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Tom Lopez was born in 1965 and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He began composing at Oberlin College while taking courses in electronic music. While pursuing his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Tom spent one year as an exchange student at CIRM (Centre International de Recherche Musicale) in Nice, France, where he studied with Michel Redolfi. Returning to CalArts, Tom continued his studies with Morton Subotnick, earning his MFA in 1993. He was then awarded a Fulbright Fellowship enabling his return to CIRM as a composer-in- residence. For his work, Vocal Sketch #2, he was awarded a Grant for Young Composers by ASCAP. His work, Hollow Ground II, was selected by his peers for inclusion on the SEAMUS ‘97 CD (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States). In addition to compositions for traditional instrumentation, his work also involves various media encompassing theater, dance, video, graphic notation and interactive CD-ROM. His music has been performed in France, England, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and throughout United States including The Kennedy Center. Tom is currently visiting faculty member at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in the division of Contemporary Music and composing his doctoral dissertation with Russell Pinkston at The University of Texas at Austin.

Born in Des Moines, Iowa (1954), James Mobberley grew up in central Pennsylvania and spent his high school and col- lege years in North Carolina. While earning a bachelor's degree in guitar he became interested in composition through his studies with composer Thomas Brosh, and went on to receive his masters in composition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied with Roger Hannay. He earned his doctorate at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Donald Erb and Eugene O'Brien.

He began teaching composition and electronic music in 1981, with a year at the Cleveland Institute of Music, a year at Webster University in St. Louis, and since 1983 has been on the composition faculty of the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he has recently been named Curators' Professor of Music. He also serves as coordinator of the composition programs. He was invited to be Visiting Professor at the Indiana University School of Music for the fall semester, 1998. From 1991-1999 he served as the Kansas City Symphony's first Composer-in-Residence. This residency was expanded to include the State Ballet of Missouri and the Paseo Academy for the Performing and Visual Arts, the local arts magnet high school, through a grant from Meet the Composer's New Residencies program for 1994- 97. Other residencies include Composer-in-Residence for the "newEar" Ensemble (1999-2002), and guest residencies and workshops at Washington State University, Heidelberg College, the University of Texas at Austin, the Taiwan National Symphony, the Ft. Smith Symphony, and the Composers Forum of the East in Bennington, Vermont.

He has received numerous fellowships, grants, and awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize Fellow- ship, a Composer's Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lee Ettelson Composers Award, as well as additional awards from the NEA, the International Composers Competition of the Polish Section - ISCM, the Music Teach- ers National Association, ASCAP, the Missouri Arts Council, the MidAmerica Arts Alliance, the University of Missouri, the Mrs. Ewing M. Kauffman Excellence in Teaching Award, and others. Commissions have come from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Meet the Composer, the St. Louis Symphony Chamber Series, the Kansas City Symphony, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the SUNY-Stony Brook Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Missouri Music Teachers Association, Metro Theater St. Louis, and numerous individ- ual performers. He has been featured on numerous record labels, including five works on the Music from SEAMUS series, as well as the Capstone and an upcoming release from Gothic Records. His most recent recording is an all-orchestral CD performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra on Albany Records.

Mobberley's music spans many media, including orchestral and chamber music, music for film, video, theater, dance, and music that combines electronic and computer elements with live performance. Overall his music has received over 500 performances on five continents. Much of his music is published by Cautious Music, Box 32493, Kansas City, MO 64171. Other publishers include MMB Music (St. Louis), Roger Dean Publications (Dayton, OH), and Edipan (Rome). Lewis University is honored to have James Mobberley serve as resident artist for Electronic Music at Lewis - 2001 Festival.

Mark Applebaum (born 1967 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American composer and full professor of music composition and theory at Stanford University.[1] He received his PhD in music composition from the University of California, San Diego where he studied with Brian Ferneyhough, Joji Yuasa, Rand Steiger, and Roger Reynolds. Prior to Stanford, Applebaum taught at UCSD, Mississippi State University, and Carleton College. He has received commissions from Betty Freeman, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Fromm Foundation, the Kronos Quartet, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Spoleto USA, the Vienna Modern Festival, Antwerp's Champ D'Action, Festival ADEvantgarde in Munich, Zeitgeist, Manufacture (Tokyo), the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Jerome Foundation, and the American Composers Forum.

Applebaum's solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electro-acoustic work has been performed through North and South America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Asia. His music has been described as mercurial, high detailed, discipline, and exacting, but also features improvisational and whimsical aspects. His inspiration has been drawn from jazz pioneers and maverick composers such as Nancarrow and Partch, who found it necessary to use or invent unusual instruments to realize their artistic visions.[2]

As a jazz pianist, Applebaum has performed around the world, including a solo recital in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso that was sponsored by the American Embassy. In 1994 he received the jazz prize of the Southern California Jazz Society

Virtuoso flutist Elizabeth McNutt discovered her passion for new and adventurous music almost as soon as she began playing. She has dedicated herself to this path, commissioning and premiering countless new works and becoming an expert interpreter of the masterpieces of the last century. Besides her ongoing collaborations with young and upcoming composers,"commanding flutist Elizabeth McNutt" (LA Times) has worked with such recognized figures as Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, Harvey Sollberger, Cort Lippe, Philippe Manoury, Roger Reynolds, Joji Yuasa, and Joan Tower.

