Elizabeth Huston is dedicated to fostering accessibility and appreciation for contemporary music. With a passion for creating entry points into modern compositions, Elizabeth draws inspiration from diverse artistic expressions, ranging from theater and dance to performance art and visual art. Through her observation of audience responses across these mediums, she crafts immersive experiences that resonate deeply, inviting individuals to connect with the intended meanings while weaving contemporary music into the fabric of their own life narratives.

A harpist by training, Elizabeth began her journey into championing new music with her desire to expand the repertoire for her instrument. She embarked on a mission to both enrich the harp world but also to support emerging composers. Recognizing the challenges faced by composers in navigating the transition from academia to professional careers, Elizabeth is committed to providing them with the resources and platforms they need to thrive.

Originally from Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, Elizabeth has lived and worked in Washington, Pennsylvania, California, and the Netherlands.

Composer Jason V. Barabba’s work has been called “deeply meditative” by Fanfare Magazine. His music has been performed by such diverse musicians as the Arneis Quartet, Janaki String Trio, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, the California E.A.R. Unit, and Chicago's Quintet Attacca. Reviews of the 2011 premiere of Barabba’s work “Diddling: Considered as One of the Exact Sciences,” said “Barabba’s ‘Diddling’ was plain evidence of this composer’s tremendous talent and ability to evoke laughter from the listener – not an easy task.” After receiving a B.A. in Latin American Studies at Occidental College, Mr. Barabba studied music composition at the University of Chicago, University of California at Irvine, and UCLA. He lives and works in Los Angeles. Recordings of Barabba’s music have been commercially released on the Yarlung Records, MMC Recordings and Navona Records labels. For more information, please visit his homepage.

Vera Ivanova is a Russian-born composer currently based in Los Angeles and Orange County, where she teaches at Chapman University and The Colburn Academy for Young Artists. She graduated from the Moscow Special Central Music School, Moscow Conservatory, Guildhall School in London (M.M.), Eastman School (Ph.D.). Her works have been performed worldwide and released on five different CDs.

Ms. Ivanova is a recipient of numerous scholarships and awards at 28th Bourges Electro-Acoustic Competition, 8th International Mozart Competition, International Contest of Acousmatic Compositions Métamorphoses 2004, ASCAP Morton Gould Award, 8th International Piano Competition at Orleans. For more information, please visit her homepage.

The music of LA-based composer Ethan Braun has been described as a “diaphonous haze,” offering “a heady taste of pure weightlessness,” (New York Times), “a sound that these ears – raised on Thurston, Lee et al. – find irresistible” (The Johnson Rambler). Braun has written music for such ensembles as the Shanghai, Albany, and New York Youth Symphonies, the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble, and Ensemble Klang (Netherlands). Upcoming projects include an opera commissioned by the city of Berlin with visual artist/​choreographer Adam Linder, and an opera with Contemporaneous (NYC), in addition to commissions for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ensemble Klang, and the Aaron Copland House CULTIVATE program. Braun penned theses on spirituality in the music of John Coltrane, and self-presentation and aesthetics in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Trans, and has presented on the intersection of pedagogy at NYU and in the Harvard University community. He achieved doctoral candidacy at the Yale School of music in 2017. For more information, please visit his homepage.

Dante De Silva is a Los Angeles-based composer. He holds degrees from UCLA (Ph.D.), UC Santa Cruz (M.A.), and Humboldt State University (B.A.), and he is currently teaching at UCLA. Recent works have been premiered by soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, the CSU Bakersfield Concert Band, and pianist Ryan MacEvoy McCullough. His string quartet, Hungry, written for Lyris Quartet, is the 2019 winner of the American Prize (instrumental chamber music – larger ensembles). For more information, please visit his homepage.

“Radiant and transcendent,” the music of Juhi Bansal weaves together themes celebrating musical and cultural diversity, nature and the environment, and strong female role models. Her music draws upon elements as disparate as progressive metal, Hindustani music, spectralism and musical theatre tradition to create deeply expressive, evocative sound-worlds. As an Indian composer brought up in Hong Kong, her work draws subtly upon both those traditions, entwining them closely and intricately with the gestures of western classical music.

Current projects include Waves of Change, a digital experience on womanhood, identity and clash of cultures inspired by the story of the Bangladesh Girls Surf Club; and Edge of a Dream, an opera about Ada Lovelace, daughter of infamous poet Lord Byron and a 19th Century pioneer in computing commissioned by Los Angeles Opera. Recent seasons have included commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Beth Morrison Projects, New York Virtuoso Singers, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, AIDS Quilt Songbook 20th Anniversary project and more. Her music is regularly performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia and available on the Naxos, Albany and Roven Records labels. For more information, please visit her homepage.