From massive works for orchestra and chorus such as Yanga (2019), concertos Fractalis (2022), politically charged operas Only the Truth (2008), magical chamber works Altar de muertos (1997), and intimate solo pieces Canto a Hanna (2005), Gabriela Ortiz’s music reveals a sophisticated compositional technique and a meticulous attention to rhythm and timbre. Her work has been performed by prestigious orchestras and ensembles such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ortiz is currently composer-in-residence at Carnegie Hall, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and at the Curtis Institute of Music. She also teaches composition at Mexico’s National Autonomous University.

Currently serving as Composer-in-Residence with the storied Philadelphia Orchestra and included in the Washington Post’s list of the 35 most significant women composers in history, identity has always been at the center of composer/pianist Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Born in Berkeley, California (September, 1972), to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Gabriela explores her multicultural American heritage through her compositions. In 2017, Gabriela founded the award-winning Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, a non-profit training institution held on her two rural properties in Boonville, CA for emerging composers from a vast array of demographics and aesthetics.

Gavilán Rayna Russom is a visionary artist, composer, scholar, and curator based in New York City whose work provides alternatives to binary thought and fixed modes of categorization. In addition to an extensive discography of recorded music, she has presented solo and collaborative works in performance, video, and installation at a range of international institutions. Rayna is the founding director of Voluminous Arts, a cultural organization whose mission is to foreground, nurture, and advance the experimental artistic culture of transgender people and communities.

Called “some kind of musical Thomas Edison—you can just hear her tinkering around in her workshop, putting together new sounds and textural ideas” (San Francisco Chronicle), Katherine Balch is a composer interested in found sounds, playfulness, intimate spaces, and natural processes. A recipient of the 2020/21 Rome Prize, Katherine’s music has been presented by leading ensembles and festivals including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, Musikfest Berlin, and Tanglewood. When not making or listening to music, she can be found hiking, cooking, or building windchimes.