Particularly drawn to the new sound worlds of electronic music, she collaborates intensively with composers and technologists to create groundbreaking works for flute and live interactive computer systems. Her solo CD pipe wrench: flute + computer, on the Electronic Music Foundation Media label, was recently described as "astounding" (Flute Talk) and "a delightful listen" (SEAMUS Newsletter). Her other recordings are on the CRI and SEAMUS labels. McNutt has given solo recitals, many incorporating electronics, in Saint Louis, Baltimore, Bir- mingham, Chicago, San Diego, Providence, Baton Rouge, Philadelphia, Frankfurt, and other US and European cities. She has performed music for flute and electronics at venues including the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, the Berkeley Symphony, the National Flute Association Conven- tion, June in Buffalo Festivals, International Computer Music Conferences, and SEAMUS National Conferences. She has also been a soloist at such festivals as Darmstadt, Scotia, Norfolk, and Arcosanti.

McNutt is a frequent lecturer on topics including contemporary music performance practice, flute technique, performing with technology, and collaboration. As a lecturer, she has been a guest of Peabody Conservatory, SUNY Buffalo, Louisiana State University, Colorado University at Boulder, and Minnesota State University, among others. American Composers' Forum, Colorado Flute Association, Mid-South Flute Society, and New Jersey Composers' Guild have also sponsored her presentations.

McNutt holds a doctorate from UC San Diego; her teachers have included Harvey Sollberger, John Fonville, and Jacob Berg (flute), and Miller Puckette (computer music). Currently a resident of Boulder, Colorado, she is an Associate of the Rocky Mountain Women's Institute and a member of the Advocacy Committee of the International Alliance of Women in Music.

Mark Wingate is a composer on the faculty of the School of Music at Florida State University and the director of its electroacoustic music studio. He holds a doctorate in composition with special emphasis on electroacoustic music from the University of Texas where his teachers included Russell Pinkston, Karl Korte, Stephen Montague, Morton Subotnick and others. Prior to joining FSU, he was the co-founder and director of the Electronic Arts Studio at Istanbul Technical University in Turkey. Wingate composed electronic music at EMS studios in Stockholm as a Fulbright Scholar to Sweden in 1993-94. He later wrote theater music while on a Travel Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to Cara- cas, Venezuela, and was awarded a NEA Composer Fellowship in 1997. From 1999–2000 he lived in Italy as a recipient of the Rome Prize in music composition from the American Academy in Rome.

Wingate's electroacoustic works have received international acclaim at new music festivals such as ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) World Music Days, the Festival International de Música y Danza 2000 in Granada, Spain, the "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music, "Rien à voir" in Montreal, and many others. His compositions have garnered prizes such as the Stockholm Electronic Arts Award, the "Prix de la Musique Electroacoustique Caractère," Bourges, France, and honors from Prix Ars Electronica in Austria. His music can be heard on Centaur Records, empreintes DIGITALES Records, Fylkingen Records, and Mnémosyne Musique Média Records UNESCO/CIME.

Kevin Austin, teacher, composer, and administrator, was born (1948) in London, England and has lived most of his life in Montreal, Canada. His degrees in composition are from McGill University where he studied with (among others), Istvan Anhalt, Alcides Lanza and Bengt Hambreaus. His interest in "electronic music" dates from the very early 1960s (before he knew of its formal existence), taking his first studio course in 1969, and founding the Concordia University (Montreal) studios in 1971-72, the same year as his creation of the live-electronic music ensemble, MetaMusic.

Through the 1970s he taught electronic music, music theory, composition, music history and mediatic sound courses at four universities and two colleges in Canada and the USA, while playing concerts and "events" ("happenings" and theater), both with MetaMusic, and solo. In 1979 he started a formal annual series of concerts at Concordia University, (now ÉuCuE), which has presented more than 350 electroacoustic concerts, some ninety percent in 8 to 22 channels of sound. Over the years, he has done sound projection more a thousand times, and has given classes and workshops in eastern Canada, the USA and Poland.

Two years of travels and contact across Canada in the mid-1980s led to the founding of the national Canadian association for electroacoustics, the CEC (Communauté électroacoustique canadienne - Canadian Electroacoustic Community), for which he co-wrote the charter and by-laws with Jean-Francois Denis (empreintes DIGITALes, DIFFUSION i MéDIA).

At the same time he started a newsletter which became the Bulletin CEC Newsletter which almost twenty years later has become the eZine, eContact!. Discussions with Al Mattes in the early-80s for some form of "mediatic on-line radio for ea" has become the web-based jukebox, Sonus.ca, which has more than 1200 ea pieces and is getting more than 20,000 hits per year. Having been on the Board of the CEC for the past decade, in 1995, he was invited to join the Board of SEAMUS (ex officio), a position he still holds.

The mid-1990s email explosion saw his involvement in the creation and animation of a number of national and international listservs devoted to electroacoustics, most notably the international ea list with some 450 members, cec-conference, in which he remains intricately involved on a daily basis.

