(He/Him/His) Yuma Uesaka is known for his improvisational sensibilities and his powerful sound in the New York City creative music scene. He has performed in renowned venues in NYC such as The Jazz Gallery, Roulette, and National Sawdust, as well as in international music festivals such as Detroit Jazz Festival, Lima ICPNA Jazz Festival (Peru), and Otsu Jazz Festival (Japan). As an improviser-performer, Yuma has premiered works by Anna Webber (Idiom VI) and Alvin Lucier (Monteverdi Shapero). He holds two degrees from the University of Michigan, in Jazz Studies and Computer Science Engineering. Since relocating to NYC, he has studied clarinet with Vasko Dukovski and composition with Eric Wubbels. Photo: Aaron Winters

(She/Her/Hers) Eschewing the collection of traditional titles that describe single elements of her body of work, Elizabeth refers to herself as a “New Renaissance Artist” that embraces a constant stream of change and rebirth in practice, which expands into a variety of media, chiefly an exploration of how sonic and spatial worlds can be manipulated to personify a variety of philosophies and principles both tangible as well as intangible. Elizabeth has received international recognition from press, scholars, and the public for her conceptual compositions and commitment to inclusive programming. Fanfare Magazine proclaimed in Fall 2019 “Perhaps Baker will be the Pauline Oliveros of her generation, and perhaps she will be more than that.” Photo: Elizabeth A. Baker

(He/Him/His) Elijah J. Thomas is a Black Philadelphia-born and Harlem-based windist, educator and composer. He holds a B.M. in Jazz Arranging & Composition and an M.M. in Music Education, studying woodwind performance and improvisation with Dick Oatts, Tim Warfield, Jr. and Walter Bell, and composition/arranging with Dr. Cynthia Folio, Kevin Rodgers, and Dr. Maurice Wright. Elijah has held teaching positions across Philadelphia and New York City, currently teaching in Manhattan. He has three recorded projects as a leader: Diversity and The Unity of Sound by his former group The NeW Quintet, and Our Search by his Social Music Collective. Photo: Zamani Feelings

(She/Her/Hers) Teagan Faran is a multidisciplinary musician focused on enacting social change through the arts. She has recorded with the Buffalo Tango Orkestra, La Martino Orquesta Típica, and recently released her debut solo album. Faran served as concertmaster of the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and was a member of the Orquesta Escuela de Emilio Balcarce. As a soloist, Faran has performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Ann Arbor Camerata, and the Williamsville East Symphonic Orchestra, among others. Faran was a 2019 Fulbright fellow in Buenos Aires as well as a Turn The Spotlight Fellow, receiving their inaugural Hedwig Holbrook Prize. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Contemporary Performance at the Manhattan School of Music. Photo: Naomi Vand

(She/Her/Hers They/Them/Theirs) Deidre Huckabay is a Chicago-based performer, writer, and photographer. Her creative work reflects a solitary, interior world, drawing on a musical life that requires long hours alone and listening. Deidre is a member of the artist collective Mocrep, co-owner of the experimental cassette tape label Parlour Tapes+, co-curator of the We Series at Elastic Arts, and founder of Spiderf*rt Press. As a flutist, Deidre has extensively toured the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. She plays with Manual Cinema and has recorded for Urtext and Bridge Records. She studied at the Eastman School of Music and Duquesne University. Photo: Maren Celest

(He/Him/His They/Them/Theirs) Philip Snyder is a musician, educator, and arts administrator who is interested in practices of experimentation that lead to new ways of creating space for the discovery and sharing of art. Philip is a founding member of the North Carolina contemporary ensemble earspace, one half of the experimental duo if.else, co-founder of the South Carolina presenting organization Wired Music, and co-founder of the anti-curatorial platform Off Latch Press. They additionally work as an Admissions Counselor at Manhattan School of Music. Current projects include a durational work for flutes, sine tones, and immersive projections by Randy Gibson; ongoing presentations of instill by D. Edward Davis for flute and meditators in a labyrinth; and other commissioning initiatives. Photo: Sabrina Raber

