WHO WE ARE
Halcyon is a collective. At our core, we are a string quartet however we often collaborate with musicians and artists from Maine and beyond to create unique and varied programs and performances. As performers, artists and collaborators, we strive to share our love of music in ways that foster connection, community, vibrancy, joy, warmth and accessibility. We strive to create programs that build partnerships with local community organizations and folks from all walks of life. Our performances are interdisciplinary and often involve a multimedia component. In each concert, we work to create a space that draws upon word, art and music to tell a story that is relevant to our community.
Halcyon is a collective. At our core, we are a string quartet however we often collaborate with musicians and artists from Maine and beyond to create unique and varied programs and performances. As performers, artists and collaborators, we strive to share our love of music in ways that foster connection, community, vibrancy, joy, warmth and accessibility. We strive to create programs that build partnerships with local community organizations and folks from all walks of life. Our performances are interdisciplinary and often involve a multimedia component. In each concert, we work to create a space that draws upon word, art and music to tell a story that is relevant to our community.
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SOPHIE DAVIS VIOLIN & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Sophie is a violinist, climate change artist, and the Artistic Director of Halcyon. Having grown up in Maine, she received degrees in violin performance and environmental studies from Oberlin College and Conservatory. Playing and sharing music are integral to Sophie’s creative and professional practice. She has participated in the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Program, as a soloist with Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, and with her sister on NPR’s From the Top. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Chicago’s Symphony Hall, the Monte Music Festival in India, and with the Jordan National Orchestra (JOrchestra) in Amman, Jordan. In 2017-18, Sophie was awarded a Fulbright Grant to the South Pacific island nation of Samoa where she researched how music and the arts raise awareness of climate change. As a violinist and core member of Halcyon, Sophie collaborates frequently with filmmaker and musician Luke Fatora, as well as with musicians, artists, activists, and scientists to create multimedia performances that combine live music with film, story, and art. Her creative practice combines the honesty of science and statistical fact with the emotional qualities of film and music. Recent projects have led her to pursue coursework in stop-motion animation; research the internal documents of the Exxon Corporation; build a contact microphone to record the sounds of ice-out; and record humpback whale song aboard a tall ship in the Lesser Antilles. |
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JOSIE DAVIS VIOLIN & ARTISTIC ADVISOR Josie Davis received her undergraduate degrees in violin and sociology at Oberlin College and Conservatory where she was a student of David Bowlin, and her Ed.M from Harvard University. She has performed in a wide-range of venues from Carnegie Hall to the Monte Music Festival in India and has appeared with her sister on NPR’s From the Top. She actively explores ways to share classical music in new contexts and has performed chamber music with Emanuel Ax in a taco shop, played solo Bach for Chris Thile, and shared music on a mountaintop in India. Her teaching has brought her to Panama, India and Community MusicWorks in Rhode Island where she completed a two-year Fellowship. In past summers, she has studied at the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, Bowdoin International Music Festival and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. She is committed to creating more chamber music opportunities for young people and is the founder and director of summer workshops for young people in Maine and Connecticut. As a violinist, educator and arts administrator, Josie is interested in how the arts can be used as a form of cultural empowerment to build bridges and strengthen communities. In addition to her work with Halcyon, Josie is a member of Palaver Strings, and works at Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School. |
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COLIN WHEATLEY VIOLA Colin has been teaching violin and viola to students of all ages for 15 years. He is currently the Orchestra Director for Waterville Public Schools, and also teaches at Bay Chamber and with Pineland Suzuki School. Originally from Bellingham Washington, Colin earned his BM in Viola Performance at Oberlin Conservatory studying with Peter Slowik, his MM in Viola Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he was a student of Atar Arad, and his graduate degree in teaching from Oberlin Conservatory. An avid chamber musician, Colin plays with Halcyon and has performed for members of the Emerson, Pacifica, Cleveland, and Takas quartets and for Yo Yo Ma. He has collaborated with Stevie Wonder, Robert Spano, Menahem Pressler, and Jeremy Denk. Colin's teaching is influenced by his work with Mimi Zweig at the Indiana University String Academy, Suzuki Teacher training, and the many musical and pedagogical mentors that have shaped his approach to sharing music with young people. When not performing and teaching, Colin enjoys spending time outdoors, running marathons, beekeeping, cooking, and traveling. |
