Meng Wang

Meng Wang

Wang Meng (王萌）is a Chinese composer currently based in Cincinnati. Her music has been performed internationally by notable orchestras and ensembles, including Brussels Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, MSM Composer's Orchestra, China Youth Symphony; Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Longleash Trio, F- Plus Ensemble, among others. Wang was a composer fellow at Aspen Music Festival, Cabrillo Music Festival, and was selected to participate in 2019 ['tactus] Young Composers Forum with Brussels Philharmonic and American Composers Orchestra EarShot readings in 2018. Recent commissions include a percussion ensemble piece for Shanghai Symphony in Chamber Concert series and a piano concerto for CCM Concert Orchestra, which will get its premiere in spring 2022.

Wang is currently pursuing her DMA in composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of music under the guidance of Prof. Douglas Knehans. She earned her Master's degree at Manhattan School of Music. Her primary instructors include composers Wenchen Qin, Reiko Füting, and Andreia Pinto Correia.

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Sugar Vendil

Sugar Vendil

Sugar Vendil is a composer, pianist, choreographer, and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking, known as Brooklyn. She started her artistic life as a classical pianist, and after spending nearly a decade searching for her own voice, her practice evolved into performances that integrates sound, movement, and unconventional approaches to the piano. She writes and performs her own solo music for piano and electronics and has a keyboard/synth duo, Vanity Project, with composer Trevor Gureckis. Vendil is a proud second generation Filipinx American.

Vendil was awarded a 2021 MAPFund grant to support Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia. Recent commissions include Chamber Music America to write a new work for her ensemble, The Nouveau Classical Project, which she founded in 2008; ETHEL’s Homebaked 2019 for Unsacred Geometry, and ACF | Create to write for Box Not Found.

Vendil loves dancing and collaborating with other makers. In September 2020, she danced in choreographer Emily Johnson/CATALYST’s The Ways We Love and The Ways We Love Better – Monumental Movement Toward Being Future Being(s) at Socrates Sculpture Park. She is part of Johnson’s Being Future Being process, which showed at Bates Dance Festival and Jacob’s Pillow in July 2021. Vendil took part in premiering composer-saxophonist Darius Jones’ LawNOrder at The Stone and Being Caged in ICE (2018) at Roulette.

She has performed at a variety of venues, ranging from arts spaces such as BAM Fisher, Dixon Place, Knockdown Center’s Ready Room, MoMa PS1, National Sawdust, the New School’s Glassbox Theater, The Stone, and Roulette; to galleries and spaces such as The Development Gallery, Milk Studios, and Spring Studios.

Vendil is an advocate of the oxford comma, is obsessed with her cat Coco, and has an excellent memory.

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Tengku Irfan

Tengku Irfan

Malaysian-born Tengku Irfan has appeared around the world as a pianist, composer, and conductor, and has been praised by The New York Times as “eminently cultured” and possessing “sheer incisiveness and power”. Irfan has performed with orchestras worldwide with conductors Claus Peter Flor, Neeme Järvi, Kristjan Järvi, David Robertson, Robert Spano, Osmo Vänskä, George Stelluto, Jeffrey Milarsky, among others. His compositions have been premiered by highly-acclaimed orchestras and ensembles, and have won international awards including three ASCAP Morton Gould Awards in 2012, 2014, and 2017.

Irfan started his piano lessons at age 7 and developed an interest in composing shortly after. His major debut performance was at age 11, performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto in E flat (Wo04) with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Claus Peter Flor, where he improvised his own cadenzas for all three movements.

Other performance highlights include the Juilliard Orchestra, AXIOM, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Sao Paulo State Youth Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Aspen Chamber Symphony, Peoria Symphony Orchestra, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, and a solo recital at the la Virée classique Festival Montréal, on invitation from Kent Nagano. Irfan also won the Aspen Music Festival Prokofiev Piano Concerto No.2 Competition in 2013, and was resident pianist for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble for four consecutive years since 2014.

Irfan’s career as a composer has garnered three ASCAP Morton Gould Awards and a Charlotte Bergen Award with performances and premieres by orchestras such as the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Peoria Symphony Orchestra and the MDR Simfonieorchester. His orchestral composition titled Keraian, was premiered by the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, with Case Scaglione conducting.