Coming from a culturally poor background was a youthful impediment that saw resolution in university where his interest in world music, history and culture exploded in the late-1960s, with a personal focus on the musics of Asia (Turkey to China and Bali, by way of Persia and India), and the diasporic influence (or not) of European musics on the cultures of Africa and the Americas. Among his most notable influences was a "Broomhilda" comic strip from the early 1970s with the single line: "Music -- it's always there, you just have to know how to coax it out." While continuing to write articles and develop ea curriculum, after about twenty years, Austin's electroacoustic compositional output was interrupted in 1989 while he taught in Poland, and returned to Concordia as Chair of Music for three years. Following this, he spent nine years re-building the theory and ear-training program, which led to the writing of a two-year integrated dictation and sight-singing curriculum.

At last trading his single-edge razorblade for a mouse, returning to ea composition in the spring of 2003 was done with both mixed and fixed media compositions. Five works built from and around the gu-zheng (chinese 21- string zither), were the start of a series of pieces for traditional chinese and western instruments, acoustic and ea.

In the spring of 2004 he developed the 10-speaker Butterfly Installation Instrument (BII) as an outgrowth of his international multi-speaker research project, AMP (Acoustical Mapping Project), designed to address issues related to composing in one acoustical space (the studio) while having performances in other types of spaces (recital and concert halls). The summer and autumn of 2004 are particularly busy as he has been invited to curate concerts and public presentations, conduct workshops and panels at two festivals (Sound Travels in Toronto and EMM at Lewis University), is presenting the Butterfly in Beijing in November, and is the coordinator of a three- day symposium on multi-speaker pieces in Montreal in late-September. Two new gu-zheng pieces will also be performed in Montreal in late-September.

His other interests range from linguistics to the history and visual arts of all cultures, acoustics and psychoacoustics, with a particular interest in Joyce's Ulysses, the text of the Sirens Episode forming the basis of a major Butterfly installation.

"60x60 features 60 back-to-back pieces that are each under 60 seconds long, each by a different modern composer. ... It's like channel surfing through experimental music..." - Geeta Dayal, Village Voice

60x60 is a concert containing 60 compositions from 60 different composers, with each composition being 60 seconds or less in duration. These 60 recorded pieces are performed in succession without pause, one after another, creat- ing a 1 hour concert. The performance is played in conjunction with a synchronized analog clock. At the top of each minute in the hour, the domain of space for the composer has begun. Composers who have written works less than 60 seconds are strategically and artistically placed within that minute; the remainder of the minute is filled with silence until the next minute begins.

The 60x60 Project is entering its third year. 60x60 has produced concerts throughout the world including New York City, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, St Louis, Bucharest and Istanbul. This year the project will add Chicago, Kansas City, Lille, and London to the concert roster.

Besides collaborating with artists each year to create a multimedia experience for our spring season; we also produce a recording of the project year released on CD and DVD. The first year of the 60x60 project is currently available on CD on the Capstone label.

For this 2005's 60x60, Robert Voisey has created a regional mix of the 60x60 project including 60 works from 60 different composers living in the Midwest and American Heartland.

Celebrating 50 years: Electroacoustic Music from Chile

In the fifties Europe lived the cold war peace: a new world order where the Soviet Union and the United States were the leading powers. The world watches surprised the appearance of new tendencies in all forms of art. From some years before new ways of music creation were being developed in the advanced world: Concrete and Electronic music grew together and relating themselves with occidental concert music prevalent in those years. In the course of 1956 a group of restless young composers initiates a story rich of unsuspected achievements. Pioneers in Latin America these inexperienced composers came from Chile. Those were the years of the radio-theater and rock-and-roll but also of a period full of accomplishments for the chilean music. Many concerts and festivals served as a great aid to creation and diffusion. From time to time news about Concrete and Electronic music arrived from Europe stimulating these enthusiastic young composers: Juan Amenábar, José Vicente Asuar and Leon Schidlowsky among others.

The year 1956 marks the "Nacimiento" (spanish for birth) of the electroacoustic music in Chile. Schidlowsky composes "Nacimiento", first electroacoustic composition conceived as such in Chile and in Latin America. It is a concrete music work, the first experience of this kind in this part of the world and served as a model for the work of many other young composers who used to work every night until dawn in the Radio Chilena broadcasting station. This feverish activity culminated in 1957 with the creation of the Experimental Sound Workshop at the Universidad Católica de Chile. This was the first latin american intent to form an electroacoustic laboratory. Well known composers such as Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt, Amenábar, Asuar and Schidlowsky worked in this laboratory. In the year 1957 Amenábar composes "Fishes" and Asuar "Spectral Variations", the first latin american compositioin based exclusively on synthetic sounds.

After 50 years of history, full of vicissitudes and divers processes, we are aproaching the year 2006 and this date find us ready to celebrate the golden wedding of the Chilean Electroacoustic Community remembering that "Nacimiento" which, with its two minutes of duration, initiated our electroacoustic history. The last years have seen an accelerated rebirth of this kind of music contributing to Chile's artistic and cultural patrimony.

