Caleb Thill began his violin studies at the age of seven In Rockland County, Just outside New York City.  He has traveled around the United States for various music festivals and Intensives.  Caleb has played in master classes for violin virtuosos Ida Kavafian, Joseph Silverstein, and Aaron Rosand.  During the summer of 2012, Caleb was one of twenty violinists chosen to participate in Summit Music Festivals Aaron Rosand Intensive Violin Program where he spent two weeks of intensive training under the tutelage of Aaron Rosand himself.  Caleb has spent summers at Heartland Chamber Music Festival in Kansas City, New York Summer Music Festival, And Summit Music festival In New York. Caleb Thill was a Finalist in The 2013 Kansas City Young Artist competition and Stunned the audience at the Kaufman Center for The Performing Arts with the Bruch Violin Concerto in G minor, which led to the “Audience Favorite Award”.  Caleb is currently a student of the renowned violinist Benny Kim at the UMKC Conservatory.  In his spare time, Caleb enjoys spending Quality time with friends and exploring Kansas City’s small coffee shops and restaurants.

Violinist, Sarah Gifford, has been studying for over 10 years.  She is currently pursuing a degree in violin performance at the University of Missouri - Kansas City under Professor Benny Kim.  In Missouri, Sarah was a member of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, and was concertmaster of the St. Charles County Youth Orchestra for two years.  Also, she was co-founder and 1st violinist of the La Cordicella Quartet.  Sarah has competed in concerto competitions around St. Louis and IL and has soloed with multiple orchestras.  She also has taught violin for 5 years, and was an active freelance musician in St. Louis.        

Kerissa Breisch began playing violin at age nine and immediately realized her passion for music. In high school, she participated in the St. Charles County Youth Orchestra and had the opportunity to perform with the Lindenwood University String Ensemble and Lindenwood University Symphony Orchestra as well. Furthermore, she enjoyed being the second violinist in the La Cordicella Quartet and playing in the worship team at Hope Bible Church. 
Kerissa loves all types of instruments and styles of music. She has tried her hand at playing piano, guitar, banjo, ukulele, and dulcimer. She also enjoys singing and was a part of the St. Charles Christian Home Educators Choir for seven years. Currently, Kerissa attends the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance to obtain a degree in Music Therapy.

Miles Smith is currently studying Classical Guitar with Douglas Niedt and pursuing a Music Theory BM at the UMKC Conservatory.

Composer Mara Gibson is originally from Charlottesville, VA, graduated from Bennington College and completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo. She also attended London College of Music as well as L’École des Beaux-Arts in Fontainebleau, France and the International Music Institute at Darmstadt, Germany. She has earned grants and honors from the American Composer’s Forum; the Banff Center; Louisiana Division of the Arts; Arts KC; the Banff Centre; Meet the Composer; the Kansas Arts Commission National Endowment for the Arts; the International Bass Society; ASCAP, the John Hendrick Memorial Foundation; Virginia Center for the Arts; and Yale University. Recently, she enjoyed a residency at the MacDowell Colony and was awarded an ATLAS grant (32K) through the Louisiana Board of Regents for her bassoon concerto (2021). Internationally renowned ensembles and soloists perform her music throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Asia, and Europe.  Dr. Gibson has also had performances of her works at prestigious festivals and universities around the country and the world, most notably Mostly Modern Festival (New York), the Bowling Green New Music Festival (Ohio), Amici Della Musica (Udine, Italy), University of Melbourne (Australia), Thailand International Composition Festival (performances in multiple consecutive years), Reaktorhallen (Stockholm, Sweden), Daegu International Computer Music Festival (Korea) and the Beijing Modern Music Festival. 

Gibson’s music has been described as “shocking, gripping and thought-provoking… conjuring a flurry of emotions” (PARMA recordings).   She is a regular cross-disciplinary collaborator, having worked with choreographers, visual artists, writers, film makers and musicians.  In 2015, Gibson released her first portrait CD, ArtIfacts, with her second recording, Sky-born, following in November 2017 through Navona/Parma Recordings.  The later presents works including Blackbird, which feature Cascade Quartet. The music draws inspiration from a variety of artistic mediums: “haunting and epic with visceral energy.” As Gramophone magazine describes, “repertoire on this recording was mostly inspired by poetry and paintings.  What binds these pieces are Gibson’s concise handling of musical materials and her spectrum of sonic approaches. Sky-born displays a compelling contemporary voice with a restless imagination, able to morph other forms of artistic expression into daring, musical odysseys.”

In August 2017, Gibson was selected as the first-annual commissioned composer for the Baroque on Beaver Orchestra led by Robert Nordling. The ensemble showcased her chamber orchestra piece, Secret Sky, music inspired by the bird migration patterns on the island. Collaboration is integral to Gibson’s process; whether through her music, collaborations or teaching, she hopes to achieve a relationship between the macro and micro. In 2019, Gibson premiered four new works White Ash, The Clockmaker’s Doll, Four Modes and Mirror, Mirror and traveled to Athens, Greece to record Secret Sky with the Athens Philharmonic Orchestra which was selected to be included on a compilation CD released by Navona in 2020 (Prisma IV).  Additionally, Secret Sky was included in the 10th annual season opener by the Chicago Composers Orchestra and a newly arranged version was included by LSU Symphonic Winds.  In 2020-21, Mara’s work was dedicated to her large-scale new bassoon concerto Escher Keys inspired by the work of M.C. Escher; “bassoonists will be thrilled to hear such imaginative new rep for the first time, as it represents a substantial new addition to the repertoire for the bassoon; it is highly inventive and profound.” (50 International Double Reed Society – IDRS, volume 44). The collaboration was declared a finalist for the American Prize. Additionally, as a part of this video premiere she presented Galatea’s Dream, a staged song cycle where “each song gains its haunting presence through an existential twist. A chilling atmosphere hangs over the performance, and Gibson’s music abstractly engages the three narratives, accentuating their mood of existential isolation, as felt by women.” (Fanfare Magazine).  In 2023, she released the film version of the song cycle.  Her most recent work incorporates extra-musical materials into vocal and instrumental performance and integrates increasingly challenging subject matter with effective (and often unusual) instrumental and vocal delivery styles; these techniques extend performance practice and portray strong emotional content that defines the heart of her overall concept — the arc of the musical and theatrical development.

Prior to LSU, Dr. Gibson taught as an Associate Teaching Professor at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance for over ten years, where she was founder of the UMKC Composition Workshop, co-director/founder of ArtSounds, and coordinated undergraduate composition.  She joined Louisiana State University as an Associate Professor of Composition.  She is now area coordinator with tenure and founded the Constantinides New Music Ensemble who had their debut performance at Carnegie Hall in April of 2022.  Since her arrival at LSU, the composition studio has more than doubled in size. Mara was awarded a sabbatical (fall 2023) when she began her first opera with Ann McCutchan (libretto) inspired by Lee Smith's novel “The Devil's Dream,” presumed to be roughly based on the country music powerhouse Carter family. Last fall, Mara composed at the prestigious Moulin a Nef in Auvillar, France.  Her 3rd portrait album was released fall 2024 including four new pieces composed since 2021 alongside Escher Keys.

You are now listening to Girls Room Radio. 

By the Girls, for the collective.

Caleb Thill is following