Irfan was a double major in piano & composition in the Juilliard Pre-College program (under Yoheved Kaplinsky & Ira Taxin). He currently studies at the Juilliard School as a double major in piano & composition under Yoheved Kaplinsky and Robert Beaser respectively, and also studies conducting with Jeffrey Milarsky and George Stelluto. Irfan served as Teaching Artist Intern for the New York Philharmonic Composer’s Bridge Program, and is a proud recipient of the Juilliard School Kovner Fellowship Award.

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Tom Morrison

Tom Morrison

New York native Tom Morrison (b. 1992) is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. Morrison draws his inspiration from the experience of place. Recent projects include new works for leading new music groups, including the Aizuri Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, Latitude49, Sö Percussion, and Contemporaneous. Upcoming Projects include new works for the New Jersey Symphony; Albany Symphony’s new music chamber orchestra, Dogs of Desire; and new electroacoustic works for Theo Van Dyck and Parker Ramsay. Recently, his work has been released on Eric Huckin’s album, Drifter. He was the winner of the 2016 Thailand International Composition Festival Competition judged by Mark Adamo, Aaron Jay Kernis, and John Corigliano. More recently, he won first place in the 2021 Symphonia Caritas Competition. Morrison is a graduate of the Juilliard School (MM) where he studied with Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Christopher Rouse. He is also a graduate of the University of Montana (BM), in Missoula, where he cultivated his love for nature and the environment. He holds an MFA from Princeton University, and is currently a PhD fellow at Princeton.

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Jared Miller

Jared Miller

Described as a “rising star” by MusicWorks magazine, JUNO-Nominated composer Jared Miller has collaborated with the American Composers Orchestra, the Victoria and Nashville Symphonies, the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Toronto, Detroit and Edmonton, The Attacca Quartet, Latitude 49, the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, the Emily Carr String Quartet and Standing Wave. His music has been featured and recognized in the New York Philharmonic’s Biennial (2014), the ISCM World Music Days (2017 & 2019), Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival (2010, 2015 & 2019), and the Festival Internacional de Jóvenes Orquestas (2019.)

Recent accolades include SOCAN’s Jan V. Matejcek Award, young composer prizes from the SOCAN and ASCAP Foundations, and a nomination for the 2020 JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year. He has also held residencies at the Banff Centre, I-Park’s International Artist-in-Residence Program, and with the Victoria Symphony from 2014-2017.

An advocate for musical education and outreach, Miller has taught and performed in several initiatives including The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Connects Program, BC’s Health Arts Society, Vancouver’s Opera in the Schools, and New York’s Opportunity Music Project.

Miller holds Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied with Samuel Adler and John Corigliano. He has also studied at the University of British Columbia with Stephen Chatman, Dorothy Chang, Sara Davis Buechner, and Corey Hamm. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music Composition at Dalhousie University.

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Jihyun Kim

Jihyun Kim

Jihyun Kim's music has appeared in the prestigious venues around the world, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Harris Hall in Aspen, DiMenna Center, Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence Italy, and Seoul Arts Center in Korea.

Jihyun’s works were performed by eminent ensembles such as the American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, Cornell Symphony Orchestra, Cornell Festival Orchestra, Tanglewood New Fromm Players, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, JACK Quartet, PUBLIQuartet, Society for New Music, Asciano Quartet, Switch Ensemble, Karien Ensemble, and Chanticleer LAB Choir, and were featured in the Underwood New Music Reading, Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, Mayfest, USF New Music Festival, Midwest Composers Symposium and Korean Music Expo.

Jihyun was selected as the winner of the Consortium Commission from American Composers Orchestra/Alabama Symphony/American Youth Symphony, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, the League of Composers/ISCM Composers Competition, the American Prize in Orchestral music, the Libby Larsen Prize, PUBLIQ Access, Florence String Quartet Call for Scores, the 32nd Chang-ak Composition Competition, the Otto R. Stahl Memorial Award/ Russell Distinguished Teaching Award from Cornell University, and received honorable mentions from Red Note New Music Composition Competition, TEMPO New Music Ensemble Call for Scores, among many others.

