William Copper is an American composer of contemporary classical music, a theorist, and the world’s authority on Intonalism, the science of structuring music according to intonation. His music is praised for its beauty, structural integrity, and innovative originality. Copper’s studies began in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and as his interests turned to […]
Known for his energetic rhythms, rich harmonic language, and striking colors, award-winning composer Josh Rodriguez (b. 1982) continues to gain recognition as an emerging composer and collaborator on a national and international scale. Born in Argentina and raised in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States, Rodriguez’s musical imagination has been formed by this bilingual, multi-cultural […]
Marissa Kerbel (she/her) is a pianist and pedagogue based in Chicago, IL. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in piano performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where she studied with Michael Chertock and James Tocco. Other significant pedagogical influences include Marvin Blickenstaff and Dr. Erin Bennett. Marissa has performed in […]
Joe Bauer is a Chicago-based double bassist and curator. He is currently a tenured member of the Quad City Symphony, founding member of the Versa’tile Chamber Ensemble, former Fellow in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and returning performer in the Outside the Box New Music Festival in Carbondale where he was previously on faculty at […]
Hannah Novak is a professional orchestral freelance double bassist in the Chicago area. She currently studies at DePaul University with Alexander Hanna, and previously studied at Rice University with renowned bass pedagogue Paul Ellison. She enjoys rock climbing and dark chocolate, and is very happy to be a member of New Music Chicago.
Trevor Patricia Watkin is named after his grandmother, a fellow native of Southern California. A teacher since 1997, from 2013-2022 Trevor taught at Access Contemporary Music in Chicago, where he served first as Director of Operations and ultimately as Director of Artistic Activities. In 2019 he created the ACM Film Scoring Class, which is the […]
Anthony Joseph Lanman is an active and passionate musician that divides his time between composing, performing, teaching and advocacy for new classical music. As a composer, Anthony creates music that reaches general audiences as well as new music connoisseurs. Embracing influences that range from progressive rock and metal, to medieval and renaissance music, to jazz, […]
“I’m originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. I grew up in a household of music lovers, who encouraged me to pursue music. I picked up guitar at age 12 and immediately started composing my own songs. I attended the University of Chicago where I studied Music Composition under Mwata Bowden, Augusta Read Thomas, and Anthony Cheung. I […]
International prize-winning flutist Rose Bishop serves as Instructor of Flute at St. Ambrose University, Coe College, Cornell College, and Kirkwood Community College. An active orchestral musician, she serves as Principal Flute of the Southeast Iowa Symphony Quincy Symphony Orchestras and Second Flute/Piccolo with the Ottumwa Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with Orchestra Iowa, the Dubuque […]
Ari Hunter Scott is a cellist, composer, and improviser based in the Chicago area. She holds a Bachelor’s of String Performance and Pedagogy from Illinois Wesleyan University, and a Master’s of Music from DePaul University, and plays with ensembles in the Chicago area while composing as a freelancer. Scott’s practice as a cellist spans both […]
Emily Cox is a vibrant singer who has been seen across the country in opera, operetta, cabaret and musical theatre. Described as a ‘gifted singer with an endearing voice’, her numerous roles include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd, Marian Paroo in The Music Man, Despina in Cosi fan Tutte, […]
Natasha Bogojević is an award winning and internationally acclaimed composer and pianist. She is regarded as the creator of highly original, passionate and imaginative pieces. Her music is not possible to categorize; while deeply rooted in classical tradition she is constantly searching for different inspiration to create new, engaging and inventive scores. She is the […]
Elliott Lupp is a composer, improvisor, visual artist, educator, 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 […]
Carlos Bandera is a composer whose music is characterized by a glacial unfolding of sonic landscapes. He often expands simple elements into large-scale musical structures, through which he explores the interplay of harmony, noise, and texture. Carlos received the Underwood Commission to write a new work for the American Composers Orchestra after his piece Lux […]
Pedram Diba (b.1993) is an Iranian-American composer of acoustic, acousmatic, and mixed music residing in Chicago. Diba’s music and research has been showcased in festivals 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 […]
Cameron is a musician and software developer living in Chicago. He earned a B.A. in Computer Science and a B.Mus. in Saxophone Performance from Northwestern University and is currently a graduate student at the Chicago College of Performing Arts. He has performed in solo and chamber recitals across the country, but his current primary artistic […]
Logan Rutledge is a composer of contemporary classical music that hails from Gainesville, Florida! Rutledge holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago where he studied Composition with Marc Mellits, and a Masters of Music in Composition from the University of Miami studying with Charles Norman Mason. Rutledge has also […]
Olivia Kieffer is a composer, percussionist, and educator. A native of Wisconsin, her music has been described as “immediately attractive,” “like a knife of light,” and “honest, to the point, and joyful!” Olivia is former adjunct music faculty at Reinhardt University (2009 – 2017), where she taught percussion and World Music. She studied percussion at […]
Ramin Roshandel’s compositional work is based around incorporating ‘experience’ as a fundamental concept through a non-experimental approach in performance. Considering phenomena such as instability, cultural identity, and communicational language on one hand, and being inspired by Persian music intervals as a setār (an Iranian instrument) player on the other, has led him to consider indeterminate, […]
As a strong advocate for new music, and an experienced solo and small ensemble musician, Mason Spencer is dedicated to expanding the breadth of the classical canon through commissions and performance. His passion for musical variety has led to a collaborations with storytellers, singers, a variety of chamber and orchestral ensembles, and even a soloistic […]
Stare at the Sun is a professional mixed-voice chamber choir specializing in the curation and commissioning of works by living composers. Works that address issues of social responsibility and the complexities of living in the 21st century. Works of defiant optimism that celebrate human potential, the value of human life, and the possibility that human […]
