Pianist.

Performs The Sword, Moon, and Wine in the Depths of Flowers by finalist composer Xiong Zixi.

Double-Bassist

Performs Surera by finalist composer Cristian Basto. Bassist, composer, and educator Susan Cahill is Associate Professor of Double Bass at The University of Colorado Boulder. A member of the Colorado Symphony since 1997, Susan has performed orchestral, chamber and solo music in the US and internationally. Susan is member of the faculty of The Colorado College Summer Musical Festival, an artist with Festival Mozaic, The Grand Teton Music Festival and guest artist with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Susan is also a guest star and performer on episodes of the PBS Masterworks series, ‘Now Hear This’ with Scott Yoo. Her compositions have been performed and featured in this country and abroad. Susan performs on basses made in 1823 by Guisseppe Sartori and in 2015 by Nick Lloyd.

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.

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

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

Soprano. Judge, CGICC 2023. First Round.

Sharon Daniels sang principal soprano roles from the standard operatic canon, along with favorites Pat Nixon in Nixon in China, Birdie in Regina, Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men, and the title roles in The Ballad of Baby Doe, The Merry Widow, La Belle Helene, and Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, which she also co-stage directed with the composer. She starred opposite Georgio Tozzi in the Broadway revival of The Most Happy Fella which was broadcast nationally on PBS Great Performances. Professional companies (as soprano and stage director) include the San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of St Louis, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Boston Lyric Opera, among others. She is Boston University Associate Professor Emerita, Voice and Performance Techniques, where she was also Director of the Opera Institute. She directed and produced over forty productions and initiated a Fringe Festival of chamber operas which brought to the students living composers such as Carlisle Floyd, Jake Heggie, Jorge Martin, Sam Hedrick, Marjory Merryman, Tobias Picker, Stephen Paulus. Her disciples have won prestigious competitions and grace the stages of national and international opera houses and concert halls. She has served as adjudicator for New American Works for the National Endowment for the Arts, and judge of the International Giulio Gari Competition.

Composer. Judge, CGICC 2023.

Daniel Thomas Davis creates music singled out for its “soul-wrenching” connection to the human voice and its “rich harmonic and textural language” (Classical Voice North America). In recent years, Dan has enjoyed the premiere productions of a handful of acclaimed works for the stage – including Six.Twenty.Outrageous in a Symphony Space / American Opera Project production, Family Secrets: Kith & Kin with North Carolina Opera, and The Impossible She with Rhymes with Opera at the New York Opera Fest. Dan’s music has been performed at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum, Carnegie Hall, and Royal Opera House, by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Lynn Harrell, the Detroit Symphony, Momenta Quartet, London Sinfonietta, ModernMedieval, Yarn|Wire, Lontano, Lexington Philharmonic, Hub New Music, Charlotte Symphony, Ossian Ensemble, Ensemble X, 21st-Century Consort, Locrian Players, and eighth blackbird – among many others. A frequent collaborator with writers, filmmakers, directors and choreographers, he recently scored the feature films An Encounter with Simone Weil and Pushed Up the Mountain, Doug Fitch and Tommy Nguyen’s Stuffed Happens for the Moody Center for the Arts, and the evening-length dance work Breath Catalogue with Megan Nicely/Dance+Kate Elswit. Originally from rural North Carolina, Dan holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Royal Academy of Music, Peabody Conservatory, and Johns Hopkins University. He serves as a professor and composition-program director at Binghamton University (SUNY). He’s an active pianist, conductor, and hurdy-gurdy player.

Trombonist

Performs Remnants by finalist composer Derek Jenkins.

Baritone

Performs Para/Rain by finalist composer Daniel Álvarez Veizaga. Andrew Garland has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, New York Festival of Song, Ravinia festival, Cleveland Art Song Festival, Andre-Turp Society Montreal, Vocal Arts DC, and venues in Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey. He has premiered works by Jake Heggie, William Bolcom, Stephen Paulus, Steven Mark Kohn, Lee Hoiby, Tom Cipullo, and Gabriela Frank. He has performed with the Boston Pops, Atlanta Symphony, Boston Baroque, Handel and Haydn, at the Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center and sung with Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Minnesota Opera, and many others. Garland is a mentor with Bel Canto Boot Camp, and teaches at the University of Colorado.

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

Tenor

Performs The Sword, Moon, and Wine in the Depths of Flowers by finalist composer Xiong Zixi.

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.

Pianist

Piotr Kozłowski (Poland) is a versatile pianist with a special affinity towards chamber and contemporary music. After finalizing his studies at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, he continued his education at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where he served as Graduate Teaching Assistant and received his doctorate guided by Professor Kevin Kenner and Dr. Naoko Takao. Piotr has performed both as a soloist and a chamber musician in Europe and in the United States. His time spent in Vienna as an exchange student triggered his passion towards Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and the Second Viennese School. He loves baroque, early 20th-century, and contemporary music. His recent projects consist of the Piano-Percussion Chamber Works and Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Piotr recorded and co-created Beeth250ven and was featured on the Interwar Retrospections albums. He premiered works by Donald Scott Stinson, Julia Janiak, and other living composers.

