Artists

Karl Blench is a composer and conductor who holds bachelor’s degrees in education and music theory from the University of New Hampshire, and a Master’s degree and DMA in composition from Rice University. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Cuba. Recent engagements include performances of his works by the Shepherd School Chamber Symphony, the h2 Saxophone Quartet, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the University of New Hampshire and University of Houston Wind Ensembles.

Karolina Rojahn is a Los Angeles based pianist who has dedicated the last decade of her career to premiering and recording contemporary music repertoire. She has premiered over a hundred new works and collaborated with various classical music labels, most notably Naxos, having released over 43 recordings of chamber and solo piano music, including 5 piano concertos written specifically for her.

The Axiom Quartet is a dynamic professional ensemble based in Houston, TX. The group is known for creating and performing programs that mix traditional string quartet repertoire and transcriptions of works from a variety of genres (including jazz, electronic, rock, indie, etc.). By combining these genres, the quartet exposes classical music audiences to extraordinary music from different genres, and creates new fans of the classical repertoire.

Vox Futura is New England's premier recording choir for composers, recording artists, film, television, and video games. Past projects have included work with internationally distributed classical production house PARMA Recordings, video game companies Nintendo and Bandai Namco, legendary German power metal band Blind Guardian, and platinum selling world music artist Sami Yusef.

New York City composer Bruce Lazarus characterizes his extensive catalog of instrumental and vocal music as "diverse, concise, architectural, contemporary, and in turn meditative, energetic, humorous, moody, and exuberant.” Lazarus' music has often been inspired by astronomical imagery, woodlands and mountain trails, and lifetime involvement in the worlds of theater and dance. His works are published at Universal Editions and Swirly Music, and his albums - Musical Explorations of the Messier Star Clusters and Nebulae, Works for Solo Piano, November Sonata, and Song of the Earth - are available on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify.

Beth Wiemann was raised in Burlington VT, studied composition and clarinet at Oberlin College and received her Ph.D. in composition from Princeton University. Her works have been performed nationally and internationally by the ensembles Continuum, Transient Canvas, Earplay, Guerilla Opera, and others.  Her compositions have won awards from the Orvis Foundation, Copland House, the Colorado New Music Festival, New York Treble Singers, and regional arts councils. She teaches clarinet, composition, and music theory at the University of Maine. 

Martha Hill Duncan’s passion for music started early, inspired by her mother, who sang and played the piano by ear. She was a member of the first graduating class of the Houston High School for Performing and Visual Arts, (Vocal Music ’74) and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin (1979). She is grateful to many inspirational and generous teachers including composers Dr. Donald Grantham and Dr. Sam Dolin and pianists Danielle Martin, Gregory Allen, Dr. Errol Haun, and Trudy Borden.

Chilean-American violist Georgina Isabel Rossi is on the faculty of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s Instituto de Música. Her first album, Mobili: Music for Viola and Piano from Chile (New Focus Recordings), was praised as “expertly played” (WQXR), “a startling new recording” (CVNC Journal), and was one of KDFC’s picks for “Favorite Albums of the Year.” She plays a Buenos Aires-made viola by Leonardo Anderi from 2014, and a bow by Christian Wilhelm Knopf.

Chinese-Canadian pianist Silvie Cheng has performed in esteemed concert halls on five continents, from the California Center for the Arts to Brussels’ Flagey Hall, and the University of South Africa to Shanghai’s Poly Theatre. Close collaborations with composers of our time have led to over 50 world premieres since 2010, in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Cornell University, and the National Gallery of Canada. She tours extensively as the pianist of the Cheng² Duo and is a teaching-artist of The Orto Center at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City.

Ukranian violinist Myroslava Khomik brings her love of music-making not only to the prestigious concert halls and festivals around the world, but also to the curation and collaboration of multimedia projects. Known for her “virtue of musical sensitivity and beautiful emotion” (Saigon Times), Khomik is passionate about innovative programming, mixing different art forms, and looking for depth beyond creative expression. She regularly participates in premieres of new works, and initiates new commissions inspired by the subjects she feels are particularly important in today’s world. After her tour in South America in 2018 presenting an all-Ukrainian composers program, Khomik was awarded a New Artist of the year prize in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was featured on various TV and radio broadcasts in the United States and abroad.

