Composition

Jordan Abramson is a Toronto-born composer who is in his first year of a master’s degree in composition, entering MSM with the conservatory’s prestigious President’s Award. As a University of Toronto graduate with a major in composition and a minor in biology, he has been awarded the Ben McPeek Scholarship, the France-Canada Cultural Exchange Experience France
Award, the Glenn Gould Memorial Scholarship, and is a two-time recipient of the Arthur Plettner Scholarship. Jordan has previously studied with renowned composers Gary Kulesha, Kevin Lau, and Larysa Kuzmenko and will now begin studying with Ashkan Behzadi at MSM.

In the summer of 2022, Jordan was accepted into the EAMA summer music institute in Paris for
the submission of his String Quartet no. 1: “To Fly Through Dark Clouds,” and in the summer of
2023, was accepted into the Vienna Summer Music Festival where he studied composition that
July. He has had several world premieres including his composition, “Rondo for Chamber Orchestra: ‘Russian,” at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, and his, “Sonata for Cello and Piano,” by the PHACE ensemble at the Palais Ehrbar in Vienna. He has also worked with the internationally renowned soloist Irvin Arditti who premiered his “Ideé Fixe” for solo violin at the Sal Brahms in Vienna. This last spring, Jordan had his conducting debut at the University of Toronto,
premiering one of his own works for mezzo soprano and chamber ensemble, “The Lost Mistress.” In May, he was also selected as the principal student composer for the Jewish Voices in Music Concert in Toronto. Jordan had two of his works performed at the concert and was the only living composer featured.

William Bastianon is a Canadian composer, performer, and copyist from Ontario, Canada. He is currently studying composition with Dr. Reiko Fueting.

In his work, Will seeks to blend music and storytelling, drawing from a deep love of musical theatre, jazz, popular, and classical traditions, blurring the lines between genres.

Using this eclectic mix of musical languages, Will strives for humour and clarity through a marriage of carefully chosen convention and emotionally charged content.
Throughout his ongoing musical exploration,

Will is constantly deepening his love and respect for the artistic process, collaboration, and his connection to the artists who came before him.

Will has worked as an arranger and copyist for clients such as Nicolas Dromard (Broadway performer), Kate Schutt (singer-songwriter), and Voices Rock Canada (Canadian choir). He has written music for two Toronto Fringe shows (one of which he also performed in) and two independent short films (one of which he acted in).

Website: www.willbastianon.com

Sebastian Block is a composer and classical guitarist. He is studying at the Manhattan School of Music under Professor David Adamcyck.
Sebastian was born and raised in Los Angeles, and currently resides in New York City. He started to take an interest in composition when a music teacher introduced him to Steve Reich’s Different Trains, opening him to the limitless nature of “classical music.” Since then, Sebastian has been inspired and influenced by a number of composers, including Lili Boulanger, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and John Adams.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Sebastian played in the rock band Swandive, and he was immersed in the city’s young artists’ scene. His many friends in art, film, and music also have greatly influenced his compositions.
Sebastian’s latest work, String Quartet No. 1, seeks to explore our minds and the memories we keep inside. It combines philosophical and scientific elements to create an immersive experience of exploring consciousness and perspective.

Maya Borisov is a composer and soprano born in 2004. From 2017 to 2022 she studied composition with Dr. Craig Levesque at the Westminster Conservatory of Music as well as voice with Danielle Sinclair. Maya graduated with High Honors from the Westminster Conservatory Honors Music Program, where she double majored in composition and voice. In 2020 she won the Westminster Conservatory of Music scholarship for achievement in composition. Maya was a participant in the Curtis Institute Young Artist Summer Program (2020), and the Atlantic Music Festival (2021), where she had her pieces A Purple Forest, To What Used to Be, and On the Flipside performed. She is currently an undergraduate student at MSM studying composition with Dr. Nirmali Fenn.

Vincent Bos is a Dutch-Indonesian (or ‘Indo’) Composition student born in Delft, Netherlands. Vincent originally trained as an electric guitarist, however, at the late age of 17 he developed an incredible interest in music composition and went on to devote his time towards this practice. Vincent draws much of his inspiration from composers such as Mahler, Ravel, and Beethoven.

In 2021 Vincent started taking music composition lessons with Aris Antoniades. He is currently pursuing his undergraduate composition degree at MSM with Dr. J. Mark Stambaugh.

Composer Ishay Brokshtain (b. 1995, Israel) is an emerging voice in contemporary music, whose work explores texture, gesture, and the expressive possibilities of sound and compositional processes. His compositions have been performed internationally, reflecting a deep engagement with both traditional and experimental practices.

Currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at the Manhattan School of Music under the guidance of Dr. Reiko Füting, Ishay previously completed his master’s degree in composition at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where he studied with Dr. Yair Klartag and Dr. Ziv Cojocaru. During this time, his music received significant recognition: his piece 11 Days of Evolution was performed by the Meitar Ensemble, by the IEMA Ensemble at the Impuls Festival in Graz (2025), and was also selected for performance at the Manhattan School of Music as part of an exchange program. He was awarded the Siday Fellowship for Musical

Creativity in support of his studies and was a finalist in the Competition for Original Wind Band Compositions in Memory of Moti Miron, organized by the Jerusalem Academy in collaboration with youth conservatories. His master’s research thesis focused on musical textures, explored through a quantitative approach and a practice-led inquiry.

Ishay’s earlier studies include a bachelor’s degree in composition at the Jerusalem Academy, undertaken alongside a concurrent degree in psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As a student, he twice reached the finals of the Academy’s Mark Kopytman Composition Competition, placing third in 2022 and second in 2023. His exchange semester at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, under the mentorship of Dr. Fekete Giula, further broadened his artistic perspective.

In addition to concert music, Ishay has composed for film, collaborating with directors from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and the Sam Spiegel Film School, whose works were featured in festivals including the Jerusalem Film Festival and shortlisted for the BAFTA. He was also selected to participate in the Arrangers Hub of the Jerusalem Street Orchestra, where he arranged popular and folk songs for the ensemble. Alongside his creative work, Ishay is an active educator, teaching piano, theory, and improvisation at youth conservatories, and has served as a teaching assistant in music theory and ear training at both the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and the Manhattan School of Music.

Rooted in a lifelong relationship with the piano, beginning with lessons from his mother, a professional pianist, his musical journey has encompassed classical piano, guitar, cello, Jazz and composition.

Through his work, Ishay seeks to explore compositional processes, drawing inspiration from nature and science while engaging with diverse musical traditions and innovative ways of thinking about sound.

Marco Catella is a freshman student composer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was exposed to music throughout his life but developed a stronger interest in writing in 2019, at age 16. Although his musical influences are noticeably diverse, he attempts to unite them by creating vividly dramatic works. Wagner, Mahler, Strauss, and many film composers like Hermann and Rosza enkindled his love for drama. He majored in economics for one year in Argentina but decided to take the risk and study music. While unfamiliar with US music schools, he quickly fell in love with the Manhattan School of Music. After going through the thorough application process, including a very engaging interview, he visited the school and attended a concert. After that day, he had no doubt about which place would be best to cultivate his musical potential.

