BIOs

FIVEBYFIVE

Described as “classical turned loose in the toy store,” “top-flight,” and “imaginative,” fivebyfive is an award-winning, artist-led ensemble known for its impeccable musicianship and adventurous spirit that permeates innovative, cross-genre programming and community engagement. The group consists of Laura Lentz, flute and artistic director; Marcy Bacon, clarinet; Ken Luk, electric guitar; Eric J. Polenik, bass; Haeyeun Jeun, piano; and Marc Webster, audio/video artist, and executive director.

fivebyfive’s mission is to engage and inspire audiences in the collaborative spirit and creativity of today’s chamber music. To realize its mission, fivebyfive performs music by the most exciting living composers with unforgettable musical experiences, advocating for creators who are underrepresented in the field and collaborating with partners across a wide array of disciplines.

In 2021 and 2024 the group was recognized by New Music USA for its Organizational Fund, recognizing outstanding organizations that work regularly with and support the development of music creators and artists, offering crucial resources to the community.

fivebyfive is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) including unrestricted organizational funding and artist support awards for new works by composers Jessica Meyer, Emily Pinkerton, Roberto Sierra, and Stephen Danyew. The group also receives arts and culture funding support from the Rochester Area Community Foundation.

fivebyfive released their fourth album, Eclipse, on the Grammy-nominated Bright Shiny Things label, debuting at #2 on the Traditional Classical Billboard chart for the week of November 8, 2024. fivebyfive’s fifth album Sonidos de Tlön features a work by Grammy-nominated and Latin Grammy winner Roberto Sierra, commissioned by fivebyfive, and was released in November, 2025.

Formed in 2015, fivebyfive became a 501 (c) 3 not-for-organization in 2017.

ROSE PASQUARELLO BEAUCHAMP

Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp (CLMA, MFA) — dancer, educator, and activist — centers her research in somatics, social justice, dance as change agent and the embodiment of activism. She is the Artistic Director of electricGrit dance. Her choreographic work — known for integrating dance, theater, design and media — has been featured internationally for the past 18 years. She has been selected for residencies and projects including the NYS Dance Force Western NY Choreographers’ Initiative. Rose co-founded Artists Coalition for Change Together (ACCT), an organization active from 2016-2020, as a way to engage dancer-citizens in Rochester. She has received multiple grants from the Center for Community Engagement and serves as a Faculty Fellow with a focus on creative work in community-engaged settings. As of late, her creative work has centered on reconnecting to invisible histories through site specific work, Remnants, and engaging in climate change initiatives through embodied practice with Echolab. Rose continues to perform and present her creative research internationally with a focus on the relationship between the body and the environment and the role the body plays in environmental justice, climate change and beyond.

SEAN WILLIAM CALHOUN

Sean William Calhoun writes notes, and occasionally rests. His collaborations have included The Fae Nucleus, for harpists Amy Nam and Rosanna Moore; Plasmonic Mirror, for fivebyfive flutist Laura Lentz; and Maelstrom, for the Eastman Saxophone Project. The Peabody Wind Ensemble, conducted by Harlan Parker, premiered his piece Edgedancer.

Sean received his D.M.A. from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and David Liptak. He received his M.M. from Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with Michael Hersch, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Jason Eckardt, and his B.M. from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where he studied with Michael Slayton, Michael Rose, and Stan Link. Of the composition teachers with whom he has studied for at least two semesters, almost half were named Michael.

STEVE DANYEW

Steve Danyew’s music has been hailed as “startlingly beautiful” and “undeniably well crafted and communicative” by the Miami Herald, and has been praised as possessing “sensitivity, skill and tremendous sophistication” by the Kansas City Independent.

Danyew is the recipient of numerous national and international awards for his work, and his compositions have been performed throughout the world in venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the steps of the US Capitol.

In addition to composing, Danyew is a passionate educator who teaches composition lessons through his own private studio. He also teaches courses focused on helping young musicians craft their own creative careers at the Eastman School of Music’s Institute for Music Leadership. 

Danyew received a B.M. in Composition from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami where his primary composition teachers were Scott Stinson and Dennis Kam. In 2025, he was one of 100 Frost School of Music alumni awarded a Frost Centennial Medal in celebration of the school’s 100th anniversary. He also holds an M.M. in Composition from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez and David Liptak. Additionally, Danyew has served as a Composer Fellow at the Yale Summer Music School with Martin Bresnick, and as a Composer Fellow at the Composers Conference with Mario Davidovsky.

Danyew’s works are published through Augsburg Fortress Press, Keyboard Percussion Publications, Colla Voce, and his own publishing company.

RIPP GREATBATCH

Ripp Greatbatch is an artist and graduate of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, graduating with First-Class honours in 2016. Now splitting time between London and upstate New York.

Ripp works across fields encompassing contemporary dance, physical theatre and installation. He is currently a lecturer in dance at the University of Rochester and is currently training as a Feldenkrais practitioner. 

