Artists

Composer Karen Sunabacka often finds inspiration from puzzles, stories, and her Métis and mixed European heritage. She has deep roots in the Red River Area (what is now known as Manitoba, Canada) and feels a strong connection to the Métis, Scottish, Swedish and Finnish cultures. This mix of cultural connections sometimes creates conflicts and new perspectives which she finds both interesting and challenging. Her music reflects this cultural mix through the exploration of the sounds and stories of the Canadian prairies.

Born in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, David Mastikosa is a younger-generation composer. Mastikosa attended the University of Banja Luka, Academy of Arts where he obtained a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree. The same Academy elected him a Teaching Assistant in 2015, and later a Senior Teaching Assistant at the Department of Musical Theory and Composition in 2020.

Dr. Sang-Hie Lee, Professor of Music at the University of South Florida, is an active teacher, pianist, researcher, author, and cross-disciplinary administrator. As the founder of Ars Nostra, she performs piano ensemble music by significant living composers: her music is featured on six albums by Ravello, Centaur, Capstone, and Albany labels. Lee is the principal author of Scholarly Research in Music: Shared and Disciplinary-Specific Practices (McGraw Hill, 2012-2013, Routledge 2017, 2022). She is the primary editor of Perspectives in Performing Arts Medicine: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Springer 2020) and was the founding Editor of the Cultural Expressions in Music Monographs Series (College Music Society 2008-2014). She is the author of 74 scholarly publications, has presented 85 conference papers, keynotes, and lectures, hosted seven international conferences, and performed numerous solo and chamber-music concerts in the United States, South Korea, China, Serbia, Brazil, Italy, and Canada.

Pianist Dr. Martha Thomas has given concerts and presentations across the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, South America, and Africa. Thomas is featured on 11 albums on the ACA Digital, Centaur, Ravello, and Albany labels. Her latest, ECHOES: Past and Future, features music from the 20^th and 21^st centuries, including Noggin by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Melinda Wagner. She has been praised for the “lyrical beauty of her playing” and “her mastery of rhythmic and textural complexities.”

Formed in 2014, DRAX is a faculty ensemble-in-residence at the University of Missouri School of Music with Leo Saguiguit (saxophone) and Megan Arns (percussion). Dedicated to performing and creating new repertoire for this unique combination of instruments, the duo made its international debut at the World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, France. DRAX has performed at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance, Odyssey Chamber Music Series of Columbia, Mareck Center for Dance, and residencies at universities including Virginia Tech University, Sam Houston State University, Colorado State University, and the Eastman School of Music.

Chris Chafe is a composer, improvisor, and cellist, developing much of his music alongside computer-based research. He is Director of Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). At IRCAM (Paris) and The Banff Centre (Alberta), he pursued methods for digital synthesis, music performance, and real-time internet collaboration. CCRMA's SoundWIRE project involves live concertizing with musicians the world over. Online collaboration software including jacktrip and research into latency factors continue to evolve. An active performer either on the net or physically present, his music reaches audiences in dozens of countries and sometimes at novel venues.

The ANIMO flute and piano duo is the creation of flautist Sarah Waycott and pianist Yanna Zissiadou. Both experienced performers and educators, they came together in 2018 to form an idea for a contemporary music duo that will break through the “Classical Music” norms and perform music that is soulful and accessible by all, regardless of its origins, style, and medium.

Avner Finberg is an Israeli-American composer and violinist. He studied composition with Ari Ben-Shabtai at The Jerusalem Academy of Music, with Robert Cuckson at The Mannes College, and with Susan Botti at Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a doctorate dfasin composition in 2015.

Finberg’s music has been described by Steven Stucky as “reined, mature work of impeccable technique, original voice, and considerable ambition.” His musical inspirations stem from his Israeli roots and his current life in the United States, combining without discrimination multiple world music traditions with contemporary and classical music techniques and modern technology.

Hailed by the Columbia Daily Tribune as adding a “fresh dimension” to the concert experience, Khemia Ensemble is dedicated to reflecting broader perspectives in contemporary classical chamber music. With its dynamic instrumentation (soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, two percussion), Khemia’s unique sound world encompasses the presentation of new classical music with a mix of acoustic chamber works, multimedia, and multi-genre influences.

Alan Schmitz (b. 1950) is Emeritus Professor of Theory and Composition at the University of Northern Iowa’s School of Music. He earned bachelor and master of music degrees from the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in music theory/composition from Rutgers University. Schmitz has received awards, commissions, and grants for composition from several agencies including the Alaska Council of the Arts, the Iowa Arts Council, the University of Northern Iowa, and the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Foundation. His music appears on numerous Ravello Records releases, including NINETIES TIMEFLOW (chamber pieces), LYRIC IMAGES (guitar works performed by Todd Seelye), and ACE COMPOSERS, 21st Century Music by Alan, Christopher, and Eric Schmitz. Schmitz retired from the University of Northern Iowa in June, 2017, after 23 years as Associate Director of the School of Music and now resides in the Houston TX area.

