William Copper is an American composer of contemporary classical music, a theorist, and the world’s authority on Intonalism, the science of structuring music according to intonation. His music is praised for its beauty, structural integrity, and innovative originality. Copper’s studies began in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and as his interests turned to […]
Known for his energetic rhythms, rich harmonic language, and striking colors, award-winning composer Josh Rodriguez (b. 1982) continues to gain recognition as an emerging composer and collaborator on a national and international scale. Born in Argentina and raised in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States, Rodriguez’s musical imagination has been formed by this bilingual, multi-cultural […]
Composer and conductor Hannah A. Barnes focuses on crafting structured yet dynamic, multi-faceted musical worlds characterized by mercurial, volatile, and seemingly incompatible materials. These works straddle tension and expression for both performers and listeners. Barnes’ main concerns are (re)defining Modernism in the twenty-first century, investigating manifestations of complexity and polyphony, and addressing questions of syntax […]
Anthony Joseph Lanman is an active and passionate musician that divides his time between composing, performing, teaching and advocacy for new classical music. As a composer, Anthony creates music that reaches general audiences as well as new music connoisseurs. Embracing influences that range from progressive rock and metal, to medieval and renaissance music, to jazz, […]
“I’m originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. I grew up in a household of music lovers, who encouraged me to pursue music. I picked up guitar at age 12 and immediately started composing my own songs. I attended the University of Chicago where I studied Music Composition under Mwata Bowden, Augusta Read Thomas, and Anthony Cheung. I […]
Natasha Bogojević is an award winning and internationally acclaimed composer and pianist. She is regarded as the creator of highly original, passionate and imaginative pieces. Her music is not possible to categorize; while deeply rooted in classical tradition she is constantly searching for different inspiration to create new, engaging and inventive scores. She is the […]
Elliott Lupp is a composer, improvisor, visual artist, educator, and sound designer whose work often invokes images of the distorted, chaotic, visceral, and absurd. This aesthetic approach as it relates to both acoustic and electroacoustic composition has led to a body of work that, at the root of its construction, focuses on the manipulation of […]
Carlos Bandera is a composer whose music is characterized by a glacial unfolding of sonic landscapes. He often expands simple elements into large-scale musical structures, through which he explores the interplay of harmony, noise, and texture. Carlos received the Underwood Commission to write a new work for the American Composers Orchestra after his piece Lux […]
Pedram Diba (b.1993) is an Iranian-American composer of acoustic, acousmatic, and mixed music residing in Chicago. Diba’s music and research has been showcased in festivals such as IRCAM Forum 2022, Festival Temporel 2021, NOVA Contemporary Meeting 2021, 4th Annual Research on Contemporary Music Conference, Concert Vivier InterUniversitaire 2020, New Music Gathering 2018, White Ibis Ensemble […]
Logan Rutledge is a composer of contemporary classical music that hails from Gainesville, Florida! Rutledge holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago where he studied Composition with Marc Mellits, and a Masters of Music in Composition from the University of Miami studying with Charles Norman Mason. Rutledge has also […]
Olivia Kieffer is a composer, percussionist, and educator. A native of Wisconsin, her music has been described as “immediately attractive,” “like a knife of light,” and “honest, to the point, and joyful!” Olivia is former adjunct music faculty at Reinhardt University (2009 – 2017), where she taught percussion and World Music. She studied percussion at […]
Ramin Roshandel’s compositional work is based around incorporating ‘experience’ as a fundamental concept through a non-experimental approach in performance. Considering phenomena such as instability, cultural identity, and communicational language on one hand, and being inspired by Persian music intervals as a setār (an Iranian instrument) player on the other, has led him to consider indeterminate, […]
Elizabeth Rudolph is a Chicago-based composer “whose music takes advantage of the rhythmic complexity of minimalism to emphasize thoughtfully composed melodic storytelling.” according to contralto Katherine Dalin. Rudolph’s music has been commissioned, performed, and/or recorded by VOX3, Third Eye Theater, New Moon Opera, Chicago Fringe Opera, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, Interlochen Arts […]
