Artists

Theresa Koon composes music primarily for voice, emerging from an international vocal performance career including several years at the Thüringerlandestheater in Germany. Operas, song cycles, and choral music make up the center of her work, generally inspired by explorations into social issues or current events. Koon’s chamber opera PROMISE, which considers the social significance behind artistic “promise,” was conceived as a vehicle for regional and conservatory opera productions and has been performed across the United States.

Santiago Kodela is an award-winning Classical Guitarist & Composer working in the areas of concert, solo instrument, chamber, and choral music. His works explore various aspects of sound and harmony, adventuring intensely into the areas of iso-rhythms, metric modulation, and chord harmonization. In 2022 the album PINNACLE VOL. 2 was awarded the 2nd Prize Silver Medal by North-American Global Music Awards in the classical category. Furthermore, his piece Delicate Soliloquies was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2nd Composition Competition by the Dutch Guitar Foundation by a jury integrated by Steve Goss, JacobTV, and Nikita Koshkin.

Philippe Kocher (born 1973) is a musician, composer and researcher. He studied piano, electroacoustic music, music theory, composition and musicology in Zurich, Basel, London and Bern. He is a lecturer for music theory, composition, and computer music at the Zurich University of the Arts. He is also affiliated with the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) in Zurich.

Praised as “gratefully idiomatic” (Los Angeles Times) and for its “subtle virtuosity” (MusicWeb International), Peter Knell’s music is meticulously crafted for instruments and voices. He is deeply invested in musical structure as a crucible to intensify the affective experience. Knell’s music has received numerous national and international awards and has been commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation, Ying Quartet, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Barlow Endowment, and Lyris Quartet.

David Klock is a composer of instrumental concert music as well as collaborative pieces for multimedia projects. His works have been featured in "Playas de Tijuana Mural Project," a documentary by Lizbeth de la Cruz Santana, Humanizing Deportation, a community-based digital storytelling project, The Neighborhood Arts Collective, a multidisciplinary arts organization, and published by T.U.X. People’s Music.

Based in New Jersey, Eric Klein is an internationally-performed composer of concert music with chamber, electroacoustic, and orchestral works performed in the United States and Europe. Klein studied classical guitar with Norbert Kraft and attended the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music. Equally versed in writing orchestral, chamber, and electronic music, he is a versatile composer for film and new media. In addition to scoring for independent feature film, his chamber music album The Myth of Tomorrow, performed by the New York contemporary music ensemble Contemporaneous, won the 2019 Independent Music Awards for Best Contemporary Classical Music Album.

One of today's leading oboists, GRAMMY Award winner Alex Klein was Principal Oboe with the Chicago Symphony for nine years under Barenboim. Klein won top prizes at the international competitions in Geneva, Tokyo, New York, and Prague.

Pianist and harpsichordist Anna Kislitsyna made her solo debut at age 10 with the Omsk Symphony Orchestra. She remains in high demand as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and educator. Recent season highlights include five new album productions with PARMA Recordings and two release concerts in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, performing Haydn and Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Helena Symphony and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, and returning to the Omsk Philharmonic as a soloist to give the inaugural performance on the new harpsichord.

After an injury in 1982 ended his career as a modern dancer, David Kirtley focused on a new path as a self-taught composer. His efforts were rewarded when in 1987 he was granted a residency/fellowship from the Yellowsprings Institute in Pennsylvania for his piece, Songs for the Outcasts of Great Turtle’s Back, a song cycle recounting the great losses of life, land, and culture suffered by the American Indians.

A native of rural Colorado, Leanna Kirchoff’s music career began in a farmyard, singing her own songs to an audience of family and a few barn cats. Her early musical development also included studying piano and accompanying the choir at her local church. Kirchoff credits these early experiences as the genesis for her work as a composer whose catalog of music has grown to include many kinds of songs, musical theater pieces, sacred and non-liturgical choral music, and operas.