We wish that this anniversary be commemorate in Chile and abroad paying homage to our pioneers and masters. The importance of this anniversary has decided us to carry out multiples activities in Chile, specially in provinces where the practice and difusion of electroacoustic music is scarce. We will organize, lectures and concerts of different formats (public spaces, didactic concerts in the universities, etc.). We will also organize two international tours: the first visiting Spain, United Kingdom, Portugal, France and Germany and the second visiting Mexico, United States and Costa Rica. Our intention is that the year 2006 should be full of celebrations singling out Chile not only in its pioneer position but also as an active nest for young modern composers. These are our first 50 years of a history that will continue in the years to come.

Download Festival Poster

Modern dance meets new music in 60x60 Dance -- a one-hour multimedia extravaganza featuring 60 one-minute performances. Embracing a grass-roots ideology, 60x60 Dance takes 60 one-minute audio works from an international pool of composers and pairs them to 60 dances by local choreographers. The resulting collaborations are presented, without interruption, as a continuous one-hour performance synchronized to an on-stage analog clock.

Eclectic by nature, 60x60 Dance offers an unmatched diversity of styles, making for a fast-speed, electrifying one-of-a-kind performance that never ceases to surprise. Dance influences range from ballet to postmodern movements, and music styles include neo-romantic, folk, ambient, field recordings, noise, jazz, rock and even the kitchen sink.

60x60 was originally conceived of as an electronic music project, collecting 60-second works by composers and sound artists from around the world. Since 2003, 60x60 has featured the work of more than 2000 composers in concerts spanning the globe. From the beginning 60x60 was a natural vehicle for collaborating with other art forms. In 2007, 60x60 teamed up with choreographers and 60x60 Dance was born. 60x60 Dance has featured more than 500 choreographers and 1000 dancers. Since then this unique collaboration has produced twenty exciting shows in New York City, London, St Louis, Montreal, Toronto, Columbus and Kansas City.

60x60 Dance returns to the Winter Garden Atrium at Brookfield Place for two performances with a unique mix of composers and choreographers highlighting the project's rich history of the past decade.strongly in the intrinsic value of contemporary music, recognizing it as a force in the advancement of culture and art. Our goal is to keep music alive by strengthening the connection between composer and audience, providing greater exposure to new music.

In celebration of EMM's 10th Anniversary, acclaimed flutist, Rebecca Ashe, has been chosen as guest artist for the 2010 EMM Festival.

Dr. Ashe is currently on the faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, as Adjunct Instructor of Flute at the Community Music and Dance Academy. She is also a freelance musician and appears across the country as a performer, lecturer, and masterclass clinician. A new music performer and collaborator, she has partnered with several composers and has performed at several festivals, including SPARK, SEAMUS and the Electroacoustic Juke Joint.

Dr. Ashe earned her Bachelor degree in Applied Music (flute) at the Eastman School of Music, where her principal teacher was Bonita Boyd. She earned both Master of Musical Arts and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Missouri -Kansas City, studying with Dr. Mary Posses. In 1998, she was the only American and one of four flutists worldwide to be chosen for Trevor Wye's prestigious one-year course in Kent, England. Other major teachers have included William Bennett and Karl Kraber.

In 2007, Dr. Ashe collaborated with three composers, Christopher Biggs, Ryan Oldham, and Jorge Sosa to premiere three new pieces for flute. A recording project for the pieces is underway, with a release expected in 2010.

Dr. Ashe has performed recitals throughout the United States, Canada, England, and Latvia. In 2003, Dr. Ashe and pianist, Inara Zandmane, gave a recital at the Academy of Music in Riga, Latvia. Ms. Ashe was the first American flutist to perform a recital at the Academy, which was broadcast on national radio. She also gave a master class at the E. Darzins Academy of Music, the most prestigious preparatory music school in Latvia. Along with her recent collaborations, Dr. Ashe has premiered several pieces, including the Kansas City premier of Chen Yi's The Golden Flute, for flute and orchestra, in 2003, and Hsueh-Yung Shen's ...And Then Things Changed, for flute and piano. She has won several local and national grants and awards.

Elizabeth Bunt's performances have been described as "captivating" and "blazing". As a performer of new music, she has collaborated with composers such as Chris Biggs and Carl Schimmel and appeared at numerous festivals around the U.S., including Electronic Music Midwest (EMM), Kansas City; Spark Festival for Electronic Music and Art, Minneapolis, MN; Imagine II, Memphis, TN; Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS); and North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) regional and national conferences. Elizabeth has performed in Mexico, Germany, and across the United States.

Elizabeth Bunt produced and performed in the North American premiere of Linker Augentanz (Left-Eye Dance) for saxophones, percussion, and synthesizer by the twentieth-century pioneering composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Her interest in Stockhausen's music inspired her doctoral thesis The Saxophone Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. The summer of 2010 she attended the Stockhausen Courses and Concerts in his hometown of Kürten, Germany, where she studied with his longtime collaborators; flutist Kathinka Pasveer, clarinetist Suzanne Stephens, and sound projectionist Bryan Wolf; and became an informal student of eminent American Stockhausen scholar Jerome Kohl.

