About

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Con Vivo Music is a collective of musicians including some of the NYC area’s finest soloists and rising stars. We bring the communal spirit of chamber music to the vibrant setting of Jersey City. Since 2007, we have presented over 120 concerts to thousands of listeners.

Our mission is bring the communal spirit of chamber music to diverse audiences through world-class concerts and educational opportunities in parks, schools and community spaces. All of our concerts are completely free.

Con Vivo Music was founded in 2007 by Amelia Hollander Ames after spending three years in Israel as violist of the Israel Contemporary String Quartet and Tel Aviv Soloists. Upon returning to her hometown of Jersey City, she dreamed of playing chamber music for the full range of Jersey City’s vibrant population at the same high level that she had in Israel and elsewhere around the world. Amelia partnered with the Jersey City Department of Cultural Affairs, which exclusively funded Con Vivo’s first two seasons of concerts. In 2009, Con Vivo Music became an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and spread its wings, fed by the creativity and virtuosity of its core musicians and the enthusiasm of its audiences.

Artistic Director, Zach Herchen

Saxophonist Zach Herchen performs contemporary, jazz, and rock music. Zach loves new music and is constantly working with composers. He has premiered dozens of pieces ranging from jazz tone poems to Japanese noise rock to multimedia works. Zach self-released his first CD, “Emerging Voices”, featuring commissioned works for voice and sax with opera singer Elisabeth Halliday. He is the artistic director of Con Vivo Music and performs with New Thread Quartet, Rhymes With Opera, and Quiet City.

Zach has served on staff at NEC’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice and was an artist-in-resident at Wildacres Retreat. He has performed at BU’s Spectral Summer Professional Performance Workshop, the SEAMUS National Conference, Third Practice Electroacoustic Festival, the 4th International Master-Class for Classical Saxophone, and the Look & Listen Festival. Zach has performed as a soloist in Italy, Sweden, and Germany, and at Duke University and New England Conservatory. He performed on Scott Alexander’s album “Scott Alexander Makes a Big Deal Out of It” and Man Down’s album “Somewhere Down In Florida”.

Zach holds a MM and BM in Saxophone Performance (and a BM in Recording Arts Engineering) from The Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he was a recipient of the Richard Franko Goldman Prize for performance. Zach has studied with Gary Louie, Gary Thomas, Timothy McAllister, Arno Bornkamp, Vincent David, Jan Schulte-Bunert, and Ties Mellema.

Assistant Director, Natasha Loomis

Natasha Loomis is an engaging and charismatic performer who is at home playing music ranging from Baroque to contemporary. An avid chamber musician and proponent of new music, Natasha has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. She is passionate about seeking out overlooked gems of the repertoire as well as commissioning new works, presenting programs that are creative and captivating for audiences. Natasha has premiered works by composers Aaron N. Price,Kevin Zi-Xiao He, Joe Young, and Kyle Henkel at the Zodiac Festival in southern France, as well as two concerts of premieres with the HELIX! New Music Ensemble at NYC’s (le) poisson rouge. She gave the U.S. premiere of Kevin Zi-Xiao’s “Torn” for two flutes with Sergio Pallottelli at the National Flute Association Convention in San Diego, in addition to its European premiere the previous summer.

As flutist and Artistic Director of the Meraki Chamber Players, Natasha has commissioned and premiered 11 new works at venues throughout New York City, including a program of inspired by the art of abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky. The group’s most recent program, Rhapsody in Brew, brings music to breweries and premiered in 2017 in collaboration with King’s County Brewer’s Collective of Brooklyn. The group was a 2017 Ensemble-in-Residence at Connecticut SummerFest, where they premiered 3 new works by composer fellows. Natasha also plays regularly as part of the Mosaic Flute Duo with flutist Mitzy Nonaka, with recent performances in NY, NJ, and VA at the Mid Atlantic Flute Convention.

An active chamber, solo, and orchestral freelancer, Natasha has performed at a diverse range of New York City area venues, including Radio City Music Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Bryant Park stage, Merkin Concert Hall, the DiMenna Center, SOPAC, Shapeshifter Lab, the Firehouse Space, and Silvana Harlem, among others. A passionate music educator, Natasha runs a successful private studio in New Jersey and New York City. She is Associate Director at New Jersey Woodwind Studio and has also served as flute faculty at Rutgers University and Montclair State University Extension Divisions, and as a chamber coach at the NJ Youth Symphony program. Natasha has degrees in music from Franklin & Marshall College and Montclair State University, where she was graduate assistant to Dr. Laura Dolp.