Alexandra Andreeva

Violist, singer-songwriter/ lyricist, creative director
(SHE/HER)

Alexandra Andreeva is an award-winning concert classical musician, singer-songwriter, creative director, and content creator based in New York City.

Alexandra was born in Siberia. At the age of 18, she successfully gained admission to Moscow Conservatory and moved to Moscow. In 2022, Alexandra began her Professional Studies Diploma at Mannes School of Music in NYC.

As a violist, Alexandra has performed as both a soloist and an ensemble/orchestra player in countries such as Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Israel, South Korea, China, Colombia, Myanmar, Qatar, Tunisia, Russia, and the United States. On May 8, 2023, Alexandra made her Carnegie Hall debut by performing a New York premiere piece with Vartan Mailiantz.

Together with her partner Vartan, they founded MO22, an electronic-pop-classical crossover band. They are set to release multiple debut singles this summer with the goal of captivating the world with their music.

In addition to her musical career and daily practice, Alexandra is active on social media. She creates the mini-series “Brand-New York Talks” on the account @brand_new_york, in which she interviews New Yorkers about their lives.

Kamilla arku

Pianist
(she/her)

Liberian-Norwegian pianist Kamilla Arku draws on her diverse background as inspiration for her work as a performer and educator. She has recently performed for Chamber Music at Lincoln Center, the Intercultural Music Initiative, and the American Musicological Association, and in the upcoming season, she looks forward to recitals in the UK, US and Liberia. In addition to performance, her creative practice increasingly centers around improvisation, interdisciplinary conversation and community-building. Kamilla is the founder and Director of charity Music for Liberia, a nonprofit which supports young people in Liberia, and is currently a PhD student in Musicology at New York University.

Eli Berman

Vocalist, improviser, composer-producer, instrument maker
(she/they)

Eli Berman (she/they/זי/זיי) is a vocalist, improviser, composer-producer, and new instrument builder from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She creates electroacoustic music with experimental vocal techniques across khazones (Ashkenazi Jewish cantorial music), Yiddish and Appalachian folk songs, Slovak trávnice (women's haymaking songs), and western classical repertoire for countertenor and baritone. Over the past three years, Eli has developed feedback instruments that extend the human voice through mics, PVC pipes, metal sheets, and frame drums amplified by transducers. In the past year she has begun to create beats from processed samples of her voice, contributing to the burgeoning Kleztronica scene. Eli has recently premiered work at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt, Germany), the Pop-Kultur Festival at Kulturbrauerei (Berlin, Germany), Watermill Center, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, (R)evolution: Resonant Bodies at the Banff Centre, New Music On the Point, Yiddish Summer Weimar, New Explorative Oratorio Voice Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, and Gender Unbound. She has presented her creative research at the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Pan-American Vocology Association Symposium, and Transgender Singing Voice Conference.

Sarah Marie Bugeja

vocalist, improviser, composer
(SHE/HER)

Sarah Marie is an interdisciplinary artist, originally from Malta, who combines the worlds of visual media and sound through animated graphic scores, improvisation, composition and live vocal processing, all culminating in her most recent endeavor, The Dancing Eyes Project . Coming from a background in Jazz, R&B, classical contemporary composition and world music, Sarah Marie challenges the idea of genre and strives to create a unique sound blend that is a direct representation of her intersectionality in the creative space as a Maltese female who also happens to be visually impaired.

Camilla Caldwell

Violinist, composer
(she/her)

Camilla Caldwell is  a NYC-based, Australian violinist-composer whose repertoire pushes the limits of violin texture and sound through advanced techniques, electronics and creative partnerships. Through her multi-disciplinary collaborations with other experimental artists and her own compositions, she uses the violin to create unique sonic environments and soundscapes. She is currently studying for a second Masters degree at Mannes The New School, where her mentors include Curtis Macomber, Leila Josefowicz and Stefan Jackiw. Camilla also works as a sessional violinist across diverse genres, including as concertmaster for Taylor Mac’s ‘A 24 Decade History of Popular Music’ and Opiuo’s Syzygy Orchestra, with Chamber Philharmonia Cologne, and with the ‘Contemporaneous’ and ‘Blackbox’ ensembles in NYC. Camilla has also performed at many music festivals, some of which include Bang on a Can, Mostly Modern, Sick Puppy, Vienna Summer Music Festival, Festival Suoni d’Abruzzo, Brevard Music Festival and Saluzzo Opera Academy.

