2023 fellows
- Abrielle Scott, flute
- Anne Pinkerton, oboe
- Ari Sussman, composer
- Bobby Ge, composer
- Carina Yee, violin
- Celka Ojakangas, composer
- Chelsea Strayer, double bass
- Claire Litwinowicz, violin
- Cole Reyes, composer
- Daijana Wallace, composer
- Dylan Ofrias, percussion
- Elicia Neo, violin
- Elizabeth Hall-Keough, cello
- Ethan Strickland, percussion
- Iwo Jedynecki, Accordion
- Jacob Ridderberg, composer
- Jacob Nance, saxophone
- Kathryn Vetter, clarinet
- Kennedy Dixon, composer
- Laura Martínez Díaz, saxophone
- Lucas Gianini, clarinet
- Luciano Medina, percussion
- Lucy McKnight, composer
- Madeline Hildebrand, piano
- Nolan Hildebrand, composer
- Sam Zagnit, double bass
- Santiago Velo Quintairos, viola
- Shiri Riseman, composer
- William Pyle, saxophone
- Xingyi Betty Chen, piano
More info about our 2023 fellows:
Abrielle Scott is entering her senior year at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music in Nashville, TN. Pursuing a BM in Flute Performance, she studies with Professor Molly Barth. Originally from Princeton, NJ, Abrielle is a former student of Barbara Highton Williams and John Lane at the Westminster Conservatory of Music. When she isn’t making music, she enjoys experimenting with new recipes, traveling to new cities, and watching movies with her dogs, Taffy and Ginger.
A versatile performer in solo, chamber, and orchestral music, Anne Pinkerton is an oboist originally from the Chicago area. She received her bachelor’s degree at Oberlin College and Conservatory and master’s degree at Colburn Conservatory. She frequently performs with Bay Area ensemble One Found Sound, and is a founding member of Reeds and Keys, an oboe and organ duo where she performs with her partner, organist Matthew Dion. With a background in dance, she enjoys curating and performing interdisciplinary works and collaborating with other artists. She absolutely loves hedgehogs.
Ari Sussman (b. 1993) is a Philadelphia based pianist, clawhammer banjoist, and composer of vocal, chamber, orchestral, choral, and electronic music. With degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of Michigan, Sussman is currently an Adjunct Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Temple University and the West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Sussman enjoys long walks, playing basketball, drinking tea, Curb Your Enthusiasm, mancala, cheesecake, and avidly rooting for Philadelphian and University of Michigan sports teams. www.arisussman.com
Bobby Ge is a Chinese-American composer and avid collaborator who seeks to create vivid emotional journeys that navigate boundaries between genre and medium. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at Princeton University. www.bobbygemusic.com
Violinist Carina Yee’s passion lies in expanding the canon of contemporary violin repertoire through collaborating with living composers, premiering and commissioning new works, and crafting programs that champion the classics while exploring the unfamiliar. Aside from her work in the contemporary scene, Ms. Yee also performs as a section member of the Canton Symphony Orchestra and Akron Symphony Orchestra. She is currently pursuing graduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the guidance of Jessica Lee and Phil Setzer and holds a B.M. in Violin Performance from the Eastman School of Music and a B.A. in Language, Media, and Communication from the University of Rochester.
Celka Ojakangas is a Los Angeles-based composer whose “work rates high on the bold and beautiful scales.” (Columbia Tribune) Informed by her experience as a violist in ensembles ranging from symphonies to jazz bands, Celka’s music plays with hybridism and recontextualization, exploring and blurring the boundaries between culturally-defined genres for a resultant eclectic palette of sounds. www.celka.net
Chelsea Strayer is a 23 year old double bassist from San Diego, California with a passion for contemporary music and teaching. In 2022, she completed her undergraduate at Johns Hopkins and Peabody Conservatory where Chelsea earned a bachelor’s degree in double bass performance and music education. Chelsea is now attending Yale School of Music, working towards completing her Masters in Music.
Claire Litwinowicz is a multidisciplinary violinist from Meanjin (Brisbane), Australia, whose creativity consists of music performance, sound art, improvisation and writing. Driven by the power of connection, Claire aims to highlight the voices of those who aren’t always heard, while continuing to expand her musical horizons, and has a curiosity for new and boundary-pushing music. Her current creative outputs exist in grey areas between classical and new music realms, whether that is collaborative installations, electro-acoustic compositions, improvised performance or curated contemporary classical concerts. Claire is continuing to hone her skills within and outside of performing and is excited to find the intersections between her creative pursuits.