Szilvia Cimino is a composer, arranger, soprano, pianist, brass player, actor, and poet from Fairfield, Connecticut. In 2022, Szilvi was awarded the prestigious Leonard Bernstein Musicianship Award, the John Philip Sousa Band Award, the CAS Outstanding Arts Award. She was also the 2022 recipient of the Halo Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play. She has performed at many renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Radio City Music Hall.

Szilvi’s works are largely narrative and highly emotional. Her poetic nature allows her to create expansive settings and intense feelings that transcend verbal language. Her style is influenced by the Hungarian folk music she grew up surrounded by and her background in theatre. She enjoys going out of her comfort zone, as she views such a challenge as a learning experience.

Mashi Coleman is a California native, born in Pasadena, California. He is now pursuing a bachelor’s degree in composition under the studies of Professor Reiko Fueting. He attended the California School of the Arts, where he received multiple composition awards. He attended the Brevard Music Center in the 2022 summer season. He is a skilled classical pianist, who has played in several concerts around Los Angeles. He was lead keyboardist for the rock band “Space Hotel” and has written several songs and classical works. He is interested in composing and studying various styles of music ranging from Classical music to alternative rock and R&B.

Kervy Delcy (Lady K) is a Haitian-American Composer, Writer, Polyglot, Educator, Global Arts & Visionary Leadership Strategist.

As a young girl, Ms. Delcy first dreamed of becoming a lawyer after playing the role of one in an after-school program at her Catholic school. She famously refused to remove her robe after the performance, convinced she was meant for the courtroom. However, her path shifted when Sister Jeanne, a spirited nun who often sang and danced with her, awakened her love of music. Ms. Delcy soon became a dancer, performing at church Easter services and later at halftime soccer games during the summer. At the age of five, her mother introduced her to poetry, a talent she quickly developed, becoming the child chosen each year to deliver speeches for Haitian Flag Day celebrations. By the age of nine, Ms. Delcy began waking with melodies she had composed in her dreams, unaware at first of her growing gift for songwriting. At eleven, she began
competing professionally in local poetry and singing competitions, consistently winning first place in poetry and second place in singing, laying the foundation for a lifetime dedicated to artistic excellence.

She is the founder and president of Vox Feminarum, an international nonprofit organization committed to showcasing the music of women composers across both vocal and instrumental genres through high-level performances, educational initiatives, and artistic collaborations. She is also the founder and Editor in Chief of Echelon Press Magazine and PR, a multimedia
platform highlighting excellence in the performing arts through radio, interviews, Times Square and international billboards, press campaigns, and Wikipedia page creation for artists and businesses.

In 2020, she launched the Kervy Delcy Performing Arts School (KDPAS), where she mentors and trains the next generation of young artists. She is also developing Lié, an upcoming global app designed to connect musicians with arts-related jobs, grants, fellowships, and festivals, making opportunities more accessible to artists worldwide. Both initiatives reflect her commitment to empowering creators, expanding access to essential resources, and fostering a  more connected and equitable arts community.

Ms. Delcy currently studies music composition at the Manhattan School of Music on a presidential scholarship. Born in Haiti, her creative journey began at the age of five through local theater. She went on to win first place in poetry and second place in singing in regional youth competitions. Her versatility was soon recognized when she joined AJAPDECH (Association of Young Actors and Producers for the Development of Haitian Culture), where she acted in the film “Amour et Contrainte.” After immigrating to New York in 2012, she pursued performing arts studies at Rockland Community College. She later transferred to the City College of New York to double major in music and theater with a minor in creative writing. She also studied composition privately with composer Harry Stafylakis.

In 2017, she made her compositional debut with “Turning Tables,” a short musical that marked
her growing presence in the New York music scene. She was awarded the ASCAP: Louis Dreyfus Warner-Chappell City College scholarship, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, she expanded her orchestration skills under the mentorship of French film composer Marie-JeanneSéréro, professor at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 2021, she earned her MFA in Media Scoring
from the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema.

Ms. Delcy was a fellowship composer with the American Opera Project’s Composers & the Voice program (2023–2025), developing new operatic works and collaborating with leading vocalists and mentors. She also studied in Paris under Dr. Philip Lasser at EAMA and continues to be mentored by him. Her musical voice bridges cultures, styles, and traditions, blending contemporary classical idioms with a deep emotional resonance.

Her achievements include the Presidential Scholarship Award from the Manhattan School of Music, the Tow International Research Grant from Brooklyn College, two Bronx Medals from the Global Music Awards, the High Academic Achievement Award from City College of New York (2018 and 2019), the Outstanding Student Award from Rockland Community College
(2015), and a grant from the James and Nicole Cho Foundation.

A fluent speaker of five languages and currently studying two more, Ms. Delcy’s global outlook fuels her commitment to cultural exchange and inclusion. As a producer, she has presented the inaugural Vox Feminarum concert at Carnegie Hall and produced events at The National Opera Center. Through Vox Feminarum, Echelon Press, Kervy Delcy Performing Arts School, and Lady K Maison des Arts she continues to build platforms that amplify underrepresented voices and foster artistic excellence on the world stage. She currently serves as a panelist for the New
York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), reviewing grant applications.

kervydelcy.com

The music of Joshua C. DeLozier (b. 1998) seeks an integration of form and content to create richly varied interrelationships between ideas at different scales of time. DeLozier’s works have been heard at the Lake George Music Festival, at June in Buffalo, and on WGTE Public Media’s radio program “Morning Classics.” His works have been recognized by Bowling Green State University’s “Competitions in Music Performance” (Composition Division Finalist, 2022 and 2023) and by the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (Semi-Finalist, 2024). An active pianist, DeLozier’s repertoire spans from J.S. Bach to the music of our own time, such as compositions by Charles Wuorinen and Michael Hersch. He received his BM from Baylor University (summa cum laude), his MM from Bowling Green State University, and is currently pursuing a DMA at the Manhattan School of Music.

Jonathan Gold (b. 2001) is an American composer of contemporary classical music based in New York City. Originally from New Jersey, Jonathan’s musical journey began as a drummer in rock and heavy metal bands, but a transformative encounter with Morten Lauridsen’s choral music led him to devote himself solely to composition in his senior year of high school.

While studying composition and choral conducting with Alla Cohen and Geneviève Leclaire at Berklee College of Music, Gold was profoundly influenced by his discovery of works by Arvo Pärt, Alan Hovhaness, and Morton Feldman. In 2021, he saw the premiers of his first piano pieces, which were especially informed by Feldman’s late avant-garde sensibilities. He is currently pursuing his M.M. in composition at Manhattan School of Music.

His compositions often unfold slowly and quietly with dense carpets of sound and a localized, highly delicate treatment of texture and dynamics. His work embodies, as Gold describes, a desire to, “envelop and drench the spirit, so that it may pause and sense only the gradual, subtle, perpetual changes that occur in things without the human imposition of control. We do not dictate the nature of things, we are only meant to care for them – that power is reserved for God alone.” Gold’s music also reveals a deep religiosity involving sensations of absorption, presence, mortification, and purification.