Delfina Cheb

Singer, improviser, songwriter
(she/her)

Delfina Cheb is a Boston based latinx vocalist, improviser, composer and interdisciplinary artist. Her work is deeply rooted in community engagement and education having lead songwriting and improvisation workshops for different communities in the Boston area including programs at the ICU COVID unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital, at the LGBTQ+ elder community of Boston at shelters and halfway homes and at assisted living facilities.

Delfina is currently a DMA candidate in the Contemporary Musical Arts department at the New England Conservatory where she is conducting research on gender implications and improvisation in Tango and Milonga. Additionally Delfina is consistently involved in collaborative projects that focus on the reimagination of folkloric songs.

Shasha Chen

composer, artist
(They/She)

Shasha Chen is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She holds a master's degree in classical composition from Manhattan School of Music. She has worked with Talea, Loadbang, ICE, Duo Ligament, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Musikfabrik, Neko3, Montréal Contemporary Music Lab, PPCM Ensemble, and with Sculptor Cairns Studio. Shasha plays piano, guqin and others. Her art works have been exhibited in Shanghai Himalayas Museum, The Latitude Gallery, Shanghai Jingguan Space, New York School of Visual Arts, she has performed in Shanghai UCCA Edge.

Michele Cheng

interdisciplinary composer, improviser-performer, songwriter, puppeteer
(she/her)

Michele Cheng is an interdisciplinary composer and improviser-performer intertwining diverse media including music, theatre, visuals, and puppetry to engage with social issues and cultural identities. Through a journalistic approach, she develops creative work that shines light on underrepresented narratives. Her works have been featured internationally at Roulette (US), MATA (US), CCRMA (US), LMCML (Canada), ICMC (Chile), Espacios Sonoros (Argentina), ISSTA (Ireland), Sonorities (UK), YCM (Netherlands), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon (France), AMKL (Poland), NTCH (Taiwan), SICMF (South Korea), TMAO (Thailand), among others. She has received commissions from the JACK Quartet, National Sawdust, I Care If You Listen; grant from New Music USA; and scholarship from Atlantic Center for the Arts. Michele plays multiple instruments, builds custom instruments and puppets, and has shared the stage with artists from various backgrounds. She is a co-founder of the experimental pop duo Meoark and fff, a collective led by feminist media artists.

Carlos Cippelletti

Piano
(he/him)

Pianist, composer and arranger Carlos Cippelletti, and one of the most talented last-generation Spanish, Franco-Cuban and Afro- Cuban jazz musicians born outside the island. Two-time winner of the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Scholarship, 2023 Fulbright Scholarship recipient, winner of the Málaga International Jazz Festival Competition, Portón del Jazz and the 7 Virtual Jazz Club competition. Currently performing with Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro- Latin Jazz Orchestra in New York. Pianist for the JM Jazz World Orchestra — led by renowned trombonist Luis Bonilla.

David Cortez

Saxophonist
(HE/HIM)

California native David Cortez is a saxophonist passionate about representing Latine narratives in contemporary music. Recently, he has appeared as soloist with the Redwood Symphony, ECHO Chamber Orchestra, Resound Ensemble, Peninsula Cantare, Disrupt Ensemble, and the Santa Cruz Symphony. He is an alumni of Chamber Music Silicon Valley's Emerging Artist Fellowship and has been mentored by visionary saxophonist Dr. Michael Hernandez. He is a member of the critically acclaimed MANA Quartet and has appeared on NPR’s Live Sessions and Classical KING FM.