Jihyun is currently a doctoral candidate in Composition at Cornell University. Jihyun previously earned MM degree in Composition from Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University while serving as an Associate Instructor in Music Theory, and BM degree in Composition from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

Jihyun recently joined the Oberlin Conservatory as Visiting Assistant Professor in Composition. She previously taught at the Washington State University as Lecturer in Composition.

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David Fulmer

David Fulmer

Winner of the 2019 Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, David Fulmer has garnered numerous international accolades for his bold compositional aesthetic combined with his thrilling performances. A Guggenheim Fellow, and a leader in his generation of composer-performers, the success of his Violin Concerto at Lincoln Center in 2010 earned international attention and resulted in immediate engagement to perform the work with major orchestras and at festivals in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, and Australia. Fulmer made his European debut performing and recording his concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Matthias Pintscher in 2011. That same year, Fulmer made his debut at Tanglewood appearing with the work. A surge of recent and upcoming commissions include new works for the New York Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt, BMI Foundation, Concert Artists Guild, Washington Performing Arts, Kennedy Center, Fromm Music Foundation, Koussevitzky Foundation, and Tanglewood.

Fulmer was recently the recipient of both the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Carlos Surinach Commissioning Award from BMI. He is the first American recipient of the Grand Prize of the International Edvard Grieg Competition for Composers. He has also received the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the BMI Composer Award, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a special citation from the Minister of Education of Brazil, the Hannah Komanoff Scholarship in Composition from The Juilliard School, and the highly coveted George Whitefield Chadwick Gold Medal from the New England Conservatory. Fulmer appears regularly and records often with the premiere new music ensembles in New York, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Argento New Music Project, Speculum Musicae, the Group for Contemporary Music, and the New York New Music Ensemble. His work has been recorded by the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He has appeared recently on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts. He graduated from The Juilliard School.

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Fjóla Evans

Fjóla Evans

Fjóla Evans is a Canadian/Icelandic composer and cellist. Her work explores the visceral physicality of sound while drawing inspiration from patterns of natural phenomena. Autocorrect describes her work as a “texturing fog.” Commissions and performances have come from musicians such as Bang on a Can All-Stars pianist Vicky Chow, Grammy-winning ensemble eighth blackbird, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Her work has been featured on the MATA Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Gaudeamus Music Week, Cello Biennale Amsterdam 2020, Ung Nordisk Musik, and the American Composers Orchestra's SONiC Festival.

As a performer, she has presented her own work at Cluster Festival of New Music, (le) poisson rouge, Mengi in Reykjavík, and at Toronto's Music Gallery. Fjóla has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and KulturKontakt Austria, among others. She has studied composition with Julia Wolfe, cello performance with Matt Haimovitz, and completed a master’s degree in composition at the Yale School of Music in 2018. In September 2019 she began doctoral studies in composition at Columbia University where her research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Recent projects include a new song cycle for Dúplum duo based on a taxonomy of Icelandic plant life, the premiere of Self-Care by Fonema Consort, VC2 cello duo’s rendition of Ridge & Furrow featured on the album Beethoven’s Cellists, a performance of Lung as part of Gaudeamus Music Week 2021 by the Residentie Orkest, cellist Maya Fridman’s performance of Reið-Hagall-Bjarkan out on TRPTK, and the release of Bearthoven's recording of Shoaling on Cantaloupe Music. Fjóla is the 2017 winner of the Robert Fleming Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts.

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Jessie Cox

Jessie Cox

One of the world’s most brazenly experimental composers, Swiss artist 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 as a nebulous and ever-expanding sound world that includes ‘breathy instrumental noises, mournfully wailing glissandi, and climactic stampedes of frantic figuration’.

