COMPOSERS
Chatori Shimizu
Chatori Shimizu (b. 1990) is a Berlin based composer and sound artist, who constructs his works for a wide range of mediums concerning sound and space. Shimizu's works have been performed and exhibited in concerts and festivals throughout the United States, Japan, Europe, China, and South East Asia. Shimizu has been awarded fellowships from Columbia University School of the Arts, Institute of Medieval Japanese Studies, the Mitsubishi Foundation, Omi International Arts Center, Soundstreams, Toshiba Foundation, Yaddo, among others. He holds degrees from Columbia University (MFA in Sound Arts) and Kunitachi College of Music (BA in Computer Music and Composition).
Daphné Hejebri
Daphné Hejebri is a French composer born in 1994. At 15, while she was studying the violin, she entered Arnaud Petit’s Composition class at the Grenoble Music Academy. She got a 1st Prize with Honours in Composition which was awarded the 2014 SACEM Prize. She was also awarded the 1st Prize in Music Theory in the same year. She then followed the teachings of Philippe Manoury and Daniel D’Adamo at the Superior Academy of Music in Strasbourg (HEAR) where she got a BA in Composition with Honours. She is currently preparing a Master’s degree at McGill University in Montreal under the supervision of Philippe Leroux. In addition to composing, Daphné Hejebri studied conducting with Grégory Orlarey and then Jean-Philippe Wurtz, which gave her the opportunity to work with the Linéa ensemble. She then entered the choir conducting class of Jean-Philippe Billmann. During her 3-year-training at HEAR she also studied electroacoustic composition with Tom Mays.
Amy Brandon
Amy Brandon's pieces have been described as "Otherworldly and meditative ... a clashing of bleakness with beauty ..." (Minor Seventh). Upcoming 2020-21 events include a cello concerto for Jeff Zeigler with Symphony Nova Scotia, as well as chamber works for KIRKOS Ensemble (Ireland), Exponential Ensemble (NYC) and guitarist Libby Myers. She is currently completing an interdisciplinary PhD in music cognition at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Ramin Akhavijou
Iran-born composer Ramin Akhavijou is a PhD student in Composition & Theory at the University of Pittsburgh where he is currently focusing on microtonal and electronic sounds. The dialectic interrelation between sounds has always been one of the main concerns and motives for his compositions and research works, according to which he is investigating, scientifically, the sound of nature in some interdisciplinary projects in order to translate some non-musical elements into the music. His opera “languagemachine” was performed by the Pittsburgh Opera Company and by the CMU New Music Ensemble in April 2019. He has received some awards for his compositions, including the Iranian Music Association Prize (Tehran, Iran, 2013), ACIMC Award (Paris, France, 2014), IMHM prize (London, England, 2014), Iranian Music Association Prize (Tehran, Iran, 2015), ConTempora Award, Association of Macedonia (Skopje, Macedonia, 2015), Orient/Occident Award (Lviv, Ukraine, 2015), ABLAZE Records Award (Cincinnati, USA, 2016), Bruno Maderna Award (Lviv, Ukraine, 2016), NAT28 (Pittsburgh, USA, 2017), WZO commission (Toronto, Canada, 2017), Kamraton commission (Pittsburgh, USA, 2018), CMU String Quartet Prize (Pittsburgh, USA, 2018), Gindroz Prize (Pittsburgh, USA, 2018), CMU Orchestra Composition Prize (Pittsburgh, USA, 2019). He has also received FEZANA, Art & Science, and Andrew Carnegie scholarships.
Piyawat Louilarpprasert
Bangkok-born composer, Piyawat works largely within the realm of classical-contemporary music, electroacoustic music and Thai traditional instruments. His compositions have been performed in festivals such as Lucerne Festival, Gaudeamus, Darmstadt New Music Festival, St. Petersburg New Music Festival. Piyawat has been awarded prizes such as ASCAP Morton Gould Award, Sergei Slonimsky Award, ViennaKulturKontakt (resident composer), Charles Stewart Richardson Award, Royal Concerto Composition Prize, Léon Goossens Prize, PYO Award, Young Thai Artists Award. He is currently a DMA composer at Cornell University, New York (Sage Fellowship). His major teachers are Valeriy Rizayev, Dai Fujikura, Kevin Ernste, Marianthi Papalexandri Alexandri.