Francisco del Pino

Composer, Guitarist
(he/him)

Francisco del Pino is a composer and guitarist with an affinity for music that is meticulous, expressive and patient. A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Francisco is currently based in Princeton, NJ where he is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Composition at Princeton University. His debut album Decir, a song cycle on texts by Argentinian poet Victoria Cóccaro described as “stunning” (Bandcamp Daily), was released on New Amsterdam Records in 2021.

Teresa Díaz de Cossio

flutist
(she/her)

Teresa Díaz de Cossio is an active member of in^set, and has had the opportunity of performing with Los Tigres del Norte. A fellow at The Banff Center, Darmstadt Summer Institute, Curating Diversity, and Future of Music Faculty Fellowship (CIM-Sphinx Foundation). Teresa has presented her research on the composer Alida Vázquez at Unsung Stories: Women at Columbia's Computer Music Center and the International Musicological Society. A doctoral candidate at the UCSD, under Wilfrido Terrazas and Amy Cimini mentorship. A co-producer at Neofonia, Festival de Música Nueva in Ensenada, and a teacher at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California.

Ana Luisa Diaz de Cossio

performer-composer
(she/her)

Ana Luisa Diaz de Cossio is a performer-composer whose work traverses
the space between social structures, individuality, spontaneity, and
explores resonance in physical as well as cultural space. Through
extreme extended techniques, Ana challenges conventional violin
playing, exploring the possibilities and limits of sounds within the
instrument. Her music is informed by political, social, and cultural
awareness of the systems constituting our societies.

With a keen interest in experimental music, Ana has taken workshops
with the Silk Road Ensemble, Berklee Interdisciplinary Arts Institute,
Collaboratory-Paris as part of Manifesté-IRCAM and has been part of
the ANMA+NordPlus Music Forum (EE), Dark Music Days (IS), Time for
Music (FI), ActinArt (DK) among others. Ana holds degrees from
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Boston Conservatory at
Berklee, and Listaháskoli Íslands.

Rocío Díaz de Cossío

Cellist, improviser
they/them (english) elle/ellx (Spanish)

Rocío Díaz de Cossío is a cellist and improviser. They are dedicated to exploring the sonic possibilities of their instrument, implementing tape and live electronics, often based on field recordings. Their performances include improvisation, solo and ensemble acoustic and electroacoustic pieces, collective compositions, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Rocío has participated at Darmstadt Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, the International Ensemble Modern Academy, Festival Expresiones Contemporáneas, The Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale, and Red Ecología Acústica México. Rocío concentrates their practice in México and New York City, focusing on performer-composer practices and teaching cello.

Kenyon Duncan

composer-performer
(He/Him)

Kenyon Duncan is a composer-performer, teaching artist, and producer from Northern California. Grounded in the sonic traditions of the Black diaspora, Kenyon’s creative practice engages questions of embodiment and placemaking. Recent commissions include works for iSing Silicon Valley and the Princeton Playhouse Choir and Orchestra, and The Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media featured his experimental electronic sound installation “Music for Strangers”.
Kenyon’s experience as a conductor and ensemble leader has led to the production of 3 award-winning albums, bringing him around the world to facilitate workshops on vocal performance and ensemble technique. A sought after collaborator, Kenyon’s contributions as a vocalist, pianist, and arranger are featured on multiple studio albums, and he is currently developing a solo recording project. Kenyon has been awarded residencies from the Avaloch Farm Music Institute and Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music.
Kenyon holds a B.A. in Computing & The Arts from Yale University, where he studied composition, computer music, and conducting. His work has been critiqued and encouraged by Gabriela Lena Frank, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Nathalie Joachim, Haruka Fujii, Kathryn Alexander, and Konrad Kaczmarek.

