Joshua Layton -- Church Administrator
Josh was hired in October of 2010 during the final year of Rev. Joel Miller’s tenure with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo. Since then the position has been redefined and he has moved being an Office Manager, to being the Church Administrator.
From 2000 to 2012 he worked as a District Manager and Service Desk Coordinator at The Buffalo News as both a full time and part time employee at various times. From 2000 to 2006 he served one enlistment contract in the US Marine Corps serving in various capacities to include one overseas deployment from July 2004 to March 2005 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
He has a BS degree in Business Administration from the University at Buffalo School of Management.
He lives in the suburb of Tonawanda located just north of Buffalo. He is happily married to a member of the church and they have a daughter.
From 2000 to 2012 he worked as a District Manager and Service Desk Coordinator at The Buffalo News as both a full time and part time employee at various times. From 2000 to 2006 he served one enlistment contract in the US Marine Corps serving in various capacities to include one overseas deployment from July 2004 to March 2005 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
He has a BS degree in Business Administration from the University at Buffalo School of Management.
He lives in the suburb of Tonawanda located just north of Buffalo. He is happily married to a member of the church and they have a daughter.
Sonja Jensen, Outgoing Religious Educator
Our Full-time Director of Lifespan Faith Development, Sonja Jensen, is a Credentialed Religious Educator who sees her work with us as a calling.
She has been a professional religious educator since 2007 and a volunteer Unitarian Universalist RE teacher and committee member for 10 years before that. She enjoys creating a warm and supportive as well as challenging environment for people to actively search for what best articulates their spiritual truths.
Her leadership and administrative skills were developed through her B.S. in Accounting from SUNY Oswego in 1989 and personal development through organizations such as Toastmasters International, Partners in Policymaking, La Leche League and Jowonio School, the Syracuse University Advocacy Board, and Move-On.
She has been an accountant, educator, organizer and an activist in Disability Rights, GLBTQ rights, and the rights of nursing mothers to feed their children wherever others are welcome to eat. And is also a Licensed Massage Therapist (the qualifications least used in her work as a DRE) which was her second job when she worked part time in Religious Education.
This eclectic development gives her many creative lenses with which to synthesize her approach to Lifespan Faith Development and to view the systems that underlie the church program. She enjoys working with individuals and groups of all ages and particularly enjoys the “aha” moments when people have new insights that can sometimes be life changing.
Trained in the UUA’s “Our Whole Lives” program she also promotes the importance of people of all ages having access to age-appropriate research based sexuality education.
She is a proponent of shared ministry and is an institution builder who believes that the power and influence of an organization grows exponentially when people are paired with their passions and empowered to take ownership in the parts of the program that they are most excited about.
At home she is a partner to Daniel, who is a nurse and retired Army Apache Aircraft Technical inspector; and the mother to their four children ranging in ages from 11- 21 years old. As a mother she has supported children with Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, AD/HD and transgender transition. Her oldest two children are in college for Computational Math and Game Design and Development. She is a leadership development and self-help geek, enjoys reading, knitting, and amateur musical performance (having grown up the daughter of two country music singers) and playing board games with her family.
She has been a professional religious educator since 2007 and a volunteer Unitarian Universalist RE teacher and committee member for 10 years before that. She enjoys creating a warm and supportive as well as challenging environment for people to actively search for what best articulates their spiritual truths.
Her leadership and administrative skills were developed through her B.S. in Accounting from SUNY Oswego in 1989 and personal development through organizations such as Toastmasters International, Partners in Policymaking, La Leche League and Jowonio School, the Syracuse University Advocacy Board, and Move-On.
She has been an accountant, educator, organizer and an activist in Disability Rights, GLBTQ rights, and the rights of nursing mothers to feed their children wherever others are welcome to eat. And is also a Licensed Massage Therapist (the qualifications least used in her work as a DRE) which was her second job when she worked part time in Religious Education.
This eclectic development gives her many creative lenses with which to synthesize her approach to Lifespan Faith Development and to view the systems that underlie the church program. She enjoys working with individuals and groups of all ages and particularly enjoys the “aha” moments when people have new insights that can sometimes be life changing.