Various orchestras, chamber ensembles, and choirs around New England have performed Jonathan’s music, including at Berklee and Atlantic Music Festival, as well as seasonal concerts by Crepusculum Choir and the Berklee and Boston Conservatory Chamber Singers. His works have received national and international recognition, including a second prize and special prizes for best free composition and best religious vocal music at the International Antonín Dvorák Composition Competition, a second prize at the MTNA Young Artist Composition Competition, a national semi-finalist at the American Prize Composition Competition, and the Rick Applin Award in Fugue from Berklee College of Music.

jonathan-gold.com

Chongguang Guan is a classical composer, pianist, and electronic music performer who graduated from the Music Middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music where he studied composition with Weihao Qiang. Currently he is studying composition at the Manhattan School of Music with Marjorie Merryman for his Bachelor of Music. His timbral approach is very unique and was well received in Elinor Armer’s master class (2015 May) and the Winter Master Class Program (2016) run by UCLA’s music department. His works have not only been influenced by various music genres, but also by his rich variety of experiences as a performer. He performed in the 2018 Electric Daisy Carnival Shanghai as a Guest DJ, and he also performed at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music as a jazz pianist in 2016.

Yueqing Guo (YG/Iris) is a composer currently pursuing advanced studies in the Professional Studies Program at Manhattan School of Music. Her compositional practice centers on amplifying nuanced and marginalized voices through the intersection of materialized architectures and aesthetic politics. She holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music and South China Normal University, with specialized training in Classical Piano Performance and Music Education.

Cameron Hagaman is a Chicago-born 25-year-old orchestral and media composer and creative and technical sound designer for video games and film.
He graduated in 2023 with a bachelor’s in music composition and sound design from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In recent years, he has composed music for and has been recorded by organizations and companies such as Sony Entertainment, Classical KDFC Radio, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, as well as institutions such as the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has had music performed across Europe as a participant in festivals such as the Valencia International Performing Arts Summer Festival, the Sounds of Now Vienna festival, and the Veneto Art and Music Summit.
He has had the privilege to regularly study with prestigious composers including Amos Gillespie, Lennie Moore, and Victor Baez, and take individual lessons and master classes from talented composers all over the world, including Detlev Müller-Siemens, Kyong Mee Choi, Stratis Minakakis, and many more.
Cameron also has a breadth of knowledge regarding technical audio practices. He is a capable live sound engineer and producer and is also a proficient film and game sound designer with a host of creative redesigns and vast technical experience. He is proficient in middleware programs like Wwise, several digital audio workstations including Pro Tools, Logic, Reaper, and Ableton, as well as programming software such as Unity, Unreal Engine blueprint, C++, Max/MSP/Jitter, and Unreal MetaSounds.
Cameron is currently pursuing a graduate degree at the Manhattan School of Music, studying classical contemporary composition with Dr. Reiko Fueting, whilst working as a live sound audio engineer and private lessons teacher.

cdhaudio.com

 

Noah Hertzman is a composer and cellist from Pittsburgh, PA. After receiving undergraduate degrees in composition and history at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University, he is now pursuing a master’s degree in composition at the Manhattan School of Music in the studio of Reiko Füting. As a cellist, he specializes in musical theater and pop, having performed professionally everywhere from pit orchestras in Les Mis and Next to Normal to the halftime show at a Cleveland Browns game. As a composer, his style varies widely—two recent works include an experimental protest piece for solo French horn and a chamber opera based on A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. His works have been premiered at CIM, French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, the Mostly Modern Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival. When he isn’t making music, he enjoys baking, juggling, and riding his unicycle.

Alexander Howard was born in 2004 in Chandler, AZ. He has been studying the saxophone and clarinet for seven years and participated in two All-State competitions with both. He discovered his desire to compose in elementary school and continued forward with his passion. In high school, he studied saxophone and clarinet privately with Mr. Don Goldstone, piano with Mrs. Blair Myers, and composition with Dr. Mathew Fuerst.

He is obsessed with a medley of composers and of the folk music from many cultures. He strongly believes that music is a universal medium and music must be able to resonate as strongly with everyone playing and listening. His music possesses strong melodicism and richly colorful harmonic palette, focusing on the intense joys and the cataclysmic lows of the human condition. He often derives music from nature, and alongside his synesthetic responses, finds music in every tenet of life.

Besides music, he loves reading, studying butterflies and geology, hiking in the mountains, and talking with his friends and family.

Eric Impey is a contemporary classical composer and multi-instrumentalist, taking inspiration from pop, metal, jazz, and classical.
He began composing as a young child independently from the music classes he had been exposed to. He recalls seeing and hearing music in his head for as long as he can remember, which eventually became a desire to share those visions with an audience.
Eric’s development as a composer has been intense and unexpected. His formal composition instruction began at the age of 17, and his body of work spans early 2022 – present. While he studied piano, tuba via public education, and later guitar as an adolescent – he was not exposed to intensive music education in his youth. While he enjoyed his experience with the world of performance, he quickly recognized a more prominent and ever-present interest in composition that had underlined his musical journey.
This led to attending the Atlantic Music Festival, summer of 2022, followed by the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artist’s Program, summer of 2023. His orchestra work, ‘The Floodgates’ had the honor to be debuted during the Tanglewood on Parade Young Artist concert.
As Eric embarks on his B.A. in Music at the Manhattan School of Music with mentor, Reiko Fueting, he seeks to expand his style and vocabulary within his compositions and experience the variety of music available during his time at MSM.

ericimpeymusic.com

Shrish A. Jawadiwar (b. 1999) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from South Brunswick, New Jersey. He plays double bass, viola da gamba, violone, bass guitar, and the North Indian hand drums—tabla. He is additionally a choral singer who sings with the Philadelphia-based Epiphany Singers. His music has influences from both the Western classical tradition and his native Hindustani classical tradition. More recent works include forays into microtonal technique mixed with repeating musical cells. His biggest interests are in early music and musical form. Since the double bass is a fairly underrepresented solo instrument, a goal of his is to increase the repertoire for it and other similarly underrepresented instruments. Shrish holds a B.A. in political science and music from The College of New Jersey and an M.M. in composition from Temple University. His teachers in composition include Dr. Robert Young McMahan, Dr. Quinn Collins, Dr. Ellen Fishman, Dr. Andrew Litts, Mr. Jan Krzywicki, and Dr. Maurice Wright. At MSM, he studies under Dr. Susan Botti.

shrishjawadiwar.com

Jingyu Jin is a composer and pianist from Wuhan, China. She graduated from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music in 2024 with a Bachelor of Music degree in composition and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studies with Professor Susan Botti. Her compositions are typically related to literary works, and she is also exploring the fusion of Chinese and Western musical instrument cultures. Her works are characterized by delicate and rich timbres, and she has a diverse range of compositions, including art songs, instrumental solos, various chamber music pieces, and symphonies. During her undergraduate studies, she pursued a minor in solfeggio and aural skills, and she also possesses nearly three years of experience in teaching these subjects to children.

She has received the following awards: 2020: a prize in the College Cup competition of Wuhan Conservatory of Music; 2022: the third price in the 18th SUN RIVER PRIZE Student’s New Music Composition Competition; 2022: her piece was selected to join in Wuhan Conservatory of Music 2022 Academic Traditional Chinese Style Works Show; 2023: the second price in the Regulations on JEAN SIBLIUS Composition Competition On-Line; 2024: her piece was shortlisted for the Le Domaine Forget de Charlevoix New Music Session.

