Composers

Kerem Ergener

Kerem Ergener is an electronic music composer and multimedia artist whose works has been part of many complications around the world. His solo work has been released under his own name and under the nickname “Le Horla”. He founded his record label Le Horla Records that aims to bring out unheard avant-garde and experimental sound to listeners in 2016. After he graduated from Istanbul Technical University MIAM Sonic Arts he moved to Bangkok as an academician where he organized concerts and sound installations. He is currently a PhD candidate at Louisiana State University’s Experimental Music and Digital Media program.

Willyn Whiting

Willyn Whiting (b.1993) is a Canadian composer of experimental music. His works, over the years, have been performed/read by professional, emerging ensembles including the Bozzini Quartet, Del Sol Sting Quartet, and Ensemble Atlantica. His music has been presented at SEAMUS , ICA Clarinetfest and Groundswell Linked, and the SPLICE Institute among other festivals/workshops.

Willyn’s acoustic works since 2017 have explored spectral techniques and simple algorithmic designs. His electroacoustic pieces have explored improvisation, generative scoring, audiovisual design, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Dylan Burchett

Dylan Burchett does a variety of sound-related things that frequently involve materials powered by electricity. Much of his work involves investigating the theatrical and narrative capacities of reused and/or repurposed physical and/or sonic materials placed in both structured and unstructured settings. Dylan received an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College in 2018, a BFA in Music Composition from the New College of Florida in 2015, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Experimental Music and Digital Media at Louisiana State University.

Maxwell Franko

Maxwell Franko is a composer and sound designer currently living in Austin, Texas. Like many of his generation, Max’s music reflects the brain-rotting amount of media that was available to him as a kid. Desperately trying to hold on to his childhood interests, he is a composer for performing ensembles focusing primarily on electroacoustics. And he works as a composer and sound designer for independent film, live theater productions, dance, and audio-narratives. In his electroacoustic music, Max likes to explore the narrative structures in sound references and the ways sound combines with traditional approaches to instruments. Similarly, in film and live theater productions, he aims to find the line where the sound design and music inhabit the same space.

J. Andrew Smith

"A composer, electronic musician, and vocalist from Atlanta, GA, J. Andrew Smith (b. 1992) is zealous about the intersections between poetry, acousmatic sound, and improvisation. His works often incorporate personal narratives and how they can enrich abstract mediums. Characteristics such as timbre, gesture, space, and form are often dictated by a delicate narrative in his music. He embraces the convergence of complex structures with elements of improvisation to give performers agency without losing coherence in his music. As a vocalist, he maintains a passion for visceral, guttural, strange, and electrifying sounds.

His works have been performed at SEAMUS conferences, SPLICE Institute and Festival, Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, and New Music on the Point. He has participated in readings with Michael Lewanski, the Spektral Quartet, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, he was selected as one of the four finalists in the ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition for Arbitrary/Peremptory for voice and interactive electronics.

Currently a PhD candidate studying at the University of North Texas, J. Andrew’s teachers have included Joseph Klein, Panayiotis Kokoras, Andrew May, John Nelson, and Elainie Lillios. He has worked with artists including Diana Rojas, Sean Lopez, Lisa Kaplan, Matthew Duvall, Conner Simmons, and Caleb Burkhardt. "

Connor Scroggins

Connor Scroggins is a composer who explores phenomenological relationships between perception and subtle yet visceral soundscapes to engage a flow of listening. He is currently seeking a PhD of Music Composition from University of North Texas. He recently completed a Master of Music from Bowling Green State University and previously received a Bachelor of Music from Arkansas State University in 2020. At Arkansas State’s Create@State research symposium, he presented on musique concrète instrumentale and won awards for his presentations on spectralism and musical logic. His current research interests include phenomenology and acoustic ecology. His works have been read and performed by Robin Meiksins, The Rhythm Method String Quartet, Hypercube, New Thread Quartet, Apply Triangle Trio, Parker String Quartet, Unheard-of//Ensemble, and The ___ Experiment. His music has been performed in the United States and Europe at ICMC, NYCEMF, SEAMUS National Conference, SPLICE Institute, NSEME, and the Saarburg Music Festival. He has participated in masterclasses from Clara Iannotta, Jason Eckardt, Augusta Read Thomas, Cort Lippe, Mari Kimura, Greg Wilder, Marina Kifferstein, and Stephanie Lamprea. He currently studies with Drew Schnurr and previously studied with Elainie Lillios, Timothy Crist, Mikel Kuehn, Christopher Dietz, Derek Jenkins, and Carrie Leigh Page

