Composer Chats

Zemlinsky Prize winner and eight-time winner of The American Prize, composer Martin Hebel (b.1990) works at the intersection of music, advocacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration, responding to global challenges with socially-conscious music to spark positive change and strengthen communities. Hebel was inducted as Honored Artist of The American Prize in 2025.Hebel’s Uplifting Unheard Voices project, an international initiative pursuing humanitarian advocacy through music, amplifies words of refugees he interviewed with a series of new compositions to motivate listeners to end conflicts refugees flee. With support from the Presser Foundation’s Graduate Music Award, he interviewed refugees fleeing conflicts in Africa, Ukraine, and the Middle East, facilitated by refugee agencies, community advocates, and guidance from the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section.Hebel’s music has been performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as a winner of the American Composers Orchestra EarShot program, and by Columbus Symphony in Ohio, Riverside Symphony in NYC, Filharmonie Brno in the Czech Republic, and the Lincoln Trio, among others, at renowned venues across the U.S. and Europe including NYC’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cincinnati Music Hall, and the Ohio Theater in Columbus, Ohio.With discography published by Ablaze Records, Centaur Records, and the USAF Band of the Golden West, Hebel’s portfolio includes orchestral and wind ensemble works, instrumental and vocal chamber music, choral music, multimedia compositions, and collaborations with other artists.Martin Hebel earned his DMA in composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2021 and his MM in 2018. He graduated with honors from the University of Connecticut in 2015 with degrees in composition and trumpet.Martin Hebel currently serves as Lecturer of Composition and Music Theory at the University of North Alabama in Florence, AL, USA. During the summer, Hebel serves as Instructor of Music Theory in the Summer Arts Camp at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, MI, USA.PRO Membership: ASCAP - American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishershttps://www.martinhebel.com

My name is Eric Lane Barnes. I am a composer, writer, lyricist, pianist, director, conductor, performer, teacher, and advocate for LGBTQ rights.I live to explore all the ways music can connect people with themselves, with one another, and with the world around them.https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-museum-of-really-interesting-things1https://www.ericlanebarnes.com

Evan VanDoren is an in-demand music composer regularly commissioned to create engaging & award-winning music for marching bands and concert ensembles at all skill levels. Evan’s music is regularly performed around the country, including premiere performances at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. In 2025, Evan was recognized as a National Finalist for The American Prize in Composition for his works, Luminosities & Prophetic Dances. Evan serves as the brass composer & arranger for the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps, based in Santa Clara, California. Additionally, Evan is an active clinician and has presented for Drum Corps International, the Music Educators National Convention, the Texas Bandmasters Association, the Texas Music Educators Association, and Music for All. He regularly consults with music programs nationwide.Before devoting his life to creating music, Evan was a band director at Cedar Park High School in Cedar Park, Texas. During that time, the band was awarded multiple marching state championships and national recognition. He received a Bachelor's in Music Education with Honors from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Currently, he lives in Cedar Park, Texas, with his wife, Katie, daughters Anna & Sara, and their dog, Cooper.https://www.evanvandoren.com

Mark Simpson (b. 1988) is a UK-based composer of an acclaimed body of work and an internationally-renowned clarinettist, whose programmes champion music new and old. His music for the stage, orchestra, voices, and chamber forces has been celebrated by leading conductors, instrumentalists, and ensembles ; across a myriad of forms, poetic intensity is matched by technical assurance and expressive generosity.Much of Simpson’s music takes place after dark. When Simpson finished his chamber opera Pleasure the clock read five am. Pleasure is set in the toilets of a gay nightclub. In that nocturnal space confessions are made and lives come into focus; it sees Simpson unleash music of mystery and abandon by turns. Night Music was the title of a taut and elusive disc of chamber works released in 2016 on NMC.The somnolent world of dream and hallucination has shaped numerous pieces: Israfel for orchestra comes from the candle-burning poetry of Edgar Allan Poe; two works under the title Darkness Moves - for clarinet (2016) and horn (2024) respectively - take their names from the hallucinogenic imagination of Henri Michaux. The Immortal , an oratorio, finds a creative wellspring in the induced trances of Victorian mediums and occultists, who drew the curtains, lit the candles, and tried to channel the spirit world. Simpson has long come alive at night - as a youngster in Liverpool attending concerts at the Philharmonic Hall he sneaked into the Royal Box with his friends after the house lights went down. Listening to his music is not far from taking his hand in a séance.As the first ever winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year prizes in 2006, Simpson’s career has always reflected the indivisibility of his composing and performing selves. This national acclaim led to a precocious Wigmore Hall debut, as well as his first major works as a composer, now published worldwide by Boosey & Hawkes. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Oxford, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Julian Anderson.A stint as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award-winner followed, succeeded in turn by a position as BBC Philharmonic Composer-in-Association. He composed sparks for the 2012 Last Night of the Proms. A debut chamber opera Pleasure (2016), to a libretto by Melanie Challenger, was commissioned by Opera North, Britten-Pears Arts, and the Royal Opera House.Israfel premiered with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Litton in 2014. The 12-minute piece evokes a Koranic angel imagined by Edgar Allan Poe, whose heart strings are a lute and who sings with the utmost sweetness. It captures Simpson’s fascination with the otherworldly, and, as its subject is a lyre, recalls Orpheus, the source of all music. “I wanted to write a piece that sang, floated, morphed, moved, moved us, lifted us, had power, had fragility, had hope, uncertainty, beauty”, Simpson writes. Its opening sets out the liquid transformations and elevated sensuality that preoccupy his work.Whilst his music searches out transcendental territories, Simpson’s demotic opera Pleasure turns back to the guts of the world. The touring debut production, directed by Tim Albery, saw Lesley Garrett play a toilet cleaner in a gay nightclub who sees, channels, and sings the largest of feelings, meeting a pair of lost souls and a ketchup-covered drag queen. “It turns out to be the perfect operatic subject”, Alfred Hickling wrote in The Guardian, “squalid and earthbound yet imbued with a radiant, almost mythic quality.” It received its German premiere in 2023 at Theater Erfurt.Simpson’s tone poem A mirror-fragment (2008), written for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, was his first exploration of Melanie Challenger’s writing, inspired by the opening poem of her collection Galatea. At 11 minutes, A mirror-fragment opens concerts rather than collections of poetry, and captures a style that is both nervily present and plugged into the depthless, mythic past. It was unfinished artistic business. Simpsons suggested the scenario for Pleasure the first night they met - another nocturnal mission.The Immortal arose in turn. Commissioned by the Manchester International Festival and premiered by the BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Chamber Choir, EXAUDI, and baritone Mark Stone, it is is an anguished forty minute span, drawing on texts from the Society of Psychical Research, showing the contortions of the spirit as it confronts the abyss of mortality; The Guardian called it an “anti-Gerontius”. Its ‘Lachrymosa’ sees strings and voices wrung out as exhausted tears flow, before a wounded baritone solo. It won the Southbank Sky Arts Award for classical music in 2016. The same searching quality belongs to his motet Ave Maria (2016), written for ORA Singers, and featured on their album Stella - fitful music of a sleepless consciousness.Simpson’s Cello Concerto (2016-18), written for Leonard Elschenbroich and the BBC Philharmonic, follows a recognisable fast-slow-fast pattern, but, like The Immortal, leans on achingly expressive unfurling melodic lines from the soloist, offering music that is both emotionally compelling as well as mysterious. The Times called it "airborne, kaleidoscopic, swirling with life..contemporary music with a pulsing heart…irresistible”.A Violin Concerto followed in 2021. At 38 minutes it is among Simpson’s most substantive orchestral statements, and its five-movement structure gives the concerto a symphonic richness and complexity in the handling of its material. It is “full-on, big-hearted…a delirious outpouring” (The Scotsman); the Financial Times called it “a concerto that will blow the mind”. The emotional effusiveness that struck reviewers all takes place within a keenly wrought structure. It is a ruthlessly inventive and virtuosic tour de force for its champion Nicola Benedetti, who debuted the work with the London Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda in spring 2021. It was co-commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and has since appeared at the Concertgebouw and Usher Hall.The emotional range across its five interlocking parts shows Simpson’s expressive confidence and open-heartedness. “If a concert really grabs me”, Simpson said in an interview, “I can feel the part of my brain that’s on fire”. The tarantella finale of the concerto must’ve been composed with this in mind. It’s a roof-raising final peroration, swept along by castanets, that also turns back towards the lamentation and introspection that began the work.“It’s music that’s pitched at a level of sustained emotional intensity”, Tom Service wrote of Simpson’s work in The Guardian, “a heightened, dangerous, disorienting place where Simpson wants to take his listeners.” This is exemplified in Ariel (2009), one selection from an outstanding body of chamber compositions. Scored for the same instruments as Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, with textural nuance provided by basset clarinet, it takes its title and energies from Slyvia Plath. The 15-minute work has a tender melodic motif at its heart, which appears in fractured and partial ways. Its final minutes see it realised in an intense and sensuous release, before dissolving and collapsing into darkness again.Plath’s poem ends by looking at the sun - a “cauldron of morning”. Simpson’s Geysir for wind ensemble, composed as a companion work to Mozart’s “Gran Partita” Serenade, is a cooking vessel all of its own. An award-winning recording released on Orchid Classics, it draws on Mozart’s...

Dr. Kira Zeeman Rugen is a composer, conductor, academic professor, and professional soprano from Scottsdale, Arizona. Kira currently serves as the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities as a residential faculty member at Scottsdale Community College. Now in her twenty-eighth year as a music educator, she conducts Concert Choir and ArtieVox (Jazz Vocal Ensemble) at Scottsdale Community College and is the music director for Musical Theater. Previously, she worked as the Director of Choral Activities and Musical Director for Musical Theater at Arizona Christian University. Before that, she worked at Grand Canyon University, teaching Music History, Conducting, and Fundamentals of Music and Culture for Diverse Learners. As a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University, Kira conducted Choral Union, a 100+-member community choir, and Schola Cantorum, a SATB choir, predominantly for music majors. ​As a composer, Kira’s choral compositions (found at the Fred Bock Group/Gentry Publications and MusicSpoke.com, Sheet Music Plus, Direct Music Plus, and JW Pepper) have been performed worldwide. She is a 2022 winner in the HerVoice Music Composition Competition in Chicago and was mentored by Chen Yi as a part of that prize. She was recently named the 3rd Place Winner in The American Prize, professional choral composition division, an Honorary Mention for The American Prize pops division, and a multi-finalist for The American Prize and the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for Performance of American Music competition. Kira’s choral compositions have been featured and commissioned by ensembles such as Vancouver Youth Chorus under Carrie Tennant, AdVocem in Poland under Michael Malec, Resonance of Singapore conducted by Toh Ban Sheng, Phoenix Children’s Chorus under Troy Meeker, Phoenix Boys Chorus under Herbert Washington, Reveille Men’s Chorus under Keith Koster, Chandler Children’s Chorus under Aimee Stewart, Northwest Oklahoma State University Singers under Dr. Karsten Longhurst, CU Boulder Chamber Singers under Dr. Greg Gentry, THE CHORAL PROJECT under Daniel Hughes, Cor Cantiamo under Dr. Eric Johnson, Phoenix Chamber Choir under Dr. Nicholle Andrews, Kansas City Chorale under Charles Bruffy, Orpheus Men’s Choir under Dr. Brook Larson, Pinnacle Presbyterian’s Chancel Choir under Dr. Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler, Carolyn Eynon Singers, Phoenix Chorale under Christopher Gabbitas and the Master Chorale of Flagstaff under Dr. Tom Peterson. In November 2017, Kira traveled to France to conduct the premiere of her composition, Saint-Brieuc Magnificat, with the Saint-Brieuc Cathedral Children and Youth Choir. Under the direction of their conductor, Goulven Airault, the choir went on to perform the work for the Pueri Cantors in Congrès de Barcelone and on tour in the cathedrals Saint-Malo de Dinan, Sainte-Croix de Sant Malo, Saint-Martin de Janze, Saint Sauveur La Rochelle, Sanctuaire de Rocamadour, and Castell de Callonge. Kira truly enjoys her work as a film composer, and her film scores have won awards at over fifty worldwide film festivals. Kira is the Artistic Director and founder of Solis - Choir of the Sun, a professional choir. Initially composed of ASU students, Kira transformed the group from an amateur collegiate choir into a fully paid professional vocal ensemble in the Phoenix area. Now in their fifteenth season, Solis collaborations include high-profile performances with Andrea Bocelli in Live Concert, The Eagles Hotel California Tour, Zelda, Symphony of the Goddesses, Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, plus performing with composer Ramin Djawadi for the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience. Additionally, they have performed with Irish band The Chieftains and were invited to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Conference in Pasadena, California. Solis continues to perform throughout the valley in local arts concert series, focusing primarily on early music and contemporary choral premieres. In addition to her work as a conductor and composer, Kira has amassed extensive experience as a soprano soloist. She is noted as having an “angelic and supple” and “haunting” sound. She has performed with Norvis Early Music in Durham, England; at Carnegie Hall’s Young Artist Concert Series under Ton Koopman; at Korea’s Incheon International Choral Festival; and she toured with Anúna (Ireland’s National Choir) under Michael McGlynn throughout Ireland, Japan and China. Kira is a soloist on the album, From Graceful Fields, released by Canyon Records, featuring the eleven-time Grammy Award nominee, R. Carlos Nakai, on Native American flute. She sang for several seasons with Arizona Opera and Utah Opera. Kira is in her 21st season as a soprano with the Phoenix Chorale, with whom she has won two Grammy Awards. Kira is a soloist on their Spotless Rose album, which won a Grammy for Best Small Ensemble in February 2009. Kira sang on the Phoenix Chorale’s albums Northern Lights and Rachmaninoff’s All-Night-Vigil, which won the Grammy for Best Choral Performance in February 2016. Kira is also the featured soloist on their album Eternal Rest, a recording on the Chandos label. Kira has performed as a soloist in the Phoenix Chorale's concerts at ACDA conventions in Salt Lake City, Seattle, Kansas City’s Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, and in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. She received a favorable mention in the New York Times in a review for the NYC concerts. Additionally, she sang on the Phoenix Chorale’s recent Signum Records albums, Sun, Moon, Stars, and Rain, and her arrangement of “The Wexford Carol” was recorded on their release, The Christmas Album.​Starting in 1998, Kira taught high school choir and orchestra in the Phoenix area for six years. Then, she served as the children and youth choir director for eleven years at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in North Scottsdale. Kira received her Bachelor of Arts at Weber State University in 1998 where she studied choral conducting, viola performance and vocal performance under Dr. Mark Henderson. She earned her Master’s in Music Education with an emphasis in Vocal Performance at Arizona State University in 2002 under Dr. George Umberson. She then graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting and a cognate in Vocal Performance at Arizona State University in May 2013 under Dr. Gregory Gentry.https://www.kirarugen.com