Xuanyuan Jin, a composition student from Shanghai, China, who is pursuing an undergraduate degree at Manhattan School of Music, studies with Professor Reiko Fueting. In 2022, she completed the Professional Certificate in General Music Studies from Berklee Online at Berklee College of Music. She has also won numerous international awards, recently receiving silver prizes in the original composition category at the 2024 Debussy International Music Competition and the 2023 Cambridge Music Competition. Xuanyuan delivered a speech on visual music genres at the 2024 International Conference on New Music Concepts in Italy and co-published a journal article on the analysis of operatic components in works by Berg, Strauss, and Puccini in the International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art.

Yu-Pin Lai (b. 2000) is a Taiwanese composer and pianist based in New York. Her compositions are performed in Canada, France, Taiwan, Vienna, and the United States, with notable ensembles including Platypus Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Bedford Trio, the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Theodor Milkov with Ju Percussion group. Yu-Pin is interested in exploring various musical cultures, and her music aims to experiment with timbre to imply complex human emotions.
Yu-Pin holds a Bachelor of Music with honors under the tutelage of Christos Hatzis for composition and Mia Bach for piano; Master of Music in Composition at Mannes School of Music with merit scholarships and graduating with Felix Salzer Techniques of Music Award, studying with Lowell Liebermann. Currently, she is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at Manhattan School of Music with scholarships, studying with Reiko Fueting.

yupinlai.com

Martín La Rotta is a queer multi-disciplinary artist from Colombia that merges acoustic and electronic realms by electronically processing acoustic ensembles, representing their personal mythology through drag performance as an alchemical vehicle. Their work explores the immense dimension of gender and transcendent identity, and how their harmonic union reveals the immediacy of liberation.  Their intentionality varies with each work, for renewal is constant in the realm of change, but their center (the center) is always one and the same: boundless and supremely tender. Currently based in New York City, they’re studying in the study of Susan Botti at the Manhattan School of Music. Their various creations have been represented with numerous performance identities: Alquimia, om, Sonora Atemporalis, Mar de Rott and Geometría.

French undergraduate composer Gabriel Legros pronounced his wish to work in the field of Music from his early juvenescence.

Gabriel started his classical training in voice at age 4 and developed, throughout the years, an utter interest in multiple instruments such as the Piano, Classical Guitar, Bass Guitar and Cello. Years later, he began working intensely on his theory and ear training under the private tutelage and mentorship of Juilliard School professor Dr. Wayne Oquin.

Being an avid performer, Gabriel has performed in various venues including events involving high representatives of the French government, charitable organizations, and musicals amongst others.

Soon after turning 17, Gabriel commenced showing a deep interest in Composition, which led him to ask Dr. Oquin to specifically instruct him on the subject. From there, Gabriel’s passion for composition never ceased to grow, to a point where he came to conclusion to pursue his studies in Conservatoire.

In September 2023, Gabriel began his Bachelor of Music at The Manhattan School of Music under the guidance of Dr. Reiko Füting, where he is developing his musical endeavors.

New York-based creative Alexa Letourneau (any pronouns) is a composer, flutist, singer, researcher, and educator. An Ohio native, Alexa began playing the flute at eight years old. Within weeks, they were taping 5 pens together to draw a staff on which to begin composing. At present, their works are focused upon an exploration of shared human identity through sonic journeys. Alexa is a founding member of Mosaic Composers Collective, Aglet Ensemble, and the MOLLUSC Orchestra Project; a member of C4: the Choral Composer-Conductor Collective, the New York Chamber Choir, and TRANScend Community Chorale; and the creator of the podcast Classical Schmassical: the anti-Classical classical music podcast. They are a lover of extravagant sci-fi cosplay, lemongrass tea, and nighttime thunderstorms.

alexaletourneau.com

Shuwen Liao (b.2001), a Chinese composer, is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at Manhattan School of Music, where she studies with Susan Botti and Reiko Füting. In 2018, Shuwen graduated from the Music Middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she majored in composition with Dr. Wenpei Ju. Shuwen graduated from Manhattan School of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree in composition in 2022, and she received the degree of Master of Music in composition from the school in 2024.

Shuwen became the first young Chinese composer included in the New York Philharmonic’s “Very Young Composer” program. Her work, Shadow of the Wolf, was performed by the New York Philharmonic in Lincoln Center, and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra concert hall. She later wrote an international music postcard, The Skeleton Demon, which was premiered in New York by the New York Philharmonic and subsequently toured around the world.

Shuwen has received many prizes and scholarships. Her composition, Wolf Shadow, won the first place in the chamber music group in the Third “Spring Awakening” National Composition Contest. Shuwen’s string quartet Pure. Fire, won the third place of the Manhattan Prize at MSM. Her wind quintet, Warm Station, was commissioned by Windscape to perform in New York.

Shuwen also received the Giampaolo Bracali Award for Music Composition and the Jan Williams Award for Composition/Contemporary Performance Collaboration at Manhattan School of Music. Her piece, The wind comes across the sea, laughing in the leaves won the first place in the Kaleidoscope Music Competition Composition Competition in Canada. Shuwen’s orchestral piece, Elegant Cloud, won the Grand Prize in the Red Maple Composition Competition in Canada.

In her music, Shuwen seeks to create an illusion — something wild and unexpected, but in a subtle and expressive way, quietly exciting, full of lightness.

shuwenliao.com

Tongyu Lu is a composer from China who is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in composition at Manhattan School of Music with Professor Reiko Fueting.

Tongyu was born into a musical family and began to learn the piano at the age of five and the trumpet at the age of eleven. In 2016, he was admitted to Central Conservatory of Music Middle School with excellent results, and studied trumpet with Professor Chen Guang, piano with Professor Li Xiang, solfeggio practice and music theory with Professor Wang Yusu, Associate Professor Zhang Juan and Professor Li Tong. He also joined the China Youth Symphony Orchestra (Central Conservatory of Music Youth Symphony Orchestra). In 2020, he officially began to study composition, under the guidance of Professor Xu Zhitong and Professor Liu Kanghua.

He has an extensive passion to compose various styles of music and create his own new works. Also, he has a great interest in art and nature under the influence of his family. Many of his works are inspired by them.

Ziye Mao is a young classical music composer from China, currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree at MSM with Professor Reiko Fueting. His sources of inspiration span numerous fields and styles, ranging from minimalism to realism, and from paintings to films. He has a great passion for innovation, and one can often hear some novel ideas in his music. Beyond music, he has many hobbies, such as photography, video editing, and badminton, etc.
“Music is a bridge between eras and ideas—within limited materials lies infinite possibility, and in the balance of sound and silence, we find its true depth.”

Yuval Medina is a composer, pianist, and computer programmer based in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently pursuing his master’s in composition at the Manhattan School of Music, studying under David Adamcyk, where he was awarded the merit-based Presidential Scholarship.

After working at Google as a software engineer on the Education on Search team, Yuval quit his job to pursue his dream — music composition. At MSM, Yuval plans to integrate his skills in programming, electronics, and signal processing into his classical compositions, and enhance his melodies and deep and rich harmonies from the rich tradition of Western classical music and Jewish folk music, with textural- and sound-based elements from the modern age. The master’s in composition is a natural continuation of his studies at the Juilliard Extension Division, having completed two years of composition classes under Elliot Cole and Conrad Cummings, as well as private study under Matthew Ricketts.