Austin Franklin

"A composer, electronic musician, and vocalist from Atlanta, GA, J. Andrew Smith (b. 1992) is zealous about the intersections between poetry, acousmatic sound, and improvisation. His works often incorporate personal narratives and how they can enrich abstract mediums. Characteristics such as timbre, gesture, space, and form are often dictated by a delicate narrative in his music. He embraces the Austin Franklin is an internationally recognized composer and sound artist based in Baton Rouge, LA

where he is currently pursuing a PhD in Experimental Music & Digital Media from Louisiana State

University. His interests include music involving process, such as algorithmic composition and music

incorporating machine learning technologies. His music has been described as having “striking effects of

togetherness” and “a sense of an ending” (New York Concert Review). His latest album, Four Idols, has

been described as “an elegant, artistic statement that demonstrates the flexible possibilities of

electronic music” (The Sybaritic Singer). Austin has several pieces for percussion published through C-

Alan Publications and his music has been performed throughout North America, South America, Europe,

and Asia by ensembles such as Hypercube, The Estrella Consort, and the Four Corners Ensemble. His

String Quartet No. 1 “Lanterns” was recently performed at Carnegie Hall.

Austin is the recipient of numerous awards and commissions, including 2nd Place in the American Prize

for Composition, the RMN Call for Electroacoustic Works, PARMA Winter Call for Scores, and the ABLAZE

Electronic Masters Series Call for Recordings. His music has also been selected for festivals and

conferences such as ISMIR, SEAMUS, NEMF, Festival Ecos Urbanos, the New Music on the Bayou

Festival, Splice Institute, NYCEMF Festival, WOCMAT, Alba Music Festival, Society of Composers

Incorporated, and Electric LaTex. As a technologist, he has presented research at the Web Audio

Conference that explores using Web API’s as the basis for designing digital instruments, and at the New

Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference that involves simultaneous auditory and vibrotactile

stimuli. For more visit austinfranklinmusic.com. of complex structures with elements of improvisation to give performers agency without losing coherence in his music. As a vocalist, he maintains a passion for visceral, guttural, strange, and electrifying sounds.

Abby Freedman

Hi, I'm Abby and I'm originally from Orlando, FL! I am a junior at Tulane majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Music Science and Technology. This semester, I am enrolled in three electronic music classes and have really enjoyed learning all about how to make music on my computer, so I am excited for the opportunity to revise my previous work and add electronic elements.

Marcel Castro-Lima

Marcel Castro-Lima is a Brazilian composer and conductor based in Texas/USA. Castro-Lima’s music is deeply rooted in Brazilian popular traditions, which he incorporates seamlessly into experimental practices involving generative music, intermedia, and electronics. He holds a Ph.D. in creative processes in music from UNIRIO (Rio de Janeiro) and is currently pursuing a second Ph.D. in composition and new media at the University o North Texas. Castro-Lima’s music has been performed in Brazil and in the US by groups like Ensemble Dal Niente, Splice Ensemble, Dallas Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players, Rio Mönnig Fagotti, Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra, and UFRJ Symphony Orchestra. His orchestral music has been awarded prizes like the OPUS 1, promoted by Goiás Philharmonic, and the National Composition Contest, promoted by UFRJ. Dr. Castro-Lima currently teaches Music Theory, Composition, and Technology at The University of Texas at Tyler, Texas A&M Commerce, and Texas Wesleyan University.

