Individual Bios

Mer Boel
Composer and violinist Mer Boel has a B.F.A. in jazz vocal performance with a minor in violin from City College of New York, where she studied and performed with John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Matt Glaser, and Ron Carter. She was co-founder of The Daughters of Sweden, and original music group Cymbidium, and has written string arrangements for Karen Beth, Tom Knight, the Crow Greenspun Band and the Sim Redmond Band. She played in the Catskill Symphony, and with bluegrass bands The High Street Boys and The Purple Mountain Cowtippers, as well as solo. She has sung with the Gerald Wolfe Singers and the Robert Dale Chorale. Her composition "Meditation" for handbell choir received its premier performance in Ithaca, NY in February of 2000, and she received a "Meet the Composer" grant for the commissioned vocal chamber piece Mountains Swimming, which was performed by Women's Works with the 171 Cedar Arts Chorale in 2004. She presented a lecture recital on women in jazz music at the Festival of Women Composers in Pittsburgh, PA in 2004, and in 2005 three of her Name Music pieces were performed at the inaugural concert of the Grassroots Festival Chamber Orchestra.

Ben Blechman
Ben began studying violin at the age of 11 in Santa Rosa, CA with Dominic Dissaro. During High School he developed an interest in various improvisational styles while jamming with friends in the Santa Rosa area.He arrived at the University of California Santa Cruz in 1993, where he learned advanced classical technique and repertoire from violin virtuoso Roy Malan. While at UCSC he also studied jazz improvisation with jazz greats Ray Brown (trumpet) and Smith Dobson (piano). He completed a BA in violin performance in 1997, and decided to stay at UCSC to get a masters degree. During his masters program he continued his development on the violin and also pursued his interest in electronic and computer music. After finishing school, Ben spent some time earning a living playing classical music. He has played with the Santa Cruz Symphony, the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra with Roy Hargrove and Terrence Blanchard, and various other symphonies, string quartets, opera companies, etc. Ultimately, he found the classical music world to be unfulfilling, so he got a "day job" working for a computer music company as a software engineer. He has spent most of his musical energy during recent years intensely studying jazz violin and other fiddle styles. Ben has performed with a number of groups in Santa Cruz, CA and the greater Bay Area including the Hot Club of San Francisco and Frizz, an eclectic Jazz and Bluegrass string band. He is very excited to have the opportunity to make music with Water Bear.

Tim Reppert
Composer and bassist Tim Reppert studied at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and has worked as a studio session musician in New York City, Boston, and Ithaca. Reppert is also a sound engineer, and owns REP Studios. He's recorded for diverse clients such as Sly Stone, Billy Ocean, and The Beastie Boys, and local artists such as the Burns Sisters, Mbusi, and Samite.

Chris White
Composer and cellist Chris White has a masters in performance from Ithaca College, and is the founder of the New Directions Cello Association & Festival, a busy jazz and classical performer, and an active private teacher. His recordings include works for solo cello and various small jazz ensembles. He has published articles on the history of jazz cello in STRINGS (Spring ‘89) and Down Beat (Feb. ‘89), and a book and CD method (1997) called Jazz Cello. This method is also available for violin and viola, and Volume Two is forthcoming. His latest CD, "First Principles", was released in February 2003 to great acclaim.

Nate Silas Richardson
Composer and multi-instrumentalist Nate Richardson grew up in Boston and studied Jazz Composition at Berklee, graduating in 1996. He tours with John Brown's Body, North America's pre-eminent reggae band, and performed on their last three releases, plus releases by 10 Ft Ganja Plant, Eliot Martin, Adonai & I, and Sim Redmond Band, and his own production, "Uproot", on I-Town Records. He likes Malian kora music, music from all over the African Continent, and American music from early 1900s, although Jamaican music from the 1970s remains his deepest long-running influence.

Bill Cowdery
Bill Cowdery comes to Water Bear mainly from the classical side of music. He serves as musical director and organist of the First Congregational Church in Ithaca, NY, and as an adjunct instructor at Cornell University. He has taught on the faculties of Ithaca College, Colgate University, and Keuka College as performer, musicologist, and theorist. A frequent soloist, accompanist, and lecturer at Bach festivals in the northeast, he has been a three-year fellow of the Bach Aria Festival at Stony Brook. Bill holds a Ph.D. from Cornell for a dissertation on the early cantatas of J. S. Bach and has held a Fulbright Fellowship in England. He authored numerous articles in the New Harvard Dictionary of Music and the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1996). Recently he co-edited The Compleat Mozart with Neal Zaslaw (Norton). His compositions include keyboard pieces, choral pieces and a children's opera called "Moses."

Ruth Roland
Composer and violinist Ruth Roland grew up playing Eastern European folk music with her father's band. She has a bachelor's in music and a bachelor's in language and literature from Michigan State University and a master's degree in violin performance from the University of Minnesota. She is a member of the Binghamton Philharmonic and the Tri-Cities Opera Orchestra of New York, and a founding member of Women's Works, an annual celebration of women composers. She has performed with artists such as George Benson, Smokey Robinson, and the Moody Blues, and has conducted and arranged for orchestra. She is also a published poet and performed playwright. Currently she lives with her family in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and returns to Ithaca for visits when she can.

Hank Roberts
Composer and cellist Hank Roberts, whom Jazz Express magazine calls "One of the most respected improvising cellists on the international scene," has toured extensively in Europe, Canada, Japan, and the U.S., playing avant-garde jazz. He's performed with many artists, including Bill Frisell, Andy Summers, Tim Berne, The Second Hand (dance company), Cologne Radio Orchestra, Arcado String Trio, and David Sanborn. In Ithaca, NY, he's played with Ti-Ti Chickapea, Martin Simpson, and Peter Dodge. His latest CD, "The Truth and Reconciliation Show", released in November 2002, features Hank and his band, Wiggy Dog Boy.