2024-25 Luna Composition Lab Fellows
Sam Pichardo
Sam Pichardo
Sam Pichardo (age 17) is a Dominican classical and jazz saxophonist raised in New York City. Sam’s musical career started from an early age on strings and then shifted to band. Sam has maintained a spot as the principal saxophone player in most groups they have been in. Sam has had the wonderful opportunity to play at Carnegie Hall twice! Sam finds inspiration from composers that are POC, especially Kelijah Dunton, Omar Thomas, and Kevin Day. Aside from music, Sam’s other hobby is writing poetry. Sam is very eager to learn new things and take on this new experience with Luna Lab.
Danity Pike
Danity Pike
Danity Pike (age 16) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She began playing piano at the age of 7 and has been interested in music creation ever since. Danity is currently excited by conceptual composition techniques and performance in songwriting. Her music is often inspired by storytelling, navigating the world between poetry and composition. Danity has taken part in various composition programs, such as Wildflower Composers, Luna Lab’s Adventures in Sound, and the Walden School Young Musicians Program. Her past works have been performed by the Network for New Music Ensemble, Friction Quartet, and International Contemporary Ensemble.
Mia Turakhia
Mia Turakhia
Mia Turakhia (age 13) is a composer, violinist, and pianist from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is an 8th grader at The Nueva School and attends the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College. Introduced to composition by her piano teacher, Eva-Maria Zimmermann, Mia has continued to develop her skills at SFCM, studying violin with Alena Tsoi-Barantschik and composition with June Bonacich and Mauricio Rodriguez. She has participated in summer programs such as C’est Bon, Music at Tateuchi, and Heifetz. In spring 2024, Mia won the Kris Getz Composition Competition, and her work was premiered at the SFCM pre-college commencement.
Zoe Verduin
Zoe Verduin
Zoe Verduin (age 15) is a composer and violinist from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. She is an advanced violin student at the Hoff Barthelson Music School in Westchester, where she also studies composition under the mentorship of Dr. Derek Cooper. Zoe has been awarded several scholarships in music composition, which is her passion, including an ASCAP Foundation scholarship to study at the Manhattan School of Music’s Summer Composition program. Her work was also selected for performance at the Young Composers Honors Concert at the annual NYSSMA conference. In her free time, she plays bass in a rock band.
Brannon Warn-Johnston
Brannon Warn-Johnston
Brannon Warn-Johnston (age 15) is an enthusiastic composer and multi-instrumentalist from Burien, Washington. She loves backpacking with her violin, often taking inspiration for her compositions from nature and the outdoors. Her compositions have been performed by the Seattle Symphony, Symphony Tacoma, Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Festival Orchestra, Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO), and Seattle Conservatory of Music. Brannon’s music has won awards from the Foundation for Modern Music International Composers Competition, Simon-Fiset Composition Competition, National Federation of Music Clubs Composers Contest, 2023 SYSO Inspiration Award, and more. Brannon has participated in the Merriman-Ross Young Composers Workshop at the Seattle Symphony for three years.
Emilie Wolff
Emilie Wolff
Emilie Wolff (age 17) is a composer and cellist from Overland Park, Kansas. She first started composing music on the cello and quickly grew from there. Having a deep love for both music and film, she now strives to create cinematic works of music that could fit a bigger picture. Emilie has studied composition at the Interlochen Arts Camp. She currently plays in her high school’s symphonic and chamber orchestras where she frequently writes and arranges a variety of music for both groups. She is also a part of Golden Hornet’s Young Composers’ Collective based out of Austin, Texas.
2024-25 Luna Composition Lab Honorable Mentions
Emily Bai
Emily Bai
Emily Bai (age 15) is a composer, violinist, and pianist from Clarksville, Maryland. Her music is inspired by anything from brief phrases of words to artwork to existence itself, and seeks to explore the idea of connectivity and transformation through sound. Her works have been recognized by competitions such as MTNA, the American Prize, and Tribeca New Music. Emily currently studies composition with Mayflower Art Center’s Yiming Wu, and has participated in Juilliard’s Summer Composition Program. She is attending her junior year at the Bryn Mawr School.
Max Bissonnette
Max Bissonnette
Max Bissonnette (age 15) is a composer, writer, and artist from New York City. Their work focuses on storytelling through music, often working with text and musical theater. Their music has aired on WQXR, and has been played by musicians including The Knights and Parhelion Trio. They currently attend Special Music School High School, where they are majoring in music composition.
Leo Egen
Leo Egen
Leo Egen (age 17) is an oboist and composer from Kalamazoo, Michigan. As a composer, Leo strives to tell a story and communicate their emotional landscape with their audience. They enjoy intertwining styles and techniques from all eras of music, from the Baroque period to the 21st century. As an oboist, they perform all varieties of music as both an orchestral musician, a chamber musician, and a soloist. Outside of music, Leo enjoys studying the social sciences, reading, and fashion.
Daniela Escalante Lopez
Daniela Escalante Lopez
Daniela Escalante Lopez (age 18) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from San Francisco, California. She is a freshman composition major at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. Music has been a part of her life since she was young, so pursuing a career in this field is really meaningful. As a composer, Daniela’s goal is to eventually score films, particularly live-action or animated films. One of her greatest inspirations is the soundtrack for The Batman (2022).
Maya Proulx
Maya Proulx
Maya Proulx (age 17) is a pianist, violist, singer, and composer from South Pasadena, California. She sang with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus and with the All Saints Children’s Choir as she trained vocally in classical and jazz styles. Proulx attends high school at California School of the Arts – Duarte, studying creative writing, classical and jazz guitar, and vocals. She plays in the CSArts jazz band as both guitarist and lead singer. She recently wrote a piece for the Pasadena Chorale through the Listening to the Future program and was named a 2024 YoungArts winner with distinction in vocal jazz.
Madeline Yang
Madeline Yang
Madeline Yang (16) is a pianist, composer, and sound artist from Huntington Beach, California. In an attempt to explore our complex histories and identities, her music often transcends genres, fusing gospel and jazz with traditional Chinese elements, experimental sounds with popular music, and any other hodgepodge she can dream up. As a musician, she has performed at Musco Center for the Arts, Queens College, Segerstrom Hall, and Carnegie Hall, among others. She is an alumna of Dwyer Vocal Ensemble, where she now serves as the accompanist. She studies piano with Dr. Hedy Lee and composition with Mr. Isaac Loew.