Matt Frey, Tim Hansen, Ruben Naeff, andMolly Herron
Mission Statement
West Fourth New Music Collective (W4) is an international group of composers who explore aspects of the human experience by presenting original music at public concert events. Born in the spirit of collaboration, these cohesively-themed concerts are created from a dynamic combination of the composers' individual voices along with those of guest musical ensembles and artists from other disciplines.
Molly HerroN
Molly Herron is a composer whose music is inspired by the complicated, messy sounds of our every day environment and the energy of interaction. Her rhythmically driven work has been called “a beautiful collusion” (Seen and Heard International) and described as “showcasing a wonderful consideration of counterpoint and sound-in-time” (I Care If You Listen).
Herron has composed for a broad range of instruments from full orchestra to flower pot and her work includes pieces for film, theater, and dance. She has written for The JACK Quartet, The Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Contemporaneous, ECCE and the cellist Mariel Roberts among others. Her work has been supported by MATA, The Brooklyn Arts Council and the Copland Fund. She has had residencies with Exploring the Metropolis, La Pietra Forum and the School of Making Thinking; and her work has been presented on the Fast Forward Austin festival and the Berlin Film Festival.
Matt Frey
The oft-melancholic music of Brooklyn-based composer Matt Frey creates intimately sentimental sonic worlds inflected with churning rhythms, minimalist-like textures, and extended moments of restless tension.
Frey’s vocal works explore the interplay of words, drama, and music to make a palpable, instantaneous connection with an audience; his instrumental music explores a more abstract approach to narrative, focusing on the concept of tension and release. His music has been performed, commissioned, and/or presented by ensembles and venues including: Fort Worth Opera, the Crane School of Music, Opera From Scratch (Canada), Synergy Percussion (Australia), the JACK String Quartet, the West Point Woodwind Quintet, the NYU Symphony Orchestra, andPlay duo, the Manhattan Wind Ensemble, and Washington Square Winds.
Frey a graduate of the Masters program in Music Composition at New York University and holds an undergraduate degree in Music Composition from Brooklyn College. He has studied with composers including Jason Eckardt, Joan La Barbara, Tania León, Robert Maggio, and Julia Wolfe.
Tim Hansen
Tim Hansen is a composer and songwriter whose work is steeped in storytelling. His dark and gleeful palette draws from sources as diverse as Weimar cabaret, circus music, 20th century modernism, music theatre and post-minimalism. An enthusiastic and charismatic educator, Tim has created two online lessons for TEDed. He is currently composer in residence at Santa Sabina College and is engaged with Musica Viva as part of the 'Musician in the Classroom' program. He is also a major contributor to Soundfly, a US-based website filled with lessons and dedicated to the idea that anyone can be a musician. Residency credits include being a composition fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, the Norfolk Contemporary Music Festival and twice artist-in-residence at Hill End in rural Australia. Tim has worked extensively with music ensembles, cabaret groups and theatre companies around Australia and in the USA such as Synergy Percussion, Contemporaneous, JACK quartet, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, and TRANSIT ensemble. He also regularly works with young people in the arts, and has worked with Canberra Youth Theatre, Australian Theatre for Young People and Shopfront Youth Theatre.
Ruben Naeff
Ruben Naeff is a Dutch composer living in Brooklyn, New York. He collaborated with such groups as Berkeley Symphony, Orchestra Con Brio, Signal, JACK Quartet, Deviant Septet, Wild Rumpus, and Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. His music has been performed across Europe, America and Asia, and was presented by such venues as the Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City. In 2008 he released his CD De Bètacanon.
Ruben was awarded the prestigious HSP Huygens Talent Scholarship to study for two years with Michael Gordon at New York University. Ruben attended the conservatories of Amsterdam and The Hague and studied musicology and mathematics at the University of Amsterdam.