Mariana Flores-Bucio

Vocalist
(She/her)

Mariana Flores Bucio is a Mexican singer and actress specialized in Contemporary Music and Mexican Vernacular Music. She has studied and collaborated with artists like Wilfrido Terrazas, Carmina Escobar and artistic groups like the Orquesta of Baja California, Project Blank, Teatro Estudio de la Baja California, Teatro en el Incendio, Pendulo Cero, 9Spiral Project, and the Italo-American Institute of International Cooperation. She has performed leading roles in classical and contemporary operas, premiered several new musical works, and performed on important stages as a vernacular Mexican music singer. Her singing has led her to perform in different countries like Perú, Costa Rica, Hungría, United States , as well as diverse states of Mexico. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Music at the Autonomous University of Baja California and her MFA degree in Music Performance at UC San Diego. She is co-director of the vocal ensemble "Radical Ensamble" at Tijuana, B.C. Mex., and she is currently pursuing a DMA in Performance at UC San Diego.

Noah Franche-Nolan

Pianist, Composer, Improviser
(He/him)

Noah Franche-Nolan is a Canadian pianist, improviser, and composer based in New York City. Franche-Nolan is active as an interdisciplinary collaborator, having composed the score for New York documentary film-maker Talha Jalal’s Rite of Passage. Franche-Nolan is releasing three electro-acoustic records in June 2023 on the experimental label The Infidels Label.

Juliana Gaona

oboist, English horn, improviser
(She/her)

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Juliana is an oboist, chamber, orchestra musician, and improviser. Since moving to the US, she has performed with La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, Meridian Symphony Orchestra, and Redlands Symphony, among others. In 2019, Juliana was invited to be part of the Vértice Ensemble at the Vértice festival of contemporary music in México City. In 2020, she participated virtually with the Festival Mujeres en la Música Nueva at the <In/Out> festival and COINCIDENCIA Swiss and South America cultural exchange. In 2021, Juliana joined the University of Texas music faculty at El Paso, where she teaches oboe.

Juliana is a Contemporary Music Oboe Performance Doctoral Candidate at the University of California, San Diego.

Devon Gates

Bassist/vocalist/composer
(She/Her)

Devon Gates is a bassist, vocalist, and composer from Atlanta, Georgia. Through studying anthropology and jazz performance at Harvard University and Berklee College, she has worked with Terri Lyne Carrington, Linda May Han Oh, Vijay Iyer, Danilo Perez, Claire Chase, and and esperanza spalding. Most recently, her original "Don't Wait" was published in Berklee Press' "New Standards" collection. She is a Mutual Mentorship for Musicians fellow, and has performed at Joe's Pub, the Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Winter JazzFest, and SFJazz.

Ryan Ghassemi

bassoonist, improviser, composer
(he/him)

Ryan Ghassemi is a Canadian-Iranian bassoonist dedicated to the performance of new works and freely improvised music with and without electronics. Ryan received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto where he performed primarily with their contemporary music ensemble. In Fall 2022, he moved to NYC where he made his concerto debut performing Olga Neuwirth’s Torsion with the MACE and has played improvised music concerts at Mannes and Manhattan School of Music. Ryan is currently pursuing his Master’s in bassoon performance at the New School in the studio of Rebekah Heller.

Wesley Hornpetrie

cellist, improviser
(she/her)

Cellist Wesley Hornpetrie is most energized when developing works with friends who feel the same urgency that concerts should infuse feelings of place, community, and belonging for all folks present. She's a native of Oklahoma City and now enjoys diving into chamber music and interarts collaboration as a performer and improviser in both Michigan and the D.C. region. She is a member of Virago, a mixed quartet that melds free improvisation and contemporary chamber music into a contagious headspace of out-of-the box expression.

Caleb Jackson

Trumpeter
(he/him)

I enjoy sounds that intrigue me personally. I enjoy my connection to everything else, which inspires everything I do. I know what I am here for and it's all nebulous. I play the trumpet and have explored how I do so through teachers like Chris Williams and Darius Jones.

Marcella Keating

Composer, improviser, sound-maker
(she/her)

Marcella Keating is a composer, writer and sound artist based in London. She graduated with a BA in Music from Newnham College, University of Cambridge in 2022. As a composer, she works with interdisciplinary techniques, merging visual arts, movement, and sound to create works with comfort in mind. Recent projects include collaborations with the visual artist Erika Tan, a series of works for soprano, and she is currently composing her second opera. Outside of her compositional practice, she works as the Events and Marketing Manager at Nonclassical.