Before coming to New York, he completed his bachelor’s in computer science at Duke University, where over the course of his studies he combined his passions for data, experimental coding, music-writing, and signal processing, and created a generative engine to visualize biological river data through sound, i.e. data sonification.

Yuval is always excited to collaborate artistically with others. He composed the soundtrack for a video game developed by a colleague at Duke. He also performs as a pianist and organizes GroupMuse concerts around the city regularly.

Please feel free to reach out if you feel inspired by Yuval’s work and want to collaborate.

yuvalmedina.com

Holden Meier is a Chicago-born composer and performer studying at MSM in pursuit of his master’s degree in classical composition. As an Elmhurst graduate with a major in music theory and composition, as well as a minor in audio production, he has written for a wide array of chamber ensembles and produced a large number of studio works. Pulling from a swath of influences such as Stephen Sondheim, Philip Glass, and Per Norgard, his work often evokes a strong sense of playfulness and characterization. Currently studying with Susan Botti, Holden’s work continues from Chicago to New York, as he broadens his perspective and furthers his creative pursuits.

Zeke Morgan is a composer, violinist, and fiddle player from Jackson, Mississippi; and a master’s student at the Manhattan School of Music studying with Ashkan Behzadi. In May 2024, he graduated Bard College-Conservatory with degrees in composition and the written arts, and through his studies in poetry, developed a special interest in vocal music, resulting in the composition of multiple art songs and two operas: Vivisection and Requiem. Zeke has performed and composed in a wide variety of musical settings— from orchestras to folk and rock bands. For inspiration, he engages with pure improvisation, folklore/myth, electronica, philosophy, and occasionally; the world around him. He is most interested in the reconciliation of different (sometimes strikingly different) stylistic genres and art-forms as a way of accessing the human psyche, but also has an undying desire for beautiful noise.

While still an undergraduate at Bard, Zeke ran the Sinfonietta Project, a student-led new music initiative designed to provide opportunities for living composers and performers to engage in music-making together. He organized multiple student composition concerts, including one where performance and composition students wrote music for one another.

His music has been performed at an incredibly high level by the Da Capo Chamber Players, The Orchestra Now, and members of ICE. Notable teachers and mentors include Joan Tower, Missy Mazzoli, George Tsontakis, and Jorge Variego.

Samuel Mutter is a composer from Long Island, NY. A graduate from Bard College and Conservatory, where Samuel earned a BM in Music Composition and a BA in History, Samuel is currently in the first year of his Music Master’s at Manhattan School of Music. Samuel has had the privilege of studying with such composers as Alan Hankers, George Tsontakis, Joan Tower, Jessie Montgomery, Mark Andre, Missy Mazzoli, and Reiko Fueting. Samuel’s music is as diverse as the music that inspires him, from Baroque to Folk, Contemporary Classical to Hindustani, and Rock to Jazz. His own music seeks to experiment with the frontiers of genre mixing, morphing his influences to create new musical and artistic languages.
Sam also has a passion for multimedia projects. He has worked extensively in collaboration with choreographers and dancers, as well as having written a couple film scores.
As a musician, Samuel performs regularly on piano, tin whistles, Irish flute, recorders, and fife. He is a lover of folk and traditional music and an avid improviser. Samuel in partnership with several other composers, started an improv ensemble known as “Boy Band.” He was also the head of the Bard Sinfonietta Project (BSP). The BSP is a completely student-run organization dedicated to the creation and performance of New Music, fostering connections between composers, conductors, and musicians, and bringing New Music to wider audiences.

samuelmutter-composer.com

Nhat Nguyen was a fellow at The Loretto Project (2021) and has been commissioned by the Amorphous Collective and James Alexander. He was also the winner of the Manhattan Prize in 2019 and recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts Grant.
His works have been performed by Transient Canvas, James Alexander, Yarn/Wire, Lydian String Quartet, Longleash, Unheard-Of//Ensemble, Ensemble Linea, Manhattan School of Music Orchestra, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Ripieno Ensemble, Ajax Quartet, confluss duo, members of the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music and conducted by Jeff von der Schmidt, Kee Yong Chong and Joseph Carlomagno.
In 2016, he was nominated by Kim Ngoc Tran to represent Vietnam in the Goethe-Institut Manila Composers Lab for young Southeast Asian composers.
Nhat has participated in important musical events, including the Divergent Studio (2022), the Collaborative Composition Initiative (2020), Etchings Festival (2019), Hanoi New Music Festival (2018), Fresh Inc Music Festival (2018), the Asia-Europe New Music Festival (2014) held in Hanoi.
Nhat earned his Bachelor of Music in Composition at the Manhattan School of Music in 2019 under the tutelage of Dr. Reiko Fueting and Professor Susan Botti, and his MFA in Composition at Brandeis University, studying under Prof. Yu-Hui Chang and Prof. Eric Chasalow.

https://nmnhat.squarespace.com

Benjamin Nicholas is a vocalist, pianist, composer/arranger, and educator originally from Kingsburg, California. He graduated with his bachelor’s from Cal State Long Beach in 2023, where he completed a double major in Jazz Voice and Classical Composition with a minor in Anthropology. At CSULB, Benjamin served as a section leader in the school’s top vocal jazz, choral, and pop a cappella ensembles. During this time, he arranged many pieces for CSULB’s vocal ensembles, as well as those at the Frost School of Music and Long Beach City College.
As a musician fluent in classical, jazz, and singer-songwriter traditions, Nicholas’ compositions draw from a wide variety of inspirations. His influences include artists such as Duke Ellington, Jon Brion, Gene Puerling, Judee Sill, Steve Reich, Ben Folds, Adrianne Lenker, Kurt Weill, Eric Whitacre, Pat Metheny, and Brad Mehldau, amongst many others. As a composer, Nicholas aims to interweave these contrasting influences further and further as he develops his proficiency across many different styles of music.
Nicholas’ writing has been performed at venues across the United States, including multiple Jazz Education Network Conferences, and in August 2025, he released his debut record, a singer-songwriter project titled “Lightbeams & Boulders”. In his career, he hopes to work simultaneously as an active writer, educator, and performer.

Laura Nobili (b. 2006) is a Canadian composer from Richmond Hill, Ontario. She has written for several professional and student musicians including the Springdale Trio, the West Coast Chamber Orchestra, the Rachmaninov Trio, the Alexander Mackenzie High School Symphonic Band, and the Victoria Conservatory of Music Chamber Orchestra featuring soloist Jonathan Crow (the concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra).

As a young child, Nobili found joy in improvising at the piano and constantly creating melodies. While she had significant struggles learning to read music from the ages of 4 to 11 years old, she studied piano by secretly learning every piece by ear. Eventually, she gained the ability to read music as she began exploring music theory.
At the age of 12 years old, Nobili notated her first official composition – a string quartet entitled The Mysterious Galaxy, which would soon win a scholarship from Kiwanis Music Festival. Not long after, she began taking private composition lessons with Christine Donkin. While studying with Ms. Donkin, Nobili participated in the Victoria Conservatory of Music Composition Club, where she co-published A Journey Through Canada,  a collection of nine piano pieces. All proceeds from this book were donated to OrKidstra, a music charity in Ottawa. Nobili also published a book of 12 piano pieces, where she discussed her personal experiences with synesthesia.