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Victoria Cheah

Victoria Cheah

Victoria Cheah (b. 1988, New York, NY) is a multi-disciplinary composer interested in boundaries, sustained energy, and social/performance rituals. Her work has been commissioned / presented by andPlay, Yarn / Wire, Wavefield Ensemble, MATA Festival, Guerilla Opera, Ensemble Dal Niente, Vertixe Sonora, Marilyn Nonken, Trio Okho, Transient Canvas, Trio de Kooning, PRISM Quartet, and performed by others. She has attended academies including Sommerakademie Schloss Solitude, Darmstadt, Fontainebleau, VIPA, SICPP, The Walden School, and others. Her teachers and mentors include David Rakowski, Eric Chasalow, Yu-Hui Chang, Steven Takasugi, Chaya Czernowin, Philippe Leroux, Shafer Mahoney, Shawn Crouch, as well as her students and colleagues.

Cheah holds a B.A. in music from City University of New York Hunter College & Macaulay Honors College and a Ph.D. in music composition & theory at Brandeis University. She has taught music, research, and writing related courses as an instructor at Longy School of Music, Brandeis University, and as a teaching fellow at Harvard University. From 2011-2015, Cheah served as the founding executive director of Sound Icon and has worked with new music organizations Talea Ensemble, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Composit, and others towards the realization of contemporary music events. She currently serves as Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, a co-director of Score Follower, and a bartender at Winnie’s.

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Shiuan Chang

Shiuan Chang

Describe as " spiritual, light and comforting." by Classic Agenda (FR), Shiuan Chang is the winner of 2018 Chicago Civic Symphony Composer Prize, 2021 Asian Cultural Council award, and the 2021 Djerassi Artist Residency. Shiuan views that the performance is birth; the following applause is death, and the performers’ acknowledge bow is reincarnation. His recent major production including "Sounding Light (2020)" collaborating with the Cloudgate Contemporary Dance company; Two flagship productions of the Taiwan International Festival of Arts : "I-Village (2021)" collaborating with the Sheng-Xiang Rock Band and the National Symphony Orchestra, and "A thousand stages, Yet I have never quite lived (2021)" collaborating with the Beijing Opera artist Hei-Min Wei and National Symphony Orchestra, directed by Kengsen Ong. CHANG Shiuan’s music have been performed nationally and internationally at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall (New York), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Jordan Hall (Boston), Moscow Philharmonic Chamber Hall, Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Bartok Hall (Hungary), ODC Theater (San Fransisco), Le Phenix Valenciennes (FR), Royaumont (Paris), Archipel Festival (Geneva), Tenso Music Days (Belgium), Boston Early Music Festival, Innovation Series Taipei, Grafenegg Festival, and the Bartok Festival (Hungary). He has worked with the Cloudgate Contemporary Dance Company, Tonkunstler Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Civic Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Asasello Quartett, TANA Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Atlas Ensemble, Ensemble Multilaterale, Ensemble Musicatreize, Earplay Ensemble, signal ensemble, Antico Moderno, Neue Vocalisten Stuttgart, Ekmeles Ensemble, Les Metabole, Princeton Singers, and Orkest de Ereprijs,.

CHANG studied with Malcolm Peyton at New England Conservatory during undergraduate. He has also studied with Chaya Czernowin, Stefano Gervasoni, and Maestro Peter Eotvos.

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Nick Bentz

Nick Bentz

Nick Bentz (b. 1994) is a composer and violinist whose art is drawn to the remote fringes and recesses of experience. In his work he seeks to render intimately personal spaces imbued with an individual sense of storytelling and narrative. Finding inspiration in historical materials, Nick's work often explores the destructive relationship between sound artifacts and time. His art centers around the blurring, juxtaposition, and amalgamation of stylistic idioms into singular sonic statements. Nick's music has been performed by leading artists including yMusic, flutist Marina Piccinini, HOCKET, Charleston Symphony, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, New Opera West, LIGAMENT, NYsoundCircuit, Jacksonville Symphony, TEMPO Ensemble, SONAR New Music Ensemble, Occasional Symphony, and Symphony Number One, and featured at Copland House CULTIVATE, the Center for Contemporary Art – Shanghai, FSU Festival of New Music, Bowdoin Music Festival, the Chengdu Museum, New Music on the Point, and the Sounding Now Festival. Current projects include works for International Contemporary Ensemble, Wigmore Hall, Thornton EDGE, and multimedia collaborations with visual artist Sicheng Wang and filmmaker Ian Kent. His work has received top honors from the Tribeca New Music Festival, the American Prize, the iSING International Young Artists Festival, Boston New Music Initiative, Hartford Opera Theater, and American Composer’s Orchestra’s EarShot Readings. Nick was previously a Composition Teaching Artist Fellow at the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Nick is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University, pursuing a doctorate in Music and Multimedia Composition. He received a master’s degree in composition from the University of Southern California. Nick also earned a master's in violin from the Peabody Conservatory, receiving bachelor's degrees in violin and composition. His mentors include Wang Lu, Eric Nathan, Anthony Cheung, Nina Young, Kevin Puts, Donald Crockett, Ted Hearne, Andrew Norman, Felipe Lara, and Yiorgos Vassilandonakis.

