Artists

Serbian accordionist Jovica Ivanović was born in 1987 in Zvornik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within the pedagogical field he accomplished his diploma of Musical Education (ME) as well as his master in art-based education (KA) at the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media in Germany, studying accordion. During his time at university, Ivanović earned prestigious scholarships such as the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Award and the Germany Scholarship.

Vera Ivanova (b. 1977, Moscow, Russia) graduated from the Moscow Conservatory (Honours Diploma), Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London (M.M. with distinction), and the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D. in Composition). Her works have been performed in Russia, Europe and the United States. Her teaching positions include Assistant Professor of Theory and Composition at the Setnor School of Music of Syracuse University, Assistant Professor of Music in the College of Performing Arts at Chapman University (current).

Apart from showing incredible potential, Ishkhanov already demonstrates mature and unique artistic capabilities. Amongst his biggest accomplishments, at the age of 14 Ishkhanov debuted in Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Distinguished Concerts Orchestra and conductor Miran Vaupotić. Furthermore, in September 2016, at the age of 11, Ishkhanov represented Malta at the Eurovision of Young Musicians held in Cologne Germany, and became the youngest finalist in the Eurovision history. Ishkhanov marks this release of Chopin’s works with a return to Carnegie Hall in December 2021.

We believe that we have the opportunity to be a living metaphor that celebrates unity. We believe that fostering and embracing the music of emerging composers is critical to our art form. We believe that our community deserves to hear the greatest performances of new choral music. We believe that passion and sincerity should be at the forefront of all musical endeavors. We are Choral Arts Initiative.

Marie Incontrera (b. 1985) is a wayward ballerina and heavy metal pianist who writes music in Brooklyn, New York. She has been a recipient of the Miriam Gideon Composition Award for women composers, a winner of the Remarkable Theater Brigade Art Song Competition, a 2010 and 2011 recipient of the ASCAPlus award, a winner of the 2011 Vocalessence/American Composers Forum "Essentially Choral" readings, and was a finalist in the Iron Composer 2010 competition.

The Society of Composers, Inc. is a professional society dedicated to the promotion, performance, understanding, and dissemination of new and contemporary music. Members include composers both in and outside academia interested in addressing these issues on a national and regional level. The governing body of the Society consists of a National Council made up of co-chairs who represent regional activities, and an Executive Committee made up of the editors and directors of Society publications and projects. We are actively promoting new music through conferences, festivals, publishing of scores, contests, and the release of members’ recordings.

Megan Ihnen is a “new music force of nature.” The act of live performance is integral to Ihnen’s work and her performances thrive on elaborate sound worlds and fully-developed dramatic interpretations. Through narrative and non-narrative musical storytelling, she explores the subjects of memory, nostalgia, the perception of time, and relationships. Whether through chamber music, staged recitals, opera, or large ensemble soloist work, she emphasizes the full range of vocal sounds, timbres, colors, and uses that characterize the 21st century voice.

Anthony Iannaccone (b. New York City, 1943) studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Eastman School of Music. His principal teachers were Vittorio Giannini, Aaron Copland, and David Diamond. During the 1960's, he supported himself as a part-time teacher (Manhattan School of Music) and orchestral violinist. His catalog of approximately 50 published works includes four symphonies, smaller works for orchestra, several large works for chorus and orchestra, numerous chamber pieces, large works for wind ensemble, and several extended a cappella choral compositions.

Jon Hynes is a prize-winning pianist of several competitions including the gold medal of the Nena Wideman International Competition, the Eastman Concerto Competition, and the Young Keyboard Artists International Competition.

Gregory Hutter holds degrees from Western Michigan University, the University of Michigan, and Northwestern University. He has been a faculty member at DePaul University since 2002. His compositions have been performed by the Moravian Philharmonic, the Kiev Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, Musica Moderna (Poland), the Cassatt Quartet, the Maia Quartet, the Julstrom Quartet, Trio Callisto, the Carpe Diem Quartet, the Anaphora Ensemble, Arts at Large Chicago, Duo Diorama, the Society for New Music (Syracuse), the Philovox Ensemble (Boston), pianists Winston Choi and Matthew McCright, Pinotage, Musica Nova (Israel), and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), among others.

Tonči Huljić is the most awarded and best-selling Croatian musician, composer, and record producer.

