Katherine Balch is a composer interested in found sounds, playfulness, intimate spaces, and natural processes. A recipient of the 2020/21 Rome Prize, Katherine’s music has been presented by leading ensembles and festivals in the United States and abroad. She is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Composition at Yale School of Music and holds a Doctorate from Columbia University.
Lindsay Bass is a composer, teacher and collaborative artist based in the Washington, DC area.
In their piano studio, Lindsay teaches students ranging in age from kindergarten to senior adult. Their experience designing and evaluating curriculum for a wide range of community arts programs supports an adaptable teaching approach that allows students to explore and develop musical interests across a broad range of styles. Lindsay studied piano, composition, and percussion at Catholic University of America, and Level 2 Kodaly teacher training. They hold a BA in History from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where they are currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design.
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 is an Associate Professor of Composition at Louisiana State University.
Bradley S. Green is a composer, theorist, and educator based in Washington, DC. His music has been programmed at multiple festivals and conferences, including numerous SCI and CMS regional and national conferences, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance Festival, NYCEMF, the StageFree concert series, the Mise-en Music Festival, and the CMS International Conference in Belgium. His current primary research interest is in music composition pedagogy, and he and colleague Andrew Hannon are authoring a study on the skills and experiences of undergraduate music composition students. Bradley is currently the academic advisor for CNAHS at Howard University.
bradleygreencomposer@gmail.com
Aaron Helgeson is Associate Professor of Composition and Music Theory at Montclair State University in New Jersey, with previous positions at the Longy School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Performing Arts, University of Chicago, and New York University. Also an advocate for mental health in the arts, Helgeson serves on the advisory board of Creatives Care (a non-profit facilitating low-cost psychological treatment for performing artists) and regularly teaches workshops on creative wellness in music programs throughout the country.
Mathieu Lacroix is a French-Canadian composer based in Norway. He has studied and/or participated in classes with composers such as Hans Tutschku, Jaime Reis, Ståle Kleiberg, Trond Engum, Trey Gunn, Markus Reuter and Annette vande Gorne. His studies were done at NTNU, IRCAM and Musiques & recherches. He is the co-artistic director of Electroacoustic Trondheim (EA-T) and Trondheim Sinfonietta (TSi), and a member of Electric Audio Unit with Natasha Barrett and Ernst van der Loo.
Lynnsey Lambrecht is an Assistant Professor of music theory and composition at Bradley University. She has presented research and compositions at The Midwest Clinic, College Music Society International Conference, International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, and Music by Women International Festival. Lambrecht holds a DMA in composition and a MM in theory from Michigan State University, a MM in theory and composition from University of Northern Colorado, and a BA in music education from Colorado Mesa University.
Dr. Ralph Lewis is a composer whose works seek meeting points between sonorous music and arresting noise, alternative tunings and timbre, and the roles of performer and audience. His research is often centered on creating welcoming, inclusive spaces and engaging less-discussed music and technology. Since 2016, Lewis has led All Score Urbana, a community engagement music composition workshop program. Find out more about him and his work at www.ralphlewismusic.com
https://ralphlewismusic.com/all-score-program/
Walt Lindberg is a National Board Certified Teacher. He teaches band and orchestra at Pershing Hill Elementary School in Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Mr. Lindberg has presented sessions on creativity, composition, improvisation, and jazz at state, regional, and national conferences. His writing has appeared in Teaching Music Magazine and Maryland Music Educator. He has earned degrees in music education from Peabody Conservatory and Millersville University. Other musical interests include songwriting and church music.
David MacDonald’s music has been performed at venues around the world. He has been honored by the BMI Foundation, ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards, and the Koch Cultural Trust. David has been commissioned by the Allen Philharmonic, Hastings College Symphonic Band, h2 Quartet, and others.
Recent projects include a composition for remote, socially distanced performance and the game score for the Apple Arcade launch title Possessions. He teaches composition, theory, and technology at Wichita State University.