W. Michelle harris

W. Michelle Harris is a digital media artist who uses code as a medium for engaging discussions as a Black woman in American culture. Her interactive installations and performances have been shown at such diverse venues as the ACM SIGGRAPH, World Maker Faire, and INST-INT, as well as regional venues like Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester Contemporary, Baobab Cultural Center, Community Folk Art Center, Schwienfurth Memorial, and Squeaky Wheel. She has done live-mixed visuals for performances in collaboration with Juanita Suarez, fivebyfive, Dave Rivello, Reenah Golden, and (usually for Rochester Fringe) BIODANCE. She is an associate professor in the New Media Interactive Development program at Rochester Institute of Technology. Harris has a master's degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program of NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

ANDREA MAZZARIELLO

Andrea Mazzariello (he/him) is a composer, performer, writer, and teacher. His musical practices include writing songs, making electronic music, and working in notated traditions. His work explores spoken and sung treatments of his own original text, plays with computers and other kinds of electronics, and engages the physiology of performance in novel ways. He writes about listening, musical media, and pedagogy, and teaches and mentors music-makers working in a wide variety of genres and approaches. His concert music, created through commissions by and collaborations with Sō Percussion, fivebyfive, Mobius Percussion, Jason Treuting, Eric Cha-Beach, David Degge, Matthew McCright, and many others, has been performed widely in North America and Europe. His collaborators in film, visual, and site-specific work include filmmakers Mark DeChiazza and Emily Carmichael, director Stephan Koplowitz, and artist Holly Streekstra. He performs his own music frequently, in instrumentations ranging from one-person-band to piano and voice. The McKnight Foundation, New Music USA, ASCAP, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Southeast Minnesota ArtsCouncil have recognized and supported his work. New Amsterdam Records, SEAMUS, Proper Canary, and his own One More Revolution Records have recorded and released his music. The Operating System published his first book, One More Revolution: A Love Song, on Vinyl, in 2018. He currently teaches composition and music technology at Carleton College, and directs the composition program at the Sō Percussion Summer Institute. His ongoing collaborative work with young beatmakers, producers, and songwriters at The Key, a youth services organization in downtown Northfield, MN, has been supported by the Mellon Public Works grant at Carleton College as well as by Project Pericles. As an instructor in the Princeton Writing Program, Andrea developed several first-year writing seminars, including “Music and Power,” “The Sound of Subversion,” and “Found Sound.” He taught beginning and intermediate Electronic and Computer Music as Adjunct Professor in the Production Program at Ramapo College of New Jersey’s School of Contemporary Arts. He completed a Ph.D. in Music Composition at Princeton University, an M.M. at the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in music and English at Williams College.

AMY NAM

Minnesota-based composer and harpist Amy Nam composes original music to ignite curiosity about the physical world. Currently Nam is in residence as the 2025 Guest Composer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a particle physics laboratory, in which capacity she is collaborating with Fermilab scientists to create music exploring the deepest mysteries of matter, energy, space, and time.

Nam’s orchestral works have been performed by ensembles including the American Composer’s Orchestra, the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, and the Tennessee Valley Music Festival Orchestra. Her solo and chamber music has garnered awards from the BMI Foundation, the American Harp Society Grants Program, the Eastman School of Music, the Lyra Society, and has been featured in Harp Column magazine. Her work …of breath and fire was commissioned by fivebyfive and awarded a grant through Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program.

She is 2nd Prize winner of the Dutch Harp Festival World Harp Competition 2024. As a soloist she has appeared with the Luther College Symphony Orchestra, the St. Croix Valley Orchestra, the McGill Contemporary Ensemble, and the Vanderbilt University Orchestra.

Nam holds a master’s degree in composition from the Eastman School of Music, a master’s degree in harp performance from McGill University, and a bachelor’s in music from Vanderbilt University.

Nam is Adjunct Faculty in Music in Harp and Composition at Luther College in Decorah, IA, and Instructor of Harp and Composition at Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival.

ANTONINO DI PIAZZA

Antonino Di Piazza is a Professor of Physics and a Distinguished Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. He received his Master (Laurea) in Theoretical Physics at the University of Palermo (Italy) in 2000, discussing a thesis on high-order harmonic generation in laser-atom interaction. He then moved to Trieste (Italy), where he received his PhD in Theoretical Physics in 2004 with a thesis on the production of electron-positron pairs and photons around black holes in the presence of time-dependent magnetic fields. From 2004 until 2023 he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg (Germany) first as post-doc (from 2004 until 2008) and then as research group leader (from 2009 to 2023), before joining the University of Rochester.

In 2011 Professor Di Piazza received the German habilitation and venia legendi at the Physikalisches Institut of the University of Heidelberg and in 2014 he received the Italian habilitation for full Professorship in Theoretical Physics of Fundamental Interactions. 

Between 2012 and 2015 Professor Di Piazza served as Scientific Coordinator of the International Max Planck Research School for Quantum Dynamics in Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IMPRS-QD) at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics.

FELIPE PéREZ SANTIAGO

Considered by the international press as a very active and innovative composer, Felipe Pérez Santiago has received several prizes, awards, and recognitions in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Latin America. His music has been commissioned and performed in over 40 countries and is featured in nearly 30 discographic productions.

