Artists

Welsh-born composer Hilary Tann lived in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York where she was the John Howard Payne Professor of Music Emerita at Union College, Schenectady. Her compositions have been widely performed and recorded by ensembles such as the European Women’s Orchestra, Tenebrae, Lontano, Marsyas Trio, Thai Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Born in Caen in 1968, Éric Tanguy is to this day one of the most performed French composers in the world. Named “Composer of the Year'” by the Victoires de la musique classique in 2004 and 2008, Tanguy studied under Horatiu Radulescu, Ivo Malec, Gérard Grisey, and Betsy Jolas at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris.

Joyce Wai-chung Tang’s works have been described by Ablaze Records as “incisive and brilliant…terrific and fresh compositional voice,” and have been premiered and performed worldwide. Her works span orchestral, chamber, solo, vocal, choral, electro-acoustic, and theatrical genres, many of which have been jury-selected for performances in major festivals and conferences.

Eli Tamar’s compositions have been recognized for their high emotional intensity and personal expression. His multi-cultural background (Russian-born Israeli-American) contributed greatly to his ability to explore and synthesize different elements of styles while transcending spiritual barriers between various musical, literary, and religious traditions.

Mari Tamaki is a Japanese cellist, composer, performer, and producer whose great improvisational and compositional skills create fascinating music, fluidly crossing genres both classical and contemporary. As a composer, she has successfully created works in a variety of styles, including classical music, progressive rock, free improvisation, avant-garde, and collaboration with the Butoh dance form. In her pieces, she skillfully transitions from tense dissonance to complete harmonization by the end. She employs a lyrical style while emphasizing dissonance. 

A vibrant musician and innovative educator, Laura Talbott-Clark currently serves as associate professor of violin at Oklahoma State University. An avid chamber musician, she has performed as principal violinist of Tulsa Camerata, Janus 21 Chamber Ensemble, and as second violinist of the Tulsa Rock Quartet. Talbott-Clark has an extensive background as an orchestral musician, including membership in the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, and Cantata Singers Chamber Orchestra.

Tamas Szigyarto was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was schooled in classical piano from the age of 10 and progressed into drums & percussion from 17. For the following decade, he played in numerous alternative rock bands. Szigyarto studied Mathematics at St.Petersburg State University (graduated with MSc. in Math in 2006) and Commercial Music Performance at Tech Music School (BIMM Institute) in London. Here he met and played with London’s alt pop trio Fassine.

Polish-born violinist Piotr Szewczyk has been hailed for his “stellar technique and constantly ringing tone” (Charleston Post and Courier) and has been a member of the Jacksonville Symphony’s first violin section since 2007. He is also an active composer, whose work has been called “magical” (Gramophone Magazine).

Held to high regard as a composer, pianist, and educator throughout his life, Tomáš Svoboda was a true musical force, whose contributions to the artistic community of Portland and beyond have cemented him as a cultural icon in Oregon’s contemporary classical music scene.

Östhammar, Sweden-based Håkan Sundin (b. 1961) leads a varied musical career, working as a composer, freelance flutist and saxophonist, and as a church musician. Sundin received his jazz education from Skurups Folk High School (1980-82), and continued on to the Malmö Academy of Music for flute and composition (1983-88); from there, he continued his education in composition with seminars at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark (1988-90). In addition to his formal education, Sundin has continued his flute studies with private lessons from flutist Manuela Wiesler, among others.

With “probing seriousness” (Performing Arts Monterey Bay) and “a stunningly beautiful palette of colors” (Peninsula Reviews), pianist Kevin Lee Sun interprets music old and new. In 2011, Sun won the Silver Medal at the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition in California for his performances of the classical canon. In 2021, for his visionary programming of 20th-century music, he was the sole pianist to be named Finalist of the Berlin Prize for Young Artists in Germany. These honors have led Sun to perform a diverse repertoire around the world, including at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna, the Villa Elisabeth in Berlin, and the Banff Centre in Canada.

Michael Summers' music has harmonic richness, rhythmic flair, and a gift for melody. His works include lyrical string quartet movements, sexy 17th-century song settings and funk-inflected piano pieces. His organ piece Variations on an English Folksong, released by Navona in 2011, was described as 'urgently dramatic' by Gramophone and 'striking and ingenious' by Allmusic.com. Other keyboard works include Modus operandi for piano, which was first performed in 2010. One critic noted its 'subtle and complex rhythms and its impressionist language' and likened the style to Bartok and Debussy.

John Summers began his professional composing career in 1973, writing music for schools for a touring theater company, where he produced every type of production, from educational musicals for young kids to setting curriculum poetry (Shakespeare, Eliot, etc) to music. This continued until 1977, and in the process, he visited every small and large town in the Eastern states of Australia.

Joseph Summer began playing French horn at the age of 7. While attending the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina at age 14 he studied composition with the eminent Czech composer Karel Husa. At age 15 he was accepted at Oberlin Conservatory, studied with Richard Hoffmann, Schönberg’s amanuensis, and graduated with a B.M. in Music Composition in 1976. Recruited by Robert Page, Dean of the Music Department at Carnegie Mellon University, Summer taught music theory at CMU before leaving to pursue composition full time.

Peter Sulski was a member of the London Symphony Orchestra for seven years. While in England he served on the faculty of the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music and Drama, as well as being Artistic Director of Chapel Royal Concerts, which he founded in 1993.

Tim Sullivan's compositions have been performed throughout the U.S. and Europe at various venues and new music festivals, including the Borealis Festival, American Opera Projects, 2008 NASA Conference, Etcetera Festival of New Music, and World Saxophone Congress XIII. He has received awards and honors from the American Composers Orchestra/EarShot, ASCAP, Downbeat magazine, and ALEA III.

Su Chen-Hsin was born in Chiayi City, Taiwan in 1989. He is a licensed doctor who graduated from the Department of Medicine at China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, in 2015. Su has been in psychiatry residency training programs at the Taoyuan Psychiatric Center, Taiwan since August 2017.

Pianist Dr. Marko Stuparević has appeared in over 500 concerts and festivals over the United States, Israel, France, Serbia, Iceland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Slovakia as a solo performer and chamber musician. Winning piano competition prizes resulted in many notable solo recitals in the United States and Europe, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and many other important venues. Stuparević has performed as soloist with Connecticut Valley Symphony Orchestra (under Joseph Hodge), Razgrad Philharmonic (Krasen Ivanov), Symphony Orchestra of the Army House of Serbia (Simone Fermani), National Symphony of Bulgaria (Stanislav Usev), and Foot in the Door Ensemble (Glen Adsit).

Josefien Stoppelenburg is best known for her dazzling vocal agility and her passionate and insightful interpretations. She performed all over the United States and Europe and sang for the Dutch Royal Family on several occasions.

IngridStölzel (b.1971) has been hailed “as a composer of considerable gifts” who is “musically confident and bold” by National Public Radio’s classical music critic. Her music has been described as “tender and beautiful” (American Record Guide) and as creating a “haunting feeling of lyrical reflection and suspension in time and memory” (Classical-Modern Review). At the heart of her compositions is a belief that music can create a profound emotional connection with the listener.