Julian Terrell Otis is a vocalist dedicated to the advancement of Black music in America, spanning genres from creative music and jazz, to contemporary classical. His work explores the limitless possibilities of his instrument’s expressive capacity through song, improvisation, and theater. Known for bringing fresh perspective, nuance, and “high drama” to the contemporary music world, […]
Ben Zucker makes “stirring compositions…built on a lifetime of musical curiosity” (Chicago Reader). As an intentionally wide-ranging composer/performer, he has contributed to experimental scenes across North America and Europe. Performance highlights include working with musicians including Anthony Braxton, Gareth Davis, Myra Melford, Karen Borca, Vocal Constructivists, Rinde Eckert, and the San Francisco Choral Artists, amongst […]
Zachary Guo attends Deerfield High School and studies piano with Dr. Matthew Hagle as well as composition with Dr. Christopher Jones. He is a scholarship fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college musicians. At the Academy, Zachary enjoys learning and playing contemporary music with his peers. Zachary began […]
Zoë A. Wallace (formerly known as Zoë Holbrook) is a classical composer and guitarist who is continually striving to broaden the repertoire for instruments in an ensemble setting. She has performed in a number of concerts as a soloist and in a duo throughout California, Illinois, and Utah, and has had the pleasure of playing […]
Molly Jones’ practice incorporates improvisation, composition, and multimedia performance with saxophones, flutes, and electronic samples. Her work originates in a place of playfulness, listening, and attention. Formed by her experiences in jazz, classical, Balkan brass, and Scottish country dance/contradance ensembles, and by her fascination with found sounds, she has created chamber works, graphic scores, electroacoustic […]
“…Zoulek’s performance, on saxophones in every range, is stunningly virtuosic, whatever the genre…none of this would matter much (except to saxophonists) if he were a less imaginative composer.” (The Wall Street Journal). A modern saxophonist of “pure mindfulness and talent” (PopMatters), Nick Zoulek’s artistry as a performer, collaborator, composer, and media artist has led to a diverse portfolio of distinctive […]
Richard Brasseale is a saxophonist, composer, and educator in the Chicago area. An acclaimed saxophonist, he has played with numerous ensembles, including the Milwaukee Symphony, Madison Symphony, Fulcrum Point New Music Ensemble, Camerata Chicago, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and others. Recent solo performances include the DePaul Symphony Orchestra, North Park Orchestra, and various recitals in […]
Abdo Timejardine-Zomeño is a Chicago-based clarinetist, woodwind doubler, composer, and arranger. He is currently earning a double degree in Clarinet Performance and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His on campus ensemble participation includes performing in the UIC Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, Pep Band, as well as various chamber music ensembles. Abdo’s primary […]
Wenbin Lyu is a US-based Chinese composer and guitarist. The compositions written by Wenbin Lyu combines contemporary western techniques with ancient oriental culture. He seeks inspiration from nature, science, and video games. Lyu has received fellowships from Tanglewood Music Center, Cabrillo Festival Composers Workshop, and Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. Lyu’s works have been performed at […]
Described as “kaleidoscopic,” and praised for its “real power,” “triumphalism,” (Fanfare Magazine) and “depth, beauty, and rich dimension” (The Courier), the multistylistic work of Baltimore-based composer and pianist Adam D. O’Dell (b. 1992) invokes theatre, nature, and human behavior and speech to explore the territory between the profound and the absurd. O’Dell has been commissioned […]
Osnat Netzer /osˈnat ˈnɛtsɛʁ/ is a composer, performer and educator. Osnat creates her compositions collaboratively, tailoring her work to the performer’s sensibilities, physicality and improvisational inclinations. She takes inspiration from cognitive linguistics, and in dialogue with the embodied experience of physical forces, such as potential and kinetic energy, resulting in compositions that are rich in […]
Dr. Greg A Steinke is retired, former Joseph Naumes Endowed Chair of Music/Art and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon; Associate Director, Ernest Bloch Music Festival (‘93–97) and Director, Composers Symposium (‘90–97) (Newport, OR); served as the National Chairman of the Society of Composers, Inc. (1988–97). Composer of chamber and symphonic music […]