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LUKE FATORA VIDEO ARTIST & ARTISTIC ADVISOR Luke Fatora is a musician and experimental filmmaker based in Rockland, Maine. With degrees in violin performance from the Oberlin and San Francisco Conservatories of Music, Luke became captivated by the interplay between imagery and sound while experimenting with sound design as a student in San Francisco. Since then, he has been combining music with imagery to create multimedia performances that strive to make abstract experiences more tangible. He has performed in contexts that include fiddling for square dances, improvising with dancers and DJs, and performing contemporary and traditional classical music in the World Financial Center and Carnegie Hall. Luke served as the Music Director for the Summit Community Orchestra in Colorado and was a 2017-2019 Musician Fellow at Community MusicWorks in Providence, Rhode Island. Luke has worked as a projectionist and technical coordinator for the Camden International Film Festival and his most recent creative projects have been screened at the Maine International Film Festival and in collaborative performances with Halcyon throughout Maine. Luke is a certified drone pilot. For more information about Luke’s work, visit lukefatora.com. |
COLLABORATORS
NATHAN DAVIS COMPOSER Nathan Davis is a composer, artist, technologist, and public servant who lives in Rockland. Much of his work draws inspiration from natural and physical processes, but, like Halcyon, he is also driven by an increasingly urgent sense of public responsibility. In that spirit, he has proposed a collaboration: he will compose a work for the Halcyon String Quartet and officiant. The officiant's spoken text will be constructed from words contributed by Halcyon's supporters. It will be a work specific to place, time, and people: Maine, now, and all of you. |
JU-YOUNG LEE CELLO Korean American cellist, Ju-Young Lee enjoys an international career as a chamber musician, soloist, and versatile recording artist. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he trained under David Soyer and Joel Krosnick, and studied with Felix Wang as a Myra Jackson Blair Scholar at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University. Concert and festival appearances as chamber musician and recital soloist include performances at Brevard, Great Mountains Music Festival, The National Music Festival, Rocky-Mountain Summer Conservatory, Kneisel Hall, and Manhattan Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Lee is in demand as a recording artist and performer for popular music in addition to his classical activities. He has collaborated on Jazz, Rock, and Country music albums and also performs internationally with the Emmy-Award winning Damien Escobar and his quartet, including performances at the 2013 Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball honoring Barack Obama. Currently Mr. Lee resides in Providence, Rhode Island, while actively touring the United States and internationally with The Core Ensemble and Warp Trio. |
JILL PELTO ARTIST Jill Pelto is an artist and scientist whose work focuses on communicating human-environment connections. She incorporates scientific research and data into watercolor paintings to create visual narratives about climate change. Jill grew up in Massachusetts and currently resides in Maine. She has B.A. degrees in Studio Art and Earth and Climate Sciences. Her M.S. focused on studying the stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a warming world. This diverse background has allowed her to create artwork that engages broad audiences with climate change data. Because climate change can be difficult to verbalize and visualize, Jill hopes her work will encourage open dialogue about human impacts at different scales. Jill’s work has inspired online features in Smithsonian, PBS News Hour, and National Geographic. She recently created a custom data-art painting for the cover of TIME Magazine in July 2020. Her data art is also being used in K-12 curriculum programs across the U.S. and Canada. Most recently she has exhibited in Maine, New Mexico, and New York. |
NORA WILLAUER CELLO Nora Willauer is a passionate musician, devoted not only to her instrument, but also to the relationship between music and community. Nora graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music with her Masters of Music Performance. She is currently pursuing DMA with Dr. Melissa Kraut. In the past few years, Nora has performed as a soloist with the Eugene Symphony Orchestra, the Liceu Cello Ensemble in Barcelona, and the University of Oregon Symphony Orchestra. She has won numerous prizes including the Labberte-Hoedemaker Award from the Peter de Grote festival in the Netherlands, the University of Oregon Undergraduate Performance Award and the Eugene Symphony’s Young Artist Competition. Nora shas served as Executive Director of DocSong, a non-profit dedicated to co-writing authentic songs with communities in crisis. |
DAVID TROUP ACTOR David Troup is a graduate of the SUNY Purchase acting program and a lifetime member of the Actors Studio in NYC. Originally from New York, he lives in Maine where he has performed in or directed many of the Everyman Repertory Theatre’s productions, including performing the roles of Rothko in Red, Ui in Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Mack the Knife in their recent production of Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. |
AARON WOLFF CELLO Aaron Wolff (b. 1994) is a New York City-based cellist and performer active in solo, collaborative, and cross-disciplinary capacities. He received a B.A. in comparative literature and B.M. in cello performance from Oberlin College & Conservatory. He then completed Master’s degree at Juilliard, where he was a Kovner Fellow under Joel Krosnick, and an Artist Diploma under Tim Eddy and Fred Sherry. Aaron has performed in the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, the City Reliquary, MASS MoCA, Nasher Sculpture Center and the Cleveland Art Museum as well as traditional venues like Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Symphony Center Chicago, Prague’s Rudolfinum, Vienna’s Musikverein, Köln’s Philharmonie, and KKL Luzern. Aaron has also found creative outlets in acting – most notably in a lead role in the Coen brothers’ film A Serious Man – and in arranging and writing about music: he has provided string arrangements for Comedy Central’s Broad City and covered New York’s new music scene for the online journal I Care If You Listen. |
Header Photo by Bob Crink (from Boothbay Sea and Science Center Melody in Motion)