Dr. Dawn Norfleet hails from Los Angeles as an alumna of Wellesley College and Columbia University. As a Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute Fellow, her orchestra piece, Seed, was selected for a reading in New York City, and was later premiered by the Bloomington Symphony. In 2020, Dr. Norfleet was commissioned by ACO to compose for Clarice Assad. As a Chou Wen-chung Fellow with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, she composed several song settings presented by Molly Morkoski, Jessica Rivera, and Duo Cortona. In 2022-23, she joins the GLFCAM collective, “Composing Earth’…a uniquely robust commissioning program” challenging composers to use their gifts to address urgent environmental issues. A compositional polyglot, her influences include jazz, Western, and global polyphony.

Originally from Washington D.C. and now residing in New York City, inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993) focuses on close collaborative relationships with a wide range of ensembles and soloists. Her musical practice is physical and visceral, attempting to reconcile historical aesthetics and experimental practices with trans & indigenous futures. The New York Times speaks of her music as “alternatively smooth & serrated” and “slyly warp[ing] time”, The Washington Post as “raw, scraping yet soaring”, and The Strad Magazine as “between the material and immaterial”. inti is the 2020 recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award for “work that defies boundary and genre.”

A powerful communicator renowned for her musical scope and versatility, Brazilian-American Clarice Assad is a significant artistic voice in the classical, world music, pop, and jazz genres and is acclaimed for her evocative colors, rich textures, and diverse stylistic range. A prolific Grammy Award–nominated composer with more than 70 works to her credit, she has been commissioned by internationally renowned organizations, festivals, and artists. An in-demand performer, she is a celebrated pianist and inventive vocalist who inspires and encourages audiences’ imaginations to break free of often self-imposed constraints. Her innovative, accessible, and award-winning VOXploration series on music education, creation, songwriting, and improvisation has been presented throughout the world.

Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, to bring communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. Esmail holds degrees from The Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music, and has written for Kronos Quartet, Albany Symphony and Conspirare. A resident of Los Angeles, Esmail is the 20-23 Swan Family Artist in Residence with Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the 20-21 Composer in Residence with Seattle Symphony. She is the Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting musical traditions of India and the West.

Hailed by the New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing,” Gity Razaz’s music ranges from concert solo pieces to opera and large symphonic works. Gity’s music has been commissioned and performed by Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, National Sawdust, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, Canada’s National Ballet School, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra among many others. Her compositions have earned numerous awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Jerome Foundation, the International Search for New Music Competition, and ASCAP, to name a few. Gity attended The Juilliard School on full scholarship, and received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Composition under the tutelage of John Corigliano, Samuel Adler, and Robert Beaser.