Trained in the UUA’s “Our Whole Lives” program she also promotes the importance of people of all ages having access to age-appropriate research based sexuality education.
She is a proponent of shared ministry and is an institution builder who believes that the power and influence of an organization grows exponentially when people are paired with their passions and empowered to take ownership in the parts of the program that they are most excited about.
At home she is a partner to Daniel, who is a nurse and retired Army Apache Aircraft Technical inspector; and the mother to their four children ranging in ages from 11- 21 years old. As a mother she has supported children with Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, AD/HD and transgender transition. Her oldest two children are in college for Computational Math and Game Design and Development. She is a leadership development and self-help geek, enjoys reading, knitting, and amateur musical performance (having grown up the daughter of two country music singers) and playing board games with her family.
Daniel Bassin, Music Director
Daniel Bassin is Music Director of the University at Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, a position he began in autumn 2010, and the recently-appointed Music Director/Choir Conductor at Buffalo’s historic Unitarian Universalist Church. An active conductor, composer, trumpeter, improviser, and pedagogue, Daniel has performed in 37 countries and 28 US states, and came to Buffalo after working for five seasons with the American Symphony Orchestra in New York City. A New York native, Daniel received his initial training at the Juilliard Pre-College, before being invited by Maestro Benjamin Zander to attend his course at the London Master Classes and assist in performances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, after which he was subsequently awarded a fellowship to apprentice with Zander and his Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.
In Boston, Daniel was accepted to the New England Conservatory as a composer, where he also studied trumpet with Boston Symphony Orchestra principal trumpeter, Charles Schuleter, and conducting with Richard Hoenich. His education continued with a Masters of Fine Arts in Orchestral Conducting at Bard College, studying with Maestro Harold Farberman, and he received the PhD in Music Composition at UB in the spring of 2014. In May 2013, Daniel participated in Ensemble Linea’s conducting master classes in France, at the Royaumont Abbey, under the tutelage of Peter Eötvös and Jean-Philippe Wurtz. There he was selected by the faculty and ensemble to lead Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kontra-Punkta in the culminating performance of the course. He attended the inaugural Harold Rosenbaum Conducting Institute in Buffalo, in the summer of 2014. A passionate advocate of the music of our time and neglected repertoire, Daniel has led first performances of over 100 new works, and he has also presented more than 30 Buffalo-area first performances.
In 2008 he acted as assistant conductor for the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s 16-city tour of the American West Coast and Midwest. In April 2012, Daniel had his debut as conductor of Buffalo’s professional contemporary music chamber orchestra, the Slee Sinfonietta, leading a performance of world premieres by Buffalo composers. Later that year he was featured guest conductor for the Williamsville School District String Orchestra Festival. He then conducted the UB Percussion Ensemble at the 2012 June in Buffalo Festival and returned to lead the Slee Sinfonietta in performance of Stockhausen, Feldman, Murail, and Lutosławski that autumn. During the 2012 John Cage centennial celebrations in Buffalo, Daniel performed works as a trumpeter and conductor, and also as an actor, giving several performances of Cage’s 45’ for a Speaker. In early 2013 he led Buffalo celebrations of the centenary of Polish master composer, Witold Lutosławski, featuring lecture/performance chamber concerts, and the Buffalo-premiere performance of that composer’s 1970 Cello Concerto, with the students of the University at Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, Tyler Borden, soloist. In November 2013, Daniel had the honor of conducting the music of his teacher, David Felder, as part of an A Musical Feast concert honoring Felder’s 60th birthday, in celebration of Felder’s works and lasting contributions to the cultural life of Buffalo. He later returned to A Musical Feast in early 2014 as trumpet soloist in Morton Feldman’s late, A Very Short Trumpet Piece (1984).
Bassin’s work at UB has been featured several times Buffalo’s ArtVoice Classical Music Notes column, by Jan Jezioro, who has recently proclaimed: “It’s now official: Daniel Bassin is the most innovative music director that the UB Symphony Orchestra has ever had as its leader,” and “Daniel Bassin… consistently programs some of the most innovated classical music in Western New York.” During the 2013-2014 UB Symphony season, Daniel launched A Year of Shakespeare-in-Music, in honor of the 450th anniversary of The Bard, presenting programs of orchestral masterpieces alongside rare and less familiar symphonic works, all inspired by Shakespeare’s legacy. His first season as Music Director of the UUCB Choir featured the Buffalo-premiere performances of Kyle Gann’s Transcendental Sonnets (2001-2) and Fanny (Mendelssohn) Hensel’s 1831 cantata, Hiob (“Job”).
