Department of Music
C.W. Post Campus
Long Island University
720 Northern Boulevard
Brookville, NY 11548
(516) 299-2474
music@cwpost.liu.edu
C. Culver, Chairman

Touring Faculty & Staff

Alexander Dashnaw, director of Choral Activities and Chairman of the Department of Music at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, has been a guest conductor of many festival, divisional, regional, and all-state choruses and has conducted choral/vocal workshops for schools, the AGO (American Guild of Organists) and the ACDA (American Choral Directors Association). He has been artistic director of many festivals, including the Manhattan, Chicago, and Pacific Choral Festivals, the jubilee in Washington, D.C., and the Strathclyde in Scotland. He served as Director of Choral Activities at the Hart School of Music, University of Hartford, as conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonia Chorus in concerts and conducted the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra together with the Manhattan Chorale in concerts at the Kennedy Center and at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Dashnaw, whose awards include the Distinguished Service Award to Culture from the Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam, a University Award for Excellence in Teaching at Long Island University and the Trustees Award for Scholarly Achievement, has served as President of the Eastern Division of the American Choral Directors Association. This past December, Mr. Dashnaw was honored at Long Island University’s 75th Anniversary Celebration for his outstanding achievements in helping to build the University’s educational programs and reputation.

Jeffrey Johnson, director of the C.W. Post Madrigal Singers, has appeared on Broadway and off, in opera, regional theatre, and in several seminal theatre pieces including the video opera The Cave by Steve Reich and Beryl Korot, Einstein on the Beach by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, The Boston Early Music production of Purcell's semi-opera King Arthur, and the multimedia opera Chaos at the Kitchen in New York. A founding member of the highly acclaimed male vocal ensemble "Lionheart" which performs internationally, he also sings and records with the early music ensembles "New York Collegium," "The Voices of Ascension," and "Pomerium." Independent projects include performing as bass soloist in a Bach cantata series with the Orchestra of St. Lukes' Chamber Ensemble, a collaboration the synthesist Wendy Carlos to extended vocal techniques to a chant! and sitar project entitled "Meeting of Angels." He is also active as a director of plays and theatre pieces. He started his professional career at Disney as a member of the All-American Players. Recordings can be heard on Koch International Classics, Nimbus, RCA-Catalyst, Delos, Electra Nonesuch, MusicMasters, Dorian, and Deutsche Grammaphon Archives.

Maureen Hynes, cellist and gambist, enjoys an active career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and teacher in the New York musical world. She performs regularly with the American Ballet Theater, the American Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Orchestra of New York, American Composers Orchestra, New York Virtuosi, the Westchester Philharmonic, Queens Symphony and the Long Island Philharmonic. She has also appeared with the Royal Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, at the Spoleto and Aspen Festivals and at the Lake George Opera Festival. Her work in New York includes substitute work on Broadway in Les Miserables and The Lion King. Ms. Hynes was a winner of the Concert Artist Guild Award with the Janus Ensemble and she is currently a member of the Pierrot Consort. She has performed in Europe, Canada, Korea and Hong Kong both as cellist and gambist. In addition to being Professor of Cello and Director of String Studies at Long Island University/C.W. Post, Ms. Hynes is co-director and co-founder of the C.W. Post Chamber Music Festival and director of the Merriweather Consort which specializes in Renaissance music. She is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, where she received her B. M. and M. M. degrees. Her early training was at the Dalcroze School of Music where she studied with Hilda M. Schuster and received an Elementary Teaching Certificate in the Dalcroze Method. Her gamba studies have been with Lucy Bardo and the New York Consort of Viols. As Director of the Merriweather Consort, she has led the group in concerts and school presentations all across Long Island and on tour.

Harris Becker, guitarist and lutenist is an active soloist, chamber musician, educator and adjudicator. Performances have taken him throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Mexico and Canada, Mr. Becker has premiered many new works for solo guitar and ensembles. Performances include Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

He is the Director of Guitar Studies at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. He is Founder and Director of the Long Island Guitar Festival, now in its tenth season. He has been on the music faculties of the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and Director of Music for Mixed Ensembles at the International Institute for Chamber Music at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich. In 1999 Harris Becker and guitarist Pasquale Bianculli released the duo guitar CD titled "Catgut Flambo," Guitar Review called it "...one of the most beautiful-sounding guitar recordings I have heard. His transcriptions and editions are published by T.D. Ellis Music Publishing.

Lisa N. Meyer, soprano, has been an active professional musician as a soloist, conductor, choral singer and teacher across the United States and Europe. After attaining her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Vocal Performance from the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in the 1986, she became a member of the internationally acclaimed professional choir the Gregg Smith Singers. During her three seasons with the ensemble, she traveled extensively throughout the United States and Europe. She has been a member of the New York Treble Singers, a professional women's choir specializing in the music of women composers and contemporary works. In the fall of 1998, Ms. Meyer was hired as the first Production Coordinator for the C.W. Post Department of Music, managing the daily operations, concert schedules, and student concert series along with concert tours, publicity materials and recruitment. In addition to her position at C.W. Post and her freelance work as a vocalist, she presently maintains a studio of private voice, piano, and guitar students and is the choir director and conductor for the Community Unitarian Church at White Plains in Westchester County, New York.