Christopher Alan Schmitz (b. 1972) is Professor of Theory and Composition at the Townsend School of Music, Mercer University. His solo, chamber, and ensemble works are performed internationally and recorded on Navona Records and Beauport Classical. Scores are published and distributed by C. Alan Publications, Cimarron Press, Opus Music Publishers, and Cherry Classics.

Eric Schmitz (b. 1977) is Professor of Jazz Studies at SUNY Oswego, where he directs the Oswego State Jazz Ensemble and Latin Jazz Ensemble, co-leads and performs with the Oswego Jazz Project (faculty jazz quartet), and teaches jazz and rock history, improvisation, jazz arranging, and music theory and composition.

Stuart Weber's passion for the guitar was ignited early on when at age 12 when a cousin loaned him a flood-ravaged folk guitar. Undaunted by its poor condition, Weber began a ravenous period of self-study, which carried him through his teenage years and beyond.

Internationally acclaimed veterans of contemporary music, Sirius Quartet combines exhilarating repertoire with unequaled improvisational fire. These conservatory-trained performer-composers shine with precision, soul and a raw energy rarely witnessed on stage, championing a forward-thinking, genre-defying approach that makes labels like ‘New Music’ sound tame.

Anne H. Goldberg-Baldwin blurs the definitions of music and dance as a composer, choreographer, performer, and educator, a vanguard of interdisciplinary performance art. She is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Tempus Continuum Ensemble, a new music ensemble premiering and performing the works of emerging and living composers. Goldberg’s music has been premiered and performed by ensemble mise-en, the Boston New Music Institute, the Novatrio, NeoLit Ensemble, and at festivals such as the International Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt and the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory. Her artistry has been featured in New York venues such as Symphony Space, the Kitchen, the Flea Theater, and many others nationally and internationally.

Ken Walicki is an American composer who is widely recognized and acknowledged for his dramatic, and engaging music.

Because of his unusual and interesting background, his sound world has evolved into a unique combination of Art, Pop, Jazz, and World music. Walicki was one of the first composers to use turntables in his music and the first composer to have turntables as a regular instrument in a standing ensemble.

A recent review in Opera News states that Lawrence Axelrod is “a … composer whose fresh and distinctive music deserves to be more widely known.” At once composer, pianist, and conductor, Axelrod’s musical activities have taken him around the United States, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. As a composer, Axelrod has had works performed by ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, the London Sylvan Ensemble, Quintet Attacca, The Chicago Composers Orchestra, Palomar, Ensemble Dal Niente, Pinotage, The Lincoln Trio, The Duo Ahlert/Schwab, and The Verdi String Quartet in recent seasons. Frissons was premiered by ~Nois on a concert devoted to new music for saxophone quartet in June 2019.

The 2022 winner of Music NB’s “Innovator of the Year” award, Martin Daigle is an interdisciplinary performer, composer, researcher, and producer from New Brunswick, Canada. Flourishing from creative foundations as a drummer and percussionist, his diverse work as a performer, composer, and researcher pushes the boundaries between audio-visual and electro-acoustic art. Daigle’s innovative approach to percussion music utilizes electronic devices; notably, ongoing research in the development of an “augmented drum kit,” which combines acoustic drum sounds, digital samples, and visual manipulations for a truly unique result.

On the verge of composed and improvised music, Whim Ensemble (Ofer Pelz, prepared piano, Preston Beebe, percussion and since 2021 Stéphane Diamantakiou, double bass) creates percussive landscapes by inventing instrument modifications and techniques to build an unusually rich sound world since 2015. They place found objects on their instruments to explore complex timbres, textures, and harmonies. Inspired by electroacoustic music, they generate sound through motion to create musical gestures which resonate to sound as one.

Matthew Burtner is an Alaskan-born composer and sound artist. An IDEA Award winner and first prize winner of the Musica Nova International Electroacoustic Music composition, is an Alaskan-born composer and sound artist whose work explores embodiment, ecology, polytemporality, and noise. His music has been performed in concerts around the world and featured by organizations such as NASA, PBS NewsHour, the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the BBC, the U.S. State Department under President Obama, and National Geographic. He has published three intermedia climate change works including the IDEA Award–winning telematic opera, Auksalaq. In 2020 he received an Emmy Award for “Composing Music with Snow and Glaciers,” a feature on his Glacier Music by Alaska Public Media.