Production Team:

Concert Workshop Production,

The Catholic University of America,

March 2004

Samuel Bill, conductor

Samuel Bill studied conducting, piano and organ at the Bratislava State Conservatory (Slovakia). While still a student he performed with and conducted the Conservatory Mixed Choir throughout Slovakia, Europe and the United States, as assistant conductor.  He was also a cofounder and assistant conductor of the St. Martin's Cathedral Choir in Bratislava, which he conducted for several radio and TV broadcasts.

After graduation from the conservatory Mr. Bill entered the Bratislava Academy of Music, where he specialized in orchestral conducting. After one year at the Academy he received an invitation and full scholarship to complete his Master's degree at Montclair State University in New Jersey, from which he graduated with honors in 1997.  Mr. Bill was a rehearsal pianist and assistant to the conductor for TheatreFest, a professional equity theatre-in-residence at Montclair State University, as well as for other theatres in the Montclair area.

He further developed his conducting skills at the Juilliard School of Music, studying with Maestro Vincent LaSelva.  Since 1997 Mr. Bill has been the associate conductor of the Montclair Chamber Ensemble.  As pianist, he has collaborated with many members of the New York Philharmonic for the Ensemble's chamber music series.  In 2001, he appeared in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as conductor and pianist.  In January 2004, Mr. Bill completed his DMA in instrumental conducting at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music of The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.

Nick Ferrario, film director

Nick Ferrario received his honors BA in German Language and Literature from Loyola University, Chicago, where he also studied photography and film.  In 2001-02, while a student at Loyola's Rome Center, he completed an internship in an Italian film archive. 

Mr. Ferrario's experiences as an accomplished classical violinist have informed his work on The Libation Bearers, his first large-scale project.  This innovative effort aims to create silent, black-and-white film to accompany and enhance Andrew Simpson's completed music, rather than dictating that the music function as a soundtrack and adapt itself to the motion of the images.  Advance film clips of this work may be previewed here; the composer's discussion of this collaboration may be read here.

Mr. Ferrario is currently an MFA student in film at Columbia College in Chicago.