The 2014-2015 season featured Bassin’s debut as guest conductor of the Amherst Symphony Orchestra, in a Beethoven and Copland program. In November 2014, Daniel led performances of writer/director Douglas Fitch’s inaugural WBFO Visiting Arts Professor project, How Did We…? at UB’s Center for the Arts. The UBSO season highlights the influence of Beethoven on later generations of Romantic composers, and the UUCB Choir season repertoire includes JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Part I, and the Buffalo-area premieres of Anton Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E-minor and Kurt Weill’s Ballad of Magna Carta.
Daniel’s compositions have been performed by the Arditti String Quartet, Swedish guitar virtuoso Magnus Andersson, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Talujon Percussion, Norrbotten NEO, Ensemble Court-circuit, the Slee Sinfonietta and others. Current commissions include Song for solo Viola d’Amore, based on the biblical Song of Songs, for Italian string virtuoso, Marco Fusi, and Opera! for solo trumpet and drum set, will be premiered by Daniel and Rochester-based percussionist, Aaron Staebell, during the [null-point] concert series in Buffalo’s Silo City, in June of 2015.
In Boston, Daniel was accepted to the New England Conservatory as a composer, where he also studied trumpet with Boston Symphony Orchestra principal trumpeter, Charles Schuleter, and conducting with Richard Hoenich. His education continued with a Masters of Fine Arts in Orchestral Conducting at Bard College, studying with Maestro Harold Farberman, and he received the PhD in Music Composition at UB in the spring of 2014. In May 2013, Daniel participated in Ensemble Linea’s conducting master classes in France, at the Royaumont Abbey, under the tutelage of Peter Eötvös and Jean-Philippe Wurtz. There he was selected by the faculty and ensemble to lead Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kontra-Punkta in the culminating performance of the course. He attended the inaugural Harold Rosenbaum Conducting Institute in Buffalo, in the summer of 2014. A passionate advocate of the music of our time and neglected repertoire, Daniel has led first performances of over 100 new works, and he has also presented more than 30 Buffalo-area first performances.
In 2008 he acted as assistant conductor for the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra’s 16-city tour of the American West Coast and Midwest. In April 2012, Daniel had his debut as conductor of Buffalo’s professional contemporary music chamber orchestra, the Slee Sinfonietta, leading a performance of world premieres by Buffalo composers. Later that year he was featured guest conductor for the Williamsville School District String Orchestra Festival. He then conducted the UB Percussion Ensemble at the 2012 June in Buffalo Festival and returned to lead the Slee Sinfonietta in performance of Stockhausen, Feldman, Murail, and Lutosławski that autumn. During the 2012 John Cage centennial celebrations in Buffalo, Daniel performed works as a trumpeter and conductor, and also as an actor, giving several performances of Cage’s 45’ for a Speaker. In early 2013 he led Buffalo celebrations of the centenary of Polish master composer, Witold Lutosławski, featuring lecture/performance chamber concerts, and the Buffalo-premiere performance of that composer’s 1970 Cello Concerto, with the students of the University at Buffalo Symphony Orchestra, Tyler Borden, soloist. In November 2013, Daniel had the honor of conducting the music of his teacher, David Felder, as part of an A Musical Feast concert honoring Felder’s 60th birthday, in celebration of Felder’s works and lasting contributions to the cultural life of Buffalo. He later returned to A Musical Feast in early 2014 as trumpet soloist in Morton Feldman’s late, A Very Short Trumpet Piece (1984).