Olympia, Washington based composer Dawn Sonntag’s music has been called “hauntingly lyrical,” “profound,” and “freshly relevant.” Her works have been performed by ensembles and soloists across the U.S. and in Europe, including Burning River Baroque, the Delgani Quartet, the Ensign Chorus and Orchestra in Seattle, the Cleveland Chamber Chorus, the Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, the Cleveland Opera Theater, and many more.Her art songs have been widely performed in recital and are included in recordings by sopranos Michelle Murray Viertek (Every Tiny Thing) and Megan Ihnen (Currents in Time) and by Burning River Baroque duo Malina Rauschenfels and Paula Most, who commissioned the cycle Loves Poems in the Time of Climate Change. Her music has been broadcast on public radio in Ohio and Oregon and is published by Carl Fischer, North Star Music, and Dagny Press.ased on the true story East Prussian refugees during World War II, Sonntag’s first opera, Verlorene Heimat (Lost Homeland), was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2021 American Prize for Opera, Musical Theater, Dance, and Film composition. Her opera For Life, with a libretto by Harvard-trained psychologist Kermit Cole, was commissioned for the Cleveland Opera’s Operas in Place Festival, which won the 2023 Opera America Award for Digital Excellence in Artistic Creation.Sonntag was selected as the Commissioned Composer of the Year for the Music Teachers National Association state chapters in both Ohio (2010) and Washington State (2021). She won the Inge Pitler Prize for lied performance in both piano (1998) and voice (1999). As winner of the Kenwood Symphony Masters Concerto and Aria competition in Minneapolis, she performed the orchestrated art songs of Edvard Grieg.Sonntag has been the recipient of an American-Scandinavian Foundation grant; a Foreign Language Area Studies fellowship to study advanced Norwegian in Oslo, Norway; and a Swedish government international cultural fellowship as a resident composer at the International Centre for Composers in Visby, Sweden.She has conducted college, university, community, and church choirs across the U.S. and in Germany and Norway, including the Heidelberg International Choir; the Chor des Collegium Artium in Heidelberg; the Oslo International Summer School Choir; the Leif Eriksson International Choir in Minneapolis; and the Hiram College Chamber Singers and Western Reserve Women’s Chorus, which she founded. Sonntag has also conducted orchestral works as a participant in European conducting master classes in Berlin and Bacau, Rumania.Sonntag holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Minnesota, where she studied composition with Alex Lubet, voice with Wendy Zaro, and choral conducting with Kathy Salzman Romey. She received her Master of Music at Ohio State University under the tutelage of Hilary Apfelstadt, conducting, Eileen Davis, voice, and Seymour Fink, piano.A self-taught pianist until the age of eighteen, she began studying trumpet at age nine. She completed most of her undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, studying trumpet with Wayne Cook, piano with Armand Basile, voice performance with Yolanda Marculescu, and collaborative piano with Jeffrey Peterson, counterpoint with John Downey, and choral arranging with Yehuda Yanay while working as a pianist for the Milwaukee Ballet, conducting church choirs, and teaching privately. After relocating to San Antonio and then El Paso, Texas, she completed her Bachelor of Music in voice performance at the University of Texas at El Paso.Currently Sonntag is Director of Music at Westminster Presbyterian Church and a teaches music composition at Pacific Lutheran University. She has served on the faculties of Gonzaga University, where she taught music theory and composition; the University of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she taught music theory and accompanied the choir; and Hiram College, where she served as Department Chair for several years and taught composition, theory, private lessons in voice, piano, and composition, music history, music entrepreneurship, study abroad courses, and conducted the choirs. She also held graduate teaching assistantships at the University of Minnesota and the Ohio State University. In Germany, she taught English as a Second Language at several language schools, including the Volkshochschule Heidelberg and the Heidelberg Institut für Fremdsprache. She also has extensive experience as a church musician.In addition to her activities as a composer and performer, Sonntag has been actively involved in environmental and human rights advocacy. Her successful battle to stop a Washington State commission from building a mega airport in rural Western Washington is described in her forthcoming book, Nothing but Trees. She is an avid hiker, cyclist, and kayaker.https://dawnsonntag.com

Jason Nitsch’s music is equally at home on the concert stage, in outdoor venues, and streaming online, reaching the broadest audience of musicians, performers, and music enthusiasts possible. As a composer dedicated to the exploration of new ideas, his music has evolved over a 25-year career to incorporate more and more non-traditional elements, such as effect tracks, sound drops, and enveloping electroacoustic works combining live and pre-recorded elements. Much of his work is rooted in a large ensemble context; his wind ensemble works have received thousands of performances throughout the US including at Midwest, State Music Conferences including Texas, Colorado, and Kentucky Music Educators Associations, Colleges and Universities like Baylor University, the University of North Texas, and Syracuse University, and at other regional music festivals (ITEA).In recent years Jason has focused on more intimate chamber musical settings, including collaborations with solo musicians such as trumpeter Kate Amrine , Cellist Carolyn Regula (The Cello Doll) and vocalist Michaela Catapano, as well as chamber groups across the US (Chicago Brass Choir), while continuing expand his sizable catalog of works for larger instrumental forces.Jason is well known for his work as an educator, dedicated to providing young promising musicians with the foundational experiences on which a lifetime of music-making can be built, and is pursuing research into the ways that music students process their experiences as learners and performers.Combining his long career in music with a deep love of science fiction and a natural talent for storytelling, Jason recently launched his first podcast, “Beyond the Belt: Adventures from the Outer Rim.” “Beyond the Belt” is a collection of 8 original dramatic science fiction episodes for which he served as writer, producer, and composer. It tells the story of a scientific research experiment gone horribly wrong. With Zombies (of course!).Jason has released three digital albums in recent years, including the Season One Soundtrack from the Beyond the Belt podcast, “1000 Steps to Nowhere", a collection of chamber music compositions, and most recently “The Dead Teach the Living,” featuring nine vocal collaborations ranging from solo works to Orchestral compositions. The title track was named a finalist for the 2025 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, earning an Honorable Mention.Jason is a lover of dogs, video games, and all things Star Wars (yes, even the prequels). He is also a husband, father of two budding musicians, and a patron of art forms that stretch traditional boundaries. He currently lives in Waxhachie, TX with his family. He can occasionally be sighted lurking at select music conferences.www.jasonnitsch.com

Beth Anderson (M.F.A./M.A.) is a critically acclaimed composer of neo-romantic, avant-garde music, text-sound works, and musical theater. Born in Kentucky, she studied primarily in California with John Cage, Terry Riley, Robert Ashley and Larry Austin at Mills College and U.C. Davis. She is a member of Broadcast Musicians Inc. (BMI), the American Composers' Forum, International Alliance of Women in Music, the New Music USA, Poets and Writers, and New York Women Composers. She resides in New York City where she produces Women's Work, a concert series, for Greenwich House Arts.https://www.beand.com

Paula Dreyer is a classically-trained contemporary composer and pianist living in the Pacific Northwest who seeks to inspire, include, and connect individuals through music. She has created her own, unique sound – weaving a wide range of influences from the Romantic and Impressionistic eras, film composers, Spanish music, and solo improvisation albums from the masters. Listeners are transported through her music that is sophisticated yet intimate, melancholic yet hopeful, hauntingly melodic, and rhythmically alive.Combining multi-disciplinary art forms and collaborating with various artistic mediums, Paula’s shows are a transporting, mesmerizing experience for the eyes, ears, and heart. Frequent collaborator and award-winning choreographer Kevin Jenkins says this: “Paula infuses her music with perfectly phrased emotion that makes my mind explode with movement concepts. The only challenge is keeping up with her brilliance.”Kevin has choreographed her compositions and recordings with Jacob’s Pillow featuring dancers from Boston Ballet, as well as St. Louis Ballet, Ballet 5:8 in Chicago, and various dance conservatories. San Francisco-based artist Adrian Arias has created paintings inspired directly by her music, many of which will be featured in her concerts.An avid performer, Paula has played at world-class venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Green Music Center, and with the Santa Rosa and Monterey Symphonies. Paula was a band member for the legendary show Beach Blanket Babylon, which the New York Times calls “a treasured San Francisco staple.”She was the winner of the Montréal Classical Music Festival and was a chamber music semi-finalist in the Concert Artist Guild Competition at New York’s Merkin Hall. She was the recipient of the full scholarship Poné Award during her master’s degree in Chamber Music Performance in San Francisco. She also holds music degrees from McGill University in Montréal and Interlochen Arts Academy and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.She completed an artist residency at Obras in Portugal, where she composed much of the music for her Little Gems for Piano books. The books have sold thousands of copies worldwide and were recently published in China. Paula is also a well-respected educator and directs a private teaching studio in addition to presenting internationally to piano teachers and adjudicating various festivals.In her debut original solo album Central Star, Paula uses music as a soul awakening, energy shifting experience. During these tumultuous times when we can feel disconnected and distracted, she seeks to alter the vibration of the room- providing fuel for the soul through the unifying force of music. Central Star tells a personal story about the powers of imagination, intuition, and creative expression during challenging times of transition, as well as offering a therapeutic medium during everyday life. This spellbinding album speaks to the triumphant yet calming creative spirit and evokes feelings from the universal human experience. Prepare to elevate your spirit and embark on a sonic and visual journey like no other.Paula currently spearheads her concert series Piano Flow Live and her improv program Piano Flow. Piano Flow Live combines live music, outdoor adventure and visual arts. She gathers local creatives such as musicians, artists, photographers, and filmmakers to create unique events under the umbrella of the Bend Creative Music Project. You can find her performing innovative shows in ski lodges and along the Deschutes River.She recently completed a tour of China. She was invited to present her Little Gems books and perform candlelit concerts in eight cities across China.A dynamic pianist, composer, and educator, Paula captivates global audiences through her Little Gems for Piano books, albums, concerts, and the transformative Piano Flow improvisation program, fostering inspiration and connection worldwide.Paula lives in the mountain town of Bend, Oregon with her husband and their two daughters.https://pauladreyer.com

