Neo Camerata Press Kit

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band bio
members bios

Neo Camerata bio, press quotes, and press photo

Neo Camerata bio

Combining the emotion and beauty of classical, the excitement and energy of pop, the awe-inspiring technique of virtuoso musicians, and the riveting original music of one of its members, Neo Camerata has created what critics have called a “genre-busting,” “technically impressive,” “emotionally stirring” and “totally cool and amazing” experience. With a unique multi-cultural mix, Neo Camerata’s “new classical” sound has people buzzing on both the classical and pop sides of the music business. Recently, Tim Smith, classical critic from the Baltimore Sun echoed Sarah Hepola, rock critic from the Dallas Observer by simply stating, “Whatever you call it, it’s good.”


The group plays from memory and uses amplification to create a sound that as one reviewer put it, “makes you swear a dozen people are on stage”. Equally at home in serious concert halls and grungy rock clubs, the growing Neo C audience is as diverse as their varied collaborations. Since their debut in 2004, they have shared the bill with pop artists, rock bands, opera singers, symphony orchestras, and a ballet company. They’ve performed in places as diverse as Washington’s Kennedy Center, New York’s Cutting Room, and the Cannes Film Festival.


The core of the group’s sound is the original music of infectious melodies, driving rhythms, and pop-styled harmonies written by Neo Camerata's violist, Mark Landson. The creative catalyst behind the band, Landson followed parallel paths of classical training and rock band experimentation, at one point leaving the Eastman School of Music to form a rock band with his brother John Landefeld, Neo Camerata's cellist. The brothers did return to the classical fold, and Landson moved to Spain to join a touring string quartet and chamber orchestra. While there, he began combining the varied elements of his background into a brand of classical music with a distinctive pop edge.


Soon after, the brothers reunited in Dallas, Texas, where they met Bulgarian violin virtuoso Vesselin Demirev, who had also played guitar in a professional rock band in Europe. The three friends resolved to create a new kind of band that would break all the rules, and Neo Camerata was born. With the addition of British violinist Jane Hunt, and the highly accredited American pianist Jeanne Schumann, Neo Camerata is prepared to make a splash with its first international release, “Travels”, on the Well-Tempered Productions label in October 2005.

Quick Press Quotes

"These aren't your father's classical musicians. They're young, dressed-down and prefer Depeche Mode to, say, the church choir. They are also making classical music--that ultimately expressive but occasionally stuffy music form--into something for all ages, what violinist/composer Mark Landson calls "new classical." They use videos, work with dancers, spruce up the set with lights, storm the occasional bar. Whatever you call it, it's good. At a recent Club Dada show, opening for cello virtuoso Matt Haimovitz, Neo Camerata wowed a packed house of amateurs and aficionados alike, playing original music that is both emotionally stirring and technically impressive. Their approach is refreshing and honest. And if Mozart were alive today, he wouldn't be content to just play concert halls either. "
- Sarah Hepola, Dallas Observer


"Excellent performers with propulsive energy..."
- Dallas Morning News

"Landson combines ageless techniques of the classical genre - development of thematic material and structural cohesion, for example - with a distinctly contemporary edge. But the chord progressions wouldn't be out of place in a pop song and the rhythms have a stronger bite. It's not easy to attach existing labels onto Landson's music. A writer for the Dallas Observer summed it simply: "Whatever you call it, it's good."
- Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun


"The audience was transfixed."
- D Magazine


"Everyone wants to be the guy who introduces other people to something totally cool and amazing. Something people will remember and thank you for. Here's a tip: grab your friends and take them to a Neo Camerata show. You'll owe me."
- Scott Rozsa, Milk Vitamin D Magazine


"An altogether attractive disc with a bold and imaginative program. Mark Landson's music is finely crafted and emotionally unabashed."
- Records International

Booking and general contact:

New Roads Records
15851 Dallas Parkway Suite 1160
Dallas, Texas 75001
phone: 972-770-5059
email: info@NeoCamerata.com
web: http://www.NeoCamerata.com

NEO Camerata members bios

Mark Landson, composer/viola

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The music of Mark Landson has been described as “a wonderful melding of pop idiom and classical craft”. Classically trained from age six on violin, viola, and piano, Mark Landson began to find his voice as a composer while singing and playing keyboards in rock bands in high school. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where his most important influences were the music of Bartok, Berg, Hindemith, Reich, Britten, Respighi, Talking Heads, Violent Femmes, and New Order. Although he studied classical composition technique and harmony, he concentrated mostly on pop music composition, as the expression of contemporary classical composers seemed to lack the relevant voice he was seeking. After Eastman, he moved to Spain to become a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Granada, where he played viola, composed arrangements for that orchestra, and continued his development as a composer in various pop music projects. These divergent interests ultimately led him to experiment with how classical form and composition could incorporate pop music elements in a way that would provide for both a wide range of expression and connection to the contemporary world.

Vesselin Demirev, violin

Vesselin Demirev was born in Varna, Bulgaria and began his musical studies at the age of four. He has a Master of Arts degree from the prestigious National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, and an Artist Certificate in violin performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Vesselin has held the position of concertmaster for the New Symphony Orchestra of Sofia, Bulgaria, as well as the Abilene Philharmonic of Abilene, Texas. He is currently concertmaster for the Irving Symphony and the Plano Symphony Orchestras. As a soloist, he has performed to critical acclaim with major symphony orchestras and in chamber and solo recitals performed throughout Europe including Austria, Hungary, Holland, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain and more recently in the United States. He has recorded for the Gasparo label in New York and the Balkanton label in Sofia. He is Professor for violin performance, orchestral repertoire, and chamber music at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

John Landefeld, cello

John Landefeld is a multi-talented musician who has excelled on many fronts. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Anthony Ross and Steven Doane. He has held principal cello positions with the New World Symphony, the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Eastman Philharmonia, and the San Angelo Symphony. He has also performed solo concertos with the Central Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra and the National Repertory Orchestra. In addition to the cello, John also is a fine electric guitarist, and spent several years touring with heavy metal hair bands in the late 1980's. After his spandex era ended, he returned to the cello, but since then has continued to hone his skills in the pop music realm through composing, arranging, recording, and producing.


Jeanne Schumann

Jeanne Schumann has distinguished herself many times in competition, winning prizes in the Cleveland International, the Bartok-Kabalevsky International, the Star City Young Artists, the ARTS Festival, the Heida Herrmans International, the Stravinsky Awards International and the Kosciuszko Piano Competitions. In 2001, Ms. Schumann was the youngest applicant and the only American woman to be accepted into the International Van Cliburn Competition. She studied with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music, graduating in 2004 with a Masters in Piano Performance, and is now studying at the Colburn School in Los Angeles with John Perry. She has been invited to perform in many venues throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia, (including a tour of Vietnam), as artist-in-residence at the New Hampshire Music Festival, on the Sundays Live radio broadcast program in Los Angeles, and in New York City's “Rock Hotel Pianofest” series. She is a 2004 Gilmore Young Artist Award winner, and was recently featured on the “Rising Star Series” at Ravinia.

Jane Hunt


Jane Hunt was born in Manchester England and graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2005. While at RNCM, Jane was a member of the Colman String Quartet, a highly acclaimed group which performed throughout England and in prestigious international chamber music festivals. Before deciding to concentrate her efforts on the violin, Jane pursued a career in tennis, playing tournaments all over the UK. Although she’s hung up the racket, she still enjoys humiliating the other members of Neo Camerata on the court occasionally.

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