Bassin’s work at UB has been featured several times Buffalo’s ArtVoice Classical Music Notes column, by Jan Jezioro, who has recently proclaimed: “It’s now official: Daniel Bassin is the most innovative music director that the UB Symphony Orchestra has ever had as its leader,” and “Daniel Bassin… consistently programs some of the most innovated classical music in Western New York.” During the 2013-2014 UB Symphony season, Daniel launched A Year of Shakespeare-in-Music, in honor of the 450th anniversary of The Bard, presenting programs of orchestral masterpieces alongside rare and less familiar symphonic works, all inspired by Shakespeare’s legacy. His first season as Music Director of the UUCB Choir featured the Buffalo-premiere performances of Kyle Gann’s Transcendental Sonnets (2001-2) and Fanny (Mendelssohn) Hensel’s 1831 cantata, Hiob (“Job”).
The 2014-2015 season featured Bassin’s debut as guest conductor of the Amherst Symphony Orchestra, in a Beethoven and Copland program. In November 2014, Daniel led performances of writer/director Douglas Fitch’s inaugural WBFO Visiting Arts Professor project, How Did We…? at UB’s Center for the Arts. The UBSO season highlights the influence of Beethoven on later generations of Romantic composers, and the UUCB Choir season repertoire includes JS Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Part I, and the Buffalo-area premieres of Anton Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E-minor and Kurt Weill’s Ballad of Magna Carta.
Daniel’s compositions have been performed by the Arditti String Quartet, Swedish guitar virtuoso Magnus Andersson, the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Talujon Percussion, Norrbotten NEO, Ensemble Court-circuit, the Slee Sinfonietta and others. Current commissions include Song for solo Viola d’Amore, based on the biblical Song of Songs, for Italian string virtuoso, Marco Fusi, and Opera! for solo trumpet and drum set, will be premiered by Daniel and Rochester-based percussionist, Aaron Staebell, during the [null-point] concert series in Buffalo’s Silo City, in June of 2015.
Su Lee, Organist/Accompanist
Influenced by her love of cultures, Su Lee spent her younger years traveling around Canada and other countries playing in rock, metal, and funk bands, which extended her musical views and opened her eyes to an unfamiliar world. Since 2000 she has worked as an accompanist at regular worship services and seasonal special concerts in Korea and Germany.
After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in music composition, she became serious about new music and decided to study in Germany to experience the avant-garde style of music in Europe. During her studies, her works were performed in various countries including Germany, Italy, and Korea and commissioned by major ensembles such as “ensemble recherche” and “ensemble musikFabrik.” She has taken part in international courses with Brian Ferneyhough, Wolfgang Rihm, and Manos Tsangaris. She has won several prizes, including the international composition competition of the Conservatory of Milan (2012) and Kazimierz Serocki International composers’ competition, ISCM Polish Section (2013).
Su Lee is particularly interested in social phenomena such as politics, history, literature, and culture and tries to connect the message of conflict in society with musical words. Her recent works have been criticisms of the current President of Korea and the glorification of Japanese culture.
Originally from Pusan, Korea, Su Lee holds a B.M. degree from Pusan National University, Korea (under Prof. Sooran Jeong) and a M.M. degree from Folkwang Universität der Künste, Germany (under Prof. Günter Steinke). She currently lives in Buffalo, NY, where she is studying for her Ph.D. in music theory and composition at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (under Prof. David Felder).
After obtaining her Bachelor’s degree in music composition, she became serious about new music and decided to study in Germany to experience the avant-garde style of music in Europe. During her studies, her works were performed in various countries including Germany, Italy, and Korea and commissioned by major ensembles such as “ensemble recherche” and “ensemble musikFabrik.” She has taken part in international courses with Brian Ferneyhough, Wolfgang Rihm, and Manos Tsangaris. She has won several prizes, including the international composition competition of the Conservatory of Milan (2012) and Kazimierz Serocki International composers’ competition, ISCM Polish Section (2013).
Su Lee is particularly interested in social phenomena such as politics, history, literature, and culture and tries to connect the message of conflict in society with musical words. Her recent works have been criticisms of the current President of Korea and the glorification of Japanese culture.
Originally from Pusan, Korea, Su Lee holds a B.M. degree from Pusan National University, Korea (under Prof. Sooran Jeong) and a M.M. degree from Folkwang Universität der Künste, Germany (under Prof. Günter Steinke). She currently lives in Buffalo, NY, where she is studying for her Ph.D. in music theory and composition at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York (under Prof. David Felder).