MADELINE CLARA CHENG is a composer, saxophonist, and pianist from the San Francisco Bay Area, studying composition and business law as a Presidential Scholar at the University of Southern California. She is a 2023 YoungArts Award Winner and a recipient of the ICEBERG New Music and Lift Up Our Voices scholarships. As an alumna of Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid's Luna Composition Lab, Madeline has been awarded commissions by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's May Festival and the UUCWC Crossing Chorale.

Madeline’s compositions have been performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Bergen International Festival, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. She is an alumna of the Tanglewood Institute, for which she received a full scholarship, as well as the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program. When she’s not composing, Madeline can be found music directing a show or building escape rooms.

NINA SHEKHAR is a composer and multimedia artist who explores the intersection of identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter to create bold and intensely personal works. Described as “tart and compelling” (New York Times), “vivid” (Washington Post), an “orchestral supernova” (LA Times), and a “rare composer who opens our ears a little wider each time” (Chicago Tribune), her music has been commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, The Crossing, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Her work has been featured by the Hollywood Bowl, Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art... (full bio: https://www.ninashekhar.com/about)

SAGE SHURMAN (b. 2005) is a composer, orchestrator, and multimedia artist from Los Angeles. She is interested in art as a sensory experience and is known to create driving emotional narratives. Amongst other awards, Sage is an ASCAP Morton Gould winner, a John Green Prize winner, and a YoungArts winner. She has been commissioned by groups including Hub New Music, the Taos Chamber Music Group, the Cincinnati May Festival, and ChamberQUEER. Additionally, her works have been performed by ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic String Orchestra, members of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Southeast Symphony, Sandbox Percussion, the Thalea Quartet, the Parker Quartet, Ensemble 4 These Times, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), NKCC, Triple Helix, and Recap Percussion Quartet. (full bio: sageshurman.com)

URSULA KWONG-BROWN is a composer, sound designer and arts technologist, originally from NYC but recently located to Los Angeles. Described as “atmospheric and accomplished” by The New York Times, her work has been performed in the United States, Europe, and Asia in diverse venues including Carnegie Hall, le Poisson Rouge, Miller Theatre, the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center, the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.  Honors include ASCAP and NACUSA awards, a Berkeley Symphony Composer Fellowship and grants from Chamber Music America and the Sloan Foundation. Ursula received her B.A. in Music & Biology from Columbia University, and her Ph.D. in Music Composition & New Media from the University of California, Her scores are published by Ursa Minor Music.