Chinese-born Canadian pianist Sophie Xuefei Zhang enjoys a career as a soloist, a chamber musician, and an arts educator. She has appeared on stage with Kim Kashkashian, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Ian Swensen, and Bonnie Hampton as well as members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Ives String Quartet, American String Quartet, Windscape, and Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, among others. Sophie has served as artist-in-residence with her piano duo at Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec for the 2012-2013 season, and ensemble-in-residence with Aleron Trio on San Francisco’s Old First Concert Series for the 2014-2015 season.

Anthony R. Green (he/him/his), composer/performer/social justice artist, was raised on Narragansett and Pauquunaukit (Wampanoag) land in Providence, RI. His various creative projects include musical and visual creations, interpretations of original, contemporary, and repertoire works, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom. His compositions and projects have been presented in 25+ countries by various internationally acclaimed soloists and ensembles including but not limited to: Julian Otis (voice), Fred C. VanNess Jr. (voice), Veronica Williams (voice), Christian Dillingham (contrabass), Joy Cline Phinney (piano), Elizabeth G. Hill (piano), Ashleigh Gordon (viola), the Chicago Modern Orchestra Project (conducted by Renée C. Baker), and Castle of our Skins.

Michael Wiener, born in 1975 in Germany, combines his interest in contemporary music, especially composition, with his academic background in international law.

From 2002 until 2006, he was a member of the composition class of Alexander Müllenbach at the Conservatory of Luxembourg, where he received a composition certificate ‘supérieur avec la qualification très bien’. He was also awarded prizes at the composition competitions Carl von Ossietzky, Engelbert Humperdinck and Artistes en herbe. His choir piece ‘Major autem ex his est caritas’ has been chosen as a winner in the composition contest of Universal Sacred Music in New York City and was recorded by Harold Rosenbaum with the New York Virtuoso Singers (published on CD by Soundbrush Records). In addition, his piece ‘Camino de Santiago’ was recorded on CD by the female ensemble Otto Voci.

Myron Silberstein is a Chicago-based composer and pianist whose writing falls within the tradition of the overlooked composers whose works he has premiered and recorded. Vittorio Giannini, Ernest Bloch, Nicolas Flagello, and Thomas Pasatieri are among Myron’s greatest influences, and he embraces the unabashed emotionalism, melodic and harmonic warmth, and structural rigor of these composers. Myron’s output includes a large number of songs, works for solo piano, and duo-sonatas. He particularly enjoys collaborating with living poets. His recordings can be found on Naxos, Centaur, and Connoisseur Society. Mark Lehman of the American Record Guide lauded Myron’s recording of sonatas by Peter Mennin and Norman Lloyd as “An indispensable addition to the discography of American music.” A recording of Myron’s first two piano sonatas and unpublished piano pieces and songs by Vittorio Giannini is currently in postproduction.

Born in 1983 in Izmir, Özden Gülsün started her music education in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory as a violin student under Prof. Gönül Gökdoğan. She continued her violin education in Dokuz Eylül University State Conservatory under Prof. Attila Işıksun and Teaching Assistant Şebnem Edgü. In 2004, she was admitted to the Composition and Conductor Department of DEÜ State Conservatory and started studying under Prof. İstemihan Tavioğlu. In 2009, she was admitted to the post-graduate program of the same department and started teaching solfege and music theory the same year. She studied under Prof. Jean Baily, Ass. Prof. Ebru Güner Canbey, Ass. Prof. Onur Nurcan, and Teaching Assistant Mehmet Aktuğ throughout her education. In 2013, she started working as a research assistant in the Music Department of Trakya University State Conservatory. She completed her post-graduate studies with her thesis titled Examination of Atonal, Serial, and Minimal Styles and their Explanation through Select Examples at TÜ Institute of Social Sciences with Prof. Ahmet Hamdi Zafer ve Ass. Prof. Ebru Güner Canbey as her thesis advisors and she continues her doctorate education at the same institution.

Lauren McCall is a composer and educator from Atlanta, Georgia. She studied for her master’s degree in music composition at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and currently she is studying music technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Lauren has had compositions performed around North America and in Europe. This includes her piece for piano, Shake the Earth, which was performed in Morehead, Kentucky at Morehead State University’s Contemporary Piano Festival, and her arrangement of the spiritual I’m Troubled which was performed in Lakeland, Florida for the Grady Rayam Prize in Sacred Music. Along with composing Lauren also enjoys playing the clarinet and piano, nature, spending time with family and friends, and traveling.

Composer and performer Molly Joyce’s music has been described as “serene power” (New York Times), written to “superb effect” (The Wire), and “impassioned” (The Washington Post). Her work is concerned with disability as a creative source. She has an impaired left hand from a previous car accident, and the primary vehicle in her pursuit is her electric vintage toy organ, an instrument she bought on eBay which suits her body and engages her disability on a compositional and performative level. Her debut full-length album, Breaking and Entering, featuring toy organ, voice, and electronic sampling of both sources was released in June 2020 on New Amsterdam Records, and has been praised by New Sounds as “a powerful response to something (namely, physical disability of any kind) that is still too often stigmatized, but that Joyce has used as a creative prompt.”

Jason Cady is a composer and librettist. He performs on pedal steel guitar and modular synthesizer. Pitchfork called him a “mod-synth mastermind…funny and engaging.” Anthony Tommasini, in the New York Times, described his video opera, I Screwed Up the Future, as “charming fantasy...drably comic and spacey.” Opera News described his opera I Need Space as “delightfully weird...hilarious, dry and detached performances made this futuristic, retro story of love and rejection endearingly poignant.” His recent opera, Candy Corn, was called “hilarious” by The Wire Magazine, and “radically enjoyable” by I Care If You Listen.