Brian Ciach (born 1977) is an award-winning composer and new music pianist from Philadelphia, whose music has been described as "remarkably inventive" (Herald Times) and "beautifully scored, always clear and full of arresting sounds and images, held together by intuitive dramatic plans that draw the listener in" (Aaron Jay Kernis, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer). His music is evocative and attractive in its imagery, often using intrepid instrumentation and imaginative formal concepts woven from a free and accessible tonal language.
www.sigh-ackmusic.org

• COLLECTIVE UNCOMMON

• THE EINSTEIN SLIDE

Nuno da Rocha studied Composition with Vasco Mendonça, Carlos Marecos, Luís Tinoco, Carlos Caires and António Pinho Vargas. He took masterclasses with composers such as Nigel Osborne, Louis Andriessen, Richard Ayres, Martijn Padding, Jan van de Putte, Micheal Smetanin and Helena Tulve. He was selected to take part in the ENOA Workshop "Composing for Voice" with Magnus Lindberg and Barbara Hannigan. In September 2014 his orchestral work "I could not think of thee as piecèd rot" for Soprano and Orchestra was performed by the Gulbenkian Orchestra and the soprano Inês Simões conducted by Magnus Lindberg. Nuno da Rocha is one of the nominated composers for the TOTEM (Théâtre Opéra Texte et Écriture musicale) 2017-18 at the Festival d’Avignon in France.

• I COULD NOT THINK OF THEE AS PIECÈD ROT

• RESTART

Daniel studied composition with Sérgio Azevedo, António Pinho Vargas, and Luís Tinoco. His primary interest lies in spectral music and the development of an elaborated compositional process. Daniel´s method of creating music can be compared to the construction of a Swiss Watch, involving many carefully arranged parts and details, shaping subtle transformations from one sonic element to another. Composers who influenced his music are Thomas Adès, Julian Anderson, Robbin Holloway, Lutoslawski, Mahler, Sibelius, and Beethoven.
www.danieldaviscomposer.com

• FROM THE LAST BREATH

Colombian composer/sound artist James Diaz, currently based in New York and Philadelphia, composes music that strives to create unique sonic textures, and environments. His music extends beyond concert music including interdisciplinary projects that explore the potential of electroacoustic and mixed media settings. Deeply influenced by the concept of psychedelia, and psychedelic rock bands, his music also draws from elements of the classical canon, architecture, Latin-America landscapes, and photography. Recently, as the 2019 composer-in-residence for the Medellin Philharmonic, James premiered "RETRO", a concerto for orchestra and electronics. James is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in composition at the University of Pennsylvania as a Benjamin Franklin fellow, where he studies with Marcos Balter.
www.jamesdiaz.co

• MIRRORS IN THE VOID

• CADENZA

Fredrik Gran is a composer from the Vällingby suburb in Stockholm, Sweden. He is interested in the musical potential of machinic and mechanical processes and in experimenting with new performative strategies. His work covers orchestral, chamber, vocal, electroacoustic and live electronic music, as well as music for installations, dance, digital and visual art. Fredrik's music has been recognized internationally, performed at festivals such as Nordic Music Days (Copenhagen, DK), SICMF (Seoul, KR), Tage Neue Musik (Weimar, DE), ISCM (Vancouver, CA), Festival MANCA (Nice, FR), NoiseGate (NYC, US) and has been primed in many competitions such as Codes d'Acces (CA) and Swedish Art Music Prize. He studied composition at the Music Academy in Stockholm and at McGill University in Montreal, where his doctoral research is connected to the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT).
www.fredrikgran.com

• IMMINENT CROSSINGS

• PICTURES OF FIELDS WITHOUT FENCES

Brian Harman’s compositions are frequently inspired by extra-musical ideas such as technology, architecture, dance, and concepts of ritual. In 2016 he was the recipient of the KM Hunter Artist Award for Music. In 2013 he worked closely with Georges Aperghis at the Impuls Festival (Austria). His orchestral work Supposed Spaces was selected to be part of Canada’s 2013 submission to World New Music Days. Brian received his Doctor of Music from McGill University in 2012.
www.brianharman.ca