Garrison Gerard

Garrison Gerard (b.1994) is an American composer of electroacoustic and concert music. He is currently a Doctoral student at the University of North Texas and graduated from UNT with a masters of Music Composition and Harding University with a Bachelor of Arts in Music. His music has been presented internationally with performances by groups such as [Mod]ular Ensemble, Fort Worth Symphony, and Nu Atmospheres Ensemble and featured at national conferences such as SEAMUS, SCI, and the SPLICE Festival. His composition teachers include Joseph Klein, Sungji Hong, Panayiotis Kokoras, Andrew May, Kirsten Broberg, and Jay Walls.

Treya Nash

Treya Nash is an English composer who has studied in England, Germany, Italy, eSwatini, China, and the United States. She graduated with a BA in composition from the University of Florida with Paul Koonce, and an MM in composition from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with Mark Engebretson and Alejandro Rutty. She worked as Program Director for the 2021 Charlotte New Music Festival. Treya’s work has been performed in the UK, the US, Germany, and Brazil. She is currently studying composition and electronic music at Louisiana State University.

Benjamin Damann

Benjamin Damann is a composer, percussionist, and music technologist. His works — inspired by probability, indeterminacy, improvisation, and the timbral manipulation of acoustic instruments through physical preparation and electroacoustic augmentation — have been performed throughout the United States and Europe.

He is devoted to realizing electronic, experimental, and graphical works for percussion as well as programming software to aid in the performance of such works. Benjamin holds a BM in percussion performance with a concentration in composition from Eastern Illinois University, an MM in Composition from Bowling Green State University, and is currently pursuing his PhD from the University of North Texas.

Geli LI

Geli LI is an American-based composer whose music straddles both Eastern cultures and Western cultures based upon her original musical vocabulary. Her music has been performed internationally by many leading artists, including but not limited to Fear No Music Ensemble (USA), Tacet(i) Ensemble (Thailand), [Switch~Ensemble] (USA), Chamber-orchestra-Jahrhundert- xx- Österreich (AT), NOMAD Tokyo (JP), Altius Quartet (USA), Chamber orchestra Klangforum Wien (AT), Berlin Zafraan Ensemble (DE), etc.

As a composer, she is widely sought internationally at institutions such as FSU Festival of New Music (2022), Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium (2021), Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium (2021); Oregon Symphony CompositionWorkshop (2019); Intimacy of Creativity Chamber Music Festival at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2017); Beijing International Composition Workshop (2017/2013); Shanghai Spring International Music Festival (2014).

She has received awards and prizes in composition competitions more than ten times. She was the 1st Prize Winner and 2nd Prize Winner in the 10th/12nd SUN RIVER PRIZE Students’ New Music Composition Competition (2014/16), 3rd Prize Winner in the 6th ConTempo Composition Competition of New Chamber Music (2013), Honorable Mention in the 17th National Musical Works Competition for chorus and orchestra (2013), 2nd Prize Winner United States Golden Key Music Festival in the youth artist category (2012).

Geli is a current doctoral student in Music Composition at the University of Texas at Austin where she studies with Donald Grantham, Januibe Tejera and Yevgeniy Sharlat. She holds a bachelor’s and master's degree in Music Composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in China. She also studied Music Composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, Germany with Elmar Lampson from 2014 to 2015.

