PERFORMERS
Award-winning flutist and pianist Lily Xie is Ecce Ensemble’s flutist. She has been praised by the South Florida Classical Review for her “impeccable dexterity and technical security.” Her meticulous dedication and fiery passion for music have propelled her to prestigious stages across North America, Asia, and Europe.
Lily earned First Prize at The Seventh International Competitions of Young Musicians in Vladivostok, Russia (2012), and achieved double gold medals in both the solo and chamber music divisions at the Nanning International Flute Competition (2013). She is a proud recipient of the esteemed Henry Mancini Institute (HMI) Fellowship.
Lily has recorded with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra on Smile (2020) for Nurse Heroes Live!, collaborating with celebrated artists including Andrea Bocelli, Stevie Wonder, Céline Dion, and David Foster. She recorded Luciano Berio’s Sequenza I (1958) and Folk Songs (1964) with Ensemble Ibis in Miami for the Frost New Music “Year in Review” (2021) and Bernard Rands’ Canti Del Sole (1984) with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble for the album Rands At Oberlin, released on the Oberlin Music Record Label in 2019.
Alexander Bader studied the clarinet with Manfred Preis and Peter Rieckhoff in Berlin. In 1990 he became a member of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen, moving in 2002 to Berlin’s Komische Oper. Bader, who also devotes himself to historical performance practice on original instruments and appears regularly with such ensembles as the Vienna Concentus Musicus, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble and Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik, has been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Scharoun Ensemble since 2006.
Jordan Hadrill is Ecce Ensemble’s violinist. She is deeply passionate about modern music. She has performed with the Berlin Camerata and alongside François-Xavier Poizat as part of the Winners and Masters concert series. After moving to Boston, she collaborated with Steven Mackey to present his works in BSO’s What I Hear Prelude concert and joined New England Conservatory’s new music ensemble [nec]shivaree to present Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto in Symphony Hall for the BSO’s celebration of Ligeti’s 100th birthday. She has also been coached by Christian Wolff to present his Small Duos for Violins, and has collaborated with Donald Berman as part of a project to perform the complete Ives sonatas. In 2024, Jordan was a recipient of NEC’s John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Performance.
As an educator, she has worked with Tufts University’s Community Music program, New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, The Croft School, and Boston Music Project, as well as with Immigrant Family Services Institute through New England Conservatory’s Community Performances & Partnerships program. She has attended the Castleman Quartet Program, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival and School.
Ulrich Knoerzer started playing viola after having had violin lessons for three years. In the 1970s he won three times the first prize in the German National Youth competition. He studied with Rainer Moog in Cologne and Karen Tuttle in New York. Other teachers were Max Rostal, Sandor Vegh and Yuri Bashmet. With the Mannheimer String Quartet he won several competitions including Evian/France. Ulrich Knoerzer joined the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990 and was a member of the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin until 2006. He is teaching viola at the University of Arts Berlin and gives masterclasses in Europe and Japan. His soloistic appearances are including performances of Bartok’s Viola Concerto, a piece in which he is taking a particular interest.
Robbie Bui, Ecce’s cellist, is a contemporary musician whose playing has been regarded for its intense physicality and fervent energy. Complemented by his additional background in composition, he puts deep consideration into music’s theoretical construction blocks to yield corporeally gripping performances. The crux of his musical work involves bringing the new and the unexpected to the foreground.
Bui has been dedicated dozens of works by living composers in both solo and chamber settings. He has appeared as a soloist in several places including the McGill Schulich School of Music, Koussevitzky Shed, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Jordan Hall, Conrad Prebys Music Center, Mandeville Auditorium, and Coronado Public Library.
Bui is currently recognized in ensembles such as La Jolla Symphony, Pacific Lyric Association, Palimpsest Ensemble, and Alinéa Ensemble. Among numerous honors, Robbie has won Best Contemporary Performance Prize of the La Jolla Symphony Young Artists Competition, as well as New England Conservatory’s Honors Ensemble Competition 2018, Orchestral Composition Competition 2019, and Contemporary Ensemble Competitions 2020.
Peter Riegelbauer was educated by Georg Hörtnagel in Nuremberg and Rainer Zepperitz in Berlin. Before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1981, Riegelbauer played for three years in the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and during this time co-founded the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the Ensemble Modern. In 1983, he and his Philharmonic colleagues founded the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin. Since joining the Philharmonic, Peter Riegelbauer has played a key role in promoting the orchestra’s self-determination in its committees: from 1969 to 2015, he was a member of the orchestra’s board and the foundation’s board of trustees. From 2015 to 2023, he headed the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.
A multidimensional pianist, pedagogue, and scholar, Donald Berman has won tremendous acclaim for his "stupendous abilities, both athletic and intellectual" (Boston Sunday Globe) and performances hailed as "stunning, adventurous, and substantive" (New York Times).
With an emphasis on presenting American music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Berman's inventive recital programs have been featured on the biggest stages for contemporary music across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. An enthusiastic commissioner of new music, he has added more than 200 works to the contemporary canon — many of which he performs alongside classical repertoires to provoke new and fascinating revelations and connections across periods and styles.
Berman's body of work as a recording artist demonstrates his engagement with the music of our time. His albums have included numerous world-premiere recordings and illuminating performances of previously unknown works of 20th-century American composers, including Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Elliott Carter, and Roger Sessions. As a concerto soloist and chamber musician, Berman's discography includes collaborations with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, soprano Susan Narucki, and the Borromeo Quartet.
A former fellow of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Berman currently serves as Chair of Keyboard Studies at Longy School of Music of Bard College and leads Tufts University's New Music Ensemble. He is also the General Editor of three volumes of Ives's Shorter Works for Piano and President and Treasurer of the Charles Ives Society.
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