Hayley-Laufer Duo Working with Student Composers (Jan. 21-Feb. 3, 2019)

Manuel Laufer and Dorothea Hayley.

The Hayley-Laufer Duo champions adventurous voice-and-piano repertoire of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and seeks to expand the boundaries of voice-and-piano composition by commissioning works from innovative composers. Their mission is to continue the grand Lied duo tradition by presenting audiences with the most audacious and exciting vocal music of today. They believe that even the most complex new music can be accessible and engaging when performed with energy, intensity, and wit. 

Dorothea Hayley and Manuel Laufer with UB student composers Ka Shu (Kenneth) Tam and Roberto Azaretto

For their Spring 2019 CAI Residency, Hayley and Laufer came to UB for 2 periods of 2 weeks each. During these periods of residency they worked on repertoire development, presented two public concerts of contemporary repertoire for voice and  piano, and engaged with student composers and other members of the UB community sharing their experience and expertise. 

The first residency period, Jan. 21-Feb. 3, 2019, enabled the pair to add new pieces to their repertoire, which will be included in their public performance on Jan. 31. The first residency also allowed them to work with UB student composers whose work was featured in their May 18, 2019 performance

ABOUT DOROTHEA HAYLEY 

Dorothea Hayley has been a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, the Bourgas Symphony, the Allegra Chamber Orchestra and Capriccio Basel. She has performed in festivals such as the Happening Festival, Gulangyu Piano Festival, Performer’s Voice Symposium, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival and the Atempo Festival of Caracas, and with organizations like the SMCQ, Chants Libres, CIRMMT, Codes d’accès, Vancouver New Music, the Little Chamber Music Series That Could and the Land’s End Ensemble. Dorothea recently completed an artist residency at the Banff Centre, and was a visiting artist at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Dorothea holds a Doctor of Music degree from Université de Montréal, and teaches voice at Vancouver Community College. She is the Artistic Co-Director of the Blueridge Chamber Music Festival. 

ABOUT MANUEL LAUFER 

Manuel Laufer has presented world premieres at Merkin Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Bang on a Can, June in Buffalo, and Festival Atem-po (Caracas and Paris). He has concertized extensively playing contemporary chamber music, performing canonic works by composers including Babbitt, Cage, Crumb, Lachenmann, and Xenakis in addition to newly commissioned repertoire. His solo work champi-ons modernist voices from his native Venezuela, placing particular emphasis on composer Diógenes Rivas. Currently appointed to the Collaborative Piano Faculty at NYU Steinhardt, Manuel has performed with orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic, and appears yearly in the Blueridge Chamber Music Festival and the NYU Summer Piano Intensive. He holds degrees from McGill University and University of California, Irvine, and received a Ph.D. in Piano Performance from NYU Steinhardt.