LisaAtkinson2023@u.northwestern.edu

Lisa Atkinson is a Chicago-based composer whose work explores interiority through the tactile nature of live performance and the emotional context of gesture while examining issues of fragility, memory, and perception. 

Atkinson's works have been performed by ensembles such as Wet Ink, loadbang, the Amaranth String Quartet, and the International Contemporary Ensemble and by soloists Ammie Brod, Gregory Oakes, and Amber Evans. She has participated as a composition fellow at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, the Cortona Sessions for New Music, New Music on the Point, and Ensemble Evolution at the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity.

Atkinson is pursuing a PhD in Composition at Northwestern University under the guidance of Alex Mincek, Hans Thomalla, and Jay Alan Yim. She completed her MA at Montclair State University, working with Marcos Balter and Nathan Davis, and her B.Mus. at Arizona State University.

CarlosBandera2025@u.northwestern.edu

Carlos Bandera is a composer whose music searches for a feeling of transcendence and reflects on aspects of the human experience. He often draws on a deep appreciation of the music of the past and experiments with the interplay of seemingly disparate musical materials.

Carlos received the Underwood Commission to write a new work for the American Composers Orchestra after his piece Lux in Tenebris was performed at the 2018 Underwood New Music Readings. His music has been performed by groups such as the Illinois Philharmonic, Hastings Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, Hotel Elefant, Earspace, Hebrides Ensemble, Nebula Ensemble, Omnibus Ensemble, and Now Hear This. He has attended Composers Conference, Copland House’s CULTIVATE program, the Delian Academy for New Music, and Time of Music.

In 2015, Carlos earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Montclair State University, where he studied with Elizabeth Brown, Dean Drummond, and Marcos Balter. Carlos received his Master of Music degree in 2017 from Peabody Conservatory, where he participated in masterclasses with Christopher Rouse and Georg Friedrich Haas and studied privately with Kevin Puts. Carlos is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition and Music Technology from Northwestern University.

KonstantinosBaras2026@u.northwestern.edu

Konstantinos Baras is a Greek composer of instrumental and electroacoustic music. His music focuses on the recreation of saturated soundscapes through the use of aggressive gestures, instrumental preparation, and extended techniques. He is deeply interested in exploring various tools of Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and live interactivity to further extend the acoustic profile of traditional instruments. This allows Baras to create electroacoustic hybrids, enabling him to blend seemingly juxtaposing sounds into a unified sonic structure. Baras organizes his compositions through various processes of iteration and fragmented circularity - manipulating the duration, density, and complexity of musical layering in order to shape heterogeneous sound blocks into unified phrasal structures.

https://soundcloud.com/konstantinos-baras

PedramDiba2028@u.northwestern.edu

Pedram Diba (b.1993) is an Iranian-American composer of acoustic, acousmatic, and mixed music residing in Chicago. Diba's music has been showcased in festivals and conferences such as IRCAM Forum 2022, Festival Temporel 2021, NOVA Contemporary Meeting 2021, 4th Annual Research on Contemporary Music Conference, Concert Vivier InterUniversitaire 2020, New Music Gathering 2018, White Ibis Ensemble Winter Heat New Music Festival 2017, Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium 2014 and 2016, and Music Today Festival 2014 and 2017.

Since 2019, Diba has been a member of the Analysis, Creation, and Teaching of Orchestration (ACTOR) Project. Through ACTOR, he has participated in and initiated various research-creation projects such as the CORE Ensemble Project, Musicians Auditory Perception (MAP), and Space As Timbre (SAT). His work with ACTOR has also led to a peer-reviewed publication in 2022, which he co-authored with the MAP team.

Diba completed his B.M. in composition at the University of Oregon where he received the prize of Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar in Composition. Later, he received the Max Stern Fellowship in Music to attend McGill University, where he completed his M.M. in composition under the supervision of Philippe Leroux. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. in composition and music technology at Northwestern University with Alex Mincek, Hans Thomalla, and Jay Alan Yim.