Sam Wu
Sam Wu's music deals with the beauty of blurred boundaries. From Shanghai, China, Sam attended The Juilliard School for his M.M., after receiving his A.B. from Harvard University. His teachers include Tan Dun, Robert Beaser, Chaya Czernowin, and Richard Beaudoin. Selected for the American Composers Orchestra's EarShot readings, winner of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, and First Prize at the Harbin Competition, Sam was also awarded a SCI / ASCAP Commission. Sam's collaborators include the Melbourne, China National, Shenzhen Symphonies, Sarasota Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Asia Society, sheng master Wu Wei, and pipa virtuoso Wu Man..
Tomasz Skweres
Tomasz Skweres (*1984) is a Polish-Austrian composer and cellist, who lives in Vienna and Regensburg (DE).
He won many competitions - among others: Zemlinsky Prize 2019 (2.Prize), winner of the international composition competitions: TONALi 2017 (DE), 1. Chalki Competition (GR), Joseph Reinl Competition (AT) – and received prizes and sholarships - Staatsstipendium für Komposition 2014 and 2021 (Austrian government scholarship for composers), Förderpreis der Stadt Wien 2015 (composition prize of Vienna). He wrote pieces commissioned by Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Festival Wien Modern, Festival Warsaw Autumn, Philhamonic Orchestra Regensburg, Niederbayerische Philharmonie, Contemporary Music Orchestra (PL), Apollon Musagete Quartet and others. Works by Tomasz Skweres are published by Sikorski MusicPublishers in Hamburg and Doblinger Publisher in Vienna.
Skweres is an active interpreter of contemporary music and since 2012 principal cellist of the Philharmonic Orchestra Regensburg.
Yukari Misawa
Yukari Miswa is a Japanese composer, hichiriki player, performer, and Buddhist monk. Born in 1987 in Tomioka, Misawa studied in Tokyo at Kunitachi College of Music and graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of music and composition. At Kunitachi, she won first prize in composition with her piece "Onkyo ver.5.1.2 ». She also holds a bachelor degree in Buddhism from Taisho University where she graduated in 2014. Misawa studied composition at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden where she graduated in 2016 with a master degree. Her main professors include Yukio Kikuchi, Motoharu Kawashima, Mark Andre, and Franz Martin Olbrisch. She has received several awards for her compositions including the «Messiaen special award» from the Kyoto France Academy of Music for her piece « Silence".
Jean-Patrick Besingrand
Jean-Patrick Besingrand (b. 1985) is a composer and musicologist. His music plays on tone colors and explores different conceptions of temporality. The incorporation of natural elements such as air sound is also at the center of his interests. He has participated in several festivals and has received recognition from various competitions from around the globe. His music has been performed by ensembles such as Court-Circuit, Dal Niente, Mivos Quartet, Molinari Quartet, Platypus, Mise-En, Contemporaneous, and by soloists including Thomas Piercy, Pierre Dutrieu and Yumi Suehiro. Jean-Patrick holds degrees from the University of Bordeaux, the Bordeaux Conservatory and Carnegie Mellon University. Currently Jean- Patrick is a PhD student in composition at CUNY under Professor Jason Eckardt. He is also working on his doctoral thesis in Musicology at the Sorbonne in Paris.
He He
He He was born in Luoyang(China) in 1992. She began to play piano when she was 8 years old and started learning composition when she was 12. She received her bachelor’s degree from Guangxi Art University in China and is now is working on masters’ degree in Conservatoire royal de musique de Mons in Belgium and studying with composer Claude Ledoux. In 2016, He’s work Star won the third prize in The Fifth China ASEAN Music Week Piano Solo Work Composition. In the same year, He’s work Mulan performed by America WSU wooden pipe quintet in The Fifth China ASEAN Music Week. In 2017, He’s work Baiyukugua performed by Poland ASDCP&TON Orchestra in The Sixth China ASEAN Music Week and Poland Music Festival. In 2018, He’s work Seven Luminaries was commissioned by Ensemble Hopper and performed in Conservatoire royal de Liège. He He enjoys ballet in her free time and has performed several times in festivals. She also worked as assistant director for two years at China ASEAN Music Week and participated in several international music festivals and master courses. Now He He actively improves the musical communication and dialogue between USA, Europe and China.