Cole Reyes is a Brooklyn-based composer, conductor, and performer originally from the Chicagoland area. His music has been performed by groups such as the JACK Quartet, Bergamot Quartet, Unheard-of//Ensemble, BlackBox Ensemble among others. He currently serves as Artistic Director of Telos Consort, a professional mixed chamber ensemble based in New York City.
Daijana Wallace is a composer based in Wichita, KS. Her music expresses her inner thoughts and feelings, and is influenced by interactions with friends and strangers, playing chamber music, and jamming, which allows her music to take shape in different sound worlds and styles. When she’s not composing, Daijana enjoys chamber music, cooking, petting her cat, and tweeting.
Dylan Ofrias is a New York-based percussionist and educator. He is a resident accompanist at the Paul Taylor Dance Company and a member of Gamelan Yowana Sari, an ensemble specializing in Balinese Gamelan. Dylan is highly passionate about contemporary music and actively seeks opportunities to play the works of living composers. He has premiered works by composers such as Benjamin Schweitzer, Davide Capobianco, and Robert Dick. He has also had the privilege of performing with Talujon Percussion and Talea Ensemble. Dylan is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s of Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music.
Elicia Neo is a Singaporean violinist and video designer with a keen interest in the notion of curating and art-making – what it means to create as a performer. As a Britten-Pears Young Artist 22-23, Neo’s passion in classical contemporary music forms her medium in how she shares her story. Her interests have led her to collaborate with composers and animators to create Skeleton (2021), an original multimedia piece for violin and percussion unpacking imposter syndrome, and Emergent (2022), an electronic visual-dance-music recital held in collaboration with dancers. She is currently working on a recital that integrates contemporary violin repertoire with generative electronics and audioreactive visuals.
Elizabeth Kate Hall-Keough is a cellist and singer from Brooklyn, New York. She is currently obtaining her masters at the The Norwegian Academy of Music studying cello under the instruction of Tanja Orning. Elizabeth’s most recent performances have been with her new music trio Arepo, for accordion, guitar and herself as well as her own solo work in which she has delved into a new genre of repertoire for cello and voice in one. She has collaborated with the Munch Museum of Oslo, Ensemble Lime, Rolf-Erik Nystrom, Hakon Thelin, and Natsumi Osborn. In the fall of 2023, Elizabeth will be performing within the Ultima Music Festival in Oslo, both with her trio and solo.
Ethan Strickland is a percussionist and educator who is passionate about community outreach. He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree as a graduate assistant at Michigan State University. Outside of school, Ethan tours as a Heartland Marimba Artist, providing him with more opportunities to teach and perform in diverse communities.
Iwo Jedynecki is an experienced performer of contemporary music, commissioning numerous pieces for solo accordion, chamber groups as well as concertos (including the first ever Double Concerto for violin, accordion and orchestra). He has won prizes at over 30 international music competitions, has performed in 25 countries across four continents, and has received praise from the likes of Krzysztof Penderecki and Maxim Vengerov. In 2022, he received the a Fulbright scholarship, becoming the first classical accordionist in history of New York University. As one of the very few concert accordionists in the country, he aspires to bring his instrument to the greatest stages in America, showcasing the exciting spectrum of its unique sound qualities and various performance possibilities.
Jacob Nance is a saxophonist, composer, and pianist currently residing in East Lansing, Michigan. Equally versed in classical, jazz, and pop stylings, Jacob is passionate about merging his expertise in both fields through new music.
