The Ludovico Ensemble was founded in 2002 by Nicholas Tolle
and currently serves as Ensemble in Residence at the Boston
Conservatory. Its mission is to dually promote rarely heard
works of the European and American avant-garde as well as to
foster the development of new American repertoire for mixed
chamber ensemble. The configuration of the group varies as
required by the repertoire. Its performances have been
enthusiastically received by composers such as Helmut Lachenmann
and Jonathan Harvey. The group takes its name from the
fictional medical treatment featured in the Anthony Burgess
novel and Stanley Kubrick movie "A Clockwork Orange," in which
the protagonist is subjected to a classical conditioning regimen
that induces nausea at the sight of violent or exploitative
acts, but also, inadvertently, to the music of Beethoven.
Described by the New York Times as "virtuosic" and by the
Albany Times-Union as "amazingly skilled,"
percussionist/cimbalomist Nicholas Tolle recently performed the
solo cimbalom part in Pierre Boulez' Repons in Lucerne,
Switzerland with the composer conducting. As a percussionist, he
has performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the
Nederlands Radio Kamer Philharmonie, the Boston Pops Orchestra,
Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Lyric Opera, Collage New
Music, Cantata Singers, and is a core member of the
Callithumpian Consort. Nicholas is also a founding member of
Ensemble XII. In 2009, Nicholas won an Encore Grant from the
American Composers Forum. He has attended the Tanglewood Music
Center, the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Carnegie Hall
Professional Training Workshop, and the Aspen Music
Festival. Nicholas has been a guest teacher at the Hochschule
fur Musik in Detmold, Germany and the Arnhem (NL)
Conservatorium. He attended the Boston, Amsterdam, and New
England Conservatories.
Mischa Salkind-Pearl is a Boston based composer of acoustic
instrumental and vocal music. He holds a BA in music from
Skidmore College, a Certificate in American Contemporary Music
from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and a
MM from the Boston Conservatory. His teachers include Linda
Dusman, Marti Epstein, and Dalit Warshaw. Mischa's pieces have
been performed in a number of cities and countries, including
Baltimore, Boston, San Francisco, Anchorage, Italy, and Tokyo.
His music has been played by UMBC's faculty ensemble, RUCKUS, as
well as the Callithumpian Consort, Ensemble SurPlus, Juventas
New Music, and others. Mischa had his international performer
and composer debut in Tokyo in December 2007, when he shared a
program featuring his own works with pianist Miki Arimura. A
new work commissioned by the Callithumpian Consort, "Autumn
Voices," was performed at the Summer Institute for Contemporary
Performance Practice in June, 2010.