Composer and conductor Lee Actor (b. 1952 in Denver, Colorado) was one of five composers selected in November 2014 as an "Honored Artist of the American Prize", the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed. He has won a number of awards for his compositions, most recently for Symphony No. 2, third place winner of the 2019-20 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, Dance Rhapsody, winner of the 2016 Austin Civic Orchestra Composition Competition and second place winner of the 2011 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, Redwood Fanfare, a winner of the 2009 Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra Fanfare Competition, and Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, the First Prize Winner in the 2007 International Horn Society Composition Contest. Divertimento for Small Orchestra was a finalist for the 2016 American Prize in Orchestra Composition, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra received a Special Judge's Citation for the 2015 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, Concerto for Timpani and Orchestrawas a finalist for the 2014 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, String Quartet No. 1was a finalist for the 2014 American Prize in Chamber Music Composition, Circus Symphonicus was a finalist in the Columbia Orchestra's 2013 American Composer Competition, Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra was a finalist for the 2013 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was a finalist for the 2012 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, Variations and Fugue for Orchestra was a finalist in both the Columbia Orchestra's 2007 American Composer Competition and the Holyoke Civic Symphony's 2005 Composition Competition, and Prelude to a Tragedy was selected as a finalist in the Columbia Orchestra's 2005 American Composer Competition. Conductor/composer Robert Ian Winstin has written, “Lee Actor's Prelude to a Tragedy is one of the best written new works I've had the privilege to conduct or record. It is clear, precise and very tightly written. It has a style that is completely original … an incredible orchestral tour de force as written by an immensely talented composer.” The CD including Mr. Winstin’s performance of this piece with the Kiev Philharmonic was released by ERM Media in March 2005.Actor has received commissions from the Palo Alto Philharmonic, the Redwood Symphony, the Mission Chamber Orchestra, the Silicon Valley Symphony, the Saratoga Symphony, the University of South Dakota, the Skaneateles Festival, the South Bay Guitar Society, the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, and pianist Benny Gambino. His works have been performed by more than 90 orchestras and bands in the U.S. and around the world. His first CD of orchestral works was released by MMC Recordings in June 2005, which Records International called “...one of the best new symphonic discs to have come our way.” A second CD was released by Albany Records in April 2008, featuring Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, which was nominated for 2008 “Best of the Year” classical CD by Classical 94.5/WNED in Buffalo, NY. A third CD of orchestral music, featuring Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra and Dance Rhapsody, was released in April 2011 by Navona Records, and subsequently named to Audiophile Audition’s list of “Best of the Year Discs for 2011”. Navona Records released Actor's fourth solo CD in February 2015, featuring Concerto for Piano and Orchestra and Symphony No. 3. Actor’s orchestral music is characterized by its dramatic impact and emotional expressivity, featuring a striking use of harmony, counterpoint, motivic development, and lyricism with a fresh, modern flavor. These attributes are most prominent in his large-scale dramatic works. Conductor Jason Klein has written of Symphony No. 1: “Lee Actor ... is a composer of remarkable skill whose 3-movement symphony has strength, character, and generous helpings of brilliance and humor”, and described Symphony No. 2 as “… energetic, intense, and highly polished.” In a review of Concerto for Violin and Orchestrafor the San Mateo County Times, Keith Kreitman wrote: “This is a major work deserving of national attention. … This concerto verges on masterpiece”. In July 2008, Concerto for Horn and Orchestra was performed at the 40th International Horn Symposium by the Colorado Symphony and soloist Bernhard Scully, principal horn of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. The piece has subsequently received numerous performances, and is quickly becoming a favorite of horn players around the world. His work has been characterized by conductor Kirk Trevor as “… music of the highest quality in craftsmanship, inventiveness, and imagination.” A former violinist with the Albany (N.Y.) Symphony Orchestra, Actor has advanced degrees in both engineering, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and music composition, from San Jose State University. He has studied composition with Donald Sur, Brent Heisinger, Charles Jones, and Andrew Imbrie, and conducting with Angelo Frascarelli, David Epstein and Higo Harada. Actor was named Composer-in-Residence of the Palo Alto Philharmonic in 2002, following his appointment as Assistant Conductor in 2001, and was Assistant Conductor of the Nova Vista Symphony from 2008 to 2010. He is a member of ASCAP®, who recently named Actor the recipient of an ASCAPlus award for the 17th time. He has received awards and grants from ASCAP, the American Music Center, the International Horn Society, the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra, and The American Prize in Composition.https://www.leeactor.com

Katherine Saxon (b. 1981) was born in Santa Monica, California. She graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in Massachusetts where she studied vocal performance with Brad Wells and composition with Ileana Perez Velazquez. She obtained a Masters of Music at the University of Oregon studying with composers Robert Kyr and David Crumb and received her Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, Santa Barbara where she studied with Joel Feigin and Clarence Barlow.Her music reflects humanity’s relationship with the natural world, both as part of it and in conflict with it. She has been praised for the sophistication and intricacy of her work, as well as her ability to write gracefully and melodically, especially for the human voice.Dr. Saxon lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, two daughters, and cat. In between writing music and parenting, she teaches piano lessons on her back porch, conducts the Santa Barbara Treble Clef Chorus, and directs the Santa Barbara Community Early Music Ensemble. Her hobbies include; defending her garden from rabbits, quilting, playing the lute badly, and endless crafting with her children.https://www.katherinesaxon.com

Amy Beth Kirsten is celebrated for her theatrical and conceptual approach to composition. Her music fuses voice, instrument, language, and movement into works that blur boundaries between concert, theatre, and ritual.The 2025–26 concert season includes the completion of Eating the Underworld, a pop-song cycle for Bergamot Quartet and the composer as vocalist; the release of Misfit Toys, a grade 5 work for concert band; and her participation in the 2025 Midwest Clinic in Chicago.Kirsten’s previous season featured the premiere of Infernal Angel, an opera created with the Curtis Opera Theatre and baritone Ty Boque, inspired by the life of Gilles de Rais and his relationship with Joan of Arc. Earlier evening-length works include Savior (2018), a mystical re-telling of the story of Joan of Arc commissioned for the 20th anniversary of Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW and named to the Chicago Tribune’s “10 Best Classical Concerts of 2018”; QUIXOTE (2017), a 90-minute theatrical piece created during a residency at Montclair State University; and Colombine’s Paradise Theatre (2014), commissioned and produced by the multi-Grammy-winning eighth blackbird, praised by The Washington Post as a “tour de force” and by The New York Times as “dark, wild, and engrossing.” She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2014 with strange pilgrims, a multimedia work for chorus, orchestra, and film.In addition to her musical work, Kirsten is also a writer whose poetry has appeared in several journals. Writing as Aster Isler, she recently completed her full manuscript, Giving Up—the beginning of a parallel literary journey that threads through her compositional voice. Her poetry can be found in Oberon (2024), Sol Magazine (2010), Avatar Review (2009), and Red Wheelbarrow (2008).Kirsten is also dedicated to mentoring the next generation of performing and creative artists. At The Juilliard School, she mentors composers and interdisciplinary creators through her composition studio and teaches two courses — Theatre Études and OperaCOMP. At The Curtis Institute of Music, she teaches individual composition lessons. Previous faculty posts include Oberlin College and Conservatory, the Peabody Institute, and Longy School of Music.She lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with her beloved doodle-hound, Roux-ga-Roux and her slow-wandering orange cat, Higgs-B.https://www.amybethkirsten.com

Laura Nevitt is a conductor, composer, and educator based in Boston. She earned degrees in Composition and Music Education from the University of South Carolina, and a M.M. in Choral Conducting at Boston Conservatory, studying with George Case.As a fierce advocate for new music, they love working with composers, and have conducted over 30 premieres of new works. She is especially passionate about giving voice and space to gender marginalized musicians and poets through choral and vocal music.Laura is the Founder & Artistic Director of Lilith Vocal Ensemble, Children’s Chorus and Chamber Choir Director at New England Conservatory Prep, a Teaching Artist with Boston Lyric Opera and Handel & Haydn Society, and Music Director at First Parish UU in Needham, MA, where she is also Artistic Director of the newly formed “To The Fore” Concert Series, focused on bringing historically marginalized voices to the forefront. She is a Founding Member and Former Co-Artistic Director of Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, and former Associate Conductor at Voices Boston Children’s Choir.Their compositions are frequently performed by musicians across the country, some highlights being the Handel & Haydn Society Youth Choruses, Choral Arts Initiative, the Evelyn Duo, Voices Boston Children’s Choir, Boston Conservatory Choir, Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, Lilith Vocal Ensemble, BRACE New Music Choir, the UofSC Concert Choir, sparks & wiry cries’ songSLAM, Source Song Festival, Quorum, Opera on Tap Boston, Una Voce (Community Music Center of Boston), the East Central College Choir in Missouri, First Parish UU in Needham, and the Choir of Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, First Presbyterian Church (Columbia, SC) Children’s Choirs, Greater Columbia Children’s Choir, and the First Presbyterian Church Chamber Choir during the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC.​At First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC, she directed the Primary and Junior Choirs, supervised the Children’s Music Program, and was a section leader in their Chancel and Chamber Choir. In Columbia, she kept a private studio of guitar and voice students, and was the chorus teacher at CrossRoads Intermediate School in Irmo, SC. During her time as a choral director in South Carolina, Nevitt’s ensembles consistently earned superior ratings at the Carowinds Festival of Music in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Music USA Festival in Orlando, Florida.As a soprano, she has performed Reich’s Drumming with New York based ensemble So Percussion.https://www.lauranevitt.com

Dale Trumbore (b. 1987) is a Los Angeles-based composer and writer whose music has been called "devastatingly beautiful" (The Washington Post) and praised for its "soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies deployed with finesse" (The New York Times). Her compositions have been performed widely in the U.S. and internationally by Atlanta Master Chorale, Central West Ballet, the Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, Conspirare and the Miró Quartet, Los Angeles Children's Chorus, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Modesto Symphony, National Youth Choir of Scotland, Pasadena Symphony, and Seraphic Fire.​A recipient of prizes and grants from American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), ASCAP, the Barlow Endowment, and Chamber Music America, Trumbore has also been awarded artist residencies at Copland House, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Tusen Takk, and Ucross. Her music is available through Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer,Murphy Music Press, and Graphite Marketplace. ​Trumbore's first book, Staying Composed: Overcoming Anxiety and Self-Doubt Within a Creative Life, was hailed as a "treasure trove of practical strategies for moving your artistic career forward" (Angela Myles Beeching, author of Beyond Talent). Her second book, Composing a Living: a Music Creator's Guide to Money, Relationships and Business, is newly available from Oxford University Press and was co-written with Dr. Brandon Elliott. Trumbore has also written extensively about working through creative blocks and establishing a career in music in essays for Cantate Magazine, the Center for New Music, and NewMusicBox. Her poetry and short fiction have been featured in Southern Indiana Review, PRISM International, New Delta Review, and Pacifica Literary Review.Trumbore holds degrees in Music Composition and English Language and Literature from the University of Maryland, as well as a Master of Music degree in Music Composition from the University of Southern California. Originally from New Jersey, Trumbore currently lives in Southern California with her spouse and cats.https://www.daletrumbore.com

