Adam Tendler

This is the second concert in the Experimental Piano Series. On November 7, 2008, Paul Giallorenzo, Justin Dillard, and Jon Hey performed thr first concert in the series. The Experimental Piano Series is organized by the Chicago Composers Forum and the Borderbend Arts Collective. Upcoming EPS concerts will happen on March 20, 2009 and May 15, 2009. A reception will follow the concert on January 23.

Celebrated pianist Adam Tendler has created a life in the arts that few can match. Upon an early graduation with distinction from Indiana University School of Music, he immediately began co-authoring a second edition of The History of American Classical Music, by John Warthen Struble and Philip Glass. The book led to Tendler's conception of America 88x50, an unprecedented fusion of grassroots and classical tradition in which he independently teamed with arts organizations in all fifty states to perform free lecture-recitals of modern American piano music to underserved communities. Tendler singularly organized and managed the tour with no outside funding, living out of his car while authoring a candid memoir on the experience.

After America 88x50, Tendler moved to Houston, TX, where he served for two years as the Artistic Director of Foundation for Modern Music, a nonprofit supporting and presenting the work of living composers, while also contributing regularly to Houston Public Radio. Tendler maintains a private teaching studio in New York City. He recently premiered and recorded Autumn Lines, his first extended work for amplified pianist. Tendler is also currently developing a live "Mixtape" for piano containing unauthorized covers and treatments of popular songs, as well as a song cycle using poetry by Richard Brautigan and an experimental opera based on personal ads placed on Christmas day. 
www.myspacemusic.com/adamtendler

Ann Ward

Award Matrix was formed in 1991 by Ann Ward, composer pianist/ vocalist when she was asked by Chicago's Wright City College to perform for their Women's History Month celebration. The women that comprise Award Matrix are highly skilled and talented musicians of African American heritage and whose commitment is to enlightened "edu-taininent" through spirit filled music and verse. Each woman brings her special essence and experiences to complete a wonderfully diverse yet homogenous blend of sonorities and rhythms.

Award Matrix has performed for the Loyola University Women's Studies 4' and 611 Annual Women's Conferences at their Gannon Center for Women and Leadership. Members of the ensemble present concerts and workshop/lecture demonstrations throughout the Midwest, the USA, Canada and abroad as solo artists and with their own groups, i.e. SAMANA with MAIA and NIKKI MITCHEL and Ann, Maia and Nikki with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (A.A.C.M.).

Ward is currently the arts specialist for Youth Guidance in Cabrini Green, minister of music for the Chatham Bethlehem Presbyterian Church, music instructor for New Concept School and is completing her tenth year as Dean of the A.A. C.M School of Music She is the vocalist with Mwata Bowden and Tri Tone, Dushun Mosely's quartet and pianist for Regina Harris Baiocchi.

Ward is a viable force in the Chicago arts community and a recognized talent as a performer, composer and music educator throughout the Chicagoland area. "I attribute my strengths to my experiences in music and the arts and to the wonderful people who have shared their knowledge, time and support with me over the years. Without God and my special ‘Family’, I could not have hoped to sustain myself as an artist."

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