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.

Frank DenDanto III: lighting Design and visual artist, received his MFA in Design from NYU's Tisch School. Select NYC credits include Full Circle's Solar Powered at the New Victory Theater, Blind Alley at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, Only You at the Jewish American Theater, Shadow Box at the Hudson Guild Theater, Title of Show for NYMF, People Are Wrong at PS122 and Acts of Love at the Kirk Theater. He has designed for Spalding Gray, Eric Bogosian, Karen Finely, Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, John Fleck, Deb Margolin, Ann Magnuson, and John Kelly and Sarah Jones. Dance Credits include work with Sarah Michelson, Lava Love, Stacy Dawson, David Neumann, and the White Oak Dance Project and of course two decades with Bridgman/Packer Dance. His regional credits work at Stage Works in Hudson NY, the Berkshire Theater Festival, New York Stage and Film and Delaware Valley Opera and Half Moon Theater Co.

Awards for his light installation/sculptures include First Runner Up in Light Forums 98, and a Jerome commission in 2002. His work and designs have been displayed at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, The Museum of Art and Architecture and The New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC, The ICA in Portland ME and the Basilica in Hudson NY. He is co-founder of Mother’s Milk Inc., a nonprofit arts support organization, based north of NYC, supplying production support, workshop and rehearsal space for theater and dance in NY.

When not working to support or create works of art, Frank designs lighting for retail, commercial and museum spaces. In his free time he enjoys building full size whale skeletal articulations with his brother Dan in ME that can be seen at the Nantucket Historical Society, Phillips Exeter Academy, Seacoast Science Center and Harvard University.

Christopher Metzger is a Brooklyn based designer working in theatre, opera, and dance. Designs for CLD include: Kamila, Veiled, Ru, Treize en Jeu, Hera’s Wrath, and Naděje. His work with the company has been seen at the Beijing International Contemporary Dance Festival, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, American Dance Guild, and Danspace Project. Recent designs include: "Little Gem" (Irish Rep), Orlando (AADA), Sweat (Mobile National Tour, Public Theater), Harlequin & Pantalone (Dorrance Dance), LIFE SUCKS., Happy Birthday, Wanna June, Enemy of the People (Wheelhouse Theater), La Traviata (Philharmonia of New York), West Side Story (Sioux City Symphony), Tosca (Opera Roanoke), Sehnsucht (Jack). Associate credits include: Sweat (Broadway), Falsettos (First National Tour), The Public Theatre, Santa Fe Opera, Theatre for a New Audience, Glimmerglass Opera. Christopher’s work in television includes, Apple TV’s, Dickinson. MFA, NYU. Proud member Local USA 829. www.christophermetzgerdesign.com

Karen Boyer designs and builds costumes in NYC. Past and recent collaborators include choreographers Catherine Galasso, Faye Driscoll, Sidra Bell, Abigail Levine, Sarah Dahnke, nicHi douglas, Katy Pyle, and Sunny Hitt; Opera Columbus, Fresh Squeezed Opera, and theater makers Yangtze Rep, the New Wild, Object Collection, harunalee, Little Lord, Pan Asian Repertory, and Target Margin Theater. BFA: Maryland Institute College of Art, MFA: NYU Tisch. karenrachelboyer.com

Jesse Seegers is a New York-based spatial practitioner working between architecture, graphic design, writing, editing, publishing, and research practices. His hybrid creative practice includes; designing and fabricating pneumatic/inflatable environments commissioned for events, performances, parties and temporary social encounters; teaching graphic design and publishing at New York University in the Tandon School of Engineering's Media and Gaming Network (MAGNET) and at The New School for Social Research in the Creative Publishing and Critical Journalism MA program as well as the School of Art, Media, and Technology at Parsons School of Design. He maintains a practice writing, editing and consulting on architecture, art, design and technology for publications, institutions and cultural organizations as a balance between both mental and tactile labor as well as technical and artistic faculties. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and has written about architecture, art, design, and technology for publications in print and online including: PIN-UP, REAL Review, The Architect’s Newspaper, TANK, Frog, DAMn°, and Volume, among others.

A New Jersey native, Alexis Branagan trained at New Jersey School of Ballet and spent summers at The Juilliard School, American Ballet Theatre, Kaatsbaan, and San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She received her degree in English with an emphasis on theater studies and dance from Princeton University, where she also founded Princeton University Ballet. She danced with New York Theatre Ballet from 2012-2022. She has also performed with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, Armitage GONE! Dance, and New Jersey Ballet and in Battery Dance and Westfest Dance Festivals to perform work by choreographer Amanda Treiber. She has performed works by Sir Richard Alston, Merce Cunningham, Susan Marshall, Agnes de Mille, Clove Galilee, Liza Genaro, Robert LaFosse, José Límon, Donald Mahler, Keith Michael, Jerome Robbins, Pam Tanowitz, Antony Tudor, and William Whitener. She has also danced in opera productions, in productions of Shakespeare in the Park by the Public Theater, at Carnegie Hall with the NY Pops for Holiday and Broadway hits concerts, and for television. Alongside her freelance dancing, Alexis works in communications for Princeton University Concerts and manages the Ballet Connoisseurship seminar program for School of American Ballet.

