Brazilian bass player and composer Rafael Abdalla has been one of the most active musicians in the Brazilian music scene over the last ten years. He has recorded three albums as a leader and has participated in over 20 other instrumental albums. As a sideman, composer and arranger  he has worked with some of the most important musical figures in Brazil including Raul de Souza, Leo Gandelman, Paulo Moura, Rogério Bocatto, Vinicius Dorin, Andre Marques, Zé Renato, Vânia Bastos, Paulo Freire, Nenê, Michel Leme, Lupa Santiago among others.

See website: www.rafaelabdalla.com

Xiaowei Cao (b. 1999) is a composer, performer, and music producer based in Gainesville, FL. After getting his Master of Music degree in Composition at the New England Conservatory, Xiaowei is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music Composition and Technology at the University of Florida. Heavily influenced by postminimalism, postmodernism, and mass art aesthetics, Xiaowei’s music focuses on the metamorphosis of sounds and exploring human words, textual acoustic sounds, and pop culture elements in electronic spaces. Xiaowei’s pieces have been performed at the University of Miami, New England Conservatory, as well as the SPLICE festival. His sound art Radio Patterns (2022) was selected as one of the finalists for the IntAct Call for Artworks 2022.

Anna Higgins is a composer and clarinetist from the Pittsburgh area. She holds a M.M. in Composition and a University Teaching Certificate from West Virginia University. She received her B.A. in Music from Washington & Jefferson College, where she also studied English literature and Russian history and language. As a composer, Higgins is interested in telling stories through the incorporation of themes from Gothic literature. In 2021, she won the Solo Clarinet Composition Competition at the University of Wisconsin - Steven’s Point. In 2024, her piece “Chemical Haze” had its American debut by SheScores, a year after its commission and European premiere by the Ensemble PHACE in Vienna. Recently, she has been commissioned by the Pathos Trio and the Sofia Philharmonic. “Through the Keyhole” was premiered in Bulgaria by the Sofia Philharmonic in July 2024.

Jane K (Evgeniya Kozhevnikova) is a composer, pianist, and educator. Her works have been performed at regional, national, and international level music events.  Jane composes in various styles and genres, from classical to jazz and tango, tastefully blending them together. In 2020, she released a jazz-tango album Tango Avenue. Jane’s compositions received awards in multiple competitions, including the DownBeat Student Music Award, American Prize, International Composers’ Competition Opus Ignotum, Music Now Chamber Music Contest, Anima Vox duo Call for Scores and Competition. She holds two master’s degrees, in Music Composition and Music Performance, from Western Michigan University.

See website: www.JaneKmusic.com

Brandon Markson (b.1999) is an eclectic composer, covering a wide array of musical interests including contemporary-classical, jazz, rock, and music for visual media. His music creates deep connections with both the audience and performers, weaving in narratives, and evoking strong emotional responses. His deep interest for the interdisciplinary crossover of music with other subjects, especially chemistry, also informs his musical creativity. Performances and recordings can be heard from across the United States, including the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), NEC large ensembles, TEMPO, Atlantic Music Festival, Nief Norf Music Festival, and Sewanee Music Festival. Brandon currently holds a MM in Composition from NEC (2023) and two BA in Chemistry and Music from Occidental College (2021).

See website: brandonmarksonmusic.com

Yimian Mi (b. 1998) is a composer, originally from the Shanxi Province, China. She is currently advancing her expertise with a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degree in composition at the University of Florida. Yimian’s compositions are characterized by their innovative blend of Chinese and Western musical traditions, creating a unique soundscape that bridges cultural divides. Her chamber music and Maori instrumental work, “Semi and Shaman,” was performed in New Zealand in 2018. Additionally, her composition “Heterotroph” achieved first prize at the 2024 UMKC Chamber Music Composition Competition.

Hoàng Phó is a Vietnamese composer and pianist residing in Florida, USA. His music covers a wide range of practices, from instrumental to electronic categories where he seeks to unfold possibilities of sonic colors unique yet receptive to listeners. In addition to exploring timbre as the primary impetus of his compositions, he also draws inspirations from incorporating musical elements of Asia, especially from the Vietnamese culture where he grew up with, further expanding Asian musical richness to a wider audience as well as identifying himself as an intercultural composer.

See website: https://www.hoangphomusic.com/

Frank Sang is a Chinese composer, conductor and pianist based in Boston, MA. He finished his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in music composition at New England Conservatory of music. His music has been performed at the Tuesday Night New Music series concert by different NEC musicians. His piece for orchestra and wind ensemble was recorded by the NEC Philharmonic and NEC Symphonic Winds. His music is largely impacted by Dimitri Shostakovich, Charles Ives, and Igor Stravinsky. He loves to combine different styles, genres, and musical elements together alongside his own thoughts to see the possibilities of regenerating different effects or voices. These experiential thoughts of writing music helped him build up his own contemporary-classical genre.

Yunmeng Su is a Chinese composer, arranger, and educator. A former resident composer of Hefei Province Philharmonic Orchestra, her music has been performed by ensembles such as Kanazawa Citizen’s Art Center (Japan), Gladia string quartet (Vietnam), and the Sirius Trio (French). She was awarded in the Guangxi Arts University Composition Competition in 2016 and China-Asian Music Festival Composition Competition in 2017. She is also a film composer. The film she produced, Marquis of Haihun, was released in September 2017.

Brendan Sweeney (he/him/his) is a composer, trumpeter, arranger, and writer living in Florida. Brendan’s music strives to connect the conceptual with the visceral, often exploring form, parallels with other artistic disciplines, and the idiosyncrasies of the medium itself. A native of the gulf coast, his new work looks to incorporate the unique environment and landscape of his home into his music. His works center on impermanence, metamodernism, poly-aestheticism, and the synthesis of aleatory and systematic techniques.

See website: https://www.brendansweeneymusic.com/