Artists

Sami Seif is a Lebanese composer and music theorist. His music is inspired by the aesthetics, philosophies, paradigms, and poetry of his Middle-Eastern heritage. His work has been described as “very tasteful and flavorful” with “beautiful, sensitive writing!” (Webster University Young Composers Competition).

Jim Scully (b. 1979) is a composer, performer and educator in the fields of contemporary classical music, electroacoustic music and jazz studies. He is currently a member of the music faculty at CSU Bakersfield, where he is tasked with teaching an array of courses in the fields of Music Theory, Jazz Studies, Composition and Music Technology. In addition, he serves as Director of the CSU Bakersfield Guitar Arts Series, Director of Small Jazz Ensembles, Director of the Audio/MIDI Lab and Assistant Director of the Bakersfield Jazz Festival.

Deb Scott grew up on the flat plains of Lubbock, Texas. With not much else to do but play trombone, she began soloing at an early age. By the time she was in high school, she had performed the Lars-Erik Larsson Concertino with her high school orchestra, performed with professional symphonies, and played regularly in a jazz combo. She graduated with top honors from Texas Tech University and also received the top award for her master’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado.

Pianist Sophie Scolnik-Brower’s innate grace and musical sensitivity have moved audiences across the United States and abroad. Her playing has been called “soulful artistry that underlines gorgeous harmonic change.” She has performed extensively at the Perlman Music Program, La Jolla Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, and the Pablo Casals Festival. She is a member artist of Mistral Music and a frequent guest on WCRB Radio in Boston.

Flutist Julie Scolnik’s tonal enchantment and communicative gifts have captivated audiences in America and France. The Boston Globe writes that “she plays with an urgency full of fire that melts into disarming delicacy,” and a French critic from La Provence praises “her vast palette of sultry colors and magical phrasing.” Scolnik has enjoyed a diverse musical career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral flutist. As a guest flutist at festivals across the United States and France, Scolnik has collaborated with countless world-class artists and chamber groups that include the Brentano, Arabella, and Borromeo String Quartets. She is active as a soloist and for many years presented an annual fall recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris. She currently offers concerts each summer in Provence.

Australian composer Andrew Schultz studied at the Universities of Queensland and Pennsylvania and at King's College London and has received various awards, prizes and fellowships. His music, which covers a broad range of chamber, orchestral and vocal works, has been performed, recorded and broadcast widely by many leading groups and musicians internationally. He has held numerous commissions, including from the major Australian orchestras.

Eric Schultz is an American clarinetist equally in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and interpreter of new music. He maintains an active concerto schedule performing with orchestras across the world and can be seen and heard from Netflix to National Public Radio. Hailed a “mastermind” in the Myrtle Beach Herald and a “pathfinder” by iconic composer Valerie Coleman, Schultz was selected as a quarterfinalist for the 2025 GRAMMY® Music Educator of the Year Award.

Laudon Schuett is a lutenist and early music specialist. He has been called “a masterful performer ...[and] a brilliant educator” (Classical Voice of North Carolina) with “immaculate articulation and sensitive phrasing” (Fanfare). In addition to performing and expanding the solo repertoire, he formed the lute song duo BEDLAM with Kayleen Sánchez. They have toured the U.S. and recorded two albums, BEDLAM, and Died for Love, both for Soundset Recordings. Schuett has a forthcoming book on the lute being published by Mel Bay, which includes many of his solo works. He studied with Paul O’Dette, Frank Koonce, and Chuck Hulihan. He holds a D.M.A. in Early Music from the Eastman School of Music.

Pierre, a French native, came to music as a child, studying classical piano and transcribing themes from movie composers on the family’s piano. Emotions are in the center of his work, and reviewers have often noted cinematic elements in his music, while describing “an imaginative musical craftsman at work, capable of evoking real wonder, mystery, reverence, and celebration.”

The music of Phillip Schroeder (b. 1956, Rancho Cordova CA) for soloists, chamber ensembles, live electronics, orchestra, band, and choir has been described by critics as "wonderfully evocative," "ethereal," "rich in subtle detail," and "full of elegant nuance." He has appeared as a guest composer, lecturer, and performer at venues throughout the United States and Europe and has been very active and dedicated New Music advocate as performer, producer, and festival/conference host.

