OCMPOSER

The music of composer and pianist Judah Adashi is guided by a belief that the creation and performance of new music can bear witness to injustice, create space for empathy, and serve as a call to action. His compositions are grounded in the classical tradition and imbued with soul and pop influences ranging from Nina Simone to Björk. Dr. Adashi is the founder and artistic director of the Evolution Contemporary Music Series, which has made Baltimore a destination for extraordinary new music and musicians since 2005. He is also the founder and artistic director of Rise Bmore, an annual concert marking the anniversary of Freddie Gray’s 2015 death while in Baltimore police custody. Dr. Adashi has been on the faculty of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University since 2002. He lives in his hometown of Baltimore, MD with his wife and frequent collaborator, cellist LAVENA. For more information, please visit judahadashi.com.

BANDONEÓN PLAYER, COMPOSER

David Alsina, acclaimed Argentine bandoneon player, composer, arranger, and director of tango bands and chamber music groups, began performing at the age of eight. He has composed over 100 original songs and the scores for five independent films. Maestro Alsina has been performing with the Miami City Ballet as bandoneon soloist and with symphonic and philharmonic orchestras for decades. Throughout his career, he has been a premiere performer of Astor Piazzolla's music, including the opera Maria de Buenos Aires, Five Tango Sensations, and numerous pieces for bandoneon and orchestra. Alsina has performed in Europe, South and North America, and currently resides in the US. He has contributed bandoneon solos to the recording of TV spots and videos, movie soundtracks, and numerous CDs. Collaborations include Ricky Martin, Shakira, Gloria Estefan, Julio Iglesias, Juan Luis Guerra, Calle 13, Olga Tañón, José Luis Rodríguez, Daniela Romo, El Consorcio (Mocedades), Luis Enrique, Huey Dunbar, Il Divo, and many others. "Tango Buenos Aires," the spectacular show with which he toured, took him all over the world. The music of Alsina’s bandoneon has been acclaimed in concert halls including Carnegie Hall; Brooklyn Center; Gusman Center; Dade County Auditorium; Jackie Gleason Philharmonic Center; Bailey Concert Hall (FL); Orange County Center (CA), and many others. https://bandoneonplayer.com

BARITONE

Hailed for his rich and powerful baritone, Mr. Gustavo Ahualli has become well known for his dramatic portrayals in a myriad of leading roles of standard operatic repertoire as well as new works by contemporary composers. The Houston Press extolled, “As Macbeth, Argentinean baritone, Gustavo Ahualli proved he has an ideal voice for Verdi, beautiful, full, rich, and powerful. His singing was effortless, with excellent control, and ripe with machismo.” Mr. Ahualli has over 45 roles under his belt with particular affinity for verdian and belcanto repertoire and has sung in all the principal theatres of his country including the emblematic Teatro Colón, across the United States of America, Spain and Italy as well. Gustavo Ahualli was born in San Miguel de Tucuman, Argentina. He began his musical training at age of seven and received his Masters in Vocal Performance from the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. He currently lives in Washington, D.C. where he serves on the Voice Faculty for the Vocal Performance Academic Area at the Rome School of Music, Drama and Art-The Catholic University of America and he is the Director for the Latin American Music Center for graduate studies for the same institution.

BARITONE

Since 1999, Guillermo Anzorena has performed worldwide as a member of the "Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart", an ensemble for contemporary music. He sang opera world premieres and numerous premiered works dedicated to him by renowned composers such as Hilda Paredes, Lucia Ronchetti, Elena Mendoza, Phillipe Leroux, and James Hullick. Under famous conductors such as Simon Rattle, Roger Norrington, and Tito Ceccherini, he sang with prominent orchestras and music ensembles. Recently, he carried out concerts and recordings with the Argentinean pianist Silvia Dabul. Guillermo was born in Argentina, where he started his classical singing education with Professor Cangemi and Professor Opitz, with whom he studied the German Lied. He completed his education in Germany with Professor West and Professor Litaker.

