Frederic Anthony Rzewski was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. From 1977 up to his eventual death, he lived mainly in Belgium. His major compositions, which often incorporate social and political themes, include the minimalist Coming Together and the variation set The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, which has been called "a modern classic".
Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, he announced his resignation from the San Francisco Symphony upon the expiration of his contract in 2025.
Aaron Jay Kernis is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as director of the Minnesota Orchestra's Composers' Institute, and is currently the workshop director of the Nashville Symphony Composer Lab. He has received numerous awards and honors throughout his thirty-five-year career. He lives in New York City with his wife, pianist Evelyne Luest, and their two children.
Michael Kevin Daugherty is a multiple Grammy Award-winning American composer, pianist, and teacher. He is influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism. Daugherty's notable works include his Superman comic book-inspired Metropolis Symphony for Orchestra (1988–93), Dead Elvis for Solo Bassoon and Chamber Ensemble (1993), Jackie O (1997), Niagara Falls for Symphonic Band (1997), UFO for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (1999) and for Symphonic Band (2000), Bells for Stokowski from Philadelphia Stories for Orchestra (2001) and for Symphonic Band (2002), Fire and Blood for Solo Violin and Orchestra (2003) inspired by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, Time Machine for Three Conductors and Orchestra (2003), Ghost Ranch for Orchestra (2005), Deus ex Machina for Piano and Orchestra (2007), Labyrinth of Love for Soprano and Chamber Winds (2012), American Gothic for Orchestra (2013), and Tales of Hemingway for Cello and Orchestra (2015). Daugherty has been described by The Times (London) as "a master icon maker" with a "maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear."
Lawrence Dillon is an American composer, and Composer in Residence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. His music has a wide range of expression, generally within a tonal idiom notable both for its rhythmic propulsiveness and a strong lyrical element. Acclaimed particularly for his chamber music, he has also written extensively for voice and large ensembles.
Christopher Chapman Rouse III was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.
Kevin Matthew Puts is an American composer, best known for his opera The Hours and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera Silent Night and a Grammy Award in 2023 for his concerto Contact.
Aaron Zigman is a classically-trained American composer, producer, arranger, songwriter, and musician who has scored music for films including The Notebook, The Company Men, Bridge to Terabithia, John Q., The Proposal, Flicka, For Colored Girls, Flash of Genius, Sex & the City, Alpha Dog, and Escape from Planet Earth. He has also written, arranged and produced over 50 hit albums, and co-written songs with legendary and contemporary artists including Quincy Jones, Christina Aguilera, Phil Collins, Was, John Legend, Dionne Warwick, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, and Seal.
Emilio Kauderer is an Argentine composer, orchestrator and songwriter residing in Los Angeles. He is best known for his scores for films including "Metegol (Underdogs)", "Secret in Their Eyes", and "A Place In the World". Kauderer won a Latin Grammy for his work on Bajofondo's 2002 album "Bajofondo Tango Club".
Ralph van Raat is a Dutch classical pianist.
James Matheson is an American composer. His works have been commissioned and performed by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Borromeo String Quartet, Carnegie Hall and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. In December 2011, he received the Charles Ives Living from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an award providing him with $100,000 for two years (2012-2014). Previously, he received the Academy’s Goddard Lieberson Fellowship in 2008 and Hinrichsen Award in 2002. He has also received awards from the Civitella Ranieri, Bogliasco and Sage Foundations, ASCAP, and the Robbins Prize. He was executive director of the MATA Festival of New Music in New York from 2005-2007 and has been a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival. Since September 2009, he has been the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship Program.
Adam Schoenberg is an American composer. A member of the Atlanta School of Composers, his works have been performed by numerous orchestras and ensembles in the U.S. Schoenberg was the 2010-2012 guest composer for the Aspen Music Festival, the 2012-2013 composer-in-residence for the Kansas City Symphony, the 2013-2014 composer-in-residence for the Lexington Philharmonic, and the 2015-2017 composer-in-residence for the Fort Worth Symphony. Schoenberg's honors include a 2009 and 2010 MacDowell Colony fellowship, the 2007 Morton Gould Young Composer Award from ASCAP, and the 2006 Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters.
Ory Shihor is an Israeli-American pianist, pedagogue, and co-founder of the Los Angeles based Ory Shihor Institute.
Timo Andres is an American composer and pianist. He grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The Hollywood Chamber Orchestra (HCO) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, and founded in 2015 by musicians Noah Gladstone and Mark Robertson, who are also co-music directors.
Jean-Michel Bernard is a French pianist, composer, educator, orchestrator, and music producer. He is well known for regularly writing, performing, and scoring for films, such as The Science of Sleep, Hugo, Paris-Manhattan, Ca$h, and Be Kind Rewind.
Ellen Reid is an American composer originally from Oak Ridge, Tennessee and living and working in New York City and Los Angeles. Reid is a multi-genre composer whose breadth of work spans classical, opera, sound installations, film scoring, avant-pop, ensemble and choral writing. She is known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, p r i s m, Ellen Reid SOUNDWALK and her work with various orchestras around the world, including the album isomonstrosity.
Richard Keith Baitz is an American composer, born in 1954. His work incorporates elements of classical, jazz, electronic and world music, and has been extensively utilized for film, television, theatre, dance and the concert stage. He has also served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and Columbia College Chicago, and was founding director of BMI’s "Composing for the Screen" workshop in New York City.
Hocket was an American contemporary music piano duo that was based in Los Angeles, California. It consisted of Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff. Established in 2014, Hocket was a Piano Spheres core artist.
Sarah Gibson was an American pianist and composer. She founded a piano duo, Hocket, with pianist and composer Thomas Kotcheff. Her compositions have been performed by major orchestras throughout the U.S. and in Europe.