• SUPPOSED SPACES

Will Healy is a composer and pianist based in New York. Known for his "lushly bluesy" sound and "adroitly blended... textures" (New York Times), he is the artistic director of ShoutHouse, an ensemble of 15 hip-hop, jazz, and classical musicians. In addition, he is an accomplished pianist specializing in Bach, with a repertoire that includes the complete Goldberg Variations and WTC Book 1. Recent awards include a 2017 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Morton Gould Award, a W.K. Rose Fellowship, and prizes in the Juilliard and Kaleidoscope Orchestra Composition Competitions. Healy’s work has appeared at The Apollo Theater, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Greene Space, and on radio stations around the world. Healy is the recipient of the Richard Rodgers Scholarship at The Juilliard School, where he studies with John Corigliano.
www.willhealymusic.com

• KOLMANSKOP

Thuridur Jónsdóttir is an Icelandic composer and flutist. Her work includes music for solo instruments, ensembles and orchestra, some of them accompanied by electronic sounds or field recordings, some even with the participation of the audience, others with some theatrical interaction.
Her works are performed worldwide, commisioned by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra, Icelandic Symphony, National radios of Iceland, France and Germany, among others. She has collaborated with artist like Bjork, Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir and Mario Caroli. Mrs. Jonsdottir was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Price in 2006, 2010 and 2012 and awarded a Civitella Ranieri Music Fellowship in 2016.
http://www.thuri.is/

• FLOW AND FUSION

Rodrigo Lima was born in Guarulhos-São Paulo in 1976. His compositions have been released in contemporary music festivals in Brazil, EUA, Europe and Latin America. Bachelor in Musical Composition Degree at the Department of Music – University of Brasília and Masters in Composition at the Art Institute of the University of Campinas State in São Paulo. He has obtained some prizes in National and International Competitions: Prize International Iberoamericano Rodolfo Halffter 2008 de Composition (Mexico), Composer in residence in 5th International Forum for Young Composers 2008 in Paris (France), Prize Francisco Guerreiro Martín at the ‘XVII Premio Jóvenes Compositores 2006 Fundación Autor’ in Madrid (Spain), Prize for Classical Composition of the National Arts Foundation 2010 in Brazil, and others.
Lima’s music has been performed by the Ensemble Aleph (France), Proxima Centauri (France), Abstrai Ensemble (Brazil), Camerata de las Amércicas (Mexico), Sonor Ensemble (Spain), Orchestutropica (Lisboa-Portugal), Camerata Aberta (Brazil), University of São Paulo Symphony (Brazil), and others. Rodrigo Lima is teacher of composition at the 'EMESP- School of Music of São Paulo State. His works are published by Brazilian Academy of Music, Da Vinci Edition (Japan) and BabelScores in Paris (France).
www.rodrigolimacomposer.com

• SOL A PINO

Called "feisty" and "impressive" by LA Times, Ben Phelps is a an active composer, percussionist, and founder of things. His music has been called "enchanting" (LA Weekly), "a riot" (LA Times), and has been praised for his "nuanced irony" (The Artificialist) and "Hindemithian seriousness" (LA Times). He is a managing director of What’s Next?, a leading post-classical new music event and performance collective in Southern California, and has performed and collaborated extensively with many of the country's leading composers and new-music musicians. In addition to championing experimental and ground-breaking music, he enjoyed a long collaborative partnership with multimedia puppeteering company Rogue Artists Ensemble, and has traveled the world as an assistant conductor to Lord of the Rings Live. He lives and works in Los Angeles, where he is also an amateur satirist and urban planning enthusiast.
www.benphelpscomposer.com

• CIRCUS MAXIMUS

Composer and Pianist Matan Porat was born in 1982 in Tel-Aviv.
His works have been commissioned and performed by the Geneva Camerata, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Academy, the Israel Symphony Orchestra and by such renowned performers as Andreas Scholl, Maria João Pires, Kim Kashkashian, Avi Avital, Cuarteto Casals and Nicolas Altstaedt. They were premiered at the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Gewandhaus Leipzig and Schleswig-Holstein festival. Porat has been the composer in residence at the Lockenhaus festival, festival Mizmorim in Basel, Chamberfest in Cleveland and at Intonations festival in Berlin. David Orlowsky’s CD, featuring Porat’s work “Lux Aeterna,” has won the ECHO Award in 2011; Porat’s piece “Whaam!”, recorded by pianist David Greilsammer for Sony, was released in 2012.
www.matanporat.com

• MADRIGALS

Oliver RAPPOPORT is a Freelance composer, Codirector of the "Festival Mixtur". He began studying music in San Marcos Sierras, Argentina and when his family moved to Chile he studied composition at the Unirverdad de Chile. In 2000 he returned to Spain and continued composition studies in the ESMuC (Barcelona), CNSMDP (Paris) with Agustín Charles, Gabriel Brncic, Luís Naón, Helmut Lachenmann, Emmanuel Nunes. In addition he has attended master classes with Jonathan Harvey, José Manuel López López, Mauricio Sotelo, Magnus Lindberg among others.
He continued his studies at IRCAM Paris (Cursus), UdK/Hanns Eisler/Technische Universität Berlin and Kings College London.
He has received grants, prizes and commissions for a variety of instrumental and electroacoustic works.