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David Bruce

Born in Stamford, Connecticut in 1970, composer David Bruce grew up in England and now enjoys a growing reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. In the 2013/14 season David was Associate Composer of the San Diego Symphony, for whom he wrote three pieces, including Night Parade for the orchestra's highly successful Carnegie Hall debut in October 2013; and the violin concerto Fragile Light for Gil Shaham for 2014.

His fourth Carnegie Hall commission That Time with You(2013) for mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor follows Steampunk (2011), Gumboots (2008) and Piosenki(2006), which have all gone on to be widely performed by leading ensembles around the world.

In the UK, David's piece Sidechaining was featured in the 2018 BBC Proms, he was 2012-13 Composer-in-Residence with the Royal Opera House, who co-commissioned with Glyndebourne the opera Nothing (after the book by Janne Teller), which premiered in Glyndebourne in February 2016.

Bruce's chamber opera The Firework Maker's Daughter (after the Philip Pullman story) toured the UK and New York in 2013 and was shortlisted for both the British Composer Awards, and the 2014 Olivier Awards for Best New Opera Production. It was revived for a 27-performance run at ROH Lindbury Studios in December 2015.

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Roscoe Mitchell

Master saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell (born in Chicago in 1940) is one of the great innovators in creative music of the post-Coltrane, post-Ayler era. He has for over 40 years been a restless explorer of new forms, ideas and concepts. In 1967 he founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago (originally the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble). Its motto – “Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future” –  is vividly demonstrated on their ECM legacy, including the widely praised albums Nice Guys, Full Force, Urban Bushmen and Tribute To Lester. More recently Mitchell co-led the Transatlantic Art Ensemble with fellow saxophonist Evan Parker, which can be heard on Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3, and collaborated with Jack DeJohnette on Made In Chicago, celebrating the early days and continued relevance of the AACM.

 Mitchell’s instrumental expertise extends through the full range of the saxophone and recorder families, as well as the flute, piccolo and clarinet. He has also been an innovator in percussion instrument design.

 In 1997, fifteen years after the Art Ensemble of Chicago's The Third Decade, Mitchell returned to ECM with his Note Factory group, an ensemble brimming over with improvising soloists of the highest calibre. Mitchell described their first ECM outing, Nine To Get Ready, as “the coming together of a dream I had many years ago of putting together an ensemble of improvising musicians with an orchestral range".

 The Note Factory dream continued with Far Side, as Mitchell continued to blur the demarcation between composition and improvisation.

 In autumn 2015 ECM recorded Roscoe Mitchell’s concerts at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. An album is in preparation.

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Ayaka Matsui

Ayaka Matsui

Ayaka is a harmony creator on the piano. Keenly sensitive to emotions in music, combined with pitch-to-color Synesthesia, Ayaka brings colors and sensibility to her musical storytelling. Classically trained as a pianist in Tokyo, Ayaka has journeyed through jazz, rock, funk, pop, metal, experimental and improvisation over the past 30 years. Ayaka translates energy, colors and emotions into harmonies, which serve as a container for stories to flow through the audience. Her collaborative platform Flow in Harmony showcases musical meditation, poetry piano improvisation, and live painting to music improvisation. Her art always pushes the boundaries of existing art mediums to expand sensory experiences.

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Adam November

Adam November

Adam November is a creative technologist and musician living in Brooklyn, New York. Adam combines electronics, code, sound, and light to create new experiences and products, often centering on music technology and LED art. Currently he is Director of Physical Technology at NYC-based innovation lab Future Colossal, and tours with bassist Karina Rykman on guitar and electronics.