NOVA LINEA MUSICA (NLM) is the latest addition to Chicago’s new-music scene, a music creation engine already busy generating new string music as its moniker affirms. Its ambition, though, is far more crucial to classical music’s ability to thrive in the years to come: to etch new connections between performers, composers, and listeners and close the distances between them. […]
Beyond this point is an exploratory collaboration seeking to investigate resonances and intersections across several practices including theater, movement, media/film, non-traditional musical forms, sculpture, text, and installations both static and performative. The collaboration aims to engage diverse audiences on multiple levels through its exploration of resonances between artistic mediums with a goal of developing a […]
Thompson Street Opera Company reimagines what opera can be. We intentionally and inclusively collaborate with artists to create productions that challenge the status quo through artistic and social innovation. Our intimate performances of regional and world premieres have been called “free-wheeling and ambitious”, “consistently solid,” and “stunning” by reviewers, and lauded by composers as “better […]
Else, if Else is a Chicago-based trio dedicated to exploration and experimentation. Their performances blur the line between notated and spontaneous music, combining their background in chamber music with individual and collective improvisational practices. They have collaborated with composers such as John Supko and Nomi Epstein, been selected as an ensemble in residence at the […]
The _____ Experiment (pronounced The “Blank” Experiment) is an up and coming flexible instrumentation ensemble based in the Midwest. With over 30 commissions, this group is committed to expanding the repertoire for mixed chamber ensembles. Their mission is to commission music by a variety of composers in order to create high quality, but audibly approachable […]
Sapphire Woodwind Quintet has been entertaining audiences with eclectic programs since 2004. Sapphire has performed on concert series all over Chicagoland, including the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, Mostly Music Chicago, the Nineteenth Century Club, and the Noontime Concerts at the University of Chicago. Sapphire has also been broadcast live on WFMT performing at […]
Masso Quartet is a Chicago-based saxophone quartet dedicated to exploring the connective possibilities of sound. Through active collaborations with living composers, mindful engagement with historic works, carefully designed performance projects, and frequent community outreach, Masso plays music to realize connections between people and the world, for audiences and performers alike. Engaging with contemporary classical music […]
The William Ferris Chorale brings Chicago audiences new and unexpected choral music in programs highlighting music written by living composers. Exploring and experiencing new music with our artists and audience opens us all to new ideas, new sounds, and new voices; and this brings the 50-year long legacy of founder William Ferris to audiences throughout […]
Conceived with the vision to return Epiphany to a place for people to once again congregate in, the shuttered, historic Church of the Epiphany has been preserved and adapted into an iconic cultural hub ‘For the Good of Art, Entertainment and Events’. Thoughtfully designed, the exemplary 42,000 square foot campus boasts three distinct venues and […]
Missing Piece is a south side Chicago-based musical duo: violinist Dan Galat and cellist Kelly Quesada, who endeavor to commission new musical works and works from other artistic disciplines on the themes of collaboration, community, environment, and social justice. We believe presenting these works can unite and organize various communities for the benefit of all. […]
Founded in January 2018, the Yang and Olivia Arts Foundation is a non-profit 501c3 organization whose aim is to provide a platform embracing diversity, equality and inclusion. The first years of activities focused on international cultural exchange between United States, China and Taiwan, particularly in the area of classical music. Since the pandemics, the foundation […]
Elizabeth Rudolph is a Chicago-based composer “whose music takes advantage of the rhythmic complexity of minimalism to emphasize thoughtfully composed melodic storytelling.” according to contralto Katherine Dalin. Rudolph’s music has been commissioned, performed, and/or recorded by VOX3, Third Eye Theater, New Moon Opera, Chicago Fringe Opera, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus, Interlochen Arts […]
New Music enthusiasts and chamber music specialists, Juan Horie (cello) and Sixto Franco (viola) have joined forces to form the Quijote Duo, a formation that strives to create spaces for innovation and experimentation through collaboration. With a combined experience in many fields including theater, education, composition, concert music and arts management, the Quijote […]
6Degrees Composers is a Chicago-based collective of women composers from different musical traditions. It was founded by Regina Harris Baiocchi in 2010. The group has presented numerous concerts at Sherwood Community Music School at Columbia College, the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and several churches on the West and South sides. The […]
Julian Terrell Otis is a vocalist dedicated to the advancement of Black music in America, spanning genres from creative music and jazz, to contemporary classical. His work explores the limitless possibilities of his instrument’s expressive capacity through song, improvisation, and theater. Known for bringing fresh perspective, nuance, and “high drama” to the contemporary music world, […]
Ben Zucker makes “stirring compositions…built on a lifetime of musical curiosity” (Chicago Reader). As an intentionally wide-ranging composer/performer, he has contributed to experimental scenes across North America and Europe. Performance highlights include working with musicians including Anthony Braxton, Gareth Davis, Myra Melford, Karen Borca, Vocal Constructivists, Rinde Eckert, and the San Francisco Choral Artists, amongst […]
Zachary Guo attends Deerfield High School and studies piano with Dr. Matthew Hagle as well as composition with Dr. Christopher Jones. He is a scholarship fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college musicians. At the Academy, Zachary enjoys learning and playing contemporary music with his peers. Zachary began […]
Zoë A. Wallace (formerly known as Zoë Holbrook) is a classical composer and guitarist who is continually striving to broaden the repertoire for instruments in an ensemble setting. She has performed in a number of concerts as a soloist and in a duo throughout California, Illinois, and Utah, and has had the pleasure of playing […]
Katherine Petersen is an engaging Soprano specializing in the performance of 21st Century repertoire for Voice/Saxophone and Russian Art Song. Her recent collaborations with Decho Saxophone Ensemble include performances at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Vienna (2022), Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (2022), Women Composers Festival of Hartford (2022), International Saxophone Symposium (2020) and […]