Multi-award-winning composer Jordan Jinosko is celebrated across concert, media and film music industries, gaining international acclaim for the “subtle and powerful” and “cinematic scope” (Wisconsin Public Radio) of her work. Drawing inspiration from mythology, nature, her lived experiences as a trans woman of color, and her social & environmental activism, Jordan’s compositions have been commissioned and performed by leading and Grammy Award-winning organizations and performers worldwide. Her music has been performed in renowned concert halls including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Kimmel Center, and has been featured on radio stations nationwide and at major events such as the Midwest Clinic, ASTA National Orchestra Festival, and Interlochen Arts Festival. Jinosko’s music has also been highlighted and praised in various newspapers and magazines across the nation.Jinosko’s Three Sketches of Unblemished Earth, as recorded on the album Advent of the Symphonina (featuring the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, and Budapest Scoring Orchestra), topped Billboard’s chart of Best-selling Classical Albums in August 2024. Her orchestral piece Tales from the Aviary is scheduled for a European tour in summer 2026 under the Conductor Yun Song Tay. Jinosko’s music has also been performed by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (Grammy-winning), conductors Péter Illényi (“Squid Game,” “M3GAN”), Ronnie Sanders, Ward Stare, Jonathan Glawe, double bassist Jory Herman (LA Phil), concertmaster David Halen (Saint Louis Symphony), violinist Yibin Li (The Juilliard School), and many other distinguished musicians.Jinosko scored Trajectories (2022), a film by Japanese filmmaker Shun Shigeta, which won the Grand Prix of SONY’s Xperia U25 Film Competition. She also composed the score for UNFOUND (2023), a film directed by Australian filmmaker Poom Ariyakusonsuthi, which was nominated for Best International Thriller at Toronto’s Alternative Film Festival. Jinosko’s haunting score for UNFOUND also won the Afterlife Best Film Score Award in 2023.Jordan Jinosko’s work has garnered other accolades. Besides topping Billboard’s Best-selling Classical Album, Best Symphonina of the Year (2025), Golden State Emerging Composers’ Competition, QUO Vanguard Composer Competition, New Conductors Orchestra Composer Competition, Green Dot Composers Competition, Brazosport Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition, and the Arts Midwest GIG Fund Grant. Additionally, Her music has also been honored by The American Prize, Global Music Awards, Music International Grand Prix, and Howard Hanson Young Composers Competition. During her time at Eastman Community Music School, she received the Molly Mulligan Award and John A. Wollaver Award. She has been commissioned by organizations including Strathmore in D.C. and County Hall Arts in London.Jinosko studied music composition and music theory at the University of Michigan and the Eastman School of Music’s pre-collegiate division (ECMS). Her composition mentors have included Michael Daugherty (Grammy winner), Bright Sheng (MacArthur Genius), Evan Chambers, Kristen Kuster, Margaret Henry, and others. She took lessons in NYC with Juilliard professor, Samuel Adler. She has attended masterclasses with Grammy-winning composers (Gabrielle Lena Frank, William Bolcom, Christopher Rouse), Pulitzer Prize-winning composers (John Luther Adams and Shulamit Ran) and renowned film composers Paul Chihara (“The Karate Kid 2,” “The Green Berets,” “The Killing Fields”) and Conrad Pope (“Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” “Jurassic Park,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”). Jinosko also has participated in symposia led by faculty at Juilliard, Yale, Princeton, and Eastman.Jinosko’s music draws inspiration from her experiences around gender. Her piece, Regeneration, chronicles the struggle of her own transition, ultimately presenting a triumphant celebration of queer identity. During the summer of 2025 and with the generous support of the Arts Midwest GIG Fund Grant, Jinosko completed an artist residency in Indianapolis, providing free music lessons to LGBTQ+ young adults at Trinity Haven, a 501(c)(3) LGBTQ non-profit organization. A member of her local chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby, Jordan volunteers her time to fight climate change and, through works like Three Sketches of Unblemished Earth and Tales from the Aviary, highlights the importance of preserving the natural world for future generations.Jinosko studied music composition and music theory at the University of Michigan and the Eastman School of Music’s pre-collegiate division (ECMS). Her composition mentors have included Michael Daugherty (Grammy winner), Bright Sheng (MacArthur Genius), Evan Chambers, Kristen Kuster, Margaret Henry, and others. She took lessons in NYC with Juilliard professor, Samuel Adler. She has attended masterclasses with Grammy-winning composers (Gabrielle Lena Frank, William Bolcom, Christopher Rouse), Pulitzer Prize-winning composers (John Luther Adams and Shulamit Ran) and renowned film composers Paul Chihara (“The Karate Kid 2,” “The Green Berets,” “The Killing Fields”) and Conrad Pope (“Star Wars,” “Harry Potter,” “Jurassic Park,” “Pirates of the Caribbean”). Jinosko also has participated in symposia led by faculty at Juilliard, Yale, Princeton, and Eastman.https://www.jordanjinosko.com

Noah Hudson-Camack (b. 2001) is a composer and arranger native to Cary, North Carolina. Believing firmly in diversity as strength within art, he seeks to blend elements from disparate eras of Western art music, jazz, and popular music in his work. The sewing together of different genre aesthetics is as much an objective in his music as developing strong motivic content, rich harmony, and complex rhythm. He explores these connections in his solo, chamber, jazz, and wind symphony works. Noah premiered Fanfare and Flight at the 2023 College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Conference with the Vanderbilt Wind Symphony. He also was a finalist for the Austin Symphonic Band’s Young Composer Competition and a winner of Vanderbilt University’s Wind Symphony Call For Scores with his piece Quiet Storm.Sharing his own excitement and joy for what music making and appreciation can bring he considers not just a goal, but a responsibility. Deeply valuing education, Noah is a two time teaching fellow for the North Carolina Governor’s School’s instrumental music program and aims to be a collegiate educator in the future. Noah graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2024 with a Bachelor of Musical Arts in Composition with a minor in Computer Science, and thanks his teachers Michael Slayton, Stan Link, Michael Alec Rose, and Molly Herron for their guidance. He is pursuing his Master of Music at The University of Texas Austin studying composition.https://www.hudsoncamackmusic.com/

Composer Mara Gibson is originally from Charlottesville, VA, graduated from Bennington College, and completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo. She has received grants and honors from the American Composer’s Forum, the Banff Center, Louisiana Division of the Arts, ArtsKC, Meet the Composer, the Kansas Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the International Bass Society, ASCAP, the John Hendrick Memorial Commission, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the MacDowell Colony and Yale University. Internationally renowned ensembles and soloists perform her music throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Asia, and Europe. Dr. Gibson has had performances of her works at prestigious festivals and universities around the country and the world, most notably Mostly Modern Festival (New York), the Bowling Green New Music Festival (Ohio), Amici Della Musica (Udine, Italy), University of Melbourne (Australia), Thailand International Composition Festival (performances in multiple consecutive years), Reaktorhallen (Stockholm, Sweden), Daegu International Computer Music Festival (Korea) and the Beijing Modern Music Festival.Dr. Gibson has taught at the UMKC Conservatory as Associate Professor where she was the founder of the UMKC Composition Workshop and co-director/founder of ArtSounds. Starting fall 2017, she joined the faculty of Louisiana State University where she is currently Associate Professor of Composition and Area Head with tenure. Mara released her first compilation album ArtIfacts May 2015 with her second, Skyborn released in November 2017 and in 2020, she was selected through PARMA Recordings for their recording project with the Athens Philharmonic Orchestra with Secret Sky (Prisma V). In 2024, she released her third portrait album, Unseen World, GRAMMY eligible. Her compositions span numerous media, from chamber and solo works to electroacoustic music and a collection of works that combine video, electronic music and live performance. In her most recent work she incorporates extra-musical materials into vocal and instrumental performance, and integrates increasingly challenging subject matter with effective (and often unusual) instrumental and vocal delivery styles; these techniques extend performance practice and portray strong emotional content that defines the heart of her overall concept — the arc of the musical and theatrical development. Recently, she completed her bassoon concerto, Escher Keys (2021) which garnered recognition by the American Prize in two categories, funded through a Louisiana Board of Regents (ATLAS grant). During her sabbatical (fall 2023) she began working on her first opera at the prestigious Moulin a Nef in Auvillar, France. Her opera, The Devil’s Dream (libretto by Ann McCutchan based on the novel by Lee Smith) will premiere spring 2026.https://maragibson.com/

Charles Rochester Young was appointed as the Director of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2022. At UNC Greensboro he works collaboratively with faculty, staff, students, and leadership to illuminate the lives of listeners and to better support students’ professional aspirations. Prior to his appointment at UNC Greensboro, Young served as the Associate Dean and Chief Academic Officer at Baldwin Wallace University’s Conservatory of Music in Ohio.A fifth-generation educator, Young has received awards from the Carnegie Foundation and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (Wisconsin Professor of the Year), the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents (Regents Teaching Excellence Award—their highest honor), the University Continuing Education Association (National First Prize for Innovative Programming), Wisconsin School Music Association (Creative Sparks Award), and the College Music Society (Robby D. Gunstream Education in Music Award).As an artist, Dr. Young has received composition and performance awards from ASCAP, Meet the Composer, the National Endowment of the Arts, the Fischoff National Chamber Music competition, the National Association of Composers USA, the National Band Association, the National Flute Association, and the British and International Bassists Federation. His original works are widely published, recorded, and performed.Currently, Dr. Young serves as the Chair of the Nominations Committee for the National Association of Schools of Music. Young has previously served the College Music Society as a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors, as treasurer, and as board liaison for the Presidential Task Force on Leading Change. Previously, he served in leadership capacities with the North American Saxophone Alliance, the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers, and the Wisconsin Music Educators Association.Prior to Baldwin Wallace University, Young taught at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Central Connecticut State University, and Interlochen Arts Camp. He earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) and Master’s in Music (MM) degrees from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Music Education (BME) degree from Baylor University.

Jessie Cox is Assistant Professor of Music at Harvard University and received his doctorate from Columbia University. Active as a composer, drummer, and scholar, his work thematizes questions at the intersection of black studies, music/sound studies, and critical theory. From Switzerland, with roots in Trinidad and Tobago, Cox thinks through questions of race, migration, national belonging, and our relation to the planet and the cosmos. His first monograph Sounds of Black Switzerland: Blackness, Music, and Unthought Voices (Duke UP, 2025) addresses how thinking with blackness and experimental musical practices might afford the opening of new discourses, such as thematizing Black Swiss Life. Jessie Cox makes music about the universe and our future in it. Through avant-garde classical, experimental jazz, and sound art, he has devised his own strand of musical science fiction, one that asks where we go next. Cox’s music goes forward. When he describes it, he compares it to time travel and space exploration, likening the role of a composer to that of a rocket ship traversing undiscovered galaxies. He is influenced by a vast array of artists who have used their music to imagine futures, and takes Afrofuturism as a core inspiration, asking questions about existence, and the ways we make spaces habitable. Known for its disquieting tone and unexpected structural changes, his music steps into the unknown, and has been referred to by the New Yorker (Alex Ross) as an example of “dynamic pointillism,” a nebulous and ever-expanding sound world that includes “breathy instrumental noises, mournfully wailing glissandi, and climactic stampedes of frantic figuration.” A dedicated collaborator, Cox has worked as a composer and drummer with ensembles and institutions such as the Sun Ra Arkestra, LA Phil, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, and the International Contemporary Ensemble; at Festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, MaerzMusik, and Opera Omaha. For his work as a composer, he has been recognized with a Fromm Foundation commission, the ASCAP Fred Ho Award, and his commissions have been funded by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Pro Helvetia, New Music USA, and others. Cox’ scholarly writing asks new questions about our world through music. Recently, he has published in and co-translated the book Composing While Black, published as a bilingual edition in German and English by Wolke Verlag in 2023. Further texts appear in liquid blackness, Critical Studies in Improvisation, Positionen Texte zur Aktuellen Musik, Sound American, the American Music Review, and others.https://www.jessiecoxmusic.com/

Dr. Roger Zare is an assistant professor of composition and theory in the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University. He is praised for his “enviable grasp of orchestration” (New York Times), and often composes music inspired by science, nature, mathematics, and mythology. Dr. Zare previously taught at Illinois State University.An award-winning composer, Dr. Zare has had his music performed on six continents and has won multiple accolades, including the ASCAP Foundation Rudolf Nissim Prize, three BMI Student Composer Awards, a Copland House Residency Award, and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His works, such as “The Other Rainbow” and “Green Flash,” have been performed at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall. His piece "Aerodynamics" was premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra.He has partnered with CERN for performances of his particle physics inspired music at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Sofia Science Festival, and in 2023 he was selected as the FRA Guest Composer at Fermilab, the United States’ national particle physics laboratory. In 2021, he collaborated with clarinetist Andy Hudson to write "Elements of Contemporary Clarinet Technique" and "SPACE BASS," etude books on modern clarinet techniques.Dr. Zare has served as composer in residence at music festivals including the Salt Bay Chamberfest and Chesapeake Music Festival, and his compositions are published by Theodore Presser Inc., FJH Music Company, Murphy Music Press, and Manhattan Beach Music. He is a founding member of the Blue Dot Collective.Zare holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan, a Master of Music from Peabody Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern California.