(She/Her/Hers) Jessica Shand is a rising senior in the Harvard/NEC dual degree program jointly concentrating in mathematics and music. Most recently, she was awarded Harvard's 2020 Hugh F. MacColl Prize in Composition, invited to speak at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory on a panel hosted by the Commission on the Status of Women and the Queer Resources Group, and worked for New Amsterdam Records and ICE Ensemble. Her mentors include flutists Paula Robison, Claire Chase, and Brook Ferguson, among others. Photo: Mei Stone

(She/Her/Hers) Gabi Vanek’s sonic interests are primarily the aesthetic and tonal crossover often found between contemporary classical music and harsh noise. She has performed as both a soloist and as part of chamber ensembles at festivals, concert series, and beyond including: New Music on the Point, nief-norf, KNOB New Music Festival, Feed Me Weird Things, 20/20 Sound Festival, the International Double Reed Society, and most unusually as a virtual exhibitor at the Osaka University of the Arts Electro-Acoustic Music Festival. Her scholarly credits include presenting at the University of Southern Denmark - Odense's 2016 "Extreme Music: Hearing and Nothingness" conference and a recently published follow up article in Metal Music Studies. Photo: Vero Rose Smith

(She/Her/Hers) Adrianne Munden-Dixon is a New York City-based violinist and dedicated performer of new and improvised music. She has commissioned and premiered numerous works for violin and electronics and given solo performances at Roulette Intermedium, Princeton University, MassMoCA, Columbia University, and SPLICE Festival. She also loves playing with others and is a founding member of Desdemona and appears regularly with the Savannah Philharmonic. In addition to performing, Adrianne is a passionate educator and on faculty at Greenwich House Music School and Larchmont Music Academy where she teaches violin and chamber music. Photo: Larry Dixon

(He/Him/His) Ben Rempel is a percussionist and composer whose work is a confluence of many musical practices including western classical and contemporary music, free improvisation, jazz and creative music, and Brazilian music. He has performed with improvisers Peter Evans and Anthony Davis, percussion ensemble red fish blue fish, and the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra. He has premiered pieces by George Lewis, Thomas Meadowcroft, and Adam Rudolph. A frequent interdisciplinary collaborator, he has co-composed and performed in several dance productions. Ben has a master’s degree from UC San Diego where he studied with Steven Schick and a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College. He lives in Los Angeles. Photo: Nicanor Evans

(She/Her/Hers) Emmalie Tello is a New York City-based clarinetist, teaching artist, and entrepreneur. She has appeared on award-winning commission recordings and premiered works at spaces including Bohemian National Hall and Carnegie’s Weill Hall. In October 2019, she made her concerto debut under David Fulmer performing Brian Ferneyhough's "La Chute d'Icare" with the Mannes American Composers Ensemble. She is co-founder of "Art Beyond the Ink," an enterprise which pairs live music with other art forms to engage audiences in musical storytelling and to deepen emotional connection and personal expression. When not performing, she enjoys yoga and baking. Photo: Aleksandr Karjaka

(She/Her/Hers) Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi explores the unfamiliar familiar while constantly being driven by the mechanism of the human psyche and exploring ways to manipulate it. Koochakzadeh-Yazdi writes for hybrid instrumental and electronic ensembles and performs live electronic sets. Her work has been featured in festivals such as New Music on the Point (Vermont, USA), wasteLAnd Summer Academy 2019 (Los Angeles, USA), EQ: Evolution of the String Quartet (Banff, Canada), Modulus Festival (Vancouver, Canada) and SALT New Music Festival (Victoria, Canada). Working with instrumental and electroacoustic media, she has also collaborated on projects written for dance performance, film, and theatre. Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in composition at Simon Fraser University with Sabrina Schroeder and Mauricio Pauly. Photo: Diane Smithers