Iseul Kim

composer, pianist, singer
(she/her)

Composer, pianist, singer and world traveler Iseul Kim is based in NYC and Seoul, graduated from University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with Bachelor's degree in Jazz Studies, and is currently pursuing a master’s at the New School.

Iseul Kim reveals her life stories and cultures through music that has no limits. Having traveled the world and experienced numerous cultures, she has been influenced by different musical styles her entire adult life. Thus, she eventually formed different groups and released multiple albums with her band Liberosis, Iseul Kim Trio and lastly her 9 piece ensemble with Korean traditional music influence ' Two Voices'.

Yoona Kim

Ajaeng player, improviser, composer
(she/her)

Yoona Kim is an Ajaeng player, composer, and improviser from Seoul, South Korea, who has been active in the Boston, Connecticut and New York improvised music scenes. Having studied Korean music and Musicology at Seoul National University, Kim has operated within many different mediums of the arts - dance, art, soundscape, and theater, to name a few. This versatility has led to performances in Germany, Indian, Vietnam, Switzerland, France, and Columbia. She has also been the artistic director of Modern Gagok since 2016, a band that reinterprets traditional Korean court music for the present day. Yoona graduated Master of Music in Contemporary Musical Arts at New England Conservatory. Kim is pursuing Graduate Diploma at New England Conservatory.

Connie Li

violinist
(she/they)

Connie Li is an artist and writer currently living and working on the unceded land of the Susquehannock and Piscataway peoples, aka Baltimore. Her work utilizes recorded improvisation sessions, field recordings/found sound, and audio processing to explore the fluidity of our relationships to place/the earth, webs of memory and embodied knowledge, and the formation of community/kin. Alongside their sound practice, they study Chinese medicine and other traditions of plant medicine, believing these frameworks of healing touch upon the above themes and invite deeper thinking on solidarity.

Li-chin LI

soloist, composer, improviser
(Miss)

Born in Taichung, Taiwan, Li-Chin Li is a Sheng soloist, composer, and performer. Majored in Chinese Music at the Tainan National University of the Arts, Li-Chin received solid training in traditional music education. After graduation, she worked for the most selective and prestige Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra as a Sheng performer. Li-chin soon figured a nine-to-five job doesn’t’ suit her for making her own music and performing. Li-chin is known for her ability to apply Sheng to various art forms and music genres. Through her work, she is committed to exploring musicians' subjectivity and diversity of roles in the performing arts. Recently, she has been selected as a member of IRCAM concert de l'atelier d'improvisation, ManiFeste-2022, and she has been guested with Ensemble LINEA and Ensemble CAIRN in 2022. Last but not least, she is a grantee of Asian Culture Council in New York 2023.

Clae Lu

guzheng musician, improviser, artist
(they/them)

Clara/Clae Lu (they/them) is a queer, second generation Han Chinese American from Queens, NY (unceded territory of the Lenni-Lenape). They identify as an artist, designer, cultural worker, and Chinese zither (古筝) musician. Clara believes in the power of arts and grassroots activism to create spaces for conversation, reflection, and action.

Wenbin Lyu

Composer
(he/him)

Wenbin Lyu is a US-based Chinese composer and guitarist. His works have been featured at the SCI, RED NOTE, TUTTI, Alba, Cabrillo, NMG, Tanglewood, ICMC, NYCEMF, EMM, IRCAM, SEAMUS, and SPLICE, and have been performed by acclaimed ensembles including the Beijing Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Fifth House Ensemble, Del Sol Quartet, Icarus Quartet, Society for New Music, Capitol Quartet, Transient Canvas, and Hypercube. Lyu holds degrees from the China Conservatory, NEC, and CCM.

