Caravan: the Faculty World Music Trio

Amir Milstein, flute
Jérôme Mouffe, guitarist
Salil Sachdev, percussionist

Caravan consists of flutist Amir Milstein, guitarist Jerome Mouffe, and composer and percussionist Salil Sachdev.

Jérôme Mouffe is a virtuoso guitarist from Belgium who has dazzled international audiences with his passionate and spontaneous playing. Jérôme has toured throughout the United States and Western Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. Recent performances include recitals for the Omni Concert Series in San Francisco, the New York Classical Guitar Society Second Sunday Series, the Guitar Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania, the MIT Little Kresge auditorium, the International Brussels Guitar Festival, and Boston GuitarFest, among others. In November 2009, Jérôme was invited to perform at the Agustin Barrios Mangore Festival in Brussels, where he shared the stage with his mentor, Eliot Fisk, in addition to performing his own solo recital at the prestigious Flagey concert hall. His performances were broadcast on Belgian national public radios Musiq3 and Klara. In March 2011, Jérôme performed Rodrigo’s celebrated Concierto de Aranjuez with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Sonora conducted by Hector Reyes, in Mexico.

In May 2012, Jérôme graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the New England Conservatory of Boston. His doctoral dissertation analyzes how collaboration between composer and soloist achieved an optimization of the guitar’s capabilities in Robert Beaser’s Guitar Concerto (2009). His other research interests include improvisation practices and operatic influences in early nineteenth century guitar repertoire. Jérôme was invited to teach master classes or lecture at various universities including San Jose State University (CA), University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (WI), Acadia University (Canada), Dalhousie University (Canada), University of Sonora (Mexico), and Music Conservatopia.

Jérôme has released his debut CD—Capriccio—on the VGo Recordings label in 2009. The album features early nineteenth century virtuoso Italian music. It includes caprices by Regondi, Legnani, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and transcriptions of Paganini’s famous violin capricci for solo guitar.

In addition to his career as a soloist, Jérôme is an active chamber music performer. He has performed with guitarists Eliot Fisk and Grisha Goryachev, flutist Benjamin Smolen, violinist Emil Altschuler, tenor Gregorio Rangel, and soprano Sarah-Luise Traubel. His Duo Musagète – founded with flutist Benjamin Smolen – won the New England Conservatory Honors Ensemble prize in fall 2008 and consequently performed a recital in Jordan Hall in Spring 2009.

Jérôme earned his Master of Music degree magna cum laude at 20 at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles, studying with Hugues Navez. He then earned a Postgraduate Diploma at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, studying with the renowned masters Eliot Fisk and Ricardo Gallen. He met and followed the master courses of numerous great musicians including David Russell, Angel Romero, Pepe Romero, Emmanuel Rossfelder, Joaquin Clerch, and Pavel Steidl, among others. He also studied flamenco with the Spanish guitarist Antonio Segura in Brussels.

Jérôme has recently joined the faculty at Bridgewater State University (MA) where he teaches a private guitar studio class, as well as general studies courses. Based in the Boston area, Jérôme maintains a private guitar studio made up of talented young guitarists and advanced adult players.

Israeli born flutist Amir Milstein has established his career in the world-music scene, founding acknowledged ensembles such as Bustan Abraham and Tucan Trio with which he has recorded and performed worldwide.
His musical background represents a variety of styles and cultures including classical, jazz, Mediterranean, Balkan and Latin music. He has led numerous ensembles and collaborated with world renowned artists such as Zakir Hussein, Tito Puente, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ross Daly, Omar Farouk Tekbilek, Armandinho Macedo, Theodosii Spasov and Mikhalis Nikoloudis, among others.

Amir has performed as a band leader in distinguished concert venues and festivals around the world, including The Royal Albert Hall, London; Carnegie Hall, NY; Teatre de La Ville, Paris; Cairo Opera House, Egypt; Montreal Jazz Festival, Canada; WOMAD festival, Reading, UK; Europa Plus Jazz Festival, St. Petersburg, Russia; Lille Opera House, France; Jerusalem Festival of Arts; Hong Kong Festival of Asian Arts; etc.
His flute playing is featured in over forty albums worldwide, collaborating with artists from different genres.

Amir has also collaborated with several choreographers, with whom he has composed for various dance groups, including the Israeli Flamenco Dance Company "Compas", Tanzquartier Wien, Austria, and has recently been a member of the experimental group "Sounds and Signs", which explores the interdisciplinary art of free improvisation in music and dance. In 2009 Amir co-composed, together with Grammy-Award-winner pianist Alon Yavnai, the soundtrack for the documentary film Democracy's Outpost.

As a music educator Amir has been a faculty member at Hed College of Contemporary Music in Tel Aviv, Israel since 2002. He has developed a music-education program for Karev Educational Foundation, and currently presents workshops and clinics at schools, colleges and universities including Berklee College of Music; Dartmouth College, NH; Berkeley University, CA; Harlem School of Music, NY; Middlebury College, VT; and Tel Aviv University, Israel. In 2003, he was nominated for the Excellence in Performance Award of the Israeli Culture Ministry, and in 2010 received a New England Conservatory Entrepreneurial Musicianship Grant.
Amir also presents an educational music program entitled "A World of Flutes", in which a collection of over a hundred woodwind instruments from around the world are introduced through live music, stories, and other interactive activities. The program is approved by the Newton Schools Creative Arts Committee, and presented in schools and Colleges.

Amir currently teaches flute and world music ensembles at the New England Conservatory and Northeastern University in Boston, and performs with a wide variety of musicians worldwide.

Salil Sachdev has composed music for the orchestra, percussion, piano, theater, voice, and electronic music. At BSU, he teaches music theory, form and analysis, introduction to world music, introduction to music of Africa, and directs the West African drumming ensemble, Khakatay. Additionally, he organizes the Annual World Music Festival at the university.

Salil’s interest in world music has taken him to India, Ireland and Africa. He has studied hand percussion (including West African Djembe drumming), the Bodhrán (Irish drum), and Solkattu, the rhythmic system of south India.

Salil is currently working towards making a series of documentary films on Indian folk music. In 2008, he completed a film on the music of the Sidis, an ethnic group of East African ancestry living in India since the last 800-900 years. Presently, he is making a film on the folk music of Rajasthan, a state in the northwest part of the country.

In 2011, he also completed a film on the traditional music of Mali, West Africa.

In addition to Caravan, Salil performs with The Lindsays (traditional Irish and contemporary music group), and is a member of Gui^HANGtar (duo performing compositions and arrangements inspired by traditional Vietnamese music and culture).

Last Modified: April 17, 2013