He is the founder and artistic director of the Mal’Akh and Vortice Ensembles, as well as the Vortice Orchestra, formations specialized in new and non-traditional music focused in bringing chamber and orchestral music to a broader spectrum of listeners. He is also the conductor and musical director of the ONIX Ensemble, the oldest ongoing contemporary music ensemble in Latin America.

Ha has been appointed as cultural ambassador in Mexico by UNESCO for his work with children and youth orchestras, and he holds a position as musical director and conductor of the orchestra of the “Estudios Churubusco” in Mexico City, the main film studio in Latin America.

He is also the artistic director of “The Earthling Project”, initiative which consisted in gathering human voices from all over the world to create a sonic legacy that represented humanity and was sent into space on January 8th, 2024, as part of the “Peregrine” mission by the Space Agency Astrobotic, and then landed on the moon with the Odysseus lander, both projects in collaboration with NASA and the SETI Institute.

JULIA SEEHOLZER

Julia Seeholzer is an American composer currently living in Warsaw, Poland. Julia explores narration in her music, shaping timbral spaces around the personal meaning of words. Her vocal works involve engaging with, questioning, and responding to the writers with whom she collaborates without attempting to speak on their behalf. She is fascinated with the subtle complexities of minimal gestures and how those can be manipulated over time to form their own narrative bonds within larger structures. Outside of composition, Julia has been involved in the world of video game music. She often works on arrangements for various projects and collaborations. Julia regularly works with Videri String Quartet and has contributed to projects including Harmony of Heroes and Song Cycle: The History of Video Games. In 2009, she founded the Video Game Music Choir (now PXL8) – an internationally recognized chamber choir that performs video game scores arranged exclusively by and for the group; she directed the group until 2012.

Julia holds an M.M. in Composition from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and a B.M. in Composition from Berklee College of Music, where she graduated summa cum laude. She is the recipient of two consecutive Fulbright student research grants and received an Artist’s Diploma in Composition from the Chopin University of Music during that time.

MISSY PFOHL SMITH

Missy Pfohl Smith, a choreographer, performer, and collaborative artist, directs the Program of Dance and Movement and the Institute for the Performing Arts at the University of Rochester, and is the founder/artistic director of BIODANCE in Rochester, NY. She often creates site-specific work with artists in other disciplines. She has presented her choreography across the US and in 9 international countries, including successful engagements in Greece, Germany, and a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe. Missy was the 2020 Lillian Fairchild Awardee, awarded retroactively in 2024.

Originally from Buffalo, Smith earned her BS in Dance from the College at Brockport. After 12 years in NYC, where she apprenticed with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, served as Dancer/Assistant Rehearsal Director for Randy James Dance Works, and danced with Paul Mosely and other independent choreographers, she returned to Rochester in 2004. She obtained her MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College, and BS in Dance at The College at Brockport. 

Smith maintains an active choreographic and performative practice, creating new work for BIODANCE and performing as an individual artist. She has experience choreographing for the camera, and her work appears in various documentaries and experimental films. She has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, administered by Livingston Arts and the Arts and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester, Rochester Area Community Foundation, The Max and Marian Farash Foundation, Gouvernet Arts Fund, Westchester Arts Council, Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust, United University Professions, Career Transitions for Dancers, and more.

MARIAH STEELE

Mariah Steele is an Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Rochester. Combining dance and physics has been a central research interest of hers since 2014 when she co-taught a course at MIT with two oceanographers called “Science, Dance & The Creative Process.” Since then, Steele has collaborated with physicists and learning scientists on two multi-year National Science Foundation grants to research how teaching high school physics through dance can help under-represented students gain identities as scientists. At UR, her signature course “Choreographic Voice: Dance & Physics Frontiers” is a collaboration with UR’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, in which students explore new LLE research through choreography. (Students: DANC 377 will be offered in Spring 2026!)

As the founder and Artistic Director of Quicksilver Dance, Steele’s choreography has been performed across the country and internationally. For this work, The Boston Globe Magazine named Steele a “rising talent” in the arts (2013), and the company was nominated for the "Best Choreography" award at the St-Ambroise Festival de Montreal (2014). Among other venues, Quicksilver has performed at San Francisco’s ODC Theater, MIT, Harvard University, Tufts University, Princeton University, SUNY Purchase, UMass Amherst, and Brooklyn's John Ryan Theater. Quicksilver has been awarded an East Bay Community Foundation’s Fund for Artists grant (2017) and has been in residence at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center (2016), the Boston Center for the Arts (2012) and Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy (2012). Quicksilver’s dance-on-film “Odyssea” (2023) screened around the world in five Fringe Festivals and seven Film Festivals, earning the “Best Experimental Film” award at the Toronto Indie Filmmakers Festival (2024) and Iowa’s Oneota Film Festival (2025). In a review of Quicksilver Dance, the Montreal blog Bloody Underrated writes: "I dare you to find a company that dances with more heart." 

Steele holds a BA in Anthropology from Princeton University, an MA from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (concentration in Conflict Resolution), and an MFA in Dance from Hollins University.