Elizabeth Bunt earned her doctorate in saxophone performance with a minor in music theory from the University of Arizona, Tucson, where she studied with Drs. Kelland Thomas, Brian Sacawa, Timothy McAllister, Craig Walsh, and Pamela Decker. She holds a master's degree in saxophone performance from the University of Arizona and a bachelor's degree in saxophone performance and music education from the University of Northern Iowa. Elizabeth resides in Tucson, AZ, where she teaches saxophone and music theory. She is active as a visiting performer and lecturer. Visit her at her website elizabethbunt.com.

Andrew Spencer, currently holds the position of professor of percussion at Central Michigan University. An active recitalist and clinician, he has performed as a soloist in the United States, Poland, Japan, Canada, and Costa Rica. In 1999, he released "Slender Beams," a recording that features works by composer Dave Hollinden. Spencer has also premiered works by David Gillingham, Mark Polishook, Samuel Adler, Robert May and Henry Gwiazda among others. Equally experienced in orchestral performance, Dr. Spencer is timpanist with the West Michigan and Lansing Symphony Orchestras, and has acted as Visiting Principal Percussionist for the Midland and Saginaw Orchestras. Additional positions have included timpanist/principal percussionist with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Cascade Festival Orchestra, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra and Fargo-Moorhead Civic Opera Company. He has performed with the Oregon Symphony, Spokane Symphony, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In addition, he has performed with numerous chamber ensembles throughout the United States, and plays drum set with the CMU Faculty Jazz Ensemble with whom he has recorded two CDs, "Caught In The Act" and "Conspiracy Theory". Dr. Spencer received his bachelor of music and master of music in performance (percussion) and studied with Dr. Terry Applebaum at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He earned his doctor of musical arts in performance and literature (percussion) from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where he studied with John Beck. In addition, Eastman granted Dr. Spencer the coveted performer's certificate as a percussion soloist.

"Spencer's energy put the piece in overdrive."

"Spencer's command of the marimba was phenomenal..."
Seattle Post-Intelligencer


"Spencer exhibited the technique and style of a music master, he was greeted with a standing ovation at the end of the concert."

"The energetic rhythms and elements of dissonance were masterly performed by Spencer whose [technique] was superb."
Andres Sanez, music critic
La Nacion (San Jose, Costa Rica)


"...Andrew Spencer...did a magnificent job with this new and unusal work."

"...Spencer brought them to life with great effect."
Floyd Famer, music critic
Muskegon Chronicle


"Spencer became focused and ferocious...having passed the secret onto the enraptured audience"
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Kari Johnson is a pianist who specializes in new music and electronic music performance. Praised by critics for her "amazing musicality" and "flair for drama," Ms. Johnson works to create a dynamic, captivating experience for her audience. Like most pianists, Johnson began her training in traditional classical repertoire. Throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies, she developed an interest in playing rarely performed and highly stylized works, particularly music of the early baroque and late twentieth century. In 2008 she received an offer to participate in UMKC's Musica Nova as a scholarship member, and began to specialize in new music. This shift in aesthetic allows her to work with many composers, both "up-and-coming" and established. Ms. Johnson has performed at a variety of venues, including EMM, SEAMUS, EABD, the 2011 Thailand International Composition Festival, the Electro Acoustic Juke Joint, Montana State University, Western Michigan University, and Washington State University. In 2012 Ms. Johnson released her first commercial CD through the record label Irritable Hedgehog. This recording of Scott Blasco's Queen of Heaven has received positive critical review.

In addition to her active performing schedule, Ms Johnson is on the faculty of Avila University, where she teaches applied piano. She also maintains a large pre-college teaching studio, both privately and through the UMKC Community Music and Dance Academy. She is an active adjudicator and presenter, participating in events at Kansas City area schools and through the Kansas City Music Teachers Association.

Ms. Johnson is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She holds a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from Bowling Green State University, and a Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from Central Missouri State University. She studied harpsichord with Charlotte Mattax, and her primary piano instructors include John McIntyre, Timothy Ehlen, Robert Satterlee, and Mia Hynes.

For several decades, cellist Craig Hultgren has been a fixture on the scenes for new music, the newly creative arts, and the avant-garde. In recent years, he has performed solo concerts and chamber music in Rome, New York, Boston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Miami, Atlanta, Orlando, Denver, Nashville, Memphis and San Antonio. A recipient of two Artist Fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, he was a member for many years of Thátmyris, a contemporary chamber music ensemble in Atlanta. A cellist in the Alabama Symphony, he also plays in Luna Nova, a new music ensemble with a large repertoire of performances available as podcast downloads on iTunes. Hultgren is featured in three solo CD recordings including The Electro-Acoustic Cello Book on Living Artist Recordings. For ten years, he produced the Hultgren Solo Cello Works Biennial, an international competition that highlighted the best new compositions for the instrument. He teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Alabama School of Fine Arts and Birmingham-Southern College where he directed the BSC New Music Ensemble. He is a founding member and President of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance and is on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestras of Birmingham. Hultgren recently completed a CAMA artist residency (Collaborating Artists Manifesting Adventure) with the St. Louis New Music Circle where he presented programs for three seasons. Recently, he performed a 15 Minutes of Fame concert titled Occupy Cello in New York for the Composer's Voice Concert Series. That program featured 15 one-minute solo compositions that challenge the traditional boundaries of the instrument.

