Cherylyn Lavagnino earned an MFA in Dance under the mentorship of Lawrence Rhodes from New York University’s (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts, as well as a BA in Philosophy from the University of Southern California. Lavagnino’s professional dance career spanned worldwide as a soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet, a principal dancer with Arizona Ballet Theatre, as well as a principal dancer with Ballet del Espacio in Mexico City under the direction of Michel Descombey. She has performed a range of classical repertoire and contemporary work by choreographers including George Balanchine, Jerome Robins, Jose Limon, John Butler, Hans Van Manen, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Margo Sappington, John Butler, and Tere O’Connor. The diversity of these experiences has informed the dialogue between classical and contemporary in her work with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. Ms. Lavagnino is an Alpert Award nominee for choreography. Lavagnino has had successful commissions at Princeton University, Intermezzo Dance, Indianapolis City Ballet, Southern Methodist University, University of Utah, and Repertory Dance Theatre, as well as recipient of a space grant residency from the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Lavagnino served as Chair of the Dance Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts from 2006–2014 and as a full-time faculty member from 1987-2022. In recognition of her superior work, Lavagnino won NYU’s prestigious David Payne Carter Award for Excellence in Teaching (2003). Lavagnino served as Visiting Professor of Dance at the University of Utah for the 2021-2022 academic year. She teaches professional ballet locally in NYC and internationally, instructs summer residency programming and company class for Abraham.In.Motion, and masterclasses in Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, and Prague. She continues to develop a creative exchange with the Beijing Dance Academy and the Conservatory and Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Lavagnino received NYU's prestigious Global Research Institute grant for travel and research in Prague (2018).

Born in New York City in 1946, Martin Bresnick’s compositions - from opera, dance, choral, chamber and symphonic music to film scores and computer music - are performed throughout the world. He delights in reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable, bringing together repetitive gestures derived from minimalism with a harmonic palette that encompasses both highly chromatic sounds and more open, consonant harmonies and a raw power reminiscent of rock. Bresnick’s orchestral music has been performed by the National Symphony, Chicago Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Münster Philharmonic, Kiel Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Radio Televisione Italiana, Orchestra New England, City of London Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Sao Paulo, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonika, and Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka, Fairfax Symphony, New Haven Symphony, and the Australian Youth Orchestra. His chamber and choral music has been performed in concert by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The Crossing Choir, Sonor, Da Capo Chamber Players, Speculum Musicae; Bang on A Can All-Stars, Nash Ensemble, MusicWorks!, Zeitgeist, Musical Elements, Alarm Will Sound, Double Entendre, Tactus, Le Train Bleu, White Ibis Ensemble, Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo, New Morse Code, NakedEye Ensemble, TwoSense, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Chamber Music Northwest, Yale Choral Artists, Prism Saxophone Quartet, Great Noise Ensemble, Brentano String Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, Sō Percussion, Icarus Quartet, Crux Duo, Mammoth Trio, and Plexus Trio. Festivals throughout the world have featured Bresnick’s music: New York Philharmonic Biennial Festival, Bang on a Can Marathons, Big Ears Festival, Chautauqua Festival, Tanglewood, Olavsfest (Trondheim Norway), Oviedo New Music Festival (Spain), International Navy Saxophone Symposium, Missouri Chamber Music Festival, Evolution Contemporary Music Series, Tura New Music Festival Perth (Australia), International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven), Sonic Boom, Adelaide, Sydney, Israel, Prague Spring, South Bank's Meltdown (London), Almeida, Melbourne Metropolis, Turin, Banff, Norfolk, ISCM, New Music America, New York Philharmonic New Horizons, and Red Note New Music Festival. Bresnick has written music for films - two of which, Arthur & Lillie (1975) and The Day After Trinity (1981) were nominated for Academy Awards in the documentary category (both with Jon Else, director). Other films include Cadillac Desert, Mohammed - Legacy of a Prophet, The Botany of Desire, William Carlos Williams, and Wallace Stevens - Made Made Out Of Words. Bresnick’s prizes and commissions include the inaugural Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Rome Prize, The Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Koussevitzky Commission, Fulbright Fellowship, three N.E.A. Composer Grants, A.S.C.A.P. Awards, MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Morse Fellowship from Yale University, First Prize - Premio Ancona, First Prize - International Sinfonia Musicale Competition, Connecticut Commission on the Arts Grant with Chamber Music America (1983), two First Prizes, Composers Inc. Competitions, Semi-finalist - Friedheim Awards, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Elise L. Stoeger Prize for Chamber Music, Composer-in Residence, American Academy In Rome. Bresnick is recognized as an influential teacher of composition. Students from every part of the globe and of virtually every musical inclination have been inspired by his critical encouragement. He is currently a professor at the Yale University School of Music, where he has been a widely influential teacher of contemporary composition since 1981. His teaching has been recognized by a Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching at Stanford University, ASCAP Foundation's Aaron Copland Prize for Teaching, and the Yale School of Music’s highest honor - the Sanford Medal for Service to Music. Educated at the High School of Music and Art NYC, University of Hartford (B.A. '67), Stanford University (M.A. '68, D.M.A. '72), and the Akademie für Musik, Vienna ('69-'70), Bresnick’s principal teachers of composition include György Ligeti, John Chowning, and Gottfried von Einem. Martin Bresnick is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His compositions are published exclusively by Carl Fischer Music Publishers, New York; Bote & Bock, Berlin; CommonMuse Music Publishers, New Haven. They have been recorded on Cantaloupe Music, New World Records, Albany Records, Bridge Records, Tall Poppies, Composers Recordings Incorporated, Centaur, Starkland Records, and Artifact Music.