One of the finest flutists of his generation, Gary Schocker is also a pianist and harpist, a prolific composer, and a compassionate teacher. Born into a musical family in Easton PA, he began to play the piano before he was 3 years old. His father, Paul Schocker, was a multi-talented instrumentalist and composer as well. Schocker’s nursery shared a wall with his father’s studio, so music was heard around the clock. As a result, music has always felt as much a part of him as breathing.

A native of Houston, Andrew Schneider is a composer, pianist, and vocal coach whose virtuosic technique and daring interpretation has cemented his reputation among clients as a fearless musician. His extensive collaborative activity encompasses early music, standard operatic and art song repertoire, as well as contemporary music. Proficient for coaching purposes in French, German, Italian, and Latin, as well as adept with less frequently encountered languages, especially Slavic ones, Schneider enjoys using his considerable linguistic skill to help make challenging texts accessible to his clients. His wide ranging musical activities also include harpsichord and organ performance and conducting.

Christopher Alan Schmitz composes solo, chamber, and ensemble music that has been described as “sublimely gorgeous” (Fanfare) and “pensive…hard-driving…and whimsical” (American Record Guide). His compositions have been performed and recorded internationally, featuring a broad range of musicians and styles from the London Symphony Orchestra to the USAF Airmen of Note, in venues ranging from New York City (Carnegie Hall) to Alaska (Denali National Park) and London (St. Luke’s Church). Schmitz’s educational music has appeared in concert programs at all levels of development and his recent solo and chamber works have been performed by artists such as the Cortona Trio, Svyati Duo, Terell Stafford, Amy Schwartz Moretti, and Denson Paul Pollard, among others.

Timothy Schmalz is a composer with a focus on works for the concert hall and visual media. He has a multi instrumental background, with an emphasis compositionally on orchestral and chamber music. Given that much of his composition work began in media music, Schmalz is multi faceted — encompassing a wide variety of musical thinking and creativity.

Martin Schlumpf (b. 1947) was born in the Swiss town of Aarau, where he was raised and educated through his high school graduation in 1966. During these years, he played double bass in various jazz groups, along with studying classical cello. Schlumpf also began writing essays on composition during this time, beginning with his discovery of the music of Austrian composer Anton Webern.

Marvin Schluger (1923-2004) was born into a poor immigrant Jewish family in Philadelphia PA. His father had been a coppersmith in the Old World but found it difficult to make a living in America, so Schluger's mother worked to sustain the family. It seemed, however, that there was always an extra dollar-and-a-half for Schluger and his sister to take weekly music lessons. Piano studies with Joseph Levine, and subsequently with Maria Carreras, were the focus of this early music education, while Schluger's explorations in composition were largely self-taught.

Daniel Schlosberg leads a kaleidoscopic musical life. He has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in numerous chamber music concerts and new music concerts, and was a featured soloist in subscription performances of Messiaen’s Trois Petites Liturgies. He has a passion for contemporary music, collaborating frequently with Eighth Blackbird and Third Coast Percussion.

Like many composers, I have a hard time classifying my music. My unconscious influences undoubtedly include the 20th c. Russian composers that I so enjoyed as a young trumpet player, the vocal music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance I discovered when I started singing, and the 20th c. French and American music I came to love in college. That aside, I often draw inspiration from visual sources, including the Pre-Raphaelites, Japanese animation, and abstract expressionism, as well as literary sources, such as poetry and the genres of fantasy and science fiction. I am fascinated with how these art forms make the normal seem strange and the strange seem normal.

Charles M. Savage (b. 1958) born in Coshocton, Ohio and a longtime resident of Muskingum County, Ohio. He graduated from Ohio Valley University, Harding University with a B.A. in Music Education, and Ohio University Athens with masters degrees in Music Theory and Composition, and in Music Education. He studied theory and orchestration with William Holloway, and composition with Mark Phillips, voice with Erle. T. Moore and Ira Zook, and conducting with Kenneth Davis, Jr. and Peter Jarjisian.

Heather Niemi Savage’s music explores universal questions of essence and finding beauty and joy in the midst of suffering, resulting in evocative pieces that take listeners on a journey which nourishes the soul, stimulates healing, and builds empathy. Savage draws on her own experiences, her love of the natural world, literature, and faith; her compositional style is informed by her training in classical, jazz, musical theater, sacred music, and life-long interest in world music.