At the age of 15, Nobili returned to studying composition independently. Two weeks after her sixteenth birthday, she completed her first full-length musical, entitled Macbeth the Musical. She produced and directed the premiere of this show on May 17, 2023. She finished composing her second musical, “Gatsby” in May 2023, and it premiered on October 18, 2023.

In July 2024, she attended Opera Lucca’s vocal composition program, where she studied under Maestro Raphael Fusco and worked with 16 musicians, for two Italian premieres and one world premiere. This inspired her to write her first full-length opera entitled Heaven and Hell, which was completed in August 2024.

Nobili is currently pursuing her undergraduate composition studies at Manhattan School of Music and studying privately with Dr. Ashkan Behzadi.

lauranobili.com

Leah Ofman (she/they) is a composer and vocalist originally from San Francisco, CA. She attends Manhattan School of Music in pursuit of her Master’s of Music, and studies with Susan Botti. Leah received a BMus from New York University, where she studied with Caroline Shaw and Justin Dello Joio. During her time at NYU, she studied in Paris at IRCAM and at L’École normale Alfred Cortot under Michel Merlet. Leah was the co-Artistic Director of Pulsing & Shaking, a music festival celebrating the contemporary music of New York, and acted as Vice President of the NYU Composers Collective, where she produced concerts of student works.

A former philosophy minor, Leah enjoys creating music from a conceptual standpoint. Her compositions often investigate power dynamics between the composer, performer, and audience; free will; and Christofascism.

Leah’s introduction to music was with the San Francisco Girls Chorus, where she sang from ages eight to eighteen. As an adult, she returned to SFGC in a marketing capacity and led the Chorus’s Postcard Series, a series of interviews with the amazing professionals who collaborate with SFGC. Leah was lucky enough to interview musicians such as violinist Daniel Hope, composer Sahba Aminikia, and soprano Shawnette Sulker.

Leah has been awarded the Ruth Crawford Seeger Award (Alba Composition Festival, Alba, Italy) and has received an honorable mention from the 2020 Alev Lenz Recompose Competition. She has been commissioned by The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in New York, the Musae Ensemble in San Francisco, C4: the Choral Composer-Conductor Collective in New York, and by bassist Ian Fales, with the support of the Robert Black Foundation. Leah’s works have been performed in California, New York, Tennessee, France, and Italy.

Guiomar Ortiz is a composer and pianist born in Madrid, Spain, in 1999. She defines herself as a multidisciplinary artist, she focused her career on music, but she always had an interest in other branches of art production, such as plastic or visual arts, that kept reflecting on her music.

She started her musical career focusing on piano competitions, receiving lots of international awards, while she began to arouse interest in composition and improvisation. At the age of 14, she premiered her first “album of improvisations” and started writing music for the screen. In 2016, she composed her first piece for contemporary dance, which was choreographed by the Royal Conservatory of Contemporary Dance of Spain.

In 2017, she started a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance in Madrid, where she met the pianist Pelayo Ciria and started the piano duo “Duo Rex”. They won several chamber music competitions and gave recitals around Europe. During those years, she focused her composition career on film scoring and achieved different awards in Spain, Los Angeles and Argentina, as well as in Music for Theater, as she became head composer of the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

In 2021, she started to work as a resident composer in a prestigious art gallery in Madrid (EstArt) focusing on music for contemporary performance, visual and plastic artists, and experimental projects. She found her path in that world and continues investigating how to combine different types of arts.

Meanwhile, she continued composing classical music for chamber ensembles, ballets and solo pieces, which earned her one of her most important awards thanks to her first piano trio, “First Prize Vienna Classical Music Academy” in Chamber Music. This year she premiered her album “La Luz”, which has also been recognized with many international awards, both for the musical and the video art and photography.

Eli Parrish (b. 2001) is a composer, conductor, clarinetist, and arts advocate whose work blends contemporary creativity with orchestral tradition and community-centric leadership. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studies with Reiko Füting as a Presidential Merit Award recipient. He previously earned a Master of Science in Management from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, where he specialized in orchestral and artistic administration, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition with Highest Honors from Emory College of Arts and Sciences in Atlanta, GA.
Eli has led performances across the United States and Europe, including appearances at Teatro Amilcare Ponchielli in Cremona, Italy, and with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra in Zlín, Czechia. His compositions span symphonic, chamber, vocal, and interdisciplinary formats, exploring environmental themes, activism, narrative, and coloristic sound.
He currently serves as Assistant Manager for the MISE-EN_PLACE contemporary music ensemble and performance space in Harlem. His previous leadership experience includes roles as Assistant Conductor of the Carroll Symphony Orchestra, Director of the Emory Young People’s Concert Orchestra, Music Librarian and Manager for the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra, and Operations Manager for the Atlanta Chamber Music Festival. He also founded the Emory Pep Band and was a regularly featured artist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s public engagement and educational programs.
Eli is a recipient of the Louis B. Sudler Prize in the Arts and the John and Mary Virginia Foncannon Conducting Award. He has participated in festivals such as the Darmstadt Summer Course, the Mostly Modern Festival, the Cremona Music Festival, the International Conductors Institute’s Czech Workshop, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. His capstone recital, The Unifying Principles of Performance and Compositional Intent, at Emory University featured seven original works performed by full symphony orchestra and mixed chamber ensembles.

eliparrish.com

Siddharth S. Ragavan is a composer, cellist, mridangist, and pianist from New Jersey pursuing his undergraduate classical composition degree under Dr. Stambaugh. He has been writing original compositions, scores for films/games, and arrangements for many years. His work has won awards such as the NJPTA State Award of Excellence, Top 50 in the all-ages Score the World Competition, and semifinalist in the FMC Composition Competition. His original compositions have premiered in places such as the Patriots Theater at the Trenton War Memorial and the Bridgewater Temple in New Jersey.

On the Mridangam, Siddharth has been a performer for over 6 years, and has played hundreds of concerts, festivals, and fundraisers across the tristate area. He has won many awards in competitions from many Carnatic music organizations – his efforts also earned him a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Nam Dhi Academy of Indian Percussion through the completion of his Arangetram (graduation concert) in 2023. He is also fluent in Konnakol, which is the Indian art of spoken rhythms, and has assisted his guru in teaching lectures on Konnakol in places from CarnaticOn to NYU.

Siddharth intends to help spread the reach of South Indian Carnatic music into the west’s wider music scene and has projects ranging from concerti to dance ensembles which attempt to blend his two musical cultures together to form a new, vibrant sound. He hopes to bring awareness to his native tradition of music as well as dissolve stylistic boundaries that separate it from that of the western world.

Siddharth is also an able cellist whose academic lineage traces back to greats such as Rostropovich and Starker.