PIANIST

Lydia Artymiw is an internationally renowned concert pianist and Emerita Distinguished McKnight Professor of Piano at the University of Minnesota where she taught for 31 years(1989-2020). Recipient of the Avery Fisher Grant and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award and a top prize winner at the Leventritt Competition in New York and the Leeds International in England, she studied with concert pianist and former Director of the Curtis Institute, Gary Graffman from 1967-1979. She has performed with over 100 orchestras world-wide and has presented hundreds of solo recitals and chamber music performances with world-renowned artists. Artymiw has over 20 CDs for the Chandos, Centaur, Bridge, and Naxos labels, and her 2018 recording of the “Mendelssohn Complete Works for Cello and Piano” with cellist Marcy Rosen was nominated for a 2018 Grammy award. She has been a juror for the 2015 Van Cliburn Junior Competition, the 2017 Lang Lang International Competition in Shenzhen, and the 2019 First China Competition in Beijing. Since 2015 she has been a regular guest piano teacher at Juilliard. lydiaartymiw.com

VIOLINIST

Shakhida Azimkhodjaeva was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. At age eleven she made her debut with the Uzbekistan Symphony Orchestra and won the Uzbekistan National Violin Competition. She graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she studied with Professor Irina Medvedeva and performed with the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory Symphony Orchestra under direction of such conductors as Zubin Metha and Pierre Boulez. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at prestigious halls, including the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Concert Hall, and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. As one of the founders of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra ARCO, Ms. Azimkhodjaeva has acted as concertmaster, soloist, and assistant conductor and performed extensively both as a soloist and concertmaster in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Latvia, Russia, South Korea, USA, Canada and Brazil. She is a member of the violin faculty of the University of Georgia Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

MEZZO-SOPRANO

Ms. Babcock has gained notoriety as a sought-after Carmen having over 117 performances of this femme fatale under her belt. She has performed with Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, New York City Opera, San Diego Opera, the ASO, the NSO, and more. She has spent her career promoting new works with companies such as Prototype Festival, American Lyric Theatre, and Beth Morrison Projects. Her flamenco duo Beyond Carmen, recently stepped into the studio to make a documentary which explores her Sephardic roots, playing with textures of the marginalized people of the diaspora in the dying language of Ladino. Ms. Babcock is an Assistant Professor of Voice at UNC Charlotte. www.audreybabcock.com and her management: www.ada-artists.com.

COMPOSER

Tom Benjamin is a composer, music educator, conductor, and performer, and is now happily retired after many years of teaching at the Peabody Conservatory of Music at the Johns Hopkins University and at the National Music Camp. His work includes several music theory textbooks and anthologies, and many compositions, all of which help pay for his addiction to good wine and cheese. He spends time tending his garden and enjoying his grandchildren and great-grands.

GUITARIST

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Javier Bravo is an active guitarist, composer and teacher. He graduated with golden medal at the “Manuel de Falla” Municipal Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires and he was awarded several times both as a composer and as a performer. As a guitarist, Javier has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and with symphonic orchestras in Argentina, Spain, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, México Puerto Rico and USA. He has released six studio albums to date, with repertoires ranging from Renaissance to contemporary, with emphasis in Argentine contemporary music and his own compositions. As a composer he wrote and arranged music for several instruments including symphonic and electroacoustic music. His musical language is inspired by popular Argentine music and jazz, together with sound resources of contemporary music.

ARCHITECT

Alberto’s work is informed by his conviction that architecture should contribute to public life, celebrating its program and purpose. As the leader of project design and conceptualization for the Pfeiffer Studio of Perkins Eastman, he’s drawn to projects that are culturally oriented, including museums, libraries, performing arts centers and academic buildings. A strong advocate for collaboration and discourse, he sees the design process as a multi-disciplinary think tank, conducting deep inquiry into site, building technology to design there, and the client’s aspirations to discover the unique beauty and potential of every project. He has lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Drexel University, Thomas Jefferson University and Catholic University.

ACTOR

Gabriella’s voice has been featured as narrator of several Emmy-nominated PBS documentaries, in over 1000 audio books for the Library of Congress’ National Library Service, on Audible, and on countless commercials and industrials in both her native Spanish and English. She has over 30 years of experience as an actor, director, producer, and dialect/voice/communications coach. In 26 seasons at the Tony Award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company and on many of Colorado’s top stages, she has played a wide range of roles in dozens of productions. She co-founded and was Artistic Director of Modern Muse Theatre Company. Gabriella has narrated and sung on many stages, directing and narrating Argentine-themed programs and fundraisers including the work of Guastavino and Piazzolla. She is featured narrator and chanteuse in the recording Piazzolla, Here & Now for Centaur Records.