Cameron Moody is an American composer, conductor, and trumpeter based in Los Angeles, CA. His distinctive utilization of the symphony orchestra has given way to a varied resume, with project genres in film and television ranging from action and documentaries to romance and comedies.Cameron composed the score for the Hulu original limited series Washington Black. The show, which was created by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, led by showrunner Kimberly Ann Harrison, and stars Ernest Kingsley Jr. and Sterling K. Brown, premiered on Hulu on July 23rd. At 22 years old, he has made history as the youngest person to ever score a 20th Century Television series.He wrote the score to the eight-part documentary series Kennedy, which chronicles the life and legacy of the 35th President John F. Kennedy. It aired on the History Channel in November of 2023, opening to rave reviews and becoming one of the History Channel’s flagship programs for 2023. In the summer of 2024, he completed Patrick Green’s documentary feature film Sincerely, Los Angeles, a love letter to the late Oscar-winning basketball legend Kobe Bryant.Cameron was also a frequent collaborator of Emmy-nominated and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Michael Abels, composing additional music on scores such as Disney’s Star Wars: The Acolyte—for which he also served as a conductor—Kobi Libii’s The American Society of Magical Negroes, David Yarovesky’s Nightbooks, the Emmy-nominated documentary series Allen v. Farrow, and Jordan Peele’s Nope.As an arranger, he contributed orchestrations and arrangements to the Disney+ anthology series Zootopia+ (score by Curtis Green and Mick Giacchino) a collection of short vignettes based on the 2016 hit film.Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Cameron studied at New York University, majoring in Music Composition and Screen Scoring. In 2019, he was awarded a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award for Best Composition by an Emerging Composer. In 2021, at age 18, he made history by becoming the youngest winner of ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Music Fellowship Award. In 2024, he also became the youngest composer (21) to ever be selected as a fellow in the highly coveted NBC/Universal Composers Initiative.A devoted champion of symphonic music, Cameron has added his voice to the ongoing struggle to keep postproduction work—specifically orchestral recording sessions—in Los Angeles. He hopes to be a guiding light in the current generation of film composers to return scoring back to the sound stages of Hollywood.https://www.cameronmoodymusic.com/

Born June 6, 1997 (Portales, New Mexico) is an award-winning composer who has composed music for an array of musical settings from wind ensembles to brass ensembles, marching bands, TV Series, and everything in between. His compositions have acquired attention from notable composers such as John Mackey. He accredits his mentors: Benjamin Fairfield, John Mackey, and Mark Dal Porto as being pivotal to his progressive success as a composer, conductor, and performer.Salvador has also been the guest conductor for various public school bands such as the Portales Junior High Band, the Portales High School Band, and the 30th Biennial Eastern New Mexico University Alumni Band. When leisure outweighs his typical obligations of composition, Salvador invests his time chronically online watching CaseOh or playing Mortal Kombat.Salvador is also a brother of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity (Theta-Zeta Chapter).https://www.musicjacobo.com/

Minoo Dixon (b. 1999) is a Korean-American composer who has been recognized by ASCAP and the National Band Association (NBA) and has been on the rise composing meaningful and exciting music meant for a variety of audiences in the Concert Hall. He also has been an enthusiastic supporter for bringing diversity into the Concert Hall. Minoo grew up in Suwanee, Georgia, where he was a passionate member of the music community, which eventually led him to develop his aspirations for becoming a composer.Throughout his years of composing, he has been awarded the Donald Martino Award for Excellence in Composition, NBA/Alfred Young Band Composition Contest, two NEC Honors Ensemble Composition Competitions, and a Finalist of the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Awards Competition. Minoo’s pieces also have been performed at locations such as Carnegie Hall, Busan Cultural Center, Jordan Hall, and the Midwest Clinic.Minoo earned his Bachelor of Music in Composition from New England Conservatory, where he studied under the tutelage of Michael Gandolfi. He also earned his Master in Music in composition at University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music where he was under the tutelage of Omar Thomas.https://www.minoodixon.com/

Giovanni Santos serves as Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at La Sierra University, where he directs the University Wind Ensemble, Chamber Winds, Big Band, and teaches courses in graduate and undergraduate instrumental music education, popular music, conducting and composition.Dr. Santos has proudly implemented a yearly wind band conducting workshop at La Sierra University and has worked alongside H. Robert Reynolds, Thomas Lee, Larry Livingston, Travis Cross and Allan McMurray, helping some of the brightest young music educators in the United States. Santos also organizes yearly workshops. clinics and conversations with conductors and composers, such as Frank Ticheli, Mallory Thompson, and most recently, Maestro Leonard Slatkin. A strong advocate for music education, Santos frequently presents at conferences, school in-service days, classrooms, and as clinician for young ensembles across the United States, Mexico, and Europe. Most recently, Dr. Santos presented at the Midwest Clinic’s High School Leadership Institute, California All-State Music Education Conference (CASMEC), for the California Music Educators Association’s ‘Casting a Wider in Net’ at Azusa Pacific University, for the North American Division National Teachers Convention, the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, CBDNA National Convention in Arizona, for the 2019 SCSBOA Professional Development Conference, and for the World Association of Symphonic Band and Ensemble International Conference (WASBE) in Prague. Santos also maintains a busy guest conducting/clinician schedule, with recent residencies at the Manhattan School of Music, University of the Pacific, Cal State University (Fullerton), University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Connecticut and for the Association of Concert Bands conference in Orlando.As a composer, Santos has premiered his works across the United States, Asia and Europe, including a premiere with the United States Naval Academy Band Brass Ensemble at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. under his baton. His works have received premieres and performances by ensembles at the University of Michigan, University of Illinois, Michigan State University, University of North Texas, Florida State University, University of Florida, Yale, Ball State University, Oklahoma State University, UCLA, Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble, Illinois State University, Tanglewood Young Artist Wind Ensemble, Interlochen World Youth Wind Symphony and many more. His works for wind ensemble, orchestra, chamber music, and solo wind instruments are published exclusively by Murphy Music Press, LLC. His compositions and passion for music education have received many recognitions, including a Meritorious Achievement Award by the Minority Band Directors National Association for “exceptional contributions to the wind band repertory.”Dr. Santos earned graduate degrees from the University of Southern California (MM) and Florida State University (PhD).https://giosantosmusic.com/

Composer, author, and filmmaker Jack Curtis Dubowsky works in concert music, improvisation, and live performance. His output includes three books, one documentary feature, and numerous musical compositions in film scoring, classical music, popular music, choral music, and other musical genres.https://www.jackcurtisdubowsky.com/index.html

EMMY® Award-winning composer Alex Wurman is known for his versatility and broad musical range. He has collaborated with notable directors across various genres, including Steven Conrad (Ultra City Smiths, Patriot), John August (The Nines), Jill Sprecher (Thirteen Conversations About One Thing), Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights), and Ron Shelton (Play It To The Bone) and more.Wurman composed the majestic, ethereal score for the Oscar®-winning film March of the Penguins, as well as the vastly different, '70s-inspired comedy Anchorman. His signature scores include eerie piano melodies for Confessions of A Dangerous Mind, contemporary minimalist music for his Emmy award-winning score for Temple Grandin, and French impressionist interpretations for Thirteen Conversations About One Thing.Born into a musical family, Wurman's father, Hans Wurman, was a classically trained composer and a pioneer in electronic music. His mother was a beloved violin teacher, and his older siblings are all musicians in their own right. Alex credits his musical understanding and approach to both nature and nurture. His passion led him to the Academy of Performing Arts High School in Chicago, followed by studies at the University of Miami and back to Chicago at the American Conservatory of Music. Moving to Los Angeles at the age of 22, he began his career by scoring student films at the American Film Institute, which eventually led to over 100 film credits in the highly competitive Hollywood movie business.Recently, after completing two albums, The Classical Synthesizer (a tribute to his fathers pioneering of the Moog Synthesizer), and Pianos (a celebration of multi-piano approaches), Alex continues to expand his love for musical exploration with livestream concerts showcasing his dynamic playing and improvising abilities. These concerts have received significant positive reception, connecting with audiences worldwide. Alex continues to create new content with diverse artistic collaborations. His goal is to provide art that enhances his audiences' personal journeys.https://www.alexwurman.com/

Described as “alluring” and “stirring” by The New York Times, the “arresting” (Gramophone), “irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle), and “exhilarating” (Chicago Tribune) music of Vietnamese-American composer Viet Cuong (b. 1990) has been commissioned and performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, Kronos Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Sō Percussion, PRISM Quartet, and Dallas Winds, among many others. Cuong’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, NPR Music’s Tiny Desk, Kennedy Center, and PBS NewsHour, and his works for wind ensemble have garnered over a thousand performances worldwide, including at Midwest, WASBE, and CBDNA conferences.A composer known for his imagination and colorful voice, Cuong strives to blend the whimsical with the profound, often finding new expressive possibilities through unexpected instrumental pairings and textures. His works thus include concerti for tuba and dueling oboes, percussion quartets utilizing wine glasses and sandpaper, and pieces for double reed sextet, cello octet, and solo snare drum. This eclecticism extends to the variety of musical groups he writes for, and he has worked closely with ensembles ranging from middle school bands to Grammy-winning orchestras and chamber ensembles. His wind ensemble works are widely performed, having been programmed by the world’s preeminent wind bands such as the Dallas Winds and military bands including the United States Navy Band, “President’s Own” Marine Band, “Pershing’s Own” Army Band, Army Field Band, Coast Guard Band, and Air Force Band. These works have also been performed by the top wind ensembles at academic institutions such as the University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, University of North Texas, Louisiana State University, University of Miami, and Michigan State University. Passionate about bringing all these different facets of the contemporary music community together, his notable works include Vital Sines, a concerto for Eighth Blackbird and the United States Navy Band; Re(new)al, a concerto for percussion quartet with a variety of ensemble accompaniments; and a saxophone quartet concerto entitled Second Nature.Currently the Pacific Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence, Cuong was also the California Symphony’s Young American Composer-in-Residence from 2020-23. He has held artist residencies at Copland House, Yaddo, Ucross, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and at Dumbarton Oaks, where he served as the 2020 Early-Career Musician-in-Residence. His music has been awarded the Barlow Prize, William D. Revelli Prize, Frederick Fennell Prize, Walter Beeler Memorial Prize, Barlow Endowment Commission, ASCAP Morton Gould Composers Award, Theodore Presser Foundation Award, Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composers Award, Cortona Prize, New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, and Boston GuitarFest Composition Prize. Cuong serves as Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Theory the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he teaches composition, orchestration, and music theory. He has also served on the faculties of the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab and Juilliard Summer Composition. He holds degrees in music composition from Princeton University (MFA/PhD), the Curtis Institute of Music (Artist Diploma), and the Peabody Conservatory (BM/MM). His mentors include Jennifer Higdon, David Serkin Ludwig, Donnacha Dennehy, Steve Mackey, Dan Trueman, Dmitri Tymoczko, Kevin Puts, and Oscar Bettison.

William Owens (b. 1963) is a native of Gary, Indiana. A seasoned music educator, he is highly active as a composer, clinician, and conductor throughout North America. His compositional style for young ensembles displays a keen, practical approach, which has firmly established him as a leader in the field. Since 1993, Mr. Owens has over 300 titles to his credit for concert band, string orchestra, and small ensemble. His music is performed and appears on required music lists nationally and abroad. Many of his works have been analyzed in educational texts and are staples of the young band repertoire.William is a 1985 graduate of Chicago's VanderCook College of Music and the recipient of numerous awards and grants for composition. Principal commissions include those from the South Plains College (TX) Department of Fine Arts, Phi Beta Mu International, and the American Bandmasters Association. Professional memberships include the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), the Association of Texas Small School Bands (ATSSB), and Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity. He is recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus by his alma mater and a recipient of the Texas Bandmasters Association’s Meritorious Achievement Award.In 2014, William formally retired from duty as band director in Texas after 30 years of service. His spare time interests include traveling, U.S. Presidential history, and being a proud Chevrolet Corvette owner/enthusiast. William resides in Fort Worth, TX, with his wife and best friend, Georgia.