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Ricardo Romaneiro

Ricardo Romaneiro

Ricardo Romaneiro was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil and moved to the U.S. at an early age. A graduate of The Juilliard School in composition, Ricardo’s music synthesizes his major musical influences and passions: classical music and electronic music. The New York Times described his work as “a blissful and compelling mix of Minimalist-derived rhythmic ecstasy and nightclub beats.” Ricardo is the co-founder of an audiovisual studio called SUBHAZE, creating immersive concerts, festival installations with an array of artists, brands, ensembles, and venues that transcends the traditional forms of presentation experience.

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Paul Wiancko

Paul Wiancko has led an exceptionally multifaceted musical life as a composer and cellist. As a performer, he has collaborated with Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida, Nico Muhly, and members of the Guarneri, Takács, JACK, Parker, Orion, and Juilliard quartets. Chosen as one of Kronos Quartet’s “50 for the Future”, Paul’s own music has been described as “dazzling”, “compelling” (Star Tribune) and “vital pieces that avoid the predictable” (Allan Kozinn). His 25-minute quartet LIFT is featured on the Aizuri Quartet’s Grammy-nominated album Blueprinting, one of NPR’s top 10 classical albums of 2018.

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Caleb Smith

Performer and composer Caleb A. Smith is a multi-faceted artist who hopes to use his art to present relevant, relatable, and thought-provoking narratives to his audience. Caleb received his Bachelor’s in Jazz Performance from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he was able to attend on a full-tuition scholarship. Currently, Caleb is pursuing his Master’s Degree from Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. He has been fortunate enough to study with musicians such as trombonist Robin Eubanks, as well as with performer composers like Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, Gary Bartz, and Billy Hart.  

As a performer, Caleb has played with a vast selection of artists including five-time Grammy Award winning American visionary Lauryn Hill at the 2018 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony presented by HBO, a performance with trumpeter Terrance Blanchard as part of Cleveland’s Annual Tri-C Jazz Festival, and at the New England Conservatory of Music with bassist Dave Holland. He has played with an array of different ensembles ranging from small jazz-based combos, concert/marching bands, a symphony orchestra, jazz big bands, Gospel groups and as part of a horn section in pop groups. Caleb has also given numerous performances in and around Cleveland at venues such as The Bop Stop at the Music Settlement, Severance Hall, and Akron’s acclaimed BLU Jazz+ Club.
Composition is an integral part of Caleb’s artistry and artistic process. He hopes that, through his original work and collaborations with others, he will make himself vulnerable to his audience and not only present themes and narratives associated closely with his heart and personal life, but also those that are associated with being Black in America. He has had the privilege to study composition at prestigious programs such as the Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Jazz Ahead (where he had his original work performed on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage) and at the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music.  

‍Caleb firmly believes that teaching is an integral part of any society and is very passionate about spreading the knowledge he has obtained to other people on their journey.

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Kalun Leung

Kalun Leung (he/him) is a collaborative trombonist, augmented instrumentalist, and sound artist with an extended practice in instrument building, electronics, and movement. His projects are motivated by the exploration of new and unexpected contexts in which the trombone can thrive, an interdisciplinary and research-based approach that has led to the invention of new electronic trombone augmentations, the study of Balkan brass band music in Guča, the premiere of never-before-seen Keith Haring computer art, the mounting of a Fluxus-inspired trombone sound sculpture, and site-specific improvisations with landfills and robots. 

As a performer, he is a major proponent for the presentation of new work through commissioning, collective creation, and improvisation, and performs in new music, improvised, jazz, inter-arts and folk music ensembles in New York City and Tiohtià:ke/Montréal where he is based. He has premiered works by George Lewis, Bekah Simms, and Lesley Mok, and has contributed to a GRAMMY-winning album with the Experiential Orchestra. He has collaborated with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Nation Beat, Slavic Soul Party, Zlatne Uste, David Taylor and Felix del Tredici (So Wrong it’s Right), Billy Martin (Medeski Martin & Wood), John Aaron Cockburn (Bruce Cockburn, Little Suns), and many others.

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