John Mallia’s compositional process is informed by spatial constructs and concepts, and a fascination with presence, ritual, and the thresholds standing between states of existence or awareness. He lives and works in Boston, where he is a member of the Composition Faculty, and directs the Electronic Music Studio, at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is also a member of the Composition Faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. In addition to composing chamber music and works combining acoustic instruments with electronics, he creates fixed media compositions, and collaborates with visual artists on multimedia works, including installation.
 
His music has been performed throughout the U.S. and internationally by organizations such as Musicacoustica (Beijing, China), MediaMix (Monterrey, Mexico), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), RAMA Festival, Aarhus, Denmark, L.A. Freewaves (CA), ZeroOne New Media festival (CA), Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Gaudeamus (The Netherlands), International Computer Music Association (Huddersfield, UK), Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, Zeppelin Festival of Sound Art (Barcelona, Spain), Festival Synthèse (Bourges, France), Interensemble’s Computer Arts Festival (Padova, Italy), Barbican Centre (London), and Medi@terra`s Travelling  Mikromuseum (Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Slovenia).  
 
He was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) at the University of North Texas (2004-5) and was composer-in-residence at the Institut de Musique Electroacoustique (Bourges, France; 1993, 2002). Additionally, he has taught composition, electroacoustic music, and sound art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, College of the Holy Cross, Northeastern University, Clark University, Brandeis University, and Franklin Pierce College.

Darlene Castro Ortiz (b.1993) is a Mexican-American composer and classical guitarist based in Chicago. Her interest in music began at a young age with the violin, first in a youth mariachi band, then in a classical orchestra setting. Raised in a bilingual family, her creative interest mostly lies in translation and creating sonic representations on non-musical objects, often using electronics, noise, and extended techniques. Her music has been performed and commissioned by ensembles such as Spektral Quartet, the Runnin' Fl'UTES', Salty Cricket Composers Collective, PANTS (Wind Quintet), Nightingale Ensemble, and the Salt Lake City Public Library's SHH! A Very Quiet Music Series. ​ 
 
Her research on historical music notation has been presented with the American Musicological Society (Rocky Mountain Chapter) and has led her to conduct research in a week-long seminar on historical music notation at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.  She completed her Bachelors in Music Composition in 2017 at the University of Utah and has studied with Igor Iachimciuc, Morris Rosenzweig, Inés Thiebaut,  Sam Pluta, and Augusta Read Thomas.  Currently, she  ​is working on her PhD in composition at the University of Chicago.

Hanze Liu （2001*）
Un jeune musicien et compositeur
CCOM, Pékin, Chine 🇨🇳 -> CNSMDP, Paris, France🇫🇷

composer. performer. improviser.
Ph.D. Student in Composition, UChicago

Ege Sayar is a Turkish composer born in 1998. His passion for music and composition ignited in his early childhood, and he has since demonstrated unwavering dedication to exploring a diverse range of musical genres.
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Ege graduated with honors from his bachelor's degree in classical music composition at the HKU Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands. He studied with Jeroen D'Hoe and Caroline Ansink, supported by a talent grant. Additionally, he completed an Erasmus exchange semester at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg in Germany, studying with Fredrik Schwenk. Currently, Ege is pursuing his master's at Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria with Sarah Nemtsov. He holds a merit scholarship and the position of assistant student of the Universität Mozarteum Composition Department.
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Over the past years, Ege has actively participated in various festivals, workshops, and masterclasses alongside renowned composers. His compositions have graced the stages of prestigious international festivals and events. He has also won several competitions and reached the finalist stage in others. Ege has received significant commissions, and he is currently engaged in meetings for further opportunities.
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His music has received premieres and performances in Türkiye, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, England, Cyprus, Russia, Azerbaijan, China, Hong-Kong, Australia, United States, Canada.
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The concepts he seeks to explore in his music may vary. Rather than adhering to a specific musical style, he strives to draw inspiration from every era and genre, spanning from the past to the present.

Nathan Friedman is a clarinetist and composer currently based in Victoria, BC. He completed his MA in Composition/Experimental Music at Wesleyan University in 2014, studying with Anthony Braxton, Paula Matthusen, Ronald Kuivila and Neely Bruce.  He finished a Bachelor of Music in composition at the University of Victoria in April 2011 after studying composition with John Celona, Wolf Edwards, Dániel Péter Biró and Christopher Butterfield and clarinet with Patricia Kostek and Ed Nishimura. He has also had private lessons and workshops with Michael Finnissy, Chaya Czernowin and Judith Shatin. His compositions have been performed by The Vancouver Clarinet Trio, loadbang, Michael Robert-Broder & Corey Hamm, and others, and read by Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal+, the JACK Quartet and Quasar Quatuor de Saxophones.


Pengyi Li was born in Jinan in December 1999. He studied composition with Professor Xu Zhitong since the age of 12. In 2013, he was admitted to the High School Attached to the Central Conservatory of Music and graduated in 2019. He is currently an undergraduate student at the New England Conservatory of Music  study with Greek composer, theorist and conductor Stratis Minakakis. In recent years, his music has been devoted to exploring the fusion and collaboration of multi-dimensional sound, trying to make every timbre full of vitality and existence value.
He has been invited to participate in many composition projects, including AMF Festival (2018), reMusik Festival in St. Petersburg (2021), New music in clarinet call for works in Florence (2022), BME Festival(2022), DePaul New Music Residency (2022), Lucerne Festival (2022), MayFlower Art Center's call for works (2022). He has won more than 20 awards in composition competitions internationally, among which are: Won the grand prize in the Barletta International Composition Competition (2018), the second prize and the first prize in the California String Composition Competition (2018, 2019),won the first prize in the solo piece category, the second prize in the chamber piece category in the Vienna "Academia Musica" composition competition   (2021), the third prize in the Lithuanian Future Symphony International Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition (2018), and Honorable Mention Award in the Vienna Graz Composition Competition  (2020) )and Japan IseShima International Composition Competition(2022), etc. His works have been performed in more than ten countries and cities including the United States, Italy, Russia, Serbia, etc.  He also has cooperation with performers Carmine Marcello Rizz, Jarrett Hoffman, Emilio Checchini, as well as the Serbian Radio Symphony Orchestra Strings, Lithuanian LMTA Chamber Ensemble, Moscow Contemporary Ensemble (part of the performers), Syntagma Piano Duo, IEMA Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente and Ensemble Court-circuit.

Pengyi Li is following