Bobby Ge* (b. 1996) is an American-born, Shanghai-raised composer and media artist whose work engages with themes of communication, home, and hybridity. Described as “expressive and gripping” (Financial Times) and “exciting, frenzied, unpredictable” (CityNews CBR), his work is filled with shimmering textures and restless motion, often undergirded by a wry sense of humor. Winner of the Barlow Prize, Ge has completed a diverse array of projects ranging from experimental short films to large-scale orchestral commissions. Recent highlights include a symphony for the Albany Symphony, a saxophone concerto for the US Navy Band, a song for soprano, ensemble, and electronics premiered by Mind on Fire, and a keyboard/percussion piece featuring live video and electronics for the icarus Quartet.The coming 2025-26 season sees several notable premieres, including a violin concerto for Keila Wakao and the Albany Symphony, a mixed sextet commissioned by saxophonist Shivam Patel, and an electroacoustic work for Alarm Will Sound. Ge additionally serves as the Sound Investment Composer for the Reno Chamber Orchestra for the year, developing a new work for them over multiple workshops. Other engagements include performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the New England Philharmonic, the US Army Band, Modern Medieval Voices, Third Angle New Music, Mycelium New Music, and the Aruna Quartet. In previous years, Ge has received fellowships from the MATA Festival, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, and Copland House’s CULTIVATE program. He was named the Composer of the Year by the Sioux City Symphony, the grand prize winner of the New York Youth Symphony’s Jon Deak First Music Award, and a winner of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s call for scores. Ge has received further award recognition from ASCAP, the Society of Composers, Inc., and New Music USA. He was the recipient of a Copland House Residency Award and has held additional residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Millay Arts, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.Ge is an avid collaborator and has had the good fortune of sharing his work with a growing list of presenters that ranges from the unorthodox - the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, NJ Audubon - to the cutting edge of new music, including Beth Morrison Projects, the Attacca Quartet, Music from Copland House, Khemia Ensemble, Tesla Quartet, Blackbox Ensemble, JACK Quartet, and So Percussion. His experimental short film You Have Entered the Public Domain has screened at film festivals including the Festival L'Europe autour de l'Europe, Focus Wales, Golden State Film Festival, and the Short. Sweet. Film Festival. A dedicated educator, Ge believes firmly in the value of the arts as an expressive and uniting force, and he has collaborated with numerous educational ensembles including the New York Youth Symphony, the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra, the <a href="https://www.westsidechamberplayers.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

Composer and performer Shruthi Rajasekar is a McKnight Composer Fellow with the American Composers Forum, Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Associate of the Royal Northern College of Music (ARNCM), winner of the Global Women in Music Award from the United Nations, and recipient of the Marshall Scholarship from the Government of the United Kingdom. Shruthi’s music draws from her deep roots in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical traditions. Her work highlights identity, community, and joy. Globally, Shruthi’s compositions have been featured at the Royal Albert Hall (London, UK), the Cannes Film Festival (France), the National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai, India), Victoria Hall (Singapore), and the United Nations’ COP 26 (Glasgow, UK). She has been a performing artist and artist-in-residence at Britten Pears Arts, Tusen Takk Foundation, and Norway’s Kampenjazz. Shruthi lives in Minnesota and serves on the Board of Directors of the Anderson Center and of chamber ensemble Zeitgeist.​​​https://www.shruthirajasekar.com/

Dennis Tobenski is a composer, singer, and die-hard advocate for living composers. As a composer and performer, he embraces emotional complexity and honesty, and never shies away from vulgarity or a good laugh (no polite chuckles, please). Whether he’s behind the microphone as the host of the Music Publishing Podcast or working as the creator and driving force behind the NewMusicShelf Anthologies of New Music, he lifts his colleagues up, and works to build structures and communities that he wished he’d had as a young musician. Dennis lives in NYC with his husband Darien Shulman and their cat Pistachio.https://dennistobenski.com/

Daniel Kidane‘s music has been performed extensively across the UK and abroad as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 3, described by the Financial Times as ‘quietly impressive’ and by The Times as ‘tautly constructed’ and ’vibrantly imagined’.Daniel was awarded a Royal Philharmonic Society Prize in 2013 and in 2016 received a prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists. He received an honorary doctorate from Coventry University in 2022 and is currently a Visiting Tutor in Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music and Cambridge University. Daniel began his musical education at the age of eight when he started playing the violin. He first received composition lessons at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and then went on to study privately in St Petersburg, receiving lessons in composition from Sergey Slonimsky. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the RNCM under the tutelage of Gary Carpenter and David Horne. His orchestral works include Woke, which was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor Sakari Oramo at the Last Night of the Proms in September 2019; Zulu premiered by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Breakbeat written for the CBSO Youth Orchestra, and inspired by Grime music; and Sirens, written for the BBC Philharmonic orchestra, motivated by the eclectic musical nightlife in Manchester.Other commissions include Tourbillon for Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) and Michala Petri (recorder) premiered at WIgmore Hall and released on CD; Jungle, a piano duo written for the Cheltenham Festival which draws inspiration from Jungle music and a new type of vernacular; Songs of Illumination, a song cycle commissioned by Leeds Lieder and setting setting the poetry of William Blake; and a setting of the words of Martin Luther King for orchestra and chorus entitled Dream Song premiered by baritone Roderick Williams and the Chineke! Orchestra which was played at the reopening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 2018 (a US premiere of the work is planned by the Seattle Symphony, postponed from Spring 2020).As a member of the London Symphony Orchestra's Jerwood and Panufnik Composers Schemes he has written several works for members of the LSO, which have focused on multiculturalism. Works premiered during the Covid-19 lockdowns include The Song Thrush and the Mountain Ash for Huddersfield Choral Society with text by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage; Dappled Light for violinists Maxine Kwok and Julian Gil Rodriguez for the London Symphony Orchestra's Summer Shorts series; Christus factus est for Merton College Choir recorded for Delphian; and Be Still for the Manchester Camerata, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and received further international premieres by the San Francisco Symphony, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. His most recent work Revel, inspired by Manchester Carnival, was commissioned by the BBC Proms for the Kanneh-Mason family, and premiered in August 2021.Recent highlights include the world premiere of Sun Poem, premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2022, subsequently performered at Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Grafenegg Festival and the Sydney Opera House, receiving 5-star reviews. The piece was co-commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, with the US premiere conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in October 2022 at Mondavi Center for Performing Arts and Davies Symphony Hall.

Mark Orton is a composer working in the mediums of film scoring, concert music, and radio/podcast. He is both a multi-instrumentalist and a collector of antique and unusual instruments, performing on all manner (and era) of guitars, keyboards, and percussion. He is the co-founder of Tin Hat, an internationally renowned composer/improviser collective with seven critically acclaimed albums. Mark has written scores for dozens of films – documentary, narrative feature, and fine art – and has composed music for modern dance, theater, experimental radio, video/art installation,podcast, the circus, and the concert hall.https://markortonmusic.com/

Joseph MetcalfeComposer, Conductor, Orchestrator, Producer• 20+ Yrs Music for Film, Stage &amp; TV • Producer Of Musical Productions • Versatile Across All Musical Genres • Orchestrator • Conductor • 20+ Years of DAWs - Digital Performer, ProTools etc. • Proven Natural Leader, Dependable &amp; Reliable • Self-starter, Fast Turn Around Times • Experienced Producer of Scoring / Recording Sessions - respected among musicians, expertly managing time-frames &amp; budgets • Great team player, calm with sense of humor!!! • Clients include: Disney, Sony Pictures, Epcot, Netflix, Amazon &amp; many Independent Production Companies.A Little HistoryA few highlights along the journey of musical creativityMy magnificent musical journey has taken me from being a Smurf (my first professional recording at age 11 for the UK album Underland) through the realms of Award-Winning children’s stage productions, writing &amp; producing musical theater (George Orwell’s, ‘Animal Farm’), TV Theme Tunes (ITV Telethon), commercial &amp; jingle writing (Wiskas, Cadbury, Marmite), song writing (”I Hate This Job” Muppets), children’s television series (Mystery Of Black Rose Castle), family episodic programming (Monkey Life), feature film scoring (The King’s Daughter, Sleeping Beauty) and composing for Disney &amp; EPCOT (short films &amp; theme-parks). In the immersive world I have designed and built a range of experiences from haunted houses to Winter Wonderland Walkthroughs, designing interactive attractions under the magic of enchanting light displays. In every arena my greatest joy is knowing that my work has awoken, enlightened and fueled the minds of those who experience it. And this is exactly what I do for the every audience for whom I write.The Power Of CollaborationA Synergy That ThrivesBesides being a composer, conductor, orchestrator, producer and creator, I am a team leader who sets my own high standards that motivates the very best in the talent that surrounds me. As original founder of Sum Of All Music &amp; The Budapest Scoring Orchestra I am quick to recognize talent and attract musicians at the very top of their game. I regularly lead music collaborative teams and training including other musical directors and respected musicians (such as Benny Rietveld - Santana’s MD &amp; Bassist, Paul ‘Wix’ Wickens - Paul McCartney’s MD &amp; Keyboardist, Steve Shepherd - Kenny G’s engineer, Rafael Gayol - Lenny Cohen &amp; A-ha drummer... to name but a few) and have produced several albums, music libraries &amp; music videos. My network of composer’s, songwriters and musicians has been built on a reputation of the non-competitive, pro-collaborative approach that I instill in my teams.https://www.josephmetcalfe.com/

Avid vocal composer Matthew Recio recently finished his post as Vanguard emerging opera composer with Chicago Opera Theatre. During his residency, he developed operas with librettists Royce Vavrek (2021) and Stephanie Fleischmann (2020). The concert presentation of his work with Royce, "The Puppy Episode," was premiered in March of 2021 through the Chicago Opera Theater (COT) and followed by co-production between Opera Columbus and Oberlin Conservatory for the staged premiere. This year he is thrilled to be collaborating with the LYNX project for their amplify series, creating a song cycle with living neurodiverse poets. He will also be featured on the DeCameron Opera Coalition's holiday project series, representing the Chicago Fringe Opera for a video song project. This spring, he will collaborate with Hana Cai and the Ithaca College Treble choir on a new choral work with poetry by Stephanie Fleischmann. Recio will be featured on tenor Ryan Townsend Strand's song cycle project, Letters to Jackie, a CD project featuring many prominent, living art song composers of our time. He is a resident artist with the West Edge Opera Aperture Program developing his new opera with Stephanie Fleischmann, L'autre Moi. Most recently, he collaborated with Chicago-based choir Stare at the Sun on an immersive choral cantata, The Hollow, performed at the Linne Woods forest preserve that explores themes of isolation, depression, emergence, and renewal with a libretti by Alejandra Villareal Martinez. This past spring, he was thrilled to present Touch the Water with the Chicago Fringe Opera Series "A City of Works," which featured text by Chicago-based writer Anna Gatdula. This collaboration was written for Chicago-based artists Keanon Kyles and David Sands. As a performer/composer, his collaboration on How We Hush (poetry by Jenna Lanzaro) with tenor Michael Day earned him a winning prize with Fourth Coast Ensemble's 2021 Chicago SongSlam. He looks forward to a new collaboration with Chicago-based librettist Jerre Dye on a new song that will be produced on a new album, 40x40 by Grammy-nominated soprano Laura Strickling, featuring the work of 40 different leading composers of the art song genre. This fall, he will be collaborating on a unique project by Queer In(n) to create a vocal work inspired by the life of trans-Chicago icon Mama Gloria. This project will feature an adaptive libretto by Dr. Marquese Carter and feature the talents of upcoming trans singer Jalissa Spell. In addition to his work with COT and West Edge Opera, he was selected as the first commissioned composer for the Cincinnati Song Initiative 2018-2019 season. He is a published artist under the Dale Warland Series and the Craig Hella Johnson Series under G. Schirmer/Hal Leonard. As the 2018 Georgina Joshi vocal prize commission winner, Recio received a premiere of his work "In the Desert" for mezzo-soprano and sinfonietta with the Indiana University New Music Ensemble. Recio was recently named the 2017 American Prize winner in choral composition and was a featured composer with Beth Morrison Projects as an operatic composer at the National Sawdust theatre in Brooklyn, New York. The New Voices Opera Company commissioned him for his one-act opera, "In Memoriam," in 2017 (Libretto: Molly Korroch). Recio is a humble winner of the Cincinnati Camerata Competition, a two-time winner of the NOTUS Composition Competition, a finalist in the Young New Yorker's Choral Competition, and a finalist in the Morton Gould Awards and BMI Awards. William Stowman's CD, A Timeless Place (Klavier Records Label), features Recio's song cycle Chronology of Storms, with poetry written by Jenna Lanzaro. With an equal passion for instrumental composition, Recio has been represented at the Midwest Composer Symposium, the UNK Music Festival, and the Hammer and Nail Dance collaboration. His chamber works received recognition at the IMTA young artist composition competition and the Quartet Nouveau Competition. Recio is a proud alumnus of the IMANI Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, the Valencia International Performing Arts Program, the Norfolk Chamber Series, and Donald Nally's Grammy award-winning choir, "The Crossing." A summa cum laude graduate and Charles F. Hockett Scholarship winner of Ithaca College (B.M. Composition), Recio received his doctorate in music composition at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music as a Jacobs fellowship recipient and associate instructor in aural skills. His principal teachers include Dana Wilson, Claude Baker, Aaron Travers, Don Freund, David Dzubay, Eric Ewazen, P.Q. Phan, and Sven-David Sandström. For more information visit: www.matthewrecio.com