(She/Her/Hers) Manca Dornik is a Slovenian accordionist currently studying in the class of Matti Rantanen at the Sibelius Academy, and also studies conducting and composition. She has performed in Slovenia, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria and Finland and participated at many international competitions where she won several first and second places and prizes. She has played as soloist with many orchestras, including Jeaner Philharmonie, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina, among others. She has performed at various festivals as both soloist and chamber musiciansincluding Imago Sloveniae, Jeunesses Musicales Slovenia, Linea concerts in Strasbourg, and Darmstadter Ferienkurse, among others. Manca is also a performer of Nyky ensemble of Sibelius Academy, ensemble UMUU, duo km² (with Kalle Hakosalo). Photo: Eva Prelovšek

(She/Her/Hers) Leni Kreienberg is a musician and performance artist currently living in Providence, Rhode Island. Her primary practice focuses on voice and electronic creation and performance, and aspires to connect and blend genres. Her latest work focuses on using dance and movement-derived data to feed musical computer systems. Photo: Will Kreienberg

(She/Her/Hers) Julie Kim is a NYC-based cellist, improviser, and performance artist. Drawing inspiration from the world around her, she seeks to push the boundaries of performance as a mode of expression, cultivating a unique style that draws influence from many different genres including classical music, avant-garde art, and multimedia performance. She has had the privilege of working with a variety of different artists in many different capacities and plans to continue pursuing this exploratory work as a collaborative discipline. She is a recent graduate of The New School where she studied with Fred Sherry. Photo: Acadia Mezzofanti

(She/Her/Hers) Tamika Gorski is a percussionist currently based in New York. She enjoys performing as a soloist, in orchestras, and especially in smaller chamber music settings. Favorite venues include concert halls, DIY spaces, living rooms, and gardens. Current projects include learning how to play drum set and performing improv sets for her cat. Tamika holds degrees from the Hartt School and the Manhattan School of Music. Photo: Jesieg Kim

(She/Her/Hers) With a direction in avant-garde music and art, Camila Nebbia studied at different institutions including classical saxophone at the Conservatory "Astor Piazzolla", jazz at the "Manuel de Falla" Conservatory and Film Director at the Universidad Del Cine. She was accepted into the masters degree program “CoPeCo Contemporary Performance and Composition” starting in September 2020. She won the “Raúl Urtazún & Frances Harley” scholarship to assist the jazz and creative music program at the Banff Centre. She is the creator of the collective interdisciplinary group and improvised series “La Jaula se ha vuelto pájaro y se ha volado”. Her third album as bandleader “Aura” will be released this year by the label Ears&eyes records. Photo: Celeste Rojas

(She/Her/Hers) Yiseul LeMieux is a composer and pianist who is passionately working on active engagements between music, audience, performers, and more. Since she graduated with her master’s degree in piano performance in 2017, she has been creating programs for children, adults, and animals with her compositions. Her compositions and programs involve a collaboration with different types of art and her audience’s engagements. She is a seeker of hidden opinions. She collects all hidden opinions, but prefers those brave and honest ones. Photo: Eric Liffmann

(She/Her/Hers) Phoebe Bognár is a Sydney-based flutist, composer, curator and improviser. Her approach to music is sewn with vibrancy and fluidity, and explores a range of genres, repertoire and styles. Phoebe has given numerous performances across the globe. sharing music with audiences in Sydney, London, Berlin, Oslo, Brisbane, Finland and the United States of America. Phoebe delights in genre-bending collaborations, art forms and disciplines that bring the world we live in into discourse. She explores new and exciting ways of creative expression which intertwine vocal techniques, objects, technology, and relationships with imagined and physical environments. Photo: Katherina Beale

(She/Her/Hers) Eve Werger is a contemporary keyboardist, performing extensively on piano, toy piano, and melodica. She is the founding member of Deaf Birds, an innovative multimedia duo linking contemporary keyboard music to interactive visual elements. Eve is a graduate of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music and is pursuing her master’s degree at the University of Missouri, where she is a member of the Mizzou New Music Ensemble. Eve has performed with ensembles such as Eighth Blackbird, Yarn/Wire, and the members of the Wet Ink, Fifth House, and Alarm Will Sound ensembles. She was the youngest-ever fellow to attend the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, and has proudly commissioned and premiered almost 30 new works in her lifetime. Photo: Maria Werger

