Le sommeil

Weily Luc is a Chinese-Belgian pianist and composer currently living in Los Angeles. Ms. Luc was initially trained as a professional classical pianist. After her graduation from the Royal Music Conservatory of Brussels with an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance, a Higher Diploma in Music Analysis, and First Prize Diplomas in Chamber Music, Written Harmony, and Counterpoint, she devoted herself to teaching piano lessons and specialized in composition under the guidance of Mrs. Berthe di Vito-Delvaux, the late renowned Belgian female composer. Ms. Luc has written works for piano, voice, chamber ensemble, and orchestra that have been performed in Europe, the United States, and Asia

Night

Vera Ivanova's compositions have been described as "...humanistic and deeply felt works... " (Society of Composers, Inc.). Ms. Ivanova is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D. Composition). She is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Chapman University, and a faculty member of the Colburn Young Artists Academy. She is a founding member of Synchromy, Los Angeles-based composers collective, and is on the advisory board of the American Composers Forum (LA Chapter).

Ms. Ivanova has been the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Sproull Fellowship (Eastman), the Gwyn Ellis Bequest Scholarship (Guildhall), the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, a Staunton Music Festival commission, and the Boston Contempo Music Festival award. She is a laureate of the International Mozart Competition, the International Contest of Acousmatic Compositions Métamorphoses 2004 (Belgium), the André Chevillion-Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize at the International Piano Competition at Orleans (France), the 2013 Athena Festival Chamber Competition, and the 2013 Donald Aird Composition Competition. Her works have been performed worldwide and her music is available in print from Universal Editions.

Six Love Songs of Sara Teasdale

 Russian-born classical singer Nika Leoni is an emerging composer with “a distinctive talent of drawing profound musical expression from dramatic context." Her diverse cultural background enriches her compositional style and empowers her versatility across numerous musical genres. Hailed as “an exceptionally talented composer and singer, with triumphant femininity,” Ms. Leoni charms audiences with her vocal compositions.

Recent commissions include the score for an independent film--for which she also wrote, recorded, and produced the featured song--, as well as a school anthem composed for the 35th Anniversary of the Italian-American School in New York. Ms. Leoni’s album, Dark Eyes (Larion Records), featuring her arrangements of Russian Romances, was met with great critical acclaim and is sold worldwide. Ms. Leoni is currently finishing a one-act opera, as well as drafting a full-scale opera and several chamber pieces. As a producer, Ms. Leoni has written, commissioned, and staged new productions, including operas, musical theater works, and educational childen’s shows. As a classical singer, Ms. Leoni has appeared in the Czech Republic, Germany, and Austria; she has performed concerts at the Munich Philharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Wałbrzych Filharmonia Sudecka (Poland), and has recorded with the Prague Stern Orchestra in the Czech Republic.

2 French Songs

Hailed by the New York Times as “an interesting composer,” whose music is “attractive, … tonal… [and] passionate,” Ms. Spektor graduated from Sarah Lawrence College before continuing her studies at Mannes and The Juilliard School in New York City. A member of BMI, the Dramatist Guild, and Opera America, she is the founder and director of The Aviva Players since 1975. Her chamber operas include Villa Diodati, Giovanni the Fearless, The Housewives’ Cantata, Lady of the Castle, The Passion of Lizzie Borden, as well as many English, French, and German songs performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Israel.

 She has recorded on the Westminster, Concert Hall, Guilde International du Disque, Original Cast Records, Capstone, AirPlay, and Albany Record labels, and her scores have been featured in films and on PBS. An accomplished writer, Ms. Spektor is also the author of two books of poetry, “From Seaside Houses”, and “The Road to November.”

Fame is a Bee

Kari Cruver Medina is a composer and pianist based in Seattle, Washington. Her recent projects and premiers include Völuspá; Song of the Seeress (2016) with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra; a series titled Sister’s From Across the Sea, featuring two multi-media Art-Music Salons based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti; as well as a performance of her SATB a cappella work, Message of the Wind, at the upcoming International Alliance of Women in Music annual concert in October 2016 and previously at the “Voices of London” festival (2014).  Medina’s chamber work, The Meadow’s Wide, was a semi-finalist in the 2015 American Prize; in addition, her Emmy-nominated scores have accompanied various PBS Television productions, including Rick Steve’s “Travels through Europe” and KCTS’s “Over” Series. 

Kari Medina served for a number of years as Music Director at the University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, where she composed for a variety of musical genres, amassing a large body of sacred music that blends classical and popular vocal and instrumental traditions. A Washington-state native, Medina studied at the University of Washington and Washington State University with William Bergsma and Loran Olsen.  She and her husband, John, have two sons.

The Truck-O! What a Day

Abigail Kempson received her Master of Music at Westminster Choir College, where she studied composition with Benjamin C. S. Boyle, Christian Carey, and Ronald Hemmel. She completed her undergraduate degree at Gettysburg College’s Sunderman Conservatory in 2013, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance. In addition to her studies as a performer, she studied theory and composition with Avner Dorman and Buzz Jones. Ms. Kempson’s compositions have been performed by professional ensembles such as Shuffle Concert and the Da Capo Quintet. Thanks to her extensive training in both solo vocal and choral repertoire, as well as her eclectic musical taste, Ms. Kempson’s works can be described are melodious and tuneful, such that the audience walks away humming the main themes, while maintaining a distinctive style that is uniquely her own.

Salve Regina

Jocelyn Hagen composes music that has been described as “simply magical” (Fanfare Magazine) and “dramatic and deeply moving” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis/St. Paul). Her first forays into composition were via songwriting, and this is evident in her work: the majority of her compositional output is for the voice. In 2015, Test Pilot, her dance/opera collaboration with choreographer Penelope Freeh, received a Sage Award for “Outstanding Design,” and was hailed “a tour de force of originality.” Her melodic music is rhythmically driven, texturally complex, and has recently become more experimental. In 2013 she released an EP entitled MASHUP, in which she performs Debussy’s “Doctor Gradus Ad Parnassum” while singing Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team.”

Ms. Hagen has commissioned for Conspirare; The Minnesota Orchestra; the American Choral Directors Associations of Minnesota, Georgia, Connecticut, and Texas; the North Dakota Music Teacher’s Association; Cantus; the Boston Brass; The Metropolitan Symphony; and The Houston Chamber Choir. She is currently an artist-in-residence at North Dakota State University and regularly composes for their ensembles. For ten years she was both composer-in-residence and performing member of The Singers, a professional choir directed by Matthew Culloton. Her music has been performed all over the world, including in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.