Pianist

Performs Tsing Ya by finalist composer Ma Hao.

Clarinetist. Judge, CGICC 2023. First Round.

Born in Mendoza, Argentina. He completed his musical studies in clarinet at the Superior School of Music of the National University of Cuyo, where he began duo performances first with Nancy Roldán, winning the 1963 Young Soloists First Prize in Rosario, and later with Sergio Hualpa, winning the Philharmonic Association of Mendoza 1964 First Prize for Instrumental Duos and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists Award. Other distinctions include the Argentine National Endowment for the Arts (ANEA) Scholarship at the Juan José Castro Conservatory, B. A., followed by numerous awards, musical promotions, and grants to study with Professor Erwin Leuchter. Special performances include the Argentine Mozarteum, the Sociedad Hebraica Argentina, and Music Festivals in Curitiba, Brazil. A scholarship to study in Germany at the Nortwestdeutsche Musikakademie Detmold, with Professor Jost Michaels opened additional opportunities. He won the competition audition as principal clarinetist of the Opera of La Plata, in Buenos Aires, later serving for forty years as first clarinet/assistant concertmaster of the Symphonic Band of the City of Buenos Aires. With ample knowledge of a comprehensive repertory, Mr. Melonari has always programmed works by Argentine composers in his appearances in Argentina and abroad. He currently teaches privately.

Mezzosoprano

Acclaimed for her “smoldering stage presence,” (New York Times) her “richly hued voice” (BBC Music Magazine), the Miami based American-Armenian-Argentine singer Solange Merdinian has garnered international reputation for her versatility and interpretation as a recitalist, chamber musician, and opera singer in repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary, folk, tango, cabaret, and world music. Career highlights include 2022 guest soloist with Firdaus Orchestra at the World Expo Dubai, celebrating International Woman's Day on the first Livestream Concert with the Orchestra; December 2023 Holiday Celebration; Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall Solo Recitals 2021 and 2022; Winner of the Pro Musicis Competition 2019; critically praised “ tour de force” principal role in Maria de Buenos Aires, Opera Tango by Piazzolla; singing at Madison Square Garden in NYC, representing Argentina with the National Anthem; and French pop debut for the Hollywood movie The Hundred-foot Journey: “My mind is a stranger without you”; special guest performer at the UN General Assembly for India’s 70th Independence Day with award winner composer/singer AR Rahman; Chamber Music Concerts with the New Docta Ensemble at Ridotto Concert Series in NY. Since moving to Miami to assume her position at the Steinway Gallery, she has opened the new venue “Sanctuary of the Arts” in Coral Gables. She is now curating the Concert for the 125th Anniversary of the Armenian Diocese of America with guest Artist Kevork Mourad.

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.

Violinist

Performs Tsing Ya by finalist composer Ma Hao.

Sonus 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

Performs Remnants by finalist composer Derek Jenkins.

Composer/Vocalist. Judge, CGICC 2021/2023.

Annika Socolofsky is a composer and avant folk vocalist who explores corners and colors of the voice frequently deemed to be "untrained" and not "classical." Described as “unbearably moving” (Gramophone) and “just the right balance between edgy precision and freewheeling exuberance” (The Guardian), her music erupts from the embodied power of the human voice and is communicated through mediums ranging from orchestral and operatic works to unaccompanied folk ballads and unapologetically joyous Dolly Parton covers. Annika writes extensively for her own voice, including composing a growing repertoire of “feminist rager-lullabies” titled Don’t say a word, which serves to confront centuries of damaging lessons taught to young children by retelling old lullaby texts for a new, queer era. Annika has taken Don’t say a word on the road, performing with ensembles including Eighth Blackbird, New European Ensemble, Albany Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Latitude 49, and Contemporaneous. Her follow-up feminist rager-lullaby song cycle in collaboration with ~Nois, titled I Tell You Me, was recognized by the Chicago Tribune as “grotesquely gorgeous” and was included in their “Chicago's Top 10 for classical music, opera and jazz that defined 2021.” Recordings of her music are available on New Amsterdam, Bright Shiny Things, Carrier, Naxos, and Innova record labels. Her research focuses on contemporary vocal music, using the music of Dolly Parton to create a pedagogical approach to composition that is inclusive of a wide range of vocal qualities, genres, and colors. She is Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado Boulder and is the recipient of the 2021 Gaudeamus Award. She holds her PhD in Composition from Princeton University.

Composer, Competition Judge 2023

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).