Born in Hong Kong, Dr. Po Sim Head is a pianist, educator, and musicologist who has a strong passion for discovering lesser-known piano repertoire from Latin America. Head received a doctorate degree in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Kansas under the instruction of Scott McBride Smith. Her thesis introduced a few piano compositions written by a Peruvian composer Francisco Pulgar-Vidal, some of which are included on her Navona Records release. Prior to her doctorate degree, Head received her master’s degrees in piano performance and musicology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) and earned a bachelor’s degree in music composition and production at Hong Kong Baptist University. 

Joanna Marsden is a “fabulous” (The Whole Note) flautist based in Montréal, Québec. She has performed with numerous ensembles throughout North America and Europe “beautifully” (Luis Gago, Madrid) and “with notable rhetorical clarity” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), and worked with conductors including Ton Koopman, Masaaki Suzuki, Václav Luks, Julian Prégardien, Mathieu Lussier, and Florian Heyerick, among others. She holds degrees from Vassar College, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, and McGill University. She has offered engaging workshops and masterclasses to students throughout Europe and North America.

The Opus Project is a chamber music initiative formed in 2020 in Montréal by Christophe Gauthier and Joanna Marsden. Inspired by the beauty of early musical prints and manuscript sources, the Opus Project explores unsung treasures of the baroque chamber music repertoire by focusing deeply on one collection at a time. 

Described by Pierre Boulez as “un musicien formidable” and “unflaggingly robust” by Opera Magazine, tenor Brian Smith Walters began his musical career as a French horn player before turning to singing. In his career, Walters has performed over 75 roles, including such roles as Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, Siegfried, Parsifal, Siegmund in Die Walküre, Paul in Die tote Stadt, Samson in Samson et Dalila, Captain Vere in Billy Budd and Peter Grimes. He has worked with conductors Valery Gergiev, Sir Mark Elder, and Christoph Eschenbach in festivals such as Lucerne, Schleswig-Holstein, Longborough, Buxton, Grange Park, and Aldeburgh with additional work at the Barbican and Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

Described as a violinist with “chops to burn, and rock solid musicianship” (The Whole Note, Toronto), Canadian violinist Véronique Mathieu enjoys an exciting career as a soloist, chamber musician, and music educator. An avid contemporary music performer, she has commissioned and premiered numerous works by American, Brazilian, and Canadian composers, and has worked with composers such as Pierre Boulez, Heinz Holliger, and Krzysztof Penderecki. Her album debut of solo works by Boulez, Donatoni, and Lutoslawski was praised as a display of “outstanding violin playing” and “stunning [performance] with amazing technique.”

Thomas Bowes is one of the United Kingdom’s finest violinists. He is very active in the realm of cinema, and millions have heard him on the soundtracks of his 200+ film credits. Most recently he was featured as the solo violinist in Alexandre Desplat’s score for Guillermo del Toro’s award-winning stop-motion film Pinocchio.

John Rommereim is a musician who has pursued a varied career as a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and professor. He has written works for choir, solo voice, orchestra, string quartet, saxophone quartet, flute ensemble, guitar, organ, piano, and electronic media, as well as a chamber opera, and music for theater and film. The New York Times praised the “richly expressive” character of his work for voice and piano, Into the Still Hollow.

A native of Memphis TN, baritone Courtney D. Carey earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Morehouse College in Atlanta GA, Master of Music degree in Conducting from Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY, and the Professional Studies Diploma in Voice from Mannes College of Music in New York NY. Carey made his operatic debut in the summer of 2003 as Morales in Bizet’s Carmen and Hermann in Offenbach’s Hoffmans Erazaehlungen with the Komische KammerOper Muenchen in Munich, Germany. Since his debut, Carey has sung principal and supporting roles in Il Tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, Die Zauberfloete, My Fair Lady, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Don Alfonso in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. 

Kristina Marinova has been described as a virtuoso performer of extreme energy and youthful vibrance. Her clear and precise tone enhances her stormy expressions and performances, full of grace, serenity, style, and beauty. Her album entitled 4 RHAPSODIES, which she performed live at Carnegie Hall on November 17th, 2022, has been called “A Feast for the Ears” by Darren Rea of Classical Music Review Magazine.

Matthew Heap, born in 1981, is an internationally-performed composer whose music has been featured in several American and English cities and on WQED and WCLV radio. He is also very involved in the theater community as an actor, director, and writer. Matthew received his B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University, M.M. from the Royal College of Music in London, and  Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He has studied with Leonardo Balada, Eric Moe,  Nancy Galbraith, Mathew Rosenblum, Amy Williams, and Timothy Salter.