Voyage Within

Stephanie Key

Clarinetist Stephanie Key is co-founder and Artistic Director of SOLI Chamber Ensemble, which focuses on performing the works of living composers and has commissioned or premiered over 100 new chamber works. Key recorded John Cage’s Sonata for Clarinet under the composer’s supervision and performed Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint with the composer at the controls at the South By Southwest™️ Conference.

Bronwyn White

Bronwyn White, soprano, is a graduate of Young Artist programs at Fort Worth Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Natchez Festival of Music, Opera San Antonio, and the iSing! International Festival in China. She has recently appeared as a soloist in concert with SOLI Chamber Ensemble, EnsembleNewSRQ, Fort Worth Symphony, Suzhou Symphony, Fort Worth Opera Frontiers, Utah Festival Opera Orchestra, Verdigris Ensemble, Purchase Symphony, and the Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra.

Garrison Gerard

Garrison Gerard is a conductor with a particular focus on advocating for and performing contemporary music. He served as the conductor for the NOVA New Music Ensemble, the Nu Atmospheres Ensemble, and guest director of the University of North Texas Percussion Ensemble. Gerard has worked with many composers to premiere and perform their work including Jason Eckardt, Kirsten Soriano Broberg, Gerhard Stäbler, Joseph Klein, and others. He has also served as an orchestral and wind band conductor, leading multiple groups including the Harding University Wind Symphony and UNT Symphony Orchestra in performances and readings. Gerard earned his Ph.D. and Master’s of Arts in composition from the University of North Texas, and his Bachelor’s in Music from Harding University.

Elizabeth McNutt

Flutist Elizabeth McNutt is internationally recognized for her performances of innovative contemporary and electroacoustic music. She has premiered countless works and performed in Europe, Asia, and throughout the United States. Her playing has been described as “commanding” (LA Times), “fearless and astounding” (Flute Talk), “high-octane” (Musicworks), and “spell-binding” (Computer Music Journal).

Jung Choi

Oboist Jung Choi is an active recitalist, educator, lecturer, adjudicator, solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. She was the associate principal oboist for the Korean National Symphony Orchestra for eight seasons and the principal oboist for the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Springfield, MO for two seasons. She taught oboe at Nazareth College, Seoul National University, and Missouri State University.

Mia Detwiler

Mia Detwiler is a versatile and dynamic violinist who has established herself as an accomplished performer of both traditional and contemporary repertoire. As an enthusiastic advocate of new music, she has premiered more than 80 works. She has performed at numerous international festivals including the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez, New Music Gathering, Mise-en Music Festival, the International Computer Music Conference, the University of Louisville New Music Festival, Days of New Music Tirana, June in Buffalo, New Music on the Bayou, and the Kaleidoscope MusArt Series, among others.

Horacio Contreras

Venezuelan cellist Horacio Contreras has gained esteem through a multifaceted career as a performer, pedagogue, and researcher. He has collaborated with prestigious institutions across the Americas and Europe as a concerto soloist, a recitalist, a chamber musician, and a masterclass clinician. His pedagogic book Exercises for the Cello in Various Combinations of Double-Stops has received recognition as a significant contribution to the instrument’s literature. He is the coauthor of The Sphinx Catalog of Latin American Cello Works, a comprehensive database with information about works written by Latin American composers. He serves on the faculty of the University of North Texas and the Music Institute of Chicago, and is a member of Four Corners Ensemble and the Reverón Piano Trio. Learn more by visiting horaciocontreras.com

Mehrdad Gholami

Mehrdad Gholami is the assistant professor of flute at Western Washington university. A graduate of University of Tehran and TCU, Gholami has received fellowships from Atlantic Festival (2021) and Aspen Music Festival (2017-2019). He has premiered hundreds of pieces for flute both in Iran and America. His recent solo recording won Iran’s title of best contemporary classical performance. A sought-after pedagogue, Gholami has served as an adjudicator on panels for the National Flute Association, Texas Flute Society, and Texas Music Educators Associations. He has offered masterclasses and workshops on various topics from beginner pedagogy to contemporary techniques across the United States. Learn more by visiting mehrdadgholami.com

Aslı Gültekin Özek

Dr. Aslı Gültekin Özek was born in Ankara, Turkey. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Bilkent University and her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in viola performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). At UIUC, she studied with Rudolf Haken and Masumi Per Rostad, the violist of the Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet. She has been an active participant in masterclasses and music and orchestra festivals in Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and China. She performed in masterclasses of the Kronos Quartet, the Avalon Quartet, Jerzy Kosmala in Poland, and Csaba Erdelyi and Ivo-Jan van def Werff at UIUC.

Colleen Potter Thorburn

Harpist Colleen Potter Thorburn’s playing, acclaimed as “full of spirit and sensitivity,” “engrossing,” and “winning,” has earned her national recognition as a winner of the American Harp Society’s Anne Adams competition. Her playing has been featured on recordings of new chamber music including harp by composers Zack Stanton, Aaron Price, Michael Weinstein-Roman, Naftali Schindler, Russell Nadel, Michael Winter, and others. Together with horn player Emily Boyer as the duo Apple Orange Pair, Thorburn has also premiered over 18 new works for harp and horn. Thorburn has performed as a concerto soloist with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova, and has taught on the music faculties of Bluefield College, Liberty University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Jean-Philippe Tremblay

Jean-Philippe Tremblay is artistic director and principal conductor of the Orchestre de la francophonie, which he co-founded in 2001. Under his leadership, the OF has given more than 350 concerts across Canada, in China, Germany and in the United States. In recent seasons, he has conducted in Europe: l’Orchestre National de France, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Wiener Kammer Orchester, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Orchestre National d’Asturias.

Linda Antas

Linda Antas is a composer and flutist whose work spans acoustic, electroacoustic, and audiovisual composition and installations. She has appeared on festivals including the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), Sonorities, and the Sound and Music Computing Conference. She has been recognized by the Musica Nova International Competition of Electroacoustic Music, the Fulbright Foundation, the MuVi International Visual Music Exhibition, the Bourges Electroacoustic Composition Competition, and the International Computer Music Association.

Theodore Antoniou

Theodore Antoniou, one of the most eminent and prolific contemporary artists, leads a distinguished career as composer, conductor, and professor of composition at Boston University. He studied violin, voice, and composition at the National Conservatory in Athens, with further studies in conducting and composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, and the International Music Center in Darmstadt. After holding teaching positions at Stanford University, the University of Utah, and the Philadelphia Musical Academy, he became professor of composition at Boston University in 1978.

Alea III

Alea III is the contemporary music ensemble in residence at Boston University, a group devoted to promoting, playing, and teaching music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Founded in 1978, Alea III is the third such group organized by Theodore Antoniou. The ensemble is consistent with the music it embraces — flexible in size, open to experiments and to exploration. Over the years, Alea III has offered world-premiere opportunities for dozens of contemporary composers, often under the composer’s direction, and with extended program notes or comments.