• METANOIA

Sérgio Rodrigo (born 1983 in Diamantina/Brazil) studied composition at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. He has participated in several composition festivals meeting composers such as Silvio Ferraz, Claude Ledoux, Stefano Gervasoni, Lasse Thoresen, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, Peter Eötvos, Chaya Czernowin and Brain Ferneyhough. His music has received important awards in Brazil such as the "Camargo Guarnieri" composition award and the “Tinta Fresca” orchestral composition award.  In 2012, his piece “Braids” has been awarded during the Festival Domaine Forget in Canada. His music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonic Orchestra of Minas Gerais, Exaudi Vocal Ensemble. Since 2015 he studies with Ivan Fedele at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

• PLAGE DES AMOURS

Nissim Schaul is a Paris-based American composer with a penchant for unusual sonorities and ancient instruments. His music for period and modern instruments takes the flexibility of much Baroque notation as a point of departure.
The New York Times calls Nissim's music "spare and whispered, with a dissonant but compelling edge that keeps you fascinated." In October 2014, Nissim and the Baroque ensemble Flying Forms released the CD, New Music for Old Instruments, which Cdhotlist.com says is “strange and genuinely engaging... I promise you’ve never heard a baroque violin and harpsichord sound quite like this.”
www.nissimmusic.org

• SCRATCHING THE ICE

Veronique Vaka, born in 1986, is an Icelandic-based Canadian cellist and composer. She studied classical cello performance at Vincent-d’Indy, and continued her studies in electro-acoustic composition at the University of Montreal. She completed a Master's degree in music composition, from the Iceland University of the Arts, under the guidance of Páll Ragnar Pálsson, Þuríður Jónsdóttir and Daníel Bjarnason. Veronique took a step towards a more abstract approach to her music when she started her research: From Landscape to Music Notation. The intention of her work is to create a poetic context between what she sees, hears and feels in the unspoiled nature, and combine it into a musical composition. Her composition style can be described as organic, with an emphasis on small details such as rhythmic, textural, and timbral elements.
www.veroniquevaka.com

• RIFT

• LENDH

Composer Alyssa Weinberg (b. 1988) is best-known for crafting visceral, communicative scores, which have been lauded for their “frenetic yet cohesive musical language” (icareifyoulisten) and “heavyweight emotional dimensions.” (bachtrack) Alyssa finds collaboration deeply inspiring, and her music pulls concepts from her work with writers, dancers and visual artists.
A natural organizer and thought-leader in her field, Alyssa founded duende, a series for experimental dance in Philadelphia, along with cellist Gabriel Cabezas and dancer/choreographer Chloe Perkes in 2013. Duende presents events in a variety of settings and alternative venues, emphasizing equality between movement and music, with a deep exploration into the intersection of those two disciplines.
Alyssa’s music has been commissioned and performed by some of the most accomplished artists and ensembles around the world, including eighth blackbird, So Percussion, yMusic, and the Aizuri Quartet, as well as the Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra..
Alyssa Weinberg received an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, an M.M. in Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, and a B.M. in Composition and Theory at Vanderbilt University. Weinberg is currently a doctoral fellow at Princeton University.

www.weinbergmusic.com

• IN SOMNIS

Marc Yeats is one of the UK’s leading contemporary composers with his works having been performed by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and stations across Europe, Asia and Australasia. Described by Peter Maxwell Davies as “breathtakingly original”, and Professor Stephen Davismoon as “one of the most prolific and influential composers and creative artists of his generation in the UK”, Marc’s music explores transduction, complex sonic, perceptual, asynchronous and polytemporal relationships, sonic flux, contextual, harmonic and temporal ambiguities, polarised intensities and a visceral joy of sound.
www.marc-yeats.com

• PAGAN II

• THE ROUND AND SQUARE ART OF MEMORY

• I SEE BLUE