Arianna Tsivkin is a performing artist from New York City. She received her early dance training at the School of American Ballet where she performed with New York City Ballet in productions of "The Nutcracker" and "Firebird". She then studied at the JKO School of American Ballet Theatre where she performed in Alexei Ratmansky’s "The Nutcracker". Arianna has also trained at French Académie of Ballet, received scholarships to dance at Belvoir Terrace Performing Arts Camp, and has studied under Mignon Furman, Merle Sepel, and her mother Rebecca Tsivkin. She graduated from Laguardia High School of Performing Arts as a dance major, and has studied Fosse technique and theatre jazz with the Verdon Fosse Legacy. Arianna was honored to be part of the inaugural class of Pa’lante Scholars in the Professional Studies Program at Ballet Hispánico (BH) under the direction of Rodney Hamilton. While there she helped originate roles in works by Norbert De La Cruz III, Tsai Hsi Hung, and Juan Rodriguez, performed in works by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Michelle Manzanales, Pedro Ruiz, Gerald Arpino, Gustavo Ramirez, Alberto Alonzo, and more, and was a representative student for BH in Canada's National Ballet School's Assemblée Internationale '23. Arianna is delighted and grateful for the opportunity to perform with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

Claire Westby is originally from Minnesota and now resides in Philadelphia, PA. She holds a BFA in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts NYU and also studied at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance (SEAD). Mrs. Westby has been a part of the Liz Gerring Dance Company for 13 years where she is also the Executive Director. She played the role of Red Queen in Third Rail’s production of Then She Fell. Additionally, Claire has performed in, and helped create original roles in works by John Jasperse, Brandon Collwes, Gwen Welliver, Benjamin Kimitch, Gerald Casel, Cherylyn Lavagnino, Helen Simoneau, and RoseAnne Spradlin. Claire Westby has also had the pleasure of teaching at New York University, Columbia College Chicago, Gibney Dance, Mark Morris Dance Center, St. Paul Ballet, Steps on Broadway, Western Washington University and Jacob's Pillow.

Based between Denver & New York City, Gwendolyn Gussman is dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director. She is the Founder & Artistic Director of interdisciplinary performance company, HOLDTIGHT (HT). Most notably, Gussman’s work has been presented nationally at The Newman Center for the Performing Arts (CO), The Arts Complex with Denver Arts & Venues (CO), The Cell Theatre (NYC), National Sawdust (NYC), The Gallery Players (NYC), The Olympic Auditorium Complex (CO), Carroll Hall (NYC), and others. Gussman’s performance career has spanned contracts and collaborations with artists/companies including Shen Wei Dance Arts, Sean Curran, Cherylyn Lavagnino, dir. Daniel Fish, comedian Amy Sedaris, Vanessa Walters, Heidi Latsky, Control Group Productions, Cleo Parker Robinson Ensemble, and others. She is currently choreographing a 90-min Eco-Dance/Chamber-Jazz Orchestra piece, From the Ashes, in collaboration with composer Daniel Weidlein, to be premiered in 2025. Gussman graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with her BFA in Dance. Gussman has danced with CLD since 2016 and is honored to be part of the 25th Anniversary Season!   

Michael Miles was born and raised in St. Mary’s County, MD. He started dancing at the age of 9 at Bunny Bailey Studio of Dance where he studied tap, jazz, and show dance. Michael continued his dance training at Abigail Francisco School of Classical Ballet where he studied ballet, character, jazz, and tap and went on to receive a BFA in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Since graduating, Michael has had the pleasure of dancing with Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre and Lydia Johnson Dance. He is grateful for the opportunity to perform with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

Ramona Kelley is from Berkeley, CA where she began her training at Berkeley Ballet Theater. She went on to earn a BFA in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ramona danced the principal role of ‘Betsy’ in the touring production of Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away and went on to dance with the Tharp company creating new roles in addition to performing repertory works. She is a principal guest artist with Oakland Ballet and has also performed with Minnesota Dance Theatre, Claudia Schreier and Co, Post:Ballet, Sidra Bell, and Phantom of the Opera (25th Anniversary Tour) among others. Ramona has taught master classes in Tharp technique across the country and is a guest teacher at NYU’s Tisch Dance. She began dancing for Cherylyn in 2006 and is thrilled to be performing with CLD this season.

