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.