John Mackey is a composer currently based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He's also lived in New York, Austin, Los Angeles, and Ohio, but he prefers not to talk about Ohio.

As a frequent collaborator, John has worked with a diverse range of artists, from the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps to choreographer David Parsons, from the Alvin Ailey Dance Company to the US Olympic Synchronized Swim Team. (The team won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics performing to Mackey's work for clarinet and percussion, "Damn.")

John has served as a Meet-The-Composer/American Symphony Orchestra League Composer In Residence with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony and with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer In Residence at the Vail Valley Music Festival in Vail, Colorado, and in 2005, at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.  He returns to Cabrillo this summer for  performances of his trombone concerto, "Harvest," conducted by Marin Alsop, with trombonist Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic.

John holds degrees from The Juilliard School and The Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Corigliano and Donald Erb, respectively.

To entertain himself while procrastinating on commissions, John enjoys photography and road cycling (but not at the same time). You can hear his music and see his photography (mostly of food, and the backs of conductors’ heads) on his website: www.ostimusic.com

Samuel Catania (b. 1995) is currently working toward a BFA in both Trumpet Performance and Music Composition/Technology at UW–Milwaukee.  He is currently studying Composition with Dr. Jonathan Monhardt, Pipe Organ with Jim Burmeister, and Trumpet with Professor Kevin Hartman.  He has also studied Piano with Peggy Otwell, Composition with Chris Burns and Steven Schlei, and Pipe Organ with Jeffry Peterson.

Sam is a versatile and determined composer.  He strives to find unique ideas and sounds for each of his works.  He has a keen interest in developing new sounds and approaches for traditional ensembles.  For example, he incorporated extended performance techniques and improvisation in his last work for band, Angels and Demons.  He is currently interested in Michael Markowski, John Mackey, Andrew Boysen Jr., Mark Camphouse, and Frank Ticheli and their approaches to contemporary band composition.  He is also interested in writing for orchestra, percussion ensemble, chamber winds, and for film. Sam is currently writing a large work for symphonic orchestra. 

Sam has received commissions from West Allis Nathan Hale High School and UW-Milwaukee Ensembles.  Awards include the John Philip Sousa award (2013), Louis Armstrong award (2013), and the Semper-Fi music scholarship (2013) for his determined attitude toward music composition and for his love for music in general.  

Sam’s long-term compositional goals are to work as a film composer and to produce and record his own music. After discovering that very little film music is published, Sam also decided that it would be a goal of his to make his film scores available for study by young composers.

"Whitacre is that rare thing, a modern composer who is both popular and original"
- The Daily Telegraph, London

Eric has inspired millions as composer, conductor, innovator, broadcaster and charismatic public speaker. His compositions rank among the most popular and frequently performed of the early 21st century, their reach broadened since 2010 by the extraordinary success of his online Virtual Choir project. Light & Gold, his first album as composer and conductor, won the 2012 Grammy® Award for Best Choral Recording and instantly topped the US and UK classical album charts.

Born in Nevada, he discovered a passion for choral music while studying at UNLV and he began composing soon after. He went on to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York under John Corigliano. Many of his choral compositions, Cloudburst, Lux Aurumque and Sleep among them, have entered the standard choral repertoire and his orchestral music has been performed by some of the world’s most distinguished orchestras both sides of the Atlantic. Eric is currently Composer-in-Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, UK.

A distinguished speaker, Eric has been invited to address the UN Leaders Programme, give the closing plenary at Davos World Economic Forum and to speak for UNICEF and Google among others. He has appeared twice on the main stage at the global TED conference in Long Beach CA, earning standing ovations on both occasions. Recent Virtual Choir projects include ‘Glow’ written for the Winter Dreams holiday show at Disneyland© Adventure California and the Virtual Youth Choir, in association with UNICEF, which premiered at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Broadcast live to 119 countries worldwide, Eric made his iTunes Festival debut with his professional choir in 2014, inviting multi award-winning composer and conductor Hans Zimmer to join him on stage. The performance was consequently released as a live album. Eric returned to the Minnesota Orchestra for a second residency in 2015 culminating in three performances at Orchestra Hall.


The official Linkin Park SoundCloud.
https://linktr.ee/linkinpark

Peter McConnell has composed award-winning scores in the Interactive Entertainment Industry for nearly two decades. His credits include the Sly Cooper Series, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, The Sims, Indiana Jones, Grim Fandango and Monkey Island. Peter is fluent in classic film-scoring styles ranging from the whimsical to the epic. His influences include Bernard Herrmann, Raymond Scott, Carl Stalling, Duke Ellington, Lalo Schifrin, and Danny Elfman.

Alex Thode (he/him) would first like you to know that not only is the “e” at the end of his last name not silent, but that he is also a composer and arranger most known for his work in the pageantry arts. He resides in Waukesha, Wisconsin with his cat, Buzz. An alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Alex composes and arranges for marching bands across the continental United States.

Alex's clientele have been Bands of America (BOA) Regional Champions and Finalists, UIL State Finalists and Area Champions, and WGI Winds World Champions, with Finalists in every classification. He has also had the privilege of having his arrangements performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Tournament of Roses Bandfest.

In addition to his compositions and arrangements for the pageantry arts, Alex also composes symphonic band and chamber percussion works.

In his free time, Alex enjoys watching movies and believing he’s a professional film critic, hiking and pretending that he’s athletic, traveling to National Parks — of which he’d eventually like to visit all — and acting like he’s Marco Polo, playing piano, guitar and a variety of kalimbas, and being with good company.

Samuel Catania is following