Matthew Kennedy’s music contains disarming clarity and simplicity, often seeking out dark places with an uninhibited wonder and spirit of exploration. His work has received critical acclaim including honors and commissions from ASCAP, BMI, Society of Composers Inc, Hartford Opera Theater, Dynamic Music Festival at NYU, Foot-in-the-Door Ensemble, bassist Robert Black, as well as residencies at Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology (MI), Horned Dorset Artist Colony (NY),  Marble House Project (VT), and the Mayapple Center for the Arts and Humanities (CT). Recent activities include performances at Fresh Inc. Festival, University of Nebraska-Kearney New Music Festival, Northwestern University New Music Conference, and SCI Regional Conferences. Matthew is currently on faculty at the University of South Florida, where he teaches Composition and Music Theory. He and his wife, studio artist Erin Kennedy currently reside in Tampa, FL with their three children.

You can find out more about the music of Matthew Kennedy at www.kennedycomposer.com

Nat Evans - natevansmusic.com

Seattle Composer Nat Evans writes concert music for various mixed chamber ensembles, distinctive electro-acoustic music, and site-specific music events that fuse nature, community and subjectivity of experience. His music is regularly presented across the United States and has also been performed in Europe, South America, Australia and China. Evans has received numerous commissions including the Seattle Percussion Collective, the Harrison Center for the Arts, ODEONQUARTET, Seattle Pacific University Men's Choir and Percussion Ensemble, Beta Test Ensemble, The Box Is Empty, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art, among others. His music has been featured on a number of radio stations in the United States, as well as BBC3, and in the 2011 Music Issue of The Believer. He studied music at Butler University with Michael Schelle and Frank Felice.

Michael Henson (b.1988, Dallas) was raised in Mesquite, TX, where he was inspired by Robin Williams to become a voice actor. After spending a handful of years in private school, he began attending public school in 5th grade after his 4th grade teacher suggested he be "put on medication." While the other kids picked on him for being "too smart" (the large, 1980s-like glasses didn't help), he managed to make friends. At one point, he managed to pass a grading period without turning in his Egyptian pyramid project.

When it came time to enter middle school, he decided to participate in the McDonald Middle School Band and had to choose between his father's trumpet and his mother's clarinet. He made a choice and the rest wasn't history because it hadn't happened yet (Although it is history now. Time is strange like that.).

Michael has been commissioned by the Manhattan Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and the Butler Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming projects include a chamber work based on the painting Dai Heigen (Green Plains) by artist Tawara Yusaku, and Torii for a Japan earthquake/tsunami victims memorial concert.

As a performer, Michael Has played with the Butler Symphony Orchestra, Butler Ballet Orchestra, Butler Composer's Orchestra, Butler Wind Ensemble, Pine Bluff Symphony Orchestra, Texas All-State Symphonic Band, and the Arkansas Intercollegiate Band. As an active chamber musician, he has played recitals and concerts in Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas. He has also participated in masterclasses with Mary Alice Druhan, Gregory Oakes, Gregory Raden, Jon Manasse, and Frank Kowalsky.

A firm believer in the composer/performer duality, Michael has commissioned works from numerous composers. He has also premiered several chamber works by Phillip Schroeder, some of which he has recorded for Schroeder's 2011 disc Passage Through a Dream.

In the Spring of 2013, Michael conducted the Butler Symphony Orchestra in a premiere of his own work We Didn't See Them as Humans. In addition to his work as assistant conductor of the Butler Symphony and the Butler Ballet Orchestra, he has appeared as a conductor at the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival and Henderson State University.

Michael earned a Master of Music in Composition at Butler University, where he studied composition with Michael Schelle and conducting with Richard Auldon Clark. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Henderson State University, where he studied composition with Phillip Schroeder and clarinet with Steve Becraft. He has had additional composition studies with film composer Christopher Young, Rocky Reuter, Nat Evans, Mark Snyder, Steve Bryant, and Zae Munn.

He currently resides in Plano, TX, where he teaches clarinet and colorguard, reads prose and poetry, contemplates human nature, and expands his knowledge of the cosmos. He is not related to Jim Henson or Michael Henson (the idiot who used to run the Minnesota Orchestra).

Max Wanderman is a composer, instrumentalist, sound artist, and list-maker.  He holds a BM in Music Composition from Butler University and an MFA in Composition from the California Institute of the Arts.  He currently lives in Minneapolis  

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