Shahar Regev, born in 1992 in Israel, is an interdisciplinary Composer, Singer and Cellist. Regev Graduated from the Composition Department at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. She was instructed by famous Israeli musicians – Professor Josef Bardanashvili, Professor Yinam Leef, and Professor Michael Klinghoffer. Recently, Regev completed her master’s degree in Composition at the Mannes School of Music, studying with Dr. Lowell Liebermann in New York City. She is currently studying in the professional studies Composition program at the Manhattan School of Music with Susan Botti.
Her works include various styles of orchestrations – vocal, chamber, and orchestral music. Her pieces were performed by ensembles and orchestras at concerts and festivals in Israel and overseas. Artistic engagements include commissions and collaborations and with Symphonette Raanana Orchestra (Israel), Tzlilim Bamidbar Festival (Israel), Toscanini Quartet (Israel), Ensemble diX (Germany), Alambic duo (Italy) Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York (Bulgaria, USA), Mestizo Sax Quartet (Italy), MMS project – Mediterranean Miniature Sketches (Greece), The IPO for Kids (Israel), Duo BassGuitar (Israel), Meitar Ensemble (Israel). She also composes music for the theater, musical arrangements, and original songs.

www.schacharregev.com

Victor Schwartz (b. 2006) is a composer from the San Francisco Bay Area studying at Manhattan School of Music. He enjoys writing neo-romantic music, especially for large ensembles such as orchestras. In addition to composition Victor also plays several brass, woodwind and string instruments each, with his main instruments being the Horn, Violin, Viola and Oboe.

victorschwartz.com

Chinese composer Cengxing Shi is interested in exploring dream-like musical atmospheres. She is first prize winner of the second YinZhongCup Prize International Composition Competition in 2016, and winner of the Camerata Nova Commission Prize in 2023. She began studying composition at the age of 10 and was admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Affiliated School in 2014.

Cengxing was joined the Winter Master Class Program (2016) held by UCLA’s music department and obtained Certificate of Outstanding Exchange Student. She was invited by Shanghai Hongkou Official Adult Chorus as composer, musical instructor, and pianist in 2018. She was also admitted to the L.A. Music Industry Summer Academy program in 2022 and collaborated with composer and Grammy-nominee Ariel Chobaz and prominent producer Essay Jones at Paramount Music Studio. In 2024, Cengxing collaborated with renowned American conductor George Manahan for a symphony performance and held her recital in New York. That same year, she composed original music for a ROARINGWILD brand advertisement and served as Chief Music Producer for GWANTSI’s “Beautiful Life Space” exhibition. Her compositions have premiered in New York, Los Angeles, and Shanghai.

Cengxing studied with Dr. Marjorie Merryman and is currently pursuing her Master of Music in Composition at the Manhattan School of Music under the mentorship of Dr. J. Mark Stambaugh. She is a recipient of the MSM Merit Scholarship (2024-2025) and received the Deolus Husband Scholarship for Composition for four consecutive years (2020-2023).

R.S. Stricklin III, born in 1994 in Dallas, Texas, has had his music performed across the United States and in Europe. He has worked on performances of his music with loadbang, Frances-Marie Uitti, and members of the Ostravská Banda and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Stricklin graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2017 with a BM in composition and honors in the liberal arts, and Manhattan School of Music in 2020 with an MM in composition, where he is currently pursuing a DMA in composition, studying under Reiko Füting.

Syrian-American Ealaph Tabbaa is a multifaceted artist — a performer, composer, conductor, and educator with a deep love for classical and contemporary music alike. He strives to create memorable, impactful musical experiences that have been described by colleagues as “intense” and “emotionally driven.” Ealaph has garnered a holistic approach to music, having won University of the Pacific’s concerto competition, having original works premiered by the MIVOs quartet and Kaleidoscope Ensemble, and having conducted several student-led ensembles at UOP.

Highlights of Ealaph’s musical career include, but are not limited to: touring the Baltics and Scandinavia with the California Youth Symphony (2019), having premiers at the Cascade Conductors and Composers Workshop (2025), the Atlantic Music Festival (2024), the Valencia International Performing Arts Festival (2023) and the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Bassoon Symposium (2023), as well as being selected as a winner of the UOP Senior Concerto Competition (2023).

Ealaph’s musical inspiration is expansive, spanning genres beyond Classical, but most dear to him is folk music. While studying mainly Western classical music in school, Ealaph was also raised with an appreciation for the music of his cultural heritage. Through his craft, he aims to not only honor and bring life to the long-lasting history and traditions found in music from the Middle East, but to frame it in a contemporary lens that incorporates his own lived experience.

Ealaph Tabbaa received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition and Bassoon Performance in 2024 at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Now, he is in the process of obtaining his Master’s in Music Composition from the Manhattan School of Music, under the tutelage of Dr. Reiko Fueting.

Composer Jacob Tantleff was raised in Los Angeles and currently resides in New York City. After his debut at David Geffen Hall, he has forged a unique style and strong artistic presence as an award-winning classical composer in New York. Recent performances include Gingko Groove for the Juilliard MAP Faculty Recital at Paul Hall, Sunday Man for Kyo-Shin-An Arts at the Tenri Cultural Center, LAC! for Living Arts Collaborative at SoHo’s Bone’s Loft and Central Valley, New York, and Chase for the Alvin Ailey Studios, choreographed by Natalie Lomonte. He was recently the featured composer of the New York Philharmonic’s VYC Alumni concert at David Greer Recital Hall, with performances by percussionist Justin Jay Hines, pianist Will Healy, and the award-winning Cassatt String Quartet. Pieces performed included the world premieres of Pestis for string quartet and Muse for piano and viola. A rearrangement of Sunday Man (originally for shakuhachi, cello, piano, and percussion) was the concert’s finale. Early performances include Sentiment of Shooting Stars for pianist Karen Dryer at NYU Steinhardt, Adios Gracias for the Cassatt String Quartet, Justin Jay Hines, and electric violinist Machiko Ozawa at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater, and Rhetoric of Romance for pianist Beata Moon, which won Honorable Mention at Tribeca New Music’s annual Young Composer Competition. He was honored to serve as the resident composer for the New York Jazz Workshop’s retreat in Tuscany, Italy.

Jacob has studied under composer and percussionist Justin Jay Hines for nearly a decade. Additionally, he has studied extensively under saxophonist Marc Mommaas, pianist Will Healy, and composer Daniel Felsenfeld. He previously studied at the Juilliard School under Greg Knowles and Rick Baitz, and currently studies at the Manhattan School of Music under J. Mark Stambaugh. He recently completed Stillborn of Gaia, a solo violin commission for famous violinist Jennifer Choi, as well as In Forest She Dances, a duet for Broadway oboist Keve Wilson. He also fully scored Hellbent on Fishing, a short film created for the New Zealand 48 Hour Film Competition. Upcoming works include Calamitas, an apocalyptic rock opera, and Moonlight Percussion Ultra, a solo percussion piece performed in complete darkness.