Keith Benjamin joined the UMKC Conservatory of Music as professor of trumpet in 1989 with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree and a Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. While in New York, he performed with the Rochester Philharmonic and held principal chairs in three other orchestras. Current orchestra positions include principal trumpet in the Colorado MahlerFest, and extra trumpet for the St. Louis and Kansas City Symphonies.

In addition to orchestral playing, Dr. Benjamin is an active recitalist and chamber musician, and is first trumpet in the Missouri Brass Quintet. His recitals frequently feature contemporary music, and he has commissioned and premiered numerous works, including compositions of Samuel Adler, James Mobberley, Peter Hamlin, Stephen David Beck, Eugene O'Brien, and many others. Recital and concert appearances in Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and over 35 states are "travelling" highlights, and Kansas City also affords him the opportunity to have a lively professional career as a commercial, studio, and lead trumpet player.

Dr. Benjamin is partnered with Los Angeles organist Melody Steed in "Clarion", a trumpet & organ duo which emphasizes 20th century music. The duo recently released Clarion: New Vintage, their second disc on Gothic Records, this one consisting of all commissioned American works, and completed a highly successful performance tour of Hungary in the summer of 2006. Plans for a third recording of all commissions are in the works.

Dr. Benjamin is an Artist-Clinician for the Selmer/Bach companies. He makes his home in Kansas City with his wife Jennifer and their two sons, Duncan and Rowan.

"Adventurous indie violinist Sarah Plum" (New York Music Daily), has been hailed has "an activist performer" by anearful.com for her work tirelessly championing composers, commissioning and premiering new works and bringing them to the attention of a larger public.

Sarah Plum began her performing career by winning the first prize at the International Stulberg Competition in 1984. Since then she has carved out a distinctive role as a serious interpreter of a large range of music commissioning many new works as well as crafting fresh interpretations of the standard repertoire. Sarah has been sought after by orchestras and fellow musicians in the US and Europe as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician for concerts at venues and festivals such as the Luzern Festival, Ars Musica Brussels, Cite de Musique, and the Barbican. Her performances have been praised as "consistently stunning with works that demanded conventional virtuosity but also great skill in unconventional techniques" (third coast journal).

Plum has appeared on numerous TV and radio broadcasts including the WDR, NDR and Deutsche Welle in Germany, BBC TV in the United Kingdom and Iowa Public Radio. She has recorded for the Bluegriffin, Bridge, BMG, Albany, Arte Nova and Capriccio labels.

The SPLICE Ensemble is a trumpet, piano, and percussion trio focussed on cultivating a canon of the most important works composed for instruments and electronics. Through seminars, lectures, master classes, concerts, and commissions, the SPLICE Ensemble works with composers and performers on performance practice techniques for collaboration and integrating electronics into a traditional performance space. The resident ensemble of both the SPLICE Summer Institute and the SPLICE Festival, the SPLICE Ensemble has been a featured ensemble at M Woods in Beijing, SEAMUS, the Electroacoustic Barndance, SCI National, and will be the featured guest ensemble at Electronic Music Midwest this fall.

"New-music luminary" (The New York Times), Margaret Lancaster (flutes) also works as an actor, dancer, amateur furniture designer and has built a large repertoire of interactive, cross-disciplinary solo works that employ electronics and mixed media. Performance highlights include Lincoln Center Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Santa Fe New Music, Art Basel/Miami, Edinburgh Festival, NIME/Copenhagen, Tap City, and the 7-year global run of OBIE-winning Mabou Mines Dollhouse (Helene). A member of Either/Or, Ensemble Ipse, and Fisher Ensemble, guest appearances include Argento, American Modern Ensemble, and the New York Philharmonic. Lancaster has appeared as a lecturer/soloist at many sites including Stanford, Dartmouth, Princeton, Columbia, Bennington, and the National Flute Association, has recorded on New World Records, World Edition, Naxos, Innova, Tzadik, and Mode and was selected to participate in Meet the Composer's New Works for Soloist Champions project. Recent collaborations include projects with Jean-Baptiste Barriére and Kaija Saariaho, ArmitageGone!Dance, the US premiere of Stockhausen's KLANG cycle, and touring Morton Feldman's 5 hour epic For Philip Guston. For more information, visit margaretlancaster.com

Saxophonist Drew Whiting leads a multifaceted career as an educator, performer, and scholar. His diverse musical interests include the standard concert saxophone repertoire, jazz, transcriptions of borrowed works, commissioning new works, and improvisation. Drew is an accomplished chamber musician, having been awarded first place at the 2012 MTNA National Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Cerulean Saxophone Quartet. He currently performs with a variety of ensembles including the Coalescent Quartet, Water City Jazz Orchestra, and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, as well as performing frequently as a solo artist.