Diba's music is published by Babel Scores in both digital and printed formats.

www.pedramdiba.com
https://www.babelscores.com/PedramDiba
www.soundcloud.com/pedram-diba-865722734

johnhamill2021@u.northwestern.edu

Jack Hamill (b. 1999) is a multimedia artist primarily focused on sound. His creative practice ranges across a variety of art forms, spanning electro-acoustic music, noise, experimental film, digital visual art, and more. He has worked with a broad variety of aesthetic media, such as computer-generated scores, Disklaviers, DIY electronics, an ultrasound fetal doppler, video projections, and acoustic ensembles. His recent work tends to focus on disparate modes of expressive intensity: seriousness and irreverence, deliberation and intuition, jibberish nonsense and vigorous manifestos. He pursued his undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, where he received a BM in Technology in Music and Related Arts and a BA in philosophy.

www.jackhamill.digital
https://soundcloud.com/jack_hamill

NikiCharlafti2023@u.northwestern.edu

Niki Harlafti is a Greek, Chicago-based composer, educator, and PhD candidate in Music Composition at Bienen School of Music (Northwestern University), under the mentorship of Jay Alan Yim, Hans Thomalla, and Alex Mincek. Ms. Harlafti also holds a M.M. in Composition and Theory from New England Conservatory of Music (Boston), where she studied with Efstratios Minakakis and Anthony Coleman.

Musically, she is currently exploring the physicality of sound, the performing body and its musical dramaturgy, language, voice, improvisation, and electronics. Aesthetically, she is interested in the absurd, the interplay of contradiction, surprise, continuity and transformation, as well as the notions of unraveling and disruption. Her work pivots between sensitivity and violence, comedy and drama, musical and theatrical narrativity, as well as their common denominators.

Her music has been presented at Musikinstitut Darmstadt (Germany), CNMF by loadbang (NC), June in Buffalo Festival (NY), Ear Taxi (Chicago), ECCE Music Festival (France), and more. Her upcoming works include a commission for violin and cello by the Onassis Foundation (Onassis Stegi, GR | 2023), the original soundtrack for a documentary by Christos Kapatos (Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, GR | 2023), a work for solo bassoon by Ben Roidl-Ward (U.S. tour and GR), and solo saxophone by Thomas Giles (U.S.). She has collaborated with a number of poets, including Laura Mullen and Sun Yung Shin (U.S.), choreographers such as Mikaela Kanzafiri (GR) and Nancy Nerantzi (GR/U.K.), cinematographer Christos Kapatos (GR), and painter Francisco Ledesma (MX).

Her recent projects include the original soundtrack for the dance film Migdal by Anima Libera Dance Company (GR), (Demilitarized Zone) for mixed choir which was premiered by the Bienen Contemporary Ensemble under the baton of Donald Nally (Chicago | 2022), as well as Enduring Freedom for solo voice, fixed media and live electronics premiered by soprano Jessie Lyons (Chicago | 2022). During her tenure as Composer-in-Residence at The Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra (Boston/New York) she composed Kintsugi for eleven saxophones (NYC | 2018-19/Revised NYC Premiere 2021). Her work Vaisseau Fantôme is on the album Is This ~Nois (2020), by ~Nois saxophone quartet, available on Bandcamp, Spotify, Τidal and most streaming services.

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WanHeo2025@u.northwestern.edu

Born in South Korea, Wan Heo is a composer and a violinist whose works have been performed in South Korea, Italy, Singapore, Spain, and the United States by artists including Tony Arnold, Keuris Quartet, John Pickford Richards, Philippe Spiesser, and yMusic. Her percussion solo piece Unveiled Future has been selected to be published by Alfonce Production. Wan’s recent commissioners include line upon line, New Music On the Point, highSCORE festival, VIPA (Valencia International Performance Academy), among others. Her works frequently explore timbre and spatiality along with non-traditional notation that realizes her interest in the linear approach to each part and their combination.