PIANIST

Pianist Andrew Cooperstock has appeared throughout six continents and in most of the fifty states, including performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the United Nations. An advocate for music by U.S. composers, he has recorded a series of critically acclaimed single-composer discs, including Leonard Bernstein: Complete Solo Works for Piano (Bridge Records and Deutsche Grammophon), lauded by Gramophone as “winning” and “brilliant.” Dr. Cooperstock’s recent articles have appeared in Piano Magazine and the MTNA e-Journal. As part of Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, he lectured on the composer’s pedagogical legacy at the MTNA national virtual conference and for the Frances Clark Center’s inaugural series, From the Artist Bench. Dr. Cooperstock holds degrees from the Juilliard School and the Cincinnati and Peabody Conservatories. A Steinway artist, he is Program Director of the Saarburg International Music Festival (Germany), Professor of Piano at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he received the 2020 Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence Award in Teaching and Pedagogy, and President-Elect of Colorado State Music Teachers Association.

VIOLINIST

Recognized for the beauty of his tone, Mr. Cueto performs worldwide as chamber musician, concert master, and guest soloist with orchestras. He is Concert Master of the Maryland Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Chesapeake Festival Orchestra, and served as Concert Master for Concert Artists of Baltimore’s during the ensemble’s 31 seasons. His recordings with orchestra include the Menotti Violin Concerto with Concert Artists of Baltimore (Sonora Label), Italian Violin Concerti by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ottorino Respighi, and the premiere of Cueto’s violin and string orchestra arrangement of La rosa y el sauce (The Rose and the Willow Tree) by Carlos Guastavino with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Marquis label). A graduate of The Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Cueto is Professor of Violin at Catholic University of America and St. Mary’s College of MD. www.josemiguelcueto.com

PIANIST

Pianist Alejandro Cremaschi, born in Mendoza, Argentina, currently teaches piano and piano pedagogy at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Dr. Cremaschi studied with Dora De Marinis, Dr. Nancy Roldán, and Lydia Artymiw. Alejandro first became captivated by Carlos Guastavino’s musical universe in 1991 when he moved to Baltimore to study piano with Dr. Nancy Roldán. He is an active performer and clinician, and has recorded as a soloist and chamber pianist for the labels IRCO, Ostinato, Marco Polo and Meridian Records. His pedagogical edition and recording of Ginastera's Doce Preludios Americanos for piano was published by Carl Fischer in 2016. Cremaschi is Executive Director of Sonus International Music Festival and Director for Research Advancement at the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy. https://alejandrocremaschi.com/teaching.htm

DOUBLE BASS

Double bassist Paul Erhard performs solo recitals, concertos, symphony orchestra, chamber music, jazz, improvised raga music of India, and solo improvisations. His recitals feature traditional solo works, commissioned new works, chamber music, and improvisation. In February 2020, as a concerto soloist, Erhard premiered the L. Subramaniam Double Concerto for Violin and Double Bass with violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam with the CU Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, his collaborations with the Grammy-winning Takács Quartet include the Schubert Trout Quintet in 2019 at Lincoln Center, New York City. TIME ART–SPACE ART is Paul’s newest venture into the creative world of improvisation, drawing upon his performance background as a classical double bassist, jazz bassist, and explorer of improvised raga music of India as a means of finding languages for collaborating with dancers, painters, photographers, and poets. Paul is professor of double bass at the CU Boulder College of Music.

MEZZO-SOPRANO

Silvia Funes was born in Mendoza, Argentina. She entered the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, where she studied singing with Professor Silvia Nasiff. In 1999, she won the "Youth Season" contest organized by the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo Symphony Orchestra and moved to Salzburg to continue her studies at the Mozarteum University where she graduated as I.G.P Gesang Pädagogik. At the Konservatory of the city of Innsbruck she obtained the artistic diploma in Lied and Oratorium with Gabriele Ehard's. She was awarded with a scholarship by the prestigious Italian tenor, Master Antonio Carángelo. She also joined the "Donau Philarmonie Wien" under the direction of Manfred Müssauer, the "Salzburger Kammersolisten," and the “ Salzburger Konzertgesellschaft". In 2019, she founded "Silvia Funes Tango Quinteto" in Innsbruck, Austria. The repertoire includes urban Argentine music comprising classical tangos, valses, milongas, and the new guard tango of Astor Piazzola.