Drew has established himself as a champion of new and experimental music, regularly performing works from the 20th and 21st centuries in solo, chamber, and electroacoustic settings. He recently performed at the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, Ball State University Festival of New Music, Third Practice Festival, SPLICE Festival and Institute, Navy Band Saxophone Symposium, and presented the first ever Performer-Curated Concert at the 2017 SEAMUS Conference. He has worked closely with composers such as Jeff Herriott, Betsy Jolas, Erik Lund, Ed Martin, John Mayrose, and Pauline Oliveros, and has premiered over thirty works by established and emerging composers.

In addition to performing, Drew is a dedicated and vibrant educator. He has presented masterclasses at Grand Valley State University, Illinois State University, Lawrence Conservatory, Ohio State University, and Oklahoma State University. Dr. Whiting serves as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh where he teaches courses in aural skills, saxophone, chamber music, and co-directs the experimental music ensemble Sounds Like Now.

Drew received his Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees from the Michigan State University College of Music where he studied with Joseph Lulloff. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he studied with Debra Richtmeyer.

Drew is a Yamaha Performing Artist and a Vandoren Regional Artist, exclusively performing on Yamaha saxophones and Vandoren woodwind products.

Andrea Cheeseman is a clarinetist and teacher living in Columbia, South Carolina. Throughout her career, she has been committed to playing good music and collaborating with inspiring people who challenge her.

A versatile performer, Cheeseman frequently performs as a soloist and chamber musician. Although she regularly performs traditional repertoire, she is an advocate of new music and is a sought-after performer of electroacoustic music written for clarinet and bass clarinet. Wishing to promote electroacoustic music, she has toured extensively, giving recitals and masterclasses throughout the country. Additionally, Cheeseman has been a featured performer at festivals such as the Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival and the Electroacoustic Barn Dance and has appeared at the TUTTI Festival, EMM and SEAMUS conferences. She has been described as “a skilled performer with an ability to connect to the audience. And comfortable in her own skin, she has the uncanny ability to slide into the soundscape as if she were physically part of it.” Cheeseman has premiered pieces by today’s leading composers and released her debut album Somewhere in September 2019 (Ravello).

From 2009 to 2019, Cheeseman served on the faculty of Appalachian State University where she taught studio lessons and a methods course as well as coached chamber music. Prior to her appointment at ASU, Cheeseman was on the faculties of Delta State University, Alma College and Hillsdale College. Cheeseman earned the Doctorate of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in clarinet performance from Michigan State University and the Bachelor of Music degrees in clarinet performance and music education from Ithaca College.

When not teaching or performing, Cheeseman spends her time gardening, swimming, practicing ashtanga yoga and perfecting her kimchi recipe.

Scott Deal engages new works of computer interactivity, networked systems, media, and percussion. Hailed as "a riveting performer" who "exhibits phenomenal virtuosity", Deal has performed at venues worldwide, with groups that include ART GRID, Another Language, Callithumpian Consort, Percussion Group Cincinnati, Miami Symphony, Arctic Chamber Orchestra, and Big Robot. His recordings of Pulitzer Prize/Grammy Award-winning composer John Luther Adams were listed in New Yorker Magazine's and WNYC's "Top Ten Classical Picks" and featured in the sound track of the Academy Award winning movie The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2011, Deal and composer Matthew Burtner won the coveted Internet2 IDEA Award for their co-creation of Auksalaq, a telematic climate opera called "an important realization of meaningful opera for today's world". His work has received funding from organizations that include Meet the Composer, New Frontiers, Indiana Arts Council, Clowes Foundation, IU Arts and Humanities Institute, and the University of Alaska. He is the co-founder of Deck 10 Media, a company that creates interactive network systems for musical performance, teaching, and conferencing. Deal is a Professor and Director of the Donald Louis Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center at IUPUI.

Michael Hall lives in Chicago and has performed and taught across Europe, Asia and the United States. Described by the New Music Connoisseur as "utterly masterful," and Chamber Music Today as having "superb technique," he recently made his Chicago Orchestra Hall solo debut performing the world premiere of Kim Diehnelt's "Montegar," and concluded a recital tour to Vienna, Austria and Udine and Tolmezzo, Italy. Hall has been a featured performer at the Thailand International Composition Festival in Bangkok, the Positano Chamber Music Festival in Italy, the Vianden International Chamber Music Festival in Luxembourg and the Composer's Concordance Series in New York City. January 2018, Hall gave the world premiere of Stacy Garrop's Viola Concerto - Krakatoa, with the Bandung Philharmonic in Indonesia.

Twice he has presented world premieres at International Viola Congresses at Minneapolis and Reykjavik, Iceland, performed at the 2014 Primrose International Festival in Los Angeles, been a five-time featured performer at the UMKC Summer Composition Workshop, and presented to critical acclaim the North American premiere of Chen Yi's, Xian Shi, the first viola concerto written by a Chinese composer, with the Chicago Composers Orchestra, and earlier with the Chiang Mai Philharmonic in Thailand. Additional performances include solo appearances in Bali, Jakarta, and Singapore, the 2018 New Music Gathering, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the Bandung Philharmornic in Indonesia, New Music Chicago Series, Constellation appearance with Transient Canvas, Thirsty Ear Festival, and the US premiere of Stacy Garrop's Viola Concerto Krakatoa with the Baroque on Beaver Island Music Festival in Michigan.