Vartan Mailiantz

Songwriter, violinist, beat maker, producer, audio engeneer
(he/him)

Vartan Mailiantz is a multidisciplinary artist, award-winning violinist, and songwriter based in SoHo, NYC. Graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory & a current student of The New School, Mannes Music School, he has performed as a soloist around the globe in over 25 countries. his appearances in NYC and The United States include such great halls and venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Alyce Tully Hall, Tishman Auditorium, Kennedy Center of Performing Arts, Tishman Auditorium, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and others. He's a recipient of many awards, including Creatives Rebuilt New York, a full merit-based scholarship at Mannes Music School. He collaborates with many artists, fashion designers, musicians, and philanthropists, including Lui Meisel, Jacob Arabo, Steven Cohen, Viktoria Mullova, Lewis Kaplan, Phil Harris, Yana Bononi, Alexander Markov, Denny Daniel, and others.

Ian McEdwards

Clarinetist, Composer, Improviser
(he/him)

Michigan native and recent first prize recipient of the Henri SELMER Paris International Clarinet Competition and the LISMA International Music Competition, Ian is a clarinetist devoted to the evolution and continued creation of new music. He began his musical training with the freelance clarinetist, Dr. Tasha Warren, before continuing his education at the Interlochen Arts Academy with Dr. Bryan Conger, with whom he discovered his affinity for new music. Now as a student of Richard Hawkins at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, Ian carries a deep passion for expanding the accessibility of new music while pushing the boundaries of his own imagination, creating and programming music that challenges the limits of what the clarinet is capable of.

Natalia Merlano Gomez

Improviser-vocaslist, singer
(she/her)

Musician, singer, vocalist, improviser, creator, and teacher. Her musical interests are around contemporary - experimental music and explorations with her voice and uses of electronic devices. In 2022 she started a Doctorate in Music Arts at the Department of Music at the University of California, San Diego. She has released two album projects. The first is Resonancias Entrelazadas in 2020 and 2021, and the second is CINCO in 2022 and 2023.

Varun Rangaswamy

Improviser-Scholar
(they/he)

Varun Rangaswamy is an improviser-composer and scholar. Their self-reflexive approach to music-making has been praised for “creating a mesmerizing circular dialect” (I Care If You Listen). Their work engages with the instability of cultural processes by deconstructing normative associations between sight, sound, and spirituality. To achieve this, Varun physically experiments with instrumental convention and relocates the body in musical action. Varun has earned degrees from UCSD and Eastman and is trained in Karnāṭak vocal music and contemporary bassoon performance.

Jonathan Reisin

Saxophonist, Composer, Improviser
(he/him)

Jonathan Reisin is an Israeli saxophonist, composer, and improviser based in NYC. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with esteemed artists such as Francisco Mela, Kris Davis, Anat Fort, and Val Jeanty, among others, with appearances at Vermont Jazz Festival, Yearot Menache Festival (ISR), Gangneung International Art Festival (South Korea) and more. Reisin's debut album, ""Option B,"" released on Habitable Records, received critical acclaim for its originality and innovation.

“The willingness to let the pieces unfold of their own accord, without having to over-fill the sound with constant activity, is one of the ways in which the maturity of Reisin's approach reveals itself.” /All About Jazz

Murphy Severtson

music maker
(they/them)

Murphy Severtson (b. 1999) makes music centered in care, reciprocity, and human connection. Based in New York City, their compositions examine their lived experiences and closely held convictions, including chronic illness, the climate crisis, religion, gay and trans liberation. As an educator, they lead workshops on creating during the climate crisis and the work of Pauline Oliveros. Currently, they are working on a book of text scores of listening exercises for youth orchestras. They also hold an administrative position at the American Composers Orchestra.

Diyora Tursunova

Pianist, improviser, composer
(she/her)

Diyora Tursunova is a musician currently based in NYC. Born in Tashkent in a family of musicians, she received her bachelor of music degree at the Conservatory of Uzbekistan.

In 2019, Diyora pursued her master of music degree at the Syracuse University and later Professional Studies Program at the New School. While trained in piano performance, her great interest in composition and improvisation led her to explore various music genres in NYC and The New School. Diyora recently presented her composition at the Bruno Walter Auditorium Lincoln Center as a part of NYPL Shelf Life project.