Born in Guatemala City, Xavier studied piano at the National Conservatory of Guatemala with Consuelo Medinilla. At age 18, he was awarded the first prize at the Augusto Ardenois National Piano Competition and third prize at the Rafael Alvarez Ovalle Composition Competition in Guatemala. He continued his piano studies in the United States with Argentinean […]
Oboist and composer Laura Adkins has been an advocate of contemporary music for much of her professional career. She was recently awarded a scholarship to attend a composition residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts with her duo partner, pianist and composer Jonathan Hannau, which resulted in a full-length, collaboratively-composed concert program. In 2016, […]
Beth Bradfish is a composer and sound artist whose goal is to bring her audience as close to sound as possible. She explores both contemporary acoustic and electronic sounds. Her focus is on creating environments where the audience is free to move through the sound and experience it with more than their ears. She composes […]
Tim Corpus is an internationally performed composer, sound designer, and arts administrator who calls Chicago home. Highlights include performances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Federal Justica Cultural Center of Brazil, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, RHA Gallery in Ireland, and the Chicago Cultural Center. In addition to concerts, he has […]
Mark Nagy is a Chicago-based saxophonist and composer. In addition, he designs, builds and performs using electronics. A project that he is currently involved in is the recording of the entire Cornelius Cardew Treatise with another electronic musician. Considering the magnitude of the score, 193 pages, it is an ambitious project. Their eventual goal is […]
Rosśa Crean (they/them) jokingly says they “create music that they like to listen to when they are by themself, eating raw cookie dough in a dark closet,” but in truth, their music has been referred to as being “funny…and virtuosic” (Classical Concert Nova Scotia), having “exceptionally different, outstanding quality” (Download), and music that “stirs you […]
CELEBRATED FOR COMPOSITIONS THAT ARE EMOTIONALLY-CHARGED AND VISCERALLY-ENGAGING, COMPOSER MISCHA ZUPKO WRITES MUSIC THAT EXCITES BOTH MUSICIANS AND AUDIENCES Working collaboratively with other great musical minds, his body of work is intensely virtuosic and bracing in its vision and scope. In the words of Chicago Tribune critic John von Rhein, Zupko’s piano concerto Fahrenheit was“…a powerhouse of the evening” and […]
As a collaborative composer, Adam Kennaugh believes honest and powerful music is created through open communication and genuine back-and-forth of ideas between performer and composer. He centers each work around the preferred musical techniques and concepts of the performers, fusing their technical and expressive prowess with his musical language, which exists in the space between […]
Carl J. LaMark’s work as a composer, pianist, and collaborator has been described an exercise in “sustained intensity”. Coming from a long line of Chicago natives, he received the majority of his training as a pianist at the Music Institute of Chicago at Winnetka and Northwestern University under primarily under Dr. Soo Lee. He received […]
“…a precise and engaged artist, unafraid of deep ambiguities…” (Justin Hayford, The Chicago Reader) Shi-An Costello (世安) is a composer, pianist, and a proud second generation mixed race Asian American, born and raised in Chicago. Although he started piano lessons at a young age, Shi-An’s first love was sports. But in high school, he fell […]
Jazzwoman, Composer and Harpist with a strong musical personality and talent, Isabelle Olivier brings a wave of freshness and novelty to the international artistic world with her surprising and unique instrument. She recorded eight discs and a DVD of her personal work and traveled to 22 countries to present her musical creations. Since 5 years […]
Micah Clark graduated from Wheaton College in 2010 with a Bachelor of Music in Composition. While at Wheaton, he won the Presidential Scholarship in Music, Composition Competition Prize, the Josephine Halvorsen Composition Prize, the Chamber Music Competition, Best Original Score at the Wheaton College Film Festival, and was inducted into the Wheaton College Honor Society. […]
Described as “evocative” (Resonance) and “surreal” music “to bewilder, amuse, and provoke” (Epoch Times), the works of composer Steven Rice have won great acclaim and inspired intense debate. His music has been championed internationally by soloists and ensembles such as the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra (Marin Alsop, director), the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Brave New Works, the […]