Compositions written for Michael Hall include four recently released commercial recordings: Narong Prangcharoen's Antahkarana, Mara Gibson's Canopy and James Mobberley's Subject To Change Without Notice, which received accolades from Gramophone Magazine, American Record Guide, Fanfare Magazine, the NewMusic Box and "I Care If You Listen." Other notable solo premieres have included works by Stacy Garrop, Eric Moe, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Marta Ptaszynska, Adam Greene, Matthew Burtner, Antonio Celso Ribeiro, Rob Deemer, Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, Christian Ellenwood, Jean-David Caillouet, David Vayo, Sharon Hartanto, Seth Boustead, Eric Malmquist and Yu Pengfei. In addition to presenting the Asian premieres of works by Elliott Carter, Zhou Long, Shulamit Ran and Nico Muhly, Hall has championed the music of Alfred Schnittke, Stephen Paulus and Kee Yong Chong. Commercial recordings can be found on the Delos, Centaur, Acoma, Clarion, Vienna Modern Masters, Albany Records, and Navona Recordings.

Hall has served on the faculties of VanderCook College of Music, Illinois Wesleyan University, Chicago Academy for the Arts, Guilford College, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and taught adjunct at the University of Chicago. Additionally, Hall is Co-Artistic Director and Director of Education for the Bandung Philharmonic in Indonesia, and serves on the Board of the American Viola Society. Hall received his Doctorate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, graduated from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with a Masters and received his Bachelor degree from Ball State University. His teachers include Michelle LaCourse, Scott Rawls, Peter Kamnitzer, Linda Geidel and the LaSalle and Tokyo string quartets.

A distinctive and eloquent voice in the music of today, Lisa Bost-Sandberg is described by renowned musician Robert Dick as "…one of the important composer-performers of her generation…[her] interpretations are infused with deep musicality, questing intelligence and a joyous spirit." Deeply committed to contemporary music as well as its rich roots in the classical repertoire, Bost-Sandberg is known as an engaging flutist/composer/improviser, a dynamic presenter of workshops and lectures, and an impactful teacher.

In demand as a soloist and chamber musician, she has toured internationally, performing her own music and that of others at new music festivals (SEAMUS, EMM, Pixilerations, Spark, and SCI), National Flute Association conventions, International Low Flutes Festivals, and guest appearances at dozens of universities. Recent engagements include performing as a featured flutist-composer on the New York Flute Club's "Solo Flute Spectacular" concert and serving as the guest artist for the Utah Flute Festival and the Seattle Flute Society Horsfall Competition. She is the bass flutist for the virtual film premiere of Julia Wolfe's Oxygen for 12 flutes, presented by Carnegie Hall, and she has recorded on the Albany, Cantaloupe, GIA, and North Texas Jazz labels.

Many of her appearances involve her career as a performer-composer and contemporary music specialist, including presentations such as "In Pursuit: Creating Your Path in the Arts," "From Performer to Composer," and "Tackling a Contemporary Composition." She has a long-standing duo collaboration with pianist Éva Polgár. Their programming is focused on adventurous and stunning 20th- and 21st-century repertoire from around the world, from important historical works such as Boulez's extraordinary Sonatine to new works written for them such as Asha Srinivasan's Utthishta. Her solo and chamber projects often span the eras, featuring traditional repertoire alongside her pieces and other recent compositions. She has appeared as a concerto soloist on several occasions and currently performs as principal flute of the Greater Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra.

Bost-Sandberg's compositions have been performed at major conferences and festivals across the United States and abroad, including the College Music Society, Society of Composers, American Trombone Workshop, World Saxophone Congress, North American Saxophone Alliance, National Flute Association, International Low Flutes Festival, and the Music by Women Festival. Recent projects include Heron for solo bass clarinet, commissioned by Jeremy Wohletz, and Dovetail for solo piano, written for the North Dakota Music Teachers Association as she was honored to be selected as their 2023 Commissioned Composer. Chroma, a multimedia collaboration with artist and commissioner Marjorie Schlossman, is the subject of a short film by Mary Trunk and Caren McCaleb. Bost-Sandberg's works have been recognized as prize-winners and finalists in composition competitions of the National Flute Association, the Flute New Music Consortium, and the American Trombone Workshop.

Committed to her musical community, she serves on the Schmitt Music Flute Gallery Advisory Board and is a Voting Member of the International Music Camp Corporation. Currently serving as Secretary of the National Flute Association, she recently completed a term on the Board of Directors and previously chaired the New Music Advisory Committee, which provided a unique opportunity to forward the commissioning projects and new music initiatives of a major organization with an impressive and deep commissioning history.

Bost-Sandberg has taught masterclasses, given presentations, and led workshops at numerous institutions and festivals. She is the Teaching Assistant Professor of flute and music entrepreneurship at the University of North Dakota, teaches at the International Music Camp, and coaches for the Northern Valley Youth Symphony. A Montana native, she received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in flute performance with a related field in composition from the University of North Texas as a recipient of the prestigious Masters and Doctoral Fellowship. She is also a graduate of New York University (Master of Arts) and The University of Iowa (Bachelor of Music). For more information, visit www.lisabost.com.