Tango Quinteto, created by Silvia Funes in 2019, performs eclectic repertoire encompassing urban Argentine music -- classical tangos, valses, milongas, and the new guard tango of Astor Piazzola. The quintet features Silvia Funes, Voice; Ignacio Giovanetti, Guitar; Gilberto Pereyra, Bandoneón; Nelson Diaz, Violin; Fernando Viani, Bandoneón; and Felipe Medina, Double Bass.

COMPOSER, PIANIST

Andrew Gerle is a composer/lyricist, librettist, pianist and author. His works for the theater include the musicals Meet John Doe (Jonathan Larson Award, cast album on Broadway Records), Gloryana (Kleban Award, Richard Rodgers Award), The Tutor (three Rodgers Awards) and La Tempesta (with Fantasticks lyricist Tom Jones, Tokyo premiere 2019). He has performed as piano soloist with the National Symphony, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and on programs for National Public Radio and Television. He is also the author of The Enraged Accompanist's Guide to the Perfect Audition and Music Essentials for Singers and Actors (Hal Leonard/Applause Books), and is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music. In 2020, he produced and engineered the benefit album Artists in Residence, featuring all new songs and performances from Tony and Grammy Award-winning writers and actors about our temporarily constrained lives. www.AndrewGerle.com

ACOUSTICIAN

Carl could be found haunting construction sites at the age of seven and by high school had settled on architecture as his pursuit. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture with honors from Virginia Tech in 1982, was licensed as an architect two years later, and specialized in acoustics in 1995 after exploring restoration, residential, and institutional architecture. This broad background in design and technical architecture adds great depth to his consulting in acoustics. He has carried design responsibility for many music and theater performance and educational spaces in the United States and internationally. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and has presented his work at conferences held by the Acoustical Society of America, the Institute of Acoustics in the United Kingdom, and Ryerson University in Toronto. He has lectured architectural and acoustics classes at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Virginia Tech, Illinois Institute of Technology, The University of Illinois, and Cambridge University.

PIANIST

Daniel Glover has served on the faculties of New York University, University of the Virgin Islands, University of San Francisco, and Notre Dame de Namur University. Glover has performed in 42 states and 27 countries throughout Europe, Asia, North/South America and the Caribbean. Mr. Glover trained with such luminaries as Eugene List, Abbey Simon, Jerome Lowenthal, Nancy Bachus and Thomas LaRatta. He holds a master’s degree from the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student. He has recorded ten CDs, which have been broadcast on radio stations in Israel, Argentina, Germany, Canada, and the United States.

PIANIST

Pianist Gila Goldstein has performed as a solo artist and a collaborative pianist throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Korea, the Philippines, Europe and Israel. A Board member of the American Liszt Society (ALS) and the Founder-President of its NY/NJ Chapter, she has been a frequent guest performer at the ALS annual festivals around the USA and Canada. A champion of the music of Israel's leading composer Paul Ben-Haim in the past two decades as a performer and recording artist, Ms. Goldstein has recorded two volumes of his entire piano and chamber works on the Centaur label. Gila Goldstein is a member of the piano faculty at Longy School of Music and Brown University. A sought-after pedagogue, she has given master classes and adjudicated international and national piano competitions throughout the USA, in Israel, China, Korea and the Philippines. She obtained her music degrees in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music and the Tel-Aviv University’s School of Music, where her teachers were disciples of the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus: Prof. Nina Svetlanova and Prof. Victor Derevianko.

Gila is currently a member of the piano faculty at Longy School of Music in Boston. http://www.gilagoldstein.com

PIANIST

American pianist Joseph Kingma, praised by the New York Concert Review as “showing the command of a master and a composer’s insight,” enjoys a prolific national and international career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. He won first prize in the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition, sponsored by the American Liszt Society, and has won awards in many other contests. A regular concerto soloist, he is also a guest artist with the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival. He is currently the Keyboard Division Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Piano at Palm Beach Atlantic University. www.josephkingma.com.