Dayton Kinney creates music that has won and has been recognized at numerous competitions at the national and international level. Performed in the U.S. and abroad, Kinney’s music concentrates on “transforming the circle… into a spiral.” Through this notion, Kinney explores the limits of ambiguity in thematic material, accessibility, harmony, and form with the goal of striking a balance between the certainty of a circle and the ambiguity of a spiral. Her eclectic style is inspired by juxtapositions and accessibility, exploring the concept of tonal ambiguity through patterns, sectional comparisons, and repetition.

"Doron Kima utilizes some extremely arresting musical gestures and makes good use of jazzy rhythms, with effective use of contrasts between sections. The composer is clearly in control of the material and instruments" (The American Prize Composition Competition). Kima's catalogue includes works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo, voice, electro-acoustic, and film scores.

Pianist HyeJin Kim has been described as “passionate, indisputably masterful technique with colorful interpretations,” (Der Westen) and is recognized as one of South Korea’s top artists with a comprehensive career as soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and educator. Born in Seoul, Kim trained at the prestigious Yewon Arts School and Seoul Arts High School, and received numerous awards at competitions including the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, DAAD Prize in Germany, Steinway & Sons Advancement Award Competition, and the Toronto International Piano Competition. Kim was the youngest prize winner of the 55th Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. Kim recently made her Carnegie Hall debut and has performed as a soloist with the Korean Chamber Orchestra, Westchester Philharmonic, San Bernardino Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic where Kim’s performance “had the utmost delicacy…. with a terrific flourish. She threw herself into music with grace and fortitude.” (The Buffalo News)

Chan Ji Kim (b. 1974, Dae-gu, South Korea) composes for dance, chamber ensembles, orchestra, multimedia performances and electroacoustic music. Most recently, her music was performed by the internationally known Bartók Trio ensemble in Malaga, Spain.

South Korean pianist Sun Min Kim serves as Coordinator of Keyboard Studies and Assistant Professor of Music at Denison University. He made his debut with the Ulsan Symphony Orchestra at age 13, performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto. He has been a prizewinner of national and international competitions such as the Maria Canals International Piano Competition, MTNA, and International Crescendo Music Awards. In 2008, the professional music fraternity Mu Phi Epsilon awarded him the Sterling Achievement Award, the highest honor that the fraternity bestows upon its collegiate members. As a laureate of various awards, he debuted at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and other prestigious venues across the United States and abroad.

Arizona composer Dr. Anne Kilstofte (Kilz-tofft) spent her early winters in Minnesota amid her mother’s paint tubes and pastels, but her father’s influence also played a role by sharing his recordings, introducing her to a wealth of composers including Shostakovich, Grieg, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Dvorak, Schubert, and even Big Band to name just a few. This early introduction is her earliest memory of a world where she was encouraged to create and use her imagination. Her use of color and lyricism and her adeptness at writing for voice may stem from this. Critics often mention her writing using “exceptional variety of tone color, conjuring landscapes that are sometimes misty, sometimes luminous, always atmospheric…” (International Alliance for Women in Music).

George David Keiffer was born in New York City NY, and was raised in the San Francisco Bay area where he studied piano with Val Richie. He graduated with a degree in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara and was named “Outstanding Male Graduate” upon graduation. He received a J.D. degree from UCLA law school and entered the practice of law.

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.

Acclaimed by Fanfare Magazine as “Masterful...a modernized Rachmaninoff” Christopher J. Keyes (b. 1963) began his career as a pianist, winning many competitions and later making his "double-debut" in Carnegie Hall as both soloist and guest composer with the New York Youth Symphony. He began formal composition lessons at the University of California at Santa Barbara earning a BM degree in Piano Performance and a BA in Creative Studies with an emphasis in composition.

Steven Kennedy resides in New England where he freelances as a film music reviewer/commentator, bassoonist, conductor, and keyboardist. He is a member of the American Composer's Forum, the Dramatist's Guild, Leading Musicians, and BMI. He composes in a variety of genres with works for orchestra, band, chorus, and solo instruments.