Nkeiru Okoye is an American composer of African American and Nigerian ancestry. She was born and raised in New York.  After studying composition, music theory, piano, conducting, and Africana Studies at Oberlin Conservatory, she pursued graduate studies at Rutgers University, and is best known through her opera, “Harriet TUbman,” and her orchestral composition, “Voices Shouting Out.” Okoye creates a body of work that welcomes  both traditional and new audiences. Hailed as “gripping” and “evocative” by the New York Times, her works have been commissioned, performed and presented by Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Opera North UK, and many others.

Composer Wang Lu writes music that naturally reflects urban environmental sounds, linguistic intonation and contours, traditional Chinese music, and freely improvised practices. Wang Lu’s works have been performed internationally, by ensembles including the Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW, Minnesota Orchestra among others. She received the Berlin Prize in Music Composition, Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award in Music from American Academy of Arts and Letters and was a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. Wang Lu’s portrait albums Urban Inventory (2018), and An Atlas of Time (2020) were released to critical acclaim. She is an associate professor of music at Brown University.

Originally from Washington D.C. and now residing in New York City, inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993) focuses on close collaborative relationships with a wide range of ensembles and soloists. Her musical practice is physical and visceral, attempting to reconcile historical aesthetics and experimental practices with trans & indigenous futures. The New York Times speaks of her music as “alternatively smooth & serrated” and “slyly warp[ing] time”, The Washington Post as “raw, scraping yet soaring”, and The Strad Magazine as “between the material and immaterial”. inti is the 2020 recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award for “work that defies boundary and genre.”

A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian-American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop, and jazz genres and is acclaimed for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. A prolific Grammy Award–nominated composer with more than 70 works to her credit, she has been commissioned by internationally renowned organizations, festivals, and artists. An in-demand performer, she is a celebrated pianist and inventive vocalist who inspires and encourages audiences’ imaginations to break free of often self-imposed constraints. Her innovative, accessible, and award-winning VOXploration series on music education, creation, songwriting, and improvisation has been presented throughout the world.

Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, to bring communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. Esmail holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music, and has written for Kronos Quartet, Albany Symphony and Conspirare. A resident of Los Angeles, Esmail is the 20-23 Swan Family Artist in Residence with Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the 20-21 Composer in Residence with Seattle Symphony. She is the Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting musical traditions of India and the West.

Hailed by the New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing,” Gity Razaz’s music ranges from concert solo pieces to opera and large symphonic works. Gity’s music has been commissioned and performed by Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, National Sawdust, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, Canada’s National Ballet School, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra among many others. Her compositions have earned numerous awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Jerome Foundation, the International Search for New Music Competition, and ASCAP, to name a few. Gity attended The Juilliard School on full scholarship, and received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Composition under the tutelage of John Corigliano, Samuel Adler, and Robert Beaser.

Tamar Muskal studied composition and viola at the Jerusalem Academy for Dance and Music (Israel), Yale University, and CUNY. She is mentioned in Anthony Tommasini’s 10 Best Classical Music Events of 2014. Recent and future commissions include two percussion concertos for Steve Schick along with interactive art by Daniel Rozin for the La Jolla Music Festival and the ACO, a flute concerto, strings and percussion for Abigail Dolan and the Symphonova, a piece for a rapper, rhythm vocalist, chamber ensemble and girls youth chorus for Close Encounter With Music and a piece for clarinet, string quartet and drum set for Jo-Ann Sternberg. Tamar has received grants and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, Academy of Arts and Letters, Meet the Composer, American Composers Forum, and ASCAP, among others.