Recently, she began her own research on Korean ancestors’ appreciation to nature by touring and recording sounds at historical sites in South Korea, which are located in mountains. Her first work on this project, From Air to Mind, was presented at Composition In Asia conference at University of South Florida.

Wan holds B.M. in Composition from Ewha Womans University in South Korea and M.M. in Composition from Florida State University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition and Music Technology at Northwestern University under the guidance of Alex Mincek, Hans Thomalla, and Jay Alan Yim.

Yi-tingLu2022@u.northwestern.edu

Yi-Ting Lu is a Taiwanese composer. Her music focuses on exploring the experience of timelessness evoked through fragmented musical materials. She has received numerous prizes, awards, scholarships, and commissions, including the 2021 William T. Faricy Award for Creative Music, 2021 Nief-Norf International Call for Scores, 2021 Transient Canvas Composition Fellowship program, 2020 Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium Call for Scores, 2020 Talea Ensemble Emerging Composer Commissioning Program (finalist), 2019 Ilsuono Contemporary Music Academy’s Choice to be published by AltrEdizioni Casa Editrice, 2019 nominated exchange composer of the Académie Voix Nouvelles (Royaumont), and the 2018 Representative Piece of Taiwan in the 66th International Rostrum of Composers, among others.

Her compositions have been performed, awarded, and/or commissioned by ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Suono Giallo, Ensemble vocal Les Métaboles, Ensemble Mise-en, Mdi Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Orkest De Ereprijs, PushBack Collective, Quatuor Tana, Yarn/Wire, 3 People Music, Clarinetist Vasko Dukovski, MSM Orchestra (under the baton of George Manahan), National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and many others. 

Yi-Ting is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Composition at Northwestern University under the tutelage of Alex Mincek, Hans Thomalla, and Jay Alan Yim. She completed a master's degree in Music Composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Reiko Füting and Susan Botti. Prior to her graduate studies in the United States, she studied with Tsung-Hsien Yang and Wan-Jen Huang, and received her bachelor's degree in Music Composition and Theory at the Taipei National University of the Arts.

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ElliottLupp2024@u.northwestern.edu

Elliott Lupp is a composer, improviser, visual artist, and sound designer whose work often invokes images of the distorted, chaotic, visceral, and absurd. This aesthetic approach as it relates to both acoustic and electroacoustic composition has led to a body of work that, at the root of its construction, focuses on the manipulation of noise, extreme gesture, shifting timbre, and performer/computer improvisation as core elements. 

Elliott has received a number of awards and honors for his work, including a 2019 SEAMUS/ASCAP Commission, the 2019 Franklin G. Fisk Composition Award for Chamber Music, and Departmental and All-University awards in Graduate Research and Creative Scholarship. His music has been performed at a variety of electroacoustic festivals including N_SEME, CHIMEfest, Electronic Music Midwest, MOXsonic, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, SEAMUS, and Electroacoustic Barn Dance, and by such ensembles as the Dutch/American trio Sonic Hedgehog (flute, clarinet, and electric guitar), the Atar Piano Trio, Found Sound New Music Ensemble, various members of MOCREP, The Chicago Composer's Orchestra, Fonema Consort, and Ensemble Dal Niente. 

Elliott received his MM from Western Michigan University, where he studied composition and music technology under Christopher Biggs and Lisa R. Coons, and his BM from Columbia College Chicago, where he studied under Eliza Brown and Kenn Kumpf.

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AndrewMaxbauer2020@u.northwestern.edu

Andrew Maxbauer (United States) is a Chicago based composer currently pursuing a PhD in Music at Northwestern University. He holds a MM in composition from the University of Louisville where he was a Moritz von Bomhard Fellow.

Andrew has had his music presented at various festivals across the United States and Europe including June in Buffalo, Kalvfestivalen, Université d'Altitude, Composit, Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, the Loretto Project, and others. His work has been performed by Talea Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, mdi ensemble, Mivos Quartet, Mimitabu, Ensemble Multilatérale, Longleash, New York New Music Ensemble, and Luca Piovesan.

