The Pandora Duo features the exciting duo of guitarist Christopher Ladd and flutist Janet Arms, both Hartt School faculty members and internationally acclaimed performers.
The Pandora Duo combines the forces of two exceptional musicians that share their passion for chamber music. Janet Arms, flute, and Christopher Ladd, guitar, met at the Hartt School of Music where they are both current faculty members. Regarded as successful soloists independently, the Pandora Duo formed itself when these two musicians’ played together for the first time at a faculty recital. Since then, the Pandora Duo has been performing all over the New England and Tri-State area, including the Di Menna Center in NYC, the Boston Guitar Society, the New England Guitar Ensemble Festival and many others. Committed to bringing a variety of new music and old music for flute and guitar, the Pandora Duo strives to bring live chamber music to a diverse audience, by using innovative programs to reach a wide variety of interests. Among performing the standard canon of works for flute and guitar, the Pandora Duo redefines the traditional repertoire by including music from all around the world, taking their audiences on an exciting musical ride that is engaging and inventive.
Flutist Janet Arms enjoys a notable career as an orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has been a member of the New York City Opera orchestra since 1988 and on the faculty of The Hartt School since 1994, where she currently holds the title of Senior Artist Teacher.
Educated at Hartt and The Juilliard School, Ms. Arms was named a prizewinner of the Concert Artists International Competition while completing her Master’s at Juilliard. She was presented in her Carnegie Hall debut the following season, a high profile beginning to an extended, multi-faceted musical journey.
In addition to her work with the NYCO, Janet was busy with many of the major performing organizations here on the East coast. She has performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera, the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston, at Tanglewood, and on tour, has been guest principal flutist with the St. Louis Symphony in the US and on a month-long tour throughout Europe, and stepped in as a last minute substitute with the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in a concert featuring both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman. Other NY activities have included substitute appearances with the NYC Ballet, the New Jersey Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, NY Gilbert and Sullivan Players, and the Westchester Philharmonic. As a soloist, Ms. Arms has made appearances in the States and abroad with the New York Chamber Soloists in a program of Brandenburg Concerti, with the Columbia Valley Festival Orchestra playing Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto, in British Columbia performing Mozart’s Flute and Harp Concerto with the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific, and with two of Hartt’s performing ensembles for performances of Michael Colgrass’s “A Flute in the Kingdom of Drums and Bells”, and most recently, Joel Puckett’s concerto, “The Song of Sirius.”
Her recent solo recitals include appearances at the Long Island Flute Club, the Hudson Valley Music Club, the Delaware Flute Festival and the Hartt School, where this year, she showcased works by the entire composition faculty in a single evening.
In addition to her solo recitals, Janet has appeared as a guest with the Concordia Chamber Players, been featured at Lincoln Center playing chamber music of Strauss with musicians of the City Opera, performed with fellow faculty at The Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific in Powell River, BC, and joined with international faculty in Fortaleza, Brazil for performances of everything from Mozart to Piazzolla.
She has a long standing association with the Bard Festival Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra at Bard, and is on the faculty of the international Symphony and Opera Academy of the Pacific (SOAP) in Powell River, BC. This past summer, she was a guest artist and faculty member at the Festival Eleazar De Carvalho in Fortaleza, Brazil, both teaching and performing.
Award winning guitarist Christopher Ladd has rapidly become known throughout the country as one of the most promising classical musicians of his generation. Fingerstyle Guitar hails his performances as being “… rendered confidently and expressively.” Praised as “… an exercise in extremes.” by Soundboard Magazine, he is highly sought after as a soloist and chamber musician.
Performances of note include Mengi and the Kaldalon Theater at Harpa in Reykjavik, Iceland, the DiMenna Center in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Viennese Opera Ball hosted by the Austrian Embassy, the historic Byrdcliffe Theater in Woodstock, NY and for former vice-president Al Gore at his residence in Washington, D.C. Active also as a chamber musician, Mr. Ladd is a founding member of The Pandora Duo which features acclaimed flutist Janet Arms, and The Amaranth Duo with Icelandic violinist Asa Gudjonsdottir.
In addition to performing pieces of standard repertoire, Mr. Ladd has premiered numerous new works by composers such as Kenneth Steen, Robert Carl, Nolan Stolz, Lief Ellis, Kathryn Swanson, Ty Alan Emerson, Ernst Bacon, Phillip Houghton and Frank Wallace. Recently he had the opportunity to work with Grammy and Academy Award winning composer John Corigliano, in a performance of his work Troubadours for guitar and chamber orchestra conducted by Edward Cumming.
As a recording artist Mr. Ladd’s multi-faceted career exemplifies his continual search for new ways to present the classical guitar. He has appeared on numerous projects for feature film, theater and the stage. His performance of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez can be heard on the documentary The Real Royal Trip directed by Sangh Kim and a selection of his performance of J.S. Bach’s Prelude, Fugue and Allegro, BWV 998 can be heard in The Asylum’s cult-hit Megashark vs. Giant Octopus. Most recently he contributed his skills to the 25th Anniversary of the epic metal band While Heaven Wept’s newest release “Suspended at Aphelion” on Nuclear Blast Records which was released in late October 2014.
Mr. Ladd has been a prize winner in numerous competitions including the Appalachian Guitar Festival Solo Competition, American String Teachers Association Competition and was twice a semi-finalist in the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Competition.
Mr. Ladd is currently serves on the faculty of The Hartt School in West Hartford, Connecticut as an Artist/Teacher, Director of The Hartt School Guitar Festival and as the Chair of the Guitar and Harp Program
