Hannah Novak, bassist

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, flutist & composer

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 Lanman, composer & guitarist

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, […]

Cam Cunningham, composer/songwriter

“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 […]

Rose Bishop, flute

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 H. Scott, cello & composition

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, soprano

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, […]

Rebecca Gaspelin, soprano

Rebecca May Gaspelin, soprano, received her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts, and her Master of Music degree at Loyola University in the studio of Luretta Bybee. She is currently in the piano studio of Joachim Polack  She has been heard singing with organizations such as the […]

Natasha Bogojević, composer & pianist

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, composer

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, composer

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, composer

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 Roberts, saxophonist & developer

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, composer

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, composer/performer

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, composer/performer

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, […]

Mason Spencer, violist

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 Ensemble

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 […]

William Ferris Chorale

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 […]

Epiphany Center For The Arts

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

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. […]

Yang & Olivia Arts Foundation

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, composer/singer

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 […]

Quijote Duo

 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

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, vocalist

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, composer/multi-instrumentalist

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, clarinetist & composer

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, composer/guitar

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, soprano

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 […]

Molly Jones, saxophone/composer

Molly Jones’ practice incorporates improvisation, composition, and multimedia performance with saxophones, flutes, and electronic samples.  Her work originates in a place of playfulness, listening, and attention. Formed by her experiences in jazz, classical, Balkan brass, and Scottish country dance/contradance ensembles, and by her fascination with found sounds, she has created chamber works, graphic scores, electroacoustic […]

Nick Zoulek, saxophone/composer

“…Zoulek’s performance, on saxophones in every range, is stunningly virtuosic, whatever the genre…none of this would matter much (except to saxophonists) if he were a less imaginative composer.” (The Wall Street Journal). A modern saxophonist of “pure mindfulness and talent” (PopMatters), Nick Zoulek’s artistry as a performer, collaborator, composer, and media artist has led to a diverse portfolio of distinctive […]

Richard Brasseale, saxophone

Richard Brasseale is a saxophonist, composer, and educator in the Chicago area. An acclaimed saxophonist, he has played with numerous ensembles, including the Milwaukee Symphony, Madison Symphony, Fulcrum Point New Music Ensemble, Camerata Chicago, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and others. Recent solo performances include the DePaul Symphony Orchestra, North Park Orchestra, and various recitals in […]