Meet the Composer Team
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Raquel Acevedo Klein is an active vocalist, conductor, instrumentalist and visual artist. Raquel has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall, BAM, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Celebrate Brooklyn!, National Sawdust and elsewhere.
She has recorded and performed with the likes of Glen Hansard, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, The National, Grizzly Bear, Caroline Shaw, Angélica Negrón, Cory Smythe, NY Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble and Mariinsky Orchestra among others.
She has premiered works by Paola Prestini, Philip Glass, John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli, and Shara Nova, to name a few. She conducts for the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Elijah J. Thomas (he/him/his, M.M. Music Education, B.M. Jazz Arranging/Composition) is a Black Philadelphia-born and Harlem-based multi-instrumentalist, educator and composer/experimentalist. Elijah has studied woodwind performance/improvisation with musicians Dick Oatts, Tim Warfield, Jr., Walter Bell, and Dr. Cynthia Folio, as well as composition/orchestration with Kevin Rodgers, Dr. Cynthia Folio, Dr. Maurice Wright and Dr. Norman David. As an educator Elijah has held numerous teaching positions across Philadelphia and New York City with Temple University Music Prep; Settlement Music School; Tune Up Philly (of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra); Education Through Music, Inc; and BASIS Independent Schools. He is an avid composer and experimentalist and creates and outputs what he calls “enuff music”: music intent on Black healing, spiritual awareness, and community. As a recording artist, Elijah has two solo releases enuff music, vol. i (published with Off Latch Press) and Our Search available for free listening on Bandcamp, a solo EP entitled Three Contemplations for Jason Moran (Bandcamp), as well as two full-length projects Diversity and The Unity of Sound released with his former group The NeW Quintet (available at all online retailers).
Bandcamp: https://elijahjthomas.bandcamp.com/
A Brooklyn-born, Black and Caribbean womxn who has found her heart in Harlem, having also lived in Philadelphia and Buenos Aires. Pacific is an empathic cultural sector leader who is deeply committed to driving positive change by supporting the people and places working to make our communities more inclusive, equitable, and enjoyable. She currently serves as a Program Officer, Cultural Investments for Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (UMEZ), a member of the second cohort of Sphinx LEAD, and an adjunct professor in Drexel University’s Master of Arts Administration and Museum Leadership program, her alma mater.
Being an artist-creator is the foundation of her origin story - Pacific is a trained soprano (B.M. Music History & Classical Voice, Temple University) with varied international performance experience as a soloist and member of several prolific ensembles including the Grammy-award winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus and the Philly Pops Festival Chorus. She’s performed on stages including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall, BAM, and has recorded and performed with artists including Barbra Streisand, Harry Connick Jr., Elton John, Grizzly Bear, The New York Philharmonic, John Legend, among others. She has premiered works by composers including Nico Muhly and Philip Glass and has performed under the baton of conductors including Lorin Maazel and Marin Alsop. All this while collaborating with her lesser-known though no less brilliant friends and colleagues on a myriad of artistic projects. Her greatest pursuit is for opportunities to create, commune with others, and live a more creative life.
Explore More Biomes
Each Biome represents a small group collaboration between 2-4 composers commissioned to create flexible, open-score pieces for outdoor performance and infinite combinations of instruments.
“Biophony" is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.