ABOUT US
Nief-Norf’s community is built on a rich history of innovative performances and deep artistic collaborations. With expertise honed over more than nineteen years of genre-defying projects, we are proud to serve creatives at every stage, from emerging artists to seasoned professionals. Our flagship event, the Nief-Norf Summer Festival, and our vibrant Knoxville community events are cornerstones of our commitment to both the local community and the exploration of 21st-century musicianship and artistry. Join us as we continue to shape the future of contemporary music through performance, collaboration, and community engagement.
MISSION
Nief-Norf's mission is fostering the advancement of innovative contemporary music through the collaboration of performers, composers, and scholars within immersive educational and artistic environments.
VISION
Nief-Norf envisions a world in which adventurous music thrives, artists are empowered to explore bold ideas, and communities connect through sound.
NIEF-NORF’S BEGINNING
Nief-Norf champions the creation and proliferation of new and experimental music in the southeast region primarily through its investment in concert production, local partnerships, education, outreach, and professional development. We have a rich history of commissioning and collaborating with various creators such as Michael Gordon, Wadada Leo Smith, Mark Applebaum, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and Alexandre Lunsqui, usually producing approximately fifteen concert events per season. We frequently partner with a variety of local venues for our Knoxville Concert Series and other events, including Ijams Nature Center, The Square Room, Jackson Terminal, and The Mill & Mine, as well as local businesses such as Lane Music, Other Hand Branding Co., the Joy of Music School, and Nothing Too Common. Nief-Norf also directly engages with the Knoxville community in collaborative endeavors such as hosting open performances of Phil Kline’s “roving sound installation” Unsilent Night every December, making regular appearances at the Knoxville Pride Festival, and frequently producing major events with our kindred spirits at Big Ears.
Nief-Norf distinguishes itself from other arts organizations in the southeast region by virtue of its annual summer festival, a robust opportunity for artistic and professional development that has produced dozens of concerts featuring hundreds of participants and over 500 contemporary works—including over 80 world premieres—throughout its ten-year history. The Nief-Norf Summer Festival is unique because of its multidisciplinary nucleus, coalescing performers, composers, and researchers under the same banner to collaborate and mutually enrich each others’ artistic perspectives and growth. In addition to staging nearly a dozen concert events and exhibitions each year, the festival also combines a diverse array of integrative pillars into its structure: an international call for scores, with winning composers receiving invitations for themselves and their work to be featured at the festival; a research summit, emphasizing a central artistic theme that is explored by the participants through the shared presentations, discussions, and performances of that repertoire; and a world premieres concert showcasing the original and collaborative works created by the festival participants.
Nief-Norf strives to keep its festival on the cutting edge of 21st century artistry by continually evolving its programs. Though it began as percussion-exclusive, over the years it has grown to include composers, researchers, all types of instrumentalists, vocalists, technologists, and composer/performers (our fastest growing addition to date). We believe it is this commitment to supporting our interrelated artistic community and rising to meet their ever-expanding needs that entices so many of our alumni to return year after year, concomitantly crafting their own unique artistic voices, vision, and creative endeavors.
NIEF-NORF STAFF
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Co-Artistic Director
GRAMMY-nominated oboist, educator, and curator Claire Chenette has been principal oboe with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra since 2014. Additionally, Claire performs in varied settings as a member of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Des Moines Metro Opera, Wild Up, and Nief Norf. Claire has been a regular guest with the San Diego, Pacific, and Chattanooga Symphonies and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, among others.
Claire is at home as a soloist performing concertos--from Mozart to Viet Cuong, as a teaching artist at institutions such as UNC School of the Arts and Oberlin Conservatory, and as a curator crafting collaborative interdisciplinary projects. An advocate for new music, Claire holds a position as a Contemporary Leader with the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, where she co-curates Lucerne Festival Forward and Lucerne Festival Academy. She has also been featured at cutting-edge venues such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, the New York Philharmonic’s Biennial, the Big Ears and Ojai Festivals, among others. Claire has spent her summers as a faculty member at the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Nief Norf Summer Festival, and the North Carolina Governor's School.
Claire also plays folk music and is passionate about interdisciplinary projects that blur genres and subvert traditional expectations of what classical music is and who it is for. Recent projects include collaboratively scoring the experiential theater production STYX Tours for Luzerner Theater, developing a lecture recital/live sauerkraut demo titled Culture is a Verb: Exploring the connections between fermentation, social change, and artistic practice, and writing a space rock musical about reproductive freedom on Planet Chattanooga.