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Felix Jarrar is a multidisciplinary artist, distinguished as a composer, coach andconductor. His music has been praised for its "dreamlike" quality (Boston Globe) and"delightfully cruel" edge (Operawire). Jarrar's compositions have been noted to "flowfrom him in the most natural and lively way" (Tom Cipullo).Jarrar has had the privilege of collaborating with numerous esteemed organizations,including Santa Fe Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, OPERA San Antonio, The NewSchool, Opera Naples, Opera North, Opera Ithaca, Penn Square Opera, Hogfish,University of Memphis and the iconic Apollo Theater. For the 2024/2025 season, heserves as Assistant Conductor with Florida Grand Opera, working on productions of DieZauberflöte, L’elisir d’amore, and Carmen.Jarrar's impressive compositional catalog comprises 275 works, including 235 artsongs, 14 operas, 2 string quartets, and a symphony. He has received notablecommissions from and been underwritten by the New England Repertory Orchestra,University of Missouri Kansas City, Prismatic Arts Ensemble, Off the Chamber, SparkDuo, Idaho Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Hisoperas have been produced by Landlocked Opera, Chicago Fringe Opera, /kor/productions, Killer Queen Opera, Opera Elect, and New Wave Opera, amongst others.His song "Sun of the Sleepless" was featured on the 2024 GRAMMY-nominated album40@40 by Laura Strickling and Daniel Schlosberg.Felix Jarrar holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marlboro College, where he graduatedwith highest honors in music composition and piano performance. He earned his Masterof Music degree from Brooklyn College, receiving the Graduate Dean's Award in MusicComposition. Jarrar's musical training was influenced by his studies with Jason Eckardt,Stanley Charkey, Tania León, and Robert Merfeld, as well as mentorship from pianopedagogue Burton Hatheway.https://www.felixjarrarmusic.com

Collaborative pianist and composer Jodi Goble is Senior Lecturer in Voice at Iowa State University, where she coaches singers, music-directs the ISU Opera Studio, and teaches diction and song literature. She received the Iowa State University Award for Early Excellence in Teaching in 2015. Before coming to Iowa, she was Lecturer at the Boston University College of Fine Arts, Senior Vocal Coach and Coordinator of Opera Programs for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, diction faculty at the Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts, and the primary rehearsal pianist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Festival Chorus. During her tenure with the Boston Symphony, she was privileged to play under conductors James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Keith Lockhart, and Seiji Ozawa, and to collaborate in rehearsal with artists José van Dam, Paul Groves, Yvonne Naef, Stephanie Blythe, Marcello Giordano, and Peter Serkin.Ms. Goble collaborates regularly in recital with bass-baritone Simon Estes, both locally and across the United States, and is his official collaborator for the Iowa Roots and Wings Community Concerts, as well as the pianist and artistic director for the Simon Estes Young Artist Concert Series. She has been the official pianist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Iowa since 2009, and is a frequent recitalist with artists associated with Des Moines Metro Opera; recent collaborative partners include tenor Taylor Stayton, baritone Michael Maves, and sopranos Sarah Jane McMahon and Sydney Mansacola.Ms. Goble’s compositions have been performed across the United States and internationally and featured on National Public Radio. Her awards include the 2013 Commission Competition of the Iowa Music Teachers Association and selection as a finalist entry in the 2008 NATS Art Song Competition. Her choral cantata True Witness was premiered and recorded in November 2013 by the Claremont College Choirs, the Chamber Singers of the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, and soloists Gwendolyn Lytle and Simon Estes. Other recent commissions include works for Voices of the Pearl, the UNCC Operatecture Project, the P.A.L.S. Girlchoir in Boston, and Omaha-based chamber trio I, the Siren. Her works have recently received performances at Beijing Central Conservatory, Boston University, Iowa State University, Hunan Women’s College, Scripps College, Curry College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Iowa Composers’ Forum, the University of Northern Iowa, the Art Song Preservation Society of New York, the Ames Town and Gown Musicale, the Le Ran Arts Festival in Shanghai, and the ASEAN International Festival of Contemporary Music.https://www.jodigoble.com

r. Emerson Eads currently serves as Director of Choral Activities at Minot State University. As a composer and conductor, he has devoted himself to music of social concern. His Mass for the Oppressed was written to support the Fairbanks Four, Alaskan Natives from the composer’s hometown who were wrongfully imprisoned for over sixteen years. His cantata “…from which your laughter rises” was written for the mothers of the Fairbanks Four. His opera, The Princess Sophia, premiered in Juneau, Alaska, on October 25th, 2018, to a rave review in Opera magazine. Recent work includes A Prairie Cantata and Black Wolf: A Passion Cantata. Emerson studied choral conducting with Carmen-Helena Téllez at the University of Notre Dame, working with eminent choral conductors, including Joseph Flummerfelt, Stephen Cleobury, Ann Howard Jones, and Peter Phillips. Before his graduate work, he studied composition with Alaskan composer John Luther Adams. https://emersoneads.com

Award-winning composer Paul Leonard-Morgan has written music for the concert hall, the theater, public events, worked with pop and rock bands, and composed for the screen, both large and small. His experience and range are the epitome of the skill, versatility, and appeal of a 21st century composer—in a world where genres are less and less important, he’s a conservatory trained composer with a punk rock heart.Leonard-Morgan is one of the most notable contemporary soundtrack composers, in demand for his seamless use of the orchestra with electronics. Writing music for a variety of visual media, his credits include his collaborations with Philip Glass for series The Green Veil, Tales from the Loop, and The Pigeon Tunnel; the feature films Limitless, Best Sellers, Dredd, and The Tomorrow Man; Errol Morris’ series Wormwood and the documentary American Dharma; and the video game Cyberpunk 2077. He has garnered a BAFTA award for his first film score, Reflections Upon the Origin of the Pineapple, and Emmy, Ivor Novello, and World Soundtrack Award nominations.His expertise extends to the recording studio, where has worked with such leading artists as Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol, No Doubt, and Isobel Campbell.Scottish by birth and upbringing, Leonard-Morgan’s classical works are steeped in the musical and poetic traditions of his home. With a mother who was a music teacher, Leonard-Morgan learned numerous instruments as a child, and went on to earn a degree at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.His composing for the stage includes a commission from the National Theatre to score new adaptations of Rona Munro’s history plays James I, II &amp; IV, which opened at the Edinburgh International Festival.His concert music includes the Celtic Concerto for violin, harp, soprano, whistles, and pipes, which was commissioned for the Inter-Celtic Festival in Lorient. A suite from his original score for the BBCSSO’s A History of Scotland toured Scotland and was performed at Proms in The Park.His pieces for commemorative events include “Glory of Pursuit,” the official anthem of the US Olympic Committee for the Beijing Olympic Games, and the orchestral anthem for the Queen’s Baton Relay of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.Currently, Leonard-Morgan is developing new works, including a song cycle for L'Orchestre National de Bretagne, for ensemble and a vocalist singing poems by Scots language poet Lennie, and is preparing to release an album of new Etudes for Piano and Cello, featuring cellist and interdisciplinary artist Suuvi.https://www.paulleonardmorgan.com/about

Composer Kurt Erickson specializes in creating innovative large scale, multi-year projects for multi-artist commissioning consortiums. His 2023-2025 Each Moment Radiant will include some 20-25 global arts organizations, including those in the US, Sweden, and Finland. The multimedia vocal work will honor the lives of the thirty-five Syracuse University students who perished in the Pan Am Flight 103 Tragedy over Lockerbie, Scotland. Erickson’s Seventeen Minutes and Twenty-Two Seconds for solo piano commemorates the 300th Anniversary of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier and the memory of jazz great Chick Corea. The work was created from a 2020-2023 commissioning consortium led by the San Francisco International Piano Festival, including a consortium of 20 pianists performing the work over North and South America. His 2018-2020 Here, Bullet song set achieved global success as work that was written for a global consortium of 30 singers from three different continents, won First Prize in the 2020 NATS Art Song competition, and was the subject of a published doctoral dissertation. In a version of the piece written for Sybarite5, Here, Bullet will be turned into a short film by Tonynominated actor/director Will Chase. The film and the new version of the piece will be toured during the 2024-2025 season, screened at international film festivals, presented in performances by military performing ensembles, and presented at veteran’s organizations and other civic events. Erickson currently serves as Composer-in-Residence with San Francisco’s LIEDER ALIVE!, writing and premiering new commissioned works on their subscription concert series. He has been called “a composer at the height of his powers” and his music has been described as “haunting and poetic”, “gripping”, “genuinely moving”; with one author writing that a performance “moved this reviewer to tears”. Noteworthy performances and commissions include those by the Minnesota Orchestra, Grammy Award winning San Francisco Girls Chorus at Davies Symphony Hall, violist Paul Yarbrough of the Alexander String Quartet, performances and radio interviews at the American Guild of Organists National Convention, and a commissioned work for soprano and orchestra celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Berkeley Community Chorus &amp; Orchestra. His vocal music and song sets are performed on recitals across the United States. Erickson’s association with the late countertenor Brian Asawa led to premiere performances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Long Beach, and Seattle with critical acclaim in The Huffington “Erickson’s settings are simply gorgeous: the recording of the Los Angeles premiere (Here, Bullet)…moved this reviewer to tears.” Kathleen Roland Silverstein, Journal of Singing Post and San Francisco Classical Voice. Erickson has worked extensively with San Francisco Opera Ballet Master Lawrence Pech on a number of dance commission projects and festival teaching engagements. Considered an entrepreneurial artist and thought leader, Erickson has implemented and designed over ten years of innovative multi-year composer residencies with performing arts organizations, cathedrals, dance companies, and national shrines. He is a frequent podcast guest and host, interviewing artists including soprano Karen Slack and Pulitzer Prize winning composer Anthony Davis. He designed the weekly CRC Music: In The Studio series at Sacramento’s Cosumnes River College, and frequently serves as a guest artist at colleges and universities across the country. While in his twenties, Mr. Erickson created a series of unique sacred music residencies: a 1999-2000 Three Church Residency at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, St. Mary the Virgin, and Berkeley’s St. Mark’s Episcopal Church; then later a 2001-2003 composer residency at The National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. Erickson’s choral works appear on the professional choral ensemble Schola Cantorum’s release This Christmas Night. A new music advocate, Mr. Erickson has premiered new compositions and commissioned 20 prominent composers as part of the Neue Lieder Commissioning Program, a biennial project on the LIEDER ALIVE! concert series. He Directed the Composers Workshop at the Napa Music Festival, mentoring young composers while arranging public performances of original compositions. As a young composer Erickson participated in Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, as well as festivals hosted by Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Brandeis University, and The University of Notre Dame. Erickson is a frequent performer with his wife, acclaimed soprano/pedagogue/voice scientist Heidi Moss Erickson. Together they collaborate on new works and speak on topics ranging from composer-singer best practices to assorted pedagogy issues in educational and classical music forums. They are in demand as speakers at colleges, on recital series, and with podcasts.

Joseph Jones is a dedicated, passionate, and consummate classical musician with a wide range of talents including composition, conducting, and orchestral playing. Mr. Jones studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and has been a conducting fellow at the Aspen Music Festival and Allentown Symphony. He has also been an assistant or apprentice conductor with the New York Youth Symphony, National Music Festival, and Gulf Coast Symphony. He’s guest conducted the Color of Music Festival orchestra and with the Trilogy Opera Company. In 2015 he founded Orchestra Amadeus, a New York City based project whose mission is to promote social justice through classical music.As a composer, Mr. Jones’ works have been performed in the United States and Europe. He has written a wide variety of music including art song, solo instrumental, chamber music, choral, concertante, chamber, string, and full orchestra, oratorio, and opera. Most recently he was the first prize-winner in the call for scores held by Music Of the Unsung America in Miami, giving the premiere of his Second Symphony for String Orchestra in April, 2021.Mr. Jones has studied violin, viola, percussion, and voice and has performed as an orchestral and chamber musician, chorister, and soloist. He studied composition with Nicholas Maw at Peabody and Dr. Samuel Adler at the Bowdoin Festival.Mr. Jones is a native of Rhode Island, where he was raised on a farm in a small town. He currently lives in New York City.https://joachimamadeus.wixsite.com/josephjones

Marti Epstein (November 25, 1959) started studying composition in 1977 with Professor Robert Beadell at the University of Nebraska. She has degrees from the University of Colorado and Boston University, and her principal teachers were Cecil Effinger, Charles Eakin, Joyce Mekeel, Bunita Marcus, and Bernard Rands. Marti was a fellow in composition at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1986 and 1988 and worked with Oliver Knussen and Hans Werner Henze. As a result of her association with Henze, she was invited by the City of Munich to compose her puppet opera, Hero und Leander, for the 1992 Munich Biennale for New Music Theater. She was on the jury for the 1994 Biennale.Marti has received commissions from the Paul Jacobs Memorial Commissioning Fund, the CORE Ensemble, ALEA III, Sequitur New Music Ensemble, the Fromm Foundation, guitarist David Tanenbaum, the American Dance Festival, the A*DEvant-garde Festival of Munich, tubist Samuel Pilafian, flutist Marianne Gedigian, the New England Brass Quintet, the Iowa Brass Quintet, Boston Conservatory, Boston University Marsh Chapel Choir, pianist Kathleen Supové, the CrossSound New Music Festival of Juneau Alaska, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the Radius Ensemble, the Ludovico Ensemble, and the Callithumpian consort. The Longy School of Music commissioned her to compose Quartet for BSO English horn soloist Robert Sheena to be played at the Inauguration of Karen Zorn, their new president. Marti’s music has been performed all over the world by ensembles, which include the San Francisco Symphony, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, the Atlantic Brass Quintet, and Ensemble Modern.https://www.martiepstein.com