Ka Hei Cheng

Ka Hei Cheng is pursuing her PhD in Music (Experimental Music and Digital Media) at Louisiana State University, and she studied at Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Bowling Green State University. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Cheng approaches a diversified culture and philosophy that extend her musical dimensions and nourishes a similarly diverse approach to her artworks by “brush strokes” with sonic palette. She has composed different genres of music, including music jingles, music for animation, tailor-made event music, electroacoustic music, and acoustic composition with or without programming. Her piece, The Trigger Machine was performed in the Earth Day Art Model 2020, which was organized by IUPUI. Her works were accepted by the Exchange for Midwestern Collegiate Composers, and she has written music pieces for the Screen Music Program and the Collaborative Composition Initiative (CCI). One of her works was recorded in a CD, CCI//Sessions, vol. 2. In 2020, she wrote a chamber orchestral piece, Nibiru, for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and she was commissioned to write a commercial promotional music for the video from the CNA Group. Her work, The Entangling Turner and COVID-19 Genomic Navigator, was performed in NIME 2021 and 2022 (The International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression) and was presented in ICAD (International Community for Auditory Display). She was the presenter and the project developer of her research paper related to data sonification in NIME, ICAD and NYCEMF. Apart from data sonification, she has been developing projects in digital fabrication, extended reality, and EEG sensors. She has written pieces for laptop orchestras, and one of her pieces, “Who is the Leader?”, was commissioned by the EdUHK. Recently, she collaborated with three other artists in the project, “Shifting Datum” and the work was displayed in Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans.

Taylor Stoddard

taylor.txt and RoachBoarder are the aliases of producer Taylor Stoddard, which are projects that experiment in video-game-influenced indie dance music and dark, distorted hip-hop and electronica respectively. Born in Lake Orion, Michigan in 2002, Taylor has been producing music in FL Studio since 2016 and has studied experimental music and digital media at LSU since 2020.

With two EPs of varying styles, Taylor takes influences from electronic acts like Porter Robinson, Daft Punk and Tyler the Creator, as well as artists like MF Doom and Injury Reserve. His first EP, "Time Surfin'", is a practice in synthwave and sounds from the 80s. The second EP, titled "MHM", takes a darker approach to electronic music by combining heavy uses of distortion and classical instruments.

In 2021, under the RoachBoarder alias, Taylor participated in the Newgrounds Audio Deathmatch for two rounds, garnering 10,000 listens each and ended round 2 in a tie.

In LSU's Experimental Music and Digital Media program, Taylor is experimenting with granular synthesis and other forms of composition within Max regarding live-coding. Combining these practices and ideas, Taylor is currently working to finish an album with a cohesive sound and theme by combining granular elements and noise with infectious and emotional harmonies.

Joseph Brooks

Joseph Brooks is a composer, electronic musician, and DJ from Brooklyn, New York. He is a freshman in composition at LSU where he studies under Dr. Mara Gibson. His work ranges wildly from choral and orchestral composition to power noise and acid techno.

Gabriel Araújo

Gabriel is a composer interested in exploring the possible dialogues between popular and concert music. His works often derives from poetic images and abstractions extracted from other musical works and his writing is specially motivated by ideals of reconstruction and recomposition, of deforming and mashing-up, of remodelling preexisting contexts.

He studied composition at the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil) with Paulo Guicheney. He holds a master’s degree in mixed composition (acoustic and electronic) from the National Conservatory of Lyon (France), where he was mentored by Michele Tadini and attended the classes of composers Martin Matalon and François Roux. He is currently a graduate student at UT’s Music Composition DMA program, being mentored by Januibe Tejera. Gabriel received the Funarte prize in composition from the Ministry of Culture of Brazil.

Deniz Aslan

Deniz Aslan is a composer and a bassoonist specializing in new music. He was born in 1997 in Ankara, Turkey. Being classically trained in bassoon for ten years, he received his Bachelor's and Master's degree in composition from Bilkent University under the supervision of Tolga Yayalar. As of 2022, he is a DMA student and an Assistant Instructor at the University of Texas at Austin and continuing his studies under the supervision of Januibe Tejera.

