Jessica Johnson
flute		 Jason Price
trumpet, cracklebox, electronics		 John Pickford Richards
viola, accordion
Jackie Leclair
oboe		 Michael Clayville
trombone		 Stefan Freund
cello, composer
Elisabeth Stimpert
clarinet, sax		 Payton MacDonald
percussion, tabla, composer		 Miles Brown
bass
Bill Kalinkos
clarinet, sax		 John Orfe
keyboards, composer		 Alan Pierson
artistic director, conductor, keyboards
Michael Harley
bassoon, voice, keyboards		 Courtney Orlando
violin, voice, keyboards, accordion		 Gavin Chuck
managing director, composer
Matt Marks
horn, keyboards, electronics		 Caleb Burhans
violin, viola, voice, electric guitar, composer		 Nigel Maister
staging director

Alan Pierson

artistic director, conductor, keyboards

Alan Pierson

It's fun to pick out early evidence that I was destined for a conducting career. There's a picture of me age six waving Sir George Solti's baton. And two years later, I led the first all pre-teen production of The Amazing Snowman: The Musical. But the photo was a fluke -- somone thought I looked cute with the baton and asked me to model it for an auction catalogue -- and my Amazing Snowman performance ended tragically when the title actor, supposedly having melted, emerged from the teacher's office in her kimono shouting "I'm the Chinese snowman." Music was actually just one among many childhood interests: I directed the fifth grade's only weekly comedy news show, and spent most of high school writing science fiction novels and scripts which got rejected by Star Trek. Then, as an undergraduate at MIT, I majored in physics and developed a new algorithm for modeling planetary system dynamics that I can no longer explain to anyone.

Alan Pierson

But whatever I've been interested in, I've always been an organizer, dreaming up big projects and bringing together people with diverse talents and their own big ideas to make things happen. And when I eventually decided to focus on music -- initially as a composer rather than a conductor -- I started doing the same. I helped to found Ossia, the Eastman group which launched Alarm Will Sound, and was soon spending most of my time producing concerts, playing chamber music, and leading ensembles. Without these Eastman School experiences with the musicians who would eventually found Alarm Will Sound with me, I don't think I'd be conducting today.

Alan Pierson

In recent years, I've conducted many other ensembles, including the London Sinfonietta, Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, the New World Symphony, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and Ireland's wonderful Crash Ensemble, where I am Principal Conductor. But coming back to work with Alarm Will Sound is always like coming home, and I can't imagine my life without these people.

BIO FOR USE ON THIS WEBSITE ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT REPRINT.