(She/Her/Hers) Megan Rohrer is intrigued by the wide range of sounds that can come out of her acoustic wooden instruments, and loves to express her voice through newly composed projects, inter-arts collaborations, traditional classical works, and improvising. Megan is the violinist/violist and marketing chair of Virago, a highly active Southeast Michigan based quintet. Megan is also the first violinist of Converge, an award-winning Ann Arbor based string quartet. Megan is a budding composer, and recently premiered her work “DNA” with Virago. Megan earned her masters degree at the University of Michigan studying with Danielle Belen and Caroline Coade, and holds a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University where she studied with Blair Milton. Photo: Natali Herrera-Pacheco

(She/Her/Hers) Sarah Rossy is a mythical sonic creature of sorts, with a voice that is colourfully chameleonic yet vulnerably human. Based between her hometown of Montreal and New York City, she combines influences of jazz, experimental music, and interdisciplinary movement practices into her work for a truly unique result. As a composer, she has a keen interest in experiential processes which traverse through a feminist lens. She has shared the stage with many incredible artists, including John Hollenbeck, Christine Jensen, Jen Shyu, Ambrose Akinmusire, and more. In 2019, she released "The Conclusion", and is currently working towards a new full-length album. Photo: Jonathan Arseneau

(She/Her/Hers) Annick Odom is an American-Belgian musician living in The Netherlands. In her solo work, she often explores Appalachian narratives, working with American composers as well as folk musicians from her home state of West Virginia. She enjoys being a part of different musical worlds, from free improvisation to American Old Time. In 2014, she graduated from the University of Michigan with a BM in Clarinet Performance, a BM in Double Bass Performance, and a BA in Psychology. She graduated in 2018 with a master’s from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Photo: Katie Alexis Photography

(She/Her/Hers) Known for her very personal signature with influences from jazz to afro-latin and “global” music, Rachel has developed a reputation as a highly-skilled, versatile and innovative artist. After producing 4 records on labels MultipleChordMusic (CA) & TruthRevolution (US), Rachel Therrien just released her 5th album, “VENA”, under French Label Bonsaï Music, recorded in Paris with her new European Quartet. She also tours both her last projects Why Don’t You Try, 2017, praised by Downbeat’s Editor's Pick with her Montreal Quintet which will celebrate their 10th anniversary in 2020; with her New York based Latin Jazz Quartet and very occasionally, she performs her past album Pensamiento : Proyecto Colombia, 2016. Photo: Guillaume Saix

(She/Her/Hers) Hailed as a “singular harp virtuoso” Mélanie Genin is known for her “desire to re-shape and re-invent classical music.” Since her solo debut at Carnegie Hall, Ms. Genin has performed in the world’s most prestigious halls, including Concertgebouw, Royal Albert Hall, KKL, under conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Mark Elder, and Alan Gilbert, among others. She regularly commissions and premieres new repertoire and develops innovative projects such as Toward the Sea with flutist Catherine Gregory. Ms. Genin received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. She subsequently studied at both The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music. Photo: Brian Hatton

(She/Her/Hers) Rebecca Lawrence’s creative interests range from contemporary and traditional classical music, renaissance and baroque historical performance practice, free improvisation, experimental, pop, and folk music to experimental sound, political activism, and social equity. She lives in Los Angeles, California and has studied with bassists David Allen Moore, François Rabbath and Paul Ellison. Significant performances include the Lucerne Festival Academy (2019), Ensemble Evolution at Banff (2019) and the Ojai Music Festival (2018). Photo: Samantha Hardy

(They/Them/Theirs) Clifton Joseph Guidry III is a New York City-based bassoonist, composer, and activist. Guidry has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Soulful Symphony, Dance Centre Kenya Ballet Orchestra. Guidry has participated in the Eastern Music Festival, and Ensemble Evolution at the Banff Centre, and the Spoleto Music Festival. Clifton holds a bachelor's degree in Bassoon Performance from Peabody Conservatory and a Graduate Performance Diploma at the Mannes School of Music. This fall, Clifton, will begin his masters at the Manhattan School of music, studying contemporary bassoon performance. Clifton was the winner of the 2020 Marin Alsop Entrepreneurship award. Photo: Alex Broussard