VISIT CLAIRE’S WEBSITE
photo credit: Even Keel Photography for WildUp -
Executive Director
Alex Dally is a music and arts administrator with a passion for bringing people together through creativity, technology, and community-building. A percussionist turned multifaceted arts professional, she first found her love for performance and theatre through music. This passion led her to pursue a Music Business Administration major with minors in Theatre and Advertising/Public Relations at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
While at UT, Alex discovered a deep appreciation for technical theatre through her work at the Clarence Brown Theatre, where she specialized in sound and fly rail. Now, she can often be found backstage at productions around Knoxville, continuing her hands-on involvement in the performing arts.
Since 2022, Alex has played a key role on Nief-Norf’s administrative team, helping to grow its Summer Festival, expand artistic programming, and foster a thriving community of musicians and composers. Beyond the performing arts, she is the founder of a collaborative software consulting firm, where she helps organizations optimize their workflows and enhance digital collaboration. Whether working behind the scenes in music, theatre, or technology, Alex is dedicated to fostering sustainable, innovative, and connected communities. -
Co-Artistic Director
Abby Fisher is a percussionist and educator, focused on performing and supporting continued growth of new music, with expertise in contemporary and classical percussion. National and international performances include: Stony Brook University's TEDx, Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium, New Music Gathering, Big Ears Festival, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, One World Trade Center, Universidad de Guanajuato (Mexico), and at universities around the US. Abby is a co-founder of the percussion duo Fisher/Lau Project with Matthew Lau, and she regularly collaborates with composers and musicians on new works. In February 2025, she released her debut solo album 100 works in resonant aluminum by D. Edward Davis through CMNTX records.
Abby is a dedicated educator and serves as the Steven Hemphill Endowed Professor of Percussion, Assistant Professor of Percussion, and Director of Percussion Studies at Northern Arizona University. She currently serves as the President of the Arizona Percussive Arts Society chapter, and as a co-chair for the Percussive Arts Society Percussion Ensemble Committee. She is a member of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, NAU’s premier contemporary music group Ensemble Flageolet, and a regular performer and board member of the Interference Series, a non-profit Flagstaff-based organization dedicated to presenting experimental music.
Abby is supported by Marimba One, Black Swamp Percussion,Vic Firth, and Zildjian.VISIT ABBY’S WEBSITE
photo credit: Megan Ford-Fyffe
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Program & Community Associate
Jacob Koch is a percussionist who maintains a passion for sharing musical experiences through performance, education, and collaboration.
He is currently a member of the Contemporary Music D.M.A. Cohort at Bowling Green State University where he teaches applied percussion and coaches percussion ensemble, and assists with general music classes. Jacob has performed with the Firelands Symphony Orchestra, the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Choir, and the Toledo Choral Society. He has shared the stage with members of Bang on a Can All-Stars, Heartland Marimba Quartet, and Third Coast Percussion and has performed throughout the eastern United States and abroad in places like the Center for Mallet Percussion Research in Kutztown, PA, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville, the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Valencia, Spain, and the Plaça Mayor in Lliria, Spain.
Jacob serves as Program and Community Associate at Nief-Norf and percussion director at Rhythm in Blue, a DCI Soundsport ensemble under the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. -
Multimedia Associate
Austin Taylor (he/him) is a time-based video artist that focuses on the interconnectedness of dance, movement, music, and cinematography. Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, he works as a front ensemble coordinator and visual technician for a marching ensemble of young high school percussionists who compete in the ETPAA and WGI circuits. When he’s not there, he is at the University of Tennessee’s sporting events live broadcasting coverage to television and other streaming platforms. Many of these games were broadcasted on ESPN1, the biggest sports networking channel. He has worked a list of positions including producer, camera operator, audio mixer, etc. He has made a handful of short films, one of which was featured in the UTK Handheld Film Festival. Austin is dedicating in using his time-based artwork to inspire change within different communities.
NIEF-NORF CO-FOUNDERS
KERRY O’BRIEN
Co-Founder
ANDY BLISS
Co-Founder & Artistic Director Emeritus
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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ROSALIND HACKETT
PRESIDENT
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JOHN HABEL
SECRETARY
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LOUIS GROSS
TREASURER
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LEONARD BELLINGRATH
MEMBER
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LEON CHRISTION JR.
MEMBER