Philip Tappan is a composer and conductor who loves collaborating on new and exciting projects. He has a passion for multi-disciplinary influence and Arts productions. He finds inspiration in listening to others, books, dance, and being with nature.
Philip’s compositions and arrangements have been performed at the Kennedy Center, the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, the Sugar Hill Salon, and numerous universities across the United States. He has led numerous calls for scores, reading sessions, and recordings of new music in the multiple posts he has held.
In 2010 and 2011, Philip volunteered as a school teacher in the City of Tbilisi Public School system through the Ministry of Education, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia (the former Soviet Bloc State). Working with the national conservatory and the US Embassy in Tbilisi, he was also invited to give four lectures to Georgian youth on American Classical music in the 20th century.
Philip holds a BM in music composition from Messiah College, an MM in orchestral conducting and a BM in music education from the State University of NY at Fredonia, and an Executive MBA from Quantic University. He is currently enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music, pursuing a graduate professional studies certificate in music composition (’26).
Philip serves as the Deputy Commander of the West Point Band and is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), through the Project Management Institute (PMI).

https://www.philiptappan.com/about-philip

Akshay S. Tiwari (b. 2002) is a music composer and multi-instrumentalist from Princeton, New Jersey. Over the years, he has studied the viola, piano, and bağlama saz in depth. Influenced by rich folk traditions from around the world, his works draw from a colorful palette of musical styles and idioms. His journey into composition began by writing and arranging various world folk pieces for an ensemble he started consisting of a string quintet and mixed percussion, which performed at several venues around New Jersey.

Over the years, he has developed a particular affinity for the folk music of Turkey, Eastern Europe, Northern and Western Africa, and his family’s native India. This blending of often overlooked folk idioms with standard western ensembles forms the core of his work, and as he studies composition at the Manhattan School of Music, he plans on expanding his musical language, guided by the fundamental belief that music of every tradition offers a new perspective which, when combined with other perspectives, provides a more complete view of the human spirit.

Currently working as a private viola teacher, his ambitions include film and video game scoring as well as composing contemporary concert and art music.

Joseph Toto is an American classical pianist, composer, and arranger from Monmouth County, New Jersey. He began studying piano at the age of eight and quickly developed a deep passion for music. Joseph views music as far more than sound alone—it is a powerful conduit for emotional and sensory experience. His artistic vision centers on transporting audiences into immersive inner landscapes shaped not just by what they hear, but by the personal associations those sounds awaken.

As a contemporary classical composer, Joseph’s work is strongly influenced by mythology—especially themes of death, rebirth, and transformation. These archetypal narratives serve as a lens through which he explores the human condition. Joseph seeks to create music that is at once visceral and transcendent—deeply intimate, yet universally resonant.

As a pianist, he has performed at Steinway Hall and the Brookdale Performing Arts Center, and was recently featured by Ted-Ex as a guest musician.

Joseph’s primary teachers include Jee Won Kim (Composition), Sunhwa Kim, Professor John Balme, and Dr. Corey Hall. And he is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Classical Composition at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studies under Dr. Reiko Füting.

Angela Tse is a freshman student at MSM. She was brought up in two cities of China, Beijing and Guangzhou. Angela discovered her ability to compose in a very early age. Although she didn’t receive much formal composing education since she had been studying in public schools, her insistence and determination in composing got her in her favorite school and now studying with Reiko Fueting.
Angela is obsessed with some old arts. She has been influenced by her favorite artist Antonio Lucio Vivaldi from the Baroque period, having many similar preferences in composing. To reappear the charm of Baroque and classical art in a modern language is one of her major goals in music.

Her music often focuses on some moments of certain human emotion. They can be explosive, colorful and sophisticated, which are reflected and marked on the highly varied and passionate melody in her compositions. She believes good pieces of music are able to impact people’s emotion and mood, so she wants to enlighten people through music. In addition to orchestra music, she also writes pop music, and she has recently been invited to participate in the writing of the music for a film in China.

Apart from music, she develops deep interests in many other subjects such as art, literature and astronomy. She is also a talented and skilled painter, and she studied English Literature in high school, which helps her to write lyrics and novel in her spare time.

Elias Valle (b.2006) is a Pianist, Bassoonist, and Composer. He is currently under the tutelage of Dr. Reiko Fueting. He has also received mentorship from world-renowned artists including Mrityunjay Sathyanarayanan, Dr. Kelly Anderson, Dr. Stephen Cook, Dr. Mathew Ward, Dr. Ruby Wang, and Dr. Hyoungwuk Kim.

His music focuses on elements of natural change and organic texture. He enjoys exploring alternative ensembles, and unique methods of sound production. His inspiration revolves around nature, and processes of growth and movement. His string quartet “A Lily” was a national finalist in the prestigious MTNA Composition Competition in 2023. He has also been recognized by associations such as the International Association of Professional Music Teachers, Reno Tahoe Piano, and the California School of the Arts.

Elias is currently pursuing a B.M. in Composition at the Manhattan School of Music.

Yingshu Wang is a first-year undergraduate student majoring in music composition at the Manhattan School of Music. She is studying with Professor Susan Botti. Yingshu has won multiple awards in the music composition category of numerous international competitions. Most recently, she earned second prize at the 2023 World Master Open Music Competition and second prize at the 2023 Vivaldi International Music Competition. In addition, Yingshu presented her research on music education and musicology at the 2023 and 2024 International Conference on New Music Concepts in Italy, 2024 Orfeo Festival in Italy, and 2024 International Conference on the Arts in Society in South Korea. She has published her research in the 2024 issue of the “International Journal of Music Science, Technology and Art”. In 2023, Yingshu completed the Professional Certificate in General Music Studies from the Berklee College of Music.

Chen Shuhe Yue (Yue Chen) is a New York–based composer, soprano, and interdisciplinary artist whose work spans chamber and orchestral music, experimental music theater, electroacoustic sound, multimedia performance, and installation. Her practice explores the intersections of voice, body, and technology within expanded performance and visual contexts.

Her music has been performed by ensembles including JACK Quartet, Ensemble PHACE, and ICE, and presented at major international festivals such as the Écoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau (France), MultiPhonics Festival (Germany), Aranya Theater Festival (China), Vienna Summer Music Festival (Austria), and Avignon Festival (France). She is a recipient of the Ravel Prize and the Manhattan String Quartet Prize.

In 2023, she co-founded Chaospace, a nonprofit arts organization in New York, where she serves as Artistic Director and curates the DramaEtMusica performance series dedicated to interdisciplinary projects. She is currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at the Manhattan School of Music.

chenshuheyue.com

 

Yuqing Zhang (b. 2004) is a classical music composer from China. She is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree at Manhattan School of Music with the Professor Ashkan Behzadi. In her unremitting efforts of exploring the world of music, she drew inspirations from her daily readings and the trivialities of her routine life. Her musical works usually evoke philosophical contemplation and manifest its connection with music. Emotions such as awareness, introspection, reflection and understanding are the common elements found in her works. “Music is eclectic and all-embracing; it encompasses the meaning of life and depicts everything in the Universe.”

Tigger Zhou is from the Bay Area, California, and is pursuing his bachelor’s degree with Professor Ashkan Behzadi. Tigger started playing the piano when he was 5, having played pieces by composers such as Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, etc., Tigger has become very interested in the field of Composition. In High School, Tigger was a part of both instrumental and vocal ensembles, which gave him a myriad of options and learning experiences with his composition styles. He draws on diverse musical influences to create works that blend lyricism with modern harmonic language. His compositions often explore vivid textures, dynamic contrasts, and a balance between structured form and expressive freedom. Equally inspired by classical traditions and contemporary innovations, he seeks to craft music that connects deeply with audiences while pushing creative boundaries.