Deniz Aslan has had the chance to study with composers such as Ann Cleare, Nicholas Vines, Chaya Czernowin, Ken Ueno, Stefano Gervasoni, Laurie San Martin, Mahir Cetiz, Mark Andre, Hanna Eimermacher, Stefan Pohlit, Ulrich Kreppein, Alican Çamcı, Can Bilir, Onur Yıldırım, and Pieter Snapper. He has also worked with ensembles such as Black Pencil, Yurodny Ensemble, Collegium Novum, Arditti Quartet, MotoContrario, Oerknal, Reverberation Percussion, Anatolian Wind Quintet, and Hezarfen Ensemble and his music has been performed in Ankara, İstanbul, Trento, and Boston.

Julian Ginsberg

Artist that experiments sonically, creating ambient and electronic pieces of music often with visual references.

Cory Diane

cory diane is a candidate for a master's in composition at Tulane

Patrick E Reed

Patrick Reed is a native of Dallas Texas, as a composer and educator, he hopes to foster and teach an interest and love for contemporary music to people of all ages. His music style ranges from solo to large ensemble compositions, to works written for beginners and young band ensembles. His work has recently been performed at ICMC in Daegu, South Korea, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, SEAMUS, NSEME national conferences, and at SCI region six conferences. Reed is currently pursuing a PhD. in music composition at the University of North Texas.

Reed earned his Master in Music in composition at Bowling Green State University, where he has studied with Elainie Lillios Christopher Dietz, and Mikel Kuehn. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Music Education from Texas Tech University, where he studied composition with Peter Fischer and Mei-Fang Lin.

Timothy Roy

Timothy Roy composes music steeped in imagery and allusion, which often seeks to elicit a sense of time, place, and feeling. His music has been presented at such venues and events as the National Theater of Taipei, Music Biennale Zagreb, BEAST, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, and the International Electroacoustic Music Festival of Chile, “Ai-maako.” Recent honors have come from the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award (1st Prize), the Black Bayou Composition Award from New Music on the Bayou, and the Giga-Hertz Production Prize from ZKM Karlsruhe (Honorable Mention). Upcoming projects include new chamber works for Earplay New Music Ensemble in San Francisco and New Music on the Bayou in Louisiana. During the 2018–2019 academic year, Tim was a visiting faculty member at Western Michigan University, where he taught private composition lessons, undergraduate theory, and graduate seminars in musical form and the aesthetics of electroacoustic music. He currently lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his wife Sarah, and is completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University.

Ethan Soledad

Bold, dramatic, with an exquisite attention to detail, Ethan Soledad (b. 1999) is a Filipino-American composer whose work aims to express emotions in their most raw form. An experienced singer, he incorporates drama in his work, emphasizing the importance of silence and one’s perception of time. Ethan’s music draws from a wide palette of compositional styles and colors ranging from impressionism and neoclassicism to post-minimalism and the avant-garde. His musical style is marked by unapologetic expression, dynamic extremes, and the ability to do more with less but never shying away from doing more with more.

His music has been performed and recognized by ensembles such as New York Youth Symphony (First Music Commission Honorable Mention), the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, Choral Arts Initiative, Fifth House Ensemble, Bent Frequency, the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble (ECCE), Fear No Music, Crossing Borders Music, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, The Choral Project, the Beo String Quartet, and the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York.

He graduated with his Bachelor of Arts in Music at Florida State University 2021 and is currently pursuing his Master of Music in Composition at Rice University studying under Karim Al-Zand.

His previous composition teachers include Liliya Ugay and Orlando Jacinto Garcia.

Tian Qin

Chinese composer and pianist, Tian Qin, recently graduated from Manhattan School of Music with a Bachelor of Music degree, studying composition with Dr. Marjorie Merryman and piano with Jiayin Li. Tian is now pursuing her Master of Music degree in composition at Rice University as the Brown Fellowship in Dr. Karim Al-Zand’s studio. Tian has composed since age ten. Her compositions have won her multiple prizes and workshop opportunities — her trio, “Obsessed,” comprised of traditional Chinese instruments, won the second prize in the Yinzhong China National composition competition. This piece was selected to be performed at the 34th Shanghai Spring International Music Festival and at the Communication concert of the Xian and Shanghai Music Middle Schools. Her compositions have also been performed and workshopped by the Windscape Ensemble, the Byrne:Kozar:Duo, Unheard-of ensemble, the Atlantic Music Festival contemporary ensemble, and The Rhythm Method. As a pianist, Tian has held multiple recitals performing her own music. She has also performed in the International Music Foundation’s Rush Hour Concert Series and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts.