Andrew currently studies composition with Alex Mincek and Hans Thomalla. He previously studied with Krzysztof Wołek, Lisa R. Coons, and Christopher Biggs. Additionally, he has participated in masterclasses with Brian Ferneyhough and Kaija Saariaho, and he has taken private lessons with Pierluigi Billone, Raphaël Cendo, Yann Robin, and Hans Abrahamsen.

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BenjaminPenwell2022@u.northwestern.edu

Benjamin J. Penwell is a composer and sound artist based in Chicago. His music often deals with long, sustained textures that shift and breathe over time, revealing the small, individual details that make up the larger sound. He likes to investigate how small changes to or manipulations of the details of alignment, timbre, tuning, and volume can make for interesting and meaningful combined textures. He produces work in a mixture of acoustic and electroacoustic contexts. A side interest of his is metal scholarship, and that interest led him to develop and teach a course on the History & Aesthetics of Metal Music in Fall 2022 at Northwestern University, where he is currently working on his PhD in Composition & Music Technology. He also holds a master’s in composition from Boston University and a bachelor’s in composition from the University of Oregon.

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CatherinePhang2021@u.northwestern.edu

Catherine Phang is a composer and educator currently based in Evanston, IL. She has collaborated with artists and ensembles including Vasko Dukovski, Unheard-of// Ensemble, Either/or Ensemble, New Asia Chamber Music Society, Mise-en Ensemble and Tactus Ensemble. Her orchestra pieces were conducted by David Hoose and Kalena Bovell. 

Catherine received her MM from Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Richard Danielpour and Reiko Fueting, and her BM from University of Hartford - the Hartt School, where she studied composition with Larry Alan Smith and Ken Steen, and piano with David Westfall, Paul Rutman and Susan Cheng. Catherine was selected for a Kountz Fellowship 2013-14 based on her commendable work during the course of studies as a BM composer at the Hartt School.

Catherine is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Composition and Technology at Northwestern University under the guidance of Alex Mincek, Hans Thomalla, and Jay Alan Yim.

RudolfRoelofsen2022@u.northwestern.edu

Ruud Roelofsen (*16-11-1985, Rhenen NL) is a composer currently based in Chicago (USA). He is attending Northwestern University for a PhD in composition. Prior to this he studied classical percussion in the conservatories of Arnhem (NL), Brussels (B), and Münster (D).

Ruud participated in master classes in composition with Dmitri Kourliandski, Carola Bauckholt, Hanna Hartman, Tristan Murail, Mark André, Hèctor Parra, Bryn Harrison, Martin Schüttler, Bernard Cavanna, Ted Hearne, and Martijn Padding.

As a composer he has worked with Het Vers Ensemble (NL), the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (RUS), Orkest de Ereprijs (NL), Gyre Ensemble (CH), Flubax Trio (LT), Ensemble Polygon (CH), Ensemble Soundinitiative (Fr), Parallel Asteroid (D), Ensemble Spaziomusica (It), FRAMES percussion (Esp), aTonal Hits (USA), Platypus Ensemble (At), 20° dans le noir (Fr), Kroiser Ensemble (Ukr), Bart de Vrees (NL), Miriam Overlach (DE), Wilbert Bulsink (NL), Dario Calderone (It), a.o.

His music has been performed in such festivals as the Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Utrecht, NL), Musica Viva Festival Lissabon (Pt), Sirga Festival (Flix, Esp), Ferienkurse für neue Musik (Darmstadt, D), MIXTUR Barcelona (Esp), Young Composers Meeting (Apeldoorn, NL), MUSICAPOI (Cagliari, It), Kiev Contemporary Music Days (Ukr), Florida International Toy Piano Festiavl (USA), and the IX International Composers Academy in Tschaikovsky City (RUS).