Jacob Ridderberg is a Danish composer, sound artist, educator and musician who has worked extensively with a wide array of experimental and instrumental music. Throughout the last couple of years his primary focus has been on creating interdisciplinary relational works exploring the impacts of digital technology on our understanding of music culture, identity, memory, pleasure, addiction, nostalgia, the relationship between the physical and the immaterial, between reality and simulation, sound, politics and the creation of meaning. www.jacobridderberg.com
Dr. Kathryn Vetter is an internationally award-winning clarinetist based in New York City and a founding member of Sputter Box, a clarinet, voice, percussion ensemble, and Nu Quintet. She recently performed in the 66th Festival Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea during La Biennale di Venezia, where she was awarded “Best Performance.” Originally from New Jersey, Kathryn currently resides in Brooklyn and teaches at Five Towns College and Mannes Prep-The New School. www.kathrynvetter.com
Described as a “vibrant musical voice,” Kennedy Taylor Dixon is a composer, violist, and scholar currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music Composition at Princeton University. Her music and research has been heard at multiple national conferences and international festivals, including New Music on the Point, Bang on a Can, Electronic Music Midwest, and International Alliance for Women in Music. Dixon holds a M.A. in Music Composition and a B.M. in Viola Performance and Music Composition from Western Michigan University. www.kennedytaylordixon.com
Lucas Gianini enjoys exploring the vast sonic possibilities of the clarinet, especially through the use of extended techniques. He holds BM and DMA degrees from the University of North Carolina- Greensboro, an MM degree from Bowling Green State University. www.lucasgianini.com
Percussionist Luciano Medina breaks the barrier between performer and audience by creating a performance atmosphere that promotes intimate and honest connection with his groove, sound, and nuance, introducing people to both contemporary art music and Latin American genres. Luciano has a Bachelor’s in Music Performance from the University of Kentucky and is currently working towards his Master’s in Music Performance from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating, he seeks to embrace the freelance-musician lifestyle by performing chamber music, teaching students in a varied capacity, learning more about different Latin American styles, and making lifelong connections along the way.
Lucy McKnight is an artist who works with colors, textures, and sounds to create environments where she and others can explore intense emotions and ways of surviving them. Recent mediums include wood, strings, pots, paint, ceramics, tinfoil, magnets, fabric, her cello, her own body and voice, and her friends’ bodies and voices. Currently, she and her three deeply affectionate cats live in her wildly colorful home in Trenton, New Jersey while she works on her PhD in Music Composition at Princeton University. soundcloud.com/ucycnight
Canadian pianist Madeline Hildebrand is a recent doctoral graduate from Stony Brook University. She has performed across Canada and the US, in Italy, Romania, Armenia, and Georgia. Career highlights include performing Philip Glass etudes alongside the composer himself, singing high B’s while pummelling the piano in Banff Alberta, and transforming a riverbank into a dazzling interactive light show featuring six pianos in Winnipeg Manitoba. madelinehildebrand.com
Nolan Hildebrand is a composer, improviser, researcher, and noise artist based in Toronto, Canada. His musical practices are centered around noise. Through noise, Nolan explores conceptual and physical extremities to create intense and engaging music. His compositions span classical ensembles and electroacoustic music, and performance in an experimental solo noise project dubbed BLACK GALAXIE. Nolan’s soundcloud and website
A versatile bassist, composer, and educator, Sam Zagnit is a New-York-based musician who enjoys a multifaceted career. Sam regularly performs orchestral music, contemporary classical music, experimental free improvisation, in addition to playing electric bass in the rock band, Awksymoron. Recent engagements include a domestic tour with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, Mercury Lounge, Contemporaneous at Greenwood cemetery and MASS MoCA and various DIY venues. In the fall, Sam will join the Virginia Symphony bass section.
Shiri Riseman is an Israeli composer, conductor and singer, currently based in Graz, Austria. Her main compositional interest include the exploration of the human voice and its implication on instrumental music and the connection between improvised to written music. soundcloud.com/shiririse
Will Pyle is an artist and artistic administrator driven by a love of connecting people with music, art, and the world around them. As a saxophonist, Will is a founding member in the Aruna Quartet which has garnered national and international acclaim. As an arts administrator, Will currently serves as Executive Assistant and Communications Manager for Third Angle New Music in Portland, Oregon. Outside of his musical and administrative life, Will enjoys shooting 35mm film and playing with his two dogs.
Xingyi Betty Chen, from Hong Kong, has completed her dual bachelor degrees in piano performance and composition at Eastman School of Music. She aspires to express spiritual-philosophical explorations and consolation through music, literature, and visual arts. She is eager to promote new music through performing and composing in different collaborations projects. She participates in OSSIA new music ensemble and Musica Nova and actively performs. Her recent collaboration includes a new cello solo with Jeffrey Zeigler, as well as in the Naumburg project composing for baroque organ in Germany. Xingyi’s youtube.
See all of the past years’ participants on our alum page.