Jessica Rudman’s music inspires empathy for social issues through stories of myth, magic, and the modern world. Described as a “new music ninja” by the Hartford Advocate, she blends lyrical melodies and dramatic narrative structures with sensual harmony and vibrant color to draw the audience into the world she has created. Her works for the concert hall, dance, and opera often differ in musical language and approach, with the common thread always being expressivity. She believes that the ability to reach one’s audience is of extreme importance in our current social, economic, and political environment. Jessica’s works have been performed by groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Cadillac Moon Ensemble, The Omaha Symphony’s Chamber Orchestra, the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, and the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra. She has received awards from SCI/ASCAP, Boston Metro Opera, the College Music Society, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and others. Jessica is a 2019 Connecticut Artist Fellow, with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. Jessica recently joined the faculty at University of Utah as an Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory. Learn more about her here.https://www.jessicarudman.com/

Born in Australia and raised in an immigrant family, Melissa Dunphy herself immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has since become an acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political, and theatrical music. She first came to national attention in 2009 when her large-scale work the Gonzales Cantata was featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, National Review, Fox News, and on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, where host Rachel Maddow described it as “the coolest thing you’ve ever seen on this show.” Other notable works include Totality, commissioned by The King’s Singers and VOCES8 and premiered at the BBC Proms 2024, song cycle Tesla's Pigeon, which won first place in the NATS Art Song Composition Award, and What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? which won the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Competition and has been performed around the country by choral ensembles including Chanticleer, Cantus, and the St. Louis Chamber Chorus.In 2024, Dunphy was awarded an Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts. She received a 2020 Opera America Discovery Grant for Alice Tierney, a commission for Oberlin Opera Theater that premiered in 2023 and received its professional debut at Opera Columbus. She has been composer-in-residence for the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra, Volti, and the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, and her commissions include works for the BBC Singers, VOCES8, Cantus, Mendelssohn Chorus, Seattle Pro Musica, Chor Leoni, La Caccina, Skylark, Experiments in Opera, and the Kennett Symphony. Dunphy is also a Barrymore Award-nominated theater composer and sound designer, and served from 2014-2024 as Director of Music Composition for the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut.Dunphy has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and is on faculty at Rutgers University. She is president of the boards of directors for Wildflower Composers and Lyric Fest. Melissa and her husband Matt are also avid citizen archaeologists and co-hosts of the popular podcast The Boghouse about their adventures in Philadelphia colonial archaeology; they are currently developing the Necessary Museum, which they hope to open in 2026 to showcase their local discoveries.https://www.melissadunphy.com

Charles Booker (b. 1952), a native of Natchez, Mississippi, is a former U.S. Army Bandmaster, and Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith. He served the university as Director of Jazz Studies, Director of Bands, and Chair of the Music Department. During his tenure at UA Fort Smith he taught trumpet, band, jazz band, conducting, music theory, orchestration and composition. Mr. Booker was a student of Al Sturchio and Dan Schreiber and studied trumpet with Gary Rosenblatt and Jan Roller. He studied composition with Hank Levy (composer/arranger for Stan Kenton), Dr. Steve Strunk and Dr. James Balentine, and conducting with Dr. Robert Garofalo and Dr. Robert Rustowicz. Mr. Booker received his degrees from the University of the State of New York and the University of Texas at San Antonio. He later completed courses for Texas teacher certification in secondary music at Texas State University and holds a Texas Teaching Certificate.Mr. Booker has over 100 compositions published by Alfred, Kendor, Southern Music Company, Wingert-Jones, Potenza Music, Print Music Source, and Lecta Music. Mr. Booker’s music has been performed internationally by schools, universities, community bands and professional bands and orchestras that include the Fort Smith Symphony Orchestra, The U.S. Army Band and Orchestra ("Pershing’s Own"), the U.S. Army Field Band, the U.S. Military Academy Band (West Point), the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America and the U.S. Air Force Academy Band. Mr. Booker’s 21 year career in the U.S. Army included service in the Fifth Army Band in San Antonio, Texas, staff arranger for the Army Field Band, conductor of Army Bands in Louisiana, Germany, New York City, and director of the Jazz Ambassadors in Washington, D.C. As a trumpeter with the Fifth Army Band, Mr. Booker performed for the funerals of Presidents Truman and Johnson. In 1981, as the conductor of the 3rd Armored Division Band in Germany, Mr. Booker conducted ceremonies at Rhein Main Air Force Base for the returning American hostages from Iran. In New York City, he conducted the Army Band of New York City at ceremonies for head of states of the United States, Germany, France, Netherlands, Portugal and China, and his band performed at the centennial activities of the Statue of Liberty. While an associate conductor of the Army Field Band and director of the Jazz Ambassadors, Mr. Booker performed at the Kennedy Center, in 48 states, India, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and marched in the inauguration parades of Presidents George H. W. Bush and William J. Clinton.He was Interim Director of Bands at Trinity University from 1996 to 1997 and assistant editor at Southern Music Company from 1994 to 1997. Charles Booker has been recognized by the Mayor of Fort Smith (the 2006 "Mayor’s Honors to the Visual and performing Arts"), the North Side Independent School District of San Antonio, Texas (the 2008 "Pillars of Character Award") and received the Arkansas Arts Council Award in music composition for 2009. He is past president of the Arkansas Chapter of the College Band Directors National Association, past president of the Arkansas Chapter of the International Association of Jazz Educators, current member of the Texas Bandmaster Association, the Association of Concert Bands and is a past president (2010) of the Arkansas Bandmaster Association. Mr. Booker is also a retired member of the Texas Chapter of Phi Beta Mu.In 2007, the New Mexico State University Symphonic Winds released their CD entitled "Centra-fuge: The Music of Charles L. Booker, Jr.”, and in 2008, Mr. Booker released his second CD "American Jubilee”. Booker’s CD "Time Remembered” was released in 2009, and his CD "Radiant Blues” was released in 2011. In 2013 Mr. Booker and fellow composer Roger Cichy released a compilation of their latest original music on their CD “Glorious Journey”.Mr. Booker is married to his wife of 49 years, trumpeter and quilter, Claudette [DeRocher] Booker of San Antonio, Texas. They have three children: Major Erik Booker, U. S. Army (Retired) and Maryland public school teacher; Dr. Adam Booker, Assistant Professor of Double Bass at Appalachian State University, and Dr. Colleen Booker Halverson of Richland Center, Wisconsin, author, English professor and mentor at Western Governors University. Mr. Booker and Claudette have nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.http://charlesbooker.com/

Catherine Likhuta (b. 1981, Kyiv, Ukraine) is an Australian-based composer, pianist and recording artist. Catherine holds a bachelor's degree in jazz piano from Kyiv Glière Music College and a five-year post-graduate degree in composition from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory). She is currently [2018] pursuing a Ph.D. in composition at the University of Queensland. Her music exhibits high emotional charge, programmatic nature and rhythmic complexity. Catherine's works have been performed throughout North America, Europe and Australia by many prominent soloists and ensembles, such as Paul Dean, Peter Luff, The Australian Voices, U.S. Army Field Band Horns, Cornell University Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony, Queensland Conservatorium Wind Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the National Radio of Ukraine. Her pieces have been played at several international events, including two international horn symposia and the World Saxophone Congress. Her concertino for five horns entitled Hard to Argue became the winner of the International Horn Society Composition Contest, virtuoso division.www.catherinelikhuta.com

Jennifer E. Rose (b. 1978) is an American composer, sound designer, and audio editor. A former band director and music educator of 15 years, Rose is passionate about engaging students through performance. Lately, her genre-breaking scores that incorporate 8-bit sound design and orchestral elements have garnered the attention of ensemble directors worldwide.​Jennifer holds a Professional Artist Certificate in Composition and Master’s degree in Composition &amp; Technology from the North Carolina School of the Arts as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of Arkansas. www.composerose.com

From the serious to the lighthearted, Spavelko's work inspires deeper connections with one another and ourselves. In equal measure, listeners can find play, curiosity, joy, sensitivity, and empathy.Her works have been performed across the United States, as well as in Italy, Singapore, and Canada.She has been commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Central Ohio Symphony, the Johnstone Fund for New Music, and numerous artists &amp; performing ensembles. She arranged Orphée+ with Opera Columbus.Spavelko has won multiple awards, including the 2017 Gian Carlo Menotti Young Composers Prize in Spoleto, Italy (Baby Book) and the Ruth Anderson Commission Prize from IAWM (Black Box 2.0). She has been a finalist for the NATS Art Song Composition Award (Baby Book) and for the American Prize in Vocal Chamber Music (Baby Book and From Edna, With Love) and Orchestral Music. (Kéyah)In addition to composing, Spavelko is a gifted educator. She operates Musical Life, where she offers lessons in voice, piano, violin, &amp; composition. She is a part-time professor at Otterbein University, where she teaches theory &amp; piano skills for musical theater.She also presents as a guest composer in K-12 classrooms, designs youth composition workshops, composes for youth ensembles, and delivers lectures on solo entrepreneurship for college students.Lauren Spavelko performs as a vocalist, violinist, and pianist in both classical and commercial productions. She enjoys collaborating with artists and organizations in Columbus and the greater region. She has performed with opera workshops, professional choirs, chambers orchestras, and as a soloist.(Learn more and see her work on her performance page.)​From 2012-2014, Lauren toured with internationally-renowned artist Tajci and manager/producer Matthew Cameron, performing in 100+ concerts as a violinist and vocalist, and learning about concert production, sales, and logistics.She is a co-coordinator of the Institute for Composer Diversity's chamber music database and a board member of Converging Arts Columbus and the Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society.Spavelko is a graduate of the University of Louisville (M.M. Composition) and Ohio Wesleyan University (B.M. Music Education). She has studied composition with Steve Rouse, Clint Needham, and Jason Bahr. She values a balanced life rich in creative work, friendship, self-exploration, and play, and she desires the same for other artists. You can hear her laughing through Columbus while swing dancing, singing and fiddling, practicing yoga, painting, and making a joyful raucous with her circle

Katie Jenkins is a multi-award-winning Welsh composer and producer, now based in New York City. She is recognised for her ability to weave together sonic textures, influenced by her Celtic background. She draws on her ability as a vocalist and violinist to create her distinctive sound. Katie’s music can be found on stage, in the media and at the concert hall. She is renowned for her strength in collaborative work and ability to form supportive environments where she works closely with fellow musicians to maximize their creative output. Her choral and solo piano music has been published by Hal Leonard in the US and Europe and her instrumental music by Murphy Music Press.Her musical talent, coupled with her entrepreneurial skills has already left her with an array of awards. Jenkins’ most recent accolades include winning the Grand Prize in the International Women’s Brass Festival: WCFT Competition, the EXPO: New Works Competition, the Composer’s Cordance Generations XI: New Music for Jazz Septet, the LunArt Festival and the New York Federation of Music Prize. Her music has been used by many filmmakers, including festival success at the Berlin Film Festival and New York International Film Awards. Her original score, written in collaboration with Shelbie Rassler, for the docu-series ‘Wright of Passage’ premiered at NASA, The Kennedy Space Center, June 2023. She has been commissioned by numerous ensembles and individuals such as Ensemble Intencomperain, the New York Choreographic Institute, an affiliate of the New York City Ballet and more recently fashion designer Terrence Zhou (Bad Binch Tong Tong); creating original music for New York Fashion Week shows in the fall of both 2022 and 2023. Her music has been performed across the world including venues such as National Sawdust, where she held a fellowship, The Juilliard School, The Curtis Institute of Music, BBC Hoddinott Hall, The DiMenna Center and music festivals in Barcelona, Serbia, Bulgaria and more! Katie enjoys working with a broad spectrum of creative talent. She has composed and produced music for the United Nations, The Female Quotient, The Girls Day School Trust, and Joy of Mom.She is a 2022 graduate of the Juilliard School where she held the Henry Mancini Fellowship. She has returned to Juilliard where she is currently completing her Masters degree as well as coaching film scoring and music production in the Center for Innovation in The Arts. Katie recently joined the composition faculty at The Juilliard Pre-College where she teaches Music Technology and Screen Scoring.www.katiejenkinscomposer.com