for more information please visit: 
https://ashkanbehzadi.com

Contact: 
behzadi.ashkan@gmail.com

Ashkan Behzadi, a recipient of 2025 Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize and a 2021–2022 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition, is an Iranian-Canadian composer based in New York. He earned his DMA in composition at Columbia University, where he studied with Fred Lerdahl, George Lewis, and Georg Friedrich Haas. Prior to this, he graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s degree in composition and music theory, studying composition with Chris Paul Harman and Brian Cherney. Ashkan also holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tehran University, where, at the same time, he took composition and music theory lessons with Alireza Mashayekhi.
Ashkan’s music has been commissioned and performed by various international performers and ensembles, including Ensemble Recherche, TAK Ensemble, Oerknal Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, Yarn/Wire, JACK Quartet, Grossman Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Alternance, Ensemble UnitedBerlin, Exaudi, Ekmeles, Wet Ink, Talea Ensemble, and le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM). 
His work has also been recognized with awards, artist residencies, and participation in festivals such as the Koussevitzky Foundation, Fromm Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, the Graham Sommer Second Prize, the Prix de Composition at Fontainebleau, the MacDowell Fellowship, the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Divertimento Ensemble Composers Meeting, the Dialoge Festival at Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, the Manifeste Festival at IRCAM, and the CIRMMT New Music Series.
For the 2019–2020 academic year, Ashkan Behzadi joined the Department of Music at the University of Chicago as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Center for Contemporary Composition. Since september 2023, he teaches at the Manhattan School of Music as a faculty member in Music Composition.
The issue of genre identity or genre-blurring, along with the dialectical relationship between modernist lyric poetry and contemporary music, has formed the core of Ashkan’s aesthetic concerns in recent years. Structurally, his music demonstrates a great attention to detail, conveying a miniaturist and gentle lyrical landscape. By employing techniques of allusion and pastiche as the foundation of his craft, his music ultimately seeks to invoke the collective memory of folklore music.

Maximiliano A. Soto Mayorga (b. 1991, Santiago) is a Chilean-born composer who received his Bachelor's degree in composition in Universidad de Chile and his Master's and Konzertexamen degrees in HfM Freiburg, Germany. He studied with Rafael Díaz, Jorge Martínez and Johannes Schöllhorn and received additional training in masterclasses with renowned composers such as i. a. Georges Aperghis, Brice Pauset, Annesley Black, Ramon Lazkano, Eunhwa-Cho, Bernard Cavanna and Luca Belcastro. 

Soto Mayorga has received numerous awards and commissions, including the Ibero-American Composition Prize "Ibermúsicas" 2023, the prize "Ad Libitum 2022" of the festival Sommer in Stuttgart, the prize and commission "TONALi20" (Patroness Sofia Gubaidulina), the DAAD Prize, the Composition Prize of the Chilean Academy of Fine Arts "Carlos Riesco" and of the Chilean Copyrights Society (SCD) "Pulsar". He has been a grantee of the Ibermúsicas Residency 2020 (London), of the German Federal Culture and Media Commission Grant (2021), and of the Fanjul&Ward Foundation (2022).

His works have been commissioned and premiered by various institutions such as  i.a. the Deutschlandfunk, Netzwerk Neue Musik, Mehrklang Freiburg e.V., the Slovene Institute for Research in Art, Critical Thought and Philosophy ".abeceda"; and ensembles such as i.a. the SWR Orchester, Ensemble Aventure, LJE Neue Musik Ba-Wü. His work "Figures in Frost" has been published by Boosey & Hawkes. Soto Mayorga's music has been performed at festivals such as Forum Neue Musik 2022 (Germany, Sommer in Stuttgart 2022, Ensems 42 (Spain), Nuntempa 7 (Mexico), Prismas (Chile/Argentina/Peru), and concerts in Europe (Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Ukraine, Slovenia), America (Chile, Perú, Argentina, México) and Japan.

Composer of contemporary classical music based in Brussels.

https://www.universaledition.com/evans-kocja-8059

https://www.universaledition.com/en/News/In-conversation-with-Evans-Kocja/

Parsa Zandi – Persian Composer (b. 2004, Tehran, Iran)



Parsa is deeply drawn to the expressive potential of microtonality, blending delicate melodies with rich textures. Intuition and emotion play a central role in his music, guiding a natural balance between structure and expressivity. He strives to create an immersive musical experience where melody and atmosphere come together with sincerity and depth.

He studied composition with Mohammad H. Javaheri and Karen Keyhani in Iran. Parsa later studied composition with Beat Furrer and is now continuing his studies under the supervision of Annesley Black. He was also an Erasmus student at the University of the Arts Berlin (UDK).

Parsa Zandi has had lessons with notable composers such as Chaya Czernowin, Franck Bedrossian, Iris ter Schiphorst, Johannes Maria Staud, Klaus Lang, Mark Andre, Mathias Hinke, Pierluigi Billone, Samir Odeh Tamimi, Clemens Gadenstätter, and Artur Kroschel.

Parsa Zandi's compositions have been performed in several countries, including Austria, Canada, Germany, Iran, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, the USA, Poland, and others. His works have been featured in festivals and programs such as Open Call Nodus 2022, Residencia Artística en Les Coves de Vinromà 2022, FestMus 2023 Castello, ICCS Young Talents 2023, Roadrunner Academy 2024, ClarinetFest 2024 in Dublin, Brass Academy Musikfabrik 2025, In Situ Graz, and the 54th International Contemporary Music Festival Poznań Musical Spring 2025.

His compositions have been performed by renowned ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Zeitfluss, Ensemble für Neue Musik Graz, Sepia Ensemble, CSMC Brass Band & Contemporary Ensemble, and the Roadrunner Trio. Additionally, musicians like Thomas Piercy, Elena Arbonies Jauregui, Kathryn Vetter, Mario Porcar Rueda, and others have collaborated with him.

Gregory Rowland Evans is a classical cellist and composer.

Yoav Levy is a composer currently living in Haifa, Israel

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