FACULTY (2025)
ADAM ZUKIEWICZ - PIANO
Adam Piotr Żukiewicz is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed concert pianist. He concertized across Europe, United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Hong Kong, and Macau, and his performances were broadcast in the USA, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Germany, and Poland. Mr. Żukiewicz consistently receives critical acclaim, while his innovative programming - focused on exploring connections between the popular and the lesser known gems of the traditional and contemporary repertoire - continues to engage and inspire audiences around the world.
As an active soloist and chamber musician, Adam Piotr Żukiewicz performs internationally in USA, Canada, Germany, Italy, Czechia, Slovenia, Hong Kong, and Poland. Highlights of recent performances include recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York City, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London (UK), Royal Łazienki Theatre in Warsaw, and Chicago Cultural Center (Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series), and concerto performances with the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, the Loveland Orchestra, and the Greeley Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Żukiewicz has performed in some of the most important concert venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, Residenztheater in Munich, Goldensaal at the Musikverein in Vienna, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, KKL Luzern, and many others. He is also a frequent contributor to the Colorado Public Radio, where his broadcast recordings can be heard on air and online.
Adam Piotr Żukiewicz holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Toronto and Masters of Music degree from Indiana University. He has also studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, UK, and was a Music Scholar at the United World College of the Adriatic in Duino, Italy.
Mr. Żukiewicz is an Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. He is a founder and Artistic Director of the Beethoven in the Rockies: Concert Series, and is a founding member of the Max Joseph Piano Trio and the Colorado Piano Trio.
For more information, please visit: www.adamzukiewicz.com
TARN TRAVERS - VIOLIN
Violinist Tarn Travers regularly performs throughout the US and abroad as a soloist,
chamber musician, and orchestral player. Formerly a member of the Chicago-based
contemporary music group Ensemble Dal Niente and concertmaster of the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, recent performances include solo and chamber music appearances throughout the United States, China, Austria, and Italy. He has performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and gave a performance of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Additionally, he has served as concertmaster for numerous organizations throughout China, including the Chengdu Symphony, Macao Orchestra, and for the opening concert for the May Festival at NCPA in Beijing.
As a recording artist, Travers has numerous releases, including an appearance on
Jóhann Jóhannsson’s album Orphée, released in 2015 on the Deutsche Grammphon
label. Other releases include an album of chamber music by Beethoven, Brahms, and Brooke Joyce, Maria Newman’s Triple Concerto, Randal Bauer’s Half String Quartet for violin and cello, and music by George Lewis, recorded as a member of Ensemble Dal Niente. Upcoming releases include music by Lori Laitman, transcribed for violin by the composer specifically for Travers, and an album of music for two violins featuring music by Eugène Ysaÿe, Sergei Prokofiev, and Paolo Marchettini.
An active pedagogue worldwide, Travers currently serves as resident faculty at the Tianjin Juilliard School. Past teaching appointments include faculty positions at DePauw University in the United States, AlpenKammerMusik in Austria, and the International Music Festival of the Adriatic in Italy. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Doctorate from Stony Brook University in New York, where his primary teachers were Camilla Wicks, Philip Setzer, William Preucil and Axel Strauss. He plays on a Joseph Curtin violin.
CONDUCTORS
Maestro Bahman Saless
Bahman Saless started his dual career as composer and physicist during his teen years in England. After obtaining his A-level and O-level certificates in music, mathematics and physics, Dr. Saless immigrated to the United States in 1977. He received his BS in Physics from Michigan State University, in 1981 while studying violin at the same time. He then pursued a career as a physicist, obtaining his Doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Colorado in 1987. During his graduate study, Dr. Saless was a member of Boulder Philharmonic orchestra and founder of The Principia Quartet in Boulder. In 1989, after having served as physics lecturer at the Colorado school of mines and a research scientist for NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Dr. Saless moved to Los Angeles to continue his dual ambitions by working as a physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and enrolling in film scoring studies at UCLA. In 1990, Dr. Saless’ guitar trio, Mexican Moonlight, won the Pacific Composer’s Forum composition Competition. After completing his studies at UCLA in 1991, Dr. Saless worked as a composer of film trailers and teasers with Universal Studios as well as other Hollywood production houses. His works include trailer music for films such as Carlito’s Way, Romeo is Bleeding, and Beethoven 2nd. Having spent years away from his beloved Colorado, Dr. Saless and his wife moved back to Boulder in 1994.
In 2004, Dr. Saless founded the Boulder Chamber Orchestra where he is music director, and in 2010 he co-founded the International Conducting Institute in order to help further the art of conducting.
Maestro Silas Nathaniel Huff
Silas Nathaniel Huff is Director of Orchestras at Washburn University (Topeka, KS), Music Director of the Colorado Pops Orchestra, Commander & Conductor of the 44th Army Band (Albuquerque, NM), and Co-Director of the International Conducting Institute. Maestro Huff has conducted across the US and Europe, and his past positions include Music Director of the Astoria Symphony Orchestra (NYC) and Round Rock Symphony Orchestra (TX), Director of the U.S. Army Orchestra (DC), Associate Director of the Boulder Chamber Orchestra (CO), Assistant Conductor of the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra (VA), Conductor of Moscow Ballet’s U.S.A. east coast tours, and Associate Producer of Opera at the Manhattan School of Music. As a U.S. Army Music Officer, he conducted concerts at the White House, U.S. Capitol, Arlington National Cemetery, Pentagon, and other important monuments and landmarks in Washington, D.C., on tour for audiences numbering in the thousands, and in recordings and broadcasts that were seen by millions of viewers.
Maestro Huff holds degrees from Texas State University and UCLA, and also studied at the Trossingen Hochschule für Musik (Germany), L’Institut Musical Provence-Aubagne (France), California State University-Long Beach, and University of Colorado Boulder.