In 2012 he received the "Ingeborg Köberle" award as a highly promising student and for his exceptional performance skill in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. In 2013 he was selected for the "Young Composers Meeting" in Apeldoorn. In 2013 he was a finalist for the famous Luigi Russolo Award. In 2015 he attended Matrix15 at SWR Experimentalstudio in Freiburg (D). In 2005 Ruud won the composition project of the Dutch Ensemble "Orkest de Ereprijs" and in 2011 he was a semifinalist in the Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition. In 2013 he took part in the International Ensemble Modern Academy in the Klangspuren Festival led by Ensemble Modern Frankfurt (D).

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SamuelScranton2019@u.northwestern.edu

Sam Scranton is a composer/performer. He has been described in New Music Box as "an artist taking wholehearted risks" and in the New York Times as a "killer drummer". 

Sam has worked with ensembles and performers such as International Contemporary Ensemble, Jack Quartet, Nadar, Mocrep, Weston Olencki, Natacha Diels, Spektral Quartet, Gyre Ensemble, ZRL, among others. Sam has presented his work nationally and internationally at festivals, conferences and performance series such as the 2018 Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Indexical, Composit, NUNC! 3, New Music Gathering, the International Conference on Music and Minimalism, Outer Ear Festival, and Omaha Under the Radar. 

Sam's music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Borealis Festival Radio Space, WFMT, and released by Parlour Tapes+. As part of the band volcano!, Sam has performed onstage in Berlin, Moscow, London, and Paris, with albums released by Leaf Label (UK).

Currently, Sam lives and works in Chicago, pursuing a PhD in composition at Northwestern University. 

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lizasobel2018@u.northwestern.edu

Liza Sobel is a composer and soprano whose compositions are often influenced by current social issues. Recent inspirations include anxiety and stress in today's society, the negative impact of social media and its link with depression and suicide, and sexual assault.

Liza's music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Symphony Space, Bang on a Can, the Aspen Music Festival, Eighth Blackbird's Creative Lab, Aldeburgh Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Brevard Music Institute, Bowdoin's International Music Festival, and nief-norf Summer Festival. Her music has been performed by the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Spektral Quartet, Cygnus Ensemble, Third Coast Percussion, Nouveau Classical Project, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, orkest de ereprijs, West Point Woodwind Quintet, New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, Skyros String Quartet, and Joseph Lin, first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet.

Liza's Ticking Time Bomb was selected for the 2020 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. Her Requiem won the American Prize in the choral division and was a finalist in the BMI Young Composers Award competition. Liza's orchestral work Tocsin was a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers' Award. Liza was a Fulbright scholar to the UK.

As a singer, Liza regularly performs both standard and new repertoire, including her own music. She frequently performs music by living emerging composers and has sung world premieres of music by Nicholas Cline, Maxwell Ramage, Tom Schneller, and Zachary Wadsworth. Numerous composers have written pieces specifically for her, including Nathan Canfield, Chung Eun Kim, Tyler Kramlich, and Tom Peterson. In addition, she regularly collaborates with Walter Hilse, a composer, organist, and professor at the Manhattan School of Music, who has composed eight pieces for Liza. She sang in Rutgers University's opera program, and she also attended the Castleton Artists Training Seminar festival, founded by the late Maestro Lorin Maazel. Recent performances include singing at Thirsty Ears, Chicago's only contemporary classical music street fair.

Liza is a doctoral candidate in composition at Northwestern University. She teaches a broad spectrum of music courses at Northwestern, including Music Theory, Aural Skills, History of the Symphony, Introduction to Music for Non-Majors, and Composition for Non-Majors. She previously studied at Rutgers University's Mason Gross Conservatory (MA); Cornell University (BA with honors); and the Manhattan School of Music.

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gentanaka2027@u.northwestern.edu

Gen Tanaka is a Japanese composer, producer, and sound artist. He firmly believes in the social function of art as that which loosens and subverts the status quo.  In recent years, his work has been characterized by just-intonational frameworks and a desire to portray or facilitate transpersonal experiences. Gen’s fascination with nature, American counter-culture, pharmacology, and theosophy serves to inform his musical activity. The visceral and embodied qualities of sound are of utmost importance to his creative approach.