Paul Mortilla

Paul Mortilla is a 5'7'' ape descendant residing on planet earth, since he's always had trouble seeing, he resorts to using echo-location to assist navigating his environment, thusly has turned to the craft of music composition as his source of generating both time-capital and a method of non-verbal expression as well as a source of fun! Paul holds a BM from Indiana University, an MM from Yale University, and is currently a DMA student at Rice University. He has collaborated with ensembles such as Callithumpian Consort, Alarm Will Sound, and Albany Symphony’s “Dogs of Desire”. In 2016 he received a BMI SCA award. He was a composition fellow at Tanglewood in 2017 and Aspen in 2022. In 2019, he was given a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy for “Stupor” and “Piano Concerto”. Paul is forever grateful for all his teachers of past, present, and future: Scott Stinson, Don Freund, David Dzubay, Aaron Travers, Claude Baker, Aaron Kernis, David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Julian Anderson, Christopher Theofanidis, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Anthony Brandt. Paul is heavily inspired by raga and gamelan. Vegan. Paul’s hobbies are astrophysics, playing viols, campanology, running, orthography, hiking, and electronic music production.

Oliver Dubon

Oliver Dubon (b. 1997) is a musician hailing from rural central Virginia. His compositions take inspiration from such sources as modernist literature, philosophy, and the rural countryside and have been performed at the Atlantic, highSCORE, and Estonian Music Days Festivals and by musicians such as GrammyTM– Award winning pianist Nadia Shpachenko, the Ónix Ensamble, Eclipse Quartet, Quartetto Indaco, and musicians of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, Dubon was a Fulbright Student Researcher in Tallinn, Estonia where he studied composition with Toivo Tulev and orchestral conducting with Toomas Kapten. Dubon has held artist residencies at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, Estonia as well as the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida where he was an associate artist working under Timo Andres. His upcoming projects include a new work for the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, a piano solo work for pianist Anthony Ratinov, an installation work at the Turrell Skyspace at Rice University, and an orchestral work for the Pomona College Orchestra. His mentors in composition include composers Toivo Tulev, Thomas Flaherty, and Karl Kohn, as well as composer-conductor Eric Lindholm. Oliver currently studies at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in the studio of Kurt Stallmann.

Badie Khaleghian

Khaleghian is an Iranian-born American composer and a multimedia artist interested in collaborative and innovative storytelling. His compositions are wide-ranging in influence and inspiration, encompassing solo, chamber, orchestral, electro-acoustic, and multimedia works. Due to his religious background, he was banned from public higher education in Iran, and in 2014 he came to the US as a religious refugee. Khaleghian’s music is influenced by his Middle Eastern background, social justice activism, and passion for collaboration. His music has been included in music festivals such as Splice Festival, Omaha Under the Radar, Alba Music Festival (Italy), and performed by ensembles such as Crossing Borders, Hub New Music, Talea Ensemble, Transient Canvas, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in music composition at Rice University.

Hazel Landers

Hazel Landers (b. 2003) is native to Bradenton, Florida, and is a freshman at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. They are presently studying musicology, with their anticipated areas of specialization being experimental music, avant-garde jazz, music ecology, and multimedia sound art. Hazel’s first formal research was entitled Music and the Queer Narrative: Reciprocal Evolution, and was conducted between 2021 and 2022 in collaboration with Dr. David Gutkin, Associate Professor of Musicology at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute. Outside of the Shepherd School, Hazel is involved with the Rice University community-run radio station (KTRU) as a DJ and member of the station’s committee for musical analysis and review, curating the library from which songs are chosen to be broadcast on-air.

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