal trombone of the Huntsville Symphony and Reading Symphony Orchestras. An avid and enthusiastic educator, Mike serves as a brass instructor at the St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn, where he enjoys connecting students to lasting personal relationships with music, and sharing insights taught to him by his teachers, Per Brevig, Dave Taylor, Marta Hofacre, and Bob Schmaltz. Mike received his Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Karen succeeds violinist Courtney Orlando, and Mike succeeds trombonist Dave Nelson, who are both leaving to pursue other artistic endeavors. Deviant Septet would like to extend its most heartfelt thanks to Dave and Courtney for their years of dedication and artistic contributions to the ensemble, both of whom will remain part of the Deviant family.
Deviant Septet has been hailed as “exciting” (New York Times), a “stylish new ensemble” (New York Magazine), “superb” (Washington Post), “exceedingly fun”, “led by new music veterans” (Time Out New York), “lively and accomplished” (Classical TV: The Drift), and “boisterously entertaining” (Lucid Culture). WNYC called it “a brand new ensemble with a high concept... made up of top classical and avant garde musicians,” and ran a feature on its premiere concert in May 2011. Deviant Septet’s commission of David Liptak’s Focusing received a 2013 Serge Koussevitzky Foundation commissioning grant. The mission of Deviant Septet is to fulfill the vision Igor Stravinsky had for his l’Histoire du Soldat ensemble. Stravinsky, enamored by the unusual combination of instruments — violin and bass, clarinet and bassoon, trumpet and trombone, and percussion — thought that others would follow his lead, and that this unique blend of musicians, the soprano and bass voice of every instrument family, would travel the world playing the music of many composers. Deviant Septet stands alone among the world’s new music collectives, as it is the only ensemble consisting solely of this instrumentation.
Highlights of the upcoming season include a concert, masterclasses, and educational outreach at the University of Idaho, and Rice University, the second year of a residency at Duke University, an evening of world premieres with the Cecilia Chorus, and the first annual Deviant Septet Summer Composition Intensive housed at Dickinson College.
For Booking or Press Inquiries Contact:
Peter Robles
Serious Music Media
phone: (646) 386-7057
fax: (646) 478-9004