Title: In/Out
Composer: James May
Year: 2017
Performers: Sandro Leal Santiesteban (violin), Ryan Ash (cello) [Beo String Quartet]

This piece was composed for the Charlotte New Music Festival 2017 speed writing contest, loosely inspired by The Beatles' "Within You Without You" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In/Out [violin & cello]

Z.D. Lowery is a composer of contemporary classical music based out of Kentucky. He has written for a variety of ensembles ranging from full orchestra to trombone and musical saw. He has been commissioned to write for both high school bands as well as university level soloist. He has studied with Thomas Couvillon and Steve Rouse, and has taken masterclasses with Andrew Norman, Kaija Saariaho, Carlos Gutierez-Sachez, and many others.

Cullyn D. Murphy (b.1993) is a composer, conductor, vocalist, and educator from Champaign, Illinois. His music has been performed and commissioned by the Longleash Trio, Line Upon Line Percussion, the Thompson Street Opera Company, New Music Gathering, New Music On the Point Festival, Illinois State University's Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Louisville University Symphony Orchestra, Wm. Riley Leitch, and many others. Murphy's music has been described as “theatrical," "riveting and inventive,” and "push[ing] the idea of what music and musical organization is." (Composer's Toolbox) His music draws from his experiences in absurdity, theater, education, and current events. Murphy received his B.M.E. in Music Education-Choral and his B.M. in Theory/Composition from Illinois State University, M.M. in Music Composition at the University of Louisville where he was a recipient of the Bomhard Fellowship, and is currently pursuing his doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh where he received the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Fellowship. In the fall of 2017, he co-founded AmiEnsemble (an experimental trio/composer collective) for whom he regularly composes, directs, and performs. His private studies include Roy Magnuson, Carl Schimmel, Martha C. Horst, Steve Rouse, Krzysztof Wolek, Eric Moe, and Mathew Rosenblum.

contact at cullynmurphy@gmail.com

[piece title] [year written] | [performing ensemble]

inti figgis-vizueta (b.1993) is a composer and educator who works to reconcile historical aesthetics and experimental practices with trans & Indigenous futures. Described as a “rising new music star” (LA Times), with “smooth and serrated melodies” (New York Times) and an “intriguing…highly integrated sound” (Gramophone), “wrought from a language we’d do well to learn” (Washington Post), inti has been commissioned and performed by leading artists including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Dallas Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, New World Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Reflektor, Aspen Music Festival, Ojai Music Festival, Spoleto Music Festival, Kennedy Center’s Sounds of US Festival, International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Wild Up, Roomful of Teeth, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, Kronos Quartet, Attacca Quartet, JACK Quartet, Music from Copland House, Crash Ensemble, violinist Jennifer Koh, and cellists Andrew Yee and Jay Campbell, among many others. inti’s work has been featured at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Hall Concert Hall, Symphony Center, REDCAT, National Concert Hall (IE), Southbank Centre (UK), Philharmonie de Paris (FR), Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (NL), and Konzerthaus Berlin (DE). 

Upcoming projects include Earths to Come in VR for the Venice Film Festival, mad scramble for crumbs for Opera Saratoga, Metahaven’s film The Feeling Sonnets, and works for flutist Claire Chase, pianist James McVinnie, and cellist Andrew Yee with Roomful of Teeth. inti is the recipient of the Lotos Foundation Prize, ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award, National Sawdust Hildegard Award, Café Royal Foundation Music Grant and residency fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks, Civitella Ranieri, Juilliard Summer Percussion, and Music at Copland House.

inti has held faculty positions with Luna Composition Lab (21-24’), Wildflower Composers (20-22’), Fresh Inc Festival (22’), and Atlanticx Composition (21’). She regularly lectures on her music with recent visits to Harvard University, The Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory, and CalArts, among many others. inti has curated programs for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella series, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Current Series, Wild Up’s Darkness Sounding, and American Composers Orchestra SONiC Festival. She is the 2024 Robert M. Trotter Lecturer for the College Music Society 67th National Conference. 
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inti studied with Marcos Balter, Felipe Lara, Donnacha Dennehy, and George Lewis. Her mentors include ﻿Tania León﻿, Nico Muhly, Angélica Negrón, Derek Bermel, and Andrew Norman, among many others. inti honors her Quichua bisabuela who was the only woman butcher on the plaza central and used to fight men with a machete.

Micah Burkhardt is a contemporary composer.

Bike Öner is a composer and cellist from Istanbul, Turkey, now based in Austin, USA. Her work bridges acoustic and electronic music, exploring themes of proximity, memory, transformation, and the emotional depth of co-presence within mixed realities. Drawing inspiration from diverse data sources, she creates multi-dimensional, multi-directional, and continuous musical experiences that highlight shared human perception.

A second dimension of her music involves blending instruments from different musical cultures, juxtaposing Eastern and Western tuning systems and timbral contrasts. This cross-cultural fusion extends into her electroacoustic practice, immersing audiences in the co-presence of musicians across mediums, locations, and times.

ISNI: 0000 0005 2786 8835

James is a composer, improviser, writer, and photographer.