The Mediterranean atmosphere and the various cultural and musical influences of the former Yugoslavia have left an indelible mark on the structure of the melody, score-writing, and production solutions. In the 1980s, together with his decade-older colleagues, Huljić founded the pop band Magazin which earned him numerous releases and years-long tours across the former Yugoslav republics. He managed to align his melody with the broad ethnicity of the region and audiences alike. It is this talent for assimilation and openness that would ultimately prove to be vital for his success in the world market, where he would later begin his work as a composer — by affirming his musical style, which often saw the infusion of classical music.

Robert Hugill is a London based composer, journalist, blogger and lecturer. Robert runs the highly regarded classical music blog, Planet Hugill. Robert’s setting of the Advent Prose was premiered by Alistair Dixon and Chapelle du Roi at St John’s Smith Square in December 2014, and they premiered Robert’s setting of Ruth Padel’s Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth in 2015. London Concord Singers, conductor Jessica Norton, premiere Robert's motet Dominus illuminatio mea in December 2016 as part of the choir’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Bernard Hughes’s music has been performed by various ensembles, including the BBC Singers and the London Mozart Players at major British venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral. His music has won a number of awards both in the UK and internationally, and is regularly broadcast on the UK’s BBC Radio 3. Bernard Hughes’s BBC commission Birdchant was premiered at the Proms festival in August 2021. After studying music at Oxford University, and composition privately with Param Vir, Bernard was awarded a Ph.D. in composition by London University in 2009.

Jason Huffman (b.1978) was born and raised just outside Minneapolis and has made Boston his home for over 20 years. Though not exposed to classical music at an early age, he was drawn to self-taught score study after performing a band arrangement of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in high school. From there emerged a fledgling series of solo works — mostly in concerto form — for various instruments and full orchestra as studies in writing, first for his own instrument, and then for more-and less-familiar ones (trumpet, piccolo trumpet, horn, violin, horn, clarinet, oboe).

Sarah Wallin Huff is a music lecturer at California Polytechnic University of Pomona, teaching “History of Technology in Music,” for which she published an original textbook with Great River Learning in 2019. She received her M.A. in Music Composition at Claremont Graduate University in 2008, and was the Professor of Composition and Advanced Theory — as well as conductor of the Chamber Ensemble — at The Master’s University in Santa Clarita from 2012-2016.

Ssu-Yu Huang, a native of Taiwan, enjoys an active career in contemporary music. Her compositions – covering a wide range of music with bold and delicate genres – are performed by professional musicians and orchestras in Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United States, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.

Huang is the Full Professor of Violin at James Madison University School of Music and contributes to the community as a concertmaster of the Waynesboro Symphony. Her recordings of the complete Sonatas of Eugène Ysaÿe, Partitas and Sonatas of J.S. Bach for unaccompanied violin, and music by William Walton and Benjamin Britten in a collaboration with longtime friend and pianist Robert Koenig, are all on the Centaur Records label, have been excellently reviewed. “. . . her incisive technique and an exceptionally rich and beautiful tone. . .” was noted by Phil's Classical Reviews, Audio Video Club of Atlanta.

Gustav Hoyer was born in Denver CO in 1972. His musical pursuits began in high school following a life-changing encounter with the music of Beethoven and Mozart. He subsequently studied music theory, piano, and violin and pursued collegiate degrees in composition. He has written music for a wide variety of ensembles, media, and settings. His recorded music has been heard in film, on radio, and in performance around the world. He continues to create new orchestral music that draws on the tools of classical vocabulary while fully modern in their contemplations. 

Rae Howell is an award-winning Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist. She is founding director of Sunwrae, a music performance and production enterprise, and works across a vast range of music concert hall and multi-artform projects. She has studied music in Melbourne, London, and New York; she lectures in music and creative industry subjects; and has worked professionally in many places across the globe, producing a large catalog of original music albums, publications, and collaborative recordings.

Monica (Niki) Houghton was born in Vermont and raised in northern Nevada. She holds A.B. and A.M. degrees from Harvard University in Chinese Language and Literature and East Asian Studies. She earned an M.M. in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2003 and served as Instructor for their Joint Music Program with Case Western Reserve University for nine years before moving back to Nevada in 2011.