Diyora has performed actively in the US and abroad, including performance at the Carnegie Hall Weil Hall, Lincoln Center, Ensemble-Akademie Freiburg (master classes with Ensemble Recherche), Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Germany and Bohemian National Hall in New York.

Mac Waters

composer-perfomer
(they/he)

Mac Waters (they/he) (b. 2000) is a sound artist—composer, performer, improviser, producer, radio broadcaster, listener—who works in a variety of interdisciplinary and multimedia contexts. Some recent interests include embodied kinesthetics and social media, the anxiety of a digital generation coming-of-age, the theater of Western performance practices, humor & spontaneity, and queer medievalism. Mac is pursuing an MA in Digital Musics at Dartmouth College.

Lulu West

improviser, composer, guitarist/bassist, educator
(she/her)

Lulu West (she/her) is a sound and performance artist based in NYC. Currently she is focused on an audiovisual project that explores how trans and gender non-conforming artists situate their work in rural areas of the mountain west (where she is from). She also has  a electro-acoustic vocal and electric bass/prepared guitar solo practice merging folk and pop songs with free improvisation. Lulu’s main collaborative projects at the moment consist of a folk/classical guitar duo project entitled Polsky West with collaborator Maya Polsky, a noise rock trio called Duchess, a movement and theater based practice with  movement artist Mack Lawrence, and a free-improv trio with fellow sound and movement artists astrid hubbard-flynn and Deven Carmichael.

Lulu’s contemporary compositional works have been performed by ensembles and individuals such as, The New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma, The Akropolis Reed Quintet, Kinan Azmeh, Quartetto Indaco, The Playground Ensemble, Russell Greenberg, The Neave Trio and others. 

Very importantly, Lulu’s main mentors and teachers in her sound related endeavors have been Meredith Monk, Wendy Eisenberg, Jon Deak, Anthony Cheung, Wang Lu, Erik DeLuca, Kristina Warren, Conrad Kehn and Eric Nathan.

Lots of love from Lulu! 

Ess ("S") Whiteley

Multimedia composer and improvisor
(they/them)

Ess (’S’) Whiteley (they/them) is a multimedia composer and improvisor. They are interested in cyborg consciousness, embodiment, formations of the self, and Deep Listening in the context of virtually entangled, post-internet life and the Anthropocene. They received their BM in Composition from McGill University and are currently a PhD student in Composition at the University of California San Diego. Their mentors have included Melissa Hui, Philippe Leroux, Marcos Balter and Michelle Lou.

Yifeng Yvonne Yuan

composer, sound artist, performer
(she/her)

Yifeng Yvonne Yuan converts the frequency of herself losing socks into the frequency of the pitches; she weighs raindrops to determine the weight of her noteheads. She is a composer, performer, and media artist, born and raised in Taiyuan, China, and currently resides between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Yvonne is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Music Composition at UC Santa Barbara. She is also a master's student in the Media Arts and Technology department. Yvonne holds a master’s degree in Music Composition and bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and Musicology from UCLA.

Yvonne draws inspiration from the ritualistic practices of human beings. Her works explore the transient and vulnerable aspects inherent to human existence. Sound and poetry are currently her primary mediums of artistic expression.

Miguel Zazueta

vocalist
(he/him)

Miguel is a singer specialized in contemporary music and opera. Born in Tijuana, Mexico, he has collaborated with artists like Wilfrido Terrazas, Carmina Escobar, Yuval Sharon, and Meredith Monk, as well as groups as the LA Phil New Music group, Orquesta de Baja California, Teatro en el Incendio, Meredith Monk & Ensemble, Project Blank and the Institute of Italo American International Cooperation. Miguel obtained his bachelor's degree in music by the Autonomous University of Baja California. He has also recently finished the Master of Arts degree at the University of California San Diego, where he currently pursues his DMA degree under the guidance of the Soprano Susan Narucki. One of his main projects is "Radical Ensamble" a Baja California based vocal ensemble specialized in new music repertoire.