New York-based Australian musician Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, a prolific recording artist, and an avid collaborator. The New York Times has singled out her playing for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”, The New Yorker describes her as “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano” while Pitchfork claims “she’s the best kind of contemporary classical musician, one so fearsomely game that she inspires composers to offer her their most wildly unplayable ideas”. Given a special passion for the music of our time, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition and has since performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres – having worked with more than two hundred living composers, while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. Moore has performed throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia - on some of the world’s great stages: New York’s Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, La Scala in Milan, London’s Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She has released twelve solo albums - ranging from music by Leoš Janáček to Julia Wolfe - and more than thirty collaborative discs. Gramophone writes about her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc: “what becomes abundantly clear is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music”. Moore’s 2016 album The Stone People was selected by The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017. In June 2022, Moore released no place to go but around – her second album of music by Frederic Rzewski – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked that the album is “meticulous...clever...hits the gas with controlled force”. For sixteen years (92-08) Moore was the founding pianist for the award-winning electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars. She has performed with leading artists, ensembles and dance companies – Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Frederic Rzewski, Don Byron, Pamela Z, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, London Sinfonietta, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, American Composers Orchestra, and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a concerto soloist, Moore has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Symphony, Thai National, Monash MAPA, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Wesleyan University Orchestra-Sumarsam Gamelan, and the Queensland Philharmonic. She has worked under the batons of David Robertson, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Brett Dean, Roger Benedict, Bradley Lubman, Steven Schick, Benjamin Northey, Richard Mills, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jorge Mester, Leonard Dommett, Dobbs Frank, and Angel Gil-Ordonez. Moore’s festival appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Banff, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, PianoSpheres LA, Chamber Music Northwest, Huddersfield, Vale of Glamorgan, Liquid Music MN, Holland, Graz, Hamburg, Taormina, Paris d’Automne, Rome, Milan, Turin, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Barbican, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw. Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist.

A native of Osaka, Japan, Dr. Elly Toyoda is Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin and Coordinator of Strings at the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College teaching violin, chamber music, music theory, and contemporary music. She is a recording artist for Cantaloupe Music label, and has performed in festivals and concerts across Asia, Europe, and North America. An avid supporter of contemporary music, Toyoda was awarded the Prix de Musique Contemporaine by the Fontainebleau School, and has appeared on programs at the National Sawdust, Le Poisson Rouge, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the Elb Philharmonie in Germany. She has premiered numerous works through the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Lucerne Festival, Massachusetts International Festival os the Arts, Lake George Music Festival, and Talis Festival. Toyoda is a collaborator with Mammoth Trio and Eighth Blackbird - the 4-time Grammy award-winning contemporary music ensemble. Toyoda was previously faculty-artist for Yale School of Music's Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Lecturer at Rutgers University, and violin and viola faculty at Lindeblad School of Music, and SpeakMusic Conservatory. Toyoda studied at Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.) where she was elected membership to the National Music Honors Society, Yale School of Music (M.M) where she received the school’s Alumni Prize and was a finalist for the concerto competition, and Rutgers University (D.M.A) where she received the school’s highest honors in recognition of excellence in performance and scholarly research.

At age 2 Miriam Liske-Doorandish requested her first cello and began lessons with her mother, Lisa Liske-Doorandish. She has since studied with Jonathan Kramer, Hans Jensen, Bartholomew LaFollette (BMus studies at the Royal College of Music), Amir Eldan (BA and AD at Oberlin Conservatory) and Paul Watkins (MM and MMA at the Yale School of Music). Raised in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, Miriam is motivated by a love of collaboration which has led her into traditional chamber settings as well as traditional fiddling sessions. As cellist of the exploratory ensemble Trio Ondata, Miriam is a recipient of the gold and audience prizes at the 2023 Yellow Springs Chamber Competition. The trio also won silver medal and the Horszowski Prize at The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (‘22), and were winners of the 2022 Yale School of Music Chamber Competition. Miriam is at home with music up to and beyond the edges of the classical canon, embracing baroque and contemporary performance throughout her studies. In recent years Miriam has appeared at festivals such as Mimir Chamber Music Festival, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Norfolk New Music, IMS Prussia Cove, Kneisel Hall, Four Seasons, the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Musique à Marsac, and Bowdoin International Music Festival. Recognized for her arts advocacy, Miriam has received support from The Secular Society and Oberlin’s Flint Initiative Grant for her work as a founder and co-director of the Cello Springs Festival, a cross-genre education and performance project in Yellow Springs, OH. Miriam is currently based in New Haven, CT where she plays with Trio Ondata, the Havenwood Quartet and Versicolor New Music. In counterpoint with her performing and teaching life, Miriam is invested in community-building, the culinary arts, and exploring the Great Outdoors. She plays a Rocca model cello (2019) by Maryland-based luthier Howard Needham.