MUSICOLOGIST

Argentine musicologist Silvina Luz Mansilla is professor at the Institute of Performing Arts at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), where she graduated with a doctorate in History and Theory of the Arts. In addition, she is Director of Doctoral Music Studies in Musicology at the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses. She has collaborated on several books, three of which are dedicated to Carlos Gustavino. Other collaborations include thirty articles and hundreds of entries in music dictionaries. A Category 1 professional researcher, she serves as academic advisor to doctoral candidates developing their theses, and oversees the work of research groups, including scholarship recipients. She holds a Musicology degree from the UCA, and a Piano performance degree from the National Conservatory of Music. Dr. Mansilla has served as secretary, treasurer, and president of the Association of Musicology in Argentina.

PIANIST

Pianist Agustin Muriago has performed throughout the United States, Spain, China, Brazil, and his native Argentina, in venues such as Steinway Hall in New York City and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. He has recorded for the Acte Préalable label and for NPR affiliates. Muriago currently serves as Assistant Professor of Keyboard Studies at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Recent teaching engagements include master classes at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and at NYU Shanghai. He holds degrees in piano performance from The Hartt School (DMA), New York University (MM), and Rowan University (BM summa cum laude). His major teachers include José Ramón Méndez, Luiz de Moura Castro, David Westfall, Veda Zuponcic, Aldo Antognazzi, and Marcela Fiorillo, having also received advice from Lilya Zilberstein, Frederic Chiu, Mirian Conti, Julian Martin, Solomon Mikowsky, Douglas Humpherys, and Seymour Bernstein.

ACTOR

Shawn Carter Peterson is a native of Baltimore, MD. A multi-talent artist, he graduated from Vassar College cum laude with a dual degree in Drama and Africana Studies. Since moving to Los Angeles, Shawn has made a name for himself by becoming a recognized staple in over 60 national commercials. His appearances on television have varied from 1 hour dramas to 1/2 hour comedies. His most notable film role is as “DAX” in PITCH PERFECT 2 which was the #1 Opening Weekend box office film in The US, UK & Australia grossing more than $264 Million worldwide! Most recently he was seen in REMINISCENCE starring Hugh Jackman & Thandiwe Newton. Also a director & producer, Shawn started his own production company, Maestro Entertainment, LLC. With Maestro, Shawn has produced and directed many music videos which have aired nationally and internationally. He has also directed short films & television pilots. A graduate of the Peabody Preparatory of Music, Shawn is also a classically trained pianist. His teacher Dr. Nancy Roldán suggested he enter the American Fine Arts Festival’s “Golden Era of Romantic Music” competition after not having performed in public for a few years. He entered and was one of the winners! He performed at the Winners’ Concert at Carnegie Hall.

VIOLIST

Violist Jennifer Rende has a distinguished career in chamber and orchestral music in the US and Europe, regularly performing as soloist and chamber musician. She has been a guest artist with the Washington Chamber Society, the Melos Sinfonia, the National Gallery Orchestra, the Smithsonian Chamber Society, the Sinfonia of Saint Cecilia. Ms. Rende performs regularly with the Wolf Trap Summer Opera Company. She currently serves as First Viola Chair for the newly formed Maryland Lyric Opera, having previously been principal violist for Concert Artists of Baltimore during the ensemble’s 31 seasons. Other international appearances include the St. Mary’s College European tours and international music festivals in Turin and Alba, Italy. Among her recordings are the world premiere of Dominick Argento’s A Water Bird Talk and Ms. Havisham’s Wedding Night (Koch International), Music for Organ and Strings (Naxos), and Italian Voyage with the Maryland Bach Aria Group (Crystal Label). A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute, Rende has served on the faculty of St. Mary’s College of Maryland and teaches master classes at the University of Maryland.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR / PIANIST