Sky Macklay is a composer, oboist, and installation artist based in Baltimore, where she is Assistant Professor of Composition at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. She is a founding member of Ghost Ensemble, a Guggenheim fellow, and her music is published by C. F. Peters. Her work encompasses playful inflatable kinetic sculptures, raucous walls of woodwind multiphonics, surreal barrages of tonal cadences, and deeply personal process music.
Dr. Frank Nawrot is a composer, guitarist, and educator. His original music is inspired by Kid Cudi, Julia Wolfe, Meshuggah, Julius Eastman, and Prince. He is currently Assistant Professor of music theory at Wichita State University. The recording of Frank’s opera, Don Henry, about a Kansas student who fought and died in the Spanish Civil War will be available in August 2022.
Ian Power is a composer-performer in Baltimore. His albums are Diligence on Wandelweiser Records, and Maintenance Hums on Carrier Records. Power is Assistant Professor and Director of Arts Production & Management at the University of Baltimore, where he won a Distinguished Teaching Award. He has lectured on music and rhetoric at the American Musicological Society and American Studies Association, and his music and talks have been given at universities and concerts around the world.
The music of Phil Salathé has been performed in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Since 2016 he has taught at SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. His recent publications include the CD Imaginary Birds (2019) and, with Ian Priston, the book Pink Floyd – BBC Radio 1967-1971 (2022). His other research interests include metrical dissonance, progressive rock, and the music of Janis Ian. A former Jeopardy! champion, he also enjoys playing chess and watching “bad” movies.
Founder of the Wizarding School for Composers, Joseph Sowa writes music focused on vivid textures and colors. It has been performed by Hub New Music, Collage New Music, Ensemble Dal Niente, and the PRISM Quartet, and middle and high schools across North America. He has received awards from ASCAP, the American Prize, and the Barlow Endowment and holds a PhD in Music Composition and Theory from Brandeis University.
Peter Tijerina is a trombonist, educator, arranger, and composer. He has performed with the Sidewalk Stompers, Katie Flynn Cabaret, Lansing Symphony Jazz Band, Milonga and Son Dulce latin bands, Coeur d’Alene Symphony, and Olympia Symphony Orchestra. Peter has written commissioned arrangements for universities across the United States and recently taught music at Lincoln College. He is an Outside in Arts artist and reviewer for the Online Trombone Journal (OTG) and Jazz Today reviews.
Alyssa Tong studies violin under Simon James at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She formerly studied under Nelson Lee of the Jupiter String Quartet as a full scholarship student, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
As an avid chamber musician, she has been selected to attend the Coltman Chamber Competition and Banff Centre Quartet Program, and study with the Parker, Eybler, JACK, Jupiter, Jasper, Cavani, Ariel, and Argus String Quartet.
Alissa Voth (she/her) is a Chicago-based composer. She writes contemporary classical concert music exploring musical and narrative capacities, echoing woven and submerged experiences of the present. Voth’s music has been performed by soloists such as Charles Lilley, Sarah Brady, Antonina Styczén, and Lucy Yao, as well as at festivals and venues such as at the UT Contemporary Music Festival, Cortona Sessions for New Music, and the Isador Bajic School. As an educator, Voth has taught composition at the Boston Conservatory’s High School Composition Intensive, private music lessons, and adaptive music classes for disabled students in Boston Public Schools.
Currently, she collaborates with programmer Paige Gulley to develop music composition games based on cognition research. You can find a reflection of their preliminary work published in Special Interest Group for Computers and Society. She additionally writes songs and lyrics for theater, mainly collaborating with playwright M Sloth Levine.
Voth is pursuing a PhD at Northwestern University. Her teachers and mentors include Marti Epstein, Felipe Lara, Hans Thomalla, Danuta Mirka, Alex Mincek, and Jonathan Bailey Holland. Her hometown is Tulsa, Oklahoma.”