Jane Meenaghan (she/her) (age 22) is a composer, vocalist, and songwriter who frequently explores spiritual philosophy and states of consciousness through works that incorporate electronics and theatrical elements. Under the tutelage of Andrew Norman, Jane studies theology and music composition at Columbia and Juilliard respectively as a dual-degree student. A recipient of multiple ASCAP and BMI awards as well as the highest honor from National YoungArts, Jane has worked with ensembles and venues including Los Angeles Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, Seattle Symphony, Lyris Quartet, HOCKET, and members of New World Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Orlando Philharmonic. She is also an alumnus of Luna Lab, Hear Now Festival, National Young Composers Challenge, and NextNotes Awards. Most recently, Jane is preparing for a Carnegie Hall debut with American Composers Orchestra and collaborations with Bergamot Quartet.

mentor: Mari Kimura

photo by Jill Steinberg

Mari Kimura is at the forefront of violinists who are extending the technical and expressive capabilities of the instrument. As a composer, performer, researcher, and entrepreneur, she has opened up new sonic worlds and new musical possibilities for the violin. Notably, she has mastered the production of pitches that sound up to an octave below the violin's lowest string without re-tuning. This technique, which she calls Subharmonics, has earned Mari considerable renown in the concert music world and beyond. She is also a pioneer in the field of interactive computer music. At the same time, she has earned international acclaim as a soloist and recitalist in both standard and contemporary repertoire. Her most recent efforts involve entrepreneurship, bringing her prototype motion sensor MUGIC™, (pronounced "mu" as in music +"gic" as in magic) to the market.
 
    

Azalea Twining & Erica Lindsay

composer: Azalea Twining
compositional goal: writing for a group of 'same instruments', likely four saxophones

Azalea Twining (she/her) is a seventeen-year-old composer, vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. As a 2020-2021 fellow of Luna Composition Lab, Azalea studied composition with Ellen Reid and composed Under Her Voices for piano trio, which was the winner of the 2021 G. Schirmer for Luna Lab Prize. Azalea's most recent and current projects include "Echo" for solo flute commissioned by Intersection, a song cycle set to the poetry of the Brontë sisters, and Evelyn/Evelyn, a dance opera created and performed by her family, Ensemble InterTwining. She also composes and performs original work for voice, string quartet, prepared piano, and more through her school's Fine Arts Academy. Azalea has been studying voice with Eileen Clark since 2014. An alumnus of the WNO Opera Institute, Eastman Summer Classical Studies programs, and NYU MPAP Summer Classical Voice Intensive, Azalea has a passion for art song and arias. More recently, she has fostered a love for performing small vocal ensemble music- both early and experimental. She hopes to one day compose and sing in her own experimental operas. Azalea will be attending Columbia University as a music major in Fall 2023.

mentor: Erica Lindsay

photo by Jean Laffitau

Erica Lindsay, composer and tenor saxophonist, is an Artist-in-Residence at Bard College where she teaches jazz composition and improvisation. She has toured and appeared in the U.S. with jazz legends including Dizzy Gillespie and Melba Liston and has made guest appearances with Frank Zappa and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. She has performed and recorded with Baikida Carroll, Oliver Lake, Howard Johnson and many others, as well as leading her own quintet. Inspired by her work as a jazz improviser, Lindsay attended the first ever Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, leading to writing orchestral works for the American Composers Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony and several smaller works for  the da Capo Chamber Players. She has also written musical scores for two Off-Broadway plays, the television series Tales from the Darkside, and collaborated with choreographers. She was recently commissioned to compose a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works, entitled, Meditations on Transformation, for the composer collective, Alchemy Sound Project. Her recent recordings include Initiation, a collaboration with Sumi Tonooka, Live in London, with the Jeff Siegel Quartet and from Alchemy Sound Project, three new CD's; Further Explorations, Adventures in Time and Space and Afrika Love.