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JasmineThomasian2023@u.northwestern.edu

Originally from Astoria, Oregon, Jasmine Thomasian (they/them) is a Chicago-based composer passionate about sound, identity formation, and the interpersonal dynamics of Western art music. While their artistic output spans a range of musical aesthetics, they particularly enjoy taking on projects that challenge them to think and create in new ways.

Jasmine’s compositional process is driven by their love of collaboration. Current and recent collaborators include Katie Amrine (trumpet) and Ford Fourqurean (video), Lane Champa (violin), Claire DiVizio (poet & soprano), Fuse Quartet (saxophones), and Zhen Piao (organ). Jasmine has been commissioned by the American Guild of Organists and OSSIA New Music, and their music has been performed on programs by Chicago Fringe Opera, I/O Fest, Atlantic Music Festival, New Music on the Point, and malai ensemble.

In addition to their work as a composer, Jasmine is an experienced arts administrator. Jasmine is currently Board Operations Manager for Thompson Street Opera Company, a Chicago-based organization which exclusively performs works by living composers. Jasmine has also been a Chair of the Student Composers Committee (NU), Co-Director of the Graduate Composers Sinfonietta (Eastman), and Co-Producer of “Music Matters,” a new-music radio show on WAYO FM (Rochester, NY). Jasmine holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (MA), Union Theological Seminary (MA), and Williams College (BA). In 2020-2021, Jasmine is teaching 2nd-Year Aural Skills.

AlissaVoth2026@u.northwestern.edu

Alissa Voth (she/her) is a composer and adaptive arts educator who creates conceptual works inspired by intersections of language, data, and music. Her composition and teaching practices are guided by exploration, playfulness, collaboration, and facilitating connection through shared musical experiences. She composes mainly for soloists, chamber ensembles, and experimental theater projects.

Her music has been performed at the UT Contemporary Music Festival, Cortona Sessions for New Music, Harvard Music Festival, Isador Bajic School, Rivers School Conservatory, and the Longy Divergent Studio by performers including Loadbang, Sarah Brady, and Antonina Styczén. A frequent collaborator with Boston-based collective Sparkhaven Theater, she has composed, performed, and directed music for multiple original productions both in person and virtually. Upcoming events include performances with the Boston New Music Initiative and the Montreal Creative Music Lab, as well as premieres by Nightingale Vocal Ensemble and cellist Seth Parker Woods.

Alissa is a first year PhD student at Northwestern University under the mentorship of Alex Mincek, Jay Alan Yim, and Hans Thomalla. She holds a master's degree from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee where she studied with Marti Epstein and Felipe Lara, and was awarded the Roger Sessions Memorial Composition Award. She completed her bachelor's degree at Oral Roberts University in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Alissa also teaches music to students with autism and other cognitive, physical, and behavioral disabilities virtually in the Boston Public School system through Open Door Arts.

BenjaminZucker2022@u.northwestern.edu

Ben Zucker practices acts of conceptual juxtaposition and experiential speculation, as an intentionally wide-ranging composer, audiovisual artist, and multi-instrumentalist. He has contributed to experimental music scenes of the Bay Area, Connecticut, London, Chicago, and beyond, working with musicians including Anthony Braxton, Matana Roberts, Myra Melford, Karen Borca, The Crossing, The Vocal Constructivists, Rinde Eckert, and the San Francisco Choral Artists, in addition to frequent performances as a soloist, bandleader, and ensemble contributor. His composed works have received awards and performances by ensembles including the Mivos Quartet, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Khorikos, Ensemble Entropy, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, as well as being performed at DOCNYC, the Darmstadt Fereinkurse, Art Omi, Trinity College Dublin, and the Banff Centre. He has been acclaimed as a "master of improvisation" (IMPOSE Magazine) and “more than a little bit remarkable” (Free Jazz Blog) for his solo albums combining brass, percussion, voice, and electronics, released on labels including Not Art Records, Dinzu Artefacts, Verz Imprint, and I Low You. He currently lives in Chicago, studying, performing, teaching, and organizing as a doctoral student at Northwestern University.

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