Acclaimed an “excellent pianist” and admired for her ability to “breathe life into the score,” Argentine born pianist Nancy Roldán has concertized worldwide interpreting solo, chamber music, and repertory with orchestras. Passionate about the performance of traditional and contemporary repertory, she has premiered numerous compositions, many of which were dedicated to her. She has performed USA premieres of the works of Carlos Guastavino, whose music she championed since her early career, recording for piano solo, two pianos, and violin/piano duos. In 2005, she founded and ran the Liszt-Garrison International Festival and Competition, under the aegis of the American Liszt Society. In 2020, inspired by the life and music of Carlos Guastavino, and supported by a group of kindred spirits, Roldán founded the Sonus International Music Festival and Sonus, a collective of international artists dedicated to the diffusion of the music of Carlos Guastavino and to the endorsement and presentations of other creative endeavors rooted in the universal spirit of folk traditions. Dr. Roldán retired from teaching at the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins 2007. www.nancyroldan.com

PIANIST

Lilia Salsano is one of the pre-eminent Argentine pianists of her generation. She frequently performs at prestigious International Festivals – highlights of which are the "Festival Martha Argerich - Buenos Aires," the “Echoes Festival of Classical Latin Music” (London- UK) and the “Festival Pianistico Internazionale” (Italy). A passionate ambassador for Argentine and Latin-American composers, she is the first Argentine pianist to record the Complete Piano Works by Carlos Guastavino (released 2020). Salsano is the resident pianist of the Provincial Symphony Orchestra of Santa Fe. She is a graduate of the University of Litoral and a faculty member at the Liceo Municipal of Santa Fe. www.liliasalsano.com.ar

PIANIST

Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Liza Stepanova has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Weill and Zankel recital halls at Carnegie Hall; Alice Tully, Merkin, David Geffen, and Steinway halls in New York City and at the Kennedy Center. Stepanova is one of the founders of the Chamber Music Athens festival in Georgia. Her debut solo album Tones & Colors: Music and Visual Art (CAG Records, 2018), recorded with Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, was featured on Performance Today, BBC Music Magazine, and in recital at New York City’s National Sawdust. Her most recent project E Pluribus Unum (Navona Records, 2020) features piano music by contemporary immigrant composers, including three world-premiere recordings. Stepanova has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at international festivals at Castleton, La Jolla, Music@Menlo, Mostly Mozart, Copenhagen (Denmark), and Davos (Switzerland.) Stepanova holds degrees from the “Hanns Eisler” Academy in Berlin, Germany (BM) and The Juilliard School (MM, DMA.) She is associate professor of piano at the University of Georgia. http://www.liza-stepanova.com/biography.

GUITARIST

Guitarist, composer, arranger, and guitar teacher, Andres Vadin was born in Habana, Cuba. He graduated from the Guillermo Tomas and Amadeo Roldan Conservatory of Music where he won first place in the Amadeo Roldan guitar competition in Habana at the age of 12. Nominated for a Grammy award in 2017, Andres is a versatile musician who’s shown great passion for different music styles, performing popular, flamenco, jazz, and classical styles. He has toured extensively in Europe, Middle Eastern countries, and in the Americas, performing in music festivals such as the Port World Music, the Montreal International Jazz Music, the Flamenco Arts (FAF) in California, and at the Lluvia Flamenca Festival in Phoenix, Arizona. A member of the project “Jose Antonio Rodriguez Trio”, his session work includes the movie soundtracks of “The Wale of a Tale” and “Bel Canto.” He performs his original compositions infused with Cuban, Arabic, and Jazz influences, with the Andres Vadin Project. As a passionate teacher, he has collaborated with Barrio Music, an organization that provides music education to neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles, CA. Vadin is endorsed by Godin, Fishman, and Bartolex guitars.

PIANIST

Fernando Viani is a versatile artist with an extensive solo and chamber music repertoire, who is passionate in the performance of music of his native Argentina, as well as works by the great classical composers. Viani considers himself an ambassador of music and his mature performances never fail to leave a deep impression on his audience. As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras in Germany, Brazil, and Argentina. As collaborator he has performed with artists, such as Guillermo Anzorena, Sontraud Speidel, and Alicia Borges. He teaches at the Bern Conservatory and offers master classes in Europe, North and South America.

