Guy Mendilow Ensemble

Guy Mendilow, Artistic Director; Voice, Piano, Berimbau, Guitar
Guy Mendilow was raised in a philosophically oriented, world-traveling family prioritizing continuous learning, disciplined curiosity and giving back. His love of music and story reflects his family’s multi-generational fascination with the unspoken ways we make meaning of an ambiguous world around us. “These are the stories we unknowingly tell ourselves about ourselves and the ways we relate to what surrounds us,” Mendilow says. “These stories are like the air we breathe: Most often they go undetected.” Like his family, Mendilow is tantalized by ways of listening that bring these stories, and the values embedded in them, to the attentional surface. His work is first and foremost to listen, and then to strive to refract these stories’ emotional landscapes. In combining music and stories, he seeks to build a personal, humanized connection to lives and experiences that may otherwise be detached, only conceptual, or “other.”

A citizen of Israel, Britain and the USA, Mendilow began his professional stage career at age 10, touring internationally and domestically with the American Boychoir and singing 200+ concerts a year in venues from Carnegie Hall and Boston Symphony Hall to churches in rural communities whose zip code outnumbers their population. These formative years did more than just nurture Mendilow's love of harmony and of the performing arts. It also showed him, first hand, how high youth can rise when properly respected and supported by adults, a principle that remains vital to Mendilow's work as an educator. Today, Mendilow brings his finely crafted arrangements and stories to performing arts centers and cultural centers across a wide swathe of communities.  

Mendilow specializes in designing in-depth community engagement for performing arts organizations. He focuses on cultivating long-lasting connections between performing arts presenters and community leaders, from juvenile rehabilitation schools and urban K-12 schools to university campuses across the USA. Mendilow earned his Masters in Music, as well as certification in Dalcroze Education from the Longy School of Music, and is candidate for the Dalcroze License, the highest Dalcroze degree obtainable in North America. He directs the Dalcroze Music School of Boston, providing training in musicianship through purposeful movement for adults and children. 

Sofía Tosello, Voice
From Cordoba, Argentina, vocalist Sofia Tosello draws on her expertise in such Latin American Cancion traditions as Tango, Chacarera, Bolero, Son and Zamba to bring GME vocals alive with bold colours. Part of an exciting group of young transnational artists advancing change in Latin American song, Tosello performs and records worldwide with artists like Horacio “El Negro” Hernández, Alex Cuba, and Marta Gómez.  She is a teaching artist at performing arts organizations like NY’s Carnegie Hall and at universities from Reed College to the Swarnaboohmi Academy of Music in Chennai, India. Sofia has been with GME since 2012.

Chris Baum, Violin/Soundscape Design
Chris Baum is a contemporary violinist, composer, and educator who "ushers the violin into fresh sonic territory" (NPR). A pioneer of modern string technique, his strength lies in his versatility, consistently pushing boundaries while molding his playing to fit ensembles and genres often deemed unsuitable for the instrument. Trained in a demanding classical environment, Baum expanded his musical vocabulary at Berklee College of Music, where he graduated with honors,  studying under cellist Eugene Friesen, violinist Mimi Rabson, and composer Sheldon Mirowitz. Chris' growing list of credits include collaborations with Bent Knee, The Dear Hunter, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Dropkick Murphys, Amanda Palmer, Symmetry, Art Decade, Ben Levin, Jherek Bischoff, and the Video Game Orchestra, who recently featured him as a soloist at Boston’s Symphony Hall and on the ensemble's recent tours in China, Taiwan, and Japan. Chris has been with GME since 2014.