Artists

Miguel Matamoro studied composition with Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramón Lazkano, and Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena at the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country, Musikene, and then his received his master’s degree from the Higher School of Music Katarina Gurska in Madrid.

Composer Gemma Peacocke grew up in Hamilton, New Zealand, and she moved to the United States in 2014. She writes a broad range of music including art-pop songs, EDM-inspired tracks and orchestral music. She has a particular love of interdisciplinary work and often collaborates with artists, writers, and theatre designers.

Quatra Duo, comprised of guitarist Jeff LaQuatra and flutist Michelle Stanley, have been performing together since 1998. Through their performances, they have enjoyed presenting much of the great repertoire for this ensemble, but their most recent commitment lies in commissioning new works for flute and guitar. Commissions include Painted Music by Bryan Johanson, James McGuire’s Suite for Flute and Guitar, and a piece in 2020 by Grant Ferris.

Hailed by Gramophone for her “characterful sparkle,” Jasmin Arakawa has performed widely in North America, Central and South America, Europe, China, and Japan. A prizewinner of the Jean Françaix International Music Competition, she has been heard at Carnegie Hall, Salle Gaveau in Paris, and Victoria Hall in Geneva, as well as in broadcasts of the BBC and Radio France. Arakawa is Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Florida. She is a graduate of Indiana University (D.M., M.M.) and Tokyo University of the Arts (B.M.).

Elizabeth R. Austin's music is meticulous and complex, filled with movement, growth, and turning points. Not a bad description for her own life.” This quote, from an article in SCOPE (Winter, 2011) written by Michael K. Slayton, continues to be relevant to this octogenarian, whose focus on writing music has become even more intense!

Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Liza Stepanova has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Weill and Zankel recital halls at Carnegie Hall; Alice Tully, Merkin, David Geffen, and Steinway halls in New York City; and at the Kennedy Center. She has appeared as a soloist with conductors James DePreist and Nicholas McGegan and live on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, and WETA Washington.

Scott Anthony Shell was born in Omaha Nebraska USA but grew up near Chicago IL. He earned a degree in music composition at DePaul University while studying voice and singing in choirs. Instead of pursuing academic degrees, he immersed himself in the Chicago indie rock scene and created a record label and rock band (singer / songwriter / guitarist) called Cats & Jammers that released several recordings and toured all over the USA. S.A. is fluent in Spanish and has spent quite a bit of time in South America. Currently he resides in in Patagonia AZ.

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.

Composer Garth Baxter is noted for his modern traditionalist style of writing. He combines the traditions of form and clear melodic writing with contemporary approaches to harmony and other elements. He is recognized as one of the preeminent composers of art songs and has been described as an unabashed lyrical, tonal composer.

Deborah J. Anderson grew up in Tacoma WA and began composing at age 6. As a teenager she studied piano and voice. In college she majored in languages and she later served in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, where she taught English, studied Arabic music, and learned to play the ‘oud and sing in Arabic. After earning a master's degree in French (University of Washington, Seattle), she taught at the college level for a number of years. From 2000 to 2011 she sang in the Pacific Lutheran University Choral Union. She enjoys her four adult children, the arts, travel, and gourmet cooking.

Angel Sánchez Enríquez was born in Mexico City in 1971. He graduated from the Superior School of Music which belongs to the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City with a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance. He also studied piano with Yulia Vischnevetskaia, violin with Guela Dubrova, and orchestral conducting with several prominent conductors as Kurt Redel, Ronald Zollman, and Yuri Simonov.

Composer Mara Gibson is originally from Charlottesville VA. She graduated from Bennington College and completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo. She also attended London College of Music, L’École des Beaux-Arts in Fontainebleau, France, and the International Music Institute at Darmstadt, Germany.

Award-winning composer Adrienne Albert (ASCAP) has had her chamber, choral, vocal, orchestral, and wind band works performed throughout the United States and around the world. Having previously worked as a singer with composers Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, and Gunther Schuller among many others, Albert began composing her own music in the 1990s.

The United States Army Field Band of Washington DC is the U.S. Army’s premier touring musical organization, traveling throughout the country and internationally to connect the American people to their Army and to represent the nation around the world. Members of the Army Field Band can be seen each year performing for the nationally televised “A Capitol Fourth,” the National Memorial Day Concert, and every four years leading the Army Element of the Presidential Inaugural Parade.

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.

Mari Kotskyy is a New York-based award-winning composer, arranger and pianist, originally from Hokkaido, Japan. Her works have been performed throughout Asia, North America, and Europe.

Kenneth Eggert (b. 1969) began his musical career at age 10, with a love of music theatre and an obsession with the music of Billy Joel. After starting his first of many bands at age 12, he began writing songs for them, which led him to eventually study Music Composition at Carnegie-Mellon University with Marilyn Taft Thomas. Feeling more comfortable at that time in the realm of rock and jazz, he transferred to Berklee College of Music as a Film Scoring major, and then left school to pursue a career in performance.

Having been praised by the press as “precise and keenly projective” and demonstrating “the highest level of proficiency,” Japanese-Canadian pianist Yoko Hirota is considered one of the leading interpreters of contemporary piano repertory of her generation. Hirota received her doctoral degree in piano performance under Louis-Philippe Pelletier at McGill University. Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts allowed her to study in Europe, with Gabor Eckhardt in Hungary, Herbert Henck in Germany, and Florent Boffard in France.

Ganesh B. Kumar L.T.C.L. is a music composer/producer from Chennai, India. He obtained his double Licentiate from the Trinity College of Music, London, under the tutelage of the renowned teacher Mr. Abdul Sattar. It was always his desire to compose music that would elevate the spirit of mankind. This goal has not changed to this day, and remains his standard of accomplishment as a composer.

Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine is acclaimed for her “utterly thrilling, agile voice” and praised for bringing “pathos, beauty, and heartbreaking skill” to her performances. She has performed on the stages of Los Angeles Opera, Minnesota Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Austin Opera, Utah Opera, Fort Worth Opera, the Madison Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, The National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, and the Santa Fe Symphony, among many others.