COMPOSER | COMPETITION FINALIST

Gabriel Abedi (Brescia, May 13th, 1999) is an italian-ghanian composer born in Italy from Ghanaian parents. He is currently studying composition (bachelor’s degree) at Trento Conservatory in Italy. In his music, he brings together the traditions of European music with the musical culture of Ghana, Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Abedi is inspired by modern genres such as Jazz, Hip hop, and electronic music.

COMPOSER | COMPETITION FINALIST

Bracha Bdil (1988) composer, conductor, and pianist, is a member of the Israel Composers' League and her works are published by the Israel Music Institute. Her repertoire includes orchestral music, chamber, vocal and electronic music, as well as music for dance and theater. Bracha won first prizes in the International Symphony Orchestra Composition Contest named after Michal Kleofas Oginski, Molodechno, Belarus, the Electo Silva International Choir Festival, Santiago de Cuba, the VIII International Piano and Composition Competition, ULJUS, Serbia (2021), the Wolf Durmashkin Composition Award, Germany (2018) and the Yardena Alotin Composition Competition, Jerusalem, Israel (2016). For her Symphonic Poem Genesis, Bracha was awarded the ACUM Award, Israel (2019-20) and was chosen as one of the composers in representing Israel at the Asian Composers League Festival, Taiwan (2018). Bracha won prizes in the Renee B. Fisher Composer Awards 2022-2023, New Haven, Connecticut, the Lala Awards competition held by Pleroma Records, Poland (2020), and the International Choral Writing Competition named after A.D Kastalsky – Moscow (2018). Site and list of works: http://brachabdil.blogspot.com/p/list-of-compositions.html

COMPOSER | COMPETITION FINALIST

İnci Yakar Birol began her piano education with Arzu Temizer and her composition studies with Babür Tongur at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul State Conservatory. She won the Yamaha Foundation Piano Competition in 2002 and received the Honorable Mention award at the Eczacıbaşı National Composition Competition with her composition Three Movements for Orchestra. Obtaining her Bachelor Degrees in Composition in 2001 and Piano in 2002, Yakar was accepted to Hochschule für Musik Saar, Germany, where she continued her studies in the piano classes of Prof. Thomas Duis and Prof.Fedele Antonicelli. İnci Yakar Birol received her Concert Piano Diploma in 2006 and her Soloistic Diploma in 2009. Essential piano recordings and concerts in Europe include concerts in Frankfurt and Saarbrücken, Schwetzingen Mozart Festival, SR-2 Kultur Radio recordings, Metz-Arsenal and Luxembourg Philharmonic Hall with Luxembourg Sinfonietta. İnci Yakar Birol's two compositions, Dertli Kaval Variations and Don't Cry, were included in Ulucan Siblings ‘CD Album Bir Ağaç Gibi and pianist Birsen Ulucan’s CD Album Masallar, Rüyalar, Fısıltılar respectively (Lila Müzik label).

COMPOSER | COMPETITION FINALIST

Colombian composer Wolfgang Ordoñez Perez was trained at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana thanks to a scholarship granted by the Rectory of this institution. He graduated with meritorious distinction for his undergraduate work. Wolfgang Ordóñez has received much recognition for his work, among them the prize for Best Unpublished work in the national competition for symphonic bands, with Fanfarria y Pajarillo; and the scholarship in composition for string quartet from the Ministry of Culture, among others. His music has been performed in several countries in Latin America, the US, and Europe. Additionally, Ordóñez is a systems engineer graduated from the Universidad de los Llanos in the city of Villavicencio, Colombia.

COMPOSER | COMPETITION FINALIST

Born in 1994 in Mexico City, Israel began his musical studies at age 6. He showed inclination to write music at an early age, creating small pieces as a game. Son of two musicians determined to support him, they abandoned their life in Cancun to move to Xalapa in 2008 - where Israel began his studies at the Universidad Veracruzana (UV.) The sudden death of his father inspired him to dedicate him an Elegy. His career as a pianist has always been accompanied by the pleasure of writing music, composing miniatures and some studies for piano. In 2015, he changed his profile from interpreter to composer. He is currently attending his master's degree studies in music at the UV. Previous distinctions include II place in the minimalist category” and finalist in the "Valley Winds International Composition Competition."